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9 Weeks!

This training block is flying by!  I actually got my butt up and in the pool at 6am.  That was a first!  Alrighty-let's kill this testing week friends!

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  • Awesome on the early morning swim Lauren!! Woot Woot!

    9 weeks means test week! I hope everyone crushes there bike testing and there 5k!!! Good Luck!
  • Hey All - A little late to the party, but I am here... :-) After finishing Rev3 Dells I needed to boost my (GF)AUs so I took an easy week while we vacationed in VA. Unfortunately I caught a bit of a cold so that set me back a little, I did manage a Metric Century Bike, a 10 mile run this weekend, hit the pool this morning for a 1/2 workout (still congested) but I am making my way back slowly and carefully so I can kick this cold.

    I have to be honest, I am not looking forward to testing this week - but I will get it done.
  • My training took a big hit this weekend when I crashed hard and destroyed my bike and my wheels - mile 52 at the same ride you were at Mike. Outside of some road rash and a very bruised ankle, I'm OK, but will need a new tri bike. I had my bike completely dialed in and needed zero upgrades - very frustrating. I'm hoping Felt's crash replacement program works for me - in theory you need to show proof you are the original owner. I'm the original owner, but I don't have any proof and the bike shop I purchased it from is no longer in business. At least I have my road bike to train on in the interim.

  • Chris - Oh No, 52 must have put you on the way back to the HS from the SAG Stop. What time did it happen? I am glad you are okay!!!

    I ended up in a ditch after coming around a corner with unexpected gravel, early in the ride, but I was very lucky and was able to keep it upright and ride out.
  • Mike - I know the turn you speak of, full of peat gravel. I crashed and burned around 10:30 about 1.5 miles past the SAG stop. Hitched a ride back to the school from a SAG car.
  • Hey Mike glad your back at it. Sounds like you got some good training in over the weekend and today! I think your being smart working back into the training with the cold.

    To be honest I'm not sure if anybody really looks forward to testing. They are tough and the can be great they can also be mentally challenging.

    Chris that is awful!! I'm glad your ok. It sucks about your bike. I hope Felt comes through for you. It's a good thing you have your road bike to train with for now.

    Swam at lunch today! I managed to get all 3400 yards done. I felt drained afterwards. Drank my endurox and grabbed Subway on the way back to the office. I'm feeling better just needed food!
  • Mike-Welcome back! I was at that Joliet ride too! Too bad I didn't know you were going out there-would've been nice to ride with people! Great job!

    Chris-Are you the Chris that crashed on a ride with Jeff S.? I'm a friend of his-heard you got roughed up pretty bad-how are you feeling? That's great that you have another bike to train on for now.

    Eric-Great job on the swim! Glad you felt better after eating. After swimming, I'm always so hungry!

    I am also dreading this testing tomorrow. But, I'm setting the bike up on the trainer tonight to be ready to get on early tomorrow morning for a 6am test. Going to bring out the old Linkin Park CD to blast to get me through this test....my neighbors are going to love me tomorrow morning.
  • That's me, I'm feeling OK. Thanks for asking

    I'm hoping I can test well tomorrow. I can get past the road rash pain, but my left ankle, not sure
  • Lauren-I'm setting my bike up on the drainer as well tonight. I'm going to rock out while watching an Ironman world championship video.

    Chris- I hope you are able to test but if your ankle is hurting too much I would rearrange your week and test after you have healed more. The coaches can help you rearrange your week so you can maximize it.

    Good luck tomorrow everyone! Crush it!
  • Well I got my test in. I'm always dreading testing. I always want to test better but that isn't always possible. The good news is I did see increases in both the VO2 max (5 watts and a 14 watt bump on my FTP. Those bumps take me back to where I was last year about this time. So overall I'm very pleaed.

    I hope everyone else testing is going well. I'm looking forward to seeing your posts.

    Keep up the good work team!
  • What are you all doing about your bikes on the trainer? I have been changing tires before putting my bike on the trainer, but I have to tell you it is getting old. Does anyone just keep their road tires on when popping their bike in the trainer for a test or warm-up?
  • Mike I can't imagine changing that tire eveytime. My trainer tire sucks to put on. I have a rim with my trainer tire on it permanently. I switched from a power tap wheel to a Quarq crank. It has given me a lot more flexibility. I need a new rear tire so I didn't swap rims today for the FTP test. I didn't notice any unusual wear or rubber for just the 90 min I rode. If you are riding weekly on a standard tire on the drainer you will notice that it wears quicker. ( I ran a standard tire my first offseason before I bought the special tire)
  • Hi everyone, haven't posted anything here yet so quick introduction. I live in Plymouth Wisconsin ( about a 2hr drive from Madison). This will be my first full distance after finishing several 70.3's. Will also be doing the Door County 70.3 next weekend.

    Did my test after work & before the rain today & got a nice 10 watt bump. Not looking forward to the run test.

    I will be riding in Madison this Saturday morning, 2X the loop starting in Verona at the baseball park. Give me a shout if your interested in riding.

  • Eric - I have a PowerTap G3 so an extra rim for the trainer is just not an option. I think what I will do is switch my race tire off, it is time anyway, and put my training tires (a standard tire) on and use them on the road & drainer for now... Then switch back to my race setup when we get closer to IMWI
  • For a drainer, there's nothing wrong with using a general purpose tire...but I would use a general purpose one, not a good racing type tire. The general purpose ones are stiffer and don't wear down as much...so taking them on the trainer and road isn't such a big deal.

    As for me...this is a very odd IM build. Trying to keep on track, but there are way too many things going on for me to be able to follow the plans religiously.
  • Cool…looks like this forum is ramping up with some more folks. Endo'd the bike during big training day - my fault, the whole trying to put your foot down on the ground while still clipped in - still a rookieimage Bent one of the aero bars pretty good, so only got 2 hrs of the bike in - nothing a hammer couldn't solve, but may need to get the tightening screw replaced as I can't seem to get the pad to stay up. Anyhoo - an HR/RPE guy, so bypassing most the testing this week. Got yesterday's swim and 75 minutes of Z3/4 riding in today. Doing sprint tri this weekend so will pass up any super long runs - maybe use that as my bike and run testimage

    Hope everyone is rocking it out, healing up, and fixing their bikes - sending some mojo to overcome the challenges - weeks are flying by and I'm excited to get to race day fit, healthy, and focused to perform!!
  • Oh yeah…is it TMI to say that jumping into the pool with newly shaved legs felt awesomeimage And according to some recent tests, maybe some free wattage on the bike.

  • Posted By Mark Hickman on 09 Jul 2014 12:05 AM


    Oh yeah…is it TMI to say that jumping into the pool with newly shaved legs felt awesome And according to some recent tests, maybe some free wattage on the bike.

    Probably...  

    But seriously, I know as a runner/triathlete we tend to share all sort of things that our 'normal' friends simply would not understand.


  • Posted By William Jenks on 08 Jul 2014 10:19 PM


    For a drainer, there's nothing wrong with using a general purpose tire...but I would use a general purpose one, not a good racing type tire. The general purpose ones are stiffer and don't wear down as much...so taking them on the trainer and road isn't such a big deal.



    As for me...this is a very odd IM build. Trying to keep on track, but there are way too many things going on for me to be able to follow the plans religiously.

    I am glad you said that as that is kind of what I noticed on my std tire, thought I was nuts.

    I hope things are settling down for you a bit, I simply cannot imagine... 

  • Hey Mark welcome to the group! Great job on your test and the watt boost! If I was a little closer to Madison I would meet you Saturday.

    Mike-I agree with William. Switch out the race tire for a rugged training tire.

    William - I wasn't sure if we would even see you in the forums this year. it is good to see you post. I'm so sorry for your loss. Trying to keep on track with training at this point is truly amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing you this September.

    Mark-Dude endo'd the big?!? dang I'm glad your ok! Sucks that your bars bent but it could have been much worse. Good luck with your sprint!
    And yeah maybe TMI. imageimage

    Happy Hump Day!
  • How has test week gone for everyone?

    Chris were you recovered enough to test on the bike?

    No change for me on my Vdot (still at 50) On tired legs I don't think I'll see a bump until after the race this fall.

    It's been another crazy week! I'm looking forward to biking this weekend to feel the pain of my new watt zones!

    Hope everyone is doing awesome! Keep crushing it!
  • My ankle is still swollen and it still hurts quite a bit. Getting an X-ray today. Thanks for asking
  • I've decided not to test this week. :-( Stupid cold/congestion - I did get out to Swim / Bike / Run during the week some, so it was not a complete loss. I have a Dr appt on Monday, hoping to get in tomorrow as a walk-in though..

     

    I also switched my bike tires so I am in full-on training mode as soon as I can.

  • I hope your x-rays turn out well Chris. Injury is always rough. Keep us posted.

    Good call Mike testing when sick would not be a good thing. Hope your cold clears up soon.
  • Eric-Great Job on getting the testing done. At this point in training, I find it nearly impossible to raise my V-Dot because of cumulative fatigue-so great job still getting it done!

    Mike-Smart move. Feel better!

    Chris-Any updates on the ankle? So sorry to hear you are going through that!



    So my week has been nutty. I basically rewrote my plan for this week because I was given the opportunity to head up to Madison for a random 2 days-so I forgot about the testing and headed up there. Wednesday night I ran an easy 6 along Lake Monona-which was absolutely beautiful. I love that town. Every time I head up there I am reminded of how lucky I am to have Madison so close to home (only about a 2.5 hour drivee). Thursday, some friends that have never ridden the IMWI bike course wanted to experience it-all of it. So, Thursday became long bike day and we ended up with 114 miles on the course! There was a detour at mile 106 which was not fun-knowing you have to turn around that late into the ride is not ideal-but so happy to get in such a long ride on a random day. Since I was still up there this morning, I headed out for my ABP ride-did 1 loop of the course, so cut the ABP scheduled ride a bit short, but I figured since my long ride was MUCH longer than scheduled it wasn't a big deal. Unfortunately I was under my Z2/Z3 due to some fatigue from the day before, but I was still happy to get another loop in before heading home.

    With that random trip, I decided I am just going to try and get a swim/run in Saturday and a bike maybe on Sunday. Totally screwy week, but happy to get some time in on the IMWI course!

    Great job all, keep rocking!
  • Thanks Lauren!

    How awesome to get some training time in Madison and with friends too! I love that city as well. It sounds like you had some great training days with volume. I'm looking forward to being up there on the 25th to ride the course and run the course.

    Smile, train on and have fun!
  • As you might imagine, this week is pretty strange for me.

    The race T and OJ were training for is this Sunday, and we decided last weekend that OJ would do it as long as she continued to want to. It's an hour away from our house (mercifully), and I've been driving her down to the race site to practice with a team that we loosely affiliated with this year. (Loosely because they are in DSM, and there's no reason we need to go there to swim or run.) Anyway, it made her feel better to practice with other people from her "team" and get re-acquainted with the bike course. It turns out that it's really a two-day thing because there is an "iron kids" event Saturday on the same site that the kids had raced in and there's a mandatory meeting for the draft-legal race, so that will occupy my day. In the evening, there is another local road race that a whole bunch of kids from the school are signed up to do wearing T-shirts, so I am going to that, too. They have a 5K and a 10K, and I will do both and call it my long run for the week. Anyway, all this is very important stuff, but it dictates a lot of how I got to train.

    I got in 3 decent early-bird swims and a solid 1-hour outdoor bike from home. We were supposed to test this week, and time constraints meant I had to shorten the warmup/cooldown a bit,but the results suggested by FTP hasn't changed from about 3-4 weeks ago. Maybe drifted up a few W, but nothing dramatic. To be honest, that felt like a pretty huge success.

    I've gotten in 3 1-hour runs (could do a couple during the OJ workouts). One was pretty hard and the other great. This is typical right now. Some days are just better than others.

    I had no idea if I'll be able to get in a second longish bike ride this weekend, so I elected to take the morning off from work and do a little extra-long one today. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. I was in no mood to bike and get depressed AND rained on, so I went to the basement so at least I wouldn't get rained on. :-)

    Ended up doing 5 hours on the trainer and not drinking quite enough. But it was a good quality ride. Ended up with 342 TSS points (using my old FTP), which is well above target for race day. I didn't get the quality "neck work" of an outdoor ride, but at least the legs did their duty.

    For the next couple of days, the kids come first, but I'll get that long run in.
  • Sounds like a very busy weekend William. Doing both the 5 &10k (at racing speed). Would more than be the effort of the long run. I would agree that staying the same FTP or a couple watt gain is positive. image. 5 hours on the drainer is awesome. I have never spent more than 3 hours on it without going crazy. Have fun with the kids this weekend. Good luck to them!
  • I won't be racing very hard. :-)
  • Good News, I got in to the Doc this morning -> stupid allergies, nothing more. Trying a more aggressive allergy med - should be good to go! Clear to ease back in to things, I think I will start with the drainer since it is raining like a MoFo here today. Hoping I can get outside tomorrow and back in the pool by early next week.
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