HILDEKQ'S Magnificently Motivational Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 24)

Thank you everyone for all the great inspires! It means a lot to have you all pulling for me I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. I need to go blend-up my pre-race "power shake" so it's ready for the morning and then I'm going to read a bit, visualize kicking some a$$ on the course and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz until the alarm wakes me at 4:15 in the AM to get ready to hit the road. I'll be back to post tomorrow to share my results.

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let you all know that I will not be online for the next two weeks or so. 

While the "official" period is over, I hope we can all be in touch.  I really appreciate the support and encouragement.  Hilde, YOU ROCK!  I should be back online August 26!

Keep up the great work!

Carl

Hi Janet:  It was the middle rung and as hard as that one would go (in the back) - can you tell I don't know much about bike terms?  The course was pretty flat.  Sometimes I was standing and really pushing it and I still never got over 137!  I'm pretty sure it made good contact.  Maybe I need to refigure my bike zones like Hilde said. 

Ok, it's me again.   I looked at my Garmin and lo and behold, Hilde's right (of course)!  When I put in my max heart rate, it adusted it differently for the bike!  I guess I was trying to stay in zone 3 the whole time .... whoops     But still .. I could barely stay in zone 3 and isn't that supposed to be the aerobic zone?  hmmmm   Oh well, thanks for the help! 

Just got back from the race, 1st AG, yea!!  But disappointed in my performance, really sucked on the run and ended up about 4 minutes slower than last year.  That said, I was really feeling crappy today, didn't sleep well at all, woke up and felt pukey, got to the run and felt both pukey and like I wanted to crap myself.  Swim was good, bike was good... just another example of sucking on the run and still pulling a 1st place AG out of my @$$ ha ha!!  Don't have my split times yet, but will post a race report once I get those... thanks for all the well wishes for both the race and the condolences on my sweet spastic puppy.

Great job, Hilde! You are on fire!
Hope you are feeling better! 

Great job Hilde - bringing home the BLING!

I'm back from the OLY - it was hard but fun! I finished in 2:52 (right between my goal of breaking 3:00 and my "stretch goal" of 2:45) I rocked the swim, had a descent bike and rocked the run! I'm off to look at the final results and splits and will post a full race report after that.

Hmmm...no results posted yet. I'll have to come back later!

There is a mini-report in my training log...I'll do the full deal later.  Kids are needing my love and attention for now!

Marsha - Your total time is awesome!  I'm just hoping to finish by 3:30.  

Of *course*-- I'm offline for two weeks and EVERYTHING happens without me!!

Hi gang! I'm back-- had a great two week holiday, but did plenty of training for the Oly as well, including some longer rides with hills AND nasty crosswinds...great practice for Chicago. I'll update my logs tomorrow when I'm not so tired (just drove for nine and a half hours, so brain is zonked), but wanted to say several things:

--THANK YOU to Hilde and all of you for being such an AMAZING group! I thought of you all as I muscled my way through long rides and runs, which kept me honest and working hard these two weeks! I'm certainly up for keeping the forum going, and I'll be lurking amid the logs, too...

--YAY and CONGRATULATIONS to Hilde for kicking a$$ and taking names at her last two races! You ROCK, medear, and now even more people know it!

--CONGRATULATIONS and loud cheering for Jordie, Marsha, and all of you great racers from the past two weeks-- can't wait to read your reports when my brain is back to what passes for normal...

--Finally, it looks like I'll be doing the Danskin sprint tri in Wisconsin as a relay with a friend this year-- I'll swim and run, she'll bike. Seems like a decent workout a week before my Oly-- Jordie, are you still thinking of being there too?

Power on, friends-- I can't wait to hear more about everyone's training and racing adventures!

Love and hugs to you all,

Alex

Peggy, I've had the same issue on the bike- No matter how hard I push, my heart rate is 117bpm. I think it's a matter of cycling fitness- I'm kinda new to cycling and I don't think my legs are strong enough to give my heart a workout yet, but it's getting better. Stick with it and see if it doesn't improve over time.

Congrats to all our weekend racers- you all kicked some serious butt out there!! And welcome back Alex, we missed you! 

Hi everyone!

Sorry I have been nonexistent for the past few weeks.  Had some job-related things happen that weren't expected, and I have been doing my best to my the necessary adjustments for several weeks now.  Tomorrow will be more of the same.  We'll see if it made any difference Tuesday night.  

I was disappointed to see that our mentoring time seems to be up, but everyone seems to want to keep it going which is encouraging.  I hope that this group will stay together despite the site's time limits.  It has been great logging in to check on everyone, even if I haven't been as consistent as I would like to be.  I want to thanks to everyone for the encouragement, especially our leader, Hilde.  Your consistency is inspirational to me and I continue to aspire to match it.  

Good luck to everyone this week.  I hope to be back at it again starting Wednesday or Thursday. 

Tammy - That's what I'm thinking too ... that I just can't work hard enough to get my heart rate up because I guess my legs aren't in shape enough but it frustrates me because I've been doing this since January and I guess I'm still not in good enough bike shape.  That's probably why I can't break 16 mph on my rides!  Maybe my new plan (with intervals) and trying to get to spinning class at least once a week will help.  I hope so.  I'd really like to get over 16 on my oly.

I just LOVE this group!  I get so inspired by everyone else's hard work and great results!!    It makes me want to get into a tri in August.  If it wasn't for the price on these things, I probably would.  There's one Aug 21 that's in my area .... I'm still thinking about it.  I wish these races  were cheaper!  I guess next year I'll have to have a column in my budget for racing!  I'll have to get a hotel when we go to the oly in Oct cuz we'd have to get up way to early if I didn't, and I got a hotel for my first one in April so between hotels and race fees (let's not even talk about clothes and equipment), this is an expensive hobby!  And I haven't even bought a bike yet ... that'll be next year.  (And I'd really like to get swim paddles and fins.)  Oh well, I guess being overweight and the ensuing health problems could have been more expensive right??!

I'm with you, Peggy-- no matter how expensive races and equipment are, health problems would be WAY more expensive...(at least, that's what I keep telling myself whenever I see my credit card bill!). I'm also trying to work on getting my speed up on the bike-- it seems to be happening gradually, but takes time in the saddle and work. It's back to the twice-weekly spin classes for me with some longer rides before the Oly, then thinking carefully about what to work on when the off-season hits... (anyone got any bike training videos-- to watch and sweat along to on the trainer-- that they'd recommend?).

Also, a quick question for Hilde and Marsha-- how long did you guys taper for your Olys? I'm trying to figure out what the best use of my time for the next just-under-three-weeks should be... thanks!

So glad to be back-- I missed you guys and hearing about everyone's training and races, but sent lots of good vibes while I SBRed at the cottage!

Alex

Alex - I did my regular load of training 2 weeks out. In the week before the race I did a short swim on Monday (mostly easy with a few speed 50's), a 30 minute bike (moderate) on Tuesday, a 3 mile run on Wednesday, a 15 mile bike - EASY spinning only on Thursday, a 20 minute swim and some aqua jogging on Friday and a day off on Saturday.

I have no doubt that my 2x/week spinning classes helped a lot on my speed on the bike. Not that I'm smokin' by any means but I saw my bike speed increase and if I was lacking anything in training it was certainly T.I.T.S...mostly because I opted to spin on most T and TH instead of bike. I was nervous some weeks about making that choice but decided that the way I got pushed in spin class was a push I'd likely never make on my own out on the road!?

I just did a one week taper... cut my training down to one workout a day from two.  Made my swims shorter, but with some intense race speeds thrown in there, easy runs, moderate bikes, nothing too long, and because my run is my weakest event, I would be sure to have a swim as my last training session on Friday, which gave my legs 2 days to rest.  And I took the day before the race as a rest day.

Thanks so much, Marsha and Hilde-- those are excellent suggestions! (Right now I'm particularly liking the idea of giving my legs two days off beforehand-- they're a bit tired from the slogging around in the IL humidity...) I'm nervous, but willing to be so until race day and then just take the whole thing as it comes. In the meantime, I've managed to persuade a friend to do a sprint tri as a relay the weekend before (I'll swim and run, she'll bike), so that should be a fun double workout to usher in my taper week!

OK, several of you have asked in inspires and private messages, so - here's the deal on my bodybuilding competition...right about the time I started TRI training a woman who works out at the gym I go to approached me during one of my workouts and asked if I'd ever considered natural bodybuilding (stating that I had "an awesome back"). I replied "um...NO!" and she went on to tell me that I should and she thinks I'd be great at it, and will I join her team...etc. I was flattered but intent on TRI training so I just shrugged it off. Back in June I went to watch her at a competition with 2 other women from the gym and was fascinated by what I saw. None of these women were the nasty bulgy specimens I might have pictured when I thought of the term bodybuilding because none of them use steroids. (They have blood tests and they have to pass a lie detector test stating that they have never used them). Most of these women just looked REALLY fit! She's been after me since then to join her for an October competition and now that my TRI's are done for the season I've decided to give it a try. It certainly will be a grand new adventure...not so sure I want to stand on a stage in a bikini so, we'll see about that, but I'm going to do the training for it either way Here's some pictures of the woman who recruited me to do it...(to give you a sense of what I'm talking about)





So yes, I'm nuts but, no more nuts than S/B/R-ing for hours on end I guess! LOL! I'll keep you posted. I have to get my measurements taken and report for the dreaded "before" pictures on Saturday - YIKES!

OMG Marsha!  You're going to do that??  Wow, you go, girl! 

Oh fine - someone male has to say it - that's pretty darned sexy!

Best of luck with it!

Marsha, I have no doubt you will rock the bikini!! 

Very cool, Marsha! I'm betting you rock the bikini and the competition-- go for it!