Baowolf's Beginner Banquet -Sorry all tables are full no room.. (Page 40)

Dennis- You are so awesome.  You are our resident "techno geek".  Don't take tht wrong, my 16 year old says it is a "good thing" says she is a techno geek.  So I will be watching Steve after my sports massage and luch with "the girls" tomorrow.  Since he'll be racing for 11 hours (can you imagine??!!)  I am sure I'll catch him. Athlete of the month, and he never told us. Wow, humble too.

Samantha- Save your pennies, you have a guest room here in Daytona Beach any time! How long would it take you to back pack?!? lol

Day spent in lines at the water park with the kids today.  Good thing today was a rest day. Does staning in line count for anything??

Just have to say it again: Go Steve!!!

Tried to check up on Steve, but looks like it's too early to tell anything.

Yes, Karen, I think you get big points for standing in line at the water park!

Samantha, hope your backpacking trip is a blast!

Dennis, you definitely have a link for everything.  Nice write up on our leader .

Hey to everyone!

Group bike ride this morning was fun, and my speed is even improving a little.  A couple of tips from one of the ride leaders has really been a big help.  I was the only girl again this morning.  What is up with that?  Off for a swim shortly.  This will make 4 days this week w/ 2 workouts, which is a bit of a challenge even though my schedule is very flexible.  I really don't know how you folks who work full time, have kids, etc. do this.  My hat is off to you! 

Link to Vineman Realtime Tracking Site

Enter Steve's bib# 536

Current Status: On Bike, probably around mile 33

Swim time was 1:26:16 @ 2:13/100 meter pace - Rank 686

T1 was 5:08

Bike 29 was 1:33:44

So how's he doing, he mentioned on 7/19 that he wanted to swim a 2:00/100yd race, he did 2:01/100 yd.  With that he is just a minute behind what he intended.  IM T1's are typically slower than other transitions so he's doing well there also.  Now with his 17.5 mph prediction he should have crossed 29 miles at 1:39:25, instead he did it 1:33:44.  So he's 5 minutes faster than he predicted.

Go Steve.  I spent over an hour building a spreadsheet to do these predictions so let's keep moving.   It will be about 3 hours before we get another update, around 4:30 central time, 2:30 Steve's.

Here's my prediction spreadsheet table  The time at PDT calculates from the Actual times.  If I don't have an actual, it is copied from predicted and is a different shade

And for my own workouts.  Last night I swam 1700 yds. at a comfortable pace.  This morning I did a brick to try to practice race day nutrition.  I at everything I planned before starting, during the bike and during the run.  It turned out well.  I biked 42 miles (4 more than my race) and ran 5.7 miles afterwards.  Damn it was hot.  No shade.

I'm ready for next weekend to get here.  I think I am going to take it easy next week.  short sessions.  Take thursday and friday off.  I am going to run 6 miles tomorrow morning because that will put me over the 100 mile mark for July. 

Wooohooo!  Go Steve!  Thanks for putting the spreadsheet together Dennis.  Very nice to be able to see clearly that Steve's race is going well.

Running after biking is one thing, but in the heat it's tough just to run that late in the morning.  We are on our umpteenth day of lows in the mid 80's and highs over 100 here.  Early mornings are where it's at!  On the Xterra terminology, I think I mispoke.  It was actually called the X-50 race here (distance between OLY and HIM like Dennis is doing, all on the road).  Thanks for catching/correcting that so I don't confuse anyone except myself .

It appears Steve is still on the bike.  His mile 84 time was 3:05:33, which adds 3 more minutes to his lead over his prediction.  So it seems everything is going like he wanted.  I actually think he should be done with the bike so perhaps the tracking site is lagging like it was earlier.  Maybe my math is lagging.

Yep, just looked too....very glad it's going well!

The athlete tracker for this race sucks.  But it is back up to date.

Steve is on the run, nearing mile 8 I predict.  The last bit of the bike slowed a little but he finished with a 17.7 mph average, he wanted anything > 17.5.  T2 was 3:16.  And the first 4 miles of the run, 33:00 flat.  A full minute faster than planned based on his 8:30/mile pace prediction.  Looking good.  Less than 3 hours left.  No more updates for at least another 45 minutes, when he should be crossing the 13 mile timing mat.

I am officially a hoser. For some reason I thought the race was tomorrow, but thanks to Dennis I am in the loop and cheering Steve on with all my heart!! And I am so glad he is doing as good as he hoped to do.

Did a great swim this morning: 1100 in 29 minutes. Not to bad for me. Was gonna bike tonight, but time flew by as I prepare to leave on Monday and now it is too dark to be on the highway. Tomorrow is a new day and I will bike and run.

My backpack this week is going to be a huge adventure as I am the Leader with the most experience on the trail, on orienteering and medical training. I have been on many trips but never as the most experienced. Super nervous and excited at the same time. The trail is gorgeous and it will likely include some mountain lake swimming (brrrr). The group I am leading are young adults who come from a variety of backgrounds; some are troubled kids and others just trying to find a new path in life. Did a trip like this last year and it was a great experience and we all learned so much. One of that gal participants followed up with us about two months and ago and reported that she has not smoked a cigarette since the backpacking trip - VERY AWESOME! Anyway, more info than you needed, but I wanted to share.

Have a great week everyone, and Dennis I hope you final prep for your race next weekend goes well. Glad you got the calorie thing worked out today. i will not be able to post again so I sending you my go get ems' today!

And Karen, I would love to come to Daytona Beach. Seems like a whole other world down there that I need to experience.

NO

FN

LN

DIVISION

DIVPL

SEXPL

SWIM

RATE

RANK

T1

bike29mi

bike84mi

BIKE

RATE

RANK

T2

RUN4mi

RUN13MI

RUN21mi

RUN

PENALTY

TIME

536

Stephen

Bratton

M40-44

14/119

111/574

1:25:16

2:13

681

5:08

1:33:44

3:05:33

6:20:12

17.7

351

3:16

33:00

1:11:52

1:21:43

3:46:26

-

11:40:18

Holy smokes....looks like a great day!  Way to go Steve! 

Thanks for all the updating Dennis, youm are just great.   Can't wait to hear from Steve, guess he is glamping with the family, or maybe it is taking him a long time to repack all that stuff! lol

So Dennis, you are next! HIM, wow.  I hope to do one in two  to three years. Hope your caloric practice went well! REST, RELAX!

I ran 10 very slow miles this morining.  Wanted to get to the beach before sunrise...too slow.  Very hot.  I filled up my water bottles on my fuel belt twice!

I remember just a few nonths ago we were all complaining about the cold and wind! What I would have given today for some cold, or wind!

Carol, how are you coing with the heat?  I see in the news you all are very hot.  Hope you are getting out early!    

Hey Karen, I think I'm with you on the (possible) slow track to a HIM.  Dennis on the other hand is on the fast track!  I've been amazed at the progress that has been made by our little group.  Must be our sub 12 hour ironman mentor !!

Yep, I hear you on the heat.  100+ for 30 days straight now, and the low hasn't been below 80 all month either.  I did 8 miles in it early this morning, and I don't think I've ever sweated quite that much.  Or maybe it was the melting ice I poured into my sports bra at mile 5. 

Look at the girls bragging about their 8 & 10 mile runs today.  Makes me feel bad for just logging a little over 6 tonight.  I only did that to put me over 100 for the month.  And with that, here's my July totals.  Way better than last month, but should still be more.

WTG Steve!!!

Also, congrats to Karen on a very nice tri.

I had to laugh at the knitting comment:  the husband does like some of my knitting, usually when it's for him.  He has a nice iPod bag that he loves, along with a pair of socks and a scarf that get a lot of use in the winter.

It could be that I have too many hobbies....

Last week was a little crazy, even if it was short.  On Monday I found out that my teaching schedule is probably going to get cut down to 1 class from the 3 I had been teaching.  Perils of being an adjunct.  On Tuesday we discovered rats in the backyard.  Seriously.  Rats.  *shudder*  The pest control guy comes this Tuesday.  My neighbor is trapping some.  We can only figure it's because we've had so much rain.  Our neighbor said they've never had rats, and they've lived here 30-some years.  Still.  Ick ick ick.  So then we went to the mountains and that was lovely.  Did three runs there, including a 5-miler with speedwork and hill repeats, and a 9-miler.

On Saturday the whole family did the Granby Gutbuster 5K.  I pushed the kids in the double and the hubbie tried to keep up.  (Yes, I slowed down for him because this was a fun run.)  It was a really small race and that worked in his favor because he managed to place third among the 30-39 men with a time of 30:50ish.  You should have seen his face when they called his name.  :D  It's pretty funny, because everyone he's told has asked "well, how many men were there?  Three?"  Probably more like 4.    I think I could have placed if I were only running with the double jogger and definitely if I'd been running alone, but I finished in about 30:29 and that was fine.

Plans for this week include lots and lots of biking to hopefully improve some on my bike time for the tri in three weeks.

Hey gang thanks soo much for the kind support.  I was tenting, no shower so no internet either, so just catching up now. 

First off I met my goal of packing the van with the back bench in and without having to imping on seating space at all!

I will get a race report up in a bit but wanted to give you guys the cliff notes first.  (We had a 400 mile drive yesterday). 

Ok So race prep, mixed all my Infinit and such, put race numbers on bike and helmet, got everything in the correct bag, etc the night before.  Woke up at 2:15 am... nope too early still.  Alarm went off at 4:15 am and got dressed, put on a base layer of sunscreen on my face, neck etc, place were I wouldn't have body markings and body glide around waiste, ankles, thighs (forgot underarms darn, but it was 4:15 am).  Drove to the race, nowhere to park... but I have my bike so I can cover the 1 mile to the beach np. 

The race start is chaos, they were running the IM, a women only HIM, an IM relay and an aquabike all at the same time.  And although my race started first, it appeared everyone was there at 5:30 am.  So I setup my bike transition, went to give my wife the clothes I had for the morning... she wasn't there.  Race starts in 10 minutes.  I run back and toss my bag back near my bike and then run back to the beach, get a random person to help me with my wetsuit zipper with a good 3 minutes to spare.  Then we are in the water and bam its off we go.  I was worried about the shoulders and they were a little tight for the first 1000 yards, so I just kept at it.  The swim wasn't awsome, I just stayed steady, loosened up a little after 2000 yards, fell into a rythm for the next 1000 yards and pulled a little harder for the last 3000 yards.  The swim was generally uneventful except for the usual bumping and such except for 1 headon with a guy who crossed over into oncoming traffic.  I wished I had had a sleavless wetsuit, arms were a bit heavy.  But finished feeling strong, hit the potty in T1 as there was one open right where you come in from the water and I knew there would only be 2 porta potties at the first aid stations and like 30 people wanting to use it, so t1 was a bit longer.

No problems in t1 except that it was really narrow getting out of t1 and folks were walking slowly, no real room to get past them.  I ended up with 1 rock under my right big too and one on under my heal in my biking shoes (resulted in a blister or two for the run later).  The bike was pretty congested, with a lot of passing and manovering for the first oh 30 miles or so.  The road was in really bad shape with potholes everywhere.  I saw about 30 flats, but I am sure there were more.  I ignored distance and speed and focused on cadence for the first half.  Everything was going great on the bike all the way through mile 85 where I took my first bathroom break.  (ya 4 yours on the bike or so).  I was really feeling good about the bike time until around mile 85 where we turned into a stiff wind for the next 27 miles.  It was discouraging, maybe 15 mph headwind the whole way.  I watched my pace drifting down and was having a harder time staying in areo because my neck and back were getting sore.  Also though this part of the road is in the worst shape and it has the biggest hills.  From around mile 95 + I just wanted to be off the bike.  At mile 100 I topped the really big hill and avoided the 20 potholes on the sharp corner at the bottom of that hill.  I finally got to smoother pavement at around mile 105 and was able to regain aero and hold it until the end, finishing somewhat stronger, but with a lot of 90 degree turns.  I was happy to be off the bike, but you had to run with your bike to t2 about 100 yards (= longer t2 time). 

Just as I left t2 a guy sprayed me with water which although nice, kept me from getting my garmin up as the controls don't work well when wet.  Finally at about a quarter mile I get it up and running and look at the pace... way too fast, first mile is in 7:15!  Alright so I try to ease down a bit, but my pace is still hot for the first lap.  I am passing folks all over the place and this course is way hillier than I remembered it.  I get to the turn around and back into town still going faster, but settling in to a more reasonable pace, lap 1 down, feeling strong.  On the 2nd out my pace continues to drop a bit, but it is more uphill than down and I wanted to be closer to 8:30 anyway.  It has been 90 ish most of the run and I was dousing with cold water every mile.  Eventually I found cold water down the front of the shirt was most cooling as it went all the way down to my bike chamise (The water was COLD).  I was good at mile 13, but then I started feeling mildly natious.  Nothing serious just not a good sign.  I also started bleading time.  I wanted to hold 8:30, but after mile 15, that wasn't going to happen.  I settled in around a 9:00 mpm pace, varrying between 8:45 and 9:00 ish.  Doing the math after the first loop I had 3 hours to finish exactly at 12 hours.  So 45 minutes per leg.  I broke it down and tried to just hit those marks, bank a few minutes here and there.  3rd leg 42 minutes, good enough 3 minutes in the bank.  4th leg 42 minutes, pretty even banked another 3 minutes.  On the 5th leg I took a GU out, but was a little concerned about eating it as my stomach was still iffy.  I tossed it and shifted to gatoraid (less solid).  It had a few less calories, but oh well.  The 5th leg was hard, a lot of uphills and the downhills were starting to burn my thighs.  The blister on my right toe was a little annoying, but I just only had what I had left.  I usualy try to start to kick around mile 20, but didn't have much left to kick with.  I told myself I would pick up the pace after the last big down hill around mile 23 and did so.  Took in my last gatoraid at mile 24, hit mile 25 at 8:44 and then just gave it everything... I glanced down at my watch at 25.5 and I was at a 7:30 pace,  I picked it up more and just flew into the last quarter mile.  The crowd appreciated the strong kick and cheared me on.  The announcer said I was going to set a new chute record and made me smile.  As I crossed the line the time on the clock was 11:45 (minus 6 minutes for my swim start).  WOOT! I did it.  Not perfect, but the shoulder held for the swim and I had no leg muscle issues from training. 

One sad thing about an IM is they have great food at the finish, but after 3400 calories of GU and Infinit you just can't eat much of it.  The other bad thing for me is that my body temperature drops pretty quickly in the wet clothes after I stop even in 90F temps.  So I ate some watermellon, had 12 oz of water and a soda and started looking for my wife to get something dry on.  I couldn't belive it.  1 hour faster than last year, 36 minutes faster than the previous year on the same course.  I made up 6 minutes on the bike, but 30 minutes on the run from the same course previous, swim was a wash. 

You guys have the stats, I was 14 of 119 age group and 137 of 879 overall.  The top 5 finishers were all sub 9:30 with the winner sub 9:00 so there was some good competition there.   I was first in age group on the run with a pace of 8:37 and 42 of 879 on the run (I think this doesn't include the DNF guys).  So I was really happy with the race.  Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes.  Dennis, you are a major information hound, amazing. 

Take-aways.  I was able to get faster working around my injuries, resting when I needed to, adding distance and avoiding intensity on iffy muscles to allow them to heal if slowly.  The hard work and steady distances allowed me to stay strong throughout the race.

Areas of improvement.  Eventually I will need a swim coach.  I need to pick up the bike speed, especialy in the 85 mile + range.  And although I was stoked with my run, I know I can cut 15 minutes off that in a year or two. 

Ok so its not the cliff notes version, perhaps the full race report will be shorter.  But there is my money where my mouth is.  Slow build up, longer safer miles, easing off to let injuries heal, walk lots when you need to because of injuries and pray regularly.  Faith is a big part of training for me, though I don't always emphasize it.  Thanks for your prayers on race da, Yay no flats!   

(note I didn't include being at near tears at mile 106 on the bike still going into the headwind on the really bumpy road or at mile 19 on the run when my stomach was iffy because ironmen don't feel that way.. ya well they do but it doesn't always get into race reports.  There are emotional times on the course, but you just keep going. 8).

Dennis, you are overthinking the callorie math.  It does not matter how many calories you use... because you can only digest so many calories per hour.  In the end your math is pretty good though. 

Gel 15 min before swim, 300-350 calories per hour on the bike (650 to 750 calories is fine).  On the run you can only take int 200 to 250 calories per hour, so you are fine with 2-3 gels depending on the timing of when you take them and how long the race actually takes for a total of 900 to 1000 calories for your race. 

For my IM, 1 power bar 2:15 hours before race, 1 GU 15 min before swim, 2200 calories on the bike (347 calories per hour). and 1 Gu per 30 min on the run (100 calories) but then I dropped to gatoraid at the end, but would have stayed with GU 200 calories per hour.  for a total of 3100 calories after race start for 11:40 race.    

What an incredible race you had, Steve! Loved it - from fitting all the stuff in the van to that sprint at the end.  How good it must have felt great to know you were banking time throughout the run!  I can't imagine not getting emotional about it.  Hope you are enjoying a little R&R now, and for your family's sake, a shower !

Steve--awesome!

ETA last month's totals:

 I really need to bike more.  And hike more, but that was my in-laws fault for being so out of shape that one of them believes herself unable to walk a mile. 

OK, I'll play the stats game too.  Dennis, not to worry, one "longerish" run does not mean we have caught up w/ you    I'm pleased overall with July...much better than June (sick, vacation).  Logged my fastest ever bike ride on Saturday, so the bike work seems to be helping.

Think I'm going to try a 40 mile group ride on Sat.  Need to be able to do 16 mph over the distance.  I've done 38 and 41 on my own at slower pace, and a couple shorter group rides at that pace (16.6 last week, yay).  Each week has gotten better, but still just a bit nervous since I don't want to hold up the group.

Here are my stats for July.  

 I did not add my swims to this.  It is still a work in progress. 

Whoah look at that.  3 of us (plus Steve of course) logging over 100 miles of running.  Awesome.  And so Carol doesn't feel left out, 300(or close enough to it) on the bike is also impressive.  We all deserve a pat on the back.