RFP GROUP 2013 - CLOSED (Page 24)

Jen - Yay for feeling stronger!!!  That must have been the best feeling!  Keep it up!

Hey Team,

I have been away for a while but it seems like everyone is doing great. 

My training is coming along OK. It seems like I hit a wall or something because I can't seem to break through the rough part of the training. 

Does anyone feel this way? or can it be that my body is not adjusting to the double workouts a day? or  maybe it's because of the indoor training but whatever it is I hope I can get over the hump soon. 

Anyway, Thanks for the inspires that i have been receiving and let's bring on Spring.....

Do you work in a step back week every few?

Nutrition is biggest player in recovery... Especially working in two a days.  sleeping and building up and stepping back properly are important as well.  Either way if you don't fuel and refuel properly you will not recover, hit a wall and other rest wont matter. 

Am I the only one here not trying to cut "weight"?

Good Mornin Gil.

I think we probably all go through that stuff. Sometimes you just have to grind it out but sometimes, like my Mom has always told me " A change is a good as a rest". Try a different workout - or different weight routine - or a different machine at the gym that may attack the same muscles in a dfferent way. This might trick your body and your mind and help you get through that "stuck feeling".

Don't forget though - you have to pay attention to your body - and recover - as hard as that is and trust me, I know.

Have a great day Gil.

KC

Good Morning Team.

Draged my A$$ out of bed this morning for a 5:30 one hour trainer ride - and believe it or not - I enjoyef it . From there I was off to my physio therapist for a little IT band treatment. I ran a nice 5 km yesterday with no pain . I leave this afternoon for my ski weekend but my plan calls for another short run today so I am going to try to squeeze it in. I have located a pool for a swim tomorrow close to where I am going to be but I am going to have to miss a long ride - oh well. It is early on in the training and I will pick it up a little the next couple of weeks on the bike to try to make it up.

How does everyone else treat  a work out that you have to miss and that is part of your plan? I always feel guilty about it and have to fight the urge to try to want to make it all up in a hurry? I know that is not the best idea and that is when you run the risk of injury.

I will check in via smart phone over the weekend to say hello.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

KC

AJ - just notced your last line about cutting weight. I am not trying to cut any - I put on about 6 lbs since IM NYC, which was not very much. I just know I am going to shed it again anyway so I am not worried about it and if I lose a bit more than that - no problem.

KC

Happy Valentines Everyone!

Gil - I too get into rough patches and that is when I usually have to step back and take a break or do an easy week and then next thing you know I will break thru.  The hardest part is not to stress over what you think your body should be doing and what it is doing.  (Remember I am also having this issue).  I also like KC's suggestion try a different workout or routine.

AJ - I still have a few pounds to lose for when I race, but overall they say I am at a good weight. 

KC - I do feel guilty if I miss a workout but I remind myself that workouts are not my life and that I like spending time with family, friends or I just need that time off to rejuvenate myself.  This is also a reason why I look working with a coach so I don't feel guilty.  For example next week is our company's National Sales Meeting and they have us going from sunup to almost the next day for 4 days straight with not much time for working out.  So I tell my coach she plans for very light workouts that week and I can usually get them in so I am not feeling guilty of not missing any workouts.

Kathy (KTC)

Gil - it looks like you had a pretty tough week last week and increased your training.  I would assume that is why you have the "hit the wall" symptom.  I don't think your body ever adjusts to the 2X day workouts - you just get used to being tired all the time haha.  AJ and KC have great points about making sure you incorporate some rest and down weeks in your plan.  

Another thing to watch is that when you really pick up the workouts you need to make sure you are replenishing and re-fueling your body correctly.  You can get away with it when you are doing average workouts but when you start really picking it up you can run out of gas real quick.  I suggest you track you food intake and calories for a few days and see where you are at.  I always thought I was consuming enough and then once I tracked I was finding I was runnign a negative calorie intake of about 500-750 calories a day.  That will empty your tank by the end of the week real quick.

Nice job getting out of bed this morning! Glad the IT band is getting better. I wouldn't worry about missing one long bike ride.  What I try to do if I know I am gonna miss a key workout I will shuffle my schedule around for the week and try to miss some filler workouts.  IE... if I know I was not gonna make my 2 hour long ride on Saturday I might move it to Thursday and then maybe skip my 45 minute ride.  It messes up the whole week but I think it more important to hit a key workout.  Hope that makes sense.

Have a great ski trip!

Gil - hang in there, keep up the good work and it will turn around

AJ - Since most people would call me thin and fit I'm not really worried about losing weight. I do think about shedding a few (3 -4) pounds to make it easier for running and training. I lift pretty hard and drink beer and I'm overall happy with my weight.

KC - If I have to miss a workout...I don't sweat it. But then again I don't take much of this stuff too seriously. Maybe that's why I'm not fast but my main goal is to always enjoy it. If I stress about it too much then it takes my joy away. Enjoy your time away.

Has anyone ever tried or know someone who has the iBike Newton power meter?  I want to add power this year to my bike but because it is so old I can't even use an old wired Power Tap.  From what I have read these things work pretty good and the company has been around for a while so that is always a good sign.

http://ibikesports.com/NEWTON.html?gclid=CIDv57mvtrUCFa1AMgodIXEAEA

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 

The nasty cold/flu going around finally arrived at our house in full force.  I wouldn't wish it on anyone!  Hubby has it really bad (two weeks in so far). 

Regarding the IT band issues, I found relief with the Trigger Point roller and some stretches.  I also switched from a stability shoe to a neutral shoe and changed my running form.  Yes, it was a bugger to resolve but eventually it went away.

Missing workouts?  I try not to miss the 4-5 key workouts for the week (I decide on those on the Sunday before).  If I miss one of the other ones, no big deal.

I have a question on bike saddles.  What do you have on your bike?  Why do you like it? 

I am in the market for a new saddle.  I was using a Terry Butterfly Tri Ti which they don't seem to make any more.  Thinking about a Cobb or a Koobi.  

Thanks for the advice! I'm feeling much better now.

The key words here are nutrition and rest. Something that I don't put much emphasis on. I will keep working on my training but I will concentrate more on resting and nutrition. I notice that swimming tires me out a lot. This may be an area where I need to stock up on food and z's.

Have a Happy Valentine's day

I switched to the Adamo Century and love it.

I use the Adam Prologue and also love it.  It fits my butt and also doesn't numb a certain area.  When I got fitted for a tri bike they told me this one was one of the popular ones for females. I must have tired 3 different seats and they didn't tell me this was the popular one till I chose it.

Hi Team,

Hope all the romantics had a Happy Valentines Day!

Jen - Great work on the weight lifting, I love it when I have a good session and feel my strength increasing!

Gil - When I first started doing two workouts a day I found it hard also. I got into a rut often, but as AJ and Tim have said, nutrition and rest is key, since I've been following my new nutrition plan and getting more sleep I've managed to break through a lot of barriers. You will still plateau on occasions, that's only natural, it just means you have to mix things up a bit to confuse your muscles so they'll start getting stronger and faster again.

KC - Nice job on the early ride, I'm hopeless at getting out of bed early (I blame my meds, haha), but I'm going to have to change it soon to get used to training early mornings. I used to be really OCD about my workouts too and hated missing one and would try and catch it up, but all it did was get me further behind and more stressed. As the others have said, if I miss a key workout one day, I just exchange it for a shorter session. I'm not so worried about being so rigid with my program now. Even to the point where if I don't feel like having a day off when its scheduled I'll do an active recovery day and if I feel like I need an extra day off to recover from a tough week I'll take it and not feel guilty. I'm finding that is working much better for me. Hope you have a great weekend on the slopes my friend!

Lori - Hope hubby starts to feel better soon, but I hope for your sake he doesn't pass it on.

Tim - Glad to hear you are starting to feel better about getting back into training

KTC - Just checked out the Adamo Prologue online... hmmm thinking that maybe another investment! I only have the seat that came with my roady and its pretty harsh over 40km for pressure points.

Is anyone else on Facebook? You can find me here if you want to add me - http://www.facebook.com/krustyskunk

I'm enjoying a couple of days off before Sunday's race, actually I'm bored out of my brain lol, so will catch up on some reading.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

While slow and painful I am starting to feel my swimming come back a bit.  I use 100Y repeats as my gauge and this morning my main sets was 8 x 100Y on 20" rest and I was super consistent at 1:39.  Hopefully once my training gets back into full gear I can get them under 1:30.  Here are my goals for my 'A" race Racine 70.3 this year

SWIM -Last year in Racine 70.3 I went from 40:29 to 35:23.  I would like to knock that down to 33:00 this year.  

BIKE - While training with power on Trainer Road I really hope to improve my bike.  Last year I went from 3:08:45 to 2:59:07.  I want to knock that down to 2:55:00.

RUN -I also plan to do some HARD brick workouts to really simulate the race - 3 hour bikes with 1-1/2 hour runs at 9:00 pace.  My goal is to run a 2:00 half marathon and come in well under 6 hours.  My 70.3 races the past 3 years have all had really hard, hot runs but I always fall apart at mile 6.  In order to have a successful race I need to figure out a way past this and the only thing I can figure is to simulate it multiple times and figure it out .

Then I all I have left to do is just pray really hard that it doesn't get upwards of 100 degrees.  I haven't ever run a 70.3 in less than 95 degrees Heat Index. 

I will follow you on Facebook.

Good Morning Everyone,

Tim - impressive Racine goals.  

What is everyone's weekend workout plans look like?  They are predicting rain/snow here in SC Saturday so I will be spending 2 1/2 hours on the trainer.  Fun Fun!

Kathy (KTC)

Tim - is Racine really your "A" race? Are you not doing another full Ironman this year? Good goals though for the race. My goal is just to finish. It would be nice if I could do it a few minutes faster overall than Boulder but I'm not really working toward that.

Lori – When I did my bike fit last season I tried out several saddles and the one I liked best was the Specialized Oura Expert Gel but didn’t have an extra $100 lying around to buy it. The saddle that I’m currently using is really not bad, it’s the Bontrager Affinity. I think with saddles what great for one person is awful for another. You may need to just try several of them out to see what suits you. Good luck!

Simone – enjoy your days off. They are well deserved!

Kathy – I’m also doing a trainer ride on Saturday but mine will probably only be 1hr 15. A trail run of about 49 min and a 2000 meter swim on Sunday. I’m looking forward to Sunday much more than Saturday

Happy training everyone!

Weekends list of things to do

Lift after work... Decided to sleep in this morning.  

Eat dinner, watch Hawks game, go to bar, drink a bunch, flirt with pretty ladies, pass out, wake up irritated and hung over, attempt to run 9 miles with a 3 mile threshold run but will probs push that off since it is supposed to be 23 cloudy and 17mph winds on Saturday whilst Sunday will allegedly be 32 sunny and way less wind.  Don't mind the cold.  Really hate the wind.  Especially when it is from the north west and my last 3 miles are west through a wind tunnel.  

NO WAY!! IMWI broke me last year $$$ haha.  I figure I spent upwards of $5000 to accomplish the IM goal including race fees, all the other pre-races, equipment (new and replaced from wear), my monthly orders of nutrition from Hammer etc... and the funny thing is I still had to ride my 1991 Trek! haha Looking back now maybe I should have just bought a kick bike. 

My wife quick her career when we had my daughter 5 years ago to stay home so it was a pretty big hit financially and I somehow finagled an Ironman into a really tight household budget haha.

My wife has repeatedly requested a detailed expense sheet but it will be a cold day in hell before I actually turn that over to her.  It was hard enough to convince her to let me do the races I am doing this year.

The plan is IMAZ 2014. Maybe I will see you out there this year KTC if I can get out there to volunteer.

You are gonna have no problem finishing! One of the reasons I am doing Racine again as my "A" is more to gauge improvement since I have done it the previous 2 years.  

You forgot to throw in drinking a can Hamm's beer at a disgusting bar at 4:30am