Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2022 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 18)

Hey! I resemble that remark! :D

Edited by drfoodlove 2022-07-28 9:26 AM

Last big swim workout today before taper...4225yds (in the short course pool!)...also known as 2.4miles. Race distance! Overall, it went pretty well. I didn't lose my mind with all those turns and my overall time was smack on what my "realistic" race plan calls for. I also have stretch-goal, conservative-goal, and just don't die race plans.

Tomorrow is the last long ride--6 hours, followed by a 1 hour brick run. I'll be heading a little north to a paved trail system in hopes of being able to ride with consistent pace and effort as much as possible. That is hard around here, dodging the people who want to run you over and general road riding stuff like intersections and such. I'm thankful every day for the flexibility in my work schedule. The only thing I am beholden to in any given week is my teaching schedule, and even that can be altered a bit if you don't do it too often. I've never had a student complain about a cancelled class yet! A few meeting scattered here and there, but I avoid them like the plague, so never too many in one week. Other than that, I'm free to come and go when and as I please, but man, if I oversleep by two hours, my whole day is shot. I can't seem to get into a groove when that happens, although it doesn't happen a lot.

RE:  Off-days.  Totally depends.  There are some off days where the family has plans that involve walking to hell and back so that's more of an "active recovery" scenario where today is just me sitting on my fat azz trying not to eat too much while working.  I treat them differently in my training planning but to a certain degree you can't micro-manage your body's recovery like that.  Even an activity like golfing can be either very active recovery (walking 18 holes on a hilly course) or full recovery (playing a scramble driving around in a cart having six beers along the way, not that I would do such a thing ). 

@Gretchen:  love your pacing plans!  "just don't die" LOL

Edited by jmhpsu93 2022-07-28 9:58 AM

my round of golf was something in between I guess: walking 9 holes. No, I can't imagine you would ever do such a thing, LOL . (yes, I can .

I love playing golf and drinking beer.!

I played so badly yesterday, I can't believe it. Still, it was fun, always is when I play with my co-workers.

talking about work, as we were earlier in the thread. What do you all do for a living?

I manage the customer service team for a company that makes golf clothes (hence the playing golf with co-workers, we call it product testing!)

Race day!




Edited by Rollergirl 2022-07-30 4:18 AM

I wasn’t done, saw this but couldn’t log in from my phone.

Not happy. Swim and bike according to plan. Total collapse on the run.

Ugh...sorry to hear your run didn't go as planned! Can you take solace in the fact that the swim and bike were good?

Yesterday was my last long bike before taper...6 hours. It was fun! Okay, it started out a bit stressful. I pulled my bike out of the truck and realized the front wheel wasn't spinning freely. I quickly realized the right front brake was rubbing the wheel...and I had no way to fix it. It was pasted to the wheel and even just releasing the brake didn't create any separation (side note: riding without a front break is not a good idea and I do not recommend anyone else do the stupid things I do). It was 6am, so even if I knew where a LBS was, it wasn't going to be open for a few hours. I train with power, so I figured it didn't much matter, as long as I was in my power zones. It is HUMBLING to be riding in your high Z2 range and be going 8mph (it was up a hill), especially when you are in full tri kit with an aero helmet and disc wheels. IF there had been anyone else on the trails yesterday, I would have felt foolish. I ended the day with a 15.1mph average, which I'm hoping translates into something a bit faster than that when not riding with the brake engaged the entire time. Had more adventures too--with 37 minutes left in the ride I had to turn around to get back to the car (didn't plan my loops as well as I had hoped) and I couldn't get unclipped. I've been having trouble unclipping my right foot pretty much all season, but this was just stupid. I finally managed to get it and didn't fall (yay!), but quickly realized a screw had come out of my saddle and now one of the halves was freely rotating/hanging down (I ride a bi-saddle, which has two independently adjustable halves held onto a frame with two screws each--it is awesome!). Ummm...I'm 8-10 miles from the car and 2 hours from my house. My wife is gonna be P!SSED if she has to come rescue me. So, I rode it back to the car and just kept adjusting the seat half on the fly. Got back to the car and realized the reason I was having so much trouble clipping/unclipping is because my cleat was broken. FANTASTIC! So, if you are keeping track, two weeks to race day my saddle and cleats are broken and my brakes won't disengage. AWESOME. Anyway, followed the bike up with an hour brick run, which went well too. It was, overall, a very confidence building day, despite all the issues.

This morning, I fixed my saddle (new bike repair record of $1.12 for the parts!--fixing bikes is never cheap!) and put new cleats on my shoes--I already had a new set waiting for these to need replaced. I went to adjust the brakes, but the wheel was already spinning freely. So...bike gurus...what gives? Did the universe just want me to have a fun day riding with my front brake engaged all day? The only thing I can think is that I had my bike in the truck overnight and it was hot--could the wheel have expanded just enough to cause an issue? It was in the truck overnight last night too, but didn't get as hot. I read several years ago about the exhaust from cars damaging carbon wheels when on hitch mounted bike racks. Is leaving the bike in the car a bad idea?

Today was a 64' recovery ride that was supposed to be intervals, but that wasn't happening. Then a short 1000 yd swim. I almost hate to drive to the gym, change into my suit, shower and drive home just for 1000yds, but that is what the plan called for.

Tomorrow is last long run--3 hours.

Wow, that was a “fun” ride! At least you had these issues in training, not on race day, although I hope you find out what went down so you can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Not really, as the issue on the run is in my head. I can’t seem to be able to push through the pain and discomfort enough when the going gets tough. As soon as I was passed by a couple of girls and realised I was not going to win, Fat Nat took over, I thought, what’s the point and slowed down to “going shopping pace”.




Edited by Rollergirl 2022-07-30 2:20 PM

3 hour run today to finish out last build week of my training plan! It was a good run too—strong and solid, but comfortable pace. At the end of long workouts I always ask myself if I could do it again. This week, I swam race distance and the answer was yes; I biked 92 miles (with the front brake engaged!) and the answer was yes; and I ran 3 hours and the answer is yes. This is really confidence building. I feel great—not super sore. Not overly tired. Not grumpy and sleeping poorly. Everything is coming together as I hoped it would.

Now…the weather…long range forecast has 85F high with 55% chance of thunderstorms on race day. That needs a little work, but there is time (and I can’t do anything about the weather anyway, so I can’t expend energy worrying about it).

Sounds like it, that's great!

Congrats on hitting 500 for the month!

Good luck in the pool!

Maybe I did overcook the bike, as I did a similar brick yesterday with an easier bike (a little longer but not so many hills) and ran the 3k in just over 16 minutes. But still, I should have made more of an effort and not let fat Nat convince me that it wasn't worth it.




none of the above

run pacing: my 5k open run is about..., well I don't know, I have never run 5k without swimming and biking before but my 10k is 55 minutes this year, so I figured that I could do a 3k in 15 minutes. Well, maybe I can't but I can in 16 minutes as I saw yesterday

No, the issue is the head. Once I got passed and realised I was not going to make the podium (even though I said, it didn't matter), I just stopped trying. Even walked for a bit.


https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid...



Edited by Rollergirl 2022-08-01 7:18 AM

Nathalie--If you're open to it, I read the book "The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion" a few years ago. It really helped me think more clearly through some of the mental hurdles of endurance training and racing. It is also hilarious...chapter 1 is titled "Hello Brain! A Peek Inside your 3-pound lump of crazy". It is written by a husband (Simon Marshall) and wife (Leslie Patterson) duo--he's a psychologist. She's a long course triathlete. They present the science behind the psychology of sport in a way that is digestible and include examples from her racing career to illustrate concepts.

Thanks Mike! This brake set up is different from my roadie, which would be adjustable the way you indicate. There are two screws holding the caliper arms down, so essentially the right caliper is almost fixed (moves very little) and the left is free moving. It is back to rubbing this morning--maybe I imagined it wasn't on Saturday, who knows! Gonna spend a little of my nervous energy today adjusting it, or trying to adjust it and then taking it to the LBS in disgust.

1000 whole yards at the pool this morning! Whew! Okay...taper is exactly 9 hours old and I'm already antsy. It is 9:20am and already I've been swimming, paid the bills, done the dishes (yes, we let them pile up over the weekend), done my Arabic lesson for the day, cleaned out my car, checked the long-range forecast for Grand Rapids (twice), and have put the chicken for dinner in the marinade. I can't seem to settle to anything really requiring focus. It is too early for this nonsense!

Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!

Hi Guys, Not dead, just been fighting the winter illnesses and sulking.

Whatever the particular cold/flu I picked up was it was not fun, I had nasty coughing fits for 2 weeks solid. So no training during at all. It was worse than the covid break. So frustrating to feel fine 90% of the time, and then burst into a coughing fit... but I am happy that I was responsible and didn't push through, making myself sicker in the process.

Last week I started to ease back into a routine (again). 4 zwift rides, and 1 very conservative run/walk. 30 minutes per workout for 2 1/2 hours total. Very much feeling like I'm back at step zero. Woke up Sunday morning with some very blocked sinuses, so another couple of days off. But that one seems to have passed quickly so I should be getting the work in from Wednesday onwards. Hopefully this 1 step forwards isn't followed by another back, like the last few have been.

Wow, so much to catch up on.

Gretchen, epic training, as ususal. Great job getting the long workouts done despite mechanical issues. It is so easy to take that excuse and skip things. You've done the work and you're going to crush it.

I would 2nd Mikes opinion about brakes moving to the side, but that doesn't sound like its right for your bike. As an engineer, there's no way leaving your wheel in the car could cause it to expand enough to lock up your brakes. And if it did, your brakes were far to tight a tolerance for a bike anyway. That's formula 1 engine sort of tolerance.

At least your issues are now, not race day. Do you have a service booked? could be a goo idea to make sure that everything is adjusted and lubed right before the big show. If you're like I was for my Ironman's, checking the weather forecast several times a day is going to take some of your taper induced free time. Nothing you can do, but we all still obsess over it.

Nathalie, I have been to similar places on the run, once its clear I'm not going to meet a time goal I had its easy to back off and jog/walk it home and not push to hard into the hurt locker. So I don't have the answer to how to push your self further, just that you're definitely not alone. Sorry you're disappointed in your time. But you beat your swim and bike times. And you still finished a triathlon. There is lots to be proud of.

Jobwise, I am a project engineer for a small engineering company that makes automatic machinery for the food industry.

Mike, epic job on the tour de france/zwift. You've been racking up some big numbers. Don't stress about getting to the pool swimming before your race is over rated. (Joking of course, I only swam twice in the 9 months prior to my last 70.3. You can finish but I do not recommend it.)

Sorry I haven't been able to comment on all the going ons. Hopefully more engagement and less sulking from down here coming up.

Sorry to hear you are still struggling with bugs Andrew. Winter sucks!

Thanks for letting me know I am not on my own with these stuggles. I have always more or less been like that. My first swimming competition when I was 5 or 6 was a 50m. I was much slower than anyone else so I got out out the pool after 25. I was not going to win so what's the point?

A few years later, as a 13 yo or so, playing a tennis tournament. I won the first 2 matches quite easily. The 3rd one was tougher so I kicked up a fuss and left the court (to my mum's embarassment).

Funnily enough, I never gave up doing team sports (although I have wanted to a few times after letting in a stupid goal, but my team mates and coaches never let me (I was a football keeper (in american, soccer goalie))

Started reading the book you recommended Gretchen, I like their writing style, it will be easy to read. Hoping to find tips and inspiration