Razorxp & KCgolf RFP group! CLOSED (Page 20)

Current favorite band - 3 Doors Down.  This song is from the latest album (I could have put Time of My Life, but you know that one from my IM video) - "Heaven"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yx3tLGXCzM 

Beautiful song with great message.

KC- Glad your shoulder is feeling better! 

I like the idea of posting our goals...that really helps remind us and for me, keep me motivated!

Ok, for Music Monday, one of my favorite songs to listen to during training (esp. long runs) is Move Along by All American Rejects.  There is a video on youtube with footage from the Chicago Triathlon in 2010 that is pretty awesome, with the song...definetely one of those videos I watch when I need that little push to get to the pool or gym. http://youtu.be/bZky9Pjtb-Q

I felt MUCH better today after 12 hours of sleep- must have needed the sleep!  I got a swim in this morning, and ran this evening at work on the treadmill.  Tomorrow AM is masters long course and a computrainer ride.

OK I thought about what I need to do this month:  Goal to swim 2 times per week and 2 core/yoga workouts per week.  Cant really set any mileage goals as back flared back up for some reason.

KC: Key in a plan is remember they are not the end all be all.  We are not pro's so don't put too much pressure on it.  Thats great news on the shoulder.

Scott: I don't train that hard in mid season!! Thats why you kicked my A$$

Tim: you have been whiny alot lately!! LOL just kidding!  Hey thats what were all here to vent/motivate and bounce ideas/thoughts off each other.  Too bad I have no answers on how to do shows/train/kids and stay married, (good luck lol)

Brian: I want to see videos of you do them sounds interesting lol.  Everyone of those exercises are in the new P90x videos.  Great workouts as they make your core so much stronger.  I actually miss being a gym rat after this year I may start lifting again as it is so much more social than 5 hr solo bike rides and 3 hour runs.

I will play the song game today:

Old school song: simple man/ baba o'reiley

New school: Sail (awolnation) / loose yourself

12hrs!! you must have been drained. hope you are feeling energized now.  Have a great workout.

David- I love that Sail song too!  It's a great one to listen to while running.

Deborah- I just started training with heart rate zones this year as well...I have found them to be extremely helpful...mainly in helping me to push myself harder!  Hope they are as helpful for you in your training.

goal for January - run 5 days a week, bike twice per week on the weekends. I am done training for work tomorrow so will check out the work gym on Wednesday and see what is available, I might be able to sneak in a quick 30 minute bike in there as well.

Is there any benifit to a 30min session? or would I be better off with strength training. Last year I could bike at a steady 30+km/h for 3+hours but I absolutely sucked on the hills - same with running? Would ST help?

Sorry I have been a little quiet - too busy

30 mins is always better than no minutes.  Just my opinion and I am not a coach, but steady bike workouts are for base building.  Intense short intervals can build strength and endurance fast.  Check out Carmicheal's book on the Time Crunched Triathlete and IC Cyclist.  Brief intervals of intensity can help you train for short distances.  Also for hills, you might try strength training on the bike.  A workout would be say 10 mins warmup, 10-15 mins at 50 to 60 rpm at about 65% of your peak output and then a cool down.   SEs kick butt.  They are like hills.  Or to do VO2 sprint work, do repeats of 30 secs hard, 30 seconds easy, 30 hard, 30 easy... For like 5 mins to start and work out.  

Strength training with weights is great too, but it takes a sustained commitment, twice a week to make progress.

I'm lagging on the swim...slow since the surgeries but picking up.  I'm also 10% down on my FTP for the bike, so the workouts are challenging but not peak yet.  I'll get there.  So will we all.

Kind of agree with Scott - Any time in the saddle is better than nothing.  Just figure out how to make good use of it.  How about focusing on bike form?  Do some one leg drills? stuff like that.

I meant to reply on this last week and remembered during my swim this morning

The IronFit plan has every swim starting with easy warmup (300-500Y) then 8 x 50 drills with fins.  I have been doing 8 of the following:

1. Chest Lean Kick - hands at sides. Great for getting a good feel of body position nice and level in water.  Has really helped me.
2. Three Stroke Kick-On-Side - helps with proper rotation
3. One arm drill right
4. One arm drill left
5. Catch-Up
6. Finger-Tip Drag
7. Closed Fist Drilll
8. Vertical kicking (45-60 seconds)
9. Sighting (No Fins)
10. Thumb-To-Thigh drill

After my main set I will do another 8 x 50 of the same drills then a 200Y cool down.

It has really helped me get a good feel this off season and we'll see how it helps when I really kick it into high gear.

Deb - your gonna love the HR training.  Also will give you a good gauge of  how you are improving if you re-test every month or so.

Happy belated birthday , Jennifers!  That was a very nice surprise from your hubby. He sounds like a very thoughtful fella 

Tim - I love the Black Stallion!  haha, that is GREAT!

I went XC skiing for the first time on Saturday and had a BLAST!  We had signed up for a 24K race at the end of Feb and finally had a chance to try it out. Haha! Such a great change from indoor workouts!

My goal for January won't be mileage related but I've wanted to start incorporating yoga into my workouts.  My goal is to start doing yoga on Fridays! 

On a different but somewhat related note.  How many of you train with a coach/training group vs. training alone?  I trained with a group last year and had planned on training with the same group for IMWI this year but I am revisiting that.  I'm thinking of spending the money on a power meter instead of the training group.  I do enjoy the group workouts and having that accountability but that is what you guys are for   As for group workouts, I'm thinking I can swim with a masters group, bike with my bike team, and running...well I usually run with my dog. He's the best running buddy ever (minus the potty breaks, ha!)  I also think FEAR will keep me on track with all my workouts! haha 

If your pressed for time a great workout would be

:05 min warmup

:05 min steady pace

:15 of int work or a 15min TT ride  / For hill practice do 15 min 1min sit 1 min stand in hardest gear on trainer

:05 cool down

No problem on being busy,  until were paid for this our "real" jobs/life get in the way.   Do you do squats or lunges?

Tim: how long are you swimming for your main sets? Are you doing much speed work?  How much have your times decreased?  I wish I had your patients to do that many drills, but they bore me worse than swimming! lol  Does your plan call for that many sets of drills later on in the season?

I love it you signed up for a race before even doing it! lol

What is the price of your "group" workouts that they equal a powermeter?  Heck a couple friends to train with are free!  What powermeter are you looking at?  I do enjoy my meters but I'm not sold on the cost benefit for the average person.

As you know I did this plan last year and would do it again.  I think that while researching it/ talking with others last year I remember hearing people discuss the 800 yards of drills.  I am by no means an expert, but I think that the comon thought amongst swimmers was to do more sets of the drill/s that you need most and not try to do a whole bunch of various drills.  I seem to remember someone saying that doing 2 or 3 different drills would be ok, but any more than that and you won't get the benefit/ muscle memory built to improve each one.

Glad to see you are settling into your program and feeling good about it.

During the build phase the main sets are about 1200-1400 yards.  I haven't done a time trial yet.  I am gonna do a 1000Y TT the week before my training actually starts (2/13) so I will have a better idea.  I do feel much stronger and think have improved my stroke efficiency.

I also plan to do a complete video analysis of all three sports in the next week or two so I can nail down my form to help prevent any injuries and improve efficiency.  I will post for critique.

As far as being boring - I actually kind of like it because it breaks up the workout a bit.  Although it isn't really fun doing a hard main set then going into another 400Y of drills.

It has helped me from over training.  I think the key is getting the whole worry about "faster" out of your head.  For example - last year I trained for the Ilinois Marathon and used a mix of HR and slow runs on my long runs.  My race pace was 9:00/mile and I was doing my long runs in 11:30/mile keeping my heart rate in Z1-Z2.  I was constantly worried I was running too slow. I missed my 4:00 marathon by 15 minutes but I think it had alot to do with me getting extremely sick (flu) during my taper.  Otherwise I feel I would have nailed it and guess what?...that was my first marathon training injury free - I even started my HIM training two days after the race.

What it is doing is building your aerobic base without injuring yourself.  This Don Fink explains it pretty good that you want to do you endurance training in Z1-Z2 and your speed work in Z4.  If you are training in Z3 you are really not accomplishing anything and actually increasing your risk of injury. and Z5 you are just pushing yourself too hard.

After a month or two you are going to start to see you times DECREASE while your HR stays the same.  Just have faith!!

I totally agree with that and maybe for an experienced swimmer that might  be the case but I only have 2+ years under my belt and have not nailed my form yet.  I do  try to do the drills that I know will help me (which is almost all of them-haha)

I have heard a lot of complaints about the swim workouts being boring - but isn't that just swim workouts?

Hey Team.

I hope everyone is having a great day. Got home late from curling last night - midnight- but won . We beat a team last night that I realy wanted to beat (is that bad for me to say?). Out team has had some issues with the skip of this team before and their second has every excuse in the book - ice to slow, ice has to much movement, not enough pebble (technical term lol) blah blah blah and of course you ony hear the excuses after a bad shot or a bad game - so it was fun to beat them. I hate playing golf with people who use excuses like that on the golf course as well.

Had my annual physical this morning after a visit to my physio therapist for more work on my right foot - this injury is lingering and it is starting to worry me and me off. I may have to move on for another opinion. As far as the physical is concerned, Doc gave me an A Plus but I will wait to celebrate until I get the results all the tests - blood, ekg, urine, prostate (ouch -sorry TMI) and chest x-ray.

Coach - you know me, I just thought I should put a full 28 week plan in place so I have day to day activities to plan in advance. The one you sent me along with the one I built on here and other suggestions from the group will help me with structure. You know I like to look ahead at where I need to be and where I am going so I can stay focused on the single moments it will take to get there. Does that make sense LOL. BTW, awseome tunes.

Deb - seems like Tim knows what he is talking about - it will work for you.

DaveL - any minutes = good minutes just make sure you structure them.

MandownKevin-great goals, now go get in the pool LOL.

Tim - like the drill workout, I am going to incorporate it.

Sarah- seems like we have a good mix in here of team and club trainers and soloists. I do my training solo for the most part unless it is at the pool - so far anyway. This seems to work best for me in terms of scheduling and I am a bit of a loaner anyway. I started doing Yoga at home from a couple of dvd's I purchased and I never thought I would say this but I like it. I still would not get in my car and go to a class though LOL.

OK - team - Curling again tonight but I think I have time for a good hour on the trainer.

Enjoy the rest of the day team.

KC

I know, right!  Signing up for a race before ever having tried the sport...either ballsy or dumb. haha!

The cost for 6 months with the training group is $1250. It is quite pricey.  Actually, I priced out some other training companies and this one is actually the highest of the IM training packages.  I do enjoy the support from the coaches.  Case in point: during my HIM last year, the IM coach came back on the run on his bike to see how the Infinity athletes were doing.  I told him I was dehydrated and he pulled out a salt shaker for me.  

Other than that, the group workouts are alright.  We usually had 3 group workouts a week: Wed night track, Thurs night swim, and Sat brick.  We'd also have a computrainer workout during the week as well.  As I mentioned before, the swim workouts with the group were alright, it helped to swim a group b/c, to me, swimming alone is almost as bad as running on the treadmill.  I figured I'd take care of the swimming alone by joining a masters group. The track workouts were great and definitely helped to increase my speed.  And then for the bricks on the weekends, I always have members from my bike team to ride with.  Our team rides are usually between 60 to 70 miles anyway.  So I'm lacking to see the benefit of training with the group since I have other resources to tap into for all of my training.  Guess it kinda sounds like my mind is already made up huh? 

As for getting the power tap, I was thinking about the Quark but still undecided.  I agree that it's probably not cost beneficial for the average person and the reason I think it would help me is b/c even if I don't do any more tri's after this year (highly doubtful though), I still cycle competitively and need more work in that department.  For me, I know I can get through 112 miles on the bike...but I want to do it fast and smart   When I can see my power output along with cadence, etc., it will give measurable results as opposed to riding on the trainer, for example, and not knowing how hard I'm working other than using RPE as my measuring stick.  It is an expensive investment but one that I know I'll make good use of and for a long time.  

That is some pricey salt!