BamaDC's Mentor Group v4.0 - Closed (Page 40)

Same here.  Averaged 233 over the course, with a normalized power of 236, and averaged over 22mph (10 miles in 26;50).  All while not feeling well last night at all and coming off Sunday's OLY and a hard Tuesday ride.  I was pleased.

I can't believe the winning guy put in a 23 min time.  Just shows how much work I have to do and I need to work on that new tri bike for next year.

He officially put in a 23:30, which between you and me I don't believe.  His Oly bike time was exactly the same as mine last weekend and I don't think he beat me by over a minute.  Nor do I think he beat Neil (the guy on the P3 in the blue).  Given that I think the winning time was about 24:15 or so.  Both Neil and Michael Gaston were pretty fast and about that time. It probably would have been faster if Travis had actually raced the course. 

In any case it was a good ride.   My average and normalized wattage were almost exactly the same and I felt I paced it fairly well.

BTW, your power output seems to have increased dramatically from what I remember you talking about earlier!

I was thinking the same thing.  Jason, what training plan are you following?

I'm on the BT Custom HIM plan, but I've been putting in some biking mileage this summer, focusing on getting better through some intensity and volume.  I'm hoping to keep the momentum into winter training and come out in the spring equal or better to where I'm at now.

I've gone from 2.08W/kg to 2.90W/kg and a CP of around 179 from my first test last November to 230 as of early August. That may be up a bit over my last few weeks.  Golden Cheatah has my CP at 239, but I think it may be a little lower around 235.

Just looked back at one of my earlier post, I wanted to Avg over 19 for one of our Tuesday group rides, accomplished that this past Tuesday on tired legs.

Damn - that's a 30% increase. I think I've gotten a 15% increase this season, which I'm very happy with.

If I could just do 15% next year I'd be on top of the world. 

Well, last week was a total bust for volume of training.  Was starting to get sick on Thursday, and yep, it persisted through the weekend.  I'm still trying to kick it, but I think I'm on the tail end.  Hopefully I'll be back at it tomorrow.

This isn't doing much for my HIM training, as these were my last two build weeks.  This week will be my last build week.

Week Totals

Took a week off running as my hamstring has been twinging a little and decided to let it rest otherwise happy with the rest.

One more build week for me, too.  Saturday's ride really took it out of me but Sunday's run wasn't as bad as I expected.  Guess I've built some good fitness.  I did NOT want to get up this AM for a swim but the end is almost here! 

Damn Jason!! You're killing it.

I'm afraid I may need to fall back to the beginner levels and ride the back of the line next year! I'm going to get spanked!

I'm just hoping to get in 30+mpw in the run and do well at the Marine Corps. Everything else right now is basically unimportant to me. But obviously, I'm going to get destroyed when I get home.

I'm going to have to find the trainer and do some serious work over the winter! Especially with some HIM on the schedule for next year.

Geez. Way to make a guy feel pretty bad about his training....

Nothing much to report here.  Taking a break from riding at the moment due to a running thing coming Oct. 7.  On track for 125 miles this month.  Will probably end up being more.

Weather is AWESOME right now.  71F lunchtime run.

That's awesome!  Apparently the same advice applied to biking as it does to running -- Bike a lot!

Talk me off of the ledge my friends...

Race tomorrow - Roots N Blues N BBQ half marathon, Columbia Mo

My last real long run was 8/14 and it was 12mi. I felt great and managed it just under 2hrs.
Then I was out almost 2 weeks with a bum ankle.

Last week I was finally feeling 100%, but then the tropical storm kept me out of my 15mi long run.
This week I've hit all my runs and come close to all of my training paces.

But I'm still worried....

I'd love to get under 2hrs on the half just to set a PR, but I'm thinking that may also be a pipe dream seeing my lack of training. And that even has me worried about the Full coming up in Oct.

Help. Thoughts. Comments. I'm doubting myself and it's not good....

Sheep,

Take my advice for what it's worth, which isn't much.

I think you are doing okay.

I would work towards completing the Marathon as your main focus, since that has been the goal since early on.

Since you have been injured recently, work stress, etc. I probably would not go out and try to PR the Half Marathon, if your ultimate goal is to complete the Marathon.  You can use the Half Marathon as a good hard training run, but I probably wouldn't push it too much because of the risk of injury.  Just see where the chips fall for the Half Marathon.  

You can always do another Half Marathon after the Marathon and try to PR it.  Lots of good opportunities over the winter to do that.

Just my .02c

I agree with with Jason.  I'd do the race, work hard but don't push a PR (if it isn't there) and risk MCM in October.

Ok, I don't know what to say but I have to admit that I've basically lost all my motivation.  And I'm not exagerating when I say that.  I have a sprint on Sunday and my A OLY three weeks after that but I'm really unmotivated to train or even race.  I realize a large part of it has to do with having to many things going on right now and training seems to be the only one I can control.  I started a new job a few weeks ago and haven't gotten used to the schedule.  My commute should only be about 15 minutes longer which isn't bad.  But if I don't leave during the right window (which I'm still trying to figure out) it's more like an extra 30 minutes.  Combine that with the fact that it starts an hour earlier than my old job and I can't get my workouts done in the morning.  I've been waking up at 0445 all week to try get them done but that's taking a tool on me.  On the plus side, since work starts earlier I get home earlier and could do my workouts in the evening.  Only problem is I seem to have a lot of other things I need to get done (namely projects around the house so I don't catch flak for long workouts on the weekends).  All this is definately taking a toll not only on my workouts but I'm eating like crap (I always do when I'm stressed) so the extra 10-15 lbs I'd like to loose is more like 15-20 now. 

Sure I could just HTFU and get though my A race and then get things back on track for next season but I'm not sure I even want to do that.  I already signed up for a race in May.  It's the same OLY I did last year.  I signed up as soon as it opened because I was unhappy with how I did and know I can do better.  I thought having that as a goal for the offseason would help me get refocused.  Only problem is that when I started playing around with training schedules and times I started to get stressed out and began to think I wouldn't have any time to do anything except train (which is my problem now). 

So am I just rambling and whining or do I have a point?  It's probably the former but my question is this: how do you guys manage to get all your training in along with everything else in your life?  Last year I did a marathon and my first OLY.  I was able to focus on them but couldn't do anything else.  This year I tried to be more balanced but feel like I failed at that too.  I need to figure out a way to make training fun again but make sure I'm progressing (because given my personality I'll be really frustrated and won't have fun at races).

I feel your pain on the motivation.  I'm close to tettering over the edge with my motivation.  I don't want to look at a pool right now (which I haven't done much swimming lately anyway).  The only thing I'm half way enjoying is the biking, but I have a 60 mile ride planned for tomorrow morning and it just seems like work instead of fun.  After my OLY August 28, I've lost a lot of interest in completing my training for the HIM, then I got sick, which didn't help.  

So, all that said:

1) I think you are being too hard on yourself.

2) You are not alone

3) I think you are in the same place as me, where all the training and stresses are catching up to you towards the end of the season. As much as we may like training and racing, after 6 months of training towards a goal is mentally draining and tough, especially when coupled with other obligations (which are more important most of the time).

4) Given number 3, I think you need to work your schedule over the next 2-3 weeks and HTFU for the upcoming races.  Although it probably seems like work, it will be worth it once you complete the races.  You have a lot going on right now, so just get in what you can without getting stressed about the training.

5) After the races, I would take a week or two to re-evaluate your upcoming off-season and next season.  Really take a look at where you want your focus for racing (sprints, OLY, etc). If it stops being fun, then really take a look at how to make it fun again and take the stress off.  There are too many other things to worry about than missing a training session or sessions.  When it's all said and done, we like to plan and do well with our training and racing, but it's probably 4-5 down on the list of importance.   Don't sweat the small stuff, you have plenty of time to pick a training plan for next years OLY.

I think you are just ready for the off season.  By next spring, you will be ready for next season to start up again, because suffering on the trainer just isn't much fun for too long.

I think Jason nailed it.  Training can take it's toll mentally (has on me, too).  This weekend I had to cut up fallen tree and repair our fence and, honestly, I was more excited about that than the training sessions for the HIM in two weeks.  I got all the training in but it wasn't easy mentally. 

As far as how you can make training fun again my 2 cents would be to take a quick hiatus and when you come back forget about numbers (paces, distances, heart rate, power, blah blah blah).  Try a new route or start trail running (i'm going to try that) or mountain bike (would love to try that).  Anything to get you away from what you were doing, if only briefly, so you break the monotony of the same day-in-day-out training routines.  Now I'm rambling...but you get the idea.  Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

I've considered this for the winter or Cyclocross.  

I'm really considering the Cyclocross.  It looks like fun and would have to be good cross training, but I can't pull the trigger yet on a new bike for it.

Ok, that was a terrible half marathon.

Quick recap:
I was holding a phenomanal pace at mile 3 (8:45/mi) and wasn't working too hard.
I hit a huge hill at mile 5 that slowed me down, but regained.
I watered up at mile 6 and was starting to slow a bit 9:05ish/mi
Through mile 8 I was holding the 9:05-9:10 and feeling good again.
I hit mile 9 water stop and THEY RAN OUT OF WATER.
At mile 10 I was slowing more 9:40s...
At mile 11-12, I was done. Cooked. BLEW UP.
At mile 12.3, I resumed running since it was downhill.

I finished in 2:09:01.

The race ran out of cups & water at mile 9. The last water I took in was mile 6.
The race had no cold beverages at the finish. Room temp water bottles.
There were no post race massages available like advertised.
The winner of the half was 1:24.

This did nothing to boost my spirits for the upcoming full marathon.

Absolutely inexcusable. 

Try not to let it get int he way of training.  It ends up being a bad training day.  That's it.  You've done a HM before and finished in much better condition. 

They had some killer deals last year on Bonktown for cyclocross bikes.

x2 on what Sands said.  Chalk it up to a bad training day.  The no water would have dropped me before 13.1.

And, why did you have to point that out, now I get to watch Bonktown for a new bike.....  How many bikes do you need?

Road

Tri

Cyclocross

Mountain

Others????

How is everyone's training going?  I know most everyone is finished up for the year and moving into the winter running/training programs.

Mash, I know your HIM is this weekend also.  Good Luck!!

Anyone else have a race coming up?

MCM on Oct 30.

I'm thinking of adding RocketCity full on Dec 5 too. I don't feel 100% ready for MCM.

This work gig is killing me