Baowolf's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 35)

Swim: 5h 57m 20s - 22440 Yd

Bike: 9h 28m 39s - 168.19 Mi

Run: 7h 07m 27s - 41.44 Mi

For someone doing a HIM in 17 days these are pathetic. the run is actually more than I thought it would be C'est la vie

August off to a good start with a nice bike workout this AM.

on a fun note, the Ironman folks sent me an email yesterday letting me know that as part of my Make A Wish fundraising, I've been invited to a pre-race meet & greet/training discussion with Andy Potts which happens the day before the HIM. should be fun! audience is limited to 80 people.

Love the idea of showering the dad's to be with inspirational quotes, advice, etc. Great idea Samantha, I'm in!

Hey Mitzi, how are you doing? Missing you!

Steve, better for the stats to take a small hit than to be injured. Seems like you are coming on strong now.

Mitch, we set your show to record on TIVO last night.

Mike, the event with Andy Potts sounds inspirational and fun.

And now, for my encounter with reality:

July Totals

Swim: 5h 42m 11s - 16546.81 Yd

Bike: 13h 32m 50s - 190.45 Mi

Run: 9h 12m 31s - 44.05 Mi

I am still faster than my couch! However, my weight reached the totally unacceptable level. Fat jeans have begun to fit like the skinny jeans used to. So I've been working on the intake side since Saturday, and doing well with that.


Edited by squirt 2013-08-01 8:03 AM

I just love this group.
I wanted to thank you all for the support! I won't tell myself or Jared what you all are up to!

OK, here's my numbers... Considering my broken rib I am happy with what I got in!

Swim: 1h 30m - 3914.4 M
Bike: 13h 06m 36s - 228.17 Mi
Run: 5h 45m 06s - 40.36 M

I feel OK. rib is still bothering me. I have 5 weeks until my Olympic. All I want is a strong race with a decent run at the end. Definitely won't be breaking any records.

Goals for this month are:

100 miles run
12,000 swim
350 bike

Mitch - with some bold goals. Very nice.

Steve - Crazy numbers. You are looking very good from where at the beginning of the year.

Mike - Andy Potts!! So cool. He may be the next Kona champ.

Samantha - Change can be infectious and it is nice to see all those positive changes for you. You earned it.

Pam - I like to type out longer posts in Word before copying to the forum here. I have lost some long posts too and it is very annoying.

Jay - I have some great memories in the White Mountains there. Last time I was there we took the lift up Wildcat Mtn. My Wife, stepson, and I were in awe of Mt Washington. Brian and I planned on hiking it. Mean time my daughter, maybe 5 at the time, was saying 'Moose, Moose'. My wife was the first one to realize what was going on. I turned around and we were 50 ft or so away from a young but large moose. Bianca was 10 ft or so away from me and I very calmly said slowly back up to me. Scary exciting. Some where I have the story documented on line.

July broke me. The heat, and RL just got too much for me. To top it off, My race Saturday did not go quite as I would have like which has me really upset. Thinking I might be asking too much of my time and pushing too hard to get ready for a HIM, so kind of putting that on the back burner too. I was pushing 6-7 hr training per week the end of June, then the heat of July just showed up, slowing me down and taking it's toll, then we signed my daughter up for private school, so yeah things were just loading up the wrong way. The race was really not terrible, I shaved a whole 31 sec off the total time with a big improvement, almost 2min, off my swim time. Plus people were saying the course was longer this year, so that might have played into it as well. Any way, it is nice to see while all is not perfect, people are making some nice headway here. Keep on keepin on.
Oh yeah... link to the race report http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

Edited by Tri-solar 2013-08-01 3:00 PM

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm not even going to post my July numbers...they're pathetic. I know they are and as Elena talked about last month....my fear is more self sabotage if I actually SEE how bad they are. Hence, I'll accept that I totally sucked and I've gained some bad weight. On the positive side, I just had a chat with my wife about training. I told her its time to step up which means evenings away...she told me she has to get ready for another semester so it's actually a good thing.

More newbie bike questions...is it really hard to put a new tire on if you buy one? I looked at Steve's Nashbar reccomendation and am thinking about it....just don't want to get over my head.

Mitch: Can I watch the shows on the internet after they've aired or do they go into cyber dust? I'd like to watch but life is busy with my sons bball games and a return to night training!

Joe: I loved the story about the moose! The first time we went up to NH, we saw a black bear about 100 feet from us...we went into our cabin and watched it pillage the camping area for about 30 minutes before going back into the woods! Scary but cool now.

Samantha: Noticed the new avatar...is that from IMCDA or a training day? Also, super happy for you about new place, job! I was wondering the same thing as Carol...if you think IM has changed you. From my perspective, it looks like it has and for the better too!

It is not difficult to change a tire, just look up youtube on how to do it and have a pair of tire levers and such. It will, however take you longer than youthink it will and don't pinch the tube..

Last month's numbers only matter to the extent that you know where you are. You cant change them, all we have is the decisions we make today, now. So nothing to be down about, just a place to start for tomorrow.

Kinda sucky races are not so much fun, but unless you are there to make $$ they are just for fun. An adventure. Something to talk with other folks about and such. They are a focal point of training and a test of that training, but meh one data point on the long road of life. It can be a really good day or a completely horrible day, but either way it is better than denting your couch. Perspective is a tricky thing to master.

Anyway, hang in there guys and gals this is fun, so have fun 8). It is fun even if it is not fun, just have to adjust your definition.

As always, wise words & perspective from Steve. One thing to add -- always remember during a race, no matter how awful it may be, you paid to do it!

I ran on a road today, without stopping for more than a couple short bits to stretch a bit, and it didn't hurt. Feel like its a good 'step' forward (unintended pun!). Not exactly fast or far (4.1 mi 10 min/mi), but I was out there and it felt good. I'm icing the recovering hammy hoping things don't hurt an hour or two from now.

Very good advice going around out there!

I just finished a 3.8 mile run. Best training run yet!

7:57 pace, splits 8:27, 7:57: 7:51, 7:27 BOOYA!

Jim, I'm so sorry to hear of your wife's hearing loss. Praying that she can hear, and for strength for your family as you face this. Hope you and Mitch enjoy the ride this weekend.

Joe, great to hear from you. So are Mooses (or is that Meece) likely to charge a person or otherwise be dangerous? Ugh, I hear you on the heat. Nice race for you, and sounds like you went in with the right attitude. As Mike said, we pay for these things, might as well enjoy them .

Jay, it's a new day/month, and I'm betting you won't let those numbers get you down other than to feel motivated to change. Sounds like you and your wife are in sync on the schedules, so hopefully you can get some consistency going.

Mike, nice run, and so glad your hammy is feeling good. I'm hoping to follow in your footsteps soon.

Mitch, hubby & I watched your show last night. We loved your enthusiasm for what you do! How nice to have a career that you are so passionate about. Also very cool that you use so many fresh ingredients. Wanted to reach through the TV and grab one of those drinks! Nice run for you, and glad you are feeling good doing it. Good reminder that patience pays.

Steve, good words on the use of the numbers and viewpoint on races. Some I have looked at as adventures I paid for, others with more of a competitive (with myself) edge. Thankfully there are plenty of races, so I can do some of both.

I'm in stretch 3X/day and strengthen every other day homework mode until I go back to PT on Monday. Still no running and only easy biking that doesn't stress the glute. I may try an easy outdoor bike ride with hubby in the morning...will take the underpass before the biggish hill, and walk it up the short/steep one on the way home. It is miserable hot (temp range is 80-10X with virtually no wind), so I'm OK with the timing on the total down time from running. Will have to pretty much start from scratch again on that, but if I can do that (relatively) pain free, it will be worth it.

Hey Guys - I'm still here too! I got sidetracked with work and vacation (wifi didn't work for the first few days of our vacation). I've been lurking here and there! You guys are still encouraging even when I'm not actually posting.

I struggled a lot in the heat/humidity of August. My run miles are way off where I was intending them to be (especially since I am supposed to be marathon training!) I have been trying to swim 2X/ week which is a lot for me. Lately my right calf has been bothering me. I'm not sure what that is exactly, but I've been trying to roll it and stretch as much as I can. I think because I run funny, my right side gets into trouble when I haven't been doing as much strength work because it compensates for my gimpy left side. So, my plan is to back off on the time goal for Twin Cities (10/6) and just go and have fun - I'm thinking maybe 4:15ish or so... Then, depending how that goes, maybe I'll run another one later in the fall with a time goal in mind.

As for swimming, I actually have three upcoming events. I'm doing the swim leg of a sprint relay next weekend. Has anyone ever swum in a river? I'm not sure I'm going to like that! Then the last weekend in August, my sister signed us up for a 1 mile OWS in one of the Finger Lakes (of New York). It'll be her first OWS. Then, the weekend after Labor Day, I am planning to do Swim for Life across Provincetown harbor (it's 1.4 miles). Both of the longer swims are of the fundraising variety and are technically not races.

July Totals:
Swim: 2h 02m - 6050 Yd
Run: 16h 17m 11s - 97.8 Mi
Strength: 45m

Courtney

Is it a total cop-out to say Ditto for Carol's post? She said the same things that I wanted to say regarding Jay's future training, Joe's wife (I'm so sorry and will be praying for her), Mitch's run times, the advice from Steve and Mike, etc.

Carol baby, good luck with the recovery. I really think that PT will straighten things out for you. If not, get a second opinion. Again, I swear by a good massage therapist; not a feel-good massage but an interactive or sports massage.

Courtney, so glad to have you back. lol on the fact that you are going to take it easy on the mary and will just settle for 4:15. (My mary PR is 4:47.)

Ok, I've decided one of the things that I'd like to do when I grow up - preferably in 2013 or 2014. I want to do a relay race. Key West Ragnar is my first choice. Maybe TN Ragnar. Found a few other non Ragnar in Fl, Ga, and Al. Emailed our local group to see if there is a fun team that has an opening. So I'm posting here too in case anyone knows of a good, fun team for any southeast relay race. I do NOT want to be on a competive team (like they would have me anyway.) Prefer a girls-only van but would be just fine with a coed group too.

A lot going on.

Carol did you hear from the doc about a potential back/pinched nerve thing?

Nice mile splits, my run time are still all over the place, legs are still trashed from the 800 repeats on wed. Todays 6 mile run was slow and it took several miles to work the kinks out of the legs. I was dreading the swim, but it is done one 4200 yards, nothing fancy just get it done. I did work on siting every 20 strokes for a couple thousand yards before just hankering down to finish the swim.

I tore an eardrum once waterskiing (well barefoot waterskiing) and it felt like you described your wife's symptoms. I just thought I had some water in my ear but I had torn 1/4 of my eardrum. I endued up having to have a skin gaft on it to get it to heal up, but my hearing returned ok. I am hoping it is something like that, but the doc should have seen if there was an eardrum issue when he looked in there.

If the calf already hurts I would stretch and roll and ice it, but not stretch it hard, just moderate, if you got a micro tear you don't want to aggravate it. I would also avoid speedwork on run and bike, avoid hills as much as possible and watch the push off the sidewall in the pool. Go easy for 2 weeks or so if no pain while running. If there is moderate pain while running then it might be walk time. If it works its way out and no pain after you are done than just go easy. I would use some anti inflamatory meds for a week or two also.

Watch that hammy, 3.8 miles sounds longish for where you are in recovery. I would lean more towards walking than running. Or at least if I listened to myself I would.

I have wanted to have my family join me in a relay of some kind like a marathon relay or something, but it hasn't worked out yet. What would be really cool would be to go to Boston with my 2 older sons as they get a bit older, they are fast enough, not sure about the motivation though.

Edited by Baowolf 2013-08-02 6:31 PM

I know that you all probaby get tired of me telling you about my runs but sorry, I just gotta. This morn I left for a 10 miler and I could tell it wasn't going to be good. Finally I started getting into a groove (and accepting that it would be slow) and as I neared a park, I saw a LOT of people there. Some had dogs but others didn't so it wasn't a dog training class. There were young and old and in between. I asked what was going on and they replied it was a Walkabout. Some our our commissioners have set up a monthly walkabout for two reasons - get people moving and to showcase different parks. Today was 2 1/2 miles thru a neighborhood that had two small parks. They had people that led the way, people that walked in the rear, and vehicles placed at different points in case some people found it too far (which no one used). I continued my run for a short while and then decided that I needed to join them for a while. I walked with a 80+ year old woman who was adorable and a dang fast walker, a friend who enjoying the exercise, and a 2 and 4 year old. One park I go by all the time but they showed me entrances and exits I had never seen. They post in the paper, FB, and have a website. Isn't that a cool idea? I loved the diversity. I want to join them next time but hopefully I'll have a top on instead of just my sports bra.

doublepost

Edited by Pink Socks 2013-08-03 8:36 AM

Pam, I like your "when I grow up" goal! Those events do look like fun. Love how your 10 miler turned out. I always marvel at how much we would miss if we were not getting out and about to be active. Very cool that your city is promoting the walk-a-bouts! Agreed on the deep tissue massage. That is the other part of the massage at the end of each PT session for me. He works on my low back in a more relaxed way, and then on my glute in a not so pleasant way.

Courtney, you are going to become a fish! Sounds like good timing to maybe keep you from overdoing on the run until you right side is doing better. My right side is the gimpy one too....just seems that it is always something up or down the chain there. Think you are right that strength/stretch is what we must do.

Steve, dx is piriformis syndrome. Doc did xray of lower back in case there was anything glaring there (negative), and then said we'd try a round of PT, anti-inflammatories, and if that did not work out, an MRI would be next. I really feel that the problem is the piriformis, and as you probably know, that muscle is very near (or in some cases wrapped around) the sciatic nerve. So that can explain the pain down my leg when it really gets fired up. Thankfully it has calmed down, but of course the trick will be to see how it responds once there is more stress on it.

Went out for a bike ride with hubby this morning. Stuck to a flat route and spun real easy on anything resembling an incline. Rode out to Founder's Plaza at the airport. It overlooks the runways at DFW and has a loudspeaker with the control tower conversations. More importantly, there is a water fountain with ice cold water. As close as we will come to a natural spring here . Trying to decide if I want to go for a group OWS tomorrow afternoon. Decisions, decisions!

Posting from phone so this will be quick. Did 61+ mile ride this AM. Feel ok but was in a very dark place mentally for a chunk of it. Glad to have done it - tough getting up at 4:30 am to get it started. Saw beautiful sunrise over the ocean that just about no one eelse saw since they were all sleeping like normal people :-).

My other thought on the consistent 1 side leg issue.... I run on the side of the road, which always tilts towards the ditch. So the downhill leg has different stress on it than the uphill leg. For this reason I change sides of the road every 2-3 miles. My only other thought is that some people have 1 leg that is slightly longer than the other. They don't really notice it, but if you run on it a lot, that small difference could cause problems. Not sure who would evaluate for that but I know a lady whose right shoe is thicker than her left shoe. Just a what if thought.

Dark places, we all get there, glad you got to see the sunrise.

So for me 106.5 mile bike ride with 2 mile run brick today. Thankfully it only got up to 86 and the headwind that was always in my face wasn't that strong. So I did the front side of the hill of pain with really good focus the whole way and ya 30 seconds faster than last week. I guess at least it was faster, but I was hoping for a couple of minutes. Anyway so today I went down the backside did 30 miles in the next valley and then came back over the mountain. I had forgotten how much steeper the backside is. It goes up the same elevation, but in half the distance, so 6 mph the entire way up. I tweeked my seat slightly moving the nose down 1 degree ish, which was awesome, I was able to stay aero 3x as long as 2 weeks ago overall. The brick run was faster than 9 mpm, but oh my the legs were funky for the first 1.5 miles and then settled in for the last half mile. Long day but got it done. I also visited a town I had never been to, it had a post office..... and a couple houses.

OH sure!! Here I am feeling good about my ride, and along Steve comes with his 106 mile epic.... Showoff!!!

Sorry bro you just cant compete with final IM builds for distance.....sane people wouldn't ride 100+ miles if not training or participating in an event 8).

You can have a cold one when I do my 15 mile run tomorrow.

So here are the paces for this mornings run: 9:25, 8:37, 8:34, 8:35, 8:44, 8:38, 8:47, 8:53, 8:50, 8:51, 8:52, 8:42, 8:44, 8:55, 8:34, 8:39. Very happy with that. It was getting harder to hold the pace the last 3 miles. Looks like I should be ready by race day. Just need to stretch that pace out a few more miles and sure up the endurance piece of it.

Pretty good weekend of training for me. 8.2 mile run yesterday with the running group 8:46 pace. Very happy with that.

Today did 1 1/2 hours on my trainer with lots of intervals, then a 3 mile brick run at 8:10 pace... It seems to be coming back!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I'm liking this trend...very solid workouts for Mitch, Steve and Mike! So encouraging to see each of you emerging on the other side of the challenges you have faced.

Went to a coached OWS session today at our local lake. Maybe a weird thing for someone who isn't signed up for anything right now (I do have my eye on an OLY, but holding off until I can get back to some running). I had been mentally resisting going to the pool the last couple of days, so figured this would be different. So very glad I went. Combo skills session and workout. Learned some things, good way to get more comfortable swimming around others, AND, I was one of the faster ones in the group. Fastest guy was drafting off of little ol' me . This is rare, so yes I enjoyed it and felt a little competitive surge that I haven't felt in a while!

Sadly, my run today was a no go due to a bunch of home things. . We did managed a 5 mile family walk at the local state par,, and my youngest daughter & I had some pool time this AM.

2 weeks to go to the HIM. I'm resigned to the likelihood that there will be LOTS of walking on the run, but luckily its a beautiful location in the NH mountains by a lake, so the views will be nice. Will talk to my PT this week about a reasonable walk/run strategy (5/5, possibly) and see how I feel.

Carol, your OWS sounds like fun. Wetsuits or no?

Mitch - nice job on the bricks!

Great workouts this weekend!!!! Steve you are definitely ready! Mitch, nice paces; I think you have definitely come back. Carol, you stud getting drafted on in the swim! Mike, the 5 miles with the family is more important than the workouts.

Jay, thought of you today. I've had shoes thrown in the garage for months that needed retiring so today I went and grabbed all of them to wash before I give away for the overseas project. I remembered you saying that you didn't cut your lock laces so you could reuse and that's exactly what I did. Pulled them off of a pair that will be retired and then put them on another pair that I was hoping that new laces would make them a better fit for me. Then I found that those shoes, even with the lock laces, just won't work for me so I've got to pull them off and put on another pair of shoes. At least it doesn't take too long to pull them out.

Trying to get my son to working out some more so tonight I asked him if he would be interested in a 10 or 15 min boot camp with his dad telling us what to do. Wow, both of them got a glint in their eyes when I mentioned cuz hubby loves being a drill sarge and son is planning to demolish me. So it's time for me to go get tortured. groan.

MTA: 45 min later..... Damn, that hurt!

Edited by Pink Socks 2013-08-04 6:14 PM