The Frozen (not so) North Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 20)

Man - that is brisk! Seriously, an extra swim cap and booties will help. Enjoy the taper!

<Edited because I can't spell>

Hey everyone, we're home from Cancun.  It was awesome.  Of course.  The ocean water was way warm, and VERY salty.  It's amazing how much buoyancy it adds - I actually felt like I had a wetsuit on in terms of floating.

Lovey - awesome race.  You are a MARATHONER!  A marathon seems like something way beyond, far more than twice a half.  And good to hear your foot may be figured out.  But running through a stress fracture - are you kidding?!?  You must have some serious pain tolerance.

And that temp is seriously cold Wendy.  Here's to hoping it goes way up before race day, but if not, you'll still hammer it.  I second and third the earplugs.  It doesn't make sense, but they really help.  I find the key to cold water is just get your face in there and get past that take-your-breath-away- and-scream-expletive period, and then it's not *quite* so bad.

And for all - we had plenty of Hurricanes and amazing food.  Despite working out plenty I gained 4 pounds.  Time to shed the winter coat and get into running shape!

It's been pretty quiet on the forum lately. I hope that means the weather is better and you all are taking advantage by getting outside.

Welcome home Warren!!

I went for another dip in Lake Mead today after a short brick workout. I did find, this time, that spending a couple minutes aclimating before I actually "plunged"in helped reduce that "take yourbreath away, scream expletives" period. Feeling much better about it than last week. Off on another business trip tomorrow so next chance to get in will be next Saturday. 

The countdown is on...2 weeks to go...

For me, the more practice, the less anxiety...the first time I got into our local pond, I swam from the boat dock straight out to the middle, freaked out and struggled back to land. When my feet touched down, I asked my husband how long I had been gone (felt like 30 minutes), he said, "4 minutes." Sigh. I almost threw in the towel at that point - but a good friend of mine said I should just go back out and try it again, as many times as I could before the actual race (she also recommended that I swim around the edges where I could always put my feet down if I freaked out until I was more comfortable - which helped a lot as well). It made all the difference knowing what to expect.

Hope all is well with everyone - it's warm enough here. If we can avoid the rain today, I'm running outside! Woot! (Not quite able to swim outside though - the ice layer on the top of the ponds is a little daunting).

HTFU!  

That's what my husband said!

Wendy- Great job on tapering..I like that training plan..I guess when I start my tapering I will have to travel to CA for a tasting adventure.  Let us know how the vineyards are.

Warren- Welcome back!  Hola it is so nice to train and not worry about laying or being cold.  The best part for me about being away is being disconnected from work.  

My weekend started out in extra innings from Friday nights adventures with work, but it was good and I felt really strong on my run yesterday.  Maybe my 3 days out of the gym was a good thing.

Wendy - that's my kind of taper! 

Lovey - a belated congrats on your marathon.  I don't know how you ran through a stress fracture, etc., but way to dig it out!

Today starts a recovery week for me.  My goal is to get in some fun cross-training - all those things I can never find time to do while keeping up training in swim/bike/run. 

I do have two tri things planned, though.  Today was swim time trials - no workout, just a warm-up followed by a timed 500 and 200.  On the 500, I never really felt like I got into a groove (or maybe it was my splasy-swimming lane mate who ensured I never got a good breath to his side).  I was surprised, then, to find my time was 11:50 (avg of 2:22/100).  On the 200, I felt great going out & finished the first 100 in 2:00! (I didn't catch my final time, I'm sure I slowed some, but it still felt good).  Given that I started the season at around 2:45+ per 100 and was working hard to break 2:30 for just a single 100 at a time, this time trial was a most welcome shot in the arm.  

On Sunday, I'll be doing an indoor tri at my gym.  It's just for fun.  I'm looking forward to seeing if I can push just a little bit on the swim & still feel strong in the bike & run. 

happy training, all -

Great job on your swim Ally. 

How's your tapering going Wendy??  Have you left the winery yet?

Tomorrow is Guinness Day!  I will only have 1 pint as training, lacrosse and other domestic actives must prevail

Those are just amazing swim improvements.  Isn't it fun when things start to come together?

Guinness day?  That sounds made up.   Enjoy...

I wanted All Scotts Day, but wife wouldn't go for it so Guinness Day it is...haha.

A sad farewell to the vineyards today as we returned home. Unfortunately with 2 10 hour days in the car, 2 days of business meetings, lunches and dinners AND wine tasting, I didn't manage to fit in any workouts at all the last 4 days. I think I need to do some real work tomorrow.

Happy Guinness Day !

Happy St. Patricks Day! 

Don't forget to wear yer green, swim suit, bike shorts or running attire today...S/B/R and also have a Guinness...

???Happy Guiness Day all.  It's not just for breakfast anymore!

That's a nice forced taper Wendy.  You're going to feel very strong when you get out there.

After 6 days off I jumped right back in today! I have joined a local Tri club and they put on a duathlon today. 1 mile run, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. I was scheduled for a 90 minute brick workout today so what the heck...why not workout with some others. Was a pretty causal event with about 45 other folks. I fininshed in my 90 minute time frame and felt good. With my event coming up next Sat, the intent was to hold back, which was kinda hard....after I jumped into the lake for some more getting used to COLD water..Yippes!

Hope you all are having good weather and a great weekend!

A short blog about body markings   http://bit.ly/hkmeYi

Hello to all! I've been thinking of you all, and just got caught up on posts here, but not yet caught up on training posts or messages.

Congratulations, Lovey, on your marathon! That is awesome!!!

Wendy, congrats on your 'fun' triathlon - it sounds more intense than the triathlons I did while in Puerto Rico: biking, snorkeling, drinking. 

Hurray to Ally and her swim times!

I am putting a call out for extra moral support (if you in fact extend that to people who went to warmer climates) in the coming couple of weeks. While I did a little biking, a little hiking and a little swimming while on vacation, I did only one real workout (50 minutes on an elliptical) ...and then I came home and got horribly sick and missed all workouts this past week. So in a sense, until I got on the bike today, I hadn't done a proper workout in nearly 2 weeks. I *can* recover from that, right?

I am supposed to do the Spring Fling next weekend, but am feeling like I should go run a 5K all by myself instead on a track somewhere so that I don't have to experience such a crappy time in public so early in my training process. (In Vermont, it's tough to *not* run into people you know while at race events, and times get posted in the newspaper, blah, blah, blah -- nice to have community, but not when they see how slow I am!)

Looking forward to getting caught up on everyone's training logs and blogs.....

Lovey, that's great discipline.  Making sure you're recovered is important, so holding back even as you start to feel better is a great decision.

The weather is starting to break for sure.  Though I think I prefer this weekend's weather to hot summer days.  Low 40s is my ideal running temp as I tend to overheat easily.  I've started doing some faster running within my runs, to get ready for my half marathon coming up in 6 weeks.

Hey Gang,

The boards been pretty quite...I wanted to shre this swimming site I came across.  http://www.swimplan.com  Once you register it will give you different workout plans to use.  I finally made it to the pool today.  No shoulder pain as I am trying to use the new stroke technique.  I felt good and did manage to go 1500yds. 

How is everyones week been?

Scott - Glad to hear the shoulder felt good and great job on the swimming.   I love that site and use it to get pool workouts and paces.  I  also use Mr. Smooth (www.swimsmooth.com) - check him out as well.

Lovey - Way to keep listening to your body and doing what it allows.

Good luck to Wendy racing tomorrow.

Kim - are you doing the 5k/10k race?  If so, good luck.

And here's to Jennifer, who is about to start her TAPER for the half next weekend!!!!!!!

Thanks Warren,

Now I know why I should have taken today off work, not to make sure I'm rested but cuz I can't concentrate!