STEPH SPRINT FULL Let's do this thing! StephSprint group FULL! (Page 9)

I would LOVE to ride that with you! Did you do it alone or with others?
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"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
Beverly Sills                                                                                                                     

I have done it alone ( i know that is not the safe). I would welcome the company and I am sure you could help me get that time down. Please send me an email lets see if we can set up a ride [email protected]

Hope you had fantastic birthday!

We're celebrating here too... My daughter is going to be 23 next week.

Any one have a Heart Rate Device they like or would suggest? I am looking at the WahooFitness.com Ant+Key and strap for the Iphone but would love some input from the group as to what everyone  likes to use.

Thanks

I'm all about triathlon on a budget, so I have the garmin fr60 bundle. I watched amazon for a while and the price dropped to $104 for the watch, heart rate monitor, foot pod, and ant+ stick (http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Fitness-Bundle-Includes-Monitor/dp/B001S2RCWS). Later I added the Garmin speed and cadence sensor for my bike. I love my gadget and use it to track all of my runs and bike rides. It's definitely helped me run more efficiently as it's helped me monitor my cadence and I love knowing my heart rate and training in the right zone. My husband has an analog timex heart rate monitor, and it beeps all the time (so annoying) but it works and was only like $25 (but the data has to be transferred by hand. I love that mine is all in my Garmin Connect profile and that it goes there automatically.)

It's fine to use in water but the reviews say you don't really want to push the buttons too much, so I just use my older stopwatch to count laps in the pool.

It's been a busy week here for me! MM (Mini-Me) is in the Spring play at school and I am the ticket sales chair, plus I ended up helping with costuming this week.  With all that, work, and training, I have been out of the house from 7:30 AM - 9:00 PM everyday this week. YUCK! Here's my recap of the week:

Monday - Bike + Strength Tabata Workout

Tuesday - 1500 yd Continuous Swim - 0:37:00

Wednesday - Zone 2 Run/Walk (3.68 miles) - 0:40:00

Thursday - Rest (This was supposed to be hill repeats on bike but work forced schedule change)

Friday - Swim Aerobic Intervals (1500 yd) - 0:41:00 (This was my original rest day. Had brick and run on tap for weekend, so coach changed Thurs workout to swim when we had to move it)

Saturday - Brick: Bike - (13.38 miles) - 0:57:14; Run/Walk (1.90 miles) - 0:20:00

Saturday was my first brick workout ever. My initial thoughts were, "This triathlon stuff isn't for me!" I eventually loosened up though and felt better. Heading out for my Sunday "long" run in a bit. After two months off running for my injury, I'm out of practice for my long run Sundays.

This coming week is going to be even longer and crazier since the box office opens Monday for ticket sales and the play is this Thursday-Saturday. It'll be interesting to see how I get my workouts in!

A little late in replying to this (see my last post about my busy week!!). I think swimming is my "problem child". My coach is not local and he does a great job of giving me lots of tips and advice and pointing me to online resources, but I have no feel for how I'm actually executing the swim. If I could even get someone to watch me for 3-4 sessions, I think it would be a big help!

Thanks for the "real runner" comment. I'm more a plodder. :-) I have changed shoes since coming back to running. My last brand had done me well for 3 different seasons (new pair each season), but this last cycle they started causing me problems. I think there was already an issue there and it was exacerbated by the shoes. So far, the new shoes have been great and my form is back where it needs to be.

Greetings Everyone!

Hope the weekend has been enjoyable for all.  The 2012 race season is looking good so far.  Last month's Shamrock Shuffle 8k was a huge improvement over last year, and today was my 10k which went very well. The two 10k's that I have done previously were colossal failures for me - mostly mental due to unbearable humidity and small race size.  Make no mistake - I am a sllllooooowwww 'runner', so literally bringing in the end of the race is pretty demoralizing.

Today I feel I conquered the distance. I posted a 'race log' report.  Not sure if it can be accessed? 

In any event, I did the race with a friend and her friend, expecting that they would leave me in the dust after crossing the start line, and I was prepared to run my own race.  With the multiple underpasses on the course, my garmin was inaccurate for pacing info, so I opted to run by 'feel' and tried to channel some of Deborah's inspiration into my pace. 

I ended up shaving almost 5 minutes off my best 10k time (which was last week's training run!) and nearly caught the 'friend-once-removed' near the finish line, which was near home plate at the White Sox ballpark.  Fun!! 

It was a good size race, supported well enough for the distances and a variety of post-race activities, which were only diminished because of the cold wind.  But what do you expect in Chicago in April?

Now on to more bike focused training & brick work for next month's race!  Have a great week!

Terri

That.  One thing I've learned is for races in the city forget the Garmin.  I just wear my good old fashioned watch with the timer and watch my pace that way.

Great job on the race!

Susie

I went for the Garmin 910xt, It's the Rolls Royce of heart rate monitor devices because it does so much more.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  It gives me every piece of data I need from the number of strokes I do in the pool to how my heart rate is doing on a run. It is expensive though but "I'm worth it!"

Lisa

I have an earlier version, 310?  can't remember, but I really want the 910. The one I have can't go in the water. Once I'm back in action this might have to be a present to myself, esp since I'm now not getting a new bike this year.  Oh so many toys! (so little money).

Happy Birthday!!!

Boring old Polar chest strap with wrist watch. Nothing fancy. I hardly use it most of the time. If it had cool features like GPS, downloadable data, etc.... I'd wear it all of the time. I have had no problem with the perceived exertion method so far. Easy day? Go easy. Hard day? Go hard. But I am going to start wearing it more to figure out my longer run/bike pacing.

Journals: How descriptive do you get? I like to keep it short and sweet- date,route,activity,distance, and maybe overall time. In fact, I use a cheap dollar store wall calender that works great. Sometimes I run out of room writing in the boxes when I write in a long route though.

Happy Birthday Steph!! Hope you had a great weekend.

--Skibummer

While I log everything I keep my notes really short.  I typically only note minor things like if I pushed the stroller, did a hill workout or the lap distances.  I keep it short since I rarely look back at the workout details when I do go back and look.  

--Erin

Good job on passing your swim test.  It is easy to start too fast when swimming and it seems way harder to recover than compared to running or biking. The good thing is you got through it. 

--Terri

5 Min!! Whoa .. nicely done.  What is your next race?

Happy Belated Birthday Stephanie!  Hope it was wonderful

Recovery drink  - Gatorade or Vitamin Water - not sure if either of those count.

Log- I am trying so hard to go paperless when I am such a paper person!  Used to have a Family calendar - color coded for three kids and all their stuff - work calendar and workout calendar.

Got an Iphone a few months ago and am trying to combine everything onto that.  So I log minimum details about what I do for workouts. Mainly I note the activity, either distance or time and how I felt before and after.  No fancy gadgets at this time.

Had a great weight training session at the gym today followed by some treadmill work.  I was pretty rubbery by the time I got on the treadmill so I didn't accomplish much but I felt like a whole new person by the time I left the gym!

Congrats on the race! Cut off 5 minutes in one week - Impressive!

Today is my last day of "vacation" from work. The down time was most welcome, but I didn't do anything productive other than training and some other small house work items. My first race is May 26 and is a mud and obstacle style race. Not really into these, but my employer is hosting this and other events (including a sprint tri!!!) during the summer. Prolly not going to do any specific training for the mud race, but I am trying to negotiate a discount on entry fees as an employee.  Anyone into these kind of obstacle races? They seem like a good way to get injured. 

Scheduling conflicts are also in the back of my head. I am coaching my son's tee-ball team which is twice a week practice plus games on Saturday. I really should take an easy recovery day today, but I don't know when I'll have another chance for a quality workout. Oh well...off to the pool to try and uncover some more swim secrets. 

Thanks! & LOL - I forget that an underpass in the city is much different than one in the burbs. haha

My 305 is working well for me for running and now on the bike with the cadence sensor kit.  I also have a Polar chest strap that came with my treadmill.  If  I happen to wear it at the gym, it's compatible with most of the machines for general ballpark info.  I've only had my iphone for a couple of months and don't really use a lot of apps on it.  

Recovery drink - in a pinch, a small serving of low fat chocolate milk, otherwise a tablespoon of vanilla protein powder mixed with about 4oz of grape juice (only because I don't like apple) & 4oz of water.

Journaling - I mostly rely on the data collected by the garmin, though I've started using the online training log here. Also I use a cheap monthly calendar (the promotional kind that vendors hand out for advertising), more for at-a-glance planning & coordinating workouts with real life stuff.

Steph - hope your day was enjoyable.  New toy to report?

I did one of those mud/obstacle races last sumemr and had a blast!  How cool that your employer hosts events like this.