SBR Utopia ---- Permanently OPEN!! (Page 73)

Any chance you just have some general built up fatigue that happened to coincide with the change in the pools?

One more thought: is there a temperature difference between the two pools?

Can we talk race recovery for a minute? 

Since St. George, with the exception of the two or so days after, my running has felt about as good as it ever has.  Paces are a little quicker for the same effort, legs feel good, nothing to complain about.  My swimming has also been feeling pretty solid as well.

My biking, however, feels awful!  Biking has always been my favorite and used to be my strength.  What gives?  Do you find you recover at different rates for the three different sports?  I figured my running would take the biggest hit....I never dreamed my biking would feel this bad.  I feel like I've lost a solid 20W or something!  Here's to hoping things get back on track soon.

It's possible, and I've been working with that. Could be part of a previous one, but I've been just as off on the other weeks. This past week had a similar sized Saturday bike to what I always do, actually felt easier. Also a short run. Friday's swim wasn't quite as hard. Saturday's swim was basically just a warm-up. Sunday I didn't do anything besides swim that evening. Usually there is a hard bike session in the morning plus a short run.

My schedule for the week tends to be rather repetitive as to where the larger workouts and the harder intensity workouts are. Tuesday & Thursday have both a harder bike and Masters at the scy pool, all after work. Sunday has a harder bike in the morning plus a short run. Then Masters at the scm pool in the evening. Both Wed & Sat have a larger 3 hr or so bike plus a short run, all at an easier effort. Sat also has another swim in it, though it is at an easier effort. This is all the same as when the Sunday pool was on scy. During that time I was a little slower on the Sunday swim, but am even more so now on scm.

The Sunday pool is a bulkhead pool, and switches between scy & scm. So it's at the same place and is the same water. I actually like this pool better as the water is typically a little more cool. It also has more lanes and is deeper, helping to make everything more calm with fewer waves and people spread out among them just a bit more. The session a few weeks ago can be written off to unusually warm temps. Plus there were loads of cursed 125's in there (16!).

The general fatigue is something I should keep working with. Schedule is demanding, but think I mostly do ok with it. The sleep side of things can be tricky. Sometimes I just can't go to sleep when I had planned even though I should be quite tired. And that happens more than I'd like. And while I'm fine with the timing of the turns, I think the familiarity of the pool being in scm may have a little to do with it. It just "feels" different even though there is nothing specific to pinpoint. A 100 doesn't quite feel like a 100 anymore. Same with a 200 or other distances. Wonder what would happen if we did things like say 75's and 150's instead as that would put the time inside the others instead of beyond. The other 5 swims are all in scy pools too.

Not really sure how to explain it, but I've had things like that as well. Not everything comes back at the same rate and really don't know for sure how they'll do. You're not that far removed from a big race, so could very well still be in the less is more area. Where you do just enough to be a little active, but not really that much in making it a workout to help things recover. When trying to build back up from being really off I've had success in setting up progressions in the workouts. Working with shorter ones first and making each harder than the last. Not trying to kill myself here, just getting used to working hard again. And then getting into longer ones,  building up throughout the interval.

I agree with Ben in that everything doesn't recover at the same rate.

Another thing, did you feel any more or less prepared in any of the sports? Specifically, how did your bike training compare to your swim and run? I find that how well I recover is my biggest indicator of how well I prepared for a race. 

Running is my weakness for sure.  That's part of why I'm surprised that my run legs came back as quickly as they did.

My theory is that my running seems to have come back because I keep it all easy and don't do any kind of intervals or speed work.  My bike training, on the other hand, has me doing various intervals.  It seems that I can put down the power, but I struggle to hold it.  So it's quite possible that if I were doing any run speed work, I'd find that I have similar fatigue when it comes to running as well.

I'll continue to listen to my body and work on getting back there.  I tried to do a ride this morning that had basically a 20' threshold interval and quickly realized that it was not going to happen....so I modified to 4x5' threshold (almost threshold...) intervals instead. 

Hopefully it comes back soon [I already signed up for my next race....end of June].

Looks like we're running behind - had to find us in the archives!

Has anyone upgraded to the premium Best Bike Split?  Do you think it's worth it?  When I thought it was a one-time $99 membership, I thought it would be....but realized it's an annual membership, and am no longer sure if it's worth it.

However, after they announced the new premium version, it seems that the free version has limited/no functionality.  I can't add any new races (I even deleted one thinking maybe I could only have X, so if I had X-1, I could add a new one....nope), which is really the only thing I care about as I'd likely never download the erg file and am quite capable of calculating TSS myself...

Just curious what others' thoughts are on it.  It was a nice tool to get an idea of how long a course would take, but I'm not sure it's worth a ton to me.

Nicole, I made the same discovery as you.  After realizing deleting wasn't doing me any good, I just edited one of the races I already had done up.  Gave it a new name and changed the course.

Just signed up with a local tri club (that i had joined but hadn't done anything with yet) they have a Tour of California stage 7 pre-ride of the course before the pros, in connection with a couple other clubs.   85 miles, 8K elevation, fully sagged and supported, mechanics, with lunch after.  A bit nervous as I'm not the type to make new friends easily and flying this one solo, and hoping I can hold my own on the bike.

Sounds like fun.  Are they handing out sticky bottles and musette bags?

EPO?

(allegedly...)

I upgraded last week when they offered a discount code (can't remember where I saw it) that brought the price down to around $65 for the membership.  I have to admit I haven't played with it enough to decide whether its worth it or not.

Well, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided not to race IMMT 70.3.  I've taken a hard look at my finances this year and decided it's just not smart financially to race the 70.3, then IMMT in August, then the 70.3 WC at MT if I qualified, and then possibly/maybe/hoping another IM in October (on some island somewhere).  I really wanted to race the 70.3 WC before it left North America (qualified 2x before but never raced it) but I doubt I would have a great race having done the full the previous month.  I'll race a local HIM on June 7 to take the place of MT 70.3 in prep for MT but I will really miss not making the trip to Quebec next month.  My wallet may disagree.

That's too bad Jim but it does sound like it would have been a very full and busy schedule!

My wallet always seems to make the opposite decision to what I really want to do...Sorry to see you won't be able to fit this one in.

Sounds smart.  Always a good idea to make sure the door is not shut on October racing.  

Chris, I am not really a meeter and greeter on group/organized rides either, but you will have fun regardless. Do a little work now and again and you will DEFINITELY make friends. I am "fortunate" in that the handful of folks that I ride with regularly aren't really that social when they ride either. I was riding with a good friend a few years ago, and somewhere around the 80 mile mark I said to him, "My legs hurt." He replied to me, "Mine do too." That was the entirely of our conversation for the whole ride - no lie. We still laugh about it.

Nicole - I did the same as Jim. I still have the discount if you or anyone else wants it. I haven't really used the service that much, but keep meaning to play around with it. $99 seems like a lot for what it offers. I mean that is the same as a current annual membership to Trainer Road, right? Honestly probably the only reason I got in on it at the discounted rate is in the hope/guess that they may offer some killer, yet-to-be-disclosed feature that makes it worth it. I did that very early with trainer road - got it at a locked-in price of $3 per month via an early discount right when they monetized it. Didn't use it though for a very long time - not until I got the Kickr. So I am probably just about now breaking even on that "investment." Heh.

That is too bad, Jim - but it sounds like a good call. FWIW with a schedule like that my legs would have given out LONG before the wallet, and that would make the wallet even MORE unhappy!

I got in on TR's discount for the $59 annual membership or whatever it was -- I've definitely made my money's worth for it.  I use it 2-3 times a week in the outdoor riding season, 4+ times a week in the winter.

Now Best Bike Split -- I just have a hard time seeing what true benefit I get from the Premium membership.  After Arend mentioned that you could change the race profile, I tried and realized that was exactly what I needed.  Now I'm no longer convinced that it might be worth it, but would be happy if anyone explained why.  I'd love to support them, as I do think it's a great tool, but I'm not sure I can really justify it based on what benefits I know of at the moment.  If it were a one-time thing, I'd have done it long ago....but $99 annually seems steep for what I'd get (or at least what I'd get and use...).

Is this group opening up a new thread in the new spring/summer mentor section?

My type of riding.  There's one british guy we ride with, nice enough guy, but he just never futs the shuck up.  I avoid riding with him whenever possible.

I am actually trying to decide what to do next, as there's really only one guy in our group, about 15 years younger than me, that can really push me.  He's mving overseas in a month.  Everyone else seems to want to soft pedal these days, so I'll really be stuck with a pretty slow group if I stay with them.  I like the idea of being pushed in a group of roadies, but am pretty intimated by the large roadie group here that's pretty freaking serious, KOM type guys.   I can train solo, but sometimes it's nice to have a rabbit, or to be the rabbit....