Full Vineman 2014 Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 10)

Got a call last night from my son-in-law letting me know that my granddaughter now has a double ear infection.  Both he and my daughter have to work tomorrow so Grandpa gets called into service.  My kids all had ear infections growing up and none were contagious, so I didn't feel that there was a lot of risk in spending the day with her (what the heck, she already gave me her cold!).  At the time I thought today was just a 1:30 bike ride and I could get that done before going to their house, but then rechecked and today was also the peak swim session of the training cycle.  Ugh.  Knew I'd have to choose one or the other, but decided to wait and see how I felt in the morning.  Got up at 5:15, coughed a few times, catalogued all the aches and pains that are present right now, and thought that perhaps today should just be a rest day.  Made it to the bathroom where I looked myself in the eye in the mirror and said out loud, "Quit making excuses, go swim!"  So made my way to the pool, did an 8x50 build as warm-up, then a 4x1000 as the main set.  I had expected to be toast after it was done, but actually felt pretty good, so an encouraging experience.  Only negative is that one of those aches and pains, the one in my left elbow, became pretty pronounced during the last 1000 and affected my pull.  I may skip the remaining swim workout this week to see if that helps it heal.  Getting old is not for wimps.

So the Vineman BT group last year met at Cafe Noto in downtown Windsor(630 McClelland Dr).  It looks like a coffee house with a limited menu but does appear to carry bagels (CARBS) at least.  It gets 3.5-4 stars on review sites and the reviews are all over the place.  First pre-race meeting is at 11:30am, and that's the one I plan to attend.  Probably will be a good idea to have a full breakfast when we get up, then maybe get together at 10:00 or 10:30 for a meet and greet?  Check it out and see if Cafe Noto works for you and if that timing is good.

Hey Jose, good to hear that you went bonk-free on your long training day.  That's probably a good indicator of fitness for the race, so looks like you are in for a solid performance.  Now if we can just convince the weather to cooperate.

Warm drinks vs. cold drinks is a funny topic for me.  For my last ride I chilled my Infinit overnight then put it in a cooler for the 2 hr drive to the course.  Found that I really liked it less cold than I do warm, which goes counter to everything else in my experience.  Somehow it just goes down easier warm for me. 

Kate, wow 3000 by 25's - that is not something I'd want to do.  I've done it by 100's and that is a real mental challenge, but 25's, sheesh!  It is a good idea to drive the bike course to get a feel for it.  I don't know if you watched any of the videos that were posted earlier in the thread, but you might want to do that right before you drive it so that if you see something interesting, you can check it out on your drive.

That stupid cold seems to be moving into the chest, which I really don't like.  Just did a 40 minute run though with good HR results, so seems like the oxygen exchange gear is working OK there.  The long ride tomorrow could be interesting, and it will be 2 loops on the course so if it turns out bad I always have the option of bailing out halfway.  I'm really bummed about the timing of the cold though as I wanted the ride tomorrow to really be a rehearsal for the race, and having a cold will likely skew the results.  How about this for a rationalization:  I won't be swimming 2.4 miles before the ride tomorrow, so the effects of the cold will make it more realistic .  So far I've only missed two training workouts, one due to injury and one yesterday due to babysitting.  This is better than any previous training cycle, so happy about that.  I will be skipping my last swim this week to see if I can get that elbow issue to clear up though.

Kate, for bike nutrition I use Infinit and mix up a bottle with a concentration that will last 3 hours.  I use Infinit for a number of reasons, the two major ones being that a) I can dial the flavor of the mix way down so that I can make a concentrate that is not overwhelming and b) it contains all the electrolytes I need.  I anticipate the ride to last me between 6 and 6.5 hours, so will carry on bottle of concentrate on the cage between my knees and a second in the holder behind my saddle.  I mark the bottles into thirds so I can track consumption, and try to take in a little every 15 minutes except for on the hour, where I'll have a Payday chunk or half a Honey Stinger Waffle or some such.  My aero bottle is my main hydration source, and that is just plain water that I can replenish from aid stations as needed.  Hope that helps!

I had to go and say something about how great training was going, didn't I?  The ride yesterday was truly humbling.  Went up to the course and did 2 laps of the back half.  First half was fine, felt great. The second half was really brutal.  If I had someone to call at about mile 80 to come pick me up, I think I might have.  It was sort of like a major bonk, but I pre-fueled 3 hours before the ride and was on top of nutrition all the way.  HR wasn’t the issue, I just had no strength.  The temp ended up at 91 degrees, but I really think the issue has got to be simply that I’m sick.  Didn't even think about doing the transition run after getting off the bike.  In retrospect it might have been the wisest choice to skip that ride, but you know how it is – it was THE long ride, the one I had been anticipating, that was going to be a real rehearsal ride.  And today's long run, not going to happen.  My body had made the situation clear - REST!

Well, I guess we all need humbling now and again.  But of course my mind is whirling with doubts about getting over this fast enough to not have it impact training . . .

Last year I started the bike wearing throw-away arm warmers and gloves.
The arm warmers were really socks ($2 from Target!) with the feet cut off, and super-Hulk green gardening gloves as that was all Target carried in July in the way of gloves (I recommend bringing your own ). I looked ridiculous, but was warm and comfortable for the first half of the bike. I shed everything at the halfway point aid station and enjoyed the sun's warmth after that. 

Being wet didn't make a huge difference for me, your clothes will dry fairly quickly just like any other race. For me, having my arms and hands covered made all the difference in the world. This race does not have a "run-through" transition tent like the big IMs, so you have to really go out of your way to get to the tiny change tent in transition.

Dan, that's the weather pattern I've experienced for every training ride up there.  Looks like they are forecasting a high of 85 for the 70.3 race day, and that won't be reached until 2:00 - 3:00 so many will be off the course by then.  We won't have that luxury .  Earlier in the week the highs are in the 70's, so that's what I'm going to be asking from the weather gods come the 26th!  At the start of the bike in Guerneville it will be chilly for sure.  Guerneville sits in a valley that sort of traps the cold air, and because of the river has a higher humidity.  I did a practice ride out of there a few weeks ago and actually started shivering a little before I got to Westside road.  When you meet Westside road you are immediately rewarded with a short but quite steep hill that gets the blood pumping, then come the rollers so you get nice and toasty at that point.

This stupid cold is hanging on.  I took Fri/Sat/Sun off missing my long run of the training cycle, but there was no way it was going to happen.  Yesterday decided I could not stay sedentary any longer and my plan called for an ez 30 minute run so did that with no ill effects.  Today was a bike of 1:30 at z2 with 15 minutes in z3 and it went surprisingly well.  No coughing during the ride, but got off the bike and started coughing again.  Go figure, but I've got to muddle through this somehow.  Tomorrow will be telling as I plan to get back in the pool, and that, for me, puts the hardest strain on breathing.  I guess the bad news is that it took out the last bit of peak training, but the good news is that after this week it's time to start the taper, so a chance to recover. 

Hey Brian!  I've been seriously thinking about using My Athlete but honestly have been waffling.  Is there coverage around the whole course?  I'm not sure how solid the cellular coverage is out there.  The reason I ask is because I downloaded Road ID to let my wife keep tabs on me during long rides and have found that there is a lot of geography I traverse that is not covered.  I really like the idea so that she'll be able to get an idea of when I'll be getting to the finish.  Since this is my first IM distance race, the estimate at the beginning is only that!  If I do go with it, I'll try to remember to post the pertinent information in the thread here so you can do the tracking.

I used myAthlete Live at Vineman last year - it worked flawlessly! My family said they could even tell when I was stopping for potty breaks on the bike and run. The little dot that is "you" moves in real time on the screen. They did not have any coverage issues at all, and even made friends with another family tracking their athlete - as you can see all of the myAthletes on the app. I highly recommend it!

Lisa and Brian, thanks for the feedback.   Based on your positive experiences, I went ahead and ordered it.  At least they'll know where to find my body!

Rita, hope you get back to 100% quickly.  I agree this forced rest is no fun.  My cold returned with a vengeance and settled in my chest after my long ride and run Thurs/Fri.  Yesterday I went to urgent care as I got winded walking the dogs and wanted to make sure I hadn't moved into pneumonia or some such.  Nope, doc says it is *just* a really nasty cold, but put me on antibiotics in case there was anything growing in there that she couldn't see.  I'm starting to get really nervous about how long this is taking to clear up, the increasing amount of missed training, etc.  I'll tell you, if the race was tomorrow, I'd be a DNS.  It is amazing how two weeks can seem alternately like a really long time and not enough time!  Hoping for the best . . .