Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 43)

Like everyone else, I'm glad Nate is OK. That's a scary situation; my only wreck so far was another clipless pedal incident. I pretty much just fell over in front of my house, nothing really hurt but my pride. I got my 1 hour trainer ride in last night, and my 2,500m pool workout yesterday morning. Today is a 1-hour run, and will probably be on a treadmill since it's pretty nasty outside today. 

I was really lacking in workout motivation yesterday. I'm torn now between trying to keep my "streak" alive, and taking a day off if I want. I haven't missed a workout since I started in January, and I'd love to finish February without missing one. However, yesterday I just felt tired, and not just in my body, even though my legs were tired, but just didn't want to get up and go do it. But...I did, and I'm glad I did, so I'll keep going. I think maybe I need some sunshine, which is good, since Sunday is supposed to be nice outside.

SWIM DONE!  Hooray!!

He's actually doing VERY well, thank you for asking  He goes back to work next week and PT says they will likely unlock the brace next week and it may come off the week after (2 weeks ahead of schedule).  They say he's so far ahead of where they'd like him to be they have to keep reminding themselves to not push him too hard LOL

FYI every person I know has the same ending to the story about the first time they tried clipless pedals: ".......and I fell."  LOL and I was no exception

Another day of good workouts done ... 30 minute hill repeat on the bike followed by 15 minute hill repeats running. After that we got back on the bike and did the whole thing again. Nice 90 minute workout that was followed by some food and a 2200 yard swim. Now I am wiped and ready for my nap ... :-) 

Nate - I am glad you are ok and I have to say I am happy that I have not yet had an accident. I still didn't fall on my face while trying to get out of my pedals either ... oh oh I hope I didn't jinx myself ... 

Another weekend full of workouts coming ... how is everybody and what is on the training plan for the next two days?

After three straight days inside on a stationary bike and then a treadmill I finalloy got outdoors again.  I managed an 80 min ride but the legs felt pretty beat up.  Still, it has been a productive month with one week to go.

Everybody keep up the great work.

Thanks for the well wishes! It should be fun, at least.

Jason: That crash sounded like an epic one. Yikes!

Randy: The fun will be in getting to cheer on friends after I'm done swimming, haha! Since Xterra is a 1500m swim, it'll be nice if I take off a chunk of time in the 1500m in this Olympic tri. It'll give me some confidence for Xterra. I think swimming at where this Olympic is being held is harder than where the swim is for Xterra. I'm hoping for a big improvement!

Weight training: I've been throwing some in for a while now. Some weeks I don't get any in, sometimes I get a couple days. I've been doing a lot of assisted pull ups and squats and it's helped with the hike-a-biking on MTB rides. For swimming, the limbs don't get tired like they used to. My open water turns and my take off from them are quicker. Turning into current isn't as much of a struggle. So, I think it's been helpful for me.

I didn't get a swim in yesterday. The kids were not cooperative. Hopefully husband's not at his conference all day and can get his 20 mile run done before it's too late for me to do any training. If he gets home when there's still light, I can get a bike/run in.

Have a great day!

Randy - hope hotel treadmill goes well.  I am too familiar with this.  I get bummed when hotels close their rec rooms at 11 instead of leaving them open 24/7.

Nate- I too am glad you're alright.

Jason - that's hardcore to finish your ride after breaking you fingers!

One of my worst crashes involves being launched from my cycops trainer, flying through an open door then crashing into a large shelf.  My feet never unclipped. My wife at the time came runing down and just asked me "what are you doing?".  I was bleeding from mulitple sites.  No serious injuries except to my pride. 

Another one was when I was doing a century ride.  At about mile 90,  I had to pee and thought I would pull over.  As I broke my stride, I got leg cramps in BOTH legs and sailed into the brush. I was unable to stop.  I landed in a mixture of gravel and thorny bushes.  The 90 degree heat, mixed with sweat and mulitple tiny puncture wounds made for a very painful rest of the ride.

Im sitting in the ER waiting for my next admission.  Only one more night to go then I return to a more normal schedule.  I did a decent trainer ride (watching the Nutty Professor, Klumps) before coming into work.  Funny movie!  Jim

Home at last. 7 miles on the treadmill this morning. Fortunately there was TV feed so it really wasn't too bad. Soccer wasn't pretty. Girls managed a tie in their last game today with my daughter scoring the only goal for them of the weekend.

Tomorrow is long bike and longish swim. Weather looks iffy for riding outside. We have had a ton of rain here. Would sure be nice to get outside on the bike.

Like Brian, I've been MIA for a while -- both on the forum, and on my training.   Bad combination of

(a)  a Disney vacation with the kids -- lots of fun, but very hard to find time for workout  

(b)  visiting relatives, which again was fun but the treadmill is in the guest bedroom!    Managed to go skiing a couple of days but that's it

(c)  work kind of exploded -- working on two simultaneous projects in two different cities so lots of time spent either rushing to/from the airport, or scheduling late-night conference calls

Anyway -- I could beat myself up for putting training on hold for 3 weeks, or I can be proud that I'm re-establishing my routine when previously I might have returned to the couch full-time.  I'm back up and running (have done treadmill runs the last 3 days in a row) and now excited about the first tri just 7 weeks away.

Also finally caught up on the forum -- lots has happened here!  Earthquakes, surgeries, injuries, bike crashes... this forum is not for the faint of heart!

My wife is currently in Florida -- in about 2-3 hours she'll be running the Disney Princess half-marathon (her first).  Meanwhile I'm taking care of three kids under the age of 7.  You tell me who is getting an endurance workout.  

Scott.

The swim today was nuts. The current was so strong, there was a portion of it where I wasn't even moving no matter how hard I was working when the pull was strong.  Finally figured out that I needed to just do enough to not get pulled back too much on the pull in, and get as many strokes as I could in when I got pushed out a bit after. At one point, again, I drifted so far out away from the course, a paddler had to come lead me back in. My friends who were doing the relay with me were actually worried thinking I was in trouble.

Every time I hit that patch of strong current, I struggled. I never panicked, but I did have to stop and tread a few times to gather my wits and find the buoy. The paddlers were great. They knew I wasn't freaking out, just struggling. They encouraged me each time I stopped to figure out where I was.

I was out last, but the crowd was small and I wasn't too far back from them. So, I took comfort in that. I took 3 minutes off of my Xterra time, so that made me feel a little better too. I did take my first kick in the ribs from a breast stroker, LOL! I know who it was too because he told me he was going to breast stroke the whole swim and I recognized his trisuit. I have to pat myself on the back though. There was a large portion of the area where to current was crazy strong that was shallow enough to stand. While a good many walked that part, I swam. Xterra doesn't have many shallow parts. I need to be prepared for that.

OK, that was my "race" report. The rest was fun just cheering on my teammates.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Scott/Brian-thanks for checking in.  Good to hear from you guys.

Dave-glad you are feeling better.

Blanda-way to stick with it and finish. OWS is just a whole different animal. So many variables to deal with. Your swim should be a confidence builder heading into your Xterra race. Good job!

Going to head outside and try to get my ride in before rain returns. Will check in later. Enjoy your Sunday! 

Blanda, that sounds like a pretty challenging race, especially the swim! Good job giving it your all!

I had a great ride with Nate this morning. It was about 50, so still had leg warmers and gloves on, but it was sunny and much better than 30 degrees! We did a 2-hour ride, and I felt pretty strong the whole time, except for the last 10 miles, or so, which were on pretty rough road. Overall, though, it was pretty wonderful outside, so a good ride!

WOW Blanda - nice job!  I totally would have freaked out.  Glad you still managed to do well too!!

I've been slacking a bit - not completely just not doing everything I should be.  I've been trying to get a little (and I mean LITTLE) running in.  Today I walked .25, ran .5 and walked .25 and that was it.  I've been doing errands and getting ready for another long work week ever since.  However, no sense beating ourselves up like Scott said!

Also, Scott I'm curious to hear how your wife's weekend went and if she enjoyed the Disney HM.

And so tomorrow begins another day of back to the grind.  Swim Monday morning

Oh I'm also going to call my Dr office and see if he will get me some PT to help me get back into running.  I don't want to injure myself again.

Enjoy the Oscars if you're into that sort of thing

Blanda great work on the swim and the race.

This has been a tough week.  The winds have really kicked up so today was only my third day out this week.  I did an unusual route today so I would be heading out into the wind and have the wind at my back on the return.  Still a slow turn at just 16 mph but I really wanted to get a ride in today.

Tomorrow may be another involuntary off day.  I have a booked schedule all day.  I still need to get one more day on the road in this week to go over 400 miles on the bike this month.  Sitting at 380.99 right now.

Hope everybody has a great week.  Let's close out the month strong!