Getting Started
If you haven’t done a group with us before, we use the platform TrainingPeaks to deliver the training plan. You’ll need to create an account here. The premium version is included with this program, so ignore the prompts to upgrade; it won’t let me upgrade until your trial is over, but the prompts will still go. I won’t be checking your plans, but there is some features imbedded into the interface. If you complete a workout as planned it turns green, if you miss the distance or duration by 10% it is yellow, by 50% orange, and miss entirely it turns red (I’m pretty sure that’s the exact percentages but don’t hold me to it). If you have a sports watch it will sync with TP and automatically dump all the date from you rwatch into TP so you can see the data through their metrics. Don’t worry about the metrics now, unless you’ve been using TP for a long time, as it takes a bit for them to be accurate as it gathers data. The MOST IMPORTANT thing to pay attention to is how you FEEL. Consistency is the number one way to improve and you can’t be consistent if you’re too tired, or if you injure yourself from overdoing it. Because this is a group, you’ll learn to tune into your body, and make adjustments to the plan based on that. Remember that plans are simply guesses based on what works for many people. However, we’re not robots and our body responds to all stress (family, work, exercise, lack of sleep, undereating, etc.) the same way. I think of them as dials on a dashboard so if one is high, you’ll need to dial back the other parts so your body doesn’t revolt. Heart rate is a really good indicator of what’s going on in your body because it changes with so many external variables. If your heart rate is already high, adding a hard workout might be fun for a time, but if you keep doing that, your body will be flooded with stress hormones and eventually will figure out a way to make you stop, by adrenal fatigue, injury, illness, or something else not fun.
Next, we have a private Slack channel that you can join here. That link goes to our CE Slack, and then once you join I’ll add you to the Women’s group. Many of you have given me some ideas of things to cover during the 8-weeks-thank you! If you have anything to add, please let me know! Slack is a great place for those kinds of questions also. I know many of you, and we have a wide range of athletes so please help me make this meaningful for you. Even though we all have different backgrounds, the same principles apply, and everyone is working from where they are. You’ll improve much faster if you begin where you and are honest with figuring that out, vs. trying to start where you want to be, where a friend is, where you’ve been in the past (ahem…my thing I do), or where you think you “should” be. Let’s all start by being kind to ourselves and make training fun and an additive to our already busy lives.
Finally, if you haven’t filled out this form for me to get to know you a bit, please do so! It will help me apply the correct plan, and help me get a sense of everyone’s goals.
Finally, finally, thanks for joining! Emails will go out Monday mornings so if you don’t get it in your inbox, check spam and promotions. I’ll post them here after.
I think that’s all for now; let’s go!
