kenj mentor group - back for another great season! CLOSED (Page 27)

Good weekend of training. Yesterday, I swam, biked and ran and today I got a 5 mile run in. Nice to feel tired muscles.

Now off to church, then a quick arena ride on my horse then THE NINERS!!!!!

I am off the strict paleo diet.  After the flu over Christmas I felt like crap.  I added some whole grain back into the diet and I have loads of energy again.

I did 14 miles yesterday on the run at 9:06/mile, 2:07 overall.  Blazing for me.  I have to start doing negative splits at this distance.  I have at shorter distances but this volume of running this early in the year is all new.  So, will try it for my coach.

Today was a intensity bike workout with 3 X15 mins SEs (hill repeats at 50 to 60 rpm and high power, 90%) with 15 X 1 min SE pops to 130%, five per interval.  Even after the longish run I had plenty of gas today.  Feeling good.  

RPE is OK to use but it really means little unless paired with HR or a watt meter.  So many things can make the exertion seem harder...illness, lack of sleep, poor nutrition.  HR is affected by the same things, too, but it's more accurate than RPE.  Watts don't lie.  You either get the numbers or you don't.  Disadvantage is cost. 

Equipment purchases - After four seasons I've got a lot of stuff.  

- I had a 310 XT Garmin and replaced it last year with a 910XT, which I love.  The 310 XT had issues with the display becoming scattered and unreadable. 

- I have three road bikes, a Giant TCRc1 I bought in 2006. Great bike.  A LeMond titanium I love on the road and use on the trainer because it is indestructible. A Trek Pilot 2.1 with fenders and bags I commute on. 

- I started triathlon with an Orbea Ordu I bought used and built up.  Bought it from a guy my size but it never fit me and aggravated a back injury.  Did IM on it, then talked to a fitter who has a bike shop.  He sold the Orbea and a MTB I had for $2600 total and I bought a triathlon bike, the Specialized Shiv.  It is not a TT bike because it is not legal at bike races.  It is strictly good for triathlon.  It is the most adjustable front end out there so he got me to a good place last season for the half IM and now raised me up all the way for the IM.  I'm looking forward to riding it in spring to see how it goes. 

- Wetsuits.  One long sleeve, one short.  I won't wear the long sleeve again unless the ice forming on the top or there are jellyfish around.

- Yes to good vented helmets.  I wear the TT helmet on short races.  I am more concerned about comfort and heat control on the longer courses so I wear a road helmet. 

- I replace goggles as needed, bike tires etc as needed.  I need some new bike shorts.  I have a closet full of jerseys and technical shirts and always seem to gather more. 

- I have a huge triathlon book and DVD collection. I add to that too often  But it's all really helped.  Learning is what it's all about right?

So no major purchases in the mix this year.

WOOOOO NINERS!!!

Great sports weekend for me! 'Cuse knocks off #1 Louisville while I'm getting my testing done and my Niners are headed to N'Awlins.

Testing went well. He said I have a lot of potential but a couple things holding me back:

1. I need to eat more...apparently 3700 cals/day (most before 2pm) if I only work out for 30min.

2. More sleep. Ha!

3. Train slower. I've been training in the gray zone. Knocked my bike and run heart rates down about 10bpm. 

He said he's going to have A LOT more info to send me. I get pretty into the numbers and stuff, so I should be fairly knowledgeable here soon. If anyone wants to take a look at my numbers, pick my brain, bounce ideas around, whatever, let me know and we can PM, e-mail, text, etc.

This week I'm going to focus on changing things up and hopefully establish a new regimen. What's everyone else's week look like?

Nice work Nate!  Sounds like you are going to get some great guidance from the test!

CyborgQueen - 2013-01-21 4:28 PM

Jambago - 2013-01-20 5:22 PM

CyborgQueen - 2013-01-20 7:29 PM

Jambago - 2013-01-20 3:14 AM

CyborgQueen - 2013-01-19 8:33 PM http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=... for RPE Trainerroad - what do you want feedback on? Is it worth it? Yes. Jorge's winter plan is on there if you're going to do his program.

Thanks, thats good to know. I just ordered the Garmin cadence speed sensor for my bike and already have the ant stick and Garmin monitor, so I'll give it a try. As far as feed back, I'm curious to how user friendly it is; is it as simple as 'keeping it in the green', as they say; does your trainer ride seem to go by faster because of focusing on stats; and most importantly, have you seen favorable results? BTW, have you done Jorges winter plan with it yet?

Yup, very user friendly. Search the workout you want, click and start riding and keeping your power at the right level. You do need to make sure your HRM and speed/cadence is detected by clicking on devices, it will search for ANT+ devices before you start your ride. less than 30 seconds. Green means it's detected. You do want to do your 20 minute FTP test to determine what watts is your threshold, then you plug in the number and any future rides will read off that number. It is set on 200 until you change it. If some reason there is a ride you need to do, and you feel like $hit, and want to go a little bit easier but still want to work hard, you can adjust the workout by dropping it to 95% or below. Or if you feel perfect, you can bump it up to a certain percentage, so you can adjust the rides on the fly without changing your FTP. Oh yes, the ride seems to go faster! I have not done the Jorge's plan (look under Challenges on BT forums to get to know others who have done it). I might add a couple of his workouts in, need to start establishing a stricter plan. I haven't done it long enough to really make any discernable results just yet. Ask me in a month. I do wish there was cadence based workouts than power. My power drops if i go higher cadence, however i think it means i need to try to go harder gear than easier, which in a sense is like strength training.

Thanks DJ, I look forward to setting it all up this coming week and will keep you all posted.

Okay, I looked at the Trainerroad and the Winter Cycling program. Both created by Jorge, and it's confusing because they do not match with each other's workout. TR has 5x30 sec build, rest build, 10 x 2 min a little above threshold, then cooldown. No where it says on the Winter Cycling program to do that. So I'm confused on which one to follow. I'm going to at LEAST try to do most of the weekly workouts required before the Night Rides starts. I asked about why the two programs are different on the Winter Cycling Forum, so hopefully my question will be answered. This is where I'm completely lost, and feel like I need someone to TELL me exactly what to do. LOL! Perhaps someone here can help... Goals in order: #1 - get better on hills. #2 - get faster #3 - better endurance (I have no problems knocking out 30 milers, 40 milers, 60 milers, it's just the last 15 miles or so, I get a little worn out...probably from going too hard to try to keep up with the group. I have the endurance to go long, it's just the steadiness to go long I need to work on). I'm not 100% that Jorge's program will work in my case, it'll help, but not effectively have me reach my goals. So, if anyone else feels that I should look elsewhere, let me know. I feel like I'm just cycling blind. Anything on the weekends, I will be doing long distances and mainly focus on better endurance (that takes care of #3), vs a structured workout. Hope I'm making sense...lol!

I think after doing it and from what I understand, Jorge's plan will help with 1 and 2, 3 will benefit but there are not a lot of 3 or 4 hour rides in the plan.  It is basically a good plan to increase the power level, but you can raise your CP 20%, then add the endurance at that level of power and think of the results you will have on the longer rides.

Good goals though DJ!!

If you are using watts, keep a mental log of RPE too.  It is really cool to be able to cover your watt meter and estimate where you are and then see how that matches up.

It's OK to go all out on short courses.  That's why they call it a sprint triathlon after all.  It is all out. But when we race long races, we race by RPE don't we?  How do I feel at this moment?  It doesn't help to have a watt goal for a race in mind and then beat your self up to reach it, get off the bike and have nothing left for the run, right?  We have to constantly ask ourselves, how am I feeling?   If we red line too much on the bike we will overdo too soon and falter.  Watt meters are a great way to gauge how you are feeling then.  The watts are 75%, I should feel 7 RPE, but I'm feeling way higher.  Back off or blow up.  Or, I am feeling really great cranking good watts at an RPE 5, don't go any higher.  Or headed up a hill, we can watch the watt meter real-time read out and see if we are red lining.  Do that too much and it takes it out of you over time.  You can watch the meter, shift to easier gears and spin up without hitting the red zone.  

The watt meter really shines during workouts to help target the right spots to cause overload but not over training.  But again, they are pricey.  I bought my first Power Tap new.  I got my second with racing wheels off eBAY and hit a great deal. So check it out.   Other kinds are more costly but have advantages too.  For example, you can get the pedal-mounted ones and change them out between bikes regardless of your wheels.  I had to get a second PT to take care of race wheels.  But with the deal on eBay, I got a set of good race wheels and a matching third rear race wheel, about $5,000 worth of stuff if new, for $1800.  There are deals out there.  

Good info Ice.  There is a few that show up in the classified section here too.  Although not as often.

Great work on the weight Brian!  Thats great progress!