Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 48)

Oooo, more racing! Good luck!

Have a great race Sunday Matt, I think you're going to surprise yourself.

I have a short run and a bike today, then long run Sat, and a recovery run and the end of the Jorge bike plan - 5 minute bike test - Sunday.

I will ride at least 2 hours tomorrow and have to decide if I do it indoors, or outdoors.  The weather will be my determiner.

Sunday I expect 10+ miles on the trails.

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MATT: have fun on the 10 miler.  Remember my rule of thumb on race pacing.  NOT IN PAIN until halfway.

10 miles is a pretty long race, so it's possible you will choose not to do a warmup before the race.  If that's how you go, the first mile of the race itself is your warmup.  If so, I wouldn't hit that 8:30 pace until you have finished your first mile.

But if you are doing a separate warmup that will be at least 1 mile, then you are good to go.

My new bike arrived at the bike shop.  They are in the assembly process and sent me a photo.

(SuperFly2.jpg)

Jeff - that bike looks awesome! I bet you can't wait to get that out on the trails!

Matt - Good luck with your race and good luck on hitting your pace. +1 on surprising yourself.

Warren - Nice job on reaching the end of the bike plan. It looks pretty brutal at some points!

Dina - Great to hear about the swimming improvements! Keep it up, speed will come.

I'm going to be busy as crap this weekend and training when I can. I'll probably do a short brick today, maybe a 30 minute ride followed by a 30 minute run. We'll see. I'm still trying to figure out how to run efficiently after jumping off the bike. Both will be low effort.

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day, so I'll either take a rest day or hit the stationary bike in the gym for a while. Sunday is long run day. I'd like to get a 12 miler in with my Dad, but we'll see if we can match our schedules up!!

I'm looking for a triathlon in April around here. I'm itching to get started on racing season and get in an easier swim than my ocean swim in June (currently my first planned one).

I hope everyone has a fun and successful weekends!

John

Hey all.  I am going to make a fairly quick post.

I arrived in Cody, Wyoming yesterday afternoon and had much work to be done loading into Josh's apartment.  The trip was both amazing and grueling.  We had rain on the first day but that did nothing to slow us down but it did kind of dull the trip a little.  We spent our first night in Sioux Falls, SD and woke to very treacherous road conditions.  The roads were packed snow and ice for 200+ miles and that part of the trip threw us off schedule.  They also closed I-90 at Chamberlain, SD and the detour cost us 50 miles of extra travel.

We spent yesterday morning driving through the Bighorn National park and took our time getting through because of the spectacular scenery.  (I have posted a few pics on my facebook account if you would like to check them out.)  I am planning on posting more pics that were NOT taken from my phone later today.

I have done NO training and it has been driving me nuts.  I am however going to get my first run in today.  I am planning a 5 miler today and maybe a 7-8 tomorrow based on how I feel after running in 5000+ foot elevations for the first time ever.

My thoughts on running base that Warren and Jeff posted about will be brief and here they are.

I have actually been thinking abut this recently myself after a comment I made to my wife on this subject.  Anyway, I think you base seems to be hitting a good place to start speed work when you are noticing that your RPE is the same while your easy run speed has increased without knowing, which it sounds like you have hit Warren.  As your body adapts to the increased training load, your fitness obviously increases thereby allowing more work at a faster pace eventually.  I can definitely see the perspective of powerful legs from hockey with a slightly diminished or lower cardio fitness but certainly at this point you would have crossed the point where this would have a large impact on your training for triathlon.  I would say that after all the years of hockey that your body has developed a more natural ability to increase power faster in your legs due the demands that you required during ice skating.

I guess in short,  I think you have reached the "base" that you have been looking for.  When it all becomes easy running for you and the paces are decreasing slightly then your body is adapting and recovering well.  Your running approach has been spot on for you it seems, Warren.

Good luck to all that are racing this weekend.  Hopefully you can get the PR's you are looking for.  I will be checking in with the group throughout the day using my phone, as I have been since Tuesday, but may not post.

Glad you posted.  I'm probably not the only one having Dirk withdrawals.

Dirk - Sounds like the trip has been quite an adventure. Glad to hear you got through safe. Be safe on your way home too.

I'll be picking up my race packet this morning for tomorrow's 3 mile race. My ankle is still a bit sore this morning so another day of "rest" planned. I'll actually be on my feet all day here at work and probably a good portion of the weekend since I have a project to deliver to a client Monday.

I've never even looked at my monthly numbers before.  Here's my February stats.

S: 24400.00 Yd

B: 18h 40m

R: 161 Mi 

wow!  That is one sweet bike!  congrats Jeff.  I'm hoping to invest in a mountain bike at the end of this year as well. 

Dirk,  Good to hear from you.  Looks like you're going to have some awesome stories to tell from this trip.  Be safe out there.

On the swim front, I have a pain in the back of my left shoulder.  The pain is directly opposite and below my clavicle (on the backside of my shoulder).  it's like a sharp twinge that started while swimming a couple hard 100's last week.  I'm not happy about it at all.  First time I've had shoulder pain while swimming ever.  And it hurts when opening doors etc left-handed.  Not sure what to do about it.

I have a few minutes since my brother is taking care of some "moving in" details with utilities and such.  It's actually hard to take sitting in his apartment while he's out.  After some of the scenery of the past couple of days my thoughts are not in an apartment right now, but on the side of a mountain or in a mountain pass somewhere.

Anyway, I throw my numbers out too.  they are less than I would like but I have had a couple of jacked up weeks in February.

 The run is down from a goal of 100 miles because the week I took off and then an easy week coming back.  The bike should be a little higher because I missed a couple of rides.  Pretty much everything suffered in one form or another in Feb.

Jeff, that is a great looking ride.  I sure could use tat here in Wyoming right now.  I could also use some warmer temps in order to get the bike on he road too.

I was mapping a run this morning and found a route that I am giving some really serious consideration doing tomorrow.   I would start "the route" about 1 mile into a run and then begin to climb.  It would be about 1.5 miles of pure climbing at the start of the climbing portion of the run.  According to mapmyfitness.com it would be 1000 feet of climbing in that distance.  I never get to do any of this stuff in "pancake Indiana" and the thought of brutalizing myself here sounds pleasantly appealing.  (I am a very sick ,sick man!)  I could actually turn the run into a 3.5 miler with 2000 feet of climbing but I figure that might be a little too much for my fragile self. 

As far as running in the huge elevation change, I didn't really feel anything any different.  I ran 6 miles with a couple of small inclines and mostly flat to slight decline overall (131 total).  I planned the route this way figuring the elevation might blow me up, but it wasn't so.....at least for now.

Dirk, glad to hear your voice, and nice run.

I'll play along (love that swimming total!):

Enjoy reading what everyone is doing. Jeff that is a great looking bike. Dirk, good to hear from you. That 200 miles in the ice storm sounds a little stressful. Glad you made it safely! Good luck to everyone racing!

Jonathan I've had shoulder issues before but they have only bothered me while swimming, not carried over into everyday activities. Maybe your ART guy can help with that? Good luck. That is one of the reasons I have backed way off of speed work in the pool. There is a fine balance for me between working hard and tearing myself up - even swimming. I'm just not getting any younger....

Another short run for me today - that makes 4 days running this week. All short and slow but I'm just trying to get out there. My foot is holding up well so far. Also had a scary windy bike ride. I didn't know it was so very windy when I started out. Felt like the bike (I was on my tri bike no less) was going to blow right out from under me. Heard in the van later the gusts were 40 mph. Note to self - check the weather BEFORE the ride! . No harm done, just not a confidence builder for my feelings of discomfort riding outside!

Good to hear from you Dirk - I bet there's some spectacular scenery in the 1000 ft climb!! That sounds incredibly painful  like fun. Enjoy it!

Just for fun - Here's my Feb totals:

 Frankly, that's probably close to what I did in the entire first half of last year, minus the swimming and biking... because I didn't do either of those.

Have a lovely Friday everyone!

John

Rest and recover.  Sometimes your body is just telling you to relax and let it do it's job!  Hard for us type A's.  You'll be back at it in no time.

Was planning a big run on April 14th a good idea?  Or are you all wrapped up by then?  Hope your run today is/was great.

Just a quck update.

Today is the first day this week without snow. We had 3 bad days of 30mph+ winds with gusts over 50mph+. Yesterday was actually no snow, but too many patches of ice on the road to ride. Plus, my two favorite routes to ride were closed due to avalanche dangers. This morning I got up to try to get a few miles in before work, but just too cold to ride (9 degrees when I woke up). suppose to be nice the next two days and then snow again Tues. Hopefully on Thurs. or Fri. I can get out and enjoy a long ride. I have to ride on the stationary bike at the gym because my drainer crapped out on me. Time for a new one.

I really need to buckle down and get on the dreadmill and run and hit the pool. Guess I'll do that this week. Other than that, I feel good and just need to get more motivated this week.

Today's race:

 Since I've had a couple of sub 8 minute per mile races in the last 2 months I figured that was a good goal; sub 24:00 for 3 miles. With a stretch goal of sub 23:00.

I started off way too far back and had to spend some energy weaving through slower traffic. I got a little frustrated with that. Just too many slower runners starting up near the front. I have a tendency to underestimate my abilities compared to the field and get myself into this situation, but I don't want to be the guy starting in the front and getting passed by a ton of folks either.

The race starts on the approach to the Diestelhorst Bridge. I do many of my cool downs after runs on this bridge and I recently helped prepare retrofit plans for the bridge, so I'm pretty familiar with the area.

 The run across the bridge was packed and too slow. Once through the thickest part of the crowd I opened up the speed a bit to try and make up some lost ground. All the way out to the first mile marker I just kept thinking I killed myself with that start.  When I passed the mile marker I checked my watch 7:43.  Okay, maybe I was fine now. I’ve made up for the slowness of the start. Now focus on being steady.

By mile 2 I was running steady and barely gaining on a couple runners in front of me. I know I had slowed my pace a bit during that 2 nd mile, but I was pretty confident I was still under an 8 minute/mile pace. I finished at a near sprint and side by side with a gal my wife and I know from the points races. We finished 46 and 47 out of 239 with a time of 23:04. A 7:42 pace.

I was very happy with the result, especially after what was a terrible start. Then I got a big surprise; it turns out that at this race the awards go 5 deep in age group and I got 5 th in my age group. My first race hardware! WooHoo! The gal who finished next to me was 2nd in her age group.

   The other 4 in my age group were all running 6:18 m/m or faster so I have a long way to go in catching them, but it was cool wearing that medal around my neck while chatting with folks after the awards were handed out.

I hope everyone else is having a great weekend.