Chet's Group is out doing it!- Closed (Page 24)

I had my second short run today and no pain.  Cured! Group ride tomorrow on the road.  It has been a while and I am the slowest rider in the group.  Oh, there is going to be some work tomorrow. 

With the good heel I am going to start getting in some regular triathlon training.  It is tough for me to change routines quickly.  It takes me a couple weeks to get in the grove and get the schedule right.  Race is coming up fast though.

I'm due a recovery week next week according to my "Triathlongeek" Oly Plan and feel like I need it, knees a bit stiff and feeling a bit more tired and irritable than usual.

Could be because my mother-in-law has been visiting from the UK for the past few weeks!!!

Anyway, due a 11k run in the morning then 7 days recovery - one swim, one bike, one run all week.

I've entered a 10k race in 2 weeks so I'll probably add a short easy run on the beach and a 14k easy run next Sunday.

Hope everyone's getting their workouts in this weekend,

Cheers, David

Great job Sheila, good idea to run the actual course before the big day. Excellent news about the wetsuit too. I will be interested to hear how you get on swimming in it as I am an open water swim newbie as well. Did you get a good price?

Chet, Glad to hear the heel is sorted, that tri sounds brutal with its 2000ft of climbing in 10 miles. I definitely reckon (relatively) short races are almost tougher than the long ones due to the intensity of the workout. I reckon I am more suited to distance than pace.

Enjoy your recovery week David,nice to take it a bit easier for a while eh? I laughed at your mother in law comment. Mine comes to visit for a few days at at time and that is plenty (even her son (ny brother in law lives in Oz) is anxious about her visiting for a month) so I don't know how you manage weeks at a time. Good reason to get out on the bike I guess!

PS Did you marry a UK girl?

Did my run this afternoon rather than morning due to rain, went well, felt very relaxed.

My plan called for 10mins HR zone 1, 8k HR zone 2, 10mins HR zone 1; I've found it hard to keep my HR in zone 1 when running so did a bit of googling and realised you can chnge the Garmin HR zones from %maxHR to Karvonen;

The Karvonen zones sem much more suitable for running and today was my first run with this setting.

Ross - I was born in the UK and moved to Australia in my 20's originally, then did the full emigration when we started having kids, we're all Australian citizens but retain dual British/Australian nationality (might be useful one day, at least we don't need visas if we visit Europe).

How's everyone else getting on???

Cheers, Dave

Late run and possibly swim today.  Have some work at the in-law's first then to the pool for a swim birthday party.  I wonder if anyone will notice I am getting some laps in?

Everyone have a great Sunday!!

Hey guys,

I had a light week again -- 2x running (1 speedwork, 1 long race) and 2x cross-training.  I'm a bit dissappointed with that..  but on the positive side, my chest seems back to normal now (although I haven't put it to the test with the rowing machine / yoga yet.)  Also, today's road race went really well!

Brief race report:  Today was the '20 van Alphen' -- a 20 km road race in Alphen aan den Rijn (small town between Leiden and Utrecht).   It was a beautiful day for a race: sunny, blue skies, and 6 degrees C.

Pacing: it's been almost a year since I ran a proper "road race" (and no, the Baggerloop doesn't count!)  The '20 van Alphen' is interesting because it presented me with my first opportunity to test my speed on a fast flat parcours for an (almost) half marathon distance, since my "comeback".  So I really had no idea what goal pace to choose.  I figured that 10 minutes/mile was the slowest that I would tolerate, and set my watch -- but I suspected that I would run faster than that.   So my strategy was basically to run the race on feeling, ignoring my watch.

From the beginning of the race, I let myself get swept along by the crowd, at a pace that was "pushing", but manageable.   I didn't dare to look at my watch for my mile splits, since I was pretty convinced by the 5 km mark that I was "going out too fast".  However, the fast pace still felt maintainable, so I carried on.  The running alternated between tougher and easier -- depending upon my orientation into the wind, which was blowing noticeably from the SE.   By 10 km, I was pretty knackered but I knew that I was halfway home, so I kept consistant.   The rest of the race was mentally tough, (especially when I had a head-wind), but I maintained my pace until the end.   I crossed the finish line in 1:56:34 for the 20km (9:18 min/mile average). 

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with today's performance..  it far exceeded my expectations!   Mind you, I'm still nowhere near PR territory (2009 - 9:01 min/mile for 21km).   However, 17 sec/mile is actually not so terribly far off.   This all gives me hope that, with continued training and racing, and a bit more weight loss, I'll eventually start to get my speed back!   But for now, I just need to get some more half marathon races under my belt...   :-)

Anyways..  sorry for the long rambling story.  I hope the rest of you had a nice weekend!

Mel

It worked! I got finished work at 1300 and made it to the sign in with plenty of time to spare. Got myself changed and hit the start line waaay too early considering how damn cold it was. There were around 400 runners so it was a decent turn out for the size of Nairn.

Had a fun run with the first couple of miles into a headwind then managed to pick up the pace for the run back into town. Made a reasonable time as well (for me) as was aiming to get under 55 mins and made 50:23. If only I had pushed a bit harder early on I reckon I could have made it under 50. Nice wee jaunt though.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71586259

Well done Ross and Mel!

Good idea posting your Garmin page, interesting to see your HR zones.

I'm thinking about doing the Gold Coast Half Marathon 3 July.... just need to see if it'll interfere with my tri training???

Dave

Happy Monday right?  Had a great weekend with running Sat, bike and run Sunday and today went swimming.  Im feeling grovy and hope to have a great month then it's on the countdown to April 30.  I really wanted to get to the lake this weekend but that didn't happen.  Hoping for next week.  My son is a first year swimmer on the HS swim team and we had his first scrimmage meet at a local pool.  I was so jealous, wanted to jump in and swim.  Considering we were there for from 9:30-2pm with having to have him there 1 1/2 hrs before the meet.  Thinking next time I might just get some swimming in.

Chet, glad to hear you are on getting on track and things are moving forward for you.   I did a brick training yesterday with my bike and run of the IG courses.  It was a tough run and I sure hope I can still do it all after putting in the swim before the bike and run, lol. 

David, you enjoying the first day of recovery week?

Ross, $200 on the Xterra website with a code I got from the boards here.  Did you get a wetsuit yet?  Will for sure post my feedback when I get into the open water, hopefully next weekend.  Way to go on your race, glad you were able to work it out.

Mel, great job on your HM this past weekend.  You rocked it pretty good.  You should be very proud of yourself.

Jeff, good luck in the 30 day training.  I am so ready for spring.  We had some great weather over the weekend but today is back to wind and cold. 

Hope everyone else is doing great too, need to get this posted and back to work.

The Felt all dressed to race:

(June_2008_025_1.jpg)

I'm at work so haven't got my Garmin but I think you go to run settings then Heart Rate, then it gives you a choice of Custom or Reserve.

Reserve seems to correspond to the Karvonen method.

Nice Felt! Are those zipp wheels? Very slick Chet.

Thanks Dave will have a look at that. I have been using Don Finks zones which give me a decent bit of leeway, otherwise zone 2 is impossible for me.

Ross- They are Zipps.  I bought them used a couple years back.  I have pulled the stickers off them because I think it looks better without the red.  I ride with a training wheel with a heavy tire most of the time so I love when I get the wheels on.  It is so much lighter and faster!

Hey everyone, haven't stopped being a triathlete, just been very busy and away from my computer.  Just a quick recap since my last post:

Fri./Sat. - Volunteered at the Florida Double Iron race, http://www.usaultratri.com/Rus004.htm This was an amazing event. To witness the unmatched endurance and determination of the participants was one of the coolest sporting events I have ever watched (remember watching sports IS my job).  I did what ever I could to help during the time I was there and can't wait to do it again next year.

Sun./Mon./Tues. - Took the family to Billlie Swamp Safari, http://www.swampsafari.com/ Found this place through a Google search for airboat rides.  Once we were there we found out this is where the TV show "Swampmen" on National Geographic is filmed.  We stayed 2 nights in an open air Seminole Indian chickee (hut), went on 2 night swamp tours, a day time swamp tour and an airboat ride, plus shows, museums, nature walks... Easily one of the best family vacations we have had in quite some time.

Wed. - Did some work at church then had one of those, "is this really happening?" moments.  My 9 year old, Riley, wanted to go with me on my run.  It was a 10 min warm up then 4 reps of 2 min. sprints with 2 min. recovery then another 10 min. cool down.  I said sure, thinking he would do about half of it and I would end up bringing him back to the house before finishing.  Well, he did the WHOLE workout, and stayed with me on the sprints!!!  

Taking it easy the rest of the week as I get ready for my next shot at breaking the 2 hour mark in Sunday's Sarasota Half Marathon.  My last attempt came up 34 seconds over, Sunday is my 34th birthday, so my mantra for this race is One Second Per Year.  

Chris- that race sounds amazing.  What an experience.

Had a good swim/run brick today.  It felt great running on rested healthy legs.