Gray Guys/Girls Master's Focus Triathlon Mentor Group--CLOSED (Page 5)

Hey Dan,

When your voice starts going up it is time to change!  Seriously though, yes it may take some time to adjust to a saddle, but we are talking weeks not years.

I am sure you have heard it said that a saddle that works for me, may not work for you.  So my recommendation may or may not work for you.

I ride a Cobb Gen2.  I absolutely love it.  The saddle was designed with aero position in mind and it works as a road saddle also.  I have one on both my TT bike and my road bike.  I first sat on it at the tri shop on a fit bike.  As soon as I sat on it I knew I had found my saddle.

Here is a link - http://www.cobbcycling.com/shop/triathlon-saddles/gen2

Cobb saddles has a dozen or so saddles and they have an incredible return program.  If you have a LBS that is a Cobb distributor, they will honor the return policies.  You can try a saddle for a couple weeks, if it doesn't work out, return it and try another one.  I am an absolute believer in Cobb now and would not consider any other saddle.

Hi Thomas.  Welcome to the group!

Donna, great to have you in the group.

You know those "What are you thinkin' thoughts?  I have those those same thoughts every day of my life, generally at the end of a hard workout.  You get used to it.  It's all part of this wacky world we call triathlon.

Name - George/Wenceslasz

Story - Lead a sedentary lifestyle, junk food junkie until I watched the 2010 IMCanada and decided I wanted to do it too.  I started running in April 2011 (couldn't run 2 minutes) then cycling in July, 2011 and started swimming Jan 2nd, 2012 (3yrs ago yesterday).  Prior to these times my only exercise was chopping wood (lived up north).  Retired in 2008 and moved south to have more summer/less winter.

Family - A very supportive wife (& great sherpa); 4 kids and 6 grandkids (4 boys/ 2 girls). A pretty good extended family of training buddies (64 to 75).

Training - Just started training yesterday for the 2015 season.  I swim 3 days a week(year round); bike 3days per week (my cycling coach is trying hard to kill me) and I pretend to run 3 days a week.  I feel I should add some core strengthening as well.  Don't know how I ever had time to work.  I'm pretty slow overall (definitely BOP) but I can swim pretty well and my cycling is slow but I can go long distances.  I'm hoping to make the run a bit less of an obstacle this year.

2012 - my first season I did two local sprints. Had a terrible swim in the first sprint.

2013 - A duathlon (just about killed me which made me work harder); Lake Stevens 70.3 (awesome race - loved the swim) and Cultus Lake Oly.

2014 - Victoria Olympic; Calgary 70.3 (another awesome race); and I returned to Cultus Lake (just a great end to the triathlon season.

2015 - planned - Oliver, BC 1km/54km/10km race; Penticton Mediofondo; ChelanMan HIM; Rattlesnake Island swim (3.1km); Challenge Penticton (I signed up for the half distance but I may opt to bump it up to a full distance nearer to the race).

Weight Loss - In 1998 I discovered I was diabetic and until last year was doing pretty well at controlling it but in November I started taking a small amount of insulin which I'm shocked to say is working out quite well.  I was up to 225lbs but I've gotten down to 183 just lately and I was down to 178 for most of the tri season last summer but I just can't break below 178 (I should be about 165-ish).

I hope I'll be able to add some good support and encouragement to the group.  

Edit: - I followed the instructions on changing my profile photo but when it came to clicking on the "Go" button it wouldn't complete the change.  I'll try again later.

Hey guys, I would love to join the group if there's room. I was working with a trainer for a while who is a really great guy, but I took some time out for an advanced course at work and I'm just starting out again in the world of tri'ing. I'm looking to give it another tri. (Cue the groans. )

NAME: Dangerus (Dave Baluk)

MARITAL STATUS: Happily Married 15 years as a couple of DINKS (Double Income, No KIdS)

STORY:While I was very fit and athletic in my junior days, playing semi-pro ice hockey, time has not been kind to me. After embarking on a career as a pilot in Canada I've moved all over the world in pursuit of my dream job. I've lived in Arctic Canada, Northern Manitoba, almost every major city in southern Canada, India, Qatar and I now live in Hong Kong, flying a B747 for Cathay Pacific Airways. Having not been good enough to make it to the NHL I left ice hockey in my 20's and really haven't done much in the way of athletics since. (I'm not making excuses but unless you can outrun a polar bear in -50C, running up in Resolute Bay, NWT, Canada is not really condoned.) I've dabbled with training programs but nothing has really stuck. The hardest part of training (besides getting older) for me is the bizarre hours I keep as a long haul airline pilot. Departing Hong Kong at midnight in the B747 and flying 16 hours to New York, Los Angeles or London and then trying to get a proper training session in has proven to be almost impossible on a regular basis.

After reading quite a few books on health and diet, and having taken a nutrition course online through Cornell University, I've become "plant powered". After reading the book by Rich Roll, "Finding Ultra" I've regained my passion and motivation for multi-sport. So now I'm a plant powered 50 year old looking to become a proper triathlete. I didn't give up meat because I want to hug a cow. I firmly believe that a plant based diet is the healthiest way to go. That and I REALLY enjoy answering the question, "Where do you get your protein?".

I'm hoping that joining up here will help tremendously with my motivation as well as enabling me to partake of the many great ideas that you may have for how to keep up with my training as I compensate for my flying addiction, and helping me with my insane choice of taking up the sport at 50 years of age. Of course, not wanting to seem like a late blooming over achiever, I would really like to make it to an Ironman one day, and the Speight's Coast to Coast race in New Zealand is my "bucket list event".

CURRENT TRAINING: Since I've started back to the sport I've begun my training again. I'm currently doing approximately 5-9 hours per week. I mostly concentrate on running as my access to pools and bike routes when I travel is fairly limited.

PLANNED RACES: Garmin Barcelona Olympic Tri on 21 June 2015 WEIGHT LOSS: I firmly believe that weight management is nothing more than calories in vs Calories Out. I believe tri training will help me get back to being fit as much as I believe that being plant powered will help me stay healthy. Definition of a Triathlete: Someone who's not smart enough to realize that one sport is hard enough. :D

Dave -

Welcome to the group!

You're living my dream.  I had an appointment to the Air Force Academy back in the day with the goal of "flying jets" and ultimately flying the skies for a major airline.  That dream died when the AF doctor said during my Air Force entrance physical that  I was to colorblind to fly in the military.  Oh well, when you're given lemons, you make lemonade

I won't ask where you get your protein but I look forward to some interesting discussions on nutrition.

Love your definition of a triathlete, gonna have to steal that!

Originally posted by Jo63 I am hoping I can join this group ! I came from the same group Brenda was in and need a new mentor home . I started reading Bios and thought I should post something before you decide to close cuz this sound like a great group. So if I am in I will post a Bio later.

Hi Joanne,

Glad to have you in the group.  We have a couple people, myself included, that are working towards an Ironman this year so looking forward to hearing about your IM and HIM experiences.

Please post up a short bio when you get a chance so we can get to know a bit about you.

Hello Barry!

Welcome to the group.

I heard North Dakota and minus 40 degrees in the same sentence on Weather Channel this morning so I am guessing you aren't running outside at the moment!  I have lived in cold climates but never had to deal with the kind of extremes you deal with.

Post up a bio when you get a chance so we can get to know you a bit.

Oh, and I think we might be able to help with the swimming just a bit!

Donna, I know this feeling exactly!  I'm semi-planning to try my first 70.3 in October of 2016 (I need 22 months to learn to swim decently).  I keep going back and forth between thinking I've got plenty of time and I can do this if I put my mind to it and thinking that I've totally lost my mind.  I know I can do both the ride and the run with the right training but putting them together (especially after a swim) is a bit intimidating to me.  Hopefully with the right training, motivation, and advice I'll actually make it to race day!
Janet

Hey all!  Back to work for me tomorrow.  I've been off since Dec 19th so getting up early tomorrow is going to be interesting to say the least, especially since the arctic cold is making it's way to us this evening/tomorrow morning.  I am going to try to get back to the pool this week - hopefully Tuesday morning before work.  I haven't been in the water since July so I kind of feel like I'll be starting over.  I printed out the novice program from Scott's website so will start off with that and see how things progress. 

Janet 

Hey everybody!

I've been keeping track as we've added members and it seems a significant number of us are hoping to lose some weight in the coming weeks and months. Steve and I have talked about it and we think we should maybe dust off a weight-loss/workout challenge we had a couple groups back. James, jredfly, gets ALL the credit for this challenge as he is the one that came up with it back when we first did it. We've modified it a bit, but it remains James’ idea.

Here’s a quick run-down on how it works. Every week, you get 5 points if you did not gain any weight. You also get 1 point for every pound of weight you lose, or you subtract one point for every pound you gain. Then to make it really interesting, you get 1 point for every 30 minutes of workout time.  Really, it's not as complicated as it sounds.

We don’t need to know your weight, just how much you lost . . . or gained, and how many minutes you trained. Training is limited to swim/bike/run and any other training that directly benefits triathlon, so shoveling snow, while strenuous exercise wouldn’t count, while strength work at the gym would count. Playing golf, for those of us in the southern half of the country, wouldn’t count, a spin class at the gym would count.

If there is interest, I am thinking we weigh-in and start next Sunday and run through March 31. The “Winner” will get a coffee mug from San Diego, the birthplace of triathlon. Sorry, that’s all that remains in the prize cabinet, the triathlon bike is gone!

This will provide some motivation and support for those looking to shed a few pounds and it will promote consistency in training plus encourage all of us to keep an accurate training log so we can answer the how many minutes question.

So who’s in?

I will post up a more detailed summary of how the points work once we have a better idea how many people might be interested.

Hi Kathy,

We will be happy to have you in the group!  And yes, we all share a January 1 birthday!

Please post a short bio when you get a chance so we can get to know you.

Hey Janet,

Maybe we should have a chat.  You're first Sprint Tri was in 2009 so you have been swimming for at least 5-6 years, yet you still refer to yourself as "a horrible swimmer."  That pretty clearly says to me that there might be a technique issue.  As you have undoubtedly already read at the top of my Novice Training Plan, you can put in lap upon endless lap, but if your technique is flawed, you are wasting your time.  Beating the water into submission isn't the answer and it's not going to get you faster so I am happy to talk about improving technique if you like.