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Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working
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 2014-09-14 3:33 PM |
 1502   Katy, Texas |  Subject: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT WorkingI'm into month four of my triathlon training from being a solo sport guy (running). I was a swimmer in high school (almost 20 years ago.....jeez I'm old). I figured the swimming would come back and I knew that biking would be the biggest hurdle for me since I NEVER rode aside from getting around as a kid. The thing that is getting me is I am putting a huge amount of work in biking and although I saw some initial gains, I've pretty much flat lined. The sport I'm working on second most is running and I'm seeing little gains, really just getting back to where I was when I was just running. And swimming I'm spending the bare minimum of time on and my times continue to drop like a rock. I swear, I can just look at the dang pool and I swim faster. I realize that any gains are good gains, but this is frustrating for two reasons; one is that of the three, swimming has the least impact overall in a race (this might be a loaded statement, but it seems that way to me), and two, it's the exact opposite of where I'm putting in the hours and work. Since the beginning I have done a weekly three sport workout (I realize it's unorthodox, but I like it) where I go hard (the equivalent I would have done for a tempo run) on all three sports. I've used this as my yard stick to measure my progress since I do the same distance, effort, etc. I'm a dork, so I have an excel sheet that tracks this. Below are all of them. You can see that I've seen pretty healthy week to week gains overall. Most of the gains are coming from swimming, where my 1,500 meter time has dropped from around 25 minutes down to near 22 minutes. Running is getting closer to where I was running solo. For a three mile run I would expect to be at or below 7:00 mm pace, so going after the other two sports, I'm happy with low 7's. Then there's the bike, and that graph just shows my utter frustration at this point. I realize that I'm pretty much brand new, and overall I'm seeing gains, so I shouldn't complain too much, but it's still frustrating. All my energy is going to the one thing that's not changing at all, and the sport I'm working the least at is gaining the most. Am I over training? Or do I just need to be patient? I'm riding between 100-110 miles a week. I'm running between 15-20 and I'm swimming maybe 4,000 meters/week. (Total.JPG) (Running.JPG) (Biking.JPG) (Swimming.JPG) Attachments ---------------- Total.JPG (54KB - 1 downloads) Running.JPG (36KB - 0 downloads) Biking.JPG (40KB - 0 downloads) Swimming.JPG (44KB - 0 downloads) |
| 2014-09-14 4:05 PM in reply to: 3mar |
Coach 9167    Stairway to Seven | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working are you training specifically to improve that 12 mile time trial number? How are those 100+ miles per week being spent? |
| 2014-09-14 4:07 PM in reply to: #5050006 |
Extreme Veteran 646 | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working First, can I borrow some of that getting faster at swimming by looking at the pool stuff? Next, from the history you've provided, it sounds like you're perfectly normal. As a former swimmer, that fitness is returning to match your already (I presume) good technique. Running will also come back with consistent gains in fitness. Getting fast on the bike takes time, even a few years work until you reach your full potential. Every month or year you put into it adds up ...for me, I got faster every year and then about five years into triathlon it's my strongest event. So be consistent and patient. And seriously, give me that swim magic. |
| 2014-09-14 4:24 PM in reply to: AdventureBear |
| 1502 Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by AdventureBear are you training specifically to improve that 12 mile time trial number? How are those 100+ miles per week being spent? Not really, I am just using that as a yard stick. Right now I'm focusing on Oly's. My normal week of training is: Sunday - 45 mile bike Monday - 1 hour run (around 7 miles) Tuesday - Strength Training Wednesday - 22 mile bike + 3 mile run Thursday - 10 mile bike + 6 mile run Friday - Swim 2,750 meters Saturday - Swim 1,500m + 12 mile bike + 3 mile run |
| 2014-09-14 4:27 PM in reply to: Shop Cat |
| 1502 Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by Shop Cat First, can I borrow some of that getting faster at swimming by looking at the pool stuff? Next, from the history you've provided, it sounds like you're perfectly normal. As a former swimmer, that fitness is returning to match your already (I presume) good technique. Running will also come back with consistent gains in fitness. Getting fast on the bike takes time, even a few years work until you reach your full potential. Every month or year you put into it adds up ...for me, I got faster every year and then about five years into triathlon it's my strongest event. So be consistent and patient. And seriously, give me that swim magic. Well you're giving me hope, and I knew the answer was "years" but that's still hard to hear. Maybe one day it can be my strong suite too. The swimming gains are just coming from unlearning the old school swimming techniques from when I was in High School. Like doing the over exaggerated "S" with each arm to try to grab "new" water and concentrating on the middle of the stroke and ignoring the end. Now I'm fixing those bad habits and I think that is where the gains are coming. |
| 2014-09-14 4:45 PM in reply to: 3mar |
Elite 7783 PEI, Canada | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working As a former swimmer (also from 20 years ago), I understand the frustration. While I spend do a bit more than 4k per week, it's not much more and it always comes back quick. Progression on the bike for me has been a slow but steady gain over the last 5 years or so. At first I improved slowly but steadily over the course of 3 years or so but then I hired a coach and my power has increased significantly. I'm not saying you need to hire a coach but having a plan and specific workouts helps. Someone asked earlier but I didn't see an answer - what are you doing on those rides? Are you just going out and riding or are you doing intervals, hills, etc? |
| 2014-09-14 5:13 PM in reply to: 0 |
| 1502 Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by axteraa As a former swimmer (also from 20 years ago), I understand the frustration. While I spend do a bit more than 4k per week, it's not much more and it always comes back quick. Progression on the bike for me has been a slow but steady gain over the last 5 years or so. At first I improved slowly but steadily over the course of 3 years or so but then I hired a coach and my power has increased significantly. I'm not saying you need to hire a coach but having a plan and specific workouts helps. Someone asked earlier but I didn't see an answer - what are you doing on those rides? Are you just going out and riding or are you doing intervals, hills, etc? Below is my weekly workout. The shorter the ride, the faster I go. I haven't got into intervals or anything. In my years as a runner, I've found I see more gains out of varying the length and speed of workouts than doing intervals. I realize this goes against ALL convention and studies done on athletes, but looking back over 5 years of data (and I keep pretty tight records) my biggest gains in running were not from times I focused on interval training. Actually it's been the opposite. Maybe I'm just weird. I live in the Florida Keys, which are just a bunch of very flat islands, however we have a few decent bridges which is the extent of my hill work. My 22 mile ride incorporates the biggest bridge we have down here, it's about an 80 foot climb each way and my 45 mile ride is down in the middle Keys and there are about 3 bridges that I go over twice that range between 30-60 feet high. The big thing we have is wind. It can be relentless and really adds to a workout especially when I'm in the middle Keys which are more bridge than island and you are exposed almost the entire time. Edit: I realize the above might be confusing when I say that my long ride is more bridge than island and then say I go over three bridges. There are two different types of bridges that we have here. Some are dead flat and others are raised to let boats go under. When I say "3 bridges" I'm talking about 3 places where the bridges rise, otherwise they're just as flat as the islands (think about the scene from the move True Lies). Sunday - 45 mile bike Monday - 1 hour run (around 7 miles) Tuesday - Strength Training Wednesday - 22 mile bike + 3 mile run Thursday - 10 mile bike + 6 mile run Friday - Swim 2,750 meters Saturday - Swim 1,500m + 12 mile bike + 3 mile run Edited by 3mar 2014-09-14 5:17 PM |
| 2014-09-14 6:01 PM in reply to: 3mar |
| 1055 | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working You're improving on all three sports, I'd call that a win. You've gained nearly 2 mph in the past four months, that's actually really really good. Honestly, that's a good yearly improvement. Keep at it. Gaining speed on the bike is a year over year endeavor, not month over month. The great thing about being a proficient swimmer is that you can spend more time on bike/run than many of your competitors. Take advantage of that when you set-up your training plan. |
| 2014-09-14 6:19 PM in reply to: ziggie204 |
| 1502 Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by ziggie204 You're improving on all three sports, I'd call that a win. You've gained nearly 2 mph in the past four months, that's actually really really good. Honestly, that's a good yearly improvement. Keep at it. Gaining speed on the bike is a year over year endeavor, not month over month. The great thing about being a proficient swimmer is that you can spend more time on bike/run than many of your competitors. Take advantage of that when you set-up your training plan. I totally agree that overall there's good improvement, but it's still hard to see six weeks straight with no appreciable gain, especially when those six weeks have been targeted at that specific sport. But overall, I can't really complain. |
| 2014-09-14 6:27 PM in reply to: 3mar |
Elite 7783 PEI, Canada | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by 3mar Originally posted by ziggie204 You're improving on all three sports, I'd call that a win. You've gained nearly 2 mph in the past four months, that's actually really really good. Honestly, that's a good yearly improvement. Keep at it. Gaining speed on the bike is a year over year endeavor, not month over month. The great thing about being a proficient swimmer is that you can spend more time on bike/run than many of your competitors. Take advantage of that when you set-up your training plan. I totally agree that overall there's good improvement, but it's still hard to see six weeks straight with no appreciable gain, especially when those six weeks have been targeted at that specific sport. But overall, I can't really complain. I'm curious as to why you consider that no appreciable gain. You've gone from 19.5 mph to 21 mph. Over that 12 miles on the bike, that is a 2.5 minute difference which isn't far from what you are seeing in the pool. Personally, I think you have improved a lot in just 4 months. |
| 2014-09-14 6:55 PM in reply to: axteraa |
Regular 585 Pueblo, Colorado | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working I'm curious as to why you consider that no appreciable gain. You've gone from 19.5 mph to 21 mph. Over that 12 miles on the bike, that is a 2.5 minute difference which isn't far from what you are seeing in the pool. Personally, I think you have improved a lot in just 4 months. I agree. It looks to me like you are making some excellent progress in all three, especially after four months. Keep after it. The rate at which you improve may slow down some, but you will keep making progress. You might also think about variation in your weekly workouts as your body may be starting to adapt. A good time to throw in a few change-ups! Good Luck! |
| 2014-09-14 8:41 PM in reply to: #5050006 |
New user 47 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working You are doing a good job and the improvements are solid. I come from similar background and I saw the same improvements initially with the run and swim by just getting "the feel" back. Just like with running and swimming - you'll need to add some variety to your bike workouts, not just for distance. You'll probably see improvements but the next 2mph increase will be significantly harder than the first was. And the next 2 probably even harder |
| 2014-09-15 3:34 AM in reply to: 0 |
| 1502 Katy, Texas | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working I appreciate everyone's comments and this has caused me to relook at all of this from a bigger picture and it helps. I was getting hung up looking only at the last six weeks and seeing this flatline and getting frustrated (minus this bast week, it was actually a downward trend). It helps to step back sometimes and look again. Edited by 3mar 2014-09-15 3:36 AM (image.jpg) Attachments ---------------- image.jpg (56KB - 0 downloads) |
| 2014-09-15 5:29 AM in reply to: 3mar |
Veteran 487 Nova Scotia, Canada | Subject: RE: Seeing Improvement Where I'm NOT Working Originally posted by 3marI appreciate everyone's comments and this has caused me to relook at all of this from a bigger picture and it helps. I was getting hung up looking only at the last six weeks and seeing this flatline and getting frustrated (minus this bast week, it was actually a downward trend). It helps to step back sometimes and look again. When looking at cycling, speed shouldn't be your go to metric to see how much you have improved. While speed will usually go up as you get better, their are too many out side factors such as wind, air temp, humidity, etc. that play a huge factor in over all speed. I wouldn't worry about short term results like this. That is why most use a power meter on the bike, to get an exact output, which is less dependent of factors like the wind. I raced a sprint tri yesterday and averaged 32.8km/h. For the 20k. Last year same course, 2 loops for the Olympic and I averaged 33.5km/h, and I know I'm a stronger cyclist this year. I averaged 34km/h in a HIM just 2 months ago. So don't get hung up on the speed so much. Put it a good effort and it will all even out in the end. |
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