Hashers And Mashers - Part 3 - Open (Page 11)

Nicole -

Congrats on your race! Bummer about the lame friend. If it's any consolation, it can be hard to sleep the night before a race even when quiet.

Have you checked the race website? Most of the races I do have results posted the same day. Looking forward to reading the race report.

Rebecca

Ditto what Carlo said. Fantastic job Nicole!!! You are fast!

A note about swimming straight - I agree, I tend to sight way more than necessary in races because I want assurance. How straight you go depends on your stroke and the conditions, wind, current, etc. You can see how good you are at going straight by swimming with your eyes closed. Works best if you have some open area, eg no lane lines in the way. I totally go left when I swim. If there's a strong current, then all bets are off. 

On the other hand, I remember seeing a video of the world open water swimming championships - here on BT, I think - and those amazing swimmers were sighting every stroke. They just do it a lot better/faster than I do. I'm sure I lift my head out of the water more than necessary. 

I try to sight every 3rd stroke: breathe left, stroke right, stroke left, sight (instead of breathe right), stroke left, stroke right, breathe left, etc. What do the rest of you do that works well?

Rebecca

I'm a few days behind but I'll try and catch up.

Anna - Goggles can be frustrating.  I was given a new pair of Zoggs last year and they've been really good.  They fit lose, feel comfortable and so far no leaking.  Now I need to find a source for them.  In your report of your training on the HIM course you mention changing into dry gear for the bike ride.  Are you planning to do this at your HIM?  In my events I wear my tri-shorts and top under my wetsuit and once my wetsuit is off I just throw on my glasses, helmet, socks and shoes then grab the bike and I'm off. 

You rode the beast hill and you tamed it.  Now it will be a lot less of a concern for you.

In regards to your bike/run fitness it sometimes isn't easy to trust your training plan but keep training and trust in the plan AND trust in the taper.  Last year as I was getting ready for a 180km bike ride I rode 120km three Sundays in a row and I was completely done after 5:30 on the bike.  I was getting really worried that I couldn't do the distance nor the time I would need to do it in.  I was also having lots of saddle issues.  So much so that at two weeks out I stopped riding all together and tapered in to the race.  Come race day I took off on the bike and felt strong the whole way except for a new knee problem and chasing an 82 yr old Sister Madonna that beat me to the finish.

I would recommend you practice lots of running off your bike to get your legs acclimated to it.

Nicole - What an awesome race you had.  Too bad about the drama.  I was curious to ask, what is an "uber".  Some kind of taxi I presume. 

In some of my races and even just in OWS on a regular basis I've noticed that as I approach the end of a swim the finish somehow seems to recede further away.  I'll sight to the finish and think 300m to go and next time I sight it is still 300m away.  It can be frustrating.

Nicole and Miche - I'm embarrassed to say I usually sight after every 15 left arm strokes (on the 16th).  I may have to reconsider this but it seems to work well when the sun is behind me or it is overcast but when I'm swimming into the sun I find it hard to avoid zig-zaging.  One time I found myself turned 90 degrees to the north and heading up the lake, outside the buoys and aiming for Vernon 135km away.

Miche - Your race report was great and loved hearing about your sons first event.  I love it whenever they have a "Kids of Steel" race locally.  The kids are fun to watch.  Your swim was amazing and I never would have thought of a current.

Carlo - My new bike is a Felt Z4 road bike.  A fairly nice entry level carbon bike.  Nothing too fancy.  I'm not fast enough to justify a Tri bike.  Maybe someday.  I am fairly apprehensive about the aerobars but I'll write more about that in my next post.

No problem mentioning my stolen bike.  I'm not that emotional about it BUUUT, this Thursday (3rd) will be the one year anniversary of the theft and of the day I got my new bike.  As of today I have ridden the new bike just shy of 4000km in the year.

On Sunday we went out for our 5hr ride.  It was a beautiful day with no wind to speak of and we rode south to Oliver and Osoyoos then up Richter pass (380m/ 1247ft climb) and then down the opposite side of Richter.  I hit 64.4kph/40mph on the descent but as we came out from behind the mountain and turned back to the north we were hit by a massive north wind.  We hit the seven sisters (big rolling hills) so fast descents followed by slow climbs.  The wind slowed me down to 13kph/8mph on the flats while I was spinning as hard as I could go.  Over the next 30+km I was struggling to maintain an average of 18kph/11mph.  At times the wind would gust and hit me like a wall.  Also, At one point going up a hill I rode by 5 big horn sheep (within 10ft).

I didn't complain and I just kept riding but I couldn't believe how slow we were and how hard it was.  I was SO glad to see my wife at one of our planned meeting spots at 100km into the ride.  Last year I did this same 120km ride in 5:28 but I only had 20 minutes left to my 5hr point and I decided to just ride that far and then call it a day.  Even my friend who is stronger/faster than I am was done.  In the end I only totalled 106.4Km/66miles when I was hoping to finish 120.  We also climbed a total of 1244m/ 4081ft.  All the climbing really slows your pace and the descents never make up for it.

Yesterday I went down to the lake for an easy 1800m swim.  It was one of those magical days.  Perfect weather, calm water and more than 20 swimmers in the water or going in or coming out.  Lots of runners going by at the same time and cyclists going by on the road.  Just awesome energy from everyone around.  Many people just hung around chatting with everyone.

Today I mounted my areobars and tried them out just riding around some quiet streets.  I need to make some adjustments to them and I might get a fitting with them.  I found getting down on them not too bad but I was a bit shaky with them although I managed the corners fairly well.  The only bad thing was - my bike worked well all day Sunday then today my rear derailleur wouldn't work.  I couldn't change gears up or down.  I don't think I did anything mounting the aerobars but I'll take it in to the LBS tomorrow if I can't figure out what is wrong.

Sorry about the length of this.  You wouldn't guess I'm really quite quiet.

Awesome race, Nicole! Congratulations on the podium finish, what a speedster!

George, thanks for the advice re: bike fitness and yes, I must practice running off the bike more, it's always challenging. I'm not planning to try and change into dry clothes on race day--this weekend it was more  to try and stay a little warmer out on the bike (air temp around 14 C when we got out of the water, that's icy for us), I've got the half-marathon this Sunday and didn't want to get sick. I think I should have the goggles sorted, I use Aquasphere Kaimans which are comfy and leak-free until they get corroded by the pool chlorine. I've worked out my current pair have lasted 6 months, so that's not too bad I guess. I've ordered more (internet store) and this time I'm going to log them here on BT to keep a closer check on how long they last.

anyone have any good plans for the holiday weekend (aussies and canadians exempt )??

looks like tomorrow morning i will get rained out by hurricane arthur to be followed up by a freaking gorgeous weekend - can't wait!  lots of beach time i hope!

Work tomorrow morning, collect race pack in the afternoon...Sunday early start for the half marathon, then family stuff for the rest of the day. Looking forward to it!