Ernesto's group (4th season) - Closed (Page 23)

I can feel your pain. I am in Indiana where most of our days are grey and cold. You never know when it is safe to go for a long ride or run. lol

The good news is that the weather forecast after this weekend is looking up. Hopefully in time to warm the water up for my first OLY on May 19. I am jealous of those living in warmer climates.

I can live with the cold on the bike, its been the wind. It seems to be howling at 40 mph everyday and out of the North. You appreciate this Scott, on Sunday it took me 40 minutes to go from Tom Dillon to Corsair and 1:04 to go 1 mile past the monument. Then 40 minutes back. I looked at graph after and it was crazy sub 17 mph average out and 23 mph back, it looked like two different riders. My heart rate was pretty even both ways. This weekend is supposed to be more of the same.

BTW; Scott and Mitch I am out for Motorcity. We let our youngest daughter play ASA softball, and that is the weekend of the Tawas Summer Sizzler, so I am going to be a softball fan. I think I am doing Starkerman DU on Sunday May 13th in Gaylord. Still working on logistics.

 I love that ride out to the monument

The wind here has been ridiculous as well.  On the plus side, my six year old is LOVING his new kite...lol

Too bad about the Motor City race.  Have fun watching softball!

Gabe- exciting news about New York.

Joe- You inspired me to do some research on my own MAF training. I looked up a run I did on 4 Dec 11 it was the same run I did today and under similiar conditions. On Dec 4 I ran 6 miles and it took 58:34. It was before I had a heart rate monitor so I have no idea what my heart rate was, but if past behavior is an indicater of future conduct, I rabbited in the beginning and was fried at the end. Today I ran the same 6 miles in 52:18, my average heartrate was 143 which is actually MAF+4 (so I guess I cheated a little).

So, for those either beginning or wondering about training at MAF, it appears to work. The biggest difference to me is, I'm faster and  I would have been wiped out for the rest of the day back in December. Today, I feel great, no notable fatigue, no tight ankles or sore legs.

I'll second this, and ask if it applies to training for a full IM in November?  If so I'll have to take a further look into it.

You will see results in two months. I don't know if you are following a plan for your marathon and there are better people in this group to ask than me, ie Ernesto, Joe, Gabe, Scott (both of them), Chris, Mitch (if I missed anyone, sorry, its not on purpose), but I believe that you can incorporate it into your training.

IM in November absolutely, I am using it for a HIM in September.

Great to hear that you enjoyed the NY marathon and are doing it again this year!  SF marathon should be a lot of fun and its a great place to run (I lived there for like 5 years and still miss it).

I'm shooting to finish my TX marathon next month in under 5 hours , and the NY Marathon under 4 hours.  Not sure yet what plan I will be using this time.

What about you, what are your time goals for your marathons and what plans are you planning on using?

As of 8:22:15am EST I can officially call myself a triathlete (starter anyways!) SOOOO excited!!!

Have fun with your races this w/end!

No, I follow the "Don't Eat Like a Pig Diet" (thinking of having it trademarked). I eat all of the same stuff, without eating like a pig; ie instead of eating half a pizza, I will eat two slices. Prior to triathlon I lost 30 pounds doing this and have maintained for 6 years. I am old school when it comes to food, calories in, calories out and the basic food groups. Ernesto and some others have done the diet.

Mark-congratulations for being in the club.

I like the "Don't Eat Like a Pig" title. You should write a book and trademark this.

I assure you that this is a new approach to losing weight although everyone know that is the key to losing weight. Simple, yet true.

Very nice!

Congrats everyone for the progress you have been making this early in the season. It sounds like everyone will have a great year.

Congrats! Although a little confused...you will start? you started already? If its the later and you are posting this as you race, it might be a great time saver for the next time not to race while carrying your computer. Its not aerodynamic at all in the bike.

Mark -- congrats on your first race! How was it?

Chapfallen -- thanks, I'm really excited. Still a long way to work up to an IM like you!

Markz -- 10,000 sounds like a good number, not too small that you are alone on the road but not so big that there's no room to run. The beginning of NYC felt like being cramped in a subway, luckily it quickly dispersed. I think this year they are increasing the number of participants even more to accommodate for costs. It's a wonder Central Park does not sink with all those feet pounding on it!

Gabriel -- I'm also aiming for 4 hours (my time for NYC last year was 4:20; was on pace for 4 hours until mile 21 when we crossed the last bridge from the Bronx into Manhattan, and I just couldn't keep up). Last year I used the Four Months to a Four-Hour Marathon book by Dave Kuehls, which uses both speed training and long runs. I found the speed training arduous, but it helped knocking my time down 25 minutes for NYC from my first marathon. I think I will use it again this year and incorporate MAF onto the long runs. Not sure what to do with the speed training yet---logically it seems incompatible with MAF.

Does anyone know if speed training can be used while doing MAF?

What if the question was asked the following way: "Can speed training be used to supplement a program consisting of long and slow?".  I would say the answer to that is yes.  The amount of speed work needed as a percent of total workouts in running is typically very minimal.  As always...run lots, mostly easy, some hard....and....your easy is never easy enough and your hard is never hard enough.  Also, on your bike do you do intervals?  Or are you riding all at MAF and below?  

I think a question that one should ask themselves is have they built the base necessary to begin speedwork. I think one should run quite a while before beginning speedwork.   Admittedly, I did speedwork and too much of it too early in my running career.  After finally having some sort of a base my body is responding better to it.

Today I did day one of my USA Triahlon coaching certification, it's been a long day that I spent indoors (ugh!) from 7:30AM through 8PM, this was like an Ironman...

As part of my coaching training and validation process I will coach two people out of the group free of charge for six months (the rest of the season), just send me a personal message with your goals for 2012, I'll pick the two that I consider will challenge me the most and we'll outline a program. You get the benefit of a free coach, one on one supervision and I get my experience. In a way you'll be sort of a guinea pig though.

If you're interested, send me a PM, include your phone number too. Keep in mind that it involves commitment to the program, but it will be built considering your life situation and availability to train, your location, and all the other factors that will add stressors to the training.

I concur with what you wrote - the balance between some speed and too much speed is hard.  This question forced me to read a lot of what Dr. Maffetone has to say on speed workouts / anaerobic training.  He seemed to be fine with it in small doses, but favored watching it carefully so that you did not destroy your aerobic base in the process.

Read what the big yellow book has to say about speed training.  I found it to be good advice when I was doing some speedwork earlier this year.

Cognrats Ernesto on surviving your day of certification training!  I sympathize...Jennie and I have become certified officials for USA track and field and I just recently finished my training to become an Assistant Scoutmaster for my son's Boy Scout troop.  I'm ready to get past all that stuff and get back to exercise.