Gearwhore/himself Group - FULL (Page 11)

Amen to what Ryan said.  As you guys have probably figured out by now, endurance training ain't exactly glamorous.  There are days when you feel great and everything comes together and it is absolutely sublime.  And there are days when it out and out sucks.  Endurance sports are by their very nature "blue collar" sports.  It's hard work, and there are no shortcuts.  The payoff is big though, so just keep at it, keep plugging away, stay vigilant and work hard.

Sorry we've been less active on this forum too.  Does anyone have any race related questions?  Any questions about transitioning into some faster paced workouts (build period of training)?  Thoughts or revelations you want to share with the rest of us?  Personally, I'm inspired lately by all the IM Arizona race reports.  Also scared sh*tless.  That is such a monumental undertaking.  I can't wait to do it, but it makes me twitchy just thinking about how hard IM will be when I do try it.  In the meantime, it's giving me some fuel to keep training.

When is a good time to start the faster paced workouts (build period)? Also what zones apply to the faster paced workouts? I know Adam is off being a daddy (poor excuse!) but I was hoping Ryan or some of you guys could chip in and help me out on this one. Thanks in advance.

Dumb computer. I had 3/4 of a  response typed and then something happened and it went away. Let me try again!

I'll preface this by saying that the response is more of a general response than it is pointed toward AJ or anyone else. The first and best thing to get faster is to be 100% certain that you've nailed your base period. Trying to do any speed or strength workouts without a proper base will get you nowhere. And by strength, I mean tempo workouts rather than strength with weights. So with that in mind, some of the things I'd ask myself is if I've been consistent in my workouts. Do you feel better during the workouts, recover a little easier from them? Do you know your HR zones? Is there a measurable difference in where you are now versus where you were when you started or even last month? A lot of coaches will repeat the same test for each discipline once a month during the rest week. So for example, after a decent warm-up, run for 30' in Z2. Is your pace there better than it was the previous month? Over time as your aerobic capacity improves, your pace will continue to improve. In a lot of plans the base phase  will generally last about 3 months or so.

With all that said, there's a couple ways to approach the faster workouts. On the bike you can do spin-ups where you increase your cadence to a point where you start bouncing a little in the saddle and then back off slightly to where you're not bouncing and hold it for 15". Give yourself a minute or two in between and repeat that a number of times during a workout. In another workout you can do a few intervals where you're working in Z3 HR. There's a debate as to whether Z3 is a good place to train and it's considered gray area since it's too hard to gain aerobic benefit, but for now if you're only doing a few intervals there, it's not that bad. So in an hour ride you may want to do 3x5'  Z3 intervals with sufficient aerobic (Z2 and under) recovery in between. About 10-15'. If that ends up being too hard, back it off to 3x3' intervals with the same recovery.

On the run you can do some strides where you're running aerobically and then do 10x20" strides where you're running as hard as you can while keeping good form! That's not as hard as you can flat out. If your form starts to fall apart it's a wasted effort. Give yourself sufficient time to recover and then go on to the next one. In another workout do an interval similar to the second one described in bike part. After a good warm-up, increase your speed and HR to Z3 and keep it there for 3-5'. Do that for the first couple weeks and see how you feel, how you recover during and after the run, etc. After a couple weeks repeat that after including a good 5-10' of recovery in between.

In the pool the best way to get faster is do drills. Mike Ricci has written and would argue that anything slower than 1'50"/100meters is due to inefficiencies in technique that can be improved with drills. Not a real sexy answer there is it?!

Not sure if that answers your question or not so I'll recap. First, make sure you nail your base period before you start any speed work/build phase. Second, right now I'd suggest not really going above Z3 for a bit unless it's during a spin-up on the bike or during strides on the run. Being that most of you guys are either just starting or getting back into the swing of things after a bit of a break, I don't think speed work on the track is a good idea. If you want to get stronger on the bike, keep getting time in the saddle and look for some hills. Beyond that keep up with the consistency. 

I think if you throw in some spin-ups on the bike or some strides on the run to mix things up you'll be fine. Just don't overdo it by inserting too many in a ride/run, or by extending the duration of each too long. And then give yourself sufficient time for recovery.

Hopefully you guys are starting to view this working out, etc. more as a lifestyle than just as a goal to do a triathlon really fast. Obviously we all want to be fast, but keeping the big picture in mind is helpful. To put some things in perspective, when I did my first tri (this will be my 3rd season) my 5k was done at a 7'21"/mile pace. In my last triathlon of the season last year my 5k time had dropped to a personal best at a 6'33" pace and you can probably count the number of track workouts and true speed work that I did on one hand. Adding to that, my half marathon pace this year was 7'25"/mile, not too far off from what my first 5k pace was. Adam could also tell you about his progress in running and not overdoing speed work since at the conclusion of his first year of tris he had his knee scoped and speed work was largely out of the question for the next season. I don't have the paces for him, but there's no doubt that his running has come around by being consistent and building a BIG base to work from and build muscular endurance on top of.

The point to all of that is that if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll continue to see improvements not unlike those that have already come in the first 3 months.

Hi Sarah. I missed your post yesterday. Before I start with anything else, you might want to check to see if any new mentor groups are forming. My understanding was that it was an approximate 3-4 month window to help people get up and going and answer a lot of the questions you have while everyone is at the same point in training. Point being, if they're starting up some new groups again, that might be more beneficial for you. However, if not, answering questions and helping you out certainly isn't a problem for us. Adam (Gearwhore) and his wife just had a baby so he's taking some time off but we should still be able to be responsive.

If you find out that new mentor groups aren't starting up and want to be part of this one, I think we have room for one more. I'd start out by giving us some background information on yourself similar to what others have shown on the first few pages. Then I'd go back and read through the previous pages and posts to give you a head start on answering some questions and getting some good info. After that, log your workouts here on BT and then let us know what questions you have. Either way, welcome to BT and to the sport!

James - I'lll answer this in pieces and circle back to answer the remaining parts either later today or tonight. A couple are pretty easy and quick answers, a couple require some more time/input.

1. Race Flats. Both Adam and I run in race flats. I don't know that they'll save 10-15"/mile off a run time though. Frankly, that sounds really aggressive. I could see 2-3" I suppose, but would be really surprised if it was anything about 5". I have no research to back that up, only my feelings having run in them. That said, I love racing in them. I never train in them, only race. True racing flats are light as hell and it feels like you're wearing a cloud on your feet and your turnover always feels good. That's where the time savings comes from. I don't know if there's a body weight that would make the lack of support a poor shoe choice. However, I think you have a couple options. If it's for a 5k, you're probably alright. Your run times are pretty good so I don't think you'd be hurting anything. Anything above that, given that you're at 190 lbs, the support comes into play more (as you stated) and you may want to consider the next step up. There's a true racing flat, and then most shoe companies will make what they call a trainer before moving into the more mainstream lines that we all actually do our normal training in. A trainer has more support than a true flat, but is still lighter than the normal shoes. For me (and I race between 145 lbs - 150 lbs), if I'm doing a 10k or less I'll run in my flats. Anything above, including my half marathons, I'll do it in the trainer. For you, I'd suggest the trainer - I think it's the best of both worlds for what you're looking at. To get an idea of this, go to Asics web site (b/c I'm familiar with it) and look at the Gel - DS Trainer 12 and compare it to the Gel DS Racer VII and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

2. Total Immersion. I don't know how good the classes are, but you may want to do a search in the main forum since I know there are numerous BTers that have done them. I think the feedback has been pretty positive. They do a good job of focusing on technique like you mention, and technique and efficiency is imperative on the swim. Mike Ricci says that if you're swimming slower than 1'50"/100m then you should be focusing on drills to improve your technique rather than speed, etc. I'd need to go look at your logs to recall where your swim times are, but at the end of the day I don't think it would be that bad if you have the time and money. As an aside, there's an on-going debate as to what point the TI style of swimming doesn't work as well for triathlon since they really focus on a good glide and if you're doing an open water swim, that's not as effective while battling currents, chop, crowds, wind, etc. However, from a technique standpoint, I think it's a good place to start.

3. Gatorade. I'm a Gatorade-aholic and keep my fridge well-stocked with it. To answer your question the easiest........brush your teeth. Problem solved. Really though, I assume your dental hygiene is fine to begin with, in which case I wouldn't worry. If you were chuggin a 6-pack of Coke daily, it might be a different story. I don't know how the sugars in Gatorade compare, but I believe it's less corrosive. Also going for you is that it helps with cramping, and since you've already reached your goal weight (congratulations by the way), the extra calories from Gatorade aren't an issue. Brush, floss, and use some mouthwash and you'll be fine. And talk about it with your dentist next time you have a check-up.

4. HTML Features. On the top left of the page right above where it says Welcome JamesG...... in white lettering it says Home - Control Panel - Help. Click on Control Panel. There's a question near the bottom that asks "Use rich edit box when composing messages?" Change that from No to Yes and you're good to go.

I'll look at the remaining two later since they aren't as quick/easy answers.

Keep up the good training!

I'll take a crack and put them right into the questions section. 

5 - 5 weeks is too short to properly bridge from Oly to HIM.  The only thing you can do after the Oly is get a couple of solid weeks of training in, and then taper.  Any more and you'll probably be more at risk for injury, and you really won't be any stronger for the HIM.  Which is not to say that you shouldn't do the half, just that the adjustment in training needs to happen now so that you have the endurance to get through a HIM.  The century will definitely help, and if you can get a couple of runs in the 13-15 mile range, that would be good too.  Nothing wrong with making a HIM a B race, Ryan is doing 3-4 HIMs this year, and I promise you they're not all A races. 

I will end, as I often do, with a reality check.  And it's simply this - you can't have it all.  Do you want to compromise your Oly training and add a half to your schedule, or do you just want to see how fast you can go in an Oly?  The training is not 100% compatible, the gap is too short to really bridge it properly, and so you might have to give up some of your speed work now to build the raw endurance you'll need to complete a HIM.  And even assuming you do that, you haven't been at the training long enough yet to have a good half.  Your muscular endurance just isn't there to go fast at the half. 

Last season, I focused on racing the fastest possible Oly I could at that point in my career, with the half almost an afterthought.  I paid dearly and had a terrible race at the half, but I knew that was a risk going in and that I didn't have the endurance on the run to do well at the half.  Still, I didn't fully appreciate that lesson until after I lived it.  It sucked.

But again, the bottom line is that you can do a half if you really want to do it.  You should just appreciate what it will do to your Oly training (probably make you slower), and what kind of race you're in for at the half (most likely long and painful). 

Ok - Ryan/Adam thxs for your feedback..

Ryan good tip about brushing the teeth always wondered what those small brushes were for and I am sure my hair will look a little neater now brushing it with bigger brushes.

My T time for the swim is 1.40 per 100 yds. So it sounds like I may benefit from Total Immersion.

In terms of the HIM feedback. Adam very useful and yes I remember the agony of doing my first HIM beiong totally under-trained. I did a 60 mile ride Saturday and felt pretty good. Might try and sneak one of these in a month up to September but carry on the Speed training for the Olympic.

Thxs

Not sure how much longer these threads will be around, but before they close it down (if they do), I thought I'd update this with a little more info that we (Adam and I) have been getting on training and recovery. The long story short is that when training, you should go hard on the hard days and easy on the easy days. Unfortunately, most people, myself included, miss the point on the easy days and go harder than necessary whether it's because they still feel okay, it's their normal effort, ego, whatever. My coach was telling me about a pro cyclist that does his recovery rides under 100 watts. And I forget which pro triathlete does/did his endurance building for runs at a 10-minute/mile pace. Either way, these guys are doing what the rest of us should be, and even now with this being my third year of training, I'm just figuring it out. Just make sure your easy days are as easy as they're intended to be and don't worry about how it looks in your logs, in your mind, etc. because it will come around on race day when it matters.

Hope everyone's still doing well!

Checl out my new ride. I know we aren't really using this thread any more but I can't figure out how to post photo in my log.

Notice the Water bottle cage. It is a Zipp one couldn;t afford Zipp race wheels so wanted something with at least Zipp on them!!!

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