Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 37)

Good luck today Ken!  I will be thinking about you!

Today maybe an emotional day.  I'm getting ready to leave to volunteer for the NBHM which I run for a charity near to my heart.  Instead, I'll be volunteering at the final water stop to give support to friends and other team members as they head to the final stretch of the race.  I knew this day was coming and here it is....Lord help me stay strong and use me to help other able bodied runners today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day all!

Go Ken!!! I just checked the link, and don't see him having finished quite yet. 

Anthony, congrats on the 10 lbs!  I really think slow and steady weight loss is what tends to be maintained in the long term.  Love the Geico pig.  Wheeeee!!!!

Stu, nice impromptu 10 mile race.  Nice to be in shape to just be able to go out and do that.  Nice negative splits!  And good point on the shower.  Some of them are just memorable!

Jay, awesome job on volunteering today.  I hope you have a great time, and enjoy experiencing the race from that perspective.  Know it's hard when you wanted to be participating though.

Kate, hope you are sliding into your taper about now.  At least it's the weekend, so perhaps some rest from work.

Steve, Livingston, wow, that IS pretty close to The Woodlands!  Yep, come on down to TX!  If you come through DFW, stop by for a visit in Grapevine.  Great Wolf Lodge is a lot of fun for the kiddos, and Kerry & I can show you some good places to ride if you stick around for a while .  As I recall, Livingston is deep in the piney woods, and quite pretty.

Been pretty down with the crud here.  I think I set a new PR for sleeping yesterday.  Hopefully on the upswing, but geez, this has been a doozie.  Hard to believe a few weeks ago I completed a marathon, and right now walking around the block wears me out.  I go to see a new endocrinologist tomorrow and have been keeping careful logs of all food/insulin/exercise for the last couple weeks.  Unfortunately the last couple weeks are not at all representative of the norm given no running and illness, so won't give us much to go on in adjusting anything. 

Thank you all for your support.  I could feel you cheering me on.  My official time hasn't been posted.  Unofficially my time was 3:21:40.  I am really happy that it's a Boston Qualifying time for 2014.  

Ken

Wooohooooo!!!!!  Great day for you Ken!  Congrats on the BQ, and a super race to reward your thorough training.

congrats on the BQ Ken -- I'll have to go cheer you on in person next April!!

Mike

Mike, careful with that hammy....glad you are going to address it.

Jay, how did the race volunteering go?

My only goal is to get healthy enough for the bike ride this Saturday.  This cold/flu/whatever it is really got down in my chest.  Had a bit more energy yesterday, so hopefully on the upswing now.  In the last month, hubby sick twice, me sick twice, now my FIL is sick.  Really hope he has a mild version...at 95, hard to fight this stuff off.

Congrats on a great mary Ken!! Keep up the imporessive work for your HIM.

Mike, hope the hammy losens up after the bike this morning. We've all been having some bad luck lately as a group and eventually the tides should turn.

Carol, keep resting and hopefully you can kick that cough. Gonna be in DFW area for work again next weekend and was thinking about the bike ride you have set up, but unfortunately i won't get in on time on Saturday. Hope you feel better for it and everyone has a fun, safe ride.

Stu, I'm happy to hear you signed up. It will be nice knowing someone there and it sounds like its a really nice race. Should be fun. I too need to get focused and start paying more attention to training.

Pam, congrats on the duathlon. Hope you had a great time!

Stay safe and have fun training, healing, recovering, etc. everyone!

Ken: major congrats to you!  That's awesome you BQ'd!

Mike: My wife's cousin is a PT/ART up in Easton.  If you're interested, PM me and I'll get you her information.  I'd be using her for my injury but she doesn't accept Tufts for health insurance

As far as my volunteering...it was interesting to say the least.  Life works in funny ways sometimes.  You see, I ended up at the last water stop but it wasn't the one that I had in my mind.  That stop had a first aid station there (small scale) and I got to talking to the person manning it.  Well, it turns out he's the head PT at the rehab place I'll be going to starting on Thursday!  So, I spent a lot of time talking to him about my injury and he seems to think that best case scenario I maybe able to cut a month off my doctors initial recovery time!  There's a lot of gray area in that and I understand that....but its certainly encouraging!

The race was a great experience.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many thank yous that you get from the runners (expecially after the elites go by)  I always do that when I run and I was glad that I'm the norm and not the exception.  There was one jerk (isn't that always the case) that really ticked me off.  He is a part of a local triathlon team (wearing the jersey too) and he tried to take water from a 10 yr old boy helping his mom.  Well, the transition didn't go well and he dropped the water.  His mom tried to give him water...another bad result.  He says loud enough to hear WTF before grabbing a water successfully from me.  I really had to fight my urge to grab the sob by the collar and have a little reality check with this character.  The silver lining is that he's a part of the same tri club as a good friend of mine so I'll be chatting with her and figure out who he is....and hopefully, he'll get an earful.

There is a scary part of the race though.  After the elites and your average runners go by...there are the ones who aren't in the shape they thought they were in.  One woman was super scary because she felt her blood sugar low and was begging for gatorade.  I found some for her and then started asking her questions about how many GU's etc.  Turns out she had nothing for the last 1.5 miles...very scary because I could picture her shutting down like my good friend did last year.  Thankfully, there were no medical emergencies I heard about.

Well, that's my brief synopsis of volunteering.  Hope you all have a good day!

Ken, only one day off?  Yes, that confirms it, you are superman!

Anthony, well drat!  Would have been great if you could make the ride.  Hope you enjoy your stay in the DFW area.  Let me know if you need any info re: the area.  Weather is getting more springlike so hope you can get outside.

Jay, looks like you were at exactly the right waterstop.  Very cool to get to talk to the head PT.  As for the rude runner guy...I'm envisioning the soup nazi scene from Seinfeld....no water for you!!  Yikes for the lady with the low blood sugar.  Everyone makes mistakes, but first rule of diabetes...always have fast acting sugar on you.

In late breaking news...I went for a walk and did 20 minutes of yoga today and I can breathe without touching off a coughing fit.  Somebody tell those ironman people to watch out .

Carol - I actually use movies as my "carrot" to ride the trainer. I'm a bit of a couch potato because I love watching movies or t.v. series, so I try really hard to not let myself watch anything if I'm not riding while doing it. The Mission Impossible movies are good too. Feel better soooooooon!

Kate - Hang in there. It really helped me to have a plan and stick to it. Plus having worked everything out in training made race day just a long training day. Don't forget to enjoy!

Anthony - way to go on the weight loss. No small accomplishment there!

Ken - It seems you had an awesome race. Way to qualify for Boston! Are you gonna do it?

Stu - Love your run pace. If only I could see myself getting there anytime in the near-ish future. Great job!

Mike - Sorry about all the injury issues you are facing this season.

Jay - Crazy at day at the races for you. I love seeing things work out that I never could have planned myself even if I knew it would be a good thing. I pray you are able to take a month off your recovery time.

My training is moving along. I'm still tweaking my schedule and not getting everything in, but maintaining my longs and getting in the others as much as possible. Had a crazy bike on Saturday - it started raining at mile 23 and it didnt stop...and I rode 60miles. I was soaked to the bone and just barely kept my body warm. I did see the same moose, an elk, a deer and many birds. It was cool. Also learned another trick for swimming: keep my butt high in the water. So I focus on making sure I can feel a little cool air on my bum cheeks. It takes quite a bit of focus (the biggest thing I focus on is pulling my belly button in towards my spine and it helps lift my body in the water), but I really think my swimming it getting faster. I did 2800 yards and maintained 2/100 for several 100's in a row and ending with an average of 2:15/100. Much faster since I started this whole training thing. Rode the trainer tonight because weather was too unpredictable and I think I'm still trying to warm up from the 60 miler...

So awesome to hear about all the good stuff going on with everyone. I'm learning how the good and hard teach me so much.

Samantha -- congrats on toughing out the ride!

My biggest issue lately hasn't been injury, but its been weather. My run this AM is delayed until maybe tonight due to yet another snowstorm. Had 6" or so on the ground when I woke up this AM, and it was still coming down hard -- still  is! Its a total mess, and not safe for running. Hopefully things will get cleaned up today, and I can maybe get some work in later.

On the good news front, our kitchen project is now 97% done, and we are only awaiting some tile work to complete the whole thing. I'm happy with the results, and its nice to have a functional kitchen again after 7 weeks of construction.

Samantha, I applaud you hanging in there.  I am not sure if I would have ridden almost 40 miles in the rain.  I guess I am a wimp when it comes to that.  So much kudos.  As for Boston, I do plan to run Boston in 2014.  I qualified for this year as well but with an half ironman in June, I didn't want to push my luck.  

Mike, you are reminding me why I love living in the south.  I think I would go crazy trying to run in the snow or having to wait until things were plowed.  It definitely makes for a shorter race season.  

Today was my longest continuous swim.  I swam 2500.  Since my legs are still a little short from marathon, I did about half with the pull buoy.  No since in killing my recovery.  The cooler pool water help with the morning stiffness and today I am back walking normally.  I plan on trying to run a couple of miles at lunch along with a core workout, nothing too strenuous.  

How's the Crunch challenge going for every one?  

Ken - 78/78  Yes I even did them on 2 marathon days. 

Ken, that is a smoking fast time.

Mike, I would kill to wake up to 6 inches of snow.  I got into my car yesterday and the temp was reading 35C.  We will be hitting the low 100s(f) in the next couple of weeks.  I am sweating just thinking about my up coming bike rides.

Ken - Super time and congrats on the BQ!

Jay - It would be nice if everyone realized that it is not Kona. Glad you had a nice volunteer experience ortherwise.

Samantha - I hear you on the cold thing.

I did some bike maintenance, mostly general cleaning and boy was it dirty! Lost a lot of chain noise and shifts much better now. Tried it out Sunday knowing that a storm was head my way mon/tues. Well the temp was around 35 degrees and after a big build last week kept it short but after I got home, ate some soup and took a shower, I could still feel the chill and had to have some hot chocolate to start to feel warm again. yuck! Hoping weather breaks tonight to get a run in. Also signed up for my first two races. Jerseyman on May 18, and the LMCC Pass it a Long Tri July 27. Looking to add a HIM after that but not committed to one yet. Timberman would be nice and I have relatives in NH, my cousin moved to Austin recently so that is a possibility, and Syracuse is not too far. Decisions....decisions....

Hey all!

Carol - I know it's frustrating but you are doing great.  Keep doing what you're doing and you will be back with a vengeance.

Mike D - man you have some adversity to deal with.  It's hard enough just to get out and go let alone dealing with the weather you've had up there.  Hang in there.  ART is some good stuff.

Jay - great story about volunteering.  That guy is living one miserable life... Best to let that attitude run away with him.  And what luck to have the PT there. 

Steve - I'm feelin for ya!  Don't push too hard, just get healthy.

Samantha - great job on keeping going on the bike!  And very nice swim as well...

Ken - you're a madman...  I love the intensity

Joe - great on signing up for those races.  It's nice to have them locked in!

For me, I had a great 5 mile run this weekend.  finished strong.  So far I'm feeling pretty good but still not getting enough sleep.  Now the family is sick.  Pool is still closed but supposedly open this weekend.  Going to start swimming soon. 

I've started thinking about races.  I may sign up for an Olympic distance in Maybe July.  A few more weeks of basing and I will start to build my miles a bit.  Thinking about a HIM in maybe Sept before the baby comes.  Just not sure if that would be pushing it too much!

I've got to get outside on my Bike too.  Living in L.A. is great for the weather, but riding on a bike is a little scary.  Lots of traffic and aggressive people out there.  I  do have a route that takes me to the coast off the roads and up, but after a few years of IM training I am having trouble doing the same route over and over.  I told my wife we're going to need to move soon so I can have new training ground!