Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Taper Time!!!


Wow, I really am enjoying all of this free time. I have been getting caught up on the last 5 weeks of Grey's Anatomy, doing laundry, and goofing off. Yes, I still have workouts. They are just short and intense. I was joking with Greyhound that this is what it must feel like to train for sprint and Olympic distance races. I have been doing more than goofing off. Really. No, really!


Bud had a big swim meet. This was his first USA Swimming affiliated swim meet. The 8 teams were all USAS programs. These meets are run much more efficiently than the NWAL meets with the neighborhood team. The other thing that makes these meets a step above the summer league meets are the use of the Colorado Timing System. This is the touch-pad system that is used in meets where the finish time is recorded when the swimmer touches the pad. These timing systems are very accurate. Bud's meet was only for swimmers between the ages of 9 and 14. He swam 5 events: 50 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly, 100 Breast, and 200 IM. Bud came in around 17th and 18th in most of the events out of anywhere from 36 to 45 boys in his event but placed 5th in the 200 IM and gained 4 team points for his swim club. We have another meet the day after I get back from Cozumel. Bud's coaches from the swim club who he has swam under for the past year were pleasantly surprised at his 5th place performance. Mom was pretty proud as well.



Last week the kid and I put together 6 shoe boxes full of goodies for Operation Christmas Child. There are so many children all over the world who live in poverty and have very little to call their own. These children are so thankful to get a surprise gift of small toys, school supplies, personal hygiene items, and some hard candy. Our family is very blessed to have so much, it is the least we can do but share with those who are in need.

I have been attending some USA Triathlon continuing education classes in Austin, TX. Last week I attended a lecture on Weight Loss Strategies for Endurance Athletes by Bob Seebohar. This was a great lecture! Bob works with Olympic level athletes. He has developed a strategy called the Fuel Target. It is a concept that is easy to understand and helps athletes figure out what they need to focus on in their nutritional plan. I am sure that I would not be able to explain it as well as Bob can so if you would like more information, you can find it in his new book titled, Metabolic Efficiency Training: Training the Body to Burn More Fat. His book is so new, that it is not in stores or on Amazon yet. If you would like to order it, just click here.

I also attended a lecture on Sunday titled Run Your Best Off The Bike by Bobby McGee. Bobby McGee is Barb Lindquist's coach and the coach to many other ITU and top level Olympic, 70.3, and Ironman athletes. There were three big topics we discussed on how to improve the run leg of your triathlon. The first item was to look at bike set-up. Most running injuries are the result of improper bike set-up. Bottom line, spend the money to get a good bike fit and to find the right saddle for the bike. I had my bike set-up done by John Cobb on both my road bike and my tri bike and I have not had any injuries other than the injuries I sustained from falling off the bike. The second was to employ a run/walk strategy to the run leg of the triathlon. Bobby is now working with athletes that are shooting for the 2012 Olympics and they are currently working on this strategy. There is a huge ego factor that they are having to overcome. Every athlete wants to run the run leg and run the entire thing, but the evidence is showing faster overall pace times and negative splits in races where the run/walk technique is used. Wow! The third, and most controversial to the class, was that no one should run a marathon as part of their Ironman training. Many of the coaches in the class were arguing this one saying their athletes needed the confidence in finishing a marathon in their training before the IM race. Bobby argues that the marathon really breaks down the body and that there are other ways to get the distance in over two consecutive days on in one training session that are gentler on the body. If you want more information, you can look at all the details in Bobby's new book, Run Workouts for Runners and Triathletes. The link to order the book is here.

I was so intrigued by Bobby's lecture that on Tuesday I did a webinar where Bobby covered the Run/Walk method in detail for improved running in Triathlons. Jeff Galloway has been using this method for half and marathon runners and they have been turning out fantastic times. This was great stuff!!! Bobby said that if your IM run time was less than a 2:40, your 70.3 run time was less than 1:10, and your Olympic distance tri run time was less than 40 minutes then you should be applying the run/walk method to your training and racing. Wow! WOW!!! I am using this for Ironman Cozumel. I know that I can play with the ratios if the heat and conditions require me to be flexible on race day but I am using it. I used a run/walk method at Ironman Arizona and on the third loop of the run I was passing a ton of people and only had one person pass me. I had been working on building up my running endurance to be able to run without many stops but I know there was going to be some point in the run leg where I was going to have to walk just due to fatigue. Now with a plan, I can see where I will employ the run/walk strategy from the point I get to T2 and play fishing on the last half to third of the run leg and pass people who are having to walk at the end. I am super stoked about this! We will see how it goes in 11 days. My coach is all for it so it is golden!

I had a webinar last week with Steve Tarapinian on Swim Training Myths and tomorrow I have another webinar with him on Optimal Offseason Training. I am loving all this knowledge that I can start implementing with my people that I coach. There is always new stuff to learn.

Besides all of that, I have had time to go shopping. I cannot believe what I found at the local Wal-Mart...

I do not have a dog so I will not be buying one of these. However, there are suckers out there who are going to put a run on these things. What does this product say about us as consumers???

Anyway, 11 more days to go. I need to start getting my stuff together, organized and packed.

Later Gators!

Liz


16 comments:

Rainmaker said...

Those dog things are funny. I was at Walmart as well as noticed the rack of costumes for pets - amazing stuff. I really wanted to have a dog for just one day...so i could dress him up as a tiger.

Regina said...

I have Bob's book, but I guessed I missed the run/walk thing. this is pretty exciting stuff as I just signed up to do my first 70.3. I'll be anxiously awaiting your race report to see how this strategy worked for you.

congrats to your son! YOu must be one proud mama.

I was just at Walmart this weekend, I somehow missed these, but did see the ones for people...EVERYWHERE!!

greyhound said...

I would have thought you'd gotten enough of Grey's Anatomy on those few occasions you were behind me on the bike workouts.

Anonymous said...
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Christi said...

I hope you have a great taper!

Ryan said...

You must have been at my blog while I was at yours...Ha!

I'll be watching for you in Coz and I expect a full report with lots of pics.

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