Nevergivin's Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 8)

Awesome weather I had today for racing, at my race in Central California it reached 72. I placed mid field, 27 out of 50. There were four big wrecks total, I missed all of them. The first six laps were 25 mph, the rest were 22-25. My heart rate stayed at 178 most of the race, my max is 185 and I hit it four times. My crit was 25 laps for 20 miles, it was a great workout for this 44 year old, 20 year old wanna be !

I took my daughter swimming today and decided to swim around 1000 yards in honor of Phelps. Man have I lost some upper body strength, my arms felt like wet noodles! I forgot how much strength I gained from doing pull sets.

Update-My weight is down to 194 now, down 11 pounds since January 1st while putting on some muscle. According to my bodyfat calipers Im down to around 13% from 18%.

X2 - I to had a pretty good week of training.  8 out of 9 workouts in.  I have been having some issues with my left elbow so I skipped one middle of the week workout.  I finished the weekend off with a 8 mile run on Sat. and today (Sun.) a 2000 yd continuous pool swim and a 1 hr and 45 min. indoor cycling workout.  Legs actually feel pretty good.

Next week it amps up some more.  If I can hold pretty steady with my swim I might only do two per week and add a swim or bike in depending on the weather.  If I can start riding to work for some of my route I'll get some additional base mileage in which would be great.

Have a great week everyone.

Sounds like you guys are all ramping things up, which is great.  I'm pretty happy with my run on Sunday.  I dropped the Friday run to do a brick on Saturday.  At about mile 8 into the ride (the farthest away from home, of course), we had a front come through and I got soaked.  I guess I need to start paying closer attention to the weather.  Anyway, I decided to forgo the run through the rain and move it to Sunday.

The run started normally, but in mile 2 my pace dropped (like it always does).  Then I remembered our conversation about intervals and so I started pushing it for short distances and then easing off.  I recovered for a decent average pace in mile 2, then continued pushing for mile 3.  I wanted to keep the overall distance short (sprint length) because I was trying to increase the pace.

Remember I was so pleased with a 10m8s mile?  I did this 3.2 miles at a pace of 9m38s per mile.  Now I know numbers aren't everthing, but I'm still pretty happy with that.  I'm looking forward to the swim/run tomorrow to see if I can keep it up for a 4 mile run.

By the way, I tried hooking up my HRM to my Garmin (305) but couldn't get a signal.  I swapped batteries and wet the thing down, but no luck.  Any advice?  Not sure what to do next.

Mike

Congratulations on the race and the weight loss progress.  22-25mph is impressive!  I don't know what a crit is, but I'll assume it is similarly good. 

Mike- if you haven't already, I would try re-pairing the HRM to the 305.  It worked for my wife when she was having a problem with hers.

Great pace on those 3.2 miles! I'm sure you will be making good progress if you keep at it, just remember to blend in those ez pace days to recover. for sure you don't want to burn out.

Another way to increase your pace which seems to be counterproductive, but is a big myth is to encorporate longer runs into your workouts as well as interval and speed workouts.  I have seen and steady increase in my sustained pace for shorter distances by increasing my long runs up to Half-Marathon distance races.  Though I'd throw that in for my .02 cents worth.

Thanks!  I wasn't sure where the 'long' run fit into the equation (still haven't had time to read those books I got).  I was up to 5 miles last year and am doing 4 now regularly, but I was never really sure if I should continue to push it longer than 5 since my goal at this point is only the sprint-length tri.

For now I'm working back up to 5 on the long run and will incorporate the intervals into another day to keep moving forward.  I also changed my weight-loss goal as it seems unlikely I will hit the original one.  Dang breakfast burritos.  That's OK.  Lent starts tomorrow and that always helps me put my consumption into perspective, even if I give up something other than food.

-Mike

driveradme- nice race.  bad luck with the water bottle, but sounds like you recover nicely.

driveradme - 2011-03-09 7:42 AM First tri this past weekend. This fat boy didnt do too bad. My Race report for the Hunter Army Airfield Savannah Tri is in the race reports if ya wanna check that out. Awesome course and great first ride. Learned a lot and will definitely be able to come in lower than 1:15 next time. I took this first one extremely easy. I also rode my one speed knowing it would be flat but it wasnt quite that flat Especially fighting a nasty headwind and crosswind the whole bike course. Now Im breaking it all down again to hit one more sprint, an oly, one marathon, and one century before the half ironman. Stoked!!!

Congratulations on your race!  Sounds like it was a good experience.  I'm impressed at your drive to the HIM, I wish you the best in that!  Is your 2nd sprint going to include an open-water swim?  I found the OWS on my 2nd tri to be an eye-opening experience (see previous post on my abject failure and subsequent re-motivation).

And I've never heard of snorkels at a triathlon, either, by the way.  Though it might be fun to wander around an IM event with a snorkel, flippers and a rubber-duck floaty saying "which way to the starting line?"

Keep on with the great progress! 

-Mike

Snorkels are legal in the USAT rule book. A few years ago a guy was busted for using fins(not legal), for those who have not seen the posts he is otherwise known as" Finman" and is popular on the net.

Also has anyone seen the "Hot Tamale" thread? Do not read it while drinking as you will choke to death from laughing so hard,I loose my breath every time I read it!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=150441&start=1

Right now Im lifting 3x12 per bodypart at about 90% effort.

This is a video of TJ that I wanted to share, he is an awesome swimmer a gives tons of advice on BT in regard to swim technique. I mastered the two beat kick after getting advice from him several times, it completely changed the way I swim. It allowed me to get so much more power in my stroke, when my foot goes down it creates a strong anchor that really allows for great torque from the hip rotation.

I did a 1000 yd time trial this afternoon and swam a 1:36 average 100 /yds.  Pretty good for me this early in the season.  I am usually pushing 1:40 or so at this time.

I also liked the video; it is always nice to see it in real time.  I use a modified version of the two beat.  I have a sissor kick with my right pull and then do one kick with my left foot.  I am trying to bring more of my right leg kick into it instead of the sissor kick, but it feels a little wierd right now.  I'll con't to work on it. 

Got all my workouts in this week.  One more strong/hard week and then a recovery week.

Have a great training week everyone.  Anyone have races coming up?

Seriously, 1:36?  That's humbling.  I can't break 2:00 for 100 yds.  I'm definitely going to check out that video, as I really need some guidance on what to do next with my swimming.

I had a great weekend, though.  Saturday was my first brick, and I did 18.65 miles on the bike and then 3.22 running.  When I started running, I felt like a potato on toothpicks at first but I was apparently going faster than it felt.  I ended up with a 9m37s pace for the run which is a personal best for me (no fuzzy math, Garmin don't lie!).  It was unexpected, and I'm pretty stoked!

Of course, then I forgot to set my alarm for this morning and missed strength training.  DOH!

4 weeks until my first race of the season, the Lone Star Sprint in Galveston, TX.  I travel to Tulsa next week, so working out will be abnormal, but the hotel has a lap pool, stationary bikes and a dreadmill, so I should be able to keep it going.

After Galveston I am looking for something in May but I haven't nailed down any dates yet.

Hope everyone has a great week!

-Mike