Gary's Mentor Group - Re-OPENED for Training (Page 36)

I did sprints my first year (planned on an Oly but got injured) then NOLA 70.3 the next year because I wanted to race with a friend (met Gary there!).  Went back and did a couple Oly's this year.  

My thoughts on distances at this point in my career, subject to change.

Sprint - very fun, but a lot of hassle to haul and clean all the gear needed to race for less than 1.5 hours. 

Oly - nice distance.  Worth hauling the gear to race 3 hours.  Longer than a half marathon time wise, but easier on the body.  Swim goes up disproportionately than the bike and run scaring a lot of triathletes away from moving up.

HIM - separates the men from the boys.  Also a nice distance but adds nutrition to the equation.  You can be sloppy with nutrition at an Oly and ignore it at a Sprint, not so much with a HIM.

Full - separates the crazy people from the men.  I would love to do one for the sense of accomplishment, but it is a very selfish endeavor.  7 hour rides and 3 hour runs would render me useless for the rest of the weekend.  Kind of a crappy thing to do to my family.  I hate to admit it, but I am kind of selfish and am looking for ways to rationalize doing one next year anyway.  

Choosing my races for next year is a big dilemma for me.

Dorm,

For me it's a no brainer. I don't move up because I'm not physically capable of increasing my distances at this point. Unless of course I don't mind drowning-lol. My cardiologist only begrudgingly will allow me to do the sprint distances so I have to be happy with that. My goal for now is just to improve at those distances.

Great question,

Shelly

Congrats on third in age group. That's awesome. Loved the race report and the comments from the other BT'ers. Neat to get the other guys' perspective.

Shelly

Very short season here in mid Michigan. End of may until early September. With everything going on was able to fit in 1 Sprint in this my first year. Plan on staying with the sprint distance again next year, but try to do three of them. I need to get more discipline in my workouts and get in better shape to move up a distance. Swim is easy for me and while slow I have no issues with biking. My current challenge is the run. Also hope to add a road or tri bike for next year and keep the Mtn bike on the trails only.

The season here is really just from beginning of June to beginning of September.  And then everyone does marathons in the fall. 

I'd like to step up the distances but its really hard to find the time to train longer.  Oly is really the perfect length for me but I really want to do a HIM.  It will probably have to wait until the kids are older though. 

Had a good swim session yesterday.  It wasn't particularly long, but was the first time in a while wherein my distances between stops grew.  Once I got warmed up, I swam at ~85% effort and I just seemed to go and go and go.  This was a really good feeling . 

Congrats!  That is a great feeling when you reach that point.  

Dorm, that is awesome!  When that happens swimming actually starts to become fun (at least for me).

Thanks guys ... I saw one of Shelly's post last week sometime wherein she's swimming for ~800 yds or so without stopping.  It is a nice feeling.  Now if I could just add some speed!

No clue because if I did I would be hunting for it!!

I feel your pain Gary. First that just sucks- hopefully it will heal quickly. I too may be missing my race Saturday. Dh and I are supposed to do the Santa Rosa Triathlon but due to unexpected early labor symptoms, my sister may not be able to come. She was the baby sitter for our 9 yo while we raced. Since the race is out of town and my parents are on a cruise, there isn't anyone to leave her with while we race. Unfortunately that means one of us has to sit out. I have offered because it's dh's first race.

But I sure am bummed.

Hopefully it works out for us both- lol.

Shelly

Hey all!!

What's everyone doing?  Me, got 12+ on the bike Monday, 7.5 mile run Sunday, 18 bike miles on Monday, and 1000 yards swimming andalmost 6 miles running last night.  Yep, back at it albeit my plan calls for higher numbers but I can't afford to push my leg too much.  Next week I am in Baltimore which should be fun.

Gary's question: If you were an RD for a race what one thing would you do (or not do) for that race that normally isn't done?  Hope that makes sense.

1. Allow people to listen to an ipod-mp3 player during the run segment only without time penalty.

2. Display live postings of race results with results refreshed as competitors cross the finish line

3. Have photographers with a sixth sense of when to take the best shot possible

I'm just finishing out my last two weeks before my marathon.  For long runs I've done 16, 16, 20, 18, 20 so I think that I'm ready and now I'm just tapering and trying to not get injured.   I'm also dealing with barfing kids and keeping my fingers crossed that I dont get sick too.  

If I was a RD I would have women's fit t-shirts.  It especially drives me crazy to enter a woman's specific race - like Race for the Cure - and end up with another poorly fitting men's shirt.  

I'd also serve beer at the end.  Screw the recovery drink - I'm sitting on the couch for the rest of the day anyway and it doesnt matter if my legs cramp or whatever.   

Just my thoughts.  Hope everyone is having a great week. 

Just resting and recovering here. Did the Santa Rosa Island tri on Saturday and had a great time. I was still very slow but each of my times improved over my first tri in May. My swim was a minute and half faster for each 200m which I was very excited about. I was still very slow because of my panic issues but it was much much better and i did much more swimming than in my first tri. For the bike I averaged just under 15 mph for the 18 miles and nine of those were into the worst headwind. I was excited for the turn around thinking then we'd get a tail wind- no such luck. Had crosswinds most of the way back- at least it wasn't a headwind both ways. My run time was only a minute faster than my first tri but hey a minute is a minute right- lol. And it was after swimming a longer distance and riding a longer distance. So I was pretty pleased with my day. Of course what's funniest is that placement wise I did terrible. I was 72 out of 74 in my age group. I was dead middle of the pack in my first tri with my slower times. I guess the women in Florida train harder- lol. We also had 55 degree weather to contend with- now I don't like hot but this was just slightly too cold.

I ended getting sick after the race though so all week I've just been a zombie. All I've done is go to work when I had to. My days off have been spent sleeping on the couch. I am finally starting to feel slightly human today. Am thinking I may try the gym later on as I need to get my butt moving again.

Sorry to hear your race was a DNS Gary but you gotta take care of that leg. Hope it heals quickly.

Gotta think about the race director question, plus this post is long enough- lol.

Shelly

Shelly, congrats on the race! Keep it up.  Your placement will always vary based upon who shows up so don't worry about that.

As for the RD question I think would:

Try to offer free massages afterwards

Have the BBQ going with real food

Offer something different in the goodies bag: running hats, maybe give bike jerseys instead of running shirts, goggles, etc

Last big weekend for me then tapering off which isn't saying much as I have been in taper mode due to the leg issue.  Hoping for one more big ride/run.  Next week I am in Baltimore so no riding and I hope the hotel has a decent sized pool to swim in.

Congrats on your tri!  Glad you are starting to feel better.  Like Gary said, your placement varies by who shows up.

funny thing about your race director question because i am actally a race director this week for a race my medical center is putting on (not a triathlon, only a running race). we have 774 people registered for our 1mile kids run, 5K and 10K and are very excited. 

My one thing as a race director was to have your choice of shirts: one price for short sleeve cotton shirt, one price for long sleeve cotton shirt, one price for short sleeve dri fit shirt.

(sorry thought it was funny thought it was funny that i said it was "only" a running race..........................NBD(no big deal).........TRIATHLETES ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my race on sunday....ipods allowed, results posted every 15 minutes

Shelly ... great job on the race.  The thing I've realized this year is improvement comes in small increments ... 30 seconds here - 15 seconds there - 3-4 seconds another.  And so for you to see or realize those incremental steps for this last race is huge.  The other realization is all of the extremely hard work put in to get those small performance gains and how gratifying it is to see the improvement in the results. 

Again great job - Hope you feel better soon ...

So ... it's taken me about a month now, but I've been building a new bike.  Today was the maiden voyage wherein I finally tooled around the block with her.  There are still some kinks to work out - mainly seat and bar positioning - but in the morning ... IT"S ON! [Dick Vitale voice] Yeaahhh babeeeee!

Dorm - sweet bike, enjoy (took me three refreshes to get the entire bike pic to display, well most of it but I think its an issue on my PC).

jpf - very cool!  Hope Sunday goes well.

Elizabeth - good luck!

Bib numbers and swim waves up for Austin.  I am #499 and go out on the 7:45 wave which is one of the earlier waves.  Tried to drop off the bike to the shop for them to work on  while I am in Baltimore.  They closed early due to the LSU game, carp!!! This throws a wrinkle in my plans.