Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 109)

I decided to pass on my swim today. I hate passing on Monday's because it's the best day to be at the pool however I think it was the right call. I didn't realize how sore I was after the ride yesterday until today and after taking the dog out this evening and running around with her or more like attempting to run around with her I realized just how little energy I had. I'll just make it up tomorrow and make sure I call it an early night tonight.

Jeff sounds like you had a fun race weekend and I love reading about your girls events. That story of your daughter finishing strong brought back a memory of one of the marathons my husband ran. I walked out on the course to meet him then ran the last 7 miles to the finish with him. Of course I felt fine and was just chit chatting away. Finally he grunted at me - would you just be quiet already. Ha ha ha. When he got back to the hotel room I heard him fill the tub with water. He NEVER takes a bath so I thought that was a little strange but even stranger that I kept waiting and waiting and he did not come out. Finally I peak in just to check on him and he fell sound asleep in the bathtub. Not a smiling, happy guy at the end of that race!

I hope your leg is feeling better now! 

Wow, so lucky to live in the desert and have mostly rocks in our yard. Might not be the prettiest but it's definately super low maintenance. We have a tiny patch of grass in the back that takes me less than 10 minutes to mow once a week (I don't even bother to ask my husband). Once a year we pay somebody to come & clean up the palm trees & weeds that sprout between the rocks in the spring.

Jeff- Congrats to your daughter.

Uhh?  Yeah!............I could stop there.............but of course I won't...

After my marathons I've not really been grouchy but I have been, either unable to speak well audibly or unwilling to do so.  The two I was unable to speak well after finishing were the Marine Corps and Boston.  The others I was simply unable to walk and didn't want to expend the energy to talk.  I figured I'd expended enough on my little race.

I'm just glad you're checking in with us.

I believe you should allow Kate the pleasure of doing all of the yard so you can recover from the tendonitis and train.  I'm sure she'll understand the importance of training.

mambos - 2013-04-29 9:08 PM

trigal38 - 2013-04-29 9:43 PMWhat do you all have to do in your yards? My husband jumps on the riding lawn mower once a week for maybe 30 minutes and that is it! Maybe I need to get busy and make him a list.......

30 minutes? It takes me that long to get the beer on ice ! Once the beer is cold, it takes 20 minutes to get the debris the kids left out in the yard. Then another 2 1/2 hours to mow (3 acres), followed by a 30 minute restocking of the cooler. After that the trimmer comes out, never starts but it does look like it will cut some weeds. After I look at the weeds for awhile and confirm the inside of the beer can is dry I may pick up some sticks in the woods! On a good day I may even get to run away from the hornets nest. After the run I need to re-hydrate and confirm another can is dry. So after all of that it's probably about 5 hours later and a Saturday afternoon is gone, but on an odd chance a neighbor needs some help the yard work may go well into Saturday evening, but of course by this time Sara is wondering what I'm doing and tells me it times to come home!

Now THAT made me laugh ! Ok - 3 acres is a lot. We don't have a yard near that size and no mature trees means no sticks to pick up.

Jeff, congrats to your daughters!!!!!  I know you are proud of their abilities and dedication.  i was a little confused, did you do a triathlon Saturday and were supposed to do a Mountain bike race Sunday?  BTW, how is your leg?  Where was the race?  My parents live N. of Atlanta, in Cumming, GA.

yardwork...ggrrrlll it takes a long time but Matt has the best ideas, I just had to get a new riding mower a few weeks ago and yes it does have a beer holder, well except when my son is driving it, then it is a coke holder.

Wa supposed to swim yesterday but the storms came with lightning.... 

Dina it depends but typically it'll take me an hour to mow the lawn and I'm like Matt I enlist the services of my son so we split that. The other sutff is trimming and then cutting down the unwanted growth in areas of the yard so we can put in a few hours a week with the mowing and the cleanup. Thankfully I don't have 3 acres to worry about, I don't know how you do it Matt I'd go through an awful lot of beer taking care of that yard!

mambos - 2013-04-29 7:08 PM

trigal38 - 2013-04-29 9:43 PMWhat do you all have to do in your yards? My husband jumps on the riding lawn mower once a week for maybe 30 minutes and that is it! Maybe I need to get busy and make him a list.......

30 minutes? It takes me that long to get the beer on ice ! Once the beer is cold, it takes 20 minutes to get the debris the kids left out in the yard. Then another 2 1/2 hours to mow (3 acres), followed by a 30 minute restocking of the cooler. After that the trimmer comes out, never starts but it does look like it will cut some weeds. After I look at the weeds for awhile and confirm the inside of the beer can is dry I may pick up some sticks in the woods! On a good day I may even get to run away from the hornets nest. After the run I need to re-hydrate and confirm another can is dry. So after all of that it's probably about 5 hours later and a Saturday afternoon is gone, but on an odd chance a neighbor needs some help the yard work may go well into Saturday evening, but of course by this time Sara is wondering what I'm doing and tells me it times to come home!

Hahahahaha!!!!!  My husband could have written this word for word!!!!! 

We’ve really let our yard go the past … oh, 15 years.  But with the trees and shade and clay soil and we’re at the camp every weekend from here to the fall, that’s the price we pay.  You have to drop something off the table.  I figure God made weeds and moss green for a reason.  If you get far enough away, the lawn looks great!

I did get on the P2 this weekend for the first time,  A nice 3 hour ride.  It was fabulous!  So comfortable in the aero bars, though it’s a very different feeling out on the road in the wind with cars whizzing past than on the trainer.  I didn’t spend nearly as much time in the bars as I would have liked, but there’s plenty of time for that.

Probably a good call.  Sometimes an pool session can be just what some tired legs need, but that usually seems more apropos later in the year when you've got a little more endurance training under your belt.

You are definitely making some amazing progress Matt.  I knew I had to claim my one HM win over you last year and that you'd leave me in the dust.  I'm still working on getting one last 5k victory.  If you don't lower that 21:25 too much on June 1st, I'm hoping to use my June 6 race to get one last victory.  I'm afraid even 21:25 is a little aggressive given my current running fitness, but it'll be my last chance at the rate you are improving.

On 9/8, you're on for another virtual half race!

Warren x2 on the traffic and glad to hear you got a great ride in this weekend. I was thinking about that a little more today in regards to the trainer vs. riding outdoors. The trainer is great because you are constantly working and pedaling but it is no substitute to riding outdoors.

I didn't spend a lot of time aero either this weekend because I was unfamiliar with the route I was riding and with all the ascents and especially the descents I felt like I needed to be conservative and really pay attention to what I was doing. You certainly don't get that type of work on the trainer nor do you get the handling aspect of it either. It made me realize I need to get out more and ride. Hoping to get out for a short spin this evening.

You'll be surprised how quickly you can step up the biking.  It's not like running at all.  But one thing to keep in mind are your limiters at 112 miles.  Those last 30 miles can bring out some things you don't see or feel at 60-75 miles.  Depending on the course you are racing, you'll need to be very aware of how to execute and to some extent how to modify training.

For instance, Tony, you are doing Wisconsin, right?  Pretty hilly course for Ironman, so that needs to be a factor in your prep.  I’m not saying you need to be sure all your long rides are on similarly hilly terrain, but just be keenly aware of how climbing those type of hills affects you over a 112 miles.  A sure fire way to blow up over that distance is to overburn the uphills.  And being as light and lean as possible is a big win on a course like that.  If you were doing one of the flatter courses, staying in the aero position for hours at a time can wreak havoc on your neck/shoulders/back etc., but unlike Texas or Arizona or Florida, you’ll get lots of chances to get out of aero on the climbs and use the downhills for some free speed and recovery. 

I guess I’m just saying that you’ll need to at least factor in the course profile a bit in your overall training and prep, and definitely for your race execution plan.

Warren you're right about that and those are good points. Two of the guys I rode with and train with have done the course in Wisconsin. It is mainly rolling hills with lot's of turns and 3 hills which I'll need to climb. Unfortunately we don't have anything here on LI that mirrors that but we do have hills and we do have some rollers so I'll have the opportunity to at least ride them to prepare myself for the climbs and descents.

The profile of the route I rode this past weekend would be closer to Lake Placid. In any case the advice I got from them was to just ride the course and not get caught up in hammering away especially the lollipop portion of it which is the 18 to 20 miles to and from the 40 mile loop. The 40 miles loop is where all the fun begins. They also said be prepared for sore arms from all the up and down on the rollers and all the shifting that is required.

I plan on riding the hills and rollers as much as I can especially on my long rides so I am prepared for that over the long haul. I also need to find my pacing riding the hills and for going beyond my longest rides. I think I may have done 60 miles as my longest last season and this season I want to get in a few long rides at 112 to know I can do it. The last one I want to be able to come of the bike and run as well. Man what did I get myself into? LOL

Yes, I did the tri Saturday and planned on doing the mtb race on Sunday with Morgan.

My thigh got better as quickly as it got bad.  If my race had been at 11:30am on Sunday instead of 9;30am I would probably have been able to race.

By Monday morning there was no sign of any issue at all with it.

My heels on the other hand were hella painful.  It was a challenge to walk on Sunday and would have been a painful mtb race.  Monday they were bad enough that I bagged my run at 3 miles.  However they felt normal today and I had a fun, weightless feeling while running today.

Jeff, glad your heels are better today and you got a good run in.

Tony, you probably know this but some friends of mine around here said to start doing your runs in the afternoon or evenings to get used to running that time of day after you  are tired from working, playing w/ dog, cutting grass etc, and to get used to the heat. You already seem to be doing that from your logs.   Also you can practice your nutrition, at home to see how hungry you get.  If you get hungry at home sitting, well you may need to up the calories.  just some thoughts from folks around here...good or bad i don't know.  Everyone else can chime in too.

Karl that's good advice and yeah I am doing most of my workouts in the evening with the exception of the swimming. Swimming is in the morning or late afternoon depending on the schedule. The run and bike workouts are in the evening during the week. The weekends I am usually doing the run and bike in the late morning or early afternoon. I actually prefer working out in the afternoon or evening whenever I can. I am not a morning person.

Warren what a great ride. I'm impressed, 3 hours on your first ride outside!

In case you want to go back on your word, I have another swim work out for you.........

MS:
15x100 on 1:40

This was the first 100's work out I've done for some time.  It was a good one for sure.  The wheels never came off for the entire main set but I was wearing down.  I am sure I could have done another 5 without puking but after that all bets would have been off.

I have been really trying to develop a solid head position during my entire stroke cycle but mostly when I breath.  I have not been able to get any recent, useable video footage of what I have been doing for bad habits but I think I had been over rotating my head during the breathing cycle of the stroke.  I have been really focused on seeing water out of the low side of my goggles on either side; meaning if breathing to the right my left eye would be able to see the entire underside of the water, while the right eye would see the side of the pool.  It seems I have been reasonably successful in my endeavor.

Another thing I have been working on is my left hand pull.  I had been doing a little bit of an "S" pull that I believe was slowing my stroke rate slightly and wasting a ton of energy.  I have mostly corrected this weakness and I usually only go sour after I get really tired during some ridiculous sets.

With these corrections in mind I think I am doing some of my best swimming I've done.  Race season will be what tells the story though!  Especially in August!

Yep!  Pretty much the story of my yard too.  My yard takes about an hour to mow on most occasions, unless I allow it to get really long.  Usually I keep it shorter than I hear you are supposed to because of our miniature dachshund.  His miniature self won't get off of our patio if the grass gets more than 4 inches high and that creates a few messes on the patio.  Lis and I actually need to do some work to the yard this year. 

I need to finish the porch project too.  The work isn't actually to the porch itself but to the area around it.  We are talking about how to lay out some landscaping and decorative spaces under and just off of the concrete.

Your 3 hour ride sounds like a great introduction to the spring riding weather!  I rode 43 miles on Saturday but I was really wanting to get 57 in with the group.  I had some fatherly duties taking some pics with Kyrie and her boyfriend.  He asked me a month or so ago about taking her to the ROTC Formal dinner and now the time had come.  Anyway, I had to cut my ride shorter than desired to get those pics.  If you're a FB friend you've likely seen them.  In the words of the famous song....."She's a Beauty!  One in a million!....."  My wife sure made some beautiful babies.  Hmm?  I think I need to do a paternity test! LOL

I was supposed to be talking about your ride in that last paragraph Warren, I guess I got a little side tracked.  Nice ride!!