Baowolf mentor group is [ Closed ] (Page 28)

Interesting stuff on the swim stroke.  Is this the new book by Taormina?  Thought about buying it as a vacation read, and then decided it didn't sound like a vacation kind of book.

Have rental bike in car, let there be triathlon!

The watch is giving you a generic formula.  You need to test to get your real heart rates.  A test goes like this for the run, 10 min warmup, 30 minutes hardest sustainable effort clock heart rate for the last 20 minutes of the 30 minutes.  That will give you an LT or FLT or whatever (heartrate threshold), it is the point where if you go past it you go anarobic.  So say that is 175.  Then you plug that into the BT HR calculater and get your zones. So for me that is:

So my long runs should be around 158-158 (top of z2).  My 5k races max out around 175 to 178, marathons are z3 topping out in z4 for the last comple miles, IMs are high z2 low z3.  Doing 800 repeats are often at LT (175 for me).

People in this group have a LT difference that is 165 for some 175 for others and then we have Carol at like 195 or some such.  So the watch's default can be off by 30 beats per minute or so.  Lance Armstrong LT is like 220 or some such so off by 65 beats per minute for him.  So you get to test your HR.  The test is the same for the bike, but your bike LT is likely 10 beats lower than your run LT.  You could do it for swim also, but I haven't bothered as my watch is not waterproof.

Your LT will change over time if you do it when pretty unfit and then do it when pretty fit vs peak fitness, but not by a huge ammount.  What you will find is that if you run 8:00 mpm and that is Z5 that a year later it might be Z4 or even Z3.  So going the same speed at a lower HR... is good.  Do the test and then come back with questions 8). 

Ok here is some data, look at these runs:

8:12, 8:12, 8:15, 8:18, 8:30, 8:40, 9:09, 9:05, 9:13, 9:15, 9:26, 9:09

8:15, 8:16, 8:16, 8:18, 8:37, 8:38, 8:50, 8:37, 8:50, 8:49, 9:06, 8:58, 9:11, 9:15, 9:02

8:30, 8:31, 8:34, 8:29, 8:37, 8:22, 8:35, 8:21, 8:27, 8:41, 8:23, 8:21, 8:11, 8:02, 7:52

This is a sample of some of my long runs.  The first one I start to slow down a bit around mile 5 and then just drift slower until I kick the last mile.  The next one several weeks later I hold it again for 4 miles then slowly lose ground for the rest of the run.  On the third run I start a bit slower and try to hold it around 8:30, with better fitness and average 8:26 with no slowing trend.  There were some hills where I slowed a bit, but recovered on the downhill for a faster mile following and the last 5 miles are faster than pace goal.  You can look at your runs and see where your fitness starts breaking down for holding a specific pace.  My long run goal pace is 45 seconds to 1 minute slower than my hoped for race pace of 7:45 next HIM depending on conditions. 

Happy Memorial Day! If any of you served in the military, Thank you sincerely!

My training is moving along. Last week I took an extra day off and that cost me 1 short run and 1 swim, but I really needed a day off. This week I am back and feeling good. Did my 20 mile bike this morning and felt strong. It was still slow, but that's where I am at this point. Signed up for a local 10k this coming saturday. I did this race last year, so I am excited to see how much I have improved in a year. It will officially be a chance to beat one of my own records - never done that before! Plus friends are coming to run it with me.

How are the travelers and trainers doing this weekend?

Steve- I don't currently have a way to see my mile splits. I use the mapmytri app on my phone to track distance and time for my runs and it says it will track mile splits but I have yet to see the fruit of that. Any other suggestions?

Shoulder still feels very mildly tender. Gonna test it out again tomorrow and see what I think. I think it is partly due to tension while I swim. I am trying to hard to do the stroke perfectly and go fast. When I take my time and work on being smooth things go much better.

Been commuting to work via my bike all week and plan to continue. it is nice to ride for a bit of pleasure and get an additional 5 miles in every day.

Good-night!

Elena, I would be reluctant to try to build for a HIM on the base training you have been doing with only 9 weeks until race day. 

If I were to do it Long runs would go 6,7,8,7,9,10,11,8, race.  Long bikes would go 40,45,50,35, 55,60,65,,40 race.  Then normal swim build.

The problem is that you have almost no run base.  So you are going to need to run more frequently to build up your weekly total miles.  So like 3,3,3,3,6, then 3,4,4,3,7 etc.  I'm not sure exactly what plan you are following, but you may need to consider a jog walk plan for the race, or at least a very slow jog and see if you can hold it.  If you are content with a 7-8 hour HIM, you could proceed knowing that there may be a lot of walking involved. Ideally you would want to get in say 4-6 runs of 13 to 15 miles prior to the race.  You can only build safely to around 11.  So it is possible that you could jog the entire half mary, but it is going to be a long day.  Neither the bike nore the run are kind on Vineman and temps will be in in the mid 90s for the run most likely.  You might be better off hitting Orangman a little later in the season and be in better shape for it.  7-8 hours on the course is a long day.  I don't mean to be discouraging, it can be done, but you are going to need to think hard about whether you want to do it.  The run build up is going to be rough.  You will build from 7 miles a week to 25-30 miles per week over less than 2 months. 

Hi Everyone!  It's been forever since I've posted and checked up on everyone here.  I have a lot of catch up reading to do.

Carol's racing today, right?  Can't wait to hear about it!

Despite my crazy work schedule totally killing my training schedule (my logs are way behind) my family got me a Garmin 410 for mother's day.  Finally took it out for a 14 mile training bike ride yesterday and short run/walk this morning.  Looking forward to using it more often!!

Took my wetsuit out for a swim in the lake yesterday for the first time - wow - was that fun!  The added buoyancy was really reassuring and let me relax into the swim a bit.  I definitely swim a bit to the right and have to correct myself pretty regularly.  hmm.

Also, biked the race course with my husband yesterday - it was super flat and super straight, just a few turns, wide shoulders, and just a few bumpy patches.  We didn't push it too hard since we didn't know what to expect, so I was really happy to see that we did 14.2 miles in an hour (pretty good for me)

I know that I'm not really ready for my race in 2 weeks, so I've decided to keep training and be happy with just completing the race and enjoying the day.

Picked up the triathlete training bible and plan on giving that a read through to get some perspective.

Happy memorial day!

So I was a wopping 1 minute faster to the top of the 10 mile hill on Saturday, it was cold, windy, some rain some hail and the top of the pass is at the current snow level, brr.  I should have dug out my neopreem shoe covers.

Today was 1500 yard swim, 5 mile run, 20 mile bike.  The swim went well. I did 100 yard ladder up to around 1:45 per 100 at the top.  That is like 5 seconds faster than my best 50 pace last week.  I really recommend the Taormina book, Swim Speed Secrets.  It is not that she has anything earth shattering in there, but she describes how to do things that people tell you you should do, but you have no idea how to do.  For example people say I don't reach far enough out in front, so I should reach farther.  But she says ya no one is really built to reach that far so you need to stretch your shoulders so that you can and tells you how.  I know not rocket science, but gives you the practical how to do the thing she tells you you should be doing.  I started using the resistance cords to practice high elbow on land.  My shoulders don't quite do what they are supposed to, so I like the cord and strength practice.  My lats are sore though.  Anyway happy day off everyone. 

Ceril - Hi! Glad the wetsuit boosted your confidence! Good to hear from you.

Elena - you and I are similar in our HIM pursuit with a run base that has much room to improve. I decided to push my HIM back to September in hopes of have a more successful and fun race.

Carol - is your race this weekend???? I think I remember you telling us that. I have a hard time keeping track. I can't wait to hear about it and how the rental bike treated you.

Steve - one minute faster seems like a good improvement to me. What is up with the temperatures in your area?? Thanks for the book tips and recommended reading. Do you have any thoughts on what to do about pain in my right shoulder? I have been icing it and taking ibuprofen. Today was an 1800 yard swim and about a 3rd of the way in it started aching and feeling warm. I stopped and stretched it several times. Then during my run it got real sore again. Is it possible I am doing my stroke wrong and causing the pain? Or could my shoulder be so weak that the increased movement is too much? I know your not a doc, but you have great wisdom .

As of today I am committed to not miss another run in my planned training. Though it is the hardest for me to do I need to get it done and get the miles in no matter what. Today my run felt pretty good once I got out there. My timing is wrong so I am not actually sure how fast I was, but I did figure out how to get my mile splits. Tomorrow I will post them.

The soreness in your shoulder could be an imbalance in your stroke.  I have learned.. last week, that if you do not have a high elbow, you may be stressing your shoulder more than you need to.  I guess if you do it right your lats, delt and some other muscles share the load.  I have had issues in the past and giving it a little rest seemed to help. 

My feet were a bit sore on my runs so I figured both of the pairs of shoes I was rotating died about the same time.  If you go the the gym after a couple days off or buy some stretchy cords you can test your stroke.  Shoulder paralele to the ground, hand and forarm in a straight line bring the handle back with palm down all the way back to your hip.  It is way awkward.  I have also been stretching my shoulders every night to try to make the motion less awkward.  The swim book was like $12.  It contains the depth of my swim knowledge, perhaps our speedsters could chip in. 

It is funny I will miss a bike or swim before I skip a run 8).  Unless i have to.

Steve – Happy day off…   One of the things I was preparing to ask was the importance of negative splits, so I kind of figured where you were headed with the request for split times. I have not had any real long runs but the split times were showing me hitting a wall at 2-3 miles. The 5K Saturday was another example where mile one was 9:48 but final time was 33 min and change. Those final two miles were tough. Some of that might have been dealing with the heat and humidity, some was just fatigue with build week of Brick Thursday and trying to finish moving the stone on Friday. Nice weekend off!

I was using the MapMyRide program to collect split times. They recently had an upgrade and I am no longer getting this info. The last splits information I have is from May 13 4.4 mile run 8:59, 9:35, 10:13 and 10:41.

Building the run is proving to be as hard as you said. Not sure if it is my will, or fitness level but finding a way to comfortably fit in a fourth run per week has been tough.

Do you have any special toys to record splits?

I went on a long bike yesterday; 24 miles took nearly 2 hours but had some nice insights. First bringing some nutrition is important. I grabbed a power bar on the way out and was very glad I did. Second the Camelback can be a good way to help keep cool by adding ice in the bag it kept me a bit cooler.

Glad you all had nice productive weekends as well! Happy training !

Steve, I've got a few questions for you.  I have an Olympic scheduled for this Sunday.  My main goal is to get "the feel" of a triathlon, since I've only done 2 sprints and that was over ten years ago.  I plan on going all out, however.  I can't help myself in wanting to have some kind of goal with times, however.  Currently, my swimming with the wetsuit is somewhere around 2:10/100, so I am hoping to swim around that pace Sunday (about 35 minutes).  If it is more, I'm not that concerned.  With the bike, I've been doing around 17.5 mph on my 17-20 mile rides, staying out of an anaerobic heart rate.  What kind of effort should I give on the bike, with the run still to follow?  Do I push into the anaerobic heart rate, or keep to my training pace?  On the run, my 6 mile weekly runs, I am running about 10:30 pace with an aerobic heart rate (Zone 2, about 140 bpm).  When I go into anaerobic (Zone 4 about 165 bpm), my pace is around 9:00.  I have been going 10-15 minutes in this range, and it is hard, but sustainable (I'm thinking 5k pace).  I want to be spent at the end, but finish strong, and I guess I need some idea how to pace this thing.  Thanks.