bschulte mentor Group - Closed (Page 6)

What would those totals look like for an Ironman, what is the longest bike, run, swim I should be looking at and how far out from my November 7th race?

Speaking generally here because I don't recall your goals for the IM.  I would think you need at least 3 rides of 100+ miles, at least one of them 112 miles.  These rides would be in late August through the first part of October before you start your taper.  Your long run should look similar to marathon training (think I remember you have raced the NYC marathon).  Long swim yardage should work up to a straight swim of at least 3000 yds, preferably 4000 yds.  All of these peak in Sept and the first part of October.  September needs to be a big training month for sure!

Well finished my oly tri accomplished my goals all of them go figure. Finished in under 3 hrs did it in 2:49 no walking on the run did that too. I took 14th in my age group I felt good. I started watching my hr too much on the run should have just ran, but I did not want to bonk. Hated the run course to many turns and then on the beach for the finish (sugar sand) kicked my butt. The last 2.5 on the beach they faked me out thought the end was where we started (that makes sense) ended having to run back up the sand, but was able to sprint at the end. That is why I knew I should have pushed harder on the run. Oh well. I still felt good about my finish it being the first time now I can call myself a triathlete. lol I will do the log later rejoicing with a couple drinks and pizza tonight back at it on Monday.

That's great!

Thanks MacMadame read your blog it sounds like your oly was an awesome experience. Maybe one day I will come back out that way and do that one with you. I use to live down on the base in Camp Pendleton years ago. I had a great first tri. Your blog is inspirational, keep up the hard work.

Congrats on a great race!

I'm going to hold you to it.

Wildflower is definitely something everyone should experience at least once. 

Congrats on your race, it sounds like you have an enjoyable time, especially since you hit all of your goals.  I am 4 weeks out until my Half Iron Man, and managed to get in a 10 mile run today.  It was the first decent length run that I have had in a couple of weeks, but my calf is pretty much better.  The next two weeks will pretty much be the peak of my training for it and I have to admit, I am getting a little bit nervous about it.

Anyways, good job on your race.  What's the next one?

Lance

nervous is good!  I'm always nervous about a race.  I think the bigger the race for you the early the nerves show up.  Hell it's 41 day's until Ironman Coeur d'Alene and I've been nervous for a month already

You're going to do awesome!

Hi Folks,

How about this one for a TOTW:  How to maximize weight loss from your training?  We have some experts in our group on weight loss and as triathlete's we are always looking to "lean out" so I think this topic probably applies to all of us.

It's been about 8 years now since I lost my 65 pounds so some points are a little rust and I'll need you guys to 1. keep me honest and 2. help me out.

Some discussion points:

*Timing of when you eat is as important as how much you eat
*what you eat is just as important as how much you eat
*any others?  Please add to this list

We will discuss the items on this list this week and into next if the list starts to get long.

Great topic again glad I signed up for this mentor thing. I hope to take off another 10 before HIM. Not going to focus to hard on the weight right now because my A race is not until Nov (Miami Man Half). Wish I had another race closer. All the races around here are sprints right now because of the heat. I may go up for the HIM Fl next week wish I was ready for that; I am getting amped up reading peoples race logs. I have been stuck at 169 now for a couple weeks i hope to break that line soon. I need to be down to atleast 160 by July going on vacation to Bahamas. We all know what that means the only trng I can do is run and swim. Oh yeah and DRINK. lol Thanks Lance it was a good race wish I could talk one of the guys I work with into trng with me. They are still mad at me for the Marathon.

Well, I got into this triathlon thing becuase I had gotten up to 190, then down to 160, then back up to 180 in the course of a year.  Normally, I am in the 150s with race weight being something south of 150.  Going into Kona, I was 148 and lean/mean so I'm trying to get back to that going into Macon.

I lean up by just eating a little less.  During the holiday's, I pigged out and got up to around 165 or so.  

I try to get a balanced meal of carbs, protiens and veggies.  Color is important and try to fill my plate with as many colors as possible.

Drink lots of water.

My diet tends to be high in sodium.  I normally don't worry about it though. 

I'm very interested in this point in how I can get leaner vs. just trying to lose weight. In fact, I'd almost rather not lose any more weight but just get the body fat % lower and replace it with nice muscles. That isn't happening the way I'd like. Though I suspect a nutrition change isn't the answer.

Ok let's get started.  Let's also give ourselves the liberty to add or change the nature of this topic if folks would like, but for now it seems like the focus is on fine tuning, or what I call "leaning out".  I think every triathlete goes through this process so even if you are on a more aggressive weight lose journey right now, there may be a time when you get to more of a fine tuning mode.  Personally, I put 7-9 pounds on for the Winter to train off of and to help keep me warm.  Man it is fun to put the pounds on, but it sucks to get them back off come race time. 

So let's get a discussion going about how each of us "leans out".  I'll start

1.  Use the nutrician log in the training log to record everything I eat.  This takes some getting used to and is time consuming at first.  Use the custom meal feature!  You will find that you eat the same thing pretty often and it is very easy to just select an entire meal you have entered rather than pick each component of a meal and log it.

2.  focus on >% of protien (lean) and <% of fat.  I try to limit my fat to less than 20%.

3.  Small meals.  I call this grazing.  Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, evening snack.  Snacks are 100-150 cals, meals are 300-400 cals.  Training requirement can bring this number up a bit.

4.  Don't run too big of a calorie deficit due to training.  Your body does a great job of protecting itself (self preservation) and if you run it too short of calories it will start to conserve energy.  This will kill your workouts.  I shoot for no more than a 500 calorie deficit per day.  On long bike rides (>100 miles) this is a huge challenge, but I try.

5.  Morning and evening workouts.  This one is tough for me because I need the "stress" on my legs for IM training and can only get that with single long workouts, but in general when I wasn't doing IM's this was a great way to keep the matabolism high all day.  You are burning lots of calories just sitting at your desk.  Think of it as keeping the engine idoling at a high RPM.

6.  Fuel your workouts to ensure you have proper energy to get all you can out of them.  Time your snacks so they are about 60 mins before a workout.  Also, make sure to eat something with some protein and high carbs within an hour after your workout.  These calories will go to top off your glycogen and will not convert to fat, but if you wait too long after the workout that can happen.

7.  Do some strength training- You may not weigh less on the scale because muscle weighs more than fat, but it take a lot of calories to maintain muscle.  You will be burning more calories when you are at rest.  

8.  Ok your turnnutritionprotein to add to tmetabolismidlinghe list, debate what my tricks are, or ask questions. 

Should I be actually counting calories? I dont now but wonder if I should be. I do eat the same thing daily. I log what I eat on the trng log. I eat pretty good at home but when I am at the station we eat together and supper is usually over the limit most times. I guess when I eat a half a chicken for supper that is to much. lol I know what I should do but just dont do it sometimes. I guess it will be time to get serious soon. Just like anything else it takes pushing away. The other thing do you on your day off take off on the eating theme? Like a couple extra beers and some crap food for the day would be nice.  Just wondering if im allowed any days of free eating.

I do allow myself one "crap" day a week where I eat what I want, within reason.  I still don't eat anything fried, but will have some pizza and beer.  The biggest thing I did to drop weight a couple years ago is to eliminate fried foods.  Still love it, but just don't eat it.

The hardest part for me is trying to balance the amount of activity that I do during the course of the day/eating with not wanting to eat anything later in the evening.  I typically do something in the AM (swim or bike into work) and then either run or lift weights at lunch.  The problem is that by mid-afternoon, I am hungry again, which I don't always have a snack around and if I don't have some kind of snack around 7-8pm, my stomach has actually been grumbling enough to wake me up around 4am.  I feel like I am eating all of the time and for the most part, it typically isn't garbage that I am eating, but I still feel like it's not enough.

That was all Iwas saying a free day. No I dont mean go crazy but not freak out on atleast one day it is suppose to be a down day. I have gave up fried stuff too and pretty much my snacks are healthy. I live off peanut butter it actually stays with me. I probably should do a portion size thing for me. My meals are generally healthy limit on red meat and eat veggies all the time but like I have been saying portions.  During my trng for the marathon I ate it all I have stopped that and lost an addtl 10 lbs but have been hovering for the last 6 weeks at the same weight. Guess that means only one thing time to cut down on portions. I have a snack before workout or it may be my meal and a snack afterwards.  The weight would come off if I just got serious.  I hope to put my theory to the test soon. COMMITMENT

That's a good point and one I just resisted for a many years.  EAT A BIGGER BREAKFAST.  I think it basically tells your body, ok here is a full tank for your engine, you can go ahead and idle at a higher rate today.  I recently started eating (not everyday) egg white omelet's with peppers and onions for breakfast.  A huge omelet with tons of protein is like 125 calories.  I buy a bag of frozen "meal starter" (I think that is what they're called) peppers and onions.  There are a bunch of varieties in the frozen food section but the one I like has green, red, and yellow pepper as well as onion.  A bad lasts me a month or more.  I simply spray an omelet pan with non cook spray (Pam) put some of the peppers and onions in the pan to thaw them, then add the egg substitute.  3-4 minutes later I have a huge omelet the size of a whole plate.  Very easy and I can't tell the difference from real eggs.  Also, sometimes I'll add some fat free cheese for variety.  24 grams of protein to get the day started and I don't get hungry for about 2.5 hours.

What are some other quick meals you guys like?

Just something I was thinking about supplements; when, where and how oftern? Should I be using gels on long trng days or just real food do I take recovery drinks or try to stay natural? What about these so called performance enhancer (hammer) should i be taking something for recover or pre or post workout? I am not right now but when I start getting ready for HIM should I be taking these thing?

Not sure if everyone can read this when they click the link as it may depend on your membership type, so let me know if you can't and I'll paraphrase.  Pretty good article on natural vs. "engineered" foods.  I like the convenience of gels during training, although I do pack banana's and a bagel for long rides, in addition to gels and Cliff Bars, just to break it up and have something different.  Pre and Post workouts I pretty much go natural foods, with the exception of the occasional protein powder when I am low on protein for the day.

I supposed it would help if I included the link   http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1750

Edited by bschulte 2009-05-14 2:22 PM

Brent thanks for the input on the supplement thing. I try to stick with real food just wondering on recovery stuff. It is always better for me to put real stuff in it definitely tastes better. Good luck this weekend to all who is racing.

I'm in transition right now. I'm still losing, but I want to slow that down and I'm close to where I want to maintain. Plus I'm ramping up my training so that's in flux too. So it's hard to generalize, but I'll try.

I start the morning with a protein shake almost every day.  It's easy and it sets me up for the day by getting in a lot of my protein requirements and a decent amount of calories. (I operate on the principle that breakfast should be your big meal of the day, not dinner.) I also end the day with a protein drink -- usually protein hot chocolate. It's more of a light snack in terms of calories and protein grams. I think of it as topping me off for the day. Protein is supposedly more readily absorbed in the morning and at night so I try to maximize what I'm eating then to take advantage of that fact.

In between, I have lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner. These are almost always protein based. Often some sort of meat (or fish or eggs) with veggies for the meals. Snack are often yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, or hard-boiled eggs. Once in a while I'll have a handful of nuts. I will occasionally have something starchy in there, like potatoes, but I find the cheese, nuts and veggies have plenty of carbs. I have fruit once in a while too. Right now I don't have fruit every day but I think I will eventually. Other occasional foods are things like avocado and protein bars.

OTOH, I find protein bars to be basically candy so I avoid them. Yes, they are slightly more healthy than candy, but only slightly. Plus they are a trigger food for me and lead to other bad things. But they are convenient and work well when combined with a workout.

The big question mark in my diet right now is fueling, especially on race day. Right now my workouts aren't long enough to *require* fueling but I use them to experiment with what I need to do on race day. I've tried a lot of things -- gels, Gatorade, GU20, Recoverite, bananas, clif shot blocks, protein bars, HEED, etc. The thing that seems to work the best is bananas, Recoverite and protein bars. But Recoverite tastes like crap.  So I have worked up a special mix where I add other things to it that taste better but preserve the 3:1 carb to protein ratio. Plus, I can't eat bananas on the bike and I need something on longer bike rides besides my special mix.

So I'll keep experimenting...