Baowolf's Winter training is FUN group..no really it is!! (OPEN) (Page 9)

Hey Cathy,

You have an incredible skill when it comes to deduction :-) I do work at Trimble!haha There are a few of us Brits here, for sure. My wife and I are moving from Longmont down to Broomfield/Westminster area soon though to make everything a little easier.

Oh, and watched both Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead's.. (1&2)... really interesting and actually led to us getting a juicer! Awesome for fresh, nutritious drinks although I'll never be doing one of those cleanses!

Short time in the pool (I hesitate to say "swim") and 13 mile run on Saturday, but taking a few days off after more tattoos... can't have too much rubbing! Just focused on some strength training and nutrition for at least a few more days.

Almost forgot my monthly update!

Run - 73.4 miles
Bike - 19.5 miles
Swim - 2.8 miles
Strength - 2 sessions

Weight Loss - 11.6lbs in Jan!

Dave

Edited by RookeyDavid 2015-02-02 10:05 AM

I started "organized training" on Jan. 20 only so the numbers are not that high.
Starting the wheel again was tough but I feel I am at this stage where I'm no longer asking myself I feel like doing the workout, I just do it.

So here goes:
Bike : 64 miles / 3h30m
Run : 4.6 miles / 55m
Yoga/Strenght : 4h25m

I will have a hard time fitting in longer workouts during the weekends in the next few months (I work full-time during the week, I do my training at night when the kids are asleep). My mom's cancer has returned and I try to go over my parents' house to help my dad. Just spent the last weekend there, and although it feels great to help them and spend some time with them I do feel drained when I come back home on Sunday night. Not even sure I'll sign up for races, maybe last-minute registrations to sprint events or 5k's...

Danielle Salk here. Age 45.

My story: I have only done one Ultra Marathon. A 50 k and about 6-7 years ago. Swam in college and played water polo. Never been a cyclist. I am a mother of two boys, ages 10 and 12 who keep me moving. Work full time but with a flexible schedule that I hope will allow me to train. I have an Iron Man in my bucket list but realize I may not actually feel that was once I start training for my first sprint. Hard to imagine how to fit in all the workouts and get all the gear(bike especially). Mainly, I am an undertrained athlete who wants to get back on her game.
Next race: marin county half marathon April 4.
looking for suggestions for a good beginner sprint in Northern California and also for tips on finding a bike for a beginner that's not totally committed yet since she hasn't ridden more than around town on a borrowed bike.

Isabella, my darling, I'm so sorry! Hugs to you. Definitely do what you can to help your family because that is the most important thing.

Welcome, Danielle!

I love the idea of monthly totals, not a great start for me.

Swim- 1.1 miles
Bike - 25 miles
Run 29 miles
Cross training- 3x

Isabelle, take care of you and yours first, training can wait. That said, I find it therapeutic to go out and run some miles when I am processing stress, frustration or loss. Bring your bike and trainer and watch TV with them while you bike! Well it was just a thought.

For a beginner remember it takes 1-2 years to get to IM shape, but only 2-3 months to be solidly ready for a sprint. You can get a used bike, or an aluminum frame bike with tiagra components probably in the $350 to $750 range (cheaper if older). Ideally you want to get a bike from someone who thought it would be a great idea to get back in shape, had some good $$ and never got around to it and is now trying to clean up their garage. Some bike names are Cervela P1, Specialized, Felt S22, Blue, Giant,.... forgetting others. Make sure it has at least 1 bottle cage on it and try to get a saddle that is gender specific or friendly to both genders. Just start off getting into a routine, frequent and short and then just add a bit. There are plans under the Training Plan toggle upper right to get you started.

When I tell my wife that I don't want to go for a 75 mile trainer ride she tells me, "that's ok you don't have to want to do it, you can just do it." She doesn't complain about my training and she doesn't tolerate me complaining about my training either.

Reporting for January

Swim: 4h 07m 11s - 9788.61 Yd
Bike: 20h 02m 56s - 361.45 Mi
Run: 10h 55m 12s - 60.49 Mi

Being Sick/Recovery: 7 days

Had some other issues about my myself im helped by Steve as a friend.

Happy Training Everyone

Got to catch up this week

Carlo

Edited by strykergt 2015-02-03 1:02 AM

Love it! Glad to hear you are on the other side of it.

Isabella, so sorry about your mom. Very stressful times for all of you. My rule in those times is if working out adds stress, let it go. But as others have said, sometimes a bit of time for yourself out on a run or even just a walk can help. Prayers for her, and that you find what works best for you in coping.

Carlo, glad things are looking better for you. Life can throw us all curve balls and it's good to have friends to help us through.

You guys may have felt the earth shake...I went to the pool and....gasp...swam. First time in a LONG time.

Edited by squirt 2015-02-02 8:52 PM

Thanks for all your kind words. Means a lot.
Yes training for me helps a lot evacuate stress and it keeps me sane. I never sleep as good as when I am training. Better quality sleep = energy to face the world!!!

Carlo : I hope you feel better soon...
Carol : LOL no earthshake here, it must mean it went well! What made you go back to the pool? Are you training for a tri? Are you also still training for your race event?

Happy training everyone!

Sorry it took me a few days to post January totals. Nice to be able to see the month totals and where my work needs to focus/begin. I knew without looking at the bike that I need to get more time in the saddle. Nothing to really say about swimming except get to the pool! Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good week of training. Here are my totals:

Swim: 1h 30m - 1500 Yd
Bike: 1h 36m - 24 Mi
Run: 11h 54m 42s - 67.85 Mi
Strength: 6h 15m

Carol, congrats on the new job! seems i missed a lot on this thread

Steve, I use a traditional saddle on my road bike (Ritchey Carbon Streem) but I also have an Adamo, a Podium, that I use on my tris setup (and I used on the HIM last year). Before that I tried the Prologue and had the older Adami Tri, much more comfortable in the aero position.

Awesome hearing of Colorado. My fiancee and I are strongly considering moving out there soon.

Horrible sounding accident Simon. Great that you're getting back into it.

Mitzi, about that rr... so long ago but I'll try to whip one up at some point.

Isabella, hoping for the best for your mom and your family.

Bike: 5:31, 88 mi.
Run: 4:19, 28 mi.
Strength: 0:30
Yoga: 1:15
Rock climbing: 3:33

Havent swam since October. Instead of swimming my fiancee and I joined a rock climbing gym. Got into it real quick and we're loving the impact it has on all these new muscle groups! Yay for crosstraining! These #'s may seem low but if you could compare it to Jan 2014, it's a huge improvement!

Good news guys I just won a VIP pass for IM Boulder from the Snapple Triathlon Team. They do not have what it all involves posted yet,, but they did mention champagne in the finisher tent with the professional triathletes, preferred viewing area for my wife with snacks and beverages for her while she waits, so it is probably a good thing. I am pretty stoked. Oh well off to swim.

Edited by Baowolf 2015-02-04 1:02 AM

Nice one Steve! That, I'm sure, will be an experience that's not easily forgotten :-)

Phil - Colorado was the best decision my wife and I have made together so far. We just picked up from Louisville, KY and moved out here and it's been an incredible journey. Work, people, weather, environment, tri's... everything out here is fantastic so I'm glad you guys are thinking of relocating!

Talking of weather, however, I just went for a run in an ice blizzard at 5:00am! I felt like I had a thousand tiny daggers hitting my face. The thought that got me through it though, was that "I bet none of the other people doing the Boulder Sunset Oly this year are running right now" :-) Persistence, Consistency and Mindset are the best things to push through. Failing that, just avoiding the Blerch will do! (For those of you that don't know the Blerch, I suggest you read this for a laugh: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running)

I haven't been training since Saturday as I had more work done on my full sleeve tattoo, so no arm rubbing or chlorine... today was the first time back and I completely underestimated the power of recovery. I was able to keep up with one of my IM tri friends (top 10% globally in his age group). A huge achievement for me!

Anyway, that's my update. I'm back to training hard again, but will definitely be making sure to set aside time for recovery as that seems to have given me the most rapid gain so far.

David

Nice score on the VIP treatment for you and your family, Steve!

Isabella, glad that working out helps. Hubby and I are training to walk the Cowtown HM. Have already done long walks of 11.5 and 12 miles. Will be sort of strange to walk it instead of running, but happy to walk with hubby as he completes his 1st HM. Ha, I swam Monday evening because it was cold outside and I didn't feel like doing elliptical or bike trainer at home. My training plan = "do something, most days".

Jealous of all you folks who live in CO. My dream places to live in terms of access to natural beauty, climate, and retaining some civilization are Colorado Springs or Flagstaff AZ. Tough to think about leaving behind our friend/family connections here in TX though.

Phil, rock climbing...why does this not surprise me .

Isabella - wishing the best fit your mom.
Cathy, I love rebooting with Joe. Did his juicing program for a few weeks, felt really healthy, didn't lose weight though. Lots of sugar in those apples.

David, I'm really impressed with people who run through storms and cold. Esp newbies. I don't go out until it hits 65, but I know that has to change.

As far as weightlifting, I've moved away from the bodybuilding type stuff but need to get in shape. Doing kettlebells and lots of work moving my own body weight. do cardio tapes with workouts including moves on different planes with twists and balances. Want to get all those little stablizing muscles worked.

Steve - big congrats on IM Denver.
Doing some walk/running up to 17 min, running 11:30mph 2or 3 mins at a time. Want to do that zone 2 work to build an endurance base, but that would leave me just walking and I can't get myself to do it. Heartrate hits 144 though would give my perceived exertion at 3 or 4. Is that ok or do I really need to just walk.

Mitzi

New to biking? Do not skip the bike shorts. Better to avoid a sore butt then to recover from one

Mitzi, doing walk jog is fine while getting started, especially if you are keeping it to the 3-4 mile range. I usually do like 4 min walk 2 min jog, for a week then 3/3 for a week, 4/2 for a couple days and then just jog from there. If I am recovering from an injury and need to spread it out I will add another week at the end of 4/1.

Yes recovery is very nice. But once you load fatigue you will slow down a bit again. Every 3rd or 4th week should be a recover week with 60% of your distances for your workouts. It is tough to build distance and speed at the same time because you are carying that big fatigue effect. Sometimes you need to just add a rest day because the scale tipps too far into a fatigue slog. I can usually tell from my run pace that if I have been running 9 mpm paces on my medium runs and then I am struggling to hold 10:30 that means I have cooked myself and need a rest day. Today, however I am in a rest week and had a lovely run here are mile mile paces... 8:32, 7:51, 8:00, 8:01, 8:00, 7:50. It has been a long time since I could run that pace, even though it was a shorter run. I know though that next week I will be slower with longer runs.

For the past month I have been doing swim ladders/pyramids of 50 yards. Last night I started doing 100 yards ladders. Again loving the recovery week. One problem though is that if you enjoy the speed too much during a recovery week, you start the next build week already toasted....

January totals:

Run: 2.5 hours
Swim: 2 hours
Bike: 0.5 hours
Strength: 3 hours

Total: 8 hours

Most was in the last half of January so trajectory is in the right direction...

Picked up my repaired bike and a new bike trainer today - great to get back in the saddle even in front if the TV...

Hi all. Hope training is going well. I'm struggling with motivation right now So hard to go outside and run in the cold. Plus I hate the treadmill.

Isabella, hang in there! Hope your mother is doing ok.

Danielle - welcome! Good luck with bike searching. Make sure it isn't too big or too small for you!

Carlo - sounds like a rough month! Your training will be ok though. Seems like you have a good training base!

Carol - heck, move to CO. It's amazing. Nice job on the swim too. I took 4 years off from swimming....so weird to start again.

Phil - CO is awesome. I moved here 14 yrs ago from the Philly area. Winter is much nicer here. Lots of sun!

Steve - VIP pass! Awesome. That sounds like it will be nice after the race

Dave - hope your tat is healing up!

happy training everyone!

Fellow Trainees

Just saw my Dr. today i may have Hyperthyroidism making my heart palpitate, but i am back in training hopefully able to complete this month of Feb without anymore sickness. This getting sick during training is mentally discouraging. I also noticed that i have not been sleeping enough. I will just be doing one of my SBR workouts if im working to dedicate more time sleeping.

@Steve
Congrats on your Silver VIP you deserve it after what happend at Tahoe.

@Mitch
I am impressed by your weightloss you look great.

@Pam
I am impressed did not notice you did an Ultra.

@Phil
Good luck on the transfer. Lucky you have the hills to train in Co.

@Carol
Hopefully everything doing well with your work and FIL doing ok.

@Isabelle
You're great to your family its ok to prioritize them for now try to get some rest for yourself. You accomplished alot in '14.

@Cathy
Did not see your advice thanks. I have been really pushing it and need to push it more on Mar. and April is the killer were ill be racking 15 hrs/week. I hope i dont get sick anymore this hot and cold weather in Texas is not making it easy for me.

@Everyone
Keep going this nasty weather will be done soon.

Cheers

Carlo

As luck would have it (sarcasm), I'm now unwell :-( I wonder if I was pushing it too hard? It seemed to go downhill after running in the blizzard yesterday.

Steve : Wow congrats! It is indeed well deserved after all this IM trouble last year. Enjoy!

David : how are you feeling, is it the flu or a man cold? get well soon, get some rest and think of it as your body building its immune system and you growing stronger...

Phil : rock climbing sounds like fun, plus it's always nice to have an activity with our SO that you both love.

I would give anything now to be somewhere warm and dry. Out to run last night in the snow, it felt like runnning in the sand, equally as hard but much colder! It was beautiful though

Trainer session tonight, I will try to get a run in tomorrow morning and a yoga session on Sunday.

Steve, VIP pass does sound awesome, and hopefully takes a little bit of that sour taste from last year.

Good feedback about CO as always. I'm getting married in May and hopefully teleworking fulltime by October, which is when we'll start scheming. Blizzard runs don't sound too fun though.

My 3-mi run outside yesterday was in 50-degree weather! Not the norm, but welcome. DC's weather has been too mild this year. Luckily I've got a long snowboard trip planned for Presidents Day weekend; hopefully I'll get my fill of snow and frozen toes.

David, funny read on the Blerch. The Oatmeal got some good comics; one of my faves is about owning a dog, since I got my first one about a year ago.

Isabella, yes I'm glad my SO joins me. I've convinced her to do two sprint tris with me, and she liked it but was a bit of a commitment.

Did a yoga session yesterday, and I am convinced I am the least flexible human being in that class. And in the world.