Slornow and Wannabefaster's mentor group...Closed (Page 34)

First race, a sprint is 4/9...a week from Saturday.  I would give my bike an A-..  Been riding alot with some hard rides and longer rides mixed in.  Would go with an "A" but I have not been out on my TT bike very much so concerned that there may be a a little loss of power on the TT bike at the race.  Fortunately, with it being a sprint comfort should not be an issue.  I am really enjoying cycling and may do a century this Saturday with some buddies.  Probably not the best idea a week out from a race as I suspect we will push the pace at times. 

Run: B or B-; Calf issues that popped up in mid to late Feb. reduced my mileage for March and I have done little intensity.

Swim: C; Just can't seem to get motivated to swim. Should not be a huge issue in sprint races but I suspect I will be off by 30 seconds or so from previous times in the first race.  Right now I am just trying to get race ready....starting every workout with jumping in and swimming 300-500 straight at race effort or a little less to get that feeling of HR jumping up then settling in.  Mostly my swim program at this point is rationalizing that the swim isn't that long in any of my early season races so I don't need to work on it.  BS I know but that's what I am going with. 

Hello all.  I just got back from a week in Cuba with the family and am catching up on everyone's progress while I was away.

I see a few race reports which is great motivation to get back into my training routine.

Other than a daily 20 minute swim in the ocean and one 5 km run, it was a totally non-SBR relaxing week.

Managed to gain close to 5 pounds though (probably due to having dessert with every meal) so there is extra motivation to get down to my race weight in the next few months.

My first tri is in early June but am looking at a few 5 km or 10 km races in April and May to see where my running fitness is at.

Plan to start some speed work this week.

I've never really done any structured speed work and so any thoughts from the group would be appreciated.

For the first few sessions I was planning something like 6 x 400 m at 5 km race pace based on my best time from last year and see how that feels.

For those that do speed work, any particular interval and pace that you found to be effective?

Marc - very cool!  I love reading these behind the scenes stories of professional triathletes, particular when they are going through the same learning curve as the rest of us AGers.

I read on Lionel's blog that he plans to move away from what he called "training in the middle" and will be returning to more lactate threshold and VO2 max efforts, similar to how he trained in 2014 where he predominantly raced 70.3s.

I did notice that his 70.3 run times in the latter part of 2015 dropped to around 1:15, as compared to 2014 where he was consistently hitting around 1:10. 

If he can get his run fitness to the level it was in 2014, with his improvements on the bike and his new fit he is going to be a real serious threat this year.

Sounds about right.  Thanks

That's great!  I'm really glad to hear they worked out for you and you're liking them!

I went out to Texas Hill Country for a few days over the weekend -- got in some really nice riding (honestly, I'd pretty much forgotten how much fun it can be to ride outside....I get really sucked into riding the trainer, plus outside in Houston is just not interesting, that I forget how much fun it can be!) and some running.  

I have a 5k in April and a 40k TT in June.  I think I'm more ready for the 40k TT than I am the 5k....heh!  No triathlons on the schedule until September.  As always, love the bike, struggle with running, and have a love/hate relationship with swimming.  Was listening to a podcast on my drive home yesterday and the pro who was being interviewed noted that he swims 30k - 40k per week....so basically my monthly swim volume every week!

Hey Marc,

Good stuff on the chart showing power to cda.

Do you know if there is a rough estimate on how much cda can be impacted by drafting someone within 12 inches?  I'm playing around with BBS and trying to see what kind of strategy I can implement on a couple of long uphill road races I have.  

So if for example I have a road climbing cda of say .375, and I'm following someone who is roughly the same size as me, how is that reducing my cda, then in turn I can figure out how many watts I am saving.  It would help in my decision making on choosing who to follow in order not to blow up at the end, and if I should worry about anyone following me for extended periods of time.  Also I can see how those watt or time savings change as grades increase or decrease and can further make decisions on when it's appropriate to follow and when it's not.

I know it's not an exact science with a lot of assumptions...but just looking for a ball park.  Are we talking about going from .36 to say .260?  I was playing around with my 40k, and if I assume my cda was .354 (road position, round tube bike, shallow wheels), my time would have been about 1;04:26 at 284 watts.  If I reduced my cda to .260, and watts down to 219 (23% less), then I come out with roughly the same time.  219 seems about right for what I would expect to put out drafting someone who was pushing 284.  So is that a pretty good guess?

Cool. 

Looks as though I've got some good info to go on now.  I have a race on Kauai that's about 16 miles and 4500 gain, but the steep stuff is in the first half, then more rolling uphill the second half.  BBS tells me that if I can put out maybe 3% more watts that I would if I TT'd it for the first 40 minutes, and it meant I was in a pack for the second half, I could put out 9% less watts on the second half  while in the draft and still finish with a faster time than if I did it like a solo TT.

For Haleakala where the first half isn't as steep, it seems like the best plan is to try and find a pack where I can save a 5-6 watts in the draft early, then solo the second half with a few more watts and come out faster.  BBS also tells me that it is NOT worth it to put in a few extra watts early to hold onto a draft pack and put out less watts later when it gets steeper and I'll likely be on my own.  A lot of people take this approach and usually doesn't end well for them.  Many times I have let the main pack go early and wondered if those guys were saving enough watts to come out ahead at the end...but most times I end up catching the guys near my ability at the top because they've blown.

Thank you Jason!  Timely post as I plan to do a bit of speedwork tonight.

I had PBs in 5 km and 10 km in 2014 and looking back at my training I did very minimal interval training but both races were during HM training where my run volume was higher. 

I'm currently only running around 15 to 20 miles per week but would like to get to around 25 miles or so with 3 to 4 runs broken down as follows - 1 long run, 1 hills (treadmill simulation) and 1 speed work.  If I can fit in the 4th run, it would simply be to boost volume at slow steady pace.

I'm racing quite a few Sprints this summer and so wanted to give speedwork at try, but will be very cautious about injuries.

Will definitely give your interval workout a try as well.  There is a high school track that is around 3 kms away and so getting there would be a decent warmup.

For those that regularly do interval training, do you ever go faster than 5 km pace?  If so, how much faster?  

Thanks Marc.  I use the Jack Daniels VDOT calculator on the runbayou.com website but was looking at the Interval paces, which were only a few seconds faster than my 5 km pace. 

I see that the Repetition paces are quite a bit faster than 5 km pace - about 18 seconds / km faster for the 400 m repetitions.

I won't be trying that pace anytime soon.  In fact, I don't plan to go much faster than my 10 km pace for the first few intervals.

Was planning on doing some intervals last night but started to feel lousy mid-afternoon and had a full blow cold by dinner time. I'll give it a try early next week. 

As previously mentioned speed work can take many forms....it doesn't have to be set intervals on the track.  I think many times people incorporate speed work too early without a sufficient base.  Like Jason mentioned, a few pick ups during a run, some strides after a run, fartleks or even some hill repeats are "safe" ways to incorporate some intensity in your running without too much risk of injury or over doing it.  One workout I always like is "boiling the frog".  Start out easy and consistently build pace throughout the run.  So, on a six mile run you might start at an easy pace and try to drop each mile pace by 15-30 seconds.  That way you are warmed up well and the intensity comes when you already have a bit of fatigue so a good way to see how your body reacts to the extra effort.   Also a great way to work on pacing.  Don't over do each mile/interval and then try to "beat" the time on the previous interval....work on pacing.  So if I started at 9:00/mile maybe I go to 8:30-40 and so on.  Would have me somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30 for the fifth mile and then I would use mile six as a cool down.

Credit for "boiling the frog" to Jason.

Century on tap for me tomorrow.  Raining like a mother here today but should push through tonight and be beautiful tomorrow. Really need to spend some time on my TT bike before my race on 4/9...maybe Sunday if my butt allows.  

Mike/Marc - great discussion on transitioning into the peak phase of training.  Over the winter I've been focusing on VO2 max workouts but am trying to ease back and incorporate more threshold work as race season approaches. 

I will mainly be racing Sprints over the summer with an Olympic in August and possible HIM in September.

I've also made a few adjustments to my fit but am a bit worried that I may be sacrificing power for aero.

If I could indulge you all, attached is a screenshot from the "Bike Fit Inspector" app on the triracebook.com website.

The changes I made are: lower the bars by removing all 3 spacers and move the saddle up and back a little.

I tried to move the arm pads closer together a few weeks ago but it was really uncomfortable in the shoulders so I moved them back.

I believe that all of the 'TRB' markers are roughly in the right positions and so the angles should be fairly accurate with the exception of seat angle.

If I measure the seat angle from the bottom bracket (as opposed to my ankle), then the angle is 81.5 degrees.  I may need to move the saddle further back.

It also looks like I need to move the arm pads forward, but its actually fairly comfortable at that angle.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Another question is how long should it take to adapt to a new position?  I tried a very short threshold interval with the new position and found that my hamstrings and quads started to burn within a few minutes.

(Triracebook - Apr 03 16.JPG)

Wow.  90 minutes @ 90 - 95% would be a killer.  I think psychologically I'd be beaten before I even started that workout.

I can suffer through the VO2 max intervals because I know the next break will come soon, but the longer threshold rides on the trainer are mentally draining.

Mike - you posted a 'critique my fit' video last week and so you may be interested in the Bike Fit Inspector on triracebook.com.  You upload a photo of your aero position, place markers on various parts of your position and then it spits out some angles with recommendations if you don't fall in a set range.

There's a tutorial on youtube.com that pretty self explanatory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1bb-G7KI0.  Its a little twitchy and can be tough to get the markers in the right spot, but gives you some basic data of your fit.  

I'll let those more experienced comment on your fit, but you look like you are pretty low.  Did you notice any drop in power as compared to your prior position?