bhoover10001's Group - Closed for the holidays! (Page 6)

That is amazing, great job!!

Question Time!

Does that mean 400 meters six times at my 5 K pace?  Do I rest in-between?  Run/Swim workouts still confuse me...

Note: This is not to brag, just to complain. 

I would like to say I am very sore from lunges yesterday.   Lunges are evil and must be stopped!

Found this on BT, from a past chat... I am an avid Hillary Biscay fan and she started as a swimmer.  So, I think this will give all of us 'weaker' swimmers some perspective:

[Birkierunner] For a marathoner turned Ironman with a crappy 1:12 swim split (3x week training), what weekly frequency and weekly yardage would you recommend to someone with a 60 minute goal?

[ Hillary Biscay ] I am a swimmer and I CANNOT maintain my swim level on 3x per week. So I think to try to progress on 3x per wk is hard. I would aim for 4x/wk, and 5 is better. If you were my athlete, I would have you doing at least 4 swims with weekly total yardage of at least 14000.

The yardage isn't what is important here, but that she comes from a strong swim background and still has to train at swimming more than 3x per week.

Well, for whatever my newbie 2 cents are worth, I think as long as you are moving, active, working on cardio in some format and being healthy, you're OK.  If you had said "I feel like a lazy butt and I sit on my couch weating potato chips and cookies all day", then I'd be worried.

I would wager to guess that maybe you have the winter blah and that when your events get closer, you'll get back on track.

Maybe you could join a tem or get a coach though, if  you are worried about it affecting your season performance.  We definitely don't want you drowning or having a heart attack!!

I bought a "fit ball" today!  Most of you may know it as a Bender Ball, Michael was wondering what it was so I figured I'd share here.  It's about a 9 inch ball, you use it for core work, I tuck it behind the small of my back.  It engages your core totally, feels completely different than just crunches.

The fit ball I bought on Amazon is what they have in the gym and it cost a mere $4.50.  If you have them at your gym, definitely try one out.  I was pleasantly surprised, it's totally bananas!

SKDickey - 2009-01-13 10:25 AM

Question Time!

6 x 400 5-K pace

Does that mean 400 meters six times at my 5 K pace?  Do I rest in-between?  Run/Swim workouts still confuse me...

Here's where I got it: http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/inter.htm

This was already answered (yes, rest between!).  It's important that you really do these at your 5K pace.  Lots of people are tempted to run them all out.  I hear this all the time -- "I can do them faster than my 5K pace, so isn't that better?".  No, it isn't.  Of COURSE you can do them faster than your 5K pace!  It's 400m, not 5K.

Anyway, I'm not accusing you of doing this, of course, but it is a very common mistake made by over-zealous new (and many experienced) runners.  Second-guessing the author of the plan is generally a bad idea, unless you know as much as he or she does.

Oh, and "5K pace" means race pace -- the fastest you can run 5K, not how fast you run it while training.  If you don't know what that is, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a time trial (or better yet, a real race) to find out.

Thanks for the info about the bender ball.  I hadn't heard of that before, though I've seen similar items (bit of foam, etc.) used for the same purpose.

This used to happen to me a lot when I was a pure runner.  I loved running, but I would often bag it and play soccer or ultimate instead.  It took very little to convince me to do that...  My solution was pretty much imposed on me -- I had several knee surgeries a few years ago and now I can't cut or stop quickly, so soccer and ultimate and most of the other temptations are now off limits.

But swimming -- yeah, I do that out of fear.

ETA:  Oh, but I don't recommend knee surgeries to keep you from those temptations.  And as others said, right now, what does it matter?  Until you have a goal race and a plan, why not just do stuff, whatever comes to mind?  Call it 'cross training' if it makes you feel better!

Yeah i basically started tri training in April of 07 and did my first half ironman in September of 07.  Right after that one i signed up for IMCali which was in March of 08 so i didn't have any off time there.  After IMCali i had IMKansas in June....So no time for resting in between.  Finished up with Redman 70.3 in september. Went straight into marathon training until November.....So from november till a few weeks ago i was totally burned out. I was so sick of 5:30am pool swims that i totally stopped swimming.  I have only swam a few times since then.  So i totally know what the burnout/winter blahs/unmotivation blues are.  

What i did to get over them was find something new to focus on until IM training starts. Thats why i signed up for an adventure race.  Something new with different types of training.  I am starting to run with a 15 pound pack to get ready for it.  Sunday i'm going to ride mountain bikes and trail run for 3 hours.  I've been lifting weights and working more on my core.  It's just a nice change before the hours and hours of road riding etc.

billsorg - 2009-01-14 8:39 AM Thanks everyone for the pep talk! It was just what I needed. I braved the 0 degree windchill at 5:30 this morning, got over to the Y and had a great swim workout... 54 laps - 1,350 yards, no breaks. I think sometimes it just takes a real strong workout to get you out of a funk. Much better spirits, but after lifting weights yesterday for the first time in who-knows-how-long, I'm SOOOOOORE today. Lunges and lifting... BOTH EVIL! I'm thinking of signing up for a spin class at the Y a couple days a week. I've never done one before... Any thoughts?

Bill - Nice to have a fellow member of the lunges are evil club :-)

SPIN CLASSES!!  I love them.  L O V E.  They are complete torture for some people, for me they are totally therapeutic.  Everyone has a different opinion, it's kind of like Bikram Yoga in that respect.  Anyway, basically you're on a spin bike in a class, facing the instructor.  The instructor leads you through a course they have designed and it's usually always different.  My instructors have music with tempos that indicate about where your cadence should be.  Y ou control your own tension but the insturctor tells you to increase/decrease based on the "course".  Sometimes you are in the saddle, sometimes youstand up to mash away at the pedals.  You can work as easy or hard as you'd like. 

I took my friend to one for the first time last Saturday and she liked it but wasn't sore the next day (after being pretty much sedentary).  I told her that it was bc she didn't work hard enough.   While you don't necessarily have to be sore the next day (though if you're not bike ready you may get butt bruising, haha), you want to push yourself as much as you're comfortable to get the benfits of the class.

What are the benefits?  Glad you asked!  You can burn between 400 - 600 calories per hour.  For me, the class is like what I mimagine crack would be like - I do the class and I have energy for HOURS.  It can be fun and brutal at the same time (a friend of mine is an instructor and a girl threw up in his class last week). 

All in all, I highly recommend it!  LMK what you think afterwards!

Winter spinning is good, I think.  I had asked Mike Ricci, the guy that owns D3 training, and he said a spin was acceptable in the winter as it's too dangerous to ride your real bike around these parts in the cold and ice!  There are probably people out there with conflicting opinions though.

Double posted accidentally

arny - 2009-01-14 11:26 AM I totally agree with danger vs benefit...which is why I get to as many spins as I can...I see only benefits!

If anyone wants to start another 10 page 300 post thread, I bet Spin or No Spin in the Winter would be a GREAT topic, haha.

Ann & I say get spinng Bill :-)  I'm all worked up for my class tonight now!