ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 5)

Yay!  I can finally post my bio!  The munchkin is asleep and my husband is working in the garden.

NAME: Tracy (RunningYogini)

STORY: I've been doing triathlons since 2006.  I discovered BT at that time, too.  Prior to triathlons, I was a runner.  I decided that trying a tri sounded like fun.  I didn't have a bike, so I bought one.  I didn't know how to swim any better than drown prevention, so I took lessons.  The rest is history!

FAMILY STATUS: I've been married to my awesome husband for 5 years.  We have a super fabulous 4 year old boy.  We both got into the family thing late so we are going to stop with one fabulous boy.

JOB: I was a Wildlife Biologist for years.  When I met my husband, I decided to quit moving around all over the country and settle down in far northern CA.  I'm about 1.5 hours south of the Oregon border.  When I say that I live in northern CA, everyone assumes San Francisco.  Nope!  That's 5 hours south!  I digress.  Now, I am a stay-at-home-mommy that does a little Personal Training, teach yoga and teach some cycling classes.  If I had my way, I would only teach yoga.  That could still happen.

CURRENT TRAINING: I'm always training!  I keep a pretty steady schedule due to childcare needs.  I just can't get off that schedule.  I try to sandwich my training before or after teaching the few classes I do each week.  Hence, I do a lot of treadmill running and Spin bike riding.  Recently, I've been building my run back up after suffering a stress fracture in my second metatarsal in November.  (I ran on it until January.  Don't do that.)  My bike and, surprisingly, my swim have suffered from the injury.  They are all coming back slowly.  No speed work for me until, at least, the end of the summer.

LAST YEAR'S RACES: I raced really good last year!  I did a couple of sprint tris, PRed a half marathon and 10 miler, and did a crazy trail hill climb race.  (That was FUN!!!!)  I did lots of other 5Ks and 10Ks, as well since my local running club is so active.

2013 RACES:  In March, I did a bike time trial and broke the women's record even though my foot was still in a boot.  (The old record was mine, too.  I'm pretty good on the bike.)  In April, I did an Olympic Tri.  It didn't go that great since my foot was hurting.  I finished it, though.  I might do a 10K in a couple weeks.  In July and August , I'm doing some sprint tris.  I'm hoping to do 1 or 2 100K rides, more short running races and the bike time trial in October.  Nothing will be at my max speed, though.  I'm too freaked out about injuring my foot.  I really wanted to do a HIM and marathon this year.  Those will have to wait.

WEIGHT LOSS: This is a non-category for me.  I'm happy with where I am and I've never had an issue.  I have been leaner but I'm not a very nice person when I get into the low 20's for BF.  You have to know your limits in either direction, right?

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: I love learning anything and everything possible about triathlon.  I've been having so much fun with the Junkie group.  I love you guys!  Your support goes beyond just this sport.  You all have been supportive during all of the crappy things that have happened, too!  Here's to a great 2013 season for everyone! 

Originally posted by trigal38 Karl, sounds like a great ride and race today. I don't know if I could eat brownies and get back on and ride though! Dirk congrats on your race yesterday! You would be smoking fast with race wheels and all the bells and whistles but the fact that you don't have all of that and still pull off those times is even more impressive. Well I had my first race of the season this morning. Just a small local race I was using as a tune up to check my fitness. I was not nervous and felt good going in. I warmed up in my wetsuit and it felt better than my swim from earlier last week. My arms still got really heavy though and that wetsuit just changes my stroke so much I really HATE wearing it. Water temp was 67 degrees today. I got out of the water and saw my time was almost 9:00 - terrible for me, the worst ever and complete validation that thes wetsuit DOES NOT help my swim. Out on the bike things were going really well, I was cruising at 23 or 24 mph and did not feel like I was working to my max. I knew this meant we must have the wind at our back. As I got closer to the turn around I watched to see who was in front of me - I was the first woman to hit the turn around! I thought now it is time to get to work but after the turn around my speeds dropped and I just felt like I could not keep it going. I tried changing gears, spinning faster but nothing was helping. My times kept dropping and my legs were burning!! Next thing I know I hear a pop and pssssshhhhhh. FLAT - not far after the turn around. I had taken off my bike bag with all of my spares and CO2 and left them in the van before the race and I ride 650 wheels so no one passing me had anything to help me out. I just started walking. Finally the RD's son came buy and let me use his phone. His Dad picked me up and took me back to transition. Funny thing, we had to pick up another guy who flatted on the way back in! So I turned in my chip and just completed the run because I was there. My friend Tiff was also racing today and her husband ran the race with her then turned around and ran with me! I saw him coming and thought - crap, here he comes and he's going to make me work ha ha ha! So my first mile was 10:00 min/mile pace because I was just going to take it easy since my race was over. I had stopped to talk to my family who came out to watch, pet the dog etc. Then here he comes and my next 2 miles were 8:40 min/mile and 8:30 min/mile and he was not satisfied because I wasn't running 7's! I'm really not too upset about it since I was only using this as a tune up race and the RD waived my fee in trade for volunteering at some of his races later in the year. Now I know I really need to step up the training!

It sounds like you were having a great race up until the flat but it's equally great that you're not upset about it too.  I would have been on an entirely different planet had that happened to me. 

The wetsuit issues you have could be relatively simple but it seems we've talked about fitting before so excuse my lack of memory.  When you put your suit on are you making sure the arms are pulled all the way up so there is no drooping under your shoulders?  The arm pits of the suit should be right again your arm pits and you should stretch your arms well above your head as you put the suit on to check for any tightness under the arms.  If you have tightness attempt to figure out where it's coming from and pull the arms up of even the waist up (which may mean you have to pull the legs up too).

The tire thing?  I always try to decide if I'm going to leave my spare tube and accessories on the bike and I always have so far.  Now I have a better reason to leave them on.  I don't want to experience being out on the course with nothing to make repairs. 

Ironically I talked about an incident that happened at Pokagon last year where someone's tire blew in transition while they were out on the run course because of the heat and tire pressure.......This year, well after the race, like after I had gotten my award and was standing next to my bike get ready to leave, my bike did the same thing.  POP!!!  Very loudly!!  Like an M80 going off.  When I got home and changed the tube the hole was 3 inches long.  I normally run 115 PSI for races, which I did Saturday, and I've never had that happen.  That little inciddent quieted the entire after race party down for a minute or two.  Kinda funny!

When I get a flat, I put always put a brand new tube on.  At home, I patch the old tube and use it as my spare.  Well, the tube from my last flat was used as a mule lead rope.  I wouldn't recommend using your old tube as a lead rope, though. 

I'm having wetsuit issues, too.  My conclusion is that they are just like running shoes.  Sometimes you find the perfect fit the first time but most times you have to go through several duds to find the perfect model.