Manatees Roar into the 20s! CLOSED (Page 119)

I did a virtual 15K this morning and set a new PR with a time of 57:43.  

Back in May when my 70.3 that was scheduled for late september was canceled I decided to make the Veterans 15K my new A race.  At the time It looked like smaller local events were less likely to be canceled than big races and championships.  It looked like running events were less likely to be canceled that multisports events, and it looked like the later in the year the less likely for events to be canceled.  With this race being held in a town of less than 1,000 people and held in November I thought it was the best bet I had for a live race.  Well, It was canceled and made virtual.  I wasn't really excited about the race being canceled but since my brother lives 5 mins walking distance from the start of the race I made plans to drive the 75 minutes over to the actual race course and to take a shot at breaking the course record that was set in 2014 doing it virtually.  

I got a free 15K training plan with my registration for the Dallas Hot Chocolate 15K in February that I worked as the 8:00 min/mi pacer.  I followed the 4 week Advanced 15K plan.  I started right after my last Duathlon a month ago.  Going run focused for a month I was well prepared to race hard this morning. 

Navigation has never been my strong point.  I have taking wrong turns in about half the races I have done and that is with well marked courses.  So, I wrote down all the turn and carried the paper with me on the run today but still ended up taking a wrong turn at 3.7 miles  and again at the 7.8 miles.  So I was way off course and can't claim the course record, but since the virtual race permits any course I can still claim the race record, and I still got a PR.  

Despite this being a year with no certainty for racing I had a pretty good year.  I set PR's in the 10K and 15K during virtual races and broke two race records at live races  (a 5k in early March, and an inaugural sprint duathlon last month).

So 2020 has not been a wasted year for me.  I have seen lots of PR's.  

One reason that I want to upgrade the Kickr Snap is because the wheel slips sometimes.  I like how convenient it is to set up/take down but I've been feeling frustrated by it.  I am hoping that the upgrade takes care of some of the issues.  Of course, I may be introducing new issues...

I agree that the smart trainers are way quieter than fluid trainers.  My fan is louder than my trainer!

P.S. If you have not yet done a fan upgrade for your trainer set up, I highly recommend doing so. That help A LOT!

Congratulations on the PR! It is great that you have been able to maintain your motivation!  Great job out there!

I have improved my FTP this year -- it's the highest that it's been since I got a power meter so that's something. My motivation has taken a bit of a hit these past few weeks. My current training plan is kicking me hard. I remember really like it last year so I am putting it down as a few weeks of adjustment before getting into the swing of things.  My previous plan had a lot of Z2 and some Z3.  This has a lot of Z3 and up.  Legs no happy.

I suspect it was higher when I was a single sport cyclist + 10 years younger but that's not super surprising, is it?

If you do that, we'll need pictures!

On a more serious note, I was listening to an interview with hospital administrators in the Kansas City areasaying that it's becoming very problematic to take covid patients from rural communities. The metro hospitals no longer have capacity and how is it fair to take out of area patients who did not take precautions and displace local patients who did take precautions?  (How is it fair that protesters do not take precautions can go about their business and athletes who do take precautions cannot?)  Yeah, I know. The virus isn't fair.  Keep your head down and hope that fall 2021 is way more normal...

Congratulations!! 

I agree.  I feel decent about races in the August 2021 and beyond time frame. I'm not at all sure about spring races though.

I think that the beginning of the. vaccine effort will be bump at best. I'm hoping that most of us will have an opportunity to be vaccinated by June.

yeah, if they really can start vaccinating the at risk by end of year that will really give me hope that we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, everyone will cooperate!  I remember being in elementary school and all of us lining up to be vaccinated for measles ( I think) . The whole school did it as I recall in my 4th or 5th grade memory. There were no anti-vaxers and no one complaining about government interference. Boy have times changed!

ETA: I’m really hopeful for the Pfizer vaccine since it doesn’t need that crazy cold storage!

Originally posted by mtnbikerchk

Originally posted by amd723

ETA: I’m really hopeful for the Pfizer vaccine since it doesn’t need that crazy cold storage!

Other way around - Moderna doesn't need the refrigeration Yeah the anti-vaxxers scare me. And the people who generally aren't anti vaxxers but have no trust in the system. I'd still rather have 2 days of side effects rather than a lifetime of heart, lung and kidney problems!

Moderna needs to be stored at -4F, however, reports are that Moderna is likely to pursue an emergency use approval with cold-storage requirements similar to Pfizer's.

Pfizer needs to be stored at -94° Fahrenheit (with 24-48 hours at refrigerated temps between 35.6° and 46.4°

Originally posted by mtnbikerchk

Originally posted by amd723

ETA: I’m really hopeful for the Pfizer vaccine since it doesn’t need that crazy cold storage!

Other way around - Moderna doesn't need the refrigeration Yeah the anti-vaxxers scare me. And the people who generally aren't anti vaxxers but have no trust in the system. I'd still rather have 2 days of side effects rather than a lifetime of heart, lung and kidney problems!

doh, yes Moderna!

me too!

Wow... I see some major causes for concern with this. 

Several years back politicians were working on very questionable legislation to legally obligate doctors to perform surgeries that they personally felt were unethical like gender reassignment, abortions, etc. They claimed that any doctor that had been given the privilege to be granted a license to practice medicine was basically serving at the will of the governing body that issued the license (i.e. the US congress/senate) and that if said governing body said demanded them to perform a surgery they had no free will in the matter would be stripped of their license and criminally prosecuted if they didn't. 

So doctors cannot deny services based on the service being ethically unsound and non-essential because that is denying a privileged quality of life to someone that can be seen as discrimination in our entitled culture but discriminating against someone with a life-threatening illness based on a false narrative that all rural dwellers are some kind of low lives living in filth and innately incapable of preventing disease and illness and we, therefore, are better off to let them die so that those who live in a higher cast of society who through natural selection will be less likely to pass the illness to others and who living will make our society more fit and robust are more deserving of treatment.  

I think the mental health of that hospital administrator needs to be examined and possibly his college thesis to determines if it had any anti-farmer or anti-red neck sentiments manifest in it.  You all know that I live in a rural area. I have seen how small towns have addressed this pandemic,  I also have seen how big cities have addressed this pandemic.  I have seen how churches address the pandemic and I have businesses have addressed this pandemic, etc.  From what I have seen the biggest factor in how well people have been in observing the pandemic boils down to what state they live in.  Some states moved swiftly to take statewide precautions.  Some states didn't.  Stopping in a rural town to gas up at on a road trip in a state that was strict early on with its precautions you will have other customers kindly remind you to protect others by following their state regulations.  Stopping at a gas station in a big city in a state that took no action early on, mocked states who did, then put precaution in place later on, you can go into a gas station and none of the employees will be following the states precautions.  Police officers that come in while you are there will not be taking precautions and you (yes the guy from the rural town) will be looked at with the stink-eye and suspicion because you are wearing a mask, like you are better than everyone else, and because you are stopping to use the hand sanitizer has you come and go like a Natzi. 

I work in an industry where if you are an embarrassment to the company they will promote you to a manager so that you only have to interact with fellow employees and don't have to interact with the customers and make everyone look bad.  Are the hospital administrators promotes in the same manner?  Wow....there is a problem and the best solution they can come up with is, we will treat people that are like us and those who are not like us are obviously the problem and so we will refuse to treat them and turn them away. 

Protesters are like them, so they can't be the problem.  Athletes on the other hand go outdoors every day and stress their bodies. Intentionally.  What on earth of those athletes thinking.  Of course, they are going to get sick.  They are already outdoors where there are going to be tons of dirt and germs and then they stress their body on top of that. They are just asking to get sick.  Displacing protesters to treat athletes would be a waste of resources.

In all seriousness.  Everyone, regardless of where they live,  whether they took precautions or not (90% did), what their walk of life is, etc. should be treated based on the severity of their conditions.  That is all that matters.  Everyone who has the virus is equally deserving of being treated.        

That hospital administrator needs to be smacked in the back of his head! We are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis- Drs Without Borders actually have come to the US b/c we are so bad, and turning anyone in need of care away bc you don’t think they took precautions is outrageous IMHO. How do you know they didn’t take precautions but still got sick? Even if they didn’t, if you have the means to help you need to put aside your disgust for that person’s lack of common sense or whatever and treat him or her to the best of your ability. I understand that some hospitals can’t take patients from outside their area bc they are over capacity , that is a different issue. It’s horrible that we have hospitals that are so busy and over run that Drs are having to choose who gets helped. Once we finally get this behind us ( please in the not too distant future) I think there will be a post-Mortem on how we handled things and it will not be kind to us.

I understand your frustration.  I get mad and say "Why are we funding STEM programs when we clearly don't believe in science!"  When I say stuff like that, it's out of frustration, not because I don't want to fund education. 

In the case of Idaho sending patients to Portland, it's a difficult situation. Portland restaurants are under restrictions. Sacrifices have been made.  Idaho has more of an every man for himself attitude -- officials actually saying: ""I personally do not care whether anybody wears a mask or not. If they want to be dumb enough to walk around and expose themselves and others, that's fine with me."  But maybe it's not fine for the people who have to clean up the mess?

I know that we are all doing our best with this and the level of risk that we are willing to take varies for all of us.  I see sit outside with my parents for coffee about once a week.  Others might feel that I am endangering them. 

I agree with all of this.

Speaking of risk taking, let's talk Thanksgiving.

Around Labor Day, I said to my parents, let's get together for dessert over Thanksgiving weekend.  There was a lot of hemming and hawing.  Mu dad suggested a outdoor meal, the said coffee, and had a new plan every time that I spoke with him. Well, guess what he suggested this weekend?  Let's get together for dessert on Thanksgiving!  What a great idea!

Basically, everyone is on their own for turkey and most sides. I am making cranberry sauce and delivering it.  My mom is making dinner rolls so we will exchange.  I need to figure out what my brother and Lyn would like.  We are making apple pie to share. I'm probably also going to make an apple cake.

haha, brilliant idea!

I still don't know what we're doing for t-giving! But, i think it will be limited to the family members in Orlando and will be outside. Hopefully, it won't be 90*! Or raining.

I feel ya. I get lost in TRANSITION. Every. Single. Race.

The way you set PRs is basically how I set world records ...  so keep on, keeping on!

That's my life, every day. So far it's worked! I was actually in palliative care not too long into recovery so maybe April 2019. Or September. There have been so many close calls, I forget. However, after 4 days when I didn't die we all figured I may as well try totally unadvised, untested, and overaggressive treatment just as likely to kill me.

I have no real point other than my usual overshare TMI ... and that I share your uncertainty. Seems like we all are and it's a mad world for sure out there. The upside to grimness is that anything good in a day however small is such a pleasant surprise!

Doing my 2nd solo Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to it! Going to go a little untraditional and make a lasagna.

My sister and I had the Christmas conversation with my mom when they were here for my house move. It was a difficult conversation. In the end, we said we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if one of our (6) high-risk family members ended up in the hospital because we knowingly and intentionally didn't follow health guidance. I know my dad is upset, which upsets me. I feel solid in the decision though.

You are the second person that I know who makes the traditional Thanksgiving Lasagna!

Our Christmas will probably be similar to our Thanksgiving. Since it's my birthday, I plan to have birthday cake.  I'll probably make and deliver cookies as well.  (My parents are 20ish minutes away.)