Aaron Davidson's Group -- Closed. (Page 71)

Cancun??!!!  Awesome!!

Have a great time!!....I am jealous!

Have a good time!

 How's IMCDA training going?

Cancun was AWESOME!  Though I think I've crossed IM Cozumel off my list.  The humidity was crazy hard to run for this cold weather body.  On the flip side, the ocean is SO warm and SO salty.  No wetsuit needed, though with the salt I felt like the buoyancy was the same.

I actually did a fair amount of training, I bet people in the pool thought I was nuts, people on the walkways figured I was crazy, and people in the spin bike room KNEW I was nuts as I was getting in the aero position with towels for aero bars (the elbows were uncomfortable without towels!)

Good luck to Aaron - he may be done already with the time difference.

LOL!  One crazy triathlete's vacation, sounds like you had a good time!

Dang!  Have you bought anything from Bonktown yet?

Question:  I had a time trial bike day in my plan a few weeks ago and trying to figure out what it was supposed to tell me.  I had a warmup, etc. then 20 min TT.  I did it on the trainer and took my HR for the 20 min TT and it was 159.  What does this tell me or how am I supposed to use this data?  Curious since it was in my IM training plan and I never expect to go that hard in the race.  Is it just a check point to compare against along the way?

Thanks,
Matt

Hard to know exactly, but the threshold is important for a lot of plans.  Many times workouts are based on threshold, and even IM plans often have intervals as pct. of threshold (maybe something like 2 1/2 hour ride with 3x20 minute intervals at 85% threshold).  I know some of the EN plans even have true TT rides throughout the IM plan, and use them as markers for future workouts as well as a way to build bike strength.

In general, I've noticed a lot of movement away from only looking purely at volume as a training guide, even for long course training, and see even long course plans using a lot more intensity sessions.  I'm sure the plan will make sense of the TT as it goes on.

Ummm...yeah, they even have a thing where you can group all of your shipping together - if you buy more than one item in a set amount of time (I think it's a week), you only have to pay shipping once. That's a tough one since it makes you really check out the site and talk yourself into getting something you're not totally sold on.

About the testing...last winter in the Winter Challenge Bike thread, Jorge explained it this way...you want to test your progress at various points throughout your training. He recommended doing the complete warm-up and then press the lap button on your watch, do the test and then press the lap button again. The first test should establish your LTHR, after that - you may have slight variances in LTHR, but those would be due to variables in your testing environment (fan/no fan/more traffic/less traffic/better rest the night before/nutrition, etc.). What you should look at after the initial test is improvement - either in the distance covered over the same amount of time, or a drop in the amount of time for the same route. At least this is how I understood it - and how I have been evaluating my biking last winter and this winter. Anyone else have a different opinion?

159 is your lactate threshold, you plug that into an online calculator to establish your bike training zones.  For IM, most of our training is done in zone 2.

Here is a link on BT

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=926

Thanks.  My LTHR is exact same as last March, from my first Tri/Sprint, the last "TT" I used to reset my HR zones.  I just forgot why and how it was used to set HR zones. 

Edit: OK, so I have to see what my pace is at LT now versus then, that is where doing it on the same course is important.

Pretty quiet on here.  Hopefully everyone is good, the training looks good for all you IMCdA'ers.

I haven't done a roller report in a long time, but I'm happy to say I'm very comfortable on them now.  I actually plan to use them during the season to do intervals if I don't feel comfortable outside for whatever reason - darkness, etc. 

On that note - do any of you use the trainer during the season?  If so, what do you do about your tires?  My trainer absolutely shreds tires, so I can't figure out how to use it other than spend the time to put a tire on and then take it off when I'm done, but with time as tight as it is, I won't bother doing any trainer rides at all even though I'd like the flexibility.

I haven't used it since I was able to get outside. Sometimes I should have since the rain makes me skip rides every now and then but it's too much of a pita to change tires. When I'm rich, I'll have extra wheels to just swap in. ;-)

I used it a lot this winter, doesn't seem to shred my tires.  I always loosen the knob on the trainer that puts pressure on the tire.  I do this after every ride.  I may use the trainer in the season for a quick ride when time is tight.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Funny story, last night I went down to Corona del Mar to have a quick swim and feel the ocean water temps...I  just did one lap around the buoys. On the way back in, I hear this high pitch squeaking and I'm thinking to myself, "wow, the dolphins must be close if I can hear them". Then all of a sudden, I see this gigantic dolphin swim right under me...I could clearly see the tail so I could tell it wasn't a shark but I have to say it still got my heart rate up there! Needless to say, i couldn't catch him...;-) Awesome!

Sorry about your run in the snow. Hope you can bundle up and stay dry.