Gray Guys/Girls Masters Focus Triathlete Forum--OPEN! (Page 32)

No races for me, but the 8K training team met up this morning.  I ran the planned distance twice, first time with the coaches in their early run and another time with the team.  

Was definitely the right call to drop back from the HM, but I do miss longer runs.

Good luck to Deb and Dan...and anyone else racing this weekend!!

It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky.  The wind calmed down just before the race start and the water was really calm.  This particular race is a fast course and I had my best Oly time here last year.   My goal was to swim easy, bike hard and then see what was left for the run.   The short story is that I beat my previous best by about 45 seconds - new PR of 2:33:15 for the Oly.  My swim and run times were slower than last year, but I made up for it on the bike.   I will share more details later.

I posted this up in the main forum but thought since it has been so quiet in here I would post it here with a bit more detail for my friends.

I think riding on city streets is going to be the death of me. This afternoon, I was out for a short ride. When I go short, I make up for the lack of distance with higher intensity.  This particular ride is about a 4-mile flat out-n-back that I can repeat however many times strikes my fancy.  After the turnaround I have a little over a mile of it set as a segment on Strava so I always go hard when I ride this stretch.  So there I was riding along, down in aero, pushing REALLY hard - I had just peeked at my watch and I was going just over 30 MPH - when I see in my mirror a Mini-Cooper coming up really fast and in the bike lane (I use a little helmet mirror on the street for safety - thank goodness). I was on a long straight street with a 35 MPH speed limit. .  We were approaching a side street that you can turn right on. At that point I notice the Cooper's turn signal is on and she is accelerating towards the corner. I remember thinking "Seriously?  You really are going to do this?" Now mind you, this all happened in about 2 seconds time. She passes me just before the corner and darts right to turn the corner - RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!! I guess she then saw the error of her ways because she slams on her brakes and skids to a stop half way around the corner. I was HARD on the brakes trying to get whoad up. The way her car was sitting funneled me into a spot about 18" wide between her car and the curb. Unfortunately, there was a pothole I couldn't miss and I was still going fast enough when I hit it that it caused my front tire to flat. Trust me, if you have never experienced it, hearing the tire go "POP" is not a pleasant sound when you are still going 15 MPH. I managed to get stopped without going down. Then I hear the woman behind the wheel - Laughing! She spun her tires and sped away before I could get my phone out of my jersey pocket to snap a picture of her license plate.

It happened only about a 1/2 mile from the house so I walked, figured it would be easier to fix the flat at home than on the side of the street.

So much for California's new 3-foot bicycle passing law. I think this woman did what she did deliberately. She could have really messed up my day!

Hey Dan -

That's kind of the only story isn't it?  PR by 45 seconds is a great day in anybody's book.  Congrats!

Scary stuff Scott.  Glad to hear that you only ended up with a flat tire and a walk home.  

I am working on phase 2 - starts with Day 7.  It took me 4 tries (= days) to be able to do the required counts on the different exercises.  Actually, the one giving me a hard time is single leg, straight leg deadlift.   The split squats were also tough.   Although I have known it for quite awhile, my right leg is weaker and I am struggling with the balance on both of those exercises.  Anyway, if I cannot make it through the listed counts for each exercise, I try again the next day, etc. until I get through it.   I figure that approach will allow me to keep running while working through the challenge.    

Great job on that race Deb!

I am stuck at Day 10 on the challenge and have taken the last couple days off.  Getting Day 9 done did a number on my thigh and glute muscles.  I am now considering taking a different approach and not trying to nail the numbers that they are showing.    On the plus side, I can feel my muscles engaging differently on both the bike and the run (or maybe it is just the fact that the glutes are engaging that feels different).  

Thanks for sharing those articles.  I remember hearing that Apollo was going to do Kona, but never went back to see his results.  Sub-10...wow!