Matt Gilmartin's 2nd Quarter Group- back in the pool! FULL HOUSE (Page 3)

OK, found our roster from the 1st quarter-

Real Name:       Screen Name:       Location:                 Notes:
Matt Gilmartin   mcgilmartin            Greater Chicago Area      Mentor extraordinaire and wannabe Ironman!
Robin White     robinRN               Bethesda, MD          Looking to achieve a work/live/tri balance
Mariah P.         mmez                       San Antonio, Texas (Military)          Mom, Wife, and Patroit!
Catie               CatieK                    Brisbane, Queensland, AU  First timer, weight loss is a big interest.  Ask about her Guinness World Records!
Jamey              Batabings               San Jose, CA              3 sprints and a full marathon on the agenda this year.
Chris                sbnut32                          Georgia, USA              Newbie, looking for physical and mental workouts
Wendy           wendy109                     East TX, USA          Newbie, first sprint tri this summer!
John                 caljah                           Brooklyn, NY              First races this year- sprint and olympic
Bryan               katartizo               Round Rock, TX           Newbie- 1st sprint tri at age 50 this year!  Will also be responsible                      Real Name:       Screen Name:       Location:                 Notes:
Matt Gilmartin   mcgilmartin            Greater Chicago Area      Mentor extraordinaire and wannabe Ironman!
Robin White     robinRN               Bethesda, MD          Looking to achieve a work/live/tri balance
Mariah P.         mmez                       San Antonio, Texas (Military)          Mom, Wife, and Patroit!
Catie               CatieK                    Brisbane, Queensland, AU  First timer, weight loss is a big interest.  Ask about her Guinness World Records!
Jamey              Batabings               San Jose, CA              3 sprints and a full marathon on the agenda this year.
Chris                sbnut32                          Georgia, USA              Newbie, looking for physical and mental workouts
Wendy           wendy109                     East TX, USA          Newbie, first sprint tri this summer!
John                 caljah                           Brooklyn, NY              First races this year- sprint and olympic
Bryan               katartizo               Round Rock, TX           Newbie- 1st sprint tri at age 50 this year! 
Sheryl        lovetheseashre             Massachusetts          Improving time from last year's first sprint (Sharon Tri)
Will                Willenglishiv                 Chicago, IL              INFO NEEDED
Steve        Stevesflyshop              Sidney, NE              Ask him about the planned schedule!  Holy mackarel!
Jen Heaslip    jenfence                North Carolina
Melinda             melindacumming          Seattle, WA
Polly                 pjc418                   Ohio
A Little Madness                   Washington State
Aaron                GatorRunner              Jacksonville, FL                                              
Sheryl        lovetheseashre             Massachusetts          Improving time from last year's first sprint (Sharon Tri)
Will                Willenglishiv                 Chicago, IL              INFO NEEDED
Steve        Stevesflyshop              Sidney, NE              Ask him about the planned schedule!  Holy mackarel!
Jen Heaslip    jenfence                North Carolina
Melinda             melindacumming          Seattle, WA
Polly                 pjc418                   Ohio
A Little Madness                   Washington State
Aaron                GatorRunner              Jacksonville, FL

Gary- good stuff.  I like your attitude, I think you'll make a GREAT addition to our team.

I bring you our 2nd quarter mascot- Philosoraptor:

What a challenge, sounds like a fun one though! Inspiring And you must have a really nice saddle LOL I'd have to ride on a pillow - do they even allow that?!

mmez - 2012-04-09 9:15 PM I did it - I registered for a 100k bike ride! What have I done? I think I may have flipped my lid this time!! It's in 12 days...oh my...

Good one!

So do you all remember my last adventure when I went out on a group ride? Well, I went out for another group ride today and I'm starting to wonder if maybe this group ride thing just isn't for me...

So the tri team was supposed to meet up and go out for a ride today. I got all my stuff together and got it to the office for a lunchtime ride. Once I logged onto my e-mail, I saw that our coach sent out an e-mail last night at 10:30pm saying that we were not going to do the ride and it was cancelled. I sent an e-mail to another team member and asked her if she had planned on doing it and if she was still going to ride. I brought my swim gear as well, so I figured that if there wasn't going to be a ride, that I would just go to the pool. She replied that she brought all of her stuff and was still going to ride, so we decided to meet up and just do it together.

When I met her, another team member ended up joining us for the ride. They are both super triathletes and have all sorts of accomplishments. I knew that I was not going to be able to keep up, but they were very encouraging and would wait for me to catch up at various stops throughout base.

They decided that we would ride off base for a while and then turn around and get back on base, so we headed out the gate and rode around the filghtline. We were near a highway, so since I have never ridden with them before, I just followed them (was following them anyway) and figured they knew where they were going. We were on the shoulder of highway 123 (not the real road number) for about 1 mile and then got off and were riding on the shoulder of the access road.

Before I knew what was happening, a car starts pulling over onto the shoulder in front of me and I end up going off the road and into the grass. About that same time, I hear "BICYCLISTS: PULL OVER TO THE SIDE AND STOP". Since I was already on the side and stopped, I turned around to look back and see an unmarked police car light up with all his lights on. He instructed the car to continue driving. He walked over to us and said that we were not legally allowed to be on highway 123 and that there were tons of people calling about cyclists on the road and that there were helicopters in the air. He then took our ID cards and went back to his to car. He was there for a long time.

When he came back, gave us back our ID's and said that he was just going to "give us a warning" and that he could write us a citation for being on the road and the fine was $200. We were then allowed to go and rode back to work. 

When I got back to work, I looked up the city bike laws, but never came across anything that specified which roads are legal and which ones could cause us to be cited for $200. I had to go to our LTS and asked them if they had a list or knew of the roads that were not legal to ride on and they had never heard of anything like that. No one has a list of unauthorized roads, so now I'm scared to ride out in town...

Oh well, going to a run tonight on closed trails!

Matt is entirely too kind.  I'm still learning quite a bit from on my own and from everyone here.

You times look good and you can go under 2:00.  Does your race have pace groups?  If they do make sure to get in the start corrals early enough to line up with the group. 

Otherwise, it looks like you have some great data to work off of.  The last 5K will be a piece of cake.  Can't wait to read the race report. 

WOW! Who would know?  That's crazy! I have asked everyone I know around here if they know of any rules about where we can and can't bike, and the most I've been told is "NOT ON THE INTERSTATE" (I mean, REALLY).  Good luck finding roads.

Robin, I'm so impressed with your race schedule! Another delicious snack are Honey Stingers, except they're more like a delicious cookie than a healthy snack.

I'm a nurse too. Do you work out before or after your shifts? I can't seem to balance two or maybe I just need to replace my work shoes

I just signed up for my first triathlon. Going to do a sprint in May and then hopefully if all goes well an Olympic in August. Do you all have any training plans (book or websites) that you would recommend? I'm kind of making up my own as I go.

Has anyone run in Karhu's before?  I just got an e-mail from Active for a free 13.1 entry if you buy a pair.  I might pop into my running store and see what the buzz is about.

http://www.karhu.com/131coupon/

I'm guessing there are only certain events you can use this for- although if they offered the Chicago Rock N' Roll 1/2 I would be all over it.

Not to be deterred, I did another group ride this afternoon with the LTS. Of course, I got dropped right away, but had a nice young lady stick with me and kept encouraging me. She is an Ironman finisher (based off the tattoo on her leg), but is coming off recovery due to surgery she had in January and states that she is starting at "zero" - no honey, I'm at "zero" - you are still far and away much faster than I am!

Anyway, nothing bad happened at this group ride!!! No cops, no flats, nothing! It was a SUPER hilly course, which sounds like it would have been fine on the way back, but the wind was so bad that it felt like I was working just as hard on the downhill portion as I was on the uphills. Sometimes I wonder if this isn't my sport and perhaps I need to find something else that better suits my abilities (or lack thereof - like croquet or something), however, I mount up or jump in the pool or put on my running shoes and head out for training...one day maybe I'll start to look like/feel like a triathlete (or at least I'll make it to the beginner level)! 

I was finally able to get in the pool after a long, unintentional break (due to work issues and having 20% manning and not being able to go to the pool before, during, or after work), so needless to say, I'm sure that after a hard swim and a hard bike, I will be feeling it tomorrow and quite possibly this weekend. Oh well, at least it's a good sore - one you can be proud of!

Mariah, this entire post is THE spirit of triathlon and BT.  You inspire me!

Saw the doctor today and had a couple X-rays taken.  Good news is that there's no cartilage damage.  However she noticed some small areas of arthritis showing, but no spurring.  Apparently this is somewhat normal for runners.  I asked if it was "normal" for a 30 year old, but didn't get a straight answer.  In the meantime it will be back to strength training and starting on glucosamine.  If it gets worse then I go to PT.

On a more positive note, got my new wetsuit in the mail today - Xterra had the 57% off deal so I sprung for the Vector.  Did a dry fit this evening and it sure does fit like a second skin.  I will for sure be using copious amounts of Tri-Slide and/or Bodyglide on OWS and race days.  Might have to wait a few weeks before getting a swim in.  Only thing is since I'm a little on the shorter side I'll have to cut the sleeves and legs some.  Anyone have any experience with this? 

Christian- glad to hear the knee checked out... you should be good for a while.  It's totally normal for runners, which is why most doctors tell you not to run LOL.  The only way they'd really be able to tell if there's a problem developing is if you had an MRI done, and those don't come cheap.  Let pain be your guide.  I'm also a big believer in Glucosamine/MSM, Move Free is awesome stuff.  I've easily gotten 10 additional years out of my knees thanks to that stuff.  I'm optimistic I'll get 10 more too.  If you experience pain though- definitely get it checked out.  Thanks for the update!

Well after a (too) long hiatus from doing anything that even resembles training, I've got a clean bill of health and doctor approval to get my butt moving. Tests came back all negative and except for swimming, I'm cleared to get back into the full swing of training. I'm hoping to get the chance to blow my training log up this weekend to make up for 2 weeks of walking around aimlessly. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Steve

Great news!

So nice to have a kindred nurse in the group!  What type of nursing do you practice?  Do you do 8 or 12 hour shifts?  Sure wish you didn't live so many states away---it would be great to have a nurse training buddy!  Just can't convince any of my co-workers to join me for a run at 4 am!   I am a new nurse (made a career change a few years ago and graduated from nursing school last spring).  I work on an ortho/neuro/trauma unit and I typically do two 12 hour shifts and two 8 hour shifts per week.  On the 12 hour shift days (which often turn into 14-16 hour shifts), I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm usually too exhausted (mentally and physically) to train when I get home, though I'm toying with the idea of doing some work on my bike trainer before these shifts.  I recently wore a pedometer to work and found that on a typical 12 hour shift, I log between 3 and 4 miles on my legs so now I don't feel quite so bad about taking these days off from training, especially because my son is so eager for some mom-time when I get home.  I schedule my workouts for the 8 hour shift days and the days that I'm off.  While I prefer to do my long runs on the weekends, I've had to be flexible lately, often doing them in the middle of the week if I'm scheduled to work on a weekend.  I will always be a mediocre athlete at best but this lifestyle has completely transformed my life---and, at 40, I can run circles around many of my much younger colleagues in terms of energy.  I love this group because it's filled with so many like-minded individuals who are facing similar day-to-day challenges and triumphs with their jobs, families, commitments, etc.

BTW---I'm incredibly jealous that you live in Sarasota!  My grandparents lived in Venice and we used to visit them often (they passed away a few years ago).  One of my funniest Sarasota memories was when my husband and I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel where we were staying and I got very excited when I saw multiple "Yale Crew" vans in the parking lot.  He got the last laugh when we went inside to discover that it was the female Yale crew team staying in our hotel.  I was crushed.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  We're leaving for Williamsburg, VA in a little bit to take my son to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend.  He's thrilled---I'm packing the Motrin and a bottle of wine.

Robin

Just got back from our last 5k for the winter at the local community center. It was a "5k with obstacles." I haven't run through tires or hurdled more than one thing in a long time. It was a good time and a nice start to getting back into the training routine. I discovered my Garmin was dead so I just had a nice fun run. 29:03 which wasn't bad considering the obstacles and my fear of face planting into a pile of tires.

Now at the office trying to get work done so I can go for a bike ride. Tomorrow looks like snow, so today is going to have to be the day to get some miles in.

Steve