SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 74)

Dumb blonde question.  Is this (counting zeros) a setting on the head unit, in garminconnect, etc? 

Whoa - wait - I thought we were trying to win this one for the American team....

Sorry I haven't been keeping up.  Maybe somebody already addressed this -- I'll try to to MY homework and read the intervening few pages, but cannot right now.

I'll also try to write something up on this, not knowing how much you already know about how water retention/absorption/excretion works.  Short version:  hypothalmus reacts to sodium concentration in extracellular fluid, and when it is high, tells the pituitary to secrete ADH, which signals the kidney to retain water.  Otherwise, the kidney produces urine at a 'normal' rate and concentration.  If our hypothesis (that you were urinating more than you really should have been) is correct, then there was a problem somewhere in that process.  Your answers to my questions rule out some common causes of such a problem...

Question for the group (I want to lean on your collective experience).

This was my first full season of tri with serious (well, serious for me, at least) training and targeting of specific races.  It was going to be sprints and Oly's only, but I added and pretty much finished the tri season (thanks to going into marathon training a wee too soon after a HIM) with said HIM in August.  A couple sprints in the fall - maybe and only if the leg feels good..

So, now all this talk about IMMT has gotten in my head.  I originally planned to make next year a HIM focus - maybe two A races, one early and one late, with a bunch of sprints and Oly's thrown in (I love racing and can't bring myself not to toe the line), even if I just "train through" them (iow, I can handle poor results in a B or C race, as long as I get to race and peak for my A's).

So, is targeting an IM at the end of next season rushing things a bit (in general - I know, all the usual "it depends" apply… depends on commitment to training, time available, spousal support, etc - assume those are no worse than for anyone else who tackles the distance), or would that be well within the "normal" bounds?

Is it a much better idea to finish a season of 70.3's to really build deep base and THEN tackle a full (which was my 2 year plan this time last year)?  I should also say that if I target a race as an A race (as this IM would be), I would like to be able to race it, not just "bucket list" finish the distance.  Not saying MY race is KQ, mind you!  Just that I would like to be able to do more than survive, whatever that time would be (more about being able to target a race rather than survival strategy and accept whatever time comes, if that makes sense).

Or, is this just a stoopid newb question?  (with the answer being either "of course you should" or "of course you shouldn't" or "of course it depends and there is NO way to even give general guidance, so try it or don't and see what happens")

I'm not YET certain I want to do the full, but the HIM didn't seem like so long a race, if that makes any sense...

Blunt answers appreciated (as are nuanced ones, but don't feel the need for kid gloves).

Matt

Matt,

One of the good things about IM races selling out nearly a year in advance...it allows an athlete to prepare appropriately.  For me, I'm glad I didn't get into the Kona lottery my first 2 tries (2nd and 3rd year in the sport).  I wouldn't have been ready, but more so because I only would have had 18 weeks notice like I did this year.

Because I only had 18 weeks from the time I realized I got into Kona, there was no time to build a strong base.  It already had to be built...and luckily for me I feel like I had built it up over my first 3.5 years.  So the transition is much more manageable for me. 

Given your performance at your first HIM, and knowing you would have 11 months to prepare, I think you would be fine for your first IM in your second season...assuming you're willing to lay that foundation starting soon.  If you're the type of athlete that plans to take a 3-4 month off season, then start training back up in March...then maybe not so much.

To me, I really feel like IM training is not so much about the fitness you're trying to build up in the last 20 weeks, but relying on the fitness that you've built up over the past 20 months.  Given your hard training this year, and 11 months till IMMT, I think that would give a good shot to show up to that race well prepared. 

I'm having some "issues" with my power meter and was wondering if anyone could help me out.  The reason I say "issues" is that I'm not sure if it's actually abnormal or if it's with the PM or with me...

When I'm riding on the trainer and holding a constant speed, I would have thought the power would be constant, but I'm finding that it fluctuates a significant amount.  Take today for example -- I was trying to hold intervals at (don't laugh!!) 164W and it would be steady at 164 for a few moments and then drop down to the 140's, then back to the 160's, then down into the 130's, then back to the 160's, etc.  I could see my speed was constant to within 0.1mph, but my power was dropping 20+ W and then jumping back to the 160's.

When I used virtual power, the output was generally +/- 3-5W.....so I'm finding this mentally (and physically) exhausting to see it drop down 20-30W and then try to bring it back up only to then overshoot my target.  

Is my power output really that jagged?  Is it just going to be a learning curve to figure out how to hold a constant power?  Or is there something wrong with the PM (Quarq) that it's not sending a good signal all the time?  FWIW, I have checked and the cadence magnet is within like 1mm of the crank itself, so I don't think that's the issue as I had once thought.  

Or maybe I need to change the power smoothing to get ride of those low data points??  I have it on 3 second smoothing at the moment.  Any thoughts would be appreciated. 

BTW, thanks for the discussion / analysis on Chris's race.  I've been following along closely, learning from it.  Sadly, I don't have much input as I have zero experience with that distance or those issues (hell, or even my power meter!), but I do appreciate reading and learning. 

I can only refer to this year's HIM for illustration.  For that one, I looked at my planned Oly training and decided that it wouldn't be a large delta to adapt to HIM training.  Given that, I laid out what felt like a program to be able to race "fairly hard."  This meant, to me, to be able to hold an effort that was proportionally backed down from what I knew I could hold in my Oly's.

As for "success," given the above training approach, I targeted given levels of effort (a breathing cadence on the swim, HR and kinda power on the bike and HR and kinda pace on the run) that I thought I could hold based on my training.  Then I said that any time that resulted would be fine with me, as long as I was able to empty the tank the WAY that I wanted to during the race.

That was how I defined a "really great race" for this particular race.

I had some other goals in mind (first was to finish strong, without walking; second was to go sub-6 which I thought likely given my training if I achieved goal number one - not walking;  third was to go as far under 6 as that plan would take me - but this one was more so I could get a feel for where a race-level effort would place me in the overall and age groups for eye-balling future plans).  HOWEVER, I did not plan my race to hit any of these time goals - I didn't even look at my total time until 10 miles into the run...  I wanted to execute my plan and more was hoping that plan would result in a time between 5 & 6 hours, is the way I approached it.

So, for an IM, I would approach as follows.  Set up the most aggressive training plan I could realistically follow (might peak at 16 or so hours weekly, which feels a bit low but is what I think I could CRAM into my life), use the data generated during that training to set an IM race plan that would be a "max achievable effort given training levels" and then race that plan (while having plans B & C, if I get into deep yoghurt for whatever reason, as seems not uncommon).  Whatever time results would be fine - as long as I raced the WAY I knew I should be able to based on training.

Now, success in a local sprint or Oly is, for me, measured veeeeerrrry differently!  

Hope that all makes sense…  After a few years of doing 70.3's and IM's, I might be able to target times or AG placements (as I do with sprints and Olys, where the results are much more stable/predictable for me - even if the AG competition that shows up is not), but that wouldn't be my "great race" definition for the first/first few.

Matt

Big Shoulders 2.5k open water swim: 37:50 (1:31/100m)

Got some things to tighten up, but generally fairly good. Race Report when I get a minute.

I went for a swim this morning too.  Not a race though.

http://www.strava.com/activities/80756226

Matt, I did an IM before even doing a HIM (although not in my 2nd season).  I think based on your HIM time you could certainly do well at it.

I just saw this (assuming it's today's swim) as I was loading some stuff onto Strava (including my shortest run - maybe ever - but that's a happy story for another time) and my eyes bugged out!  How did you manage that one?  That's one of the busiest shipping lanes in the country!

Very cool, however you managed it.  

Matt