bigDH's accountability training a.k.a Beer Drinker's Appreciation Society (Page 67)

Really?  The Steelers?  Gonna be difficult for me to get over that!  

I am simply in awe!  No other words really cover it.  Congrats!  You should be fricking proud of yourself.  

With a 50 miler under your belt - I think you get a 1 year exemption on having to drink warm coors.  If you were to do the century - I think you could have a life time exemption.  

50 miles - astounding.

Way to get it done!  Outstanding job considering being sidelined for almost 6 weeks.  Don't worry about the gazelles passing you - you would have kicked their butt has you not had a hurt foot.  No warm coors for you either!

Speaking of good jobs - how did your son do?

Ok - justa quick check in before bed....

A huge thanks to kevin for getting me a copy of the bridge plan... I will sit down tomorrow and write out a formal plan.

Kudos to DH and Thor for making it happen this weekend.  Great job guys!

So I felt really tired after my bike ride yesterday and swim today.  Goes to show just how much the century took out of me and how much not swimming for a month affected me.  

However - the husband of my wife's best friend took his last breath today.  As I was doing my laps and playing with my son - I felt incredibly blessed to be alive and to be getting healthy and fit so I can lead a long life filled with family, my wife, friends and good beer.  I wasn't close to him (although my wife was) but he is the first person my age to pass away and I have to say that it has made me very grateful to be alive.

Heading out for a ride tomorrow at 5.  I was gonna bike to work but with my wife leaving for VA - I'm gonna have to sneak in a ride in the early AM.  I really want to make the HIM happen.

Trust me, i would never kick their butts! I know my running limitations. Next time though I will be farther ahead on the run and running faster so they don't catch me!

My son did awesome! Had a tough swim in the weeds but a great bike and run. He was third fastest on the bike and run even though he is 9 and in the 10-11 age group. The best part was his mental toughness to keep going on a hot day for his longest race yet!

Quick post before heading off to work... I still have to make my plan for the HIM.  Here is my question - how much do I push my work on the bike since that is where I'm strongest and its the part of the training that has the least chance of injury.  I'm thinking I should be doing 20%-30% more than my OLY to HIM bridge plan calls for especially considering that I'm about 20-25% behind in my swim and run training.

So my question is - how do I maximize my training while minimizing my chance for injury.

It sure does hit home when someone you know around your age passes away! There is no rhyme nor reason to why, but it is up to us to lessen the chances of it being one of us. 

Thankfully, triathlon is one way to do that! and the odd beer of course.

Not sure if we can keep this group going through the winter but if not we should make a group on facebook or something like that. 

We should all post our goals for next year stay accountable.

David-  Looking briefly at the plan, it looks like it has some great long rides plugged in already.  The longest being a 3:30 ride.  The smallest is 2:00.  I would think with your background (115 miles 2 weeks ago)  that you could up the long ride at the beginning of the plan to a 3:00 ride, and make the longest long ride 4:00-4:30?  For my HIM I had planned on being (trained for) on the bike for 3:00-3:30.  I finished in 2:57 at 19mph avg. 

Another thing.  Listen to your body.  Not the kind of listening you do to your wife when she's telling you the plan for next weekend;  Really listen.  If your legs say, I'm dead, consider skipping the following days planned workout.  This may happen in the beginning month especially as you adjust to the overall increased training volume.  Swimming can be the great equalizer for tired legs.  It will allow you to log workout time on tired legs.  Also, a long slow swim workout after a long ride is very doable.  Eventually consider long swim/short run brick the day after long ride.  Low intensity.  It's almost rest w/o rest.  But Listen to your own body.  If you need a day off, take it.

Your going to have to up your brick workouts.  swim/bike, and bike/run.  the latter being more important for finishing the race, the prior being more important to training while recovering during your training.

Have fun with this, and I know you will meet and exceed this challenge like each one you've put up for yourself to this point in your journey.  Finish the HIM or it's warm coors for you on race day.

As a teacher, This is foriegn to me since mid June.  It's going to be a hard road back...

Two great things that I seen this weekend that were inspirational!

1)A guy in the sprint, one leg, one prosthetic...that is determination!

2)A blind girl in the Oly...I can't even begin to imagine swimming blind in weed infested lake, biking 40k and doing 2 laps on a difficult trail run!

That my friends is determination!

Good news from the physio! She doesn't think it is a neuroma but metatarsalitis.

Went for a quick swim at lunch today. 

going for run on the track tomorrow morning.

Darren - Great point about the importance of the run.  I agree.  My concern is risk of injury.  In fact, today, I had to walk instead of run because of pain in my left knee.  So, I need to challenge myself while avoiding injury.  

I guess I'll have to be smart.  Lots of stretching, plenty of ice, and boatloads of advil.  Plus I could run on grass to minimize impact.  Anything else?

Thanks!

PS - Love your idea Thor of keeping this group going.  Our spring group doesn't really communicate enough... Plus, they don't see anything wrong with drinking Coors Lite.

Kevin - Great advice... Today I headed out on a run... My legs were tired and my hip was sore but I thought I'd see how I felt after a mile or two (or three)... Then my knee chimed in and I knew it was time to listen to your advice.  So I walked for 30 minutes and got in a brief swim.

Thanks for the support and faith.  BTW - I aint drinking no Coors...

PPS - Today at our opening faculty meeting - we had the most amazing hour I have ever experienced during my 17 years of sitting through beginning of the year meetings.  My head invited 4 people (a therapist, a former parent, a former graduate turned successful business man, and a teacher from another school) to come and speak for 10 minutes to answer this question: What effect do we have on the kids we teach?  When the former student (now in his 50's) choked up... it made coming back to school worth it. Incredible...

First real training run in about 6 weeks this morning. 4 miles, slow but steady.

Bought a new bike, pedals, cycling shoes and bike computer for my wife last night. Forgot to get a cycle trainer tire...damn, will be needing that sooner than later! Suppose I should find a cycle trainer for her as well...

Glad to hear about the good news!  Enjoy every minute of the run.

How long did your doc say it would take before you got back to 100%?

So i drug (is that a word - my mind is numb from teacher meetings) my butt out of bed this morning for a quick ride before the kids got up.  My plan called for hill repeats... I was a little wary of going hard because of the pain in my knee so I decided not to push it.  

But then I hit my first hill, and I found myself rising out of the saddle to chug up the road as fast as I could...  Then my brain started thinking about how aweful that warm coors would taste and so I slowed down.  But I found myself pushing again... and again...

So, about 30 minutes into the ride my knee starts to hurt and I say to myself, Even if they have to drag my in a body bag I'm making it to the start line of that HIM... and then it hit me...  I've always been the type of person who has accomplished things not by being the best but by working the hardest.  Unfortunately that hard work is not the most effective effort. I'm the guy at work who takes on the extra duty but is burnt out by February and then I struggle through the last 3 months.  I spend 3 hours cleaning up the house and then have a hissy fit when my kids mess it up.   I sign up for a HIM with only 8 weeks to prepare having not run or swam for 6 weeks... Not smart.

So it occurs to me that I might need to make a paradigm shift and embrace the idea that less is more.  I need to be clever and use my brain instead of my gumption to make this happen. I'd rather sit in the back of a SAG van than sit at home because I quit (there have been too many times that I've quit on myself when it comes to exercise.  Big goals that rarely got realized.)  So, I'm going to make it my goal to make it to the start line.  If I get there and I'm only 75% ready - so be it.  

Gentlemen - Sorry for the long message... Just wanted to get this out and I want to be held accountable - hence why I joined this group.  I've come a long way since November when I had to jog in the water because I couldn't even run a mile without hurting my knee... I've changed both physically and mentally... I guess this is the next step.  Thanks for the support. 

Well said.  Like rungs on a ladder, David, so are the goals that you've set before  yourself.  Each time you take a step, you cross another rung off of your ladder, and move on to the next one.  This goal before you is the same thing.  You'll take another step forward, and cross it off of your list as you make a new one.  I have total confidence in your ability to toe the line and excecute your plan for the HIM.