SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 30)

Nice going Chris! I do the same thing with the time. The last minute just sort of happens.

Nice work Chris.  I know how that feels.  Usually during a 20 minute test, the worst period is about 4-8 minutes in.  It's where it actually starts to hurt a little, but you're not even at the halfway point so mentally the thoughts of quitting, or "it's not my day," "I'm not even halfway done" come into play.  Usually by minutes 10-12 my body somewhat adjusts to the effort, and while fatigue is setting in and the HR is rising...mentally you know you're sort of almost there and it doesn't make sense to quit now and do the test another day.

And I'm with you on the 15:01 means "4 and change."  That's exactly what I think of.

ETA:  Go for it on that 5 minute test...I'm pretty sure I know what milestone you're shooting for. 

So I decided to skip my morning run yesterday (only about 4.5 miles) as I was feeling a bit run down.  Turns out to be a good decision as I had a great ride in the afternoon.  I focused on some short climbs and was putting out about 20-30 more watts than normal.  Excluding my warm up, I spent almost 1:15 at 270+ NP.

Followed it up this morning with a nice mid distance run of 8ish miles.  Nothing fast, but felt really comfortable and steady compared to my normal mid week runs in the 4.5-6.5 mile range.

That's cool.  I've met a couple of the top amateurs at Kona and they were both really nice guys.

I've had a nasty knot in my back beside my left shoulder blade for the last two days.  I'm hoping to get in to see a massage therapist sometime today to see if she can work it out.  It makes any sort of twisting of my head/upper body painful meaning swimming is out.  Running makes it feel better for a short while.

Arend - I had similar back when I first started yoga (lesson learned: don't muscle through a pose) but knocked it out fairly quickly with massage/ART/Graston. In my case it was my right shoulder and it really made driving a b*tch as I had a heck of a time rotating shoulders/neck/head to the left. Hope you get on top of it quickly.

Great progress, Chris - way to stick it out. I am glad to hear that everyone else does the same with the time count down and time remaining - I always figured I was a little crazy. On hard runs and races I do something similar, except instead of counting down time it is distance: specifically "times around the track." So when I have .5 miles to go, I think to myself "come on a-hole, you only have one lap left around the track" (I do most of my track workouts on a local .5 mile oval) and then I actually visualize that for a second or two. For some reason it seems to help. However I have found that if I do it too early it can be a little debilitating. For example, with 24 miles left in a marathon: "come on you stupid SOB, you only have a little more than 48 laps around the track to go!" is just not that motivational to me. And yes, I do curse at myself CONSTANTLY during both hard intervals and races....

Ok, since we're talking about knots.....here's mine for the week. Can't comfortably put on a helmet and spending an hour prone with cap and goggles isn't appealing. Still have a bit of a headache so taking a couple days off to ice down the swelling. I'm sure I'll think of a great story as to how it happened, once I get a night light for the bedroom. 

YOWCH!!!! I am betting 100-to-1 that you walked into the edge of a partially opened door. Don't ask me why I think that....

good morning run this morning.  I got to see a roadrunner (not as common to see as you'd think), and some black tailed deer.  I also got to see the usual amount of other birds and bunnies.  And lots of tarantula wasps flying by, but ironically I have yet to see a tarantula.  In Tucson they were fairly easy to find during monsoon season but not so much here. But when I got back from my run Tina asked if I ran through a bush.  She thought I was covered in dirt.  Um, no, those would be bugs.

Question for you guys about "off season" and "slacking".  Say you've made some big improvements on bike power, but for whatever reason, you have to take an extended period of time off.  When you're ready to start back up, are you going to start back at square one?  Will it be easier the second time around to get back to where you were when you left off?

It has become incredibly clear to me that what I've been doing has not helped my knee get better.  While I don't notice any pain when riding, I have started to wonder if my bike volume has not allowed my knee to heal.  So I'm seriously contemplating taking a month or two off the bike altogether (will keep swimming and will obviously not be running either).  What I'm afraid of is losing all my bike fitness/power that I've gained over the last six months (started ~160W and ended just north of 200W) and basically putting myself back 6+ months in my training. 

It would be worth it if it helped my knee, but it would be truly unfortunate if the time off didn't do anything for my knee, but killed my fitness....

James, look forward to hearing more about how you like the Hoka's. What were you running in prior? Also, how was the sizing? I've read a couple threads on ST and it sounds like they run "true." The largest women's size in the Bondi B's is a 10. Most of my running shoes, including the Newtons are 10.5. 

Hum, so what are these sneakers suppose to do for you that the typical shoe does not?

HA!  Must actually be what, dare I say it, **most** of us do, as I do the same thing with time and laps (during track work).  Not so much the cursing - and when it's early in the workout or the first half of an interval I vaguely think about what I'll feel like if I don't "get after it," rather than thinking about all those circles around the track that are left. 

In the end, almost nothing is worse to me than feeling like I didn't hustle (not talking about muscling through injury or getting an extra interval in after I'm truly toast - I've "matured" enough to be able to pass on that last effort if it's really a bad idea).  Just reminding myself that I am the person that gets after it and not the guy that doesn't is enough to get me to the point where I can start thinking that I am the person who is ALMOST DONE WITH THIS INTERVAL CUZ THERE IS LESS THAN ONE MINUTE OF IT LEFT!  GOGOGOGOGOGO! 

And Chris - nice effort.  Can't wait to hear how tomorrow goes - get after it!

Matt

Tom, thanks for the links (lazy is great when it works - much appreciated).

Been wondering about these for some time, and all this helps.  A lot.  I switched to Newtons as my racing shoe a few months back from Asics and Brooks and really like them on race day - faaaast.  Plus, I VERY much enjoy the low drop as compared to the others (4>12, oddly enough).

BUT, my feet seem to take a beating in the Newtons.  So do Kim's - to the point that she's switched back and forth with her Aasics and such.  So, I've been racing in the Newtons and running long in the Asics and track in the Brooks.

I would **like** a pair of long distance, low drop shoes and also perhaps a pair of faaaaast low drop shoes - although I might just keep the Newtons for 10k on down (I really do like running in them - just not after!).  Maybe the Bondi for both?  Or Bondi for racing and One One for training?  Would like to hear if anyone in these uses them this way or if you just switch 'em up some...

All good food for thought, though.  Thanks!

Matt