TRI4ALL - Is Now FULL (Page 4)

Hello Everyone!

I'm continuing to recover from the pneumonia. I probably have another week before I'll be able to attempt a workout, but feeling better every day!

John - sorry to hear about the race being cancelled, that totally sucks! Good news on the bike acquisition though. My $.02 would be to see what the local bike shop has to say about the fit. If it doesn't take too much money to get it on the road, put some miles on it and then decide if you want to pass it on or keep riding it.

Terry - Sorry to hear about the vertigo. I've spent way too much time at the clinic lately as well. Hopefully it turns out to be something simple. Heck, I'm usually dizzy after the swim too but I believe my problem is with lack of technique!

Elizabeth - Too bad about the chargers, I was routing for them though.

Dale - Great advise on weightloss, keep it coming! I struggle daily with my "see food" diet. ( I see it, then I eat it!) Here is how I fit into your four steps right now:

Food Diary - I've started a couple of times, but haven't been successful keeping it up or accurate. I guess if I eat less there will be less to log! I'll try to make it work this time.

Food Pyramid - Actually where I work offers a free program where you can talk to a "fitness coach" over the phone. They call you every couple of weeks. Well I received my first call the other day and the person I was talking to had some very good advise as far as the types of foods I was eating. By the way, she echoed almost exactly what I was reading in the nutrition for endurance athletes book that I'm reading. I was having a hard time giving up my pasta and white rice, but I guess it has to be replaced with more whole grain choices.

Goals - I definately want to get below 200 and would ideally like to be less than 190. I started this journey at 241 and am currently 208, so I know I can do it! Once I get below the magic 200 mark I'm rewarding myself with some new jeans and a fit at the local bike shop!

Portion Control - Yikes! It's been tough, but I am making progress. The big thing that I learned here is that I'm not going to solve all of my problems in a day. I think building upon good habits over time works better and lasts longer than pure starvation. I have employed Dales technique of thinking about just how much extra work I would have to do if I ate the extra piece of pizza, etc., and it does help. It also helps when I'm tempted, to think that I know I will be faster if I'm not carrying around extra weight.

Enjoy the week everyone!

Tim

Nutrition change like exercise takes time for your body to adapt to the change. That is why most people give up when they don't get instant gratification. Set small goals and reward yourself.

John, I agree that you should invest a few bucks on getting your bike fit. Your knees will thank you for it. If the bike has been sitting on it's wheels for several years, you should get a new set of tires and tubes. Don't get talked into some expensive tires until you are ready to keep the bike. Nice bike tires can cost as much as new car tire.

Hi Dale (and everyone else),

I've been toying with the idea of gettting a Bodybugg. It's really expensive, but everything I read seems have positive feedback about using it! Has anyone had any experience / known anyone who's used one?

Dave

""If the bike has been sitting on it's wheels for several years, you should get a new set of tires and tubes. Don't get talked into some expensive tires until you are ready to keep the bike. Nice bike tires can cost as much as new car tire.""

Bought a Bontarager seat off eBay for $30. Brand new in box with a $129 origianl price on it.

I am getting new tires one day this week. They are, if I remember correctly, about $50.


Bodybugg = . Sorry. Some people who are.. uhm uhm.. lazy might find it useful but it is $300 and all it does is monitor calories taken in and burned out. That is pretty easy to monitor yourself - or to get a good idea at least. Again, if someone morbidly obese was given one it might help them get in shape and at least start thinking about diet and exercise but if you are on this forum you are past that point by a long shot and you'd be wasting your money.

I am black/white and sometimes that can hurt my standing and alter people's first impressions - I am not trying to be a jerk but I don't sugarcoat my opinions. If someone has something to say that refutes me I have no problem with that. Just giving my $.02.

My main problem is this (from bodybugg's website)

What happens when my initial 3 month subscription expires?

There are several renewal options currently available, if you decide to extend your subscription:

Month to month recurring ($14.95)
1 month (29.95)
3 months ($39.95)
12 months ($99.95)


that is very costly for something that you can do yourself.


Edited by big john h 2008-01-22 2:15 PM

Hi Dave,

I don't know anyone who has tried the bodybugg so I can't help you there. I took a look at their website. Just my $.02 worth, but I think for that money you could get a high end heart rate monitor. The HRM will count calories but will also be useful for training and racing. I've got the Polar RS200 SD which will also count calories, and give me speed, pace and distance run along with a myriad of other functions I don't know how to use yet! I paid $239 last summer for it.


Tim

Hey Everyone,

I just had to check in again. After 2+ weeks of pneumonia I finally got a workout in today! It was a very short and slow swim, but it felt good to finally be doing something again. I know I am going to have to take it easy until my lungs are back to normal but it definately feels good to be moving again

I have a contact who is a nutritionist at a cancer center and is also a triathlette. I will get back to you with what she says about the bodybugg.

Glad to here everyone is starting to get on the mend.

Here is what my nutritionist contact says about the body bug.

It seems just like an accelerometer to measure movement and therefore calories burned. It can’t measure food intake, the person is going to have to keep track of calories for that. I have a feeling that it’s not worth their money. If I were going to use it, it would be more of an accelerometer to measure physical activity.

Sounds like a good heart rate monitor and logging your food is a better way to go.

i thinkyou have to plug the body bugg into your pc. it wil lthen download your activity for the day and THEN you have to go back and enter in yourself all the food you ate and drank. whole thing seems costly. $300 to buy it. $99/year to service it.

Hey Terry, welcome back to earth! Any word on what put you into orbit?

On the subject of weightloss, here is an inspiring video:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU-lzmE_YKA

Edited by Timmeh! 2008-01-23 4:29 PM

Here are a couple of nutrition sites that look interesting

http://www.nutritiondata.com/

http://www.thedailyplate.com/

Thanks for the information. I appreciate the help.

Dave

-20F this morning on the way to work, Yikes! Doesn't look like I'm going to be working out outside for a while yet. Hope you are all staying warm!

I got my road bike all fixed up finally. I put on a new seat and new tires and tubes. I went on it for maybe 2 minutes but it is about 25 degrees here. It seemed fine. If all goes well I'll take it out Saturday afternoon.

Several questions:

My last 4 workouts have been:

#1 - 4.75 miles run in 40:30, 10 miles biked in 33:00, 300 meters swum in 7:20.

#2 - 4.33 miles run in 38:38, 8.65 miles biked in 32:00, 600 meters swum in 15:12.

#3 - 3 miles run in 23:50, 6.15 miles biked in 22:00, 300 meters swum in 8:00.

#4 - 6 miles run in 52:20, 5.85 miles biked in 20:00, 300 meters swum in 6:40.


My question is this - is this stupid? Is swimming 300 meters even worth it? Is biking 5 or 6 or 8 or 10 miles even worth it? I am confident that any running i do is very beneficial but in the pool or on the bike I just don't get enough time with each. I feel like I'm lagging. Although, honestly, it would be VERY hard for me NOT to run, would it be better for me to NOT run and instead just bike for 1.5 hours and then swim for 30 minutes? I can ONLY go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I only get a solid 2 hours to work out. I am there from 7pm - - 10pm but some of that is in transition, showering, changing ,etc. And agai nremember that I am focusing on sprints as a newbie. I will be only running 2-4 miles, biking 9 - 15 miles, and swimming about 500 meters.

Edited by big john h 2008-01-24 10:35 PM

John,
The rule of thumb is to work on your weakest sport particularly in the early part of your training. But with normal folks, it’s usually whatever you have time to do. If time is short, do a quality warmup then do some speed work. You should be able to do 1.5 times the distance of each leg of the race. Biking in the winter can be a challenge so most people work on their swim and run in the winter. I agree that you are well on your way. On your swims, don’t forget to do some easy warmups before you do any speed work. Two years ago I went through most of the season with swimmer’s shoulder from pushing it too hard when I was stressed for time.
Bricks are great if your body is ready for it. It’s a great for simulating being tired in a race. IF you have a strong base in then yes increase the number of bricks. If not, work into it slowly. You’re asking for injuries if you push it too soon.

Thanks for the guidline on endurance prior to the race. I've added my 1.5 numbers to my goals....

Dave

This will probably open a can of womrs but I don't know what bricks are?

John, congrats on the bike!

I found this definition of "brick" elsewhere in the forums: Commonly, a combination workout that includes a bike and run back to back. Comedically, "Bike/Run It Can Kill" or "Bike/Run Ick". It can be any combination of triathlon sports with less than 10 minutes between sports.

Okay. Cool. I guess I do "bricks" every time I go to the gym.

I hope everyone had a great week. The tri expo sounds like it was very cool! I did a 10k on Saturday to do some speed work HA! Well we all have dreams. I checked my results and they had me down as a female and I still didn’t place . A couple of years ago I did a 10K and the girl in front of me had a shirt the read on the back If you can read this you run like a girl and yes she did beat me. Oh well, took care of the cabin fever for a while.

I did a Carmichael cycling video today. These are great and really give you a first class workout in about an hour. I have the power, time trial, hill climbing and criterium videos. Here is a link to their main page. You can get the videos at Amazon and I am sure other mail order places.

As far as bricks go, check your training plans and see when you should start doing bricks and don’t do them too soon. To get the most benefit from them, you need do them within 10 minutes of your first exercise. For those of you who want a bit more of a challenge, try a ladder brick: Bike 30 minutes, run 30 minutes, bike 20, run 20 or reverse starting at 30 then increasing by 10 to 15 minutes. The are like swimming ladders and pyramids. The will humble you very quickly.


http://www.trainright.com/folders.asp?uid=1