Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 60)

Yowsa!  Way to go Randy!

Was hoping for a bike ride today, but we have SNOW  so it might be a treadmill day.  Only 7 days until my tri and the temperature forecast is only 40F!  Think we can switch it to skate, snowmobile, ski?

Wow! Thanks everyone for following me through the day. Ended up 6/163 in age group. There are 3 Vegas slots for my AG so unlikely to get a roll down but I'm headed back just in case. Died on the last lap of the run.....felt I had 4:45 as a possibility but heat, humidity and the miles got to me.

Will check in later. Thanks again for all the support.

I can't speak for Nate, but I'm pretty happy with the training/racing we do. We're both competitive enough that we want to do well, but we never seem to have much competition between us. When I was training for my HM awhile back, a guy I ran with in a group was one of those "I have to push at the end of every run to be ahead of you" type of guys. Nate saw the two of us have a sprint finish one day after a 10-mile run because I just got pissed he had to win, even when it wasn't a competition. On our training rides and runs, we pretty much match pace and just get the miles/time in.

Of course, given that he is faster than me in every discipline, there's not a lot of direct competition between us! We're pretty mutually supportive, and it's nice to look forward to having someone to talk to on those long weekend workouts. Now, having said that, if Nate ever loses a step, somehow, and it's a foot race at the end of a race, I'm sure he'd agree that all bets would be off and it'd be every man for himself. 

Jamie/Nate-great to have a solid training partner. Someone that pushes you to do your best but not necessarily in a competitive way.

No Vegas slot for me. There were 3 available for the AG and the top 3 all took their slots. Oh well, I have Eagleman in June which has both Kona and Vegas slots so more potential for a Vegas slot there hopefully. Funny thing is that I would love to qualify for Vegas 70.3 World Championships but not sure I would actually want to race it. A hot, very hilly bike and run course. Maybe I would just go and do it as a "fun" race and not compete??.....unfortunately that's not in my DNA.

This was my first WTC event and they do a good job. Lots of fast looking and fit people with lots of nice bikes. You would think Cervelo P5 tri bikes were cheap......saw dozens of them and I think they start around $6,000. Passed a bunch of them too!

Thanks for the support. So cool to find out that people were checking on my progress. What a a great group!   

Sorry to hear about the slots being taken, but that'll just give you more motivation to work toward Eagleman! And it always feel good to pass someone who's spent more and trained less...

Micheal/Nate/Jamie/Randy-Congrats on the races!! You guys are amazing!

As for a new mentor group-I've loved being a part of this one and have really appreciated all the information and support (Rene especially sent me a lot of inspires when I really needed them) but I'm not very tri-focused right now and am not sure if that will change going into summer. I might join anyway if that's ok but if I don't it's just because I don't know what I'm doing right now.

Randy, great job on your race. Those times seem pretty amazing! Sorry you weren't able to get a slot, but the season is still young

I agree with everything Jamie said. We are both competitive, but we seem to have a pretty good deal of respect for each other and don't participate in any smack talk or dirty tricks... (none that HE knows of anyways...) 

But seriously, we do support each other a lot and it's extremely helpful and motivating to have someone to go on the long runs and rides with. It's also very nice to not have to go to a race alone.

Hey, a couple quick questions about this higher intensity training. When you hurt, how do you hurt? Nowadays, every time I hurt, I get worried I'm getting injured. I don't do anything differently because of it, and so far I haven't had any injuries, but if I run, and then my knee aches, I get worried. How do you rationalize soreness vs. injury? I ask because my training is involving more and more Z4, which is leaving me more sore than I'm used to.

Also, how do you measure hard? Do you go by pace, HR, or effort?

Thanks! 

Man, my mentors are awesome! Great job, racers! Sorry no Vegas slot for you at this race, Randy. Next one!

I'm very proud of myself. I changed out my 1st flat on my bike and even found the thing that gave me the flat :

Hills on the bike today. Have a great evening!

Jamie-on the high intensity soreness/injury issue I'm having pretty much the same aches and pains that Jason listed. Sore quads, calves and tight hamstrings. Typically these are worse after a hard run or some hard intervals. I rarely have soreness after a hard bike or swim...just fatigue.  I try to stay consistent with my foam roller, trigger point roller and stretching to keep these issues in check. If something gets more problematic or doesn't subside like normal soreness I'll go to my chiropractor for ART (active release therapy) and that seems to be better at resolving the more significant problems.

On the issue of pacing/judging your effort level my response mirrors Jason's. I use the same Coach and the workouts are built around various testing done on the bike/swim and run. All data is input into a software program called Raceday developed by Dr. Phil Skiba. Its pretty scientific and measures/calculates your positive versus negative training loads and will "predict" where you should be in terms of fitness come the day of your race. I have not played with it much but its pretty interesting. After inputing each workout it assigns a TSS "training stress score" to the workout and then uses that info keep up with your training load. Really becomes more scientific as you taper. I think it is most useful if you use power on the bike with your workouts although I suspect there is a way to utilize the software efficiently without.  I think there is a free trial if you are interested in checking it out.  

I made it home yesterday afternoon after the 8 hour drive from Galveston. Not the best way to spend the day after a hard race. Still tired and my quads are still sore/tight but other than that and just being tired I think I'll be OK.  Thanks to everyone for the kind words following the race. Qualifying for Vegas is and always has been a longshot type of goal. If I do thats great if I don't I'll be fine. I was pleased with my race on Sunday and know that I gave it everything I had on that day.  It was a 40 minute PR over my only other HIM in Nov. 2010

Awesome race Randy!  wow!  

  I too appreciate the excellent mentors and outstanding folks we have in this group.  I am now back into higher hours per week training, and getting so excited for the upcoming season.  Having dealt with some difficult issues recently, I ave not been as active as usual.  I would love to be part of this mentor group again. 

1 hr 40 min bike this afternoon.    Jim

Thanks for the input on soreness and training; I have a feeling I'll have a little of that tomorrow. I think the days of relaxing runs are behind me, as all my run-only days now have ever-increasing amount of Z4 work in them. Tonight was an hour run, with 2x6 minutes of Z4 at 10 minutes in. I thought that 2nd set was going to kill me; I had a stitch in my side that was killing me! 

Also, a 40-minute improvement in PR is pretty amazing!

Excellent!! Keep it up and you'll be jogging all of the set miles on your run.

Kudos for me!  I'm on a business trip (Houston) and managed to a run last night, AND a swim this morning.   Hotel pool was surprisingly good -- 25 yard pool with lane ropes and everything.    Pool was a bit shallow so I kept touching the bottom with my long arms, but c'est la vie...

The current forecast for my sprint tri on Sunday:

• High of -1C (30F)
• Low of -7C (20F)
• 60% chance of snow
• No I am not making this up

Any bets on whether they'll shift it indoors?  It's at a university -- swim is in the pool, and in case of inclement weather they will convert it to an aquathlon using their indoor track.  

If they keep it outside, I'll definitely need to consider my clothing strategy...!

Scott.

Scott-good work on getting your workouts in while on the road. BRRR! If they don't move it inside you will freeze! Hope it goes well.

Mary-keep up the good work. You are continuing to make steady progress.

Hey gang-finally put together race report from the weekend HIM.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=484015&posts=1#M4694853

Randy - fantastic race report.  I have 2 questions:

1)  How do you decide when and how many salt tablets to take?

2)  I am very impressed that you had so much energy on the run.  Do you think this is more the result of bike vs run fitness or both?  (Does this question make sense?)

Jason - I too was swimming at 5 am.  When I finished around 6 am, I notice the lightning.  I don't know how the lifegaurd could have missed it.  I think she just ignored it.  The pool was very crowded and I'm grateful she didn't blow the whistle.  A different guard, who also works mornings would have evacuated the pool at even the mere mention of a lightning threat.  Guess I lucked out.  I too am not aware of any data to back up the lighting risk for indoor swimmers.  Personally, if I'm up that early swimming, I'll take the risk.....