2015 Clyde/Athena Tri-N-4- Weight Loss Mentor Group - Open (Page 8)

simple. every 4 miles probably 3 to 3.5 miles on a trainer = 1 mile running. Make sure you have a high cadence like you should when you run. Old saying you can train to run on a bike but you can not train to bike on a run.

Edited by chirunner134 2015-02-19 2:18 PM

Hi, Anne. That's very cool that our next two events are the same ones. I'll PM you so we can find each other at the half in March. I'm easy to spot at running events.

I am a new swimmer (for anything more than a lap or two) and haven't tried open water at all. I taught myself TI freestyle just last spring to prep for the Reston Sprint Tri which worked out really well. I actually have a mild phobia with open water but that might have been from having such an inefficient stroke most of my life. I really look forward to swimming now so maybe I'm ready to satisfy my growing curiosity with open water. If I'm going to progress to longer distance tri's, I guess I'll have to work it out.

Have you tried Haymarket?

Nice weather in NoVA today, eh?

Cheers,

Matt

bulfrog,

I have cheated/approximated on MFP in previous streaks. I only log for a few weeks at a time to reset my consciousness of what I'm ingesting. This particular streak I'm entering absolutely everything no matter how lame it looks. I don't have a huge weight loss goal but I am trying to understand the relationship between training and nutrition. One helpful thought that I've had is that if I don't want to see it in MFP, don't eat it.

This is the first year that I'm trying to improve my times. Even my first and only marathon last year was simply focused on finishing, but I know I put on weight during the taper and that probably helped make that last 4 miles the living hell that it was. :-) I'm using MFP to look for trends in how I feel (ravenous, weak, fantastic, etc.) when in a training cycle. If I cheat my logging then my data won't be so useful.

As far as running consecutive days, I try to only do 4 days/wk. Rest is a beautiful thing and cross training is almost as beautiful. I think it's especially important for me at my size to give the soft tissue some time to recover. I just keep telling myself that I'll miss a lot more miles if I hurt my knees or my feet from a lack of rest.

As far as your confession, say 5 Hail Marys and increase your fiber intake. Go in peace.

Matt

Okay... First of all... all of ^^^THAT^^^ went for a nice long sail on the Fail Boat. But overall it was a good week. I lost weight, I'm just more irritated at myself and real life that I didn't hit my planned goals. That being said, I did drop another 1.5 putting me at 249.5 thus dipping back into the 240's like I did last summer. I bounced back up pretty quickly, so I'm going to do what I can to not bounce next week. The only ginormous monkey wrench that can be thrown into that particular plan is next weekend. Amy and I are heading to Hot Springs, AR to celebrate our 3rd re-anniversary. All I have to say is that the gastro-temptation in that town is absurdly high . Just need to exercise a little self-control.

Diet: Total log fail on Sunday, ugh! If I assume that I was over on the fail day, I actually was under 6/7 days. Of those 6 days, only 1 was under without the benefit of training. I know that's how it's supposed to work, however, I found myself worried about training because of my calorie count... and that's not right.

Swim: Planned on 3 swims last week... uhhhh NOPE! Amy was supposed to go visit family last Sun-Tue, freeing me up to swim Sun after work and Tue before work... Then the weather went wonky. Amy didn't head out of town, so I went straight home after work on Sunday and planned to swim Mon before work. Yeah, no. The ice pretty much jacked everything up. And of course Tuesday was out because the Y didn't open until 10. Friday got jacked up because of another round of weather. I was getting ready to go and got a call that school was being let out early.... ugh! On a brighter note, Amy's swim goggles have been giving her issues, so we went looking for a decent pair. She remembered that mine give me these attractive pressure rings around my eyes, and had me grab a nicer pair as well... score! Going to take a pic of me wearing them, then ask everyone on Facebook if they want to see me wearing a pair of Speedos.... hehehehe

Bike: This is where it all was at last week. 5 rides, but only 3 were over my 10-mile goal. 11, 9.3, 11.2, 10.6, and 7.6 for a total of 49.7... not bad. It wasn't fast, but I was soaked after every ride. Had fun on Friday on the 10.6 ride. My son had 2 of his friends over and they were playing Halo: Reach in the living room (bigger TV makes split-screen gaming bearable). It was hilarious! I jumped in (while spinning on the bike) and completely wrecked Jacob's friends. Of course, Jacob wiped the floor with me... but hey, he's pretty good. It was oddly satisfying to out-game a 15 and 16 year old while spinning on a trainer...

Run: Uh.... no.... I am to the point where I can walk normally again, although it's still a bit stiff and the spot on the side is VERY tender still... I may walk a bit this week, but there will be no running this week either.

This week I plan to hit it hard and heavy. I'm happy with 6/7 days under calories. I'd like to see more than 1 day under my base calories this time though. I'm not sure where my swim is going to be this week. I'd hate to make it 3 weeks in a row with no swim time, but that just may be the way it works out. I'm starting the winter 12-week weight-loss bike plan this week. Since I have 15 weeks until my first race, I'll just repeat the last 3 weeks and call it good. As far as running... no. I may get out and walk a bit, but I'm not taking the chance. Me making it to my 10K goal by my first race is looking bad... but that's okay. So long as I keep my fitness up, my weight keeps going down and I cross the finish line all 3 times this year... I win. If I beat my 11:02/50:41/53:10 - 1:59:40.62 PR at Riverbluff in August (and not come in DFL in my division and 2 out of DFL O/A again), that will be the buttercream mint icing with sprinkles on the cake.

Good job on the weight loss, and the new milestone. That's a pretty good accomplishment even if you didn't get all of your workouts in like you planned. Just shows how important diet is for weight loss.

I got most of my planned workouts in this week. And upped my mileage on the run. At the end of the week, I was another 2 lbs down. I need to be a bit better about logging all of my food intake into MFP, but once I get home I just get so busy chasing the kids around that I forget.

Swim: still in the swim class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Are workouts are up to about 3500 yards each class. We did a swim test on Thursday, and my endurance pace dropped by 4 seconds per 100. It was good to see the improvement.

Bike: I didn't get on the bike as much as I wanted this week. Just one 25 mile ride. Hoping to get 2 in this week depending on the weather. We've been having abnormally warm weather which has made for some great riding. This week we're supposed to be back to more normal temps. But no precipitation, so I really have no excuse why I can't get out on the bike.

Run: this week I upped the mileage a bit. My 3 runs were 3.5, 5, and 7.75 miles. Hoping to build on that this week and hit 9 miles next Saturday. The following week I am taking the family down to Arizona . I'm going to try to get a little more running in while I'm down there since I won't be swimming or biking.

Have a great week all! Keep up the hard work!

I'll give myself a pass for this week.

6 runs this week, for 2 hours 25 minutes. Didn't quite hit that 2.5, but close enough. Going to get that missing 5 minutes this week tho!

Diet, I was 3 days below my target calories and 4 days above. However the good thing is none of the days above where hugely so. And as I'm still not adding in workout calories I'm pretty sure I would have been below target for 6 or 7 days this week.

I've lost 2.6lbs this week, bringing my total for the year to 9.7 lost. So I feel I'm definitely winning there.

Looking forwards to another week of trying to make better food choices, and getting those runs in.

Felt like I had a good week. Still trying to fit workouts in with my work and husband. Managed to make it to the pool twice, ran 3 days and biked 4 days. The weather just hasn't been cooperating, I just can't bring myself to run in this bitter cold weather. I'm getting tired of the treadmill and getting more tired of my bike trainer. I'm starting to wonder if we will be seeing warmer weather any time soon?

Food wise I have been doing good. Logging everything on MFP and haven't been cheating on any logs or meals. Down 1.5lbs this week and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm a great meal planner and I have everything cooked and ready in portions for my upcoming week. Althought I've been doing well, I still feel like I'm not doing enough and that I will not be ready for my first Sprint Tri in Alpirl. I'm staring to feel discourage. Not sure if it's the weather or lack of sleep on my part. I just feel tired and wondering what I should be doing different? I just want to feel more confident.

This is the time of year that I usually get in a funk. It's still cold, and now windy. It's rainy a lot, so it's not fun to be outside at all. I've decided that I just have to embrace it. I geared up so I could go out in the cold/rain/wind and still get some exercise outside. It's not always fun, but usually I'm glad I did it when I'm done. And the reality for me is usually my workouts last less than an hour. I can put up with misery for an hour just to get out of the indoors.

Good luck getting past the funk, but it will be over soon. And there will be warm, sunny days before you know.

I'd like to join in the fun. I was pretty active in the last group for a while before taking a hiatus...

NAME: Kent

STORY: Long term goal is to complete an Ironman, I missed the bike cut-off at Lake Placid in 2013. Haven’t done a tri since, but I managed to lose ~20 pounds by continuing to swim/bike/run and focusing on eating better. Last couple of months have been insane with work (~80 hours/week) and wedding planning/wedding (so many bad eating days in a row catching up with people who were in town) which has resulted in me putting ~5 pounds back on. I want to start trying to get back into a good routine and resuming the weight loss).
FAMILY STATUS: married (for a grand total of 11 days)

2014: no races.

2015: still working on it. May do a run or two with the wife (we’ve done three half-marathons together) and I’ve agreed to do a try-a-tri with a friend in early June. I will likely try to add at least one sprint later in the season. I’m hoping work will settle down a little so I have a chance to get some quality training in. Some warmer weather would help too. Right now the main “training” I’m getting in is my half hour walk to and from work.

WEIGHTLOSS: would like to get down to 210, I’ve had a hard time breaking through the 215 barrier.

Welcome back, Kent. And congrats on the recent big life event. Looking forward to hearing about your IM training.

Well, this week has not been going so hot. It started off good, but that didn't last. Got a good bike in on Monday, but somehow managed to tweak my ankle later that day. It was just some weird thing. I was putting my bike on the rack, and I went to turn, and my leg turned, but my foot didn't. It hurt like hell all night. The next morning it felt okay so I decided to give swim class a shot to see how it felt. Either it felt okay, or I was just in too much pain from the swim workout to notice the ankle. I decided to forego my run to give the ankle a rest. Today, the ankle feels fine, but I woke up with a cold! I just didn't have the energy to workout today. Hopefully it is a short-lived cold.

in my swim class last week we did an endurance test. Basically we did 10x100 with minimal rest. I lost count, and so did the guy next to me, so I did 9x100. The coach averaged my time like I did 10 which really bumped my pace up. So yesterday I got moved to the fast lane, and then the whole workout was swimming at our new endurance pace and faster. I let the coach know the mistake, a d he told me just to swim with them and see how it went. By the end of the workout, I felt like my arms were cooked noodles trying to stir pudding. That was the hardest I have ever swam! If the coach keeps me in that lane, I may be Olympic qualified by the end of spring

I added a new "race" to my schedule. An IM distance swim. I won a free entry. I'm pretty excited.

I have been working on my swimming. I am still slow but I feel like I must be getting somewhat better since I can keep my laps going while doing the freestyle for a 450. I cannot do a flip turn but I feel like I am not hesitating at the wall when I turn. I am not able to bilateral breathe yet but going to work on that this coming week. I am finding that every time I swim, I come home with a stuffed up nose and I am constantly blowing it for the rest of the day into the following day. I never had this problem before when I was only doing the breaststroke. I do not feel like I am inhaling water when I am swimming doing the freestyle. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong? My husband suggested that I get a nose plug, I am hesitant because I like to blow out of my nose at times and I don't want to look "dorky" either, LOL! Does anyone else use a nose plug? Are they comfortable?

It's entirely up to you. I personally do not use one because I primarily exhale through my nose when swimming. However, I have seen a couple of people at the pool as well as a handful at my 2 races last year that used them.

Sunday Update:

On my phone since I'm not at work, so I'll keep it short .

Weighed in at 248.0 just now. Went toe-to-toe with my stress eating all week (including last night) and even though I lost a few battles, I won the war... for this week! This was officially my lowest weigh-in since I started 21 months ago @280! More good news for the week: Got in to see a podiatrist about my foot. 3 x-rays later and I am back in the orthotics i used when I was having PF issues 2-3 years ago. Apparently I over pronate so much I'm beating the crap out of my feet simply walking! I've been assured that continuing down the scale will help the problem, but it may never fully correct. Hrmm.... No gout, arthritis, bone spurs, etc, and only temporary soft tissue damage? I can live with that.

Diet: I was all over the board here... Not sure how many days I was under.

Swim: Got a half hour in the pool this week. 1500yds in 26:00 is normal for me plus 3x50 kick drills because it didn't hurt (yay!). Next 2 weeks iffy as I work Mon-Fri playing "Da Boss"

Bike: 4 trainer rides for 41.4 mi. Not too shabby. I'm pretty sure I broke 150mi in Feb which is much higher than normal for me. I'm aware that this needs to be normal mileage tho.

Run. Nyet. If I lace up the running shoes this week, it'll be later on in the week. I'll most likely make yet another run through C25K to start rebuilding what little run fitness I had.

Goals: Keep rolling the scale back. Get in the pool 2x, Bike 4x for 50+ mi, Take care of my feet.

Reading about everyone's winter funk reminds me that I am usually susceptible but have been doing well this particular winter. My own motivation for working out is to ask myself the question: Can I recall a workout that I regretted doing? In my case I usually can't so I pack my gym bag and make it happen.

Run: 22 miles this week, all outdoors. I hopped over slush puddles last Sunday and gingerly hopped back and forth over ice patches on my lunchtime runs. Didn't regret a second of it. The previous week I ran into a 20mph headwind (15F, -2F windchill.) I've got some good running gear including some amazing Nike running pants. I don't know how they work, but the wind doesn't get through them at all. It's just been a matter of layering, experimenting and tweaking. Running in spite of the crap weather makes me feel reslilient, strong, and alive. The treadmill makes me feel fat, old and weak. I'm quite sure it's all in my head, but it's the only head I've got. Might as well work with it.

Swim: Snow and ice has closed the pool for the second weekend in a row. I have not been in a pool this year even though I'm looking forward to it.

Bike: Hey, it's cold outside. Ugh, I need to get on the trainer before the local bike club starts their group rides at the end of March. If I don't, I will really suffer on that first ride.

Gym: Great week for strength training except for one hasty/bad deadlift that put my back in a spasm for 3 days. Running seems to have helped work through that.

Weight/nutrition: 228 this week. MFP helped me realize I wasn't getting enough protein to support the workouts. I fixed that this week. That and better sleep made me feel strong and positive even with the back trouble.

Overall, I'm pleased with my lopsided training since running is by far my worst event and I've got a half marathon in 2 weeks.

Hi Guys,

Welcome back Kent. And congratulations on the wedding! Mine was just over 3 months ago, I totally feel your pain on the lack of training and bad eating leading up to the big day. But, it was worth it aye!

My week was good, without being great. I finally made my 2.5 hours in a week running target, so am quite pleased about that. But my diet was, well mixed is probably the best way to put it. I ended up with a slight weight gain this week.

Overall for February, I ran 8 hours 35 minutes for just over 42 miles, and I lost 4.4lbs for the month. I have yet to get on the bike, or hit the pool this year. But I'm hopping to change that in the next few weeks. But 2015 has started much better than 2014 ended.

thanks DB, unfortunately you aren't going to be hearing about an IM training for a while. I won't attempt another one until I have a job with more reasonable hours. For now I'm focusing on trying to get better habits, lose weight and just improve general fitness. In short, I just want to try and be healthier. Look after injuries, the last thing you want to do is put yourself out for an extended period of time. Good luck with the IM distance swim!

Nicely done WebFootFreak, great to hear that you are continuing to make progress.

Bulfrog...lol, yes definitely worth it. Congrats to you too!

Not much for me to report, haven't gotten in any training, but my daily walks continue and I managed to avoid all kinds of temptations at a box for the hockey game earlier this week (work function). PDAC (large mining conference with lots of events/parties and far too many late nights) starts today, so realistically all I can hope to do this week is limit the damage. I am so looking forward to my life returning to some semblance of normal...

Hello, been lurking on BT for a while and getting some good advice.

NAME: Jeremy

STORY:  Started training for endurance obstacle events and then had a lapse in judgment and dove towards triathlons.

FAMILY STATUS: 38 years old. Live in Henderson, NV. Married, two kids, and three dogs.

CURRENT TRAINING: Schedule is rough right now. Riding the trainer every morning and running every other night. Gym four days a week.

2013 RACES: 
Tough Mudder Las Vegas
Amica Las Vegas 19.6 (First tri)
Tough Mudder San Diego
Pumpkinman triathlon Las Vegas

2014 RACES:
Took 2014 , off due to an injury.

2015 RACES:
Rage triathlon
Pumpkinman triathlon

 
WEIGHT LOSS:  I'm 6'6" and started training at 308lbs, currently 298lbs. Ultimate goal is to lose another 65lbs at most. 5 weeks of training left before Rage, hoping to drop some more weight before then but am more concerned with improving my run.

Hi and welcome to the group Jeremy.

First off congratulations on the first 10lbs weightloss.

You say your more worried about improving your run than losing weight before your first tri for the year. In my experience weightloss = improving the run. As I lose weight it gets easier and easier to run. And when you the training load you'll be doing over the next 5 weeks that equals a huge improvement.

What distances are those races? I'm guessing sprints?

I'm starting to feel a little stressed and frustrated. First we had more snow this past weekend that has left us buried in more snow and no chance anytime soon for me to get my bike outside to ride. I'm just really getting tired of riding the trainer plus I haven't been outside riding since I got my bike shoes and I want to practice a little outside riding for real. Then I went to the pool today and found out that they are closing the pool on March 15th for good..What is going on? My swim is my weakest area and I really wanted to focus on it this month. Now I am not sure what I am going to do...

Thanks bulfrog,
Yes they are sprint length. When I say I'm more concerned with improving my run then weight loss I simply mean I know I'm not going to hit my weight goal in the next 5 weeks. I'm looking to get as close to a 30min 5k as possible and I'll gladly take whatever weight loss occurs in that time. I foolishly looked up the numbers for last years winner of Rage for Clyde and I wasn't far off when I did Amica (which had a 3.5 mile longer bike course). I beat his swim by 5min and the bike he had me by 8 min.He got me by nearly 10 min on the run. He was 1:59:00 total, my goal is to try and get sub 2 hours. My competitive spirit is driving me at the moment.

Duck,

You sound like me. I am 6'6" currently about 317. So pretty close . My goal is little higher than yourself but I figure once I hit 250 I will decide what to do from there.

well if you can drop 3 lbs a week for 4 weeks (I figure race week you may want to not lose weight). You can probably give you 45 secs off your 5k. Maybe another 20 seconds off the bike. So your right its not a big help its just free speed.

How close are you to a 30min 5k now?

Right now I'm about 33:30 5k. I was running 9:28/miles in 2013 after Amica. I doubt I'll make dub 30 min, but I want to get as close as i can. I should also mention when I did Amica I was riding a 6 speed bike with a 13-28 cassette. I'm rebuilding my bike with Ultegra and an 11-28 cassette so I should pick up some speed and time there. Just hoping to improve my run enough to hang in to advantage I may get.

Wow your doing a lot better at the 5k than I ever did at your weight. I was more of a 36 min guy.

Unless your competitor is closer to your weight I think you might be better off focusing on the bike more. Weight would not be as much of a disadvantage and biking will help with the run but running does not help with the biking. Being balanced is important though because if you win 4 out of the win events but still lose you still lose.

If you can lose 3 lbs a week you might get that number down to 32 mins just with the weight lose.