Jamie's HIM/IM Training Group-CLOSED (Page 23)

YAOTD: I'm really trying to stop spending so much money on triathlon, and just be content with the gear I have. I do need to stock up on nutrution items but that's unavoidable.

AOTD: I feel like I have terrible run form. I hold my arms really high, probably hunch over too much, don't have a very long stride considering I'm 6'4". I'm not sure new shoes would ever improve my form. I run in 2150's also...have been thinking about getting something more lightweight as a race shoe. I'll definitely need a couple new pairs of shoes before May. Current mileage on my two pairs of 2150's are 200/250.

Got in a 4k swim last night, a 60 min. run this morning, and will do 90 min. on the trainer tonight. Last week taught me that I can't save so much volume for the weekend. I need to get better about doing morning workouts during the week so I don't feel so beat up on Mondays.

I'm jealous of all of the volume you are doing. I'm starting to 'miss' not having an IM for this year. But then again, there are days where I'm glad I only have to swim 3k or bike for 3hrs. I'm doing my 'long' ride this afternoon. A whopping 90'!!
Have fun. Sounds like your putting in the work that you need to do.

Jamie

YAOTD: I would say half the fun of any sport is getting new stuff!  Unfortunately I do not have anything on the list at the moment, but I often find myself day dreaming about how great it would be to have a power meter.  I am a #'s kind of guy and a techie at heart, so I know a power meter would be a great training tool for me.  That's about it for the moment.

AOTD: When being fit for shoes several years ago, I was told I was a mid foot stiker, and I was happy with that.  I do pronate a bit and had to experiment with many different shoes to find one with the correct stability.  Turned out the Brooks Adrenaline GTS10 was absolutely perfect for me.  In regard to my form, I have a couple of "key" thoughts which I keep in mind while running.  One is keeping a good upright posture without slouching.  The second is making sure my arms don't cross over in front.  One of my running buddies gave me the tip of thinking about pulling dollar bills out of your side pocket while running (bit of an exaggeration, but good general thought).

Finished my single workout for the day.  A nice little 4.5 mile run on the treadmill featuring increasing pace each mile.  Today in the Milwaukee area, it is 8 degrees with 14mph winds giving us a feels like temp of -8.  Decided the treadmill was the better choice today!
 

Good advice for running from Samantha and Scott:

1. Run upright. I've also heard 'run proud'. Same thing.
2. Don't swing your arms across your body.

Jamie

Got in 8X800 on the treadmill today. I was amazed at how fast I was able to do them (9.0 speed). AOTD: Since I'm still very much a beginner I considered starting to run a different from what comes naturally to me, but to be honest it just felt terrible in every way. I've made some minor adjustments, but nothing major. Running form is probably the next area I am going to get some coaching on.

Well on the road this week but did manage to get a decent Brick session in 1hr 5m in the pool and then a 1hr ride on trainer avg 215 w.

Interesting stuff on running style, I have changed my style and was a heel striker most of my life and have managed to change to been a mid foot striker now. Had a nasty case of PF 2 years ago and had to change somehting and the mid foot was right for me, If I push too hard I really have to check myself to make sure I am not going back to old habits.

Been an older guy the run is definately my toughest dicipline and I am really focusing on the run in my training this year.
I won't break any records but I am relaxing more and doing system checks regularly to make sure the form is there to make it through the race.

Stretching is really key for me now and I focus on a quality stretching session after all my bike and run workouts. It just really helps recovery.

I just run for the most part. I have a pair of Newtons that I use for short runs from time to time.  I have tried to run more on the ball of the foot, but in the end, I just run...

65' on the trainer tonight doing 6X50  Stallouts...fun stuff!

Did 50 mins on the trainer tonight...climb intervals...ouch.  This is were I'm weak because of the extra poundage I'm carrying.  The intervals called for 2 mins out of the saddle at 90 RPM then 2 mins R.I. @ 100 rpm in a lower gear.  I couldn't do more than 45 secs out of the saddle without my HR passing the LT and my legs being on fire.  I think also with all the mountain biking I did last year, to power up climbs in the saddle (to keep tracking on the rear wheel) and I may have develop more power sitting.

I did a sweat rate test while I was at it tonight and got 39 oz/hr but the temp was only 45F in the garage, and I forgot to put the fan on so my results are probably not accurate. 

Tomorrow morning I have 1200y  at the pool, and 3x1600 speed interval run tomorrow night.
 

Forgot to mention, I swapped out my Adamo Road for my (new to me) Cobb V-Flow Plus and at this point, I like the Cobb better than the Adamo.  But longer rides will be a better determining factor.
 

AOTD:  Since I started as a runner long before my evolutionary advancement to triathlons, I've always had a love for the run...especially since that's when I catch a bunch of the guys who passed me on the bike.  The best tip I ever got for the run was to learn to run relaxed.  For me, I try to focus on no tension in the face muscles.  Just let those cheeks bobble up and down.  It seems to make everything stay loose, which translates into longer sustained durations of higher pace.  I'm no expert, but I think someone who focuses on being relaxed actually changes his/her run form for the better.  I just see so many people running with a terribly pained look on their faces and their bodies look super rigid.  Ouch!

Not sure if anyone has an Iphone but BT just launched their app! Search the app store.

Good morning. I'm getting ready to go to masters practice and have a few minutes to catch up on the posts. Looks like a lot of hard work going on out there and I'm glad to hear it. We had a lot of great answers to run form questions. I was glad to see that most people are thinking about posture and arms and not so much switching to a forefoot striker. If you go back to that IM talk post with Brett Sutton that I linked a while back he has some thoughts on that as well. If you take a look at pro tri people in pictures I think you will be amazed at how many are landing on their heels!



OK. So the next QOTD:

In your swim training do you ever/do you plan to do your training as one long continuous swim that will exceed the distance of your 'A' race? How many times? Do you have access to open water to practice?


Have a good day everybody.

Jamie

I am getting an iphone. I'm a mac guy. I've waited for them to come to Verizon (today!) but now I see that the iphone5 is coming out this summer so I may wait a bit more. I really want international coverage b/c I'm hoping to go to Africa (Ghana/Tanzania) and Nepal this year.

Jamie

Good stuff with the swim/bike brick. Not one that you see done every day. I've dealt with PF too. Agreed that stretching is a great way to keep the cortisone away!
Jamie

Brien,
I don't mean to pee in your cheerios but is the treadmill calibrated for speed? I know a lot of the treadmills don't get calibrated much which means the speed can vary wildly. You can imagine that with a gym's budget this might not get done as often as needed. Hopefully not, but just wanted to let you know. Keep up the good work.

jamie

HR will skyrocket at those rpms especially standing. You are using more muscles to stand so HR will go higher than sitting. 90 rpm standing...ouch.

Jamie

Yeah...just got the app yesterday.  It's VERY bare-bones and I hate to be a downer, but IMO it is barely usable.  So far, it seems the time field & distance field only accepts the first portion before the colon or decimal (if you put 49:52 for a time, you only get the 49.  If you put 10.5 miles you only get the 10).  In addition, you can only enter comments for the specific workout (no general comments) and when you save those workout comments, I am noticing you don't always get what you save.  I put in a 10 word sentence and when I looked online through a browser, it only saved 2 of those 10 words.  Not sure what's up with that.  From what I can tell, there are a lot of bugs.

I will be curious to hear how others like it?

QOTD:  I usually do most of my swim training in sets.  Even when I am doing a lot of smaller sets, I try to limit my time between each to no more than 30 seconds.  However, on some of my workouts I will do longer sets that do exceed a sprint or Oly distance.  Because I have never done HIM, I will be curious to see what the BT plan calls for in the longer swims.  Not sure if they will have me do a continuous 1.2+ mile swim.  I am curious to hear what others have done for HIM swims.

I do have access to open water and will do several swims in local lakes including at least one swim in chilly Lake Michigan before Racine (which will be in Lake Michigan).  Open water doesn't freak me out in the least, but I like the OWS's in order to practice my sighting and learning to swim straight instead of all over the place!

I have a question about bike training with power.  When I first started training Jan 2010, after 3 month (in March) I had an LT test done at the local university and it was determined my LT was 231W, and I'm assuming at this point that I'm probably a little higher now with all the XC mountain biking & regular biking/racing I did since then...maybe around 235-240W.

What would I use for a % of FTP for various race lengths like Olympic & HIM.  I'm assuming a 30k sprint race I would go close to 100% of my LT, so around 225-230W.  Would an olympic (40k) be somewhere in the 93-95% (215-220W)? HIM around 80%?
 

IMO:
sprint is all out
oly is 95-100
HIM is low 80's
IM is low 70's

jamie

Thanks Jamie.  I'm a numbers guy and I'm really starting to think about getting a PT wheel.  I'll have to see what my tax refund's going to look like. 

The stationary bikes at the gym have power readings.  I wonder how accurate those are.  Maybe I'll give one a try one of these days just to see how 230w feels like and the various other levels.  I'm thinking the recumbent style stationaries would replicate the aero position better based on the angle of the torso & legs?


Edited by RVachon 2011-02-10 9:04 AM

I have another dilemma I'm trying to work through..but not workout related..lol.

Both my current pool & gym memberships expire this week.  Both facilities are 5 mins from my house.  The gym has older equipment, and is small (small town of 18k population), and the pool is a City run facility that's also falling apart, but it's not super busy (mostly older people).  Both currently cost me about $75/mth.

Now, the YMCA is in the next City (about 10 miles away), 6-7 yr old facility, indoor track, different classes, pool, longer hours (gym opens at 5:30, pool at 6:00), and that would cost me about $64/mth so I'm saving about $10/mth, but I have to drive 15-20 mins in my already busy schedule. 

Right now when I go to the pool (that opens at 6:30 AM), I go for my swim, then go home, shower then commute to work for an hour.  The YMCA pool opens at 6 AM, and is on my way to work so I'd probably bring my work clothes with me;swim, shower there and head to work.

Decision, decisions.  

I just started speed work anyway (when I say started, I mean basically ever), so I don't have to be picky quite yet.  Good thing to know though...I definitely didn't consider that. Right now I know that I run intervals on the same treadmill every time and I usualy manage to get my HR up to mid 180's (by the 4th interval or so) and then back down to below 120.   Thanks for the info though, it's definitely good to know.

AOTD: My training program doesn't have any swims of 2.4 miles, just a lot of 1 hour swims.  I will, however, modify it. I need to know that I can do 2.4 miles in open water, which I do have access to when it gets warm.

Edited by syscrash 2011-02-10 12:04 PM

With regards to the iPhone app...I've noticed some bugs as well (already mentioned). To me, though, it's very usable. I would rather be able to enter the info mostly correct immediately. If I wait until evenings sometime I just forget. Usually I can't get to this site from work. I've been fortunate the past couple weeks as our security group can't fix their websense server...and none of us more technical folks are willing to help them