2016 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4-Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 6)

Hi All

Highlight for the week for me was a 6 KM group run this morning in a bush setting . I managed to run 2 minutes / walk 2 minutes for most of the way. This was my first real run for the year as all my others had been on the treadmill. I 've pulled up ok so it was a good run. I also have a benchmark for this run and will aim to improve each session.

Tally for this week is gym x 2, Run x 3 & Bike x 1. No swims and no real excuses. I need to focus on my swim as it is my weakest leg.

Welcome to the new members of the group and well done to Bulfrog on a great training effort.

Hi all, I am still here. i have not trained as much as I would like, but I think I am loving on running for a bit. For years i could barely run 100 m, but I did 4 km the other day (run walk), and I am kinda digging it. I am back to the run, ride swim tomorrow.

Quick question, in the move I have managed to misplace my riding shoes, so is there anything you would recommend?

For those with foot/knee issues, I could actually recommend Kelly Starret book "ready to run". Yes I know he is a crossfit dude, but he is also a phd physical therapist, and being a chiropractor, I don't agree with everything he says, but I found it invaluable in getting my body back ready to run. It is not a "running" book, as in programs and techniques, but getting the joints and tissues ready for the strain.

Also a plus one for TI. I used to swim a LOT as a kid, but I am getting so much from that book as I get ready to do longer sessions again.

Hope you are all well

3 mile run on Friday 36:08. 4 mile run/walk on Sat 50:38 (12:37/mile pace). 10 mile trainer ride today - 44:14 (13.6 mph).

I've been all over the place with training. I'm a teacher and a mother of two young-ish kids (4, 8). I need to find some time that works to get to the pool.

Have lost 13lbs since Dec. Current weight 195lbs.

Hi All

I watched this YouTube clip today and it's worth sharing for a bit of motivation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpTVN_hMTM8

Ok, I will admit, that was pretty damn awesome. thank you

Okay, I want to watch it. When I get home I have to bookmark that trailer so I can watch it about once a week!

Wow! It's amazing how fast the e-mails and Fb notifications pile up when you don't bother logging on for a while. Robin I hope you're feeling better. Not like you to not harass me for an entire week.

We've been having freakishly warm weather here in PA the last week and I have been out there enjoying as much of it as I could. But life has gotten in the way of posting. Here's what I logged since my last posting.

Thursday
3/20 - Walk - 35m 30s - 2.00 miles - 17m 45s /Mi
Another beautiful day for a gentle walk. No interest in speed, and for once I was able to control the 21 yr old kid in my head.

Friday
4/20 - Bike - 44m 17s - 9.00 miles - 12.19 Mi/hr
A sweet afternoon ride with no interest in speed, just building distance back up.

Saturday
5/20 - Walk - 1h 12m 19s - 4.50 miles - 16m 04s /Mi
I know I should be at the pool at least once this week, but I just can't pass up this beautiful, unexpected weather in the middle of February. Went out for a long, slow walk and saw the biggest bluejay I have ever seen in my life. He flew along ahead of me, landing on fence posts and guard rails for nearly a mile before he got sick of me catching up to him and flew across a field.

Thx for the video. Good motivation!

Another good training week done and dusted. I didn't get all my scheduled workouts in, mainly due to the tight calf mid week. But I still managed my biggest training week to date.

Swim, 3 pool swims, 1 OWS, 4,150m, 1:23
Bike, 2 outside rides, 1 trainer ride, 108km, 4:45
Run, 5 runs, 30.6km, 3:32

For a total of 9 hours 40 minutes for the week.

Less than 2 weeks till race time now, so the taper will begin this week. I've got 1 more long run tonight and then it's time to start backing things off. Will still be expecting 9-10 hours total for the week, but there will be more work at the start of the week, before taking it a bit easier at the end of the week.

Hope everyone else is tracking well

Saturday the 6th, workout day No.5... That's fantastic consistency. Your monthly challenge is going well. Keep it up.

Sweet Andrew. It's looking really nice for your race. Looking forward to the report.

Monday
6/20 - Walk - 1h 03m 11s - 3.70 miles - 17m 04s /Mi
Looks like the last of the nice afternoons for a while, so I squeezed on more walk in here. Did my medium route, with the dreaded Hillside Drive between 2.5 and 3.0 miles. Huffed and puffed, but I made it.

Tuesday, YUCK! 33ºF and rain/snow combo. I'm not going outside in that crap! Hmmm, maybe I better think harder about getting up at 0500.

Hmmm, I have a choice to make. Run and hide, or fess up and own my irresponsibility. Never was any good at "run and hide" but this is embarrassing. You may remember that I was kind of proud of the fact that I actually lost 1.5 lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And as soon as I got back into the classrooms I got sick. This morning I finally mustered the courage to step on the scale for the first time this year. Well, the resultant inactivity and a complete lack of attention to my nutrition has resulted in gaining 15 lbs. One of the recurring themes at Weight Watchers was always that we "speak" much more harshly to ourselves than we ever would to our friends or even acquaintances. I can attest to the accuracy of that. I have been especially brutal to myself today. Now comes the hard part, forgiving myself and moving forward. First tri of the season is in only 14 weeks. Can I break 350 by then? Sure going to try!

Hi Everyone!

Missed out on the past week or so. I haven't touched the scale, as I haven't been able to get in any workouts due to this horrible cold going around. Coughing all night, exhausted etc means no workouts for me. My goal of losing weight before April is looking a lot harder to meet. I hope to be back to the workouts next week, and back on track. Very frustrating. I hope to have more positive things to report end of next week!

Happy Hump Day!

This movie looks awesome. Can't wait!

Well congratulations on choosing owning up, instead of run and hide. It's by far the hardest of the 2. And the one that I spent the 2 years after my HIM in 2013 avoiding. So you've taken the most important step.

How much do you weigh at the moment? 14 weeks at 2lbs a week gives 28lbs lost. That's a very achievable goal. And to be honest, at your weight you should be able to lose more than 2lbs a week for a while, without pushing yourself too hard. You have a lot to play with, it will melt off if you work on it.

But, (here come's the tough love part) you seriously need to look at your diet.

Missing a few weeks of workouts because you were sick does not explain 15lbs weight gain. And that's gained since Christmas? that's 6 weeks, so almost 3lbs/week gain. And you were working out for at least part of those 6 weeks, looking at your training log, it was only 3 weeks of little to no workout. so that's 5lbs a week. That is a big gain in a relatively short space of time, and to be honest shows a problem.

I don't have the answer for you. That's something you need to decide for yourself, but you have to sort out your diet. I like using the MFP app to count calories. It works for me, but you may prefer a different plan. The south beach diet, Paelo diet, Intermittent fasting, Diet X... They will all work, there's no one answer. You just need to find a way to make yourself eat less.

I think you need to separate weightloss and fitness. (Yes I know they are connected) You workout to build your fitness. You watch your nutrition to lose weight. To succeed at triathlons, which you CAN and WILL do, you need both.

You should be easily loosing 2lbs a week with no exercise. I know it's not as fun, a nice bike ride is much more enjoyable as a salad for dinner every night. But it is what needs to happen.

Sorry for being harsh. But I felt it needed to be said.



Now, if you want any help, or want to know what I've done in my journey from 300lbs - 200 (and back and forwards again to be fair) please just ask, i'm (we're) here for you. I may not be good at keeping it off. But over the years I have had great success in losing it. Good luck dude.

A good first half of the training week for me.

Monday was another public holiday (Yay for back to back 3 day weekends!) so I got a 90 minute ride and 30 minute brick run in. This time I just ran, not my run walk for the brick. And boy did I fade in the 2nd half. So any question on how I'm tackling the HIM is answered. Run walk is it.
Tuesday was long run day, and Wednesday was a pool swim at lunch time, and a 60 minute evening run.

That's 6 days in a row of 80 minutes or more, and 40 consecutive days of at least 1 SBR workout.

It's also the end of my peak training. We're now less than 10 days out from race day, so I'm going into taper mode. Between now and race day I've got a bit of swimming (No impact, so can keep that up longer) Some easy bike rides and no runs longer than 30 minutes. I'm not dropping off completely, but definitely into backing things off a bit.

Hope everyone else's week is going well.

SCARE DAY! I don't have anywhere else, or anyone else, to talk this out with. You will understand why in a bit. I really only have two close friends, Kevin and Mark. I've never been real social or active within my community, so no ties there either. My three brothers are jerks. Mom and Dad are dead.

It was bad enough two weeks ago when the headline in the local paper read, "Triumph and Tragedy". There was a local trail type half-marathon run in mid-January, while it was still pretty chilly here. I happened to know one of the names of the ladies winner, she's the manager of my shoe shop. And a couple of paragraphs later I discovered what the tragedy part was. A 52 year old man who was running the event had a heart attack in one of the more remote sections and died before they could get him out and to aid. It started me thinking and questioning the wisdom of what I have been planning.

But today I started getting texts from the wife and daughter of my best friend. He was having intense chest pains at work this morning and was rushed to the hospital. His EKG did not indicate anything, so we were all feeling pretty good. But the doctor insisted on a catheterization. They discovered that two of his previously installed stents were severely blocked. He will be having a quad bypass tomorrow morning.

Kevin is 58, 240 lbs, diabetic, has two stents, and had a heart attack today. Mark is 56, 230 lbs, diabetic, high blood pressure, has four stents, and has had two heart attacks. I am 57, 385 lbs, no stents and no history of diabetes, heart attack, or high blood pressure. In fact, my blood pressure is consistently 120/80. I've been wondering all day if I am really that lucky or if I've just never had the right tests, "asked the right questions" so to speak.

I've never experienced any light-headedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath, beyond what you would expect under heavy exertion. All of my bloodwork has always come back clean. But I am starting to wonder if maybe I'm not planning too much too soon. Especially with LCpl Gung-Ho living in the back of my mind. I'd really like to talk to a doctor about my alternatives and possible diagnostic procedures, but have you tried to find a doctor lately who isn't "on the clock". They zip in, listen briefly, and zip out making a snap diagnosis. They don't sit down and actually discuss anything with you. And the doctor I've had for the last 25 years has moved up into the admin operations of the hospital and barely has time to see patients anymore.

In other words, I'm scared. Really nervous at the very least. Right now I am seriously considering sacrificing my May Peasantman Sprint and everything else on the schedule, except my August Lumberjack Sprint to allow myself the extra time to build to it slowly. In theory, I could possibly be down to 300 or so by August and in better shape. I guess it's true that we begin to question our futures more the older we get. I don't think I've ever truly considered my own mortality in the past, not even immediately prior to any of my recent surgeries.

OK, what to say to this.

First thing, and you already know this, is that we can't tell you if it's good/safe for you to be working out or not. Your Dr is the best placed to answer those questions, I understand how you sometimes feel that Drs try to rush you through, but they are still better than us to answer.

The good news is that every test you have done comes back good. So you have to take that as a positive sign, that you're ok to exercise. And as you've swapped running for power walking you have eliminated the highest stress on your body.

All you can do (assuming your Dr clears you) is listen to your body (not the 21 year old marine that lives in your head!). If it starts telling you "something's not right here, back off mate" then you listen to it, and back off. And that advice goes for all of us.

There are risks in everything we do. Yes, I could have a heart attack and die in my next run. Or, I could be run over by a car running or biking, I could be attacked by a shark in my OWS tonight. But, I could also slip in the shower, crack my head open and die getting ready for work. Or, if I hadn't started running all those years ago, maybe I would have had a heart attack on the sofa watching a particularly close/stressful game by now.

What I do know, is a totally sedentary lifestyle WILL be unhealthy. The risks of doing no exercise are worse than the risks of doing the workouts. At least that's my opinion.

However, backing off slightly, and slowly building up your fitness, as you focus on weight loss is not a silly idea. Not only for health reasons, but a slow increase in workload is much less likely to cause injury than a fast one. And weighing less will make the workouts less stressful for your body to cope with. It the risk of trying to sound to zen, it's about the journey not the destination... You don't need to rush into events. Enjoy the workouts for what they are, enjoy seeing the improvements that you make, and when you're ready go for your races.

And most of all, I hope that your friend is alright and has a successful surgery and a full recovery. You are totally excused from workouts today to go be there for him and his family.

Sorry this post is a disjointed, I'm a bit distracted today. But hopefully you get something out of it. Good luck.

Andrew, thank you. As you said, I already knew all these points, but it was nice to hear them affirmed by someone else. I had to laugh at the shark attack one. And I can certainly relate to the distracted part.

I'm going to try to talk to my long-time doctor some time this week or next. Still debating the May/August conundrum. I just think it hit me harder psychologically because of the complete backslide on the scale. It was a sort of one-two punch. More later.

I decided what to give up for Lent this year:

Excuses.

I have no excuse to not make it to the pool at least on Fridays. Since I have a trainer, I have no excuse to not at least spin on the bike twice a week. Since I normally roll out of bed at 0400, I have no excuse to not at least walk in the mornings. Since I have an old bowflex, dumbells, an exercise ball and a speed rope, I have no excuse to neglect strength and cardio training.

Starting with baby steps again:

2/11
Weight: 275
Walked: 1.62mi - 29:39
HR: 104avg, 113max

My Race Log

Good for you Rick!

Can't seem to find the APPLAUSE emoticon, but I'm clapping in my mind.

7/20 - Walk - 37m 11s - 2.00 miles - 18m 35s /Mi
BRRRrrrrr! 23º and windy when I got home today. Put on long johns and sweat pants, two sweatshirts, a knit watch cap, and gloves. Went for my usual 2 mile out-and-back. I had on interest in pace today, did not even take my phone or earbuds with me. Just the old school IM wristwatch. Quiet, introspective walk.

Mind if I join you guys? I have read through some of the posts and could REALLY use some of the tough love / brutal honesty that is handed out. I have food 'issues' let's say and have been trying to lose 20lbs for the last few years. I know my weight holds me back with accomplishing my tri goals, but I just can't quite seem to get my sh*t together.

8/20 - Walk - 1h 12m - 2.90 miles - 24m 49s /Mi
It was a long-standing family joke that my mother supposedly picked my wife for me. I wish she were alive so I could tell her how true that was. And she could not have made a more perfect choice. Today, we hiked the Jakoby Falls trail. It was 13ºF and we had a really pleasant walk. We weren't cold, once we got up into the gully and out of that nasty wind. And Cindy performed beautifully, never complained, barely stopped to rest. What a champ!