RE-OPENED Birkierunner's 2013 mentor group - RE-OPENED!!! (Page 4)

MIA during Xmas as I was away at the in-laws.

I ride with a PT so deal with swapping the trainer tire every time I switch from road to indoor.  I try not to put the road tire on the rear wheel since it wears down so quickly on the trainer.  If you can find a cheap rear wheel that's the best way to go - I found one that was unridable (cracks), but was fine for the trainer, but when I moved to the PT I learned to get good at swapping out the tire.

Just looked outside.  YIKES!  Got another 5" of snow overnight.  A foot of snow on the ground.  Really?  In Indiana?  Welcome to Indiana Scott!  I never had to deal with this in California.

That brings up an interesting question - At what point is it OK to alter your training due to weather?

Today was going to be a swim day, but the pool is 65 miles away.  Yeah, I am sure the plows are out and the salt is getting laid down, but I am thinking the better part of valor is probably not to do something stupid and drive in the hazardous conditions.  I can hit the cardio bike and weights so it isn't a total wash-out.  I am not sure that running outdoors is a realistic option today, given the new snow and ice, crazies on the road, plows, etc.  Taking the bike out is probably out of the question for the same reasons.  Like I said in an earlier post, I have the yaktrax and a bike trainer on the way, but at some point, don't you just have to say, "Maybe tomorrow?"

Looking forward to comments from some of you with far more experience in cold weather climates than I have.

Hmmmmm....I'm the last guy you want to talk to then.  I grew up in New England and moved to WI from work in MD because I needed real winters.  I race x-c ski in winter so love it.  We had a race north of Duluth a few years ago and on the way up our car temp said minus 40 degrees.  They postponed the race a couple of hours before it "warmed up" to minus 20 and they let us start the race.  As I type this I'm getting ready to go run out in the snow.  You just have to use good judgement.  If the roads aren't plowed yet maybe its best to wait if you are not comfortable running in snow.  Personally, I'd still go out and try to find less-traveled roads to run on.  I have never used yaktrax or similar and never seem to have a problem.  The way I look at it is, you never know what weather you'll get on race day so don't let the weather dictate your training (within reason obviously).  Let us know how it goes

You can find them HERE.  Just another version of an indoor trainer.  The Computrainer looks similar but it has a lot more bells and whistles.

I thought about your post while out running in the snow just now and it reminded me of the Ironman documentary "What It Takes" (see trailer).  In the movie 3x Ironman World Champion Peter Reid is shown driving to a couple of local pools that he finds out are closed due to a snowstorm.  Since he can't get his swim workout in Reid decides to break out the mountain bike and get in a bike workout in the snow.  After the workout he said he knew none of his other competitors would have been out there in the storm.  It's all about how bad you want it......

Scott, I don't know if you've seen Gordo Byrn's website but he has a part of his site dedicated to several articles on what he thinks it takes to qualify for Kona.  Link here

Personally in for me in Wisconsin:  The pool is 25 minutes drive away, so I try to keep swims during the week when I'm going to town anyway for my job.  Biking I do indoors probably 8 months out of the year on my trainer.  I have a hard enough time keeping in control on drive pavement let alone snow etc.  Runs however I love to do outside and really only cut it off at below 10 degrees.  I have Yak trax too, but generally only use them in early spring when it gets to be a freeze/thaw ice situation.

Todd

I remember once when I was swimming a similar thing happening.  During Christmas vacation we trained in a short course pool at a City College.  The college shut the pool heaters off, since nobody was using the pool (except the A.A.U. Swim Team - opps).  Even in Southern California, it can still get chilly in the winter.  One morning we went to start a workout at 5 a.m. and were greeted by ice floating in the pool.  That was one of those moments.  We could do what others would not or we could go home to our warm beds.  About 2/3 of the team elected to go home.  I was one of the crazies that broke ice when we jumped in.  It was REALLY cold at first, but it got better.  There was certainly motivation not to hang on the wall between sets!

"It's all about how bad you want it....."

Yeah, I wanted it pretty bad then, I want it even more now.

THANK YOU!  I have been looking for something like this site for quite a long time!  Thank you!

We recently transplanted from California to Indiana; still trying to get used to this "real" winter thing.  We rarely had to deal with temperatures below 40 degrees, let alone snow and ice.  Can't say as how I liked the YakTrax, I suppose they served their purpose as I didn't fall on my arse but I didn't care for how they felt.  I think I am going to try a pair of trail running shoes and see if that is more comfortable.  I have an indoor bike trainer on the way, hopefully that will get here next week.  As to swimming, I like the pool I am using but an hour away is becoming an impediment that I would prefer to do away with so I guess it is time to find a better alternative.

As much as I would like to have a Computrainer, I think it is not in the budget.  Their website says about $1,700 but that is not accurate at all!

If I got one my wife would be looking for gold and diamonds!  That makes it quite a lot more than the advertised price. 

I haven't used them yet, but plan on signing up for an account on my day off tomorrow.  

www.trainerroad.com/

Most of the reviews I've read about their service is all very positive.... though again, I haven't used them yet myself to confirm.

The first place to look is the free training plans that this site has to offer.  You can upgrade to different membership levels as well to get more detailed plans.  Jorge's winter plan is an excellent free program as well and Jorge is a member of BT.  As Mike mentioned above, the TrainerRoad site gets a lot of positive comments, although I haven't used them.  There is also the Sufferfest product as well, but I haven't used them either.  I either write my own erg file program for Computrainer or use one of the ErgVideo programs that I purchased to use with my Computrainer.  I like the ErgVideo product because they offer a couple of the Ironman courses I race on and its a great way to get real life video of the course I race on.  The only drawback is that you need to have your Computrainer hooked up to a laptop, and they aren't cheap.  I also use a variety of the Spinervals dvd workouts and think the Time Trialapalooza and Big Gear Strength dvd's are good ones.

I agree with the frequency comments...when I start up in the pool again in winter I will often only swim for about 20 minutes or so just to avoid the drudgery of staring down at that black line at the bottom of the pool :-)  Shorter, more frequent swims will also be a benefit in the beginning because you will be able to maintain better stroke form for more of the workout before fatigue sets in an affects your stroke mechanics.

Here is the All Star lineup:

Tim               timjim987                   Missouri
Paul              pmoores                     Canada
Craig             Cmarch                      Canada
Jess              jkouvel                       New Jersey
Amy             mom2wildboys             Rhode Island
JoAnne          zaj17                         Canada