jsnowash's training group - FULL!! (Page 2)

Hi Jenny...I'm looking for a group, and was wondering if you still had openings. If it works out I will post my bio and info.
PS.: Hi Marla...fancy seeing your posts here. No.... I'm not stalking you, just legitimately looking for a new group, and Jenny is here in PA, not that far from me.
Fernando 

Fernando!  Yay!  I am glad to "see" you here, and not at all afraid, LOL!  That's great.  Now we can go through the next part of the journey together as well.  =)

Hi Jenny! (And everyone!) I'd like to join the group too!!

This is my 3rd season of triathlon and my friends consider me the "pro" which is funny because I still feel like I still have so much more to learn and I'm a back-of-the-pack turtle type, but I cross the finish, and that's all that counts, right?!?!

I set my goal of doing my first sprint triathlon in 2008 as a way to motivate myself to lose some weight. 50 pounds later and I was doing Irongirl! I was slow but I set a time of 3 hours and did it in 3:06 and I was ecstatic! Coming up on the finish line there was a woman that had been ahead of me for part of the run and we had both been walking/running. When I could hear the announcer calling names I decided it was time to see what I had left in the tank and thought I should try to pass her! I started sprinting, passed her and crossed the finish....but the funny thing was that in the picture I've got this teeth baring scowl on my face that makes me laugh everytime I see it..I look like a focused determined elite athlete!!

I've still got another 20-30 pounds I'd like to lose but I'm happy that I'm active and healthy! 2009 I did the Philly Women's Triathlon and Irongirl again, but I was so focused on running that I didn't train as hard in the swim and bike like I should have. I was stronger because I didn't stop on any of the hills during Irongirl but I was a few minutes slower in my final time (I also knocked a bike over that wasnt racked properly and tried to be nice to re-rack it, pulling the seat out and just an entire comedic scene after that)..so this year I'm determined to PR my time!

I've turned nuts in that I've signed up for 5 triathlons this season!

2010 Races
April 18th - Rumpass in Bumpass Sprint
May 2nd - Bassman International
June 13th - Eagleman 1/2 Ironman (OMG OMG OMG OMG)
June 19th - Baltimore 10 miler
August 1st - Pittsburgh Sprint Tri
August 22nd - Irongirl
October 9th - Warrior Dash
October 16th - Baltimore Half Marathon
November - Some sort of Turkey Trot
December - Celtic Solstice

What else? I'm a pharmacist and an attorney working a nice government job that was pretty sweet until healthcare reform (yikes) so it's starting to get stressful but not like it used to be working behind the bench at CVS or Walgreen's!!

I've got 2 Jack Russell Terriers; Colby & Bates...quite calm now that they're 14 & 13 now but my furry children.

Lovey - We'll have to meet up sometime since you live in Columbia!!! I've got friends doing Irongirl this year for the first time so we'll be scheduling some bike rides and trying to open water swims too if you want to join in!

Fernando & KiwiJDRPH , welcome to the group! Glad to have you! I'll post more later - we're in the midst of homework, after-school activity shuttle, and dinner prep in our house right now! Glad to have you guys aboard!

Name: Username is StrayDog. I am Jeff.

STORY: I am a RN. I work in surgery. Two years ago I got involved in a weight loss program at work and planted the seed to change my lifestyle. I found myself motivated by some tri's that I saw on TV (Kona) and boom I was running next and then attempting to teach myself to swim. I have yet to do an actual Tri but I have done some running races. I had a 40 yr old crisis and ruled out the girlfriend, sportscars, drugs and fast times ...I settled for the athletic life and it carried on into a lifestyle that is not only rewarding but contagious. Now my kids do some races with me and I wouldn't trade that for anything.  

FAMILY STATS: I work full time. I am married to a hot woman who is following me into the same lifestyle change. We have four kids. Ages 18, 17, 14 and 11 years old. All go ....all the time.

CURRENT TRAINING: uHH..all over the place. Right now it is a mish mosh of running rountine as one of my races is coming soon.

THIS YEARS RACES:
Half Mary
Relay 216.6 with friends
Two Tri's ( at least)
and possibly two more small running races, but I would like to trade those in for a muddy buddy or two sprint tri's.

I am working it out as I go along.

WEIGHT LOSS: I have lost 42 lbs. and have kept it off since 2008. I am looking to lose a little more to become more race efficient. No, I will not give up beer.

I would love to become a member of the group Jenny. I hope there is room. I hope you continue with the USAT stuff.

Hi Kiwi,
Would love to train together sometime. Are yo a member of Baltimore Tri Club or Mid MD Tri Club?

Lovey

Morning everybody! Jeff - there's absolutely still room. Welcome to the group!

How's everybody's training going this week??

Training is light this week for me since my first race is Sunday. Sprint tri with about an 800 yard swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run. Haven't been swimming like I should so that will really slow me down but I'm hoping for a total of 2:15...and I'm really hoping I'm overestimating. I've been doing some BRICKs of biking and running so this shouldn't be a problem. Last one I did was 21 mile bike then a 5 mile run. The race starts at 10am and they said the awards ceremony begins once the final particpant crosses the finish and they estimated that at 12:45pm. My wave starts at 10:12 so I'm hoping I can cross the finish before the awards ceremony!! LOL

Lovey - haven't joined a tri-club yet but I have checked out Mid-MD and I'm thinking I'm joining them this week. Any extra help and encouragement..I'll take it!

Ran last night, 3.6 miles about 45-46 minutes, started watch a little early so not too sure on the time but it was a good run and felt pretty good the entire time. Hopefully I can keep it up this weekend!

Thanks Jenny. A few lines about myself:
I'm 41, married with two boys (13 and 9).
Everybody in my house is nuts about exercise.
My wife is a gym rat, and this year took up running....she's doing great.
My oldest one is into track & field and crosscountry during the fall.
My 9 year old does travel soccer, and runs laps at school during his breaks. He currently holds the record for his elementary....450 miles and counting...I think it's a strange form of yet undiscovered Autism (LOL....;-)).
Both kids are signed up to do Ironkids this summer.
I have been the weakest link....bouncing between activities, with no real purpose until know. I'm a physician (anesthesia), and constantly preaching about fitness, etc.
I decided to live up to it and through some friends at work got interested in tris.  Have not done one yet, but signed up for a couple already.
I been following a plan from BT, and find it harder to balance time between job, family and training...but having a blast so far.
I have done a few 5k's so far. This is my plan for 2010:
Broad Street Run with my wife (5/2), Mt Gretna sprint (5/22), DC tri sprint (6/20), Steelman Oly and Philly ING half marathon with my wife again.
Fernando.

PS: I will work on adding everyone as friends this afternoon. Again, thanks for the opportunity.

Hey, Kiwi - good luck with your race this weekend!! Sounds like you're more than ready! Will you have a pool swim or an open water swim?

(by the way - would you like to share your real name with us, or should we just call you Kiwi?)

OMG, Fernando -- are you stalking me??

I will be doing Broad Street, Mt Gretna, PROBABLY Steelman (need to finalize summer vacation schedules before I commit to that one) and probably Philly Half Marathon......

Hey gang,

I've been thinking about the best way to fulfill my role as mentor....

One thing I've found helpful to me in the past - at least in terms of staying on track with my training - is publicly stating my training goals. So, I thought it might be helpful for all of us to put some goals out there. My thought is to post weekly training goals, whatever they may be. These are, of course, GOALS. We don't always meet them, and that's okay! And also remember that we are all in different places in our training. Try not to compare YOUR goals with someone else's goals.... We all have to start where we are and move forward from there. If you feel like you need some help setting training goals, please ask! I'll be happy to offer my 2 cents, and I'm sure other members of the group would be happy to offer their valuable advice, too.

Several of us have stated that we have some weight loss goals as well, so if you think it might be helpful, we could also post weight loss goals, and perhaps post a weekly "weigh-in".

Of course, all of this is optional.... if you don't want to post training or weight loss goals, that's fine too.

So.... I'll start. My training goals for this week are:

Run 5X, total of 25 - 27 miles, long run 11 miles (2 runs done)
Swim 2X, - 1500 yards each (1 swim done)
Bike 2X - 45 min - 1 hour each (1 bike done)

Weight loss - I'm currently weighing in at about 153 - 155 lbs. My ultimate goal is to get down to somewhere between 140 - 145.

Anyone else care to share some goals??

Can I join too?  I hope I am doing this right!

I'm Elena - 41 year old mom of two girls who are 12 and 10.  I work full time and of course take my girls all around town, etc.as well as volunteer as an RE instructor at our church.  I grew up a swimmer and have been into fitness the last several years but more into weights than cardio.  I did a figure show 5 years ago and that was my last big fitness goal.

I am currently registered for a duathlon (run 2 bike 18 run 2.5) which is mid-May and then in June I am doing the bike leg of a tri with a couple of other co-workers.  The distance for the bike is aobut 25 miles.  I train mostly in the morning when everyone is still sleeping but manage to get in some stuff at night as well - last night it was an hour bike ride as both my girls were gone!  I still want to do a tri.  I am not really worried about the actual swimming but I AM out of practice there and unfortunately the gym I belong to doesn't have a pool.  I plan to find a place to practice the swim and maybe do a tri at the end of the season.

I love being part of an online group of people who have the same type of interest.  When I was involved in figure I made a lot of "friends" on a site dedicated to that support.  I love to give and receive support to others in pursuit of the same goals!  I'll have to update more later as I am at work now and better get back to it!

Elena

Hi Elena, welcome! The more the merrier!!

No stalking, I promise Jenny.
I don't think I will see you on Broad Street, but maybe at Gretna.  A bunch of people from my OR are doing that (It's right in our backyard, and I hear it's tons of fun). That will be my first tri.
Last 2 weeks were rough trainingwise. First we where away on a family vacation, then I had a small foot injury (cured now). This week I have tons of work, so it's hard to mount a good comeback. My only goal is to survive through the week. Will have a better goal on Monday.
Lovey: what a great story!!! Every day I deal with so many people that have already given up. It's because of stories like yours I won't quit bugging them to keep trying. Congratulations, keep up the good work.
Fernando 

Yeah - hard to find ANYBODY at Broad Street.... Have you run it before? It's kinda fun.... I'm running a half marathon the week before Broad Street, so I'm not expecting any kind of PR performance in either, but both should be fun.

I hear ya about life getting in the way of training... but, hey - none of us makes a living at triathlon. Sometimes other things just have to take priority!

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I still feel like the swim is getting in my way but I am going to push thru to my June race.

Fernando, maybe I will see you at the DC Tri or at least the back of you way way ahead of me.

I have a few friends doing the Philly Half Marathon. One has done it in previous years and absolutely loves it. I am considering it but its a choice between that and the Baltimore Half. Being in close proximity to B'more gives it a shoe in so far.

Lovey

Thanks Jenny! Yeah, you can call me Kiwi but my real name is Keely. I'm good either way...kind of like a little flightless bird hopping around..LOL

Rumpass in Bumpass is a 2 day triathlon festival in Bumpass, Virginia..it's an open water swim in Lake Anna. Everyone keeps saying that it's a naturally warm lake..which makes me wonder about some nuclear power plant in the area.

I've got my sleeveless wetsuit and the start is 10am. I'm in the 3rd to last swim wave...just in front of Men 45+/Clydesdales then the Novice/Relay wave....can't wait to have the guys kicking me around!

I'm looking to lose another 12-15 pounds before my HIM in June basically just to get under 200 lbs..then after that I'll concentrate on a further goal of another 20-30 pounds.

As for fitness goals..not too sure, just trying to increase my distance each week up until the HIM June 13th! I'll think about it a little bit more.

I don't think I realized you had an HIM coming up in June! Are you doing Eagleman? Are you following a training plan to get ready for it?

Good morning, group!

I wanted to encourage all of you, if you're not already doing so, to use your training logs. They're a great tool to track your progress in training.

You might want to add the members of our training group as your "friends" so you can stop by and encourage each other in your training and racing.

It looks like we have two group members racing this weekend. Lovey has a 10K on her schedule, and Kiwi is doing a sprint tri this weekend (with an open water swim! brrrr!!!)

You can stop by and inspire them in their training logs: Lovey and Kiwi

And Jeff could use a little encouragement as he recovers from a wood-splitting injury.... Jeff's blog

Keep up the good work, everyone! If anyone has any training questions, please feel free to ask!

I'm really psyched about the DC tri Lovey. I think this is a new event. I was considering the September race, but I hear that's pretty big. I hope this is somewhat smaller. I love the course, looks to be very scenic. I have family down there, so I can't wait. We def. have to hook up. Start time is a little intimidating though...
Fernando

Fernando, the DC Tri is an inaugural event. It is organized by the same people who do the hihly popular Nations Triathlon in September.

I needed a tune-up tri before Iron Girl but with family obligations, I didnt want to travel overnight.
I heard the Nations Tri is organized so hopefully it will carry over to the DC Tri.

I don't even have a wetsuit yet and we need one.

Lovey

I just got my sleeveless wetsuit last week, tried it on and it fits. I'll be giving it a test-run this weekend at Rumpass in Bumpass (sprint). Jenny - yes, I'm doing Eagleman, I have a training plan but haven't been following it. I need to take a look at it and adjust my own training. I know I can do it just need to work on my swimming to be more efficient and all around I just want to finish within the time limits!

I'll let everyone know how cold it was on Sunday!!! LOL

Good luck to those of you with events this weekend!  Can't wait to hear about them. 

I am still thinking about what my next set of goals will be.  The last set were specific to running, which I feel is under control.  My focus now is swimming, but I am not sure how to measure progress quite yet, as I am still in the beginning of the TI program, whichis very drill-heavy.  I could go with X number of times per week, but I would rather measure quality, not quantity.  I need to be up to 250 yards freestyle by Memorial Day and 500 by July 24th. 

Suggestions welcome!