jsnowash's training group - FULL!! (Page 30)

jsnowash - 2010-08-29 3:20 AM Hey guys! Sorry I've been gone so long! We just got back (yesterday afternoon) from our final family vacation of the summer. Every summer we spend a week in the Catskills at the end of August. There is a large YMCA camp located within the boundaries of the Catskill state park. After the end of their summer camp season, they have one week of "Family Camp". We've been going to family camp with my husband's brother's family (they have kids close in age to our kids - the kids LOVE spending time with their cousins!) for several years now. It's one of the kids' (and our) favorite vacations! The weather was a little cool and drizzly for most of the week this year, but we had a great time anyway. Big congrats to Lovey, Carl, and Kiwi on your races last weekend! Lovey - way to go conquering your fears on that swim, and finishing an awesome race! Carl and Kiwi - awesome improvements for both of you! Kiwi - congrats to your mom as well! I got lots of running in this week, and my marathon prep is right on schedule. After tomorrow's planned long run (18 miles) I'll hit 50 miles for this week. I have what will probably be my last tri of the season next weekend, a small, local sprint. There is a fairly large group of people that I train with locally who do this race, so it's always a lot of fun. My husband will be participating this year too - his first triathlon! He did his first open water swim last week when we were in the Catskills. He did great! He wore a borrowed wetsuit, and I think it helped. It's supposed to be pretty warm again this week, so I'm not sure if the swim in our race next weekend will be wetsuit legal or not... it's pretty short (400 yards), but I hope for his sake he can use the wetsuit - I just think he'll have an easier time if he can... One more week of summer vacation for the kiddos - then back to school! We have lots of school shopping to do this week! Keep up the good work, everyone!!!

jsnowash - 2010-08-31 2:05 AM Jeff - I've sort of hybridized plans from Pfitzinger/Daniels' book Advanced Marathoning and the intermediate plan on the Cool Running website: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/128.shtml.Pfitzinger/Daniels is a bit higher volume (which seems to be working well for me), and I like the way the Cool Running plan has the longest runs planned every other week toward the end, which is where I'm getting to now... Good luck with your marathon! When is it?

Lovey - 2010-08-28 7:54 PM I think the heat is still burned in everybody's memory who did the Eagleman race. I plan to do the Celtic Solstice too, snow storm or not. I opted not to go last year plus my hubby hid my keys. Good Luck at Warrior Dash. They posted a video of one on facebook. All I can say is WOW!! Here is my outrageous running schedule: 09.04 Knights of Columbus 10K (race or volunteer, most likely volunteer so I can rest my legs) 09.19 Philly Half Mary (MAYBE??) 10.16 Baltimore Half 10.31 Marine Corp 10K 11.14 Columbia Metric Marathon (16.2 miles) 12.18 Celtic Solstice 5 miler Lovey

guticur - 2010-09-01 8:34 PM

Soooo... I went for a jog today. Planned for 1 hour but turned into a tempo 45 min run. I was targeting HR of 160 (zone 3ish) and accomplished it. Here is my predicament: According to my Nike plus I only ran at an 11 min/mile pace. I recalibrate it frequently at a 10min/mile pace on a treadmill. It certainly felt like I was going faster (effort). I know we had high temps today which could affect my HR, but this happened to me again yesterday morning when running intervals at a 65F temp (ran shorter distance than expected according to Nike plus). I wonder if the issue is that as you run faster your stride elongates a bit, and at a similar cadence the device is underestimating the distance. Has anyone else had the same issue?
 

jsnowash - 2010-09-02 7:40 AM Fernando, You've hit on one of the major problems with foot-pod based distance devices.... Most people do have a different stride length and turnover rate at different paces, so I would guess your pace might have been off to some degree. First, I would suggest calibrating the Nike plus somewhere other than a treadmill (treadmill distances may not be 100% accurate, and having the moving belt might also result in slightly different stride length, turnover rate, etc. compared to outdoor running). I suggest you find a measured track somewhere - my gym has an indoor track, and there is also a nice track at our local high school and a college track nearby as well. Go to the track and calibrate it. The longer distance you can use for the calibration, the better. Then you can try running measured distances on the track at different levels of effort and see if the calibration setting works for you at different paces. I have a Garmin, and bought a foot pod thinking I might use it indoors for tempo or interval runs, but I found that there was quite a bit of variability at different paces, and pretty much abandoned use of the foot pod.... That said, though - try not to get too caught up on what your pace is for your day to day training runs. You will have days when you feel great and go out and run really well, and days when you feel like you ran like cr@p. The main thing is to get out and do the training. If you train at the proper intensity levels, follow a good plan, get the rest and nutrition you need, and taper well for your races, you'll do fine. My run training paces are all over the map - sometimes up near 11 min/mile for long runs or recovery runs when I'm trying to keep the effort in Zone 2, and sometimes down around 7:30 for half-mile repeats. Some days are slower, some days are faster. Weather, hydration, fatigue, stress, and any number of other factors can all affect how you run on any given day. Try not to fret too much about any single day's training, and remember that it's the cumulative effect of ALL of your training that really matters!

Lovey - 2010-09-03 11:27 AM

My weekend is jammed pack.

I am volunteering at a race at 6:30am. I am running a 12 mile course BEFORE so I end at the race site. My run STARTS at a unbelievable 3:30. Then off to volunteer for a couple of hours, then home to shower and change, then finally to my church's shopping trip at the outlets. I will be on my feet all day and very exhausted.

My kids will be with their Dad.

Sunday is an early morning short swim of 20-30 mins followed by a 10 mile ride. Then church, followed my house cleaning.

Monday is rest, rest ,rest.

jsnowash - 2010-09-03 9:44 AM Wow - Labor Day Weekend already - the unofficial end of summer! Can you believe it? The kids head back to school on Tuesday - summer has just flown by! Anybody have any exciting plans this weekend? I race in what will likely be my last tri of the season tomorrow, and my husband's first triathlon ever! He keeps telling our kids that he probably won't survive the race, so they need to come along with us tomorrow so they can say good-bye to him! He'll do fine... It's a small, fun, low key race (although there are always some very fast people who show up as well), and there's a fairly large group of local folks participating, so it should be fun! I may participate in a Half-Ironman relay in October (I'll do the run). After this weekend, it's full-on marathon prep and spinning classes (I officially begin teaching after Labor Day) for the rest of the fall! I think over winter I will try to maintain some higher volume running (25 - 30 mpw), but focus more on biking for next season. I'm considering a LiveSTRONG Century ride next August, and will probably do another HIM next season, so winter will be a good time for me to work on some bike fitness.... (guess I should do a little swimming somewhere in there, too!!) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lovey - 2010-09-04 8:27 AM My weekend is jammed pack. I am volunteering at a race at 6:30am. I am running a 12 mile course BEFORE so I end at the race site. My run STARTS at a unbelievable 3:30. Then off to volunteer for a couple of hours, then home to shower and change, then finally to my church's shopping trip at the outlets. I will be on my feet all day and very exhausted. My kids will be with their Dad. Sunday is an early morning short swim of 20-30 mins followed by a 10 mile ride. Then church, followed my house cleaning. Monday is rest, rest ,rest.

jsnowash - 2010-09-04 7:44 AM Wow - Labor Day Weekend already - the unofficial end of summer! Can you believe it? The kids head back to school on Tuesday - summer has just flown by! Anybody have any exciting plans this weekend? I race in what will likely be my last tri of the season tomorrow, and my husband's first triathlon ever! He keeps telling our kids that he probably won't survive the race, so they need to come along with us tomorrow so they can say good-bye to him! He'll do fine... It's a small, fun, low key race (although there are always some very fast people who show up as well), and there's a fairly large group of local folks participating, so it should be fun! I may participate in a Half-Ironman relay in October (I'll do the run). After this weekend, it's full-on marathon prep and spinning classes (I officially begin teaching after Labor Day) for the rest of the fall! I think over winter I will try to maintain some higher volume running (25 - 30 mpw), but focus more on biking for next season. I'm considering a LiveSTRONG Century ride next August, and will probably do another HIM next season, so winter will be a good time for me to work on some bike fitness.... (guess I should do a little swimming somewhere in there, too!!) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

guticur - 2010-09-06 4:26 PM

Congrats to the racers. Hope everyone is enjoying Labor Day. Weather couldn't be better.
I went for a 53 mile ride with some friends. Longest ever!. 3700 ft climb. Averaged 16 mph. Legs felt like spaghetti in the end, and my seat post sunk over an inch on the last 3 miles, which incidentally would be when I started getting cramps. Maybe those events are related since I wasn't extending my leg al the way.

jsnowash - 2010-09-06 7:42 PM Nice ride!! Was your seat post clamp bolt loose or something? I'm sure that at least contributed to your cramping!

cspreiter - 2010-09-07 6:51 PM Well I had a rough first olympic tri.  Here are my results: Overall 3:04:59, Swim 31:15, Bike 1:18:46, Run 1:09:39.

I was shooting to be below 3 hours and I think I would have made it if I hadn't had the problems I had.  The swim went well.  I was a little faster than I expected and felt really good coming out of the water.  It was all downhill from there.  As soon as I got started with my ride, my stomach started cramping.  I don't know what was causing it but it was making me feel sick to my stomach.  I knew I needed to get some fuel in me but I wanted to vomit just thinking about eating a gel or anything so I didn't which I knew was going to come back to bite me.  About halfway through the bike, it started raining pretty good but luckily it stopped before I was finished.  At least I didn't crash.  After I get off the bike, I put my running shoe on my left foot and as soon as I touch the ground I have pain in the balls of my foot.  Don't know why, didn't do anything to it that I know of.  Hadn't had any issues with my foot leading up to the event either but ever time I took as step it hurt. So now my stomach and my foot hurt as I start to run.  For the first three miles, I was somewhere between 9:00-9:30 minute mile which is about a minute slower than my usual pace.  Right after passing the 3-mile mark, I bonk.  Like I said, I knew it was coming, I was just hoping it would wait till I was almost done.  My legs were wanting to cramp up because I flushed my electrolytes.  Tried to stop and do a quad stretch but when I bent my leg, my hamstring cramped.  So, the last three miles I had to walk/run. 

It was frustrating because I didn't make my goal but I have to remind myself that one, I finished and two, I would have been well below 3 hours if I didn't have the issues I had.  At least it will be easy to set a new PR at the next one, lol.  The next one will probably be a little closer to home so I'm not having to mess with travel and eating on the road.  I think that probably was the main culprit to the stomach cramps which led to everything else. 

Caleb