Bill's House of Pain-No Vacancy (Page 8)
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Chicago_Joe - 2009-04-26 12:50 PM A few observations from a newbie regarding training for his first tri so far. As i had said earlier in the week, my first swim class was yesterday. Wow, I don't swim as good as I thought I did. I have lots of breathing and kicking work to do. I also ran my first race ever today, a 5K. Again, Wow, do I run slow. People were passing me up like an old lady in the left lane. I finished in 28:20. My personal best. Anyway, a little discouraging but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day. Gotta keep on pushing forward... Congrats on the 5k PB! Don't worry about being passed. Everyone has to start somewhere. It will make you appreciate your progress later on down the line. As for the swiming, that comes with time too. Make sure you don't spend any time "swimming poorly". By that I mean if your form is bad, it's worth it to spend more time on drills until your form comes together. Bad habits in the water become harder to break if you reinforce them with practice... |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Chicago_Joe - 2009-04-26 1:06 PM Post your "A" goal here when you decide. I'll plug them into my magic MS Word table (because I am functionally computer illiterate and it works for me) when you post them. If I have a blank spot at the end of the week I'm PM you so we can discuss what you want to do. Fire away with questions. Have a great Week 1! Bill Sorry for my delayed response. My "A" race is the Chicago Sprint Tri however, I was thinking of doing Harbor Lights in Waukegan, IL on July 26th. Good deal. Looks like there will be at least two of you guys there at Harbor lights. |
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Veteran ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Chicago_Joe - 2009-04-26 1:50 PM I also ran my first race ever today, a 5K. Again, Wow, do I run slow. People were passing me up like an old lady in the left lane. I finished in 28:20. My personal best. Anyway, a little discouraging but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day. Gotta keep on pushing forward... Hey man - there are lot's of people who would kill to have a first time 5k at 28:20. It only gets better! |
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Veteran ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Yay for me. After taking off a month from running due to Plantar Fascitiis, I went to the NewBalance store and bought me some new shoes. Then I went home and ran 1mile in 9:15. Observations: a) Apparently biking and swimming help. I did the first .5 mi in 5minutes. the second in 4:15. I was not even breathing hard during the second half. b) I've been reading about not overstriding. I get it now, it feels much better with shorter strides. c) I stuck strictly to 80bpm, which is a little faster than i used to go. It felt so much easier. So the cadence thing is starting to make sense to me. I'm so freakin' happy that my run will be much more pleasant in this next level of tri training. (Cause I HATED running the first 6mo I did it) Thanks for listening, steve ps- my training sched until june 14th is up on my trainingblog Edited by EvenOlder 2009-04-26 4:59 PM |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() TIP OF THE DAY
The “yin and yang” of triathlon preparation are work and rest. We all intuitively understand the work part. It’s in our nature to go out a work hard to accomplish our goals. Recovery is the part that’s hard for us to wrap our heads around. How can I get faster if I’m sitting here with my feet up? The goal of training is to improve fitness. That fitness develops at rest. And that’s why without recovery, training is too much of a good thing by default.
While the need for proper recovery is universal, there is no one recovery technique that works for everyone. There are however elements of recovery that we can all be conscious of to ensure we recover well. I’ll address them in the order that they occur, be bear in mind they are all important.
Post workout nutrition is one key to speedy recovery. Muscle glycogen stores can be largely if not completely depleted by a workout of significant duration or intensity. The body’s optimum window for uptake of carbohydrates and protein is widely believed to be within the first 30 minutes post exercise. The ratio of carbohydrates to protein that most experts advocate is 4:1. So what I do is I take in 80 grams of carbs and 20 grams of protein straight away, usually while I’m standing at my kitchen sink trying not to sweat all over anything clean. If I can tolerate solid food, it’s usually something like bread or tortillas and very lean ham, or a protein bar and juice. As long as the ratio is 4:1, and there’s not too much dietary fat, I’m happy. I normally avoid high glycemic index carbs, but here is when I’ll get some in. Maybe flour tortillas and an apple, and 20 grams of protein powder. Whatever it takes and I can tolerate. Often I make a smoothie with frozen mangoes and strawberries, a cup or two of water and some protein powder. Awesome.
After that first recovery meal, I get my shower, maybe do some light stretching, and I get my feet up. If I did a long bike or run I like to do “leg drains”. I simply lay on the floor with my feet up on the wall at a 60 degree angle or greater. This promotes dependent blood flow via gravity, and as that blood leaves my legs hopefully it takes some of the waste products from muscle metabolism along with it. I know my legs feel better after I lay there for about 10 or 15 minutes. I don’t have any evidence to that say they help from a physiology standpoint. But they make my legs feel better in the short term (as soon as I stand up) and I know when I do them, I feel better the next day than I do on days when I don’t do them.
When I have the opportunity to get down on the floor with my foam roller, I engage in about 10 minutes of self-abuse rolling out my quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. It feels good when I stop. I stretch more than I used to, and while I’m gaining flexibility I can’t yet qualify or quantify how that flexibility is helping me. But for the purposes of this discussion, I want to include it because when I stretch it occurs in this first two hours post workout or that evening before I go to bed.
After these first recovery steps take place, it’s usually time to eat again. My personal policy is to eat that same 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein, and it works for me because my meals are pretty small. If you try to maintain that ration with a 1500 calorie meal you would be looking at a LOT of protein. If I eat a large meal, I cut my protein off at about 35-40 grams and the rest is carbs and healthy fats.
The next very important short term recovery element is sleep. Most of us don’t get as much as we’d like. I get more than I used to simply by turning off the TV and computer and going to bed. But the need for sleep is something I think we all understand so no need to go too deep here. The night after your key workout, try to get to bed early and get a full 8 hours so your body can recover.
It’s a lot easier to lay out short term recovery than it is to actually do it. Often when I’d be stretching I’m getting a “cool down” by push moving my lawn or playing on the floor with my kids. We all need balance in our lives. Going for a two hour ride and coming home to put our two hour short-term recovery plan into effect might not be cool with the people who are waiting for us to be done training. But those are the key elements. Fit in as many as you can as often as possible. ESPECIALLY the nutrition and if possible, the sleep. I’ll discuss recovery week planning the next time this topic comes up. Happy recovering. |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() EvenOlder - 2009-04-26 4:58 PM Yay for me. After taking off a month from running due to Plantar Fascitiis, I went to the NewBalance store and bought me some new shoes. Then I went home and ran 1mile in 9:15. Observations: a) Apparently biking and swimming help. I did the first .5 mi in 5minutes. the second in 4:15. I was not even breathing hard during the second half. b) I've been reading about not overstriding. I get it now, it feels much better with shorter strides. c) I stuck strictly to 80bpm, which is a little faster than i used to go. It felt so much easier. So the cadence thing is starting to make sense to me. I'm so freakin' happy that my run will be much more pleasant in this next level of tri training. (Cause I HATED running the first 6mo I did it) Thanks for listening, steve ps- my training sched until june 14th is up on my trainingblog My first running topic will deal with run cadence, so hopefully that will clear things up even more. Glad to hear the PF is clearing up. When I was a medic in the Ranger Regiment we saw that a lot, and we had tremendous success treating it with posterior splinting. I believe there is something commercially available that serves the same purpose as a posterior splint (should it recur). I had it myself in 1995. I applied the splint and it was better in a matter of days. The commercial product may be called the "Straussberg Sock" if I remember correctly. Whatever the case, any that holds your foot in plantar extension as you sleep will work. Hopefully you're done with it. But if not, you might look into those options. Glad to hear the fitness from S/B carried over! |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() <------- Tip of the day was a recovery topic. It's at the bottom of page 9. |
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Member ![]() ![]() | ![]() Race today went well for a first attempt at the distance. Stupid Austin has too many hills. The bike shredded my quads. I also lost a full bottle of gatorade on the bike. Fell out of my jersey pocket. So I started the run under fueled and under hydrated. The run was off road through some hills which my legs weren't ready for. I also discovered on longer events during the run if I drink more than one cup of anything at an aid station I puke. As a result my run was too slow. Good learning experience. 3:15:22 isn't too bad for a first go at the distance. I can also vouch for not doing anything different on race day. They had some drink called Heed on the run coarse. Didn't sit well. Way different than a sprint distance event. |
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Member ![]() ![]() | ![]() Thanks for all the encouragement (inspires) folks. It really meant a lot. |
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Master ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Bill - 2009-04-27 10:49 AM
It’s a lot easier to lay out short term recovery than it is to actually do it. Bill, I have heard this before - not specifically relating to recovery. I have heard personal trainers use this analogy for gaining fitness and for losing weight (among other things) That is, planning to do it is easy, not doing it is even easier. Changing direction / momentum / habits is difficult to do. I, for one, will need to focus on this important aspect of training. |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Iron_Gus - 2009-04-26 11:36 PM Bill - 2009-04-27 10:49 AM
It’s a lot easier to lay out short term recovery than it is to actually do it. Bill, I have heard this before - not specifically relating to recovery. I have heard personal trainers use this analogy for gaining fitness and for losing weight (among other things) That is, planning to do it is easy, not doing it is even easier. Changing direction / momentum / habits is difficult to do. I, for one, will need to focus on this important aspect of training. It can be hard. What we most often do is try to make dramatic changes quickly. That's easy to do for a day or a week, but hard to maintain. It's small gradual changes over time that lead to dramatic change. Month to month consistency is more important than day to day. Year to year is more imoprtant than month to month. By that I mean it's better to be moderately consistent year to year, completing say 70% of your planned training than it is to have a great couple of weeks followed by a month of nothing. Forming habits takes time. But it's worth it in the long run. |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() jpohlman - 2009-04-26 9:47 PM Race today went well for a first attempt at the distance. Stupid Austin has too many hills. The bike shredded my quads. I also lost a full bottle of gatorade on the bike. Fell out of my jersey pocket. So I started the run under fueled and under hydrated. The run was off road through some hills which my legs weren't ready for. I also discovered on longer events during the run if I drink more than one cup of anything at an aid station I puke. As a result my run was too slow. Good learning experience. 3:15:22 isn't too bad for a first go at the distance. I can also vouch for not doing anything different on race day. They had some drink called Heed on the run coarse. Didn't sit well. Way different than a sprint distance event. 3:15:22 is very respectable for a first OLY under those conditions. Highly recommend an under seat bottle cage over jersey pocket. |
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New user![]() ![]() | ![]() Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement and inspire messages. You guys are a solid group of folks. I have a few random topics I'm hoping to get a little better understanding on: 1. According to my calendar, if I'm going to do the Harbor Lights Sprint July 19th, today is the day to start the 12 week training program in Joe Friel's Your First Tri. Anyway, the workouts seem pretty easy in the beginning. For example, run 10 minutes is the first run. I'm running 30 to 40 minutes everytime I run already. This feels like taking steps backwards. 2. Do you think it's okay to practice the drills I'm learning in swim class on my own? To Bill's point, I don't want to cement bad habits but at the same time I want to improve sooner then later. This Saturday he had me practice the kick with hands on a board and pratice breating using an inflatable dumb bell by breathing on my right side every right hand stroke. Thanks, Joe |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Chicago_Joe - 2009-04-27 1:34 PM Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement and inspire messages. You guys are a solid group of folks. I have a few random topics I'm hoping to get a little better understanding on: 1. According to my calendar, if I'm going to do the Harbor Lights Sprint July 19th, today is the day to start the 12 week training program in Joe Friel's Your First Tri. Anyway, the workouts seem pretty easy in the beginning. For example, run 10 minutes is the first run. I'm running 30 to 40 minutes everytime I run already. This feels like taking steps backwards. 2. Do you think it's okay to practice the drills I'm learning in swim class on my own? To Bill's point, I don't want to cement bad habits but at the same time I want to improve sooner then later. This Saturday he had me practice the kick with hands on a board and pratice breating using an inflatable dumb bell by breathing on my right side every right hand stroke. Thanks, Joe Hey Joe, 1. One of two things you can do here. You can just follow the plan and ease off on the running, or you can run more than the plan calls for you to run. Personally I would lean toward scaling back your run to match the plan. The reason I say that is plans are built with each sport's volume taken into account so there is a balance between them. When you deviate too much that balance is impacted. How much that matters is hard to say when your overall volume remains relatively low. If your scheduled run is 20 minutes and you run 30, even though that's 50% more it's probably not a big deal. But if your planned run is an hour and you run 90 minutes, that 50% increase may be an issue. As you cross over into run workouts over 45 minutes or so you need to factor in recovery moreso than you would with a 20 minute run. So you can see how this could affect your plan. Ultimately the plan IS a guideline, and I deviate from mine within reason. It's more common for me to shorten a workout than it is to go longer however. 2. Drills, drills, drills. When you plan has a swim scheduled it's better to drill during that time than it is to swim if your form is early in the developmental stages. If you get them all down and you don't have a lesson for several days, see about maybe moving your lesson up or just casually asking for some additional drills. Your swim instructor is ultimately the one who can specifically advise you best. My experience with learning to swim is where I base my advice here. I did drills for a very long time. Eventually it paid off. |
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Regular ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Dido on the swim drills. IMO it is still possible to cover the necessary volume of swimming doing nothing but swim drills. I am currently training for the OLY distance with swim workouts of 1200-3000 yards in length. I spend 85% of that time doing drills and the last 15% trying to put it all together at an easy pace concentrating on form. |
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Elite ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Today's Tip of the Day is to make sure you don't do much on your rest day. For me, that includes waiting until tomorrow to post the tip of the day. I had an insane day at work so I didn't really get an opportuinty to do it. But I'll have plenty of time tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good Monday! |
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Regular ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Rest days seem to be the hardest part of my schedule too. Once I'm in the groove and training consistently I just feel like rolling out every day. In my head I know it's wrong but something in my body says "do it." At least it's comforting to know I'm not alone here. |
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Member![]() ![]() | ![]() Great post... very helpful, thanks Bill! I will definitely post my final choices for thoughts. - Jeremy |
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Elite![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() JeepFleeb - 2009-04-27 11:43 PM When you train, your muscles are literally being ripped apart. It's when you rest that they have time to heal and repair and grow. Training makes you weak. Recovery makes you strong. ![]() I subscribe to this same school of thought. What's funny is as I did a google search to find microscopic images (I've seen some at some point) of muscle damage caused by exercise, the first hit that came back was some journal article from 1995 that concluded that repeated hard exercise had no effect on recovery. Let me break down why I disagree. The study abstract basically said that day 1 post exercise, markers for damage like creatine kinase, an enzyme released when muscle is damaged, were increased. But on subsequent days with repeated exercise, they remained the same (still elevated but no higher. So based on that and a few subjective factors they say repeated execise doesn't impede recovery. Here's the problem: That may be true if you go to a lab and do 3 sets of ten bicep curls every day as they did in this study. Damage and recovery occur proportionally on a relatively small scale and your body can more or less keep up. The problem is in our training as we gradually increase volume and intensity those recovery mechanisms can't keep pace without rest. A three hour bike ride compared to 3 sets of bicep curls is going to cause far more muscle damage. Our capacity to do damage is much greater than our bodies ability to repair it. So we need to optimize our recovery with adequate nutrition and rest. Studies must be taken in context and read with the understanding of both what they set out to prove and what the data actually proves. For example, I'm very skeptical about studies dealing with sports drinks that are funded and/or conducted by sports drink manufacturers. Practical, and eventualy personal experience is a better guideline in my opinion. Any experienced athlete or coach will tell you that training without recovery is a process of diminishing returns. Sure, that study made the point that it is not exercise that ACTIVELY INTERFERES with and impairs our ability to recover. Exercise doesn't make your body stop clearing enzymes produced by muscle breakdown. But if your clearing quantity "X" and your producing quantity "100X", eventually it's the volume of exercise and lack of recovery that interferes with our ability to recover and continue to train at the same level. They don't tell the whole story with this one study, so in my opinion its misleading. Make sense? Recovery week is important. Rest days are important. Lab studies... meh. Here's the abstract if you want to read it: http://www.acsm-msse.org/pt/re/msse/abstract.00005768-199509000-00005.htm;jsessionid=J3GhPypbRGHjWGXw8WSrBypnvhcTNS8MMfjnMcYGlpS84yZFTR8h!928310026!181195629!8091!-1 |
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Veteran![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() OK Bill - now that's gettin' serious about it. So, my ymca pool will be laned at 50m for the summer starting may. No more just hitting my stroke and wham- turn around. Lightly strained my neck doing a flip turn - so no more of those for a while. I don't mind looking like a newbie turning around at the end of the lane. Who's riding today? steve |
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Elite![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() EvenOlder - 2009-04-28 9:57 AM OK Bill - now that's gettin' serious about it. So, my ymca pool will be laned at 50m for the summer starting may. No more just hitting my stroke and wham- turn around. Lightly strained my neck doing a flip turn - so no more of those for a while. I don't mind looking like a newbie turning around at the end of the lane. Who's riding today? steve I love the art and science side of sport as much as I like getting out and doing. Man I would love to have a 50 meter pool! As for flip turns, I've never done them. I went to the pool one night with the goal of mastering the flip turn. Out of 100 attempts I got it right once. The other 99 were probably good entertainment for the people looking down on the pool from stairmaster row. ![]() In the pool I do like to practice sighting. I will place a water bottle on the edge of the pool and sight like I do in open water. Some people say flips turns are fun. For me, sighting is fun. I know... I'm a simple dude. |
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Veteran![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() Now that's a cool thing to spice up my swims - the sighting thing. Anything I should know about it? |
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Elite![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() EvenOlder - 2009-04-28 10:40 AM Now that's a cool thing to spice up my swims - the sighting thing. Anything I should know about it? Okay I have a running tip prepared but it can wait. You'd think I don't like running for some reason. But I want to answer this question in detail. So it's open water sighting today. TIP OF THE DAY: The way I do it is this: When I'm racing, I always breathe to my left because it's more comfortable to me and I'm faster. I train breathing bilaterally... but I'll describe how I do it racing. Just reverse right and left if you breathe to the right. Just as my right hand is extended fully, before I roll my head to breathe to the left, I pop my head up straight to the front and look for the buoy (or whatever I'm using to sight). It's just a quick look. The bit of leverage you get from begining the underwater pull with the lead hand is enough to help you get your head up out of the water. And then I roll my head to the left for the breath and then down to exhale normally. It takes practice, but with time you can breathe and sight in a fluid motion. The next question is "How often?" That depends largely on how straight you swim. If you pull one way or another off course, you'll want to check maybe every 3 or 4 strokes until you learn how to compensate for or arrest your lateral drift with improved technique. And again, bad conditions may dictate the need to sight more frequently. I usually do it every 5 or 6 at the most. Even when I'm swimming straight, no more than 6. I can sight and breathe without a breakdown in speed or fluidity of my stroke, so the gain of being sure I'm on course outweighs what may be a split second lost per breath. If you are in open water, there's always the chance swells will impair your sighting so you may have to modify the timing a little. Swells can also largely dictate to which side you need to breathe, assuming you like inhaling air as opposed to water. ![]() Once you are a comfortable, confident, open water swimmer your sighting options can include sighting off the pack to your front or off of another swimmer. You still need to check to make sure your on course by finding the buoy ever few times. But you sort of make you best judgement about who's feet to follow and stick with them. I've been right. I've been wrong. But since I've become competent in OW I've not been wrong for too long because I still spot check. If you have the option, for a Sunday race try to get to the swim site Saturday morning at the same time your wave will start for a short practice swim. Not only will you get a "feel" for the water, you can see where the sun will be on the course. You can also check out the buoys if they're out, or maybe find something on the landscape that lines up with the course like a cellphone/radio tower, etc... Again this is speaks to the beautiful thing about triathlon. There is ALWAYS something to work on. There is always somewhere to improve or some detail you didn't even think about until someone brings it up. |
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Regular![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() I mixed in some sighting today during my swim and I think its a great way to learn/reinforce that technique in a controlled setting. I would sight once during each link of the pool (25yards). Today was probably the most I have ever practiced sighting in one session and was really able to develop a smooth sight into my swim stroke. It's definitely a confidence booster for me, Great Tip! |
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