fb444's Group FULL

Hi Fred.  Is your group open?  I would love to join.

My name is Laura and I've done one triathlon this past August.  I'm 38 years old and live in Colorado.  I am married, but don't have kids, just 3 dogs, a cat, and a horse which I ride competetively.   I moved to Colorado 5 years ago from Dallas. 

I've been a cyclist for many years, mountain and road, but have always sucked at running.  I always had problems with plantar faciitis when I would try to run.  I finally got some new shoes last year and I haven't had any problems with that since.  I find running very difficult and am therefore very slow.  I have only been running for a year now and even though I can ride my bike for hours and miles, when I started running I couldn't even run 1/2 mile without walking.  Longer distances continue to elude me, even going 3 miles without stopping to walk is a huge effort for me, though I was able to do it in my triathlon last year.  Biking is not an issue and I am a fair swimmer, though I am not too fast because I need to learn form better.  But my biggest weakness is running.

I thought I would be a good fit in your group because you have a lot of experience with running and could really help me out. 

My goals for 2007 are to compete in one sprint triathlon and get my 5k run time under 30 minutes.  I did the 5k in my triathlon in 32:25, but that was a huge effort for me and not something I can do consistently or easily.  I also want to ride in a road ride in
August that is 78 miles and goes over 3 mountain passes for total 6000 feet elevation gain.  I can ride 78 miles with minimal training, but not with that kind of climbing.  I also have a goal to compete on my horse and qualify for Championships in September.  I ride him 4 days a week and do weights and core work at the gym along with my running/biking/swimming to stay fit for riding.  Though I haven't been swimming recently, just running on the treadmill, biking on the exercise bike and doing weights.

I am horrible about remembering to log my workouts here, but if you accept me in your group I will try my best to put my workouts in here weekly.  I have a garmin Forerunner 305 that I got for Christmas, so I can HR train, but I don't know anything about any programs for that.  I can't wait until the snow melts here so I can start running/cycling outside again and use all the cool features of my new toy.  I've been limited to the gym and treadmill recently because of the snow.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and hopefully I'll talk to you soon.

Laura

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been absent for a few days. I'm so busy I have such a hard time getting on here and posting, but I am subscribed to this thread so I have read all the posts in my email.

Anyhow, this week has not been as good as I would have liked it to be. I went to Houston over the weekend and didn't get home until 1:30 Sunday morning, so that blew my Monday morning workout and I was still wiped out on Tuesday so didn't get up then either. But I did get up yesterday and ran 2 miles on the treadmill in 23 minutes along with .5 mile warm up/cool down for another 7 minutes. Then today I did weights - biceps, triceps, back and then did 10 minutes on the stairmill.

Fred, I need some advice. My left calf was so tight when I was running yesterday and it was tight on the stairmill today. I have been having on and off problems for several months now with my left calf cramping up. I got new shoes and the problem seemed to disappear for a couple of months only to return over the last three weeks. I stretch a lot and it doesn't seem to help a lot. I'm not sure what to do. Yesterday it was so bad that I had to stop running and stretch and then I just ran thru the pain until it seemed to work itself out somewhat. So, I know I don't need new shoes, I get them fitted from the local running store where they video me on the treadmill and check my stride. What do I do? I was going to try taking some l-glutamine to see if that might help, or maybe there is another supplement that will help with recovery? Or is there anything else I should be doing?

So I envy all of you who can run outside right now. 6 inches is NOTHING. I haven't seen the asphalt on my street in 6 weeks. My sidewalk is clear, but icy, and the trail I always run on is snow covered. There are 20 foot piles of snow on the sides of the road where the plows moved it and we still have 12 inch drifts in the backyard. And we are going to get another 3-4 inches this Saturday. Colorado is not supposed to be like this. It never snows like this here. Sucks.

Anyhow, tomorrow I get to go running again, but if my calf is bothering me then I might jump on the exercise bike and do a hill program instead.

 Edit:  I updated my training log for the week so go have a look if you want.