Gary's Mentor Group - Re-OPENED for Training (Page 40)

Ride the trainer 3x per week (include some intervals and hard efforts) during the winter and you'll be a much better cyclist when spring comes.  I did last year and was very happy with my bike split on a very windy day at NOLA this year.  I plan to do the same this year starting tonight.

Ended up delaying the test until tonight.  Was worried about the knee and took yesterday off.  Swam today and will test tonight.

Have cut my swimming back to 2x week and just doing 1000 meters each time.  Just keeps my body in it.

I hit the pool last night for ~1,200m.  It seemed a looong time since I was last in the pool and upon checking my logs - it was.  If you need some motivation to get going and/or keep it rolling just take a look at your training logs.  It's real clear what I've been doing or not and after taking a look I see October was pretty much totally coasting, with minimal effort.

Well ... easy motivation for me moving forward. 

Dorm, I am down to 2x swim until January.  Won't improve but won't lose much.  Actually finding the cool water feels good on my sore legs.

Elizabeth - How are you doing on the bike?

What is everyones plan for Thanksgiving week?

For me I am working from home M/T, taking Weds off as we have family coming in for a couple of days.  Assuming I am going to lose a couple of days of training so trying to get it in now and use those days as recovery days. 

Gary -  Thanks for checking on me.  It keeps me honest.  I rode 3 times last week.

This week isnt starting so great - I was up from 3:15 - 5 with a feverish kid and couldnt pull my butt out of bed when my alarm when off at 5:15.  So today I'm debating between body pump (which I love) and a spin class (which I dont love). 

We dont have any big thanksgiving plans - we were going to go to Yellowstone to check out the animals but now that the kids are sick I think that we'll just be mellow here.  I'm hoping that the weather will hold and I'll get in a few runs and maybe even a cold weather bike ride. 

For turkey day, we're headed out of town to stay with a set of parent-in-laws (son-in-laws mom and dad).  I'm sure a lot of mountain biking will be part of the weekend, which is great interval training.  We ride a lot in a place named

Carvins Cove which is a truly delightful place to ride.  One can make it as hard or easy as they like. 

The parent in law I ride with is an absolute animal.  The guy has mountain biked for years ,,, he buys a road bike and within a month does a 40 mile group ride thru southern Virginia in just under 2 hours ... +20 mph avg speed.  There's nothing flat whatsoever about riding thru southern Virginia and to do +20 mph avg first ride out is incredible. 

And all, I love the comments on how hard you're pushing yourself with the trainers.  There's gotta be something wrong with people who purposefully push themselves physically to the point of either passing out or puking   Just think about how sweet it will be though to click in for your first race next year and have no-one pass you for the bike leg.

Elizabeth - life happens but as long as you are motivated to hit the bike when you can all is good!  Sorry to be a pest, well actually not but just dont' want to become annoying!

Dorm - I would love to have that happen in a race sometime.  It just seems that the 45-49 and the 50-54 group around here are animals.  If you aren't at least 21mph you are BOP.  I will get there.

For my 5 min bike test I held 23mph+ on the trainer.  Boy it hurt at the end but was amazed at what I could hold.  Went for a road ride the other day and felt easier (although the legs were tired).  Hour run last night and bike today.

I have a feeling that the faster I get; i.e. move towards MOP, that the luxury of not being passed will disappear. 

Gary ... just curious what is your crank-cassette setup.  Are you using a compact setup; i.e. lower toothed crank and geared cassette (12-25 or 12-27)?  My setup is standard crank (39-53) and an 11-23 cassette.  If you're using a compact setup and riding mostly flat terrain have you considered taller gearing for more speed?  I must say it has taken some time for me to get used to, especially with climbing, but I am definitely faster on the flats.

Dorm - I am using standard crank with an 11-27 cassette.  I had wanted to run the 11-27 for Austin but for various reasons didn't and paid for it.  I am actually liking the gearing although I don't get into the tall gears (yet) or the small gears (pretty flat here).  I am riding 4x week now and pushing hard on the bike program.  I am hoping 2012 will be a good year for bike speed.

Congrats on the swim!  That is a great break thru!

Congrats on the new PB!  Great feeling.

x2!

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and now its time to start thinking about your workouts.  Went for a ride this morning and will run tomorrow.  Way too much food on Thursday and felt sluggish today. 

How about the Packers and LSU?  Nice eh!  Found a new race in March up in New Roads (not too far for someone, say in New Orleans to come race) and its a sprint.  One month prior to NOLA so perfect warm-up. 

Okay folks, for December it is time to commit to one exercise goal for the month.  What will it be!

Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

My exercise goal for December is to ride the trainer 3x per week and keep my running up.  And I was supposed to get up this morning and do it but slept in because I have a cold.  Ugh - going to make the rest of the week harder now. 

Also, when you're doing Jorge's workout or any other training on the trainer, how do you keep from being bored out of your mind?  I'm really struggling to do the workouts because I'm so bored.  I have a couple of sufferfest videos and am tempted to just go back to those becuase then at least I have something to watch on the computer and its telling me what to do.

Last winter on the trainer I watched netflix movies, hockey, football, and played xbox.  It's a huge mental challenge for sure, specially when you build up to multiple hours.  I think my longest ride was 4 hours last year.  It took a couple days of mental prep before each long ride then once I started, it was a forgone conclusion I was finishing it.  

I haven't tried yoga or pilates but would if I had time.  It seems like they would help.  If your wife can do the same class, it could be a fun activity to do together.

Like Mike said movies, etc.  I ride in front of the TV and catch up on all of the shows I recorded on the DVR. 

+1 on what Mike said.  Main thing is keep moving, find what you like and do it.  If doing yoga with the wife helps do it.  I think too many people put a lot of pressure on themselves then eventually give up to relieve the pressure.  Self-fulfilling prophecy.  Commit to just a few workouts a week, simple stuff (30 min swims, short rides/runs) and build from your successes.

As for my goal I have several:

1.  Stick with Jorges program and push hard, I think I take these too easy. 

2.  Keep building my running.  56 miles last month (Oct) and 60 miles in December.

3.  Swim 2x week to maintain.

4. Post in this forum at least 3x week for December.

I am going to focus on doing the dreaded run and maintain my current regimen with 2x-week swimming (1 mile each session) and cycling.  I will dedicate 1x per week for working in some run time in concert with either swim or biking - aka a brick.  My gym has a run club which does a weekly run every Tuesday night, somehwere around 2 miles, so I will make an effort to get in with these and do this as well ... sighhh.

I ran last night and actually felt pretty good, but have some soreness today.  It's been quite a while since I've ran, but I was really pleased with my time ... 2 miles in 24-25 minutes.  This was using a combo of run 2 min and walk 1 min.  During the run sequences I would inch the speed a bit faster each time such that towards the end I was just over an 11m mile speed. 

Liz ... to relieve the boredom for me I have a killer playlist in my ipod which I turn on and just crank it out to the beat of the songs.   Don't know your musical tastes but some of my songs are from: the Chili Peppers, ZZ Top, AC-DC, Clutch, Janet Jackson (Rythm Nation) and others.

A couple of questions for the group on running ... is it common to have soreness after running and the other is expectation with gaining speed.

How common is it to experience soreness after a good run - 'good run' meaning 2-3 miles or more?  My legs are sore all over today from last nights session and I'm just wondering how common this is, will it decrease over time with more miles on my legs? Or do I just need to shut up and HTFU?

Expectation to get faster - I've read many posts in the BT forums encouraging people to be patient with running and focus more on time and less on distance ... so I am paying attention here.  However, my next race is mid-March and I did run a 2 min to 1 min split last night with an 11m mile run pace and then walk.  How reasonable is it to set a goal of under 10m mile avg for this 2012 mid-March sprint?  Given I put in the work, is this an unreasonable goal to shoot for?

Dorm - my take but I believe there are some better runners here who can provide a better answer

Soreness - as you increase distance and/or speed it is natural to expect some soreness.  Stretching will help but if you are really sore it probably means you pushed (either distance or speed) a bit too much.  Slow progression of increasing distance (or time) will help keep the soreness to a minimum.

Speed - my motto is distance (or time) then speed.  First increasing your distance until you can run past your race distance then once a week (or every two weeks) do some (not a lot) speed work.  Most people, including myself, push speed workouts too early in their plan which can cause injury.  As for being sub 11mm, yep you can get there by March as long as you don't overdue.  Remember rest days are as important as any workout.