LaurenSU02's group - CLOSED! (Page 37)

Quiet in here today!!

So my parents bought me Wii Fit for my birthday.  I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but that thing kicked my butt! 

They have these strength exercises and one is a push up to a side plank then back to a push up... 6 reps of that.  I can do pushups OK but not from the side plank.  I got ZERO points for that "little game" because the trainer said he knew I had not completed the exercise. 

I was just takin' a little break.  I should've gotten credit for the 3 that I did.. grr.

Hey all, I'm home sick today so I figured I'd throw up some bike porn.  I just took some pictures of the bike I ride... let me know what you think.

I have alot of crap around it, but its parked in my basement.

the next picture is of my seat and rear bag... I don't have a rear bottle holder yet so I'll take opinions on whether I should get one.

 I have put a few miles on it, and while it gets uncomforable after 3 hours, it still holds up well.

The last picture is of the front bars.  If you are wondering what is on the front stem, it is the holder for my Garmin 305.

Ha!  I find Wii fit intrigueing.  I may have to try it out.....

mmmmmmmm  Cervelo - I love cervelo.....  Nice ride.  Besides, yellow is my "racing" color for some reason....  Very nice...

owl_girl - 2008-06-04 11:44 AM Yeah, I like the bike too!   Yes, get a bottle holder that attaches to the back of the saddle.  They are wonderful.  Easy to get your bottles in and out of too.

Yep, x2 on the rear bottle holder.  Easy and they look cool....  Plus clean up the frame a little (just the look I like).

As for getting uncomfortable after 3 hours.  I think just getting miles in fixes that.  By the time I was ready for my last HIM, I was just able to do about 4 to 4.5  hours with no major discomfort.  Just tired....  Same can't be said last Nov. when I was squirming all over or trying to stretch my back after 3 hours....

Lauren is the expert on this, not me, but when I got my aquajogger belt it came with a DVD that showed pics of proper form. Actually, the belt itself was designed to keep you from leaning forward, a common mistake. The belt size is important for proper form, there are different types of running belts so that you can hold the right form no matter your size.

The video also mentioned that you don't actually move forward very fast at all, and if your moving too fast in the forward direction it could be that you are leaning too far forward.

Lauren, please correct me if I'm wrong!

So then here is my assumption....  It is probably good for cardio as a replacement for running due to injury.  But it can't completely replace running, no?  I would think you could lose leg strength if you just aquajogged.....

I think it is excellent to do (if it is an option) while you are injured, such that your legs (tendons, etc.) have an easier time getting back into running once the time comes and you don't get a new injury because your legs are so out of touch with it. I'm going to guess it also helps your running to do it while also doing regular run training, but my guess is that unless it is in addition to and not instead of a run, your running would improve more with regular running (but injury risk goes up!)

Just added a new race to my 2008 line-up…. a challenge that is so far out of my league… can’t wait!!!! I love crazy challenges! It’s a 5K OWS. Hope they don’t mind waiting and waiting for me to finish…

Wow claire, that is DEFINITELY a challenge, way to go!!!  that's amazing....good luck!!!!  when is it?  

i was talking to a guy recently and he knows a man who does "marathon swims", i.e. he swims the whole length of rivers over the course of weeks, swimming up to 12 hrs a day.  isn't that insane?  he recently swam the amazon, and he had this whole support crew that distracted the piranhas and stuff.  the guy i talked to had a whole odds board in his office giving odds for all the ways he could die on the trip, fortunately, he did it and finished the whole river. 

I am your source for all your aquajogging needs !

Just to give you an idea, here are my run totals for this year:

If you want to know if it helps you maintain fitness, I am able to do a nearly 2-hr dry land-run staying entirely in zone 1 and keeping my pace under 10 min/miles. Had I spent those 41 hrs cycling or swimming or something, I know that wouldn't be possible.

Aquajogging is the best alternative to run training, because it's running specific, in terms of the way you use your body. Your muscles, tendons, and ligaments will lose fitness, but you're working/using your body more closely to running than what you would be when cycling or ellipticaling.

I don't use an aquajogging-specific belt; I just use the water aerobics belts my pool has. That seems to work just fine. I wear it so the top of the belt is like even with where a HRM strap would be. When you run, just keep your run form exactly as you do on the road. A lot of people tend to move their legs more in a circular motion, like when riding a bike. Make sure you move your arms the same way as well. I focus on all aspects of my running form except foot strike. I find foot strike becomes a little unnatural in the pool when I really think it about; but that might not be the case for you. If I am having trouble finding my form, I'll stop for a second and say to myself, "Just run." It sometimes helps to focus on running towards something in the distance.

I move around A LOT when I aquajog. Sometimes, I am fortunate enough to have the use of 5 lanes (unroped), so I do a big lap around the deep end of the 5-lane area, and do it in 2 mins. When I first started, those laps took me a lot longer. I've never heard that moving is bad. Not sure my form is perfect, but I've gotten quite a few compliments from people at the pool at how beautiful my run form is and how the like watching it from under water. Granted, my dry-land run form is so not beautiful .

I have to get to a meeting. Let me know if you have any questions...

Wow!!!  That's so cool!!!!  Have fun with all that swim training!!!  I hope you have a pretty lake to train in!

I have a concern (maybe).  I was sitting in front of the TV studying my next plan (to start on June 23).  I realized the first week has about 10 hours of training in it.  Not too bad compared to what I was doing for my April HIM.  However, it's about 50% more than I have been currently doing the last two months.  To be specific, I have been probably been averaging about 6.5 hours per week recently, but the first week of the plan is about 10.  (the last week of my HIM plan was about 12/week).

SO.  I feel like the 10 is fine and my spirit is up for it, but I wonder if I could be setting myself up for over training with such a big increase.  I honestly think that I should be ok though, I'm guessing I have a decent base by now.  I also plan to make sure I get plenty of rest, WU and CD appropriatly, and keep a close eye on entensity (don't go too hard).  Then plan then drops to 9, then 8 , then a recovery week then back up to 11.

Normally, I would start to build up hours over the next couple weeks, but I have another race on the 14th.  So I will have some taper and a short recovery week.....

Worse comes to worse, I could skip a workout that first week if my body is telling me to and get it back to 8-8.5 hours....

That would be fun to try.  I have this "crazy" gene that makes that kind of stuff look cool and fun (maybe that's why I want to complete an IM) - good thing it's not a dominant gene....  Because climbing Everest and swimming the English channel would be an obsession rather than a cool pipe dream....

okay, reading that story makes me feel less of a crazy person. The swim is in the Chicago area, in Lake Michigan in early September. They also offer a 2.5 K (one loop vs. two) I love having that chicken-out option... although I do plan to go for the whole thing at this point.

IMO, take your current running miles per week (current as in within the past 2-3 weeks) and only add 10% a week. You will "catch up" to the schedule eventually. Jumps in running miles greater than 10% are not worth the injury risk.

If you want to be cautious about the bike volume , I've asked the BT coaches about this, and they told me to add 15-30min to my longest current ride (again within 2-3 weeks) when increasing bike volume.

I'm getting a little "posting-happy" here, but I just had to share this...

I was stretching today at the gym when all of a sudden I got hit in the head with a volleyball! It didn't hurt and I thought it was so funny I laughed out loud. I never thought stretching was an activity that required looking up!

Bah,  I was afraid of that.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own...." - Adam from Mythbusters

In general, no one workout is longer than anything I currently do, just more of them.  I may look into the beginner plan that ramps up pretty quickly for the first couple weeks, then swith over the intermediate plan that I want to use when they catch up.  this seems counter intuitive, but the beginner plan actually has more hours than the int. plan, but it also has more recovery weeks.....

Where's my peeps?  Happy Friday every one.  I got half days on Friday, so I'm already looking forward to the weekend....

Had a great run last night.  I think I'm back in proper form.  I'm also dreaming of a sub 45 min 10k next month.....