Baowolf's New Years Resolution Group-Closed (if are stuck with no group PM me) (Page 6)

Linda, welcome, grats on BQ, nice mary paces in the 3:38-3:48 range. For Boston bring really warm clothes for before the race. When I did Boston we were in 15F temps in wet grass for like 4 hours before the race start. If i were to do it again I would bring a snowmobile suit. You get a clothes bag to put your stuff in for after the race. Also expect a 45 min to 1 hour weight for a portapotty pre-race and extremely few portapoties during the race (I saw 4 total) with non at the finish line. You may want to carry your own nutrition, the race is poorly supported. Also run hills. BQ is completely hills, not big, but typically going up or downhill the entire way.

So weight loss is really hard for me with a really low motabolism. Some things that I have found to be true. Calories burned = calories burned. If you run really hard for 10 miles at a 7:30 mpm pace you burn roughly 1000 calories. If you run slower, 10 miles at a 14:00 mpm pace you burn roughly 1000 calories. So intensity is basically insignificant for weight loss, it is just how far you go during your workout. The simple physics is that it takes X calories to move Y weight Z distance in T time. The work to raise a 200 pound block using a simple pulley versus a complex pulley is roughly the same (minus the friction on the rope), it just takes more rope and less effort at the time. What and how much you eat is huge. If you workout 60 minutes a day 6 days a week and hold your food intake constant you will lose 1 pound per week. Double that to 2 hours a day you lose 2 pounds per week. Similarly if you decrease your calorie intake by 525 calories per day you lose roughly 1 pound per week. To effectively decrease your calories you pretty much have to toss the junk. When I lose weight I eat around 1200-1500 calories per day and workout 10 to 20 hours per week. If you don't mind, let us know what a typical day is for you callorie and food choice wise. The gym personal trainers say lift lots of weights and do a little bit of cardio, which of course doesn't work. The reason it doesn't work is that I can ride my bike for 6 hours burning 3000 calories, but I can only lift (not counting brakes between reps) for about 30 minutes (ya i rest between reps). So my lifting would have to be 100x harder on my body than my bike riding. or 6000 calories per hour (an Ironman uses about 9000-10,000 calories). It just doesn't work. So build slow and safely and decrease food intake slowly and safely. I am dropping chocolate and breakfast cerial first. Next will be going from 2 to 1 granola bar a day. Last will be a snack between dinner and bed or at least reducing it to a piece of fruit instead of something more calorific. It is not usually wise to aim for more than 4 pounds of weight loss per month and weight loss is not linear. You can easily screw up 6 days of perfect eating with 1 day of cheating. Your body just backfills the deficit. If you can go 2-3 weeks of perfect eating and screw up 1 day, you can be ok if you go back to good eating the next day. (this is not an excuse to binge on that bad day). People can plateau in their weight loss for 2-3 weeks before breaking into the next drop of 2-3 pounds sometimes in the same week. MIndless foods like chips are bad and cadies that spike your suger and make you hungrier 30 min after eating them than you were before. Fruit is good, even bread is not bad when you compare a slice of bread (no toppings) to a candybar. You can eat a bagel with flavored cream cheese that has more calories than a candybar and there are some muffins at Starbucks that are 1100 calories per. You don't have to count calories per se, but know roughly what you are taking in (2 glass of milk, slice of bread, PBJ, 1 apple, 1 banana, 6 oz of chicken, 1/2 cup of veggies, 1/4 cup of rice= roughly 1500 calories). If I eat more than that per day I won't lose weight.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-18 11:59 PM

Jay, your input is very valuable and you are a big asset to the group. I am impressed with how you are able to maintain your energy and positive attitude despite going through hell over the past year. I have seen you grow athletically, recover from a major injury, grow in wisdom and self-control and have expanded your world view to include balance across all areas of your life tempering your bottomless enthusiasm with more aiming at your goals before firing at them to increase accuracy. I am a psychologist and have very rarely seen someone have their life stress go up by a factor of 10 and rather than regress into more primitive coping strategies you have matured through the eye of the storm, to control what you can, let go what you can't and continue to proceed towards you goals undaunted. I can slide pessimistic with half the stressors you have gone through.

Carlos, you have time to build to a full IM by Sept. You have 2 months to recover and get back to a balanced base, 2 months to gradually build up that distance and then 3 months to build to a peak and recover for the race. I would say 6 months would be a reasonable time-frame after you are recovered and you have 8 months (ish). So hang in there. You have some base fitness, you need to maintain what you can at a lower intensity until you can get recovered and then build up safely. It is up to you, you could just do 2-3 HIMs this year instead, but if you want the IM you can get there.... but each unprepared mary you do could cost you a month... each well prepared mary will cost you only 3 weeks, each well trained HIM will cost about 3 weeks, but can be used as part of your peak build with a HIM 6-7 ish weeks before the IM.

Isabella welcome to the group, your goals look reasonable. Sorry about the flue, you will have lost a lot of fitness. Start out gradual and it should come back reasonably quickly, but don't be surprised if your speed takes 4 to 6 weeks to return. Your endurance will build faster than your speed. What will really help is if you add some walking to your runs. It looks like 2 miles was a bit long, try walk half mile jog a half mile walk a half mile, walk a quarter mile, jog a half mile repeat until done (3 miles) for the first week. If you like time walk 4:00, jog 4:00, walk 2:00, Jog 4:00, walk 2:00 rinse repeat. First week is probably 2 miles x 4 days, week 2 3 miles x 4 days (walk 4:00, jog 4:00/walk 1:00 repeat), week 3 3 miles 2 days 4 miles 2 days (walk 4:00, jog 8:00/ walk 1:00, week 4 all jog 4 miles x 4 days, then you should be back into your routine, build from 16 miles a week to 25-30 over then next month or two. You can build in some 800 repeats after 2 weeks of all jog, start with 1-2 800s with 2:00 recovery and add 1 per week. Nothing is required in this group, but if you log daily it really helps me to give you better feedback on your training and races etc.

If it makes you feel any better I stated training for triathlons with an 11:00 mpm pace for a 1 mile run and didn't learn freestyle until after my first triathlon. My best marathon was at a 7:38 ish mpm pace 3 years later.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-18 11:16 PM

Jennifer your primary goal at this point is to get healthy. If running causes you problems, consider walking up to 4 miles per day 8 miles for your long day. But you need to carefully monitor your health. You are early enough in your training that you can recover your fitness for the race, but if you prolong your illness, it will eat into your recovery and build.

Reminder: please keep your logs up to date on BT and Please put your name (possibly even your next race and race date) in your signature so I can put comments to names (I am horrible with names) more easily. I will misspell your names, probably repeatedly, but it is not intentional...... it is just a touch of dyslexia.

Jim, great news for your wife, our prayers that she is one of those who gets to full hearing really quickly. It helps a lot to have been able to hear for a long time before the surgery. That means that her brain already knows what it is looking for. For children who have never heard anything before, all of the sudden hearing things can make it hard to filter out music, from speech, from unimportant noises.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-18 10:10 PM

Ok saddle sores. I have had them, never so bad that I didn't train through them. The number 1 best thing for healing saddle sores quickly.... diaper rash cream. Yes it may be embarrassing buying it, and it may not be the fragrance your spouse is used to, but it works really well. Put some on daily in the affected area. You should be able to run with it even if you need to put a bandaid over the affected area...or lock the door and pull the shade for your treadmill room.

The other problem is preventative. 1) good bike fit, 2) wash your bike shorts frequently as salt and road dust = friction, 3) experiment with the amount of padding for your shorts or even rotate from more to less padding to alter the contact spots, 4) creams/bodyglide etc work for some folks, not for me. Time in the saddle kind of helps with toughening up the skin, but it takes a really long time. If you have access to two different bike seats you can alternate and make the friction hit in different spots. It may be worth doing a day on a spin bike at the gym if you need to to have that 2nd saddle type. The angle of the seat as well as the front to back distance from the handle bars can have a big impact on friction. I have raised my seat and angled the nose down 1 mm recently for a better fit. It was fine for being on the horns, but when I went aero it compressed my body and pushed my knees out slightly, putting more friction and pressure on my "parts". When riding feel free to get up out of the saddle very 15 minutes to get a little pressure off and encourage bloodflow for like 10 seconds ish. This is also a good time to stretch those calves or whatever (still in the pedals).

Pam - thanks for the cooking lesson I hope and pray you're have a good race this weekend!

Mike - saddle sores are the worst and I clearly haven't figured out how to deal with them since I seem to always get them. There are several different kinds of chamios butters you can use to minimize friction. If you own two pairs of tri shorts you can try swapping them out each ride and it could be related to the bike fit. Let me know what you learn, please

Mitzi - Not sure how I feel about you saying I'm disciplined, but I'll take it. I can tell you it is a battle every day and it has been a journey of very small steps forward after taking two steps back. I am so very thankful to be where I am. Don't be too hard on yourself as you work towards your goals. The reality is - change is really REALLY hard and you aren't gonna win the war in a day or a month. Try to let the small defeats go, congratulate yourself on ALL successes and focus on what is directly in front of you. Easier said than done? Yes. Is it possible? Yes. My journey is an example of this process. I think most people are like us. There are the few who make a decision to quit this, or try that and that's exactly what they do. Those people are a rare breed, but it is so easy to compare ourselves to the people we can't measure up to because it gives us a reason to beat ourselves up and sometimes it justifies our choice to quit. We figure "I can't meet that standard so why bother." Anyway, I'm speaking of myself from my own experience. Take all my ramblings with a grain of salt. I just want you to see yourself as the successful person that you ARE!

Carol - I'm sorry about your grumpy foot! You'll be a great swimmer when all is said and done And yes, I do get crazy amounts of phlem when I swim. It drive me crazy and gags me. I don't know if this is the wrong thing to do but spit it out of my mouth. I notice it happens when I'm in open water as well. So not sure what that's about.

Isabella - taking time off and realizing you lost some of what you gained is very disappointing, but you sounds ready to get back out there and I'm sure some of it will come back faster than you maybe expect.

Jim - so happy for your wife and also happy your training is going so well. I look forward to June!

Steve - I sure appreciated your words for Jay! Are you home now? Thanks for the extra info on saddle sores and weight loss. I haven't checked my weight/inches since I got my baseline so I'm curious to see. I'm gonna wait a little while to check since I prefer knowing inches lost and that takes a bit longer to really see the progress. I haven't counted calories in many years, but I think I'll try to start writing down everything I eat and see where I'm at with that. I really want this year to be about getting my body to a healthy weight and % of body fat.

Still no chocolate for me. It is really hard; I crave it like crazy and I'm still in shock over how much chocolate is my only real go-to food. I feel sorta lost without have it around to snack on. Oh well. That really means giving it up is the best thing I can do right now. My training is coming along. I think I'll spend the rest of January getting myself back into the training mode and building my base, then February I will start intentionally working toward the HM in May and HIM in August. My wrist continues to improve and I can't express how much I love the freedom coming from that.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Edited by anthalynn 2014-01-18 11:32 PM

Carol the phlem is probably the cholrine/bromine.

Ok that catches me up. Yes if any missed it I was out of town Tuesday through today, so I will be more present now. I drove 1100 miles had 9 hour training days + 10 hours of workouts and a couple of receptions without any real internet access. I have closed the group so I can keep up with everyone here.

I ask that everyone stay in the group to the extent that you post something once a week so we know you are doing alright even if you get into a downer, get injured DNS for a race, crash your bike, etc. We will be here and it makes it kind of sad when half the group disappears after the first two weeks. Some things that will help with that are 1) do not compare yourself to others in a negative way, we are all given different innate abilities, have different real life commitments, are working at different distance races and someone running a 4:00 mpm pace does not make someone running a 14:00 mpm pace less of an athlete or a person. You are all valuable, have gone through your own challenges and we are stronger together than we are alone. I view triathlon as a lifestyle or as part of a healthy lifestyle meaning that any 1 race, workout or illness does not defeat us as individuals, it just makes us shift our priorities for a time. Personally I crashed my bike at the end of 2012 and DNS for an IM, then developed a rare knee issue unrelated to workouts that got fixed with surgery, but took me out of training for basically 4 months. I then had 5 months to go from zero fitness to an Lake Tahoe IM. Yes I stated with walking the first week, and the second week and the third week and then walk 4:00/jog 1:00 and built up. This is just an example of, stuff happens and knowing what you can do and can't do trainingwise can get you from a probably DNS to a finish if you build smartly and evaluate along the way. You can read my LTIM race report if you want to know about that race, for the new people it is worth a read not because I had a PR or because IMLT was the toughest IM ever, but because of the journey. IM takes a lot of heart, it just does. And it takes enough base fitness, it just does. You don't just go do an IM on a whim, you need to respect the distance. But, if you put in the training, nail your nutrition and hit your pacing, it is very doable (assuming you have 6 months or more to build, own a bike and know how to swim).

So at the conference, very day there were boxes of sees candy, snickers, etc., in front of the vendors all day every day and for lunch the first day... chocolate moose with an orea cookie type crust and shaved chocolate on top, day two at a break fudge covered brownies, soft chocolate chip cookies .. does white cholate count as chocolate? So..... ya I didn't have any chocolate, couldn't set a bad example for the group. I did have a raisin cookie, but for me that is not part of my current restrictions and doesn't set up the same craving cycle. So back home and back to 12 days of altitude reaclimation.

That's it for tonight, if I missed anyone or if in the future I miss anything important, send me a pm or repost it. I can sometimes skim past something see that someone shared something but miss that they wanted some input on it. I will not intentionally miss anything or not respond to someone, but I am balancing work, family, workouts and such and can run short on time, so just send me a PM and I will give it my full attention.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-18 11:48 PM

This is Pink Sock's husband reporting for Pam.

Pam just called and wanted to let everyone know she finished the marathon in 4:45, hopefully a small PR for her.
Steve, she wanted me to tell you thanks for your support and that you are the best! She hopes you are not terribly disappointed in her time. She said she had fun and misses everyone.

karl

Karl - thanks for the update. What great news for Pam! Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Congratulations Pam, on finishing your marathon!! Great job! Treat yourself now to some R & R, you deserve it!

Woohooo!!!!! Way to go Pam! So glad you had a good day. Karl, thanks so much for letting us know. Stop by any time!

Karl/Pam, I am very happy with that time, I was worried she would go out too fast given the medical stuff. Now if the race were 6 weeks ago when she was in her prime training and didn't have the iky medical junk, I am sure she would have hit 4:30:00 (or better). Very respectable showing, very happy she was smart in her pacing.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-19 3:10 PM

Good to keep up with all your posts - I'm hanging in with my workouts - cardio classes, weights. Focus on weight loss which unfortunately you wouldn't know it from my eating.

Noticed it feels easier on my body to do 10' pace instead of a 12'pace.
So I'm up to 1' @10' pace/ 1 min walk. Have gone up to 10 mins at a session. Feeling stronger, wish I had more than 6 weeks to get ready for my training plan, but the plan is long enough to get me ready for a sprint (if I remember it's 12 weeks).

Congrats PAM!!!!!!

Hey Gang, Randy here.

Pam, congrats on your marathon! Dealing with medical issues and such sounds like you did great!!

Sorry I have been off for awhile. Unsure about whether I can prepare myself to do this HIM in August or not. Seems the expense of everything and the time will be big. Also, I have been working on swimming. At least a couple outings. It is discouraging to see how far off I am.

1st time I swam 6 lengths of pool freestyle and 2 lengths kicking only w kickboard. (rest between)

2nd time 12 lengths freestyle and 2 kicking. I have to stop after each length and rest for a minute or two as my heart is pounding and breathing a little hard. Wild running up to 8 miles I usually rarely am that challenged cardio wise. Trying to figure out my breathing. I am breathing every 4th stroke, which seems to be not enough. I have figured out a few things in making my strokes more effective and kicking seems somewhat more effective thinking about driving the water back away from me as I kick w/ pointed toes.

I ran my first marathon last year (had never done longer than a 7k before that) and didn't think I could do it, but I believe I can do much more than I think.

No one to train with much around here - no one else doing this particular race in my area. I did have a running partner for my 6 mile yesterday which was awesome. I can do it without, but just tougher.

If I decide not to try the HIM will likely do a HM and maybe some sprint tris or something.

Still trying to find my way.

Thanks for all your support and happy training and healing to all.

Randy

Congrats Pam great result, today was the first day of my 20 HIM plan, long run and a short swim. Unfortunately I had a funeral to attend at the only time my pool is open for lap swim on weekends, so no swim. Got the run in no problem, I'm a little scared that my long run goes from 4.7 miles to just over 12 in The next 20 weeks but I am a little excited as well.

Randy I breath every 2nd stroke or every time on the right side. I would die if I tried to go 4 strokes per breath. Also you may be kicking harder than your fitness which will kill your endurance. What you want to shoot for is more of a relaxed kick with good balance (butt even with head in the water). Don't pick your head up to breath but rotate to the side, rotating body with each stroke. You can practice a few lengths with no kick at all if you want to get a feel for it. Go slow to go fast. You have enough time for an august HIM. It will probably take you 2-3 months to get your swim solid at that distance, coach helps. Keep at it.

Mike, normal run progression for long would be, 4.7, 6, 7, 4, 8, 9, 10, 5, 11, 12, 13, 6, so that is well within safe build expectations. Remember that the long run isn't all out the whole way. You can put some harder efforts in the first half and then just finish it up at a slower pace if you want. You should be alright.

Edited by Baowolf 2014-01-19 8:53 PM

I had a fantastic trainer ride today. It cruised by with minimal saddle discomfort and I pulled off over 15mph for a 59 minute ride! It was a good push for me and I was sweatin like crazy, but it felt good to pull that pace after being off the bike for so long. I'm headed out in a bit to spend some time on the treadmill to start getting back into the swing of two workouts a day.

Randy - I would bet money you can do more than you think and from personal experience I know you can be ready for a HIM in August if Steve says you can. He has an amazing ability to see where a person is and tell them where they can realistically get to. Swimming is just plain awkward and it takes time for your body to get into a groove. Definitely increase your breathing to every other stroke. Try to exhale the entire time your face is in the water. Picture a helium balloon being tied to your swim shorts and it's pulling your butt out of the water. Definitely don't kick so much and so hard that it wears you out, and a saying that helped me so much goes like this "slow is smooth and smooth is fast". It is so true. I wasn't a great swimmer when I started, but over time I definitely improved. Hang in there and like Dory says "Just keep swimming"

It's a pretty big deal around here that the Seahawks are headed to the superbowl. I've even felt a bit of excitement and I don't even watch football. Anyone cheering for the Broncos?

Happy Monday!

Thanks Steve, I was thinking about trying breathing every 2 strokes, but didn't know if that was too crazy. I saw a couple videos, but both showed breathing every 3 breaths, which means one has to switch sides to breathe on every time. I tried that and just can't breathe on the right - seems weird and I had a bad pinched nerve in my neck for a long time. It is still there a little and turning right to breathe doesn't feel safe.

I did notice if I turned my body some as I reached with each stroke, it seemed a lot more powerful and more natural when I went to turn to breath.

I'll try every 2 strokes. That sounds like it might work well for me. I will experiment with the kicking less hard too. Will look for a coach or class to see if I can get a little help. Even having a coach one or two times I think would help me a lot.

I really thought a tri bike would be great, but trying the stationary bike set up like a tri with aero bars really was uncomfortable when I went forward on the bars causing as you mentioned pressure on my parts (especially 51 year). May just try to get a road bike.

I really appreciated your commentary Steve on not comparing ourselves to others times or abilities, etc and that we are all on our own journeys with different commitments, etc. I am enjoying my journey although not exactly sure where I am going yet

BTW, I found Mack Ear Plugs really helped issues with getting water in my ears, causing clogged ears, poor hearing later. These things work great!

Blessings to all.

Randy

Hi,

I missed looking at this thread and visited it just now.
Is there a way to set it up, where you can get notifications when somebody posts?

I ran 13 miles on Jan 12th and 9.5 miles on Jan 18th.
Yesterday, I went out for the first time on my road bike.
I had bought Shimano pedals and shoes and tried that. I could not keep my balance and fell off.
Then, I wore my normal shoes and biked for 40 mins, my first time outdoors on my road bike.

In my swimming lessons, I am now able to take 3 breaths and swim 3/4th of a pool.

I believe I am making progress enough to meet my goal of doing my first ever sprint tri in 2014.

Once I start getting notifications, I can become a better MENTEE and be a contributing member of this group.
All the best to all group members to meet their goals in 2014.

- Kumar

I believe I figured out how to set it up so that I get notifications when somebody posts on this thread.

- Kumar

Samantha - Happy getting reaquainted with your bike. Glad it went well.
Isabella - Thought I saw somewhere that you had named your bike? I thought that was cute but the name for my bike would not be quite so innocent.
Mitzi - Wonderful improvement, keep at it. Like you say there is plenty of time to reach your goals and this is a great step forward.
Randy - Sounds like you have some base fitness to draw from. Even though swimming may be an unfamiliar activity that fitness will help once you get the technique down. Swimming is much more about reducing drag than muscling your way over the next hill. Find what makes you comfortable.
Kumar - Keep those WO's rolling.
Mike - More cold coming. Oh no. I guess there is still the dreadmill and drainer... Are you doing anymore masters swimming?

Had a nice all be it cold bike Friday. Temps were in the mid 30's and I got in 23.7 slow miles. Glad to be out there already! Weather is not going to cooperate this week though so back to the gym. 3 miles in 30 minutes (1% grade first 2.5 miles) on the dreadmill this morning.

Hello everyone!

First off thank you Steve for taking the time to comment and give me feedback on what I am doing. It feels so good having someone who actually *knows* about running giving me advice! It takes a bit of pressure off. I will give this a shot for sure. Although I don't like mixing walking with running, I see the point and know it will help me build again without injury.

After a pretty mild week and weekend temps are set to drop again between 3F (feeling like -11F with wind) Brrr! I need to consider buying a "dreadmill" If not running outside I will focus on bike.

I am also working on my plan for this year, some things are still unclear family and work-wise but will post everything asap in my sig.

Pam - congrats for the Mary, well done!

Randy - hang in there! I know it can be overwhelming when you look at everything that needs to be done in order to achieve a goal as big as HIM, but as we say in French "You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time"

Once again, very grateful for all your comments and support, happy training!

Isabella

Tri solar : haha! and what nasty name would you give to your bike?

Mine is Scott, not actually very clever, it is after all a Scott speedster... and together we make a team against the elements lol!

I like to give HILLS a devilish moniker, according to how much I suffer climbing them

Hey All! Thanks so much for the kind words re the marathon. I love you guys. Steve, you are the greatest mentor ever and I just love you. You have gently said some things that made me start thinking about my racing. Then on the way to the race, Mel was telling me about a mutual friend of ours who sabotages herself. I vowed that I would not do that this race. All I can say is that I'm convinced I didn't sabotage myself DURING the race (I still need to look and my actions during Dec and taper to see if I did some sabotaging then.) But all in all, I thrilled with my mental state during the race. I stayed with my strategy of going out comfortably. 12 miles went well but left ITB began kicking up some then. Also, I think I drank a tad bit too much to drink because I was so focused on not dehydrating (temps were warmer than expected).

But around this time, I found out something that surprised me. I hope this doesn't come out wrong to people but I'm saying it in case it helps others. I've got a bad thing about anyone being a rude runner/triathlete. Also, because I started this later in life, I do it for fun, for stress relieving, for health. I love going to races and running next to a total stranger and having a little conversation (not long but for a few min). But, I found around mile 13 or so, I need to be a "selfish" runner to do my best. Not a rude person but I've got to concentrate on me, my needs, my pace, my exertion, etc. There was a very nice man around me that I could tell he wanted a little company. He was nice and we were almost the same pace. Almost. But I realized that someone next to me could very subtly affect a surge that I felt or keep me from focusing on when I needed my nutrition. So I turned within myself and just concentrated on me.

At Mile 20, I had already decided that I was going to give everything I had to the last 10K. I knew I may crash but I didn't want to leave anything out there. My philosophy was "Go Big or Go Home". I swore I'd run it all in. I calculated that I needed one more gel and therefore water but I would pass every other water station. Also, the ITB was so bad at this time, that going from a walk to a run was the most painful thing ever so I vowed to run. I will admit that twice, the leg seized and made me stop for a walk for a few secs (and once I found a tree to do the pendulum swing to help relieve it) but I put my head down and ran the hardest I was capable of running. I knew at that time I had missed my goal of 4:30 and that I might not even PR. I knew that I could walk it in and finish and I wouldn't hurt as bad. I knew all of this but decided that was what the old Pam would do. During that last 10K, I was passed by very, very few people and I passed tons. {Please understand that I'm not trying to brag about passing these people but I'm just saying I was digging down to where I had previously never done. That was due to Steve.}

I ended up with a small PR. Not big. I haven't even looked at the results because in a way, it doesn't matter. I conquered some things in my head and that was priceless to me. I'll analyze my splits later but I wanted to record my mental breakthrough before looking at the physical issues.

Whew, I didn't mean for this to be so long and so selfish. I'm sorry for all of that. {BTW, while I said I became a "selfish" runner, I still wasn't going to be a a-hole. I thanked the people at the water station as I went around them and when I could no longer talk, I would thumbs up or smile at the police officers. If a runner was in distress, I would try to say something encouraging to them.}

Ok, all that is said and it's not even my race report! I didn't mention that I had MAJOR digestive issues which cost me time because it sounds like an excuse. I can't use that as excuse. It makes me know that I should have done something in my training to prep for hard running and gel issues. That could have been a self sabotage during training. That will be another post.

So glad to see everyone learning/training. Will catch up on everyone later. Steve, glad to have to have you back from your trip.

Pam, recovering from surgery, taking that nasty medication, losing 6 weeks of run training right before the race, having both ITB and stomach issues during the race...and PRing while showing AMAZING mental toughness! I feel like a dad walking his daughter down the isle, nicely done. I only wish that your race had been 6 weeks ago before your surgery, you were so in shape to nail that thing and take names. But what you accomplished is more important than that. You mastered yourself. And set the bar very high for the rest of the group even though we are not supposed to compare ourselves to you, we kind of will. Your race reminds me of Samantha's IM last year, where things were not perfect coming into the race, but she nailed her pacing and came in sooner than expected (by 45 minutes). I was also thinking about my IM where 50 miles into the bike I thought that I might DNF because of the muscle issue. /Tips hat.

Some things to keep in mind for the gang, you don't always run through something that is painful on race day, sometimes you walk or stop. Pam made the judgment call on the field that this was a muscle irritation kind of thing that would be painful, but that would recover reasonably well with rest in about 4 to 6 weeks as compared to a badly sprained ankle, broken bone, dehydration, overhydration, heat stroke, or torn muscle that would mean stop.

In cooler temps you take in less water. For example in IMs with 95 F temps I am drinking 3-4 oz of water every mile on the run. In temps of 40F I am taking in 3 oz of water once every 3 miles. If one is breathing harder due higher elevation or harder effort while running, this also means less water intake. at IMLT folks didn't take into consideration that the elevation (6200-7200 ft above sea level) resulted in faster breathing and higher heart rate at the same pace and cold temps meant less need for water. So on the run, I saw a lot of folks in the bushes with unhappy tummies. I also had to watch it and decreased fluids even more for the last 6 miles. Knowing what your gut needs and when it is getting iffy is tough. On warm IM's I sometimes drink a little too much of that ice cold water and get a touch sloshy which results in side aches. I also end up shifting from gels to just gatoraid for that critical last 6 miles when my stomach starts to get a touch iffy.