Kenj - triathletes in training CLOSED (Page 51)

Saturday "Long Ride":

My "Long Rides" use to stage at 5am with "Wheels Down" at 5:30am... after agreeing to my "Club Ride" tomorrow, I'm straining to figure out how I will wake for a 6:30am start. 

This will be my first ride since Ironman Coeur d'Alene... and while I feel like my fitness is dwindling, I'm not sure I'm mentally ready to step into a formal ride. 

I actually think I'll cancel... I seem to be "stuck in the muck"... yet not interested in forcing anything.  May shake my bike down later tomorrow... we'll see how the wind blows. 

Wesley12 - I hope to meet you at IMFL!!!!     I'll be the one in the neoprene wetsuit and bright colored cap on the swim beach!!!!  ;-)   !!!!!

Q.  What all went into your decision for IMTX?  Time of year?  Location?  3 Loop Hot Run???  !!! Non-wetsuit swim? 

IMFL will be my first Ironman.  As far as my decision for IMTX, there are a couple of reasons.  My training partner has had the bug since I signed up for IMFL and the timing worked out good for both of us.  He has been training with me for IMFL and I'm going to return the favor for IMTX.  Hopefully I'll be as excited about IMTX as I am IMFL.  I've also never been to Texas and what better reason to go.  Maybe I'll get lucky and there will be a late cool snap and I'll be able to wear my wetsuit. 

Hope everyone had good a good weekend of racing and training. Can't wait to read the reports. I managed to squeeze in a sprint race and was very happy with it.  My Sunday morning opened up and today was the day of my first tri ever from last year, so went at it.  Beat last year by 20 min! 

Also got in a longish/hardish group ride with the roadies from the bike store yesterday.  I got dropped and got lost, but that's okay.  I'll keep going and try to keep hanging.

Have a great week!

ETA - Here's a race report http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=450937

Photo of "Mike & I" at Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2012:

Way to PR!!!  Nice work! 

That's a beautiful smile!! You'd never know you just toughed out 140.6

Brian - Congrats.  Thats some serious speed.  Looking forward to the details.  Hopefully you have some rest scheduled.

Great picture Carla! 

Meulen - 2012-07-15 6:51 PM Hey! Just got back! I'll give you all the short version since I haven't checked the race results for official times or anything yet and wont get to writing a RR till tomorrow prolly.

Swim had a GREAT swim! I'm shocked due to the lack of swimming I've been doing. I looked down at my garmin and it was in the 37-38 range. Only problem I had was I took a kick to the face rounding the last bouy. Didn't hurt but knocked water straight into my lungs. Had to stop a minute and cough it out! The life guards rushed in and were going to pull me. I had to stop them! swam on and PR'd the swim

Bike- this is where it got dicey. My HR was 160 in transition and I wanted to keep it at 145-150 until the run. That damn Racine course with all the bad roads and Bermuda triangle constant headwind the whole time didn't allow me to get it under 155. Im sure the time sucked to. The swim REALLY took too much effort. I thought I held back on the swim. But the distance got me.

Run. A bit of a death march. I spent the first 2 miles trying to calm down my right quad that decided to lock up out of T2. By the end of the 13.1 though, I was able to run aid station to aid station and then put in a nice kick for the finish. I knew the time was going to suck from the first 2 miles but I'm ok with it.

Overall, I think I crossed around 5:40. No where close to my goal, but there was too much up in the air with my shoulder and lack of swimming. Bottom line....I beat last years disaster so it's a PR! Lol. And I live to race another day!

Great job Brian!! I am looking forward to reading your race report!

I spent about 11 hours yesterday as transition captain at the Musselman.  It was a great experience that I really enjoyed, but I think I will go back to racing again next year, racing doesn't wear me out as much!

Shoulder PT and a run this morning.  What are the rest of you guys doing?

Hi Robin!

I took the day off of work today and am just resting!

RR is up and ready for your viewing pleasure!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=451020&posts=1#M4313260

Nice RR report Brian!  Sounded like a tough day - great job! oh and enjoy your day off!

Just Awesome!!!!!

You KILLED IT Ice!!!

These are very subjective questions, Carla. A lot of people are coached on line with no F2F interaction and do very well with it.  Encouragement is something we all need.  But t has to be balanced with reality.  I don't want my coach to blow smoke up my butt.  Won't help on race day.  I get daily feedback from my coach.  Regular encouragement.  We see each other about once a month, maybe more.   He lives in town but I train alone.  We did more together in the early years.  Been together 4 years now.  We are very good friends as well as athlete/coach now.  We communicate through Training Peaks daily.  I get daily email feedback on what he sees in my power tap files and Garmin files.  He plans my workouts about 2 weeks in advance.  I can ask as many questions as I like and I do by text, email, Skype and phone, in person.  It has worked great for me.  Do you have specific concerns?  Are you shopping for a coach now? Mine is retiring. That's why I got my license, to help myself.  But I still may continue with Vision Quest through next year's IM Moo. 

Ice - I realized, after posting, that the context of my questions were vague.  While I have the knowledge to write my own programs and the discipline to be self-coached, my heart is yearning for a relationship similar to your 4 years with your coach.

I'm very good with text and email... uploading garmin with pace and power my coach is not much of a writer.  I get maybe 1.5 lines of text after a very intense training week and feel somewhat "slighted" with respect to the "Coaching Experience" and I find myself envious of those who get the feedback like you described in Training Peaks.

I don't need "Sunshine blown up my hind end" either... but... "Nice Set" or "Would like to see you push that a bit more out of your comfort zone" would be sufficient.  I can handle honest feedback... it's just the depth of interaction that my heart desires. 

Am I seeking a coach... I am seeking to either improve the relationship I have with my current coach or to allow myself to be open to having my needs met as an athlete.  My Coach/Athlete relationship is my primary relationship and I want to be careful about my expectations.

Could write a novel here... so will stop... your input is, once again, invaluable.  Will try to sort out what direction I need to go in... just struggling with the decision to either nurture and deepen the relationship I have or if moving on would be the best for all involved.

Don't want to "Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water"... but don't want to sit in the Bath Water when I should "Pull the Plug!" 

~C~

Way to go Ice!  Impressive results!  Your hard work (and a little help from an awesome new bike) are certainly paying off!