Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 47)

Of course DC Rainmaker already has a review for it!

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/

Jonathan, you had your HR way the heck up there!  Good job.

Now, I can see how it was hard on the piriformis....in fact, it may be something you can't do unless/until that issue gets solved.  But if you want to try again, try only 9% incline and walk more like 3.5 mph.  ie. favor speed over incline.

I had a night time charlie horse in my calf the night after I did my walk.  Kind of hard to jump up out of a sleep with a screwed shoulder and the need to guarantee I don't fall.

Today's walk was 1:30 in duration.  3.5mph and only 9.5% incline.  HR stabilized around 140.

I love that guy!

HEY SANTA.....I've been good this year.

Me too!  I've been good too!

I was reading the link a little yesterday morning and it sounds like a nice unit.  I will be in the market for another watch soon but that one will likely not be in the price range.  I am happy with my 305 and I will probably stick with that one unless I can get the 310xt for something close the 305 price.

I hear you.  The one thing I REALLY don't like about the 301XT and thus far the 910XT is that the quick change strap is plastic.  I really don't like plastic wrist straps as I can never get them adjusted correctly.  One notch is too loose, the next one up is way too tight.  I much prefer the fabric/velcro strap.  And the 305 has a fabric quick change strap.

Matt - awesome job on that 10k.  Pacing is the key to these events and it looks like you nailed it pretty well.

Dirk - That's tough on the last really long run, but your marathon will be more influenced by the 1200 miles you've run than by a missed long run.  Your job is really something, I know it can be tough and the on call thing always seems to heat up at exactly the worst time.  My previous job had on call and it seemed like I got the 2 AM call before every big bike day last summer.

I love the look of that Garmin, but I'm really can't see the price working for me either.  I've been really good this year too, so who knows.

Jeff, I'm impressed with your getting back to the SBR routine so quickly.  How's the shoulder rehab, or is that waiting for a little more healing?

I'm trying to stay up with the group but I admit I'm getting frustrated being totally on the sidelines.  This thing is kicking my butt with no end in sight!  I'm making baby steps but I just can't stop coughing and I have zero energy.

Need help on the difference of bike trainers!  Checked Amazon.com and they range from $40 up to $400.  Whats the difference between the low end and the top end?  Can you get basically the same results from the $40 model or will I lend up laying in a pile in the middle of the living room.  Or worse yet running over my Flat screen TV, that would be BAD!  I want to get something to get through the cold weather but don't want to waste my money.

Matt

I agree that you get what you pay for in general with the trainer.  I found a cyclops wind trainer in our basement (my wife had a bike trainer?) and used it for a few months, and it felt nice and smooth but it was LOUD!  I then was able to borrow a Kurt trainer from a friend which allowed me to watch TV during my sessions.  It was a great trainer.

Last year I bought a 1-up on craiglist for $75.  It is quiet, and I mean quiet - like you can hear the rear derailleur shift quiet.  I sometimes rode while watching TV with the family, and they never even noticed I was there other than the huffing and puffing due to Jorge's sadism. 

To me the 1-up is a little harder than the Kurt, by that I mean the torque ramps up much faster as you shift.  The Kurt was the most realistic feel of a road ride, with gradual increases in difficulty through the gears.  The 1-up is more like hitting a steep hill in that it jumps to much harder efforts more quickly without as many levels.  Maybe for a stronger cyclist it would have more levels, but for me it got "too" hard in gears the Kurt was manageable.  The 1-up requires some maintenance every week or so to clean up the resistance pads, if you don't the resistance gets stupid hard all the time.

Long rant/review - I guess the short of it is - if I had $250, I'd get a Kurt.

shoulder rehab started 2 days after surgery.  That felt too soon!  twice a week with the PT, but everyday on my own.  The first 3 weeks my home work was very spotty.  Just felt too crappy to do the exercises.

That resulted in me being behind the curve in regaining shoulder mobility according to my PT.

They have me working my shoulder's ROM in 3 different ways.  In 2 of them I'm caught up.  In the 3rd, I have a challenge.  But it's frankly one that I haven't focused on yet.  I just caught up this week in my most challenging movement so now I'll focus on the remaining one.

I think I will be getting out of my sling next week.

Thanks for asking.

Jeff,

I'm glad to hear your shoulder is coming along and I hope you can get caught up to where you're supposed to be very soon.  The rehab right after surgery is the hardest part to find any motivation to do.  Most of the pain is still there and it can be debilitating if allowed to get in your head.  After my ACL reconstruction, my pain was minimal but I still was challenged to actually do the work I needed.  After the first week everything for seemed to come together and I got my motivation to hit the work pretty hard.

On my own training note:

I completed my last "long" run before my "A" race.  I ran 15 miles with the last 5 at race pace to kind of test my legs a little bit.  I didn't want to run very long at that pace when I am only 1 week away from this race.  I'm not concerned about my recovery from this run because I seem to recover fairly quickly.  My plans for the actual taper week are 2-3 5 miles runs or maybe the 3rd run about 3 miles.  As of today I ran 40 this week and I think that will be enough of a recovery type of week seeing that I ran 58, 54 and 50 the past 3 weeks.

What do you think Jeff?  Have I taken a chance at over extending myself leaving only about a week and a half for an actual taper?  What do you think about my running plans for next week?

I obviously have no advice for you Dirk, but that definitely makes sense to me from a percentage stand point.  I'm actually very excited to see how you do and feel for your race.  Is it next Saturday??

Who is pumped for Kona tomorrow!?  I'm SO stoked.  I wish I could puddle jump and see it! I'll be on the computer tomorrow...alllllll day.

I'm taking tomorrow as a rest day besides doing some core work.  My legs were pretty unhappy with me today.  My left shin was sore, my right gastroc was sore, my right hip was tight.  This was all from about 1.5 to 2.5 miles.  Now my right hip is pretty tight.  From my piriformis all around to the front hip flexor.  Bull$hit.  Lots of water, stretching and massaging today/tomorrow.

ETA:  I think I need my bike back.  Those bike days in between run days help flush my legs out and keep my muscles working.  What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGojEyYBmwc&sns=em

I am definitely the T-1000!

I had to keep up with Kona from twitter updates because I was too busy to be around the computer.  I caught a few minutes later on at night while there was still a little coverage on.  I just rewound the feed some and watched it that way.  I had heard the weather was going to support the possibility of the record being broken and now I know it was broken too.  Sounds like Crowie killed it!  I would loved to have watched it but we had family in from out of town.  I'll catch the coverage later on when it's on TV.

I just heard this morning there was a marathon runner at the Chicago marathon that died about 500 feet from the finish line of that race.  He was a fire fighter in North Carolina and my prayers are with his family.  I also hope that my wife doesn't hear about this either.  She seems to worry about me and this sort of thing happening during my races and I don't want her to worry about it this coming Sunday during my race.

Dirk.  You don't need to worry about over extending yourself.  Most people over taper and sabotage their race performance.  Frankly, I would figure out how far my training has me behind my recovery.  Normally, I'm only 1 day behind....meaning that if I take a day off, then next day i'm fully recovered.  If you were running 50+ mile weeks, you need to tell us how lethargic did you feel?  Were you getting slower, more fatigued?  Were you more than 1 day away from full recovery?  My guess is that you would do well to run 50 mile weeks up to the race with the following caveat: 3 days before: 5 miles easy.  2 days before: 3 miles easy.  1 day before: 3 miles easy. 

That's all the taper you need.

Hey, I went to swim practice today.  I got in a lane by myself off to the side and did my own thing.

I kicked a half mile...half with fins and half without.  Then swam 1 arm freestyle for a half mile..again half with fins and half without.  Glad I did it.

Nice Jeff, I bet it felt awesome just to get in the pool and get wet again.  I did a quick swim after my inclined walk today.  Did another hour on the treadmill.  This time 9% grade, 4mph.  Definitely easier, but I had to stop to stretch out my hip/piriformis a couple times.  I need to be diligent about strengthening that area every day.  I know my weak hips are the cause of a lot of issues that I have had, so I need to be on top of that.  I also need some ART to break up some tissue in my right quad.  It's all sorts of tight and crap.  Stretching only helps temporarily.  The tightness is surrounding that whole side of my hip.  Very annoying.

I got on a stationary bike at the gym yesterday for 35 minutes.  It was great just to be back spinning the legs out.  This is sick, but I'm really looking forward to some trainer pain sessions when I get home.  I'm headed back to NH after the wedding in Richmond this weekend.

Dirk, you're gonna do awesome dude.  Have you got your bib number yet?  Can we track you?  I'll be on a plane for a portion of Sunday, but I'd like to make sure you get through the finish line in one piece. )

During each 4 week training/recovery cycle I could feel the fatigue setting in fairly deeply as the weeks went by.  I was using the recovery week to drop my mileage back 30% or so (some was more than that because of unplanned work etc.) to allow for decent recovery.  I would say I could have probably ramped my training back up a couple of days earlier than  a full 7 day recovery but I would guess I needed 4-5 full days to get a complete recovery.  This however was done during my full triathlon training.  I haven't really focused on how I have felt under a strictly running program.  This year has been the closest I have been to a pure running focus.  But, that is because several things have gotten in the way of my cycling and I have wanted to make sure the run was the focus on those weeks.

BTW,  I think your swim sets were pretty crazy!  A half mile swim with one arm sounds like some serious working out.  What's the word on when you might be able to use both arms for swimming?

I haven't been able to find a place on the site to get my bib number yet.  I have confirmed my registration but it doesn't give my bib number.  I am going to pick up my race packet on Saturday afternoon and then I will post it on here then.  I also will be trying the "tweet my time" thing too.  If you want to follow me (during the race) I am TriDirk on twitter.  That will update for the start, 10k, half marathon, 20k and the finish.

For those of you who are mountain bikers, I'm pretty sure you will appreciate this little instructional video demonstrating what to avoid doing while mountain biking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M

I have been assuming 6 months because that's when I get the all clear to resume all normal activity.  But I asked my PT yesterday if that was so.  (She's a swimmer)

She said that perhaps at the 4 month point I may be able to swim based on feel.  That would be great.  Swimming really doesn't recruit the muscles in a sudden or dramatic way so it seems reasonable that I should be able to swim long before I resume weight lifting.

BTW, my advice from yesterday (regarding taper) was based on a couple of assumptions....  The mileage during the last few weeks, even if high would be all easy.  Perhaps some strides but nothing more.  And of course, that it wasn't dragging you down much (which 50mpw would if you were doing a full tri program).

Anecdote:  College freshman. I was varsity on the CC team all season.  As the season progressed we lowered mileage and increased intensity to sharpen and peak.  As always, I got slower.  I wasn't selected to go to Regionals in Kenosha.  So I immediately began my 100mpw of easy miles.  a few days before regionals, I was told that someone was injured and I was in.  A couple of shorter days, then the race.  Ran 27:30 for 8k (which was on par with my best that year).

That wasn't a one-time thing.  That's how it went for me every single year. 

That's where my advice was coming from.

You know that feeling of being dragged down from the day before.  Don't do that during your final week, while running more than you think you should, and I am sure you will perform well.

Good luck!

I'll bet that's the antelope running down the mtn biker.  Just calculate the kinetic energy of a 700lb mass moving at 20mph.  That is crazy.  That thing looked like it was targeting him! 

My workout this morning sucked, but in the good way.

I rode for 2:15.  For 2 hours my HR was above 150.  (My threshold on the bike is usually 160)

I was so dead at the end that for the last 5 minutes I couldn't manage more than 80rpm.