2014 Rookies - CLOSED (Page 9)

How was everyone's weekend?  I had an extremely busy Saturday as I bit off way more than I could chew.  60 mile ride, a round of golf, and a dinner party back to back to back with no down time in between.  Pretty much wiped me out on Sunday as I was resigned to the couch and football.  I needed the rest and my legs feel much better today.

I want to second that there are no such thing as too many questions.  This group was started with the hope that everyone would feel they could comfortably ask any question they want, not matter how simple or trivial it may seem.  More times than not, it's a good question.

As for the USAT, I only signed up for annual membership when I knew I was going to do at least 3 races sanctioned by the USAT.  You usually can check the race website for details to see if they are a USAT race.  Most larger US races are USAT (Ironman races), and smaller local races are closer to 50/50.  It is very possible you could race 8 times, and only 2 of your races are USAT sanctioned, so it helps to check first before signing up for annual membership.

If you do choose to buy 1 day licenses...don't sweat it.  It's not something you have to go out of your way to do on your own.  The race will handle everything in making sure you either have an annual license or they will make you sign the 1 day agreement right either online or when you pick up your packet.

As for other benefits of being an annual member...it's pretty minimal. 

3 hours on the trainer is going to be brutal even if you are in good riding shape.  1:38 is about 1:30 longer than I ever want to be on the trainer.

Not sure about adjusting the BT training plan, I'll try to look into it if I have time, but hopefully someone else who uses the BT plans can chime in.

As for simulating hills on the trainer, you just pedal harder.  Raising the front wheel won't do much of anything.  But one trick you may want to try is tightening down the flywheel a little more.  This will ensure that you aren't able to "coast" as much and you'll feel the resistance throughout the pedal stroke similar to how you would feel when climbing.  Most fluid trainers already do this pretty well though.  If you are using virtual power though...you might not want to mess with varying tensions.

I'll agree with Jason, 3 hours on the trainer is quite long and even more so when you haven't been on the bike in a while!

Can you give an example of a swim workout that you want to alter?

I agree with Jason and Arend -- three hours on the trainer is hard, regardless of how much time you're used to being on the bike!  I think I've only done it a couple times.  One hour rides on the trainer are manageable and pretty normal for me....two hours is long and by the end, I'm ready to be done....three hours, you really have to want it (or be a special kind of crazy )!

What's everyone got on the schedule today?  I did a hard trainer ride this morning and will be going to my chiropractor tonight for some general maintenance (and checking out an issue I'm having with one of my ankles).  Have a good one!

I don't know anything about it myself.

Can I ask where the number 127 came from?

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I'm not a very experienced or strong runner, but I have read a decent amount and put some of it into practice.  The key thing to keep in mind when you're first starting to run (and even after you've built up some volume) is to keep it EASY, conversational, to finish feeling like you had way more left to give.  Run training is different from swim or bike training in that your body has to deal with high impact.....for swimming and biking, you can get away with pushing it and feeling like you gave it your all with less risk of injury.

So what does EASY mean?  I'm one of those Type A, engineering types....I like numbers, I love all my metrics, I painstakingly went through to figure out my (running) HR zones.  I used them for a while, and eventually, I relinquished this for my run training.  Now I just run at a pace that feels easy and conversational for me.  Today it might be a 9:15 pace, but tomorrow it might be a 10:30 pace....I don't stress over it anymore.

But if you're going to train by HR, my suggestion would be to do a bit more research into setting your zones.  I'm not sure that 180 minus your age is the best way to set zones (though it will work for some people)....likewise, 220 minus your age to set your zones will work for some and not others.  Here's an interesting (LONG!) thread if you're interested: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=25733&page=1#

It also gives you a different method of setting your zones, using an actual test (for many of us, the test would be appropriate for a shorter race, like a 5k).

Note: this is not to say Maffetone's method is bad....I don't personally know anything about it.  But I'd be cautious of setting your HR zones by using some number minus your age. 

I agree completely with Nicole.  You need to be a bit wary of any HR zones that are generic based on age - they may work well but they don't for a lot of people.  They certainly don't for me.  I've always had a low HR compared to my peers, I can remember my swim coach when I was a kid always wanted us to get our HR over 180 and I would have to absolutely bust a gut to get there (and often didn't).  Meanwhile there were other guys in the lane hitting 195 and not working as hard.

As Nicole said, the key is to run easy.  A couple of years ago I did a "run every day" streak and my only goal for each run was to go easy.  I wanted to finish each run like I could go out and do it again and never feel any residual effects the next day.  It did wonders for my running and I never once worried about my HR.  Note that I'm not suggesting you go out and start running every day!    I took a while building up to that.

Once you have been running consistently for a while and want to establish some HR zones that apply to you then you can do the LT test outlined in the thread Nicole linked to.

Your bike and run HR zones will most often be different from one another -- bike being about 10 bpm lower than run does not seem to be entirely uncommon from what I've read.

I don't use BT's plans, but I assume they pull information from your profile.  So if you go to Settings --> Training Log Settings --> HR Zone manager, that will give you the option to edit your HR zones.  Does that update your zones on  your plans?