kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2013 (Year 3!) - CLOSED (Page 59)

The straws are farther from your face that you might think.  Torpedo cages can take getting used to since you have to move the bottle with in the aeros, the straws allow you to just sip and do nothing else.  I think I might getting something like a speedfil ... it still has the straw, but none of the splashing like the profile.

Also you pain sounds alot like IT band pain ...  outside of knee, up and down stairs.  Are you rolling regularly?

Wow Karen.  Losing 5+ is fantastic, I'm more impressed someone could last 30 days without sugar.  And we know you love beer.    I lasted about 8 days, started again for another 5-6 days, and then had some whiskey and pizza.  But it was worth it. 

I feel like I am getting sick.  Congested, slight cough.  Ughhhhhh

I'm a fan of using the straw as well and its not in your face. So much easier during a race to grab quick sips and stay on schedule for hydration.

If I were to ever go back to a straw set up it would be a Speedfill A2.  Basically a torpedo mount with a straw.

If it is IT issues, and I agree with Carrie that it does sound like it, foam rolling is a good start but really isn't a remedy.  You need to find out the root cause of the pain and address it.  Could be flexibility, could be a muscle imbalance, could be a form issue (over striding can do it).  Go see a sports medicine doc or a physical therapist who's an endurance athlete if you go that route.

Yes composition feels different. I can see a change in my face, chest, butt & thighs. Not so much in my waist or abs, maybe a little.  (My husband says it's all gone from my chest - 2.5 pounds on each side. Ha!)

My scale also measures fat % (which I know is not accurate, but over time it's a consistent source), and that dropped considerably. So that's good.

Ooooh, impressive! (you know I'm just teasing you because it's fun right?)

It was 34 this morning on my run, and windy!!!  Felt awesome.

And yes, slow and steady is the way to go with weight loss so it stays off.

And Jen the biggest differences between the profile design aero bottle (which alot of people use), is the speedfill or the torpedo is a little more aero AND the speedfill won't splash like the profile!!! This aspect is quite annoying. And I think the speedfil has a opening that you slide open to refil, the profile design you have to stick the bottle through a rubber opening.

Athletico, or maybe alot of therapists, offer free evaluations ... if they identify the problem you can continue therapy, or work out on your own, but if IT, get it taken care of immediately ... it can be QUITE PAINFUL!!!  YOu do not want to get thrown in the pool to aquajog!!!

Hey Jen, I have a similar pain sometimes and here is what helps me. I have "The Stick" and I use it to roll out the outside of my thigh (IT band?). Usually I find a "knot" when I do this and focus on it. For my calves I take a small tennis ball or if you have a lacrosse or something similar and roll my calf with it. I even sit down and support my body weight on my hands and then roll back and forth with the ball under my calf. I stretch afterwards. Hope it helps.

I love the tennis ball too.  One of the best things I ever did was see and ART therapist (active release technique)... my guy is superb but this is not covered my insurance so $$$. I only went to him about 4 times but it really helped. Unfortunately this was a year after my ironman when I was still dealing with tendonitis.   I think if I saw him while training for the IM it would have spared me a lot. 

Me three! Thanks Kelly....interesting.  This is why I would rather put a poker in my eye than run a 5K

Couple of things here

1.  Lots of this depends on the distance you are training for.  Even if you are generally aerobic, if you are going long, you need to put in the miles.  For an aerobic athlete, just getting the miles in doesn't leave a lot of time for doing speed endurance (think lactate intervals) and stregnth endurance work (think hill repeats) that is needed to get faster.  This is why I'm now playing with reverse periodization -- getting the speed endurance and stregnth endurance in for those who need it before the miles.

2.  An aerobic athlete will still see gains from aerobic work, they just wont be as dramatic.  Same thing if an anaerobic athlete does tons of 400s.  Their 400s will get faster  but at not the same percentage of improvement you would see from an aerobic athlete.

3.  There is a seasaw effect going on.  You work on your weakness until it becomes a stregnth and then you address the new weakness.  When I started training consistently I was fairly anaerobic across the board.  After 3 years of pretty consitent training, I'm generally more aerobic, but its relative (now my aerobic paces are faster than my "old" interval paces).

4. Developing pure speed on the run is risky.  If you need work on stregnth and speed endurance there are inherenent risks.  Running above lactate can cause injuries especially if there are underlying form issues, its also just plain hard to do and almost impossible on tired legs. 

5. The final thought (and this is general and doesn't apply to Karen specifically) is that in order to figure our weakness and work to address them there needs to be a general level of conditioning.  So for someone's first race, the goal should be getting to the finish line.  Once they are conditioned, the goal is to get faster.

I hate 5Ks.  I'll take a half marathon over a 5K any day.

Also -- this goes to Jeff's orginial post on the topic -- we like the things we like because we are good at them.  They are not necessarily the things we need to do to get faster.

I like both differently.  Each a different kind of pain.  I'm sick like that though.  LOL.

Michele - Thank you. No harm no foul.

Thanks for the advice. I think it did the trick. Rode without a problem.

So I think I figured out the Garmin for the bike - gave accurate readings for cadence, distance, speed, and HR for my hour ride on the trainer. It is pretty cool to see all the data. Made the ride interesting. Of note: My heart rate seemed to spike when I sang along to certain tunes.

Scott - How was Disney?

Kelly!  This is awful.  Do you think it needs to be checked out?  

That's a very interesting discussion on different types of athletes.  Since I am a fragile aerobic athlete, it seems as if my chances of getting faster are looking pretty grim (jk ).  I find the concept of reverse periodization to be interesting.  

Thank you all for the hydration setup suggestions.  I'm thinking of going with speedfil a2 & some sort of rear setup.  This is starting to get expensive, and it's annoying.  

Is it normal to be uncomfortable in the aero position on the trainer?  It feels really miserable.  My saddle is still really stiff, but it's going to take some time to break it in.  I may just swap saddles with my road bike.  Identical but the road saddle is a year old.  I can't last long in aero on the trainer because my saddle area gets so uncomfortable.  

Dude.  That sucks. This doesn't mean you have an excuse for me beating you in Galveston though.  

Kelly!! NOOOO! I agree with Jen - get it checked out just to be sure!! And throw away the heels!

I don't have the answer for you re: aero, but I can tell you that my HR increases 5-7bpm when I drop into aero on the trainer. I think we talked about this last year and I think it was just inexperience in this position. I do not stay in aero long on the train, I drop down now and again just to change positions. I think Kelly said that I will have plenty of aero time when I get outside and not to worry about it inside for now.