2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 25)

Forgot to talk about this part...

The reason I look like I have a good base is I've been focusing on my run for most of the year. Because my fitness was so far gone specific workouts didn't matter, I just needed to do something, anything! and in my opinion running is the best use of time, i.e. I get more benefit from a 20 minute run, than I do from a 20 minute bike or swim.

I also run alot (as in frequency) to avoid injury. I know from past experiance I need over 4 hours a week before I feel I'm running well. Going back to 2011 (the first time I tried to train for a HIM) I tried to do that in 3 runs a week, which is pretty common for multisporters and I ended up injuring my calf, having to stop running, and eventually cycling for months, and abandoning the HIM dreams. After that I discovered the 'Barry_P' plan on the slowtwich forums. This plan split the running into 3 short, 2 medium and 1 long per week, and split them in a nice easy way, the medium run is twice the short run, and the long run is 3 times the short run. i.e: 3 x 10 minute runs, 2 x 20 minute runs, 1 x 30 minute run per week. After changing to this plan, running more frequently, but less per run I was able to increase my overall volume, and do so injury free. The end result was I got into the best running shape of my life. I do highly recommend this plan to all you guys. I know the frequency can be a pain, but it does work.

As for biking, I only hopped on a bike for the first time in a year a month ago... the main reason for that was I was above the max rider weight for both my bikes. (which is so embarrassing/demoralizing) So there's no base here.

So, the end of my ramble, is I don't consider that I've got a good base at all, in my opinion I've spent most of the year rebuilding my fitness to the point where I can train again, and I've only just reached that point. There's a long way to go yet.

LOL, me, bully? I am the LEAST qualified person here to do that. Also least likely, (And yes, I saw the smiley face.)

A couple of thoughts. (Feel free to tell me to go "pound sand" if you want. It's just that I tend to think of this forum as a kind of "peer group coaching" thing.) If swimming is indeed your best discipline then you can afford to miss a few swims here and there. It sounded like it was much more than that though or you would not have been lamenting it here. Knowing you are not a morning person, might you not consider moving the swims to afternoons and putting the other disciplines that you seem to enjoy more into morning slots. That way, when you do get up early to do them they will feel like "rewards" for being so dedicated. (Just a thought, since I am still only doing one workout a day and I'm being fairly generous with the rest days.)

That Barry P plan sounds kind of cool. I have been considering something similar for my walking. I was thinking about getting at least 3x in, using my 2.0 mile up-and-back as my short, my 3.75 Hillside Dr loop (with that blasted hill) as my medium, and my 4.5 mile River Rd loop for my long walk. Then once a month, just to shake things up, do the River Rd and throw a Hillside Dr on the end of it, which incidentally just happens to make a 10k.

That's why I stayed with an aluminum frame. Everything my LBS had in fiber was rated for 250lbs, maybe 275lbs max. Even my aluminum is only rated for 350lbs, but I could not afford a titanium frame at the time. Now I won't buy one until I can do the frame justice, by riding at least a metric century or training at least that much per week.

Nope, not all that far to go brother, and you have made the all important first step already. And look around you man. Look at your office mates, or the majority of your friends, maybe family. My brothers are probably among the most competitive a$$e$ on the planet, and they bust my chops every chance they get about being so heavy. At least, until I ask them if they want to get up early the next morning and do a "Flanagan Brothers Challenge Triathlon". They get REAL quiet then. No sir, don't sell yourself short. I'd be willing to bet that you've got a much better base than 90% of the people you know.

(Have you figured out yet that I really don't have a life outside of training or this board?)

17/20 - Swim - 22m 54s - 1000.00 yards - 02m 17s /100 yards
Racked up another pleasant swim. The hot tub was surprisingly congested when I got there so I skipped it and went directly to the empty swim lanes. I can sure feel the difference in my back muscles. Won't make that mistake again.

Yesterday's blood blister from the dreadmill is about half it's size but painful as all get-out to walk on. Going to try to avoid walking, at least until the blister deflates and goes away. There may be a MAJOR life change coming up for me in the next 30 days or so, and if it goes the way I think it will, I will be transitioning to two-a-days. Crossing my fingers, my toes, my arms, my knees, and my eyes that this happens. My life will become SO much easier/better than it is currently.

18/20 - Bike - 30m - 4.20 miles - 8.40 Mi/hr
Beginning the recovery week a little early? Yeah, why not? Want to take a slow bike ride? Follow your 7 yr old grandson around the bike path on his training wheels. We bought him a good bicycle (a Trek no less) three years ago and his parents haven't let the kid ride it enough or taught him how to get off those darned training wheels. That kind of chaps my hide! So tonight Cindy and I took him to the sports complex and rode around the bike path. When we finished the first time around we asked him whether he wanted to go again or go to the truck. He was all about doing another lap. He needed to be reminded a few times about using the ball of his foot on the pedals, but he caught on pretty quickly to standing up to pedal up the hills on the path. And he bragged like crazy when he topped them. He even crashed on one 90* turn because he was trying to take it too fast. We told him that wouldn't have happened without training wheels because he could have leaned into the turn. His response? "Stupid training wheels!"

Finally got a swim in today! 800 Yards. Better than nothing! Afterwards I went for a run, finishing 5.3 miles in a hour. I am worn out!

If your interested, here's the link http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1612485;search_string=r... The Program, parts 1, 2 & 3 are the part you need to read. Lots of good info in there.

But like he says himself in the plan, there are many right ways to train, this is only one of them.

Ok, so the end of the week summary.

Run, 6 runs for 4:10:00
Bike, 1 trainer, 1 outside for 1:38:00
Swim, 1 swim, 750m in 15:40

I swam. For the fist time since November 2013 I swam. Took it nice and easy to start back, swam 10 x 50m with 10 seconds rest, and as I felt good after that 2 x 100m and 1x50 to finish off. I was presently surprised, holding 1:50-1:55/100. That's much better than I was expecting on the first swim back. The arms did feel a bit tired tho, been a while since those muscles have had any work.

Also, for those counting, I broke 6 hours total workouts for the week. That's a bit of a milestone. It's only 5 weeks ago I broke 4 hours for the first time. Adding biking back to the mix works wonders.

My diet was not great however, and I ended up gaining this week.

For this coming week, I'm taking a bit of a cut back week, and definitely at least 1 day off, as I'm now at 21 days consecutively SBRing.

Hope everyone had a good/productive weekend.

Edited by bulfrog 2015-09-27 9:59 PM

Hey guys,
Sorry I've been absent for a week or so, I've been down in a dark hole. From what I read, it's pretty normal to self-doubt as you hit this point of marathon training.

I will do this! Or at least give it all I have.

Not a bad week for me. Capped off with a busy weekend. I ran a 5k with my sister-in-law on Sat. It was her first 5k and also her 45th birthday. We ran at her pace. She had a goal of 14 min/mile. We finish in 41 minutes, so just over 13/mile. Yesterday the plan had me at 14 miles. I ran 13 when a bathroom call ended it short. I wasn't upset as it was 13 on tired legs.

This is a big week leading in this weekdn's planned 20 miler. Longest training run before the marathon, and longest run ever for me.

I get so bored on these long runs. Too much time alone in my head...

19/20 - Walk - 35m 44s - 2.01 miles - 17m 46s /Mi

THIS challenge is almost in the bag! It's supposed to be a recovery week, so I only went for the gentle 2 mile Valley Rd walk; 1 mile uphill and 1 mile back downhill. Did the return leg in only 16 minutes, almost a 4 mph pace.

OH, I almost forgot. Weigh-in today was 371 lbs. That's a full 25 lbs gone so far.

I have always maintained that it was not how much I was eating that made heavy, so much as it was the completely sedentary lifestyle I was living. And every time I have gotten seriously into physical activity I have shed weight fairly quickly. Let's hope this is the same. I REALLY want to be under for 300 for my first tri of 2016, next May.

20/20 - Swim - 21m 34s - 1000.00 yards - 02m 09s /100 yards

Yippee! I fulfilled my September challenge by scoring 20 triathlon specific workout DAYS for September. Wait until you see what I have in mind for October! Is it a "habit" yet? Probably not quite, although I do feel guilty if I post a "lazy" day.

It was a pleasant swim. I was really getting into it when I was seeing my 150 times at only 3:15. Also, changed up my rest periods. I now only allow 30s rest in front of 50's, 45s rest in front of 100's, and 1m rest in front of the 150's. Once I start adding that distance set in the middle I will keep that rest at only 1m as well. So I was resting much less than before and still turning in better times.

Great job Mike! Way to get it done!

Great job Mike. Consistency is the key to this game.

My week so far, short run Monday, medium run Tuesday, swim lunchtime today (yay, swim #2), and will do another short run this evening. Which will give me 25 days and 30 workouts for the month.

And I went and entered the local sprint tri series yesterday. We're committed now...

I'm sorry mike, but I have to disagree here. Weightloss is much more about what happens in the kitchen than what happens in your workouts. Your workouts are great, and they do help, but at the volume you're doing you just don't burn enough extra calories to give you your 25lbs lost.

1lb of fat loss is about 3,500 Cal, so that's 87,500 Cal. Taking your weight at 371lbs and your walks, at about 4mph that's 104 hours walking to burn 87,500 Cal. The exercise is helping for sure, but to get that calorie deficit you must be reducing how much you eat.

Maybe its when you're working out you're more conscious of what you eat, so as not to undo your good work. I know that's the case for me.

That said, 25lbs is awesome. So whatever you're doing exercise or diet wise it's working. Keep up the good work.

Can you tell that i'm a bit of a numbers geek...

End of the month time. My training for September:

Swim: 2 workouts, 0:31:29, 1500m
Bike: 6 workouts, 4:39:21, 100.7km
Run: 22 workouts, 14:25:51, 121.7km

For a total of 30 workouts, 19:36:41

My goals for October, everything's improving and increasing:

Swim: now I've broken the seal and got back to the pool, increase to 2 swims per week, building up from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Probably wont get to 30 this month, but you get the idea

Bike: go from 2 bikes per week to 3, adding a 2nd trainer session. Also increase the long bike up into the 2 hour range.

Run: continue to increase my volume towards that 5 hour/week target. Should be at 4:50/week by the end of the month if all goes to plan.

Overall I should be up around 25-30 hours total for October. At least that's the plan.

Whats everyone else's numbers look like?
And what goals have you guys got for next month? Mike, I know you'll have a big target you'll be working towards...

1/23 - Bike - 41m - 9.50 miles - 13.90 Mi/hr

I was having a severe motivational crisis this morning, simply did not want to go. But I did it. Thankfully this is supposed to be a recovery week. Expresso cycle has a "games" option. I made the mistake of trying that out. Nope! Just as pointless and stupid as every other video game I have ever played. No point to it, no finish line, and no personal satisfaction. Built up a good sweat and then switched over to regular courses. Blew my "Ghost" away on the Fruitdale course.

The new challenge for October is posted too. I'm going to aim for no more than 2 rest days per week, or 8 for the month.

I like the "end of Month" report idea. So here's mine:

Swim: 1h 33m 03s - 4250 Yd - New goal: 5000 yds
Bike: 3h 58m 37s - 51.96 Mi - New goal: 75 mi
Run: 7h 42m 33s - 25.09 Mi - New goal: 30 mi

I seem to recall a way to put those on my log page, have to go find that again, just so I don't forget the new goals.

just letting y'all know that I am still alive... Will get in here with details soon.

2/23 - Swim - 25m 12s - 1100.00 yards - 02m 17s /100 yards

My college swim coach always told us that if we lost count of our laps to take the lowest number we were sure of, because we would benefit from the extra laps but never from laps we didn't swim. I lost count today and wound up doing an extra 100 yds. C'est la vie. The focus on today's laps was breathing control. I wasn't paying attention to my pace or my kick, except for how they impacted my breathing. My goal, which I achieved, was to swim a steady pace that did not leave me huffin-n-apuffin at the end of the lap(s). For all that, I still turned in times comparable to my first weak efforts upon my return to the pool. All things considered it was a very pleasant workout.