BamaDC's Mentor Group v4.0 - Closed (Page 14)

I've got no recommendations.

I am doing Augusta.  Mainly, I wanted to do an Ironman branded 70.3 as my first and Titleloops thought pretty highly of this one last year, as have many folks from my area that have done it.

After getting this one behind me, I don't think I will care if it's Ironman branded or not, although the Austin 70.3 and the Galveston 70.3 intrigue me (mainly because I have some family in Houston right now).

I'll be interested to hear the reviews of Atomic Man, if anyone does it this year.

I have a Saris hitch mount bike rack and also a rack that goes in the bed of my truck.  The hitch mount is ok....but the support is over the top tube.  If I had to do it again I would buy a rack that you place the tires into the mount.  The truck rack is great if I'm the only one riding that day.  I'm not sure what brand it was but it was only $80.00. I think I got it from performance or nasbar.

Thanx for the input.  I had heard it mentioned about the bike course being tough. 

WOOOOO   HOOOO!!!!!   I was released from the doctor today with no restrictions.  I'm ready to download a plan and get back with the training.  I was off for 9 weeks and it was the longest time.  I was ready to hit that trainer I got from Mrs. Claus for Christmas.

I gained only 5 pounds while being off from work and training.  I would of hated to gain that 60lbs that I had taken off over the past two years.

Time to Roll !!!

Well seeing as Atomic Man is right next to Knoxville (i.e. the 9th level of hell), I'd say Augusta...

That's pretty darn awesome, man.  I'm sure you'll be back into it in no time.

I've got this bike rack.  It's nice if you've got race wheels and don't want to ding them up. 

I think the cost of it has doubled in 4 years.

Thanks for the bike rack advice everyone.  I've been using something like LostSheep has with my truck but I'm getting a SUV.  I figured I'll just fold the seats down and lay it inside but eventually the wife and dog are going to need room too.

In other news, I've been using Jorge's "iCoach" plans.  So far I like it.  The bike workouts are pretty intense and the swim volume feels right for where I'm at.  He had me do a swim test (similar to the bike power test) to get pace zones for swimming.  It consisted of a 500 yd and 200 yd all out effort (with a break and other stuff in between).  Man did that suck! Did the swim test this morning and it didn't go so well.  I went out way to fast on and was really struggling at the end. 

For the 500 test I did 8:34 and my 100 yd splits were (01:27.2, 01:41.5, 01:48.1, 01:51.5, 01:45.9).  Obviously way to fast and I was really struggling by 150-200 yds and I feel like I've been able to hold those later splits at much lower effort in the past.  For the 200 yd test, basically the same story.  Total time was 3:02.8 but my first 100 was 1:25 and the second was 1:38.  I'm waiting to hear back as to exactly what to do with these number.  I hope the answer isn't that I need to retest...

Did you Birmingham guys have any bad weather?

I can say I've seen a funnel cloud with my own eyes!  You could feel the walls of our complex shaking.

The same system went just a bit north of my house.  My yard was salvaged, only one tree down. 

Ok here.   The same tornado that hit Tuscaloosa went just north of me (about 2 miles). Scary, because they were tracking it right to me for a while, then it turned a bit north.  This is the worse I've seen it around Alabama.  Parts of Tuscaloosa are destroyed, same with north Birmingham. 

I saw video of the tornado in Tuscaloosa.  Scary for sure.  Glad to hear you're ok.  Hope everyone else is doing alright, too. 

We had a tornado pass a few miles south of the office.  Second time in as many weeks one has come that close.

Glad to hear most are safe.

The "Tuscaloosa Tornado" passed within a mile of my sister and grandmother. Their neighborhood took considerable damage, but they're ok.

I used to live at the intersection of McFarland & 15th St behind the Krispy Kreme, that is now no longer there. That area is completely leveled. 

I feel lucky that we made it the way we did!...

I used to live 200yards or so behind the oil change center in the top photo. scary stuff.

First off glad to hear everyone is alright.  Everything is good my way.

I am a Clemson alum.  Anderson was never my favorite town - little dumpy by my memory.  I'd personally stay in Clemson if given the chance for that. Been a number of years since I've been in Anderson, though.

Terrain is beautiful rolling hills, though.  You can't really ask for a nicer general area.  No idea what the actual course is like, though.

Tornado's suck. Got warning again in NC today. We are supposed to have hurricanes, not tornados.

BTW, 9 days into my diet and Ive lost 5 lbs. I've found the key to weight loss. If you arent hungry, you arent doing it right!

Actually I started using an app callled "loseit" on my ipad to track calories in and calories out. I'm running around a 600 cal a day deficit. Its definitely starting to effect my workouts.

WOW.  Devastating.

I was talking to someone on the weather team at the TV station I work at and he quoted some scary numbers.  The nation averages about 120 or so confirmed tornados in April and yesterday alone there were 200+ unconfirmed.  I wonder what the final official number will be.

Wow that's unbelievable!!

I'll be in and out the next few days.  My house will be without power for at least 5 days.  Two transmission line towers from the nuclear plant are umm missing.  So Huntsville is SOL for awhile.  On the bright side, we're staying at my Dad's river house which has power. 

We've got Massive damage less than 1.5 miles from our house.  Neighborhoods just gone.