stevebradley's Mentor Group FULL (Page 259)

JESS again -

Heck with you ---- I'M smitten! It is a beautiful bike, just a stunningly great paint job. Chartreuse is always a fine color to add to a scheme, and there's just the right amount there to set it off beautifully.

Don't worry, you will indeed get used to shifting under all circumstances -- and that will come sooner than you think. I'm also impressed with your LBS doing a few things before you even got there. Wowzers!!

So - I totally forgot (and I think you did too, Steve!) but Lisa did Rumpass today. I only remembered because Ryan posted on Facebook ... annnnd Lisa apparently won the 30-35 age group! In 2:27?!!?! Ridiculous!

 

CONGRATS Lisa!!!

 

Also, I noticed on the results that there were a few DQ's amongst the highly ranked women. Wonder what happened there? Can't wait to hear all about it, Lisa.

Edited by ThatGirl 2011-04-16 6:22 PM

JESS -

I am getting terrible at remembering race dates, so I really appreciate you telling me about Rumpass. I had thought it was next weekend, which is in the same category of addled thought as thinking that a guy from another group was racing today, whereas it was yesterday. Ack!

Hopefully, Lisa will tell us all about it here, soon!

And you and your new steed???

jess!  congrats!!  there are few things more exciting than a new bike!!!    i remember when i first got mine how fast it felt, so i know just what your talking about!!  yay!

...and you're very right, i had the rumpass oly this past saturday and the rumpass sprint on sunday.  this was our first time doing back to back races.  we did it for two reasons 1.) is that the virginia triathlon series has a series contest.  you get points for each race you do and they give overall and age group awards for the year end series standing, but you need 5 races to qualify and 2.) to help prepare us for what TTT ohio is going to feel.

overall it was a good weekend.  saturday was cold and pouring rain.  the swim was either long or just tough by all accounts.  all the swim times were slower than expected.  ryan had a great race.  finished 16th in a tough, tough AG.  I had an okay swim, I felt great on the bike and then held it together nicely on the run.  ended up, as jess pointed out, 1st AG, 6OA woman and a 3 minute PR from last year.  i guess i feel good about this seeing as the conditions were tough and i haven't really been focusing on the bike in the last month because of national and it was only my second "brick" of the season.  i had only done it in training once the weekend before this.  still, a little disappointed.  for a number of reasons.  none of which make sense.  

i mentioned the swim was tough on saturday.  it was pretty choppy.  i drank a LOT of lake water.  after the race was over i started getting pretty sick feeling.  major abdominal cramping and let's just say for the next 20 hours i wasn't really keeping anything in.  lake water is the only thing i can think that caused it.  it was bad.  i didn't sleep hardly at all on saturday night and, again, was nutritionally empty.  sunday morning, thankfully, a teammate of mine had imodium and that did the trick.  i was able to do the sprint without incident.  

while fatigued, i didn't feel terrible on sunday at all.  it was a much nicer day.  brilliantly sunny, but cooler (51 degrees).  again, while the times aren't great, either the result of water conditions or over measurement, i had the 4th fast swim in my AG!  bike was okay, run was good.  finished
 2nd AG and 6 OA (again).  overall a good weekend. 

i'm pretty sure that this places me 1st woman in the vts series so far, but it's early, that is for sure.

how's everyone else doing?  any new training or racing stories?

talk soon!

lisa

oh, and jess, the two women who are still in the OA standings for the oly were "one loopers".  it's a two loop bike and run course.  there are ALWAYS people who don't realize that or forget.  they haven't rooted them out of the OA times yet, and they show up high in the standings because their time is fast (for obvious reasons).    unfortunately, one of them was a teammate of mine.  she just didn't realize and lost track.  she realized something was wrong when someone told her she was the #1 female on the run course.  she went off in the last swim wave, so she knew that was bad. 
being a person of amazing class, she completed the full 2 run loops anyway and then went to the officials at the finish line and told them. 

the great news is that she recovered emotionally and came back and won the athena division at the sprint the next day!

Oh and, if the first 10k had been a stand alone 10k, I would have PR'ed that too. I crossed that somewhere in the 49's, and my PR for 10k is 50:20.  Between the absurd pacing and the new shoes, this race was all about reckless abandon. Ha!

LISA and JESS -

I owe you two a LOT; I've obviously been very bad here! It's been a very difficult two weeks - nothing really terrible, just....difficult. Mostly okay, some (lower body) not exactly okay. Overall....just difficult.

Both of you have turned in some wonderful performances, deserving of far more than the nothing I have given. I don't know how this has happened, really. I love ya both, and shouldn't've been so callow and shallow.

I willl be back to you in full force tomorrow!

bump

JESS -

Oops!



Edited by stevebradley 2011-05-02 9:59 PM

JESS -

I guess rules ARE meant to be broken! Hurry with that new shoes story, okay?

(Ack! Just misread yours and am changing it now!)

You've gotta be flying after that, and fully ready to take your running chops AND the new steed to Devilman this coming weekend, huh?

As for Dman and me, I'm here. Partly cuz it's mothers day, partly cuz we have a couple of commitments, partly cuz of money, partly cuz of my own rebelling body. I may do a du around home here, but once again -- no Devilman for me. I will be thinking of you there and how it all goes for you, and hoping it portends well for IMLOO. (You are still doing that, yes?)

And how is the D3 experience going, and more specifically, Julie. Is she attuned to your every tweak and heartbeat....and keeping you on your toes and a full 283% accountable? Having fun yet??

JESS again -

Now that I have my head on straight and youtr results all straight, I'm ready to forge ahead!

What do you attribute the PR to -- mostly more consistent training, or a good dose of experience, or the coaching? (Or those new shoes??) That is just a very nice jump for you, as is the 10km mark. Did you see this coming at this point in the season? I never really expect glowing results until well into June (more likely July), so if you're like me then you have to be ecstatic with those times.

Now! Any predictions about Devilman?? (I might quietly make some on your behalf....and be confidently bold in the process! )

LISA -

Are you still with me here? If you never come back, i probably wouldn't blame you. Ultimately it was unconscionable of me to not respond before now, regardless of my own circumstances. I feel quite rotten about this.

Second things first, your USAT ranking is fabulous, and missing straight AA by only .16947 is agonizingly close -- probably walking a few seconds too long at some aid station, or sighting two extra times during any given swim. Argh!

You were six places out of AA, and I was five. The diff, though, is that my shortfall was .48305; I'm not even sure a flatless West Point could've carried me up past that. Maybe, maybe not.

BUT ONWARDS TO THIS SEASON!!!!!

And for you, it sure started great at Rumpass! Those results should translate into some nice rankings gains, and I dare so your best is yet to come. I suspect you'll romp through TTT, which even for lesser talents than you seems to give big rankings points.

I'd like to know what exactly bothered you about the oly. I mean, a three-minute PR iis fabulous at any time, and in crappy conditions it is even more impressive. And without bricks. And with a mostly-run focus heading in. Holy-moly!!

How are you holding up physically? Any injury woes to speak of, or ois all peachy? Sometime I should ask you about your nagging hip issues from a couple of years ago, but not now, not yet. I'm still hoping moine resolve, and hope that they are more Yoga-related than anything else. That I can live with; it's some of the alternatives that are worrisome.

Back to you! It really is amazing how well you did on the sprint, given the stomach problems you faced. How close did you come to bailing on it and just spending more time in the fetal position? Must've been tempting!

Great swim there...........and makes me all the more envious of you and your swim chops, which are not only good to begin with, but just getting better. How much pooltime did you do in the off-season? I did a ton.....and hope for gains.....but count on absolutely nothing. I have been conditioned well in that respect.

Finally, that's a nice story about the Fexy who did too little, and then made up for it, and then admitted it to the RD. That should receive wider air-play, I think.

Finally-finally, not much to report here. Well, there is a lot, but I won't whine or get all anxious quite yet. I am worried about the scope of my season, and am looking into options (mostly, racing more up here, which is NOT what I prefer doing), but haven't committed to any grand plan. I am thinking of a local du this Saturday, but need the body (specifically hip/groin) to behave. I had a solid run/bike/run brick yesterday which showed that speed is still there, but I worry about discomfort and blah, blah, blah. More at some point, maybe?

bump?

JESS -

Well, whadaya think??

To my eyes, the swim looks great, and the bike and run both look good. The former would be at a bit under three hours for 56 miles, and the run would bring you home in under two hours, yes?

The 7/19 also looks good........so I'm guessing it was a successful day for you overall. Ta-da! (?)

What were your goals going in? Or, was it just a test of where you're at at this point of the season?

Detail soon ----- please??

JESS -

Dumb-dumb me! I dutifully checked Saturday's results.....but completely forgot about last year's. Those are mammoth improvements, and the run one is especially imprressive --as you say, right after the PR half-marathon. That bodes really well for IMLOO, just having the ability to produce strongly on bigger-than-normal distances. You have all this time to string these longer runs together and "connect the dots", so that, combined with your marathon experience, should put you in great shape for LOO.

And while you are feeling the bike is your weakest link, I wonder. Well, I guess maybe that's so, but the 8 minutes over last year is phenomenal, and as for the women who had shatteringly great bike times --- they've probably hit the ceiloing of their bike skills, while yours are still evolving. Between (a) the new bike and (b) Julia's coaching, and (c) your own growing experience, you will make significant gains on those top women over the next year or two.

That's a funny story about the workouts she gave you, and you hvaing told her it was a "C" race. I wonder what she would've done if you'd said it was an "A" -- a sweet and gentle taper, or even more killerish stuff???

Finally, I really like how much better 5/17 sounds, and it's perfectly vaild, too. As for referring to yourself as one of the "remainders" --- nope! I prefer to think of you as "waiting in the wings"..........and we'll see if I'm right in a year or two! (Wanna bet? Wanna bet? Huh? Huh?)

Thanks for checking in. And I will post some comments about my du soon, along with some doctor/injury stuff as well.

jess!!! 

what an amazing half!!!!  the 10k PR within it is the most impressive part.  awesome!! 

steve,

absolutely no apology necessary.  my concern is with you.  i haven't finished catching up with the posts yet, but i hope you are okay.  what's been going on?  it is just bodily ailments or other stuff too?    either way, you have nothing to be sorry for. 

as for the usat rankings.  meh.  it was annoying when i first saw it earlier in the year, but by the time the magazine came out, i was over it.  hopefully this year i can make the cut.  we'll see.  as you say....onward!

you have a bunch of other questions......let's see if i can cover them all

whatever disappointment i had at rumpass is gone......over that too.  i think the bulk of it was that i had looked at the prelim results and thought i might have overall placed.  they posted, though, before they accounted for the 35+ wave that started after us and i miscounted anyway.  so i ended up 6th OA, but with 1st AG.  my lesson learned is to not look at the posted results anymore.  i'm just gonna show up to to awards and see what happens.  this has happened to me before too.  the overall placing has just eluded me so far.  one of these days hopefully. 

a teammate of mine, pointed out that all of my training is geared toward long course.  i can expect to be great at all distances.  that's not how it works.  heck, even when chrissie wellington came to columbia a few years ago, she just did okay.  that's not her distance.  it's just something i have to remember.  i'm not trained for short course.  i have to keep my eye on the prize, and the prize for me is long course this year.

it's funny you should ask about injuries.  i've been struggling a bit lately actually.  for the last several months i have had a slight nagging ache at the top of my hip bone, right at the crest of the bone.  the last few weeks though, it's gotten bad quickly.  it was actually pretty severe discomfort last week.  i went a few times to our ART guy.  he is always quick to say that the issue, whatever it is, is likely a muscular issue.  last week though, he gave me a script for an MRI to rule out a stress fracture of the hip.  ovarian cycst and hernia were also words that left his mouth.  that was offputting.  i made a pact with myself that i would foam roll my little heart out and if it got worse or didn't get better in a week i would schedule the mri.  within 2 days of my foam rolling marathon, i have no pain.  there is no way i could be something like a stress fracture and respond to foam rolling.  so, that makes me very very happy.
i've also been having some achilles issues and need to get better with the icing and calf foam rolling, but i appear to be moving in the right direction again.  i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

i, too, have been happy with my swimming lately.  a friend who's a usat masters coach worked with my twice and gave me some technique pointers.  they have made a huge difference.  i made a decent speed improvement very quickly after that, but it seems to have leveled off now.  i am however improving my endurance rapidly.  i'm having a lot of break through swims lately, which is nice.  it's actually the discipline i'm enjoying the training for the most right now.

training in general is going well.  my running speeds are okay, i guess, but i'm having to work for them.  like i mentioned above, the body has been pretty creaky lately.  the next two weeks leading into TTT aren't huge volume weeks, so hopefully i'll bounce back nicely.

the bike volume is back in full swing.  i did my first back to back century two weeks ago.  it was definitely a lot easier than i remember last years being.

we have the kinetic sprint this weekend.  my goal there is to just pick up another good showing for VTS points for their seried competition.  right now i'm 3rd OA women in that series, but it's early.  the halfs are where they award their biggest points, but none of their halfs fit in my schedule.  we'll see how it plays out.

i cannot believe TTT is in less than two weeks.  my stomach hurt a little just typing that.  that is going to be tough.  doing the rumpass races back to back made me aware of that.  i have to keep reminding myself to have fun.

all in all, i've been struggling a lot with motivation lately.  i'm getting my workouts in, but not really enjoying them.  next year will DEFINITELY not be an IM year for me.  that is for sure.

so, steve, what is going on with you?  is anything getting better?  please keep us posted. 
lots of love and healing vibes to you!!!!

wow, jess!!! ...as i keep catching up with posts, they keep getting better

that is an AWESOME PR for the devilman!!!!

this is really shaping up to be such a fun year for you!!!!  i'm really thrilled to see it!  you work so hard and have SO much going on.  it is so impressive.

so what's next?!

LISA -

Ooo-wee! What a big, glorious post from you! It warms the cockles of my heart!!

I will be back tonight to address it fully. (Today is a full one in Ottawa -- Yoga, run, swim, dinner with Lynn's bro, another Yoga-related thing.) See you in about 14 hours!

LISA -

Many thanks for the love and healing vibes --- it's definitely the thought that counts. My body continues to deteriorate, however, and the spiral I am in is pretty much unprecedented. I am seriously considering bagging any serious competitive aspects to the season, as I am just beaten down....and a good part of that is psychological, too. I am trying to rationalize it with a few approaches -- I am ready for something new, it's not too affordable right now, and I am long overdue for a down-season.

The first of those is designed to be temporary, and actually fits well with the third one -- if there's an off-season, might as well do something new! I've pretty much already filled that with Yoga and all it seems to involve for me (ane that's a story right there!), and so it's not as if I am searching for a new outlet.

The past four seasons have seen me race 51 tris and dus, and a few more running races can be added to that number-- that's a lot, to be sure. I know many people have told me that in no uncertain terms, and while I realized it in fact I couldn't fully accept it in theory. And were my body healthy right now, I would be barreling into another action-packed season, I am sure. But seeing as how that's not the case......

Most of my problems are centered in my left groin and hip, and the problem I have had in long car rides since late '08 has now blossomed into being there after about 20 minutes in short rides. Recently, it has seriosly affected my cycling, to the point that discomfort is felt and power is lost after about 40 minutes or so. I have seen chior, A.R.T., my sports doc, and now a physio guy about it....and none of them can tie all the ends together, including how the groin issue travels to the inner right knee in a "metallic" nerve-ish type of way, but with nothing between groin and knee being affected.

And to top it off, yesterday's run was followed by a couple of episodes bloody urine. You know that i have gone through this before and that it always resolves itself, but nevertheless it is always disconcerting and a real stifler of enthusiasm. That's at times when all else is well; right now, it is just about the final straw.

My du alst week went okay, with the downside being loss of power on the damn bike, but the upside being two strong run legs -- both around 21 minutes for each 5km. So, I can feel like crap when seated ont he bike, but the abd stuff disappears when I run. Huh.

HOWEVER, in longer runs of late my hips and groin feel a "collapsing: frequently after about 35 minutes. It's not painful, it's just that those areas "give". It's brief and then fine again for a few minutes, and then recurs. I haven't done a serioulsy longer run in a few weeks, just because.

Anyhow, that's part of the injury woes. Beyond that there have been a number of car problems, and that is becoming a money pit. The scariest was going to Toronto for Easter, and the car getting noisier and more shaky in the front end, and we finally pulled off and went to a car repair palce where they quickly determined that the problem was from one of the studs that hold the nuts to the wheels being sheared off, so the front left wheel was quite loose and wobbly; had we driven much further, it would've just fallen off. And givemn that we were on a packed but fast 401 that day, the possibilities for disaster and death were high. We abviously survived it well enough, but that is just one of several car fixes it has experienced in the past few weeks.

I could go on and on with a whole litany of dumb little things that are making theis the Spring Of My Discontent, but I won't . I will just say briefly that Yoga is wonderful beyond belief, and that my body craves it like you wouldn't believe. i am mostly doing the softer and gentler stuff, as the last thing my body needs is more strenuosu work. that said, though, I wonder if Yoga is contributing to any of my problems. Hamstrings, maybe, but as for the other areas I'm not sure....but it's possible.

Nevertheless, i am not about to give it up. I get a senior's pass for $90 a month of unlimited classes, and I go through 6-8 a week; I've become a studio rat! I gave up my gym pass to afford this, and while I miss lifting I'm not about to trade back. I've also started volunteering at the studio, just a lot of cleaning and making the place look beautiful. This is the first thing I have "belonged" to since I stopped working four years ago, and I'm just enjoying having that connection. (That's another big story!)

Okay! This is PART ONE to you. PART TWO, dedicated to you and your life and training, will come tomorrow. Lynn is braying at me to come to bed, and seeing as how we are getting up at 4:15 to do a mammoth bird survey, I guess she's got a point.

See you tomorrow! (AND HAVE A GREAT KINETIC -- it is tomorrow, yes?)

LISA -

Still haven't gotten back to the "you" part of your post.....and also, as of 8:15 p.m., no results from Kinetic. Grrr! And it took me about 15 minutes of fighting with my pokey computer just to GET three! Grrr, GRRRR!

Soooooo ---- I will keep checking, and plan to complete my response to you asap (whatever that means for me anymore.... ), and hope to hear your own tales from Kinetic!

STEVE!!

i want to get back to your larger post, but, all i have time for right now is to put you out of your misery caused by results anticipation!! 

kinetic sprint was yesterday.  it was an absolutely fabulous day for the albrechts.  we both hit milestones!!!
I managed my first top three overall performance.  i came in 3rd OA......AND.................................................................................
Ryan placed THIRD AG!!!!!!!!

what a great great day to be able to share together.  it's funny, too, cause neither of us felt great, but i guess it all just ended up coming together

my mom was able to come and watch two, so she was treated to an extra special show

thanks for thinking of us.

so sorry to hear that you're going through a rough patch.  there  might be some blessings in disguise hidden in there, but i know it's still tough.

i'll be back with more.

this is a crazy week for us.  we're trying to get things squared away cause TTT is in FIVE days!!