GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 155)

DENISE -

Check him out of Facebook; odds are that he's there!

For a while I coveted a dispatcher position, but invariably those went to the guys who were wizened veteran drivers , and not us young, long-haired, whipper-snappers.

Eggs and hashbrowns at 3am -- does THAT ever bring back memories!

If I had my life to do over again, i would still devote some time to taxi-driving. Maybe not ~18 months, but some moderate chunk of time. (My parents were appalled that I chose to do that! It was bad enough that I dropped out of Boston University, but then to drive a cab?! In BOSTON?!? And I was an only-child, so all their hopes kind of rested on my at-the-time underachieving shoulders. Oh my!)

Hey everyone,

Been away for a few days but have enjoyed catching up on the posts.   Too many to comment on right now, but I must say that I LOVE your pictures Mandy.   What a smile you have.  You light up the world.   I'll be praying for you this weekend.

Good luck to everyone who is racing this weekend.

Although I know I will be OK in a couple of days, I feel like I am in mourning today, having decided to give up on the running this season - despite all my best efforts to do things correctly, there is definitely something wrong.  Not getting worse, but not getting better.   Cannot run at all without sharp pain.   However, I can swim and bike with no problems and yoga is good except trying to sit on knees.   I cannot compress my right knee totally.   

Just need a couple of days to be sad and refocus.   Still planning on doing some aqua/bike races.  

Have a great weekend.

Steve -

Great story about being a cab driver in Boston and seeing the balls flying over GM.  Very cool  SO if we do a big city triathlon - you are driving!  AND I am an only child too - so I know about parents hopes and dreams riding on your shoulders alone.  My whitewater raft guide years (1993-2001) were tough on them.  It went from them thinking it was a good way to earn some $ in the summer off from college to - are you going to get a real job sometime? You have been out of school since 1996.  HA

3 marathons in 1 year??? OUCH!  How was Quebec City, I have considered that one.

Glad you like my writing. It comes and goes (my ability to write) and is actually much better when I am running, biking, or swimming for distance.  Ofcourse, and race reporting!



Mandy

I am sooo sorry, Anne.  It doesn't seem fair because you are so very,very good about taking care of your body and so very, very good about training.  But "stuff happens".  I know you'll be able to regroup in a few days.  I can't imagine you letting anything keep you down for long.
Denise

Thanks for keeping me posted Denise. I'll take any extra degree we can get. I'm chomping at the bit to finally have a race. Look forward to meeting you there. I'll wear my BT T-shirt to hopefully stand out so we can find each other.
Mark

Oh I'm sorry to hear that Anne! I agree with Denise, it seems so unfair for this to happen to you. You're so diligent with taking care of yourself, seeing your therapists/docs/etc, and nursing your injuries when they need it.

I'm glad to hear you can still do some swim/bike races. Maybe a season off from running will be just what you need.

Tracey

Good luck this weekend Mandy & Tracy. Hope I didn't overlook anyone.

Anne, sorry to hear that you are having to give up running for now.

Mark

Key words:  For now.  I'm sure it'll turn around in time!

Go get 'em Mandy and Tracy!

I really wanted to go for a long bike ride late this afternoon - but no way.  The roads are clogged with people from the Cities coming Up North for fishing opener tomorrow.  Mid-morning tomorrow should be good - they'll all be out on the lakes.
Denise

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-25 8:53 PM

ANNE -

Even though you have a contingency plan in place, I am sure you will continue with therapy and whatever it takes to get your running legs back. With diligence (and maybe a bit of good luck), that just might happen sooner than later. Hope springs eternal!

I apologize if I've already said what I'm about to say, but here goes anyhow!

The upside to my season of aquabikes, '06, was it taught me what it feels like to cycle at the Next Level. The way this worked is that, quite simply, it is pretty easy to push very hard on the bike when you don't have to worry about doing a run afterwards. So, in the competitive setting of a race, I was able to hit and sustain an intensity that I never previously allowed myself to reach. This was almost a revelation. I had been a pretty strong cyclist for a couple of years, but there was always almost an automatic holding-back of my effort. I mean, we all do it so as to have something left for the run, but what it meant for me was that I had never allowed myself to get that close to whatever physiological edges was there. Even supposedly tough, intense training rides......without anyone there to pace me, or chase, I never got to the level that I reached in some of those aquabikes.

The trick after that season was learning how to balance the newfound bike skills with the need to run effectively once off the bike, and to some extent I am still doing that. Just about 54 weeeks ago at Bassman, I pushed the bike so hard that I bonked on the run -- and it was just a four-mile run at that. The bike was 29 miles of flat, the run was virtually flat......but I pushed so hard on the bike that twice on the run I had to slow it down and walk for a bit. Yikes!

ANYHOW, use this season to work to FEEL what it is like to ride hard. It really turned out to be afeeling -- almost like "What? I can do that? I can reach THAT intensity?" It is similar to discover a wellspring inside you, so hidden source of power and strength. I'm sure it's in all of us, and there to be tapped into once we decide we aren't going to hold back any longer.

Silver linings!!!

ANNE again -

Where will this leave you with races? I know that you were in for the aqbk at P'boro anyhow, but what about Muskoka -- is it an option there? Woodstock?

In '06 I did a couple aqbks that were not official; that is, I just bailed after the bike leg. That was by far less satisfying than the official ones, but it was an option and it worked. (Lots of people doing an iron will tackle a pre-iron HIM that way -- do the swim and bike, but save thier running legs entirely.)

BRUINS AGONY

Well, that sorta sucked. Blowing a 3-0 series lead, then blowing a 3-0 lead in game seven?!? UGH!

In the history of pro hockey, basketball, and baseball, there have been 286 times a playoff series has gone to a 3-0 lead for one team, and of those 286 incidents, only four times has the team that was done 0-3 come back to win the series:
1942 - Toronto Maple Leafs over Detroit Red Wings
1975 - New York Islanders over Pittsburgh Penguins
2004 - Boston Red Sox over New York Yankees (god's in heaven, all's right with the universe)
2010 - Philadelphia Flyers over Boston Bruins (waaaaaaahhhhhh!!! )

Just so you know!

MANDY -

You mentioned July 15-18, i think, as a good window for Timberman recon. Um, is the 19th also an option? That is a Monday. Let me know, okay? (I'm scheming, but the scheme doesn't have to evolve to include being on the T-man course on the 19th. It helps, but isn't essential.)

TRACEY -

Hey! You didn't mention that great logo for that race! If that ends up on the t-shirt, then you'll have yourself a terrific t-shirt. A Martian with an Attitude --- way cool!

It's also a nifty touch having that theme on a race that goes along astronaut streets - Armstrong, Aldrin, MacAuliffe. There'll be the small challenge of the hill that looks like it's after the turn onto Armstrong, but mostly it's a decent rolling course.

Great weather for you, too -- high 66, low 52 -- and with a 10am start it showed be low 60s at race time. Perfect!!

DENISE -

Have a good ride today! It was probably wise to remove yourself from the roads if they were so busy, and I suppose your logic is correct -- they'll all be on the water today. Or so we hope!

Ride safely!

Best Of Luck Mandy and Tracy

SMOKE EM 

RIDE SAFELY!

I just mentioned that in a post to Denise, but it carries more gravity in light of an accident yeterday morning in Quebec that killed three triathletes and badly injured three others. The six were on a long training ride, riding on the edge of a road with only gravel shoulders. The road is posted for 90kmh, but apparently many motorists exceed that limit.

The law in Quebec allows cyclists to use the right lane when an adequate shoulder is not present, and moorists are "required" to give them 1.5 meters of separation when passing. It was a clear morning yesterday when the accident happened, and alcohol was likely not a factor.

I worry about this always, especially as I ride alone and may not be all that obvious to motorists. (Although with six riders yesterday, numbers don't always help.) Riding right from my house, I do not have paved shouldes for at least 16 miles, and while we are in a rural area with very respectful drivers (when there is no oncoming traffic, many drivers go into the other lane to give me wide clearance), I still get nervous. So, more and more frequently, I will drive to a place where there are shoulders and do my rides along those roads.

Be careful, gang!

SteveB:

This was a particularly ugly choke of all the great chokes in history. Especially with all the sportscasters and analysts saying after game 3 that this was in the bag for the Bruins!

SteveB:

I love race t-shirts. That's half the reason why I sign up for these things!

I did this course a couple of weeks ago and that hill is killer. Otherwise it's not too bad but that hill comes at the beginning so it's easy to get worn out fast if you push too hard on it. I'm going to try the "sideways" running up the hill that I read about in my Chi Running book.

Tracey,
What a coincidence.  I was just looking at your race website and took a look at the elevation chart.  I was wondering what you were going to do about that hill - it looks pretty fierce.
Denise

Thanks for the pep talk.   I will continue with therapy sessions for sure, and will continue with short test runs but not with the intention of running this season.   It seems that is the only way I even know anything is wrong, so if it doesn't right itself over the next 4-6 weeks, I will go to an orthopeadic surgeon for more serious investigation into what the problem might be.   It's so weird.  It isn't just an uncomfortable feeling or soreness, it is a SHARP, SHARP pain on the inside of the knee and then for the next day I can't totally compress my right leg and it hurts if I try.   It restricts a few moves in yoga but once I do a couple of yoga classes, I'm OK for normal, daily activities including cycling. 

Right now, I can tell you we are both leaning towards giving up on the running for good.   It just seems to be so hard on the body.  As I mentioned to you, if I can't do somethig well, I tend to not want to do it at all.   Not meaning that I have to be good at it, I just have to be able to give it 100% of my effort.   Maybe it's time to move on to something else.   5 years ago I couldn't swim and didn't run and have had 5 pretty good years of triathlon including my first Olympic last year and also racing at the World's.   I have to keep telling myself that to keep from feeling that I'm a quitter by giving up the running.  

My passion IS cycling and I really do want to race faster so maybe doing a couple of years of Aqua/bikes would get me to where I want to be.   I do like what you say about your experience with them.    Thankfully, Trisport has added them to most of their races.   Multisport seems to be relucant to do them.   I have approached them in the past about it.   Something about logistically causing too many safety problems, which I think is hogwash. 

So the plan now is to do the Olympic swim/bike at Guelph Lake I, June 20th; then Peterborough Half (2km swim, 90 km bike), July 4th and Muskoka, Long course (2km swim, 55km bike),  July 24th.    There is a sprint aqua/bike (750 meter swim, 33km bike) in mid August.  I love that course and the last time I raced it, I had an ankle injury and just did the swim/bike.   It wasn't an official race and had to take the DNF.  No big deal, but not my favorite thing to do, and as you mention, sort of a let down.  

And I did notice that Lobsterman has an aqua/bike.  

Just got back from doing the Victoria's Duathlon cycle route - 9* and cloudy - 26km/hr NW winds with gusts to 35km/hr.   Will it NEVER end!!!!     Slow ride but good.   Some good hill training today.  

Thanks very much for the emotional support.    I really appreciate it.    I know I am going to be up and down about this a fair bit over the next while.    I just can't seem to get my head and my heart to agree on the matter of letting go of the running. 
Probably not a smart thing to do, but am going to watch the tape delay of the men's race in Korea last weekend.  

T-4 weeks until my first tri... Gulp!

My mom reminded me last week that it was opening weekend this weekend.  Good idea to have stayed off the roads!!  Oh, I really miss Northern MN (in the summer!).  Don't think I mentioned this before, but my stepfather wanted his ashes spread out over the Whitefish Chain.  My husband (after he is unemployed) and mom will likely be taking a trip up there this summer.

Lisa


Edited by lufferly 2010-05-15 2:19 PM