Colin Cook's Group - CLOSED (Page 4)

I forgot to mention my weight loss goals before, so here we go.  As of New Year's Eve, I had reached my max weight ever, 200.5lbs.  My average weight over the last few years has been around 180lbs, but my goal weight is more like 170lbs.  Since NYE, my wife and I have cleaned up our diet and started to get back into exercising/training.  Today, I am down to 193.5lbs, so I'm on track.  I would like to get down to 170lbs before the first race of the season in April.  There's no way I'll catch Colin at 10k if I'm carrying an extra 20-30lbs! :P

Hi Colin,

Report on the swim.  My plan was to go for an hour as you suggested, and was hoping for 1800 yards.  Well I got to 1300 yards and I was done, I'm going to have to look at the weights schedule a little closer, I did shoulders yesterday and they are barking today.  But I reckon I can nail it on Wednesday with a little shoulder rest.  I'll let you know.

Alright, boys and girls.  Canada vs. USA for Gold tonight! 

Hey Jason,

Well if you can keep dropping about 7 pounds a week, that shouldn't be a problem .  That's impressive!  In all seriousness, depending on your body type, this goal sounds doable.  It will definitely take a lot of work, but definitely doable.  Dropping this kind of weight will be a real advantage to you come race day.  However, don't forget that as your strength increases, you will gain muscles, which does weigh more than fat.  Typically people drop excess fat when they start their training, but do gain a little weight after some time due to the muscle gain. 

Yes, the main event is tonight!  I've going with USA in the upset!  They're playing well right now and I think Lee, US's goalie that didn't play the first game against Canada, will be the difference.  Either way, it should be a great game to watch. 

Hi Patrick,

Don't worry if you can't go that far at this point, just keep on trying and I promise that you will get there.  While you're in the pool, just focus on good form and lengthening your stroke as much as possible.  If you keep it up, those shoulders won't be barking in the spring.  Keep working and the rewards will come!

How about that game last night?  Unbelievable.  I got the upset right, but it certainly wasn't because of Lee.  I really thought that once Canada tied it up they were going to take it home.  Either way, you really can't ask for a better game!  It made getting to swim this morning a little bit tough, but it was well worth it.

Have to agree, what a game.
That 17 year old kid in net was fantastic... next year in Buffalo will be good as well.
Colin, is there anyway to view your HR on the 305, I just can't figure it out. I have not tried a training program and maybe I can see it  then, but to just start it and go for a run it only shows up in the corner and I can't see it without glasses which I don't wear unlees reading
Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave,

Yes, I certainly hope we get more of the same in Buffalo next year!

As for the 305, I'll grab my when I run home for lunch in a little while and play around with it.  However, I think my Dad ran into the same problem you are having where the heart rate only appears in the upper right hand corner in tiny digits.  My father couldn't see them either and that's really the only reason he wanted to use it.  Nonetheless, I'll take a look and see if there is a while to change that.

I'll get back to you this afternoon.

Good news Dave!  I figured it out.  Here's what you want to do:

Go into settings, general, display fields, main 1, click up to switch from 3 to 4 fields, select which field you want to display your heart rate, hit enter, and select heart rate.

Now another option you have if you want it even bigger is to do the same thing, but go to main 2, click down to 1 field, and select heart rate.

That should do it!  I'm pumped you had this problem because as I mentioned above, my Dad had the same problem.  He's gonna to be psyched when I tell him about this.

Let me know if you have any other questions about it.

Edited by hockeyhands 2010-01-06 12:46 PM

You're right.  That was quite the game!  You got us this time   Next up, the Olympics!

Down to 191.5lbs... the weight loss is definitely slowing down.  I don't think 7lbs/week is in the cards.  haha.  I'll get to 170 though.  I hope to be out of the 190s for good by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

That is so freakin awesome, I am so happy now. I was so frustrated that I could not follow my training zones. Done, you can do cycling and running differently. I like it even more now
Thanks so much Colin, you rock man!

Jason,

Yeah you may have a tough time keeping that weight loss going, but it definitely seems like you're well on your way.   On the hockey front, yes, we have pulled the upset off in juniors, but I think its pretty safe to say it won't happen in the Olympics.  The Canadian and US rosters aren't even comparable if you ask me.  Nonetheless, this is one heck of a time to be a hockey fan and the Olympics should be awesome!

Yeah, I'm not worried about keeping up that kind of pace with the weight loss... I think the first 7-8lbs was all turkey

It looks like there is a good chance that I'll get to keep teaching where I was in the fall, which means free access to a gym, stationary bikes (with aero bars), treadmills, a pool... what more could I ask for? 

Glad you got it going Dave!  To tease my Dad, I actually made one of the secondary screens just have the 1 heart rate field so its as big as possible.

As for different settings for running and biking, you should not have a problem doing this.  All you need to do is turn it on, hold down the mode button and switch to biking.  Once you have done so, follow the same steps from yesterday and customize the fields for biking.

Not sure if you have any kind of computer/odometer on your bike now, but if you have $40-50 bucks, you may want to look into the Garmin Speed and Cadence Bike Sensor.  I have it and it allows you to see your speed when your indoors, but more importantly it measures your cadence for you.  Its really helped me to increase my cadence because I'm definitely a gear masher.

Colin

I figures the different fields out for Biking , Running, and other its great. I am picking up a cadence sensor tonight for the bike.
Olympic fever is starting to hit full stride now here in Vancouver, it has been crazy construction for a while now but its coming to a peak and you can almost feel the excitment now as it gets closer. We have so many venues holding events so close to us its amazing. Tickets are impossible to get and wa yout of my price range. Its going to be really interesting to see the whole thing unfold in a month, all the people all the traffic. I work at a college and we are basically shut down for the 2 weeks, they are asking most companies and govt institutions to keep there people at home if possible to eliminate traffic and congestion.
keep training team

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone has been going strong with there training.  I believe we have a structure plan in place for most of you and I hope you are enjoying the plan.  However, there is one thing I wanted to mention about training that is very important that we have not discussed yet, which is a recovery week.  I strongly recommend that everyone has a recovery week of training every 3 to 4 (I do every 4th) week.  Normally training plans (like the ones BT offers) have them already incorporated into the plan, but since we just did a weekly plan, I wanted to make sure everyone will be incorporating in a recovery week as it vital to give your body proper rest.

During the recovery week, you're obviously not just resting the whole week.  During this time, you should decrease the amount of time you are training between 25-35% of a normal week.  I usually decrease mine by about 25%.  It is also very important that you lower the intensity of your workouts as well.  This may mean riding in the small ring of your bike and slowing your pace while swimming and running.

In general, recovery time is absolutely critical to successful training.  If you don't give your body enough time to recover from a previous workout, its not going to be ready to for the next workout or progress.  With this said, if you've had a really busy day/week and don't feel up to a workout, skip it!  As long as your sticking to your program, its not a problem to miss a workout or two from time to time.

This week can also be a great time to do some yoga and/or stretching with the extra free time you have.  However, it can also be a great time to spend a little extra time with friends and family and can be very beneficial in preventing getting burnt out from training.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of this or any other questions. 

Thanks guys, keep up the good work!

I get to be a 2:15 "pace bunny" for a Half Marathon here in February (Valentine's Day).  Since it's on a Sunday, it will work perfectly into my schedule as my weekly long run.  They require that pace bunnies run 10 minutes/walk 1 minute, so I'll have to practice that over the next few weeks.  Should be fun!

hows the training going gang
trainer ride tonight just finished. a good kick my a#$  session done. Felt good had a weight sesion today so my legs were a little heavy.
got a bit of a bug over the weekend so it was a wash except for a Sat am swim. not to bad today.
Wife and i decided that we are going to go to Mexico in March with some family, should be a blast. gotta watch my intake down there tho, be real easy to watch a lot of hard work go down the drain. Just when my Ironman program starts, 2 weeks in. Should be ok.
keep training  all
Dave

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the post Dave.  That trip to Mexico sounds like a blast!  You should be fine if you watch what you eat and do not spend too much time with Mr. Cuervo

Don't be strangers everyone.  Please try to check in at least once a week and don't hesitate to post any questions you have.

I'm actually battling a pretty bad cold myself right now.  I'm trying to run through it, but I hurt my ankle again on Saturday playing in my high school alumini (hockey) game so it looks I'm not going to be skating for a while .  I play in a couple leagues and my teammates are not too happy as its not easy to find a goaltender at this point of a season.  I rested it on Sunday and have felt OK during my workouts the last couple of days.

On the bright side, I'm going to become a certified swim coach!  The swim coach I swim with a couple times a week is moving so she asked me to take over her morning class.  I must admit I was pretty honored and it should really help if I decide to become a triathlon coach, which I have been considering.

Whats going on with everyone else?

Team,

Here is an update.  I got a nasty stomach bug over the weekend.  You know how that goes.  But by Sunday night I felt good enough to jump back in.  So a shorter run and some weight training felt like it was in order.  But now I'm back to full speed, and Colin as you suggested, I was able to up my swim workout to an hour yesterday.  I managed 1800 yards through various sets.  Amongst some longer sets I did 8 x 50's working on bi-lateral breathing and then breathing every 4th stroke.  It definitely improved my speed, but the bilateral is awkward.  Breathing every 4th stroke is mechanically easy but physically taxing but I'm sure I could train into that easy enough.  My question is, do you think that's a good technique in the long run?  I'm essentially breathing 50% less than I was, so I worry about that, but the speed increase was really noteworthy, better than bilateral in fact.

Here is how I broke down my sets -

4 x 50 (breathing work)
1 x 200
1 x 650 **
1 x 350**
1 x 200
4 x 50 (breathing work)

** I was going for a 1000 yard set, but some guy thought it was totally OK to literally grab me as I turned to see if he could circle with my and some other guy splitting a lane.  I almost got in some Kung Fu training in this week I was so angry.

So it was a total of 1800 yards but I reckon that will be 2000 easy enough if I shorten the breaks.

Thanks guys.

Patrick

Right on Matt!  Congrats on signing up.  My first HIM is on June 6th as well.  I was planning to use that plan as well.  When I have some time later today, I'm going to really look at that program.  I'm probably going to use that plan, but I'll probably modify it a little bit.  I definitely let you know my thoughts on it and it looks like we're gonna have to become virtual training partners!

Nice work Patrick!  Keep it up!  LOL, I'm glad you decided not to hand out a beating at the pool...that could be a little awkward

As for your breathing question, here's my take on it.  If you can breath every fourth stroke without getting dramatically more fatigued than doing every other stroke, go for it.  However, that will probably be difficult to obtain.  I breath every other stroke, just to my right side.  However, I can breath to my left if need be.  Breathing every third stroke is probably ideal as it gets you comfortable with breathing to both sides, which can come in handy during the start of the race and in ocean swims, and should be faster because you are not breathing as often, but its all about being comfortable.  You want to maintain as normal a breathing pattern as possible because we can't forget that we will have to bike and run after. 

I would have to see you in action to be able to really tell, but as long as you are not delaying or holding at the top when you are taking a breath, it should not slow you down too much.  As this stage, I bet you benefit more from focusing on extending your stroke and working on your glide.  By doing so, you'll become much smoother, faster, and spend less energy in the water.  To do this, make sure you are really reaching out as far as possible with each arm once it enters the water.  You should be trying to literally stretch your arm as far out as it will go and feel a little stretch when doing so. 

Any chance you could get some video of your swim?  I love to take a look at your form if possible.

Hopefully that helps.

It's so nice to get back out and feel like the injuries are behind you hey Matt. Nicley done. Congrats on the double half Iron sign up thats awesome. I am still trying to decide if I should sign up for a half Iron before IMC but man is it expensive. $250. This sport can be pricey once you get into it. The training is going well, I am following (loosley, 2 hard days & still trying to stomach a long day on the trainer) Jorges winter plan as well. Its a great plan just a little much for IM training I think if I was to follow it to the T. KMA sessions for though,I love em
keep it up gang
Dave
28 days untill Olympics and all hell breaks loose up here in Vancouver