Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas 2012 : Official Thread (Page 16)

Merry Christmas to you too.

I guess I will go swim tomorrow.  Man I have loved the last few months of no swimming

Incoming BIKE PORN! Either I was good or I somehow caught Santa in a dark alley and threatened him with a lead pipe. Either way I can't wait for a decent day to roll around here in Houston.

Awesome bike! I Love my Felt B14! Put a disc cover on that girl and she is ready to race!

Merry Christmas to you, wow very nice!

Speedfill sells an adapter that will make the bottle, more or less, fit the aero shape of the bike tube. It is just velcro'd in place. I took the best pict I can of it.

Thanks all. The first thing I'm gonna do is take that silly looking yellow bottle holder off and replace it with a black one. Gonna go all black with this baby so the seat and the cable covers will get replace soon to.

Wouldn't it be cool to make it all black, even the graphics just a different shade of black? Bah, I hate new bikes, just makes me want to spend even more money.

My advice would be to get some swim instruction and preferably from an instructor who has open water or triathlon experience and has instructed other adult onset swimmers.  Swim coaches who specialize in instructing kids can also be very helpful.

I hadn't heard about any issues with the water.  It's kind of gross ('cuz there's a lot of duck sh*t) but not bacteria infected gross.

I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when I raced IMTX last year. I have definitely swam in worse. Once I ran a sprint when the swim was in a retention pond. When you got in your feet sank about 12" into mud. Even then I didn't think it was all that bad. I sometimes think people who swim most of the time in a pool think when they get to the lake the water will be all chlorinated and blue?!? That's just not the case.

Tactically I found the canal portion the be the best part. I found that for some reason no one wanted to swim next to the canal wall. Maybe they were afraid of ducks or something. Anyway, I decided to swim as close the wall as I could, once I did I found that for the first time I had a clear path to swim in. Since no one could swim at me from that side i finally was able to relax and get into a good stroke rhythm. So to be honest I enjoyed the canal part.

December just won't end....as you know (since it's all I talk about) we fly out Jan. 1st.  We're holed up in the Navy Lodge right now, just the 6 of us and a ton of bags waiting for the clock to tick faster. 2.5 days to go.

Workouts have been sporadic to say the least, however, I did hit up the spin bike to move my yearly total over 4000 miles this year.  Can't wait to get to Virginia, get our stuff, and get back to training. 

Nutritional habits have gone in the crapper as well, but I knew it was coming and I'm enjoying it

Winter solstice is a week behind us. Days are getting longer and I'm starting to shift back into tri mode. I got serious enough to sign up for some swim lessons, after four years of thinking that I really need to go ahead and learn how to swim. Hopefully they'll be worthwhile. One thing's for sure, I can't get too much slower in the water! I'm planning on the Houston Marathon next month, and have been mostly running for the last few months. Started taper mode (3-weeks for old guys) this week, so I knocked the cobwebs off the bike and hope to get a few short, easy rides in while the running drops off. I'll log just over 200-miles in December, which will be my highest mileage month ever! It's got me feeling pretty good (or maybe it's the week of vacation I'm taking this week!)

I have not been back on the bike course since OilMan in November, when the chipseal was pretty brutal. Looking forward to smooth pavement!

I just got back from my first ride outside since The Houston triathlon in September.  I am not where I want to be, but better than I thought I was.  I rode around Lake Conroe so I had a few decent inclines to put me to the test. 

I have been runing pretty good in prep for the woodlands marathon with my wife, but I think that is out (better for me).  She broke her toe 2 weeks ago and I am trying to persuade her to put off her first marathon attempt until fall to make sure she "enjoys" her first one. 

It looks like I am going to follow finks plan as a guide line again.  I plan on adding some of Georges winter plan for the short rides and then ride the perscribed amount for the long ride. I alos plan on adding a trck worout during the week because I think I have ran enough miles the last 2 years to add something else to my workouts.    I will follow some of the swimming, but adding masters 3-4 times a month.  I have never swam hard intervals so I think this is why my swim time has not improved over the last 3 years.  Without pushing in training I do not know my limit in races so I just swim comfortable.  Overall I want to improve my time from last year and I hope experiance alone will do that and of course not missing/cutting short my rides/swims like last year.

Swim?  tomorrow...

Jealous! Still at work here., Hopefully the weather hols for the weekend and I can finally take my new baby out for a spin.