Scott F's group - FULL! (Page 12)

OK - Well I am back and I'm not sure what is going on with me. I have not felt good for a couple of weeks. Started in the first week of July. (thought I might be expecting - yikes!!!! - not in the plans). Still not really feeling 100% - I am getting better so I'm going to hold off on the Dr. thing. Sorry that I haven't checked in - I just needed to know what was or wasn't going on with me.

Found a new workout partner and we are hitting the road tomorrow. I'll get back - summer is a hard time for me to stay with it!!!

Love some advice on a bike
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There is one similar to this on craigs list in my town for $150. I just don't think that I'm going to have an extra $1000 or more anytime soon and I'm not doing a tri with my 13 year old mountain bike. I need something to get me by until then.

Laurie

Edited by whatmomwants 2007-07-24 12:16 PM

ALLL RIIIIGHHHTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to get back into it Laurie!

I have to admit that I had a little flashback when you mentioned that you might have unexpectedly been expecting. I have three daughters. None of which were "specifically planned." We were willingly not trying to avoid ....

Anyways, regarding the bike. I'm assuming that you were trying to post a link. It doesn't appear to work. Give it another shot and I'll take a look.

You know, I'm proud of you for getting back in here. Way to go. Now, after a couple weeks off, don't be a afraid to ease back into it. I'll check in later to see if there are any likes to the bike.

-Matt

Sorry it is an ebay listing #. Forgot to mention that.
Laurie

Well, I'd first have to know if the local one is equipped the same or how it differs.

The level of components is pretty good. The number of gears and the apparent lack of the a third ring on the front could be trouble if you are struggling on hills. On the other hand, some people say that more gears just means more shifting and more distraction. The shifting levers on the tube are a little trickier too. You have to reach down and that is a distraction from the road. I'm assuming they are indexed, but if not, you have to be more precise in how you position the shifter. Otherwise, you end up grinding gears when the cable is in between gears.

If its listed at $150 on craigslist, you can get it $125. If you are only going to spend $125 on a bike, this would be better than just about any other $125 bike out there. However, if thats not the budget, it changes things a little bit.

I guess I see the upside as this being a bike that you can ride, with reputable components, that should last quite a while. Whether you are racing or just riding for fitness, you would probably do okay with this bike.

The downside is that if you start to get more and more competitive with tris or cycling in general, you'll likely upgrade again in the future.

That just led me to another upside. This bike isn't going to depreciate any more. You can hardly lose money on it, if you end up selling it in a year or three.

I guess in summary, if you are looking to spend less that $250 on a bike, this would be a good deal. If you are going to spend more than $300, you can find a bike that is a full notch more advanced.

FWIW, I hate to admit this, but my buddy who raced in the same sprint as me, beat me riding a 12 speed from the early 80's. He averaged 20+ mph on it. I was racing with a Felt S25 with the best components you can buy. I didn't buy it new, and I only paid $600 in comparison to its $2,000 when new price tag, but he smoked me nonetheless. He is pretty much a lifelong mountain biker and has had long stints of road cycling, but he was riding a bike that was nearly as old as he is. I guess my point in this, is that it comes down to the engine. Just like they say in the other forums.

AHhhh, I am back and had a great time in Hawaii with the family. batteries recharged and ready to rest from the vacation in order to go back to school.

The good news is that I was able to put some workouts in during the last week. I ran twice for about 50 to 60 minutes each and swam about three times in the ocean for a bout 800-1000 yards (12-13 minutes each). So I wasn't a total slacker so that felt good.

The bad news is that I was eating like a pig. I had given up rice, potatoes, bread, butter and sweets (including anything with high sugar contents) last February and all that went out the window. I ate rice just about every day, ate a few hamburgers with the bread and French fries, my breakfast whole grain toast with a lot of fruit jelly (I really missed that so I was using a lot of fruit preserves). All in all, I ate a lot and a lot of stuff that I was not supposed to.

I miss riding my bike, but I feel good about my running and swimming.

I am going to try to update my logs but we are leaving to Napa for the weekend for a wedding this afternoon so I need to find time to workout.

Aloha

well, I've got my last recovery week workout on tap for this morning. In fact, I'm dressed and getting ready to go. The pooch is sitting next to me, giving me the old, "are we going or what" look.

After I get showered, we are starting our second week long vacation of the summer. We are headed to a wedding on the other side of the state, then triving north to the upper peninsula. My wife has never been there, and I'm really excited to show her some of the special places from my childhood. We are going to leave the kids with my mom for couple days while we are up there, and camp, just the two of us too. Its been quite a while since we have taken some time together.

On tap for workouts:

Lots of shoreline running
a 17.75 mile ride that has a section of 3 miles that climbs 2000 ft. (I've never ridden something like that.)
another 20 mile ride that runs though Pictured Rocks and Grand Sable Lake
swimming in lake superior and lake of the clouds
mountain biking in Grand Marais and around the grand sable dunes
hiking the porcupine mountains with my wife

I'm so excited, I can barely stand it.

Have a great week all. I'll bring some pictures back.

Hi everyone! I just skimmed thru the posts to see what's up and will try to find time to read them more thoroughly this weekend. I got back from France on the 22nd, but had to leave again two days later to attend a wedding in Edmonton. Got back from the wedding last night but I'm leaving again today to go camping until Friday.

So - training will not start again for me until next week. I do plan to ride while I'm down in Osoyoos. There is a nice little 8km climb that we do from the campsite. Well, the boys do it and last year I tried it for the first time with Dh riding alongside me. Didn't do too badly - I thought I'd have to stop and rest partway but I did the whole climb without stopping and managed 53 min. from campsite to lookout tower (18km in total I think). This year I'll probably have to ride part of it alone because I doubt dh will want to wait for me, but I don't think I'll be more than a couple of minutes behind the men. It's going to be hot (about 100 degrees) so I think I'll try to drag dh out of bed early to miss the heat.

I only got about 425 km biking in during July but I didn't set a very big goal so I'm ok. Haven't done any running at all since my shin splints but I did walk a lot in Europe - some days 10km minimum. I have no idea if my leg will hurt when I run next time but hopefully not. I will take is easy and ease back into running so as not to injure myself this time. My goal is to run either a 10k or a half marathon in October. Whichever one my body is ready to handle.

So - hope everyone is doing well and the races and training and vacationing are great. I didn't gain any weight in Europe but did gain 3 pounds!!! in Edmonton. Go figure. Gotta get back on the diet wagon again too I guess. Sigh...

PS - I added a link to my bike tour pics on my BT page.

Wlcome back. I hope you had a great time in France.

Hi all -
My computer is out being fixed. Don't know when it will be back. I'm borrowing a friends computer today. Updated my logs. Hopefully will be back soon.
Laurie

Whoo hoo - I did a new personal best on the Anarchist Mountain climb and knocked 5 full minutes off my last year's time. I almost didn't go because I was hungover and thought I might throw up. (Not sure why, I didn't drink that much but it musta been the lack of food and the heat that day.) Anyway, Dh beat me by 2 minutes and I beat his brother by 1.5 minutes. Here's the elevation profile. The climb I love to hate. We left at 8:30am but it was still hot.





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NOW... That's a ride. Congratulations on your PR. I bet you next time you will do better if you are not hangover.

NICE job

Well, while I'm still in brag mode, here's the profile of the 70 km ride I did today. 2200+ feet of climbing. I hate love the hills.





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No wonder !! Good job. I need to start doing hill work.

HEY !! I finished my Oly yesterday. Everything went well I missed my target of 3:00:00 by about 4 minutes but I feel pretty good about it. Race report will be coming out later today

barb, mauricio, Good work in the last week!

I just got back from my last full week vacation of the summer. I've got next Monday off, but that is the day after my first Oly.

I'm prepped for the distance and time, I think. I have a nasty feeling that its going to get canceled though. I think participation is low for this one.

I've got a lot of back logs to catch up on, but all in all, I had a great week of workouts. Not much swimming, but a lot of riding and a lot of HILLS.

I hope you get to race this weekend Matt

Whoo hoo Mauricio! Congrats on coming so close to your time! Looking forward to the race report.

And Matt - Nice to have you back. Hope you enjoyed your vacation - where did you go? Crossing my fingers that your race next week doesn't get cancelled.

I am just trying to ride everyday during August before school starts again in September. I'd like to avg about 25-30km a day. And I need to start running again.

I took the family to the upper peninsula of Michigan. I spent lots of time up there as a kid, but my wife and kids have never seen it. We went up as a family of 5+1 (dog). Stayed in Grand Marais for a couple days together, then left my kids and dog with my mom and stepdad for a couple of days.

My wife and I traveled the north coast of the Lake Superior lake shore (MI). We camped and got to see some incredible sights. It was nice to be able to rough it a little bit, and still have my wife comfortable. We saw bald eagles, coyotes, deer and the other typical critters. No moose or elk this time though.

I also got to get away from the flatlands around home and ride some hills. That was nice. I was out of my comfort zone on one major decent. I was on the verge of locking up the brakes, and trying to slow myself down while still navigating switchbacks at about 30 mph. That is certainly not my comfort zone. I lost a bottle because I was hanging so far off the back of the seat.

After a couple days, we made it back to the kids and spent a couple more days with them before driving home yesterday. All told, we drove about 1800 miles in a week. Everyone is excited for the next time we get up there.

I'm going to just do a couple workouts this week. I'm going to swim at lunch today, ride or run tomorrow, and do the opposite on Thursday. I might get wet on Friday, but it will be to blow off some steam, not for a real workout.

Sounds like a great trip Matt and it was nice that you and your wife were able to get some time alone too. If there's anything I have learned this time 'round is that time with a spouse is important. Dh and I try to take a weekend honeymoon every 3-4 months if we can. Harder to do when you have little guys at home too though.

I did another 45km with about 2000' of climbing today. Did my fastest descent ever - 70 kmh (40.1 mph)! I usually only do about 60-62 kmh down that first hill so I must have had a tailwind for sure.

Race report is ready, Official Time 3:04:25

Morning all.

Well, weather kept my attempt to complete an Oly at bay. Instead, I raced the sprint to try get it done before storms came in. We had a delay to start because of lightning too. So, we had a little window of time to race!

The swim went much better this time through. It still was way off my normal pool times, but it was a huge improvement. This time through, I was slowed down by people in front of me. I started middle to back and that held me up a little. I still completed the leg 7th in my group, but it could have been quicker yet.

Fast T1, got on the bike and could feel sort of tight legs right away. I pushed through that and just kept chugging along. Despite it being a flat course, I didn't average all that well. I only did 18.6 for the distance, but I passed loads of people. There were long stretched that I just stayed to the left and passed several people at a time. I got passed a couple times, but each time, I knew it was a much stronger cyclist. There were no marginal riders passing me and just hanging in front of me. I finished 6th in my age group for the ride. I feel like I could have pushed faster here and made up more time.

T2 was good I guess. The run started a little tight. I had to stop twice to get a little stretch in. My calves and hammies were bugging me. All said, the run went well for me. It was towards the slower side of the group, but overall I finished 8th.

All in all, it was a very good race. I cut 12 minutes off my previous sprint time and moved from back of the pack to front middle. I was five minutes from third place in my age group, but only a minute and a half from fourth.

I'm not sure where I am going to go from here though. I'm not signed up for another race, and I'm not planning to for a while. Fall is just around the corner in Michigan. Before you know it, I'll be skiing all the time.

I am planning to join a masters swim group, and I think my next big goal is a marathon. I enjoy all of the disciplines, but I think I like training more than racing. So, for the next several months, I'm going to focus on running and swimming individually, and maybe through in some significant weight training. I've missed that for a while now.

Thanks all for your support and advice over the last several months. I think I'm going to be a little scarce around here for a while.

Congratulations Matt, it sounds like a solid performance

Anyone around these days?

I am trying to make myself get out running again. I rode a LOT in August (930 km), but didn't run at all because my legs couldn't take it. Now I gotta get running. This week for sure.

I went out and did the bike portion of the duathlon I want to do next May. It's 32km (actually it was only 31.2 according to my computer) and is mostly flat with a few small rollers, one steep but short hill, and one long 3km climb with a long gentle downhill. Downside is, the road suns along the lake and it is almost always windy. Sure enough, it was behind me going out and against me coming back.

So - I was hoping to do the ride a 27-28 kmh, 1:15 hours.

My resutls were:

31.2 km
29.3 kmh avg
1:03:45

I was happy. Even if I did 2 - 30 minute 5 k runs before and after, I can still conceivable come in under 2:15, maybe even close to 2:05. We shall see what kind of shape I'm in next May. Hopefully, I'll be a lot better at running by then. (The top woman, who happens to be in my age group (45-49) does the race in 1:45. She's an elite athlete though. There is no hope of me placing in my age group - there are too many elite women my age. Ah well...

Good Job,

I think you are on track to beat 2:00 since usuallywe push harder in a race condition. Work on your running a little and you should be ok for may. Winter training is always a challenge but we need to keep motivated