SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 3)

The thing I like about short/hard intervals this time of year is you can do hard workouts in a short period of time, which is ideal for the trainer. And focus on the run

As winter progresses, and you move onto other blocks in which you are looking for new adaptations you can go more to threshold

The when spring rolls around go to the longer rides.

Paulo posted a useful message on this. It was memorable because it was useful :-)

Michael and Marc did address this, but too add, you should ask on something you aren't sure about. That's what the forums are for! Intensity is the entire spectrum of "how hard?" and threshold is an approximate range within that spectrum. Usually about an hour all-in. A little over or under that is still thought of as working the threshold.

Not sure of how you're riding, but something that helped me the past year was to key in on two of my rides (I'll do 4x a week) for the higher intensity work. I'd balance out the other areas of the week and those rides so that I could hit them hard. Most rides for me were 2 hrs or so, maybe a bit more. But if the 2 x 20' or 5 x 4' left me too tired to really keep going, then I'd stop. If I was too tired to do any moderate work on the other two rides, I'd drop it down to easier pacing so that I could hit the next hard ride where I should. And for "easy", I like the minimum as IM level effort. It didn't always feel easy though. If it became too much to maintain, I'd stop as the rest would be better at that point.

WHEN CAN YOU START: Immediately

NAME: crazylife99 / Jen Burger

STORY: I grew up in California. I swam year round in high school ('95-'99), at one point was doing a mini tri every day but didn't realize it (4 mile bike ride to practice, 2 mile run, 2 1/2 hour swim and 4 mile bike ride home). I started bike riding in 2008 and did my first sprint that October. I've been living in Kansas City for the past two years and have been able to use bike riding as a way to meet new people.

FAMILY STATUS: I've been married for almost 7 years, no kids, no pets.

CURRENT TRAINING:  I train on my own and throw in a group bike riding every now and then. My biggest struggle is running, I have exercise induced asthma and only recently (last year) started taking medication, which I can still be stubborn about.

2012 RACES:  I did a few 100k bike rides and completed my first HIM. Not a terrific time, but I finished and 400 people who started did not.

2013 RACES:  I am signed up to do the same HIM (Kansas Ironman 70.3)... I have to improve my time! I also want to do the Kansas City marathon in October to see whether or not I could attempt a full IM in 2014.

WEIGHTLOSS: I've lost 20 lbs over the past 8 years and am back down to what I weighed in high school. Weight loss has never been a goal of mine, it's just naturally going to happen when bike riding 300 miles a month. I am trying to get more lean and toned.

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MEMBER OF THE GROUP: I am relatively new to the sport of triathlon so I'm always open to new ideas and sharing what I do know. While I only have two races planed for 2013, they are big goals for me and I would love to have the support of a group to push me along the way.

OCD much?  lol  Although I did have to run past my house to make it an even 6 myself. 

I thought the article Skiba linked was interesting, too. As usual for most ex phys studies, very small sample size.

I also wonder what the results might be with not-so-well-trained cyclists. As in, not off the couch, but barely (a few weeks to a few months, adequate for being able to sustain 20% of cycling at high intensity). One could probably also gather a greater N in that group

One of my routes comes in at 9.99, and I've never gone past. I cut it off at the route is what it is. Otherwise I'd never stop and end up overdoing it by always putting in that little bit more.

Welcome to the new members of the group!

Thanks for the thoughts on the head lamps.  I found a website selling what appears to be cheap knockoffs out of Hong Kong for stupid low prices and bought a couple from there to try out.  They will probably fall under the "get what you pay for" category but for $16 total including shipping I thought I'd give it a try.

Jason, there is nothing I hate more than having to run past my house to get to a round number on the distance.  When I start getting close to home I start calculating what I'm going to get to and add the extra distance before I make the final turn to home.  

I got a 5 mile, didn't feel like running run in today that included some hills. My son ran the first 2 miles with me so that made the time go a bit faster. 

I'd like  to increase my overall pace a bit over the next few months.

I'm pretty slow.

I am in for another round - glad to see everyone in the group, both old an new - to the new folks, welcome aboard - I lok forwad to getting to know you all.

Here is a bit about me - pretty much an edited cut-and-paste job from the first time I was in Fred's group - feel free to skip it if you have already read it (or even if you haven't!)

NAME: Rusty - yep, that is right: a grown man with a dog's name.

STORY: I come from a bike racing background - started racing mountain bikes when they were nothing more than beach cruisers with gears. I was really, really good at it, until the sport actually became popular - then, suddenly, I was not so good any more. I actually went backwards from most at the time and purchased a road bike to cross train for mountain biking - everyone else was crossing over from road to mountain - oh! the road bikes you could buy back then for next to nothing, simply because everyone quit buying them! Of course then LeMond went and won the Tour for his second time in rather dramatic fashion, and suddenly road cycling became slightly more popular - but it took a guy named Armstrong to come along later and make road bikes really expensive again. Fast forward a bit to 1991 - I had just graduated college and fell in with some strange folks that called themselves "triathletes." My roommate and I began racing dualthlons (called biathlons back then - no skis or rifles though) with this bunch of hooligans. Throughout that first summer we would train with them, which mostly consisted of hammering group rides, hammering runs, and then drinking beer on the boat while they swam to and fro. I still remember thinking how awesome it would be to be able to actually swim from one place to another. Near the end of that first summer and late on a Friday evening one of my buddies called me up to let me know that another one of our friends would not be able to make it to a triathlon race they had all signed up for, and wanted to know if I was interested. I laughed, as the extent of my swimming up to that point was basically from the back of the boat to the end of the ski rope. However I was easily convinced that I could do it when he told me the swim would only be 400 yards. Had he told me it would be a quarter of a mile, I most likely would not be typing this right now, but 400 yards on the other hand just didn't seem that far. Needless to say I did the race, and was 12th to last out of the water. I know this because the 12 of us dog paddled the entire course together at a nice conversational pace. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Your first race?"
Them: "Oh, yes!"
Me: "Mine too!"

I crushed the bike, and did great on the run, and was totally hooked - both line AND sinker. I have not done a straight up bike race, and very few duathlons since. I will never forget the day when I could finally swim 1/2 a mile in less than 20 minutes. I celebrated the occasion by immediately going out and buying my first speedo, which back then was the de rigueur race suit. Ah, the good old days. Just thinking of Kenny Souza almost brings a tear to my eye...

Over the past 20 years I have raced regularly, often competitively, in all kinds of events: dus, tris, adventure races, mountain biking, stage races, marathons, ultras, and relays. Over the years I have been healthy, injured, overweight, under weight, wicked fast, depressingly slow, absolutely rabid for the sport, and completely burned out. I would describe myself now as rather balanced all around. On occasion I can still find myself out competing for the Weekly World Championship trophy, but am trying to be a lot smarter with my training and racing. no matter what, first and foremost, this sport hobby is FUN!

FAMILY STATUS: That roommate I mentioned earlier? we lived together for 6 years and eventually decided that we liked each other a little bit. We subsequently got married and have remained happily so for the last 16 years. My best friend is simply awesome. She races herself, so she completely gets this ridiculousness. Training and racing is a big part of our social life - not sure if we travel to race or race to travel. No kids, dogs, cats, or even a fish (Edited to say we actually have a stray ca that recently took up with us).  A friend gave us a chia pet as a joke a couple of years ago, but it is still in its original packaging.

WORK: I am an educator and college administrator. I am the currently the Chair of the Architecture Program at Auburn University, and the Associate director of the Rural Studio, our remote design/build program in West Alabama. I live in Atlanta, Georgia however, so I am on the road quite bit between it all. As of tomorrow though I am officially on sabbatical for 8 months, and if I can stay healthy I plan on training like a pro for the entire time.

CURRENT TRAINING: After being self-trained my whole racing life, I took on a coach in 2010, and have really enjoyed it. I like the accountability, and I have learned a tremendous amount. At 47 years old, I have found that the things that used to work no longer do, and it has been important for this old dog to learn a lot of new tricks in order to remain competitive.  The number one thing my coach has done is to actually slow me down a bit and have me train a good bit less, but a whole lot smarter. I am a self-professed technology wonk - but gave it all up a few years ago as I really began to feel a little bit of a slave to all the gizmos. I got to where a poorly functioning HRM could really wreck an otherwise great workout. In the three years prior to becoming coached I threw it all away and trained and raced totally RPE. Call it a deep cleansing. That said, as part of my coaching, I have found myself once again completely jacked in: HR/GPS/Power - at first I did not pay much attention to it, it really just provided information for my coach. Over the course of a couple of yeas and with the guidance of my coach and input from this group, I have come to be able to use the feedback myself as another set of data points marbled in with RPE.

LAST YEAR'S RACES: Last year my big goal race last year was IM Lake Placid (2nd time at IMLP for me), which in large part due to the shepherding of this mentor group, was an absolute blast. I really enjoy going long and tackling tougher races. I did a couple of other 1/2 IM's, and a handful of olympics and sprints for fun. I also did a couple of distance swim races which were a ball (as I thought all those years ago when I couldn't swim a stroke, being able to swim somewhere actually IS pretty cool). Most of the races this past season were really aimed at finding my edges at the IM distance. A freak tumble on a trail run whacked my running tremendously, but I did find out a lot about how to maintain rn fitness when you cannot run at all. 

2013 RACES:
This year is the final year in a three year plan to see just how fast I can still get at the IM distance. Due to the 8 months off from work I can train, train, train like an pro and see what I am really capable of.

Current confirmed plans:
February: Thrill in the Hills HM trail race
May: Rev3 Knoxville (probably in for the olympic - I dont think I will race a HIM before my IM build this year)
June: 5k OWS

I will also do a fair number of organized century+ bike rides - I really like going long on the bike and after IMLP will be turning my attention toward qualifying for the Paris-Brest-Paris randonnée in 2015.

From May to the end of July, I am all-in for IM Lake Placid - for those three months, I will do a couple of sprints and/or olympics, but the focus will be on IMLP.

WEIGHT LOSS GOALS: For years when faced with the inevitable question "Why do you train like you do?" my stock answer was always "so I can eat and drink whatever I want." At about 35 years old, that was revised to "so that I can drink whatever I want." At 45, even that became no longer the case. For the past three years, I have raced best at about 153~156 pounds. between October and January, it would be normal for me to plump up to about 170lbs, and all I had to do was give up the martini (gin, of course) for about 6 weeks to get back to race weight. Last year that did not work. I seem to have a real problem with those "last 5 pounds." They are proving to be incredibly stubborn. This year I would actually really like to figure out what my ideal race weight might be. In the past year I have worked hard to increase my power, strength, and run durability. Along with that has come increased muscle mass; I have actually gained weight while IM training.

LIMITERS: For me, my current limiter is not one of the stages of the race - it is really my overall strength and power. For the last two years I worked on elevating my endurance and establishing a solid base with some basic strength work thrown in. This year I have an increased focus on strength training, so I am actually not much concerned about my weight, but rather my ratio of body fat and power/kg. I do think I have hit that time in my life though where I am staving off the inevitable. With 30 years of bike racing and 20+ years of triathlon racing in me I am not getting any faster. Instead I am working on just getting slower, slower. Candidly I am more than a little jealous of the adult-onset triathletes as they will keep getting faster for years to come! 

WHAT WOULD MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: OK - I make a living as a professional mentor. As such I have learned that for better or worse we spend the bulk of our life knowing all the answers and simply trying to figure out what questions we need to ask to get to the answers that we want to hear. I am here to forget the answers that I know, and to learn new questions to ask. I am wide open. Also, I am pretty scientific, but usually defer to experience over lab tests. This is a long game. As such I have always been a regular logger - I have about 10 years of paper logs followed up 12 years of digital logs. In addition to understanding that what works for me may not work for you, these logs have allowed me to see that what works for me this year may not work for me next. I look forward to learning from all of you - this seems to be a remarkably knowledgeable and accomplished group. My coach and I use TrainingPeaks to communicate, but I also post here as well if folks want to see - my logs are open. I speak with my coach several times a week, and we meet often. In my logs I sometimes include the short notes he provides when he builds my week, so they sometimes read kinda strange. I am really excited to be a part of this team.

Name: ligersandtions / Nicole

Story: Last year, my husband and some friends decided they wanted to give triathlon a try....I really had no interest until all of my normal scuba diving buddies started ditching me for running and riding, so I did the only logical thing....bought a bike and decided to start training.  Turns out I really enjoyed it and continue to have fun with it.

Unfortunately, back in July, I got hit by a truck while out on a training ride and have been nursing an undiagnosed knee injury since then, forcing me to miss my last two races of the season.  It's looking like I'll be scheduling surgery for early January, but hoping I'll be able to recover reasonably quickly and start building up to be able to do a few races this season.

Family Status: Married to a fellow triathlete, two dogs

2012 Races: Three sprints completed, one sprint and one Oly planned that did not happen in the end

2013 Races: Assuming the recovery goes smoothly, I'm planning a couple Oly's early in the year, Vineman 70.3 in July (currently on the wait list), and then a couple more races after (likely Oly or sprint distances)

Weightloss: Pretty happy with where my weight is

Winter Goals: Train hard before surgery in hopes that the recovery will be fast and minimal fitness will be lost.  Currently working through Jorge's TrainerRoad plan and hoping to make some big gains on the bike

What Would Make Me a Good Member: I like to ask lots of questions and soak up as much information as possible....I'd rather learn from mistakes that others have made than learning the hard way, so I try to absorb as much information as possible.  I also really enjoy having others to chat with about how things are going in training and racing.  Oh, and I log my workouts obsessively

Tomorrow I am going to read the group from front to back, but just quickly wanted to say I am happy to have another IMLP'r in the bunch! Hopefully Tasr (James) will join in for another round as well. He will also be racing IMLP again this year and is stone-cold fast. If you haven't already, you should introduce yourself in the IMLP group as well: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=453763. Without a doubt it is hands-down the best race group on BT year-in and year-out. It should get really hopping right after the new year.

To all the new "members" of the group.  Welcome.  The group is often fast paced, but if you have a question, just feel free to ask.

Love reading everyone's bios!

I signed up for the Rapha 500km challenge on Strava. I have to ride 500km in 8 days. If I do it, it will put me over 8000 biking miles this year. I think the weather will cooperate, unfortunately it will be the family/holiday obligation that might get in the way. I might have to ride to and from some holiday parties, LOL.

I saw that challenge...and chickened out.    8k miles is a huge milestone.

8000 miles is incredible!  I did an 8 day stretch of 571 km during IM training and it near killed me, LOL.  I have no doubt you can do it Sally.  

Seriously Sally - that is awesome - the Rapha challenge isn't going to stop you from hitting the swim goal is it?

Oh boy! I didn't even look at the swim and run totals. I wasn't planning on swimming at all next week...but now I have to! I know I won't hit 500 miles for running (which is the reason I was able to bike more) so no point in trying for that.

I appreciate the votes of confidence. My biggest ever bike week was around 200 miles, I think but I'll give it a go  

Go for it! The worst that happens is you get in some good riding, but come up a little short.