BE the BALL Group - OPEN (Page 7)

Thanks, Randy! I'll take all the motivation I can get.

Went for my first run in several months yesterday after work. I have to tell myself that I'm "building my base" as I do a Z2 run and am so disappointingly slow as compared to 4 years ago!

I'm trying to start small this time around too. I've tried to jump back into this process with unreasonable training weeks for someone who has lost all of his aerobic fitness. Looking forward to having that back!

Thank again for the encouragement!

-Nate

March turned out to be a pretty good training month. I had the interruption around St. Patrick's Day between life/work responsibilities, my wife's birthday, and my mother coming for a visit, but I buckled down over the 2nd half of the month to increase my training load.

Swim: 1h 54m 09s - 5210 M
Bike: 6h 39m - 108.66 Mi
Run: 6h 58m 21s - 48.77 Mi

My swim was down after missing a workout early in the month and then we were away this past weekend for Easter. But I was making some strides in working my pace and distance up. I will attempt to get to the pool tonight to make up for missing my workout this past weekend, but mid-week nights are tough for getting to the pool.

My bike total increased nicely. I upped my average workout to nearly 50 minutes, up almost 10:00 from last month. I've mixed up my effort level on the bike, with some easy efforts and some harder. I ended March on a high note, averaging 18.3 mph for a 50:00 ride. By far, the best pace I've had on my trainer for a ride of that length.

My run saw some improvement as well. My average run distance was up a little more than half a mile per run. I did more 5K distance runs last month in anticipation of my first race of the year, but I did fewer in March and when I did do a 5K time trial I at least added a mile of warmup beforehand. I've got my next 5K in 6 days. I'll do one more time trial today and then a 5-6 mile run later in the week.

Hope everyone is doing well and had a Happy Easter!

Sorry.fir the absence. Last week was crazy after Disney. Had a lot of catching up to do. Them Mom, 73 years old, fell last week and ended up in the hospital. She is doing good. Hoping to get her home tomorrow..

Nate, good to have you. I glanced T the recent posts and will look them over closer in a little bit.

Swim: 1h 30m 58s - 4400 Yd
Bike: 8h 24m 09s - 168.06 Mi
Run: 6h 04m 56s - 43.62 Mi

Numbers are decent. Work, sick kids, and now with a different version of the crud myself, I've been sidelined until I can kick this cold. Not sure whats gonna happen with my race in May. Might have to once again back down to the sprint version with my recent setback. Time will tell when I can get back at it and how things feel. Hope everyone else is doing well

Scott

Welcome Nate! Hope all is going well with your ride back to triathlon!

Scott

I finally put together a good race and cracked the 24:00 mark at my 5K today! This came as quite a shock after having something in my left quad absolutely lock up at the pool yesterday. I stretched, I foam rolled, I slept with IcyHot patches on my leg, and did a very light spin on my trainer to try to warm up my muscles. It didn't bother me during the race, but it's a little sore now and I'm wearing another IcyHot patch as I type this. ;-)

Very evenly paced race. My mile splits were 7:26, 7:36, and 7:32. I happened to glance at my Garmin as I was nearing the finish line (since I couldn't see a race clock anywhere) and it had me at 23:10 right at the 3.10 mark. The course measured 3.19 and I finished in 23:46! I knocked 29 seconds off my previous PR, set about a month ago. Of course, I would have been ecstatic about 23:10, but 23:46 feels great! Still a long way to go to get under my goal time of 22:00, but this is a big step in the right direction.

It was a relatively uneventful race. Obviously, very consistent pacing. The slowest mile included the longest hill climb of the race, so that time for that mile is a win as far as I'm concerned. I swapped places with a few of the same runners until about mile 2. I caught up to another member of my running club and just hung onto his heels as best as possible. I knew he was aware of me being behind him (and he confirmed this), but I was only trying to keep up with him. I stayed right on his heels from mile 2 to the finish. I actually beat him by 12 seconds since he started farther forward in the pack than I did. But I didn't know that at the time.

Great race, good weather for it, and super pumped about my finish! Also, working on improving my finish face. LOL





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Thanks everyone for the kind welcome! I'm starting to get back into training (mostly for weight loss) and man, I'm beat! I was able to get to bed early (10:00pm) last night and got a got 8 hours of sleep before a weight lifting session this morning. Gonna do another short (30 minute) run at lunch today and have a martial arts class tonight after work.

Right now, I'm just trying to get back into a routine and make myself tired enough that I'm not staying up until 1am (the rut I've been stuck in for a few years now)

Great job on breaking 24 minutes Randy!! Always happy to hear someone gains a new PR! I've used the tactic of following someone to keep pace before. It's really helpful.

Bill, I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I hope she heals up well and soon!

Off topic... is it not possible to change user profile photos? Every time I try to enter my new picture, it comes back with my old picture. My pic does NOT reflect my current state of fitness, lol

Nevermind, it was a caching issue with my browser. All good now!

Thanks, Nate! Yes, I've used that tactic several times in the past. Sometimes I'm able to keep up and sometimes I have to let them go if the pace is too much for me to handle. This time, we were pretty much step for step the entire final mile plus. In fact, we must have both kicked it into high gear at the same time. The last 1/4 mile of the race is downhill at about 1.5% grade and Garmin says I averaged a 6:14 min/mile pace for the last 0.19 and we were never more than about 8 feet apart the whole time! I could tell he was looking over his shoulder to see if I was still behind him. LOL

Sleep can be tough sometimes. I've got 3 little ones and they take a lot of energy to keep up with. :-) Between the kids, work, and my training, I generally don't have any problems falling asleep. Although, I'm a bit of a night owl, typically not going to bed until 11:00-11:30. While the baby fusses some at night, we haven't had issues with her being up for a long time. She usually goes back to sleep fairly quickly, so there isn't a big interruption of our sleep at night (knock on wood). Here's hoping the trend continues for you to get to bed earlier and get the sleep you need for recovery!

R.

How's everyone doing out there?! Seems like our little group has gotten quiet over the last month or so. The weather in New England seems like it is finally settling into spring conditions. For a while there, it seemed like we were still having winter in April! The temperatures have finally started to rise into the 50s and even 60s on a more consistent basis and dare I say that I see temperatures in the (gulp) 70s in the two week forecast?!

I took the opportunity yesterday to finally get outside to ride my bike for the first time this year. There were one or two days earlier this year with warm enough temps for me to ride outside, but something always got in the way or they got the forecast completely wrong and I wasn't prepared. Since I've been doing all of my bike workouts on my trainer, I figured I better start tackling some hills! I was surprised at the results.

My hilly loop starts with a relatively flat (actually, slightly downhill) 3.5 miles. I can't confirm it, but despite my best efforts I don't believe I have ever averaged 20+ mph over that stretch. Yesterday, I finally broke that streak! Garmin has me averaging 20.4 mph over that stretch. That felt pretty good for my first outside ride of the year. But the hills were the real purpose. The first hill is the easier of the two major climbs. It's hard to gauge that one because I had to stop in the middle due to road construction work. The second major hill is the big one. It averages 6.2% grade for about 3/4 of a mile. There are less steep sections on either end, but the segment I track on Garmin is this steepest middle section. Garmin said my average speed over that climb was 7.9 mph, which surprised me because it wasn't that far off my best pace ever on that climb of 8.4 mph. So both of those were good signs that I've done a decent job of training during the colder months. Hopefully it means better performances in my races!

How is training going for everyone else? Some of you in warmer climates must be getting close to having race, yes?

Yes! It appears that spring is finally here! Work has been throwing a bunch of strikes at me the past few weeks. Between work and sick kids followed by getting sick myself I’ve lost 3 weeks of training. My duathlon is May 6th. I’m signed up for the long course race 10k, 60k, 10k but leaning heavily towards dropping down to the shorter version of the race which is a 5k, 30k, 5k. I’m still undecided on which race i’ll end up racing. I believe I can finish the long course, it just has good potential to be ugly. I don’t care for ugly. Looking for thoughts?

Made it out for a run today. First workout in 5 days. I’m hoping to finish the week out strong and then still sorta taper next week. As the they say, “the hay is already in the barn”. My expectations aren’t very high for this race. Hope everyone is having fun training for the season. My run tonight was great. Hoping work cooperates the rest of the week.

Scott

Whatever bug was going around made it's way through our house, too. Surprisingly, it started with me and then infected my wife. Usually, it's something one of the kids bring home, but I was the first one to get sick, so I guess that makes me Patient Zero! Sorry to hear about the big gap in your training. Luckily, I wasn't so bad that I missed out on much. I did skip one swim workout because I was too stuffed to even consider trying to breathe properly for swimming.

I can't say that I've gone into many races feeling undertrained. I've had injuries that popped up in close proximity to races, but never anything training related. However, in the cases where I have had concern about my finish due to injury, I have tended to stick with my planned distance. Mostly, I make a paradigm shift and try to see it as a long distance workout at an easier pace than I would normally race. While I do want to improve, because I'm never really in contention for age group wins or podiums, I probably tend to care less about my final position in the standings. That's especially true if I know I have an injury concern that could affect my performance. I accept it for what it is and don't let it get me down.

If you're concerned about the result or your position in the standings, then maybe you're better off dropping down to the lower distance. Is it going to be a stretch to finish the 10/60/10 distance? If so, might you be exposing yourself to potential injury? I wouldn't want to jeopardize the rest of my racing season just to prove that I could finish that distance. I'd rather drop to the 5/30/5 distance and then try to reclaim my fitness level before I missed all of that training.

Just my thoughts for what they're worth! ;-)

I managed to get pretty consistent training during the month of April, logging a workout 7 out of every 10 days.

Swim: 1h 58m 01s - 5300 M
Bike: 6h 22m 57s - 104.47 Mi
Run: 7h 50m 49s - 53.32 Mi

My swim suffered again this month and I only logged 3 workouts. Because of the inconsistent training, some of the increase I had seen in my pace has gone away. Hopefully, I can get back to being consistent in the pool and get some of that back.

My bike volume actually took a small dip. I logged about 4 miles less this month than last month. I did cut a couple workouts short. One due to an upset stomach and one due to being just plain tired! If I had done the duration I had intended on those days, then I would have seen a modest increase.

My run saw a modest increase in volume of about 4 1/2 miles and about 52 minutes of duration. My run feels pretty good right now and I nearly set a 10K PR on my training run the other day. Missed it by 4 seconds! I didn't realize that I was that close until I looked at my watch with about 1/4 mile to go. But it was a good sign.

I've got my next road race this weekend. It's a 5-mile run right here in town and is part of my running club's grand prix series. After that, I've really got to back off the run intensity and start focusing on my bike speed. I have about a month after the race before I have my first tri, so it's time to start dialing in my bike sprint speed.

How is everyone else doing with their training?

April was a rough month.
Swim 0h 0m 0s - 0.0 yds
Bike: 4h 31m 47s - 87.97 Mi
Run: 4h 25m 14s - 51.41 Mi

Getting sick and dealing with new work stress really through me a loop. By the time I felt good enough to work out I felt I needed to forget about swimming focus on the bike/run for my race this coming Sunday. Hoping to survive the long course as planned. Pacing will play a huge part. Hope everyone is doing well

Scott

I had a great performance today at the Grafton Gazebo Road Race. It's a hilly 5-mile race right here in my back yard (start line is less than 2 miles from my house). I had run the course a little over 2 weeks ago, so I knew what to expect. That run was a bit of a surprise when I saw that I had finished it in 41:01. I had expected the hills to kill my pace. But what goes up must come down and I really made up for time on the 2nd half of the course.

Beautiful day for the race. Sunny, temps in the low 60s, a little bit of a breeze. I'm not sure if my memory is just that bad or if there was some kind of glitch with my watch. I thought I remembered it reading 8:00 for the first mile, but on my Garmin workout it shows 7:45. I'm going with a glitch and not my memory. Still that first mile was 26 seconds ahead of my practice run. Mile 2 is essentially all uphill, but I managed a very respectable (for me) 8:29, which was another 23 seconds ahead of my practice run. So I already had a 49 second advantage over the first 2 miles. I kept that in my head as I could already feel the hurt in my legs.

In the end, I survived the big climb of the first half and could start turning it on a little more over the 2nd half. Mile 3, which was the "flattest" mile, was 7:51. Mile 4, which had the biggest elevation loss, was 7:16(!). Mile 5, mostly small rolling hills, was done in 7:56. The last fraction of a mile (0.09) was recorded as 7:23 pace. My final time was 39:59.5. No lie, they gave it to a tenth of a second. I was absolutely thrilled! On a tough, hilly course, I think breaking 40:00 was something I could only dream about. And it beat my practice run by a full minute. :-)

Time to start putting some more attention on my bike now! My first sprint tri is just over a month away.

Very nice race! PR and sub 40! Awesome! Keep doing what you’re doing.

Scott

So yesterday I stuck to my race that I originally registered for which was the long course duathlon with a 10k run, 60k (40+ miles), 10k run. The weather prediction changed so often throughout the week I had left it up to the day of to decide whether I’d stick to the long course. If it was wet and windy I was dropping down. It turned out to be calm and warmer than expected. So, left it be and figured I’d find a way to suffer through it.

The first 10k was uneventful. I paced it to be around 50 minutes and came in just under 49 minutes. The bike course was 4 10 mile loops. First two laps were fine. I stopped after 2 at the aid station to get some bananas and Gatorade and again after lap 3. Lap 4 I was starting to feel the effects of a lack of nutrition and probably lace of training. I finished the 40+ mile ride in just over 2 hours and started the second 10k. I legs took about one lap (1.5 miles) to snap out of the bike ride. They were cramping pretty but subsided after a lap. Then I made it about another mile before the cramps came back and never really went away for the next 2 laps. I took water/Gatorade at every station but it was too late. I managed to finish the second 10k under an hour but not by much. Final time by Garmin was 3:56:40. I met my goal of sub 4 hours. I’m happy I did the long course. Age group was tough. 30-39 AG had me 7 of 9. I suspect I’ll attemp to race the long course again next year. Kinda feel like there’s some improvements to make in going forward.

Scott

Great race, Scott! I wish I was as "undertrained" as you are! LOL I'm hoping to be able to average 20 mph for my sprint (10 mile bike) in about a month. That's awesome that you can hold that pace for 40+ miles when you haven't been training as much as you'd like. I'm sure you'll be able to improve on your time next year if you can avoid the interruptions to your training that you suffered this year. Still, you met your goal and that's gotta count for something!

I'm trying to decide whether or not I should feel lucky that it took until my 5th year of triathlon training before this happened. I had my first serious wipeout on my bike a couple of days ago. I was going around a relatively tight corner, but one I've taken no fewer than 20 times before. As I went around the corner, the back tire got into some loose debris on the side of the road and it just slipped out from underneath me. As you can see in the picture, my forearm and shoulder (insert in upper left) took most of the damage, but I did also get an abrasion on my hip and it is somewhat swollen and sore.

I did a visual inspection on the bike and there didn't appear to be any major damage. The hood on the left side of the handle bars was either bent or pushed out of position, it was hard to tell. Otherwise, it looked mostly like there were just some scrapes from the road. I managed to get about another mile or so before my rear tire went flat. Luckily, by that point, I was only a quarter mile from home and just pushed it the rest of the way. The worst part might have been that it tore up my favorite bike jersey!

I've taken a couple days off from training. Depending on how my hip feels, I may try a light run tomorrow. If I can't run, then I'll probably just walk 2-3 miles to keep the blood flowing. I'll be on the bike trainer until I can get my regular bike back from the shop. No idea about the pool. That'll probably take at least a few more days. *sigh*




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OUCH! Hope you're recovering well and have made it back on the road? Work has me working long days too many days a week. I come home just exhausted and then try to spend time with family and then bed. No time to train right now. Looking like my season is toast as there really isn't much end in sight at this time. I am hoping to run and bike as I can. Possibly switch my races to duathlons instead of tri's this year. I can't seem to make it to the pool at all right now. Hope all is well.

Scott

It's getting better. I can stand to have things like my clothes actually touch the wound. I got my bike back this past weekend, but the weather was horrible, so today was the first day I was able to get back out and ride. It went fine. The only real issue was that the road rash on my forearm is just about exactly where I rest on my aero bars. I just couldn't put any pressure down on my arm in order to ride in the aero bars, so for now I'm mostly on the hoods. I suppose I could try using the drops, but I've never been all that comfortable riding that way.

I might be heading for your situation. I've got a a lot of work on my plate and I know I'm going to be very busy over the next couple months. I will have to be very disciplined about trying to get my workouts done either early in the morning or not until 9 p.m. at night. It won't be easy! Someone from my tri club posted about waterproof bandages, so I may check those out and see if I can make it to the pool soon.

Randy

Another tough month training for me.

Total Bike100.98 miles 6h 02m 16s
Total Run76.23 miles 4h 20m 03s

No swimming or strength training. A large portion of the biking was on a mountain bike at a casual pace as I tried to find the enjoyment of riding and also just spend a little bit of time alone with my wife while the kids were with my nephew. Next race is 3 weeks away. I go to training for two weeks starting Sunday. So, in theory, I’ll have more time to train after class so I might be able to have a decent race the after I get back. Hope everyone is doing well. Been rather quiet otherwise.

Scott

Same here, only for a little bit different reasons. Things have gotten really busy at work over the past month or so and that should continue through June into the first week or two of July. I also had my bike crash, which put me on the shelf for a little bit. When I did start training again, I had to ease back into it.

Swim: 1h 17m 38s - 3500 M
Bike: 5h 22m 09s - 88.6 Mi
Run: 7h 48m 52s - 40.02 Mi

My swim is really suffering. I had two weekends in May that were affected by general life events (like being busy with the kids) and my Spartan Race, plus I didn't dare try to get in a pool for at least a week after my bike crash. I will have to lower my expectations for my first race, which is a week from today.

My bike was also somewhat limited after the crash plus the aforementioned reasons. I had hoped to hit an average of 20 mph for my first race of the season, but that's out the window. Bike total is about 16 miles shorter than last month.

My run seems like it will be the last to recover. When I crashed, I landed hard on my hip and it is still sore and swollen. I have been easing back into running as a result. I shortened some of my workouts and have been going at an easier pace. My run two days ago showed some signs of life and I took the harness off my effort level. Still, my run total was down 13 miles.

I had hoped to PR my race next Friday and everything seemed to be aligned for that to happen before my crash. I've changed my expectations and now it will be more of a practice run in anticipation of my first Oly in early July.