Newbz' Spring Fling Mentor Group is FULL! (Page 56)

Weighed in at 189.3 this morning.  Purged the system yesterday unintentionally with the help of indian food and spicy pickled egg.  Not the most fun way to do it....let's put it that way.  My run and swim last night were not the best....but got it done son.

David, sounds like you could be in for an exciting season.  Must be nice to be out on the water...it's still cold as hell today.  It was 20 degrees with the wind howling.  I still haven't got outside on my bike yet, so I'm hoping sometime soon.

I'm back from the western edge of nowhere, and I've spent the last couple of days exhausted. Between the heat (which isn't too bad considering what it'll be in 3 months) and the long walks up the sides of mountains, then getting and and going for a run when I could, I've had no energy left. Combined with the stress of returning to the main office and walking into some stupid inter-office politics, I didn't sleep well for two or three days. Last night I slept for 10 hours and this is the first day in over a week that I've felt decent. I wanted to ride the 20-mile loop around town, but I got out of the house too late and only got 11.5ish miles. I'll probably ride more tomorrow or definitely the next day.

While I was out of town I had the opportunity to do a favor for a guy who owns one of the cross-country cycling tour companies. As a result, he's offered to let me tag along on a tour through the Florida Keys in November at no cost beyond getting there. It would be with about 100 other cyclists and has an average of 50 miles per day from Key Largo to Key West and back. Breakfast, dinner, tent, inflatable mattress, bike mechanic, SAG vehicle, all included. My girlfriend has already said that she's not interested, so I'd be there stag. I'm thinking about it pretty seriously.

Sure, but I have standards:

1. Female

2. I have to find her attractive

3. She has to be at least somewhat articulate. I can forgive problems with English if she's decently educated but speaks another language (Spanish or German preferred)

4. Not experiencing any form of mental illness.

I'm sure I could think of more if I try.

hahaha....well, #2 and #4 definitely counts me out.

So looks like this won't be the week to break out the bike on the roads.  We are expecting 6" of snow on Friday.  I may just take the day off and stay in my bedroom and not turn any lights on.

hehe...awesome!

So I just checked my logs from last year, and about 3 days ago was my first swim of the year after recovering from a broken arm and dislocated shoulder in a snowboard accident in Colorado back in December of '09. So a comparison shows that last year I had just about 0 yds of swimming, and this year I have banked in about 90K. Add to that my form is much better, my times are better, and of course I am much stronger now then I was this time last year I am feeling really good about bringing my swim times down from last year. I was a 7:45 sprint swimmer and a 35:00 HIM swimmer to give a benchmark of where I stood.

Now I just need to get my running in check

John, it's only #s 2 & 4 that count against you? I can see #3 not being detrimental, but...

I went for a 5-miles run that turned into 4. I got stupid and decided to try running without socks. My arch is slightly blistered and will hurt for a day or two.

Must be something in the water, but yesterday was a really crappy workout.  My run went something like this:

Mile 1:  Feeling good, nice easy 9:25 pace-ish
Mile 2:  Wow...my feet don't hurt at all, heart rate steady, holding 9:30 pace easily.
Mile 3:  Man, I am pumped that I'm going to do a long run that feels great!
Mile 3.2:  I'm starting to feel a little sluggish...maybe just that hill I just ran up, but HR is still Z2.
Mile 3.3:  I'm standing on the side of the road with my head between my knees trying not to fall down from diziness.  2 minutes go by and I reach for my 4oz bottle of water/infinit and down it.  Start walking.
Mile 3.6:  Okay, head back on track, don't remember not eating well, so that was weird.
Mile 4:  We're good now.  Back on pace...a little slower to keep my heart rate down, but gradual uphill.
Mile 5:  BAM!  Cramp from hell on the left side of my stomach.  Stops me almost dead in my tracks.  I massage it out and do some standing crunches/leg lifts.  Seems to help.  After 3 min or so I start jogging again.  I can still feel that cramp.
Mile 6:  BAM! Cramp from hell on the right side of my stomach.  Repeat Mile 5 procedure and get back to jogging.
Mile 6.5-7:  Heart rate through the roof at 10 min/mile.  Uphill and only a little ways to go.

So that was fun...now that I'm home, I grab some water/recovery mix and stretch out pretty well.  An hour later I head to the pool.  Pretty solid workout in store...warmup and drills followed by 3 x 500 with 50yds pull as my rest...so essentially 1650 straight at mod pace.  Right at about 1250 I push off the wall and my left calf just locks up.  I mean hard.  You know when your leg locks up and you can't kick at all...or pretty much use your lower body?  I thought I was probably going to drown...right there in five feet of water.  It took me five minutes to stretch it out so I could finish the workout.

I love triathlon...I really do.  And thank God I didn't give it up for Lent.

Good times....yes it's starting to snow here.

How much do you guys know about building up a bike?  I found a frame I want, Cervelo R3.  So I am looking for SRAM Force stuff to put on it.  I already have the brake calipers and have a buddy that's looking into the rest of the gruppo for me.  I need to figure out a couple things.  First off, the bottom bracket is a BBright.  So I think after looking at this link:  ?http://www.bbright.net/faq.aspx I think that a SRAM Force GXP will work with the proper adapter, but not positive, so my plan was to call them today.  Secondly, I want to get a carbon handle bar and seat post.  Can someone please school me on which ones are good/strong/light or whatever?  I don't think I'm going to buy a stem until I have my fitting.

Thanks!

I cannot elp you there, I am still working on my bike wrenching abilities. But I did get a flat on my ride yesterday and was able to pop on a new sucker quick and easy.

4k in the pool this morning in hot water. Lifeguard and deck coach both told us to take it easy and rest a lot in between sets to avoid overheating. A 2 hour nap after and a pot of coffee and I am good to go for the day!

Happy Opening Day everyone

25.15 miles in 1:33 and a few seconds. As always, not as fast as I'd prefer, but the first half was uphill and Ive not ridden this hill in quite a while.

I'm curious about bottom brackets also. I'm figuring on talking to the folks at my LBS tomorrow; I've not been able to figure out a darn thing about them yet.

This is is my morning drive today.

WELCOME BACK WINTER

We are having some of the same here in PA.

5-mile run in 45 minutes even. I'm happy with it for now.

It might be spring elsewhere, but we seem to have gone straight into summer. The temperature topped-out at 91 degrees today, though I bet the low tonight is in the 40s, whereas in the summer it stays in the 80s all night.

Dave I am entertainig the thought of building up a bike as well but not for awhile and it will be my commuter bike. Since you have experience with this what can you say about it..time it took, cost vs buying, how mechanically inclined do you need to be, etc. I am just curious as I want to start looking into parts to buy and what not.

Are you calling me fat?  I know I could lose a couple pounds.  I'm all about free speed. 

I went with the 3T ergo carbon bars.  Taking your advice, I went with these because they claim to have the highest strength.  I've been using carbon bars on my old cannondale for a couple years now and feel pretty comfortable with it.

Just out of curiosity, why are you okay with carbon on a tri bike, but not a road bike?  I would think the circular/oval shape of the drop bars to be much stronger in carbon than a flatter tri base bar.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from.  No sprinting here that's for sure!

I would love a carbon cockpit for my tri bike.  I have no idea how to measure the length of the aero bars.  Is it from the base bar to the tip of the aero bar???  From the back of the pad??

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=246863&posts=1&start=1

Race report up for 5K this morning.  My chip time had me at 20:03, but the clock time when I crossed the mat was 19:55...go figure.  My garmin agrees with the 19:55, so I am officially declaring that I ran a sub-20.  (6:19, 6:27, 6:26).  I wanted to quit about 30s from the finished, so I think I paced it perfectly.  I'll use this to set my VDOT values for running this year.  Looking forward to getting faster with some focused training.   3rd overall/2nd AG was a nice bonus too, but none of the local fast guys were there.  I'll take it!

My registration application and check for my first tri are in the envelope and I'll be dropping it in the mailbox on the way to work. I guess this constitutes a documented committment.