Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Group version 3-CLOSED (Page 42)

Hi, everyone.  I didn't disappear off the face of the Earth...work's getting a little crazy.  I got in my biggest training week ever last week, and am adding a little this week. 

My daughter usually has swim practice on Thursdays but can't go now because of a school commitment, so we decided to swim on Tuesday afternoons when there isn't any practice.  I asked her coach (also my Masters coach, and a good guy...) to put together some workouts for her.  Last night we're he's telling what to do, and it's basically "yeah, warm up, then 4 x 200 descend blah blah blah...oh, and make sure you do some kick sets and wave to your dad as you pass him swimming".  Ouch. 

That has to sting a bit!

Had a similar situation this Summer. My son is a college distance runner and was having some knee issues over the Summer so he decided he would swim to maintain fitness. No lessons or swim team growing up. He would come back from the pool and ask if 29 minutes was good for a mile swim (1:40/pace) Told him it was great but I was sure he was miscounting laps or fudging on the time. So, we go to the pool together one Sunday and sure enough he can swim. Breathing to both sides, just cruising along and every 5-6 laps he just does an easy back stroke to "rest". When he is really swimming I can't keep up with him. In 2-3 weeks he was already a better swimmer than I was after 4 years and over a million yards.  He does zero swimming all Fall and over Christmas break he swims a few times.....comes home and asks me if 1:08 is a good time for 100 yards. WTF! I've never been in the same zip code as 1:08 for 100. I'm excited for him as swimming is such a struggle for so many of us and hard to pick up late in life and now he seems to have some interest in doing triathlons in the future. He already crushes me on the swim and run........but he will NEVER catch me on the bike.....right? Tell me I'm right.

Steve-nice work on the weight loss. You have put together some really nice training weeks.

Bryan-I am zero help on the trainer issues. Sounds like the rear skewer isn't long enough to mount the bike properly. Do trainer's come with a longer skewer or are they available?

Randee-I'm afraid I would never get anything done if I tried to work from home.

Easy run and bike intervals are the plan for me today

LMAO!  That must have made your daughter feel good and you proud of her!  The positives, right?

I am so happy I could nearly cry.  I made it through two plus weeks of really rough workouts as of today and have an entire day OFF tomorrow!  I could also cry because I'm off for not one, but two root canals and crowns in a few minutes.  Anyone else want to go to the dentist for me?  Basically will take 5 hours of your life you'll never get back.  Only positive, maybe I'll lose a little weight since I know eating will be too big of a challenge! 

Suzy-not much of a "recovery week" if you are getting 2 root canals. Hope all goes well.

Jason-my wife had seen something on the national news about the ice caves and the accessability due to the cold Winter. I saw something on TV about them the other day. Pretty amazing. I can't imagine living in the North. Yeah, I moan and groan about the 6 months of heat and humidity down here but not sure I could deal with months and months of snow and cold!

Chris-I'm with you on the bike workouts. Variety is what keeps it interesting. Tonight my main set was 5X10 min @ 235+ watts on 3 min easy. What kept it interesting was that sets 1,3 and 5 were at 88+ cadence and sets 2 and 4 were at 55-65 cadence. Had to really jack up the resistance on the rollers to do the low cadence work.....felt like riding through mud and definitely got my quads working! 

Suzy- I hope the root canal surgery goes well tomorrow. 1 rest day doesn't sound long enough after something like that. Ouch! 

Good Morning!  Happy to report after 5 hours at an endodontist and then the dentist yesterday, I am a-ok.  ready for my day off!

Jason--the ice caves on Lake Superior look awesome.  If Paul wasn't still recovering we would make that mile trek across the lake to check them out.  They've been in the news consistently over the last few weeks.  

Chris--my favorite bike workouts are ones that include variety just like you're describing.  Even SLDs seem ok when you have other things to look forward to!

That sounds like a nice deal on the Giant.

With the "aero" versus standard brakes I think alot of it comes down to the convenience of maintenance/adjustment of the brakes. The ones that are tucked up under the front fork or down low off the frame in the back are much more difficult to adjust and work on. My tri bike has the brake tucked down low in the back and I have to put it on the stand, turn it upside down and then use a tiny little hex wrench to open up the brake or make adjustments. Its also a bad place as it gets alot of road grime/sweat there. The only time its a problem for me is when I'm putting on my race wheels and need to open the brakes some. At a minimum replacing the standard front brake with something more aero like the TriRig model or even the new Magura hydraulic brake would be pretty simple for most manufacturers. I recently bought a TriRig rear brake to replace the current brake....which in my opinion is a piece of crap. I have a nice Dura Ace on the front and may replace it with a TriRig at some point.