PLMsbr (JD) Group - FULL (Page 7)

I don't have any races planned for the near future but would like to find a 5k soon just to see how my run training is progressing.  I've been feeling pretty strong since getting back into it after the holidays.  My short term goal is to break 24 minutes by the end of March.  My PR is 26:20 at a local Thanksgiving day run but have run 25:46 in training back in early November.  What do you all think is that goal too much of a stretch? I have knocked 4 minutes off my 5k since June so that's around :40 per month.  I know the gains get harder to come by but I think I can do it.

Along those lines I am finally back to double digits on my long run.  I managed to get 10 miles in about 1:45 on Saturday.  I haven't seen double digits since I injured my knee during a half mary last August. I felt fine the whole run and recovered pretty quickly with no knee issues. I will probably keep my long run at 10 for a few more weeks just to make sure the body gets used to the pounding before going longer.  I don't have any races longer than a 10k in the plan for now but may look at a half mary or two later in the season.

Baowolf, I am totally envious of your pending pool install!  It would be pretty difficult to come up with excuses to miss a swim with a pool in the next room.  Good luck in the mary!  Taper tantrums must be in full effect about now.

Pac10er2, good luck in your half mary; enjoy it!

triscruggs, I only dream of doing 3-4k swims so I can't help ya!

I'm a little jealous of the pool, but mostly because I love toys...  The only thing I can think of worse than swimming over a black line for an hour plus is swimming and going nowhere for an hour plus!  Baowolf, I gotta tip my cap to you.  I don't know if I would be doing all this if I were in your situation.  Be it a 100 mile drive to swim or building my own pool, I'd have found something else to do.

I may hit up a biathlon this weekend if I don't sit in front of the TV watching football.   I'm finally at a rest week.  I need it!  But isn't it funny how it's hard to really take a break?  I feel guilty for not continuing the hours and miles...  Even harder is not filling those extra hours with my other favorite hobbies - drinking beer and eating ice cream.

Will

Triscruggs, I feel you with the guilt over not going hard.  I have programmed myself to make sure I get my training in no matter what, and it drives me crazy if I have to miss a workout. 

In regards to the swimming, I just follow the workout I get on my training plan.  It hits the yardage I need, and it breaks up the swim to managable chunks. 

I did a 3100 yard swim today, but it was as follows

200warmup

5 x (300 at T pace - 1:30/100 for me 100 drill 50 sprint 50 non-free (I did breast stroke as I hate butterfly, and suck at backstroke)

400 cool down

This was my given workout for the 16 week HIM plan - my HIM is April 4th, so it's creeping up on me.  First one of this distance, and really the first Tri I have specifically trained for.  I did a sprint last year, but I did it for fun during my marathon training.  My run was fine, but I only swam a handful of times prior, and almost never rode a bike.

It's getting real now, and I think I got a taste of how tough this is going to be this weekend on a 2 1/2 hour bike and 1 hour run brick.  I really hadn't ridden outside since I got my new bike, only on the trainer, and it was tough.  I didn't realize how long 2 1/2 hours could take.

trinity, I think you can do it if you want it bad enough. Since I know you did the treadmill thing for a long time like I did; I'll throw out a treadmill workout you can try. If I'm doing my math correctly, your fastest 5K pace is about a little under 8:30/mile. So, I'll use that as the base point for this workout.

Set the incline on the treadmill to about 1.5. Start out with 9:30 pace for the first .75 mile.

After that warmup, move the pace up to 8:30 and go for another .75 mile.

Drop the speed back to 9:30 pace, and go ahead and step off on the sides of the treadmill for a couple minutes if you need to; bring your breathing and HR down. Now get ready...

Back on the treadmill and bring the speed up to 8:00 min/mile pace. Hold on for .75 if you can; but try your best to make it at least .50. If you are huffing and puffing and feeling like your lungs are going to explode... great! If not, maybe you can push it a little faster

What you're trying to do is get your legs/body used to what it feels like to run faster than what you normally can run. Treadmill is great for that since you can't cheat or slow down (at least not without rocketing off the back of the treadmill!).

Bottom line: my significant run gains have come when I've pushed to new limits and accepted more pain/discomfort than I was used to (or liked).

Anyway, play around with that and see what you think; and adjust the numbers if you need to.

JD

But if feels soooo good when you cross that finish line and have completed your first marathon!

I'm waiting for longer days and for warmer mornings...

Hey group---Sorry if I bore anybody with my bummer morning...but then again I guess you don't have to read this if you don't want to!! I was going to use my home gym this morning, it's a NordicFlex Gold World Class machine. I bought it in 1993! You can't even find a picture of it on the internet. It's a machine that uses nylon rope and a "clutch" to give the resistance. It's extremely easy to use and has been a great machine over the years. The clutch just doesn't want to pull that cord back into itself. I spent the a.m. taking it apart hoping I could do something...failed. Called the company...no parts...too old. Tried a couple of parts sites on the web...no parts. I can still use it to work my legs and the bar to do things like pull ups, chin ups, dips, etc. All is not lost but it is a bummer. So, being that it was in the low 40's here in Boise this afternoon I went for a road ride. Felt great. Got 20 miles in.

Just a comment on nutrition...I've never been one to count calories or figure out how much Protien I'm eating. Since I started this Tri training I believe I'm not getting enough Protien. I'm using Hammer Nutrition Recoverite after my workouts and plan to start using their Whey Protien at night. I'll have to figure out how much I'm eating during the day and see where I'm at.

Will...I haven't checked out the hotels in the downtown area nor have I ever stayed at any. I'm sure they are all nice. It might be wise to check out the Courtyard Maroitt on Park Center/Broadway. It's just barely outside the DT area but convenient to get where you have to go. It's real close to the hospital too just in case you need it!!!  

I hate when things stop working, and now you have to spend a bunch of money and time just to get things back to how they were...  Try some google searching if you haven't already, it's amazing what you can find out there in the internet universe.

I need to do some nutrition-checking myself. I try to eat a balanced diet with fairly healthy foods, but I've never really done the math to figure out calories, carb/protein intake, etc. I might be making things harder on myself than I need to. Here's an article on protein intake that I found:

First article

2nd article

JD

Speaking of nutrition, here's a favorite smoothie recipe of mine; which you can alter based on taste and/or which ingredients you have:

The ice is just to make it colder, so I don't use that if I'm using frozen fruit. Here's an approximate idea of nutrition in the smoothie:

Calories: 600

Fat Calories: 50

Carbs: 130

Protein: 18g

Potassium: 1250

Magnesium: 40% RDA

Fiber: 9g  (banana 3g and blackberries 2g of that total if you want to reduce)

And back to protein for a second, a couple of quick and easy protein sources are Clif bars (10g/bar), whole wheat bagels, skim milk, and yogurt.

Anybody else have some good nutrition tips and/or recipes?

yuck, sorry to hear that! Don't suppose you ate some bad peanut butter...?

Just listen to your body. As you get nutrition back in your system and get re-hydrated, you'll feel better and stronger. If it was a food-poisoning type of thing, then once it's gone it's gone; but if it really is a virus or something you don't want to weaken your immune system and have a relapse. Plenty of time to make up for a couple days of missed/light training.

Definetely a virus, my 2 year old passed it right over to me.  A couple nights prior,  I was up with him 3 times during the night, and was thrown up on each time for my efforts!  By the end, I started just picking him up and heading for the shower before he started, made the clean up easier.

After the night, he did it to me 3 more times that day.  Thrown up on a total of 6 times in about 18 hours.  Awesome. 

For all of you who aren't yet dads, that's a little sneak preview of the gross stuff.

I am actually feeling a lot better today.  I went to the gym at lunch, expecting to do a light treadmill workout, but ended up getting in almost 5.5 miles at a decent clip.  The human body is tough to figure out.  Yesterday at this time I couldn't move.  Today I run 8:30 pace for 5 1/2 miles. 

Sorry to hear about the viral thing.  I was sick for the first 4 months of last year and ate well crackers and pedialite for 3 months prior to my half mary.  And completed the half mary in 1:50.  So ya the body is an amazing thing.  Something very small can put you on the bench and something huge can only take you out for 24 hours.  Oh well meeting coming up catchya later.

Oh, for our leader.  Are your short runs 2 -3 miles the week before the marathon supposed to be high or low intensity?  Thanks.  

Sorry to hear about the viral thing.  I was sick for the first 4 months of last year and ate well crackers and pedialite for 3 months prior to my half mary.  And completed the half mary in 1:50.  So ya the body is an amazing thing.  Something very small can put you on the bench and something huge can only take you out for 24 hours.  Oh well meeting coming up catchya later.

Oh, for our leader.  Are your short runs 2 -3 miles the week before the marathon supposed to be high or low intensity?  Thanks.  

I got out for bike fitness testing today during this R&R week.  It's a 30-minute all-out ride to approximate your lactate threshold and allow for a comparison of fitness as you progress.  I haven't done one for a few months and this was my first on my new tri bike, but my average speed was 4 mph faster with that new bike!  Wowza!!  Over an Olympic distance, that would have been a difference of 12 minutes from my last tri at that distance.  Not that it's going to have that great a carry-over to an event...  Nice motivation, though. 

I think it was Pac10er who was bummed about not having a tri bike.  I didn't have one last year and I loved passing folks with those snappy bikes - that in itself almost makes it worthwhile to not have one.  I don't think a tri specific bike would have been worth the investment for me for my first couple of tri's, but after seeing the difference today I wish I had at least gone out to get a set of shorty aero bars for my road bike. 

One quick note about those shakes.  There have been some studies lately looking at how our bodies recognize how many calories we take in.  Ideally, we should be less hungry if we take in 600 calories of a shake like JD's (and that recipe looks great).  However, we don't recognize 600 calories of liquids like we recognize 600 calories of solids.  Nutritious shakes are great, but they may not be as satisfying as solids.  That can make it difficult if you're trying to lose weight.  Six hundred calories is almost a whole meal's worth - don't forget to cut back on some calories elsewhere if you're trying to drop some pounds.

 Will

This may not mean too much to you guys but my buddy and I got registered for the Death Ride in CA this July. www.deathride.com It was one of those frenzies on the web site with tons of people trying to get registered at the same time. Anyway that's why I missed my run today after the swim. It was worth it!!!

Thanks for the tips on Protein

Something in-between. Run them fairly easy, with short intervals (2-3 minutes max) of race speed. The idea is you want to keep your legs fresh, and do just a little bit of race intensity to keep physically/mentally ready. My experience is that your time in a marathon comes from years of base training and months of race-specific training; so there's not much you're going to do in the last week that makes a huge positive difference. But having fresh and rested legs definitely makes a positive difference.

All you guys with your new bike fits and/or bikes doing so much better is really making me tempted to buy that P2C I've been thinking about for a while...

I agree with at least getting aero bars for the road bike; anything that can help you get a little more aerodynamic makes a big difference.

Good point on the shakes, you do have to actually treat it/accept it as a meal; not as a snack (if you're trying to keep the weight down). 600+ calorie snacks are a bit much I'm normally using those as my lunch/mid-day meal after the more intense workouts.

Oh, and I did some counting of protein grams yesterday. Pretty close to where I should be at, but something I need to watch. Maybe keep some of that good soy/whey protein around for days where I'm falling short.

Looks like it would be very intense and lots of fun...  I've worked on hills more the last couple years; but serious mtn pass rides would probably wipe me out.

BTW: anybody apply for that job to hang out on an Australian island for 6 months?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479973,00.html

Hrm years of base training for the mary... I guess I probly won't be able to fit that in by Sunday, but I can definitely keep the runs lower intensity.  I am like 15 months off the couch at this point so even being able to finish a marathon is well beyond what I thought I would ever be able to do 2 years ago.  And my last run was around 7:30 or so pace for 4 miles at elevation.  That is like 3:00 off what it was a year ago for a training run so all is good.  Hrm in high school a 7:30 pace was not as fast as it seems at 40+, why is that? 

I looked at the finish times from last year in my age group... the first 6 40-45 were Boston qualifiers with some sub 3:00:00 and there was only 1 guy who finished much past 4:00:00.  So I guess he and I will battle it out for who is 2nd to last in the age group.  I still go back and forth between, just get her done and well try to get a slightly better time.  I am sure everyone struggles with that for a first mary, I will just keep it in the right percieved effort zone and see what happens.        

 It is wierd to have time at night to have nothing to do though.  I usually hit 1-3 hours of workout after work and well not this week. 

Oh and the door goes on the new garage tomorrow which means that next week they can start working on the pool room.  I am trying to not get too too overly optomistic about it getting done soon, but it is hard.    

It will be amazing at the end of August when you realize you have completed a marathon and an Ironman - that's a great feeling that you keep for many years. And a 7:30 pace over 4 miles is pretty impressive to me, especially in that short a time period.

Those are some pretty fast marathoners, to have only one person past 4 hours! I think we all want to push it a little when it gets to race day, just watch out for times that you know are *way* faster than what you are trained for. Flip side is don't slow yourself down to the point where you are not running properly. I love that inner battle we all have during a long race: "am I going too fast? too slow? walk more? walk less?"

I'm looking forward to hearing the race report early next week!

Triscruggs, 

Awesome job on your test, to go that much faster is amazing.  I think I will pay my dues on my road bike for a year or two at least, then think about a Tri bike.  I did get some Aero bars for my road bike, so at least I am getting used to the aero position.

 Congrats, and keep up the great riding.

Thanks for the props, Pac10er.  It was fun to ride faster than I've ever ridden before over flat ground.  Most of that is supposed to be due to the aero position.  Are you picking up speed with the aero bars?

You can add a pic by going to your 'control panel.'  It's between Home and Help in the upper left corner after you log on.  Go to the bottom of the control panel page and you'll see where to upload it.

 Will