TitanIV Group FULL (Page 2)

Cameron,

Any more room in the group?  If so, I'll post my story.  If not, I'll post it anyway and delete it later!

NAME: sparco / Sal
STORY:
Food scientist working at a major food company in the Twin Cities.  Ran high school track (800 up to the 2 mile) but never any good (they took anybody, never broke a 6 minute mile).  Have always been an avid biker.  Started training for a triathlon in college, but training plans soon departed as I started dating and eventually got engaged.  Didn't learn to swim until college and never swam much after that.  Started training for a marathon 3 years ago, and since have completed 3 and several half marathons.  I have done 3 sprint triathlons, but have never been able to break into the Olympic category (still weak in swimming, I was elated to finish my last tri with non-stop swimming last summer [705 yds]).
FAMILY STATUS:
Married for 17 years and 3 kids (ages 10-16).  My wife is a great support, and has decided to compete in a sprint tri this year.
CURRENT TRAINING:
I am currently training for a marathon this spring, and am signed up for several other half marathons and sprint tris.  I am shooting for my first Oly this year.  I train HR.
LAST YEAR'S RACES: Grandma's Marathon (PR 4:07), goal is to break 4 hours this year.  Two sprint tris and several 1/2 marathons.
2007 RACES:  
Marathon (still deciding)
Several 1/2 marathons
Several sprint tris
My FIRST Oly
WEIGHTLOSS: 
Not looking to lose weight (I only weigh 158 lbs), but could work on getting rid of the spare tire.  I try to eat whole foods (eggs, fruits, nuts, 100% juices and occasionally healthy snacks like Triscuits [100% whole wheat]).  I'm not a nutritionist, but know quite a bit about nutrition.
TRAINING PLAN:
Half marathon training plan for running using heart rate monitor.  BT Oly training plan for swimming and biking (HR).

Welcome to the group Sal! With your mary base, you should be able to get an Oly in this year no problem!

Hope eveyone had a good week of training. Enjoy the weekend!

How about on Monday's we each talk a little about the previous week and the coming week?

Last Week:

I had a pretty good full week of training adding in more bike and starting swimming. Missed one run and one bike. Legs feel pretty good.

This Week:

I want to be sure to get in all three bikes this week. I have an Oly race in 8 weeks and need to get that back up. Swimming is swimming :-) Need to get my swim endurance back up. Also increasing long run 1-2 miles this week. A big thing I need to work more on this week is diet. I'm not eating terrible, but not where I want to be yet.

LAST WEEK:

I had a solid week and was encouraged about getting back into running.  I wasn't sure what to expect after having to take so much time off.  My HR was a little squirrelly on one of the runs but I think that's just an adjustment thing.  Bike is very consistent across the board... speed, distance, HR.  Due to the physical nature of my job, it is tough to fully recover and I don't yet have a handle on how much of a factor this is with the running.  This will become even more of a challenge when I am able to start swimming again (hopefully week after next I'll be cleared).

THIS WEEK:

I'm planning to still focus on running, trying to keep my HR down and maintaining a more consistent pace throughout the run.  I'm also going to try to really look at hydration and nutrition as they pertain to actual training.  It's not that I eat poorly, I just think I might see improved results if I put more thought into when I'm eating/drinking which things before and after training.

Sorry about that one... 

LAST WEEK:

It was the first week of our 16 week training program for St. Anthony. I'm pretty happy with the workouts. I didn't miss any and I was surprised by my run times. I swam 1 mile in a workout for the first time.

THIS WEEK:

Plan on sticking to the training schedule + adding a swim workout in on Saturday. That will leave me with 1off day per week which should be ok. I'm really thinking about getting a HRM, but I need to do some research on that first.

Good job with the running! Don't over do it though :-) As for training nutrition, I noticed a big difference when I started drinking 1/2 bottle of ensure or boost in morning before runs. Seemed to have more energy. After long runs and bikes, I like to have Endurox recovery drink or something else like OJ and some yogurt or anything with some sugar and protein within 30 mins of finishing.

Good job with the training! I highly recommend the HRM. Many people are training to hard or too easy. There is a great article by Mike Ricci about HR training here:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=25734&posts=1&start=1

Last Week:

Missed my workout day on Monday due to work.  Worked on bi-lateral breathing and working to get my swim intervals (400 yds) below 2 min/100 yds.  Continued getting Z2 running in in preparation for the half marathon at the end of the month.  Did some core work and strength training and a brick (30 min on bike followed by 20 min running).  Did some drills in the pool (catch up and single arm), running speedwork on Friday, and my long run on Saturday (10 miles).

This Week:

Doing some long workouts in the pool this week on Tuesday and Thursday (1500 yds).  Brick tomorrow, running speedwork on Friday and my long run (11 miles ugh!) on Saturday.

BTW, thanks for mentoring Cameron.  That's exactly what I needed this season.  I need people to keep tabs on me (keeps me honest) and inspiration to do an Olympic distance.  Have a great training week...

Hey John, go to http://www.ymca.net/ to search for a local Y.  I just joined last week.  Essentially if you join at one gym and commute to another part of the city to work, you can work out at a gym close to work as well.

Here's a typical diet for me when I'm in 'serious'  training:

Breakfast: eggs, orange juice or any other 100% juice, shredded wheat with whole milk, bananas, oranges, apples...

Lunch:  chicken or tuna (tuna not more than 3 times a week [don't want the mercury levels to get to high ]), whole wheat triscuits, nuts (cashews, peanuts...), 100% juices, apples, bananas, oranges, applesauce...

Dinner: dinner is our family's sit-down, talk and enjoy time.  I will usually have what the family's having knowing I've done 'good' for breakfast and lunch.  Much easier to maintain a 'diet' this way.  Good luck!

Good week Sparco! You are well on your way to a comfortable Oly race.

tnt, Good job with the running! Just don't get too excited and over do it :-)

Sparco gave you some good tips on diet. When I get serious, I follow the Body For Life type diet. Generally less protein and more carbs. I do follow the 5-6 small meals a day. For me, the key is one free day a week. This means (Sunday for me) eat what I want for a day. It is one thing to tell myself that I will never have pizza again and another to say I can have it on Sunday. For grocery shopping, an easy thing is to only shop on the outside aisles (fruits, veggies, dairy, meat). Typical day for me would be:

#1: FF light yogurt with cottage cheese
#2: clif bar
#3: PB & J sandwich or ham sandwich. (organic bread, pb and J)
#4: banana, apple, almonds
#5: fish, rice, broccoli (try not to have bread with dinner). May other types of healthy dinners and of course depends on what family is having.

Here is an article I found:

As triathletes, a lot of our training includes high-intensity workouts or workout sessions that lasts more than 60 minutes. Refueling your body post-exercise is most important for recovery. I think the following tips regarding food & liquid replacement are helpful. Enjoy your workouts!

Understand why your body needs refueling.
During exercise your body breaks down tissues and uses energy (primarily carbohydrates) stored in the blood, liver and muscle. Replenishing the energy lost in the muscle (stored as glycogen) is essential for muscle recovery. Eating properly post-exercise is crucial to ensuring that your subsequent workouts are productive and enjoyable.

Learn why fluid replacement is essential.
The harder and longer you exercise, the more fluid you lose through perspiration and exhalation. When its extremely hot or humid, keeping hydrated is more difficult than staying hydrated in cooler temperatures. Since sweat doesnt evaporate quickly in humid weather, its very easy to get overheated.

Calculate how much to drink.
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends drinking 21/2 - 5 cups (20-40 ounces) of fluid per hour during exercise. After working out, drink 2-3 cups (16-24 ounces) of fluid per pound of body weight lost through sweat. To help you get an idea of the amount of fluid lost, weigh yourself before and after intense workouts and record the difference.

Figure out what to drink.
ACSM recommends drinking water when your training session lasts less than 60 minutes. If its longer, use a 4-8% carbohydrate sports drink.

Know when to refuel with carbohydrates.
If you swim, bike or run at a modest intensity for 30-60 minutes three to five times per week, you can maintain adequate carbohydrate stores by eating a balanced diet. If you train harder or longer at a time, your muscles need to be refueled with carbohydrates immediately after exercising and again at the next meal or snack. This practice can ensure that carbohydrates stored in the muscle are consistently replenished.

Choose the right type of carbohydrate.
Carbohydrates in liquid form, such as sports drinks or juices, can be easier to digest than solid foods post-exercise. However, power bars, or bagels make great food choices.

Why you also need protein.
Protein is an important building block for muscle. Eating proteins and complex carbohydrates within one hour after exercising can enhance insulin response, which encourages resynthesis of muscle glycogen.

Know how much protein to eat.
Most experts recommend eating carbohydrates and protein in a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 post-exercise. An example would be 3 servings of grains plus 1 serving of turkey/meat.

Realize when you need sodium.
When training in high heat and humidity, sodium losses can be as much as 10 grams per day. Several hours of exercise in cool temperatures will also deplete sodium levels.

Learn what foods contain sodium.
Sports drinks that contain electrolytes (sodium and potassium) as well as whole foods that contain a significant amount of sodium will help replenish the sodium lost during a training session.
-----
Dorothy
how you train makes the difference

This is from DRM: There have been a couple of threads on the main Tri forum recently about HR training.  I attached below a pdf with some HR Zone and general info

Other notes I have to consider:

• Remember that your heart rate increases as you become dehydrated. This phenomenon, called cardiac drift, occurs because dehydration causes a drop in blood volume, which means less blood is pumped with each heartbeat. A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that heart rate increases seven beats per minute for each 1% loss in body weight due to dehydration. Running for 50 minutes in 70 degree heat can result in a loss of 11/2 to 3 lbs. That’s a 1% to 2% weight loss for a 150-lb. runner, which would increase heart rate by about seven to 14 BPM. If this runner is planning a tempo run at a heart rate of 160 to 166 BPM, she should account for the fact that her pace will slow during the run, and allow her heart rate to increase to about 170 to 175 BPM by the end.

• Measure your heart rate during easy runs to safeguard against overtraining. The purpose of your easy runs is to recover from the stress of hard training and racing. If you do these runs too hard (as many runners do), you will become overtrained, with staleness eventually setting in. You can avoid this problem by tracking your heart rate on your easy days. Let’s say you typically run five miles in 38 minutes at a heart rate of 150 beats per minute (BPM). One day, however, you find your heart rate is 160 BPM during your regular five-mile easy run. That is most likely a sign that you should back off for a couple of days before doing your next hard workout or race. You may be overtrained or fighting a bug. Listening to your body in this way can help keep an illness from robbing you of days or weeks of training.

• Don’t select your heart rate for racing based on measurements taken during training. Three studies from an international conference on the use of heart rate monitors, recently published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, reported that heart rate during racing is substantially higher than during training at the same pace. One study, from the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, found heart rates measured in a 10K race to be 20 BPM higher than while training at the same speed; during a marathon the rates were 19 BPM higher than when training at marathon race pace. The researchers write, “The heart rate difference could not be explained by differences in running terrain or added psychological stress.” I looked up a 1995 article that found the same phenomenon; there the authors speculate that “increased sympathetic arousal in the races” accounted for the difference. This suggests that the excitement of racing accounts, at least in part, for the higher heart rates. The upshot is that using training heart rates to select race paces will lead to slower-than-anticipated race times. As a result, you could end up racing up to 20 seconds per mile slower than your pace at the same heart rate during training—and that could turn a planned 2:37 marathon into a 2:46! This phenomenon in reverse can work against you too. For example, if you base your heart rate for tempo runs on your heart rate during a 10-mile race, you may end up doing your tempo runs too fast.

  For myself, I found that during a sprint Tri in the summer my Run HR is usually ~10 bpm higher than the RPE I'm at. During the HIM in November, it was a nice and warm 84F and HR during the run started at 155 and went up to mid 160's within 2 miles and stayed there, this was with a PRE of 2-3 which for Z1 should have been <140.  When training in the summer heat & humidity, I forget HR after 20 minutes or so.  If it is nice cool and dry, the race HR may be closer to your LT zones, at least for me it is.  Hence it is important to learn the relationship between HR Zones and Rate of Perceived Effort (RPE).

  RPE Zone	HR Zone	Description
  0		Complete Rest
  1	Z1	Very Weak: light walking
  2	Z1	Weak: strong walk, very slow run, easy conversation pace
  3	Z1	Moderate: easy run, begin to sweat, but can hold conversation throughout
  4	Z1 Upper	Somewhat Strong: still easy, sweating a bit more
  5	Z2	Strong, Extensive endurance
  6	Z2 Upper	Strong, Extensive endurance breathing becoming labored
  7	Z3	Very Strong: Intensive endurance/muscular endurance, breathing very labored, but can still maintain pace for some minutes without slowing.
  8	Z4	Hard: Workouts that are ‘hard’ session during the week.
  9	Z5a	Very Hard: May not be able hold effort for long, or 5k race pace for MOP to FOP racers
  10	Z5+	Extremely Hard: Anaerobic endurance / power

Thanks for all of the nutritional information, guys.... that helps a lot, especially the "sample menus"... what can I say.... I learn from example.

I second the strong encouragement to purchase the heart rate monitor.  Before HR zone training I just went by RPE and was definitely overdoing it.  What I thought was appropriate aerobically was not... I was training too hard and my body was not working as efficiently as it could have been.  I am pretty much a slave to my HRM now.  I even teach my spin classes according to HR zones instead of the typical RPE because I was frustrated by the number of people looking like they required ambulances by the end of class.  I cue by physical responses present in each zone and I qualify LT so that it is not necessary to have a HRM but it is clearly encouraged.  By looking at the "big picture" of RPE, HR zones and knowing how your body responds physically to those zones, you maximize your workout and increase your endurance.

As far as brands go, I happen to be a fan of Polar and have never been disappointed with their products, but there are many people who prefer other brands, Garmin in particular.  You have to figure out which features are important to you and what fits into your budget.  Many of the sports/bike stores in our area are having HRM sales now through February (happy heart for Valentine's Day, maybe?  Dunno....).

Other reasons for running pain:
*Increasing mileage too quickly.  Shouldn't increase time/miles more than 10% a week, so for example if your current week is a total of 20 miles, next week's total miles shouldn't be more than a total of 22 miles.
* Not stretching AFTER running.  Hearing a lot of good things about yoga lately in regards to running injuries.

I had ITB my 1st season.  Took 1 1/2 weeks off, total rest, ice & elevation and lots o' stretching.  Bounced right back (don't worry about the time off, you'll come back better for it).  Haven't had problems with it except for 2 days last season.

One other alternative is using the elliptical.  Less stress on the joints, but the same aerobic benefit...

Good point about increasing too fast. I meant to mention this for anyone looking at my logs and seeing a quick ramp up. I ran a lot this off season and I am just ramping up to where I was a month ago, not really building, so don't try the same thing when building mileage.

After long runs I will soak my legs in the pool for 5-10 mins. The pool is about 62 degrees right now so pretty cold. I can't quite do the ice bath thing :-) but this seems to help.  Another tip for after long runs is to lay with your back on the floor and put your legs up on the wall for 10 mins. I haven't tried this yet, but have seen it recommended a number of places.

I also haven't tried yoga, but have heard good things about a DVD called something like Yoga for endurance athletes.

Not familiar with that particular yoga DVD but will take a look; know there's a good pilates one specific for triathletes to increase core strength. 

Yoga is so beneficial, particularly "power yoga" (ashtanga yoga with added strength poses & "powering" from one pose to the next).  It's ideal not only for stretching purposes but also for increasing strength, balance and flexibility.  It's a nice mental time out, too, especially if you go to a class and can get direction and feedback from a yogi (as in the instructor, not the bear) .  I also like "hot (Bikram) yoga" but most gyms don't offer this as part of their general group fitness program so you have to find a studio that does it or pay extra if your gym has specialized classes.