Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 14)

Jay... first off what kind of pedals do you have, clippless (meaning that you have a thingy on your shoe that clicks into the pedal) clipped (meaning you have a metal frame on top of your pedal that the toe of your running shoes fits into) or flat pedals you just stand on with your running shoes?  If you have the more typical clipless pedals they can get out of adjustment which means that your foot can be angled toe too close to the front wheel (pointed in) or heal too close the the back wheel (pointed out) or just not centered under the ball of your foot (shifted forward or back).  A good bike shop has this nifty metal rectangle thing with a triangle in it and they toss the shoe in there line it up and tighten it down like magic.  At home it is much harder to get them in at the correct orientation etc.  The nice bike shop does this in 30 seconds to 2 minutes and doesn't charge you for it and you buy a couple gel on the way out the door and say thanks.  Not sure what the capitalism bike shop charges you.  As part of a bike fit they look at cleet position. 

So ya this could be causing your foot to hurt.  Improper cleet position can also cause you to have numb feet after a couple hours on the bike.  Of course seat angle, distance from front bars can also lead towards foot numbness. 

K so I am making things sound complicated again.  This make sense though right?  If not go to youtube and watch this video he explains it better with visual aids.

 Adjusting Cleats on Cycling Shoes - HHRacingGroup

Steve - my goal for you is actually not to focus on speed that much. Ya you will do some intensity for strength, but mostly you are building endurance this year. This does make sense. Though I find myself cringing at my pace, but I am where I am. If I can pull off a run for the entire marathon I will be one happy gal.

Joe - I have heard people talk about wetsuits being too tight on the shoulders. I'm not a big person with broad shoulders, but I was so surprised when I put my on because I didn't feel any shoulder restriction.

Pam - how's that quad feeling? I loved the camper pic best too!

Carol - You are totally reiterating everything the swim coach said to me. He is more concerned that someone learn to swim efficiently and only gain five minutes rather than gain 15 minutes and have an empty tank. I excited this opportunity landed in my lap. Love the food ideas. Have you ever cored an apple, stuffed it with brown sugar and cinnamon then baked it in the oven? I might have to try that. Good rest day, I hope!

Ken - woohoo! Great news on getting todays run done pain free.

Jay - Wow, that sounds like a tough process to walk through with the little guys. They are so tough and so extremely tend at the same time. Glad you have the right perspective. They will see that in you even if they don't show it right now. I'm thankful they have someone who really cares about them. And don't be sorry. Part of the training journey is 'real life' because it has a profound affect on training. I always end up sharing life details along the way. It's really fun to get to know people. Larry is a football coach and he kept us up-to-date with that and it was fun to keep up and celebrate with him. And great job getting it in on a bad day; now when a good day comes you will own it! Thanks for the recipe links. I'm gonna check them out and I'll report back.

Steve - I never thought I would learn to tie shoes at my age...hahaha. So about the bike training intervals. I've never really done any of that while riding. So would you recommend I follow what you wrote above? Would you add anything? I guess I have done a little bit of variety, but nothing like you are suggesting.

Okay, since Steve confessed I guess I better as well. Yesterday I ate sugar. I was making brownies and I couldn't resist licking the spoon, the bowl and the beaters. However, I did not eat the ghiradelli minted filled chocolate that was given to me today, or the 25 miniature twix given to me yesterday. Today I did my 2100 yard swim. I was slow like a turtle, but considering I didn't want to be there I did good. And swimming is the one discipline I worked on the least during winter. Looking forward to that coaching I'm gonna get.

I'm am pleased to say I have weekends off now, so to me and all of you - Happy weekend. And racers, run with endurance!

Okay... quick snack recipe, courtesy of my veggie daughter.

Spinach Wraps
Take large burrito wrap sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and microwave for approx. 30 seconds until the cheese melts.  Spread on a couple of tablespoons of fresh salsa and a bunch of fresh spinach and roll it up. 

Fast, healthy and tasty. 

Ok flashing back to the beginnig of the group.  Here is my best organized workout schedule.  It includes run work as well as bike work.  Let me know if you need me to explain with the shorthand means.  I developed it with HIM/IM in mind, buty ou could tweak the distances lower for sprint/oly and just look at the setup of the workouts.

Even my Mom, who claimed not to like salsa, enjoyed that one, Samantha.  If both my Mom and daughter like something, it's a winner in our house as there is very little overlap!

-Stu (not Fred.  Darn it, I had been doing pretty well with the signature for awhile)

Good morning guys and happy Saturday. Good luck to all the weekend racers!!!

I got up early and did my long run. I ran 8.2 miles and I felt pretty ok. I was forced to take an unplanned rest day on Monday so my overall weekly mileage wasn't what I'd hoped. 8.2 out of 23 miles is alright? My plan is to add a mile to my long run each week and increase next week's mileage to 26. 

I'm trying to build to a March 23rd 70.3 and would really like to be able to do the run w/o walking much. 

First - Good luck to those racing this weekend! I know you'll do great and be sure to submit your race report.  If not for you, for me, I find them very inspiring! 

I didn't run Thursday but I did run on Friday.  It was both good and bad.  The run was done indoors on a dreadmill so I could control the environment.  I decided to take it slow so I've started the C25K program again.  Not for the cardio portion but for the strength aspect of it.  Start slow right? Week one is like this... 5min WU walk (3.5 speed, 1 incline) 1 min run (5.5 speed, 1 incline), 1.5 min walk (x8), 5 min cool down walk.  I did a 10 min WU followed the 1/1.5 min intervals and did a 10 min cool down.  I finished and my cardio was fine but the problem was with my legs.

The good news is that where I tore the muscle there was no pain or pulling.  I'm very happy about this.  The not so good news is that both legs cramped up horribly after each run interval.  The cramp was in the same spot every time, outside of the legs, half way between my ankle and middle of my calf.  I was able to walk the cramps out between runs but each time they came back.  Today my legs are sore at the spot of the cramps.  My questions are these... It this normal coming back from a torn muscle?  Is this something I push through to rebuild strength or is it something that I should be concerned about.

I'm taking today off and back at it tomorrow.  Thank you to everyone in this thread you guys are great.  Have a good weekend everyone.

PS if you watch football today root for the 49ers!

Hmmm...well, not a great day at the races for me.   Bright side, it was my first 15K distance, and nothing injured.  65ish degrees and fog, so wore a tank top and shorts to a race called "Bold in the Cold"...weird.  Here's to Texas weather!  Just not the kind of day I had hoped for pace wise (9:37 average).  Blood sugar wound up sky high (430 by mile 8), which is the opposite of what's been happening in training.  To put that in perspective, it's not recommended to exercise when you're over 250.  So not sure how much was due to that, and how much just was a reflection of where I am right now.  Oh well, maybe set myself up for a nice PR on the next 15K.

Stu, thanks for sharing the salsa/spinach wrap idea!  Spinach is one of the few veggies my hubby will eat, so he will like them too .   

Good luck to all those racing. 

We have had a cold spell in sacramento (cold for us anyway ) So I have not made it to the pool in a while. Jumping in a pool in the am when it is the 30's just in not my thing. Right now I am trying to convince myself to go for a ride outside instead of on the trainer. Tough call today with football on but it is the only chance during the week to get outside. Hmmm tough decisions!

Steve - I like the shoe tying trick. Especially for everyday use. I have some shoes that never stay tied. I do use yanks on my running shoes.

Brian if the legs are fully healed, yes go slow as you did.  However, you might want to get a foam roller or marathon stick and work out the areas that were cramping on you.  Again I am assuming that he muscles are healed and that they are just knotting up on you in a crampy way rather than in a still pulled way.  It will help to break up the muscles that are basically spasming so that they will not do that so much.  You can roll them daily until you are doing better with that.  When you roll them if you have a muscle knot you will know it, it will be a little painful rolling it out, but should be better within a couple of sessions for your runs.

Wow 30F is pretty warm it was -15F lastnight here.  I assume your pool is heated?  Ah well, it is still kind of the offseason, though we are just about to the point where ya just gotta dive into your program and get er done. 

Carol, glad everything went ... ok on your run.  You are our hero for doing any of this given all of the testing and balancing you have to do while on the course.  In an IM I have trouble figuring out what pace I need to hold to make a certain goal finish time during the marathon.  Higher math functions not so good after 10 hours out there. 

So ya I don't listen to music when I swim because I measure distance by number of strokes.  So ya last workout was 975 strokes.  When you get into county out 2000 strokes music can be distracting.  I could just go by time knowing what pace I have the pool set to, but then it is hard to know how I am progressing towards the end of a set or whatever.

This is a quick drive-by post because I'm behind on reading the posts.  (Love that our group is so active but sometimes I get so behind with the reading, I have to take it in at a separate time.  Then I feel like a cad for not commenting on the other posts but I just haven't caught up.)

Quad fine today (prob caused by improper stretching on Thurs.)  15k race today on a hillier course.  I'm ok with the 1:32ish; would have liked better but I socialized more in the first half of the race and then was tanked at the end.

Carol, I agree whole heartedly with Steve's comment above.  You are awesome!

Steve, you count your strokes?  Wow!  When I swim, I even have trouble counting my laps.  I got so tired of forgetting where I was, I started bringing pennies to the pool and move them over every few laps.  10 or 20 pennies, when I've moved all over from left to right, then I begin moving them back right to left.

Can't wait to try out all of these recipes.  I just scanned the page and saw that several people had posted so I want to read them later.  Jay, I knew that you were very much like my hubby and when I saw your link to bodybuilding.com, I laughed.  Hubby used to live on the site before he began tri training.

Gotta go.  Catch up later on the post.  Have a great weekend!

Today was my travel day to Disney for the Marathon. I am really excited.  Feels like the first time.  My goal is a 3:20 but my stretch goal is 3:15.  We will see how the legs and body feels tomorrow.  

Great job racers on your races today.  Love the activity.  Its great that I am not the only one with an active race schedule this year. 

I just had a little bit of extra time so I went back and read the posts for the last few days.

BigN Brian, so sorry about the cramps.  Steve's idea about rolling them out sounded great to me.  Hubby has the foam roller and the few times I did it, well I broke my no-cussing rule big time.  That is a fresh form of hell as far as I'm concerned.  But it does work.  I prefer my marathon stick but it's ackward (sp?) for me to get all areas.

Steve, LOVE the post on how to ride the bike on the trainer.  I've only been on the trainer once and I need to know how to approach it.  We have Spinnervals dvds but they are too advanced for me.

Also, I love Steve's advice about shoe tying and various maintenance things.  I concur on the cutting your toenails before long races.  Of course right now, I've got few to cut because I ended up losing some during my ulta.  Yuck.  Yet another reason to give up the distances; I want my french pedi back.

Jay, you are a good and kind coach.  We have some a.h. daddy coaches here who have driven too many kids from the sport.  I wish men that don't have the emotional maturity of a peanut were banned from coaching.  {Ok, there was my rant.} So glad that you are setting good examples for the kids in your area.  It's priceless what you are teaching them.

Samantha, WTG on the swim coach!  Good decision and it sounds like you've got a great coach.  As for the snacks, hubby likes to put natural peanut butter on graham crackers.  The apple would be a killer snack.  I like dried apricots a lot too because they are great for magnesium and potassium and help me with cramps. 

Ken, so glad that your quad was fine yesterday.  Rock that race tomorrow!

Stu, the rules were fantastic.  There was one about not being afraid to blow up.  So true.  I blew up in a race last Feb and I wouldn't take anything for the experience.  I learned a lot from it; hmm, you almost have to learn from something that kicks your azz to the curb.  Also, your daughter's recipe sounds wonderful.

Ok, looks like my son is back so I'll go spend some time with him.  Later...

Here's a quick read article (that probably most of us could have written) on pros and cons of treadmill vs. running outside.  Certainly a topic that most of us consider in our training.

What's better, treadmill or open road?

I use both.  Mainly do interval training on treadmill and some warm-up / quick brick work when doing bike class, but I generally prefer to run outside, especially if it is anything over 3 miles (which seems to be my limit when it comes to indoor track or treadmills).  Carol's 80 indoor lap workouts are mind-boggling to me!  I do, however, appreciate that the treadmills are a bit easier on my feet and knees.  

Here's a photo of the bike torture chamber. The orange box & grey bucket are my laptop stand for trainer workout (usually watchign something on Hulu or a Sufferfest video). The other stuff is our storage for bulk things from Costco, etc.  the rest is just our creepy fieldstone basement, plumbing, storage stuff...

Mike: I think you left out the photo in your post!

Pam: Thanks for the kind words and chuckle about BB.com  Ironically, with a name like bodybuilding.com you'd expect great information but most of it is kids/guys in their late teens/early 20's trying to get their six packs while boozing away every weekend!  The articles are pretty good and that's where I found the recipe items by Jamie Eason. (she's not bad to look at either lol)  I could rant like you about my co-coaches but this is a triathlon forum lol.

Carol: Good job yesterday!  As Steve and Pam said yesterday, what you do and what you have to deal with is inspirational to us all!

Brian: Is this cramping a normal thing for you or is what Steve said the likely culprit?

So yesterday before I blew my diet out of the water at a party I got in some training.  My YMCA has stadium stairs so I took them on for 20 minutes and oh boy...that's pretty hard!  My legs were still sore from the weight training I did on Friday but I got it done.  I have a strong dislike for hills (how I ever finished Boston I'll never know!) so I'm hoping that doing the stairs and continuing weight training will help improve my hilling (is that a word!)  After that, I tried to do another session of week 2 in my 0-1650 quest but that didn't go so well.  During my 200y warm up, my hammy started to cramp.  I had to stop and massage it out.  My rational side says why do you do these things to yourself but my irrational side says because training for swimming while being fatigued has to help you in the long run!  I ended up getting in 800 yards and did a few 200 yard repeats (a first for you tortoise in water) so I was pretty satisfied.  I'm hoping I'll get on the bike while the first football game is on but my wifes back is hurting today and kids aren't on their best behavior....so we shall see.

Happy Sunday all!

Smart training is good training.  Abusing a muscle group too much and then abusing it more often leads to injury.  Typical workouts of the same muscle group has at least a 6 hour recovery between workouts.  When lifting folks will work upper body one day and lower body the next or alter specfic muscle groups if they are going to lift every day.  Injury does not make one faster, it trashes your training.  Now if you build up to it, you can probably handle more of sliding from one exercize to the next.  But droppingin a new exercize and then hitting something that uses the same mucles.  Hrm.  The big thing is to listen to your body, if it is giving you signals of overuse daily or weekly, eventually it will give you a stronger message.  Please be careful with overdoing things. 

I am anxious to hear how Ken did.  All the way up to 4F here so far today, some pipes froze with the -15F or whatever temps repeatedly and ice on the inside of our doublepane windows.

Great job on your run Carol! Hoping you are feeling good today. 

Well done Ken! I can't imagine how I'd feel after running a marathon. 

I got my new tri-bike yesterday "Felt B-16" and went for a 45 mile ride today and felt fantastic at the end. The bike is a perfect fit. He set it up specifically for HIM distance which is cool. He also explained "everything" about every aspect of the fitting. Awesome service.

I plan to write the owner of the shop, because all the service people there are so kind, helpful and friendly.

I was also fitted for a bike seat and after riding today I felt like I could have gone another 40 miles. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

I have the a Felt B16 as well.  I love it.