Tri/tbay group closed (Page 11)

Hey Mike, great swim!!  I still feel really good when I swim, I just can't keep myself focused for long workouts in the pool.  I REALLY need a partner to swim with or a coach to push me. 

Roy, I have a race question.  Early season here there are a lot of races that have pool swims due to the temperature of the lakes (50s).  I am wondering if you wear your tri suit top in the pool or try to squeeze into it when you're wet in T1.  I tried putting on my Nike compression shirt last night after getting out of the pool and I got stuck.  I just don't know if it would be like wearing a drag suit while swimming, or if I risk getting tangled up in my top trying to put in on after the swim if I don't wear it in the pool.  I have a TYR suit that feels like it would be ok in the water, but I haven't swam with it on.  Should I wear it for a workout and see what happens?  What do you wear?

I am certainly glad I only have 1 pool swim this season as I can't get this question out of my mind.  I don't want to be all wet riding in potentially 40 degree weather on May 2nd in Minnesota.  I've been hypothermic from cold bike rides before and it SUCKS!!!  I think I'm going to swim in my bottoms only, dry off thoroughly and throw on my tri top and if necessary leg and arm warmers.  The tri top zips so I shouldn't have the same problem putting it on as I did with my compression shirt that I wear when I ride bike on my trainer.  If it's warm out, yes then I will wear my top in the water.  However, I am fully expecting cooler temps as May 2nd is EARLY Spring in this area of the country. 

BTW, I have two sessions on my new bike and I love it.  I need a shorter stem (100mm vs 120mm) and a decent saddle.  The existing equipment will do for now, but by the end of the summer they will be replaced. 

I've been trying to load a profile picture, but it keeps giving me an error.  Anyone else have issues with that?  If so, how did you fix it? 

OH!!  Check out the race calendar for ND.  The race I am organizing is on it.  The Pipestem Creek Trail Run and Off Road Triathlon 7/25/09.  I contacted XTERRA to see what it takes to get on their points calendar and they are sending me info.  That would be awesome!!!!!

Good Morning, and Good Friday!

It looks like everyone is getting some good workouts. Mike/comrad are you back in Houston?

Steven, I think you are thinking correctly about what to wear, since the outside temps are still going to be questionable, I would wear just tri shorts, no top so you can dry off some, then wear a top of your choice, it is possible you may need to wear a long sleeve shirt on the bike. Won't know until it race time. If you get a very seasonable day to race, and its warm enough I would wear your trisuit. Glad you are liking your bike, check ebay you might be able to find the stem you need sooner than later, I would check into this so you don't go a whole summer riding in a position you don't really won't to be in. Thats a really long stem for a tri bike, must have been long torso rider who had the bike. Try going this website, its what I had recommende when I got my photo uploaded. www.resize2mail.com, and then make sure you are uploading to profile image not personal.

Olman, you are getting some exellent work, keep it up, you are going to pleased with your results at the first event. Hopefully you can come over and get in some swim workouts prior to your event. You said you can rent Spinervalls at Blockbuster? I'll check in on that.

Mike, I was re-reading your original post when the group opened, and you stated "survive the swim". How do you feel about that now? I think your way past that.

As for me, its Escape from Ft. Desoto tomorrow at 7:00, 1/2mile swim, 10 mile bike, and a 4 mile run, which about .3 of the run is from the ocean to T1. It's going to have around 1000 competitors its a great early season event. I borrowed a set of Zipp 606 wheels from friend, we'll see how it goes with a set of wheels like these. My wife just looked at me with that look of don't even think about it. WHAT!  They only cost $2000.00. My youngest daughter will be doing the event as well, then in a couple of weeks she will be doing St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg, it is an olympic distance event, 4000 competitors and a lot of top pro's do this race. She will be trying to qualify for the age group nationals later in the summer. It takes a top 5 finish in her age group, F 15-19.

I'm really happy for you guys as the season gets ready to get going. It looks like everyone has made some good improvements in their swimming, and we have had some excellent discussions about various topics which will serve all of us well. And friendships of sorts have been made from a far, kind of neat.

Have a blessed weekend,

Roy, you apparently are a computer genius as well.  The photo resize website is now firmly entrenched in my "Favorites."  I'll get a real photo up as soon as I have one (like a race or training photo) but for now you'll just have to look at my ugly mug. 

I have been at the interval game for about a week and I've learned two things:  1)  I need something to pace me or I start out too fast.  2)  I love intervals. 

My plan is one run interval a week (Tuesday nights) paced by a friend on his bike with a speedometer/odometer and two bike intervals or one interval and one hill session (when the trails dry out I'll use our Wednesday night MTB battle as a hill/interval session as it is done at virtually max effort).  I already do intervals almost every swim workout just different paces lengths depending on the day.  I have an entire week of reduced volume/intensity after every three weeks hard, so I have defeated my prior demon of working myself into the ground by overtraining.  I really believe it's because of this group and being able to discuss training with people who are both unbiased and knowledgable.  The training logs really help too.  I have never kept a detailed log of what I have done before.  I never had to, I was working out with my track group and just did what they told me without really researching it.  Looking back with what I know about training now I realize why I didn't improve like I should have.  We essentially trained in the same phase ALL YEAR ROUND.  I can't believe I never got hurt.  We had the same intensity in August preseason as we did in April during the season and did the same distances and workouts.  No wonder I was always burned out by the time the season rolled around. 

Hey guys,

Flood update.  While Fargo is out of the woods, Jamestown is not.  The Corps of Engineers announced today they will be more than tripling the releases from the two dams here on Saturday.  That means I now have to completely surround my house with a 3-5 foot dike.  While much of this work has been done with the dike we built two weeks ago, we will need to bring the level of that up at least a foot all the way around and build another 100 foot long extension.  This equates to another 3000 sandbags and about 8 hours of work to do minimum with a crew of 25.  I wish we had known about this three weeks ago so we could have done it all at once.  On top of this I can't take any time from work this week due to preparation for and actual negotiations occuring today through Friday with a supplier we are exiting.  I'm going to try to get out of it, but I seriously doubt it will happen as I have been the focal for this supplier since August. 

This isn't good.  The Corps just evacuated 1500 homes in Valley City, 30 miles to the east.  It looks like we will be dealing with this for the month at least.

WOW! Doesn't sound fun at all. I know the three of us can't really do anything for you physically, but we can send out best and prayers for you and all of your community. You know it doesn't matter where you live, there is some kind of weather just waiting to ruin a great day. There is no doubt you'll get the additional bags in place and you'll be as prepared as you can be.

Keep us updated and thanks for sharing.

Roy

Hey guys I put my race report in, you can take a look at it on my race log.

Roy, I read your race report.  Nice.  I like that function of this website.  Really gives some insight (depending on who is writing the report) of what to expect come race day.  I am really excited about getting this season started in a few weeks.  Man, I can't believe it is only 17 days away!!!  I need some work yet!  I haven't had an uninterupted week of training for about a month.  That is not how I pictured this going, but as Roy is fond of saying, "Life Happens."

My sandbagging is done (knock wood), everything is moved out of the basement and garage, and the city is coming to add a huge dike that will protect my neighborhood.  And just think, the water hasn't even come yet!!  That's the worst part of this, the event horizon. 

On a cool note, I hooked up my speed and HR sensor on my new bike on Monday AND my wife told me to get another one for my MTB (I had to take the one off my MTB to put on my tri bike as I figured it was more important info on that bike)!!!!  She's awesome.  Then I told her that I just ordered a wetsuit, so I'll skip the cyclocomputer.  Then she got mad.  Our 10th anniversary is coming up on 5/1, so I need to get her something good to make sure the wetsuit purchase is justified (in her eyes anyway, it's already justified in mine).

Hey guys!  Managed to get a bike ride in yesterday in less than optimal conditions.  Rode the first 16 miles into a 38 MPH headwind by myself.  Mustered a whopping 14 MPH average, then turned around and averaged 35 MPH on the way back.  Took an hour and eight minutes out and twenty minutes on the way back.  It was fun cranking in my biggest gear at 100 RPM.  Hit 45 MPH on a downhill and passed a car. 

I had almost a full week off of everything due to constant flood preparations.  I'm hoping things get back to normal (schedule-wise) this week.  We have a dike 4 foot high all the way around our house and a 6 foot clay dike on the road to our house.  We had to build a wooden walkway across the clay dike and over our sandbag dike.  Kind of like a drawbridge.  We have moved all our important stuff out of our first floor and basement to my in-laws garage.  The water is coming today, so now the actual "fight" begins.  They say we will be flooded for about a month.  The trick now will be to incorporate this situation into normal life rather than allow it to consume life.  I have it mastered, but my wife is struggling with it.  All I can do is reassure her we'll be fine no matter what happens. 

This is the time where training and outside the home hobbies save me.  If I didn't have something else to concentrate on I would be a big stress ball.  I have a daily release of energy in the form of my workout.  Many people would question why these things are important at a time like this.  They aren't "important" per se, but serve a very important purpose.

Am considering trying a used tri bike a friend has, it is a Cannondale that is several years old.  Here we go...

Thats what I'm talking about!!!! You'll like it, so let your wife know before hand that it is really going to be a NECESSITY. I think she'll go for it, what do you think.

I read lots of confidence into these posts of late from all of you, I like it. Just remember if you feel you've done the work, then you probably have and don't try to overtrain the last week like it is going to make a big difference. Trust what you've done. Now if a race  is going to used as more of a hard training day, and tired legs and a little fatigue is present then that's Ok to have a strong workout week the week of. But if it is a race of importance, then make sure your are rested the week of, its going to be alot like a prep week before a 10K/half mary. Good nutrition, sleep and event preparation should be in place, and don't get there late, if it ever happens you'll know what I'm talking about. I try to get to an event 2 hours before start time if it is a sizeable event, and you'll be suprised how quickly 2 hours will go. It is not a good feeling to be that rushed.

I'm really looking forward to your first race reports, it is going to exciting.

Nothing really on the horizon for me right now, spent the weekend at a swim meet, the kids did great. Our team won the 1st place team trophy.

Mike like Olman said the back pain is from the change in position and working muscles that aren't used to having to support the body. It will improve. Soreness OK, pain not good expecially if it happens after a couple more rides.

When is the river going to crest and be at its peak?