Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 17)

You can get one of their IM or whatever premixed packages or you can mix your own.  I maxed calories, minimalized flavor because  I would be trippling the concentration and probably upped the salt and potasium as I typically amd doing an IM in 95+ temps.  If your osmology gets too thick you can just drink more water with it or take in less of it.  You could also call them up and ask questions to help you with it.  They tend to be pretty responsive in my expience.  Remember that if you ad protien that you need to mix it the morning of the race or it could go um bad.  I would just suppliment with protien and not risk my mix going off. 

I also have problems eating solids on the bike or run during a race bacause I am breathing so hard.  The run is obvioulsy worse.  You can put a chew between your cheek and gum and just kind of suck on it and gnaw on it a bit for 4 hours.  I just find it distracting, much easier to slam a gel and be good for 30 minutes rather than eat 4 chomps or 16 beens.  And the math is easy too. 

I just had a duh moment.  Left work, made several stops, came home, dog out, started a load of laundry, mail, put up dishes, wash dishes, made sure we had enough cooked for dinner tonight, started a freezer purge of one of my freezers, ran a quick vacuum, folded up the load of laundry, and then started out the door for a run.  Wait, it's after 6 instead of only 5?  Couldn't leave cuz family is coming home soon.  I'm so dumb sometimes because how could I have gotten all of that done in an hour. 

Hey, I gotta brag.  Son made the high school baseball team.  He's excited!

Everyone is doing a great job with their training!  My last few days of training have been awful but now I'm beginning to think that I had a slight bug or something.  Felt so much better today.  I think I'll do some stretches, go to bed early, and then try to wake early tomorrow and hit the trainer.  Have a great night all.

Ken - glad you survived the race and made a pretty great time, in my books. And also glad your leg doesn't appear to be actually injured! Glad to hear you are taking time to recover. You will reap great benefits!

Carol - yeah for your first 15k. I agree with the others about your tenacity on getting out there in spite of being diabetic. I'm pretty sure I be the diabetic on the couch because I wouldn't want to put in all the extra time and effort to stay alive. Props to you my friend! We type B's will stick together! Way to get it done on a motivationless/fatigue day. Thunder snow sounds awesome! Love your split numbers.

Kate - I got my first tri-bike in August and I love it. I used in my first HIM and I loved feeling like I looked like I knew what I was doing Yeah for you! What a difference in made for my speed. Getting excited with you! I used Infinite for my HIM and loved it!

Jay - yeah man, take it easy on your body. Great job for losing a pound (even though it isn't what you would hope for)! Steve definitely gets in your head..haha.

Stu - you are right about new equipment luring us in. I ride my bike simply because I like it so much! Glad you are getting swimming in again.

Mike - that is definitely a dungeon. Do you turn the lights off when you ride? I like to do that while I watch Netflx; not sure why I like the dark. Your swimming pace is amazing Mike! Aero helmets being 'cool' is still a debate I have in my head. I've had the gym bad debauchle and it is so annoying.

Pam - sometime I think getting a workout done when motivation is low is almost better because mental training is hard to acheive when you want to be out there, so excellent job! Your accomplished more in two hours than I accomplish in a day. Yay for your son!

Fred - 1/1 is totally a streak, and 600mintues does sound awesome. I actually thought that when I read it.

Brian - awesome outdoor swim for you. I hear speed comes with time, but I think you reach a point where technique becomes the obstacle. Not sure when that happens.

Holy buckets of postings - y'all are busy. My training is going well. I put off my long swim on Sunday so I could wait to start my coaching classes and at least not train 2700 more yards incorrectly (plus, if I'm honest, I just didn't want to swim). I start that class tonight and I'm stoked! I pass on what I learn to y'all. Yesterday I had terrible GI issues. I came home from work and slept til this morning, so missed yesterday's workouts. But I've gotten all my training in otherwise. Started watching the series 24 to get through trainer rides. I'm starting to notice the sun setting a little later and that makes me excited and anxious for spring.

We are over the hump for this week. Finish strong everyone!

So quick update on me.  I now know what the doctor ment by "impingment" in my shoulder.  For whatever reason, overuse, banging it during the bike crash in a way that didn't reveal itself until weeks later or what have you resulted in swelling of some of the tissue inside the joint.  So basically you need to drecrease the swelling and encourage muscles that pull the gap appart to strengthen to balance the muscle across the top of the ball of your shoulder so that nothing pushes down in an unbalanced way causing more irritation and closing the gap.  You fix it with stretching that gap open, antiinflmatory meds and strengthening the opposing muscles.... over a 2 month ish period.  After 2 weeks of stretching 2x daily and exercizes daily... I have better raing of motion with out pain, not full but better.  Ya wont be swimming on it just yet (freestyle). 

The knee appears to be ITB from running in the snow.  Running on narrow tire tracks and multi-layer snow appears to have caused my slight pronation (thus the stability shoes) to be worse, no flat surface to push the stability shoe against and moving the foot in slightly to hit the tire track at times causing the foot to turn in stretching the tendon over the outside of the knee causing it become inflamed.  I apparently did not back off enough when I backed off and thus it has not settled down enough to rebuild even by walking 1 mile.  There are some stretches and strengthining thigns you can do to help, but it has to pretty much settle down first before you can do anything.  Running on soft sand could have a similar but less impact it is more firm.  I probably should go to an ortho about the knee too, to get a rehab program for it.  Fun fun.  The little things you take for granted. 

Hey everybody! I didn't quit the group. Life has just been busy lately. I caught up on all the posts and wanted to way to go! I'm happy to see everyone is training well, staying safe and having fun.

I have been focusing on swimming lately which is starting to come along. Jay showed me the 0-1650 program. After a week and a half following it, I can now swim over 3 laps (up from 1.5) and feel good. I even felt that aha feeling like i actually knew what i was doing tonight. The program kicks my butt and i want to quit by the last couple 100s but i see progress so i keep pushing. 

Later,

Today's motivational moment is sponsored by some impressive older athletes who are showing the way for us kids...

older adults who are athletes

In the list, of course, is 86 year old Sister Madonna Buder, but if you have the chance, check out the video of the 86 year old gymnast too.

Anyway, I'm sending this link on to my turning 80 year old father-in-law who is still doing 10Ks and my aunt who goes to the senior Olympics every 2 years.

Looks like winter is starting here today.  I used to like snow until I started training :-)

-Stu

Steve - nice to hear you are making progress on the injuries. Understanding them can be more than half the battle. It is funny hearing you talk about heat while trainning is sub freezing temps, snow in Virginia, and another chill hear NJ.

Carol - sounds like you have settled into a nice routine and ready for a breakthough this year. I am beginning to understand the athlete's who have let downs after big events. Luckily we are in it for the lifestyle...

Mike - We all haver a touch of that sickness.

Ken - Great race and your time is amazing.

Samatha - feel better. Daylight is coming back and that is something to celebrate.

Even after getting is decent shape last year I still amazed at the aches and pains that I have trying to get ready for this season's races. Think I might have had a touch of the flu, or just overworked a little bit. Feel better today. Sat was a 4.65 mile run at about 10mpm, Sun was a 8.5 mil bike at 14.5 mph and Mon was a 2.2 mi run at 10:50 pace. I got a new toy for Christmas. A Wahoo Blue HR monitor. I have been using the Wahoo fitness app but wonder what other people use. It gives me the avg and max HR. Is this what I should be looking at, or is there more?

Stu - That is a one great way to keep motivated. It is too easy to think there is no need, or too hard, when all it takes is a little will power. Look at our mentor....

Anthony - swimming is like most of the sports, the more you do it the better you get. I was in the same spot you are a couple years ago. I knew how to swim but had not done it in years. Swimming anything more than side stroke was agony.

I don't like puking or passing out but I would say that lots of training will cure the worry. What you do in training is what you will do in a race. Just practice it.

Pam - you mean you have time for something other than training. Great job fitting it all in. and congrats tou your son.

Steve, do you do any pool running?  I know a few people who swear (literally) by it when they are nursing leg/foot problems.

Stu

You can train by heart rate.  It basically defines what range of effort you should be in for a given workout or portion of a workout.  For example if I am doing a tempo run, my goal can be time based or it can be HR based.  I can work up to a HR of 159 for the first 10 mintues and then increase it 3 beats per minute PBM every half mile until I hit 170 ish and then bring it back down stabalize at 159 again for the last 10 minutes.  When doing 800 repeats you can try to hit your LT (175 for me) and then recover over the next 400.  You need to test your HR as described earlier so you know what yours zones are.  One person can be at LT at HR 155 where someone else runs 200 (Carol I think is a high HR person).  Eventually, with fitness you will be ablet to maintain the same pace at a lower HR.  There are people who run a 6:00 mpm at lower than LT HR.  I am not one of them 8).  But, what used to be LT at a 10:00 mpm is now a 6:00 mpm pace and cruizing speed on the run is 8:15 instead of 11:00.  Same with the bike.  So you figure out your HR zones and then use those to drive your level of intensity for particular workouts.  For your long run for instance I should be in the 159 to 164 range.  Any higher and I am cooking it and undermining the purpose of the workout.  I won't recover as well and my speedwork the following week will be flat (slow and effortful).

So I live in the middle of nowhere.  There are no stoplights in our county and the closest McDonalds is 100 miles away to the North, South or West, 300 miles to the east.  Our town pool is open for swimming 1 hour a day 5-7 weeks ish per year.  The closest pool otherwise is 100 miles one way.  Being a little more impulsive than smart I built this:

Which is not deep enough to do pool jogging and the lakes are all frozen over.

Once you swim 3000 yards, bike 65 miles and run 15 as part of your weekly workouts... you will feel more comfortable in doing all of the distances combined.  You will also have a good idea of what you can eat/drink while doing these workouts.  As I said above anxiety is normal, but definately let me know if you get real GI issues in practice on your longer workouts.  For most it is not a big problem.  For some they need to use one brand versus another.  If you get sick of gels, all courses will have other foot options on them.  You could practice with a power bar or whatever else your options are on the course.   

Yow... that is the middle of nowhere!  I thought we were in the sticks with a single stoplight county and 30 miles from town - you've got us beat by a fair distance.  So is that one of that one of those endless pools?  Or did you design and build it yourself?  Always been curious what folks thought about those, but never knew anyone who had one, now I do!  You seem to have some regrets?

Stu

Joe, great to hear from you!  Sounds like you are getting back into a nice training groove.  Steve can guide you on doing a test to see where your HR zones are.  Yes, I have the HR of a hummingbird for some reason.

Steve, sorry you are dealing with multiple, and hard to rehab injuries.  Everyone's different so YMMV, but for the ITB stuff, the best thing I ever did was go to a sports chiro who practices ART.  Of course, since you live in the middle of nowhere, I don't know if anything like that is even an option.... 

Kate, I think you are smart to be thinking about the nutrition side of things.  And what is triathlon/running, etc. for if not an outlet for our compulsive sides that are best left out of other aspects of life?  I got a haircut today and was scheduling my next one, originally for right after my marathon.  I moved it back to before the marathon because...well...who wants to run a marathon with shaggy hair?  Weird, but I went with it .

Pam, geez, could you cool it with the housework stuff?!  You're making the rest of us look bad.  I can barely keep up with my sweaty laundry lately.  Congrats to your son!  You're going to have a blast at his games.

Samantha, so glad I'm not the only Type B!  Please do share what you learn from your swim coach.  Your swimming already looks good, so hopefully you will be able to confidently look forward to the part that so many of us dread.

Mike, yes, we understand the sickness!

Anthony, great swim progress!  And hey to your wife.  She should join us (I think spouses might be granted late entry ).

Stu, wow, you are surrounded by a family of great super masters!  I always find that to be inspiring.  My mom hung up her running shoes this year.  The last fall she had running knocked a few teeth loose and scraped her up pretty bad, so I don't blame her, but hated to see her give it up. 

I don't have regrets about the pool per sey or how it works.  This is not the endless pool, this is the MIT upgrade to that Swimex, it can run arounda  3 mph current 4x as wide and 4x as deep of a current as the endless pool thing.  My regret is that I live in an area where construction folks are um lets see less reliable than donkys or weathermen.  So ya they are all irresponsible, one went into a deep alcoholism thing spent my money and then killed himself in a car accident leaving no way to recoup the $$ etc.  A moving van may have been a better option.  But if I have to live here then yes this pool is definately the way to go.  Too bad it didnt come with 6 months of coaching.  I will just be paying for the addition that houses the pool for the next 20 years. 

Hrm, I did a marathon in 40F temps in the rain in just shirt and shorts.  For running in rain/cold/snow at home I have a basic K-mart waterproof/whindrpoof shell with an attached hood.  I keep a hat with a visor on it to keep the hood from flopping down over my face.  So anywhere from $10 to $400 for a rain coat that will breath more or less.  Some of the bike jackets have a flap in the back to help let moisture out.  That should really do the trick.  You can add waterproof gloves for hand warmth, but I really wouldn't put anything on your legs unless temps are below 25F.  If you get a cheap version, make sure the packets have zippers or they will be useless and make sure the hood ties in front or it will flop back when you run and will be useless for covering your head. 

Pam: Congrats to your son on making the baseball team.  Hopefully, you can enjoy some great weather and great baseball!

Anthony: Glad that program is helping!

Steve: Very sorry to hear about the bad luck with your health.  Take some of the advice you give to us and take it slow and easy so you can get back to yourself soon!

I had aspirations of getting up early to do my biking before work (this is also my long term plan) however I woke up at 4AM to a throbbing shoulder. (yup, the same one as the other day!)  I quickly realized I slept on it and my body wasn't very happy with me.  I ended up getting another hour of sleep and my shoulder felt better because I slept on my back!

I did get my swimming in tonight after watching my daughters swim lessons.  I cut another minute off of my week 2 pace so I was pretty satisfied.  There was no shoulder pain and I would've stopped if there was!  My pace seems to be at a pedestrian 2:30/100y but I can feel my cardio getting better.  Usually, I'm gassed when I get to my 25's but today I was actually sprinting them (well, my best effort at sprinting anyway)  Its hard to explain but it felt like a small achievement to me!  Now, I got to week 3...and that should be pretty challenging with more long distances and less 100/50/25 intervals.