Fred D's Ironman/Half-Ironman focused Mentor Group --CLOSED (Page 5)

Ha, trust me, I know I am lucky.  I am Canadian (from NB) and still remember the cold and snow and moved here from rainy rainy Oregon.  There is a reason I live in Tucson and it's not the job since I work from home.  lol  I did the Jorge program one winter in Oregon and did the same thing, programmed everything in the Garmin. 

that is a very good reason.  Ooh from NB - then you cold much much better than I do.  I am still wimpy Canandian - born and raised in Southern Ontario.

Wow, missed sooo much already, HAH!!!

ok, sooooo....  I am built for and have the wiring for short hard efforts, i like going flat out as hard as I can go for shorter time periods, my best results come from sprint races and I had a little success in the Olympic distance last year.  I for some reason really really like the half iron distance, but i do not race it like a typical long course guy would race it, i treat it as a long hard effort.  In bike racing i do not like the long hilly road races, i prefer the short hard aggressive lung searing, leg burning crits, TT's and cyclocross, Where they all last an hour or less and most of the work is done at the anerobic threshold area, i can get into a pain cave on the bike and stay there...a long time. That is what i am trying to accomplish in running this year, get into the red and stay there. 

I cannot figure out why i like the half distance, when i did my first i felt a different sense of accomplishment than a sprint or an Oly, but i raced it traditionally, i took a year off anything longer than a sprint the first year we had our daughter, time was just tight and not there, but that is when i concentrated on the bike. when i set up my schedule last year, a half iron was certainly to be scheduled, so i did, but i raced it like i would race a sprint or Oly, i went flat out the whole race as best i could.  I make time up on the bike, but i had put enough work in on it to not affect my run too terribly, which i also did a bunch of work on last year, i was pretty pleased with the result.

I actually contemplated giving up Tri and just do bike racing for 2012, but as all things go, fast is never fast enough, and i missed breaking 5 hours by 13 mins in my half, so i declared the season as unfinished business and decided to take another shot at the 5 hour mark....not once...but twice, i am a glutton for punishment. 

Now, time based goals are pretty relative and really have no bearing on the success or failure of an individuals race, it is an arbitrary number that i had decided on based on what i felt i could achieve in that particular race.  My goal was actually 5:15, and though i accomplished it, i still felt i left a TON of room for improvement at the distance and that race in particular, even on that day, so for me it left unfinished business, and i am returning for 2012.

As for training, i have been self coached since i started, i did become a silver member here, and while the plans are excellent, i found my self not following them, merely because i race so much.  i had to take rest days where the plan called for training and vice versa.

I find it hard to structure my training, but always seem to get it in, I have read a ton of info here and it took a few years to figure out how i had to do it, and it is still a work in process.

I did hire a coach this year, we talked, and he likes that i race so much, so we are tailoring my training and strengths/weaknesses around the tentative race schedule i had set.  Most of my improvement will be in the run, but i am also looking to pick up more time on the bike, and my training/racing thought is the better i am on the bike, the harder i can go and not affect my run much. While still trying to improve my run times.

I do trainer rides when i have to, i find that intervals are best done inside and controlled, longer rides are done outside, and when i am outside it is 99% of the time riding in an agressive road group. I do 95% of my training on my road bike, and really only use the TT bike for racing and race day set up.  I love intervals on the trainer and most of my indoor workouts are very hard hour to hour half intervals of various designs.  I use some spinervals, and will use the sufferfest series alot this year. If i an get an upgraded PC or laptop, i will also sign up for Trainerroad, which i am hearing really good things about.  I also took some bike specific classes last year at a local Tri store, and implemented the workouts i did there at home, to keep it fun.  If i have to go easy in the trainer because of weather, i use it as a form and leg speed day, so i do not make hamburger meat of my legs more than once or twice a week.  Endurance rides really do not start for me till the weather warms up, and even then i might go 3-3.5 hours, rarely longer.

And i will NEVER do an Iron distance race. ZERO desire.

Trying to catch up a bit here....  

But my chiro/ART sports guy suggestd I get hip x rays just to see if he can rule out FAI - femoralacetabular impingement - for the cause of my hip pain.  Did that this morning and got the film/DVD but waiting for the review/results, so naturally I've been self-diagnosing myself [/sarcasm, but not really] over the 'net and scaring myself silly reading about surgeries, recovery time, blah blah blah.

I used a coach following IMAZ, starting in early 2009.  Used her through Wildflower but had to let her go when I got sick.  I did have a PR at Wildflower, a pretty hard HIM, and I was running well.  But I did miss the autonomy of doing what I wanted when I wanted.  Midweek was OK, it was the weekend rides and runs that were more social that I missed.  Just before we parted ways I got her to agree to let me do my own thing for long Saturday rides, so I never got to find out how that would work. 

It's difficult, if you are going to pay a coach, it makes no sense to do your own thing.  But it gets lonely if you like the social aspect of training, which I did.  I have no idea if I would have kept her under other circumstances.  Then again, there is another layer of accountability if youa re logging your workouts into training peaks, etc. 

Following a coach isn't for everyone. 

I know, but he wanted to have them as the first round of tests.  He said FAI is the last thing on his differential diagnosis, but he figured end of the year, deductible is met, it is a possibility so might as well get the xrays now just to take a first look.   

The only silver lining (as I jump the gun dramatically) is that one of the premier hip artho guys is just a few miles away, and did a friend of mine this year.  Hopefully we will not meet

I finally got a Netflix accoutn when it was free and honestly, after watching season 1 of Walking Dead I can barely find anything else.  I mean listing Lethal Weapon 3 under new movies??  Maybe I am mising something but plan on canceling it.

If you get HBO, HBOGO.com has tons of content - movies, docus, series, sports, etc.

Got the computrainer, but still need to try the ergvids

Real quick bio post!

Name :Adam, 37

Background : Not much of a sports person, have cycled for years as transport and for fun, After claiming i was going to get fitter one year My best mate deciced to do a 3k fun run, he completed it and wanted to do more he then found this website and wanted to do a triathlon. Now as my best mate there was no way i was going to let him do a triathlon and me not , i trained and we did 3 sprint triathlons last year   So thank you Sicone/Stav I drive for a living so i work 4 on 4 off with.

Family status : Married with 3 kids (16,10 & 4)

Current training : Rubbish, After the last race of last season i wanted to have a break in training and due to the weather and work Ive not adjusted back into a routine. I work 4days on 4 days off with my work days being 6-15 hours with 2 hours travel by car or when the weathers better 3hours by bike.

2011 Races : A couple of sprint races, but the main race was my first Oly.

2012 Races : Another Oly in May and our first Him in June! Another friend of ours will be doing her first tri in September so we'll probably be entering that too.

Goals : beat last years times in races i do again and complete the HIM (beating Sicone of course)

Although I haven't done a HIM yet (let alone an IM), after Adam and I did our Oly last year we were so exhausted that we honestly didn't think moving up to a HIM this year was a good idea. Now, 4 months later, we have signed up for a HIM and are really looking forward to it.

I think, for me at least, it's the challenge of pushing yourself further that draws me to it.

Tif and I have Netflix and when we started back with the training I had her set the Wii up for it so we could watch and ride.  This has been the best thing to pass the time on the trainer.  Before that I use to watch the morning talk show Morning Joe...that was getting old after hearing them talk about the same stuff over and over again.  The other thing that helps time fly by are intervals...you are changing the pace and effort and that gives your mind something else to focus on.

It's been a long day here...would definitely like to jump in and discuss training plan strategies...but I'm pretty wiped out, so I may have to hold off on that discussion for tomorrow.

However, the day had a purpose and that was *finally* entering the TT bike world, thanks to the great Cervelo deal...

Here's Nik at the beginning of her fit session on the P2:

And here's mine (it's the faster one):

I'm sure I'll have tons of questions about the new bike and setting it up (hydration, etc). Looking forward to learning a lot in the months to come!

After covering 1200 miles in my car over the last two days... I'm catching up.

For my first 70.3, I used the 12 week Olympic to Half Iron bridge plan here on BT - silver plan I think. I was training at a fairly consistent Olympic-distance length up until that point... and 12 weeks sounded better than 20 for being super-structured. I stick to my training plans like glue except I let myself miss a swim here and there... but that's my strength.

This weekend is my 20-miler for my upcoming marathon. I'm using a plan I got from my sister (short/med/short/long) maxing out at 5/10/5/20 this week. It's going ok, but my heart isn't in it. I agreed to run it with a friend, and she's no longer doing it. I thought about skipping it, but Ragnar Relay is next week, and I'm running 21.1 total anyway (5.2/11.8/4.1). So, why not just do the marathon three weeks later?

My current concern is how much/little to run during the week next week. I don't need to be fresh for Ragnar, but I don't want to be too tired either.