brick94513-GoGoGo Mentor Group - Closed For Now! (Page 95)

Hmmm, great question indeed.

1. It's all about staying healthy. Late last year I had my knee problems because I didn't believe in stretching (much). I can still improve this, but staying loose is critical to staying healthy and staying healthy is critical to having a good race.

2. Consistency in your schedule is critical to making workouts. Again, I could have been a little better at this, but for the most part, Tuesday and Thursday were swim days. Monday is for rest. Wednesday was usually a spin bike day. The other bike and run workouts filled in as time allowed. This had me really well prepared for my HIM, and I'm sure it'll be even more important for my IM next year.

3. You can't let triathlon consume you. I tend to obsess about things and I did that with my HIM training this year. It was always on my mind. I wanted to talk about triathlons with lots of people who don't care. Maybe they care, but on a very surface level. My lady gets it the worst. I need to supress the urge, and talk to her about other stuff once in a while.

1.  Aerobic ability.  Prior to this year I had never tried distance sports.  I've been amazed at the gains that I've made.

2.  Swimming.  While I'm still terrible, I can now perform a crawl stroke with bilateral breathing.

3.  Gains come slowly via steady effort.  On a day to day basis, I have not seen much.  However, looking back to earlier in the year the improvement has been significant

Well I learned something else reguarding taper.

Circumstances have kept me off the bike for 3 weeks before this weekend. I did a metric century ride this weekend and exploded! My last one I avg 20 mph. This one was near 18!!! Now it rained and the wind rolled in with the rain, but that doesn't account for the fact I felt horrible on the bike. I felt like I went backward.

I totally bailed!  I thought when school (for my kids) started up I'd get back to a regular training schedule, but life's been weird.  That said, here's a few things I learned, in no particular order.

1.  Volume works!  Earlier this year I was running 25mi/week and loved it.  I got faster, smoother and it was easy.  Now I'm having a hard time getting 10 miles and I'm slow, tired and not really liking it.  My motivation is right now.

2.  Tri is pretty far down my list of important things.  Sometimes it seems like the MOST important thing.  It is not.

3.  I have definately become more in tune with my body.  I don't really need my HR monitor these days, I can tell from RPE pretty much which 'zone' I'm in.  I like this, makes everything simpler.  Just go, don't worry about anything other than what time it is.

I still haven't pulled the trigger on a new bike, but I've got my eye on craigslist and ebay.  No hurry right now as I won't be racing for a long time, and my current bikes are fine for training.  I did drop a few hundred upgrading my mtb a bit, new front wheel (well, new to me.  It's a used Crossmax SLR), new front brake, and a drivetrain freshening (chain, cassette, new shift cables).  I plan to keep it and use it for all offroad racing, and buy a roadie of some type this winter.

Tim, enjoy the taper.  Kick butt this weekend!

Hmmm.  3 weeks off seems a little excessive, eh?  But remember, you were traveling too.  Sorry things didn't go as well as planned.

Weird how slightly different training can leave you sore.  I've been riding my MTB a lot more lately, then went for a 50 mile ride on my TT bike.  I would of thought this would of been no big deal, but this morning my hip flexors were sore.  Just shows, it only take a little different positioning and gearing to make a difference!

Damn 3 weeks?  That IS a long time.  Bet it felt good to get back on the bike though!

Yep 3 weeks. Can't really defend myself there. I was traveling and the way the dates fell it just ended up that way. I was running and lifting though. Even on vacation. I didn't think it would make as much of an impact as it did,but did expect some for sure

things haven't got much better now that I've been back either. My wifes cat has been sick and will more than likely have to be put down soon. In the mean time I have an upset wife to take back and forth to the vet while I should be working out.

Sounds like its time to break out the trainer.  It seems the only time I can stand the damn thing is when the weather is bad or my schedule inhibits me from getting my planned rides done.

Or, you can just chaulk it up to the end of season, take some time off, and be ready to go again next season.

Hang in there.

Jay, you still heading to Vegas this weekend?

I think it's time to purchase a trainer. I've been putting it off because I planned on starting computrainer classes in November.

Hey Tim, a while back you were contemplating some SRAM wheels. Have you made a decision on those? I'm debating whether or not a set of 404 or 808 zipps are worth it being they are $1700 more.

Yessir, rollin out on Thursday.  I'm ready to race!

I think there's a fluid2 in the classifieds w/ a climbing block for like $250 or somethin.  I have the same one, got it off ebay for $270 I think.  If you decide to go w/ the Zipps, lmk, they have a STEEP military discount, I can order them for 'me' if you want then just reship them to you when they get to my house and save you some cash.  404s are $1610 and 808s are $1750.

woah!! are those the price on the new carbon clinchers? those retail $2700!! If so, I'll be getting in touch over the winter.

Probably not, the prices were last updated in January.  It shows RRP for the 404s as 2300 and 808s for 2500.  I would guess the discounted price would be somewhere around 2100 for the CCs.  I'll shoot them an email and ask.

Edited by shmeeg 2010-09-21 11:51 AM

that's still incredible. Thanks Jay!!! That makes a huge difference on my decision. I'll hit you up over the winter or spring when I'm ready. Plus, I may wait until the 808 firecrests come out.

Edited by Meulen 2010-09-21 11:56 AM

Welp, last week was a huge disappointment. I developed a pretty nasty blister under my big toe which kept reappearing after I thought I was out of the woods, and spreading around every few days. I took Wed/Thurs off last week, ran Friday and it still wan't good. Saturday I had to pop it again - pretty sure it was infected. I took Sat/Sun/Mon off and it looks like it's better. I only did 18 miles last week when I should have broke 40. Worst of all is that I missed my long run of 19 miles.

I'm running tonight and if all goes well this week I'll be doing a preview of the Morgan Hill course on Sunday. I could do the half course then add another 6 or 7 miles, or join the folks doing the full course but cut it short so I hold myself to 19 or 20 total. We'll see!

Is anyone else dreading the chilly fall weather that seems to be approaching quickly? It's time to make friends with the dreadmill and trainer again. Ugh.

Bad news homie, no discount on the CCs.

Bummer on the foot man.  Fack no I'm not dreading it!  I can't wait for some cold weather.  Speaking of all the trainer talk lately, you guys ever check out sufferfest.com vids?  I have the first one, the downward spiral.  It's pretty dope to bang out a trainer ride to.  Anybody w/ winter experience care to share some tips/suggestions for out-season indoor workouts?  I'm invisioning easy bricks jumping off the trainer onto the treadmill!  Dark cold mornings in the garage cursing the sport!  Bike bottles of hot chocolate and santa hats instead of helmets!  Bahahaaha

That sucks! But thanks for trying Jay

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to buy the sram wheels, just haven't pulled the trigger.  Looking at Ebay and Craigslist, I can get a new set for about a $1000.  Sure the 404s and 808s will be lighter respectively, but for the price difference and my ability, I think the Sram set will work just fine.  I'm probably going to go with the S60s.

Sorry to hear about the foot.  Marathon training has been my nemesis for sure.  I haven't been able to get past mile 16 without injury.  So, you are ahead of me!

Nope, I prefer the traditional weights. It gets really hard to tell with stuff like TRX what is a gimik and what is real. I don't go crazy with it though. I don't want the extra bulk. I tend to bulk up quick since I was a pretty heavy weight lifter in HS/College. Muscle memory kicks in. I try to stay with 2 sets of 15 reps for strategic motions that help with swimming and leg strength. I do a seperate core strength workout too that accounts for a lot of my strength training time in my logs.

Hey....good luck this weekend!

Edited by Meulen 2010-09-22 8:26 AM