Destination MoP is FULL (of motivation!) (Page 29)

Great job, Melanie!

Stu, I can't imagine either.

Well, I have some stats.  My final time was 2:10:xx.  There were 490 finishers.  My swim was 94/490 and that includes a slow run/walk to the mat in transition.  On the other hand my bike and run were 472/490 and 471/490 respectively.  My transitions were slow considering I had no wetsuit to remove and biked in my running shoes.

So my main take aways from this event are that I need to improve both the run and bike significantly.  So to that end I need to focus on weightloss, get a bike trainer soon to use for winter, and in the spring I will hunt down a used road bike.  I will continue to run frequently and work on endurance/fitness.

My race report is here. 

So I survived, tired and sore. The month of August off my training planned showed, but overall I was pleased with my results. Most importantly I finished, and secondly, I hit my predicted time frame.

It looks like everyone had a great racing weekend, that is awesome!

Great races Andrea and Christine!  

I had a really good race (no swim) yesterday.  My race report is here.

Overall I feel I executed my race plan - which was mainly to not over-bike and leave good legs for the run.  I did this by maintaining a relatively high cadence (95-105) during 95% of the bike portion.  Also stayed on small ring except for a few downhills.  Also stayed relaxed in the arms and shoulders to avoid the issues I had back in June.

I also love how my age group wave (50+ women) gets to go after a few of the men waves and then sandwiched between other men waves.  The bulk of the men get ahead leaving sort of a gap of riders in the bike portion.  After awhile younger men catch up and pass.  The bike portion never seemed too crowded - as it looked on the way back.  This is really nice.  And then....I was able to pass younger guys on the run...which was kind of fun.

I was only passed by one woman on the run due to the timing of the waves.  She went whizzing by...and I let out a "damn".  The guy running next to me let out a "whoa" too.

So I'm feeling pretty pumped and ready to plan next season.  My next race is a 10K (Dogfish Dash).  I hope to do well and then celebrate with copious amounts of free beer afterwards.

Congratulations Melanie, Andrea and Christine!  That’s some nice racing!

-Steve

Well, it's finally race week for me.  I think I'm ready.

 I did have some foot/heal pain 2 weeks ago and cut out most of my training last week to allow some rest.  Things seem to be better and I found stretching my calves helps a lot.

I was able to pre ride the bike course last Monday, there is a long rolling section from miles 6-10 that I need to take into account.

-Steve

Really great results Andrea, Christine and Melanie!  You did it, Andrea!!!  What a great year you had!  Christine, how you managed to do an HIM on your recent training is beyond me.  Clearly you've got a great base.  Oh yeah - and you're young too ;-)  Melanie - you rocked again!  8/99 - woohoo!  Great way to end the Tri-year, y'all!  I love how you all are already thinking about what to focus on next year and/or over the winter :-)

Steve - you're next - follow in Andrea's footsteps!  You've been Mr. Steady throughout this training period... now's your time!

My BIL finished his IM distance in 12+ hours.  Not only did he finish, he placed 3rd in the Clydesdales!  Totally beyond my comprehension.  Weird thing was that after I finished a HIM, I thought I'd be more able to envision doing an IM.  For me, it was the opposite... it really underscored how difficult a full IM distance would be to tackle - both on race day and for the training.  I am completely in awe of those who have done it.

I think I may try my feet at a 10K race this weekend just to see how it compares with last year.  But I'll wait until race day to make the decision.  If I do it, I know it will make for a very long run on Sunday :-(

Stu

Stu,

What I learned most in my marathon helped me in the HIM. It truly is all about knowing your pace and sticking to it! I practiced that in Ragnar, as I intentionally slowed down several times in order to keep in a specific range, even though I felt great at the time.

Yes, I do have age on my side (but that won't always be the case). Next year, it will be 1 sprint, 1 oly, and this 1/2 IM again. Hopefully with much better results, due to consistent training. But as a tru MoP'er, my life really threw me a curve ball this year, and I missed so much of my critical training. There's always next year right? I am going to set my sights on the IM distance, I just can't decide if it will be 2013 or 2014, it will be very dependent on how I race next season.

I've opted not to do the marathon this year, as I don't feel as I have enough time to let my body rest and get into marathon shape in less than a month.!  I will still run the relay with Erin as 15K seems like a manageable distance at that juncture.

This has been a wonderful year of personal growth for me. I'm proud to say my kids really took an interest in running and I hope they continue to keep it as part of their lifestyle.  They laugh when they tell me their coaches ask them to run 1/2 mile and all the other kids complain, they think the shortest distance anyone should ever run is a 5K (that makes for a proud mama!)

Stu, will this group stay in tact through the fall? If not, I hope to see you back in the spring, as I will be joining your group for sure, and hopefully will be a more active participant. Thanks for all your help and support, I do appreciate it.

Christine

Enjoy this week.  Anticipate your success.  Visualize you want each section of the race to go.  The week before a race is one of my favorite times.  Good luck!

Me too!  I didn't have the same kind of challenges as others but I've had a good 9 months.  I feel stronger than ever.  Healthier than ever.  And I turned 50 earlier this year.  Nice way to end a season.

And my kids...I am thrilled that they did a triathlon with me.  My oldest is even thinking of signing up for a half-marathon!  Both are pretty psyched about their mom getting out and being active.  My youngest says her friends even think I am cool ('cause I don't bother them when they are over and 'cause I do triathlons).  They even wrote a song about me and how I can kick @SS!  They are even encouraging me to do an HIM and IM.  Both incredible challenges both mentally, physically, and logistically.  

Good luck this weekend, Steve.  Have fun soaking in the atmosphere!  You've prepared well and I'm sure that you will do great.

Well, I purchased a used bike trainer on ebay.  I wanted a decent one and didn't want to pay full price for new.  I'm looking forward to setting it up with my bike.  Now to learn more about workouts to do on the trainer.  Any advice on this topic?

I bought Workouts in a Binder for Indoor Cycling.  Have done two workouts so far.  They seemed pretty good.  Will be doing these over the winter.  Also got One-Hour Workouts.  We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the recommendations, Melanie.  I just searched for Jorge's winter maintenance and went to his blog and printed a 15 week schedule.  I may do it multiple times or maybe I'll look into your recommendations after the 15 weeks.

Andrea, the folks on BT who have used Jorge's workouts have raved (and moaned) about their effectiveness... very challenging, but very good prep!

I'm planning to do 2 days a week on the bike, while I build a better running base.  Jorge has notes about which days to do if you do just 2 days a week, so I'll see how that goes.

Melanie - I think this will get you there.  Maybe Andrea has a more direct approach.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=186131&start=1

I found this link to his blog.  http://coachjorgem.blogspot.com/p/cycling-plan.html

I've been printing some pages and making notes.  I'll be doing this using my HR monitor on my garmin.

Bike question -- I thought I would ask you all before posting BT-wide.

Should I get a tri bike or a road bike?

I have a 1993-4 Trek 1200 aluminium road bike.  I commute with this and have done my races with it.  It is a solid bike.  But it's time for an upgrade for my races.  I plan to continue commuting with the Trek for the foreseeable future.

I seem to be competitive in my age group and the bike portion is my weakest.  So it's important to me to improve in this area.  I don't cycle outside of training/commuting or if I do it's on a beach boardwalk type bike!

So what does everyone think?  Bike brand & model recommendations would be helpful too.

Thanks.

I actually just read a thread on here with the same exact question.  I certainly can't speak from an area of experience at all but it seems to me that you would NOT want to get a tri bike if you didn't already have an acceptable road bike and you were concerned that you would be limiting your options when it comes to cycling specific activities.  If you were interesting in group cycling or cycling events you would have to have a road bike.  But I'd say if you're not interested in doing those things OR you could at least use the road bike you have if you were, AND you're ready to take a step up and be more competitive, it sounds to me like it would make sense for you to get a tri bike.

I myself am still in the category where I could only afford one bike to get started and I wanted the flexibility of doing tri and non-tri activities with it, so I got the (bottom of the line ) road bike.  So I can't offer any suggestions on brand/models.  But I say go for it, how exciting!

I've managed to get a little behind on things over the last week, but I've just had a look through everyone's race reports.  Well done everyone!  There's been some fantastic results out there.  It's great to see the group doing so well.

Steve - good luck this weekend.  I hope you really enjoy your first race.  Congratulations on taking on a new challenge and really sticking with it.

I'm doing my half marathon this weekend.  It's going to be my last race of the year, and I'm not really looking forward to it.  I spent Sun-Wed doing around 8 hours of walking each day at work (including lots of hills), and my feet have been really sore.  I've also been absolutely exhausted.  I decided that having some energy left for the weekend was more important than any last minute training I may achieve, so I haven't run since last week.  It's weird to think that for the first 6 months of the year I was breezing through the training, and now I'm struggling just to go for a couple of runs each week.  I'm ready for a break, which is going to come after Sunday.  I'm starting to plan my winter training (that cycling plan looks great, I've been downloading the details), but I don't think it'll be starting until late October, once things have calmed down a little at work and I've had a chance to really recover and rest a while.

May I ask a difficult question, Rach?  Why are you doing the half-marathon?  You're not looking forward to it, your feet hurt, and it doesn't sound like you're physically or mentally prepared for it.  Why not allow yourself to start recovering now?  If Kevin is racing, go cheer him on.  You've achieved so much this year - fantastic training and racing.  There will be many more opportunities for a race in your future.  Maybe I'm reading too much into this... and if so, just laugh it off... but if perhaps you hear a smidge of truth in it and part of you is asking for permission - you have it, and you always have.

I'm putting this out there for the board b/c health goes both ways - training and the tri-lifestyle can be a great motivator for living better - but it is okay to rest and be still now and then too.  In fact, it is important to do so and to be able to recognize when you should :-)

-Stu (who has taken a new oath to himself to be more honest and direct with family, friends and people he cares about when it comes to health)

Success!!  Tired but happy.  Race report to follow

-Steve