kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2012 Part 2 - CLOSED (Page 107)

Went up the man the aid station for the IMWI bike course yesterday.  The group of about 30 riders were doing 2 loops then a run.  I sagged the first 20 or so miles, corralling people back on the right path ... on of our rides got off by about 10 miles.

This is a very HILLY course, let me say that again, HILLY!!!  I have a whole new appreciation for people doing this IM.  As I stopped to set up the aid station, someone came in and said that another (thankfully not in our group) had down down on a long decline that has alot of gravel.  He was going at a pretty good clip.  Out other sag vehicle has a doctor it it, she examined him, probably broken collar bone.

After people came though on the first loop, I hopped on my bike and rode for about an hour.  The hills were horrendous, pedaling about 3 mph on the second one that was so steep.  Nice downhills on the way back.

Fun day, nice to see everyone is almost ready for IMWI.  It is always such and exhausting ride home from Madison.  Maybe because day going up there always gets started at about 3am ..... still tired today.

Good thing is foot doesn't seem to be irritated by the riding, but still not liking running .... week #9!

I ended up bailing on my oly yesterday.

Got up at 4am and began gathering my stuff. But in the end I decided that it wasn't worth the 1 hour drive to not complete the race. Off of running for 2+ months would mean a death march for the 10k part. So I went back to bed. Just too under trained to toe the line I guess.

And I missed the cut off to drop down to the sprint by a few days, so no chance at that.

I'll never know if I did the right thing or not, but the decision was made so I'll live with it. 

Karen - how are you feeling?

Jen - I would seriously consider scaling back and taking a rest week to recover from the move. I am sure you are drained and you still have a fair bit of time before the HIM - you want to be as strong as you can for that.

Steve - that stinks, but I can understand not wanting to be at your best for a race.

Michele is right.  Everyone can handle (and effectively adapt to) a certain amount of stress.  You (everyone) stress(es) their bodies with training, work, kids, home and when you throw something like a move in often its too much stress.  The last thing you want to do is get really sick or completely burn yourself out 6 weeks out from your HIM. 

The Olympics has been really good this year. Vollmer became the first woman to go sub 56 seconds in the 100 meter fly. On a REALLY good day if you change that to yards and to free I can get to within 25 seconds of her, LOL.

The woman's cycling road race was in the rain. There were no fewer than 15 crashes I saw and at least half of those involved better then 8 riders and up to 20. One woman was on a straight away that was fairly flat and went down on her own. Another who was part of one of the larger crashed ended up 25 feet off the road in some grass that was taller than she was. So many of them went up and over the handle bars and I kept cringing. A friend of mine got his tire stuck in a train track and I saw him go up and over and face plant. Luckily he was OK but that scares the crap out of me.

I've been loving the fringe sports like beach volleyball, water polo, field hockey.

Like many of you I'm feeling the effects of a long season with my highest volume. Sunday was to start week 3 and I was due for a 4 hour ride. It was spitting out and had the look of a day where it could pour even though it never did. I just wasn't feeling it at all and made the right call bagging the day. Which turned out to be a really good call because I'm on-call for work and ended up working on an issue for 10 hours that wasn't mine but I had to keep defending that it wasn't because of the push the buck crowd. Anyway I turned this into a recovery week and did just two hours on the bike today and I felt much fresher.

I had the first run in a while this morning where I felt fresh and strong.

Working from home today and watching the Olympics in the background. Great volleyball match between Germany and the US.

You have to admit the 400 IM time was a little suspicious.

Teenage Chinese chic swimming faster than Lochte suspicious???  Not at all. 

I surpassed my 2011 bike total this morning  Extra day of rest seemed to help.  I think I will be fine for this weekend's race.  I'm not excited about it, but I will get it done.  I'm really hoping to nail my workouts during the month of August, and then I can cruise on into September feeling good about my HIM prep.  

Hey.  You.  It's another day you get to kick people's butt.  Get excited damn it!! 

Yesterday was an off day for me.  My legs felt like lead and I was hungry all day.  Everything felt like it was in good working order this morning after spinning my legs out, so game on for Sunday's sprint. 

I know, I know.  I need to get my head back into the game.  My motivation blew out the window last week, and I'm left feeling behind (physically and mentally).  I have so many balls in the air right now.  I'm sure I'll get excited once Saturday rolls around, but I'm just not quite there yet.  We always seem to race on the same days, Scott.  

Goal for today is to find a pool that opens at 5 a.m.  I think I only have one option.  I hope my husband beats rush hour traffic and gets here before dinner so I can go over and sign up.  He has to deal with interstate congestion now, whereas he was able to cut through the city to get to our old house.  I got all of Gordie's preschool paper work in early this morning, and Madge has kindergarten screenings next week, so things seem to be organized in that department.  The house is in complete disarray, and I don't function well in chaos, so I need to buckle down and get things done around here so I can move on!  

Hey Jen - My wife hates disarray as well but she recently fell on to this site called flylady. It helps you get things in order and in control without burning out trying to do it all at once or waiting till it gets beyond control. Just thought I would share and maybe it would help you out. Congrats on your accomplishment, now go out this weekend and kick some buttocks!

As for training it has been small week leading up to the Oly this weekend. Just mostly short exercises to get the blood flowing. I am actually getting excited. Compared to last week when I was really nervous. I changed my whole mind set of just going out and having fun and finishing is my goal, nothing more. I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Oh and update on the bike. So my last ride had some pretty good hills in it and my rear derailleur kept slipping to a higher gear when I would stand up and really get into it. It seems I knocked it off a little on the crash so took it in this morning and the seemed to fix it. I will find out later tonight when I get home as long as these thunderstorms rolling through don't get in the way.

So I saw her swim yesterday and she doesn't seem to be any bigger than anyone else or any other features you would see with some PEDs. What do you think she could be taking to get that kind of enhancement? I am not saying she did or didn't take anything. Just curious....

Well there have been several Chinese swimmers busted for EPO over the past several years, clen is always an option too.  The bottom line is  that any smart athlete will have these substances out of their system by the time they show up to an event.  Those who get busted in an event, especially one that is only a week or so long, are dumb.

Sad....very sad that people do this. I hope that it isn't that way but it just seems like it is getting easier for athletes to dope and not get caught unless someone opens their mouth.

It's always been easy if you know the right people and professional trainers know those people.  Now the knowledge is just spreading and the ease of accessibility is staggering.  Google research chemicals.  You'll find sites that sell nolva, clomid, clen, albuterol, T3 which manipulates your thyroid, etc, etc, etc.  All of it labeled "not for human consumption" so it's borderline legal in the eyes of the law.  Then if you know  few people in the gym or on a weight lifting board they can tell you where to get injectibles.

Now take China or the former USSR where their national image is on the line in competitions like the Olympics.  I'll tell you what, the cheaters will always be and have always been one step ahead of the police. 

That's sad.  My thoughts are with him.

Clomid? I think I took that when I was trying to get pregnant. Same stuff? My emotions were a roller coaster - laughing one minute, bawling my eyes out the next. How can that enhance performance?