Whizzzzz's Group -- Full! (Page 5)

in my efforts to cross train and maintain movement while traveling, I decided to do stairs the other day - up and down for 20+ minutes,   My calfs are still knotted up like crazy and Monday I have to be at a converence where "lady shoes" are called for and I have to be on my feet all day.  I am hydrating and stretching, I try to massage them myself.   

Any olther suggestions?  I am going to look for a massage therapist today.

I did an 1:20 of spinning yesterday morning, followed by a 20 minute T-run and then my weight circuit.

Today, I ran for about 30 minutes and then Deep Water running for 20 minutes. An easyish weekend. Trying not to get too carried away with running. SLOW and STEADY. Was going to swim today too, but decided against it... slept instead.

Home again, at least for a week.  

Made it through my 10 days in Vancouver and now I am going to stay home a week and go to fairbanks for 2 weeks.   

Special thanks to Misscullen and Jeng of Vancouver for taking me swimming!

It's OK to steal things from Dumpster's group because we are dating. (seriously!)

I've been absent from the thread and scarcely on the boards because I've had to do a heck of alot of work lately at work... ((WHAT???)) And by the time I get home I'm pretty tired. The weather has been weird and I'm starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed with everything. However... things are about to change in the Whizzzzzzworld because as of February 12 I start working with a COACH... (!!!) I'm excited to have some direction. I've been sort of floundering around trying to be sure to swim/bike/run and lift. But once I get on a plan I will feel much better about things.

How did I do on my January training goals? Fairly well, I suppose... I didn't have a plan... so the main goal was to keep moving... and try running. Running is coming along quite slowly.

What are my February goals? Execute the plan I will be given. Try not to miss *any* prescribed workouts! Also get my bike trainer fixed. It's inop in the garage.

When do I start my training plan for next race season? What plan am I using? Well, my "A" race isn't unti July. So the training I'm going to be doing in the next couple of months will be focused on building strength, perfecting technique and trying to hone some efficiency. And continue to build my base. Particularly in running. Since I have the unique opportunity to start my running completely OVER, I figured NOW was as good a time as any to enlist the assistance of a coach to help me become more efficient with my gait and stride. Also, I'm looking to do more targeted training, and perhaps a smidge less VOLUME. Am hoping to do heart rate targeted workouts. I didn't do any of that last year. So, while I did get loads of volume in, I fear I may have been working too hard, and inefficiently.

Since I'm paying this Coach, that should be pretty good incentive to *do* the workouts as they are put forth. PLUS, while I don't think I will ever be REALLY fast, I'd like to improve as much as I can. Be the best Whiz I can be.

Goal for February is also to watch what I'm eating. I have been paying pretty close attention... but I need to do better. More whole grains. More fruit, more veggies. Less Oreos. (!) Less Cheez-its.

LORI: THANK YOU for getting this rolling again... Hopefully things will simmer down a bit at work and I can resume business as usual...

THE REST OF THE POSSE: You are all doing great! I've been trying to pop into your logs pretty regularly and I've been impressed with your consistency! NICE NICE NICE!!!

The way I've seen it work is this:

Build 10% each week... for 3 weeks.

Then on the 4th week, the recovery week, reduce volume by 40%. This week should feel ridiculously easy.

When your cycle starts over again, you will pick up where you left off, you won't build again until the 2nd week of the 4 week cycle. So you will build in the 2nd and 3rd weeks, then scale back again in the 4th week.  

You need that recovery week for the next push forward.

Also, I advocate either two full rest days a week ((OR)) a full rest day and an active recovery day. I'm not a coach... I'm just saying what I've seen work. It's so easy to get completely enveloped in this lifestyle and constant training. It's so easy to get injured, or exhausted, or burned out. Particularly while training for the longer distance races.

Since your actual plan doesn't kick in til March, I suggest keeping it rather low intensity and sticking with the 3 build 1 recovery format... Work technique and drills and efficiency. We don't want to be working ourselves too hard now. It's still REALLY early. We've got to last ALL SUMMER LONG!

I've seen that discussed on the forums on a number of occasions. I donated blood a couple of years ago during the season and felt sluggish because of it... or at least that's what I told myself. I don't know if it was REALLY because I donated blood or because I was just sluggish.

Let me see if I can find some of the older threads on this topic... Hang on...... 

AARRGGHHHH There are quite a few, but I'm on Dumpster's MAC and I have no idea how to cut and paste on this thing... Try this:

Go to FORUMS

Search BLOOD DONATION or DONATING BLOOD

Narrow it down to Tri Talk on the left side...

You will come up with a bunch of results.  

Hope that helps... and if you can cut and paste the links... please do!