kaqphin (Super Cat's) Mentor group - CLOSED (Page 38)

Pam

(listening to Jimmy Eat World right now) 

I am so glad you listened to your body and your mind and was able to find some better headspace.  And I wish I had listened to you a few weeks back and STOPPED RUNNING when I felt pain.  Now, who knows when I will run again. I am going to start playing The Middle, by Jimmy Eat World before races!

Riding with the race team makes me appreciate focusing on the fun and the challenge verses the pressure and the goals. I am meeting several people who talk of complete burn out after a year or two of racing.  Since  they are trying to grow the sport for women there is a lot of pressure for women to come out and race every race and do well. Fun... it's about fun!

Brit- this picture is for you cause it reminded me of our posts about my "cycling inspired rear end"

and I am shocked to actually like a shot of my  a$$ in lycra...

Jeni--that's AWESOME! One of these days I too will like my rear in lycra!! Seriously, it's an awesome picture you look like an awesome cyclist in it!

Nice song choice - it is one of my ultimate pick me up songs!!!!

Another is "No Such Thing' by John Mayer which I think came out about the same time..

"Welcome to the real world she said to me, Condescendingly, Take a seat, take your life.
Plot it out in black and white

Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings, and the drama queens, I'd like to think the best of me - Is still hiding, Up my sleeve

They love to tell you stay inside the lines. But something's better on the other side"

My ipod is MIA..... how shall I survive.  That is the downside to electronics becoming the size of postage stamps.

So here is a test for all you runners.  I had to do it in physio.  do a reverse bridge on a fitness ball (lie with the ball under your sholder blades and supporting your neck and then put your legs out so your knees are bent 90 degrees).  Then try to lift one leg off the floor.  Can you do it?  Can you do it and stay still in your core?  Is it easier on one side than the other?

So, I can't even lift my leg off the floor.... thus the cause of all my hip issues!!! Bingo!! So instead of engaging my core and my glutes to lift my legs i use my hip abductor so it gets overworked each and every time.  And it's 100 percent impossible on my right side but slightly less impossible on my left... thus we have the core imbalance. So my goal for physio is to be able to do that exercise no problem in under a month.  So doing split lunges and concentrating on engaging the right muscle groups when I walk.  It is so nice to be treating the cause of an injury instead of just icing the symptoms.

That was one of the exercises i had to do as rehab for my runners knee... I have bad hip stability and wek glutes... bridges work your glutes a lot too....

Are you doing other exercises to?

Some of the others I was doing were:

- squats with a resistance band around my knees to keep the tracking in line... these eventually graduated to one legged squats which was the end goal

- lunges (not weighted)

- bridges adding in the leg raise you mentioned

- clam shells (not sure how to describe these)

haha sounds to me your glutes are like mine

Here is a shout out to Pam for her race tomorrow!!  I predict she unleashes on it and the rest of the competitors get whiplash trying to see what that flash was that passed them!   Race well Pam!!

I have my first "Metric Century" tomorrow as I ride the Armadillo Hill Country Classic--should be great hill work training and great weather.  I also got my Infinit in the mail yesterday and am going to test it out tomorrow.  Need lots more bike on my schedule to insure I survive BSLT 70.3's hilly course!  Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

woowhoo for the metric century!  after 100km it all just starts to feel the same

GO PAM GO!!! Let it loose!

I put in my hard ride this morning because I have kayaking and windsurfing lessons this weekend!! I'm excited- but the ocean is COLD!! 

Here is the link to the RR: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... - Im thinking your arch rival better watch her back from now on with you coming to get her! 

Great race Pam!  Don't focus on the negative stuff but think about what worked which was obviously a lot because you did great! surviving a panic attack during the swim, using a carrot on the bike and running with a smile on your face!! 

It's really all about the smile

How did the metric century go?? 

Kayaking was fun and cold.  I can now rescue myself and help rescue someone else. Windsurfing got postponed because the winds were too strong.  Unfortunatly we rescheduled it on a night that I makes me miss a criterion Thursday which I am sad about.

Anybody ever contemplated training with power on their bike? I have a friend who swears by it and I just bought a trainer that will measure watts. I can't wait for it to arrive so I can try it out! 

Phew, what a weekend--felt like I was going 100mph all weekend.  But, it was good and fun.

The metric century went well! It was warm out--80's--but overcast.  Lots of riders and it didn't thin out too much till after about maybe the 10 mile mark--and the first 5 miles were really packed.  But, I had a really great ride, conquered more hills than hills that conquered me.  I did get beat completely by my first hill--it was just after the 30 mile mark with no momentum going into it and it was steep and long. I got about half-way up and had no more forward momentum, so clip clop up the rest of it. It didn't demoralize me though because I was still doing well.  Since it was a training ride, I didn't stop at any of the well placed rest stops until mile 40 cause I had to potty--grabbed a small bit of a PBJ sandwhich and then headed back.  The hills were definitely more prominent on the second half of the ride.  I used Infinit for the first time and took 3 bottles of it, and besides that small PBJ bite, that's all I took and all I needed nutrition wise--no cramps, no GI issues, so that made me happy.  Probably could've taken in a little more water though.  Since this was near Austin there were lots of triathletes there with tri-bikes and one really fit looking gal called me a strong cyclist--one of the best compliments I've received out there! Then she did a brick--I should've, but just didn't have time.  I'm doing another one at the end of the month and will brick it.   I did have some left knee pain the last 5 miles or so of the bike, just above the left knee...yesterday I was a little tight, but not overly sore, so that was good.  I did make an appt. for Thurs. to get my bike fit checked--haven't done that since I first bought the bike and first started--to see if that helps.  Took yesterday off, and had a really long ride (on the trainer) this morning without knee pain--so, I think it's something I was doing pushing hard on the hills. 

I have thought about training with power and think someday I'll buy a powertap to train with it...we'll see...I also want race wheels someday, and....oh there is so much I could buy!

Ive wanted another bike for the longest time I wish they did just magically appear... I mean I have two bikes so if they were like rabbits I guess Id have a lot of bikes by now

lyssa-gator - 2008-05-13 8:09 AM so i had to go get my pilates ball thingy out of the closet to see if i could do that (?) reverse bridge? is that what it was called. anyway, of the three tri sports, running is my strongest, and i could do it. it was a tad easier with my right leg up and my left leg on the floor, but i could do it on both sides. so now that i've done it, i have to go back and re read the OP to see what that means i love reading up on you guys, you're awesome, and that pic on the bike, the a$$ pic. it's a keeper for sure!! and i think ANY time you're liking a pic of your own a$$ in lycra, you should get a print of it, like a big one, and plaster it on your wall somewhere (like right in front of your trainer! LOL ) great job on the metric century brit, sounds greuling, but i still don't have a good bike.

Lyssa - its an exercise for strengthening your glutes.... you hold the bridge position then lift your leg up (out straight and parallell to the floor ofr a challenge or bent if yuo cant) and then hold the bridge...

If you want to make it even harder hold the leg up and gently lower your body half way and then then clech your but and re raise your body again... hold for 5 - 10 seconds and repeat - you can alternate legs or do say 10 each side...

your butt should hurt the next day

The difference between us and them...

I was the ride leader for our monday night recovery ride today (a slightly easier pace and shorter distance).  so no one on the race team came out and it was all women who are not competing for anything.  Very nice but a bit stressful since they are kind of all over the place.

So my rant about why we get to be called athletes instead endurance hobbyists

One of the women who is also in my coached ride group lives somewhat near me so we split off and she says she will go out of her way to ride to the bottom of the hill I have to climb to get home which is one of the best training hills in the area. (so the disclaimer is that I looking forward to riding by myself so am already annoyed that she tagged along cause I end up pulling her against a headwind). I tell her if she's going to ride all the way out there she might as well do the hill.. I mean come on if you are going to ride an extra 15km, tack on the nice climb. She says no, but spends the whole ride out to the hill talking about her LT threshold, lactic balance point, training zones etcetera.  So I mention again, she should do the hill since she wants to improve her riding.  Nope... we got to the bottom she stopped and wished me well and rode home with tailwind.

Now I understand do you your own pace, we all have different goals, I am happy to see people on their bike but this woman hits what I guess is a pet peeve.. you talk and talk about training and about wanting to be a better rider... so put it into action.. push yourself! and ride the hill! I don't care how fast you are, just have the willing attitude to push yourself if you talk like that. We- athletes have that attitude, put the work in see the rewards.. but most of all, we put words into action and do the work!!

And I should mention she has a beautiful Cervelo P2SL that she rides because she finds it more comfortable.  I drool, knowing what that bike can do and her complete disinterest in putting it through it's paces. sigh...

ok, rant over....

Dedication and the willingness to push beyond one's own personal comfort zone is what does produce improvements in phsyical ability, there is no doubt about it.

So, Jeni, you're looking at power taps...I'm thinking race wheels right now.  I've read the multiple posts in Tri-Talk about it, but still am not quite sure. I'm going to talk to my bike shop about it when I go in for Fit adjustments tomorrow.  I am not looking on spending a fortune (i.e. nothing like Zipp 808's...I am an age grouper) but do want something in the Zipp 404/HED JET 60 range or something...I don't know...so many decisions. 

How is everyone?

I have a tacx flow trainer coming in the mail which does power readings so my friend lent me his copy of "training and racing with a power meter".  Half way through the book and I'm hooked! And i just got my tax refund so a powertap is next!

Using specific field tests you can rate what kind of rider you are and really pinpoint your weaknesses. One of the really cool things is they have found an equation using power and hr to really fine tune when you hitting the point of over training and using power output can rate the stress of each workout but the bottom line is still, putting in the effort power is just a more precise way to measure it.

Well not sure if this helps but maybe work out whats going to help you more in the short term and then the medium term?

Race wheels = free speed in racing situations due to being lighter and having less rolling resistance

Powermeter = Better monitoring and contol over your training and helps with setting benchmarks and training goals as well as monitoring progress (like a HRM does in many ways)

Given your season is kicking in now... one way of looking at it might be that the wheels now will help you enjoy this season... a powermeter at the end of the season fo off season training will set yuo up for next season...

Well thats one way of looking at it any way

I saw someone at my TT taping the vents in their helmet with clear packaging tape.  And she said "it helps a lot"  so I asked, how much is a lot and she looked at me like I was crazy for asking so I never got an answer.