kenj - motivated triathletes in training - CLOSED (Page 37)

Carla, positive thinking.  No negative thinking.  The race is hard enough.  You don't have to defeat yourself before the cannon.

I agree with Ken.  You've got a coach?  Use her/him.  I do 4 bikes, including 3 short tough ones and 1 longer base ride.  At this time of year, the shorter ones are strength exercises with 50-60 rpm and high watts or VO2 bursts of a minute each for 10 reps or pedal drills, high cadence drills.  The longer one is 60 to 65% of functional threshold power. 

The workouts are designed to show steady improvement with a peak at race time.  You aren't supposed to be pushing high watts now.  If you did you'd burn out before you got to the race. Or worse, you would get injured.

My time is spent trying to get smoother in the water so I spend less energy there, then get stronger on the bike so I can cruise at a lower wattage and make speed on race day and save the legs for the marathon.

Strength exercising is great too.  I'm getting incredible amounts out of SE this winter because I'm working with a personal trainer who knows his stuff. 

Stay positive.  Picture ourselves crossing the finish line.  Do the workouts religiously.  Take a rest day every week.  That means nothing, nada, but rest, hydration and eating good and doing something fun.

We can all do this.  That is the beauty of the sport.  It gives back what we put into it.  Love it.

Many thanks Robin & All,

Today was the first time I tried to really see what my output was just riding "Naturally" for two hours.  For those who are trying to lose weight, it was equivalent to stepping on the scale and seeing "THE NUMBER" what ever that number is for you...

...as you know, looking anything directly in the face and realizing that it's a starting point is not always "pretty"... so this is my reaction to "THE NUMBER"... realizing that the sound wisdom and experience spoken by Ken and IceMan is grounded in Truth.

Kenj - You're so right... it is probably "Way Too Early" to feel discouraged... I just keep staring at the calendar, and the weeks are flying by like minutes in an hour. 

I'm inside of 21 weeks to Race day... and after spending the entire morning with my coach... voicing my concerns, hearing her approach, I just wanted to let that final bit of "Steam out of the pot" and post my heart felt reaction to my Wattage today. 

We did talk about additional bike sessions as well as Power Intervals that you speak of... she hasn't posted my work for next week as she is taking in everything we talked about today and will devise her "Master Plan".  My job is to do the work and to trust her.  I am, however, always interested in hearing how someone else may approach the same situation so your comments about what you would do are invaluable!

Many thanks to you!

You hit on two aspects of this challenge that I need to recommit to:

(1)  Staying Positive:  The mental Game

(2)  Strength - Which I have not yet fully embraced

As for staying positive, I will finish my "Picture Book" which will have photo images and text of those I look up to in the sport and in life in general.  I will also have photos of me having accomplished goals... showing myself at the finish line with medals..., etc. 

I have a lot of these "Tools" in my Tool Box, but now is the perfect time to really practice them! Thanks for the reminds.

As for Strength, I would rather do functional strength on the bike in place of "lunges" and "squats".  Neither of those movements are natrual to me and I feel like I'd do more damage than good trying to execute them.  I've already tweeked my knee doing lateral movements.  :/  Ugh.  In any case, I may talk to you offline about strength and how I can get better motivated to do it.

Good luck on your half marathon tomorrow!

Best of luck tomorrow, Tim! Ease into the "push it," then let loose when your body is ready. In my last half mary (in Oct.), I pushed too hard for the first 6 miles going for a PR. I also didn't hydrate enough, and cramped up. Lesson learned for me. Anyway, I'm sure you'll do great!

Carla, you'll eventually get where you want to be on the bike. It just takes some time. We all have our weaknesses. Mine is definitely the swim. I've been focused on trying to fix my swim this winter, and let the bike and run fade a little bit. The mental aspect is tough. Whatever you can do to add some fun to your bike workouts also might help. I find that when I think too much about the "numbers," the fun starts to drain away. Maybe you can find some new routes to ride -- even if you have to drive a few miles to get to them. Hopefully, you have a good bike fit and are comfortable in the saddle. That's REALLY important... Best of luck!

sdswriter - "Fun" and Variety are very much a key to success.  I will look for opportunities to make riding fun.  Multisport is quite the juggling act where as single sport we can go "heads down" and focus solely on improving one aspect of our fitness. 

Definitely hang in there with the swim.  It is quite the challenge even for myself and I love swimming.  I will keep the faith... I just don't know success with respect to cycling for myself so it's hard for me to just relax into the plan and trust that if I do the work I will somehow see the results. 

Cycling is the largest portion of the triathlon... so I envy those who are strong in this area. 

I wish you all the best at improving your swim... and I will keep you posted on my progress on the bike!

I appreciate your time and responses!

Go Get 'em Tim!!! "May the road rise up to meet you and may the wind always be at your back..."

I'm sure your coach will have you do the functional strength training on the bike.  They are called SEs by my coaching group, Strength Exercises...low cadence of 50 to 60 with higher power ....I started with sets of 5 mins with 5 mins in between three times.  Then stretched to 10, 15 and longer.  They are just like grinding out long hills, or hill repeats.  They are great in that they target specifically the muscles we use.   Coupled with VO2 drills, we get more muscles in the right places and more endurance = more power over longer periods. 

You are an Ironman, girl.  You can do it.  I honestly meditate with images of successful swims, bikes and runs.  Crossing the finish line. Positive self talk during the exercises.  Drifting off to sleep thinking about crossing the line.  There was never a doubt in my mind on 9/11 that I was going to finish no matter a hernia, no matter cramps.  Nothing was going to stop me.  Nothing did.  

You can do this.  We all can do this.  Whatever the goal, persistent commitment to workouts day in and day out while remembering this is supposed to be about FUN will get us through to the end. 

That is exactly what I have been thinking for some time. Carla, I hope your talk with your coach was a good one.

Best of luck!!!

Happy Weekend folks.  

Left knee is sore since last Thursdays run.  Rested it since.  Gonna take today off as well.  

Hopefully, a temporary set back.

I wonder, sometimes, whether my running "career" is over...

I didnt want to go outside and play in the cold wind and snow covered roads, so I did 9 on the treadmill before heading to Sunday morning spin class!  It all felt pretty good for the most part.

Whats everyone else doing today?

Richard, I hope the knee doesn't wind up being too serious this time.  Wise to rest it though!

OMG!!! I've fallen in love with Mountain Biking! Did my first Mountain Bike ride today...and I did 12+ miles.  The other folks were impressed because they all have only done 3 miles or less before attempting longer miles.   The motto for today was NO FEAR!  Sure there were some parts that I walked my bike due to lack of MTB hill climbing experience, but overall it was just so much fun. You learn bike handling very quickly! I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow, so if I'm very sore, I will either do easy swim or easy trainer ride.  

It's nice to have a bit of a change from just SBR.  I also go on hiking trips as well. I still treat it as training because you will be using different muscles for Mountain Bike and Hiking than just SBR. 

gator22 - 2012-01-29 4:32 PM Wow. Lots to catch up on here.  My big observation from the weekend was this : If you have body issues, go to an indoor water park and you will immediately feel better about how you look

Where's the like button???

Looking foward to hearing how Tim's half went today.  I hope everything went well.

Carla - Everyone else has said it but June is a very long way to go.  You're going to be fine.  Just keep up your training.

And now a question about swimming.  Dj was talking about breathing every 3,5,7 and even 9 strokes.  Early in my swim I can sometimes go 5 without a breathe but that's about my limit.  Once I get in a rhythm, I'm breathing every other stroke.  Is there a drill or some trick to being able to make a breathe last longer or is it something that just comes with time.     

I'm not an expert at swimming, but if you're breathing every stroke because you feel like you have to exhale...you're going too fast.    Same idea as for running, if you're breathing way too fast/panting/cannot talk - you're going too fast. I kind of think it's the same way.   When you swim, you want to exhale slowly. Over time your stroke/speed will catch up.