THE SLAYER RULES-FULL Up (Page 5)

I'm impressed with everyone keeping busy through the holidays.  I know I didn't.  There was a very, very bad number on the scale yesterday.  So, now I'm extra motivated.  And, my honey has been putting on the pork, so he's now motivated, too.  That makes everything much easier.  Yesterday, I was back to my paleo self and I already feel much, much better.

Just wanted to put a shout out for my favorite running socks: Balega.  So, so awesome!  They feel like heaven on the feet and did their job for my IM and for a really evil Ultra Ragnar relay in which I ran over 30 miles in the desert, up and down hills, er, mountains.  I had surprisingly few blisters and my feet felt pretty good.  That said, RAGNAR Vegas was one of the most fun things I've ever done.  Yes, I like running 200 miles with a team of 6 when everyone else has 12 and not sleeping for 3 days and only eating bagels with peanut butter for 2 days.  It's a sickness.  You're all that sick, too. 

Finally went running today, after weeks off.  Ran just under 3 miles and it was tough.  The first runs back always are.  Felt great afterward and the pig ninjas were very happy to run.  Yesterday, I scheduled all of my IM training sessions.  It was really fun and I'm excited to get to it.  This break has been bad in general, but very, very good for my motivation.  I'm ready to get back on the horse!

As for strength training, do 12 oz curls count? If not, my only strength training is weekly core work. Wish I had more time for yoga but usual pushed to the back burner. Make sure you get the Slayer's stance on yoga.

I think if you are running/biking like you should be, its really hard to keep up dedicated strength work in the legs. Same for upper body and swimming. Last time I did P90x it had a very negative effect on my s/b/r.

Dang Ashley - HIV vaccine! That's awesome. In your spare time could you come up with something that lets me run 5 minute miles for 26.2 with minimal training

Just ran 4 miles in the work warehouse today because of the weather outside. It's actully pretty fun.  It's a cross between NASCAR & Frogger - all left hand turns while dodging forklifts.  Gonna try and get on the trainer tonight for a mind numbing ride.

As far as strength training, It's non-existant for me.   Time is pretty darn limited and I feel like it would just get in the way of my s/b/r training time.  Of course I'm just a beginner so take my experiences with a grain of salt. Before I decided to start doing traithlons, I did yoga consistently (which helped my golf game). Not so much anymore. It'll be interesting to hear everyone's opinion.

When strength training is concerned, I don't see an actual improvement in terms of speed. I do it mostly to get over the missed workout or hanging with friends I don't see/train with anymore. As far as cycling is concerned, I cannot comment.When swimming is concerned, muscles shouldn't be stiff, but flexible. This helps in correlation with water. When running is concerned, just look at the runners...they are mostly stringy.

It's advisable to use strength training time for core workout (for swimming), so I try to do that. Nowadays when I do pure weight lifting, I notice it does more damage than it helps. Also, I read somewhere it doesn't contribute much (if at all) to a better result overall.

Now, putting all the above aside, of course, if your quads or lower leg muscles are very weak, you should somehow try to incorporate strength training, but only if it doesn't get in a way to s/b/r volume and training you planned to do. That's my opinion.

p.s. if you have high training volume in all three triathlon disciplines, you'll notice (in time) that your complete body gains proper and (so to say) attractive physical appearance without weights or any kind of strength workout.

Agreed that the strength training should not impact the SBR volume. I do it to tone muscle. I have alsow found that doing Yoga once a week over the last 6months I have become a little more flexible. I can now actually almost touch my ankles. I have also found it has helped with some nagging injuries that I have had over the ages (e.g. IT Band). The Yoga I do is not too radicle and since most of the attendees are more mature, like me, and are runners, the leader focuses on poses that will help with running.

It's all personal, that's for sure.

Hi All,

First let me say THANK YOU to Slayer who is allowing me to join his mentor group late, I am hoping you guys can use one more and I hope I don't interup the string too much. Below is my bio and I am almost caught up on reading the whole thread which is very interesting.

Name. es185071/Edin

Family status. live with my wife, 2 1/2 yr old daughter and two dogs in Monroe, GA near Slayers home turf.

Story. Another European guy like Luka but I am from Bosnia although I live 7 years in Croatia which is right next door. Came in US in 98 finished high school and then went into military for 4 years. Part of all mighty 82nd Airborne division with one tour to Iraq. Made lots of great friends and got a total knee reconstruction in return . Before 2010 I never really trained for endurance sports it was always for a different purposes like soccer, basketball or volleyball but in 2010 trained for my first half marathon and got hooked on it. 2011 I did 4 Tri's. 3 Sprints and an Oly at the end of the season. My training was not very structured just sort of did my own thing trying to follow some advice from people on here and lots of reading and learning along the way. I currently work about 50-55 hrs a week plus daughter activities and taking care of her while wife works about the same if not more. This essentially kills my training and limits my training time to about max 10-12hrs a week so I hope i can squeeze a HIM out of that time.

2012. Signed up for John Tanner Tri which is a spring here in GA in April. Also signed up in May for Jekyll Island Turtle Crawl oly ( i saw one other person signed up for that one in our group so hope to see you there). I am also planning on signing up for few more smaller tri's with a HIM at the end hopefully Augusta or somewhere little more flatish

Current training. I've just been running few days a week and took it pretty easy after a half marathon in Atlanta for Turkey day. No swimming to speak of and some mountain biking and spent some time on the trainer but not too much. Again nothing structure the structured plan begins in January

Weight. I'm around 5'9 and 180 which I feel is heavy for me. I've been counting calories past few weeks (picked a bad time to do that) and I've lost about 5lbs so far. Hope to be around 170 by the time race season rolls around.

What I want from the group. I want to start a structured plan in January probably following the Be Iron Fit program or one of the cookie cutter programs on here. Swim Monday-Wed AM while running PM. Tuesday and Thursday is biking and core/strenght to help me keep my weight down and then Long bike and long runs on Saturday and Sunday. Friday is OFF or an extra swim. Very heavy training in Z2 won't add any speed or interval work until March once I have some sort of a base established. Hope to meet some more great people and I hope to contribute something to this Awesome group.

Edin

Starting (hopefully) the last crazy day over the holiday break.  Rode on the trainer this morning in Virginia, catching a flight up to NYC and looking to do a 10 mile run on the East River path.  Shorter run tomorrow before flying back to Virginia.

Hope everyone has a good day today.

Just back from a 1500m swim at the gym.

It's icy out, all the wet snow from last night, is now frozen solid. Will be interesting bus ride to work this morning.

Have a good day all.

Welcome Edin.

I think my position on nutrition is slightly misunderstood. I think it is important but over rated. The eating clean concept is most important for people who are trying to loose weight because it is an easy fix. I have to call the Slayer out on this because I really think he would be close to unbeatable if he were to race 20 lbs lighter. Even a half-azz effort on his part would get him there. 

As far as strength training goes, I think it is a good idea if it doesn't impact on the S/B/R. I haven't done ant strength training in 2 years. Even after light, higher rep sets, the recovery time is too long.

Stretching is a whole different topic. I will stretch my feet by sitting on my heels but only to try and straighten them for swimming. I have been in several running groups and cycling groups and there are always a few people who are dedicated stretchers. The also seem to be able to tell you about all of their injuries. Stretching has been showed to help untrained people get started with less injuries . For people with a reasonable fitness it may be detrimental. I never do a dedicated stretching routine but will do slight stretches when muscles feel a little tight. I also will add that we all heal at a different rate do to age, diet, hormones, body composition and collagen content. What is best for one person may not be for another .

Rode the trainer yesterday. Swim didn't happen due to MIL in town and work. Will run this morning. Dreading the trainer tomorrow as I am going to do FTP testing. It hurts me    

My take on nutrition is that it is super important.  Maybe not necessarily for your racing right now but definitely for your health.  I don't think the importance of nutrition can be overstated.  It's one of my favorite topics and has been for years (Bachelor's in Public Health, PhD in infectious diseases).  I recently went through all of the old scientific studies that conventional nutrition wisdom is based on and found some pretty interesting stuff regarding fat consumption and heart disease and many other issues.  Big differences between what science has found and what conventional wisdom states.  That said, food should be a pleasure.  I eat clean but also enjoy my indulgences.

Stretching/yoga: ugh.  I've found that foam rolling really helps my tight IT bands.  I've also found that it's torture, I hate to do it and don't as much as I should. I can't do yoga.  I'm not calm enough.  It makes me crazy and I usually wind up doing something inappropriate like laughing or jumping up and dancing around.

Strength training: I'm with the others who said it's great for looks but not so great for tri fitness.  I've done a good bit over the years, but don't when s/b/r.  It's more of an off season thing for me.

Rode the drainer for 45 min today.  Watched Nip/Tuck.  That made it more entertaining.

I got a great elliptical trainer at home. Just did some 70min intense workout. Heading for an easy swim to get rid of lactic acid somehow (on Friday I plan to run 28k). For Slayer this mileage is a silly thing.

Had an awful day, but endorphine is doing it's thing now.

Take care of your love ones and your health.

I have always been a goal oriented person and last year I set my goals to reach certain paces and times. Overall I don't think that worked very well for me. This year I will use a volume goal as you suggest.

Run 25 miles per week/ 100+ per month. (I think I have the fitness built up to do this)

Bike 5 hours per week

Swim 7k per week

Get my FTP back up to Pre-IM level

For you to commit to that would be wise but is it possible with your job? ANd is it what you need to do as you have at least 2 HIMs and IMCOZ? Also, is this a general week or a week in January and increasing as you go along? Do we assess on a weekly or monthly basis?

I just posted a few things Slayer learned this year in the Ga Forum. See if any generate discussion:

Some of the things off the top of my head which may sound like an echo to the above:

1. Don't be afraid to go all in. It hurts bad to fall short of your goal but its very rewarding to hit the high note.

2. At odds with the above, have more fun and keep perspective. We are mostly AGers here so it really doesn't matter so much.

3. Train to maximize your fitness whatever way works best. For me, I am pretty convinced its through high volume.

4. Race to the top of your fitness but not above. If you race above your fitness, you will need a stupid excuse for a bad race. Negative splitting is simply the best racing.

5. Get comfortable swimming in a scrum. 

6. Help others out where possible. I got a big return from y'all this year. Thanks for the support.

7. If you have kids, bring them to the sport. Youth tris are way more enjoyable than adult tris.

8. There really is nothing as good as a kickbooty long course race, esp. IM distance, but short stuff is really fun too! 

9. Find friends to compete with in racing and training that don't view you as a threat but as a complement.

10. Recognize that Ga Forum and BT are the best forum/site going, even when we disagree. (This mentor thread is a prime example!)

11. Trust your fitness, coach, plan, etc. This is very hard for me but can often get you the best results.

12. Don't buy into "upgrade-itis", especially late in the game. The newest and most expensive tri items don't do the work. It really is the engine.

13. Stretching is stupid. Ice baths are smart.

14. Nutrition is overrated. Smart racing is underrated.

Catching up on the strength thread, I've heard what others have said regarding contributing to overall strength for s/b/r. Although I haven't this year I am planning on working more on some functional strength work particularly on my core and my legs. My knees are relatively weak and I need to stabilise the muscles through squats and lunges, my core is also relatively weak and I hope that by working on this I can improve posture on the bike and rotation in the pool. The plan is to add these in on a daily or 5 times a week basis in addition to the main sessions and will include anything I can do while travelling. If I can I'll make the blog on here a diary so I can log my progress. 

As an aside - what's FTP?

In terms of volume goals for the year it's pretty hard for me to quantify just yet and I'm not even sure that I want to. I work away so much that I really don't need the additional pressure of constant failure. I have plans for the number of runs minimum per week for Jan (4) as I can keep this up even when away and my aim is to get under 30 min for a 5k by Sept. I also want to hold a plank for a minute - small goals I'm sure compared to the rest of you but they matter to me. My biggest goal is to loose the extra weight and keep that off. This will take constant vigilence on my cardio and nutrition but it's my main focus at the moment. 

I know all the above is a miss match with some of your efforts but it's what drives me and also what makes me Tri so it's worth it in my book. 

The nice thing about Spinnervals is the variety of work-outs. The 2 I did earlier in the week were aerobic base builders. Amazingly they keep your heart rate in Z1-Z2 for the entire work-out. The threshold test today kept me at threshold for 20 minutes straight with minimal variation. I have found threshold testing by myself to be nearly impossible without a coach telling me what to do or the video giving me instructions.  I agree with holding off on the VO2 max stuff until my base improves. I never really did much interval work when I got my FTP up but really just had a lot of time in the saddle including 5-7 hour rides on the week-ends. Unfortunately if I plan on doing the IM again that will be a necessity.