2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 27)

8/23 - Walk - 1h 18m 38s - 4.54 miles - 17m 19s /Mi
Okay, I am done punishing myself for the lazy week now. I chose to walk the River Rd Loop today. Breezy, chilly, and overcast. Perfect weather for a fat man to be out sweating. And BOY am I sweating!

I set a new PB. The pace today was one full minute faster per mile than I've ever done this route before. And I think it's actually faster than anything I have recorded before. I've always been quite satisfied with anything at 17:30 or less per mile. This is quite a bit less, and there were NO downhill sections to allow gravity to help my pace. And I have activated my EIA for the first time since I restarted training, so I know it was a good effort.

Edited by leatherneckpa 2015-10-14 4:10 PM

Good to see you're back on the wagon Mike. A swim day, a bike day and a run day over the last 3 days has to be just about perfect. Keep it up!

My week's been ok, 4 runs and 2 swims so far. A really good swim this morning, my 6th since re starting, did the same 50, 100, 150, 200 pyramid with 10 second rests, and my time, including the rest breaks was 16:02. which is 2:01/100m, if you drop out the 10 sec rest breaks, my actual swimming speed was 1:48/100m. Not fast for a proper swimmer I know, but I was quite pleased with myself.

For the rest of the week, I have a medium run tonight, my 'long' bike ride tomorrow, and a short run to finish on Sunday. Should end up at about 6:30 total for the week.

Hope everyone has a good, and productive weekend

So who's going to be entering for next year? You guys sounded like you had quite a group planned...

Go on, sign up early. Make the commitment. It'll help with your motivation over the long winter coming up...

I am committed to making that my A race for next year. The Nation's Tri in DC in September is optional, but B2B is going to happen!

9/23 - Swim - 32m 27s - 1500.00 yards - 02m 10s /100 yards

No sooner thought than done. Yesterday it occurred to me that I should do a max distance swim soon. Since I was working South Wmspt today I figured it was a good swim day because they get out at 230 and I could be in the water by 300. There were three lap lanes and I was the only swimmer until about five minutes before I finished.

I went there hoping to be able to swim 500 uninterrupted yds of freestyle and then I'd split it down to get the rest of my 1200 yds. Well, at 500 yds I was feeling pretty good so I figured I'd shoot for 750 yds. That felt good so I set my sights on 1000 yds. Wow, still not hurting, okay 1200 yds. When I reached 1200 yds I decided I could shoot for 1500 yds. But that was where I decided to stop. I don't think I really needed to. I was even entertaining shooting for 1800 yds, to make it an even mile. I was in that mindless zone I used to like so much where I was just plodding along through the water, watching the black stripe, and thinking about pretty much everything but swimming. I was on auto-pilot! But since I was hitting the split button for every 50 yd lap and my watch will only record 30 laps I was out of laps, which is why I stopped. Next time I will only hit splits for every 100 yards and that will give me as much as 3000 yds.

Boy, are my feet ever sore.
How sore ARE your feet?
My feet are so sore, I rented a wheel chair for the day just so I wouldn't have to walk on them.
BA-DA-DUM!!

No, but seriously folks, I raised blisters directly under the joint of each big toe yesterday. I pretty much hobbled around all day today, couldn't actually walk normal. I think it must be the Saucony shoes. I don't think the sole is wide enough and I think I am sliding off the inside edge of them as I try to walk energetically. I suppose that is what I get for abandoning New Balance in an attempt to get "cool" looking shoes. Better to wear plain shoes and not have the blisters. Guess I'll go shoe shopping this weekend.

Nice swim Mike! That's pretty much the way it happened for me as well.. I just kept going one day.


The last few weeks for me have been a struggle. I'm talking about both diet and training. The scale cussed me out to the tune of 263.5lb this morning. That's 18.5lb up over my low point not too long ago. This is not only unacceptable, but it is entirely my fault. I haven't stuck to a solid diet plan for months, and It's been probably a good month since I've had a steady training week. I've also turned the xbox on more often than I have in months... For the record, this week's training consisted of zip, zero, nada... and I am up 5lb because of it. I have no desire to have diabetic issues again. I worked too damn hard to get off that wagon.

Here's the game plan:
Swim: Friday AM @ the Y. If I can work in another day, I will.
Bike: Sat AM group for as long as I can stand the temps, then transition to "long" trainer rides... Tue & Thurs PM hammer fest on the trainer.
Run: Rebooted C210k for the umpteenth time (I think it qualifies for the "ad nauseum" tag by now). Plan to run Sun, Tue, Thur AM. (yes, I did run this morning)
Strength: TBD, but it is needed.

This gives me Mon & Wed as rest days.

I'm also rebooting MyFitnessPal here in about 5mins. I am setting my correct weight in the system, and I am dialing it back to 1lb/week. I had pretty good success before at 1, but moving it to two made it hard to come in under the mark.... so I got discourged.

I'm going to apologize in advance, but I'm planning a daily blurb on here in the interest of accountability.

I must not go back to where I was...

Rick, I feel your pain brother. There is no way that I am going to hit my October challenge now. The goals remain to be seen.

Never feel bad about posting here daily. That's why it's here, in my opinion. We are all your training partners. Granted, we won't be waiting out in the wind on a chilly morning to go for a bike or run, but we will be here, to cheer your successes and help you overcome your down days.

My weekend wasn't much better than yours. I came out of school Friday to rain and 42*. Okay, so that sort of killed an outside bike or walk. I know some of you are saying I could have gone to the Y. Yes, but I rode my motorcycle to school. I was soaked by the time I got home, as I would have been if I had gone to the Y first. No big deal, not the first time I have been caught riding in the rain. But climbing back into rain soaked clothes after my workout and then riding home in cold wet clothes just did not appeal to me. Saturday I spent, literally from sunup to sundown, driving out to near Pittsburgh to buy a second motorcycle and truck it home. Then when I got home my daughter and son-in-law tell me the dogs are getting out through a hole under the fence in the blackberry patch. Of course they didn't fix it, they just told me so I could fix it. And that pretty much shot today between a trip to get materials, making the repairs, cleaning up, and a few periods of warming up indoors. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Oh, and I can't walk or treadmill until I replace the Sauconys with a new pair of New Balance shoes.

Your response is the reason why I'm here, Mike.

Came home tonight to a surprise (well, 3) on the table:
My wife got me a copy of Friel's Tri Bible

1st day of reboot in the books.

2mi of interval running this morning.

Body weight exercises this evening:
Warm up (:30 ea, 3 times through):
Jumping Jacks
Instep Stretch
Arm Circles (fore/rev, large/small)
Trunk Rotation
-Total Time: 10:30

Set 1 (5x through)
Pushup X5
Situp X10
Squat X15
:30 Rest
-Only survived 2 rounds

Set 2 (3x through)
"Superman" extension X10
Flutter kick X10
-Managed 1 round

I'm a little bummed, but not surprised at the results. This is a 6 week program that gets progressively harder (read: more evil). I figure I will repeat each week until I can make it through everything. I figure I can run through this routine continuously, just adding time/reps each time I finish.

Another 6 day week for me last week,

Swim: 2 swims, 1,600m, 33:03
Bike: 1 outside, 0 trainer, 34.6km, 1:32:14
Run: 6 runs, 34.2km, 4:03:14

For a total of 9 workouts, 6:08:31, also weighed in 3lbs down on last Monday, so despite not being happy with what I ate, very happy with the result.

The plan for this week, more of the same, but aiming for at least 1 more double workout days, so I can get back on the indoor trainer. 1 ride a week isn't going to cut it.

+1000000

go get yourself some decent, proper fitting shoes. It makes things sooo much better. Your feet will thank you for it.

If I were you I'd focus on running.

I honestly believe that on limited time, like the schedule your proposing, running is the best use of your time. You get so much more out of a 30 minute run than a 30 minute ride or swim, as far as building your general fitness and burning calories goes. You're into off season now, so now's the time for a run focus.

If I was you I would focus on your C-10k program and use biking on Saturday, and your swims as rest/recovery days. I would also aim for more than 3 runs a week. If you can't handle that much running make it 3 runs, and 1-2 walks. and in time that will turn into more running.

Find a running event in a few months time and work for that. I'm not sure what it's like where you are but here winter is trail running season. Give yourself some events to aim at. That's what I did over winter and it sure helped.

Looking forward to your daily updates... I want to see some progress

10/19: Rest day, came in about 400cal under goal.



My only issue with focusing on running at this point is that I've ended up hurt twice now by pushing it too far/too hard. The plan is to stick with the plan until I can get to the 10k distance, then figure out what to do after that. Oddly enough, the 2nd time I got hurt was after completing the 5k trainer and attempting to build after that :facepalm:. It made for a very disappointing run leg at Riverbluff last year... Also, with what I have planned for the trainer, I will definitely be building overall stamina, drenching the mat with sweat and will have a bucket on standby... just in case.

I agree 100% you can't push too hard, too fast, or you will get injured. The number 1 thing is you need to listen to your body and back off before small problems become big ones. This advice is coming from a man who didn't listen to his body, injured his calf an ended up with 3 months on the couch and an abandoned HIM.

That said, here's my reasoning for encouraging a run focus:

I began the year on close to zero fitness. (December 2014 my total exercise was 12km of running) Like I said, I'm a big believer in running, so I deliberately focused on that for most of the year to re build fitness. Given a 2nd chance I would have swum and biked far earlier than I did, but using them as active recovery days like I suggested to you.

Because I was coming from zero fitness I was very afraid of injury, (like you I think) So I kept my runs nice and short. 15 minutes a run, so to get enough volume I was running very frequently, looking back over my logs I was 9 runs a week in January. I got the volume through many short runs rather than 3 long ones. Eg running for week 1 for the year:

M: am 10min, pm 15min
T: pm 12:30min
W: am 15min, pm 10 min
T: pm 17:30min
F: am 15 min, pm 15 min
S rest
S 15 min total of 15.3km

And I built from there, as the fitness built I changed the way my volume was distributed to the Barry p style of training (As I've advocated before), 3 15 minute runs, 2 30 minute and 1 45 minute run, (it took until mid march to get up to a 45 minute run) Once at that stage I slowly started increasing my weekly volume. I didn't increase every week, and when I did it was 10 minutes per week increase. And for what it's worth, I did my first run over 10km in September.

I've attached a graph of my distance ran per week, to show how I built it up, from February onward it's 5-6 runs per week. And for those who want to do some stalking my training log is here: https://www.runningahead.com/logs/a77d9e6097e44551805f7c677edb99f7

I'm not sure specifically what couch to 10k you're planning to follow, but the ones I looked at go from very little to 10km in 12 weeks, on only 3 runs per week. Honestly I'd be more worried about you getting injured on that sort of program than running 5 days a week but a little less per run, focusing on weekly mileage instead of some arbitrary specific per run target. Your comment that you're going to stick to the plan until you get to 10km worries me slightly. That plan was not made for you. it is a guide, at best. Blindly following a plan is not the best way to go about your training. To go back to what I said before, you need to listen to your body, if that means faster than the plan, or slower. Read the plan, look at some others, read some articles, and make your own plan.

the c25k type plans are trying to get by on the bare minimum. That's not what triathlon is about.

Seriously guys. Trying to fit all your running into 3 per weeks means 1 of 2 things, 1) you're not running enough over all, or 2) you're running too much per run and risking injury. Run often! Run easy, but run often.

That said, feel free to tell me to shut it. I am not a coach, i just have my own personal experience to go on, and we're all different. What works for me may not for you.

What about finding some running events over winter to do? Surely there can be no debate that an event to train for will help with the focus. No matter what training program you're using.





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10/23 - Swim - 39m 36s - 1800.00 yards - 02m 12s /100 yards
Okay, there is no way my lazy butt is going to meet my challenge of 23 workout days in October. I wonder if I can still get 23 workouts in if I double up some days? ETA: Went back and looked at the calendar. I can get 23 workouts if I double up 4 of the 9 remaining days, and that still leaves me one more rest day to the end of the month.

The good news is that today was my first uninterrupted full mile in over 33 years. I know that I have not swam a full mile since I left the Corps in 1982. Based upon that I am pretty satisfied to be able to do one now. I figure if I work on my flip turns I can probably bring the times down under 2m/100 pretty quickly. Turning around at the wall probably takes me an extra 1-2 seconds per turn. And there are a couple of pauses in there to remove my goggles so I could read my watch for times/lap counts. I have far exceeded my goal for swim this month. Now, much as I hate to say it, I really should concentrate on bike and run mileage.

Edited by leatherneckpa 2015-10-21 4:41 PM

Yep, but I have to save up the money. Might not register until after Christmas, but I AM registering.

11/23 - Walk - 30m - 1.60 miles - 18m 45s /Mi
BONUS ROUND

Subbing at Jersey Shore HS today and my lunch duty consisted of walking laps around the second floor as a hall monitor. Motorcycle boots aren't exactly made for speed walking so the pace is acceptable, if somewhat slower than normal. Still want to take advantage of this beautiful day to go biking after school, but if nothing else at least I got this workout in today.