Tri/tbay group closed (Page 14)

OK I'm back.  Been in Miami since Monday and been freaking busy, except for this afternoon so I went for a ride at the Key Biscayne area.... wow, lots of tongs there, I mean, triathletes ; )   There's an awesome OWS course here. Next time I'll be ready to try it. 

I'll see what can be sone with the race report, but that'll be inthe weekend I'm beat now, and its almost midnite with another long day ahead.  Thanks for the words of encouragement from all of u.  M: Good luck this weekend, sounds like you r ready to kick some butt.  S&R: I forgot wehn your next races are, nothing on recent posts.  and yes, Steve, no news about water infiltration in your property - I guess that's the news, ah?  let us know. 

Wow.  I just checked the official results and I am shocked and impressed!   76/156 finishers  and 12/18 in the 40-44 male div (yep, no more a Clydesdale even if I could have taken bronze).  And yes, the run was the killer, still my pace wasn't as bad as I thought.  I guess the prescription reads: Speed work. 

Place Bib#  Name                  Age Division        Rank  Swim      T1  Rank  Bike  Rate     T2  Rank  Run   Pace  Penalty   Final 
 76    39 Olman Castro           40 M-40-44           75   11:12    1:12   52   28:47  22.9    0:57  104   28:41  9:16         1:10:47

If any of you want to see what I looked like back in August 08 and in December (worst) vs. today check out my blog:
http://fromcouchtoironman.blogspot.com/    Triathlon training with you guys as support has been the best diet. 

Thank u guys. 

Roy, I only update the blog once every two Sunday evenings  - so it's not a whole lot.  I just start a new Word document during the two weeks and at the end it's all cut and paste.  but definitely not something I want to be messing with on a daily bsis.  We went to see the Dade City Pow Wow last Sunday and drove by StLeo.  I guess that's the area where you work, right?  Somewhat hilly course should be fun. 

Steve: yes, it is quite ez to become lazy and fat.  Distractions, work, fast food, so much more.  It's a conscious battle now and I am winning it.

Edited by TrkHilo2k 2009-05-15 9:02 AM

Olman, you have come a long way man--great job!  And you had a very good showing in your tri also.

Steven, I played ball in one form or another since I was 7 years old...until I retired for good last spring.  Similar situation, had been playing with the same core group of guys for about 10 years, and of course I know only one way to play--flat out!  I am a middle infielder, SS or 2B, so spent a lot of time diving at balls, sliding, etc.  What finally caused me to retire was my running:  I would train hard, but then one misstep or bad landing on the ball field could take me out of two weeks of training, and I just decided that 40 years of playing ball was a nice round number to retire on...that, and I went out with the batting crown on our team!

You are right though, things like trail runs, Muddy Buddys, etc. can all cause injuries, so you just have to pays your money and takes your chances!

About to head to Austin for a great weekend, I'll check back in and let y'all know how it went, but I am ready to rock.


Edited by wildcat83 2009-05-15 12:03 PM

Sunday PM:
readying for another long week on the road.  business trainings, meetings and dinners = limited training.  oh well, i guess w/o that I couldn't pay for my hobby, so, it's all good.

Hey guys--am back from a great but tiring weekend.  The tri Saturday on the Guadalupe River just outside New Braunfels was a lot of fun.  But the course, man, nothing but hills, especially on the bike.  The swim was more like a river crawl, as the water was pretty low and shallow in spots.  We swam in waves, about 30 per wave, but the river is only about 30m across, and they had it divided with a lane of tubes down the middle, so the pack swim was pretty congested (I still have bruised ribs from the dude who was breast stroking and frog kicking beside me).  Then after about 150m, the bottom started rising and we all stood up and trudged for about 30m.  I was slogging through water about thgh deep, looked down next to me and saw a dude trying to swim--looked ridiculous!  I looked at the guy slogging along beside me, asked him if he was going to swim, we both laughed "no way", and passed right by the guy--all while on two feet!  Crazy.  There was one other spot pretty shallow, and all of the churning brought up a lot of muck from the bottom, so you had that stuff in your mouth/teeth/face when you got out.  Interesting.

The bike course was some serious hills, I don't think there was a flat stretch anywhere on it.  It was an out and back, so when I was holding on to the bike for dear life on a 1.5 mile downhill portion, all I could think of was "This is going to be a mother coming back the other way".  I rode the Cannondale tri bike, it really felt pretty good.  Needs to be tuned up as it kind of made up its own mind when it wanted to shift gears (kept things from getting boring), and believe me I used every one of the gears it had at least twice.

The first .4 miles of the run course took you up an 8% grade that just wouldn't quit--folks were walking up it, only 100-200m into the run.  One thing I do pretty well is run hills, so I just shortened my stroke, got my chest upright, and chipped away at it, passing a lot of people.  The tri bike must've really made a difference for my legs, because there was no real "brick" portion that I recall (maybe focusing on the hill kept me from noticing).  Once I got onto the flat, I took off, reeling in runner after runner.  The only folks who passed me were two right as I exited T2 (the gal was second female to finish), and a 31 year old who caught me about the 3 mile mark.  My miles after the first one were 7:35, 7:15, and the last .3 miles I was about 6:55 pace, averaged 7:37 overall.

The transitions were good, but I took a bit too long in T1, T2 was good.  Long story short, I placed 41 out of 200 overall, and missed placing 3rd in my age group by 8 seconds, so took 4th out of 16.  I was pleased, and know that I can improve my bike time, as that is where I stand to gain the most.

Next time, I will start at the back of the wave in a pack swim start, as I got beat up pretty good, and my breathing got too fast, in the first half of the swim.  After the course opened up a bit (and got deep enough to swim!), I settled in and did fine.

Here are my times/paces:
Swim 400m 8:12 (2:10 pace) 7th out of 16
T1 :57  4th out of 16
Bike 13.5 miles 43.20 (18.7 mph) 8th out of 16
T2 :42 4th out of 16
Run 3.3 miles 25:08 (7:37 pace) 2nd out of 16
Total 1:18:18 4th out of 16 (41st out of 200 overall)

OK, so that was the Saturday race.  On Sunday we drove about 60 miles to Pedernales State Park, up in the Hill Country, for a Muddy Buddy.  If you aren't familiar with these, they are a blast, but can be pretty rough.  Two person teams have one mountain bike, trading it off at a transition area every mile or so.  You start together, bike goes ahead, drops in transition, goes over/under/through an obstacle, then takes off on next leg as runner.  Runner comes to obstacle, finishes it, finds bike and take off to pass the runner and go to the next stage. 

The terrain was brutal, scared the crap out of me on the bike on some of the down hills (not ashamed at all to say that I ran the bike down some), agonizing uphills, no way you could pedal up them, so the bike legs turned into bike jogs instead.  I raced this with a gal I train with (good athlete, she qualified for World this year in half ironman distance, so will be competing in Australie in October), and we pushed pretty hard the whole way. 

At the end of the race, whichever teammate finished first has to wait for their partner just before you crawl through a mud pit about 18" deep and 100' long, staying under pennants strung about a foot off of the water the whole way...Blast!  The beer garden just a few feet up the hill from the pit kept things lively and raucous. 

We averaged 8:43 miles (total distance was a bit over 5 miles), and finished third in our division, so we actually got to stand up on the podium afterward and receive our medals--cool!  This was no small event either--there were 900 teams there!  The official results just came out--we finished 108 out of 900 teams that started.

Today, my body is pretty worn out.  Two hard races inside 24 hrs is pretty tough, but I was well pleased with how I responded.  I decided not to enter a sprint tri this Saturday, instead will just train easily this week and let my body rest.

I'll post some pics in the next day or so of both events.

Edited by wildcat83 2009-05-19 12:24 PM

I posted some pics from the two races this weekend, look for the Muddy Buddy Austin 2009 album and the Rockin' R tri 2009 album under my profile or search under the Albums button at top of page.  I also completed my race reports and attached a few pics there.

Edited by wildcat83 2009-05-19 1:29 PM

Roy, yes the tri bike is a Cannondale Ironman model, also says something like "Aero Slice" and "Speed Shadow" on it.  It is about 4 years old...any idea what ball park something like it is worth?  I've done some surfing to try and find out but haven't had a lot of time to really dig into it, and I think I'd like to ride it regularly.

I paid a lot of attention to guys that even looked like they might be in my age group, both on the bike and the run.  I like the body markings with age--makes it so much easier to see who you need to pass, and also adds an element of strategy into the equation:  OK, I'm stalking a guy in my age group on the run, do I ease/blow past him, continue to push him from behind, making him feel the heat and then take him closer to the finish...nah, just pass him with strength and let him know that he ain't going to make up the ground on you!  Fun!

Edited by wildcat83 2009-05-20 9:29 AM

Roy, I feel pretty good.  My wife and I did an easy 4 miles last night for my first run after the two races, started out slow, 9:30, then eased it up about 10 sec per mile thereafter.  I felt OK, not great afterward, but OK.  Tonight, I did a mile warm up at about 9:20, then a 17 mile bike ride at 17 mph, then a mile brick at 9:00 pace.  I feel fine now.

I got a couple of blisters, one on each foot in the same spot, from my racing flats at the tri Saturday, and got a piece of something sharp I pulled out of my heel from the Muddy Buddy, but all is OK now, no problems.

Thanks for the info on the bike--I did some more searching this afternoon and was starting to think 2006 model myself.

Steven, I think you've got to play to your strength while attempting to minimize the ground you lose on your weaker event(s).  For me, it goes something like this:

Expect mediocrity in the water, nobody wins in the water no matter how far out in front they get, in my opinion.  Make sure you don't go too strong (since this isn't my strongest event), don't get panicky, don't get frustrated and ruin the rest of your race, don't be gassed coming out of the water.

Tackle the bike with gusto, all while preserving some of my legs for the run.  This is where I am still learning just how much "gusto" I can spend on the bike and still put in an aggressive run.  Last weekend, I played it a bit too safe due to all of the hills, and ended giving up too much on the bike leg for me to make up on the run (had it been a 4 mile run instead of 3.3 I would've clipped the guy who finished 8 seconds ahead of me).

On the run, I try to stay within myself for the first half mile, letting my muscles lengthen out from the bike, then slowly pick up the tempo, running negative splits.  I pick out runners ahead of me and go get them, regardless of age group--it was like a game.  And if you have strong legs left for the run you will be passing folks who did not manage their energy (or under trained) right and left, and this fuels your desire/ability to go get the next one.

As I said, I need to put in more hours on the bike while paying attention to how fast is fast...probably for me, if I get to where I average 21-22 mph on the bike, this will be all I need to be within striking distance on the run.

Steven:  "I never had to worry about strategy while racing in college.  No real strategy in a 400 or 800, run fast, turn left."

Cracked me up!

Guys: you're all doing awesome!  -  and I am back!!!

As I stated on my last post, the last 2 weeks were gointg to be all work and no fun, but that's part of the strategy (keep the flow of income).  All of last week I was at corporate and every single person mentioned how different I looked, wow,  That felt awesome.

This past weekend I did my longest run ever, 11.5 mi.  The last 2 miles were a and I ended up slowing my pace to about 10:30.  Today i went out on my new tri bike and found out a few tech problems.  I've managed to keep my weight stable, but have lost some tone, which I want back.  With my next sprint race in 2 weeks, this means the next 10 days will have a lot of hard workouts.

Mike:  must be great to get podium and medals on these races.  I can't wait to get my time in the spotlight. 

Olman, you should be well-pleased with how you've changed--you've put a lot of hard work into it!  Awesome that you are getting compliments from peers as well--kind of adds fuel to your passion, doesn't it?!

As for the podium, it was neat--first time for me!

Good luck as you finish prep for your tri in a couple of weeks.

I decided to buy the Cannondale tri bike.  I paid $700 for it, and need to get it tuned up as it has some nifty automatic shifting features that need correcting.  I found out it is a 2006 Aero Slice 3, just like you thought Roy, went for $1600 after a good family discount (gal I bought it from is sister of a guy who owns a tri shop), so even with addition of seat and pedals ($150) and tune up ($60), I think it was a fair deal.

I am seriously considering acquiring a trainer so I can get in some butt time whenever I think about it, but really don't know the first thing about them or what to look for--can you guys offer any advice?  I can't spend $300, would like to keep it less than $200 if at all possible.

Thanks for the input Roy.  I see a number of brands all in the <$100 range--Forza, Blackburn, RAD, Minoura...anything to recommend a certain brand over another, or are most of them going to be similar quality in that range?  I see that most have several levels of resistance.

And "new iron" syndrome is always just around the corner, waiting to plague all of us!

Well, I just did some digging on the internet and found out that the bike isn't an '06 but an '04, and it is an Ironman 2000 model:

http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/04/cusa/model-4RM2.html

Did I still get it bought right?  The link above gives all the components--Shimano DuraAce and Ultegra, carbon fork, Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, etc.