MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 199)

Glad to not be the only one here tonight. 

We're still getting nice warm sunny days (about 60F) but cool evenings.  Perfect temps for cycling, running and yardwork.

Have fun on your 5K tomorrow.  Cooler temps may work in your favour for a good finish time.

We would call a 60f day time high "winter" But I hope your right about the cool temps. Not sure if this wind will die down

Funny, I'm from the 'North' and right now I feel like 60 is winter, but come winter, it will feel like summer.   

Good luck on hitting your goal today.

Good luck on your race Johanne.   I think you said it was a training race?   Those are always good. 

A friend told me we are forecasted for snow next Friday!   Time to put on my socks.   And start raking leaves.

22:13. A PR by 2 seconds but well short of my sub 22' goal. 1st in my age group, will have to wait for all the results to know the details. 50 degrees is a good temperature normally, but yesterday it was 90-so there is a little shock to the change, the 15 mph North wind added wind chill to the mix making it uncomfortable to stand around in running shorts for very long.

Race Report

Congrats on the PR Jeff! But I can understand you had higher hopes. Then again, you didn´t really train for it right? It was more of a test to see where you stand? 

I finally made a trip to the pool again yesterday. I was dreading my first poolsession because it had been so long (prob 3 months) and I knew I would suck. The only upside was I was able to test my Garmin and its swim function. When I left for the pool I told myself "you don't have to swim for the whole hour, just go there and you'll see how long you swin". Swam 1700m in just under 2min/100m, not counting all the stops I had to take in between! Total pooltime was around 50 minutes. I really have to learn NOT to use my legs in swimming, it takes way too much energy. I feel the next step is to do longer continuous sets, as the current longest I do now is about 200m, and then usually with a mix of strokes because my breathing is not good enough for all freestyle. I did a couple of sets with a small pullbuoy too, interesting to feel the difference in body position.

So close!  I know you just have to accept the conditions as they are at the time of a race but a fellow I swim and occasionally run with (when he wants to run really slow) told me a strong headwind like you had today can slow you down by 10seconds per mile. 

Assuming he is right (I have no idea if he is), and you had a strong headwind for even half way then there is your 15 seconds and a sub :22.  I know you know, but you are right you can run 5K sub :22. 

This morning I ran a pure 5K and it took me 37:35.  4:04 slower than last weekend.  I think I need to run with others more often.

Gang,

Another triathlon is in the books. The starting temperature was about 41F, ended at maybe 43F. They allowed us to take towels and shoes and socks into the pool area and leave them in the tunnel on the way to transition which was a help. I made the choice to dry off rather than tear off for transition.

I ended up wearing a cold weather Under Armor type shirt during the swim. I put on a looser fitting long sleeve top over that to try to block the wind which worked out ok. I wore a cold weather beanie under my helmet and some running gloves on the bike. I just wore the wet tri suit and was pretty comfortable, though I noticed I was sliding around on the bike seat more than usual today but don't know why.

I ended up 5/16 for age group and 28/170 overall if you add in the Clydes and Athenas, 26th if you take them out. I was pretty happy with the race under the circumstances. I could have probably gone a minute or so faster without taking time to dry off but it was worth it. I'll try to put together a race report later.

http://results.planettiming.com/post/jag-tri/

Hope your races went well. I guess we will find out soon!

Btw, I'm also training for the Dallas Marathon - just the half, though.

How'd ya do?!

Way to go, Jeff!

I did a 14 mile run with my new training buddy. What a difference that makes-motivation is more consistent, committing to be somewhere keeps my honest and I am running faster.

http://app.strava.com/runs/24318655

I did good! I wasn't sure how my legs would hold up since I rode 100 miles and ran 3 miles yesterday I pr'd by less then a minute. I think all this training is kicking in, especially the endurance. I'm not speedy but I can go and go! I'll write a RR soon.

Johanne

GANG!

I amde it back -- at 2:15 this morning.  It was close to 700 miles each way, so i'm a bit weary -- especially since I didn't go to sleep until 4:30, and woke at 7:30.

My races went well-- enough.  Got two a.g. wins, bringing my season to eight first and two seconds, so that was decent enough.

Couldn't've had two more radically different days of weather.  Both at the same venue, with Saturday's oly sunny and in the 80s (10 a.m. race start, already 75), and yesterday rainy and cold -- as in low 50s.  No westuits sat, and i had a terrible swim.  wretsuits yeaterday.......and I still didn't swim well (but better than Saturday!).

I still haven't figured out how to put it all out there on Day#1, and then dig deep enough to do better on Day#2 -- even when the course is shorter by half!  I know logically why this should be, and the road conditions for the sprint bike were not conducive to going at 110%, but still.  I keep trying and trying and trying this, racing two tris in one weekend, and the swcond is never quitre what i know it could be if I hadn't done the first.  Think I'd learn, eh?

Tough run course, too..but i knew rhat coming in.  More on that later, at some point.

Set-Up Events is superb.  They've been around forever, but this is the first race of hteirs I've done./  Won't be the last, though.   More later on that, too.

I need to do a bunch of things,, but hope to return later today or this evening.

CONGRATS JEFF AND JOHANNE!!!!!!!!  (And JEFF -- you are very close to going sub-22.  Think "three surges and a spurt", and I'll explain that later!)

Steve you just keep on winning Glad your trip went wel, despite your self assessed inability to go as fast as you want on the shorter course. I can imagine that the race the day before might have something to do with that...or maybe you are just more of a distance guy? 

I'm gonna go to the pool to see if the 10-11pm timeslot they give us is a bit less crowded than all the other times I've been thus far

THOMAS -

No, it's all about the second race.  I owe TRINA and ANNE a post (or two) about doing two races in a weekend, or the same day, and how to prepare and strategize for them, and one brief aspect of this is that it is essential to NOT have the second race be more important than the first.  I have done it all three ways -- 1st more important than 2nd, vice-versa, and both having the same value to me.  And in any scenario, it doesn't matter -- the second one always come up short, in one or many ways.

Saturday took a lot out of me in all respects, but still -- i felt quite good by the evening, and woke yesterday feeling fine.  I hoped to do the bike just a bit faster, and maybe the same for the run......and neither hope happened.  My bike went from 21.1mph on sat to 20.8 yesterday, and while that isn't a whole lot, over about 20km I figure it shouldn't happen.

Now, part of it was weather, with yesterday featuring wet winds and a stronger, gustier wind.  But even in places where the road was straight and the wind was not pronounced......i didn't have the "kick" in my legs; the brain said "GO!", the legs said "NO!".   And on the run, it was even worse.  I want to say that cold feet and the sensation of kind of "running on stumps" played into it, but I think i can separate that out and realize that the day before had just taxed the engine too much.

So, i keep attempting these two-for escapades, and get pretty much the same results, and ANNE here, and my daughter, Jane, chide me for doing the same thing and expecting different results.  In my case that is going pretty much all-out on day one and figured I can go more all-out on day two.  Nope.  Doesn't happen for me, can't summon that second day of wall-to-wall effort and performance.  So it goes!

JOHANNE -

And therein lies the key to a good iron-effort for most people ---- "go and go".  Most people don't have the speed to make it part of their ironman arsenal, so working at going and going and going is where the focus should be.

Back in my iron days, i would have wild fantasies about instilling various speed efforts into my races....and the reality is that during the race, my body wasn't at all willing to play that game.  I could sporadically make it work in half-irons, especially on the bike, but even that carried risks of crashing on the run.  And it seemed like such a fine idea at the time!

That brick -- big ride, small run -- is really ideal.  It'll serve its one and only purposde, which is to get you used to the idea of moving your legs for running right after you get off the bike.  Period.  That's it.  I think of it as bringing in a certain relief pitcher to face just one batter, with expectations quite limited in scope --- but oh-so-important in how the game continues from that point.   What spells doom for so may iron-runners is that they immediately sink into the slough of despond when their legs don't want to run after 112 miles on the bike, as they can't seem to get their running act together.  By doing that BIKE-run brick, you helped prevent the possibility of feeling all spazzy as you head out of T2.  Kudos!

ANNE -

I'm finally feeling human after the long trip and the two races, and am trying to catch up here, andjust came upon your post from five days ago.  That'll send me, later, to my injury and anatomy books to try to figure out the ligamentous thing that seems to be ailing you.  I can imagine that all-embracing lower-back tightness (roughly similar to mine from a couple weeks ago), but i never attributed mine (then, or a year ago, or other times) to a ligament problem.  Granted, i had nothing in particular to blame, but ligaments never came into my mind.

ANYHOW, it soulds quite miserable what you have, getting in the way a few things you really enjoy --- or just need to do on a more or less daily basis.  Walking/hiking, though, are decent options, at least getting you out of the house so you aren't reduced to chewing the wallpaper.  Yours is a fine example of "hip boneconnected to the thigh bone, thigh bone connected to........), especially when I read about the onset of discomfort in late afternoon that might be joints that are presenting problems due to the back.  It can be regular fun house of horrors sometimes, huh?

But, as per you, you're on this one with admirable diligence, seeing this person and that person and just systematically working your way through the minefield of bodily rebellions.  I don't have to do the math for you on this, as you know that now is the best time for this type of problem to surface.  At least, i don't think you have any trip scheduled, and the race season is over, and just a few weeks of relative inactivity might actually be good for you.

As you suggest at the end of your post, it was a very aggressive season for you, far more so than.........ever?  I can hear you chastising yourself, but at the time it all made sesne, and was arguably a good path to take to get you through the Ottawa oly and into and through the half-iron.  All of these efforts are rolls of the dice, and so long as we come through tehm with no subsequent problems, we feel like geniuses.  (Or, as a teaching colleague of mine used say it a non-sport context, "It's fine until someone gets hurt.")

If you really think riding aero contributed, then it might be worthwhile getting refit on your bike.  I would guess (trying to imagine how being aero would stress connective tissue in the lower back) that you might be a tad too elongated, and maybe need to be stretched out slightly less.  So ----- seat forward, perhaps?

No turkey yesterday, as Lynn didn't come back from Toronto until late last night.  Both "kids" will be here for parts of the coming weekend, starting thursday, so we might have a slightly late Thanksgiving either Thur or Fri. 

Right now, i'm just trying to feel rested after the weekend.  I slept poorly four straight nights, but last night was okay.  Each leg of the trip was clsoe to 70 miles, and i was very pleased to have managed my hip problem so well.  I suffered a pinched nerve in my right foot Thursday night that made its effects felt halfway up my medial calf by friday morning, but it all disappearred before the first race, on saturday.  WHEW!  Dodged a bullet that time!

See my post to THOMAS, up above; it's a prelim to what i owe you and TRINA from a few months ago.  In short, though, it's pretty much conclusive ---- that for this here cat, anyhow, putting out a big effort on the first day means that something(s) will be lacking on the second day of racing.  Can't be helped!!  (Doesn't mean I won't continue trying, though!)

GEORGE -

Welcome to winter running! 

For late fall and early spring, i can make do with cotton running gloves, but in hardcore winter, that's not enough.  So, my "base layer" is a pair of very thin tech gloves, over which I use wind-resistant mittens, and that works down to -20C, and really even lower. 

As for those thin tech gloves, they work for me in those middle-frigid temps, as even though they are thin, the are not obviously porous as are cotton gloves, so the wind doesn't get through them as easily.  I guess I can be comfortable in them down to -10C?  Maybe?  (Maybe not that low.)

So much of the outfitting of winter running requires trial-and-error, and back when i started I went through all sorts of combinations of this and that, here and there.  I have now reverted to pretty simplistic and relatively minimalistic, and I wear far less for outside runs than almost anyone else I see running in Ottawa in winter.  It all works well for me as long as I am actually running ---- but I do worry about a time in which I might hurt myself mid-run, and then have to walk back to my csr, or home, and get severe frostbite in the process.  Urp.

Nice climb, Mr. Mountaingoat!

DOUG -

Well done, and you handled the conditions really well, it sounds like.  Finishing in the top 16% or so is excellent, and I'm guessing you had a great swim time.  You and DAVE -- so bravely confident to do those indoor-swim triathlons! (109 career triathlons for me, and not a one of them with an indoor swim ---- and I hope to keep it that way!)

My own race musings, to follow at some point, will address how rottenly I swam on Saturday.  It's been a while since I had a swim like that, and I'm blamining part f it on it being non-wetsuit.  So, anyhow, I'm kind of "sensitive" right now to the thoughts of racing in a pool setting!

I hope you get a RR in place at some point, just so I can further visualize your event.  But for now, it sure sounds like a good way to finish out your multisport season.  Congrats!

GANG!

The talk here of weather makes me want to just breifly mention my own this weekend.  (I might've said this briefly in a post yesterday.)

Saturday, it was a race-time temp of 81.  Sunday, it was 52.  (Water was 79 on Sat, 76.5 on Sun.)  I approached Sunday much too cockily, and while I wisely used toe-covers on the bike, I didn't even have arm-warmers draped on my aerobars to maybe slip on if the ride got cold -- which it did.  On the run, I saw a few of the lead guys wearing running gloves, and some others wearing armwarmers, and a couple wearing both...............and I knew they were the smart ones.

Getting of the bike, i had to yank/squounch my helmet off my head, as my fingers weren't working well enough to unclick the buckle.  And then I began by "running on stumps", although it was only half bad; I have run far more stumpily many other times!

So, I misplayed the cold-weather aspects, but made it through okay, overall.  If i had it to do ocver again, I would still ride in just my swim-wet top and bottom, but would've had the armwarmers at the ready on my aerobars, and maybe would've worn the thin tech gloves I just mentioned to GEORGE.  But at the very least, i would've had running gloves for the run (although on Sunday they were already wet from all the pre-race rain).  Of course, i could've gone down there with TWO pairs of gloves........but it was in Virginia, for heaven's sake!  How cold can that be in early October (Answer:  43F in early a.m., 52F at 10 a.m.!!)  No socks at any time, but i wouldn't change that........but then, "stumps" become the risk.  Doh?

Steve et al,

I put together a race report. I don't know how to do the fancy link button, but here is the address: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=463779&posts=1&start=1

I think the run is going to show me if I've gotten mentally tougher. If I can keep a steady pace then I'll be ok. If I start doing too much walking, it's going to take me forever to finish

Someone posted this article. It has some really good points.

http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/race-day-prep/ironman-prerace-talk-000518-print.php

JOHANNE -

Interesting observation about mental toughness, and the possible outcomes of possibly too much walking -- if it comes to that.  But you'll be very surprised, i think, by (a) how much walking is happening around you, and (b) how slowly people are going who are, judging from their gait and carriage, actually running.  It kind of adds new meaning to the term "marathon shuffle"!

If it comes to it (i.e., a periodic walker at IMAZ), one viable strategy is to pace yourself off some of the shuffle-runners.  That will require you to pick up your walking pace to some degree, but that will likley feel better than just sort of shambling along on your own.  My walk stints at LP '04 were so much better when there was a bit of "pep' to them, which came at times from pacing off the barely-running runners, and other times from just "double-timing" my walk pace.  Huponetwo, huponetwo, huponetwo!!

I will try to get to the trifuel piece later today.