MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 157)

JOHANNE again -

Don't feel any guilt about a sleep-fillled past week!  I've said this over and over and over, but very little that a well-trained triathlete does in the week of a race will have any positive benefits at all.  The training is essentially completed, and the only dramatic outcomes that can happen are negative things -- injury or just going into the race more tired and worn-down than is optimal. 

So, all that sleep should help quite a bit, as should how close the race is to your home.  It doesn't get much more perfecter than that!

A little spin, a wee dip, a few strides.......that's all you need now to get back a sense of being sharp and in the game.  For true!

CURT -

I gotta think about what effect walking 18 holes would have on a taper week.  Probably it's quite good -- enough to keep active, but with no serious effort to compromise your race.  Nicely played taper-wise, and nicely played score-wise.  Maybe it's the beginning of a few PRs this weekend!

That'll be nifty if your son competes.  You haven't mentioned that before, have you?

Have a blast....and hurry up with the race report, eh?

I can't remember if I bragged on the kids previously.  Oldest is heading to Stanford in the fall to pursue a PhD in mechanical engineering -- she's a whiz kid that got through Illinois with highest honors / is only 20 years old!!!  Wish I could convince her to exercise with me as she's got incredible stamina and strength.  She's a great kid.

Son is 17 and a running fool. He was the number 7 man on the third place state team here in Illinois last year.  Unfortunately he was hurt all track season.  My best guess is that he runs three miles in around 15:20-15:30 now.  Plus he swims like a fish.  He's a good, solid student who is trying to get in to the Naval Academy.

Youngest will be a freshman next year.  She's also a straight A student who loves to draw and create things.  She's going to run XC this fall.  More of a social thing with her, but she should be a solid runner by the end of four years.

Made a quick trip to the Y for 400 yards of swimming.  Did 1 medium hard, 2 easy, 1 medium 100's.  Splits were 2:01, 2:25, 2:18, 2:11 for a total of 8:55 / fastest 400 I've ever done.  Tomorrow I'll likely go out hard for the first 100, stay "long" and solid for the middle 200, and go after it in the last 100.  Guessing I'll come in around 8:35-8:40 for the swim.  Hoping for 20mph on the bike and 25 minutes for the 5k.  Was worried over the past two days as the legs were still really sore.  After walking 18 and the quick swim today, they feel "comfortable" albeit a little tired.  Thinking that by tomorrow should be ready to go.  Two slow runs this week were murder as I wanted to take off, but I held back.

Excited to see how tomorrow goes as I've put in a lot of time.  My biggest "concern" is that I won't have the speed I want and will finish feeling like I have a ton left in the tank.  That said, this would still be an awesome result as I have not done any speed work / it's available to me if and when I want to go after it.  Son is also more pumped than he has ever been.  With the exception of one guy who looks to throw down 56-57 minute sprints and sub 9 IM's, the rest of the field looks in reach for him and he really wants to finish in the top 2.  He's already plotting how to hang with the big boy on the bike / get within 200 meteres of him on the run so he can go after him.

CURT -

You'd mentioned kid #1, but not #2 and #3; they're pretty darn impressive, too.  Good genes all around, eh?

Two years ago at West Point Tri I parked next to one Clayton Petty, a rising high school senior from nearby New Jersey.  He had his sigths clearly on West Point, and by the by, he won the entire race that day.  An awesome talent, to be sure.

At West Point Tri last year, i asked one of the team guys if he was coming to The Point and if they were super-psyched to have him part of the team.  He told me that that was, um, kind of a sore topic, as Clayton had decided to go to Annapolis instead.  Ooops!!  (Well, actually it wasn't so much foot-in-mouth on my part, but obviously a senstive topic for the tweam, which could've used him and must've worked overtime to get him there.)

Now to the more important stuff!

CURT again -

Good plan, especially the three-part swim strategy.  As for the bike/run combo, those are decent goals -- but watch out that you don't expend too much on the bike and struggle on the swim.  20mph will require strong recruitment of certain cycling muscles, which'll mean that your running muscles might not be ready to work -- and that the muscles in common to both disciplines will be taxed some by the bike.  So...

I may have said this to you before, but think about taking the last mile on the bike to get out of your likely mode of hammering.  I do this by (a) switching into big ring and smaller cog, and getting out of the saddle for about 10-15s of standing grind, and (b) switching into small ring and bigger cog and psiining for about 10s.  And I will repeat those two at least once and maybe twice.  That should help wake up some of the as-to-then not well-used running muscles, thus making the transition from bike to run that much easier.  It may turn out that you forget that, and that'll be fine -- I all-too-often forget it myself.....and I've been fervently preaching it for years!

Otherwise, just remember to start the run comfrotably so as not to get into That Problematic Zone too soon.  If you wear a HRM, pay attention to it; if not, pay attention to your breathing!  Small, compact strides are good to start with, even if that is not at all how you "really" run.  If that's the case, then fear not -- after a few minutes you can switch to your regular running style.

HAVE fun!  Mojo to you (97%) and your son (3% -- not only do I hardly know him....but from the sounds of it he does quite well all on his own!)

GEORGE -

Well..........

I've known of people who try many saddles before they settle on (as it were....) one that works for them.  This eems to be more prevalent with women, but men can also be fussy about saddle comfort and fit.  I hope you can find you dream seat sooner rather than later, however.

Good swim?

JOHANNE,

Good luck with the Oly on Sunday.   I'm glad you had a good taper/rest week.   I'm sure it will help you have a strong race.

A long time ago one of the coaches I know told me it was important to try out different strategies with taper/rest.   Don't just assume that because one day off before the race worked OK, that that is best.   He said you should try 2, and then 3 days off and see what happens.   It was really hard for me to even THINK of taking 3 days off and I never did, until this year. 

For all the races this year I took 3 days with the exception of this past weekend, and although I did OK on the race, I could feel the difference in my legs.   I used to freak about losing 'condition' with those extra few days off, or the need to keep the legs moving.  I didn't need to worry. 

Hope you have a GREAT race tomorrow Curt!!   I'll be rooting for you.   You've done some awesome training that is sure to pay off.   Looking forward to hearing all about it. 

I would say for myself I wish I had discovered swimming biking and running when I was much younger.

Have a good day tomorrow.

aside: My nephew participated in a bike ride down at the coast last week, "The Cure for Cancer" is a two day ride from Vancouver to Seattle.  He said he had a great time doing it and they fed them like kings the whole way.  I believe it is 120km each day.  I was thinking it might be a fun ride to do next year.

Swimming today was good again.  I didn't go quite as far due to doing some drills but my weekly totals appear to have been higher each of the last few weeks which is the kind of positive feedback I like to see. 

Our swim group ends for the summer next Friday and 3 of the fellows have asked if I want to do some OWS for the summer with them to keep at it.  I'll have to take the plunge and buy a wetsuit.

On Wednesday, the 1st day of summer, I saw the very first wetsuit swimmer in Okanagan Lake of this year.  We've had nice weather but it hasn't been hot long enough to warm the lake up yet.  Plus we're still getting lots of snow melt running into the lake.

GEORGE -

Admittedly, I have been very fortunate with either my choice of seats or the configuration of my tochis that makes riding quite comfortable.  I wore padded cycling shorts for about 10 rides back in '00, and then switched to tri shorts with minimal padding -- and have never suffered anything close to serious problems.  Back in my iron years of '04 and '05 I caould get a tad tender after about 5 hours in the saddle, but not ebnough to make me miserable or keep me from hopping back on the bike a day or two later.

That ride from V. to S. would be sweet, and you certainly have the experience to make it very doable for you.  Do it!

Also "Do it!" to the OWS with those guys.  Even though i never swim with others, it is of course the wise/sensible/prudent way to do OWS, and you are fortunate to have some willing partners.

Yesteday i did my 23rd OWS since May 17, pointing out just how radically different your condition out there are from mine here.  But no monutains to drain into the Rideau, and no snowpack this winter/spring, either.....and I've been swiiming like a madman.  It's about 37km I've logged in the Rideau in the past five or so weeks, so I'm very pleased with that!

GO, CURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll get the entire race report up later, but here's the highlights:

• Son finished 6th out of 250+ people.  This included him riding the last 8 of 13 miles with a flat / still turning in a 20.1 mph bike split.  Fried his legs and "only" ran an 18 minute flat 5k.  If he had not flatted, he would have almost certainly been second overall
• There was a "pro" there that competed.  Shattered the course record by like four minutes.  Came in around 55 minutes.  Guy finished like 8th at IM arizona and 30th at IM wisconsin.  Was great fun to watch.
• I finished around 1 hour 23 minutes.  About 1.5 minutes faster than last year.  On the one hand, this is VERY disappointing.  However, it was a "different" race.  Again, I went easy/under control through out.  Swim and bike were both about a minute faster, run a minute slower, transitions slower.  Fitness level is awesome.  Two years ago, I was totally fried/wiped out after a sprint.  Now it's ho hum
• Three limiters today.  First, is my unwillingness to put forth hard efforts -- be it in the race or in training.  Combination of not liking pain and fear of injury.  Second, I was not "up" for the race / was just kind of flat.  Wierd in that I was really pumped going in to the race.  Finally, I blew the hydration.  Last year I cramped up bad, so I made sure to hydrate.  Today I over did it and felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach for the entire run
• Even with all of this, missed finishing third in my AG by less than 15 seconds (which really pisses me off in that I could have made this up in about 20 different ways).  Bit of irony here is that the guy that finished third actually stopped running and my son cheered him on / got on him to get going!!!!

Not what I'd have wanted, but there are some positives to take away and some lessons learned.  Plus it was great to see my son's training pay off / see that he has made gains and is becoming very competitive.

Have a great rest of the weekend

Congratulations on a good race. Finishing without feeling wiped out is a sure sign of improved fitness. It sounds as if you could have gained a place or two in your transitions alone and still stayed well within your comfort zone. I doubt hydration had anything to do with cramps last year, for a sprint, it probably had more to do with fitness than anything else, your anxiety about this lead you to over hydrating in the hours before the race-lessons learned I guess. Maybe, to learn to go harder is to try just a little harder at different points in training, for each discipline..add a few hundred meters or a mile or whatever at a pace just a notch or two above your comfort zone, then back off. You can move that comfort limiter up quicker than you think and develop a sense for what level of race pace discomfort is tolerable and honorable and what is dangerous and foolish.

CURT -

Well done!  90 seconds is 90 seconds, and all you have to do is wait 90 seconds for something to happen to realize that it is not a mere "pittance" of time.  A minute faster on both the swim and bike is pretty huge, and I'm sure "frontloading" you effort to such a degree accounted for the slower run time.  I think I mentioned this possibility to you a couple days ago, but what I'm not sure I mentioned was that it takes time to learn how to balance bigger pacing efforts.  It took me many races to learn how to do that mostly well, but even now I can still overstrive on the bike and pay for it on the run.  There's no 'formula" as to how that works, and in the absence of logic I will just be very content with the fact that most times I balnce it all correctly.  But it sure was a long time comin'!

JEFF made a bunch of good points, and right here, right now, I'll just say that probably underhydration won't affect one on a sprint, whereas overhydration can leave you where you were yesterday.  But, as with pacing, nutrition can take a long time to nail down, and often involves much trial-and-error......which can often be quite unpleasant!

As for you other "limiters", I hear you about the first two, too.  The unwilliness to put forth hard efforts is very real, and for the reasons you say -- not liking pain; fearing injury.  It is so common for triathletes to perceive mighty suffering on the run.....and then within 10 minutes of finishing, are certain that could've pushed much harder, and flog themselves unmercifully for not having done so.  I have done that more times than I can count, but at least at this stage of my "career" I have a pretty refined sense of when I actually am in trouble, as opposed to just fearing I am;  that is, I have less of those times of self-flagellation than I used to! 

As for not being "up" for the race --- strange thing, huh?  Those days happen and initially it's weird, given all the self-hype that has led up to a seemingly desired race.  For me, there is a pattern of this later in any given season, and my theory is that after a certain number of hard-fought races, i get weary of "putting on my race face".  This invloves scoping out the a.g. competitiion, and generally feeling that I have to go hard wall-t0-wall in order to win the a.g.  It is worse when I know some of the people there, and especially know their strengths ("Ian and I swim about the same, but he is a stronger cylist.  Yet I am a stronger runner, so i just have to make sure to not let him get too far ahead of me coming out of T2" or "Bob can catch me on the run if I'm not careful, so if I have just a slight lead on him after the bike....I will need to push hard for the whole 10km")

That's my race face scenario, and it can certainly affect the joy I have in racing -- right down to making me feel flat heading in.  It is ultimately about expectations for myself, and so in your case yesterday, could it be that you had high hopes for yourself.....but maybe psychologically backed-off some in an effort to keep you somewhat sheltered from possible disappointmant?  If so, I can relate to that very easily!  It's not fun at all, and it sure can get in the way of feeling pure joy at racing.  Sound slightly familiar?

(As an aside, the folks at triathlons who are most joyful are those who have no expectation son themselves.  They are doing it for love, or the bragging rights of simply doing and completing, or the t-shirt, or the camaraderie.....but not really with looming goals for themselves.  Conversely, the ones who look most miserable are the elites who, pre-race, can get themselves wound tight as a drum.  I would say the pro from yesterday was quite at ease, dropping down to a sprint from hig-level iron performances.  But for most performance-based athletes, there is a big cost to pay if things don't turn out as well as planned, and just in having high hopes based on decent-plus training is enough to get people on edge that despite their huge efforts, what can be accomplished on race day will not have done justice to their training and their hopes.  It's never as easy as it should be!

Congrats to boy-child for his colossal results --especially given having to ride the bike for so long on a flat.  Mercy! His rims may be shot....but at least he didn't blow himself up in doing so.  An 18-minute 5km is huge, something that i won't even come close to reaching.  MAJOR congrats to him for how he did yesterday!

I'll look forward to the full report later!

JOHANNE -

Outta the water yet?!?

Out of the water, off the bike and finished with the run. Not a PR but overall a good race for me. I need to clean up and eat but I'll be back later with a RR.

Johanne

OK!!!  First, a huge thanks to all of you for the support.  While the training for this sport is certainly individual, the help of your peers is priceless.  You guys have been great on providing both encouragement and assessment at each step of the process.

The race report is here:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=447509

I closed the report with this: 

"The best part of a race report is that it lets you reflect and evaluate what did and did not go well.  Yesterday and today have been really hard as the numbers I was looking for did not materialize.  That was really tough to swallow given all of the training I have put in.  However, after replaying things in my mind, there are a lot more positives than negatives surrounding yesterday.  First, I learned a ton and all of the "negatives" are easy to correct / the mistakes are part of the learning process.  Second, I pulled the race off with no physical problem.  My training has paid dividends in the area of health and that's why I started doing this.  Third, while I made mistakes, I did not compound them / I adjusted to the challenges I was facing and got out of my body what I could given the conditions.  Need to remember that in any event, there's somethings you can control and some you can not.  You "play the hand you are dealt" and get out of it what you can.  I played it well, had a good time, learned, and am better for the effort!"

Thanks to Steve and Jeff for the comments/thoughts on the race.  Some great material that helped me think through things. 

The big thing yesterday -- and I missed this until 20 minutes ago -- is that I faced some nasty hurdles during the race and I did not let them beat me / I adjusted to get what I could out of my training and body.  While the result (number) may not have been ideal, the race was a good one.  Couple that with seeing one of your kids continue to grow and excel and what more can you ask for!

I added these comments to your RP:

Consider ditching socks and gloves for a sprint. The time spent fooling with them can make a huge difference in the final result. If you must have gloves strap them to the aero bars or someplace and pull them on after you are rolling. Don't do anything standing still that can be done at 20mph or on the run.

I only use socks for HIM and longer and pull them on in T-2, keeping them rolled open and ready in my shoes.

Again, great race Curt.   I can really relate to one of your limiters - '...my unwillingness to put forth hard efforts - be it in the race or in training'.     I have started putting forth those efforts in my training (and races) in the last 3 weeks and seem to be seeing some results.  

Go for it! 

I like this post.   Especially the last sentence.   

I think I just learned the meaning of 'power up a hill' this past weekend.   STEVE suggested doing that on one of the bigger hills in my next race, so I tried it on some bike hill climbs yesterday.   First time up, I used the big ring (is there a more technical term for that?) in the front and don't really know what I used in the back but it allowed me to climb to the first plateau around 25km/hr, then I caved and switched to the small ring and the speed dropped dramatically.   I didn't like it.

So the next time up I was determined to stay in the big ring and gave myself a new mantra 'P O W E R'! with every pedal stroke and not only did I keep it for the entire 2km, I went whizzing by Ken saying 'On your left'.    And it did hurt a bit. 

The biggest surprise was how strong my legs and glutes felt today.    

Decided to try the same thing today with my hill running and realized I have NEVER ran like that.  

I am freaking a bit, still, about the other short hill at 9.9% grade.   Found one an hour from here in Grimsby (Mountain Road) that goes up to 14% so we are heading there on Tuesday.   I think I should still be able to get the training effect from that effort for the July 8th race.   Hoping, anyway.       I have this stupid fear that I am going to fall off my bike backwards.