Consistency Equals Success - CLOSED (Page 3)

I'm in as well Mitch.

NAME: username: Sawyer1206, First name: Dennis

STORY: I am 40 years old and reside in a suburb North of Houston Texas. My friends and family will tell you I am a very active person at home and at work. Despite being labeled active I still struggle with my weight and am finding it more difficult to maintain as I get older. In 2004 I weighed close to 300lbs and after realizing my current life style was not a healthy one I made a decision to change it. I decided to start a healthy diet and to take up running. One year later I finished the Houston Marathon weighing in at 180lbs. My life style has totally changed in the last 12 months, I am 110% into training for triathlons, bike rides, and runs. I am thankful for my health and the ability to beat up my body on a daily basis now. And enjoying every minute of it.


FAMILY STATUS: I'm married with two teenagers at home. We are an active family with both kids participating in some sort of sport or physical activity year round. We enjoy our time together and we all share a passion for Wakeboarding which keeps us together and active on the weekends.


CURRENT TRAINING: With two Sprint Triathlons behind me, with a lot of credit going out to this group, I am setting my eyes on bigger challenges. I am currently planning on my first Olympic distance in May and my first 70.3 in November of 2015.


KEY RACES: This year my season starts with 2 half marathons and 1 full marathon in February. After the running season I will focus on my first OLY in May and 70.3 in November. I'm a big guy so I come to except I will never be fast so I'm heading in to the longer races so I can slow my roll.

WEIGHTLOSS: I am 6’2” and 210lbs, I have struggled with my weight since I graduating High School. My life style back then led me to packing on the pounds and getting up to a whopping 300lbs. I currently weight 220lbs after putting on 10lbs in the last two months.


WHY I WOULD MAKE A GOOD MANTEE: I am a goal driven person who never gives up, always 110 %. I will do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal and I prefer to work in a structured program with purpose and good planning. My wife tells me I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive at many aspects of my life but most particularly when it comes to my fitness goals. I am a true man of my word, I respect the opinion of others, and have no hidden agenda…what you see is what you get with me.


CURRENT GOAL: Put in more time and effort into training for longer runs and triathlons. Make more changes in my lifestyle to become more lean and healthier.

Edited by sawyer1206 2015-01-01 2:52 PM

Hard question to answer in absolute terms. You obviously build hours along the way and seek to max hours out 3 weeks before the race and then enter a 2 week taper. Max hours for me looked like 2 90' weekday sessions of sub threshold efforts, 1 60' recovery effort and then the long ride of 70miles (call it nearly 3.5 hrs), but that was in the context of a17 hr peak schedule. The key is putting in enough consistent efforts to be comfortable with getting the 56 miles done and still maintaining something left for the run. Overtraining the bike is not a bad thing as long it doesn't detract from other areas of your training.

Getting brick workouts in are essential throughout the process. One of my favorite workouts is doing a run-bike-run brick of 30' x 2hrs x 30' about 4 weeks before a race. It is a killer.

Edit: just saw on your into Seth that you are doing St. George HIM - get on that bike and ride some hills (as often as possible)! That's a helluva ride!

Edited by JoePetto 2015-01-01 3:36 PM

Mitch-Will you be carrying the challenge forward to this group?

Yes. I will have time tomorrow to introduce it to the new group. Keep track of your stats and we will begin after I detail it yo the team. Thanks!

Does anyone use the virtual power option on trainer road? I'm trying to figure out what I would need to buy in terms of ant or Bluetooth to use this feature. Thx.-Elena

I hope all we need in a cadence sensor. I just got mine in the mail yesterday but I haven't had a chance to install it on the bike yet. I think JBacarella just joined the team and he's using the cadence sensor setup I do believe.

Discussion on virtual power from their website:

http://www.trainerroad.com/virtual-power

I have a question about brick workouts.

When doing a brick, do you try to structure it like a transition and get off the bike and into your running shoes quickly? If so, what do you do with your bike? The car? Garage?

Or, do you not rush moving from biking into running, perhaps taking a few minutes or more to get ready to run after finishing the bike?

I live in an apartment and it takes me a good bit of time to get my bike up to my place after a ride, so I am not completely sure how I will plan to do a brick. Any tips for how to make this work would be great!

Joe --

Thanks for the response. I see now that I have to increase the bike sessions.

NAME: Kate

STORY: Started doing Triathlons in 2007 working may way up from Novice to Half Ironman. I started all of this with the desire to compete in Advenure Racing but realised that I preferred triathlons. It's been my escapism but I have a challenge with consistency - I travel a lot for work, end up doing long hours and my life decends into chaos until I start again. I'm hoping that this group will provide me with some accountability and help me to take control. As with all New Years I'm making plans to better myself and this is all part of it.

FAMILY STATUS: I'm single (my ex husband left a couple of years ago). Having spent a couple of years unsuccessfully dating I've decided to focus on upgrading me rather than trying to find a needle in a haystack as i figure I've got a better chance of success Oh and i have an adorable feisty cat called Tirpitz

CURRENT TRAINING: I'm a member of a triclub but have to admit that at the moment I'm a little scared to do much club training as I'm carry a lot of excess weight.

LAST YEAR'S RACES (2014): I did 1 and 2/3rds last year (someone ran the last part of the second one for me as I was injured).

2015 Races: I have the Devilla off road 5k, Caledonian Etape, Bishopbriggs Sprint and 2 HIM races planned. All before July.

WEIGHTLOSS: I'm not at the heaviest I've ever been I think I spent the last year giving up on me a little so am now embarking on regrouping and making sure I look after myself. Loosing weight isn't that much of a problem (I think - I've done it successfully in the past) but it's maintaining the consistency that will make a difference hence with this will help.

2015 GOALS: Get to my goal weight, comfortably complete my HIM, achieve consistency in my training.

Thanks so much for letting me in!

I don't think it matters if you were to store the bike before the run. I think it's a case of simulating the going from the bike to the run bit and some transitions can be a little complex between the dismount and the getting out on the run so just do what you can.

Basically have two options with a cadence sensor - Bluetooth or ANT+. Your choice depends upon the unit you are synching the cadence sensor to. Smartphones and related devices won't support ANT+, same for some of the older race watches (not sure whether Garmin 910xt supports BT). If synching with a computer, you need an ANT+ stick or make sure your computer is BT compatible. Once you make the format decision, you need the sensor and should get a similarly compatible HR monitor. You don't need a stick for BT.

Agreed - how long does a typical T2 take? Keep within those timeframes and you will be fine. Key is making sure that you run with tired legs. For me, I usually take my bike in my SUV and set up a T2 in the back of the vehicle with everything laid out in the back.

Definitely qualifies for quote of the day for me.(made me laugh) If we all concentrated on improving our selves and not worrying about what others a doing we would be living in a different world for sure!!!

Welcome to the group Kate. If your looking to improve consistency this is the place, Mitch, Jackie, and Joe are beasts and they will help motivate without a doubt! From another who struggles with ones weight I understand completely and I know its a daily struggle, but again I think you will find great motivation and advice here.

Thanks for he props. One of our teammates mentioned using myfitnesspal to keep yourself honest from a food intake perspective. I have used it off and on and always go back to it when I'm serious about losing a few pounds. I lost about 6 pounds through the end of the year tracking all my food decisions.

Once I get into a groove from an exercise perspective I wrongly begin believing that I can eat and drink anything and everything. I find at those times when I'm working out a lot that I require themost discipline with regard to eating. I will track almost everything I eat and myfitnesspal will sync with my workouts to track net calories for each day. It's a great program if you are willing to do the little bit of extra work to input your food.

Team Roster:

Trisuppo / Mitch
gekkounonetsu / Ellen
JBacarella / Jim
emlavigne / Elena
PVFD304 / Brian
Sillygal / Beth
exercisegirl / Lisa
JoePetto / Joe
mbanddv / Melissa
DaveL / Dave
molivi311 / Morgan
smack / Seth
dgconner154 / David
scottjjmtri99 / Scott
jford2309 / James
killingtime1229 / Troy
tmoran07 / Todd
[email protected] / David
microdoc / Kevin
dcon / Dan
cassowary / Patrick (Cass)
kate_r / kate
jackiep / Jackie
sawyer1206 / Dennis

Ellen - glad to have you on the Team for round 2! I like your goals. It is a journey and they reflect that.

Scott:

What part of Michigan and what did you do in the Navy? I finished my Navy days here in Michigan in 1998. Always great to have another Michigander and Sailor around.

Team:

Every month, in the spirit of Consistency Equal Success, we have had a monthly challenge. It is a point based challenge. You earn 1 point for any day where you Swim or Bike or Run for at least 30 minutes. That is 30 minutes for that activity, i.e. if you run for 30 minutes that qualifies you for a point. If you run for 30 minutes and bike for 45 minutes that qualifies you for 1 point. If you bike for 25 and run for 25 that does not qualify for any points.

Every day that you run or swim or bike for 30 minutes you report that in this thread and keep a tally of your points and total minutes of all swim, bike and run. Total minutes are used in case of a point tie at the end of the month.

We will begin this months challenge tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 3rd.

The folks in our team from the previous mentor group will surely be logging their points beginning tomorrow and the rest of you will see how its done. Ultimately it is a fun challenge that encourages you to workout on a consistent basis. Many times when I would have rolled over and stayed in bed I was encouraged to get up and get training so I could stay in the points hunt.

Please let me know if I have made this too confusing or if there are any question.

-Mitch

1) I used one from a different site. It was 16 weeks and I thought I could have used just a little more. So I think the 20 week will be good.

2) I always bring my own stuff for the bike. I want to be able to practice my nutrition and get it nailed down so I bring my own on the bike and I pack my salt tabs with me on the run. The GU's and Water are what I use on the run and they are all pretty much the same at each race unless you have a taste preference.

3) That depends on you. I can't eat solids on the bike or run because I get bubble-guts. I will take 1 bottle of Perpetuem every hour, 1-2 S-caps every hour (depending on weather), and 1 shot of Hammer Gel from the flask every 30 minutes. That gets me about 375-450 cal/hour which works perfect for me. This combo works for me but you need to figure out what works for you. I read suggestions from others and went to work with trial and error until I found out what worked best for me.

Which training plan did you use for the IM? I'm using the RPE 20 week IM now as a base builder.