i officially entered the transition period, not starting rece prep until april 4. i downloaded the race prep plan and noticed a bunch of swimming straight away!!
so, will start getting back in the pool over the next few weeks. just to get the body used to it again, no actual plan.
I am transitioning as well. Loaded up the transition plan but probably gonna dump it so I can get a sneak peek at the pain I am about to endure. I can make up my own plan after seeing the jist of it.
Today I cleaned my road bike and swapped out cassettes onto my PT wheel. Put a 12-28 to prepare for my 76mi ride this weekend with lots of climbing. Will probably leave it on and use it for CDA. Then I did some TRX. Swimming tomorrow.
As much as I love drills (I know that is messed up), I was glad to switch into a new swim workout today. Looks like things helped out a little bit. 2600y in with 100-300 pyarmid, 6X100 negative split, and 8X25 sprint sets. 300y time was fastest ever for me at 4:47. I'll take it!
In transition-land myself... which I am digging. I was (still am a bit) feeling pretty toasted mentally and physically towards the end of OS. Looking forward to a bit of "down" time and then finding my game face for the build to June 26th.
Swim today for like 30-35 minutes. I do 100 with paddles. 100 without. I know Rich is anti paddles but it helps me "feel" the water a little better. Tomorrow will be drill work. Oh and let me not forget this nugget. Transition scheduled 30' @ 70%. Decided I would notch that up to 80%. Put the bike on the trainer and pedaling I went. About 5 minutes in I ended up on my side, laying over the eliptical next to my trainer, still clipped in. The bike fell off the damn trainer! My fault as I forgot to adjust the fasteners after changing the cassette. Yes, I felt like an ass.
Well, I just got done with my first private swim lesson. It was definitely insightful. My instructor went over about a half dozen things for me to work on, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me. Most of the things I didn't even know I was doing incorrectly until he pointed it out and showed me how to correctly do them (such as rotating my body more, not swinging my hips out, pointing my toes, ect.). I think I'll schedule another session for two or three weeks out. Thanks again for those of you who helped motivate me to do lessons.
Also in transition starting this week. Did a 30 minute bike at Z1 yesterday, a full stretch last night, and a 30 minute swim this morning. In my swim last week I quickly realized breathing rhythm was my first obstacle. Today I focused on timing the exhale underwater so that I only had to inhale when coming up for air. Today, I think I got the exhale/inhale timing down but also came to another conclusion toward the end of the swim. I was often taking in too much air and holding my breath, which was making me more out of breath over time. So in the next swim I am going to focus on relaxing and not taking in so much air each time and making it more of an inhale-exhale-inhale rhythm with no breath holding in between. The good news is that I'm definitely improving.
I did yesterdays 30' bike today, without actually falling off the trainer so that is a plus. Then 25-30' of TRX has left me plenty sore. Highly recommend it.
@Scott and Allen: Glad the private swim instruction is working out for you guys. I had the chance to do that this winter to and it was a big help. And even cooler thing was getting some video footage of myself swimming. Totally looks different than what I had in my head. Maybe you can get your coach to film you?
In regards to that breathing Allen, you're definetly headed in the right direction. When I first started, I was always out of breath. Once I got my rhythm down, swimming was way easier.
For me, the remants of my GI bug still linger today. It's beautiful short running weather outside, but judging how I feel, I think I will push the long run to tomorrow with the swim. Hope that wont kill me for the three hour ride this weekend.
Hey Team - Great to hear everyone's training is going well....Man - would love to see a video of Tucker falling off the trainer!! But alas, we've all probably fallen over while clipped in....
On my end, got in 2500m in pool this morning. Felt a little dead, but still did my T-minus drills. Yesterday, got in a 35 minute run - which because of my hammy rehab - is the longest run in a number of months.....So yes, I've got a long way to go on running, but will somehow get there...
@Van, sorry to hear. Reminds of the fall while training for Philly Marathon and got a parasite. Did more running to the can than I did in workouts. Full became a half. Still a PR so I got that going for me.
Today I hit the pool. Maybe 1700-1800m. Just tooling around. Pool and run tomorrow.
Hey finally found my way to the IMCDA discussion group. I jumped into the 20 wk plan after a one week transition from the OctOS. It HURT(s)!!!!! The jump in volume sucked. I am bad at swimming, so I spent the first two weeks of swimming doing only drills, working with a pull buoy and and watching YouTube videos. After that I was able to do 18:00 for the 1k test. Not bad considering my IM swim time from 09 IMCDA was 1:38. Feeling better about the water. Did a half Mary last weekend and really felt the 3.5 hour ride I did the day before and was a bit slow (1:44), but it was good to get out and just run. Now if the weather would just cooperate I could outside for some decent rides.
Good to see the group so active. This is going to be a great race!!!
@Michael, 1:44 HM is slow after a 3.5th ride the previous day? We have a fast guy here folks! Couldn't get my scheduled transition swim in today. Had an "off" day in prep for the Hell of Hunterdon tomorrow. I'm sure I have already detailed it but again we have a 77mi ride with 5000ft of elevation gain. Coincidentally the same elevation gain as CDA in less mileage. Should be fun. I say "off" in quotes because while it may have been an off day for exercise I was never off my feet all day. Started early with an important call for business, then a couple stops in stores for food and last minute ride stuff. Then watched my daughter and a friend on a play date. Then I had to paint my bedroom. It's not a small room. Then I cooked up 8lbs of chicken cutlets and some asparagus for dinner. Then I cleaned up dishes. Ok so I'm ranting. I apologize. Wish me luck tomorrow. Furthest ride since last year in freezing temps. Should be fun.
Did the 30' Z1 run tonight instead of yesterday. Z1 feels so slow after doing several weeks of Z5 workouts in the JOS. But no complaints here as it's nice to fully recover before starting race prep plan.
@ Van - Hope you have gotten rid of that bug and are back in action.
@ Tucker - Congratulations on being Team General (yeah, I just promoted you). I guess the house we are renting in CDA will now become the Command Post (or post-race Party Central). Good luck with your ride today. Let us know how it goes. Wish there were some hills like that in IL to practice on for CDA.
@ Allen - I've been taken it EZ this week (Week 1 of Transition) following the HM I ran last Sunday. I agree that Z1 HR on both the bike and run feels very comfortable after the OS. I rode for 2.5 hours this am all at Z1 HR and barely broke a sweat. Had to fight the urge to step on the gas as I didn't want to work too hard during Transition, but I did want to get more time in the aero position. Then ran 20' also at Z1, 8:30 pace for me, and just glided along.
@ ;JT - Hey Bro - Great to see you posting some workout activity/results and finally being on the road to recovery from your injuries. Just keep making progress every day, stay positive with your attitude, and you WILL cross the CDA finish line.
well, this past transition week has turned out to be a bit too much transition for my taste. i got caught up with a bunch of work related issues and missed like 3 days of training (!) and those workouts i did do were really minimal.
so, i am starting on the race prep tomorrow, sunday!!!
i will still do the official start on April 4, but will improvise this coming week.
sunday: shooting for a >3hr hard climbing ride on the road bike.
Rough couple of days for me. Pushed back the long run until Friday. Was right on for the pace doing little over 10 miles for 1:30. Didn't eat anything during the workout, just had some water. When I got home about 30 minute after I got extremely sick to my stomach and as soon as I had a bite of dinner, I ending up heaving. Was stuck in bed for a good two hours. Was finally able to eat later that night. I think my GI system may have been on the sensitive side after the GI bug still.
Today, I got the ABP ride in and felt pretty good. Pushed the three hour ride until tomorrow. Hope that goes well. Overall, still heading in the right direction. I've been completely ravenous, and still down to 145 for weight. I still need to cut back on the beers.
Had no time to post my ride from yesterday. Can't post any details because I can't get the damn stuff to download into WKO. May try Power Agent tomorrow as I would like to look at the data. Was scheduled for a 77 mile Belgian styled ride. 15% of the ride was off road on packed dirt, gravel, rocks, etc. That's what was scheduled at least. Didn't completely go as scheduled. Ride was a shitshow. Way cold, like 30 degrees and it didn't get much warmer. It was sunny though. I had downloaded the course onto my Garmin but never started it as my buddy said not to worry this other guy has the course. That was pretty dumb. Won't happen again. We got lost a few times. Roads were marked with tiny 3" arrows that you could easily missed if you were going at any type of speed. There were plenty of hills though. Steep hills, long dirt hill climbs, long road climbs. Oh and the wind was always in your face. A lovely day. I got my 77 miles in but it was exactly the course. Was crazy tough though. I would probably do it next year. They are putting on a similar race this coming Saturday over the river in Pennsylvania but I have no interest. I need to get my bike checked out. I think my tires were rubbing against the brake pads or something. That must have been why I was going so slow. Oh and my handlebars are crooked. A banner day for me but I'm thinking this will pay off big time come raceday.
Enough with the ride. This morning I went to a swim clinic run by Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen. Here's the website. http://www.aquaticedge.org/default.htm Was very good. Had another EN guy there from NJ, Jason. Both felt we got a lot out of it. It was like an hour in the classroom and then 90-120 minutes in the pool. She teaches a high elbow pull with a wide stroke. It was amazing how much faster everyone felt. We would do what she said then revert back to your old form or some other common misstroke. It really was shocking. Can't wait to do another 1000TT in a couple days to see if it works. So that was my weekend. Thinking of trying to get some good riding in this coming weekend. Hoping the weather will hold out.
tucker: i don't know how you east coast peeps do it. i was freezing today and it was like 54 degrees when i started and ended at 60 degrees. great job.
i got my ride in and i am really out of practice with long climbing rides! i was fine a month ago, but VO2 work in the OS and then the transition week, blah blah blah...anyway, glad to be back getting the work in.
Well this transition isn't working out the way it is supposed to. Yesterday my right hip flexor muscle was really sore from the Z1 ride on Saturday. This is an old injury from Oct 2009 that was healed (I thought) , hadn't bothered me in 12 months but has made a come back. I felt a little tenderness earlier last week so I said "hey I'm in transition so I'm supposed to take it EZ. No problem and we'll give it a few days to feel better". Well it did feel better by Saturday and so I did the Z1 ride. It didn't bother me during the workout but I guess sitting in aero can aggravate it. Now I really have to take it EZ on run and bike. Suddenly I really worried about the big increase in volume starting next week with a sore hip flexor. I may have to do most of the rides sitting up (yuck)!
I did swim this am. Did the 1000 yard time trial. Good thing Lake CDA doesn't have any sharks in it cause I couldn't outswim any of them if they were hungry. Time was 19:46. Not great, but at least I have lots of room for improvement.
it has begun...10.77miles; 6.77 of those miles on trails; 1:18:30 for 7:17 pace. this is not my long run.
Bruce: keep riding sitting up. no problem. once healed up, gradually drop down to aero over a couple of weeks. ask the physio's in the medical forum for stretches you can do at home.
In second week of Transition myself. Finally feeling like some of the burnt parts of my toasted state at the end of NovOS are flaking off. Had my first outdoor ride last Saturday since, well, early October. Did a 22 mile loop that I have done many many times. Previous best was 1:10 and on Saturday I did 1:03 on a sub-maximal effort. Had the great experience of actually having too easy of a cassette as I spun out of gears in places that I never have before. Also, after about 7 swim sessions (started sneaking in a few at end of OS) I am starting to get the old stroke back and am looking forward to the next 1000y TT.
In short, starting to recapture a bit of mojo and am actually looking forward to kicking off the 12 weeks of fun next week!?
My training has been going well. I'm purposely taking it a little easy this week as sort of a mini taper for Oceanside 70.3. I just finished a 1000 yd swim this morning in 15:10. I know I'm getting faster, but hopefully that will translate to my ocean swim this weekend.
@ Tucker, you people on the east coast and mid west who ride when it's below freezing are crazy! My cut off for riding outside is about 50 degrees if it's sunny, and more like 55 degrees if it's cloudy (just because it feels warmer in the sun). Maybe I should move down to SoCal.
@ Bruce, make sure not to push that hip too hard. Better to take it a little easy now instead of being forced to take it easy closer to the race.
Comments
i officially entered the transition period, not starting rece prep until april 4. i downloaded the race prep plan and noticed a bunch of swimming straight away!!
so, will start getting back in the pool over the next few weeks. just to get the body used to it again, no actual plan.
hope training is going well for all.
gh
Today I cleaned my road bike and swapped out cassettes onto my PT wheel. Put a 12-28 to prepare for my 76mi ride this weekend with lots of climbing. Will probably leave it on and use it for CDA. Then I did some TRX. Swimming tomorrow.
As much as I love drills (I know that is messed up), I was glad to switch into a new swim workout today. Looks like things helped out a little bit. 2600y in with 100-300 pyarmid, 6X100 negative split, and 8X25 sprint sets. 300y time was fastest ever for me at 4:47. I'll take it!
Hope everyone is having a great Monday!
Oh and let me not forget this nugget. Transition scheduled 30' @ 70%. Decided I would notch that up to 80%. Put the bike on the trainer and pedaling I went. About 5 minutes in I ended up on my side, laying over the eliptical next to my trainer, still clipped in. The bike fell off the damn trainer! My fault as I forgot to adjust the fasteners after changing the cassette. Yes, I felt like an ass.
Finished up 5x1/2mi at 7:30. Feeling good.
@Scott and Allen: Glad the private swim instruction is working out for you guys. I had the chance to do that this winter to and it was a big help. And even cooler thing was getting some video footage of myself swimming. Totally looks different than what I had in my head. Maybe you can get your coach to film you?
In regards to that breathing Allen, you're definetly headed in the right direction. When I first started, I was always out of breath. Once I got my rhythm down, swimming was way easier.
@Tucker: Always nice to not fall off the bike!
For me, the remants of my GI bug still linger today. It's beautiful short running weather outside, but judging how I feel, I think I will push the long run to tomorrow with the swim. Hope that wont kill me for the three hour ride this weekend.
On my end, got in 2500m in pool this morning. Felt a little dead, but still did my T-minus drills. Yesterday, got in a 35 minute run - which because of my hammy rehab - is the longest run in a number of months.....So yes, I've got a long way to go on running, but will somehow get there...
Keep it up folks!!
Today I hit the pool. Maybe 1700-1800m. Just tooling around. Pool and run tomorrow.
Good to see the group so active. This is going to be a great race!!!
Couldn't get my scheduled transition swim in today. Had an "off" day in prep for the Hell of Hunterdon tomorrow. I'm sure I have already detailed it but again we have a 77mi ride with 5000ft of elevation gain. Coincidentally the same elevation gain as CDA in less mileage. Should be fun.
I say "off" in quotes because while it may have been an off day for exercise I was never off my feet all day. Started early with an important call for business, then a couple stops in stores for food and last minute ride stuff. Then watched my daughter and a friend on a play date. Then I had to paint my bedroom. It's not a small room. Then I cooked up 8lbs of chicken cutlets and some asparagus for dinner. Then I cleaned up dishes.
Ok so I'm ranting. I apologize.
Wish me luck tomorrow. Furthest ride since last year in freezing temps. Should be fun.
Sounds like everyone is making progress.
@ Van - Hope you have gotten rid of that bug and are back in action.
@ Tucker - Congratulations on being Team General (yeah, I just promoted you). I guess the house we are renting in CDA will now become the Command Post (or post-race Party Central). Good luck with your ride today. Let us know how it goes. Wish there were some hills like that in IL to practice on for CDA.
@ Allen - I've been taken it EZ this week (Week 1 of Transition) following the HM I ran last Sunday. I agree that Z1 HR on both the bike and run feels very comfortable after the OS. I rode for 2.5 hours this am all at Z1 HR and barely broke a sweat. Had to fight the urge to step on the gas as I didn't want to work too hard during Transition, but I did want to get more time in the aero position. Then ran 20' also at Z1, 8:30 pace for me, and just glided along.
@ ;JT - Hey Bro - Great to see you posting some workout activity/results and finally being on the road to recovery from your injuries. Just keep making progress every day, stay positive with your attitude, and you WILL cross the CDA finish line.
well, this past transition week has turned out to be a bit too much transition for my taste. i got caught up with a bunch of work related issues and missed like 3 days of training (!) and those workouts i did do were really minimal.
so, i am starting on the race prep tomorrow, sunday!!!
i will still do the official start on April 4, but will improvise this coming week.
sunday: shooting for a >3hr hard climbing ride on the road bike.
safe training to all.
GH
Today, I got the ABP ride in and felt pretty good. Pushed the three hour ride until tomorrow. Hope that goes well. Overall, still heading in the right direction. I've been completely ravenous, and still down to 145 for weight. I still need to cut back on the beers.
Ride was a shitshow. Way cold, like 30 degrees and it didn't get much warmer. It was sunny though. I had downloaded the course onto my Garmin but never started it as my buddy said not to worry this other guy has the course. That was pretty dumb. Won't happen again. We got lost a few times. Roads were marked with tiny 3" arrows that you could easily missed if you were going at any type of speed. There were plenty of hills though. Steep hills, long dirt hill climbs, long road climbs. Oh and the wind was always in your face. A lovely day. I got my 77 miles in but it was exactly the course. Was crazy tough though. I would probably do it next year. They are putting on a similar race this coming Saturday over the river in Pennsylvania but I have no interest. I need to get my bike checked out. I think my tires were rubbing against the brake pads or something. That must have been why I was going so slow. Oh and my handlebars are crooked. A banner day for me but I'm thinking this will pay off big time come raceday.
Enough with the ride. This morning I went to a swim clinic run by Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen. Here's the website. http://www.aquaticedge.org/default.htm Was very good. Had another EN guy there from NJ, Jason. Both felt we got a lot out of it. It was like an hour in the classroom and then 90-120 minutes in the pool. She teaches a high elbow pull with a wide stroke. It was amazing how much faster everyone felt. We would do what she said then revert back to your old form or some other common misstroke. It really was shocking. Can't wait to do another 1000TT in a couple days to see if it works.
So that was my weekend. Thinking of trying to get some good riding in this coming weekend. Hoping the weather will hold out.
tucker: i don't know how you east coast peeps do it. i was freezing today and it was like 54 degrees when i started and ended at 60 degrees. great job.
i got my ride in and i am really out of practice with long climbing rides! i was fine a month ago, but VO2 work in the OS and then the transition week, blah blah blah...anyway, glad to be back getting the work in.
total time: 3:54:43;
total miles: 50.6;
total TSS: 197.6 (0.712IF);
climb 1:
time: 1:00:03;
NP: 180; 0.8IF;
%grade: 4.9; 2285.1feet;
climb 2:
time 48:xx;
NP: 175; 0.78IF;
%grade: 5.3; 1799.54feet;
Tomorrow, run and swim.
over and out.
GH
Well this transition isn't working out the way it is supposed to. Yesterday my right hip flexor muscle was really sore from the Z1 ride on Saturday. This is an old injury from Oct 2009 that was healed (I thought) , hadn't bothered me in 12 months but has made a come back. I felt a little tenderness earlier last week so I said "hey I'm in transition so I'm supposed to take it EZ. No problem and we'll give it a few days to feel better". Well it did feel better by Saturday and so I did the Z1 ride. It didn't bother me during the workout but I guess sitting in aero can aggravate it. Now I really have to take it EZ on run and bike. Suddenly I really worried about the big increase in volume starting next week with a sore hip flexor. I may have to do most of the rides sitting up (yuck)!
I did swim this am. Did the 1000 yard time trial. Good thing Lake CDA doesn't have any sharks in it cause I couldn't outswim any of them if they were hungry. Time was 19:46. Not great, but at least I have lots of room for improvement.
@GH - Looks like you are back in the saddle on the bike. Those are some nice climbs. Way to go.
@ Tucker - You are the Iceman riding in that weather. Too cold for the bike for me. Running in 30* no problem, bike in 30* no way.
it has begun...10.77miles; 6.77 of those miles on trails; 1:18:30 for 7:17 pace. this is not my long run.
Bruce: keep riding sitting up. no problem. once healed up, gradually drop down to aero over a couple of weeks. ask the physio's in the medical forum for stretches you can do at home.
hope everyone has a solid week.
GH
@Bruce, get better mate. Can't have both you Thompson boys hurt.
In short, starting to recapture a bit of mojo and am actually looking forward to kicking off the 12 weeks of fun next week!?
@ Tucker, you people on the east coast and mid west who ride when it's below freezing are crazy! My cut off for riding outside is about 50 degrees if it's sunny, and more like 55 degrees if it's cloudy (just because it feels warmer in the sun). Maybe I should move down to SoCal.
@ Bruce, make sure not to push that hip too hard. Better to take it a little easy now instead of being forced to take it easy closer to the race.