Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete - Always OPEN (Page 28)

Hey Everyone,

So I had a few days in the hospital last month.  I got home and just wasn't feeling any better.  Long story short, I picked up an infection while I was i the hospital which landed me back in the hospital (somebody has to explain the wisdom of that!).

All told it was 9-days in the hospital - granted with a couple day break halfway through.  Back home now, and finally on the road to recovery.  It is simply amazing how much energy you lose just lying in a hospital bed.  I have a long ways to go just to get back to a base level of fitness.  Fortunately we're almost to the winter when the days are short, and the trainer comes alive.

Gotta love my wife.  While I was "on vacation," she was working on my pain cave.  She had my uncle come over and hang some new shelves.  She put new rubber tiles down on the floor so both the treadmill and the trainer are on rubber now.  She got both TV's setup - one on the satellite/DVD and the other on the computer.  Apparently she thinks I sweat too much because she positioned not one, not two, but three 30" hurricane fans - plus the ceiling fan which will be pretty much useless against the hurricane fans.  All the times I talked about what I wanted to do in the pain cave I thought I detected eye rolls.  Turns out she was not only intently listening, but she had it all planned out in her mind how to do it.  Now I've got no excuses!

Curtis - thanks for the info on Redman.  Sounds like just what I'm looking for and hopefully with a whole year to train, I'll be ready when it rolls around next fall .  

Steve - congrats on your race.

Scott - sorry to hear about your health troubles.  Glad to hear that you're on the road to recovery.  Think you can get Mrs. Scott to talk to my husband?   I've been wanting the same type of set-up in my basement.  So far I've got a TV (and the sound doesn't work half the time - still can't figure out why) and one small fan.  It works, but it's not too inviting and gets pretty warm even in the winter.  Hoping I can do some upgrades this fall/winter.  

Janet

2X

I'm noticing the days are starting to get a little bit shorter.  The temperatures, at least at night, are starting to drop.  There's not quite a touch of fall in the air but certainly it isn't that far away.  That just makes the weekends that much more valuable and special.

Is anyone racing this weekend?  Have any special workouts planned?

I'm planning to get out for a ride today.  I've done a couple short trainer rides.  It's been so long since I've ridden outdoors I'm looking forward to seeing if I can still ride my bike without the benefit of being held in place by the trainer!

Hey Nathalie,

The short answer is you are better pushing just a bit harder into the wind and easing up a bit with a tailwind - especially if the tailwind section is first.

Now the explanation -

You are going slower into the wind, meaning you will be riding longer into the wind than with the tailwind.  Increasing your power, even a little bit, into the wind will have a larger impact because you will have the benefit of the additional speed for a longer period of time.

Hope that helps.

I felt like like my weekend training plan was "special".  With two week of down training before my 70.3 race and then two weeks of down training following, it had been a while since I had any "special" Saturday morning workouts. 

Saturday I did a 50 mile bike ride followed by a 4 mile run all close to my 70.3 race pace.  I have been working all summer to dial in the perfect run pace off the bike. I finally nailed the brick run this Saturday.  I had been running pretty even splits between 6:55 min/mi and 7:15 min/mile. On Saturday my mile goal was to show a clear negative split and were the following:

Mile 1 - 7:17 

Mile 2 - 7:16 

Mile 3 - 6:49

Mile 4 - 6:50     

The last mile really sucked but I hung in there.  Practice makes perfect. Right?

Steve,  It is all relative.  I could have been doing 7:55-8:15 off the bike for the past two months then hit 8:16's for the first half and 7:50's for the 2nd half on Saturday and it would have been a just as excited. 

I have never been good at hitting negative splits.  Not even for 4 miles runs, in practice, when I am fresher than I would be at the end of a long race.  The fact that I hit the first two miles one second apart and the last two one second apart with a clear negative split was pretty exciting for me.

I didn't have my Heart Rate Monitor.  My pacing was  90% off of feel and 10% off of my iphone ap.  I didn't know what the first two miles splits were until the miles were complete and didn't know the splits of either of my last two miles until after I was back to my house after the workout.

I don't know if I can hit those paces at my next race, but that is what I am going to train for the next month and then do my best on race day. 

Note: My last race I was at a 7:42 pace for the run.  I was hitting the 6:55-7:35 I had been doing in practice  between stops but with stops at aid stations and stops for cramps time added up quickly.  Anything under 7:42 would be a PR on the Run at my next race.  I if I could choose to be 8 minutes faster on the Swim, 8 minutes faster on the bike, or 8 minutes faster on the run at my next race, I would take 8 minutes faster on the run. That is the area I need to shine. I hate it when guys I was beating consistently in running events 10 years ago beat me on the run leg of a Triathlon.  They can beat me on the Swim or bike but I feel that I owe it to them to set a goal for them to work for on the run.

Steve - good luck with your race this weekend!

I'm not racing this weekend but I'm supposed to be doing a sprint next Sunday.  However, I've been down for the last week with the flu.  I'm finally starting to feel human again although I fatigue very quickly (taking a shower in the morning feels like a hard 5 mile run). I have my last chance for an OWS practice tomorrow morning, which I will do - I want to test out the sleeveless wetsuit I rented for the race - but it will be a slow, easy and short swim.  I'm not really too worried about the race itself as long as I can get my strength back over the next week.  All goals have gone out the window but finishing shouldn't be an issue.  I'm just not sure how to handle any workouts for the week coming up.  It was supposed to be an easy week anyway but I don't want to overly tax myself and have a relapse (one week of this crud was more than enough).  I'm thinking do the swim tomorrow, try an easy walk on Sunday and maybe a short trainer ride on Monday and take it from there depending on how those go and how I'm feeling.  And get as much sleep as I can over the next couple of days.  

Have a good weekend all!
Janet

No...I don't think I will be racing this weekend (but definitely tempted to check out 5K's on Monday).  My brother is moving to a town an hour away from me on Saturday.  He started his new job on Monday so he and my nephew have been crashing with me all week.  My nephew started classes at his new school this week.  He was a week or two behind the rest of the class but I think he will be fine.  His parents had to find a home before they knew which school district he would be in and they were living 5 hours away so things were interesting with the new job opportunity and house hunting.  So... my plan is to skip all the Saturday morning races, do my long work out, do my farm chores (another week or processing poultry and water fowl) then helping with the move. The registration deadline for my B-race on the 22nd of September is in 5 days.  I need to get get signed up for that this weekend.

Nice Work Rob.