Shellback1998 Group - FULL (Page 33)

Well done on all counts.

Weather not looking great for Sunday.

Just let it stay dry through the bike, pllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeee????

Lots of pasta coming my way the next two days.

Scott - I think your trainer is right on track about the fact that you are training for your long tri and the sprint is another beast altogether.  It would take time to transition from cross-country running in college to the indoor track season.  You'd think you'd be in great shape (and were) but you just don't have the speed.  Great job.  I'll be excited to hear how your HIM goes.

Everlong - You'd better update us pronto on your results.  You've put all the work in and if the bike course has any obstacles you have it made!!! After the deer and saab dodging and the shark attack this thing will be a piece of cake!

I've been doing open water swimming everyday except yesterday.  We had white caps on the lake and I'm not quite that strong.  I did put in a good workout day before yesterday close to shore.  The waves were pretty strong, and I swim back and forth from a dock about 25 yards away.  Man I would just fly going to the dock and had to really work swimming back.  I do 100 yds then rest, repeat, repeat.  Boy was I ever tired, but think it was a real good experience.  Yesterday I did an easy 3 mile run.  I am just so wiped out from being sleep deprived.  Today, I'm going to do some intervals, Saturday have the family send off at Fort Snelling for my daughters upcoming deployment and then back home for send off party.  (No training).  Long bike on Sunday and open water swimming, workout will depend on weather for OWS.

Linda 

Good luck my triathlon friend!  I'll cross my fingers for dry bike conditions! =)

~Roland

OWS ftw!  YEAH!  ^_^

~Roland

Going to attempt another one of those long runs in the morning (or at least 6 miles anyway). Got my gels with me too!

I think tomorrow might be my light day of training.  Try to get a run in the morning (I'm shooting between 3-5 miles) and then have a lot of stuff going on tomorrow.

Sunday morning I have my tri training where we are going to do some OWS work and then I'm going to do some brick work - I'm planning on a 12 mile bike and a 3.6 mile run afterwards.  There's a great trail system by the lake we are going to so it works perfectly.

Tomorrow looks to be 90% chance of rain. I don't think they'll reschedule and I won't sit it out due to the weather so does anybody have advice for biking in the rain? Safety would obviously be my biggest concern. Time goes out the window. I'm not going to kill myself over one event especially where this isn't my A race. ?

Thanks in advance.

I skipped my intervals yesterday because I was so toasted.  Then today I had to get up at 6am to be at the base for the deployment program (ouch....am so not a morning person).  Came home and took a nap, ran my intervals ( 7 intervals during a 3.4 mile run of about 100 yards each - ouch they hurt).  But it's amazing what 8 hours of sleep can do for a person.  I feel back to myself again. Deployment party tonight and I just have a few things to do since hubby and the girls cleaned and took care of food.  My 19 year old son ended up taking my mom to the ER after physical therapy yesterday after I had left.  The therapist and nurse were concerned about her ongoing muscle spasms but all was well, no clots.  I spoke with my son last night and now he is sleep deprived.  We will just tag team through this.  And Scott, he is very excited to get into the water and push me around a bit.  It will be good for both of us.

Looking forward to a long bike tomorrow, then an OWS.  Monday I am thinking of doing some hills for my run.  Last week before my taper so want to make good use of it.

Waiting to hear how Everlongs tri goes!  You are strong and will do great!

Linda

Results

3:05:43 Total 82/127 overall 19/30 age group

1 mile swim 28:00 1:35/100 yards

T1: 7:15

26 mile bike 1:28:35 17.61 MPH

T2 2:45

6.5 mile run 59:06 9:05/mile

Conditions

It was 55 and rain and drizzle were mixed in through a lot of the race.

Pre-race

We arrived at 6AM two hours before the race. It was cold and pouring out. We hung out in the truck. Firm racing had nothing set up and the port-a-potties were locked.

I did a good job of eating and hydrating. I had a yogurt, almond and cranberry bar and a Banana. I had a 24 oz bottle of water and a 24 oz bottle of endurance drink.

Because of the rain I didn't get in nearly enough of a stretch as I'm used to. I also failed to have a good transition plan for the rain and just loaded everything into trash bags to keep it dry. Putting on the wetsuit in a downpour sucked.

Swim

The walk from the transition area to the swim is down very wooded path and it was slick to say the least. I knew this and wore slide on hiking shoes. Even then you had to use caution. We got to the water and the steam coming off of it was insane. We could barely see the buoys. The water however was the highlight of the event. It was 71 and toasty warm. I got in and had a nice relaxed warmup.

As much of a pain in the butt as the Charles River swim was it made this swim for me. I was so much better having had that first competition OWS out of the way for the season. I got in and got behind a pack and did a great job of drafting and actually thought about my form and did a superior job drafting.The traffic rounding the buoys was quite crowded. On the return backup up the pond the wind picked up and the chop was very significant and several of us talked about this after the race. When sighting the waves were slamming our heads but I adjusted and was fine.

Unfortunately I don't know my exact time because Firm sucks and our T1 and Swim were merged. Because of the wet conditions I walked the entire way to T1. The average transition last year was about 7 minutes as it's a half mile walk. I used 7:15 as a conservative T1 time to come up with my 28 minutes. Really I wouldn't be shocked is it was a ten minute transition.

T1

As I said walking up the hill took a bit but the second part of that was when I exited the water I was quite warm but by the time I got to my bike I was freezing especially my hands. My stuff was all in the plastic bags and it took me forever to get ready. Buckling the Velcro took effort. I also screwed up my Garmin by being unprepared and wasn't in multi-sport. I did bring a pack of Cliff Blocks to the water with me and downed those on the way up to the transition space.

Bike

I was warned how hilly it was. According to my Garmin I ascended 4500 ft. According to Map my ride it was 2100 ft. I do some very hilly courses at home that come up half of both these values. It was insane. There were two different hills that went to 21% grade making it four due to the double loops. My Garmin never hit that high before. There's one hill, again that you hit twice, where you got from 150ft elevation to 600ft in the course of a mile. The hills just kept coming.

Compounding this was the fact that I wasn't pushing the downhills as much before the roads were soaked and I was very fearful of dumping after my Saab incident. On a dryer day I believe I could have done at least another MPH easily. Given the conditions I was happy with the effort. My Garmin screen was so wet I couldn't read it most of the time on the bike. I was surprised to see my average heart rate was 158 and I peaked at 177. I was very cognizant of not over doing it but I guess on a course this hilly that's easier said than done. Not having the downhill speed I would have liked didn't help either. I finished my entire 24 ounce endurance drink on the bike.

T2

I got off the bike and I knew my legs were pretty sore but even worse I had zero feeling in my feet and hands. My hands were so frozen I couldn't take off my cycling shoes and getting on the running shoes was worse. I couldn't tie my sneakers. I'd love to complain about the 2:45 by really I don't know that I could have done it faster everything considered.

Run

The first mile and the last mile of this run are pretty flat and I flew. The middle 4.5 were unbelievably hilly. There were two different hills that were over 50% grade according to the Garmin, another over 40%, two more over 30% and two more over 20%. I have no idea if that's accurate but my Garmin has never given me readings that high and my legs tell me it was that awful. Even if those values are half of what the Garmin said you get the idea. 

The hills killed me. My quads were just screaming after all that elevation on the bike.I finished my 22 ounce endurance drink while running.

Post race

I had a Mix1 drink and a banana. We stopped for Starbucks and went to the Y and did a 20 minute whirlpool and 15 minute steam. I was finally warm. I did a lot of stretching while in both the WP and steam.

Race team rating

The people were extremely nice. Water stations were great. Not getting the swim time pisses me off to no end. The T-shirts were nice. Swim caps nothing special. Post race food minus the Mix1's sucked. Restrooms not being ready was awful. 

Overall

Overall I'm pretty happy.

I wish I had stretched more pre-race. I wish I had brought gloves for the bike. I wish I had a better rain transition plan. I didn't get the first mile of the run on my garmin because of being unprepared and there was no auto-lap on the bike for the same reason.

My swim was better than 4.5 minutes better than last Saturday. This was my first Olympic race. I think much like learning from the swim last week I'll learn from this and use it in the future. I guessed I would do 2:55 on a dry course and I did 3:05 in miserable conditions. I really think if it had been dry I would have cut that time off between the transitions and bike. My sighting and swim rocked. My bike was a good as it could be given the weather. My run wasn't great but given the ascents I'm mostly good with it.

Very impressive report Mr. Scott Everlong!  I had a good feeling about you adapting well to the rainy conditions.  I'm glad you didn't get hurt and you're pretty happy with how you did.  Those swim numbers are shocking!  Great race bro!  ^_^

~Roland

* Numb left big toe area while cycling update *

Went for a scheduled 17.30 mile bike ride today which ended up being closer to 20 due to my missing Cateye.  It's malfunctioning and a replacement will be mailed to me this week.  I focused really hard on 360 degree pedaling and minimized the downstroke pedal mashing as much as possible. =)

The ride went for a little over 70 minutes which included 2 tough pretty long hills and I felt no numbness at all!  So it looks like I won't need any eSoles.  I'll keep practicing and focusing on this technique until it becomes natural and let you guys know if any numbess returns as my training goes on. ^_^

Happy training everyone!  Have a great start of your week! =D

~Roland

Sounds like a great plan linda. Have a great time on those hills. Remember on the hills, you can go above your set HR rate, but don't go any higher than your next zone. i.e. If your your plan says run at z3, don't go into z5, if you have to slow down do it.  Taper weeks are fun. However just an FYI. You might get grumpy as you'll feel like you're unprepared and start questioning yourself. You aren't. You followed the plan, listened to your body now it's just time to execute. You will do amazing. Keep up the good work.

That's great to hear Roland. Awesome job...

Great race report man. I'm glad to hear that you were successful. 

Scott

Thanks. I wouldn't call it a total success other than the swim but I think it's a live and learn situation and I'd be better prepared for the weather next time.

My feet numb out on the bike as well. I also spend a lot of time thinking about full circles and keeping the upstroke powerful. Long term I think it will pay off. Keep up the good work.

You crossed the finish line. To me that's a success...

Thanks I appreciate it. There was certainly a lot of emotion attached to everything that went into this race especially with the conditions so that probably came out.

x2.  Great race, and great race report.

Anytime you finish and learn, it can be classified as a success!

Great job and great report. For all of us newbies, all information is good information!

Wow! With all the these race reports coming in, it makes me want to do one sooner! I am going to try switch some things up and get into a sprint either this Sunday or next! Will probably know by the middle of the week!

Went out to scout out the course for my Olympic in July...ouch could be a tough one. Bike starts flat for about 500 meters then steep hill followed by a lonnnnng gradual hill forever! It is  a curvy hill course. On the bright side, it is an out and back course so it will be a lonnnnng gradual hill back! As long as I make the corner on the way back I am okay. The run is pretty much the same except it goes up the other side of the valley!

have a great week everyone!

One funny note, well at least to me but not for the other guy, as I completed the first bike loop they had give out red running numbers for the run portion to the Olympic participants and black ones to the Sprint runners. They also gave everybody a black number to attach to the bike. A lot of the Olympic people wore their running numbers on the bike and a lot didn't. I was in the didn't category. So as I go by they started yelling at me to transition but I ignored them know I had a second loop. So this guy about 22 comes up along me about an eighth of a mile after the transition and says hey aren't the Sprint participants supposed to transition now. I said yes but I'm not a Sprint participant. The look on his face was both awful and funny at the same time.

Why they didn't make all the numbers for the Olympic one color and same for the Sprint is a mystery. The reason the run was different was because the Sprint people turned around at 1.5 miles out and avoided the brutally hilly part of the course.

Thanks man. There's a reason why the Iditarod is never going to be a goal for me. I hate being that cold for that long. Yesterday really was a survival in many ways.