Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 27)

I am at 20 pounds.  Down from 23 last week.  Now is when the real work will begin.  I knew I would cut those first three quickly.  Now I have to actually try to lose the weight.

This pain sounds like something that has been related to my PF.  I have been dealing with both the heel pain and pain in the arch of my foot and early on I had some pain along the area where all of my toes connect to the rest of the foot bones (ball of the foot). 

I suggest you keep up with the Aleve as Jeff described, although I hadn't heard of 2 twice a day.  I think you have some inflammation going on down there.  I imagine that the pain began to develop while you were working on your foot strike, as you already mentioned.  I would support Jeff's opinion on this as well.  get back to something closer to what your normal strike is and se how it goes.  Another thing that may help us is to see your running in a video.  If you could have your wife ride or drive along side you during a brief run (2-3 minutes) and post a video on your tube that would help.

I am interested in seeing the pic if you can get it up sometime.  Try to simply copy and paste the pic from the website your are using.  Sometimes this will work, other times it won't.

Warren, great video, thanks for posting it. I'm going to watch it again because there was a LOT of info there!!!  Dang there is a lot to learn about sbr...lol

I did get an 1 hr and 15 min ride in today. I stayed in the small gear and kept my cadence very high. It was 70 derees and HUMID! at 4:00 a.m.

Jeff, thanks for all your input too.

Dirk, I'll try to get a video of running and swimming.

mambos - 2013-01-10 6:51 AM

Jo63 - 2013-01-10 6:28 AMSo I went back to my trainer yesterday so we could talk about nutrition, I feel I am still really struggling with it. He set me up on an online journaling program so he can log in also anytime to see what Iam doing, It is www.fitclick.com you put in your information how many grams of protein carbs etc, you need and there is a huge data base of foods and you can put in your own nutrition information if the food is not in the data base. On the top of the page there is a dash board that give you a quick look of where you are at for the day and the range you are supposed to be in. Your in the red if over or under and green when your good.So after just 2 days I have discovered a lot, durin the day I do not eat enough calories, so after my evening meal I am starving so I turn to ice cream. I never looked at the package to see what a serving was or how many calories or grams of fat and carbs. So as it turns out I was eatting 5 servings because a serving is 1/2 a cup that is not a lot....for a total of 900 calories and 45 grams of fat OH MY!!! Plus all the carbs and fat before bed.......This was day 1 (I had tracked my previous days foods so I had a good starting place.My goal is 1750-1850 calories for my training volume right now and because i would like to loose so yesterday I ate what would be a great day for me, I ate 6 really nutritious meals all planned so i thought i was good, for a whooping 1270 calories, the only item I met was my fat requirement I was under in calories, carbs & I only ate about 1/4 of the protein required. And yesterday would have been a typical food day while I was training for the IM He also told me that our metabolism doesn't have a brain, it doesn't know Iam working out (calorie deficit) It thinks Iam starving myself by not getting enough calories. So when I was burning 4000 calories on a ride and only eatting say 1300 in a day WOW...........Do I need to eat less to loose yes, but the amount Iam not eatting plus not meeting the protein/carb reqirements......no wonder I can't loose any weight, feel fatigued a lot and finally ran out of steam for the IM. So I wanted to let you know about the website if you had not heard of it , and it's free.... But it has a lot of great information for you to check and see if you are meeting you nutritional needs. I am looking forward to next week so he can give me some suggestions especially on the protein thing. I even had a muscle milk yesterday 20 grams of protein ( and this was not typical) I hope this all makes sense there was so much information......On Tuesday again he kicked my butt once again and Iam pretty sore and it feels really great to know Iam getting stronger! I also did my second swim since Sept, I had to take rests every 50 yards but I felt good with my stroke so I don't think it should take too long to get back into it!So I meet with him next Tueday it will be interesting to see what his suggestions are

Joanne, this looks like some good information and hopefully you are able to learn the proper nutrition. I know I struggle with what and how much to eat, I may check this site out to see what it offers.

x2 and thanks for posting this JoAnne. I have been using the training/food journal and tracking my estimated calories for each day. I find it has been very useful to me and I have a good understanding of how many calories I need to gain, lose or maintain my weight. That also takes into consideration the training so I have a good idea of what I need depending on how hard I am working out.

I will check out the web site as well sounds like you can get very detailed with what you track. Also good point on the serving sizes. Those labels can be VERY, VERY misleading . I always scrutinize those serving sizes. My wife is always making fun of me for it and she gets so tired of me asking her so she saves the packages when she cooks so she doesn't have to hear me asking how many calories is in something she made. As you can see I am very self-conscious about my weight lol.

Sorry everybody, my comments yesterday were supposed to includes links to videos.

I just edited those posts to include the links.  Please scroll back and look at the videos in light of what I wrote.

Thanks.

Jo, this is all very interesting.  I want you to keep us updated on how you feel when eating as prescribed. 

Pink Socks....resizemypicture.com only stores your resized picture for 10 minutes, then it's gone.  You are expected to save the resized picture somewhere else on the web.

Jo.....that site looks pretty good at first glance.  How does your trainer see your stuff?  Do you have to pay for a different type of "training/nutritional" plan?

Dirk.....explain this weight loss thing you are all doing, please.  I wasn't on the internet much when you guys were discussing it.

Hey Junkies -

I've been ill for a while, hence my absence on this board. Started back running yesterday, and something has been going on for a while that's bothering me:

My HR shoots up into the 200-220 range when I first start running. Not every time, but it does so most of the time. The other times my HR is in the high 180s. I've had my zones tested, and I'm anaerobic at 169. What gives?

Trina, that's most likely a flaky signal from your HR strap to the receiver.  It can be the first sign that the batteries in the HR strap are getting weak and it can happen if there is signal interference nearby or when the contact between the strap and your skin aren't good.

I assume that your NOT 'feeling' anaerobic during your runs?  ie. not only is the 200+ value incorrect but so is the 180+?

Do you have a way to cross reference your HR readings with something else?  For instance, most gym equipment will read a Polar compatible strap but will also provide handles you can hold.  You could comare the 2 readings to each other.

Of course you can always manually take your pulse at your wrist and neck and compare the TRUE pulse rate to your readings.

Do you have prior experience with your HR, so that you know what you SHOULD be seeing?

Is this on your Garmin (or other HR monitor)?  I get that sometimes when I first start, but it settles down.  If your HR was really pegging to 220, you'd know it!  It's probably just equipment startup gremlins.  Are you making sure there is some moisture on the sensors to start?

We need to add a medic to our group... ha!  You guys be smart in regards to all these injuries.  Dirk, are you taking it easy?  Also, I sent you a PM last week.  Check it out if you havent already.

Question for those of you that have went to a Tri store and taken a test to calculate your HR zones:  How in shape were you?  Does fitness affect your zones?  Like are your zones the same when your out of shape as they are when you're in very good shape?  I'm planning on doing it, but I've lost a lot of fitness over the past year and am thinking I need to gain some back before I do the test.  I'm interested in what you guys have to say...

I've never been to a tri store or anywhere "official" to test my zones, I've simply done the tests either on this site or through other sites.  The current theory as I understand it is that your zones don't change much, but what you can do at each level is what changes.  Two caveats:

1. Your HR goes down as you age, so the zones will change slightly (down) over time.

2. Your ability to go "all-out" changes as you first start training, and you also get better at pacing tests, so the first few times you do these tests may be inaccurate.  For instance, when I did my first bike test it was a 30 minute "all-out" effort.  The pain level I considered all out then was a lot different than what I do now, so my test was really not an all-out effort at first.  And my tests we "lumpy" for a while, meaning I wasn't pacing correctly so it was hard to pinpoint a good HR for the test.

Along with what Warren says I got back in to cardio training seriously about 6 years ago.  My HR readings then were higher than they are now.  In my case my HR values have gone down.  But I'm not entirely sure that's normal as there are some things unique about my situation.

I would expect that your maximum HR is close to being fixed.  The max you could achieve today is either the same or a little higher than you will be able to achieve in a few months if you train well.  The reason I'm leaving the door open to the max being lower is that your VO2 max (absolute most work your cardiovascular system can do) is like a chain and any one link in that chain could be the weakest and that limits you.  If the weak link is your lungs and they cannot provide any more oxygen then your HR won't go up needlessly.  If the weak link is your muscle's ability to utilize oxygen then your HR will stop climbing.  If your weak link now is your heart's stroke volume then your max HR is really limited by your heart...but as your heart increases it's stroke volume over time then it can slow down when something else becomes the weak link.

(think of it like a car's 1/4 drag time.  It could be limited by horsepower, or by traction, or by the gearing)

What probably will change quite a bit as you get in shape is your lactate threshold HR.  As you get better and better conditioned the LT moves closer to VO2 max. 

The testing you will have done will more than likely try to identify your LT heart rate since that's a better metric to use for training than the max HR.  So you want to have this LT test done every 6 months or so if your fitness is changing (which yours will).  But in the meantime, you would benefit from knowing what it is right now so you can best structure your current training.

I don't think being out of shape makes it less important to know, just more important to repeat the test sooner rather than later.

By the way, you can easily perform the test yourself if the cost is prohibitive.   Maybe you can get the test now at the tri shop and then just repeat that for yourself 3 months from now.

Just wanted to share my experience in the pool yesterday.  First time swimming laps in a couple of years - and probably fewer than a half dozen lap swims in my life, up until now.  I could do 50 freestyle without too much trouble, but as the session went on, I really struggled to complete the sets.  100 had me pretty much gasping at the end and feeling a little freaked out.  He had me try breathing bilaterally, which helped (although I have to get used to it, I kept falling back to breathing on one side). He also had me focus on bending my elbows. 

Overall, he wants me to build up some endurance, and said my stroke looks ok.  I had him write me out a plan for workouts for the next week.  Looking it over at home, I think it's way too ambitious (i.e., 1500 yard workouts, when I struggled through 500 yesterday).  I looked through some of the workouts on this site, and beginner swim advice on here.  Here's my tentative plan:

Try to get in the pool 3-4 times within the next week.  Keep the workout centered on sets of about 50 yards, so I can stay aware of form.  Try to slow down and relax a bit.  Probably do some of the side kicking, single arm, and pull bouy sets and kickboard sets to just get me more in the mode / rythm of breathing and relax.  If I can get 800 yards, I'll feel pretty good.

I am open to suggestions / advice.  This was overall a huge positive.  I think I realized just how much work I have to do, to get comfortable/competent in the water, and at the same time I am excited by the challenge.  I felt great after the workout, by the way!  Nice to have some swim in my workout log, too!

Eric I'm no expert when it comes to swimming and I am sure the experts here can give you better advice. I think the shorter sets are good to focus on your form but the only way to build your endurance is to swim further. So maybe you want to try and push yourself a little further each session like starting at 50 yards and then trying to push to 100 yards and then further. Even if it's just a few sets for each swim session you do. I think that is the only way you will get your swim lungs so to speak and build your endurance. Nice work and glad to hear that the swim went well for you.

Tony,

That sounds like good advice - I will try to work in some longer sets, too.  I'll keep you posted as to how it goes.  Thanks!

Funny you should say that, Jeff, I was just telling someone it may be the battery in my HR strap. I'm going to buy a new one tomorrow. 

I definitely don't feel like my HR is at 220, or even 180! My breathing is light and unlabored.

I will try changing the battery and also cross-referencing the readings if that doesn't solve the mystery. 

Warren - I've heard of Garmin's doing this, but my other Garmin (305) didn't. Maybe it's something unique to the 910xt? Oh, and I will apply some type of moisture before setting-out on a run to see if that helps also.

Thanks 

Will - I've only had my HR zones tested once..on the bike and run...and from what I gather your fitness does indeed affect your zones. I don't think it does significantly, but I could be wrong there. I consider my bike fitness to be much better than my run fitness, but when I went to have my HR zones tested, I hadn't been riding my road bike regularly for 6 weeks (was mostly mountain biking), and it was two days before a half marathon so I'd been spending a lot of time running. My running fitness measured as "excellent," whereas my bike fitness only measured as "good." So yeah, I would probably wait to get tested until you're back into shape. Unless you want to have fun with it and get a baseline to compare your "out of shape" self with your "super incredibly rockin' an Ironman" self.