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Pirate Mentors / Mentorees 2011
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more advice on this thread than I have seen in 3 years.
Glad I am not new this year lol !!
I am happy to mentor anyone, you can get references from Hope! (hopefully she'll be kind).
Not enough dots in the name so what on earth can they know about IM......
I'm not sure if I need a mentor or a coach. I've done a few oly tris & looking to get up to middle-distance but definitely not IM.
Mostly I'm looking for tips in how to get faster (I've got plenty of experience on how to get slower) which, I'm guessing, is a mixture of fitness and technique.
I'm London-based and more than happy to buy cakes when needed.
Hello!
I'd love a mentor. I've done a few marathons and mostly oly distance tris. I completed the Outlaw this year in 12:34 which was okay, but the nature of my job makes it really hard to join a Tri Club. So, training was lonely and consisted of me and "The Don" (in book form) only. I'm not looking for training plans as such, rather just someone to bounce ideas off, as I seriously think I over-trained this year and subsequently got injured.
Can anyone help! and pass on their experience and wisdom?
Thanks in advance
Haha, true!
Confused... they will be
i think a very simple approach works for a lot of people. in most cases people have a quite a lot of room for error so so long as they train fairly regularly without overtraining it doesn't matter much what they do. for some others, who are likely to be very close to the cut-offs, there is less room for error. in my experience, it seems to be these folks that are most likely to overtrain by doing large volumes of slow training from a long way out. they're often the most likely to override what their body is telling them because they not very confident in their ability.
see, i spared the cortisol / growth hormone details!
looking back I think the best thing that happened to me during IM training was that i could'nt cycle or run for 4 months sept through to mid Jan due to an achillis problem............stopped me overtraining and stopped me getting bored of it all............as it was I kinda got bored by the end of May and just coasted the last 6 weeks..............a long taper......
everyone is going to be different.but most can get there................i did work hard feb through to June
i've signed up for my 1st ironman in frankfurt next july and think i could benefit from the help of a mentor. my swimming is improving, just signed up with chesterfield swimming club and although the sessions are classed as group swims the last couple have been one to one which has been great. my biking is poor and i've not done alot of running since this years london marathon. going to spend a bit of time reading through past threads before approaching people.
Meli - I don't usually disagree with you (double negative)....
Meli I usually agree with you (insert pause) but - those chasing the cut-off are probably the least likely to over-train and most likely to benefit from any consistent training. If you replace over-training with lose focus and enthusiasm (and more likely realise what is actually required to complete an ironman even if only looking to complete) then I'd agree totally.
Those at the more pointy end of things are most likely to benefit from focus and structure. Those that are likely to over-train as those who expect and demand a high level of athletic achievement and are naturally competitive. Those are the people that will attempt to better their performance with each session. To ignore rest and feedback and to chase a downwards spiral of further overload against a backdrop of reducing performance.
It takes a dedicated and stubborn SOAB to be able to dig themselves into an over-training hole and you'll not find that with a 14 hr per week IM training plan. These people tend to be the same people that like data and gadgets and follow plans rigidly. I wish I was more like them!!!!
Edit - changed structured to consistent for group 1 (as this is what I meant)
For sure some of the 'close to cut-off' people just haven't done enough. I have seen quite a few people - especially slower women who fear missing the cut offs do way too much early on. BTW - fear of being close to cut-off isn't necessarily the same as actually being close to the cut-off! I think they do lose focus and enthusiasm - and often complain of being tired.
One of the challenging things is working out which type of person you are. A lot of the unconfident-slow overtrainers consider themselves just not to working hard enough.
I think *everyone* would benefit from structure and focus. But I know for some people, following any kind of plan takes the fun out of it. If they are getting what they want out of the training and racing anyway then it's all good.
I'm more like the person you describe in your second paragraph and that's why I got a coach originally. I learnt a lot about having enough recovery and listening to my body as a result and it got such good results (not especially race times, more in they way I felt and how much more fun it was) that I became more confident about taking rest.
how's your swimming now? if you are already a competent front crawler that's fine. if you're only learning then 3 or 4 swims, 3 rides and 2 runs would be better until you can hold your stroke together well enough.
the swim *is* a short part of the IM but it's at the start and if you don't get through that, it's game over! You don't have to be a great swimmer but I think the training for, and build-up to the race is also a lot more fun if you feel fairly confident that you can do the swim well within the cut-off. Going in to the race worrying about swim ability isn't much fun.
I spent my whole training fearing the "Cut off", luckily for me my second fear was "over training". I think Melli is right about the confidence thing, loads of people told me I would be alright but I didn't really believe them and I always felt like I should be doing more. That's where a mentor really helps .
Silverback,
There are a few Pirates around the Chesterfield / Sheffield area, myself included.
Next year I'm doing the Bike leg at Outlaw and will need to get some serious miles in, none of this blagging it as I've done previously.
If you want somebody to go cycling with let me know & I'm sure we could sort something out!
Little sister shout out when your starting training and I'll come over and talk carp to you going round if you want.
Biking is my concern.
I do see Melli's point and I think it was overtrain early. Sure a beginner might not be doing 20+ hours a week but for them they may be able to overtrain with much fewer hours training. Especially if running a lot.
For the bike they may think 60-80 wet lonely cold v.slow miles is required every Saturday followed by a slow run every Sunday. Whereas they may be better off building speed/stamina over the winter for 30-40 miles. The summer would allow endurance to be built on this speed base.
The v.slow miles leaves them in fear of the cut-off so they do more, and more. They don't get quicker and so it continues into overtraining zone. If they did 30-40 quick miles then they may realise they can easily beat the cut-off if they can build endurance at their current pace.
But then the symptoms of overtraing are what exactly:
Most of which could be described as a sympton of a lazy arse not doing enough training - except the injuries.
meface
Madlot how much open water experiance do you have and how easy is it for you to get some?
Biking will come with miles and training mate. A turbo trainer might be a good investment over winter.
Need to get a suit sorted though.
meface -agreed.
Maldot - great stuff. At that speed you are already well inside the cut-off.