David Gillen's Group - FULL (Page 7)

Good job on the practice tri!  Keep it up.  Your schedule and prioritization looks great too.  It might take you a couple of weeks to fully recover from your HIM in Sept, and therefore probably won't be able to optimally train for your marathon in Oct.  But this is perfectly fine especially since you've give it a C priority and are probably just doing it for "fun" and are not overly concerned with your performance at it.

No drop means no one will get left behind.  Someone who knows the route should always be behind the slowest rider.  

armydad,

 The link below shows all area trails.  I am not sure what is close to you but this might help.

Ken 

http://nttr.org/html/dallas_area_trails.htm

Kevin, I wouldn't worry too much about maximizing your speed downhill. 40 mph is plenty fast, and my suspicion is that your neighbor weighs more than you and thus has gravity as an advantage on the downhill (and a disad. on the uphills). On that downhill, I doubt that the slight difference in gear ratios (53/12 vs. 52/12) made him much faster than you.

One suggestion: Try to start doing some higher cadence work as 70-75 is a little on the low side for what most people recommend. Most people recommend 80-100, with 90-100 be preferred. This might seem really fast for you at first, but over time you might become used to it. A higher cadence will work your aerobic system (heart and lungs) more, and your leg muscles less. This has 2 nice benefits of improving your aerobic system and saving your leg muscles for the run.

Mike, to answer your question about Kevin's numbers. He's referring to the number of teeth on his gears. When he said he has a "triple 52/42/37 in front", he meant that he has 3 rings near his pedals, the largest having 52 teeth, the middle having 42, and the smallest (granny ring) having 37. The gears in the back are called a cassette and his cassette has cogs with 12 to 25 teeth on them.

Mike, 1000m in 25 minutes w/ breaks is not bad at all.  And it's really good that you're concentrating on slow and relaxed strokes.  Keep working on your form, before you start worrying about speed and distance. 

Since we all seem to want advice on the swim, I'll try to start putting together some links/advice for it even though I'm far from an expert.  

Stay tuned... 

Yes, Pene, given your situation that you'll need to ride a lot indoors (and don't seem to mind it as much as some people, me), I think you should invest in a trainer that will fit your tri-bike.  Doesn't have to be anything fancy, even a used one for ~$100 should probably be OK.  Reason: The position and ,in your case, resistance on your MTB is much different than your tri-bike, and we want you getting comfortable and optimized for your aero-position.  

Glad to hear it, although please feel to question and disagree with me anytime!  You're absolutely right about being on the bike for a long time, especially in long course tris.  That's why cycling endurance is so important.

RIGHT ON.  That's awesome that you're already seeing one of the huge benefits on Zone 2 training: Repeatability.  If the day after one of your aerobic, Z2 workouts, you can repeat it with little to no discomfort, then you're training at the right intensity.   I'm not saying you should do the workout again, but the fact that you felt like you could is EXACTLY how you want to feel for aerobic training.  Great job!

Ahhh... Hydration and nutrition.  2 of my favorite subjects!  You'll be hearing lots from me of both of these.  Very important especially for any events taking 2 hrs or more.  

Of the 2, hydration is more important because if you get dehydrated, your stomach shuts down and you can't absorb any nutrients/calories!   Before, I get to involved in the specifics of hydration, let me offer some general tips:

1. Find a sports drink that you like and that you can stomach at race intensities.  If you like the taste, you'll drink more which is good.   Sports drinks are better than water because they contains sodium and most contain an optimal (6-8%) concentration of sugars to enhance the liquids absorption into your intestines and out of your stomach.
   
2. Find a bike hydration system that works for you.  Most people just use bottles, but you must be proficient at drinking from them at speed and do it often.  Therefore, practice this.  Aero bottles (if you have a tri-bike) and camelbaks are 2 other popular alternatives that I've personally used.
   
3. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, compute your sweat rate in different environment conditions.  So, you'll know how much to try to drink.  (You might not be able to replace all the fluids you loose).  To conduct a sweat test, record the temperature, humidity, and wind and then do the following:
1. Weigh yourself with little or no clothes before you workout. 
   
2. Workout (run or bike) for a fixed time.  (Ideally, an hour).
3. Remember exactly how much you drank during the workout
4. Weigh yourself with little or no clothes after the workout.
5. Then compute your sweat rate following my sample below:
   

Here's an example from an actual test I did from an 1 hr run last May: 175.5 (pre-workout weight) - 172 lbs (post workout weight) = 3.5 lbs = 54 oz (16 fluid oz = 1 lb).  But, I also drank 20oz during the run, so I need to add that to the 54, and thus I sweated out 74 oz of sweat in one hour!  It was in low 90s that day with very high humidity, but still 74 oz/hr is a very high sweat rate.  That's over 4.5 lbs an hour!  Hopefully, your rate won't be as high, as I've found it very difficult to absorb more than about 45 oz per hr on the bike, and no more than 30 on the run.  Thus, dehydration is a constant threat for me.

Please try to compute this when you get a chance.  Like me, you may be shocked at the results especially for those of you in hot and/or humid climates.

         

This is absolutely true. Most of us would do much better if we made our easy (Z2) workout easier and our hard workouts harder. Exercising at a medium intensity all the time is not optimal. And yes, rest and recovery are just as important as working out. One of the best coaches here in the DFW Metroplex, Ahmed Zaher, once told me that he tells his clients that if they don't have the time to properly recover from a workout, the might as well not do it! I think this is especially true for your tough or longer workouts on the weekend. I know we're all busy, especially on the weekend, but please try to get in a couple of hrs of good rest and recovery after a tough workout on the weekend. Take a short nap, kick your feet up on the couch and watch TV, read a book, try to stay off your feet, go to a movie, and most importantly eat a solid recovery meal with plenty of high glycemic carbs and some protein. Be sure to eat this recovery meal/shake as soon as possible after your workout as this is when your muscles are the most receptive to replacing the glycogen they just lost.

I'm glad you have faith, Pene, as it will take time. No one will build up a solid aerobic base in just a few weeks. It takes everyone months, if not years. But the best news is that it "detrains" just as slowly. In other words, once you have built a solid base. You won't loose it by taking a week or 2 off here and there!