GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 215)

WELL DONE, DENISE!!!!!!!!!!   Fantastic placements for sure, and even better is that you had fun doing it!    That's going to get some people re-thinking their position on what women over 60 are capable of.   

YES, it went through Algonquin and we WERE in a remote canoe-in campsite.   Definitely a memorable day!   50mm of rain.    Fill you in on that adventure later. 

HAPPY BELATED 30th BIRTHDAY, SHAUN!!!!    FYI, you don't look a day over 22.  

Hope you had a wonderful day!  

OMG, that is AMAZING!    You are awesome.    I thought we were supposed to deteriorate with age. 

You make me want to run.       I hope your husband knows how lucky he is to be sharing his life with you.   

GANG!!

I'm back home, having had a memorable day -- but glad I'm not doing another tomorrow!!

Full details will come later, likely tomorrow, maybe dribs and drabs tonight.

ANNE and MANDY, awfully fine to have you back in the fold!

DENISE -

Phenomenal job, m'am! I would say that "missing" by a mere 4 seconds counts as a huge moral/emotional victory, given where your thoughts were at last week. When do we get the full nine yards of the report, eh?

Great performance, Denise!!

LISA -

Yet another fruit of the early-morning tree; well done!

There was a piece in yesterday's USA Today on the massive heat wave, with special "citations" going to Little Rock and especially Memphis. The heat index seems to be the thing that is catching people's attentions, but also is the matter of the humungous number of 100+ days this year, compared to the norm.

Today was a reasonable balmy mid-80s day, with minimal humidity. Whew!!!

MANDY -

Yeah, yeah, I know I still owe you a full explanation of my comment about your IM mentality, and it's coming.

But until then, as an insight into a kindred soul of yours (I believe), go to my other mentor group, and go to page 220, and look at the third post, which is called something like "The Steve Becker Story". This is from MightyMan Montauk last October. (Steve also did the FTT Double TRI today, and performed awesomely.)

Let me know what you think about it!

ANNE -

I don't know what is more jaw-dropping -- the amount of paddling, the amount of portaging....or the amount you ate today on the way out. I had a massive eating/drinking day myself as a by-product of the two races, but it was kind of paltry by comparison with what your engulfed and devoured. Mercy!!

That's actually pretty cool that you were at a remote site when all the sturm und drag struck -- especially since you got out and one piece and are able to write about it. It would not have been near so cool if your tent got flooded and your canoe got wind-borne up to the top of the tallest white pine, I guess, huh?

Any open water swims to speak of?

Preliminary (that is, from my watch; official ones aren't posted yet) Results

Race #1 -- Olympic (0.9-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike, 6.2-mile run)
S -- 27:13
T -- 1:27
B -- 1:11:14
T -- 1:25
R -- 44:01

Race #2 -- Sprint (0.5-mile swim, 14.5-mile bike, 3.1-mile run)
S -- 13:23
T -- 1:17
B -- 43:12
T -- 1:15
R -- 21:42

Notes:
-won age group in both, quite handily
-sprint T2 complete guesstimate, as I didn't click at all between bike-out and run-out
-pre-exist problems did not materialize -- achilles okay, s-i joint okay
sore-ish calves right now; i will pay more fully later
-hematuria after race, but okay now (this is not as bad for me as it might sound, as I have an episode or few every season, just about)

More tomorrow (uh, that would be "today", as it's now 1:45!!).


GOOD NIGHT!

STEVE B, congratulations on two more first place finishes!!  Quite impressive!

ANNE, welcome back ... sounds like a wonderful trip!!  I'm so envious!

Even though it is incredible hot down here, it isn't is hot as it was last summer, which wasn't as hot as the summer that I had my first son (born August 26th, 3 weeks late, after 100+ degree days for weeks).  I just try to focus on the fact that the heat will make me stronger ... can't wait til we are at least back down into the 60s.  My running partner has been having quite a difficult time this summer.  I stopped numerous times yesterday to allow her to catch back up.  I think the heat is playing some head games with her.  When I checked our pool temp yesterday, it was 96 degrees.

LISA 

LISA -

There's a tourism opportunity for you: Lufferly Hot Springs!

My best advice for your running partner is 2am runs. I'm sure you'll be more than happy to aid and abet her with that!

SteveB,

Like I've said before, I've run out of things to say. wow!  I'm especially impressed by your running paces.  How do you do that? huh?

I was looking for your results last night - didn't find them.  But I did see a note that the 1st 50 Oly registrants would get a custom swim cap with their name on it.  Cool - but I'm pretty sure you didn't register early enough to get that, did you?

Denise

Anne,

Would love to hear more about your trip - I'm envious.  Especially like to hear what freeze dried food you take.  The husband and daughters of an acquaintance of mine (we work at the food shelf together sometimes) just went on a Boundary Waters (northern MN/Canada) trip and they spent a week preparing food to take - it's part of the fun of the trip, I guess - they make all their own stuff.

Denise

Lisa,

I love to rub it in.  Temp was 62 for my 5k on Sat - I even thought that was a little warm - I prefer 50-55.

Denise

DENISE -

I'm not sure what the problem is, other than there was a comment during the awards that Score-This! was having difficulties with their interface. So, not knowing what this means, I assume that the difficulty has persisted and that's why there is nothing out there yet. Score-This! (www.score-this.com) is usually very punctual with results getting on-line, and they were quite quick having them up after each race. I don't want to have to wiat until tomorrow; Immediate Gratification is what I'm all about!

I don't have a clear answer for you about my running, but things sure seem to be clicking for me this year. I was amazed at how easy it felt going out on the first run yesterday, as I rode very hard on a tough course. (One thing I want to see in the results is confirmation of my bike computer telling me that I was over 20mph for both races.)

The only two things I can tell you is that my cadence is consistently high (90+/minute), and that I feel as if I am "running pretty". Several years ago, that was a frequent buzz-term used by my coach for certain run workouts -- "run pretty". So when I am in the groove with my running I really do feel as if I am running pretty. Ask me to quantify that, however, and...........

Tory Oakland of Newton Running says her mantra is "smooth and light". That is part of it, I think --- but then the perception of that will vary from person to person. I will think about this some more, as I know I'm not saying anything very helpful. Sorry!

DENISE again -

The results are up, but are off in one area -- the olympic swim. My watch had 27:13 and the results have 30:15, and that difference would be accounted for by the fact that my wave started three minutes after the first wave, yet that time differential was not calculated in (so it would seem). I think I'll wait a day or two before "complaining" - let someone else do the dirty work!

Pleased to see my oly bike split was 21mph, and that I was able to puill off 7:13 miles off it. Hot damn! And even on an easier course, the sprint bike pace was just 20.2, a testimony to the tool taken on me in the first race (plus, it was a tad windier for the pm sprint).

Looking again, there are other goof-ups with the results, but probably nothing that affects me a whole lot. So it goes!!

DENISE once more -

Well, I couldn't keep my own counsel for long. I wrote to Score-This! not once, but twice -- the first time about the 3-minute swim difference, and the second time the 3-minute difference between my watch time for the whole race and the currently-posted time. And for what it's worth, the time listed post-race yesterday jived perfectly with my own watch time.

ANYHOW, as much as I hate being a picayune nag, I felt I had to scratch the itch, so became a kvetch. Pickypickypickypicky!!

And how are you feeling about yesterday, today? Fully satisfied with your Crosslake Dam result?

And what up or you NEXT weekend -- the third of your five straight race weekends?

Hey guys,

I know I've been absent for a pretty good chunk of time and I'm sorry for my sudden departure without any explanation. The short version is I needed time away from tris and anything tri-related. The long version follows. Thanks so much for your concern through PMs and inspires. You guys rock!

All is well over here in the sense that nothing is majorly wrong, I guess. I haven't done much of anything (tri-specific, at least) since the Oly in late June. It took me a good three weeks to get back on my bike for a short ride. And after that amount of time off, it had to be short to be surviveable. Geez, it's amazing how much fitness can be lost in such a seemingly short amount of time! It's like I was back at square one.

Since then, I've only been back on the bike a couple times, with no scheduled runs or swims at all. Part of my reasoning was that I'm going back to sea level with no bike for two weeks, so whatever I build up before then will inevitably be lost. So why try, right? Yeah, not the right attitude at all, but it seemed like a sufficient justification at the time.

Anywhos, I felt (and now I know for sure) that I was still jilted by my last tri experience. I don't usually hold on to things for nearly this long so it was kind of weird to have this feeling of crappiness hover around me every time I thought of tris. I needed a positive experience but wasn't about to commit to another hellacious form of expensive torture without being absolutely sure it would do the trick of cheering me up.

And that's where volunteering changed everything. A few friends and I had signed up to volunteer for the Boulder 70.3 Ironman race held this morning a while back after we had a blast at the sprint early in the season. Although the actual volunteer experience wasn't nearly as good this time around from an organizational standpoint (some of the coordinators were absolutely infuriating and incompetent), the athletes I interacted with made getting up at 4 am well worthwhile. It was so much fun and exciting and totally restored my faith in triathlons. The positive vibe felt in transition and before the race start was what I had forgotten about tris. And I missed that. So that's why I'm posting back to the group. I miss you guys.

So yeah, I'm back, albeit slowly and probably going to work on building a base for next season or possibly a late-season race, but I'm excited to get back into things. That hasn't happened in a while. I'm also seriously considering joining the tri club out here to get in some swim workouts with instruction since I feel like that's where I need the most coached help. The bike and run I can fix on my own, I think, (that, and I'm really intimidated by the routes they do so that'll have to wait), but my swim form needs some outside assistance. And the tri club seems like the most cost-effective way to fix that.

And that's that. As always, sorry this is so long, but I figured a one-line explanation wouldn't be sufficient to explain my absence.

From what I've glanced at in the forum, you guys and gals are doing amazingly well with your training, races, and PRs. Awesome job! And happy belated birthday, SHAUN!

Kasia

Edited by augeremt 2010-08-09 1:21 AM

Kasia,

Welcome Back!!

I do completely understand how a 2 week 'vacation' can ruin your desire to train. My 2 weeks travelling through Ontario has really hurt my training. I'm going to be away for 5 days this weekend going to Milwaukee for fun (and probably going to have too much beer and cheese while I'm there...) which will not help me out at all. I've already canceled plans for racing in August and am debating if I will be racing a sprint or oly in Sept. My head says oly, my body says sprint.

I have not had an experience like yours and am glad to hear that volunteering at the Boulder race has brought back your enthusiasm. Now you know of a race director that is not supportive of the athletes, so you can speak with your $$ and not support them.

Welcome back and its great to hear your spirits are rising.

KASIA -

Well, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I haven't been thinking about you a lot since you last posted, which I think was just a day or two before your volunteer stint at Boulder Peak. Quite frankly, I was worried, with best-case scenario being that you just moved on top something else, to more dire thoughts involving bike crashes or family tragedies -- that sort of thing.

BUT!!! It sounds as if mostly everything is okay, that you took a few steps back to evaluate this and that, and have restructured a plan to move forward. Woo-hoo!

A casual friend of mine, Melissa Rowe, was at the race on Saturday, and she told me that one of the things she has done in the past two years since we last ran into each other was start up Green Mountain Girls, a women-only tri club, now with 35 members, out of Bennington, VT. There were loads of women wearing the team jersey, and all looked thrilled to be doing what they were doing -- be it the oly in the am or the sprint in the pm. Add to them the hoards of participants from the Adirondack Tri Club, and the Capital District Tri Club, and one out of Saratoga Springs......and the camaraderie was just about infectious.

So, while those organizations don't help you much, I strongly support anyone new to traithlon getting involved with a club if it fits their timing and training needs. And as you know, these groups just aren't for "newbies", where is where the huge benefits enter into it -- seasoned veterans who are very supportive and helpful. I'm sure there are a swack of clubs around good old Boulder, so choose the one that suits you best!

As for the difficulty of rides, many clubs will have different "pace groups" for different levels - one for the 40km ride at 22mph, one for it at 19mph, one for 16mph, one for those who want to stop at three bars along the way and finish whenever.

I'm sorry about Boulder 70.3 not being fully satisfying......but that sort of thing is happening with lots of races that have gone into the WTC 70.3 stable. They lose their individuality and have to conform to a rigid set of guidelines, and they also are faced with much more pressure in the form of bigger numbers of participants and the associated organizational nightmares. My prediction is that within five years we will see many of these races revert back to independent races. I wouldn't bet the ranch on it, but when current contracts expire I think some RDs will be happy to kiss WTC good-bye and go back to doing things their way.

I'm off to the garage to get my car oil-changed, so this is a quick good-bye.

I'm SOOOOO pleased you're still with us Kasia, as you've been a big part of our momentum here. Let me know what you're looking at for tri clubs, and how the search is going.

Bye for now!

SHAUN -

If it makes you feel any better, the new issue of Triathlete (which is a terrrific) issue has an article in which there is a recommendation to take two weeks off mid-season. This is geared towards avoiding burnout, but I think tat even if burnout is not a concern, the thjought is that two weeks off might do more good than harm. Soooo......enjoy Milwaukee, (mostly) guilt-free.

With Lynn in NFLD now and me not, I've had a week to think about whether I should start structuring my seasons so that I "allow" myself time away from triathlon so that I can travel with he. That's a very tough call for me. Triathlon is about the only thing tat makes me feel likea whole, competent person, and up here it's a short enough season as it is, so I pale at the thought of giving up any part of it. But I just went four weeks between races and didn't mind that at all, and my return on saturday had me turning in two very fine performances, so maybe I can ease up on my seasons a bit in the future. Maybe.

Asia! Wow! You're in the perfect spot for such an adventure, it would seem -- young and single. What would that do to your plans of buying a condo, though? And is there a timeframe of how long they might want westerners over at the new eastern offices? That's an intriguing prospect!

As for Fords, you know I'm a Focus (and previously Escort) wagon guy without a well to go to next time I need a car. So, use ALL of your influence to get Ford away from such a SUV/van mentality and back to producing smallish MANUAL transmission cars -- the perfect little beasts for getting me to and from races without needing to dismantle my bike!

Merci!

DENISE -

Following my ones to you last night in which I went from worrier to kvetcher about the oly results and wrote two emails to the scoring company, I then went out and wrote one to the race RD, Kevin Crossman. When I woke up this morning he had already responded, saying he was bombarded by similar emails, that Score-This! had been contacted and that things would be rectified soon. Whew? I'll believe it when I see it, but I guess there is power in numbers and that I am not just a lone crackpot wandering the sordid streets of race results. (And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I Am Not Alone in this. I think I perceive a need for a support group to help folks like me who get all uppity about faulty race results!)