Caius's Group - CLOSED (Page 28)

Hi everyone ! Well between work and starting back to school, I am taking 2 classes this semester,  it's been pretty hectic lately. Good news for my family, my daughter had a healthy baby boy last week, weighed in at 5 lbs 3 oz. Although he was 3 weeks early there were no complications. Now I get to go visit Texas again to see him   I love being the one that gets to play with the babies and not the one that has to do the middle of the night feedings. Been there and done that enough lol.

For off season training I would really like to improve my running, it is my weakest skill right now. I need to find a good training plan that will help me build my endurance. My goal is to a triathlon in under 2 hours next year.

Good luck Caius in your race, hope it doesn't rain on you ! Anyone else racing this weekend ?

The Muskoka bike course seems to be quite hilly. The total elevation climb is not as high as Lake Placid as the hills are shorter, however they are much steeper. Doing training bike runs in and around Milton/Kelso would probably be a good idea. You don't have to power through the bike course. Know that overall speed might be lower, but it will be lower for everyone. The trick is to manage your resources. Conserve some strength so that you will have something on the run.

We'll see how well I execute that tomorrow. I have my doubts...

Thanks Gloria and congratulations on your daughter's son. That's so awesome!!!

As for the rain, well right now they're calling for lots of rain tomorrow. Sigh...

I'm starting to post some pics from the event via my facebook page if anyone is interested...

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159892&id=622335155

Talk to you all soon.

Okay, I can finally answer your question properly. The Muskoka 70.3 course was a killer. First, the bike course is super hilly. The hills are not particularly long but they are steep and there are a lot of them with barely any time for recovery. By the end of the bike your legs will be severely punished. And then come the run course. Another hilly challenge. Up, down, turn right, turn left, etc. Sadistic.

People are saying that this is the toughest 70.3 course. I can't say that, but I can tell you that I found it physically tougher than Ironman Lake Placid. Ironman racing has its own set of challenges that go beyond the 70.3 but from a pure muscular pain standpoint, Muskoka was tougher.

With all that said, I absolutely loved it. Okay, I admit it, at about the 60K point on the bike I had enough. By the end of the bike course, I didn't want to see my bike anymore. But still, I loved it.

<Caveat...my view on the course may be slanted by the fact that I did a half iron race 2 weeks prior to Muskoka and by the fact that between IMLP and Muskoka I have barely been training. Between The Canadian and Muskoka, hardly anything, so I have certainly lost some peak endurance/fitness.>

No dates have been announced yet for the 2009 race which I find sort of curious.

Tim - Love the new aero helmet.  I have some pics from the recent sprint in my album now, but not a good one of the helmet.

There are a lot of free training plans on BT for those of us who are looking for a winter maintenance plan.  I'm thinking of taking the 20-week Oly plan I did in the spring and maybe halfing the training volume each day.  It is a 2x plan (swim 2x, bike 2x, run 2x a week).  I may take several weeks off from scheduled training after the last tri on the 27th of this month.

Caius - I've heard that winter is the best time to lose weight and not during competition season, build-phases, etc.  I'd like to drop 5 or 7 lbs.  Would the base-phase in winter be the best time to lose a few pounds?

I don't know For the past couple of years I usually put on about 7-8lbs every winter. Mostly around Christmas time. I love the big family holiday meals, cakes, cookies, etc. Yum. Within about a month (max 2) of getting back on the training program I shed about 4-5lbs and drop the rest as I get ready for my A race.

The winter season is a tough period to loose weight. Between all the holidays and the reduced volume of training it's not easy, especially if you continue to eat as much as you did while in full training mode (me). If however, you can cut your calorie intake to meet your winter caloric burn and maintain or loose some weight, well then you'll be that much more ahead come early sprint when you ramp things back up again.

That's my aim every fall and winter but haven't been able to do it yet. I love food too much and just don't enough willpower

Gloria - congrats on the new addition to the family.  Our new little one is due today, but she is not cooperating at this point.  Her big brother did the same thing, so it may be a few more days.

Terry - I need the flipside of your plan.  I need to gain a few pounds.  I'm now down to 157lbs (same as high school).  I've always been lean (skinny), but I was in the mid 170's when I started all of this a year ago.  I'm actually going to up my calorie intake over the winter, and hit the weights to try and put on a few pounds - but (and don't hate me for this) I have an incredibly hard time putting on weight.  Plus, I plan to live in the basement and try to improve my cycling endurance over the winter.  I really want to be faster for next year.

Caius - congrats on the race.  You've certainly done your job mentoring us since April, and have really shown what some dedication and hard work will do.  You've had an incredibly packed season, and I'm kinda assuming you'll scale things back and try to recuperate a bit over the next couple of months.  But correct me if I'm wrong.

And I have a question for you.  If I do 3 bike rides a week, how should I split the training intensity to see the most gains over the winter.  i.e. How much time doing intervals, zone 4 rides, zone 2 rides, etc.  I'm still very confused on this point.  (I also want to apply the same concepts to my running).

Thanks Caius - but I wouldn't be me if I didn't ask additional questions.

1)  How long should you rely on base training, whereby the vast majority of your work is done in the lower HR's?

2)  How long before the first Tri next season (let's say June) should you start to include those intensity sessions - or do you do them throughout the entire winter?

And I fully agree with the barebones reasoning - train faster to race faster.  But I've seen so many posts saying train in Z2 to get faster.  So very confusing.

Congrats Gloria on being a grandma again.  Your grandkids are lucky to have an active grandma like you!  My fingers are crossed for you Neil that you will have a new son or daughter soon. 

Great job in Muskoka, Caius!  Sounds like a tough race. 

Training at Christmas time will hopefully be good for me as we have just started booking our trip to Mexico.  I certainly plan to do a ton of swimming, pool and ocean if I can.  Thanks to Caius' suggestion I started looking at the Barcelo chain and we (including our 2 kids) are staying at the Barcelo Colonial Beach.   I can hardly wait! 

I am SO jealous!!! Since you're staying at the Barcelo you may find this forum useful. Tons of great info here about the resort plus stuff around the area...

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.com/forum/index.php

Yeah, yeah, keep asking questions. They're good questions and make me think. I like 'em. However, what I'm realizing is that I don't have a clear cut answer for you.

I've seen plans with specific traing that start anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks before the A race. That is 6-12 weeks of intensity and everything else is base. I guess it depends on the distance of the race that you're training for (i.e. you wouldn't treat a Sprint and an Ironman in the same way) and the amount of base fitness that you have.

Of course that's not to say that you wouldn't do any speedwork sessions during your base period. Of course you would; say once per week in each sport. It's just that during the build phase you'd to do the specific training more than once per week.

So during base, every session is a nice and easy session with one shortish interval session in each sport per week. During the build/peak phase where you focus on specific training there is no base training. Everything is at intensity with easy session in between to allow for recovery.

Post this question to the BT massive. There are some great folks out there with excellent advice - JonnyKay, Amiine and others come to mind.

Now I don't plan to train for an ironman anytime soon, but for you - would your intensity training have only stayed in zone 2-3 while you geared up for Placid (assuming these were your target zones for the race)?

Thanks,

Neil

Thanks  - we look forward to checking out the site!  Muchas gracias

Great training advise Caius. that's just what I needed, it answered many of my questions for winter training.

 So if my first sprint will be in June of next year how long do I need to stay in the first part of the plan or endurance base  before moving on?  I really need to build strength and endurance in my running it's by far my weaket point.  I didn't follow much of a plan this year for training , I know it will be helpful to do that this year.

Anyone racing this weekend at all?

Good luck on your race this weekend Tim !

Just a quick update for all to say that our new addition arrived at 12:15am Thursday.  Addison was born at home (which was planned) weighing in at 8 lbs 12 ounzes.  Family is all doing really well, and we're all super excited that she's finally here.

Here's a pic with her big brother.

Good luck with the weekend everyone.

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Congratulations on the new arrival to the family !! Glad everyone is doing well !! Love the new picture too