SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 17)

Way to go in Canada boys!   THat is somw FAST racing ,and Arend congrats on breaking the 5 hour mark

Way to go in France Melissa!   I hear that bike course is hard!   You are an Ironman!!!!!  Or, Vous êtes un Ironman!

Wow, everyone! Great job across the board, and I, for one, am looking forward to Part II next year.

Stellar racing in France Melissa!

Well, normally I would agree - and I have thought this through AT LEAST as well as my race day predictions (which let me just tell you, Fred out-sandbagged them all and I bought it, hook, line and sinker). Fred has a a lot of Canadian in him, and if James is anything remotely like my Polish family it is a safe bet. Besides, Arend's tummy is a little upset, but then again, he could be sandbagging the celebration competition as well.....

Incredible race, Melissa - that is a smoking fast time - way to make it 2 for 2 for the CATUS.

I am going to have to schedule a special off-day just to get through all the race reports.....

I'd love to hear the details of the ride.  I know watching the pro cyclists ride in France/Europe doesn't do the course, views, or climbs justice.

As for the lack of female athletes...I think it's a geographic demographic.  Same thing with Ironman Austria that some of my training partners did last year.  Less than 300 female finishers out of 2200+

Sadly I don't think I did my part to represent Canada on the drinking part.  I only had two beer and was passed out asleep by 8pm.

As for the predictions, I think the only things I got right was the swim order and that Marc was going to beat us all on the run.

Arend, Marc, Fred, and James -- smoking fast times!  I guess my prediction was right   Looking forward to hearing all the details in race reports.  Congrats on races well run.

Melissa, huge congrats for rocking IM France!  It's only June and you've done two 70.3's and a 140.6....what's next?  I think my body would be begging for a break by now!

It is not nearly exciting as the Rumble at Mt. Tremblant, or Melissa's Assault on Nice, but I raced an OLY this weekend squeezed in between a lot of family travel. Managed 1st in AG/3rd in Masters despite an embarrassingly slow swim. It is crazy - my swim has been really good the past couple of weeks but I have been completely dead-legged on the bike and run and so didn't have particularly high expectations. But I learned a couple of years ago that is pretty much how IM training goes.

A thoroughly uneventful race report here: http://beginnertriathlete.com/RaceLog/races-edit.asp?raceid=248584

Hopefully it at least helps to get you through until the really good RRs come out later this week. 

I also had a small race on Sunday. My first full Olympic (because of the cancelled swim in the 5150 last month).

Race Report

I had the same thoughts you did about the quad issues on the bike. First was how how it compared to training rides, and then what could be done with the swimming. I noticed that you swim less than I do per week, but also less per swim. Not sure how well mine will translate yet, and won't know for awhile. Just something I saw. At the very least, I do have notably less leg cramping in the swim workouts now as opposed to earlier in the year or any time before that.

Marc, clearly you just need to start wearing compression sleeves on the swim.

I used to suffer the same issue on the swim (calf cramps) and it seems to have been mostly solved with an increase in overall volume (frequency and distance per workout). Has this always been a problem, or is it a new one to you? It looks like your swim volume will be lower this year than last (but is still higher than most). On the bike I don't suffer quad cramps very often, but I am prone to having my adductors seize up on grippy rides that have a high VI. They usually come later in the ride when I try to settle in and ride steady-state, but the damage is done. It has gotten somewhat better since I have incorporated more hard group rides in my training and I try to stay with the splits. I usually try to jam in extra electrolytes and fluids when they set in. I know in all likelihood that is nothing more than a placebo, but it still seems to help even so. In my experience cramping is always an issue of fitness and over-shooting targets. In my case I am lucky: you don't really need your adductors to be firing right to still run ok. Unfortunately that is not so true with your quads, but you obviously seemed to keep your legs underneath you with a 1:35 run!

A few of years ago in a HIM I got caught up in a bike race and overcooked the bike by about 10 watts over my target. I had planned to run a <1:40 but instead wound up with a 1:52. I actually have this pic laminated and keep it in my transition bag and make sure to take a good long look at it before every race. It doesn't always work, but it helps!

For some reason, I can't get THIS race report.  Keeps shunting me to a login page - even though it shows me as logged in on the top!  I can read others, though...

Will try this one again later, but not sure if anyone else has had the same problem with it.

And, thoroughly uneventful races are usually ones that are paced perfectly, right? 

Matt

Terrific RR! 

Many thanks, as this is such a great resource for folks like me who are just moving into a longer race.  I have to warn you, I asked a bunch of questions on the RR thread...  Think of it as a chance to double bury the race day d-bag from a Karmic standpoint. 

Congrats again on great race.  Looking at your training volumes, I can see why you did so well (and what my challenge really is!!).

Matt

I finally gave up and just went to his race log and directly to the race report. 

That's AWESOME!!!

Without knowing it, you've really helped me a ton here.  I've been trying to figure out how to target paces and HR ranges and get a handle on what's achievable (and what's wise - not necessarily the same).

I've held very similar numbers (both power and HR) for the ride and run in open events - but have never put them together in serial!  I'm glad to see that the level of effort (and I'm not even going to comment on the sick pace that you held - I'm just thinking effort) is possible without cratering.

Now, I know one has to train sufficiently to hold that effort, so I'm still going to have to figure out what MY targets are, but it's good to see an example of the "high end!"

Nice suffering. 

Matt

Duh.    Yep, that worked!

Great race - no apologies necessary for the RR (short course does not make it boring!).

Quick question - for you and the group - what do you use to track performance during the ride and run?

I have the 910, but it has failed now in 2/3 tri's (the one race this season it didn't acquire any position information - had me swimming to the Bay of Guinea off Africa - a VERY straight line on Strava, so some excellent sighting, clearly... and a nice speed of ~54,000 miles/hour.  Not sure what that is per 100m, though).

I have my first Oly (ever) this weekend and want to just use the 910 on multisport throughout, but am concerned about it not performing again.  Also, how'd you get the NI during the race?  Not sure I've seen that option on either my 910 or my 800 for my road bike (which has a PM - sadly, my tri bike does not... YET).

Congrats again.  Top step of the podium must be nice! 

Matt