Leah's Group - FULL (Page 2)

Hi Gang,

I am heading out of town this morning and won't have internet access again until tomorrow night.  Good luck with your training this weekend.

Pattie - how is your leg?

I hope you all have good weather.  We have a fantastic day but will be on the road for 4 hours of it :-(

Leah 

Hi Pattie,

Happy New Year to you.  Did you get to the doc to see about the leg?  What did they say?

I have forgotten what snow looks like.  We have had none yet this winter.  This is pretty good news for the cyclists in town because they are still riding outdoors!  I am sure it is all about to change though.

Are those Bowflex things any good?  They always look impressive on the tv!

Leah

Jimmy - great to hear from you and that is fantastic news that you have been 6 days without the smokes.  Keep up the good work. 

I hate using the trainer but I was must have been a good girl this past year because Santa brought me one of those wireless computers for my bike!  Unfortunately he hasn't installed it yet   I will put my old one on my mountain bike and perhaps I will actually use the mountain bike again one day!

Cheers,

Leah

Jimmy, great to hear about your six days not smoking. When I quit I just kept reminding myself that after three days the physical nicotine was out of my body, and that anything after that was just a mental game with myself. Remember that to take it just one day at a time.

 P.S. When I quit I was a three pack-a-day smoker, and had been smoking for about 10 years. That was 9 years ago. YOU CAN DO IT!!! 

 Wes that is awesome!  I too was a smoker and probably smoked a pack a day at my peak.  Combined with heavy alcohol consumption, I was quite a mess during my college years!  I have struggled to stay off the smokes and keep the drinking to a moderate amount.  Believe me guys, training really makes it easier!  I don't want to ruin what I accomplish by one silly night on the town.  Fortunately my husband doesn't drink or smoke and that makes it much easier for me.  I don't remember the last time I had a cigarette.

Hi Everyone,

I am having horrible insomnia problems at the moment.  However, I have trouble staying awake during the day - go figure! 

I had a well-earned rest day today but will be back on the trainer tomorrow for another miserable 2 X 20's - yuck!

HRM can be your best friend or your worst enemy!  The beeping may just be because the thing has a default setting for a HR zone.  It will beep every time your heart rate is outside of the zone.  Reading the instructions is a very good way to learn how to change that

Claudia - that is a pain in the butt that your HRM is still giving you those high readings.  Have you tried wetting the sensors - it nearly always works for me.  I have had the most luck with ky jelly!  If you are near a tap, just try plain old water.  Of course I usually forget to wet the sensors and so I end up using spit which gets all over me as I refuse to stop running to apply it!  If you are running on a treadmill and have a fan on you, you may not be sweating as much as you need to in order to get a good signal from your heart to the electrodes.  The sweatier the better!

Way to go Jimmy.  Keep up the non-smoking thing.  You seem to be going well with the diet too.  I need to take a leaf out of your book in that respect.

Anita - great to see you posting.  What a great supportive group we have here.  We should give ourselves a name like the New Life Team or something equally as corny

GO TEAM!!!!

Ok, off to try to get some sleep.

Goodnight. 

You all are totally inspirational!  What a great idea this mentor program is.  I am getting as much motivation from you guys as I am supposed to be giving you  

Claudia, I am very excited about your race.  It will be really nice running through Central Park.

Anita - argh - I hate long flights.  I am an Australian living in the USA so I know all about long flights.  But 20 hrs?  I have been in transit for over 30 hrs but never on a plane for longer than about 15 hr (LA-Melbourne).  I do a lot of airport walking when I am in transit.  It not only kills time but also helps me do some exercise.  My husband will actually change into his running clothes and go outside the airport for a run if it interupts his schedule!  I would think that some airports have gyms now - have you ever seen a gym at an airport?

Happy Tri-ing team!

Leah 

Btw, what date exactly is the 1/2 mary in March?

I would return the HRM and get another one.  Both my husband and I have cheap Polars and neither of them give us that much trouble.

I may have to check out the Nike+Ipod.  Sounds awesome.

Leah 

Hi Jimmy. Everything Claudia said is spot on but I wanted to add my own thoughts.  Going slower on a work out is definitely NOT a step back.  Your workouts ideally should be structured so that you have hard days and easy days.  Always follow a hard day with an easy day.  It is all about consistency.  Take a look at my training log and you will see that I have days where I workout at a higher HR and then days when I have a much lower HR.  Of course if you feel you need to take a day off then by all means do so.  But you will probably be fine with a couple of easy work outs to let your legs recover.

Excellent news about another day smoke free

As for the HR, I am not sure what you are trying to achieve so I don't know what your question really is.  Without knowing your max HR on the bike, we can't tell much.  However, I think that it is good that you can get your HR up to 183 on the bike.  You certainly don't want to be up there all the time but for your harder workouts you can do shorter intervals up at that intensity.  On an easy day, you wouldn't want to go near that number!  When I do my 2 x 20's (which is two lots of 20 minute intervals on the trainer where I am riding at a certain percentage of the max. wattage that I am capable of maintaining for 20 min), my HR only goes up to about 167.  My max HR running is 187 so my max HR on the bike is probably in the high 170's or around 180. 

I can give you a lot more info. about HR training if you need it.  But I won't bother you with it if you don't need it.  Claudia gave you a link to a good amount of HR info.

Cheers,

Leah