The ugly truth about how to swim faster

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Dad

My first swim lesson of the year with Coach Dinah was a stark reminder of why I can’t swim…my balance in the water is lousy

…well that along with a lot of other things…I don’t envy Coach Dinah and her task to look at a swimmer like me and try to figure out the priorities in a vast array of stroke challenges

Like many triathlete’s that come to swimming later in life…like over the age of 50…I don’t have the same sense of balance, and feel for, the water, as those that swam as youngsters or raced in college…like a world of difference

The only good news with any of it, is that I’m relatively fearless in the water…I swim alone in the ocean…with the alligators in lakes…and have a strong preference to open water in choppy conditions and challenging current, to the pool…largely because then I’m just ‘swimming’…my poor stroke mechanics and slow speed not as apparent as when there’s a clock at the end of the pool, and a black line on the bottom, and nothing to do but think about the 50 things that I should be doing in my stroke…and not pulling off.

…on the bike, once you have a bike fit, and are planted into the best aerodynamic position that your body can handle, it’s all about power…in fact the workouts are all based on power…I even have a power meter that tells me how much power I’m putting out…train with more power, makes you more powerful…and therefore faster. 

Same with the run…run faster…you become faster…form a bit of a factor to prevent injury and run more efficiently, but ‘form’ is not going to make you faster…you largley just run faster to become faster.

With swimming, if you have lousy form, and you try to become faster by just swimming faster, you’ll just wear your butt out…the drag created by poor form, just cannot be overcome by pulling faster

…or more properly, a quiet, relaxed, position, that’s balanced and streamlined, and not bobbing up and down every time you breathe…a body that’s so balanced that arms and legs aren’t wasting energy keeping it propped up in the water, and can focus on other stuff like propulsion and rotation…is soooo much easier to pull through the water, than one that’s thrashing around with a lot of wasted motion and body parts that are acting like drag chutes.

So what to do about it…sadly the answer is not a pretty one: drills…period.

And that’s just something that we don’t do…I see lots of other swimmers in the pool with lousy stroke mechanics…I _never_ see anyone doing an hour of balance drills…but sadly that’s the real answer to getting faster in the water…balance and streamline first…then get faster by pulling that sleek, streamlined body through the water with progressively increased tempo…done.

https://irondaughterirondad.com/how-to-swim-faster/

The Total Immersion guys are the ‘balance’ fanatics…here’s a nice succinct post on their website that lays out the process nicely…although it wasn’t, it could have been me submitting the question posed:

How to gain speed: Subtract work first; then increase tempo
http://www.totalimmersion.net/component/content/article/6/177

…now to see if I can take my own advise 🙂

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first ‘long’ run this year

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Dad

well, there it was…first ‘long’ run today…up to this point runs although ‘intense’, have been just over an hour…well, today was long’ish at 9.6 miles (15.4 km) in 1:32 (9:35/mile 5:57/km pace), so a rational pace for the workout spec, with 2 x 1/2 mile @ 9:00/mile pace, and 2 x 1 mile in a 8:45/mile pace in the center….didn’t feel ‘great’ on the run…bit stiff still, and legs not stretching out easily, so kept the intensity a bit lower, but smooth enough to be happy throughout

…and I did walk the steep sections of a few hills in the first 30 minutes of the run, so the overall run pace was actually faster than that…still babying that left hamstring…gets to feeling a bit stiff on those hills, so I’ve been staying conservative, but did pick up the pace on the track later in the run and all was good…I’m now doing faster running  _only_ on the track…flat…so I wonder when I’m going to be able to stop ‘worrying’ about the hamstring…the track stuff was fine…I _should_ be okay…my right knee was complaining lightly during and after the run, but eased up into the evening…ah the challenges.

And my long bike ride on Saturday looks under pressure with a bad weather forecast all day…sooo, I like so many of my Tri Buddies facing the same Saturday, may need to adjust that somewhere, or go indoors…although 3 hours on an indoor trainer presses the limits of mental endurance…but to shift it to another day, impacts the schedule down the line of other workouts, all delicately lined up to balance intensity, volume and enough rest to rebuild in between.

As I was rolling out the miles today, I was thinking that it’s sort of cool that I’m in good enough condition to do a Half Iron triathlon at any point on a whim…the 9.7 miles today could have easily been extended another 3.4 miles, and a 3 hour, 56 mile bike ride feels easy to me…and a bit of a 45 minute warmup swim, although inelegant, is certainly doable.

…first swim workshop of the year with Coach Dinah tomorrow (Friday)…report to follow

Of course by July 3rd, I’ll want to do more than just get through it

remaining intact…i be racing that one 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Planning, Running | Tagged , | 2 Comments

When are you too old to improve fitness?

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Dad

So here we go…this week is 12 weeks out from the Vancouver Half Iron on July 3rd, and the ramp up in training volume begins

For the first 3 months of this year…aside from pulling my hamstring, being sick 2+ weeks on separate occasions, lighter weeks during vacation and a convention…geez…I’ve been training 7-10 hours a week, with essentially all intensity, all the time…so just enough to warm up, and then interval sets…and virtually no swimming.

As a result, my bike performance increased pretty substantially…my run, although not re-tested, is somewhat faster, and swimming…well…pretty ugly right now, so will need a bit of attention…and I did lose about 5 pounds in there somewhere, although not specifically focusing on it, so I’m in a pretty good training place for the middle of April.

When I say volume kicks up, that means the 7-10 hours a week becomes 12 -15 hours a week…the biggest time increases come in the bike…from around 3+ hours a week to 6’ish+…and the swim, from essentially 0 to 3 hours a week…run moves up about an hour a week.

soooo, the big question is how much intensity I can take along with the volume increase…the intensity helps improve speed…but not if it breaks something, or leads to over-training, or there’s not enough time for recovery so workouts become flat

…and Masters bodies just cannot ‘absorb’ as much training and recover and rebuild…and of course there arrives a point where our ability to improve is matched by the natural declines of aging…from what I’ve seen up to this point, I can still improve, so haven’t ‘peaked’ yet…or more properly, my fitness is still low enough that I can make faster gains than the slower degradation of the aging process

…some of my Iron Buddies that have been competitive at a high level for years, have less room to their fitness ‘ceiling’…and their training plans increasingly, while still focused on improvement, are keeping an eye on preventing performance decline…to do this they have to get tighter and closer to the ‘break’ point as they try to squeeze in the ‘optimal’ amount of intensity and volume…along with recovery…to maintain high performance results…and their ‘tests’ from time to time often are flat in terms of improvement…or show a slight decline…and yes still do improve…but the movement is a lot more modest

In some weird way, I look forward to that point…the point that I’ve actually arrived at the pinnacle of fitness for my body DNA…where within 15 hours a week of training, there is just no further improvement to be had…that a test result that’s the same as it was 3 months ago is a win…I wonder when that will be?

…well not yet anyway…and certainly not in the next 12 weeks…so we’ll see how much we can squeeze out of this old body in the quest for fitness perfection while remaining intact

…and of course, in the biggest irony of all, the worse your fitness is, the older you can be and still improve 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Recovery | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Bikes are a beautiful thing

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Dad

As we sit on top of our ‘steeds’ for hours, up and down the highways and byways at speeds often relentlessly at 20 MPH, up and down rolling to steep hills at over double that, we sometimes forget just how beautifully designed and executed a bike really is…how simply elegant this precision combination of tubes really is

…here’s a video that reminds us:

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

(6:02)

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The week in review

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Dad

Well, a bit of a ragged week…bike test on Monday…very good result…Tuesday planned day off exercise after the bike test, Wednesday off everything…my wife in for surgery for the day, so sitting at the hospital all day…aborted run test on Thursday…details below…light bike and yoga on Friday, and good bike on Saturday…and trying to fit in the making-a-living thing around all of it…next week is going to be more of the same

Thursday I had planned to do my running test…didn’t feel great, had some concerns about pushing the hamstring since it had felt a bit stiff, and the Wednesday sitting around didn’t help…also I know from experience that ‘life stress’ stuff takes its toll on my workouts, so need to be factored in…but still decided to get in my 5K run test to see where I was at…well at least _ease_ into the race pace and see how things felt…those darn age-group athletes just won’t lay off will they 🙂

Turns out ‘Fortuna’ the goddess of Fate decided for me…I drove over to the local track where I did the last test…it’s shared between a county park and a local Middle School…parking in the county parking lot, I could see that there were a 100+ kids on the field and the track…most just standing around…a few sauntering around the track, and a few dozen on the field kicking around a soccer ball and throwing a football…well…by the time that I got out of the car, it looked like they were leaving so I walked down to the track to warmup…and as one group left another came…well…as I did a few warmup laps, I was thinking that it was still doeable…most kids were just standing around, with a few groups walking around the track slowly…and a few kicking a soccer ball…I guess the modern version of a Phys Ed. class.

I got to meet the 3 teachers that were ‘supervising’ the ‘action’…I’d passed them 8 times in the first 20 minutes doing warmup laps…when they told me on the first acceleration lap of my 5K test, that I couldn’t run on the track when the kids were on it…pointing to the security guard making his way down the hill towards the track…got to meet him too…nice fellow…I mentioned that I didn’t see any sign anywhere…they said that there wasn’t a sign, it was just the school policy…’regulations’, you understand…mentioning that the track and field were in constant use with ‘classes’ from around 11-4pm, so couldn’t be used then…I thanked them for giving me the heads up, walked over to the security guard, and said “the teachers over there said that you needed to run with me as an escort when the kids are around”…he smiled, said that normally he would, but with knee replacements coming up on both knees, it was against doctors orders…and so my track test ended…I took a 40 minute run in the park, to complete the scheduled hour, pushed the pace a few times, and called it a day.

I wasn’t completely unhappy about not getting the test in…hamstrings and body parts were intact for at least another day, so at the Masters level, that’s always a good thing…it was really going to irritate me if I re-pulled that hamstring doing the 5K test, and I did have a concern in the back of my head…and I _do_ usually listen to those voices…

My next scheduled run test comes up in 4 weeks, so rather than mix around the schedule trying to make room for it again, I’ll probably just work with my estimated vDOT of 38-39, and go from there.

A big part of it is that my training volume leaps up beginning next week, for the 12 week ramp up to the Vancouver Half Iron, and in looking at the training, it’ll be all that I can do to hang on and get through it without breaking something or getting burnt out…so this week was a bit of a rest before the run up in training hours.

Friday was a planned soft day, 30 minutes easy on the bike, and 30 minutes of yoga…Saturday almost 2 hours on the bike, with a main set of 60 minutes at Half Ironman race pace…20 MPH, and 228 Watts, 128HR…Heart Rate and speed were perfect…power looked a bit high for the speed (should have been closer to 210 Watts for 20 MPH), but it was the hilly Shearer course, and I was wearing an Ironman cloth backpack, so with wind, could be…I’ll re-do the route without the backpack, and see how it turns out…beginning of the season I usually send in my PowerTap wheels for a calibration check to make sure they’re perfect anyway

…and all aero position with the new fit…feels a lot more powerful and stable and less cramped, maybe a bit less aero if that speed/power ratio holds up without the backpack, but a lot more comfortable staying aero all the time, and I can see up the road…life is about compromises :)…excellent to be able to ride 20MPH on a hilly course, at a modest Heart Rate

…and then a brick, so an easy 30 minute run off the bike.

I did have a business trip scheduled on Monday and Tuesday…lots of _really_ good things on the business front…it’s just trying to get to all of it…with my wife/me going back for a post-surgery meeting/tests on Wednesday…so decided to not take the trip, and let my partners handle it…just feeling too compressed these days, to get it all in without running the stress meter and time pressure further into the red zone.

I don’t really feel as rested as I should be going into a BIG schedule…and my wife makes a poor patient, and I’m even a worse nurse…so Sunday will be another easy day for recovery…although since I won’t physically be at our business meetings on Monday and Tuesday, I need to prepare my ‘virtual’ presence…talking presentations…training materials…Internet links that my partners can use…and still ‘do my thing’ as part of online meetings on Tuesday…next week doesn’t really have much ‘calm’ about it

So rolling along…feeling _really_ good about the bike…good/okay about the run…and can’t say that I’m _really_ looking forward to my return to 3 x week swimming next week…and for 12 weeks…particularly with its prep/travel time overhead…with any type of enthusiasm

…so I guess feeling a little worn right now…this too shall pass 🙂

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Here we (/I) go!

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Daughter

Well according to Iron Dad I have been noticeably absent from Blogger-land lately, and by association, from IronTraining.  The former I certainly admit to. I cannot plead guilty to the latter however, as I have been slowly reacquainting myself with the IronLifestyle over the past number of weeks.

I am finding the endurance athlete way-of-life takes some practice, and requires some easing into. 

Acknowledging my clear weakness, I set my running goals early this season, and am already staring down a 1/2 Marathon for May 1st. I need all the running confidence I can get this year (the 7.5 hour nightmare of the IronMarathon still haunts me to this day), and I am happy to report that I worked through 18km on Sunday with limited strain.

In addition to the 2-3 runs per week with my run clinic (well, 3 might be a stretch), I have really been getting into indoor spinning again. It’s a workout I actually look forward to, and I find is also fantastic mental training in the early season – requiring me to push through seemingly ‘impossible’ sets (mostly because I don’t want to reveal my lack of fitness in front of the rest of the class). I have only been hitting these classes about once per week, however they have often been followed by an ice hockey game which happens to be on the same night, so I feel like I’m already a step ahead with my ‘brick’ workouts, albeit unconventional ones!

Swimming is less advanced, although I have been to the pool about 3-4 times now – mostly to ‘practice’ the routine of going to and from the pool to fit around my work schedule. Luckily swimming has always been pretty comfortable for me, although my technique is pretty dire at the moment.

So in summary – it’s been a slow, but steady start. In about 7 hours my alarm goes off to get me to the pool before work; officially beginning Day 1 of (1/2) Ironman Training 2011!  IronDad asked me recently how I’m feeling about my training outlook  and I can honestly say I am excited. I am nowhere near as prepared, or as calculated as him – but I am optimistic that this year – this season – this Ironman – I know what I’m in for, and I’m up for it.

That is, until the alarm goes off in a few hours and I will eat those words!

Night!

Lisa

Posted in Achieving Goals, Daughter's Blog Posts, Ironman, Ironman Florida, Training | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Bike Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test result: 263 Watts

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Dad

Almost looks like I know what I’m doing 🙂

Test on the bike went very well today…new FTP number is 263 Watts…up from 249 Watts 3 months ago:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/bike-functional-threshold-power-ftp-test-result-249-watts/ 

…and spot on my prediction/goal of 260-265W from yesterday …so cool!

What it all means, and deep analysis to follow…also trying to get that run test in later in the week once I let the legs recover a bit from the all-out test today…I’m going to feel it in the morning

…the long and the short of it is, that ‘by the numbers’ I’m probably in the best cycling ‘condition’ of my life…well at least the last 15 years that I’ve been tracking workouts in detail…so could be ‘ever’

…how’s that for a laugh-out-loud position to be in at 56 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Racing, Testing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Re-testing bike and run: my advance predictions

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Dad

Bike and run re-test are scheduled for this week coming up…if I can get them in around my other ‘stuff’ this week

So here’s where I think that I’m at.

BIKE: Last test: 249 watts FTP: January 3, 2011
https://irondaughterirondad.com/bike-functional-threshold-power-ftp-test-result-249-watts/

… my optimal goal prior to Ironman is 285 FTP, as I set in my post now 4 months ago…time flies:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/whats-it-take-to-bike-20mph-for-112-miles/

… would be nice to think that I made a little progress towards the goal…my guess right now is that it’s about 260 Watts…on a great day, maybe a hair more….and if I tested below 255W, I’d re-do the test on another day, and write it off as a bad day…so I’ll begin running the power at 250-255W to start, and then ramp it up incrementally every 5 minutes, depending on how things are going…ideally I’d be in the 270W range in the last 5 minutes before expiry, and have nothing left at the end

Half way between 249 and 285 is 267…or an 18 Watt (7%) improvement, so that’s my interim target…whether I can get there now or not, I guess we’ll see…feels ambitious as I’m writing this, since there’s really nothing in my training numbers that would indicate that I’m that high…yet…although I did have a sub-maximal effort 20 minute stretch, outdoors, a few days ago coming back from the bike fit at 263W…not 40 minutes, but indicative that I’m in the range…although the power graph was all over the place, since I haven’t been on the road for a few months.

A solid 260 would be excellent…a 265 would be outstanding, since there’s no way that I could get to that in January…my all-time maximum for 20 minutes is 272 Watts set outdoors on June 24, 2009…this is going to be 20 minutes VERY HARD, 2 minutes spinning recovery, then another 20 minutes VERY HARD…last test was 243W and 260W for the 2 x 20 minute sections…be interesting to see how this compares

I have 2 options for doing the next test: either on the indoor trainer that I did the first test on, and have done bike workouts on ever since, or take it outdoors.

The indoor option has the benefit of being able to compare more exactly with the first test, and it’s much easier to maintain a steady, controlled hard effort on the trainer, than while riding rolling hills on the road in traffic…particularly since I haven’t been on the road with the tri bike in months…although indoors I find it much more difficult to stay aero the entire time when pushing _really_ hard, and it’s very common  to sit more upright to generate more power since there is no speed consequence on the trainer. 

The outdoor option has the benefit of being closer to real race conditions, and I would tend to just stay in the aero position and take whatever the results are, rather than sitting up more for comfort under a high load to max out the numbers…although the comparative numbers to the first test wouldn’t be as valid, since they are markedly different conditions…the general agreement from what I’ve read is that power on the road, is slightly higher than indoors…like about 10 Watts…given the same body position…although varying opinions on why this may be the case.

 I’m much more likely to have a controlled, accurate result on the trainer…you can readily see the difference on a power chart…indoors, it’s almost a flat, steady line….on the road, it’s much more jagged as we add in the compensation for the variables of wind, road conditions, hills, traffic, turns, etc…indoors you can just look a the power meter or cadence and peg it there…doing that on the road and you can drive off a cliff.

…if I decide to do the test outdoors, it’ll be a lot harder to be exacting in moving up the power ranges…oh and the other nice thing about indoors, is that when the test is finished, you spin down for a few minutes, get off the bike and you’re done…outdoors here, there’s only one road that you don’t run out of gears on because of the hills…and it’s a hair short…and about a 20 minute ride away

…power output in the aero position can be lower for me than sitting more upright, particularly when I haven’t spent a lot of aero time in the past 3 months…but in a perfect world, the more aerodynamic position, creates more speed…even with the lower power output…so the next task will be to translate whatever I’ve been able to develop indoors…in the more upright position…into the outdoors and all-aero-all-the-time position

…so I’m probably leaning indoors for this test, and then as my riding moves outdoors, do the next 2 tests before the Half Iron, outdoors

RUN: last test: 5K in 25:28 (8:12/mile) vDOT 37: January 6, 2011
https://irondaughterirondad.com/5k-run-test-nailed-37-vdot/

…my goal before Ironman is a 41 vDOT, 23:38, 7:36/mile pace…seems very lofty to me at this point…initially set now 4 months ago on December 7, 2010:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/whats-it-take-for-a-43500-ironman-marathon/

If it weren’t for concerns about breaking something…specifically re-pulling that hamstring, I should be under 8:00/mile in a re-test, under 25 minutes for a 5K, that would put me at a 38 vDOT…actually anything faster than 25:12 (8:06/mile)…24:39 (7:56/mile) would be a 39 vDOT…24:08 (7:46/mile) would be a 40 vDOT

…38 should be there…on a good test day, I can see how I could get to a 39 vDOT…40 is most likely quite out of reach at this point…I’d definately take a 39 though and be very happy.

So I’ll begin the test at 2 minutes per 400M lap (8:02/mile), see if I can hold that for the first 2 miles (8 of 12.5 laps)…and then even move it up a hair faster if it’s there in the last mile…and then hang on to the end without collapsing before the finish…the only weakness in all that, is that pushing that hard, I’m bound to begin to have my leg muscles starting to sing to me, so it’s going to be tough to push past any hamstring signals, even though they may just be ‘normal’ for a maximal effort.

If I hear any noise from the hamstring between now and then, I’ll just delay the re-test for some future window, and work with estimated numbers.

…so there you have it…nothing left but to make it happen 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Racing, Running, Testing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Age group athletes vs. Mother Nature et al

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Dad

On January 4, 2011, I wrote about my bike test and result of 249 Watts FTP
https://irondaughterirondad.com/bike-functional-threshold-power-ftp-test-result-249-watts/

and on January 7, my run test result of 37 vDOT
https://irondaughterirondad.com/5k-run-test-nailed-37-vdot/

So it’s coming up to that time to re-test, to see what fitness gains I’ve made since then…if any…I’ll write in more detail about my predictions before the actual tests

Fortuna (the goddess of fate), has had some success in throwing a few hurdles in my way over the past 3 months…and as a result my training has been a bit mixed…there where some scheduled breaks for vacation and work stuff, and then unscheduled breaks for a sore throat that eased away then returned, and a pulled hamstring…this past week I’ve felt a bit ‘worn’ so eased things back…and also didn’t want to be tired going into a bike and run test next week…although not like a ‘real’ taper in advance of a BIG race.

Next week is going to be a bit of an additional challenge, in that my wife is going in for some surgery on Wednesday, so that’s going to fragment the week…and the following week one of my business partners _really_ wants me to travel out for a meeting for a couple of days…I much prefer to travel ‘virtually’, with meetings over the Internet, than burning up time in airports…but sometimes people just need to actually see my smiling face I suppose.

…so we age group athlete’s continue against the odds and obstacles, to get and keep training on track, and eke out improbable improvements, in the achievement of goals that are largely, simply, self satisfying

Of course, I’m also 3 months older than the tests in January…so not to miss the obvious relentless challenge for the Masters athlete…

…I’m looking to improve my fitness from a pretty high level already, in the face of Mother Nature trying to take me the other way, and shrivel me up like a prune

…but I remain still      …and as determined as ever

…let’s bring it on 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Racing, Running, Testing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Professional bike fit today…always a great idea

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Dad

Taking my own advice…a few fitting links there as well to give you some ideas:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/biking/bike-fit/

I updated my bike fit today with a ‘Retul’ bike fit with Bruce Guild in Mooresville, NC
http://www.studiovelonc.com/

I decided to go to Bruce for a few reasons:

  • I love technology, and had read about the Retul Motion Fitting system for years…just never anyone close that had it setup…had even considered some heavy travel to get a Retul fit done…just never pulled the trigger
  • Bruce has a big long fitting experience
  • and in this past year setup a stand-alone business that _only_ does bike fits…well just about _only_…but that’s the BIG primary focus
  • …and only a 25 minute bike ride away

I figured it was all a very good combination

…turned out to be very worthwhile… a more detailed post to follow with the results

…here’s a 5 minute video overview explaining how the Retul fit is done…a bit overly ‘promotional’, but gives you an idea of the process…my fit took almost 3 hours today…so if somebody is ‘fitting’ you by putting your bike on a trainer, having you pedal for a few minutes…making some adjustment…having you pedal for a few more minutes…telling you that you look good, and you’re back in your car 30 minutes later…you probably didn’t just have a professional bike fit 🙂

I’d encourage anyone that hasn’t had a professional bike fit to get one…particularly if it’s been ‘never’…once a season is not too often, since bodies change, injuries can change how we pedal…we may be favoring one side over another without even knowing it…stuff like that

…when the weekly mileage starts to notch up, a professional bike fit makes a BIG difference , to performance, efficiency, comfort and injury prevention…what’s not to like 🙂

Posted in Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Racing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Listen to your body…what the heck is it saying?

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Dad

On my run today, my hamstring felt a bit stiff going out on the last fast mile interval, so I cut it off, and jogged it back in.

I had pulled my hamstring just over 3 months ago, and wrote about it on January 15
https://irondaughterirondad.com/pulled-hamstring-ouch/

As it turns out, I’d been feeling a bit ‘worn’ this week…when I’m overly tired, I sometimes get a ‘twitch’ in my eye…sort of like Chief Inspector Dreyfus of Pink Panther movie fame…we were at an Italian restaurant last night, sitting with the owner recalling the funniest movies of all time…laughter is good for you
https://irondaughterirondad.com/your-morning-smile/

…but I digress

…so took a day off yesterday as a precautionary step…so thought that I’d do my yesterday workout today, to test the waters…it was a 1 hour run with a main set of 2 x 800M, and 2 x 1 mile at 5K race (test) pace, all on full recovery rest intervals…so a pretty strong, fast workout…and I _really_ wanted to get the workout in, in advance of my scheduled 5K test run next week, to see where I’m at speed-wise.

The first two 800’s and 1 mile were at a 8:00/mile pace, which was my target…I was pushing to get there, but not  all out, so that was good…wasn’t feeling particularly fast today, but enough to hit the numbers that I was looking for…except that going out on that last mile, the left hamstring just didn’t feel right, so slowed to a jog and took it back in…at the time I was sort of thinking that I was wimping out on the last hard interval…and as it turns out, with a rather contained jog back to the house, that left hamstring gave a little ‘twing’ with a few hundred yards to go…not like the ‘pull’…but like the quick ‘threat’ of a cramp…so walked it back the few hundred yards home.

No residual pain or issues, so who knows…I _think_ that it’s okay…it did make stopping that last interval a good idea though 🙂

As we ‘listen’ to our bodies, it’s sometimes not clear what it’s really saying…the sad thing is that the professional triathlete’s often get it wrong as well…even with teams of doctors, trainers and specialists poring over them like champion race horses…overtrain…get injured…drop out of races because they’re over-extended…languish in training plateaus…

I think of weekend golfers…Tiger Woods and other top pro’s that train every day, and hit thousands of golf balls every week under the watchful eye of top coaches…routinely swing, and drive their ball deep into the woods…I have to smile every time that I see a weekend duffer that hasn’t golfed in a month, cursing because his ball took an inelegant flight in the wrong direction…more plausible would be a shocked look if it ever actually went in a straight line…

So what chance do we age-group triathlete’s really have…our only hope is to stay on the conservative side of ‘issues’ as they come up…in our quest for increased performance, the body is going to be pushed…and feel pushed…as to how much is enough…ah that’s the question…pushing to a ‘bend’ without breaking…because ‘breaking’ costs a _ton_ of recovery time and degraded performance

…like today when I decided to stop the last interval…I ended up telling myself as I came off the track, that I’ll be a lot happier leaving early today with what I got done, than pulling that hamstring again…I still may have pushed it further than it was willing to go, even with pulling up early today…

…I listen to my body…try to decifer its message…every day, and particularly during workouts…watch my various Heart Rate and Power monitors for hints and verification of what I’m feeling…and while pushing to improve, look for something that’s inconsistent…while still pushing to improve

…is my mind just wimping out because I’m pressing, and I’m feeling my body’s resistance to the extra effort?…or is it really that my body is at its limit for what I’m calling on it to do?…it’s quite a fine line some days that’s for sure

…of course, one can’t improve, without that push past the comfort zones…as long as it’s matched with an ‘appropriate’ recovery time for the body to heal, and become stronger…something I listen to, and think about every day

…although the message isn’t always clear

…reminds of conversations with my wife many days 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Recovery | Tagged | 2 Comments

Iron Daughter: a study in fitting in workouts

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Dad

Looking at Iron Daughter’s recently posted training schedule:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/daughter-dad-profiles/daughters-profile/daughters-workout-schedule/

…I’m again reminded of the amount of dedication that training for an Ironman takes…particularly if you’re working for a living in a job that doesn’t really allow a flexible schedule during the day…fitting in workouts before and after work requires a lot of motivation…and planning…to get in the workouts, and the added ‘overhead’ time for getting equipment ready, travel to and from the workout venue, showers…it all adds up to a _lot_ of time

…and enough sleep for recovery, and have a bit of time for other life balance things…it’s no wonder that many friends are similarly driven age group athletes…and always weird to see them actually dressed in street clothes

I’m lucky to have a lot more flexibility in my days, and able to fit in workouts around online appointments and daily work tasks…and therefore rarely workout before 9am or after 5pm, and just about always alone since I slip in workouts wherever they fit into a particular day…and I then also control _exactly_ the workout that I want to do on that particular day…being bald is a big time saver for multiple showers in a day 🙂

It therefore bears repeating: and as posted a few months ago when my work schedule was cramping my workout schedule in advance of my BIG annual convention:

https://irondaughterirondad.com/you-are-my-hero/

It reminds me that my _real_ heroes are those that fit in a substantial training commitment…like Ironman…geez…with a _real_ full-time job…year-round.

…like my Iron Daughter…and a number of my Iron Buddies.

To all of you…I bow in humble acknowledgment of your remarkable achievement 🙂

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The power of water and swimming

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Dad

The recent tsunami in Japan reminds us of just how powerful and dense water really is:


(Full screen by clicking on the triangle in the lower right corner)

To a lesser degree, we’re faced with the same elements and factors in our Ironman swim…anyone that was slower than 1:20 in the swim in Ironman Florida last year, had the added factor of an increase in tidal/wind current to deal with…and therefore an exponentially slower time.

I was reminded of this when getting back into swimming over the past 2 weeks, while enjoying a little beach vacation.

In an earlier post, March 9, I had a goal of a 45 minute open water swim by the end of the my vacation:
www.irondaughterirondad.com/training-recovery-after-being-sick

…which I’m happy to report I was able to accomplish…rather easily…twice 🙂

Couple of good factors…first of all the villa that we were staying at had a short, but very handy pool, so I usually did at least 20 minutes of drills every day…and 2 of the beach areas had a triangular swim area marked off, which was a 12-15 minute swimming loop between the 3 buoys…complete with stiff, choppy current rolling sideways through the course…a fun swim.

…I was _really_ stoked that I could actually swim for that long in those conditions after 3 months without swimming…cool!
https://irondaughterirondad.com/from-zero-to-swimming-every-day/

I _really_ enjoy swimming in rough open water conditions…it’s partly for the challenge, but I also think I’m not as focused on perfect form, so much as getting the next breath and moving through the water…and therefore not as painfully aware of stroke deficiencies as I am in the pool

…but reminded again that swimming is first about form, and second about fitness…getting back into the pool when I got back, and extending the drills into laps…on the clock…I can tell where my timing is off, and limbs that are splaying where they shouldn’t, giving the water, with it’s dense fingers,a grip that holds me back

…form, form, form…will be my short-term swimming mantra

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Swimming | Tagged , | 2 Comments

recovery is very important

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Dad

Just back from our vacation in the Dominican Republic, getting caught up on business stuff and blog posts 🙂

While away I am reminded of the importance of recovery…of stepping out of each day…and stepping off the often frantic, spinning planet of our lives…to just kick it back and relax, both the mind and body.

My son was kind enough to supply this video of Iron Dad demonstrating an afternoon recovery nap:

[flowplayer src=’https://irondaughterirondad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/irondad_recovery_x264.mp4′ width=320 height=240]
(full screen by clicking on the rectangle in the lower right corner)

You’ll notice the key elements to encourage recovery:

  • legs raised to encourage leg recovery and reduce blood pooling and swelling…minimum 5 minutes for every hour of exercise
  • sleep: this is when growth hormones are released that play a large role in recovering and building muscle

Eye cover sleeping mask, palm trees and warm breeze are all optional, but definitely encouraged for maximum recovery effectiveness 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Recovery | Tagged | 4 Comments

VO2max training

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Dad

My VO2max training phase begins this week…here’s an example of the Main Set within a 60 minute run:

MS: 2 x 200, 2 x 400, 2 x 200, all @ IP/Z5/Very Hard with full recoveries between each.

The bike VO2max bike workout, looks like this, within a 60 minute ride:

MS: 4 x (2.5′ ON, 2.5′ OFF) ON = 120%/Z5/Very Hard OFF = 65%/Z1/Easy…Remainder of available ride time at 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard

Over the next 3 weeks this will work up to runs that look like this:

MS: 4 x 200, 2 x 1000 all at IP/Z5/Very Hard with full recoveries between each.

and a bike:

MS: 5 x (2.5′ ON, 2.5′ OFF) ON = 120%/Z5/Very Hard OFF = 65%/Z1/Easy Remainder of available ride time at 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard

So you can see that the intervals are quite short, with high all-out intensity.

VO2 max training is used to raise the aerobic ‘ceiling’…the VO2max…from Matt Fitzgerald:

A high VO2max is important because it is closely correlated with distance-running performance. Research has shown that VO2max accounts for roughly 70 percent of the variation in race performances among individual runners.  Thus, if you are able to run a 5K one minute faster than I can, it is likely that your VO2max is higher than mine by an amount that is sufficient to account for 42 seconds of that minute. 

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/How-to-Maximize-Your-VO2max-Training.htm

Simply put, if you want to run and bike faster, you need to run and bike faster 🙂

…this focus on speed will continue the next weeks, before then shifting from fast to far, as I take whatever speed I’ve been able to develop, and applying it to long course racing distances

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