Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 24)

Ryan - cool job on the long run.  Agreed on just working hard and seeing where the limits are rather than deciding ahead of time.

Jenna - Wow!  That's a rocking ride.  I'm not good at metric, but it looks like that speed is fantastic for a 62+ mile ride.

Jonathan - Sounds like Placid was great, weather aside.

Dirk - Serious numbers this weekend.  You are a machine.

Greg - Great riding this weekend.  The heat came quick for us too, I think it takes a while before your body acclimates to that kind of heat though.

I spent the weekend at our lake camp and we have no internet, so I was offline.  I got in 2 amazing rides.  Only in New England can you ride one day in freezing drizzle, jacket, gloves, long tights, fighting to keep warm the whole way, and the next day you're in a sunny, 88 and humid steam bath!  I love riding up there since it's just hills, hills, and more hills.  Good for the legs, bad for the ego when you see your average speed!  Both rides were about 30 miles and total climb for the 2 was about 5000 feet.  My legs are fried in a good way.

I also got a few short swims in.  The lake water was chilly - 58 Sat and it had warmed up to 62 today.  Yes, I wore the wetsuit; even so my face and feet were pretty number after just a 15-20 minute swim.

Ugh...for me it takes a long time.  I'm pretty bad in the heat....especially running.  I'm a bigger guy and the heat seems to affect us more than the smaller dudes.  It's crazy how we went from cooler temps in the low 50's to 85+ in the last couple days.  That really takes a toll on me, workout wise.  Sunscreen also tends to make me hotter....certain brands like banana boat are horrible!  They don't allow your sweat to cool your skin.  I wouldn't recommend using it.

There are some people who wouldn't call it a proper training camp until there's blood loss...

bdj6020 - 2011-05-30 5:38 PM I finished my sprint duathlon in 1:15 which is 5 minutes faster than I did it last year.    If it hadn't been a 97 degree heat index by the time run2 started it could have been 1:10ish.  Complete race report will be forthcoming.

That's crazy heat and it likely slowed you down more than you even realize.  This time of year can sometimes be the worst for heat since no one has had time to acclimate.  So when a day, even in the 80s comes along on race day it can really hurt.

I struggled a lot with the heat last summer in my races.  I almost decided to stop racing in July and August.  I've reconsidered.  I'm going to seek out opportunities to run in hot weather.  My plan is to do easy, moderate distance runs in high heat on a regular basis and see what happens.  It will help being 20lbs lighter this year  as well as seeking out opportunities for hot training.  I think last year I avoided most of the heat in my training and then racing was a problem because of it.

Another thing I'm going to try doing is to go back to racing without a tri top when it gets real hot....or perhaps putting a chemical ice pack down inside my tri top in T2.

HAHA!!....Does this count:

Shaving your legs has become justified.

Speaking of weekend injuries, I was refuling at the top of a 13 mile hill stuffing my face with a powerbar when I bit my finger. No joke. I heard a crunch and couldn't believe I did it. No blood spilled but I felt real special.

So... training camps, did it help? I've never considered one, I don't have a coach, and I don't belong to a tri club so I am somewhat out of the loop. I read a lot of tri news/articles and stuff but I'm wondering how much a camp will help your long term and short term performance.

I have definitely bitten my own finger before.  And yeah...special feeling. 

The training camp was definitely benefitial...especially if you are doing the race that the training camp is for.  I was basically there to get a good workout in and to help pace the guys who are doing the race.  I doubt I was much help as they just pushed on ahead anyway, but it was a good time. 

If there's a tri club in your area, I suggest you join it.  I have been a member for a year and have met a ton of like-minded cool people that help with motivation.  You get so many training partners too.  Tomorrow is our club's "iron night", which we have once a year.  This year Trek/Kswiss pros Heather Jackson and Leslie Patterson are speaking and taking us for a bike ride.  Pretty cool if you ask me!

JeffY - 2011-05-31 11:41 AM

bdj6020 - 2011-05-30 5:38 PM I finished my sprint duathlon in 1:15 which is 5 minutes faster than I did it last year.    If it hadn't been a 97 degree heat index by the time run2 started it could have been 1:10ish.  Complete race report will be forthcoming.

That's crazy heat and it likely slowed you down more than you even realize.  This time of year can sometimes be the worst for heat since no one has had time to acclimate.  So when a day, even in the 80s comes along on race day it can really hurt.

I struggled a lot with the heat last summer in my races.  I almost decided to stop racing in July and August.  I've reconsidered.  I'm going to seek out opportunities to run in hot weather.  My plan is to do easy, moderate distance runs in high heat on a regular basis and see what happens.  It will help being 20lbs lighter this year  as well as seeking out opportunities for hot training.  I think last year I avoided most of the heat in my training and then racing was a problem because of it.

Another thing I'm going to try doing is to go back to racing without a tri top when it gets real hot....or perhaps putting a chemical ice pack down inside my tri top in T2.

 

Here is the "official" race report.  http://bit.ly/kBpohT

bdj6020 - 2011-06-01 2:07 PM

JeffY - 2011-05-31 11:41 AM

bdj6020 - 2011-05-30 5:38 PM I finished my sprint duathlon in 1:15 which is 5 minutes faster than I did it last year.    If it hadn't been a 97 degree heat index by the time run2 started it could have been 1:10ish.  Complete race report will be forthcoming.

That's crazy heat and it likely slowed you down more than you even realize.  This time of year can sometimes be the worst for heat since no one has had time to acclimate.  So when a day, even in the 80s comes along on race day it can really hurt.

I struggled a lot with the heat last summer in my races.  I almost decided to stop racing in July and August.  I've reconsidered.  I'm going to seek out opportunities to run in hot weather.  My plan is to do easy, moderate distance runs in high heat on a regular basis and see what happens.  It will help being 20lbs lighter this year  as well as seeking out opportunities for hot training.  I think last year I avoided most of the heat in my training and then racing was a problem because of it.

Another thing I'm going to try doing is to go back to racing without a tri top when it gets real hot....or perhaps putting a chemical ice pack down inside my tri top in T2.

 

Here is the "official" race report.  http://bit.ly/kBpohT

Sounds like you have made some SERIOUS improvement over the last couple years!  I hear what you are saying that the field keeps getting faster!  My new age group 30-34 is even faster than the last as well.  Heat is a bugger of a thing to deal with.  You may have gone out too fast on that first segment given that your second run was two min/mile slower.  I can't really say much though.  Faster than me!!!!  Awesome job dude.

I like it.  There has been some crazy inconsistency in the numbers and the quality of competitors at that race.  The only valid comparison are your times year-to-year.  The improvement there is solid.  5 minutes over last year is a very strong improvement in a race this short.

Prompted by this conversation about heat, I chose to do my 5 mile run last night right after work.  It was 95 or hotter.  I only planned to do about 3 miles at first...assuming my achilles would hate me (running off road) and the heat would kill me.  But I enjoyed the suffering a bit...and achilles didn't suck too much.  Plus I knew it was for an important goal-getting heat acclimated.  So I did 5 miles.  The last 2 miles I could really feel the heat making me feel pretty ineffective at running.

My HR was probably a good 20 bpm  higher than it should be for that effort which is a huge statement to effect of heat on us.

I didn't do a good enough job of rehydrating afterwards.  I never  urinated last night or this morning.  After my swim/run workout this morning I was down 7lbs from my 'real' weight and a good 5 lbs below my usual morning-post-workout-weight.

So I'm hydrating hard today.

Planning another hot weather run this evening for 10miles today total. 

I have a race this Saturday that always seems to be a sweltering hot run.  The course is in direct sunlight and the pavement heats up and feels like a sauna.  We are in the middle of a hot streak and highs for Saturday are supposed to be in the 90s.  In the past, this race has withered me during the run.  I don't think what I'm doing this week is sufficient for heat acclimation, but it should be helpful to some degree over nothing.

I think I will also either go shirtless or try the chemical ice pack during this race.

I have not been able to check-in lately due to a busy schedule, so I have a lot of catching-up.

And I got my first open water swim in earlier today since I have my Tri this Saturday. Lake Sammamish was at a frigid 57 degrees!! At first it was difficult to keep a steady breathing pattern. But after sometime that got better. 

I was also surprised at how difficult it was to keep a pace and sight in the cold. Plus this was my first time in a wetsuit as well.

In the end, I was glad I did this before the race or else I would have been extremely surprised and would have put myself at a needless disadvantage or at least a preventable one. 

bdj6020 - 2011-06-01 2:07 PM

JeffY - 2011-05-31 11:41 AM

bdj6020 - 2011-05-30 5:38 PM I finished my sprint duathlon in 1:15 which is 5 minutes faster than I did it last year.    If it hadn't been a 97 degree heat index by the time run2 started it could have been 1:10ish.  Complete race report will be forthcoming.

That's crazy heat and it likely slowed you down more than you even realize.  This time of year can sometimes be the worst for heat since no one has had time to acclimate.  So when a day, even in the 80s comes along on race day it can really hurt.

I struggled a lot with the heat last summer in my races.  I almost decided to stop racing in July and August.  I've reconsidered.  I'm going to seek out opportunities to run in hot weather.  My plan is to do easy, moderate distance runs in high heat on a regular basis and see what happens.  It will help being 20lbs lighter this year  as well as seeking out opportunities for hot training.  I think last year I avoided most of the heat in my training and then racing was a problem because of it.

Another thing I'm going to try doing is to go back to racing without a tri top when it gets real hot....or perhaps putting a chemical ice pack down inside my tri top in T2.

 

Here is the "official" race report.  http://bit.ly/kBpohT

That sounds like a pretty nice race.  The first run you were able to lay down a pretty smokin pace.  And, don't listen to your wife!  A PR is  PR whether it's in a race like yours or a stand alone run.  The kids always help with motivation as well.  I know when my teenage daughters are at my events it still has a very positive affect on me.  This was especialy true when I ran my marathon last year.

Great job!

Getting that OWS in prior to your first race is going to make a huge difference come race day.  A thought that may help you acclimate to the water temp is after your wetsuit is on get in the water and allow all the voids to fill up and get back out.  Let the water in your suit warm up a little and get back in and finish a WU.  I did this last year and it seemed to be a little less harsh and prepared me better for the race.  The water in your suit will warm up some and provide a litle more insulation form the colder water outside your suit.

I love that triathlon. It will be a nice warm day too. I'm going to try and get in the open water this weekend too. I bet the columbia is nice and cold. Have a good race and enjoy the flat run in the shade.

This weekends workouts will be very skinny.  I am traveling to Ohio to a funeral later this morning and coming home Saturday.  But we are hosting a graduation party at our house on Sunday that I will have to help get a bunch of stuff done to get ready.  It's going to be a busy weekend just not going to get much training done.

I will be able to get plenty of running in because of the schedule and time of everything but the riding with have to take a back seat.  I hope to get at least one ride of 25 miles or so in but it will be tough.

Yeah, definitely second this one.  Getting in the water before race start to get your face wet and get moving is important for me.  Definitely calms the nerves too.  I'm a serious ball of nerves until I get out of T1.  Which is crazy because it's not like I'm going to win or anything.

One thing I've found very helpful with cold water is to first just stand and splash your face for a minute or two to get the face temp down and used to the water.  Then do some easy swimming with your face in the water trying to breathe out slowly and comfortably.  Getting the face acclimated makes a huge difference.

I’m hoping to get some good biking in this weekend.  My Achilles is a bit sore running this week, so I’m going to pull the running back a bit and do some more hill biking and hopefully some swimming at the lake this weekend.  I hear the water warmed up to 63 this week, so that isn’t too bad.

Same here.....going up to ride the mooseman course on Saturday...volunteering at the swim on Sunday.

That's a great bike course - incredibly scenic and pretty hilly.  The water should be pretty chilly so some of those swimmers will be kinda numb.  That can be a tough half with the cold water.  Have fun and it's awesome that you're helping out.  I'm hoping to get some volunteering at the Timberman half.

Just finished another 5k, and was able to knock another 2 minutes off my time.  Finished at 26:47.  Total time reduced since april is roughly 6 minutes.  I guess all of the training and time spent is starting to show.  This was done on a bum ankle so I think I can take even more time off.  Also had a difficult time with the pace, started out really, really fast.  1st mile was around 7m30s, at the 2 mile mark I was still going at an 8 minute pace.  Then tried to grab a drink and lost all momentum, actually had to walk for a minute to catch my breath.  Last mile took over 10m so I really lost pace, need to work on that.

On a seperate note the count down is on, 15 days until my 1st triathlon.  I think I have the distance down now the only question is how long it will take.  I have been finishing the 800m swim in around 17m and the 13 mile bike is around 40m.  My goal for the triathlon is 1:35 and its going to come down to the run.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Matt, that's some serious improvement.  I think you probably went out too fast, but still ended with a nice PR.  As Jeff said, the ideal for these distances is to evenly split every mile,  but it takes a while to figure out how to do that.  I have yet to figure it out in my 5k training trials.  I've never run a 5k race, though this Thursday I'm scheduled for my first.

Everyone, I had a crappy weekend after my ride up to the lake on Sat. morning.  Well, a crappy tri weekend anyway.

The short version is that I didn’t get any other S/B/R in, and my Achilles is now sore even walking.  The long version involves a tree branch accident, some minor boat problems, a work blow up, and some other whiney details.

The Achilles isn’t debilitating, just sore which it hasn’t been before other than right after running lately.  I have a 5k scheduled for Thursday, and my tri is in two weeks.  I am scheduled to see my ART guy tomorrow, so hopefully he’ll find and work out something in my calf, but I’m just frustrated.  Should I at least try to bike through this (biking doesn’t seem to bother it at all) and see where the races lead me?

Awesome 5K dude, awesome to see improvement like that.  I feel like with faster races like that you just have to get used to what it's like to run hard.  Your body can handle a lot more than you think it can.

Warren...that's just a crappy day man.  Gotta shake those ones off.

A group of us rode the Mooseman HIM bike course on Saturday.  That's a tough bike course.  There's a big hill that you have to up twice, something like a 13 percent grade.  My quads were feeling it for sure.  Going down the backside was fun though.  46mph ish.