Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 45)

I'm going to chime in that I had an awesome experience with D3 as well.  I never went the full coaching experience - but when I started riding my road bike I was very uncomfortable on it.  I finally decided to send an email to Mike and see if he had a coach that could give me a bike riding lesson pretty much.  He hooked me up with the nicest coach ever who despite having a totally intimidating resume taught this middle aged mom more than she could ever imagine in an hour (Jim Hallberg)  I've been thinking about calling him for some running help.  I was super impressed.

I'm not willing to give up the freedom of doing what I want to go to a full coaching plan - but I think you can work in coaching even without going that far.

GEORGE -

Kate is right about not needing to go that far, and that was one of the things I was going to clarify from last night's post to you. 

As the "consumer", you set the bar where you want it.  In my case, back from '03-'07 or so, I was pretty much willing to do what it took to get to the top of my game, so I set no real limits.  Erik was comfortable with one or two "glitches" a month, but beyond that -- well, that wasn't the kind of workout plan (and "Master Plan"!) he was setting for me. I'm sure we could've negoatiated that down quite a bit, but i think at some point he might've "referred" me elsewhere.

Most coaching services have exhaustive questionnaires about your experience and golas, your strengths and weaknesses, and then there will often be follow-up phone calls and/or emails to duiscuss things more person-to-person.  So, there is lots of opportunity to feel each other out, and the best advice I can give for this process is BE HONEST!  Don't gild your own lily, and don't try to sell yourself as wanting "more plan" than you might be comfortable with.  I say that just because it is easy to do, in both cases (too much gilding, too much plan).

I have never "followed instructions" really well, and I generally sunscribe to the words of a fairly common bumper-sticker -- Question Authority.  So it kind of surprised me at how well I did with the accountability aspects of being coached; they were pretty much what kept me in the game.  By that i eman that every day it wasn't just for me, it was for Erik.  It was a very unique relationship, to be sure!

On that note, trust is a huge factor.  As I siad last night, i had been kind of burned by my first coach, and so was skepticval going in with Erik.  But in quick time I learned to trust him implicitly, and with that came a willingness to serve -- if he said it was good for me, I would do it at his behest, and with bells and whistles!

Bottom line (I think) ---- The quickest way to get better is with a coach you trust and who understands you and your needs!

Tally-ho!

Wow- I've never heard that first quote.  I am totally going to try and work both of these into conversation today :-)

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

Awesome!  

MATT -

How badly did you get clobbered??  I was down there Thursday evening, and retreated late Thursday night.  The predictions were dire, and according to all four networks via my satellite, most of them were fully realized.    Anyhow, i hope you're now mostly dug out, and if you were ever without power --- I hope it has been restored for a while now!

PATTI -

Is the land-leap one "Escape From Fort Delaware"?  Or is that race a ferry-jump one?  I'm sure one of the two you mention EFFD.....so which is the other one?  Seems I should know, but can't conjure up a second one right now.

EFFD was "hot" for a few years, and then it disappeared for a couple, I believe.  I don't know what the problems were; probably permits.  I did Diamondman half-iron back in '03 (yikes!  a decade ago!), and much of its bike is the same as for Escape; neat course!  You get to go over the big bridge both going out and coming back, and that's pretty nice.  Roads are sparsely-travelled, especially once you turn west off of the bridge's road, at the south end of the bridge.

I cast three perfectly valid votes for you doing EFFD!!

MIKE -

Ravens' logo (and comment about my lengthy posts! notwithstanding, i shall rspond to your thoughtful and thought-provoking post from a few days ago.

First, what exactly were the knee problems -- or, rather, where were the problems located?  I guess the knee that was operated on is clearly defined as to problem, but how about the other knee?

Second, very well-played with all the walking in lieu of running!  It look slike it paid good dividends, what with gradually increase in volume since October.

Third, congrats on having such a successful January, which makes it about 19 months since your last big month.  That was a long time comin', to be sure!

Now.  Onto the plan.

It's a good one, overall, and it's nice to see Yoga in there to do for you what Yoga can do so well.....and also the Sundays off......and also talk about Thursdays off as well.  I am emphasizing the days off just because the total hours -- from 11/12 up to 15 -- are huge, more in line with SERIOUS half-iron training than for your current race schedule.  And I mean that all as a compliment -- that your body is telling you it can handle that volume, and actually wants to do so.

But as you are still in potential re-acclimating mode, you could maybe just reduce things a bit -- give yourself until maybe the end of March to start ramping things up.  That siad, though, your run schedule is not a killer -- three days, and diversified ones at that.  It's good that you are aiming to take your time working into the intervals, as that's the kind of training that can wreak havoc on my lower body.  As for the long run on Thuersdays, about how long is "long"?  Just curious on that, but if you are looking to dial things adown a bit, you can maybe make-do with long runs that aren't all that much longer than the run distance of upcoming races.

THAT said, as a long-time runner I am sure part of you needs those longer runs, so as long as they don't aggravate your knees........why not??

And while I gave specific mention to the Yoga, strength work is wonderful, too.  having three of them there won't hurt at all, and can probably only help -- as long as you don't do high weights on your wonky knees!!!   My tiorn meniscus in '06 scared me off ANY lower body weight work; regrettable, but not worth the risks of "torquing" that old meniscus (which repaired itself as surgery wasn't advisable).

RETRACTION NOTICE!!!

Doh!  I amde the comment about big hours, but thinking about how much of the 11/12-15 is weights or Yoga -- you are perfectly fine with what you are doing for SBR.  I should've figured that all out in a sensible fashion, and I apologize for the misleading and poorly-constructed thoughts in the first of the "plan" paragraphs.  MY BAD!!!!   (X4!)

AMY -

Great photos, gorgeous venue.  Or is it gorgeous photos and great venue? 

As for you yourself, you look mighty swell -- dare I say "radiant"?

I should post my own wedding's money stats.  It (a) happened in Dec. '75, (b) was conducted in Lynn's parent's living room, (c) had about 23 guests, and (d) neither of us bought anything special for apparel.  The reception was in a small room at the golf/curling club to which Lynn's parents belonged.  No honeymoon to speak of.  Grand total might've hit $600; probably not.

But here we are, 37-plus years later, Lynn fairly merrily suffering me still.  Will miracles never cease?!?

Better late than never:

Name: Trina (or T-Love...somehow I ended-up with that curious nickname)

Story: This will be my fourth season of triathlon. I've lost 43lbs and quit smoking in the process. Looking forward to more weight loss and fun tris in the years ahead.

Family: Married to Steve for 25 years, with one child, Bradley, who is 28. I have one miniature schnauzer, Gretchen, aged 13. I've lost two of my other fur kids to old age/disease this past year - it's been tough.

Current Training: I have a coach that plans my training on Training Peaks. Currently I am suffering some hip pain during the run so I'm only running 6-7 miles a week. Leg is getting better so hope to increase volume starting next week. I'm in the pool 2-3 times a week, and on the bike three times a week. Sometimes I go mountain biking if it's too cold or windy.

2012 Races: 2 sprints, 1 Oly, one half ironman, two half marathons, a century ride (HHH), and multiple bike rallies. 

2013 Races: See my training log page for tentative 2013 schedule.

Weightloss: Yes, I need to. Currently this is my biggest (no pun intended) limiter. I was well on my way of losing the remaining 25-30lbs when I quit smoking and my weight loss stalled. That's ok - I will continue to fight the good fight and hopefully be in somewhat decent shape when tri season starts.

Steve - the kerfuffle in my PM - it was definitely "kick." The guy's about 85 years old... hehe..

Road rides I ride from my house or work.  I only drive if I am pre-riding a specific course or want to do repeats on a specific hill.  Mtn bike I mostly drive - usually b/c I have a babysitter and go with my husband so we want to get to the good stuff quick.

Running I always go from my work/ house.  That said I am lucky to have a ton of options right from my house.

Both...I have a park basically across the street from me that has a 2.2 mile figure 8 loop, and it's hilly.  Totally safe other than dodging a stray stroller here and there.  I also will drive out to the state park, which connects to a long bike path.  I'll also drive to the local tri sites and ride the course if possible.

RE:  Knee problems...not sure.  Diagnosis was torn meniscus both when the surgeon went in my meniscus was fine.  Knee was structurally sound, so just a little scraping of some arthritis.  The original pain was on the inside of the knee just above the kneecap (hence the torn meniscus diagnosis).  I hurt the right one cycling...it just kinda of started hurting across the top.  I get some swelling during exercise but by and large it doesn't bother me.  I wear a compression sleeve when I run, too.  I have a sneaky feeling this could be related to the vein insufficiency I have in my legs (had surgery in '07 to remove the saphenal vein in my left leg), but have not had anything close to a medical opinion on that. 

RE:  Long run.  Probably 4-5 miles max, plus I've learned that the run/walk is very helpful.  On the treadmill I keep the incline very high (12-15%) on the walk "recoveries", which keeps my HR up and I get the aerobic benefit of running the whole time without quite as much pounding.  So...including the walking figure 75 minutes at the most.  As a life-long runner, yeah, I wanna go longer, but I'd rather be able to walk afterwards. 

RE:  Volume...I agree it's a little aggressive, but I have a large volume of experience feeling out what I can and can't do, and will make sure to react accordingly.  The 4.5 hours/week of strength/yoga has also made a big difference in how my body handles training.  Right before I got injured I was getting pretty skinny (read:  weak) and all of my training was SBR.  I also made the mistake of "doing it just because I can, rather than because I should", which IMO is a dangerous pitfall for a newbie triathlete experiencing some success.

Predominantly just go from where I am.  I'll take my bike to work so I can ride with a friend at lunch, but that's not to get to a particular course - more about convenience.  I'll do the same for runs from work (or weekends in the summer, etc.).  I usually just go from where I am.

That said, if I lived in the city I would almost certainly be loading the bike in and heading out of town before I started riding.  It's bad enough running where there are stoplights - cycling there would drive me BONKERS and I would end up disliking it quickly, I think...

Generally just go right out the door. I'd have to go for awhile before terrain would be noticeably different. Not worth the time on a regular basis. I still make sure to get out somewhere different every now & then for a run, just to keep it fresh. I also look for event rides to do for the long ones sometimes.

I've fallen behind for a couple days.

In swimming yesterday the coach just said start and we swam pretty much non-stop for the hour and I was a bit under the weather but I managed 2K and felt I kept pretty consistent pace and technique.  (probably see lots of mistakes if I'd been video'd)

Today, on the bike the coach tried to kill us!  We did a mix of things for about 25 minutes and then he took us through 15# 1 minute intervals in Zn 5 separated by 1 minute Zone 1/2 with optional up-chucking.  Before we started the class I was feeling nauseous (unusual out of the pool) and I was worried about how I might feel once we started but once we got going I forgot about it and managed to keep up pretty well.

Steve and Kate - Thanks for the info on coaching.  I've got to talk to my "big boss" about it before I do anything. 

Dave - I'm really lucky where I live.  From my home it's 2km to the south and I'm out of town on country roads.  So I can bike or run out of town from home but if I drive a little we have so many roads and trails that are ideal for training as well.

DAVE -

I have the ability to just bop out the door for both my runs and rides.  I live on a "main" road, which is two lanes and without a shoulder.  BUT, I go west for only a mere km before there is a sparsely-travelled series of roads that feel claoe to 100% safe.  I used these for many years as my main riding routes, and as for going east on our road, at about 1.7km there is a side road that is hardly ever used, and for years that was my aian running route.  So, it was go westerly for rides, go easterly for runs.

A few years ago I started doing more and more and more of my rides in an area south of us, maybe a 15-minute drive is all.  These are also sparsely-travelled, but paradoxically have very wide shoulders.  I can range quite far from my nearest sensible parking spot, and were i still an iron-distance guy, I could do endless many-hour rides with not a lot of repitition.  I also now do about 75% of my runs down there.

We have opposite purposes, it seems -- you are looking to get less hilly, I am looking to get at least partially rolling!  That is, I live in a very flat area, and for years I had to subsitute windy farmlands for hills; that is, use howling winds to simulate tough climbs.  But my "new" area gives me enough topography to keep me happy!

Try driving to better bike spots.  It is a nuisance at first, but then quickly gets to making all the sense in the world.  (For all the driving I seem to do anyhow, what I do to get to my bike routes is just small potatoes.)

GEORGE -

Whoa!  That's a tough bike workout!  For how many of the riders was the "optional up-chucking" an actual requirement?!?

Great workout, though -- one of those that are murderous at the time, but pay big dividends over time, especially if repeated every so often.

No doubt there would be mistakes towards the end of the 2km swim......but that would only put you in with the 99.736% of people who would also show the same tendency.  And, really, "at distance" form breaks down in riding and running, too, so rather than rue it, accept it as a natural part of the endurance process.  Of course, the big goal is to be able to go further before breakdown and decay of form occur, and that's always sometrhing to aspire to.  I dare say that by the time you do a few 2km stweady swims, your form will hold together much longer than it did two days ago!

MIKE -

Is the compression sleeve generally working?  If not, you might want to try a couple other knee devices, but doing so kind of cautiously.  Check out www.injurybegone.com and see what they currently offer.  I'm mostly thinking of the knee where you say it ghurts across the top, and I wonder if one of those patellar astraps that help stabilize the knee would give you some relief above the knee.  I will go to that website, too, and check the actual name of the strap.   I'll also look into saphenal nerve info, just because I know nothing about it!

Your long run plan is excellent, and especially commendable is the incline you do the walk stints at on the treadmill.  No rest for the wicked in your protocol, is there?!

Finally, you are oh-so-correct about the dangeropus pitfall of a tri newbie experiencing some success!!!  I was a repeat victim of "doing it just because I can rather than because I should", and I stayed pretty much stupid that way until I got a good coach.  This relates nicely with the posts to George's question about getting a coach, but i don't think I included that part.  And that's not to say that I never-ever got injured again; far from it, in fact. The difference was that once I reported an injury to Erik, he was very quick to change my course -- basically getting me to do what I should, as opposed to what I thought I could.

Feeling that sense of skinny=weak..............going to Yoga and weights was brilliant.  I sure like to think that when I hit my "race weight" of 165-167 that that is optimal...but there are nagging thoughts that i may have sacrificied some functional strength along the way.  (I'm 6"2" and 64, so that is a borderline weight for me, maybe)  I don't think my performances suggest that I am too weak to race well...........but that's all relative and mostly subjective, yes?

Decisions, decisions!

MIKE again -

It's a buncha hours later, but I finally got arouund to checking that website.  Click on Knee, click on Meniscal Tears, and you'll get the "short sleeve knee support" and the "pro-tec patellar strap".  The latter is what I was referring to earlier, while the former is probably quite similar to what you currently use; yes?

No one up-chucked but I'm pretty sure 90% seriously considered it.  I was pretty finished after the last one and if he'd said, "One more!" I'd have given it a miss.  It took a minute before I calmed down enough to drink some fluids but you're right I did enjoy it although I think sharing the suffering with 28 others makes it a lot easier.  It does make me wonder what he does to his more advanced cyclists (ours is the easy class).

In the pool I just felt good as I was swimming but I could tell I was slowing down near the end so I felt in decent form but I knew I had to be breaking down (or the pool was getting longer).

I'm out of the pool for a few days due to a case of conjunctivitis just came on last night.

GEORGE -

What he does to his advance cyclists is probably just like what Coach Troy Jacobson does to his studs and studettes in the most brutal of the Spinervals DVDs.  There a re probably clicks from those on line, either youtube things or straight from the Spinervals website.  i consider myself a strong cyclist........but the toughest of the Spinervals bury me in a heartbeat, just about!

Take care of those eyes!