David Gillen's Group - FULL (Page 16)

The simpler the better.  I used to mess with lots of gear in transistion and my times were slow.  Only in my last 2 tris have I kept it simple and minimized my times.  Have a filled bottle ready to go in one of your cages.  Layout a small towel on the ground to claim your space.  Socks (if any), shoes, sunglasses, and helmet in T1.  That's about it.  You might also want a small hand towel to dry your feet a little before putting on socks if you use them.  I do this.  T2, off with cycling shoes, on with the running ones.  Grab a hat or visor, and your race belt with your bib number and your off.  I put my visor and race belt on while running out of T2.

I'm really excited for you, Mike.  You're going to love it.  I already know.   

You know, Mike, it's fine for your HR to go high sometimes.  You don't always have to keep it in Z2, especially if you're training for short distance racing!   I'm so glad that you're feeling fresh for each session.  Keep up what ever you're doing b/c it's working.  I'm glad to hear that your cycling speed in improving too.  That's awesome.  One comment: 6 miles is pretty far to run after cycling.  I'd rather see you do a 15 mile ride, and a 3-4 mile run.  But, do what you want.  You're doing great!

2 workouts a day is fine, just be sure not to over do it.  I don't know if it's quite necessary for you, but if want to give it a try, go ahead.  Most people who do "2-a-days" will workout in the AM, and then again after work in the evening.  If you do this be sure to eat well and healthy throughout the day so you can replenish your glycogen stores for your evening workout.

Even at 21% you are not that high.  If you get to 15 or 16 percent you are only talking 8-10 lbs of fat.  I would just chalk today up as a bad day and get after it. 

Tim, excellent job of pushing thru a bad day. We all have bad days. I've been having more than few recently. I find it helpful to accept the fact that bad days happen and I try not to dwell on it and just know that tomorrow will be a new day.

The fact that you were able to get out the door and go for a ride is great and testament to your drive and will power. So much of what we do is just showing up. Many times the hard step is that first one out the door. So good job.

I'm sorry to hear that you're down about your weight and body fat. Try not to let it get you down, and just focus on the positive things like you're still a lot healthier than most and most importantly you have the desire to lose body fat! These are good things.

Yes, back in 2001, I went from about 250 to about 200 over a 9 month period. I'm 6'2". I actually ran a marathon in Feb 2001, and I didn't lose any weight during my 4 months of training prior to that b/c I also ate like crap. It wasn't until after my marathon when I started watching what I ate that the pounds became to come off. I switched from regular to diet soft drinks (HUGE benefit), and I learned to eat smaller portions. I continued running and lift weights too. (I wasn't tri'ing yet).

Looking back, I think portion control was the biggest contributor to my weight loss. I didn't know it at the time, but I think I followed an idea similar to Volumetrics. I knew that foods that were physically heavy or had a lot of volume to them made me feel fuller. Thus, I tried to eat a lot of fruit: bananas, apples, oranges. Think about it: If you eat a whole banana and a whole apple back to back as a snack, you'll be pretty full and you will have only taken in about 150 calories and a lot of good nutrients. Compare that to handful of chips that would do nothing to help you feel fuller. I also would use protein shakes.

It definitely wasn't easy trying to "shrink your stomach" and teach it to expect less food. I was hungry often and even would go to sleep that way some nights. But in the end, the weight and fat came off.

Now, the tough part for you and all of us triathletes, is that we expend (and thus need) a lot of calories. You definitely should not try to cut back too drastically on your caloric intake as this will hurt your training. The key and challenge will be finding a balance between too much and too little. Be sure to eat a healthy recovery shake or meal soon after your toughest workouts. Also, eat a decent breakfast also as this will help jump start your metabolism for the day. Obviously, try to minimize saturated and other bad fat intake as well as refined sugars (except during and after training). Don't skimp on protein though.

I'll continue to list more tips, but do read the articles I've listed as they've stated it better than I can. As you probably know, losing weight and fat is not really complicated. You need to burn more than you take in. That's it, really. If you can do that consistently, the weight will come off.

Let me ask you, Tim, are you wanting to create a detail nutrition plan where you plan and count all of your calories. There are pros and cons to doing this.

Also, let us know some of your "vices'. What bad foods do you love? Also, what specific ways can I or we help you with?

BTW, I love cookies and chips. I eat too many of these! I'm at about 182 now, and I'd love to get back down to my IM weight of about 172.

Glad we could help. That's the whole idea of BT and this group in particular.

Thanks for being appreciative. I know I mentioned being hungry, but I might have mislead you. I don't think you should purposely go hungry sometimes. I think studies have shown that this leads to overeating later when you're absolutely starving.

One thing I forgot to mention is to eat OFTEN. Maybe as many as 6-7 small "snack meals" throughout the day. This will help you from actually getting hungry in the first place. When I was heavier, I used to eat till I was really full, almost to the point of hurting. Then I knew I was done. However, when I starting dieting changed my eating habits, I ate smaller portions more often, and thus I never had that full, satiated feeling. This took time to learn that it was OK not to feel full. However, by eating small healthy snack often, you can avoid feeling hungry AND you keep your metabolism up!

First of all, don't worry about losing weight this week! You have much more exciting things to think about: your first triathlon! Be sure to reward yourself with nice recovery meal afterwards. Always depriving yourself of your favorite foods is a sure way to get frustrated and angry with your new eating habits. It's OK to splurge on a rare occasion.

I too often think that b/c I workout train (as Ken would say) so much that I can eat whatever I want. When I was training 11+ hr/week for my IM, this was actually true. I ate a lot and still lost a little weight. However, if I would have eaten a little less or healthier, I think my bodyfat would've come down. Instead, it has stayed right around 15% for over a year now. Now, that I train significantly less, I've found that if I'm not careful about what I eat, I gain weight! I'm up about 5 lbs this year. Arghhhh!!!

Thanks for sharing, Tim. You're doing great, and be sure to have fun this weekend in your first tri. You only do your first triathlon once, so be sure to enjoy every moment, and please, please write a race report and let us know all about it.

I don't know how accurate mine is but it is at least consitant.  If you look at the instruction book it will show you based on time of day and when you ate/trained it can be higher or lower.  I just do mine first thing is the morning so it is at least consistant.

I don't know how accurate mine is but it is at least consitant.  If you look at the instruction book it will show you based on time of day and when you ate/trained it can be higher or lower.  I just do mine first thing is the morning so it is at least consistant.

How about another cliche: "Too ride fast, you have to train fast".  

Seriously though, you should probably try some intervals on the bike.  Start out with some 3-5 minute intervals where you don't go all out but, simply put, ride fast.  Ride at a speed that you can maintain for the duration of the interval, but that is not comfortable (i.e, you couldn't hold it say for 30 minutes or an hour).  Start by trying to do 3-4 or these intervals with about few minutes rest in between each one.  As you get more comfortable with the intervals, you can either increase the number of them or their duration.

Ideally, pick a location that is fairly flat with no stop signs or lights.  You want to be able to ride the full interval at the hard pace.   

I've recently tried to start doing these intervals myself, and they're tough and you should try to schedule an easy day afterwards as I've found I recover slower after higher intensity training.  Be sure to do a 15 minute warm up and cool down after the intervals.  

Does this make sense?  Please let me know if I wasn't clear.