The Dominon - Beginner Focused Group - Closed (Page 21)

Nice Job Scott! Always impressed at how, by your own admission, you race so well on so little training

Nate

Randy, great job. Obviously saw your race on garmin earlier, but haven't been able to get on BT. I am glad that you were able to find another race. How did you do on the race within a race, ie the hill climb? How are you legs feeling now? Your swim was kickass. Did you use a wetsuit? I may give it another try, although i always seem to be slower with one on.

I 've noticed a few things when reviewing some courses. First a number of bike courses are actual short. The pumkinman site notes 54.75 for length. Mine i think is only 55. Perhaps 56 is just a suggestion. But what the hell, they can't find another mile? I have noted on a number of my flat rides the elevation gain is a lot more than I would expect. For both your races it seems to be 50% to 100% more than the website. I find this inaccuracy makes it difficult to know what to expect. Was the bike course harder than you thought it would be? Not factored in sometimes is the wind. Was it windy?

As always whats next for you? Did you do the annual family race yet?

Nate

Randy, great job. Obviously saw your race on garmin earlier, but haven't been able to get on BT. I am glad that you were able to find another race. How did you do on the race within a race, ie the hill climb? How are you legs feeling now? Your swim was kickass. Did you use a wetsuit? I may give it another try, although i always seem to be slower with one on.

I 've noticed a few things when reviewing some courses. First a number of bike courses are actual short. The pumkinman site notes 54.75 for length. Mine i think is only 55. Perhaps 56 is just a suggestion. But what the hell, they can't find another mile? I have noted on a number of my flat rides the elevation gain is a lot more than I would expect. For both your races it seems to be 50% to 100% more than the website. I find this inaccuracy makes it difficult to know what to expect. Was the bike course harder than you thought it would be? Not factored in sometimes is the wind. Was it windy?

As always whats next for you? Did you do the annual family race yet?

Nate

Tony,

I am not sure. I have tried to stay mostly with endurance building. I have noticed with my training maintaining the long run has been the biggest factor in performance gains. In all training plans the base building phase is the longest phase of training, as such I try to keep a solid base. It is my belief that you can build speed safely in a month, but its not safe to build quickly with base.

This forum has kinda died. Would suggest you ask in the tri talk forum.

Nate

To be honest, I didn't really race that mini race/hill climb. I jogged out of the water until the incline started to get steep and then I just walked briskly up the rest. My time was 2:02, which tied for 157th. My best sport! LOL I was only 16 seconds behind 100th, so I'm guessing that not a lot of people took it serious. The bike and run took enough of a toll on my legs, I didn't need to waste energy running up some silly hill. I've been trying to take care of my legs all week. I still have some soreness in my calves, but everything else seems pretty good.

You're very generous to call my swim kickass. I did wear a wetsuit. My time wasn't as good as I had hoped. Of course, I would have been just about right in the middle of my hoped-for range if I had only done 1.2 miles. But let's face it, none of us actually swims in an exact straight line, so you're always going to swim more than the race distance. I was a little slower than Lake George, but that course was much straighter with only 2 turns. I wasn't upset with my time, but I had hoped for better.

I've had the same thought about the bike course. You can choose any path you want. You couldn't figure out how to get that extra mile or so to make it a full 56?! I also saw the HUGE discrepancy between the elevation measured by Garmin and the course map. I have less and less faith in Garmin's ability to accurately measure elevation. To be honest, I didn't look the map over in detail. It looked fairly easy on the map. It was probably a little harder than I thought, but not as hard as Lake George. There was definitely wind. I had times that the wind was coming at me hard enough that I was losing speed even as I was pedaling going downhill! But on the whole, I'd say it was relatively close to my expectations.

No family race this year. I've moderately tried keeping my brothers to agreements they made for this year, but I can tell they just aren't into it. I was supposed to do a sprint tri with my older brother, but he never really trained and backed out. I was supposed to do a casual half-century with my younger brother, but I know he never touched his bike all year and I never bothered asking about it. Neither one of them is even in remotely good enough shape to challenge for the family cup, so I haven't even broached the subject with either of them. I've decided to just stop asking altogether. The cup will forever reside on my mantle! LOL I do have some local races I'm interested in: a couple trail 5Ks, a road 5K, and possibly a half marathon. Most of these will just be to keep me active and not something where I'll aim for a PR.

How are you feeling? Do you feel prepared for your HIM? How do you think you're doing with a nutrition plan?

BTW, Cassandra, you would have hated this run course! I said to someone that I felt like I was running in circles and I literally was! Look at this course map (http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/fullscreen/357683051/). I knew I was approaching the 3 mile mark and I was looking for a mile marker. The first one I see says 8. Hmmm, OK. The next one I saw had to be less than 0.2 miles later and it was a 7. Really? Finally, I saw the 3. Then, it wasn't another couple tenths of a mile and I see a 12. Wha-a-a-a-t?!

You ran some long way around a loop at the beginning of the course and past the point that what was eventually the last half mile to the finish. You made a couple turns anc then ran into a cul-de-sac (around mile 5 on the map), which turned you around and had you headed back towards the finish. As you approached that same "half mile to the finish" spot (somewhere near 7.5 miles), you turned back the way you had just come and headed towards the cul-de-sac again. It was confusing because the volunteers weren't saying anything and they couldn't know which lap you were on and if you should turn around to go again or head towards the finish. I had to ask a volunteer which way to go. It was back around to the cul-de-sac one more time and then this time I finally got to keep running straight.

Other than a brief moment of confusion, I pretty much stayed on course. But it was confusing as hell!







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Where do I start? I've been trying to keep up reading posts, but life has been pretty hectic lately, although my training pretty much ended with Ironman 70.3 Canada at the end of July. I was still having problems with my left foot a week after the race, so I went to the Urgent Care and was diagnosed with a stress fracture. My doctor, who was also a triathlete and competes in Ironman 70.3 races, cleared me for biking and swimming, but put me in a boot with strict instructions for no running for a couple of months. I had really been looking forward to the Coeur d'Alene Scenic Sprint triathlon in mid August; I knew if I pushed myself, I had a chance at podium. But, life had other plans. I switched my registration from individual to a team and a friend did the run for me. I think I did really well considering I was in a boot. Ha ha! It was a great experience and my first team effort, but we didn't make podium. My run partner did great, but I was the weakest link. Oh, well!

I think I've swam only three times since IM70.3C, and at first, I made a point of riding my bike at least 45 minutes four or five days a week, mostly on the trainer, with some mountain bike rides outside. And then Burning Man was upon me. I spent a week getting ready, and then two weeks in the desert. I put a computer on my bike for the first time to see how many miles I rode (no vehicle traffic is allowed in the city, except for specially licensed vehicles), but it stopped working for a day and a half, so I STILL don't have an accurate record, but it's probably somewhere in the 60-65 mile range. However, since my foot is broken, I spent some shifts at the office, and then a couple of others in a department vehicle, so not as much bike riding as I would normally, anyway.

I've been back a couple of weeks now, and I haven't been on my bike as much as I should. Doc says a couple more months with no running, which is really frustrating. I had planned to focus on running this fall, but I back where I was last September when I fell off the ladder and broke my (same!) foot. I'm supposed to go in for bone density testing, but health care options are really limited in rural areas, so I haven't been able to get that scheduled yet. I'll start hitting the pool again next month, but I gotta be honest...I'm not looking forward to swimming in a pool again. I hate dealing with the people, I hate the cold water, I hate the chlorine...Ugh! I wish there were another option! I'm going to try to get myself to start going before work so I don't have to deal with kids and drunk adults, but I'm not sure I can do that.

So I wrote a long reply several days back and perhaps my internet sucked and it never posted.

Your swim pace was pretty fast. Not being generous at all.

I am feeling pretty good. We were in Baltimore last week for a conference so no biking or swimming. Fortunately I got a 50 mile ride in on Monday. I added a few run workouts and 5 days last week.

Overall I feel okay about the race. My swim and bike volumes are mediocre at best, but I have really worked on the run distance as I am also prepping for a marathon. I have done the HM distance every weekend since the end of July. So I am feeling really strong about the run, but I haven't bricked in a month or two so could poorly. But physically I feel like I can do this in a respectable time without dying. The side is the race hasn't drawn a lot of athletes, and my family isn't making the trip. They haven't been to a tri race for a year or two so not a big deal, but this one is kinda something new. It would be to long of a day for the kids anyway. Was hoping for a couple hundred athletes so I wouldn't be all alone out there but it looks like that will be the case.

As for nutrition, I have become a beach body coach with my wife. They have a performance package and was a IM sponsor this year. I will do a shake in the morning, and then beach body energize about 30 min prior to swim with a stroop waffle. On bike I will drink 40 oz of beach body hydrate, 20 energize, and 20 water. I will also eat 3 waffles. On run 20 hydrate, and 20 water/gatoraide and 2-3 Gu. After the race I will drink the recovery drink, and at night the recharge. The recovery and recharge are supposed to decrease recovery, and muscle soreness. I have used it have long bikes, and runs and feel like my legs are fresher.

I feel like that is a lot but also feel like I should be eating more.

This weekend I will begin my taper. Hope to get a long bike tomorrow, and intermediate on Saturday. Sunday I will run 10 miles (instead of 16+). Will try to get some light running, biking, and swimming in next week and race on Saturday.

Sucks to hear Cass. Would be surprised about the bone density given the endurance sports.

No postings in a long time; haven't been able to get another event in; but-continue to be active with swims and a lot of walks with the new pup. Dealing with an injury-so....surgery on Thursday to repair the issue; out of action for at least 3-4 weeks; inguinal hernia....ugh....getting old sucks.....

I guess I can cut myself a little slack on the swim. I didn't feel like it was as good as Lake George the weekend before. My time at LG was good for something like 79/175, I can't remember exactly.But that would have been good enough to beat more than half the field. But at Pumpkinman, my time was only 143/234, putting me around the 40th percentile. But I looked at the results and I was 1:17 away from the median time, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I'm glad I got my first HIM finished and out of the way because Baby Nora Childs was born on Wednesday, 9/20, at 5:57 p.m. I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have for training in the future, but hopefully I can still log enough training to keep doing sprints and Olys. Sprints, OK, that shouldn't be a problem. But I'm hoping I could do well enough in Olys on only an hour or less a day for 4 or 5 days a week. Maybe I'd need a little longer on a weekend day to do a longer bike ride, but shouldn't ever need more than an hour and a half. I'm going to try to put more effort into improving my speed, meaning being able to get in more distance in less time. I'm actually trying to come up with a strength training program for the winter, which is something I haven't done to this point in my triathlon "career".

Good luck on the race, Nate! I saw a very impressive bike workout (might have been the 50 miler you mentioned) on Garmin recently. Between that and all of the hard work you've been putting in on the run, I'm sure you'll do awesome! Is there any way to track you on race day?

Here's a pic of baby Nora!







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Beautiful. Congratulations! Have you guys made it home yet? How are big brother and sister taking to the new family member?

Not sure if there is any live tracking. Can't find anything on the website. Got another good ride in this week that I think will help. Hope to get to the pool this weekend for some wet suit swim practice.

Congrats again!

Nate

Thanks! Came home Friday a little after lunch. Big brother and sister are thrilled to have Nora home. They've both been just outstanding with her and are curious about so many things. The first night she was home, Addison (going to be 8 in December) read some stories to her at bedtime. She went and found these old books for learning the alphabet and numbers she had when she was little. My wife said Nora sat very quietly and listened as Addison read to her. So cute! Today, it was Nathan's turn (just turned 6 in August) and he read her Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You see. He's definitely going to be the (over?) protective big brother! Anybody that messes with Nora better watch out for Nathan.

Sounds like you're in great shape for your race. I'm sure you'll do awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience.

Swam last night in my wetsuit. Fits much better this year. No shoulder fatigue and about 7 sec per 100 faster. Looks like I will be using it on Saturday.

On another note. If you have no desire to ever do a full IM don't watch the live feed of people finishing. We had some people at IM Chattanooga this weekend and I was watching last night as some were finishing. It was pretty awesome. Before I had no desire to do a full IM. After about a minute my wife says to me "you so want to do that now" um yup!

Nate

I wouldn't say that the desire isn't there. But I'm a realist and the reality is that I just don't have the time to train for a full IM and probably won't for a long time. I've said to my wife numerous times that I will look forward to going back to my shorter workouts of an hour or less now that I've done a half. I won't say that it necessarily will have to be this long, but in general I just don't see me having the necessary time to train for a full IM probably until I am retired! Especially with a newborn, it's hard for me to even imagine having the necessary free time to train for it. Maybe by the time Nora is 6-8 years old I can at least get back to the HIM distance. But for now, I'm perfectly happy to do sprints and Olympics. I can train well enough for those on a limited schedule and still enjoy myself while leaving plenty of time for family fun.

R.

I know Nate has been rocking his workouts since I've stalked him some on Garmin Connect. Great job, Nate! Second in your age group is awesome! I'm sure you must be feeling extremely proud and you should. Congrats!

Randy

Toughman SC was a pretty neat experience. It was a point to point race and they didn't release to much info heading into the race. I arrived and checked my bike in and felt the water it was very warm. I hadn't heard of any water temp posts, but was able to find an official whom told me it was 80F. Very surprising since they stated simply on the website this would be a wet suit legal race. Unfortunately my t1 bag didn't fit in their transport bag so I rearranged in my hotel. My hotel was across from the finish and t2, So I walked over in the morning and setup, and then took the bus to t1. There was two waves for the swim. Open and everyone else. The start was in deep water and I held back on the stairs and then worked my way up. Worked pretty good. On the first lap I swung a little wide but I had no company so it worked out. I know I caught at least one open athlete as they had black caps. Maybe 100 yards to t1. I swam without my top and got it on pretty easy. Packed my back and was off. Didn't see my swim time at the time, and forgot to stop my watch. 41:48 was faster then what I had hashed out in my mind (45)


The mount line was at the bottom of a hill and I prepared by being on my small ring. Guy infront of me had trouble and fortunately I was able to squeeze between him and another racer and preform a scooter line start and get going. Passed them both. I thought that after the first 15 miles I wouldn't see many folks but I stayed pretty close to others. Passed 12, passed by 3. Some of the athletes I passed I think were in the open division. Otherwise I couldn't make sense of their age group marking. Got a little hairy on main street with an abrupt stop and not much shoulder, but overall nice course. I had ball parked a 18.5 average to keep my under 3 hours, my goal. I wasn't sure how to anticipate hills and how I would do after the swim. For this course I think the hills helped. I felt like I got more from the down hill then the uphill took out of me despite the net elevation gain. My bike split was 2:45:52, the course was a little short at 55, for a pace of 19.9. I think this is my 2nd fastest pace for all triathlon distances.

The run was a double out and back. I caught 3 people but one got me back, and the first and second guy lapped me. Felt pretty good for the first 3 plus but then started to fade. Stomach start getting upset, and I was feeling hot. Switched to water and started dumping a cup on my head to keep cool and that helped. I also started to walk thru the water stops. Chafe started to be a real problem so I needed to jump into a port-a-potty to do some skin care. Unfortunately I thought one was at the turn around and there wasn't so I tried to hold off till 6 miles and ended up having to wait till like 9. With 3 turnarounds I was pretty comfortable with the fact that I had no chance of moving up in my age group or down. I had guessed my run time to be about 2:10, but that if things really came together I could go under 2. I hadn't bricked in a while, but I am shooting for under 4 for my marathon. 2:02:46 was pretty close.

Overall I ball parked about 6 hours with transitions ect, so I was pretty excited to get 5:35:03. After I checked the results I realized I was second in my age group. Was pretty stoked. I had checked before the race and for weeks there was on.y 5 or 6 in my AG, but before they closed it went to 11. Unfortunately on 5 folks showed up or finished, so a small field. I ran back to my hotel for a shower and change as awards were to be at 3:30. Looks like that started at 3:15. I got over there and waited. Climbed up the podium and as I was getting down I met Chris! Was a little confused at first. His brother crushed me. Unfortunately they couldn't stick around. My son told me he wanted me to get at least 3rd in my AG, he was proud that I got 2nd.
Unfortunately my family couldn't travel. Celebrated in town solo with some IPA;s and lots of foods I have removed from my diet for the weeks leading up to the race like french fries and desert.

Today I am feeling pretty good. Shoulders, quads and hamstrings are sore but not to bad. Tomorrow my attention turns to finishing my marathon plan and back to my nutrition plan. I have been using a BAA level 1 plan and will now move to level 2 since I can drop the bike and swim training.

Chris it was cool to meet you. Triathlon is a small world. Randy I was pretty proud. It is nice to see the training plan all coming together. Purposeful workouts, diet, and fueling. Heck I am finally starting to like HR training. LOL

Nate

For me triathlon season is officially closed. I ended the month with overall solid numbers. Swim and Bike up and Run down a hair from last month.

SWIM4h 49m 37s - 15012.00 Yd
BIKE16h 01m 35s - 295.70 Mi
RUN19h 09m 28s - 126.16 Mi

As a season recap I raced a lot less then previous seasons, only 3 tri's. One sprint, One Oly, One HIM. I also did a HM and have a few running races planned in November and January. I think that was a good mix for me. Looking back on my training I was able to accomplish a lot with less than 8 hours of training most weeks.

I expect to see race schedules coming out here soon, but I don't think I will commit to anything for a while. I really liked the Rev race and think I will make that the center of my triathlon season next year.

I will continue run and maybe swim once a week in the winter season, but the bike is going to sit idle for a while.

Nate

My September numbers are somewhat skewed since I basically didn't do anything after my HIM. I think I've done maybe 3 run since September 13th and today was the first day that I've been on my bike since my HIM. Wow, does that fitness go fast! I only did 16.5 miles and my legs weren't happy with me. Oh, well, time to get some late season riding in before it gets too cold outside.

Swim: 1h 21m 13s - 4043 m
Bike: 7h 49m 10s - 128.1 Miz
Run: 4h 38m 36s - 29.46 Mi

I've got my eye on a couple local 5K trail races, one in October, one in November. Otherwise, I don't have any races on my calendar. I've typically done the local Jingle 5K, so that one may be in my future. I basically took about 3 weeks off since my HIM and now I need to get back to work training. I probably won't swim until December or January, but I'll get back to regular running and biking.

Next year, I'm looking at maybe 4 tris (3 sprint, 1 Oly) and I have several obstacle course races that I'm planning on doing. Heck, I'm even considering and "obstaclon", which is what would happen if triathlon and obstacle course racing had a child. LOL I believe the format goes like this: bike to the swim area, "swim" (which apparently is shallow enough that people can just wade it if they want to), bike back to transition, and then do an obstacle course. Sounds like a fun format!

Got the email invitation that I qualified for Toughman Nationals in NY. May need to put on my calendar.

Congrats! When is it? Where in NY?

September 16th at Lake Welch. Likely will decline as that is our anniversary weekend. Maybe look at HIM around here for the fall

NP

I raced my first marathon this weekend. I trained using the BAA marathon level 1 plan for most of the season and then switched to level 2 after triathlon was done. My goal was to break 4 hours, and I structured the intervals based on a 3:45 marathon to ensure I was successful. My peak week was 46 miles but that was due to pushing a long run to a Monday such that I had two runs. Otherwise I would have had 40 miles during my heavy training weeks.

My plan was to use the first mile as a warm up and run at 9 minutes, and then settle in at a 8:45 pace, and then to let loose if I had juice left after 20 miles. My longest training run was 19.15 so I wasn't sure how I would feel after this long. 19 miles really sucked.

Race morning was cold, but not too windy. We stayed close to the finish and took a shuttle to the start. My wife did the half, and we started at different locations. The shuttle put us to the start about an hour before the race. Lots of time standing in the cold. . I kept clothes on as long as I could, and stretched lightly. I was in the A corral, andI went out at a 9 minute pace for the first 0.5 miles and then sped up a little and settled in for 8:36 pace for the first 10k. I tried to slow down but the pace felt pretty natural and my heart rate was okay so I went with it. I hit the halfway point and still felt really good. My pace was 8:37 and I thought that if I could see the 8:35 pace group I had a shot at getting pulled a long for a 3:45 overall time. At this point I was in 171st place. I pushed the next 3.1 miles at 8:25 pace but never saw that stupid person with the pace sign. At this point I decided to slow a little to 8:45 and see if I could make another push at 20. This race gives splits at 19.3 as it is the 10k point for those doing the half. I hit 19.3 on a 8:38 pace and had moved into 151st place. I slowed pretty consistently after this point. Before I felt tired, but now I felt like I was weak, and my legs were just not responding. I continued to pass a few people, but most of them are walking or look like they cramped up. I was able to muster a little surge at the end as I could hear some people cheering for their dad. I finished with 3:49:11. I am more than happy with that. Overall I was 125th place, so despite fading I continued to pass people.

The first 30 minutes after I finished I really hurt bad. I almost got on my phone and cancelled my disney race. I stretched and drank beer and then felt better. I am walking slow, but feeling okay. I hurt more after this than my 70.3 for sure. I hope to restart training this week for my January race, but for now its day by day.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

Thats the link to my report.