Destination MoP is FULL (of motivation!) (Page 26)

Love that first Goal!  Obtainable and measurable!  Sometimes my only goal is to have a pleasant face while I train!  Love the Iron Girl series and I hope yours is fantastic!

Love that first Goal!  Obtainable and measurable!  Sometimes my only goal is to have a pleasant face while I train!  Love the Iron Girl series and I hope yours is fantastic!

Congrats on the run!  You can do it - especially with those "extra" two weeks

I drove most of the bike route of my Sprint today.  I'm happy to report that it really is pretty flat for central CT.  The run is a trail run in a private outdoor area, so I can't really preview it.  I hear it's wide and sort of smooth, but rolling.

I've been slacking this week.  It all started with a brick last Thurs which went fine, but was followed by soccer coaching clinic that was quite participatory that night.  I over did it and had soreness for several days.  I ran a few miles on Sat with my son on a bike, but otherwise have been sluggish this week. 

Must get moving...

Good Luck wih your race!

Also love that first goal too!  Looking forward to Sunday.

Been pretty busy lately.  After our beach vacation week, we had house guests, then marching band started, then something else, etc, etc.

My daughters (15 and 20) are doing Iron Girl Columbia this weekend (so is Jennifer).  My excitement is tempered by the fact that neither girl did much training for this race.  Even though I prompted them throughout the spring and summer.  My 20 year-old got in about 3 swims, 5 runs, and 3 very short bike rides.  My 15 year-old even fewer training sessions - although she did start field hockey this week.  She is not very excited about Sunday.  I think it will be hard for her.  I'm hoping the expo and bike racking will up their excitement level a bit.

As for me, I guess I'm ready.  Had a very good run on Tuesday but was tired during Wednesday's swim.  I'm tired today.  I'll get the girls to practice transition this evening or Saturday afternoon.

For motivation I just ordered two books:  50 One-Hour Workouts and Workouts in a Binder for Indoor Cycling by Velopress.  Ordered on Amazon.  My workouts generally don't have a set purpose.  My swim is always to get in 1,500 yards, my runs are two speeds -- faster than usual and the usual, my bike workouts are my bike commute or the occasional long ride.  I've got an indoor bicycle trainer so I'm hoping some structure during my cool weather workouts will help.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Hi Everyone -

Just returned from Michigan at 2am this morning.  Needless to say, I am very happy to be back home and am looking forward to getting back into good sleep, eating and exercises habits which have definitely suffered some in the last couple of months. 

So, I will catch up some over the weekend with what everyone's been up to, but wanted to wish Melanie and Jennifer good luck this weekend (and have fun!).  Hope your daughters do well too, Melanie.  Youth will get them pretty far, I expect, even if they aren't completely ready :-)

Anyone else racing?

Stu

Good luck Melanie and Jennifer!  I hope you finish with a smile on your faces and a sense of accomplishment.

 Welcome back, Stu.

I did a "long" ride (for me) today of 12 miles.  It felt pretty good.  I did get frustrated at my bike bag several times when it dragged on my back tire.  UGGGHHHH.  I stopped twice to re-adjust it.  I think I need to look into other options on this.  Having a "girls" hybrid limits my choices a bit as I don't have a horizontal tube between the seat and handlebars.  I'll hunt around, but the seat bag I have isn't cutting it.

3 weeks and a few days 'til my Sprint.  EEEKKK!

Good luck Melanie and Jennifer in your race on Sunday!!  I'll be racing that morning as well so I'll be thinking of you.

Melanie, I'll be curious to hear how your books work out in helping you with some more structured training.  I feel like I do exactly what you described as well and I'm now at the point where I need to have more focused workouts with a purpose instead of just trying to get to a set distance.  My Cycleops bike trainer came with this DVD "Race Day" that I just got around to trying last week and it was awesome!!  For anyone not familiar with it, it's one in a series of DVDs in the "RealRides" collection.  There's different DVDs focusing on different areas in cycling like Force, Climb, Speed, Power, etc and it's from the perspective of this cycling pro that has camera's attached to him (or his bike maybe) and he commentates as he rides.  So it's like you're riding along with him and he's coaching you the whole way.  I found that I was pushing so much harder and was much more entertained and motivated than if I were out riding by myself or on the trainer just watching tv.  I'm definitely going to check out the rest of the series when it gets too cold to ride outside.

Did my tri today and my time improved, even with a spill on the bike!  It improved by almost 9 mins, I think, I haven't entered the data yet.  This year the event was a little more unorganized than last year.  The line to check in moved slowly and I was in the first wave so there was no time to warm up. 

I got 3rd in my age group...yes there were only three of us, but whateve I podium'd!  Had more injuries on this tri than ever!  In the pool I was pleased to find out there were only 3 of us sharing a lane....whoo lots of room, so I thought.  Unfortunately, one of the ladies did the backstroke the entire time, which is not so bad but she used a supermann kick and arm stroke so no matter how far over I would get she still kicked me.  So I had to sight her a lot.  Each time I knew we were passing eachother I shifted over.  One time I sighted her, took two strokes but she unknowningly came over to the opposite side, the side I was on, and hit me square on the top of my head with her head.  Talk about getting your clock rung!  But I finished my swim 3 mins faster than last year. 

The bike was going great...I was trying to push myself and not get too comfortable but keep the pressure up.  My goal this race was to not leave anything on the course.  I knew I needed to save my legs for the run but I also know each race I feel like I could have gone faster.  So I was doing great until the last turn.  Its off a paved road onto a plastic mat that is laid over dirt and then about a foot over sand and across the highway to the transition.  Almost missed the turn so I was going a bit fast and my tire slid on the plastic right out from under me.  I have never fallen off my bike before so I think I was a little shocked.  The two bikers I had passed, and had been chasing the entire ride, were kind enough to stop.  Well they may not have had much of a choice as I was spread across the mat.  I was ok and told them to keep on riding.  Since I was stopped I didn't have enough momentum to get over the sand so I had to  walk my bike over the burm.  By then several cars were on the road and I had to wait for them to pass.  Last year they had someone stopping traffic for approaching cyclist. 

My adrenaline took off and I could feel my knee throbbing and there was a little blood but tis just a flesh wound and it really didn't hurt until the end of the race.  In transition I went to grab my water bottle but realized I lost it in the fall.  So I had to take more Gatorade than intended and I felt a little left of center.  But off I went....slowly.  I really had to call on inner coach to calm me down and breath.  I hated the fact that I had to walk right away and gather myself but every muscle was tense and I needed to calm down.  My shoulders were up to my earlobs and my breathing was irractic.  After a while I did settle into a pace but was still thristy for water.  No worries I told myself, I can easily run a mile and a half to get water at the turn around.  Um nope, no water on the 5K this year.  My jersey felt like it weighed 20 pounds and the sun was burning through me...dang, walked again.  However, I sprinted the end and still took off over 4 mins from my run. 

Pleased with the improvement on my time and as usual still met wonderful people, laughed a lot and have some awesome road rash that make me look much more BA than I am! 

Way to go, Cynthia - you are such a BA!  Pickin' up the hardware!

Seriously, though - great job overcoming adversity.  Seems like experience is really making a huge difference in your performance and grittiness!

Congrats!

Erin and Melanie - if you're not already doing so, I heartily endorse adding some speed workouts to your run training.  I've always been a lousy runner, but when I added intervals (or if you prefer, Fartleks or strides) once every couple of weeks (alternating with hills) I saw a noticeable improvement in my run times (more for stand-alone run races than tris).  Plus, it makes workouts a little more interesting.  I tried to place them mid-week, presuming long run on weekends.

Stu

[Edit] Adding speed workouts only after getting a solid base of 20+ miles / week or so.

My daughters and I finished the Iron Girl Sprint in Columbia, MD yesterday.  Very nice event.

I think my 20 year-old was riding the oldest bike there - a circa 1984 Schwinn and my 15 year-old had the bike with the fattest tires - a Toys-R-Us youth mountain bike.  Bless her heart.  The bike course was very hilly and I think she had to work harder than just about anyone to keep her bike moving.  They both felt really good about everything afterwards.  

I'm pretty pleased with my race.  Swim was good although I still had to combine breast stroke and freestyle.  Bike was good and I focused on maintaining a high cadence rather than increasing gears.  Run was good too.  Felt like I had some energy left.  Ended up 5th of 147+ in age group and took home some hardware!  Time of 2:01:something.

Race report later.

5th out of 147?  147???  Wow!!!!  That is both a fantastic result for you and a fantastic participation rate for the race - congratulations!  (and congrats to your girls pulling in the oldest / widest tire bike awards - I used to be in the running for that one too!)

Cynthia - I love this reflection.  I've had a similar milestone this weekend (not quite my first tri, but the first "proper" one), and have been reflecting on similar things.  And congrats on your tri this weekend.  Sounds like you did a great job getting back up and getting on with it.  Things don't always go according to plan, but it's how you cope with those moments that really reflects on how strong you are.

I completed my final triathlon of the season on Sunday.  Race log here.

I had been seriously wondering if I should take part, as my training has taken a serious dive since Steelman partly due to lack of motivation, but mostly due to injuries, and the fear that I would be hurting myself by training.  It's been a tough couple of months, but I decided I'd at least start, and if it turned out to be too much I was prepared for the option of withdrawing.  I wanted to take part for several reasons.  A big one was that originally this was going to be my A race.  We did the mini triathlon last year (260m swim, 14k bike, 3k run) and set ourselves the goal of doing the olympic distance this year.  At the time it felt like an insurmountable challenge (I've learnt a lot in the last year about what is "insurmountable"), but we set ourselves the goal of training for it.  Of course since then a lot has changed ;-)  The other reason I really wanted to do it was that due to the range of events (mini, sprint and olympic), this was our club's "away day".  It meant that we had about 30 people competing in one or other of the events, and it was really nice to be part of that.

Things got off to a slightly bad start when we were running late.  We got there and there was a massive queue for registration, so setting up transition was rushed to say the least.  And because we were in the last 4 numbers (my surname starts with a W), our space in transition was off to one side in a little corner that was hard to get to.  It actually meant we had loads of space because there was a whole racking area for just the 4 for us, but on the way into transition both times I had trouble getting to the right place because it was so out of the way.

Getting into the water for the swim was a bit of a shock.  The water felt REALLY cold.  There's been a lot of rain recently, and I think that's increased the flow of the river and it was really brown from all the peat that's been washed down. 

I realised when I started the swim that since Steelman (7 weeks ago) I've been swimming a total of 4 times.  Obviously that hasn't left me in a good position.  So I just took it really steadily and kept going.  I could really feel that my shoulders weren't used to that level of sustained effort.  I was feeling a bit rubbish about the swim, knowing that it was going to be really slow, and then as I approached the exit I realised that a year ago I did a 260m pool swim in which I had to alternate lengths breast stroke and front crawl because I couldn't maintain the crawl for more than 25m before I was completely out of breath.  This time I did 1500m all crawl without stopping.  It may have been slower than I'd have liked, but that's progress...

I was feeling quite tired from the swim, so I gave myself some time in T1.  It probably only added a minute to my time, but it really made a difference to how I felt.  I had some jelly snakes, so I stuffed a few of those down, which made me feel better too, although I think that might have backfired later on.

The bike was a really technical course.  It was closed roads, which was great, but with a lot of roundabouts and dead turns.  I knew what was coming from last year, and we'd done a session on cornering a few weeks ago which really helped.  I rather enjoyed seeing how fast I could go round the tight turns, and was gaining more and more confidence as the laps went on.  I even managed to go round a few of the roundabouts on my aero bars, which I was really pleased with.  I had one slightly scarey moment when I pushed it just a little far and my back wheel skidded out, but I pulled my balance back and managed not to fall.  Again, the lack of training came through and I could feel I was having to work really hard to maintain any kind of pace, but I just kept pushing at it.  My average pace landed up being just over 16mph, which isn't super fast, but considering the number of times I had to get back up to speed after a sharp turn I'm really pleased with it.  And again, it's about 4mph faster than last year, and the course is 3x as long!

I nearly ran into someone heading into T2 because I had to get into my stupid transition corner, and someone who was packing up from the sprint stood in the way.  I shouted "excuse me" and then just went through the stuff that was on the floor...  I don't think they were too impressed, but then neither was I! 

I was feeling really tired in T2, and when Kevin came in just after me I asked if he wanted to run with me.  There have been lots of comments from our friends about who was going to "win" the season between the two of us, as we had "won" two events each so far this year.  I suggested that we run together and call it an honourable draw.  However, when I suggested that I hadn't realised that Kevin's knee was causing him problems.  As a result we were running really slowly.  He was doing okay until we got to a set of steps we had to run up, at which point something went in his knee.  There was quite a lot of walking after that.  We discussed whether he wanted to withdraw, but he decided to just keep going as long as he could, and he managed to finish.  Afterwards he told me that if he'd been on his own he doesn't think he'd have finished, so I'm glad I stayed with him, but I never really even got out of breath on the run, and I was a little disappointed I didn't get to see how well I could have done it.  I think I probably could have managed it about 15 minutes faster, once you take out all the walking we did. 

The jelly snakes also came back to bite me, in the form of "GI distress".  I guess it's yet another learning experience, as running to the portaloos at the end of the first lap caused quite a few sniggers from spectators.  However, it made my 2nd lap a lot more comfortable!

Kevin and I crossed the finish line together, which probably caused a few people to make fake vomiting noises.  However, that seemed like a good way to finish the season.  We've trained together, competed against each other, and pretty much stayed evenly matched all the way through, so it was nice to finish together.  We didn't get a good time by any standards, and it was nearly 30min slower than the previous olympic, but considering how little training we've managed I was really pleased we both completed it.

My remaining events for this year are running.  I've got a half marathon in 4 weeks and a marathon in 7.  The marathon still has a big question mark over it, although bizarrely, having managed to finish the OLY on so little training I'm actually feeling better about it.  I've been having a few chats with experienced marathon runners about what they think I can achieve at this point, and I think as long as I accept that all I'm going to do is complete it, I can get through it.  But I'll have to see how the training goes for the next few weeks, and especially make sure that I really have cleared up my injuries.  I'm planning to do the half and then make a final decision.  Oh, and I get to break in my shiny new running shoes this week :-)

Yes.  It's a very big race for women only --- so we come out in droves!  It is designed to be a race for beginners and there were lots of 1st timers.  The bike course is really hilly for a beginner course I think.  Loved the atmosphere.  I had a really good day.

Here's my race report.

Cynthia - Congratulations on your race!  On the podium too!  Sounds like all your training has paid of with nice time improvements.  Especially the 4 minutes on the run.

Rachel - Sounds like you had a really good race and that your training partner really needed you.  Nice time on the bike given the turns and roundabouts.  Also managing freestyle for the entire 1500m is pretty cool.

I have three weeks until Nations Tri (olympic distance).  So next two weeks will be more intense than usual.  Today is recovery run.

Congrats to Cynthia, Rachel and Melanie!!  Sounds like you all did wonderfully this weekend!

Here's my race report from my race this weekend.  I was really happy with how I did.  The past couple of weeks I've been dealing with a lot of back pain and some strange nerve pain in my left leg.  I was really worried that I was going to have problems during the race.  I also wasn't feeling as pumped having just done a tri a few weeks ago.  So I didn't know what to expect.  But by the time I got to the race I was feeling very excited and I ended up feeling really great throughout the race.  Everything was working properly and even better than I expected so I was able to really enjoy myself.

The first tri I did sounds like the one you just did Melanie, it was all women and brings in a lot of novices.  So this tri on Sunday had much less participants but included men and much more experienced athletes.  So this felt like my first "true" tri.  My rankings thus weren't as good (not even MoP, lol) but I was still really happy with my times and that I was able to enjoy myself once again.

I think this will be my last tri for this year and I will just do running races the rest of the year and work on trying to get in a cycling group while the weather is still good.  The next big race for me is going to be in October.  I'll be doing a 50k relay along with Christine and her husband .  I'm taking one of the 10k legs while Christine and her husband will be taking the 15k legs (since they're pros like that).  So that should be fun and get me up to running 10k.

Additionally we just found out last week that there's going to be a Rev3 tri held in our area here in Maine next summer!  So I'm planning on doing the Oly distance.  I think I can handle the increase in distance, especially if I have pretty much a year to get there.  So that's going to be really exciting!

Wow - it was a big weekend for MoP!  Congrats again to Cynthia, Melanie (and her girls), Rach, Erin and Jennifer.  I've really enjoyed reading the reflective posts and seeing how much you've improved and learned over the course of the season.  Everyone should feel really positive about what they've accomplished! 

As it turns out, the summer mentor programs officially ended about two weeks ago.  Personally, my life is finally settling down some, so I'm going to continue on here at least through Oct 1 as I know we've got a few people who still have races left to do.  I appreciate your patience with me during a few of my busy stretches over the summer and thanks for all the support you've provided to each other!  Anyway, there aren't any Fall groups, so let's continue on together if that works for you all.  Obviously, totally up to each of you individually. 

Looks like some of us are getting a little more run focused for the Fall.  If Tri season is over where you are, often the run season is just picking up.  A great time to refocus your energy a bit while still keeping in shape.  Also, Fall/Winter is a great time to focus some training time on a discipline where you don't feel as confident in your abilities.  

Finally, I'd love to see MoP continue on in January, but given Heidi's lifeload, it looks like I'll be looking for a new partner in crime.  Please let me know if any of you are interested in doing so during the Jan-April time frame.  Obviously, lots of time before that starts.

-Stu