Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 29)

Some impressive weekends!  Good job with the PR, Matt.  (Sorry about the hamstring though).  Dina, I'm so happy that you got an AG win.  You're awesome!  Jo, super impressive with your 20 mile run alone. 

Wow!  I have a lot of catching up to do!

I got back from my yoga weekend in Mt. Shasta, CA.  It was beautiful!  I got terribly sunburned.  I commuted on my bike to and from the yoga center.  It's not far.  Downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back.

Note to self (and anyone else that may find themselves in a similar situation):  do not do intense yoga before riding a bike uphill!  I was a limp noodle.

Dina, CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  See if U had not gone, someone else would have been happy..lol

Mambos, well run race!!!

Owlgirl, yoga...R U kidding me...my hat is off to U.  I tried P90X yoga 1 time...it kicked my butt, lasted about 10 minutes...  U R TOUGH!

Jeff, nice ride on vacation

Samantha, way to keep the intensity up, GREAT job!!!!  Yea take a light week, in the long run it will definitley help avoid injury.  I wish I was smart enough to do that but remember, I'm a guy so I'm not that smart.  Yes women are smarter, but like Jeff Foxworthy said, "women don't get to excited, the bar is not that high"...lol

Dirk, yes we have some speedsters here but, I'll be slowing the pack down....sorry but don't change the name yet...lol

I saw a couple of inspires on my logs so thought I would give a little update. Things are okay, training seems to have taken a back seat for a couple of reasons. I have had hives for about a week, its stress related and if I get hot they get worse - really itchy! I have been told I can do light exercise - Im not sure what that is. I have also found myself really worn down and wanting to sleep a lot of the time so I rest as much as I can. The past few months I guess I have been buring the candle at both ends so its caught up to me now.

I woke up this morning with the intent to ride into work but they are forecasting snow! I am going to try the excersise bike after work and see how that goes. I have to read through the post and play catch up.

mambos - 2012-04-23 8:17 AM Hamstring was a false alarm! I woke up this morning and felt no pain or even soreness in my hamstring! Yeah! Now the rest of my legs feel like they have been repeatedly hit, but I guess that should be expected after running a HM!

Thank goodness man, people have been dropping like flies around here recently! Congratulations on an awesome time!

Dina - congratulations on the AG win - that is fantastic! The way you were talking about the race I thought you'd struggle to finish, not come out and crush the competition! Another great job.

Stan - A great ride too! That's REALLY impressive amount of climbing and such a long distance too. I've never managed 44+, but I did manage about 42 or 43 once. Too many of those descents and I'll need to change my cycling shorts, but they are fun!

Jeff - Nice ride in the desert there! We're still waiting on the pictures...

Dirk - I hope the knee gets better.

Congratulations to everyone else on adding volume and time. I hope those of you in the North East dodged the snow, we just got some cold rain here... Made for a miserable run yesterday.

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On the personal side, I had a pretty strong training weekend - Friday I managed a ride of 24 miles with three repeats of my favorite "mountain" (it's nothing compared to Stan's mountains!). It's about 500 feet in a mile, with the start holding between a 7% and 10% grade and leveling off to about 5% to 6% nearer the top. You know you've done too many hill repeats when a 4% grade feels like you're taking a break! I took some pics at the top - I'll post them out once they're off my phone.

Saturday was a nice jog around my neighborhood, but the weather was great. Low 60s, although the humidity was high after rain overnight. My "easy" pace has dropped like a stone since I focused on easy runs. I was in the mid-9s all run without struggling. Three months ago I was struggling to maintain 10s.

Sunday was my long run with my dad. We'd planned to do the full HM distance and set out early to try and avoid the coming rain. The way out was awesome - perfect temp, little rain and very little wind... As it turns out, it felt so good because the wind was behind us... The way back was brutal, with temps dipping into the low 40s, cold rain and a strong wind. We made it through the distance, nasty hills and weather, so we're pretty confidence we can do the distance of the HM in a couple of weeks.

This weekend starts three straight weeks of racing for me. I'm going to focus on smart maintenance of my bike fitness and maybe add some pool sessions so I can run well each weekend. I'm only going to "race" this weekend and the final weekend because I'm a little quicker than my Dad and it's more important for us to finish the HM together than it is for me to set a PR.

Okay - long post DONE!

J

Few things:

First, no more complaining about not starting a race regardless of conditions.  You're a pro now - a paid triathlete!

Second, 55 and cold are never to appear in the same sentence.

Third, congrats on the win.

Good luck getting yourself back on track.  I struggle with hives as well.  If I don't take cetrizine (Zyrtec) I look like an alien by the end of the day.  Literally covered from the waist up and my face is unrecognizable.  I actually think I just discovered that it may be aspirin and ibuprofen which cause it.  Strange.  I take a low dose aspirin every morning for heart reasons but I missed a few days and noticed the hives weren't coming.  Then last week, I took ibuprofen for the first time in forever (after my Achilles acted up) and within 30 minutes I was covered with hives again.

I've laid off both aspirin and ibuprofen for the past week and have had no hives since, though I still have taken a precautionary cetrizine before bed.  Oh well, that was a longer health dissertation than I anticipated.  I guess the short version is try cetrizine for some quick relief from hives but work on eliminating the cause if you know it.

Paul - awesome race, you'll go sub 1:40 soon but that time is outstanding.

Stan - that ride sounds killer, and it looks like you covered it in an insane pace.

Matt _ I posted in your race report, but I'll say it on here as well.  That's a great race and it's when adversity hits that we really learn about ourselves.  Glad it wasn't anything lingering and you're all set already.

To all – lots of good posting and it looks like everyone had a good weekend.

We had a blast on our family weekend away.  My two oldest both did some serious archery and rock wall climbing - the oldest overcoming an acute fear of heights given to him by his old man.  J (the youngest and the one with Down syndrome which was the reason for the camp) had fun for the most part but he’s so into routine it was very tiring for him and probably a little too much non-stop stimulation.  They didn’t have his typical post dinner vanilla ice cream treat, so he was a bit taken aback by that omission (does he get honorary Junkie status for the ice cream addiction?)  Mom and dad were ready for a good sleep when we got home yesterday, but it was fun overall.

Warren...Second, 55 and cold are never to appear in the same sentence.  Are you kidding me...lol  That is long sleeve weather, gloves, long pants.

John, nice weekend and keep us posted on the next 3 events and good luck!

The pain was running right down the middle of the front of my knee. Shoe miles are low (160 on the pair I wore Saturday and only 60 on the pair I wore Friday). I did take Sunday off from training, though the 5 hours of yard work probably didn't do the knee any favors.

I'm going to swim today and then once I get home later I might go for an easy mile and see how the knee responds.

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So much to try and catch up on here. So many of you are doing great on your training. Keep it up!

I hope all those with injuries are healing up quickly.

Stan - sounds like an awesome ride.  44+ mph! That beats my current top of 43 mph (now I need to go find a big hill) Way to go, man!

Samantha - Good job on the continuous building!

Dina - AG win! Woohoo!

Matt - Good job on the HM. Your continued improvement on the runs is really inspiring. I hope I can do half as well in my HM later this year.

Thanks for the update and take care of yourself. Light exercise for a triathlete - those two things don't really go together very well do they?!

First - I think it is fair to say I struggle with a lot of pre race anxiety .

Second - Ha ha ha, cold is relative I guess .

Third - thank you!

Ok - completed my race report if anyone is bored and wants to check it out:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=436618&posts=1&start=1

I am REALLY sore today! I am more sore today than I was after finishing the HIM last summer. Ouch, can't decide if I should take the whole day off or if an easy spin on the trainer might be better for me.

Any opinions?

Glad to hear everybody had a good weekend and that everyone is working hard.

Samantha great to hear that you've been able to increase your volume in each sport over the last 3 weeks. You probably do deserve a recovery week for all the hard work.

Dave thanks for checking in and giving us all an update. Sorry to hear about the bad weather we got nailed here in NY with a ton of rain yesterday thankfully it started clearing out this morning.

Been a busy Monday but I was able to sneak out for a swim today and again it wasn't great. I did get in about 1250m in about 40 minutes. I wish I had a little more time even though I was struggling again today. Last week I was just tired today I felt like my body was tired and I haven't really felt that way before. I don't know maybe I am trying to do too much too soon or it's just sort of catching up to me. I didn't really expect a great swim today either knowing how I felt heading over to the pool which bothers me as well. I don't think it is a lack of confidence but I feel like I should be doing more and I don't want to be thinking it's going to be a struggle everytime I head out for a swim. I'll give it another go on Thursday and hopefully will have more time and will see some better results.

Ok - that is what I was thinking too. I'm kind of shocked about how sore I am!

Waaay to go Dina!

Great to see everyone kicking a$$!

I've found that after a big ride, a race, or just some brutal training, it's always good to get back out there and do some light s/b/r. When I woke up Sat. morning my body felt like I was beat up and left in a ditch all night. Hell I even contemplated calling to work and taking a sick day. I spent about an hour sitting on the couch debating: stay home and be lazy or suck it up and get some light exercise in. I'm glad I decided on a light workout. I believe it conditions the mind and body. If the situation comes around again I know I can get my sorry a$$ up and do what needs to be done. Don't get me wrong, it hurt like hell to do it, but the next time there is no question in my mind what I can do.

On a side note, my ride from hell was one of the most exciting things I've done. Every time I made it up one of those mountains I wanted to yell "I f*ckin did it!" on the way down I kept getting an image of that Geico commercial with the pig going WEEEEE! LMAO! I couldn't have done it without everyone here helping me through my back injury, the daily advice posted here, and the other 9 a$$es pushing through 117 miles of pure agony. Damn it was great!

I agree that some level of activity makes more sense and makes me feel better than laying on the couch.  Even if it's only a brisk walk, I think getting the blood flowing is a good thing.

got up and did a run this morning.  I really missed running AFTER a swim or ride...it's harder on my legs.  Plus it was pavement (but dirt in some places).

But it's pretty good to get the day off to a start with a 10 mile run.

http://tpks.ws/H8du

I was surprised to find elevation change in there.  Didn't see any.  That's how gradually the land rises out here. 

I felt 'weird'.  I think I experienced this a little yesterday while mtn biking but more so today.  While running I stopped 2-3 times at stop lights.  I felt unbalanced.  Like falling over balance...So the obvious thought is fluid in the ear.  But I'm also feeling weird mentally too.  Wondering if I'm deprived of oxygen.  The only reason I am thinking along these lines is that immediately after my big PE episode a couple years back, I was operating with a chronically low pulse ox for a while and was always 'spacey'.  A bit disoriented, trouble speaking and concentrating and problem solving...and sometimes balance was off due to oxygen deprivation.  It's not something you can feel because you only feel breathless when your CO2 levels are high.  You don't feel it when O2 is low.

Since I'm a few thousand feet higher here than in TN, I'm wondering if that's what I'm going through  (because of the lung damage I have).

Anyway, just a thought. 

Hey, I'm really impressed with all of you folks...monster workouts, great race performances...I don't have the time to call you all out individually, but I'm impressed with you all nonetheless.

Matt, how old is ur son.  Mine is 14 and LOVES baseball, he plays year round...

Glad U took ur own advice...lol  good ride and fun run...lol

Wetsuit fit question

I received my wetsuit yesterday and tried it on.  It is a TIGHT fit.  I'm on the border between the 2 sizes so I chose the smaller size from what someone said as it would stretch...but this is really tight.  I never did get my arms in it completely.  When I came out and modeled it, wife said "gosh I can even see ur hip bones, is it to tight?  It took you a long time to put it on."

OK if ya'll a drinking coffee, put it down and swallow.  I said yes it took a long time.  I actually put it on twice. I like to have never got it on and when I went to zip it up, I had it on backwards, zipper in the front.  Boy was I ticked, liked to have never got it off but finally figured it out.  So I put it back on, got wife to zip it up and I think the circulation in my hands was cut off.  I squatted down to see if it would split, but it didn't.

So my question, is this the proper fit or should I send it back and get the next size up?

2nd thing, my suit has some red under the  arms...WHY???  When I used to fish a lot, I put red on my lures.  I can see the red just "tempting" a shark or barracuda.  I will already be the last one in the swim IF I make it in.  If ya'll ever watch the animal channel, the bigger animals go after the weak, so I'll be struggling/splashing around and they'll also think I'm injured w/ the red on...  easy meal!

Karl, that fit sounds perfect.  I'm assuming the circulation wasn't actually cut off, but just felt that way.  The wetsuit should feel a bit better once you get into the water and get some water in there.  But even then tight is good.

You'll see tons of people at races helping each other zip them up, and many people can't even get theirs on without help.  It's important to get some swimming practice in with your wetsuit on to get the feel for swimming in a wetsuit, and also be sure to get into the water at least a little before races to get the water throughout the suit.

No clue on the red, except that red is always faster.