Baowolf's New Years Resolution Group-Closed (if are stuck with no group PM me) (Page 8)

Jay, you may be right on that. I've read some stuff about artificial sweeteners (especially those with molecular structures similar to real sugar) tricking your body into releasing insulin just as if you had eaten/drank the real thing. Don't know if that theory is supported by research or not, but given that my broken pancreas does not make insulin, that would not be an issue for me. I do think that some foods/drinks become linked to other food/drinks in our brains....like coffee and donuts, or soda and chips, so maybe that is part of it too.

I have read stuff about soda and it may well be BS. But the sodas I drink have caffien in them and I tend to associate snacking, pizza, less good food choices with soda. It is kind of like alcohol, it may not be the calories in the alcohol that do you in, it is that you order pizza, eat chips, buffalo wings, etc., to excess when drinking, so it is the association... perhaps more than the product itself. There are some soft ideas that the aftificial sweeteners can mess with your motabolism in small ways, not sure about that. So for me this will be a no caffine from any source, no coffee, no soda diet or otherwise and no artificial sweetener substitute for the soda month. On problem with cafiene use is that it can also trick us into thinking we have had enough sleep. So with that I will try to get to bed 15 minutes earlier each night for the entire month on average. Ya I might have an obligatiion that precludes that, but that is my complex goal for February. I will also be carrying the no chocolate forward. To help me accomplish the above I am also trying to get 1 piece of fruit a day, something that I tend not do if I don't make an effort to buy fruit. This all ties in with my goal of losing 4-5 pounds a month until I hit race weight. For those wondering, yes March will be a new food group and will be the hardest yet for some, not a big deal for others. Part of hitting one nitch food is to kind of free myself from automatic eating of some bad food choices. Once you go 3 weeks without a food item, meh it is not an automatic choice anymore and you have hopefuly substituted it with a better choice. It is not dieting so much as breaking a behavior chain on a few specific items. All most of us really need to do is be consistant in cutting 200 calories off our food intake daily, but be consistent for the entire year. Breaking a few snacking chains will help us be more concious in our eating. Then we may be able to treat ourselves here and there, but then drop back out of the chain before we fall back into it. Again completely optional, just something I am doing and anyone is free to join me if they wish...... quitely drops guantlet.

Only 16" of snow overnight ;^). Today's workout was 'snow removal'. Today was a swim day, but the pool was closed due to the snow. I'll try to get there on Friday. Tomorrow AM's run should be fun since the overnight low will be -10, and I'll be heading out just about the time its that cold. There's a good chance I'm a bit nuts (but aren't we all? )

UGH! I pulled a Pam! I had a nice post put together and then it disappeared on me

Carol, it looks like you were right about the soda thing being psychological; well done! I should've known with Steve's profession that this would be the case! I found Steve's perspective on caffeine interesting. When I lost all of my weight after being married for a few years; green tea was all the rage...appettite suppressant and increased metabolism were the claims people made back then. I don't know whether those are accurate or not but I do know that I associate tea with healthy eating in the same way that others may associate beer/wings together.

Day 2 was interesting. It was a battle of old Jay vs. new Jay. My legs were somewhat sore after running yesterday (pathetic!) so I did 30 min on the elliptical. I quickly had an internal battle; picture the old cartoon with the angel and devil on the characters shoulder and that was me. The angel was Steve saying "you don't gain fitness in a day, slow and steady wins the race" and the devil was my saying "pick it up! its your fault you didn't do anything for the last two months; time to pay the piper!" In the end, Steve won out on the cardio portion of the workout. I stayed slow and picked up my intensity slowly but surely. However, I then decided to do some lifting....and the bodypart of choice was legs! We went to the squat rack and pounded out some heavy sets of squats; so much for helping my legs by doing the elliptical. We will call this battle a draw! It will be interesting to see how I feel when I try to wake up early to do a trainer session.

2 equipment questions. 1. Does anyone have any experience with Adizero running shoes? 2. Is there a significant difference in performance between a tire like Gatorskins vs. Continental 4000? Reason I ask is because I'll be taking my bike for a yearly tune up soon and I'm pretty sure my multisport store of choice doesn't offer top of the line tires. Ideally, I'll buy some tires when my bike is being tuned up and have them put the tires on for me. I'm not sure if it will be worth searching Nashbar etc for a good deal on tires and try to YouTube how to put on tires vs. just dealing with what my store offers....hence the question.

Hey, Jay, I resemble that remark! I can't believe that you actually said that you pulled a Pam. Reminds me of that Friends episode. Mon-i-can. Sorry I have no experience with those shoes and we all know I'm a dummy about all things bike.

Speaking of which, I've got to get on my bike if I'm gonna sign up for that DU. I'll try tomorrow night. Tonight was a long baseball booster meeting. Oh, BTW, son make the JV baseball team so of course things will get crazy for us for the next 3 months.

I'll partially play along by reducing my Dr. Pepper's by about 25%. It almost killed me to give DP up when I was pregnant and I'm not quite at the point where I can do it again. Actually I've been contemplating it but I still can't pull the trigger yet. I usually have 8 - 10 DP a week so I'll be going down to one a day and prob less. Now I have to have a substitute and my sub is Crystal Light Energy in my water around 2:30 or 3 pm. So my sub doesn't eliminate the artifical sweetener part (which actually does have some adverse effects according to many nutritionist) nor the caffiene (sp?) but it takes away the carbonation, some of the sodium, and some of the artificial coloring. Funny how all of those bad things can just meld together to be so dang good.

Carl, Whoa, I missed about your HM this weekend!!!! WTG!

Randy, love your comment about trying to figure out what you want to do. I would think that I would know what I want to do when I grow up since I'm now 51. Nay, every day is a new day to rediscover things. You will be able to do it.

Edited by Pink Socks 2014-01-22 9:19 PM

I don't have the formula but maybe 1/4 mph faster for the Conti 4000s. Buying the tires on sale at nathbar will save you probably $40 to 80 on the pair. I usually buy my tires when they are half off so save $70 a pair. No experience with that brand of shoes. If you have tire levers, changing a tire isn't that hard. The main thing is to make sure you don't puncture the tire with the lever when you try to get udner the edge of it to take it off and then try to not pinch the tube when putting the new tire on. The easiest way to check if the tube is pinched is to push the top of the tire tread back and see if you can see the tube outside of the bottom of the edge of the tire tread. The tube should be completely within the tire tube once it is on. A little wiggling and such will get it into place. This is a good skill to have (changing a tire).

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-22 11:07 PM

Hello everyone,

So, I have been cycling about 5 hours a week for the past 3 weeks so far. Nevertheless, I cannot motivate myself enough to start running. Everyday, I wake up with the intent of running, but then quickly lose that intent and suffice with cycling or just going to work right away. Any motivation out there?

Wassim

Thanks for the input Steve. I know that my multisport store does classes on changing tires etc....my plan was to go to one of them to learn. I have a tire repair kit that I bought last year and I believe it has 2 tire levers etc. (I'm pretty sure I have a tube in my rear pouch along with a patch kit) What I'll do is checkout the tires they have available and the price to see if its reasonable or if I'm better off hitting Nashbar or ProBikeKit. I'll also ask if they're going to do that class this year; if they do, I'll have them do the tire (assuming price is okay) and then go to the class to improve changing tire skill. If not, I'll suck it up and learn on my own via YouTube.

I did my first training ride of the year this morning. It wasn't anything special. I went about 25 minutes, felt all the usual discomfort in my butt and sides of my feet that I always feel when I'm on the trainer. That seems to be the trainer norm....I feel little of this out on the road. The positives is I dragged my butt up at 4AM after less than 4 hours sleep and I made some adjustments to the basement/trainer. My son lives down there so its way too hot for me and I have to adjust my trainers position relative to the TV; I like watching ESPN when I'm down there! (todays choice was the Australian Open)

Wassim, you should talk to Mike about motivation for running. We each have a sport that is our least favorite (mine is swimming) but if you want to compete in triathlon, you need to work on all 3 disciplines. I feel strongly that at the end of the day, the only person who can motivate you is the man/woman that stares back at you in the mirror.

Happy Thursday all!

For me - I try to take pleasure in the fact that I'm outside moving around. I also think that you might try walking first to get the habit established, then migrate to a walk/run, then up to a full run. Try to find the joy in it.

Absolutely - you never know when you might need it!

The soda thing shouldn't be nearly as hard for me as the chocolate was. I have about one soda/fizzy drink a quarter...although a nice cold Diet Dr Pepper on a hot day....

Woke up this morning to -2 outside, 54 inside....BRRRRR! Mike - I don't know how you get outside. I think my limit for outside running is around 10 degrees F, much lower and I default to the treadmill every time.

I've been thinking about Steve's post re: caloric spend (1000 calories for 10 miles whether running or walking). This also says to me in the time vs. distance debate - if I'm going to race a certain distance, I need to get my body used to completing that distance (so I can understand the implications of being out for the entire time). I like training by time (just in terms of scheduling), but I am starting to think that distance training may be a better fit for my BOP behavior. Thoughts?

Gotta go get a quick trainer ride in before the day of meetings for work starts! Have a great day all,

Excellent advice here. For other motivation, go on youtube and watch some IM finish line video, and consider the feeling they must have to have completed that journey, then make that journey your own, no matter the race distance. A single step is all it takes.

One thing that gets me moving is a sign I have on the wall next to my alarm clock (which I have far enough from the bed that I need to get up to shut it off". Its a quote from John Collins, the founder of Ironman -- "You can quit if you want, and no one will care. But you'll know for the rest of your life".

Today it didn't work, as the temp outside was 0, and my bike/run was pushed off until after work when it should warm up to about 12 or so.

Wassim -- I agree with Jennifer on running being tied to enjoying the outdoors. But if it's too cold out and you're on a treadmill, maybe just tell yourself you will walk or run for 10 minutes, and then you can get on the bike. Of course you can continue on for longer on the treadmill, but only if you want to. My bet is you will want to.

Jay -- I agree....good to learn to change a tire. But new tires can be stiff, so might be better to practice on a not so new one first. Also, make sure you have good tire levers. My first ones were not so great, and eventually broke. Bike shop showed me the ones they use, and got me a couple of those. What a difference! But when it comes to putting brand new tires on, or a super stiff trainer tire, I'm a fan of watching the bike shop staff work their magic.

Steve -- thanks for the clarification on the soda moratorium. I could easily give that up and no real food associations. However, you hit it with wine and pizza. I worked late again last night and was too tired to cook, so we ordered our favorite pizza and had two glasses of vino. Still had some wine in my glass after the pizza, so to get the balance right I had to have some cheetos. Blech, empty calories! So I think I will join you, but use the wine as my thing to give up and hope that cheetos and/or fritos will follow. Now as for caffeine, thanks to friends and family giving me gift cards for Christmas, I'm on my way to achieving Starbucks "gold" status. Not ready to take the plunge on that one. Tried giving up coffee years ago, and my hubby begged me to start again!

Back to swimming a mile straight through as my main set yesterday. Not super speedy, but felt smooth and easy. Will work on turning it up a notch next time so I'm at least a bit out of breath a little at the end . Also chatted with a gal there who has had a terrible time with plantar fasciitis. She's into tri's and running, and goes to the same podiatrist that I do. It's funny because I was asking a couple days ago if ART might help. Well, she answered that without my even asking and told me it was the only thing that had really helped her even after months of physical therapy, etc. She suggested a good practitioner who is closer to me. After my busy patch ends for work, that will be my next step if things are not better otherwise with the foot.

Man, I miss a few days and I suddenly have 4 pages of posts to run through! Great info from everyone btw and congrats to all who completed races in the past week. I haven't done much training because of the winter weather in Virginia and my trainer is on loan to my brother. But last weekend I snowboarded a couple times (which isn't much of a workout) and had 2 runs in the mountains. Bryce Mountain for those familiar with Virginia, about 2-3 miles long, each, I wasn't strapped to my typical electronics on these runs. My upcoming race is the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in DC in March. It'll be my longest run ever, eclipsing the 10-mile Cherry Blossom one a few years ago, so I'm pretty excited.

Phil, hopefully you get up over 13 miles in practice before your HM in march.

For run motivation, if you haven't been running ya start with walking a couple miles then add in some walk jog then build up to all jog and then add some distance. If the footing is solid I don't mind running in cold weather. At around 6F your water freezes if you have it outside your jacket. So below that you probably want it inside your jacket and you can get a neopreme sleave for your camelback for colder weather. I am usually in 15F for Sunday runs, haven't had to break out my winter gear yet though as it hasn't gotten really cold yet.

Steve

Just an update on my recover i can currently walk fine now with my recovery, I can bike at Zone1 now for an hour before i get winded down. I can swim just fine at training phase. I just do my walking at work since thats what i do most of the time. How long does this Rehab takes? till i get to my training pace in running?

My friends are inviting me again for a HM first week of march , 5 weeks from now. Watcha think?

15 degF running WOW!!!

Cheers

"C"

oops

Edited by strykergt 2014-01-23 9:48 PM

I haven't read any studies on aspartame (the sweetener in 99% of diet drinks), but I've heard stories through the grapevine about how terrible it is for your body. Probably more when people consume several cans a day. I won't be joining the no soda challenge because I think I drink 1 soda every 2 months. I don't know if I'll ever go down the no caffeine trail, but if anyone is interested I will be adding another challenge for myself. I will stick with the no chocolate challenge, then starting March 5th I will add no sweet junk food of any kind until April 20th. I don't want to continue for too long down the path of replacing chocolate with other sweets. But I'll give myself some time before I jump into the deep end.

Jay - don't know about those shoes. I bought gatorskins for IM last June and I like them. I don't have anything to compare them to.

Pam - grats to your son. Happy keeping up with him!

Wassim - I agree that getting out there even if it's only to walk gets you moving and into a routine. Something that really helps me (I don't particularly like running until I build up to it not making me tired and sore) is to do a walk/run combo. Since I started training again 3 weeks ago after taking off several months I had to start this way to give my body time to get used to running again. The first week I would walk for 3 min and jog for 2 min. The next week I did walk for 2/jog for 2. You can do some variation of walk/jog. The biggest reason I like this method is how fast time goes by because the whole time I'm paying attention to when I am supposed to switch. And I definitely like to watch IM videos on YouTube. They pump me up every time.

Jennifer - I know for me training for distance was paramount to my success especially for longer races!

Carol - Nice job on that swim! And you were blessed with some direction to head in for your foot. Woohoo!

Phil - how exciting for you! I have a friend who did a rock and roll HM and he loved it!

C - so glad you are feeling the relief of time on your body! Everyone is different and I really don't have an answer. Steve does

Training is going well. Been very consistent with my bike, run and strength. I look forward to being able to strengthen my arms. Still no chocolate and I do think it is getting easier.

TGIF!

Samantha/Steve

Just to let you know i am currently training for a HalfIron 14 weeks from now I was previously using 3 months ago the BT training plan + base i have from my previous Half Iron. I found this training plan attached to make it simple for the next 13 weeks Let me know watchathink

Thanks

"C"



Attachments
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13-wk-half-ironman-training1.pdf (20KB - 7 downloads)

If it's 6F outside I won't even get out of bed! I've never trained outside of the pool when it's under 20, so I don't really have really good cold weather clothing. It'll be 18F after work today so I'll try it out. If you don't hear from me in a while it's because my fingers were lost to frostbite.

Wassim - Something that is not mentioned is make a plan and stick to it. You might have to take it slow like Steve suggests but you still need a plan. This is sometimes aided by a goal. Another thing might be find apartner. I tend to be a loaner but some people like the social aspects of training. Winter and sub freezing temps does make it hard though.

Mike - Grats to you for getting out in this cold. I will some but bike is difficult sub freezing and running sub 20 is trainier weather for me.

Carol - Hope that ART - work gets you back out there.

Jennifer - Good idea. Find your joy!

Isabella - Not sure what I would name my bike... Pain master? Sluggo? I like to bike but just haven't found the formula to feeling good on it. BTW Carol has a funny thing about naming her sore spots.

Steve - I do not drink much soda lately so I should do well on that challenge. At work it is hard to find many alternatives in the cafateria but I have mostly stuck with water and lower sugar iced tea drinks. Ok there is the occational chocolate milk. When I was younger Milk was the drink of choice and find myself going back to that.

My plan last year was written out in distances but I am not sure I ever alotted the extra time as distances increase which might explain my frustration. Speed does not really increase as fast as you need to fit in that tiddy WO box. Duhh. My plan this year will be much more time focussed to make clear what needs to be fit in. It is distance based as well given my current paces but written with the focus on time.

Single digit temps again this morning. The gym was nice and warm and I always seem to leave a lot of sweat behind. 45 min on the upright bike and 15 minutes on the treadmill this morning.

Phil, I've always thought snowboarding would be good for core and quads. Sounds like a fun weekend!

Samantha, great job on the workout consistency!

Carl, glad you are recovering and thinking about the next race.

Pam, how is your recovery? So glad you came out of the race with a good experience and a PR!

Joe, warm gyms are welcome this time of year, as are warm pools. Yes, Rhett Butler is doing better on zero running. For those who don't know, that's what I named my pain the butt (otherwise known as piriformis syndrome). May have to name the sore foot "Lurch" since it throws my gait off.

Steve, how is the coaching thing working out for you?

Decent 2,300 yards at the pool today....been cruising easy to build distance lately, but today was the first speed work I've done in a while. Need to keep the swim going because hubby found out yesterday he's going to San Fran for a conference again this summer. I will be the tag-a-long spouse and have days to myself. Last year I had my eye on an open water swim area there that is part of the Dolphin Club. They swim a somewhat protected area in the bay...sometimes with the sea lions/seals dancing around them. Visitors are welcome to use the clubhouse and swim for $6.50, and I think it would be a really cool experience -- literally and figuratively. That is one of the things I like about where all this tri stuff has led. Before tri's I didn't know how to swim other than dog paddle. And at least for now, it is my primary exercise. It also holds the key to a new experience that I never would have considered before.

Carol

Will the weather be significantly be better on Feb and Mar. maybe high 60s or flat 70 i know in DFW is significantly colder.

Cheers!!!

Great swim today! I am wondering if people can put their signatures on their pages. I don't know who you are if your name is not there. Also, where does everyone live? I see a lot of cold temps posted. I am in Western Maryland. Negative wind chills tonight.