Fred D Mentor Group - Part II (Page 24)

Btw... got more bad news yesterday.  Apparently I have a hereditary factor for clotting so I'm being "strongly encouraged" to stay on coumadin permanently.  Ug.

I'll be talking to a hematologist soon to see what my options are for continued racing.

No idea.

Is it my ideal venue? No. Could I convince my family in Philly to come see me, and avoid a lot of other expenses? Certainly. The market is huge there, and obviously plenty of people thought it was a good idea.

I really hope that it all goes well and the swim happens as planned. I'd love to see feedback on this race that isn't centered around water quality in the Hudson and how IM is a terrible brand/company. You know?

I posted the only photo that seemed appropriate 

Sorry to hear.  Hope things work out.

I figure I lived with it for 39 years without knowing... now it's just figuring out a balance of risk vs. inconvenience.

It also gives me incentive to get back in the pool since that's a mostly safe activity

single copy of Factor V Leiden mutation, for you docs who are curious.

Not great but not the end of the world, and I don't have any other risk factors besides that.

20 minute test in the books.  Goal was 315 watts.  Started out at around 324 and held that for the first 12 minutes or so.  But then it became a struggle as the incline dropped from abut 6% to 2-3%.  Averaged about 313 watts the last 10 minutes and ended up at 318 watts.  I was pretty gassed at the end, but I think I had a smidge more in the tank.

Here's the profile with a little bit of smoothing.  The spikes are from when I'm coming out of a switchback where the grades are a little steeper for very short sections.

Overall, pretty pleased.  17 watt improvement from last year.  Now if only I could push these kinds of watts on my TT bike, on flat terrain.

Yellow dotted lines are as follows
Bottom line - 300 watts
Middle line - 318 watts
Top line - 340 watts

(8.9.12 20 minute test.png)

That's awesome Jason, very impressive!

How much of a difference do you see in watts between your road and TT bike?  I hardly ever ride my road bike and have never done a test on it so I have no idea what (if any) differences there are for me.

Indeed. And x2 on PMing Chris.

Oh, and I'll "discipline" you for misbehaving in TT anytime

TT vexes me too. Thank God for John (JK) and Shane. I don't know how they do it.

The newbies are great, and sure they ask stupid, repeated questions (gee I never did that). That's not the problem--I love their presence and passion.

What really gets my goat is (a broad stereotype, but it's roughly accurate) a group of up-and-comers, folks who have done a marathon or two or a half or even an iron, who ask stupid questions, resist intelligent answers, and then a bunch of responders just like them who post their own BS (usually well-propounded myths) and are very adamant about its correctness. Anyone else is an elitist snob who can't relate to people who pretty much just don't want to get down and consistently do the hard work over time.

It's not just "us," by the way. The Manatees encompass brand-brand newbies to multiple iron finishers, and to a person they feel the same way.

Perhaps that is just the nature of open forums. I've spent a great deal of time thinking about the BT of yore (admittedly we could get away with a LOT more back then--far fewer people who all pretty much knew each other), and how we can foster an atmosphere where experienced posters and newbies alike can speak directly and feel free to post.

It's definitely the nature of open forums.  Many people ask a question hoping or expecting a certain answer and latch onto any responses that fall into the range of responses they want.  All it takes is one person to give what appears to be an easy way out of doing the hard work and that is what they focus on.  Now there are lots of others who don't work this way and those are the people that get the results and hopefully stick around but it can certainly be tough to weed through the chaff in there sometimes.

I like the way Shane handles a lot of the garbage that comes out.  He asks pointed questions to see if they can back up what they say and then presents clear detailed responses and doesn't seem to get defensive or rattled by anything.

What does everyone have on tap for today?  I had a great swim at the pool this morning (on my rest day...).  

4x200 on 3:15 (2:49, 2:41, 2:39, 2:38)
1' rest
500 - 6:38
1' rest
6x200 on 3:00 (all either 2:34 or 2:35)
100 IM CD

= 2600 SCM

Everything was supposed to be at race pace but things were flowing so smoothly, I was well above my anticipated race pace. 

Oh, that workout is all right, Axenhots. It's passable, I guess. Glad someone else likes doing IM for cooldown!

I'm still flat-out with whatever virus ... bad cold, maybe flu, fever. Very tired and slept 'til 5pm. Wandered down the street with the dogs just to get outside but even that took a lot out of me.

I see what you did there, Fred. LOL.

Thanks for putting the headlights on that one. I didn't catch it.

x2 fantastic! I too would like to know your difference between bikes? Do you test both or estimate between the two? Is the difference enough that you use different training #s on each bike? I know mine is different between positions - it is lower when in the aerobars but seems pretty close when on the pursuits on the TT bike and hoods on the road bike. I don't test often enough to know exactly though - I actually just use estimated FTP for the most part. I just got my PM back from Quarq yesterday (warrantee replacement) so I am guessing a new test might be in my near future. If so I will probably do it on my road bike. I wish I had a hill like yours - all of ours seem to be either too short or too steep for a good test.

Anyway, that is a good looking 20 minutes - no big spike at the beginning, and incredibly smooth all the way through, with just he right amount of HTFU at the end. Nice!

Same here. I just (re)posted about Oussama Mellouli in the Secret Olympic Crushes thread. It's not that pool swimming and ocean swimming are two entirely different sports, but it boggles the mind how he can keep up (at a top level) both pool and open water training and perhaps more significantly racing regimens.

+1 - I think the longest climb I have available to me is about 5 and a half minutes to the top.