kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2012 - CLOSED (Page 21)

rizer22 - 2012-01-02 12:33 PM

kaburns1214 - 2012-01-02 11:42 AM

My friend Mary Eggers wrote this blog post about "making time."  I thought it was really interesting, take a look:

http://ironmomma.com/2012/01/02/on-making-time/

Based on your bathing suit I thought you were Mary Eggers!!!

I sent that one back to her.

I need to get my own name on my butt swim suit.

i agree with all of that.  of course its how i live my life so its easy to agree with.

had a nice run this morning, really stiff - hey thats what happen when you actually run 4 days in a row and! plan on biking later.

Plan to get ready for Rev3 HIM in early june is a tweaking of the BT 20 week intermediate HIM plan, that plan call for 14 or so hours a week of training.  In my dreams!  got to whittle it down to 8-10, with maybe a 3 weeks of 12 at the most. 

easily doable, i did my training for Patriot last year in the 8-9 area with a few weeks sprinkled over 10 hours.

the key is to make the most of your training, you can have not much lax time.

A lot of plans also have you biking a lot of hours, i do not see the need for that, 1 long ride a week with a couple interval sessions or aggressive road rides between 1-1.5 hours will put you in decent shape for the bike portion.  you can skimp on the swimming hours, but it will cost you a bit on the bike, trust me, my legs were not right for a good 5-10 miles at Patriot before they warmed up and stopped being crampy from my lack of swimming. you know you can do the distance, hell, we would go do it now, but we would feel like crap after the swim and not wanna ride 56 miles, lol

Great article Kelly.  I agree completely.  My husband tries to give me the excuse that he doesn't have time to be healthy.  But, he used to spend hours playing computer games at night.  If he cut that out, or even dialed it back come, he could do something in the evening, and more importantly get up early and workout before getting ready for work.  But he's usually too tired to get up early the morning.

He's almost stopped the computer gaming (I am soooo glad), and is actually starting to exercise some.  I'm chomping at the bit, wanting to tell him what to do.  But that just makes him mad, so I'm letting him do whatever he wants and keeping quiet.

I did give him my old Garmin and HR strap, so he's been using that.  And we both started logging our food yesterday on Livestong.

I might somehow have him accidentally stumble across Mary's article....

i need someone to set me straight.  i have a hard time focusing on swimming right now.  mainly because i think that i can bust my butt and maybe knock off 5 mins on the swim.  i also have so much work to do for the bike and run that i justify only going to the pool once a week for now.  should i spend this off-season really focusing on the bike and run or should i split my time evenly over all three sports?

You're going to get more bang for the buck by focusing on the bike (in particular) and the run -- in fact focusing on the bike will help your run even if you keep your run training the same (by getting stronger on the bike you're setting yourself up to be fresher for the run and giving yourself a better opportunity to run to your ability. 

If you are time constrained and the swim is not your limiter (e.g. you have no worries about meeting a swim cutoff) I would work on the bike.  There will come a point when you bring your bike and run up to a level that your swim is becoming a limiter and you can swim focus then.

Morning everyone!

Super cold and windy here this morning.  Once the sun is up, I'm heading out to freeze and run 6-ish miles. 

I may have posted this before, but this is a good article by Tim Snow as to why bike volume is so important for both the bike and run portions of a race: http://kropelnicki.com/?p=292

Here's the jist --

Bike volume!  Bike volume is so effective because it not only builds bike fitness, but it also builds durability.  This bike durability ensures that your running legs are fresher at the outset of the marathon.  Typically there should be no less than a 5:1 bike to run volume ratio, and many times higher for athletes with bike limiters.  Many struggling runners will operate at a smaller ratio, as they increase their running volume, thinking that they have to train more like a runner.  Running actually wreaks havoc on cycling strength.  Too much running volume, relative to cycling, can actually have just opposite of the desired effect.  Cycling, decimated by too much running volume, become less powerful.  Not only does this equate to slower bike times, but it also means that the bike leg becomes significantly more taxing, leaving your running legs in a more vulnerable state.  If in doubt, err on the side of increased bike volume.  Not only will you bike stronger, but you will feel and be fresher, as you set out on the marathon.

It's cold here too.  With wind chill it was about 8 when my alarm went off (at least that's what the radio was saying).  So it was cold enough to keep me from getting up for a run.  I ran yesterday though, so I'm ok with not going today.  My legs kind of need a break anyway.

I have packed all my swim stuff, and plan to get in the pool tonight.  First time in the water since Wisconsin.  Pretty sad.  Wish me luck!

Hope everyone has a great day!

No suggestions but I'll be curious to see what others recommend.  I'd really like to give this a try, just don't know how to get started.

Seems like an expensive at home workout though.  How many kettlebells do you actually have to buy?  One, two, three?  I saw some at TJ Maxx while I was xmas shopping, don't recall the price or weights.

How many do you have Jen?  And how did you decide on the weight(s)?

Yeah...thats all well and good, but Tim Snow and i will have to disagree.

There are many ways to fry a fish, and while QT2 has their way, it is not the end all be all of how someone can train and be successful.

Not everyone has the time to train that you do Kelly, There are other ways to get the job done, and doing a long ride plus intervals with the adequate rest will produce similar results.

Keep in mind, that his article seems to be geared towards Iron Distance races, which i have absolutely no knowledge of the training requirements.  But Jeff is not racing an Ironman, and halfs are a much different race than fulls, regardless if they share the Iron in their name.

not saying you dont need volume, just saying that you can do other things besides endless boring hours EVERY time on the bike.

I'm pretty sure there was a thread on this in the Strength Training section.  Mike the Bear is the mod in there and is pretty big into kettle bells.  I'll see what I can dig up.

I like this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Sculpting-Kettlebells-Women-Exercises/dp/1578263077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325597458&sr=8-1

So Kel says to me: go read my thread and tell me if I'm crazy.  After I said "You're crazy" without even reading the thread, I thought I could weigh in because I think there are a couple of different things being said that are getting muddled together.

First off, you have time and you have intensity.  Separating those items is key because it seems that there is a basic premise that Kel focuses only on time with no intensity and Rudy focuses on intensity with no time. 

What I'm hearing is that Rizer has a limited number of hours to train and is looking for how to separate the areas.  Let's call it 10 hours at the peak to keep the numbers easy.

If I'm understanding Kel's general point, she is thinking that you want to target 60%'ish for the bike.  Hearing Rudy's statement of a couple intervals at 1.5 hours and a single long ride, it sounds like you guys are in, roughly, the same ballpark numbers wise.  That would be 3 hours of intensity sprinkled through the week and a single long ride to get your balance.

Leaving 4 hours to train, I believe you can massage that around to give you 3'ish hours to run and an hour in the pool.

I don't know what Rizer's goal is from a race standpoint but, especially on Rev3, the biggest danger area is the ability to push power up the hills and then quickly recover.  In this case, intervals will help you but you need to make sure you are working them correctly and not going all the way to red-line during the interval since, on race day, you will still need to come off the bike and run hills. 

Kelly - thanks for the book suggestion.  I'll check it out. 

Karen - I bought a set of 3 - 5 lb., 10 lb., and 15 lb.  I have a tiny upper body and not much arm strength, so I think those will do the job just fine

Scott - over to check out the ST forum...thx!

What I was trying to say to Jeff is not to undervalue thte importance of the bike in training for a HIM (and of bike training for ultimately improving his run of the bike). 

The other thing to think about is that Rud-y and Jeff-y are in very different places with regard to the bike.  Rud-y has the experience and base on the bike to likely benefit from some serious work above his anaerobic threshold.  Jeff-y does not have the same experience on the bike and the bike is his limiter so it requires different training than Rud-y. 

actually it is Jeff Sklarz, and Kelly's link to Tim Snow's article says a 5:1 ratio of bike to run volume. That means that you need to bike 5 hours to every 1 hour you run, so even with my pathetic run volume of 2-3 hours a week, he is saying that you need to ride 10-15 hours to keep his ratio correct to be successful.  That is a TON of volume, and way more than Jeff or I have time for. Now i am not saying Tim's theory wont work, I am certain it does, Kelly's results from her Iron endeavors shows it does,  I am saying you can get similar results on a lot less bike volume than his 5:1 ratio with the correct type of training i.e. intervals and a long ride.  I think in peak my ration was in the area of 3 or 2:1 last year, i was biking 6-7 hours and running 2-3, 2 sets of intervals or aggressive group rides/ races and a long ride.  Keep in mind, my run was OK, but if i can get to 3-4 hours a week there, maybe even 5 hours, i will hopefully see a 20 minute reduction in my Half Marathon time from last year, while keeping the same bike protocol that i used, i plan on changing nothing for my bike this year, i will be adding more run volume and i will actually train my swim.

I am certain either will work, they are both proven, pick the one that works for YOU and YOUR time and schedule.

Again, this has nothing to do with IM, this is HIM we are talking about. Two totally different beasts.