BigSkiesMentorGroup - COMPLETE! (Page 5)

HELMUTH -

Yes! But give me a few more hours to get back to you. It's 5:15 a.m. and Lynn and I are rushing off to do a grassland birds survey about 75 minutes from home. See you later on!

TRINA -

Ack! I still owe you a foot/shoe response from a couple days ago. (It's funny sometimes, the things we wake up thinking about!)



JEFF and SANDRA -

See above one to Helmuth; I'll be back in a bunch o' hours.

JOE -

Consider yourself one of The Chosen Few! Even if there is a "CLOSED" notice next to the group name....we still have a seat reserved for you. See you soon.

VERONICA -

Let's also talk about Newtons some more. They are not necessarily easy to adjust to (depending on how you presently run), and for me I went through a few levels of Purgatory before I learned to love them with deep, abiding passion.

The bird survey was okay, with nice sites this year, but not a ton of meaningful activity. The survey is mostly designed to obtain sughtings of Loggerhead Shrikes, which are endangered in Ontario. We didn't get any today, and none last year, either. The best thing today was a gaggle of 13 turkeys, about half of which were males in full "Look at me! Look at me!" tail-spreading and studly-strutting glory. We'd never seen such brazen decadence from turkeys before!

HELMUTH -

You have very compelling incentive to work at triathlon, or even to just stay active with it. Well done on choosing this particular path to pursue heart-health!

For what it's worth, my waking heart rate is in the 40-44bpm range, so I guess my years of doing this stuff has had some measureable heart benefits. Some might say that such a low heart rate is more indicative of an amphibian than a human.....but I prefer to think otherwise!

You've been very wise in taking your time to work up to a olympic distance. It doesn't mean that people who make the jumps quickly are making big mistakes, but I just think that the journey is a big part of the joy of triathlon. And, also, there's the very real benefits that come from learning the ropes of one distance before moving on to the next longest distance -- which will help you when May 1 comes around.

I have lots of thoughts of oly nutrition, but first -- what do you use for race and training nutrition now? Are you a gel (Hammer, GU, AccelGel, PwerGel, CarbBoom!, Clif Shot) person, or one who is more inclined to energy drinks and bars, or one who follows a more "natural" path? Let me know, and we'll go from there!

Nice weather ALL year? Training heaven, it sounds like! I see you're wearing a wetsuit in the photo, and am just curious if the May 1 race will be wetsuit-legal. I see "island", and I see "Caribbean", and I expect it might be warm enough to be close to wetsuit-illegal. Also in the just curious category -- is swimming your strength?

Welcome to BigSkies, Helmuth!

Did my 1st OWS of the season.  Water temp. in the Gulf was perfect.  Great day for a swim.  Although I like swimming in the Gulf better than in a pool I sure do miss that "black line" for directions.  It was a bit choppy without big red race buoy's or somebodies feet to set on so it was tough to swim straight.  I have a tendecy to drift left a bit.  Got some OWS swim work to do before the race in 3 weeks.

TRINA -

Focus is a HUGE personal strength. Embrace it! Honor it!! Cherish it!!!

Now, on to the foot stuff.

For arch type, the best test is the "wet test". If you google this you will probably find a concise description at either Runners World or maybe Road Runner Sports....but I will give you my best non-concise one.

Get you feet wet, but not saoking; after a shower, or a few minutes after a swim is best. If you have a dark floor, especially laminate, that will show it well. Short of that, a paper grocery bag will do the trick.

The "it" two sentences before this one is your foot image, which will come up nicley if your foot is damp. You can either stand naturally on the paper bag, or pad around a bit on the floor -- and then look to see the image of your foot. Hereit is baest to try to find a drawing of foot images on line, but essentially there are three broad types:
1.) A high arch will appear as almost two discrete parts of the foot, the forefoot and the heel, connected by a narrowish band, which is your outer arch.
2.) A low arch will appear as one "blocky" foot, with essentially no space shown between the forefoot and the heel.
3.) A medium arch will be...you guessed it! Somewhere between the two above.

This works best for people at the extremes -- the one with very high arches in which there is a gap between heel and forefoot, and the one with very flat feet, in which the blockiness is complete. The middel ground can get confusing, which is why an illustration might help you sort it out. For me, I am somewhere between high and medium, with most illustartions I have seen amking it more obviousl a high arch than a medium one.

Onwards!

As for degree of pronation, there are a couple of clues. One is from the shoes you have been running in, especially if you got them at a palce that took the time to figure out your running shoe needs. So, if you were put in a Saucony Grid Stabil, and have run without mostly injury-free, then that would tell me that you over-pronate quiet a bit. If you have been in an Asics Cumulus or Nimbus and have been injury-free, that would say that you under-pronate.

Another clue is arch type, with a couple general but not infallible correlations in effect. To wit:
-- people with high arces are more inclined to under-pronate (supinate)
-- people with low arches tend to over-pronate

So, if you told me that the wet test showed you having a low arch, but that you love the look of Asics Cumulus, I would tell you to be every careful with that purchase! Now, it IS true that some people with high arches over-pronate (my massage person being one of them), and some people woith low arches don't have a pronation problem at all....but those are some pretty good guidelines to follow.

A third clue is injury history, although this is far from perfect. And I won't do a big long list here, but just as examples say thsat illiotibial band problems are more commonly found in people with high arches, while kneecap instability issues are more common in people with low arches. Hip woes, such as what I'm working through now, are alos more common in under-pronators -- and that would be me!

And just for the record, pronation is GOOD -- at least to some degree. It is the foot's way of absorbing impact, and so for high-arched folks with feet that don't absorb inpact, they are susceptible to a ange of impact-related injuries; stress fractures are one of them. Too much pronation, however, is not good, as it involves torquing to occur, and this affects the major joints such as ankles and especially knees. Over-pronators also are more prone to "shin splints" as that torquing often causes the perineum (doesn't look right....) to pull away from the shin bone some. Torquing can also lead to Achilles problems.

Blah, blah, blah! Too much information?? (Dodn't I warn you not to get me started? .... ?)

Onwards!

Wear pattern! Turn your trusty running shoes upside down and study where wear is obvious and where wear doesn't seem to have happened at all. Most running shoes have intricate patterning on the bottoms, so you can see where the pattern is still visible, and where it has instead been worn to a smooth surface. This is your crash course in SWI (Shoe Wear Investigation), and when you have all the clinical and forensic evidence, try to describe it to me. I won't get into what kind of wear suggests what type of runner one is; I have to hold onto some secrets, don't I? However, if you can tell me where your wear is happening, I can probably make a decent interpretation. I will, say, though, to focus on the heel and around the ball of the big toe, and that lateral and medial matter some.

Whew! I hope this has helped.....and that you managed to stay awake through all of it!

COLM -

Yes! I can sure help with that! As it turns out, I did my first triathlon in an August (2000, it was), and it too was a sprint, and I found that all that time between spring and race day was more than ample.

So....what kind of training are you doing now? There are, of course, lots of other questions that tie into that one, so I'll await your bio before going any further.

And if you have read through some or all of the posts here so far, you'll see that a bunch of the group have made it through their first race, so you'll be in very good hands all around.

Welcome!

JEFF -

Yes, the "stick with it" part is always a big question mark. This is the first April-born group I have had, and I was curious to see if there is more stick-to-it-ness due to the fact that people have managed to make their ways through the depths of winter....and still feel that triathlon and its siblings are attainable for them! But like you, I have a feeling that this group has a FORCE about them, and I feel that most will be here for the long haul. Here's hoping!

As for what is posted here ---- pretty much anything goes! (Kind of like "shoot-out at O.K.Corral", just fire away!) I even have no real problems with things straying off-topic at times, and as you can tell I have tendency to carry on some about other sports myself. My second group had a lengthy on-going dialogue between two people who are hooked on "Top Chef"; "Survivor" comes up at times; UFC; my first group had a foray into "chick flicks".

I think I mentione dbefore that I am weak on the higher-tech stuff, which includes Power Meters and Garmins and other tools that make me feel like a dinosaur. BUT, I welcome them as there is always at least one techie in any of these groups, and many more who are willing to learn. (I too am willing to learn high-tech stuff....just pitifully slow at it.)

So, for me, then, anything is fine!!

JEFF again -

I am SO envious of you for hitting "real" water --- and congrats on doing it!

A guy at the pool asked me yesterday when I would be back swimming in open water, and I told him that last year's May 17 date seems pretty much improbable for this year. Spring here has been very lsow and quite cold to boot, so I'm tentatively hoping for about May 24 -- and not holding my breath waiting!

I have done Columbia Tri, just west of Baltimore, three times, and last year was the only one in which I had been able to swim open water before the race. I was kind of hoping that the two OWS I had done before race day would give me a better swim time.....but no. It was a 31:47, which is actually a shade or two slower than what I usually do an oly swim in (about 30' is about what I can do, mostly), so that was a bit distressing. Perfectly in keeping with my swim history, mind you, but still distressing!

I too drfit to the left. Most times it's a bit, with the other maybe 20% being evenly split between "almost-straight" and "too-skewed!!"

Are you a right-side breather, perchance? I have spent the off-season in V.87 of trying to get more adept at bilateral, and if not that then working at breathing sporadically, meaning whenever I need it rather than religiously every second stroke or so. I have also worked harder at getting my right hand entry a bit further out to the side, figuring that maybe that will help my tendency to drfit. I mean, if maybe my right hand is actually POINTING to the upper left of my direction of movement and thus even STEERING me that way, well, that would explain that!

Which is your race in three weeks? I envy you that, too!

SANDRA -

Well, seeing as how you asked.....

A lot of time, maybe about 2-3 hours a day. I take it very seriously, figuring I've amde a commitment and need to honor it as best I can. (Plus, it's about the only way I Justify My Existence!)

Yes, i read everything -- except the ones I accidentally skip over. Sometimes I find those a few days later, other times I get asked about a question I hadn't answered and then have one of those "oops!" moments. I roughly aim for a 36-hour response time, but try pretty hard to be within 24 hours, and same-day service whenever possible (just like a quality dry cleaner!).

What slows me up some is my typing style, which is two-fingered to a fault AND requires toatl concentration on the keyboard. i am actually pretty quicj at this, but if I had to label a blank keyboard, i could not do it. When ttyping i seem to have a good idea here the keys are relative to one another, but when removed from the tssk at hand I am cluless. i am sure my grade 8 typing teacher guffaws in her grave every day when she sees the price I pay for screwing-off her class!

It sometimes boggles my mind to see the number of posts my groups have generated - 6456 by the first group (b. Jan '09), 6876 by the second group (b. Dec. '09) and 2565 by the 3rd group (b. Dec. '10). The first one is down to about 2.5 other active members, the second one mostly died sudeenly about three weeks ago, and the thrid one is still going strong.

I love these things, obviously. they keep me sharp, and aside from helping me justify my existance, they also partly justify the expense I made to become a USAT coach -- which I never carried forth to the next obvious level of becoming an actual on-line coach. So, what I do here is mostly "pro-bono" coaching, and just trying to help people realize their dreams and goals.

I have met five of the people in my groups, and only wish it were many more. Maybe someday I will do a huge road trip and meet every single one.........or not. Sigh.

SANDRA -

Congrats on the shoe purchase. Such decisiveness from an avowed anti-shopper!

What company, what model? And, more importantly -- how did the run today go??

As for gear and expense, working out a "comfortable gear-price zone" is probably a very valuable thing to do. There wer several times over the yrars when Lynn would say something like "You know, Steve, you're spending more money on triathlon than you're making", and that would humble me.....some. Or she might ask what exactly my tri budget was, and the best I could do was look vacant. Sometime shortly after my very big '04 season she asked that, and I actually took the time to figure out roughly what I had spent......and I was staggered by the number i came up with. Since then I have tried (honest!) to be more responsible, and definitely so since I retired in June '07. really, right now I race and do this stuff through Lynn's largesse, so I NEED to be more responsible!

But I digress! For yourself, you can do well to earmark a few key purcahses (that is, essential gear) and then aim in the middle range somewhere. Much of the high-end gear and equipment will add little to a person's racing skills, and a good amount of it is geared towards people who have exquisite talents anyhow. This can range from aero wheels to aero helmets to all the aero gear on the front end of ones' bike.....but does little to help a person with a middling-to-poor riding position, or who jiust hasn't had the time to learn to ride hard and aggressively. And the benefits of some of the high-end wetsuits kick in when the wearer has, say, a perfect catch so is able to utilize the special "catch panel" in the forearm of the suit. For those of us who don't have a perfect catch, those panels just creat a small surface of increased drag!

Your bike is probably fine -- not ideal due to what is likely a fair amount of weight, but it's got some gears to play with and is relatively sleek in design. One thing you could look into is a clip-on aerobars, which can cost well under $100USD if you look around a little. These would improve your riding position some. A related toy for this is a "Forward" seat post -- one that has a bend towards the top so the saddle can perch more forward, thus improbving your position. This is a good thing, but will require other adjustments to your bike so you're not all scrunched up at the front end of it. These are usually not that costly, so you might want to consider it.

I'm just yakking here, with no real goal and no real advice. If you have questions about specific items, though, I can probably help with some suggestions. So, as brainstorms come up, ask immediately!

SARAH -

Not THAT'S a very unusual success story -- never having done an open water swim, and enjoying it right away. You might (or maybe not) be surprised at how many people find open water a real bugaboo, a monumental stumbling block. With the attitude you have towards open water, you've solved about 73.8% of the triathlon race-swim game!

But the bike....oh, my! A mountain bike on those hills would indeed be misery, and you deserve mega marks for even attempting it. I have been at many races where the mountain bikers are gamely attacking every inch of tough courses, and I cannot really fathom how difficult it is for them. I have a light bike and a great riding position on it, nd I'm devecent on hills, and if I'm working hard I can only guess the level of their suffering (or fortitude). Mercy!

What I'm not sure of is where you are at now, bike-wise. I guess I should go back to your first post and look for clues there! I'll treat it like searching for easter eggs -- how timely!

NOW it clicks in, the series thta has Annapolis and Gettysburg. I ahd fogotten both, which is really a shame because when I first looked into G-burg it was very intriguing. I'm scambling around for what caught my attention, and it seems to be that the bike course for both the sprint and the oly is the same, due to the point-to-point nature of it. Normally I would choose the oly of those two options, but the sprint would be a killer-good race for me -- shortish swim and over-long bike in proportion to the swim, and then a quick sprint run. Glad you refreshed my addled memory!

Nope, won't jinx West Point. I was jinxed enough there last year, as it was an "A" race for me and I was in terrific race shape, and had a good swim by my swimming standards.....and then flatted about two miles into the bike. The fix was terrible for me, about ten minuytes, and while I finished it likea bat out of hell, my hopes for big USAT rankings points were gone, gone, gone. So, I owe that course something, and shouldn't tempt the fates by frolicking on the enemy's (USNA) playground!

Congrats on a sodaless Thursday! How was today??

Finally, the IronGirl events are hugely popular, so as I guess you found out -- book early. It's the same with any of the all-women events, I think. At least the Danskin ones used to be the same. For all the understandable reasons, it's sometimes a breath of fresh air for women to get away from the crucible of testosterone at "regular" races!

----------------------------------GENERAL NOTE ON GUILT-FREE "GROUPING"----------------------------------------

In the event of an absence from the group here, please do not feel that you have to catch up with every post on the three or eight or seventeen pages you may have missed. View this kind of like a not-for-credit university course --- show up when you can, and learn what you feel most comfortable with. Of course, there is always the chance that you will miss some exchange of pearls of wisdom, or the nuances of a scintillating off-topic discussion will be lost on you, but it's more important that all of us be here whenever we can, rather than feel that because we've been absent for a while, we are too far out of the loop and so should just disappear. From my end, the door to BigSkies is always open (and if not, you know where the key is hidden !).

JEFF -

Nicely played volley of the first official off-topic discussion gem -- shopping and your favorite spousal unit!!

JEFF again -

Consider yourself fortunate that your drifting usaully doesn't start until you fatigue. For me, when Drift Mode is activated, it can start within about 27 feet of the start. Really, though, there is no predicting it, although there is some element of control on how far I drift. I had one horror show of a drift at Eagleman '03, but part of that was the tidal current in the Choptank River (an estuary) conspiring with my natural leftward drift to move me WAY off line. i figure I lost 3-4 minutes with that little detour!

The "banana" theory does make sense, and it is apparent in many from-above photos of open-water swims. I'm not sure how many of the bananaers actually end up drifting, but thier body roll combined with arm entry (I suppose) really torques their bodies in ways that have to be a real strain on the lower back and the abdominals.

I think videotaping is agreat idea, and I recommend it for anyone. I have been videotaped a couple of times, so that rules me out as a possible poster child for an ad campaign of Videotaping Salvaged My Swim Career. Seriously, videotaping can divulge all sorts of swim flaws, sespecially if analyzed by an expert. (The same level of proficiency you'd want from the person who reads your x-rays or your MRI.)

Remind me to tell you a story about when I was videotaped before the '05 NYC Triathlon. It's a case study of a few things!

The only problem with pool videotaping is that the buursts are often too short to fully display flaws. In fact, the effects of fatigue won't be there, just becasue the bites of taping are usually separated by, oh, a break every 25m or so.

Still, if you can, do it! From the deck -- coming at the camera, going away from the camera, with the camera strolling aside you while you're swimming. And underwater, with the same perspectives. INCREDIBLY illuminating!

JEFF once more -

Great comments on you and technology, and I will get to them soon. It might not be until Sunday evening or Monday, though, as we will be traveling the next two days. Guess I'd better say something about that, huh?