JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 35)

Also dropped my bike off for IMTX shipping. 6 days left...taper is going well but I feel like I should be doing more. I'm starting to lay out all my gear so packing is easy. I leave Wednesday!

PS - forecast is back to "partly sunny & 87 degrees". Let's hope the thunderstorms stay away!

1.5 hour run today with my local run group. They are doing a pancake breakfast afterwards. If any of you watch biggest loser, Ada Wong will be running with us today.

Here's a picture of my bike (top) being loaded onto a truck by TBT...my training buddy's bike is next in line. I think we'll be the only two guys at the race with roadie conversions...at least his is a Cervelo. =)

(tbt2.JPG)

Weather stinks here too. Volunteered at a tri this morning. Lots of 1st timers at this race. I felt so sorry for them. 48 degrees, windy and raining. Open water swim and they were hurting coming out of the water. I only saw 3 people get in the water to warm up before the race (water temp was 67). Sometimes you've gotta learn the hard way I guess. 

My training partner was not having any part of the planned 3 hour ride after the race in that weather so I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. We've rearranged the long ride for Tuesday. I told her we can't pick the weather for race day but she wasn't buying it .

Set a PR today for my longest ride ever on a trainer....2:35.  It was bad, but not quite as bad as I thought bc I had plenty of podcasts, the TPC golf tournament was on TV as well as some tunes on the ipod to mix things up.  Anway, I just couldn't get outside with 40's, rain, and 30-40 mph gusts.  Plan called for an easy ride and those conditions would have never been easy.

After 3 solid sport-specific weeks, this week is recovery for me.

Funny how things turn out sometimes. I was beating myself up for not doing the long ride this morning even if my friend didn't want to go. Came home after volunteering and just felt exhausted. Laid down when the kids took their nap and woke up sick as a dog. Headache, nauseous, achy all over. Good thing I didn't go on that ride after all!

5 months of training for my Half marathon paid off.  PB by 8 min, and couldn't be more satisfied.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=252361

Had a good race today (oly) all things considered.

I didn't crap my pants, nor had the urge to...so the stomach bug didn't play a direct role...but my body was sapped of that top end energy I expected to have.

Only into my second year, but first time in tri (or any race involving a bike) that I did not make my A goal.  So if you read my RR...I am happy with the race...but my sour puss tone should be taken with some sarcasm.

FYI, while labled as an Oly, should be noted that the bike is about a mile short of 40k, and the run is about .2 of a mile short of 10k.

Enjoy

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=252420

Finally have 2 weeks off!  Had to work extra these last several weeks to make up for this time off. Started out this morning with 2500 yd swim.  Now packing for IM Texas.  Aside from easy training sessions, it's time to focus on the the fun ahead. Training is essentially done and there is not much I can do now to improve on my time. 

bryancd - 2011-05-15 8:44 PM

Fred Doucette - 2011-05-15 6:38 PM

bryancd - 2011-05-15 8:29 PM58:57 bike split.

but you don't ride 'low' lol.

I have no idea how I ride, I just ride FAST.

I LOVE this line.

Fred...FYI, the bike course was about a mile short and had 141 total feet of elevation gain 

Tim Marr rode it in 54:27

My actual pace was around 22.6 mph...and I too was shocked that I could maintain that on 189 watts.  I would have thought more like 21 mph would be reasonable even with the race wheels/aero helmet.

I am around. Still not feeling 100% but better. Just really exhausted now with some stomach pains. Going to try for a short ride on the trainer just to get the blood flowing again.

Have any of you ever followed the beginner triathlete HIM plan? I'm getting a little nervous as I keep reading about fellow BT'rs in the beginners thread who follow the plan and really struggle on the run. They are all a lot better runners than I am. A lot of the issues really sound like bike fitness/pacing problems that carry over to the run. I don't expect to break any records but I REALLY don't want to be suffering for 13 miles.

<<< [Hand raised]

I'm just as pumped as Jimmy. 90 minute run yesterday, sub 8 average pace. From here on out it's just small little sessions to keep things sharp. Probably a 20-30 minute jog after work today, short swim tomorrow, Wednesday is my travel day, then a few more short sessions Thursday/Friday at the race.

I was asking my fiance last night how she was feeling about the race and aside from "nervous, excited, ready to have my fiance back" she had an interesting comment. She said she doesn't think outsiders know how much time and dedication something like this takes. I'd have to agree. Even I didn't have a full appreciation for the distance when I was doing shorter tris. Imagine someone who doesn't do tris at all, or anything physical for that matter.

I think they can't really get their head around the work required to be ready at the start line...which is like 95% of the race IMO. Instead, they think about the work you'll put in on race day and their head explodes when they hear you'll be working out for 12 hours (if I'm lucky) straight. To me, that's the easy part. All of the sacrifice over the last 20 weeks has been the hard part. A 12 hour race is just the icing on the cake - proof that you've done the hard work during training.

Like in grad school, you take tons of classes inching your way towards some goal. You study your a$$ off, doing the preparation for one big test - call it your thesis or capstone. Getting ready for the test is the hard part. Taking the test is easy if you've done the work, that's the part that earns you the right to slap a new license plate cover on your car or hang the diploma on your wall.

I'm here...trying to figure out what I can and cannot do until my bruised feet heal up.  Planning on swimming masters tonight, and can probably ride tomorrow...but running seems out of the question for a few days...even walking sucks right now.