Baowolf's Beginner Banquet -Sorry all tables are full no room.. (Page 42)

The kayak girl was strange because no guy wants a cute young girl watching him the entire time just because he's the loser of his group.  I'm sure everybody understands how that goes.

As far as riding in the rain goes, it's funny, races are the only time I have done it.  It's not really bad but it can hurt when you moving 25+.  There's just one rule you have to remember, all that paint on the road(lines, turn arrows, etc.) are slick like ice.  Avoid going over them if possible.  Manhole covers and any other metals are the same way.  If you ever think you will be out in the rain, put less air pressure in your tires.  I normally run around 120psi in my tires, but when I suspect rain, I lower it to 100 psi.  Less pressure makes the tire flatten more.  Slows you down some, but a flatter tire is a grippier tire.

Something else from today.  The lake had a nice thick bed of seaweed like plants you had to step through and stand in.  It was creepy because it smooshed down when you stepped in it.  I kept wondering what lived down there.  Somebody said snapping turtles.

Dennis--maybe she thought you were cute?    Or maybe it was just her job to mop up after the last swimmer in a wave?  Sounds unpleasant for you either way.  Nice job on the tri though, especially in the rain.

Carol--WTG for keeping up with the group ride as long as you did.  That definitely would have done me in, and much sooner.

Biked 18 today with 1000 ft of climbing. 

Way to stay strong Dennis.  I did a HIM in the rain the whole way, more than 15 people dropped from hopthermia.  I always bring a rain jacket to races until I know the forcast.  Yes biking is harder in the rain, pudles, visibility, etc.  You probably have a good idea what a HIM will take now.  I take it your nutrition went well as you didn't mention it. 

In my IM there was a lady in a kayak near one of the bridge posts to keep people from smacking into it.  Each time I came by I asked her if she had caught any fish.  Then on the run I asked the folks at the turn around if it was 2 laps like the swim.. and smiled knowing it was 3.  I always have fun and talk it up with folks. On the last lap I was chatting with a guy saying these are the "I'll never do another IM again" miles aren't they?  We chuckled and I moved on past him.  I always try to make some comment funny, encouraging, thankful whatever during the race.  I really am thankful for the folks who are helping out that give me a cup of cold water and tell them so. 

Everyone is moving along so well.  Not a lot of beginners left in this group.  Yall are well on your way, knowing what you need to to get faster or go farther or both.  If only my children were so willing to learn.... 8). 

Nutrition went fine.  I did pretty much what I had planned.  Didn't bonk.  Every 15 minutes on the bike I would eat a 33cal Clif Block and drink some Gatorade.  On the run I at around 50cal in jelly beans and Gatorade at some of the aid stations.  I didn't bonk or exhausted so I guess I did ok.

Sleep was another issue.  Went to bed around 8:00 the night before, woke up at midnight and never went back to sleep.  Watched a few episodes of Whale Wars (never seen or heard of it).  I went ahead and took a shower at 3:30 and got ready to go.  Was setting up transition at 5:00a.m. using my head-light.  Another racer was already there said he had the same issue with sleeping.  So when the race started, I had already been up for 7 hours on only 4 hours sleep.

I got the race results and came in 9 out of 10 for my AG and 52/60 overall.  The overall includes the girls also.  Nothing to write home about, but at least not last place(not that there's anything wrong with that).

Hello Everyone! I have been catching up on the posts and was super stoked to hear Steve did so well. Congratulations!!!

Dennis it sounds like your race went very well also. Those hills sound brutal and adding in rain without much sleep adds to the difficultly level and your overall ability. HIM will hopefully be much easier as a result.

Backpacking was pretty awesome. I had 5 straight days of sunshine, which equaled hot days hiking in the sun. I prefer the cooler weather, but with good weather you can do things bad weather will not allow. We gained 1800 elevation within a mile to reach a peak called Eagle Cliff that was around 7500ft. it was gorgeous. The trip was challenging and it allowed me to really practice my leadership skills in a variety of ways. Wish I were still up there.

Training is on my mind, but my motivation is low right now. I don't have much time to build up for the OLY and I find getting out there after a week off difficult. I will be back in my normal environment tomorrow and should be able to pick it back up.

July's totals:

 Not sure they are so great, but that was with a week off for backpacking, so I will give myself a break. I look forward to higher numbers for August.

Good work everyone. Hope training, recovery, vacations, etc., etc., continue going well and I am glad to be back to keep up!

They are, just not from dear old dad!

Lisa, nice bike ride! 

Dennis, how's the recovery?

Samantha, welcome back!  Sounds like a great experience.  I'm sure those in the group you were leading will never forget it.

Ceril, you have the most fun weekends!

I think the lack of motivation thing is catching.  Feeling pretty tired and run down mentally and physically.  Got a late start on my bike ride this morning, felt drained afterwards, and been playing the "I'll do it later game" with my swim workout.  Same thing yesterday -- got a later than planned start, so had to cut my run short.  Maybe it's that we're on our 37th day of 100+ degrees, and I'm sick of it!  Bahhh!!!!

Awwww yeah!  It might be minor to some of you, but I am finally getting the hang of this swimming after watching countless videos today.  For the first time ever I swam a sub-2:00 100 with a cool 1:58.  I then took it to a 500 set that I completed in 10:22 at a 2:04 pace.  

So what have I done, I think I got the high elbows portion of the catch/pull down better and am rotating better.  When my forearm is perpendicular to the floor, I start rotating away from that arm with both my hips and shoulders.  Before I would rotate my shoulders only when I reached forward.  This video helped explain high elbow pull for me.

Dennis, glad you bounced right out of your race and back into training.  ANY improvement in swimming is big in my book.  I'll watch the video before my next swim.  I checked out Steve's tip on breath timing and realized that I do fine on my strong side, but was breathing too soon on my weak side...thus the sinking feeling.  Don't know that I'm faster yet, but at least maybe more even, and more comfortable with breathing on both sides.

Got in a longerish run this morning.  I think my heart rate is finally coming around a bit (down from the stratosphere).  I have focused on keeping it under 170 during most of my runs, which also keeps me from exploding in the heat.  Today, I went slow since I was going long, but didn't see it even hit 165 much of the time.  Incremental improvement....I'll take it!

Signed up for an OLY in Austin on 9/5.  The swim is in a fairly narrow "lake".  Shouldn't have much in the way of waves, nor will I be far from shore at any time, all of which seems like a good thing for my first.  Concerned about the heat on the run since the "old lady" wave is last.  Looks like I'll be staying with another BTer, which will definitely make it more fun. 

How is everyone else doing?  What are your training plans/race plans looking like these days? 

It is kind of that point in the season.  For me I don't really have any race plans currently.  I do have to move about 6 to 10 ton of dirt I had been putting off until after IM and projects and school is getting back up to speed, so lots of trainings and such (the kind I do not the kind I watch).  I picked up a cold last week which was probably contributing towards my lack of energy.  So I just took a couple days off and played frisbee golf with the inlaws and then we drove home yesterday (14 hours). 

Thoughts about doing a century ride with 9000 feet of elevation gain in a couple weeks, doing a marathon that is close to home in October where my son will be running a shorter race, doing the sprint that my wife may sign up for... all maybes.  Oh well plenty of time to figure out what my body can, should or shouldn't be doing once I get over this cold. 

Part of the lifestyle of triathlon is like dieting... sometimes you are in a good groove and sometimes... you don't really feel like doing much.  It is always better to do something short than nothing at all, we can all fall back into couch potatoe mode.  Vacations disrupt our patterns of workouts and such, so getting back into the swing of things takes mental effort.  Setting new goals, picking new races, etc.  It will work out, but just get something in and the rest will follow. 

Hrm... ok so I signed up for a 100 mile bike ride on 8/20 with 7500 feet of elevation gain.  Then I went and jogged 4 miles.  I am perhaps not as recovered as I want to be.  Oh well another week... I should be fine right?

This is the one I broke my collar bone on last year.  Crater Lake Century Ride.

2:30 in the morning, can't sleep, should run! Won't, I'll wait a tad longer for some civilization to wake up, but I am back on the internet! yay!

Carol, I was wondering recently how your weight loss was coming along.  So happy for you that others are noticing.  That is a big deal when others notice and feel confident enough to comment.  You must be svelt! I hate the summer, as being home all day not working, I get bored and eat.  Back to work next week, my body needs it!

So I looked at my graphs, gosh, I look like I've totally abandoned tri training.  Just running.  Not good.  So I am looking to this group to nag me about my biking and swimming.  I can't lose what little I have gained. So please, nag at will...

Steve, only an ironman recovers with a century ride!  Hope this one ends much better!  Personally, 7500 feet of climbing OR 100 miles would kill me anyway, so it would not matter.

Samantha, good job getting back into the swing after your hiking adventure!  Wish I knew on the back issue.  Can't remember....have you had a bike fit done?

Karen, nice 13 mile run!  Sounds like you are tracking nicely for your marathon.  So will people be dressed up for haloween?  Thanks for the Friel book review...think I'll skip it for now since I'm more in a summer novel kind of a mood.

Dennis, I know your season is not over and you are in full 1/2 IM training mode.  Are you having any burnout issues, or still going strong mentally? 

My season is far from over as well, OLY 9/5, OLY 10/2, and a final sprint 10/30.  Running is OK, but I'm really having to talk myself into biking and swimming this week.  Didn't help I went down and landed partly in a busy road after trying to avoid some construction muck on the bike path this morning.   Slow speed, an no harm done, but a car whizzing by close to my head left me shaken up a bit.  I must have something left to do here on earth ! 

Geez Carol! Falling in traffic is not good! So glad you are "still with us!"

Samantha, not sure about the bike.  I'll echo what Carol asked, bike fit?

I'm good, still wanting to train hard.  I have a couple of issues though lately.

1. My weight's up about 5 lbs. Not bad and easily controllable, just got to watch my eating and get back on a more healthy intake routine.  I've been good this week on eating but just gotta watch it for a while.
2. The bike rides from my training schedule are getting a little bit too long and I don't care to be getting up at 3:00 a.m. to fit them in.  So I'm trying to just get a 20 and a 30 in during the week before my 50+ on the weekend.  The issue there has been the rain lately.
3. With that I've been moving things around on my training schedule around.  You know, move the short bike from Wednesday to Thursday and do my long swim on Tuesday instead of Monday.
4. Running is my main love though.  I'm at a point where I want to get the HIM finished so I can really get into running more.  I'm excited about doing the long runs this fall.  I have even mapped out my 20 mile long run before the race.  I've decided to do it on Thanksgiving morning and run from my house in the suburbs through the city to the Pyramid on the Mississippi river.  I figure Thanksgiving morning is probably one of the safest days to run through the ghetto.

I'm basically good as long as I have a race scheduled.  I normally get my long and medium workouts in, but am getting to where I'm missing my short ones.  All of this is probably common and as long as I only miss 1 or 2 workouts a week and still get the long ones in, I'm probably ok.  I believe if I had to do my HIM tomorrow, I could, but I want it to be easier to recover from than what it would be.

I'm also thinking about limiting my weekend group ride.  They stop and rest twice on a 50 mile ride.  I need to ride 50-60 miles nonstop for my long ride.  I figure I can get out by 5:00am from home on Saturday, knock out the 50-60 miler in 3-4 hours, and be home way earlier than I would if I went out with the group.  As the guy in "Long Run" says, when your in a race, it's just you.  You need to know you can ride the distance on your own and support yourself.  If you have a flat with a group, they'll help, you have it by yourself, now your really testing yourself mentally.

So this week I've gotten in my long swim(2 sessions on Monday) and my 11 mile long run.  Tonight I plan on getting my medium swim in.  Tomorrow morning a medium 30 mile bike. Tomorrow night, my short run.  Friday is medium run and short swim.  Saturday is long bike.  Sunday I have a 5 mile road race to run.  That will get me 4 runs, 3 swims and 2 bikes in this week.  The only reason to run Friday and not bike is that would make 3 bikes in a row.

You asked, so there you have it.  Still training a lot, but it could probably have a little more quality to it. 

Great deal on shoes

Ok I accidentally found a great site for running shoes.  Running Warehouse.  Not only are there prices 10-20% less than FleetfFeet and other running stores, but they seem to always have a current 10% discount code(RWAUG11) that you can use.  I run in Mizuno Wave Riders, in town they cost $100 + tax at all the stores.  I actually get 10% off from FleetFeet for being a running club member, so I pay $90+tax, $98.33.  I purchased the same shoes with free 2 day shipping for $76.46. That's over $20 cheaper with my club discount.

Just thought I'd let everybody know.

Dennis, you are doing great, both mentally and physically!  Way to go!  This sport is a good outlet for the planner in us. 

Feel free to send some of that rain our way.  The drought is pretty bad, and there are a lot of dead smells wafting through the park.  I think small animals and fish are dying, and rotting, ick!

Hoping to join an OWS in the morning but haven't heard back yet on the details.  Otherwise, just making it through another week of workouts and dreaming of cool fall runs.

MTA: Great minds on the Running Warehouse sale...bought some shoes yesterday.  I received a 25% off deal in e-mail and that was on top of purchasing shoes that were already considered closeouts.  So I got my normal shoes for $40 (no shipping and no tax).  They are a previous year model, but I don't care...they work for me.  Yay!

I didn't know about the 25% off link (here it is for everybody).  I could've gotten the red version of my shoe for only $64.  Oh well.

Drats!  Sorry Dennis, I wish I had thought to put that out there so you could get the 25% off too.  Either way, some very good deals on shoes.  I got some for my husband as well.  He doesn't run much, but for $40, they are good walking and knocking around shoes too.

Thanks to a fellow BTer, I found a group to practice OWS with this morning.  Good news is I have a place to practice now, bad news is I need to do a lot more of it.  Only swam probably 800 M and never really got into any kind of a rythm.  Anyway, next week I'll cut back my running a bit, try to keep the bike mileage about the same, and work more on the swim. 

I wouldn't feel bad about breaking up your long ride.  You should be fine on race day, especially if you are riding harder with the group than you would alone.  It is one of those don't obsess about it too much kind of things.  Dennis you may go into a training slump with low motivation around your last 2 build weeks, that is normal, just get er done and easy into recovery. 

When you workout longer your brain thinks you need more recovery food than you really do.  So the danger areas are overdoing it right after a long workout and then grazing on snacks in the evening.  I didn't lose any weight during IM training even though I was burning up to  15,000 calories a week.  I raced at 143 which was meh close enough to not stress over.   

Legs were iffy for my 4 mile run this week so I just moved a couple ton of dirt landscaping the backyard for 2 days.  Today was an easy 40 mile bike ride in 92 F very dry air.  I ended up taking in a lot of water, especially on the 2nd half.  Hamstring was a touch tight, but calves were ok.  On the run the thighs were still tight and hip flexors from all the downhills.  I will probably walk jog the next one to see how that goes. 

My wife's achilies is bugging her so she may have to drop her sprint for the year (.  So I probably wont do that one either.  Kinda need to get more recovery in before I make any other plans though.  I plan on doing the century very slowly and enjoying the food and socializing at the rest stops. 

Oh and I rarely pay more than $55 for shoes that sell for $100-110.  I buy my 5 pair at the end of the year of "last years model" when the new model comes out.  There actually are still some last year shoes out there, got a pair for my son $45 less than my wife was going to buy them from a store in town, including tax and shipping.   

Woohoo!!! It actually rained! Group ride was cancelled this morning, so did back to back spin classes at the gym.  Only the second time I've done spin class and it was kind of a nice change of pace.

Steve, sorry your wife's sprint is not going to work out .  If you run out of things to do there, we're looking at building a workshop in the back yard....just sayin'!

How is everyone elses's training going?