Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 87)

This leads me to a question, did you do this test on your road bike or tri bike?  Same with the 20 min test?

Jonathan both tests were done on my one and only bike, my Tri bike. I really would like to do that 20 minute test again especially when I am up 18 watts on the 5 minute test and down 17 watts on the last 20 minute test. It doesn't make sense.

But it DOES make sense, right?  We have off days.  We have days when the effort feels harder than our output.  We have days when we don't plan the workout perfectly.  These are great days because unlike the days that go perfectly, we learn something.

I'm psyched to hear that this was on your tri bike.  I put out more power on my road bike and have very similar numbers to you on my tri bike.  Considering you are more aero than I am, this probably makes you faster!!!

It is 35 degrees and gusting like crazy out right now.  Three of us are going out for 60 miles this afternoon.  Not looking forward to it right now, but I'll be happy that I did it.

Congratulations!  Wow!

Today was the day that I decided to tackle my hill at the end of my bike ride.  It's a nasty one.  Short and steep.  On a good day, I feel like death at the top.  On a bad day, I get off my bike.

Today, I tacked it onto the end of my 2 hour flattish ride.  My foot didn't hurt one little tiny bit while climbing it but I felt like I wanted to barf.  I uploaded my Garmin to Strava for this ride and lo-and-behold!!!!!  Today was the fastest I have EVER climbed this hill!  No wonder I felt like barfing!

I see bike hill repeats in my near future! 

Samantha congrats on completing the challenge. That is pretty awesome accomplishment. I think with all the running you have been doing you'll do just fine with your HM.

Tracy nice job on tackling that hill at the end of your ride today and posting your fastest time climbing it. You're already in mid season form on the bike. Send some of those hills my way that's what I need to be training on. The harder the better.

For those of you from the last Junkie session, Brenda completed her first full mary in 4:23.  Hop on over to her logs and offer a congratulatory inspire.

I'm sure she'll have the figurative smile for all of you! 

I'm impressed! 

100 runs in 100 days will provide a lot of experience for your mind and body to reflect on.  You know that there's something beyond "the norm" that you were able to make your body adapt too.  Most people, including myself, won't place their bodies in to that kind of training load so congratulations are in order...............Congratulations!!

Another thought on your taper:  Consider that you've been running (sort of) every day for 3 full months.  Your body has become adjusted to this kind of running so reduced volume and frequency will provide as much benefit a very long taper and it will feel like a recovery week anyway.  I would suggest you keep a higher volume of something like 30-35 MPW for another week with a long run of 12 miles or so, scale back next week to 20-25 miles and then race week pull back to around 20 miles including the race itself. 

Your week could look something like 4, 4, 8, 3, 14 = 33 miles.  That would drop your mileage 17 from last week and 7 from 2 weeks ago.  You'll get the recovery benefits after an awesome long week of running last week.

You'vereally set yourself up nicely for the half marathon coming up!  You'll blow it out of the water on April 13!

I just want some hills that make me breath hard.............AT ALL!  My elevation profiles are pretty horrendous compared to many of the hills that most of you have available to train on.

Climbing hills like that is a great bike specific leg strength workout, great job Tracy.  I highly recommend hill repeats as a bike strength day.  Last year I attribute much of my improved ability to climb in the latter parts of long rides to doing hill repeats, and just finding the biggest climbing routes I could find.

Dirk, hopefully we'll be able to show you a few of those hills when you are back here.  3 weeks!  Neither Jonathan nor I live immediately where we send the best mountain pictures and bike profiles from, but there are a few short tough ones near my house.  Boston will give you at least a few to conquer as well.

Thanks all!  

Dirk, thanks for the input.  That is generally speaking along the lines of what I had in mind, so the reinforcement is good.  I did realize a couple weeks ago that the Boston Marathon is the same "weekend" (we'll count Monday as part of the weekend!) as my half marathon, so it looks like we're counting down together!

OPEN WATER SWIM!!!!!

Holy moly!  It was cold!  I need some more cold weather swimming stuff!  I just couldn't get my face in the water.  (I'm a cold water wimp!)  My lips were freezing.  the conditions were spectacular, though.  It was a lovely swim while my friend paddled her kayak.

Crazy.  Any idea what the water temp was?  With all this cold weather here, I am having trouble imagining the water warming up enough for my end of May triathlon... in which case I would shamefully consider abandoning the triathlon.  Honestly, I just have no desire swimming in cold water!  Especially if the air temp is also cold!

Tracy I agree with Samantha that is just crazy. I can't even imagine doing an OWS here. We'll be lucky if it is warm enough to get in there by memorial day weekend.

Well I finally finished Jorge's winter cycling program and am still alive to talk about it. It was 16 weeks of pain, suffering and misery but I have to say it was well worth it. I think I have definitely improved both my bike conditioning and my overall conditioning. This should go a long way for me this year. For everybody else still doing it there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

Crazy time of year for OWS, great job!  I hate the pool like most of you hate the treadmill.  What did you wear?  Two caps (or a neoprene one) really help, and believe or not earplugs really help me in the cold water.  There are face masks, like divers wear, if the water is really cold but if it's much over 50 you can overheat with a face mask on while swimming.

Open water swims around here are snow shoe hikes right now!  I can't wait to get into the lakes though, once the ice has melted.

I'm with Dirk on your three week plan.  Keep the long run up there, and taper a bit but keep the frequency too.  You are really ready to hammer that half.  I wouldn't worry about not having done much hard running.

I know all the cool kids say you can't run fast unless you train fast, and I understand my paces aren't "fast" by most people's standards.  But last winter,  I ran a lot of miles, 6 days a week, almost all of it at super easy z1/z2 pace, 9:15-9:30 ish, and I ran my early spring half at 8:10 pace, and my 5k a few weeks later at 7:00 pace.  I didn't run a single 8:10 mile all winter until the race.

I think you'll surprise yourself at your ability to hold a much faster pace due to all the frequency and miles you've put on those legs.  Prepare to lay down an effort that will inspire Dirk to match at Boston!

That's hardcore, you're a full fledged member of the HTFU club!

With the air so cold, I bet the water felt warm at first, but low 50s is serious!  Lake water?  For some reason ocean water at the same temp feels a lot warmer.

Hardcore indeed!!!  Open water swim when the temp outside is in the 30s?!?!

Tony congrats to you as well!!!  16 weeks is a long time and way to keep at it!  I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of improvement this means for your triathlons this summer! (and fall!)