Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 42)

Steve- I am very glad they didn't find anything serious, but also bummed you are not there yet. So impressed with you walking out this process with so much patience. You are a great example and I'm so glad you are my mentor. Thanks for the feedback. I'm ready to hit it hard and I realize I might be a little behind in my base, but I'm gonna go for it unless you have other thoughts. I know I'll be tired, but I want it and I'm gonna give it my all. It may be too soon, but I've started thinking about transition and special needs and would love your thoughts of what to pack and what not to pack.

Did a 25 mile bike today with a excellent hill climb, then ran two miles. Tomorrow I will run the farthest I've ever run - 16 miles. I know I can do it, but it will probably hurt. This weekend I will ride 70 miles. It all gonna be good, and the weather here has been quite amazing.

Job interview on Wednesday..woohoo!

Good morning everyone!

Steve: I wish your news was better but I can certainly understand you wanting them to cut you open and see what they can find.  Did you hear the constant clanging of the MRI machine all night?

Mike: Good news on your master's class.  As others have said, I wish I could go that fast lol.

Samantha: I have to ask about your running.  Do you or have you considered the 10:1 walk/run program?  I know it has helped a lot of people.  When I did Boston last year (not marathon trained) I run my 10min pace and walked the waterstops until my body couldn't handle that post heartbreak hill....then it was just survive!

As for me, I did another ladder yesterday which got me to a little over a quarter mile.  I've got to tell you...its HARD to swim without kicking!  I never realized how much it helps you move in the water....I'm just hoping that using the pull buoy will help me improve when I get my legs back.

I also did 5 minutes of pool walking and that was scary because I can't really walk correctly right now.  As my PT explained, your muscles forget which muscles relax/contract because I haven't walked properly in over 6 weeks.  It didn't hurt but as I do it, I wonder how I can expect myself to run in a few more months....I guess its like everything during this process...small steps will get me to where I want to be.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Hey Jay - Baby steps - What was the Christmas song, "Put one foot in front of the other and soon you will walking out the door...."

Samantha - Good luck on the job interview. 

March Totals

Bike   10H 38M  205.45

Run     8H 12M  46.64

Swim   7H 51M  19,028

Looks like everyone is doing great with their training.

Steve - I'm glad to hear that nothing is seriously wrong, but unfortunately they need to get the knife out. Is he going to do arthoscopic or is he actually going in with a knife. Just wondering for recovery for you.

Samantha - Good luck with the interview and keep the building going. Sounds like you really want this IM, and that is important because it will help you push through the hard times.

Jay - Keep going at it. From what I've been reading the pull bouy should hlep you get the right feel in the water. Really focus on good rotation and body position. I know when I use a pull bouy I tend to snake through the water, so I really focus on all the problems that are magnified and hope that as i slowly fix things I will slowly get faster. Then I start to think about the catch and recovery. As for the walking, I hope you keep healing and like TK said - baby steps. The muscles will slowly learn, and you will be running in no time.

Good news on my swim last night. Did not put the swim cap on and I swam 1000 nonstop and had no headache afterwards. Thanks everyone for the help. I also started breathing 3-2-3-2 which i think helps a lot also. At least it keeps me from getting gassed to quickly.

Funny you would mention that.  I haven't used a pull buoy much, but it was a small part of my warmup yesterday.  I felt like my upper body was moving side to side (on a flat plane) rather than rotating.  Is that what you mean by "snake through the water".  Seems like the pull buoy sort of encourages that, but am I understanding correctly that we should still be rotating vertically as well when using it? 

Hmmm...well Steve, not sure what to think about your news.  Hate it that you are facing suregery, but doing that rather than compounding whatever the problem is sounds like the best path to healing.  Not that we are that old, but I think of my FIL when decisions like this come up.  He should have had a knee replacement many hears ago.  Now not much he can do about it since at 95 it is not advisable.  

Jay, glad you able to water walk in the pool.  This WILL be a distant memory some day when you are crossing the finish line of your A race. 

Mike, tell your BIL we are riding this Saturday at 9:30 am.  This one may be lightly attended since it didn't make it into the announcements at church with all the Easter happenings, and several of the folks who want to ride have other events.  But Kerry & I plan to ride if it's not raining, so we would love to meet him.

Samantha, hope your interview goes well!

Steve - can only hope whatever they do lets you get back moving asap. This has been a tough thing to see happen to you. I want to see you back out there as soon as you can be!

Another beat down at the pool today. A new guy in class showed today, and I think he has gills. Just blew everyone out of the water. Did an easy 5 mile run/walk yesterday, and the  leg/hammy is OK today. Hopefully this PT is helping. Still haven't signed up for the 10k this weekend - I need to get moving!

Good afternoon everyone.

I'm taking everyone's advice and taking small victories as I get them!  I took the swim advice today and did 200y warm up, 100 ladder, and 5 minute walk in the water.  I thought it went pretty well.  I felt like I could've done more with the swimming but the group was in my head...so I executed the plan.  I did verify with my PT that the odd feelings were natural and something I have to work though....so that's what I'm going to do!

The one thing I need to do is more biking but that gave me an odd feeling last time.... so I need to get over that and do it!  Speaking of just doing it; Mike, did you sign up for that race yet

Have a good day everyone!

Thanks for the well wishes. Things have to get cleared through insurance... again so no date yet.  So 3 weeks for ortho appointment, exray, 3 weeks for MRI, probably 3 weeks till going under the knife and then hopefully 6 weeks max until being able to start building in time for the offseason.  So instead of working out I burnt up 11 tree stumps and yard trash.  

Samantha you are "ok" in your base at the moment, but you have basically 2-3 build cycles to get your bike from 60 to 120 and your run from 13 to 17 ish miles, swim shouldn't be a problem.  

Ken is in a similar boat to you Samantha.  His run base is still solid, but bike and swim not so much.  Ken don't kill yourself in ramping up, we can talk pacing as you get closer to the race.  A first IM is rarely a really fast race, so we will have to see how fit you are and how that will impact your pacing. 

Steve - I feel ya.  If anyone can make it through something like this it's you...

Steve, can you check my log and see what you think?  I want to start building a bit but do not want to do too much right off.  I have a 5 mile long run as of now but I would like to get up to 10 milers on the weekends.  Do you think I'm ready to push a bit and start training for an Olympic or something?

Jay - great job in the pool!  Way to keep the group in your head!

Samantha - fun part of training for you right now.  Get those long ones in!

I am about 8 weeks out from my first HIM and I have strained my Achilles.  Not severely but enough that I cannot run.  I am looking at it as a mixed blessing.  As Steve so accurately called it, my run base will be ok with a few weeks off.  I am going to concentrate on my swim and cycling. 

Also still working on my strengthening my core.  Lots of crunches and planks.  

If you have any questions about the achilles, let me know Ken.   Sadly, I've become somewhat of an expert on it   One free thing that I learned....achilles don't heal because of lack of blood flow to that area....buy compression socks and wear them as much as possible.  It has helped my healing a lot.

Jay, I appreciate that.  I am not even sure how it happened.  I was nearing the end of a run and suddenly it started hurting.  No misstep or stumble.  I didn't under or over stretch.  It was all pretty normal.  I gave it a couple of days and was able to walk normally and then tried to run again.  Made it about 2 miles and had to stop.  The pain was just too intense and I didn't want to risk a more serious injury or a prolong recovery time. 

From my research...that sounds like a month off due to achilles tendonitis...that's what I was HOPING for initally lol.  Do all the usual RICE stuff along with the socks and ibuprofen.

Quick fly by, finally got my race report done. Looks like some good hours logged in for March. Hope everyone is having a good week.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=483258

Mitch - ooch HIM on broken foot does not seem fun. 3 flats on top of it!. I only carried one spare and 1 CO2. I think I will add a little patch kit and small pump to my bag of stuff.

Steve - That insurance / waiting time is so frustrating. I hope it gets cleared up and you can get moving forward.

Samantha - 13 to 16 sounds like a good size increase, hope that works out for the best.

Ken - Hope you recover quickly.

I am now trying to figure out my new direction. I will probably do a couple local Olympics but those just do not motivate me as much. There are some local half's that I may try for. Hmmm decisions. I will probably get back to some light running tomorrow. I am thinking I will focus on running low intensity 4 days/week until I make up my mind.

March's totals: (including race)

Bike: 14h 29m 33s - 249.47 Mi 

Run: 12h 05m 35s - 74.09 Mi 

Swim: 2h 52m 45s - 9292.8 Yd

So I'm all signed up for my 10k on sunday. Will be a training run for me, and no 'racing' to speak of. Will also keep with my 9/1 run/walk strategy due to the hammy issue. Its feeling better, but I know its still there. Supposed to be a nice day on Sunday, so it will be a nice run along the ocean with 1,000 other folks. Don't care about time, just want to get the work in, and get a t-shirt

Samantha, hope the 16 is going/went well!  Also glad that the med adjustments are helping you feel better.

Mike, hope you have fun at the race, sounds like you have a good plan going in, so trick now is to stick to it.

Ugh, Ken, please be careful with the achilles.  Listen to Jay...he has wisdom born of experience.

Jay, glad you are being cautious with the rehab.  Sounds like you are making good headway.

Steve, hoping for a better job (either improving the one you have or a new one) and a better knee for you.

Brian, good sign you are ready to set some new goals.

I'm in kind of a different place than most of this group right now.  I just don't have the desire to sign up for any races, though I would like to be/stay in reasonable shape if I change my mind on that later.  For now I'm repeating week 1 of the free HIM program here as many times as I feel like (about 7 hours a week).  Runs are super slow, mixed with walking, and I'm glad there aren't too many miles of them.  Bike and swim I'm enjoying more.  Might get crazy and move on to week 2 of the plan in a couple of weeks.  I have no desire to do long runs, or faster anything, and it just feels right at the momet. 

I've sure come a long way with listening to my body haven't I lol....I took today off because I felt more tightness than I liked...injury does make us wise

Mike: I'm glad you signed up for the race...now execute that gameplan you typed up earlier

Carol, I think its great that you are listening to your body and doing what you want to do!  I'm sure some of this is due to your foot but I could be wrong on that.  I say focus on that bike/swimming if that's what you like right now.  You are reminding me of myself a few years ago when I gave up running after the first marathon ever.  I didn't realize I was a heavy sweater/salter so I ended up cramping up at mile 16...no clue I needed salt supplements or electrolytes at the time.  I walked until my hams/calves cramped up, jogged until my quads cramped for 10 miles.  I didn't run again for 7 months!  At the time, I thought I wasn't meant to run...I was too big, muscular, etc...so I went back to powerlifting.....and then I got the itch to do the marathon correctly around New Years.  I talked to some runners, figured out I needed salt tabs, got a Camelbak and haven't looked back since!  Very long winded way of telling you I think I understand where you are at and that its totally ok!  I think you will get an itch to compete again...but on your own timeframe and your own terms

Carol - One part that I like about triathlon is everyone is their own boss/coach. You can be as competitive as you like, and if you don't want to run for a while, there are two other disciplines to keep you busy. Enjoy the swimming and the biking. 

Samantha - Hope you have a great run. It's long, but when you are done it will be a huge confidence booster. I remember my first real long run I kept saying, "This is the longest I have ever run!" after every step. I was marathon training with my wife and she didn't think it was as funny as I did. Don't know how she puts up with me sometimes. 

Ken and Jay - Heal those achilles! Get on the bikes and in the water in the meantime.

Brain - Hope you find a race to motivate you. I think you mentioned the REV3 Wisconsin Dells earlier. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else, but if you are close its a great venue for the family.

Steve - As everyone else has already said, you have great patience and a superb attitude. Hopefully things start turning for the better with some good news in the upcoming weeks.