Gray Guys/Girls Masters Focus Triathlete Forum--OPEN! (Page 25)

Last Sunday I did an Olympic distance triathlon in a little town named Kisakata. My primary reason for doing this race was because they cancelled the swim leg of the Oly I did in mid-June.  This is the 4th time I have done this race and I had my best time by about 3.5 minutes (2:45).    The race is small with about 185 people participating plus another 25 or so doing the race as a relay.  The weather forecast leading up to the triathlon called for rain, but on Sunday morning the weather cleared and it was a gorgeous day.    Note: from the swim we did a 1.5 km run to the bike area, then 38.5 km bike (including about 275 meters of climbing and a few kilometers on fairly narrow roads through the rice fields), followed by a 10km run. I came in 42/185 overall and 8/50 in the 50 year old men's group.   

This year the race organizers used a remote controlled drone-like device to take some video of the swim area during the swim portion of the race.  If you have some extra time and are curious, check out the videos below.   You can find me in the second video at about the 0:41 and 1:34.  I am in the lower left hand side of the video wearing a yellow swim cap and full wetsuit....walking very slowly and intentionally trying to be one of the last people to start swimming (no video of me swimming).   For the swim portion, I ended up 54/185 with a 27:11.    In watching the video, I am thinking I could have been quite a bit closer to the front and still avoided much of the thrashing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0sW3S5HZPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ5E1-c2l0U

Hmmm, 6'3" guy in spandex at night?  Yeah, I suppose I would question said individuals sanity.  Of course that same person of questionable sanity pushing a bike with a tire going ka-thump, ka-thump, should have probably told the rest of the story.  Oh well, sorry you didn't get help.  Glad you made it back safely.

Dan,

Thanks for sharing.  It was like they had their own Goodyear blimp.  Way cool.

Was that in the ocean on the leeward side of the island?  I have seen lakes that didn't look that good!  Really flat and clear - if only we had conditions like that here in California!

That will be a good sore as long as you weren't hanging out in aero--which I kind of doubt at this stage of healing.

I slogged through my run today, couldn't wake up early enough to beat the heat and it felt sluggish.  At least it don't hurt......but some hornet stung me the other night and my back where he stung me is looking pretty angry.  Not too crazy about seeing a Dr for another round of antibiotics (just finished one from when the cat bit me and my gut took a week to get back to normal after that!)

Great to hear you are officially back in the saddle Steve.  Turns out I made a mistake on the number of 50 year olds in the race.  It was actually 40/185 male racers in their 50s.

Scott: Leeward?  I'm not sure.  I think both ocean facing sides of the main island get their share of wind and waves, but I think that side is in general a little calmer.   The race was only about 40 minutes drive north from my June race where the swim was cancelled because of high waves.  Anyway, last Sunday was as nice as I have seen it.

Deb:  I picked up the complete Kinetics program.  If you sign up for the 30 day challenge, I think you will get an email on the 29th or 30th day with a pretty good discount.  I ended up paying about $25, but will not get around to using it until after my season ends.  

Judi:  watch out for that heat and humidity.  I made the mistake of not getting on my bike until noon yesterday.  My target was to ride 5 hours, but I bailed at 3.5 because I felt I was starting to overheat (fortunately or unfortunately, I know from a few previous experiences and pulling the plug was the right move).  My bike computer said the temp was 95-96 so I figure I was getting cooked from both the sun above and the reflected road heat below.    Hope your back is better - ouch!

Karl:  X2 on what Linda said.  Drop the intensity and see if the pain goes away.   Are you following a specific plan?

Steve,

Glad you are back at it!  Also good to see your bike survived unscathed.