MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 211)

JOHANNE, (Ironwoman)

Congratulations on a great race.   Looking forward to your run down of the day. 

Wow Steve! So glad you're ok but what a bummer to have to go through that again!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I'm almost done with my race report. Hopefully I'll get it done during some down time this weekend.

Steve, 

Sorry about Bambi. At least it wasn't a moose.

DOUG -

Just a week ago, on the highway I use to get into Ottawa, a guy hit a mosse and was killed,  The guideline I've heard is that if there is a deer in the raod, blow through it and you'll be fine; if it's a moose, move heaven and earth to avoid it.

That said, i'm not sure I would've been able to avoid a moose last week; it was just too dark na dtoo clsoe to a corner I probably came around too fast.  I clearly registered "DEER!!!!", and saw three going across the road, and reacted quickly enough.........but had it been a moose i'm not sure I coulda/woulda done anything differently, as in head into the ditch (big unintuitive leap, that!).

Estimated damage to the car was a t $6328 and counting, with airbag particulars and a few other things still to be factored in.  It is an '07 was a bit over 300,000km (call it 200,000 miles)  on it, so I'm sure I'm way over book value and what the insurance company is willing to pay for it.  Just awaiting confirmation, is all!

.........and not only am I awaiting insurance confirmation, I'm also awaiting Johanne's report on IMAZ --- or at least some update on how she is doing in all spheres -- physically, mentally, emotionally (probably not much different morally!)

SO ----

JOHANNE!!!!    How the heck are ya?!?

JEFF -

For November, i'm seeing long runs at 16, 20, 18, and 20, with the last being last Sunday.  Is that about right?

Am i right, too, that DM is either the 8th or the 9th?  If so, that gives you about 15-16 days, and were I in your running shoes, i would aim for a 22 or 23 tomorrow --- with bail-out options.  That could be a long out-and-back, 10 miles each way, and then an add-on at the end of one mile each way, an dif you felt good at the turnaround to that.....carry on for another half mile.  That'd get you to 23, with 22 as the next furthest option, and a solid 20 if you just do the straight o-and-b. 

Of course, all of that is contingent on your health, especially those feet of yours.  If you have any issues at all, then you could reconfigure the route so it's a "bow-tie" of two five-mile stretches from your house, getting you to 20, and then you could do add-ons as above. 

I say this with some hesitation, though, as my own training for Kiawah in Dec '09 had me doing extremely well until my last long run, abot 10 days out from it, in which I mucked up my ITB enough to cause me to bail.  I was really confident based on the solidity of my training, and in hindsight that alst long run was dumb, dumber, and dumbest.  (Of course, had it gone well it would've been gravy for my psyche, but.............)

Let me know what you decide, okay?

GEORGE -

A sparsely-attended pool is always a good thing --- unless it is illness-related.  Hopefully none of those people who came down sick had done a swim while the pestilence was blooming, meaning i hope you don't get any of their chlorine-borne germs!

As I've said before, make sure your workout schedule works for you; don't worry about too-few runs at this stage of the offs-season.  In pint of fact, one could argue that at this stage of the off-season, there really can't be "too-few" runs!  (So i tell myself, not having run for 31 days!!!)

ANNE -

Glad you ran, glad it felt "SO good"!  I guess I ought to check your logs for the specifics, eh? 

Did you have a good time with harry?  He had a pretty fine season, although not many races -- unless he snuck some in up here or points farther away (I'm basing his season only on USAT stuff).

And NO!!!!! I am not ready for snow!  (And why would you ask about that??)

DANG Steve!!!

Glad you're ok! And 3rd time this happened??

I remember one time I was visiting a friend of mine in Texas and we were driving back from Sonora to San Antonio at night and I was in the passenger seat. I can't remember what animal he told me to look out for but damn about 2 miles later I saw a pair of eyes staring at me at the side of the road! And that was on the interstate! Freaked me out. We don't get so much live animals running across the roads here luckily. We've got so little true nature left that whatever's there, we actually build "ecoducts", or wild life crossings. Except they dont tunnel the wild life under the road but the road but bridge the wildlife over the road. Crazy. Anyway, my random stat of the day

Yes, the DM is the 9th. I am currently in South East Kansas, very flat terrain- I just did seven miles at a 9:00 pace with no stress or discomfort at all-flat. It's all gravel however.

The grid of roads are roughly 1 miles square (1 section) but somewhat disrupted. The bow tie idea doesn't quite fit but there are seemingly an infinite range of out and backs in all four cardinal directions. Ill aim for 20 ish with an add on

I realized I didn't need to push anything just now and I only feel like I've been doing just enough to maintain rather than to increase anything for now.  But, I do want to run the 5K Santa Shuffle fun run next Saturday so I wanted to get some consistent running in up to next Wed or Thurs so I can maybe knock a bit of time off my 5K pace.  Plus I want a "Santa" medal.

I went swimming this a.m. which was a fairly light workout in part due to finding out one of our group has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  She's a young lady/mother of 2 (about the age of our oldest daughter - 35-ish) and she's really nice as well.  I haven't decided what I can do to help her but I'm thinking I'd really like to help in some way.

When I came home from the pool I got on our treadmill for an easy 3.5 miles and I felt reasonably comfortable.  A bit slower than I'd like to be but not ponderous either.

Just checking in! I finally finished my blog/race report. Check the link below. 

I'm feeling pretty good. It's kind of weird to train for so long and poof! it's over. I loved, loved, loved doing this race. Physically I'm recovering well. I was a little sore but really not substantially more than after a marathon. I do find myself tired at the end of the day. I'm going to make sure I take the time to recover before I jump back in. I couldn't of asked for a better Ironman experience.

Well worth the wait for your report Johanne and tied in pretty nicely with your photos.  It is hard not to get excited about doing an IM after reading your report.  Hopefully, I'll quickly get over the idea pretty quickly.

JOHANNE -

I'll echo George --- well worth the wait!  As usual, you've gone above and beyond in conveying your sense of joy in being able to do this stuff, and between your words and the photos, you could be the poster girl for doing multisport for the pure love of it.  The word "inspirational" gets tossed about quite a bit when it comes to endurance activities, but really -- even though your reports are alwys somewhat inspiring for me, this one was the whole inspirational package.   Wow.

And framing all of it is your smile, omnispresent and joyous.  I loved your line about being scared (swim start), miserable (mid-bike), and hurting (run), and while I can understand all of that all-so-clearly, of coyurse it hardly shows at all in your photos.  Somehow, your ecstacy in being there and doing that transcends whatver bad stuff you may be going through at the time.  I don't know how you pull that off!

How've held up this past week?  Any lingering aches and pains?  If not, great-greater-greatest!

Be on the lookout, though, for "post-iron letdown".  It's very real, especially for people like you who sign up 364 days in advance and make the race the cornerstone of their life, and finish.....and then what?   It might take a week or two or three to surface, and hopefully it won't at all for you, but just on the chance it starts to, maybe work up a rough contingency plan for a race of some sort between now and the new year.  even a New Year's 5km would be good, possibly a 10km even better -- just something you can kinda sorta train for, thus maintaining a sense of still "being in the game".

On another note, we will be coming out to CA afterall, in a couple of weeks, but are still working out the plans.  As a quick thought, might you be free midday on the 6th, or midday/evening of the 8th?  Those are the Th and Sa, and they look possibly conceivably workable for us.  I'll keep you apprised of how the plans develop.

Finally, you're soooo lucky that the family was there in full force.  I know you know that, and you gave clear thanks for them in your report............but I just wanted to add my 2cents to it.  Done!

STEVE - Read about your incident with the deer. Glad you are ok, and hopefully the expense to purchase a new car won't be too great. That was so scary to read. I have friends that live in the boondocks who have issues with hitting dear quite often. Thankfully there aren't moose this far south.

JOHANNE - Read your RR. You have such a positive attitude - it's always a joy reading your blogs and updates on Facebook. Has it sank in yet that you are an Ironman? I bet you are super happy! I also have heard about the Ironman "let down" of which Steve speaks. You may want to read up on it so you don't fall prey to it...I hear it's not pleasant. My bet is that you'll be doing a lot of horseback riding and keeping up your super busy social schedule through the holidays!

My totally uninformed and newbie guess is that like building-up your volume for a race, one needs to taper-down their activity after a race instead of full-stop. I did see that you managed a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Looked like fun! (I had tentative plans on doing one this year, but alas my extended family seems to think that it's my duty to cook every year. Next year I'm putting out the word early that I will NOT be cooking!) LOL

So far, my only post-Ironman let down is this past week I felt like I had lost my identity! I walked a 5K Turkey Trot with my family and went on a hike with some friends and that's it. I know I need to rest and I'm ok with tht but it's funny to go from double days to Thanksgiving dinner

I was a little stiff and sore for a few days but overall felt pretty good. I'm more sore today from Saturday's hike up in the mountains. I realized I hadn't used a lot of my hill muscles for a while. I'm planning to swim a couple times this week and maybe spin on the trainer and wait for the following week to run. My daughter and I are going to train for a 10K in February (it'll be her first) and that will be a good way to get back into running a bit. 

I'm working on putting together most of my 2013 schedule which is always fun. I think I'll do 2 HIM, some other shorter races and finish the year with a marathon. My other daughter wants to train for one and she'll be back living in San Jose this summer so we can train together.

Trina, I'd rather be positive than the alternative! I really am blessed that life is pretty good for me right now and I'm taking advantage of it

Steve, I work until 2:00 on Thursday but I'm not far from Scotts Valley/Santa Cruz so that could work. Saturday afternoon/evening would work too. Does one work better for you?

Johanne

JOHANNE -

Lost your identity?  Yup!  Been there!  Done that! 

The good news is that it really hasn't gone far.......and the better news is that it will come back to you without you having to go searching for it!  Crafting next year's schedule should help a lot, and I dare say that it will help hugely to be looking at half-irons, as oposed to a full.  They will seem eminently doable, in the face of your conquest of IMAZ, and I think you will have an absolute ball with them.  Just curious about two things:  Will you look to be doing either of them more competitively than previously, and will one of them be a re-return to Vineman?  (My guess is "Yes!" to both parts.)

Perfect plan for "feathering" back into some semblance of training, what with a couple of swims (maybe of the splish-splash variety?) and an easy trainer spin.   Following IMLP '04, which was on a Sunday, my post-race activity was a 15' bike ride to my car grage on the Weds, a 38' swim on the Sun, and easy 88' ride on the Mon, and then  a 42' run on the TUes.....and then I was mostly back in gear.  Part of that was to get kinda set for a HIM four weeks after LP, and had it not been for that, i would've been much more slack --- per demands from body and mind!

Great on that 10km in February, too, and coaching girl-child ought to be another way to stir up a sense of being involved.

We have to be in Berkeley by about 5 on the Thursday, so that might be tight; Saturday might be better?  When would Dave be available?  And I'm not sure whether you'd be up for a meal somewhere, or a fairly quick coffee or something similar, or whatever else migth work for you.  That said, I don't want to impose on you or cramp your style in any way, so if this doesn't seem workable for you, let me know!!

TRINA -

No resolution on the car, which is awaiting an appraiser showing up at the body shop.  the running total of repairs is at $6300, but that doesn't include various airbag parts.  It's a '07 with about 310,000km, and the best book value for it is around $3000, and that would be for excellent condition (which even before the crash, it was no).  So, we're assuming write-off --- but won't start getting real active until that's confirmed.  Sigh.

How are you doing with Dallas H-M?   Are you reveling in running in what are almost certainly ideal conditions at this time of the year?  We have snow on the ground, maybe an inch --- enought to depress me some, but exhilarate Lynn.  She's such a keener about snow and "Canadian winter"!

DAVE -

Nice gear-scouting!  Those aerobars should satisfy you, and that's the logical first step in serach of bike speed.  Zooooommmmm!!!

As for the aero helmet, I'm sure mine has helped.  I bought it in 2010, having waited that long until I really felt that I was posting consistently strong enough times to "be worthy" (or some such silliness), and I only regret that i didn't spring for it a year or two (or three?) earlier.  That said, make sure you (a) ride in an advantageous position that can keep the tail pointing back instead of up, and (b) have the neck/shoulder strength to keep the tail from stabbing the sky.  Once the tail gets pointing up, all benefits are negated!

There are some sweet hydration systems out here now, but I'm pretty much stuck on two cages behind the seat and the possibility of a Profile Design aero bottle, upright and with long thick straw, between the aerobars.  Tghat was I used for years on half-irons and mt two irons, and long training rides, but due to my short-course focus the past two seasons, it's been in "retirement".  Actually, that's not true.  I use it for every trainer ride --- but only as a device to hold the remote for my TV.  Seriously!

GEORGE -

Good stuff on the 3.5 miles on the 'mill, which puts you 0.4m over the requirements for the Santa Shuffle!

As for "maintain" vs "increase"  --- the former is exactly where you want to be right now.  Nicely-planned and executed!

Snow here today.  Blech.

JEFF -

I'm probably deluding myself, but I am sure I used to have great success with denial of colds.  Whatever, it no longer works at all, and when the symptoms of a cold begin to rear their gnarly little heads, I'm usually in for the full nine yards.  "Blah", indeed!

The good news is that this is likely far enough out from DM to ensure that you'll be back to feeling okay by race day.  Your training is good enough to get you to the race even if you were bedridden between now and then.........but we both know that no amount of fine ttraining can overcome a cold if it's riding you during the race.  So, kudos to your planning on getting the bugger over-and-out sooner rather than later! 

Anecdotaly I feel like the aero helmet has been useful-when I turn my head I can feel and hear the wind whistling past the tail reminding me to stay put. I used aero-bars and a profile bottle on my road bike and the bottle migrated to my tri-bike nicely. I wish I could quantify each change I made independently but it didn't happen that way-I am faster than last year and much faster than the year before but there are way too many variables to point to anyone thing.

I have only used to aero helmet for a couple of races and our club TT's, as well as one or two training rides to get acclimated to it. I am going to say it is beneficial.

Like Joanne, shifting my focus onto whatever is next, in this case 2013 helps me. I am bad sometimes about shifting my focus to the next event before the current one has come to fruition....sort of ADD in a way.

I was hoping for a 200 mile November, it may still happen but my cold has me concerned. There is no good reason to hit 200 miles-just a cool number

There might be a placebo effect to the aero helmet or maybe a type of commitment-if your going to show up looking like that you had better live up to it!

With it on I ride harder-I skipped it at Redman for this reason, choosing my old road helmet to help me behave.