JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 28)

Wow - now that is dedication! You are all very inspiring.

I need advice/opinions for one of my workouts this weekend. I have 7 weeks left before my HIM. I've been following the BT beginner plan. I have one foot that gets really sore after long or higher intensity runs. This week I had both so it has been giving me trouble all week. So tomorrow I am supposed to run 25 min, bike 2 hours, run 25 min as one long brick. I'm just trying to save my feet a little and wondering if it would be just as beneficial for me to cut one of the runs and ride longer. My longest ride of the plan so far has only been 2.5 hours which is also starting to stress me out.

Is this a situation where I can adapt the plan to meet my needs or should I just stick with the plan?

As of right now I will be on my kayak for the swim, marking bodies in the early am, and catching at the finish line. Was offered a charity spot into the race not too long ago, but think I am keeping to my two year plan and racing again in 2012. If your coming to Madison for a training ride let me know. If I am not racing I will be biking down their race week most likely Thursday or Friday and joining in on all the fun with you guys!

I always stick with the plan, because it is there for a reason. However, if I am ever going to modify the plan I take time away not add if anything. Adding in more time can put you at risk for burnout, or even worse further injury. Since you are having soreness in your foot risking injury might be high right now. However, that can also be attributed to many other factors, gait, shoes, recovery, intensity, etc.

Your longest ride has been 2.5 hours, but what is your expected time in the HIM? What is your longest ride on the plan?

I would say to keep your runs where they are at but maybe decrease the intensity? That way you are still getting the time in, but just reducing the pounding on your body a bit. I wouldn't worry about your ride right now since you still have 7 weeks left, which is A LOT of time. Maybe just take a few days easy and see how your body and foot respond with the recovery? Like I said you won't hurt taking a couple easy days this far out from the race and can more then likely benefit physically and mentally.

I'll let others chime in now

Thanks for your reply. I should also add that I will have an ART treatment for my foot today so it will likely feel fine tomorrow. I've also started taking a prescription anti inflammatory that my podiatrist prescribed. Hoping the two things working together will kick this pain to the curb.

My longest ride of the plan is 3 hours. I think I hit peak volume in hours for the plan next week. Last year it took me 3 hours 15 min to complete this bike course but I was not following a plan. I'm not sure I'll be significantly faster though as last year I was not planning to run 13 miles when I got off my bike (I was only doing aqua/bike).

I use it for the bike and have used it for the run in the past (rTSS).  It think it's a good way to at least roughly track training load.  And if you correlate it to how you respond/feel at different levels, you may be able to figure out how to manage what you can do better--which appears to be what your coach is trying to do for you.

Separately, I also find I do better training in the pm but also am forced to do most work in the am.  Better to train 'less good' than not at all! 

I was thinking the same thing.  I can barely stay awake past 9 p.m. let alone think about going out for run.  Kudos!

Great swim last night for me (hard to beat Ben's awesome sets though). 500 WU, 1000 TT, 5 x 100's, 500, 300 CD.

I took splits every 200 on the TT set: 3:08, 3:11, 3:11, 3:10, 3:07 - average pace of ~1:34 or 1:35 per 100 meters which translates to ~1:01 for 2.4 miles. Obviously, the IM swim is about 4x as long and I won't swim THAT fast but 1:05 still seems within reach (1:40/100m). I'm giving myself 1:10 just to be safe. If I don't need those 5 extra minutes on the swim I'll be glad to have them available for the bike and run.

Since we have our "couples wedding shower" Saturday night I'm planning a rest day for Sunday. That means I have to do my long run of 2 hours today. The plan actually calls for a 1 hour spin before the run so that should be interesting. I'm going to treat it as a complete dress-rehersal for the race as it relates to clothing and nutrition.

Anyone else pumped for the weekend???? It's FRIDAY!

Great swim and TT time - I'm jealous.  Here's a question for the group.  For those of you with swim times equal to, or better than Dave's what did you do to get to that pace?  I haven't seen improvements in a long time, so I'd like to know what worked for others.  I've been stuck at my current pace for quite a while, and I'm wondering if others got themselves faster even though they were no longer beginner swimmers.

All I can say for my improvement is that it's based off a couple factors.

Volume: I used to be stuck at a swim pace of 1:40-1:45/100 on long TT's. Tried everything in my training to get the speed up and then when I increased my volume, BAM times started to trickle down some. Simply swimming longer, or more each week and building my volume it seemed that I was able to go faster. Partly because my endurance increased, but also my muscle memory became better and inturn my muscles became more efficient.

Masters: Cannot say enough about this. And for what it is worth I only had 4-5 show up each day. But what Masters did was push you. I had a girl who won her AG at IMWI and has gone to Kona twice so she is a good swimmer. My coached would have me push hard someday to try and simply keep up with her. Swimming just side by side with others makes you better too. Like I said it pushes you, but being on a schedule works you more consistantly and of course the coach on deck decides how to make you hurt each day and you can't just quit midway through a set, you need to push through it.

Variety: Never make any two days the same. Maybe do a long set one day and then a sprint set the next. Doing it like this will have you sprint on fatigued arms and force you to develop the muscular strength needed. I don't do drills to much anymore and instead focus on sprints, endurance and changing distances and sets up frequently.

200's: My favorite distance and one that is very hard. You can push it hard, but not too hard and I feel that this is the perfect distance to transfer short course speed into longer distance, and learn how to pace properly. I have used 200's a lot this year and seen my times go down from 3:20 down to currently holding 2:50.

These are just a couple of the factors that I believe helped me get out of my pace slump. These factors were all included at different times in my training over the past 2 years and I have been gradually getting better day in and day out. Finally I'll end by saying get to the pool no less the 3-4x a week consistantly. Being consistant reigns supreme with training, I know Fred can echo these words as well. Hope this helps a bit.

Since it seems there are some big races that people are traveling for coming up...any advice on packing tips.  I'm just going island hopping from O'ahu to the Big Island for the Hawaii 70.3, but it will be my first race traveling and first time using a bike travel box.

Main thing I'm concerned with is packing my bike.  Are there any serious no-nos.  I know you can't take CO2 on the plane, and I plan to go to home depot to make a skewer type rod to strenghten my fork and rear dropouts.

Basically all I plan to have in the box is my P2C and my 404's.  What do you use for padding?  Clothing?  Bubble wrap?  I've also seen some foam type material zip tied around frames.  Are there any areas other than the frame and fork that are important to protect?  Derailuers?  Wrap the chainrings in something so they don't scratch my wheels?  Once everything is packed, do you tie everything together (wheels, frame, fork) so nothing moves around inside the box.

I also plan to buy a pedal wrench, but noticed that mechanics always grease the pedals before putting them back on.  Should I get some grease in a ziplock bag or something so I can grease them when I put my bike back together at the hotel? 

Any other thoughts?

I've travelled quite a bit with my bike and my wife's... one thing that I have found really useful is bubble wrap and some tape.  I wrap the front brake (after I remove it) and the rear derailuer each individually in the bubble wrap.  Same with any other loose parts.  It may just be peace of mind, but it keeps them from slamming into the frame or scratching things up.

I use zip ties to get the breaks clamped down... that keeps them from potentially busting through the protective foam. 

On the pedals... I have found that the grease that is on them is plenty and I haven't had any trouble with them staying on or getting them off.  

Find a "silver" or "gold" paint pen and outline the stem to basebar connection.  That will allow you easily get the same angles etc when you re-attach it.  If you pedals don't have an "R" and an "L"... do the same for them.  (I've only done this with speedplay and they have the R/L marked).  Also do the same for your seatpost... a quick run of the paint pen around the frame/seatpost intersection.

I use "egg foam" under the frame, above the frame and above the wheels.  (808's)...  I do have the tube foam (Home Depot in the piping/plumbing section" that I wrap the main triangle in it, the seatpost with seat still attached goes inside that main triangle... then all misc. parts go into one ziplock bag and all the tools go into another.  (figure if my bike doesn't get there, I don't need the tools anyway, but if I lose luggage with tools and my bike gets there, I'm in a world of hurt.)   

you get this down fairly quickly over time.  I think I caught everything!?

No personal experience but my favorite tri blogger wrote up a post on this topic not too long ago:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/02/how-i-travel-with-my-bike.html

I freaking crushed my workout tonight. 1 hour spin at RPE 4ish, then 2 hour run. Killed the run at 7:54 pace - it's fast for me at least at that distance (15.2 miles). I did a full dress rehearsal in terms of clothing and nutrition. The details are in my log if anyone is interested, I won't bore everyone with it here.

In short, it was a huge confidence boost. I'm slowly convincing myself that 12 hours is within reach. That's my last "long" run and tomorrow is my last "long" bike - 3 hours. It's a hard taper from Sunday on.

Thanks for the link and the tips. 

It's pouring today, and will likely be rainy for the next week and a half.  Will still get out and ride though.  Looking for about 60ish today.