Jackjack's group - closed (Page 17)

Oh, I thought of some first-time advice for race day- MARK your bike in transition somehow. I use these bright red towels. I have one on the ground with my gear on top, and the other I wrap around the bike seat. It's there for me to dry off quick and it helps me spot my bike a little bit easier in the sea of bikes! My first tri I spent 4 minutes trying to remember where my bike was. Other helpful things are to find a landmark nearby (like a tree) and know where you are in relation to it.

Jenny - I'm so sorry about the accident, and hope you feel much better soon!  Thanks for the tip - I'll definitely use that one.  I have some bright hiking bandannas that might do well.

Did a good running work out today.  Felt great.  Hoping to get in the pool tomorrow.

As a complete side note - does anyone here/is anyone here interested in baking their own bread?  I made my first home made loaf over the weekend, and it was easy and very, very good.  If you're interested: http://www.thefreshloaf.com//>
Goodnight all!

I used to bake my own bread on occasion but now I have a breadmaker machine that makes it much easier.  It is great and so easy to do though.   Feels really healthy knowing you are in control of exactly what goes into it.  Also it does a great pizza dough (bung stuff in and takes 50mins) so I make that with half wholewheat flour.  Adding your own fresh toppings and you get a very healthy pizza!

On another healthy eating note, ages and ages ago someone mentioned csa.  Well this year we took the plunge and signed up for one. It is 3rd week pick up today.    We have been planning recipes around things I have never tried (or heard of) before like kohlrabi.    Now I just need to stop eating the junk in between.  My next "healthy" mission is to not touch anything if it has got corn syrup in it.

Happy Friday everyone. I am going for the longest ride of my year (by far) on Sunday with the group I used to train with (my ex coach group). 70 something miles starting at 6am!!!!!  There is a coffee stop half way though.  If I don't write Monday it's cos I can't get my body to get out of bed.

Jackie-Have fun on the ride sunday!

I managed to swim last night. My arms felt like dead weights for the first few hundred yards.  My oldest daughter wanted to go ot the gym, so she got my butt out of the house! I wasn't feeling incredibly motivated yesterday.
I'm going to try to get to the chiropractor today. My back has been feeling a little stiff lately. We have a birthday party tonight at ChuckE Cheese for friends of my little ones. CEC is not my favorite place to go...but the kids will have a great time. 
I might have to be on the trainer tonight to get my workout in.

Like Jackie- I used to make my own bread-but it was so time consuming that I switched to a bread maker. I only use it about once a month, because we eat way too much bread whenever I make it.

Have a great day every one...I've really enjoyed reading the tips for the first tri.

Jackie- have fun on your ride!

I make my own bread when I have the time (as often as that is with 2 kids!)... I love making my own bread. It took me 5 minutes at the store the other day to find a loaf of bread that did not have corn syrup in it. Kind of scary reading all the ingredients in some of those loaves.
You know, my son and I tried to grow mold on Wonder Bread one year as a lesson in "preservatives". No matter what we tried, we could not get it to mold. I found that disturbing. Bet the same is true with a Twinkie.

QOTD: Do swim workouts always leave you feeling more tired than bike or run? I did my 1850 swim this morning in the pool and after breakfast I took a 45 minute nap while the kids watched cartoons. Could it be that I normally swim in the evenings and I switched times of day?
I know that with running, I am a total slug in the middle of day - I have to run at either 5:30 am or after 8:00 pm to get a good workout.

Dee

Dee-Great QOTD! Swimming makes me exhausted too. I always thought it had to do with the chlorine, but maybe it's more than that.

Good morning ladies.

I did it! I met my goal for this past week! The goal was to complete 3 runs, and I just came back from the third.

It was a huge increase running times from the past few weeks, and my leg is a little sore today. I did let myself take walk breaks on each of the runs, so hopefully I won't have any injuries.

It's beautiful our here, so I'm still hoping to get in a bike ride later.

Heidi - well done.  Met your goal AND with a day to spare!

Dee - I'm with you on the corn syrup!  Evil stuff!

For the swimming question.  I was immediately going to say that swimming doesn't particularly make me tired but I felt that was probably because I came into tri's with swimming as my strength (relatively speaking).  But, if I really think about it I think maybe it does.  My theory (for the moment on a few minutes thought) is that it is because (1) you are using a lot more different muscles and (2) I can push myself for a longer time in the pool due to low impact etc so I am probably actually overall putting more effort in and less "easy" time in compared to biking and swimming.
I do know that I have a big problem getting to sleep after my evening masters class. It doesn't finish til 9.30pm and I just can't get to sleep til about 11.30.

One of us (is it Diana?) has a bigger swimming background - I wonder what they think?  I remember when I took up swimming after about a 10 year plus gap I spent the first few months alternating my freestyle with breastroke for a rest cos I got so out of breath.  So I wonder if part of it it for the afterwards relates to general swim fitness compared with bike and run.
Interesting stuff!

Hi all -

Yeah... I come from a swimming background.  And although it is the most efficient/easiest part of triathlon for me, I still feel most tired when coming out of the water.  I always thought it had something to do with the water itself - when you're running or biking, there's impact and keeping the cadence and sweating and breathing hard and pushing yourself.  To go faster and get better, you push harder.  But in the pool, it's the opposite to an extent - the longer, smoother strokes you have, the faster you go.  Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is my body always feels more extended and relaxed after swimming... a kind of heavy feeling in my arms and legs that makes me want to go right to sleep.  Whereas for me, I get pumped after biking or running!  So yeah... that's just my experience.

Going to try and get a good, solid brick in today.... with all my equipment and such.  Laughs... we'll see how it goes.

Have a great Sunday!

we're watching an extra two children today... so we had them bike to the park and while they played and my DH watched, I ran around the park --6 loops --to make a 3 mile OUTDOOR! run.  what a way to sneak in a workout on a babysitting day  

We'll have hot dogs for dinner - not much hope of finding corn syrup-free buns, but the dogs are from a antibiotic/hormone free producer so at least, as hot dogs go, they are "good."

Happy weekend all!

-Cynthia

Cynthia-Way to get the run in!!

Diana- how'd the brick go?

Jackie- How was the ride? I was thinking about your 70 miles today, when I was out doing my 20.

I need a new seat on my new bike. The one on it is pretty uncomfortable. at the 15 mile mark, I started feeling it

Things did not go at all as planned this weekend.  I think it's simplest to leave it at that.

However, I fully plan to turn things around starting first thing tomorrow morning, with the brick I planned to do for today. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Diana - hope you have moved on from your weekend plans being disrupted.  That's all you can do.  Another day today.

Heidi - an uncomfortable saddle is horrid.  Hope you can sort that out quickly

Hope everyone else had a good weekend.  My bike ride was really nice - most of it anyway.  I just haven't ridden that far for a year or so now I think.  I could feel myself bonking (do you all know what that is?) between 60-70miles.  At 70 I forced myself to eat and drink and made the last 4.  Luckily after an afternoon of rest and lots of food I feel fine today with no soreness.  I even got to the gym and did a whole 22mins (impressive- not - but it's a start) of strength today.  This week I have started to schedule in strength stuff in the hope I may do a couple of 30min sessions a week.

I have my inlaws arriving on Thursday for a longish stay (3 weeks) so I am going to make sure I get some training in in the next couple of days because after that it will become more difficult - I may even have to get up early. Yikes.

How's everyone else doing?

Hi everyone!

So I have a new recovery drink: chocolate milk. After my 2hr 30 min super hills ride yesterday, I downed 2 huge glasses and I felt great.
Today I took my kids out for a 4 mile run/walk. My 3 yr old was in the jogging stroller chatting away about all the parachuters in the sky while my 8 yr old ran with me. There is a treat at the turnaround of course- a nice lake with a duck or two and some rocks to throw in. Then we treated ourselves to homemade root beer floats.

So my swimming... I need some speed - I feel like a slug in the pool, although I tend to do okay in the open water. I'm going to go do a 1500 meter swim workout tonight and concentrate on my form and some short intervals. I think my catch was a little off after I read some pages on "propulsion swimming" in the GOING LONG book. I was even lying on top of the sofa practicing my swim stroke while my boys watched me, laughing uncontrollably.

Tomorrow night a few of us are heading up to the lake. A friend of mine (newbie) is doing an open water swim clinic. The rest of us (3 total) are going to do some open water swimming before the clinic starts and then ride our road bikes around the reservoir for about 1 1/2 hours. I really love to swim in the open water and it is so hard for me to get into a pool in the summer when I know the lake is only 1 hour away.

Have a great rest of your day!
Dee

Great job on your ride Jackie - yes, I'm familiar with "bonking" and I'm glad you pulled through OK.

Dee - my swim coach always says that chocolate milk is the optimal recovery drink.  She thinks it has the perfect amount of everything you need after a long workout : )  As you can imagine, this goes down incredibly well with college-age swimmers!

I did my workout!  At 5:30 AM before I went to work.  The commute is 3 hours total, as threatened, but I'm pretty excited about my job so that's good.  All my training is going to have to be transferred to ridiculously early in the morning, however.

Great job Diana on getting that workout in.  You'll have to start giving me tips on how to haul myself out of bed so I can workout before hubby leaves for work (cos then I'm on kiddie duty)

I LOVE chocolate milk as a recovery drink.  It's such a treat to look forward to, completely guilt free.  Well mentioned Dee.

Have a good day everyone.   I can feel my arms this morning just from doing a couple of arm exercises in the gym yesterday.

Welcome to the "early rooster" club, ladies
Most of my workouts start between 5:30 and 6:00 am, so I am awake by 5:00 am at least 5 days a week.
Some tips to help that early wake up:
- Go to bed early. Forget the dishes and the laundry and get some sleep.
- Be consistent in waking up early. You will adjust within about 1 week and it won't seem so early anymore.
- Find a training partner (or a dog!) who will go with you early. Then you are committed. I have an insanely energetic Australian Shepherd who will make sure I am up to take him for a run. I also have a group of 4 friends that run every day of the week, so I hook up with them a couple times a week also.

What's up for today everyone?
I have an open water swim practice session tonight- wow, that lake is going to be cold in mid-June. I can already feel the icy water. Following the swim, I'm going to hit my road bike for 90 minutes. If the weather is bad or the water is too rough, I will have my running shoes in my truck also.

Going to go watch cartoons now and have my 1/2 cup of coffee!
Dee

Hi!
Great job on the early morning worl outs. I can't make them happen- between dog walking duty (I can't run with her, she's too powerful and too fast), and having to be back in the house by 6 AM, it just doesn't happen.

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary- we are celebrating by going out to my parents house to mow their huge lawn while they are away.

I can't imagine I'll get a real workout in- because after that, I have to go pick up oldest daughter from her sitting job

Every one have a great day, and do an extra lap for me!!

Heidi- you made me laugh - what a celebration

Di - snooze on that commute!  make your time count.  It's either that or get  a trainer and  bring it along with your bike and carve out some exercise space on BART (hehe).  Can you imagine the look on your fellow commuters' faces?

Chocolate milk!  now you make me want to race home from the gym... of course I'll have to sneak it or let the kids have some too!


-Cynthia

So we did part of an open water swim session last night. When we got to the lake, it was lightly raining. No lightning or thunder, though, so on went the wetsuits and into the 64 degree lake we went. I helped my friend Laura get used to the water temperature and swam about 400 yards (in the rain!) when the lightning hit and the siren went off. So out of the water we went and took shelter under this sheltered picnic table on the beach, hoping the storm would blow over quickly. After 30 minutes of waiting in the pouring rain, we were turning blue and decided to get dry clothes on and hit our bikes instead.
Luckily, by the time we changed and unloaded the bikes the rain had stopped. This was first time I rode on wet pavement on my road bike, so I took it nice and easy. We rode about 15-16 miles then had some snacks and drove home.

Woke up at 5:00 am and ran 8 miles- nice cool morning with big blue skies!
Should be a nice outside day

What is on your schedule for today?
Dee

Dee, glad you got a little open water swimming in!  You get some amazing training hours in and you always make it sound like fun and that you are enjoying it so much.   We have showers (which usually means non stop rain) forecast for the next few days.  I don't mind running in the rain (or swimming) but I do mind cycling.  Most of the flats I have had have been when it's wet so I try and avoid wet roads.

I ran this morning between the kids buses and hopefully get out for an hour on the bike this afternoon before the rain arrives.
I had a fantastically tiring swim at masters last night.  Our lane just got on with it and we all worked hard.  Felt great afterwards.

My inlaws (Fred's parents, sister + friend) arrive tomorrow evening so I am having to do a bit more cleaning etc than I usually do.  It should be fun but yes I will have to join Dee and Di in the early morning club for workouts.

What about everybody else?  Di, how are you feeling about your first tri coming up?

My daughter is riding her bike without training wheels!  she's almost 4.5!!  She's very excited.

Don't tell Di...
My little brain has been getting nervous about our tri this Saturday -- the air temps have been so mild that it seems to me that the lake water couldn't have had time to  warm up.  I did find one swimmer's report that indicates the water was at ~72* a few weeks ago.  Of course the air temps were warmer a few weeks ago, sigh.  

Since the swim is my "just get through this" part of the race, I'm trying to guide my mind to feeling like regardless of temp, I'm prepared and ready and can just swim my own pace and then race the rest of the tri in happiness.  

Tonight my DD "graduates" from preschool, I'll distract myself with family for now

-Cynthia 

Cynthia-Congrats to your little one!

My daughter "graduates" from kindergarten tomorrow morning!

Training- UGHH! It just isn't happening this week. Last night I planned to put the kids to bed, then go to the Y. But, my little guy cried and cried. I won't leave when he's having a hard time falling asleep, because I have too much guilt: Both for leaving him, and for leaving my oldest daughter with the responsibility of getting him to calm down.

Tonight- I have the little ones signed up for Kids Corner at the Y. That ensures an hour of work out time!!

I'm embarrassed to even look at my training log this week

Edited by slow turtle 2009-06-18 3:11 PM