KathyG's 2012 Awesome Mentor Group-Full up (Page 10)

Thanks it did!  

thank you, It did.  I still need to learn to do some more things but I am getting there.

Thanks

Happy weekend 

Good day /evening one and all!

What's the plan for today? For me, it is catch up day. Spend time with the girls and give my lovely wife a break after this last long stretch of work. Tons of work around the house to get done. Tonight planning a swim and weight training session.

Have a great Saturday!

Today's plan went out the window this AM, but I managed to squeeze in a quick 2.5 mile run while my oldest daughter was at basketball practive. Rest of the day is jammed w/ house/family things, and of course the Patriots beating the Broncos all over the field tonight .

Tomorrow is a good hour on the trainer early AM, and maybe a good run later tomorrow.

Monday all the fun starts w/ Day 1 of HIM training. To the pool we go....

BUT....I'm still having thoughts about the following.... If I'm going to use the Fink BIF plan for my HIM (22 weeks in), why not just keep on it for the next 8, complete the full plan, and just go for it at Ironman Louisville? The timing works out, the wife has given me the OK, so......can anyone think of reason not to do it?

I know.  I just get super frustrated.  During the warmer months I'm on the roads a lot and I just get super frustrated. 

Amazingly I have fewer issues with drivers when I ride with Shaun than when I ride alone or with other girls.

To follow up with what Fred suggested, those of you who train and race with power....

How do you test to set your FTP?

How often do you test?

For those of you new to power, what questions do you have?

Those of you who have been training with power, what do you think is helpful to someone new to training with power?

I am meshing my 26 week HIM BT plan (I know a few people who have done them and were very happy with them)  with my running the half 1/2 plan leaving off the swim until after the race.  I ran 8 miles outside today.  It was COLD (for Forida anyway), mileage is finally going down, I am not used to running this far, that 13.1 miles of the half is going to be a long run!

Tomorrow I hope to do the inside trainer before I take off  to Europe, not looking forward to that 2 connections of which one in JFK, hate that place and then a 4 hour drive when I get to Geneva to arrive about 24 hrs after I leave my house.  Needless to say, Monday will be my rest day.  Only good thing is that I will be in Val d"Isere and hope to squeeze in skiing on Tuesday afternoon if I can convince my VP of the need to network with the colleagues who are there to ski.  The hotel has a gym so I will be doing some altitude treadmill running and biking.

We started making our own yogurt about a year ago and I can honestly say that I would be hard pressed to go back to the store bought stuff. Here is a link to the method we use:

http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/

The process takes time but the end product is excellent and I would say better for you than most of the stuff on store shelves. Also, the cost is far less than commercial: essentially just the cost of the milk and whatever flavors you want to use.

Cheers.

Hi Everyone,

its finally weekend This first week back at work was long and busy but I made it through

This morning I did something fun and competed in the Icelandic Championships for Masters (women have to be 30+ and Men 35+) and I won my AG in the shot put and became Icelandic Champion in shot put in my AG Well I should maybe mention that I actually sucked big time and only won because I was the only one in my AG

My husband ran like the wind and won the Men's 800m race in 2:14! I did not know he could run that fast especially as he hates running

So two weeks into the New Year and we are both already Icelandic Champions lol

Did my 30min easy run afterwards on the inside track and it was nice not to be on the treadmill. Outside running is impossible right now. It has been raining for 2 days and the snow is all gone but the ice is left and you could rather ice-skate right now than run! Picked up the pace a little and stayed comfortable and then after 30min I was already at 4.5km so I decided to just go for the 5km. It's all coming back to me now

Will write another post and give my opinion on some of the topics floating around here.....

Happy Saturday everyone

WELCOME MIKE

I also really enjoyed reading your story and congrats on loosing 60lbs

I would probably rather go with a HIM plan instead of an IM plan for the reasons you mentioned above.  Or maybe find some HIM plans (there are a lot out there) and compare them to the first 22 weeks of that IM plan and see how they differ. Maybe there is not much of a difference. But I assume your goal is to only finish and not race it, right? So any plan would probably work.

I am not a fan of people going for IMs in their first or second year of Triathlons (unless you have a marathon running background or a biking background) but of course everyone makes their own decisions but looking at the fact that you have only done sprints so far I think its a tough goal....Is there a specific reason why you would want to try for an IM already this year instead of just seeing how the HIM goes?

I did train with power last winter and will probably get into it again now. I only have a power meter on the trainer but not on the bike so as soon as we start biking outside there is no more info available.

I followed Jorge's program last winter and although it was a killer and I wished him dead several times during some of the workouts (especially the 6 x 4min intervals) I made it through

If I remember correctly we tested FTP every 4-5 weeks with 2 "all out" tests. One 3 min test (I think this year it changed to 5min) and one 20 min test. Both tests are tough and I was close to puking every time.

But the good thing was that during those 14 weeks (did not make the last 2 weeks as we started biking outside) I increased my CP from 225 (after 1st test) to 259 (after 3rd test) and that sure helped me get a good start in my summer triathlon season

OK here is some input from some of the questions/topics during the last few days...

WORKING OUT WHILE TRAVELLING FOR WORK

I do that a lot because technically my job is travelling. Thankfully I am only flying 50% right now and work 50% in the office because otherwise training would really suffer.

The key to this is "Plan ahead" as good as you can. When I have stopovers somewhere I know that I can probably not swim and usually not bike as well (except if I want to use the lousy hotel gym stationary bikes (if they even have one)) so I try to get all my swim and bike training in during the other days of the week. If I am gone longer I will make it a run and strength focused week and then the week before or after I focus on biking and swimming more.

Most important is to not stress over the fact if you can't get a workout in or have to change it somehow because that stress won't help. Work is just simply part of our life and we all have to do it to pay the bills so sometimes that gets in the way.....

BIKE SHORTS

I love my Pearl Izumi shorts and last year I got some compression Tri-Pants from 2XU. I also heard a lot of good things about the DeSoto shorts and will see if I can get a pair for this year. I bike all my long bikes in my Tri-shorts to get used to them for the longer races.

REST DAYS

I usually have one complete rest day per week but if some weeks are low on volume I might swim or walk during that day just to do something. During high volume weeks I need that rest day to stay sane

SADDLE

I just got an Adamo saddle and it is the 4th saddle I am trying. So far I love it as the pressure on certain parts is not there anymore. I am still sore on my sitbones though but the person who fitted my bike told me to give it 3 weeks and then it should feel perfect! I can't wait til then because not being really comfortable on the bike was one thing that kept me back from riding more...

Welcome MikeD!

I've been reading everyones updates, and thanks for all the inspires, but have been so busy this week this is the first time I've had to sit down and craft some responses. I have two big deadlines approaching and am a few days behind on both projects. So hunker-mode has been activated, and will continue to be until mid-Feb.

To chime in on recent chat:

Bike Shorts: I like Pearl Izumi shorts for 80+ rides, for everything else Orca tri shorts do me fine. I also like my Craft tri suit. The only thing I can definitely recommend is to avoid shorts with embedded gel.

Rest Days: When needed.

Saddle: Adamo on the tri bike, Terry Butterfly on the road bike, and Fizik Arione on the commuter.

HIM Plan: I've used both the Half Ironman, and Intermediate Half Ironman from BT successfully (i.e. finished happy). The key for me comparing first HIM to 2nd was getting lots of rides >56 miles in before race time. Since my running is so slow it's key for me to feel like 56 miles is "easy" so i'm in a good head space for the run. YMMV.

Bike Laws: I'll have to take a picture of our bike boxes here in Portland. They were installed after a rash of right hook accidents (a couple fatal). I've been witness to or experienced all sorts of bad behavior on the road. The one that gets me the most is unnecessary yelling/honking, scares the crap out of me every time, especially since I tend to zone out while riding.

Please please don't try to grab a moving vehicle, that is a recipe for disaster.

Training w/ Power: Thanks for asking, I need some help here. I bought a Powertap wheel (basic wired) last April. I bought the Training and Racing with Power Meter book, but have not read it. Maybe I should. Anyway, I'm using Golden Cheetah. I have my rides downloaded since April, but my riding last year was really inconsistent, so i'm not sure how useful any of that data is (?). Also I noticed that my power numbers outside were quite a bit higher than those I was pushing on the trainer, is this normal?

I've got the wheel setup on the trainer, and hope to use it for Jorge's plan, right now i'm going by RPE because I have not done any FTP testing. I'll follow whatever the plan says for that at this point. I've read a bunch of posts on here about training with power and the first thing out of most peoples mouth is to ride and record. But what then? What are the important numbers I should look for? Am I looking for weekly trends, critical power, avg watts? Any one-page-dummies manual type things out there on the web I should read? I don't have time right now to sit down and plow through the book.

I have been hesitant to go full bore on Jorges plan until I get a bike re-fit. It's been a couple years now, and I'm having some comfort issues - shoulders, cleat issue causing right knee/quad discomfort. The bike has never been as comfortable as I feel it should be, very frustrating. Will try to get an appt this week because I need to get going full steam ahead on bike training.

Run training is going well. Next week is recovery week, looking forward to that!

On tap: today is focused trainer ride. Tomorrow 2.2 mile run and yoga. Maybe a 1/2 hour spin as well. Weather is dreadful.

Have a fantastic weekend all!

Hello All,

I have not been able to get on my computer much this last week! This week I am going to try to get on everyday and see what everyone is up to! I just got caught up on the forum and reading what everyone has been up to this week!  Seems like everyone is doing pretty good! GOOD JOB! As for me, I am just trying to do some physical activity. I have started doing the Insanity workouts in the morning with my friend.  Trying to just get in some sort of physical shape before starting one of the Spring Workout Plans that is on this website.  I have been going to the gym in the evening and doing some walk/run workouts on the treadmill. I have been doing 5 min walk/5 min run/5 min walk/5 min run and then doing 20-30 mins on the spin bike or the treadmill.  My feet have been cramping up really bad! I dont know if this is from doing the insanity workouts in my basement on the cement w/ carpet or what!  I feel like I could run longer if my feet weren't so cramped up! Does anyone have anything ideas on how to fix this? Or is it just that I have not done any exercising in the past 6 months??   

I am so motivated after seeing all of your posts...I feel like such a newbie... I sit and think about the 400 m swim that my sprint tri has and then feel overwhelmed by it.. and then see some of you guys do that for a WARM UP WOW! I love it!! 

If anyone ever has some tips or advice about first tris I would really appreciate some! Right now I feel like I will never be able to run a 5k after swimming and biking!! Especially since I can run past 5 minutes straight right now.  Any advice on how to be able to run longer?  I am not worried about speed, I am a very slow runner! I have been running at about 4.5-4.7 mph so that I wont get too much out of breath! Any advice? Should I just run more times per week ? And please tell me when running will become "easier"  

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

This is excellent advice.  Most folks work at 5' walk/1' run interval and build up from there. 5' run/5' walk is even run/walk but think doing smaller chunks might be easier. Be sure you run easy so you could say a short sentence and not breathing really heavy. If you are breathing heavy slow down or take an earlier walk break.

My plan for the race....I'm not really sure.. MY plan is to FINISH I think i might do that Couch -5k to help the running progress! I am also going to look into lessons!  I also am not running too fast so that I am out of breath. It is definatly slow and steady..  

thanks!

PLANS - I am following a customised Olympic plan from BT as I was planning to do one at the end of the month.  OWS panic issues made me decide not to do it but I'll still follow the plan to the end (one more week) and then go onto an Olympic maintanence plan.  I'm lost without one, even if I don't manage every workout it gives me a structure to organise my week around.  I swaps days about to suit and substitute touch rugby games for runs when I'm needed and shift rest weeks to when I know I'll be busy at work or away.

SHORTS - thanks for all the suggestions, I'm currently wearing ones I got for $18 on eBay and they have been great but I've never cycled more than 2.5 hours. I need to buy new ones as they are finally getting a bit see-through so the posts have been really useful.  My tri-shorts aren't brilliant either - I got Orca ones but they are a bit thin so I need to buy some more substantial ones for my next tri.  I think I didn't spend up big when I started out in case I decided I didn't like doing triathlon.

STEFFI - wooohya!  Congrats on being Icelandic champion, that is incredibly brilliant.

REST DAYS - I never really plan them but have them when I feel I need them or when life gets in the way and I have to have a day off due to sick kid, work etc. This happens enough that I end up with pretty regular days off - about once every week.

SADDLE -  My bike arrived with the most gorgeous Fizik saddle but after 40 minutes on it, I was crying with pain.  Got home to find I was really badly chaffed and bleeding.  I have a La Selle Diva which seems to suit my geometry perfectly.  It's got a cut-out and is quite wide.

I'm just winding down after a busy Sunday - early out on the bike followed by a swim and some Pilates.  Had to put out some fires at work but was all handled over the phone.  Looking forward to watching some TV, finish my book and an early night.  Hope you all had a great weekend.

It has been a few days of work, train and sleep for me - hope work turns the corner this week. Tomorrow should be a good BT catch-up day for me.

Kelly and Rusty good luck on your long runs today. Brrr Kelly 8 is cold do to long run.

What is everyone else doing today?

Kelly and Rusty: have a good time on your runs!

Plan for the day:

1. catch up around the house on laundry and cleaning
2. shop for my wife's birthday present
3. take the girls to their swimming lessons
4. watch the Packer game
5. run like the wind (a very slow and fat wind!)

I agree with Mike about doing the C25K plan. Its a great plan and very structured and it will get you to running 5K soon. Once you can do that distance somewhat comfortably I would incorporate a brick workout (bike-run) once a week. For me this is the key for all my races and I do bricks religiously once a week during the season. But get to that point first where running is comfortable. You will get there but of course it will take some time! Don't get impatient.

And of course get some good running shoes that are fitted well on to your feet. That is a must for starting to run! This might also help with the cramping.

If you get cramps a lot then you can take some magnesium pills. That usually helps with me.

The same with swimming. You will get there but it will take time. get to the pool as often as you can. The more you swim the easier it will get!