Vinnie´s Inspirational Group - Closed for members, open for lurkers! (Page 2)

Hey, everyone. I just got back from the gym and my first swim. I was able to swim 300 meters. Yeah! I was only expecting to swim 100 meters, so I'm quite pleased. Granted, I did stop for a very short breather between laps and used different strokes, but for me it's an accomplishment. I am not a strong swimmer. Then I walked/jogged 1 mile in 15 minutes. Another accomplishment for me because I do not run well either. The indoor track I used is 1/16 mile, so I walked 2 laps and ran 1 lap until I finished the mile. Then I walked another 4 laps to cool down. I wasn't expecting to be able to finish all of the running laps, but my knees held up great. What a night!

My husband has been so supportive of my goals. He looked at the training plans with me and helped me decide on the right one to use, and he even watches our kids while I go to the gym. I can't wait to cross the finish line and see him there waiting for me! (He will be running the same triathlon, and I'm sure he will finish before me!)

I hope each of you is having as much early success as I am. Have a fantastic weekend!

Jenn

Hey Jenn,

That was a great post, awsome energy, positive vibes!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." by Confucius
You had a great first day of training...

Well done tonight, be proud of this accomplishment and we move on to the next! I´m pretty sure now yo will reach your goals sooner than expected.

Vinnie

It will take some time to settle in and feel like I know everyone and their story. Keep posting, it helps me get a sense for who we each are.

Vinnie, I was out of town this weekend and off the computer but I wanted to share a story with the group. Thursday night I was feeling a bit fearful of my workout Friday. It called for a 1500m swim and a 65 minute run (36 minutes of which was hill drills with 2 minute climbs and 4 minute recoveries). I called my brother Thur night to talk to him about how I was feeling. I have not really run hills much and was feeling very intimidated by this.

Well, I did it! I killed it! The swim went fine. It was tough but I did it fine. Then came the run. It was a very cold morning in Austin. The temp was 36 degrees. I picked a good song to run to, put it on repeat, and began my hour plus of hard work. Every time I began the hill climb I would just focus in on breaking the climb into small chunks. I would track the first minute, then pick something out further up the hill to get to prior to the end of the second minute. Each time my HR peaked at the top of the climb and then I turned around and ran back down. I would think to myself "OK, one more down, ____ more to go. I can do this. I get 4 minutes easy jogging to recover."

When the 65 minutes was up, I was ecstatic! I called my brother right away and told him all about it. I never would have imagined 9 months ago that I would be able to run up this hill even once, much less six times, much less as part of an over hour long running session. This was a real milestone for me personally. I know it was a next step in my training as well.

I had a great recovery day yesterday and then a nice hour long endurance bike today with my brother-in-law in Houston. It was in the mid-70's there today. A GREAT day to be out on the bike!

Anyway, Friday was a real milestone and I wanted to share both emotions with the group... fear of a big workout as well as the exultation of celebrating a new achievement.

Tomorrow I begin my new workout plan, the 20 week Olympic. It is a volume-ramp-up plan. Will keep you posted!

Brian

Hi Brian, Don´t worry about knowing each other, we are only in the first week, and thats the reason I closed the group with only 6 members, so we can really tweak the details in each other.

It was very good to read about that hill running set, which also teaches you how to deal with hard days in training, even hard periods of training, take one step at a time, one minute after the other, if in the first hill rep you had thought "damn, another 5 to go" it would be much harder than thinking "ok, lets do one more" and think like this over and over.

This is also for the 20 week program, if you get tired after the 4th week or something, it will be mentally very hard to think you "still have to do 16", just forget the 20, and take one week at a time.


Happy Training
Vinnie

Hi, Brian. I just watched your video on YouTube. It was awesome. I hope I can be as confident as you were when I start my first race in July. I am from east Texas, but live in Washington now because my husband is in the Air Force. I miss being there! Enjoy the nice weather a little for me, too!

Hi, Vinnie. I just watched the video you posted as well. I also watched the story of the Hoyts. What an inspiration!

I had another good training day today--more swimming and running. I am beginning to think that I can actually make it through the swim with enough training. I did ride a stationary bike yesterday and did some strength training as well. I can't wait for spring so that I can get out and ride my bike!

Oh, did I mention that I lost 6 1/2 pounds this week! If you can't tell, I'm excited about all of this.

I hope each of you has a fantastic week. Take care, and happy training!

Jenn

Hi Jenn,

Thanks again for this positive post, good to see you are heading to a great experience at the sprint triathlon, but more important, improving your health, losing weight and getting happier, triathlon is all about the lifestyle afterall!

Don´t worry about biking outdoors, you will have enough time, for now the indoor rides are enough to keep those legs spinning, strong and active. How long have you been riding for each time?

And while the sun doesn´t show up like in Texas, keep focusing on the swim and those runs after it, very soon you will be totally confident, confortable and fit in the water, and will have develop the skills and strenght for a more structured run training.

Have a great week and keep up wth the updates,

Vinnie

Hi, Vinnie! I am riding the bike for about 35 minutes, about 6 miles. The training plan I am using said start with 2 miles, but I was already doing more than that. I think I'm going to increase the time to 45 minutes this week. I'm using a cross country program that changes the resistance throughout the workout. I thought I would work on distance and endurance and then speed.

I really appreciate your feedback. It helps to stay motivated.

Thanks!

Jenn

Hi Jenn,

For now the slow increase in volume its what really matters, I suppose your training plan does that slowly but sure increase every now and then. Once you get to ride on the roads, then we start to worry about the specifics of the race, such as hills/flat, speed, race pace training, etc.

Good job,
Vinnie

Jenn-

Congratulations on the good workouts and on your early weight loss results as well! I tell everyone that asks me about triathlon that if I can do it, they can do it too. You saw in my video my "before and after" shots. I was completely inactive on April 23, 2007. On April 24th, I did my first workout. I used Michael Pate's "Couch Potato to the Race" 20 week Sprint training. The first swim was to the end of the pool and back. I thought I was going to drown! Seriously, when I got back to where I started (the end of a 50 yard swim) I was literally desperate for air and GASPING! I stood up and just choked in air as fast as I could. THe next time was not much better.

Three weeks later I think I was up to 8 lengths of the pool or something like that and called my brother-in-law in Houston (he swam in high school). We agreed he would watch my stroke when I came to Houston the next weekend. I told him I was struggling with being able to breathe and he agreed to watch me swim and help "diagnose" any problems he saw. Well, once he saw me swim he said my stroke was fine, actually better than he had expected. He said all I needed was "time in the water." Well, he was exactly right. About two weeks later I noticed I was swimming with no sense of panic or urgency to breathe. I was relaxed and comfortbale in the water.

It takes time to develop our lungs and the breathing for running is very different than the breathing for swimming. I share this story and experience with you to encourage you to TRUST your training plan. By the time my race came, I was no longer wondering if I could finish. I was focused on making good times! I trained with 5 coworkers (all of us were first timers) and we arranged a "dry run" of the race 6 weeks out. I wanted to test those distances in advance and see if I could do it. All 3 parts went fine. It was tough, and I am glad I still had 6 weeks to finish my training, but I went into the race confident and excited because I KNEW I had trained. I knew I was ready! I had trained faithfully every day. I think the only days I missed were when I was sick. Other than that, I stuck to the plan.

If a couch potato like me can get from where I was April 23rd to where I was for my race Sep 16th (and where I am now) with my fitness, I believe anyone can do it. Trust your training plan, listen to your body, and stay commited. Missing a day means only one thing to me, the next time I go to train it will be harder and when the race finally gets here, it will be harder because I didn't train fully.

Keep up the great work, Jenn and others!

Brian
Austin, TX (enjoying the great weather for Jenn)

Hello,
Here I am at home because my son has been sick for 3 days and this morning his temp was 103.6. We just got back from the doctor, he has a virus and just has to wait it out. Of course this is the week before final exams at his high school. Timing is everything. I am taking a recovery week. I pulled a muscle in my back. I stopped weights but I had continued to swim. Things just got worse. I am also getting alcohol injections in my foot for a morton's neuroma and this past injection has left my foot very sore (concerned about that) so I figured a week of rest would do my body good. It is very hard to not work out, I feel like I am losing everything I've gained. I know that it is not the case, but it still difficult. In the long run, a week of rest will benefit me more than pushing through and risking further injury.
So... since I wouldn't be swimming I decided to do something I'd been wanting to do for some time. I got a tatoo. I have little swim, bike run symbols just above my ankle. My husband is less than thrilled, but I told him it's my midlife crisis. It's cheaper than a sports car or diamonds.
Happy training to all.

Susie

Sorry to hear about your son, but good luck with the new tatoo! Hubby has got to appreciate the low cost compared to the alternatives.

Enjoy the R&R. Your fitness level will still be there when you get back.

Brian

Hi Susie,

Speedy recovery for your son, send him some of your athlete energy and he will do fine. Yes, there are too many stresses going on right now for your, so backing off training was a very smart idea, once you get back into training, start very slow for the first 2-3 days, until your body wakes up again and you feel stronger as you were, no need to rush back into hard training.

And the tattoo, that´s wicked, take a picture and post here please! I want to get one done soon too, so any ideas and examples are appreciated! Good way to use your time away from the pool too!

Vinnie

Hello, all! I had another good day of training. I wasn't expecting to get to the gym today because my husband had to work late and then come home and work on his car, but he finished just in time for me to get to the pool and the gym.

I've told a few friends about the triathlon, and I've gotten the, "You're doing what?!" reaction a couple of times. I can't wait to show them that I can finish the race.

Brian,
Thanks for the encouragement! It is greatly appreciated.

Suzie,
I'm sorry to hear about your son's illness and your injury. I hope all is well soon. It's no fun having sick kids. My 3 little ones usually get sick on right after another. Vinnie's idea of posting a picture of your tatto is a good one. I'm considering a tattoo as well and can't decide what to get. Yours sounds really neat. Enjoy your time of rest.

Take care everyon, and happy training!

Jenn

Hey, look. I finally got my profile picture to upload!

Hi Jenn, There is one thing in your post that was pretty good to read. You said you weren´t expecting to train today due to your hubby´s commitments, but once he finished and you both realized it was still early enough, you went in a heart beat. Usually, once people put in their mind "Won´t be early enough" they would make this as an pretty reasonable excuse for a last minute training sessions, specially when fatigued after few days of consitent training as you did, so good job on that, it shows us how motivated you are, and good to see such support from your husband too.

That´s a nice Picture, and happy looking dog!

Vinnie

Hi guys,
Congrats for all the good workouts and the weight loss Jennifer!! However, though I'm no expert, I'd still be careful not to lose too quickly, it can sometimes take a toll on your energy too.
I started training too. I'm going to count my steps next time so I can have a base for running. Also, I called the triathlon club and I'll try them out tom or friday. It sounds pretty good, since they organie swim and running practices...also, I'll need a licence to race in the sprint distances in may anyhow (you said it Vinnie: France is the country of clubs!! and federations, oh yeah and strikes! ), so i might as well take advantage of the swim slots and and stuff along the way. I'll keep you posted on how I do...
k, gotta run take care
joelle

Hey Susie,
I didn't notice page 2 of the thread at first (duh), so i only just read about your son. Hope he is feeling better. Also, you too, I hope you feel better. I'll take this opportunity to share a little 'injury' story with you guys, hoping you'll learn from my mistake. I certainly have!

2 years ago, my job was more demanding than it is today, as I had to manage two distant centres and therefore did alot of driving. I was also very commited to my volley ball team. Although I had minor knee pain (most likely due to lack of recovery and constantly switching from indoor volleyball and beach volleyball), I never missed a practice or a game. For about 8 months this was a typical week: monday: work all day, then practice 8:30 to 10:30pm, tuesday drive to the other centre on th coast(150m away), work all day, stay the night. Wednesday, work morning away, drive back and snack in the car, work the rest of the day in Pau, practice 8-10pm, thursday back on the coast, friday back in pau and evening practice, saturday morning 9am to 1pm cheerleading coaching and competitive volleyball game sat evening and little league sundays. In the summer, there were no practices, but because the sun sets so late here i'd play beach volleyball every evening 7-10pm, regional tournaments on the week ends.

Now, as I mentionned, I had knee pain. But instead of resting more or building my muscles, I took painkillers. Anywhere between 500 to 900mg of ibuprofen before every practice, every game. Now, normally when you take painkillers, you're really supposed to go lay down since they put your muscles " to sleep"; but i didn't and with relaxed core muscles during practice, I also got more and more back pain and finally a lumbago.
Overall this all meant I was A) spending ALOT on painkillers, B) Getting more and more used to them C)destroying my already weak stomach (aftera semester in madagascar i came back with a fair few stomach parasytes, some of which will always hang around, but are usually managable - but not when they are constantly woken by intruding ibuprofen and naproxen) and finally D)worsening the injuries and taking a toll on my overall health.

Finally after a few months of feeling like crap, a family friend who is a doctor explained the situation quite clearly: my body was like a car. THe knee pain, was a blinking red signal on the control panel saying 'hey something's wrong, fix me please'! But instead of pulling the car over and having it checked out, my constant painkiller poping was like putting a small piece of duckt tape to hide the blinking...so really, it did stop the signal, but whatever was wrong with the engine, kept on getting worse and started affecting the overall system. When I finally consulted, I was told to stop EVERYTHING: painkillers altogether, sports, everything. It took me almost a year to get better (mind you it was never life threatning or anything, but constant exhaustion, impossible digestion, terrible complextion and such stuff...) ; and of course a year of inactivity, meant I put on 15lbs, which were very very hard to lose.

Now, I'm much more careful of injuries and although I'm still commited, sitting out a game or a practice means I'll be present next time and not absent for a longer period.

Ok the story kind of dragged on, sorry, but I just wanted to emphasize that going too fast too hard will really only set you back and that missing a few training sessions is sometimes what your body needs; I believe our bodies talk to us if we're listening- please listen to yours!

Safe training to all!
cheerio
joelle
ps: technical question, i tried uploading a photo, but apparently it's too big. How do i reduce the size???

Hi Joelle,

Good to hear you are setting yourself for the group training, while we do the online mentoring, ipm pretty sure you will get great one-on-one advices from the French triathletes! And its nice to hear you guys are still on with the strikes, Yep, count those steps and let us know,

As for your experience with injury sickness, etc, we as human being only learn it the hard way, most of us gotta go thru the bad patches to really take positive lessons from it, its hard to admit, but its true, I´m glad to hear you learnt your lesson for life, and is sharing here in the group, thanks.

Vinnie

Hi All,
Thanks for the good thoughts for my son. He is doing better today, although still has a fever. He is going to have a ton of make-up work to get ready for final exams. He is also a diver on the swim team. He is so upset that he will have to miss two meets this weekend. But, I've told him better to be completely well before returning to practice, or he may risk getting sick again. Similar to my situation right now. I'm half way through my recovery week and I actually feel more tired. I'm actually looking forward to getting back on my schedule, but I will complete the entire week off.
Joelle, I too used to always push through pain. But, after developing IT band problems I learned to listen to my little aches and pains. I still have this nagging worry that the IT band will give me trouble, especially with the distances I will be running in training for the IM.

Jen, Get used to the "your're doing what?" comments. But you will feel so great after you finish. And since you are so motivated, I bet you will be hooked, as I was. Keep up the good work.
Susie

I'll get the tatoo pic up soon.

Hi, everyone. I hope you've all had a good week. I have more good training days. I'm trying to push myself to do just a tiny bit more each time I work it, and I can tell I'm making progress little by little. I am using another website (www.sparkpeople.com) to track my nutrition. Today, I found that they have a recipe calculator where you can enter the ingredients for a recipe and the number of servings, and it will calculate the nutrition information for the recipe. I'm going to try it out. There are a lot of recipes that my family loves, but I have no idea how many calories, grams of fat, protein, etc. are in one serving. Now I will.

Joelle,
Thanks for the concern about my weight loss. I have dieted before and know the pitfalls of losing too fast. I used to lose weight and put it right back on as soon as I stopped "dieting." Now, I'm concentrating on eating healthy and staying within a healthy calorie range as well as following my training schedule. I know the weight loss will slow down now. I've lost 2 more pounds this week. I would like to keep a steady pace of losing about 2 pounds per week so that the weight loss is permanent. Having hypothyroidism makes it very easy to gain weight because of a lower metabolic rate. I have to work extra hard (healthy eating and consistent exercise) to make sure the weight loss is permanent. I know that I will never be "skinny" but I can make it to a healthy weight! It's all about choices! I choose to be healthy!

Have a great weekend, everyone! Happy Training!

Jenn

Hi Jenn,

Thanks for the website link, I will check it out, sounds interesting to see how the numbers are for those home made meals and snacks.

Good to hear training is still going great and you are still improving, take it easy, steady improvements and weight loss, and in a few weeks you will find yourself into a new league.

have a great weekend,
Vinnie

Hi all,
I'm back after my recovery week. I went to spin class yesterday and ran 40 min on the treadmill today. I envy you guys who have nice weather all year. Of course, one never knows what to expect in Chicago, 60 degrees two days last week (unusual) and this week we're supposed to get snow and temps in the teens. Anyway it feels good to get going, but I will heed your advice Vinnie and take it easy this week. I want to get the frequency back, but make the work outs easier intensity and a bit shorter in duration. Does that sound right? I felt good, but noticed that my heart rate was a lot higher than usual. Maybe I was working harder than I should have because I felt good? I also noticed that I wasn't recovering as fast as I usually do. Usually my heart rate drops very quickly. I'm new to all this heart rate training and trying to figure it out.
Brian, I saw that you are a silver member. I have been thinking about this. It seems like a good value. Do you like the programs.

Later,
Susie

Susie-
I do not remember when I signed up why I picked out the Silver level. When I first joined last year I did a six month. After my event my membership was expiring and I realized I might as well join for the full year. As far as Silver, it seems like I got access to more plans and also articles and such. I read articles on here all the time. Really enjoy them. As a newbie I am always trying to learn.

I have been offline a couple of days. In that time I have had a couple of really good workouts. I did a 24 mile bike ride out in the hill country. It took 80 minutes. I was pleased with how I did on the hill climbs. Today I did a light ride (30 minutes at a slow pace) with a friend new to cycling and after that did my run. It was 40 minutes and I went 4.6 miles. That pace was pretty fast for me and I have felt it the rest of the day. I was surprised how much that run really wore me out. I have spent the balance of the afternoon laying on the couch!

Is anyone on here familir with TEAM in Training? They raise money for different cancers (Lymphoma, Leukemia) and I just found out about them online yesterday! Given that I have dedicated my training and racing to my dad who has Lymphoma, it seems natural that I consider joining this group. They have a meeting this Tuesday that I will go check out.

Glad to hear about good training! Keep up the hard work! Joelle, thanks for the reminder to "listen to our bodies." I have been fortunate to avoid injury thus far in this sport. hopeful to keep that up!

Brian

Hi Susie, goo to see you got back into the activities.

As per your question, blood plasma volume is the first training adaptation that we “loose”, but also the first we get back. So for the first 3-4 days, take it VERY EASY, just go thru the motions, and you will start to feel better, and your HR will likely get back to normal levels, no big worries about different HR after a couple days off, it is normal and expected.

Hi Brian,

Good training on the weekend then, that feel you had after the fast run, is the famous over-reaching feel, even though we feel half dead and with no energy to get up and get a cup of water, lets admit that it’s a very fine line between the pleasure that comes from fatigue with overly reacing ourselves. This is the point you don’t want to cross nor reach that very often, but once in a while it feels good and is still a (very hard) training load and stimulus for your body to adapt

I never heard about team in training, can you end us a link? Of course we would miss you here, but if it is a truly worthy and charity couse you have my support to switch groups, maybe we could even work together with them, send me the link and we see, maybe you can be a link in between the groups or something like that, we see.

Vinnie

Brian, I have heard of Team in Training. It's pretty big in Chicago area. I really don't know much about it though. Saw many participants at the Chicago Tri.

Vinnie, Thanks for the info I will try to take it easy. I can't swim yet (have to wait at least two weeks after a tatoo) so I'm only running and either going to spin or on the trainer. I'm planning on going to a spin class tomorrow, so I will put myself in the back and just go at my own pace.

Susie