Short Course 12-18 August 2013
Hot days continue and if you are reading this, be thankful you are not training for IMFLA and getting your long rides and run in during the week! (Note: Kim is thinking about IMFLA next year and I am thinking about 2015...
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Although I am sure it is buried in wiki somewhere, I am pretty sure I read that for every five degrees over 65, you slow down 4 secs. Not sure if that takes into account the heat index or hydrating, because I slow down that much just drinking water anyway. Aleksander - who runs like the wind, has been suffering at far slower paces than normal at a Z4 effort. So, regardless of what the "slow down" rate is, it's normal and we need to keep our race paces within reason and not get discouraged. This is more a "nte to self" I make weekly and I thought I'd share! 
Keep the posts coming! Looking forward to hearing Jim's race report from Nationals! 
Comments
. I'm actually not planning IMFL for 14 now but doings long term plan heading towards IMLP in 15. Better get more comfortable on hills!
This is actually a "C" race and I wasn't going to take any time off from the get faster plan to taper BUT my long ride Sat ended after 2 flats and a broken aero bar armrest bracket failure so I tapered whether I wanted too or not. Fortunately I had just gotten new gatorskins and 4 new tubes so everything got changed out Sat evening.
Last charleston sprint race was Sunday. Temp 76 at 7 AM water in the 80's. If you have been following my whining this summer, you will know that I have not showed much improvement up until now. I am happy to report that I took the advice from this forum " Swim like there is no bike, Bike like there is no Run and Run like someone is chasing you." and had a PR for the race by almost 2 minutes. I improved both the swim and the bike by almost a minute each. Still middle of the pack in my AG (actually the rear of the middle of the pack
For the swim, I had been doing the entire thing breathing every 3 strokes so I alternated sides. I went to breathing every 2 strokes on the same side which might have made a little difference.
For the bike, I re-read the bike fit e-book and made some adjustments which might have helped but I pushed harder so that might have helped too. Next expense will be TTbikeFit and real arerobars instead of clamp-ons. Front shifter failed but it didn't make any difference because the course is flat and I didn't need to change the front gear anyway.
Run was fairly standard for me at about 26 min but I passed a lot more folks than ususal.
Overall, not the great perfor4mance breakthrough that I was hoping for but I will take any improvement at this point. At least I didn't have another flat!
Got home and the upstairs AC had gone out, 85 degrees in my bedroom. Slept on the couch with the dogs downstairs (where the AC still works). Glad my wife is out of town for that.
Hope everyone is having a good summer, Motivation seems to be hard to come by and a precious commodity. Share what you can but keep some for yourself.
I love to read about you guys / girls exploits. Shared pain hurts less somehow.
Be careful out there.
This is me posting from work when nothing is going on, sorry for the ramble.
@Joe, that is correct, above 60F......now, that does not account for humidity....the ratio of slowdown was developed from some Daniels tabels.....I have access to the table if interested.
@Kim, I broke down and signed up for my first full, 2014 IMCDA, been 6 years in the sport, thought it was time. I am a 2:16 oly, 4:39 HIM, lets see where that takes me into full.
@Ralph, congrats on a great race. Also, from previous week, hydration.....I am about two bottles an hour of liquid in that weather......still will have less power to offer by huge amount and been there a few times, was not sure if I was to call for extraction
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For background... I did a couple of races (HIM and marathon) very close together and both very hard in June and the combination essentially set me back like an IM would. Then in mid July, a combination of a bad heat wave and extensive travel curbed what I was able to do for even longer. So late in that month, I decided to finish out my season with some short courses in the style of "racing back into shape". I have twins who do triathlon, so this let me take some time to race with them, and I am enjoying myself, even if I'm still putting up some very very "rusty" numbers.
Aug 11 was our first race with all three of us together. We did a sprint in central Iowa that had a point to point swim, a 15 mile undulating but straight bike, and a pretty average 5K that included some grass/trail running. The twins are 12 but turn 13 at the end of this month.
Timothy (my son) had a tough day. He got his goggles kicked off/broken in the swim at the start and then developed some kind of tummy cramp early in the bike that wouldn't go away. We think it was dehydration in retrospect, even though it was an early morning race. WE think he just neglected to drink much of anything. Oh well. Lesson learned. He toughed it out for a 2nd place AG...and I have to give him a lot of credit just for racing hard given what happened. He lost most of his time on the bike, rather than run. 35th of 175 overall
Olivia (my daughter) is a good enough swimmer that there was a chance that she would catch me despite it being a 500 m swim and her starting 3 minutes back in the next wave. But I had a wetsuit and she didn't so I stayed ahead...barely. :-) My wife was there and said she was first woman out of the water and still the first woman off the bike. I have her at 20.6 mph average. She (and Timothy) have been on swim taper and then just starting running again the last week or so...so I think the hard bike and that took a bit of a toll on her and she finished with a 23:xx run and ended up in second for the women. 17th overall out of about 175
I had a pretty good swim and had made a point to practice my transitions, which I neglect when doing long course. I had my bike shoes all banded up. T1 was 1:01 despite the wetsuit, which was only about 15 sec behind the fastest T1s of people without wetsuits. Not too bad for someone who never practices and usually wears socks..though there is obviously room for a little improvement. I know it's such a silly thing, but I was proud of doing that and then getting my feet into the shoes smoothly. My bike power is still pretty low compared to its peak (15%?...haven't formally tested), but I did better this time and finished with a 21.9 mph average.
The bike hadn't seen much movement in the places after the first 3-4 miles, but because of an out and back course, I knew there were a few guys ahead of me that were probably in my age group. I had had a small (and equally my fault ) disagreement with one of them before the race and was pretty determined to try to "race" this time. I'm also in pretty bad run shape, but I figured I'd still be above average for the men my age. Sure enough, I got passed by a couple of youngsters, but I slowly started moving up on two guys who looked like they might be my age group. At about 1.3 miles I passed the first one. Can't say that I did anything. I was going to catch him anyway eventually, but I saw him just dramatically slow down as I got closer and that was that. I saw "disagreement guy" ahead of me at the turnaround and thought he was in range. I should be ashamed to admit how bad I wanted to beat that guy. :-) Anyway, after the turnaround I could see I was slowly getting closer...so I did all this plotting in my head....should I relax behind him and then surge? Should I just run by naturally? Should I surge without "resting" a minute behind him? Just as I was getting really close, by coincidence, some friends were coming the other way (behind me) on the out-and-back and 3-4 said hello/cheered by name. I was almost embarrassed...and then we were coming up on the 2 mile water station, where a good friend was handing out water...and he saw me and started cheering. i lost all thoughts of tactics and just ran my standard speed past "disagreement guy" because I was embarrassed that no one was cheering for him right when I was going to pass him. Shortly after the pass was the one kind of nasty hill and I'm still not quite ready for that...I wondered if he was going to catch me going upwards..... In a few minutes, there was a misplaced 3-mile sign at a turn. I was able to look back, and he wasn't anywhere in range, so I pretty stupidly relaxed a little thinking the race was literally almost over. it turned out there was almost half a mile left, not 0.1.... but I got away with it.
I ended up finishing the 5K with a 21:48...I should seriously be under 21 (good grief, I ran a 90 minute half marathon a few months ago!).... but it is what it is, as they say. That was good enough for 9th overall and first in the AG. I was all excited about getting an AG win, but I found out later that one of the top folks was 45, so I really got 2nd. [I would probably lose to that guy by a couple minutes at this distance no matter how good of shape I was in, so no worries.]
Anyway, it was a fun morning all around.
Welcome back to the world of the short coursers (new word)
Re-read the swim e-book and hit the pool this AM for Drills. felt OK, certainly not speedy but that will (hopefully) come.
Just ordered some vision aero bars on e-bay. Trying to buy some (used) speed.
time to lose the old drop bars.
Why is it the more you race the more stuff you find that you "need"?
and the easier is is to rationalize it to yourself.
@Ralph - good job! Little by little, chipping away, it'll come! Race stories make for fun reading. It beats surfing the internet at work when things slow down!
@William - what a great family event! Good to see you in this forum!
I'm off to Concord, NC with my wife to visit my daughter who just bought a home. My wife will begin wedding planning in earnest once she lands and I will baby sit the house and dog and maybe get a few good meals out of this if I just agree to pay for everything. Not likely. So, I'll make a beer and pretzel run early and be sure to get in at least one run a day to keep my sanity!
I had a great race and a great time yesterday. The atmosphere was like nothing else I've experienced. Finished a hard fought 7th in my AG against rather stiff competition - thanks in part to the members of this forum for your support and encouragement.
Read the report and let me know what you think.
So-so VO2 bike tonight via hill repeats. A total of about 12' ON ranging from 1.14-1.21IF with one at 1.06. Overall .90IF with 7 miles in bout 35mins. Done and back home to throw the tennis ball around in the yard with the pups. I looking forward to my last few races then being DONE with training. I didn't have a very long off-season last year (did IMFL in Nov. then started Jan. OS) and I think it is catching up to me.
This is what I hate: the 2x 400, 2x 300, 2x200 swim workout after lifting weights. I know I shouldn't do strength training but I have been with my trainer for years and I can do it at the YMCA and get right in the pool afterwards. But MAN that first 400 sucks.
Birthday Challenge this weekend for the big 50. trying to time my river swim so I am with the tide. May have to run first since it was 82 degrees at 5:30 this AM. Swim with the tide and then bike when I can work it in. Clearly it is going to screw with my Get faster plan but I gotta have the badge like Joe....
That damn peer presure.
Have a great day everyone!
@Kim Thanks. Sprint finishes like mine on Sunday are great ... after they are done! I had this self-talk going on that says 'I didn't want any regrets.' In other words, I don't want to spend anytime thinking that I should have at least tried at the end. Win or lose, I gave it a go. It worked out this time.
@Ralph "Going after those guys" Right now I'm sitting on Personal Bests so I guess its time to re-calibrate ... right?
I observed something this year that I find interesting. That is, the way my perspective changed over time with respect to my weight, watts, and min/mile. When I started with EN last November and did my first OS, I weighed 165lbs, tested to an FTP of 193, and ran my best 5K was at 7:30/mi. Then after getting EN-serious on these (the OS will do that), I started to see changes and at first the changes were a bit of shock. I was not used to seeing these new & improved numbers. But over time, I got used to seeing them and they were OK and then they were expected. For last Sunday's race, I weighed 152, FTP at 242 and (new) 5K at 7:03/mi. So to Ralph's point about going after these guys ... I need a new set of goals ... i.e., how about dropping below 150lbs, raising FTP another 20 watts and targeting 5K at 6:50/mi for starters? I'm just on the "shock" side of that perspective right now - but the Nov (or Jan) OS is coming to my Pain-Cave soon.
William - I believe you're right. At the race this weekend there were a lot of very fit, fast 60+ year old guys and there is reason to think that there are a lot more years of improvement left. My reasoning is tied to my history ... see, I used to run sub 18 min 5Ks back when I was doing Running/racing and doing Triathlons from 1985 to 1990 - I even did a sub 40 min 10K during the 1988 Miami USTS (the name before USAT) Olympic race - who was that 37 year old kid? Because of injury, job and kids, I stopped racing for 20 years. Stayed a little fit but gained too much weight - I did play a lot of golf.
I just re-started multi-sporting again in 2010. What a world of difference today vs the 1980's - timing chips, internet, Garmin's, bike & wheel technology, etc.As for the Improvement equation - that's the tricky part. See if you agree with this line of thinking on mine (or anyone's) ability to continue to improve:
Had I kept racing for the past 20 years, there would be some fall-off in my speed and power .... BUT ... I'm fairly certain that I've not yet improved (from my 20 year layoff) to that theoretical fall off point. As I said in my race report from Sunday, I was in a neck and neck sprint with a competitor at the finish of the race and I my Garmin had be running at 5:07/mi pace. Speed is apparently not the issue.
You guys are great motivators!
My A race Olympic is next week, currently in week 7 of GF. Coming off CdA, this plan is no joke. Feels a lot like the jan OS. Fatigue is currently at "MF'er" levels but I feel stronger.
Bombed a 5k last weekend, but after reading these replies it sounds like the humidity got to me more than I thought it would.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/359278964
(I didn't really run as fast as this says...Garmin isn't very good at speeds/distances on a track...e.g., the last mile is lap 11and 12) Did 2 x 1200/rest/400/rest at paces in the 6:15 range, and then a final mile at 6:30. Swam in the morning.
@Ralph. Go for it. I think we're both at the point where it starts getting harder, but we've got some time.
@ Jim I think you have it exactly right. I work on the assumption that each of us has this theoretical place where we've achieved 95% (or whatever) of our genetic/life-limited potential. [What I mean by the latter is that we don't get to be full time athletes...we have to assume some "reasonable" level of dedication.] After you reach that 95% line, the rest is really hard. But I don't think that 95% line just means "having gotten in shape". I think it's the place where people get after 2,3,4 years of pretty serious training. I also think that 95% line is age-dependent, with it obviously falling off to a degree as we age. However, with those of us who have either taken very long breaks or were never really athletes in our youths...we are so far from that 95% potential line that we can improve a lot. I kind of see myself as pretty close to that line these days when I am in prime racing shape, but we'll see. Unfortunately, triathlons don't really lend themselves to objective time standards as well as road races or swimming. (And obviously swimming does that a lot better than road races.) But I ran a best marathon in 2010...and then another best one this year. (3:14:xx) considering the way that one happened, I think I may have a few more minutes to squeeze out before it becomes really, really, really hard to do any better. I have a quiet goal to go sub 3:10 at Boston next year...we'll see this winter how realistic that turns out to be. In your case, you demonstrated when you were younger that you had some good stuff... and in a sense, you are in a very good place now, because with that long gap, you don't know where the ceiling is. I know a few guys who were very good swimmers (e.g., Coach Rich) who can't bring themselves to work very hard at it because they don't want to kill themselves just to be second-rate versions of their younger selves. They know they will never beat their 15 year old selves again (especially swimming). What you are calling the "theoretical fall off point" is the same thing I'm calling your current 95% line. By coming at it now, a lot of the fun is to keep pushing until we really find it. :-)
I started the swim closer to the front on the inside, which I NEVER do. My swim time looks pretty good, but I a waiting for the real results as the Garmin shows 12:31 for .5mi, which doesn't seem right for me, even with a wetsuit.
I biked like I wanted to just having fun. Moderate effort going uphill, killing the flats and a bit of recovery going downhill but maintaining enough momentum to coast up the next hill. Just fun! Overall a .96IF for 11.63 miles (about 41 mins) The run was constant up and down. NOT my thing. But I went as fast as I could. and Grmin shows about 31mins but I think that might be a bit off too. We'll see.
Overall, I think I put in a great effort and had a blast (well, I did on the bike). great training day too. Will post real results when available.
got my Birthday Gift early. New Garmin 910 Tri pack.
So now I will have evidence for the Birthday Challenge Sunday.
If I can just figure out how to work the darn thing....
Putting new (used) Vision aero bars and brakes and tube end shifters on the ole Fred to get it tuned up. Also all new cables so theoretically there is little left to break.... Yeah Right.
I would post a picture of the bike after the upgrades but, if the photos Kim posted are bike porn, my bike would be like peeking at granny naked. Gonna spare you all that.
Last night was another OS-style brick for me. I was running short on time because I was on single dad duty, so I cut the bike to the minimum time for a good warmup and my intervals and cut the run from 30 to 20 min. Uggh. But such is life. I'm jumping mid-season into this after having lost bike shape and I had to choose whether to do the mid-season 2 x 20 at a substantially lower power or try to build up my power again with some shorter intervals like you see at the beginning of OS. Right or wrong, I've opted for the latter, and 3 x 10 seems like a reasonable compromise.
10' at 237 W
10' at 239 W
10' at 229 W I know....I know...
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/359762123
Reverse split short brick run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/359762136
Good thing about this one was that the second half was one of the few times since my marathon that running at around 7:10 or faster felt natural and not like racing or labored. I'll take that as progress.
@ Kim - Great job on your race. That IF is impressive. It is fun to just push it and see how things fall out. As for not- or mis-hitting the correct button on your watch. I actually practice that too while I'm practicing T1 & T2's. Nothing worse than trying to "think" in the heat and excitement of the race moment.
@Ralph - I love my Garmin 910XT ... I use it for all my training and races. Look at the DCRainmaker site for hints on setting it up. He makes recommendations for what to display, but you really need to figure out what is important to you. Because there are multiple screens, you can set up a few that you know you'll use. I use a couple of different display screen during a training sessions. Love the data.
@William - Good move on the hack from 2x20' to 3x10'. I've been there too. This is not the OS, this is getting ready to race, Not sure of your race timing but its still better to live to bike another day. And hey, that is progress.
I now realize that Sunday's ending sprint took a bit more out of me than the adrenaline would allow me to notice. On Monday and Tuesday, I still was pretty beat. But then I decided I could had to get back at it in some form or fashion so on Tuesday afternoon, I did some swimming and that put me back on track. And now, with only 1 week until the Chicago Sprint, I hacked this past week's SC training plan some. On Wed, the SC called for 4x800 ... I did 4x400 and Thursday was 3x8' ... I did 3x5' .... Hey, I'm back moving and moving pretty hard too -- that's progress -- I'll take it. Took off today so I'll can hit it hard this weekend. I'll start easing off by the middle of next week. Fun stuff!Have good weekend everyone.
As to racing, I'm on a pretty short time frame. I'm going to do HyVee Olympic on Sept 1 and then a sprint or two inSept for fun before shutting down the tri season. May run a half marathon in October, but I haven't decided for sure. So, I'm trying to get back as much of my lost bike/run strength as I can in a short time without putting myself in a mid-OS hole. :-) The good thing is I can feel it coming back, though it's too bad I got set back as far as I did.
WJ- No doubt OS-ish WKOs will help you get back on track! Is the HyVee the race with the huge prize purse? And lots of top pros?
Jim- Thanks! It was a lot of fun, especially passing guys that just passed me going up the hill. I take it nice n easy, EN style, then when they are toasted from trying to kill the climb, I pounce! Making a game of it makes it a lot more fun. I race faster when I'm in fun mode vs. racing mode. Weird...
Since my next A Race is an Oly next Sun. and my legs still weren't happy w/ me today, I opted out of my usual Sat. 30mi ride with the guys and did kind of a rehersal for my A race sprint in 3 weeks on the course. It was chilly this morning so we did bike, run, swim. Bike was 10.5mi in 34:42 with .90IF (that's all I had in me), 3 mi trail run avg. pace 10:23 and then about .5mi swim somewhere around 19 mins. (Speed was not there since we put it last but did feel good on the legs!)
So, I look at the GF Wk #2 and I see the weekend bike workout is 3 X1'(1') @Z4, the 2 X 20'(4') at Z4, then 12' of ON @Z5. Yow!!! This may be my hardest workout since the OS!
Great postings above! At Ralph - your B'day gets a 10miler I think! Ouch - you'll wear the badge a lot more prominently than me at 3 miles!!!
Joe
300 wu, 300 kick (blank) 1500 straight: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/360603083
51 mi bike. Steady after warmup. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/360603083 I haven't gone in and lowered my FTP on Garmin, so the IF is wrong. :-)
Thought I'd get in about a 5 mile run, but I ran out of time before I had to deal with kid stuff. Grrr. I'll run a little longer tomorrow instead. (not an extra 5...just a little longer than planned)
WJ- You know what they say about the best laid plans, right?
2 naps yesterday, one pre-dinner then another pre-bed nap, then a good night sleep. Still Wasn't sure how much of a run my legs would tolerate. I figured since I did a sprint Thurs. night and a sprint practice Sat., that covered my Z4 for the week and just did a long run at whatever pace. (I'm concurrently training for a 1/2 mary in Oct. while training for my sprints and Olys.
Turned out not too bad considering. 9 mi @ Avg. pace 10:53, which is just about right in the middle of Z1 and Z2 pace. Then a little dozing on the deck. Naps are highly underrated and may need to be incorporated into my plan more regularly.
I think I'm going to use Week 20 of the SC plan this week instead of the last week in the GF plan. I don't think I want to test this week before the race. I'd lile to err on the side of more rest vs. less.
@Ralph - let's get a peek at Granny. I rode a $500 bike (Trek 1100) at the '92 Coors Light Duathlon Nationals and checked my bike into transition with Kenny Souza in his Nishiki. Although the bike eventually rusted to death on my trainer, I thought it was just an awesome ride! BTW - I googled Kenny and I say the years have certainly weighed on him more than on me...
@Kim - I agree with your choice to use the SC week #20 vs the GF week #8. I did that last year and it worked very well.
@Jim - so, did you race the old Bud Light Series? I did my first triathlon in '90 just before Desert Storm and they were ending. That must have been a gret series!
@David - welcome back! Yes, Old Guys rule!
Birthday Challenge in the books.
Unfortunately I can't respond to posts in the Challenge forum for some reason so I am posting my report here with my Short course peeps.
I ended up doing the thing backwards for several reasons but it was an interesting experience since it totally invalidated any pacing advice.
I started off with the 10 mile run at 6:30 this AM. It took me 1:44:55 at a pace of 10:32 per mile. This was my first trisport event of this length (since I am a short course guy) and so I was also learning about my nutrition plan. GU gel every 30 min for the Run with a couple of applesauces and a cup of coffee to get me going. PR distance.
Recovery for about 30 min on my front porch with a fruit protein smoothie and lots of water, then out on the bike. New handlebars with bar-end shifters made life much easier and everything worked for a change. I started to slow down a pretty good bit the last 5 miles or so. 50.25 miles in 3:05:53 average speed 16.2 mph. I ended up drinking 11 bottles of water and 5 GU gels. Probably need to get more electrolytes in the future, maybe some sports drink in between the water.
Another protein smoothie on the front porch to recover but the open water swim had to start near 2 PM due to the tide. That is why I ended up doing the swim last and it was pretty challenging. I had some pretty significant quad cramps about 15 min into it but they went away. My wife and daughter kayaked as my support crew. Ended up with a time of 1:22:39 for 3.32 miles. made a BIG mistake by having a glass of champagne with my wife afterwards. Talk about a cheap drunk...
New Garmin is just the coolest. I have lots to learn about how to use it. I am trying to post pictures of my maps but have not gotten that figured out yet.
It does make me think that a half IM may not be out of the question for me next year.
Now I am going to bed. Later team.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/361357387
Not spectacular, but a good day.