Saling4's Group - Closed for now. (Page 7)

Hailrnr:  The neoprene rubber pants or YOUR legs felt like rubber?  I like the transition from bike to run myself.  About once a week do what you did:  Bike for a bit then T1 to run for a short job so you get used to the feeling.

Oh yeah, I would love to see those pics.  I have no doubt that we all have our dork outfits, but if it keeps me warm I could care less. 

Helen:  The whole purpose of Master's is to become a better swimmer.  I would bet that no matter what the schedule says there are people slower than you.  The best thing that a Master's swim could do for you at first is get you doing drills.  The drills will make you slower and you will probably think you are going to drown, but in the end you will be better, faster and a whole lot more confident.

As far as how slow we may or may not be.  Who here is getting paid to do this? Or are we doing it for our health, challenge, fun, weight management, etc.  We are doing something that most people won't even attempt or try to do.  You all have the courage to swim/bike/run have fun with it and don't let someone else speed or proficiency get in the way.  Just TRI it for one more day or week or month or year (it will become a habit) so that all can see what a warrior you really are. 

Okay gang, I'm having a bit of a crisis, and I need your help:

I was intending to do the 2008 Ironman, then got a chronic ear infection; this much you all know. So, I looked at 2009, and set my sights there. BUT, for once, my hindsight is actually being useful.... My workload at school is massive, Head of Dept etc, and I struggled to get the training in last year, and had to juggle frantically to get to then end of each week's programme. I think there were only about 3 weeks out of 28 that I actually managed to do everything on my programme. I'm sure my fitness suffered for this, it definitely did as far as swimming goes, because I was sacrificing that more often than not. What was worse was the hard time that I give myself every time I miss a session. I have this inner voice that tells me I obviously don't want this enough, I am obviously not any sort of a warrior, and I don't deserve to be a success. This is highly destructive, and highly unnecessary, and as predictable as you like.

So, a big decision has been wrestled with, and, possibly, an answer found: I love training, love being fit and active, and have some weight goals. This year, with the workload beginning to pan out at school etc, I am going to train without a programme, and build base fitness with lots of varied activities. I realise that I'm not in the appropriate head space to be taking on an Ironman; I think that rather than imagine that things will be different this year, and set myself up to fail, I'm going to enter a few small events and enjoy not having to train for every spare hour of my day.

Maybe it'll be better for me in the skinny stakes too, not so much pressure to eat so much so often, which was backfiring on me enormously.

What do y'all think? Am I copping out, taking the easy road and morphing into a lazy bugger, or have I finally gotten mature enough to admit that I can't do everything?

All and any honest opinions gratefully received, I'm a bit bummed out here!

Jac

First,  I hate the treadmill, dread thinking about it and detest getting on it.  When I first started running I thought it was great.  Right in the house watch tv, but now I can not stand it, a 10 min mile on the dreadmill kills me and on the road 10 min mile is a nice run.

Mathsgeek,  If it isn't any fun back off and train for a Sprint or Oly Tri.  There are plans for those as well.  Do a couple sprints early and then do an Oly later in the year.  Maybe plan on a HIM next year.  More conservative and better prep for moving up to an IM.  I would like to do an IM,  but don't see the time commitment being there for me.  So I enjoy what I can do.  Training for an IM is a MAJOR commitment in time and resources. 

"When I first started running, I was so embarrassed, I'd walk when cars passed me. I'd pretend I was looking at the flowers."

"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."

Fred Lebow

The same applies to TRI's.  Finishing is the accomplishment.