GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 46)

LISA -

Feeling abny better this morning? Did you manage to have any fun of your own this weekend, or were you just sort of layin' low and gettin' well?

And if any of us wonder why so many good baseball players come out of Texas, there it is -- your son heading off to practice, and it's not even February yet!

Soory about you losing the spot in your desired half marathon. As that has become the New Hot Distance, one has to be pretty quick with the old mouse to get registered before the race closes out!

I've only done a handful of spin classes in my life, and those are now approaching the status of ancient history -- March of '00, to be exact! As I remember, a well-structured spin class can cover a lot of ground. There can be power work, efforts of brutal high-cadence spinning, stuff that addresses economical pedaling.......so I think that a spin class a week will indeed have its benefits. Every little bit of seat-time helps, and as you mention endurance and speed -- yup, I think spinning would help. And with a trainer session and an outside ride with your husband (and if he is a fair-weather rider, just head out by yourself and guilt him into joining you next time! ), that's three bike sessions a week, and that's great for this stage of things!

Swimming? You have your ducks lined up nicely for that, too. You asked Mark for soem clarification, and he might have given you what you needed on the previous page, I think it is. His post is about halfway down, I believe.

But I'll just say that for people who get tired of going back and forth, lenght after length after length after length, even small drill items help. By small I mean things like fist swimming, or focusing on a high elbow on recovey, or concentrating on scraping your thigh with your thumb at the tail-end of your pull ---- things can be incorporated into the actual length itself, an addendum to your regular freestyle swim. This is opposed to some of the more sophisticated body-balance drills that get you quite far away from "actual" swimming. They are certainly beneficial, but just are not true freestyle swimming.

STEVE B - Still not feeling very well this morning. Decided I'd stay home and work from home. My husband is now sick and still in the bed. Probably not the brightest thing I've done, but went out for a 5K run yesterday. It was just too beautiful of a day here to not get out. And I was worried because I've only run once in the last two weeks which was my race last weekend. Got my 12 week training plan down now which will officially start next week. Thanks for the advice on the spinning class. I understand what MARK was saying about the masters swimming which is why, in my mind, I had decided I might do that one day a week and then a long swim at the gym one day a week. I would guess that the masters swimming might vary to depending on the coach on any given day.

ARTHUR, congrats on your 17K race. Looks like you did great!

Oh, and GEAUX SAINTS!!

<sub>Hope everyone had a good weekend.

I've got a general question. Is anyone familiar with Team in Training? They are having an information session at my local REI (Mountain Equipment Co-op equivalent) that I was thinking of going to tonight so I can at least see what they are about and figure out what kind of 'fundraising' is expected out of people who participate in it.</sub>

Edited by smarx 2010-01-25 11:38 AM

My trainer/triathlete has worked with Team in Training here for the last couple of years and she loves it.  I don't think they push the fundraising hard, but she was thrilled that they raised a lot of money when they did a big race in DC a couple of months ago.

Hi,

Diane - I'm so sorry about your daughter, that must have been so stressful.  Also, sorry about your shoulder.  Chin up and patience.  I'm dealing with aging parent issues (they're in their 80s and have to move) and that is stressful right now - mainly because of unknowns - I must be patient

Lisa - Sorry you're sick

Steve - that OT policy sucks - thanks for not rubbing in the loss

Happy note:  I just bought a wetsuit.  Xterra has their year-end closeout (on-line) which ends tomorrow. $300 sleveless for $99 and $400 full for $199.  I was going to look around some more but they have a good return policy so I just did it.

 Denise

Yes you have got that right! Thank you and hope your daughter is recovering well from the surgery. Make sure you~re patient with that shoulder, patience is always rewarded in that field...Wishing you the promptest of recoveries!
Yes I use a swim cap, silicone with a sort of fabric feel on the inside, find those to be the easiest to cope with.

Arthur

Edited by Hepeoc 2010-01-25 4:46 PM

So, what started off as a long post is now going to be a short(er) one.  (Closed the browser by mistake!)

16 weeks down, 14 to go.   Very tired today.  As typical for Sunday/Monday, the long Sunday ride is followed up by a terrible night's sleep because I'm getting up at 4:45 am to swim and run.  Something about having to wake up early means I don't sleep well (I guess out of concern of not getting enough sleep, lol).  Which is a shame as I was in bed at 9:30.   Oh well.  Hopefully, tonight I'll be too tired not to sleep well! 

Long run was a tough one physically, but my time wasn't too bad (1.5 hours at 8.5 minute miles) in terms of pacing (for me at least).  I'm a bit concerned about the legs though.  I've been having some pain in the lower leg.  When resting or falling asleep at night, it feels like my shin bones (tibia) literally ache.  Like I can feel the bone when the leg is just resting there - kind of a sharpish intermittent pain.  I pray it's not shin splints or something like that.  Not much of an issue when running, just at rest.  I think I'm due for a new set of shoes, so I'm off to the store this week - hopefully that will correct the issue.

Have to say, I'm starting to worry about May 1st.  I suspect that everyone worries that they aren't doing enough, but that's how I'm feeling right now.  I read all sorts of posts on the other forums, "how do you trust the training plan?"  I guess you just do. 

Two other thoughts:
1)  I finally get what people mean when they say, "surround yourself with positive influences."  I have officially banned myself from the BT IMSG board.  I started to get perturbed by all the posts of how hard the bike and run would be, and how much of a concern it is for these people.  The annoying thing is, some of these folks are IM veterans and appear to be very good at this.  I have to say, I think some of them don't feel that doing an IM is enough - that they have to build it into something more monumental than it is to feel a sense of achievement.  Unfortunately, in doing so, they create a lot of apprehension.
2)  In line with this, I was on the long ride this weekend and in the distance was a cyclist on a TT machine.  My competitive juices kicked in and I was off on the chase.  I was feeling good as I gained on the cyclist until I realized that she was a below-the-knee amputee on the right leg.  And then as I passed her, I saw she was likely 10-15 years my senior.  It really hit me hard, as I've seen physically challenged athletes at races before, but never out on the road training.  It closed the loop on the fact that as great as the challenges of race day are, the challenges of each and every training day are that much greater.  It was both inspiring and humbling at the same time - and something I will file away for those, "this is hard" moments where I need to remember that doing all of this is an immense privilege. 

ARTHUR,

Congrats on the 17K! Sounds like a great time on a hilly course.

DIANE,

Sorry to hear about your daughter and the shoulders. I really hope things start looking up for you. I feel your shoulder frustrations as I've been battling pain and rehab since the summer. I'm finally getting to the point where I can sleep however I want and do almost everything I used to (still no rugby though ) with limited soreness. So I'm sending good vibes your way.

DENISE,

I feel your Vikings pain. I've been a Favre fan since I was a little kid, even though I grew up far, far away from Green Bay and New York and Minnesota (San Diego, to be exact). Regardless of the outcome (as frustrating and heart-breaking as it is), it was great to watch him play this season, hopefully not for the last time.

STEVE B,

I understand your frustration with football OT but I think part of the reason they have sudden death is to make OT shorter. I mean, have you ever watched the last 2 minutes of a close game? (I mean that rhetorically, since I assume you have.) It tends to drag on for a good 10-15 minutes with all the time-outs, out-of-bounds runs, incomplete passes, and spiked balls. So making even 8 minute overtime periods would drag this thing on for a while. Football is unique in that there's a separate offense and defense, so even if you don't win the toss, your defense should be able to stop the other team to give your team a chance. Points can be scored by either side (returning interceptions or fumbles) and if your defense is good, they'll either stop the other team from getting first downs or will force turnovers and give your offense a shot (like NO did five last night...still hurts just thinking about it). So yeah, team sport, both offense and defense should be good to win, and both sides can technically score. Not that lop-sided afterall. Still sucks, I agree. But there's some method to the madness. Sorry, I'm a football junkie, and have contemplated the unfairness of this system many times, since my teams tend to be on the shafted end of sudden death OT.

Anywhos, enough about the football rhetoric. Back to tris.

SHAUN,

A friend of mine did Team in Training last summer and I looked into it a couple of months ago. It's a great organization and I hear such awesome things about it. The only reason I didn't join is because of the fundraising requirements. For St. Andrews in Florida (coming from Colorado), they were asking each person to raise $5000 over 5 months, with 35% of it due about halfway through. Seems simple enough, but I'd talked to a number of people who'd done their programs and most of them didn't raise the funds in the end and had to pay several hundred out of their pockets, or get the trainers/other people/family to pitch in a lot. The good thing is you only have to pay an $85 registration fee and if you don't make the 15% or decide that you won't be able to raise the money in time, you can withdraw by that deadline and you're only out the registration money.

So you can try it out and see how well you do, since the social, training, and working towards a cause aspect of the program, from what I hear, is well worth it. People sing high praises and I'm kind of bummed I decided not to go ahead with it. There's always next year


As for me, I've kind of fallen off the wagon with logging workouts and tri training, although I'm still getting workouts in, just not plan-specific or all that regular. My roommate and I realized that Vegas is not cheap, and with both of us being pretty broke since the holidays, we probably shouldn't be going out there so soon. There's another tri in late October put on my the same RD so we just transferred our registration fees for that one and will be doing a more local tri in late June, and possibly another one mid-summer. We're kinda bummed it didn't work out, but the bright side is that there's no more stressing about hilly courses!

STEVE B again,

On that note, do you have any suggestions for building a base to start a training program in 6 weeks? I'd mostly need running and biking advice, since my swim is pretty strong.

That's it for now,
Kasia

The end date of that run program would be May 9th. 

DIANE -

You beat me to it! I was planning to PM you and check up on things, but here you are!

However, I'm sorry you've had a couple of setbacks, and at least in the case of your daughter I hope whatever problem there was is now resolved -- just ove-and-done-with surgery.

For your shoulder, well, I feel your pain both physically and emotionally. Keep being patient, and when in the water do whatever works that doesn't hurt. I have some thoughts, though, that may be of some use to you:
(1) Using a pull-buoy is a double-edged sword. For a lot of people it makes swimming easier as it elevates them and puts them in a better position, and that's good. But it also removes the kick from the equation, which means that the responsibility for propulsion rests entirely on the arms and shoulders -- which for someone with shoulder issues, is not good. So, ask your trainer about this and see if she agrees with me. I'm not 100% sure that I agree with myself, as a very "thrashy" or "flailing" swimmer will get themselves under control better with a p.b., and a dampening of the flailing might be a good thing for bad shoulders.
(2) An alternative for you might be fins, but the smaller the better. Fins can help with a poor kick, and at any rate put the main propulsion as afr away from your shoulders as possible. It might be that fins would allow you to play around with your stroke so as to find the best way to do freestyle with the smallest amount of discomfort. And this leads to....
(3) When I impinged my shoulder a few yera ago, it was from over-exaggerating my recovery. That is, as my arm was recovery from back to front, I was bringing it up as close to my body as possible. (I had watched slow-motion of an olympic swimmer, and he had a very compact recovery, so I thought if it worked for him, why not for me, too?) I did this literally about four times......and then my shoulder started to ache.
SOOOO, fo you I would recommend trying the opposite, which woud be to have a wide and low recovery. This would require that your torso stay quite flat in the water, with not much upper body rotation. This goes against T.I. training, which uses the analogy of a barge versus a boat with a sleek hull. I'm advocating for you, for now, a barge-like body position that I see as requiring less shoulder pivoting or torqueing than would a body position that is aiming for a higher arm recovery. As I stand in the room here with straight legs and bent at the waist and imitating these two movements, my shoulder seems to be under far less pressure when I'm keeping my upper body quite still and "going-wide" with my arms as the are in the rcovery phase.
BUT VERIFY THIS WITH YOUR TRAINER, PLEASE!! I only know what I know, and what is wrong with your shoulder might not be at all similar to what was wrong with mine when it was impinged.

I'll post this now, but I need tea and will continue in the next post.

DIANE again -

Further on shoulders, when I separated my right one in June my doctor told me that once I was able to swim again I should keep my arm recovery low and wide, at least initially. And when I asked him if wearing a wetsuit was a really bad idea, he said the opposite - that it would help stabilize the shoulder more. So, although that's not tenable for you, it is a prspective on bad shoulders - keep them stabilized as much as possible.

But that was for a separation, which is very different than an impingement or a rotator cuff problem. As for the low and wide recovery, however, that seems to make sense in either case, and having had my own impingement scare just last week, when I return to the pool in a few days I'm planning to employ a very under-exaggerated recovery phase of my stroke.

I always wear a swim cap, and just a plain old latex one. I always put it on before I enter the pool, filling it with plain old fresh water so it goes on easier. I see people who get their hair wet in the pool first, and that seems to defeat the purpose of using the cap to keep one's hair from the damaging chlorine. (In my case, not having much hair anyhow, it might all be a moot point, but for you and your nice hair, the wearing of a cap might actually make sense!)

And emerging from the water for a moment, how goes the bike search? Any progress with your friend's Trek, that sweet little machine you posted the photos of?

KASIA -

For OT, how about no timeouts, or maybe just one. If a team wants a timeout, they have to generate one on the field and not from the sidelines.

It never ceases to amaze and distress me how much drama can be removed from both football and basketball with end-of-game timeouts. Baseball sometimes gets knocked for being too slow, but when it comes down to a clutch late-inning situation and a team's closer is pitching, things move inexorably to the climax. It is gripping, bracing, and gorgeously wonderful. White knuckles on chair arms, eyes wide --- just letting the drama unfold.

Playoff hockey is good, too, with no shoot-out situations. The puck is dropped, and here sudden-death makes sense as both teams have their offense and defense right out there, and usually there are numerous chances for both teams to do something before one team actually scores and ends it.

Moving on......

KASIA again -

As for building a base to start a training program in six weeks....
Do you mean to start a program that will run up to Rage, or to start a program that will begin in six weeks and that will carry you to and through and beyond Rage?

This reminds me that I still owe Mark an explanation of Periodization, and this realization has just hit me like a ton of bricks. So, if I'm sitting here with a dazed and confused look on my face, it's because I realize I have forgotten that entirely. Eek.

At any rate, I think that whatvyou have been doing so far IS building your Base. The Base period is where the basic components of fitness are developed, and these would include aerobic endurance and muscular strength and flexibility. Beyond this are the various sport-specific skills, which you have been working on with your running and cycling. Some people say that the Base period is when one "trains to train", and I think that is pretty accurate. So, I would say that is what you've been doing!

Base can last anywhere from four to sixteen weeks, or even longer; Anne's this year is very long. For you, however, with Rage coming up fairly quickly, there is not a lot of room for a pure Base. Your Base and Build periods have to be squeezed together some, which is not ideal but is definitely doable. With what I suggested last week about where your run times should be about now, that is really Build that we're into --- you're Building for the 10km run of the oly at Rage.

Look again at the first paragraph and try to clarify that for me. I apologize for being a bit dense (I'd like to blame it on being 61, but it might've been this way for a while now! )

STEVE,

You're not dense at all. I just suck at explaining things. In short, after much thought and budget calculations, I'm not going to be doing Rage (major bummer). Both my roommate, who was going to do it with me, and I are REALLY short on cash due to some unexpected expenses/cutbacks at work and therefore won't be able to make it out to Vegas so soon. So, there's another tri about an hour away from where we live in late June that we're going to be doing instead. Since it's a bit later than Rage, I have about 6 weeks before the "official" 16-week training begins (again) to prepare for that one.

So, I was wondering how I should continue to build by base during this time to be in even better shape to start the official program. Should I just repeat the base workouts from the first three weeks of the training I've been doing? Or should I run and bike for time? If so, should I increase gradually? Add intervals? Etc? As you can see, I'm clueless when it comes to non-structured off-season workouts.

It's a huge bummer about Rage. I was really looking forward to conquering, or at least finishing, that course and then having some fun out on the town. But it's also a huge relief since I won't be stressing about the hills and unpreparedness I felt for that tri. This new course that we're thinking about now seems a bit simpler and less logistically challenging, so I think it's a better fit for us anyways. And, since our registration fee won't get refunded for Rage, we managed to transfer it to another Vegas race in late October so there's still the allure of doing something out there. I guess that means I'm doing at least 2 tris for sure this season.

As for OT, other sports do have it better and it definitely irks me that it's sudden death. Maybe a system of one possession for each team should be instituted, but it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. I guess it's just the nature of the sport. I don't like it

STEVE -

As usual with your posts, there is a lot to respond to!

For your run, that length and pace sound great. Clicking off 8:30 miles for 90 minutes is excellent, and it seems as if your run conditioning is building very nicely to where you want it to be in three months.

Your leg problem MIGHT be shin splints, but better that than a stress-fracture, which is a deal-breaker. The fact that you are not feeling anything while running is a good sign, at least in terms of a s.f. If it's shin splints, ice will help a lot -- as should new shoes, I am sure.

But shin splints -- a deceptive term, it turns out. I can't give you the gospel on this, but the term is used broadly to describe tenderness or soreness along about 2-6 inches of the tibia (shin). But there are several muscle/temdon groups there, including the posterior muscle and tendon, the anterior muscle and tendon, and the peroneus muscles and tendons. I think it's correct to say that most people who have "shin splints" feel it on the medial side, which would be the posterior group.

In general, anterior shin pain is the result of tight calf muscles, while posterior tibial shin pain can be brought on by overpronation or shoes that are overworn. So if your problem is on the inside of your leg, going for new shoes might be an almost instant cure.

What shoes are you currently wearing? You've probably told me, but I've forgotten. It turns out that many people who suffer shin splints need some medial posting in their shoes to help control foot movement.

In my experience, here are some telltale signs to look for, beyond the broad problem areas mentioned above:
(1) Is you discomfort somewhat diffuse, that is, spread out along a few inches of the shin?
(2) Is the discomfort very localized, about dime size?
(3) Does your shin pain start around or under your ankle bone, and then exyend up from there?

If (2), then a stress fracture might be a concern; it sure was for me!
If (3), then it might be posterior tibial tendonitis. I get this periodically, and Anne had it recently. For me it is a botheration, not a deal-breaker
If (1), then it might be the general notion of "shin splints" with the muscles and tendons being affected, or it could be that the periosteum has been pulled away from the tibia. The periosteum is a membrane of some type, but I cannot tell you what its fubction is. I think, however, that periosteum problems are at the tale end of more conventional muscle and tendon strains, so I wouldn't worry about that one yet.

Again, going back to my experience, a tibial stress fracture meant I couldn't run four steps before the pain was unbearable. "Shin splints", as I remember them hurt at the starts of runs but got better as the run progressed. They would then hurt for a while after stopping, and icing really helped a lot. I have a vague recollection of periodic "throbs" of aching at night, but I might be confusing that with somehting else. And posterior tibial tendonitis, for me, is unpredictable. Most actual runs are okay, but the soreness can persist at a low level for quite some time when I'm not running. It also responds well to ice.

Shoes! Shoes! Get new shoes! (And remember to tell me what make and model you are wearing, okay?)

I'll send this, then return in a while.

I hope everyone has a great week

Training is going well ( down 4 lbs )

Thanks for all the inspires

Happy birthday Darren 

STEVE again -

Your comments about to IMSG message board were what was needed to FINALLY get to the maps of the course and see what it is all about. I should probably go over to the message board and see what that is all about --- but I think I have agood idea! It really doesn't take much to put these discussions over the top - kind of like Chicken Little and "The sky is falling!" I'm sure that there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over at the message board, and if that's the case then you are best to be away from it. Well done on the self-imposed ban!

I agree with you that there are some people who build ironman into something truly epic, 24/7, 365 days a year. There is no doubt that doing an ironman is huge and that training for one is even more huge, but why people make them into being portenious monsters that are larger than life, I have no idea.

As for the courses at SG --- veeeeeerrrrryy interesting! Right at the top I'll say that, no, it doesn't llok to be a PR course, not like Florida and Arizona. But heelacious? Not to my eyes!

On the bike, starting with the best part, you finish with 12 miles of descent. TWELVE MILES!! And it's not just casual descent, but looks quite dramatic - about 1700' in about 12 miles. So I see that as a sweet chunk of time in which of tiem to not pedal at all, just let the legs get some rest before the run.

For the two climbs, well, they look significant on the elevation map, but with each being about 30 miles and gaining about 1800', thta's not all that bad. Both of them cap with 600' of climbing, but that's over about 10 miles -- again, not that bad.

Between the two climbs, of course, is another screaming descent, but that just gives you the chance to rest up some befoe doing it again. So I see it as out of the water with legs fresh, ride rollers for 22 miles, then climb, then rest, then climb, then rest.....the run. Simple, eh?

Here are two comparisons for you:
(1) Lake Placid has two tough climbs -- not 1700' but more like 1400', and yet it is over a shorter stretch - so the gain is greater at LP. Plus, LP ENDS with that climbing, meaning there is not much chance to rest the legs before running.
(2) Wisconsin (Which I have not doen) is relentless rollers, and while the elevation map doesn't look too ominous, the IMWI bike times are markedly slow. This surprises a lot of people, but it comes down to WI requiring 112 miles of actual riding; apparently, there is no break from the rollers! At SG, however, you may really be doing only 88 miles of work, with two stints of 12 miles each of wild descent.

I may be interpreting that all wrong, but were I doing SG I wouldn't be too worried. I would get a 25 or 27 for my big cog, and plan on staying in the saddle and spinning tight small circles up both of the climbs. Periodically I would get out of the saddle, but that would just be to change things up some and stretch the legs. I would not view myself or trian myself to be a "power" climber, but rather to rely on finesse and fluidity. I would focus on getting in the zone of the rhythm of those small circles -- eyes a few feet forward, just waching the road slip up to me.

As for the run, I wnat to study that further. It certainly does not look easy, but as I said before, it comes after the long 12 mile bike descent, and also finishes with close to three miles of descent. The quads might not like that very much, but as far as overall work and effort are concerned --- it's a pretty user-friendly finish! Betwwen now and May 1, some added quad work might be good; I would be looking that way, to be sure. There is the matching mid-run descent, plus others - especially miles 6-7 and 18-19, roughly.

IMSG -- not a PR course, but one that is challenging and fair. Really. It is a fair course, with several considerable stretches that will allow both physical and mental regrouping. Carpe diem!

Dwayne just beat me to it -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARREN!

I was all set to post Darren's being today and the reminder that Dwayne's is in two days.

A busy birthday month -- the two Steves and the two male Ds!

DWAYNE -

Not only congrats on paying attention to birthday information, but also on the lost four pounds!

How are you doing with the Newtons? Are they working well for you, without any calf soreness? (Um, it was you with the Sir Isaac model......wasn't it?)

If not, ignore the questions above! But if it is you, I am curious as to how they are working for you. I've been in Newtons for over two years now, using the Gravity and the Distance models. I am well past the point of calf soreness, but I've heard that the Sir Issac are much more gentle on people who are "transitioning" to midfoot or forefoot striking than are their older, more conventional models.

Steve-

First 2-3 weeks had some calf soreness, but none lately.

I really like them, and just running with them 2 out of my 3 days of running 

Edited by Dwayne 2010-01-26 9:19 AM

ARTHUR -

Okay, it's 48+ hours after that hilly 17, and I'm wondering if DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) has set in yet. I mean, above and beyond the leg soreness from the hills? If your legs feel OVERALL awful, it is probably DOMS and it will go away in a day or two. Hang in there!

As for tactics for doing downhills, I'll try to tell you what works for me.

On moderate hills, I just try to maintain my stride while leaning into it just a bit more. But while doing this, i am not trying to overstride, although lots of people do this and succeed at it. I am certain my stride is lengthening, but I'm trying not to allow it to too much. I am also trying not to get my weight too far forwrd, or to land further up on my toes. It is a controlled lean I am employing, and still aiming for a midfoot+ strike.

For steeper hills, I will consciously lean back some -- but not enough to make it so that I have to absorb the impact of my hills. At least for me, the "braking" affect can cause problems in three different places -- knees, quads, hips. Hips has never been a problem for me, really, but I have found in the past that if I adjust my footfall to minimize knee impact, I feel it in my quads.

As much as possible on steeeper hills, I try to maintain my same stride. I may lean back some.....but I am also trying to allow gravity to assist me. That is definitely a goal with more moderate hills, but it is also one for steep hills -- just not as attainable.

Two other aspects are being loose, and going with the flow. The latter really means to allow gravity to do its thing on my behalf, and the former just means to get tense up as the descent steepens. Getting tense (shoulders, arms) is easy for me to do on steep hills, but once I become aware of it and loosen up, everything gets easier. It's like the looseness just swarms down to my legs and feet, and I have a better sense of the slope and how I am navigating it. I know that probably sounds airy-fairy, but simply relaxing on a downhill works for me. In general I strive to run relaxed, but on hills the benefits of doing so are acutely noticeable.

I hope some of the above helps!

KASIA -

Oh, you're a cagey one! Or had you told me before that you were bypassing Rage '10, and I just forgot?

Is your late June one Loveland Lake to Lake, by any chance? If so - LUCKY YOU!! that one has been on my Fantasy Life radar fro several years, and if you do it then I will be there with you in the form of my invisible and weightless miniature doppleganger, perched gleefully on your right shoulder!

Or is it 5430 Sprint? That one -- and especially its long-course sibling -- has also been on my fantasy radar. Someday, someday -- maybe?

I don't think you'll regret this change of plans. Rage will be there again next year, and for now you have bought yourself some hugely valuable time to truly get ready for the June race, and hopefully truly enjoy it.

Let me know date and distance of the June race (and which one it is), and we'll move forward with Plan B!

DIANE -

Okay on the pull buoy, then! And good news on the bike; it's inching closer to you by the moment!

Please try not to get discouraged by measuring yourself against any of the rest of us here, or anywhere else for that matter. I could regale you for hours with accounts of all the "down" time I have had with various injuries, but for now just keep in mind that my own swimming is on hold until I get the bugaboo of last week's shoulder scare out of the forefront of my mind.

Although we in this august little group are all kind of in it together, ultimately we are each just an Experiment of One. Your own training will develop at its own pace, and according to your own particular strengths and weaknesses.

And it's also worth remembering that training is not linear, and that even without injuries there are plateaus and setbacks. You've got an injury-induced setback right now, but the three of us (you, me, trainer) - and I guess the group here and any of your personal Support Crew down there - are counting on this being resolved in time.

Here are two quick, related stories for you:

I started being coached by Erik Cagnina of D3 about 7 years ago - early Feb. '03. We had been communictaing for a few weeks, just running through some stuff until the workout plans began. The DAY BEFORE the first day of the plans, right after a run I felt a sharp pain in my shin and realized that it was my tibial stress fracture, revisting me (first time was in early '00). I had clobbered that spot two days before, and what actually happened was a hairline fracture at the site of the former s.f. ANYHOW, I had to phone Erik and tell him what had happened, figuring he would just want to dump me right there -- that I was "damaged goods". But he kept with me, and for two months until I could run again, the workouts were geared to swimming and cycling, as well as water running.

The second story is from July '03, when I finally got to meet Erik in person. This was in Muncie, IN, at a half iron. Erik was doing it for the umpteenth time, along with several of his friends. Erik is a great triathlete, and that's generally the crowd he runs with. His friends were all younger than I was, had been in tri much longer, and were just much better. I ended up having a decent-enough race, but by the time I finished Erik and his group had been chillin' for a long time. After a while I learned their various finishing times, and I ended up feeling quite bummed out and discouraged; it was a long drive back home! I emailed him once I got home, and told him how out of my class I felt with him and his friends at Muncie -- to which he whipped back an almost scolding letter telling me that I should never compare myself to either he or his friends, for the reasons I said above -- age, experience, talent. And he was quick to add that it wasn't as if I didn't have talent myself, but that the collection of friends of his at Muncie was REALLY talented - and that after several more years of working at it, I might be there, too. But the bottom line was not to compare my progress against anyone else's.

So, those are two stories with two different messages.
Your shoulder injury is messing with your head now much the same way my tibia messed with me -- everything seems to be in place to move ahead (for you it's this group, for me it was Erik), but the body isn't entirely able. But you can compensate, for now, by doing other stuff, just as I kept going with swimming, cycling, and the mind-numbing water-running.
Also, it just won't help your psyche to compare yourself with any of us. Moreover, there will be a time when you will be firing on all cylinders and one of us (a good chance it will be me..... ) will be sidelined with some problem or other. For now, you've got a glitch in your training plans and can't even begin to see an linearity in your training (and rememeb

ber that even in the absence of injuries, training is not linear!). As I've said before -- keep the faith!












Edited by stevebradley 2010-01-26 1:38 PM