I'm 2 weeks from Eagleman and an unfortunate work ordeal is going to take up most of taper. I've missed a few workouts from stress and this last week was no different. There's only so many hours in a day and only so much mental energy I have to expend...so I feel like I did the best I could.
On the nutrition front, I've declared that I would NOT take comfort in fried food and am doing really good with that. I managed to lose 1 pound--I'll take it!
Happy training!

I'm another one with a mediocre week. It's been raining for 4 days. I can bike on the trainer and run on the treadmill, but my swims are completely screwed up. I missed on long swim and I'll probably miss another one, too. Then I worked a day shift yesterday instead of my usual P.M. I don't know how you "normal work schedule" folks can come home and exercise after a full day at work! I came home and ate... and laid on the couch and watched bad movies.

*sigh* Now I go into a long work stretch. At least it's all P.M.s. Maybe I'll do better.

I hit all my workouts, I'm tapering for the Oliver half iron this weekend so it was a lighter workout load. This week is easier still and I'm seriously hyper this morning, it's looking like it'll be a wired week.

My club did bike & run time trials last week and I set a 5km run PR, which was awesome except for the minor detail that I was supposed to be running it at my half iron run pace.

The diet side still isn't quite there. I ate out Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday lunch, not really the healthy or economical choice. And I'm still not eating enough fruit. I do, however, have the fridge at work stocked so I'll be making up for this during the weekdays.

This week's two main goals are to remember to buy Body Glide before heading to Oliver and to get my laundry done in time to pack clean, dry clothes!

I made a point of stretching yesterday after my long run. Yeah! I'm headed to find the foam roller now too.

My diet was good for 2 days, then yesterday I went to a party and held off on food until all the not so healthy main course food was gone, and then I had to have dessert. But I only had one beer, and it didn't really count because it was a miller lite (I don't like light beer).

This week ended up OK after a shaky start. To continue by grading system, I get a B.

My goals for the week were simple:

• Do all my workouts
• Eat well

Workouts:
The beginning of the week was a rough one. I had put in 32 hours of training the previous week because of camp and doing 2 centuries so I was wiped out physically and mentally. This is a bad time to be tired since I am right at my peak training for CdA and it is the wrong time to be skipping workouts. I had to figure out a way to muscle through and I did. I trimmed back my swim volume and skipped one swim workout altogether. If I'm going to sacrafice something that is the right one. I took a spontanious day off on Thursday which was a huge treat but did get in my workout on Friday to make up for it. I muscled my way through another long ride on my own, 90 miles, on Saturday with pretty good humor and felt strong. Yesterday was a three hour run and also managed to stay focused and had a high quality run.

Eat well:
I'd give myself a C but I lost 1lb so I can't have done all that bad. I am getting into the sweets some more and ate out twice but 80% of the day I'm good then I get a treat. The afternoon cookie and caffeine to fuel the workout is back and that likely had something to do with my burnout. What I am doing better is not eating as much so while the diet isn't perfect I'm not piling on extra calories. I still feel good and my workouts feel strong so I seem to be doing OK.

I feel good that I was able to push through the burnout and get refocused. 27 days to CdA!

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce

Started off strong, and then I picked up a virus from Small. The fever forced me to rest for 4 days. I did have a good swim this morning. I'm racing in Macon at the end of this week, so I hope I'm okay by Friday. Didn't feel much like eating this week. To compensate, I made a huge batch of monster peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for a party yesterday. I have sinned...(In penance, I gave the leftover cookies away to neighborhood kids.) Have a great week everyone. :)

so bad. so so bad. let me tell you, since Friday i've eaten a milkshake, strombolie, hamburger, ribs, brownies, fried hasbrowns, fried eggs, ribs, potato chips, french fries and tarter sauce.


i don't think there is a way i could make it worse, to be honest.
somehow i managed to workout 5 times last week, but the diet is in the crapper larger than life. maybe the last few days are the worst in years? i don't know, but god, i just had to tattle on myself.

here is to a new beginning. (holding up hot water and lemon tea for the ridiculous stomach ache that i have right now)

Last Weeks Goals (May 19-25)

1) Race hard and smart and enjoy the Ottawa Half
GOAL TIME: 1:5X (anything under 2:00 is the goal)
Well, things did not go as planned. AT.ALL.
I am not a person who runs well in hot weather and it was hot (for me)
I was HOTTER then hell at 1K then it just got worse. By 2.5K, I had stopped sweating and was already coated in salt. Did the best I could to replenish but it was already to late.
Had a pounding head, salt crusted body, no sweat at all and was feeling ill.
I DNF'd at the 12.6K mark (Pretoria Bridge) and cried my way back to the Athlete's Area and waited for friends, who had great races.
Grade: F


2) Eat healthy from today - Saturday. Have a reward meal on Sunday and then back on track
Not bad, couple slip ups but I've done worse :)
Grade: B

3) Taper - I've done the work, now it's time to rest up a bit
Taper went well. didn't do anything stupid.
Grade: A

4) Get mentally ready for the race.
Thought I was, had my little mantra's ready but after the heatstroke symptoms started, I was done and there wasn't any way I could get myself out of it.
Grade: C

To say I am dissapointed is an understatement. I'm beyond upset. I've improved my running A.LOT.

Have lost 20 lbs since mid january and had hoped that would also help in the heat but sadly, it didn't. I have had heatstroke a few times before and it seems that each time it starts faster and gets harder to fix. I am sore(on my back) at the points where my kidneys are and that's worrisome.

I have no desire to even think of my upcoming races at this moment. Gave myself today to wallow in self pity (along with yesterday) and hoping tomorrow is a better day.

Sigh. Not a good race at all. Don't even want to be around people right nwo.

MOVING FORWARD...This week's goals...

1) Recover Mentally and Physically from the Half.

2) Improve eating habits and lose 1-2 pounds.

3) Follow my training schedule, improvise where needed due to weather

4) Do something fun for ME. Not sure what but something not tri related.

5) Research Heatstroke and how to prevent it from sucking the life out of me at a race!

have a good week everyone!

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Proud member of the Guru Cartel, EH!

Don't beat yourself up about it. The race is over and done with. Nothing you can do about it now. You cannot control the weather, so you have to let it go. IMO, you should find another race as soon as possible and jump on it. Any other 1/2 marathons around that you can do in the next couple of weeks? You're trained and ready, so find a race if you can. If not, plan a fall race. The extra training will just help you get to your goal that much stronger.

Everyone has bad races. I can understand you being upset if you hadn't trained properly for it, but you did. The problem was the weather, which you can't control, so stopped letting yourself get down about it. The training you did hasn't gone away just because you had a bad race. Given the conditions and that you get heatstroke easily, dropping out was the right thing to do.

No Fs for a half marathon in the heat!! You get bonus points for being smart and calling it a day before ending up in the emergency room. Mantras don't mean much when you need an IV - this was not a lack of mental training on your part - it was a physical reaction to poor race conditions. Attempting any endurance event, particularly in less than ideal circumstances, is something to be proud of. You lost 20lbs since January??? You rock! This is a minor glitch. I also dump alot of salt when I run in the heat. I like endurolytes & sports beans. You will get there :) Have fun with your fun activity!

Irongirl- I think you get an A+ for being smart and stopping before you did some big time damage to your body. And an A+ for losing 20#!!!!!!

Last week's goals:

Nutrition: try to focus on fresh, unrefined, unprocessed foods.... Grade: D... birthday at work so one day we had a subs for lunch with fries and birthday cake... more birthday cake the next day, and cream of coconut pie at home thanks to a family member...
Workouts: keep it low key coming off a horrible Tempe International race last weekend.. Grade B.... commuted to work 3 out of 4 days, ran a little here and there, low key, but active


This week's goals:
Nutrition: get back on track... no birthdays this week! One big green salad a day, at least 5 fruits/veggies a day, seriously pull back on the sweets
Workouts: commute to work as many days as possible.. let's go for 3/4 (off today), run in the AM 3/4 prior to work, swim workout with the team on Sunday or ride with the bike club... I'll take either

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

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Come crawling faster

DawnT - Don't worry about a not-so-great week; it might be good to have an easier week or two (meaning less structured) before you start your marathon training plan.'

This week was pretty good for me Mon-Fri. The weekend wasn't great, but that's because of more travel to help my mom. I ate FANTASTIC all week - tons of fruit, salad with cottage cheese every day for lunch, lots of healthy dinners - no eating out. That ended Friday night :(

1) Lose the pounds that came back this spring: get back down to 157 by May 28:
let's just say I'm not optimistic about tomorrow's trip to the scale.
2) Continue to get my long run in every week, and do at least one speed workout:
I did two shorter runs and skipped my long run to build the railing on our deck so we can finally list our house.

3) I will swim at least two hours per week, hopefully three:
swam once for 50 minutes. unimpressive.

4) I will ride my bike at least 3 times per week for a total of at least 5 hours:
Two rides, one was an hour, one was 70 minutes. The good news is that my avg speed for that route has gone up about .5mph this year!
I skipped my long ride on Sunday, but ended up doing an unplanned 3.5 hours on Monday, so that made me feel a little better!

5) Weight training two times per week for 30-45 minutes each time:
one session. 45 minutes :(

6a) i will eat 5 servings of fruits/veggies a day:
Yes!
6b) Only one dessert per week:
None until the weekend - cake Friday night and Saturday; cookies on Saturday and Sunday > 1 :(
6c) Only one reasonable serving of chips and salsa per week (my downfall!):
No chips and salsa at all! but I did have potato chips at Jimmy John's because they're soooo good!
6d) Make sure at least 2 meals and 2 snacks per day are made up of entirely real food:
Almost all real food - protein bars were the only exception and they're all natural.

7) Spend 15 minutes every evening doing things I don't like to do. Empty the dishwasher, floss my teeth, sort a load of laundry, pay bills, etc.:
um, not so much. my house is a disaster right now.


So for this week, I want to keep up the healthy eating during the week and then try to behave over the weekend. and not skip my long run!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. For me, I am quite proud of myself for surviving last week!!

My first goal for the week was to finish all 4 races at the DATT and have enough in me to run part of the run on the half on Sunday. I am excited to say I met both parts of this goal. And of top of that, I was never last in any of the races. I was back of pack but never DFL. I also did not have to walk any of the hills on the bike. And I had an oly swim PR in the first race and an HIM swim PR in the last race (if you take my time in the water and don't count my slow walk from the waters edge to transition where the actual timing mat was).

The triple t was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done. I have a whole new meaning of the word- hilly. I took each race as a training workout and never pushed the envelope which gave me enough to get through the weekend. In fact, I was never uncomfortable or had any question to whether I would finish each race. I had a slow and steady attitude and it worked. I never had the mental breakdown I was sure I would have out there and actually enjoyed almost every minute of it. I felt great after each race and have had very little soreness since finishing which means I probably could have pushed a little harder out there but I didn't want to risk it. I do wish I would have pushed the run on Sunday a bit harder but I stuck to my strategy to walk the up hills and run the flats and downhills so I knew I would finish strong. I think I could have moved a bit faster out there but oh well, what can I do now. I will say that the run course is the hardest course I have ever been on. Between the hills, gravel, and washed out areas, it is quite challenging. Everyone talks so much about the bike course, the run course should get the same amount of respect if not more.

I will be back at the DATT again. Maybe not next year but soon.

My second goal was nutrition. I did well until I headed out to DATT. I actually ate well on Friday, Sat, and Sun but all bets were off yesterday. I took it as a reward. I also broke down and had a diet coke after the race on Sunday. I thought it would be amazing but it wasn't. I didn't even finish it.

This weeks goals are to slowly ease back into working out, ride the tri bike in the sponsored ride this weekend with a distance of 50-75 miles, and focus again on nutrition -- no diet coke.

Have a good week everyone!
Deanna

No running.
Swam twice.
Rode three times, all high intensity (one night of racing)
Lifted twice.
Ate a lot of Mexican food.

This week I'm racing on the bike Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I finished the DATT. I went very conservatively on the pace all 3 days. So therefore, I finished the run strong. That was a HARD weekend! Holey smokes! Best part was meeting a lot of great nice people who kept telling me good job on the run. It's been a while since I have heard that much encouragement and it was super. I was able to run the whole first lap of Sunday's run, and on lap 2 I power walked (Richard Simmons-style) the uphills and ran the flats and downs and finished strong. I was DFL in my category, and almost overall from the solo totals (Looks like I beat 1 guy named Guillaume) but I wasn't the last finisher on any of the individual races. Yay!
It was definitely super tough, but my total time was faster than my IM WI 06 time, so I am taking that as an indication that this year's IMLP time will be faster than TTT.
Eating was OK until I went on the trip - options in that part of Ohio are limited, I made the best ones I could given my options. Until after the race, when I ate a cheeseburger, a beer, and cheese fries, and topped it off with a Dairy Queen blizzard for dessert.
AJ

I did ok, I missed my last bike ride on Sunday but other than that I hit all my workouts last week. That last ride is proving to be the hardest to do, it's my last workout of the week and I'm tired, then I take Mondays off. Plus it's Sunday, so I can always find something else to do. This week we were going out of town for the day so I had to get it done first thing before we left, but it rained (barely) in the morning, so that was my excuse, it's raining and the roads will be all wet and slippery! Wah! So I skipped it. Have to buckle down on that one this week...

I ate pretty well, lots more fruits and veggies, so good on that one. The scale hasn't moved at all yet, but I am scheduling Friday as weigh-in day so we'll see how it looks this week.

I found a 10K training plan for running, since that is my weakness. That should help get me on the road to that Olympic distance race goal on September 1, I like having a plan and having it all laid for me or I will get lazy and not do enough, this helps me keep my eye on that end goal. So I will start doing those runs this week. Now if I can just get in that Sunday ride I will be good to go!

Well, it was ok. It was slight taper week....did CapTex on Sun. Eating wise I did ok until after the race......I hit the cookies!!!!!! And the beer!!!!! As for the race, one of my goals was to have fun....I managed that. My swim was ok, GREAT bike, sorry run. I wanted to run 7:45's but was a minute slower. All of my training group said I wasn't recovered from AZ so Iam going with that!!! I know better, though. I've had a stomach bug for the past two days......no w/o's. I was going to go for a little run but think I will scratch it b/c of the stomach.

my week wasn't too bad. nutrition isn't where i would have liked it to be, but i got all of my training in (save a 20min bike/10min run on Saturday) and had a fairly decent race on sunday. i did lack some mental fortitude though and that is bothering me some.

this week isn't starting out so great. good thing i've got time to pick it up.

Oh my. I rode my bike a lot at hard efforts. I ate way too much Mexican food. I sat in the car a lot (though with my boy teammates for a lot of it, so that was good).

Mon: swim/weights

Tue: Park ride

Wed: AM swim/PM-Racing at Velodrome (drive 1 hour each way)

Thur: tired in AM after late night; no training

Fri: coach swim/weights/drive to Velodrome to watch racing; drink beer; eat tacos from the taco truck at 11:00 PM; home really late

Sat: teammate calls early--let's go to velodrome to session (one hour drive again each way); attend morning session; attend afternoon session; go eat Mexican food with track dude and teammate; drive home with stop at bike shop; fall asleep on couch about 8PM

Sun: phone rings at 4:55 AM, KEJ is outside with SnackieChan; put SC back to sleep on couch; clm goes back to sleep until 7:30; clm and SC go do laundry and get bagels and coffee and hot chocolate. Oops. SC's hot chocolate turns out to be a MOCHA! SC: "This chocolate tastes like coffee." SC to mom later: "I LIKE COFFFEE!" Hang up wet laundry and load up truck and clm and SC drive out to Livermore (an hour the other way) to race finish where KEJ and other teammates are (including Ariel, whose husband is president of team). Watch rest of team finish really hard road race (up over a mountain). Drive SC and two Mice boys into town and everyone meets for lunch. Yes, you guessed it...MEXICAN! Dessert is at the Donut King. Drive SC and two Mice boys back to San Jose (yet another hour, but south and west) to their car while KEJ drives two Mice gals the same place. Give SC back to KEJ. We all stop at Starbucks. SC doesn't get coffee this time. Drive home to SF (yet another hour). Jump in shower, dress, walk over hill to North Beach and meet SC, KEJ and our friend Janine for dinner. NOT MEXICAN! (Italian)

Mon: Up at 5:00 AM so I can leave to DRIVE AN HOUR (and a half) to Morgan Hill for a crit. Warm up, start crit, have bad feeling about crit and drop out 10 minutes in. Go do my own ride of an hour. Come back and find two Mice boys and we go to lunch....MEXICAN food. Go back to race site and hang out all day and watch races until it's time to go to velodrome. DRIVE to velodrome and do 2 hour workout. About 7 teammates there. Post-workout, buy gas and 5 of us go to dinner....MEXICAN FOOD (same place as Saturday). Drive the hour back to SF. Unpack car. Hit bed and fall asleep.

This week--racing Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun. All on the bike. All involving a drive. I need to move south about an hour.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

This past week was much better in terms of getting all my workouts done. Only missed one workout - an easy 40 minute run. My eating habits were pretty good at the beginning of the week but they went right down the toilet at the end of the week. 2 days of shooting, lots of "goodies" around, catering etc - I tried to stay away as long as possible but I caved mid afternoon on Thursday. It was messy.

I give myself an A for effort in terms of working on my nutrition on the bike. I made a concerted effort to eat at regular intervals over my 5 hour ride and my run afterwards was a-ok. I didn't crash like I did the week before, despite the fact that it was super windy and the route we rode was really hilly.

The one bad thing this week: my stretching routine has gone out the window.

Goals for this week:

1) Push the pace on the bike this week.

2) Try to eat well (again)

3) Really focus on stretching after ALL my workouts.

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Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.

http://www.teamrunningfree.com
http://ironmanredux.blogspot.com/

Sorry to hear about your week Dawn!

I had a recovery week and managed to hit all of my workouts, even while on a camping trip with friends. The Saturday swim that has thwarted me for the past two weeks got to be an open water swim this week, which felt surprisingly good. (The first one is usually a little on the crappy side - I don't tend to get the wetsuit on right and the sighting is a little rusty, etc.) I still didn't get the wetsuit on quite right, but it didn't even matter. I'm doing an 2000m open water swim sponsored by a local tri-club next weekend and am actually excited about it!

Diet-wise is another story all together. Between working my Tuesday late shift on Election night here in Oregon (I work at a newspaper) there was tons of temptation - pizza, cookies, chips the works. (I did okay - I ate a turkey sandwich and a nice amount fruit salad and crudites, but also a slice of pizza, a cookie and a few potato chips... ) and then getting ready for and going camping, it was a pretty crappy week nutrition-wise. Too much pizza and lots of junk food. Surprisingly, the scale held steady and my body fat percentage was down on my Tanita scale. We'll see what happens next week.

In addition to my usual goals (do all of the workouts on my training plan and eat better) I also want to PR at my swim race next weekend. This shouldn't be too hard, but it will be a big confidence builder for Lake Stevens.

Thanks, ladies!

M

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The beatings will continue until morale improves

I was sick so I spent three days in bed last week, which really sucked.
Bike: one ride. 40 miles. It took a while since it was a group ride and one guy showed up who had NO BUSINESS trying to ride with this group so there was almost more waiting at intersections than riding. That was a bummer.
Run: 75 minutes, including one run off the bike.
Weights: 90 minutes
Swim: 3.5 hours. Our 50m outdoor pool is open. Hooray!
Food: so-so. I barely ate while I was sick -- not by choice, I just could not deal with it.

Bottom line: still on track for the Bay Swim but I seriously need to pick up the biking. My longest ride since the weather turned is just over 50 miles. I have a HIM and a couple of century rides coming up so I need to get with it big time.

This week has been good for me for one reason...I discovered Calorie King : ). I'm on my way to achieving my first goal of getting down to race weight (lost 1.5 lbs in 1 week and only 2 lbs to go!). It's easy to skip opening the jar of cashews at 9pm, when you know you have to log it and watch your fat calories go off the scale : ). Plus, when I've been good about eating, I can reward myself with a glass of wine in the evening. Special thanks to whoever started the calorie tracker thread last week!