Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 57)

Just so you know that I wasn't being a silly willy:

They looked like this but 3x bigger. Mother of pearl, I think I'm going to be sick...

Blanda, I think I saw one of those in the pool the other day before the lifeguards kicked us all out for emergency cleaning!

Had an outstanding ride today. Jamie let me know about a group ride out near his place so I joined him and 4 other guys for two 15 mile loops on an empty highway and back roads. The back roads had several really good hills that really winded me. 

Definitely gave me motivation to keep working on my endurance. One day I'll keep up with the guys in the front! 

Directly after the ride we all went on a 2.5 mile run. We ran much faster than I usually do, but I was able to stick with the fast guys for about half of it before I dropped out.

Bagel sandwich with Jamie and our significant others followed. Never tasted so good!!!

Overall I felt like I got a lot accomplished for a Saturday morning! I really like the idea of a group ride, it gives me much more incentive to push myself in order to try to keep up. Really appreciated the fast guys waiting on us in the back to catch up at certain parts of the loop. Can't wait to do it again!

-Nate

+1, what he said!

Hey everyone.  Quick check-in from the beach.  It'll probably be mostly once per day for me this week.  We hit several glitches getting packed, so no run today.  No nothin.    I'll either ru and bike both tomorrow (not a bad idea as a prelude to upcoming race rehearsals or just make Sun/Mon my 'weekend' --  I'm on vacation, afterall!

Hope everyone is well.  Blanda, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want those things brushing up against me during a swim either...  Nice workouts today Michael, Jamie, and Nate.

Kick butt training session!

Hey guys, quick reply here for me.

What a day yesterday was. Raced an Olympic distance Tri about an hour north of my house (Fernandina Beach, Florida), and had a great swim (despite rough/tough conditions), as a decent bike (especially the last half), but my run was less than sub-par. Very frustrating to say the least as running is one of my strong disciplines (cycling=weakest).

Maybe some of you guys can help me out, during the run it seemed as if my HR was in normal ranges, however my breathing/RPE was much harder than my HR would indicate. I couldn't seem to catch my breath, and the pace was definitely much slower than I should be running a 10k at (I was hitting my 1/2 Marathon/Marathon pace). Regardless, I ended up 2nd in AG and running a 2:31:xx.(P.S. I got popped for drafting....the joys of riding an open course...aka having to make awkward passes to account for traffic) I was happy, but still understand I could've gone much faster (especially if I tapered), but was pretty stoked to PR on heavy training legs.

Michael-Glad to hear your S.O. gives you the green-light to train in that setting...I know my S.O. understands how much it means to me, as well as how it 'levels' me out. Best of luck getting some quality miles in, and seeing some new sights. It always breaks up the monotony for me.

Quick 40 minute run with a few pick-ups to flush out the legs, and back in the car for 10 hours. (P.S. Don't plan a road trip after an Olympic race...sitting in the car for a full day lends to restless legs the entire ride...oh well).

Have a great Sunday, and enjoy your long bike/run session that you may have planned today, or any other session that you may have planned.

Hey Gang-made it home from the beach in time to get in an hour bike and a quick run. Weather was better today at the beach and I got a little sunburn on my back despite sunscreen.

Back to work tomorrow.  Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend.

Randy 

Evening all.  Busy day for me today.  I had to split my long run into two -- one morning and one evening.  It isn't as good as one continuous run, but at least I got the mileage in.  And the result was pretty interesting.  I thought Id share the experience, as it could be instructive for others.

A Tale of Two Runs

I was beat from packing, running errands, and traveling the day before.  Then I couldn't get to sleep until about 3:00am (I don't sleep well when travelling, even though this is the same house weve stayed at for the past 5 years).  When I finally dragged myself out of bed at around 9am, I knew (because of promises I'd already made and obligations I had) that I wouldn't have a chunk of time in which to do a single 17-mile run.  So, I decided rather than putting it off, I'd split it in two.

The first run was at around 10:00am and it was already hot, humid, sunny, and just plain ugly by the end.  Conditions were what we call "90-90" (90+ degrees, 90+ % humidity).  I started off running a supposedly conservative pace of 7:30 and by the end I was over 8:00/mile and even that felt like torture.  Average pace over 8.5 was 7:47/mile.  Average HR for the run (which was fairly steady -- a little higher by the end) was 160.  RPE was "gosh, that hurt".

The second run was at around 7:00pm.  Obviously my legs were tired from the morning run (not to mention playing at the beach with kids) and so, although the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler and the sun was behind the trees, the humidity was still ridiculous and I didn't expect this run to go particularly well.  I started off at what I thought would be a level of effort that I could at least maintain and after a mile I looked down and had gone 7:30.  My legs felt good.  I felt good.  I slowly picked up the pace, and negative split the run.   Average pace over 8.72 was 7:15/mile.  Average HR for the run (which was, again, fairly steady) was 156.  RPE was "tough, but I could have gone a good bit faster".

Sometimes 10 hours and 10 degrees really does make that much difference.

Lol.  I wrote my other post before reading yours, but I bet it applies!

A couple of comments.  First, if you were hitting 1/2 marathon pace in an Oly 10K, you were actually about on target.  Conventional wisdom is that a good Oly 10K is run at about that pace.

Second, there are several reasons why you could be far off even your 1/2 marathon time in an Oly 10K.  Overcooking the bike or the swim (we tend to discount the effect of the swim on the run but the effect is very real) will put you well off of that pace.  Race-day heat or humidity will do that as well.

And do bear in mind that we need to compare apples with apples.  The conditions under which a typical running race are done are often quite different from the conditions under which you are running an Oly 10K.  Running races typically start earlier in the day than your Oly 10K run is, and longer running races (1/2 marathon and marathon) are typically scheduled at cooler times of the year.  Comparing that 1/2 marathon PR you got in December when it was 50 degrees with your mid-July Oly 10K when it was 90 degrees is not a fair comparison!

I freaked out a bit at how slow my most recent Oly 10K was, until I realized that everybody ran it slow.  The top pro was around 40:00, which is glacial, for a pro, even on a hilly course as this one was.  Why did he run so slow?  It was bloody hot.

Good morning everyone!  What does everyone have scheduled for training today?  I have a scheduled off day but given my work schedule this week I will probably do my Wed. swim workout....at least it will be a "leg rest" day!

Randy 

Got a nice hour long bike ride in this morning and am planning a 4 mile run at lunch.  I like getting it all in before I get home from work. Makes my evenings seem a bit more relaxed!

Also, I'm happy to report that my bum is almost acclimatized to that horribly hard and uncomfortable seat!

Survived the weekend -- 5 more days to go...

It's not my kids I'm worried about!  (For example, last night two of my cousin-in-law's kids had potato chips and Little Debbie cakes for dinner.  Fortunately, my kids did not need to be told why they were not allowed to follow suit.)

Long ride today later for me.  Enjoy your day, everyone.

No fires yet....  I just got back from the beach and did have to rescue one kid who seemed to think he is a much stronger swimmer than he is.  It was rough out there today.  I did some OWS -- 15 minutes out against the current, less than 10 back with it... -- then I decided it just wasn't worth it -- too much washing machine effect.  On my way back in (you have to go out past the groins to swim for any length of time) I see this kids struggling.  Apparently he was headed my way to 'see what that is'.  I give him credit for adventurous spirit, but not for intelligence.  I was about 400m from shore and dragged him in.  Given how poor a swimmer he was, I was surprised he made it out that far in those waves.

What kind of bike shorts do you use? I train in both regular bike shorts (with a thick-ish gel chamois) and tri shorts.