robin314159's Group - CLOSED (Page 6)

Just a quick note:

Not to happy about my training and diet this week. No training for 3 days in a row due to sore muscles and social obligations. Ate some delicious unhealthy food during those obligations.

Will and try and post on goals tomorrow. Gotta love hectic weekends....

Stijn, you better bite the bullet and get back on the program!

Clicked to soon. Submitting extra reply....

Edited by Niezels 2011-01-31 5:46 AM

I know I know. Already put the swim in this morning before work. Will do some strength tonight and maybe squeeze in spinning or squash as well. No worries I will stick to the programm for you to wish I would quit already .

Will review my plan though to see how I can incorporate some slack.

Oh and my schedule changed a bit. My races for this year are now:
March 13: 500m swim, 5k run
April 9: 500m swim, 5k run
April 25: 5K run
May 13: 5K run - 20k bike - 2.5K run
May 21: First tri 1/8
June 25: 1/8 Triathlon
July 6: 1/8 Triathlon
August 7: Sprint Triathlon
August 27: Sprint Triathlon
September 10: 1/4 Triathlon ? (really??)
Septemeber 26: 10K run

Off course these will also be goals of mine. Full post on that still in the making.

Stijn - that's quite a race list! But quite doable -- even the 1/4 distance one. You'll rock it! I'm glad you're steady and determined on your workouts.

Brian - You can do your own time trial to figure out your heart rate zones. Or at least via the Joe Friel method. I can dig up the testing method if you are interested - it involves a 30 min bike time trial, taking your HR data every minute. And then I think a 5k run. (Not on same day.) You can see where your HR plateaus out before going into anaerobic. That is your lactate threshold, and then your zones cna be determined as percentages from the LT...

Other people go and get the VO2 Max test and figure out their zones from there. Costs quite a bit more. And will yield slightly different results? The rest is just trial & error to zero in the zones.

If the old age calculator is working for you, then you can keep it up. But might want to test it out. It'd be possible to be training in too high of a HR zone that feels comfortable, but isn't necessarily efficient...


I'll be writing up how i determine goals / sub-goals tonight!

Edited by robin314159 2011-02-01 9:18 AM

Just popping in to say that I'm going to be MIA for awhile. I haven't had internet service since last Friday and won't get a new one installed until Thursday. Using my smartphone right now....its been a trying few days....lost tv, phone and internet al at once. Train well folks. Sharon

Sharon -- You will be missed!


Goals:

I am answering this slightly differently from how kerri did. Hope that's ok.

I usually divide up my pre-season goals from base training goals from race-specific training goals.

Pre-season = winter (or in my case, summer time -- worst part of the year to train in). Usually 7-10 months out from Big Event.

Base = Time to get serious. 3-7 months out from Big Event.

Race specific training goals = 3 months til time of the event.


Pre-season is the time where I do the following:
* Take a mental break
* Go do other sports
* ENJOY exercising - just whatever I want

And then we get serious in the pre-season:
* Skill-building. This is the only time you really get to zero in on the miniscule details of each pedal stroke, each running step, or each swim stroke. The more exact and efficient you are at each of these, the better you'll be off the rest of the season. This is the time to go SLOW - particularily with swimming.

Recall physics. Time = distance / rate. To speed up the swim, in the early season, that's when I work on Distance part of the equation. The best drill for this is counting # of strokes per pool length. If I can make it across in 15 strokes, I'll then try to maintain this over a 25, 50, 100, 200, etc. Then work for 14 strokes. I do lots of drills during this time to improve my balance in the water and the strength of my pull. I often take an underwater video of myself swimming so I can see my stroke and critique it.

In pre-season, I've started trail running. This is not a skill required for racing, but makes you a stronger runner. Some people start mtn biking in this season because it builds bike handling skills, but i've never gotten into it. Can do plenty of pedaling drills though, and check your bike fit for maximal power output.


My other sub-goals for pre-season are usually strength-building related.

During base training, when I finally flip a switch and decide to get SERIOUS, the sub-goal is endurance, just covering the distance. I don't focus on going fast. I get my HR zones worked out. I do a lot of training in Level 2, and slowly build how far I can go. Often a Half marathon or a nice bike event is a good race to throw in during this season.

When I get into race-specific training, my goals are to get good at parts of the race, and to get faster. If my race course is hilly, I'll do a lot of hill sprint repeats during this time. If my run course has 3 loops, I'll go run something with 3 loops. I practice my race pace more frequently. I practice working out at same time of day of the race. I work on cornering & technical things I'll need for the race. (Bike bottle exchange, etc). Practice Open Water Swimming & alligator sighting. I add in more brick workouts. I wear the same clothes I plan for the race. Some times I'll use other "B" races during this time to prep for the Big Event (my "A" race). Note, at this time, you will be glad all the time you spent working on efficiency in the pre-season, because by this time you can't change much about your strokes/steps. You can only zero in pace and specificity for the event.

I hope this answers the question at hand!

Edited by robin314159 2011-02-01 8:51 PM

Who's getting completely snowed out? It's nearly freezing in Phoenix!

Not in sunny Sacramento, but a lot of my friends and family are in Chicago and they got clobbered. I don' t miss that. The last three years I have headed down your way to go to the Phoenix Open which is this weekend. I have some friends still going, I hope it warms up by then.

Thanks for the write up on subgoals. One thing I was thinking thatyou mentioned is I want to take a ride out to where the first Tri is located (2 hours away) and get a feel for how hilly it is? It says rolling hills but somehwhat knowing that area, I have a feeling it is more than I am used to. I suck at hills.

Anyway, going to be a tough week for me. Yesterday was a 15 hour work day with no workout and the rest of the week is shaping up to be the same. I need to figure out something fast.

Edited by BMiller71 2011-02-02 5:59 PM

we are covered in snow! My heater was out for a whole week(meaning kids slept in our room w space heaters). This morning I had water pouring from the cielings (probly pipes). CRAZY! Please let the good weather come back, I want to run/bike so bad I can't stand it!! Indoors is just not the same.

YIKES!!!!! I hope you guys are all okay! I so can commiserate a little with that.

We lost cable TV, phone and internet last Friday and well, was on a media blackout until Monday when I found a Directv installer locally and they were able to install satellite and we had TV on Monday. Managed to get internet back up and running yesterday finally.

Add to all that, we've had really low temps in the teens and 20s and that resulted in what I thought was frozen pipes at first, but come to find out, our tankless water heater needs to be serviced and probably has heavy calcium and lime deposits which causes the heater to shut down and for the hot water pipes to lose pressure. We were without hot water for 2 days and luckily the plumbers were able to solve the problem and we now have great water pressure and hot water! They do have to come back next week to service the unit because the previous owner who installed the tankless water heater didn't install it with the correct pipes and they can't access the water heater.

Soooo....it's been a very stressful last week trying to go to work and dealing with appointments for repairs and such.

And on top of it...SNOW DAY today!! Yup, I'm "snowed" in....and this is Louisiana!! We've got ice and snow and since I drive for work, we were told to stay at home today. This is the first time in 7 years.

It's good to be back and I hope to get back on schedule very soon.

What is new in your training?

Jamesjong is about to have his first race.

I'm now only 20lbs away from doing a dead hang chin-up. (progress!) I'm back to riding a bit again, but starting out slow! My calf muscle on my right leg is still smaller than normal. I feel lopsided.

Sharon, that snow lightening up for you any? Geesh, who's ready for spring already?

(But it was a nice 60*F here today, so not too bad.)

Good thing your not running yet. Would not only be unwise for overall recovery, it would mostly look to funny. Never saw a lopsided person run.

Ok the theme of goals got me overwhelmed as in I haven't found my way to properly react. I do experience now that I need some kind of plan and just a schedule with times to train is not sufficient for me. ie: Having goals specifically for running gets me to like that part alot. Guess I'm addicted to meeting goals from the training plan. So I definitiy will need that in my swimming, biking and strength part as well.

In regard to running just got back from my try out on doing running about 5k at once (4.8 to be precise). Proud to say I finished in 27m40s for a 5m47 per K pace. Most of all proud of running that distance at once. Especially as my previous record was 3 times 2k at once during training last Tuesday.

Well one goal will be to do that same lap within 27m within a month :D.

And just did 500m swim in freestyle without breaks. Yay!!!

Congrats, Stijn! You're a regular triatlete now.

Yay!!! Kinda feel special now *blush*

Yeah I feel a bit to fortunate as well.

Last wednesday I even drove around with the rooftop off. However with the rain today I'm already back to the winterblues again.

To cheer myself up I got myself a brand new Garmin Forerunner 305. Looking forward to give this watch a try. Probably will have to wait till Sunday though as I will be going to a meeting of american football officials tomorrow yay

Nice gadget, I wish I picked up the 305 instead of the HR monitor I got. I would have like the GPS feature. For now my phone is doing the trick but obviously will not work during an actual race.

Hey, sorry I haven't been on in a while... I've been really busy with the usual: school, work, and judo. I have been keeping up with my training though. My first indoor is two weeks from today! It's a 10 min. swim, 20 min. bike, 15 min. run. I'm using it more to gauge myself and see where I'm at so I can reassess and figure out what I have to work on so I can be in tiptop shape in April when I'm doing my first sprint. I don't really have any concrete goals I don't think, a lot of what I've done so far has been trial and error which may not be the best approach, but I'm definitely making progress. For the indoor coming up I really don't know what to expect out of myself for the swim cause that's the most foreign part for me but I'm looking at slightly less than 7 miles on the bike and 2 miles in the run. If I make those then I'll feel like a winner regardless of my true position!

Brian, How's the plan coming? I think it's ok to miss a workout here or there. Life happens. As long as you keep coming back to the plan.

Stijn - I like the Garmin's a ton. I have the 405. It is invaluable for running -- on trails or in a new city. Hope you like it.

Amber -- are you excited? Are you ready for the transitions? Have a plan on what to wear and all that?

All -- sorry if I haven't posted much here. I'm on this site everyday, some days I just don't have much to say. Will try to be more active on these things.

But as always, if you have questions, ask. I do check this forum pretty much everyday.


I set the record for 5k row for girls at the Crossfit gym today. It is not that ambitious of a record, but I'm the one who tried to do it! Feels good!

No need to be modest Robin. A record is a record. In that regard we still are a good group as I would like to add a PB to that list. Did a 5K race today at the club. Got out and back in 27'38''. Espicially as I have been ill all week I'm very proud of this result. It also makes up for a nice base to work with for my preparation to the swim/run race next month and finally the triathlons.
I did put the race in my race log for those interested.

Next week I gonna try and focus on redesigning my trainingplan. I feel I got the rythm down on when I can do what workout. However I want to get more efficient during those workouts.

In that regard I do have a question. I feel I can complete all the parts of the triathlon already. So besides putting it together and work on transitions and bricktraining I'm quite confident I could do a 1/8 within a month. So with that I reached this goal about 2 months before I planned :D.

My goal for this year is/was to complete 1/8 and sprint distances and just to expierence being a triathlete. By the end I want to do a 1/4. If all goes well and it is as fun as I think it is I plan to build up to 1/2 and full distance for 2012/2013.

So whith all this in mind should I look to train on more speed or more distance...? For the record once I going to go for the full disctance I do not plan to be the 17hour finisher but wanna set my goal to sub 12 hour(with all the respect of everyone that finishes this huge challange within the time limits).

WOWWOW. Had my first bike to run brick. During my bike ride today I ran into a street that had construction work going on. As such I had to get of the bike and take the bike for a walk. decided to make it a jog just to experience it. Wowzers: really gonna need some brick training to get used to that.

Robin: Please promise the legs will get "normal" again after the first K of running.