HILDEBEAST'S Magnificently Motivational Mentor Group - CLOSED!!!! (Page 27)

Hi all, just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to step down from the MMMers. It seems that some of my stresses, despite my hoping otherwise, will be long-term.  I am simply unable to commit the time to being a good "teammate" and stress out over not being able to return the inspires (especially once they pile up).  

Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement, particularly over the past week - it's been a rough one. 

Hilde, thank you most of all for your dedication and constant support. I promise to keep training - it's the only thing keeping me sane!  Maybe by the spring session, things will have calmed down for me and I can take a stab at this again. 

I am glad to see that everyone is doing so well - keep up the good work and good luck! 

Best, 
Michelle 

Michelle --- hope you still stop by the thread!!  We'll be chatting away all things 'tri' and more.

So here is a blog that I enjoy very much.  DC Rainmaker.  The writer is a young fellow and his focus is on fitness technology.  His posts are very informative and interesting.  He obviously has a lot of fun trying out different watches, sensors, gadgets, etc.  

One of my morning rituals right before I start my work day is to looks at the most recent pics from Cute Overload.  It helps set the tone for the day for me.  How can one start work in a bad mood after looking at something like this?.

Have a great day everyone!

Melanie- love it! What a way to start the day!

Michelle- we'll miss you. Don't be a stranger, but take care of yourself!

As everyone has said - don't feel like you always have to respond inspires, this thread or anything else.  Just pop in when you can and post when you have a spare moment.  These mentor groups can provide as much or as little as you want - this one just happens to provide more  spem  encouragement than most.  Lord knows that I flit in and out of here all the time and they still tolerate me well over a year later.  Someday, I'll get back into the swing of things...

I'm guessing the ACLS and PALS stuff is more than just the normal CPR stuff? Enjoy your new gym. I'm looking forward to doing a few classes at mine when they finally get the actual timetables out so I can see what they have.

Erin - go rock that hour swim. I've never swam that long (in water yes but not all swimming) so no pointers- are the breaks she's talking about only allowed on the wall or are you allowed to get out the pool if needed? Or do you forefeit if you get out?

arquillo - No worries. As already said you don't have to respond to all inspires, or even to this thread. Hope everything gets better soon. Oh and +1 so Shawn.

Me - got my new pedals yesterday and went really well - got home in 19 mins (1.29M)- a pretty decent clip for me but still need to learn how to put my feet in the actual cages. I also had a pretty good job interview today (details in log) and have a gym reassessment (of my plan) and swim tonight.

Suzie, glad you got the toe cages.  Once you get used to them I bet you will notice a big difference.  You won't have to put as much effort into it.  And the drink holder will come in handy!

Melanie, great link.  Those pictures were adorable!  I could look at cute animal pictures all day.  I think I spent 5 minutes looking at an embarrassed walrus pic!

Michelle, good luck but like Shawn said, don't feel like you have to respond to all the inspires and stay on top of everything.  Check in once and a while and let us know how it's going if you ever get a few minutes:-)  In the meantime, enjoy your training.

So my big news is that I completed the USMS 1 Hour Postal Swim tonight.  I swam the whole hour non-stop and it ended up being a hair under 3000 yards.  It's still towards the back of the pack for my age group but if you had seen me swimming even 2 or 3 months ago this would have seemed like something unattainable.  There were no foot cramps and my splits were all pretty even- about 1:00 every 50 yards.  I finished feeling like I could go another hour!  Anyway, it was good practice for triathlons because there were a couple other competitors next to me so I still had the spiked heart rate and nerves starting out.  In the past I would have panicked but now I have finally gained a lot more confidence in the water.  We're going back tomorrow to a Masters practice and the big thing I'll be working on is keeping my feet close to each other.  The coach said my hubby and I both have a tendency to let our legs flail, so we'll be putting pull buoys between the ankles tomorrow.

Erni - yeah I noticed the no effort bit - 19 mins for 1.29M with only a very short walk break on the bridge (my hill) near the summit of it was a major improvement to last time I did that route. As for the bottle holder I've been looking at getting one for a while - since I did my first long (1 hour) ride. Great job on the swim too. And good luck with the close feet stuff.

As for me - my swimming is coming along great - I was actually the most accomplished swimmer in the lane today - other 2 women were doing some sort of kicking with breaststroke arms and their head out the water - I think one of them was the one from the locker room who had a go at me for "getting her in the face" a second time (when I hung my towel up in front of her on one of the hooks about the change benches - no actual contact just happened to be in front of her face) but if she is it's partially her fault - the sharing lane thing works on a circle approach (up left, down left as you're looking at the pool at the time) and the one time I tried that she was on the right (coming up) so I went round and read the situation as "ok we're doing a split lane" and swam appropriately - guy got cramp before he'd even completed 25m (saw him at the wall of the deep end while I was approaching it and was resting in the shallow end when he got there - and he stopped aout half way between the flags and the wall - told me it was cramp and that he should have rested (um, yeah you've only done one lap mate - only rest you can do in that time is on a lane rope) oh and the little girl who dissapeared after 2 laps was actually pretty good but I think she was warming up for a lesson or something. 

Anyway I seem to be improving even more - my 100 pace for 250 today was 4:17 and my 100 pace for 200 last week was 4:29. Oh and I actually did a full lap of freestyle, flip turn, continue with backstroke - still need to work out the breath/panic thing as that's what happens when I come up but I will at some point.  

Nice job on the swim!

Anyone else doing the virtual run for Sherry Arnold (the woman from Montana who was abducted during her morning run) to be held on Saturday, Feb 11th?

http://othervoices.runnersworld.com/2012/01/a-virtual-run-in-memory-of-sherry-arnold-2-11-12/

I saw someting about Running for Sherry on my other forum but didn't go in to the thread as I didn't know what it was all about but I'll probably be walking that day so I may check it out.

Arrggghhh, swim missed due to work.  Something came up and prevented me from heading out at lunch to swim and now it's too late as the swim teams have the pool.  I'm aiming for a small run tonight, as cub scouts will take up part of the evening. 

It's one of those weeks where I just have to hang in there and get through before I can refocus.

Kelly, that sounds like a frustrating injury.  Hope it gets better int ime for your 5K!

Andrea, have fun with the cub scouts!

Also, just wanted everyone to know I am no longer a bike crash virgin!  See today's training log for details

I'm having one of those weeks myself.  Nothing seems to be going as planned.  DH came down with the flu about 2am Wednesday night and between that and work/meetings/etc (along with some laziness on my part I will admit), the workouts aren't going quite the way I'd hoped this week.  But I'm getting something done at least so I count that as a win and look forward to next week being much better. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Is anyone racing??? 

I've had a pretty laxed training week, been fighting some cold symptoms but feeling so much better today.  I think the worst is behind me.  My run this morning felt good, no coughing or congestion, yay!

I have a long swim planned for tomorrow and a long run scheduled for Sunday.  Hoping to get outside for a run again with my friend since it helped so much last week. 

Happy Superbowl weekend...  Go Pats!!

Go PATS??  WTF Kristen?!!  Go GIANTS... looks like we have some rivalry amongst the MMMers!   My Dad has beena Giants fan forever and I guess it got passed down to me, ever though I really don't follow football all that much.  I do like to watch a good game.  Besides haven't the Patriots won about a zillion Superbowls already?

YEAH BABY it's FRIDAY!!!!  Gonna go over to my daughter Kati's new house and have ourselves a girlie nite!!  Trash TV and lots of junk food... I've been so good following my diet plan, 9 pounds down, and the scale REALLY wanted to blip down for that 10th pound, but then blipped back up... I think I deserve some crap food!  5 mile run in the morning followed by Mexican breakfast with the hubster.  Hopefully a bike ride later in the day, 11 mile run on Sunday...

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a great Superbowl Sunday no matter who you are rooting for!