MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 174)

GANG!

Quiet last few days here, but that's kind of good because I've been out more than in of late.

My situation is no Double Fronhofer tomorrow.  Those new pedals and cleats from about nine days ago did a number on my knee, and even with a decent tweaking of the cleat position yesterday, i am still wary.  So, I am bailing on the oly (which is why i'm home now), but plan to leave at about 6:30 a.m. to get to the race site around noon for a 2 p.m. sprint -- and then back home.  I am optimistic right now that the knee will get me through the race.....and can only hope that I do no damage to it.  I doubt that'll happen, at least in terms of serious injury, but......

A 20km ride and a 3km hard run after the re-adjust yesterday left me feeling better than I had for a couple of days, and I was pleased with my pace -- especially 7:19/mile on the run.  I'm hoping I can pull a big performance out of my pocket tomorrow, but if the knee is wonky on the bike, that will not be too stellar.

Two years ago I did the oly at 8 and the sprint at 2, and had great results for both.  It'll be tough to equal them tomorrow, and that goes especially for the swim, which is almopst 300% going to be non-westsuit --- my firast-ever, other than for the 300y swim at the Chicago super-sprint in '08 (and that was techniclaly wetsuit-legal, except I opted to go with my speedskin instead).

In '10 it was 13:21 swim, 43:33 bike, 21:42 run (750m, 20km, 5km); T times were 1:09 and 1:04.  I'm slightly undertrained and definitely inclined toward the gimpy, so if I can best any one of those five times from '10, I'll be pleased.

Hoping I wake in the morning and feel good to go (yeah, yeah --- lonnnnnnnnnng drive for a shorrrrrrrrrt race).  DOH??

I've been lurking for awhile - just keeping up with what everyone has been up to - but with company for the last week and a couple more days I've only had time for quick peeks.

But..tonight I registered for the local Summerland Sprint on Sept 2nd.  Apparently, it is a fairly relaxed beginner event.  But then I went to another website to check out what they had to offer at the Pushor Mitchell Apple triathlon in Kelowna on Aug 19th. I had heard its a very serious Oly so I didn't feel ready to try it yet.

It turns out they also have a Try-a-Tri (300m S, 15km B, 3km R) on Saturday Aug 18th and a Sprint on the Sunday (19th).  The Try-a-Tri sounds like a fun/fast event although I'm more attracted to the Sprint.  So, I think I'll see what my wife thinks about me doing one of these events two weeks before the Summerland event.

Dave - Great race report. 

Hey everyone. I slogged out a 5k this morning. Not a good race for me, fighting some kind of bug and general malaise. Race Report

Overall I was 173 of 844 and 10/33 age group, 139/413 gender

Results page

GANG!

Good day -- hottter than the hinges of Hades, but a good day.  Five hours drive each way....for 85 min of racng.......but a good day:

• 20/169 overall
• 17/89 men
•  1/5 age group
• 77th in swim (1:50/100)
• 12th bike (20.2mph)
• 34th run (7:35/mile)

Details, um, soon!!!

GEORGE -

Congrats on taking the Summerland plunge-pledge!  Woo-hoo!

Interesting you mention Apple, because I was talking to the USAT ref that did today's race, and he'll be travelling out there to be a ref at that race.  So, yes, the oly is a big deal --- BUT it is perfectly reasonable to look at doing one of the two options you mention.  Either one would be fully worthy of your time (and money!), and the obvious advantage to doing the try-a-tri is that it would be gentle prep for Summerlnad.  That said --- no reason to not do the sprint.  Most people begin their "career" with a sprint, simply because try-a-tri and super-sprint races are not all that common.

Tell your wife that I might be very upset if you can't race at Apple!

Better than a good day, sounds like a great day!

I had a good day too!   Ditto what STEVE said about hotter than Hades.    Did what I set out to do on my Olympic - push the bike and see what negative effects it might have on run and treat it as a training run.   

1st out of 2 in age.   GENDER:  38/45 overall; 32/45 bike; 35/45 swim; 45/45 RUN!!!!   Even for a training run we know what I HAVE to work on. 

OVERALL Men/Women:  118/135 Bike (29.04km/hr)**; 113/135 Swim (2:19/100 meters); Run 133/135 (7:34 pace(km)).

** On Sportstats my pace will only show 28.7 because they include the long run from timing mat to mount line - my goal/interest today was to see what my actual bike pace would be. 

JEFFTX -

Do they give out watermelon beacsue its name is "Melon".....or is it called "Melon" because the signature post-race food is watermelon?  (We ask ourselves these questions!)

FWIW, watermelon i salways an ace post-race offering!

Great pace for the first mile-plus....but mighty tough to hold!  Still the fact that the following felt fine -- ankle, foot, HR, breathing -- is very promising for your goal of a 22-min stand-alone 5km.  The parts of you that didn't fare well were things tied into your sickness, so for sure try again when you're aT 100% physically.

great effort, given how the week has gone and how you were feeling going directly into it.  And good training for learning how to suffer when already suffering.  Seriously.  Valuable lessons come from stuff like that, just in terms of digging deep when it's not at all what your body and brain are screaming for you to do.

Onwards!

Even with your feeling unwell your pace is still very impressive.  Hopefully the race didn't aggravate how you're feeling.

Steve - I'm still debating between the two events.  I like the idea of the Try-a-Tri as a preparation for Summerland but then again the Sprint has more appeal.  I've got to the 12th to decide and I'd like to do one of them.

GEORGE -

My vote is pretty strongly for the sprint at Apple; okay, very strongly!  The main reasons are that you have loads of cycling experience - lots of big miles under your belt - and you seem very comfortable swimming long and far.  As a rule, try-a-tris are most useful to people with swimming concerns, and clearly that's not you.  I'm just thinking that you would end up maybe having fun........but left feeling unchallenged and perhaps gnawingly unsatisfied.

As for the run part, well, i know you have some concerns about that, but (1) you're a gamer, and (2) you have a couple weeks to put some focus on the run and get comfortable with doing 5km (which the sprint should be) as opposed to the 2 or 2.5 or 3 of the t-a-t.

Sound about right?

JOHANNE -

Ha!  Just noticed that I had "12th swim" down instead of "12th bike".  Oops!  Well, you probably figured that out, if not from the order of the list but also the mileage -- 20.2mph.  I don't think so!

And you're right, it was pretty much a great day.  I can always find a passel of things to quibble about concerning my performance at any of my races, but given this, that, and the other thing.......it was a fine day for me.  (Maybe even justifying the 250 miles and five hours (much on two-lane roads through the Adirondacks) each way.

I hope to get a report up today, but if not, then tomorrow.

As for you ---- have you re-found your running groove?  If not, don't fret, as those things happen -- especially in seasons with big training and big Builds for big races.  (And that would be you, yes?.....) 

ANNE -

Good call on retruning home!  At 6:15 the wind was already very strong, and a 25-minute deluge, with T&L, just ended.  Now, while we may not have been out on the bikes yet, it either would've made a mess of your camping stuff, or made you wonder what you were in for today!  More is expected, at least in terms of rain; maybe T&L action, too.

Perhaps because I kept ice on it for most of the return drive (and, actually, on the going-down part as well), the knee is feeling very good.  I think I said that last night, that I worked to make sure it had a chance of surviving three hours of riding -- and it worked!!!   But giving credit where's it's due, i think my bike guy did a good job of adjusting the position of my cleats.  I guess that'll be determined over the course of the next few rides, but for now I'm pleased that i was able to pull off hard efforts on a hrad course yesterday without being reduced to slithering around on my belly this morning!

FTT t-shirt is VERY nifty......but not as sweet as the one for folks who did the Double.  I kinda wish i had done that, but ---- oh, well.

I don't know the cause and effect relationship of the name but the watermelon was a nice touch. I spent the afternoon with my chainsaw; alternating between tree cleanup-then hose off and cool down inside then back at it, but because I was able to get that tree trimmed back I rescued my mower from the shed it was trapped in under the tree and cut my grass! I now have a few hundred logs of various sizes and untold small branches all over to try to deal with in addition to the original tree trunk and root ball and the debris of my erstwhile garden shed.

Just home from the race.  Full report here:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=454328

I took my time and treated it more or less as a workout.  3 minutes slower than last year -- attributable to a poor swim and an "easy" run effort. 

The girls did the relay and had a great time / was a good family AM so we'll mark it down as a success!

Good results for slogging though a 5K. Once you get over your bug and all the chainsawing you are going to go into prime training mode for your IM!

If you went into this race thinking of it as a workout and a fun family day then it was a success! I've never done a pool tri. How many people are in your lane and why was there so much contact? I'd want to slug someone! You run fast for an 'easy' run effort Still a good race. How did the girls do? Did they have fun? 

Are you going to come out with your daughter when she moves for school?

Johanne

Steve,

I was pretty impressed with that fast swim

No, my running groove is still missing. It'll come back. I'm happy that I've still completed all my workouts this week even when I didn't want to! Here's an excuse: my body is in shock from cutting out sugar. I can almost pull that off except my swims and bikes have been fun but I'll use it for the lack of run motivation until it comes back or I think of something else!

Johanne

Good days all around Did you get extra bling for getting on the podium???

CURT!  CURT!!  CURT!!!

DON'T DESPAIR!  DON'T DESPAIR!! DON'T DESPAIR!!!   READ ON:

Whenever I hear of time dsiacrepencies that don't really make sense (in your case, big training effort, yet three minutes slower than last year), I suspect course mismeasuremants and look at past results for confirmation.  And, in the case of your race last year vs. this year, a quick romp through M60-64 found seven guys who did it both years, and ALL of them had faster times last year vs this year:

• B. Thompson ----- 1:11 vs 1:14
• M. Barrett --------- 1:15 vs 1:17
• J. Ayala------------- 1:23 vs 1:29
• J. Kzmaraski ------ 1:27 vs 1:31
• M. Hansen -------- 1:28 vs 1:36
• S. Stephenson --- 1:32 vs 1:33
• J. Carroll ----------- 1:32 vs 1:33

One guy at 8 minutes slower, one at 6, one at 4........you got off easy!

Seriously, always look at past results when things don't seem "right".  I do it the other way around, also, for example for yesterday's for me, swims were universally faster two years ago than yesterday.  Part of that is no wetsuits this year, but even at that the data suggest that in '10 the course was probably short.

I've got half a mind to check individual splits for Naperville and see where the big gaps were.  The B. Thompson won it both years, so presumably he is quite consistent, and so if his run this year was ~3 min slower than last year ---- then there's the culprit, and overlong run!  (Or,  underlong last year -- and to determine THAT, you'd need to go to a third season in which B. Thompson has done the race; best two falls out of three!)

RACE REPORT

Fronhofer Tool Triathlon (0.5 - 14.5 - 3.1) -- Cambridge NY -- 4 August '12

This is the 6th year of this race, which began with three years as an olympic, then in '10 a later-in-the-day sprint was added, thus allowing creation of "FTT Double" -- for people who want to do the oly at 8 a.m. and the sprint at 2 p.m.  I did the oly in '08, then the Double FTT in '10, and this year the sprint only.  (I was signed up for the Double, but bailed due to injury concerns.)

A small group of hardcore triathletes and their families run this race, and they do a superb job.  it has grown in each of the four years, and this year had over 400 competitors in the oly, sprint -- and a Friday evening kids race.  The RD is Kevin Crossman, whom I met at the USAT coaching course in '06, and he takes his deep knowledge of triathlon and applies it to FTT.  Fabulous event!

I made the decision on Friday at noon, when I would've left to get down there (five hours away) in time to set up my tent and all, to skip the olympic -- and thus skip the Double.  That was a good call, partly for health reasons but also because race day was terribly hot and humid; I would'nt've wanted that aggeravation.  So, I left yesterday around 7 a.m. and got to the race site close to noon.  Got a decent racking spot, talked to a few people I have learned to know and love from that area, and just tried to stay cool.  There were about 15-20 people who were doing the Double, mostly the local studs and studdettes who seem to thrive in anything.....and they were not looking forward to a second race in those conditions.  (But see below for the "relief"!)

SWIM

The call was made for no wetsuits -- based on water temp of 82.3!  This is the first of my 91 triathlons and 6 aquabikes in which wetsuits were not allowed, but I compensated by wearing my swim-skin, a Blue Seventy Point Zero 3.  My swim was okay, marred twice in the first couple minutes by my left goggle filling with water.  I had to stop both times to empty the water out and try to get a full seal, with this working the second time.  My sighting was great, but "straying" was not; not bad, but not perfect, either.  Little contact, and mostly a nice, easy swim.  The swim time included about 20 yards of water running and maybe 50-60 yards across the beach and up a slope into to the mat just outside transition.

16:11 (1:50/100y) -- 77/169 overall, 49/89 gender, 2/5 M60-64

T1 -- Good one, made easier by not having to remove a full wetsuit!  My comparative placement was great, but made so by how many men went shirtless in the swim and had to wrestle a tight top over a wet body.  I was already "fully dressed", and just ran the bike to mount line and was off.

0:58 -- 24th overall. 18th gender, 1st a.g.

BIKE

Real good right from the start.  I entered this race kind of "mad", due to the change in pedals and cleats and the subsequent knee problems since then.  (And, also, paying for both races but bailing on the oly.  Grrr!)  So, I went out hard and fast, got my feet into the shoes within a minute, and was flying.  I knew the signature killer hill of the course was about 1.75 miles in....but I kind of forgot how to attack it.  The first pitch is the toughest, and given the heat coming off the pavement and down from above, it was almost nauseating to attack it.  But i passed a bunch of guys on it and just felt on my game. 

At about mile 6, going over lousy railroad tracks, I launched my one water bottle, with HEED, designed to give me a few electrolytes to maybe offset potential heat problems.  I heard it land and looked back and saw it on the ground.....and thought about how important it would be to me....but decided to keep going, keep my momentum going.  Within about two miles I began to regret that decision, as I couldn't even generate enough saliva to wet my lips.  For the final few miles I even began to wonder if my lips were swelling some -- they felt quite foreign to my tongue.  At that point I knew that a top priority in T2 would be to swallow generously from a water bottle at my racking spot -- and that couldn't come soon enough.  But I continued to ride hard, pushing a big gear on any flats, and finished strong, swooping through some twists and turns at the end before doing a flying dismount at the top of a wee climb.

43:32 (20.2mph) -- 12th overall, 10th gender, 1st a.g.

T2 -- Okay.  Got into shoes quickly, but as promised to myself -- drank amply from that water bottle! The 10s or os to do that  was essential, i think.

1:10 -- 90th overall, 49th gender, 1st a.g.

RUN

I got lucky here.  Within the first mile it started sprinkling, having started to cloud over during the final four miles of the bike.  The rain built to an almost-downpour, which had two effect -- the good one was to cool things down and keep me wet, the less good one was squall-type winds to run into for about a mile of the return part of the out-and-back.  Overall, though -- beneficial!!!!

I started the run feeling the effects of hammering the entire bike, and it took about 3/4 of a mile to get into a groove.  The rest was pretty good, though, and only one guy passed me.  I had a strong finish, and didn't feel wrecked at all --was even able to bend down and take off the chip starp myself!

23:31 (7:35/mile) -- 34th overall, 26th gender, 1st a.g.

Final result --- 1:25:22 --- 20/169 overall; 17/89 gender; 1/5 M60-64

Thoughts?

• Bike was one second faster than in '10.
• T1 was about 10s faster.
• Swim was about three minutes slower than '10.
• T2 was a second slower.
• Run was about 1:10 slower.
• Made the right decision to abandon the bottle -- even though wisdom holds that if it's important enough to carry with you, it's important enough to salvage.  Had it happened in the oly, with 18+ miles remaining, i would've retrieved it.  But I made the snap decison o leave it there....and it all worked out okay.  I didn't feel depleted at all, and anything that felt amiss early in the run was due to riding the bike hard.
• Hit the lake water real soon after finsihing, and spent a long time just lying there with only my face exposed.
• The rain was perfectly timed.  It stopped with about .5 mile to go, and while the accompanying wind was a nuisance, overall this hot body felt helped by the wet.  Whew!
• Ample post-race food, including chocolate milk, subs, noodle salad, big homemade cookies, and ice cream.
• I won yet another 16-oz glass with the race logo; these seem to be the award-of-choice in NE races these past couple of  years!
• Next a.g. guy after me was 10:23 behind me.  (In other a.g. my time would've been 1/3 in 55-59. 4/14 in 50-54, 2/15 in 45-49, 5/17 in 40-44, and 2/8 in 35-39; I like feeling competitive with all those "younger punks"!)
• Five hours each way is a lot, probably too much for a sprint -- but glad I did it, anyway!

Next up is probably Park City Mossman (olympic) in Bridegeport CT, Aug 26.

Ok George,

Tell us about the Bunsmaster Bakery in Penticton??? I've heard their brownie bites are delicious

Curt and Steve - nice race reports.  Always fun/inspirational to read about other peoples events and their experiences.

Our kids left today - finally - so I was able to run over to Okanagan lake for a swim.  The beach was packed and the water temp was 78degF at 1:00pm.  The lake looked decently calm so I decided to swim without a wetsuit.

A woman started out the same time I did but after 150m of big boats kicking up a lot of big waves she turned around and headed back.  The waves were annoying but it wasn't too bad so I carried on.  Without the wetsuit I felt noticably slower but the real nuisance was all the recreational people on paddleboards or floaties.  I think I added 20% to my distance swimming around all these people.

I don't think I'll go to the beach quite so late in the day on a holiday weekend again.  I'll stick to early morning swims - cooler and quieter.

Steve - I agree with your thoughts on the Sprint vs T-a-T and my wife seems comfortable with me doing the event but I do feel somewhat intimidated by the Sprint.  One day this week I want to try a Sprint on my own to see how it goes and how I feel.

I haven't been in the Bunsmaster Bakery in many years.  I'll have to go in after a swim and buy some brownie bites to try them.  Generally, anything with "brownie" in the name has to be good.  They used to make a poppyseed loaf that was excellent.  I'll have to see if they still make that as well.

FWIW our biggest LBS is The Bike Barn and it is across the street from Bunsmaster. 

STEVE,

Loved your race report.   You talked a bit about it the other night on the way home, but your enthusiasm, excitement and competitive spirit just pop off the 'written' page.   I love it.    You had an AWESOME race looking at the times alone, but seeing where you placed in the 45-49 AG tells more.   They are one of the toughest AG's.  

I would have made the same decision on the water bottle for a sprint.  I did that once at the Ottawa Fall colours tri (that has loops) but on the 3rd loop I had to stop and retrieve it.  

Hope the body is still feeling good today.   I have some DOM's.   First race this season since Around the Bay.   Looks like I finally worked hard.      Still working on race report, and have a number of questions for you.

CURT,

Read your race report.   Won't say Congrats on a great race because I know you aren't happy with it, but CONGRATULATIONS on finishing it.   We become better people and athletes when we have these character building races.  

Sometimes we just don't have the day we know we are capable of for a number of reasons.    You have built an amazing cardio base and also a sound structural base with the approach you have taken this year.   That will work well for you next year if and when you decide to add interval and intensity work to your program once you get into the tri-specific training in the spring.  

BTW, you had a great bike and a more than decent run.    Hope you feel good about that!