lrobb's group full - the work is plentiful, success is guaranteed! (Page 13)

You can do it yourself with a repair kit:

http://trisports.com/wetsuitrepair.html

It IS awfully quiet!

Is everybody able to train?

Training progessing how you'd like?

Any questions?

Kansas 70.3

The good news is that I finished before they canceled, crossing the line at 5:30:xx. About 30 seconds after I got my picture taken it dropped about 20 degrees and the wind started blowing hard from the north so we decided to get out.

The swim was downright nasty. M35-39 was 2nd to last or 3rd to last wave to go off, so it was basically water polo for 40 minutes as I swam head-up into the back of all the waves ahead of me. I've never seen so many people swim at 45 degree angles in all my life! I decided I had had enough, and went to the outside edge to find some clear water. Nope. People were out there too, all over the place. Had to grab people every now & then and just move them to the side. There were a lot of big buoys to sight off of, you didn't even have to raise your head up very much. Nevertheless, people would swim right into me, apparently heading for the middle of the lake. Never was able to actually do much swimming or find any clear water. To top it off, when the horn sounded for us to go, people were fracking walking! Should've started up front.

The bike was awesome... Scenic. Very Hilly. Tons of people to pass from the waves ahead: I don't think I found clear road until the last 20 miles. My nutrition plan was simple: I was just grabbing powergels & gatorade at the aid stations. I did start to overheat though, got the head pounding headache, so I started grabbing water bottles and dumping them down my back/head. All the water I was dumping on me got into my powertap cradle, so I lost power on the last part of the bike leg. Note to Self: dielectric grease next time. I took it easy the whole way, trying to keep less than 240w on the hills and soft-pedaling downhills. I wanted to average about 210-215w and my NP was 200w for the data I collected. The formulas say I could've ridden harder, but I don't think the fitness is there. Some dude had a very nasty wipeout on one of the downhills. They were putting him in a neck brace when I went by, not pretty. I hit 45mph going down that hill.

The run: We ran through the campgrounds, some asphalt and some dirt road. It got overcast on the run. I hate to think what it would've been like if it had been sunny/hot like the bike was. I might have been looking at a long walk or a DNF if not for the clouds. Great luck! Still needed a lot of ice in the cap to keep cool even with the cloud cover though. I also forgot my footpod at home, so I didn't have any real-time pace data, just what the watch showed at the mile markers. Since the goal was just to finish though, I just took it "easy/moderate". I thought that would turn out to a 8:40-9:10 pace, and it looks like I was on the low side of that. My ITB held up, and I was able to run the whole thing except for walking the aid stations to drink some gatorade, and stopping to stretch my ITB at about 7-8 of them. With 3 miles to go I realized I could break 5:30 if I got my rear in gear, so I ran the last 3 miles w/o stopping. That kicked in the ITB for both knees at the end, but not too bad and nothing a little ketoprofen cream didn't take care of.

Transitions: like I said I was just aiming to finish, so transitions were kind of a joke. I actually took the time to wrap up my wetsuit and bag it before I left t1. In my defense, we were crammed into those racks like sardines, and I could just see it getting a tear or gash in it from someone's cleats. I also had to pee so bad after the bike and I spent so long in the porta-potty my wife thought something was wrong with me.

All in all a great race. I don't think my wife is ready for another car trip with the toddler any time soon, but I'd definitely recommend this race and would like to do it again in the future.

Training is going well here. I took several days off - the best thing I could have done for my training, as I had been going at it pretty hard.

Having trouble finding races that suit my picky picky criteria:
- not too far from home
- on a date that suits my family's schedule
- swim must not be in a river
- swim must be in water cool enough for wetsuit
- swim must be in water that is not gross and murky
- run on shady trail if possible (Virginia gets very hot and humid in the summer)

I have an Olympic on my schedule but as it falls on the day before I start a new job, I am hesitating - don't wait to show up all exhausted from a race the day before and give them a bad impression.

Yes a question on wetsuit repair. I have a partial tear on the back of the leg, the fabric is torn but not all the way through.

I have a wetsuit rubber cement tube. It says appy then pinch it togher for an hour. How do you do that? Close pin?

Looks like you had a great race Lee!

Dunno if I would look forward to the heat part of it next year, but almost any race this time of year in most of the country has a chance to be hot.

Good point about someone tearing the wetsuit with cleats. I hadn't thought about that. But I had my swim goggles out on the towel ( swim was last event) and someone put their bike right on top of my goggles even though the goggles were on the towel and towel was right next to my bike. Their bike was very crooked on the rack. Guess they were just in a hurry and they biked faster than I did. I finished in the top 25 % percent too, so I am not that slow.

That's tough on the swim! I think it would eliminate 99% of the races in the South-Midwest.

Thanks! Usually I just throw it on the rack or under my bike, but this really was cramped. I set up really lite in transition: bike shoes, run shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, hat, race belt. I had them in a neat little pile, but when I entered transition it was already messed up.

You're right about the heat - April/May would be much better weather-wise.

Wetsuit q: If it's really big I'd use one of the patch kits. What brand are you using? I've never seen one that said to hold for an hour.

Babs, on our ocean swims, I can't see my elbow in the water, it is that murky. I presume mostly disolved minerals in the seawater.

I have swum in 2 lakes here, no rivers. One lake, a natural lake, I could not quite see my hand in the water when it was extended. The other man made lake, was crystal clear and you could see a dollar bill on the bottom 20 feet down. Can also see colorful fish about the size of your finger about 30 feet away. I really like that lake.

Our summer water temps are usually high 60's, winter temps around mid 50 degrees.

Our summer water temps are usually high 60's, winter temps around mid 50 degrees.

Our summer water temps are just shy of bath water.

I see your highs are only in the upper 70s too. How can you stand it???

There's couple of lakes around here that are suitable for diving, and by "around here" I mean within 6 hours, but most of them I can't see more than about 6 inches in front of me. KS was actually a little clear - I could see my elbow and sometimes my hand!

I here you though on the water issue Babs. Every time I do my first OWS of the year, I question my sanity. There's nothing like swimming in a lake though!

Yeah, I know, right? Just have this idea that water generally should be see though. But, I'm just crazy that way!

My wife and I swam in Clearcreek lake in Marlow OK while we were out there. Let me tell you the name is very deceiving I could see the glow of my hand but not clearly. We were swimming in about 6 ft deep water parallel to the shore for a few min. My mind started picturing a huge drop off for some reason and my wife getting a cramp or going under for some reason. I knew I wouldn't be able to see her in 6 feet deep water so I told her that we needed to swim back and forth to the shore. Even when we got close enough to touch the bottom you couldnt see the bottom (luckly it is sand).

It freaked me out for about the first 5 min and it really had an impact on my endurance. I can swim for 30 min at a 2:30 per 100 yard pace very easily which is not super fast but my pace is very consistent. In the lake I was dying after about 100-150 yards. I think that I was so tense that all of muscles were tight and I wore myself out.

After swimming for the 18 min that was on the training plan we were getting comfortable. I hope to work with a local OWS coach who has access to a private lake in Fairfax a couple of times prior to our OWS in the Chesapeake Bay in August.

I have been keeping up my training even when I have to combine days due to weather or scheduling conflicts. Due to long bike rides I have met or exceed my training plan since beginning in April. I am down to 288 lbs this morning and my belly is getting smaller because I got into the aero position on my bars tonight and my knees were not hitting my belly anymore (yea).

Yay Tiny!

Good job Tiny!

We usually swim in Arcadia - can't even see your elbows in there. When I first started I did exactly what you described: very tense, rapid turnover, and kicking very hard. Was fried after about 200 yards. It felt like I was sinking but it was just my mind freaking out on me. It took a while before I could get comfortable in there, what helped most was swimming with other people: seeing little kids act like it was no big deal, other adults swimming loops, etc...

Now I use a wetsuit, and having a wetsuit on is the closest thing to having a life preserver on that you can get. It's very reassuring to know that I can just roll over on my back and with little to no effort on my part, float.

I have come to a complete stop. Had some health problems the last 2 weeks and now I have a cold. I'm hoping to get back on track a little this week. On vacation next week. I'm going to take my bike. At least it will be constant reminder to move my behind.

Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. Hope you are better before you start your vaction.

30 mile ride today to register for a small 4th of July 10k.


Weigh 15 pounds less today than I did last year, so hopefully will be faster, but heat could mess with my plan. Plus I have been biking and swimming more, but running less than last year.

Oh well should be fun anyway.

Thunderstorms forced my brick inside yesterday.

bike: 30' easy + 60' moderate + 30' hard
run: 20' moderate + 10' hard + 5' easy

I've ditched my stability shoes + orthotics and am running in neutral shoes & racing flats. My ITB hasn't been bothering me, but my feet can get a little sore.

The guy in the running shop looked at me like I had lost my mind, I tried explaining about Noakes' recommendation that ITB sufferers switch to a neutral shoe, but he wasn't buying it.

That's the spirit. Usually when I go on vacation I just plan on making it a running focus.

We decided to wait last night until it cooled off to run. There is one problem with this plan. That is when the storms start to move in. We finally got a break in the rain so we headed out and were able to finish the 19 min run during a break in the action.

We have a long run today. I am looking forward to getting back into my normal training splits we have had two back to back sessions this week first the bike and then the run. Our distances aren't huge right now so I am not too worried about over training in a certain discipline. I do enjoy it better when they are split up.

42 mile ride with the g/f. The outside edge of her foot is so sore she is using crutches. No idea what it could be.

Less fatigued today than after yesterdays 30 miler.

Maybe because I rode in a lower gear and went slower with the g/f

Three sport brick today. So fun. 23.5 mile bike, short run, swim in the lake.

I've made a regular schedule with friends to do OWS twice a week - part of it last week I just hung there and floated - straight up - in the deep water with my feet straight down.
It was reassuring to realize and feel how bouyant I was,
I too am getting fatigued early in the wetsuit - I think consistent time in it is what I need

Well I tried really hard to get to race distance on my run tonight. We were scheduled for a 32 min run and so far 2.8 mi is my longest distance. Our training plan is time based vs distance based. Tonight when I got to the 16 min mark I was about 2.9 mi (a bit farther than I went 2.8) so i pressed on for a few more min. I reached a large enough landmark that I would for sure be able to see on the satellite pics offered on mapmyride.com. I got home and mapped it out at alas i was still a bit short. I was happy with 3.26 miles thought. I haven't ran than far in about 10 years since about mid summer of 1998 I know this because I that is when left active duty with the Marine Corps. Now that I type this I am not only very happy about this fact I am very proud of my progress since I only started running again in May.

By the way my race distance is 3.4 miles so I only came up .14 mi short and I mapped that out so I can hit it next time. Now I just need to work on getting my pace up.

Thanks to all of you guys and gals for being here to keep me motivated. I thank my often but wanted to show my appreciation for this board and you all for being here. I love the triathlete community it is a very positive and unique environment.

Good job Wendy. Getting used to open water is half the battle.

Nice run Tiny. 3.26 is close enough to 3.4.

Babs getting in her private tri today.

I too am getting fatigued early in the wetsuit

Make sure you pull it up really snug against your crotch - you don't want your arms to fight against the rubber, which often happens if you have your wetsuit riding too low.