Baowolf's Winter training is FUN group..no really it is!! (OPEN) (Page 28)

Mitzi: so have you made your choice? What's it gonna be, oly or sprint?

Daniel: enjoyed your RR, way to go!

Pam: glad the back pain is gone...

As for me, I took a break this week. I think the tiredness was more mental than physical. Starting last May, both kids had soccer practice Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I had tri club meets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. So every day of the week, after working full time, I rush back home at 5h45, cook or reheat pre-cooked dinner and ready on activity site at 6:30. I was left with no juice on weekends, and my long runs or bike rides on Saturdays and Sundays almost never happened. I think I know why now!

So this week was a scheduled break for soccer, and I have decided to take a break from tri club meets as well. I still trained on my own, but made a point of doing fun workouts, mainly by feel with no set pace or time.

I am going away with the kids next weekend to see my parents, mom's cancer still scares us but she seems to react well to chimio. Planning to cook a great meal for them and enjoy nice wine Will try to fit in a quick bike ride on Sat. morning and a run on Sunday night upon return.

One week to go until official vacations...

Pam, I may join you on Whole30. My only question is on giving up beans/legumes. I may include those, just seems like it makes it more balanced and sustainable.

Isabella, yes sometimes you have to stop to realize how worn down you are. Good for you for recharging your batteries.

Mitzi, no wrong decisions on which tri. I hope you have made the decision that is right for you.

Dennis, yes, sometimes us wives are actually right

Have a trip on the books for the fall...going to Acadia Nat'l park in Maine, and a couple days in Boston to see the history. I'm realizing how many changes we have been through in the last few months -- decline/death of FIL, hubby retiring, me back to work full time/on site (and changing jobs twice), menopause, etc. Know it's not much in the grand scheme of what many people face, but more than enough for me. Finally starting to feel more alive and ready to reclaim some health and fitness.

Steve, yes, do let us know your # so we can track you at IM Bldr. Hope all is going well with your relocation/job change.

ok so I am in Bolder and am race number 2260. It will not be a fast race probably 14 hours ish. Probably working the 12 ton of gravel for the driveway and replacing wood stripping stain sanding and painting the deck last weekend may have been overdoing it for how close to the race it was. There was also a fire close to me in lower lake ca that had us almost evacuated etc....lots going on. Hopefully a good night sleep tonight will help. I'll try to cstch up on the posts.

Exactly the issue my hubby was puzzling over. Can understand some of it because peanuts are actually a legume but not sure of the whole reasoning behind no black beans. Oh well, I'm going to try to go full in for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3 or the full 30 days. While I want to lose weight, I don't want to lose too much (since I have finally returned to almost normal weight) so I'm doing a lot of this to find out allergies and see if I have trigger foods. After last years issue with diverticulitis, I want to see if I can pinpoint issues as they occur instead of 3 months after the fact.

Love Arcadia National Park! What a wonderful time you will have.

Isabella, wow, you needed a break!

Steve, thanks so much your number. Will be watching you tomorrow. Hope that you do get some sleep and feel great. Maybe your "taper" was too hard but remember IMCDA, you can do an IM even with painkillers numbing the wrong parts of your body.

Totals for July. Overall happy, now that I'm more or less settles I'm going to try to make sure I don't skip strength days


Total Swim. 9312.00 yards. 4h 49m 41s
Total Bike. 232.96 miles. 20h 29m 46s
Total Run. 62.65 miles. 9h 34m 01s
Total Strength. 1h 25m
Total Sports. 50m

Steve is doing really, really good. I think he is probably getting off of the bike right now.

SWIM DETAILS | Division Rank: 201

Total 2.4 mi 1:33:41 1:33:41 2:25/100m 201 1162 1547

BIKE DETAILS

19 mi 19 mi 1:04:35 2:46:53 17.65 mi/h
41 mi 22 mi 1:05:17 3:52:10 20.22 mi/h
60 mi 19 mi 1:11:00 5:03:10 16.06 mi/h
82 mi 22 mi 1:10:36 6:13:46 18.70 mi/h
89 mi 7 mi 23:56 6:37:42 17.55 mi/h
104 mi 15 mi 1:04:58 7:42:40 13.85 mi/h
112 mi 8 mi --:-- --:-- -- mi/h

Total 112 mi --:-- --:-- -- mi/h -- -- --

Yes, nicely paced swim and bike for Steve and now on the run! And hopefully his wife and kids are enjoying the VIP tent

Steve finished in 12:46. Dang! WTG Steve!

Thanks Pam was a tough day, I will go into details later. I was very happy with the finish. It is late and I fly out tomorrow morning. I am fine, the usual wear and tear stuffs. Thanks for checking in on my results.

Wow, congrats! More than one hour below what was expected.
Can't wait to read all the juicy details

Way to go Steve! Looked like pretty darned good pacing to me.

So how many is this now....chipping away at the legacy entry you are!

Congrats Steve!

Dennis, fantastic work on the PR!

I snuck my swim in before the storm today, but with lightning I can't do my run. Should I skip it, or should I bump it to tomorrow? (Thursday's are my rest day in my training plan). Essentially what is more important, the run or a full days rest?

Dennis, awesome job!!!!! Great PR. Wow!

Jimmy, my 2 cents is to see how you feel. If you feel remotely like doing your run, then do so but insure that you don't overdo Friday's run. Also remember that next Wed, your run may be much harder but it's because you have extended your streak longer. I'm very fluid on my rest days and sometimes change them around due to weather, schedule, life. Yesterday was supposed to be my off day but I ran last night so I could sleep this morn and let today be my off day.

July numbers, here we go

Swim 10,936 yards / 5h07
Bike 87 miles / 5h03
Run 31 miles / 5h49

Proud of the swim training, very nice effort there. Could have done better on the run, but July was hot, humid and I don't do well in those conditions. Bike, no excuses. Need to get on the saddle.

I am back on track this week and already done some good work. Bike hill repeats last night, legs were fried at the end (and still sore from Monday's intervals run and strength work!). I am also starting a more structured running plan to get me to a 10K I want to do in october. I am still on the fence about a sprint tri on Aug. 23, last day of my vacations.

Dennis: congrats on the PR! I also posted some of my best times when I didn't feel like going out and train in the first place. Way to go!

Jimmy: for me, it depends on my fatigue level, will skip it if I feel I need the rest but bump it if it's a key workout. Is it a hard/long run? or just a recovery run?

Happy training!

Isabella - glad you mom is taking to the therapy. Hear you talking about hill repeats. I wish there was a bike ride around here that wasn't hill repeats.

Jimmy - good job staying focused on training.

Pam - I'm not convinced about Paleo assumptions. Early human diet really depended on where group lived. Humans have thrived on almost any diet, except modern processed junk. Early humans also ate a lot of bugs, but no one mentions that. Paleo rejects beans as a modern farming product. Paleo is sometimes confused with low carb, but there is no restriction of fruit and honey

I lost my weight on a high protein/fat, low carb diet so I didn't eat beans as they have moderate amount of carbs. Both plans reject pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice. Personally, I think they are healthy diets as they limit unhealthy foods and force you to eat lots of veggies and protein. Thirty days should get rid of your cravings for carbs. Training I'm eating beans and fruit, and don't miss the pasta, bread and rice.
Would love to hear about yours and Carols experiences with the food plan.

Steve - you are such an inspiration. I've learned a lot about how you avoid injuries and overtraining - you are a great example.

Unfortunately I had a friend who wanted to do a sprint and I could not get her to ease up on pushing herself hard with each workout. Shared plans and tips, but she entered a "practice" sprint, took over 2 hours to finish and tore a muscle in her calf. Such a common mistake, I know I didn't listen to Steve that first year he told me to walk 2 mins/ run 1min. I listened to you this year.

So I built up slowly, and feel stronger than ever. I also was wildly inconsistent and missed about half of my workouts. Most people are telling me to forget the oly Aug 23.
Almost called to see if I could drop to a sprint, but didn't.

I didn't do each workout thinking sprint, I was thinking oly. Just did longest run - five miles, felt OK. Did a 22 mile bike and could have done more. Swimming is still a weak link. Might drop out, but not yet. I've got two weeks and can get to the distances by then, just not sure about putting them together and the swim might be too much - but not throwing in the towel just yet.

I signed up for a sprint with my friend for the week after, so I'll get in a decent sprint in at least. Just can't let go of the oly goal just yet.

Mitzi

Mitzi, I hope you ultimately chose the race that YOU want to do. It sounds to me like you really want to challenge yourself and do the OLY, so I say go for it! I loved coming out of my first OLY swim thinking "really, are we done already?...I could keep swimming" after stressing out like crazy beforehand about it. I did not so much love the crazy cramps that came on the run, which was supposed to be my best part. You really don't know how it's going to go until you try.

Diet cleanup is going well using Whole30 guidelines. Looks like I'm down about 3 lbs. for the week. Have cheated a little with splashes of coffee creamer, salad dressing from the salad bar with unknown ingredients, and a bit of fried zucchini. But overall sticking with no sugar, no dairy, no grains. The farmers market is my friend .

Carol, whoa 3lbs is awesome!

Two years ago, I did my least favt HM; course was designed by a sadist, aka ultra runner. Even a non rocket scientist could work out that the advertised "One Hill" and 10 times meant climbing the hill 10 times. Thought it would be a loop. But then when I arrived, found it was an out and back. Climbing out of the boat basin, up the hill, down the backside, stop, turn around, climb the back part of the hill (which I think is actually steeper), down to the boat basin, and then repeat 9 more times. So "One Hill" but 20 times. Decided to redo that course today. Still slow on it but I certainly wasn't cussing nearly as much as last time. Very enjoyable. But oh my, it was hot. Not as hot as it could have been but still went thru 48 oz of water during it and then immediately drank about the same again as I did my stretches and cooled down.

Last night went to the grocery store and told hubby I was going to eat a beautiful, ripe, sweet nectarine when I was finished. His comment back? "Wine would be nicer". I hit him.

Anybody grill any of their fruits or vegs? This week, we grilled nectarines, a mango, and apples. Delish! Never would have thought of grilling a mango but the girl at the grocery store suggested it and wow!

How do you grill the mango?

Mitzi, if you can complete the swim you have the bike and run fitness to complete an Oly. Don't try to improve your fitness too much as it takes 2 weeks to recover from training, so we are already in that window. Just do what you can (moderate) and taper a couple of days.

Ok RR. I flew out Friday, dropped out my stuff on Saturday and got up at 4:15 ish on Sunday for the race. There were no professionals so everyone got into the water really fast. The water temp was 76.3 so it was not wetsuit legal. It turns out that some of the wetsuit folk appeared to be unhappy to have been yanked to the back of the swim pack as the faster of the bunch pummeled us not so fast non wetsuit folks during the race. The swim ended up being a bit more combative than usual with solid hits to my thigh, back, nose, etc. They would literally grab your ankle or put a hand between your shoulderblades and push down. In any case I tried to get into a steady pace and avoid folks as best I could. The first half of the swim went well with some increasing chop as we got farther out into the lake. The combination of bumping into people a lot and chop resulted in my consuming a fair amount of lake water throughout the swim. In the next third of the swim I had moments of feeling pretty good to feeling flatter energywise. The last 800 yards was really long. My shoulder tightened up a bit, the thinner air was sapping energy a bit and I was just losing the love of the swim. As I passed each bouy I looked to see how far to the finish and it did not get closer nearly fast enough. I just tried to keep going, knowing that if I just relaxed into the motion and relax that eventually I would get to the finish. So I just kept focusing on the mechanics of the swim, staying come and letting the shore come to me. By the time I got to shore I was pretty tired. I was happy to see the race clock say 1:36 (meaning swim time of 1:33). I was thinking it would have been closer to 1:45. I didn’t sprint through the T1, I just tried to gather myself, get my gear on and get ready for the bike.

The bike was pretty crowded for the first 10 miles with a moderate uphill before dropping down into the main loop. The first 40 miles went well, except that my stomach was iffy from the start of the bike. I think in hindsight that the lake may have had a higher bacteria count than I am used to or something. In any case I struggled with not being able to stomach much in the way of calories or fluids during the bike. I was happy with the first 40 mile loop and good through the 2nd loop as well. My knee started to tighten up a bit at mile 80 and the lower calorie intake and thinner air caught up with me around mile 90 where I had been maintaining a 18.15 mph pace. Then we hit a fairly steep several mile sustained climb that just took the umphta out of me. Then we dropped down for a couple miles and then came back over the hill. Both knees where moderately painful, but with the lower calorie intake I was pretty toasted and just limped in the last 15 miles. Like the swim I know that I just needed to relax as I could, keep pedaling and I would cover the remaining miles. My pace was solid enough for the first 100 that the last 12 could suck and I would still be ok time wise. Finally I got to the dismount line and carefully got off the bike. The bike transition was really long and I leaned fairly heavily on my bike as I walked to the run bags. I am sure that the folks at the sidelines were very concerned about my chances of finishing the run with how sucky I looked walking the bike along. I knew I had plenty of time, so I just walked to the change tent and get ready for the run.

I started out pretty slow on the run, but just shuffled along trying to get my legs under me. I increased my calorie intake a bit hoping that the Gu and gatoraid would be gentler on my stomach than the Infinit or that the passing of time would have let me take in a bit more calories. I upped my calorie intake to 1 Gu at mile 1, then gatoriad mile 2 and 3 then Gu mile 4, gatoriad, water, gu etc. After the first couple miles I was able to regain some form a bit and just slowly let the training take over and my pace gradually improved, catching up some on the calories (I had left 800 calories more than usual on the bike). I went from 11:30 per minute to 11:00 to 10:30, to 10:00 and settled in around 9:30-9:45 per mile. I was pretty solid through 13.1 and told my wife I was hoping to be done a bit after 7:00. I was solid through mile 17 and then started slowing down. I went from 10;00 to 10:30, and held there for a couple miles, then mile 19-25 ish were mostly uphill and it just slowly sucked all the energy out of me. I had been doing 1 cup of ice down my shirt every mile so my core body temp was fine and I had kept my effort consistent with my breathing rate in the thinner air. My stomach was starting to get iffy again, so I cut out the GU and went gatoraide and water only. I slowed to 11:00 and 11:30 then 12:00 mpm and kept slowing. The finish line was close though and I had pleanty of time. I just focused on relaxing, taking in as much fluids as I felt comfortable with and just kept going knowing it would carry me through to the finish eventually. I topped the hill at mile 25.5 and though I was now going down hill, it was not helping. My fatigue levels were maxing with only a half mile to go. I wanted to kick up the speed for the finish, but my body was telling me, not gona happen. I just kept with what I could, finally splitting off the main path toward the finish line and heard the announcer calling folks in. Someone said .2 miles to go, you got this, and I thought ya that is about all I have left. I just let my body carry me through it distancing from the fatigue, not trying to go faster than my body would let me and then just carried it through to the finish line. I vaguely remember him calling my name as I crossed the finish line and then it was done (12:46). I had left nothing on the course and was happy with the result, but dog tired. I ended up finishing at roughly top 25th percentile for both age group and overall. It was funny in that my overall run finish placement was the same as my overall race finish time for both the last race and this race to the number.

Looking at the race results it was really sad to see the number of folks who swam around 1 hour and biked around 5 hours and then DNFd on the run. Altitude can be a biotch. Remember to stay within yourself on high altitude races.

Thanks for stalking folks. Sorry for the late RR, but I just got computer up at the new apartment and the fire knocked out power yesterday (Lower Lake fire). It looks like the shoulder issue was an impingement thing, so I am working that back out, feeling much better one week out.

Steve, so glad to hear back from you. Wow, what a race! Talked to a guy yesterday who also said that the altitude was killer and while he had wanted to show his fitness, it was more about trying to survive. But even with all of that, you did amazingly! I love the way that you talked yourself into staying calm and trusting training while others are throwing in the towel. (I’m going to channel your voice when I feel like giving up.) Great race and great RR. Sorry that you were so tanked at the end but there has to be a level of satisfaction knowing that you gave it your all and survived.

Change of subject. To grill the mango, leave it whole and turn to cook each area. Then it’s really sweet and of course, oohey gooey when you cut into it. Hubby found some way to more easily cut the mango and separate it from the pit while I failed miserably. (All I could think of was Michener’s description in the book “Carribean” when I try to slice it.) For the nectarines and apples, half them and grill the outside halves first and then the inside.

Ok, time for a run to try to work the soreness from yesterday out.

Steve - Nice job staying flexible on the plan and adapting to the conditions that presented themselves. What's next on the docket?

Good luck to those that have upcoming races.

To those doing hills.....YUCK!

To those grilling out....YUM!

As for me I will be switching to 6-7 days a week of bike riding to prepare for an upcoming 40k time trial in 10 weeks (Red Sea to Dead Sea). Swim will be 2x week and run will be 3-4x a week. Play that one by ear. See how the legs hold up on the extra watts being pushed.