jsnowash's training group - FULL!! (Page 24)

I took my girls on a little bike ride yesterday. We drove to a local multi-use trail, nice and flat, no traffic, and they rode 8 miles. I think it took us about 2 hours - so hardly a blistering pace, but they seemed to enjoy it! My oldest daughter (age 11) is thinking of doing a sprint tri with me at the end of the summer (400 yd swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run), so it was probably a good start for her "training".

Was supposed to run/swim today, but I'm unmotivated emotionally and dead physically. Forced rest day since I have a long bike ride tomorrow. Will workout on Sunday. Kinda get a guilt feeling when I postpone a workout. Feels like "exercise bulimia". Is that bad? I'm sure it is.....

Edited by guticur 2010-07-02 4:58 PM

I ran my local 8K race last night - I don't have official results, but the finish line clock put me almost exactly at 44 min. I thought I could run it a little faster than that -- but considering I did a 20 mile bike ride earlier in the day and a couple of harder runs during the week, I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed.... I also TOTALLY went out too fast in the first 2 miles and kind of died at the end.... oh well.... good tempo training, anyway! Have a great weekend, everybody!

Resting yesterday totally payed of. Went on a long ride this am with a bunch of friends. Felt great both emotionally and physically! Glorious weather and rolling hills among Amish farmland also helps. Great start to a Holliday weekend. Hope everyone has a good 4th of July.

This week I got a full workout so far and it feels to be going full steam but also exhausting. I yesterday morning off because I felt tired.

So far my workouts this week have been:
Mon - AM: Spinning / PM: rest with pedicure
Tue - AM: yoga / PM: bike
Wed - AM: bodysculpt / PM: swim
Thur- AM: bike / PM: run 4 miles
Fri - AM: rest / PM: swim
Sat - AM: run 6 miles / PM: maybe a family ride

PLANNED
Sun- AM: bike and maybe short run / PM: cookout with friends


Congrats on your race Jenny. Still a great job after those hard workouts. I have been going full steam so my 6 mile run this morning was harder than usual. Looking forward to Monday for an exercise free day of rest.

Lovey

I, on the other hand, had a crappy ride Saturday and a pitiful run this morning.... I feel like I am in definite need of a rest day. Tomorrow will be it. Tomorrow is hubby's birthday, anyway, and he'll be off from work, so it will be a good day to take off from training!

Sounds like a fun packed week!  Enjoy. 

Went for long run today @ 3 pm on purpose to train during hot weather. OMG did I pay for that. Temp around 92. Stupidly I chose an unshaded route. It was so hard to take steps that it felt like I was just walking fast. Struggled to keep HR under 185. Oh well...at least the grilling after that was pretty good! 

Exactly why I need to get a better HR monitor. Great post.

Finished the race. I didn't feel too well during the last two miles for some reason. I got that nausea feeling..which I absolutly hate. I don't block those out for some reason. But I kept going. I am pretty happy with my time ( 8 something). Official times are not posted yet. THere were about 4000 people reg to race/walk. Whoa. The race was great. There was a late start. By muzzleloader gun fire (as is tradition) The volunteers and race officials were awsome with the amount of details they put into this race. The vendors and street performers were great all along the route. The post race awards were great. I didn't win the car. The post race parade was short but awsome. The kids liked it. Now on to the fireworks post BBQ. Everyone have a great and patriotic 4th.

Sounds like a fun day/race. Funny you mention the nausea....my buddy has the exact same issue. When he pushes hard he gets the same way. He has a theory. When you demand from a group of muscles, blood gets shunted to that area, and some other parts of your body can get under perfused.  He claims his GI tract pays the price, hence the symptoms. I don't know if he is right, but physiologically it's a sound theory. Good hydration of course would diminish the impact of this shunting. 

Yea, good in theory. And the nausea is a symptom of the actual problem. The mental problem for me is that this symptom will lead me actually throw up. I did this once before when it was hot and I actually did throw up and then I felt better and continued on. Q: Does the peristaltic action of the reguritation reverse the demand by the other muscle thereby restoring some sort of homeostasis? I am not sure, I just don't want to barf on myself. I thought I drank enough but I am thinking due to the sudden change in heat here it was not enough. I can't get enough out of those dixie cups either..I hate those. You have to stop to acutally drink. I think I will take my Ultimate Direction bottle with the bite valve next race.

Today, I ran the 5K course I am doing on Sunday. Even at 6 in the morning it was really hot.
The race starts at 8 on a day that will be around 95 degreees.

Yesterday, I rode 19.5 miles on my bike, the longest I have ridden so far. It was a nice trail and plan to do it again but make it longer.

I have been going full steam since last week Sunday. So tomorrow will be my first full rest day in alomst 10 days and I am looking forward to it.

Lovey

Nasty talk (sorry): My friend said that toward the end of the Gretna race he was puking in his mouth. Other than the vagal response from retching I'm not aware of any effects on sympathetic vascular tone. Sounds like a good study (I'm sure it's already been done).

Building Bike Endurance and Speed:

I aim to bike 2-3x a week. I want to build endurance, speed and master my triathlon route. I ride around 10mph (yes, slow).

My triathlon course is a hilly 17.5 mile course. I try to do the course once a week and barely avg 10mph on that course, more like 9.5 or 9.75mph. I go faster on the downhills of course and slightly faster on the flatter portions but lose it all on the hills.

I also ride local trails that are not difficult and has no hills like the ones on my tri course. The trails cover over 40 miles.

Sunday I did almost 20 miles hoping that riding longer distances will help my endurance.

How do I go about build speed and endurance?
Do I need to ride my actual tri course more often?
Will going longer distance on the trails help me?

Lovey

Edited by Lovey 2010-07-06 2:40 AM

Lovey,

IIRC, you're riding a hybrid bike - is that correct? What kind of tires do you have on the bike? If your tires are knobby at all, you can get some speed improvement simply by replacing the knobby tires with "slicks". Just go to your bike shop and tell them you want a set of slicks for your hybrid - they'll know what you mean....

Beyond that, the most important thing you can do to improve your speed and endurance at this point is just ride as much as you can. The more you can ride the better. I think for most people it's easier to handle and recover from higher intensity workouts on the bike than on the run - so you can also add in some intervals on the bike. After a good warm-up (10 - 20 minutes), do some short intervals. Maybe start with something like 2-3 minutes of harder riding followed by an equal period of recovery. Maybe do 4 or 5 of those, and some easy spinning to cool down at the end of the ride. You can also try some longer intervals, kind of more like a tempo effort, where you would ride at a harder effort, but one you can maintain for 15 or 20 minutes. Do 2 or 3 of these longer intervals with maybe a 5 min recovery between each one.

I think it's definitely good to do some "over-distance" bike training for a sprint triathlon, so I think you will from those longer rides on the trail, especially if you throw in some harder effort during those rides. I'm not sure that you NEED to ride the course for your tri as often as you are, but if you don't have hills to train on locally, getting the hill training in on your tri course might not be a bad idea.

You're doing such a great job with your training! Keep up the good work!!!

I have a Cannondale Quick 6 hybrid. They refer to this one as a flat bar road bike because it has no front suspensions (traditional ones do) and so rides more like a road bike. My bike came with smooth tires.

My whole county is hills. Some steeper than others. I like the intervals idea on the bike. I am going to try it this week when I ride.

Thanks
Lovey

I concur with Jenny. I had same issue with my first tri bike course (pretty hilly). Only one way to tackle that...train hilly. I started too late, but won't happen again next year. All remaining races this year are on flat course.
Nice bike BTW. I guess equipmentwise the only other step is to get an actual road bike....but that implies some $$$$ 

Did some sprint intervals during run today. Baseline pace was 9:40/mile and sprinted for 400 yards q/10 mins to a 7:30/mile pace. Felt good. Didn't feel like pushing it (injuries). Will try again next week.
PS: Did it indoors on treadmill. Way to hot outside and I had immediate feedback regarding pace. 

Edited by guticur 2010-07-06 7:56 PM

A couple of ideas to add to what everyone has said.  One easy thing to do that will help your speed is to not allow yourself to slowly accelerate after a hill.  What I mean by that is you know when you ride up a hill and you get over the top, we typically will sit there and pedal pretty slowly until we get back up to a comfortable pace.  We do the same thing when we go through a turn.  What has helped me is instead of waiting to get back up to speed, I'll stand on my pedals and kinda sprint up to speed.  I spend a lot less time going slow which will actually wear on you more than just getting up to speed quickly. 

Another thing I would suggest is learn to pedal faster in an easier gear instead of muscling through a ride.  What's your typical cadence?  You can speed it up by doing 30-sec intervals where you pedal in an easy gear as fast as you can without bouncing/rocking on your seat.  Do about three intervals per ride and try to go faster each time.  The less leg muscle you're using means the easier it will be on you.  When you use a higher cadence/easier gear, you're using less muscle which means you won't wear out as fast. 

Hope that helps.

Thanks.
I just rechecked my race results and my pace was 11.75 mph so I guess I did pedal faster than I thought. I find that I do go a little faster on my own than when I ride with my friends.
They want to complete the course at a comfortable pace wheres I want to do it as comfortably and as fast as I can.

Lovey

Hi everyone,

I've been out of the loop since arriving in California. Interesting weather...cloudy and 65 degrees. It is 104 degrees at home! I don't have a bike here and the pool is too kidney shaped to swim laps. The ocean is waaay too cold so I've been trying to keep up with my running since I have the NJ State Tri in July. I've been running 2.5 miles every day since arriving. It's very difficult since it's incredibly hilly but the weather is perfect for running. I've been reading all the posts on improving bike times. Very helpful tips. I'm sure I will use them when I return.

We experienced our first earthquake yesterday! Woohoo! Lots of fun. 

Great tip on the hill riding. Will try it myself. 

I can't access you log so I will say it here. Jo, Good luck on your tri tomorrow. You are going to have a great race.