Prof40's Group -- Technically full but ... (Page 69)

Oooh, this is tooo funny! I did a little 5K run here in town a few weeks back and didn't even know my official time as I forgot to wear my watch! Today my sister brings me my 3rd place medal for my AG! I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony, because really, I've never won anything in my LIFE for an athletic endeavor! Now, perhaps there were only three women in my AG.....but STILL!! The AG was 40-49, so I figure maybe there were a couple women behind me? So, hey, if this OLD fart can win a medal for the run, which is my absolute nemesis, then ANYTHING is possible!!

How's that for some inspiration??

In January, would you have anticipated taking 3rd in your age group at some point in your life, let alone this year?

Wonderful wonderful wonderful.

Kind of makes you want to go out and race again, doesn't it?

Nope Prof, I had only one expectation in January--to complete an outdoor tri and not embarrass myself too much doing so. I had a long range goal of someday doing a full marathon, but didn't know in what century that might happen. In a month I'll be doing a half marathon, and I likely will survive it and might even have a bit of fun. They give you a medal for a half and some pasta and that's enough to get me out there! I've never been to Grand Rapids Michigan so that will be an adventure too. Thanks for the encouragement! You have successfully mentored several of us through adventure races, indoor and outdoor tri's, 5K's, 10K's, half mary's and a half IM!! Not too shabby!!

I am diligently logging everything I eat and drink and that is helping me finally shed some weight. I'm down about 5 pounds or so and that's just since Sept. 9. Slow and steady......

Ok guys, Ive just realized a week went by without a peep from anyone. I suppose this means its winding down, as someone predicted it would be. Ive been working like crazy and training for my half marathon in 3 weeks- and Ive lost 10 lbs! Its been a good month overall and I am left wondering why I waited till the end of tri season to start loosing weight. Im feeling stronger (but not faster strangely) on my long runs and am up to 10miles. Im about to leave for Kona in a few days and be completely inspired by the athletes there. I might send some reflections from kona, and post some pictures online so Ill let y'all know where you can see them. Im excited to do my last long runs before my race on the Ironman Course! And Im going to get out and do some of the swim course practices with the athletes. all practice for the real thing, right?
hope everyone is well and is tucking in for the long fall and winter ahead.

Nice to hear from you!

So what day are you doing your 1/2? If my schedule permits, I'll do it "with" you.

Nice job on the 10 pounds gone. Halloween candy is on sale here, and I've started eating it by the bag. I'm not stepping on a scale until I get a good few days of running in!

Likewise.

I'm back from India so looking to get my running longer than the distance between where ever I was and the nearest toilet!

The weight loss thing is funny. I spent several months not loosing weight and then suddenly I was looking at a different person in the mirror (and not in the sort of "Give me all your money or... type of way). Unfortunately (and I can vouchsafe on this) it doesn't work the other way. If I have a proper breakfast I am putting on weight for days after!

BTW, I think that we all need a pause and a nice slap on the back for having acheived so much over the last few months. Well done you all.

Toodles

I'll be doing the half with you, too, Liz, but it will be a real race. I bought a plane ticket to Grand Rapids Michigan as I figured the drive would be too much of a hassle. Anything over 4 hours is just too long to sit in a car. (maybe that's a sign of old age?) So now that I've socked money into it, I'll have to actually do it and not wus out! I did a 10 mile run/walk last week and did hill practice and didn't die, so that was a good sign. I also ordered some under armour as someone told me that they are invaluable for fall/winter runs. They are supposed to very effectively wick away moisture. I have been known to run, go stop by the house and change and go back out there just because the cotton I was wearing was bugging the crap out of me sopping wet! I'm not into rashes either. Debating whether or not to buy new running shoes. They are approaching replacement and the outsides of the heels are worn down already. The rest of them are okay, just the heels, but I spose that's enough to think seriously about new ones??? I don't really relish the thought of another injury. Can't say I'm keeping the Chi running form 100%. I get tired and my feet do their own thing. I will try harder to concentrate on the form, but sometimes the fall leaves capture my attention! I also decided that the slosh-slosh of a camelbak on a longer run is a pain. I felt like it weighed three tons. Don't know that it really slowed me down that much, but it was so annoying that I think the next long run, I'll go with the car and put little water bottles every mile along the route, or even some gatorade. Gels are easy to stick in your pockets. How do the rest of you creatively handle longer runs? Like what do you do on a 20 miler?? Do any of you ski in the winter instead of runs? Are there special shoes for winter?

Jeanette--how is your half mary training going? Did you really register for the Rock and Roll? I'll be walking a lot of my half. It's just the way I'm built I guess

I'm new to the website...and forum. I'll be 42 this month and am training for my first marathon in January (P.F.Chang) and will compete in my first triathlon in March '08. I'm taking swimming lessons (as I learned my form is not too good). I just started biking in August and found that I LOVE it. However, I'm starting to get pain in my groin that runs down the inside of my legs. They only way to relieve it is by standing up on my peddles and flexing my hips forward. Any thoughts on how to prevent this? Is it a bike setup problem? I bought the Butterfly saddle specific for women (which I love) and I paid to have the bike professionally fitted to me, but maybe it's not right. Open for ideas. Thanks.

Pene: dont worry about walking, I am walking every 10-12 minutes as well and it keeps me from being injured and thats really whats important! In terms of hydration, i use a water bottle holder than you slip your hand into like this: http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/RRU912/
I forget its there after awhile. And then I always plan one water fountain into my run so that I can refill it at some point. leaving a bottle somewhere is good, but some people i know just stop at a convenience store and refill as well. Im not sure if your area is too rural for water fountains and convenience stores though!
My friend uses a fuel belt thing but I dont like them personally because my hips are too big!
I think most people just run inside on treadmills for winter, but look thru road runners website. If there is special gear, it will be there.

My half marathon is on October 21st-- when is your's Pene? I start at 7am pacfic time in beautiful San Francisco. yahoo! Im just excited to be visiting the city too! I would love to know you guys are running in spirit with me!

To our newbie: I thought about your bike question and I have to say I have never heard of that issue. It sounds like your adductor muscles are tightening up - i wonder if you can look up some stretches or work with a massage therapist on those?? Just my 2 cents; but you should go back to the people you paid for the bike fit and tell them your problem too and see what they think.

7am on beautiful SF is 2pm in dank and dreary Yorkshire and I will be on the start line outside my house to then run through the grounds of our local stately home (where they filmed Brideshead Revisited) twice which makes up a half marathon. Naturally I shall start to the sounds of Bodyrocker's I like the way you move it and shall go downhill from there!

Never got on with fuel belts (but I will have to learn) and I use the same sort of thing that Liz recommends (http://www.londonmarathonstore.com/acatalog/Running-Bottles-and-Bottle-Belts.html). The funny thing is how little you actually do drink when you are running. I did a half in Hong Kong and drank less than 500ml of water during the run (afterwards I did fill my boots though!) so try carrying a small bottle and see how you get on. Plus, carrying a large amount of water is a real drain on your strength.

PS If you are running across Death Valley or somewhere similar please ignore the above advice and take a camel (a proper dromedary not a slooshing back pack) with you.

If you are taking gels remeber that the downside is that you need to drink a huge amount of water to wash them down so maybe you need to factor that in.

October 21 --- it's a date! Marking this on my calendar as we speak.

I've heard SF is gorgeous at that time of year, so I'm jealous of your weekend trip. I loved visiting there in June.

Unless it's really hot and humid, or I'm feeling a bit under the weather before I even head out the door, I don't worry about water if I'm running an hour or less. After that, I ditch a bottle somewhere so I can loop around every 15-20 minutes or so and decide if I want a sip. Same with the gels -- only on longer runs, and only then about 1/hour. I keep meaning to try a fuel belt thingy, but you know my mantra -- don't spend any money if you don't have to.

I'm not always cheap, by the way. I just don't want to add to my collection of lame equipment, goggles, bike accessories, etc in that box in my basement!

And to our new person -- could be you're new to the bike, and experiencing new feelings. Or you should go see your doctor for a check-up. I recommend the 2nd option. Make sure you discover what's going on now, before you get hurt.

KM--Welcome! I am 41 and others here are around that age as well. Are you a mother? I am of 3 and a chiropractor, and I know that my pubic bone (the pelvis in front) went out a lot with the last pregnancy especially. I had to go to a colleague and get it adjusted. The inside adductor muscles that Liz talked about attach to that bone, so perhaps they are telling you to go see a chiropractor?? I'd find a woman chiro who won't be afraid to adjust you there. Some male chiro's are too afraid of being sued to adjust that area (which is ridiculous, as it is just a bone after all!!)

Liz, my half is actually the week after, October 28, but I will be doing as long a run as I can with you that day and then will take the week off after that to taper. If anyone feels really ambitious, they can do a half again the next weekend

I'll try the water belt idea--actually think I have one laying around somewhere....and yep, my area is too rural for fountains and kwik trips. I get rather dry mouthed because I have to pant so much while "running". Or run/walking/jogging. I may develop a fondness for inhaled bugs one of these days

It was almost a whole month since I was on my bike, so I went out with a guy, actually, and rode mountain bike on roads and trails. It was fun and we went really slow to talk. He was great and patient and didn't laugh when I didn't feel up to jumping the logs. But mercy, I'll NEVER take a month off again from biking as the headwind on the last 1.5 miles was tough--I bonked and had to accept a clif bar from the dude (forgot to bring my own). My legs were really tired and we just went a total of about 15 miles or so. Neither of us set our computers! The Michigan irondude was creepy as it turns out. Kept talking about adding on to his house and adding us to his insurance and even asked my ring size all on the first date--and I wasn't even giving him any encouragement because he just plain had weird energy. You really can't tell til you are in someone's presence if you'll get on or not. Bike dude today was refreshingly normal! But who knows.........at least he got my butt in gear again today It was 80 degrees and the leaves were outstanding! I am NOT looking forward to winter!

Does anyone else feel like you could just eat and eat and eat??

My viking heritage must be kicking in with the weather change because I am trying to drop some pounds (which I have actually) and my body is in full rebellion! If I wasn't logging every single morsel and still training, I'd be gaining right now. As it is, I am just in hold mode with the weight. And I feel like I'm starving all day long!

I've been hungry all the time (like right now!!) and I'm not really training. I have managed to drop a couple pounds this week, but that must be some sort of fluke! I've moved, walked around a renaissance fair, done a little bellydancing and Israeli dancing, but other than that....no real training. Blah.

The good thing is that I now have a running buddy....a four-legged one :-) My new landlady has two dogs, and one of them severely needs to get walked. I just need to get up early enough consistently so she wants to wake me up to go for runs in the morning.

Hey, has anyone heard from Quiana lately?

Good job on the running partner, Casey! I know someone who has Huskies and takes them both running about 14 miles at a crack! He said they really pull you along at first but by the end of the run, he was dragging them! He found a lake along the route so the dogs could get a drink or jump in for a splash. I would have jumped in the lake too Belly dancing burns more calories than you might think! I love the Israeli music, too. I looked up calories burned on the net and discovered that one hour of mountain biking for a 140 pound person is like 500 calories! And the calories go up as your body weight goes up! No wonder I bonked yesterday.

Dude actually wants to see me again and said he clocked the distance and we actually did more like 17 miles. I don't know which I was more excited about--hearing that we went farther than I thought, or that he wants to see me again (kidding....he was very nice!)

Running burns bunches of calories, too, but not that much more per hour than biking. I was a bit surprised by this! Of course, one can't run for 7 hours at a crack, unless you are Super Prof Or maybe Mark enjoying the grounds inspection of his place in England AND his place in France all in the same day Mark--you need a house here so you can add a really long swim to the grounds inspection!!

Nope, haven't heard a peep from our Quiana. She must be happily growing baby and telling it tri stories these days It will be the first birth in history to take place on the run--cause I can totally see her deciding to do a quick 5K even though the water broke

PHX: Thank you for responding. Perhaps you are right...I'm 5'1, 105 lbs, and my first child weighed 10 lbs at birth. After asking several people who are avid cyclist in my community, and no one having a clue why I'd have this pain, I started going back to yoga to see if some deep stretching will help. My husband thinks that my body is just screaming because I've added biking and swimming to my regular routine. If it doesn't improve, I will go back the fitter.

Well, I'm off to ride my bike right now. We'll see how things pan out....

[P.S. I thought I posted this response on 10/5, but I never saw it on the forum. If you saw this before, sorry for the duplication.]

Wow KM--I think I'll just dub you "Ironwoman" right now! You can just skip the actual ordeal as you've obviously already done it with that birthing thing! I'm 5'7", 150 pounds and my biggest was 8'14" and if I hadn't had him in the water, I think I'd have split apart and died! He was the last child, mind you! I got a divorce after that No, seriously, wouldn't trade him for anything--but I haven't really truly forgotten the pain. I'd go see a chiropractor and see if she can fix your pelvis--that would be easiest I think. If there isn't a misalignment, then that is great--but there almost has to be one!!

I exercised more today than I did in all of last week. And I have nothing good to show for it. No tan, no race, not even a good hangover from a week of bad living. So either I need to get better distractions, or I need to get serious again about training.

2 weeks until that half-marathon.

Yeah Prof, he's our man, if he can't get psyched about tri-ing, then no one can! Must be the end of the season, eh? I know what you mean about nothing for your efforts. I've been really questioning what to do to motivate myself. There are no tris to sign up for until like March. Since deciding not to do an IM in 2008, all the wind went out of my sails and I am drifting around without direction. Now I picture it and groan with the thought of the pain instead of seeing myself all trained and strong and loving it.

At least I have a tan line from my 11 mile barely above a walk effort. You actually ran yours, so a big congrats!! All I could do the day after was swim, and even that was the slowest swim EVER and I tried to run but only managed half a mile, so I didn't even bother to log it! And the sad thing, is my legs on saturday were still sore from the mountain biking Thursday. In fact, my whole system is sore and tired now just from spacing the three sports out over 4 days. How in the world will I put them all together into one day again????

I out ate all the exercise too! I tell myself that's okay, as my mom was here and she always does that for me--her cooking is just fantastic. Then it was the bowling party for my two littlest ones and of course I'm gonna pig out on the cake(s).

Micah is a natural at bowling as it turns out! She got the highest score of all the kids and even a strike! I would have scored almost all gutter balls but for the bumper thingy's they put up and then to balance my bad effort, I finally got a strike, too. That's the way it goes for me--all or nothing

I think our bodies want to pack on a nice layer of blubber like the nordic whales and go hibernate. I vote to hibernate with my mom who is going on a cruise to the Bahamas! (they didn't even ASK me to go along!!)

I'm on a quest to lose 10 pounds by December 31. Anyone want to join me? That breaks down to about a pound/week, and provided I stop eating the Halloween candy and pry myself away from the bagels, plus actually get out there and do something with my body, I can hit this goal.

Of course, it is always easier said than done.

And I can't say that I need to lose this weight or something drastic will happen to me. It won't. This is just a personal goal, and no one else in my life knows about it other than all of you.

So if you'd like to join me, say yes, accept the challenge, get on the scale, deduct 10 pounds, and tell yourself you want to hit that number on New Year's Eve.

Or if you have already achieved physical perfection, pick another challenge. Maybe 700 minutes of exercise in a week. Or a 10k in less than an hour. Or a 50 mile bike ride. Maybe a ridiculously long swim, that seems overwhelming now, but with 10 weeks of training, may very well be possible. Something that you can do by 12/31 that will fill you with confidence and satisfaction as you enter the new year. But you have to announce it to the group so you're held accountable to the goal. Anyone can dream. I want to achieve.

Heck, I might even get my tux out of the closet!

And for those of you counting, just 11 days left to our group half-marathon. I'm looking forward to it. Jeez. I need to get out more.

I'm in for the 10 pounds. And I'll probably try to make some other goal, too. I need to or I'll just sit and eat chips in front of the tube all day and watch my muscles turn to mush.

It went from 90 degrees on Saturday, to 40 today. Brrrrr

I'll join you on the pound goal. That puts me at being just under 200lbs at New Years....I like that goal. It seems doable (but will require me to get a better handle on my boredom eating).

It's getting rather nippy in Minnesota. I think it was in the 30's F this morning. Brrrrr. I'd better get my bike out for a last couple rides before it snows!

aloha from Kona!

just a quick hello to let you all know I made it here and am surviving the humidity. Its crazy triathlon world here right now. You cant step out of the parking lot without seeing some absolutely no body fat, no hair, fast runner or cyclist come flying by.

Im staying right on Alii'i drive, the famous road of Kona, and I almost died on Monday while doing my long run of 10 miles. I made it 8 miles before i had to start run/walking. But i finished! The 2hr surf lesson this morning was so much more fun but Im so sore now its crazy! New muscles. I had a moment of triumph though when my golf playing husband said he was "winded" after just an hour out in the water and I felt like I was still going strong. Those hours of cardio do count in things other than triathlons

So alll these skinny people around here prompt me to easily accept Prof's challenge to loose 10 lbs by 12/31- maybe Im feeling confident because I have lost 10lbs in the past 5 weeks pretty easily, but I think I can do it!

Im getting excited for our half marathon as well. I think training in this humidity is going to make San Fran feel like a breeze, right? Right????

Aloha Liz!! You lucky dog you!!! How nice that you and Mr. Liz can get away together in paradise! We'll have to think of a way to write the trip off now......um, aren't you there for a seminar? Yeah, that's it-- it's a medical convention for triathlete providers. Yep, yep, I'll vouch for you. Way to go on the long run....and the surf lessons! Surfing is on my list!

Mark---there's a LAWYER after me now! But not just any stuffed shirt. He's a sport biker dude with a ninja and he even sent me a pic of his red leather clad butt on the motorcycle doing a tight curve! He says that stuff is big in England? And he's a certified ski instructor! That is on my list, too! So, what sort of stuff do you small talk to a lawyer about? Any crash course in legalese that you can give me so I appear to understand what he's talking about? This one is actually sane and cute! I don't want to screw it up! Um.....group prayer? Wouldn't hurt! Everyone light a love candle for me The universe has a definite sense of humor---I asked for a biker dude, but wasn't apparently super specific--and maybe that's a good thing?

Okay, so what sorts of things are on everyone's lists? You know, the list of stuff you want to experience before you die........if you write down your goals and dreams, they have a funny way of actually happening!

yep, Catwoman's got it bad..... can you blame me?





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