Fred Doucette's Half-Iron and Ironman Focused Group! -CLOSED! (Page 70)

Fred Doucette - 2011-03-26 12:50 PM I had a nice brick this am. Cold here in State College, but was able to do a trainer ride then a brief outdoor run. Felt very easy. Felt good

Hopefully it will start to warm up there soon. I'm sure your getting stir crazy on the trainer.

I had a productive OWS this morning. I haven't done an OWS since last fall so it was good to get out in the open water again. The water was very cold this morning and took my breath away for the first lap. I got settled in for the 2nd and 3rd. The 4th I pulled up my wetsuit because it was pulling down on my shoulders. It felt better after I pulled it up.

The ride was a lot of climbing right out of the gate. The most early climbing I have ever done. The descent was too fast and I was braking a lot. I'm a little chicken about the fast descending.

Hope everyone is getting a good weekend of training in.

Once your latex tubes are installed and you ride a short time you will know if you pinched the tube or not. Mine are green so after I have the tire back on, I pump up tire to maybe 40-60 PSI and go all around the tire pulling tire away from the rim up to see if I see the tube sticking out. It takes maybe 12-15 times going around the whole wheel but doing that will help you make sure the tube isn't between the rim and tire.

I rode IM AB in Maryland that was flat and windy. I didn't have an issue with wheel cover except going around one corner wind caught it as I came around but I was safe. You are a solid  rider with lots of experience I doubt it would be an issue. You are lighter than I am but from what I have heard wheel cover makes you more stable not less with wind.

I'd suggest putting tubes in and get bike set up as you would for racing and do a couple rides prior to your race to feel confident in the set up from experience.

Renee - like Kathy said, I don't think you should have an issue with you setup.  Guys running 90's will probably get it much worse than you.

Todd - sounds like it would have been a good clinic to attend,a dn I definitely agree with swimming OW before the first race.  Your issue with the shoulders - I find this all the time, and only swim a couple of hundred yeards before pulling the suit higher on my shoulders.  I've also found that I have the cuffs pulled much higher than most people so that I have extra slack to pull the suit higher in the shoulder.  I managed to hurt myself the first season from too much constriction in the shoulder.

Question - since my massage my ITB has been doing really well (knock on wood), but on my 16km run today, the legs started to really feel it at 14km and I attribute that to running a hillier route.  I've been really careful to mostly run flat routes the past few months, but today I decided to take a route I knew would have quite a few up and downs.  Pace was good, HR was good, and legs were good till the last couple of km.  Just wondering if anyone has suggestions to let me run the hillier routes, but avoid causing myself undue aggravation.

Neil,
 
I have found it normal for a bit more discomfort on any hill variation.  For me 13 miles hilly would feel hard and more i.e.… pain than 13 miles flat.  My form is still pretty good at 13 miles so if your form was breaking down then that could be a cause 

Thanks for the advice and comments guys.  I guess I'm not understanding why the Z2/3 would lead to injury - I always thought that had to do more with much harder efforts.  For me to run in a lower zone I typically find that I have to force myself to run slower - is that actually the case that you find, where you run slower than you "naturally" would want to?

The other reason I typically don't run slower, is I have a hard time seeing how the slower run time is going to help translate to a good pace in my HM.  I've got a target goal in my mind of running a 4:35/km pace for the race.  So the plan I'm following at the moment is targeting the longer runs at :12 - :19 seconds slower than that pace based on the distance.

Guess I'm trying to figure out how I train and perform for the races - but also avoid the injury.  Can I have my cake and eat it too?

I learned a lot about run pacing when I worked with the coach Fred is using. It took awhile but I was able to learn to negative split and be more conservative when starting out my long runs.

Only thing I don't see when in good run shape with solid run training with consistency, is racing I don't run faster than I do in my long runs like his wife does. Ann is a amazing athlete so not sure what she does is applicable for those of us in the BOP.

Interesting thread on ST about power and how to ride the IMWI bike course.

Rene it may be helpful for you to read as well in regards to how to keep power even and riding hills.

Your AG will have quite a few slots for Kona. Is it normally 7 or 8? You can't control who shows up to race or how they trained only what you do. Fred you are looking strong this year and you are still over 5 months out.

Rich put into words what I have thought about power/weight ratio and hills. At IMLP I spent way to much time close to my FTP. At Canada my coach wanted me to keep my watts under 150 on all hills....there is a grade where that became impossible but the gearing I used made a big difference compared to LP 11-28 vs. 11-34 I spent way less time close to my FTP at Canada.

Cut and pasted from his post

Power and Gearing
Understand that better gears don't create power. At some combination of absolute power, w/kg, and grade we ALL will be forced to go over our goal watts or FTP at some point. For a crazy strong and light rider, that % grade might be 12%. For someone else, that % grade might be 6%. So Mr. 6% needs to go way over FTP/his ceiling go just keep the bike from falling over. At some point, we all need to get up the hill, regardless of how you're "supposed" to ride.

What gearing does is change the cadence you'll find yourself at when _this_ happens to you and, in general, you are less likely to go WAY over your goal watts if you have a properly geared bike allowing you to maintain a comfortable cadence. IOW, Timmy and Johnny are twins with equal w/kg. Timmy rides a standard crank, 23-11 and Johnny rides a 26-11 and compact. Timmy is more likely to go way over FTP to get up the climb because he's grinding at <50rpm. Johnny is less likely because he can spin at 80+. Timmy beats Johnny to the top of the hill by about 5-6 bike lengths....but is knackered at the top, comes way off the gas. Johnny stays on the gas and passes him on the downhill, extends that on the next flat because he's not shagged from the climb.

Hey group - just checking in really quick - I know it is not cool to comment directly on folks blogs directly in the group, but somebody had a huge swim day today - check 'em out - awesome! Hope you all are doing well.

Fred, I know that we don't really know each other, so I appreciate you choosing your words carefully.  But I asked to be a part of this group for the specific reason that I'm looking to learn from you and other members of the group that have a lot of experience - especially when it comes to going long.  I've only done one HIM and have mostly raced shorter distances, so I'm used to pushing my pace as my training has typically been shorter/faster.

I'll take what you and the other have said and look to slow the pace down for the longer runs.  I wanted to race HIM distance last year and couldn't because of injury, so I certainly want to avoid that situation again this year.  I'm here to learn, not just be part of a group - and I chose this one specifically because I valued the opinions you and the others would have.

So - please don't hold back, and don't be worried about stepping on my toes.  I get how touchy people can be, but it's not me.  I would just like to learn as much as I can.

New questions - if I dial back the pace/intensity of the long run, how about the shorter runs that I do during the week.  I keep them around 9-10km, so where should I be for these.  Is it safe to put in intervals and more mid-tempo efforts?  How about the rides.  Should the longer rides be kept at a lower intensity level as well, or am I safe to ramp that up and work at a harder effort and really put some hurt into my cycling legs.

Thanks again to all for the advice - and don't hold back on the candor.

So I think my body is starting to tell me it's tired. I tried to go out and do my 56 miler today but I was so uncomfortable that I only ended up doing 28. I did get a nice 5.4 mile run in tonight and I'm building confidence that my knee will hold up. It will be sore and uncomfortable but it's not giving out.

I'm on vacation this week so it will give me a great opportunity to get all my training in. I think this week will be my biggest volume week ever. I have a OWS on Tuesday afternoon.

As I'm looking back at what a HIM is, I'm actually impressed that this is where I'm at right now. I have been so consumed with the training that I haven't really taken in the fact that this is over 70 miles of racing. I just need to really focus on my nutrition on race day and I'll be fine.

I would like to thank everyone for all of the ideas and inspiration.

Okay, my next long run is scheduled for this weekend.  So we'll see if I can hold back a little and run in a Z1 pace, and let it end in Z2 at most.  For runs that are in a more rolling terrain, will you apply the same principals so that you're going really slow on steeper uphill sections, or will you allow your HR to drift a bit on the uphills?

Also - I'd asked about rides, do you apply the same logic to riding, or are higher intensities fine since it's lower impact?