Newbz'z group is FULL!!!!!! (Page 20)

Great race Scott, too bad about the bike because the Tarmac is a sweet ride. 2000+ people has to be crazy for one of these events. I have kind of looked to low key events initially to work things out and learn, but looks like you handled them well. This coming week I hit a big event like yours with 2000+ people should be interesting on the bike in particular. Awesome job with he run PR-I bet you get a lot of run PR's coming up!

When you train sensibly for a marathon, all of your running PR's fall as a consequence of adding the long run. There is something magical about runs over 15 miles (actually it isn't magical you experience a big stimulus for mitochondrial growth). You get faster without speed work for anything 5K and beyond (probably shorter as well but my friends and I don't race so short).

Great report!

they are the genisus 5 shoes, size 42

I am sorry but 42? Do they use a different sizing system?

Thanks much. I don't think those will fit. Need a pair pretty soon.

Greg

that chart has me coming out a full two sizes off where i am, for what its worth with sidi a size 42 fits like a size 10 asics running shoe.

if you know anyone else looking for either shoes or wetsuits send them my way.

I will stop by a store and see how it fits and then go from there.

PS getting a bit nervous about Steelhead. Should be a good one and the weather currently looks like it might be pretty good. Of course a little warm, but its is July. Priorities are 1. Live in the moment and enjoy the event 2. Get through the swim and take it from there. This is a learner to see if I will have the desire to sign up for a whole IM next year (which means I would have to get registered this year).

if you do want to do an IM, also look at some independent races, i am doing my first this nov, and am doing a non-IM brand one and very much looking forward to it.

Where are you going to do your IM? Doing an independent one is probably the best bet, certainly for a first one. At least then you don't have to plunk down 500+ dollars a year in advance for a race you don't know whether or not you will be even healthy/fit enough to race. It is amazing how popular the Ford series is. I know they put together an awesome event, but I am not certain I would sign up for one of those unless I had a good shot at making it to Kona.

I hope to get a solid year of swimming in before I do my first one. The full ironman is just one of those things I've got to do/experience at some point.

i totally agree, i would love to do one of the ford ones, but i want to make sure i am fast enough to have a shot at something first.

i am doing beach2battleship in wilmington NC on nov 1st, put on by setup events.

Guys, I don't have my race report yet because I am waiting for the official splits from Steelhead. My report is kind of good news bad news. The waves and rip tide caused them to turn it into a duathlon. Even though swimming is my weakness, I really did want to do the swim and do a bona fide HIM. I was lucky on the other hand in that it played to my strengths and was fortunate enough to snag one of the 70.3 World's Clearwater slots - I had never given that possibility a thought - crazy luck. Looks like I better work a lot on that swim between now and November, then I will get to do an actual HIM! It turned out to be a nice day albeit windy. Wish I would have had a chance to meet with more BT'rs but did not get up there until late.

The race was a duathlon 2 mile run, then 56 bike, 13.1 run. I got 90th overall, 5th in my AG with a time of 4:12:31...way better than I thought I would do on the bike run combo.

Needless to say, I think I am getting hooked on the triathlon.

i about lost it when i saw that time. any guesses on that the swim would have taken?
either way thats an awesome job, and congrats on a clearwater spot.

i wish my longer distance racing looked anything like that!

nice job

I was thinking about 40 minutes for the swim. It could have been faster with the current at Steelhead. We did a 2 mi run, so take away the 2 mile run and I would have perhaps been somewhere around 4:40. Way better than I thought. I knew I was training hard for it so I did get a good bang for the taper-fresh legs. I just had no clue as to how fast I could ride in a racing situation. I know many of the roadies I ride with are really good. I have just never raced before and in the two sprints I have done they did not get bike times. I am waiting on splits, but I think bike was somewhere in the 2:22ish. The bike is a fast rolling course. There was some wind-seemingly from every direction you were facing, but also significant traffic (they sent out the older groups first). The plus side was there were always people to pass, but sometimes they would be two wide with the second person crowding the center line and slowed you down. I gave it my all and my legs were shot. The runs went great but there is some room for improvement, i walked through many water stops and stopped for brief stretching on a few occasions.

As for long course, when you get to focusing on them I am certain your speed will come in very very handy and you will be great at it. Sprints are pretty awesome and I look forward to getting better at them. I have just always found the longer distance I go the better I am, in particular at age 46 when the speed is harder to find.

i'm doing a faster half course than my last one in sep, so we'll see how that goes.


i know what you mean though about distance coming later, i have guys here i easily beat by over 10 min in sprints and they kill me in halfs, they just hold that exact same speed for all distances.

I just found the Steelhead results

overall place: 86 out of 1888
division place: 5 out of 148
gender place: 86 out of 1378
time: 4:12:34
pace: 0:
swim: 12:44
trans 1: 1:21
bike: 2:21:29
trans 2: 1:57
run: 1:35:05

When it comes to the long stuff, if you have the speed, and you do, you just need to get in the long runs. You will be fantastic.

Nice work and congrats on the Clearwater spot! I'd heard it was changed to a du over the weekend and was hoping that you'd still have a good race. Great job and man are you fast!

--Chris

Thanks, I surprised myself. Now I know my bike time. The course has a huge impact, but I will be able to predict better in the future. I just have never raced on a bike before, let alone for that distance w/o drafting. I thought 22mph might be doable, but if I could hit that I might get under 5 hrs. I am going to have to readjust my goals. I guess all of that riding when I have switched over to biking due to running injuries has paid off.

I'll be honest though, I really was dissapointed to not swim and would have swapped it for the Clearwater spot. I still have not done a HIM!

I think I am hooked now and Clearwater will motivate me and there I will get my shot. There is only so much I can do with my swim in that time but I will do my best.

How's your training going? It looks like your hitting some solid weeks.

what was the bike course like?

the only other halfs i have done were on pretty hilly courses so i have NO idea what something like that pace takes.


on a side note i finally got set up on my new bike and will have some photos up tomorrow
new front wheel on the way as well!

I hear you on the HIM vs. Clearwater. Not that I think that I'll ever have that particular regret, mind you ;-) No matter what ,you earned your spot, so congrats. Out of curiosity, from what I've read it sounds like the bike course was pretty slammed and there was a lot of pack riding. How was it for you? And I also heard that T1 and T2 were a mess with so many racers coming in so closely grouped, did you see that too?

And you can do a lot in the pool between now and then! You might not blow anyone away on the swim but I'm sure you'll hold your own and show some people what it is like to put together a great ride and run. Plus races aren't won in the water, right? Regardless, what better way to complete your first HIM than against some of the best in the world?

Congrats again, makes me want to work that much harder!

--Chris

haha sounds like its time to hit the pool;-)

if you want/would like some swim help/workouts feel free to let me know and i'll set you up with some fun ones;-)

I will say the start was a little crazy, having merely a run and they started our waves closer together as well. The first run had a substantial hill that you ran up and down and later along through the sand to the transition area. I did not notice it much in T1. I ran sufficiently hard and was in the 8th wave so that I got out of there before most of the congestion.

The bike was very congested at times. Three wide was common on passes as some people either are very slow to pass or just like hanging out there. You couldn't help but get some draft when it would stack up. I did my best to keep my 4 bike lengths, but to be honest almost the whole time I was passing. Many times there was such a long trail of bikes on the right side of the lane that you really weren't in their draft per se. Later in the ride it loosened up a bit. T2 was good for me because I started in wave 8 and I had finally worked my way up such that there weren't that many bikes racked yet. I was lucky in a lot of ways.

The final 13.1 was a nice course. It was rolling and had a couple loops so you hit one very large hill twice around mile 4 or so and mile 10ish. I walked it the first time entirely (hamstrings and legs really tight). I partially walked it the second time - most the people weren't running it much faster than I could walk it. I flew the downhills and fortunately that big hill had a much less steep descent so it carried me fast for a long way.

I could probably run a 1:25-1:28 half right now, so that is all I lost which was about what I was hoping for. I walked through many of water stops and tried to stretch my hams a little. I pushed it reasonably hard and had I even had a clue that I was in contention for a slot, I probably would not have done what I did.

David, judging by your 5K times at the tris etc. You would likely be similar as long as you had sufficient long runs to give the endurance. On the other hand, if you do the long runs to get the endurance you will find you are quickly way faster at all distances (out of my league). That is pretty much a promise.

Yes, I am going to lean on you for the swim workouts, because I want that to be respectable in Nov.

Greg

Awesome job Greg! 

Thanks Scott, how's the marathon training coming? You have a number of sprints coming up and then the marathon don't you? Are you able to balance it out?

I think I have just switched priorities. I was thinking about shooting for a PR in Chicago now I Clearwater is my A race. The taper/recovery would wreck my HIM. I may still run Chicago with a friend who has missed qualifying for Boston two times by less than 3 minutes.

Time permitting, I will be putting a lot into this race. I think I can shave some significant time off my bike. I really have not worked on that like I would like to. I don't think I had many weeks where I was able to get in more than 2 times, only a couple of weeks did I hit 3 times and not so many were hard. I have always kind of thought it might be my strongest sport, just never really focused on it like running.

How much do Tri bikes help versus a road bike with Aero bars? Is it 0.25 mph, 0.5mph, 1mph? They are so expensive, but 1 mph is worth 6 minutes over a 56 mile distance! Just haven't seen any data regarding the comparison.

Too bad about your A race being canceled. Let us know how your training is going. Are you using any particular plan for your marathon?

Edited by rc63413 2008-08-05 4:43 PM