Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 22)

Brenda, I view the USAT rankings as one of the most valuable things USAT brings me for my membership cost.  It's not a really big deal, perhaps more of a statement about what they don't bring to us members otherwise?

It's not a foolproof algorithm they have, but it's the best that can be done under the circumstances.  I have studied the algorithm and put my mathematics minor to good use and believe it's a sound methodology.

I have found that an equivalent performance at a small sprint race gets a lower ranking than the equivalent performance in a large oly or HIM race.  I can explain why in statistical terms, but won't...

I enjoy looking at my ranking and comparing it to the rankings of others that I know and even comparing my annual ranking year to year.  And since there is an adjustment for gender, the number you end up with as a woman is comparable to a man's.  So if you wanted to have a 'challenge' against a certain male, you can use the USAT adjusted ranking score to see if your performance as a woman stacks up to a man's performance.

Super congrats on that 30 miler.  That's just awesome all over.

Haha, my youngest loves McDonalds - but only the fries.  He doesn't speak very clearly for the most part, but everyone understands when he sees the arches and says "french fries!".

Dina my apologies for confusing you with Tracy. That is so embrassing!  I even have a list of everybody's usernames and names that I am constantly referencing and I still did not get it right. My apologies again but I loved the story.

I think despite the adversity, there were some good things to take away from that - great job, particularly on the swimming. It looks like you've found a good place there, keep it up! Sucks about the run, but some days its just not meant to be. I find I struggle with cramp more in the cold than in the warm - maybe that had something to do with it?

You still ended up with a pretty respectable time on a pretty tough sounding course.

Stan - good luck on the ride - sounds like you're going to get some tough miles in!

Warren - I agree with Brenda - When's the Dirk's Junkies retreat?! Can we wait until the water is warmer than 42 degrees?!

Kurt - there was a thread about those bungee things on the main message board not too long ago - give it a search and see what you come up with. I believe the consensus was don't pay too much and be careful not to have them ruin your technique. I can't remember exactly though.

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So I discovered today that if you are masochistic, hate yourself or are otherwise unhappy with your life, you should craft some lunatic pool intervals to cause pain, suffering and a certain amount of water up your nose. Today's workout was 21x100 on 2:05. That gives me about 5 seconds rest if I swim moderately hard. The first ones felt like a joke, but intervals 10 and onwards brought the pain. According to Mr Garmin and his swim metrics, I was below 30 seconds for most of the lengths, although the last two intervals were a little slow. I was aiming for 20 intervals, but I miscounted by one because I left on the 2:00 instead of the 2:05.

I felt like that was a good endurance swim because of the short rest but not-quite-flat-out intervals. I'm thinking of making Thursdays a shorter set (like 5) of a faster interval, but with some rest between sets like this:

WU
5x100 on 1:55
200 easy
5x100 on 1:55
200 easy
5x100 on 1:55
CD

Does that make sense for adding some speed? I'm only swimming twice a week so I need quality workouts. Come Memorial Day, the community pool opens and I'll be able to swim more frequently.

Stan, taking your goal to add 10lbs of muscle I have a few comments:

• Be patient, that will take a year or more (perhaps more at our age!)
• It's nearly impossible to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously
• I suggest you tri-train, lift and eat right all season before beginning to watch for weight gain
• Decide to target muscle gain after the race season because triathlon season works against you (as does the goal of losing some fat)

Consider the winters your muscle building time of year.  Eat more then.  A calorie surplus is needed and you can expect to add a little fat during this time (say 10lbs muscle, 5lbs fat = 15).

In the meantime you can/should do some lifting to set the foundation.  The most economical way is to focus on some of the big compound movements and not really isolation exercises.  So bench press, pull-downs and rows, core, lunges or squats.

On the latter, you need to be careful with your form.  I have decided that the traditional wisdom of heavy weights isn't necessarily the only way to build size and strength.  it's perhaps the easiest, but for us with joints to protect we can use lighter weight, slow reps, strict form and higher reps to accomplish the same goal.  So, with that said, you shouldn't just assume you can't squat.  Learn the proper technique under the tutelage of a trainer and start with relatively light weight and see what happens.

Stan, Jeff is spot on.  I've struggled w/ gaining weight and losing fat.  When lifting, I leave the hevy weights for the young people.  I like to lift using the negative principles of 2 seconds up and 6 seconds down on things like bench presses, curls etc.  I also do a lot of 25 rep sets w/ little rest between.  This helps w. cardio which is so important in this sport.

Once the lifting is accomplished, diet must be spot on.  I have never been able to add muscle doing lots of cardio.  I have a hard enough time adding muscle w/ no cardio.  Wife says I have worms.  Good luck and keep us posted.

Vero, great race report, thanks for posting.  How in the world did U get in the water w/ it being 55 degrees.  I don't even know how U could feel ur feet when U got back and forget changing gears on the bike, hands would be numb. 

BTW, what is sunbutter?

karl

Thanks Karl. Actually the water temp only felt cold during the warmup. Once the race started I didn't even notice the temp. My hands and feet were pretty numb by the time I reached transition though. My hands recovered not too long into the ride, but my feet still felt numb for a lot of the ride.

My practice open water swim the week before was in a local reservoir here that was 44 degrees. Now that was really cold.

Sunbutter is very much like peanut butter, but it is made from sunflower seeds. My youngest daughter has a potentially life threatening peanut allergy so we've found sunbutter to be a safe and pretty good alternate.

Samantha, Brenda, Anthony, and whoever else - 

Biggest Loser is a weekly tradition at our house.  We tape it and then usually on Weds I'll pull the trainer into the TV room and mom and the boys will make popcorn and we spend 90 minutes watching.  It's amazing what the contestants go through and are able to accomplish.  I sometimes still find it hard to believe how hard some of them are able to work out despite being incredibly overweight.  It shows how much the body can adapt to stress and convinces me we are capable of more than we think.

My boys will be psyched to hear that the show really inspired you Anthony.

Glad you found something your daughter can enjoy along the PB line.

And you are one serious tough hombre - swim training in 44 degrees?!?!?!?  I thought   knew my wife was nuts for just jumping into 46 degree water this weekend, but to actually do a workout in that temp?  Crazy stuff right there.

bswcpa - 2012-04-17 10:19 AM Jonathan - you were a good example of your "lesson of the day". To answer your question- yes, I think that's what retirement is supposed to be like and I'll hopefully find out in a few years. I had to laugh when you wrote you had an AWESOME DAY and then talked about weeding the garden. I don't put those two things together, but glad you did. Karl - I missed saying something about your wife on your post a day or so ago. Give her my congratulations for her PR and her top podium spot. Sweet! Tony - How'd your first couple days go on your formal 24 week HIM training plan? Dina - Oh my, your story had me reliving the good ole days of younger kids. Too funny. Way to make every effort to bring your kids along with you. You get a gold star for your patience. I can tell you're a good mom and that's so important since your years with them go by so fast. Tracy - Congrats on getting in a 10.5 mile run. And smokin on your swimming while at the tail end of your sickness is great. I'm glad you're returning back to normal. Dirk - How'd the bike fit go? Jeff and Dirk - Since you brought up the USAT rankings - you have to let us know where you placed. Is that a motivator on your races at all or just something you just check every year? I'm curious to how you view it. I've double checked my tax return clients and made sure they're e-filed and done. Done! I'd taken a couple days off training after my 30 mile trail race on Saturday (race report in my training log) but went to the pool today and did a comfortable 1500. I'm picking up my son from school to get his license and then we're meeting my hubby for lunch. I asked my son where he wanted to eat and of all places, he wants McDonalds! Ugh. Oh well, to celebrate his rite of passage that's where we'll go. Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

Brenda congrats and awesome job on the 30 mile trail run even with the uncooperative knee you were able to tough it out and finish up, that's great.

So far so good with HIM training. One thing I started doing is using the training log. I am going to log everything, training, nutrition, how I feel etc. I am going to treat this season like a big science project. I am figuring I will get a good baseline and it will go a long ways as to what works and what doesn't work for me. I only wish I would have used it for the last 5 months of training I have put in trying to get acclimated to S/B/R. It would have been very helpful to have had that here. In any case I plan on being as detailed as possible going forward. I'm sure I will get good feedback and help from the group by having it there and hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining as well.

Anthony - this is the perfect use for logging.  Try not to fall into the trap of just entering  x miles/y time.  That is useful in one sense, but the log can serve so much more of a purpose.  Enter the time of day, the equipment you used, anything special about the session, what you were trying to accomplish and if you did it, etc.  Essentially, it can be a great tool to help you maximize future workouts and understand what works best for you, and also what doesn’t work and what to avoid in the future.

Also, the equipment feature is great for tracking shoe and other equipment use.  When I first developed some weird knee and ankle pains after running and posted on the site, someone mentioned my shoes had a lot of miles on them.  It never occurred to me as a beginner that old shoes would be a problem, but I wore new shoes and the pain immediately went away.  That won’t be everyone’s experience, but it’s interesting to know how long your equipment has been in service.  Did you feel a tweak in your left calf going up that steep hill?  Write it down so if it becomes a big issue in two weeks you’ll have a record of when it started.

I have a TYR swim tether. I bought it a couple of summers ago before we went on vacation. We rented a house with a small pool so I thought this would be an easy alternative to finding a lap pool. It was hard and awkward. When I was swimming and reached the end of the tether I felt like I was fighting to keep it from pulling me backwards. My stroke felt very different, seems like I remember feeling like my legs were sinking. It was ok for vacation but I would not want to try to learn to swim using this. Let me know if you want to try it out and I'll send you mine. It's just been sitting in my closet.

Glad to read your swimming is coming along! 

No worries . Didn't bother me one bit!

This story made me laugh out loud!  Awesome workout story, and no you don't have to be a mom or probably not even a parent to understand, though it might help.

We have a running gag in our clan after you say something which sounds outrageous where everyone says "That's something you'd never thought you'd say".  The last one I can remember is when my wife said to my middle guy - "When you're done shooting your brother, please brush your teeth and put the gun away before you go to bed."

Warren, thanks that is great advice and your example is perfect. I am dongi exactly those things that you have suggested. I figure its better to have too much info in the log then not enough. So I will be walking around with my notebook for the next 24 weeks logging as much of these things that I can. I also think it will be easier for you guys to assess and offer up helpful advice and suggestions if I have this ype of info in my logs.

No biggie here either! 

Just read your race report!  Great job!  How's your ankle?

I posted this info in the last group and decided to repost the info again.

The first website below has a basic explanation of what glycemic index and load are and how to use them. Notice that GL is associated with an estimated serving size. This may or may not be the same amount you eat, so the precise glycemic load for when you consume a food may be slightly different based on serving size. The second link is a scientific article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and the main reason I posted this is because it has a much more inclusive list of foods (starting p.9 of the document).

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/foods/grains/gigl.html

http://www.ajcn.org/content/76/1/5.full.pdf

I will post some more info on carbs, protein, fat, and some sample nutritional menus in the following days.

My ankle is still a bit sore, but not so much that walking is painful. Today has been the day I've felt most of the muscle soreness from Sunday's effort, so I may be another day or two before I do any running again. Then its right into training for my next Sprint on June 2nd.

The bike fit seems to have went well but I have yet to try it out.  They needed to cut aero bars down from the stock length and make another adjustment or two.  It's done now but I couldn't pick it up because we all had free tickets to watch the Tin Caps play baseball tonight.

I started looking for my ranking last night for USAT but couldn't find it.  I'll check a little later when I have a little more time.

Thanks for all of the support, Junkies.  I am hanging in there. 

I’m pretty behind on posts, so bear with me here…

Lots of new pretty bikes out there!  I hope they help all of you reach your goals this season.  Jo, I love the colors.  Matt, so cool that you built it!  And Dirk, no one will be able to keep up with you now. 

Paul, congrats on your race.  It’s so rewarding after all of the hard work you put in. 

Jonathan, what a great day!  I’m glad you enjoyed some time off. 

Dina, your story sounds all too familiar to me J 

Vero, that’s some fantastic improvement in your swim time!  I am thoroughly impressed. 

Karl, congrats to your wife on her big win.  We Junkies can support the significant others of the group too!  Hang in there with your swimming- it will come. 

Tracy, I hope you are back to your old self.  It’s not fun to be sick.

Brenda, I can’t believe you did the 30 mile run.  I told Ryan, and he was sure that I meant that you biked 30 miles.  Way to go!  You’re my hero.  Did your son get his license?

Warren, I love your BL family ritual.  You family sounds really great!

Tony, good luck with the HIM training.  I’m glad you are starting to utilize the logs.  You will really appreciate that in several months when you want to see how far you’ve come. 

Stan, thanks for the nutrition links.  I love learning about stuff like that.  Keep up all of the good work on your bike.  Sounds like you should have a great season ahead. 

Dirk, Ryan was at the Tin Caps game tonight too.  What fun! 

Hi guys!  As you know, I'm gearing up to do a 13.3 mile trail hill climb in August.  Most of my training will take place on the treadmill.  (I'm not a stranger to trails but I have never done a trail run.)  I've been walking at an incline on the treadmill for about 10 minutes after each treadmill run.  Tonight, I did two "running" intervals at 10% and 4.5mph for 2 minutes each.  They weren't bad but they were hard according to my heart rate.  Granted, I'm recovering from a nasty cold/flu.  What do you guys think I should focus on?  I'm tied to the treadmill.  I run on "it" on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  I always run outside on Sunday come hell or high water.  (High water has been occurring a lot lately.  I don't care.)

Here is a link to the Mt. Ashland Hill Climb.

I'd like to go sub 3 hours for my first attempt.

In other news, I'm getting better but my poor husband is really sick.

This work is a good starter for some hill work on the treadmill.  You can modify if you think you want to increase the distances or elevation percentage.

You can also mix up the hills and do different elevations and lengths that will be a more specific approach to what your likely to experience on the trail run itself. Running at longer hill intervals will help you adapt in a controlled environment.  But nothing is going to get you truly prepared for trail running  except trail running. 

The treadmill will help you with the climbing but the descending will also need the workouts too.  Trail running navigation needs to be learned as well.  With your outdoor and trail experience you have an advantage but walking and running on the trails will probably be pretty different.