bschulte mentor Group - Closed (Page 3)

Lance,

Thanks for the ipod holder info.  It can get pretty boring in the pool at time, especially if you swim in a pool which isn't very busy.  As far as swim toys goes.  Each has a purpose, but frankly I don't see many folks work with them hard enough to benefit from them.  For instance a kickboard.  Obviously it's for working you legs.  Too many time's I see people use their kick sets to just leisurely kick back and forth, like it is a rest break.  If you work your kick sets (your legs should be tired when you are finished with them) I think you get some benefit.  Same thing with paddles, they are to add strength to your shoulders and arms, but it you don't pull just as hard as you do when you swim without them, they are simply helping you go a little faster in the water and not really building strength.  Having said all that, I don't use paddles, buoy's, and boards much in my swim workouts, but if you are trying to build swim strength vs. swim endurance, I think there is a place for them if used correctly.

Just my 2 cents.

Awesome race Ryan and great pacing.  Good judgment call on your RPE (real perceived effort) at mile 5.  For racing under 2 hours feel is more important than the HR data, so dropping the hammer at that point is what got you the sub 7:00 goal, sweet!

Marie also raced yesterday, how did it go Marie?

Came so close to nailing on of my goals this morning. 

I have a goal of sub 1:30/100m swim pace.  This morning I did my final 400 in 6:03.  So close.  Maybe a few more months. 

I just finished my brick for the weekend.  20.2 miles on the bike in 60 minutes, straight to the run for 6.2 miles in 60 minutes.  Question for you Brent, for a typical workout, where do you try to maintain your heart rate?  I was averaging about 152 bpm for the two hours today (about 80% of max) considering for my age my max s/b about 180. 

With racing just around the corner I bet you'll be there in less than a couple months.  Our bodies adapt when we start racing and we get faster.  Great swim.

Lance it a tough question to answer without knowing your anaerobic threshold HR.  I am guessing you haven't been tested for that. This is the HR at which your body has to start burning glycogen at a higher rate (in addition to fat) to feed your muscles.  Some signs that you are at your AT (anaerobic threshold) are, your muscles start to burn (just a little) your exhale starts to become more pronounced.  The industry has not standardized all of the terms for this yet so you may have heard this called other things.  As you HR increases the next threshold is your Lactate Threshold.  This is the point where you are producing more lactic acid (byproduct from burning sugars or glycogen) than it can get rid of.  You can function long above this level.  There is a ton more to talk about here but it starts to get complicated, so for now I'll spare you all.  

If I were to use some generalities for you.  I happen to also be 42 so I am familiar with the ranges for our age.  Yes our theoretical max HR is 180, I'm guessing your resting HR is about 60.  That would put your AT about 142 and your LT about 155 (very general here as I don't have the specifics and everyone is different).  I guessing you were pretty tired when you got done with that workout!  You were in  zone 3 for the entire workout.  For comparison, I race marathon pace at low zone 3.

As discussed a little bit in a earlier post there is a place for each exertion level in our workouts.  Your workout today, my training would call an endurance workout, of which about 10-15% of my total weekly volume is at this level.

It was a great workout for sure, but you don't alway want to go that fast.  AS a topic of the week starting tomorrow I am going to start discussing different exertions levels and the physiological benefit of each, so stay tuned.

Brent 

Well I feel guilty I did a dive class here in sunny fl and had a couple drinks tonight. No workout for me wish I would have ran a race instead to talk about. Good job all I am jealous of you guys weird wishing I had worked out instead of diving. Guess I really have the tri bug.

It went great! I was about 10 min. faster than even my best expected time and I even passed people on the run (I never pass people on the run!)

But it's after midnight here so I have to go to bed. I'll do my race report tomorrow. I did write something for my blog though.

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-iz-triathlete.html

I'm already worried about Wildflower though. The 4 mile run today was killer and now I have to run 6. Hopefully it won't be 90 degrees out when I do it and that will help.

Congratulations, well done!

Awesome job Mcdame I read your blog this am hope my race in a couple weeks turns out as good as yours.

sorry macmadame

I'm sure it will be awesome. Everyone is so friendly and gave me lots of helpful advice. Like "just have fun". I did and that made everything go better, I think.


I just checked and I came in 385 out of 404. Still don't know how I did in my division.

All the pools were closed so went to the beach did another open water swim waves were picking up did a lot of looking up was able to stay on track until coming back against the waves. They pushed me in a bit. Had people yelling at me from the beach you would think they never saw an idiot out swimming in 3 foot surf. One guy actually through a football at me didnt come close so I stopped and yelled Im ok. Just thought you guys would get some amusement out of my swim.

fireman 70,

I wish that I had an opportunity to do an open water swim right now, but unfortunately here in CO, we have had a foot of snow 2 of the last 3 weekends and the only place to open swim is in the resevoirs that were cold as crap before they fill up with snow run off.  The temps in these resevoirs now is probably about 40 degrees max, and to be honest I want to see how my wetsuit works, but not that bad.  I have to figure out now if I look like a dork and test the suit in the pool, or wait until mid-May to figure it out.  I am debating doing a sprint tri on 5/17, knowing that I will be doing a HIM on June 7, just to work on the transitions and swimming in the suit.....

Good for you getting out.

Hi Folks,

Work has been a little bit crazy today and will be tomorrow through Thursday, so sorry I've been a bit absent.  I'll try to get the TOTW post out in the next couple days.

Brent

Hi All,

I short break in my meeting today so I thought I would get this post out on a Topic of the Week (TOTW).  After thinking a little about where to start, I think we should start with the basics of Heart Rate Training. 

As a disclaimer, I don't claim to know everything on this subject and this is my understanding of the material.  As we move through the discussions, please push back if I make a statement which doesn't seem right as I am always trying to get a better grasp of the vast amount of knowledge out there.

There are 3 basic camps to training.

1.  RPE (real perceived effort)
2.  Heart Rate
3.  Power
The fourth I would suppose would be the combination of HR and Power.

RPE doesn't require an "equipment" at all.  Heart Rate requires a heart rate monitor, and Power requires a power meter on your bike.  Heart rate monitors have become pretty inexpensive (base models are about $50).  As far as bang for the buck, in my opinion HR is the best.  Power is more scientific, but power meters are quite expensive.  So from a bang for the buck perspective, let's focus on Heart Rate training.

Before we get started, a quick poll.

Who uses a HR monitor already, and on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate yourselves on how to use the data it provides to you?

Simply make a quick post with your answers.  This will help me structure the discussion.

Thanks,

Brent

I use Suunto t4. I base it off my run hr I realize when I am above 180 or if I am in the 170 for to long it will get me in the end. Did not use it during the marathon. I use it for runs primarily but dont pay to much attention to it.

I used to use HR for both bike and run.  I have a Garmin 305.  

Now I have a Powertap on my bike and I go by pace on my run.  I even tried to use HR last night but could not stand the feeling of the strap around my chest.  

I have a coach who lays out my power zones and pacing zones but the power zones follow Allen and Coggan thoughts and pacing follows Jack Daniels thoughts. 

I use a Polar RS200 - I keep an eye out on zones for biking and running, and in races to make sure I'm not going above Z3. Doesn't really work in the pool so I don't bother with it. Didn't get the foot pod to track miles but have been thinking about it in preperation for IMFL. Would love some tips on how to get better use or reason to upgrade to a Garmin

Oh and I would guess a 6 on use of data from it???

Edited by mburkhart 2009-04-21 9:10 PM

I use the Timex race trainer with the zone alerts and have been for the last couple of weeks.  It has a GPS disc similar to some of the Garmin products, so I will be trying to use it for my ride to work.  So far I have found it pretty useful on the run and on the stationary bike to measure BPM and work within specific zones.

I have a Reebok Precision XT. I don't like it very much so I'm interested in what other ones do...

I use it to estimate my calories burned during biking and swimming and I use the HR to help pace myself on the run. I find that RPE doesn't work too well for me when running, but using my HR does.

I don't feel like I'm using my HRM very effectively at all though. Part of that is that it doesn't have certain features that I wish it did, but part of it is that I don't really know what my zones are or what I should do with them.

Off the topic here but did a bike ride the other day and my toes go to sleep sometimes. Did not happen today but did a sprint distance today swim bike run. Why is it my second toe in from the outside goes to sleep any ideas?