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TRACEY -

NO! Sadly.....regrettably....tragically.....no. It usual dissipates just about the time the open watewr season is finished. One day I will venture into my swim TT spot at the St.Lawrence, and my times will be slow again.

It really is the darnedest thing. This is maybe the 7th or 8th season it has happened, and for neither love nor money can I figure out why. But along comes early August......and one day it materializes. I will be back to that spot tomorrow and will see if the "magic" is still there. If not, then a part of me will not be surprised just becasue I've done so much OWS this season and was sure it would happen sooner and mostly gave up hope a week or two ago.

If my schedule unfolds as I hope it does, my swim will benefit at:
West Point (sprint)
Half Vermont (half-iron)
Burlington (oly) OR Montreal (oly or half-iron) OR Pumpkinman (half-iron) - (all same weekend)
Lake George (oly)
MightyMan Montauk (half-iron)

And, it might've benefitted last weekend at FTT, where I swam fairly well in both races.

If I do Beach2Battleship iron, that will be on Nov 13 which is past the expiration date of most years' breakthrough periods, but then it is a current-enhanced swim, so it won't be like swimming 2.4 miles, normal. (In other words, i can better afford the spike to be gone for B2B.)

When are you planning to get to N.H., and where are you staying? Are you hoping to drive the bike course the day before? That would be helpful if you have the time!






Edited by stevebradley 2010-08-12 8:55 PM

DENISE -

Lynn being gone is part of it, but I don't figure I'll have much company there as it's kind of off my beaten path. I expect it will be more heavily NYC and NJ and CT, and less of the upstate crowd of whom I actually know a few people. I mean, I suspect I'll yak it up with whomever will listen to me, but I don't go into it with any great hopes of lots of close camaraderie.

Believe it or not, I am a fairly private person, and the best relationships I have are the ones that I take time to cultivate, as opposed to just meeting people here and there; I am not very good at that. So, when I stopped working I really suffered for the first year or more away from the other teachers, many of whom I had worked with for years and years and years.

In place of that -- kind of desperate for ANY human contact - I would go into Ottawa practically daily and just sit in a Starbucks and read and feel as if I was part of the human race. Pretty pathetic, huh? That was a big pattern in my life for most of late '07 and '08......and then I kind of grew out of that needy stage. I still acutely feel the loss of that core group of friends, and even when I go back to the school to visit, it often hurts more than it helps. Who was it who said "You can never go home again"? Anyhow, they sure had THAT right!

I have loads of good reasons for not going down to West Point, but I'm sure that if I don't, i will regret it. So I think I'm going, but if at some point it just seems lame and stupid and pointless, i'll just turn around and come back home. The "drop dead" locale would maybe be around Lake Placid, about 2.5 hours away. And if that were the case I would just take the opportunity to do a long bike ride on the wide-shouldered and sacntly-travelled roads of the Adirondacks. I can't lose!

As for racing being in my blood --- maybe not that deep. Maybe more like a skin rash, that needs to be scratched and scracthed and scratched!

HA I saw that about IMSG! 

I think you are right about the bucket list thing for sure.

YEAH it is FRIDAY! WEEEE

Sounds good! My cell # is 774-454-0497. I'll PM it to you too closer to next weekend. I'll be staying up there the whole weekend in Meredith with my husband and son, so if you're in town and don't have any plans for dinner on Friday night (or Saturday for that matter), please join us for dinner! (Unless of course you're planning to eat at the Timberman-sponsored dinners... I think I'm going to skip it. It seems kind of pricey and I wonder how decent the food will be.)

Ah, bummer about the swims. Must have something to do with d/c'ing OWS and moving it to the pool, no? I wonder...

We'll be arriving in NH Friday afternoon/evening. We're staying at a B&B in Meredith (about 10 miles from the race). I will definitely be checking out the bike course the day before! I want to know what I'm in for...

TRACEY -

The years I have eaten at Timberman, the food has been superb -- about xx times better than what we had at Escape (I still feel badly about roping you into that one!). But the venue has changed slightly since I last had a Timbermeal, moving from the Laconia exhibition center to Gunstock, so maybe the caterers or whomever have changed as well.

The night before I met up with Mandy I ate in a great place (Stewart's?) right along the bike course. And then Mandy and I had ice cream there after the ride, so she will remember it. But let's face it -- the area is crawling with cool eateries, so it's a buyer's market.

Munch, munch!

TRACEY again -

I just went to the course map to confirm numbers befeore I posted them here, and when I said "right along the bike course" that would specifically be the corner at which the bike turns from 11 onto 11B. It's only about two miles into the bike, and just beyond it on 11 is Laconia Airport with all the acreage of landing strips. You can't miss it!

To me, it was sort of a big deal -- one of those classic New England-type eateries that, well, are mostly only in New England. Certainly not up here, anyway. Eating there was a trip back in both place and time for me!

You will be pleased to know that the bike map shows that the sprint course will avoid the gnarliest stretch of bad-shape road, at least on the way out. It looks like you'll get it coming back, but that's better than getting it twice. I did the sprint there last year and don't remember it as bad at all, so I guess this winter really took its toll on it. Bump-bumpity-bump-bump!

I'm gettuing very vicariously psyched for both you and Mandy. I can always get psyched about someone else's race, but the giddy thrill increases exponentially when I have actually done the raxce there myself. So, as a veteran of T-man half-iron '01 and '04, and T-man sprint '09, I'll be with you both in another 8 and 9 days! Woo-hoo!

I am skipping the dinner - I always do - I want to cook what I am used to eating the night before a race. The Goofy Challenge Debacle taught me that.  I am meeting some Timberman folks Friday night. 

I will try to hook up with you before the race (so I can see what you look like and I can cheer for you!) and after the race on Sat - sound good?  I have a lot of family up on Sat afternoon so I will be hanging with them.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/secondhomes/2010-08-12-lake-winnipesaukee-new-hampshire_N.htm

Just happened to see this article in USA TODAY about the Timberman area.

Denise

Edited by LadyNorth 2010-08-13 11:23 AM

HEY STEVE,

Did a 2km swim/23km bike brick today.     Kind of detailed analysis as usual.   When you have a chance would it be possible to have a look and give me your feedback.    

Actually swam 2400 meters with a 4min RI after the 400 m w/u.    Bike was pretty good.   Really hard start with 3 tough hills.  Going to map it to get the elevation.    Legs didn't have the jump of Mon/Wed.   I think I was feeling some of the effects of the strength training yesterday, maybe.  

When do you do your strength training?  

Plan for tomorrow is 25km EASY recovery riding and total recovery day Sunday so we can do our 90km long ride on Monday.   Plan for the long ride is to keep the in the endurance training zone (high Z2) which should be between 128-134.
Sound OK?  

Thanks.  

----------------------- RACING THIS WEEKEND --------------------------


Saturday the 14th

DENISE
Northwoods Sprint Triathlon
0.25 -- 14 -- 3.1

Nevis, MN
8am start

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Sunday the 15th

ME
West Point Triathlon
800m -- 15 -- 3.1

Camp Buckner, West Point, NY
8am start in Wave #1

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds great!

Having as many friends as you do, I figured you'd already have plans for dinner.

Tracey



Edited by thall0672 2010-08-13 5:32 PM

Good luck to the racers this weekend!

Tracey

This will be my first time up to Lake Winnipesaukee, so I'm excited to see these lakefront homes!

Tracey

I think I'm suffering burn-out.  Not from training but from being nervous before a race.  I thought after I'd done a few, I'd stop being so nervous before a race.  But I'm just as nervous as before the 1st one.  And it starts about 2 days before the race.  I'm ready for a long break.  My last tri is in a little over 2 weeks so I guess I can last that long.

However,  I just heard about our area's 1st mud run - it's in Sept.  But I think maybe I could do that just for fun and not get nervous beforehand.

Just venting - my husband's out of town and I don't have anyone to listen to me whine (except the dog).

Denise

Oh, that's TERRIBLE.    Being all alone the day before a race.       Vent away!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I know what you are experiencing.    I got nervous like that for a few years and I actually still do when it is an important event for me.    I don't think that will ever change for us.    Maybe to a certain degree.   Although my nervousness doesn't start until the night before.    By race morning I am pretty calm.    Not sure why.  

Just take some DEEP yoga breaths and see if that helps.  

I know you are going to do awesome tomorrow and fully expect to hear about your great results.    I'll be thinking of you leaving those other age groupers in your dust!        

Hope you have a really good time tomorrow!!  

ANNE -

Nice work, and very nice amassment of data!

What struck me most about the swim is your consistency -- five splits, and all within 10" of each other. That's good, and as you say, even better that the overall trend was not to get progressively slower.

Big jump in HR from the w-u through the main set, but that's not surprising. And I wonder if when you comment that Ken's HR is usually higher and that "you can see who's working harder", maybe it reflects more on you being more economical and efficient. That would seem to be indicated by the close splits, too. Just between you, me, and the buoys, do you ever think that Ken maybe fights the water more than you do?

A lot of swim literature will say that for people who have flaws in their mechanics, the harder they perceive their work output the more they actually fight the water and, in fact, may not even be going faster. I think that that is the case with me quite frequently, especially in the days I was fairly regularly cranking out 1000m time trials. Quite often on those, at some ponit my stroke would fall apart and I'd become a very inefficient swimmer.

Did you emerge from the swim feeling kind of sapped? You don't say so, but I'm just wondering with that high HR of 139. But maybe that was just a bilp, as your avg HR was a very comfortable-sounding 116.

I would figure you would have a somewhat "down" day on the bike, given the two rides earlier AND the 45' of lifting yesterday. That is another case where training proves to NOT be linear, and even though it is a bit disconcerting and disappointing, if you can step back and view the preceding days objectively, you can see why you either seemingly "falltened" or - oh, no!!!! - took a step backward.

But OF COURSE that didn't really happen, right? You know that full well, right?

But for Preacher Boy here, I can tell you that my initial reaction to my swim in the St. L. today was disappointment, because it wasn't as fast as the "breakthrough" swim two days ago. But then I had to remember that:
(1) the water was not as friendly today
(2) today was my 5th straight OWS day
(3) just six days ago I swam hard in two races, one at 1500 and the other at 750
So, I have to practice what I preach and not be too hard on myself when it seems I've taken a step backwards!

As for lifting.....I haven't done any since mid-June. That's how it usually unfolds in the summer, that I can always find better reasons to S,B,or R. Maybe another way to say it is that when I lift in-season, I usually feel real guilty for not doing those other things.

Remember, too, that I never do lower-body stuff. That effectively ended when I tore my meniscus, and I just don't want to do anything to compromise anything down there.

In general, though, I try to keep my lifting away from important workouts, and seeing how it's always upper-body or core, I never try to swim after a lifting session -- at least not on the same day.

In your shoes, i would've done the ride you did today after the lifting session you did yesterday. I would've felt that was a good test of stress on the body, one of those combos that might be a build-build. And, as I said above, I would not have expected great results on today's ride, but pleased to have just pulled it off after the past few days' various efforts.

FINALLY, the plan for the next two days leading up to Monday's long ride is excellent -- a recovery ride and then rest. Perfect!!

DENISE -

Now is sure not the time to discuss it, but at some point let's try to figure out exactly what it is that makes you nervous. Is it your own expectations for yourself, or the prospect of not doing well against others in your a.g.? Oops! I said that now wasn't that time to discuss it, so we'll just leave it all right there for now!

May you overcome your nervousness by the time the swim starts, and may you move quickly enough to out-race the t-storms that are possibilities around Nevis!

Have a great race, Denise!

Now, I might be able to handle margarita flavored Shot Bloks!  I'll have to check those out.

LISA

DENISE and TRACEY -

Growing up in Massachusetts, Lake Winn was of legendary status -- the gem of the "northern lakes". For years my Nana (my dad's mom), who was widowed the year before I was born, stayed for a couple of weeks each summer at Ames Farm, so I was usaully part of the car trip to take her up there and bring her back. (A.F. is still there, presumably still renting out rooms for extended stays in a big old New England farmhouse along the lake.)

Tracey, I really hop it is a gloriously clear morning for your swim, so you an stand there and just be awe-struck, staring across the lake and seeing the outliers of the White Mountains in the really-not-all-that-far-distance!

LISA!

Hello!

Is that what it takes to lure you back here -- mention of "margarita"??

Ha, craziness at work today after taking yesterday off to take my son for his physical and school shopping.  I'll have to say ... I actually passed on the margarita with my family on Wednesday night!  Now trying to get caught up with the group and my logs.

LISA

GANG!

I'm off tomorrow morning, early, for West Point, and won't get back until sometime Sunday evening. So, keep the home fires burining for me while I'm away, okay?


Plan:
-leave at 6:45
-kennelize Luna at 7:00
-stop at Barnes and Noble near Albany at 11:30 or so
-visit Catskill Mountain Multisport at about 1:00
-arrive at Camp Buckner at West Point about 2:30-3:00, pick up packet, buy stuff at the expo, tour the course and maybe also tour West Point itself
-return to Newburgh and my hopefully okay Howard Johnson's Motel
-wake up about 5 on Sunday and get to race site as early as possible....and then let the fun begin!!


Have restful and/or productive weekends -- however it feels best to you!

STEVE B, great job on the breakthrough swim and on the run.  Sounds like you will be more than ready (once again!).  Good luck!

MANDY, the menus you were sharing with ANNE sounded great.  Feel free to share more!!

TRACEY and MANDY, sounds like another GrooveTime get-to-gether.  I feel so lonely way down here all by myself!

DENISE, you'll do great with your race.  A little bit of nerves helps with the adrenaline.  Like ANNE said, a few good yoga breaths and you'll be fine!  And just think of me trudging out a 6 mile run at 6 am when it's already over 80 degrees.

I'm registered for the St. Jude Half Marathon on 12/4 and got a great deal on my flight to Memphis this week.  Normally I fly to Little Rock and rent a car because it's so much cheaper but the flight to Memphis dropped from $460 to $248 earlier this week, so I jumped on it.  I'm also registered in the lottery for the Houston Half on 1/30 ... we'll find out on 8/17 if we are in or not.  Then planning on another half the end of March.  The races end up spaced 8 weeks apart so I think will work out well.  Would still like to get another triathlon in before the end of the season.  The one I raced last October has already filled up, so need to figure out another.

Also, planning on a trip to Winnipeg around September 12th for a couple of days for the opening of Mamma Mia.  Looking forward to the cooler weather! ... oh, and seeing my daughter, I suppose.

LISA

Thanks for the feedback.    Re the swim, the coach I see occasionally says he can set his watch by me.      I'm disappointed I let the swim training fall by the wayside this past year, but am quite psyched about the off season, and potential for next year, already.   The bright side is that despite the lack of swimming, my pace hasn't really suffered, and I know I still haven't reached my 'peak'.  

I'm sorry to say (not really) that Ken is quite efficient, his good stroke with his power makes him a fair bit faster than me.   With wetsuits, on the long courses he is out of the water 3-4, maybe 5 minutes ahead of me.    Without wetsuits, I can actually stay with him pretty well, because he doesn't have the same buoyancy.  

I didn't feel sapped at all coming out of the water - never do.   I stopped the HR monitor as soon as I stopped swimming.   I think the 139 came when I tried to through a few 'sprints' into the mix.   

I probably shouldn't have done the strength training but don't want lose what I gained on the canoe trip from the portaging.   I'll keep it to a minimum until the season ends and for sure won't do any close to the races.  

We have a hard time fitting everything in during the off season and with taking up the yoga, strength got left behind.   Going to try work on some kind of schedule that will work for us this year.  

Am feeling quite good today, except for a pretty tight upper neck/base of skull.