Slornow's and Wannabefaster's Summer Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 4)

Blanda-would not be the same without you. Always glad to have you.

Well, I'm headed out for my long/95 minute run. All pretty easy but with 3X mile at race pace on 1/2 mile easy after the warm up. If I can get it done it will complete my biggest training week of the season. Beautiful day here hopefully that will trump my tired legs and provide a needed spark. 

Hi All

So sorry for the delay in getting a bio posted, I've been busy packing and moving all weekend and am now just getting a minute to sit down. Glad to see the group is busy already!

Story: I'm Kate, 25 years old, Just finished my 3rd year of medical school- yikes! Pretty excited to be in my last year because I get to focus on my chosen specialty, and more importantly have some free time to enjoy life. Story is pretty typical-- played 4 sports growing up, kinda dropped it all when college hit. Gained the freshman 40, got pretty lazy and unhealthy. Over my senior year of college and first year of medical school really cleaned up my diet and dropped 40 pounds. Exercise has been the tricky part- very inconsistently over the last few years. I'll set my sites on a race or activity, train well for 2 months, then the next day nothing. I like to use school as an excuse- but its really not. Everyone is busy, I just need to suck it up and actually stick with it. I live in florida so really no excuse weather wise. I am hoping that by setting some shorter and longer term goals, as well as being active in this community, I will finally get the exercise habit to stick!! Oh ya, TOTAL newbie to tri! I enjoy swimming, tolerate running, and recently bought a used road bike. Can't say I'm good at any discipline, but at least I'm out there having fun!

Family: Recently married in March. My husband is one of those annoyingly athletic people who can eat whatever they want and lose weight, as well as run a marathon not trained and hung over. Grr. But we both are looking to get healthier and make an active lifestyle part of our lives.

Training: Just starting to get back into it (really let myself get lazy these last few months- school stress, wedding stress, life stress...excuses, excuses). Hoping to use a basic sprint plan for some upcoming races.

2012 Races: No tris. A few 5ks, 10K and a 15 K

2013 Season: I have a sprint in August, then either sprint/olympic in September. A few running races, possibly my first half marathon in October. Still working on getting some more on the books for short and long term goals.

Weightloss: I have been pretty lax in my eating lately, coupled with NO exercise, and I could stand to lose 5-10 pounds. I know what to do, I just need to do it.

I'm excited to be apart of this group and community. I am a total newbie, so I am excited to learn from all of you, and hope to provide some motivation along the way.

Thanks!

Kate

Mary I hear the Color Run is a blast. It is coming to San Jose for the first time and they are supporting the American Diabetes Association which is near and dear to my heart.  Since I can't run (or swim or ride) right now I will volunteering at the race.  Just doing what I can until I can do what I want.

Anyone else ever done the Color Run?

Hi guys - It's Megan (not Regan). Just wanted to correct the name thing. This group is proving inspirational already -- tried my first brick this morning which was not as bad as anticipated.

It takes me forever to warm up when I run -- usually at least a couple miles before I'm comfortable, and right now I'm maxing out at 4 miles, so that doesn't leave much time to feel good! This morning, the benefit of being warmed up from the bike seemed to somewhat outweigh any tiredness in my legs... maybe I am cut out for this sport

Megan-thanks for clearing up the name issue.

Color Run? My daughter did a Color Me Rad run in Mobile 2 weeks ago and had an absolute blast. She and her best friend are going to volunteer at another on of these runs at Orange Beach later this month.

Long run and a bit of yard work done. I have the house to myself until later this evening. My mother in law and sisters in law are hosting a graduation party for my Daughter down at the beach today. Wife is staying down there for the night and Daughter has another party to attend this evening. Thinking the next 2 hours or so will be dedicated to recovery. 

Happy Sunday!  I just got back from my 55m ride in the hills of Wisconsin.  First ride outdoors and I felt pretty darn good.  I think the more years you do this, the easier it must get.  I did very little biking this winter.  I will admit I did get lost on a supported ride.  Who does that?  I thought I was nearly done and someone told me we had a full 25m left to go.  With no water and no fuel,  I pedaled until SAG drove by and then got a ride to the start.....wimp? or wise?  I'm going with wise!

Rest day tomorrow!

What's a color run?

The guy who wrote "Can't swim, Can't ride, Can't run" did Outlaw last year and one of our friends landed up running with him for a while.  He seems like a nice guy.  We met him at a tri show earlier this year.  My husband is a big guy (very tall with a big frame) so finds him quite inspirational.

This weekend's training has gone a little awry for me.  I'm two weeks into a three week driving course at work and it's absolutely kicking my butt.  The concentration levels required are exhausting and I've just been so tired.  I had plans to do stuff yesterday and today and they pretty much all went out the window because I'm so tired.  Really needed to recover this weekend before the final week (and the test), and unfortunately in the battle between work and training, work really has to come first.  The good news is I'm feeling a lot better after a couple of days with lots of sleep and not much else.

First triathlon of the year tomorrow (it's a public holiday here), which I'm really looking forward to.  We've done the same race the last two years and it's a good opportunity to see how my training is going.

I rode outside for the first time this year in Edmonton today!! Woooooo. 

Studying now. I'm in full out anti-studying rebellion right now. I'm glad I booked my exam tomorrow and not at the end of the week. lol. I've taken to just writing out lists of randomness on pieces of paper. Have a coffee date with an army guy later. Calling it pre-exam distraction.

A Color Run is the Happiest 5K on Earth! It's a non-competitive run where they have color stations set up on the course and people throw colored cornstarch on you! It's a lot of fun, but stay away from orange, or you'll end up looking like an oompa loompa, lol

Thank you everyone for your training input. I hope I don't get burned out in the end. The Oktoberfest is my A race and I really want to kill it this year!

Hello to all the new folks! 

Here's my Race Report from Rev3 Knoxville Olympic:

Knoxville Race Report 

The weather was miserable! It was cold and rainy for literally the entire weekend, but I really liked the race. The course was good and I'm really happy with how I did. I feel like my training is definitely putting me on track for a solid performance later this season. 

A couple notes from the race:

• Rev3 did their best in the conditions, and I respect them for that. There were tons of volunteers and they put on a great race in awful conditions.
• My swim start was awful, but I recovered. It was so cold!
• The bike was freezing, and some of the downhills were pretty scary. I was glad when it was over.
• My run was great. I felt good; it might have been my best run ever up to this point.

I'm very glad tomorrow is a rest day! Then it's back to training...and I will miss last week's taper week, a lot.

Even with the crappy weather this weekend, I had a really productive training weekend.  Saturday's 3 hour bike ride with the bike shop was cancelled (RAIN!), so I did my own little 'tri' at the YMCA.  Went to spin class, followed it up with 3.5 miles on the treadmill and then did a 20 minute swim with hand paddles.

Today was a swim focus day.  Pushed myself to rest less between laps (I find swimming SO hard in comparison to running or cycling), did my drills like a good girl, and finally feel like I'm making some progress with my freestyle.  Swimming 1500 in the middle of a lake or river still seems pretty daunting, but with my month of weekly swim lessons, I'm at least more confident with my swim stroke than I was a month ago.

Calling for more rain this week...I really need to get my hands on a bike trainer!  I've had some issues with bike fit (meaning my girly bits are NOT happy that I started cycling), and my bike fitter made some adjustments that felt good on Tuesday (when we made them), but it's rained every day since, so I haven't been able to sit on MY bike.  I'm hoping for a break tomorrow so I can get 20 miles in.

I'm loving the challenge of the three disciplines thus far!

Nancy

Nate.....what were you waiting for an invitation or just waiting till you crushed it at Knoxville Rev3? Welcome back.

Jamie-great report and even more impressive work at Rev3. I've never been in a race in those types of conditions. Props to you for doing such a great job. Your progress continues with each race. Nice job. 

Dave-good work at the HM. Seems like crappy weather is the theme for the weekend. Good experience as Jamie and Nate can attest.....you never know what conditions will be like on race day.

Randee-are you going to be with us again this time?

Name: Nate

Story: I swam before I could walk and swam competitively throughout my childhood, but gave it up after sophomore year of high school. I guess I haven't lost much technique because it's my best event by far even 15 years later. I ran a lot when in ROTC for the Marine Corps, but they didn't really teach us "how" to run, so I never liked it. Eventually I screwed up my back and was medically disqualified from getting a commission due to tears in my lower discs and degenerative disc disease.  I'm convinced it was due to a lot of running and poor running form. Fast forward to October 2011. 6'1" 240lbs. Pre-hypertensive borderline alcoholic.  Doc said shape up or suffer the consequences, so I started running a bit with friends and significantly decreased my drinking. June of 2012, I switched my diet to entirely plant-based and learned from his wife that my buddy Jamie (sure to introduce himself to this group soon) was doing triathlons. For some reason, in my readings of plant based diets, Triathlon racing always came up. So I got in touch with Jamie and he pointed me here! This will be my 3rd time with this group and I can say that it's a great one and I'm glad to be in it! With advice and support from here, I've dropped down to 180lbs and have come to love this sport. Surprisingly, I've learned that running is way more fun when done correctly and that I don't have to run like my life depended on it (as was the NROTC method) in order to make huge speed gains. My back also tolerates it much better now that I've improved my form.  Glad to meet you all and I'm looking forward to the 2013 summer triathlon season!

Family: Living with my fiance of 3 years at the moment! I love her to death and she's been extremely supportive of me through this whole new Tri-adventure. We were engaged on the 26th of December and are planning for a destination wedding in Jamaica August 30, 2014!

Training: Using the Don Fink "Be Iron Fit" book currently. My A race this year is Ironman Louisville. I just completed an Olympic Distance Tri in Knoxville as part of the training plan this past weekend and am more than excited about the upcoming races this summer!

2012 Races: 2 Sprints, 1 "Sprinternational" and an Olympic. I raced as a Clyde in both Sprints and was able to get my weight to 190 for the "Sprinternational" and Olympic! Got 2nd place in my second Clyde race and 4th in my age group for the Olympic!

2013 Season: I'll start off with a bunch of Sprints leading up to the Raleigh Half Ironman in June. Might do another Sprint in July before my main race of Louisville Ironman in August. Will most likely finish up the season with Rev3 Anderson in October. If I don't fizzle out by then, I'll do the Half Iron distance of that race.

Weight loss: I've dropped 10lbs since I started training for Ironman in January. Since my weight loss journey began, I've dropped 60 total and am now hovering at about 180lbs.

What will make me a good mentee?: I love reading and learning from everyone here mentors and mentees alike. This will be my 3rd time as a mentee and I've learned so much. I think now I have enough experience to contribute and help others along on their path to greatness