Gray Guys/Girls Master's Focus Triathlon Mentor Group--CLOSED (Page 51)

Deb - The wind gods are cruel and they love to laugh at us.  I had a fairly strong headwind today for my run as well.  We're getting cooler but it is still nice for running.

This Sunday is my long awaited run to the tunnel.  I'm sure I can run the distance but I'm not sure how fast I'll be.  I'm expecting to be pretty "back of the pack".

I'm thinking I would like to add a race to my bucket list.  A few weeks ago a lady I train with raced the IM Augusta, Georgia 70.3 and her swim time was :28:xx (thanks to a current in the river).  I know she's faster than me in the water but I think I wouldn't be too far behind and she was also excited about how flat the bike ride was.  So now I'm thinking it might be fun to do it myself.  I just have to convince my wife she'd like a trip there.  

Steve - That's a pretty nice list of races for next year.  I haven't fully decided which races I want to do yet but for certain I want to travel to Alberta to ride the 160km Badlands Granfondo in June 25th-ish.  I want one of their dinosaur jerseys and it ties in nicely with a trip north to meet a new granddaughter.

I'm considering a marathon (either Portland or Vancouver).  It wouldn't be an "A" race so it may be wiser to save that goal for another year.  I was told that it is very rare for a person to start running in their sixties and to run a marathon.  So, I would like to complete a marathon even though I'll never qualify for Boston.

That reminds me.  I ran my 20K run last Sunday and had a good time.  I was slow, by the halfway turnaround there were only 7 people behind me but by the time I finished I had caught up and passed another 5 people.  Race report summary:  I ran up the hill then I ran down the hill.  If I hadn't had to stop and empty gravel out of my runners I could've finished faster.  The whole time I was running I was thinking about the movie, "Run Fatboy Run" almost like a mantra.  The first half was uphill 2% for 10K (I turned at 78:xx minutes and then 71:xx down).  My goal was to beat 2:30 and if it hadn't been for the gravel in my shoes I would have made it.

Today I finally got in for a proper bike fit and there was so much wrong it was almost overwhelming.  I could feel significant improvement almost immediately.  I also found out I'll be looking for new bike shoes.  I have a 90 minute indoor ride tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to trying out the new bike fit.

Steve - 4:10 to qualify for Boston, eh.  So I won't say never but I'll have to get a lot faster to beat 4:10.  It certainly would be a fun thing to do.  Just now I'm not sure how much time I want to put into it either.  I was looking at the Vancouver and Portland Marathon sites and they do  look interesting.

Deb - Looks like you had another great run.  Very lucky to have your wallet returned before you even knew it was lost.  My wife would have been hyperventilating if she lost hers.  Just for interest, I sometimes swim with Prudence.  She has a summer home here and we see her whenever she is in town.  She swims at the pool or in the lake when she is here.  Very nice woman and she is 84.  Also, last year Sister Madonna told my wife she is hoping to race 6 more years (she'd be 90 then).  I hope she makes it.  

After my 20K run I took a few days off from running but now I want to get going again but I'm finding it a bit hard to get back at it.  Maybe tomorrow.

Amen.

Everyone is going to think I am crazy, but I miss the cold, snowy runs.  Looking forward to moving back to Indiana!

It was 86 friggin' degrees here today - less than a week before Thanksgiving and we are breaking out the swimwear.  It is the time of year that thoughts are suppose to be about snow - not laying on the beach!

Steve - At 6:30am today I was scraping the car windows before I drove to our Rec Centre for a 90min spin class.  I hate scraping car windows.  My biggest pet peeve for winter.  It was pretty cold but no wind which made it more tolerable.  I'm seeing lots of vehicles with snow on them but so far no snow here in town.

Scott - I very much agree with your fondness for snow.  I'd love to run in a steady snowfall.  I just want the majority of the snow to stay on the east coast like it did last year.  86 degrees F is a bit impressive though.  

When we lived up north I couldn't wait for each full moon of the winter months.  It was so amazing we'd go for walks and it would be a bright cream and dark blue coloured world (and sometimes we'd hear wolves off in the distance - and we'd stay close to home).  I recently learned there is a local group of trail runners that organize full moon trail runs.  I'm thinking of maybe joining them for a run.

In my spin class today our coach showed us a "gag" gift he received.  It was, "Anti-Monkey-Butt" powder (with calamine).  Apparently it works quite well.  He also brought up a topic of a new-ish sport, "Beer Mile" (www.beermile,com).  Apparently someone set a new record of running a mile in 4:51.9.  The race is to run 400m, chug a beer, run 400 more chug another beer and repeat for one mile/ 4 beers and no upchucking.  I'm not much of a drinker nor runner but a 4:51.9 mile and 4 beers sounds pretty impressive.  I can only imagine what the training regimen would be like.

Hey there!

Been gone for a while but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Also, just wondering if you were going to be re-starting this mentor group (or maybe just continuing on here) in January?  I signed up to do my first 70.3 in August (already freaking out a bit) and I know I'm going to have lots of questions over the next couple of months.  I've made some pretty good improvements with my swimming lately - getting to the pool on a consistent basis helps a lot - but my biking still needs some work.  And the running is a bit of a mess right now - still have achilles issues (doctor wants me to take 2-4 weeks off running completely after my race in 2 weeks) so I'll pretty much be starting over with that.   

We had our first snow on Saturday - can't really remember the last time it snowed before Thanksgiving here.  Didn't stick but it was kind of pretty to watch.  

Hope everyone has a safe holiday!
Janet

Hi Janet!

Haven't seen you for a while.  Happy Thanksgiving right back at you.

It isn't really up to us whether the mentor groups will be re-starting or continuing on.  I know there was a discussion about the value of the mentor groups over in the Cup of Joe forum.  One of the big concerns was that the mentor groups are taking volume away from the main forum and continued on into whether the mentor groups should continue on in their present state or change.  I know the groups were moved to a different spot on the forum board.  In the past there has been winter and spring mentor groups.  This past year we went all year with the winter group.  So, the long answer is - don't know.  I am hoping the groups restart but time will tell.  For me personally, I am VERY reluctant to participate in the main forum whereas the smaller mentor groups are much more personal and enjoyable so the logic behind minimizing the mentor groups to increase main forum volume is lost on me.

I'm doing a maintenance plan right now (working more on swimming) so most of my workouts are just easy rides.  I do have one workout a week that includes some high RPM's, but it's not much right now.  And occasionally I'll do a Sufferfest video if I need a change - I have Angels 2015 and HHNF (although I have yet to be able to finish this one) - doing these gives a little variety and seems to make the time go by faster.

Janet

Just for interest this is what my spin sessions look like.  I've been spinning in a group since November 3rd (my fourth year).  It starts out easy-ish and ramps up quickly with a 20min TT in the second week and based on the TT results everyone gets a set of Zone paces.  Tonight we did:

Warm-up          10 min (usually closer to 20 min)

Single leg drill      9 min (1 min Rt leg/ 1 min Lt leg/ 1 min easy repeated 3 times)

Spin Pyramid     23 min ( Zone 3/ approx 75% effort spinning 100 rpm or more.  1 min/ 2 min/ 3 min/ 4 min/ 3 min/ 2 min/ 1 min) After each 100 rpm interval we got one minute easy in same gear and 90+ rpm.

Climb set            8 min (Zn 2/3, large front ring.  Standing out of the saddle 2 min spinning Zn 3 and 70 to 80 rpm to simulate climbing. Seated 1 min in same gear, same RPM)  No 1 min seated after the 3rd standing interval and we go right into: 

Efficiency set      5 min (90+ rpm and Zn 3).  Prolific sweating on my part right about now.

Cool down           5 min (minimum - we can take longer if needed)

                         60 min. Total

On Saturday we ride for 90 min at 7:30am. I really like the early start because when I get home at 9:30-ish it feels like noon but I still have a full day ahead of me. Starting in February we start increasing the Saturday session times and by mid March we finish with a 3 hr ride.  It is so much easier in a group.

Some people work out by power rather than zones and from what I hear it sounds to be a really good way of training.  I think I'm going to have to check into power training.

Just a bit of an update.  I've got a last swim of the year tomorrow and I need 1300 yards to pass 250,000yds total for the year.  Tomorrow also marks the end of my 4th year of swimming and January 4th will be the start of my 5th year.  My cycling and running are also up over 2014 as well.

Tonight our spinning class was a long warm-up and build up to a 20 minute TT.  I held back a bit for the first 10 minutes riding at or above what I thought my last average pace was and then I pushed it harder for the last 10 minutes and even tried to sprint for the last 2 minutes but in the end I was a little disappointed that my pace slowed slightly from my previous TT (almost .5 kph slower).  I guess I should have pushed a bit harder in the first half.

I've been really feeling awesome for the last couple weeks in the pool and on the bike but I am looking forward to a bit of a break through the holidays.

As I drove home from cycling tonight I found my wife shoveling snow off our driveway so I had to get my shovel and help finish shoveling before she did it all.  We have a bit of a competitive streak between us when it comes to shoveling snow and chopping wood.  So, I couldn't let her have all the fun.