cathyd's group - Closed (Page 5)

With the new year and the nice white empty calendar it's a good time to set some goals for the year and some short term goals to help get us through the winter.  I know for myself I sit down in January and plan out all the races I want to  do for the year, and plan all the training I need to do to prepare, but when I get up in the morning and it' cold and windy  the last thing I want to do is get bundled up to out and run and freeze, or drive to the gym to swim or workout.  Luckily I have everything I need in my basement to run, bike, strength train or stretch.  So I really have no excuse not to train, but I do find excuses anyway some days.

This mentor group is meant to provide some information, virtual training partners, accountability, motivation, whatever you want from us we can try to provide (but don't ask me for money) - I see the group is checking on each other, inspiring and that is great.  Lets try to be supportive of each other and get through the winter, which can be the most difficult time to train. (at least for me it is)

Also we belong to an awesome site that has  so much  information, so many tools and so many knowledgable people.  Check out all the functions of the logs, read the articles, watch the videos, look at the training plans, ask questions in the forums, read other peoples blogs, send random inspires, take the time to explore the site and all  that is available here - it really is amazing.

Because of that winter weather Cathy mentioned, I had my first experience with a spin class today.  It certainly was a lot different from the normal training I do on the bike.  I almost never get out of the saddle in my on-the-road training.  Plus I never get the super high resistance here because we have no hills.  The closest thing I have to a hill is slight rise as a bridge crosses a canal for about 10 yds. Wind is the only difference I have between a fast and a slow ride. Through the winter we almost always have a 15-20mph wind.  

It was definitely a hard workout, but what I was wondering is whether any of you have experience with how spinning class helps/hurts the bike training versus an hour ride on the road.   Will it help raise those mphs?  Should I try to keep one spin class a week intead of an hour on the road, or should I do the hour on the road when possible?  Will the strength built on the spin bike translate to faster road times? 

Thanks for everyone's opinions on spin classes.  My knees and back are sore from the class, and not in a good way. (And yes, Jeff, the music did drive me nuts and if the lady next to me went "woo woo" one more time, I was going to have to knock her right off the bike!!)  I think I will try to stick to the outdoor riding as much as I can and keep the spin classes for "emergency" days.  

I do think I need some of the extra strength that would probably come from doing more varied workouts on the bike.  Jenny's suggestion seems like a good one.  I will look into varying up my workouts.  If I used my running template, I guess a distance ride, an LT ride, and an interval ride would probably make a pretty good week of training.

I do have an indoor trainer with a road bike on it out in the garage.  It is an old one, very noisy, and I hate to use it.  I like the new magnetic one I saw at the bike store, but I am not sure if I can justify a new toy to myself just yet.  In my newly single predicament, that is over two months of my running/tri budget.  That would mean no race entries and no new running shoes   I may bring the old one in, though, and see how it might work with some cycling videos (thanks Cathy).  I use exercise videos of other types often, so it might be neat to try a cycling one. 

Anyway, thanks again everyone for the responses. 

Here is what I think, FWIW.  I think you are right about the longer duathlon.   It would probably be better prep.  (I don't blame you for not wanting to get in the brrrrr cold water!!)  I think you could run the 5ks at full speed and not worry about it interfering with the A race, and probably the same with the ride (although that is not my area of expertise). 

But, if you decide to go with the running, I would probably say do the ten miler at your expected half marathon race pace as a pacing exercise.  I don't think you should do either the half or the 10 miler at full race speed only four weeks out from an A race.  The longest I think you should race at full effort with an A race so close would be a 10k.   The reason I say that is that if you ran the half or 10 miler at full race speed, you would probably need to spend most of the next week letting your legs recover from the effort.   That would mean no long or hard running workouts that week.  That would leave you three weeks from the A race.  If you were going to have a two week taper, that really only leaves you one more quality week of training.  In my opinion, you would be better off training hard both of those weeks and then letting the taper kick in. 

But then again, this is based on my own old and much abused runner's body.  I don't recover from races like I used to.  I am not sure how you recover, how much taper you need before a race to feel good, how injury-prone you are, etc.  I just tend to be on the cautious side if the HIM is really important to you.

Jenny, That plan looks sensible to me.  I would like to make two suggestions.  First, during that first phase, are you sure you want to do speedwork?   For me that would be to early in the season if I was trying to peak for a race. I would normally do no formal speedwork, maybe just some fartlek.  At that point, I just try to let the base build without a lot of worry about speed.  I would do mostly T2, with maybe some T3 and T4 mixed in on fartlek days.

During that second phase, what would you think about working in one day a week of hill work to strengthen your legs in preparation for the upcoming speedwork.  This would do two things. If the race has hills, it will help prepare you for them, and it will help strengthen your legs to handle the strain of the speed training.   If you worked in at least one day of strenuous hill training a week into that phase, it might help with the strength. 

Also, I am a big fan of doing training that simulates course conditions as much as possible.  Have you looked at the course profile for the race yet.  What I mean is that if the hills are late in the race, I arrange the courses I train on so that I face hills at the end of my runs when the legs are tired.  If the hills roll, I practice on a rolling course.  If they are steep, I practice that. If there is a lot of downhill, I practice that.  With the bike, I would imagine it is the same thing.  I do goofy things during the workouts like tell myself, "Here I am at that big hill by the bridge at mile 4 of the race.  Whew, look at me passing people on that hill.  I feel strong,"  while I am training.  I don't know if it works, but it keeps me entertained   That is just something I do that you might consider as you are planning the day-to-day workouts.

I hope this gives you some things to think about.  I am just basing this on stuff that has worked for me.  Everyone is so different...

hi Barb.. I haven't had the tire shredding problem on the trainer but have seen a few posts about it.  Check these out : 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=64423&posts=14&highlight=trainer%20shredding%20tire&highlightmode=1#M663378

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=32164&posts=8&highlight=trainer%20shredding%20tire&highlightmode=1#M310922

 http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=99141&posts=8&highlight=trainer%20shredding%20tire&highlightmode=1#M1115612

 Also check out the video on changing tires and tubes:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1223

Lots of bike shops have seminars on simple bike repair and maintenace, usually in the spring, which go over things like changing tires. 

Cathy

Ok, I'll be the first to reply to my own post... lol.

Last week was rough for me with only one day off work...a 72 hour work week is not nice !

I only did 2 bikes, 2 very short runs and 2 core workouts last week  but I'm happy with that.  We're into a new week and a new year so I've got a whole 11 1/2 months before that dreaded holiday schedule comes around again.

My Planned training for this week:
today - long run, strength and core training
Tues - bike, swim, core
Wed - bike, run, swim, strength
Thurs-run, core
Fri - long bike, swim, strength and core
Sat - off
Sun - core

My goal for the week is to stick to the plan.

What's everyone else doing?  Do you have your race season organized?  Do you have any early season races planned?  What's your plan for this week?

We're missing a couple group members - Steve and Monica, where are you? Please come back to the group.

hey, remember me?  I'm the missing one.   apologies for the extended absence, but it's been a bit nutty around here, and my home PC died so no BT.

anyway, you may remember that I'd hurt my hip a while back, and thanks to a crazy busy holiday season and a really bad cold, it's gotten lots of rest.  my plan is to start working out again this week, then try to get at least a couple of workouts in on vacation starting next week.

going back to the "what derails you" question -  I work standard hours, but I commute an hour and 40 minutes each way.  I just figured out that I'm going to have to make myself into a morning workout person if I'm ever going to have a chance to be consistent with training.

anyway, the plan is get back to things this week, don't slack completely on vacation, then start something more structured when I return (as to what that is... I'll be figuring that out from next to the pool while I relax.)

That sounds like a good plan monica.  Enjoy your vacation.

Your commute is awful.. and I complain about a 25 minute commute.  Just think of all the training you could get done in that 3 hours+ per day !!  Oh well, another 20 or 30 years and you can retire and have all the time you want for training !  LOL

Last week was a good week for me. I got in all the scheduled training and had a good race. 

I still haven't put together a training plan for next season.   It is hard for me to decide on what races to do, and it is hard for me to get focused on tri season now when I am really trying still to figure out what to do with my running.  I guess everything got derailed for me when I lost November as a training month (it was supposed to be all base building for running, but it didn't happen).  That put me off on my planned schedule for this part of the year, which has thrown me off quite a bit.  I will try to pull things together this week and get a plan that is more than one week at a time. 

So, I guess my goals for this week are to recover from the half last week and to get together some type of plan for the next season. 

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

My goal for this week and the next is to finish my 10 day prescription of meds to kill my bronchitis leftovers.

I went to my physician yesterday and she gave me the green light to do weight training, swimming and biking in a moderate fashion. As for running, I will have to hold off until I'm done with my prescription and will reevaluate the situation then.

Monica, Lori and Jenny... Many thanks for your inspires and support, they gave my mood a much needed boost. It's been a very frustrating month to say the least...