Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 9)

Oh my golly goodness!!!!  These are the BEST GOOGLES EVER!!!! 

They are super comfortable and no leaking!!!!  I'm in love!!!!!

My husband can keep his underwear.  I don't want them! 

I started with a used wetsuit off ebay.  Then I permanently borrowed my husband's wetsuit. 

LOL!!!

After he wrecked his bike, I took his wheels.  Wheels and husband were fine.  Frame was trashed.  I told him was going to get plenty fine wheels on his next bike and I needed a wheel upgrade.  I thought that was pretty fair! 

Thanks for all the marriage advice.  We actually have been living together for a few years now and bought the house together...so I'm in pretty deep as it is.  I did find one that is very flexible when it comes to my gear buying addiction and is very generous with letting me be crazy about triathlon.  We will see how long that lasts after the wedding!

As for right now, TIME TO RUN!

And having met them both at Black Fly tri last year, Jonathan out kicked his coverage so he'll be doing as he's told soon enough!

I was hoping to sneak in a few runs over the weekend but the schedule was fairly full with driving to a couple of rivers in Ontario and Quebec for a little spring whitewater kayaking. Unfortunately due to a general lack of snow and rain over the winter and spring I think that kayaking might be a bit of a wash this year due to low water levels. Which just means more time for SBR I guess.

I think I have officially been roped into an off road running series. Anyone have any tips for trail running?

And SNAKES!!! They're scary, terrifying little creepy characters. Just kidding. There was a long thread about trail running in the main forum a while ago. I agree it's nice to get outside though.

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My job is kicking my backside this week. I worked the weekend and today I'm knocking off now after working since about 6 this morning, which makes (I think) just over 14 hours today. I'll probably end up doing the same or worse tomorrow, but the project is due at the end of the week and I have a 5 miler race Saturday morning to reward myself. I'm trying to think of myself as "well tapered."

Okay. I need a beer.

John

Well I guess I need some running advice ! I have never did speed work for running so today I thought what the heck warm up and give it hell.. within reason of course ( I aint no teenager lol) Well I gave it a good ol' try. (Check my training log for my 5k run on saturday compared to today) I assumed I was moving quickly with bursts of moderate speed to a long stride sprint(WOW was I WRONG) with recovery walk of about 10- 20 seconds.

Things I noticed... hips were tightish, non flexible, and wobbly, longer strides were ok , I am a total heel striker, and if I picked up the pace with just a click of my normal pace it was excellent but still not what I would call speed work.  I ran about 2.2 miles maybe to long for a speed work session? Not enough effort? Or am I just a whiny baby?

Sorry the Rant !

BUT,  something you still need to do is track the mileage in your shoes.  AND, quit buying shoes for their looks and buy them for there functionality for you.  I know.  I know.  I already preached that sermon but sometimes you need to preach it more for effect.  LOL

I also LOVE trail running. One thing I notice - when I start to get tired it is much much easier to space out and roll an ankle or trip over a tree root. Just be really aware of how you feel, and your spatial awareness, where your foot is going to plant and what is in front of you. It sounds complicated when I type it out but it really isn't . Jeff also had some great advice about what too look for in a trail running shoe so hopefully he will chime again.

I took a few pics of spring during my last trail run. I'll see if I can actually get these to post in the tread.....

Nope, if I resize them any smaller they will be invisible!

Farmers are busy in the fields around here today and it is DRY!! We had 25 mph winds with gusts and dust everywhere so I decided to park my bike on the patio for my ride tonight. Good thing I did because my legs had nothing. No juice. I was shocked since I even had a day off yesterday!

My husband will be gone all week this week so my training might take a hit also. It is a toss up which one of us will lose our minds first. He has to help chaparone the senior class trip to Chattanooga TN. I'll be stranded at home with my 2 little ones who will tell me 1,000 x a day how much they miss their Daddy . 

I know you have been running for a little while before answering anything about speed work I have some questions.

1. What are your current miles per week?
2. How long have you maintained the current MPW average?

If you have never done speed work it's important to recognize what your specific goals are.  If your goals are based mostly on the 5k's you are planning on running almost weekly throughout the season, then I am not sure I would recommend any additional speed work.  You "could" use these races as the speed work outs but I think there are couple things you can do other than the races. You can do track WO's of intervals on the track of 400's or 800's.

BUT as this group is most noted to recommend to get faster is LOTS and LOTS of easy running.  I was actually thinking of asking Jeff to post his ideas of running earlier today.  Jeff has been a major proponent of running multiple days easy rather than spending a lot of time doing speed work.  The risks inherent with speed work cannot be taken lightly and should only be done after a solid base has been established.  Matt has completed several month of all easy work and has developed some very solid speed gains.

Intense cycling includes some pretty intense WO's with HR's (or watts) at very high levels for short or moderate lengths of time.  To start:

1. Moderate might be something like 5 x 6 minutes at 85-90% of max HR with a 1-2 minute recovery.
2. High would be something like 5 x 2-3 minutes at 95-100% max HR with :30-1:00 recovery

By developing a strong cardio on the bike it will help create stronger run by allowing your body to develop a higher VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption). VO₂ max is reached when oxygen consumption remains at steady state despite an increase in workload.  This reached in an anaerobic state.  Which simply means without oxygen.  Your body, in very simple terms, is burning through  oxygen  faster than you can take it in.  By work hard on the bike you can increase your overall VO2 max thereby affecting the run by allowing you to have more cardiovascular power.

Jeff is much more articulate than I am and can definitely put my thoughts into a more understandable form.

I have been working on getting my training plan together for the HIM I am doing on 9/30 as I would like to officially start next week and I'd like to get my training log together. I have been unofficially training since Nov trying to get myself acclimated to S/B/R. I am leaning towards using Don Fink's Iron Fit competive program but going up to week 22 where you would do the HIM. I am thinking of adding a couple weeks to the base or build program to make it a 24 week program. I have seen the threads here on BT as well and I know others have used it for HIM's as well as IM's and have had success with it. There are a couple of issues with the program for me though as I don't think I could follow it to the letter because of my schedule so I was thinking modifying it and tailoring it to fit my schedule but use and follow the principles in the program. It's not an issue of the amount of time that I have it's how I fit that time into my schedule. I don't think I could follow the program as laid out in the book but I could do the required hours and then some for each sport. Some of the things I was thinking of changing were as follows:

1- Add a third swim day. I swim three days a week now since I am just getting started and need all the time I can get in the water. During the base phase it's only two days a week. I would like to be doing at least 3 days.

2- I am doing more hours now then the base phase requires. I think the most hours for the first 10 weeks is like 11 hours. I am already doing upwards to 14 hours which includes S/B/R and strength training. I can increase that time as needed. I think going out to week 21 the total number of hours is 16. I am thinking of just sort of staying were I am. Again I need all the time I can get on the bike and in the water.

3. I would like to stick to the schedule that I have been using now as far as the days and what activities I have been doing as it works really well for me but I would like to incorporate the priciples of Don's program into what I have already been doing. I have sort of done the same thing when I have trained for half marathons and marathons. I have typically tailored a program to my needs and have had success doing that but I am thinking this is a lot more involved and I want to make sure I am approaching this in a way that will prepare me not only for the HIM but the other Tri's that I have already committed to.

Any thoughts, suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ok - since I'm an inspire junkie, I thought we might benefit from a quick run through on how this little part of BT works.

So, if you receive an inspire and would like to reply directly to that person you must click on the little "Reply" button at the end of their message.   This will open their blog, post your reply there and turn the little "inspires" to red.

If you simply type in the box, and click "Post Comment", the reply is only shown on YOUR blog.  The "inspirer" would never see it, unless they thought to check back later.

Now look out because I might show up in your training log tomorrow!

Hmmmm......I'll be looking for some trail advice, as well.  I got talked into doing a 13.3 mile trail run that is completely uphill!  It climbs over a vertical mile!  It's the day before my 40th birthday.  I'm leaving the 30's with a bang!

Oh....ouch.....I think he'll go crazy first.  That sounds much worse than dealing with the little ones.  Good luck to both of you.