Beer Drinker's Appreciation Society--Always Open (Page 34)

Half of my cheering section, with my 3rd place 40-44 age group hardware. The other half of the fan club was my Wife and my Mom. Huge props to all of them for waking up very early on a Saturday. Due to the layout of the park / transition, cars had to be into the park before the race start at 8am - and it was about a 60 mile drive!



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Finishing. This is just minutes before I destroyed three cookies. It was going to be two cookies, but then I noticed I didn't get a macadamia nut one, so the stack increased by 50%.





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Figured it out, thank you!

Great job, Rpaulson!

Rest day yesterday here followed by a nice, steamy 3 mile run this morning at my folks house. Hillier than around my house, but that’s ok. If I get home in time today, I’m going to try to hit out local tri club’s Monday ows.

Nice job Rpaulson! Looks like you had a strong run. How was the swim for you?

Andrew, I saw your half marathon on Strava. Great job!

Ahhh, the swim. It was what I feared the most, just based on the open water distance. As documented earlier in the week, I had a bad open water swim on Tuesday night. So Wednesday and Friday, I did an OWS again, and felt much more confident. I didn't do a 1500m OWS, but knew I could cover the distance in the pool, and could now swim in open water.

I was in the minority without a wetsuit. Made me a little nervous, but not bad. I'd considered wearing the used wetsuit I bought online - so earlier in the week I tried it on again and it wasn't going to work. Too tight in the chest. I was cold for the first 3-4 minutes, and of course had that "oh my, it's cold, I can't do this" at about 4-5 minutes in. Shortly after that I found my rhythm and was fine.

I really enjoyed the swim. I was around more people, and it was a challenge I knew I could do but had to prove it to myself. My wave started with about 40 athletes - everyone in Olympic who was age 40 and up. Of course we started to spread out over the swim, but then after about 1000m we wrapped back into the Sprint swimmers, so I was in a crowd again. There was a bit of bumping and stuff which I didn't mind at all. I kept relatively straight, didn't end up in the weeds and I cut the bouys pretty close which I was happy about.

Never felt like I was swimming too hard - maybe I could have gone faster. I thought I picked up the pace the last few hundred yards, but it doesn't really show that on my watch - but I've learned to not quite trust that swimming data. Or based on the distance, what felt harder was just perception of working harder.

In the end, I finished 54th of 67 men in the swim. And then rebounded to 49th in the bike and 21st in the run (which was HOT).

I knew I wasn't a fast swimmer, and this proved that. I'll definitely do an Olympic tri again, probably next summer. I'll have to work on some form drills and strength swims to aim to improve that speed. There's minutes of improvement available here.

Also, cycle training. Need to do some research on getting a good indoor trainer for the Minnesota winters. Again, minutes of improvement can be had on the bike. Any recommendations? I want something that I can adjust the tension / effort on without getting off my bike.

Congratulations on your Tri. Great Job!

If you're looking at a budget trainer, you don't need to worry about adjusting its resistance, changing gears on your bike will have the same effect.

Thanks,

Not fast at all, but very happy with how I executed the day given my current fitness.

I did a far too long race report here, https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... if any one is bored and fancies a read.

bulfrog, thanks for that race report. I didn't know that feature was here. So, I created one myself:

https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid...

I have a used Cycleops magnet trainer I picked up for $50. It's a little noisy, but I ride in the garage or on the back patio, so no one minds.

After about a month of use, I noticed my rear tire was starting to wear a flat spot. I taped a piece of an old tube on the roller, and haven't seen any additional wear since December. (Next time I replace it, I'll have to do a little tutorial) It does add more noise & vibration.

I'm looking into upgrading to a used fluid trainer, and would probably just go that rout from the beginning if I had to do it over.

I'm definitely thinking used - craiglist, ebay, OfferUp, etc.

So just by shifting gears on my bike the effort level changes on a trainer? I assumed some sort of tension adjustment on the trainer was needed.

Noise shouldn't be much of an issue for me. We have an unfinished basement with dreadmill, home gym, TV, and stereo. If anything, we hear the stereo when we use the treadmill.

I did read somewhere in research that one should swap out the rear tire for a different one than your road tire because it'll wear differently.

If anyone has a few spare minutes, would you mind looking at these and telling me if there's a good deal to be had? Or one to avoid, and why? Thank you in advance.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bop/d/minneapolis-kurt-kineti...
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bop/d/champlin-schwinn-bike-t...
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bop/d/minneapolis-cyclops-mag...
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bop/d/minneapolis-reduced-kur...
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/bop/d/willernie-minoura-mag-8...

....and I did it. Caught the bug or something.

Signed up for the Life Time Tri Minneapolis on July 13. Olympic distance. I figure if I've done all the training, and I'm in shape for it, may as well get two races in this summer. Will still hit the running plan to keep the marathon training going.

Race day is 11 days away, 14 days between races.

They all look like decent trainers. The Kurt Kinetics are fluid resistance, personally I'd spend the money on one of these. I haven't tried a fluid trainer, but I've heard their resistance is better. When I bought mine I figured I'd just be using it for rainy days, but found the structured workouts are better, and a lot of times its just more convenient than riding outside.

To me there isn't much difference between the lowest and highest resistance settings, I just keep mine on the highest and change gears on the bike. My magnetic trainer I can spin up to 30 mph for 30 sec to a minute, which isn't realistic. Then again I can only hold 21-22 mph for an hour which isn't that far off if I was riding a flat road outdoors.

You will need a skewer that works with the trainer. Most trainers use the same type of skewer, it should be metal (plastic gets destroyed quickly) and the lever should be on the side of the skewer. Even if the skewer comes with the trainer, you may need to buy one if it's not long enough for your bike. A little too long should be ok, too short won't work.

CycleOps 9714 Trainer Skewer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G6T1TZY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Dh6gDb8XZG...

Your going to want the front wheel stand. It's not a deal breaker you can buy one for $10-15, or use a phone book or block of wood.

Rough 1:10 on the trainer this morning. In fact, the entire morning was rough. Later today, I'm hitting the pool after absolutely forgetting about yesterday's pool workout. I'm not sure what happened, other than I turned my brain completely off. I was going to swim at lunch, but then got busy with some work and decided to push it to the 5pm swim session. Then I went home and mowed the lawn and absolutely forgot to go swimming. About 7:25 if finally dawned on me that I was supposed to go, but the pool closes at 7:30 during the summer. Alas!

Thank you for the input on the trainers. I'll look at buying one of them once we get back from the July 4 holiday weekend.

OWS with the tri club this morning followed by a 45’ run around the lake. For me, both were pretty awful. But done now. Time to kick back with a nice BOW and relax!

Long ride aborted today! I made it just over two hours before the sky opened up with thunder and lightening. Once that happens, I’m out! It had been raining for about 30’ before, but I don’t mind riding in the rain, especially when it is 105F outside...it actually makes t better. But lightening puts me back in the truck ASAP! Short 20’ run this morning too.

Anyone racing this weekend?

90’ outdoor ride of pure joy this morning. It was a struggle getting out there, but once I did, it was just a great ride. Then, I hit the pool for 2700 yds, where I actually hit the paces set but my coach, which were initially read with incredulity.

Bad news though, my dad fell off a ladder at my parents’ house today and broke his leg (compound fracture of the lower leg). He is in surgery right now. Ugh.

Up at 4:30 to get in a 1:15 tempo ride followed by a 30’ run before I head off this week to host s training session in osteology (study of bones) that runs all day. I’m about to get a taste of what most others have to balance with training. Normally, my job is pretty flexible—the only things I HAVE to be somewhere for are my classes. Everything else is up to me to schedule. These things run 8:30-4:30 and there is setup and tear down each night.

I hope it goes well for you! Personally, when traveling for work, I find it much easier to get the workout done very early in the morning. If I wait until evening, I'm drained. Something about work travel wears you out during the day - and I'm sure training others all day would do just that.

Two longer workouts for me this weekend:
Saturday 11.11 mile run at 8:42 pace
Sunday 1:36:30 bike ride, 28.44 miles. The pace was slower than usual - when I was done I found that I'd been dragging a front brake pad the entire way!

Triathlon #2 coming up on Saturday, my 2nd Olympic distance in a two week span. Then it's off to longer runs and marathon training.

Have a good week!

Long run this morning (2 hours). Felt pretty good, but turns out I was slower than normal. I tend to chalk it up to the 97^% humidity. When I started running I could see my breath in the light of my headlamp.

Also did my second ever sweat test. Last one showed loss of about 80oz of fluid an hour. This one shows about 60oz an hour. I’m not sure I can drink that much and not be sloshy in the stomach!!

Hour bike ride this morning and then 3200 yds of swimmimg after work. I'm dead tired tonight.

45’ run this morning. Later this afternoon will be 3200 yds at the pool. I can’t wait until these courses are over! The pool at 5pm is like the Wild West. Everything from kids with pool noodles to old ladies water walking. It makes it kinda difficult to get in a good swim.