RFP GROUP 2013 - CLOSED (Page 37)

KC - I would think that your IT band issue is more from the running and not the biking.  Do you pay much attention to your legs while biking.  Your knees should be like pistons with no side ways wobble just straight up and down.  Also what cadence are you pedaling at.  Maybe you are pushing to hard of a gear.  The thing for me with the bike is that when I am doing something wrong in my pedal stroke it is my knees that hurt.  Have you been fitted for shoes lately?  Does the IT band correlate with using the Newtons.  When I had really bad IT band issues it was my Asic Cumulus that were causing the problems.  Rest, new shoes and strength and stretching and I have never had an issue since.  Just a couple things to think about...

DEB - So glad that you decided not to make your way over to the finish line area and that you and your group ended up all being safe!  In regards to your speed on the bike are you using the plans that Trainer Road offers?  I used the Intermediate Base I (http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/91) and it really helped me out.  I would suggest giving it 6 weeks and see what it does.  Also Scott's Illinois Marathon is next weekend (4/27).

KTC - Why would you need to cancel you reservation  - there is no way you are gonna miss IMAZ!  Pierce brought up some good points.  Maybe you can negotiate a partial return on your deposit or something.  I really thing a condo or house is the way to go over a hotel. Much easier to relax and you can cook you own meals prior to race etc...  Good luck with all that!!

KRISTEN - Glad to hear you are ok.  Is your friend the one who is checking her Garmin after she crosses the line?

GIL - Sorry to hear about your family issues.  The training will come back fast.  Can't believe Galena is 1 month away!  Barring a 4 day 90 degree heat wave, that water is gonna be FREEZING.  Just don't try to do too much to "catch up".  That is where the injuries creep in.

SIMONE - good luck at your 10K this weekend!  Think negative splits!!! Awesome work on the Brick run.  It is amazing to see how you are improving each week and keep hitting a new milestone or PR every time I check in!

I was able to get out for a three hour ride last Sunday with a group.  These guys are just machines and their average IM finish time is around 10:00-10:30.  I was able to hang for about 2 hours then started getting dropped.  The weather was TERRIBLE Sunday morning.  When I left the house it was 31F and 25 mph winds.  Made for a brutal day but we got 50 miles in (That is 80.5 K Simone haha).  

LOL! Great job on the ride Tim, now I just need to train you to convert Fahrenheit to Celcius!! Hahaha

Good call - you should never be pushing up those hills.  What did you have a 26?  My Smithsonian bike has a 33 and really helped me on the IMWI hills but the downside is a have a 13 on the crank so I am limited on pushing the downhills but things could be much worse.

KC - I think my comment on your IT band jinxed me!  Last year at IMWI at about mile 7 or 8, I got this really bad knee pain that I had never had before.  I have not felt it since and figured it was just from pushing it that day. (on a side note my Mom goes to a psychic and had asked if I would finish the IM and he said yes but I would have knee pain.  At first I thought that was pretty cool but then realized that probably every racer out there that day had sore knees haha).  

So I really pushed hard on my 50 mile ride outside in the wind last weekend and noticed my knee starting hurt again.  I did some running speed work this week and felt it again.  I just got back from a 6 mile run and it hurt the whole time.  I did a search for outer knee pain and IT band came up.  It is weird because whenever I have had IT band issues in the past it was always in the left hip area not the knee.  Can you get IT band just on your knee or could this be something else? Well gonna have to RICE and hit the roller hard....

Hi RFP'ers!

Tim, yes that's my friend and fellow Baystate Tri teammate, Deb, who is checking her Garmin right after the bomb blast as she crosses the finish line.  Isn't that crazy?!? 

I have had a couple of rest days in a row the past few days and am hoping to get outside for a good brick session later today.  This week has really taken a toll on my stress levels!  My daughter had her tonsils and adenoids out on Thursday at a hospital outside of Boston.  The surgery went well and they wanted to keep her overnight.  We were woken up by hospital staff at 3am when the manhunt for the marathon bombing suspects was beginning to unfold b/c our hospital was one town away from where the manhunt was happening.  The hospital was ordered to lockdown so that was a bit scary.  We were finally allowed to leave but it was a long, stressful day. 

On a lighter note, the surgery went well and I'm really hopeful it will help my daughter.  So glad they caught that last suspect.

Hope everyone's training is going well.  I'll catch up on everyone's posts in a bit!

Been absent for awhile due to finalizing selling my Mom's home and getting everything cleaned out.  Impacted some of my training but I should be able to stick with every workout starting next week.

Glad to hear everyone associated with the Boston Marathon is fine.  All of our friends participating finished well ahead of the explosions and were back in their hotels at the time.  So very thankful!

I will be doing a dynamic fitting on my bike using the Guru Dynamic Fit unit.  Haven't been able to get comfortable on the new bike at all.  I will let you know how it worked out.  If you want to read about it:

http://www.gurucycling.com/the-experience/how-it-works/

The fit is being done this coming Thursday.

Question-Does any continue to do strength training through racing season?  I know Joel Friel and Mark Allen both recommend continuing maintenance strength training for us older folks. 

Is anyone else ready for spring?  I am running outside but still biking inside on the CT.  Open water swimming is going to be cold starting out!

Tim - sorry to hear the ITB is playing up on you too, hope you get it sorted out soon.

Kristen - glad to hear your daughter's op went well, must have been scary stuff being locked down at the hospital.

Lori - I hope the bike fit works out for you. In response to your question about strength training, I do it all year round. During the Tri season I will limit my heavy lifting days to once a week (full body workout) and I don't do strength at all during my taper periods. Off season I will try and fit in 2 heavy sessions and one PT or core session. I have found they have helped strengthen my core and body for all three disciplines.

Hi Team,

so today was my 10K race at Moama. If you want to read all about the drama, check out my log, but suffice it to say it didn't exactly go to plan. I ended up having a panic attack at the start line, first one since I've been on meds so it really caught me off guard. The run was not too bad considering, I came close to a PR, but not where near my goal of beating 1:10:00. Anyway the miracle of the day was that I finished, because my anxiety came so very close to psyching me out at the start line I almost walked away from the race just so I could breathe. I'll notch it up to all part of the learning curve. I'm glad at least the nerves beast reared its head here, it will give me time to sort it out before Shep 70.3. Final race time was 1:17:05, just under 7:30 min/km pace. I still have a lot of work to do! But I am not too disappointed because I finished and proved to myself that I can survive the unknown ordeals that still get tossed my way. This was definitely an RFP run!

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

Hi Team.

It has been a few days since posting. I hope everyone is doing well.

Simone: Nice job on the race and awesome job on putting the RFP mantra to work - very proud of you for grinding it out.

Tim: Sorry to hear your IT may be acting up and yes, that is probably your IT on the outside of the knee.  Let me know if you come up with any miracle cures - I need one.

OK - whats up with me?

I have been kind of in the dull-drums lately and I am trying to figure out what is up . My IT is still bugging me? I am seeing my chiropractor but I seem to be stuck. The good news is I guess I have not gotten any worse. The last two Saturdays I have reversed my workout order - I am running first and then biking. The IT has not been bugging me on the runs but about 2 hours into the bike it starts. It is the weirdest thing - when I am in aero no issues but when I straighten up on the bike and take my hands off the bars - it starts to hurt? I have to figure this crap out soon because it is really bumming me out and I am starting to worry about it. I have been able to get my workouts in but they have quiet frankly sucked! I also have some other $hit going on away from triathlon and to sum it all up - been a few crap weeks for KC - maybe it will get better when the weather gets better? I sure hope so.

This week is taper so I will do my best to take it easy and get the other side of my life in order.

Have a great week team.

KC

I have not been doing strength training all that consistently on my own, but my coach (just started using one since winning a free coaching package from my tri team) has me doing strength training one day a week, so we'll see how that goes!

Simone, sorry to hear about your panic attack at your 10K race!  That must have been frightening.  But good for you, getting it done and finishing!!

KC - That's a bummer that your IT band is acting up along with everything else...  Hope this coming week is better!  Enjoy your taper week!!

Really comes down to time.  If you can squeeze it in during your IM training then you are a machine! Otherwise I think most just do a majority of their strength training in offseason.

Good Morning Team.

Have a safe and great week.

KC

Foam roller and squats 

IT band goes from your hip all the way down to knee. When I had it, it was very uncomfortable on the lateral side of my knee. Turned out to be an issue with my glutes. Did a bunch of foam rolling a lot of stretching (some yoga poses help a lot) and a whole lot of core and body weight stuff to try and compensate for that. Only had minor issues and it pretty much saved my marathon last year especially the roller. 

Haven't done any crazy long runs (+12 miles) or bike rides yet this year but have been relatively problem free since I started throwing weights around. 

Sometimes it isn't about beating a goal and more just getting the starting line and finishing.  Glad that you were able to overcome your anxiety and still finish with a PR.  You nailed it right on the head with surviving the unknown ordeals!  Long course triathlon requires this and dealing with unknowns and those decisions you make will make or break your race and your day.  Wish I could give you advice on the anxiety before a race but I can't since since I am usually running around like a chicken with my head cut off freaking out .

KC - When I had this issue in 2009 I basically did the stuff AJ said and it worked.  Are you doing any stretching?  I have two in particular that work for me along with the foam roller.  I have been trying to stretch and foam roll 3X a day.  Havn't ran since Saturday so we will see it it helped tomorrow.

There's nothing quite like having some home weights on hand. I've been doing a lot of home strength work recently with dumbbells and a fitball, basically because I've been road running and road cycling and so couldn't motivate myself to get to the gym for weights only, easier to do them at home. Might have to head there on Friday though or else my mates there will be sending out an S.O.S.! Haha

lets try that again shall we?! haha

On Monday I learned in our company weekly newsletter that I have a meeting to attend at our home office on Nov 13 to the 15th. iMAZ is on Nov 17th and was planning on leaving on the 13th, and I even put in my vacation request last Nov, but I also knew my company doesn't allow anyone to miss these meetings unless you are in the hospital sick, or a death in the family. Last Oct I tired missing a day due to us moving and was told that was not an excusable reason and I had to be at the meeting. Lets just say I was freaking out till my boss emailed me telling me I was excused. Thank goodness!!!!