Fred D and Queen Zipp's SWIM, BIKE RUN consistency thread.... CLOSED (Page 33)

Sorry to hear that the race was a 'bust'.  But you did perservere, finished the race, and lived to tell the tale!    

On that note, thanks for being the spirited, supportive friend you are.  I know many of us are built up by your support regularly!

Now, train hard, and get ready for the next one!

Hi Fellow Mentor Group folks.

Reading about the 'fun' Judi and Kristen had in their race today, I was reminded of a favorite poem of mine that I hadn't thought about in years.  It always helped me put things in perspective and would lift my spirits.  Now, I'm not suggesting for a minute that this was a problem for Judi and Kristen, but I remembered the poem, and thought it might have some value for the group.   Here it is:

The Race

by Dr. D.H. "Dee" Groberg

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”

But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
“There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.

“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”

And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

---

I hope you all enjoy that poem as much as I do.  I've got to remember it's principles in my own 'race'

Have a great day, all!

Good poem!  Thanks for sharing it.

Improvement always satisfying -- GREAT JOB!

Judi (and presumably Kristen), sorry to hear the run was a suckfest!  Builds character, or something like that, right?

So I decided to start logging my food into myfitnesspal.com today.  My wife's been doing it for a while, and I've tried logging food on and off over the years, but have never made it more than a week at a time.  Today is day one, we'll see how it goes...  so far so good, I found out that I had a decent little calorie deficit going today, so I had a beer.    Probably not how I ought to be using it, huh?

I did another 15 minute run today with a 4:1 run:walk ratio, it felt good.  I'm going to try a longer run tomorrow with a 3:1 ratio and a slow easy pace.

My kids are off school all next week, my wife just left for Singapore for 7 days, and my youngest woke up with a 101 fever and what looks like the flu (which is rampaging through school right now).  Might be a tough week to get many workouts in, I'm just going to play it day by day.  At a minimum I'll get in my 6 runs, no matter how short.  Unless something starts hurting again of course, but so far so good on the running front.

Judi and Kristen,

Congrats on the finish!  Sounds like a tough day, sorry the experience wasn't more glorious.  I agree with everyone on the mental training and toughness.  Great work.

Fred D - 2013-02-17 6:36 AM

QueenZipp - 2013-02-16 4:25 PM

Kristen and I had the same opinion of the race today.  Worst race ever.

Course sucked, 2 loops with no major up hill climbs but there was a vicious down hill at the end of each loop that was steep.  Weather was a bust, about 35 degrees with wind, mixed snow, rain and sleet.  The turns got congested and crowded because they were into narrow tunnels and stairs.  Oh yeah, about 40 stairs by the time you do both loops.  

Personal worst time.

Sorry it sucked I want to post out a few things as a friend and as someone experienced in the sport. 1. You did it! Even with a slow time you did it! 2. Can't control lots of things like weather and courses. 3. There was a day when you couldn't run at all with injury and I know you would have killed to be able to do the time you just did. 4. All of us are some sort of type A in this sport and we are hard on ourselves regardless aren't we? I know I am. Try to take out the positives which include the comeback from injury, the fact that you did something the vast majority of Americans can't do etc. Not saying you shouldn't question the race and organization etc, just looking for positives.

Thanks, Fred.

I am mentally over the day.  It wasn't an A race and I tossed it on the calendar 5 weeks out from race day.  So I had one high volume training month then a week of taper.  I had a gut feeling during the taper week that it wasn't going to be a good day for me.....and I really knew it race morning.  Things just didn't click like they usually do.

RD had no control over the weather, not blaming her for that.   Some of the volunteers were awesome, they were enthusiastically cheering for us as if we were their best friends.  Other volunteers just stood there and barely pointed the way.  Volunteer training is something she had control over.  Evidently there was a pool of no show volunteers because of the weather.  THat had to toss a big monkey wrench in her planning.

Her course layout is her fault.  I should have suspected this because the area is near where she holds an Oly tri in the summer.  I really should have looked at the course layout on the website before signing up.  The stairs are crazy, narrowed to turn onto them so we bottlenecked getting there and in the weather slick.  Even though it was a small race (1000 participants in the half mary) she should have planned wave starts to limit the congestion on the stairs.

Yes, there was a season of life where the ONLY thing I wanted was to be able to run again no matter what.  I have my run back, some days it's better than others.  Yesterday was just not my day.

Here's a question for you guys:

I've been slowly altering my diet to include less and less processed foods.  Less meats, more veggies, etc.  I've gotten to the point where my family eats vegetarian and/or vegan at least 2 dinners a week and we're focused on whole foods.  My dilemma is as follows....how do I take the next step without it becoming a burden on my family?  I've noticed the direct impact food has on my recovery and performance.  My family doesn't want or need to take it any further, they eat a great well rounded diet.  My main challenges are:

1. I am great about controlling the menu and diet when I have control.  If there are things that are in front of me, I have no self control.  So if my family has some cookies or chips or whatever from the store, even if they are "hidden from daddy" if I find them, no self control.

2. My wife is a great baker.

Any ideas?  I don't want to start making different meals for me, or not partaking in a nice family morning of pancakes, but I do want to continue to move in the direction I've been going the past several years in experimenting with my diet.

You can find both Kristen and I over on myfitnesspal.com  In fact, there area lot of BT'er's using that site to log nutrition.  

Sometimes, it helps just to really be honest about the stuff we put into our mouths......even on the days we choose to eat or drink poor choices.

That is a tough one for a lot of us.  An honest discussion with your wife about the impact of certain foods?

Mentally, when we list a particular food as "bad" or off limits it somehow becomes the thing we want instead of an avoidance.  It's hard to moderate portions with some foods.  Over in the Tri'ing for Weight Loss forum we have been having that discussion and some of the answers have come in the form of changing our mental relationship with food.  That is a tough thing to do  We probably have all grown up surrounded with people giving us baked goods to both celebrate and commiserate.  It has become a mental association of comfort.  

When you find the bag of chips or batch of cookies practice the mindfulness of "I choose not to eat this right now" or "I choose to have one small portion then choose to walk away.  Hard to do.....very hard to do, but ultimately what we put into our mouths has to be our choice/ responsibilityto do it.

If you feel that your family is already eating quite healthy, I would hesitate to impose your diet on them.  I agree with Judi when food becomes forbidden, it is often craved.  

Is it possible, that you find an alternative that is more healthful when the kids are eating cookies or chips?  If my husband eats chips, I sometimes turn to greek yogurt with homemade "more healthy" granola in it.  If not, can you just limit yourself to a handful?  maybe your kids will even start thinking about that snack that you turn to.

Can you ask your wife to bake less or start baking with more healthful ingredients like whole wheat flour, using apple sauce instead of oil, etc?  and if you eat some call it your cheat dessert for the week?

I used to be super strict about what I put in the pie hole.  Now that I am a little more relaxed, my husband is happier and so am I.  My diet is probably 80% healthy and 20% crap.  I eat a lot of vegetables, some fruit, but leave room for error.

I can only tell you how *I* do it, which is most certainly not ideal, imo...  First off, I'm the cook.  My wife has no interest in cooking, and is happy to eat whatever I make.  She's also a very willing partner in getting healthier, so that helps.  Whatever I make, she is fine with.  But the healthier the better from her point of view.

The kids... not so much.  There was a point in time when I did in fact make two completely different meals, one for me and one for the kids.  I've stopped doing this, and now the agreement is I cook what I want, and they are welcome to have it also.  Or they can cook their own meal.  At 9 and 11, they are completely capable of doing this.  These days my older one generally eats what I cook, the younger lives on a diet of yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and dried mango's.  They both generally add a piece of toast to every meal (sourdough bread, the only kind of bread I buy anymore).

The controversial part, imo, is that I have flat out gotten rid of a lot of foods.  There is no more cereal, candy, crackers, ice cream, chips, or frozen convenience foods.  The exception is I keep a stash of frozen bean and cheese burritos for my kids for those times that we have a quick turn around between school and sports and they need a quick snack.  I don't like those, so it works OK.   I know most would argue that everything in moderation is better, and that I'm adding a stigma to these foods by forbidding them from the house, and they will rebel with recklessness and overindulgence when I'm not around.  But it's just what I have to do right now.  I feel that the upside of them seeing me take care of myself and getting healthy is stronger than the downside of attaching 'good' and 'bad' to foods.

My wife and kids do have a 'hobby' of making custom chocolates, and there are currently many boxes of girl scout cookies around, for these things I just have to HTFU and not have any.  Sometimes I cave, usually I do ok.  I will say that I have not eaten one single girl scout cookie this year, and I'm not missing it at all!  In the past it would be, "ok, just one."  Then the whole box is gone.  You know how it is, serving size, 1 box. 

Every once in a while my wife will make pancakes or french toast with the kids on weekends.  I don't mind, I just scramble up some eggs or make a smoothie, and eat with them.  It's still a family meal, I'm just eating my own thing.

i was at Costco today, and the samples were out in full force.  I was just thinking, man what a pain this will be to figure out and log!  So I skipped them all.  One point for laziness.  I did, however, buy and eat a calzone for lunch.  Then I looked up it's nutrition numbers.  wow...  not much room left for dinner now!  I like logging, and it definitely keeps me focused on what I'm eating, but it takes a lot of time and effort.  I've never made longer than a week before.

I'm heading over to the local HS track to run in a bit, trying to talk my kids into going with me, but I don't think it's going to work.  One is legitimately sick right now, the other is just feeling lazy and wants a pajama day (not that there's anything wrong with that once in a while).  

Judi and Kirsten -sorry to hear your race was a bust. Sometimes they're just like that and I guess you know not to do that race again. Is this the first year the race has run?

Yesterday we went down to Manchester for the "bike and tri show". It was quite good fun and we spent loads of money, but we didn't have as many opportunities to look for things we wanted as we'd hoped. There were less bike options to play with than I'd hoped. But we do now have a bunch of new toys. No training though.

Today was our long ride day. After the midweek snow, today was absolutely beautiful and so we decided to crack out the road bikes for the first time this year. It was a lovely ride and it was great to actually be outside on the roadie. To keep our time in line with what we've been building up on the mountain bikes we landed up cycling 62 miles which is further than I've cycled in ages, but I felt really good through to the end. We're likely to be back on the mountain bikes for a while now (today was a freak day - the forecast has more snow) but it was really good for my confidence to see that I have made some gains since last year.

So I'm happy with how my swimming and cycling are going. Now to try to get my running up to the same level...

[edited because I posted from the ipad and it did stupid editing]

Yes Rachael, it was a first time event.  BUT this race director is not a novice at this.  In fact, the course she planned was in part from part of an olympic triathlon she runs over the summer.  

My mistake was not looking at the course map on line  to see that it was the same darn course.

I was up 2.5 yesterday....same thing, hoping for it to vanish later this week.

Hope you have a good Master swim!!

so I had a good weekend.  I did run/walk intervals 6 days this week, and am feeling pretty good.  Yesterday's was the longest at 40 minutes, and with a 3:1 run:walk interval I averaged 11 minute miles (compared to 11:30 when I was running straight a few weeks ago) and my HR averaged zone 2.  I'm going to stick with the 3:1 ratio for a while.  It mentally just seems like a lot of walking, but reality is that is where I'm at.

There is still some pain/soreness on the bottom of my left foot, but it's not getting worse.  It's still getting better actually, as long as I do some icing/stretching of my calf and foot after running, and don't go barefoot.  I don't notice it when running at all, just during the rest of the day.  

Short run on tap for today, maybe a bike after tuck in.  I've officially decided on my first race of the year too, it's an Olympic distance tri on June 2nd.  I've done this course before (2010 and 2011) so I know what it will be like.  I set my PR in 2011 at 2:54.  Not sure what to expect this time, I should be able to do the swim a little faster, probably about the same on the bike, but I don't know about the run.  In 2011 I averaged 9:30mm for the 10k, got a ways to go to get back to that!

david.

Good on ya for making your goals!

With respect to your foot, it sounds to me like you may have a mild case of Plantar Faciitis.   That will ground you quick if you don't get on top of it.   I developed a very nasty case a year or so back -- in BOTH feet and recovery was not fun.   With that said, I have a chiropractor who specializes in ART (Active Release Therapy) and it saved my life.  The treatments he does are not fun, but they solved the problem, at least for me.   If you have access to a ART qualified professional, I'd recommend paying him/her a visit.  

Just some thoughts.

Hey Judi and Kristen, sounds like perfect weather for a race, but the course sure sounds pretty cockamamie! Well, at least you got to see some friends, get a nice long run in, and helped build a little mental and physical toughness.

I had a much better race experience this weekend. It was the last in our 5K Winter series, and my daughter and her boyfriend decided to do it too. She has been running about a year, and we did a 5K together in the Fall, but I was really surprised she came out yesterday. It was in the low 20's with 20 MPH winds and she really doesn't like the cold. We didn't run together because she's at about 12min/mile, and I wanted to see if I could get my pace down to 9 min/mile. I ended up at 8:58 so I was happy. I hurt myself warming up for one of these races a year ago, and although I'll probably never get all the way back, it feels good to be getting better.

Here's me and my daughter before the race:

Here she is with her boyfriend:

She would probably like for me to mention that the shirt makes her look heavier because it's one of mine that I gave her. She's actually pretty skinny.

Thanks!  I was actually just talking to my daughters orthopedic dr about that last Friday (she had a followup on a broken wrist she had a few months ago, but we mostly ended up talking about my foot) and he gave me the name of a massage/ART guy that specializes in sports that is nearby.  Guess I should give him a call.