MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 190)

JEFF -

Not a bad strategy, immersing yourself in the gestalt of an iron.  You also have the considerable half-iron crowd to play with, too, so the vibe should be quite good -- especially in this, the year of the USAT long-course championships there.

I should check to see how the timing of the iron and half-iron is separated, but if there are times they two races are on the bike together, be very careful not to get sucked into half-iron-going-for-the-USAT-championship paces and blowing up well before the run.  You're a gadget guy and I'm sure you'll rely on your technogear to keep you in check, and that'll be a good thing.

And it's not only the half-iron folks that could lure you onto the rocks of blowing-up, but also the aquabike contenders -- the ones who have absolutely nothing to do post-bike than eat and relax.  My '06 season was strictly aqbks due to a torn meniscus, and that's when I effectively learned to "race" a bike course --- when i figured out just how fast i could go, as there was no run post-ride to complicate things.  But you do have the small matter of 26.2 mile to hoof through, so definitely fight the urge to keep up with people whose plates are far less full than your own.

Should be a blast -- hard work, but a blast!!

Mainiac photos:

It hasn't been a good year for race photos, as a few of my races seem to have done away with them, but there are some amusing ones from Mainiac.  (No race reprt yet, but here are the photos.)

They are at www.capstonephoto.com, find Mainiac at the right, and I was bib 161.

Thoughts:

• photo ending in 757 shows what an underpronator looks like
• photo ending in 338 shows what hapens when I channel my inner blowfish
• running on wet beach sand isn't my thing; can you tell?*
• one of the two similar bike ones shows me just beginning the leg-swing-over; I wish it had been taken a second later!
• I also wish the final 50 yards of the bike wasn't on dirt (even hard-packed dirt)
• I like the last three head-on run ones, a couple hundred yards from the finish, I think

*That was the first mile, where the swim had been cancelled and truend into a beach run.  The "real" run was on good old normal roads!

Steve,

I've now run half a dozen or more 5Ks but hadn't done one since last December. I've also run a 3 mile, a 4 mile, a couple of 7Ks, and a 10K as stand alone running races since last fall. For most of my triathlon years (the last 2) I have focused on running the shorter distances. I run one night of sprints, one tempo run of about 5K, and a long run on Saturday. The long runs have gotten up to 11 miles over the last couple of months so I am considering signing up for a HM some time this fall. I know I could finish it but not sure how well I would do in it. I'd say my speed is ahead of my endurance right now. Also I have no experience in pacing a race that long.

I'm starting to get to the point where I can say no one coming off the street can beat me in a 5K, almost to the point where I can say you'd have to train regularly to beat me. The better you do, the more you realize there is to do to get better. If I could lose the extra 20 pounds I carry I could theoretically break 20 minutes which seems like a really big accomplishment to me. That seems to be the dividing line (for middle-aged men at least) where you separate the "pretty good" from the "really good".

I'm starting to realize how much of our race speed is the culmination of a number of years worth of work. You can't just go out and train really hard for 3 months and reach your maximum ability. I guess that came as a surprise to me a little. It's going to be fun to see what happens over the next several years with those incremental gains. I have a secret long term goal to compete in the Nationals for Aquathlon some day when I feel my times are worthy.

Luckily there's a LBS at the end of my street, ~200m away. Actually it has little to do with luck, I'm sure that no one aside from the countryside here in Holland is ever more than half a mile away from a semi-competent bike shop. 

The rear wheel was a write-off unfortunately. So I've decided to let them replace the rear wheel only, instead of buying a wheelset myself and doing it that way. For now I think it will be useful to spend a bit more at my LBS, and then maybe later on I can buy a more expensive wheelset myself and learn the whole installing etc etc. But Jeff your point stands, about learning a little basic truing. I've watched a couple of youtube videos and it seems doable Only thing I'm wondering, how on earth do you distinguish between 3.22 and 3.45 mm nipples?? My rulers aren't that small :p

Steve I'm gonna check out your pics now, and verify your own captions... or not?

Spoke wrenches are inexpensive, buy 2, or get one of those ,multi type spoke wrenches, I have one somewhere.

I once asked a rest stop volunteer if anyone had a spoke wrench-he handed me a 12" Crescent wrench -After that I started carrying one.

Steve,

Thanks! I ordered two 20 x 30 poster prints of the blowfish picture, one for home and one for my classroom.

Doug

Obviously. Congrats, STeve. Now get some rest.

STEVE - I'm confused. Were you in the Saturday or Sunday Dirty Girl Mud Run? 

TRINA -

Sadly, I had to settle for Mainiac Tri, simply because no dirty girls wanted to get muddy with me.

???

DOUG -

Great post, the one in which you reviewed your progress and contemplated what all it takes to get somewhere. 

As for the half-marathon in the fall............I say to think about it really seriously.  you seem to run lots with few injuries, and if you are at 11 now for the long runs, you are oh-so-close to being ready to toe the start line at a HM.  In fact, you could do it now, as there are those 11 miles you know how to do, and as for the other 2.1 miles, that's where race-day adrenaline comes into play.

You express some concerns about pacing, and that is definitely an issue -- but it's an issue that would mostly work itself out through repeated races at that distance.  It could also be worked out through training sessions, but for half-marathon and marathon training, I have found proper pacing strategies to be hit-and-miss.  (Granted, they are pretty much hit-and-miss on race day, too!)

That your sped is ahead of your endurance is undoubtedly true, from all you say and how you train, but those long runs reallya ren't shabby at all -- not by a long shot.  As i said above, effectively you are "there" right now.  The trick for you would be to not take your 5km speed out on those 13.1 miles, but you know that already.  The best thing you could do is to keep that speed in your back pocket for maybe, just maybe, a stronger and afster effort over the final mile or so, if you've done the previous 12 relatively conservatively.

The half-marathon is a wonderful distance, requiring a major effort in training and in the race itself, but not requiring any great degree of recovery (injuries excluded, that is).  They are really the perfect kissin'cousin to half-irons, and for the same reasons.  I'd love to see how you did at one (or more!)

Also, with experience at them, it is possible to continue adding a speed component......and see where that gets you.  My last one was two years ago next month, and i gambled at keeping a strong sustained pace, and finished at 1:37:08.   I kept wondering if I would blow up, but that didn't happen.  What also didn't really happen was any true semblance of a "surge" in the final mile, although i manged to pick it up a bit; just not as much as I had hoped.  Still, it was an extremely satisfying race for me.

As for weight and running, that continues to prey on my mind.  I had a terrific tri-running season last year, in which I kept my weight in the mid-160s.  This season started off less speedy, but thenagain my weight was more along the lines of 169-171.  So, I pretty much convinced myself that the added weight was the difference between sub-22 5kms off the bike last year versus "just" sub-23 this year ---- and then along came the last two weekends in which I recaptured those faster times,a nd all while weighing at 170/171 on the race days. 

Now, losing some of a goal of 20 pounds WILL help...but I'm never sure how much.  Last weekend at Mainiac there was a Clydesdale, age 42, who was impressively fast; I will check his run times.  I would guess, though, that his initial one-mile beach run was in about 6:30,a nd his 5km run was around 19.  So in a race where Clydes neede to be at least 200 lbs, his weight (and I'm sure it was more like 210-220) didn't ssem to hurt him at all.

I suspect that he has been running very seriously for a very long time -- what you suggest with "the culmination of a number of years worth of work".  Truer words have hardly ever been spoke!

See next post.

DOUG again -

Just wanted to post that before I lost it.  it was getting longish, and the computer has been a bit screwy lately.

I was a bit off in that guy's run times at Mainiac, but they still were superb -- 6:56 for the mile beach run, 20:46 for the 5km at the end.  Those were good enough to whup me by 1:03 on the beach and 2:02 on the road!

Keep that aquathlon dream alive!!!!  You obvioulsy have the swim chops to do well at nationals, and the run isn't all that far behind.  If they ever come to a spot kinda sorta near you, do them even if you don't fel your times are "worthy" -- there is no better way to find out just how comparatively worthy you really are.  Also, things like the Nationals have a pretty wide range of abilities, and I'd bet my left elbow that you would surprise yourself by how well you would place.

Remember, in the world of multisport, just about anyone can do the bike.  but you know (a) how many people struggle with the swim, (b) how many people dislike running, and (c) how many people can't help but get injured when they run.  So, if you can deke and wriggle your way through the swim/run landscape, you are in great competitive shape just by virtue of doing both -- let alone doing them well, which is the case for you.  Yes??

Finally, on behalf of Capstone AND your students, I want to thank you for ordering not one but two of the blowfish posters.  Funny guy!   (Yeah, if nothing else, that photo shows how precarious my grasp is on being a higher vertebrate!)

CONGRATULATIONS STEVE on two more great races!   Your season is going to end up much more successful than you might have anticipated, earlier on this year.     

Really like the photos.    Was it hard biking on that dirt?   Did you have to slow down a fair bit?   That would have been fun swimming - why did they cancel?   Didn' look like there were any waves. 

What's next on the agenda? 

WHERE was that photo from?  Looks like a crazy ride!   I would be one of the nervous ones.    With my tri season over, have taken to riding the mountain bike for a change and can't believe the difference riding on gravel, loose dirt and twigs compared to road riding.    I've heard it will help my bike handling skills and make me stronger?

Steve,

That's a pretty impressive time. That pace is just about how fast I ran my 10K last spring. I think  my goal would be somewhere around 1:45 for a road race. There is a hilly trail half marathon in November I am considering along with one in Indianapolis (which would be paved and flat.) Not sure yet which way to go. The trail run is part of a run circuit I do sometimes and would be worth some points potentially. It might also kill me.

That is an old Tour De France picture. Remember that race is over 100 years old. For the Tours immediately after each World War most people had no idea if the roads even still existed or what shape they would be in after so many years of bombings etc. A road bike can take so much more than most people think it can. now obviously if you are riding expensive single purpose race wheels you should be selective but most of the time it isn't that bad. From time to time I have ridden with alarmist who want to scream "GRAVEL" or whatever each time they spot a couple of pebbles on the road.

Yes MTB and cyclecross will make you stronger. I have never done those sports formaly but I have taken my road bike out on some single track and messed around, for a while we dabbled in a "sport' we loosely called "mountain bike polo". We would use some funky old MTB;s, minimal gearing and home made mallets to knock a soccer ball toward each others goals. This involved abusing city owned soccer fields, and swinging sticks at each other on the cold darkness. But it also involved starts and stops, changes in direction, rapid accelerations, track stands and occasional headers over the handle bars-all in good fun

Cyclecross is a sport I would like to try in earnest someday

ANNE -

The dirt was a caution, but hard-packed enough to not be "slithery".  I slowed down more than I needed to, I think.

In the process of trying to set buoys, they lost a few anchors and kayaks tipped three times.  I didn't see the waves as being overly ginormous, but there was a real concern with undertow.  I was silently disappointed, but I respected the fact that I didn't hear a single grumble about it; I think most people were relieved, actually.

Yes, it's turned out to be a pretty good season.  Sunday was my 7th, and it floors me that all have been sprints!  I really want to change that asap, and so am choosing between a sprint on Saturday ---- and an overpriced oly on Sunday.  the oly went up in price BY $75 as of this past Saturday, so i missed that cutoff.  The trade-off is that i can tent at the oly whereas i would have to motel at the sprint, and the sprint is further..........so the two trips would end up costing about the same.  Huh!

In an effort to not stress my knees in my reconstituted cleats and pedals, I have cycled just five times in September --- Skinnyman Tri, a 30km ride on my own a few days later, Mainiac Tri, Cortland Tri, Buckman Tri.  That's right, essentially no bike training in the past several weeks --- and yet I keep riding really well in races.  Sweet?  I guess!

Well over two months ago, both you and Trina asked questions about races on consecutive days, and I never got around to responding.  having doen that this past weekend, i really should reply soon, becasue once again I learnd that as long as the first race is taken very seriously, something is lost in the second race.  For me it was on the bike, where a course I should've aced just turned out to be a pretty-good-effort-anyhow; but........   Well, I ended up with a biie time that was 29/225, but had I not done the one on saturday, i could've done the Buckman bike maybe two minutes faster, and maybe ended up more like 20th overall.  Not a big deal, and the good news is that somehow I pulled a very fine run out of the hat, but it still isn't really smart to do two races on a weekend when it is almost certain that the second one will suffer in one way or another.

Goofy computer actions.  Will post now!

ANNE again -

No slithery dirt at Mainiac, but the run finish at Buckman was about 25 yards of super-loose sand -- enough to make my run 22:01 instead of the coveted sub-22.  GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!  It was lamost like a bad dream, trying to get somewhere but not moving fast enough.  I mean, 25 yards should go by real fast............but I just felt I was slog-slog-slogging for longer than was necessary.  Rats!

Yerah, probably one race this weekend,a nd then maybe one on the 6th or 7th.  I am leaning towards Giant Acorn (oly) in Virginia, but I have to get motivated enough to drive there.  And despite waht i said in the last post about racing twice in a weekend.......there is also a Giant Acorn sprint on the Sunday.  The big draw to that is finally getting to meet the "other" Steve Bradley --- a guy who is 60 who lives in Purcellville, VA.  I have been aware of him for a few years, but we have never met.  He has improved quite a bit in the apst few years, so if I'm there and do the sprint following the oly........I will have to work really hard to win the "Showdown of the Steve Bradleys".  The pressure will be on!!! 

Beyond that, there might be a race (or two?) in Florida if we go there in November.  And if in California in December, maybe one there.  But neither trip might happen, and if one does, the other won't.  So, I am mostly figuring that my season ends on Oct 6 or 7.

Still keeping your own resolve of no more races?  (Not even Lakeside?)

Steve,

Ok, you have to face this imposter Steve Bradley guy once and for all and defeat and demoralize him. The longer you let him go on claiming to be "Steve Bradley", the more people are going to believe him. He might even start his own mentor group here at BT which would just be too confusing for everyone involved. I suggest you two come to some sort of arrangement where he is allowed to use only the name "Steev Bradley" when registering for any athletic event.

Anne,

You had mentioned having green juice before your last couple of races. What are the ingredients you are using? I have a morning smoothie with spinach, kale and other stuff and it's been ok for some workouts but I'm not sure how it'll sit for a longer day. I'm going to test it out this weekend and just take out a couple of things to see if my stomach holds up.

Thanks,

Johanne

STEVE,

Heading out shortly to Niagara for a couple of days.   Catch up with you later tonight.  I probabaly would have done Lakeside, but thankfully it was sold out.   Sells out every year several weeks in advance.  

Anne

DOUG -

I see the one from JEFF, below yours, extolling the virtues of MTB and cyclocross..........and you may have seen my post a while back to ANNE scolding her for hurting herself doing a trail run.............and the bottom line for me is that I am scared silly of anything that takes me too far off solid roads.  My history with injuries is lurid enough as it is without tempted the fates even more by running/riding on suspect surfaces, so I avoid that stuff like the plague.  It just turns out that BOTH races this past weekend had runs that were about 30-40% unpaved........and I survived.........but they both had me worried.

SO!  I say all that just by preface to casting my vote for the Indy half-marathon, gloriously paved and flat.  Plus, that would give you a pretty accurate benchmark time for H-M, and to my mind that's always a good thing.  But points to be gotten --- I'm always keen on those, so if some points are at the hilly trail H-M, that might change things (for you -- not for me, were it my choice!).

As for the other one of me, he has just aged up to 60-64, so every few years I get his shadow for two years.  I guess I'd like to know if he is a "Steven" or a "Stephen"; I'm the latter.  But even if he is a "ph" as well.........I will safely bet you a million dollars that he does not share a middle name with me.  Mine's too la-di-da for anyone else to own!

Anyhow, it would be fun to meet him at some point.  But right now, for that race, he is in for the sprint on Sunday, and if I do it my priority will be the olympic on Saturday.  And as I said to ANNE earlier today, i know from too much experience at these thimgs that doing two races on the same weekend leaves something to be desired at the second race, if the first has been raced close to all-out.  And that would be my goal for the Giant Acorn oly ---- leaving ???? for the sprint.  (It would maybe cost me a minute on the bike, and about 30 seconds on the run -- give or take.)

Choose that Indianapolis half-marathon!!

DOUG again -

Is it the Monumental, on Nov 3, that you are looking at?  If so, I now second, third, AND fourth what I just posted above!  The elevation shows, like, virtually no elevation change at all, other than speed bumps.  Low of maybe 680, high of 733 = oo-la-la!

Great course, too, for seeing the sights of the city.  But, I guess that doesn't matter a whole lot to you, does it?

And if it's not Monumental you are considering, then I retract my votes above!