MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 186)

Race Report --- SKINNYMAN TRIATHLON ---- Skaneateles, NY, Sept 1

First time at this one, and not the last.  it is part of a big weekend of assorted races, broadly advertsied as Skan Races.  Beautiful little town at the north end of one of the smaller Finger Lakes, and well-organized.  Even though construction kerfuffles caused havoc with the original bike course and a subsequent replacement for it, the one they settled on was a gm.  maybe only 11 miles, but 11 beautiful and challenging miles.

I awoke at 1:45 a.m. and left the hous at about 2:30.  It took about 3.5 hours to get there, and I arrived later than about 75% of the close-to-600 participants (inc. relay teams).  Still, i managed to get a very good racking spot, with all of them being unassigned.  My pre-race "meal" was tea and a bagel at 2:15, and then part of another bagel nibbled at on the way down, a half a cup of coffee left over from the day before.  I figured for a 800-11-3 sprint, I didn't need a whole lot.  Great pre-race vibe overall.

SWIM

Third of six waves, separated by four mintes.  Mine was the smallest, but for some reason there was a fair bit of jostling for the first 100 yards or so.  It was a long rectangle, with an in-water (but not over-the-head) start, and the water was exceedingly calm.  Great sighting, just overall a pleasure to do, and I felt good throughout.

15:43 (1:58/100)  --- 2/15 in M60-64, 153/561 overall individuals

T1

Fine enough.  New wetsuit comes off more quickly than the old one.  Okay with a.g. placement, less thrilled with overall.

1:29 --- 3/15 a.g 142/561 o.a.

BIKE

Terrific course, rolling/hilly, and after about 1.5 milers I played it really well.  Especially on the second half, I was "foresighting" --- figuring the pitch of climbs and attacking them accordingly.  This is an ability I have had in spades in the past, but I seemed to have lost it earlier in the season.  Better late than never, to get it back again!  I did most of the climbs in-saddle, riding a strong cadence and spinning those small circles.  It all made a quite-hard course mostkt easy for me, and I was only sorry when the ride ended.  I was pleased that my knees held up for it, and have hopes that the return to the old pedals and cleats will successfully carry me through the season.

31:06 (21.3mph) --- 1/15 a.g, 43/561 o.a.

T2

Not so sweet.  Aagain, it's the perfectionist diddling with shoes that costs me 10-15s, probably.  Bah

1:11 --- 8?15 a.g., 218/561 o.a.

RUN

Because I got there slightly before the start, I didn't get to survey the course.  Mistake!!!!  It began innocently enough, with maybe 60 yards on falt diowntoen streets before a right bend -- and the view of a big old hill looming ahead.  Oops!  That was maybe another 50 yards further along, and once it began it went on for a looooong ways.  There were two brief plateaus on it, but it was a bugger.  Had I known it was there I would've eased my pace a bit coming out of transition, and I also would've gooten my cadence right up to 90+.  I guess I mostly did okay on it, but it was tough, tough, tough.  At the top there was a gradual decline for maybe about 1/4 mile, and then a trunaround to come back up and repeat the whole thing --- except partway doen the big hill there was a left turn into a neighborhood that featured a steep descent,a nd around a cul-de-sac, and then up the other side.  The break here was that while the descent was really pronounced, the ascent was broken into two parts -- gradual along the bottom of the cul-de-sac, and then kind of gradual up the othe rside.  it was another bugger, though.....but upon reaching the top and coming to the main road, it was a all downhill (except for final 100 yards) from there.  A young woman passed me about 1/3 mile out and I tried to keep up with her, but she outmotored me.  at least she kept me honest and working hard!  The course was announced at 3 miles even, but talk was that they increased the turnaround so as to make it a "standard" 3.1 mile sprint run.  My sense of pace and all tells me that's correct, I guess.

23:31 (7:42/mile) --- 1/15 a.g., 112/561

Overall ---- 1:13:00  (1/15 M60-64, 81/561 overall, 71/321 gender)

I hung around for about an hour post-race, eating, strolling, waiting for awards (another race-logo-embossd glass).  Highlight was seeing a youngish man (~35?) who had done the race with his four kids, all under about six years old.  They all had identical t-shirts, except for what was in a circle on the middle of each shirt -- Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, Thing 4.  That tickled my fancy! 

I then scurried (???) back to Ottawa to catch ANNE and Ken at their racen and overall was pleased with how everything turned out -- despite the way-early wake-up AND the long drive!! 

WHEW!!!!!  I was so sure I had lost the post of my RR!

(Not that it's a greatly illuminating one, but in my two-fingered pecking style, it took a long time to get down!)

Decisons, decisions -- to ride or not to ride?

I haven't ridden since the race on saturday, which I enetered with sore outer knees, but which I exited with no knee issues.  I have since done a couple of good, hard, afst runs, and with no aches.  And at the race, I rode really well and didn't seem to suffer any from decreased training.

So, in the spirit of "Anything one does in the days leading up to a race will do nothing to increase fitness", a big art of me thinks that all i can do with a ride today is aggravate things, and I might as well just coast on into Sunday's race -- which is on a very flat coastal course.  Why risk anything?

Well..................I will probably do a ride, partly to just get a sense of "crispness" on the bike.  I can probably assume that that crispness will be there Sunday even if I don't ride today, but I still think I will give it a short; maybe curious as to where things are at?  Plus, doing a ride today still gfives a few days for the knees to settle down, if indeed they act up today.  (Ya think?)

What I would advise all of you, especially if your Base is pretty big, is to rest it right up until race day......but I will probably not heed my own good sense.  Hmmmm.

ANNE -

(Psst!  You stuck an extra "s" in the middle of "sportstats"!)

I saw him there, with some message on the back of his shirt to the effect of how many he was fixing to do.  Mercy! 

But he had a great race, and his top T2 time shows that when one does this stuff long enough, they get quick at it.  (Exception to that is my own T2 times, which seem to get slower each year.

ANNE again -

Good injury insights, and congrats to you for getting on it so quickly.  You've got a decent support team behind you!

Giving up trails, maybe?  Especially the more gnarly ones?  If not -- caveat emptor!

Well, I hope to do Buffalo.  What I really want is the oly on Saturday, but i need to believe my knees can do 40km happily.  If not, i will settle for the sprint on Sunday.  And if all seemed to go really well, I would do both again!

I suspect that part of the reason I want to ride today is to get some idea of where I'm at, so i can think a bit more seriously about the rest of the season.  I have grandiose plans for what is to come, with multiple races a couple of weekends if the body is game.  That would be two at Buffalo, with the following weekend being a sprint/oly hybrid in CT and maybe a sprint in upstate NY the next day, and then possibly two psrints on coastal NJ the following weekend.  Those two are about 10 miles apart, andone of them, run by a local Boy scout troop, is only $40!

Of clourse, all that is just pie-in-the-sky if the knees worsen, in which case this weekend in Maine could be my last!!  (Oh, noooooooo!!!)   The paln is to do that one, and then on Monday try a bonfide 40km ride.  if the knees are good, I will sign up for Buffalo oly.  (And if not..................??)

I did another run from Malfa to the IM/HIM turnaround yetsrday, which is 7.5km, and that was in 35 minutes -- about 4:41/km, 7:31/mile.  that felt good, but i haven't done one single solitary oly-based brick this season, so my ability to do Buffalo and run well off the bike is questionable.  Topography at Buffalo is not an issue, but wind can be, so it won't be easy.  Doable maybe.....but how well?

Are you still figuring your season is over -- or do you think you have one more ("atonement"?) race in you?

Speaking of which --- how are you and DOMS.  And Ken and DOMS??  And I liked seeing his finish line video -- 15s of fame is right!

This is a somewhat silly observation, but I think I found my first set of decent race pictures from Monday's race.

http://www2.brightroom.com/106268/259

Other than the swim exit, which ALWAYS has me either messing with my watch or, in once case, stumbling up the boat ramp, they are almost worth buying. The bike shots didn't get me on the aero bars, the photographers were at transition and corners, but at least I'm not fumbling with my shoes or looking at the computer.

NICE pics JEFF.   I really like the first one - I think it's so cool seeing people running with both feet off the ground!    

Last comment first - probably shouldn't tell you this but neither of us got any DOMS.     Rightly so, I should think, based on how easy we 'pushed' ourselves - me in particular.   I was actually surprised about Ken, which leads me to believe that our change in diet and introducing green juicing daily, and twice daily, on race days, has contributed greatly to our recoveries. 

I loved his video!  Didn't see one of me.        No promises on the trail running.   I really like it.   Just going to  have to lift those feet. 

We would like to come and watch you race in Buffalo so when you have everything finalized maybe you can post or PM me.  Did you get your ride in yesterday? 

Our official race season is over, for tri's at least.   #1 reason is neither one of us like racing in cold, ugly weather.   So if we ever do race in the Fall, it is always race day registration.    The other reason is that I had a plan for 9 events and the big goal was to come out of this season safely, which I have done, by the skin of my teeth.       

I don't feel a need to 'atone'.   I AM disappointed that I couldn't race the way I know I can, but I'm  happy that I mananged to have a really successful year completing all 9 events with many new accomplishments and several podium finishes.

First ever 30km race; first 1/2 marathon; first run race under 6 min pace; Sprint National Champion; and first HIM.

I am kind of itching to do some running events though.   There seem to be tons of races to choose from so will probably find something in Oct, Nov.   Let me know if you can recommend any.   Do you know what the Philadelphia HM is like?

Cool front coming.......hang in there....we will make it

when it's 65-70 on Christmas day perhaps, or when we get four hour bike rides in 75 degree weather in January-in between ice storms we can amuse ourselves reading about the weather in countries like Canada and Wisconsin

THOMAS -

As I live and breathe ---- it seems that YOU still live and breathe!

I hope all is well with you, and thanks for poking your head in.  Gonna stay a while this time??

JEFF -

Good attitude!  Of course, that's about teh only way to think of it -- what we can't do in the winter, you mostly can.  It's a great argument for keeping two properties, one south, one north.  It sounds like a plan........until i realize yet again that we aren't made of money.  Alas.

JEFF again -

Yes, they are very fine photos, with the run ones being especially arresting.  Are you fixing to place an order?

I'm impressed with Blacklands for contracting with Brightroom.  They're one of the two biggies in the U.S. (ASI is the other), and usually loiter at the bigger-dog races.  You were fortunate to have them there.

I am noticing a trent towards races NOT having "official" photographers at races.  i don't know how the scene works, but I suspect the RD pays to have, say, Brightroom there, and that some money comes back to the RD once a certain number of photos have been oredered.  And as you know, they're not cheap, so my guess is that many RDs have paid out lots and received little, and have thus decided to cancel that service.

Of the four I have done so far this season, none have had a "universal" photographer, meaning someone like Brightroom or ASI or Zoom (up here in ontario) that has multiple photographers on course and provide anywhere from 4-24 images of any given person at a race.  Theses companies also provide photos in galleries via race number or name, as Brightroom did at Blacklands, whereas 3 of my 4 races this year didn't have that; rather one had to scan through endless pages hoping to find images of themselves. 

ANYHOW -- fine photos of you, oh cool, calm, and collected one! (That's how you look as a runner.)

I did a long bike ride from Iowa, through Illinois and into Wisconsin and back..508 miles. It was a July 4th weekend, 1999 maybe. Anyway the day time temperatures were hot and humid but nothing special, however that first night the over night low plummeted into the 40's or something crazy. this was a 24 hour non stop event and I had planned on riding through the night. Coming from Texas in July all my cold weather gear, which was limited, was packed away in Texas, no arm warmers, no jacket, no gloves, nothing to cover my helmet or head. I was very irritated-my fault, but still a shock. That is a completely in appropriate summer time temperature, I was hoping for something in the 60's 0r 70's

All of my events have had photographers, different companies but with searchable galleries. Even some of the smaller 5k have. maybe it's a local thing, McKinney, Allen, Plano-these are high income areas

ANNE -

Quick note to say......

Wonderful that you feel no need to atone...although during the race I was quite sure that was in your near future!  But then when you talked about your final out-and-back, I thought that maybe (and justifiably) that would cinch the day for you -- and I guess it did.  Hallelloo!

Also, Paula Findlay is on the start list for Buffalo, along with 10 other CDN women and 11 CDN men (Andrew Yorke among them).  i looked at the lits a few days ago and didn't notice Paula, so i'm wondering if she is a late addition.  I should amybe check her website (assuming she ahs one) and see what her current health status is; any ideas?

You've probably been there, but the webiste for all this stuff is www.triathlon.org, and then type Buffalo into the search at the upper right.  When the page comes up, you can check start lists.  this year is nott as loaded as last year ----- but then again, Olympics spots wetre on the line last year!  best from the U.S. are Manuel Huerta and Jerrod Shoemaker (both of whom i have raced "against" at races in New Hampshire!).  Talk about hobnobbing with the swells!

Thanks for the link.   I hadn't checked it out.   Did you see all the Andrews?   Must have been a popular name for a while.   Haven't heard anything of Paula, but haven't really been listening either.   Just found the Hy-Vee results by accident and see that my fav - Gomez smoked Brownlee on the run.   He must not like the heat.   Norden took another first as well. 

Got a short swim and spin bike in today and heading out for a YIN class in a bit.  

Playing around with some ideas for the next several months.    Thinking just easy, swim bike runs till end of October. Another walking marathon program starting October 1st.  Plus the usual Bikram classes and want to do some of the numerous classes they offer at the Athletic Club.    Drill work, off-season program beginning November 1st with 16 remaining PT sessions starting then as well. Serious swim coaching starting Jan 1st.   Training from Sept 2011 to March 2013 should provide sufficient base that I can start to introduce speed work w/o risk of injury.     Never a dull moment.

DAVE -

Ah-ha --- the coin drops!  It was ANNE who mentioned him, and I said that I saw him (and his pronouncement shirt), on the course, while hanging around with her.  I never connected it until you mentioned the charity work, and somewhere (MightyManMontauk '09??) I crossed paths with him.  Not to talk or even windk at each other..but he was somewhere I was at, too.  Now I'll have to figure out where that was!

Of interest to you might be the fact that I seem to be doing 5km runs about 10-12s/km slower than the past few years.  That might not initially sound like a lot, but it succeeds in bringing me from low/mid-22 to low/mid-23.  Hmmm.  Chaotic training?  Lack of full focus?  Ravages of age?  Oh, my!

ANNE -

 A quick internet search for Paula turned up a yahoo! piece from 11 Aug in which she suggests that she wants to salvage the season, and maybe eyes Aukland in Oct.  So, that makes sense for her to get back into things at Buffalo before the Champs in NZ.  She also mentions the possibility of a few running races, even cross-country (shades of you??).

I am also thinking of some road races, especially if cycling continues to be a botheration.  Yesterday's ride was okayish, producing some under-the-kneecap discomfort, but at ealst nothing on either side.  I ran a hard 5km a bout 90 min ago, and I could feel it a bit during the run, and a bit more after the run.  I have ice on it now.

I am signed up for Mainiac Tri in Kennebunkport, ME, this Sunday.  It's a sprint with an ocean swim.......but the chances are high that the swim will become a run.  Tropical Storm Laurie (Leslie?) is way out to see, but will likely produce big waves on the weekend.  The marine foresast tfro the s. maine coast calls for seas running 6-9 ft on Sunday.  I'm game --- but i doubt the RDs would chance it if that forecast holds.  Rats. 

See my post to DAVE, above.  My 5km run today hurt, in an exertion sense, and "all" I produced was a 23:29.  I think all of my sprints last year had runs sub-23, but I should check that.  Afriad to see the "truth".........but it might be that the "truth" is that many more 5km runs (training and racing) were in the 23 range than I think i remember.  and that would make me feel better. 

Nice plan in place for you, or at least in the works.  I am hardly even marginally that well organized, convincing myself lamely that i will let my body dictate how it all goes.  I will need to address the cleat/pedals issue as soon as the season ends, or as soon as i'm done with those maybe-runningraces, and then I have to decide about how to balance pool swimming and weight-work and Yoga.  I can do the first two as a nice, inexpensive package through the City of Ottawa, but Yoga becomes a problem in terms of money.  And time, too -- can't really devote all that time to all three, I do believe.  Sigh.

ANNE again -

NO NEED to make excuses for avoiding DOMS!!   As for Ken, i will just say that he palnned it brilliantly, and showed great restraint in keeping the bike effort reasonable enough to handle the run really well.  As for you, i thought all along that you trained perfectly for the half, and I'd just carry that into the belief that your lower body was fully prepared for the task at hand. 

As for nutrition, well, maybe the juicing did indeed help.  I'm sure it got all sorts of good stuff into you that normally doesn't get anywhere near a human stomach, and so if you kind of stockpiled a few electrolytes, and maybe a good dose of amino acids, that could explain why no pain.

So, huge congrats on that accomplishment!  It speaks volumes to your diligent scheming and planning, and all your attention to detail --- and your obvious love for doing this stuff to the point of actually training well for it.  Ta-da!!!!

DAVE -

I might add poundage to the list above.  I am now around 168-170, but last year at this time I was 164-167 --- and last year I was producing my best run times off the bike in races, like in forever.  From 9/11 to 10/2 I had five triathlons which featured great runs -- but at those lower weights.  Maybe I'd better reduce my bagel-intake until the end of the season!!