Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Group version 3-CLOSED (Page 29)

Jamie-

WOW! That's a great workout. You're going to blow IMCHOO out of the water!!

Love your blog posts. They remind me of Trevor Wurtele's you tube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHhh_xj614

Good morning everyone. Time to get back on the bike. Currently I'm working my way through the last 6-7 episodes of Breaking Bad while riding so that makes it a little more tolerable.

Have a good Sunday!

Good question!

I guess the first question to ask is...how did you come up with your max heart rate?  If you went with the 220 - age formula you might be in the ballpark, but you might not.  Also, that metric sounds like it's useful, but it's really not that much.  More important is the Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR).  For most people, that is roughly your average HR over an all out 10K (if you finish somewhere around an hour more or less).  That LTHR becomes the anchor the other zones are calculated from.

The second question is...how are you going to use this information?  From my experience, HR variance (both from your actual HR AND dealing with the sometimes wacky readings on HRMs) is too high to utilize for training.  So, I go by pace.  I don't even use my HRM running unless I'm doing faster intervals.  There are a bunch of pacing calculators out there (I use the VDOT tables from Daniels Running Formula, but there are others).  First you run a race, or take a recent race result that you feel is indicative of your current fitness.  You then take this result and get pacing for different types of running:  Easy, Threshold, and VO2 Max (and maybe Speed).  Daniels calls these Easy, Theshold, Interval, and Rep paces. 

Hope this helps. 

This morning I ran in a 5k. Times are starting to come back down. I've also identified where the pace ( start of the 2 mile mark) slows down during the race. One of the biggest problems that I'm having is running shorter distances having come from an IM distance mindset. I'm always saving something for later... Which is fine for long course but doesn't work for shorter distances . If anyone has any helpful hints on how to get past this please let me know. I've never finished a race feeling like there wasn't anything left to give. No soreness, fatigue, heavy breathing..

OA Female Masters- 23:37

The best part about getting the award was  being introduced  as a Fabulous, Fit, Foxy Female Masters by the announcer. I told the announcer that I was also Fabulous and Fifty! It pays to be old and female!

Rene-great job!

Originally posted by GoldenSprocket

Originally posted by wannabefaster Kevin, how is the knee? Is everything a go for the marathon?

Everything is a go, no turning back now. The knee is definitely improving, although not quite 100%. I took it out for a test drive this a.m.. Did 6 miles at an easy pace. Felt great for the 1st 5 miles and then started feeling some tightness and a little bit of pain so I shut it down at 6. I plan on staying conservative this week with a couple of short runs(3 to 4 miles) probably on Wednesday and Friday. Hasn't been an ideal taper but I think I'll be good to go come Sunday.

Kevin, no need to sulk.. Although, I know how you feel. Jason and Randy can attest to the fact that I often sulk after races...

You should feel really good about your effort. Look at what you wrote a few days ago. You made it further today before your knee started to tighten up. For someone who didn't go into this 100% you had a good result. Try to take care of that knee and address the problem now that your race is over.

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon- eat, sleep and and ice. 

Originally posted by GoldenSprocket Kaboom! Massive blow up. 4:20 by my Garmin haven't bothered to look for official results yet. Knee was great, both calves locked up starting at about mile 12. From then on it was a walk, walk, shuffle, shuffle sufferfest. I'll post more tomorrow, today I'm sulking.

Hang in there Kevin. Glad the knee did OK. Take it easy with those calves......easy rolling, ice and some light stretching.

Well, a bit of an epic training week in the books for me. 145 miles in bike workouts...probably not my biggest week ever but in the ball park. 16,250 yards swimming.....easily my biggest week ever. Didn't really expect to do my full swim workout as I was tired heading to the pool but had some unexpected motivation  when one of my friends who is also on my Tri Team jumped into the lane next to me just after I started. Motivated me to not only do the workout but push harder than I planned.  We weren't actually competing with each other although I suspect we both went a little harder whenever we were swimming similar sets. It was fun. He is training for IM Cabo and probably has a good chance to qualify for Kona if he has a solid race.

Thanks for the advice on handling the fast long sets in swimming! I'll take your suggestion and try building into the sets -- that makes sense. You are right, swimming is a completely different beast than running and biking. For me, I think there's still an annoying little fear factor in the back of my mind of "what if I can't make it to the other side of the pool?" During my last workout, I could feel my calves start to cramp up during the last several sets. But I guess it's good I'm pushing myself....

Originally posted by PhoenixM So with February in less than a week ya'll, what do you hope to have accomplished by the 28th of that month? Mine is twofold: 1) Bike plan has me set to do 100 miles in total as well as get me up to 10 miles consistently per ride by month's end. 2) Run plan will have me up to 6 minutes of running and 24 minutes of walking per workout, compared to only 30 minutes of walking as of right now. I'm assuming that, since this plan is setting me up to do a 5k, that I'll be up to half a mile at a time by the end of the month. Whether I can spend a majority of that outdoors is yet to be determined; Georgia winters like to remind us that February is not the time to be throwing celebration parties as a result of its end. We will see though. I ended up heading home this weekend and took the time off (I really forgot my running shoes, but quality family time and a breather from school is a nice exchange.

Bryan, those are great goals for the month. Your steady progression to running will get you where you want to be sooner than you think.

Enjoy your break off from school next weekend.

I don't really have any "specific"  goals that I would like to meet by the end of next month. My main goals are to train consistently, sleep more, watch diet quality and drink more water. Oh, and I'd like to add back in daily Trigger Point therapy. I've gotten out of the habit of maintenance work. The things that I've listed are in my control. I need to start losing weight before race season starts up.

Easy run completed this morning. Decent week of training coming up.

Jamie- Glad I'm not doing that Tour.. Keep up the great work!!

I hope to steadily build my run mileage back up to where I'm running at least 20 mpw. This week is three 20 minute runs so it will take most of Feb. to build it up.

Well, they are calling for wintry weather down here on the Gulf Coast Tuesday and Wednesday. Wouldn't you know that I am scheduled to drive out of town for hearings and appointments both days. I grew up in Virginia so have some experience driving in Winter weather but boy is it a mess down here when we get snow or ice. Part of it is that people don't know how to drive in it and the other part is the cities/counties/State just doesn't have the equipment and experience to treat the roads. Maybe I'll get a "SNOW DAY"? 

Originally posted by GoldenSprocket Kaboom! Massive blow up. 4:20 by my Garmin haven't bothered to look for official results yet. Knee was great, both calves locked up starting at about mile 12. From then on it was a walk, walk, shuffle, shuffle sufferfest. I'll post more tomorrow, today I'm sulking.

Bummer on the race...marathons are a tough animal and it takes some folks years and they never figure it out.  Glad the knee held up. 

Morning Bikram, lunch trainer and short treadmill run.  My knee swelling is subsiding, which I thought it would given there wasn't any pain.  I missed my long run on Saturday but still had a good week nonetheless.

February goals:  repeat January with a little more volume, don't get injured. 

Oh, and plus whatever on the weather.  This winter sucks.  We're not supposed to get any precip until maybe the weekend but it's supposed to get azz cold again.  Single digits at night and highs in the teens.  They had to cancel the Polar Bear plunge on the Chesapeake this past weekend due to three foot waves and the water being slush.

Hi guys,

Sorry to have been out of the loop for a while...

So, I am very sad today...went to the orthopedic guy, Dr. Bastard.  Dr. Bastard says "no more running...EVER."  He is a bad man.

He was my second opinion though, (Dr. said the same thing in 2004..., so I'm really done.  Apparently, all the Hokas and Chi running in the world will not make it ok.  (BTW, I did get a 6 miler in b/4 seeing Dr. Bastard...and I did the Chi running w/my new Hokas and it DID make a difference!    )  I recommend both of those things for anyone who's knees are not as far gone as mine. 

So, the good news is that I can still bike and swim.  The bad news is that I really will miss having the race on the calendar and the incentive of the medal and t shirt!  I need to find something that I can be excited about that will keep me on track. 

It is not helping that I turn 50 tomorrow...this is soooo not how I wanted to go into 50.  Dang it! 

Signed, Old, beaten, and frumpy....