Matt Gilmartin's 2nd Quarter Group- back in the pool! FULL HOUSE (Page 13)

Yeah, Bryan- since Jen opened the can of worms, how was it???

My race was really good. The OWS was rather challending. I had gone out the day before and checked out the lake and bouy's and drove the bike course. Both of which were helpful. Driving the road allowed me to spot the hills and form a plan of attack so that I was not a victim to the course.

On arrival the morning of the race the furtherest bouy out did not look right and really looked far away. Sure enough it had lost air. They pulled it in and reinflated it and put it back out and it did not look as far to go to it. A lot of vegitation growing in the water that I had to deal with which was unnerving at times. But my swim time improved overall. (I am still not comfortable with freestyle and frequently do side stroke or back stroke)

The bike was great other than the fact that the night before my wife and kids gave me a Camel back and I had frozen water in it thinking it would thaw and I could have cold drinks throughout the race -  WRONG! It did not start to thaw until the run, so I was one thirsty camel when I did get to drink. My ride speed was much better.

The run was challenging, I had burned a lot of energy on the last mile of the ride and the run had lots of walking at a fast clip. At one point I was passed by this lady that had "69" on her calf indicating her age. Immediately I decided that I had to figure out a way to pass her. Well a minute later another lady was next to me telling me how that same lady passed her in her last race and she did not like getting passed by her. She then went on to say it was a HIM that they had done 2 months earlier. With that said, I decided she was more of an athlete than me and age did not matter at that moment

Had a great time succeeding at my A race, turning 50 and having Father's Day all at the same time. My 82 year old dad and 79 year old mother drove in to cheer me on as well as my niece.

I am a blessed man!

Bryan

Sounds like a great race, especially all the family support! I really don’t like swimming in lakes with a lot of vegetation. Sounds like a hard start to the race. The camel back issue was kinda funny, I would have thought that was a good idea too. I usually get passed by a bunch of pre-teen kids or dads pushing strollers at my 5ks and the indoor tri I did in March, it can be really frustrating Lol. But it's also something to have a good laugh about. Sounds like you did great. And happy birthday!

Sounds like a great way to ring in your 50th year!!!! Congratulations on accomplishing your goal!

Hey All,

As of July 1, the admins are going to be archiving the 2nd quarter mentor groups.  Do you all have interest in maintaining a group from July-September?  If so I'll open another up.  I'm not really interested in taking on anyone new, so it would be this same group of peeps.  Let me know your thoughts..... I'm more than happy to keep this group intact as I think you're all great, but I don't have the energy to get to know new folks right now :D

Matt

I would love to keep our current group intact if possible.

Bryan

OK We'll go again for 3rd quarter.

I'm curious out of the 20 or so that we took on in the 1st quarter- many have not posted in months.  I'm curious if people dropped out or if they're just lurking.  I know Catie is done for the year as it's winter in Australia.   Just wondering for my own reference what our rate of attrition was.

Okay folks need some suggestions. My 11 and 12 year old daughters are wanting to train for a Sprint tri. Where can I get training plans appropriate for their age/body?

Looking for one for a Tri 4 months from now and one 11 months from now.

Any suggestions or resources are appreciated.

Thanks,

Bryan

No clue on the training plans, but that's awesome that they want to do a tri!

I just signed up for my first one, finally! It's a mini sprint on July 7. It's 300yards/10miles/5K.  I had to give my average 100 yard swim time and wasn't sure what to put, just gave my best bet. They also asked for an estimated finish time and I said an hour and a half, which is probably a bit ambitious, but we'll see I guess. Can't wait!

4 other items I learned on my Tri last weekend.

1. A five galloon bucket makes a great stool to use in transition.

2. cable ties are indispensible - great way to attach gel packs to your handle bars for use during the ride.

3. Only consume gel packs if you have water to wash them down - otherwise dry heaving may result

4. Plan when during your ride / run that you plan on consuming gels etc.

Good Job - triump despite obstacles! Way to go!!!

Bryan

HI All!

  Matt, I'm in too....just 8 weeks until my "A" race, the Danskin that will be alongside about 3000 of my closest friends!  Crashed yesterday and just slept - still can't really balance the training and life but I'm back in it today.

Found a training buddy!  She is also going to run the Danskin for the 7th time and she is in the age  category just above mine.  We'll just see how the silvers do!  Don't know if they have enough colors of swim caps to reach us at 55-59 (me), and 60-64 (her).  LOL

Well done Bryan!  Well done Steve!  I was on the sofa in mush mode when I heard the big rain start.  I was hoping you had just missed it.  Hope you had fun bopping around Seattle!   Were the bands fun? 

Thanks for all the help and encouragement everyone - one more time!

Bryan, let me ask around for you.  You might also want to post in the Triathlon Talk forum.  I'll see what my coach friends have to say.  I'm not sure how much "training" a young kid should really do, beyond normal day to day activity.  I'm curious though.

Matt

Steve- awesome!  Congratulations on the new PR!  I know what a PITA it is when your GPS dies... glad you toughed through the rain and equipment malfunction.  You won't remember the obstacles in a few years, only the glory from finishing!

I'm impressed, great job!

My Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon "unofficial" race report: I started the morning with my brother who had never ran a marathon before. He signed up for it, and then decided he wanted to do the half instead. Despite my "peer pressure" he stuck to his guns, ran his half and had a good time. I didn't fare so well.

We were waiting in our corral when "the urge" hit me. I made it to the line for the porta potties and after waiting what seemed like an eternity, I got in, out and was looking for the corral. It was way up ahead, nearing the start line. I decided that I had better cut across the grass at the Seattle Center instead of fighting the crowd. Big mistake. I have since learned that Seattle is a very wet place. Even though it wasn't raining, the grass was a big muddy mess. I should have looked at all the other deep muddy footprints I was following but I didn't. I made it back to the corral, found my brother and noticed that my shoes were covered in mud. My socks were soaked too. Not the way I wanted to start my race.

Our corral started and other than the squishy noise coming from my shoes, I had a really good first half of the marathon. I had a plan and it was going well. I had planned to treat the first 20 miles as basically a catered long run. I kept my heart rate at around 130-135, and I kept my pace right around a 12 minute mile. If I was a little faster, I walked longer through the aid station. If not, I walked less through the aid station. My half marathon split was right under 12. Things were going great. I had told myself that if I was able to keep that pace up, the last 6.2 miles would be a walk in the park and I could run it like I was running a 10k race.

At mile 14, my Garmin quit. Completely quit, no restarting, etc. Just done. That was more than a bit frustrating since I no longer had a pace or heart rate to go off of. It took me out of my zone and I struggled for the next 2 miles. I almost tossed the Garmin in Lake Washington as we were going across the bridge. At mile 16, I decided I had 2 options: 1) call the Whambulence and quit or 2) Just HTFU and run my race. It was a close call but I decided to just run by feel and have a good time. I got back into my zone and was just trying to pace myself as best I could. My iPhone didn't really help but I was still making decent progress according to the mile timers that were set out. I didn't know what my start time was and they were just posting the elapsed time from the gun, but at least I had some time to judge my pace from mile to mile.

Then around mile 22 it really just fell apart. It started raining! I had mentioned to my brother I had never ran in the rain before. If it rains here in Nebraska, we just wait a half hour and its done, then we go for a run. He laughed at me when I told him this and I don't think he believed me. I also didn't wear a hat since it was nice out when we started the race. Once it started raining however I got a real education. First, sweat from the top of my head runs down into my eyes, causing them to burn. That was something I had never felt before and hope to never feel again. I found cover under one of the tents alongside the course to try and wipe my eyes. It didn't really work. Then I also discovered that the rain along the ocean carries some type of salt with it, or so it seemed. I also wear glasses and they were great for taking the raindrops and funneling them right towards my eyeballs too. I decided that the Whambulence at mile 16 would have been the better option but I was too close to the end to call them now. I was also in the area where the Safeco Field was, and it was along the top of a bridge. That was when I realized just how cold the wind and rain can make a person. There was also no place to take any type of refuge from the wind on top of the bridge. Because we were on one of the bridges, there were cars on the other side of the concrete barriers. I got sprayed a couple of times and learned how to turn my head and duck when cars were coming at me, even though I was on the other side of the lanes of traffic. I'm sure I looked funny but I didn't care. It took all the body heat out of me and I think the last 2 miles I ran shivering non-stop. My brother told me later that he was glad he was done and in the room because when he woke up from his nap and heard the rain he felt bad for the runners. I almost punched him when he told me that.

My wife wanted me to send her a text from mile 23 so she could be near the finish line to get a picture or 2 and see me finish. I did and saw her and my brother near the finish line and they were amazed at how wet all the runners were. Of course they were bundled up in nice warm and dry clothes standing under an awning. The pictures she took did turn out although for some reason I am NOT smiling. I crossed the finish line, wrapped myself up, grabbed my finisher medal and a bagel and headed to Starbucks for coffee. I was still shivering when my wife came up the QFC steps with my espresso.

Because I was too slow, they had to check us out of the hotel about 10 minutes before I finished. We went to the car and I changed out of the wet clothes into some dry ones and instantly felt better. I didn't even care that I didn't get a shower, just getting out of the wet clothes was a huge relief.

Overall I had a good time. My pace was 12:40 average over the course, which is about what my long run pace had been. I took in my Cliff Shots at the right times for the most part, and my water intake was good. I did take some salt around mile 18 which had I known what was coming I probably would have skipped that. I also learned to wear a hat in the Northwest even if the sun is shining. My squishy mud covered shoes turned out to be the least of my problems. My official finishing time was 5:31:50 which was 14 minutes and a few seconds faster than my Denver marathon, so it was a PR although it really didn't feel like it. It took 2 days to dry out my shoes too.

Sorry this was so long. I'm back home now ready to start swimming. At least there I know that I'll be soaked and will have goggles!

Running in the rain... nice. Still impressed! I'll have to remember about the Whambulenc! 

Yay on the training buddy, and good luck at Danskin, I've heard lots of good things about it! Sounds like LOTS of people!