Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 7)

Wow!  Great race report!  Amazing how the unexpected comes up in many ways-- not sure how I would do running on grass.  I would share your concerns especially after having had done a swim and bike beforehand.  Way to stick it out, work through the sickness and finish strong!!!  Impressed!

As work comes first, I was only able to ride 40 miles instead of the century in my plan.  Still glad I got out there and got this done.  Hope everyone is having  good weekend.

Randy- hope you are enjoying California.  My oldest son just got accepted to UCSD and he is there at the school orientation as I type.  Wish I could have gone with him!!

Rene-great job in the race after a rough pre-race.  Good job.  I don't guess that will be a part of your pre race ritual?

Well, I've spent the day hanging out at the hotel watching the Masters.  Gil has been taking it easy/napping in preparation for tonight's race.  I did get in a run this morning so that was good.  He does not run until 8:45 pacific time. I'm getting nervous for him.  Really no pressure on him at all.....he is not expected to challenge for the win and really just wants to run a fast time.

Randy  

Rene: Way to gut out the tummy issue and grass run! Great result!

Randy: Hope everything goes smoothly for your boy!

Rene, not sure if I am added as your friend. I am not able to see the race log. 

I just got back from the book store and added to books to my collection. "The Long Run" by Matt Long which I have been wanting to read for quite some time now and "It's Not About The Bike" by Lance Armstrong. Another book I have been eyeing for some time. It will be a long night. 

Rene - Nice job! Great race report.  I liked reading your thoughts about the grass -- I would have had the opposite reaction, I think, since my knees strongly prefer softer running surfaces. But on the last mile of a tri? It had to be a challenge for everyone. 

Randy - Looking forward to hearing more about the race and California. 

I had a great run yesterday after work. I'm still pretty new to running and frequently have to take breaks and walk. Yesterday I did my first 30 minute run, broken into two 15 minute intervals with a 2 minute break to stretch in the middle.  This was HUGE for me! I'm thinking this week might be the week I finally cut out the intervals and just go for it -- 30 minutes nonstop.  My first 5K of the season is 3 weeks from today, and I can't wait. 

Hilarious!!! Clearly this guys's parents are not athletes. Either that or he's just really good at putting his foot in his mouth (while running, no less!)

Beautiful night in California.  Gil did not have the race he hoped for running 9:17/18 for the 3200.  Well back from his PR of 9:12.  He's a bit dissappointed but appreciates the experience of running in such a top notch meet against the best high schoolers in the country.  Its early in his season so now he will likely drop down to the mile now and see how that goes.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

Randy 

Randy - Congrats to your son on a great learning experience, even if he did not achieve his desired result.

Reading - I have read most of the before mentioned books.  I am half way through, "You Are an Ironman", and am going to start "Racing Weight: How to get lean for peak performance." by Matt Fitzgerald next.  I want to drop a little weight in an effort to improve bike and run times, and his book has been on my to read list to help determine a goal weight/body composition.  

Speaking of weight, a few pages back someone mentioned juice fasting.  IMHO this is NOT a good idea.   Sustainable weight loss does not happen over the course of a few weeks.  The weight was not gained overnight, and it can't be lost overnight either.  Crash diets do cause one to lose fat, but they also involve more loss of lean muscle mass than someone engaged in athletic activity desires.  And a juice fast will not provide you body with the protein and healthy fats necessary to rebuild your body as you train.  A juice fast creates a large caloric deficit, that in my opinion are not healthy.  Determine your base metabolic caloric needs , and then establish a 300-500 calorie per day caloric deficit.   Remember to replace calories used during training, but do be a bit wary of the total calories your HRM, BT log, or treadmill tell you were burned.  I believe they tend to overestimate.  It is also incredibly useful to use a food tracking program such as My Daily Plate, My Fitness Pal, etc.  One pound of fat is ~3500 calories.  the 300-500 calorie deficit will lead to a bout a pound of weight lost per week.  Having said that, do not trust your scale!  As you train, you will lose fat, but will also gain muscle.  Your body composition is changing, but you may not be seeing the corresponding loss of weight as you gain lean muscle tissue.  Use the mirror as well as the scale (you will also noticed the difference in the way your clothing fits).

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Bennet

Rene: I get the "when I'm old like you" compliments, haha! Especially from my fellow soccer players who are a lot younger than me. I notice that I get it more from kids who haven't been exposed to adults who are active, which is common out here, sadly. I do like that these kids are thinking of staying active beyond high school and college though.

Randy: I'm sure your boy will come away from his result motivated. I'm sorry it wasn't what he had hoped for!

Bennet: I'm interested in checking out Racing Weight. Thanks for mentioning it! I'm slooooowly burning off the extra fluff and working on building strength for tri training and racing.

It's Monday and kids are back to school, which means back to routines, yay!! Back work and back to training. Gym for a run today and tomorrow I'll swim. I'll be working on my chest and back, so it'll feel great to get into the water tomorrow.

Hope your Easter's been a great day with your friends and loved ones.

Good Morning ... alarm sounded off at 4am ... I must have turned it off ... woke up at 5.30am. There goes the swim and the weight workout I planned on. I will have to get the weights out of the way tonight before I go to bed. 

Rene - I am finally able to see the log from your race. My mistake ... I didn't look in the right area ... sorry still a newbie. Great race though even though there were a few unexpected things ... like the grass ...

Bennet - I was talking about the Green Smoothie diet/fast and actually changed my stance on that. I was going to do it but I talked to my doctor on Friday and he said to just make a green smoothie everyday and work it in as part of your diet. That is what I will do and hopefully I will see some results. 

I actually went to the bookstore on Saturday with my family (three girls all book fanatics) and picked up two books. Matt Long's "The Long Run" and Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the bike". I have to say I am almost done with Lances book. Its a very good read. 

I also upgraded my $250 Walmart bike this weekend with some new pedals and clip on shoes. I got the Origin 8 LOOK pedals and a set of Specialized Bike shoes. I doubled the price of the bike and I think I can't make any more upgrades that would be helpful to me so I guess the next thing is a new bike. 

I hope you all have a great day!

Good morning everyone-I'm ready to get back to training!  Despite all the travel I had a good run week 27+ miles.  This weekend I will be traveling AGAIN as my wife has her HS reunion in Birmingham.

Gil and I had a wonderful trip.  He is fine about his race.  Realistically, he was hoping to be sub 9:20 for the Spring track season.  He got off to a great start in his first race with a 9:12 and his perspective changed.  Worst part off trip was getting stuck in traffic for an hour in Atlanta on the way to the airport Thursday and again last night after we flew in.

I'll check in this evening when I get caught up.

Randy

Michael (in Denton) -  Glad to hear you changed your mind about the juice fast.  Congrats on upgrading your bike.  That is always fun.  Let us know when you join the "I didn't clip out of my pedals soon enough and fell over" club.  There are two types of people - Those who have fallen over, and those who will.  I joined the club, and renewed my membership twice.  Luckily I haven't done it in quite a while.....

I recall seeing in the beginning introductions that there are a few of us doing IMAZ.  I believe Jimmy Band Jason are signed up, as well as myself.  Anyone else?  Would like to share thoughts as we start heading toward training for the race.

My week of babying the ankle is done.  Going for an easy run today, and a swim.  Time to get back at it.  I ate like a starving hyena the last week also.  Time for that to stop.  I will spend a couple of days logging the food I eat on Daily Plate.  That always gets me back on track.  Have a great week everyone.

Yup, I'm in for Arizona.  Looking forward to it!!  Unless of course I get a Hawaii spot via lottery, then I may have to rethink things a bit.  One of these days.....

Yesterday was a day of rest.  I did not like it.  I wanted to get out and do something but know myself well enough to know the fatigue was setting in and I just needed to chill.  So instead I watched the master golf.  Now I'm feeling great and excited to get back to s/b/r repeat!

Hey everyone.  Sorry for my mostly-silent Easter weekend.  We went up to a cabin (belongs to a friend but we take care of it in exchange for the use) on Thursday.  Phone and internet are available only in the middle of a bike ride!

I'm an academic, so I tend to read boring (to most people) academic articles in sports science journals.  Since I'm at a university, I have free access to them.

For running, I like Daniels' Running Formula, Pzfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning, and anything by Lydiard (a good place to start, for free, is here: http://lydiardfoundation.org/pdfs/al_training.pdf).

For cycling I've learned the most from Allen and Coggan.

For all around, I've learned the most from Skiba's two books on triathlon training.

I haven't read the second one, but I completely agree about the first!

Ha ha.  I ran a 5K a few weeks ago.   I managed third.  The kid who finished in front of me was 15.  When I crossed the finish line I said 'congratulations on a good race' to him.  He said thanks, did a double-take, and said 'wow, you're old'.  I think maybe that was supposed to be a complement(?).

Nice job in your race, Rene.

I missed my long run yesterday because my wife is sick.  She seems to be better today, so I'm headed home to try to get in a good long run.  Have a great afternoon everyone (for whom it is afternoon...)

maybe i should have waited until I have done this tri for fun event that will be my first "testing of the waters" for triathlons before joining a mentor group.  the distances are: Swim .5 miles – Bike 16 miles – Run 3 miles.  not much, I know.  But it is 8 weeks out and I am hoping to at least get some insight and be inspired by a group of people.  

On the other hand, I was thinking it could be good to join in a group. It is nice feeling somewhat included with like-minded people.  

With the green smoothie, I read a description that it helps give you shiny hair.  How would you know if it really does? wouldn't showering more and using a better conditioner do that?  guess I should ask the author of that blog post I saw it on rather than here.  the posts about it reminded me and was food for thought 

I'm going swimming later today.  And planning this week to start getting up in the morning to workout. (I'm not a morning person, but I know it can be good to workout early on)

Ok, just got back from riding the bike and I have a question. I tried doing this at sort of a "race pace." I'm not even really sure what that means yet; I just tried to give more effort than if I were just riding along. What I'd like to know from you guys is, how do you handle hills? And I don't mean like, "they're so hard; what do you do with them?" I mean, how do you gauge how fast/hard to get up? I found that eventually I was just picking a speed and saying to myself, "don't go below 15 mph," for instance. Any thoughts? Oh, and conversely, how about downhill? Is it just balls-to-the-wall, or do you hold something back?

Thanks!