Baowolf's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 41)

Elena - I totally empathize with feeling lazy as can be. I've felt that way since IM and wonder what'll inspire me to get back at it. Backpacking was an interesting trip, but I enjoyed being outside again and living in the cool breeze. We did get to see the international space station fly overhead. Apparently it is really close to earth right now and that's why it was super easy to see. Kinda cool!

Carol - I admire your commitment to follow your plan and pray for healing to come sooner rather than later! Fun little competition in the middle of training is AWESOME! San Fran will be so much fun. I'd love to go there and see all those hilly streets in person. Have fun!

Ken - So excited for you! Remember to smile and have fun!

Steve - How are you feeling? IM has a couple races that are using the rolling start now. They have volunteers hold up signs indicating approximate swim finish times. For example: I expected to finish between 1hr30-1hr45, so that was the group I put myself in. So I entered the water with ppl who swam the same pace as me (in theory) and my time started when I crossed the timing mat. It was great! And cut off time is the same, so if the mass swim start would've been 7am then you have two hours and twenty minutes from 7am to finish. However, that means you have to get across the finish line before 12 or you'll be a DNF. Make sense?

Mitch - those splits are great!

Mike - I love your statement "Timberman 70.3 finisher here". So much awesome pride! Congrats to you.

Jared - Good job on that race. Great story. Glad the nicest car had the nicest people. I have a friend who was picked up by Ted Bundy back in the 70's before anyone knew who he was or what he was doing. The ride was actually really scary because he and the passenger were acting really weird, so she was glad to get out of there. Then when she saw the news reports she couldn't believe it. That bike ride sounds like fun though!

So much awesome stuff happening and I didn't even address everything. I'm so excited for everyone's accomplishments and commitment to healing and being successful.

I'm doing well. Started job orientation this week. My first shift in the unit is Sunday; 12hrs. That'll be a long day. I did a local free mini sprint tri last night and will do it again next wednesday. It was really fun and cool to see that it's just another training opportunity where two years ago a sprint tri was the biggest thing going on in my life. Still waiting to move and feeling anxious about it because I really want my own space. Life is just good even if it doesn't contain much training.

Thanks for the info Samantha. Did people near you actually swim at a similar pace to you or did people missplace themselves in the lineup?

The web says the 2:20 starts from when the "last age group swimmer enters the water." Not sure which timer your bike and run cutoffs are though, might be from the 7am starter time. Thanks for letting me know that your personal timer doesn't start until you cross the timing mat though, that wasn't clear on the web. Hopefully none of us are too to close to the cutoff times. Even Ken's slowest practice times give him a 30+ minute cushion for finishing.

As far as feeling, I'm pretty toasted at the moment. If I were not in my final 2 build weeks I would take a rest day. As it is I think I will just try to get everything done and not care about the pacing of it all. The race is 1 month from today. Almost ready for it to be here already hehe.

Steve - I definitely didn't feel like people were passing me like crazy. However, people did pass and I wondered if they didn't give themselves enough credit as a faster swimmer. And the only time I really struggled with slower people in my way was at the corners and in the .2mile section before heading back to the beach. It happened both times. So, with the 2:20 time the reality is they can't know who is where as far as timing is concerned while people are still in the water. So as far as I have understood 7am is the official 2:20 start, so everyone still has until 9:20 to be out of the water. It bites you on the other end; either with the bike/run cut-offs, or the finish. Sadly you may not know you are a DNF if you dont' know the exact time you enter the water and cross the timing mat. It's the catch 22 of the rolling start. So people get the crowd cheering, they get to hear the announcer tell them they are an Ironman, t-shirt, medal, etc., ect., but in the end they will show up as a DNF. But you are right, noone here is gonna need to worry about that

If you can get through these last two weeks and not miss a workout I'll be super stoked for you. I hope it all goes by in a bit of a blur so you aren't noticing the amount of exhaustion you are feeling! Hang in there. YOu have come so very far in less than a year after a major bike crash that required surgery. Holy Smokes you are gonna kick butt and smoke my IM time. And here I thought I stood a chance when you started your IMTahoe build. What was I thinking? hahahaha...

Ken - hope you are finding ways to bring your anxiety into check. Remember there is nothing more you can do, and I can't help but remember how different race day was for me. All the people and support. I'm actually more concerned that you'll be so into it all and having such a great day you'll wish you could remember certain parts of it. And every single stroke you take on the swim if moving you to the end, so even if all you do is focus on that one stroke. During my IM marathon I ran 4min/walked 1min and because I was so focused on keeping that set-up I literally lost track of time because all I could think about was "is it time to run now? is it time to walk now?" Oh, and the totally awesome crowds of strangers and friends who were yelling "You are awesome!" You are gonna have a good day!

Samantha, so glad to hear your "voice"! Sounds like things are moving right along re: the job and soon the move. Yikes 12 hours for a first day...but those days off are going to be great. You gave some great advice to Ken. Did you ever think you'd be an Ironman finisher giving advice to others? Very cool to step back and just admire and applaud your journey!

Time to finish packing, take one dog to the kennel, and greet my parents who will be caring for the rest of our pack. Scoped out a nearby YMCA in San Fran, and may rent a bike for a day, but mostly seeing lots of walking in my immediate future.

Go Ken!!!!

Steve-The post yesterday regarding your weekly training guide. Is that for offseason training. I did not see any bike rides on there

You can use it offseason or during prime tri season. If you go back to like page 3 of posts I have it in a chart, much easier to read. There is a B in front of the bike workouts. The chart is much easier to look at though. The only difference is that in the offseason many folks focus primarily on one sport. So you could go swim 5x bike 2x run 2x or any other combo with a focus of base miles and hard intensity in the area you want to work on. I used to do 1 mary in the offseason and a HIM and IM during the summer. My bike sucks so badly that I need to drop the mary and go bike focused until I can get that better each offseason. Bike was starting to come together last year with a 20 mph for a HIM bike. Still a lot of work to do there. I am currently down about 2 mph from where I was. I need to not have a job and just workout 8).

Workouts all slow this week, just getting the miles in. May take a nap before 4800 yard swim tonight. So glad I can just go swim at midnight if I want to.

Edited by Baowolf 2013-08-23 6:14 PM

Good luck Ken!!!!

Carol - I really value knowing I have advice to offer people and I can speak from experience, so the confidence is greater than with some other things in my life. I love it! BTW, I have very dear friends who are moving to Waco next week and there move motivated me to find out where exactly Grapevine is located. Since you are so close to them and I like you so very much and I like them so very much my reasons for visiting have increased exponentially! It's a husband, wife, and 1.5 year old. The husband landed a great job working for Baylor University.

Ken - I trust you are hanging in there. Get good sleep tonight because tomorrow night might not be conducive to sleep, but I also hope I'm very wrong about that

Tomorrow I'm gonna ride 30 miles or so with a couple other gals. I'm looking forward to it!

Ken I know you won't read this until after your race, but ya sleep well tonight, tomorrow night I wouldn't expect more than a 5-6 hours of sleep. Less if you get anxious.

Long swim in the bank 4800 yards all at pace 1:55/100. Not gona get any more speed before the race, not the time to be working speed.

Off season I try to run 4x per week or so with 10 to 13 miles as long run (5,5,5,5 12), bike 20 20 40 unless bike focused and swim 2000x2. That provides a solid base to build up from, saves you like 2-3 months of base building during tri season. However, taking some time to get rested and healed after Mary/IMs is important as well so you start fresh. Starting slower with your build up will also help make you more injury resistant.

Oh I had my first IM anxiety dreams last night. The first one I was going to set up T1, but the sprinklers were on and we were all like I don't want to set up my bike in the sprinklers... etc. Then the 2nd one the event was screwy with the bike after the run. And when I finished the run you enter this building and I couldn't find T2. We were all walking through this office building, "anyone know where T2 is I have to get on my bike." Ken is probably having similar dreams GO Ken!

Edited by Baowolf 2013-08-24 3:07 AM

Best of luck Ken!!!

Go Ken!

Ive been running! 4,4,2.5, 6, nothing yet today. Signed up this morning for that local Half on Oct 20. Looking for the full too! Someone said that a good full to consider is the Sacramento International Marathon in December. You are bussed to the start outside the city and you run into the city.....Best part..... its downhill all the way to Sacramento!

Go get 'em Ken!! Best of luck and godspeed to you!!

Ken - So close now! Looking forward to hearing from you on the other side.

Elena - that marathon sounds awesome!

Steve - hang in for there for this last build week. So. very. close. Wish I could buy you a cup o' coffee. Do you even drink coffee?

Had a great ride with two other gals today. We started off really fast because one gal thought she heard us say "let's maintain 18mph". So the other two of us were trying really hard to keep up and within a short amount of time I decided I couldn't keep up and be able to finish so I just dropped back and decided it was fine. When we re-grouped and found out about the miscommunication I laughed really hard. So glad they didn't really want to ride that pace because I'd rather ride alone than never be able to keep up. We ended up doing 32.5miles and seeing two moose. Shortest 32 miles I've ever done because we talked the entire time and time/miles flew by. And we still maintained ave. 15mph. It felt good!

Ken - got your info ready to track you tomorrow. I'll be waiting for those swim splits to show up so I know you are gonna have a good day! Maybe I'll even get to watch you cross on the live feed.

Tomorrow I start my new job! Happy weekend.

Ken best of luck tomorrow! I hope you're healthy and that achilles strain is a thing of the past!

Samantha, nice to see you around here again Very happy to hear about the new job...you've been waiting awhile on that!

Steve, you are putting up some impressive training numbers. I can't believe your race is in less than a month...it wasn't too long ago you were the ring leader of the MASH unit!

As for me, I'll be doing a sprint tomorrow. I don't expect to do great...life hasn't allowed the training for it. I'm a little nervous as the expected temp at the 8AM gun is going to be in the low 50's I packed a long sleeve under armor type shirt which I may wear under my wetsuit to try and recruit some warmth.

I've got an odd question for everyone. Does everyone find their races by word of mouth or by a website? I ask because I was reading a post on the site and someone from Boston asked about a REV3 race in Ohio....its not much more of a drive than the other races I was looking at...so it got me wondering if I'm missing some potential races by not using all of the tools available to me.

Lots of search options one even here on BT. Active is another one most states have a site, race brands etc.

So ya 116 mile bike today with way too much wind took me over 7 hours and then 4 mile brick run. Tomorrows long run could be um not so fun.

Go Ken and other racers. Will start stalking after church.

Great ride Steve, but oh so very long. Welcome to my world Slow and steady tomorrow on that run. I command no wind and cool temps...haha.

Jay - I always miss the group when I am away, so its good to be back. Have fun tomorrow since you aren't trained to race hard! And there are several ways to find out about races. Smaller races sometimes won't be accessible online, so it helps to ask locals what their fav. races are.

Hoping Ken's swim is going well this morning!

Samantha, heck yah, come on down to TX! We would love to host you . We can see DFW airport from the top of the hill near our house. Rarely used spare bedroom/bath....only hitch, must like dogs (4) and cat (1), or at least tolerate them . Funny re: the bike ride miscommunication. Glad you are back in the saddle.

Steve, great job getting your ride done! LOL on the dreams...the first of many.

Jay, glad you are doing the sprint! I did one like that a month ago, and really enjoyed it. Sometimes it's good to just show up and go.

Elena, sounds like you are back in the swing. Sometimes a little routine is a good thing.

Hi Jim! Glad to hear from you.

Pam, hope all is well with your running.

Need to go back and catch up on posts...so if I've missed you, it's me not you

Having a wonderful time in San Francisco. Walked 7-8ish miles yesterday, and watched one of the America's Cup warmup races (sailing), which was pretty cool and free! The boats are literally flying...both hulls out of the water at times. Crazy fast! Went for a jog/walk this morning, and saw a new to me sight....a guy juggling and running at the same time...and doing both pretty well. Glute pain was almost non-existent this morning on the run .75, walk .25 repeat routine. Totally flat route along the Embarcadero, which helps.

Howdy all.

Today was my first race of the season and it was a learning experience. You guys and gals may or may not know this but this was only my 2nd triathlon ever. Having said that, it was not an ideal race. I was comfortable with the surroundings because I did the race last year and the water was warmer than expected. At the sound of the air horn, I started out swimming WITH the pack....big mistake. Last year, I counted until 5 and then went and I should've done the same. So out to the first buoy I went and about halfway there, BAM! I got kicked in the face hard....and thats when all hell broke loose on my swim. I made it to the buoy (barely) and grabbed the kayak....I was having a full blown panic attack....chest tightening, barely able to breathe...bad stuff. At this point...no shock to you all....I was pissed at myself and that made things worse...after about a minute I tried to go out again and about halfway to buoy 2 another attack because I couldn't settle down. To be honest, I thought I was going to call it a day at this point...I was hyperventilating and felt totally defeated...and that's when the guy in the kayak saved my day. He encouraged me and told me he'd stay with me until the end. There's no happy ending to this story...I was dead last out of the water. I've had a lot of time to think about what happened and I'm very upset with myself for not being mentally tougher. I did a half mile last year and I'm a much better swimmer now than I was then.

Things got much better after this! I went to T1, still pissed, and feeling sorry for myself. Overall, the transition went about as well as I could expect with my mentality at that point. Then, it was on. I turned all of that negative into a "FU all, I'm on land and this is where I go to work!" And work I did, I passed 18 bikers on the 13 mile course, hammered over 30MPH a few times and got out all of my anger. I looked at my watch later and my average pace was 16.5 which was pretty fast for the course; it was mostly rolling hills and I usually only average 15/15.5 My T2 was fine and I went off to run the 5K. I would be lying if I didnt say I was a little concerned about over doing the bike but I didnt. I held a good pace for my run and finished strong....passed another 5-8 people during the run. I wasn't wearing my watch so I don't know how my pace was but it felt close to my usual 9ish pace.

I learned some lessons for today which will need to be applied quickly....another race in 2 weeks. I'm not discouraged at all....more disappointed. I may have to accept that using the breast stroke as my primary stroke maybe necessary for comfort. I don't exactly set the world on fire with my freestyle pace anyway so. I do feel like I owe the group an apology. You all have helped me with a lot of different aspects of triathlon and I take your advice seriously! Today, I executed none of it and I feel badly about that. I sent a text to my swim coach saying the same thing.

Hope you all are having a good day!

Carol, glad you are having fun in SF and Rhett is behaving. Juggling and running? Like neither one is hard enough.

Dang it, what am I doing wrong on the IM tracking? I'm trying to checking on Ken.

No running for me the last three days. We finally got some people out of our rental so we have been there the last 3 days - cleaning, painting, cussing, yardwork. Exhausted, tired, pissed, and sore. Thankfully most of the work is done. I told the family that I could not spend all day in there and after my blowup yesterday, they got out of my way.

IM Kona on right now. Mike, your stalker was out of the water first and accidentally knocked down a volunteer in the way.

Ok, got to see if I can get Ken's results.

MTA, Jay you and I were posting at the same time. Oh honey, I'm so sorry!!!!! Same thing happened to me my last tri where I got kicked twice. Then I decided to drink the water. So panic, anger, fear, frustration then. I'm so sorry for you. But great job finishing. Proud of you!

MTA again. Ken I'm so sorry!!! I know that you are hurting right now but we are still proud of you. You did the training and you will be able to get 'em next time.

Edited by Pink Socks 2013-08-25 1:30 PM

Jay, you had an adventure and finished the race with a decent bike and a satisfying run. Ya when Ken was talking about starting at the head of the pack with 2500+ other swimmers I recommended he um not do that for the reasons you stated in your race report. The thing is you finished and you learned for next time. On my first Oly I got my watch caught doubled folded in my wetsuit as I tried to take it off, and my timing chip band, and I had not put on my tri top until after the swim (dry tri top wet skin bad mix). On my first tri, somehow the chain was off the cog so when I clipped in to pedal things didn't quite go as planned. Some things you can learn by folks telling you and other things, ya just have to do them and learn by experience. Please don't ride into the sun trying to squeeze in that last 5 miles before dark..... bad outcome.

Anyone have Ken's last name or race number... I know he put it somewhere I'll go look for it.

Samantha glad you are having fun. Post IM the main goal is to relax recover and have fun before picking your next target. If you don't do that many folks become depressed with the post IM physical activity decrease and continued food intake. You have all this time, no direction lots of food and put on 10 to 20 pounds and end up feeling not so great about yourself. But you are upgrading your job, getting a new place, making friends and going on bike rides etc 8).

So I was not sure how this morning's run was going to go after yesterdays bike and being really really slow and tired on the run all week. But things went well. Here are my time splits with a goal of 9:15 to 9:30 pace for the run: 9:45, 9:11, 9:08, 9:09, 9:12, 9:07, 9:11, 9:18, 9:33, 9:31, 9:27, 9:33, 9:31, 9:30, 9:21, 9:26, 9:19, 9:08. Yup that's how it is supposed to look 8). Not fast but solid with no drop off, run fitness is in place.

Time to go stalk Ken. Doh, DNF on the swim 2:49 with a 2:20 swim cutoff time. Ken your practice pace was fine to finish the swim portion of the race with time to spare, next go we need to get you more yards in your long swim and you will be fine. When you have a few beers in ya and have recovered emotionally let us know what went wrong. Take care of you, sucks you didn't get to the bike and run where you would have easily made up that 19 minutes.



Edited by Baowolf 2013-08-25 3:13 PM

Ken is 2509 and it doesn't look like he made the swim. Unless my
Tracker is wrong. I'm hoping it's wrong.

Its not wrong Samantha. I looked him up a few hours ago...2:49 for the swim I believe.

Steve and Pam, thanks for the encouragement. It sucks but its nice to know that these things do/have happened to others. I just need to learn from them and become a better triathlete.

Ah, Ken, I'm so sorry . I hope that after the dust clears that you realize what an accomplishment it is to have completed the training and toed the line today.

Jay, swimming is such a mental thing, and I think it's that much harder for someone as hard charging as you are. It's also pretty hard for anyone to recover from getting kicked in the face like that. But you came out of the water swinging on the bike and run, and that is a huge victory.

Steve, so glad your fitness is right on target. That has to feel good about now, and I'm betting that hitting the couch does too.

Pam, sounds like a marathon on the rental. You are making me very glad I didn't get my way to fix up my FIL's house and be the landlord for him. Closed on selling his house on Friday before we left. HUGE relief!

Know I'm not very exciting re: racing and such lately, but I realized today just how much getting into triathlons even to the extent that I have has changed my life. Hubby's work buddies arrived today, and it was a big thing for them to just walk a few miles to/from lunch. The youngest one was very disappointed that they didn't have a shuttle running the 1 mile from the hotel to the conference registration. Meanwhile, I'm using every excuse possible to get outdoors and move. I just feel like I see and experience so much more that way. Tomorrow I'm renting a road bike and taking it across the golden gate bridge, through a redwood grove, and wherever else the path leads me. I would never have done that before I started down the triathlon path, and that would have been a shame.

Hrm, just found a recent writeup on the IM Tahoe course (say its rated hardest IM doh). Bike course has 8000 feet of elevation gain with sections of 11% grade and multiple sections of long uphill grades. Sigh. Didn't think it got more than 8%. Hrm.