Ernesto's group (5th season) - Closed (Page 10)

Joe, Greg and Ernesto, thanks for the marathon feedback.

Darcie, Big congrats on your breakthrough.  I like the TI stuff.  When I started tris, I lived 40 mi from the pool.  I'm not fast and not sure I ever will be, but I've been able to do the distance.  This season I plan to swim more and hopefully that will take care of my speed issues.

Avoiding simulposting, open a second window.  Before you post, refresh the original window to make sure someone hasn't updated the challenge board.  If they have, simply copy the new updated chart into your posting window and add your totals before you hit the submit button.

On MAF, I distinctly remember complaining to Ernesto that to stay at or below MAF I had to walk.  It was quite frustrating.  My MAF now is 125 (5 pts for injury free).  So all you youngsters quit complaining.

Jackie
www.funafterfifty.com

OK so that I understand going into January and being a newbie....

When I look at the workout postings the numbers next to swim, run, bike, etc are the number of workouts that you've done regardless of distance or time and the time total is the total amount of time that you've worked out for the month??

Now that the group is closed it may be a good time to reiterate the rules for the challenge.

Rules are simple: you get one point per every workout you do. The person with the most workouts in a month is awarded bragging rights and group recognition. We talked about a tin foil medal but that never came to fruition due to mentor laziness (sorry past winners).

To qualify, a workout must meet the following criteria:

- 30 minutes or more.

- Only swim, bike and run activities. Core work, crossfit, yoga, etc. do not qualify.

- Only log up to three workouts a day, not more than one of a single sport (i.e.: run in the morning and evening, you get only one point). So your best day could be a swim, a ride and a run.

- If two players log the same amount of workouts in a month, total time will break the tie.

- You MUST take at least one day off a week. If you choose not to do so, you will have to pick wich day of the week you will erase from the count.

- You can take more than one day off a week, your choice. The objective is not to beat ourselves to death in order to win the mythological tin foil medal. The objective is to establish a good frequency and have fun. This challenge has proved to be very motivational to many (myself included) especially when the weather sucks or you feel lazy.

- Challenge will run starting January 1st through the 31st.

- The best thing about this challenge is that we are all at the same level, regardless of experience, front runner or back of the pack, age, etc.

JoePetto - 2012-12-28 8:59 PM Out in Western Mass where the temps are dropping to single digits. Despite my piriformis, plan on spending the day on the slopes in single digit windchill and another 6" of new snow. Will be fun to track it on the 910xt. Kids are in ski school all day and the wife will be swimming. Been a lifelong skier, but tomorrow should be some old school cold NE skiing. If someone could add a 30' run for me I'd appreciate - I am ipad limited right now.A couple of folks posted about TI and their swimming issues. The last discipline I started was swimming and I had a real fear of the water. During a TI clinic, I realized that I had repressed a near drowning experience at age 5 - talk about issues!!! Can't say enough good things about TI because it gave me a foundation and skill set to build upon. TI is very martial arts/yoga/zen in approach - practice makes perfect. This is not always suitable for type A triathlete types like me who want results. That said, you need to think about how you learn and what works best. I tried TI videos and books to no avail, but the two day clinic with video analysis was worth its weight in gold. As I said to my wife, a life long swimmer, it was never so mentally fatigued.For me my swim phobia was always about breathing and not getting that next breath. Eventually and after reading some of the TI forums I was able to diagnose my problem. It wasn't the inhale, it was the exhale. I learned that I didn't need to exhale fully to take that quick bite of air. I learned thos from the simple drill of bobbing up and down as I walked through my lane fully embarrassed. TI got me through my first sprints and Olys, but it will not prepare you for open water in a group. The only way to practice this is to do it, rinse and repeat. In my first OWS event swim, one of my competitors did not make it out of the water while his family waited for him. We never knew why we lost him, but the experience still haunts and pushes me forward. There are recent times when I panic in the water still and this I have learned is brought on more by pangs of performance anxiety than true fear of drowning (a huge accomplishment in itself). My point here is that for us unnatural swimmers (not Andy ) the swim remains a challenge and as I dream of my 2014 IM I am still worried about it.So, savior every victory and accomplishment and there will come a time when 625 yds, becomes 1000 yds and then quickly 2000 yds. The amazing thing about getting the "swim" thing is that you can literally double or triple your output in a matter of days. Define your limiters and work to remove them.

I am planning on doing the "Tour de Tucson" in 2013 (111 miles) and then driving to Phoenix the next day to volunteer for Ironman Arizona and guarantee a slot for 2014. Do you want to join me? It will be fun.

On a different note, I love snow skiing, I grew up in Mendoza which is home to the highest peak in the Americas (6,959m/22,837ft) and some gorgeous skiing.

Awesome day today.  Great workout at the cycling studio I go to - we did a "hilly" virtual ride through Italy, with a 10-minute-out-of-the-saddle climb at the end.  And later, I helped a friend lose her "snowshoe virginity" at a local trail.  One thing about western NY - you either find a way to exercise through winter, or become a hermit.  We got hit by over 12 inches of snow on Wednesday into Thursday.  Considering we had nearly ZERO snow last year, I was anxious to dust off the snowshoes and get out there.  And my friend is now HOOKED!

Here is a pic from our jaunt...one of two random trees that were decorated.

And here is hubby doing snow removal.  It looks like a lot, but anytime he can break out his tractor and push stuff around, he's happy.

Have you ever volunteered before?  I plan to volunteer at the medical tent at IM Lake Placid.  A buddy of mine will be running it again, and has rented a condo for a week.  I'm pretty stoked!

Ernesto, another question on the monthly challenge (at the risk of being pedantic )

Our tri club does a weekly training aquathon, typically a 20 min swim leading into a 20 min run. The workout is 40 mins so I assume it counts, but as a run or swim or toss a coin?

Greg

25min OWS. No points as it was only 25mins.

Mitch Swim 5 - Bike 17 -Run 23 - Rest 4 - Total 45 Time 34:19:41
Matthew Swim 12 - Bike 11 - Run 11 - Rest 4 - Total 33 Time 41:15:51
Mark Swim 4 - Bike 10- Run 11 Rest 7 Total 25 Time 22:17:00
Jackie Swim 0 - Bike 4 - Run 20 - Rest 5- Total 24 - Time 37:50:51
Jim Swim 0- Bike 7- Run 15 Rest 5 - Total 22 -Time 16:57:14
Ernesto Swim 2 - Bike 8 - Run 11 - Rest 7 - Total 21 - Time 28:08'18"
Charlotte Swim 1 - Bike 8- Run 7 Rest 3 Total 20 (To Goal: 10) Time 12:00 (To Goal: 8:00)
Gabe Swim 0 - Bike 8 - Run 9 - Rest 11 - Total 17 - Time 18:35:28
Joe Swim 9- Bike 5 - Run 3 - Rest 1 - Total 17 Time 11:12:12
Chris Swim 0 - Bike 0 - Run 13 - Rest 8 - Total 13 Time 11:57:41
Samy Swim 1 - Bike 0 - Run 10 - Rest 8 - Total 11 Time 8:03:23
Andy Swim 2 - Bike 0 - Run 8- Rest 12 - Total 10- Time 6:52:47
Barry Swim 1 - Bike 2 - Run 2 - Rest 7 - Total 5 - Time 2:58:52
Scott Swim 1 Bike 0 - Run 1 - Rest 2 - Total -2 - Time 2:

Darcie - Congrats on the breakthrough. Nothing like hard work will get you there. Keep going and it will slowly become 'normal'.

Proud of myself today, set the alarm for 8.30 (Quite early for me this week while I'm off work) and instead of hitting snooze and rolling over I got up got the cycling kit on, looked out of the window... raining! Now my mind was off thinking I should go back to bed and go out for a ride when the rain stops, and I ignored it, clipped my helmet on and off I went.

Covered 13.3 miles in about 1 hour 13 minutes, couple of long up hills which where pretty tough, but I was rewarded with a nice long downhill about halfway round, picked up a pretty scary speed too. Got back home absolutely soaked but with a big grin on my face.

Learned a couple things while I was at it too: -

1. Need some glasses, got a lot of water in my eyes, especially while going fast.

2. Running after cycling is going to be hard, my legs didn't quite know what to do after I got off the bike just to walk back into the house, I can just imagine how they're going to react when I try and run.

I think I accidentally posted this on last years thread. Anyway, got out for a 75 mile base ride today, Balt to Annapolis. I am certainly out of shape, was painful at times and quite slow, but done, tried to maintain form. This is part of the Rapha Festive 500, a challenge on Strava where you try to ride 500 k between Xmas and New Years. I did all the Ks last year but will likely have half this time around..

I'm in for the January workout challenge. Great motivator

http://app.strava.com/activities/34426793

Chilly and snowy here so a 40 minute dreadmill slog for me!!

Nice ride...chilly yesterday too.

Thank you Jables! That means a lot to hear that!