First Turkey Trot & Community Harvest

Yesterday was a fantastic Thanksgiving! Started the day off with a Turkey Trot here in Crystal Lake at Lippold Park. Ran as fast as I could out of the box and regretted it later. Initial pace was way too fast(7:30 mi.). Finally started to back off once I realized my heart rate was up around the 175 bpm area. Averaged that the rest of the way and finished with a personal best time of 29:13. I know it won’t show that in the records as the result because of the huge backup in the chute at the finish but my Garmin Forerunner 305 has the proof I need. You can check out the stats on my TrainingPeaks page(see link below). Figured out that that was a reaffirmation that I don’t want to do the short course in Triathlons as a habit. I definitely prefer the slower pace and lower heart rate. I know I will have to endure a lot of that in speed training but I don’t think my body really likes it at all.

After the race I headed to the gym to shower and change before taking off to do my part to pay forward some of what has been given to me. The Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce, Crystal Lake Food Pantry and the Crystal Lake Jaycees hold the Community Harvest every year on Thanksgiving morning. We take all of the food donated to the pantry for the holidays from local food drives at the schools and local business and with at least a few hundred local volunteers the food gets sorted and boxed for distribution. A large chunk of the food is taken by the Jaycees to distribute to families that have been chosen for the Share a Christmas project(of which I am a past Chairman – True honor).  The pantry collected over 68,000 lbs of food that will help them feed the needy throughout the winter and into early spring. It was also great seeing old friends that I don’t get to see so often.

And of course I did spend a wonderful evening with my family chowing on a fantastic meal. I even made a little money at the game table later! All in all it was a great day.

Written on November 26th, 2010 , Charity, Motivation, Races, Running
Yet another great seminar and Lactate Threshold Test

So I had a pretty exhaustive day today. I was talking to a Tri friend(Kurt) at our health club(Centegra Health Bridge in Crystal Lake, IL) the other day and he clued me in on a Lactate Threshold Bicycle Test going on this morning at our “sister club” Centegra Health Bridge in Huntley, IL.

The test started at 5:30am this morning. Ouch. It was being run by TrainingBible Coach Jim Dicker and a six time Ironman named Andy was there also. Didn’t catch his last name but I am guessing he is a member of Midwest Madness Tri Club that put on the event. Kurt is a member of this club and that is how he knew about it.

Anyway, here is a synopsis of the criteria that we followed in doing the test:

  • 10 min spin at very easy pace to warmup
  • 5 min spin intensity that you can endure for the entire time ( you use this to dial in your gear, speed/cadence for the 20 min. test)
  • 5 min easy spin at very easy pace
  • 20 min spin intensity at the highest speed and gear you can use at a constant and steady pace while keeping your cadence in a 5 revolution range at the pace you fell most comfortable
  • 15 min cool-down

The cadence range that you target can be anywhere between 70 rpm -110 rpm. Don’t let your cadence fluctuate more than 5 rpm once you feel you have your intensity dialed in. You track your heart rate with a monitor and use your average hr for the ride as your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate(LTHR). Here is the link for the graph for the ride. In the end after all was said and done I ended up doing over 40 miles and spending an hour and a half on the bike. Farthest I’ve ever ridden nonstop. The legs were definitely feeling it afterwards but they weren’t too bad. My butt on the other hand was sore because I didn’t set up the bike correctly at the beginning of the test so I was too far forward.

All in all it was an interesting session during which that I learned a ton. I don’t know if I want to pony up the dough for a membership to Midwest Madness yet because I still don’t know enough about them and they really seem over the top intense for my liking. It could be just a select few that steered my perception that way but I think I would like to get our club growing in membership instead at this point.

Training Bible Coaching

Later in the morning I stopped by The Geneva Running Outfitters store for another seminar on starting your training plan for next year. It was being presented by yet another TrainingBible Coach Scott Iott. Another great seminar and I think Scott is great guy. He is a middle school teacher in my old neighborhood during the day and an excellent Triathlete in his off time. He just qualified for his second trip to Kona two weeks ago in Clearwater, FL. He went over a brief summary of setting up a plan and the things to focus on in doing it. He was nice enough to even go over a few questions that I had afterwards. I think I even geeked out for a few minutes just getting so excited about finding such a good source of knowledge so close to home. I have been tossing around the idea of getting a coach and now I have met three Training Bible coaches in as many days and I have been impressed with each and every one of them. Scott will be doing two more seminars there over the next two months so I would HIGHLY recommend checking them out. Here is the info for this one and the others to come.

Written on November 21st, 2010 , Bicycling, Exercises, Testing, Training
Webinar + Seminar results

Free webinar: Joe Friel from TrainingPeaks.com and the author of The Triathlete’s Training Bible

Really decent webinar on Wednesday that covered the use of TrainingPeaks.com for tracking your training and diet. Specifically it covered setting up your training plan for the next year. Which I do use and it is amazing the things that you can do on their site(you can see my recent workouts posted there below). Great info for newbies to that site and really shows what the site can do if you are interested in really analyzing your efforts in tri training. They also have a ton of training plans that you can buy for anything from a 5K to an ultramarathon. Here is a link to the recorded webinar so that you can see for your self what you missed.

Swim clinic in Glen Ellyn:

Very good clinic last night presented by TrainingBible Coach Carla Hastert. She is a USAT Level II Tri coach and really knows her stuff on the swimming aspect. You guys missed a good one tonight. I wish I could have caught the first two seminars in the three part series. She answered a ton of great questions that we had about swimming and even offered to do a free stroke/swim evaluation on anyone attending at the fitness center she works at in Geneva. I am definitely going to take advantage of it considering how bad my swimming stroke has been.

Written on November 19th, 2010 , Coaching, Seminars, Swimming, Training
Movember update and Tri Webinar/Seminars

So I had to end my Movember yesterday due to upcoming job interviews. I will do it again next year and hopefully be better prepared to make it through the entire month.

Also a note to anyone interested there is a webinar today Creating an Annual Training Plan with Joe Friel at 2:00pm CST today.

There are also a series of clinic being held at the Geneva Running Outfitters over the next few months. Here is the link for info on those:

http://www.trainingbible.com/documents/TrainingBibleClinicsGenevaRunningOutfitters.pdf

I would check with them on the dates because I know that at least one or maybe two are wrong. I want to say that they are all on Sat. which doesn’t jive with the dates they have on the flyer.

It looks like I will be shutting down the I am Going to TRI Meetup group and moving it over to this blog and also to the Facebook group I have created. It is free for one thing and it also it more convenient for those of us currently active in the group. If you are on Facebook and want to join the Facebook I am going to TRI group and get updates from there instead of here just message me on Facebook and I will add you to the group. If you would rather just watch this site for events and also get other info in regards to Tri’s just subscribe using the link provided(The link may not be up yet but I am working on it).

Written on November 17th, 2010 , Charity, Coaching, Education, Seminars, Training
Movember

Help me raise some cash for the fight against cancer and watch me grow a huge 70′s porn looking mustache in the process!  Movember (the month formerly known as November) is an annual moustache growing charity event held every November which raises funds and awareness for cancers that affect men.  At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo, raising money along the way to benefit men’s health.  Funds raised through the Movember US campaign go initially to the Movember Foundation (Tax ID: 77-0714052) not for profit organization. At the end of each campaign, net funds are donated evenly to our beneficiary partners – the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG. You can find out more info about Movember at us.movember.com and even register yourself to help the cause.

Written on November 10th, 2010 , Charity

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