Baowolf's Mentor Group - Sorry Closed. (Page 8)

Great job Mike!! I am 2 for 2 as well. Just did a 29 mile ride this morning (loving vacation) and it was one of those perfect rides. Weather was warm and sunny, and I felt great too.

I got a new Garmin 405cx for Christmas and forgot to take it with me . I'm getting used to having it.

I've cadence sensor as well. Clueless at this point as to what do with that data..lol.. I am very much a bike rookie. 

I also received the shoe pod for running too. 

Sounds like some good starts to the new year. I spent my New Years day doing a motocross race. Normally they are 15 minutes or so, very high intensity, this race was 45 minutes. I meant to bring my heart monitor but forgot it.  Since I have not been riding I am soooo sore! Couldn't get myself to run last night since my legs felt like jello. Hopefully the bike will work it out tonight.

Carol - My 2011/2012 posting was in hours.

I agree with others on the trainer inside. I got tired of bringing it in and out even though it only takes a few minutes. Now we have a room just for trainers, treadmill, and light weights. So far it has been great. Still fighting a little over the TV height with my wife. Being down in aero makes it tough to look up.

I have the 910 and love it for everything, especially the swimming. The only thing I had happen was not changing directions strong enough so it would miss a lap. But now that I have that figured out I have not had any problems. Love not having to count laps!

Anyone use any type of headphones in the pool? I struggle the most with boredom in the pool on longer swim days. I do not use them for biking, occasionally I use them running but not all the time. At least those have some type of other visual stimulation.

 Brian

Brian -- for pool swimming, my wife has something called a "Swimp3" which she loves for music while swimming. I've seen a few other folks in TT say they like it as well.

I can't imagine ever having my trainer set up anywhere but where it is now -- in my cold, creepy, fieldstone & mortar, single light bulb lit basement. No chance I'd be able to bring it to the living room! . Its a fun spot at 4:15 AM -- gives you motivation to ride so you'll warm up. Prop up the laptop in front of me, and away I go. On the plus side, if I sweat all over the floor its no biggie as its old concrete and I'm not going to ruin anything there.

How do you prop your laptop on your bike?  And how do you keep for get sweat in/on it.  I can't even read a book on my trainer.  

Ken

Ken, not sure.  The 3/1 is a general guideline.  You seem to be able to get away with pushing your body harder without negative consequences than the average person.  So you might be ok.  You may just monitor your fatigue level, listen to your body and throw in an extra rest day here and there to compensate if things get too tough.  Remeber don't drop the long bike/run/swim in your week, drop a minor workout day. 

I put the laptop on a bike out in front of the bike and start a netflix movie. I get a break every 90 min or whatever to select a new one. 

Trying to picture that... photo?

carol - the crunch challenge sounds like a good way to be motivated and 80 laps aroind a track doesn't . However, I agree with you on the rain and cold thing, yuck!

Fred - definitely two solid years of mileage for you, great job!

Pam - the new bike sounds awesome and I look forward to the pic. If you can figure out how to post pics in this forum will you share your knowledge wtih me, please :D

Kate - I would love to hear how you rigged up your computer to use while trainer biking.

Larry - you are officially featured! That is awesome, and I'm really glad you are back with us this year.

Brian - 45 minutes of motorcross..that would make a person sore.

I've seen people use music stands in front of there bike/trainer and that seems to work well, but I still can't imagine how I could use the computer while biking. My training is moving along as I prepare for my big training to begin. Very pleased with my numbers this year, especially when compared to last year. And I made sure I passed the 500mile mark in running and the 100,000yrd mark in swimming before 2013.

Steve, if you have time, could you help me with something?  I'm signed up for a marathon on Feb 3 and have been having PF-ish problems.  I was allowing myself 2 weeks recovery after the Dec 8 50K and then was planning to have only 2 20-milers.  Last weekend, the feet made me fold at 11.5.  Yesterday I felt fine during a 12 miler – but my feet are awful today.  My hopes were to get 17 to 20 miles this weekend, step down next week, and then a 20 miler 2 weeks before the race.  Your opinion?  I’m not fast and would be happy sub-5 hours.

Pam, you might already be doing this, but i had some mild PF last summer. My wife (also named Pam ) is a Physical Therapist, and she had me take a tennis ball. While i was seated i would roll it around the arch of my foot. It hurt like a @*$?&, like the foam rolling feeling on a tight IT band, but it did help stretch out those muscles. I would highly recommend it if you aren't already doing this. It is easy to do at the desk while working or watching tv.

Cheers,

On a "Box" out in front of the bike, so I can see it.

Pam, if you are not pressing for a sub 4 hour marathon I would definately take the safer route and stay healthy.  I wonder how many miles you have on your shoes.  Remember sore feet, knees etc. are a sign that your shoes are dead.  If the shoes are fine then... where exactly are you sore, there are some things that can help with rehabing other than rest?  A golf ball also works, pick your poison.  I also do foot stretches.  One is toes folded under (toenails down) one foot at a time, 2 hands on a wall, weight on other foot and stretch your foot in a backwards C this gets the top of your foot good.  The bottom of the foot you can do reverse toe lifts.... Use a step or whatever and from an toe raised posistion lower your foot down to low heal.  You can also just hang off the back of the step if that is too much (also works achilies).  But the golfball/tennisball is best for getting the underside of the foot.  Then there is ice and heat... one after the other. 

Steve, did just that, using the data from a recent 10K run race in 43 min (all out). Avg HR for last 20 minutes was about 185 and the BT calculator using LTHR yielded these zones. . Avg HR for each km were: 175, 181, 185, 188, 189, 185, 186, 184, 188, 187.  Could it be that by skipping the warm-up I created cardiac drift that skewed the numbers? 

Happy training everyone.

Anthony (and Pam) and Steve, thanks.  I've been doing the foot rolls (tennis ball, baseball, a foot roller from BBY, and more recently a SPRI texturized ball).  They are helping.  I've done RICE, marble pickups, and other flexing/stretches.  Steve, I will try that other stretch tho because I hadn't heard of it.

I think you are right about the shoes.  You posted something a few days ago about 300 miles on the shoes and I looked up my mileage.  I always have two shoes in the rotation and usually seem to get 400 to 450 miles because I'm light.  But I'm at 300 for both. (Dang, that makes me mad because I usually like to ease in a new pair before I retire the others.)  I bought two pair yesterday and took one out today.  I definitely feel the difference in cushioning.  I have also made a decision that I'll only wear cushioned shoes to work (I'm at my desk most of the day so they will have to put up with my lack of style).  I'm going to see if that helps too.

Thanks so much for the advice!  I'm probably going to still try to make some longer mileage this weekend if the feet hold up and then take it as it comes.  (I've got a lot of Type A in me but I try to squash that stuff down.)  If it doesn't work this weekend, then I'll drop down to the HM and be just as happy.  Thank you!

Hey all!  Lots of good conversation going on...hope to get caught up a bit more and get in on it .

OK, so for the crunch challenge I have:

Fred --

Pam --

Anthony --

Carol -- 2 out of 2

30 cruches/day in January, 60/day in February, and 90/day in March.  I'm not a big fan of the "one strike and you're out" approach that my running club is using, but do want to use frequency to build a habit.  So how about we just track how many days we hit it for a little friendly competition?  I'd suggest we update the above weekly with the # of days that we did our cruches vs. the available days.  So could just cut and paste the above with your update, say maybe on Monday's??  No "catch up crunches" allowed, if you miss a day, you miss a day.  Will that work?  Anyone else want to join? 

Seems sensible to me.. Cold  wind is just bad news. 

I went out and ran 6  miles this morning. It's been quite a while since I've done that.  I'm really tired and that kind of bumms me out. 

I used my HR monitor for the first time. I averaged around 116 for the first 4 miles and then it kept creeping up over the last 2 to 126.  I need to do Steve's 30 minute exercise next time I run.

Happy Thursday!

Here are my 2011-12 totals;  you will notice a significant drop from 2011-12...my goal is to get back/exceed my 2011 levels now that I am healthy again.

2011:  Bike 114 hrs - 1750 mi; Run 70 hrs - 485 mi; Swim 138 hrs - 364500 yds; Strength 81 hrs

2012: Bike 78 hrs - 1184 mi; Run 27 hrs - 185 mi; Swim 74 hrs - 209277 yds; Strength 34 hrs

Stu, yes I've done several VTS races...enjoyed them all.  B2B was a great first HIM, flat course and a swim with the current which made for quick first leg.  I grew up in C'ville and travel down that way often, still have family in Earlysville. 

I have a jury rigged laptop stand that consists of a chair, a box, and a 5 gallon bucked turned upside down. stack the box & bucket on the chair, which is placed in front of the bike, plug in the headphones and off I go.

Mike, negative wind chills, cold basement, bare lightbulb...remind me of this when I complain about the summer heat here.  And it really sounds like you need to throw in some duct tape in that computer stand set up!

Pam, you inspired me to volunteer to help staff packet pickup for the upcoming club 5K/15K .  Re: the shoe wear, I think some pairs just wear out faster than others.   I had to ditch my last pair a bit early.  Not sure if it was the shoes, or an overly aggressive bump in mileage, or all of the above, but was having foot/ankle/achilles pain.  I switched brands, took an unscheduled rest, got a bit more realistic with what I could handle training wise, and the feet are better now.

Samantha, time to get your ironman face on .

OK, as I approach my 2nd date with the marathon distance I'm questioning my nutrition options.  Are there any particular products that work well for any of you?  I'm finding the solids hard to chew without having to walk (shot blocks, sport beans), and am not fond of gu due to the mess and blech factor (I don't always take in a whole one at a time, so what to do with 1/2 a gu??).  Do you drink sports drink early on, or save that for later in the race?

Carol, I was a GU guy for a while but GI issues made me change over to Hammer Gels.  They work better for me.  As for drinking, I start drink sports drinks early, just to try and stay ahead of cramps.  My normal routine is alternate rest stops.  One sports drink, next water.  Probably not the best approach, but it has worked for me.  

Hi all!!!  Sorry Ive been MIA for a bit.  The holidays, baby, last day at work and actually following my plan have had me a bit busy.  I just caught up on 3 pages worth of some great reading from the group.  I know its a bit behind the times but below are my totals for 2011 and 2012.

The 2012 number were corrected against Garmin since I am more apt to upload there first.  So far this week Ive knocked up 2 miles in the pool, 20 on the trainer and 5 on pit and pat.  Im trying to talk some buddies into an OWS this weekend after our MTN bike ride, or at least sit on the shore and watch me freeze just in case I try and meet Davey Jones.