Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 34)

Karl congrats to your son for making is HS baseball team. You must be very happy and proud of him.

Jen you can take a look at my logs from last season. I didn't start logging my training until I started in May last year and all I did for 9 months was train. I did my first tri at the end of July, two more in August and then the HIM at the end of Sept.  The other thing is my kids are all older (16, 18, 24) so my situation was much different then yours plus my wife was very good about letting me have the time to get those workouts in. I loosely followed the IronFit IM training plan by Don Fink. I think I followed the competivite plan up to the point you do a HIM, like week 26 or 27. That was mainly for the bike and run. For the swim I sort did my own thing. I did a lot of bricks and multiple sport workouts in the same day to get all the training in. Let me see if I find a good couple weeks to give you an idea of what I was doing last season.

Quickly, as I don't have much time.

David is right about the intensity for running.  With as a low a volume as you have for running I wouldn't recommend any intensity until you're at about 20 miles a week for a couple of months. 

The bike is another story.  The first things I would do would be to drop your riding time on both of your rides to 1 hour and 1.5 hours tops and after each bike get a 2-3 mile run in as brick WO's.  This will accomplish 2 things;  It will get your run volume higher, which is something that needs to be adjusted if you are looking to complete a HIM later this year, and it will give you some opportunity to do interval work similar to what Tony suggested.  We just discussed Bhargavs doing Jorge's 2x a week ans I would suggest the same for you.  If you aren't going to be doing anything other than sprints for the early part of the season this would seem to work well for you.

Personally, I wouldn't drop the time with your husband.  You may think it sounds weird but  love spending time at the gym with Lis and I suppose your husband enjoy's the time with you too.  You might suggest doing some training more related to your interest with him and then both of you could get some good cardio work next to each other.

No matter how you work it now, you'll need to decide how things will work better for you if you chose to do a HIM later this year.  2x a week running and riding won't be good to you as training peaks.  You'll want to get all 3 disciplines to a higher volume.  Swim 2x a week @ 2500-3000 yards each and cycling and running 3x a week would be my recommendation.

Dirk -

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the feedback. I am printing off your post and saving it to Evernote. I will be overhauling my training plan this weekend. As for the HIM - I would like to do one this September, but decided to wait till next year because of the swim. I have panicked in the water and want more practice doing OWS. I am a decent swimmer, just have a mental hurdle that I need to get through.  My plan is to do a couple of Sprints this Spring, a Tough Mudder and some Half Marathons, then in the Fall do a couple more Sprints and an Olympic distance.  

My husband and I met in the gym so we love to be in the gym together... we act like goofy teenagers when we are there.

Tony that is a HUGE increase...Congrats!  How's Luna?  Glad you are feeling better.

Tracy, hope you get better soon..flu  yuk!

Jen, 1st take care of the IT band.  Stretch it and strengthen it every day.  I agree w/ everyone.  you are young, be patient and gradually increase.  It takes time for the tendons and all to grow, stretch and repair.

I know for a fact you are already a good swimmer and runner, I haven't seen you ride but the biking will come fast but it does take time.

Mainly, spend time with your 2 beautiful children, yes Pam showed me their pics.  They grow up way to fast, trust me!

Question about short course training. I have my eye on sprint nationals I think. Right now I am building my base as best I can. Following the Barry P plan (basically). 6 runs per week trying to build to a steady 30 mpw. My cycling is a bit lacking due to weather and my intense hatred for my trainer, trying to work on that.  Swim is 2-3x per week; I'm swimming until my form goes and then cutting off my workouts.  Right now that seems to cap out near 2000 meters.  My hope is to get the point where I'm running 30 mpw, riding 120-140 mpw, and swimming 10,000 meters per week.  With this volume how much speed work is appropriate, and what kind of speedwork should i be doing. I just started working some threshold/tempo runs into the mix.  Started 5 min @ 6:30 (goal race) pace. Then 1 mile @ same pace. Next week will be maybe 7-8 minutes @ same pace. When I get closer to my goal race(s) should I add to this? As far as cycling goes I ride with a bunch of cyclists so it usually ends up being a bunch of involutary intervals of varying intensity and duration. I really want to get fast, and maximize my speed.  Kind of looking for 12-31-19 splits as a goal. What do you guys think would be the best way to do this?

Jen, the clear answer is to add more volume.  And all volume counts, even if it's the addition of just 30 minutes here and there.  But don't make the mistake of trying to increase your intensity in lieu of adding time.  At least not with running.  The best/easiest thing for you to do is to add running in those 30 minute pieces you have open.  As many times per week as you can.  Keep the pace easy.

How about adding just 1 morning workout per week?  That 2 hour block can be a combination run/bike.  Well, this time of year it's dark so that's only if you can do an indoor ride somewhere and then run after that. 

All this assumes you "are all systems" go for running.  The IT band thing concerns me though so I'm not sure you should begin to implement this additional running until that feels OK.

As for your weight training with your husband...you probably need that time with him.  Can you convince him to do cardio with you once in a while rather than the weight training?

Not only will additional volume help you with your plateau, but I think if you don't you may have trouble finishing a HIM. 

Edit:  just read Dirk's reply AFTER sending this.  He and I are on the same page!

Keep in mind that a sprint distance tri is still an hour long race.  Therefore it's still AEROBIC.  Therefore the best way to get better is to increase your aerobic efficiency.  This means more volume.

If your training limiter is your ability to recover and stay injury free then the answer to improvement is always going to be to increase your training volume.

Only when your limiter is available time are you going to be well advised to add intense training.

Note: this doesn't apply to elite level athletes who are pushing the edges of their genetic potential.  And I guess I'm speaking primarily about running.  Because cycling and swimming can be both intense and high volume.  So I just assume that swimming and cycling workouts are always hard so when I say add volume to those you are adding length of time to your already killer workouts.

Once race season starts and you begin racing sprints, you will get enough training at race pace through those races.  You do plan to race a lot of sprints prior to nationals right?

You know what?  I will recommend this: Find 5k runs to race in.  You get a chance to sustain threshold for 20 minutes which is all the icing on the cake that you need above and beyond your easy mileage.

That would be your IT band.  This recent video from Bobby McGee talks about treatment for ITBS....

http://bobbymcgee.com/running-tips-common-injuries-with-mark-plaatjes/

Yes!  There, you said it with far less words than I did! 

And here's a video that might reinforce some of what I said...

http://bobbymcgee.com/running-tips-going-fast-through-going-slow/

Thank you Karl. I have been stretching everyday, but not usually get through a few stretching excercises before getting distracted by dinner or my munchkins. Will any of your races be cancelled due to a new baseball schedule?

I mean the bottom, underside of the knee, there are 2 tendons running underneath the knee and the one hurting me right now is on the bottom but ouside, just below where the IT band attaches or am I totally confused.

Jeff- You have no idea how appreciative I am to have this feedback from you, Dirk, and Dave. I met another lady in the gym at lunch today and she is new to tri's as well and we have both completed two Sprints. She is paying handsomely for a tri coach every month. I feel that I am able to not only get the same quality of feedback that she is getting, but I also have several great minds that contribute to all questions.

I owe it to Karl and Pam/Pink Socks for pointing me toward a mentor group.

My birthday present to myself in a few weeks will bew a bike trainer, so I will be able to get in an extra morning workout in at that time. I will try and do more short runs - I will give that idea a go in February, I want to give my knee a few more weeks of concentrated stretching.

As for my husband, he refuses to do cardio, he is convinced it will strip him of his mass (in his terms - his muscle). He could benefit from some cardio, but I am not going to tell him that.  

Ummm... Karl.... you got me confused... I am sitting at my desk at work with my hands under my knee trying to figure out what you are talking about. I hope nobody walks by and asks me what I am doing.

jen, lol I hope they don't either.  I was thinking the IT attached to the side of the knee from the hip.  The one I'm talking about runs from the bottom of the knee, when sitting it stick out underneath the knee and attaches to the hamstring???  It feel like it attaches under the knee to the lower leg?

Sounds like one of the tendons that attaches to a hamstring muscle.  Sounds like you need to stretch your hamstring muscles.  Be careful, though.  If a hamstring tendon is sore, it means that it has stretched more than the muscle.  It could be injured if you try to stretch the muscle vigorously.

A good way to stretch the hamstring muscle while protecting the tendons behind your knee is to lay on your back with a strap around the ball of one foot.  Criss cross the strap behind your calf.  Grasp the straps as high up as you can on either side of your leg without allowing your shoulder blades to come off the floor.  Bend your knee slightly.  (You might need a pretty long strap.)  The criss cross strap behind your calf helps to protect the back of the knee and brings the stretch more into the belly of the hamstring muscle.

Does this make sense?  I can try to post a picture.

Jen, how big is your husband?  Is he a competitive bodybuilder?  I ask because I'm a reformed gym-rat/bodybuilder myself and know what I'm talking about when I say that cardio causes less muscle loss than he thinks.

I was at my lifetime mass peak when I took up triathlon again.  I was able to get to about 10hrs of weekly cardio before I began to lose any weight.

Have him look at my profile and check out my pics.  I allowed myself to lose 20lbs in those pics and seem to have lost mostly just fat.  And make sure he knows I didn't lose those 20lbs by accident, I did it intentionally.  I could probably still be within 8lbs of my peak mass with my 17hrs of cardio I do now weekly. 

Your husband is incorrect.  As  matter of fact he should know that it is actually his bulk (muscle mass) that is burning far more calories than cardio would.  I was a power lifter for several years and I could eat THE WHOLE WORLD every day and not gain weight because I was packed with muscle.  Lean muscle mass is the largest burner of calories a human body has.  The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you are capable of burning without lifting a finger (figuratively speaking of course).

During my heavy weight lifting days/years I would do cardio for 20-30 minutes 3x a week.  This definitely did not cause me to lose mass at all.  I have now come down in weight because I don't lift weights any longer.  All of my muscle has been lost because I don't lift and try to produce muscle any longer.  That is the reason I lost mass.  It has very little to do with doing cardio work.

Edit: Yep!  I did the same thing as Jeff did earlier today.  Writing a post before reading all of the page.  Oops

Karl she is doing well and keeping me very busy. I think I totally underestimated how much effort and work it takes to take care of a dog. I was not blessed with any patience but I may actually develop some dealing with her. I am also finding out how little I really know about taking care of a dog. Story of my life, just like signing up for IMWI.