Athena/ Clydesdale Official Mentor Group (Page 11)

Pretty interesting day for me.  Somewhere between scanning some IMLP race logs and trying to find another Tri to enter before my Sept race I decided today would be a good day for my first BRICK.  Got home before the wife and kid and before what looked like another rain storm.  Took off on the bike on a shorter, but hillier, route.  I figured 30 minutes would get me close to 9-10 miles and then I'd run and see where it got me.  Forget to start my watch, so after what happened to be 14 minutes (had my phone mapmyrun app going in the pocket) I turned around and headed back.  Went 8.2 in 27 minutes, so decent pace, decent distance.  On my way back in I attempted to take my foot out of the shoe while it was still attached, see if I could do it and practice for a transition.  Well, went after the right shoe, inadvertently unclipped the left (note to self tighten the settings on the clips), and because I was leaning towards the right it was like me falling over in super slow mo.  I'll throw some credit to my snowboarding days that I don't panic and know how to roll into a fall even when I'm clipped in to something.  My right shifter shroud got kind of hacked up, and my shoulder took a hit, but all in all nothing too bad.  Don't feel any ill effects right now.

Then I went for a run.  Put the bike inside, threw my sneakers on, sipped on some water, probably took about 2 minutes between my fall and starting the run.  First tenth of a mile my legs felt like rubber.  It was a cool feeling.  Since I live at the bottom of a hill no matter where I go, I go up.  Went up for 1/2 mile, figured that was a good start for my first brick, then turned around.  On the way down I was kicking myself for not going further up as I felt pretty good.  Ended up being just over a mile in 9 minutes, so even though I felt like I was crawling it was a good pace, which I know a ton of people say happens, and I guess it's true.

Loved the feeling of the brick.  Up until now it had just been SBR all separately, this made this whole Tri thing seem a little more real.  I think one full brick (14.5 and 3.2) and maybe one abbreviated one like today per week should really get me in a good groove.

Oh my!!  I've got some bricks scheduled in my plan during the last two weeks, but nothing like what you are talking about.

Wow, you are an incredibly fast swimmer!  I am thrilled if I get my 50s near the 1 min mark.  Did you swim competitively ever?

LOL, I've been lamenting the fact that my 100's aren't closer to 45 seconds, but of course, that was back when I was a teenager.  And, not to blow my own horn, but I'm not really working on speed yet.  Yes, I swam competitively in high school and college.  Naturally, I lifeguarded in the summers.  I also competed in the New York State Parks lifeguard games.  I placed in a few events, although I was never good enough to win.  I tend not to use my legs very well.  My kicks are essentially in sync with my arms, sort of like I'm walking in the water.  Now that I know my shoulder is handling the swim well I am pretty confident it will be my best leg, as long as I put the training time in.  Running will, of course, be my worst leg.

Grrrrrrr!!   My mapmyrun app failed to record my walk/run today, and I REALLY wanted to see the splits and pace.  Fortunately for me I'm an advocate of redundancy and set the chrono on my wristwatch, so I at least have total time.

Fluke?  Second wind?  Aerobic breakthrough?  WHO CARES!!  Just lovin'  it!!

0900 - Walk/trot - 2.84 miles - 45:04 - 3.78mph  We be's jammin' now!  I got a late start and it was already 79*.  Humidity was 75% and the dew point was 70*.  In other words, it was yucky.  I  had every intention of taking it easy and not stressing the hip.  But when I turned around after the first mile I wasn't sure I was reading the chrono right. (it's a Bulova dial watch with a tiny chrono dial in the face, hard to read unless you're sitting still, my Ironman crapped out on me yesterday)  If I was, it was PB to that point.  2 miles in, getting ready to go slowly down the steep part of Hillside and the chrono says I'm hitting almost 16 min miles.  Too good to pass up, I HAD to trot down Hillside.  I wasn't dead at the bottom, so when I hit a little downhill section on Johnson I trotted down that too.  Had to play drill instructor with myself to make myself finish to the stop sign.  Made the turn at the firehouse and thought about trying to to trot all the way home.  Umm, no, uh-uh.  Let's get a grip on reality.  Instead I noted one driveway farther out than last time and trotted from there in.  Check the phone and that's when I found out I didn't have all that data I wanted.  Bummin'

Honestly with those times you are likely to have a top 10 if not THE top swim, if we can judge by any race I have ever participated in.  I can't image what it would even feel like to swim that fast. 

Great job!  Very likely swimming is helping your shoulder become stronger and therefore hurting less.  Keep up the great work!!

Another swim tonight, identical to the one last night.  1000 yards in 10:30 of effort.

• 4-50's on 60
• 2-100's on 90
• 1-200 on 90
• 2-100's on 90
• 4-50's on 60

It was a wonderful workout.  I probably won't swim again until Tuesday, and when I do it will be 1200 yards for next week's workouts. I'll add another 200  in the middle and I'd like to be under 13 minutes total time.

Oh yeah, I'm test riding road bikes on Tuesday.  Any words of wisdom?

Did you ever have one of those days ...?  Who am I kidding?  Everybody here can relate!

68*, dew pt of 65*, and rel hum of 86%.  YUCK!  This was one of those "just get the miles done and forget about the time" days.

Bike - 9.04 miles - 44:45 - 12.1 mph

No workout since Tuesday - this is so frustrating!!  Work, kids, business, kids, baseball and a first birthday party tomorrow - this leave zero time for training.  I'm frustrated!!

But...the scale is still moving in the right direction.  196.5 this morning - down 18 pounds in 46 days!!

Monday is training again and next week is far less chaotic!  I've got a race 2 weeks from today - it's not a taper if it's 2 weeks early, right?  hahaha

Back for the first run for a bit. I pulled my calf learning some pose style running (my cousin is a pose instructor). Felt slow, but I have just started Joe Friel's beginner program, so I will trust in it getting through my first sprint in October.

Keep going everyone (especially through the late nights watching the olympics!). Go Aussies!

My LBS is staffed by a "kid" (I'm 53.  They are ALL kids!) who is so good at what he does that Specialized flies him around the country to shows to fit people.  (His grandfather, the shop owner brags about him.  He just returned from the Salt Lake City show.) Just from looking at me he says I should be on a 58 frame.  He's offering me a Specialized Secteur Comp Apex (MSRP $1550) for $1200.  He says he's pulling it out of the box for me to test ride Tuesday.  He'll do a quick fit on the seat height and stem, then I test ride.  If I like it, then we do a "complete fit" after I buy the bike to dial it in perfect for me.

I called the next closest bike shop (30 miles away) about test rides.  He says test rides are a waste of time until after I've paid $100 for a fitting.  He says despite my 6'1" height I might need only a 56 or possibly even a 54, and we won't know until he's spent about three hours flexing, measuring, and adjusting.  Then he'll know which frame to fit me to and THEN I can see what I like to ride.

The bike shop in State College (75 miles away) says pretty much the same thing as the first guy.  Ride a few, decide what I like, then get it fitted perfectly.  Their "deal" is a 2011 Specialized Secteur elite with a complete 105 groupo.

My question is, will a frame chosen based on a fitting really be any better than the one where you just pick the bike you liked riding and have it dialed in after the fact?  Bear in mind, this is my first road bike and the sum total of my experience consists of four weeks (11 rides on my 10 yr old mountain bike).

I will agree with Ericka on this one.  most shops will give you a free fitting if you buy the bike from them.  Even if you do not buy it from them you can take the results to another place and tell them to make the new bike to that.

Plus not all frames fit the same either. 

I learnt from mine that some 61cm frames would fit me and some would not.

I was looking at my calendar and find that this was actually only the second day this month that I haven't done at least some tri training.  I have done no walking with Cindy and the hip feels great.  I will back off of the trotting in the future because my R knee rebels against it.  Probably just as well because as I've said before, I don't think anybody that weighs 350 lbs should be running anyway.

Today, Cindy and I took a couple of friends from Weight Watchers out for their first time kayaking.  It was a little over 3.5 miles and they did fairly well.  So it's not exactly a tri workout, but I did manage some aerobic activity.

I'm loving this cooler weather we had this weekend.  Went for a run last night and I wasn't soaked after the first half mile.  My heart rate felt low (forgot my monitor) so I just went after it.  All 4 miles were right around 8:30pace (which is around my goal for Sept, guess I have to adjust    and I just flat out went for it the last couple hundred yards and finished mile 4 at 8:14 pace.  Felt great and now I'm kicking myself for not working out Saturday night too.  When I was tired I just told myself I was going to make it, make it to the next driveway or the one after that and that I was going to push myself.  I didn't end up passing out in a ditch either, so it was a win/win for me.

Finally time to reply!  It's been a whirlwind week - concluding with my son's first birthday party yesterday!  life got in the way of training but I'm hoping to start fresh this week.  Paying close attention to my food meant that I still lost more weight (18 pounds in 46 days now!).

tonight is swim team/gym night - tomorrow I'm running to/from daycare for a 6 mile run (with stroller).

I say you shoot for the 13.6 on the new road bike tomorrow after you pick it up.