zia_cyclst's Group - Closed (Page 5)

Hey guys and gals,  I'm in Colorado at the USA Triathlon coaches training.  Then I'm off to ski for a week.  That means no swimming or biking for about 10 days.  I plan to make this 10 days a run focused training period.  Anyone ever try this?  Concentrate on one sport for a period of time.  I'll do this occassionaly.  Anyway, my plan is to run every day and mix it up with endurance, tempo, intervals, hill repeats. 

Thanks, Tommy.  So should I be avoiding adding intensity to my workouts? I'm trying to do at least 1 bike and 1 run workout at a higer intensity -- intervals, hill repeats, that sort of thing, to drive my HR up in a controlled way.   I don't notice myself getting faster, but I do notice that I can go longer.   I don't use HR zones in training -- I'm not really sure what they should be.  I tend to focus on RPE.  On runs, a strong RPE (5-7 on a 1-10 scale) tends to put my HR at about 160.  Oddly, short of trotting or walking, I really can't make my HR go below 160 when running.  

I am trying to be consistent with my training -- this week has not been good for that. 

I you are just now starting triathlon don't do the high intensity workouts.  Focus on building a solid base of aerobic endurance fitness.  This goes for experienced athletes coming off of their winter off season.  An endurance workout would have your RPE in the 5-6 range.  Your should be breathing under control and be able to carry on a conversation.  The issue with adding intensity too soon is injury.  You risk injuring yourself if you add intensity before your body is ready for it.

Enjoy your vacation!  I've tried the run only focus while traveling, but was also having problems with my knees at the time and didn't get out as many times as I wanted to.  I also made the mistake of running with my brother-in-law at what was probably a zone 3 pace and ended up with sore knees for about 4 days.    I'm likely going to try again next time I travel.    Of course, I'll be focused on just endurance.

Will give some thought to the specific goals.  My main priority is to stay healthy and establish the consistency that you mentioned in your response to Steve.   I do want to lay out some specific time targets for repeating the one Oly I did last year (so many minutes improvement) and also a target for the HIM.   For the HIM, is there a methodical way to pick target times based on Oly times?

 

Not really.  For sprint and oly you'll be racing at close to lactate threshold heart rate (z3 - 4).  When you move to HIM and IM you're racing at steady state (z2 in friel terms).  The best way to determine your paces (and thus your times) is to monitor your training and test your self periodically.  For the HIM bike, I would have a well trained athlete race as follows: first 1/3 at low z2, second 1/3 at high z2 and third 1/3 at z2 to z3.  The run would be all z2 HR until the final 5k then step it up to what ever he has left.   So, the time targets would be based on the paces that correspond to the heart rates. 

Hope this helps. 

Impressive swim...I can't even imagine swimming that far!

Awesome job Steve!! I doubt I could get in 2000m in an hour, but that's why I'm taking some lessons.

Thanks Tommy. I follow the logic. Hopefully, 6 or 7 months of consistent endurance runs in Z2 will improve my Z2 pace.

Edited by dcon 2010-01-24 11:26 PM

Thats excellent! Must be great to know what you are capable of

Im back from the Tour Down Under and was back in the gym today...

Had a dizzy spell unfortunatley while on the treadmill so that was scary but felt good to get some training in so Im hoping to get more in as the week goes on!

Great job Steven.  Way to focus.  The mental part of tri is so important.  You regained focus, found a cue word(s) to keep you focused and motivated.  That's the way to do it.

Thats fantastic! Proves how much is possible when you put your time and energy into achieving your goals! Way to go!

Edited by kaqphin 2010-01-27 8:15 PM

Hi Gang!
Sorry I've been a little a-wall lately... lots on my plate with work (right now I'm actually contemplating applying - AGAIN - for a promotion or not )

My training has also been a-wall  

Tomorrow I should get to masters for a swim.

I do have a little "bragging"... in regards to my knee (which I had my ACL replaced in June)...
I managed to ski powder last Saturday and my knee did FABULOUS!!!
Was a little worried as that the group I was with decided to start off with a run that I would normally consider challenging (with a good knee).  The powder was so deep and so awesome that turning was a cinch and I simply felt like I was "gliding" down the mountain.  I was an AWESOME experience!!!

Now I must work on running on the knee again.

MY GOALS??? Here are some of my goals for THIS year.  Ultimately, these goals should help me build my base to do Vineman 70.3 in 2011.
By 3/31/10:  Run a 5k again (I'll take any time my knee gives me)
By 5/01/10:  Have the confidence that I can pull a Sprint together in under 1:45 (PR is 1:55 or something)
By 6/5/10:  First Century (and in under 7)
By 7/1/10: Run 10K in under an hour
By 9/1/10:  Have confidence to pull together first Oly Distance

I promise I will try to get back into the BT groove of things.

Hey All!  Since it the last day of the month I have been looking back at my training and my goals for the year.  I am pretty happy with my start to training for the year but am a little disappointed in my progress toward my weight loss goals.  This shouldn't be a suprise, I have been focusing on the nutrition side of things nearly enough.  So I looking for a kick in the butt to get things going.

I know some other group members also have weight loss goals for the training season.  I thought it may provide a little extra motivation if we had a friendly weight loss challenge - Feb 1 - Mar 31 (weight loss % of starting weight, not total pounds). 

 
Anyone interested? 

Good deal on the knee!  Skiing is really hard on the knees (at least for me), so this definitely bodes well for training. 

Taking a day off today.  The swimming lessons I've been doing for the 3 or 4 weeks have forced me to change how I swim - and I've definately still got a lot to work on.  Even though  about ALL I did was swim last week, only slight improvement was noted.  I need to be sure not to do much on Saturday, as Sunday is my last swimming session before my LovetoTri on Feb 14.

Guess I'll start tweaking my planned workouts now.

Don't know what it's like to re-learn how to swim (b/c I knew nothing when I started), but I did have to "re-learn" and break all sorts of bad habits skiing.  With that I must ask...

So how do you feel????  That must be why you're taking the day off ;-)

It's funny how when we change the way we do things, we discover "new" muscles we never used during that activity.

So I finally got something started today that I've been thinking about for a while.

I "started" a walking group with mom's from the karate class our kids attend.

Unfortunately, it was also a wake-up call that my knee has more ground to cover than I thought.
So with ^that^ in mind, I've vowed that my "new" habit will be to log some kind of activity EVERYDAY, even if it's just PT "rehab" exercises.

Well - the day off was really needed.  Relearning to swim feels more like relearning to golf.    It feels awkward - but on the bright side I have plenty to think about while swimming.

I know what you mean.  I swam today for the first time in over a week.  It's amazing how fast you lose the feel for the water.

Sorry to hear about your knee.  Walking is good.  Lots of coaches schedule walking workouts for their athletes, even elites do a lot of walking in addition to running. 

It's the final stretch before my little Indoor Tri -

1 more swim lesson, 1 more group exercise class, and one more spinning session.

The swim is really the only "hard" part - 15 minutes is a longish swim. 
Having been training since October - I'm almost at the point where I just want to do it already!

When is your race?