lkagop's Training Group (Page 7)

Hey Everyone! Sorry I've been so quiet!! I have been training, but not logging in or checking up for a few weeks. It seems like life has taken me away a bit. It looks like all of you have been doing great!

Jess even completed another tri! That's awesome!

I've been training, especially biking. I have a 150 miler in early September so I have been putting in the miles, etc. The tri in August for me is like my "big workout" for now. I need to continue with my running and open water swims.

I'll be sure to log this week! I have a 40 mile ride on Thursday and hopefully more on Sat/Sun. I'll be checking in

I'm reading, but I'm training like crazy for a couple weeks.  Last week I had my biggest weak yet, and by far.  Getting some miles in on the bike is time consuming.  I just volunteered for an oly on Sunday, and it made me nervous for mine in September.  So I'm trying to bust my butt now.  I ran 90 minutes this morning which is more than I've ran since a half mary in March. 

Greg - Once I get some good mileage in on my bike, I will be sinding you a swim video.  My plan called for 12x100 and said to concentrate on form.  I realized while I was simming, what if I only think I have good form?  How would I really know?  No one has ever seen me swim and critiqued it.  So be prepared, it may be ugly. lol.

Racing this weekend- MightyMite Triathlon

600yd swim, 13 mile bike and 3 mile run. I am really looking to crush this course. I am in a mindset of "let's go, let's go, let's go...", and it is only Wed. I am trying to "taper" but I am really not sure what I am doing with regards to that so I am to shorter workouts, just working more on having good form, especially swimming.

jford - keep that mindset through the race and you will crush it.  Tapering sucks, doens't it? lol.  Luck!

What's everyone else up to this weekend?  It's my birthday on Saturday and I still don't know what I'm doing.  May just spend the day at the pool with a margarita (after the 3.5 hour ride of course).

Happy Birthday for the weekend Jess; whatever you do I hope you have a wonderful day

Plans for the weekend are not that exciting and pretty much centre around the kids and hubby's family as his brother is heading back to England. Our friends band is playing on Sunday night so we may drop in for that on the way back from the airport.

Happy early birthday, Jessica!

Best of luck to you, James, this weekend in your tri.  Here's to a new personal best!

Hi guys,

Sorry I have been a bit quiet over the past couple of weeks. Has been a rough couple of weeks.

My step-daughter is now living with us full time, this is something I am very happy about but unfortunately it has been quite traumatic for her as her mother kicked her out of home. She has also had some quite severe bullying and went missing from school so it has been pretty full on. It feels good to get her through it though. She is much better here and is settling in really well. I signed us both up for the Melbourne Marathon half marathon event in Oct and she is starting taekwondo with me on Tuesday so that is all positive.

Things went from bad to worse when on Thursday afternoon my 12 year old son's good friend died when he had a bad accident on his BMX at the bike track after school.  Alex played basketball with Cody and is in the same class at school and my husband coaches the kids. The worst part was one of their other friends (also on the basketball team and in the same class) was the only person with Alex when this happened. Such a tragic thing to happen to both boys. I just can't get the boys out of my head and Cody has been a mess. The funeral is on Thursday so it will be another tough week I imagine.

The rubber grips on the end of Alex's bike had worn through so the metal ends were coming through the ends. He landed on the handle bars  after he misjudged a jump and it went straight through is thigh severing his femoral artery and damaging other internal organs in his stomach - just horrific.

I don't tell you this to upset you but alert you if you have kids who have bikes to please check them over. The tragedy of this is that had he had these grips in place he would probably be alive now. Such a tragic loss; Alex was just selected to the state squad in soccer and was supposed to have his first game today - at 12 he already had a fantastic future ahead of him.

This has really been a tough few days but after lots of tears and lack of sleep I finally feel almost human again.  Today I went into the gym we use (it is a community gym, we all have a key and come and go as we please) and completely re-arranged it so it flows better and gives us more room. Felt great to be pushing and shoving heavy equipment around the place and to be doing something constructive.

Thank-you for the comments left on my blog and thank-you for listening

Jford: thank-you Cody is doing better. He is a very sensitive kid but also very resilient so I know he will be ok.

This morning I have my taekwondo class and then a swim then a massage and tonight it is back to taekwondo with my daughter and step-daughter. Will be a good day

Wow. Michelle, I hope you and your family are doing better, I'm sorry to hear such bad news. 

Hi James,

That is the thing with motivation; it is fickle. It isn't always there when you want it. I will take committment over motivation any day because in the end you don't have to "feel motivated" to do it - you just need to do it, often motivation comes from the momentum you gain from consistency or a "good week". For me anyway.

Wanna set some targets for next week and hold each other accountable?

We can check each others logs at the end of each day.

My planned week looks like this..

MONDAY: Swim / Bike

TUESDAY: Run / Weights / Taekwondo

WEDNESDAY: Swim / Bike

THURSDAY: Taekwondo / Weights / Run

FRIDAY: Swim / Bike

SATURDAY: Long run.

SUNDAY: either rest or make up if I miss a session.

What do you reckon? Wanna join me?

Well I wish I could give you some of my motivation.  I've gone off the deep end lately.  I'm planning a century ride tomorrow (well 78 anyway).  It'll be my furthest distance to date.  I also know of another next weekend that I'm going to try to do.  I just kept reading the same things over and over on here and other places.  It was all about how much time you put into things (especially in the begininng of your tri "career".  How do I get stronger?  How do I get faster?  How can I climb hills better?  To all of which, the answer seems to be, put more hours in.  I've realized I have set some high goals for myself for this year and the coming years.  And I don't ever want a race to beat me like my first one did.  That course made me cry.  So the only thing I can do is make sure I'm prepared.  I don't want to be the bottom 10% on the bike anymore! 

These are my motivators.  I hope maybe that helps you a little. 

And good idea with the name!

Funny thing happened Friday night. My bride and I went to a surprise bday party for a friend of ours from church. Also at the party is a guy a train with occasionally and who I was suppose to ride with on Sat morning. While at the party, at least 5 other dudes came up to me and asked about my training, then they asked if they could go ride/run with me sometime, and sure enough, one guy wanted to go with us the next morning. It was really cool that they brought up the subject and really showed interest. I tell you all this to say that it really got me motivated again and we had a hell of a ride on Sat morning. Originally we planned to do 18 miles and ended up doing 27!

One guy even told me that a bunch of the guys in our class wanted to get in shape but they were waiting for someone to come along and get people going! SOunds like a lot of pressure huh? Anyways if they want to join me in a run or ride, that's cool, safety in numbers I always say, especially in biking. So I expect to have some slower rides (it's saddle time right?) but maybe more frequent rides as well.

So it really helped get me going again on my training and I hope to see my running/riding group grow from 2 to possibly 6 guys!

mmh: I would love to be accountable to you, but I am having a hard time making a schedule with everything going on, maybe once kids are back inschool I will get a definate schedule! But thank you for the offer!

Speaking from experience...it's amazing to me how my motivation can go up or down.  As you all may have noticed, I have still been pretty lethargic lately.  I realized that I got so engrossed in the Tour that I was spending 2-4hrs a day watching every stage.  It got to be such a routine that I just didn't have time to workout.  I know thats not a good excuse, but the tour ended yesterday, and today I finally got back into it.  After one run today, I feel 10x better and am ready to get back into it. 

 Unfortunately I have a race this Sun!  Don't think I will do all that well.  Gonna try to get in 3 runs, 2 rides, and 3 swims before Sat (which will be my rest day).  I think I am going to work hard up until Fri and use Sun as another training day as opposed to a race.  I know you're supposed to taper, but you can't taper down from nothing!   

 Anyway, hope everyone is having a good week and finding whatever motivation you need to keep it going.  And don't get discouraged by a little laziness (or hectic schedules), it's as easy as  picking up where you left off, albeit at a slower pace!  

Hi all,

Jess, sounds like you are supermotivated right now. Keep at it

James I am really glad to hear you found your motivation in the form of your cycling group, that sounds fantastic and you have put the idea in my head now too - I'll see if I can recruit some local women to ride with me.

Tim, good luck for the weekend, you might just surprise yourself going in there fresh?? I was a tour junkie too - loved it but for the sake of my sanity I am glad it is over. Pretty dissapointed in Cadel's finish - think that boy needs to find a stronger team and poor old Robbie didn't even win a stage this year.

After planning my week and feeling pretty excited about it the start of the week came unstuck a bit.

We went to see Even play on Saturday night and on the way back hubby and I were hungry and made the fatal mistake of grabbing something to eat at 1am. Spent all of Sunday doing laps between the couch and the toilet - not good!

Stomach is still a bit dodgy today but I am going to head out for a run now.  The sun is shining and I can't wait to get out there.

Taekwondo tonight and weights later this afternoon and it will be an absolute pleasure as the day is perfect