McFuzz's Mentor Group 2011 - CLOSED (Page 48)

Cool on the weight loss!  One thing I had to do was NOT let the mental aspects of weighing in get to me.  So many things can cause a temporary plateau.  I had to understand no need to get suicidal over a few weeks seemingly not getting somewhere.  My answer was to stop weighing in at all for months at a time.  Let my belt and the clothes sizes do the talking.  I logged food, was good about exercise and knew if I adopted a healthy active lifestyle biology would do it's thing.  Now I weigh in once a month at most. More in turn with the fact I'm in 32-33 waist.  When and if they ever get tight, I will look at things more closely again.  Right now my concern is fueling while exercising while being concerned about weight gain.  My question on that was featured on the newest Endurance Planet podcast with Ben Greenfield You can find it at the website or at EP on FB. 

Hard SEs today.  3 X 20 mins with 3 X 1 min pops at 120% tossed into every interval.  The coaches notes begin..."These are the hardest SEs...."  Great!    Going to get to it.  Have to work at an outdoor show later on.  May do a brick with a moderate 30 min treadmill too.  Tomorrow is 3 hours on the IM Moo course, longest yet.

Anyone try the Rumble Rollers yet?

You all have a great day!

 

 

Happy weekend!  I'll be heading out shortly for my LR.  Going to try one more time to hit 10 miles.  The weather is pretty good here today so I'm going to head outside - woo hoo!!  A lot of the sidewalks are still snow-covered but I think if I stay within my subdivision and the ones nearby I'll be OK.  Got to take advantage of it - they're predicting another snowstorm for us on Monday.

Are you doing Ben Greenfield's training plan?  If so, how do you like it?

Ann-Marie

Have a great weekend everyone!  Wish I could say it was sunny here in the desert, but we've been socked in with some inversion for days.  Nothing but grey...we're all starting to get grumpy!

Well I did my Tropical 5k today. I did a lot of coughing and got a stitch but I did it and it was OK. Before I got sick I was hoping I'd do 35/36, my previous best was 40:56. I broke 40, so I'm OK with that. There were over 2000 people in this 5k! My first mile was 15 minutes! there were SO MANY people. It was beautiful...we basically started in the bay, ran past the cruise ships, and headed for South Pointe Park on South Beach. Gorgeous way to start the day!

I was fit for my new bike. I''m getting a Trek 3.1 WSD. I will order it on Monday or Tuesday. I also got some new bike shoes and pedals for my spin bike. I'm taking it BACK from my husband! If he wants to ride, he'll have to clip in!

My husband runs the ING Miami Marathon tomorrow. Mile 14 is right here at our building. I'll be ready with supplies and a BIG HOT PINK SIGN! It's a great event and it's bigger than ever this year...I find myself incredibly moved and inspired by marathoners. I hope to be one by next year. It was 48 at 7 this morning, and it's supposed to be cool tomorrow too. I think we are 71 degrees now at 4:45. Good running weather. I'm swimming tomorrow morning...I got rolfed today and I feel very nice and loose.

Gmer and Ree... good job on the weight loss! and the running and swimming! Sorry about your spouses hours getting cut my friend Soccer...that's awful. I had one of THOSE weeks this week... grrr. but I am happy to be gainfully employed.

Edited by stephsprint 2011-01-29 3:50 PM

 Congratulations on your race and good luck to your husband tomorrow. I'm sure he will appreciate your support during the run.

" I think we are 71 degrees now at 4:45." 
 You are so lucky! (I know I'm a complainer since I'm not near as cold as some of us, but I really don't like winter weather)

No Ann-Marie.  I have a coach from Vision Quest out of Chicago.   He is a bike coach but rolls my swim and run into an over all workout plan.  I tweak it a little...never the bike, that's his area...but I do change up swim and run workouts based on my Masters swim coach and running instruction from mentors in my running club.   A VQ athlete is a runner who did IM Wisconsin.  He's offered to help, too.     That said, Ben Greenfield seems like he is extremely knowledgeable.





Edited by IceManScott 2011-01-29 10:42 PM

This weekend has been tough...
Friday- 50 min trainer @ 100rpm, 1.5hr run to follow- did it... 10.7mi on the run
Saturday- I was supposed to get a 4 hr trainer in yesterday w/ a 30 min run. Well I must say I hate the trainer so I only got in 2.5 hrs, w/ a 50 min run after... But overall feeling good w/ both workouts. The workouts are just as hard as last year but I feel like I can complete them a bit easier (other than the bike). I'm going to make sure I get my trainer rides in from now on!!!

Yoga is for sure on tap today!

Edited by laurak11 2011-01-30 7:55 AM

Congrats on your 5K Steph ... That's awesome!!

Hope your hubby does well. I did the ING MIami in ) 08 and loved it! Great course.

Edited by laurak11 2011-01-30 7:44 AM

Good Morning my fellow Fuzzies.  I haven't been around in awhile due to work travel.  I took a break the past two weeks to focus on the yesterday's challenge.  I completed the BigD climb in Dallas.  52 stories of fun.  It took longer than I thought, but was a fun challenge anyway.  Race Report to come soon. 

4 hours OMG!  That would put me over the top.  I do 3 hours today and that is my limit inside.  I might be able to do 2X workouts and cut it in half or even 2.5 and 1.5 but I would not do that long.  My butt just wouldn't let me.

Nice bike.  You'll have to post a picture when you get it.

Congrats to everyone on their weight loses and great training. Reading all your posts, I am a bit envious of those you who have been skiing, but am absolutely not envious of those long trainer rides - the longest I've ever made it on my trainer is 30 minutes! 


Ann-Marie

First outside ride in a long time, little slower than I expected but Ok, avg 13mph. It was a new route so maybe next week will be little faster since i already know the way and what to expect, lots of climbs.

Now the question from someone that has no idea of technical names so I apologize for the newbie vocabulary

let's name the front gears A, B, C with A being the smallest and C the largest
and the rear gears numbered 1 to 8 with 1 the largest and 8 the smallest.

I understand that on a straight surface using C8 will be the fastest same on a downhill and uphill one may use A1.

now if the incline is not so hard, if it more beneficial use B8 or C6 for example?  
what combination will give you more speed with less effort or it varies from people to people? 

same on a hill, would you go all the way to C1 before changing the front gear or not?

I used t ride bikes a lot when in High School (commute mostly), but my cheap parents always believed that gears in bikes were luxury so now that I got myself a bike with 24 I don't know how to use them 

Congrats Steph and BigD!!!  Can't wait to read your race reports!

I got in a 4.65 mile run today - it was beautiful out so I decided to take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, I will be stuck inside till at least Thursday. We are expected to get a huge winter storm starting tonight. High on Tuesday is expected to be -13 (yeah that's right that is a negative sign) and low will be -28!!!!! need warm thoughts my way!

Edited by robingray_260 2011-01-30 4:47 PM

Good deal.  3 hours on the Computrainer doing the IM Moo Real Course Vid and then an house continuous in the pool, 2600 yards.  Good day.

Congrats on the outside ride! 

Do a web search for sheldon brown.  He wrote a lot of articles on cycling before he died a year or two ago.  I'm pretty sure someone is still maintaining them in his absence. 

The front gears are called chainrings.  A typical road bike will have two chainrings with 53 teeth on the bigger ring and 39 teeth on the smaller one (a 53/39).  "Compact cranks will be either 50/36 or 50/34.  Triple chainrings often have something around 52/42/30 and are called "triples." 

The rear gears are the freewheel (old technology) or cassettes (new technology).  Technically, the freewheel is the ratcheting mechanism that lets the wheels turn when you're not pedaling and the gears are called a "cluster."  On road bikes, the rear cassette will be called an 11-21 (meaning an 11-tooth small gear and a 21-tooth big gear).  Typically, the smallest gear is 11-13 teeth and the biggest is 21-27 teeth (mountain bikes and touring bikes might have a 30 or 34 tooth "low gear") 

You can get some idea of the mechanical advantage by realizing that the chain connecting the chainring to the cassette gear doesn't stretch, skip, or anything else.  So...if you make one revolution of the pedals and you're using the small ring, you move the chain 39 links.  That means the rear gear also moves 39 teeth.  If you're in the 19-tooth gear, that's 2.053 (39/19) revolutions.  If you're in the 13-tooth gear, the rear wheel has to turn 3 revolutions.  If you're in the big ring, one revolution is 53 teeth, 53 links, and the rear wheel has to turn 2.789 or 4.077 times for the two gears I've selected.  (Now you understand why the big ring-small gear is so hard to pedal...)  Sheldon's website has some calculators where you can enter the number of teeth on each gear and calculate the ratios.  "Old school" cyclists might print a small table of gear combinations and the resulting speed and tape it to their top-tube.  Modern cyclists use a cycle computer with cadence (measures the revolutions of the crank). 

So find a gear combination that gives you 2.5 rotations of the rear wheel for each crank rotation.  You could use the 39 tooth ring and the 16-tooth gear (2.43) or 15-tooth (2.6).  You could also use the 53 tooth ring and a 21-tooth gear (2.52).  So which would be better?  If you look down along the rear wheel, you'll see that the chain is on the outside ring on the crank and the inside ring on the wheel.  The gears are flat, so every time a link slides on or off a tooth, it "scrapes" the tooth.  This is noisy and inefficient.  Your chain will scrape less if the path between the front ring and the rear gear is a straight line...Less scrape means more of your power goes to moving the bike forward! 

In general, faster pedaling cadence puts stress on your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) while slower cadence stresses leg muscles.  It's easier to change your cardiovascular capacity with training, so most people try to ride with a cadence between 85 and 100 (target 90).  Much above 100, and you're legs are pumping furiously and it's hard to have good form so you rock back and forth and are generally not very stable.  Below 85, you're putting a lot more stress on your legs and also your knees.  Yea, sometimes, even in your easiest gear you can't pedal 85 or 90 RPM, but hopefully, that isn't too common. 

What he said.  And it's better to keep the chain in  or near the middle of the cassette in back when you can rather than have it stretched.  Of course depending on the climb, you are in the smallest gear up front and the biggest gear in back wishing to god you had another gear in back - if you are like me.  I use a 12/27 in back and will be getting an 11/28 for better climbing and faster level times. That little gear in front you have is called a granny gear.  Great for climbing really steep climbs.  You can do the same with two front gears called  a compact.  Smaller big and little gear in front.  Makes pedaling up hills easier.  I have one on a road bike and like it.  Also have a new SRAM RED compact for the TT bike.  Debating whether to use that in Wisconsin. 

How ironic that last weekend I posted that I was glad Feb was one week away since psychologically the beginning of Feb seemed like turning the corner on winter.....
Blizzard watch for northern Illinois.  Major storm heading our way.  Figures. 
Looks like the treadmill this week. 

I am not sure if you can import the entire plan all at once, but I did figure out that you can make your own plan, which I started a few weeks ago.  My coach has a plan for me week by week, so I created a new plan here on bt, then just input the planned workouts a couple of weeks at a time... that got old and pointless, so now I just look to one website for my schedule and then log it here on bt.  Good idea, but quickly became too time consuming (and ultimately pointless to anyone but me).

Here's to your inner-fish! Good going! 

Oh, that must be SO much fun! Enjoying him has to be the priority...understood. 

Have you ever seen "Running the Sahara"? VERY inspiring.