TRI (Totally Radical Improvement) - Clydes/Athenas to competitors - Re-Opened (Page 8)

Sorry I did not check in sooner - was sick as a dog yesterday and crashed right after work.  

On Thursday after work I went on a tempo run - it was cold (low 30's) but I bundled up and headed out.  My hands and feet were cold for the first two miles (the warm up miles) that I took at a 9:12 pace) ... then I did a set of 5 x 4 minutes at 10k pace.  I honestly don't know what my 10k pace is anymore so I just ran what I would do in a 5k - so the first three I ran at a 7:12 pace and the final two was slowed to about a 7:25.  Between each run - I did one minute of recovery - running with my hands below my waist and at a 9:20 pace.  Finished up the run home at the same 9:20 pace ... 5.6 miles in 46 minutes.  I have to say it felt good to run fast on a training run - I very rarely do this and I think I need to add it into my training more regularly.

I then shot over to the gym and did some cable high/low work (obliques), push press (glutes), calf raises (calves) and Hack Squats (quads) ... I was supposed to bench press also but kids had early school dismissal.

Started feeling pretty sick as I went to get the boys - brought them home helped with their homework and laid down by 3pm - had that feverish delirium for about 3 1/2  hours could not sleep - and then my wife got home.  Since the blizzard was coming I got up and went food shopping - mad house!!!  Supermarket was packed!!  Got some essentials and some Nyquill and I was back in bed by 8pm.

Dragged all day at work Friday - I was still feeling the Nyquill as I drove to work (left house at 1:30am) and was feeling really sick by the time work was done at 11:30 ... my plan was to do my Saturday swim yesterday due to the coming blizzard but I ended up driving home, medicating and sleeping until 5:30pm.  Felt somewhat better - my work is closed Saturday - we are working Monday instead (so I have a 6 day work week coming up) ... went back to bed by 10:30 and feel much better today - though I still have a wicked cold and my nose won't stop running.

Todays swim and speed workouts are cancelled - I guess I will try to do an hour or so on the bike and the rest of my workout will be snow shoveling.  Looks to be at least 10 inches on he ground here though that may be a low estimate.

Ony - How did you do with your workouts the last two days?  NYC should be cleaned up before Long Island but I bet this blizzard through a wrench into your weekend plans.

Mitzi - how is the snow by you?  My niece has a birthday party tomorrow and my brother and his wife who live in Jersey have cancelled coming (I don't blame them) ...  do you have dumbells or a jump rope?  You can do a nice 1/2 hour cicuit alternating between different dumbell exercises and jumping rope to get some weight work and cardio in (if you want help with this shoot me a message).

Brad - do you feel more comfortable when you run at a faster pace?  I can't stand treadmill running as I don't think it equates at all to how I run naturally - it forces you to a pace that may or may not be comfortable.  I can't seem to allow my body to run much slower than a 9:30 (at least for the first 12 miles of training) - my body seems to keep trying to go faster and I have to concentrate on that pace.  I seem much more comfortable running at 8:40 for 12 miles - the only issue I have no is I can not sustain that pace for 26 miles.  I do know, however, that when I next run a half marathon I will take the first half at 8:40 and see if I can go faster on the second half - I should be able to.  

Geek - My mom bought me the poolmate watch for Christmas - in all honesty I have not used it yet since I am just doing drill sets - once I get into big yardage days with some serious laps I will try it out.  It is a much cheaper alternative to the Garmin.  I also want a Power Meter but I can't justify it when I have 5 bikes - I have one TT bike to sell and my old road bike to give away and then maybe - I so want to try Trainer road but I don't think I can't figure out how to uplink to it ... not quite Geeky enough to figure it out.

Blizzard has the NE crippled - hope everyone has a safe weekend.  Chances are I will be on here alot in the next 24 hours as we will be watching movies, playing board games, and most likely stuffing on baked goods (my wife is planning a 5 hour stew and then brownies and a cake) ... Lent is coming so this is the last desert weekend in our house for a month. 

i think I have an addiction....

Awesome bike!!

Sickness has beaten me down again - no workout today but I did do feverish workouts on Saturday and Sunday - not sure how smart that is but I powered through - running with a fever even on a treadmill is not recommended (my HR pinned way too fast) ... 

No fever now just general malaise.  Rained all day so I opted out of my 10 mile run to lay down - I will do that 10 miler tomorrow (either outdoors or at the gym) and try to get you guys fired up.

Hi guys, 

Thanks, she's pretty, but most importantly came with a professional fitting. The big test wont come until long ride on the weekend, but feels good so far. 

Last week turned pretty bad for me, ended up with 4 consecutive days no workouts. But with my new toy providing motivation, this week is starting better. Had some good rides, a good swim this morning (Only 1000m, but holding the low 1:40's / 100 ) Looking forward to my long run tonight. 

I'm finally back.  It was a tough week last week.  I went to visit my mom in Texas as she had a couple of falls and had been admitted to the emergency room and released.  I got there on Friday and visited for several hours and left around 9 that night.  After I left, she had another fall and had been taken to the emergency room again.  During her CT scan, they found a spot on her lung which was eventually diagnosed as cancerous.  She was admitted to the hospital with severe dehydration, a urinary tract infection and low potassium and magnesium.  During the course of testing, they found a huge kidney stone which had, in effect, shut down the one kidney.  She got out of the hospital on Friday morning and we got in the car and drove her to live with my brother in Missouri.  My sister is also there and will take on most of the medical care for her.  She experienced some dementia in the hospital, so that is another concern for us.

I didn't get but one workout in.  I wasn't eating hardly at all and I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep at night.  Not to mention the stress of the whole situation.  I'm back on the training wagon again tomorrow and I hope that losing this last week isn't going to mess up my plans for racing on June 9th.

tricupcake - sorry to read about your mom. I pray for her healing in all areas and strength and comfort for her, you and the rest of your family.

This is my fourth week since I started swimming, biking and training specifically for a sprint tri.  I think it has been going really well.  I can see improvements, feel like I am gaining fitness and I am losing weight.

Last week I spent a couple hours watching the Total Immersion swimming videos on Youtube and went out and had my worst swim yet on Thursday. I watched some of them again over the weekend and had my best swim ever yesterday. I swam 400 meters without taking a break for the first time; I only took 12 breaths during the break and swam 200 meters more, took 10 breaths and swam 100 meters and repeated the 100 meters for 4 more times. I have been trying to follow a swimming 0 to a mile in 6 weeks program and starting to feel like I am getting somewhere. I have been reading a lot of you talking about masters swimming programs so I did a search on that and found the Dallas Aquatic Masters. They have a Mastering Swimming Clinic designed for non-members/beginners who are training for a Triathlon. I thought I fit that category pretty well so I signed up for it and will go to my first class next Tuesday night.  So swimming is coming along.

I was really excited about my cycling until about 5 minutes ago when I saw bulfrog's bike. That is awesome, so jealous. I bought a used bike over the weekend and at the time thought I had an  amazingly beautiful red Cannondale.  Now after seeing bulfrog's Kestrel, maybe not so much. Actually, I am still very happy with my new bike. I am coming from a clunky old mountain bike, so this is a really good upgrade for me. So far I have only taken it out for a quick spin Sunday night and cant wait to go out on my first long bike ride this weekend.

Finally, this morning Active.com had a 40% off code on a local Olympic Triathlon in April and I couldnt pass that up.  So now I am all signed up and locked in on my first sprint tri on March 10, and now my first olympic tri on April 28.

-matt

Kim, 

Some things in life are much, much more important than training. Don't beat yourself up over a few missed sessions. And hope your mum is ok. 

I am starting to learn a little.  I just noticed the Toggle email notification link on the bottom of this thread. I was wondering how some of you seem to respond so quickly.

Now we'll see if I can add an picture.

Remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. this is what I did have.

And this is my new to me bike.

-matt

Almost back to normal feeling over here ... ran 10 miles yesterday ... and swam and biked today.  Have a few last minute things to do for Valentine's Day but will post a bunch tomorrow.  

Since you guys have started posting photo's of your bikes ... guess I need to break out the camera and take some of mine ... I have a run and gym workout scheduled tomorrow - snow planned for NY again so we'll see how that works out ...   

Kim- My thoughts & prayers go out to you and your family. 

After a setback in January, my February is going well so far.  I have two "A races" on my calendar this year: my first Marathon on March 17th, and my first Iron-Distance race in October.

Last Saturday I competed in my first "B race", a 5 mile run in Raleigh:  The Krispy Kreme Challenge.  Short story: #K2C was my first urban road race and I had a blast.  I skipped the dozen donut challenge, however, and decided to "train through."  For the curious, my race report is at my personal blog:  http://bosken.com/geekbyexample/?p=65

On the topic of A/B races, I am curious about how many races folks are planning on this year- particularly if you are using them as tools for training for a longer 70.3 or 140.6.  I don't have any B races planned between March & October, but I am looking at that big gap and starting to wonder how much I could benefit from a B race or two. 

Another question- how do folks stay on their planned pace during long runs?  I have been using my Garmin 305 for pacing, but it seemed to have trouble on the marathon course trail on my last long run, so adjusting my pacing was much less precise than when I am on the open road.  I'm also having second thoughts about my fueling strategy (currently carrying gus to consumer every 30-45 minutes and using race stations for fluids).

Happy training folks! 

Ran 6 miles today at a nice steady pace - no extra effort - slow and steady.  Then hit the gym to blast legs and work on obliques ...

Got a new "toy" today ... I picked up a training mask that is supposed to help you restrict oxygen to simulate altitudes of 3000, 6000, and 9000 feet ... I honestly don't think I will try it until after my marathon but supposedly it makes you really work to breathe and that in turn will make your lungs stronger and should correlate to more stamina.  When I am ready to try this I will do it for a mile and see how it goes - has anyone else ever heard of or seen someone using an altitude mask?

Hey ya'll, I know it's been awhile since I've been on here.  I had 2 crazy weeks of travel and a crazy week of catch-up.  I did get most of my workouts in, so I've been able to stay in shape.  I don't have another trip planned until middle April.  

I've been keeping up (sorta) with everyone.  Hopefully I'll be able to do better now.  

Mitzi ...

Don't stress the weight loss thing.  You know the answer already, fad diet stuff and fasts don't work long term.  This may seem like a ridiculous pain in the butt but plan your meals and write them down - go for 6 meals a day rather than 3 - and don't call the extra meals snacks - call them meals.

Try to balance your calories throughout the day - do a more carb heavy meal the 2 hours prior to your daily workout.  You can still have your meals with your family but structured eating rather than grazing can work for you - I am living proof as I have kept 100 pounds off now for three years (and won't ever go back).  

As boring as it may seem my first 4 meals of the day are almost always the same - with slight variations for flavor and one may be heavier or lighter based on my planned workout.  Also I drink water and/or seltzer like crazy.  This week I have knocked down 26 12oz cans of seltzer and I believe 4 2 liter bottles.  I bring cans to work and drink the big bottles at home.  

Never despair - it is mind over matter and if you set your mind to something it CAN be accomplished.

A few pages ago someone asked me how I log all my workouts ...

Apologies for not sharing some of my gear earlier - I will try to get caught up over the next few days.

Two years ago on fathers day my wife got me the Timex Ironman GPS watch with heart monitor.  This may be clunkier than any Garmin device but to me it is one of the keys to my success.  I have a foot pod that records my foot cadence, so even if GPS does not pick up (happens sporadically especially in bad weather) ... my foot cadence accurately measures mileage.  The watch has a ton of settings - mine is set to alert me if my HR is above or below ideal range (I plugged in my desired range).  Currently on runs my wife displays mile splits and shows elapsed time.  When I upload the watch after my activities it shows the flow of my HR throughout the workout, my pacing, my splits - if I stopped and for how long - my average cadence and speed.

For swims it is lousy - does not work indoors so basically I just start the timer and let it run or forgo the watch on indoor swims.  It is pretty inaccurate in OWS swims as well - each stroke you go under water GPS is looking for it ... I do have a swim mate watch I will use once I get into pounding out laps - don't see the point when I am working drills and am stopping to reset flippers, pull buoy, etc.

On the bike it shows speed, distance, HR, and cadence (I added a speed/cadence sensor to my bike) - I may remove this once I take it on the road since I have the cateye on my bikes and can't be looking at my watch when riding (not sure yet) ... 

Did a 2100 yard drill set today at the pool when all I wanted to do was go home and sleep - thankfully my boys let me nap for three hours after I picked them up from school so now we can all enjoy movie night on the couch.  Tomorrow afternoon I have my interval training again - I sort of dread this each week but I know it will turn me into the Flash so I must persevere ... hope everyone has a great weekend!

I managed a 500 yard swim this morning, although some people might not call it swimming because it was pretty bad form.  And I think there was a memo that I didn't get that said today was the day for swimming.  I estimate 12-15 people in the pool this morning.  And there's nothing like starting your day off with seeing your VP of technology at the pool in his tri shorts while you're in your swimsuit.  Even though it's not the first time, it's still awkward when it happens.

Got some bad news about my mom today.  PET scan confirmed that one of her kidneys had shut down, her muscles have atrophied, the lung cancer is about 2 inches (doc estimates she's had it for around 2 years) and that she has an additional malignant tumor on her spine.  She's got a follow-up next week to talk more about the masses and the treatment plan.  The doctor has said that he would recommend chemo and radiation, but she is so very weak right now that I don't think she would survive the treatment.  My head is telling me that her health is even more of a reason than ever before to get fit.  However, my heart wants me to binge eat and never get out of bed.  If I have to, I will fake it 'til I make it and stay true to my training schedule.