Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 102)

I tried a piece of Jeff's swim WO this evening but only the 500's part of it.  The WO in it's entirety would have taken me like 3 hours to complete.  I did however do fairly well on the 500's and was able to pull them in at a very close pace for 2 out of 3 reps.  I swam the 1st and 2nd rep only 2 seconds apart but the 3rd one was 9 seconds slower than the 2nd.  (Obviously I did 3 reps instead of 2 like Jeff's WO too.)

I also got my a 6 reps of some faster 50's after the 500's to get some harder threshold work in.  The pool I was swimming at is also in meters so I always feel like my times are way off until I look at the data from my watch when I get home.  I am getting a little bit used to seeing meters now though.

I had my last long run before next weekend's HIM, 15 miles in 2:02:38.  I wanted to get my long runs at a high volume to have a higher running base leading up to the race to hopefully give me some kind of edge getting off the bike.  I did the same with the bike by getting a larger long bike base for the past month too.  60-65 miles has been where I have wanted to be for those rides so when I hit 56 it won't feel like I've been riding all that long.

Stan,  It's great to see you back in the group and I can see now why you have been missing so long.  That is a huge amount of riding!  Congrats on a strong riding focus.  I'll keep your family in my prayers too.  I  know dealing with the sort of things with your son must be a tremendous struggle and the battles within must seem overwhelming at times.

Racers,  Have great luck this weekend.  I already know there will be no one disappointed by the way you race.  This is an impressive group of athletes that are involved in this group and I am glad to be a part of helping motivate and lead all of you.

Dina,  I love seeing the transition points you've earned.  It's something that many people don't put together for their racing and you've mastered the big "T" for that last race.  I think the whole race is impressive and it an awesome experience for you to be able to stand on the podium.

BTW,  I thon you just need to give in the IM thing and do one.  Just kidding.  You already have one of the most important jobs in the world and training for an IM wouldn't be the "mom" thing to do with such young kids.  Actually, now that I have given it a brief thought, you probably do some type of IM every week just trying to keep up with the kids.  Congrats on being a mom!

Actually Karl I have a solid enough base to get by with doing the training the way I do and I know, through experience, that I shouldn't suffer any kind of injury related to training this way. 

The people that have suggested you only need to train 10 miles and 20 miles for those races are correct.  I have suggested to many people that they need only to run 10 or maybe 11 miles to train for a HM.  The way to go about training for longer distances requires you to have a larger weekly mileage to help compensate for the additional distance in a race.  For instance: I have run 3 marathons and the second one I ran one 22 mile training run but my weekly mileage was about 55-ish miles.  The larger base of running allowed me the ability to run longer during the races because of a good taper.  By reducing your mileage during a proper taper you maintain your fitness and your body can take the abuse of the "longer than training run distance" without the increased risk of injury.

Injury is really the biggest risk of running/training any additional miles up to and beyond the distance of choice.  The running threshold for injury seems to be 3 hours, as many people have determined through experience.  There was a thread on BT some time ago about this particular area and maybe later today I can see if I can find that thread, right now I need to head off for my last long ride before my races.

Ha ha, yeah. Chasing my kids around is workout enough right?! I don't even have a good excuse like not enough time for family or anything like that. This year my daughter will be in preschool 2 days a week all day so I'll have plenty of time to train if that's what I want to do. I just don't want to run that far!

This fits me perfectly. When I trained for my HIM last spring I knew the longer runs would likely leave me injured and they did. About 1/2 way through the plan the tendonitis in my ankle flared up. I had to find a way to complete the training and make it to the start line as close to 100% as I could. My longest run was 12.5 miles which I did for mental training as much as physical. I already knew that I have a history of hitting a mental breakdown around 10 miles. I get to 10 miles and just don't want to run anymore so I wanted to pass that point to understand what it was going to take to keep me going. 

Ok I really don't even know where to start today with my race. The weather was terrible and it rained like crazy during certain points in the race. I wound up crashing on the bike which BTW was very cool lol, I know I sound crazy but it's the rite of passage thing and glad to get that out of the way during a real race. It's funny but my thoughts were this exactly:

1- I can't believe this is happening to me, this really sucks!

2- There goes my race, my time is really going to suck today.

3- OMG my bike, OMG my bike and OMG my bike!

4- Well doesn't it seem like anything is broken on the bike or me, let's ride!

I think you guys would have been proud of me today. I lost probably 10 minutes at least but after assessing the damage to myself and fixing the chain I got right back on the horse and finished that bike ride in some torrential downpours. I got some pretty good road rash on my right arm, back and my hip is like the size of a softball with the road rash. I will post the pics of that later on. Anyway I did make it back and since I didn't use up all my stuff on the bike I had a pretty good run on a muddy, wet, puddle filled trail. I think crossed the line in 1:49 but I started in the third wave so I am thinking I was closer to 1:40ish which might be about right considering the crash and the rain I should have been more around a 1:30 today I think.

You know this morning I did not even feel like racing, it was pouring when I got there and I was just not awake but once I got through the swim which was great the switch sort of turned on and I had a lot of fun out there in the rain even with the crash (again that was pretty cool I feel like a real cyclist now!) . Most importantly I finished and had a blast. I hope everybody else racing had a great race and I am hoping everyone else is enjoying there weekend. I will get the pictures on my injuries posted along with the race report tonight.

Here are the pics and apologies in advance. First off my back bathroom is a wreck just like me and really the pics look worse than how I feel. The crash was all my fault and thankfully I did not take anybody else out. Lesson learned the hard way.

Road Rash right side back and arm

Road Rash and softball size lump on right hip

Notice right hip/thigh big lump

Oh my Tony, I don't envy how that is going to feel when you try to take a shower! Love how you just brushed it off and kept on racing! Sounds like a nasty day for it. Did a lot of people DNS? 

We are having a beautiful day here - not to rub it in or anything . It is 78 degrees, sunny and no wind. Excellent!

Dina no word on the DNS' but I think they were expecting a lot more people. They only had 309 finish and they had bike racks set up for more than that. I heard they were expecting 700 but I think that is a bit of stretch. The weather was terrible but it is beautiful out here in NY right now. Where was that weather this morning? lol and I did survive the shower it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My wife was pressed into action as my nurse lol and she thankfully helped me out with the treatment of my wounds but some of the anti-sepetic and anti-bacterial wipes just about brought tears to my eyes. Definetly not a pleasant experience. Glad to hear you are having great weather there sounds like that would have been perfect weather for the race this morning.

The race report is done

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=456437&posts=1#M4369504

Dina; You really got the pot going on that one, I was keeping up with the conversation early on but it became too much.  Odd how a simple post can start so much!

Ha, yes. Really someone who is into studying personalities could have a hay day with that one. I asked the simplest question but the answers came with all kinds of rationalizations that were not even necessary. I simply wanted a sort of roll count about the faces of BT and what they like to race. Seemed simple at the time......

Those look kind of nasty!  Looks like you're going to be grunting and groaning fro a week or two while those heal up.  Way to get back up and finish the race.  It's funny because my wife and I were just talking about what would happen if I wrecked and I could still ride.  I told her I would be crossing the finish line in a battered and bloody mess if I could at all stand it.  I don't want a DNF.

Dirk I'm laughing reading your post. That is exactly how I felt. What's funny is my wife the saint that she is was redressing my wounds last night and she said you obviously did not take my advice on the bike yesterday "I told you to be careful on the bike" when you headed out. What could I say to that but laugh, she's right. In any case outside of my hip being sore and still swollen although not as bad as yesterday I am doing pretty well. Definitely no workouts today and I'll probably take it easy the next couple of days.

Jo63 - 2012-08-18 8:55 PM What does everyone do regarding bike saddles and comfort I had another bike fit and ended up getting a new saddle but it isn't working I am having a really hard time on long rides not sure if this can just be adjusted with another fit or different bike shorts , or do i i just have to put in more hours on the bike?

What kind of discomfort and help me remember how long you have been cycling Jo. I'm asking about how long because in looking back on my own experience adjusting to cycling, it really took my parts and pieces that come in contact with the seat a long time to get totally "comfortable" to the point where I can get on and ride for 40 or 50 miles with no real issues. I'm talking a couple of seasons of riding. So that is one factor. During that time I tried different saddles and also had fittings.

This is a topic that is discussed a lot in the main forum. One side will say you have to keep trying to find the correct saddle, one side will say fit, and the other of course - time in the saddle. Problem is it is hard to put time in the saddle if you are having comfort issues right? 

Personally I was always comfortable on the saddle that came on my road bike. When I bought my tri bike I had for real seat pain. I don't mean ouch that hurts my sit bones, more like eek it burns when I pee. Sorry to be so descriptive. So I put my road bike seat on the tri bike and have not had another problem UNTIL - just this month. I found the same seat (I thought) in black on sale for 20 bucks this winter so I bought one. I just had the LBS put it on for me when they did maintenance on my bike a few weeks ago (I kinda forgot about it). I went on one ride and things were not right. Not terrible but not good either. I went on another ride and it was worse. I told my husband we needed to switch back to my old seat before race day - turns out the seats looked the same but were not the same size. The new seat was a lot smaller, the cut out was smaller and did not hit my parts in the correct place. I didn't even know they came in different sizes.

That was a long story and now I'm having trouble getting at my point LOL . Hopefully you can make something out of all!

I just think if there is for real seat pain like blisters or burning you will know it is the seat. If you have already tried a different seat, and have a good fit it might be more just that period of adjustment.

Hopefully some of our more experienced mentors will weigh in after the weekend.

I think my site is 63, but not 100% sure.  As for the parking of a camper, thats why I use a pop-up!  That thing is crazy hard to back-up, keeps jack-knifing.  But it is so light I can unhook it and push it by myself to where I need it.  As for the gravel, I was thinking that since Dirk is such a big guy he should flatten it out on his training ride on Friday

The run course is pretty much straight forward, 2 laps of a 6.55 mile course.  The 1st mile is a steady run downhill which makes for a good start to the run, but keep in mind you have to come up what you go down!  This means at mile 5 of the loop its a steady climb.  My watch had the change in elevation at 120ft across this section.  The rest of the course is completely flat and the majority of it is shaded.  There are a few sections that are completely in the sun, the worse being the last 0.5miles before the TA going out.  This is completely out in the sun and even today at 83 degrees it felt much hotter.

I am completely beyond excited for this race.  Its going to be a long week, especially with tapering!