kenj group - Closed (Page 2)

I have a rough holiday this year.  Christmas morning at home with the kids then off to the inlaws for dinner, they live 15 miles away.  The worst part is on Sunday, we are off on a Carribean cruise for 7 days.  Its going to be so hard to take.  I will keep running on the ship as I know I am going to be consuming some major calories. 

We have already had 45" of snow this year so I can't wait to get out of here for a week.   

 Craig

A New Years cruise! That's awesome!  

Melissa,

I was wondering what training plan you are going to use for your Ironman?

Will this thread continue to be our primary source of contact with each other?  If so, I want to bookmark it.  If not, what will be?  Do they generate a sub-forum for each mentor group?

 Chip <--  is off to spinning class to burn off the coconut cream pie he ate last night

This will be it unless we get real chatty and get to 99 pages, which is the limit.  Then we just start another one!

Another tool that may be useful is at the bottom of this page there is a link that says "toggle e-mail notification".  When you click on that it will take you to a page where you can click yes for e-mail notification and every time some one adds to this you will get an e-mail to whatever address you provided when you registered.

Nice job on the spin class! 

Well I'm currently 8 weeks into the Beginner 1/2 Ironman plan, and will switch to the Beginner Ironman plan after that.  I like the plan thus far, and I've definatly seen improvement. How about you?

Right now I am using an off season plan from Endurance Nation that will take me into the middle of February.  What I like is that it focuses the bike and run training on improving speed, which I really need, especially on the bike.  BT just came out with a similar plan, but I was already 2 months into this one.  Last year I did the 17 week intermediate IM plan from BT and I will probably do it again.  I choose it, even though it was my first race longer than an oly because it provided mileages in addition to times.  It made me feel more comfortable that I was going to be able to do the distance.  I didn't always follow the prescribed workout as some of it (actually a lot of it) was above my ability at the time.  I am hoping to follow the plan a lot closer this year.

One thing I have been impressed with is the quality of the plans versus the cost here on BT.  As long as you stay reasonably close to following them, they will get you to the finish line.

We shut down from Christmas to New Years so I'm at home for the next week and a half.  No real plans as the new baby is taking the wind out of sails energy wise (4 hours of sleep a night is not enough).

I'm going to try to get back out runing again this week.  It's driving me nuts not being able to.

At least we don't have 10" of snow    Of course it being 80 on Christmas day is not that great either.

Just completed week 1 of a couch to sprint program and the swimming was the toughest.  I've swam extensively as a kid but my freestyle form feels pretty sloppy.  I'm taking 26-28 strokes per 25 yds. and my endurance is about 100 yds. in 2 min. before resting.  I realize its only week 1 and I'm pretty sore but does anyone have any swimming form tips to help me.

Merry Christmas to all!

I will do a little research for some links on swimming for some drills, workouts, etc. in the next day or so to post here.  Swimming is definitely my weakness as far as form goes.  I have only been swimming for 2 years with my masters group and have come a long way, but I had zero background in swimming prior to that.  If you have access to a Masters group I would recommend looking into that, most of them are very open to new members and very helpful in improving form and conditioning.

My first advice would be patience though.  Run and bike fitness does not translate well to swim fitness.  It sounds like you have enough of a swim background to know when your form is struggling (which is a step ahead of a lot of new triathletes!)  3 or 4 weeks of consistantly following your plan will build a lot of conditioning in the water and allow you to relax and focus more on your stroke.  

WittyCityGirl - 2008-12-25 8:35 PM Merry Christmas everyone! I didn't get to train yesterday nor today...I love to sleep in when I can and unfortunately it translates into less time to get in a run or time on the indoor trainer. I have a Masters swim meet on Saturday (200 IM, 500 free and hopefully 2 relays) and then I'm doing a 5k race on the 31st. P.S. I'm a certified swim coach. I've been a competitive swimmer for...ohhhhh....15+ years so I would love to help out our group!

Great news!  Feel free to answer any of the swim questions (or any of the other questions too)!  

Where is your swim meet this weekend?  We are having ours (Canandaigua) in February and I know we have had some of the Binghamton masters come up for that.

There's not enough chatting goin on here!!

What's everybody up to today?  I hit the pool this morning and had a 6 mile run after that.  I've be slacking hard this week, I can tell I need to get back in gear!

I agree Melissa!  But I figured with the holiday I would cut some slack, but come January we will definately pick up the pace!

Nice workout today!  I ran in a local 5K this morning in the rain! But it is better than snow.  I have another race on Jan 1st, a 7.5 mile run.  Is anyone else racing?  I know Sara mentioned a couple of events!

Here's something to think about.  Between now and Jan 1, lets all post some short term goals we want to reach by the end of January.  Whether its an improvement in pace, or a mile, time or yardage goal.  Anything that will keep you motivated to reach your summer race goal.  We'll do this each month and use it as a tool to get where we want to be.  We'll all help in pushing each other along from week to week to reach that goal. 

On a side note, I prefer using first names, and I have, but if anyone prefers me using your screen name, let me know.  I have no problem with either!

I'm further behind the tri-curve than you guys, so my goals are pretty elementary:

• Find a sprint event I can enter and put it on the calendar
• Get a plan in place that will get me ready for the sprint
• Swimming - Get in the pool and find a local coach to help keep me from drowning.
• Cycling - Get in at least one century on the bike.  Ride 300 - 400 miles in January (mostly indoors)
• Weights - Focus on leg strength for the bike - squats, inverted leg press, glutes, hamstrings.  Min. three workouts / week.  Move off the squat machine and on to free weights.
• Running - Begin a running plan to increase my V02 max and start building a running base.
• Diet - Get back on a healthy one.  Christmas has been a killer.
• Figure out how to add friends on this stupid forum.  Am I the only one who has a hard time with this software?
• Find a catchy signature line.

Chip

I can certainly help with using the software.  One of the first people I met on BT and we train and race together regularly is marmadaddy.  He has written a lot of the programs (especially the add on features) so I have a convenient source to go to with questions.

But to add friends:

On the right hand side of your calender on your blog there is a colume of quick links.  The top one is the control panel.  When you click on that it will take you to a screen with a bunch of tabs across the top.  This is where you can add goals, put a blog title and a number of other options.  

To add friends, click on the friends tab and you will see a bunch of blank spaces where you type in the names you want added.  Make sure to click the apply button at the bottom of the screen to save them.  There is also an option to have them listed as just names or with the icons (pictures) associated with them.

That's a great goal!  When you say bonked, did you actually bonk on a run or lose motivation to do the longer runs?  Either way, we'll help with the encouragement to get you back to where you want to be.    I think there is a race series of 10K races in Bingampton or at least there was last winter.  Maybe putting one of these on your calender for late January will help with the motivation?  I can ask Bob Stocks (rstocks) about them if you are interested, he ran a few of them last year.

You wouldn't be alone Chip, with the Christmas diet!  But these are great goals.  Especially finding a race to register,  a lot of races even the local sprints open registration in December and January and some sell out fairly fast.  At the top of any screen one of your choices is a Races button.  If you click on that and you have put a zip code in your profile, it will take you to a listing of the races in your state.  

You could also google triathlons in Arkansas too.  I think there is a site called trifinder.com, but I have never used it.  Active.com also has a search feature as well.