Benihana's Group - CLOSED (Page 3)

I'm full of goals. 

1. Get married, and don't let triathlon become a hindrance to the marriage.
2. Buy a house.  Interest rates sure are looking good! 
3. Finish Ironman in under 14 hours.
4. Ride 300 miles in 24 hours.  I'm now leaning towards the 24 hour time trial this Fall.
5. Learn how to swim...correctly.
6. 165 pounds, less than 10% body fat.

OK, Another qustion for all of you...what is your definition of a good mentor?  I want to make sure that I atleast MEET your expectations.  If that means, sending inpires every day, and checking on your your workouts, or simple encouragement, just being available to bounce questions off of, giving tips and advice on training, and how to try to still have time for family time, etc...let me know (either here, or shoot me a PM if you wish).  I just want to make sure you get as much out of this as you anticipated you would

Thanks

ben 

I am sure this can be arranged...you are shooting for Buffalo as your first race, right??  Are you doing the sprint or Olympic?

Definately depends on which way you look at it!!  

BTW, great job in logging your workouts, it is helpful for me to look at when it comes to making suggestions!

Ben, I think you pretty much summed it up with my expectations.  I saw how these mentor groups progressed when I first started on BT, but was too late to get into one.  So I figured I'd try this time.  But I think it'll be good to encourage one another, help each other out with a few tips, monitor each other's progress, and maybe just talk about nothing.

Here's a couple of things on my mind.
1. Has anybody else seen the thread on the stats on Lance Armstrong?  RHR in the mid 30's, yet a max HR of 201!?!  And he averages 20+ on his 4-6 hour training rides while maintaining a HR of 128!?!  The thing that really sticks out to me is how he is so efficient at a HR much lower than his max HR.  Any thoughts on lower HR training (zone 1 - zone 2) vs higher HR training (zone 3 - zone 4)?  My plan calls for nearly every single workout to be in zones 1 and 2, and I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to sneak into zones 3 and 4 occasionally.  However, with my lack of base, it really seems that for an Ironman it is more beneficial to stay in the lower zones.
2. How do you guys balance the tri-lifestyle with everything life brings at you?  I'm lucky to have a job where everything is calm and I'm not stressed out working crazy hours, but I still am finding it pretty difficult to try to do other things other than eat, sleep, work, and train!

To answer your questions on HR's/Lance

1.  Lance is a FREAK!!  I think I remember seeing a Discovery show about him that said his heart is about 20-30% larger than an avg. person, and therefore can push more blood, with less effort.  Also, he clears the lactate in his blood EXTREMELY fast compared to the rest of us morals.

 As far as his training rides at 20+ in Z1-Z2, that is someting that will differ in all people based on their Lactate Threshold (LT) and Max HR in a specific sport.  For example, my LT is about 160 on the bike, and about 166 for running.  Therefore my bike Z1 is from 105 - 127.  On my longer rides last year, I would be at about 119/120 bpm, and I would be pushing 20mph +/-.  Now, in no way am I suggesting that I am as good Lance, but what I am saying that his Max HR & LT are completely different, and that he is a FREAK!!

To address your second question in #1 about what you should be training at, I would say, if you plan on racing at ~120bpm on the bike in your IM,  then that is where you should be training at.  Last year in my HIM I trained at the ~120 mark for 3+hour rides, however, I rode the race @ ~140 (142 bpm was my avg.) and I paid for it BIG TIME on the run.  This year I will be doing my Long rides at a higher HR so that my body gets used to that pace and is not shocked come race day.  With that said, I still think you have time to (slightly) adjust your "pace" for your IM if you work at it, but I would caution you from going to crazy, as you will still have to complete a marathon after the bike.

To address your other question about lifestyle, that is one of the hardest thing to deal with, as you hit it right on the head.  During last summer my regimine was get up, eat, go to work, eat, come home, eat, go work out, eat, go to bed, repeat!  This year will be a lot different as my Wife and I are expecting our first child (a girl) on June 1st.  It will alter my training quite a bit, but for the better.  PLus, it helps to have a significant other that is supportive of your training.  As far as balancing them, I had a hard time, but was known to come home from a long run/ride/hard workout and go for a walk with Chantel on multiple ocassions, just so that were able to spend time together.  Training for these long course races is not only hard on the body, but it is also hard on relationships/family life if you aren't willing to make more sacrifices of your own, if that makes sense.

Hope that answers them all

Ben

Sandy - My first reccomendation would be to subscribe (via email) to the updates of this thread.  That will tell you whenever anyone updates it.  To do that, go click at the bottom of the page "
Toggle E-mail Notification" and subscribe to the thread. Then everytime someone posts something, there will be an e-mail that will contain a link right back to the thread.  Let me know if you need help with any of this, or have questions

As far as being in two mentoring groups, I would reccomend only being in one.  That way if someone else wants to take your place they can.  If you want to stay with us, that is wonderful, if you want to be with the other group, no worries...but you are more than welcome here.

Let us know what questions you have, as they come up.  Also, as you complete workouts, if you are able to, please log them in your training log here on BT, that way we all can help give pointers, and well wishes!

Ben 

Sandy - Glad to hear you want to stick around, and thanks for the hall pass for June, although I am planning on taking a week or two off...most of which will be spent changing diapers, but the other waking hours will be spent getting solid workouts in!

Sounds like you have a motivator for goal 1

For goal #2, I think you are in the right frame of mind...if you OVER prepare, it will be easy!

For goal #3, that is where things get a little tougher.  The one thing I was told a long time ago by a personal traininer is to always eat breakfast (it starts your metabolism for the day), to eat SMALL meals through out the day as opposed to gorging ourselves at lunch and diner, as our bodies can only process a certain amount of calories at one time, if they can't be coverted into energy, they converted into fat.  And the 3rd thing, which happens top be one of the toughest, is to not eat ANYTHING within 2 hours of going to bed.  This allows your body to digest the food you ate for dinner, and not have anything in your stomach when you go to bed, which is when your metabolism slows down.

As far as what to eat & how often, that is also hard to say...I would say eat when you are hungry, and go from there.  There were times last summer (usually on Mondays and Tuesdays which are the days after my Long runs and Long Bikes) where I eat my lunch I packed at 11am, wait about 60-75 minutes, and go down to the cafeteria and get a 2nd, (yes a 2nd) lunch.  So, eat when you are hungry, but try to eat things that are good for you as well...I love Candy, this one is the hardest for me!

First off, welcome Sandy!  Glad you are here.

Ben, you're totally making sense.  I definitely need to spend most of my time where I plan on racing, and I plan on racing at low zone 2 simply because that's where I feel most comfortable from an endurance standpoint.

Jason, testing sounds awesome!  It sounds like you have everything you need analyzed, so all you have to do is follow a plan and stick with the numbers.  I like numbers!  I'm an engineer.  The only drawback I see is cost.  It seems like that could get a bit expensive.  Any ideas on pricing?  There is an article by Mike Ricci here on BT that I used to figure out my LT for the bike back last summer, and it calculated to 166.  I used my last 5k time as a run LT, as I've heard this is a good estimate.  Have you guys found this to be true?

With nutrition, I think Ben nailed it.  You really have to listen to your body.  It knows when it needs food.  At the new year, I started trying to eat 6 meals a day, all between 300-600 calories, in addition to 300-350 calories per hour for all workouts 2 hours or more.  I'm not really sure where I came up with this, and I'm really not sure if it's right or wrong, but it seems to be working here recently.

And I'm not always hungry.  I could always eat, but I'm not always hungry.  I think there's a difference that alot of people don't see between hungry and just being able to eat.  At least, that's something I used to struggle with.  Another struggle of mine was knowing when to put down the fork.  I used to find it so hard not to eat and eat until I couldn't eat anymore.  Every meal.  This is how I was raised.  Finding the point where I had sufficiently fed myself really has helped me keep the weight off.  And maybe this training has too!