Beer Drinker Appreciation Society - Open For Business (Page 129)

Congrats to all of you racing this weekend! Sounds like you are having fun, and posting pictures is great to also put a face to your names.
Traveling for work this week in India, so no workout, at all. Looking forward to be back home next week to get going again!! My first long run as I arrive wiill be for the kids in the hospital, great inspiration.

I love the idea of finding a location for 2016 so BDAS members will meet and race together. I will travel half the world to do it!!

Juan

Check in I did my planned bike ride today on the actually Oly bike course (it registered as 22 miles not 24.6 but it was probably my phone GPS). I really like the ability to race the course prior to actually doing the race. There were quite a few obvious triathletes out doing the same thing today. On a good day with a closed course I think I can approach 14 mph average on this course which is good for me. It was 90 degrees F here today, and it's quite possible that it will be come race day, so I fueled exactly as I plan during the race. I had my BDAS jersey on with solid fuel in the back pocket. I had 2 containers of Gatorade on the bike too. Given that this is an Oly and not a Sprint I have a fuel plan figured out to protect against bonking.

Next Week I'm doing a mock Oly. Since I have the full course at my disposal I plan to do a long slow distance version of my Oly run. I'm going to do the swim at the YMCA and then go right to the course to complete it. I'm also going to fuel as I expect to, the only difference will be the relaxing transitions I'm taking. Am I the only one that does these? I don't really see people talk about doing this but it gives me a certain amount of comfort and confidence. If I ever have any doubts creep up then I can point out to myself (mentally of course) that I just did this 2 weeks ago. That plus I want to make sure that my body doesn't reject the fuel I'm using.

Questions for the masses
- As I was passing the other triathletes on the course I was always given a wave from them. I like to acknowledge anyone else out there as I'm working out too, but I got to thinking....is this a thing? Is there a triathlete "wave" like there is a Jeep wave? http://jeeptalk.org/jeep_wave.php

- Pee breaks. OK sorry but this has to be asked. I managed to do my half marathon without a pee break since I emptied prior to the run. I'm hoping to do the same with the Oly, but this will be a longer race. If you gotta go, do people stop at the Port-A-Potties or drop the bike and run to the grass (not to brag ladies)? I'm confident that I can't do the cyclist pee while I'm riding thing. (I'd link that one for you, but I'll leave it up to you if you care to see it). I'm hoping to be able to hold out the additional 40 minutes compared to my half marathon and not have to worry about this. I would think that Ironmen like DQ would have had to deal with this though.

You don't want to know.... Bwahaha ha! Seriously, I never had to go during my Oly. Get in the water before the race and pee in your wetsuit. Yes, everyone does it (I haven't had to yet but I'm sure I will at some point). I remember DQ mentioning he stopped while biking to go. A lot of riders just pee in their tri suits while on the bike or run. Why not, you're going fast, it will dry. Grab a water at an aid station and soak yourself - I do that anyway or my tri shorts ride up.
Grossed out yet? Ah, we are all in this together....just don't swallow too much lake water too early on!

Dave, don´t worry about that; as Jenn mentioned, anything (anything) is possible.... I think she was trying to put it in the worst scenario (hahaha). I have done some Olys and one Half, and never had to pee from the bike (don´t even think I could) or while running (even worse). While in the water is a great time to get "ready" for the rest of the race, just be careful as Jenn said not to swallow too much water if another swimmer is around, that´s all.

Juan

At the morning ows practices the water always seems warmer right after the first buoy...

Off season question for everyone:

Just curious if anyone has access to concept 2 rowing machines at home/work/gym?

I am adding the rowing machine to my off season workout and was thinking of entering some of their team challenges. Thought we could throw together a BDAS team!

First one is the Fall Team Challenge September 15-October 15.

If you have not been on one, they are one of the best machines in the gym. Great overall workout. I lost about 100lbs using the rowing machines before I got into triathlon.

Edited by thor67 2015-07-20 8:28 AM

I saw him sitting right at the bottom of a hill from the top and was determined to pretend like I was having a good time until I passed him!!

Morning Everyone!

Back to full training for me after my recovery week--seriously, who changes clothes for a 21 min run?!?!?! Started the morning off with what should have been my medium run, but turned into my long run due to my inability to do math in my head on the fly. Somehow, I figured that if I was doing a 46 min run, I should turn around at 28 minutes. So, instead of medium run, it was long run for the week. Perhaps I was thinking I would seriously negative split!! I added in some 1:00 "pick-ups", where I picked up my pace over what I normally do. I've plateaued in running improvements lately and feel like maybe I've fallen into a trap of thinking all runs must be slow to improve endurance.

This afternoon I have my first swim lesson! I'm excited to see how it goes.

RE: pee

I pretty much echo what everyone else has said, go in the water before the swim. After that, I've never had to go while racing (up to 2:45). I am a pretty heavy sweater, so there usually isn't much liquid left in me after a good workout/race. Last weekend, I drank 3 bottles of fluid during the race plus random cups from aid stations, two bottles of gatorade and a bottle of water after the race, a qt of powerade and a large diet soda (yes, yes, I know) on the drive to my parents house--in total, about 1-1.5 gallon of liquid, and never had to pee until my dad gave me a bourbon.

Ha - I do that too! What's funny is when they have multiple people taking pics and I miss - the other guy. So there are am all smiling in one picture looking like I don't have a care in the world and then in the next - I look like I'm about to croak! Need to pay better attention!

I could have sworn I posted about this topic but it obviously didn't work. God, it's pi$$es me off when that happens

While I tend to sweat a lot during races - I also seem to need to go to the bathroom a lot as well. So I go:

- When I hope into the water to warm up
- I go again right before the gun fires
- If its a long swim, I will try to go right before getting out (this has taken some practice to pee while wading though the water
- Then I hope I'm good to go. But I usually have to go again during the bike so I try to read the scene - if there aren't lines for the potta poties, I will hit one of those. If there are lines - I try to find a quiet spot.
- Finally - you can teach your self to pee on the bike. It took me 6 weeks of practice and I was able to do it a couple times. Find a slight hill, stand up, let fly.

It is for these reasons that I will never buy a wet suit used

As for waving - I wave and say hi to everyone! Making friends gives me an excuses to catch my breath.

Edited by Qua17 2015-07-20 12:14 PM

Greetings all. I hope everyone's season is going well. I've been incommunicado for a while, but now I'm back. Between working a ton of overtime, weather delays, and some bad luck, I finally got to race yesterday. I did the Steamboat Lake Sprint and somehow managed to finish second in my age group. Granted, it was not a deep field, but I'll take it. I went in with a time goal of 1:40 and came in at 1:39:06 even with a disappointing run. Almost 8000 feet of elevation takes its toll. Onward and upward as they say. I've got another at 8600 feet in a few weeks.

OK - More questions about bike speed. I asked this question last week but wasn't as clear as I needed to be. Here is attempt #2:

I'm curious is it makes sense to push the pace in order reach a higher pace.

Let's use Thor's match simile:

Option 1 - I slowly get up to speed without exerting a ton of effort. Let's say the speed is 14 miles an hour - which is easy to maintain. By not pushing hard - I'm only burning half a match. The drawbacks to this - a slower average speed. The advantage - more energy for the run.

Option 2 - I put more effort into getting up to speed and I might even stand up in the saddle (which I thought was a colossal no-no in endurance racing) to increase my speed - let's say to 17 miles an hour. But to do this - I am burning a match (and maybe my fingers a bit as well). The benefit to this is a higher rate of speed which is almost as easy to maintain as it is at 14 mph... The drawback is less energy for the run.

Which is the better approach?

Greetings all. I hope everyone's season is going well. I've been incommunicado for a while, but now I'm back. Between working a ton of overtime, weather delays, and some bad luck, I finally got to race yesterday. I did the Steamboat Lake Sprint and somehow managed to finish second in my age group. Granted, it was not a deep field, but I'll take it. I went in with a time goal of 1:40 and came in at 1:39:06 even with a disappointing run. Almost 8000 feet of elevation takes its toll. Onward and upward as they say. I've got another at 8600 feet in a few weeks.

Peeing, I do as much as I can when warming up in the water. Personally I think if anyone tells you they've never peed in a wetsuit they are attempting to sell you, they've got to be lying. LOL. Kind of like they've never peed in the pool. Come on folks, everyone's done it at some point in their life. (hence why I really, really hate pools....especially public ones where kids get swimming lessons.) Ironically I thought I was going to have this problem for the first time yesterday....I was on the bike and pretty early on I really thought there was no way I could make it through another hour plus without having to pee. I talked myself through the options....if it felt bad I'd just sigh and use a porta potty, if one wasn't available I'd pee on the run...was trying to avoid peeing on the new bike seat. But once I started running, the need went away....I think I didn't go until well after an hour after the race.

I've got to confess, if I was a guy, I'd just try to be as discreet as possible and let it go.

I think these are the kinds of things that experience and a number of races can teach you. You can learn from them that you either could 1) plan better, or 2) if you can't (and have to go during races no matter what), what works best for you. I know the reason I even had the sensation on this race was because I downed my tea a little too close to race time and in a few large gulps....I'll plan a little better next time--just hadn't gotten up early enough to get all my caffeine in slowly.

Sandi

Update: had my first tri race of the year on Sunday. This was the one year anniversary of my first ever tri race, same event, same location. It is a beautifully put on race in eastern WA--Chelanman--I'd highly recommend it for anyone wanting to travel here. Super well organized, everyone has great attitudes, and the venue is fantastic. It is a mountain lake which can be COLD, but the hotter temps the past few years have made for lovely swims both last year and this year...the lake is really a perfect temp for swimming, is clear, and for most of the races they put a line at the bottom of the lake for racers to follow.

This year was ten degrees warmer than last year....temps yesterday ended up being well over 100. Yesterday was the shorter courses so most of us were done by 10/10:30, but I was still running in 85 degree heat in the full hot sun. I had tried to go into the race with few expectations....I'm ready to race, but not in the condition I was last year, and with the significantly warmer weather I didn't want to disappoint myself. At the same time, I made some mistakes last year (really long T1....just something I wasn't super concerned with at the time, not a priority), and I now have a much lighter bike, so I really hoped to at least slightly beat last year's time.

I spent Friday and Saturday in the water a fair amount...had done the swim a number of times, so I felt as prepared as possible. This lake can be VERY choppy and windy, much worse than an ocean when the wind whips up or there is boat traffic, but with 8 am swim times it is usually very calm and delightful. With that said, practice Saturday was miserable despite my having a great time on Friday, because of huge/heavy boat traffic quite early. But there were minimal boats on the water....the only wake from a seaplane...so this wasn't a factor for the race. I was warming up early for my age wave (the third wave)....when I heard the race director call out the number range for the first wave...surprise, somehow they put me in the first wave. They had my age right, just had me racing with a bunch of under 30 year olds. Sigh. But I got into my zone and it didn't bother me. Predictably many of them sailed past me (I started out front), but I'd say at least a third started out too fast and were floundering 100m into it. I kept up the same pace with zero interruptions or issues until the last 100m when I pushed it. The only problem was that the lake was significantly lower than last year...the last third of the race is in shallower water, you can stand in it, but obviously it is much faster to swim. This year however, my hands kept hitting bottom (and from my trials on Fri/Sat I knew I was in the deeper part of the swim section there), which was frustrating and likely slowed me down. But I didn't let it break my stride and I really cruised past many folks at that point, swimming until I was less than a foot from shore. Finished the swim in 9:03. Last year....get this....finished the swim in 9:03.

As I said, last year I just didn't care much about T1. I was so thrilled to be done with the swim at that point that I grinned and dallied through it. This year I had my game face and a better plan on with my bike positioning, and didn't bother to really dry my feet. Last year's T1 was 4:18, this year was 2:36.

The bike was freaking delightful. You start on a STEEP hill, which I was fairly prepared for in gearing but I didn't go low enough fast enough towards the top, so I was huffing and puffing for a mile or two as I caught air and my HR dropped. However, I was definitely in that sweet spot you've talked about, Thor, really right around 88 the entire time. VERY few problems or inefficiencies gearing. I was slightly faster I felt this year than last, but what WAS evident was how much easier riding this bike was on my body. I could work hard and efficiently without killing myself to get a decent speed. My new drink system was perfect (don't have aerobars installed on this bike yet, so couldn't use my aerodrink bottle, but I got one that fit nicely in my bottle care with a long straw and velcro), but what I noticed was that despite the higher temps, I didn't need as much hydration, clearly because I wasn't having to work harder than I should have. I really felt I was at a good pace for my current training level, on a bike I've not spent too many hours on. The end is also a steep hill, and I didn't gear low enough soon enough, so unfortunately ended a little more winded than I'd have preferred. This year's bike was 46:21, last year's was 48:34. I do feel fairly sure the bike was about a mile longer....I recall last year noting that it was about 12.3 miles as opposed to 13.2. Regardless, an improvement. And unlike last year, I really did not get passed much.

T2 was :35. Last year was :59 (main difference was just knowing better how to rack my bike).....I ride in my running shoes so just rack and run.

The run. Oh god, that run. That first mile. I mean, it's never fun, but this was horrific and surprising given that I didn't feel I'd burned too hard on the bike. Much of it was the heat, and probably some of it was my having done only one bike/run brick this year--that one went well, and I didn't really feel the need to do a bunch more as my feeling is that it's more of a getting used to the hell as opposed to really training for it. At any rate, the first quarter mile I honestly wasn't sure if I could run the course or if I'd have to walk it....I just promised myself I could walk a minute at ten minutes if I still felt that way. But predictably, ten minutes into it I was smoothing out. They had water at just under a mile (that went on my body), and thankfully at the halfway turnaround they had a hose...I was calling at the volunteers thirty feet out to get me as much as possible which they did--I was soaked from neck to knee which made all the difference. I ran back at a good pace and was feeling fantastic at that point. The end of the run is up the same steep hill the bike is, I just looked down and kept at it, and then you run down a steep hill to the finish which I sprinted down at a pace I don't think I've done before. I knew I was around a 10 minute mile, but was still surprised when I saw the final splits....did the 5K in 30:59 which is SLOW for me by a fair amount. By comparison, last year I was at 29:59--and that is an unimpressive 5K for me--so a full minute slower.

However, I felt great and as though I had done a really good race. In the end I was first in my age group, 9th female overall. That was a definite improvement over last year (I placed a solid 3rd in my AG last year), in worse conditions.

What I learned this year:

1) Despite getting passed initially by a LOT of swimmers just because they were two decades younger than me, which had been a real fear of mine in terms of getting kicked, I handled it really well. I drafted some swimmers for the first time ever and for the most part I was able to totally ignore sighting as a result, just following a crowd for at least half to two thirds of the swim. There was a huge advantage with this. I was also able to stay completely calm and at the same pace....my experience made a big difference there.

2) Transitions. I won my age group solely due to keeping those down....the difference between me and #2 in my AG was 29 seconds. I was first OVERALL in T2....that was the only event I WAS first in, even in my age group, yet I still won my AG. I'm going to continue to evaluate the transition area for the best approach and adjust as needed. I completely changed my setup after watching a guy down the rack from me--he won the event--but we were the only two who set up as we did....it was absolutely the right way to go.

3) I need to work more on gearing on hills. This is tough since I now only ride on trails (other than races). And generally--despite my improvement, the bike is clearly my weaker event. Once all of the splits are listed out in comparison I'll be able to better evaluate this, but I was still 17th in my gender and 42nd overall on the bike....enough lower than the other events for me to see where I need to work. But I've made progress, which is a good thing. :-)

4) I'm still pretty surprised by the run result. However in typing up #2, I remembered that I had to stop and re-tie my shoe as it came completely undone. That's probably 20 seconds right there. But I'm fairly sure I ran at a decent pace the last half of the race, telling me that I was slow enough the first mile to really bring that time up--really, I ran my last 5K in three minutes less time, so it's a slow result for me. I don't know if it means more running is needed, or more brick transition practices. I HAVE been running less than last year over the past six weeks, but my pace has improved as has my endurance. I'm entered in a 5K this weekend that I've done the past two years, so will see how that goes.

Hope everyone else's weekend went well!

Sandi

First swim lesson today! It was pretty good, although the instructor is what I feared--a swimmer, not a teacher. We spent a lot of time trying to work out what she was trying to tell me in terms I could understand. We covered a lot of material, including head positioning (mine was really high), kick (mine is terrible), bilateral breathing (which I don't normally do), stroke extension and rotation, and flip turns. All in all, a great $12 spent! I have another lesson next week, so I need to hit the pool and practice my new skills!

Sandi - That is awesome! I am so happy for you that your placed first in your age group! Outstanding.

I seem to remember last year you posted several pics of some yummy beers. What did you drink to celebrate this time around?

Hi David, this race is several hours from home for us, but we have friends who live there. Last year we were fortunate enough to be able to stay a day or two and relax....yesterday we packed up and went home.

But you're right, I left out the most important part, the beer. On the way home we stopped in Leavenworth, WA and had beer in 104 degree heat under misting umbrellas at the Icicle Brewing Co. This is a favorite location of ours. I like a hearty, hoppy pale, and they haven't traditionally had one, so we have a fairly famous mixture we invented of half Dirty Face Amber, half Bootjack IPA--the Dirty Boot. Yesterday we were greeted with a pleasant surprise though....The Pale Ale Project, Confidential 004. YUM. Had two, slept all the way home, unpacked, and then drank a growler of the stuff.

:-)

Sandi

Congratulations on the race and the very detailed race report!! Great memories, I did my junior year of high school in Yakima, WA and played in the basketball team with Chelan....

Juan