drewb8's group - FULL (Page 3)

My weekend was a little lighter on the training than I had planned. I didn't do anything training related Sat/Sun other than my run/walk.. I did get to the archery range Sat. for the first time in a couple months which was fun... had to remind the boys who's the better shot..

I feel a little off schedule, but well-rested, which was the point, I guess. High hopes for the coming week. From now on, I think I'm going to post my weekly plans as my short-term goals.

Edited by greys34 2007-01-22 2:35 PM

So how is everyone feeling now that we are 4 weeks in from New Years? It looks like everyone has their routine set up and even some training plans started so the only thing left now is to do the workouts. Everyone has been great about getting organized and not missing workouts (except for the stuff you can't control like colds, splitting your head open...) so you're making my job really easy.



Edited by drewb8 2007-01-24 9:43 AM

Hey Drew, two questions --


1. Should we only be doing freestyle in the pool? I get a little bored (I know, I'm only in the pool for 20 minutes - short attention span) so I've been throwing in equal parts of the side stroke, but didn't know if I should just be concentrating on my form for the real deal.

2. Nutrition question - I've been trying to not eat past 7 pm, which usually works.. I'm at the gym roughly from 8:30 -10:00 pm, bed by 11:30. By the time I get home, though, I'm starving (as in my stomach is growling!).. should I eat something since I just exerted energy at the gym regardless of time, or just ignore it and compensate at breakfast?

Thanks!

1) Yes and no - It's a good idea to throw in a few laps using some other strokes to break things up and engage other muscles, but unless you are planning on using the sidestroke for 1/2 of the race you probably want to concentrate more on freestyle. Zach put up a link to some good swim workouts, I'll see if I can dig it up for you if you'd like. I find when the workout is structured it seems to pass a bit faster, but some of those longer sets can get boring. Thats just when you have to remind yourself that mental training is a big part of triathlon training. I like to remind myself that if I can make it thru these boring parts then the race will be a piece of cake.

2) Glad you brought this up, I've been meaning to say something about nutrition since it is so important. The answer to your question is YES!! Eat. The 1st 1/2 hour, even up to an hour it is pretty crucial to get some food into your body. During this time your body is most receptive to using nutrients to rebuild muscle you broke down during the workout and replenishing the energy supplies you depleted. As your workouts start getting longer it becomes even more important to make sure you taking in enough calories to replenish what you used and are recharged for your next workout. I know several of you have weightloss as a goal for doing triathlons and I'm afraid I can't give much advice on that aspect. There is a forum called 'triing for Weightloss' which I understand has a lot of good information. Without knowing much about it I would guess it is probably a narrow line between taking in enough calories that it doesn't sacrifice the quality of your workouts but also staying in a deficit so that you lose weight. I'll see if I can dig up some more info.

You've probably heard all this before, but there are good carbs and bad carbs, there is good fat and bad fat. You are a triathlete now, good carbs and fats are your friends. In general, you want to shop around the outside of the supermarket - ie. avoid processed foods, go for fresh fruits and veggies, whole grain breads and rice, lean meats, etc.

Some nutrition info:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...

Thanks for the answers Drew..

I have the swim workout from Zach, and started using it last night. It did go faster than previous swims.

where is the swim workout Zach posted? I must beblind cuz I can't find it.

So I bought a HRM yesterday. It's a Polar one, which I gather is pretty decent. I went for run last night and felt VERY minimal pains in my right ankle.(which had been bothering me) I gotta tell ya, a good pair of running shoes really does make all the difference in the world. I also got all new training equip for my swims. New goggles, pull buoy and kickboard. I'm hopefully goign to start with the spinning tonight. I'm having bike woes and can't get out on the real thing as of yet. The bike I was going to use is too big. I'm having difficulty finding a decent bike in my price range, but I'm hopeful something will pop up soon.

It's not in plain sight...


https://www.clubassistant.com/club/article.cfm?c=1&artid=88&CFID=765...





Edited by greys34 2007-01-25 1:43 PM

That sounds great. Those two things - the shoes and the HRM - really helped my running. I have very flat feet so I had trouble with shin splints in the beginning, but once I found the right shoes they disappeared almost overnight. The HRM helped me keep my effort in check so that I was going insanely slow, but I could do that pace forever, where previously I would run hard for 7 minutes and wonder why I felt like collapsing at the end. Have fun with your new toys!

He's updated his article, so that looks like something else. In anticipation of this, here is a cut and paste from the html I saved...

A Beginners Workout That Can Evolve Over The Winter Here is a workout plan that will evolve as your endurance, feel for the water, work out savvy and technical ability improves. Make sure to keep track of your progress with a journal of workout distances, time averages and strokes per lap. If you are already an intermediate swimmer, go ahead and start with the fifth or ninth workout (see below).

Set 1: In a 25 yard pool warm up 4 x 25 yards with an interval on the pace clock that will give you 20 seconds rest on average. For example, if it takes 50 seconds to swim, add 20 seconds and go on a 1:10 interval. Remember to descend each one so that the last one is your fastest, but also be sure to relax and go easy it's only a warm up. Take your time and concentrate on good form as you warm up. 2 x 25 technical drill thinking about good form (Ask your coach or look on line to find many examples of great drills.)

Set 2: 4 x 25 with a little less rest setting an interval that will give you 15 seconds rest on average. Remember to descend each one so that the last one is your fastest. 2 x 25 more technical drills.

Set 3: 4 x 25 again, with a little less rest setting an interval that will give you 10 seconds rest on average. Remember to descend each one. 2 x 25 technical drills, again thinking about good form.

Set 4: 4 x 25 again, with a little less rest setting an interval that will give you just 5 seconds rest on average. Remember to descend each one. 6 x 25 kick 50 warm-down swim Great job! That is 750 yards total (43% of a mile)

Workout #2 (then #3, #4, #5 ): These workouts evolve and increase in distance so that each time you do one you double one of the sets. Start with doubling set #4, turning the 25s into 50s. Remember to pace yourself by descending each swim using the pace clock. You are now up to 850 yards, great! Make sure to keep your swim workout journal updated. For your third workout, double Set #3 and #4. You are now up to 950 yards and over half a mile!

For workout number four, double the warm up set #1. You have now doubled all the steps into 50s, and are over 1,000 yards WOW, progress! After eight workouts it is now time with workout number nine to double the 50s in the same manner as you doubled the 25s and do 100s. Start again with set #4 and double the 50s to 100s! This time you are adding 200 yards each workout. Wow, that is 1,250 yards! Workout number ten is 1,450 yards, number eleven is 1,650 yards and then twelve is 1,850 and 90 yards more than a MILE!!!

Congratulations. Hey, don't stop now. Add another 50 each in the manner outlined above. You are now doing 150s. And in four workouts you can 'evolve' into 200s!!! That is over two miles!

I took the liberty of making changes like doing each workout more than once before increasing distance, increasing from the front rather than the end, and adding a 50 at the end. I put :20 between each set and each drill, :15 between the 2 50s at the end. This adds up to 8 min, so I time my whole session, subtract 8min and thats my swim time. I don't do kick either, just fingerdrag, catchup, or "slide and glide". He also says to descend your sets, meaning swim each repeat a little faster; I probably don't do enough of that, instead keeping a fairly constant pace during my sets.

I definitely need to work on the mental aspect of all this, more swimming than anything. I get a throatful of water, or start getting anaerobic, and being just a land athlete starts sounding real good. And the wall or the bottom of the pool is just right there...I really think swimming OW or at least in a longer pool would help me a lot.

I feel like I am doing pretty well...Drew, if you can, could you please look at my training log? I have tried to be as accurate as I could about what I have done and what I have eaten...I haven't lost much weight, but I did a body fat analysis last November and I would imagine it may be different now...anyway, I would like to lose about 15 lbs. but I am patient and can wait to see results...I just want to be doing the right amount of workouts. Sometimes I wonder if I am pushing too hard (I have a tendancy to overdo things)...anyway, have a look if you could and let me know what you think...thanks...jeffd

ok, silly question time.

I was looking through the info for the tri here in Philly I signed up for. There is a number you are assigned and it is on a tag/paper/whatever the name for that thing is. When you get out of the water, od you have to take the time to pin that sucker on? I know it's a silly question, but man, what a time waster if you have to pin it on. Or am I just thinking it takes longer then it really does?

All right! Our first race question. Ok, here's what'll happen. Before the race you'll go to a pre-race meeting where they will go over information for the race and you'll pick up you race packet which will have some goodies for you and also your race numbers. You will most likely get a number to attach to your bike, a number to pin to your shirt (like any running race) and then on race morning they will magic marker your number on your arm and/or leg (so you can walk around town afterwards and feel like a bad-).

There are a few options for you race number. You can either-

1) Attach it to your shirt and wear it during the swim
2) Attach it to a shirt that you will put on during transition after the swim.
3) Attach it to a race belt which you put on during transition after the swim.

There are a couple of options for a race belt. For my first few tris I just used a piece of webbing that was long enough to fit around my waist and had buckles on the end. They also make race belts specifically for this purpose which are stretchy.

Ok, well that will probably bring up the next question - what do I wear?

The easiest (and fastest) thing is to wear the same thing for all these legs. I have a pair of tri shorts - they are like bike shorts - but the padding is thinner - just some fleece so you don't feel like you're wearing a diaper during the run. They also make tops specifically for tris although for my first one I just used a synthetic t-shirt which dried pretty quickly. Some people wear just their swimsuit for the whole race and some people put on new clothes during the transition. Just keep in mind putting a t-shirt on while you are wet can be difficult. Still lots of time, so I wouldn't get worked up about these details yet!

Ok, some more nutrition info...

Perhaps some of you guys have heard of the glycemic index? As athletes, carbohydrates are going to be our main source of energy (about 60% of our diet), but not all carbs are created equally, that's where the glycemic index comes in. In a nutshell it is a measure of how quickly the carbs are turned into glucose (sugar) in your blood. A food with a low glycemic index will turn into glucose much slower than one with a high index. Why does this matter? When you eat foods with a high glycemic index you get a 'sugar spike' in you blood. This can be useful during or just after exercise (within the 1st hour after exercise its a good idea to eat some high glycemic foods to replenish the energy stores you used and aid in recovery. Many people swear by a glass of choclate milk which has a mix of carbs and protein), however, this spike is inevitably followed by a sharp drop. What this does is teach your body that it can't depend on a steady supply of food so how do you think your body compensates? It starts packing away extra calories as fat in case it needs them for another blood sugar drop later. Foods with a low glycemic index are released in a more slow and steady manner which avoids these spikes.

Thats only part of the story- from the link: "A GI [glycemic index] value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low."

Does this mean you should never eat a baked potato or bagel again? No. You just need to be aware. If you eat a plain bagel it has a relatively high GI so it is likely to cause a blood sugar spike and possibly be converted to fat. If you plop some peanut butter on the bagel though it acts to lower the glycemic index (your stomach doesn't know the bagel and pb are seperate), reducing the spike in blood sugar.

I'm not a nutritionist or a coach though so I hope you all get a chance to look over these links.

Hope everyone has a good weekend of training. Looks like a long ride on sat & then maybe some skiing for me.

http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

http://www.runningfree.com/trainingarticles_glycemicindex.htm

http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_news_frameset.html?http://www....

http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12430&category=eat_right

Edited by drewb8 2007-01-26 1:55 PM

Hey Drew - it seems there is some conflicting advice regarding what to eat post-workout. Some say high glycemic and others say low.. does it really matter as long as you eat something nutritious, or is this just splitting hairs?

Oops, don't know how I posted twice.. so computer illiterate...

Edited by greys34 2007-01-29 1:06 PM

From what I have read the 1st 1/2 hour or so after you exercise is when you want to try & eat some high glycemic food to replenish the energy you just used. you don't need a whole lot, like I mentioned before, many people use a tall glass of chocolate milk for this. Maybe an hour or two later you would have a normal sized meal of more low glycemic type foods.

This becomes more important for proper recovery as your workouts get longer but for now its probably more in the 'its a good idea' catagory than 'you better do it' catagory.

Just looked over everyones logs & it looks like you all are in the groove and plugging away. Everyone give a shout out to Amanda (Magella) who just ditched the cigarettes starting last monday and has not resorted to beating on anyone! Nice job!

Yay!!! Keep it up Amanda!! That's awesome - good job!

You go Magella...you can do it, just think how good you will feel with clean lungs...jeffd

Thanks for the encouragment everyone! It's been a week and I gotta say, it's been pretty easy. I got super stressed on saturday and had one and I was fine, although it did hurt a little bit. It does feel good though to know I'm helping myself to become a healthier person.

Anyway, it's been a good week of training. I've just been plugging away, trying to experiment iwth back to back workouts(bike then swim and run then bike) It felt great to get through the workouts and still be able to stand after. Sometimes I get frustrated cuz I feel like I'm going too slow or not working hard enough. In the past, I thought pain was a sign of a great workout. BUT, I just remind myself that I will be able to run faster and bike harder in time.

Tomorrow I have a visit with my Dr. I suspect I have a deviated septum (UT OH!!!) It's been extremely diffucult to breath through my nose, so somehting has to be done.

Other then that, things are good, training is good, and the diet is paying off. (I'm down at least 7 lbs)

I am however looking to spice up my workouts. So if anyone has some good endurance building workouts for me, I'd love to try them out.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Hey Drew -

I read somewhere that we're supposed to breathe every four strokes in the pool.. I counted last night to see what I'm doing, and it's more like every 8 strokes. Is this a technical thing, or a whatever-keeps-you from-drowning thing?



Good job Amanda with the no smoking!

Great job Amanda. Just think of how much easier it will be once you clear all that gunk out of your lungs.

Natalia - as far as breathing during swimming just go with whatever keeps you from drowning. I actually breath every two strokes because thats when I need air. One thing that may be worth working on though is bilateral breathing - being able to breath on both sides. I am very one sided and can only breatheffectively to my left but I'm working on breathing to my right too. There are several reasons it can be good-

1) It lets you breath every 3rd (or 5th) stroke which many people find comfortable.

2) If you are getting waves or the sun in you face during a race you can switch to breathing on the other side to avoid it.

3) It helps with your overall balance while swimming.

That said, if you can't breathe bilaterally it's not the end of the world, its just a nice skill to have. Breathing is one of the few areas in swimminig where its ok to say just do what feels comfortable.

Hey everyone. Hope all is well with everybody's training schedules. I'm leaving early friday for a conference in Madison, WI (to teach people how cool plants are - because they are! ) and then straight to St. Louis for my little sister's wedding.. will be gone until who knows when (18th? 19th?!) Hopefully I'll get in a couple workouts while I'm down there, but who knows. Just wanted to say good luck to everyone for the coming week and keep plugging away!!!

Of all the classes I took in undergrad, Botany 1404 is the one that stands out in my head as the one I hated the most...but I think that may stem from the fact that the prof was a man-hater as much as it does that I had zero interest in plants. I like 'em, oxygen is good, flowers are pretty, but thats about the extent of it!

Enjoy your conference!