MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 195)

RACE REPORT (sort of....) for ITPman  (0.5mile - 15mile - 5mile), Darien, CT, Sept 22.

This will be done through points and lists of number, and not so much anecdotal.

• No night-before racking this year meant I had to find a motel, as my bike was in my sleeping spot.  probably just as well.
• NO PRE-RACE MUSIC, or endless announcements.  How glorious!!!!
• First one on-site, help RD unload and set up, got good racking spot (choose-your-own).
• Turns out that next to me was a new face, "60" on his calf, sweet Cervelo P3.  We didn't talk........but i worried about him.
• Diamond-shaped swim in a very calm Long Island Sound.  I strayed some going to the "top" buoy of the diamond, but overall swam well.  Got out of water right after P3 guy.
• Had rode the bike and trun courses the previous evening, knew what to expect, and that mostly played out wll for me.
• Incredible neighborhoods for bike and run -- this is where the 1% (or 0.5%) lives.   Back was a big out-and-back, climbing steadily going out, reversing on the return.
• Run was very nice, and I benefitted from having a 58-year old as my rabbit.  i couldn't exactly stay with him, but from miles 2-5 I was alwats within 30 yards.  i got far more from him than he got from me.

Numbers now:

ME:   15:28 ---- 1:00 ---- 44:46 ---- 1:04 ---- 37:52.6 --------- 1:40:12

P3:    15:27 ---- 1:36 ---- 42:21 ---- 0:52 ---- 37:52.3 --------- 1:38:09

So..........I knew I left T1 ahead of him, but by about mile 1.5 he roared past me on the bike.  i worked for a while to keep the gap close, but couldn't.  my only hope was that he would either run out of steam, or turn out to be a slower runner.  Coming back into T2, about 100 yeards out, i saw him on the run, figured he was about two minutes ahead.  he looked good though, at a quick glance, and at that point I kind of gave up on running him down.  That doesn't mean I surrendered, just that i wouldn't work ultra-hard to make up two or so minutes in a mere-ish five miles.

As you can see, his win was strictly on the bike -- normally my strength!!!  and that number for 10ths of a % were actually in the resluts, so we are about as evenly matched as you can get -- except he is a superb cyclist, it appears.

Meanwhile, though, there was the guy who finished third in the a.g............and he outbiked AND outran me!!!  I never saw him and he didn't hang around for awards, and I only know he is 60 ---- and fortunately doesn't swim all that well!!  For him:

#3:     19:00 ---- 1:30 ---- 44:15 ---- 1:14 ---- 37:02 --------- 1:43:04

My numbers in the larger context are back a page or two, but I was 2/7 a.g. and I-can't-remember overall (it's back there).  Bike pace was about 20.3mph, run was about 7:34/mile.

I ran well, swam quite well, probably could've pushed the bike a bit harder -- especially in the final two miles.  I got lax-brained, just hanging behind (but NOT drafting!!! ) the 58-year old who ended up rabbiting me on the run, and whom I decided to pass on the bike with about a mile to go.  Should've done that earlier, maybe ---- but then i might not have had him as a rabbit!

Really fine race, and for a good cause.  You can check it out at www.ITPfoundation.org.

A number of strange blisters but I'm not concerned about them.

Steve,

Looks like you may have a new nemesis. This might seem annoying, but after you've already conquered most everyone in your a.g. it might be nice to have another mountain to climb. You two (three really) are so evenly matched it might work as good motivation. Viva la nemesis!

DOUG -

Yup, he's a real threat, and it turns out that the other a.g. I finished second this year was also in CT and to a CT guy; guess I'd better not race there again!  Both are 60, though, so in 2014...it'll be safe again!

I am slow-of-the-mark with USAT rankings this season, and I am in jeopardy of missing All-American Honorable Mention for the first time in a few year.  There are still  four races that I've done that need to be tallyed, but i'm not figuring they'll be big points-getters; okay, but not great.  And then there are the probably-two that i will probably do in VA on the 7th and 8th; could come down to those.

I mention that because, on a national level, there are lots of mountains to climb vis-avis worthy opponenets.  one of the things i love about the USAT rankings is that, of ther guiys i have a history with, it turns out really accurately in that those who beat me in race usually finish ahead of me in the rankings, and thsoe who i beat in races usaully finish behind me.  So, even though the vast number of USAT M60-64 are ones I've never raced against, i think that extrapolation tells me where I stand nationally, and quite accurately at that.

But, as Yogi (or was it casey?) said, "It ain't over until it's over", so i will race as hard as I can in my last (or two last) race this season.........and see how it all sorts out!

JEFF -

He is a pretty cool customer, probably quite unflappable.  Plus, he lives only 20 minutes from the race site, so my guess is that he's ridden that course before.  However, he told me he didn't decide to do it untikl two days before --- which is when I made MY decision.  (If the guy who finsihed third knew that both P3 (joe) and I signed up so late, he'd probably be quite ticked!)

Also, i'm not good on playing mind games.  And if I did so, i might've said soemthing about having a good season on the bike...........and he sure would've had the last laugh at the boldness of my claim.  Kinda glad I kept my mouth shut!

As for your "strange" blisters, like, how strange is "strange"??

One of them started on the bottom of one toe and wrapped all the way around to the top before it popped, another was strangely placed on top of an adjoining toe, another on the side of my heel in a normally "safe" spot plus a few in the usual places. Also the pad of one of my toes sort of came lose to the point that I just pulled it off. All of these have broken open already and begun to heal. I also have a wetsuit rash, my first, on either side of my neck-almost like the rope burn  you might see in some old westerns when the lynching failed although it is healing quickly. 

JEFF -

Yeah.  Positionally, those blisters do sound strnage, as in -- how did they sprout where they did.  I've had a few blisters in my days, but most have been in more conventional locations.  But if you were wearing socks, and the socks bunched up oddly, then a blister could happen pretty much anywhere -- as happened with you.

Further to socks, were you wearing cotton ones, or ones that are kind of thick?   Or "tech" ones?  If cotton, or thick ones,  then that's something to move away from, and bunching-induced blisters would be the big reason.  Tighter, thinner socks are much safer from a blister perspective, and even in the depths of winter up here, i wear only the lightest, thinnest socks I can find.  They used to be the "Ironman" brand, but I think Wigwam has recently bought them out.  I will try to find the details for you in case you want to search them out.

Every winter run I do is kind of fraught with peril that I will get, say, 6km from the car, come up lame, and have to walk back.  In my light socks and highly-ventilated Newtons I am a sitting duck for frostbite were I to be reduced to a walk for too long --- and that's one reason why i try to keep my runs to days in which the temp is about zero fahrenheit.

BUT I DIGRESS!  As for the wetsuit rash, if you use a lot of BodyGlide all around your neck and even up to your chin, you should be fine.  How much did that affect you during the swim??  Wetsuit rash can be a huge distractor in the same way blisters can, and I hope the onset of it was late enough so you weren't raged with discomfort.

I have always referred to them as "wetsuit hickeys", but I love your comparison to rope burns from lynchings-gone-wrong!

JOHANNE -

Wonderfully-executed HIM training day!   Those over-long parts can only help you at this point, given the Base you've acquired for yourself.  Cool beans!  It's also pretty nifty that the run was that much faster than Vineman, AND that it was that much warmer.  (Hot beans!)

As for the "big blocks" of training, just curious -- what's the biggest part of the biggest week?

ANNE -

The most recent newsletter from MSC says the '13 sched will be posted by mid-October, and I'll be interested to see if they are bumping any old-standby to make way for Belwood.  A small part of me wonders if they are close to taking on to many races.......but ultimately I think that the two (John and Jason) of them combined are more than capable of the load, and also provide good cross-checks and -balances.

And, again, I can get all psyched at the thought of a season doing their racs, but the truth of it is that it is so much quicker for me to get to so many races in upstate New York.  Even the 4.5 hours to Fronhofer, say, gets me only as far as..........Pickering, maybe?  and that still leaves the hellacious drive across or through toronto to get to most of John's races.  Bah! 

And I use Fronhofer as one of the less-close ones, with any of the ones within an hour of Syracuse being less than four hours from home.  So while MSC is ever-so-tempting from the perspective of nice race experiences, it is less tnable when viewing ALL THOSE TRIPS UP AND DOWN THE 401!!!!!   Arrrggghhhh!

But with your planned trip, well, there shouldn't be a moment's look-back to any of the ON races you know and love.  You'll have the trip of a lifetimea with races to kill for, and the next-best part is that those ON races will be waiting for you in '14!

As the season winds down.......

I'm still working to squeeze in a few (or one?  or two?) more.  For various good and not-so-good reasons, this year was late getting started for me, and has been a cramfest over the past few weeks.  It's alos been almost exclusively sprints -- granted, with a few too-long-for-standard-sprints bikes, but until last weekend's 5-mile run at ITPman, all runs have been 3.1 miles.  Booooooring!  (But still slam-bam fun, i guess.)

So, what I am leaning towards is the Great Acorn tri weekend on Oct 6/7, with the international on the 6th and the sprint on the 7th.  this is in Bumpass, VA, about halfway between DC an dRichmond, and I guess if I'm going there for the Int..........I might as well do the sprint the next day.  Yes?

And I am also looking at a wee road trip to Louisiana, where i would do Big Cajun (Oly) on Oct 23, north of Baton Rouge.  That would get me to 11 triathlons for this season, and the two oly/int ones would satisfy me -- i think.  But then, two long road so close together is daunting, and I might have to rethink this insanity.  Like so many other of my schemes in the past.....what sounds good and looks nice right now, in the heat of newness (the Louisiana plan has just cooked itself in the past 90 minutes), dims fairly quickly when all the relaity checks fall into place.  So, we'll see.

ANYHOW, just want to lob that out your way, for your amusement and edification!

I have moved begrudgingly to the new tech socks, the store that sold me the Sauconys gave me a pair and I actually had 2 pair of socks from several years ago-one has a Texas flag on the sides above the shoe and the other have a Texas star and state outline-I wear these out of state and this what I was wearing-they are thin.

I did not really notice the wetsuit rash until late in the ride and more so at transition-perhaps a little at T-1 but I didn't figure it out until after the race-I thought I had an odd sun burn. AT T-1 some volunteer rushed up to spray sunblock on me and I felt a sting on my neck-I ignored that since I had other things to worry about, during the ride I think i was adjusting my jersey or something and rubbed it, and changing in T-2. On The Redman face book page is a picture of someones wetsuit rash that is shaped like Oklahoma on the back of their neck. That would embarrass me but they thought it was cool.

JEFF -

I guess better a rash that looks like OK, than one that resemble the Florida Keys (appropriate for that new race in january, Bone Island), which would be very long and very painful.  Yikes!

And good that the effects of yours didn't surface until later, post-swim!

And then there's the more sensible alternative to the one above, which would be to do Bassman, NJ, on 7.  That's a .0.6 swim, a sweet 29-mile bike, and a 4.2-mile run.  Not bad, done it a few times, and last year I compromised it slightly by doing ClamMan, just 30 miles north iof Bassman, the day before.  I could do that again as part of a dodo weekend, as Clam is only 0.5-10-3.1, but I really hammered it last year and paid slightly at Bass the next day.  DOH!

Decisions, decisions!

The biggest part of the biggest week on paper is week 27 (the last week of October) where my bike will be 6 hours followed by an hour brick run and my long run will be 3 hours. I say on paper because mentally I want to get certain mileage out of these workouts so I'll have to go over a bit. That week I'll bike 112 and my long run will be 20. Mentally I'll feel better getting those numbers in.

I rode 90 solo miles yesterday. I did an out and back 30 mile loop so the tease of my house was like the tease of the finish line in Tempe This morning I swam 3650 yards which is my all time high in the pool! It's coming along. I still just think about one week at a time. October is going to be very time consuming so I'm revving up for that and then I taper

GEORGE - 

"Almond Joy" Oatmeal:

1/2 c steel cut oats

1 cup fat free vanilla almond milk

1 cup low fat coconut milk

1/4 c unsweetened flaked coconut

1 T. cocoa powder

Combine ingredients and cook for 2-3 hours. I use a rice cooker for this recipe (1.5 hrs), but I suppose you could use a slow cooker. It would probably take a while longer in a slow cooker.

I sweeten my oatmeal with Stevia or maple syrup, and rough chop 7 almonds to sprinkle on top. Makes quite a few servings so you can either freeze of fridge and eat it for breakfast for 4-5 days. Good thing about eating it on race day is that it's already prepared and just has to be reheated in the microwave, so it saves time.

Thanks for the info on The Oliver. I will definitely keep it in mind when I'm ready to do my next HIM - June sounds perfect to race in Canada, given that I would be doing most of my training over the winter/spring here before it gets hot. (May is a toss-up here - can be cool or 100F).

Oops I've been zoning out in front of my TV taking a mental and physical break from triathlon, so just now getting back on BT. Yep it was super windy here Monday - Gusting up to 45mph! Glad we didn't have to contend with that on race day.....the heat was bad enough. I can't count how many times I looked up into the sky and said "F--- you, weather!" Eh...I know that sounds crude, but I really meant it at the time.

Wow, you are really putting in some miles, girl. Good job! It has to take a lot of dedication to do that long training alone. 90 mile on the bike alone is kind of lonely - but smart given that you made it 3 30 mile loops close to your house in case you *had* to stop. Also, very smart training for the mental part of racing loops. I personally abhor loops - I make it a point to never run loops on my "long runs" and two loops on the run at Redman really bummed me out, so yeah - practicing the mental part of running past the finish line is a smart thing to do! So excited to follow your progress leading up to and during your first Ironman!

Ok, so I don't know why I didn't catch this earlier, but was on the Redman FB page and read where someone said the swim was long. I jumped up out of my chair and yelled "EUREKA!," hopped around a few times then made my way over to the Garmin Connect page that stores all of my race data to check-out what my new Garmin 910xt had to say about the swim course length: 1.5 miles! Which translates into a 1:49/100 yard pace! Yes! Thankyouverymuch I knew that I was going at pretty good clip when I started passing men from two waves in front of me. (However, my swim balloon was slightly deflated when I got passed by a man swimming the full distance course of two loops - wow, he had AWESOME form!)

Now, even with that fast-ish pace, as STEVE stated, I only managed to come in at around 50% of my age group. But it was the Halfmax National Championships so there were a lot of super fast women racing that day. 

I'm a lot happier now. 

Also, I can't help but think that if the weather hadn't been so hot I would have cut at least 30-40 minutes off of my run time. My body didn't hurt musculoskeletal-wise. I was suffering heat exhaustion - and GI upset and hypoglycemia (probably due to the heat). After sitting in the medical tent for 20 minutes gulping down two Sprites and eating half a bag of mini pretzels I felt much better. Maybe I'm wrong but I know that the heat slowed me down significantly. 

I had GI trouble at Kansas on Gu and Gatorade-at Redman I didn't have Gu and used the small cliff bars and Gatorade on the bike. After each Cliff Bar (4 total) I had a minor amount of stomach pain that subsided quickly and would feel great. On the run I got around the course on Pretzels, small cookies, sprite, cola, water and the occasional orange. I never had an issue with my stomach or related plumbing the entire run which is unusual for me in a tri. I would venture to guess that had you taken on board some saltines or pretzels, even a small amount and perhaps a cup of sprite you would have settled your stomach. I also noted Tums at one of the aid stations and in the changing tent. I had considered stashing pepto bismol in my SN bags but didn't do that when I had slashed my budget.

JOHANNE -

Phenomenal numbers there, kid; sweet jumpin' judas!

Much of what you posted is impressive, but IMHO nothing beats that 3650 IN THE POOL.  Assuming your pool is 25y, and assuming my math isn't failing me ----- that's 146 lengths.  Mercy!   I don't think I ever did 100 in one session, with maybe 80 being tops.  HUGE desire and determination on your part!!!

Second on the impressiveness scale would be the 90 mile ride, especially with the psychological edge of the "Tempe Tease".  Nicely played, great attention to detail.

"One week at a time" is the best philospohy to have in iron training, although it is improtant to have a sense of the Bigger Picture -- which you clearly have.  So, I think you are doing everything correctly, and maybe even then some.

I seem to remember a few months ago when your bionicness took a small hit in the forn of a few niggles and wonks, but I guess that was just a we speed bump along the way, huh?  I can't temember the last time you seem concerned by any soreness or injury, and I suspect that's fully behind your willingness (eagerness??) to go over a bit in the week you are aiming for a 112 ride and a 20 run.  I "support" that, but with the following caveat......

As that is the end of Oct, so about three weeks out from AZ, plan on cutting something out the following week.  I don't know what all is there and what is expendable, but at that late stage of your incredibly dutiful training you are likely to be feeling some fatigue, and maybe even some ambivalence about both the quantity and the qulaity of your workouts.  I recommend honoring what you mind and body are telling you at that point, especially when the messages are to take it easy. 

Now, the converse of that is for your monkey mind to natter at you to "DO MORE!" "DO MORE!" "DO MORE!" ........... and if that's the case, resist those to the best of your ability.  I am sure that at that point you will have it all "in the bank", and little you can undertake in those final couple of weeks -- especially more big miles -- will enhance your AZ performance at all.

Congrats again on the 3650 in the pool, which bordders on the Absolute Heroic!!

TRINA -

Don't get all doomsdayish about losing your "iron clad" stomach status!  My guess is that it all happened as a result of those conditions, and in your previous post you gave all the reasons for it that could be very real contributors:  heat, GI upset, hypoglycemia.  That's a "perfect storm" type of setting for the gut to shut down and all sorts of other uglies to blossom instead, and then there was the liquid diet you assumed to take the place of solids.  That really was a wise decision, as liquids=bloating is a far better fate than what likely would've happened had you allowed yourself to shut down entirely -- as in no liquids, either.  I have been in half-irons in which my gut was telling me the same thing, and it took a lot of willpower to force myslef to drink.

But re-reading your posts, i see that you did manage to choke down a few gels, so that was good for you, too.  And I am impressed that you were able to stomach the two Endurolytes, given that your stomach wasn't feeling so great.  I had a bad episode a few years ago at Bassman HIM in which I took a few Endurolytes clsoe to halfway through the run, and within about ten minutes I was dry-heaving in the shrubbery.  nothing more than that happened, although I was terrified that it would because as crappy as I felt and so disinclined to take in nutrition, I knew it would be a disater if I lost what all was in my stomach.  That really is the worse-case scenario --- to have shiut down to nutrition, and then lose what was there.  Fortunately, that has never happened to me, but that time at Bassman was too close for comfort!

So, anyhow, don't try to reinvent your nutirional wheel quite yet.  I can talk about the bad stuff at Bassman and Half Vermont and Atomicman, but for the rest of my HIMs, which would be about 13 or 14 others, things went quite well.  And just to give you a timelime on those, Atom was '02, Bass was '07, and 1/2VT was '10, so there's no pattern to how thsoe nutritional meltdowns happened.  An dbetween bass and 1/2 VT I had a nutritionally successful MightyMan, so I know I haven't lost the "ability" to carry out some kind of decent nutritional plan.

It might also help you to know that, over the years, i have become better at "compensating" when the nutrition goes south.  I can't really give you book and verse on this, but the short comment would be that I know how to nurse myself along through baby steps of baby bites and sips.  I guess I operate under the notion that anything is better than nothing, and so if all I can manage is 1/3 of a gel....then at least that is about 9mg of carbs, which is 9 more than I had labored under for the last mile or two.  And it's similar with drinks, but there it is less measurable; however, there's something in the HEED or Gatorade or whatever is on course, and I'll take as much as I feel my gut can handle and count that as better than nothing.  In a way it's "nutritional panhandling", just hoping that a bit here and a bit there will add up to something that can keep you going.

The computer just woggled, so I'll post and return!

TRINA again -

Just a bit more to "complete" the threasd of the previous post, before moving on to other topics....

The stab at a "bit here, a bit there" really does owrk, as it did for me at 1/2VT.  I managed to nurse myself enough to manage to pull off a 1:56:57 for the run, which -- as I live and breathe -- i did not think was at all possible along about mile 7 or mile 8.  I mean, the time I had set up to that point was in line with the result (well, actually, it was on pace to be about 5-8 minutes better, maybe), but as soon as I started nutritionally suffering, I thought I was looking at 2+ hours.  So, keep that all in mind for a next-HIM strategy --- when nothing seems to work, and nothing seems even palatable, THINK SMALL.  Use the baseball analogy of playing "small-ball", wherein you chip away with a squiggler here, a bunt there, a stolen base elsewhere......and it might all add up to a few unforeseen "runs".  VOILA!!!

Moving on to:

(A) That swim overmeasurement!  Ain't that a sweet revelation, and of course .3 of a mile isn't exactly peanuts.  I can imagine just how bouncy-wouncy you were when that bit of news landed in your lap!

(B) And it really is worth keeping in the front of your mind that the race WAS a national championship, and so you performed really well in a field that was full of people who have done onetwothreemany more half-irons that you had done.  You got your baseline numbers, and you've been surrounded by soem good talent, and you fought through a few real rough patches..........and now you're ready to move on to ?  (Figured out where you want your next HIM to be??)

Random training note:

• Swim today was a "64/64", meaning water temp was 64, air temp was 64.  I swam for 28 minutes, and my hands were cool but never numb.  I wore two swims caps, so didn't have an initial bout of "ice-cream headache".  The water has been 64 for three days now, so I'm hopeful of making it work for another week or so; we'll see.  I generally shuit down OWS when water is clsoe to 60.........and the air is sub-60.
• 42km on the bike today, with no knee problems.  this si only my second training ride in the past 15 days, and maybe only the fourth since the start of Sept.  i pretty much decided to save it all for races and not risk messing up the knee again.....but i really want to get some bike miles in as prep for wherever I'm racing on the 6th/7th.  Today was a good ride for getting the monkey off my back.
• 10km run yesterday, with a leisurely 5km of 24:55 into an on-and-off wind, and then a faster return with the goal of increasing faster kms.  Those return kms were 4:50, 4:51, 4:40, 4:32, and 4:19, with the last two being at 7:18 and 6:57 per mile paces.  Mostly pleased with how that baby went, and will repeat it tomorrow -- except to not be so leisurely for the first 5km (or, really, the first 7km!).