Dexter and Marmadaddy's Group: CLOSED (Page 6)

Obviously going by my weight I am partial to the "see" food diet, so I hear y'all on the office food!

Today was a rushed morning -- 2 educators (I am a principal and my wife is a teacher) and 3 kids to get up, ready and out of the house after a long break.  So, my plan to fix some egg whites and wheat toast for b'fast did not materialize.  I settled for a South Beach bar instead.  Munched on a protein bar for lunch with some walnuts stuck in there for a snack.  I have already downed 72oz of water at work.  I have a 24oz bottle and Brita filter pitcher I keep full in my office.  One pither equals 3 bottles (72oz).  My goal is to drink 1 pitcher every day along with 1 glass in the am and at least 2-3 more when I get home.

Dinner -- I have planned grilled chick breast and steamed mixed veggies.

I am going to try and swim tonight -- pool was closed yesterday again.  Must have been closed for the break.  If I can't get in to swim, then I will run again.

I hope everyone is having a great day!

I went to my doctor for this headache thing. (I never go except for my annual so she was surprised) My b/p was up (I am usually normal)  and I told her about my sudden 7lb weight gain last week, overnight (no, I did not ingest 24,000 extra calories).  She told me she wants me on a no sodium diet for 2 weeks.  Apparently all the soup and hummus that I eat are bad for me (its whole foods and nothing processed, who knew).  I went home and looked at some labels and even the chicken that I am making from Trader Joes (packaged in a marinade), has 850mg of sodium.  Milk has 125 mg of sodium, even my cereal ezekial cinnamon raison has 165mg.  What the heck can I eat?  I need to do some surfing of the internet.

My headaches, sinus, pretty obvious with where they are at behind my eye.  Advil cold and sinus, at least 3 more doses, and if still bothering then start on an antibiotic.  No external signs of an infection so she wants to see if we can dry up that pool water that is probably still exacerbating this. 

Office food is dangerous.  I am a sucker for bagels. I even keep a jar of peanut butter in case someone brings them in.  The tempatations are out there. We all need to keep each other strong.

I have had that polar age testing thing 3x in the past year at the gym.  I have aged 2-3 years up each time (wrong direction).  I am now 7 years older than my age. How the hell does that happen?  Video games, testing, what does it all mean if we feel healthy and know we are making efforts to improve ourselves.  Pffft.

I don't know how much help my insight will be.  I have not trained for an ironman but I have watched my friends and I read a lot.  Actually, if I spent as much time training as I do reading, I might actually consider one.

How many hours a week do you have to dedicate to training?  Lets start there.  Ironman is a huge committment so, it will compose most of your life.  It becomes your social life.  Training is exactly that, training not to get injured.  It is a slow process to build your muscles to that tolerance.   I have trained for a marathon in the past and that alone was more time than I could give.  I am still not ready to ever do that again.  This is going to be a huge year for you.

What are your goals?  Is your goal for the marathon to finish on your feet?  Do you want to run the entire thing or do you plan on a run/walk?  What is the time limit for the marathon you are planning?  What is the time limit for the ironman events?  Know those because that is the minimum level you need to be at and you need to base your training around getting to those maximums. 

I am a fan of Hal Higdon and use him for my training plans mostly.   Smartcoach on runners world usually gives you a 3-4 day/week training plan that does not do back  to back days  and will get you to the goal of finishing and give you an idea of the range you should be training in.  It is on the home page of www.runnersworld.com, plug in your numbers and see what it comes up with. 

Swimming is my weakness and I am sure that at this point I would not make a cut off for swim time for the ironman.  I think you need a minimum of 2 days a week, 3 is better.  Start building now but don't let that be your only workout of the day.  Do it on the days of a run, because tri swimming uses more arms and you can handle that with the running.  Biking, get your butt on the trainer and do that 3 times a week.  The bike is the majority of the ironman, and 112 miles is a hard chore, especially with the hills at IMKY.  I am so bad and hate the trainer but I find its a great sweat fest.  I don't think that spinning simulates the bike during a tri enough.  Things like power yoga, I would put on hold for now.  Yoga is good to add in but you still need to train to one of the 3 disciplines on that day.  You don't have time for things that will not get you to the finish line.  I don't mean to be harsh but that is the goal.  No fluff allowed. 

Pretty much, I guess what I'm saying, is look at that plan and see what is going to add value in getting you to the finish line before the cutoff time. 

We will be here to totally support you. 

Does anyone use a bike trainer. Todays high is 22 and I can not get motivated  to ride. My first tri is Jan 31st. The run and bike will be cold so training outside may be better but I know i will train longer and more often inside.

HNewman - 2010-01-05 4:05 PM

jogo - 2010-01-05 6:33 AM  What are your goals?  Is your goal for the marathon to finish on your feet?  Do you want to run the entire thing or do you plan on a run/walk?  What is the time limit for the marathon you are planning?  What is the time limit for the ironman events? 

The time limit for the Martian is 6.5 hours, which means I'll be jogging it pretty much continuously to make it to the finish in time. (Hubby says my jogging pace is too painfully slow to run with, too painfully fast to walk with.) If I could wave a wand and pick a finishing time, I'd like to do it in 5 hours. Do I think that's realistic? Hell, I don't know. I'm still congratulating myself for finishing 9-mile training runs. I still have to learn to run without an iPod. I've got a ways to go.

The cutoff for the Ironman is more fluid, because it's cumulative between the swim, bike and run. If I took the maximum amount of time for the swim/bike sections, I'd have 6.5 hours for the marathon. It'd be lovely to not finish the IM at 11:59:59, but honestly my goal there is just to be vertical at the end (and make the cutoff), so I'd take it if I had to.

Just make sure that you can finish the swim in the max time and then the bike before the cutoff.  The bike scares me the most because I watched Kona and there was a gentleman with double prosthetic legs who finished the bike 5 minutes after the cutoff so he was done and couldn't even attempt the run portion.       I would be the woman who would finish the swim 10s after the cut off.  IMKY is a time trial start so the first AG person in the water has a larger maximum than the last AG'er in the water.  Swimming is my weakness so I would want to maximize that time.  Being vertical at the end of an ironman and within the time limit is a great goal.