Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 40)

Matt, not a bad race overall.  The swim is a tough thing to nail down.  There's a lot of mental work that goes into the beginning of every swim.  You really have to talk your mind out of the chaos.  Remember to be mindful of what is going on with your body.  You obviously went out hard, but looks like it was a bit too hard because you had to stop about half way.  This is very common, but you can fix it and are already capable of the swim without the stop in the middle.  But only if you keep track of when you are starting to get winded.  Recognize this and back off the throttle a bit and you'll be just fine.  Awesome job!

The run is short, probably about 2.85-2.9, so the pace was actually more like 7:55-8:00. 

Do you guys change the race listings when you know the distances are off?  I don't think it's right to see that 7:37 and have someone think I really nailed the run!

Nah...I just make a mental note and hopefully next year the race will be the same so you can accurately compare if you do it again.  But then again...I've seen some seriously different swim courses year to year.  Pumpkinman is a great example.  The first year, with very little swim training or coaching, I averaged 1:22/100.  The next year after over 100,000 yds of training and coaching, I was a good 15s/100 faster in the pool and I averaged 1:29/100 during the same race.  Someone evidently didn't put the buoys up correctly. :-)

I would really love to see a race director take steps to ensure the swim course is accurate.  I know you can't place the buoys until about an hour before the race and that makes it difficult to ensure total accuracy unless your method for measuring and adjusting is slick enough to be done in minutes.

2 options come to mind.  Laser range finders used in golfing and hunting are very accurate and can range the distance from shore to buoy to buoy... and back to shore.  Then add a meter per buoy to cover the arc around it.  You could then easily move corner buoys a few feet in either direction until you've got the distances down.

Another option would be to go around the course in a kayak or on a jet ski using a GPS to measure then make corner adjustments again as necessary.

I wonder if a well-established race could put down permanent anchors at the corners?

I wonder if it can help get things done this way if we, as participants, say something to this effect in our post-race comments/surveys?

First, I don't change the distances because I use the official race results as a gauge only.  The swim would be the only thing I think that "should" be off much because it has to be harder to get the correct distances.  The bike and run should be dead on, in my opinion.  I think there is little reason for those to be off.  I had someone explain to me that the GPS watches can be off because the trees or other tall building reflect the signals and can create a longer distance, thereby showing something longer than what was planned.  And if they take a corner wide when they measure the routes they can inadvertently make the course shorter because we all (should) look to shorten the course by keeping corners close and tight.

And Jeff, I think your right that we should question the RD's when we feel the course is incorrect.  Maybe the will fill us in to why it is short/long or if it is a "certified" course.

I agree that we could ask the race directors about distances.  I don't really sweat it, but it's odd that some are so off.  I also get the swims are different for a lot of reasons, so that's ok by me.

On another note, I need transition work.  I geeked out the Timberman results and found I was in 93rd place just per the S/B/R events, but adding in transitions I was 111th.  That's a lot of juice to give up on something as seemingly simple as putting your shoes on!

Okay okay, it's Thursday. 

http://bit.ly/rhHogc

4th place finishes really hurt!  Good luck.

I'm racing Saturday, but have a couple more after that.  Like you, I'm doing a repeat race and will be anxious to see an improvement over last year.

To those of you that want to work with me collaboratively on a running focus this fall/winter: how do you want to communicate?  Here are some options that come to mind:

- keep this thread going (does it get removed after the mentor program ends?)

- privately through one-on-one emails

- semi-privately through 'reply-all' emails

- a fully public thread on this site? (seems the least enjoyable to me)

- if direct email seems too low-brow, I could set up a listserv group

Give me your thoughts (at least those of you that plan to participate).

I think at minimum we should do the reply all e-mail.  But I believe if we just maintain the current thread that would be sufficient.  Either way we should communicate so that everyone can see how everyone else is progressing.  The one 0n one email would eliminate the aspect.

I'm also up for anything.  Once this mentor group winds down, we can just use this link.  I have a link to it in my favorites folder, so it's easy enough to get to.  Anything that's easy for you Jeff, seriously.  I appreciate the help.  Any way to make it happen is good for me.

That's very disappointing.  Certainly understandable decision of course.  You've had enough notice that you didn't travel to the venue.  Here locally there was a race last weekend (not one I signed up for) that was cancelled on the spot due to heavy weather.  Everyone travelled, got hotel rooms, used gas money...and no race. 

There's some grumbling over it because if the RD had waited another 30 minutes the weather cleared.  And some hardcore folks would have raced it as a duathlon regardless of wind/rain.

Since it was your last scheduled race though it really puts a damper on things.  Is there another one on the calendar close enough that you can do it?  I was going to tell you to fill up on ice cream tomorrow!

This is classic.  My wife asked what she should get at the grocery store and that's all I said - "Loads of ice cream!"

That seriously sucks Jonathan.  Is Wallis Sands still open?  I think Lobsterman in Maine is still open as well, that's an Oly on Sept 10.  Mainiac is a sprint on the 17th.  Small field, super flat bike course, you'd kill it.

Yeah, it's a good thing that they let us know this far in advance.  We were able to cancel the hotel reservation without penalty and all that.  It's crazy calm here right now.  Nice and cool with zero breeze at all.  It's almost eerie.

There are a bunch of races in mid to end of September, but I'll be heading to San Diego on September 12 and have a wedding the weekend before.  I'll be there for a month and miss all the races out here.  I debated bringing my bike to SD to train and drop in a race, but I think I'm going to stick to the running plan and just get over it.  I did however sign up to volunteer at two different races while I'm out there, so that should be fun.  I'll be working second shift 6-7 days a week, so the mornings are free to do whatever.  I'm looking forward to a change of pace.

That's a tough break Jonathan, but a month in San Diego is a nice consolation prize!  I spent most of my twenties out there in North County - Carlsbad and Vista (ealry 80s-early 90s).  Gorgeous place, absolutely perfect weather.

I never even heard I triathlon while I was out there, which is odd I suppose, but I did play a lot of racquetball.  Enjoy your month and we'll see you on the trails.

A month in San Diego would be pretty awesome but is your wife going with you?  I spent only a few days there last year and I absolutely loved it.  I was actually in San Clemente visiting my nephew who had just gotten back from Afghanistan.  I got 3 runs in while there and all of them were along the beach on a packed sand trail.  It was incredible!

While your on the run plan maybe you could grab a couple of 5k's and use them as a gauge for the long term affects of the training.  The weather should be pretty good most of the time.

Nope, fire that thing up.  I've actually been hoping for an outage to get mine going, seems like a waste of $$$ without using it. 

Give the power company a call and make an official request for me to come out and make some extra cash restoring your power.  I have never been to New Hampshire so I might as well work while there.

So far the company I work for (American Electric Power) has only sent people toward the southern part of the affected areas.  They sent them from Texas and Oklahoma last Tuesday toward Florida but they had no official destination.  The Indiana and Michigan areas have not sent anyone yet, that I am aware of, but I am sure the call is coming.  I work the transmission lines and usually they aren't affected horribly bad, so I doubt the request for our services will come.

Good luck to all of you over that way though.  I hope everyone stays safe until the storm and its affects are over.

Another weekend, another Race report!  This time from Lake Loramie Advneture race.  The swim portion of the race is actually a kayak but I couldn't figure out how to change the report to reflect.  Very good run portion for me, targeted 10m pace and felt great at 9m pace. 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=266455&posts=1&start=1

Hope everyone in Irene's path has stayed safe and dry!

Matt

I had a great race, but can't get the facts... long story, they don't have the splits yet or official times... Little dissapointed but I finished in around 2:31.20 and I think I finished in the top 15 if I counted right. Anyway, I'll get a race report up as soon as I get the splits. I hope everyone is ok after the Hurricane.