Neweyes' Intelligent Trisign Group -- full (Page 3)

Hi Dan. Welcome.

On the diet front -- and this goes for everyone -- I just finished Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight. It's a reasonable starting point for developing your diet for training. The main takeaway for me was this -- if you're going to stay lean while supporting your training, let alone get leaner, your diet needs to be composed of high quality foods. Lots of fruits, veggies and whole grains, and high quality protein sources. Eg., I love Triscuits, but if I'm going to drop the ~8lb I want to before this summer, I think I have to give them up. If you have any specific diet questions, I'm happy to take a crack at them, but let me say this for now -- you might be surprised how good healthy food can taste. I used to eat like garbage, almost entirely from restaurants or processed and packaged food. It was all I knew, and that stuff is almost never healthy. Now that I know how to cook and have adjusted my tastebuds a bit, I can make a stirfry of tempeh and kale with brown rice that I genuinely think is delicious. For the record, the trick with stirfries is garlic, plenty of ginger, and a healthy dose of tamari/soy sauce. My point is, as you put down the crappy food (which chocolate and wine are not necessarily, they're among my favorites too, but they are calorie rich and so need to be limited) explore new dishes and hone your use of spices. Pick up a cookbook or use the web (there's a diet/nutrition forum on this site) and make sure your high quality training food tastes good. I promise that's not an oxymoron.

Dan, your Ironman goal is very ambitious, but maybe not totally unrealistic. As you may know, the race in Kona is the world championship Ironman race. Qualifying for it is non-trivial to say the least. It's gotten quite competitive. The timing is right though, since age groups are chunked by five years and you'll be on the younger side of yours five years from now. To put the timing in perspective, before last year I had done one sprint triathlon (which included some walking) and my "training" consisted of running 20-30 min sporadically. Last year I got serious, started following plans, and did an olympic tri and then a marathon. This year I'll build my endurance and compete in my first iron-distance race (Ironman is trademark WTC, iron-distance is any 140.6 race). If I like it and want to stick with it, I'll enter the 35-39 age group in 2014 and will push to Kona Qualify, or KQ as its known, then. If you're going to do it, it's go time. In fact, it's go time for your olympic in June too.

I count 16 weeks to the end of May and 20 weeks to mid-late June. Have you picked out a race? Find one here, check out the plans of various duration here (click on "view free", then from the pull down select triathlon -> olympic), make sure the timing is right, and then go ahead and sign up if you think the commitment will help. It does me. Like you were saying, the accountability to this group will certainly help. Learn to use the logs. You might sign up for an intermediate race too, maybe a 10k or a sprint tri around 1/2 - 2/3 of the way through your plan.

Good luck and happy training!!!

Okay....I'm kind of freaking out because my family and I are literally stuck in our house. We are being iced in as we speak. I took my day off training yesterday because the roads were supposed to be bad and am forced to take another day today as well. I hope I can get out tomorrow and get to the gym. I was due to swim and run today, but I'll have to push it off and possibly even double up a day. We'll see. Anyone else stranded out there?

Yo! That's nuts. Where are you?

It's actually supposed to get up to 7C (mid-40s F) tomorrow here (West Virginia), which will be the warmest I've seen in months. Looking forward to that run. And spring......

Checking in!

Tired legs and a nine mile run today. Still going strong!

Saturday, I'm meeting with a crew to bike the Miami Xterra Tri course! It should be fun - I'm sure I'll be left in the dust.

I'm supposed to do my long run on Saturday, but with the biking, that might get moved to Friday or Sunday. We'll see what happens.  

I'm in St. Louis. I'm actually getting out later this afternoon. We still have ice on the roads, but the main roads are clear. I'm off to the Y to get my workout in. I'm also going to take my 16 month old swimming. He loves it. I couldn't get my workout in the last two days, but I'm not behind, I just need to get my workouts in everyday for the next 5 days before I get another break.
No big deal!

Missy, I'm glad to hear you've been unfrozen. My folks live in Denver... they said it was 69 last Friday and -20 last night. 89 degree swing in five days. Nuts.

Elaine, 9 mile run and that's not the long one... awesome. Sounds like a big weekend. Enjoy.

I'm going to Baltimore this weekend to get fitted for, and hopefully to buy, a tri bike. It will be my first fitting and my first tri bike. I'm psyched.

I have a request for everyone... if we could all add our names to our signature lines, it would be easier to refer to each other as real human beings. To add it, click on the "settings" wrench up top, then in the second line of tabs, click "personalization," add your name to your signature, make sure "use your signature" is set to yes, and you're good to go. Now let's see if that worked for mine....

Any chance you still have an opening?

I could really use some training partners even if they are virtual. I am very interested in the physiology aspect of training and the "why things work/dont work" aspect. I did my first Sprint length tri last summer and ended up doing two Sprints and about 4 5k races.  I dont have much of a background in biking, swimming or running. I ran some in high school but didnt stick with it. One thing I like about triathlon is the possibility to be competitive in my age group. (at least in my small local race .

My plans this year are to run a half marathon, a few sprints, then finish the season with an Olympic length. The Half and Olympic will be my first of those events and hopefully help me to decide if I want to attempt a Half Iron in 2012.

Hey Terry. Welcome. Your plan for this year sounds a lot like my 2010 season. I really enjoyed it. So much so that I tacked on a marathon and a 50k to the end of it. The fitness gains come quickly at this stage... it's fun.

I see you've got the gold membership... do you have training plans picked out already? Races?


Edited by neweyes 2011-02-02 4:11 PM

Frozen and snowed in and ready to get out to do something.  14 inches of snow with a bit of ice.  Setting up the trainer for a while. 

Please help.  Tulsa Ok.  if you are curious it was a big storm. 

Hi Michael

I actually am using a cross between the half marathon and a custom plan. I really didnt know what plan to use as nothing fit exactly what I was looking for. I did the winter maintenance-run focus and am up to 10 miles on my long day. Most of the Olympic plans didnt have enough run miles and the swimmng was too much. So I did the mix. I still have trouble hitting the swim volume sometimes but otherwise it seems to be okay for now. I am doing run/4 days, bike/3 and swim/2. Running was weak for me last year at least compared to my other age groupers. So thats why I am focusing on that. Even though I have little swim volume, my times in the two sprints were better than average. So, Im not too concerned but have a goal of being able to swim non-stop the Olympic distance so I can complete one at the end of the year.  

It is addicting for sure!! I'm not crazy enough for a marathon, and cannot fathom the ultras!!!!!

Sounds like you've got a good mix going. I'm swimming 1-2x/week now and will go to 3x/week just 10 weeks before my A race. Unless you're exhausting yourself in the swim or are very slow or are unable to freestyle the whole thing (all three of which signal poor technique), it's such a small fraction of the total time that it would take a lot of work to cut off a significant amount of time in terms of the whole race. That said, that's least true at the olympic distance... for example, in my olympic last year, I spent 24/155 minutes = 15% in the water, vs. 9% and 7% in two sprints. I anticipate my IM swim will be ~10% of my race time. Also, building fitness by cycling and running will improve swim fitness, and by focusing on technique in the pool, even with less frequent swims, you can see big gains in swim speed.

BTW, when I collapsed on the lawn at the finish line of my first half last spring, I told Anne, my girlfriend, that I could not imagine doing twice that. The next day we signed up for a marathon 5 months out. So, call it crazy now, but wait and see....

HAHAHa funny!

You nailed it when talking about poor technique. I just started swimming last year and my learning has come from books, BT, etc. I read something then try to tweak my stroke and I usually dont do it correctly or misinterpret what it means. It seems every time I get into the pool my stroke is a bit different than last time. I think it would pay for me to get some lessons. I can do about a 1000 meters now non-stop up from barely being able to get across the pool last year, so I'm happy with that. My goal of being able to complete the Olympic swim portion seems soooo far away.


Have you ever had your VO2 max tested? If so, how does it benefit you as an athlete knowing the numbers? 

Please. If you can do 1000m non-stop, you'll get to your olympic distance no problem. If it's a wetsuit race you might be there already.

I've never tested VO2max or LT in a lab setting. I do periodic run and cycling LT tests, from which I set my training intensities, and that's been amazing. I was just thinking this morning about all the folks training with power meters on their bikes. The advantage to that is power changes instantly, so you can do 20 second intervals at a given power level, where you can't really do 20 second intervals at a certain HR, because your HR just doesn't respond that fast. Power also gives a nice measure of improvement. But what I was thinking about was how much I enjoy the feedback that HR training provides... that I always know exactly how hard I should be going... without that, well I used to always go too hard, so I struggled to up my endurance, but also I was unsure whether a workout was successful or not. Now I know -- this morning I did exactly what my plan called for, 2x20min at 85-90% of LT. My Garmin 305 may be my favorite purchase ever.

My 9 miler yesterday was mentally brutal. I gave in and walked a bit, but I toughed it out and finished the distance. Today's run is getting pushed to tomorrow, and Saturday's long run will be done Sunday. 

I'm looking forward to doing more swimming and biking when the month is over! 

Nice work. You getting plenty of carbs to refuel those muscles for the next one???

Does beer count as carbs?

Swim technique has been mentioned a couple of times. Can anyone suggest a few good video links that make it easy to see good technique? In particular, I'm having a hard time seeing what the stroke should look like underwater.

Hi Michael,

Is it too late to join this group? I know they posted that Winter/Spring mentor programs are closed, but the Neweyes' title says "open." If you are still taking people, here is a little background on my experience. 

I am fairly new to triathlons. I completed my first Sprint and Olympic distance last year. My goal for these races was just to finish. At the time, I thought my nutrition and fitness levels were good, but looking back I was sticking to a low to no fat diet, which is clearly a no-no especially when training. I've learned a lot over the past year and definitely want to do things differently this year. During the Sprint, I struggled the most with the swim portion. It was my first time swimming in open water with a wetsuit (led to hyperventilating). Between that race and the Olympic distance, I practiced more in open water (with the wetsuit) and it definitely helped; however, during the Olympic - I didn't put my face in the water even once (granted I was swimming in the Hudson River).

My goal this year is to improve my open water swim, and also improve my run time. During the Olympic run my knees really started to hurt. I think was a combination of not training properly and wearing out my running shoes right before the race.

Hello Michael!  If your mentor group is still Open, I am very interested in joining!  I am a Soldier in Baumholder, Germany.  I am originally from Austin, Tx.  I am going to be doing my first Triathlon here in Baumholder. 

I am VERY new to this way of life, but I am ready to jump in feet first.  I am 6'0, 170lbs.  I do regular Physical Training for work, but I KNOW that it is not enough to get me ready for what I will be doing at the end of June.

Any guidance would be amazing.  I still need to purchase a bike on a budget, unfortunately.  And I still need the gear that comes with the life.  Any advice, like I said, would be amazing.  Thank you so much for reading this.  I hope to hear from you soon.

Joshua

awesome. welcome, josh and nicole. i've had a hard time deciding when to close this group because it seems like quite a few people thought they were interested and then decided otherwise, or forgot. gotta love the resolutionaries. anyway, i think we'll close it now. this feels like a good bunch.

for swim technique videos, you might start here. if you feel like buying something, total immersion has a very strong reputation, especially among triathletes. there are swim drills all over the place. be iron fit is my training bible, and there are swim drills in that, also, if i remember correctly, in training plans for multisport athletes, which is also a great book and has plans for a variety of race distances. there are specific swim books for triathletes too, if you really want to get into it that way. lots of people like joining a masters swimming club... i suppose you probably get some feedback on form there. having a real live person to help is always a plus. this website is also a rich resource, in the articles and forums... be sure to look around.

on running, my father recently started training for a 5k. i sent the following to him this morning, regarding running form. if you've never worked on your running form, it's probably pretty bad. most people tend to naturally take way too big of strides. take a few weeks to work on it and work through the calf soreness... it will pay you back a thousand fold. here's what i wrote to him:



and finally, i'd like to introduce you all to my new baby. i finally stepped up and got a proper fit and a proper tri bike yesterday, and i'm thrilled with it. it's not the sexiest bike i've ever seen, but it fits me perfectly, and it's gonna be fast.

Hi Michael and group.

Nice looking ride---SWEET!!!! I'd be interested in knowing what you had before and how much of a time difference you will get that you can contribute soley to the bike. I as well stepped up to a new bike this year, I went to a carbon tri bike from a Trek 1.5 aluminum. We still have three feet of snow on the gound so havent been able to ride it yet.

I'm looking forward to see what sort of time difference I will see. This is the recovery week for me and am looking forward to lighter workouts.

Michael, I noticed that when I started going to a smaller stride, my shin splints got much better.  If I try to increase speed by longer strides, they come back with a vengeance. I have transitioned to smaller strides/quicker cadence over the last couple month and it seems to be working much better for me.

Are those the Bontrager Hilo Tri shoes?   Or what are they and how do you like them. The whole clipless pedal system is new to me and I'm still looking at shoes.

Terry -- that's good to hear about your shin splints. I used to have terrible knee problems, but they're nearly a non-issue at this point (wood knocked). Wearing quality running shoes with support insoles has helped, but I think the higher cadence has been critical.

The shoes are Shimiano tr-70's. They're custom moldable. I need a wide shoe, and there really isn't a quality wide tri-shoe. These are still a little tight on the widest part of my foot after the molding, but I think they'll work. I also think they're about half a size too big (what I get for ordering online), but there's very little slippage on the bike. They show up on bonktown (which I track here) from time to time for less than half of MSRP. They're very expensive otherwise, but pretty reasonable at half off. I just got them, and set of Speedplay X2 and am happy thus far. The Speedplays allow your feet to rotate freely on the pedals (called "free float"), which make knee stress less likely.

Off to hop on the rollers for my first ride on the new bike. We'll see how aerobars on rollers goes....

I missed my 4 miler before my big run this weekend, but I put in three hours on the mountain bike yesterday! So, I'm not too worried about the missed mileage.
I just got back from my 13-miler. It was really, really slow, but I'm trying to just build my mileage without injury, so I'm happy. I came home and jumped in the little plastic pool that I have in my yard for the dog. I had emptied a cooler of ice in it this afternoon
My nutrition has been good, with the exception of the past day an a half... I'm pretty sure the beer I had this weekend slowed me down a little. But, I had fun and I didn't totally neglect exercise.

Nice work! You're getting the miles in... slow is good. I'm a bit envious of your being in the build up to a race and pushing the mileage. That feels soooooooo far away from these winter workouts.

I have noticed that even one drink sometimes slows me down the next day. I don't think it's a hydration issue, and it doesn't always seem to. I'm not sure why it seems to be ok sometimes and not other times.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.