SBR Utopia ~~~~ Permanently OPEN!! (Page 43)

same here, a minute off for NOLA.   May work better with flat courses.

BBS was within a couple of minutes for me at Honu last year.  Granted it's hard to accurately predict as it is given the variable wind conditions.  I plugged in the Mauna Loa course and it's predicting around 5:50 for 170 watts.  Again, highly dependent on wind and possible rainy conditions.

Yeah, it's really depending on you giving it as accurate of information as possible.  Just changing the wind direction can have a major effect.  For the HIM I am doing in Sept, there is a 12 minute variation in estimated time depending on what direction I give it.

Looks like Iselle hit the big island.  I hope things aren't too bad where you are Jason.

Ugh - just saw that. Good thing it got downgraded, but 60mph winds are still no joke - that is usually what we wind up with with from the remnants of our gulf hurricanes. Hope it doesn't mess up your travel too much, Jason and the route up the mountain is clear.

Good luck Arend and Ryan - hopefully your weather turns out OK - Ryan I know even when the weather looks great in that part of Michigan the swim can still get wonky due to the short wave period on the lake causing significant rips. Hopefully Lake Michigan lays down for Steelhead for once.

Got in to Milwaukee later than planned last night (but caught up with Chris and he got in even later). Just got back from racking my bike and I have to say I have never seen so much bank in a transition area in my life....

Could have something to with reduced skill dependency following the math more easily.

I tried out a new pair of running shoes today and they did NOT work for me.  Within a few minutes, I felt a hot spot on the ball of my right foot, but figured it wouldn't be a big deal.  By the time I was 1.5 miles away from my car, I realized the hot spot was going to turn into a blister....but I still had 1.5 miles left to go.

So now I have a very tender, not-quite blister (but probably will be...) on the ball of my right foot.  Any methods of getting rid of blisters ASAP?  I have a long run planned for tomorrow that I'm worried about.  My run build for 70.3 WC has been really quite good so far....I'm bummed about this!

I'm giving the swim in my race tomorrow about a 1% chance of happening.

Great result for Chris!

Sucks about the stings Fred, you've certainly had bad luck there this year.  I've been lucky so far this year, I usually get one or two.

BTW, if anyone is reading this and can't post because you are getting a message about your IP being restricted, you should email (not PM - that won't go either) Ron (ron at beginnertriathlete . com) about it.  They are having major spam problems and I seem to have been caught up in it and couldn't post since yesterday morning.  

123 mile ride with just under 10,000 ft of climbing.

Good thing you got so fast on the bike and run now!!

Great job Chris!!

I personally wouldn't say oh well to several stings Fred, but glad the ride went well.  I guess this is the last "bigger" one before next week?

I was happy with 100km ride today, though the climbing was less than expected at 2000ft.  123 miles...one day, but I'm not there at the moment - nice job.

followed up by rich ratay (scoobysdad) brining down some local brews and hanging out watching the super sprint, then dinner and great company with rusty and his wife Jennifer. All around great day. Now to bed for a 4:15 am wake up call ugh

We had a great time as well in Milwaukee - if it weren't for the fact that 98 percent of this group seems to be Canadian I would recommend Milwaukee next year as a possible SBR meetup race. Really an excellent town/venue/course all around. The pro-am super sprint race afterward was really fun to watch - nuts to get an up close look at what it looks like to REALLY turn yourself inside-out for 35 minutes. It was also cool to finally meet Randy (slowrnow) and Renee (cat woman) who are both racing the sprint this morning, And of course getting to hang out with Chris was just the icing on the cake - he is really good people!!

We are also winging it home this morning on an early morning flight - we have had an AWESOME two week vacation, but very much looking forward to getting home, and oddly, back to work.

Sorry about the bees Fred. You can't seem to catch a break. It is a bit of an issue around our parts during the summer, but thus far I have not yet gotten stung this season. I have got a couple in my helmet, but after having the "come on Mr. Bee, can't we all just get along?" conversation with them they have gone on their merry way. I am fortunate to not have much of a reaction to them other than the initial "OW! SONOFABITCH!" But I do have a couple of buddies that ride with epi pens in their jersey pockets at all times.

Sounds like you guys had a great time at AG Nats!  Congrats

Hoping Arend and Ryan have great races (with swims, even!) today....and that everything turned out fine with Jason, the hurricane, and the race.

No swim for me, the surf was too wild.  

Did a 10k/40k/5k Du instead.  The wind on the bike was intense -  direct crosswinds 100% of the time of 30 km/hr gusting to 45 supposedly but it felt like more since we were right on the ocean totally exposed.  Everyone thought I was nuts for using my wheel cover.  There was one bridge that we crossed that was pretty sketchy but other than that I think it was the right choice.  I just spent 50% of the time leaning left and the other 50% leaning right.  

Finished 8th of 25 in 2:14:12 and had the 3rd fastest bike split and two runs that I'm very happy with.

Sorry about the swim, saw Tab's fb post and it didn't look good...   Sounds like you managed a good training day out of it though.

LOL, if you guys knew the "rest of the story" about that pic.   That beer is not even mine, and the salad is not Rusty's!   The bacon wrapped meatloaf on a bed of mashed potatoes, on the other hand, is mine

Had a great time with Jen and Rusty, felt like I'd know them for years, and Jen is sweetheart.  Rusty really married up! 

Well, could have been a really special day out there for me yesterday, but the heat completely broke me on the run.

Had the swim of my life - 33:45 and 17thAG/228 - fastest in AG was 29:45.  The wind and current was into us so slow across the board.  I have never felt so comfortable and fast on a swim.

Biked a 2:22:59 (bravo BBS) at 216NP.  This is actually less power than at GR where I was 218NP.  The blocking on the course was brutal and I was in a later wave so screaming on your left the whole ride.  Rode by myself the entire way.  Really solid split for me.

Came off the bike feeling great.  Their is a big hill at end of first mile which I managed ok, but once I turned to a tailwind it felt like I stepped into a sauna and it was all downhill from there.  Absolute sufferfest from about mile 3. 

If I could have ran my planned pace I am looking at a top 10AG and possibly top 5AG.  5th was 4:32 and change.

Lots of positives from this race though - the swim and bike made incredible improvements this year - but the heat killed me.  We have had such a mild summer and to step into that and try to run well was not going to happen for me.

A bit bummed about it but excited for future opportunities too and hopefully putting it all together.

Great job training an racing everyone.

My race up Mauna Loa got postponed a month due to the storms.  Which likely means I won't be able to do it.  Not a huge deal other than eating the airfare as I wasn't feeling all that great this weekend anyway.  Had the race gone on, I can only imagine it would have been a real struggle to finish.  Ironically, the first hurricane that rolled through, went head on into the Southeast side of Mauna Loa (we would have climbed in from the Northwest), and it completely broke the hurricane up to the point where the West side of the island barely got any wind or rain.  The East side of the Big Island really took one for the team...and I know one of the guys who was helping organize the race is from that side...so I can't really complain when he notified everyone the race was postponed.