Newbz'z summer mentor group is FULL!!!! (Page 62)

Carl, I met one of your arch-rivals over the weekend.  She is a triathlete at MSU (Kate Segula).  Actually I talked to her boyfriend (Ryan Rau) who did the Oly tri that I competed in.  He was listed as one of the elite males in the triathlon.  She did the Aqua-bike but I didn't see how well she did.

I just asked him a couple of questions about how the swim start worked.  I didn't tell him I was a UM fan.  He might have told me to get screwed or something. lol

Got my first run in since my crash...legs felt pretty good.  I'll try to ease back into it the rest of the week.

Nice....how's the back/shoulder feeling?  You back to swimming?

Did you have a goal weight in mind when you first started dieting/exercise and all that?

Shoulder is still sore.  I may have to see a doctor as it's making very little progress.  It's not swollen...but I figured it would be good by now.  It only hurts when I raise my arm up over shoulder level.  Swinging my arms like in a walking or running motion is perfectly fine.

Well, right now I'm shooting for 145lbs since this is the heaviest I can be for my height (5'4) without being overweigh according to my BMI (I know many take issue with using BMI as an indicator, but this weight seems reasonable to me).

Back in 2005, I honestly would have laughed if someone had told me I would be that thin. I had kinda given up on my weight. It just seemed like too much to take on. I had too much to lose, I would never get there, etc...

So I stayed heavy (in the photo I was somehere around 235-240lbs) until 2007. One day, I was watching TV and snacking on cookies with my then 2 year old while waiting for a pizza to come and it hit me that I was being a pretty bad parent teaching my kids to eat like this and be inactive. I decided, as a family, we had to start being healhier.

So in Oct of 2007, I joined Weight Watchers, and over the course of a year lost 78lbs. Starting off, my only goal was to get under 200lbs. I had failed with weight loss so much in the past, I didn't have the confidence that I could lose all the weight. So I just had to focus on small goals and stay the course. Everytime I lost a pound I just told myself I could do it again. Just keep going until you do it again. And it added up.

I found out I was expecting my daughter in Jan 2009. Many people expressed concern that I had just lost all that weight and now I was gonna put it back on again (gee, thanks. how about congratulations?), but I knew I had to finish what I had started. I was so close to my goal. There was no way I was going to stop.   

So after having my daughter last Aug, I started losing weight again. I had been going to my gym regularly and one of the instructors mentioned an upcoming triathlon. I figured even if I didn't finish it, I would sure lose weight training for it. So, now that brings us to the present and I've gotten more into triathlons than most 30 year old moms. To quote my husband, "Are you on that triathlon website again?". Well, yes.

Sorry about the life story here.        

Haha. My husband has also lost about 20 lbs in that time, so maybe I should be checking what HE is doing on the internet

Glad you're doing better and fully getting back into your training.

Edited by jpbis26 2010-06-16 6:11 PM

Hey guys, sorry I havent been around much. Trying to get in as much training as possible before I leave for my Honeymoon TOMORROW!!!! So I will try to catch up. I am going to be on the internet quite a bit trying to keep up with my school work so I may stop in and say hi. Sorry to hear about everyones crashes/accidents and what not. Take care everybody.

Have a great time on your honeymoon and forget about training for a while.  

You look great Jackie - amazing change.  Stick with your training and it will keep coming off.   

Sweet dude!  Have a great honeymoon Thomas.  And congratulations!!


Had a nice swim today.  Basically not a workout at all, but got to bring some people out in OW that have never been before and got them over their initial fears of swimming outside in the first place.  This was one of my most rewarding training days yet!  And we have a sprint on Saturday, so it was nice to take it easy . 

Thomas, Congrats on the marriage and have fun on the honeymoon!

It's been a good recovery week for me.  Everything has been pretty low key to help the recovery effort but I am reall anxious to get back into the harder training.  That will begin on Sunday with my 40 mile ride.  I am starting to get used to that distance and feeling comfortable in the saddle for the duration.  I will probably up the mileage to around 50 by the end of August so I can start some preliminary work toward a HIM in the next 1-2 years.

I am thinking about signing up for my second Oly Tri on Aug.1 in Indianapolis.  for this one the swim is a point to point thru a canal in the downtown area.  I have read a few nice things about it and it should be a good second race for me.

Went to masters yesterday and did 2500 yrds of drills, which is A LOT for me. Any how, I think that is what made me have the dream I had last night. Here it is:

In the dream, during the swim, I was passing everyone and was the 1st one out of the water. 

As I ran out of the lake I was think "wow, I'm doing so good". But when I got to transition, I realized I had accidently brought my 4-year old son's bike with training wheels on it instead of mine.

Then, I looked down at my ankle and realized I did not have my timing chip on my ankle. Suddenly it hit me that I had never picked up my race packet at all and that I would have no idea what my perfect swim time was or count as finishing the tri. That's when I woke up. 

thomas, congrats!!! enjoy the time.





All, i have a delima

to race an olympic race in jorts or not..........?

DO IT!!! You'll still crush the race in whatever you wear (or ride for that matter).....you're a freakin beast.

Only downside is that you might have a huge pack of ladies chasing after you

Are we talking cut-off jeans here???  Because that's pretty much an easy answer.  YEAH!  Just think about if you win....your finishing pic. will be the best one yet! 

That's just ANOTHER reason why you should do it! 

I was wondering what "jorts" were. Is this what you mean? Why not run it without shoes? ...just kidding

okay, I have a question (although not nearly as intriguing or interesting as Davids):  I am trying to decide if I should try to get my cycling cadence higher.  Right now I think I avg. in the low 90's.  I try to keep it about 91-93 during nearly all of my rides.  I have no accurate way of knowing what my true avg. is because I don't have the right computer to feed me that kind of information.  So basically I look at the computer regularly throughout my rides.

Anyway, last year I was trying to hold the mid 80's while training and now I can easily hold the low 90's and maintain this for a 40 mile ride and keep a decent avg. speed.  My question is: what do I stand to gain by incresing my cadence to the upper 90's?  I am thinking it would give me something to work on for the rest of this season and the winter.

BTW David,  I think you should do the jorts but I don't want to see any pictures.  I saw the one from last years race that you did and I still have to poke my minds eye out over that one.  LOL

I have some running questions.

My logs are up to date, so you can see what I've been doing.

I'm starting to try and run more often (shooting for 5 days a week-b/c this is very doable over the summer) and run for longer distances. As I start doing longer distances, I'm not really slowing down my pace, but I am taking small walking breaks. So...

1. Should I continue taking small walking breaks (3-4 of about 2-3 mins in length) during longer runs or should I try to keep running the whole time but at a slower pace?

2. When I do shorter runs (like 2 miles), should I try and push myself to run at a faster pace?
 
3. Anyway you can judge what pace you are running at when you're outside?

4. Just got a HR monitor. How should I use this during runs? 

Edited by jpbis26 2010-06-18 3:12 PM

Just my opinion and others may have better advice but one thing is for sure you should increase very slowly.  An overall 10% increase in mileage a week is the normal best.  Sometime you can get by with more than that but it is a good rule of thumb.

Question 1 ...I would try to keep running for all your mileage but at a slower pace.  There are different types of runs i.e longs, tempos, easy's, intervals etc. The big 10% rule is important!  Personally I do 3 runs a week...1 Tempo, 1 easy (mod. distance), 1 long.

Question 2... You can def do shorter faster runs.  Especially if you want to get faster but more mileage will help you get faster by default.

Question 3 and 4... The HR monitor is a good tool that I use.  It can give you very good feedback, quickly, about perceived exertion (PE) which is another important tool.  Obviously the harder you work the harder your heart will work and it will climb as you increase intensity.  Many people work by PE and I use this too but it is in concert with the HR monitor.  I am a bit of a perfectionist so I am constantly looking to see how each effort compares to the last tempo run or long run, etc.

The HR monitor also can show you how heat and cooler temps affect your workouts.  More valuable information you can apply to training and racing.  I was able to use all this info for last weeks Oly and I think it helped me complete it as well as I think I did/could have.  But this takes time to learn how to work it.

There are others who can lead you in the right direction better than I.  They will have more experience and a better  understanding of these things can work for you.  (Davis, and the 3 J's Jonathon, Jeff and J.)  The big thing you should think about is don't increase to fast.  I have been there and done that!!!!  I took myself out of last years dream race the Marine Corps Marathon because of the lack of adherance to the 10% rule.

Edit: Another good resource is Runnersworld.com



Edited by DirkP 2010-06-18 3:57 PM

Regarding the running...agree with Dirk.  Whatever changes you make, make them slowly.  I actually think the 10% rule is bordering on the high side.  For me, I found that 5-7% changes can be made with much less noticeable "impact" to how I feel during and after my runs.  I know this means that it takes much longer to progress from 15 mpw to 35 mpw...but it's the nature of the sport.  Running is not something your body is meant to quickly adapt to. 

Regarding jorts...I have no idea what they are, but if there were indeed pics from last year...please advise me where I can find them...LOL.  Dirk saying he had to poke his eyes out is too tempting to resist.

As far as cadence, I found that in races, my cadence is naturally higher.  Not sure why.  When I do endurance rides, my cadence is normally around 88-92.  When I'm racing...it's around 98-102.  I know that's a big difference, but it's just what feels comfortable at the time.  When training, I try to ride at 98-102 and it doesn't seem right.  And when I race, I try to shift to a harder gear when I see my cadence at 100, and then it feels like I'm mashing at 90 rpms.  IMHO, just go with the cadence your body feels comfortable with at the time.

Hi everyone.  My first tri for this year (2nd ever) is Sunday morning so I'm heading out in a few hours to  (it's Sat here already).  The weather forecast is not looking good - 50% chance of rain - so that should be a new experience.    I know I'm in better running and cycling shape than I was last year, but am not so sure about the swim.   My plan is to take my time for the swim and then push harder on the bike/run.    Look for a race report on Sun or Mon.

Good luck to everyone else who is racing this weekend.

By the way, I will not be wearing jorts. 

Good Luck