kaqphin (Super Cat's) Mentor group - CLOSED (Page 25)

That sounds like a lot of fun! And if you really get into it maybe you can give adventure racing a go?  

yeah my friends and I are joking that we are slowely inching our way closer to adventure racing....  learning to rock climb and brushing up our sea kayak skills are on the spring agenda...

I would like to say that I HATE TAPERING!!!! during the day I feel like I have this energy and just want to go for a hard run or a bike to get my HR up but a few times in the last week when i go exercising I feel like my muscles get that burning feeling pretty quickly.  Probably because of race jitters I am going to fast, trying to mentally train myself to push through.  But no crazy mood swings I swear I will rest completely tomorrow!!

Pasta is on the menu tonight so the next few days will be focused on getting glycogen in the muscles.  What else is good carbs?? 

Good carbs:
Brown rice, Kashi wheat squares cereal, old fashioned oatmeal, whole grain (not multi-grain, actually whole grain--no bleached flours, etc) bread, for the pasta use the wheat pasta too, veggies and fruits (though watch out for the ones that cause irritable gas), peanut butter (great for energy).

One of my favorites is to make whole grain pancakes/waffles. My Mom is able to get flour at her grocery store that she literally grinds herself there, so it's whole grain, and I'll sub that for regular flour, you can also take old fashioned rolled (sometimes you'll see steel cut too and that's good) oats oatmeal, pulse it in your blender or food processor and it will make a flour and you can integrate that into the recipe as well, then use unsweetened apple sauce, pure pumpkin puree (no additives), or pure sweet potato puree (no sugars, syrup, etc.) in place of any oil requirment....then you get healthy pancakes or waffles.  I have some recipes if you're interested.

WE ARE GOING TO BE TRIATHLETES IN A COUPLE OF DAYS JENI!! WOOHOO!!!

Oh, and on the adventure racing--I'm sort of doing one in May--I'm doing Muddy Buddy Austin...two people teams, one bikes (mountain bike) while one runs until you get to an obstacle, you do the obstacle, and then switch disciplines, and this is for 6-7 miles, then you crawl through a mud pit! Should make for some great pics at the end.  My friend doing it with me is an MP (Military Police) as well--so our team name is "Dirty Cops!" Haha, it should be fun--they have these all over the place.

Britt had covered the good carbs - but most tapers recommend short workouts of around say 20 minutes (depending on the length of the race with some very short pace efforts so an easy 20 minute run including a warm up and cool down with say 3 x 30sec pick ups)

Sounds to me like you are ready to go!  

Mel - its great to have you back!

Im sorry you sometimes feel like you arent part of the family but you really really are! You were great in the challenges with all your icons... and I've never once thought you werent on your way... its not about when you get there... its about the journey!

There are lots of people on BT who for whatever reason arent doing triathlons... it may be they are just starting out, have been injured, switched sports or just lost interest but stayed because they liked the people, the community or even just liked the logging feature.

You are working on being healthy and thats fabulous! Sometimes you take a few steps backwards to move forwards and thats ok, sometimes life intervenes and you end up treading a different path for awhile and thats ok, sometimes you follow a plan or an idea that doesnt work for you and thats ok too!

If there is anything you want or need just ask, celebrate every victory along the way... I walked for one minute longer, I went to the gym when I didnt want to, I turned down cake.... every single one of these things and many many more are HUGE achievements...

Its not about what you do one day, or one week, its about the small steps you make towards your goal... and even the most determined person gets distracted sometimes (ooh look something shiny! )

Congrats on how far youve come so far, and congrats on ahving the ability to return from the south and get yourself back on your journey! Returning when you have been a little off track is a massive achievement in itself!

BunnyB - 2008-03-07 6:23 PM Thanks, Cat! I recognize it's just my own demons in my head and not a lack of welcoming from the wonderful folks here at BT. I know getting a few days of being back on track under my belt (pardon the pun) will go a long way in exorcising those thoughts.

Well maybe its time I shared something.... as most people know in early 2006 I was diagnised with a chronic condition and spent the entire year trying to get it under control... I was on really high doses of prednisone (a steroid) and got soooo many side effects it was ridiculous (the worst of which is the weight gain which Im still battling).

Every time I tried to come off the drugs I would get sick again... it was not much fun... and I was unable to train beyod the occassional walks and light swims. More than that I would just get soooo fatigued (a side effect of both the condition and the drugs)

Finally I started training again at the end of 2006 and on day 2 at the gym I severely sprained my ankle... couldnt even WALK on it for a couple of weeks it was so bad... then my condition flared into 2007... another sprained ankle and we got through to the middle of 2007... and because my immune system seemed to be weak (due to some medication) I got a 6 respiratory infections between Feb and August 2007, then a kidney infection.

In July I ran my first BT challenge, that got me motivated again... and I started training through until the end of October... where I was diagnosed with Runners Knee and Plant Fascitis which put an end to the running...

So I started doing some serious swimming - hooray! And now here we are in 2008... so far Ive strained a calf muscle so I would say Im doing pretty well all things considered

Now I was on BT this entire time... and there are SO MANY times I thought I didnt belong.. but my friends here have been more supportive than many of the people that I know outside of the internet...  

As you'll be aware the running some of the events in the challenge forum has certainly helped me, I guess the contributing made me feel like I belong. And its certainly no secret Im a cycling nut (just you wait until July... I watch the Tour De France live all 21 days, all on air here between 10pm and 3am), Im a swim nut (been swimming my whole life) and until I got injured I had learnt to love the buzz from running...

The thing is... Ive met so many people who arent currently racing for whatever reason... it just sometimes takes awhile to find them on BT... and nobody here will ever judge whether you are racing or not... plenty just LOVE the training and what it does for them...

As for me... well Im on the come back trail.. watch out next season!!!

Now... I think thats enough sharing for a week... I dont think Ive ever written it all out before! Now I know there are a few people in this group trying to loose weight, trying to come back from injury and... as is obvious from the above Im one of them... (on both counts)...

Sometimes those demons in your head are hard to argue with, and you might not always win (at least I dont always win) but hopefully you dfont feel like you are the only one in the same boat...

Take Care

Cat 

Thanks for the well wishes all!  Jeni--have fun!! We got snow here in TX today...not supposed to do it tomorrow, but it will be in the 30's/low 40's (for Cat: 0-4 Celsius).  I just made some improvised knee warmers by cutting the feet off of two Army socks! hahaha! I will look ghetto, but hopefully it will help some.

Mel- glad to have you back on the board here...never matters where you are now, it's all about moving forward at whatever speed works for you, and you're doing that and we're here to cheer you on!

Cat- thanks for sharing your stories too, and thanks for continuing to contribute to all of us! lots of learning going on!! 

JENI- have a blast!!

I am off--got a 3 hour drive ahead of me and lots of BT'ers to meet tonight! (JeepFleeb, JCBolton, grvfrog, bworkman, and many more!)

I probably won't post anything until late Sat. night or Sun. morning cause as soon as the tri is over I'm heading to Houston (3 hour drive) to go to a concert with my Dad (Cat- an Aussie born Christian group, the Newsboys--they are AWESOME). 

Have a great weekend all! Talk to you again when I'm a TRIATHLETE!

Good Luck Jeni and Britt!  I know you are both going to do great this weekend!  What distance tri are you both doing? 

I know I have been out of pocket lately.  I got really sick with the flu and just didn't get back to working out.  I was too embarressed to put "no workout again today" on my logs.    So, I fell off the wagon, no exercise, eating horrible, etc., etc.  So time to attempt to get it back in line.  Going to do a 5k run/walk this weekend and a group ride on Sunday.  I have my first triathlon of the season at the end of March, so a bunch of us will be riding the course.  I may be the slowest one at the tri, but I will finish it. 

Sounds like everyone is going just great with everything.  I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! 

Ive been known to find random pictures and post a different one in my log each day when Im having a period of inactivity

Nice to have you back on the wagon... coming back is the hard part... so thats all over with now! 

Nice Thread title cat

 this is my inner child today:

as I am having a complete taper tantrum. Jeeze... this is worse that PMS!

2 more days and it will be worth it!!

Picked up my race package.  Double checked my swim time. doing lots of mental run throughs.  I've got triathlon on the brain. 

Glad you like it!! Think about it... all the work is done.. all thats left is the fun.... so I guess its kind of like a child waiting for christmas.... have a great race..

Being the weekend here I completely loose track of the time difference etc.... but have a lot of fun and I will keep an eye out for your results! I know you'll want to post them!!!!  

Thanks again for all the support and confidence and I can't wait to hear about Britt's triathlon!!!

I am just over 24 hours away from mine and I  am SOOO glad I did the running race last month.  It's really nice to recognize certain thoughts and emotions as pre race jitters and to have the confidence to know that on race day everything can click.

 hope everyone is having a great weekend

DO GREAT JENI! HAVE FUN. I will write more, check blog for quick details:

1:24:20; I froze; 2nd in AG; must BIKE MORE (and not ever live in a cold place!) thanks for the encouragement!!

FANTASTIC!!!!!! 2nd??? On your first? Oh my Britt!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS! 

BunnyB - 2008-03-10 12:22 PM Any word from Jeni yet? I can't wait to hear how her race went, too.

Just checked her log... nothing yet - I wonder if she is out celebraating?

Won't know my official results until tuesday... but I finished!!!!Waited around ALL day for them to post them.  very annoying!

good day physically, bad day mentally- but all in all great!!! I know I blew my goal time of 1:45 away and I estimate I came in under 1:35.

On the swim I started out WAY WAY WAY to fast and kicked way to hard and blew up in the first 200m.  Let someone pass me.  drafted off him and fought away thoughts of quitting, how much this sucks, I feel ... oh man there are 2 more sports after this.  Remembered to use my arms more and passed the guy who passed me and finished fairly strong. Passed 2 people in transition so made up for the crappy swim there.  the bike I was around 41 minutes and was great- passed people, only got passed by crazy speedy guys.  And held on for the run despite a small shin cramp and probably pulled off negative splits.  ok off to dinner then to race report.