Fit, Fat (sort of), and Over 40 Group FULL (Page 3)

h3hound: thanks, i'll check into a cross bike - this is my first triathlon and i'm the most nervous about running it in front of my daughter.  i really don't want to fail in front of her which applies considerable pressure   we were biking this weekend and she said "come on, go faster mama - we're strong!" so what could i do but go faster?

 i'm going to do the philiadelphia women's triathlon in july.  it's a 750 meter swim, 17 mile bike and 5K run.  the course seems flat.  not sure how hot a morning in july gets.

witterteach: thanks too! i'm checking craigslist but am in the mountains of WV - and mntbiking is big here, so most of the craigslisting is for mountainbikes - pittsburgh and columbus are within reach, so i keep an eye on those too 

i have another quick question:  i'm stuffed up today, probably getting a little cold.  i don't feel too bad though - so do i go ahead and do a normal workout? i think i can breathe ok.  do i lay off a little when coming down with something or do i wait until i feel too crappy to work out to quit?  

i've started playing with the workout logging function - seeing the totals grow is certainly happy - don't want to not go today just because i'm stuffy.

st maas - thanks, that's a good idea too

everybody - i've been using the training log, and since the biking mph is calculated by the distance X time, my warm-ups and cool-downs really decrease my mph artificially.  so when you log a bike session from the gym, do you log the warmup/cooldown as a separate thing, or do you just leave it out, or do you let it pull down the avg on your log? 

thanks!

Personally, I log the total distance and total time, and try to put the details in the comments section.  I try not to worry about the slower pace for the workouts, e.g. when I swim less distance or log the same over a greater time its usually b/c I met another tri-er in the pool and started yappin instead of swimming!

 Another option might be to log a workout distance/time in the personal bests section, that way it displays in your log and provides some extra incentive too...

Thanks for the advice about how close together to space things.  I think I'm all Sprints this year definately two and maybe a 3rd as there is an all-women event in Federal Way or Kent.

The 10K went well, had about 495 ft of elevation change and walked it in 2 hrs.  No hot spots on the feet.  I'm hoping to run the same course by the end of the summer.

I have an 11k walk on the 28th and only eight more days to go in the month of getting in a minimum of 10 minutes of exercise every single day.  Next month I'm going to start on the big guy's total sprint program.

Weight is dropping slowly at 1-2 lbs a week.

Its hard when you're sick to figure out what type of workout should be done.  In general if my symptoms are above the neck I tend to work out and just listen to how my body feels.  When they're below the neck (cough, joint pain, etc.) I lay off on the workouts.

re your bike questions.  I did my first tri on a mountain bike.  I got slicker tires, put cages on the pedals, took off the fenders, and added a seat pack for an inner tube and some tools.  I was way slow on the ride but that's because I didn't put my rear tire back on tight enough and it worked loose during the ride . . .

This year I'm using the same bike and am already 20 lbs lighter than I was for the first event I did so I figure I'm bound to see some improvement.  I've added a skinnier tire, gel seat, and new indexing shifter to the bike.  As I'm still towing my 3 yr old in a bike trailer I plan to keep this bike until I loose a full 70 pounds or my son gets too big for the trailer.  Hopefully it will be the 70 lbs event that lets me go shopping.  I'm scoping out cross bikes because cyclocross looks like a ton of fun.  Speaking of differnet events, anyone out there ever done a pineapple?

@Felice N - that's great about the 1-2 lbs per week, but you realize that if your rate of weight loss slows, and as your son hits growth spurts it might equalize, so you have to keep ahead of him    i've been plateaued for the last three weeks and am grouchy about it.  food is the culprit.  or rather, food is the issue and i am the culprit. that is changing though. I've been looking at other people's logs some since i've started keeping one - how cool is your substituting bellydancing for core work!  neato!  i googled a pineapple since i've never done one, and got zilch for my efforts - so what's a pineapple, athletically speaking?  

@Maas - thanks for the buyers guide info  - I'm off to borders tomorrow - i may even buy the issue since i'm going to look all the ink off of it

 i got the total immersion swimming book in the mail today.  there's a site called paperbackswap where you can trade books and i've gotten several triathlon books for free there.  i don't have anything to do with the site except that i'm a member so i hope this doesn't count as spamming for them.  just happy that i keep getting triathlon books.  as for the total immersion technique - ok, so i'm an athena, and you know the swimming thing where you roll onto your side to streamline your profile in the water - well, it doesn't.  sigh.  i'm roundish vessel.  

on the funny side - last week i was doing my weights during a storm and power went out.  the gym was suddenly pitch black, the whirring of the treadmills ceased, and all down the row you heard whack!whack!whack!oof!whack!whack!oof! as people tried to run thru the front of the treadmills. (everyone was fine, just a good laugh all 'round)

Oops, the pineapple must be a Seattle thing  www.winterpineappleclassic.com/ anyway, it looks like fun.

I'm not really looking to keep ahead of my son's weight with the weightloss, just to avoid torquing a new bike with the weight of the trailer.

All, I'm behind on entering in my tracker but I did make it for at least 10 min of exercise every day (except one) in February.  In March I'm going for at least 15 minutes every day and I'm supposed to start Michael's total sprint program.  The first few weeks look boring though as I'm already going longer than that for the bike and walk.  Any thoughts on skipping ahead a few weeks?  Maybe I'll look at the other basic sprint plan too.

How's everyone doing?  It's been a quiet couple of weeks on this thead.  I've been doing pretty well with the exercise plan and with listening to my body when I overextend.  Today I'm a bit stiff but no joint pain which means that the run will happen as soon as it warms up enough outside.  I can't quite bring myself to run outdoors when it is below freezing.

I ran on Monday after work b/c it was DST (finally!), in shorts and without gloves.  Bad news, I was frackin' cold! It was 38 w/light breeze when I got home.  The good news, I am able to run six miles without stopping, on outdoor trails...you know, with inclines and stuff.  I didn't think I would be at this milestone until May/June at least. 
Is anyone else as tired of the indoor trainer as I am?  That was also one of my reasons for starting the outdoor runs even though the weather's not ready, I'm so tired of the flat rubber indoor track!

Hi Ben - 

Do you  remember where you got the SportTracks plug-in, ie do you have a link? Or should I go googling?  I got a Garmin 405 very recently and am pretty excited about the amount of data it compiles, and would like to see what more can be done with it...

Nice Run Chris!  And kudos for doing it in that nasty weather!

 I agree about the indoor workouts wearing thin...we were lucky enough to have near perfect weather today, and I was able to do my big neighborhood loop - loved NOT being stationary.

Some people say Denver is bad with the cold and snow (neither is too severe), but Pacific NW weather is a bigger challenge I think!

Uggh!  The weather was nice enough to get out and of course I overdid it on the knees, you'd think I would have more sense by now.  And then the weather changed and the joints reacted to that too.  Back inside on the stationary bike and (hopefully tomorrow) the treadmill.  <pout> I think I'll back off to a really quick walk again and wait for a few more pounds to drop before starting up the regular running again.

 Swimming is going well.

I ran my 2nd 5k today, my local CA St Patrick's day race.  It was a fairly hilly course (others tell me, I'm in no position to know), and my time was about the same as The Superbowl 5k (my 1st run), so I was initially disappointed, but on reflection...I just ran another 5k race.  I didn't break any records, but it felt good.

I have nothing to complain about.  It's been a long weekend already, my wife had ACL replacement surgery for her left knee on Thursday, and last night was lousy for sleeping. But I'm stilled blessed with being able to run, and she's already talking about starting to jog and bike for her rehab, which is very encouraging.