jsiegs and slornow's Train Hard and Have Fun group - CLOSED for Training (Page 20)

I was really hoping taking a pill would help.  My muscles not being able to handle an oly distance tri is a little depressing.  But, to your point, I haven't trained at race intensity.  All my bricks have been bike/easy run.  Sounds like bike/run more at race pace would be helpful.  Thanks.  I'll give it a try.

Matt, what a great race!! Congrats!!

A little off topic, but I need some reassurance here, or something..

On the news today they had a story about a woman who was running by herself on some trails. She was nearly sexually assaulted, but was able to get away with minor bruises and cuts.

Why is this significant?? This is the same trail I take my daughter on and jog, by myself. I also ride the same trail. I've never felt uncomfortable there, because there are always several people around. that is not to say the thought has never crossed my mind that someone could be hiding behind trees, and I'm always very aware of my surroundings.

Now I'm not sure if I want to go back, at least until I know this guy is caught (which as of right now, they don't even have a description of him). I would never knowingly put my child in danger like that.

Any suggestions? I really want to avoid going back on the streets through the neighborhood. The route I was taking has a lot of blind spots and turns where I can't see cars coming, which means they can't see me. Also, with out fail, every time I go running it seems like the mowers are out and it's miserable running through dirt and grass floating in the air.

This is really frustrating, and just adds to my mile long list of reasons why I hate Houston!!

That is really scary.  Do you have anyone you can run with? Can you drive somewhere to run? It is frustrating, but I would say it's better to be safe.

Christy

Not really. Some of the mom's from playgroup get together and run on Wed/Fri, and I used to go with them, but they are all much faster at running than I am, and end up leaving me behind by myself. So I dropped from the group and went to the trails where I thought I felt safer! Meaning, no cars, and more people in sight. The only other option I 'may' have is to join the running group at the Y, but it becomes an issue with my daughter. They often do runs off-site (at a school) and I can't leave my daughter at the childwatch if I'm not on site. 90% of the time, my husband gets home way later than 6:30 from work.

Kind of a downfall of issues here!

Thanks Randy.  I have a Spinerval dvd somewhere.  I should find it.  I haven't done many interval workouts.  I mostly just ride at the same pace for what every time/distance my plan calls for.   I think I might take out one of my swim workouts and add a bike.  I will add in some intervals too.

Christy

I do a most of my runs on the treadmill at the gym because that's my only option. My son hates the jogging stroller an my husband is never home when the sun is up.  It's not ideal, but it's all I have.  Do you belong to the y? Can you run there?

Karla, I agree with Christy that it's better to be safe. If you have to treadmill for a while until they catch the guy, do it. We have a mugger in Oak Park that's been grabbing women (5 attacks so far) at night on my run route. Sad to say, I've had to totally avoid that route for about 1 month now. I hope they catch him, but it's really a big wake up call to stay safe on the road. I don't run with any $$ on me, but my parents really want me to start carrying mace whenever I run now. It's so depressing. 

Matt - Awesome report!!

Joe/Randy - I am intrigued by the run approach. Plan to keep in my notes for future run efforts.

All - you guys are making me kind of worried about nutrition for race day. I haven't had really any nutrition issues during the course of my training yet, but I am not doing anything like what race day will bring. Today was my longest swim so far, and when I got out of the water I was thinking that I don't know how I will manage a bike and a run after what will likely be a 40 minute swim (then again, I got out of the water at 10 p.m. on a Monday after a long weekend). So to that end, when do you start realizing that you need to use gels, ensure, etc.? And, when should I start incorporating BRICK workouts? I don't think I did a ton of them leading up to my sprint tri. (Oly tri is July 16) Thanks for your feedback!

For my oly last week I had a bottle of water and sports drink (Perpetuem) on the bike.  I drank about 3/4 of both.  I also had 2 gu chomps about 15 min in then again at 45 min and around 1:25 (I think).  I drank a little water at transition and had 2 gu chomps right before the first water station on the run.  Then I had some water at every aid station. Last year I had a sports drink and water on the bike and 1 gu gel and that was it for the bike and run (except water on the run) and I felt fine.  I think I over did it this year just to practice for my next race.   You have plenty of time to figure it out.  You don't need to do too much.  What are you eating/drinking on your rides? As for the ensure, I've never tried it.  I have been just eating a small breakfast a couple hours before the race (or long workout) starts.  That seems to be ok with my stomach.

Are you following a plan?  I would think it would have bricks in there soon.

As far as the mace goes, I've heard to use wasp spray because it sprays a lot farther.  I haven't tried it.  I hate running with something in my hand and I haven't figured out where else I could keep it. 

Christy

For cycling, Randy and I have an advantage in that we both have a powermeter.  A really great instrument if you know how to use it well and commit to it.  It's like a HR monitor on steriods.  It never lies to you - power is power if you're tired, hungry, hot, cold, dyhydrated, going downhill, uphill, with a headwind or tailwind, on cold meds.  That being said, a HR monitor is still a great tool, especially when combined with RPE.  For me, a powermeter was the concrete feedback and performance metric I needed to get to the next level (as you've said Christy, you never seem to get much faster but you may actually be you're just not noticing it because speed is so affected by other things).  But if your Critical Power is 170 W today and in a month it's 190 W, well there's your concrete feetback.  It's very possible that you could have ridden that 190 W ride slower than the 170 W one becuase of winds, terrain etc.  But all things being equal - 190W is faster than 170W.

JorgeM's plan that Randy referenced is GREAT!  (?http://coachjorgem.blogspot.com/p/cycling-plan.html).  He has plans for powermeters and HR/RPE and regular tests to measure gains.  I'd encourage you to read through all the guides he has on there (even if you're not gonna do the plan, the kind of info he talks about is valuable).  Take a look at the table in my blog.  The first test is when I got my PM.  I fooled around a bit with it, getting used to it and started Jorge's plan with the second test (you can see I dropped a little).  Then the next tests are my progress over the 15 weeks of his program (I had to take a few weeks off in Nov/Dec for holidays and work travel).  He has 4 workouts a week - 3 "core" and one long optional ride.  90% of the time I didn't do the optional ride, or did some subset of it (maybe an hour) and that was only towards the end.  At the same time I started this plan, I was doing my run build and running 6-7 times a week so that took precidence (and swimming was a big fat zero).

Anyway, you'll notice with his plan, and that Randy mentioned, there's very little "fluff".  When you get on the bike, especially if you can't spend 7-10 hours a week, you have to make every second count.  Remember running?  How we need to slowly build volume, train our bodies to handle the pounding, be VERY careful etc?  Well, forget that and go the opposite direction for cycling - all hard all the time (well, not really, but you get the idea).  Cycling (assuming your fit is good) isn't a destructive motion/pounding on your body so you can make really big gains (especially early) by jumping in there and really cranking it up.

You're gonna hate this,  but the thing (along with the PM) that really made this possible for me was doing it over the winter on a trainer.  There's no downhills, no stop signs, no turns etc inside (i.e. no cheating!).  An hour is REALLY an hour of work.  You can hit your intervals exactly as you want to and not have hills/stops ruin them.  I'm a convert to doing this type of bike work inside now (like Randy) becuase of how much more effective it is.  Plus, I was heat loading for Eagleman over the winter by doing some workouts without a fan and with longsleeves.  I will still do a lot of rides outside (especially when I move in June out near you and can bike from my front door) but not those "key" ones.  I'm lucky in that I can ride around my work (Army post) and it's flat and pretty good for intervals, but that's almost as boring as the trainer (where I can at least catch up on my DVR shows).

Anyway, I'll end by saying that you probably ARE getting faster, you're just not noticing it since it really is hard to quantify in cycling (w/o a powermeter that is).

Cool!  Those shorter runs are great to add milage without over taxing your system.

I can eat pretty much anything on the bike if I don't plan to run after.  So if I'm just biking, I'll eat whatever.  When I want to run after or have a long ride I want to practice, I'll only eat raceday stuff (gels, etc).

Go for a test this weekend - 30 mile bike (little longer since you're not doing the swim first) at planned Oly RPE and jump off for a quick 1-2 mile run.  You'll know instantly if you did something wrong (nutrition or pace on the bike).  Use your gels or whatever you want to use for the race.  If you can't do the run will here, you won't be able to in the race either, so you'll need to go back and change something.  If you can do it easily, well go faster on the bike next time!  I like finding that "breaking" point where you biked too hard and can't run - it's very good information to know so you don't do it in the race!

Randy, My husband and I loved the Lost series. The last season got a little wierd, though.

I am having trouble deciphering the bike wo's on the site you guys referred us to. It is like greek to me. I read the "how to" and didn't understand it. Sorry, just an old foggie, I guess. Any help is appreciated.

It is confusing.  Did you read the section on "cycling plan notes and how to read sessions"?  If not, read that then make sure to click the pitcures on the bottom as it will explain the lingo. 

Jorge is a professional coach and this is a free program so I'm sure he's protecting the plan somewhat by making them graphics instead of text (so you can't copy/past) and by using short hand so you also have to look up specifics elsewhere (e.g. WU 1 is defined in a different section from the workout).  My advice, just copy down yourself what WU1, WU2, rest A etc mean and keep a cheat sheet for easy reference.

Does that help?

I'm jealous.  My trainer is so loud I can't hear anything.  It sounds like a jet engine is following me.  But...it was free from my father in law, so I try not to complain. 

??http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/btshs-sports/index.php

I love these.  If you have a headphone out jack on your TV/computer, the bluetooth piece plugs in there and it's wireless to the headphones.  I ruined 2 pairs (the original and the replacement they sent) of non-sport wireless headphones before I got these.  The jack on my TV is hidden and the signal got cut out a bit at first so I got a $5 extension piece at radioshack and the blutooth piece is now in front of the TV and it works perfectly.  I got them refurbished at their site pretty cheap too.  My first pair did not work well (one of the ear pieces was much lower volume than the other) and they sent me a replacement right away, and a pre-paid box to ship the old ones back.  I've been very happy with them so far.

ETA: sorry, I need to correct myself.  The blutooth adaptor that plugs into my TV came with my other headphones - these are just the headphones, not the adaptor.  You need something like this to go with it: http://amazon.com/wireless-bluetooth-stereo-adapter-players/dp/B004B8GF7Y/ref=sr_1_15?s=electronics&ie=UTF&qid=1306245939&sr=1-15

Thanks Joe.  I'm going to check that out. 

What's everyone doing today?  I'm going to try to get in an hour bike while my son takes a nap this afternoon and try to swim tonight after everyone is in bed.  We will see how it goes.  I've been using my foam roller like crazy.  It is so painful.  I hate it.  But I know it will help. 

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Christy

Hey Gang! 

Started back Sunday after taking a week off after 1/2 IM.  Did an easy one hour bike ride on trainer Sunday morning, very low gear just to get the feeling back.  It felt good. 

Monday swam 3600 (so much for going easy : ).  Started the 24 week full IM training program on week 3.   A little tired but body felt good, as I start this training, I have begun to realize just how crazy triathletes are.  I am in good company    Kidding aside, it feels good to be back taking it slow and easy this week but still putting distance in following training plan. 

Have a great rest of your day!!!!!!

As far as Z3 and Z4.  Are you talking about heart rate zones?  I read an article on BT that lactate threshold was a better measure than HR.  I don't know my LT.  I saw there is a way to find them, I just haven't done it.  Do you think it is a much better measure? Is it worth figuring it out?

I put my bike on my trainer and was all ready to have a good hard interval ride.  8 minutes in, my legs had different ideas.  I ended up doing an easy 30 min ride and stretching for 15 minutes.  I hope to feel better tomorrow.

Christy

Without getting too complicated - you are talking about the same thing.  You do a test to figure out your LT.  Plug that number into a calculator and it spits out your training zones (5 of them that we care about).  Doing the test is the right way to do it (there are other formulas/calculators, such as 220-age for max HR, that very generalizations and NOT useful for us).

haha, too bad about the bike - happens to us all from time to time though .  next time, I'd really suggest Warming up (I'm assumng you didn't if you went easy after 8 min).  I've gotten the following Warm up I really like from Jorge's plans, it's 20 min total, and I do it for almost all my bikes now.

10 min easy, spin your legs, start Z1, end Z2 

5 min alternating 30 sec @ threshold/Z4 and 30 sec Z2 (if your intervals will be high intensity, Z5 or higher, for the main set, do 20 sec at Z5 and 40 sec Z2 instead).

5 min high Z2/low Z3

If you don't know your zones or don't have a HRM, go to Jorge's blog and click the third chart down on this page for a good idea of what each should feel like: http://coachjorgem.blogspot.com/2008/11/winter-cycling-plan-training-zones-and.html

This warm up seems to work really well for me, but you may need to adjust it for your specific needs.  A good warm up will really help getting your body ready for the much harder work to come.  Lots of times I've felt like it would be impossible to hold a given effort for longer (e.g. I'm getting tired with the 30 second warm ups at Z4, and my Main set has me doing that intensity twice for 20 min each), but it gets EASIER to hold it after a little bit.  Counter-intuitive, I know, but it's true. 

Welcome back!  3600 in the pool sounds like a tough way to get back in the groove!

So, it's the same thing, just different ways to figure it out?  I'm guessing my Garmin does the 220-age. So doing the test would be more accurate max HR.  Is that right?  I sware, the more i think I know, the less I know.  Thanks for the warm up.  I'll try it. 

Christy