kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2013 (Year 3!) - CLOSED (Page 86)

Hey Kelly, Glad you are figuring it out! I am sure it makes you feel a little better to know what is going on.

Not a great month but it was a ok month. I am on a roll now with my workouts and getting them in. So the new block should look better. 4x1mile repeats tomorrow. Should be fun. I just hope the wind isn't has bad as it has been today. 

Has been an exahusting week. Going out to buy a new car today. So, a bit late but Feb Totals:

Bike - 16.25 hours

Run- 9.06 hours

Swim - 7.26 hours

Strength - 4.1 hours

Volume is increasing.

x2.  I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to share with the group, and we are here if you need support.

Kelly, I echo the support and thanks that others have shared as well.

If you would like any professional suggestions/recommendations or if you have any questions, please consider me to be a resource.

5 (8K) mile runs are tough to pace. For a 10K I'd run the first half at half marathon pace and then go as fast as I can the second half. For a 5K it's pretty much 95% the entire way. I can run an HIM at about 7:50 and a 5K at about 6:50 so maybe I'd split the difference and go 7:20 pace and see where I'm at come the half way point.

Interested to see what others have to say. Good luck I'm sure you'll rock it.

Its just tough.  I feel like I do everything right and keep gaining weight.  Its tough to accept that I need to eat more to hopefully loose weight.  Right now I make no decisions for myself food wise and eat as directed.  Its much easier to put everything in someone else's hands and just execute.  Like most things, its difficult to be objective about yourself -- as the saying goes the self represented attorney has a fool for a client.

A 5 mile run is going to be very close to all out.  Using pace isn't the best indicator because pace can vary widely depending on the course, wind, temperature, etc.  For 5 miles you want to start about LT and keep pushing as hard as you can as the miles progress.

Kind of like running slowly to one day run faster

Drills in the pool this morning.  I wanted to swim more than 2000 yards but I stuck to the plan.  It's a rest and recovery week for me.  I don't feel as if I need it, which is a first (though it will be nice not to have to get up at 4 every day this week to get in uber long weekday sessions).  

At my son's birthday party on Saturday I must have consumed some hidden gluten.  I spent Saturday night and the better part of Sunday in agony.  Thankfully I'm much better today.  I have sick kids here in the house, so the rest of the day will be spent caring for them.  I leave for Las Vegas on Friday.  So excited to spend 3 days with my youngest sister and my mom  

Rest day today.  Zzzzz....

Mmmmm....... coffee.

"Rest Weeks" are not totally about rest.  They're about adaptation.  Your body needs some lower volume / lower intensity time to adapt to the physiological changes you've been working on over the previous few weeks.  Once you've reached a general level of conditioning, if you don't take downtime / "rest weeks" your body won't be able to adapt to the training stresses and you'll end up plateauing. 

Love this answer.  Gym rats will tell you that you grow outside of the gym.  Basically giving your body time to repair itself and make the adaptations to the stimulus you've exposed it to.  Most power lifting and body building programming have you going 3 weeks of progressively getting heavier and then one deload week were you pair the weights and the volume back about half.  Same principles apply here.  Even if you don't "feel" like you need a down week there is sooo much data out there showing that you can only expose your muscular and CNS to so much before you start moving backwards.  Those of you that schedule rest weeks, or have them scheduled for you, use those weeks to rest.  It's a hard lesson to learn, but it sets up your body to progress through the next block of training.

I understand and think it makes sense (which is why I only swam the planned 2000 yards when I wanted to swim 4000).  I guess I should have said that I don't feel as broken down as I've felt at this point in previous blocks.  It probably means I'm getting stronger, and that's a good thing.