Ride Reports?

[Archaea]

Today I was cutting back in an effort to taper for Ironman Cda. Training has been concerning me as I've lost power on the run.

Today was an easy hour swim, four bike ride and then watch kid football. It was hot. 103. Went through six bottles in four hours. And still get enough nutrients.

Any of you other guys?

[DirtyHippieUTE]

I'm falling apart here... I could use some tips.

I just went for a short spin today (15 mi). The hills here kill me. I wish my road bike had a bail-out ring. I felt good yesterday but today it was like there was just nothing left. I'm not getting good recovery. Yesterday's ride wasn't all that long and I intentionally didn't push it because I knew I wanted to ride again today.

Running isn't much better. I'm still to fat to "run" so I end up "jogging." I hate to jog. I've been getting shin splints and it's screwing with my knee. The other day I tried what they call 60/120s. I run for 60 seconds and then walk for 120. It feels a lot better because I can "run" for those 60 seconds, get into a good stride and it doesn't kill my knees. 120 is usually enough to recover so I can "run" for a full 60.

Has anyone else tried this? I feel like I'm getting a good workout but I don't know if this will do anything to improve my running. I'd like to get my 10k time back down under 40 minutes. Any ideas? Should I let the run go for a while until I get back down to a "running" weight?

The swim is the only thing that loves me. My mile is getting faster. I've been trying to take it easy in the pool and work on form. I feel like I'm really going slow but my time keeps dropping. I love to swim... I wonder if it will still be easy once I get rid of all my belly flotation.

I repo my mtb next week... Some granny gear spinnin and weed eatin!

I hope all of this gym spinning and road riding will help. I've got friends who want to kill me...

[realtall]

Running isn't much better. I'm still to fat to "run" so I end up "jogging." I hate to jog. I've been getting shin splints and it's screwing with my knee. The other day I tried what they call 60/120s. I run for 60 seconds and then walk for 120. It feels a lot better because I can "run" for those 60 seconds, get into a good stride and it doesn't kill my knees. 120 is usually enough to recover so I can "run" for a full 60.

Has anyone else tried this? I feel like I'm getting a good workout but I don't know if this will do anything to improve my running. I'd like to get my 10k time back down under 40 minutes. Any ideas? Should I let the run go for a while until I get back down to a "running" weight?

I think that you've hit upon something with those 60/120s. If you can work some running in without it causing you much pain that's good. My advice would be to stay away from full-out running for now. Its no fun running overweight(I should know). Swimming and biking are great for helping you lose weight in the meantime. After you lose 'x' pounds and those sports are progressing nicely for you you can be a little more aggressive with your running. That should cut down on your injuries.

[Archaea]

For those in your situation, running on a treadmill usually guards against knee injury.

You've forgotten base training friend.

LSD. Long, SSSLLLOOOOWWW, distance, with very gradual increases.

[DirtyHippieUTE]

It's the fat guy spiral...

I must exercise to lose weight

Being overweight causes injury

Injury prohibits exercise

I think I'm going to put running on the back burner for a while until I get down to a more runner-friendly weight.

You guys know what I mean about jogging vs. running... right?

It's that bouncy jogger shuffle that kills me but I can't maintain a pace where I get into a decent stride for long enough to "run."

Oh well... The run must wait... Since my background is in cross country and distance running, I assume I'll be able to fall back into it when I'm not dragging an extra 40 lbs...

[bluegoose]

10K under 40 minutes is blazing, especially for a big dude. You are the man hippie.

Long slow distance would be nice, but I would be careful to ramp it up nice and slowly, not putting on too many miles too quickly. Even if they are slow miles, the time and distance will not be kind to your shin splints. When I start a program after a long hiatus, I do a similar program as you, jogging a half mile and walking about a quarter mile. after a couple of weeks I feel like I am able to slowly ramp it up so I am jogging a mile or two continuous and increase by 10-20% per week after that.

[bluegoose]

My ride report from the weekend:

35 miles with a small group. New guy to the saturday morning ride is a cat 3 racing nearly every weekend this summer. He was doing 2 crits on sunday , so saturday was his warm-up for that. On top of that, he broke a couple of spokes on his roadie on the wednesday night ride, so he was on his mountain bike on saturday, waiting for his roadie to get fixed. Even still, he rode very well, holding a strong pace the entire time.

Lately we've been doing longer, sustained interval training, typically between 10 and 20 minutes long. These are done at or slightly above lactate threshold, and are very painful. Throw in a few 30 second sprints and it makes for a very efficient hard 2 hour ride.

I'm still in terrible shape for how much I've been riding lately. A big part of it is that I haven't been able to go on many long rides (3-4 hours) up in the hills. Aside from the 2 centuries I've done, its pretty much just been 1-2 hour rides during the week and 2-2.5 hour rides on saturday. maybe next year.

[Quisqueyano]

The road bike has a broken spoke and I haven't had time to take it in. Been riding the MT bike. I forgot how much I really love mt biking.
I am still riding about 125 miles a week. The difference is that a lot of it is off road. it is slower. But I feel like my bike handling skills are getting sharper.
More decisions to be made on rocky, switch back singletrack.
Saturday was 25 miles in the 90 degree weather. Lots of slow climbs. Lot's of rocky, fast downhill.

[DirtyHippieUTE]

10K under 40 minutes is blazing, especially for a big dude. You are the man hippie.

Personal best was around 33 minutes... I think I could have been really good if I weren't so lazy and uninterested in practice or competition or listening to coaches...

[creekster]

We took the triple out on Satruday for about 25 miles We were on a flat stretch of road about 4-6 miles long with several places that have slight downhil grades. Any downhill grade really helps the triple. So we were passed at a stoplight (we were stopped and waiting and they timed the change to blow by us as we were just starting) by a couple of poseurs in full racing kits and CF bikes. About a mile down the road we hit one of these lsight downhills and so I put the hammer down and my wife joined in; pretty quick we are flying on this thing and come up on these guys, who are doing only about 21-22 mph. We were at about 24-26 mph and as we go zipping by my 8 year old on the back rings his bell and very cheerfully (and sincerely) says "See ya later!" It made me laugh. Not sure their reaction, but it would sort of be like buying a porsche and getting passed by a minivan, I guess.