Bill's House of Pain-No Vacancy (Page 21)

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Good morning everyone!

So, I live in west Texas, and it's rediculous in the summer time. I do about all of my training before 0900, mostly due to work and family schedules, but also to beat the heat. It became very clear to me in a 10K a few weeks ago that I don't perform as well in the heat. Surprise, surprise

So, my question is this: Should I continue to train in the cooler temps early in the a.m. to get maximum benefit, or should I throw in some "hot weather" sessions to get a little acclimated to the conditions I will be racing in?

This mostly pertains to my Oly race in Aug, when I probably won't get to the run until 0930/1000.

I like to train with on a plan that usually only provides me one complete rest day a week. I think the above plan would not offer you enough time in each area. I also dont' think a practice tri is necessary every week-end. if you want to use it to gadge your progress then I would maybe just throw one in a month and that's only if you don't have a tri that month. I woud try to do something that looks closer to this if possible:
Bike 2x a week one 60 minute ride and one 90 minute ride
swim 2x a week one 30 minute session and one 45-60 minute session
run 2x a week one 30 minute session and one 40-60 minute session.
If you want to continue to work on stength you can throw that ino on the days when you will only have a 30 minute session

I would mostly continue to train in the cooler temps for the most part. Maybe abotu 3 weeks out from you tri start throwing in a couple warmer runs to figure out how your body will react to the heat.

Acclimation is important. How many sessions depneds on how long it take you to get your fluid and nutrition needs dialed in. For an OLY in August you should start now just adjusting to the heat. Whatever you shortest run of the week is, do that run when it's your projected race day temp. Do that for a few week, and then change to your mid distance run of the week for a few weeks. By August you'll be accustomed to running in higher temps.

Make sure your baseline hydration levels are good. For me that means a little more water than normal, lots of passive hydration (eating fruits with high water content), and avoiding alcohol.

Should have known you would kick butt!  Good job!

I like 400-500 calories 2 to 3 hours before a sprint tri and then a gel about 15 minutes prior. You don't want to start a race hungry. No need for big calories on the course if you'll be done in less than 2 hours. Anything more than that and a sports drink on the bike and maybe a gel halfway through (washed down with water) can be helpful. That's the sort of thing you figure out in training though. There's no one size fits all there.

As for your plan, if that fits your schedule better and you'll get the training completed and be consistent then I'd say go for it. With regard to a full practice tri each weekend, if that frees up a weekend day for other things go for it but rotate the focus. For example, one weekend you might swim easy, bike at race pace, and run easy. The next week, swim easy, bike easy, and run at race pace. Or if you have specific interval workout you like to do, substitute that interval workout for the race pace interval.

Whatever allows you to complete the training in going to be the best plan for you, provided you're not overtraining.

I love me some Bill.
You get what I'm aiming at.
Thanks for the nutrition advice - I've got to get it straight.  Here in 95deg 99%hum florida, I'm sweating gobs.  I've only ever drank water, but when my sweat had NO salt tast, I started to worry.

I'm thinking about the podium quest or profile design aqualite because I think I'd do better drinking while in aero, but drinking a 24oz bottle while one the bike shouldn't be too big a deal.



Edited by EvenOlder 2009-06-22 8:46 PM

I've used both hydration systems and I preferred the aerobottle. There are a few new one's out on the market that I need to look into. My aerobottle is in my son's toybox. Haven't needed it in a while.

Check out Infinit Nutrition for a sport drink. I've been VERY satisfied with my custom formulations. I'll never use anything else.

When I'm doing workouts less than an hour, I don't generally take in calories but in the high heat/humidity here in SE Texas I use a product called ELETE. It's basically like eletrolyte capsules but in liquid form so no pills to swallow while running. I add them to my water bottle. Easy.

Many layers to the knowledge when it comes to nutrition. I'm still learning at about the same rate after five years. Tons of information out there and a lot of it is conflicting. So for me the key has been experimentation. Some might look at what I do and say it flies in the face of what they "know", but other's might totally agree. My only concern  is finding what works for me, and helping others find what works for them. The number of degrees of separation between what works for me and what works for you guys isn't important. The principle is the same. Identify your objective ("sustain energy while racing" or "avoid electrolyte depletion") and then work it out in training.

It's a good feeling on race day to realize you've nailed the nutrition piece. It's a very bad feeling on race day to know you have it wrong. Not only is it physically painful, it's a humbling and demoralizing feeling to not know what to do when something as simple as running one more mile is feeling like an insurmountable task.

In the Rangers we had little slogans in the barracks like "Train like you fight" and "The more sweat on the training ground the less blood on the battleground". Same concept applies here.

That's awesome. I'm unlocking that quote in my mind at the gym tomorow morning.

That is exactly why I'm hot on doing a practice sprint once a week.  Practice.  Of nutrition and pacing.  It's just a brick with a short swim right before it, and transitions for practice.  Your suggestion of picking one of the disciplines to go fast in and easy the others is a great idea.

Yeah, i'm not so worried about nutrition as I am electrolytes and hydration.  I'm going to the LBS to look at the aerobottle today.  I've not read good things online about it's mounting system, however.  And for just 90min, I ought to be able to manage with a bottle on the bike and one in transition.

For transitions, I'm adopting the approach of doing something slowly till you've got it right, then slowly speed it up.  I've made too many mistakes trying to fly through transition.  Even if it means drinking 1/2 a bottle at each transition to ensure everything else goes well.  Hence the weekly practice tri.

cheers,
steve

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. (That one's from jumpmaster school, regarding the jumpmaster pre-inspection exam. Not sure who said it originally though). Okay that's enough quotes from me for 24 hours.

Alright so the initial shock of moving has sort of passed and now it is just insane studying to contend with, but after a short run yesterday I found that my brain worked much better which was my plan, healthy body healthy mind and all of that. I have slacked off greatly in the training dept. though and in two short weeks of not as much training my clothes don't have that nice looseness(probably not a real word) I was getting used too. This is me whining a little and I know all of you guys are just as busy as me, if not more. I just wanted to drop a line and check in. Any tips on getting back on track will be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work everyone!

Alright so the initial shock of moving has sort of passed and now it is just insane studying to contend with, but after a short run yesterday I found that my brain worked much better which was my plan, healthy body healthy mind and all of that. I have slacked off greatly in the training dept. though and in two short weeks of not as much training my clothes don't have that nice looseness(probably not a real word) I was getting used too. This is me whining a little and I know all of you guys are just as busy as me, if not more. I just wanted to drop a line and check in. Any tips on getting back on track will be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work everyone!

Hey man- just force yourself to do something, because it will build on itself.  try new things during this time.

Drank 24oz of powdermixed gatorade right before my ride.  wife thought i'd need to pee the whole time.  88-90deg at 5 pm today
unbelievable how much better i felt while riding.  could have had even more i think.
thanks bill for the input.

Edited by EvenOlder 2009-06-23 4:48 PM

No problem! Glad it worked out for you.

For me the hardest thing about coming back after a few weeks of little to no good training is letting myself off the hook. I have a very hard time showing myself any compassion and I admit I engage in a lot of negative self-talk. I try to be better about that but I haven't been successful there. BUT, when I do get back on track my memory gets a little shorter.

Take it one day at a time with a few short workouts at first. Even some cross training can help. One of the best tools to drop those few pounds is a stationary rower. It won't help you SBR any better. But cross training will help in a few ways when you are trying to come back. First, it helps you feel like you're not in a rut of always swimming, biking or running (if that's been a problem). The other thing it does it helps you avoid some overuse issues. If you start back too hard with running especially, you can set yourself up for a host of problems. But if you smoke yourself for 20 minutes of hard intervals on a rower, you won't feel like running and your shins/feet/knees/hips will be no worse for wear.

Another thing that helps is setting a short term goal. Even a 5k run 6 weeks from now can be helpful. Just have something on the radar to help you with accountability. A running partner can help too, whether they tri or not. Just having to meet someone at a given time and place can help you avoid tanking on a workout.

Good luck. I've had MANY layoffs over the past five years due to injury or just life in general getting in the way. Ultimately for the bulk of us age-groupers it's the "year over year" consistency that keeps us in the game and keeps us healthier and more fit that 99% of the population. A few weeks or a month or two here and there, not such a big deal in the big picture. If you had aspirations of a big PR or something like qualifying for AG Nationals or Kona, of course the scale where consistency matters shrinks down to where week over week consistency is the name of the game.

I need a Hug.... or more appropriately, a kick in the butt! I have slackened off in my training and I am struggling to get motivated to get out there and get moving. I am swimming twice a week which I am enjoying, but my riding has dropped to twice a wekk and my running is almost non-existant. I could give you guys a heap of excuses about the unseasonally large amount of rain we have had, or the unusually cold snap we have just experienced, or the fact that the Winter Solstice has just been meaning less daylight, but excuses don't help - I know.
I just need someone to hand be a tablespoon of cement and tell me to HTFU!

Just saying....

Nothing beats signing up for some type of race.

So after reading through some stuff on BT and just wanting to do something I wandered across the road to the gym and asked about a trial membership because the one in the hotel sucks. I got a free 14 day VIP pass and the pool is a full 50ft long vs the miniscule 15ft one in the hotel. 50 laps later and I am feeling good. Now just to get over my hesitance to ride a bike in the big city and we will be back on track,,,I like the idea about the rower Bill thanks...I am going to try it out!

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That's on my radar.

For those lacking motivation there is new bike challenge that is getting ready to begin in the challenge forum. I did the run challenge this month because i was lacking motivation and it has helped a lot with keeping me accountable plus I feel like I've made a lot of improvements in that area.