kmarzano's Group - FULL (Page 5)

Happy Friday ladies. Thought I would resume the end of week inquiries into how and what everyone is doing for their weekend. I'll start.

Staying in tonight. Tomorrow I have a one hour run in the morning (we'll see how that goes with the freezing ice and snow that's moving in) and then Dan and I are supposed to attend a "Zombie movie night" at one of his friend's house. Apparently a group of six or seven of us are getting together to watch some really creepy and some really cheesy scary (mostly zombie focused) movies and drink beer. Then on Sunday I have a trainer ride during the day and a book club with some friends. But since I haven't read, indeed haven't even BOUGHT, the book, I'll plan on sitting back and enjoying the movie only.

What does everyone else have planned?

oooh! Zombie night! how fun!

My ex-bf and I went through a phase a couple of years ago where we watched pretty much any zombie movie we could get our hands on. Needless to say, I had a lot of zombie dreams (nightmares?) during that time. That was maybe 2.5 years ago and I STILL have the dreams sometimes- had one last week actually involving people from church living in my work building in order to escape the zombies. (Dave and his sister were about to be eaten when I woke up!)

Seriously, Dawn of the Dead (the remake) is pretty creepy, cause the zombies are FAST! I hope you have a fun night, but don't have any scary dreams!

As for my weekend... well, we are going to GatorLand today, and one of the Disney parks tomorrow (still haven't decided which one). We went to Kennedy Space Center yesterday, and to Bahama Breeze for dinner. It was great! The best part was all the wildlife that we saw. (KSC is on a large island that is also a nature preserve.) I'll detail it in my log. We had a really great time, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend!

Hope you all are having a good weekend, too!!!

Wow. Zombie night? That sounds scary already. I can't stomach horror movies, and whenever I watch them I have to watch it during the day with plenty of light or else I psych myself out. Hope that turned out good. Great job on that 4 miler! That's really fast, I run a 5k in that time . This coming week I hope to get back into the swing of things, i.e. work out 'consistently', which is hard enough for me as it is. This weekend I am planning on going to multiple locations to look at wedding sites because...I got engaged last week! So, I guess that's what I'll be doing for the next several months. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Oh my gosh Jennifer. Congratulations on your engagement!!! That's wondeful news.

I guess we can cut you some slack on not working out consistently all things considered. Definitely keep us posted as wedding plans progress.

Happy Monday ladies!!!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I also hope everyone's training is going well. I wanted to inquire again if there is anything I can do to help encourage all of you to stay motivated, register for specific races, or with anything else.

For those of you who may want to get more or more formal training in as the season draws near, I wanted to remind you of one of my posts from the beginning of the thread about US master's swim teams. They have them in almost all cities and if you need a little motivation and coaching with your swimming they are a great idea.

I also wanted to suggest to everyone who hasn't already put up a race schedule or registered for any races that now is a great time to look for 5ks or organized bike rides in your area. As the weather warms up there will be a lot more of them scheduled. They are a great way to help get you motivated, they help give you a sense of where you are with your endurance and pace, and they give you an actual goal to work towards. That always helps me stay a little more focused on my training anyway, but I'm overly goal oriented like that.

Anywho, I hope everyone had a great Monday and please chime in if you have any thoughts on this.

Kelly

Edited by kmarzano 2007-02-26 5:37 PM

Jennifer, Congratulations on your engagement! That's so exciting!!! So have you picked a date yet? Found any good sites for the ceremony?

Good luck with all the planning- I haven't gone through it myself, but I imagine it's a lot of stress and work. I hope you enjoy the process, though! When you find a dress, you'll have to post a picture... I love looking at wedding gowns.

Kelly, thanks for all the tips you've given us so far. I have to say that having a group here on BT is really nice; I hope everyone has benefitted as much as me. It's good to know you'll have people checking in on your logs.

I haven't really checked in on this thread with my progress so far, but I'm feeling really good with my training. My feet and knees have managed to stay injury free so far, and I'm just building up running distance very slowly. I've been getting back to swimming, and love it, but I have yet to get in any cycling minutes this year. Hopefully that will change this week when I get my trainer put together, though!

My other exciting news is that I've managed to convince three women from my church to train for a women's-only tri with me this year. And I've got another 3 complete non-athletes at work committed to training for a 5k in July. I get so excited about training and motivating them all, I keep thinking if I do get laid off at work, that I should seriously consider getting a job in this field. It is more interesting to me than corporate finance, but I'd also really like to work as a non-profit personal financial advisor. We're supposed to find out at work next Friday who's getting laid off. Our organization has to cut headcount by 25%, so we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ok, I'll stop rambling now... happy Wednesday, and I hope you all have a great rest of the week!
-Linda

Wow, Linda, you're doing great over there recruiting and encouraging non-tri people to train for a triathlon/5k. Hopefully you won't get the pink slip, but it looks like you've found an area that would be rewarding for you as well as others for a career perhaps? For the wedding, I think we're aiming for November 10th because it's offseason for weddings (hence hopefully cheaper prices) and in CA I'm hoping the weather will be nice. I did find a good site in Laguna Beach, it's sitting right by the ocean with a view of the whole coast and the islands, but it's a taddd over our budget so we'll see what happens there. The wedding does look like it'll be a lot of stress and work, I'm already stressed! But I'm hoping when it's all said and done it'll be a great memory to look back on. So thanks and I'll be sure to keep the updates posted!

As for training, I'm hoping to get a swim in this week before the bike tour race in LA this weekend. I haven't been riding my bike for a while, and the race is 20 miles, but I think with the immense anticipated crowd and the flatness of the route it hopefully won't be too bad. That's pretty much what I have planned for this week! Hope everyone else is doing well!

Seriously Linda. How are you getting so many people? Most of my friends, family, and coworkers just look at me like I'm crazy. Except my Mom. I recruited her. But it's socially predetermined that she's supposed to care what I'm doing.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you regarding work

Good luck and have fun at your race this weekend Jennifer. It sounds really fun. I can't wait to read about it. Does it get televised at all?

Kelly

Well, now the number of coworkers who are "signed up" to train for the 5k has grown to 7. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are even a few more more by the time we start. It must be my infectious enthusiasm.

I wonder how many of them will actually finish though (hopefully all!).

Hello Ladies,

Happy March to you all. We're one month closer to the summer tri season. How is everyone feeling?

Back in January I suggested the idea of a group challenge (everyone try to get at least one day of each sport in each week). No one seemed prepared at the time, but Linda has suggested she might be interested in doing something for March.

Since everyone is at such different stages in their training and has such different ultimate goals, I thought we could make the challenges more individualized. Each of us could pick one or two things we're going to work on for the month of March, post it here on the forum, and then list it under our short term goals on our blogs. I'll definitely play. I'll think about it over the weekend and see what I can come up with for my goal(s). Is anyone else interested?

And what does everyone have planned for the weekend?

Kelly

Sanja,

From what you just posted above, and from looking over your logs, I get the feeling that you are probably one of those 100%-or-nothing kind of people. You have lots of great goals and plans set in place, but maybe when there is one slip in the plan, you might get frustrated and want to give up. I know I tend to get this way! I'm very much a perfectionist, and if I can't do something perfectly, I don't want to do it at all.

Maybe this isn't really the case for you, but if it is, just try to take each day on its own. Make little goals along the way for yourself, like, "I will do 50 crunches today," or "I'll walk for 15 minutes today." This is the only way I'll be able to do the pink square challenge. There's no way I could do a major workout every day, but knowing that I'll have a pink square every day is a huge motivator to do today's workout, whether it's simple or hard. So my advice would be to set everyday goals along the way (not just for exercising, but for diet too, like "I'll eat 3 fruits/veggies today"). You can see some of these types of goals I have on my log. Meeting these little goals really helps me feel like I am accomplishing something and definitely helps keep me motivated towards my bigger goals. Hopefully, you will find that you have enough energy to do these small goals and that once you get on track with those, you will have even more energy and motivation to start fitting in the bigger workouts.

This is just my $.02.... but I know you can do this- Like you said on your log, you won't give up until you succeed. That is absolutely the right attitude. Good luck!

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry I've been out of touch, but my internet at home is down right now and AT&T has not been particularly good about dealing with it.

In reading the above posts, Sanja I would echo Linda's feedback. I would also suggest that you might have too many things going on. In looking at your blog, it starts to look like a blur of colors and writing and it's too overwhelming for me to process, and I'm not even the one trying to do all of that!!! And on top of having a regular life. I know I tend to start feeling really overwhelmed when I feel like I have too much going on at once. I start to feel like I'm stretched so thin with the thousand things I'm trying to do, I'm not doing any of it very well. And then I start to feel paralzed. I wonder if something similar is going on with you.

Would it help to simplify your goals? Maybe not have goals listed for a year in advance, but choose one or two events you want to focus on and one or two training issues you want to focus on for the next four months and limit it in that way? Maybe say 15 minutes a day for three days each week. Once you've done that for a month, THEN add something to it.

Keep us posted and let us know what we can do to help.

Kelly

Hello everyone,

Just thought I would check in. First, I want to wish Kristin good luck in the your race this weekend. After all the running you've been doing you should be in awesome shape for it.

Linda and I are doing a March challenge if any of you want to get in on it. Just let us know what your goals are. Linda (please correct me if I'm wrong) has decided to get a pink square every day in March. What's your reward for yourself if you reach it? And I've decided to write something positive about every training session I do. I've been struggling a little and it will remind me of the things I like about training. I'm also working on my swimming so my other goal is to get one or more 2:00/100m intervals (or faster) in a set. If I don't get it by the end of March I'll put it back up for April. I'm undecided on my reward, but I told Linda it might be a conditionining treatment for my hair. It will need it after all that swimming!

And everyone let us know what you're up to for the weekend. Jennifer, how is the wedding planning going? Stine, I'm glad you're back. Sanja, hang in there. Cindy, I hope you enjoyed Beliz.

Kelly

Hey all, I'm actually not going to do the 10K this weekend. I'm doing a practice sprint tri on Saturday morning (my first one!) and a long marathon training run on Sunday morning. Wish me luck!

Welcome to the March challenge Sanja. Anyone else?

Good luck at your practice sprint and training run Kristin. Have fun.

I have a job! I'm so relieved that this is over.

It's been a very weird day at work today. I'm sad to see people leaving (although most have been asked to stay on at least a month or more), but glad that I am staying. I am also really looking forward to my new position. It will be tough, but good for me- there's a lot for me to learn there. And I was really happy when the analyst I will be working very closely with said that she was relieved that I got the job too, and that if she could have hand-picked anybody for the position it would have been me.

Earlier, I told Dave that we were going to go out to eat and then visit PetLand and look at puppies tonight, because I would need something to look forward to, to get me through the week. So I am excited to do that tonight, but mostly I just feel like a big weight has been lifted, now that we know.

As for the March challenge, I am doing well so far. I am determined to make it! I haven't picked a reward for myself, but I'm thinking about asking Dave to take me on a dinner and girlie movie date if I make it. Or I might just schedule a professional massage. I've only done that once, but it was one of the best hours of my life! Plus, I'll need it after all that training!

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Hm, a March challenge. That sounds good. I think I'll copy Sanjana and try to get a at least 5 pink squares a week, which has to consist of one swim workout and one hill workout. I still have to think of a reward though.

Nothing much happening this weekend. On Sunday we're going to a Mighty Ducks hockey game. Apparently they're really good tickets that were given to me from a speaker that came out to school so I want to take advantage of that. I've never been to a hockey game, and I know nothing about hockey so it should be an interesting experience.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Hi All,

I'm back from Belize. Had a great time Scuba Diving and sitting by the pool. For the most part the weather was good. Had a couple of days that were rainy and overcast....but it beats working. I can't believe all the sea life I saw....turtles, eels, barracuda, rays, and sharks. I passed my certification for open water and off we went....dives were mostly around 40-60 feet. I did go as far as 84 feet down but didn't swim through the cave, a little nervous about swimming through areas that are pitch dark and that deep. I didn't work out much...Hey, I was on vacation. Back at it this week!! I love to go on vacation but I have to say..."i love the U.S of A!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I love to travel, but I'm always glad to be back home as well. When I spent a month in Guatemala the shower barely got luke warm and was outdoors so it was as cold as the morning air (in the low 60s). I absolutely loved Guatemala, but I was soooo glad to be back home in my own apartment.

I'm glad you had such a good time on your trip and I'm glad you made it home safely again.

I hope all is well with everyone!!

Edited by kmarzano 2007-03-13 7:49 PM

Happy Friday everyone. I have nothing but an exciting weekend of studying planned. If the weather holds out I may do a SAG ride on Sunday but right now it's not looking great. Lower 40s with rain is not fun to ride in.

Let us know what you have planned and have a great weekend!

Kelly

I hope everyone's weekend went well. Thought I would check in to see what everyone is up to.

KRISTIN, we haven't heard from you for awhile in your blog. I'm learning not to worry too much because it usually means you have something cool going on. But all the same, if you have a moment to check in we'd love to hear what your up to.
SANJA, I hope you start feeling better.
STINE, I hope YOU start feeling better.
LINDA, keep up the awesome work.
JENNIFER, You've been logging some great pink squares yourself. Keep it up.
And last, CINDY, I hope getting back into the swing of things after your awesome vacation hasn't been too difficult.

Everyone check in and let us know if you've got anything exciting on your calendar. For myself it is a rest and recovery week and then on Friday I'm flying to Colorado to pick up my parents' car, which they are donating to me. Having been without a car since I moved to Chicago, I CAN'T WAIT. Happy Monday everyone!!

Hello ladies,

I thought I would get the weekend post out early. Tomorrow morning I fly to Colorado and will spend all day Saturday and Sunday driving back to Chicago so my internet access will be limited. I may get on for a bit Friday night, but I thought I would go ahead and touch base now.

I'm hoping all of you have something more entertaining planned for your weekend. Everyone please let us know how things are going (training and otherwise) and how you are preparing for any upcoming races you have. As I've mentioned before, as the summer season arrives more and more 5k and 10k races and group rides will be scheduled. I would definitely suggest you take advantage of some of them as they will be great preparation for any tris you have on your calendar.

And if any of you are struggling with anything or have something about training you'd like to share (like how awesome Linda's month of nothing but pink squares looks) please do so!! I'd like to use this forum to get more communication for the group so I hope all of you will check in. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Kelly