2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 19)

Day 9 of 19 Swim 10m 30s 500.00 yards 02m 06s /100 yards
SUPER swim workout! It really felt great. I wasn't "in the mood" for a workout this morning but once I got to the Y there was no reason not to follow through. I am SO glad that I did.

First, I have built up my WU/CD sets to where I wanted them. A total of 500 yds; 3x50, 1x100/1x100, 3x50. I will stay at this yardage through next week. Then I will begin to build my distance set in between them with a 200 or 250 yd start, and I will add 50-100 yds per week until I am doing the 2650 yds needed for B2B. Truth be told, my OCD will probably kick in and I will work up to 3000 yds, just because I prefer nice even figures.

Second, I was averaging just over 2m for 100yds. That's decent time for an average swimmer. My time goal is to get my pace down to 1:30/100 before B2B. Times can only get better as the weight goes down.

Day 10 of 18 Run 18m 16s 1.02 miles 17m 54s /Mi
Nice morning for a walk. Bumbled and stumbled through my first quarter mile as warm-up and then started trying to race walk the remainder. Was able to walk between 4 and 4.5 mph for most of the return half. Of course, that's all downhill.

Keep it going Mike!

I planned on hitting the Y this morning myself... however... I completely forgot about my dentist appt this morning, so the couple of hours I was going to work before hitting the Y got pushed forward... I think I'm going to go home, eat lunch and take a nice long walk.

Nice job on the trainer, keep it going!

I was away on business travel for the last few days. Didn't get to the gym and ate worse than at home. The plan is for a long run this weekend but weather and other family commitments may get in the way. 2 weeks out from my 13.1 and 9 weeks from 26.2. I think I'll be good for the half. Still have work to do for the full.

Weekly... whatever...
(you'll understand in a minute)

Weight: 254.5. That's up 7.5. First week back to school for the kiddos threw me off training a bit. Add in more than a little laziness and not paying attention to food and this is what you get.

Swim: 1500 free and 2x50 kick on Tuesday. Dental appt on Friday nixed that swim.

Bike: Woke up late on Sun and only had enough time for 12.02mi. The sat group was odd as well and only got 18.83 creeping miles.

Run: Well.... I did walk 1.21mi on Sunday. I put off anything else until Wed AM where stomach issues stopped me at 1.23mi.

The goal for this week is to hit the bike drainer twice (because I blew off this morning) and get at least 35mi next sat even if I have to ride for an hour before the group starts. I'm back on the cut it short route as Jacob's bowling season is starting again. Make all 3 of my runs and finally finish the C25k so I can move on to the 10k portion (again, only 14 months to B2B '16!). Also need to clamp down on the diet and use a little freakin' self control. I don't think I'll get any pool time Friday as I believe I'm getting a crown done... I hate dental work...

Also... Keep the Memphis Hightailer bike group in your thoughts and prayers. In the last 2-3 weeks we've had a couple of nasty crashes and a heart attack (he's home and doing fine, btw).

Saturday - Day 11 of 18 - Run 22m 42s 1.02 miles 22m 15s /Mi
Slow walk with Cindy. Didn't care about pace, just wanted her to go for the walk.

Sunday = Rest day, went for extended motorcycle ride with wife and friends.

Monday - Day 12 of 18 - Bike 46m 47s 9.01 miles 11.56 mph
Oh MAN is my butt sore!! First attempt at two laps of the River Rd loop. Was supposed to be "long and slow", but I just couldn't get myself to go any slower than I did. I am happy with the results though.

I need advice. I'm having some serious eating issues. Granted, part of it is self-control, but that part is more of a can't stop once I get started thing.

The biggest problem I'm having is that when I get home in the evenings, I go eating stupid. Before I leave work in the afternoon, I am hungry. By the time I walk through the door, I am ravenous. I try to tell myself to have just a little, and it's usually a blur from there. Well, not that bad, but like I said... Once I get started, I have a hard time stopping.

My usual day:
Breakfast @0630:
3 Eggs (or egg whites), 3 slices turkey bacon (diced), 1oz diced ea: onion, bell pepper and tomato. Garlic powder, pepper and oregeno make it a dang good scrambler

AM Snack @1030:
Banana

Lunch @1230:
Salad (random veggies diced with lettuce) and 1 can of tuna (drained) filling a 7oz rubbermaid bowl. Dressing is kept to a bare minimum
Carbmaster Yogurt

PM Snack @1530
2 Fruits (whatever was on sale) Today it's a peach and grapes

1800 is generally when I go gastro-nuts

Dinner @1830-1900: Random, based on what the kids are willing to suffer through.

Ideas?

Seems like you aren't eating enough at lunch. A salad is basically no fuel it's mostly water no real value. I'd try to eat more filling foods maybe some rice with the tuna or chicken. Maybe a hard boiled egg too. Something that will sit longer. And eating fruit as your snack before dinner is setting you up to binge. Fruit is mostly sugar and it makes us crash when we crash we binge. Try carrot sticks and hummus instead of the fruit. Eating 3 fruits a day is a lot anyways.

Webfootedfreak

Are you eating enough fat? I been training my body to use fat for fuel rather and it helps when I am a good boy. When I slip and go carb crazy I feel I can not stop eating. 1 100 cal ice cream turns into 2 then 4 or 5. If I did not have the 1 I not each any of them.

I've been doing quite well over the last week.

Running, last week was week 1 of increasing my running volume, every week I am planning to increase my weekly total by 10 minutes. (there will be a few cut back weeks in there, but I'll let life decide when those are) I'm increasing up to 5 hours / week total. Which is where I need to be if I'm going to do a HIM this summer. So last week I increased to 3:30, this week I'm 3/6 runs in and on track for 3:40. And this morning I brought my monthly total over 100km for the 2nd time this year.

Biking, well for the fist time in over a year, I GOT ON A BIKE!!!! only a 30 minute trainer ride (5 wu, 10x1 hard, 1 easy and 5 cd) but i did it, it's the start of good things. The goal for this week is 2 30 minute trainer rides, before venturing outside again next week. First weekend in September is outside ride #1.

Weight/Diet. Last week I averaged 1,757 Cal/Day. Which is higher than I'm aiming for, a less than focused weekend drove that average up a bit I think. My Monday weigh in was 265.8lbs, 2.6lbs down from the previous Monday (16.8lbs since I made the effort to refocus on weight loss, and 28.7lbs lost in 2015). For the 2nd week in a row, i weighed in higher on Monday, than I did on Friday... I guess that means I really need to focus on food over the weekends.

Keep up all the good work everybody!

Go the Clyde HIM in training team!

I feel your pain. I lost about 12 pounds over the first 3 months of the year. But then pretty much no change for months. A month ago I made the conscious decision to refocus on weight loss as priority number 1. And I like I said in the post above things are going well.

1. Track your food (I know you use MFP, but keep it up, it does work! you know that as much as I do
2. Don't eat your exercise calories. Or if you must, only eat 1/3 of what you calculate as your extra burn. From my experience training for a HIM in 2012/13 workouts under an hour dont need anything other than water.
3. Boring food is good. We are eating a lot of salads and lean meats.
4. Plan your food. Sit down, and write a meal plan for the week. Know what you're going to eat and when. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and snacks And once you've got your plan, shop for it. Have the food available, ready in the house. If it's there, there is much less chance of coming up with an easier but less healthy option.

I can only speak from my experience, but that's what I've been doing over the last month or so.

Your meal plan looks good. Similar to mine (check out my MFP food diary if you want) The biggest difference is I have Oats for breakfast, not Eggs.
Maybe you should have a more substantial afternoon snack, I have a muesli bar (or sometimes chocolate) on the way home. That might help plug the gap before your dinner.

Web,
I'd add more protein and fiber into your diet. I think the fruits may be adding to the evening hunger. The sugars make you crave more. Add foods that will be more filling.

I'm by no means an expert, just my 2 cents.

x2. This is good advice

Sorry that I've been absent for a few days. Talk about a crazy week (and it's only Tuesday).

Sat - spent the entire day truck shopping. Dinner out with the family, as my son left for college today. No long run.
Sun - last minute packing and organizing for my oldest son's college departure. Then eye doctor appointment. Dilated eyes = no long run.
Mon - take youngest to soccer then to work. Family/friends end of summer pool party. - No run
Today - take oldest to college. - No run.

See the pattern... I need to get back on my horse. I'm think bike trainer tomorrow morning and then my normal Thursday run.

Thanks for the advice everyone... I'm going to sit down with the wife and get things planned out a little better. This week's already a bust.

Monday - Recovery day? Gotta call it something, and that sounds better than "lazy day".

Tuesday - Day 13 of 18 - Swim 10m 30s 500.00 yards 02m 06s /100 yards
Another nice little swim at a decent pace.

I am not following my schedule. I was supposed to be using Mondays as rest days. But yesterday I just wasn't feeling it. I took a "recovery day" that I probably didn't really "need". If I am to be HIM ready by next October I have to stop doing that.

On the plus side, I weighed in yesterday at 375, down 3 pounds this week. I have decided that I am going to do away with the tenths when I weigh in. First of all because I don't believe the scales are that accurate. Second because, let's get serious, at my weight the tenths don't really matter anyway, do they.

Edited by leatherneckpa 2015-08-26 11:30 AM

Sounds like a good plan. Good Luck!

Congratulations on a 3lb drop! Great work.

As for taking a rest day, I really don't think that you need to worry. You can go from the couch to a HIM in 6 months, no trouble, and you're already well beyond the couch stage! So looking at October 2016 you have heaps of time to build up your fitness. At this stage I think your priorities should be weight loss first, training second.

Getting your weight down significantly, which you can do over the next 6 months or so, is going to be the biggest thing you can do to improve your athletic performance. I'm in the same boat, I'm on a weight loss focus for at least another 20-25lbs (depending on how long it takes to drop it) before moving into a higher intensity/higher volume training phase of my preparation. So don't think I'm preaching at you. This advice is exactly the same that I'm following.

Now, I'm not saying not to keep training. You absolutely 100% should keep up what your doing. But don't get too stressed if you're a bit down on energy and miss some workouts at the moment.

I've gained and lost weight from 200 - 300lbs several times over the last 4-5 years. And in that time I've done a HIM, and 4 100km+ distance Duathlons, so I have some idea what I'm talking about. And everything about running and biking is noticeably easier, and faster when the weight is down. I can train all I want at 260lbs, I will never run as fast, or as easily as I do at 220.

bullfrog, I'm encouraged that you think a person can "easily" go from couch to HIM in 6 months. Somehow, the word "easy" just doesn't seem to go with HIM in my mind. But I'll let you know how I feel about that after B2B. Those are some pretty wild weight swings you've gone through. I know what you mean though. My first tri, at 340 lbs(156 kg/24 st), felt easier than what I am trying to do now at 375 lbs (170kg/26 st). I can only imagine what it will feel like next May when I expect to be somwhere around 100 lbs (45 kg/7 st) lighter.

Day 14 of 18 - Run 37m 09s 2.01 miles 18m 28s /Mi
Celebrated another birthday by doubling my walk mileage. Left the house planning for that to be a "long and slow". Wasn't really trying to crank it on the uphill leg but somehow wound up at the turn-around in just over 20m. Racewalked the return mile at a 16:30 pace. I have to say that I am rather satisfied. I never bothered with warm-ups before but I am coming to understand the importance of a warm-up for my knee. I could feel the slop and extension in it for the first half mile, but after that it was barely ever noticed, especially while racewalking. In the future, I will consider that first half mile to be my warm-up and simply do it at whatever pace it happens at, then I can start to crank it from there.

OK, 'easily' is a relative term, maybe 'doable' is a better one . But my point was more you're a long way out to be totally focused on a HIM in October next year. And that there's no need to be worried that missing a 30 minute run/walk now is going to be a big problem.

The HIM training program on this website is 20 weeks, (http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=52) and here's a link for a 12 week plan http://mos.triradar.com/Training_Plans/Race_Your_First_703.pdf for your reference the starting fitness for the 12 week plan is being able to swim 1000m, run 1 hour and bike 90 minutes.

The main thing is you have a long time to get ready for your HIM. For now focus on weight loss, and just increasing your general fitness. You're getting your body prepared for the training plan, you're not in the training plan yet.

Yes, I went through some extreme swings. Step 1: Get fit and healthy, Step 2 Lose all the fitness and regain the weight. Step 3 Repeat.

Aiming to avoid step 2 and 3 this time

And Happy Birthday. May this year bring you amazing success (in triathlon and normal life).

I have the flexibility of a brick. So no stretching advice from me. But if its working for you, keep it up!