Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 32)

I pulled out my co-workers trainer he loaned me months ago (apparently he hates it, he won't even take it back, lol) and did my first Sufferfest workout, Hell Hath No Fury. Got that one cause it's girls .

Damn, those women are hardcore. I had to stop a few times just to catch my breath.  But it was fun and the music was cool. Really reminded me of a spin class. I think I'll get Downward Spiral next.

Samantha,

Have you ever seen the Race Club Videos?  They are pretty cool.  They have a bunch of them and some are petty good.  I learned to do a flip turn again watching one.  Here is one with some drills.  See what you think.

http://www.theraceclub.net/videos/swimming-technique-videos/ 

Ellen

pugpenny - 2012-12-29 2:20 PM I am in the process of downloading Hell Hath No Fury based on your review here! Usually I watch past year's Kona IM on youtube while I pedal but now I have people to ride with! I'm excited! Patti

I think you will love it, that workout is a beast! And apparently its one of "easier" ones, lol.

Twitchy Ones!!

I'm off to Toronto for a couple of days, should be back Tuesday evening.  Be safe and smart tomorrow night!!

Hi there, migrating from Mojos, but will probably toggle back and forth. I am trying to remember my pledge to focus on short course tri's this year! Though the HIM itch and even a tiny IM buzz has returned. I have targeted 2 perhaps 3 Olympics and my usual collection of sprints and stand alone runs/cycling events. There are some other things I would like to do, such as putting my garden in again this year, that I neglected last year while consumed in IM and HIM training. My house needs some work as well and I don't have the help with it that I had before but that's another story.

Anyway-this is will be my third full year of triathlon coming off a ten + year hiatus from cycling when I had been a cat 4 cyclist, coach and ultra marathon cyclists-focused on my career, bought a house, got married, got fat etc.......

My recent experience include two HIM (Branson 2011, Kansas 2012) A full-Redman 2012, maybe a dozen sprints, 1 Olympic, countless 5 k's, three half marathons, two marathons, 2 15k's -a hand full of bike rally's.

This year I want to get FAST-I managed to get competitive in stand alone 5k's including one overall win, a few age group wins (45-49) and a 5k PR of 21:58 but my triathlon results in the sprints did not progress as well as my runs best result, from memory, was 5th AG. This year-entering a new age group I intend to change that!

SO I hope I am welcome, Steve has been awesome-I am ready to start. Since beginning this sport I now have the bike, the wetsuit, the equipment and a solid base to build on-I hope.

General question to throw out (that has probably been hammered - maybe even here… the holidays do addle the mind):

Is HM racing and training a bit too long to carry over to sprint distance tri racing?

I've heard, and completely buy, that a serious marathon bid will derail both the run and (to my surprise, but I think it's true) power on the bike.  

Now, a marathon is a VERY different race than a HM (more than double the damage and, for most mortals, not a race that involves a lot of fast twitch).  Also, a HM training program typically has 2-4 days of some sort of speed work in the training plan.  Not as focused on speed as a 5k or 10k specific training plan, but still has a fair amount of weekly intensity (a day of track, a good tempo run, a HM race pace run - then the long run with or without a race pace effort at the end depending on the week:  yes, this is pretty much the Higdon advanced plan, but similar to many others).

So, is the HM RACE (not HM finish) distance and plan a good carry over for sprint races, or is it too slow-twitchy?

And, yes, I'm training for another one now.  ;-)

Matt

As I think about it, I have a corollary question to the above but on cycling (or perhaps just generally, though one doesn't see as many long distance swim events on the race calendar as r/b ones).

I'm considering the Harpoon B2B with a couple friends this year ("Brewery to Brewery" - 148 miles uphill for a beer…  Two beers, actually.).  It's mid-June - smack in the middle of early season and running into the Summer...

Will the early season loooooooooong miles in the saddle needed to complete this build base or lead to a slower pace on the bike for sprints?

As always opinions, SWAGs and even WAGs are welcome!

Matt 

Hello Ellen, Gene and Av8rTx (Jeff? Guessing from Ellen's post) - welcome aboard!

Yes, Steve is a great mentor and this is a posty group…  Must be the fast-twitch thing.  ;-)

I'm not sure that is true. I suppose it would depend on what you mean by a serious marathon bid. My short distance runs got much faster while training for a marathon including my 5k PR in November. November was a high mileage month for me-200 and only about 160 cycling miles, all fairly intense though. I had a good training block leading to the Dallas Marathon but still haven't figured out what went wrong there other than the 96% humidity. Two weeks after that race my routine little daily runs suddenly got very fast-making me wish I had found a 5k somewhere to do! So, until my weekly runs topped out at 55 mpw my shorter runs were much faster. I didn't race when I was at the 50 mpw range. In April I went under 2 hours for a HM while in the midst of training for Kansas 70.s and I ran a number of 5k's in the <24 minute range.

I think HM training is a good way to prepare for short course triathlons, mix in some bricks and transition runs-have your long run peek at 14 miles. I don't think you will "loose power" cycling this way, I went into marathon prep with a reasonably good bike base and still averaged over 20 mph on our monthly club Time Trials on very low bike mileage, the time required to train for a marathon will erode what you can put on the bike and that will make a difference over time-I have lost some cycling endurance and speed endurance!

I say all this with the awareness that I carried a pretty good training base into my marathon preparation-a Full Iron in September and HIM in June. Without those base miles my experience might be different-including more injuries which I mostly avoided this year

Sounds like fun-go for it. I suspect it will help your short course speed. Mid June for us is  summer-100 degrees. I would say prepare for it as you would any century with maybe an extra weekend with back to back long rides-say 100 and 75.

Tomorrow-the first, I was talked into a 130 mile club ride! My bike mileage has been very low (under 200m a mo) sense Redman, with just some 25 mile rides here and there and some sufferfest videos so it should be amusing, especially given the temperature at the start is predicted to be about 28 degrees

Hi everyone,

I'm also coming from Steve's Mojo group. I'll post a bio soon. Looking forward to 'meeting' all of you

Johanne

Oh, here's my bio:

Name-Johanne Roberts

Story-I come from a non-athletic background as far as playing sports growing up. I ran a little bit in college and then picked up running again about 4 years ago. I spent a year running to help lose some weight and then thought it would be fun to try a tri for variety. I first had to learn how to swim and breathe at the same time! I spent my first year doing sprints and finished with an olympic. The second year I did some Olympics and finished with 2 HIM. Last year I did my first Ironman. It was a huge challenge and I'm really glad I it.

Family-I'm 52 now but I'm going to still be 50andgettingfit. Married to Dave for the last 30 years. Mom to Stephen, 26, Kathleen, 24 and Laura, 22. We had an empty nest for a year and then they have started coming back. What is wrong with that picture? Haha! Stephen graduated from college and is working. Kathleen graduated and is working. Laura is a senior in college and just headed back to school for her last semester. Life is pretty good for our kids. I work very part time and spend the rest of my time working out and riding my horses. Life is pretty good for me too.

Current training-I'm in the middle of getting my schedule together after having a pretty light December (after IMAZ). 

2012 Races-Last year my A race was Ironman Arizona. Amazing day  Along the way, I ran a marathon, a couple of HIM, some Oly's and some other runs. Everything was in prep for November.

2013 Races-This year I'm planning on a HIM, a marathon, Ragner Relay and some Oly's and runs.

2012 Goals-I'm still working on specific goals but generally I'd like to take the year to get a bigger base and then to get some speed. I've discovered I can train and get good endurance, now I need to train and get the speed to go with it.

Weight Loss-I've lost 70 lbs in the last 4 years and I'd like to lose about 10 more to make it easier on my body. Training for my IM led me to some really good diet changes and I found it was pretty easy to lose weight. Now I need to maintain it!

Matt, when is your half marathon and when is your first sprint?  I'm planning a half marathon for mid-April, then my sprint is end of May.  I am thinking of the half marathon as giving me a good base to work on 5K specific speedwork in the weeks leading up to the sprint after the half is done.  Also, at this point this is COMPLETELY hypothetical, but uh, I can't help but think I want to do a fall marathon.  (Again, hypothetical situation here!)  And, since I may keep my July/August months open now from racing for a variety of reasons, I am thinking I MAY be able to do it.  Anyway, I would still plan for the September sprint, so what I was thinking of doing MAYBE (lol) is adapting some of the mid-week speed/tempo sessions to work more on 5K specific speed.

So, if there aren't a whole lot of weeks between your half marathon and sprint, what I think I would opt to do is modify a couple of your mid-week half marathon speed sessions and go at them a bit faster than what you would if you were just training for a half.

btw, I'm planning on starting the Hal Higdon advanced plan towards the end of January!

Samantha

probably about 5-7 for me.  the "drainer/dreadmill/basement" combo isn't exactly inspiring...

Plus, when I get going on a run centric plan (HM late Feb), I tend to cut hours as running is way tougher on my body per hour than riding.

So, maybe I'm on the low end, as well!