Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 37)

Ask and you shall receive...........Race Report here

It was a very good race and a lot of fun.  I also got to meet Matt and talk for a while that was pretty cool too.  Getting to now new people and hearing their experiences can be pretty humbling. 

Matt, you have a pretty incredible story of weight loss and commitment to your health.  Congrats!

It's nap time....Don't you think?

Absolutely brutal! I'm a little mentally exausted to tell the truth. Today there was a 25mph head wind for a 12 mile 3% hill climb and then 20mph head wind on the way down the hill into town. The bike took forever and it really took it out of me. This was the first triathlon I actually wanted to run and get off the bike. I am proud of finishing it even though I didn't meet my time goals. I threw them out the window once I realized the state of the weather. Here is the race report:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=262993

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=263005&posts=1&start=1

Ahh, yes this is the link to my race report for the Kewpee triathlon.  Regardless of my results all my thanks goes out to my Wife.  Not only does she put up with all my work outs and time spent away, she made the effort to get off work at 7:15am, and then turn a 45m drive into 35m to meet me at the race to take the kids so I could do the race.  I was sure I was stuck on the sidelines rooting for everyone else.  Just goes to show how good I have it 

As for the race, the Swim and Bike were great.  Should of stopped there!!  Not sure what happened on the run.  After 3/4 mile I was toast and could not manage to keep pace.  Wasn't much pain (even w/ blister) but I was winded and couldn't muster the push.  I don't even know how to fix this!  Have any of you had this experience?  What can be done to prevent?  I am half wondering if the lack of mental prep because of the sitter issue played a part, of course that may be me looking for an excuse!  All I know is a 37m 5k is bad even for my standards.  I was thinking maybe I wasn't prepared enough but my performance in June was much better and the training hasn't changed much.  A little less time spent on the bike but not by much!

On the postive side it was nice meeting Dirk, great conversation.  Good performance Dirk!  Hopefully someday I can come close to 1st place in AG.  I know it will not happen soon but I think I'm getting hooked for the long haul.  This is better than the 30 extra lbs I had in January or the pack of cigarettes a day 2 years back.

Thanks to all for the Support!!

Congrats on a good race Matt!  And your kids were right, you were nowhere near last place.  If the race organizer would placed all the male/female triathletes together, which I think the should have, you weren't near the bottom of the list.

And as far as the pacing for the run.  I actually feel the way you described every time I run a race.  The feeling of pain in my chest and lack of oxygen is part of trying perform at as high a level as I can.  I think it is the hardest part of the race!  Talking myself through a run when my body is SCREAMING for me to walk and take a break to allow more O2 in is so much the mental part of racing.  If you desire to push harder, to go faster, then this pain will become part of the race you learn to manage.

So this weekend my wife brutally beat me, twisted my arm, and made me go by several local bike shops to test ride triathlon bikes.  OMG I REALLY want a Cervelo P2 now.  

I've found that bike shops love to cut deals in the dead of winter when they aren't moving any stock at all.  The wait before I can try to buy one if these is going to kill me now.  

I've decided to pitch a changeup and instead of doing the international distance duathlon I'd been targeting in Sept, I will be doing the triathlon.

1.5k Swim

40k Bike

10K Run

Sounds like some awesome racing this weekend.  Dirk, you're an animal.  Congrats on the AG win.  Good race Matt, and that's an awesome weekend all around.

Ryan, I gotta admit that bike route seemed like torture even without the wind.  Great job gutting it out, and that 10k time looked pretty solid after such a taxing bike.  No way to keep the legs fresh during that thing.

Its so worth it, and you have a few weeks to practice the swim.

Have fun Jonathan - not sure what "on land" means, or more specifically what it means to be not on land, but hopefully it's not all work.

I have a problem brewing.  I'm getting very frustrated with this Achilles thing.  I can run really short distance pain free (like 1-2 miles) then it starts getting uncomfortable and doesn't seem to loosen up. I've been seeing my ART guy and he's a little confounded by the lack of response, but he's convinced it's getting better (it does hurt less in day to day living) and has cleared me to do anything I want as long as it's pain free.  Unfortunately, running isn't pain free and therefore I really have laid off the running.

I haven't really stopped running entirely for more than a few days, but I'm wondering if I should just shut down running for a while and see if it really gets better.  The complicated part is my main race for the year is a sprint two weeks from Sat. 

My thinking is that my running is pretty much shot for that race anyway given how little running I've gotten in the last month, so I may as well really give it a chance to heal and let the race fall where it may.  What does everyone think?

Sorry about your achilles trouble.  Mine is ongoing also, but I haven't needed to curtail my volume, just intensity.

I would suggest that since you can run a short distance pain free that you should.  Perhaps 1 mile every day.  This accomplishes 2 things.  First, it's drastically superior to cutting out the running completely--in terms of how much running adaptation you will retain.  Second, it's actually most likely to speed up the recovery process, compared to doing no running at all.  I can't be sure of that last part, but it's likely. 

If doing this, any time you feel the achilles being just a little stressed out, even if it's before 1 mile, reign it in at that point.

I had my achilles flare up before my first race earlier this year and here is what I did. I stopped running specifically for the week before. After the race it started hurting again and I tried to re-introduce running slowly. I had pain free running for about 2 miles or 16 minutes then I would start feeling it again. 2 weeks before this most recent triathlon I decided that I needed to nip this right now or I would be dealing with it the next 6 weeks. So I inserted deep water running twice a week for 2 weeks and I started going hiking instead of doing my long runs. I got 2 real runs in before my race and I think this fixed it and I haven't had any pain yet even after my triathlon. I also would do 20 reps a few times througout the day of eccentric heel drops to stretch out my calfs (stand on your toes on a step and slowly drop it down, repeat)

Thanks guys, I'll start doing the drills.  I guess I'm too slow to figure out that if I can run a mile or two a day, I should do it since anything that's pain free is ok.  I stretch and roll a few times a day but I'll incorporate the eccentric heel raises.  And I can run some more in the pool if my home pool is ok - what do you think?  I'm actually on vacation next week at the lake so no pool access and the lake bottom isn't conducive to running, but I can certainly do a little hiking to keep the legs active.

At this point I'm fine with whatever happens in the race since I think my number one goal is to be healthy for the fall/winter running session anyway - make us fast Jeff!

Healthy and fast! 

So my plan is now to go 2 miles max and stop at the first hint of pain.  Overly cautious for now.  I also went to my PT friend and team leader who got me into this tri mess and she did the Kineo-tape thing.

At lunch I did a 30 minute easy bike warm up, did some rolling and stretching, ran 2 miles totally pain free, and then stretched and iced.  It still feels great 4 hours later, so maybe we're onto something.

That sounds perfect.  I wonder if the bike warmup wasn't one of the biggest factors?  The problem with running is that a 'warm up' usually consists of running which is the thing that damaged you in the first place.  You launch from cold/tight right in to the damaging activity, just slower? 

I think one of the biggest keys to me being able to run daily this past year has been that my runs have nearly all been after biking or swimming.  Some days I limp in to my workout not imagining how I could possibly run, then by the time I'm done cycling or swimming I'm pain free and run fine.

But the achilles is a weird beast.  It's used and potentially stressed when cycling....sometimes more than when running (at least when running easy on the flat).  So make sure that your cleats are moved ALL the way back on your shoes.  It's better for cycling period, it's better for the achilles, and it's better for running off the bike.  EVERY triathlete (and cyclist) should automatically move their cleats back.  All up-sides and no down-sides.

Jonathon, I know that you are MIA for a couple of weeks but wanted to say that I was @ Lake Placid as well; volunteered the bike course on Colden Ave. It was an amazing weekend w/even more amazing athletes.  I also cheered on 6 of my mates from Broome County Tri Club.  All 6 finished, with my girl Kelley coming in before the guys in 12:11 or so. 

Anyway, I believe I saw the fellow you are talking about.  He did finish around 11:30 pm.  He had been walking /hobbling very slow with stiff legs for 5 miles; young guy - Asian or part (if I had to guess). 

Seeing the folks finish, especially the last hour, brought tears to my eyes.  There was one woman, Lois, who finished 9 minutes after Midnight.  She did get a Medal but won't be in the record books I'm afraid however if you saw her finish almost comatose it seemed you couldn't help but be inspired!  I love Mike Riley; You are an Ironman!    Very cool!  

I have been a little busy this week but I haven't been ignoring the group.  I have had a couple things going on along with my training that has kept me at training but leaving little time for posting anything.  We registered our girls for school last night and we had a storm go through on Monday night that tore our gazebo down and I had spend some time getting that cleaned up.  The highlight of the week so far is that I got to eat dinner with my youngest daughter tonight.....Just she and I.  I haven't been able to do that for a long time.  It was neat to talk about her future plans (she's a sophomore in HS) an what she would like to do over the next few years.  She has plans to volunteer at the hospital in the peds. ward next summer and hope to get an internship with a peds unit her senior year.  She's a good kid..............she takes after her mother!

I have my A triathlon this weekend on Sunday, an oly.  Last year I placed 90th overall and I hope to better that this season and I was 13th in my AG and that too should be a little better this year, I hope.  I have a better cycling fitness and my runs are much faster too, so I should be able to hit something decent.

Dirk, that's awesome to spend that type of time with your daughter.  My oldest son is about to go into high school, so I'm a few years behind, but we're still really close and he enjoys being my tri sherpa.

In terms of your race, you've made some impressive gains and I'd expect you will crush previous results.  At your current paces, it would take a pretty huge race to get you to 90th overall.  Stay in your zones and push the run and you'll crank.  Podium or bust!

Race well Dirk!

I'll be waiting to hear how it turns out.

Good luck with races everyone.

I've decided that I dont need to wear my watch or heart rate monitor for my Xterra this weekend. It will be an experiment and it is my C race so I'm supposed to be out having fun. I just found out that we are not using wetsuits for this race. It will be my first warm water race and the first time I swim in my tri suit. All good fun. Go get um!

I'm envious.  Have fun.

This will probably be your best race!  Have a blast.

That does sound like great time.  And great to see you back on again.  I really want to get to one of these just for the experience.