Funked Up Triathletes - Season 2 - Olympic/Sprint Focus - Closed (Page 13)

Just looked in the Instructions thread- says they will start a new program in December.

I'll probably do this again. I'll look again for a mentor that seems to match up my goals, but if you all have any suggestions please let me know, and let me know where you end up.

My only qualm about Strava is:

a) I"m *ultra* competitive. This is a problem in my life at times.
b) I already log my stuff now in BT, Trainingpeaks, and most recently Runkeeper (I use runkeeper because my health insurance company gives me "points" for working out each day and currently my Timex GPS watch is not considered a "valid" source). Adding another source for logging in makes me shutter a bit, ha ha.

I'm going to be getting some new devices very soon (920xt anyone?) but I'm waiting on my buddy who works for Garmin to (hopefully) hook me up with an employee deal. I think I'm going to get my wife a Vivosmart and possibly a 220 or 620 running watch. The 920 does activity tracking...so we're on a kick to get those set up (for the aforementioned points thing through Humana).

Hi all! Just a quick chime in!

First, nutrition. I am no dietitian, but what I don't see a lot of in everyone's meal logs (granted I'm only seeing one day) are vegetables. I too work continuously on good nutrition and try to remember that those veggies are typically low calories with high nutritional impact and great fiber...meaning you can eat looooots of them to fill up and not feel guilty. Also, I give myself a 10 pound bracket within which to work because daily, even weekly, there's some leaning toward one end or the other for whatever reason. I try to keep myself between 120-130 (I'm 5'8"). No matter how much I lift I don't bulk, just get cut. This actually gets tough in racing season as I start losing too much, get grumpy and fatigued. I've since added a vegan pea protein powder in a smoothie when I work out - not every day. Don't buy candy or sweets as much as possible, it's a cancer causer. Chips and crackers are a killer - my husband is a HUGE snacker of this stuff and I try to discourage it. Buuuuut, it's also the holidays so give yourself a little break too or it all gets too consuming, frustrating, and then negative and we don't want that!
Do you guys weigh yourselves daily or weekly? I would suggest staying away from it on a daily basis - too frustrating and any changes could be deceiving. Weekly at the most. I had also read on BT that it's not a terrible thing to gain a few pounds in the off-season as training with a little more weight aids in endurance.
If you find you're exercising a ton and eating decently and your body weight seems to be stagnant, you're probably at your own personal ideal weight - go with it. Friends of mine who go below this weight have reported really being miserable to be around as it's so difficult to stay at a much lower weight. Seth, it sounds like your body may still be making strides even though your weight has stagnated. Definitely a closer look at your nutrition log would be key.

Sadness at the group coming to an end! When in December? I'll definitely still be on Strava though i only use it for biking typically.

Okay, big news that I'm not supposed to know about. I believe that as of December 25th I will be the proud new owner of a 920xt.....My hubby left an email up on the ipad so when turned it on it was the first thing I saw when I went into emails (he didn't log out of his)....saying one has been shipped. I turned off the page quickly because I know it wasn't for my eyes, but I'm pretty sure that's what it said. My head spun on my shoulders. (maybe that's what threw my back out?) I'll let you know if it's true, and Dave, we can compare notes later. I am only somewhat tech savy. I will need the cadence bundle for it as it's not packaged as a tri bundle yet, just with a HRM. I think he picked the red one. LOL I don't care. It will be the very first techie running/biking thing I've ever had. Nope, no fitbit, no GPS watch, never a hrm. I will be entering a new world (and I'll need lots of help figuring all this new data out!!)

Back is still shot. I have done nothing but my PT exercises. This sucks, but it's just temporary - like labor. LOL

Cheers!! Happy Friday!! Oh, and Seth, I think Blue Laws are awesome (though we don't have them here anymore but I remember them from childhood). I think it causes people to slow down, plan ahead for what they need, learn to live with what they can't get until Monday and enjoy life a little more outside and with their families. (yeah, I'm a little old-fashioned like that). LOL
Best all!

David, totally understand about not wanting to add yet another website or app to check. I quit logging on BT because of that. No Strava is fine then, let's do FB. It will be nice to have something useful on there anyways- it tends to pile up with inane stuff.

So, I was weighing weekly, but lately I've been more frequent, not quite daily but close. Not because I agonize over the daily number, but because I've wanted to see what my normal variation really looks like. Sort of a signal versus noise test. Certainly the long term trend is most important, but the numbers guy in me likes to know the scatter in the data set so I know if changes are significant.

You're right in that I don't eat enough vegetables, but I will say I've gotten a bit better mostly because my wife has insisted on it. She's doing one of those boot camp fitness programs that emphasizes "clean eating" and while some of the things they preach I don't think are based on any science, the overall message of eating more home prepared and less store bought stuff is good. She's gotten some good recipes there and we also look online (things like skinnytasete.com or 100 days of real food) for a lot of ways to sneak in more veggies. This week I've eaten cauliflower, potatoes, green onions (green and white), broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and spinach and we've pretty much cleaned out the veg drawer in the fridge. My mother would never believe this! Like your husband I have to give in to chips and crackers and stuff, mostly because I'll stand there with the bag and just eat. When I'm taking things seriously I force myself to get a plate or bowl, weigh out my portion and record the amount, then put the bag or box away and just eat the portion. That's key for me.

Enjoy the new toy- I feel like heart rate and cadence have both been really helpful for me this past year, hope you find that data enlightening..

Made it out Sunday for a ride- it was right around freezing when I left. It was a good check of cold weather cycling gear- I started with just a helmet and within 1/2 a mile turned around and went back for a hat to put under my helmet. Brain freeze! Other than that it was nice enough except for my feet. I wore heavy wool socks and my cycling shoes, and it's not sufficient. Time to add some shoe covers/booties to my shopping list. Do any of you have any of these, any suggestions?

I've got a funny one for you guys. Interested in what you think.

Yesterday, I was searching for Christmas gifts for my wife and came across a pair of Orca RS1 Tri shorts on Orca.com for $20! I knew these were expensive shorts but I firgured I better jump on it. Clearance? A Sale? I didn't know or care...just wanted that price.

I bought them.

Today, I get this email from the vendor:

"I am contacting you about your recent Orca.com order. We do appreciate your order, but we have seen that their was a mistake in pricing. It seems your PayPal was charged $20 for shorts that are $135.

We can refund your PayPal that price plus the shipping you paid, or you can pay the difference of $104.50. We do free shipping on orders over $99,so I am subtracting that from the total price as well.

I am so sorry for this inconvenience. Just let me know what how you would like to proceed. Thanks!"

I guess I'm a little irritated that they said "your paypal was charged $20" as if there was a transaction error. They were clearly $20 on the website and they were at that price all day. Ha ha. Oh well. I guess it seemed too good to be true and it obviously was.

I always end up feeling conflicted when something like that happens; for your case:
- They had them on the site for that price, so it seems like they should honor it
- On the other hand, this isn't some giant company so if they legitimately made an error and then a bunch of people jumped on it, they could suffer some really bad financial repercussions that endanger their ability to continue doing business.
My reaction is usually dependent upon the way I feel about the company in the first place and how they handle it. A "our fault, we apologize" goes a long ways, and if they toss in something like a coupon for a future purchase it's a nice gesture. The robotic order cancellation email from a big box store that can't manage inventory always leaves me a bit pissed off (ahem..Walmart....).
My wife looks at shopping deals websites, so we run into those issues fairly often these days when she finds some great deal and 25000 people all jump on it.

Good luck with the gift hunting.

Yea, I feel the same way. It was a bit annoyed that it was on their site ALL DAY. And what I didnt' share earlier is that when the woman responded to me, she forwarded a string of emails from people in the company basically saying "this price was messed up, and I don't know what to do" and then I felt like the woman's response was a bit off putting. Instead of saying "we made a mistake" it was sort of like "pay pal made a mistake".

So, I responded with a message saying I was disappointed, can't pay the difference, and I was bummed because I had bought a matching tri-top to create a new kit for my wife. In all honestly, I was trolling for a coupon or something. ha ha. No such luck. Oh well.

On another note, IDK if I shared or not. In January, my wife and I will celebrate our 15 yr anniversary. After a ton of shopping, I finally booked a 4-night trip to Cabo at an all-inclusive resort. We've never done the all-inclusive and haven't had a vacation like this since before we had kids (over 10 years ago). I'm pretty excited. This has made my wife decide she needs to lose 20# in the next 2 weeks and I'm seriously doing the calorie cut too (as we've talked about). The nice thing is I think I'm through the stage where my body is "asking" to eat all the time throughout the day.

Training for me right now is mainly slow stuff. I'm working out 6-7 days week, usually a 4-8 mile run at easy pace or 50-60 minutes on the trainer at below threshold. It's cold, and I'm in a stage where I'm working out, mainly because I want to eat. Ha. The positive though, is that this is "base work" and last week I still got in about 24 run miles last week. I'm on track for similar mileage this week which is a feat because I'm "on-call" at work (which basically means 2-3 days during the week I'll be up all night working on issues).

Congratulations on your anniversary.

My wife and I have done the all inclusive thing a few times, both in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. We always had a great time and thought it was a good value. To offer such a deal they have to keep costs down, so you don't usually get top shelf liquor for the all you can drink portion but they've always had decent beer. Food quality has been variable, with the DR being just ok and not really geared towards American tastes (tons of German tourists), and the couple of places in Mexico being either decent or really good. The really good one was a Riu resort which is a big chain of all inclusive resorts. That one was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Have you been to Mexico before? My parents bought a time share so they go 2-3 times a year and we (me, wife and kids) manage to go roughly every other year. I haven't been to Cabo yet but would love to check it out. We have always had a great time down there and despite some of the news, we've never had any trouble with crime or anything. Since my wife is Mexican-American and fluent in Spanish she likes to stray a bit from the beaten path and we wander around a bit in towns and do some shopping. It's always fun I think.

We're doing an RIU!

I shopped and shopped and ended of getting a very good deal. After I booked, I made the mistake of reading the reviews on TravelAdvisor (they are overwhelmingly positive, but there's always those few nightmare reviews that scare the stuff out of you!) I always get nervous on stuff like this because I want it to be amazing for my wife and she deserves it, so I end of fretting about out. I'm sure it's going to be awesome. Now we have the challenge of trying to get child-care lined up for all 4 kids! Ha ha!

We've been on several cruises and 12 years ago went to Cozumel/Cancen/Playa. I'm not too worried about violence where we're going to be, simply because I don't see us venturing away from the room/pool/beach/restaurant. This is truly going to be a chill vacation. I've got my reading list started so we'll see how many books I read.

The last time we ended up at a Riu it was actually just luck. Funjet Vacations (and I think Apple Vacations does this too) was offering one of those deals where you can get a super cheap rate if you didn't pick the actual hotel, but instead just the hotel class (number of stars, apples, whatever). My wife was kinda nervous about doing it, but I told her "for what we were going to pay we can do the 5-star mystery hotel, and if they knocked the sign off the hotel would you really care about what it was called, as long as it was nice? And for 5-star, it will definitely be nice". So we booked it, and didn't find out where we were staying until we arrived at the ground transportation kiosk in Cancun. And it worked out great! We were in the Riu Palace Playa del Carmen, and had a great time. We'd had a number of friends that had stayed in the same hotel for their Honeymoon and they all had a great time too. I'm convinced that the people who have something go wrong on the trip are a small minority who then are motivated to lash out over the internet, so I wouldn't worry too much.

It would appear as though 2014 has officially ended.

?? it did?

Yes, the thread has been archived!

Ah, I see. I have the thread bookmarked and have never even looked at that.

Hey, is anyone still accessing this? We can still use it if we want to.
If so, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!!!
Best,
Jenn

I'm still checking in...Jenn...did you get that 920??

I did!! It was actually backordered so it should be here Monday according to tracking. It kills me it's at the distribution center a few miles away but we discovered that too late to go pick it up ourselves.
I guess they don't bundle anymore for the 920 so I'm only getting the hrm with it and I have to buy the other stuff a la carte. Do you have any suggestions for this by any chance? I've only been searching online. I can't wait to see it and use it!!! So exciting.

Ironically my mother-in-law got me a fitbit flex for Christmas. I'm wearing it now for the first full day - kind of cool to watch your "steps" and see how many you get. I'm already just under 10,000 and there is still a fair amount of day left.

Hey, I joined the Beer Drinker Appreciation Society (BDAS) on BT if you want another mentor group to join. LOL I'll check in here too - happy to do that; hate to miss everyone.

The 920 arrived!! I've just taken it out of the package - boy, the red/white color scheme is very visible that's for sure! LOL
So anyone with any experience with this stuff, I'm looking for input. I'm on Strava and can download stuff to that but of course they talk about using Garmin Connect. i haven't begun researching this yet - am about to now - but is there a benefit to one over the other? Just curious. I've also thought about Training Peaks as well but don't want to involve too many sites because I also manually put my workouts on this site too.

Okay, it's actually super light - much more so than my huge aviation watch. The color is tough (black/blue would probably look nicer) but if I ever drop the face while putting on the bike mount, I would definitely find it pretty easily I should think. So I've got that going for me. I can't wait to go to the pool to see how it works there!







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Very cool.

My wife was looking over my shoulder at the picture because we're debating on whether to get them or not. I probably will get one for sure. One think i like about the 920 is that is basically has the activity tracker built in. Of course, that function is only useful if you wear the watch all the time. I'm wondering if it's too big and bulky (on a woman's wrist) to be worn all the time. time will tell. Right now. I'm leaning toward getting her something like a 220 and also a VivoSmart band.

Regarding Trainingpeaks/Garmin Connect/Strava:

First of all...I don't use Strava. I've dabbled with it a few times, but not much. I use this site and also Trainingpeaks. I believe that Garmin Connect would be the best option because your 920 can most easily sync the workout data there. I do like Training Peaks, but the free version is not super sophisticated for training purposes. You would have to manually upload workout data. I would say not worth it. I don't know that there is anything free TP would give you that Garmin Connect does not offer. I use this site mainly for the training plans. I use the gold package because I like to plan my workouts and set up training plans. plus, I'm a geek for seeing the little bar chart that shows completed vs. planned. I'm not sure if if Garmin Connect will do taht or not, but I think it probably does. The ability to plan workouts and training plans are pretty much a premium feature regardless of site: BT, TP, Strava, Mapmyrun, RunKeeper, etc.

So, I guess if it was me I'd explore Garmin and use the BT stuff here (if you're using the training plans). Strava is fun for comparing yourself against other people doing the same routes. Not sure it has much training benefit..but it is fun.

Merry Christmas all! I'm finally back to my internet connection. Nice new watch Jenn.

I signed up for the premium Strava a while back- it's good for the social aspect and for analyzing riding and even running, but it offers nothing for swimming, doesn't really have a planning feature and doesn't really have a good fitness overview component. I'd agree with trying Garmin Connect out. I think you can have everything automatically sync Garmin -> Strava and Training Peaks so that makes it fairly easy.

I'd love to get a watch like that but I blew my Christmas cash on some cold weather clothing and a new Espresso machine. I'll never get better if I don't get out of bed

I did manage a couple of runs in Michigan, and I'm off until Monday so I hope to get in a few more and maybe a ride.

I'll keep checking this thread, and look at the current mentor groups and decide if I want to jump on one of those.

Hope you all have a safe, fun New Year's.

Happy New Year!! 2015 is going to be great!!

Happy New Year! Starting off well so far, but I've been mostly lucky with weather. This week the temperature just dropped, high in the 20s, and may see below zero by Wednesday night.
I'm lucky I can walk for 3 miles through tunnels at work after lunch to at least get some movement in. Thank you cold war paranoia!

I will say the watch is a bit bulky but not horribly thick. It is very light actually. I have a very small wrist - you can see what it looks like on me. That being said, I don't wear it every day - mainly for workouts, because of this. I do have a fitbit so I use that for step tracking (gift from mom-in-law) which is a much more reasonable size. I would personally have never bought one because I didn't think I cared about it - but now that I have one, it's kind of fun to see how many steps I take in a day. I've had a few over 14,000 and that's without really working out. Of course now I start teaching this semester so that will plummet I'm sure. haha
Knee is still giving me issues. I'm hoping to get back to swimming and work that to death if I can't run for now. I had hoped to do a HM in April but I can't run 2 miles without pain yet so that may fade...we'll see and play it by ear but I have to sign up for in on the 12th as it fills fast. Argh. PT tomorrow. Currently down with a cold - this too shall come to pass. Temps in the single digits with wind chills below zero. It's blustery, nostril-stick cold out there!
Oh, my Garmin is set up to automatically and wirelessly download my beta to both Garmin Connect and Strava. Done! I haven't set it up on BT yet but plan to do it. Fun stuff. I have some friends from here on Strava so it's just fun to keep up with what they're doing.
Cheers all! I hope everyone is well, jobs are stable, and training is coming together!
Best, Jenn