Ryan Mac’s HIM Focus Group - CLOSED (Page 20)

Well done! You are in a good place on the bike given the time and energy put into the run focus.

Yesterday I was ready to get outside to ride. It was low 40s but sunny so I bundled up and drove the few miles to my usual biking area. Start riding and the Garmin can't find the PT. Well, apparently the PT battery was dead. It was weird riding with "just" soeed, HR and distance. I was able to get in a good ride and temps warmed up into the mid 50s but it made me realize how much I rely on the the data from the PT when I ride. Put a new battery in last night and hope to get a recovery ride in this evening. Long run this morning....better make sure my watch is charged.    

Been thinking about race tires. I race and train on Conti 4000s. Seems to be a good blend of low rolling resistance, durability and flat resistance. What does everyone race on? Saw the Specialized Turbo Cotton at the LBS yesterday and it appears to get awesome reviews although it is expensive. Thoughts?

 http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/road-tires/competitive-road-tires/turbo-cotton

Very nice!  Tell me about sweet spot rides.  Are these long rides with sweet spots thrown in?  Or is it just a steady state?  A normal week is 1 hour ride with 5x8min Z4 (94-99%). Yesterday was 1:45 hour ride with 4x15min Z3 (82-97%) and a 15 minute brick.  3 hour long ride in Z2 (60-81%).  Also have a couple 1 hour Z1 rides.  All on a trainer.

I have Flo wheel-set (60\90 setup).  They say Conti 4000s so that is what I will use until they do another wind tunnel test and find something better.   Check out their blog as they are studying tires.

For the last couple months the rides have primarily been 1 hour with 2x20' at 88-90%FTP and 5' rest interval.   Their have been longer rides occasionally and some Z4 intervals but this workout has been the bread and butter.

What you are doing is similar to what my workload will look like in another month or so as we look to gain fitness on the bike.

I have always been on the Conti 4000s as well.  Easy to change as well getting on/off the rim and very few flats.  I think I went 4000 miles between flats at one point  - cant argue with that.

Good luck this weekend! 

Sounds like a good plan to take care of the PF post-race. 

Congrats on the FTP improvement. Let us know how the race goes this weekend.

Good luck on your race!

Hi everyone! How's it going? It is almost Friday ... 

Anyway, keeping up with training pretty well but encountering yet another bump.  I woke up with some pain in my mouth today - i booked and appointment with my dentist to get it checked out.  I just have that sinking feeling that i'll starting some intensive dental work today that I had hoped would be still a month out.  I knew it was coming but my mouth apparently needs it sooner Here's hoping for little intrusion on training.

Next week is March break for the schools and the pool where I swim is in a school which will be closed so no group swim next week. I'll have to make alternate arrangements. Several good options for me. 

Tomorrow morning, I'm leaving for a weekend of riding out in the hill country of Texas....will be a nice break from the pancake-flat that is Houston.  I'm excited, but also a bit apprehensive....last year, the ride took me just over five hours, but I had WAY better bike fitness at the time!  Hopefully it all goes well....either way, it'll be pretty and I'll just have to distract myself by taking in the sights.

Planning to get in a swim and long-ish run tomorrow morning before we take off.  Not sure how much running I'll be able to manage with the heavy riding schedule, but last week was a high volume run week, so I'm not too worried about it.

Hope the mouth issues get worked out quickly and relatively painlessly!

Sounds like fun!  I am getting anxious to get outside on the bike.  We have finally been warming up - today is high 40s and people are in shorts!

Had a good run today - 5x 1000m at 5:40 pace w/ 2' walk recovery.  Went very well. 

Have a 16 mile long run scheduled this weekend - that will be my longest run ever I think.  Hoping I can maybe catch up with the local group who has lots of folks at my level to run with.  Usually never train in a group but a run like that may call for it.  Only so many conversations you can have with yourself in a 2 hour period .

Hope you get that worked out quickly.  Our high school pool is open during spring break and usually only close for 1 week in August time period for cleaning.  The HS pool is very cheap so I guess I am ok with forking over a daily fee to another pool over that time.

Heading to Fort Myers Beach, FL next week for 10 days.  I have a bike rented and looking forward to some relaxing and also some warm weather training and OWS in the ocean.

Had a fun weekend of riding -- 448 TSS points over 120 miles (80 miles and 5165' of climbing on Saturday alone). Low volume run week, but I'm pretty okay with that. Now to recover....and consider power testing in another week or so. I definitely biked just past my fitness level on Saturday -- was definitely feeling it for what should have been a relatively easy 30 mile ride this morning! That was exactly my plan, though, I'm very happy with how the weekend went

Did manage to get in 3100m and a 10 mile run on Friday before driving to the campsite (about five hours from here).

Nice run, Ryan!  What are your thoughts on over distance training?  I haven't done it in the past, but I'm also quite a bit slower, so I think more than maybe two hours of running might put me deeper in the hole than I could recover from and still do all the training I need.

Glad to hear the weekend riding went to plan! It's great when that happens - and even better when it is in line with your expectations.  You know it's going to hurt but you can still manage it. 

Ryan, that is great! Running long like that really is the best when you can be social too. It makes the time fly.  I saw tons of Boston jackets out this weekend - getting close to race time and people can finally really get outside again! 

So, i have a sinus infection - not serious dental problems and now i am on antibiotics for two weeks. Training this weekend was a bit of a bust. I might have pushed it more but i bagged the run partly because of the sickness and partly because I went to my hometown two hours away with my sister to help my parents move on Saturday. They sold our family home so it was a kind of nostalgia/good bye thing

I did do the bike on the trainer yesterday but I did it super easy. I didn't want to really exhaust myself when i have other healing to do.  

I feel okay but there is still some soreness in my sinus. I'll do training this week but at even easier effort.  Not sure about swimming - what say you? Yay or nay on swimming with a sinus infection? 

I pulled my right calf on my easy run last Sunday.  I have no idea where it came from.  I was just trotting along and then I was hit.  Took a week off from running.  I had 1 swim and I rode on the trainer all week and weekend.

Awesome!  Weekends like that will pay off big time later.  Good way to jump start your cycling fitness I think.

Last year my run mileage was extremely low for HIM racing - mostly 20-25 miles per week with a few 30-35 mile weeks thrown in occasionally and rarely anything over about 12 miles.  My legs definitely felt the lack of mileage at the end of my HIM runs.  That said, my cycling and swimming fitness increased dramatically.  I was also running faster than ever before at Olympic distance runs which told me I just did not have the miles in my legs to make it work at HIM.

The run program I am on right now is very similar to the Barry P plan with 3 runs of 3-5 miles easy, 2 speed (tempo, threshold, VO2 runs) and one long run in Z2. 

The best way to approach training, that I have found, is to realize that you cannot make significant gains in all 3 sports at the same time and to take a longer term approach.  So, last year really put the run on back burner and have now shifted my attention back to it.   Whereas last year, I was concerned about putting together a run, now I feel like if I ran a 1:38 off the bike it would be a disappointment and also feeling I can swim/bike the same splits or slightly faster.

Really sorry to hear that Cason & Jen.

I have never had a sinus infection so I am no help.  I always ask my doctor since he is an athlete and understands we cant just walk away for a couple days with a routine sickness or we lose our minds .

Question for the group as we start getting closer to our spring events.   Do you feel you are in a good spot with your training to reach your goals or do you still feel like you have a lot of work to do yet? 

For me, I am happy with how things are going.  My run has improved dramatically, bike fitness has been maintained.  I will need to bring my swim fitness back over the next few months but confident we can do that and also improve my bike fitness to be above last year.

Looking forward to some warmer weather and outdoor riding.

I'm taking 1 more full week off from running.  This is very hard for me.  I want to just try and do an easy run.  However, that is what pulled my calf.  Freak accident.  So, my wife hid my shoes.  I'm still swimming and riding.  I'm in that awkard area where it comes down to fine tunning my swim form in order to get a little faster.  Endurance is there.  I plan to try and pick the cadence up.  My May race is in the Gulf of Mexico so some of it will go out the window when it comes to the swells.

I like where I am at on the bike.  I've been on the trainer 99% of the this power training plan.  Looking forward to testing outdoors in a couple of weeks when I go down there for a camp.  I want to see how the power numbers are and then I will adjust and get ready for the actual race.  Running is coming along.  Still plenty of room to improve there.