Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 49)

I didn't explain abreviations, will do so if anyone needs.  So the knee is roughly 3 weeks post op, not 100% yet, but I have jogged, er walked fast maybe,  on it without the specific pain that was there for the past 4 months.  Made the IM plan on paper, it looks possible, on paper, to build safely assuming the knee is solid in the next 3 weeks. 

Oh Samantha where are your knees hurting on your long bike ride, could be a seat height issue or one or more of your cleats could have slipped in a bit angle wise? 

I think there's something in the air with the MASH unit today.  I can tell by Steve's posts that he's about ready to jump into some training and I followed his lead.  I finally put my fears to the side and got on my bike and went for a spin.  I ended up going 21 miles with an avg speed of 16 MPH.  I guess I'll take it.  Some notes from the ride: 1. I really suck at knowing when to shift up/down...assuming that comes with practice  2. riding on the road is actually fun  3. your hamstrings are used a lot more than I expected....ouchie on that.  4. your butt doesn't hurt nearly as much riding on the street vs. being on the trainer (and I made myself stay in the saddle the whole ride)  5. going 30+MPH on a downhill is scary!  6. I need to learn what max+grade, elevation gain/loss means

That's all I got for now.  Steve, I'm glad to hear (read) you are doing another group....I guess I could stick around unless I get the fully occupied sign hung up on me

Wow!  Exciting stuff.  Our Mash unit is getting better every day!

Mike D as it's been said before, amazing swim times.

Jay - Proud of you on that bike!  I am not a great cyclist but 16mph is pretty good for where you are at.  Keep it up.

Steve - exciting for you as well!  I say go for it as long as you listen to your body and not push too hard.

Just a quick drop in.  I will catch up on the posts soon.

I had a pretty good weekend.  Beach boot camp with my running group on sat, then long run of 8.25 miles on Sunday.  I'm not sure if it's the best idea to go long after a beach workout (the last 2 miles were really rough) like that because it seems to slow me down.  I think I push my long runs too much anyhow.  I think keeping it in Z2 is more beneficial ...

Steve - I am definitely hoping the wind stays at bay on race day, and I actually wondering while riding if it counted for more because it was so dang hard. Thank you for your vote of confidence for me regarding the race; outside perspective is much appreciated. I will get 3 more long bikes in before the race. I will max out at 115miles and 3 more long swims maxing at 5000 or so. This week starts my final 3 week build before I start my taper, so "it's now or never" Gonna walk 7 tonight after a 40 mile ride, then start adding the jog back in and see how it goes. So super duper excited to hear you are gonna start getting back into training. Knowing I'm out there and you are not makes me sad and I totally understand why being involved with the group is harder this time around, but thanks for letting us walk this healing journey with you. I think we have all learned so much. Tahoe better look out, and I'll take one IM faster than you   So my knees pretty much ache all over. I am gonna take my bike back and make sure the fit is good and nothing adjusted out of adjustment. But it is the worst when I'm grinding away on an uphill or against the wind. Then if I try to stand up, or when I stop pedaling on a downhill and then start pedaling again it is painful. Never has happened before and I noticed it around the same weekend I pulled my calf muscle and I was riding into some crazy wind then too. And I'll be sticking around for your next group, in case you were wondering

Mike - I do hope you get to be riding outside soon. As much as I curse the wind and rain I would take it over the trainer (most) any day.

Joe - Fantastic work on that bike and swim. I find myself often in awe of what my body can do on the days when I go farther than I've ever gone before.

Carol - I've had an allergic reaction when taking vitamins too. My lips swelled up and I looked pretty funny. Your rides over the weekend sound lovely!

Jay - what is a MASH unit? So glad you got out there on the bike. I totally know how the fear thing can be paralizing because I face it almostly daily, especially when I have a bike to do. I get really nervous being out there and nearly talk myself out of it pretty regularly, and 16mph is AWESOME! And yes, you will get better at shifting as you ride more. The first time I found myself going 30+mph I thought I was going to have a Heart Attack, but that gets better too. I can reach 35mph and still feel comfortable as long as my path is wide open. Keep getting out there and the improvements will start to be obvious in no time at all!

Anthony - thanks for you encouragement! What distance is your race? I love hearing how prepared you feel. What a difference that makes. And just keep on talking because it is so great to celebrate with you! I do the same thing when I'm excited.

So I'm off to ride 40 miles then walk 7. This is the start of my last build cycle. I think there are 55 days left before the race...unbelievable. 8 years ago I sat crying as I watched people cross the finish line. I was over-weight, out-of-shape and was still smoking cigarettes, but I wanted to be one of the people crossing that finish line. I wanted to be the person who put in the time required to cross the finish line. I wanted to here Mike Reilly say "You are and Ironman!" To God be all the glory it's gonna happen in a very short amount of time. My dreams coming true! Thanks for all the support! 

Happy Training!

Anthony - Congrats on all of life's good moment. Very exciting and good luck on your race. Will be waiting for the report.

Jay - Very nice ride. Are you sure you haven't done this before?

Mitch - Looks like you are make a nice recovery. Keep it up!

Carol - Looking for that bright side... Most of the time I think people think I am crazy but they get used to it.

Steve - No pain is a very positive sign. I imagine the trick will be building safely and avoiding farm equipment.

Is it Christmas? Ok the wetsuit arrived today and I am a little excited. Trying it on was an adventure. My wife got quite a kick out of me squirming to get in this thing. Getting out of it was not much better but I guess that comes with practice. The water temp is still hovering around 50 so I am glad to find the wetsuit keeps you so warm.

Couple tricks for getting the suit on/off:

1. Use plastic shopping bags on feet/hands to slip through the suit. Will take no time to get it on.

2. Lube up ankles, heels, wrists, back of neck (zipper area) to avoid chafing, and to help get the suit off quick.

3. Getting it off -- unzip, pull one arm out, use to help pull other out, pull suit down to waist, run to spot in T1, putt out one leg, step on suit as you pull other leg out.

Good morning everyone.  First off, thanks for the kind words about the bike ride.  It was certainly a big step forward for me to get on the bike.  As I get the day started today, my lower back is hurting me.  I find this absurd but is it normal?  I'm hoping it is.  To be clear...its a sore hurt, not a pain hurt.

My plan now is to try and bike every other day during the week.  Today will be my strength training along with swimming/elliptical.  Following Anthony's lead, I have some interesting news to share.  I was talking to my wife over the weekend and she dropped the hint that she may want to do a triathlon someday!  I'm pretty excited for her; I quickly offered my assistance if she wanted it and will now back off until she mentions it again.

Anthony: I can't believe you are so close to race day.  I'm excited for you!  Also, great news in your life.  I'm guessing you found a condo buyer...or did you accept the job.  Either way, its big news for you and your wife!

Mitch: I love how you're slowly building your running base back up; I hope I can be that disciplined when my time comes!  Your beach boot camp sounds like a future exercise dvd for the masses (at least that's how I imagine it!)

Samantha: The MASH unit is what I dubbed our group awhile back when we all seemed to be injured....there were MASH you tube videos associated, etc.  Just something silly!

Joe: I'm QUITE sure this biking thing is new to me.  In my limited experience, Mike's 3rd suggestion on how to take off the wetsuit worked well for me.  I did a you tube search and heres a visual for what he's talking about.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsWfUGL99c

Hope you all have a good day!

Mike - Nice run! Glad to hear that you got through pain free! Hopefully that continues as you train the next couple of weeks.

So when I run or ride my bike I get these weird words that pop into my head. The other day the word was cantankerous, and I kept thinking of a grumpy old man yelling at kids for walking on his lawn. Another has been gondola. I don't know where these words keep coming from. I am almost positive I never used them in my life. Probably read it...in a book. Anyone else find themselves thinking of weird shtuff when training?

Thanks for all the wetsuit advice, I plan on using as much as I can remember. This is really a 'B' event since it is new and a number of firsts for me, priority one will be finishing and finishing strong. Probably the biggest concern is the bike-run. This just kicks my butt, although it does not seems to kill the run time, I feel miserable for a the first mile or two. I'v done some brick and will have to work in one or two more. 

Mike - Great news on the HIM. Thanks.

Feel good about aprils number and will continue to focus on bike as I have enough base for the couple sprint races coming up and any attempt at HIM will be in September. Plenty of time to finish the build for a HIM. 

Steve - Please give me your 50K' view of where I am at for a HIM. Thanks. 

April

Good morning everyone.

I just returned from another bike ride.  I took the advice of my wife and did a loop around UMASS Dartmouth side roads.  The result is that I went 16 miles instead of the desired 20 but it was a lot of rolling hills as was promised.  Due to that, my speed dropped slightly from the first ride (16.17 to 15.91) but I felt a lot better on the bike.  I was a lot better with shifting and my legs appreciated me not pushing too high of a gear.  I had a near fall when I struggled to get started from a stop but other than that, I felt pretty good. 

I also put in a few texts with my swim coach yesterday.  Ever since my swimming incident, I've been struggling to find my groove.  My balance is off and everything that I know of isn't working.  After 2 texts, she helped me quickly figure out my problem.  I LOVE my swim coach; she helps me out of the kindness of her heart...but in turn, I travel an 2 hours to do private lessons during my vacations. (and yes, I think its worth it!!!)

More excitement; I did some shopping yesterday for my wife and myself.  I got my wife a tablet for mother's day.  She has hinted more than once that it would help her with work and she seems to think it'd help her when she goes for her PHD in the next year or two.  As for me, I got the Podium Quest that Steve linked at the start of our thread, a Garmin speed/cadence sensor, a tempo trainer for swimming (my swim coach swears this will help me), and a HR monitor that will link up to my Magellan Switch UP.  This is about as close to a splurge as I get...and I'm pretty excited about it. 

Speaking of the HR monitor, I'm wondering how many use HR training?  There's a big thread on zone 2 training in the triathlon talk section with lots of differing opinions.  I've never really done it for a long period of time; I've always been a perceived rate of excurtion trainer. 

One last thing; Mike, check out the articles section.  There was an article on hammy issues....maybe it'll help??!!

Have a good day all.

So once you get your base in the 3 sports solid... then you have to work harder with more intensity to get faster.  So using HR makes it so you can't cheat on your percieved effort.  If your work calls for 6x400 repeats at HR 175.... then you will see exactly what that means on your watch.  People tend to run their recovery runs to fast and their speedwork too slow.  Heart rate allows you to know where you are relative to yourself on your effort.  It will also show you signs of carying too much of a fatigue load.  It is not great for beginners because it is complicated and you really need to get a solid base and strong cardio before you start pushing LT workouts.  But yes I did a year of strictly HR workouts for my first IM.  Now I do it sometimes.  I know what paces I want to hit and occasionally correlate those to HR zones. 

So my first run was at a blinding 10:53 mpm pace for 4 miles last Sunday.  Todays run was down to a 9:17 mpm pace for 4 miles with the last mile the fastest... long way to go.  Here are my impressive totals from April, most of it done the last 5 days.  Hopefully I will be doing more than that this week. 

Carol and everyone else, any previous member is always welcome to any mentor group I do.  It doesn't matter if the sign says closed/full you are welcome to commmon in.  You can lurk, post daily check in whatever.  Also feel free to pm me any time whether a group is going or not.  Remember that I am not a coach but will share what I know or think.  

 Joe, here is the not watered down look at your training.  It looks like your training has been a bit inconsistent.  You won't be able to up your long run for HIM building without consistently getting in 3 other runs in the week.  In the last month you did this once.  Your long run has gone 6 recovery, 7,8 so long run is building appropriately.  However your weekly miles supported your 6 mile run well, bearly supported your 7 mile run and did not support your 8 mile run.  So a negative trend in your long run getting longer with less support during the week with your base runs.  That said definately solid enough to build for your HIM in Sept no problem. 

Swim... well your swim is fine for distance and frequency, just a few finishing touches and that is fine for the HIM.

Bike is also a bit insconsistent, but long bike ride is building safely and reasonably but need more weekly bike rides to support it.  Four weeks ago was your best run and bike week with 3 bike rides in.  With a long of 31 you can build to HIM distance easily within 6 weeks to 2 months no problem, just get in those suporting 2-3 bike rides a week in addition to your long ride. 

I could look at your times compared to your distances, but the biggest bang for your buck now is just getting the workouts in consistently for a month and then start worrying abit more about how the speed has been coming along.  I would probably make 1 run, bike and swim a tempo workout per week.  You can do interval work in your swim with your current base, but need a bit more run vollume before adding much more than mild hill and tempos for intensity.  Your bike is similar to your run, nail some workouts for a month then start bringing in some intervals. 

Let me know if this wasn't specific enough.  You are fine for a sprint today, you could do a him in 2 months no prolbem, you can do a HIM in 4 months and expect some increase in your pace between now and then as you can start adding in bike intesnity in 1 month and run intensity in 6 weeks ish (moderate run intensity). 

Drive by post because I'm beat.  My evening did NOT go as expected and I didn't get a run in and I'm cranky.

Steve, I want in on the next group too. 

Best of luck to Anthony and Stu in TN this weekend!!!!!!  Can't wait to hear how it goes.  I also think John has a race but we haven't heard from him in a while.  Are you out there, John?

My totals for this month seem dismal but I'm actually feeling more optimistic.  I learned a lot about treating my PF (I personally think that different things work for different symptoms) and therefore I feel much wiser.  I'm sure I'll get stupid again soon but I tried to document it so when the brain is stupid again, maybe the documentation will help.  {Anyone else love the book "Flowers for Algernon"?}  Ok, I'm off topic and need to head off to get some sleep.

Always welcome Pam. I hope you soon turn the corner on your medical stuffs.  For me it was a 6 month ish term to get back to building again.  

So there was  a TV show a long time ago 70's/80's where a medical unit during the I think it was Korean war had the day and life of the doctors helping wounded folks and trying to survive being away from their families and getting along some times better sometimes worse and having events occur around that.  The TV show was called MASH.  That is what I think of our mash unit.  

Poor mouse, sad story about human frailty where even if you acquired elite skills/ability at anything, all people are mortal and wax like the light of the sunset sun.  People don't always admire things like training for/completing an IM/triathlon because it is out of their experience and makes them feel inferior.  People who are made to feel inferior tend to be grumpy and demean those who they see as trying something really hard.  In the end big goals are worth striving for independent of what others think and even if that glory once experienced will fade.  Life is temporary and moments are to be enjoyed as they occur, even the sucky ones can be understood in the context of human frailty and the limittedness of human existence.  Why not reach for the stars, it is better than watching fake people on TV reach for fake stars.  Strength in weakness through character does not need an admiring audience.  That's all I have on the book.  Rest and recover Pam.  What did you like about the book?

Hey all.  Good news over here.  My wife received the test results of the Ambio and everything is OK.  We have a healthy baby girl that will be here beginning of October!   Very, very excited!

Training is going well so far.  Foot feels great.  Still stretching and rolling and strengthening.

I as well will be stalking Steve once again next group.  I will definitely need his expertise when I start racing again.

Here's my numbers.  Pool is back ion business so I expect more swimming this month. 

Ahhh...yes...the numbers...they do not lie:

Averages an hour a day of something resembling movement assuming one day a week off.  Better than nothing, but needs improvement!