SWBKRUN fast, furious, and closed (Page 168)

Good Morning MG!!  Hope everyone has a great weekend and travel safe!

Good luck to all those racing!

Back from my beer race.  My goal was to focus on pacing (I usually start too strong and peter out fast) and I am stoked with how I did.  My pace was within 6 seconds for all 5 miles (9:21, 9:17, 9:21, 9:20, and 9:15).  I gave it all I had the last .3 miles and ended with a 9:15 min/mi pace for the race and a total time of 48:36.  Because of all my long runs lately I've been too scared to push my pace hard.  I was fearful it'd hurt me sigificantly today.  Thought of all you MGers while I was out there.

Anyway, not sure when I'll get to my RR since we're having a birthday party for my son tomorrow but I hope I won't George it too bad.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Christina, that is terrific!  It is great when you face down that little fear in the back of your mind and conquer!  Way to pace it and stay strong until the end!  Happy for you.  Have fun on your ride this weekend. 

Very nice work.  That has got to give you some confidence heading into your race!!!

Way to rock it!

Awesome!  Putting speed to that distance too!  Nice job.   

Ok, back to the peeing and pooing conversation, has everyone seen this Paula Radcliffe marathon toilet stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6I2-YP42rs or this poor guy:?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VArOPqllcQg&feature=related

WHen we were at the Olympic trials in Boston, we saw the same thing with two women.  I couldn't believe it, but they were determined to give it their best effort.  Interesting that Paula stops, but Kim doesn't. 

Nice job Doug.  Your achilles heal is vanishing!

You might wonder why I am sitting on BT when I have a Century today.  Well, it's about the biggest storm we've had all summer long.  By the looks of the radar it'll be around for a few hours.  Start isn't untl 7am and it's 10 minutes from my house so I'm hanging.....praying they don't cancel the 100 miler while I wait.  Same thing happened last year and they did have to cancel it.  Crap (appropriate given the above video).

Bike question/s:

I have now had five flats in my last four rides, all in my rear tire.  (Silver lining:  I am getting pretty damn good at changing flats).  Three of the flats happened during rides, with the other two coming immediately after a ride.  Three of them were from punctures on the wheel side and appear to be from spokes.  Two of those look like the spoke somehow went beside the liner (no hole in liner).  Today's first flat just poked a hole straight through the liner as well.  Today's second is a slow leak (cause unknown because I was too frustrated to take the tire off yet again today) that took 4 co2 canisters to get back to the car (6.8m).  I had the LBS check my bike earlier this week (after my second flat in two rides) and they said it was "road debris" and the hole was on the top side, but at this point I'm not sure I believe they really looked.  

Ok, now the questions ...  

1) Does this sound like just a bad wheel or could my weight be causing the problem with the spokes? 

2) If it's the latter, do they make wheels designed to support more weight?  

3) Either way, any suggestions on new wheels that are fairly economical (i.e. cheap)?

Terp'ed on purpose!!

How about a Milwaukee Girl and fellow Badger going to REPRESENT: 

So I'm in a race with Gwen about 2 (?) years ago when she was still racing with Team Geargrinder, and even though I had a 20+ minute start due to the wave starts, I still remember her passing me on the run like I was walking.  OH, maybe I was walking!  

Up at Lake Gaston, NC. Rode 54 miles in 3 hours today. Had no zip in my legs. Met up with a firend Mike who is training for Kona (did at 10+ IM at IMSG!) He took it easy on us, but is there such a thing as calf envy! I have two more 3 hour rides this week, and the highest total for the year to date.

Wish me luck. It wont be that hard as my wife's family is coming here and it will get me some alone time.

BTW; i drink diet Pepsi cherry. My wife could not find it before we left, so I went and bought some. I come back from my 3 hour ride and all the kids for the other families that visited us are drinking it. WTF!? There is a lot of other things to drink! I hate when people are incondierate like that. I mean they are paying $0.00 to stay here. Why can't you bring your own stuff or at least ask before helping yourself to anything you want? OK, rant off. (but I have had other similar issues already with these people the last few days.)

so BUUUUMMMED! I was supposed to do Red Rock Scenic Loop ride with a group yesterday, and a couple were doing it for the first time. However, I brought my bike to LBS to true my wheels (lesson learned...make sure your wheels are trued when you have it delivered to you...I had no idea for months I was riding on bad wheels). While there, they replaced my saddle (for the fourth time...which I think is a keeper!).  That night, I saw the saddle was placed too far back, so I went to push it back. I noticed that one of the screws on the bracket is different than the original. Didn't think twice, and just went ahead to move the saddle.  Put the screw back on....and it wouldn't tighten.  The bracket's screws thingy has been stripped. I was so mad...and bummed. LBS just closed, so I was stuck.  Missed out on 40+ miler ride and the RR Scenic Loop (1600' of climbing).

LBS felt bad, and will order a new part for me at no cost, and if they can't, they will order me a new seatpost (and it better be carbon because that's what I had).   So for now, I have a temporary seatpost until this stuff can be fixed.   

Don't you HATE it when you're pumped up for a great ride and something so little can screw (pun intended) it up? 

(Copied from my Blog entry...sorry to those who already saw it).

SUZY - I know you've been talking about your saddle issues, I don't remember what was your issues with the saddles, but I have Selle Italia Diva Gel Flow...and OMG, it's awesome. It will take a little bit to break it in, but it's loads better than Terry Butterfly, Felt, Bontrager Affinity. I'm not sure if it's because I'm on a road bike, so it fits better.  Selle Italia do have narrower saddles, Lady Gel Flow (w/ cutouts) or Genuine Gel (without cutouts).  Could/would you consider it? Unless if you finally found "the one". 

Sounds like a bad wheel - spokes could be not trued.  Or just a bad wheel.

Yes, they do make wheels designed for heavier loads. I think if you go to Clydesdales section on BT, they'll give you some advice.

Rim Tape - get Velox Rim tape. It's cotton, thicker and much better than those cheap plastic ones.  I don't use it, but a lot of people on my club rides do.  I haven't had a problem with mine, thus far. 

Stupid question ahead:

What's the difference between CRAMPING up    and  SORENESS.

I have never needed sodium stuff.  I did get calf pain/cramping(?), during my recent triathlon and last year, but I was told it was hydration issue.  Drank some more electrolytes, and it was better/fine.   I never experienced cramping up cycling, just sore/tight quads when I do hill climbing.

DJ--I did find the perfect saddle for me AND the perfect bike shorts for long distance riding.  SMP is my saddle brand and Castelli are my awesome bike shorts!!

Re: Electrolyte/Sodium supplementation.  It is used for more than just cramping.  It is important to keep your sodium in some level of homeostatis.  As I understand it, too little sodium is way worse than too much especially if you drink a lot in warm conditions. Check my blog if you want to understand it better--in short I ended up taking in nearly 50% during my mega weekend and it helped me to stay hydrated.  The store was out of my salt stick on Friday so I resorted to Metasalts (Birdy's brand) and while I had to take more capsules because there is less sodium in them they sat very well on the gut. 

I'm still here.  Vacation + super busy, then I stressed out my back a bit so i've been in a wonderful mood this week (Sam can attest, I don't do well when sick/hurt).  Didn't start my race on Saturday, and started the crit on Sunday and got dropped within 5 laps and pulled out after 6 with bad legs due to not being able to ride because of my back, and sore back.  Have an Oly this weekend and hopefully the Back doctor (I can't spell chiro....) can fix it before then.  So haven't felt like I had anything overly cheery to add to the discussion.

You sound like Macca in the ITU!

Very sad news from the NYC tri yesterday...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/07/2011-08-07_64yearold_man_dies_during_nautica_new_york_city_triathlon.html

Is the stock market making anyone else miserable?!?!?!  What a mess!

HAHA very true, he is whiney also.  On the upside I was able to get an appointement tomorrow so hopefully they can just knock things back into alignment and I can go on with training.  It'll pretty much suck to go to Luray 2 weeks in a row for races and watch on both occasions instead of race.

Leave it to Slowtwitch to stir the pot on this issue:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3470282;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

That is good... I don't know if I could bike 54 miles that fast with "zip" in my legs... You should be happy about this?  NOo?