BE the BALL Group - OPEN (Page 6)

I have a road bike instead of a tri bike. I have been reluctant to plunk down a pile of cash for a tri bike. I won't say I haven't considered it, but I'm almost afraid of the look I'll get from my wife! LOL I know I wouldn't go high end, but I might be able to convince myself to spend $2K to $2500 on a bike if my wife let me. ;-)

On my current road bike, my seat is a Specialized, but I don't know the model. I do have clip on aero bars. I bought them back in 2016. I think I'm more like you, Bill. I don't use them extensively while training or racing. I like to use them to give my back a break by switching to a different position. I'll also use them to tuck into a more aero position when I'm on a steeper descent or if I'm facing some heavy wind. I've tried to increase the amount of time I'm in the aero position, but I don't have a good tolerance for it. Also, just my own personal observation, but it seems to take a heavier toll on my legs in that position. That may be different for others or it may have to the difference in the angle of the seat post between a road bike and a tri bike. It may even just be my imagination. But that's how it feels to me. In training or in a race, I doubt I spend more than 4-5 continuous minutes on my aero bars before I have to change my position. I'd like to change that since I've observed that I tend to ride faster in the aero position, it's just a matter of comfort vs. speed.

I'll also throw in the topic of clipless pedals. I finally made the switch over to clipless pedals last year. It's hard to compare from year to year just how much they may have impacted my performance. My gut feeling is that I did a little better climbing hills in the clipless pedals, but I honestly didn't feel like I had a major difference in my performance vs. the old plastic cage style I used in the past when it came to flat terrain. Maybe there was a difference, but if there was I feel like it was probably small. They took a little while to get used to, and I have had a few spills directly related to being clipped in, but I'm fully on board with using the clipless pedals. At least my falls have been strictly during training and haven't had any issues during a race.

Eh, mixed bag for me this weekend. I had a really good 7-mile run on Saturday. Sunday morning I went for a swim. I'm not one for drills and I mostly just swim continuous laps. Once I feel like I've got decent fitness, I increase my distance by 100m each week until I get up around 2000m continuous. This past weekend was supposed to be 1400m. Then my old friend the dreaded foot cramp (in the arch of the foot) showed up and ruined those plans. It happened for the 2nd time during my 21st 50m lap and I didn't feel like fighting with it for the next 7 laps, so I cut my workout short. I jinxed myself because on about lap 20 I told myself that I was going to finish without the cramps returning (the 1st time was maybe lap 12). Spoke too soon! Time to start massaging my feet with a golf ball again. ;-)

So, I've now entered the build phase of my training. My duathlon is only 9 weeks away! Cycling starts to build up from 75 minutes to 120 at the end of the phase. Rather quickly builds to 120 minutes! Gonna have to find some good movies for those rides lol. Also, start adding some runs to the end of a ride once a week and bike intervals. The fun stuff is here, ya know, the stuff that makes ya faster.

Scott

Then my old friend the dreaded foot cramp (in the arch of the foot) showed up and ruined those plans.

@ Randy - I am with you on the tri bike. I really like my road bike. Bit the bullet in 2015 and got a good one. It is hard for me to justify the money for a bike that I will use for limited periods of time. Although, I have heard that the tri bike does help with comfort in the aero position because of how adjustable it is. Also have heard that the position that it puts you in is supposed to help conserve your legs for the run. Not sure about the truth in all of that. I guess I won't know if it applies to me until I go out and get one. I almost bought a used Trek Speed Concept and I still may do that if they have it for sale.

I have clipless pedals as well. I have Look Keos on my bike on my trainer. It's a decent Cannondale that I bought used on Craigs List. They came with it. I went with Speedplay when I got my Trek. I really like them. They say that there is there is better transfer of power when using bike shoes because of how stiff they are and I feel like that is true for me. I really like the clipless pedals. I picked up a set of the refurbished power tap pedals and of last year. I am going to put them on my road bike in place of the Speedplay. Looking forward to having matching front and rear wheels. I have had a different rear wheel because it has my powertap hub in it. I also bought it used and really love it. I have it on my trainer right now.

I sometimes get a cramp in my calf or foot when swimming in the pool. I find it is usually from the two things mentioned, pushing off too hard or trying to hard to keep my toes pointed. Everything suggested above is what I do to remedy the situation. My worst cramp came about half way through my IM swim last year. The quad on my right leg just cramped up all of a sudden. I had to stop swimming and just tread water for a minute. I think I may have been kicking too much. It took a few times of trying to start and it cramping back up again before it went away. I just kept trying to relax my kick and legs and just use my arms to pull. I was really glad when it went away.

@Scott - Good for you on the family day, they are a good thing. I have never heard of a season being ruined because someone took a day off to spend it with the family. Turn that around and miss some important family time because you are training and that can be trouble. And look, you had a negative split run the next day as your reward.

Good luck on the build phase of your training. 9 weeks goes by fast.

I managed to set a new PR at my 5K today, but the result was far from what I was hoping for. The PR was barely that, beating my previous best by a mere 2 seconds, with a finish time of 24:15. I feel guilty complaining about a PR, but I am disappointed for sure. I had clocked as low as 22:17 on my treadmill, but knew running outside would be different. I mapped out a plan that I hoped would net me a time in the very low 23s.

Mile 1 was right on schedule, finishing exactly on plan with a split of 7:20. I was supposed to reach the turn around at 11:22. Not sure what happened, but I hit the turnaround at 11:44, so I knew I had fallen 22 seconds behind. I must have turned the jets back on a little because I did finish mile 2 in 7:44 and was only 15 seconds off my plan. It fell apart in mile 3. Where I had hoped for 7:33, I clocked 8:06 and was now 48 seconds off. I pushed hard to the end at a pace of 6:41. But the course measured 3.16 and the extra distance didn't help. If it had only been 3.10 or 3.11, I could have at least broken the 24:00 barrier. But that still would have been at least 40-50 seconds slower than I had hoped for.

I suppose it didn't help that I ran the race in a Care Bears onesie! LOL It was close to 40 degrees outside, but I was pretty hot in that suit! Plus, it wasn't the most comfortable thing to run in. But I love seeing the smiles on people's faces when they see me in these ridiculous costumes. The woman that was the MC for the event started laughing uncontrollably when she saw me and needed a full minute to get herself together. It was pretty funny. Oh, well, my next race will be more serious and I'll go with the traditional shorts and a t-shirt.

Back to training!!







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Congrats on your PR! I’m pretty sure you’ll crush your next 5k. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’ll get there. My next race is a week away. Treating the entire thing as a hard training day and not doing any type of taper for it. Likely do something easy Saturday or nothing at all, otherwise it’s training as usual. So no real goals for the races other than to finish and have fun out there.

Had a decent week of training. Only thing I missed was swimming, and it was out of my control. On-call this week and normally i’d swim today, but my things didn’t work out with the famly, but I did get my run in. Had a long ride Friday on the trainer. 1.5 hours was brutal, and cant wait till it warms up enough to get outside. Hope ya’ll had a great weekend.

Scott

It was an improvement over my last race. I'll continue to do the treadmill "time trial" workout, but I think I need to kick it up a notch. I had done as low as 22:17, but I'm not even coming close to that outdoors right now. Granted, if the course had been 3.10, I would have crossed the finish line in 23:47, or 23:52 if it had been the same as I measured last year which was 3.11. I at least would have felt better about breaking 24. But it is a far, far cry from breaking 22. I may have to reserve any serious attempt at that until September or October. I think the treadmill will only do so much to help my speed and eventually I will need to run intervals outdoors to make a real impact.

I had a pretty good week. I had initially planned to swim on Saturday, but my shoulders were sore/aching from the stress of working out and shoveling snow (with more on the way?!), so I skipped the swim to give them a rest. So Saturday turned out to be a rest day. Still, I logged a workout on 5 out of 7 days, which is right around where I would like to be. I didn't really "taper" for my 5K, but I did back off the intensity of my workouts during the week to make sure I was feeling fresh. I'd say that part of the plan worked for the most part. My legs feel fine today, so I'll be right back into it with a bike trainer session later.

Great Race! Running in a Care Bear Onesie was awesome. Don't be too hard on yourself about the PR. A PR is a PR. At least you were not even a little slower. All of the factors you mentioned played into the outcome. Take away all of those and you most likely have a significant move in your time. Keep working and look to the next one to see what you can really do.

Decent week for me last week. Not as much swim or run as I had planned but still got some work in.

Swim - 1 Day - 1250m - Intervals
Bike - 5 Days - 160.6 miles - Did 3 hours on the trainer on Saturday
Run - 3 Days - 9 miles, not what was planned but achilles issues are doing okay.

Started masters swim group last night. Definitely have a lot to work on, mostly in my catch. I have been crossing over center. I really thought I was doing okay with that but that is the first thing that got pointed out to me. Looking forward to Wednesday to continue working on form/technique.

Going to try to get 3-4 runs in this week along with plenty of bike.

I think Scott said he had a race this weekend. Anyone else?

Good Luck Scott!!

So this morning was my Irish double 8k at 9:30 am followed by the 5k at 11:30am. I ate my usual pizza the night before and then a pop tart and coffee for breakfast on the way to the race. I had picked up my race bib the day before so all I had to do was show up for the race. I find a parking spot and its only about 32 F outside so I hangout in the pickup until about 9:10 and then do my quick warmup routine and stretch. I’m in shorts and a long sleeve shirt.

I line up in the 7minute per mile area figuring i’ll Be somewhere in the low 7s. The gun goes off and I take off as well. Everything feels good and take a quick glance at my pace on the watch and i’m Under 7 minutes per. I know I cant hold that pace for another 4.5 miles so I back off a little. First mile clicks by at 7:09. Ok, that’s about where I want to be and think I have a chance to hold for 4 more miles. Mile 2 is 7:16, mile 3 is 7:13, mile 4 is 7:18, and finally the last mile is 7:13 for a final time of 35:59. Official time is 35:57, 11th in AG out of 72, 63rd out 478 males, 72 overall out of 1122 runners. Very happy with my time, effort, and how I paced the race. I grabbed a banana, Gatorade , water and went back to my pickup to regroup for the 5k in just over an hour away.

I stretch and look over my 8k race results. I’m happy. My goal for today was to add the time of the two races together and be under an hour combined. So, I needed to run a 24 minute 5k to make that happen. I need to run on average 7:43 or faster average for 3.11 miles. 20mintues prior to the race I head back to the start line and start to stretch out and warm up again. I’m looking for folks that I know that should be in the coral with me, cant find them. The gun goes off. This time, I just go with whatever pace I can hold and as I get tired I shorten my stride and increase my cadence. This seems to work. My first mile is 7:09, followed by 7:16, 7:13, and an official time of 22:14! A faster pace than my 8k time! Very happy again with how I executed my races. Took 10th in my AG out of 155, 131st out of 1454 males, and 151st overall out of 3437 runners.

I’ll post an update when they give the Irish double scores.

Spent the rest of the day with family. We went tot he parade in the afternoon followed by food and a park to end the day. Relaxing and resting up. Might try an easy swim tomorrow depending on how I’m feeling. If not, back to running Tuesday. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Scott

Next race is an indoor Tri to warm up for the upcoming season April 21

Irish double update:

Results have me 35th in the Irish Double out of 400+ participants With a time of 58:11. Taking today off from swimming. Probably do some light stretching for sure. if i’m Really feeling ambitious might start throwing in some strength training tonight.

Scott

Awesome job, Scott! Those are some big participation numbers! My 5K last weekend had somewhere just over 2000 runners, so over 3400 is another 70%. Of course, you know I'm jealous of those splits! :-) And very consistent.

It was a brutal week for me in terms of training. Between another snow storm early in the week, to being busy with work and the family, and then having my mom come down for a visit on the weekend, not to mention my wife's birthday, there were a lot of obstacles. I only managed to scrabble together 3 workouts during the week, and one was a swim. So I've got to get back on track this week.

Congratulations on a great race!!

Last week is done. You got done what you could. New week this week.

March Goals were:
Swim - 5000m per week (minimum 3000m per week)
Bike - 120 miles per week
Run - 15 miles per week

Last Week:
Swim - 2 swims - 1 class and 1 workout - 1250m
No where near goal but really feel like the masters swimming class is helping form. 2 classes this week.

Bike - 5 sessions - 154 miles.
Bike is going well. I can really feel the improvements week to week. Planning 4 rides/120 miles this week.

Run - 3 runs, 1 walk - 13 miles
Run is going good now. Running every other day seems to allow me to recover/heal and be ready to run again. Achilles issue continues to slowly improve. Doing a lot of self care after each run. Planning 4 runs/14 miles this week

Crazy week this week. Family trip to Disney this Thursday through Sunday. Not much going to happen those days. Planning to ride early before we leave Thursday and late Sunday when we get back. Also, planning an early morning run Friday and Sunday while down there.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Edited by billeckert 2018-03-19 11:26 AM

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing.

Had a good run and swim class on Monday. I missed my ride yesterday. I had to work in the field all day and was up and down some pretty steep slopes in the woods all day long. I know I got in a leg workout doing it but just can't put that on the training log . Got in a 90 minute ride this morning and planning a run this afternoon. Leaving for Disney tomorrow! Yeah!!!

It has been a much better week for me than last week. By yesterday, I had already matched last week's production! LOL Which is clearly not saying very much. But I had a killer run yesterday. I decided just to run and not look at my GPS watch for pace. Not in the moment pace, not my pace at each mile, just run and don't look at my watch. Despite that, I could just tell I was running at a pretty good clip. As I approached my turn around, I was guessing maybe 8:25/mile. At mile 4, I gave in to temptation and was shocked to see I was averaging 8:08! My last two miles were 8:18 and 8:30. But to average 8:13/mile for 6 miles was a bit of a surprise. That's only 1.2 seconds per mile off my 10K PR! I still need to work on my top end speed to get my 5K down to closer to my goal. But keeping up that pace for 6 miles sure was a test.

Have fun in Disney!

Randy

Awesome work!

Have fun at Disney! Following my plan as best I can. Couldn’t make it to the pool today and doubt i’l Be able to make it later this weekend. Kids have their last basketball games Saturday and then date night that night. I’ll be doing good to get my brick run in let alone sneaking off for a swim. Have a 2 hour ride tomorrow, not sure how i’m Gonna get that in, other then be up late riding. Last week i finished it and was whipped. Hoping it doesn’t beat me up as much this time.

Nice run Randy!

Hoping everyone is having a good week and a good weekend!

Scott

Is it too late to join? I've been super slack over the past several years and need to make a comeback! I know this Mentor season is almost over, but I don't want to give myself an excuse to wait any longer!

NAME: Nate

STORY: Started racing triathlon in 2012 and it really helped me with my depression. I was able to lose 60lbs and get into a healthy lifestyle. I even raced a few Half Ironmans and one Ironman by 2013! In 2014, my wife was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer and from there, things went downhill. I stopped taking care of myself and stopped training pretty much all together. I'm back to a weight that's even worse than what it was before I began training initially and I've picked up bad habits along the way. I've tried to come back to triathlon every now and again, but just can't pick up the motivation I once had. My wife is still going strong and I need to get my health back in order to be a better husband. So here I am!

FAMILY STATUS: Married with a son about to graduate highschool. We adopted him last year.

CURRENT TRAINING: Lift twice a week and sporadically attend Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes. Plan to incorporate Swim/Bike/Run ASAP.

THIS YEAR'S RACES: Nothing planned at the moment. I just want to focus on weight loss and building a base right now.

UPCOMING YEAR'S RACES: None


WEIGHTLOSS: I'm sitting here at 6'1" 255 lbs. I'd like to be close to 200 by the end of the year and eventually hit my "Ironman" weight of 180lbs this time next year.

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE- I've done this before and have some tricks up my sleeve! I'm ready and willing to take advice as well as offer it up to others if asked for. I'm hoping that being a part of a group will help with my motivation problems.

Thanks for having me with however much time is left this Mentoring season!
-Nate

I don't think it's too late to join. Welcome! My past experience with the mentoring groups is that they are typically fairly active through the end of the racing season for most people.

I took about two months off with very little activity after my last race last year when we welcomed our 3rd child into the family. When I restarted my training, it was tough going in the beginning to find the motivation to train and to think about where my fitness had been just a short while before that. I can't imagine what it would feel like to have as much time away from training as you've had. But my sense is that you just need to make the commitment and trust the process. There will be hard days, there may be days you feel like you aren't making progress, but keeping your mind on this as a long term goal will hopefully help you stay the course. I'm sure you'll find plenty of encouragement here!

Randy