2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 22)

Hi Guys,

Last week was a failure for me from a workout perspective. My trip ended up more hectic than I had hoped. I ended up with a lot of late nights and early starts, so not a lot of opportunities to exercise. A single 45 minute run was all I managed for the week. I knew I was having a bit of a rest week, but this was more than planned.

And of course a week eating out of restaurants is not good for the diet either. But, this Mondays weigh in was only 0.2lbs higher than the Monday before the trip. So, no progress was made, but no real ground lost either. So I'm happy with that. Was expecting a gain of 2-4lbs.

This week back to the normal plan. 6 runs, for 3:50 (a 10 minute increase on my last normal week) 2 trainer bike rides, and weather dependent I am hoping to go for a proper, outside bike ride on the weekend. Aiming for around 6 hours total for the week. And back to normal diet. Nice clean eating, and lots of lean meats and veges. Not exciting, but it does the trick.

I didn't see this message till I was back home. But after looking it up I was about a 6 hour drive away from Albury. I was in a town called Warrnambool down on the coast. If it had been closer it would have been nice to have someone to go for a run / beer with.

Hi Brian, welcome to the team!

I use a garmin for my outside runs/rides. For inside I just use a stop watch. All the workouts go into my log at runningahead.com I'm a numbers geek, and love the graphs and search functions I can get there.

I also use My Fitness Pal for tracking my diet. There are a few of us following each other on MFP.

Congratulations on your HM! Awesome work.

I own a wetsuit (which I'm not sure I'd fit at the moment!) But in your case i'd rent one. You want to be 100lbs down by your HIM. There's no way a wetsuit you fit now will still fit then. Once you're at your goal weight and not dropping anymore, then look at buying one.

Not sure how to read this one, lol. I weighed 257.0 yesterday @ 0545. 52 miles later I weighed 250.0 and this morning I was at 252.0

hehehe that means I finally broke through the 50-mile mark on a ride. I was hoping for a 15mph ave and ended up with 15.66. All I have to say is that my arse is killing me, and so is my left shoulder. I spent a lot of time in aero and that seemed to cause it... I have a couple of adjustments I think will help out. I'm sure I'll be ready for the Metric on Oct 10th, but as far as being able to run off the bike? Heck no! lol! I wouldn't be able to run a 5k, much less the 13.1 that B2B will require.... not yet, anyway

Rick nice rides. I'd call it 252 and be happy being down 5. Definite win.

MikeF, happy for you that you came out of your half feeling so satisfied.

bullfrog, Albury was an outside shot. Quite honestly, those Americans who haven't been there simply do not realize how big Oz is. They do not realize that it is almost the same size as out contiguous lower 48.

Edited by leatherneckpa 2015-09-08 3:29 PM

Rough weekend for me to keep the momentum. Drove nearly 6 hours Saturday to stay with friends for the holiday weekend. So that was a rest day. Sunday we took the kayaks and paddled all over the Rappahannock and some grass marshes searching for the eagles that they have seen there. No luck there, but it was a great workout. Their river has no current compared to what we are used to up here in PA, so if we were moving its because we were paddling. Compounding that was that Cindy couldn't keep up using her pink paddles because the blades are too small. So she used MY paddle and I got stuck with the tiny pink blades. I could keep up, but only because I was expending an insane amount of energy. The tech shirt I was wearing could literally be wrung out when we finally returned to the dock. I was wetter before I dunked myself at the dock than I was after I got out of the water.

Monday
5/20 - Walk - 30m - 1.50 miles - 20m /Mi
Walked all over half of downtown Fredericksburg following Kevin while we searched for Valerie, who oit turns out was already back at the car waiting for us. City walking is tougher than what I usually do. Sidewalks are uneven, people get in the way, trees, cars, bicycle posts, all kinds of crap. I don't like it.

Looks like everyone is still training hard! I'm trying to keep the pace... I swam yesterday for 775 yards. For me swimming is by the far hardest. I still haven't been able to swim more than 75 yards at a time in the pool. Its definitely a work in progress. Tonight I spent an hour on the bike avg. 15.75 MPH and then had a 20 min 2 mile transition run. I am currently sitting at 245 lbs after some Labor day fun. Look forward to seeing everyone's progress.

Don't sweat the swim. I grew up frolicking in pools, lakes, rivers, etc but never really swam for distance. It took me a good 3 months, 2x/week in the pool with the help of a couple of nice lifeguards (and a really snarky know-it-all lifeguard who just wouldn't shut up...) before anything really clicked. But, when it did finally click in I started racking up the yardage. I'm not very fast, my form is... lacking... and I don't kick-turn, but I can grind out 2250yds in about an hour. Don't worry about it quite yet, the pieces will fall into place.

Yeah I'm trying not to... for the past 3 weeks I've been doing at least 2x's a week in the pool, sometimes 3. I know it takes time I will just keep plugging along. I'm having a blast though. Thanks for the information though, I've heard that once it all clicks it will be easy.

6/20 - Swim - 13m 30s - 650.00 yards - 02m 05s /100 yards
Got a nice little swim in this evening. Don't know why I call those last 3x50's cool down laps. I was really digging the returns on each of them and it paid off. They were all under 60s.

Just out of curiosity, how long a rest break between 100's are you having when you swim? And how do you go on longer intervals (200-500 etc)

We all know that swimming is the weakest sport for most of triathletes, if you're 1:50ish per 100 in your HIM, I'd bet you're going to be top half out of the water. Your form must be pretty good in the water. Compared to your running/biking numbers your swim is super impressive.

Focus on your form swimming, don't worry about long sets. If you can run for 30-60 minutes then aerobically you're already fit enough to swim that long too. What you're missing is the form. Look around the internet, read some books, watch some videos or even get a coach/instructor. But work on that form. Total immersion is popular, and swimsmooth is a good resource too. Check out http://www.swimsmooth.com/console.php

Stick to shorter intervals for now. What you are trying to do is teach yourself good form. If you're going till you can't manage anymore then half your workout is wasted practicing poor form. It's not like running where just adding up the miles = improvement. Swimming you really need to focus on quality.

Awesome, thanks for the info! I usually swim 25-50 yard intervals, if my form starts to suffer I stop and restart myself. I am trying to really focus on keeping my form as smooth as possible for as long as possible and currently it begins to break down at or around 50 yards. I have to swim today so I will continue down this road.

No problem, another tip that I missed is to get someone to video you swimming if you can. Just having a look for yourself will show you very quickly what you need to improve. And posting a video asking for advice into the main forum here can lead to some great help.

Seeing a video of myself helped me a lot during my HIM build up a few years ago.

Right now I'm not trying to kill myself with the swims. I go on the stroke of 12. So if a 50 takes me 60-63s I have a nearly a minute rest. My 100's are taking around 2:10-2:15 so I only get a 45-50s rest. The distance set I added last night was 150 and took me 3:20 so I only had a 40s rest to the next set. In biking and walking my weight counts against me. In the water, not so much. In fact, I float pretty darned good.

Yes, swimming is definitely my strong suit. I swam competitively in high school and college, so my form is very good. And any coach will tell you, good form beats brute strength every time. Back in the day I was knocking miles out (real 1800 yd miles, not 1650's) in less than 25 minutes. I'm hoping that by B2B in October I will be down between 1:30 and 1:45 per 100. The fact that I am not even attempting flip turns means that I am losing 1-2 seconds at every turn. Take that time off my open water swims and I should be pretty darned close.

ETA: Plus, I am not really pushing hard yet, I'm just happy to swim whatever pace feels comfortable. Right now I'm breathing every 3rd and some of those breaths I lolligag on my side taking a slower breath. As I get closer to race season I will stretch that back out to every 4th or even 5th like I used to do in college. Breathing actually slows me down, but you have to do it. What used to work really well for me was to train breathing on the 5th and race breathing on the 3rd. It got me extra oxygen.

Edited by leatherneckpa 2015-09-10 6:57 PM

For what it is worth; my swim right now consists of a warm-up set (3x50, 1x100), a distance set (started at 100 and I am adding 50 yds per week between now and my October HIM), then a cool down set (1x100, 3x50). Somewhere along the way (probably about the time I hit 500 in my distance set) I will increase the WU set to be (2x50, 2x100, 1x200) and reverse it for the CD set. That will give me 1000yds above my distance set.

I agree with the bullfrog form first, distance second, speed last. Video was really expensive when I was first exposed to it in college (late '70's), but virtually any smartphone can do it today. Even better there are a ton of those little personal "adventure cameras" out there. Have them record you from below the surface too. Have the video critiqued by the swim coach at your pool.

7/20 - Walk - 34m 51s - 2.00 miles - 17m 25s /Mi
65* - 90% humidity - activated my EIA tonight! Coughing my brains out right now, so I know it was a true hard effort.

Well there we have it. As a former competitive swimmer you've got a huge advantage over many of us poor triathletes. If you're able to be swim B2B at 1:30 pace you're going to be well up at the pointy end of the field out of T1.

From now on, I think you should be answering all swimming questions.

alright so I spent 40 mins on the bike today 10 min warm up 20 min riding at zone 3 and 10 min cool down avg 15.7 mph for 10.98 miles. Then swam 825 yards in the pool at 2:15/100 yards. Felt great today! I should have been posting in here constantly, its very motivating to see other big guys get after it.

Hey quick question for you guys. I'm about 6'3" and 245 lbs... in most of the cycling shorts that I have XL fits me fine. I bought some XL jerseys from Performance Bike online and they seem a bit short so I'm guessing the 2XL would probably be a better fit for me. As far as Tri shorts and tops if I decided to go with a 2 piece do you think the sizes would be about the same? What about wet suits should I go with the 2XL or XL? Thanks in advance... any feedback is appreciated.

At 325 my old xxl wetsuit fitted me just fine. I really wish it did not get lost/stolen (not sure which I was kinda out of it post race).

If you bigger and worried I would susgest finding a place local that sells them and try them one. Also ones that are mostly rubber and not have a panel front like my knew one has probably fit better. In other words the low end wetsuits fit better than higher send ones.

Height very important when it comes to a wetsuit. While bagging suit will slow you done some not as bad a a suit that pulls on your shoulders.

I been sick all week. I fell off the diet and not ran. This Sunday I hope I am better and survive my 18 miler. This is going to be a scary weekend especially since I missed the 16 miler 2 weeks ago.