Eliwashere's spring fling mentor group!-Full (Page 24)

Great news Randi! REALLLLLY glad to hear it.  A little PT and you'll be back to normal in no time.

I also got great news. I've been battling some knee pain for the last few weeks. Which i blame for the lack of motivation. After some research and talking with some docs, turns out it was IT Bands. So after tons of rolling,stretching, and weight training the entire lower body, i feel great! Also switched out fo the Newtons and into some Brooks Ghost 3 for my long runs. We got te Marine Corps Marathon next Sunday. I cant WAIT!

Eli- Ready for the MCM!

Hey All,
So, we went to watch some friends at the Great Floridian Ultra Distance (an IM distance non WTC race). WOW, talk about watching some suffering.

One friend, who didn't train enough due to injuries and life getting in the way (actually, he gained like 20-30 lbs in the last two months) made an incredibly valiant attempt. He did OK on the swim, barely made the bike cut-off (actuall, I think he was like 1 minute over, but they let him go) and actually made it about 18 miles on the run. I went out to cheer him on what would have been his last loop by running ahead 300 meters and stopping to cheer. he was walking, but fast, and doing his best. 
I couldn't believe how far he made it, it was guts only.

Our other friend made it in 14:07, which was great on this course, as the hills were amazing. he looked like hell the last 2 loops, but the smile on his face as he approached the finish was INCREDIBLE!!!

I am SUPER excited now about my race, and am trying to get my head back on track, as well as my training. My achilles is still bugging me, so I am trying to rehab as much as possible while still getting in decent running.

I have the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend, and hope to be running it with Nick. I haven't had this small an amount of running before a marathon for....8 years??? But I have lots of cardio volume, so I hope that helps.

Thinking about doing back to back half marathons in a couple of weeks for my last big running weekend before the race.
Yes, I know, I am am medal .

Hope you are all well. 

Good luck on the marathon guys.  That iron distance race sounds like a killer - like we always hear there is no such thing as an easy ironman.  But c'mon Eli, it's in Florida, how bad could the hills be?  Come up to Timerberman or Mooseman, we'll show you some hills!

But on a serious note - last week I was thinking about you and Nick and how different your tri experience in FL is from ours up here.  My main concern on race morning is typically how to deal with the cold and stay warm riding while being wet, even for mid-summer events.  The temperature at wake up on my tris has been 32, 55, 46,45.  The temps are a little warmer at race time, but not much.

Hey Everybody,

I have been lurking but not posting much.  Randi I hope you get well soon.

I have been training fairly consistently again, and I am starting to see improvements. 

One area where I have noticed a significant weakness is the Swim.  I have a terrible swim kick.  Yesterday I did swim kick drills and basically couldn't move forward at all.  I exhausted myself when I tried with out flippers.  Not sure what is going on.  I have signed up for swim clinic help at my Y, but if you guys have any tip or suggestions I am all ears.

I was a lifeguard before and I always knew my kick sucked but yesterday was a real eye opener.  I am hoping if I can improve this aspect of the swim I may get some endurance and speed gains.

Welcome "back" Charlie. 

I don't have much help on the kicking part of swimming.  I'm not a great swimmer, so take my advice with a huge bucket of salt.  I use almost no kick during a tri swim.  Most (all?) New England tris are wet suit legal since the water is pretty cold up here, and with a wetsuit on my body position is fine without kicking.  That leaves my legs as fresh as possible for the bike and run.  If a race wasn't wetsuit legal, I'd kick just enough to keep my body position good.

If you're a crazy fast swimmer, or swimming shorter pool races, kick propulsion is more important, but I think for a MOP triathlete it's not a great idea to do a lot of kicking.  I've heard something like 10% of forward propulsion comes from the kick in world class swimmers, so that's not enough to make it worthwhile to me.

I have told my self the same thing about not needing to kick a lot.  I agree with a wetsuit I don't need to worry about my legs sinking, but in a pool they drop like rocks.

Hey Charlie! One thing that I have been doing a lot recently (because my legs sink a lot when I swim) is kicking with Zoomers (go to www.swimoutlet.com and do a search on Zoomers)...it has trained my leg muscles what it's *supposed* to feel like when kicking properly. Another thing is swimming with a pull buoy to get used to the *correct* position in the water - that way when I take the buoy out - I have some muscle memory of what a good position in the water feels like. Keep in mind - my swimming isn't great and I swim with Warren in the frozen north (where all swims are wetsuit legal)...but those things were small enough that I could do them on my own.

Nick and Eli - I hope the marathon went well for you both...that's one I have thought about doing...but haven't gotten the volume any where near close enough to participate (yet).

I had a small victory for me this weekend - ran in a local 5K and came in 2nd in my age group (bear in mind there were only 4 people total in the age group)...and I was only 14 seconds behind the woman who came in first in the age group. It really is the little things!

Still contemplating signing up for a HIM for next year...but as Warren knows, I think I will do it - I just need to get permission from the family. I'm laying out the racing calendar for next year this week.

Randi - I hope you are healing up well and you are getting some good PT.

Ciao!

I will check out the zoomers.  My legs do seem to sink a lot.  I have resisted the pull buoy because it seems like it would hide my issue rather than help.   I am in Central NY so all of my races have been wetsuit legal, and the my first race I was a bunch faster than my training times.  The other race was so choppy I felt like I was fighting for every yd forward and was much slower.

I also did a 5K race yesterday.  At least I am consistent, I had the exact same time as I did for the run I did in June.  A little disappointing as I feel like I should have improved.  I also felt like I ran much harder, I actually had to walk across the finish line as I thought i was going to get sick if I didn't stop running.   This was a trail run though and I did turn my ankle twice, and was running on a bed of mulch.  I don't think the ankle impacted me at all as it didn't hurt to badly when it happened and still doesn't hurt.

There is another run in November I plan on doing hopefully I will see some improvement.

I plan on using my avg HR over the last 2 miles as my LT to reset my HR zones, seems fair considering the LT field test is a 30 minute run.   The results are also close to the HR zones I recently started using determined by the Karevonen method which was a lot different from my age based zones.

Well I know I need to keep working on my run, and bike, and swim!!  Lots to do to get ready for next season.

Charlie, trail runs are MUCH harder than road runs.  So the same time on a trail is a big improvement.  And I hear you on

I've been thinking about your leg kicking questions and swimming, and I don't know fixes but I am coming around to needing to learn to do it.  I guess go with Jen's advice. 

When I start swimming again in late winter, I'm going to do some kicking work.  I use the wetsuit as a crutch since I know all my races will be wetsuit legal up here, but there's no doubt my pool swimming is MUCH slower than wetsuit open water swims and I need to fix that.

I've really got to rethink doing my long bike and long run on the same days. Sunday I ran for 11 miles and followed it up (about 6 hours later) with 35 miles on the bike. I am toasted. It made me think a couple of things: 1) thank goodness the run is after the bike in a normal triathlon and 2) 70.3/140.6 miles in one day is a LONG distance to travel on your own locomotion.

So- Nick and Eli - how was the Marine Corp Marathon?

Hope all are well.

Hey All,
Sorry I have been MIA. Life has been hectic.
The MCM was GREAT. My wife and I ran together and finished in 4:53. Not great, but not bad for us.
Nick came in a little later, with seriously sore feet. We all sat and commiserated together for a while before Mel (my wife) and I went to collect our daughter from friends.

Training for Cozumel is going well. After MCM I took a day off, then swam, ran the next day, biked after that and then did some more swimming.
Rode a century and ran 6 miles on Saturday and then took sunday off.
I am feeling good about cozumel and am focusing on staying healthy and working any last kinks out of my body.

Charlie, my kick, such as it is, is lame as well. I don't think you should be focusing on your legs for propulsion, as much as for body position. Your goal is to make sure your legs aren't increasing drag, or are increasing drag as little as possible.

Good to see that everyone is staying active!!
 

Looks great Eli, that marathon sounds awesome from what others wrote about it.  IMCOZ is only a few weeks out, when are you starting taper and when are you heading down there?

Hey gang! I've been MIA as well. Just busy with work, training, life. But now my season is over. I had a great time at the Marine Marathon. Put it on your "to-do" list. Trust me. Its worth it. Ran with Eli for a bit than paced myself to save some energy, and to take it all in. My first official half iron distance was yesterday. What a great great race. you couldn't have asked for better weather. My race report is up so check it out. I will say that doing the marathon only 2 weeks prior to my half iron, probably wasn't the best idea. I fell apart on the run due to some pain i had going on in my feet. The same pain I had on mile 24 of the marathon. But i pushed through it and broke 6 hours. Which was my goal. I also borrowed Eli's Trek TTX bike which helped me destroy the bike course. I cant wait for next year


What is everyones off season plans? I have a HM planned for Jan, 30th. So i'm taking a month off before i start training again.

That looks like a great race Nick, not bad for "falling apart"!  As far as flat Florida, I admit I consider heading down there sometime to try a race away from these hills up here, but then I remember the swim wouldn't have a wetsuit so I'll stay in New England for now!

I plan to be shoveling snow on Jan 30th, so I'll just live vicariously through your race.  I am visiting a hip specialist tomorrow morning - an MRI a few weeks back revealed I have a torn muscle in my hip so I'm waiting to see what the solution will be.  I'm not really solidifying winter training plans until I get this hip resolved, but hopefully it won't be anything big.

Next year is short course for me, maybe the bike leg as part of an HIM relay, so my plan is to work on bike speed and running frequency assuming the hip isn't a big deal.

Hey All,
As Nick's race report said, the computer on my bike gave him some trouble. However, on a good note, he "used the force" to good effect and rocked out a solid HIM bike.
If not for the feet, I think he would have done even better!
I attended an officials clinic and worked the race as a Narc rules official. It was cool to see the race from the back of a cycle!

So, although I didn't do ANY of my planned training this past weekend, I am feeling good. Nick dropped off my bike yesterday and I rode it for an hour today. Soon I will be taking it apart to box it up.

As my season drifts toward the end, I am vaguely making plans for next year. Here are my goals:
1. Let my achilles heal (but not miss out on Goofy)
2. Focus on running faster next season
3. See if I can get below 200 lbs
4. 1 long race next year. Most likely Savageman
5. But if I get a Kona slot in the lottery, I will go for it again!! 

Rock it at Cozumel Eli. When are you leaving? You're ready. Are you nuts yet?

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG
I know, it is rough when a fully grown, hairy, 6ft 210 lbs man is acting like a little girl, but...IM INBOUND!!!!
I may have tapered a bit much, but my weight has been stable, I am feeling good and looking forward to it.
A little nervous about the swim, not the timing, but the MASS START of 2000 rabid triathletes. I will probably seed towards the middle front, figuring there will be fewer to swim over me, as I am solid on the swim most of the time.
Borrowed Nick's race number holder for my bike and now I think he expects me to Kona qualify (OK, not really).
May even shave my legs. That should take a couple of pounds off anyway.

I was hoping to make it to cozumel under 200 lbs. Not this year, but I am down to 17% body fat, so that is OK.

Whew, looking forward to the race! 

Eli - Take no prisoners!!!  You'll do great.  Can't wait to read about it.

Eli out of water in 1:08:25, 9:12 T1.  Off to the bike!

That's great!! Keep it up Eli!!

Eli still kicking it with a great bike:

Swim: 1:08:25 (1:48/100)
T1: 9:25
Bike: 5:49:21 (19.24 mph)
T2: 11:50

Now bring it home Eli!

ELIAS P

BIB	AGE	STATE/COUNTRY	PROFESSION
1023	38	UNITED STATE

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
1:08:25	5:49:20	5:18:23	12:37:11	817	171

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM	2.4 mi. (1:08:25)	1:48/100m	602	124
BIKE SPLIT 1: 32.5 mi	32.5 mi. (1:39:51)	19.53 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2: 72 mi	39.5 mi. (2:01:07)	19.57 mph
BIKE SPLIT 3: 111.5 mi	39.5 mi. (2:06:52)	18.68 mph
TOTAL BIKE	112 mi. (5:49:20)	19.24 mph	565	115
RUN SPLIT 1: 4.4 mi	4.4 mi. (44:01)	10:00/mile
RUN SPLIT 2: 13.1 mi	8.7 mi. (1:47:29)	12:21/mile
RUN SPLIT 3: 21.8 mi	8.7 mi. (1:52:31)	12:55/mile
RUN SPLIT 4: 26.2 mi	4.4 mi. (54:22)	12:21/mile
TOTAL RUN	26.2 mi. (5:18:23)	12:09/mile	817	171
TRANSITION				TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE				9:12
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN				11:51

Fantastic job Eli! Way to go. (Now that's the way to celebrate Thanksgiving)

Elias Papatestas, you are an

IRONMAN

Congratulations IRONMAN.    That is one incredible accomplishment.