Funked Up Triathletes - Season 2 - Olympic/Sprint Focus - Closed (Page 5)

Nice job, Andrew!

I'm using the 28 workout goal again this month, I found it helps keep me accountable. Unfortunately I have a raging chest cold and I think that's what did me in on my ows last weekend - couldn't breathe, felt constricted. From others who have had it, apparently it sticks around for a couple of weeks and antibiotics don't touch it. With my race coming up in 3 weeks, this is subpar. I head to the inlaws for the next four days - bringing my bike and wetsuit, hopefully things break up in the chest and I can get a couple of quality workouts in. I'll have nice hilly terrain to play in over in the Adirondacks; I'll try to remember to use Strava so you can see the fun rollers. I won't do anything to crazy with this cold but maybe I can get some fun hills in there.

Happy 4th everyone! Enjoy, be safe, and play on!
~J

Jenn- Gotta love those entagled OWS experiences... or not. Ha. I've never had a race where I really got caught up in anything, but definitely have had some practices where I'm getting wrapped up in all kinds of lake plants. I recall one of the guys from the group last year actually swam through a cloud of jellyfish during one of his first OWS experiences so things can get pretty wild.

On the chest cold/wetsuit front. My general suggestion for working out when ill is if you don't have a fever, you're probably okay, but there's always exceptions and you're going to fatigue a little faster most generally. If you're having a hard time breathing without the wetsuit - even if the wetsuit doesn't physically restrict you - the feeling of it could be mentally fatiguing so I would probably stay out of it if possible until the illness clears up. I think of it in terms of not wanting to get your brain stuck in a habit of associating wetsuit with constricted chest feeling, not fun.

Andrew - Sounds like a great first race experience. I've had a tri turned duathlon happen due to thunderstorms here. It certainly isn't the best situation (since you wanted to race a tri), but it also gives you a challenge you weren't anticipating (keeping you on your toes) and you still get to race. I've had my fair share of completely cancelled races and let me tell you there's no word for it besides it sucks. It's good to see you focusing on moving forward towards the next race and especially thinking about how to enjoy yourself (the longer rides). Enjoying yourself is the most important part in my opinion. It's what allows you to get out of bed and get stuff done when it doesn't want to get done.

Seth - With your not having a gym you might look into picking up some tubing for workouts for your arms. This is what I'll use on days I can't get to a pool (thunderstorms close them, snows close them, power outages close them, etc.). Nothing can replace pool time, but they're excellent for getting as close to it as possible plus they pack a better time/power output punch than swimming if you're crunched for time. Here's a picture of Gwen Jorgensen (past Collegiate Recruit, certainly most well known at this point and just killing it on the women's world circuit nowadays) warming up with her nice tubing set before a race

It's a great way to warmup as well if the water is too cold to justify getting in and standing around before a race. If you're interested in picking some up I'll try to find my specs on what you're supposed to get. It's 1/4 inch thick if I remember correctly, but I can't remember the internal diameter. Available at local hardware stores, but I picked mine up from a Scuba shop online for way cheaper. ($7/ft hardware store, like $2/ft scuba shop).

Another good I don't have time to do an SBR workout is just doing some basic body/core work stuff. Planks, single leg squats, lunges, pushups, dips, pullups, etc. Things you don't need any equipment for and you can do pretty much anywhere. I also like the occasional stretching session just to get the body through some motions and limbered up a little. I can of course try to get more specific on this if you're interested in working these things into your routines.

David Looking forward to seeing the race update when you get back. Glad to see you had everything come together at what I imagine to be a pretty nicely put together course.

For anyone who hasn't seen the top of the top pros race live, if you can make it to some kind of drafting even like ITU Chicago it's a pretty intense format and cool to watch. They're looped courses so you actually get to see people go by in person multiple times and (at least for Hy-Vee in the past) they have motorbikes out with cameras so you can watch the race develop on the big screen in the grand stand when they're out on the course. You can also actually pick up some of the bigger ITU races on one of the higher up cable channels now, CBS Sports Station I believe it is.


Totals for the month for me are a bit vague, I know I was probably only at like 48/52 for the month give or take. Getting in all 5 swims a week has been a killer for me this year, but I'm certainly set on killing all my key workouts for the rest of the season as Detroit looms over me in 6 weeks.

June's totals were something like
Swim - ~ 70,000 meters - should be like 85k
Bike - ~350 miles
Run - ~ 110 miles

Pretty tired myself right now after a semi tough day Sunday, then 3 very quality hard days Monday (hard swim, easy bike), Tuesday (very quality track work), Wednesday (tough swim and easy run). You always gotta back down a little to recover every once in a while - this is key to staying mentally motivated in the long term as well. The trick is to know when it's appropriate and when you're just being lazy (a tough one for most of us).

Anyway I hope you all have a good fourth, stay safe and enjoy the holiday. I'll be out watching my dad race our local 4th of July 5k in the morning so that's always an experience cause he wants "the kids" there for support.

Wow, Jesse, impressive! Hugely motivational for me! (okay, so I'm twice your age almost, but I can certainly step it up).
I like the idea of having a few "key" workouts each week in each sport and want to incorporate those a little more. My schedule is such that I kind of have to fly by the seat of my pants and go with whatever time I can squirrel to s/b/r. Fartleks have helped my running speed significantly

I brought the bike and wetsuit to my inlaws at the lake (was there from Th-Sun) and didn't use either. I wound up coughing all night each night and hoping I wasn't going into pneumonia. I decided to rest as best I could. I did get a bike in today - not my best effort but I did the best I could under the circumstances. I hope to get a run in today too, maybe after PT. i would have gone right after the bike but had a coughing fit so stretched for a bit instead. So I only stand at 3/28 right now. Definitely want to get more ows in for the mental piece of it. I like snorkeling so I don't know what my deal is with this. Interesting.

Cheers all! I hope you had a great 4th!
~Jenn

Rest is an appropriate part of training. If you don't recover, you don't get to a new level of fitness. So the same philosophy can be applied in regards to illness if it gets really bad (which sounds like what happened to you). Pushing yourself farther into fatigue can make it harder to climb back out so I'm guessing you probably made a good call there.



The key workout thing is mainly the speed days or tough breakthrough (haven't gone that fast for so long) days. So my MWF swims are pretty much all "key" days so to speak. One moreso than the other usually. Key runs are Tuesday morning, it was 8x800 with 60 seconds rest at 5k (5:04 min/mile) pace last Tuesday. Thursday was recovery on the bike/swim after 3 hard days in a row. Friday was a super key swim workout set designed as "speed endurance." I.e. the main set is only 2000 meters (a lot of my main sets are 4000, just lower intensity), 1200 of which is as fast as possible on decent recovery. Basically trying to build up the ability to hold that top end of the range for longer by just letting it fly for every fast interval. Then the key bike workout of the week was yesterday on my long ride where after 70 minutes of warmup I did 5x5 minute on 2 minute off at 20k race pace and then rode another 40 minutes home for warm down (keep in mind I'm getting ready for a sprint distance tri as my season finisher).

Here's an article I really like remembering the title of because it succinctly describes what I believe in part is the core of my own training philosophy

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2013/07/training/checking-your-inte...

Edited by funkj25 2014-07-07 8:48 AM

Great beta here. Thank you so much.

*additional thoughts I hadn't formulated as of the last post*

In regards to the age, it certainly has some bearing, but it's not like just because someone is 25 they can jump into 70km+ swim months with no experience. It's built up over time. This is my 5th tri season and my 13th training year for endurance sports (not counting starting Karate in 1st grade through junior year of high school and playing soccor/softball during elementary as well) in general so I certainly haven't jumped into things overnight either. But you do what you can/want to do for your current fitness level and age does play some factor in it.

My dad is a great example of age playing a factor, but not letting it be the factor. He's 72 this year. I just got him into running I think 5 years ago now never having really run in his life. He doesn't run marathons or anything, it was a mental push to get him to even race a 5k, but we got there and he enjoys it. We worked through some new lifetime PR's the first couple years (starting around 29) getting him down to around 26:30 2 years ago at our 4th of July 5k here in Lenexa. Last year he was a minute slower around 27:40 and a bit disappointed. Then this year he finally took some of my advice about that rest philosophy (otherwise he wants to go fast fast fast every single day) and he started going "turtle speed" as he calls it some days to recover and pushing the others. He found out "hey, I do feel better on the pushing days and go faster now." Lo and behold he went 27:10 this year winning his age group and beating last year by 30 seconds, despite being older and a little less training.

There are a lot of factors that go into fitness, age is definitely one of them, but from the little I know of you I don't think you're the kind of person that lets it be the factor.

Edited by funkj25 2014-07-07 8:52 AM

Jenn- that chest cold seems annoyingly persistent, hope it clears up soon.

Seth- wow, those are some impressive totals for mileage. And thanks for the good info. I think your point regarding age is a good one; it plays a role in how well you can perform but is certainly not a determining factor unless you let it be. Just looking at the results from the race I ran, and one can see plenty of athletes in their 40s and 50s running very impressive times. The top woman overall was 44 years old! I'm feeling right now in my mid-30s that I'm probably in somewhat better shape than I was in my late 20s because I'm getting more exercise and making an effort to be consistent and structured in that regard. What I will say though is that the other things in life, like a job, wife, kids, house and all that are much larger obligations in my life than they were in my early 20s where I really had much more time to do whatever I felt like. When I think about running a half or full ironman, I don't see how at this point in my life I would find the time to train for such longer distances. I'll stick to sprints for now, and think about an olympic maybe in a year or two.

I had a few days in Michigan visiting my in laws, and we ended up taking the kids to a lake beach there. They happened to have a set of buoys outlining the swim area, so I took the opportunity to treat them as a swim course. It wasn't too far (300 yards maybe? just guessing) but certainly a different feel than the pool. Since it was sort of an unplanned workout I had no goggles, no wetsuit in ~70 degree water and casual swim trunks that fit better when I weighed 20lbs more and provided plenty of drag, but it was good practice anyways. I also fit in a couple of ~4 mile runs around my beer drinking.

On a whole I'm just pleased my training hasn't totally fallen off after the race.

My race report is up: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

I usually don't pay too much attention to monthly totals, but quickly tallied them. Here's how I finished June:

15,500 yards swimming
71 miles run
184 miles bike (most of this is on the trainer, which is "short" miles so I would venture to put this up about 15% in terms of effort).

After my race, we spent the week in Chicago and hit some beach towns in Michigan. It was awesome. Travelling with 4 little ones and a bike is a bit of a challenge though, and we were always on the go. We were in a different motel room almost every night and everyone in one room. Needless to say, I was happy to be back in my own bed last night (without the kids only a few feet away!). I haven't had much of a break since November when I started my HIM training plan (other than taper weeks) and after the race my ankle was pretty sore. So, I pretty much didn't do anything (other than TONS of walking). I took a solid week off (not the original plan) and we survived pretty much on fast food and junk food. I intended to do some running and swimming in Lake Michigan but it didn't happen. My wife is also training triathlon so I sacrificed and let her do the hotel-room treadmill thing. I would have swam in the lake, but we hit the beach when a cold front moved through and my will was not great enough to overcome the conditions.

It was a great time, but I'm ready to get back in the swing of things. I got a short run yesterday at the hotel and this afternoon I'm going to do a heat run (very hot and humid here in KC).

I'm back on the wagon and have another Olympic race at the end of this month. It's the Hy-Vee 5150. One of my long term goals is to qualify for the Hy-Vee championship by finishing top 15 in my AG. I think I'm a few years away from this still, but I have hope now. So this race will be a good time for me to see where I'm at.

I can definitely relate to being in better shape in my (late) 30's than my 20's. I feel like I wasted many years in my 20's being fat and sluggish.

My sister in law and her family were in Traverse City about a week ago- this winter was so cold that the water is still frigid (they said ~55 degrees, with the people there saying there was still ice in the lake through Memorial Day) that her kids stuck a foot in the water and decided it hurt too much for swimming. So you probably didn't miss much.



Exactly. If only I had kept with the cycling....

Just curious, but the Chicago race was a draft allowed race, right? Did you ride on a tri bike or a road bike?

No, it was not draft-legal. It was just like any other no-draft triathlon. That is a good thing, as my bike handling skills are pretty terrible. I can lay down power, but since most of my work is on the trainer, I am deficient in the ability to do things like turn.

The elites (pros) race was draft legal. It took place in the afternoon (after the Age groupers race) and it was actually on a different course. The ITU Elite course featured more laps which aids in spectating. And the bike portion is pure criterium type racing, with packs and attacks and tightly packed racing. Very fun to watch and I'm sure fun to be a part of. (although I can see this being an absolute bloodbath with a bunch of age-groupers that don't know what they're doing). Can you imagine a bunch of age-groupers on tri bikes riding in a pack like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13BENuYp19w

On another note, my big plan this morning was for a monster bike session to get back into the swing of things. I didn't get good sleep last night and I was quite sore this morning from yesterday's run (that's what happens when you run for the first time in a week, and do it in very hot conditions). It was a morning where everything seemed to go wrong (bike issues, technology issues with Trainer Road/laptop, etc) and I only ended up with 50 quality minutes on the bike (planned at least 90). Sometimes it seems like I run into spells like this where the workouts just aren't of the quality they need to be. I guess it's just part of getting back into the groove.

5/28 with a swim/run brick today. (stunk having to take 4 days off but sometimes you just have to if you're going to mend and come back strong I guess)

only a 1/2 hour in the pool at o'dark thirty so 1600 yds was it with a 4.3 mile run as soon as I got home at 9:00 min/mile pace. (got it all in before the kids woke up!) Slowly coming out of the fog of the chest thing - still coughing after a good workout but it's all good, I'm on the mend.


Dave, I know what you mean (chest cold/bronchitis/whatever the heck I had causing me to lose 4 days). I could also only get a swim lane for 1/2 hour today instead of the hour I'd hoped for but I made it count as best I could. It's okay, you'll make up for it elsewhere. At least you got some kind of workout in and if your legs were sore the 50 quality minutes may be just what the doctor ordered to stretch it out. Go at it hard tomorrow!

Cheers,
Jenn

6/28 with a bike ride. Hit construction and had to stop a couple of times, also an exposed dirt/gravel patch (thankful no tire blowout), and probably one of the stronger headwinds on the way back - all good challenges. Time crunched to an hour to pick kids up from swim team but i got back in about 1:03 with all the stopping for a 17 mile ride. So happy I got it in!! I get one hour from 8-9 three mornings a week to fit a bike or run in with the hubby traveling. Gotta make it count!
Best,
Jenn

All draft legal races are road bike only and no aero bars. Well, you can have aero bars that don't extend beyond your regular drops and they have to be attached at the front, but most people aren't going to get the extra set of shorty TT bars.

There are actually some age group draft legal races in the US. The company running the Clermont elite development race (27 and under) and the one in Detroit I'm attending also offer an AG (any age) draft legal race. Limited to 75 people just like the EDR to eliminate enormous packs and potential accidents. Pre-race clinics on draft-legal racing procedures and pack riding/racing is mandatory for these. So just in case anyone is interested in doing one, they are available if you're looking for them.

7/28 with a 3.7 mile run this morning at an easy 9:11 pace. Felt nice and comfortable. About time for new shoes as my right knee is starting to tweak - my best indicator for new shoe needs!
No more chances for a workout today with running kids everywhere and a swim meet tonight for one of them.

Best,
Jenn

I'm kind of slacking this week- just a short run on Tuesday and some lap swimming yesterday. On the run I let my 7 year old son come along with me, he thinks it's fun to ride his bike and tell me how slow I am, although I end up having to slow down and help him on a couple of uphill spots. Not great for pace, but great for spending time together so I'm coming out ahead. In the pool I swam a 200 yard warmup then a number of 100 yard repeats trying to work on form and breathing a little. I was pleased in that I was keeping each 100 yard set under 2 minutes and not feeling totally beat after each 100. Swimming is slower to improve for me, probably because I don't do it enough, but at least it seems to be heading in the right direction.

No ride this week. I knew I wouldn't have time to fit one in so I took my rear wheel into the shop to get trued- I'd hit a break in the pavement and flatted out earlier this year and also put a nice dent in the rim. It had a bit of a wobble which they were able to straighten out, but the brake track will still have some dents in it and will probably chatter a bit under hard braking. I got the usual response from the shop guys of "holy crap, how old is this wheel!" since I've had the bike a little over 20 years. Probably time to look into a new bike in the next year or so.

Off to Michigan again for the weekend, taking my running shoes and will definitely be on a lake tomorrow, so maybe a chance for a swim too. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Andrew, I totally get you with pulling the kid up the hill on the bike!! hahaha. the things we have to do. They will remember those times though and remember you're setting a good example for them too for lifelong health. Sometimes to get a run in I'll have my boys ride their bikes next to me to a school track with a playground right next to it so I can get miles on the track, they can play and I can keep an eye on them. It was win/win for a while until they got sick of it and just sat on a set of risers watching me run laps.

8/29 this morning with a nice 2000 yd swim including 1000 straight.
3 x 100 warmup (free, back, breast)
1 x 1000 free
1 x 100 kick
1 x 100 free
1 x 100 pull
1 x 100 free
5 x 50 sprints (10-15 sec rests)
1 x 50 cool down (back/free)

bike planned for tomorrow morning (part will be the tri route)
and an ows in the afternoon (2nd attempt in the wetsuit)


Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! I'll be thinking of you!!

Best,
Jenn

I do this too. I can usually get about 5 miles in, before they start bellyaching so badly it's not worth it anymore. Sometimes I'll hit a track/path that has a playground so they can go. I just bought my 10 year old a road bike (my older boys both do tris too) so hopefully this will help him be able to go a little longer. He has been riding a 20" Giant mountain bike, but he's just reached the age where he realizes the difference between his heavy mtn bike and a roadie. I found a cheap XXS on Craigslist here and decided to make the leap for him. Now, he just has to reach some household expectations before he can ride it (he's suddenyl very motivated).

For a little extra, sometimes we'll bike as a family. This is obviously a slow ride, but since i pull a trailer with my two little ones, the hills because a nice little strength workout. It's kind of fun and, while it doesn't replace a good quality session, I like to think of it as "extra" work.

10/28 with a bike and ows in the new wetsuit yesterday. Today is a break (hubby out of town).
Working through my mental anxiety of seaweed swimming and finally started to loosen up a bit toward the end. When I relaxed I could cruise. Also practiced a little opposite side breathing - working to get comfortable with that in ows. I think I'm better at it in open water than in a pool...go figure.

Got to incorporate the race course in my ride yesterday which was cool. I biked with someone else who is also doing the tri, but she doesn't have clipless pedals so I had to wait at every hill and often elsewhere. It was fine - made me appreciate my pedals!! I also know by looking at my time I will go a bit faster in the race.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! looks like it's clouding up here!

Best,
Jenn

And I'm back!
Hi all. I'm back from vacation. Got in 4 runs for 13 miles, and one rowing session for 2000 meters while on the cruise. Wanted to get in one more run, but wasn't able to. Made sure the runs were higher on intensity because they were only about 40 minutes, so I did fartlek and interval sessions mostly. Tried to be good with food, but ended up putting on a few pounds, though, I should take that off this week. My first race is this Sunday so I did a 25 minute recovery run this morning. Definitley felt sluggish, but I warmed up. I'm hoping to ride tomorrow morning but this week's weather doesn't look cooperative. Thunderstorms most of the week.
I'm definitely thinking the swim is going to be one of those, "just get through the swim" segments.
Have a great week!

Wow, Seth, it's coming up!! Someone mentioned to me once, "you're not there to win the swim; you swim to get to the bike." Great job continuing to get some runs in with being on vacation - that is not that easy to do! Once you're back to your regular eating and working out routine I'll bet those pounds come right off.

11/28 with a 2000 yd swim today (300 warm up, 1000 continuous, + some pull, kick, and sprints after). Worked the bilateral breathing throughout.

Cheers!
Jenn

Welcome back Seth, hope you had fun. I'd say any exercise at all on a cruise is a victory.

I'm definitely in slacker mode- I went for a fairly laid back run with my wife during which she tried out the heart rate monitor, which showed that she was working pretty hard. I think she's still not quite all the way back from surgery a couple of months ago, at least for running. But she'll get there. Other than that, I did some casual lake swimming a some paddle boating and drank too much beer- warming up for my beach vacation next week.

Our weather here is also pretty stormy, but is supposed to get better. With any luck I can get a ride in this week, that's where I've really fallen off.

Enjoy the week!

How do you all feel about sleep?

Myself, I operate on about 6 hours of sleep per night. Usually one day a week I'll get about 7.

I'm a little stressed this week as it's race week and I'm on call with my work. This means that I get frequent middle-of-the-night calls (like tonight, which is when I am typing this). This is likely to happen several more nights between now and Friday when my call ends. This means that my short nights, are that much shorter. This is supposed to be my taper week, but I still am trying to get some decent training as I don't feel like I've ever gotten back in the "groove" since I've been back from vacation.

For instance, I've been working for the past hour, and it will probably be another hour before I can get back to sleep. That means my 6 hours of sleep is likely to be a little more than 4. I'm staring at a bike trainer session in the morning that I'm thinking is going to have to go. For me, the sleep is needed more than the fitness I would have gained/kept. Thoughts? Anyone have times like this?

Fortunately, I've been getting runs in almost daily over my lunch hour, so with a solid 40-50 minute run nestled midday, so I am doing *something*.

I guess what I'm looking for is someone to confirm if I'm doing the right thing and for this week, just be "ok" with the fact that my race week training is going to be off from what I had planned.

My personal opinion- you're doing the right thing. If I don't get enough sleep, which for me is 6-7 hours, I don't seem to recover from the prior day's activity. I think pushing it when your body says no is taking a risk of overtraining and injury.

Sleep, sleep, sleep. I totally agree with Andrew.


13/28 this morning with a nice ride/run brick - one right after the other. Did the 12.3 mile ride with the Barber Farm Road hill climb (grade 4 on Strava), had my fastest time on this ride (and with having to stop for tractor mowing). VERY HUMID today and hot. yuck. I followed this up with a 3 mile run right after. It's strange - that sort of drunken feeling when you're trying to run right after getting off a bike. It takes me about 1/2 mile to start to feel "normal" like I'm not running a zigzag. So I've covered those two distances in a row that I'll be racing so I know I can do it in a reasonable amount of time. Wore my tri outfit and that feels good. I just haven't worn it under my wetsuit yet. Hoping to get in an ows and test that piece of the puzzle out.
I have a huge respect for all those racing longer distances - your physical strength and mental strength are forces to be reckoned with!

Tonight I will enjoy a Switchback...all 24 oz of it.

Best,
Jenn