Southwestmba's group-Full (Page 6)

Thanks Brian and Andy.

I will check out the bike and adjust again to make sure I am not killing myself.  I do remember thinking that that the trainer was unforgiving in that it seemed to stop when I did, so I may have to dial it back some more.  Doing similar type drills, like that one you mentioned Bryan helped make my runs interesting, so I will plan my indoor rides to incorporate more of them.

Since it is Oscar season, and this year's Oscars are designed to get people out to watch more movies with their whopping 10 nominations for Best Picture, I guess I will be able to catch up with whatever is on DVD real quickly.

Andy, I cracked up the first time you mentioned that you play poker while you ride, but now I definitely see myself playing dominos/spades.  Do you use a wireless mouse? What do you use for your flat surface to control the mouse, towel or?

Edited by BiafraGirl 2010-02-03 8:03 AM

Great suggestions on keeping the indoor rides interesting.  I've been riding with friends at a Computrainer class a couplet times a week.  Every once in a while I'm the only one there and I HAVE to listen to my IPOD to get through it.

Anyone ever have ITband issues.  Come to find out my knee issue stems from my ITband in my knee, up my quad and into my tight hip flexor.  I've been stretching, rolling and self massaging (not to mention NOT RUNNING) and I can tell it is getting better, but I'm ready to get back on the horse.  I'm still swimming, biking, rowing (in place of running), Crossfitting and YOGA.  But completely frustrated that my weakest leg has to take a break. 
Any suggestions?
~Marsha

Damon/Marsha.

While I have never tried this product below one of my friends swears by it. The gear review section also had several ITB/Knee bands but I've never been sold on those. Massaging the knee/ITB has always helped me and I try to not tough it out when it starts acting up. The more blood flow you can get to that area (or any injury for that matter) the faster your body will be able to fix itself. Also I usually will take a look at my shoes when my knee start hurting. Many times it has been an early warning sign that it was time for new shoes

http://beginnertriathlete.com/gear/review.asp?reviewid=916

There is also a current thread on this topic on the board today.

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid...

Andy

Thanks Andy

I have one of the rollers and like it for muscles but my knee ache is inside the knee joint and I'm not sure how i can get to it. I spoke with my wife, a GP, who was pretty sure it was ligament inflammation, no doubt caused by the long runs of the last few weeks. Its mostly cleared up today and I plan to try a short off-road run today and see what happens. Swimming helped and yesterdays ride was not an issue at all so fingers crossed...

I have a turbo trainer but as I've converted my 2nd bike to a singlespeed I havent used it this winter. As I'm frankly not using my SS anything like as much as I had hoped, I might put it on the TT and try it? I have 3 of the Spinervals DVDs that are class based, but with all the shifting etc I dont think they will be much help. I might just try some 40-60 min intervals sessions and some easy recovery rides. Anyone have any ideas how to use a SS bike on a TT?

ATTENTION:  I have discovered my pool is only 22 yrds long.  So when you all read my swim times, please take that into consideration.  In the wink of an eye I went from a mediocre swimmer to a lousy one.  But I AM faster than last year.

WHAT?!!?!?  Why would anyone build a 22 yard pool?  Are you sure?

Marsha...IT have been my biggest problem in my legs since July...made my ironman run very long. I seem to be over it now, no problems this week. I have been seeing my Chiro about my neck and I told him about my IT bands and hes said he could fix it in 2 to 3 sessions. He was right. He uses A.R.T on them...active release therapy. Hurts like hell when he did it but it worked. I wouldnt run much till you have them looked at. good luck

I thought yesterdays off-road run helped my knees, as I felt no ache at all during the 50 min run, but there was a little back last night when I sat on the couch...

I'm sure most of us have thought about saddle comfort frequently on those long runs. I suffer with numbness which always worries me when it happens, and have looked many times at the Adamo saddles as a cure for this. I took the plunge today and spoke with the Uk distributor and he agreed to send me a saddle to test for a while, before committing to buy. I hope it will be here tomorrow with luck so I'll let you know how it performs and if it solves the numbness like many say, and how it does for comfort.

Drove a knife through the web of my left hand trying to shuck an oyster-Doc says swimming and sweaty palms should wait a few days.

btw:  Idaho oysters taste like crap!  But our potatoes are the BOMB!!!

Jeff:
Didn't your mother tell you, "no dangerous shellfish during training!"  I hope you heal fast.

Are you certain your pool is that length?  It's an odd number.  Perhaps get a second opinion.  You may not be as bad as you think.  Perhaps you got bad info from someone.

Lea

I just got a great tip from my cycling trainer.  He noticed that when I'm at the high end of my max HR (and I'm suckin' air), my face shows the strain.  He mentioned that if you relax your face muscles, your breathing comes easier.  He works with me a lot on form and it was a good reminder that good form (even in your face) uses less energy.  It leaves energy for performance and this particular trick helps you get air more efficiently.

It's been working for me.  Thought I'd pass it along to my Tri buddies.

Lea

nice tip...I remember reading something about how much energy you use tensing muscles in arms etc as you run, and try and keep as relaxed as possible apart from the muscles being worked.

Put the Adamo on the bike this afternoon. It took a long while to get approx right, and felt like sitting on granite initially, but a quick ride round the block and it was amazingly comfortable when seated properly. I suspect I need a fair bit more playing to get it right as I cant decide exactly how far off the front I should be sitting?

Stinking cold in the family today with all of us sniffling and spluttering. Only in my head so will try an easy ride tomorrow and see how it goes. I hope I havent made myself vulnerable due to my recent training volume, as I've had some big weeks recently. I need my holiday!

Wow. Went to sleep last night and it just started to snow and woke up and found 24-30 inches of fresh snow waiting for me. So I immediately went back to bed after finding out my classes were cancelled, but unfortunately not only did nothing change in the driveway but a few more inches had stacked up. Went out and shovelled for 3 hours. Wow that was one heck of a workout. Who needs weight training? The morale of this story, stay flexible and creative and you can turn anything life throws at you around.

Did decide I should do a ride this evening and worked out with a nice 80 min ride. I found I am still slow changing tires this week, but I seem to be getting a little quicker. Changing tires isn't a skill I ever really wanted to become really proficient at but in a longer race, being able to change a tire in a reasonable amount of time can not only save your race, but if you are good it won't even cost you that many spots and a quick rest sometimes isn't a bad thing, (as long as you stay calm - The ability to stay calm under fire is a great thing you can learn from this sport and carry into everyday life).



Andy

I saw the snow on the news in the Washington area - it looks extreme!

I hate changing tyres on my rims. They are just a nightmare. I got some new Easton SL90 wheels in a 50% sale a couple of months ago and am saving them for spring/summer use but they were really hard to get tyres onto. I hope the Conti 4000s dont puncture easily as doing it by the roadside will not be pleasant.

What are people's thoughts about training with a head cold? Work up feeling very stuffed up today but want to go for at least a short ride to test out the saddle. I could do with advice on balancing the desire to train vs need to recover fully. Anything appreciated....

I always feel better after I workout with a headcold.  As long as I don't push too hard.  I don't know if it's the sweat, the increased heartrate or fresh air, I just always feel better.  My $.02

I always use the physophy if I am sick from the neck up I can work out, if it is from the lungs down, I'll sit it out. As far as a cold go I will always work out. Once I get going, I always find my airways open up nicely and I breathe alot better and any coughing goes away for a little while.

Whoo HOO the Saints win. Not exactly the team I wanted to see in the game but I love to see the "underdog" win. Good game too. The game was a lot better than the commercials this year.

Went for a 40 min victory lap on the trainer to try and minimize the "damage" (don't really want to share all the garabage I ate with my boys (9 and 13)). Better than nothing I suppose.

Never really been a fan of the Colts so I really enjoyed this one.

It was a fun game to watch.   I really enjoyed the creative play management by the Colts offense.  I too didn't have a favorite team going in, but I love to watch the underdogs win.

This past weekend I was part of a rowing regatta.  I learned a lot about proper rowing technique on the rowing machine (ergometer).  Most importantly, you shouldn't pull back so hard that you end up with a bruise on your ribs!  Evidentally I was holding on too tight and using way too much upper body.  So I relaxed a bit and really let my legs do the work.  The bar just floats in to you then. 
I also wasn't using my complete stroke.  The instructor taught me to lean as far forward at the front of the stroke as possible (similar to swimming).  If you're going to reach forward you might as well reach all the way forward.  These gangly arms should be worth something.
So my time for a 2000m row (after maxing out on deadlifts that morning) was 8:05min.  I was shooting for under 8, but I think that's pretty good for my first competition.  I was the fastest girl anyway.

Did you know that rowing is a great non-impact sport that uses 84% of the muscles in your body?  Incredible.

Hi everyone! We are a full month into our new year and this is the time of year where it can start to become a grid to stick with your plan. We are a month into the new year, winter has still 6 long weeks to go thanks to Pucitony Phil (the world's most famous groundhog), its dark when you get up and goto work and dark when you get home and throw in 26 inches of snow and you have a motivation crisis. What to do?

For me, once it starts to become a grind it is time to do two things. 1) Visualize what the "prize" is for this year. 2) Change things up a bit and try something a bit of the beaten path to make things fun and give you something to look forward to.

First, what is the thing you are working hard in the dead of winter for? Make a picture of that goal and what that moment will be like. It can be simple (The look on my son Adrian's face when I was telling his class about IMFL. He was gloating over the fact that HIS DAD was an Ironman) or maybe a bit more involved (The near out of body experience, I felt the last 1/2 mile running down Alli Drive, towards the lights, camera, music, and having Mike Riley turn to me and say "Andy Rosebrook from Royersford, PA YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!" I swear my feet never touched the ground and you could feel the history I was about to become a part of.) It can be that electric feeling you feel in the pit of your stomach as you float in the water during the stillness which decends upon the field in the second before the journey begins (I treasure that feeling at the starting line even more than the finish, it lets me know I'm alive). What ever that prize is make a picture of it and put it in your head and let it guide you.

Second, can be to go out and do something new. This should be fun, make it fun. Of course we are a sick and twisted group and our idea of fun can make many scratch there heads. Go for a run in a snowstorm in shorts and look at the faces of the motorists passing by. Do a polar bear plunge (wow that is one heck of a rush!), sign up for a fun race. A few years back I ran in the Ugly Mudder Trail Race. It was a 7.25 or so mile trail run up and down Mt Penn (my avitar picture is from that race) on a day when it was 14 degrees, the course was basically unmarked and had turned into a sheet of solid ice. The hills turned into scrambles on your and and knees and the downhills were a tree to tree uncontrolled slide. One section I just flopped down an tabogooned down the hill ( and passed about 10 people). It started and finished at a bar, had the uglist race tshirt I ever owned. You finished off crawlling up Mt Mudd, the only spot steep enough not to have any snow or ice on it. I finished the race and then rolled up my sweat to find a hole in my leg from sliding into a rock about a mile from the finish and ended up having to go to the Emergency room get a Tetnus shot and 5 stitches as a trophy. But I had a blast. Just what I needed to shake up the wintertime blues!!

Have fun

Andy

Edited by southwestmba 2010-02-09 7:07 PM

Well for the second time in the past week we are getting slammed with 20+ inches of snow and just to make thing more fun this storm is accompanied by 20-30 mph winds to turn this completely white. Even a crazy person like myself isn't going out in this weather. So if you too are stuck indoors, here is another treadmill workout I used to do at home (before I burned out the elevator motor on my treadmill) and still do on the road sometimes.

Start at an easy pace at zero elevation and warm up for a good 5 min. Then every 2 min raise the incline by 1% until you reach 10% and then follow the same pattern back down to 0%. The 14 min you spend at or above 7% make the workout.

I call this a ladder and there are several variations you can do with it. My base ladder (sans warm up and cool down) with 2 min legs is 40 min. You can go to 1 min legs and do multiple ladders for a faster workout or stretch it to 3 min legs for a 60 min strength workout. Or if you really feel like challanging yourself you can increase the speed every 5 min or 10 min (I like doing this with 2 x 1 min ladders) Half way up or down the ladder and up top you add on, just make sure you figure out how fast you are going to end up or you force yourself to wimp out. Hills build running strength and this workout along with regular hills can help keep your legs strong at the end of a long race (which in triathlon is always important since the run comes last).

Stay flexible and have fun. I'll be shovelling as soon as the blizzard stops.

Andy

Motivational clip of the week.

This is one of our fellow BTers. This guy is an amazing example of the fact that each and everyone of us has a champion inside of us and it is never to late to let him out. He went from 400+ pounds and couch bound to an Ironman and just completed a 100 ultra marathon. Heros come in many shapes and sizes. Enjoy!

http://www.trimywill.blogspot.com/

Andy

Is anybody out there? I feel like I'm talking too myself this week.

One of my evil plans for myself this year is to do an Olympic and HIM on back to back days in June at the REV 3 Tri at Quazzy Ammusement Park in CT. Great way to celebrate my 40th birthday. To get ready for something like this I have been really focusing on my cycling this winter. The bike is the longest leg of a tri and it sets up the run so you need your bike legs in great shape if you want to excel on the run. In order to get the most out of your training you need to taylor it such that it matches your races/goals so it can prepare you for that challenge. So to that end, the last two days I biked an Olympic Time Trial on the Computrainer (Flat course) 40K (24.84 miles) and then the next day I rode a HIM Time Trial on the Computrainer (Flat Course) 56 miles. The purpose is to trian me legs to respond when they are fatigued and to give me some confidence I can hammer through it. Rode a 1:04 40K TT and a 2:27 56 mile TT which was pretty good and I ramped up both efforts as I went. Did find my it started to get uncomfortable at the end of the 56 mile ride, but I survived.

Tell me what your goals are for this year and what you are doing to get there.

Andy - you are not alone....

I had a quiet week as after hammering on with my training despite my nasty cold I felt like crap so gave in. 3 days away with work and long hours also meant no training

BUT, back with a bang today with a 12 mile long slow distance run - another longest ever run for me. Why is it I dread these runs but when I'm on my way I always feel so good? I struggled between 4-8 miles today, with strong cold wind in my face and feeling a lack of training all week, but hit it hard the last 3-4 miles for good time of 2hrs 5 mins which was only 7 mins slower than my 11 mile run 10 days ago. I still have some way to go in order to beat a 2hr race time, but I can go a little faster for the first half and today I proved I can hit it hard and hold that pace for 4 miles or so at the end. I felt some hip ache for the last few miles but good news is no knee pains and no noticeable aches/issues in the 7 hrs since I finished

I ordered a road ID as well today, as my rides and many long runs are in very isolated country lanes and I am not carrying enough ID. I figured for $20 it was worth having all that info easily available to anyone should I end up in a bad situation. Hopefully tomorrow will see a 2nd good ride on the Adamo and another chance to test it out. It looks hopeful that it will give me 90% of what I'm looking for.

Hey, I'm here.
Been having a heck of a time with my knee these past few weeks.  What do you all think about adding rowing into my training instead of running, until the pain subsides.  I've been stretching and foam rolling like a crazy person, but I'm itching to hit the pavement.  I ran outside yesterday morning in 9 degrees 3.25 miles and was in a great deal of pain at that point and had to walk the last .75mi to my car.
From what I can tell, my left quad and IT band are tight, so the rolling really helps to loosen everything up.  But it is extremely time consuming.
I haven't signed up for any races yet.  I can't even imagine doing back to back tri's of any distance (much less, oly/70.3).  That's pretty intense.  Sounds like you have a great gameplan.
I would like to do 3 sprint events to earn my spot in the elite wave and sprinkle in some oly's to keep it interesting.  My first race is an all women's race on June 12th (this was my very first triathlon).  I'm excited to see how far I've come in a year.
How about everyone else? 

I'm here, too.  I'm having serious shin splint pain.  Trying to warm up enough before any training, but it seems to hit me hard at about 1mi into any run.  So I've been forced to do bricks (ride, run, ride, etc).  My core is really getting strong, thanks to a Boot Camp tough regiment.  But I'm very nervous about my run.  Any ideas?  I'm desperate.  I've already tried new shoes and insoles and lots of warm-ups/cool downs.  Please help!

My first Tri for the year will be mid-April.  It's a sprint.  My goal is to end this season with 2 or 3 olys.  I'll also be sprinkling in some 5K & 10K runs throughout the summer, and I'd like to find a duathlon just to keep it interesting.

Thanks for any shin help!!
Lea