Beer Drinker Appreciation Society - Open For Business (Page 130)

Great job Sandi and Thor!! Racing like champs!!

I struggled myself into a 23 mile ride with some pretty good hills this morning. I really didn't want to head out--it took three hours of prep to get me out the door (joys of having summers "off"). The whole ride was a struggle. I hate hills, so there was that, but even on the flats I felt like I was mashing. When I got home my avg rpm for the ride was 66, so my suspicions were confirmed. Don't know what's up, just didn't feel it today. Going to substitute a strength yoga class for my weights session this afternoon. I have a weird twinge in my left calf since spending six hours on a ladder on Saturday.

DO IT!!! They have a half Iron, Olympic, Sprint, Try a Tri, Youth, and then a really little kids Splash & Dash, as well as a half marathon & 10K. I'd say the only downside is that this year the Sprint didn't qualify for USAT points although I think it has previously--the Oly & half do though as well as the run events. If you plan soon enough camping is an option too.

But honestly, I can't imagine a better venue. It is SO well organized, really happy volunteers who love it, the community is all out in force....heck, you have people sitting on their lawns cheering you on. Bike trouble, there is someone there to fix it FOR you. And although the area specializes in wine, you can find a decent beer around too. :-) I'll do it every year.

Sandi

OK, so now that more detailed split info is up, I'm looking at the time differences between me and the women who placed above me. As expected, much of it is due to the bike. I'm really swimming a reasonable 400-800m. The top top finishers I'm probably just not ever going to catch....they are younger and run a 25 minute 5K (I can do 28, but I think 25 is a pie in the sky dream at my age). But I'm looking at 6-8 minute differences on the bike....this is where I think I will focus over the coming year. If I could knock 4 minutes off of the bike, that would make a huge difference in my overall performance. Given what I'm seeing other women do around my age group, this should be totally doable with training.

I am guessing looking at transition times that many of these women--at least 6 of the 8--wear bike shoes. I don't, and am not super inclined to...with my poor vision, I think that clipping in is going to be dangerous and very likely may cost time. However, their transition times are costing them....I'm at 35 seconds, and they are around 2+ minutes. How much do shoes matter, how much more efficient/faster can they make you?

Otherwise, I guess I will work on intervals and ladders? I'm going to keep an eye out for hills I can ride, but unfortunately right now road riding is pretty much not going to happen since I have no peripheral vision or way to see traffic. My original plan had been to do much of my training on the hybrid and race on the lighter bike, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go.

Sandi

Hahaahaha!

Awesome!! Well done!! I would not function well at that elevation!

It is so hard to be motivated with nothing on the schedule. Kudos to you for getting it done!!

Everybody is doing so well pressing on!!

I got in a little trifecta today - 12 mile bike with my favorite training hill, 3 mile run, and 30 minutes in the pool - nice and easy about 1500 yards. I really wanted to take the swim easy today after yesterday's 3,750 yards. My arms were still feeling it a bit. Bike today I again focused on cadence and form. I have a bad habit of letting my shoulders creep up to my ears instead of letting them relax. I'm a bit sore in the upper back but that could be from the swimming increase or the new bike fit. Time will tell. The fitter warned me it will take a bit for my body to adjust to the new fit. I was able to keep my average cadence up at 88 even with that hill. Getting there. I felt like I was sucking wind though - like my fitness wasn't there. So much fine tuning.

Sprint tri this upcoming Sunday - the one that got cancelled last year for the thunderstorms. I haven't been training short distance racing AT ALL so my pacing will be all over the place and my run will be tough as my knee continues its peskiness. (need to roll more!!!) I'm going to focus on transitions I think since I didn't have the bike to run transition at my last race. Last year I was under a minute in T2 so hopefully I can keep that this year. I may have the kids help me with practicing transitions this week. LOL. Have to keep them busy, right? I'd love to work on jumping off and on my bike....but I keep picturing me dumping my bike and falling. LOL

I'm with Thor--I want nothing to do with flying mount/dismount. Perhaps if I was in the running for podium I could convince myself that it was necessary, but I'm not. Plus--I might scratch my bike in one of the epic falls that would surely ensue if I tried to mount/dismount while the bike is moving.

Jenn--trifecta!! I love days like that!

Short run for me this morning (2.40 mi) (245/400). I tried pushing the pace some today, since it was a short run. Felt good, but not sure I could do it for much longer than I did. Perhaps that is the point!

I saw this article in one of my daily emails. Since we've been discussing cadence and how to improve on the bike, I thought some may find it interesting/useful.
http://www.active.com/triathlon/articles/how-to-pedal-like-a-pro-tr...

Hi All!

I know i say this a lot, but it really doesn't take much (5 days in my case) to miss 80+ posts around here! Work sucks. A lot. Like advice from other people is 'well a longer commute is better than dying young of a heart attack'...

I'll get more posts replied when I can go back through them all but huge congrats to all the racers this past weekend! Placing in your AGs - awesome! You all are a huge inspiration.

My Tri class has been great, though the past couple weeks have been focused workouts (last week was run/strength, the week before was swim/strength), so I kind of miss my Thursday night S/B/Rs. Those start again next week, we're off this week.

My newbie tri clinic at my race venue this past Saturday was AWESOME. Thanks for talking me into it! SO worth it. The swim was good, lots of pointers on dealing with situations and panic and what to do/not to do, all the pretty standard stuff. They had one buoy set up for us for sighting and such. The thing that was apparent though was that this race, all the way up to the Race Director, is set up for everyone to have fun. The swim start is set up by 100m time, and swimmers go off time trial style in pairs - no mass start. Everything they talked about is basically be safe, don't go out too fast, take breaks if you need them, hold onto anything except other swimmers, change strokes if you need to, etc. I ended up going back and swimming the lake around the buoy with one other runner/tri newb (i.e. bad swimmer), for a while after the bike before they took the buoy out. It was GREAT. Got to settle into a rhythm, got to sight the buoy and the finish point on shore, got really comfortable swimming there. Now I just hope the water temp holds - it's currently 75 and the wetsuit makes such a big difference for me as a poor swimmer....
The bike course... It's pretty good. At least it's short, only 9 miles. There are a couple small climbs, like 250ft in elevation. No Mur De Huy There's one street that has no shoulder and a decent amount of traffic, which makes me nervous since it's not closed to traffic even on race day. The other streets though have a good shoulder.

Right now it's taper week and boy am I feeling it. Mostly because I'm working out less so the brain is racing and I'm a bit of a nervous nellie about races (right up till the gun goes off then I forget all about it - lol). The tri clinic was this past Saturday, Sunday I had a good bike ride (30 min), Monday was yoga, yesterday was a rest day, today is a 20 min swim, tomorrow is like a 15 min bike/5 min run brick plus transition practice. Friday another swim. Saturday I believe I'm just practicing transitions. Sunday is RACE DAY!

Thanks again to each and every person here for the support and the community. I feel a little like the odd man out or whatever still being the only one who hasn't done a tri yet, but all that will be in the rearview in a few days and I'll be right back into training mode for my 2nd tri in August.

Oh yeah and hopefully since this is a shorter sprint I won't have to address the pee question!!!!

Pee in the wetsuit, John. Just Do It.

And have fun!

:-)

Sandi

OMG Sandi, I love this! LOL. Double dog dare ya, John.....wait....Dave! Dave is the one who asked about peeing in the wetsuit! Both of you! Just pee in the wetsuit already!
It's late...I'm in strange humor mode.

Edited by aviatrix802 2015-07-22 10:07 PM

John, I'll be thinking of you!! What time does the gun go off? I race Sunday too, our gun is 08:30. I'm going at o'dark thirty tomorrow morning to ride and run the course. I've ridden it a couple of times last year but I've never run the course. John, that is so great you've basically done the race course - you will feel confident when you start swimming so remember to smile and take it all in!!

I'm doing the same thing!! (except for Saturday - his last day!! I race the next day so I'm doing almost nothing that day). Iron Cowboy is amazing! I believe he's from Canada? I think his mom lives up there or something? I have been pestering my sis-in-law - she must go ride with him!! I tried so hard to find him so she's got take me there in spirit! LOL

I know! It kind of makes you feel like you did something a little crazy! LOL. .....a little sense of accomplishment, self validation.

Zoinks.

Waiting to hear how Alan has been doing in Chicago this past week. I've been following him on Strava but I don't know any results or how he's feeling.

Whoo Hoo! Go John and Jenn!

I'm racing Sat too. Just a short version Xterra 1200m swim, 6mile bike (main race is a 12- but it's pretty technical- so I signed up for the 1 loop. I'll see how the pre-ride goes if it seems doable I might bump up to the 2 loop). Then a 5k. We're heading out Friday morning to pre-ride the course.

Should be fun!

That sounds like an awesome race!! Good luck Saturday! I hope the weather is good for you and you aren't near any of that wildfire smoke!