2015/16 Nov OS Wk 11 New Years Resolutions Edition!
Hello my Nov OSers! This is an important week for many reasons. 1) The Jan OSers are starting and think they are all that. While we support our teammates, let's show them that the NOV OS is where it's at! 2) Welcome back from holidays. Back into the routine of life, make sure you make your workouts part of that routine. 3) Let's be good examples to all those New Years Resolutioners.
Happy Week 11 folks! Keep on the gas, almost there!
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Thanks Rachel! Nice to be back in the pool again...it means the season is really starting! Yesterdays run with the 400's made me chuckle thinking about week one of the OS and the Jan group. It was hard but it felt great. Grateful that there are 10 weeks in the bank for me. Wishing only good things for the group!
Legs were still a bit sore from the 400 Z5's on Sunday, so I took a little longer of a warm up. Results: 8.8 miles mostly at Z1/2. Miles 7 & 8 were showed some sighs of wear, but I managed a .8 Z2 pop at the end. Always finish strong.
There have been lots of things going on and I haven't been posting but I have been reading. Way to keep the mojo going over the holidaze. I did get a run in last Wednesday but I cut it short of the prescribed 80 minutes. We found out last week that my mom's "slow growing" breast cancer had metastasized and was in her bones so I had to go and get her admitted into hospice on Wednesday. It was difficult to focus on running form and the workout knowing that I had to go tell my mom the news (she's 96 with dementia so she probably didn't remember the tests we did the week before). My wife and I had a planned XC ski trip that was starting the next day so after getting mom taken care of we kept driving and went over to eastern Washington. We had three good days of skiing and I got to do classic skiing the first and last day and skate skiing in the middle. I racked up more TSS points than if I had done the scheduled workouts and my muscles knew that they had done something different. My brother was looking after my mom so I didn't have to worry about that so it was a good break from the norm in many ways.
Yesterday I was discharged from PT. I woke up early for the run and hit the street. I did a progressive run and ended up doing the last mile at a little faster than Z4 pace. It felt good to be pushing myself to that place and doing it without any pain was the best feeling I've had while running in a long time. I'll ease back into speed work as I keep doing the exercises that the PT gave me. I hope it helps me lay a great foundation for the HIM and IM training that starts in April.
I was going to do the bike this afternoon but when I got home I had a headache and a scratchy throat. My daughters both got sick when they were home over the holidays and there's been some nasty stuff going around at work so I bagged the bike and took the dog for a walk. I don't need to add an illness to my life at this time even if it's just a cold.
The Wednesday run has become a favorite. Good time of year and 1:20 is a nice duration. Overall the run clicked this morning. Got out of bed around 4:15 and on the road by 5. Did two loops from my house of what is about 3.8 miles with consistent rolling hills to keep me honest. I've been working on not watching the watch, relaxing during the run (don't be tense...enjoy the time spent), improving cadence and leg extension after push off (form work). For me TRP for this run is 9:51, and the first mile came in at 9:31 plus the first mile is overall uphill, so I knew this could be a good one.
Again, trying to keep the focus points for form and not paying overall attention to the watch the total run came in at 9:16/mi for 8.7 miles. Couldn't be more pleased. The 400's from Sunday with a friend kicking my butt paid some benefits...#workworks.
The run is here http://tpks.ws/PXy6
Mark, so sorry to hear about your Mom. It's so hard when parent's hit this "stage", and with the dementia, even more difficult. It's a hard thing to watch a loved one go through. My heart goes out to you and your family.
I got my run in this evening. 10.2 miles in 85 minutes for a 8:22 pace. I threw in 5X20 second strides at the end for good measure. I could feel my hamstring just a little towards the end of the run but that just reminded me to focus on my form and it would stop talking to me. My TRP is 8:37 so this was a little bit faster but it felt OK.
I want to ensure that I keep my mileage up as injuries have been an issue when I transitioning into other training blocks. I just don't want it to come at the sacrifice of my bike performance. Anyone else having similar issues, or have suggestions?
I will go straight into a HIM plan after the OS getting ready for IM70.3FL in April and will refocus on the bike then while lowering my run mileage a bit. I'm just hoping to hold onto my current FTP going into the HIM training block then seek some additional gains leading into FL.
@Mark - sorry to hear about your mom!
@Dave @Phil, Yes, totally having bike issues (and run). Running more than I have ever and I PR'd with my Week 8 test and my Vdot scores really improved. Enough that I am not exactly hitting my TRP sometimes running (i have mostly been doing treadmill except for a sat or sun run now over the last month due to light and the parks closing early... and being whimpy and feeling like it is just too ccld out (I just moved from MN where i would run in degrees to NC where I had a hat on at 45-50... Really??!!!) where my testing is done outdoors... Again the holidays, the extra food and being off schedule AND extra work time for me on top of training fatigue plays a part.
I haven't asked the coaches yet what I should do with my pace since i have a hard time hitting my numbers because I feel like I keep trying to make my numbers. I wanted to give it a few more weeks and just do the best I can. I am getting my distance in and hitting most or close to my weekely run goals which is HUGE amount of running for me so I am excited about that.
My biking is taking 2nd to my runs. I am hitting all the bikes but miised 1 or 2 in OS now, however last few weeks it is a struggle, mentally and physically. I was not chalking things up to fatigue from workouts until I read a run thread tonight. So now I feel much better about things!
On the run side my mileage is as high as it's ever been, and all the running at TRP has made my long runs 1 min/mile faster than I'd normally run. I'm not seeing much of a speed increase (5k vdot barely budged, and with the fatigue it's been hard to run fast for the Sunday z5 intervals). However, my endurance has improved enough that last Sunday's long run was only two minutes off my half marathon PR. So I'm optimistic about the effect on longer races. One thing I have done to manage fatigue is drop some of the shorter runs when I'm tired, and cut back on the intervals if my body just isn't up for them. I also let my TRP vary based on how I feel each day. But I do try to get in the mileage on the long runs where it's most helpful.
Kim, I wouldn't worry too much about hitting TRP exactly, particularly with your recent increases in vdot and mileage. It's the mileage and frequency that will be most helpful for durability. I would just try to stay somewhere between z1 and z2 and let your body (heart rate, perceived effort) dictate where in the pace should fall.
@Mark, very sorry to hear about your Mom. Hopefully she is able to be kept as comfortable as possible.
@Phil, Dave, Kim, Mike - Def in the same boat with bike getting hit by run fatigue. My race runs are nearly always the low point of every race for a reason, and I am very hopeful that this run durability OS gives me the added boost to be able to fix that. I have focused on runs more than bike as well. However, the vdot and FTP are not climbing much, with not as much high end z5 bike or z5 runs in the OS plan this year. My fitness is clearly better overall though, I think, so I will continue on with the plan as best I can. I did bump up the weight a bit at the end of the holidays, so that is taking a little while to correct, but I am almost back on track.
I have felt pretty good with the Tues and Thurs bricks, and the Wed 80 min TRP. I ended up adding the Friday run option this morning too, to get some hill work in outside before the deep freeze hits Illinois Sunday and Monday. I have some good winter clothing, but doing a brick run outside after sweating my butt off on the trainer is painful with wind chills at or below zero.
Mark, So sorry to hear about your mom. It stinks no matter how old she is or her other medical issues, she is your mom. Keep plugging away, your mental health will be better for it.
Thanks for all the mom wishes. Keeping up the workouts definitely helps. When I was talking with the social worker yesterday she asked how I was coping with things and I told her that I do triathlon and workouts are a great way of dealing with the stress. She thought that was great. When my dad was going through hospice 12 years ago I was training for a HIM and it helped keep me sane. They lived about 42 miles away from me at the time and I would ride to their house to get my workouts in and still get to see him.
Yesterday was spent taking care of my mom so I did both Thursday workouts today. The bike went well and then I did the run outside shortly thereafter. 4.62 miles in 40 minutes for a 8:17 average pace. That's about 10 seconds per mile faster than my TRP but my HR and RPE was in the right place so I feel good about it. I'm going to do the long Sunday run tomorrow because we're planning on going XC skiing on Sunday.
Congrats to the end of a killer week! While feeling full of myself, I happen to mention to Coach P. that I might want to try for the mileage goal this week instead of keeping with the time allotments. Guess what! He called me out. 30 miles later I completed my single largest run week of all time. What a lovely way to celebrate. I am not a strong runner. Almost 3 years to the day, I got up from the couch and laced on a pair of running shoes. Barely able to run 200 yards, 30 pounds heavier. It took almost a year before I could run a mile without walking. So this was an awesome goal to make. It actually only took me an extra 10-15 minutes per run block to make the goal mileage for that run.
Thanks to everyone for keeping me accountable and supported.
@Mark, wise move to live to fight another day. I've heard a lot of folks mention that pickle juice works too. Placebo or not glad it worked for you.
50' for 6 miles)
3 mi @ TRP
4.5x 400 @ z5
1 mi @ TRP
Hope all of the team made a dent in your goals.
January 2, 2016- I was at a wedding in Long Island. Dancing with everyone when an extremely drunk guy- 6’5 about 240lbs who was dancing CRAZY and jumping up and down landed DIRECTLY on my foot. OMG. Did that really just happen? Sat down- couldn’t put weight on it and there were 2 pools of blood underneath the skin within minutes. Woke up Sunday (hoping to do my 9 mile run) but could not put weight on it and it was extremely swollen. Husband insisted I go to walk in- luckily no broken bones just contusions. So I missed last Sunday’s long run- and this week I was able to start running on Tuesday- it felt much better by then- didn’t do Wednesday’s run- and no speed work- but still ran 5 days- did 24 miles. SO GOOD NEWS- I am back on the saddle!
Wow Laura! Glad to here you are OK, and great news with the bike. I have not posted in a while. I can't believe we are starting week 12.
I have not felt this strong running in a few years. Did the 6 X 400s after a three mile w/u on Saturday and held Z5 pace for all of them. My total run was around 12 miles.
I realize we are supposed to (or encouraged to) run a 1/2 marathon on 1/31. There are not a lot of choices in Southeast Michigan that weekend, so I may need to do a self supported one or drive a couple of hours the weekend before or the weekend after. Most likely I will try a progression run that averages goal half marathon pace. That is what I did for the 50 minute brick run (I did it on Sunday). I had to do it on the treadmill, because the bike baths where I run were iced over. I normally could not handle 50 minutes of TM running, but the progression run helped break it into chunks. I was able to hit 8:31; 8:11; 7:57; 7:42; 7:31; 7:19 and 7:15 (for the last 4 minutes). I am looking forward to trying to do better next weekend. I will be in Florida, so no ice to worry about!
Good luck this week everyone!