Destination MoP Group is FULL (of motivated life jugglers) (Page 14)

Hi everyone,  This has been a mostly-off week for me.  I managed to get out on an old mountain bike that was given to us last year and found some great trails through surrounding neighborhoods.  I forgot to adjust the seat, since it's set up for my wife, and since I've never ridden it before, I never noticed that the gears don't work.  Oh well, it was set in a gear that I could climb hills, just couldn't get going fast on the downhill portions.  Had a great time.

I went to my tri-club group today.  While swimming, I still can't make it more than 50 meters without needing a 2 minute break.  I think I need lessons.  My endurance in the water is terrible.

Today was my first spinning class, and our leader is a sadist.  I've never worked so hard on a bike, and I've always thought I was pretty good.  I think there was more sweat underneath my bike than in the whole room.  I think I did pretty well, just learned that competitive people work very hard.  I'm not so competitive, but I like the feeling of accomplishment and learning new training ideas.  Plus the "attaboy" I got when we finished felt nice.

So, while I didn't do a heck of a lot this week, I feel that I've gained some knowledge about myself that will help me set my February goals.  I have more realistic & varied goals in mind.

I hope you all are ready for a fun new month.

Gonna make it to the gym early so I can lift weights in the evening tomorrow.  Last weekend and this weekend I just crash at some point.  Slept in until almost noon! I am up by 4:30 every morning so usually sleeping in is sleeping until 7 or so.  Me thinks I am a bit busy Monday through Friday.  Hopefully I figure out a good balance. some how. 

Have a great week everyone!

I appreciate I'm not exactly the best example of getting enough rest/recovery, but I've been reading lots of articles about recovery, and specifically one about the importance of sleep.  If you're sleeping that much at weekends it's because your body needs it.  Apparently most people operate on a sleep debt, and even a small lack of sleep can really impact on performance.  I know that none of us are elite athletes, but that applies to everything we do in life, so letting your body get the sleep you need is really important. 

It'll probably even help you concentrate on the pre-cal.  (Bizarrely, I had a dream the other night that I was being dragged into a calculus exam and was trying desperately to explain that I haven't done any maths for about 10 years and so really wouldn't be able to do it!)

Quick update on my activities for the last couple of days:

Yesterday we decided to go out for a bike ride.  After Saturday this may seem like insanity (and it slightly was), but we went out on the road bikes this time, with a group from the tri club.  It was nice to get out with a group, and we just cycled around the area where we live.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned before, but the county that I live in is REALLY hilly.  We landed up cycling up the hardest hill I've ever done.  It was steep and long, and every time you thought you could see the top you'd get there and realise there was more hill!  However, I got up it, mostly because I knew that if I stopped I'd fall over because my feet were clipped in...

So that's enough cycling for a few days.  We've done a lot this weekend, but nothing too hard (other than that hill), and I'm really pleased with how my legs are feeling although they're definitely fatigued now.

Today I went for a swim.  I did an endurance workout my swim coach had suggested.  You do 1 length with a 20 second rest, then 2 lengths, then 3 etc up to 11.  By the time you've finished you've swum a mile, but it really doesn't feel like it because the longest you do is 11 lengths.  I kept to a nice relaxed stroke, and did occasional drills when I caught up with the slow guy in the lane.  Really enjoyed it.  The rest of today is recovery time.  It's my mum's birthday so we're going for a girly shopping trip and then my dad and husband are joining us for dinner and the cinema this evening.

Hi Yvette,
The two most important and life changing things have improved my running (and biking): good shoes and my garmin.  You cannot go wrong with a garmin watch. Some people like the version with the heart rate monitor, but I don't have that. It uploads automatically into the garmin training center, can use in multi sport, and can see the tracks in Google Earth. Which, as a geographer, is the greatest thing in the world!   I use when traveling to keep track of my distance and it works great on trails where you cannot clock the mileage.
Joanne

I rested Sat and ran on Sun.  My treadmill run felt great.  I decided to up my speed a bit.  At first I thought I'd do half of my intervals (still run/walking) at this slightly faster speed, but I found that I could do it without getting exhausted or out of breath, so I did it for the remainder of my runs.  Next run I'll use it for all run intervals!  Progress makes me smile.

Today is a swim, as the forecast looks like I won't have a chance again until Thurs.  Tonight is exercise class.

Edited by rustymom 2011-01-31 11:29 AM

Yes, I sure hope things improve Heidi and that your folks are ok.  My parents are exactly the same way.



Great run, congrats. It's fun to get past the 10mi mark, but take it easy. I stupidly was waiting to make sure I could be ready for the Quintiles Half Marathon here (Wilmington, NC) on Mar 20 and now it's full. Now I have to find another one later.



Having the goals definately helped me stay on focus and motivated.  I haven't lost the weight I was hoping to shed, but I do feel much stronger that 6 weeks ago.  So, my Feb goals are to 1) increase my reps to 2 swims, bikes, and runs per week and 2) eat only 1 serving at dinner.



Thanks Stu and the entire gang for great advice and camaraderie. I never thought that joining would be so great for my spirit and drive to be healthier.  (I am sure my spouse is thankful too!)
Joanne

OOOoooo, I'm so excited.  Registration for the women's sprint tri on 9/11 in my area just opened up.  I almost signed up.  I have an email question in to them.  It does sell out each year, so I will register early.

I want to know if I sign up for Athena vs. age group what the waves are.  I'm figuring that if I start in the last wave, I may be out there by myself by the time the bike is half way done.  My swim is strong, but I'll get killed in the bike and especially the run.  I'd rather start sooner, knowing that there are many others behind me that I'll see after the swim, LOL!

The 5K I plan to do in March is about to open registration as well.

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the well wishes. I'm slowly returning to the land of the living. I'm still exhausted by 8 PM, but I did make it to work today! My parents are both sore from their accident, but recovering.
Thanks to Stu for keeping everything moving, while I've been out of commission. I've been reading posts, but have not had the mental stamina to respond to things. I'll try to get back into it tomorrow.
In general, it looks like several of us had some set backs in January. I'm looking forward to hearing what every one's goals will be for February.
Who is expecting bad weather this week? Has it affected your plans for training?
-Heidi 

Yvette, I got a Garmin on a whim b/c my brother-in-law was raving about his (he also has a $2500 bike, but I didn't go out and get one of those).  I really didn't think it was going to make that much of a difference to me... I had been using my trusty Timex watch and I knew my usual routes... well, boy was I wrong.  I absolutely love having it.  I use it all the time for pacing and it gives me so much more freedom to train wherever I want and can still know the mileage / timing.  Keeps track of elevations, I can monitor all kinds of things and there are still some features I haven't yet figured out how to use (and probably won't).  I have a 305, which is a little larger than many I've seen (but since I have failing eyes, that's okay with me).  Before Xmas, they were going for $100 at Amazon (got one for my father-in-law and he loves it).  I don't have the heart rate monitor.  I'm only worried about my heart stopping and I don't need a monitor to tell me that :-)

Ron, not a bad idea to get a swim coach to give you a few pointers.  A) Better to practice a good stroke from the beginning and B) you'll be amazed at how much good mechanics will improve your effectiveness in the water.  Also, if you can, learn to breathe on both sides (they hadn't started that when I was swimming competitively, and I still don't do it, but ignore that for the moment).

Well, just wanted to thank everyone for helping me break through the 200lb barrier.  I really focused on nutrition this week and I have to admit, it was knowing I would be reporting to you all at the end of the month that kept me more honest than usual.  So, I am both psyched, because I haven't been under 200 lbs in 15 years or so, and wary, b/c last year I was very close a few times and bounced back up to 205+.  Looking at my schedule in Feb, I am right to be wary.

Speaking of wary... I had the famous blue screen of death on my computer tonight.  Hmmm... maybe having 25 tabs/windows open in Firefox, 10 spreadsheets, 5 Word documents, several PHP programs and a bunch of miscellaneous other applications open at the same time for days on end wasn't such a hot idea.  Fortunately it seems to have healed itself.  But I do think I will go back things up just in case :-)

Heidi, so glad to see you rejoining the land of the living.

Goals by Thursday for those folks who would like to give it a go with me!  Come on... if you want to be a force on the course in April, you can't tarry in February!

Stu

February Goals:
1. Increase from 1x per week to 2x per week for all 3 events.
2. Don't eat more than 1 serving for dinner.
3. Tennis: consistency, backhand, and concentration/focus/attitude (stay happy!)

By setting the January goals it definately made me focus on what I want to achieve so thanks Stu for asking us to come up with these. I was tempted to put "lose 10 pounds" as a goal, but automatically that makes me feel negative, so I'm hoping that by watching my nutrition composition and quantity, keeping up with my exercise schedule, and getting more sleep (fantastic reminders everyone, especially as I write this with 4 hours of sleep) I will weigh less by the end of Feb.  I see my goals as building on each other so they keep piling up. I know these are good for me, but I want to be happy about the progress, not feel overburdened when I already have too much stress from my job. I could write at least 20 goals! So, I will do my best to stay focused on those 3 above and yet remember my Jan goals too.

Have a great day everyone. Me, I'll be biking to and from work and then 3.5 hours of tennis.
Joanne

My goals for Feb are similar to Jan with a slight adjustment to the swimming days and weight goal.

3 days of running / week and 2-3 days of swimming / week
Mon and Thurs ex class
get below 200lbs

I'm getting itchy to register for the Women's Tri, so if I don't get a response by late this week (about waves), I'm going to just register as Athena and be done with it.  I saw the waves for last year.  I can't get to them now that they've updated the page.  As I recall the last wave was open to those doing their first tri.  As I'm confident about the swim, I won't choose to be in that wave.  I hope Athenas aren't lumped in there. 

I'm snowed in today and probably tomorrow as well.  I think I'll make today a rest day and run tomorrow on fresh legs.  Too many squats and lunges last night.

Heidi,
 Oh me oh my!!! Is all I can say....you and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers...as for your training..good idea to take a break and let your body cope but also remember that exercise is a good "de-stresser" LOL...Hope all is well.


As for my training....not so good...worked sat and think i pulled a muscle friday while lifting weights so I didn't do anything except take a walk with my parents, husband, and child sunday. We went sight seeing because my parents haven't been to our town much. Of course when the parents visit we eat very well so 4 of the 6 lbs I have lost are regained. (oh joy oh joy) Now I have given my husband and my child the cold that I had and my child has been sick for 3 days...I'm staying at home with him today and may or may not get a workout in which I hope I do because I'm beginning to feel sluggish and tired from not working out.
I hope everyone has a great training week and try mu best to keep up with my training logs. I'm falling off the wagon with that one. Def gonna try to swim at least twice a week. Still having a problem with that. It's just so much easier to hop on the bike or go run. So I think those are my februrary goals.

Edited by jcoble1209 2011-02-01 9:29 AM

Well, I'm really hogging the thread the last few days.

Anyway, I'm here to report that I signed up for a Women's Sprint Tri on 9/11.  They returned my email and indicated that the waves would be decided within a week of the race and that I could switch from age group to athena or vice versa.  I'm not sure how easy it would be to switch, but I'm not going to worry about it.  I signed up as Athena, which I will still qualify for by then unless the weight starts really dropping off.   It's 1/2 mile lake swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.

 

Heidi - I hope things are starting to calm down a little now, and everyone's feeling okay.  Are you feeling a little better now?

Ron - I'd agree with what Stu said about swimming lessons.  I started going to the tri club swim sessions in september and swimming in the "technique" lane (they have other lanes that look at speed and endurance).  I've completely changed my stroke and while I'm still a very slow swimmer, I've got so much more efficient.  That means that I can swim a mile, get out of the water and feel good, rather than getting out feeling like I've killed myself.  Obviously for triathlons that's going to really help!

I've had quite an exciting day today for two reasons:

Reason 1: I've ordered a Garmin (Forerunner 305).  Loads of my friends have them, and I know some of you say they're great.  I've wanted one for ages but they've been a little out of my price range.  However two things happened.  Firstly Amazon have a massive price reduction on the 305, secondly I went through my email the other day and realised that people have been sending me amazon vouchers that I haven't been spending.  Once I'd used the vouchers, and including the price reduction I've paid about a quarter of the original price.  So I can't wait for that to arrive.  It'll probably be another week or so as it's coming from somewhere in Europe, but still...

Reason 2: I did my 2 mile run route over a minute faster than last week!  I was having a look at a website that is linked from the London Marathon website, about music and motivation.  They had a free download of a music track that has all the music with a specific number of beats per minute (this one was 160-170bpm) and it's intended for you to run in time with the music.  I found that it kept my running really consistant, even up the hills, and I felt really good at the end of the 2 miles.  My time was 1min 11sec faster than exactly the same route last week.  They do tracks to help develop distance, and you can pick what speed you want to do, so I may well be paying to download one of those.  I just couldn't believe how much difference it made!

I know that feeling when you sign up the the tri and you think "now I really have to get my exercise act together"! Good for you. Please, no worries about "hogging" the thread; I am thoroughly enjoying everyone's posts.

Thanks Rach, that's exactly what I needed to hear.
Let us know what you think of the Garmin.  I almost worked for them in Kansas City when my company (Allied Signal, now Honeywell) transitioned us out to Washington.  I'm glad I'm here, but I love Garmin's products.

I found an intermediate swim class at the Y about 2 miles from my house.  I could run there.  I haven't spoken to my wife about it yet, but I'd like to join, and I'm sure she'll be o.k. with that.  She's awesome.

I went to the library and checked out "Going Long", since Stu recommended it, but there's a lot of books with that title, so the one I found was about training for ironman-distance triathlons (by Joe Friel & Gordon Byrn), so I checked it out.  Why not?
In the cycling section they mention spinning bikes and say (p.127) "Be careful with spinning workouts; they can be a training disaster  under the guidance of an overenthusiastic leader". 

They say that during the winter months, you're better off working on fairly long, easy endurance rides rather than full blown strength training, and that biking should be about 65% of your training (the book is about iron-man distance, so I don't know if that applies for sprints & other shorter events).

The day after I read about over-zealous spinning instructors, Stu said this, "Watch out for those spin class instructors... and on a serious note, if you can find instructors who are outdoor riders, their workouts seem... somehow more reasonable."

I'm not knocking the instructor, I'm just not sure that I'm "training" for a triathlon, so much as I'm learning and dipping my big toe in the water.  The bug hasn't bitten yet.  I'm still a bit scared.
I'm really not sure if I want to continue with the tri club until I've done some work on my own.  I also hate to give up a potential social group.  I'm a stay-at-home dad, so I have no friends over the age of 5.  I have some things to think about.

That being said, here are my February goals, weather permitting:

1.  3 runs/week, 5 miles
2.  2 bike rides/week, my mileage may vary
3.  Train w/ weights 4X/week
4.  For God's sake, eat more healthy!

For those of you who think I'm missing in action. We are in the middle of a blizzard. Will be for the next couple days. Brutal.

Ankle is still really sore, but been spending a lot of time on the bike trainer. Stu asked me about the 1/2 marathon in April. Tha ankle is going to have to let me start running again SOON or I'm going to have to put the April race off.

Winter is really getting me down. I think I need a light box. : (

Phil

Hi Phil,  my mom is south of K.C., so I've heard about the sideways blowing snow.  Indoor training is best.  Do you have one of those bike trainers that hook up to the rear wheel?
Please let me know what you're using, and if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

I wish you the best of luck getting that ankle ready by April.

I have a Cycleops JetFluid Pro. It's kinda brutal. A lot like a treadmill, but at least you are on your bike. I picked up a couple Spinnerval DVDs which help. Other than that, I'll watch a favorite TV show and pickup resitance and speed during commercials. Turns out to be an interval workout. Can't wait to get back on the road.

Phil

Whoo Hoo! What is the name of the race you registered for? 

Sorry to hear that your ankle is still sore. How's it feel on the trainer? 

Don't even notice it on the trainer. I'm going to s0ot for Monday to start running again. Should be better by then I would hope.

Phil

Good luck with the ankle, Phil.I've added the Womens Triathlon to my planned races in the blog section. It appears that it is named just that "Women's Triathlon"! It's put on by the Hartford Marathon Foundation, I think.