stevebradley's Mentor Group FULL (Page 251)

LISA -

Where exactly are you feeling the knee problems? When I've thought I had knee tendonitis it has been either below on under the kneecap -- very different from ITB, which is on the outside of the kneecap. If you can describe it, I might have some thoughts.

For me, ITB is a deal-breaker, sothing that pretty much cannot be run through. Tendony probs, however, can be run through with the benefit of a knee strap, if it even comes to that. Some of my bouts from quite a few years ago were resolved with rest and ice, mostly. And even for my ITB episodes, they were resolved pretty quickly and cetrtainly didn't linger like they do for some people.

I'm sure the A.R.T. can help with any of those --especially the mucle stuff and ITB, if it's that. Tina has worked pretty well on a couple of minor ITB issues I have had.

Two weeks off running is all?!? When Ryan was posting your progress at Stone Mill, he said you'd be n bubble-wrap until the new year! Tell him hes' just a paper tiger!

Obedience class for Roo, eh? Are we all having fun with that? (Actually, I can picture you having a blast with it!)

Finally, I have no doubt that you hurt more now than after LOO. In the same way that most peoople say that running a amrathon is tougher on them than doing a half-iron, I can see a full 50-miler being MUCH more damaging than an iron. No question at all!

Finally-finally.....I promise I won't say anything about the Giants-Eagles game. Scout's honor!

Oh Steve - don't worry. I know exactly how the chafing happened, and it won't happen again. It's almost embarrassing. I wore my favorite favorite tri shorts (Zoot Ultras). I love those shorts.

Like any good runner/triathlete/endurance person, I have more body glide than I know what to do with. I find sticks of it in random places. Unfortunately, where it seems to accumulate most is ... in my car. Somehow, I have several sticks of it in my car, and none in my gym bag.

We drove Mark's car down to Mt. Laurel. I realized the night before that I had no body glide... I recruited some vaseline from the hotel front desk, and used some deodorant - I've found before that, in a pinch, applying a little deodorant (the stick kind) can prevent chafing - it can act a little like body glide.

It worked for the sports bra line - that's usually the area where I have bad chafing (no v'necks for me!). Apparently it didn't work for my thighs. This chafing is actually lower than thigh chafing normally is for me.

So lesson learned, use BODY GLIDE for a marathon. I should've walked around in the morning asking everyone milling around the gear trucks if they had any extra.

Luckily, I had no idea during the race. Which is crazy to me in retrospect. The only pain I felt was the pain my quads/feeling like I would throw up. I guess that's positive?

But it's supposed to be 60 today and I can't wear a skirt

JESS -

Glad you got it figured out! And I'm also glad tyou had skirt-friendly weather. We too had a balmy day, up to ~14C at the middle of the day but now dropping precipitously. A short-lived warm front, was all; better than nothing, i suppose.

I hadn't heard that about stick deodorant, but it makes sense. Live and learn!

I've had few chafing problems over the years. With certain sleeveless tops I can get some chafing on the inside of my upper arms where they rub against the bottom of the arm hole during runs. Thank goodness, it has never happened with my DeSoto tri jerseys, and never in a race, period.

And, yes, VERY positive that you were oblivious to it during the marathon itself. Sometimes it's useful to know pain is there so that we don't end up hurting ourselves even more, but in the case of chafing it's nothing that is going to get critically worse. So, being completely unaware of it is goodgoodgood. (Now you just have to learn to be oblivious to quad aches and tummy upsets! )

Do you have a kinda-sorta plan for next season, pre-IMLOO?

Kinda sorta plans?

Plans tie into those 12 minutes No, I'm not going to try and BQ this spring. But, thinking about it, I know where I'm going to find those 12 minutes... My weight. I raced Sunday somewhere between 145 and 150. My weight has been up a bit lately since I started work - haven't been on a great eating routine yet. Looking around towards the end of the race, I was one of the biggest women running as fast as I was. Like it or not - the fact is that losing 10 to 15 pounds would really go a long way towards helping me get faster. The effort it takes me to move my body over the distance of a marathon - just has to be more than the effort a girl my height at 130 would need to go the same pace. Right? I also think that losing 10-15 would put me in really good stead for 2011: doing IMLoo at a lower weight would have to be slightly more forgiving on my body, right?

Anyway, I am officially in off-season right now, so I am going to focus on trying to get my weight down a bit. Things that have really worked for me in the past: weight lifting and swimming. I always lose weight when I lift, and I find that my body gets much more trim/toned if I swim on a consistent basis (3x a week). So I'm going to try and incorporate those two things over the next two months. I will try and focus on my diet a little bit more too - I don't eat too terribly, but I could cut down on portions.

Any other tips? Steve, you seem to get your weight down every season - what do you focus on?

As for 2011 season plans:
- Eagleman: 6 hours or bust (along the lines of my recent 4 hours or bust experience).
- Finish IMLoo with a smile.

The 6 hour goal may be a little ambitious. I did 6:11 at HVJ with a way-short swim, but a hillier bike and run. If I really focus on the bike in the spring, I may be able to break 3 hours for that, which would go a long way towards helping me reach the 6 hour goal. Anyway, we'll re-evaluate as we get closer, but that's where my thinking is on that.

I have a friend trying to convince me to do the Paris marathon with her in April. I'm not convinced, haha, but if I do it, it'll just be to pace her through her first.

So, uh, to recap: lifting and swimming focus for the next two months. Eagleman and IMLoo. I'm not going to do too many races this year. Maybe Bassman again as an early season warm-up, just to keep my streak going. No plans for any races between E-man and IMLoo.

JESS -

All other things being equal, I'd say that 10-15lbs = 12 minutes! When I get really slack and hit around 180 in the off-season, and then cut it back down to under 175 during the season, I feel a big difference in my runs. And in '09 when I was at about 178 for NYC Tri, and then later when I was at 173, my oly runs reflected that weight loss. This past season I got to 172 early on and finished at 170 from about August on, and all my late-season runs were solid. that continued up through the 10km and half-marathon last month......but now my weight is about 173/174 (good thing i'm in my run off-season, so i don't have to feel the effects of those extra pounds on my runs!)

As to what I focus on, I think it's portions. When I'm realy righteous I will be more vegetarian, but seeing as how I'm not there too often, I try to not pig-out whenever possible. Mostly, i feel that the 170-172 range is my "supressed" weight, which is my way of saying that it is not my natural weight but rather reflects heavy-duty working-out. It's just very easy for me to bounce back to mid-170s, and that seems to be a homeostasis level. Hitting 180 is likely me being lazy, although for someone of my age and height and bone structure, 180 is not out of line at all.

The little pie shop in Ottawa, Life of Pie, is very bad for me! We go through two pies a week, along with lots of scones and cookies from there. It has become really happy-forming! I mean, who can resist an apple tart cherry pie, or the passionfruit haupia (coconut gel-custard, covered with a layer of passionfruit puree, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with toasted coconut. Not I! That was last week's pie-orgy; this week it will likely be "just" (as in just desserts? ha-ha?) a pineapple-coconut caribbean pie, which I think is one of today's offerings. Go to www.lifeofpie.ca and see what she offers this week; cookies are not included on the weekly menu list, but each day there are 2-4 varieties. LEAD ME NOT INTO TEMPTATION!!

But i digress! Anyhow, if you can reduce some of those unwanted pounds, well, there's a fast route to a fast(er) time at whatever distance you choose.

as for Paris Marathon....intriguing! FWIW, I did Boston in '04, which was April 19. I then followed that with Columbia, on about May 22, and I felt just a little flat still. But three weeks after Columbia I did Eagleman, and had a great day there (5:09, but 5:13 with INNOCENT drafting penalty! ). So, if you did do Paris, i think you could get all recovered in time for Eagleman. There is always the chance of injury, but you seem to avoid those quite handily. Aside from ITB hintings, have you ever been sidelined with a running-induced injury?

Admirable restraint on not racing between Eagle and Loo! I just couldn't do that, unless the only way I could be allowed to sign up for an iron was by promising Lynn I wouldn't "waste" any more money on other races. (Even then, I probably couldn't do it!)

I think my porous mind can keep up with your races then! Maybe Bass, and then Eagle, and then Loo. Sounds like a plan!

I imagine Mark will be at louisville with you, but what about family? Bro? 'Rents? Various other hangers-on? A woman from BT, "Mav", just did IMAZ as her first IM, and had a huge support crew there. She made them all tie-dyed t-shirts, and seeing as how they were both noisy and colorful, she saw them many times during the day. That sounds pretty nice to me!

Still warm there? Not so here. Boo-hoo!!

Jess, you really did smoke that run.  And lisa...you rocked it too.

someone just sent me this link.  check it out and go to photo 22 in the slide show.  Its a pic of me and Paul Huddle changing one of the flats!

RR is up.

Thank you all for your support during training and beyond.

Will read the RR in a sec, but that is a really cool pic, Neil. You must be a pro at fixing flats by now :p

NEIL -

I'm the same as Jess -- photo first, RR next! For me, though, it was adial-up battle to get to that photo -- maybe 15 minutes waiting for one to load before clicking for the next. Sometimes I was able to bop up two or three at once, but mostly it was just a crawl -- like a looooooong 10% grade hill, truning it over in the small ring!

----------MINDY&NEIL&JESS&LISA---------
(andIvanandMilagrosandMarkandRyan)

Happy Thanksgiving, all you gobblerholics!














Edited by stevebradley 2010-11-25 7:32 AM

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm venturing out to the gym first time post-race We'll see how this goes! I can pretty much walk by now...

Also, I don't usually buy race pictures, but I'm considering making an exception for this, since I look deliriously happy:



Edited by ThatGirl 2010-11-25 9:44 AM

Great photo, Jess! As for your use of "deliriously".......that's just an understatement. What's two steps up from "delirious"?

So I say buy it; your descendents will love to look at it xx(x?) years from now!

And I'm glad to hear that you're walking almost-normal again. I hope that Lisa and Neil are about the same!








Edited by stevebradley 2010-11-25 10:15 AM

NEIL? LISA?


You two ambulatory yet? Upright and fully mobile?

My bike is back on the trainer, and I did my first "effort" last night -- 30 minutes. It was lackluster at best, really just half an hour of Contemplating My Inevitability.

I generally whine and moan about returning to the pool after five blissful months of OWS, but I think that is less misery-inducing than (only?) 4-5 months on the trainer and/or rollers.

On the plus side, I can now watch movies again -- get caught up on everything I haven't seen since last late March. Literally, I haven't watched a movie since my last trainer ride along about then. I'm not a big movie fan......but I'm sure I've missed something half-decent, right?

Or not?









Edited by stevebradley 2010-11-25 10:21 AM

Steve, if you check the rr I put the photo in it.Yes I am moving good, about to step out now for a 30min run.

NEIL -

THAT'S better! Last night there were just little red boxes with an x in it where the photos shoulda been. I guess that's something to be thankful for today -- a cooperative computer!

Did you sign up for IMAZ, or are you giving it a pass for a year?

Big congrats on heading out for a run today; nice recovery!

And did I know that CA70.3 is on your birthday? That's pretty nifty! My only shot for a tri on my b-day would be Pucon70.3......which I thought about.....until I saw that the price is $400US! What's with that, anyhow? I blanch at paying $275 for a HIM, and that doesn't require big, long, expensive plane rides. Sheesh.

NEIL again -

You must have the constitution of a canal horse -- lasagna the night before and biscuits and gravy the morning of. OMG! I can see the biscuits, but surely not the gravy. Glug, glug!!

NEIL once more -

Hey! You know Max? How so?

Max and I have a history, and in the weird way the world works sometimes I was thinking about him just a few days ago due to your misadventures at IMAZ. To wit:

Max and I first starting crossing paths at races in '04/'05, but really got together through Keith Jordan's Timberman forum. I did IMLP in '04, and then Max signed up for it for '05. We kept seeing each other at races, and in either '06 or '07 he body-marked me before a Mooseman event. that was the last time I saw him, and it was along about then that he wrote and told me he was giving up on triathlons due to too many lower body injuries, and was fixing to move to Arizona to pursue his life's love, which is hiking. And, judging from the info on his profile, he did it! He made it happen! i just PMed him, and I hope he responds. He's a super nice person, a true salt-of-the-earther.

The reason I was thinking about him this week is because of you and your multiple flats. It was in May '05, at Columbia, that I had two flats, and then the following week I met up with Max to ride the IMLP course and intriduce him to all its gloreis and wonders. (Remember, i had done it in '04 and he was doing it in July '05.) So, partway through the first loop of the bike, I flatted, and rather than charge on ahead to the turnaround and then come back to me, Max waited for me to fix it and we carried on together. I coluld tell that he really wanted to keep up the momentum of the ride and I told him to go ahead and I would rejoin him 20 minutes later when he passed back to where I flatted, but he very graciously kept me company. As I said, super nice guy!!

Well, to you, thank you for taking my "multi-flat mantle"; I no longer have to feel QUITE so bad about flatting twice!

I don't know Max other than from BT.  He was at IMAZ tracking folks for the Official Watching thread and also taking pictures.

So far so healed.  Will do another 30 min run today, keep it light through the weekend, and hopefully get back in the 5-6 mile range all next week.

Looking now into a run/cross train plan.  I already have the cross train portion (starting Monday) but I am looking for a decent 13.1 plan.

Oh and I didn't sign up for AZ again.  Will do 70.3 and olys next year.  My goal is to be able to generate some more speed.  I still haven't really been fit enough to race these last races (ala Jess in her <4hr Mary) so I want to take some time and build it up right.  Perhaps I will be ready for a fall 26.2, but If so I really need to be fit enough to get sub 4.  I do want that now, I am not just satisfied with finishing.   The other goal of course is to stay healthy all year.



Edited by sax 2010-11-26 2:38 PM

NEIL -

Well you were about seven years smarter than I was to come around to thinking that working at speed at the smaller distances might, in time, bear fruit at the longer distances. I THINK it has worked for me (see below) for half-irons, but I'm not 100% sure.

I used '08 as a season to devote some effort to going as hard as I could at sprints, although admittedly that wasn't such a leap. But '09 was more of a concerted efforts at olys, and this year was the second phase of the two-year plan. Last year I could get comfortably right around 2:30-2:33, say, and this year it got lopped down further with a 2:25, 2:29, and 2:30 (and 2:40 at tough Columbia).

Mostly, the trick was to learn to go 40km on the bike hard, and then push it hard for all 10km of the run -- no dogging it allowed, no backing off beyond just a few seconds here and there. And, that worked. There's still room for improvement (which might be on tap for next season if I make the USAT A.G. Nationals and Sprint Championships, both in Burlington, VT, just three hours from here, my "A" races), but I'm pleased with how the plan was followed.

As for the "see below", up above, the future part of that plan was to then transfer some of the oly-based lessons to half-irons, but in the past two seasons I have done just two HIM, one in each season. Last year in was MightyMan Montauk, and I think I took some risks that paid off -- risks that I might not have dared a few seasons ago. This year it was Half Vermont.....and that was not so successful. I took BIG risks on the bike and didn't back off soon enough or significantly enough, and paid for it by having a tough run on a very tough run course that I badly underestimated on my drive-through the previous day.

So, until the USAT stuff in Burlington was confirmed a couple weeks ago, I was all set to make HIM my focus for '11. That might've included some combination of NewOrleans70.3, Kinetic, Mooseman70.3, Patriot, Tupper Lake, Musselman, Steelhead70.3, Timberman70.3, Syracuse70.3, Poconos70.3, and Beach2Battleship ---- realistically only 3 or 4 or 5 of those. And then a couple of pet olys for good measure!

Well, we'll see how it all shakes down. I'm pretty keen on N.O.70.3, although getting there is a small problem --- as is being prepared so early (April 17) after a winter indoors. Again, w'll see.

ANYHOW, I think a speed-at-shorter-stuff focus will help you as you look ahead to longer stuff, as in irons. AZ again at some point? St. George? Vineman? Couer d'Alene? Pick your poison!

And congrats on "so far so healed" status. What a nice little something to come out of an ironman with!

I'm not doing an ultra this spring, and I'm even leery of doing another marathon this spring, but it'll be hard to pass this up:

http://njtrailseries.com/njultrafestival

When you say hometown race, it can't get much more hometown that this: these are the trails I use for marathon training, the trails I grew up running XC on in middle and high school.

One of my close friends lives on a farm right off the trail - his wife will be doing the 50 miler (her first 50).

I am very much considering the marathon. I'll feel so un-hardcore compared to the 100 and 50 mile people who will be camping (whereas I can stay with my parents right up the hill, haha).  But it would be lovely to run a marathon in the middle of my valley like that...

JESS -

I can see why you might be tempted, and given that you have nothing set right now for pre-Eagle, that might not be a bad thing to do. Maybe. ??

I've likely said this a few times, but my early season in my IMLP year was Boston on April 19 and Columbia on May 22ish and Eagleman on June 13ish and Musselman sprint on July 11ish and then IMLP on July 25, so were you to do that marathon (or even "bandit" part of it, just because it's right there and you want to) you'd probably be peachy.

As for not being hard-core enough, it's just that they're WAY hard-core. You're plenty hard-core on your own; no excuses needed! And remember - it's segments of tta ultra crowd that have their toenails permanently removed so that they never ever again have to worry about black toenails. (I can't help thinking about decapitation as an alternative to haedaches......)

There a re races one can fly to....and driev long distances to....and drive to a nearby town for.....but to have one right in your back yardr, and that takes you along trails you ran in high school IS pretty special. Nothing like a "home-field advantage", huh?

JESS again -

Oh, my, that IS tempting; alluring, in fact!

Is the Columbia Trail a rails-to-trails effort?

As I read it, this is going to be the first year for the marathon part, right? And is it going to be a true marathon, or will it stop at the 25-mile mark?

As for "Fat ", do I rmember you and Lisa talking about that with reference to her 50-miler? Is a term for a 100-miler, and, if so, where does the term come from?

Not hard-core enough? Well, you can always just lug a tent down to Ort Farm and camp there with the rest of the hard-cores!

Beautiful photo at the top of the page. I might just venture over to their Facebook apge so i can see more photos!

I'm still trying to figure out the elevation chart. I'm never too swift with those, but my impression is that it is not too hilly at all. Yes?

Lovely-sounding event, run by people who sound like they are salt-of-the-earth.

Yo?


Jess?

Neil?

Mindy?

Lisa?




Yo?