Gray Guy/Girls Tri--Masters Sprint/Olympic Mentor Group CLOSED (Page 7)

I have a masters swim meet today that will take most of the day. Tomorrow I would like to do a bike/run brick, but it is raining this weekend in Kentucky.

I rested the knee, iced and ibuprofen last week as Steve suggested but I probably should have rested it more but I wanted to test it out a little before my half marathon.. To take it easy I tested it out running on a hard-sand beach and the ITB pain was still there. It feels like a burning on the outside of my knee that seems bearable but can get really sore at certain points in my run but I could get through it. It goes away as soon as I stop but will be sore to the touch if I do so (so don't touch it, Ha! Ha!). Looks like this may take a while to go away completely. I still want to do my half marathon next Sunday and as Steve suggested I think if I take it easy I can run through it. I will not have the time I was looking for but it is my first one and I have done a lot of training so I would really like to just complete one officially. There is a ton of stuff on ITB online and a lot of people seem to contradict each other (massage, not to massage, etc.). It seems like I made all the classic mistakes to cause this ITB issue: due to a new job I had a gap in my training and did too many miles too soon, even though I have lost 50 pounds I still need to lose another 20 to be a real runner and I run on pavement which up here in Massachusetts the roads are uneven. In the future (after my half) I plan on running less miles and build up slowly using the 10% rule weekly, I am going to buy a couple more pairs of sneakers and rotate them, I am going to try and do more trail running and change directions on track, road and beach because the are all tilted and lastly I am going to try and do more stretching and weight training which I have totally neglected (what a dope).

Speaking of being a dope lets get back to my half marathon plan for next Sunday. I wasn't going to run at all next week and just bike and swim to keep my cardio up but I was advised to just do a few 30 minute runs on trails to keep my legs strong. Does anyone else have any other ideas? Thanks James

Hey--be careful with that IT band. When I suggested you could still run your HM, I was assuming that with rest, ice and ibuprophen you would come back after a couple of weeks off rest and run pain free. The fact that you're knee is "sore to touch" is not good. If it was me and I was experiencing pain like you describe I would dump all running until I could again run pain free. IMHO no single race is worth the risk of turning a short term problem into a chronic one. And as gray guy triathletes know, none of us heal or rebound like we used to.

On the bright side, cancelled running workouts creates a good opportunity to focus on biking and swimming.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Steve

Hey--be careful with that IT band. When I suggested you could still run your HM, I was assuming that with rest, ice and ibuprophen you would come back after a couple of weeks off rest and run pain free. The fact that you're knee is "sore to touch" is not good. If it was me and I was experiencing pain like you describe I would dump all running until I could again run pain free. IMHO no single race is worth the risk of turning a short term problem into a chronic one. And as gray guy triathletes know, none of us heal or rebound like we used to.

On the bright side, cancelled running workouts creates a good opportunity to focus on biking and swimming.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Steve

A swim meet would be so much fun. Although I enjoy swimming the inconvenience of doing the training (30 min drive to pool, limited open hours) means I do the bare minimum training wise to get through my races.

Steve -

Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful response! I have anticipated that I would likely have to win my age group in order to qualify for Kona and I had researched previous year Kona AG times that had received an invitation, however I had not calculated actual pacing yet. That is extremely helpful - thank you!

I will offer up a little more about my background so perhaps you and others on this forum will know me a little bit better. I have opened up my training logs for anyone to see, so if anyone has any comments or suggestions, I am absolutely open to hear anything anyone has to offer.

My rationale back in January for entering Sprints was simply to learn Triathlon - how races are conducted, transitions, etc. Then the plan was to enter one or two Olympic distance races and perhaps consider a Half-Iron or maybe even an Ironman before the end of the year. My current training plan reflects a Half-Iron build and tops out at approximately 22 hours/week. As planned, that was going to happen in late August. Now, after the medical problems, the plan has moved back 3 months so not sure what the races are going to look like. The plan also included a 3-month build to a half-marathon that was scheduled in the beginning of May. That run build is still in the plan however, the race date is now behind me. The whole point of the half-marathon was to "make the run my friend," so I am inclined to leave the run focus as it is because that is without question my weakest segment.

Steve Quote - "Just looking at a couple races, it looks like to be among the top finishers for 55+, you'll need to have a swim time of about 1:10 (1:40 per 100 yards), 5:30 on the bike (a little over 20 mph) and 3:45 on the marathon (about 8:40 per mile). Challenging to say the least. So, as you begin to lay out your training plans and evaluate the results from your races, you have a general idea of the performance standards you'll need to hit."

Again, thank you for the drill down on the pacing. That is incredibly helpful. My first time back in the water after nearly 30 years I was shocked when I did a 57.4 second 100 yard TT. I guess old habits never die! I attribute that, more than anything else, to what you had eluded to, namely that a swimmer has "proper form." My point is that I fully expect to be out of the water on the IM swim in under 50 minutes. I think I will be able to hold my own on the bike. Back in high school and college, I was riding 200-300 miles/week, pretty much year round. Granted that was thirty years ago, but I do recall what was involved in putting in that kind of mileage week after week. Back in the day, a couple buddies and I would go on 100+ mile rides nearly every weekend so again, I have some knowledge of what will be involved. That doesn't completely negate the "Newbie" status but it certainly helps to mitigate it.

Then there is the run. Yeah, I have always hated running. That little marathon thing at the end of an Ironman is what kept me from pursuing my Ironman dream for more than 30 years. I won't bore anyone with the details of the epiphany that got me on the road to Kona, if you are curious you are welcome to check out my website where I go into it in detail. Suffice to say I have battled the run for more than 32 years and finally I am beginning to get the upper hand! My run goal is a sub 4-hour marathon. I am nowhere near that pace. I have roughly 14 months to get there. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

I will address the whole weight thing in another post because I would like to start a discussion on that very topic.

Finally, you will be happy to know that I became a USA Triathlon member back in January when I entered my first Sprint.

Again, thank you for your response. I look forward to sucking up every ounce of triathlon wisdom that is offered.


Edited by k9car363 2013-05-18 7:41 PM

I log everything on the BT logs. I am an I.T. guy so I guess I am predisposed to the techy, nerdy stuff but I find it incredibly motivating to watch the graphs grow and to see the numbers increase. You find inspiration where you can!

I post on BT. I got a Garmin 410 on Amazon a few months ago for $150 which included the soft chest monitor and it is awesome. It automatically loads when I walk in the house from a run to Garmin Connect. I then go on to BT and hit load Garmin and voila there it is, pretty cool.

HEY PEOPLE - Don't forget to weigh in tomorrow (Sunday) night for the Portly Triathlete challenge and the quest for the coveted Black Dog Mug!

Edited by JREDFLY 2013-05-19 9:34 AM

Sitting here in LAX waiting for my red-eye to get back to the East Coast. No doubt that experience will motivate me for a good workout tomorrow. Hahaha... Not. Only managed to get a couple of weenie gym workouts in while I was here... but it was something. Get to do this again next week in Michigan instead, then I will have to really zone in for awhile to make up for lost time. My usual struggle with consistency.

I see we found ourselves a serious swimmer. Welcome Scott! Just out of curiosity, how do your times now compare with back when you were world class? I'm shocked at how much slower I am than I was in high school. I guess the only saving grace is I don't worry about the swim, but like you, the run is the bane of my triathlon existence.

The new interface is pretty nice looking. Still kind of finding my way around, but so far I like it!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Stu

Scott I read your Swimming Technique section on your blog and I thought it was totally awesome and very timely for me. Thank you so much for sharing.!!!

Glad it helped! And thanks for visiting my blog.

Today was a rest day for me. We took the granddaughters to a petting zoo which was lots of fun for them.

Weigh in was not impressive... up 2 lbs this week to 144, that is not the right direction !

Still at 176.

Going to start trying "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" this week. Looks pretty intense, I will let you know how it goes.

Went for a light ride with the wife today just see if I could feel any ITB issues while on the bike and it seemed OK.

Going to hit masters class at 6:00 AM tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I will send in weight in the looking. Does a knee brace not help? I like the one that fits right Unger the knee cap. Helps allot.

I am reading "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" and also "Racing Weight". If I spent as much time training as reading about it ...

Anyway my svelte weight is 207, I guess that is about half of the Ghiradellii gone, so easy to add, so hard to subtract.
By the way, Matt Fitzgerald thinks 2 beers or wine a day is OK (probably not the same as good though I am going for blissful igmorance) for males (only one for females). Now the sun is out I am counting the days when i did not have a drink so i can create a nice average. I think I am back at about 4 years old!

Too Freakin Funny!!!

Definitely going to get a knee brace before I start up again. Thanks!!!

150 lbs yesterday. Slow going to lose 5 labs.

Ran my 3rd tri of the season yesterday, Washington, NC sprint and was my first open water swim. I've been training very hard lately to the point I may have over trained. With the exception of the swim, which were PR for me (not saying much swimming is my weakest par). Performance in the bike and run were disappointing for me. Bike was a little faster than normal for me, run was dismal. I simply ran out of gas!!!! My total time was 1:54:03, 3rd in my AG. Where i finish isn't as important to me as my times and improvement. However, up until now, it's been cool. Yesterday it was hot and humid. Temp at race start was 74, at finish it was 82 and the humidity was brutal. This was a flat course and my goal was to PR. I gave it my best shot and ran out of gas. One thing i know for sure is i have to get a new bike. I'm riding on a cheapo road bike, and i don't know if it's the way it's geared or not, but i pedal my a** off and can't seem to keep up.

Scott, I also went to your blog and read the swimming technique section ... nice. Heading to the pool this morning and will work more on the body roll.
Thanks

Well, I did my first lake swim of the year. Here in Northern Ontario, it's still pretty cold. I wore my wetsuit and latex gloves on my hands. My feet were cold. Is there anything I could wear on my feet that wouldn't impede their naturally movement?
P.S. Our black lab wouldn't even go in, even when she saw a beaver swimming by!!

They make neoprene booties and caps for cold water swimming. You are braver than me. I'm at the eastern end of lake Ontario and I'm not going in that water yet. Even the lakes here are still too cold for me.

weight 146.8 this morning. Surprised since my eating was less than stellar especially with my 26th anniversary dinner! Lol