Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 15)

I love how busy this group is! I leave for a few hours and can barely catch up.

I think this group must have dog fever. Tony we're bringing home a lab pup this weekend. I can't wait and think I need my head checked all at once .

Best wishes to all with the weight loss challenge. I can't go down this road of weighing in every day or I will become completely obsessed with the number on the scale. I had a brief brush with anorexia in my high school years. I was 5'6"/98 pounds and thinking "well if I just weighed 95 I'd be happy with that". Weighing myself every day played a major role in that. It was nothing dramatic, I snapped out of easily enough and I learned a lot about myself from that experience but I absolutely know, even at the age of 40, with that incident so far in my past, that I still can't go down this road. So I weigh myself a few times a year just to check in and that is it. I don't even let the nurses tell me my weight when I go to the doctor. I know darn good and well when I've been eating like crap and when I feel bad enough I change my habits.

But I will be your biggest cheerleader so best wishes everyone!

I would like to clean up my diet and I think I'm going to look for a book for athletes to help me get motivated.

Jonathan yes I have and I am considering all options and I totally agree with you on having the opportunity to save a dog and some money as well as being able to get more gear but I think my wife might not agree with the latter part of this statement in regards to the gear. Either way there is no reason for me to rush into it and I want to make sure we make the right decision. I would prefer a pup but it is not showstopper for me, we just want to get a dog who will fit in and can be part of the family. Glad to see both you and Matt enjoying having your new dogs.

Dina congrats on your new addition to your family. Let us know it goes with the new Lab pup as I would definitely be interested in how you make out. I think I feel the same way about it. I would be very excited to have the pup but I am worried about making sure I have enough time to care for it properly. I think as long as my younger daugher is willing to help me out then we should be good as we are home during the day. I know she really, really wants the dog.

I went tri crazy today and had my own little triathlon. I went to the Y to swim and finished just in time to jump into my first cycling class. I thought these classes were only 30 min - uh wrong, turns out they are an hour long. After that I figured I might as well finish this year of training up with a short run - only 1.5 miles but I thought my legs were not going to be able to keep moving just to finish that!

Cycling class was a lot different than my usual interval training on the trainer. Lots of work out of my seat which I really stink at on the real road so maybe this would be a good addition to my weekly cycling workouts? There is a 9:30 class that fits perfectly with my T/Th Y hours. What do you all think? Should I trade out one of my trainer rides at home for the cycling class?

I prefer to do my own workouts rather than a class.  Is this a spin class?  There's certainly a lot of heated discussions about spin classes on the main site.  If you have problems getting the motivation to do the trainer rides - either from the perspective of intensity or frequency, I'd say the class is better than missing workouts.

It's really your call what you're after.  I consider the classes more for "fitness" as opposed to "training" if that makes sense, unless the leader is really designing a cycling class for improved cycling performance.

I'll play the training game:

There's one in every crowd.

Yes it was a spin class, not tri specific or anything. Things we did in the class - jump ups, hovers, climbing section where we increased the intensity very gradually to the point where I was barely moving my pedals and then just a little bit of sprinting. Then there was a section of "core work" which I thought was pointless so I just did more sprints. Actually, anything I didn't like I just did more sprints, I sat at the back of the room .

I was torn between thinking this was good for me because it was working areas I am weak at (getting out of my seat to pedal up a hill and working in a bigger gear with a low cadence) and then the other side of me thought this is not tri specific so not the best use of my cycling time.

One thing I know, all the ladies around here who teach spin put down some serious fast times at the races.

Have you looked at the book Racing Weight? The description on Amazon sounds just like what you might be looking for. I think Jo is reading it right now, maybe she can give us a review.

Alright here are my totals for the year. Two things to note, it was my first season and this is only 7 months worth since I only started logging in May when I started training for my HIM. Not bad for 7 months.

2012 Totals
Bike: 149h 55m 13s  - 2602.62 Mi
Run: 141h 08m 30s  - 801.92 Mi
Swim: 63h 57m 20s  - 117413 M

Jeff I averaged out the totals based on the 7 months and divided that by 12 months and this is what I come up with below, however to be honest I know I did not hit this on the bike or swim since I was just getting started and was not putting up that type of distance I did from May on however for the run it may have been possible but I doubt it was that high. 

Estimated Totals
Bike: 4461.63 Mi
Run: 1374.72 Mi
Swim: 201279 M

Good morning and Happy New Year guys!  I'm pumped to start the training year regardless of the crappy night's sleep because of the pup.  I'm about to head out for a quick run and then jump on the bike, but I did my weigh-in and I'm sitting at 24 lbs.

Given that I have 24 lbs to lose, I am actually heavier this year than I was last year at this time.  I'm going to count on you guys to help keep me in this.  We will weigh in every Wednesday and I'll keep track of how everyone is doing.

Who's next?

I'll start my weight at 23 pounds.  I know the first 2-3 pounds will be much of the excess I've had over the past week, so the those few pounds will come off very quickly.  I would expect those to be gone by the next weigh in.  To get to my target weight shouldn't be terribly difficult as long as I truly focus on losing the weight rather than justifying a few extra calories here and there.  The worst time of day for me is the first 15 minutes after I walk through the door from work.  All I want to do is start shoving worthless food in my face.

And for the record Jonathon, I am not nearly as motivated as you might be right now.  I will have to wait to get my game on today.  I'll get a short 3-4 mile run in this AM and then decide to do my bike WO during one of the football games today.  we also have to take our Christmas tree down today as well, so that will fit in somewhere.

Isn't our goal weight 10 pounds, so you have 14 pounds to lose?  Or do you really have 24 pounds to lose, so your current weight is 34?

I have 15 pounds to lose, so I'm starting at 25.  I have been particularly weak this year.

Mileage on the trainer is largely unimportant, but I understand your desire to track it.  There are a few ways.  You can get a cheap bike computer which works on the wheel by measuring rotations and translates to mileage that way.  Before GPS, this is how all bike computers measured distance!  I think I paid something like 15 bucks at Walmart for one before I had the Garmin.  If you have a Garmin or similar watch, you can get a speed/cadence sensor which can track distance when the GPS is turned off.

You can also just estimate the mileage by knowing how fast you ride at certain intensities and then total up your time at each intensity and get a really rough estimate that way.  Or even simpler, just average your outdoor speed and use that as a constant trainer speed.  Remember since any trainer mileage is just an estimate anyway, it's probably fine to use any method you want.

The truth is that trainer rides really can't be compared to mileage outside.  The key on the trainer is to know how hard you are going for how long, so at a minimum track your time and the intensity at the time.  I noticed Jeff doesn't track mileage at all on the trainer, but simply time.

Good to hear you're able to get some running and biking in while out of town.  A coach for swimming can be a great idea.  Stroke flaws are very difficult to self diagnose, and as we've said so many times, what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing are often very different.