kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 6)

So the swim portion of my first sprint did not go as I had hoped. I looked at the Garmin data and it looks like I went out pretty fast for the first 100 or so. I know I thought to myself that I should slow down because I was concerned with really conking out, which screwed me up. Long story short - I do not pace well swimming.

I do nearly all my training before 8AM even on the weekends. So to pull that off I was up at 4:35 this morning and got in 1:15 on the trainer plus an hour run. I take Saturdays off so she can sleep in and I take care of any issues with the toddler or 6 month old and even Sundays I'm up at 4-5AM depending on the workout. During the week I'll run or swim on my lunch hour. You learn how to squeeze it in to keep the home life happy which at the end of the day it's more important than our hobby we love.

I would say in this case it either Scott could answer the question well. 

Haha.  I have over/unders on the bike and run this week.

No. Generally what I do is warm up and then I do my first 100 at a fast but not all out pace. Depending on how I feel that's generally somewhere between 1:25 to 1:35 when I hit the wall. I take ten seconds of rest and that is my sustainable effort. So let's say I bring it in at 1:33 I'll round up to keep it even and take 12 seconds on the first one and my intervals are at 1:45. By the 8th one you start to fatigue and the rest might only be 5 seconds. Other days I'll actually get faster and if that happens I may drop to a 1:40 interval but I don't let myself add onto the interval.

There's some trial and error but after doing it a few times you'll learn your paces and it will become instinctual. I can within a second tell you how fast I brought in an interval 98% of the time and the other two percent I'm usually pretty close as well.

I'm up anywhere from 4-5 but it's usually 4:30.  I try to get it all in as early as possible even on the weekends.  It needs to be as invisible as possible with 4 children.  

No. Generally what I do is warm up and then I do my first 100 at a fast but not all out pace. Depending on how I feel that's generally somewhere between 1:25 to 1:35 when I hit the wall. I take ten seconds of rest and that is my sustainable effort. So let's say I bring it in at 1:33 I'll round up to keep it even and take 12 seconds on the first one and my intervals are at 1:45. By the 8th one you start to fatigue and the rest might only be 5 seconds. Other days I'll actually get faster and if that happens I may drop to a 1:40 interval but I don't let myself add onto the interval.

There's some trial and error but after doing it a few times you'll learn your paces and it will become instinctual. I can within a second tell you how fast I brought in an interval 98% of the time and the other two percent I'm usually pretty close as well.

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

Are you serious??? That is freaking AWESOME!

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

There are two slightly different things going on here.

What Scott is describing (swimming 100s on 1:40 or 1:45) is interval swimming.  When swimming an interval, you go off on the interval no matter what.  For example when I played water polo in college we swam 20 x 100 on 1:30 pretty much every day.  For the first 10 or 12 100s I would hit the wall and have a little time to rest but towards the end it would just become an all out swim with no rest because I would miss the interval.

What Larkin is describing is a best sustainable effort.  Goal in that type of workout should be to go as fast as you can for all of the 100s.  That is, while you may be able to pop one off at 1:26, when you do 10, your time is more like 1:34.  So the goal should be to do all 10 in 1:34 and then take 10 - 15 seconds rest between each 100. 

Does this help?

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

It was cool to watch her. The guy in the lane with (or next) to her started out pretty fast. Kelly slowly reeled him in and beat him with a pretty good margin. Very impressive flip turns.

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

Seeing we're talking about workout specifics --

What is everyone's favorite workout and why?

Intervals on the trainer, race pace effort outside on the bike and a tempo run are all up there for me. I probably especially love the race pace effort outside because pushing pretty hard for 2.75 hours is fun but then really digging in that last 15 just gives me that natural high.

I have to get the bike tuned up this week and have the chain replaced so I can do one of those Sunday morning.

There are two slightly different things going on here.

What Scott is describing (swimming 100s on 1:40 or 1:45) is interval swimming.  When swimming an interval, you go off on the interval no matter what.  For example when I played water polo in college we swam 20 x 100 on 1:30 pretty much every day.  For the first 10 or 12 100s I would hit the wall and have a little time to rest but towards the end it would just become an all out swim with no rest because I would miss the interval.

What Larkin is describing is a best sustainable effort.  Goal in that type of workout should be to go as fast as you can for all of the 100s.  That is, while you may be able to pop one off at 1:26, when you do 10, your time is more like 1:34.  So the goal should be to do all 10 in 1:34 and then take 10 - 15 seconds rest between each 100. 

Does this help?

If you are replacing the chain, you should also replace the cassette.  Chains and cassettes need to "marry" each other, so its a good thing to replace them at the same time.