Funked Up Triathletes - Season 2 - Olympic/Sprint Focus - Closed (Page 14)

Ha! Found out I have tendinitis in my knee. Now at least I know what I'm dealing with. That's a good thing. PT said light shining is okay - no hard gears. I'm at the run a mile, roll, run a mile stage. I'm thinking this is a good time to kick the swimming up a few notches and do upper body and core stuff. Now to get rid of this cold and sore throat!
You guys still out there?

spinning, not shining.

I feel like this needs a Monty Python "I'm not dead yet" kind of response, but yes, still out there!

I'd done something to hurt my heel right after Thanksgiving and it's still bothering me a bit, so I'm not running as much as I'd hoped to. Turning to Doctor Internet, it sounds like plantar fasciitis, do any of you have any experience with it? I'm trying to let it heal a bit and stretch it a few times a day, but it seems slow to go away. I'll stick to walking in tunnels at work for a bit I guess. Frustrating.

Last week was reasonably warm so I did get in some decent riding, but now we're stuck with subzero wind chills, so that won't happen for a bit.

The holiday waistline damage this year seems to be about 5 pounds, so back to eating better. And more coffee!

Andrew, it does sound like plantar fasciitis, I think you're right. Do you have a PT? It might be worth a visit or two.
I feel your frustration. The knee has been an issue for 6 weeks now and I feel like I've lost any fitness I may have had. I have been lucky and not gained any weight over the holidays but I can't seem to kick this cold either which is why I haven't been swimming this week.
It's okay, we'll get through this. We beat our bodies up last spring, summer, and fall and sometimes it needs some time to mend. (I just wish it would mend a little faster!!)
What CAN you do. Swim? Spin? Walking laps in the water? I used to fall asleep at night on my back with my toes pulled back by the sheets to help prevent plantar fasciitis. haha. It's worked so far. I hope you find out and get it healed!
I'd put a challenge out for the remainder of the month to get us going, like 21 days of workouts for the remainder of January, but let me know where you stand. Motivation is needed! I start teaching next Monday and it's easy to sit in front of my computer day in and day out and not do much.
It was -17 this morning without the windchill...ooofa.

A sore knee sounds worse, as the pain in my heel doesn't affect cycling at all, so I haven't had any trouble doing that. Except I don't have a trainer and we're seeing below zero temps around here so no riding in the short term at least. If it manages to make it back to the 30s this weekend I'll probably go out though.
I also had skin cancer removed from the back of my neck, so no pool until that heals up. It's progressing ok though. I haven't really been swimming lately, but I'm starting to get to the point where it sounds like a good idea, so that's a start!
I've never visited a PT, and I think the main thing is just patience and trying not to strain things before it's really healed up. I'm just not sure there's much they can do for it, but if it's not better in a few weeks I may take your advice.
Good luck with your challenge, no way I can make it to 21 workouts in the remaining part of the month, unless I count simple walks during my lunch break. I didn't do any exercise last January, so I'm already ahead of that at least. I'm at 34 miles of cycling so far this month, I think my goal will be to make it to 100 miles in January. There's also a Strava climbing challenge for January, to climb 20,150ft, and I'd like to at least make it to the 1/4 progress mark of that one. A stretch goal might be the 1/2 way mark, which means I'd need to make sure to plan my routes to include some decent climbs. I could use some climbing practice.
Good luck with the teaching.

What kind of climbing? Rock or cycling? If it's rock, that's cool, I didn't know Strava did that!! Now I would have more incentive to get to the climbing gym!
I don't think I'll make 21 at this point either. I haven't had one workout in January yet. I had two runs after Christmas but I can't remember if that was before or after Christmas. Maybe an every other day goal would work? So let's just call it 10 workouts left in January to make numbers easy. Maybe I can get it done. Let's make it doable by saying 10 min run, 15 bike, or 15 min swim counts. Go ahead and count your walks at lunch too - I understand why you're doing it and not running. Good luck with that heal. My PT has been putting that fancy tape on my knee trying to encourage the healing process I guess.

10 workouts left in January- I'm in! And for my own motivation I'll say lunch walks don't count but outdoor ones will, it would be just too easy to get a bunch of lunch walks in. 10 activities is 3 per week plus an extra, so that should help make me get out a couple of times in the evening.

It will just be climbing on the bike- I've never really tried rock climbing before. I was never that great in tying knots, so I figured it might be a bad choice from that standpoint. It looks like fun though. I do think Strava does actually have a rock climbing workout type you can add, and I bet you could track it with the 920xt at least for heart rate and vertical climb. That might be an interesting data file to see.

I'm still out here! I just got back from Cabo with my wife. It was amazing. I'll catch up more in the next few days with some commentary (not sure I'd call it advice) on the injuries you all are dealing with and how I'm getting geared up for my next training cycle.

Looking forward to hearing about Cabo! I just booked some tickets for our family to Puerto Vallarta over spring break, so I'm looking forward to that.

Workout 1/10 on Sunday- went to the gym and did the elliptical trainer to try to keep it somewhat lower impact, which seemed to work, plus did some weights to try to avoid looking totally like "skinny arms Rob Lowe".

Workout 2/10 on Tuesday- my heel is finally starting to feel somewhat better, so I did a very easy run to see how it would go. Made sure to stretch well before heading out, started with a mixture of running and walking and then kept 10:30-11:00/mile pace over roughly 1/2 mile blocks. For steeper hills I just went to walking. There was some stiffness but not any real pain, and today it still feels good. It ended up as 2.1 miles in a little over 26 minutes. I think I'm good to start getting back to running regularly now, but will build distance and pace very slowly. Which is probably what I should be doing anyways.

Also making sure to get in a walk at lunch on off days (not counting those) and watching what I eat so finally seeing some progress on the holiday weight. I'll probably just do a lunch walk today, but this weekend looks like we'll get a warm up to maybe 50 by Saturday, so with any luck I can rack up some miles on the bike.

Hope everyone is having a good week. This one seems to be going by pretty slow.

I've been watching all the posts, but haven't gotten around to posting anything.

Last week, we were in Cabo Monday-Friday. It was awesome. The weather was great. Temperature in the 80's. It was cloudy two of the days but still warm and beautiful. The resort was very good...once we figured out what we were doing. It was tough to come back to reality...work, schedule, sub 10-degree temps. My wife and I did manage to get 3 runs in while we were gone of between 3-5 miles each. Since we went on vacation, we've both sort of fallen off the wagon with our diets. The resort was all-inclusive, so there was no semblance of calorie counting going on. We mostly sat on the beach/pool and relaxed. We went whale watching one day, and it was awesome.

I need to get back on the horse.

On the training front, we've basically been focused on getting 5 workouts a week in...basically running and biking on the trainer. I'm starting to get a little down because I'm not kick started a training plan yet. Last year at this time, I was fairly deep into 70.3 training as I had an early April race. I have been mulling over finding an April 70.3 to jump into (which would require a quick, but doable, training boot up) however this Alcatraz race is growing more expensive each day, so budget is a factor. I usually get a large bonus from work each year toward the end of January, but I never know exactly what/if / how much it is. Since it constitutes a sizable portion of my annual compensation, this time of year becomes a bit stressful for me. So much of my summer spending is on hold at the moment.

In some ways, the heavy training season will get real next week. I"m signed up to do the Tour of Sufferlandria. I know I've talked about the Sufferfest in the past, but this is their big annual event. It's pretty cool...check it out... http://www.thesufferfest.com/tour-sufferlandria-2015/

If any of you sign up, be sure to join the official facebook group which acts as the Official Race Village for the tour.

Speaking of FB, if anyone still wants to take this group to another platform, I'm fine with it. My last name is Panjada if you want to find me on FB.

It's too bad several of your are struggling with injuries. I have sort of an odd one myself. About a month ago, I tinkered just a bit with my aerobars. My bike is stuck to the trainer pretty much all winter long. On Christmas Eve I noticed some slight numbness in my fingers on my left hand. Just the index, middle and ring finger. Nothing severe, just slight and tingly. Anyway, I wondered if it was possibly a fit issue and I'd just put it back.

I was off the bike all of last week and the numbness has stuck around. At this point, I'm wondering if it's a symptom of something else. The aerobar adjustment was so slight that I wouldn't think it would be anything that would cause several days of numbness.

It's doesn't hurt, doesn't cause me any issues. I'm not at risk of accidentally cutting my fingers off because I have no feelings. Just a slight tingling. I'm starting to wonder what the deal is.

Workout 3/10- Another run yesterday evening, still short but a little more normal pace. I did have a few walking breaks to try to get my HRM to behave- I probably need to get some electrolyte gel or something as this time of year it dries out and quits reading. At one point I also lost the GPS feed. What I really need to do is quit worrying about making sure it's all tracking right and just keep running, as I'm sort of victimizing myself with gadgets. My foot still isn't 100%, but still seems to be improving and I don't seem to be causing any harm with the runs.

Cabo sounds like it was great, and nice job getting some runs in. All inclusive resorts are hell on diets, but at least with some exercise maybe the damage was minimal.

Good luck with the Tour of Sufferlandria- that sounds pretty hard core! In a good way of course.

It looks like we're going to be lucky with the weather here this weekend- sunny and almost 50 on Saturday and Monday (MLK day off for me) with maybe a little cooler and a spot of rain Sunday. I'm hoping to put a big dent in my 100 mile ride goal for the month on Saturday and Monday, and I'll probably run on Sunday (maybe outside, maybe treadmill, we'll see). I'd better take advantage since after that the forecast looks much less promising for the next week.

I was looking to get another set of tri shorts for when the weather gets warm- I managed to get a pair of Nike ones off of Sierra Trading Post for $0.65. I don't know if you all have bought from them in the past but they're a division of TJ Maxx so they're probably selling a lot of overbuy stuff from other retailers, so everything is always on sale to some extent, but if you sign up for their mailing list they constantly send out coupons and such. So the price was $30something, plus a 35% off coupon to $20.65, then they had sent a $20 e-gift card for some "customer thank-you" thing (despite my only having bought one thing from them prior) late last year, so $0.65. Of course no free shipping, so a total of more like $8. Gotta love a deal!

Have a fun weekend all.

I've used STP a ton. In fact, they currently have my shoes and I watch their "sales" every day to find the perfect one to load up again. I didn't realized they were owned by TJM until yesterday, actually. I was looking at the shoes in my shopping cart and noticed they now charge sales tax on everything, regardless of what state. I don't know when they started that, but it's relatively new.

I didn't realize it either, what tipped me off was the checkout was pushing the TJ Maxx credit card. I'm used to seeing sales tax on internet stuff by now, as there's a giant Amazon fulfillment center right down the road so I get taxed on everything from them.

I had some Gore cycling bids at one of the actual TJ Maxx stores a while back, so they do have a little of that stuff too, but it wasn't at a great price. I do see people post about finding things at there for a bargain sometimes though, and since if I'm there I'm bored, I'll usually look to see what I can find. I'm not a big fan of those kinds of stores but my wife loves that sort of thing.

Love STP! Their wickers long johns are perfect for the boys for skiing. I have bought tons of stuff there in the past, my favorite thing being a Marmot 4 season tent that I saved up for 2 years for. I also had no idea they are owned by TJ Maxx. I'm not a fan of shopping, unless it's for gear, then I'll spend hours in the store. That being said, when I do shop I refuse to pay full price so I appreciate these types of stores.

Okay, down to brass tacks. I am 1/10. Stop laughing. I finally got on my trainer to check the knee. PT keeps testing my knee and now thinks I may have bursitis. Tomorrow I plan to get a swim in, maybe another easy spin. I stayed in Z2 - don't ask me how my fancy, shmancy watch knows this, but it does. LOL But it's sweet, I don't have to manually enter anything into BT, Strava or anyplace else unless I want to add comments. Sweet! I am so happy I finally got on the trainer. Really, there is no excuse (yes I started teaching this week and had 2 meetings and am making changes to my syllabus) to not do other things - like swim or lift. A bit of winter laziness and me being too caught up in my knee. LOL Time to suck it up and press on!!
You forget how good you feel when you're done. Why do we forget that part?! Oh, I have been watching my steps on my fitbit thing. I've had a few days of over 14,000 steps. I figure at least if I'm moving I won't lose all my fitness before this knee heals...

Cabo sounds fabulous!!! Anything above 10 degrees sounds pretty fabulous right about now! Love all inclusives. We did Sandals, Whitehouse, Jamaica 2 years ago for our 10th anniversary and I have not been that relaxed in a looooong time. You have to eat and drink big. You just do and there's no shame in it. Reality is there to kick your as soon as you get back. LOL

Hey, it sounds like the foot is on the mend! That's great!!!

We could do the FB thing and set up our own group on it if that's easier. I'm game for whatever! I'll try to set one up this weekend if I get a chance.

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Since Jen mentioned her gadget (920) I thought I'd mention this...

I've got a good buddy who works for Garmin and asks as my "supplier". He buys stuff for me at employee pricing. Since he's pretty involved in development, he always has all sorts of gadgets that he shows me before they are in the public space.

Anyhow, I've been planning to get a new tri watch (pretty much set on 920xt) and also am going to get something for my wife (I was thinking a 220 running watch and also a vivofit band). We get points from our health insurer for "being active" so activity band will help eliminate manual entry.

I contacted him this week to set up a lunch so we could get stuff and had a bit of a surprise. CES just happened, and Garmin rolled out a bunch of cool stuff. I wasn't paying attention so I was a bit floored when he asked me if I've checked out the Fenix 3 and the VivoActive. These are some pretty neat devices. Has anyone explored them?

Is sounds like the Fenix 3 now has all the capabilities that the 920 has. The VivoActive is basically a smart watch with swim/bike/run support, although it does not have a "multisport" mode.

So...I'm back to checking out all these devices to decide what I'm going to get. Jen, when you said you never manually upload anything anymore....I suddenly got very jealous.

Very cool! I saw the Fenix 3 was going to come out, I just assumed the 920 would still be better - but honestly I really wanted it mostly for swimming which is the big thing for Fenix! Let us know! I already have my toy so clearly I won't be going down that road again for years, but it's still nice to keep up. I need to get the things for my pedals now to measure cadence on the bike. Does your friend have any recommendations? The 920 doesn't come in a tri bundle anymore - it's a la carte now. I have the HRM it came with, but that's it. If I get the crankshafts it can be huge $$$ and I hesitate. I'd really like to get aerobars so that's where I'm going next.

I am 2/10 with a swim today. I did 1,200 yds but for whatever reason my 920 did not log all the yardage, don't know why. I thought I had the drill option figured out before the swim but clearly not as I logged it all as freestyle, which it wasn't. I'll have to review the directions again, it was a few weeks ago when I had read them.
It felt sooooo good to get back in the pool. I took it nice and easy which was hard, but I haven't swum in 2 months. Back then I'd crank out 2800 yds in 65 minutes. Not so much now.... I have faith it will return with consistency. LOL

Yea, I'd been leaning toward the 920 also, but with the new Fenix, it now has all the swimming functionality.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the "things for my pedals". I think you are referring to a speed+cadence sensor. This will measure your cadence as well as your speed (duh). The one you need is the GSC 10 (http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Speed-Cadence-Bike-Sensor/dp/B000BFNOT8). Just look around and find the best price. There are other manufacturers of these, but the GSC 10 has been around awhile and works great. The main thing is you want one that uses Ant+ to communicate with the "head unit" (920xt, bike computer, laptop,etc). Don't get fooled and by a newer one that uses bluetooth exclusively: the 920 won't talk to it!

Since you mentione crankshafts, i think you may referring to a power meter. Garmin makes a pedal based power meter (the Vector). There are lots of other power meters, and they also will provide cadence. If you're just looking for cadence, spend $50 instead of $500+ and get the sensor.

Training with power has great value, but that would be another level of complexity and financial commitment.

Yes - the speed and cadence sensor. I knew about the ANT and staying away from bluetooth due to my thing being Garmin. Thanks. My PT keeps mentioning power meters (he and his wife race) because he says if I do the crankshafts it would do the same thing as having the cadence sensors....right up until I saw the price. I'm not elite. Training with power would be very cool and effective especially in the longer races but I am a bit more practical - I've only done one sprint and one Oly so I am a novice (and I don't have that kind of coin to get the crankshafts and power meter...) zoinks.
Does the Fenix 3 allow for HRM in the water??? I would love that but I don't think the 920 does it - i remember reading about it but I've forgotten. You can't really do anything about it while you're swimming, but it's great to look at after to see what the ticker is doing based on how you felt that day in the water. I'll have to read the material again. (so much stuff going on right now!)

Technology is so cool. The tough part is remembering to keep things simple and not get too caught up in it!

I've been running a speed/cadence sensor by Wahoo Fitness and it's worked great. Super reliable, I've never had it drop out and the battery lasts forever (not sure how long exactly, I changed batteries when I switched bikes with it but it hadn't died yet). It's basically the same as the GSC10 and the new version of the Wahoo one has dual BTLE/ANT+ so it would work with the Garmin. Might be an option if you can find it for a better price. I think Garmin has some new magnetless sensors which look pretty cool too, they might be easier to mount depending on your frame.

I have a friend with the Fenix 2 and he really likes it, he uses it basically just for running though. Since the Fenix 3 looks like it has everything of the 920 then I'd probably lean towards it just because I like the look of it better. Either are really cool though. I'd love to get something like that but I think I'm going to be waiting a while since with a new bike I've sort of tapped out my wife's goodwill account for a while. A controllable trainer like a KICKR and a power meter are also on the "someday" list, hopefully power meters will keep getting cheaper so in a couple of years it won't be much of a big expense.

My wife's Fitbit died yesterday- even though it's over a year and a half old (I'm not sure how long they are supposed to last, but something small like that working 24/7 seems to me not to be good for more than a couple of years) we called them up and they're just sending a replacement. In the meantime I've loaned her mine- she was pretty fired up about missing out on her steps being counted! Kind of funny actually.

Workout 4/10 yesterday. I got in a nice 24 mile ride, and it was in the lower 50s when I went out so pretty nice. Because of my kids' basketball I didn't make it out the door until 4:20, and I normally plan out my route so I know what mileage I'll do but I just sort of rushed out to get going. My route ended up being longer than I thought so I ran out of daylight and had to have my wife come retrieve me about 4 miles from home. The 4 miles was on a twisty, unlit road though so I wasn't going to risk it in the dark. Also fun was getting chased down the road by two very fat little beagles- I smoked them! I'm now at around 60 miles on the bike in January, and tomorrow's forecast is looking ok so with any luck I'll be most of the way towards my 100 mile January goal then.

Hope the knee is feeling a little better.

So I'm still at 2/10. I skied Sunday with the family. My knee is caput. It sometimes throbs now. I don't know if it's from doing what I did over the weekend sports-wise or working at the computer more - it seems to really get me if it's bent for any length of time. For the first time, last night I lay in bed and just felt it throb. I don't have PT this week but I may give him a call. I'm so frustrated because I've never had an injury last like this (except bursitis in my pitching shoulder back in the day). I'm staying positive but the HM I signed up for in April is looking to fall in the gray area.
My Fitbit broke in my sleep last night! I woke up and it was next to me! The band broke next to where you put the plastic thing in. I got it as a Christmas present. Time to call Fitbit and see what's up.
Also, I discovered on my pool swim Saturday that my 920 didn't quite get all of my laps in - for example one set was 200 yards and it counted it as 175. I've heard these things have glitches like this.

Sorry your knee is causing you so much trouble. Hopefully it's just a little mad about the skiing and will get a bit better with a couple of days of rest.

I'm sure if Fitbit will replace my wife's old, out of warranty one that they'll send you a replacement one pretty quickly.

Workout 5/10- went running Sunday and did about 3 1/2 miles at a somewhat more normal pace. It felt ok but by the end of the day I ended up taking some ibuprofin since my foot hurt a bit. It seems better again but I'll probably wait a couple of days before running again.

Workout 6/10- I did make it out for a ride yesterday, roughly 22 miles. I was hoping to make it more like 30, but we ended up taking my kids to the movies and running some errands so I didn't leave again until nearly 4pm. This time I made sure to do a familiar route that would be done before dark. It worked ok from that perspective, but I'm certainly more fatigued than I have been in a while. There is one bigger hill on that route and it definitely hurt.

Seth, are you still out there? I'm seeing workouts on Strava so I know he's hard at work!

Nice ride!! 22 miles is so much better than anything on a trainer!! We are socked in with snow and ice for the next probably 2 months.

Bursitis.....I did get in to see my PT today. Ultrasound, sports massage for the ITB (ouch), exercises, "fancy tape." I have been given the okay to ride on my trainer still so that's good. I can also swim....but no legs...leg buoy. Talk about technique work and some serious arms. LOL Popeye.
Hey, I'm back - well, half of me....which is better than none! I'm not sure about the HM - I may run half of it or something - play it by ear.
tomorrow will be gorgeous so I'm going flying - can't beat the view from the office window! Then off to the pool for me. I'll let you know how it goes..if my arms aren't too tired to type!! Yikes!!

Keep killing it on your workouts!! good for you! I still have a shot at making 10 workouts, but it will be tight as I only have 2. My trainer is right in the basement so really there's no excuse to not get 20-30 minutes in a day. (sheepish grin)

Keep it up!!!

The Tour has started! Today was "Elements of Style" which is a pretty easy technique workout, and then, "The Long Scream". 30 minute TT at or above threshold. As I walked up the steps to my office this morning, I could feel my quads with a nice burn. This is going to be a long week.

Here's my workout file.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1535936-The-Long-Scream-pr...

3/10 to get 10 in from mid-month to end of month. Swam with the old leg "buoy" for 1500 yards in a 300 warm-up and 200 yd sets; I believe my arms and shoulders will feel it tomorrow. My Garmin 920 gave some interesting readouts - not sure if I should call them on it or give it a few more tries. It's even off on reporting the time I start the workout (off by an hour). Weird. But it felt great to get back in the pool!!!

Holy cow, 30 minutes at or above threshold would be a heck of a workout! I'll check out the file! Great job!