KSH's Mentor Group! Let's do this! CLOSED (Page 26)

lovesreading - 2010-03-13 12:53 AM

I'm thrilled because I had a 4mile run at just under a 10-min mile!  This is a first for me.  A couple of months ago it was 13min miles and last month 12min miles for that distance.  If this progression would keep going, I could take gold at the next Olympics

lovesreading - 2010-03-15 10:39 PM



Thanks so much for the advice.  I like the feel of the mileage progression and I'm looking for some more hills.  I like (I can't believe I'm saying this!) the idea of hilly long runs.  The path I used Sunday is hilly, but only 2miles long with a traffic light 1/2mile in.

I did my hilly 6mile run on a 11.9min/mile pace.  That was with four traffic light stops and walking 20" after each mile.  I was pleasantly surprised that I finished feeling like I could have gone a couple more miles.  Minimal achiness but I did feel it a bit in that hip that night, although not today ... 

In my post that you responded to, I said I was finishing week 6 of Hal Higdon's novice half mary plan.  Oops, I apparently can neither count nor read.  I finished Week 5 and am just starting Week 6.  His plan for Wk. 6 is 4/4/5k race.  I'm thinking 4/4/7 -- then go into the plan you gave me.  On the rest weeks, Higdon's plan has me cutting back on the cross training time.  Do you think I should also do that here - if so, which weeks?  The 8mile ones? 

Right now I'm swimming 30-45min Tues/Fri, biking short Wed/ long Sat and have Monday as a rest day.  I plan to back off on the swimming yardage to make time for some heavy technique work.

I'm not sure what I want to do on cycling.  The cross training time on the Higdon plan doesn't give me a long ride on Saturdays, only 60min max - which makes me nervous from a tri point of view.  Cycling's a weak sport for me.  I was thinking that I'd substitute the bike part of Gail Bernhardt's Faster Sprint-Distance Performance instead, syncing up the rest weeks.  Okay, or too much for my legs?  Looking at her plan, it looks she saves the bricks for rest weeks, not sure if that's a good rest for me or not?

I've decided to skip my mid-April sprint to save myself for the May 2nd 1/2 mary.  My first tri will probably be a sprint in late May/early June.  Still shopping...

lovesreading - 2010-03-16 7:41 AM



Yeah, well - just further confirmation I'm bad with details.  This morning's 4mile run I realized that the reason my pace was so good was that I neglected to run part of it...  I only ran 3.5miles for a 11:26min/mile pace.  Still an improvement and today I did 4miles (really!) at 11:04 pace.  Still an improvement, but I may have to postpone my Olympics bid.

lovesreading - 2010-03-16 10:27 PM Thanks again for the advice.  I'll be getting this into my training log / planned during the next week.

I found a great new swim book:  Fitness Swimming, 2nd Edition by Emmett Hines ISBN 978-0-7360-7457-5.  The author holds level 5 Masters certification from American Swim Coaches Association,directoar and head coach of H2Ouston Swim Masters team for more than 25 years, senior coach for Total Immersion, etc.

What I like is that he takes TI-style drills and makes them crystal clear.  He sets up a clear progression of drills and workouts as well as progress evaluations that takes you all the way to masters competitive swimming.  I especially like that for each drill he includes a Feedback section explaining what a properly done drill feels like (as how to detect and fix common mistakes).

I'm going to buy my own copy so I don't ruin the library's and start reinventing my stroke.  I've been frustrated by my plateau.  This seems like it'll give me a good way to unlearn my 80's high school/AAU bad form.  I started off with a T-20 test and some vertical kicking drills tonight.

tnguyen1 - 2010-03-17 8:38 AM



Great job on your run improvements! I was exactly in your shoes a little bit ago.

On the swimming, yeah I hear ya. I am in the process of fixing my stroke as well. I had no elbow bend, whipped my arm over on recovery, straight arm underwater pull and very high turnover. Pretty much I was "windmilling". I was still pretty fast for short distances but I want to become a better endurance swimmer so that means changing up my technique. I'm trying to use my glide more, high elbow on recovery and on pull, and to use my kick less. It will take a while to relearn stroke mechanics since you learned how to swim back in HS. I am able to hold my "new stroke" on easy/mod intensities, but I do find myself reverting to my old stroke on hard/sprint efforts. Try not to get frustrated (I know, easier said then done), it will take a while for you body to relearn and get the muscle memory down. Also, you might loose a little speed at first. Good luck!

gerrydiego - 2010-03-18 11:24 PM

Ok... I uploaded my race report... Will try to post some pictures later on. Have a good one...

 

Oh by the way... today on the bike I was DEAD!! Is that a post race thing? I have been pretty stressed and not sleeping much... mmm we´ll see how the swim goes tomorrow. 

KSH - 2010-03-21 8:01 PM How is everyone else doing? Over here... it's going pretty well. Had a blah weekend thanks to SNOW. Seriously, on Thursday it was 70 degrees and beautiful. Saturday it was raining and then snowing. Missed a bike rally I really wanted to do. Luckily I had not paid for it ahead of time, so no money lost. Did get a 8 mile run today... on the treadmill. I cut my time by 2 minutes and 30 seconds from when I did the same run 2 weeks ago. Happy about that! Busy week with class, homework, and a half marathon next Saturday!

lovesreading - 2010-03-22 10:24 PM My weekend sucked.  My boys crashed their bikes into each other Friday evening while I was out running.  I got a frantic call and sprinted (so to speak) back.  The 4yo had only a tiny scrape and a big scare but I had to take 14yo Nick to the emergency room.  He broke his left wrist and maybe his right elbow and has some decent road rash.  We have one more round of x-rays to go next week when the elbow expert returns from his vacation, but the current doc is cautiously optimistic that the elbow fracture is small and will require little to no intervention.   Nick is thoroughly sick of double casts.

I was zombie mom after dosing him round the clock every 3 hours for a few days.  I don't know how I survived babies.  I managed to make my long run on Sunday, but skipped my Saturday long ride and my swim.  He's at his dad's for the next couple of days, so I can catch up on the weekend's housework...  bleah.

lovesreading - 2010-03-22 10:24 PM My weekend sucked.  My boys crashed their bikes into each other Friday evening while I was out running.  I got a frantic call and sprinted (so to speak) back.  The 4yo had only a tiny scrape and a big scare but I had to take 14yo Nick to the emergency room.  He broke his left wrist and maybe his right elbow and has some decent road rash.  We have one more round of x-rays to go next week when the elbow expert returns from his vacation, but the current doc is cautiously optimistic that the elbow fracture is small and will require little to no intervention.   Nick is thoroughly sick of double casts.

I was zombie mom after dosing him round the clock every 3 hours for a few days.  I don't know how I survived babies.  I managed to make my long run on Sunday, but skipped my Saturday long ride and my swim.  He's at his dad's for the next couple of days, so I can catch up on the weekend's housework...  bleah.

tnguyen1 - 2010-03-23 9:14 AM Good morning ya'll!

I took last week off after my half marathon, I was such a lazy slug!

This week I will slowly start working out again, and I will be ramping up my training to the Oly distance this year! Woo hoo! I haven't been on my bike in months, hoping for nice weather and thinking about a bike rally to get motivated to ride.
Hope everyone's week is going well, happy training!

crews - 2010-03-23 1:03 PM

 

Congrats on the half. 

I just got on my bike last week for the first time in months.  I thought I would have lost more bike fitness than I did.   But, it felt great!  I'll send some of our beautiful weather your way

lovesreading - 2010-03-22 10:24 PM

My weekend sucked.  My boys crashed their bikes into each other Friday evening while I was out running.  I got a frantic call and sprinted (so to speak) back.  The 4yo had only a tiny scrape and a big scare but I had to take 14yo Nick to the emergency room.  He broke his left wrist and maybe his right elbow and has some decent road rash.  We have one more round of x-rays to go next week when the elbow expert returns from his vacation, but the current doc is cautiously optimistic that the elbow fracture is small and will require little to no intervention.   Nick is thoroughly sick of double casts.

I was zombie mom after dosing him round the clock every 3 hours for a few days.  I don't know how I survived babies.  I managed to make my long run on Sunday, but skipped my Saturday long ride and my swim.  He's at his dad's for the next couple of days, so I can catch up on the weekend's housework...  bleah.

lovesreading - 2010-03-24 9:36 PM

Nick's doing okay and thanks you all for the get well wishes.  The elbow expert is on vacation.  There's hope that his elbow fracture is minor enough that he'll be freed from one cast next week.  He's back in school and coping okay.  The wrist cast comes off in 3-4 weeks.

gerrydiego - 2010-03-26 6:44 AM

Good luck with the Half Marathon and PR'ing it. I am on vacation in Colorado, so totally MIA and just got one swim in up to now. I am heading out for a run on an indoor track. I hope I can get at least a nice 6-7K in...

 

Have a good weekend...