mndiver's Group - FULL (Page 6)

Devin, I have to wonder if your "easy" lengths were truly easy enough. What was your breathing pattern on these easy laps. If I'm hearing you correctly, you basically have 2 speeds. Easy, and hard (fast).  If you notice,  your cool down laps were not really that much slower than the pace you were doing for the 100s (a :30 length is a 2:00 100 and you were about 1:51 avg on your 100s).

Have you ever tried the drill called "Catch ups?" Basically, you don't start your next stroke until both hands are in the glide position. It's to help elongate your stroke but it also forces you to slow down a good bit as you are emphasizing the glide portion of the stroke. You might want to try that. I would think you would want your easy laps to be "recovery" laps. A water resistant HR monitor may also be beneficial here.

When I swim an easy lap, there is no need for recovery. I'm not breathing hard at all when I get done with an easy lap.  I have no idea how fast my easy laps are, but I'll think to time them next Tuesday when I swim again. My 100 time that I can maintain for a race distance is somewhere between 1:50 and 2:00.

Interesting. When I work on form, I am slow as hell because I am concentrating on gliding through the water and it's hard to glide when you are going all out.

I understand the need for recovery after the fast 25. I am curious- if your easy is :35, your build is :32, and your fast is :28, that's a pretty good cross section. Time yourself doing just 25m sprints. Then try to duplicate that time as your fast 25 in that set of 100. Based upon a build of :32, a good spread would be

E :38, B :32: E :38, F :28

That would mean you are cutting 25% off of your time between your easy and your fast.

I had a PR on the treadmill last Monday. 3 miles in 30:10. My goal for the coming week (and this is agressive) is to do the half mary in 2:30.

It was 60 degrees here on Saturday. Times like this I LUV the south!

Schedule is complete. Here it is:

2/4/2007 - City of Lakes Loppet 35K freestyle/skate ski race

3/18/2007 - Human Race 8K

4/28/2007 - Get In Gear 10K

6/3/2007 - Buffalo Olympic Triathlon

6/9/2007 - Liberty 1/2 Ironman

7/7/2007 - Timberman Olympic - Registration opens 2/24

7/29/2007 - Chisago Lakes HIM - Waiting on this one until April/May

8/19/2007 - St. Paul Triathlon Olympic - Same as above

9/9/2007 - Square lake HIM - Same as above

Devin

I highly doubt you would be the first person to puke after swimming.  It's probably a badge of honor for some people.  Good luck with your next Masters class and good job.

 Once again Suzanne, way to go.  After reading your race report I was very inspired.  I think those are the kind of runs that turn people into lifelong runners.

First of all I'm not going to give you any reccomendations,  I think others in our group are much more educated on running to help you out.  But I will say I was in the exact same position last year that you are this year.  Everytime I would run my heart rate would be through the roof.  I remember when I had first started being able to run longer, but was still pretty new, my heart rate would hold steady around 180 or so for the entire 30-40 minutes I would run.  I think the training zones are a great way to go, you just may not be ready for them for a few more months.  I still train too hard and I know I need tp stop.  But like you I have that hard core attitude.  Today is the first day I was able to complete a 35 minute run without my h.r. going over 160.  I just want to let you know I know where you are coming from.  Hopefully some of our runners like Suzanne and co tri guy can give you some insite.

I was in this position last winter. What worked for me? Running for a certain number of minutes, and then walking for a certain number until my HR came back down. I was slow as molasses, but I did build a base. As time went by, I could spend more time running and less time walking. I probably had 6-7 months of running under my belt before I could do a run and stay in zone 2. Zone 1 workouts are recovery workouts for the most part. Good base building happens mostly in zone 2.

Oh, another thing that helped me was running slow enough that I could chant or talk- it forced me to keep my breathing regulated (think army/marine type chants) and keeping my breathing regulated helped me to go longer because I wouldn't get so winded. Going slow enough that I could get the words out meant I was going slow enough to be in zone 2. Can't talk/sing whatever at a higher HR, you are breathing too hard.

You will find that over time (and by this I mean 2-3 months at least) you are able to go faster at that same HR level. Last June a 15 minute mile (5 min running, 1 minute walking) was in zone 2. Today I can do 10:45-11 min mile in zone 2 on a flat course. It does work, it just takes time.

BTW, you won't hurt yourself by doing a couple of runs at a higher HR. Both of my mid week runs are in zone 3. Just be sure that you do a long run once a week and keep it in zone 2. This is the run where you most certainly should encorporate walking to help you get more distance. This is the run that will do more towards building your endurance level.

Good luck!

Fair warning that this is going to be log winded!

If you are not ready for the LT test, I would say use the method although it is very inaccurate of 220 minus your age in years. Now to set your zones use the following percentages of your MHR. I have attached an excel spreadheet that will help determine basic zones once you input some basic data.

• Zone 1 60% of MHR (recovery/fat burning)
• Zone 2 70% of MHR (Develop oxygen transportation systems)
• Zone 3 80% of MHR (Improve lactic acid threshold)
• Zone 4 85% of MHR (Lactic thresehold)
• Zone 5 90% of MHR (sprints and anaerobic training)

For reference my cycling HR zones for are:

For running they are:

I know it is VERY hard to train in your zones for first couple of weeks and maybe even months due to you feeling like I should be able to run faster/harder, etc. Please realize that these zones will help your body get stronger faster and with less injury if give them the chance.

For example, I can physically run 9 MM for 2-3 miles if I want to, but this puts me well into Z3 which is not where I want to be for endurance training which is Z2 and an average speed of 10-10:30 MM. If I trained at this level (Z3 and above) on all my runs, I would get faster, but would not be able to hold he speed for any distance due to no endurance training. The opposite is also true for speed work, you need to stress your heart for short intervals into Z3/Z4 to get faster and develop better recovery.

Each zone has a specific purpose and I detail this out in my workouts, so I know what I am doing and why. An example is today's run was an high intensity run, which was designed to get my HR into Z3/Z4 and promote recovery and speed by using hill repeats or intervals. I also have endurance ride, swims, and runs where the purpose is to stay in Z2 for the duration of the workout. Feel free to take a look at my logs to see how I use purpose in each workout.

let me know if you have any questions,

Devin