Consistency Equals Success - CLOSED (Page 2)

NAME: Joepetto (Joe)

STORY: I'm 45 and live outside of Philly. When I turned 40, I was not happy with my physical conditioning and committed to getting into the best shapes possible. I bought a road bike and dropped 15 lbs immediately, next came running. My wife a lifelong swimmer convinced me to hit the pool and sign up for my first tri. Swimming was a very tough slug for me and I followed the Total Immersion methods to get comfortable in the water. At the beginning of 2010, I tore my medial meniscus, had surgery on St. Patty's day and completed my first sprint 3 months later. Since 2010, I have raced all distances except full IMs, have run a number of marathons and many other road races. I have had a number of great successes along the way including breaking 3:30 in a marathon, running a sub 20' 5K and hitting the AG podium in a couple of short course races. As I have gotten older, injuries continue to mount and I spent most of last year on the sidelines with a high hamstrung pull along with bruising of my sit bones and in 2013 I nursed heel spurs and avoided surgery. I'm mostly healed now, but pain still persists. My need to race has abated a bit and I am much more focused on staying healthy and competing against myself.

FAMILY STATUS: Married with 2 wonderful daughters - both who swim competitively. My 11 yr old is a real runner and we've done over 10 5Ks and she can easily run a 7:45 pace with negative splits. I love pacing her and watching her excel. I work crazy hours in a high pressure environment and am always on duty. The family makes room for my training and my silliness.

CURRENT TRAINING: Consistenly work out 6 days per week, but not following a plan. Need more focus on swimming. Long runs on Sunday typically 10-13 miles.

WEIGHTLOSS: I am carrying an extra 5 pounds due to the holidays. I weigh about 160 at 5'9"' but need to drop 5. I suffer from colitis so I have to be careful with food as I tend not absorb food well. I have removed a lot of meat from my diet and have only been eating meat for dinner. It helps.

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: Experience and perspective

2015 GOALS: Stay healthy and actually do some racing.

I'd like to start asking silly questions -- you can smack me around later if this is not okay
For all of you who run- and that's pretty much all of you I think- did you start out with training runs at 8 and 9 minute miles or did you have to work to get there? I'm training by HR so as to limit myself from causing injury and seeing slow improvements. Now, I'm wondering what kind of realistic goals I can set.

Thanks,
Beth

I think you can begin running using HR as a guide. While not 100% accurate a good starting point is Maffetone. He advocates running below a set HR and therefore developing your aerobic engine. His Big Book of Endurance Training is a good start. I don't follow his teachings 100% but directionally I believe he right on. You run pace will likely feel ridiculously slow at the start. It will get faster as you run more and more frequently.

I loosely follow Phil's recommendation. I've been keeping to under 147 for recovery and most of my long runs. I let my long runs creep up to 159 based on that LT test posted on this site. I warmed up for 10 minutes then kicked off my HR monitor and ran 30 minutes all out. The last 20 minutes my HR average was 178. So Hypothetically my zones are:
1. Recovery 117-115
2. extensive Endurance 152-161
3. Intensive 163-170
4. Sub Threshold 171-177

If left to my own devices I love to run in zones 4 and 5. I started this run slow stuff October this year.
My 5k PR in 2014 was 29.39 in March.

I know run more, run slow is the way to go. But dang..I've worked my way to 13-14 minute miles and I've developed the slowest run ever. I see the progress over the last 3 months. Mostly I'm just curious if everyone starts this slow or if I have an extra long time to train before I'm a slow as most folks.

How much are you running? How many days per week?

I started out at around the same pace as you - 5 km in just under 30 minutes. I found that running consistently 5 days a week at an easy pace resulted in some good improvements. Within the year I ran a 10 km in about 52 minutes.

However, right now I am running a lot less and my times are back to my original pace.

Lisa

Hey James - it is been a while! Looking forward to the shared journey this season. Hope the kids and wife are doing well and Memphis is treating you well.

I echo Joe's comments from the first page on Trainerroad. Below is the link to our team page on Trainerroad.com. Hands down Tranierroad is the best money you can spend to improve your cycling. In the 3 months I have been religiously usng it my cycling power has improved at least 5%. Probably closer to 7%. And this improvement is coming at the end of my largest cycling season (volume) ever. Additionally, I am looking forward to the Tour of Sufferlandria at the end of January. I encourage all those who are interested to join us in the suffering.

http://www.trainerroad.com/teams/2034-consistency-equals-success

For those with questions about training with power in the bike please ask and will do my best to answer.

Sorry Beth - missed your interim post. You seem to be on the right track going slow. For me, my slowest runs over 10 miles never really creep over 9:00 pace and I can run a 20' 5K, 1:35 HM. It all depends upon on your physical capacity. Slower runs really build musco-skeletal adaption and your body learns to take the pounding.

Edited by JoePetto 2015-01-01 1:09 PM

I'm a big fan of taking your 5k race pace (in your case about 9-930) and adding 1.5 to 2 minutes to come to a sweet spot training pace. This should be a pace you can have a conversation at and maintain for a good period of time. Remember to vary your pace throughout the week by adding tempo and fartlek type runs.

I just requested access to the group.->dlarocque121. I am a huge fan of trainer road as I am lazy and appreciate the fact that trainer road tells me what to do. Left on my own I simply Bike, or run or swim normally all at the same pace.

Dave,

Looking forward to having another fool to share our suffering! I agree about trainerroad. If I look at my bike workouts leading up to my HIM this year they pale in comparison to my trainerroad workouts the last 3 months. I'm following one of their training plans and love the structure and challenge it presents!

I have few questions that hopefully the group can answer:

1) has anyone used the beginner triathlete HIM 20 week bronze plan? If so, how did you feel about it?

2) nutrition for a HIM, did you bring your own, rely on what is on the course -- or do a bit of both?

3) how much should I eat/drink on the bike during the HIM?

Thanks for any help.

Looking forward to the tour of Sufferland -- need to buy more videos

I brought my own food (gels) but relied on liquids from the course, I cant seem to stomach solids when racing. I started with gatorade in a bottle + my aero bottle for the bike. On course they had Ironman Peform sports drink which I couldnt find in Canada. If found the taste was really really bad so didnt drink it and I ended up relying only on water. I may have suffered because of this. Find out what they will have on course so you can try it out and train with it before hand.

1. I didn't use the BT plan. I built one using Matt Fitzgeralds book.

2. I used gels on the bike and my own sports drink (GU). I did take one bottle of alter on the course. I planned on using gels on the run but couldn't stomach the thought so I drank course provided sports drinks.

3. I ate a gel every 30 minutes on the bike. I think you need to practice in training and see what works for you. My stomach. An handle that but others can't.

I'd love to join the group but think you're closed for now waiting to see if past members join. Can you let me know if there's a time when you think you'll have a space? Kate

Kate- I'm a softy. You're on the team! Welcome aboard!

All,

One more thing - please make sure you are logging your workouts on BT if possible. It makes it a lot easier for us to learn, help and advise if we can see what everyone is doing from a training perspective. If you use Garmin Connect you can set up your BT account so your workouts auto sync. Very easy to keep your logs up to date.

Thanks!

Please let me in again ;-) I'll post bio later. Also posting in the archive to finish out the monthly challenge.

Nutrition: it's a thing to practice and very individual. I'm always trying out different pre-work out foods to see how far into a work out before I'm done and then trying different food/drink during. I've a whole list of things I know work for me and a list of things that do not work for me. Like 1 poptart does not a pre-race meal make. And I've had issues trying to eat those gel things. You should get a sample of what is on the course and see if you like it and it works for you during a long training season. I'm trying out new stuff on my training runs for my 15k. And, it looks like they'll have marshmallows on the course! How are you at eating on the bike? I think that's a skill that I need to acquire.

Jackie - where would we be without our most consistent podium member? Super glad to have you on the Team again!

Edited by trisuppo 2015-01-01 12:36 PM

1. I used the plan for my first HIM. It is good enough to get you across the finish line with plenty of room to spare. The plan is heavy on swim and what I needed at the time. I did find the plan to be light on cycling. If you have never used a plan, it is a good foundation.

2. Nothing new on race day. Bring what you need. I only use on course water.

3. Everyone is different and the answer depends on temp and humidity. You probably need fewer calories than you think, but you need them more frequently. Trial and error is the only way to go.

1. I haven't used a plan, I try to just stay consistent and build mileage before the race.

2. I bring my own, I don't trust they will have what I like/need on the course. I did an Oly where they only provided water and was glad I bring my own.

3. Nutrition is individual. It all depends on what you can stomach and when. Eat on the bike. Throughout the race I do a gel every 45 minutes. On the bike I will eat a couple of Honey stinger waffles, plus Jelly Belly sports beans. I used NUUN on the bike in my last race, and I didn't do well with it. I do better with 24 oz of Tang and 24 oz of water on the bike. On the run I drink at every aid station alternating between water and sports drink.

I did The Sufferfest "Fight Club" on the bike today 1:00:18. My first good workout since getting the flu 2 weeks again. It was good to feel normal again when I worked out.

Thank you for all the responses. It looks like I need to start training nutrition.


How many hours on the biker a week should I plan on doing?

(As you can tell this is my first HIM and with it 18 weeks away -- I am wondering if i bit off more then I can chew.)