Asphalt Junkies Winter Edition - CLOSED (Page 24)

Hey guys and gals,

I figured Id check in and let you know I havent fallen off the face off the earth, lol.  I finally had a good week of training, my running has been great over the past 6 weeks or so and I'm starting to feel the improvement, but my cycling and swim time has really lacked due to work/family etc.  I finally signed up for Challenge St.Andrews last weekend, so maybe putting the money down is what made me get the workouts in.  Im not to worried about about my cycling as the Tour of Sufferlandia really set me up nice, but my swim is way off. Im guessing my pace for a 1500 is about 10s/100m slower than last year.  Im hoping the next few months will get that back down.  The weather has been up and down here.  Last week we got hit with that big storm and then 3 days later I was out doing a 19k run in shorts and a light top.  Actually got out for a group ride on Thursday evening and put the hurt on a few people who used to do the same to me last summer.  Thank you trainerroad, lol.

Work should be a little more stable the next few months so ill be sure to check in alot more often.

Tony its funny how different people find the same workout different.  I love doing ISLAGIATT.  The climb of mount Sufferlandia is tough but i can get through it and after that its pretty easy. I interested to know because Ive been riding with a local pro who was asking me what my 20 minute and 5 minute power was.  Apparently depending on the difference between the two it will direct you on how to structure your workouts to see the most improvements.

How do you find Hell Hath No Fury and Fight Club.  I think those are the two worst for me.  I did manage to do A very Dark Place about a month ago and set new power records on Trainerroad for 5sec right through 30 minutes.  Tough ride but I was feeling it. 

Originally posted by Jo63 I finally had what I feel was a really great swim, I did 2500 yards straight and I just felt good, I got it done in 1:01 which isn't super fast but would give me about a 1:40 for the full, but I have 5 months to work on speed so Iam really hoping I can get down to a 1:30

Dirk how are things going?  

It sounds like a great confidence boost for you.  Good job!  It's only 22 weeks until we race in Madison so there's all kinds of time to build that speed and fitness.  Just make sure to stay in the pool and do some intensity work.  One thing I am finding out about swimming is that these 100's my coach is having me do seem to be helping already.  As I said in an earlier post, he would like to get me to doing 20x100 "sprints" on no more than 5 seconds rest.  If you can work your way up to something similar you'll be amazed at what can happen in short order.

I'll answer my condition in a later post.

Originally posted by tmoons  Thanks Dirk... I have never heard of Trainer Road before so I just took a look at it on line. It seems very impressive. I may do the trial version and see how it goes. I agree that a regimen of structured workouts will provide a much better fitness build. My plan until recently was to just spend lots of time in the saddle. It is only during the past few weeks that I've been doing intervals and tempo rides. Sufferfest is amazing. I'm looking forward to the Trainer Road experience. The computrainer is a location that about six teammates of mine train. they keep inviting me so I thought I'd give it a shot. The owner is an amazing cyclist and tri-coach so it should be a nice experience. enjoy the weekend everyone.. I'll be going to South Beach Triathlon tomorrow. A few of us will ride about 20 miles to that location and do an OWS once we're there, cheer our friends with lots of cowbell and ride back home.

TR is a great way to have all the benefits of power without the expense of a power meter.  Really, the only downside to TR that I've seen is that you miss riding outdoors when the weather is good enough to ride on the road.  One thing to consider is making sure you have a good trainer.  The Kurt Kinetic trainers are said to be very close to an actual power meter and based on my own test I would say they're pretty close.  I have only done one test so the results may not be scientific, per se, but factors were very close.

If you can make it to the computrainer session with your teammates and the coach you may find out there's a lot to be gleaned there as well.  Ask a lot of questions and use as a sounding board for all of concerns.  One of the good things about most athletes/coaches we enjoy sharing most everything we know or have learned.

Good luck at today's race!

I haven't put my wheels on my bike either.  I still have some work to do to get mine road ready.  I have had my wheels "on" the bike but I don't have a cassette, tubes, valve extenders and the tools to do the work with.  I'll have all of these items soon enough but I'm not in a big hurry to do anything yet because I can't hammer anything anyway.

Your IM training is going to be solid this season.  Carrying your fitness and experience from last year to this season will be of great benefit in the next 19 weeks.

Glad to see you back!  

There's nothing like a race fee to motivate you to get your training in.

I think your swim times will come back rather quickly.  Depending on how aggressively you hit it, it should only take a couple of weeks in the pool to get back to where you were last season.  Put in some sprints following a good warm up and you'll be back to form.

The weather here has been similar.  Ups and downs!  Many of the group riders I ride with have been out several times already but I have been focused on getting stronger so groups rides haven't been the best place for me yet.  In the coming months I plan to get out with some friends and ride with them but I would hesitate to call them training rides.  I am able to hold my own with many of the strong riders I have ridden with for a few years but there are a lot of other riders that can't stay with us so it slows me/us down from hard riding.

Terry, here's another TR satisfied customer^^^^

You'd better get your train on buddy!!!  I'm hoping to not lose much fitness over the next week or so until I can get back to a respectable cycling program.

There's not a lot that has changed since my last update other than what I have been doing for my recovery.  After meeting with my PT on Wednesday I now have some exercises to do as well as weight lifting I have been cleared to do.  Many of the exercises are one's that I have done in the past to recover from my other injuries but there are some new ones as well.  None of the PT exercises provide a lot of stress to my knee and they're pretty easily completed with exception of the quad sets, they hurt!  They are designed to get me back to full "hyperextension" of my knee and they are pretty uncomfortable.  Ideally I should be able to match my right knee, which is -6 degrees hyperextension, as of Wednesday I was -1 or -2 after Todd worked me over..

My exercises are to be done twice a day and I can lift every other day with light weights for 15-20 reps.  I have been staying somewhat conservative with the weights by staying at 20 reps with an easy completion of all of them except for some muscle "burning."  The reps are done slowly with a pause at the proper position to allow complete muscle contraction.  (I see all kinds of people at the gym doing these rapid reps that are simply not accomplishing anything, other than going super fast.)  

I have also been cleared to spend some time on the bike but this has to be done at an easy pace as well.  I have done 2 rides of 30 minutes and 60 minutes.  The first ride (I don't have TR data to back this up) was between 40-45% FTP and the second ride of 60 minutes between 45-50% FTP.  Very easy stuff here but I'm spinning the pedals and keeping busy.  I imagine Todd (my PT)  will let me move a little bit higher in intensity when I get back to see him this Wednesday afternoon.

I'm still optimistic about my recovery but there have been a couple of days of brief bouts of skepticism.  Occasionally my knee will hurt and I get a panicked feeling of how short a time I have to prepare and the nerves start.  I have been on no pain meds and have not required any for any reason anyway.  I have had only a few aches and they have been very minor anyway, maybe a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10.  So far I would say everything has been successful, from my surgery to my recovery.

Dirk, looks like your recovery is going as planned.  I have to hand it to you though, holding 50% for any length of time is probably just as challenging as hitting a high intensity effort.  Especially after not being on the bike for any given amount of time.

I love new toys, and when technology is involved its even better.  After months of seeing posts I finally dug into the best bike split site and now understand what it does.  You can load any GPX file into it and it will spit out a matching TrainerRoad workout.  There are a ton of settings you can get into with wind and road condition and such but really all I messed with was the IF percentage.  I found and uploaded the REV3 Cedar Point course and the Mohican Course, then road myself into the ground with a 3 hour trainer session following the mohican course.  Here are the results, For the mohican I did not set it up correctly and the workout it outputted was for 100% IF, which I am not going to do for 3 hours.  I turned the intensity down to 85% and did fine until about the 2 hour mark and it became a mental task to keep moving.  Legs were starting to give up a little and not wanting to hit the targets.  But overall I did well and held on until about the 2:45 mark where I just had nothing left.  

But after seeing the 2 workouts side by side, I am a little concerned that there may be more hills involved at Mohican than I realized.  I guess its time to get more interval work in to be able to get up the hill.  The Rev3 course shows it is basically flat with just a few hills which is about correct.  From what I remember on that day a consistent effort was what was needed to get through the course.  

(rev3.JPG)

(mohican.JPG)

Matt and Derek,  I'll have to look at that file download for TR.  I may try to upload the GPX file for IMWI and ride the first loop several times ahead of the race.  This looks like a very interesting way to create workouts.  If nothing else I could humor many of you by posting what some of my rides look like for "elevations" over the course of my normal routes.  Clue: There are no elevation changes in NE Indiana.

Terry,  Your day in Miami looks like it was pretty enjoyable.  I'm with Matt on the weather, not that I can do much outside yet anyway but I am sick of the cold.  This weekend is supposed to be in the mid 60's and no rain and I may try to get outside for a ride if I can keep the effort low.

I hope that both of your girls do the race with you at Fort Yargo.  If they do, that will be another thing I will envy you for.  someday I hope the same thing will occur with me and my girls.

Ragnar looks like a fun race but right now I'm obviously glad I didn't commit to doing with you (for obvious reasons).  Lis and I love camping so the atmosphere would certainly suit me.

I suppose your foot problems are the result of the same condition you have been fighting for several years?  If this is the same injury does this make you consider having the surgery done any sooner?  Hopefully things can get under control and you can get back to normal activities pretty soon.  I know how frustrating it can be to be sidelined.