FancyPants' Tri Gals- FULL and CLOSED and TRAINING! (Page 7)

I would say the best way I find for feeling fuller for longer is protein. Making sure the meals you have (including breakfast) has enough protein in. Protein helps stop the peaks and troughs in your sugar levels often caused by meals high in carbs. Don't cut down your carbs too much as obviously as you are training and need them for energy but just keep an eye on the protein amount too. Foods like eggs, nuts and various beans have a perfect balance of protein, carbs and good fats. As for snacks ... popcorn (unfortunately not the sugar type!) and houmous are high in fibre and take a while for the body to break down and yoghurt, nuts and cottage cheese will do the protein thing!

Making feel hungry just typing this! And I've got an hour run to do before I can do anything else ... I'm off!!

Hello out there! I am back in the land of the living and active. Dance showcase done! Sad, but I will start again in the fall with next year's pieces. I have a 10 KM run on Saturday. I have not run in 2 weeks.. Yikes! I was out of commission Monday, Tuesday and this morning with a stomach bug. Yuck! I am hoping to get a run in today/tonight.

I haven't come up with a March goal yet. I think it will be swimming and strength related though.. So.. I will do at least 6 pool workouts in the remaining days of March AND! I will strength train at least once per week for the remaining 3 weeks of March (starting next week, the week of March 11).

There. 2 goals. April will be the bike month because mother nature isn't kind to us Canadians in the snow department until April.

Cheers, mates! Good luck with what you have on the go!

-Irene

As someone mentioned above: protein and water. Not necessarily combined.. LOL.. but definitely protein rich and colourful meals and water. Oh! And big servings of leafy green vegetables - they are full of goodness and fibre! Fibre keeps you full longer, especially the insoluble type. You can find it in grains and whole wheat bread products, but those are full of calories and if you are wanting to keep the weight off, the leafy greens are the way to go. 

I start my day with the following protein packed antioxidant rich smoothie... It keeps me full until lunch and I drink 3 to 4 glasses of water in between lunch and breakfast (typically a 4.5 hour gap).

1.5 cups low fat milk or low fat milk substitute
0.5 cups no fat vanilla greek yogurt (way more protein in greek yogurt than any other type out there)
4 scoops of chocolate protein powder (I use a soy and hemp based protein powder, it works out to be 30 grams of protein)
1.5 cups of frozen berry mix (I use Welch's Very Cherry Medley - it has blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cherries - all antioxidant good for you and a natural source of fibre). You can opt for fresh.
1 tablespoon of pomegranate seeds plus juice (I buy the seeds and juice at the grocery store and freeze them so they last longer).

Throw it all in the blender on ice crush for, say, 5 minutes and then you can enjoy! I drink mine on the way to work in a shaker cup from GNC... Gives me a real pep in my step. Also, it gives it a bit of an off flavour, but sometimes I add maca root powder.. It has lots of awesome for you stuff in it and gives you a real energy burst.

Cheers! 

I think I need to add the protein powder to my smoothies.  I usually use a quarter cup of yogurt (I really really really dislike the taste of yogurt), fresh berries and a banana.  No fruit is safe though...I'll throw anything in there!  I'm hungry 30 seconds after finishing so I think the protein powder will help with that.  I have a fairly long commute to/from work as well, so that's when I usually eat breakfast.

One of my favorite breakfast that seems to keep me full is my breakfast cupcake.  I brown some turkey sausage to start with.  I add a spoon full of that, pour Egg Beaters until the cupcake tin is about 3/4 full and add a dash of pepper and a little cheese.  Bake them at 350 for about 30 minutes and they are pretty good.  It gives me the protein without the carbs and cholesterol.  They keep in the fridge well and then heat up in the microwave for 30 seconds.  A special treat is to put it on a biscuit...just like a fast food sausage/egg/cheese, but without the nonsense that they add.

Hey gals!

Hope you've all had a good weekend and that those of us that raced got on ok. Anne I'm slightly in awe of you!! Your move sounds super hectic and mental! Hope you are all settling in well. Loving the idea of the pool though ... we have currently got more snow. By this time in March its normally sunny and lovely with spring well underway but its like a blizzard out there today. All v strange and wrong!

So I had my first duathlon on saturday. It was a very early start, the alarm went off at 4.30am! And the weather was a v miserable minus 1, foggy and sleeting! I did wonder what the hell i was doing and thinking that this really is the worst sport ever!!! It was a British Championship race and therefore a World Championship qualifier so the sight of the other competitors scared the hell out of me when I got there. I honestly felt so out of my depth! All the women went off in the final wave and so I realised I had to be very careful with my pace as I was probably running with a 17 year old whipper snapper who was looking to race in the Worlds!! Yikes!

But in actual fact I did ok ... I didn't come last, die or disgrace myself!! The 10k was a steady 51 mins which I felt really good for and probably in hindsight could have pushed myself quite a bit more. The 42k bike was hilly, windy and ridiculously cold. I completed it in 1hr 44 mins which I was ok with but now realise I need to put quite a bit more work in on this and the final 5K run was 23 mins which I'm happy with. Total time 3 hrs 3 mins. I came 15/17 in my category F40-44, 107/121 females and  577/619 overall!! All in all a good bit of training and a good practice of transition and nutrition in rubbish conditions. 275 competitors didn't even start so I reckon just by turning up I kinda won!!!

Yesterday was  Mother's Day here so I had a lovely lazy day with my kids and ate far to much which I told myself I deserved!! Ha! This morning though I'm back on it and have been swimming ... just need to run later despite the snow. Grrrrrr!!

Have a good day everyone

I am exhausted just reading this.  We moved from Florida to Arkansas with a 2 year old, 2 dogs and a cat and that one nearly killed me.  

Alex: Nice job on Saturday! I always get a crazy fast pace when I get started in a race and then I have to simmer down a little.

Elena: You too! Great job on the race!

Anne: Good luck on your upcoming duathlon! You will keep but despite your hectic life.

I will not be packing on much mileage for the next two weeks or so, as it turns out. I have to deal with a Morton's neuroma in my left foot, apparently. This is why my foot hurts, evidently, and changing out the sneakers a while back did not help.

The physio has showed me how to tape it and I have to try some funky foot pads in all of my shoes (I refuse to wear orthodics) and spend some days not runing or any other high impact aerobics, and hope for the best. If this doesn't help it, surgery apparently which sounds dreadful. So I am going to get lots of strength training in and swimming this week it looks like. Yee haw. 10 days or so until I can run. Or dance. Or anything really. Boo this.

Anyone go through this? It is a sharp stabbing pain in your 2nd, 3rd, and/or 4th toe and it is so bad that you want to saw off your toe (or toes) after you do something like run. I do not need precribtion metatarsil pads, just over the counter something or other. I don't know what name brand to get. I am open to suggestions...

Thanks and have a great week!
-Irene

I didn't thing that picture would actually post....certainly didn't expect it to be that big...sorry about that.  

I did want to show off the awesome view that we have here in the Little Rock area.  

I am sitting at getting in 2 swims this week plus both strength workouts I had hoped for! Yay! 

How is everyone else doing on their goals?

Anne: Are you unpacked yet?  -silly question- Good luck on your upcoming race! 

Happy [almost] Friday!
Irene 

Great Pic CREWS!!  I havent been able to upload any pics due to the size requirement.  Ive tried resizing but just doesnt ever seem to work for me   The profile pic is from when I had my Blackberry phone-without any resizing required.  But my iphone - different story. Wish I could share pics with you all.   

Well girls, I feel like my training is not going the way I want.  Last year I was SO good about getting in the exact workout on the exact day that the BT HIM training program asked for.  As of today Ive so much as looked at the training!  I know workouts dont have to be exact, but when my training was totally on target, knew where I stood. 

 Im supposed to be in week 3 of the 20wk plan.  Im fine for now:   (This week: Swim 4000/12000, Bike 37/175 (low!) Run 30/56).  I need to follow a plan within the next week or two.  One of the biggest issues for me and using BT's training is that it doesnt have set days for the disciplines.  It juggles things around a bit so a rest day..or swim..or run...or bike on given day may not neccessarily the same the following week.  SO... going to sit down as soon as I finish typing and check out the plan again to see how it willl work with my schedule.  Any plans you've used that you like that have consistant days for each discipline??

Elena: I have a plan for my Olympic which I start Monday, May 27. It is 12 weeks. I have chosen the runner experienced plan as I can already run the ten km. It gives me the full workout schedule, 12 weeks, and I do each tri sport three times in a week (if I do all of the optional workouts) plus two optional strength training workouts. It looks bloody intense. 

Anyhoo, the guy who wrote the book, Your First Triathlon, is Joe Friel and I guess he has HIM plans that might be more like this one I have. There are only Olympic and Sprint distance plans in this book. Otherwise I would gladly share. He has a website, trainingbible.com

Might be worth checking out.

I am super newbie compaired to some of you other ladies.  I have yet to do a race and feel like this finally might be the year.  My bike arrived. I need to re configure my office to set it up in my trainer. I am attending a tri clinic/basic bike repair class next week put on by the bike shop where I purchased my bike. Discovered an all ladies bike group nearby.  I am super exicted about! 

I met a lady at the park who is new to my area. The head to toe Nike outfit screamed "I am a runner." I asked and we started chatting. We are going to meet up and maybe try to run together. She has ran several marathons and is getting back into running after a knee injury.

I've been hitting yoga at least three times a week. I am finding that yoga is key for me running pain free. I've been bonking in my morning runs. BAD.  I start off good but lose steam half way through walking most of the second half of my runs. Though today I did a 3 mile run here in my town with one big hill and I did awesome my average pace was 9:06. I was super excited!!!!! 

I need to work on eating more throughout the day. In the past I've had some low blood sugar issues. What do you eat before morning workouts? I am not huge breakfast eater. I am trying smoothies. Any ideas would be great.