Birkierunner's (Jim Kelley) General + Long Course Group (OPEN) (Page 4)

Hi Melissa, yes there is room so post a bio.  Welcome!

Sorry to have been gone a while...I was home for the holidays and we live in a really rural place with really lousy internet connectivity (think 5 minute wait each time you click for a new screen)...my planned races (at the moment) are:

Snake River Sprint Tri - March

Onion Man Olympic Tri - April

???? - May

St Joe half marathon - June

Calgary IM 70.3 - July

???? - August

Black Diamond 70.3 - September

Happy New Year everyone!

Erika

You're welcome to join us Trevor!  Hmmmm....T2.....IM Canada......2011......that was ugly.....you must have been on the medical staff?  Ended up DNF'ing on that one and fell asleep in T2 trying to re-set my stomach.

Its a small world.  I'm amazed how many people I've never met in person recognize me in races due to my postings on BT.  Unfortunately, sometimes they get to see the nutritional crash and burns I've had in the past as well.  Even though I've had some very competitive results in my career, those crash and burns have kept me humble, but hopefully, folks can learn from my past mistakes.  We should have a nice group of folks from this mentor group as well as BT in general racing at Mont-Tremblant.   I'll be racing the 70.3 there In June as well as the IM in August.

The first run of 2014 is in the books!  It was a balmy 0 degrees when I finished but it didn't feel too bad.

Thx for the welcome!

About me:

Name: Doxie/Melissa

Story: I'm 31 & I've been racing triathlons since 2009. I did my first as a relay and then in 2010 tackled the sprint distance solo. Kept building up year by year.

Family status: Married for almost 4 years. We have a dog (you can probably guess the breed)

Current training: I had a decent fall, training-wise, but in December I seemed to have gotten lazy. I have an auto-immune disease that has been acting up for the past 6 weeks or so, although I've been reluctant to pin this bout of laziness on that. I train in a group (Chicago Endurance Sports), which kicks off full-time at the end of March. It's three group coached workouts a week, one per sport. I love group training. I have trained with them for 3 years. Besides swimming that starts next week, I try to bike and run 4x a week each.

2014 Races: I'm racing the ITU Chicago in June (Oly distance), Racine 70.3 in July and IM Wisconsin in September. I think I've had a good lead up to Wisco - this will be my third year racing Racine and I am definitely ready to tackle the full challenge in 2014. Looks like this group has a lot of people in the Midwest, so I'm excited for the experience in this group and also people who can commiserate about the foot of snow that's been dumped on us the past few days  

The problem isn't so much the dark, or the cool temps (I know, all of you back east right now would argue our 30 degree overnight temps are not cold).  I use to live in Indiana and have done rides when it was well below freezing and actually enjoy riding when it's dark if I have the road to myself.  The problem is IDIOT drivers in the dark.  I live far enough out from Los Angeles that rush hour starts about 4:00 a.m.  I have a couple different rides I really like, good mix of hills, flats, lack of stop lights, etc.  Unfortunately, they all follow what would be fairly busy roads during rush hour.  Making matters worse, the roads are all 'wide open' - very few stop lights or signs - and people tend to treat them like the Autoban so traffic is fast.  The same is true in the evening as rush hour extends later into the evening here because we are so far out from L.A.  Combine the dark with idiots behind the wheel, late for work or anxious to get home and it makes for a less than safe situation.  I have seen three different accidents involving runners or cyclists over the summer and fall.  I don't really have any desire to be the next one.

I'll just stop my whining, suck it up, and get on the trainer.  Looking at the weather map, I really have nothing to complain about.  It is one ride a week for a couple weeks.  If I were still back east, I'd be on the trainer for the next few months.

Matt....you....are.....in!!!!!!

I have been using the 910xt since it first came out and really like it.  However, the real-time run pace function jumps around a lot and recent firmware upgrades doesn't seem to have fixed it.  It is not a necessary feature, but it would be nice if it worked properly.  I really like the multi-sport mode, however something happened on the bike at IM Arizona in November and it stopped collecting data after about 80 miles.  Not sure if I mistakenly hit a wrong button while fueling or what, but I had to exit multisport and go into bike mode and then run mode after T2.  Not sure if this was due to a software bug or it was my mistake.  I would still recommend the 910

Nice job on the swim!   I can definitely put down some thoughts on the IM venues I've raced at...but its only 5 venues (raced WI 5x) out of the many out there with many new ones.  I can say without a doubt right now that Mont-Tremblant is my favorite venue so far.  Will write more on venues soon

You want 'atmosphere' and 'scenery?'  Lake Tahoe certainly fits the bill.  Tough course though, the lake is at 6,225 feet.  The bike course goes up to something like 7,300 feet and the run has about 300 feet of elevation change.  Then there is the potential for bad weather - last year the temps were in the low 30's on race day and it snowed the day before - unseasonable but always a possibility in the high Sierra-Nevada mountains.   I don't think you could find a more scenic area anywhere.  It is 'loosely' on my list for 2015.

You are welcome to join us Alex!!