Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 31)

Basically, Jorge's workouts come done in 3 distinct phases with testing performed before each one: He use to call them VO2 max, 20' Max Power (transition VO2 to 60MP), 60' Max power (MLSS-Max Lactate Steady State).  On the latest version their called: Improve Maximum Aerobic Capacity, Improve Slow Glycolysis, Improve your Critical Power.

Each phase has 4 workouts per week; Days 1 & 3 are the "main" workouts.  Day 2 workouts are longer duration at lower intensities, Day 4 is the long duration low intensity workout. 

1st phase "main" workouts are short duration intervals (e.g. 10*30", 4*1', 5*4' to 5*2') with workouts ~45' to 50' long

2nd phase "main" workouts are mid duration intervals (e.g. 6*4', 3*8 to 3*10') with workouts ~55' to 60' long

3rd phase "main" workouts are longer duration intervals (e.g. 3*10' to 4*10', 2*15' to 2*20') with workouts ~60' to 75' long

For Sprints this program has worked out great for me. I focus on days 1 & 3 and do either day 2 or modified 4 (my weekend outdoor ride), depending on my weekly schedule. I've done the whole program to half of it before races (e.g. 2 weeks of phase 1, 1 wk of phase 2, most of phase 3).

As KathyG often posts on BT, you can't raise your ceiling (MLSS) without 1st raising the Roof (VO2) and this program works this principle.  The feedback is in the testing as you will see not only the increases in the 5' & 20' tests but depending on your strengths the delta between them. 

Still here, mostly lurking as I'm not training much.  Between work, holidays and weather I'm just not feeling like squeezing in training.  I got some warmer running gear for Christmas, so that will help me; of course the temps dropped another 10-15 degrees.

Heading off to the gym with one of the kids.  Gotta get back into action.

Thinking of a HM in February.  I'll see if I can get the long run back up to double digits.  Not sure if there's enough weeks to do it slowly and I don't want to rush and injure myself.  That wouldn't be a good start to the year.

Sorry it took me a while to respond...I was in Cancun for nine days (I know...POOR me ).

With respect to my knees, in June 2011 I completed a long run (about 11 miles) and my left knee swelled up, and it seemed the inflammation was centered on the top inside of the knee.  To make a long story short-ish, after knee surgery, Supartz injections, multiple cortisone injections, and a second and third opinion...no one can really explain what is wrong with them.  They just swell up for seemingly no reason, especially the left one. We originally thought torn miniscus, but it was fine when I was scoped.  I do have some arthritis in the knee but I don't think it fully explains the swelling.

Over time, I learned to mange the symptoms and have done TONS of strengthening and stabilizing exercises to the point where I can cycle pretty much unrestricted, swimming doesn't bother it at all, and I can run a little bit right now hoping to get to 10 miles a week by March.  It has been a difficult transition for me; I started this whole thing as a high school cross-country runner and it's been my main exercise (and mental release, probably more importantly...) since.

I just have to really listen to my body, which is a new concept for me.  I used to just plow full speed ahead into everything. 

I've been off for a little so just saw this.  I'm going to do the swim.  I did it last year too.  I'd like to get under 30 for the 1.2.  (I was at 32 last year and only swam 1-2 days a week so if I can find time I think I can do it.)  My daughter will only be 3, so not quite ready to send off to an aid station.  I think we'll have my MIL come visit and help.  Luckily the race is only 10 minutes from our house. 

I've been off training for a little as they could not get my cyst to heal and finally cut it out last week.  I get the stitches out tomorrow so need to get back into it!

Anyone have New Year's Resolutions for 2013?

My 2012 resolution to do an Xterra is how I found this site!  Granted I never did the Xterra as my husband ended up in China for work and my dad ended up in the hospital so I flew there to be with him.  It was the most successful failure I've had though- as I really had a great summer with my prep races and my make up race.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should sign up and try again.  I would love a new resolution- but one is not coming to me right now.  Maybe doing an OLY would be a good one.

I know I've been MIA here... but HELP! 

Okay, so I've developed elbow irritation!  Googled some stuff, this is precisely what happened: "Swimmers who try to pick up speed by powering their arm through the water can also strain the flexor tendon at the elbow."  I have determined from my googling skills that it is golfer's elbow.  (However my googling skills are not that superior. ) Discomfort/pain is on the medial side though.

The last time I swam was Saturday. Today (Thursday) is the worst it's been.  I can also feel the irritation with every letter I type, and since I type a lot during the day, I also wonder if this makes it worse.  (The other thing could be my poor self-treatment...)

During my swim Saturday (and perhaps occasionally on a swim or two before), I did feel a slight twinge in the elbow, and when I did, I would be conscious about the stroke and could do the stroke so that I couldn't feel that elbow twinge.  So if/when I do get back in the pool, I will of course be extra conscious of that.  That said, ideas for specifically what to focus on so as to avoid the elbow issue?

This is very devastating to me!!!  Guess I'll be focusing on running and biking for awhile now...

I'm so sorry about your elbow!  I know how you feel about not making plans.  I am so dying to get these stitches out of my butt and see if I can actually ride a bike after not being able to since fall.  I hope my dermatologist was right that at this point cutting it out was the way to go and it would heal much better.  I'd really like to commit to races for next year, but until I can get back on my bike I just don't know what to do.

Have you been ramping up you swim volume, or doing more or less alternate strokes?  Any new drills or changes?  I would look first to see if anything changed that could have brought it on.  I know in HS when volume was really high I would have shoulder and elbow pain.  Usually I needed a break and ibuprofen to bring it back under control.  Can you see a PT?  I have had great help from seeing PTs - esp if you can bring a quick video of what you're doing.  So many of them have great understanding of motion and pain.  

Good Luck!  I hope you can get back into the swim of it!

I am pretty sure it's the addition of intensity that caused it.  I could on occasion feel the elbow with a stronger effort in the last couple of swims.  I had even made myself a rule that I would do no more than 400m total of strong effort per session at this point in time, but I guess that wasn't enough of a limitation and I wasn't ready!  That and I did do like half a mile a couple of times with a moderate-ish effort that also may have been more than I was ready for.  I was starting to see progress!  Recently I did 4x100m, between 1:42-1:45 and 800m at moderate effort at sub-2 min pace, both of which I never would have thought to see 2 years ago, so it made me very excited for the future in terms of improvements to be seen!

Although I am turned off by physical therapists due to my previous experience with them, maybe I will give them a try again.  I am considering going to see some sort of specialist as well.  For now I think I will rest up for the next couple of weeks with the swimming.  I guess an excuse to work on my weak bike leg, on the bright side! 

The great thing about the 6 x 4' (45" recovery) is how the intervals build on fatigue...at 105% of FTP I can handle the first three, then by the last minute of the sixth I'm greying out and cursing Jorge in several languages.  I can say without a doubt that this workout in particular has strengthened my cycling considerably.

Yeah...we need that win!! 

Injuries $uck, no two ways about it.  Sorry to hear about the elbow (and the butt/stitches in the followup post).  In the same boat myself with my shoulder - tried to swim pretty and BANG…  A cortisone shot later and I'm almost cleared back into the pool (next week, but starting with only ~500yds at a time and no intensity - ARGH!).

Anywho, about the elbow.  Sounds like medial epicondylitis ("insert sport here" elbow), but worth an eval to be sure.  I had lateral last year (from canoeing for a solid week before work at the start of duck hunting season).  It just got worse, even with rest, until I finally broke down and got a cortisone shot and did 10 days of ibuprofen (800mg TID - which is more than I'd recommend to others, but my doc was aggressive).  That did the trick for breaking the pain cycle, but it still is much more prone to getting sore than I'd like (and so I stretch a LOT and am careful paddling)  

I hope that yours will subside without any such need for treatment beyond good PT (rest then stretch then strength only after it subsides).  I'd also be careful about adding intensity back in too quickly, as that can lead to an overall longer recovery time (although it's SOOOO hard not to go fast, at least now and then, I know!).

Here's to a fully recovered and fast FAST TWITCH group by the start of race season!!!

I think that ANY amount of weight training you can fit into your week will give you more benefit than none.  I like the idea of training twice per week at least.  And if you can only fit in twice, you still want to cover all the major muscle groups so you're balanced and not over/under working one area or another.  Unless you're training for bodybuilding or size, hitting each muscle group once per week should suffice if that's all you can squeeze in.

I try to make my resolutions sometime OTHER than New Years because I figure, why wait?   I feel like I'm on the right track and am resolving to just continue this.

One area that needs work.....squeezing in that once weekly yoga session.  I have fallen off the wagon on this hardcore and being that it's off season I have little excuse!!

Oh no, bummer!  You mention that it hurts as you type....do you happen to sit at a desk and type for work?  I had a very similar issue last year.  For me, it started with me just banging my elbow on that little bone that sticks out on the medial side.  It was bruised for a few days but even after the bruise was gone it still felt "bruised" for months and months.  Some lifting and some days swimming bothered it but so did all the typing I do at work which is not THAT much but I am in front of a computer all day.

I iced it faithfully and eventually it subsided.  I never stopped doing stuff that bothered it but I did ice.  I chalked it up to a minor ligament inflammation.

Good luck and I hope a week or two off swimming helps!

Hi Fast Twitch Group

I used to be in the Mojo Forum, for which Steve was the mentor and I asked him what he was doing now.  He said it would be ok if I jumped on board, so here goes.

I have been doing triathlons for about 4 years now, although I kind of took last year off.  I have never done a sprint, I have done several Olympics and 2 Halfs.  I do these because they are close to where I live and since my husband does not do triathlons it is just easier that way.  I am not very fast nor well conditioned but I am working on the conditioning.  I don't think I will ever be fast but I look at it as a way to cross train and do more than one sport.  I have been doing spin classes at my new gym.  I like riding outside and I live in Frederick, Maryland at the base of the Catoctin Mountains and so there are a lot of places to ride. But it  is cold outside now.  Not like Canada cold but too chilly to ride much outside.  I swim indoors at either the Y or another club.  I run in and outdoors. 

I am not sure about my plans for 2013 but I am thinking about doing the Beach to Battleship Half.  It would be different than what I have done before. 

I have one son who is a Junior in college, he runs for Lehigh.  He is a real runner but he did not get those genes from me.  I have been married for 25 years.

That is all I can think of to tell you at the moment, so I will sign off.

Ellen

Welcome to the group Ellen!  It's been a little quiet over the holiday but I'm sure everyone will start talking training more in depth into January.  I heard you guys got some snow out there on the east coast so stay safe and try to stay warm!

Welcome Ellen!  Hope you enjoy the group and that it helps you - Probably safe to say that none of us feels either fast enough or well conditioned enough.  

And, yes, it's getting a bit chilly (and icy) to ride outside - gotta pick your days!

Best,

Matt

OK - another post on cadences.

My wife and kids got me a Garmin footpod for my birthday (or christmas - near each other, so they sometimes blend&hellip and I've been doing some cadence testing.  I'm thinking about a HM in late February down Cape (brrrrrrr!!), and have just started on the Higdon advanced plan (started at the end of week 3).  It has a speed workout, a tempo run, a race pace run and a long run each week, with a bunch of 3-4 milers sprinkled in to fill the gaps (not a great tri plan, but I'll spin and ride as able on the 3-4 miler or rest days, and swimming will be minimal as I work my way back).   Ahem… as I was saying, cadence...

So, on my last track workout (8x400, with 400 jogs between and w/u & c/d, etc) I tried the first 4 at increasing cadence to see what happened.  Faster the cadence with a short stride and the faster the pace (duh).  100-103 for 6:10's to low 6:20's pace.  Then I tried a longer and more powerful stride at ~94 spm, getting just below 6m/m pace, but definitely upped the HR by a few beats more and felt more like "sprinting," as well.  THEN tried 100 with a slightly longer stride and hit a sweet spot of sorts - 100-101spm and 5:40-5:50m/m, but with a HR equal to either the very fast cadence (105) or longer stride (95 cadence).

So, a bit of each seemed the best bang for the buck at the 400+ distance.

Now, for longer than a 1/4mile repeat, the equation might change, right?  I mean, 100spm with some "pop" in the step is great for the last 1/4mile to hammer into the chute, but what about the rest of the race?  So, I looked at a tempo run I just did.  85spm was just over 8m/m.  90 got me to just around 7:20, then I maxed out on cadence at ~92 while I pushed the pace to ~6:45 (might have hit 93 once or twice, but was pretty steady at 92 as I pushed the pace up).  This was a comfortable cadence for that speed and one I could hold (to my surprise) for a while.

So, I'm going to try a 5k and a 10k training run (and pretend I'm racing) and go for speed then see what cadence I held.  More on that once I do it!

Anyway, thought this might be of interest.  Looks like sprinting/one mile pace is better around 100 for me, while the fastest I could hold for a sprint tri distance might be low 90's.

I suppose I'll learn more training for the HM and will try to distill (not a good job on that front in this long post!) what I see.  Long and short, though - turnover helps.  I wonder if it's from being more efficient and keeping power applied to the pavement longer?  Any wild speculation on that one?

Matt 

Hey Twitchy Ones!

I apologize for being away for a couple of days, but Ma Nature imposed on her blizzardly will on me two-fold:  pweriodic power ottages, and roof-drifting obscuring both our satellite dish and the do-hickey for the internet.  I finally steeled myself to scale the old antenna tower and clear tons of snow away -- and all withot plummetinmg to sure burial in one of the large drifts surrounding the house.  The landscape is really gorgeous, sure..........but a certain price was paid in terms of basic creature comforts. Ack!

Onwards! 

SAMANTHA -

Check out two on-line places for straps for elbow problems.  One is www.cho-pat.com, the other is www.injurybegone.com (Pro-Tec is the name attached to the products themselves.) .  I have had some decent successes with various products from both companies, but nothing to do with elbows.  (Yet!!)

As you wrestle with this, keep in mind that many people take the off-season as a two-at-a-time proposition.  For you, for now, that would be B&R for a while, and then when the elbow gets settled you can do S&B, say, and then bop into R&S.  I've done this many off-seasons, and it works really well for me.  Not least of all is that it can justify down time during some odd off-season niggle or wonk, and that is worth its weight in gold when it is necessary.

You can also play around with taping that mimics the location and tightness of those straps.  In fact, for plantar fasciitis issues I never had success with the thingie from Pro-Tec for PF, as it just doesn't stay put --- whereas similarly-placed taping worked wonders.

Don't panic yet!!

MATT -

Nice experimenting --- and just in time to be awarded the coveted Dr. Frankenstein Award For Investigative Running for the month of December.  How good is that??

Seriously, though, you may well have added three new "speeds" to your shift-box, and that could come in real handy for a half-marathon.  Much of an H-M is avoiding getting into the same old repetitive stride for all 13.1 miles, so if you can mix it up from time to time with some brief faster efforts, that will not only relieve the muscular tedium, but also translate into a faster finishing time.  Win-win!

That said, though, don't fall into the trap faced by many H-Mers who have a few keys for speed............but over-use them at a distance that isn't conducive (for most of us) to sustained fast efforts.  Think "surge", think "spurt", think short -- as in no more than about 20-40 seconds at a time for any of those three strategies.  And as you wisely say, you'll try these at the 5km and 10km distances first.  (And might I add that, as you move from 5km to 10km ---- maybe try it at 7.5km or 8km first?) 

It may turn out that surges and spurts won't be quite in place for a February H-M, and I say that from personal experience -- it took me many months to learn to sustain high run cadence for 5km, and then many more months to be able to do it for 10km.  But that was for an aimed-for 90-92; it was, of course, much quicker for me to be able tosustain, say, 87 or 88 for those distances.

So, anything you can do in the H-M that is at a quicked footspeed than what you could do last month is gravy.  Charge!!!!

SAMANTHA again -

Reading Kate's post to you reminds me to remind you to look for pool alternatives.  Over the years and with various swim woes of my own (impingement; separated shoulder; random upper arm pain) I have had success with:

• sculling
• vertical kicking
• kickboard work
• balance drills (a la Total Immersion)
• working on bilateral breathing (usually in concert with one of the above, if freestyle arms aren't working)

I really like sculling work.........although it never seems to translate to my actual swim-stroke like I forever hope it will.  Keep in mind that there are three sculling "positions", and if one of them aggravates your elbow, my guess is that at least one of the other two won't.  It is hard to explain these positions and their execution, but I will try if you can't find anything on line.  I cannot remember where I learned the three of them, but my best guess is through the british tri magazine, 220 Triathlon.  So, maybe go to their archives and see if the article I think I'm thinking of is there.  I will do that as well, and also try to remember my source for this.

In essence, though, the three are:

1. out in front, ending under the chest
2. beginning under the chest and ending at the hips
3. beginning at hips and ending where it's most comfortable along your thighs

Helpful?  Maybe?  No?    Okay, i will continue to think about where I learned to do sculling!