Fred Doucette's Half-Iron and Ironman Focused Group! -CLOSED! (Page 41)

I have two phobias - needles and things underwater touching me.  Yes, I'm a huge wuss like that.  You may have just convinced me to drop out of Eman.  Clearly OWS has been a natural transition for me

I agree with your four points and will train to be ready for them (well, not the jellyfish).  Based on your last post, the obvious answer seems to be ignore watching cadence like you mentioned and just ride naturally and see where it falls.

Clearly, Fred and I are both sitting at our computers going rapid fire right now, but I would still love to hear other's thoughts on the road bike training and cadence (that's definitely not to say I don't value your input Fred, I do!) 

I would be leaning toward joining, Steve, because even if you can't benefit from the activities too much, the discounts are good and also you are supporting other triathletes in your area, supporting the tri community 

Hi everybody - sorry to be AWOL lately - that's probably gonna be my MO for the next few weeks. I do get to read along a few times per day though...

One of the things my coach wanted me to do after my initial evaluation was to raise my "natural" low grindy cadence a good bit. I put that in quotes because he contends that while we do have some natural tendencies due to our fast twitch/slow twitch muscle development, a "natural" cadence can be trained to a great degree. So when we started to do a good bit of "low cadence" workouts, I was of course confused. a few months ago, after discussing it a bit more he pointed me to an article on TriFuel written by Rich Strauss. When I went to find it again, I found out that it is also published right here on BT .

In my own experience over the past four months, broadening my "cadence comfort" has certainly helped quite a bit - especially on the hills. I am climbing at a much higher cadence but at same power output than before, but still have gas in the tank to push on the backside. I did ask my coach if he would have me doing the low cadence stuff if I did not have a power meter, btw. He said most likely not, for reasons touched on in the article.

While I was looking for the article, I ran across this quote by Coach Levi Bloom:

"All I can say is that your ideal cadence will fall somewhere between “holy sh*t my legs are on fire!” and 'I… can’t… breathe!'"

If you are more scientifically minded, here is a research paper that makes an argument for a higher cadence when climbing as well: http://www.springerlink.com/content/87gp6m1833253r25//>
I love riding my tri bike, so stay on it most of the time. I do crack out the road bike for group rides, unless it is limited to my regular bunch of tri friends. I normally would ride the roadie when we go on mountain rides, but from the sounds of it the coach is going to have me on the tri bike for those rides as well.

I agree as well Steve - and lay your conscious to rest. I am the faculty advisor for our triathlon club (triathlon is not yet a sanctioned NCAA sport, but we are getting closer!) and we actually count on members that pay but do not participate except for getting a t-shirt and the discounts. From the dues we pay entry fees for our top racers, travel money for the team, coaching fees, etc. If everybody that paid utilized the resources available, we would have to reduce our support. Our sponsors know this - they offer the discounts to get their product out there, create long-term customers, and grow the sport. You buying their products even at a discount does exactly that - just wear that club t-shirt with all those sponsors printed on the back now and again!

I did ChesepeakeMan this year and got stung twice by jellyfish. It was a very strange feeling and hurt for about 15' then was much better. Afterwards I was glad I got stung, so I no longer feared the unknown and getting stung I knew I could deal with if it happened at IMFL.

Today was a good technology day...

I was able to reinstall my new speed sensor and the Joule found it so I could ride and record data from my CinQo. I also used my PT wheel and after I download I'll compare CT, Quarq, and PT...but from riding CT was highest, Quarq close but a little lower and PT was the lowest doing my intervals.

WKO+ is fixed and working

I cleaned my trainer tire with little alcohol swabs so no slipping. I won't know for sure if it is fixed until I do some zone 5 work.

Good stuff on the cadence discussions.  Lots to think about/try that I wasn't aware of.  Cool!

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Randy have fun on that ride outdoors...many of us in the North would love to ride outdoors.

Fred interesting to see how your cadence, power and HR correlate in your ride today.

Training for me today is 50' run and optional bike.

Tomorrow we have a puppy visit to see if Kona would be a good fit for our family. She is a 6 month old labradoddle. We are doing some puppy proofing of the house today.

That sounds fun!  We have to start puppy proofing also. I hope Kona is a good fit for your family. My friend has a labradoodle. My friend and I went running yesterday and she brought Lilly (Labradoodle). Lilly did great as was by far one of the best behaved dogs out there.  Where is Kona living now?

She is living with the breeder.  She would be a guardian dog that belongs to the breeder would have 3-4 litters of puppies, be spayed then become ours officially when she is 3.5-4. Breeder lives about 10 miles from us. There are some rules like no boarding if we go away, and we have to bring the dog to one groomer so she retains the look they have for their kennel. We like the idea that breeding females are placed to be pets and not put in kennels.

She has a great personality is very happy and doesn't bark.  Last dog we had was a bit to high strung and her temperament wasn't ideal for our family when she was young and our kids were little. She calmed down as she got older. I'm a bit more cautious these days to make sure the puppy will be a good addition to our family.

Our youngest daughter has a soft spot in her heart for dogs and animals. When visiting my parents she'd lie on the floor for hours petting one then the other dog.  She goes to the gym with Kevin when she thinks there will be dogs there to play with.

Photos are in my blog earlier in the week. Strange they named her Kona....not sure we'd keep the name or if we have the option..it seems so triathlete like.


Edited by KathyG 2011-01-29 9:34 AM

Ugh. Ever have one of those days where you just cannot manage to hit your targets?
Today was one for me - first in four months, so I SHOULD be happy about that.
I had a sprint interval set on the trainer that turned out to be surprisingly tough - just could not hold my watts for the sets.

I am VERY HAPPY tomorrow is a scheduled recovery day!

Hope everyone else is doing well.

55F and sunny here today!  Predicted high was only 44F, so a nice surprise.  Running and swimming on the docket for me this weekend.  Hope everyone's having a good one.

Definitely jealous of those of you spending time outdoors.  Tomorrow will incorporate 2x20min at 95% CP along with a longish ride after at about 75%.  We'll see how th elegs hold up after two days of running - which basically never happens for me.

Our Tri club here in Phoenix has been doing some soul searching this last month and we've decided that we are going to be the "FUN" tri club here in town. There are about a 1/2 dozen super competitive clubs here and we are trying to bring something different to the market.

We are increasing our group opportunities though. We have an email list that we can communicate workout opportunities and it has worked out great. Instead of the club only having set group workouts, we have the ability for people who are doing training swim, bikes and runs to post their workout if they want some company. It has worked out great because this has increased the group opportunities by about 5X. It also has workout out great because not everyone can make the times that the club works out.

This morning was a perfect example. A friend and fellow tri member was doing a 2 hour ride. I had to do 3 hours today so I rode to the meet up location (about 20 min), did the group ride with 7 other people and then added the other 40 minutes on to the end of my ride. It was so nice to have a group to ride with for the bulk of the 3 hours and they pushed me harder than I would have pushed myself.

I don't know if there is a way to post your workouts and see if some other people want to join your training. Maybe this could be a proactive way to get more group training time.

My training is back on track after about a week off earlier in the month. I have about 70 days until my first 1/2 IM and my training is right on track. My training program will start to ramp up this next month and peak in March. My body is responding well to the increased stresses that I'm putting on it. I'm injury free and I think I've done a pretty good job of listening to my body.

My ride this morning started off in 41 degree weather but warmed up nicely and i got in almost 50 miles. I can see my progress from week to week and that is rewarding to see. I really need to lock down my time in the pool next month and get all my swims in. It seems to be the one discipline that I neglect. I have an hour run tomorrow to finish off the week.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Hey Crew,
So sorry to go off-grid for so long.  I had family in town for nearly 9 days, and that included my toddler nephew for whom I was nephew sitting for a bit, and between family, classes, homework, training, work for my non-prof tri team (which is TOTALLY moving in an awesome direction) I could muster little more than logging my workouts.  Then, of course, after they are gone, it was all about catching up with everything and I am NEARING that.

I have no idea what the past few pages (multi-pages have been about) and will try to catch up on them, but please forgive me if I don't and go into something you've already hashed out--just point me in the right direction of where to read, and I shall!  Thanks to all of you who stopped in and said "hi"--I also apologize for not inspiring back...I completely appreciate it, and will try to make up for it in the future. 

In good news, I've been hitting some GREAT workouts in the pool. I'm starting to see some times drop and feeling stronger, so that is truly wonderful.  This week in general has been a good week with good swims, some really nice runs, and some good bikes.  Today, my coach held a brick workout on the CA70.3 course where we did 6 easy miles onto Camp Pendelton and then TT'd it for about 24 miles, and then about 6 easy return miles (easy mainly because of multiple lights, stop signs, traffic) and then a 4 mile brick.  I was able to do all of it quite well and felt super at the end. I feel good for it being Jan and look forward to continuing to strengthen.  In Feb I have my first half-marathon of the year in Austin, and am interested to see how that goes. I've run the course many times, so I know it, so we'll see....it's tough with some good hills. But, my hill running has greatly improved out here.

Anyhow, sorry for the absence. If I could post directly from my brain, it'd be a lot easier as I often think of things to post while S/B/R training, but then don't have the time when I get home!
Cheers!

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Going swimming soon, then Kona is visiting to see if she fits into our family, and then bike FTP intervals.

I see PT tomorrow early and hope I've made improvements in my knee extension and stability so I can move onto more regaining strength and perhaps running more. My left quad is 4-5cm less than my right. 2 cm difference is big...4-5 is not good. Having had flair up of knee issues 4-5x over last year, every time that happens my quad shuts off and I lose strength. It is effecting my gait a lot. I'd like to get all this behind me once and for all so I can train consistently. I have two IMs this year.

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