SBR Utopia ---- Permanently OPEN!! (Page 52)

I haven't had any hamstring issues up high, but I have down low (almost at the back of my knee) -- ART helped tremendously.  Do you have access to anyone who does ART?  Hopefully this is just a minor tweak that with some stretching, icing, rest, ART, etc, you'll be able to get back at it soon.

And yeah, I'd probably take the advice of the Better Half

Was thinking this too. Also that Z3 has a way of sneaking in more stress than realized. At least for me. I've been hurt more when that is involved than anything else. Have had pain high up on the hamstrings, but don't really have anything better than if it hurts don't do that. At least don't push it to that much.

X3.  I was looking through your logs and immediately was thinking you may have jumped back in head first a bit too soon.  I have a semi-big run base and a HM seems to crush me where I would keep run intensity low for at least 5-7 days or so.  Swimming intensity is your friend after a race but usually lay low on the bike and run intensity after racing.

Did a bunch of Swim TT's yesterday...lots of improvement in these times since January

400TT: 5:19

200TT: 2:31

100TT: 1:09

First time under 1:10 for 100.

An epic day on the bike...http://www.strava.com/activities/124048045

The first half 50 miles was super fun.  Rolling through the Western part of the island where we had to basically cyclocross it and the hikers gave us funny looks...LOL.  Then went up a climb called Peacock Flats for the first time.  It's anything but flat.  11.3% avg for 2 miles.  I was cranking my 34/28 at 54 rpms with HR at threshold for 30 minutes.  Then we (5 of us...thank god) rolled through the North Shore into a 20 mph headwind where I was hanging on for dear life.  I was humbled to be the weakest link on the ride, but also thankful that I had workhorses to pull me through.  Finally got dropped the last 25 miles or so and went at my own tempo back while 3 of the others tackled one last climb.  Epic day...ended with pizza and beer.  

ETA: If you look at the segments, the Peacock flats climb is broken up into smaller segments...some averaging 14% for half a mile or so.  My avg speed was something like 4 mph for those areas.  I was full on paper boying it...LOL.  Not to mention my garmin is set to autopause at 3.5 mph...so needless to say it was constantly pausing on and off.  Lots of sections where I went as low as 3 mph trying to turn over the crank arms.

So, for a swim TT, how much rest do you give yourself in between to assure it's an accurate TT? Or do you just look at those times in the context of doing them back to back.

And great job!

Not sure what is worse.....   recovering from what puts you in the hospital..... or recovering from what you get from being in the hospital.   Been out of the hospital since last Friday and only today starting to feel somewhat human.  Add a nosocomial infection on top of the necessary recovery from going through that kind of thing, it takes a huge toll.   Much bigger than I thought it would be.  I was actually very proud that I didn't do anything Sat- Mon workout wise. 

Tried a run Tuesday.  Was rough.  Couldn't keep HR down even as I slowed the pace way down.  That was a bit too soon. 

Have now missed a week of training just 2.5 weeks out from the season opener HIM.  It's been a rough and tumble journey getting there.   Thank god it's in a fun palce like NOLA so I can try to let go of performance and just concentrate on finishing

WOW!  Sorry to hear that Matt.  Take it ez and see what works best.  You definitely have time your fitness is good just don’t aggravate it and make it worst.  Swim more and/or more anaerobic. 

Oh and yeah I have trained swim, biked and run with strains and pulls.  I would recover a bit then ez or offset too another discipline until recovered more or altogether.  Of course it best to completely heal.

Nice job Ryan you are getting fast.

Jason that is a great ride!  I think all of us are drooling with envy…..

+1, great work Ryan!!

That ride does look totally epic!  Totally jealous!

Things are a complete mess here.  We are in the tail end of what has easily been the worst storm of the winter.  I don't know how much snow we've gotten but it's a lot and the wind has been nuts with hurricane strength gusts at times.  Plows were pulled off the roads at 6pm last night and are just starting to go back out now.  I'm pretty sure we are going to be stuck in the house for the day.  

53 cm of snow.

(winter-vs-summer.jpg)

So did you end up inside or out?

Ryan - those are great swim times!  Congrats on the payoff to hard work.

Jason - dude, what can I say.  Looks like a better route than Arend's street.    I can't wait to go to HI and check it out - that looks awesome!

Arend - hey, looks like a nice road to ride on… a few months of the year.  You think winter is ever going to end?!?  We ended up with just the wind - the snow line was about 15 miles east (and they got hammered).  I hope it melts quickly!

Thanks all for the comments on the hammy.  I really was trying to go back slowly, as Tuesday was the first day with intensity since the race (about 9 days), but I probably put too much overall stress (just from distance) on my legs right after.  Pretty clear, actually, as I was beat on Saturday and even took Sunday and Monday off.  Also, I looked at my paces and while the intervals were in Z3 overall, the ends of the intervals snuck into Z4.  

Good news is that the trainer didn't hurt yesterday (almost felt better after).  Might try an EASY jog today - no intervals!  Trying to figure if I can go easy and keep at least some running in, or if I will need to shut it down for a week or so.  Hoping for the former, but will do the latter (better to lose a week now than a season).

Thanks again!

Matt

To listen to my Cx friends, that's what every race course looks like (but they also have mud, of course).  

Serious side question - do any of you ride CycloCross in the fall?  A bunch of folks here transition to it after a late summer tri.  Just wondering if it's as popular elsewhere with the tri-set.

They'll have snow, maybe a few inches of it, but not near 20"! I don't, but my brother is getting interested. He's up by Madison, WI and there are some other triathletes there who do just that. They actually held the national champs there last year and was able to see it. Temps were under 20 and some snow all around. Muddy mess all over the course. The bikes would get so much crap built up on them so fast, sometimes it looked like a couple inches piled up underneath the frames. Lots of switching bikes throughout a race. Very fast at it. Washing stations were constantly going. They have something mixed in with the water so it doesn't freeze. Couldn't quite place the smell though.

A ride like that definitely calls for pizza!

I haven't gotten more than about 20 feet from my door and that was only to dig a trench in the back yard for the dogs to use.

Oh.My.

I am so sorry. Maybe you need to take up ice climbing for the season?

You know how we always talk about listening to our bodies? That bolded statement, man. The response your  body was looking for was probably not intervals

Glad  you are feeling better today! 

I had a really hard tempo last night. Note the use of the word hard and not fast. Man, I am exhausted this week. I am going to be soooo ready for taper.

My coach is really pushing for me to run with my teammate on Saturday. We have very similar PRs in almost all of the distances but she is (in my eyes) a much 'faster' runner and really kills the track, while I see myself as more of a strength runner.

She is running this 10K more like and 'A' and I am running it more as a workout. Regardless, our coach seems to really be pushing for it. He even sent me this long article on the advantages of running in a pack (hint, hint.)

I am a little nervous about it. I TOTALLY buy into the benefits (mental and physical) of working together. What I am concerned about is going out at the projected pace and finding (due to all the cumulative training stress from marathon training) is just too fast, dropping off and then being discouraged by the gap. I just know I do best when I force myself to be conservative at the beginning of a race and finish strong vs going out a little faster and having the guts to hold it. Maybe this is an opportunity to work on my guts-factor? I'm just not sure.

What do you guys think? All feedback is welcome. 

Totally depends on what HE intends the workout for you to be.  If he wanted you to stick with your friend for the 10k (an A race for her) why has he got you following a schedule that has you exhausted on Thursday with a hard tempo run on Wed to boot?  Not sure I follow you on your comparison to your friend.  If you have similar PRs how can she be "faster" than you?  It sounds like you prefer a negative split approach to racing if you go out slow and finish strong.  I'm more of an even split racer myself.  If you think you are a "strong" runner (not sure what that means in relation to a "fast" runner) you should have no problem starting out faster and adopt an even split approach and stay with your friend.  You know this isn't an A race for you so why put so much pressure on yourself and care about potentially not keeping up?  You'll still get a decent workout in regardless.   I vote for working on the "guts-factor"...that is if you think running the race at all is even in your best interest.  Good luck

I think I have mentioned before, he just writes my quality workouts (2 a week.) I take care of the rest of the mileage. So, as far as me being exhausted, I'd say it's just the general fatigue from marathon training and higher volume and perhaps some life stuff. But, overall I feel the exhaustion is to be expected when I am peaking volume for a marathon (which is the A race.) I don't know that it would be appropriate to go into the 10K well rested as it's not really the focus. 

I would have to ask him specifically, but I imagine he's got me sticking with my teammate because he thinks I can do it. The purpose of the 10K is really just to get a solid hard effort in. With the secondary being to qualify for Club Nationals. (10Ks are few and far between here for some reason.)

Example of my fast vs strong comment  is that I can beat her on a hilly XC race, she has faster times on the track (or a really flat XC race) But our road racing PRs are about the same for 5K and HM (I don't think either of us has a recent 10K time that was a solid effort)

As for the reason I am putting pressure on myself about not keeping up? Because I am a competitor. I don't think I can help it.