cathyd's group - Closed (Page 2)

Our group is full and it looks like a great group!!!!  We are pretty varied in our backgrounds and abilities, as well as in our goals.   I encourage everyone to log your workouts, check out the logs of the rest of the group and use the inspire feature to encourage each other.  I've added easy links to everybody's logs, as well as a link to this thread on my training log; feel free to copy it to your log  for quick access to the group.

With the holidays approaching I know it may be hard to fully participate in the forums with people on vacation, travelling etc. so I thought for the first few weeks I'd just suggest some topics to discuss each week.  If anyone has any questions please post them on the thread any time, and whoever has answers jump right in with them.

My question for everyone this week: 

What would you like from this mentoring group? 

BTW - my A race this year will be Black Bear HIM in PA.... not too far from you.

Cathy

To change font colors and do other cool things in your training log :

go into your control panel.. on your training log click on control panel - the one above where it says "Welcome cathyd. There are xxx other users online...etc". Under 'edit your profile' scroll down to where it says 'Use rich edit box when composing messages?' chose TinyMCE Editor(experimental) then click submit at the bottom. Now go into the other control panel (the one beside the calendar) and edit your goals.. you'll now see the little palette where you choose colors (and other cool stuff!)

You can now just copy and paste the mentor group list from my blog as well as the quick link to this thread.

Cathy

The bike at Black Bear sounds challenging but I'm up for a challenge this year and since I want to focus on my biking in the spring I think it would be a good start to tri season.  Did you check out the course video?

Is that LSD pace of 9:50 at Z2? With a 4:35 marathon time your LSD pace seems too fast.  Have you done a recent test to determine you HR zones?  This site will give you an idea of the running paces you should be targeting.

 I think a weekly tempo run would be a good idea (and I plan to do this in the new year), just to keep the legs used to the feel of faster running.  And when you introduce the real speed work after the HIM you'll be ready for it.  I don't think it will hurt your training as long the recovery doesn't affect your other workouts negatively.  You could always limit the tempo runs to every two weeks.

Cathy

Hello everyone and thanks Cathy for letting me join your group.

I will post a bit of history about myself shortly but in a nutshell, 2007 was my first triathlon season. My background is weight lifting but I was looking for something more challenging. I did not have a lot of experience swimming, biking or running when I decided to venture in this sport but became somewhat fast and extremely comfortable in the water (swimming is like meditation in motion to me), built power on the bike but running remains my limiter. I enjoy running but wish I could run faster!

I am really looking forward to participate and learn from you all!

Nats... I know you were planning a trip up to check out the Muskoka course in the fall.. did you get there and what was your impression of the course?  I'm on a waiting list, so I'm hoping at least 33 people cancel before race day.  I'm going to train as if I'm doing it because I think the refund cut off date is not until the end of Aug. so it could be short notice if I do get in.

What other races are you planning for next season?
OOPS.. I could have just looked at your training log (which I did).  I did 1000islands sprint this year. You should do ktown tri, thats local for me.

Cathy

Some of the things that I found helpful as a mentee last year I will try to incorporate into our group this year.  A couple of those are:

A weekly training summary.  Every Monday we'll have a post titled "weekly training summary and goals"  where you can post what you did the past week, obstacles to your training, goals you met, brag about accomplishments  and discuss the week's training in general. Since I work an odd schedule I'm not always able to get online during the day so any member of the group can start the post, having the date in the subject line will make it easy for people to find and reply.

Setting a weekly goal.  I also find it helpful to publicly state my goals or focus for the week.  This could be incorporated into the weekly training summary post, be a separate post, or it could be on your training blog goals section.  This way the other members of the group can 'help' you to stay on track, and for me knowing others may be checking my logs will often motivate me to get out there and do a workout.

The weekly discussion - I'll post a discussion subject weekly, focusing on one aspect of training, racing, nutrition etc.   for us to discuss as a group.  Will start this post midweek I think.

Using the logs and 'inspires'.  I love the BT logs although I only use a fraction of the features available here.  I will be checking everyone's logs frequently and I do like to use the inspires.  I encourage you to check the logs of the other group members as well.

What do you think of these ideas?  Are there other things you'd like to see?  You participation in the discussions is totally optional of course... I know BT forums can really eat up a lot of time.

Also remember at any time you have a question just post it and everyone who has an answer/comment please join the discussion... we're all here to learn from each other and collectively this group has a lot of knowledge and experience.  It would probably be helpful when  you post a new question to change the subject line so we can all identify it easily.

OK, I better go do some training now. 
Cathy

Cathy,  Those ideas look good to me.

Cathy-

Those ideas sound exactly like what I was looking for in a mentoring group!  I'm working on figuring out what I'm going to be doing over the next couple of weeks - I hurt my hip a couple of weeks ago, mostly an overuse injury.  I inflamed basically every muscle in my hip and my chiro told me to stop doing everything for a while (including running AND walking.  I can swim, I just need to join a gym - if it ever stops snowing, I'll do that!).

I have a plan that I'll start once I get the OK to start running again, but for a change I need to be smart about not pushing too hard too soon!

Monica

At last, here's my little intro. 

NAME:  Nathalie

STORY:  Up until this past Friday, I was working 12hrs rotating shifts just like Cathy and Jeff. Starting tomorrow, I will be taking on new responsibilities as an IT analyst with a day schedule but will have oncall duties to contend with as well as performing implementations and system changes at very odd hours.

From a triathlon standpoint, 2007 was my first triathlon season. I raced two sprints, one short course, only oly and one half-mary. I’m a BOPer but did manage to place MOP in one of my sprint races. I hope to do better in 2008.

FAMILY STATUS:  Single, no children.

CURRENT TRAINING:  Executing my off season training plan and planning my half-ironman training one. I opted to include quite a bit of weight training during this off season, I need to build strength and rev my metabolism up a bit. I craft my plans by using a combination of Joe Friel's "The Triathlete's Training Bible", Triathlon Magazine's "Essential Week-by-Week Training Plans" and Tom Rodgers' "The Perfect Distance". I'm a strong swimmer and I love being in the water, swimming is like meditation in motion to me. I have become a better cyclist during the past year but I can't say the same about my running abilities. I would LOVE to run faster!

2008 RACES:  All of my 2008 events will be raced in Ontario.

Resolution Run, 5k run, 01/01/2008, Oshawa; Mississauga Half-Marathon, 05/11/2008, Mississsauga; Milton Sprint Triathlon, 06/01/2008, Milton; Guelph Olympic Triathlon, 06/22/2008, Guelph; Niagara Short Course Triathlon, 07/20/2008, Grimsby; K-Town Long Course Triathlon, Kingston or Thousand Islands Olympic Triathlon, Brockville, August 2008; Muskoka 70.3 Ironman, 09/14/2008, Huntsville; Angus Glen Half-Marathon, November 2008, Markham.

WEIGHTLOSS:  I have lost over 50 lbs from end of 2004 to mid 2006 but managed to gain 15 back since I began training for triathlons. I will blame the weight gain on not doing enough weight lifting, a decline in eating habits and shiftwork. I will start fresh (again...) in 2008, stick to my clean eating diet and change my views about food. I currently weigh 146lbs and my goal for 2008 is set to 130lbs or a little less.

HI Cathy... I had to cancel my plans for Muskoka this fall, late September was when I fell ill a couple of weeks after my last tri of the season. I would really like to test the bike course sometime late spring though.

On the other hand, Lisa Bentley and her husband have put together a Muskoka 70.3 training camp that will take place the last weekend of June but I cannot afford it because I want to upgrade a few components on my tri bike this summer. The Muskoka 70.3 bike segment is what I'm REALLY worried about but I will manage to find myself some nice stretches of hilly roads north of Toronto to work on my hills handling skills.

It would be great if you could get a spot for Mukoka! August is months away so I'm positive you will get in. My original plan was to do Steelhead but changed my mind the moment the WTC came out with the Muskoka announcement. Yes, Steelhead is a more forgiving course but I thought it would be nice to participate in an inaugural race, and a ''local" one at that.

I am waiting for the K-Town tri official 2008 date, the website has yet to be updated with the 2008 registration info. I am planning on racing the long course tri as my final preparation race for Muskoka. That means I will most likely scratch the 1000 Islands oly tri out of my race calendar.

The 2008 season will be a fun one!

Cathy,

That sounds great to me!!