Scott's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 11)

I am at a point in my life where I need to focus on being healthier and focusing on something that makes me a better person, husband, and father. I partied like a rock star through my 20s and had a ball. I got fired at 30 and started my own rep company. I got married at 31 and became a father at 32 (We were married for 7 months when my wife got pregnant. People always try and do the math, lol. Wasn't a shotgun wedding). Anyway, child number 2 is on the way and I wanted to do something that made me feel better, kept me active, in shape, and helped me to meet new people. I am competitive but I wouldn't call that a big motivating factor. I started riding a street bike after a long mountain bike passion. I started riding the street bike because there is a lot of pavement around. It was too time consuming to have to drive to good trails and then ride. I met someone that was training for an Iron Man and started thinking about these sprints he told me about. I started researching them. I always loved the water and swimming- I could do that. Running- hated it because it always hurt my knees but maybe I was doing something wrong.

I made it my new years resolution to get off my , quit making excuses, and make myself better. It started 1/1. Maybe one day, we'll all be in Hawaii sipping water after our Iron Man.....

As for Fitness Freaks and why;

1. I’m in the food business.  I’m surrounded by food all the time.  I do culinary demonstrations, product evaluations and I travel for business a lot.  I like to eat and am lucky that I regularly get treat myself to good cuisine.  So you can guess what happens if I don’t move my body a lot.
2. I’ve always loved cycling and swimming.
3. When I’ve forced myself to run in the past, I’ve seen great results for conditioning and weight loss/management.  The problem was I hated running.  I started the Tri training about 4 weeks ago with one of my stated goals to learn to love running for a life time.  With the help of many on this site, I actually look forward to my runs now and have seen performance improvement.
4. I’ve been fortunate to attend the IM world championships in Kona the last two years.  I’ve been totally inspired by those athletes.  Especially the 40+, 50+ 60+!  The grandparents and the athletes with odd body types who finish late at night.
5. When I exercise regularly I feel better, my back feels better, my reflux feels better, and I sleep better.
6. Like Nicoleg, it makes me feel badass (even though I’m not).

This weekend I got in my short swim (30 min.) and my short bike (60 min.).  I’ll spend my lunch today on my short run (30 min.).

I totally get what Nicoleg means about others not getting it.  I guess that’s why this thread is so cool.  People we can share with that “get it”.

Keep moving.

C

Hi

Similar story, at a point in my life where the direction has changed and I needed to change with it! Have always been sporty, playing football (soccer), golf, squash, but have had to stop all through various injuries.

My brother completed a Tri last year and his enthusiasm got me to agree to doing a sprint - idea is it will gently get me back to training, and be able to now my limits whilst I am training, without causing my knee any more problems!

Started running about 3 months ago, just started swimming so need to get the bike involved, only problem is I only have a mountain bike! Dont want to spend lots of money on something that I may not like / do again, so am doing the sprint tri on budget gear!

Hope you all have a good training week!

Gareth, I started my training on my mountain bike. I figured the mountain bike has more weight and rolling resistance so it must be a better work out.  Get on that mountain bike and ride while you look for your budget minded steed.  Ask around your friends.  I bet somebody has a road bike that in decent shape that's been gathering dust for five years or so that wouldn't mind selling it or letting you borrow it for a few months (the roadie I'm riding now is borrowed).

Also, search the threads.  There are many postings about doing a tri on a budet.  I remeber reading about one guy who spent less on all his tri grear than another reader did on his water bottle cage.

If a road bike isn't in the budget, you can put slick tires on that mountain bike and you will lower the rolling resistance.  Trust me, you will not be the only one out there on a mountain bike. 

Good morning peeps ...

Wasn't able to pop in yesterday, managed to get 72 minutes in on the trainer and then an hour/2300yds in the pool last night. But in between, I was all go. My oldest daughter spent her last weekend of winter break in NYC hanging with friends at NYU. So I picked her up from the airport last night and got her moved back into her dorm room (she attends UVM and lives less than a mile from our house, but I still had the car loaded entirely with her clothes). Anyway ... that put me WAY past my bedtime, so I didn't get up for a run this morning. Sometimes life wins. I'll hit the pool tonight, but it's going to be lower mileage on the run side of things this week.

*****

Why I do this.

I've almost always been active ... my mom was a huge role model, placing often in her age group for local running races. She was also a huge influence on my nutrition. I ran through HS and then with a club through college. I let it go for a few years while my kids were young, and got to an unhealthy weight before I remembered that I need to work to stay healthy and fit. Since then, it's been a series of "what's next" type events to keep me going ... first the marathon ... then qualifying for Boston ... then I was planning on moving into ultra distances when I got injured and bought a bike. Here I am.

I'm fortunate that I don't get a lot of grief from co-workers or friends about my commitment to staying healthy and fit. I've got co-workers who are similarly invested and I guess I've just chosen to keep friends who "get it". They're all very supportive. I live in a great neighborhood on a dead end street, and we're all pretty tight. Plenty of us are active and we cheer each other on as we take off for our daily runs, bikes, etc.  

Good morning everyone.  I have had a few busy days, but have managed to get my workouts in luckily.  I didn't get home from teaching until about 9 pm last night, and the last thing I wanted to do was go run in that cold.  I told myself I'm going to just run for 10 minutes, even though I was scheduled to run for 35.  I got out there and after 10 I just kept going.  Whew.  

Today is my birthday, so I was going to sleep in and enjoy some coffee.  My wife, who is very supportive and in some ways my coach and cheering section, goaded me into getting out the door.  I love it.  I got my 2500 yards in and feel fantastic.  

Some of my students are taking me out to dinner tonight, so it will be another late night.  When I get home I have an hour on the trainer.  Life is good.  

That's too funny! I love it. Happy Birthday, Scott! Hope you enjoy it!

Happy Birthday Scott

and enjoy the day!!!!!!!!!

Sleep.

What do you average? I really want to hear from Scott ... as he seems to have early morning and late night workouts. Happy Birthday! Do you get to move into a new age group? I'll be moving into 45-49 in March.

For me, I can usually get 8 hours, but it often means going to bed at 8pm. I find I am most productive when I can get 8 hours, but can make 7 work. If I start drifting into 6 hrs per night, I'll start feeling very drained pretty quickly.

Recently, my best weeks have included about 11 hours of training ... with 8 hours of sleep on average. I'd like to get back to that as a routine, but I've been in the 8-9 hour range for training lately. 

I am so lucky when it comes to training.  I own my own business so I usually start at 9 am with that.  My wife goes to bed around 8 pm with our daughter.  So for me, I train from 8-9 or 10pm.  In bed by 10:30-11:00pm.  My wife gets up at 4:00 and works out.  She wakes me at 6:30 and on Sat-Tues I go swim in the morning.  

So if I'm a good boy, I get 8 hours.  If not, we're looking at 7-7.5.  

Troy,  I have one more year in this AG.  I'm 39 today.

Happy Birthday, Scott!!  January b-days are the best ;-)

I have been total slacker with training - and I need to get back on track.  We are getting ready for an over-seas move in 4 weeks, and I have let that be an excuse to not get up and gym.  And, while I think a little sacrifice on gym time is necessary to take care of all the things going on, I am letting it be too much of a reason.

I decided to train because going to the gym for no other reason than "because I'm supposed to" just isn't very motivating.  So having this goal makes it more fun!

Plus, I am a dietitian who doesn't quite look the part.  I'm not overweight, but I definitely could stand to drop a little extra... fluffiness... So I want to walk-the-walk (or tri it!) And I am hoping that as my husband bikes and swims, it will help strengthen his knees - so setting an example to help motivate him is a big part, too!

I appreciate the birthday wishes guys, thanks.  

How are you all structuring your bike workouts?  How do you, if at all, measure your improvements?  Are you you using a cycling computer, doing a plan, etc.?  Just wanting to open up a dialog about different ways of measuring improvements.  Thanks.  

Happy Birthday Scott.

As for the bike, I use a cyclocomputer to measure my average speed and distance.  I'm using one of the basic Oly programs that I got on this site.  My bike work outs consist of short and a long ride per week that increases the minutes 10% per week.  Using the average speed isn't perfect because some of my ride routes have more hill climbing than others but it's directional. 

My race in March is flatter than flat but the one I'm doing in April has LOTS of hills.  I'm planning on adding more climbing to help the April race.  I don't think more hill training will hurt my performance for the flat race.  I'm also hoping my mountain bike experience will also help.

PS: I had my treadmill test at the doc's today and he also went over my blood work up.  All is well and my total cholesterol is an all time low 169 (no meds)!  Five years ago I was 230.

Cheers!

Troy, that is some great swimming right there in a very short amount of time.  

In the past week I blew my 5 min. power test out of the yard.  My previous test was 334.  My last test I averaged 358 watts.  My eyes almost popped out of my head.  And it wasn't just from the workout.  

I need group support. The day we all try to avoid found me- bike wreck. I was heading home from a nice 40 minute ride through the country and thinking about the running part of my brick. I had a .5 mile to my driveway. It rained earlier in the day but the roads had dried except for some puddles here and there. Overall, windy but dry. I was coming up a hill and crossed the railroad tracks- the ones I have crossed 100+ times. They must have been wet from cars going over them all day. Does water make tracks slick? Could have been oil or anything. My front tire hit those tracks and went sideways. I went sideways and hit the rode on my right leg- from knee to hip and then elbow. I don't remember exactly how I landed. I don't think my head hit. There are no dings on my helmet. Thank the Lord I wasn't going fast. I am lucky I was not seriously injured. I got up, put my chain back on, and peddled home very slowly. I don't see any obvious damage to the bike but I'm going to take it to the shop tomorrow to have them inspect it.

I am sore but it's too be expected. Do I give the leg a day of rest tomorrow or tow it behind me on a swim? I can always kick a little less. Maybe I'll do a nice upper body workout. 

I have seen progress the last week. On January 1, I couldn't run to the mailbox or swim 400 yards. Saturday, I did a 2 mile run and a 600 yard swim. I could have kept going but didn't want to push it. I am super excited now when I train because I am doing things I have never done.

Note to self- keep bike upright at all times. It is easier to peddle that way.

Oh man.  I am sorry you fell.  I'm glad that it's not worse.  Get that bike checked.  They say that there are 2 types of cyclists.  Those that have crashed and those that will crash.  Welcome to the club my friend.  You got it out of the way.  Mend well, and congratulations on some great accomplishments since the beginning of the year.  

Ashley,

Thank the lord you weren't seriously hurt.  Bike wrecks suck!  I had one on my mountain bike two years ago  and ended up with 13 stitches in my knee. 

As for the training, if you have serious road rash I'd advise not going into the pool for a few days.  You don't want an infection.  If you don't have road rash and you don't have swelling or pain give the pool a try and see how it feels.  Your body will tell you.  Then again I'm no doc.

Great work on your performance gains!

Like you said, always keep your tires underneath you head

Troy great job on the swim today!

I'm learning that it's the series of small gains that keeps this sport exciting.

Yikes, Ashley! I'm still in the "will crash" camp. I was hit by a car while riding my bike as a kid ... and it was pretty bad. I'm kind of hoping I used up all my crash mojo with that incident.

I agree with what Craiger said ... if you've got open wounds, even road rash, you may not want to be flying that flag in the pool just yet. I like your thoughts on turning it into an upper body day. Maybe do some core work?

Scott: That's some serious wattage!! Wow.