Yanti and Lynn, Mentors of the Manatee Melee: FULL (Page 4)

I own a house in Asheville and I have a roommate who lives there year round.  I come home on my days off in and live there full time from Nov until April.  I don't work a lot during this time.  I do some recruitment for NCOBS ( North Carolina Outward Bound School) marketing department and I work a bit for our program in Florida.  This would actually be my ideal training time since I have lots of free time, too bad its so cold then. In the past I have done some long international travel trips (Europe, Central America, South America) or a US road trip mostly to the Southwest to go climbing, biking, running, etc in the desert.  A couple years ago i got a job waiting tables...never again .  Mostly i try to live frugally and spend the money I have saved during the busy season for this purpose .  BUT...this winter I will be student teaching.  I have gone back to school part time and am one class away from my teaching certification and hope to get a job as a classroom teacher Fall of 2012.

I did the 44 mile ride.  It ended up starting late.  I rode over there with a friend and she only had time for 44 miles with the delay.  It was super hilly, so 44 miles was enough.  I realized that this is the longest ride I have done in about 9 months.  I have been slacking on the bike, if I ride once a week I', doing well.

lmscozz - 2011-04-15 6:40 PM Hey Pod! What's up for the weekend for everyone? Seems like we're all in the midst of training for something. Make sure you're logging your workouts. I started logging about 3 years ago when I first started all this craziness and it's great to be able to go back and look at certain training days/weeks/months now. I agree that being a bit OCD kind of helps with tri training and logging, too.

By logging your workouts we can also check in and inspire you -- or kick you in the rump (JK). High flipper fives -- presses of various types of fruit {{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}} and Happy Friday night!

My son turns 16 today, so you know what I was doing 16 years ago. Ouch!! Pizza, movie and sleepover. Wish us luck!

I consider the bolded above synonymous with inspiration.  Hey, that's why I signed up to be a mentee.  I'd happily pay someone to come by my house daily with a baseball bat to make sure I got in my workouts (and clean all the bad stuff from my fridge).  But... I suppose a high flipper when I do well will do just as well.

So far, I'm finding the guilt-induced accountability of filling in the logs to be a great motivator.  I don't remember what I did last season: pretty much just ran/biked/swam some distance when I felt like it, I think.  Logging is better.

Hope the birthday party went well.

Wow! Great job on your ride.... that is awesome!!

Good Luck tomorrow Clair!!! Embrace the weather!!! (lol... easy for me to say.. I 'm NOT doing it!!! )     My first sprint tri  I did last year ... it had snowed and was -2C! Luckily they moved T1 inside!   Just make sure you dress warm... and enjoy!!!

The Warrior Dash was a lot of fun.  Wearing ears and carrying a Easter basket full of eggs definitely slowed me down.  I had a Peeps necklace that was also a little annoying, but they kept falling off.  I left a trail of eggs and Peeps behind me.  A couple people were unhappy about being passed by a bunny

Before

after

This is GREAT!!! I have always wanted to do a warrior dash.  what did you have to do in the race?

It was not nearly as hard as they want you to think.  There were about 8 obstacles.  The first was crossing a river (maybe about 30 yards?), it was a little higher than waist deep (I'm 5'4").  There were a bunch of climbing ones - a wall you climb with a rope, a mountain of hay and a big rope ladder thing.  A couple you crawl under - a dark tunnel and a mess of ropes.  There was one section where you have to go over a wall about 4 ft high and then under a fence about 1 1/2 feet high (they alternated and there was about 6 of each).  There was a rope thing that you had to climb up about 6 feet and crawl or roll across about 30 feet.  That hurt my knees balancing on the ropes.  There was a balancing one where you go up a board a little less than a foot then walk across a smaller board then down.  A fun one was run through a bunch of tires, run over a car and then through more tires.  One was kind of lame - it was supposed to be a ghost town or something, but all you did was run through a small wooden building.  The end was back through water that was a little deeper and there were about 5 or 6 logs you had to go over (you could push them down), then you had to jump over two small rows of fire.  The last was a mud pit with about 10 stands of barbed wire over it.  There may have been more, but that's all I can remember.  None of them were hard, they basically gave you a breather from the run.  The hardest part was the mud after the water parts.  It was very slick and lots of people fell.  It was a lot of fun, you should do it.  I heard that over 17,000 people did the Dallas race.

Now you are a hard-core chick! That's awesome. I LOOOOOVE the pictures. You still look ridiculously good at the end!

So did you actually eat any of the Peeps?

Heh, I got passed in a FIVE K by a guy wearing a full bunny suit. I did yell GO BUNNY GO and he shot me a really dirty look (the face was open) ... maybe he lost a bet or something.

HAPPY MONDAY, MANATEES! How was everybody's weekend? I am sure everyone is just thrilled the weekend is over so you can all jump back into the daily routines of your life. Okay, well, it was worth a try

I have a near-complete Manatee table. There are a few who haven't opened their logs to the public or to BT (another option is to add all the Manatees as friends in your log, then just open it to Friends).

If you don't know how to do this, or haven't set your log up yet, or have any questions, post here or PM me back.

My weekend was completely insane (this is normal for my life), but I did get a 30-minute ocean swim in. The conditions could only have been worse if it were raining. Usually my partner and I swim a bare minimum of 45 min, up to 2 hours, but the ocean and weather were bad and we weren't feeling great to start with, so we called it quits.

Well, I did my tri yesterday and I didn't do as well as I hoped.  I improved my swim by about 16 seconds. LOL.  The swim was a struggle as I was fighting 3-4 people the whole time in the pool!!  One guy in particular (aka, Harry Guy) didn't want me to pass him.  Everytime I would try, he would start side kicking!!  Talk about unsportsmanlike conduct.  Oh well, I survived and at least I did improve.  That was the goal.

My bike, I did NOT improve.  I did worse than last year.  The conditions were very windy.  I just didn't have the power to get through the wind.  I know now that I need to work on the bike.  If I'm going to do this HIM, I've got to spend more time riding.  Now that the weather is getting a little better, I have no excuses!!

My run was great.  I can always count on my run to pull me through.   

Overall my time was about a little less than a minute slower from last year.  I got 6th in my age group, so a pretty competative field this year.  My twin placed 2nd OVERALL!!  She rocks!

I had a great time and that is what truly matters.  This is a great triathlon for newbies and veterans.  It's fun to see the kids participate as well.  So I can't complain too much.    

I'll post a race report later in the day.  Thanks guys for your support.   

Good Morning Monday Manatees:

I needed a little boost today. I printed out a new training plan. I was trying to do a few days a week but I have been slacking so I printed a new 5/6 day plan. The goals are still the same but spread across the week. I want to see if I can manage them better.

I also need to add some strength training and by making the goal w/o shorter I thought that would encourage me to take a little of the extra time towards strength.

I am both inspired and exhausted by reading all that my fellow manatees have been up to this weekend. You rock.!!!! My 3 mile "stroll" with my husband pales in comparison. However I am happy I got him out there with me. I dont think he will ever do a tri with me but if I can at least walk with him it's getting him moving too. Now we are working on getting out 12 yr olds to walk or bike with us. You know how it is they are too cool at the moment.

looking forward to tri-ing with you all this season

Regards

Grainne Wynne

You did an amazing job. The weather did not co-operate. Nor did your swimming "buddy". So you know you did all you could and it was super.

regards

Grainne Wynne

YEEEEE-HAH! I'm breaking out the bike chain congrats!!! I agree with Teddie, you probably did BETTER on the bike, but the wind can be a killer.

You also improved on the swim despite Mr. Azzhat. I have very little tolerance in the water for those who impede others' progress ... others = me.

For what it's worth, I haven't been able to do a 3-mile stroll in ages. Admittedly, I did a lot of activity last week, but I kinda blew myself out and I'm going to have to do a significant amount of recovery this week!

It is also an awesome thing to do with your partner, for his well-being and yours. Nice!

I am in a similar position. also not a great swimmer. I printed out a plan from BT that has a 2x a week swim. It was part of a 15 week program where you chose how many times a week you can train. You can find this under "programs" at the top of the screen. It will help you create a plan based on your needs and the date of your event. Good Luck.

Also If anyone can help with an issue of mine, I have a wardrobe issue with the swimming. (sorry gentlemen) I am trying to find something that will work for both the swim and the run. I am much bigger on top than the bottom so I have already tried and rule out a tri-suit. ( I looked like the "Bud Girls") Not a pretty sight for a middleaged mother I need support for my full figured problem, any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Regards

Grainne Wynne

Good morning Manatees.  We had a beautiful weather weekend, but I unfortunately had to work most of the time.  Payday will be good though!

I never posted my 'me' story, so here goes.  I'll try to keep is short.  I'm 34 yo female, married for 8 years with 1 kiddo, 2 dogs and a cat.  We are absolutely loving life!  My husband and I both love to bike and like to run.  We've recently put the kiddo on a tag-a-long, so he does many of our rides with us.  There is just nothing better than a family bike ride.  On the tri front, I've done 3 sprints.  Loved every single one of them.  Trained and completed the Little Rock Marathon last year.  Trained for a century, but could only swing a metric last year as well.  Hoping to get in a couple of sprints this year, but life is super busy.  I will have to wait til the dates get a little closer.  One of my main goals is weight redistribution.  I would like to turn some of my weight into muscle and drop the rest.  I understand that I didn't get to be this size over night, so I won't get back to being a healthier weight overnight either.  I'm slowly kicking bad habits.  Beer and wine were the first to go and now fast food rarely shows it's ugly head in my diet. 

So, onward I go.  I love being a manatee and the encouragement that comes along with it

I am not very big on top, but I think the solution can be the same.  For my first tri I wore a sports bra and tri shorts for the swim and put on a jersey in T1 (actually it was 34 degrees so I put on a lot of clothes).  You could also swim in your sports bra and jersey and not worry about taking the time to put anything on in transition.  That is kind of what I have done in my other races.  It's been warm enough to ride/run wet so I swim in tri shorts and a top with a built in bra that I ride and run in.

Not a bad plan at all, and if that's what you can do, and you're fairly comfortable in open water mass swimming (or will have some opportunities to practice beforehand), it'll get you through.

I have an idea of your swim speed, how long are you able to be at the pool each time? Also, is ~1600m right now about your limit in terms of swimming endurance?

If you don't want to swim in just tri shorts and a sports bra (but I say: be brave! Check out my finisher's picture from MY first tri, attached! it was a reverse tri so swim was last), you could also find a tight-fitting athletic top to wear during the swim. The cheapest route would be a stretchy, dry-tech material running top (are you in the U.S. or another country?). There are also tri tops made particularly for larger women and for coverage, so they will be long in the torso and cover nicely over your tri shorts.

Do you have a good supportive sports bra? FWIW I'm pretty big on top but I really strap those puppies down.

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