Got Your Mojo WORKIN'! group - CLOSED (Page 150)

David - sweet bike! Wow!

And Steve - you lost your bike shoe on a crash? Am I grasping that correctly?! Sounds like an epic battle of a race and I think the 3rd time is ALWAYS a charm

STEVE-  Definitely let me know if you are heading down to Mossman, I would love to meet you in person!  I got a short ride in last night after work, but am feeling a little unprepared to tackle an oly length distance from a swim perspective, but give that I have signed up and wetsuits are allowed I am going to push through the uncertainty and go for it.  I am excited about the bike being a longer course and be able to push hard on the bike without worrying about the run.

Who all is racing this weekend?  Good luck to everyone.  

Steve - I didn't know you were taking on a new group, so is that 3 groups you are mentoring now.  Well since I guess we are the red headed step child I found Steve's story and thought I would post it here.

These are Steve's words

My role in the mishap? ALL my role. You know that I keep my cleats on my pedals, and I jump on the bike at the mount line and go to the work of slipping the feet in as early as possible and when things are relatively flat; yes? To do this maneuver, let's say I'm working on the right foot, I put my left arm on my aerobars, elbow squarely on the pad. That lowers me enough so I can bend to my right, reach a finger on the inside of my ankle to the back of the shoe, hold it open, and then slip in foot. I then do the other foot, and when both feet are in I pull the velcro flap tight. I know that this is not the most stable position to ride in, but it's the only one that works -- and work perfectly it has, hundreds of times in races and training.

At West Point, >99% of the bike is on a beautiful highway with wide shoulders AND which is closed to traffic during the race. It is a very safe place to do my technique, but last year I chose to do it (completely successfully) on the <1% of the course that is lousy, that being the access road from the highway into Camp Bruckner. This is a winding road, and is in quite poor shape in terms of bumps and cracks and stuff. It is probably mostly safe enough on days like last year - sunny and dry - but yesterday it was raining hard and the road was soaked and the bumps and cracks were partially obscured by the puddles.

As I departed the mount line and quickly got up to decent speed, I went through my two options -- get feet in before the highway so I could take full advantage of the speed option there, or play it safe and wait until the highway. I chose the first option.....and beyond that I'm not quite sure what happened. I had come out of a sweeping curve about 30 yards before and was on a straightaway (of sorts), and I knew there were bumps and puddles, and one of three things happened: I hit a bump and swerved; I hit a bump/puddle combo and swerved; I took my eye off the road to look down, and when I looked up I was angling off the road. (I think it was either the first or third.)

The shoulder had a narrow edging of gravel, and I knew I shouldn't try to swerve back on that surface or I would go down. So I bailed for the wider grassy verge, but as it was pouring and the grass was soaked, my braking was destined to fail. I think I realized this, and maybe tried to put my bare feet down to help stop me some, but I don't remember doing that. What I do remember is one last quick fishtail and I was down and my bike made a lot of noise and I didn't feel anything painful.

Within moments a woman went past and asked if I was okay, and I told her yes -- which really did seem to be the truth. I got up and looked around and there were my two bottles (one for drink, one for tools) on the ground, and one cleat.....and looking at the pedals there was no other cleat. I then surveyed the whole scene -- no cleat. That began a search, and while searching I realized how lucky I was. Above the grass, of course, was the road and shoulder -- both bad to land on. Below the grass was a toxic-looking thorny border to a slough in which were lots of snags. Had I gone into the thorns, that would've been wicked*; had I gone into the slough, I could've been impaled.

It took over two minutes just to find the cleat, which was lodged in one of the continuous borders of the thorn plants. At one point I even waded into the slough wondering if it had flown in there, but no.

About when the woman asked if I was okay, I had formed the thought that what just happened was going to cost a minute of time. Then when I realized I was missing a shoe and it wasn't anywhere obvious, I knew it was going to be more than a minute; I was on the damn clock again. I also had to straigthen out my gearing and get my chain back engaged, as it was off both the front and back.

I didn't feel I went down that hard, but the kind of disarray I found suggested that I was indeed going fast (Iknew that anyhow) and landed with impact -- but the grass made a soft landing for me. Only over the course of the next eight hours did I accumulate some "injuries" -- first the sight of many scratches, then a rawish spot on my right thigh, then a huge bruise on my left forearm, then a sore back, and finally, upon returning home, the * above -- loads of little thorn splinters in my feet and hands, mostly. I guess they were on the ground, and embedded in me on impact. Most are deep and won't come out until they are good and ready, damn it all.

Soooo.....it was all my impatience and stupidity and just taking too much of a cavalier attitude to that manuever. It might be like people who operate dangerous equipment for a living, or even those who are full-time butchers, and after a certain number of years without mishap they take their eyes off the task at hand, or minimize the potential danger, and........

Of course, had that happened to me on the highway I would've had a very awful encounter with a completely unforgiving surface, so as a way to maybe learn a lesson, I ended up okay. I think.

There! That's the story of my role in the crash. DOH!!!!!!

Wow Steve, glad you did not get hurt, it sounds like it could have been a lot worse.

Well this week really stinks, my lower back pains kicked in again on Monday so no training this week   also the kids are back to school and my daughter is going to middle school and has to be there at 7am so I have to find some way to adjust my training.  I have to get her up at 6am to start getting dressed and eat breakfast. This causes a problem with my morning swim since pool does not open until 5:30 and I have to be home at 6am.  My son starts baseball the end of the month so we will be having 2-3 days in the evening for practice and Sat for games.

I rely on the "email notification" option on the lower right of the forum page. That way I get an email if someone posts and I do not have to scroll through looking for new posts.

Last night, somewhat unexpectedly I swam 1000 yards straight in 23:xx. I say somewhat unexpectedly because I had considered it but knew there was a chance I would stop at 500 then start doing various sets.  I was happy to stop but could have done more without much difficulty. I guess that was my 1000 yard TT.

I have a little five mile run tonight. I bought 2 sufferfest videos that are hopefully done downloading when I get home tonight to augment my stationary training during the week,.

STEVE - Thanks!  I never heard of this site... cool!  In terms of the swim, I think it is just in my head. I know I can cover the distance its just so much longer than my other races... I start to psych myself out I think...

Just catching my breath! I was away for a week and just got back Friday, then raced Sunday, then have been trying to catch up since.

A friend and I took our horses and trailered from San Jose to Whidbey Island, Washington to stay with a friend of ours with horses up there. It was a great trip. Good to see our friend, the horses were super adaptable and the times were good I took all my workout gear with me so I did some OP swimming and biked/ran around the island. That was a good thing because we had 3 ice cream lunches and ate well for all of the trip. The best thing was I didn't gain a pound!

We got back Friday and Sunday I raced an Oly in Santa Cruz. You can click on the race tab below to find my race report. I pr'd by 7 min. It's so nice to start tri's being so slow because the pr's keep coming! I know that'll end soon but I'll take them when I can

I haven't been able to catch up on all the posts yet but it sounds like everyone has been busy and there have been a few adventures.

Training is back to normal this week and I should be pretty consistent for a while. My next race is 9/10, an Oly that was my first Oly last year. I rode my hybrid for that one and had swim issues so I'm looking to really do better this year. Then on 9/11, Dave has to leave on a business trip and he asked me to go with him so we'll be headed to England for a week. I'll get my workouts in and explore on my own during the week and then we'll spend the weekend in London before heading home the following Monday. I'm a lucky girl! I take having grown kids seriously and am enjoying the free time

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Johanne

I have a quick question... how do you keep track of laps completed on the bike.  The Park City Oly has 5 laps for the bike and I don't want to do to many or too few.... I guess just keep an eye on my garmin or is there another trick.  I've kept track of 2 laps before but never 5....

Thanks,

Alex

Steve - Yes the back issue really stinks, it will happen about 4 times a year and it puts me down where I can hardly move for about 2 days and after about 7 days I'm back to normal.  I posted your race report on Big Skies, so where did that name come from.  As for the daughter I love it, I rather get up at 1am and train so I can take her to school.  My kids love when I take them to school, I guess my wife's driving is to crazy for them in the morning, I'm a speed limit guy, just like my racing SLOW...   I did talk to my wife and 2 days a week she is going to wake up at 6am and get my daughter ready so I can do my swims then I will come home and take her to school.  I really hate having my wife wake up at 6 vs 7am bcuz she is a late night person as to me early to bed early to rise.

David - Sweet bike, are you still planning on racing Augusta next year, I hope so, we can meet up and switch bikes.   My plan is still to make that my 1st HIM.

Johanne - Wow 3 days of ice cream and no weight gain, you are lucky.  For me 1 bite = 1 pound. Great job on the new PR and by 7 minutes SWEET.

Group question.  Has anyone used a chiroprator before?  Not really for the back since I know that is always going to be an issue, but my body feel so tight, especially around my neck and shoulders, I thought a chiro could pop it all up and loosen it.  Not really sure, what are yall thoughts.  I have been told to go get a massage, but they never really do anything for me.  I have not had one from a pro but my wife has tried and for some reaon it does not do anything, its like my body cant feel it.  My wife thinks I have a freaky body since I'm also not tickelish anywhere.

Well I hope everyone has a great day or I guess evening.

When I took my first ever "desk job" I worked 8-10 hours, mostly on the phone with the receiver clamped to my ear with my shoulder, my monitor was too low, my keyboard on my desk, my chair too low or something. Within a month I was miserable and cranky. Someone helped me with my office arrangement, I got a head set and I got some "adjustments" arround this same time I had some back twisting falls on the bike-the kind where you know you are going down but can't resist the urge to try and pull it back up by doing all sorts of weird things with your back.

The chiro was an odd lady but she did help. It was a very strange sense of relief after the adjustment, and always a challenge to guess when she as going to "pop my spine". She would distratc me with something seemingly appropriate then suddenly try to pull my head off and there would be this pop pop pop pop , like a small string of tiny firecrackers.

She also claimed to have drowned on the Titanic at the age of 7 and be reincarnated.

Shoes and stuff.

When should I buy and begin breaking in my next pair? I have over 400 miles on my current pair from this spring. I am experiencing some odd ankle pain, maybe from the shoes, maybe just my sprain from February acting up. If I get a pair now will they break in by Branson, or should I start a fresh pair immediately after when my marathon training really begins?

Groin "twinge"

Not really a pain, not really an ache, just a "statement". Right groin-inner thigh. Some discomfort when I get up from sitting a long time, fades away after a few minutes running, no pain on the bike but some "discomfort" when I get off. This is a recovery week so I have an opportunity to go easy or short, longest run scheduled is 10 on Sunday, I have a "easy" 5 on Friday and a short brick Saturday.