Prof40's Group -- Technically full but ... (Page 56)

Wow, great work by everyone! And all I did was run a bit and do yard work.

Yep, I have to get back in the groove. Can't have you all continue to show me up!

So how's everyone's race nutrition going? I'm trying to find the right balance of pre-race food/drink, which used to be a bowl of oatmeal and some coffee about 3 hours before the start. But now I'm just taking a gel about 15 minutes before the gun. What do you do?

Yesterdays breakfast was dry toast, yogurt and milk. The night before a had a lot of pasta. Ravaoli with meat and a little red sauce. Two hours before the race I ate a bannana and Poweraid.
On Saturday I found the poweraid on sale and bought that, big mistake! It was basically sugar water with corn syurp. It didnt contain the elctrolytes that gatorade does. I didnt check the label while I was in the grocery store.

Great job with the run, Rob! I'm impressed! You are really getting fast--send me some of that mojo!

I haven't a clue about race nutrition, but some folks have suggested Lava Salts for your more endurance races and rides, and Endurolytes, and Endurance Gatorade. I can tell you my kids LOVED the chocolate GU as they sneakily ate volumes of it during a recent sleepover party. I found the little gu packages everywhere the next morning. No wonder they stayed up soooo late! (Like they NEEDED any more energy.......)

Pene- Thank you for the support.
I didnt get my offical time yet but my mile is anywhere from 16 to 19 minute.
I worked with a trainer who said I was running flat footed. I ran on the balls of my feet for this race and tried Chi runnning where you lean forward a little. But for this race I didnt time a mile I was just concentrating on not getting sick. So maybee I did consistent 16 or 15 minutes, hopefully. Any advice or technique suggestions would be greatly appricated.
How do you avoid pains in the sides? and pain in the shins of the legs?
Thank you!

Jeanette

Firstly well done for the race. Like Robb says, you have got the hard part behind you.

Running is one of the trickiest parts of a tri to master and it is by far the most rewarding. It really is the case however that softly, softly catchee monkey. When I started running I was vv slow. Far slower than you as I could actually run slower than I could walk. However, just over a year later I am now turning in endless 8 min miles with occasional spurts of anything down to 6.30 if I am under pressure (i.e. running with a friend).

I found that holding myself back really helped. Stretching before and after and going about half the pace that I felt I could but for about twice as long made me increase massively.

For example, a session would be something like:

10 mins stretching
5 min walk, easy pace.
2x400/200 yard run, alternating betwen easy pace (conversation possible) and breathless.
5 min walk, easy pace.
3x400/200 yard run, alternating betwen easy pace (conversation possible) and breathless.
5 min walk, easy pace.
10 mins stretching.

I would then do this for three weeks or so until I was champing at tbe bit to run more and then I would gradually reduce the walking segments and increase the running (easy pace) segments. When you are running, try keeping your head up and shoulders back. I don't know about Chi running but by keeping a good posture you can breathe. Oh yes and use your arms. Runners call them the accelerators for good reason. Try running keeping your arms by your side and then try keeping the same pace but pumping your arms in time with your legs.

The stretching is key to happy running. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/126.shtml

You don't need to have red hair to do these stretches but they all help and the stretches at 6 and 7 on the above site help immeasurably. I don't know about the pain in the sides (might be a stitch in which case it will go as you get fitter).

I hope that helps some. I always took the view that a short run that you enjoy is worth vastly more than a long run you don't. If you aren't enjoying it, stop and do something else. Take it easy and have some fun.

Thanks Mark, your tips made me feel better, too! I'll definitely be trying your stretches (I forget to do that). And it helps all of us beginners to hear a success story like yours! I'll gladly go slow and build my engine for a year if it makes the speed increase like that! I've heard that before, but from superpeople that I suspect were always superathletes with no more than a pound extra to lose ever in their lives.......

Jeanette, perhaps the stitch in the side is a tight iliopsoas muscle? You can push on those yourself before runs. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to describe in words where it is at on you! But perhaps if you ask your massage therapist to show you where the PSOAS muscle is and how to self massage it???? (it's pronounced So--azzz) And there's this thing where you lay on your back and put one knee up to your chest and pull it in close and keep the other leg straight and then do the same with the other side. That's supposed to work, too.

Mostly, though, please don't give up! The only reason you vomited was from nerves. I get asthma attacks from nerves and panick attacks where my arms go numb and I want to faint. Rob threw up from swim nerves (yeah, I know, Rob, it was the dizziness from waves, too, but you have to admit some of it was just the nerves....). So, you teach us to swim, and we'll hold the puke bucket for you on the run, k? Or I'll come and sing "follow the yellow brick road" to you and make you giggle while running. Hey--just think of all those HOT army dudes chanting and running with you and that should make all the nerves go away! You kept up with them just fine! See, you can do it!

Thank you mark I will do more stretching before and after. I really enjoy the swim and the bike a lot, so I will put up with the running, I just wish my finish line pictures would be after the swim or bike because after the run they look terrible. LOL I think. I am still waiting for the time and photos online. I was so exhausted that I was so happy to finish but I don't know if that conveyed through the photo. I will just have to wait and see.

Hi Pene
Don't worry I wont quit just yet. I have the Accenture race near the end of August. I am going to start training tommorow on tuesday, today I am a bit sore. Thank you for holding the bucket LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

I will hold you to your offer. If you want you can come to Chicago or I can try to meet you in Wisconsin, do you live close to Port Washington? I have a friend who lives there. There is a beautiful lighthouse on a very long pier. It is so beautiful but unfortunately the town isnt blosoming. They made the horrible mistake of placing a water treatment near town and right on the beach, What Were They Thinking?@!^

Do you know anything about shins mine are still sore but they dont hurt as much as yesterday so I am taking that as a good sign.

Have a good day!

And how is everyone on this Wednesday morning?

I so need to get into a pool, and mine has limited its lap swim hours so it can give more children's swimming lessons. Which isn't a bad thing, I know, but why can't they take their lessons at 6am so I can have my mid-morning hours back?

I also need to get my bike to a shop for a look-see. It's still a bit crooked from my attempt to put it back together, but every time I try to adjust it, I just seem to make something else seem off.

2 more days to the weekend -- will it ever get here soon enough?

Prof, I'm bored witless. I'm supposed to be chairing a meeting regarding the impact of VAT on our new corporate construct in Spain and, to be frank, I'm surfing the net instead whilst they all chat amongst themselves!

I agree about the pool apart from the fact that I would have to get the kids to the pool for 6.30am so not a bonus solution for us all. There's clearly no alternative to an endless pool for you!

Also I'm glad to hear that there is someone else in this community of gods and saints that needs help with their bike. I get frowned at when I take my bike to the store for servicing. Well, they may well scorn but I bet they can't host a conference call on Spanish tax with the same degree of aplomb as me!

Incidentally, I'm away to Hong Kong and thence Beijing this weekend for a couple of weeks so it's back to hotel gyms and sweltering heat for me.

I've finally decided that the Monaco race is quite near and I should do some training so am trying to chuck in a few mini tris during the week. So far so good. Feeling markedly different about myself.

Toodles y'all.

Morning Fearless Leader and UK Sidekick, or Batman and UK Batman, or just Prof and Mark.

(coffee......silliness inducing)

I signed up Noah for his first Triathlon last night. He has a 100m swim and he just sort of dog paddles at this point, but he WANTED to be signed up, so I went with it in hopes I can find a few folks to teach him (have a couple in mind...) before August 18. He gets a cool bike jersey for participating (and it is actually pretty cool looking, retail $90). Do they make wetsuits for 50 pound skinny critters?? He's buffing up a wee bit I noticed--some definition in his stomach and legs from biking around town. I would rent him one if they make them that small.....he has 5% body fat so he doesn't float much. I imagine 100m for him is like me looking at the HIM swim distance at this point!

And I accomplished negative splits last night. Sort of. Well, okay, I got on the treadmill, set the darn thing at 4.5 mph and jogged .75 miles, took a .25 walk break and then went up to 4.6 and did likewise til I got up to a whopping 4.8 mph and finished the hour with 4.19 miles. (man this is almost embarrassing to even write, as I truly DO think I could WALK 4.19 mph........) But it was very aerobic and I quit as my right hamstring and calf muscles were meouwing at me rather loudly. I iced and took 6000 mg MSM. They sort of twinge this morning. Pitiful.

I could use some encouragement......

Well at least you are doing speed work! Plus the treadmill is weird, I swear I run slower on it because im scared I will fall off at higher speeds. Thus, I almost never run on a treadmill. And if you go out and do the same workout at a track, I bet you would be faster. Sorry, thats not the best encouragement Ive ever given , but its early and I just got a few sips of coffee in...


So, things were not too good over in N. Idaho this past weekend. If you recall, I went to support my brother-in-law who was debuting his first race as a pro. His last ironman was almost 2 years ago though. Anyway, the weather was 48deg and windy when the race started. The water was so choppy they gave people an option of just doing a duathlon because they didnt want to have to rescue too many weak swimmers. Swimmign is JC's weakest leg by far, he just doesnt have any background in swimming prior to this past few years. He ended up really having a hard time, swallowing a lot of water, and being the last pro out of the water. On the bike ride, he was feeling crappy, bloated, coughing and then his nutrition bottle fell out of the cage and he was just overall having a bad time. He started the run, realized he was 40 minutes back from the leader and he felt like crap. I think he got to demoralized from the first 2 legs and he decided to not finish the run, and take a DNF. Which, I guess it pretty normal for Pro's because they rather not injure there body now if they are going to race again soon. BUt, it was such letdown for everyone, and very emotional for him. The thing is, if he could have kept running, he still would have been in the the top 50 finishers! He was 400th coming out the water and 100th by the time he was done with his bike. He was running 6:50 miles when he stopped his run. I mean, who knows if he could have finished and I think he was really worried because he was coughing so much. Anyway, the top 3 winners were so far ahead of everyone else it was crazy.
Its such weird thing how these pro's don't finish races so often. I mean, every ironman I have been too has some of the top pros' DNF'ing . In fact the guy who won the race in Idaho hadnt finished a race yet this year! He had dropped out of the previous 2! I think its pride though more than fear of injury, they just cant stand to see themselves come in way back in the pack. I think my brother-in-law had just never had a bad race before and didnt know what to do! Seriously, he was talking about how he ached all over when he started the run, and I was like, "You mean like usual?" because thats how I feel when I start my runs, and he said" no, Ive never felt sore like that before" Anyway, I told him that everyone has a bad day, a bad race, and it was just his turn to experience it. He is probably going to do Ironman Canada in August now, so l think that will be the race to see if he really has the gumption to come back and kick . Man, this sport sure ain't easy. The guy who came in 2nd had a 7 minute lead when he started the run and was beat in the LAST MILE of the run by the 1st place guy.

The good thing about the race was that I got to watch all those 2000 people go by and be inspired again. Since I have beenn back Ive had some great workouts. My friend and I sat and calculated whether or not we could actually finish an Ironman in under 17 hours. We decided we could, but neither of us really have any desire to train that much right now. But the thing is, like the professor says, ANY of you could do it if you put your mind and body into training. Im anxious to see how Mark does in his 70.3; That distance seems so much more attainable for me at this point in my life. Anyway, im off to do some speed work at the track. Pene, you have inspired me!

Good job! That's better than I can do right now! I've been slacking on the running and it showed in my workout last night. It was too hot out at 7pm to run outside, so I ran on the treadmill at the YMCA. Truly pitiful. I went 2 miles in a half an hour, most of it walking because my knee wasn't happy.....I used it as a time to focus on the stuff my physical therapist showed me (gotta get back to PT too).

Anyhow, you're doing better than me!!

Casey

Thanks Liz and Casey! You guys really do know how to help! I can't imagine NOT finishing an IM when he was that close! I guess I'm hard on myself, but not THAT hard! My goodness!

Liz, is it not a good thing when it feels like tiny drips of blood are running down the insides of your leg? No bruising or swelling visible and it just feels "funny". Not hot, though. I suppose it's some internal bleeding from a small hamstring/calf tear??? Don't worry, I'll take it easy for a few days.

Jeanette--I did look up Port Washington on the map. About 3 hours or so for me, but that is do-able. I sincerely could use some help swimming..... I have Thursdays off, so if we met early enough for me to get back to my kids before the babysitter freaks, it might just work. Plus it is a neat little town. Took a craniosacral seminar there once a million years ago. We could swim and go pig out somewhere and scope out guys.........(Rob, you are most welcome to join us, but I'm almost giving up chasing you, babe!).

Pene That Sounds good give me a date after July12th!!!

WOW WOW WOW
I did a lot better than I thought, except the run of course.

My Offical times!!!

Swim .05: 16:35
Transition1: 7:56
Bike 13: 36:10
Transition2: 3:06
Run3: 47:27

Overall time: 1:51: 12 for the Subaru Us womens Triathalon Series-Naperville, IL


WOW WOW WOW I will write my race report soon!!!

Hi Everyone I wrote my race report.
It was quite a race!!!!!!!
It turned out to be an awesome race!!!

I am reading my info and out of 2 thousand and two hundred people who paid money and signed up there were only one thousand Eight hundred and eighty two finishers. The average time was 1 hour 45 minutes and 54 seconds.
My time was 1 hour 51 minutes and 12 seconds.
I pushed myself very hard, I gave it 120%

Okay, girlfriend! Your euphoria is very catching--pretty soon you'll blow up my computer screen! See--we all knew you could do it! Just think how great you'll be when you actually get some more training time in! To tell you the truth, I'm amazed and even a tad jealous as you haven't seemed to put in much time or mileage (unless you just weren't logging) compared to me and I'm sure you could whip my sorry butt! I seem to do nothing but train and I'm still pretty darn slow. Maybe it's my age? Congratulations!!!!!! Keep up the great work!!!! Go J go!

Yea I didn't log it here but I have a planner that is in my purse.
I trained!!!
So much is and was going on that I forgot to put it in here.
I trained really easy five days before the race, I thought maybee training this lightly wasnt so good and I was nervous but it worked out the best.

Did you read my race report?

Well, I shall report to my wife that, on the advice of counsel, I'm going to purchase an endless pool. I'll probably end up living next to it, too. There's a great episode of some long forgotten TV sitcom where the father tells his family that he needs one, and ends up coming home with a hot tub -- it has multiple purposes, you see -- swim, soak, and heat up those boil-in-a-bag meals.

My latest efforts last night to tune-up my bike have resulted in some truly horrendous metal-on-metal creaking noises that echo throughout the neighborhood. My shop offers a package tune-up deal, and at this point, it's more cost effective to spring for the whole shebang than try to identify and spot fix the numerous little problems. And there's an amazing bakery just across the street from the shop, so it won't be a wasted trip. I might even have to get a pot of coffee and just read the newspaper and wait a while. Damn, don't you just hate those afternoons?

So when is Monaco? First week of September? And where are you staying -- in Monte Carlo, or Eze, etc? My unofficial intent to do a 1/2 this weekend is officially cancelled. I'm just not in the shape I want to be, and more important, I don't feel like packing up for the weekend and doing a road trip. Suddenly, I'm looking at September and October weekends and trying to see if I can find something within a day's drive. That's the luxury, and downfall too, of not registering so far in advance.

Speaking of trip cancellations, I have 2 tickets to the Edinburgh Tattoo that I won't be needing for August --Saturday night, fireworks show. Think they're E-Bay material?

Well, here's the encouragement -- good job, keep it up, in December would you have believed that you'd be doing all this now?

I'm serious about the negative splits. That's tough to do, and it's great work. And I don't doubt that you feel it. Which is a mix of good and bad soreness, isn't it?

And it sounds like Mom has inspired her brood. Which is just cool. I'm picturing a family walking around town in race shirts looking all fit and healthy.

Look around for wetsuits. Try trisports.com, or wetsuitrentals.com, and see what they offer. He might be the size of a petite woman. Or check the water temp from last year and see if he'll need it. Kids are weird, you have to admit, by the way they just jump into cold water and stay there for hours. He might not need a wetsuit.

Keep us posted on his progress.

Sounds like he had a tough day. I'm not sure if I'd drop out, or just slow down and treat the rest as a training day. But then again, I'm waiting until I turn 81 so I can hopefully win my age group at a huge national race.

There's a race calculator at www.ironman.co.nz aka Ironman New Zealand which will help you predict your race time on that course. Try it out. Nothing wrong with dreaming!

Wait, wait, wait. Just looked and it's not the calculator I was thinking it was. Okay, out there somewhere is a calculator that will work in exhaustion and typical transition times. So go google and see what you can find!

Edited by prof40 2007-06-28 5:25 AM