Mad Manatees Mentor Group - VERY CLOSED!!! Sorry! (Page 45)

And what is this that I just read that everyone is down on cereal these days?  Or cereal is junk carbs?  These are serious questions as I'm still learning how to fuel my body properly.  I eat a bowl of crunch raisin bran every day... According to the label there is a pretty darn good amount of vitamins, carbs etc... low(ish) calories (I don't worry about calories because when I'm training I can't seem to put enough of them in).  It looks like it's a good cereal to eat... am I wrong?  Is there something I don't understand about cereal.  I seriously don't know if I can give up my crunch raisin bran.  Just so you know, I eat a banana with it 3 times a week (at least).  

It depends on what you read, what "diet" you follow, etc. There is a lot of literature supporting a non-grain based lifestyle as ideal, but like any diet/lifestyle, there is also controversy. If your cereal works for you, stick with it, as that is better then denying yourself.

In my case, I am trying to cut down on the amount of grains/carbs in my overall diet--When I eat a lot of wheat based stuff, I tend to have more belly 'issues' than when I base my diet upon meat (protein) and veggies. I don't know if I would want to cut it totally out, but a little less is what makes me feel happy. I really should actually work on my sugar--i.e. NOT eating any.

I seem to go through phases with cereal - Yanti will be astonished I don't eat Nutrigrain four times a day.....this is the food of Ironman in Australia (well surf Ironman...a different sport but pretty tough)

anyway right now I'm off it, just on smoothies and maybe a bagel with vegemite (another Aussie one!)

When I get on to cereal I like Muesli from an organic deli, or I make my own Bircher muesli.  Winter I love porridge (oatmeal)

I think with the training we put in, the fact that they are sugary carbs is redundant.

Best of luck with the injury gods and I hope that aquarunning doesn't become to taxing.  I don't know if I could pull that off.  On the cereal discussion... Honey Nut Cherrios, maybe not the best thing out there but I will kill a bowl of this.

You crazy Aussies. I've oft wondered about vegemite. We can actually get it at World Market here in the states but I've heard it's dreadful so I've never been bold enough to try it. Nice new avvie too, Jo.

How's this for post workout soreness.  From the awesomely rough swim last night my fingernails ache.

Well, I cramped during mine (can't remember cramping before), and my shoulders are sore.  But you surely must have leveled up as a triathlete because your fingernails ache.

I swim with a Masters group.  We will mix it up a bit, mostly to take the stress off the shoulders, especially after a hard/long set.  Maybe 100 breast or back here or there, and either of those as a cool down.  I would be willing to bet that Yanti and Chad will give you other reasons.  I know that since learning how to breaststroke properly (partly from something Yanti said) has improved my catch and pull in free.  Backstroke has improved my balance and body rotation.  But I would say the percentage is like 90%/10% for any given workout.

**I just remembered that my Masters is mostly focused on Triathletes, so maybe this question doesn't really apply to me....

Ouch.  Is that one of those "you know you are a triathlete when...."?

Great.  Now I have Men at Work in my head...

Okay I asked my coach this question - because he has us warming up free/back/breast and some fly.  All with fins.

It helps warm up the muscles.  Backstroke is great for kicking.  Breaststroke, good for getting your head in and breathing.  He also said even the most badly executed fly will benefit your freestyle.  It's the feeling of lifting yourself out of the water on the stroke, that's what you're aiming for in freestyle but it's more obvious in the fly.  Like getting out of the pool, that's the kind of push down you're aiming for.

He swims the English channel freestyle only but I see him in the pool doing all strokes.  He wouldn't if it wasn't beneficial.

The Discovery

The VEGEMITE brand has a history spanning nearly 90 years. Its story began in 1922 when the Fred Walker Company, which would later become Kraft Food Company, hired a young chemist to develop a spread from one of the richest known natural sources in the Vitamin B group – brewer’s yeast.

After months of laboratory tests, Dr. Cyril P Callister, Australia’s leading food technologist of the 1920s and 30s, developed a tasty, spreadable paste. It was labelled ‘Pure Vegetable Extract’.

I already have road shoes, but I'm pretty sure I can switch out the cleats.  Why do spinning bikes have MTB pedals?  It doesn't make any sense to me.

They serve up vegemite on sticks at IM in Australia - it is full of Vitamin B and more importantly very salty!  Wash it down with a flat coke and you're good for another 42km.  apparently,.

Personally - I throw in a bit of backstroke, but mostly to stretch out and relax.  I never do butterfly, because I hated it as a kid.  I also never do breast stroke, because the "frog" kick uses the quad muscles big time, and I use my swimming days as a rest day from running.  My legs (quads) actually feel better after a swim than they did before the swim. 

I would agree with your coach about the pull on the butterfly being beneficial to understanding the pull in freestlye, but I disagree about a the benefits of a "bad" butterfly stroke and I would never recommend a beginner try the butterfly.  It's one of the hardest strokes to do right (the timing with the dolphin kicks) Just like in freestlye, the difference in a good and a bad butterfly is the catch and pull...bent elbows etc - so a bad butterfly stroke will only re-inforce a bad freestlye stroke.

He makes us do it coz he's a sadist.  That's it I'm sure!  The newbies never do it to be honest.  My butterfly I never used to be able to do two strokes without sinking, now I'll crack through a 50m. 

Breaststroke is with fins so we dolphin kick - I can't frog kick to save myself!

His other biggie is lots of hypoxic breathing...sorry Yanti!  I'm actually good at this coz it is nice and slow, pull buoy breathe for up to 8 strokes.  Love it.  That and at the end of our sessions very occasionally we have to do 25m undewater.  I love that!  It's like being a kid again.

What I am about to write will sound like I am joking, but I assure you, I am not.  It is however ok to laugh when you read it, because I'm laughing at myself.  

Today, I was going to swim, but I couldn't get it in because I had to go buy new jeans for a 2nd date tomorrow.  I've lost 40 lbs since starting this journey, and my old jeans are anything but sexy.  I wanted some jeans that will show off my ASSets.  Because I didn't have time to swim, I decided to go for a quick run.  However, given that this was not a planned run day, I decided to take Salty's advice about mixing up the mileage, and running slower.  

(this is where you can laugh at me)

So, I'm running (if you want to call it that) at a VERY slow pace.  I tell myself I'm going to do 3 easy miles.  As I'm running, I'm already saying to myself, screw this - I NEED TO DO AT LEAST 4 MILES !!! Then the conflict in my head begins... should I turn at 3, or go to 4?  I normally do 5 minimum, so either decision is a super hard decision.  I run through the turn around for mile 3, then start feeling guilty, because I know I'm supposed to be going easy and short.  so I turn around where I know that I will be short of 4 miles.  

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS CRAZY!!! 

I literally am 1/2 way through my turn and I'm really struggling to force myself to turn around.  I start getting all this anxiety (and I don't ever get anxiety about anything) and I'm stressing out.  You see, I have this thing about setting goals and completing them, and since I decided I was going to go 4 miles, I felt I was cheating myself.  But the guilt from running more than the original planned 3 miles was killing me.  

I force myself to complete the turn, and for the rest of the run, I can't stop thinking about that stupid 2 tenths of a mile that I "cheated" myself out of!  I was feeling emotional about it.  I tried to laugh it off on the surface but I swear, inside, I was dying.  

So Salty - Please, Please remind / tell me why it's good that we run slow and easy?  What are the benefits of running slow? I easily could have ran 8 min miles and not been very sore - and I easily could have ran 6 full miles, maybe more.  Instead, I literally forced myself to run 3.82 miles in 37:24 for a 9:34 pace and it was the hardest run I have ever done.  It was hard to force myself to run that slow and harder to stop short of 4 miles.  

FYI - This week I ran Sunday - 5.6 miles (8:10 pace), Monday 10.1 miles (8:13 pace), Tuesday 5.3 miles (8:36 pace) then today 3.8 miles (9:34 pace).  Also - this story, and your answer are going on my blog.