BigSkiesMentorGroup - COMPLETE! (Page 28)

Mandy,

I am just jeolous....if your ever in NC, come on over and you can even sit in my favorite chair  Now onto exploring this potatoe thing.

JK

Thanks Steve, you should be able to see my training log (let me know if you can't).  It is accurate.  If not, my rides are bout 13+ miles (2x); swims are about 1500 m (2x) and runs are two runs of 3.2 miles. Ok, just looked at my log... accurate, just not so great at hitting those goals... Sunday will be better (have a full day at church tomorrow and it's my scheduled rest day.)

Canon

Steve,

Nice race.  Hope the new cadence worked out better for ya.  Must be nice to be testing things out and still take home the hardware in AG.

If I did the math correctly it's amazing to me that you can go as fast as you go and still get chicked    There are some talented female athletes out there.

Hi everyone,

I have a question for those of you who do a lot of cold open water swimming.  I was practicing for my first open water swim yesterday in a chilling Colorado reservoir and a peculiar thing happened. I was swimming along nicely (full wetsuits are fabulous!), but when I stopped I was really surprised to find I was quite dizzy.  I've never had that problem before, however I think the open water swimming I've done before has all been in warmer water.  Do you all generally wear ear plugs when you are swimming in cold water?  If so do you have any recommendations on what type or brand?  I have my first open water race next weekend and now I'm wondering if I should use ear plugs.  The water should be quite a bit warmer as the race is in southern Utah, but I don't want to be staggering to the transition area.  Your input is appreciated!

Thanks,

Trichic

STEVE, I love this! No problems for you keeping up with the M35-39!! (and up). Congrats on another good race, even if the swim didn't go as you'd hoped

Speaking of swims, today my swim totals for 2011 surpassed my swim totals for all of 2010! (not that it's that big of an accomplishment since my swim totals for 2010 weren't so great!!)

LISA

Steve,

That'll teach ya to tweak those goggles 

Seriously, I hate it when the googles leak.  Never had that happen to me in a race.  I have been kicked so hard in the face that my goggles got knock off.  Now, that will wake you up in a hurry.

On the bright side, 4-5 stops for goggle adjustment with some drifting and still only 90 seconds off.  Pretty darn good.

stevebradley - 2011-06-12 7:55 AM JEFF - Not that this a "spoiler" in terms of an upcoming full report, but..... The swim was a huge disappointment. This WAS to be the day to test the new cadence, but the combo of the goggles and the masses made it a colossally inconclusive enterprise. My warm-up swim felt great, and the goggles were 97% good. normally I accept that, and once I dod the w-u I leave them rright where they are, even if there are many minutes until the start. But yesterday I decided to tweak the seal just a tad to make them perfect ---- and ended up with immediate leakage in my right (seeing-eye) lens within about six strokes. I then made 4 or 5 stops to try to get it right, failing on each.....and also getting myself more agitated, thus affecting my breathing. So when I finally got the seal mostly okay, I struggled with getting my breath under control; that almost never happens, ever, never-ever. To add to all of this, yesterday was a mild "drifting" day, and on a clockwise course, with my portward drifting, that removes me further from the true line --- and that's what happened. it wasn't huge, but probably ~30s in total. Assuming the course was a true (hahahahahahaha!) 500m, just swimming regularly I would've done it in about 10' even --- and yesterday's out-of-water time was about 11:40. Well, that makes sense to me, with 30" lost to drifting, close to a minute in adjustments, and some more small random to laboring with affected breath. Bah!! Well, mama said there'd be days like this, so there you have it. And it was a disappointment because I allowed it to mess with my head for the rest of the race (fortunatley it was just a sprint and nothing longer, meaning my demons had less time to prey on my fragile mind!), which meant I pushed myself way too hard throughout, and hurt throughout, and hardly had a half-second of fun. All this for a "C"-priority race??? Good grief!

Speaking of Canada, looks like Paula Findlay (sp?) better watch out.  She is an amazing ITU distance athlete.  Love watching that girl run.

Steve,

Hey, you can't control who shows up on race day.  My guess is those fast dudes found out that you were racing that day so they just didn't bother showing up    Kinda like the pro women when they know that Crissy Wellington is racing (they find other races to enter)!!!

Speaking of looking down the AG's results to see how you faired.  I know what it's called when a lady puts a beating on us guys (i.e... I got chicked!!).  What's it called when an older (umm..... more experienced) person puts it on ya?

stevebradley - 2011-06-12 8:24 AM While that is amusing and somewhat satsifying, what it really tells me is that a lotta lotta lotta good guys from any of those age groups didn't choose to do my race yesterday. But hey, isn't that part of what it's all about -- who shows up on race day??  

I'm very, very back-of-the pack, but I sometimes pass young guys.  I passed a young (20ish) guy at my last race and yelled as I was going by "You're not going to let Grandma beat you, are you?" haha - that was mean, wasn't it?

Denise

Steve,

Congrats on your race.  I'm sorry you had goggles problems, but it's hard to have much sympathy for you when you do so well even with problems.  And it was just a "C" race for you anyway.

Denise

Back from my husband's 50th high school reunion in Iowa City.  So many old people - haha.  My husband won prizes for 1) having the youngest child (21) and 2) he was the only one with a great-grandchild.

I got to swim in the 50 meter pool.  And the treadmills each had their own tv screen - that was way cool.  The rest of you have probably seen those but in northern MN we don't have them.

And Steve, Iowa City is not just a hick town in the middle of corn fields.  They've got cool restaurants and oodles of culture.  While we were there, the Iowa Writer's Workshop (which you might have heard of) was holding it's 75th anniversary reunion.

Denise