Fred D Mentor Group - Part II (Page 40)

I bought one of the Garmin GTU-10 trackers.  It worked perfectly for my wife to track me.  I had it setup to send her text messages as I entered and left certain zones so she knew exactly when I would be going by on each of the loops.  She said she would have gone crazy without it!

As a volunteer (again). No plans to do it. While I enjoyed the experience I think it's too early in my progression to commit to it.

We all have different objectives, measures of success, and pre-requisites to try and meet those objectives. I have not met those pre-requisites yet

If people do choose to volunteer, special needs bags on the run is a great place. Some great interaction with the participants anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 minutes.

Oh Lord, please God never let me be one of those 30 minute people....

I have only done 2 IMs, but like Fred I don't use special need either. I live off the course re: nutrition and hydration. In both races I did have a spare tubular and co2s in my bike SN bag just in case I flatted on the first loop.

If I did a race that looked like it might have a little weather during the race I might rethink this strategy though.

Edited to fix bad HTML coding - cue blame on IPad.

Edited by TankBoy 2012-08-20 9:01 AM

The GTU 10 is one of my favorite pieces of training equipment. My wife and I both use them all of the time on both the bike and long runs. Garmins support for the device as far as sports-specific functions is coming along slowly - I hope they continue to update the device and web interface to include more sports-specific functionality. We use the geofences the same way it sounds like you did to send alerts. It would be great if you could actually upload a route so that the viewer coUld see where you are relative to a course. And it would also be nice to have a way for the public to view the tracker without giving them your account information.

The special needs bags are returned to the participants.

Some people had a change of shoes and socks. There was some rain that stopped later in the day so the people that were coming through after the rain and had dry shoes and socks were smart.

Some people dropped things off, like empty fuel belts.

Several people took medication. Once guy had tums and said it helped him with GI

One lady open a bunch of letters written by her family and friends. I think it helped her get through it.

One guy's bag kept on blowing all over the place. He had 1 band-aid in it.

One bag was full of chocolate.

The winner of male's pro did pick up his special needs bag.

Warmer clothes for people finishing later was pretty popular. It was getting chillier around 6PM (11hrs). Dry hats were popular

One guy came into 21km looking pretty bad, although relatively early in the race. He could not speak. He sat down, ate a sandwich, and looked so bad people were worried about him, The medics came over several times. But you could see every 5 minutes he was getting a bit better. At first he didn't want to look or talk with anyone. Twenty minutes later after 30 people must have asked him if he was ok, I told him "you look a lot better now than you did 20 minutes ago". I think I made his day. He waited another 10, put on the foil/alumin cover/blanket and marched off. I hope he made it.

People are really grateful (most). One lady was so happy she got help. She could not open her drinks or plastic packages she was so tired. She goes "I wish I had something to give to you" and then was so happy to find a snickers bar at the bottom of her bag that she did not want. So she gave me her snickers bar.

One guy came into special needs and we couldn't find his bag. He says "I don't have a bag, I just dropped in to say thank you".

Didn't get a chance to say congrats to Jen - another amazing, awesome time for your first IM!

Marc - thanks for the stories above.

COngrats again to the IMers!! Awesome job to all of you.

I didn't feel my race went spectacularly well and I'm a little disappointed with myself at the moment. I ended up coming 3rd AG and 23rd OA but it was a very small race size. 40 ppl doing the olympic total. Swim went well, I was the first woman out of the water. Man it was gross! There were weeds the entire swim. I had scraggly weeds on my watch, roadID band, goggles, time chip band when I got out. Threw up a bit getting some sulpher-y water in my mouth. Bike was alright but the wind didn't let up any way we turned. And the run...10km trail run...actual trail run. Really tough course and I wasn't able to get into a good rhythm because of the soft, uneven terrian. I just kept getting frustrated partly because I kept catching my feet on the ground wrong and partly because the race wasn't going to have the result I wanted and its the only tri I have this season....

Okay...pity party over. Start training again tomorrow. Half marathon in 7 weeks in Victoria!

Looking forward to the Race Reports!

Taper time for me and HIM on Sunday (MI Titanium).  This is a 1st year event in Grand Rapids, MI.  It also has the first IM distance race in MI as well.  The organization is very good so I look forward to this being a well run event.  Supposedly 175 in for the HIM and about 110 for the full.

IMMT race report is up!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=456813

Just posted my RR. 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=456819&posts=1#M4372207

No, I don't think so. I have a few milestones and pre-requisites to accomplish.

If one day I do a full IM I will have expectations beyond completing the distance. Given the investment of time to do full IM, I want to feel I have a good shot at hitting those expectations and I am not there yet.

It's like Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) ...

What do you do to clean your wetsuit?

What's the debate with a Shiv for you (upsides, downsides) and, just to throw it out there, why a Shiv over, say, a full custom?

I think this is the right philosophy. it's when things go bad that you appreciate the value of a good LBS and paying a few hundred bucks more pays for itself over time with good service. My LBS is actually the guys that did IMMT mechanics I believe.

Guru does that as well. They put you on a machine, fit you, allow you to simulate the new bike then build the frame to your specs.

The only thing that kind of scares me is the perceived resale value. Would you buy a size custom fit to another guy ? Would you buy a standard Shiv size X?

A lot of people would answer no and yes.

I am going for a fit later today :-)

Hey guys,

Do you think a 20min FTP test 3 days before an Oly is a bad idea assuming the Oly is somewhere between an A and B race ?

I think this is a great point.  

My only issue with the Shiv is that I don't like how they look but that's really an irrelevant point.    I think supporting your LBS is a good idea.

Not that I've ever done a race 3 days after but I don't recall ever feeling the effects of a 20 min test that far out from one.  If the Oly was a full A race then I probably wouldn't do it just to be safe.  

Is it an A- race or a B+ race?  

Considering your bike fitness background, I don't think it will be a problem.  For someone doing a 20 minute test for the first time, or not having experience with longer hard efforts on the bike, I would imagine the recovery process to be much longer.  Sort of like a runner doing their first 5k and staying they hurt for 2 weeks.

In my limited experience, I did do a 20 minute test 3 days before a 20k TT last year.  I had an awesome race...by far the best race I've ever had on my TT bike.  My 20 minute test was on the trainer at 262 watts, and my race was just under 32 minutes at 269 watts.  Even this year, I wasn't able to hold that many watts in a 24 minute TT I did.  I guess it was just one of those days where I felt really good.  Not sure if it had anything to do with the 20 minute test 3 days prior helping it...but I'm going to guess that it didn't hurt either.  Of course, not sure how it would have impacted an Oly tri, but needless to say I wasn't sore or fatigued from the test.

x2, and at least in my head, for an Oly, it's almost an ideal taper ride a few days before. Short, painfully hard, but not a complete blowout.