Meulen's 'Let's tri this Thing!' beginner mentor group-CLOSED (Page 35)

You are lucky to have a garage! We keep all 5 (5? maybe I mean 6. I lose count) in our living room! Yes, I have dreams of moving out of an apartment someday. Or at least into a place with basement or porch storage. But my SO is in school full time and our apartment is very cheap. Good thing we are both bike geeks!

OMG- you're getting those bikes out of the living room this weekend!!! YES!!!

karen- i saw that same picture on facebook one of my friends posted. totally scary. that hail was insane. definitely a once-in-a-lifetime hail...at least i hope.

this weekend- aiden's soccer game and then a fish fry tonight (lent is making me fat). tomorrow- teach yoga, either bike, run or both, but no open swim is offered when child care is open. and then IKEA!!! whoot!  sunday a run. and now i am officially on spring break for an entire week! the joy of working at a private school. i hope to get alot of swimming in next week!!!

have a great weekend!

Not to sound stupid, but I am assuming then that will not damage the wheels?  Is this how you store your TT bike?

Erin - There's not a chance in hell that the bikes are leaving the family room this weekend.    I am just thinking about the distant future

Meulen - 2011-03-25 1:42 PM

libramom - 2011-03-25 12:25 PM

Meulen - 2011-03-25 1:01 PM

mcommend - 2011-03-25 11:40 AM

First off, shaving was not for any reason other than dealing with injury.  I will let you know if it adds any speed, though.  Honestly, it keeps freaking me out every time I touch them.  On the bright side, the tape seems to make a difference.  I am not allowed to run right now, but I can feel the difference even when walking. 

 

If you do shave, invest in a decent razor and make sure that you have several of them because they dull out quite fast!

I heard....now that you shaved them you can't keep your hands off them! LOL !!! j/k, sorry I just had to!

 

stop it! that's just gross!

wait!!!........ QOTD: How many beer cans would get thrown at me while I ride the country roads by me, if you grew my mullet back, wore a conehead helmet, shaved my legs, and rocked out to scary heavy metal music? If I wiped out, would anyone help me? Maybe, I could use one of my old flanels if I catch a chill? LOL

Deliverance?

Hi guys! Boy the past few days have been a WHIRLWIND. I left my house at 6am Thursday morning, spent all day on a plane flying out to Arizona, went to a million meetings, and then back to the airport. My plane didn't land last night until just after midnight and I didn't get back to my house until 1:15am...

Fast forward 5 hours and I was falling out of bed to get ready for my FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON!! An 8.1 mile run.

I wore my compression socks on the plane to try to help but I definitely did NOT drink enough water and I think I was a little dehydrated going into the race. Not only was I exhausted but it was 23* and a hilly course. Things started out ok but my legs were heavy and my stomach wasn't feeling too great. I felt like I was working so hard and at one point I looked down at my Garmin thinking I was going too fast only to see that I was doing a 9:45 min/mile. Ha. Guess not... Since it was so cold I wasn't getting thirsty and just skipped the first 2 water stations (bad move, I know) and then around mile 5 I started getting really dizzy just started feeling really bad. I took some gaterade from the water station, took one sip, and it immediately threatened to come right back up. I took 3 cups of water and walked a little bit and drank them all which was just so miserable in the freezing cold. I kept trucking along but did walk a little bit during mile 6. During those 2 miles I was just so focused on not puking all over myself that I don't even know how my legs or lungs felt! Then at mile 7 right when I didn't know how I would make the final stretch an older man came out of the crowd like an angel and started talking to me....he really pulled me along and before I knew it, I could see the finish line!

I finished the race (my Garmin read 8.22 miles) in 1:21, so a 9:52 mile...by far the slowest I have ever run a race. I crossed with a smile on my face though and that is all that matters.

If you had asked me at any point during the 2nd half of the race how it was, I would have said that it was absolutely horrible, that I have no idea why I run or race. Then, as soon as I cross the finish line I remember why: it's because the feeling you get when you accomplish something is just unbelievable. At least for me it really doesn't matter how fast I went, I completed it! I did something that most people can't or won't. I did the best that I could do on that day and that is more than enough. And really, if it was easy and I didn't have to work for it or train for it, I don't think that feeling would be quite as sweet.

I think you are awesome- it was freezing this morning when I left my house for yoga at 8:00am. This was the race that I was suppose to do so I felt like I should have been racing, but at the same time with having been sick and not training for two weeks, I couldn't have done it. Congrats! Was it around the lake or through the woods? My friend did it, but I haven't talked to her yet. Awesome job!!

good one, michael!!

once i get all the bells and whistles (and a basket and handle bar decor) on this little speed demon, i'm going to kick some triathlete a-s-s. this thing is going to fly!!

Meulen - 2011-03-27 1:42 PM

mcommend - 2011-03-27 12:06 AM I definitely wasn't laughing at you Brian.  This one was pointed towards Erin.  This is a 3 speed bike that was once my grandfathers.  I believe that it's fro the 60's, but we still own it!

Check into what that thing is worth. Some old bikes are worth some SERIOUS cash!! On a serious note, why don't you check into getting her some road slicks for her MTB. I've actually seen some people put aero bars on them too.

I have already switched out her wheels.  I had bought myself a set road tires for my tri last year, so I gave those to her.  There is a great set of slicks I liked last year.  They held 110psi, but they were not cheap.  She is looking into finding a cheap used road bike somewhere to see if she likes the position.  If she doesn't find anything, then I will get her the nice slicks.  I'm hoping that more bikes may show up on Craig's List as people start spring cleaning.

I finally got my new bike outside for the first time this year.  It is so much more fun to be riding outside, but it also can be a humbling experience because it's a lot more difficult than riding the trainer in front of the tv.  Also, I am a bit annoyed because my bike computer crapped out in the middle of the ride, so I did not really get any data like I was looking forward to.  I might have to switch my old wired computer over from my  mountain bike.  It seemed to be reliable.  In the spirit of a previous post, here's what I learned:

1.  Aero bars look so much easier to use than they are.  It's especially tough to get out of them to switch gears all of the time, which I seem to need to do on the hills of Pittsburgh.

2.  I need to practice hard at shifting gears.  Maybe I just need to work them more efficiently.

3.  I still hate hills, and again I need to learn more about the right way to approach and ride a hill.

4. It can be difficult to control your eyelids riding at 30 mph into a wind.

5. When approaching a speed bump at speed (there are very wide speed bumps around the lake), make sure that you don't have too much weight forward.  This could be disastrous, but I avoided (barely) the endo today.

6. Just because it's sunny, it's still very cold at 35 degrees.

I am sure that I forgot a few.  Although it wasn't the most picture perfect ride that I had envisioned, I did still ride 20 miles in a little over an hour, so I guess it was successful.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!! I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!! I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!! I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!! I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the hardest and greatest thing I have done.  It was a lot harder than I even imagined.  Here is the scoop.

Got there at 6:00am. Was foggy and really cold. The ground was soaking wet.  Got everything set up just the way I wanted it, in the puddles of water.  I had it all planned out.  The second the race started, all the plans went out the window and I was figuring it out as I went.  

First thing.  I forgot to take my pre-race fuel right before the swim.  Can't believe I forgot that because I was fresh.  When I first got there and looked at the bueys, I was thinking " That looks really far but I can do it "  Then when the first group got to the farthest point, they were just specks out there. That was a little freaky. Got the wetsuit on, and froze for 30 minutes before I could get in the water.  My feet were so cold before I got in the water that I felt like I was standing in snow barefoot.   The cool thing is, when I put my feet into the water, it actually felt warm.  It was 53 degrees.  The warm feeling went away as soon as water started to get into the wetsuit.  BRRRRRRR.  The next thing was, my nose clip fell off about 50 yards into the swim.  I had to change the way I normaly breath through the whole swim.  I hate water going up my nose.  It was super hard.  It felt like I was in the water for a lifetime.  The only good thing about the swim was there were only about 20 people in my starting group.  It was a deep water start so I just hung in the back and never really had trouble with the congestion.  I dragged myself out of the lake, barely, and made my way to the transition area.   The jerk that was next to me moved all my stuff.  I had to dig through my pile to find what I needed.   That sucked.  Never saw him again or I would have said something.

The Bike.

It is hard for me to tell you which was hardest, the bike or the swim.  I had put some hand warmers into my bike shoes before the race thinking that it would be great to put on warm shoes.  My feet were so numb after the water that I forgot to take them out and didn't realize it till after I had left the transition.  I felt dumb having to stop and take them out.  Dummy. The bike ride started right out of the gate with a steep hill.   I powered up it.  The first half of the bike ride was great. It was just like I had trained and was not a problem for me.  We got back to the Lake and the Sprint racers went in and the Olympic racers went back out a different route.   It was like climbing a mountain.  There were hills that lasted for miles.  My legs were screaming at me and my heartrate got up to 185 at one point.  The vary last hill before the turn around was so steep that everyone was getting off the bikes and walking up it.  I tried as hard as I could to ride up but my bike was litteraly stopping after every down stroke of the petal.  I couldn't keep the bike going up the hill and it kept turning.  So eventually, I got off and walked up it too.  That was the end of my hell.   I was soaring 45 to 50 miles an hour on the way back to the transition area. I don't think I ever got under 25 miles and hour.   Before that turn around, I didn't know if I would make it through the race.  I was able to regain a little legs and breath during that last stretch home.  Then there was a good size hill on the way back to the transition.  The very last hill.  My legs immediately started burning but whatever, I made it to the top and to the transition area.  The jerk next to me parked his bike in my spot and moved all his stuff over.   I shoved his crap back over.  Wow do I wish I would have seen that guy again.

The run.

Because my stuff was moved and I was so tired, I wasn't able to think.  I ran out of the transition area without a hat or glasses and I was still wearing my bike gloves. Dummy.  Normaly this run would have been a piece of cake.  There were a few hills but the most annoying part was the mud.  My legs were pretty much done and at this point, it was mind over body completely.  My legs were cramping really bad and I couldn't run my normal pace.  I had to walk 2 times for about 30 seconds.  It was the longest 6 miles of my life.

The finish. 

I knew I could make it when I saw the parking lot that I had parked in.  I made it up the last hill to the transition and people were cheering and screaming.  It was such a rush.  I sprinted the last 200 yards.  I ran as fast as I could.  They were cheering and cheering.  I cannot even describe how good it felt to make it through after.  I walked it off and just caught my breath.  I tell you the truth.  I hated every second of that race.  I am so glad I did it.  I am still in shock that I made it.  I am going to ride this achievement for a long long long time. 

Thanks to all of you for keeping me motivated and thanks Brian,  your advice has been key to my success.  I can't wait till my next race.  "Tough Mudder" in May.