Baowolf's New Years Resolution Group-Closed (if are stuck with no group PM me) (Page 27)

Bwah-hahaha. At the risk of sounding like Larry the Cable Guy, "Now that is funny!"

Jay, glad you found your mojo! I agree with that advice about doing something every day because oftentimes, if I make myself start anything, then I continue a little longer and then a little longer. And yes, forget the worrying about pace. I've noticed that I'm so much happier when I don't look at pace but instead go by effort.

Linda, you're in taper mode, right? Can't wait to stalk you in Boston. Will you share your number with us? I understand if you don't but just wondering.

We will still stalk you if you don't give us your race number... it will just take us longer to find you among the list of 30,000 runners......

Today is the one year anniversary of the terrorist acts at last year's Boston Marathon. Linda, as you get ready to run an incredible race on Monday, try to watch some of the documentaries that are on ESPN etc. They are powerful stories and give some insight as to why this is such a huge event to those of us who lived in Mass. during the act, manhunt, and our sports teams honoring victims and first responders throughout the summer. I was very surprised to tear up while watching these documentaries. I was at home roughly 6 weeks post surgery from my AT, sitting at home furious at what I was watching. I was hoping that somehow, they would catch those 2 SOB's and bring them to justice. We all know how the story ends.....one killed, the other caught in the ship. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I wished that somehow, someway, Dzokhar would be brought to my prison for a mental health analysis....but that didn't happen...he has been a Fed inmate the whole time. My wife was hit hard by this....Dzokhar was a UMass Dartmouth student, my wife had to execute an emergency evacuation of her class while the FBI went into some of Dzokhar's friends dorm rooms. There were helicopters flying over our yard because we are about 5 minutes from UMD campus. Kiley came home and cried over what happened....the evacuation was pure chaos and confusion and she couldn't help or protect the students she's expected to teach and care for. For those of us who are married, there is no worse feeling than seeing your spouse hurt and upset. A year later, it still creeps up on her from time to time after a class. The terrorist act runs deeper than people can imagine.....my story is just one small example of it.

Almost everyone remembers what David Ortiz said at Fenway after the act: "this is our f**king city" but very few remember everything he said. His whole quote was "our jersey doesn't say Red Sox on it, it says Boston. This is our f**king city and nobody is going to dictate our freedom! Stay strong!" Most of us (myself included) don't remember all what he said. We remember the expletive part of it because thats how we felt......we were angry and we're a little bit crazy up here in Mass. :D We did shut down the whole city to catch that SOB after all.

I hope you all have a good day. Ironically, it is cloudy and rainy up here....a fitting start to the day. It would be even better if it cleared up and became sunny....that'd be a small sample of how the last year has been for us up here.....bad to better and stronger.

Linda - Only a few more days...soooo excited for you.

Jay - Your passion and pain are felt. The event reminds us how fragile life can be. Those of us that honor life must hold on to the passion for life like you because that is what carries us through today, that is what allows us to feel the joy and love which makes life so special. No one and nothing can take that away! It will be a great day in Boston!

Last week was quite the rollercoaster and nothing much to report on the WO front . It ended better with me and my daughter attending my cousin's wedding and getting home at 2AM Sunday morning. Then I hit the reset button! 5 mi run sunday morning, 10 mile bike in the afternoon and after work yesterday i fit in 1 hr in the pool . This is the first of 20 weeks to HIM so it is nice to get off to a god start.

Very well put, Jay. Hard to believe it's been a year.

Pam, look at that speed! Great showing in your 5K!

Mitzi, I agree with Pam, you totally cracked me up...and I'm afraid you are spot on!

Joe, did I understand correctly that you got home and 2:00 am and then worked out that morning. That's some dedication! Yes, I'd say you're off to a good start.

Mike, what dates are you going to be in TX? I've rented from Bicycles, Inc. They have a shop in Keller and one in Hurst. I go to the Hurst store, but Keller will be closer to you. Please be practicing pedaling s...l...o....w. OK??

Steve, hope your latest trip was to someplace where it's easier to be healthy than Vegas!

Linda, so what types of things are you doing now that you're not running so much? Hope you are getting rested up and ready to roll on Monday!

Loving my continuous glucose monitor. The one I'm on now is soooo much more accurate than one I had tried previously. It is allowing me to make both proactive and reactive decisions to drive my blood glucose down closer to normal more of the time. Since I'm skating closer to the edge there, I've dropped low on several workouts, so still dialing that piece in. Even though I prefer to focus on it because it feels so positive and life affirming, it is important for me to remember that exercise is only one part of overall health. Speaking of which, I'm down a little over a 1 lb...go me .

Carol -- I'm in Southlake from June 5-8. No worries about pedaling slow -- my HIM is the following week, so this will be a shorter taper effort for me. All for doing whatever you want.

Back home in MA, and folks at home are all sickies. I'm going to get this as well, its just inevitable .

Linda -- enjoy your journey next week. It will be a special day here, no doubt.

Actually I went out and got an impulse Lasiks procedure on my eyes. Then one of the flaps got screwed up so the had to fix that eye the next day. Still a work in progress as it takes around a month for the near vision eye to adjust to looking to looking at close things and the far eye to look at far things. Ya it will screw up my training. Mostly I was tired of not being able to see anything in front of me when I was in aero and after 2 crashes...... We see how it goes. Got to drive 400 miles again today to get things checked up on.

Carol, so glad you are adjusting to your new monitor - does it administer insulin? Really respect how you push through one more obstacle that would side track so many people.

Whew, Mike, thank goodness on slow being OK. I look forward to meeting you soon! Think we can talk your BIL into riding? Hope the family bug stays away from you.

Steve, how are your eyes doing? Hopefully they will be better than ever, and good for you for taking a short time out to get that done.

Linda, hope you are resting up and getting ready for Monday! Can't imagine how emotional it's going to be there at the starting line.

Mitzi, thanks for the encouragement. It's two different devices with two different insertion points. Pump is a pager looking device connected via tubing to a cannula that resides under my skin for 3 days at a time. Continuous monitor is a very thin wire that resides just under my skin for 7 days at a time, and is attached to transmitter, which sends readings wirelessly every 5 minutes to a receiver that looks like an Ipod. I can see a graph on the "Ipod" real time, and also upload to some software on my computer to help with trend analysis, review with my doctor, etc. It's a HUGE help in making adjustments to my insulin, food, and exercise because I can see what's going on all the time instead of just when I do a finger stick test (which yes, I still have to do to calibrate the continuous monitor). Also allows me to sleep without wondering if I'll wake up or not because it alarms if I get too low. Probably TMI, but you asked .

Jog/walked 4.4 miles yesterday and felt the best I have in a long while doing it. Tomorrow and Saturday are looking to be really nice days for riding, so I plan to get out there and spin some wheels .

Ran into a string of non-tri-related bad luck recently. Got my car broken into late last week (in my own neighborhood, at that!). They shattered the front passenger window and ripped out my stereo head unit! Luckily I left nothing else of value in my car. But, silver lining, insurance covered everything, and waived my deductible, and I was even able to pocket some money by installing the window myself. I'm currently driving with a big hole in my dashboard.

And then, last night in the final few minutes of my soccer match, a guy smashed my nose. Spoke with my doc and he thinks I fractured it, pending x-rays. My septum feels all messed up right now but it might be because of the dried blood or the swelling. Don't think there's any silver lining there.

Otherwise training is going well. Signed up for a 100k gran fondo in Williamsburg, VA in June, which is a week after my next scheduled HM. So I'll be pretty busy getting prepared for those.

Jay-good job getting in the pool. It's always a process; throwing on shoes or jumping on a bike is so much easier. Good luck with the basketball tourney. Thanks for sharing your point of view regarind the Boston marathon. Tragedies like this happen too often, and I find myself thinking about the Virginia Tech shootings because I'm an alumni and these things hit so close to home.

Mitzi and Isabella-glad my tips could help.

Pam-great job with the 5k PR!

Carol-don't know much about glucose monitors but I'm a gadget freak and I can relate to how much people love their new trinkets!

Steve-congrats on the surgery (and sorry for the complications). I've always wanted laser surgery because my eyes are horrible (-6.5 w/ astigmatism) and contacts and glasses are expensive and a pain. Let me know how it is when you're all healed up!

Edited by phifatech 2014-04-17 9:37 AM

Broken nose? Aw, that is terrible. Can you still swim? How is breathing or is it too early to tell?

I need some advice:

My HIM training has been absolutely awful for a number of reasons. Its now 2 months from race date, and I'm growing quite concerned I won't be ready for the race. Swim will be OK, Bike OK, and run will be a death march based on current progress. At this point, do I just punt on it, or do I get my act together and give it a solid effort up to race time and get out there and do it? I'm very heavily leaning toward option #2 (not in my nature to just punt on it), and accept it may not be optimal, and deal with RL things as they come up and try to minimize the impact on training. I need to focus, which has been lacking severly in recent weeks.

Phil - so sorry about your nose! Take good care of yourself.

Mike - I hear you. I'm worried about my sprint coming up in 9 weeks, of course I can get through a sprint, but I was hoping to good good - happy and strong- when I cross the finish line as I've already experienced surviving it. If I recall you have been running and biking - I bet you can put your head down and give it your all.

Might put my sprint off a month and do one at the end of July, but don't want to let myself off the hook thinking I have time. I'm just going to go all out and see how I feel in 4 weeks. Big goal is an oly at the end of Aug.

Steve - hope your eyes heal well, thought of the procedure scares me.

Down another 2 lbs this week. Only 8 lbs away from being in the normal weight range. At 5'1" that's harder than it sounds, but making good progress. So far a clementine and a bite of a Power bar seem to be all I need for my current training.
Running isn't easy, but I really do feel the difference without an 18 lb. fat suit. I like the feeling.

Mitzi

Good evening all. Hope everyone is doing well. I am being more consistent with both diet and exercise without going too extreme with either....trying to do the lifestyle thing vs. being extreme. I broke in my new Saucony's I bought yesterday with a 20 minute run...it was supposed to be 30 min but my cell phone stop watch ceased working so I stopped...but I got to play soccer with my sons team for 20 more minutes so it was a win win. The Saucony's are super comfortable and I was long overdue for a new pair of running shoes.

Carol: I'm glad you are increasing distances and still feeling good about it

Phil: Thanks for sharing about VT. My wife has a neice that went there so that hit us a little bit back in Mass. too. I'm sure its a whole different level for you though...knowing where everything happened etc. I hope your nose is okay....I don't know much about what you can/cant do with a broken nose....but if its tough to breathe I'd hold back unless doc told me otherwise.

Mitzi: I love the zone that you're in right now! I hope that clementine/powerbar combo is giving you enough energy to sustain your training as they get longer. When I went low carb last year, I found a product call Waixy Maize. It's similar to UCAN Generation....a carb that has a low GI. I also have used Amrita bars....they're not low carb but gluten free, vegan option...and based out of NY. Someone I met last year is a no grain, no sugar IM finisher and those bars are what she used to get her though her day.

Mike: You already know what I'm going to tell you on your HIM. You did 3 of them last year and you suffered though your run due to your bum hammy. This year, you've just set a new PR for your 10K and you've been injury free in that area (knock on wood) I think you may surpise yourself on the run this year if you keep your training up. Did you see that IM took over Chesapeakeman? That gives us another IM brand within 12 hours of us....

Hrm Mike, with a long run of 6 miles ish and 2 months you can go 7.5 9 10.5 7 11.5 12, 6 race or something similar and survive the run/jog/walk (not sure if you have 8 9 or 10 weeks left.. You can't cook the bike though or you will be at mostly walk on the run. If you are healthy you can do it. You might not want to do it, it won't be a PR, but you can do it.

Dang sorry about that nose, I hope you are a sleep on your back kind of guy, otherwise you are gona need to sleep in a hokey mask....which may give your wife flashbacks to a guy named Jason.

Way to go Mitzi ride that weight down, just not too fast so you don't bounce back up once you get where you want to be. Then just increase a touch here and there to stabilize.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-04-17 11:14 PM

Steve - Good luck with the lasik, I have heard good things. Just got new glasses for me and needed a pair for distance and up close. Man they are expensive. Might have to look into lasik for me in the future.

Phil - Ouch! Feel better.

Mitzi - Way to go. You are definitely on a roll.

Mike D - Punt? what it that? The race might not be the PR you would like but you've put in plenty of work. Might be a good one to put away the watch, have fun, and see what happens.

Carol - Never TMI. Glad to hear it is working out and even better that you are able to build on your WO's.

The weather is a bit cool but I am liking it. I know I had lettuce and things in the garden this time last year. This year it would be dead from the cold nights. Had to put on the fleece vest last night and got in 3 miles. The weekend is here already and soo many WO's to fit in. Hope you all have a Happy Easter / Passover, or just a great weekend. My daughter and I have next week off. Should be fun!

Another quick post. I wish I could "talk" to every one - or at least their posts - but alas time and my memory retention doesn't allow that. But a few quick things.

Phil, Ouch! Be careful. I wouldn't do anything unless the doc cleared it for you. The ability to breathe is pretty dang important to workouts.

Carol, love the info about the monitor because I can almost understand it. I'm so glad that it's helping you. Also, congrats on the weight loss.

Mitzi, damn girl, you are killing it on the weight loss!!! WTG!

Steve, sure hope you recover well from the surgery and the complications. Does lazik (sp?) always mean monovision? I've been doing the monovision with contacts for years (one eye is 20-20 for distance and the other needs a contact for reading.) Even tho I had been seeing with only one eye for 20+ years, it still took my brain time to adjust to monovision. Good luck.

Mike, suck it up Buttercup and work on that run. You could do the swim with one hand tied behind your back. I agree with Steve that you can get the run up and just don't cook it on the bike.

Joe, great way to start your first week.

Ok, I gotta tell all of you about yesterday. My work had a 5K at 3pm. They are trying to get people to focus on wellness (physical, mental, financial) and the 5K was a kickoff. So for this event at 3pm, they are paying us not to be stressing at work but instead would pay us to go out in some stunning weather and walk/run. For me, it's a no-brainer to get some extra miles in when my life hasn't been allowing free time during my non-work times. Others, it was a way to get out of work. So most people were walking the 5K - not there is anything wrong with that but I'll be honest, I saw one person texting during the race so I don't think she was working real hard. And that girl was ahead of probably half the field. So get the picture? My goal wasn't to PR but just to keep running at a comfortably hard pace. A little way into the race, I heard a photographer say something and 30 secs later I thought, "Did he say first female?" I thought naw, heard wrong. Then at the halfway point I realized multiple things. While I wasn't close to the leader, I wasn't nearly as far back as I should have been. Also, I knew another guy and his abilities and I was a lot closer to him then I should have been (which wasn't a happy moment but instead a "Aw sheez moment, I went out too fast"). And, yes I'm the first female and the 2nd female is right on my heels. I wish I could say that I hung on but that 37 y.o. passed me and ran away. But I hung in and finished 2nd female. I know, I know, it was NOT a competitive field but I've got to say, I loved for once being able to not only see the people in front of me but actually be able to count them too. It gave a glimpse as to what the fast people see in a race - and it's not miles and miles of people ahead of them.

Hubby and I have the Ronald McDonald House 10K tomorrow and it may be raining. The RMH is a charity that is close to my heart so I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to all of you!

Edited by Pink Socks 2014-04-18 5:36 PM

Steve, Carol, Pam, Mike and Joe, thank you for your well wihses! I have done a huge taper the last 2 weeks. I had pain in my hip so I stopped running. I went to my Ortho. Dr. yesterday and he said I should be fine. He said it is a little tendonitis and he gave me a cortisone shot. Then I went to my family Dr. and got an antibiotic for Strep Throat. (I teach ele. kids : ))

I am excited to go to Boston and my husband and I leave tomorrow. My goal was to get to the starting line healthy and I WILL. (I just hope I can get to the finish healthy too)

My bib # is 22703. If you do Facebook feel free to friend me (Linda Cronise). I am not on much but I do use it.

It is really great to have this group of BT friends. You are all inspirations to me!

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!! YOU ALL ROCK!!

Mike, let me qualify my advice to you. First off you need to stay healthy with that leg of yours. So you need to listen to your body and then decide what is best for your. My thought was just that if you are healthy a HIM completion is possible with smart training and pacing.

Most of the folks who got the lasiks the day I got mine did not get the mono-vision. Most just went for long vision (younger folks who don't have to worry about reading glasses yet) and those who knew they would need reading glasses, but wanted the best vision they could get for everything else. Many had a stigmatism correction in addition to everything else. My big problem is probably that my right eye is not correctible to 20/20... it gets to 20/25 at best and it may be the case that the lasiks doesn't get me to 20/25 in that eye for close up stuff, which means reading glasses. We see how it goes. I am not optimistic about not needing reading glasses at this point. One week out I can bearly blurrily read stuff like this post. Everything that is more than 3 feet away is pretty good though, so meh, mixed feelings.

Linda hang in there and get to the finish line healthy.

Grats on being in first place female runner spot for a while.... which means that if had a little more run fitness you could have remained at that pace and given that non BTer a run for her money at the finish line.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-04-18 8:56 PM

Carol,
I shared at a meeting house I used to go to that while I hated the amoral pharmaceutical corporations I was very thankful for all the medications that all my daughter to live with rheumatoid arthritis and avoid any lasting damage to her body. A man came up to me afterwards and said he shared my views of corporate management but that he was a pharmacological researcher and really wanted to help people and was so glad to hear my story. Thank goodness for those researchers who really commit themselves to making a difference.

Pam
I don't go to races as prepared as I should be, but I am annoyed by people who walk a marathon and then brag about finishing one. You should be very proud - there was a wide range of people and you were at the top with the other athletes.

Linda,
We'll be watching.

Steve,
Growing old s*cks! I'm in bifocals and have a fear of having to wear those librarian reading glasses hanging on my neck with some tacky beaded chain...

Happy with my first week of training. Listened to Steve, have been building up slowly and am able to comfortably do the first week of a L4 plan (out of 10)

Mitzi

We had our 10K today and Yay, got another PR! Hubby too. We are seriously liking this 3 new PRS in 3 weeks (10K, then 5K, then another 10K). Yes, it will end but riding the high now. Hubby finished and came back and ran the last little bit with me pushing me hard. I really almost puked at the end. But since it was an almost, maybe I didn't run hard enough?

Ok, gonna see if I can friend Linda before going to the ballgames. I wanted to take off Monday and watch the race live but too many meetings scheduled. Work doesn't allow us to check FB but I'll try to sneak out of meetings and check FB on my phone. Go Linda Go!!!!!!!

Happy Easter and Passover all!

Congrats on another PR Pam!

I survived todays basketball games without any injuries Its really not that much fun when its all 20 somethings playing and their testosterone is overflowing I can't tell you how many times I got shoved in the back from guys trying to get rebounds. It was a hackfest (even with the refs) and I decided to stay smart and not go overboard. I watched these kids getting hammered by each other when they went to the hoop.....I decided to defer and let the young bucks do that stuff. Overall, a good cardio day and everyone was decent to each other....the shoving etc was just part of the game...not much trash talking or scuffles.

Linda - I'll be stalking you on-line during the race on Monday.

I did a nice 2 hour trainer ride today, and will head out on the road for a 7 mi run tomorrow. looking forward to it.

I'm a bachelor the next few days as the wife & kids are heading south to find the sun, warmth, and sandy beaches . Should allow me to get some additional training in.

thanks for all the feedback on the race question. I should be in decent shape by race day.

Grats Pam and everyone getting it done and staying smart. I can officially run and bike.... as long as I don't sweat...into my eyes. So 60 mile trainer ride and 3.5 mile brick run. I had to change shirts a couple times and take a few minutes every 10 miles to cool down a bit. One more week until I can swim and sweat. IMCDA just over 2 months away...

We can stalk Linda at the Boston marathon website under her name or bib number. It will give us her pace for every timing chip strip she runs across, so like 6k 13k 18k or whatever.

Linda - Have a great race and if you hear something and are not quite sure what. Well that will be us because we cheer loud!

Pam - That is too cool. Sometimes it seems like we work soo hard with little results. Then the breakthrough comes! So feel free to brag a bit. You deserve it. Now back to training... lol.

I waited most of the day yesterday to get out. Doing little things around the house, grocery shopping, getting the kid to and from swimming. By the time 5:00 rolled around it was time but I was not feeling too into it. Headed out on a slow bike ride and missed my normal turn. In part because I wanted to avoid hills, very hard to do around here. Well I might have done that but ended getting a bit lost and tired after 13 miles. Had a bit more powerbar which seemed to help and toughed out 25 miles. I felt pretty strong despite a couple of tough hills at the very end. The torque on the slight grades felt good. So this is my long ride and a good base builder. Soo nice to be outside! That brings the weekly hours a little over 6.5. For a first week of HIM training seems pretty good.
Happy Training

Edited by Tri-solar 2014-04-20 4:45 AM

I ran a 3 mile shakeout run side by side with Bart Yasso from Runners World this morning here is Boston. We saw many elites from other countries running also by the Charles River.Then I met Dick Hoyt at breakfast. I will post pics on Facebook.
Happy Easter!