Fred D and Queen Zipp's SWIM, BIKE RUN consistency thread.... CLOSED (Page 2)

Fred and Judi, I just wanted to pop in and say that anyone that joins is lucky to have you both as mentors. I am in a couple of groups already, otherwise I'd be jumping in here with both feet. Have a great spring!

Chris

Wow, Suzy, Kristen and I were together in another mentor group several years ago.  Glad to have you with us!

x2 - lurkers jump on board!  I was a member of Fred's mentor group a couple of seasons ago and the advice I received in the group helped me cross the finish line of my first (and likely only) HIM with a smile on my face.

Don't miss out!!

Fred asked me to let you know that he is stuck in surgery for a while today so he'll check in later.

I froze my keester off for nearly 8 miles this morning.  Then once I logged my run I saw that I am about that distance from an even 900 on the year.  So tempted to do it, but I know better.

Yes, join in.  We are open to approximately 15 total so come on in.

Thanks!  Here's my bio:

Name: Rachel

Location: England.  This means that I'll probably be posting at weird times compared to the rest of you, but I also work shifts, so pretty much everything I do is at weird times...

Story: 3 years ago my husband came home from work and announced that he'd always had a goal of doing a triathlon before his 30th birthday.  With 3 months to go, my first question was "what's a triathlon?".  He also informed me that he'd met someone through work who was organising a small charity triathlon that was "ideal" for beginners.  I was working on maintaining my fitness prior to starting my current job, and so decided to sign up along with him for a bit of variety.  We finished that first sprint and both said "never again".  It was fun, but really hard, etc etc.  However, through a number of unrelated events we decided to do a super-sprint later that year.  It was more what I now consider to be a "proper" event, with chip timing etc.  And it was part of a larger festival with open water sprint and olympic distances.  The atmosphere was amazing, the people were friendly and we had the opportunity to meet a bunch of people from our local tri club.  From that day on we were both hooked.

The last two years have involved me doing events that I never thought possible.  Mostly my husband gets peer pressured by the boys in the club to do an event that I think is a ridiculous idea, and then we both land up signing up and doing it.  The culmination of this was IM Switzerland in July 2012.  And I think I've found my triathlon home.  I enjoy the shorter distances, and will continue to participate in sprints and the occasional OLY, but I'm never going to be fast, and coming MOP in a sprint just doesn't have the same feeling of achievement as finishing a long distance tri for me.  IM was an interesting challenge as I crashed on the bike in my last training ride 4 days before the race, landing myself in hospital for the afternoon.  The remaining days before the race were incredibly emotional as I didn't know if I was going to be able to race (I separated my AC joint and broke my finger, as well as removing a few chunks of skin).  With the remote help of my wonderful physio I managed to re-mobilise my shoulder in time for the race, and in some ways it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  I took the swim really easy to make sure I finished, and then for the rest of the race was so very happy to just be there that I spent the entire day with a giant smile on my face.  All of the problems before the race made me extra determined to get through the day and so I absolutely nailed my plan.  Finished in 14hr32min, just over an hour ahead of my husband (not that that's the most important thing, but you know...)

Since then I've been slacking big time.  I think there was quite a lot of burn out from preparing for my first IM, along with the fact that my work required me to be away from home for the olympics, which was very soon after I got back from Switzerland.  I've been struggling with motivation, particularly to run, and so what I'm really hoping to get from this group is that word - consistency - which has very definitely been missing recently.  I've let my logs lapse recently, but I'm going to try to get them up to date over the next week or so, so that you can see how little I've really been doing!

Family Status: Married, no kids.  One giant insane dog.

Current training: Really very little.  I've just bought a mountain bike and we've been getting out on those when we can.  I've also been doing some turbo sessions on the road bike.  I get to the club swim sessions (once a week) when work allows, but otherwise not much.  The plan is to start building back to consistency starting tomorrow.

2012 races: 2 sprints, IM Switzerland, half mary.

2013 races: The only thing I've entered for this year is Outlaw, which is IM distance.  There's a group of about 14 of us going from the club, so the support should be great.  Probably going to do the same two sprints as last year, and planning a sportive if I ever get my bum into gear and book the time off work.

Weight loss:  Each year since I started doing this I've set myself a weight loss challenge on 1st Jan.  I then post my weight on facebook once a week for all my friends to see.  I find it really quite motivating. I generally find that I lose weight well for the first half of each year, and then once my A race it over I allow it to gradually creep back up.  But it never creeps as far.  Started 2012 at 82kg and will be starting 2013 at 77kg.  Plan is to try to race around 70kg this year.

I've been in a couple of different mentor groups before, and I'm generally an active member.  I look forward to getting to know you all.

Suzy Shain - Madison WI

My Story: Started endurance sports at the age of 40 after seeing the first IM WI in Madison in '02. I knew one day I wanted to do the race as a way to get over my fear of water. Since I didn't know how to swim and rarely biked I turned to running and did 12 marathons before deciding to tackle the limiter holding me back from triathlon--swimming.   Support from friends, many lessons and some deep soul searching got me to my first super sprint in '08.  Since then I've done IM WI in '10/'11/'12 and plan to do it in '13.  IM is my favorite distance.  I love to run and I have really learned to like the bike.  I just started doing TRX and have really embraced it as a way to get a stronger core.

Family: Married for 23 years to Paul,  no kids, but we do have an awesome Cockapoo, Cooper.   

'13 Races/Goals:  "A" race is IM WI #4 where I hope to hit 12:XX after a bad '12 and the Oakland marathon where I would like to achieve BQ #4 and break my marathon PR set in '07.  Will add a few more short distance tris in there too.

Weight:  I'm not looking to lose weight, but i do have to watch it carefully.  At 4'10"  and 102lbs it is very easy for me to put on the lbs.

What I need to work on: Maintaining a positive frame of mind if one of my disciplines isn't improving as much as I would like. This is usually swimming.

Other Tidbits: I live on the IM MOO bike course just past the ugliest hill of them all.

Wow!  that's crazy stuff.  I can't imagine the emotions you must have been feeling during the race.

It may not be the MOST important thing, but it's not exactly unimportant either, you know?  You've now got bragging rights till next time.  You just have to find ways to casually throw it into the conversation every once in a while.  

I've done that before, running an extra mile or two to reach an imaginary goal based on an imaginary timeline.  Silly but still fun.   But 8 miles is a bit much.  At least for me!  

My daughter (10) asked me what we were going to do today (off school this whole week).  I said we were going to go running.  She said, wouldn't that be a better thing to do tomorrow, you know, on the first day of the new year?  I said, OK, lets do that too.  To which she replied, but dad, you can't run every day, that's too much running.  

Sounds like a challenge to me, it's on! 

Hi Anne-Marie

Rather than explain it, take a look at this video.  It is actually the location where I take the classes and gives you a general sense of the core exercises we go through using the suspension trainer and our own body weight.  I am not a class person at all.  I do 100% of my SBR training alone (except OWS), but for some reason this has me hooked.  I can tell you in the 8 weeks that I have done it, I am significantly stronger and parts of me look a little better !

Goal for January is pretty much in the title of this group.  Simply to lay down a framework of consistancy not just in S/B/R but diet and sleep. 

Hope everyone has a happy and safe new year.

My January goal is to get my run back after being off for 6+ weeks because of injury.  I also am doing a Strava bike challenge, but that is secondary to the run.