Mndymond and Disturbed275's Awesome SBR Mentor group---Full! (Page 6)

The encouragement is the best thing about BT no matter what the level of membership! The information and support is priceless. I do feel at least a bronze level membership is important to support the workings of the site.

I actually just upgraded to Silver this month. I used the free for awhile and then moved up to bronze a few years ago. Now that I am really taking on my goal of doing an ironman seriously, I wanted some more analyzing tools. I really like the plans in the Silver version. The plans in the Bronze are good but lack detail and structure. Taking my racing up to the next level wasn't really possible with the general time limits. I LOVE the details in the Silver plan.

It all boils down to what you are looking for. Free and Bronze have their benefits. Especially if you are just starting off. I used them and it worked kinda. I am doing much better with the more specific/targeted training. I am responding better both mentally and physically. I know what I'm gonna do for my workout rather than just 30 min on the treadmill or 45 min bike ride. 

I think it is well worth the money.

Agreed.  I fell off the bt wagon for a while, and now that I'm back I'll probably sign up for bronze or silver again soon.... Probably at least bronze for now just to help support the site, and maybe upgrade to silver if I decide to do a half this summer.  I really liked the silver training plans.

I didn't realize there were so many added benefits to joining.  I might do a six month silver trial but will wait to sign up in April since my HIM isn't until September.

Hey Everyone! Lots of good workouts going on here! I've had a pretty okay week. I missed my weekend workouts mostly due to getting caught up in household chores (cleaning and purging our storeroom) but I made up Sunday's workout on Monday and now I'm on track for this week. I had a relatively good swim on Monday and while I'm not where I was when I stopped in the fall I can feel that I haven't lost all my swim fitness. But I am too dependent on the pull buoy. My first lesson is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that. The last time a did private lessons was about 2 years ago and she was really just getting me used to the idea of front crawl. So this should be different. My running fitness is coming back too. I did a 4mi run on Monday at a decent pace and it felt hard but fine. So that's also encouraging. My bum is sore from getting back on the bike - that's going to need some time! :D

All of the workouts in the training plan have a distance and time, which of course are much faster than my paces. So for the runs and swims I'm ignoring time and just going my distance. And for the biking, because I'm on the trainer and I don't really trust the bike computer in that set up, I'm going by time. Does that sound good? Or should I try to use the trainer/computer distance so that I'm not shortchanging myself? As I type this I'm thinking I should use distance. Otherwise I'm not consistent between the three sports.

Hey Robin! Do you have legit Mycoplasma pneumonia??? I've never seen it...not to sound weird...but I would really like to see the chest xrays!!!

So the list.....Here it is...but I don't know how to hyperlink it. Neal will be in tomorrow to start mentoring and to figure out the technical side of the list. Haha. Please fill in your name if it isn't there! If you put it down in your introductions and I didn't get it I apologise, but I couldn't find it!

mndymond- Melissa

Disturbed275- Neal

Hexbinary--Marc

Onbelay--Richard

Christiekate--Christie

Lindscandoit--Lindsey?

Rydergal--?

amehale2000-Anne

Shmashin--Sean

Fungi32--Kip

Yogachic--Missy

Moonrocket-Kate

Sonicdd-?

ScotinMinnisota--Scot

JBougher--?

Ldparsons--Lorna

Ceilidh-Robin

I think I might go the Calgary 70.3 route since it is closer to home and I haven't figured out my electives for the beginning of my 4th year yet. 

Bike computers: I would suggest getting a wireless one...my bike computer has a cord and it drives me NUTS. There are so many brands out there. Some have crazy functions on them. My brother just bought a Garmin Edge with GPS and all this other crazy stuff. I have a Bontranger that has minimal functions on my bike right now...I think it was 30$ or something. Other than the cord is it fine...It gives speed, time, avg speed. That's really all I wanted at the time when I got it 2-3 years ago...Now I'm getting my Garmin 910XT....hopefully next week! If you are interested in GPS the garmins are really good and can work multisport (even the Garmin 610, etc that are more just for running can be used to calculate distance on the bike) But if you just want a basic bike computer to calculate distance without GPS, then the simple computers work well as well. 

Bike comfort: Just takes time. I would just suggest biking slow in low traffic, flat, clean roads to start and then as you gain more comfort build up. It is a common thing for a lot of people. I remember switching from my hybrid bike to my tri bike and I thought I was going to kill myself! A$$ over teakettle for sure! But I didn't. Just started on paved pedestrian trials to secondary highways/roads with low traffic and now I'm alright riding more or less anywhere. It will take awhile to get the feel but once you get it, you will be fine! Also, a bike fit could help. Be careful and slowly get down into the drops/aerobars and up again....once you get used to it you can just pop up and pop down but initially it is probably best if you do things with a bit of hesitancy!

onbelay - 2012-01-11 7:53 AM Crazy swim workout this morning. (masters program, 1st year) 800 warm up, 200 pullboy free, 200 IM pulling only, then 3 x 400 all out free on 10 minutes. It was supposed to be 4 x 400 then 200 cool down.... But I was toast after the third 400 and stopped my practice a little short. Then ran for 4 km. I was starving at the end. Nutrition will be incredibly important for these events.... As for training plans, I hoping to use plans from the site, but I'm also trying to follow the Barry P run plan and am running 5 to 6 days a week. None of the plans include that. What to do? I hope everyone is having a great time training, remembering that this is all for fun. It's funny how many people at work think I'm nuts doing all of this, yet they get tired walking up two flight so stairs.

It is unfortunate how deconditioned general society is to a large extent...and scary. I see the end stage of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc on a relatively daily basis. I am so glad to see communities like BT encouraging people to be active and to engage themselves in healthy lifestyles!

No, sorry to disappoint, its not the "Real thing' just the same symptoms. I have had it though in the past.

mndymond - 2012-01-11 11:40 PM

onbelay - 2012-01-11 7:53 AM Crazy swim workout this morning. (masters program, 1st year) 800 warm up, 200 pullboy free, 200 IM pulling only, then 3 x 400 all out free on 10 minutes. It was supposed to be 4 x 400 then 200 cool down.... But I was toast after the third 400 and stopped my practice a little short. Then ran for 4 km. I was starving at the end. Nutrition will be incredibly important for these events.... As for training plans, I hoping to use plans from the site, but I'm also trying to follow the Barry P run plan and am running 5 to 6 days a week. None of the plans include that. What to do? I hope everyone is having a great time training, remembering that this is all for fun. It's funny how many people at work think I'm nuts doing all of this, yet they get tired walking up two flight so stairs.

It is unfortunate how deconditioned general society is to a large extent...and scary. I see the end stage of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc on a relatively daily basis. I am so glad to see communities like BT encouraging people to be active and to engage themselves in healthy lifestyles!

It is indeed sad. I watched a friend of mine get winded walking up a short flight of stairs. She is one says not so kind words about my trying to get more athletic. Her reasoning is that I am "old" and should do something more "age appropriate". Hmmmmmmm, wonder what that would be? I can see "age appropriate" is working well for her.

Nah, you are sounding just like Dr. Melindy! I gotta question: I am finally THINKING about clipless, Any recommendations?

I like the idea of easy to get used to for clipping in, and especially out!

You should come hang out with me! I'm a Clinical Social Worker working as a mental health therapist in a community mental health clinic. I specialize in working with the SPMI population, predominately Schizophrenia and I also work with our DBT program for women with Borderline Personality Disorder. We get several residents a year who come to do a rotation with us.

Oh - and I had to add - about 4 years ago I had mycoplasma and so did all three of my kids. It was a fun time. One of my kids was especially sick. Her X-rays made me cry! :(

You guys all seem to do such interesting stuff! 

I have another question (sorry, I'm full of them.)  Is it worth getting USTA membership?  I started by signing up for one race, but it looks like I'm adding two more.  I did already pay for a one day license for the first one though.

got week 1 of couch to 5k done. The new shoes feel great.

Also did about 25 mins of strength work.

Planning to start working the bike+trainer in february once I get my base back up..sad to say, but the 2 strength workouts + 3 running workouts a week are keeping me plenty tired right now. I still need to get a tire to use with my trainer anyway.

Hi Mentees!  I'm the long lost mentor.  Sorry I'm late to the party but I'll try to get up to speed as quick as I can.  I spent the last few minutes reading through everyone's intro posts to kind of get to know everyone.  I recognize a few names from some of my past groups so welcome back.  And to all the others good to have you!

So a little bit of background on me.  My name is Neal and I got into triathlons in 2008 after picking up running to lose some weight and eventually needing a new challenge to tackle.  I have done a lot of races since then.  Lots of sprints and olys, 5 HIMs, and 2 IMs.

After doing an IM each of the last two seasons I decided I needed a break from the long hours of long course racing.  So this season I'm going just be doing sprints and Olys and really focus on running with a goal to qualify for Boston this fall.

Just like a lot of you I'm just getting back into training again.  My activity levels have been pretty low since IMWI in September so it feels like I am really starting over again.  That, and I'm sitting about 15 pounds over my preferred racing weight so there's definitely work to be done.

Well it looks like they upped their annual membership from 30 to 45 bucks this year so you would have to do five races (at a $10 one day license) for it to pay off.  There are other perks to a membership such as a quarterly magazine, discounts at supporting sponsors, and a ranking system so you can tell how you stack up against others in your age group.  In addition they are doing a promo this month where if you sign up you get a free DVD

If you like all that extra stuff it may be worth it to you.  For me it's a no brainer as I typically do enough races to justify it.

Welcome Neal!

I think the day licenses went up to 14, so would have to do 4 to break even?  Since I started planning 1 in Dec and am up to 3 I'm a little worried I will exceed.

I have a training plan question.  I was looking at one of the free ones and am curious, it is really saying to swim for 12 or 14 minutes?  It just seems like it would be an awful lot of effort to drive to a pool, get changed and swim for 14 minutes then shower, change, drive home.  Am I reading it wrong?  Here's a link http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=... race are you planning to use as your Boston qualifier?  My husband did Grandma's in MN for his first marathon last summer and qualified. 

When I have had a swim scheduled for a short time, I always do something else at the gym.- weights or dreadmill or such.  My nearest pool 35 miles away on curvy mountian roads. When I go there, I feel I need to make it worth my while, no matter what the plan says. 

I struggled with the option of joining USAT. I decided not to do it because I have 3 USAT races scheduled and 2 "other" races. It is nice to support the organization but I'd rather put out the money $10-14 at a time then $45 (plus first race reg fee) in one shot. If I end up adding another race, it will have been a small price to pay.

As for swimming short times: I would make it worth the trip. Do what you feel comfortable doing. Add some good stretching exercises and drills. Its silly but I used to just relax in the pool and remember why I loved swimming in the first place. I've been swimming competitively for a long time and its nice to goof around and enjoy the peace underwater. I would see how long I could hold my breath and do barrel rolls. All the things that kids do in the pool. I would've played Marco Polo but it doesn't work by yourself.  

Hey Neal! Good to have you here! 

Couple questions: How quickly do the Ironman events sell out general entries? Should I volunteer at a an IM event just to see how things go? What are some important points to hit on the fitness journey to Ironman completion?

Thanks!