Busy ass weekend in Montana. On Saturday, put in a 4 hour trainer ride with a bunch of intervals. IF came out around .71 for the the whole ordeal. About lost my mind.
Used Sunday to catch up on some paperwork.
This am, put in another three hour trainer ride starting at 4:45 am. Im not sure if the ride or watching Watchmen was worse. IF came out around .65 with rests. Now getting ready to jump in the pool soon.
Crazy how fast things got rolling so quickly! I have to juggle my schedule around as Im heading to Florida for a week of vacation. THANK GOD. So this week its bike, and next week its swim and run. Have another four hour trainer ride planned for Wed morning.I cant wait to run and swim outside....at 4:00 am in Disney World. It freaking snowed two inches here yesterday. Good luck everyone!
Today was my first real swim workout. The past two weeks of transition were focused on technique and breathing only.
MS1: 100 (15) as 25 sprint / 75 easy 100 (15) as 50 sprint / 50 easy 100 (60) as 75 sprint / 25 easy 100 sprint, straight into an easy 50 Repeat 3 more times Set Total: 1600yd MS2: 2 x 300 (20 ) @ T-pace plus 3 , counting strokes and focusing on form Set Total: 600yd
I started out okay in the first set and then fell to pieces on the second and third sets and could only do about 50 meters at a time with sprints involved. For MS2, I spent all my chips on the first 300 and then packed it in.
Not a good start but it looks like I have the same swim workout tomorrow in MS1 so we'll see if I can show some improvement. I initially thought the run would be my biggest challenge but now I'm starting to think it may be the swim.
I'm planning to do the Run workout (2 x 1 mile (4') @ z4) tonight and will post my results.
Woowee! Its so good to all be on the same workout. Sort of.
Todays swim started out fun, but I was really struggling to keep my form towards the end of those 100y's. 100y sprints came out around 1:25-1:28. 300y's at 5:01 and 5:00 comfortably.
Run and swim for tomorrow. On a side note, my fueling for the bike seems to be going well. Currently taking in 1.5 scoops of Perpetuem an hour in a concentrate bottle. Sip from that every 15. Regular water on the side. Finished up the ride and wasnt hungry at all. Not too full either.
So it begins! Swim went ok for me though I did pack it in at around 2400m. Working on a new stroke and started to feel the shoulder getting tired and figured it is a long 12 weeks, no need to do something dumb day 1.
The run was another story. Don't know what it is but has anyone ever had a treadmill go too fast? I swear mine is. Brand new and I can't get the feel of it. 7:30 feels like 6:30. Harder to hold than the 6:20 I was doing during VO2 work on multiple treadmills. Need to test it somehow.
So I basically felt like I was dying .5 miles into my fir mile @ TP and decided to swap Monday and Tuesday runs. Will push my daughter in the stroller tomorrow after swimming and guarantee it will be easier at a higher pace. So I did my run, 35' with like 6 strides thrown in there. Fun stuff.
I had the same swim workout as Greg, Allen and Tucker. Like all of them, I had trouble holding the pace on the 3rd and 4th sets of 100s, but I got it done. I just had to make the rest intervals 30" instead of 15". I wanted to make sure I could maintain form, and the extra rest helped me do that. I guess that's cheating but I think good form is more improtant now than time. Still I really felt like I was at my limit.
I did the Monday run workout yesterday. So 2morrow it is swim again and I just RnP's ok to substitute another ride (with 3 x 10' @ Z4) in place of the Tuesday run. So swim and bike for me.
Done with the workouts too. Did the mile repeats and was 2-3 seconds under on each, and would have tossed on an extra, but had to get back from lunch for a meeting so did a extra 1/3 mile repeat to finish it off to make it in on time. The swim was tough, the first two sets were not too bad, the last two I was just happy to finish on time with the planned rest intervals. Managed to pull off the 300s on pace so I was happy there.
1st day and I'm already behind. Groin got a little chaffed up at Cali 70.3 Saturday and there was no way I was getting in a pool only to have my eyes bulge out of my head.
Morning gang! Had a great run last night along the American Tabacco Trail here in Durham. Beautiful and 85 and didn't want to stop running. Warmed up for the first couple miles and then did the 2 1-mile intervals at 7:02 and 6:56. Ended up with a total of 10 miles in 1:20 minutes.
Quick turn around this morning for another 8 miles. Definitely not as pretty this time, both the run and the weather. The legs were okay, just the raining and dark didn't help the mood. Slogged through in order to push the consistency button.
Last night's 2x1 mile run at Z4 was good but this morning's swim was tough. I managed to stick with the workout for 2 of the 4x100's but then went with 4x50 on the last set and finished with one of the two 400's. Since I haven't been swimming for a long long time (maybe 20 years), yesterday's workout found a bunch of muscles I haven't worked out in awhile so today I was really sore during the swim. The good news is that Greg linked me to an article that helped me fix my breathing technique so I wasn't out of breath. Looking forward to two days off from swimming to recuperate the swimming muscles.
@Peter, you better get on that bike soon! ToC and CDA are lurking!
@Gil, 7 min/mi average? That's killing it. Though I guess if I were 155 it might actually be somewhat attainable . I actually can't remember the last time I was 155. 8th grade maybe? 9th?
@Allen, keep at it and I'm sure it will get better. I'm saying that to myself as well.
As for me, must say I'm sore from 5k+ meters in the pool these last two days. I may just get the hang of this swimming thing or at least I hope.
Miscalculation today on the run. Had planned on pushing my daughter for 2 x 1mi @ TP . Hadn't planned for pouring rain. Tried to get it done while she was napping but she was emitting these choky kind of coughs, after almost choking on some apples during lunch, so I jumped off the treadmill and up 2 floors to check on her twice. No choking but second time I woke her so was unable to complete. Hated missing the workout but hell, it's week 1. More than enough time to make that up.
@Tucker: Tell me about it. It doesn't help that I travel almost every other week. I have been doing pretty good on the bike on the weekends. Like I said the thing that really worries me is the swim.
Good work everybody. Looks like many of us are already juggling life/work responsibilities with training. Just look for the silver lining and think of it as a extra chance to rest. I know that over the next 2 months I already have 2 different weeks that I'll be traveling for work, catching planes, rental cars, meeting people for breakfasts, dinners, etc. I'll be lucky to get a few runs in much less a bike or swim. Just have to re-balance stuff around.
I did the swim again this am. I worked harder on the sprints but went much slow on the easy part. Seemed to work better for me. Then since it is forecast to rain tomorrow, I did Wednesday's bike ride this evening. Felt great to be riding outside in 55* temp. Did the intervals at Z4 HR 150-155 and felt good. I ate everything (even some chocolate) in sight when I got home.
I'm gonna hang out here and Jan OS as well, since I'm doing IM CDA, but not really hitting the full IM work until 6 weeks out. I've got so more rehab work to do on biking and swimming before I feel confident about doing full IM training.
My swims are not per EN plan, as I really only have two speeds these days - before my accident, I had a few more gears. I'm working on regaining strength in the swimming muscles. Don't let anyone tell you swimming is all (or even mostly) technique. My strength dropped by 50% or more in my arms, and my endurance and speed in the water fell precipitously. My plan for rebuilding the muscles includes both weight lifiting, and Long Slow Distance swimming, since I can't do fast intervals. So today I did 2 x 500 as a warm up, then four "interval sets", which are 100 yards of various drills, followed by 2x100, 2x75, 1x50, on about 5-10 sec rest, repeat x 4. Last year I was doing those at a "swim golf" score of 76; this year, it's 82-85.
This weekend, I'll do some longer rides during a five day trip to San Diego, including a 60 mile Gran Fondo on Sunday. I'll also be starting training for a half marathon due 5-15. Then an easy week, then 6 weeks of IM focused training, with a LOT of biking end of May/early June, and open water swimming early/mid June.
Sounds like a plan, Al. Great tip regarding swim muscles! I won't be afraid to use them next time I get in the pool!
Speaking about the pool...I missed today's swim workout. Missed yesterday and now today due to work. Still, I won't panic yet.
I did put in 29:32.02 of pure pain, running up a 2.5mile >1000ft climb. My first time doing this climb during the OS was 36minutes. I want 26min or less before CdA.
I saw on the CdA site that, obviously, this is a PowerBar event...meaning just their products will be on the course. I have never tried training with PowerBars and have never really experienced problems trying different things. As such, I want to try using some PowerBars during my long bike rides this weekend...but, which PowerBar bars are they referring to? The energy ones? The partial granola ones? Others?
I have two different go-to routes. One is a 25-mile loop around the Rutgers Campus. Mainly flat with minmial lights and what not. The other is in and around the Watchung Reservation. Depending on how I feel I can add some climbing sections, but nothing major.
I have ventured up your way once or twice and into Lambertville but always seems to get lost.
I need to get out to Fiddler's Elbow and scope that out. I think that is going to be the only place I can get anything close to ToC.
Will be hard for me to post too often given life's other demands, but I'll chime in from time to tiime. Like a crazy man, I got up at 2:30a this morning and since I couldn't sleep, did the 90 mintue ride (inside) and 30 minute brick.
As a great read and a potential source of motivation, I recommend "Unbroken" which is the story of an Olympic runner in WW2. He was shot down, survived in a raft in the Pacific for 34 days and then spent 2 years as a POW in conditions about as bad as can be imagined. Actually, I suspect they were worse than can be imagined. Risking dishonoring that type of ordeal by even mentioning it in the same sentence as something that we get to do, but I couldn't help thinking how excited he would have been to do what we get to do every day. It is a story of incredible perseverance. Our darkest moments would have been the best part of his day. By a long shot.
By way of general commentary on the next 12 weeks... Stopping or not working out becuause you are risking injury/are injured is one thing. For me, for as long as I can hold the motivation, I'll try and think of that man... no way would he have stopped because he was tired or didn't feel like it.
Man...that bike today was killer! I struggled a lot and ended up cutting out the last 10 z4 interval, and the z3 stuff...I just didn't have it in the system. Then the brick run as tough too. I guess the 3 days in a row of running is just something to get used to at this point...especially considering the 100 min run tomorrow which I am already dreading!
@Tucker: No pulling for me. The only thing Im toting behind me is a cooler filled with beer. Got to do something at the turn around.
Interesting 24 hours for me. Got the swim done at lunch. Boy that just sucked didnt it? Max pace was about 1:28 on the 100 sprints, but I was hurting something fierce. Good thing the swim moms were there to keep me going.
Was pretty dead after the swim, but I fueled up at dinner and hit the bike for the 48 min Zone 4 ride. As much as I tried, I just couldn't get the watts up and so I bagged it after about 30 minutes of warm up. Did do a taping session for TTBike Fit and we will see how that goes.
As you know, Im pushing all my bikes forward for the next two weeks as Im off to Florida. So I was up at 4:00 am this morning and back on the trainer. First hour was just horrible...we are out of coffee!! Anyway, after noodling, decided to go for it and cranked out the 10', 16', 12', 10' of Zone 4. Yes, by the end, it was more of Zone "whatever I can muster." After that I was dead, but I figured I didnt wake up for nothing, so just kept cranking between .65 and .70 IF for 3:40. Now Im REALLY dead. I need to refill my glycogen in a big way.
Who was the evil bastard who planned that bike workout today? Time crunched on Wednesdays, well just about everyday, so only had around 1:15 for the whole workout. Hit 30' @ FTP all-in, don't worry they were broken up into smaller bits and pieces. The 3 x 3' @ 7:30 on the treadmill. Was watching Macca and Raelert run in Kona as inspiration. Had my shirt off as well. I'm guessing I look about as lean as those two. Was thinking about face timing with you Van to give you a look!
Al, you know what to do better than, well everyone so do waht you need to do, and I think I speak for everyone in saying we're glad you're joining us here. Both for your knowledge but more importantly that you're still here.
The morning workout was fun. The first two intervals went well, the third hurt, and I managed to hang on, on the last keeping the watts on target. The run I found easier, legs naturally wanted to go HIM pace or faster on the 3x3's plus heck they were only 3 minutes not 10-16. I guess we will see how they feel tomorrow when we swap the HIM and M-paces around in the long run.
Comments
Let's light this candle.
Busy ass weekend in Montana. On Saturday, put in a 4 hour trainer ride with a bunch of intervals. IF came out around .71 for the the whole ordeal. About lost my mind.
Used Sunday to catch up on some paperwork.
This am, put in another three hour trainer ride starting at 4:45 am. Im not sure if the ride or watching Watchmen was worse. IF came out around .65 with rests. Now getting ready to jump in the pool soon.
Crazy how fast things got rolling so quickly! I have to juggle my schedule around as Im heading to Florida for a week of vacation. THANK GOD. So this week its bike, and next week its swim and run. Have another four hour trainer ride planned for Wed morning.I cant wait to run and swim outside....at 4:00 am in Disney World. It freaking snowed two inches here yesterday. Good luck everyone!
MS1:
100 (15) as 25 sprint / 75 easy
100 (15) as 50 sprint / 50 easy
100 (60) as 75 sprint / 25 easy
100 sprint, straight into an easy 50
Repeat 3 more times
Set Total: 1600yd
MS2: 2 x 300 (20 ) @ T-pace plus 3 , counting strokes and focusing on form Set Total: 600yd
I started out okay in the first set and then fell to pieces on the second and third sets and could only do about 50 meters at a time with sprints involved. For MS2, I spent all my chips on the first 300 and then packed it in.
Not a good start but it looks like I have the same swim workout tomorrow in MS1 so we'll see if I can show some improvement. I initially thought the run would be my biggest challenge but now I'm starting to think it may be the swim.
I'm planning to do the Run workout (2 x 1 mile (4') @ z4) tonight and will post my results.
Woowee! Its so good to all be on the same workout. Sort of.
Todays swim started out fun, but I was really struggling to keep my form towards the end of those 100y's. 100y sprints came out around 1:25-1:28. 300y's at 5:01 and 5:00 comfortably.
Run and swim for tomorrow. On a side note, my fueling for the bike seems to be going well. Currently taking in 1.5 scoops of Perpetuem an hour in a concentrate bottle. Sip from that every 15. Regular water on the side. Finished up the ride and wasnt hungry at all. Not too full either.
Thats it for today for me. Run and swim tomorrow.
The run was another story. Don't know what it is but has anyone ever had a treadmill go too fast? I swear mine is. Brand new and I can't get the feel of it. 7:30 feels like 6:30. Harder to hold than the 6:20 I was doing during VO2 work on multiple treadmills. Need to test it somehow.
So I basically felt like I was dying .5 miles into my fir mile @ TP and decided to swap Monday and Tuesday runs. Will push my daughter in the stroller tomorrow after swimming and guarantee it will be easier at a higher pace. So I did my run, 35' with like 6 strides thrown in there. Fun stuff.
I had the same swim workout as Greg, Allen and Tucker. Like all of them, I had trouble holding the pace on the 3rd and 4th sets of 100s, but I got it done. I just had to make the rest intervals 30" instead of 15". I wanted to make sure I could maintain form, and the extra rest helped me do that. I guess that's cheating but I think good form is more improtant now than time. Still I really felt like I was at my limit.
I did the Monday run workout yesterday. So 2morrow it is swim again and I just RnP's ok to substitute another ride (with 3 x 10' @ Z4) in place of the Tuesday run. So swim and bike for me.
Good luck everyone.
1st day and I'm already behind
. Groin got a little chaffed up at Cali 70.3 Saturday and there was no way I was getting in a pool only to have my eyes bulge out of my head.
nice work. looks like everyone is churning out the workouts.
i got good work done at work, but couldn't fit in the swim.
will stay calm for now.
got the run in: 6.58miles; 46:17.97; avg pace: 7:02/mi; 374ft ascent.
weight at 155.0lbs, which is a great great weight to be starting the 12week prep.
safe training to all...
gh
Quick turn around this morning for another 8 miles. Definitely not as pretty this time, both the run and the weather. The legs were okay, just the raining and dark didn't help the mood. Slogged through in order to push the consistency button.
Now just to get to the damn pool tonight.
@Peter, you better get on that bike soon! ToC and CDA are lurking!
. I actually can't remember the last time I was 155. 8th grade maybe? 9th?
@Gil, 7 min/mi average? That's killing it. Though I guess if I were 155 it might actually be somewhat attainable
@Allen, keep at it and I'm sure it will get better. I'm saying that to myself as well.
As for me, must say I'm sore from 5k+ meters in the pool these last two days. I may just get the hang of this swimming thing or at least I hope.
Miscalculation today on the run. Had planned on pushing my daughter for 2 x 1mi @ TP . Hadn't planned for pouring rain. Tried to get it done while she was napping but she was emitting these choky kind of coughs, after almost choking on some apples during lunch, so I jumped off the treadmill and up 2 floors to check on her twice. No choking but second time I woke her so was unable to complete. Hated missing the workout but hell, it's week 1. More than enough time to make that up.
How'd everyone else do?
Good work everybody. Looks like many of us are already juggling life/work responsibilities with training. Just look for the silver lining and think of it as a extra chance to rest. I know that over the next 2 months I already have 2 different weeks that I'll be traveling for work, catching planes, rental cars, meeting people for breakfasts, dinners, etc. I'll be lucky to get a few runs in much less a bike or swim. Just have to re-balance stuff around.
I did the swim again this am. I worked harder on the sprints but went much slow on the easy part. Seemed to work better for me. Then since it is forecast to rain tomorrow, I did Wednesday's bike ride this evening. Felt great to be riding outside in 55* temp. Did the intervals at Z4 HR 150-155 and felt good. I ate everything (even some chocolate) in sight when I got home.
I'm gonna hang out here and Jan OS as well, since I'm doing IM CDA, but not really hitting the full IM work until 6 weeks out. I've got so more rehab work to do on biking and swimming before I feel confident about doing full IM training.
My swims are not per EN plan, as I really only have two speeds these days - before my accident, I had a few more gears. I'm working on regaining strength in the swimming muscles. Don't let anyone tell you swimming is all (or even mostly) technique. My strength dropped by 50% or more in my arms, and my endurance and speed in the water fell precipitously. My plan for rebuilding the muscles includes both weight lifiting, and Long Slow Distance swimming, since I can't do fast intervals. So today I did 2 x 500 as a warm up, then four "interval sets", which are 100 yards of various drills, followed by 2x100, 2x75, 1x50, on about 5-10 sec rest, repeat x 4. Last year I was doing those at a "swim golf" score of 76; this year, it's 82-85.
This weekend, I'll do some longer rides during a five day trip to San Diego, including a 60 mile Gran Fondo on Sunday. I'll also be starting training for a half marathon due 5-15. Then an easy week, then 6 weeks of IM focused training, with a LOT of biking end of May/early June, and open water swimming early/mid June.
Speaking about the pool...I missed today's swim workout. Missed yesterday and now today due to work. Still, I won't panic yet.
I did put in 29:32.02 of pure pain, running up a 2.5mile >1000ft climb. My first time doing this climb during the OS was 36minutes. I want 26min or less before CdA.
Keep up the good work everyone!
Anyone know?
Either that or I thought about stowing one of these a couple hundred yards out. www.pbsboatstore.com/sea-doo-seasco...cooter.htm
I have two different go-to routes. One is a 25-mile loop around the Rutgers Campus. Mainly flat with minmial lights and what not. The other is in and around the Watchung Reservation. Depending on how I feel I can add some climbing sections, but nothing major.
I have ventured up your way once or twice and into Lambertville but always seems to get lost.
I need to get out to Fiddler's Elbow and scope that out. I think that is going to be the only place I can get anything close to ToC.
As a great read and a potential source of motivation, I recommend "Unbroken" which is the story of an Olympic runner in WW2. He was shot down, survived in a raft in the Pacific for 34 days and then spent 2 years as a POW in conditions about as bad as can be imagined. Actually, I suspect they were worse than can be imagined. Risking dishonoring that type of ordeal by even mentioning it in the same sentence as something that we get to do, but I couldn't help thinking how excited he would have been to do what we get to do every day. It is a story of incredible perseverance. Our darkest moments would have been the best part of his day. By a long shot.
By way of general commentary on the next 12 weeks... Stopping or not working out becuause you are risking injury/are injured is one thing. For me, for as long as I can hold the motivation, I'll try and think of that man... no way would he have stopped because he was tired or didn't feel like it.
@Art: Yeah, Im with you man.
@Tucker: No pulling for me. The only thing Im toting behind me is a cooler filled with beer. Got to do something at the turn around.
Interesting 24 hours for me. Got the swim done at lunch. Boy that just sucked didnt it? Max pace was about 1:28 on the 100 sprints, but I was hurting something fierce. Good thing the swim moms were there to keep me going.
Was pretty dead after the swim, but I fueled up at dinner and hit the bike for the 48 min Zone 4 ride. As much as I tried, I just couldn't get the watts up and so I bagged it after about 30 minutes of warm up. Did do a taping session for TTBike Fit and we will see how that goes.
As you know, Im pushing all my bikes forward for the next two weeks as Im off to Florida. So I was up at 4:00 am this morning and back on the trainer. First hour was just horrible...we are out of coffee!! Anyway, after noodling, decided to go for it and cranked out the 10', 16', 12', 10' of Zone 4. Yes, by the end, it was more of Zone "whatever I can muster." After that I was dead, but I figured I didnt wake up for nothing, so just kept cranking between .65 and .70 IF for 3:40. Now Im REALLY dead. I need to refill my glycogen in a big way.
Al, you know what to do better than, well everyone so do waht you need to do, and I think I speak for everyone in saying we're glad you're joining us here. Both for your knowledge but more importantly that you're still here.