JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 60)

That may have been your first race, but you didn't post the report for almost a year (and 6 months after posting the Soma report). 

Mental breakdown during my trainer ride this morning.

Must have caused a pinch flat when changing to my trainer tire and had a very slow leak.  Was planning to do 10x5' at 90% with 1' recoveries...but had to reinflate my tire after the second interval.  Got through interval number 5 when the tire started getting really low again.  I was hurting (like I planned to be)...but couldn't get myself to change the tube and finish the workout.  So I just did a cool down from there.

Oh well...I'll punish myself with some hill work tomorrow.

HA, no kidding! I didn't know what I was getting myself into with that one. Maybe I should revive the thread just to stir the pot a bit .

So Johnny, how do you feel about running now?

Quick question.  Have any of you ever opted to run with a water bottle in a race?  

Is it bad form to stop at a water station and get a fill from the volunteer's water bottle?  

I know this is counter to the "live off the course" orthodoxy, and it is counter to my personal philosophy of minimizing clutter in my race plan, but I have to consider it, especially if it is hot for Racine.

A little better. 

I actually quoted myself to open my first IM race report. 

I never have.  Just don't think with aid stations every mile or so that, even in the heat, I need water in between.

That said, if you carry one, just grap a cup (or two) from a volunteer and pour it into your bottle.  Nothing wrong with doing so.

I did in an Oly last year. I am not good at taking a drink out of a cup while I'm running. It always goes up my nose and I don't feel like I really get a drink. I don't think I'd do it again though. It just jostled around everywhere and got on my nerves.

A friend of mine bought a bottle with a hand strap and she carried it in the HIM we did a couple of weeks ago. I think she really liked it and she refilled at the water stations. She said she used it more for putting water over her head than she did for drinking though.

HA - wow! I guess you found your running legs somewhere along the way!

I know this is not a big deal to most of you BUT....

I finally broke out of the teens for my average pace on my ride this morning. 20.1 mph!!!!!!!

I'm excited. My legs felt great but it was hard to breath. Very humid here today.

Improvement is a big deal for all of us!  Congrats!!!

And, FWIW, I have had very few training rides (ever) that have had an average pace over 20mph.  So it's still a pretty big deal to me when it happens. 

I run with a 16oz bottle in a belt all the time in training, but have always opted for cups in races.  I don't drink enough from cups and it slows me down because, like you, I'm not very good at it.  When I wear the bottle, I drink well and I can keep my pace up while doing it.  I just feel like a dork, but I just am starting to think I need to be "that guy" and run with the stupid bottle.  

My concern is that I am a huge sweater...for a gal who is 5'6" 138 lbs, I sweat more like a 250lb trucker.  I can sweat out 24 oz or more an hour in heat and humidity, and I don't want to put myself in the hurt locker in a long race like Racine.  I had a pretty disastrous first attempt at marathon last year and I think that my secondary problem was dehydration (my primary was poor pacing in the first half of the race...go figure).  I don't want to ruin Racine with a stupid mistake.  If' I'm going to ruin it, I want it to be for something more exotic than dehydration 'cause I suck at drinking from cups.  Haha.

x2.  The only way my training rides end up over 20 mph is if I find a flat area and hammer the heck out of it.  Nice work.

ETA:  Haven't gotten a chance to DL my garmin data from this morning...but I'm pretty sure the avg pace of my ride was about 12 mph.  Granted it was a 2x30 minute hill climb...but none the less...

Once again, you should do whatever you are most comfortable with doing.  For me, running with a bottle would be very uncomfortable.  And there is no reason NOT to slow down at an aid station and drink/eat whatever you need, especially in an HIM or longer.  Walking for 10-15sec to make sure you get hydration and/or nutrition down is not going to make a big difference in your time.  I don't always walk, but I often at least slow down to help make sure I get fluids down easily and completely.

You know what's interesting.  People have long discussions on how to save time in transition...I think largely because your transitions are timed and part of your race results.  But rarely does anyone talk about how to save time at aid stations.  Being that a HIM run can have up to 12 of them...saving 5 seconds at each aid station can be a whole minute saved. 

Here are some general tips for saving time at aid stations.

1.  Learn to drink from the cup while running.  If you can't do it now...practice it.
2.  Open/eat any gels/food/salt before you get to the aid station.
3.  Practice grabbing cups from volunteers.
4.  Learn to call out what you want in advance.  Simply yelling out water/ice/coke makes the volunteers reach out to you...instead of you reaching out to them when they might not expect it.

It may not seem like much...but I did a ton of passing at the aid stations in my HIM.  If part of your run plan is to walk the aid stations...then that's fine.  But you shouldn't have to slow down too much at an aid station if you don't want to.

Riding at first light too.  Same 90ish mile route as this past Sunday, but with a group much more my level.  So I should be able to take on more than my fair share of pulls this time. 

My legs are really starting to come back to me. I didn't realize how tired they were from the HIM training. I have not been running since the race to let my foot heal up and man, my legs feel great! So now I'm thinking about what I want to do next. I am thinking about an Oly in the beginning of September. I'd like to see if I can make some more progress (get faster) on my bike. I'm not sure if I can make a lot more progress in that short of time but I want to try. So, what do you suggest?

My training friend is still working towards IM Louisville so she'll have long rides to do on the weekends. Do I need to keep doing the long rides? There are also some time trials that have started in a town close to me - I think they do a 6 mile out and back course. I wondered if that would be beneficial? If you could give 3 days a week on the bike to prepare for an Oly what would your rides look like? Maybe I should add another day and bike 4 days?

I'm getting a head of myself. I am not even signed up yet!

Didn't get the 90ish mile ride I was hoping for this morning due to rain in the area we were supposed to start the ride.  Would have been pretty dangerous given the limited visibility, speed of traffic in the area, and the fact that we would be descending at over 40 mph.

So we did about 65 miles around the area we normally ride Saturdays and threw in some extra hills...with one big hill at the end.  Only about 1.6 miles long, but 725 feet of climbing, 8.1% average, with 4 sections at 12%.