Sink or SWIM! with WittyCityGirl - CLOSED (Page 40)

I made it 148 miles!! PHWEW! That was a LOT of work for a beer!  www.harpoonb2b.com

I loved my Harpoon Brewery to Brewery experience.  I started in Boston, Massachusetts just after 6am and arrived in Windsor, Vermont just after 5pm.  I was supposed to start sometime after 5am with the 16mph group.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough cash on me to cover the $15 parking fee plus emergency cash for the road, so I had to drive to two different ATMs in Boston to find a place that would accept my debit card.  Needless to say, I got in line much later than expected.  

Riders lined up and entered a holding pen of 25 people and were released 5 minutes apart.  We had some "budgers" which caused me to be delayed and pushed back into faster pelotons.  I was rushing at the start to hold 18 mph with my group and got dropped around mile 16.  I rode by myself until I caught up with three cyclists.  One of them was having trouble as he was a larger guy on a non-road bike.  I figured it was worth slowing down to stick with someone than to continue by myself.  Well, the SAG wagon started encouraging us to pick up the pace, or else.  The guy having trouble ended up getting picked up for going too slow and we had to make up time.  If we didn't get to the brewery by 5pm we'd get picked up, too.  The weather was hotter than predicted earlier in the week (I was expected a high of 75 and it got into the upper 80s).  8 miles from the brewery the woman I was riding with took a bad angle across railroad tracks and wiped out.  She got banged up, but continued on.  4 miles from the brewery we got hailed on.  OUCH! I stuck it out in the hail since we were SO close, but then it started lightning out.  The SAG wagon was picking up cyclists but because we were still pedaling strong we were allowed to finish out when the storm passed.  

I took a little over 10 hours in the saddle to get there (11 hours all together).  Technically, I'm not supposed to be able to sign up for the race again because I didn't maintain a 16mph pace.  But, I think I could plead my case (waiting for the guy that was having cycling trouble) if I wanted to do the B2B again.

The event was run amazingly smooth!  I was SO worried that being one of the last cyclists would mean I'd be left with scraps of food and tired volunteers, but I was so wrong.  Everyone was awesome!!  AND there was TONS of food, beer and hot water in the showers when I crossed the finish line.  I would highly recommend this event for serious cyclists that can make the trek for this event!! 

A note of caution... we averaged only about 12 mph during miles 50-120 because it was so damn hilly.  Some veterans told me after the fact that I should have been aiming for 18mph out of Boston for the first 50 miles so that my overall average would be 16mph... I was holding 16mph at the start not thinking about "banking" time because of the hills ahead. 

Right now, I'm just suuuuper fatigued.  My body isn't really beat up.  I did a great job of fueling and taking pain meds along the way.  At mile 130 my hernia on the right side started acting up.  I was pleased that it took so long to really bother me, but frustrated that I had pain which will require surgery to fix if I want to do another Ironman (I'm planning on Ironman New Zealand in 2-3 years).

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Sara - congrats on the ride. A long battle, for sure. Very nice of you to give support to the folks who were not quite as speedy. Hope you recover soon!

I went for a 4 mile run this AM and it was SPECTACULAR. I felt good, weather was perfect, and I was able to see a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean as I ran around the small harbor in my town. Made me realize I'm lucky to live where I do. Was also slightly annoyed with myself for not getting in more running lately. I really enjoyed hitting the road this AM.

My open water ocean swims continue as well. did another one last night, this time about 1000 yards. Felt good, and my sighting was better. At one point I went hard, and felt the best I have in any OWS I've done so far. Just glided through the water. I'm feeling pretty confident about the tri swim on Sunday. Another OWS happening tonight. I've pretty much given up on pool swimming the past couple weeks and have been doing OWS exclusively.

Nice avatar -- we won't go in to the Freudian implications!!!!!  Glad you got back at the run.  It seems like I also always feel great after the workouts and wonder why it's so hard to get started.

Got back in the pool this AM for the first time in a week and a half.  Let's just say that I'm not a fish and leave it at that....

You can modify to do scap ups by kneeling.  I don't have specifics on visuals, since I'm a YouTube person. =)

Way to go Mike! Nice work!

Great work Mike and Sara--y'all are kicking butt and takin' names!

It been a busy, crazy week for me again, dealing with life as usual...my training has been going well nonetheless. last Friday, I completed a 12.5 mile bike ride--it went really fast, most likely because I left quite late and was fighting to get home before the sun went down! I did a pretty decent swim yesterday followed by a short run on the treadmill for tri class--we were going to run outside, but 95+ degree weather sort of made that idea rather icky. Nothing major today, as its 100 degrees---ICK! I will be doing some Wii fit instead... Tomorrow will be an OWS followed by a bike ride at the lake park...still in 100 degrees, but at least the wet clothes from the swim will help on the bike!

Hope all is well (and PEACHY!!!)

Links to youtube are fine for visuals.

So, back to the pool today. It was odd swimming there after having done several OWS as my recent swims. Felt good, and had a great time. My wife joined me at the pool, and we had a great time. I did mostly drills and interval swims. Left feeling confident about my swim at the race on Sunday. I'll be heading back to the beach once or twice before the race for a couple more practice sessions. Overall, I feel like I'm going to have a great race on Sunday. Feeling very good about the swim & bike, and the run should be OK. Planning on a final brick workout tomorrow AM to get me ready.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Happy summer, everyone !

Great work Kate!!  Are you using Wii Fit for strength training moves? I cannot impress it upon the group how important strength training 2 x week is! =)

I can't believe we're getting to the end of June already. Holy cow!

I'm SO tired! Holy moly!  The past month went waaaaay too crazy!

Please let me know if there's anything lacking in our little mentor group.  Right now, my tri club is gearing up for our first youth triathlon.  Last week we thought we only had 8 kids signed up and this week we have 37!!!  YAY!!  Now... any thoughts on how to create a transition area for kids sans bike racks?!! In GRASS?  I'm wracking my brain and Google to no avail. 

Hmm... 

How fun is that going to be?! Any way of using chalk or flour to mark squares for the bikes? I'm assuming most will have to lay down if they don't have kickstands. Tape might be hard to make stick to grass?

I'd say the pain is more in the front above my arm pit. I swam Monday and Wednesday and stopped when I felt it get too tired (about an hour). I think it's on the mend. At least I'm hoping so I have my HIM in 3 weeks and I think if I take it easy on the swim now it should be good enough to get through the swim at the race. If by chance it's still bugging me afterwards, I'll get it checked out. 

Hi everyone-just getting caught up on the converstations-it's been really busy around the whittum household. My son had to have a mole removed and we where kinda of stressed about that-but the pathology came back negative. It looks like everyone is doing a great job with training. Sara-great job on the ride! I've just been concentrating on running and doing P90X-getting ready for warrior dash in July. I plan on getting more swims and rides in this weekend. I'm also hoping to find a tri club around here to help me stay motivated and to get some advice from the veterans.

Tracie

Looks like everyone is doing great. I'm hoping to get a run or swim (maybe some pool running) in today as I've been off all week with headaches and lack of energy but feel fine now. I'll keep you posted how things go. I'm also thinking I may look up some of Sara's ST ideas on youtube to find out how to do them.

I think that chalk squares would work for the kids tri as well.

When I do the Wii Fit thing, I let it choose my workout tasks, I just give it the time and what I want to work (i.e. overindulgence, legs, arms, mind and body, etc...) usually it ends up giving me both strength and yoga exercises on the 'body part' tasks....

Tonight was a swim at the lake again, tons of people were there enjoying the hot, sunny day..especially all the boaters and jet-skiers! Swimming at the lake the last few times has definitely shown me how hard swimming through waves and choppy water can be! The last two sessions at the lake have been only the coach and I---so its like I've had private swim lessons! Tonight we worked on breathing in the choppy open water---I definitely need more work there. Coach says she is seeing major improvement, though I don't really feel it yet, I know she is right.

Great work on the swimming Kate. I want to get a wii fit but I need to save my money first, lol

Did a 500m swim workout today - details are in my log - with 25m of pool running.

Breathing was slightly better than normal except during my "pull" set and the first 2x25 swim set

Down side is that I actually found the wall with my head during my first backstroke lap

I'm going to leave the land running til sunday or monday though.

Good luck tomorrow, Curt!!

And I reserve the right to change my mind about race approach after I'm done with the swim