willie05's Group - Closed (Page 3)

You can add lots of your insight and experience as well! 

I thought I would start dropping in some random tips and thoughts from time to time.  Everyone else should feel free to do the same!  I read a couple of really good run and bike training workouts over the weekend, but naturally I left them at home, so I'll post them later.

One cheap item that I think are fantastic are Speedlaces.  These basically allow your running shoes to become slip-ons.  The laces are elastic that you lock in place so you never tie them.  There are a number of brands of them, and I believe BT sells Yankz which I use. 

I got them last year simply to make transitions go quicker, however the fit of your shoes becomes so much better that I think that is the real benefit.  The elastic laces stretch nicely so you get a very comfortable fit every time.

It's definitely worthwhile picking up a set!

Hey Scott - glad to see you haven't bailed on us already!

Our stories are remarkably similar, only difference is that I started on the Triathlon thing a year earlier!

A couple thoughts on your training.  As far as swimming goes, if you can find a pool to go to, I would highly recommend it.  It will be tough to do all your training in a lake, especially not until June.  By that time when your swimming in a lake, you'll want to be doing it to get used to swimming in a lake, not to be learning to swim long distances.  Plus at that time you may still need a wetsuit up there in the lake  (by August, probably not).  That's a tough way to learn.

For biking, if you can even get on a stationary bike now, you'll do yourself a lot of good.  Then by the spring and summer you can be working on the speed and building up endurance.

With your fitness, you'll have no problem finishing the race in August.  But trying to get in biking and swimming now will help you finish in the top half.  You may even want to try to find some other races to do in addition since you'll be doing great by then!

Regarding weightlifting, I'm definitely in the camp that says it's good for you.  But only if it's not at the expense of swimming/biking/running.  The general consensus seems to be you get faster and build endurance in those events by training in those events.  So you shouldn't sacrifice or reduce s/b/r training for lifting.

Personally I would love to lift more than I do.  This is the time of year that many people will lift to build strength now.  Then as the weather allows for more outdoor training and getting into race season, they cut it out.  If I'm doing 8-10 workouts per week, I'm definitely not lifting, because I'm not going to fit it in, and I also don't like doing just once per week and always being sore from that.

The exception for me is Core Strength workouts.  I definitely try to get those in 2-3 times per week, even in race season.  I feel that those exercises help so much in all three sports that they're well worth it, plus they make you feel good all around.

Thanks Mark - That looks like a great deal!  That bike goes for just under $700 at other shops, so you're getting everything else there listed for about $250 or so.  I have that Rocket Science transition bag listed.  It's excellent!  You can find a review for it here on the BT site.

Bob asked me about LT (Lactate Threshold), and what it meant, so I thought this would be a good topic to post for everyone.   Rather than try to put it in my own words, I swiped this paragraph from Outside Magazine where it puts it in easy to understand language:

“As your exercise intensity increases, your body needs to produce more energy to keep you moving. The faster you go, the more this additional energy is achieved without using oxygen, a process called anaerobic metabolism. A consequence of an increase in anaerobic metabolism is an increase in lactic acid, or lactate, in the bloodstream. Now lactate, in and of itself, isn't terrible stuff, it's just that the more of it you've got in your blood, the sooner you're going to have to stop what you are doing and sit down. Your lactate threshold is the point (it can be measured by heart rate or speed) at which you've got more lactate in your blood than you do at rest, but not so much more that you can't continue to exercise at the same intensity. Lactate threshold is important to endurance athletes because it sets the speed limit for any prolonged exercise session or race. A good training program will increase your lactate threshold, allowing you additional velocity without having to back off to recover.”

Now that you know more than most people about it, here's how you can use it!  First you need to know what your LT is, then based on that you can determine your zones very quickly.  As you'll see in these tests, you don't do these when you are just starting off with training, you need to have a good base to use the zones to your advantage and to even do the test.

I've taken most of the rest of this from Mike Ricci's site.  They have excellent articles (most of them are also here on BT) to learn from at this link:
http://www.d3multisport.com/articles.php
 

Running: 

Start with 10 minutes of easy running to get warmed up.  At that point start your Heart Rate Monitor (or hit the lap button).  Slowly increase your pace every minute for 20 minutes.  At the end of the 20 minutes, you should be going all out, giving it everything you've got, and when you're done you should have no energy left at all!

Check your average heart rate for those 20 minutes and that will be your LT.  To determine your zones, use the spreadsheet I've attached.  You just simply plug in heart rate, and all the zones are automatically calculated.

Biking:

The biking test is similar.  Move through the gears during the warmup, always keeping a 90 rpm.  Start the HRM to get the average over the last 20 minutes again.  To increase the intensity this time, though you should be increasing the gears while maintaining 90 rpm.

For both tests, you want to be running and riding on a level surface.

Finally to use the zones you've determined, I'll point you to this article on Ricci's site.  http://www.d3multisport.com/articles/beinginthezone.html

In a nutshell, zone 1 (up to 85% of LT) is good for recovery sessions, zone 2 (up to 91% of LT) for long runs and rides, zone 3 (up to 95% of LT) for even longer runs and rides, zones 4-5a for hard sessions during the week (this is right up to your LT), and above that you don't want to do much of!

I never heard of that before you posted this.  It looks pretty cool!  Here's a link from 24 Hour Fitness that sells it for $279 and includes a 3 month subscription.  http://mystore.24hourfitness.com/product_details.php?item=400005298004

You may be able to find it cheaper on ebay or somewhere else.  Good luck!

I should clarify that.  When I meant starting out, I meant really starting out new to running.  Most people who are new to running aren't running that long, and would have trouble progressively increasing speed over that length of time.  Basically, if you can complete the 30 min test, then I would say go ahead and do it. 

An alternate is called RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion.  There are articles here on BT about it, and some of the training plans use RPE instead of HR Zones.  I liked using RPE when I started because it made me think more about how my body was feeling and my effort rather than relying on a watch to tell me.  Now I use a combination of both.

Here's a chart that compares the two and shows a good meaning for each level.

RPE/HR Zone Chart

Z1 - Zone 1 or Recovery
Z2 - Zone 2 or Extensive endurance
Z3 - Zone 3 or Intensive endurance/muscular endurance
Z4 - Zone 4 or Sub-threshold
Z5a - Zone 5a or Threshold
Z5b- Zone 5b or Super-threshold
Z5c- Zone 5b or VO2 Max
 

To answer when to use them, most plans tell you what to do (the exception are the minutes only free plans).  I look at it like this - if I have short runs scheduled, I tend to do a warm up, then do interval training of fast running (not quite sprinting) followed by recovery and repeat a number of times then cool down.  During these runs, I start in z2 to warm up, then I'm alternating between z5 and recovering in z2/z3.  For longer runs I try to stay in z2, but as the length increases, my heart rate tends to keep increasing and go into z3 towards the end.  One of my goals this year to improve in these longer runs to keep my heart rate lower, but the hills here play havoc with

For timing during the year, most of the training now should be the z2 variety as you build up your base and extend how long you can run.  This will also help your speed.  Throughout the season, I mix in a day or two of interval training with one one long run per week at a slow pace (z2), and a medium length run faster paced in z3 for a total of 3-4 runs per week.  During the taper before a race (1-2 weeks before), I'm pretty much doing z2 only, but will still do one run per week of short intervals - just so I don't forget how to run hard at the end of a race!

Anyone have any good plans for the weekend, or any training?  We have my department's Winter Party tonight.  They're doing a murder-mystery thing plus dinner.  Should be interesting... 

Tomorrow I'm going to take a rest day, but probably do some core work and set up the new bike trainer I just got.  Tomorrow night we have our neighborhood's Winter Tour.  We go to about 6 houses around the neighborhood for 30 or so minutes each (it gets longer as the night goes on), and each house has a specialty drink plus beer, wine, munchies, etc.  You take your own cup.  It's great for cross-training - lots of walking and arm curls!

I also wanted to mention a couple things.  As you enter your training data and you see others' info, don't get caught in the trap of comparing yourself to them and thinking that you're not doing good, or that you should follow what that other person is doing.  Keep at your pace and your plan and you'll improve.  It's a losing battle to see a more advanced athlete and try to play catch-up!  People do that all the time.

Also, take advantage of this site and all the articles.  In addition to all the training articles, there are a bunch that are written about people's first triathlon experience and training.  You can learn so much from those!  I still remember one in particular that I read early on last year about someone struggling with open water swimming and having their family help out.  I remember thinking, "you mean not everybody's an expert at this?  Maybe I can do this after all!"

Scan through the forums if you get a chance.  Lots of good advice in the Triathlon Talk forum, the equipment one, and the weightloss one.  The other Mentor threads are also very good when you can pick out the questions and answers from them.

Remember to feel free to talk away on this thread and offer up your own advice and experiences to all of us!

Have a great weekend!