Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 44)

I wasn't sure what goal to have for my 1st HM, I had a soft 7:45 pace goal, but ~two weeks before it I read an web article on how to predict your HM pace based on a training run.  The protocol was a good 2-3 mile warm-up, then build the pace that gets your HR to the top/upper Zone 2 (LT based) and hold that pace for a timed 1 mile.  That timed pace is suppose to represent what you should be able to run the HM at.  When I did it I ran a 7:39 pace and used 1:40 as my goal. Seemed to work for me as I ran a 1:40:18! 

Hi all,

I've been out of touch for a while. Lurking but not posting  

Everyone seems to be coming along with races coming up. I've been training for a 10K with my daughter and that is this Saturday. It'll be her first and she's gone from being a non-runner to a nice consistent, get into a pace and keep it up, runner. It's been really fun to train together. I'm hoping she picks another race after this so she keeps it up. Dave and I are going to do a Du in March so she's thinking of doing the sprint (2 miles, 10 miles, 2 miles). If my training stays on track then I'm going to do the International which is 10K-40K-5K. I think I can maintain a steady effort but I know I won't be fast

That's fantastic!  It must be a ton of fun training together and having a race at the end of that - very exciting.

Congrats and I hope you crush it and have a GREAT race with your daughter. 

Thanks all for the responses.  I think the taper will definitely be helpful, as will having a number pinned on my shirt (if there's a race bib involved, it's like a different part of my brain controls my legs).

I'm curious to see how much, if at all, a 12 week effort can increase one's pace over a well trained previous race (race day was just about perfect last time - great weather, nailed nutrition/hydration, dressed just right, planets aligned, etc.), so this will be fun regardless.

Just hoping that it's not a "lesson learned" race!  I am gonna go for broke, though - set out just below race pace the first mile and then hold race pace until the last 5k.  I'll either blow up or PR, but it's kind of exciting going into a race where those are the options (rather than staying at the edge but knowing you can **just** run negative splits)!  Never tried that approach before, but it'll start the season off with a bang...

I'll definitely look at nutrition (per earlier comment), as I was perhaps a bit underfueled as well as tired last weekend (even though it was only just over an hour run, I was hungry - until my HR was high enough to want to puke, instead, that is...).

For anyone that's used or looked at Higdon's advanced HM plan, any thoughts on the taper?  I thought maybe it was too light a week, but I'm starting to get why it looks like that (not a quick study here!).  The intermediate one seemed to work well - I was rested without feeling "stale."  Just seems much more "resty" than, say, some sprint tri tapers (which have a fast/short workout the day prior to the race as openers).

Anywho, thanks again for the commentary - helps keep me pumped up for the race (rather than getting too too much inside my own head.  That's a scary place!). 

Matt

He is good at this.  Too bad there's not a forum for it.

Curious - did you change your picture back?  After the previous posts about it, it's now reverted to you running across grass (the previous one, I believe), rather than the smiley-medal-finish-line picture.  I wonder if my work computer and your home one are the same make... 

Wow, another one! Going to need to get faster to hang with this crowd.

Just wanted to drop a note to say my training is starting to progress well. I'm finally hitting that point where I want to train and the scale/waistline is starting to show it!

Focusing on the bike and run this month and signed up for a metric century on March 17th. Legs are finally coming around, making good gains on the bike with yesterdays BTCP Phase 2 5' power test having a 22.7 watt (virtual power) increase from the Phase 1 test.  20' power test coming up on Thursday evening or Friday morning. 

Keeping the running mileage light (10-15mi/wk) but getting out 5-6 times per week with the 3-2-1 plan.  Seems to be helping a lot as lower legs aren't freaking on me.

I plan to integrate swimming in March and instead of my usual simple xxx(x) yards of swimming I've done in the past, I took the 6 week, 0 (700) to 1650 workouts and put them in my training plan to start with.  Can't remember last time I used a swimming training plan!

16.5 weeks to race day...

STEVE -

Here's my very tentative racing schedule:

• CFH Indoor mini-sprint tri - February 17th
• Kittanning sprint tri - March 16th
• Pittsburgh Marathon - May 5th
• New Brighton sprint tri - May 25th
• West Branch Battler I Tri (Olympic) - June 9th
• The Dam Tri (Olympic) - June 23rd
• MiltonMan Tri (Olympic) - July 7th
• Pittsburgh Olympic Tri - July 28th
• RnR HM - August 6th
• North Park sprint Tri - August 11th
• West Branch Battler II Tri (Olympic) - August 18th
• Mighty MoraineMan Olympic Tri - September 21st
• The Great Race 10K - September 29th

That may be too many Olympics, so something will probably give there. But those are the options at least. The first West Branch is the 1st meaningful race post-marathon.

------------Amy and her photo------------

Makes me think of the classic movie "Young Frankenstein", to wit:

The scenes in which Igor (played by Marty Feldman) kept tricking Dr F. (played by Gene Wilder) by switching the side on which the hump of his hunchback was located.  In our case, sometimes Amy is the original running-across-grass Amy, while other times she is smiling-with-medal Amy.   It's all so confusing!   (Although for me, I have yet to see the revertion to the original photo -- which is good, as I am generally easily confused.)

DAVE -

Glad you saw the tentative suggestions, and I will review your thoughts, and the race list, soon.  I also remember that i still "owe" you my thoughts on the early days of each week.  I will be away from the computer from now until Sunday night, late, but will REALLY try to make the effort to attend to it all asap.

GANG!

Wouldn't ya know it -- on a day I am away all day, there was all this activity.  And to make matters worse, as of early tomorrow I am gone until late Sunday night.  Arghhh!

I will try to catch up when I can catch up.  I apologize for these fairly frequent hiatuses, as I didn't see them coming back when.  They aren't totally predictable, but i can say that there'll be a bigger one in early April, probably.  I apologize for any interruptions to regularly-scheduled programing here!

JEFF!  DONTO!  JOHANNE! -- Real happy to see you all back here!

Johanne, have a blast at the 10km; it oughta be easy after nailing the 26.2 of IMAZ!

Even though we all tend to call those recovery runs, at most there are only a handful of people on the entire site who would actually recover while doing them. The small easy runs are a good way to get in more run mileage (specificity) without adding much stress at one time. So keep doing the runs as opposed to riding. If you end up being so tired or sore that doing one of these runs would be a bad idea (not just you'd rather not run feeling), then think about a recovery ride instead if you want to do something. And for those, stay down at 50-55% power levels (or just noodling along) at a light and slightly quick (for you) cadence.

Speaking of pictures, if you guys are bored, check out the thread "How much did your wedding cost" in My Cup of Joe.  Page 4 I think......wedding photos 

Hi, folks!!  In honor of my 1,000th post here on BT (pretty lame considering I've been on here for six years, but anyway...), I thought I'd do something novel and instead of:

1) posting some political comment on CoJ about illegal immigrants being able to borrow more money from China to buy more guns for the upcoming zombie apocolypse which is clearly Obama's fault,

2) adding "X4" or whatever to an already answered question that I'm really not qualified to answer anyway,

3) asking how much faster I'll get if I spend "X" on "Y", knowing full well no one really knows, and I can't really afford it anyway,

4) making fun of one of my crazy BT mentors

I'd thought I'd ask my mentor group a question completely relevant to getting better at triathlon. 

So, brief recap of bio:  Long time runner (30 years), newbie triathlete as of 2010.  Was training for a series of Olys when I hurt my L knee in June 2011 (probably as a result of too big of an increase in training, looking back...).  Had knee surgery...didn't fix it (still not sure what "it" was).  Resumed cycling, had some positive returns, then inflamed knee again (and the right one too).  Then, to add injury to injury, I hurt my back (spondylolisthesis) and basically didn't train at all for three months.  Started swimming, got a cortisone shot for the back (and then another one later), got a new bike fit, started cycling, did LOTS of walking.  Starting running in October.

Had a couple of setbacks but at this point my knees are probably 90% and back 95%, I have some limitations that may be permanent but heck, at least I'm training again.  January was my biggest month since May 2011 and my body didn't fall apart, so I consider that a major success.

So, onto the question.  I'm looking for feedback on my training plan going forward.  I have three hard weeks coming up that also have one of those mini-indoor-sprint races in the middle just for fun, then I take a two week break and start my plan, which is set up as follows:

M:             AM or lunch med bike (high intensity), evening med swim and upper body strength session
T:              lunch run with strides and/or intervals (easing into this), lower body strength session
W:            AM masters swim, lunch long easy ride
R:             AM or lunch long easy run, evening swim and upper body strength session
F:             AM Bikram Yoga, lunch easy spin
Sa:           med bike, short tempo transition run
Su:           off

The whole detailed mess is all on my BT calendar (as are my logs for the past two years).  Most weeks are around 11-12 hours with one peak at 15, but I know realistically I'll only complete 80-90% of the volume each week.  I also plan on making the recovery weeks more "recovery" by dropping the Thursday workouts, too.  All of the "runs" are of the run/walk variety, some on the treadmill and some outside.  Most bikes are on the trainer.  Strength sessions are important to me, as is the yoga (all of which seem to help keep my body from falling apart from the other training).  And I work out of the house, and have a pretty flexible schedule.

My races are a tune-up super sprint on June 16th (400M, 12mi, 2.5mi) and a long sprint (1K, 17.5mi, 3.4mi) June 23rd.

Thoughts?  Comments? 

Oh, and to honor the posts I referenced above, I'll sign off before my post is as long as one of Steve's by saying X3 on Amy's cool wedding photos and new avatar...and off I head to get some new race wheels (I mean, c'mon, they're 70 grams lighter than the ones I have now!!).  And stay safe, you New Englanders!

Spring has Sprung here!  Yay!  The snow is melting fast, the lawn is green and the temps are definitely getting nicer.  I was able to run outside yesterday (it was approx 30F) in bright sunshine and even saw a fellow out on his road bike. 

Tomorrow is a holiday in BC so no swimming but I'm planning to run outside again.

On Friday I swam a 1000m TT and my time was 24:05, 4 secs faster than my last one.  But, the coach also timed my first and last 100m and the last was so slow I can't imagine how my whole TT could be faster than before - unless I over-swam by 50m.  I know I lost my lap count three times and when I finished the other fellow I shared a lane with asked if I had gone over because he felt I wasn't that far behind him.

I can't say if I did over-swim so I'll have to wait and see how I do for the next one and be sure to not lose count.  If I did over-swim then my time would've been approx 22:56 (2:18/100m) which is really good for me.

Steve - Just wondering about the pro and con of getting some coaching. 

pugpenny - 2013-02-11 3:31 PM Hi all, have been out of the loop lately. I have some medical issues (not tri-related) that have cropped up but that I will have a better gauge of next week after tests come back. I have been keeping up on the running, no biking (as the old saddle seemed to have pinched my sciatic nerve) and now the pool is closed for 2 weeks but this week I am starting to get back to an organized training schedule. Oh and by the way, Booger and I got engaged last Thursday while in the Poconos. He shocked me - I really did not envision anything so conventional from him but I am thrilled nonetheless!!!! Will try to at least keep up on the lurking! Patti in NJ

Congrats on your engagement!  How exciting!!  There are some great threads in COJ about how much people spent on their wedding and about doing a race on wedding day 

GANG!

I'm back......and thankful that only 8 posts have been made in my absence.  Whew!  I was terrified that I would be inundated with make-up posts!

On to a couple quickly, for now, and more upon waking tomorrow.

PATTI!

Yo!  Congrats on the engagement!  Young love -- ain't it sweet?!?

So it was the sciatic that was bothering you, eh?  That's one intsance in which I woulda rather've been wrong than right!   The good news is that with the plethora of saddles out there, you should be able to find one that doesn't put pressure on that gnarly old sciatic nerve.  The world of women's saddles now is full of ones with creative "cut-outs", and it's probably worth it, on your next doc visit, to have trace exactly where your nerve runs and where he thinks the inflammation is centered.  Do you still think Devilman will happen for you?

DOUG -

Hey!  What about us eastern Canadians?

GEORGE will likely remember this,as it goes back to the 70s, when a common refrain out west (especially Alberta) was "Let the eastern bas---ds freeze in the dark", which had to do with perpetual bad blood between oil-producing western Canada and the federal regulatory systems in Ottawa....as well as general arrogance from Toronto folks.  I suspectr albertans still feel the same, but that mantra seems to have disappeared.

GEORGE -

Either way it's good, be it by 4 seconds or the more whopping 1:13 (if my math is correct!).  Good stuff!

Remember, though, that there'll come times - lots of 'em - when your time for any repeated workout is slower.  That's just proof that not all workouts are lineariliy progressive, which is just the way the world works -- otherwise, we'd all be world-class athletes after just a few months of training!

That siad, I NEVER cease to get at least minimally rattled when my time for, say, a 1000m swim TT is slower.  I get like Chicken Little, figuring the triathlon sky is falling..............but then of course, before long, I knock off a time that is in fact a new best.

I owe you more about coaching, but for now I'll say that the biggest plusses are solid workouts being set for you, and the accountability you will need to subscribe to.  The biggest negatives are cost and losing your freedopm to do what you want and when you want to do it.  More later!

No, wait --- one more thought!  Make certain that your coach is setting plans for you and you alone!!   Some coaches (such as my first one) work from cookie-cutter plans, basically generic things that were sent to all of her clients.  it took me a while to figfure this out, and I only managed it when, after a few injuries, I realized that she wasn't altering a thing.  GRRR!

My next coach, though, was a gem, and he listened to EVERYTHING I said to him and modified when necessary.  He sent plans to me in three-week blocks, and quite literally if I got injured three days after receiving a block, he would reorganize the entire following 17 days to accommodate what I could and couldn't do. 

That was Erik Cagnina, who was with D3 at the time.  he has now moved on from coaching, but I would trust D3 with anything, were I looking to be coached again.  It is still run by its founder, Mike Ricci, and I have no doubt that all of his coaches are as attuned to their athletes as Erik was to me.  If you write Mike, tell him I sent you!