Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 22)

I'm going to weigh in on the cadence issue with another plus of higher cadence spinning, and as is my way I'll complicate matters probably more than they should be but I offer some food for thought.

As the cadence goes up, the force on your skeletal systems goes down.  Mashing a harder gear at a lower cadence can work well for you if you have powerful legs, but two things happen when you do this.  First, your muscles tire more quickly.  Muscles do not recover as quickly as the cardiovascular system, which is taxed more at higher cadences.  Second, there is more force on the joints and soft tissue as cadence drops.  Read that as more potential knee pain!  This is immediately evident if you've ever done steep hill repeats as the knees can really take a beating compared to faster spinning.

An interesting experiment I did last year was to force yourself to try a similar (fairly long) ride with different cadence targets.  Ideally the effort level would be similar to the expected effort at your target A race.  The reason is that ersearch is showing that optimal personal cadence likely changes based on your target effort level, such that what is best at a 70% power output may not be best for a 100% power output, so a 70.3 cadence may not be the same as a sprint cadence or a strict TT only cadence. Try a short run afterwards as well.  Then see how your RPE, HR, recovery, and overall fatigue compare.  Like many things in triathlon, I believe cadence is somewhat personal, so it's important to find what works best for you.

There is also some evidence that it is very difficult to make drastic changes in pedal cadence, maybe on the order of 5-10 spm, but that can actually be significant.  Since I started measuring cadence and riding more, I have found my "natural, I forgot to check" cadence has gone from mid 80s to low to mid 90s.  That still may be somewhat low, but I have the leg build of a hockey player as opposed to a lean runner/Lance Armstrong build, so perhaps this is the most efficient cadence for my body type.

My LBS charges $75 so I thought they were too expensive also until I started to shop around. I just found my ebay receipt and I only paid $25!

Yes, I have found that it is much easier for me to maintain a faster cadence on my tri bike. I don't know if it is my position, the different wheel size - I have 650's on my tri bike but 700's on the road bike or just the fact that my tri bike is a better bike. That summer I worked on spinning fast I was trying to keep it around 90 and I was on my tri bike. Last summer I couldn't get the computer (trek incite) to work consistently so it was hard to gauge without seeing the number for myself.

Another thing I noticed with TR. The power reading flashes as you pedal. My left leg started out with a significantly lower power output - this is the same side that my back gives me trouble. It evened out as I settled into the 20 min steady state effort though which I was relieved to see. Not sure if it is accurate but I thought that was interesting.

DirkP - 2013-01-05 6:05 AM

RunningYogini - 2013-01-04 5:46 PM The top of my foot hurts.  At the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, it felt like it had a bad cramp in it.  Of course, I raced.  This weekend after running on the icy and snowy roads, it hurts worse.  I'm concerned about stress fracture.  What are the symptoms of a foot stress fracture?  I can pretty much pinpoint the spot.  Have any of you experienced a a foot stress fracture?  Help!  I guess if I have to lay off running for awhile, now is the best time.  I'm going to bag my Sunday 10 mile run.  I'm afraid that would not be good for it. 

I haven't experienced a stress fracture but I have had pains in the tops of my feet occasionally.  Have you changed running brands of shoes recently?  Some of the symptoms to look for are a little more persistent than after one run.  Have you had a problem in the very recent past with the same pain?  Is there swelling?  More swelling after a run or possibly a bike?  (I wouldn't expect that unless you had a hard bike that required a lot of pedal mashing interval work.)  If you have noticed pain for a short time, has the onset of pain become earlier into a run or remained the same.  If this is the first time you have experienced this pain I wouldn't get to excited just yet.  Just proceed slowly and be hypersensitive to what's happening down there.

You might try a walk in the normal terrain you run and see if there are similar problems or if they have diminished.  If you can walk without any problems then take up running short and slow (and close to home) to check if that remains a problem.

It has hurt during most of my runs since Thanksgiving.  This is the same foot that I dislocated last year.  I think my running gait has changed slightly, causing the pain.  It hurts when I walk now.  I think I'm going to lay off running for a few weeks and jump on the elliptical.  I might stab my eyeballs out on that machine, though.

KWDreamun - 2013-01-05 2:51 AM

RunningYogini - 2013-01-04 5:46 PM The top of my foot hurts.  At the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, it felt like it had a bad cramp in it.  Of course, I raced.  This weekend after running on the icy and snowy roads, it hurts worse.  I'm concerned about stress fracture.  What are the symptoms of a foot stress fracture?  I can pretty much pinpoint the spot.  Have any of you experienced a a foot stress fracture?  Help!  I guess if I have to lay off running for awhile, now is the best time.  I'm going to bag my Sunday 10 mile run.  I'm afraid that would not be good for it. 

How are you lacing your shoes?  My wife went thru that and the guy at the shoe store told her how to properly lace the shoes.  I'll get her to post a pic of her shoes.  It cured her problem.

MTA: This is Karl's wife, Pink Socks.  He wanted me to post a pix of my lacing but now that I read your symptoms, I'm afraid that the lacing isn't for that problem.  Since your issue is a feeling of a bad cramp, it is different from my problem where my feet would swell and the lacing would press into the top of the foot causing it to be red, raw, and irritated - almost pre-blister.  I wish that I could help but I haven't had that issue.

For others with lacing issues, a picture of the lacing technique is below.  Word of warning, it works beautifully for me but on both of my ultras, I've lost toenails.  I don't know - might have lost them anyway with standard lacing. 

Thanks PinkSocks (and Karl).  I can't see the picture, though.  I lace my shoes in a way that allows my forefoot to have a lot of space.  (I like to wiggle my toes.)  I've been lacing my shoes the same way for years without issue.  I definitely do not have a blister.  It's deeper in the foot.

I think I have an extra speed/cadence sensor in the garage.  Are you looking for the one made by Garmin?

So we decided to go check out some labs today at one of the kennels. My intention was just to go and look with my wife and daughter to see what type of labs they had there. I had no intention of buying a dog I swear I just wanted to look. Well we wound up seeing this beautiful chocolate lab. She is an 8 month old female with green eyes. After getting to spend a little time with her it was pretty much all over and we wound up buying her. She seems like a really good dog and we were all very happy with her. We will pick her up next weekend since we now need to try and dog proof the house as best we can this coming week. The easy part is getting the dog now the hard part is trying to name her. After much debate  and no consensus on a name I think we are going to need the entire week to figure that out. Here's our new girl.

Tony that is so funny and your dog is beautiful!! This group has doggie fever! Good luck .

 I was planning another go at a long ride on the trainer today but things have been pretty busy around here trying to introduce my two kids to this 6 week old puppy and teach them all how to behave with one another. I'm afraid to leave the room, but we accomplished a lot and getting everyone off on the right foot is more important in the long run than another ride for me.

I am looking for something with ANT+ so I could use it with trainer road or something similar and something that would also work to provide data to my Garmin 910.  So, in all likelihood it would be a Garmin sensor.

Tony, She's a good looking dog.  We had a chocolate Lab for 11 years and she was very much my dog.  She was very low key and almost never barked unless I or one of the other ladies in the house stirred her up.  We had to put her down after she developed stomach cancer.  We put her down the second week of November 2010 and I still think of her every time I mow the grass.  She had a habit of running around the yard while I mowed and lying in the path of the mower until I go t close to her.  Then she would jump up and run someplace else in my way, lay down and do it all again.  Very special memories with her.

Her name was Cheyenne.

How about an update on my foot? 

As many of you have known, I have been getting ART since the beginning of December-ish.  I had been having some mixed results and nothing has been happening as quickly as I had hoped.  I have also tried acupuncture a couple of times at the suggestion of my ART/chiro.  I have had 2 acupuncture treatments and multiple ART treatments (3 PW for December).

As of today I am feeling so much better than I was a couple of months ago.  Over the past 4 weeks I have run 4 miles, 12.3 miles, 18.4 and 21.5 miles and things seem to be progressing well even with the additional mileage.  I have had some painful days as well as some really good days.  After this week's long run of 10 miles I had my ART treatment after the run.  This was the first time I have done this this way and I think it worked quite well.  I also felt a need later in the day to take an Aleve as a precautionary measure after some of the pain wasn't going away later in the day.

This morning when I woke up there was as little pain as I have had for several weeks.  I am not feeling like I am out of the woods at all but I am feeling as if I have reached a place in my running where I feel confident I will be seeing Warren and Jonathon in April in their hood.

My mileage is being escalated much quicker than I would recommend any of you to move forward with but I am at such a critical place that something had to be done.  Now the rest of my training will need to be done smartly and I may need some accountability from all of you.  Occasionally check my logs to make sure I am not getting so aggressive that I am not taking recovery weeks.  Recovery weeks are my biggest fear.  I feel I'll get further behind than I already am and I won't reach my mark in training.  call me out if any of you think  I am being to aggressivein my escalation!  No!  Really!  I mean it!  Call me out!

I'm going to have to cut out all other reading to keep up with this forum... no books in 2013 will save me money... ha!  Jeffy- those are some unholy numbers.  Also, congrats to all the peeps making gains in the pool.  

I'm about to show my newb-ness, but can one of you give me the skinny on this "Jorge program" I keep hearing about?  Is it a trainer only program?  And speaking of trainer, how long are you guys able to stay on a trainer compared to your normal rides?  Even with a fan, I find it brutal to ride trainer...

Thanks all and we can't wait to bring her home. Dirk thanks for sharing your memories of Cheyenne I'm hoping to have a great bond with her as well and we really look forward to making her a big part of our family. It's funny you mentioned it but when we saw her and spent time with her she did not bark or yelp one time we were with her.

Dirk I'm also glad to hear about the progress you are making with your foot. I don't think you should have any problems ramping up your mileage and having to take a bunch of recovery weeks. I think you are very much on top of your situation and as long as you continue to manage that I think you will be fine. In any case I'm sure everybody here will keep you honest if they think otherwise.

Will Jorge's winter cycling program is to help build strength and power on the bike. It is probably like sufferfest or the various trainer road programs built around doing interval training. It is a 16 week program and can be done using HR or Power. It can be done indoors on the trainer or outdoors according to the plan overview. You can check it out in the Programs section of BT and looking for cycling on the pulldown menu. The main page will give you the entire overview of what the plan entails. That's it at a high level I'm sure the experts here can give you a more technical explanation.

It's crazy trying to keep up with all the posts here!

Jackie I think it's great that you have the support of your husband in eating healthier. I was fortunate enough to have my wife do the same for me when I was trying to lose weight. I don't think I could have reached my goal without her making healthier meals. I don't think I could have done it without her doing that for me. It was one less thing I had to worry about. She also made sure we did not have as many bad snacks around either which was a huge help.

Tracy sorry to hear about your foot. I know you are taking care with it and I hope it isn't anything serious and nothing that a little rest can't take care of it so you can get back to running.

Dina glad to see the your family is enjoying the new pup and that you have everyone getting along. I hope it's going to be easy enough for me as well. I have one week to learn as much as I can and I feel like I know nothing about taking care of a dog. It will be a learning experience for me.

JoAnne glad to hear you are back on track with your workouts and that the trainer has been a good thing for you. Sounds like you are getting in some good workouts. Enjoy the trip to see Bon Jovi, I took my wife the last time he was out here on Long Island back in 2011. He put on a good show and she enjoyed it.

No kidding!  This forum is CRAZY!!!!

You can find Jorge's program in the "Programs" section.  It's great!  It's trainer only.  I typically do a couple of the workouts per week when I use his program.  I know it has helped me but I don't have a power meter or Trainer Road or anything to help me.  I just "feel" better out on the road.

I was on the trainer for 2 hour a couple weeks ago.  I intended to do 3 hours.  I realized later that I was coming down with a minor cold.  Three hours is about my max.  It's boring!

I got some great replies from Facebook friends on a local orthopedic doctor.  I completely forgot about him, too!  He used to come to my Spinning class before his practice got too crazy!  I hope I can get a slot in his busy schedule.

Okay........ now I'm having glute issues!!!   Seriously, I think I jinxed myself by saying the 100/100 was going well!  The next you will hear from me about that is when it's over! 

I went to a chiro/ART specialist guy today (I've seen him before- I think he's helped me a lot!) but today I think it may have done more harm than good??  (I hope I'm wrong!)  I went in because I was feeling tension in my hamstring and groin area so thought it be best to get back in.  I also had read that ART works for the elbow tendonitis thing so thought to get in for that too!  Well, that was this morning!  Tonight I did some leg strength training, which of course hindsight is 20/20, probably shouldn't have done that!  (I was starting to have a weird feeling in my glutes earlier in the day, post ART session, so it's not JUST the weights, but that may have aggravated it??) Now I can't walk normally, unless I apply pressure to a particular area of the butt, then it helps a lot with walking.  I'm just hoping this is a very temporary thing!

Samantha, I hope your glute and elbow gets well soon.  Please keep us posted on the progress.

Dirk, so glad your foot is getting better. just please be careful.  Thanks for the update.

Tony, congrats on the lab.  That is an adorable pup!