Briderdt and Lkct's Mentor Group - CLOSED for training! (Page 10)

X2 to both. Try to turn your head out of the water as little as possible. Good swimmers breathe with one goggle still in the water. Your nose creates a "bow wave" that keeps the water away from your mouth, so it's possible to inhale with half of your face still in the water. And I agree that it's more important to be able to breathe on both sides than it is to worry about any particular rhythm. I breath on my right side every other stroke about 75% of the time.

Here’s a bike tip that really helped me:

“Pedal in circles”. Cycling coaches will tell you to pedal in circles, meaning that instead of simply pushing down on the left and right downstroke (on a clock-face, imagine the downstroke as from 1 to 6), instead, think about engaging the pedal stroke through as much of the 360 degrees as you can. For most people, that means from about 10 to about 7 or 8. Push the foot forward over the top of the stroke, and then pull it along the bottom of the stroke. The top part should feel like you’re rolling a log over with your foot, and the bottom should feel like you’re scraping gum off the sole of your shoe.

The small portion of the stroke where you can’t apply power to the pedal (between 8 and 10), instead of actively pulling up on the pedal, you should just “unweight” it, so you aren’t resisting the downward pedal stroke on the other side. Pulling up on the pedal is useful when climbing or sprinting, but for the small amount of force it adds to the overall pedal stroke, isn’t worth the energy expenditure most of the time.

Of course, this is only possible if you have clipless pedals. You can kinda do it with toe clips, but it’s much harder to pull back on the lower portion of the stroke (5-8) if your shoes aren’t attached to the pedals.

The easiest way to practice this is on a trainer, but you can also practice on a spin-bike.

Agree!  Spin bike counts!!!

Pushed snooze through my time to run this morning.  Have to leave for work at 6:15, and I just can't quite agree with me getting up before 5am.  Does anyone get up consistently before 5?  If so, please tell me to HTFU.

Well, tonight was my first night.  Official weigh-in was 148.5.  We had all the inspirational stories and sales pitches, as was to be expected.  We did 200 steps tonight, as well. 

Tomorrow some of the other ladies and I are meeting at the gym for Body Pump class.  I have set up my schedule so that Sundays are rest days.  I know myself well enough to know that I HAVE to workout BEFORE I go home each night or it will never happen. 

Tomorrow also starts the beginning of logging everything we eat.  Weigh-ins will be on Thursday, before our nutrition class. 

As luck would have it, my personal trainer is one of our local triathletes that Mike sometimes trains with.  She just smiled and nodded when she saw me.  I think I'm in trouble!

I don't like to train in the morning. In the summer, I'll get up as soon as it's light to go for a long bike ride, but that's about it. I do almost all of my training during the week at night. I'm regularly at the gym until 10 or so.

You'll get no HTFU from me.

Morning workouts? In my dreams. I can get up early on Saturdays in the summer to go on long group rides. I have tried to tell myself many times that "this is the month I'm going to do my workouts at 5:30am", but the best I've done is probably three days in a row before the alarm clock wins over. Here I am on the computer at 11pm, guess I should be sleeping and getting ready to run in the morning! Good luck though!!!

Here are the things that make it more likely for me to work out in the morning.

Set workout clothes near bed.  Put them on 1st thing. 
small snack (fruit or just some sugar in the coffee) before workout.
COFFEE!  set up to make right before getting up is best.
Most important.  Go to bed early enough to make it possible

That said.  I have a really hard time getting up before 5 too.  5 is OK but no sooner. I should be at work by 6:30 but I don't usually make it till 7:00, and I live 5 minutes away from my job.  Good luck!

I also play a mind game. 'I'm just going to put on my running clothes". Then after coffee. I'm just going to run 5 minutes.....before you know it I get the whole workout in. Always a struggle. 

I seem to be the odd man out.  I love to work out early.  That said, it was actually a struggle to get out of bed this morning.  Mary usually gets up around 5a and I'm either up right before or shortly after her.  As she is getting ready for work I'm usually hitting the street for a run.  Of course it helps that I don't have to be at work until 8a.  Speaking of work, I gotta get ready...

That all makes me feel better!  Although I definitely won't be at the gym til 10pm, I can do my training in the afternoon without feeling like a schmuck.

Psst - don't let him fool you. He's one of those totally alert, annoyingly cheerful morning people... you know the ones.

Oh hi, honey! Don't mind me - more thread to read thataway ---->

Although I WISH I had the dedication to stay until 10pm!!!

(sorry, this is Mary, logged into Michael's account)

Edited by mashmead 2011-01-19 7:49 PM

I am pretty happy with my training so far, especially the running.  I need to get to the pool at least once a week though and I have only gone once this month due to the snow week.  I wish I could see a difference in my weight but I know that takes time.  I do feel a lot better!

But we're also usually asleep by 9-9:30...unless his crazy wife keeps him awake til 10!

ETA:  I'm not a morning person, I've just come to accept that I will not work out in the mornings.  I believe that it's best to work out when you're most alert...you'll probably have a better workout!  Fortunately my schedule is pretty flexible :-/

Edited by lkct01234 2011-01-20 7:37 AM

LOVE the avatar Meredith!!!

I wish I was more of a morning person. I always say I’m going to try to get to bed earlier and I never seem to manage it. Inevitably, I look at the clock and it’s 9:45 and I say, “ok, I just need to finish (XYZ) and then I’ll hit the rack”. And then, the next time I look at the clock, it’s 11:45.

I think some comedian (Jerry Seinfeld, maybe?) had a standup bit about “Nighttime Guy” and “Morning Guy”, and how Nighttime Guy is always saying, “Just a little longer”, “Just one more cocktail”. “You’ll still get plenty of sleep if you go to bed in an hour”. “You can sleep in on Saturday and make it all up”, etc. and how Morning Guy always ends up getting screwed by Nighttime Guy. That’s me.

The other night, I meant to go to bed early, since I had a PT appointment at 7am. I ended up going to bed at midnight, which was stupid anyway, and then my son woke me up twice during the night b/c he was sick and having bad dreams. I ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep and was a zombie all day.

We just got our trainer last night.  Will probably get on it a little tonight.  Running a 5k this weekend.  Don't want to go crazy on the trainer just because I'm excited about it and ruin my chances for a good race.  Starting full on tri training next week.

Ugh, no fun.
I usually don't have a choice about when I go to bed.  I generally fall asleep anywhere from 9:15 to 9:45 (not on purpose...on the couch in the middle of some show...at a friend's house...it drives Michael crazy).

Edited by Mary A 2011-01-20 4:19 PM

Thanks!  It took me a while to get a photo on the site because we just got a new hard drive.  Finally did it though.

I guess I am really odd then because most of my workouts start at 5AM or earlier.  I work on the opposite of Houston from where I live so I have to get going early.  My 37 mile commute drops to 7 later this year when the office moves finally.

I am sleeping in tomorrow - long run in the evening.

DT:
I have a question about chains:

Do you see there being a significant difference between these three options:

SRAM 1051 $42.99
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/product/sram-pc-1051-10-speed-chain

Shimano Ultegra Chain $39.99
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_515904_-1_10000__2...

SRAM 1031 chain $36.99
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_516236_-1_200291_2...

Keep in mind that I already have a powerlink on my current chain, so even if I went with the Ultegra chain I'd still have the tool-free removal option. I'm inclined to go with the Ultegra, since that's what I'm replacing, but if you think either of the SRAM chains is a better option, I'd gladly defer to your expert opinion.

(I'm overanalyzing this, aren't I? You can tell me....)

My personal opinion is that you're over analyzine it. But take this from the perspective of some one who started riding before indexed shifting even existed, so I really don't have any great issue with coaxing a chain into the right location with an extra nudge of the shifter.

I've used cheap Sedisport chains for YEARS (I stocked up in the early 90's, and have one left -- they were something like $8 each), matched to Ultegra 8-speed STI and all my tri bikes (Ultegra and 105 systems with bar-end shifters). Never had a problem, even racing with these combo's in criteriums, where rapid shifts can make or break the race.

If you have no problem with the extra $3 bumping up to the Ultegra, then go for it. When I look at these, I think of a stable of 8 bikes and multiply whatever cost by that number...

So in short (too late), I think the differences would be lost to things like cable friction.

I wussed out on my run this AM.  Was only planning on going about 20 min or so.  I'm running in a 5k race tomorrow and have a good shot at a PR since I'm coming off my half mary training and the weather will be cool.  Legs will be fresh but I still can't shake that "missed workout" feeling.  Guess I could run tonight.  I tend to forget about evening running since most of my running is done pre-dawn.