This may be my dumbest idea yet

Triathlon Forum
1

Ok, It really hasn’t been a great year. There were some saving graces, Finished my first Tri, Got an Awesome deal on my Dream Bike. Lost some weight (25 lbs ish, still need to lose another 50ish).

But I am still fat & slow (no I mean really slow). Really just need to start by getting into general shape. I run well not sure if you call 14 min miles (for 3 miles) running.

My swim is my strong suit, but about 1/2 way through the1/2 mile swim I ran out of gas, I am hoping just getting in better shape will help that.

The off the web, out the book, training plans just don’t motivate me. Seems a waste (or I’m not motivate, to selfconcious what ever excuse you want to use) to find a trainer to tell me to get out and run 3 times a week xx min or what ever, ride xx miles a day at xx pace.

If I plan it I could get 1hr and half ride on the trainer or strength training in in the morning, and could have another hour or so in the evening for running (this would be through the winter say through April).

Now I plan on doing 3 sprints and an Oly. next year. But would really like to do Steelhead H.I.M. but not sure I could be able to finish. (Thats all I would be looking for this year).

SO the hair brain idea. —

Let the brain trust of ST be my trainer. Ya I know this group can’t reach agreement, but I can decide which plan looks good, then start doing it. Update here weekly for my public ridicule if I have not met my goals for the week.

Call it a TSR - Coaching plan.

Oh, and yes, I am sick right now and on Drugs, and can use that as a defense as to why I am making this post.

Hey maybe we could even make this some sort of challenge if there are other slow fat folks out there, maybe if different training philosophies come up, we could give each philosophy a slow person to work over.

2

You’ll end up quitting the sport with the direction you get here.

3

GO OUT AND RUN RIGHT NOW - 10K HARD

More later :^)

Ric
.

4

Give up running and triathlon until you get your weight down. Ride as much as you can, as often as you can. Then ride more. Swim if you enjoy it, but only to work on your technique (one has only to look at the denizens of Masters swim programs to understand that is not the path to weight loss) and as a break from cycling. By this time next year, your 50 pounds will be gone, and running will be a pleasant experience. Then start training for triathlons. You’ll be a strong cyclist, your swim technique will be sufficient to do effective swim training, and running will be such a fun experience that we’ll have to hold you back from more is TOO MUCH.

(personal experience: in February 2001, I weighed 198, 5 years after my previous triathlon. I started working from home, and rode as often as I could: hills (which really sucked), 30 mile TTs. The next July, I put in almost 1000 miles on my bike. My speed for my 29 mile hill TT went from about 17.2mph in March to almost 21mph in September. In September, I weighed in at 172 at the Hillier Than Thou Century (~11,000’ of climbing) and took 5th overall. Added running back in late 2002, swimming and duathlon/triathlon back in 2003. Haven’t looked back.)

5

Heck no! Everyone will send you workouts, You will sell them and then everyone will get mad.

6

Dave: Based on what you have posted here it sounds like it has been a GREAT year. Where in Michigan are you from? I did Steelhead last year (my first 1/2) and am shooting for IM KY this year. Let me know if you are looking for another slow fat guy to train with! Good luck!

7

Ok, It really hasn’t been a great year. There were some saving graces, Finished my first Tri, Got an Awesome deal on my Dream Bike. Lost some weight (25 lbs ish, still need to lose another 50ish).

…

Oh, and yes, I am sick right now and on Drugs, and can use that as a defense as to why I am making this post.

Dave,

My take is that the first thing you need to do is improve your self image and that is best accomplished by burning off some of the extra weight asap. My favorite “weigh” to drop the extra lbs is riding, so I’d recommend that you use the Dream Bike as much as possible. Make each session a hammer fest; ride the same route and race yourself, if you don’t go faster today than yesterday, you aren’t trying hard enough. I’m guessing that you have time constraints, just like 99% of us, so pick a good distance that works out for you to do every freakin’ day, 10 miles/half hour, 25 miles, whatever. (I used to commute by bike, so I got in 10 rides per week; commute distance was 16 miles shortest route, so I’d ride in on that one and then do a longer route home and really ride hard. I could not eat enough back then.)

How durable are your legs? I would think that running with that extra weight probably hammers them pretty bad, and you want to remain as injury-free as possible, so until your weight comes down you want to just do as much as keeps you happy. Slow and steady is the key here, no LT stuff until you are light on your feet.

I wouldn’t even bother with the swim for a while, unless it’s a pleasant diversion for you.

One thing that I would also do that is counter-endurance is to lift weights. This will slow your bike and running times and increase your weight for a while, but in my experience it makes you buff and you feel good about yourself, which is the real key to motivation and doing the rest of the stuff.

Oh, don’t go disrespectin’ drugs, they make the world the happy happy place that it is today. :slight_smile:

HTH,
Eric

8

I agree with Ken, if you are still carrying an extra 50 pounds running or trying to get faster will only result in injury. take your time, stay healthy and you’ll enjoy and stay in the sport much longer.

bike and swim and watch what you eat. XC skiing?

9

If you really need to lose 50 lbs still, klehner and efhal make good points about focusing elsewhere first. It’s important to have goals and steelhead is a great goal, but getting there may be a problem. It’s not the 13 miles on race day, it’s the hundreds needed to get you to the start line. Carrying the extra weight is going to invite injury. Maybe consider looking around for races that have aqua bikes. Just swim, then bike, no running. That way you have a goal race, but much less body abuse. You can ride the hell out of Dream Bike and lose weight. Add in some weight work for strengthening joints to prepare you for more later.

Now, if you really need to lose 25 lbs and the next 25 just gets you down to tri-chic, working up to an oly this year seems like a good idea. At the level you’re at, any basic free plan will work well and the CW of ST is likely to just cause problems unless you really listen when they all say base base base. When you’re just getting started and you’re trying to lose weight, there’s not a terribly wide margin of “training philosophy” that’s sustainable and will produce results. Get out consistently and don’t worry about fancy sets or power numbers or whatever.

10

Seriously, Ken and Eric are right on. Come over to the dark side with us TT’ers for a while. Just ride, hammer, have fun and lose weight. TT’s are good social events, so just enjoy the riding for a year and then refocus when you’re a bit leaner and stronger.

Ric

11

Donning flame suit…

My (uneducated) advice would be similar to Ken L’s above. (Note: I am not trying to be an a-hole with this advice. Just trying to help.) However, I would modify it a bit…

  1. For running, I would not cut it out entirely. But, I would change the bulk of it to “power walking”. Basically, it’s just walking at the fastest pace that you can w/o breaking form or breaking into a trot. This pace is likely somewhere ~14min/mile, give or take. It will get your heart rate up and make you sweat. Don’t forget to pump your arms, and you can add light hand weights if you see fit. This will have a couple of positive effects when you get back to running down the road. You’ll not only have a head start on an aerobic base, but it will provide good conditioning for the leg muscles and strength to the joints & tendons. The big advantage at this point is that it’s MUCH easier on the joints - especially if you’re carrying around some extra weight. And, the movements are pretty similar to running (moreso than cycling), so that’ll help, too. I think you’ll be surprised at just how tired your legs are, but how good your knees feel. I’d slowly start working some jogging back in a few weeks before your first race, but, again, I’d keep it pretty light. This would be more to remind your body how to run than to actually be a workout. The “power walking” would make up the vast majority (90+%) of your time.

  2. For swimming, I’d concentrate on form and endurance only. You don’t need to get faster, you need more endurance. If swimming is your strong suit, and you run out of gas 400m in, you are either swimming way too fast, you have very little endurance, or, most likely, both. No intervals, no drills, just long endurance sets at an easy pace with good form.

  3. For biking, it’s tough. You didn’t say how strong of a cyclist you are. But, if cycling really is below swimming on your list, I’d go with similar advice to the swimming above. Concentrate on long-ish rides with good form. Work on being smooth, getting comfortable in the aero position, and keeping your cadence above 90rpm.

  4. Forget the strength training. If you have a few extra pounds at this point, you likely have plenty of muscle for your goal, lighter weight. Just swimming, biking and “running” will keep & tone what you need from your current muscle mass. Any extra muscle will just slow you down. The time is better spent swimming, biking or “running”.

  5. Definitely do not give up tri for the time being. You obviously enjoy it. I would, however, postpone the HIM and make it a late-season Olympic, and then only if you think you’re capable of completing the distance w/o a major struggle. Your current stong suit (swimming) is not even close to being ready for a HIM, and it’s going to take some serious work to get ready for an Olympic that’s not a complete struggle.

Assuming you work a standard work week, I’d go with something like this…

Monday AM: 30min Active Recovery Bike. Keep it in the small chainring and keep the rpm above 90. Concentrate on excellent form with very little resistance. Stay in the aerobars as much as possible to acclimate to the position.
Monday PM: 60-90min Endurance Swim. Slow with excellent form. Work on bilateral breathing or other skills you may need. (Note: This is not a continual 90min swim. You can break it up, but I’d try to keep the individual pieces 400+m to get the endurance benefits.)

Tuesday AM: 30-45min “Power Walk”. If you have a HRM, use it to stay in the 70%max range. Or, if you don’t, just make sure that you can pass the “talk test” (ie. You can speak in sentences, but not paragraphs. You’re not just blurting out single words between gasps.)
Tuesday PM: 60-90min Endurance Bike. Pick a gear that you can maintain pretty comfortably for the duration of the workout. The goal is to get a good workout, not to struggle. Comfortably hard. Tend to the lighter end of the scale, if you’re not sure. As always, keep excellent form and keep your rpm above 90. Stay in the aerobars as much as possible.

Wednesday AM: 30-45min Endurance Bike.
Wednesday PM: 45-60min “Power Walk”. You may mix a little light jogging into this workout, just to break it up, but keep it light.

Thursday AM: 30-45min “Power Walk”.
Thursday PM: 60-90min Endurance Bike.

Friday AM: 30min Active Recovery Bike.
Friday PM: 60-90min Endurance Swim.

Saturday: 90+min Endurance Bike. Outdoors, if possible.

Sunday: Brick day! I’d go with something like 30min Bike, 15min Jog, 30min Bike, 15min Jog, 30min Bike. No need to go hard with these until maybe the two before each race. Go hard enough on the Bike part to feel it in your legs. Go just hard enough on the jog to maintain good form.

This schedule has you on the bike every day, has you “running” four days (with two of them being slightly longer/harder) and has you swimming twice a week for maintenance. If you feel like you need more swimming, I’d put it in place of the Wedneday AM Bike session.

Remember, always warm-up and cool-down. Stretch after your last workout each day (at a minimum).

OK, let me have it!

Steve

BTW, if you’re wondering, the shorter morning sessions also have the advantage of kick-starting your metabolism, so that you’re buring fat throughout more of the day.

12

Piece of cake, Dave. Just follow these 3 simple steps:
1- Swim bike and run EVERY DAY
2- Ride 100 miles or six hours (minimum) every weekend (all on one day)
3- Since they are easier on your body, emphasize swimming and biking (and unless you’re a really accomplished swimmer that’s going to be biking and swimming…)
4- Eat more in order to lose weight. Remember that your metabolism reacts to your dietary intake, i.e., reducing caloric intake slows metabolism (this is why people rebound and gain back more than the 25 lbs they lost on their diet…). Soooooo, make sure you eat a minimum of 5000 calories every day (more on your big training days). This way your body will be so overnourished it will actually forget how to store fat and every gram of it that you burn will be gone forever.
Seriously, wood eye lie?

13

Let the brain trust of ST be my trainer. Ya I know this group can’t reach agreement, but I can decide which plan looks good, then start doing it.

Well, it has been nice knowing you. :wink:

I pretty much agree with the others, but true to ST tradition, I’ll add a couple of twists.

I agree with ditching the running if you still have 50 pounds to drop. Save those knees and joints for when you can motor. But, in the meantime, I would pick up elliptical and maybe stair masters. I have heard a number of good things about the elliptical machines, not the least of which, it is low impact. It seems to give a pretty good leg workout. You need to build that microvascularity and mitochondria density in those leg muscles while you are dropping that weight. Another alternative is the Nordic track. Those puppies will work you pretty good until you reach a decent shape, and again it is low impact on the legs.

The other thing I would change from the others’ advice is too keep a few sprint tris in the schedule for next year. You need to see the reason for your struggles and effort. A (short) race, while not being the perfect performance you are seeking, will serve you well to remind you of your goals. In a year or two, it will also be sweet to look back to see how much you have improved. All that will just serve as fuel to feed the fires for more motivation.

14

As some people said Dave - I think you had a great year, and not dissimilar to mine. Lost thirty pounds, first tris and first marathon this year - and yes, was pretty slow.

I think Steve has a pretty good plan with the exception of one thing. I think you need one day recovery in the week. You need time for rest and to let those muscles heal a bit. Also, I would try to do a 4 week cycle of workouts, building for 3, and then the 4th week use them for measuring your progress - say a 500m timed swim in one set, a 5K race pace run one day and some distance TT. Other than that, keep the workouts light that week. One of the worst problem I hit when at my heavier weights was overtraining - get more tired, don’t recover, etc.

Personally, I think if you really WANT to do the half IM - go for it if you are someone who works to goals. You have a half year, and I am sure you can finish, and with hard work probably please yourself. Mind you, mentally you have to be someone who responds to a challenge to do this. I will be doing my first half at Timberman, and even though I am pretty close to my race weight now, I still thinks this is going to be a tough training year to do this, but it is my goal race for the year.

PM me if you want to discuss diet/weight loss. I have some suggestions that worked for me, but don’t want to turn this into a nutrition thread.

I’m pulling for you, we are all in this together.

15

If you already belong to a gym that has eliptical machines, get on it for an hour a day and flog yourself. Easy on the joints, but works almost every muscle. Great for cardio as well.
And drink lotsa water.

16

Wow, this thread is right up my alley. I am in exactly the same kind of situation as Dave.

I was a competitive swimmer, got a scholly at a small school and then quit doing anything athletic. Now it’s more than 10 years and 60 pounds later. I’ve completed two Olympic-distance races and two sprints.

One thing I’ve learned is that, in my present state, sprints are way more fun than Olympics. I would also like to work my way up to a half-IM, but I honestly don’t know what kind of shape I’ll be in by the time the season begins.

I have adopted the philosophy that running is the best exercise for losing weight. I can maintain a 12-13 minute mile during training without spiking my heart rate and this is how I have measured my progress. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with running as long as you’re not stressing your body too much. That said, I will defer to the more experienced folks on here who favor cycling in favor of saving your knees (it’s not a great option for me - my bike leaves a lot to be desired - but it sounds like a great idea for you).

Lately, I’ve had some illness and family emergencies that have interrupted my training but I hope the new year will bring some stability and I can get back on track.

At any rate, you’re not alone. I don’t feel very motivated when every workout is a struggle and I feel like I’m the slowest guy out there.

17

Bump for the evening crowd.

I do have a Nordic track so I could incorporate that into the plan

18

Add a fourth activity: cooking. Become really interested in the making rather than the consuming. Read about basic mediterannean methods. Think dainty. Think of pleasing family with prettiness of it all. Whatever tempts you to eat, make it yourself. Get serious about it and change the emphasis from intake to output. When you are overwhelmed with fake appetite, make something instead of emptying the package. No short cuts. Your own bread, pizza from zero, pasta you do yourself. No derprivation, just a change of direction. No processed, not even frozen. I think that food style will take off 50 pounds faster than running, especially to the doctor to treat the knee that couldn’t hold up under the extra weight.

rtk

19

I suggest you do some weight training too, there is a big chance that while losing 50 pounds , you loose a lot of muscles and a lot of power thus. Weight training boosts your metabolism and helps you shed the pounds much easier while preserving your preciouse muscles. I think taking enough protein and limiting your carbs (not eliminating though) is the right path on the nutrition side. For the rides and swims, it’s the best to only work on increasing the volume and keeping the intensity in the aerobic zones, if you do weights that counts as high intensity intervals when hooked with aerobic after the ride, it does wonders for burning fat.

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Dave - I’ll help you get to Steelhead! No need to sign up now - I’ll save a spot for you if the race fills up and will also give you a discount if you train, lose some weight and feel good about competing in and finishing the event. Good luck and I hope to see you on the beach at steelhead! Z