triOK's Group - CLOSED (Page 24)

Nice job on the hardware Leslie!

My race went pretty well.  I did well on the swim and bike, but I had a major side stitch for the first 3 miles of the run.  My time was 2:40:55 and I was 69 out of 146 men, and 15 out of 26 in my age group.  I'll try and get my race report up soon. 

That looks like a real good place for your first Olympic!  Especially if you had a problem on the run, you know that you'll have a big improvement next time.

Congratulations!

I specifically remember telling you guys NO SHARK WEEK!

All together now, "Yes, mother..."

TI takes a long time to learn... and practice, practice, practice.  It takes a long time to learn how to do it, but you can always start to incorporate the technique into your stroke.

I learned to swim using TI, but since then I got a coach and she taught a little bit differently.  I still use  A LOT of TI methods though...

Nice job Erik. You and Aaron should get together and have lower expectations of yourselves like me!  I finished 126 out of 182 and in the lower half of my AG. It makes me go back to our past "to race CLydesdale or not" debate. I definitely would have placed higher, but really does it matter??

Here is my race story from this weekend... I hope it teaches you all some things.  Don't be a moron like me...

It will probably edit out about 2/3 of the words in here since I am just copying and pasting from my blog.  If you would like to read the unabridged, naughty words version, complete with Bike Shop Hottie story, please feel free... but here is just the race story:

The afternoon before the race, my not-so-reliable jockstrapper calls and says that he will be going out of town for the weekend and I will not be able to stay at his place for the race.  So instead, I got up at 3am race morning and drove my happy 3 hours to the middle of freakin' nowhere to the race.

I stopped a few times on the road, once for Gatorade (drank the whole liter), and once for Red Bull (finished at the race site).  Got to the race, got my stuff on, picked up my packet, and got the bike ready to go.  I rode up and down the street for 10 min or so to get the blood in my legs going.  They staged up the racers at 8 am and started the escort shortly after that.

The escort car took led us out to the race course, which was at least 7-8 miles from the staging area.  We all got a pretty good warm-up spin from that.  On our way out to the course, I ran over the railroad tracks and BAM! flat tire.... before the race even started.  Pulled up to the starting line, pulled SuperFly off the course, stripped off her back tire, and tried to get the new one back on before the race started.  I pulled the CO2 cartridges out of my bike bag and realize that they were the wrong cartridges.  ... I am done.  I can't race.... I pulled off my helmet, sat down, and let the naughty words fly.  "The Professor" (whom I shall explain in detail a bit later), saw what happened and starts looking through the crowd to find someone with a hand pump.  Some really nice guy throws me the pump and says, "Give it back later.  My name is Eric."  Holy , that was cool of him.  I get my tire inflated and back on the bike just as they start the women's race.  I fall about 30 seconds behind the pace line, but I managed to catch up since they really hadn't stepped on the gas yet.  As we come around the first corner, the girls start the race.... average speed for the first lap:  22.58 mph.

As we are pulling through the end of the first lap, I reach back into my jersey pocket for a gel.  I manage to get the gel, but in the process the hand pump FALLS OUT OF MY POCKET!  I had to STOP, turn around, and go back to get it.  By the time I had gotten it and up to speed again, I was WAY behind.  Luckily, the pace group had really backed off on the speed, but it still took me 15 minutes and half a lap to catch them.  I went ALL OUT trying to catch up.  Every ounce of energy I had...  I caught them on the back half of the loop and rode out the hills in the top 3. average speed for the second lap: 20.90 mph.

The third lap starts and immediately, the girls pick it up.  At this point, I was feeling really good.  Got down another gel, and some water.... but apparently that just wasn't enough.  Around this time, I stopped sweating (a REALLY bad sign).  I managed to hang out in the top 5 for the first half of the lap but when we got to the hills, I just bonked out.. really bad.  I started to get cold and shakey... I knew I was in trouble.  I tried and tried and tried to hang with the group, but couldn't do it.  When the cold chills started to get scary, I finally just backed it off.  For the sake of not ending up in the hospital, I ducked my tail and let the group finish without me.  I fell about 3 minutes behind first place, but with many lessons learned.

I rode my off and was quite proud of how I did for the first 39 miles of the race.  I honestly didn't know I could do that... I gave it hell, and on a semi-flat tire it was not a bad showing.  This was a suffer contest and oh my god did I suffer.  But I had a blast... I can't wait to do it again!!!!!

Ok, my race report is up.

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!

Shoreline Tri done.  I am depressed, mad, depleted and lacking direction.  I have now completed 3 races this year.  In all 3, I have had SEVERE leg cramping.  Before you tell me that I am dehydrated, lacking electrolytes or under stretched, let me tell you that for the past 6 weeks I have overloaded on H20 and I have supplemented with sodium tablets, calcium and potassium.  In addition , I have tried to stretch every day.  Last year, after cramping on a century ride, my Dr ordered blood work (assuming I was lacking something) and it came back fine.  I have had a cramping problem since I was a teenager in H.S.sports.  I also have a brother who deals with the same problem.  Unfortunately, the cramps are more pronounced in endurance sports.  By simply flexing my muscles in  certain way, I can provoke leg  cramps. 

So a recap of my race yesterday went as so.

1) swim- my calves cramped up running out of the water (mind you, this was only 14 minutes into the race, what could I be lacking that early in a race!)

2) bike-  I fought off cramps for a while.  No leg strength.

3) run-  this was (and always is the worse).  I started the run off with calve cramps for the first .5 mile.  Mile .5-2.0 was o.k.  At mile 2 I felt the oncoming of a quad cramp, but I slowed the pace way down and gimped it to mile 3.  At mile 3, I developed a severe quad and hamstring cramp in my right leg and I stopped for 7-8 minutes in extreme pain.  During that time I watched 50-60 slower people pass me.  Many of them stated "run it off".  I know they were trying to be encouraging, but I wanted to tackle them on the spot.  These cramps can not be confused with abdominal cramps or shoulder cramps. These cramps are extreme.  I usually fall to the ground in sheer pain.  I worked the cramps off over the next 7-8 minutes and I gimped to the finish line.

Even though the pain of the cramps are intense, I am more frustrated by the lack of ability to perform  to the best of my ability.  This last race had a flat bike and flat run.  I should have averaged 21 mph on the bike and 7:20 minutes on the run.  Instead, I averaged 19.2 mph on the bike and almost 10:00 minute miles.  This is CRAZY.

So where do I go from here.  I called my DR again this morning.  I am going to demand that I see a sports medicine Dr.  I find it hard to believe that I am the only person that deals with this problem.  I hope someone has an answer.

I will continue on with my training as usual and I will plan on racing 2 more times this year.  I LOVE the training and the races.  I find much enjoyment in it but if this continues I will have to stop triathlon training at the end of this year.  The pain and disappointment is too much.

Sorry if this sounds like a sob story, but I am at the end of my rope and I don't know what to do.  My long term goal is to complete a 1/2 I.M.  but that seems so far away with this cramping problem 

I don't know what to tell you... I am at a complete loss.  I will ask Jorge (amiine) to see if he has anything to offer, because this does sound extreme.  Have you seen an MD recently???

Great job this weekend!  I am soooooo proud of you all!

And no SHARK WEEK!

Aaron,

Do you have cramps during training?  Or just when racing?

I was told that all the cool kids hang out with Robyn, so I want to officially request joining the group!

Firsttriguy – after reviewing your logs for the past 3 months and some of your races, IMO you are suffering from severe cramping just because you are asking your muscles to do too much for what they seemed to be trained for. It might sound a bit blunt but IOW you are not training enough or consistent enough to allow your muscles be ready to be pushed a bit harder during a race.  

On avg you are training 2.5 to 5 hrs a week over the last 3 months which depending on the race distance might be up to 40% of your total training time! Also your bike and swim time is on the very low end (volume wise) compared to your running. So in a race when you start pushing on the swim and bike is not abnormal for your muscles to start cramping and even though your run training is solid, by the time you have your sneakers on, you muscles are already screaming from all the work done already and you struggle with the cramping.

For the beginners I train for sprint distances, I try to have them train around 5-6 hrs a week as a minimum mainly because I want them to work on adapting their muscles for the race intensity and to help them enjoy the race through smart pacing, fueling and avoiding cramping and other bad stuff. (bonking, etc)

Anytime I’ve experienced cramping on a short distance race (sprint/Oly) is because I am pushing my muscles a lot harder of what they are capable of performing at the current time. I might take up to 1 gram of salt tables per hour (which is a lot) plus Gatorade/heed and gels and still cramp just because my muscles can’t handle the workload and/or intensity…

You are going to have to revaluate your training schedule, reorganize it and if you want your Oly to be a better racing experience you’ll have train a bit more or just be constant putting 4-6 hr a week, week after week for 4-6 weeks at least and that should help your muscles to adapt and be ready.  That should make your race a lot more enjoyable. Good luck! 

^^^ He's good.

Now we have 2 resident studs!  We ARE the cool kids!

Don't sell yourself short - that's 3!

Oh my... forgive me.... my bad.

Firstriguy: So sorry to hear about your racing difficulties; I have absolutely no ideas for you (I cramped up on my first race too) but I hope you're able to figure it out and continue to race.

Good luck!