Matt Gilmartin's 2nd Quarter Group- back in the pool! FULL HOUSE (Page 2)

My wife called me today on my way home from work, and in a questioning tone (kinda angry), asked me what I ordered.

Confused, I said "Nothing, why?"  She told me there was a big box with my name on it sitting at the front door.

When I got home I opened it, and found boxes upon boxes of Wheaties Fuel!!!

Thank you Matt for giving me "a few boxes" which now sit as a pyramid on my dining room table. 

Side note: I'm getting back to running this week after being discharged last week from PT.  I plan on cycling a bit this weekend and starting back swimming next week.  I've still got a lot of season ahead!

Ha, that made me laugh. At my house it's the other way around, my husband, a mechanic, is always ordering something for his personal projects and I tend to get a little exasperated :-)

Hope everyone is having a great week! Sounds like many of us are getting close to that first tri. I'm trying not to think about it too much because I get nervous thinking about having to bike uphill.

Welcome to everyone who just joined, it's a great group!

HAHAHA!  Dude, you should see my spare bedroom! I've got about 700 boxes still in there that I haven't been able to give away.  My kids love Wheaties FUEL- my son wears my team tech tee around the house.  Enjoy!

Hey Matt!

Speaking of hills:

I noticed on the sprint tri I'm signed up to do, they have mapped out the bike route.   The bike route said there are no hills that qualified to be listed on the route.  Does that mean it really is totally flat, or there might be "small hills that don't change in elevation enough to be listed" or "short steep hills that aren't long enough to be listed" or what?! 

 I have no clue how to guess elevation, all I know is everywhere I ride has hills.  So in essence, I feel I am mostly pushing hard, coasting, pushing hard, coasting. It's hardly ever a constant steady push which may be what this race is going to be like. 

PS: I know the logical answer would be to go drive or bike the course, but it's not something I can  do right now. 

I would think that maybe the hills are small and don't really qualify as a hill. I don't know...

As far as "pushing hard, coasting, pushing hard, coasting", my bike coach said that he NEVER coasts on the downhill portion of a hill. He continues to pedal and hammer it on the way down. He said that it's like free time - sort of like one of those people movers they have in airports. If you just stand on it, you will eventually get to where you are going, however, if you walk while on it, you will get there faster. 

Will you be able to drive the course before the event in order to at least have an idea of what the course looks like? 

Good luck and let us know what these "non-qualifying" hills really look like!

Finally found the new group.  Thought I lost everyone there for a while.

Didn't fare so well last week.  Went for a short run on Tuesday and the dull, nagging pain in my left knee was still at it, so I figured I'd take the rest of the week off to let it rest and test some theories.  If it were IT band it would go away and if the pain was still there I'd make an appointment to see the doctor.  Needless to say, I see the doctor on Thursday.  From there we'll see what they doc suggests and what options I have.  Hopefully it's not in the joint and I can rehab it. 

I've also been thinking about going to the Osteopathic Medical clinic down in Des Moines.  They have a sports medicine clinic.  The Med students are at local road races and give treatments afterwords.  Each time I've seen them their treatment has helped, unfortunately this stuff isn't covered by my insurance.  Hopefully I can get this stuff figured out relatively soon. 

April, they could be rollers with just a few feet of altitude change... what about calling the RD and asking?  Have you checked the "Races" portion of this site to see if anyone has written a race report for the race from the previous year?  Whenever I do a race I check BT beforehand- 

Christian, take care of it now- before it becomes a bigger issue.  I'm 39, and I've been told over and over that my knees are 79.  I wanted to get the Chicago Marathon in this year because I don't know how many more miles I have left before I can't do this stuff anymore.  Had I taken better care of my joints when I was younger I wouldn't have this issue.

That being said- orthopedics have come a long way.  If you have something wrong an arthroscopic surgery can do wonders.  They'll have you in and out in a morning, and the recovery can take a week or less, depending on what the diagnosis is.

Matt---I'd be happy to reimburse you for shipping if you'd like to send some my way.  I'll PM you my address.  BTW---I seem to recall that you ordered a bunch of Honey Milk around the same time that I did.  Wanted to give you a heads up to check the expiration dates on the case you received.  I just noticed that a few of the flavors that I got expire in April (grrrr)---seems to be the Chocolate and the Coffee ones.  The rest expire in September.  Can't thank you enough for recommending this----absolutely love it as a recovery drink and have also been using it as a meal replacement at work when I'm running around like a crazy woman between patients and don't have time to sit down and eat a real meal.  This is such a better alternative to the sugary crap that is always lurking in our break room. I'm attached to my computer right now because the Iron Girl Rocky Gap triathlon opens today  at 3pm Eastern time (race day is Sept 9)----the last Iron Girl event in Maryland sold out in less than 3 hours.  Am really hoping I get a spot---this will give me three sprint triathlons for the season (May, June, and Sept) as well as two marathons (beginning of October and end of October).  Not letting turning 40 get the best of me!

I love this group, too! My ONLY connection to the tri world.  I have no coaches or training partners LOL    

REPLY:

("As far as "pushing hard, coasting, pushing hard, coasting", my bike coach said that he NEVER coasts on the downhill portion of a hill. He continues to pedal and hammer it on the way down. He said that it's like free time - sort of like one of those people movers they have in airports. If you just stand on it, you will eventually get to where you are going, however, if you walk while on it, you will get there faster.")  

I really like the analogy of the airport mover.  The first time I COASTED down a hill and hit above 30mph I halfway freaked.  Had to suppress the "need for speed" because it was fun, but had to tell myself to gradually slow down that I'm not experienced enough on the bike to even hit a pebble or a bump without doing the obvious.   I'm working on it, though.  It makes me feel lazy to coast.  I'm just scared. LOL

My coach was the one that suggested no coasting...can't say that I'm brave enough yet to keep going instead of coasting. I came up with the analogy since that's the way I envisioned it in my head when he was talking about going down hills.

Hi

I would like some advice or just others experiences/thoughts about how to run a HM.

I am going to run a HM on sunday, and I would really like to do it in less than 2 hours. I have run a 10k in Feb and 15k in March with the times (there was snow and slippery conditions during the 10k):

10k: 28:53+27:46 = 56:39

15k: 28:17+27:41+27:08 = 1:23:06

I believe I can run a negative split again during the HM, but I would like to know how you approach a HM as I have never run that far before. The nervousness is begining to build

The problem with coasting is that the lack of movement makes it harder to get going again once you need to.  Think about how after a race you go and sit down- then you cannot get up again.  It's the same principle at work.  You're going to get stiff, blood stops flowing, and you're going to suffer.  Don't spin at a high cadence, just keep your feet moving and you'll feel better.

M

Those are awesome times!  I'm sure you'll finish under 2 hours... I'll let Aaron and Christian answer your question about pacing- they are our running studs in this group.

Mariah- I don't know how I missed this-  very cool uniform!!!!  Despite it not being what you wanted it looks good on you!

you're in- can you send me a little information about yourself?

Sure, you can join in.  We're a swimming-focused group.  Send me your information and anything you want to share with the group.

OK- here's our additional 2nd quarter members.  I'll go through the 1st quarter roster and edit tonight.

Welcome all!

douthi1/doug
Tigereye/Hjalte
fishracer/David
Runsw/Parker- need name
Loosenut- need name