kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 57)

So here is my race report:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words and thoughts yesterday! Long story made short....I finished my first 70.3 and that feels awesome, mentally anyway. My body feels thrashed!

Carrie! Great job on your Olympic. You will be fine I am sure! Trust your training and all these tough conditions are just preparing you for the big race!

Well done, Carrie. You will do great at Muncie!

Scott - It sounds like you have a lot going on in your home right now. You have your priorities straight. This sport isn't going anywhere. Family always comes first! I hope the selling of the house goes quickly and smoothly (even though it's painful for you). Doing some sprints in the meantime sounds like a fantastic idea! You can really focus on your speed, which is hard to do when you're training to go long. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with the group. I'm proud of you for finishing a difficult race!

That swim sounds crazy, Larkin! I'm sure it did take a lot out of you, but you finished strong. So proud of you, dude! Next time will be even better. Do you have your eye on another race yet?

Thanks Jen! I don't have an eye on anything HIM this year. I am looking at New Orleans right now for early next year. I would also like to do REV3 again but will have to really think about that timing wise. I only have and International distance left this year in August. Then the MCM in October. I am itching to do it and HIM again already which is a good sign

I had a blast at my sprint yesterday. I woke up and it was absolutely gorgeous out.

The swim went perfectly, and I hit the first turn buoy in first place . I'm so glad I wore the wetsuit because the water was freezing. I caught the last wave of men that went off 5 minutes before me, and this big, beastly dude who was doing breast stroke kicked my face. The kick knocked off my goggles. I tried to reposition them while keeping the pace and failed. They kept filling with water. Finally I had to pick my face out of the water and fix them. Cost me a bit of time but I swam strong.

The bike was windy. Passed a lot more dudes here. I was flying on this one stretch of road and blew by this guy. I heard him say, "you're flying!" I chuckled because while I was faster than some, the real speedsters were probably finishing the race at this point. I still need to working on grabbing my water bottle while in aero position. My handling skills could be improved.

Run was not the greatest. I'm still struggling with this stupid freaking hip/groin strain, and I felt it. It didn't help that during Saturday's run my foot got caught in a hole in the sidewalk and I ate some pavement. It was one of those embarrassing falls where you look around to see if anyone saw it and then hobble home crying "ouch, ouch, OUCH." LOL I just tried to keep a steady pace and not worry about people passing me or how fast I was going. I've seen better days on the run but I got it done.

That is awesome Jen! I am sure it felt good to be out front. The handling skills will come. I am getting better each time I am out there on my bike. Congrats again on the podium! Take care of that leg and heal up!

double post sorry..

Edited by kidtri33 2013-06-24 10:59 AM

Jenn congrats on the podium I had missed that post.

Spent the morning at the ER. At least it was me and not one of the kids. I got bit a few days ago by something and this morning the full bulleyes eye rash came out meaning a tick bite and lyme disease. Lucky it was caught early so I'm on antibiotics. Now I need a link showing that tick bites and lyme disease lead to a decline in physical performance, LOLOLOL. The bullseye itches and burns a lot but otherwise I'm good minus the 90 minutes wasted at the hospital.

So I was looking at my position numbers after each leg and I found this kind of amazing. So age group coming out of water to the finish I gained 6 spots; Males I gained 75; Overall I gained 161. Just an interesting stat. I never thought I would have caught that many folks.

Trying to answer some of Todd's questions:

1) Why did I sign up for this?

Because you wanted to be challenged.

2) Am I going to survive?

Yes!

3) I am headed up there to do a dry run of the course on Sunday afternoon (bike/run on Monday and Tuesday), how easy/difficult is it to follow the course? any markings, landmarks, cell service for the iPhone (Mapmyride)?

Course is pretty easy to follow the only things to watch out for are the Hazelton out and back and the eilmington out and back.

5) Any pointers for the "Special Needs" bags?

I generally only use special needs as a back up. I'll put a tube, CO2 cartridge and exra ziplock bag of race nutrition in the bike special needs and a back up zip lock bag of run nutrition on run special needs. I like to keep things as siple as possible. At IMLP in 2011, I used bike special needs because my second half bike nutrition bounced out of my tri top pocket. I didn't use special needs at all at Florida in 2011 or 2012.

6) How hard, slow, wait, lines, etc is there at the Special Needs bag area?

Special needs is set up by number (e.g. 1-100, 101-200, 201-300 . . . ) and is about 1/4 mile long on the bike. There are spotters with megaphones and they call out your number so your bag should be ready for you when you pass by the bin with your number. One the bike you should just be able to grab your bag and keep peddaling. Same for the run. If you don't need your special needs bag just stay to the left and roll / run by.

I'll be staying 8 miles away from the start, which poses a slight logistical challenge with the time between when I finish and the big cheering effort at 11:59pm. (Actually, that may only be a few minutes - who knows)

7) Do ya just hang out there in town, laying under a tree in total missery?

There will be plenty of people around. You can pretty much hand out. There are also shuttle buses so you may be able to go back to the hotel and return for midnight. Im 2011 I finished around 7 p.m., went back to the hotel, showered, took a nap and came back for 11 p.m. to midnight.


8) Will you be there? How many people from here will be up there on 7/28? Any plans to meet up as far as a time and location?

I will be at IMLP. Likely coming up on Friday and leaving early on Monday. I will have my megaphone on course, you will not miss me.


9) Why are we doing this again? Is anyone else starting to panic about all of the missed training days???

No panicing. You've done everything you can to prepare, trust yout training and enjoy the day.

To answer your question, the long swim definately has an effect on your bike and run. You spent a ton of energy fighting the swim, and the energy you spent there was not available later in the day. Also, as a FYI, the advertised course was much flatter than the actual course. Not a huge deal, but just something to realize.

Alos, I know Scott will love this. I did some video analysis of scott's swim this morning. I'll do a full write up, but I thought people might be interested.

Initial Video: http://youtu.be/iAAORsVvuLs
Second Video (after doning some drill work with Scott): http://youtu.be/BpwazLFmZBM

Matt -- that was an AWESOME fix.

Feel better!

Scott, So how do you feel? Did you have an ah ha moment? Did you feel better in the water?

I did this with the kids today http://goape.com/

Talk about a workout. You need a lot of strength and balance in both the uppor and lower body to get over many of these. My legs were pretty shaky so I was working pretty hard. Not the recommended recovery workout but a lot of fun.

Some good news. We've agreed to terms on the hosue we want to buy. Now we just have to sell ours. Lot of hardwork and stress getting it all together the next two months.

Ah ha moment? No. Fixing my stroke is going to be a process. Never good when you pop your head up and Kelly has a "WTF was that?" look on her face.

Scott- I hope you feel better. Jen is right, focusing on your family is important right now and while difficult decisions are to come, it will help everyone move forward .... no one will ever forget, but will help everyone cope better.

Jen - awesome race! I too have been dealing with a hammy soreness, so I get it ... although I haven't bit the sidewalk.

Larkin-I guess I didn't realize what was going on with the swim til I read your report. WOW, congrats to both you and Scott for gutting out a swim like that. Congrats on a first 1/2 finish!