Jenny's Winter "Find What Drives You" Mentor Group - Open (Page 4)

Coach Jenny,

Early Super Bowl Sunday north of Chicago.  My name is Daniel and I was searching the internet, stumbled across this site, became captivated by the title of the forum and started reading.  Coach Jenny's messages made me think, gave me hope.  About me...

FOCUS - Fitness - dropping weight, toning up and gaining confidence.  Following a combination of exercise programs and work out daily. Incorporate P90X, Body for Life and my own version of upper and lower body weights and cross fit.  I eat a Paleo diet - no sugar, grains, processed foods.  I focus on fruits and one source foods.  Ideally complete two sprint tris and understand what is involved with an Olympic distance.

NAME - longrun26/Daniel

STORY - I am 53, married for 29 years and am a midlife career changer having left my corporate career and now I am a 7th grade literature/language arts teacher.  Have been teaching for 8 years.  I ran Chicago Marathon in October - my 10 marathon.  My goal is to be fit, healthy and and be a mentor for my students.  I am 6'0" and weight 242.  My most recent visit to my doctor went very well.  Still med free and all blood chemistry levels in great shape.  Just wants me to get to 200 pounds.  Sounds like a mountain in front of me.  My doctor told me to look at my diet - I am now Paleo (no processed foods/no grains/no sugars) - and to look at triathlon to drop weight.  So Jenny, I would like you to be my mentor!!!  I would love to gain energy, break the 235 weight barrier and attack tri.

FAMILY STATUS - Married for 29 years.  Live in Libertyville, IL (just north of Chicago).  Have two sons. My 25 year old lives in New Zealand and and manages an organic vineyard.  My youngest son is 21 and a junior in Anthropology at Illinois State - really supports the Paleo life style.  My wife is running Boston Marathon again and my boys are super fit and into health.  I mountain and road bike, run marathons (10 under my belt) - just want to do so under 200 pounds.

CURRENT TRAINING - Have been focused on the Paleo diet since Chicago Marathon in October.  Work outs consistent and intense but no real goal (race, event) in mind.

THIS YEAR'S RACES - Calendar is completely empty!!!

2013 - The sky is the limit.

WEIGHT LOSS - I am 6'0" 242.  My goal is sub 200.

WHY THIS GROUP? - Something inside tells me that this is meant to be.  Sometimes you just have to trust your gut and jump in with both feet!

 If there is room, I would love to hear more and see where this journey can take us.

Daniel

Monty,

It was Garrett's long time goal to graduate and move to New Zealand and work on a vineyard.  It happened. My wife leaves to visit him February 15.  She will be there 5 weeks.  My goal is to be under 235 when she returns.  I am 242 this morning.  I have not been under 235 for 8 years. It is a huge number for me to crash through.

The vineyard is beautiful!!!  The first bottles of wine just arrived in the U.S.  Good stuff!  Especially when my wife and I realize Garrett's work in the vineyard... 

reddeerwine.com

Daniel

That's a good reasonable goal, Daniel.  You can do it!

My parents went to New Zealand.  Always said I'd go!

I've got some knee pain brewing, mostly when I am going up stairs, and running. It's been about a week, with mild pain but it has been getting worse as I train more. I plan to cut my run time down, and likely bike too, to help heal.

Does anyone have a good recommendation for exercises? I plan to do leg extensions at the gym to strengthen things down there, and am doing half squats too (full squats being bad for the knee).  Stretching too.

I may try to get an appointment with a physical therapist. I wish each day had 28 hours in it!

Edit: got appt with PT for tomorrow morning. Why wait.

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for letting me join! The quarter races are almost the same as the Olympic distance except the swim is 1km instead of 1,5 km. So 1km of swimming, 40km of biking and 10km of running.

Every end of the month I do a test race to see if i  progress in the 3 different sports. So let's say Thursday bike 40k, Saturday 10k run, and Tuesday 1k of swimming. Just to know where I stand.

My 5-6 hours per week is divided in:

Tuesday morning: 1 hour run interval, Thursday evening: 1 hour bike interval,  Friday morning: 1 hour run long distance, Saturday morning: Swim 1 hour interval, Sunday: 1,5-2 hour bike 40-50km. This may differ from time to time. I try to do muscle training, but the last training has already been about 4 months ago. 

I try to follow a plan during the year, but last year the plan was that I was repeating a 8 week Olympic distance training plan from a book several times between January and October.

This year I was thinking of following the next plan: http://gbr.garmin.com/training/_downloads/en/Tri-Training-Programme... thinking of starting next week, because on the 4th of May I'm having my first tri race (quarter :-) yes) of this year. Then at least I'm having a plan for the next 12 week. Would that be okay for me? Please advise.

My goals this year are (in minutes):

What do you think of my plans?

Warm regards,

Bart

pilot_e - 2013-02-04 11:27 AM oh my he**, the wind!  WHY must the wind make everything SO much harder!  Between that, the greasy snow and the cold, I should get to claim an extra kilometer run in today's efforts. 

Erica - Think of wind like a flat hill, kinda.  But not really, lol.  It's been > 15 mph with gust up to 30 mph for weeks here.  I hate it!  And, one day it's from the South, the next it's blowing from the North.  Been forced onto the treadmill more than once lately!

Eric - PT appointment - good call!  Ice packs are my best friend.  I love the ones that have Velcro straps attached!  Wish I had a dollar for every time my wife has said, "Will you get that out of the bed!". 

Jenny - I was checking out your website the other night.  It's looks good!  I can imagine the crapola you're going through trying to open your own studio.  I hope it goes well for you!

How many bike are you going to have, class size?

Do you teach spin classes, are you a spin Nazi?!  Haha!

Here's a fun video to keep you motivated in the off season.  Some of you have probably seen it but it's one of my favorites.

USA Triathlon Highlights

Hello, Daniel here...

Just done with an hour of cardio...  Followed my Cross Fit routine and shook it up.  This is really fun and new to me to be in a group environment. 

Jenny, I checked out your website too.  Very impressive!  Wish it was in my area.  Have beautiful snow here in Chicago.  Ran with the dogs in the park - fun seeing dogs free and playing in the snow.

Looking at a 5k in April and a half in early May.  A sprint tri is my goal in June.  At a comfortable weight...

This group is inspirational...

Who is ready to start training? Me.  I'm 57, female, about 40 lbs overweight and feel very motivated to finish a sprint triathlon this May.  I swam competitively in high school and college, ran long distances in the army and army reserves and my bicycling is very weak.  I have roughly 12 weeks til race day.  I hope not to be an Athena by the time race day comes.

Any and all encouragement/advice/ideas/tricks/tips, etc are welcome.

Linda

Due to some new cyclist, like me, I thought I would share this link from Active about finding the right saddle.  I had a heck of a time fitting my new Cannondale Slice's saddle.

The Truth About Your Bikes Saddle

The only thing I would add, after months of trying to fit my new bike last spring due to extreme numbness in private areas, is that a pair of biking shorts with only a 1/4 chamois pad (no gel) fixed my issues.  Now I own three pairs of shorts I'll never wear again due to a thick chamois gel pad.  Thicker isn't always better!

Linda - Yippee!  Another ex-swimmer in the group!

Bart/Jenny - I couldn't open your pdf on two of three computers....don't ask me.  I played around with it and came up with a link that might help if your second post doesn't work.

Tri-Training Program

I started my tapper this week for my marathon, thank God!  Doing more short speed drills now which is almost as hard the long slow runs until I get into it!  BTW, last night was my Friday.  Hello weekend!

If this group is still open I'd like to join.

NAME: Angie/tygr_tri

STORY: I grew up playing sports so competition and working out was something I did regularly as a kid and through college. Of course once life set in I got away from being active until about 2009 and I started back in the gym. In 2010, I switched gyms and did a "boot camp" class and have been hooked on HIIT every since. I love going to the gym and not knowing what the hour long class will bring me. During that time at the gym, I met my now running partner and really only began running because we signed up for an adventure race and I didn't want to embarrass her or me as we were teamed up. Fast forward to today and we've covered tons of miles and even did our first half marathon in Napa last year.

I wasn't fond of just running so I figured I'd try biking as something else to do. I mountain biked when I was in college and had heard talks of Duathlons so I signed up for one and was in the fat tire division. It was hard, exhilarating and challenging! Just what I needed, so naturally I found more. It also made me realize I'm one of very few minorities participating in endurance sports of this nature :-(Eventually I bought my own road bike after borrowing a friends for a while, then bought a tri/tt bile last year and sadly 7 months later just as I was used to the fit and the aero position, it was stolen I finally bought a new tri/tt bike last month since I was ready to start training again.

2012 RACES: I participated in 6 or 7 Sprint Duathlons, 1 half marathon, 2 10ks, and probably half a dozen 5Ks. In duathlon competiton I was top 3 in my age group (F30-35) three times and top 10 the other times. This is the year I become a triathlete.

FAMILY STATUS: Single w/2 dogs. (Terrier/Pomeranian mix-10: Poodle-3) I work as an Administrator of Clinical Research, Grants and Contracts.

CURRENT TRAINING: I'm on week 5 of an 8 week Sprint Duathlon plan but also on week 2 of learning to swim; going 3 days a week to the pool and 1 or 2 days a week strength training. I say learn to swim because while I can swim well enough not to drown, I have never had formal swim lessons and it's HARD!

2013 RACES: Sprint Duathlons and we'll see how many Sprint Triathlons but I know for sure at least one.

WEIGHT LOSS: I dropped probably 20-25lbs when I got back into working out in 2010. Right now I'd like to lose 10-12lbs and get leaner. Having a hard time knowing the amount of foods to balance all of the training I do.

I'm new to the mentee world and not sure what to expect.