Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete - Always OPEN (Page 22)

I've gotten a couple outdoor rides in but apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo announcing Spring is here as it's snowing today - AGAIN.

Congrats on your finish Rob!  Good job.

Did anyone else watch the Boston Marathon?

Desi Linden became the first American women in 33-years to win the race.  She survived what was perhaps the most brutal conditions I've ever seen for a major marathon - 35-40 degrees, HARD rain most of the race, wind upwards of 15-25 mph.  Sarah Silvers, yes another American, was second - a bit over 4:00 behind Linden.

On the men's side, Yuki Kawauchi won by over 2:30.  Yuki said after the race, "For me, today was the best conditions possible."  That really highlights how important the mental side of sport is.  Everyone there had to battle through the same conditions - yet big name after big name dropped out behind the leaders.

While the times were slow and there really wasn't a race at the end, overall this was one of the most entertaining races I recall seeing in a long time.  The coach side of me loves seeing people dig deep and overcome adversity.  This race was adversity squared.

Sorry I missed the Marathon.  Sounds like it would have been a good one to watch.

Rob - Congrats on your race.  Sounded like a job well done to me.

Steve,

Maybe you should take up Rugby for cross-training.  Might be safer!  

Sorry for all the typos in the original post. I was on the iphone which I am not very good at operating.  I couldn't even find the edit option after I posted it.  :-) 

My brother has a 3:10 Qualifying time and I have a 3:15 qualifying time since I am a full 18 months older.  The last Marathon I did was a 3:14, but that was 8 years ago.  I crashed and burned pretty bad in that race (as did I in my first Marathon).  I came across the half marathon mark right at the pace I needed to break 3 hours.  I was feeling really good and got excited and sped things up a bit.  Things were going fine until I got to the 20 mile aid station.  One of my college roommates was working that aid station and he decided to run with me for about a mile.  I was in my groove and on pace and my friend threw me off.  After he dropped back I think I made it about half a mile before I realized that he had speed me up and that my legs were at their limits.  Every muscle felt shredded.  Each stride was painful.  It was like trying to run on a sprained ankle only the pain was shooting through my quads instead of the ankle.  I got to the point where I had to start to the run-walk.  It was something like 10 minutes of walking to 2 minutes of running.  It is pretty bad when you only have a few miles to go and you only have to maintain 2 minutes a mile slower than your race up to that point to BQ and you know there is not way in the world that you are going to be able to make it. 

My brother is the ultra marathoner.  I am the guy that runs sub 18 minute 5K's.  I can do a mean half marathon but have never held it together for the full. 

I have figured out a lot of things about refueling, etc. over the past 3-1/2 years doing triathlons though.  I might be able to hold a marathon together now.  I still might have a sub 3 hour marathon in me.  They say you aren't ready for you next marathon until you have forgot how much the last one hurt.  I am not sure if I am quite there yet.  Maybe in another year.  :-)

Thanks!  After being a dedicated 5K runner for about a dozen years I had some friends invite me to do the Country Music City Half Marathon with them 10 years ago.  I joined an 18 week full/half marathon training program organized through a local running store to train for the race because I had never done a run longer than 10 miles and had never raced over about 5 miles.  Well long story short I beat my goal by about 15 minutes in the half marathon and felt so good after the race that I was wishing that I had done the full marathons because the half wasn't challenging enough for me.  So...I did my first full marathon 3 weeks later because there wouldn't be another in-state marathon that I could do another 6-8 months if I missed that one.  I crashed 11 miles into my first Marathon. I was a 3 loop course around a lake and after the 2nd loop I was going to drop out but them was my bother telling me that I couldn't drop out and he pushed me back on to the course for the 3rd loop.  It was a small race with only about 50 runners so my brother was waiting for me at ever mile marker on the last loop (and most of the 2nd loop).  When I got to him he would hand me a full bottle of water (it was 85 deg F in May so needed it) I would walk with my brother while I drank the water then I would hand him the bottle back and run to the next mile marker where he was waiting for me with a fresh bottle of H20.  I wasn't going to try to do the Marathon thing again but my brother was so excited about how well I did in my first marathon and told me that the strength he saw from me in the last half of the marathon convinced him that I would make a good marathoner.  So I start training for the next race,  It was an out-of-state race 7 months away.  I did most of the miles, but chickened out of doing the next race.  I didn't feel like I had trained as hard as I had for my first half marathon and that I wasn't likely to improve much over the first race. So I got serious about things and planned on an out-of-state race 4 months later.  I lined up two half marathons as training runs.  The first one I trained through.  I was doing 40-55 miles a week and I did the half marathon at the end of one of those 55 miles weeks.  The first 5 miles of that half I was extremely dead legged, but after than I noticed that I had loosened up and worked through the lactate acid in my legs and was feeling pretty good, so I finished that race just 30 seconds behind my first Half marathon. I trained hard and do a perfect taper and drove a state away for my race only for is to be canceled the next morning because they has got 1/4" of snow and the police force that was going to be supporting the race though they might be need to handle increase traffic accidents.  As we pulled out of town at 9:30 AM the last traces of snow were almost melted.  I was very frustrated but came back the following week end for the rescheduled race.  They didn't offer the full on the make-up day to I ran the half.  I didn't have a good race.  I was 2 minutes over my first half.  Three week later I the other training half that I had planned.  It was in my home town and much of it was a parks trail that I ran with my cross country team in High school.  I smashed my first half marathon time and was 3rd place over all in a field of around 600 people.  The next opportunity I had for a full marathon was a year later.  I again train well and had a much better full marathon that my first race, but I missed my BQ by four minutes after setting a new half marathon PR two months earlier that was a 2nd place over all finish at the home town race and a time fast enough to qualify for the New York marathon.  So my half were going really well but the full Marathons not so much.  So... I became a half marathon specialist for the next 6 years until I got into Triathlons.   I am sure that refueling was one of my struggles on the full marathons.  I can run a decent half marathon fasting.  If I go serious about marathons again I am sure I might stumble through some of them but I would eventual nail one. I just find Triathlons more fun that Marathons and fun is something that keeps me going.

Steve - I just listened to the Beach Boys - Love and Mercy.  I can't say I recall ever hearing it before but it took me right back to about 1965.  Very nice.  I'm going to have to revisit them.

I also recently watched the Foo Fighters video for "Run".  Very entertaining video and a good song.  I started collecting songs to listen to while running but I never wear earplugs while running or cycling.  I figure it is too dangerous.

Have you ever listened to The Black Keys - I like a few of their songs and particularly "Lonely Boy".  I better not get started - I have too many favourites.

I just remembered "Wicked Tinkers with Craig Ferguson".  If you like drums this is too good to miss and Craig Ferguson keeps up with them really well.  Okay, now I'll stop.

Steve,

I LOVE the Beach Boys - going all the way back to high school.  A VERY long time ago.  I don't often have music on outside but always on the treadmill. 

I agree, Brian Wilson had some issues - which is probably why he made such great music.

Thanks for sharing!