Slornow's and Wannabefaster's Summer Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 9)

Not sure if you dad is an iPhone / iPod junkie, but my wife and I used this app:  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/get-running-couch-to-5k/id319043985?mt=8.   It's a (roughly) 30 minute workout 3x a week -- first week is 60 second run / 90 second walk, and gradually increasing up to 30 minutes run.   Highly recommended.

I started the program exactly one year ago.  Couldn't finish all the 60 second runs at first.  Now I can run 90 minutes nonstop, and doing a HM in a couple of weeks.

Congratulations on finishing Melissa! So many opportunities for what to do next!

I'm a bit snowed under with my uni stuff at the moment, so I'm not being as active as I'd like and I think my bodies taking the opportunity to crash and burn at the same time, I can definitely feel a cold coming on... good thing I'm only doing a recovery run this weekend. I think I need it.

But, did some interesting track training last night and managed to do some fairly consistent 400m build sets. managed my fastest 400 to date, so pretty happy with that. I have a fairly substantial report due tomorrow and a presentation on Sunday, but after that I'm hoping I'll have a bit more time to dedicate to training. it feels like a long time since I've been in the pool!

Thanks for posting your race report Rachel. It's always great to hear other people's accounts, particularly around the transition bits, having not done one before .

Cheers,

Em

Boy this group already seems more active than the last go around.  Maybe it's that the weather is turning nice and everyone is jazzed up!!

my mini bio:  Call me Randee, MtnBikerChk, MBC, or just "hey you."  

I'm an accountant which keeps me pretty busy from February to mid April but that's ok because I play the rest of the year.  I'm coming off an 8 month stress fracture recovery and feeling great - except for the fact that fitness wise I'm not really where I'd like to be.  But that's ok because I'm healthy and I'll get there.  I have a few Tris in mind - not sure which will be my first.  However next weekend on 5/19 there is a duathlon I've always wanted to do so I'm going to give it a go.  

Family: Awesome husband who is currently at the end of his rehab stage from his second ACL reconstruction.  The first tear was from deck hockey, the 2nd from skiing.  He discovered running while rehabbing his first one and is JUST starting to get back to it.  We both MTB and road ride, and ski, snowshoe, hike etc for fun.  We have a greyhound and 2 cats - and just lost our 2nd greyhound to bone cancer.

The people on this website have become by go to peeps for questions about each discipline within the tri and everything else from nutrition to apparel.  The season is upon us folks, it's GO TIME!!

now to catch up:

Melissa - congrats on finishing med school!  

Rachel - another woman on board!  Great

Jimmy - welcome back!  We're retiring in Utah, right?

Jamie - I always want to call you Woodrow  

Michael - the season is off to a great start!

Kathryn - welcome aboard!  You do indeed have a busy schedule!

Scott - great to see you back too!

Laura - welcome!

Kate - great to see so many women this round!  Welcome!

Mike - I'm so happy you're finding fun AND fitness! welcome!

Dave - Your rock climbing pictures scare the crap out of me!  LOL Hope there are more to come!

Em - what are you twosneezesshort of?    Welcome to the group!

Suzy - AH custom Parlee ppuuurrrrr - welcome!

Nancy - LOL At your CA Swimcap.  I'll remember that one for sure!  Welcome!

Mary  - welcome back - check out all these women joining us!!

Megan - OMG another one!  YAY!

Karla - ok what's the men v women count now?  I like these odds!!

Greg - welcome to the group! 

Stuart - love to have your swimming expertise!

Blanda - our xterra Hawaii Rep!!!  HI!

Nate - Marry that woman! HI!

Ok I hope I got everyone.  My goal tonight is to update my BT log from the log I maintain......I'm a bad girl.  But like I said, tax season is over and the TRI season is upon us.  WOOT!

I had a really bad experience on the swim during my first race this past Sunday.   I swim quite a bit in the pool and feel perfectly fine there but when it came to the OWS at the race this weekend, I was thrown for a loop due to having to tread water in the middle of the lake for 10 minutes while I waited for my wave to start.  I was pretty bummed but instead of giving up, I decided to dig in and work through it.  Anyway, I have read countless times on these boards that you should hire a swimming coach and incorporate open water swimming as much as possible if you are unsure of your swimming capabilities.    All I can say is thank you to everyone that gives out this advice.  Today, I followed both pieces of advice and found a fantastic coach who holds open water clinics each week.  At first I was flopping around in the water but after performing some drills, my stroke felt smooth and my breathing was controlled by the end of the workout.  I just can't believe I waited this long to follow such common advice. Anyway, that's my report for today.  Oh and I ran a few miles later. 

It was a good day.

Hi Folks,

It's great to see all the returnees from last year.  I'm very impressed with everyone's progress.

Here's my bio:

NAME: thirdstation/mark

AGE: Forty-deuce

STORY: Having entered my first sprint triathlon wanting to do something universally considered hard, I thought the mere completion of it would confer upon me a general awesomeness. It is the great irony of my life that in my seventh year of triathlon my middle continues to keep apace with my age - if not exactly then within a donut's width of it.

TRAINING: I am still trying to figure this out.  Last year I thought I had this dialed in but, by August  I was pretty disappointed because I didn't achieve my weight-loss goal or my triathlon goal.

I lift weights twice a week during the season to maintain strength. This helped tremendously last year so I'm keeping it in the program.

For s/b/r I'm taking Michael's advice on pacing to heart and planning a lot of low intensity training to keep injury at bay. I do one long and one short interval per week.

I'm only three weeks into my current plan so it's a bit early to tell how it's working. I will post it if you guys wouldn't mind giving it a sanity check.

FAMILY: Married with two kids (15 and 12). I work as a programmer/analyst and have a killer commute so I sit, A LOT. I find it very difficult to fit all my workouts into a week.

GOALS: Lose 40-50 pounds. Get finish time for a sprint closer to 80 min. Complete an oly in September.

Name: Blanda/Blanda.

Story: I had been playing soccer for Guam for about 15 years. The only other sport I had time for was running, as it was a supplement to my soccer training and races were on my one rest day. So, that's the extent of my competitive sporting. Well, except for the 4 years in high school that I was the best bench warmer for basketball on the island, har har. Oh, I was a pom pom girl for a year too. Hey! That's hard and competitive, you know?

Two years ago my teammate and good friend said "hey, let's do Xterra Guam... it'll be fun...". I started training for and participated in 2012 Xterra Guam, but did not finish. I didn't make the cut-off time after the bike leg and nearly sent my mountain bike into a swamp.

After a good ol' ugly cry to my husband, and lots of support from the tri community here, I decided to get back on the horse (my mountain bike does weight about as much as a horse) and started training again to redeem myself in this year's Xterra Guam. This year I showed huge improvements in the swim and bike legs, and was able to finish, and because I was the only woman in my age group, I qualified for Xterra World Championship in Maui! I've hired a coach so I don't go out there and look like a total fool. Leading up to Xterra 2012 & 2013 I participated in all of the sprint races and duathlons Guam offers, but I'm horrible about doing race reports.  I keep coming back to Randy and Jason for their words of wisdom and experience. They're very kind and supportive and seem to attract the same kind of mentees.

Family: Married a kabillion years to a super duper patient, loving, supportive guy. We have a 21 year old girl, 12 year old boy, and a 7 year old girl. 

Training: I'm currently following a training program put together by a local triathlete who's helped a lot of newbie triathletes compete in triathlons locally and away.

2012 Races: Two sprints, two duathlons, and Xterra Guam 2012. I'm sure I'm missing a couple, but I'm horrible about doing race reports! 

2013 Season: So far, 2 sprints, a mountain bike race series consisting of 3 races, the swim portion of an Olympic distance, Xterra Guam, a night time mountain bike race, a half century, I have a 2.5 mile swim on the 26th, 2 more sprints in June, an Olympic in July, and 2 duathlons in August. Most of these I'm using for training I need for Xterra Maui in October.

Weightloss: I could drop about 10 more pounds. I'm working on it.

What will make me a good mentee?: I "talk" a lot, haha! I will show you what NOT to do, like a subway sangwich before running and such. I like to "high five" and I'm open to advice!

Tay-wetsuits can fit very differently so it would be great if you could try some on before purchasing. Also, wetsuits used for swimming in triathlon are very different thatn those used for scuba diving. Not sure if you can purchase outside of the US but Xterra brand wetsuits are reasonably priced and they almost always are running some kind of promotion here on BT.

Busy day for me with work and family activity tonight so I was up early for an easy ride on the bike.

Very interesting article about the benefits of beet juice in lowering blood pressure and as a performance booster in endurance sports.  http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-for-runners/beet-juice-how-much-and-when  I had just done a post on my blog about my experience with beet juice/Beet It Shots.  I'm a believer and it appears that the science seems to support it. Of course, there is not a ton of research out there but at a minimum its something natural that has good stuff in it.

tatous - 2013-05-08 11:50 PM Randee - you forgot me yet another woman!

So sorry Tay!!  Welcome!

Swim day for me.  It's been over a week since I was in the pool because of vacation - really now - I go to FL and it rains every day so no swimming for me! LOL  I gotta say I felt GREAT.  Sometimes A week off is just what I need!

I just registered for the Boston Athletic Association 10K in June - I'm excited about that.  I think the energy alone will be amazing.  BOSTON STRONG!

Greg inspired me - I'm going to contact the swim coach I've been thinking about emailing.....I know that'll be my weakest tri leg so I'm going to bite the bullet and do it.  

Have a good day all!

Morning swim workout completed. Coach has me on an easy week and says that I will be hurting starting next week ... oh boy! Crazy as it sounds ... I am looking forward to it. 

Randy - I am listening to the "Zen and the Art of Triathlon" podcast and he always talks about Beet juice and he swears by it. I know professional triathlete Angel Naeth is also a big fan of beet juice. I guess it also has some major staining power :-) I think I gotta give it a try ... 

I used the C25K app on my phone when I first started running and it did the trick. 

Speaking of running, anyone have inspirational stories about increasing speed? I have always been a slow runner (I have painful memories of being one of the last kids to finish when we had to run a mile in middle school!). I've been slowly increasing my distance, but get frustrated because I just feel so darn slow! If I let myself run fast (and by fast, I mean 9 to 10 minute miles) my heart rate goes through the roof. If I strive to keep my HR below 155, I'm running more like 12 minute miles.

I'm planning on doing a running clinic through our local store, but that's going to need to wait until the fall. I've read a bit about working tempo runs into my training, proper form etc. but if anyone has tips, I'd love to hear them. Even more so than that though, I think I need someone just to reassure me that if I keep plugging away at this I will eventually get faster! So, did that happen for you?

Megan

Megan, I started my run training using the Maffetone Method. Here's a great article you can check out to start incorporating it if you'd like: Working your heart by Mark Allen

I started this training using a 149 HR and I was running a 12-ish minute mile. That was last July. Now I'm running closer to an 8:20 minute mile at that same HR. I've incorporated speed work into my run only recently and only because my training plans calls for them

Randy, Beet juice! Yes, I've read a lot about it. Jamie and I tried some from a vendor at the Rev3 this past weekend. I thought it was pretty good. I'll let Jamie tell you what he thought about it . I bought some beets on Monday to eat throughout the week. They are a pain to prepare though! I guess I can look for some pre-made juice at Whole Foods or something. I think I'm too lazy to juice it myself

I'm a big fan of juicing, but beets are messy! Get any of that juice on your clothes and your sunk.  I do think buying the vegetables fresh, cleaning them and doing it yourself if the way to go if you can find the time.  I try to clean stuff all at once and then use them throughout the week.  Just a thought. or a nudge. 

Finally got the Parlee out on the road!!  It was raining, but I was sick of seeing him sitting in my garage all forlorn.  Totally different riding experience from my SEVEN (which I do love) with clip ons.

Megan -- here's my timeline... you can decide if it's inspirational

• May 2012 -- started Couch to 5K.  At first, couldn't go 90 seconds without a walk break.  By end of May, I could do 5 minutes.
• June 2012 -- worked my way up to 10 minute consecutive running
• July 2012 -- first "true" 5K run (no walk breaks) -- 33:44
• Mid-August 2012 -- first 5K time under 32 minutes
• End of August 2012 -- first 5K time under 30 minutes
• Spent most of the winter focused on run (treadmill) -- 4x a week -- but did not measure pace
• Set a goal for 2013  to get a 5K time under 27:30
• March 2013 -- first 5K time under 29 minutes
• May 2013 -- first 5K time under 28 minutes 

Don't know if I have any good tips.  Other than "run more".    Occasionally (perhaps once every ~5 runs) I will try to noticeably pick up the pace for a shorter run -- e.g. put the treadmill about 0.3 - 0.5 mph faster than normal.  But nothing much beyond that.

Scott.

LMAO!  Fun story from last summer: We joined a farm share/csa and they were giving us lots of beets.  We would cut them up and roast them like potatoes.  They were pretty good...... and then one day.....I thought I was dying because yes, I was pooping red.  I ran to the Mayo clinic book we have to read possible causes.....and the last one was "eating a lot of beets."  OMG I laughed so hard and felt like such a moron.

so beware for sure!

A Parlee AND a SEVEN?  OMG **drool**

This story made my day! This is totally something I would do

leechj - 2013-05-09 10:54 AM ade my day! This is totally something I would do

I'm here for YOUR entertainment!