Have I lost my mind to consider a HIM? (Page 50)

Not 57 days.  55 days.  (My ability to correctly add 27 + 28 seems to be impaired.)  A measly 55 days. 

Bike: 11h 35m - 168.05 Mi
Run: 11h 59m 10s - 53.26 Mi
Swim: 7h 35m - 12303 Yd =7 miles

Total: 228.25

I'm jealous of you warm climate people.

January Totals: 161.32 Miles

Swim: 9.2 Miles
Bike: 77.71 Mi (way too low!)
Run: 74.41 Mi

No matter who is ahead, we all have some great numbers.  Once everyone has posted, I think I will add them all up and that will be some awesome number. 

Well said by the person who is ahead...don't we get a climatic handicap?

You would if most of my bike miles weren't trainer miles.  Of course, all of my running miles were outside.  But sometimes I was really really cold.  Like today.  It was about 50F and I was really cold.  (Seriously, I wished I had worn gloves.)  And I do swim outside as well. 

You get no sympathy from us for running in "cold" 50 degrees. It was 12 here this morning. Likely colder for Debb



Edited by losta 2010-01-31 10:07 PM

Yeah but my trainer is in the basement and it's 40 degress down there! So I say weather handicap still applies. (hah!)

Okay lame excuse. Not happy about my trainer time, no matter... as now I am a slave to the schedule that is laid before me!



Edited by IdealMuse 2010-01-31 10:09 PM

50 degrees sounds perfect to me...

Totals: 229.63, hmm that's only 200 behind where i'm supposed to be... gurrr. I'll take it though. Was definitely about 30-40 miles behind in the run, and way behind in the swim, but i'll start ramping that up this month.

Things are slowly getting back to normal - i've done some radical home improvement which just rocks our socks and i'll ready to get my race schedule finalized!

Oh i was 215 this morning, so hopefully/maybe/possibly i'll hit 214 by wednesday and be officially un-obese and simply overweight by bmi standards! crossing my fingers!

Bike:	12h 15m 53s  - 184.48 Mi
Run:	10h 37m 01s  - 43.62 Mi
Swim:	50m 11s  - 2700 Yd

Any idea what I should put for mileage for spinning class?? Or should I just post time since we can't measure the miles from our spin class?? Horribly low for swimming I'll have to take a look at my distance for all three.

Kir - I'm so happy for you.... Even though those BMI categories are off for us athletes with muscle I know how much it means to get under that line. I think I have to be under 180 for it to be true for me so hopefully by next month I'll be there too.

50 degrees IS great for biking but (actually its probably more like 40 downstairs) I'm fine once I start biking but its hard just to get myself to get down there because I don't feel like being cold for 5 mins. I usually start with a jacket on. I haven't been able to convince myself to bike outside it's been inthe teens and 20's for quite awhile now. (21 right now)

Keel - I'd average your bike mileage either indoors on a trainer or outside (say if you averag 15mph) then do a guesstimate on mileage based on your time on the spin bike. After all time on the bike is time on the bike right?

Off for my first "offical" training swim!! Woot!

How was your first "official" swim, Debb?

Keeley - And I agree about the spinning miles.  Just estimate something reasonable. 

Kiri - every little milestone stepping stone that we reach along the way makes it possible to continue.  If we were looking at some astronomical number or whatever that we had to achieve before we had any sense of accomplishment, I doubt if many of us would even gt out of bed, much less make the effort. 

'twas good... a nice break from the norm. I swam about the same yardage as usual but it took me slightly longer since there was a bunch of kick sets.

Also I had strength session (my legs are already whining at me they will be quite sore tomorrow)

We have maybe talked about this before but I don't recall.

How did everyone here get interested/involved in Tris?

I had my swim group tonight too, funny in my group kicking is really de-emphisized, we work so much on stroke.

I got into tri's to become active and lose weight. Though I did competitive swimming as a preteen and in High School, ran in my early 20's doing races from 10K to a Marathon, and got into cycling after getting injured running. I had never put them all together to do a tri even though I went to Kona in 1982 to watch the Ironman at the time I thought all tri's where IM distances.

Fast forward 27 years from that time to last spring, I had gained close to 120 lbs from my 21 year old running weight and figured I'd better do something and I needed a goal. In April I signed up for a Danskin Women's Tri in August and joined the local YMCA and BT. I started swimming and taking aqua aerobics, using my elliptical and recumbent bike that had been collecting dust a few years, soon I was riding on the road though sometimes I would have to walk the bike up hills. In June I joined a running group, I scheduled a 5K race for June and a 1 mile open water swim before my tri to be more confident at the distances for the tri. Last summer I ended up doing 4 sprint tris. This year I'm going longer.

Today's swim wasn't the group one that one is on Fridays, but it was my first swim on the training schedule. How did you like your group swim?

I don't think the kicking is the "norm" I looked at the next 2 workouts and there isn't much kick in there. It wasn't a ton (400 plus 100 in the warm-up) but for me that's a lot since I normally do it for a length or two (if at all) Plus I accidentally did an extra 100.

I love hearing how people got started thanks for sharing Lisa!

For me... I've never been athletic at all. I think I played soccer for about 5 seconds when I was 12 and took some swim lessons when I was a very young kid. The most "active" I got in HS was marching band. I started piling on weight starting my junior year in HS. Went from 150 to about 220 when I started college... and as you know it just got worse from there. Anyway I think I've told you the weight loss stuff before so I won't bore you with that time-line.

I got interested in Tris because I had read the "slow fat triathlete" and eventually after I had lost 60lbs from my high of 302(yikes). I figured I could start learning to run. I already liked to bike so I figured since I was already running and biking it might be cool to throw in learning to swim and sign up for a Tri. This was a huge huge step for me. Completely out of character.

Anyway I started in Jan 08 and by July 08 I did my first Sprint and the next month my first Oly. I was training for the Oly that whole time so it doesn't sound as risky as it sounds. I did it just following BTs Balanced Oly x3 training plan... and well here I am now attempting more nutzo things.



Edited by IdealMuse 2010-02-01 11:14 PM

I remember religiously watching Kona Ironman on t.v. each year as a kid/teenager and being completely fascinated. I was into biking and swimming but could never run for squat, and thus said no way I could do that - plus there was no accessible tri infrastructure for teenagers as there is now. I remember getting on my bike after watching the show and going all out as fast as I could until I would come home and collapse. Since then, I think it's always been something I've wanted to do in the back of my mind. Fast forward to august 2008 I had put on a bunch of weight after losing a bunch the previous year while training for ALC and was looking for a new challenge that involved heavy biking and I thought of tri - so I put in a search on google for fat girl tris or some such thing and up pops slow fat triathlete book. I read the book and I was like "I can totally do this"... Then I searched for beginner triathletes - and found the athena/clydesdale group on here and the rest is history. When I started I thought sprint would be it - because my running still stinks, but now I'm like well it stinks and is slow, but I can and will do this!

I wonder if Jane knows how many people she's helped inspire with that book. I'm not sure I would have ever equated it as something that was possible w/o it.

I had always wanted to participate in a triathlon, I knew I'd never do an Ironman distance one but I had seen shorter distance ones before and decided that if I were going to lose weight I needed to establish a goal to push me to keep training and losing weight. I had lost about 15 pounds before joining a gym and signing up to work with a trainer. I started working out in January and signed up for Irongirl Columbia 2008 which was in August. I was hoping that was enough time because I was so overweight and out of shape. I did a few 5Ks to help my running and also found the book ""Slow Fat Triathlete" and knew that I wasn't the only "big girl" that would be out there.

I lost another 35 pounds training for Irongirl and did it in my goal time of 3 hours. I was ecstatic and it was also great to know that my mother flew down to support me and my BF was there for me when I crossed the finish. I also had 3-4 other friends that were there to support me but I never saw them....they were all pretty amazed at my weight loss, determination and goals. Now I've motivated my mother and quite a few friends to do triathlons and I'm still shocked that they look to me for motivation and support! I'm finally content knowing that I'm a back of the packer penguin or turtle (depending on how much pain I'm in that day...LOL) but to finish any kind of triathlon is quite the accomplishment!!

Whenever people ask me "Why do you do it, you must like pain?!?!" My usual response is, "Because I can....do you see the look on a person's face when they hear that I've done triathlons?? First it's a look of disbelief, then amazement....not many people have the honor of saying they swam, biked and ran in a race all in the same day!!"

Seems everyone has read Jane's book, very inspiring. I wonder what's up with her now? I know she used to post sometimes on BT, her web site hasn't been updated in over a year. I think I remember reading she had some health issues last year, I hope she's alright. Anyone know?



Edited by losta 2010-02-02 12:11 PM

Don't know... she was only active for the first few months I was on BT and then she disappeared. Hope she's doing OK I do remember hearing about some health issues too.

I'm spending the afternoon gathering up my gear and figuring out how to drive down to Wellfit for my first group workout. Dealing with some DOMS though.

My bag of infinite got here today - Wasn't expecting such a gigantic bag!

Kate - How you recovering?

Edited by IdealMuse 2010-02-02 12:43 PM

Hi guys!! how goes it?  2 straight days at work without computers..talk about lost productivity.  OK who wants to volunteer to call me every morning at 6:30 to get my (really? - they edit "donkey") out of bed?

Edited by jdbadger 2010-02-02 3:59 PM

Hmmmm, eastern time zone means if I called you to get the azz outta bed it would be what 4:30 or 5 A< for you in CO??

I took an unusual route to triathlons.  I had decided I wanted to do a marathon in late 1998 and so started running.  I was overweight then, but down from my all time high of about 205 in the early 1990's. 

Then I was arrested for drunk driving and while there was not enough evidence for the DA to take the case to trial (I was not in my car at the time of the arrest, nor did the officer actually observe me driving), I was a "refusal" (refusal to take a blood alcohol test) and so after much fighting, I eventually lost my drivers license for a year.  (I have not had a drink since March 21, 1999, nor shall I ever again.)  I am a lawyer and in my area of law, we do a lot of driving, not to mention the usual commute.  I learned to take three-hour bus rides to go thirty miles - LA is not public transportation friendly.  I also got myself this nice little hybrid and used that for most of my commutes. 

So, I was then running and biking.  There is a fellow in my office who has been a lifelong competitive swimmer and he harassed me to start swimming for cross-training.  So I did.  Just to make my life more difficult to get one more place without a car.  Eventually he told me that since I was running, biking and swimming, I ought to do a triathlon.  I said, "A triath-what?"  The rest is history.  I did my first triathlon, LA Olympic distance, in September 2000 and have done that race every year since (although last year was not successful).  I did triathlons for several years on my hybrid and without a wetsuit before I finally got a road bike.  I did get a wetsuit also, which I wore maybe two or three times.  I actually did a number of triathlons in maybe the first five years. 

In recent years LA was about the only race I did and the weight started to creep up.  I halted it at 171 in May 2008 when I joined Weight Watchers.  I was still sporadic with my exercise/training and it took me about 4 hours to do LA in 2008.  In late November or early December 2008 I found this site and with the encouragement found here, I have really ramped up my training, changed my diet, and really feel like I have a new lease on life. 

And now, here I am training for an Ironman, I have more visible muscle than I have ever had in my whole entire life, I weigh approximately 135 pounds, and feel like I have made a bunch of terrific online friends.  Thank you all. 

I have had the yoyo diet thing going on for a long time.  I did track in high school--but was the team shot put/ discus/ mile walk person cause I had NO sense of pace.  I did a variety of things through the year, jazzercise, taught Body & Soul (think jazzercise to Christian music), a handful of different aerobics classes including spin, step, aquatic....I had gained to my max in 2003 or so.  My Dr showed me ht/ wt charts that said I was obese and I didn't like that word.  I sdtarted losing weight and hitting the fitness center along with other classes at the gym.,  By the spring of 2005 I had gotten to pretty much my current weitht +/- 5 lbs.  I had heard of local triathalons before and thought people doing them were crazy.

After a craptastic work shift (I worked as an ER RN at the time) I came home and announced I was going to the gym.  I went up to the cardio room and on the way up the stairs I decided I was running.  I did 2 miles on the treadmill that night in 30 minutes!  Felt like some sort of champion, like the theme song from ROcky plaing or something.  Started entering local run only races.  I remember after the first time I did the 10K (my favorite local race) thet it was fun but I didn't think I wanted to do it again!  Yeah, I have done that race every year since then!!  A minor foot injury left me off running for a while so I hit spin classes and tried to swim  I had a coworker who did a local sprint and it perked up my interest.  Decided that it was no longer for "crazies" and started swim lessons.

When I started swimming it was a pretty pathetic thing to look at.  One of the men in my swim group teases me and says I was "pretty ugly" when I started.  He's dead on!  My dad had taught me enough to keep me from drowning as a kid but I had no form.  I'm still pretty slow but at least it looks nice

I started off looking at the bike as "that thing you do in between the swim and the run"  I hated it....Over the past couple years I have embraced my bike and have come to love each discipline in a tri.  I still have BOP swims, sometimes downright pathetic race swims.  Last summer I finally killed my OWS monster--though it will likely try to reappear this spring until I get used to OWS again!  I enjoy riding my bike cause it's something youy can easily do with others as a social event yet still have that individual sport thing going on.  I LOVE to run and run long.  Haven't done a full marathon yet--but I am thinking about one in another year or so....the NYC marathon entices me cause of running through all 5 boroughs of the city.

I did a pool sprint as my first race with 2 other sprints having OWS my first year with a couple 10K's and an 8K.  The next season brought a couple sprints with an oly that turned du (I hate du's!), Last year I did a 10K, a century riode, 3 olys, a sprint and a half mary.  This year I've got 2 half mary's, a 10K, century ride, 3 olys, 1 sprint and my HIM.

I have a regular group I swim with at the gym and we sometimes ride and run together.  I also do group rides with a local club from time to time.  The group rides are fun--even though I frequently get left in the dust!

 

 

Edited by QueenZipp 2010-02-02 6:56 PM

Hey everyone!  Things are going well here.  Tired as usual but still moving.  We are trying to figure out a ride for this weekend.  We want to do 50-60 miles.  My mom offered to babysit to give me and hubby a date night.  We asked if we could swap it for a long bike ride.  Are we Lame or What?!! 

I love everyone's stories!  Great idea Debb.  Here is my story:

I was a former basketball player who was always one of the heavier girls even at my prime.  I gained lots of weight after I had my kids and reached my high of 206.  While at my high a couple of years ago I hurt my back.  I felt horrible and I knew I had to get my weight and fitness under control.  I am always worried about being a good example for my 6 year old daughter.  I decided during that time I would do a sprint tri and a marathon - both of these were on my Life "To Do" List. 

I had done lots of runs but never any biking or swimming.  We have tons of triathletes in Arizona and I was always in awe of their fitness.  Why not me?!  Well, I had a long journey ahead of me b/c I couldn't swim and I didn't have a bike.  I signed up for adult swim classes and bought a mountain bike.  I ended up doing both races and felt like a million bucks. 

My tri first race didn't go as planned b/c I got a flat tire during the bike portion.  The race directored haulled me in and let me finish the run without a time.  I still loved it with even with the flat.  From there i kept trying small races but always had an issue.  (swam the wrong direction, OWS freak out, not trained properly, slow bike)  So this year I decided to actually try to train with a good bike and would see what would happen.  So here I am!!  Signed up for a HIM and IMAZ.  Who would have thought it possible? 

BTW - This group has been wonderful for me.  It is so nice to have women (and Scott) here to support me in this journey.  I'm excited to train with you all this year!!