Gearwhore/himself Group - FULL (Page 8)

Hey guys,

Sorry I have been distant the past week or so. Just wanted to let all of you know I am still here and still training. I am back on the boat now with the thread and will start sending out inspires shortly. Things have just been a bit hectic around here. My 20 week 3x balanced plan starts today so I will be going at it pretty hard up until the actual triathlon.

 As for the football game I say the Colts will win

Cartoons I used to watch a cartoon called Banana Man when I was young and lived in England. I also watched Scooby Doo. Now a days its either Simpsons or Family Guy.

So Adam/Ryan,

This may be a stupid question but I was thinking about this while running today after my ipod took a sh*t. What is the chemistry behind training constantly for endurance and then being able to go balls to the wall when race time comes? I know the endurance training enables you to keep going for a long period of time. Does this at the same time enable you to go a lot harder when the time comes without "maxing" out? I'm not sure if I am asking this correctly.

I think I get the question.  Understanding that I'm not an exercise physiologist, let me take a crack at an answer, and then if you have follow up questions we can discuss more.

First, you are training for and will race an "endurance" event.  The primary physiological skill/component of triathlon racing is endurance.  I think some people are under the misconception that you train aerobically and increase your endurance, and then go out and "sprint" for over 2 hours in an Olympic distance triathlon.  Trust me, there's no sprinting involved in an event that lasts over two hours.  Even the term "sprint" triathlon is a misnomer, there's no sprinting involved in those either.

I think this miconception comes from an over-emphasis on the distinction drawn between "aerobic" and "anaerobic" activity (which literally means in the presence or lack of oxygen).  Many people are under the impression that in a race setting they are pushing anaerobic levels of activity.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In any event that lasts more than 10 seconds, you are primarily (if not exclusively) engaging in an aerobic activity.  That's true of everything from a 5K to a marathon, and a Sprint Triathlon to an Ironman. 

The point being that "balls to the wall" or just cruising at a comfortable speed, your body is still processing oxygen to fuel your physical activity.  Accordingly, doing workouts at "anaerobic" levels is unnecessary and mostly a waste of time for the endurance athlete.

So with that in mind, the primary purpose of all training for an endurance athlete is to increase the capacity of your body to sustain moderate to high levels of effort (relatively) for as long a period as possible.  The basic components are simple endurance, cardiovascular efficiency (capacity to take in and effectively use oxygen) and muscular endurance (the capacity of your muscles to exert maximal force over long distances - in other words, go fast and long instead of just go long). 

Then the question is why not go out and go as fast as you can as long as you can each and every workout?  The simple reason is that your body cannot handle that much stress.  Your system has a limited capacity to absorb and endure high intensity training before you become injured, sick, or both.  So, while the theoretical perfect program would involve going out and maxing out your effort every day, the reality is that after about two weeks of that you would be injured, or so sick that you wouldn't be able to train for two weeks to a month.  In short, high intensity training is strong medicine and shoule be used sparingly to reach a peak of fitness that can only be maintained for a very short duration.

So the idea is instead to first build basic endurance, making workouts progressively longer.  During this phase you are establishing basic fitness, increasing general endurance, and preparing your muscles, bones and connective tissue for the higher stress levels to come.  After this fundamental component is built, you start adding in more intensity.  But sparingly at first, just to get your body accustomed to the harder/faster efforts and to build a little speed.  This is called the build phase, and it starts to prepare you for race intensity.  Then, with just about one month to go before the race, you do a series of really hard/fast workouts.  These workouts mainting endurance and fitness, but also build speed and increase your fitness to the highest level of the season.  Then you rest and recover to prepare for the best race possible. 

Does this make sense and get at what you're asking?

The way you build a schedule is to basically pick your "A" race and build backwards.  So from your big Oly race, back out 7 days for taper, 3 weeks before that will be peak, one weak before peak is a recovery weak, 3 weeks before that is build - everything leading up to that is base.  Don't be too impatient to get there though, those workouts are very demanding and they can only be accomplished without risk of injury after putting in a solid base of training.

Just to add another thought about this thread - one of the hardest things to grasp about this sport is the amount of time and shear volume of training it takes to see big gains.  I think as a society we are terribly impatient, and we want instant results (not singling you out AJ, I mean everyone).  If you surf around BT you'll find all sort who have done one sprint triathlon and are now signing up for an Ironman.  There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but from a performance perspective it takes 3-5 years for your body to sufficiently adapt to be ready to really go out and race an Ironman.  And even then, most people will struggle through their first IM. 

I spent basically a whole season last year really just training long and slow.  I did a build and peak phase to race nationals, but I found out when I went to race the half ironman, despite all my loooooong bike rides and long swims and hard work that I wasn't really ready to race that distance.  I simply hadn't been in the sport long enough to go tackle that distance in a way that made me happy and proud of my effort.  And that was 18 months after starting triathlon!

The lesson is just to relax a little and take your time with this.  Big gains will come, but they have to be judged from a much larger perspective and over a longer period of time.  My first sprint triathlon a couple of years ago I ran an 8 minute pace in the 5K - two years later I ran a whole marathon faster than that.  But it took every bit of that two years for me to make that progress, and I worked smart and I worked very consistently.

I suggest to all you guys that you take a much longer view of triathlon.  I think this sport can be enjoyable for a lifetime.  Too many people come and go because they have a short, rapid rise to the longest distance possible, burn out, never reach their potential, and quit.  It's easy to always look at the next longest greatest race, but I think the better approach is to try and enjoy the training along the way and appreciate the changes that your body is going through.  One of the coolest things for me this year is to see where I started last year in comparison to where I'm starting this year, and dream about how much faster I could be in 3 or 5 years.  It's all building blocks.  At the same time, still the most fun thing for me is like yesterday, just to be able to get on my bike and go ride for 3 hours.  It is just cool to have the fitness to get on a bike and ride for a long time and feel fine afterwards. 

Definitely not looking for "instant results"... just looking for some sort of timeline on how those three aspects are supposed to play out.

 Thanks for the info.

I agree, read the Training Bible.  Great book.

And again, AJ, none of that was aimed directly at you, I was just adding thoughts that were relevant on the same topic. 

This stuff is hard, and having faith in a training program that you've never used before you've ever raced takes some trust and some patience.  Just stick with it and it will pay off.

Training and taking care of my pregnant wife.  Baby's room is about done as far as paint, and now we just need to get the crib put together and some final touches done.  Probably done sometime this weekend.  Weather was good last weekend, snowing a little today and tomorrow, supposed to be good again this weekend (I hope so, I want to train outside again).

(1) Lucy Lu - I have a little thing for Asian women, and she is just smokin' hot.

(2) Heather Graham - she's my number one blonde.  Porn star hot, but acts like the girl next door, seems like a guys gal.

(3) Angelina Jolie - Just because she's nuts.  She would probably tear me in half in the sack, but I'd be willing to find out.

(4) Mischa Barton - just saw her in this flick "The Oh in Ohio" - bad movie, but I fell in love with her.

(5) Cate Blanchett - This is my pick for "nerdy" hot chic.  She's a great actress, seems very intelligent, and is still just silly hot.

I could easily make a Top 10, but I'll stop there for now.

I've been a bit absent from the board, our group, and inspires in general lately. Getting slammed at work so not much free time to check in. However, I'm always up for a good conversation on the sexiest women. I'm not sure this is in any particular order as it changes frequently:

1. Olivia D'Abo - (older sister in The Wonder Years). Not sure why, but I think that girl is ridiculously sexy.

2. Heather Graham - N.A.U.G.H.T.Y.

3. Jordana Brewster - Have no idea where I saw her, and no good reason for liking her other than thinking she's just plain 'ol hot. Really, do I need another reason?

4. Kiana (of Kiana's Flex Appeal) - I don't think she has a last name. She doesn't need one. An Asian woman with monster hoots and completely toned body. Yes, please.

5. Gina Gershon - I have a thing for girls with dark hair. And I think this one's just nutso enough to go there, wherever "there" may be.

Thanks, that's excellent.  I just read the first link, but it was right on and great information.  I think everyone in the group should make an effort to read this stuff sometime this weekend.