Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 36)

When you say 'left hip' that could mean front, side, or back.  So that's too vague.  But I have been having months of issues with my left hip flexor so my mind wants to jump right to that.  If you are feeling this pain in the front, then it's your hip flexor muscle.  Can be a real PITA.

Hey, it's triathlon related!  So here's a question for you.  Does racing/training add to your stress at a time like this, or do the workouts help you deal with the stress?  Or is it all stress-neutral?

The work outs help a lot with dealing with it all. I was on a break resting up for my stellar performance in yesterdays race and didn't realize how much it was hitting me until I started typing. Much better now I think, got my endorphin fix yesterday and my running\swimming gear packed for Florida. Hope to get a good run in tomorrow morning out there.

That's good.  Some of us OCD types find that our workouts have to get done or we feel anxiety over it.  If the workout is scheduled for the evening my anxiety builds all day until I do the workout.  (unless the evening workout is #3, then I feel it's optional). 

I'm relieved to hear that the training isn't adding to your stress.

It can really be a challenge to train while on vacation.  The good news is that you can run almost anywhere.  And since your training seems to help, as is often the case, it's like a 2 for 1 deal...physical fitness and mental health all in one.

Just got back from Lake Placid this morning at 3 am.  What an inspiring weekend....I can't describe how many times I had to honestly stop myself from tearing up.  We rode the bike course on Saturday morning at 6 am....beautiful day for a ride.  It did end up getting hot later that morning so I was glad we got it over with.  Spent the rest of Saturday walking around LP and going through the expo...looking at all the crazy bikes.  That night we had sushi and beers while all our friends who were doing the race went to bed and pretended to sleep.

We did end up getting to watch the swim start.  We were there almost exactly when the gun went off.  Let me tell you, that was the CRAZIEST thing I think I've ever watched first hand.  I tried to get it on video and will post it on youtube later today, but it doesn't do it justice at all.  The entire swim looked like a washing machine.  We volunteered later in the day at run station #1 until 9pm.  People ran that marathon seriously bleeding, broken, dehydrated as hell, throwing up, burned, limping...you name it.  It was so hot out on the run in the bright sun. 

One guy limped up to our aid station, walked behind our table, sat down on the concrete step and tried to cry, but nothing came out.  He was on his second loop of the run and had around 3 miles left to go.  It was only about 8:15 at this point, so he had plenty of time.  He was shaking and had bad cramps that would come over his body in random places.  His left leg was straight from a hamstring cramp that wouldn't go away.  I got him chicken broth, water...anything that I could get him to eat.  He sat there, clearly defeated.  About 20 minutes later he was still sitting there.  I basically walked over and asked him how he was doing.  Told him to get up and walk around a bit.  He did and seemed to be better off after getting some liquid in him.  I asked him how he was doing and he responded, "okay."  And just stood there, sort of looking at me.  I handed him his cup of water and told him to "get the hell out of here and get your medal".  He sort of smiled and walked off, back onto the course with all the others, towards the finish. 

People had entire families walking and jogging with them, encouraging them to move forward.  It was really incredible.  I saw every one of my friends go by our aid station 4 times.  It was just awesome to be able to help them.  We ran after people with water, chicken broth, coke, pretzels, oranges...anything that they tried to grab, but missed.  We left last night around 10 pm.  We drove out of town passed people that were at about mile 5-6 of their second half marathon of the day.  It was dark and their slow sticks and reflectors lit of up the road.  We yelled out words of encouragement and I honestly felt bad leaving.  I wanted to help them and be there for them.  I felt connected to them somehow and I didn't even do the event.  If you ever have a chance to volunteer or be a part of one of these events, you have to do it.  It will change the way you look at mankind.

Greg,  I would say 90% of nagging soreness around joints comes from inflexibility and muscle imbalance.  Your body isn't used to this work and stress you keep putting it through.  You have to stretch everything out so it stays loose and your muscles can heal and build correctly.  Massage helps too.  Don't underestimate the value of breaking up that bound-up tissue in your muscles.

Tim,  great race my man.  Looks like you would have hit your goal if you had correctly judged the transitions.  You have some improvement that can be made and that's a great thing!  With the right amount of hard work, you will see those times plummet like a prom dress.  Disclaimer: For those of you with daughters at prom age...that was just a joke and your daughter in no way applies to this.  :-)

Warren,  that tire is toast my man.  Which sucks...because tires are expensive.  What brand/model were you using?  Was it already getting thin?  I used wetsuit glue on the inside of my tire when it was a small hole and it worked great, but if it's large, that won't work.

Dirk,  what have you been seeing as far as pace goes with this hot weather?  Do you purposely slow down, or are you sort of forced to due to the weather?

Jeff,  do you find that running at a certain time of day is more benefitial?  When I head out to San Diego for a month, I will be working second shift until 11 pm.  I was planning on doing my runs every morning around 8 or 9.  I could do them when I get home around midnight if the area is safe of course, but thought maybe it would be better to run when my legs are fully rested.  I have also heard that if you run right when you wake up everything is tight and you won't get the full benefit.  What's your take?  Am I over thinking this one?

The truth is you WERE a part of the event.  A very integral part.  Every time I go to a race I'm humbled and grateful for the poor souls who volunteer.  I understand why people do the event.  We want the challenge, the competition, the comeraderie.   But the volunteers are there just to help someone.  They often have to put up with extreme weather, long hours, early mornings and without any of the benefits of participation.  I have volunteered, but as a triathlete it holds interest for me.  I can't see why all the other volunteers are there.  And so I make a point to thank as many as I can every time I race.

I couldn't have my fun day unless the volunteers had all come together to help. 

Was the swim something like in this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVIrHc3Hnqc&feature=related

Yup.  I haven't done an IM yet, and my HIM was wave start; this was just crazy. 

Ryan, I would say that's probably a good plan.  Is the bike distance around 28 miles?  It's more about time than distance.  So let's say you are comfortable holding 165 for an hour and a half, I wouldn't drop that by 15 beats for another 25 mins, maybe by 5 beats.  Does this make sense?  For a ride like that keep your head focussed on pressure on the pedals.  Once you get into the race and warmed up, be conscious of the force you are putting on the pedals and try to keep it constant.  On the steeper sections, you have to be your own power meter so you don't burn out your legs.

http://www.mapmytri.com/routes/view/4554492

 (Nevermind, they don't classify them on their own. It has to be manually added. I wish there was a way to enter a ride into the site and it would classify the climbs. Oh well)

It sounds like 3 of us are racing this weekend, myself, Matt and Ryan.  Anyone else?  Matt and I are doing the same race which is a sprint and if I can have any legs left after a slightly shorter long run on Friday and a hopefully shorter ride on Saturday, I should have decent placement but most of it will be determined by those conditions.  I have set myself up to have only a 14 mile long run Friday which is 3 less than normal.  I have set myself up to drop those 3 miles but keep my overall mpw at 40.

I week from Sunday I have my "A" triathlon of the season in the Try-Indy olympic distance.  So really this week's race is kind of a "get ready" race to polish a couple of things I guess.  Besides, this race cost me $45 instead of $60+ like usual tri around here.  I also may have another cheaper race in September but I have to check on that one.

Sounds good Dirk.  I think a sprint 1 week before the A race is a good idea too.  It's a great threshold workout.

How do you plan to approach that week before your A race in terms of training volume?

Wow!  An 11 mile climb at an average of 3%!?!?!

Are you sure they don't classify them on their own?  I think that maybe they do.  They don't publish their methodology.  They say it's 'based on' the UCI categorization.  But I did a little research on that a while ago and the classification is something determined by the race director prior to the race (or the UCI officials).  What I read said that they take in to account not just the traits of the climb (distance, grade), but what climbs came before that climb on that day's race course, and in a grand tour like the TDF, how many days in to the race they were.  It's pretty much them trying to put a number on the subjective difficulty of that climb.

It's only for the purpose of determining how many points each climb is worth in the King of the Mountains classification system.  For example, the same exact climb has gotten different ratings in different years of the TDF.

By default it will obviously be smaller.  In part for the simple reason that Sunday usually carries a fair amount of workload because it is another double workout day for me and that will be tempered because of the race.  I would like to get 25 miles running still but but I haven't worked through the scheduling of that yet.  (I guess it's time to do that!!!)  As far as anything else I will probably try to get the other workouts in as early as possible in the week but I would like to get at least one more swim and a couple of short bikes, say 20 miles each.  One being a moderately hard hard (early) and the other just keep things moving.  Running will be at the forefront however.  My true A race is the Columbus marathon in mid-October where I would like to BQ. 

That's an awesome goal Dirk.  We live an hour North of Boston.  If you qualify, I will come pick you up from the airport, feed you (well...my fiance will) and drop you off for the race.  Your family is also welcome to stay with us.

Good.  I don't know how deep a hole your current training routine might have you.  Is one easy day all you need to be 100%?  Or two?  Whatever that is, ensuring you get that rest prior to that tri will give you your best performance (obviously), and in my opinion won't diminish your marathon performance mid-October. 

So if your A-race tri is on a Saturday, Friday could be an hour easy swim (with a few hard 100s) and a 3 mile run at 9:00 pace all in the AM.  Then eat well, sleep well and race Saturday.  And if you are dug a little bit in to a hole, then Thursday could be a 10 mile ride at an easy intensity overall with a few 15-30 second very hard efforts, and again a 3 mile ez run. 

I know it would diminish your weekly total quite a bit that one week, but I am certain it won't change anything regarding your prep for October.

Yep.  overthinking.  Remember that 95% of your mileage is basically just about getting in to that zone 3 and working the muscles through glycogen processing.  Easy runs like that are great in the morning....a good way to start the day.  I find that I can't comfortably just step out my door and run, but that's due to my nagging achilles issue...my runs must follow cycling or swimming to mitigate that.

So without an injury, or one threatening on the horizon (you know that 'brittle' feeling) then morning runs are awesome.

Of course, if you are on the road and have no bike, and perhaps no access to swimming, then all you have is running...so I might suggest you use both times of the day for 2 easy runs.  That's assuming your body is giving you a green light for the increased mileage.

Still not sure if we are talking about your hip flexor or not, but absolutely everything you describe mirrors my hip flexor.  It always flares up around running.  Most of the time it's OK while running and then hurts afterwards sometimes enough to cause me to limp when done running, but will always be back to 'baseline' the next day.  It's a lot worse when I run fast.  The amount of stress seen by the hip flexor is directly related to your running pace.

If it's your hip flexor, then keeping all of your runs slow for the time being may enable you to continue running as well as allowing it to heal.  Anti-inflammatories are good, so is icing.  Ice it!  Makes a huge difference for me.  Stretching might help, but in my case it hasn't.

I agree with Jeff on the hip flexor.  I have a bone deformation which causes stress on my left hip flexor and his pain is exactly what I experience.  Rarely hurts while running except when I run at pace or if I run long (over 90 minutes), but it is often sore afterward and fine the next day.  It also flares up when I do a lot of riding in aero position, so I try to limit my aero position to TT and intervals.

Dirk, if you BQ are you planning to run Boston next year?  I also live less than a hour from Boston so I'll sign up to be a caddy for the race as well.  It can be a logistical nightmare getting to the start and then back after the race and what have you, so maybe we can help out.  I'd offer a room as well but a few nights in my chaotic house with 2 teenager boys and a third son with special needs wouldn't help your prep at all!

Now go get that 3:20 (or if you're going for 2013 I think it drops to 3:15).

Jonathon and Warren,

Thanks for the offers for places to to stay and eat.  That's incredible hospitality!  I would imagine the 2012 race is already sold out.  I hear it is a VERY fast sell if you qualify and you almost have to sit by the computer when registration opens.  I know the BQ is good for 2 years too, so if I qualify this year I wonder if it would be good for 2013?

I just did some checking.  It appears I will have to run a 3:15:00 to BQ for 2013 but I still wonder about the 2 year deal???  I will have to do some more research.  There is also a chance I can qualify this year and still run 2012 but I would have to register almost as soon as I qualify and IF there are still spots available.  Right now I would say it is a long shot for me to get in.  3;15:00 is pretty darn fast!!!

Jeff,

Currently my legs are feeling a little of the volume from running but my riding legs seem fairly fresh because I had a shorter week last week than I would have liked and I had the week of storm restoration that kept everything low.  I will probably try to take one full day off and apply the training ideas you are suggesting.  One of the bad parts about that race weekend is that we have a anniversary party on Saturday evening at our families place in Ohio, so the logistics are still being worked out as well as what the available time will be to get much done on Friday before we leave.  It may turn into a 2 day rest before the race.

Like you said, 1.5 weeks off the routine isn't going to kill my goals for the marathon, so I won't panic BUT I will not like having a low volume period that close to the 26.2.

Aw man, that totally sucks dude.  Sorry to hear that.  No other last minute sitters available!?  

Everyone else that is racing tomorrow, good luck!!

Too bad Matt.  It sucks to have planned and trained for a race and then have to back out.  I hope you are planning on being there anyway, it would be nice to meet you.  I hope to have a decent performance but I think I rode a little to hard to day and a little to far.  Oh well this is a "B" race anyway.