GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 30)

Diane,

In 2009, I had a case of bursitis in my left shoulder (to the point that lifting my arm to shoulder level was excruciating). It was also discovered I am tendonitis in both shoulders. (I also felt my shoulders were the weak point of my upper body.) I went to a physical therapist and she gave me some excercises to perform with a Theraband. If you want I can e-mail you a PDF of the stretches and strengthening excercises she gave me. I've noticed a big difference in shoulder strength.

Good luck Lisa!

Even smaller world...I used to live in the southern most apartment building at Hog's Back and Prince of Wales. I faced out over Mooney's Bay/rowing club. Living right above that club was pretty annoying on regatta weekends. Those pesky athletes starting their day prior to 7:30am when I am trying to sleep in...

That would be great!  Thanks so much.  I think my trainer knows what she is doing, has a degree in kinesiology and has fought through her own scoliosis to become a tri athlete.  She is working with others at the gym on shoulder issues, and has suceeded with some who failed with physical therapists.  But given how much this is limiting me, the more info I have the better!

I am off the boards for the most part this weekend to pursue my other passion, showing dogs.  Did the first show last night and two more to go.  This group certainly is prolific in posting!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  And Lisa, good luck again and stay warm tomorrow.  It is so darn cold here, we came out of the horse arena where this weekend's shows are being held with numb feet and hands last night!  Texas construction simply does not plan for this type of cold.

Steve,

Thanks #1 for supporting my use of protein products. I believe I've noticed a difference with them. Of the 3 different shakes I've used, I can't say one works better than the others. However the product I liked the most was pulled from the market due to mis-information (said dairy free but actually had dairy in it).

Thanks #2 for the reference to Paleo. I actually went and looked it at today after hearing a lot about it recently. In essence I 98% agree with it and have made major lifestyle changes to get closer to something like this. The biggest reason why I would have trouble committing to it is the time necessary. I find I struggle finding time to cook twice a week (and that's just for dinners). However, given the time, most of my dinners are close to Paleo like. My 2nd big struggle with this would be flavours. Sauces are garbage for you, but oh so yummy. I don't drown my meals but I also have not discovered how to make my own salad dressings or marinades or etc that I actually like.

Well I've finally caught up... (Thank you being at work not doing my normal job!) It has been some interesting reading.

I'm still on the fence about HRM's. I like the idea of having a quasi lactate/Vo2 max test to know my limits better than 220-age. Of the models I am looking at Polar 725 (or used 720i), I will be able to monitor a lot of my cycling activities.

Those of you with IT band issues, I'm curious...I just started running this past week (2 sessions, 5 min walk, 5 min run, repeated 3 times with a 5 min walk to finish). First time out (Thursday) my left knee felt tight and had a numb soreness on the left side and the back. I then went spinning and at the end of class with no load on, slow spinning, sitting up I had a fair amount of pain. 2nd try (Friday), the first run session the left side was quite uncomfortable. After slowing to a walk and starting to run again I had a dull ache on the side and back. From 1-10 it was about a 3-4. Is this 'normal' sounding ITBS? Today (Saturday), my left knee is stiff feeling sometimes with a small pain in the back... Kinda at a lose here as for what to do to proceed. Joint pain like this is not something I enjoy or like and I'm trying a tri to get healthier not tear my legs apart!

Edited by smarx 2010-01-09 1:14 PM

Wow, it's like a full time job keeping up with this board!

I just registered for the Multisport World Expo in Boston in March:

http://www.multisportworld.com/Boston.htm

I'm doing a beginner triathlete workshop and a TI clinic. Very excited!

Tracey

Thanks again for all the well wishes. Getting my things gathered up so I'm ready to leave by 4:45am. It was 19 degrees here this morning but I think it will be just above 20 degrees tomorrow AM and sunny. I realize a lot of you are from much colder climates, but like Diane said, Texas construction isn't made to stand up to this cold. Some of the news stories are very laughable though, like filming shoppers "hurrying" into the grocery stores bundled up or the custodians getting to the schools early to make sure the kids have heat when they get to school. But I remember vacationing in Minnesota in the summer time when they would have abnormal temps in the high 90s and the news stories that generated, as well.

STEVEB, fortunately no problems with the altitude adjustment for any of us, even with all the hiking that we did ... although the air was kind of thin at Independence Pass.

DIANE, good luck at the dog show. What kind of dogs do you show? That must be a fun hobby.

KASIA, sounds like you are on the right track with the shoes, good luck. When I was reading you post, I was thinking about the sock issue as well. I have some really thin socks to wear with my "tighter" shoes and thicker socks that feel more comfortable with others. That's a whole other discussion in itself.

TRACEY, the expo and seminars sound like fun. Maybe I'll have to plan a trip to NYC in April and check one of those expos out.

Guess I better get my running clothes out of the dryer, finish gathering my stuff up, and figure out what to have for dinner.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

I have tried a couple in the past, but they didn't seem to be very accurate. Currently I'm using RPE. I'll be interested in this discussion though and will try again if it seems like it is the best way to maximize training.
Mark

I use either chocolate milk or Accelerade. I also use a creatine supplement prior to workouts.
Mark

Well, there was ONE brave soul that didn't wear a wetsuit last year. I really don't know what it would be like with a sleeveless suit. I don't recall seeing too many at that race. I borrowed a friend's suit and it was a full body suit. When I jumped in to get ready for the swim it was still cold with the full wetsuit on.
Mark

Sounds awesome, I'm envious. Mark

ARTHUR -

Two strikes against me - down to my last one.

There are three stores in Ottawa that i figured might carry one or more of the adiZero models. One of them doesn't even carry adidas any more, and the other had some adidas - but no adiZero. The third one I will get to either Monday or Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed!

SHAUN and DIANE -

When my left shoulder was impinged, the PT came up with some Theraband exercises for me, but scrapped them in favor of some conventional work in the gym, which I was going to regularly, anyhow. But Theraband -- good therapy for bad shoulders!

SHAUN again -

Yes! I know the building! Sadly, too, I know the regatta scene -- which messed up one of my late-season swims there. I had to go across to the Terry Fox side and set out from there and go right past the beach, a route I don't really like. Better than nothing, I guess, but those punk rowers -- they act like there's a rowing club right there on the west side of the river!

SHAUN once more -

ITB, eh?

The good news, maybe, is that your pain is now in the back -- which is not a spot for ITB problems. The reason why this is good, maybe, is because ITB can be slow to resolve - not always, but sometimes. The back of the knee is a different soryt of problem, but no as dreaded as iliotibial band issues.



The iliotibial band is a low fascia that extends form the hip down to the knee, where it attaches just below it. The ITB is supposed to stay on one side of a structure called the lateral femoral condyle (or something close to that), but if it tightens it can start to rub back and forth over the l.f.c., resulting in inflammation and usually wicked pain. Walking in a straight line on a flat surface is i]usually okay, but running, and walking up and/or down stairs, will summon up the pain. For the run - well, you can't do it. And for stairs, they need to be navigated walking at a 45-degree angle to them and with the affected leg kept rigid.

So, ITB will hurt on the outside of the knee, right in the middle of the outside. There's also a condition that can act up just below this, and which is not related to the ITB; this is the popliteus tendon.

Icing and oral anti-inflams will help ITB symptoms, as will rolling close to the knee. This will help break up any scar tissue, but at this stage of your problem, if it even is ITB, there shouldn't be any scar tissue as you are not a repeat offender! Stretching for it is difficult, as it is fascia, and fascia doesn't respond reall well to stretching. Some of the hip stretches might help a bit, but there is no stretch that adequatrtely targets the ITB at the site of its problem.

Back of knee, though preferable to ITB, methinks! Keep me posted on this!

TRACEY -

I too have signed up for it, but haven't committed to anything that costs money yet. There are about three other things that lure me that weekend, but Multisport World is very desirable. What a great opportunity to spend my life's savings at the expo there!

I'm tempted by the TI Speed-Tuner and Chi Running Level 2. As for clinics, the Smooth Sailing one might help to keep me honest in my training -- or at least riddle me with guilt for being unstructured at times.

The choices you made are excellent -- well done!

IT'S GROOVE TIME FOR LISA TOMORROW!

USA FIT HALF-MARATHON

Sugar Land, TX
7am start


Mojo coming your way, Lisa! Have a great morning running to keep toasty!

Steve - B2B would be my 'A' race for the year, with k-town (Aug 3 weekend) an 'A-' and the Ottawa half marathon in May my 'A' running race.
 Previous HIM swim times were around 45 minutes (with pretty minimal swim training).
Concerning my 9 day cycle - day 1 and 2 are 12 hour work days..I run after work on day 2, day 3 and 4 I work 12 hour nights.. on day 3 I can do a long run or ride, or a swim and short run/ride, day 4 is a sleep day so no workout. day 5 I'm coming off the night shift, run after work in the morning then go home and sleep 3 or 4 hours. May bike when I get up. day 6, 7, 8, and 9 I can do anything but prefer not to swim on Sundays. 

CATHY -

Thank you for the decipheration of your work schedule. I will put it is my mental blender and puree it for a few days and see what transpires!

Actually, your schedule sounds like it allows more freedom thanI had thought it would. No, on second thought it's all you -- somehow crafting more than the allotted 24 hours out of a couple of those days. I think that's what I have to come to terms with -- how you manage to pull off so much over the course of that schedule. If Anne is the Queen of Compartmentalization, then you are the High Priestess of Time Management. Put the two of you in the same room, and you'd be ruling the universe in no time flat.

But i digress. Thank you also for the outline of your key races. And even though K-Town hasn't updated the website, I wrote to Mike B. a few weeks ago and race day is Sunday the 1st.

At 45 for an HIM swim, and with a sweet current at your feet in the channel at B2B, you should be fine topping out at 60-75 for your longest swim - more "minimal swim training"! It will be intersting to follow the discussions about B2B, as the supposed expert tide-watchers chime in with their predictions about what effect the strong incoming current will have on the race. have you looked at the results for '08? Holy-moly, there were some amazingly fast times, so if '10 is anything like '08, heck, you might be able to top-out at about 55 minutes for your longest swim!

As for rides......how are you fixing to handle long rides once mid-October hits up here? As I think I said earlier, i had toyed with the idea of doing B2B, but just decided to keep my life simple and finish up the season with MightyMan HIM on Oct. 4. As October progresssed, I was glad I made this decision and didn't feel compelled to get out there for 4-6 hour rides, as it just seemed chilly most days. Now, as I revisit thoughts of B2B, I know I will have to suck it up quite a bit and face the prospect of being mildly-chilled for several hours, for several days, tooling around the flatlands of eastern Ontario, where the wind doth blow endlessly -- if I even sign up for it. (Long odds for that.....)

But as for you --- any ideas? One I might suggest is to get your long rides out of the way by, say, Oct. 15, and then work on technique and efficiency for the final month. I'm sure your fitness will be in place by then, and if you've done your long rides (~100 miles) with no hardships, then your confidence will be there, too. Thoughts?

For me, I got the HRM because everyone said it was the way to maximize your training. But I started BOP and still am for the most part. It has taken me 2 years of training, albeit somewhat inconsistently, to get to the point where I even feel competent and SAFE to throw in some variable pace training, and in that case only when running. All my runs/bikes/swims have been slow and as long as I can go. I would always pick a pace that felt pretty easy and could usually stick with it for all my big training training sessions, although for running the pace would drop off significantly in the last 1/3 (and still does).

I got the HRM and was like, yeah, this will help me kick . I got it right away. And I mean, whatever right. If you came off the couch and you struggle to do the distance and your goal is to do an IM within a year, well, the only thing to do is go slow and long as often as possible and the HRM had no place for me in that journey. Now, if I had been into track or swimming or any endurance sport in the past and had the strength in my legs to handle variable pace workouts then I think the HRM would have been valuable.

Also, isn't the HRM most useful for running and less useful for biking and useless for swimming?

So, and especially with regards to running, how do you use the HRM and how would you contrast and compare using it as opposed to using pace zones such as McMillan and Daniels.

ANNE -

I've been thinking about what your were thinking about what I was thinking about swimming....and here's what I think:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes -- I agree with you on all those points you made. How hard it is to break 100 bpm! How close to death it feels to hit 132! How crappy a stroke can become! How fearful it is to think about hammering a 750m swim! How alluring the goal is to push a pace for even a relatively short distance!

BUT -- I maybe have something for you to try, which is "surging". I use this tactic to good effect in the later stages of flat ro rolling bikes, and what i do is almost over-pedal for about 20 seconds, then when I feel I am about to blow up, I back off until just under the point of feelibng comfortable -- then I will immediately bring the tempo right back up. I will repeat and repeat and repeat this, until I lose some of the effectiveness in the harder parts.

So, late in the '09 season I tried this in race swims, with the hard parts being characterized by more rapid turnover of my stroke. I would bring up my cadence by several spm and try to hold that until I either felt crappy or thought my stroke was getting sloppy; this usually happens within about 3o seconds. Then I would bring it back to more of a "cruise" until i felt recovered, and start the sequence again. And in shorter races, by cracky, it worked! I wasn't exactly a speed-burner, but when I wanted to I could pass people pretty easily. It was/is a very empowering thing to do......but many years of being on cruise-control, with long, leisurely strokes, makes it almost a default position to do anything else.

As a small aside, one of the gripes I have with TI is that it pretty much conditioned me to do the long and leisurely stroke thing. For me, anyhow, up to a point I simply swim faster when my arm turnover is higher. And in my other group I spent a lot of time trying to counsel one gutyb out of working so hard to get his strole count down to 13/14 for 25 yards. he was feeling gassed at the end of each length, and that's because his focus was on long strokes and glide, meaning that there was a longer period of time between each breath.

At least for me, I should've weaned myself from some of the TI teachings long before I actually did. Oh, well.

Anyhow, try the surge thing and see how that works. It will be best in your 50-meter pool, where you can cruise for maybe a third of a length, and then surge for the final two-thirds.

Re-reading your post, though....hey! It sounds as if you've turned a corner anyhow with recent successes in the pool, doing 100s that way now. Well, all RIGHT!!!!

Do you have a cadence counter, one of those discs that you can set to beep at a varying intervals, and that can be stuck under your swim cap and make you crazy --- but it's worth it because it forces you to stroke at whatever speed you choose? Got one of those? Nifty toy!

Finally, let me think about whether what we are talking about here is really muscular endurance, or more speed skills. Well, it's probably both, but as for relative proportions? I'm not sure about that.

SHAUN -

FINALLY, I'm getting to your detailed post from two days ago, on p.32!

Tell me again where you're living right now? I've gotten confused with your Ottawa connection and your Niagara-area connection, but think you're maybe near detroit? Or am I totally confused?
I'm just curious as to how close you are to Lansing and Welland, for the races you mentioned. Plus, it's just something I ought to know!

Hawk isalnd sounds very nice. It gets great raves on their website, and as you say, it seems very user-friendly. And the distnces are very accommodating. the bonus is that there is a fabulous music store in Lansing, Elderly Instruments. When I've done races in Chicago and Muncie, i have planned my travel routs to allow a visit to Elderly!

Welland will also be very user-friendly; that whole organization ids very good. I don't think you can go wrong with either hawk isalnd or Welland.

You sked about your race weight, but that's hard to say. What are you at now....and where would you like to be ideally....and how good are you at disciplined eating. I think you talked about this in one of your earliest psost, so even though I just asked the questions, let me go back first and see what you've said previously. Then if I need further info, I'll ask again.

Wetsuit? Definitely wait until much closer to race day, for the reasons you said. There's little to be gained from getting one now -- unless a great deal tumbles into your lap.

Okay, now for the biggest question , which is the race plan you should be following.

You have mentioned that your goal for the season would be an olympic, tentatively in September. (I mentioned Wasaga Beach as an option, didn't I?) With this in your mind, I can see your logic in using either of the two plans you linked me to. But, I think you might be better to gear up for the sprints in June, which would mean floowing a sprint plan or a 5km run plan.

Both of the plans you're considering are 20-week plans, which would land you just about smack-dab on June 6.....which would be greta if your race then was an oly. But seeing as how it;'s not, what you're really doing is overtraining for Hawk island. Overtraining has some advantages for an experienced racer, but it carries risks for someone who is just trying to wisely build up the distances. Your plan to start with a sprint is GREAT, and I can't stress enought he wisdom of starting modestly, especially when the start up is pretyty much across the board (that is, you are not coming into it with a special strength in any of the three sports). Now, so as to complement the wisdom of racing short at the start, i think you'd be best served by training short -- which a 20-week olympic plan won't really do.

Realistically, in order to pull off a 5km run on race day, all you need going into it is a maximum distance of 5km in training. Six would be good, 4.5 would serve quite well as adremaline will account for the "missing" half-km! Going so much further beyond that distance for you carries the risk of injury, which is just about the last thing you want.

Jumping ahead, by June 6 you have run 5km at leats once in a race, and maybe a few times previously. That would put you that much further along in the 20-week oly plan (I'll check exactly where when I finish this), ands you could then jump into that point in the 20-week oly schedule. Let's say you do Wasaga oly, which is Sept 12, i think, that would mean that from Hawk Isalnd you would have about 12 weeks. So, I'm sure we'll find that at 8 weeks into that plan you'll be doing sprint-type distnces, and the timing should be just about perfect for bopping into the oly plan.

For a sprint in June, you need to just come close to the required distances - for H.I. that would be a 400-meter swim, a 16km bike, and a 5km run (or in miles, .25/10/3.1.....pick your poison! ) Again, going ove riyt a bit is okay, but going over it by a lot is jsut risky. IMHO!

Let me know if this makes sense to you, okay?

MARK -

Ah, Accelerade! That adds a whole new dimension to the disussion, what with their 4:1 carb:protein ratio DURING exercise as being central to the formulation of both Accelerade and AccelGel. The discussion comes from popel who say that the protein really helps during exercise vrsus those who say that it isn't important at all. And from tere the discussion can branch out into what distances need to be tackled in order to justify using protein during exercise.

For HIM (and my two IM), I use Accelerade and/or AccelGel. My alst gel on a HIM bike will be an AccelGel, as will be my middle gel on the run. And for my IMs, I have had a bottle of Accelerade in my special needs bag, so that was with me from mile 56 to mile 112.

The specific recovery drink from the Accelerade people is Endurox, which I used to love. I suspect I still do, but as I said a few days ago, i have pretty much switched over to Recoverite. But if someone handed me Endurox, I could slurp it with glee!

Have you ever checked the webiste for Infinit? You can custom order formulations there, and part of the choices one can make include both protein and amino acids. If you're interested in checking it out, i can dig up the website. Playing with the "sliders" is a lot of fun! (You'll see what they are when you go there.)

MARK again -

It's www.infinitnutrition.us

Happy slidering!