2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 33)

Sorry, but I think you're going about this a bit backwards. Just worry about the volume you are running. When the volume seems easy (or rather less hard ), then increase it. Pace looks after itself. As you run more, you will get faster. And when you get to a race, and run above your easy training pace you will be amazed what you can do.

Again using myself as an example: My average pace is 11:30/mile. My fastest training pace has been 10:45/mile (I have not run a training run faster than that in 2 years) and in my tri 2 weekends ago, I ran the 5k at 10:05/mile. (after the swim and bike!) Like I said, pace looks after itself.

Feel free to push a bit harder on a short run, than you do on a long one. But don't wait until you hit an increased speed to add volume. Volume is the key to, and point of, this style of training.

Goal 1, run all 6 days (agree)
Goal 2, run all 6 days 2 weeks in a row
Goal 3, go from 5, 10, 15 to 6, 12, 13.
and repeat.

Well I'm off up north for my HM this afternoon. This time tomorrow I will be racing.

Unfortunately the forecast is pretty nasty. Windy and rainy is on the cards. So hopefully that's wrong.

I took yesterday off workouts, and will be doing nothing today either, as a poor attempt of a taper. So I'm feeling a little sloth like at the moment. I"m looking forwards to tomorrow, but also a bit nervous. It's been a long time since I've done one of these, and unfortunately I'm not as prepared, or as light, as I wanted to be. I know it's going to hurt.

But at least it's a good hurt.

Talk to you all next week. Train hard, and have a good weekend.

Which is why I referenced you in my explanation, lol! I honestly just figured that a 12:00 pace would be a good indicator for time to increase volume.

Okay, I think I've got it now. Seems like a logical enough progression. There's only one catch. I HATE to run!!

That, and the fact that I need to get a lot more consistent in my training.

I'm hoping that dropping $150 on December 1st (B2B) will spark a little more motivation.

RACE DAY - Little League 5k Turkey Trot
11/20 - Walk - 51m 01s - 3.10 miles - 16m 27s /Mi

ECSTATIC! Walked my first 5k race. Between making the mistake of starting all the way at the back of pack. Had difficulty finding my right earbud and finally had to ask the crossing guard to locate it for me. Had already started MMF and lost a little over a minute there. Then probably spent an extra 30 seconds negotiating my through the strollers, families, and slow walkers. Took me all the way across the Maynard Street bridge to work my way into the clear. Not only did I beat my usual 17:30 pace, I succeeded in setting a new PR pace that was even below 16:30.

Way to go Mike!!

bulfrog: Report?

11/20: .8mi, 10:02 (12:34 pace) <~~ started slow, finished strong.
11/21: .45mi, 5:02 (11:16 pace) <~~ pushed this one a bit.
11/22: .78mi, 10:02 (12:54 pace) <~~ first sub-freezing run. Time to break out the cold weather gear.

Weight 262.0

I managed to get all 6 runs in last week. Today also marks 4 in a row. Backing off to the proper timing has me feeling good about the sustainability of this program. Still no biking plannned. Friday's swim was cancelled due to illness. I'm not going to toss Bethany into child watch at the Y when she's got a runny nose and a cough.

Kids are out of school all week... that's crazy... but it'll allow me to hit the pool after tomorrow morning's run. Going out of town to visit family, so the diet (as bad as it's been) is going to be tougher this week. Also going to check the weather. If it's not too bad, I have permission to bring the bike to enjoy some middle TN hills.

Any race report that begins with the word 'ECSTATIC' is a good thing.

Congratulations on your race, and great to see that you're happy with how it went Good work on smashing your normal pace. It's amazing what the race vibe can do for you.

As requested,

Short version, I went for a run, it was quite long and I finished in 2:33:21, about what I expected.

Longer version:

I've done this race twice before, so I know a bit about the course and how to pace myself. The first 7km is mostly uphill, and the 2nd 14km are mostly down hill (with a few little short sharp hills to remind you this is hard!) So my plan going in was to take things nice and easy for the first 7km, run totall within myself, and don't get to the top of the hill having spent too many tokens. Before accelerating through the middle third of the race and then trying to hold on for the last 7km. I planned to run the majority of the race using the 4:30/0:30 run walk ratio I've been training with. Possibly dropping to a 9:30/30 ratio on some of the down hills in the 2nd half if I felt good, alternatively going to a 2:00/:30 ratio if the going got tough.

The first part of the race went pretty much to plan. I was a little slower than I had hopped, (7:26/km) for the first 7km to the top of the hill, but got there feeling fine. I then stepped up the pace a little, even skipping a walk break and doing one of the 9:30/30 segments. I ran the middle 1/3 of the race at 6:58/km, things were going well. Towards the 14km mark I noticed that I had been running for 1 and 3/4 hours, or 15 minutes longer than my longest run for years. And still had 7km, or 50 odd minutes to go! That was a marker of what was going to come.

Also at the 15km marker, I thought things were going very well, all of a sudden I started passing plenty of people. The starting easy and finishing strong plan was working. Unfortunately with about 5km left to go, the wheels started to fall off. The legs were tired, and starting to cramp up, I was tired, and it was getting hard, and much less fun. Instead of running my run interval at, or just below 7min/km, I was dropping to 7:30-8min after 4 minutes running. So I made the decision to drop down to 2:00/30 ratio, to try and save the situation. It kind of worked. I avoided turning into a total death march, but I did have some very slow km's.

By the last km I was able to again force myself to get back to a longer running segment and I got accross the line in 2:33:21, which was right in my 2:35 +/- 5 minute range I said I would be. But longer than the sub 2:30 I had been hopping for (but not expecting)

Overall I ran the first half of the run in 1:16:32, and the 2nd half in 1:16:49. So that's pretty even splits, despite the wheels falling off towards the end of the run. I had been aiming for a good negative split (the course does lend itself to a negative split) but pretty even splits mean that despite feeling like a disaster at eh end of the run, it wasn't too bad.

And for those who are interested my splits in miles :
Type Distance Duration Elapsed Time
1 Manual 1 mi 11:26.95 11:26.95
2 Manual 1 mi 11:40.73 23:07.68
3 Manual 1 mi 12:46.88 35:54.56
4 Manual 1 mi 11:44.24 47:38.79
5 Manual 1 mi 11:26.95 59:05.74
6 Manual 1 mi 10:59.40 1:10:05.14
7 Manual 1 mi 11:09.63 1:21:14.78
8 Manual 1 mi 11:26.13 1:32:40.90
9 Manual 1 mi 11:29.60 1:44:10.51
10 Manual 1 mi 11:50.24 1:56:00.74
11 Manual 1 mi 11:51.96 2:07:52.70
12 Manual 1 mi 11:59.67 2:19:52.37
13 Manual 1 mi 12:00.93 2:31:53.30
14 Manual 0.15 mi 1:28.70 2:33:22

My 2 biggest problems are I'm overweight, and under trained. (pretty obvious really) When I was last doing HM's, I was doing the same training times I'm doing now, but my paces were higher. My current 90 minute long run is about 12.5-13km, 2 years ago it was over 15km. This means back then I had to run half an hour longer than my long run to get a half marathon. Now, I have to run over 50 minutes longer. That's quite a difference, and I think the reason end was worse than I expected.

I've got a bit of thinking/planning to do, and some changes to make if I'm going to attempt a HIM in less than 90 days as planned...

Edited by bulfrog 2015-11-22 2:06 PM

Thank you all for the kind words and the encouragement.

By the end of the day Saturday I was so sore it was a major challenge to climb the stairs to bed. Lost all of Sunday to lower back pain. Went to a chiropractor today. I had never considered that before, but I figured there was nothing wrong anywhere except in my back and they are supposed to specialize in backs. I will be sore all day today and possibly tomorrow, but after that I will be on the road to recovery, without drugs, surgery or anything else.

It seems my left hip had slipped upward and was out of line. And then my right hip, to compensate, had rotated forward somehow and was also out of line. This resulted in my right leg being the shorter and that was causing the limp I have had for years. Add it all up and my hips were over an inch out of line. He re-aligned my hips and says I will need to repeat it a few times, but I should be back into my training in a few days and my performance should improve more readily as it takes hold.

bulfrog: Way to go!! Even splits and relatively consistent through the entire run. Sweet!

11/23: .47mi, 5:03 (10:48 pace)
Woke late this morning, so I didn't get to run until I got home from work. I was sucking wind, but I knocked it out.

11/24: 1:09, 15:03 (13:48 pace)

It's amazing how much 150yds can change your time, lol! Post-dinner run, and I overdressed. But, 1st full Barry P week (6 days). Looking forward to the rest day tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

You're right, I met my pre race expectations. So I am happy with that. It's just always disappointing when I compare my fitness, and results now, to my fitness and results 2-3 years ago.

Getting fat and unfit sucks.

Still, another step on the journey back.

This weekend it's my 1 year anniversary. So I'm taking the wife down to Queenstown for a long weekend away. I'm looking forward to eating and drinking too much good things, and sleeping in. And then, come Tuesday, play time is over and I'm after a big focus on nutrition, and training in the 3 weeks up till Christmas.

Have a good weekend everyone, talk to you all in a few days.

11/26- Bike: 16.73mi, 1:22:41 (12.1mpg, avg). OMG hills... I'm used to zero climbing. My mountains are called overpasses everywhere else... This ride included 872 feet of climbing, and it was all I could do to.keep the speed under 30 on the descents... wow... was so fried, I missed my short run.

11/27- Medium Run: .82mi, 10:03 (12:14 pace). More hills, but nothing compared to Thurs.

11/28: .43mi, 5:02 (11:36 pace) <~~Rain in the AM, ended up running at 2124hrs, but still cold and wet
11/29: .79mi, 10:02 (12:43 pace) <~~Not bad at all considering I ran 9 hours earlier.

Weight: 263. Can not be unhappy with 1lb gained over Thanksgiving week... not at all.

2 weeks of the "Barry P" plan in the books, and I have to admit that, for me, the system is working. I did miss my short run last Thursday, but in my defense I got beat up by 3 big hills . I was just too wiped to run. About 1600hrs, I was rocking my baby girl trying to get her to take a nap and we both ended up crashing out. I wish I had video of my ride, but I don't have a GoPro. I am posting the elevation/speed page from Runtastic tho. If you want to click around Google Maps, I believe all of the route has been photo'd.





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Back from holiday. And back into training.

My 2nd sprint tri of the summer is on this Sunday, so looking forwards to that. Hopefully the sticky humid weather that's hanging around at the moment moves on my then.

OOOO, my anniversary present from my wife, a Gamin 920xt. I picked a good one.

Now I've just got to greatly improve my speeds so I deserve the flash toy.

Keep up the good training everyone

Thanks guys! I just received a much needed kick in the pants from Robin and bullfrog. That's one of the reasons I like this forum so much, accountability. I WILL return to training tonight. It will probably be a body-weight strength workout since I have to be home this evening to meet someone who is buying my Concept 2 rower off of Craigslist.

Lower back pain finally drove me to try out a chiropractor. Wow, what a difference! I slept without pain-killers last night for the first time in many months. It seems my left hip had shifted upward and my right hip (to compensate) had rotated rearward. the end result was that my hips were misaligned by over an inch, which resulted in my strange gait. Two days after my first adjustment my wife was walking behind me for some reason and observed that I no longer swayed like I was walking on a boat.

I am seriously considering starting 0500 am workouts. I have found over the last two months that balancing training and a job is not an easy thing to do; especially in the dreary, shortened hours we have here in central PA. This way I could get my workout in before I have to be in whatever school I am working that day and maybe even get a second in after work. Driving the truck during the winter will make this much more possible than my usual motorcycle commutes.

By the way, don't know if anyone else has tried yet, but registration for B2B has been pushed off until sometime the week of the 14th. The website says to keep checking back. They are implementing a new online registration process and still working bugs out apparently. I can't believe I am seriously considering doing an HIM this fall.

Good to see you back.

Early morning workouts are a great thing, and a habit i'm trying to restart. I know I've found the most success and consistency when I was regularly working out before work.

Keep on, keeping on.