Jenny's Winter "Find What Drives You" Mentor Group - Open (Page 5)

HelmoAlkou - 2013-02-07 8:43 AM I don't know, Angie.  Someone who can't use paragraphs..... 

what I lack in use of paragraphs on an ipad, I make up with heart on the course! 

Jenny,

Thanks for reviewing my plan. There is also a plan for intermediate from that site, but that one takes 7-8 hours per week and is for people with 2 years of Olympic Triathlon experience. This is my second year now, and yes I've been doubting if this beginner plan was not too easy for me. Especially short sessions in zone 1 those first couple of weeks. But I'm afraid I'm not going to make the 7-8 hours. Do you think I should I try the intermediate plan and adjust it to 5-6 hours? Last year I did 2 Olympic (quarter) races and 1 sprint race.

Here's the link to the intermediate training:

http://gbr.garmin.com/training/_downloads/en/Tri-Training-Programme-12-week-Olympic-Intermediate.pdf 

Another questions. I train sometimes more and sometimes ( few months) less during the year. How many weeks will it take me (42years old and I think okay condition) to lower my avg hr and run/bike/swim faster? Because I think it takes a lot of time before my average hr lowers, but never monitored it exactly). For example, if I run in zone 1 (125 to 138) I will not go fast, and that's frustrating. When I run between 144 and 151 I still can run for an hour and feel pretty okay. And is running twice a week, 1x interval, 1x 1hour running) the correct method for reaching this goal?

Bart

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm hoping there's still room in this group even though i'm a little late for the party.

name - Kristi / luinel

story - I grew up being active and athletic, riding bikes all over the place, swim team every summer. In high school i was in volleyball and softball (and swim team). By that time my knees bothered me all the time and i had stopped riding my bike. Some kids told me i was fat when i was in third grade and i believed it for a long time, when in reality i was just buff and have big bones.  I lifeguarded the summer when i was seventeen, and at that time i was at the height of my physical fitness, 5'5", 160 pounds, and a size twelve. I cannot even imagine being thinner than that. When i was almost eighteen we moved to a new state and i gained a lot of weight, on the order of fifty pounds, due to stress i guess. That was when i broke 200 pounds. My mother's doctor tested me for thyroid and diabetes but they came back negative. Before the move and after i was working out six days a week doing kickboxing (Tae Bo videos) and that was when i started going to a gym and lifting weights. I lost some of the weight but not all of it.  Over the years i have gradually gained, lost some of what i gained, then maintained, then eventually inexplicably gain again. This has repeated over a decade until i reached 290 pounds.  This last fall i lost some of that weight and right now i'm down to 276. The biggest goal for me is that i never break 300 pounds. I have come to accept that i may never be below 200 ever again but i never want to stop being active.

I had never even heard of a triathlon until i saw the Sydney Olympics on TV. Growing up i used to imagine what it would have been like to be a figure skater or a gymnast but i knew the expense and sacrifice would be enormous. But i knew instantly that i could compete in a triathlon. I just didn't see how it was possible after gaining so much weight. In late 2008 i started the Couch to 5k program on a whim.  After some setbacks i was finally finishing it in April 2009. I knew i needed a new goal, so i just decided to go for it, signed up for a 5k and a Sprint. And two months later i completed my first triathlon.  I was third from last, and borrowing my Mom's bike, but i finished. After that i bought a mountain bike and took a mountain biking class. I was one of the slowest there, too, but i got so ripped. I still weighed nearly the same as when i had started training for the tri but it was a lot more muscle and less fat. Then i pulled a hamstring while running in early 2010. I kept riding my bike around campus and swimming but eventually put training aside to make a concerted effort to graduate from college. I reached that goal in May 2011 and now i want to focus on triathlons again.

family - I am single and working two jobs and still cannot support myself. So i live at home with my parents and five of my six younger siblings. It's less than ideal but i'm paying back my loans and it's better than being homeless. Also, i'm older than everyone thinks i look, partially because the younger set of kids range in age from 8 to 17.  I'm 31, took some time off school between high school and college, and was supporting myself (with roommates) at that time.  It took me seven years to graduate from college (with two semesters off for work and family reasons). I don't know how anyone graduates in four years.  I have one sister two years younger than me and she has a husband and four kids. It's funny how things turn out, she wanted a career, i wanted a family, and here we are.

current training - I just started week one of the training program i originally used. http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms/10wtp.pdfI'm actually not sure how closely i followed it or if i just used the training schedule as a guideline. I know i continued to use the Cto5k podcasts to run with. Right now it doesn't feel as hard as i was expecting.  I'm starting the Cto5k plan again (in Vibrams this time) and am ready for week two of that.  So my run workout was 30 mins instead of 15. I had bike issues the next day, so yesterday i went to the gym and used a spinning bike and swam 300 instead of 200. My shoulders were feeling it last night and today my glutes were a little sore but i'm not as fatigued or hungry as i would have expected. I should point out that at my job i am currently on my feet for 8-9 hours three days a week. Over Christmas that was 9-10 hours three days a week with a short 7-8 hour day thrown in. This is the same job i had when i was training the first time but back then i was only working 6-7 hour shifts with a longer day on Saturdays. The holiday workload totally destroyed my November attempt to workout and diet at the same time. But i did lose some weight and kept it off.

this year's races - There's a new triathlon in the area this year and the triathlon i competed in four years ago. I want to compete in both of those Sprints (three weeks apart from each other in May and June...is that too close together?). After that i want to start working towards competing in an Olympic length race that's in Las Vegas in October. It it's too early for me to be thinking of an Olympic i still would like to go to the Sprint there. For starters i want to beat my original race time. I don't care about getting on the podium, i'm only competing against my former self.

weight loss - My goal is to lose forty pounds by June and then reevaluate from there. I have been trying to eat smaller portions/meals several times a day. I almost always have to force myself to eat breakfast, but then i get hungry late (say 8-9) and again before bed around midnight. I'm a night owl with insomnia at times. Lately i've been having insomnia and hope the training will help with that. There is no way anyone is ever going to be able to get me to stop eating meat. I love vegetables but i crave red meat when i am in serious training. My biggest enemy is drinking Coke. I have given it up more than once before and not lost any weight but i'm going to try to drastically cut it out of my diet again. Last tri i was pretty much eating everything in sight but buying way more organic than usual. When i try to count calories it makes me think about food all the time. I think i may be hypoglycemic as well, and have always wondered if my metabolism is weird.*  So right now i'm cutting out the junk, i might become more concerned about nutrition in the next couple of weeks.  I imagine i'll be eating a lot of salads and (steamed) "stir fry" in the near future.

*The only time i have ever lost weight by eating less is when lifeguarding. I was too busy to eat that summer and very stressed too. There was one summer i went to a camp where we were running all over the place playing basketball, a nerf football/basketball game, tag, etc. I ate everything in sight and lost a ton. A skirt that i had packed was falling off me at the end of the week. So i have always felt like starving myself does not help me lose weight, it's more exercise.

why this group - It's still open and it looks like (nearly?) everyone here knows what it's like to struggle with their weight. Plus you're turning a hobby into a career, that sounds pretty awesome to me.

Do you have a plan in place for helping you meet your weight loss goals? Not yet. Today i'm logging my calories for the first time since right before Thanksgiving. Right now i'm mostly transitioning to eating less fast food (which is far too convenient) and looking for better alternatives. I went to Sprouts last night and was dismayed by prices. I am a girl on a budget. I also want to eat real food, not a bunch of supplements. I feel like many diets are gimmicks since they leave me starving, not losing weight. Let's just say i've not had a pleasant experience and have grown tired of everyone having an opinion about the bestest awesomest way to lose weight that i probably already tried and failed at. So this is one area where i feel i really need guidance but am potentially going to be resistant to change. I was considering finding a diet for weightlifters but i'm not sure if that would well serve and endurance athlete. Though i'm sure some would probably scoff at a Sprint requiring endurance...

Vibram I have always preferred being barefoot and let myself get sucked in to wearing shoes too much over the past few years. I actually have been transitioning to low/no drop over the past year. I went on my first run in some Sprints last April and wore them most of the week to a baseball tournament (as a spectator), took them on vacation and wore them on some hikes, and have worn them to work a few times. I am wearing only low drop shoes to work now since athletic shoes were causing me multiple problems. When i ran in Sprints in November i felt slight fatigue afterward and was taking it easy. When i ran in them this week i felt no fatigue or soreness really so i think i might be ready to wear them for all of my workouts. I do have a back up pair of "normal" running shoes that i can use if my feet and ankles get fatigued. I just bought some KMD Sports and they have a thicker sole and better tread than the Sprints do, so i'm hoping that will be sufficient for me right now. But my mileage has not been consistent over the past year at all, so i am definitely going to be listening to my body as i resume running two or more times a week.

Re: that training program i glanced over it and think i followed its bike plan exactly but was using Cto5k for running and made up my own swim program. That program uses only the front crawl, which is boring too me. I swam the breast stroke more than the crawl my last workout. Sometimes i feel like swimming the back stroke (that was my stroke when i was in high school, came in third once, personal best), i usually like to sidestroke to cool down because i find it to be relaxing and stretches my body in different ways. As i continue my swim workouts i will increase the number of crawl laps i do and reduce the number of breast stroke laps. Right now i am worried the most about keeping my heartrate down, which is the biggest problem when i start swimming laps again. The breast stroke seems to help with that. It's not my strongest stroke but it's less intense and better for breathing.

Any insight you might have on diet would be appreciated. I'm glad to hear that you're not going to shy away from barefoot-like running. What shoes do you use to run in?

Hey there-  just saw your post.  I am a physical therapist and I think you are wise to get some help early before the pain gets any worse.  If you have any additional questions feel free to throw them out there and I can try to answer.  My advice without knowing too much about your issue would be to stretch...a lot of injuries are caused by muscle imbalances...and strengthen your hips/gluts if you can absorb some of the shock at the hips the knees take less of the burden of the pounding from running. Hope you heal quickly. 

Thanks a lot for the response. I saw a good PT last week, who basically has me working on glutes/hips with resistance bands As you suggested!

This is counterintuitive, so it is good to see your explanation for why this  might be a useful strategy. My knees haven't been getting worse, maybe a tiny bit better. He's going to look at my running mechanics this Tuesday, which should be interesting.

Hi Jenny:

Did an indoor tri this morning. It felt awesome! I put my results on my training log. Hope you're having a good weekend.

Lisa 

Hey Barry, you live in Texas?  If so, what region?

North Central myself (South DFW).  I do triathlon's all over DWF, the Hill Country, even Montgomery, just North of Houston.

Hi all, Just an exciting update! I GOT A BIKE!!!! I was able to find an awesome deal on a norco road bike (I'm in Canada) that fits like a charm! I just took it out for the first ride today and did am easy cruise around for an hour in the beautiful sunshine it was fabulous I am also thinking about signing up for a sprint distance in march as my first triathlon.

Hope everyone is enjoying their training