Kido's Summertime Shenanigan Group - CLOSED (Page 10)

Bummer on the DNF, Karl.  Glad it was not worse and that you PRd in the run!  Thanks for sharing your story and cautioning us.  How did your wife do--did she take care of you or finish her race? 

Looked up my HR monitor online.  It is only water resistant to 30m so I won't be taking it swimming.  Maybe will take time to put it on for the bike and run portion of the race because I think it will help me focus on staying "in the zone". 

This is my "peak week" then two week taper before my very first ever triathlon!  Getting excited, nervous, questioning my sanity. . .mostly looking forward to it!

The wife did good, 75/109 overall female.  She has been much faster in the past, she hasn't trained as much this year.  When I saw her on the bike I just told her I had a flat so she would keep going.

If you don't think your heart rate monitor will stand up in the pool it will only take a few seconds to put it on in transition.  Water resistant to 30m (about 100ft) may be okay, mine is completely soaked from sweat after each use, and I have never had a problem (Timex Ironman). Nevertheless, I find it very useful in pacing especially during the run.  Depends on what you wear in the pool, may be kinda difficult with a 1 piece. 

I looked at your race (Zootown), sounds like fun! 

Train hard, enjoy your taper!

I am glad to hear about the PB on the run and also that you weren't seriously injured in the crash. Love the positive attitude - way to dust yourself off and keep tri-ing

Arquillo,

I will try attaching a spreadsheet I developed to help me track my weight loss.  I think the biggest reason it worked or me was I was very diligent (obsessive) about weighing everything I ate and tracking my calorie intake. If you have Microsoft Excel it should work.

This spreadsheet is based on the Harris Benedict Formula for calorie needs.  What I assumed was I needed to create a calorie deficit based on a sedentary lifestyle.  Or that my calorie intake needed to be only 20% higher than what is needed for Base Metabolic Function or Base Metabolic Rate (BMR).  BMR is calculated based on your Height, Weight and Age and is different for men and women.  Once I calculated how many calories I needed for BMR and the 20% additional for a sedentary lifestyle (desk job) I aimed for a calorie deficit of 500/day or 3500/week which is 1lb/week.

So the spreadsheet works by taking your average weight (morning and evening) on a Monday, height and age to calculate your weekly calorie needs.  You then track all of your calorie intake by entering the nutritional values (calories, grams of protein/fat/carbs) of the foods you eat, and the calories burned doing exercise only.  It then calculates a calorie deficit (hopefully) based on the difference between your "needs" and what you consumed minus your calories burned during exercise/training.  It also calculates the % of calories from protein/fat/carbs.  Once I figured out I was eating too much fat (trying to get protein) the weight loss observed vs predicted was nearly identical.

I started in February and to date I have lost about 36lbs.  I am knocking on the age group door and next season I anticipate not being a Clydesdale anymore.  I will tell you that trying to train and lose weight is difficult and I have changed to eating more for maintenance than weight loss.  In November I'll switch it up again and try to shed the rest of the weight I want to lose.  At least tracking it this way you can keep track of your daily deficit and how you feel and find a compromise that works for you. 

By no means am I a nutritional expert/Dr. etc.  This is what worked for me so use it for what it is.

If you have any questions let me know.

Karl

Thanks Karl! I will give this a shot starting next week. I already use FatSecret to track my food intake and nutrient percentages. It has a great little bar code scanning app (Android, iPhone and I think Blackberry too) that automatically downloads nutritional information from pre-packaged food. I highly recommend it. It's far less work than this spreadsheet. I will be taking the cumulative data from there and plugging it into the spreadsheet. 

That's the trick.  You have to track EVERYTHING...  I found setting up a quick account with FitBit, Livestrong, or even the nutrition portion of BT.  FitBit and Livestrong aloso have phone apps to allow you to track on the run.

As long as you know how much of each item you ate/drank, you just select it from a list, select the amount, and it will do the math and sum up your day.

I race with my HRM all the time.  I don't use the garmin, since it's not good in the water.  But my timex is waterproof.  So I just start it when the gun goes off and hit the lap button at the timing mats.  It gives me a close approximation of my splits and allows me to keep my HR in check.  Obviously, the longer the race, the more critical to keep your HR in check.  For short races?  I just go all out, so it's not as important.  For an Ironman or marathon, I need to make sure I don't allow it to get too high to be able to maintain my pace.

As for crossfit...  I think it's ok to start at any level.  The are modificatoins you can use if you are not fit enough for the full workout, or they allow you to reduce the sets and reps at the beginning.

The lovestrong site has a function for this (as well as BT and FitBit - and I'm sure many other sites) It's very general.  Height, wieght, female or male, etc..  Then you select your basic activity level (excluding workouts).  It will give you a number that is your basic metobolic rate.  In general, the first few months of getting on a plan/diet, you can have a significant deficit and lose a lot of weight.  However, that will slow as your metablism changes.  Speaking to my trainer/nutritionist, when you hit that plateau, you want to keep it at about a 500 cal deficit per day.  So bigger days of training, you can eat more.  Inactive days, you eat less.

Most have been pretty much the same for me around 2600 cal/day +/- 200 (basic metobolic rate).

Signed up for a Tri in October and have a 5K in 2 weeks...  Nothing like races to provide at least a little motivation.

It is a nice benefit at work when they pay 1/2 of the registration fee, as part of the wellness program, keeps prices reasonable.

I know I have been MIA.  We have contractors in the house and it's been a chore to keep an eye on them and make sure any questions they have get answered.  Also been doing a lot of the work myself (the work I'm capable of - demo, minor plumbing and electrical, etc).  Good thing this has been an eaiser week, training wise.  Next week things pick up.

I hope everone is doing well.  Any training, racing, nutrition or equipment questions?

I have some bike questions:

What do you recommend for lubricants for our dry climate?  I have been using Ice Wax?

I have been cleaning an lubricating every 100 miles or so. Also my rear derailleur seems  to squeak a lot, it shifts fine, just annoying.

I got a pair of Profile T1+.  I have about 50 miles on them and haven't spent a lot of time being aero, real bumpy roads and the bike seems "twitchy."  If I post a picture can you critique my position?  I'll try to remember when I get home.

Thanks

Non-technical answer is pocket in back to hold gels, phone, etc.  sure there are some technical reasons also.

I don't lubricate as much as I should, and I live in a VERY dry place.  But I do clean the drivetrain every couple months with a standard cleaner/greaser combination.  The bike runs pretty quietly.

If there is sqeaking, even after lubs, maybe check your chain wear or if eveything in tuned up.

Also, being in earo will always be twitchy.  It's because the weight has moved further over the front wheels, and because the contact points to the bars is narrower.  Harder to make fine adjustments than if your hands were in the normal positions.  Be careful getting used to it.  I came VERY close to crashing several times when learning.  You just have to take it easy, maybe keep the speeds a little lower than you normally ride at before getting used to it.  Also, you have to make small steering corrections - it's easy to oversteer.

Aerodynamics!  Baggy or hanging clothes will create a lot of drag.

As a matter of fact, cycling clothes are the biggest bang for your buck for being more earodynamic/free speed.

The pockets are nice, but cycling jerseys are also cut longer in the back to provide more cover as you are leaned over your bars while riding.

I would swim... 

I could be wrong, but I think that's a warning for people at risk.  Elderly, young, poor of health.  Not to say you can't get sick, but I think it's probably ok.

If the bacteria count get's too high here, they just won't do the swim on race day and probably make some changes on the fly.

I vote swim too. They shut down the swim on race day here too if the bacteria count gets too high. Our lifeguards make the final call on race day morning. 

We have a three-tiered alert system for our beaches (green = normal levels, yellow = elevated levels and red = super high levels, swim at your own risk). We swam under the yellow flag and I was perfectly fine afterward. 

I would swim too.  . . . . . Besides you probably won't get sick until after the race anyway.

Either way you go, Good Luck and Have Fun! GO gokat!

We are camping/rafting this weekend on the Arkansas River in Buena Vista, CO.  Annual trip for our family and friends.  The water is still rippin this year so should be a blast.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Decided to build base by walking instead of trying to walk / jog.  I am only a little over a minute slower per mile, when I concentrate on it.  I think this will improve my overall fitness, rather than being hit or miss with the jogging.

I will still be jogging in a 5K on 8/13.

Any thoughts from the group?

Hey thanks for the advice guys. I swam, didn't get sick, and had a FANTASTIC race woooooo!!! 

Will put my times on in a minute in a race blog. Rough times were:

750m swim: 18 mins. 20km bike ride: 47 mins. 5km run: 30 mins.

Total time including transitions: 1hour 40mins.

My swim was a little slow, and the official time for my swim was 2 minutes out, as i missed my 'wave' and ended up starting with the Olympic swimmers instead, woops! But I really enjoyed the whole race, wasn't nervous at all, and had a blast! Was also 4th in age group yay!

Got another one next week, shorter swim (500m), slightly longer bike ride i think. Can't wait!

I think even if your jogging is a bit hit and miss, it's still better for building your fitness to try and do some walk and jog, rather than just walking? I'm no expert though, just from my own personal experience i guess good luck!