GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 258)

LISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!


You did it -- SHATTERED last year's time by a very significant 2'55"! In fact, you were much closer to the #2 goal of 2:37 than you were to last year's, so that's just some gooooood gravy!

What I don't know is which time the 2:38:02 represents -- clock time or chip time. I guess that will come out in fuller results later, yes?

And top half (make that top 46%!) of the a.g. is also very cool, with the whole shebang being a testimony to you toughing through a few months of less-than-optimal training situations.

Can hardly wait for your complete report, but in the meantime ---- CONGRATULATIONS!!!

LISA again -

Quickly ---

It looks like you paced it really well, too. I see a lot of people who did the first half faster than you did, but finished with a slower time. The other way I see this is looking at the X2 differential. That is, for you it would be 1:13 x2, which is 2:26, which is a differential of 12 minutes to the 2:38. For the chowderheads in "my" age group, a high percentage went out a-stormin' on the first half.......and then faded big-time, showing large and ovious X2 differentials. (Yup, you can't count on men getting any wiser as they age --- sad to say!)

What are your own thoughts on your pacing?

CONGRATULATIONS on a great race Lisa!   Hope your quads are feeling OK now.      57-58 degrees is confusing to me; I'm thinking that would be about 15 degrees C???  which is coolish for me.   I'd be pretty comfortable running in 75 degrees.  

Congrats Lisa! That is awesome! Rest those quads!!

MANDY -

Let me know if you got the PM, as I'm never sure how that system flies!

Quads are feeling great.  I was going to go out for a run tonight but decided to just take the entire week off and start back with a 6 mile run Saturday morning with my running partner.  She had steroid injections in her feet last week, bought some new shoes, and was hoping to get a couple short runs in this week.

ANNE, your temperature conversions are right.  It's funny because I am typically always cold (due to my hypothyroidism).  I actually have a heating pad in my office (we can't have heaters), to put in my lap because it tends to get cold.  For some reason, it doesn't take long on a run for me to warm up, so I'd much rather run in the cooler temps.  The other thing is that 70 degrees in Houston is totally different than 70 degrees in, say, Denver, or somewhere with lower humidity.  It literally feels like you are running in a sauna once it's over about 75, and sometimes when it's under 70.

Hope everyone is having a good week!  Does anyone have anything planned for the weekend?

LISA

Tracy, nice job on the last race.

Week 1 of my 18 week 10K training plan for our local Earth Day race in April has had a rocky start. Battling nagging little head cold and left knee discomfort. Took Wed & Th off. Feel better today and did my scheduled run. Haven't started full Tri training, just running and finishing up the off-season strength training via P90X.

Feels good to be on a 'count-down' to a race. It is probably good for me that there is an off season due to weather, but I am envious of those of you who have race options year round.

My goal for the 10K is sub-42 minutes. It is a big stretch goal for me, but heck, if I don't try I won't know.

Mark

LISA -

Good for the quads! Just a little race-induced discomfort is all, I guess -- enough to keep the memories freesher for a few more days!

Please tell me again what your run. part. is battling -- was it plantar fasciitis? I'm confused because (well, among other reasons, most likely) I'm wrestling with my own foot problems, which have morphed around for about 4-6 weeks. My runs are still not happening, and I think as of tomorrow it will be four weeks; maybe three? I don't know what's worse -- that I haven't run in four weeks, or that the four weeks have passed by so quickly. If it's the latter I'd better be careful, lest I turn 83 in about five months!

I see my sports doc Tuesday evening, and I think he will give me a cortisone shot in the big toe joint for the bunion. I'm expecting that will hurt like crazy, so if you and anyone else here can cyber-hold my hand at about 8:30 Tuesday evening, that would be oh so nice!

But hey! It's the off-season and I'm "allowing" myself this extra time off from the run. The other disciplines, weights included, are going well, so I'm happy with the general scene. (Maybe I should post the basic "structure" of my off-season this far, so you all will know how an unstructured fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants kind of guy runs these things!) And I could probably run just fine, albeit with some aching, but at this point will hold out until after seeing doc on Tuesday.

This weekend? We're going to a play tomorrow afternoon, and then maybe a concert in the early evening, and then I'll come home and change out of that yin personna and switch gears to my yang counterpart and watch some hockey and UFC 124. Sunday will be hunkering down during lots of snow and/or freezing rain, and waiting excitedly for the Patriots-Bears game at 4:15.

And I'm sorry to see the Colts win last night. I was much, much happier when Peyton was throwuing all those interceptions the past three weeks!

MARK -

That's what's so great about 18-week-and-longer training plans -- they allow lots of "wiggle-room"! We both know the head cold will buzz off before too long, and I hope the knee discomfort will do the same. Is this knee thing new, or on-again/off-again?

You're right, there is nothing quite so sweet as having a concrete goal Out There; it makes the winter training have substance to go with, um, style. For me, though, as of about '06 I started eating too many race fees due to signing up in Oct-Feb, and then getting hurt between then and the race dates themselves. So, now I train for "fantasies" -- those races that I'm figuring I will do......but aren't about to sign up for until the last possible moment.

May your head and knee improve post-haste!

Hey, STEVE B.  Sorry to hear you are still having problems with your feet.  My running partner has been suffering from plantar fasciitis, and since she was favoring her feet, she was beginning to have problems with her hip.  Funny thing, it was exactly to the same week as last year.  She's a school teacher and I wonder if has to do with starting back to school in the fall and wearing "teacher shoes".  The shots seemed to have helped a bit but she had some problems on a shorter run today. We didn't run together this morning because she didn't think she'd be up to 6 miles, and I opted to wait until tomorrow AM when it is supposed to be 20 degrees cooler than it was this morning ... I think close to freezing. I love running in my fleeced lined tights! YAY for cold weather. 

Enjoy your yin and yang weekend!! I'm looking forward to Monday night when I'll have my daughter home for 2 weeks.

MARK, hope you cold doesn't keep you down for long!

LISA

LISA -

It was a relatievly nice day today, so four weeks since my last run I decided why not. So, I did a fairly-easy-paced 30', and the bunion was just about 100% perfect. There were some nerve issues in the right foot, kinda neuroma-like, but they were tolerable. I will probably run again on Monday or Tuesday, and then I see doc Tuesday evening.

I sypathize/empathize with the probalems of having to wear "sensible" shoes, and being on one's feet most of the day, when there are foot problems! Fortunately, my school was by nature quite informal, and for virtually every day of my final seven years there, I wore running shoes or Keen sandals. I'm just not sure how long I would've alsted had there been a dress code that allowed only wing-tip cordovans!

As for running clothes, today ws my first day in both running tights and socks -- two shocks to my system! I think my last socked day was back in may, and as for tights.....probably March! But I'm glad, at least, that you are psychologically thriving with the colder weather down there!

And yay on your daughter comin' home! Jane will be flying to toronto on xmas eve, and then we'll drive a bit west of there to Guelph, where Peter lives. Xmas morning will be there, and then back to Toronto to spend the day with Lynn's sister's family - and Lynn's mom. It'll be good to have both "kids" around us, although it'll be for just a couple of days. Then Jane is off to Sydney, AU, until the end of March, running a training program in "values management" (whatever THAT is!), so that put her a loooooong ways away for a few months. Lynn might get there for a visit, but I don't think I can handle that mega-long flight. Snif.

Have a good tomorrow (which is actually here already).

Hey Denise - are you dug out yet? I don't know if you got blasted, but it looked like you did. We only had ~5 inches, but had 3-3.5' drifts with the wind.

Steve - the knee thing will resolve itself. I was helping a buddy move and squatted down with a couch putting it in a trailer and tweaked it (my knees do nothing quickly anymore - especially squatting ).

Hope everyone is well.

Mark

MARK -

Okay then, about the knee! For me, I find household-type tasks to be extremely hazardous to my triathlon "career"......but sometimes those things just gotta be done. My most recent foray into misery was twice, within about a week, tweaking the front of my shoulder while sanding, for heaven's sake. Sanding! And it wasn't just a tweak, really, but something a bit more harsh that resulted in lots of crepitation to accompany the discomfort. This has now expanded its empire to include the motion I make when I use an ice-scraped on my windshield, so I have become left-handed at this. Sheesh.

No more moving counches, y'hear? Mentor's orders!

MARK again -

Not only do I too hope that everyone is well, but given how many have been so quiet for so long, i just hope that everyone is ALIVE!

GANG!

Yeah, really -- as I just said to Mark, I hope you all are still alive. ANNEDENISETRACEY especially, so quiet for so long.......is all mostly okay??

With the exception of some up-coming down-time due to holiday commitments, I think my off-season is over -- barring any injuries, that is. So far, it has been the following:

Swim:
No real off-season. Last OWS was Oct 13, then on the 21st I was into the pool scene. Since then I have done 28 pool swims, and while this is kind of a lot, the average actual swimming time is about 35' a session.

Bike:
Last outside reides were Oct 11, and then Oct 26. Following that, it took me until Nov 24 - four weeks and a day - to get back on the bike on the trainer. No work on the rollers, but there have been 12 trainer sessions. The longest was 81 minutes (I need lots of time to build up to longer trainer sessions), and they average out to about 55'.

Run:
Following (RunRun half-marathon on Oct 23, I ran on the 26th, 29th, Nov 3 and 13, and then foot problems (mostly left bunion) forced me to shut it down until yesterday. So, that was four weeks between runs -- good enough for a run off-season in my books! If my feet continue to feel okay, I will start ramping up the run sessions; I should anyhow, as I have a 10km race on New Year's Eve!

Strength:
Between June 21 and Oct 25.......that was the off-season. This is how I always do it, with no gym sessions once the race season gets cookin'. Since Oct 25 I have been to the gym 16 times, all either upper body or core -- no lower body. About 1-2 times a week I row briefly on the Concept II -- usually three minutes of high-intensity stuff that has me wanting to die before I do another simulated meter! I have started doing some Pilates-type stuff at home, two sessions of ~25' each.

HOW ABOUT THE REST OF YOU???

(Christmas shopping counts as light-moderate cardio, by the way! )

Still alive!  And mostly OK.       Still making myself scarce on the computer.   If I get near it, it just seems to eat up too much time.  

Had a pretty good week.   Cycling still great and loving the CT.   Getting re-tested on the 23rd.  Will be interesting to see the results.    Swimming is swimming - I really enjoy it.   Finished my swim 'lessons' and have a somewhat decent handle on the breaststroke,  and flip turns.   It was nice to learn something new.   Have been winging the swims so far, but will start following actual workouts January 1st;

Running - was going really well.   Was getting the metatarsalgia under control when I screwed up knee (same knee that was messed up all summer) by spending 2 hours squatting under the stairs, backing in and out, trying to get the Christmas decorations out, then carrying the stuff upstairs.   Thought I was squatting properly but I guess 2 hours was too much.   Got the same pain on the inside of leg just at the bottom of knee cap and there was a bit of inflammation.  Iced it, and decided to take the week off from any running and yoga as well and it started to feel back to normal about Thursday/Friday.   Could kick myself, because if I had taken the week off last year when my knee went, I probably wouldn't have lost the season.   Going to do a short run on Wed., hard interval water running on Friday and a longer run on Sunday.  

Did some water running this past week.   Apparently you need to do interval work that gets your HR UP!!!  So I wear my HR monitor.   Just doing slow, steady water running won't keep your running fitness.   Planned to swim afterwards, but it took enough out of my arms and legs to prevent a hard swim.   This week I will swim first, then water run. 

Very busy the next couple of weeks, so won't be going nuts on any training.   Just keeping some consistency going. 

Excited and nervous because my son has decided to go to San Deigo for a week during Christmas - 21-28th.  He had alot of vacation left that he had to use or lose and he HATES the winter.   He has never travelled before so it will be a real adventure for him, I'm sure.  

Hope everyone is doing well.  

Take it easy on that running Steve.      

YO!

I am here!! Oh yes I am!!  Just been crazy busy with some family stuff that is not so great news.  BUT I have some OH-SO-GREAT news for you all...That Steve B already knows..

I was invited to join Team Trakkers.  This is a sponsored triathlon team, so that means I am getting a lot of new gear, including a BIKE!  I am getting a Kestrel Talon Tri SL 47cm cause I am wicked short.  They are also sponsored by Rev3 - so let me know if any of you are going to be at a Rev3 race, I plan on hitting Quassy and am considering Cedar Point HIM maybe. Depends on how I feel about that drive. 12hoursish I think.  I need to google map it. 

The stream outside my house is raging right now since we got the rain.  I can hear rocks rolling right now.  We got many inches of rain and I am sad to see the snow go away.  We are going to have a frozen mess later in the week, I just hope we get some of that mid-west snow!

I have been swimming 1x/week at the pool that is about 80 min away.  I have been running 3x and biking 3x except on the weeks I don't ha ha I mean, every other week I take a day off.  I am not very hard core right now, just staying active with 9hours of training most weeks...

I hope you are all well and enjoying the holiday season!

Wahoo!
Mandy

ANNE -

Hey! Congrats on being alive!

I was just heading out and decided to do ONE last check HERE.........which is never the brightest move to make before heading out "quickly".

So, let's see.....

You and Mark and those squats and your respective knees! Squatting is the devil's posture, i think, and whenever we humanoids try to do it, bad things happen. I have said that I never do lower-body in ther gym anymore, and even though squats were not a regular part of my lower-body regimen back when I was doing lower-body stuff (pre-meniscus tear days), they always strike me as way too hazardous. As for squatting when doing domestic things, such as what happened to you and Mark, i can have problems there ---- so I try to avoid those particular tasks. (I could say that better for Lynn to hurt her knees rather than me hurt mine.....but I'll just quietly think it instead!)

Moving on to water running, I have a video on it which I will send to you if you think you will be doing it kind of regularly. It's called "Water Running for the Serious Athlete", and even though I haven't used it in year, I seem to remember it as being quite good. It definitely reinforces the idea that water running to best effect is not as simple as just getting in the water and moving one's legs in a simulated running motion. I also have a water-run-specific belt-buoy thing, and while it is kind of large it weighs very little, so I could send that, too.

Or, i could try to get them to you in a couple of weeks when we are in Guelph. Do you have updated plans? I seem to remember you being in Oshawa until the 26th, and then returning midday ---- which is about when we were considering coming back home. Nothing is carved in stone yet, so let me know your updated plans.

As for mailing stuff, were you going to send some photos to me, ones from Half Vemont? I think I gave you my address, and I think it was for that purpose, and I'v ekind of been looking for somehting from you for a while now, so (a) you sent something that didn't arrive, (b) you haven't sent anything yet, or (c) I'm more confused than normal. Anyhow, that's that.

On the main BT forum there is a mnetion of a very cool section of the www.swimsmooth.com website, and it is on swim types. Go to www.swimtypes.com and have fun with this! I am quite clearly Overglider, with some small bits of Swinger thrown in just to muddy the waters some. I am think about getting the correction guide for Overglider, but.......

.....some of the things I reported on a few weeks ago, vis-a-vis my swimming improvements, and likely part of the correction guide. (Another way to say this, amybe, is that in all my reading I KNOW what I should be doing (better), but either neglect it or cannot quite opull it off.) I continue to enjoy some modest success in trying to improve my stroke, and as I said about a month ago now --- I will let you know what I am doing and how/why it seems to be working.

Okay, I REALLY gotta split the scene now, so I'm off. Bye for now!

MANDY, congratulations on making the race team.  Very cool perks to go with that it sounds like!

I've been thinking about DENISE and MARK, what with all that snow.  MARK, sounds like you faired okay but I think I heard them say this was the 5th worse snow storm in Minnesota ever?  I'm thinking DENISE might be buried in snow at this point!  My daughter is flying home today out of Rochester with a layover in Newark.  Hoping she gets out ahead of the snow they are predicting in Rochester.

I'm hoping that these foot/knee injuries are not catching!! Sounds like we all just need to lay off the domestic jobs. I do tend to let my gardening go when I'm in training because I can certainly feel it in my legs after a good day in the yard!

I am beginning to think that our new truck is jinxed.  My husband and I were in an accident yesterday ... with a Sheriff's Deputy ... URGH!!  We both saw him pull over into this v-shaped median and stop.  We assumed he was setting up radar but as soon as we got by the side of him, he u-turned right in front of us!! Talking on his cell phone!!!  My husband laid on the horn, tried to swerve to miss him, and almost avoided him.  The deputy rolled down his window and told us to pull over ... my response, "You bet we'll pull over!".  Thankfully, both vehicles ended up with minor scratches (if there's such a thing as a "minor" scratch on 4 month old vehicle!).  We had to wait around for 1 1/2 hours for the county traffic investigor and the deputy's supervisor.  The deputy totally accepted all fault (oh, really?) and the county will be footing the bill for our truck and a rental car.  Poor guy, all he saw when he turned in front of us was this great big truck coming at him with some crazy woman with her arms up the air yelling "What the h... are you doing, you idiot??!!).  

LISA   

LISA -

If one's company, and two's a crowd..........then there won't be room for a third mishap with the new truck. You're home free now! Two-and-out!!

I'm glad you all emerged unscathed, mostly. I guess the officer must've seen his life flash in front of his eyes, huh?

Tough game for the Texans tonight, although I'm not sure that Baltimore is all it is cracked up to be. They seem to be slippin' and slidin', not assuming anything near control of that division.

I'm thrilled with the Patriots, of course, and perhaps even more thrilled that the Jets lost AGAIN, and didn't score a touchdown AGAIN. Ha! Serves the crew of cocky, misogynistic creepos right!

Also pleased the 49ers won. Hard to believe, but they are only one game out in that division. But I also think that back in the days there were eleven of us in this group, we could've fielded a football team and been quite competitive in that division. You think?

Stay safe on those roads, Lisa!

MANDY -

GREAT news that it is now official! Does that mean that we all now get 11" x 17" autographed glossies of you, decked out in Team Trakkers gear?

I'm also glad you decided to "upgrade" to the SL; it really does sound quite similar to my P2C. I am sure you will benefit immensely from the carbon-lightness of it as you climb up twice from Wilmington back into Placid!

Did you check to make sure that the 47 is the right size for you? It should be.....but as I said, I'm not any too clear on body sizes and bike sizes.

For me to get to west of Cleveland, where Cedar Point is, would be about 8-9 hours. So for you, probably 12 isn't a bad guess. Do the race, and then ride the rides at the amusement park! You seem like the kind of person who was maybe born on a roller-coaster, yes?

I hope all gets better with family matters. Hang in there?

STEVE -

Did you know.........

.....that a guy named Stephen Aquaviva did IMAZ last month? He is in 40-44, and has an address of Copiague, NY. I wonder if he will be there next year -- the two of you, separated by a mere "v"! (Are you a Stephen like he is, and like I am, or the other kind -- Steven?)

And your new bike fitting -- how does it feel when you are in the saddle, pedaling merrily away?

ANNE -

Do you ever hang out at the forum at www.slowtwitch.com? If so, have you seen the thread pertaining to OAT insurance? If not, you might want to go there. The thread was on the first page of the forum a little while ago, and the author is HR (Richard Pady, if you know him), who was hit by a truck during Welland half-iron in June.

How much snow are you getting today? Son Peter in Guelph told us last night it might be about six inches, but by the time it gets here it will be only 2-4cm. Stay warm!

sweeet