Got Your Mojo WORKIN'! group - CLOSED (Page 61)

Great goals, GEORGE! Have a wonderful time racing with your wife tomorrow. Lucky to have family who enjoys doing the adventure with you. May you be smiling at the finish!

Great goals George! 
I guess since I sort of started this goal talk here are my goals for the "year" (though not the whole year)
1.  Get down to 180 lbs by my first Sprint in June (currently at 213)
2.  For my Du in April finish the race under the alloted time and have a good bike leg (not sure that "good" is quantifiable but just finish that leg comfortably)
3.  For my June Sprint FINISH the race!  - That is my only goal for the June sprint, finish and try not being the last one to finish.
4.  For my July Sprint in Phili - FINISH of course and finish feeling good.  I don't  want to be totally wiped out from the sprint length race by this time.
5. For my August Sprint - Get down to my goal weight of 165lbs.  FINISH the swim and bike legs strong and not walk too much of the run leg.

That is it for now... any feedback would be awesome in order to solidify these goals in a more positive and "SMART" way.

Thanks!
Alex 

I will try to be smiling at the end but it might be to hard when I trying to catch my breath.  I only up to running 2 miles without stopping so I will try to make the full 3.1 but not sure and to top it off after I finally catch my breath I have to run again with my son during the 1 mile fun run.  I hope its like the other fun runs we have done, they are normally like 1/4 to .5 mile.. Please running Gods, let it be a short course...

Ok for a off the wall question.  Is there a purpose to wearing the tri shorts? you know the tight shorts.. I was trying to see what the advantages are to wearing them.. I'm not really crazy about them but I see everyone wearing them.  I prefer to wear a light weight board shorts that are not tight. I know when I did duathlons in the early 90's I would wear a light running short and we would put vaseline on the edge of the seats to avoid the legs from getting rubbed raw.. I was not sure if that was the purpose of the new tri shorts, if that is the case I can possibly wear a pair under my board shorts????  I just dont think my body needs to be sporting around in those tight shorts, maybe next year when I drop 50-70 lbs.. What are your thoughts on the tri shorts??

The tri shorts enable you to swim in cycling friendly shorts without that pad soaking up too much water. They dry quickly and have just enough padding to be useful on the bike. I don't bother with them often for running only events.

I think the big advantage to the tri shorts is that you can wear them under your wet suit and don't have to change for the bike or run.  i felt pretty silly putting them on for the first time at age 52, but everyone is in the same boat and you see all sizes and shapes at the races.   One thing I learned is that you can't judge folks by their body type, it's the engine that matters, not the shape of the car. If you're a super hard body competitor I suppose the compression from the shorts helps a bit as well.  

Those are great goals George.

 Last years goals for me were to just finish and I Completed the two events I did 1 was a 5k the other a tri. Secondary goals were to not be last and I was succesful   in half . This year I want to beat my time in the 5k by 5min and if I do the other tri again this year I'd like to shave an hour and have no flats.

I'm thinking about doing an Oly in June instead of the off road tri I did last year. I haven't decided what races I want to do this year.

This weeks run totals 115min 8.88mi.

Should I exceed the scheduled minutes in the plan? I would have PR my 5k time today if I'd have kept going. I had 38min run scheduled so that's where I stopped. If I would have kept going I would have taken :45 off. My best 5k is 40:18 from last year. Next week the plan calls for an easy/recovery week so I suppose It'll have t wait until the week after.

50 minutes on the stationary trainer does not bother my ankle. A little soreness, no pain. Still limping a bit

We're building a mini version for my son's cub scout activity. Kind of tough but fun. Yours looks awesome! 

CRAIG -

Truth told, very few of us have the strength in our legs to support out weight on extended climbs; I sure don't! To do it well requires many things, not the least of which is perfect form. At its best, I guess, might be Alberto Contador. If you've ever watched any of those incredible mountain stages of TdF, you've likely marvelled at Contador "dancing" (Phil Leggett's term, not mine) on his pedals. To me it's like Mona Lisa's smile - we all know it, no one can draw/paint it).

On extended, steep(er) pitches, out of the saddle is a huge energy drain for me. I can generate a lot of power o-o-s on long gradual climbs, but nothing even close to that on steep stuff; hence, small circles become my strategy!

What you say about "....relax everything else...." is also key in efficiently spinning small circles, and at times I will try to "drain" all my tightness down into my pedlas and cranks. I am NOT trying to have tight feet, but the draining is more that I'm relaxing everything else so that all I'm thinking about is what my legs and feet are doing. If that makes any sense at all!

BRENDA -

Not quite as close as I'd like to be!

CRAIG again -

And the results of the Derby?

Very nifty machine! I suspect it requires tools and such to build, which means I couldn't build one for love nor money. You say you haven't built one in 40 years. I couldn't build one half a nice if I worked 40 years at it!

GEORGE -

Yo!

I see you're running a 5km today and then the add-on 1m with your son! I suspect those have happened by now (9:30), and I hope they both went well for you. Can hardly wait for the details!

Your goals are great, and I think if you can stay healthy the two middle ones are very doable. And if your son has a terrific time with the 1m today, that should catapult him towards his own 5km goal.

As for #1, I can't remember where you're at now and how much you have to lose to get to 175. I do remember about a month ago you were wondering what you have to do to lose weight (given how much you are currently working out and not losing too much weight in the process), and I think I said at the time that once spring/summer hit you should experience a significant weight loss. And given that your target date is still a very long ways off (and that it's listed as Goal #1), I suspect your chances of achieving it are very, very good!

George, Hope the 5K was great and you had fun with your son's race

Brenda, this weekends long run is 12 miles. I hope it feels really easy after the last 19 but I think it's going to seem like 12 miles! 

Steve, I saw some unofficial results that looked pretty impressive. Are you going to share???

Hope everyone has a great weekend rooting for whichever team. I'm hoping the Packers win. This morning I'm off to a Gymkhana show with my horse. It's barrel racing, pole bending, etc. I'm taking 3 horses but only my friends daughter is going to race. I'm taking my horse for the exposure. Hopefully by the next show I would of put some time into practicing and we'll compete. Tomorrow morning I'll get my run in after church then it's Super Bowl time!
Johanne 

ALEX -

My, you're a quick study! You asked that question about goals only a few days ago, and already you've crafted a fine quintet of them. Since you asked and got me thinking about it, I've been fuddling around with my own golas........and am nowhere near close to settling on them!

For you for now, "good" really isn't quantitifiable, so the idea of finishing any given leg comfortably is valid. And the bike leg is a good place to start.

Beyond that, I really like the ascending goals of the three triathlons -- finish; finish feeling good and not wiped out; finish the swim and bike legs strong. So, you go from no qualifiers, to a "good", to a "strong". Nice progression!

I will think about your feedback comment, especially the "SMART" part. I came close to adding on something about the duathlon.......but I'll teasingly leave it as it is for now!

GEORGE again -

Not an off-the-wall question at all; millions have asked the same thing, in fact!

Getting to your last part first, about your body "sporting around" in tight tri shorts, I have seen every type of physiognomy in those shorts and, quite honestly, I don't even differentiate; I think very few triathletes do. That may not help with your own sense of modesty or propriety, but it just deserves noting.

You hit on one aspect of tri shorts versus loose stuff, and that's chafing. Very tight clothing is not 100% chafing-free, but it sure goes a long ways towards helping with it.

Beyond that, there are aerodynamic issues, not the least of which will be what happens during the swim. I'm figuring your tris will not be wetsuit-legal, so what you wear in the water should ideally not create much drag. But I see you mentioning putting tri shorts under your board shorts, so in that scenario you could do that in transition after the swim.

An option is to keep on just the tri shorts during the bike, and then add on the board shorts before the run. The more time you have less drag, the better!

Tri shorts are wonderful inventions! The amount of padding in them varies considerably, but what you don't want is hard-core cycling shorts with a big intrusive pad -- great for 463-miles rides, maybe, but not too good when one has to do a run after getting off the bike! The tri shorts I have used forever are ones from DeSoto, and they have a virtually non-existent pad; there is something there, but it's extremely minimal. My "sits bones" are quite prominent, and yet on long rides I never have a problem. That's not to say that something more padded MIGHT be more comfortable, but I believe in sticking with what works and use my DeSoto tri shorts for EVERY cycling workout I do.

Think about the option in the short paragraph above if you don't feel ready for tri shorts for a whole race. Okay?

Ack! Lynn's taking over here and I should head to the pool anyhow, so.............

I shall return!

Since Johanna mentioned it, STEVE, I realized I could look up your rankings so that's what I did. VERY IMPRESSIVE!! I'll continue to patiently await your thoughts on it all.

Have a great time at the horse show, JOHANNA. Sounds like fun. Hopefully your 12 miler will go smoothly and without pain.

Glad to know your treadmill run didn't hurt, JEFF.

Let us know how the Pinewood Derby went, CRAIG. And we'll all anxiously await your race report from today, GEORGE.

Happy Saturday everyone!

That was my bike trainer, treadmill workouts hurt when I am not injured!

JEFF -

My own ankle-area problem HAS hurt on my last couple of trainer rides; wanna trade?

I guess it's not all that bad, as once I'm done it's fine. That is, no limping and no real soreness. I see my sports doc on Monday and we'll see what his diagnosis is. This is kind of terra incognita for me; usually I'm pretty good at diagnosing myself.

Your line about the treadmill was a good one!

JOHANNE and BRENDA -

I'm exposed! That towel that was demurely and discreetly draped around me and my USAT ranking is no longer there! EEK!!

For over a month I was sitting there, taking root it seemed, at 39. I pretty much figured that was the end of the end, with all races in and tabulated and just waiting for the divine blessing from the God of Rankings. And then a few days ago I saw that I had been bopped up to 34, thanks to some recalculation of Tupper Lake Tri. That proved quite short-lived, as yesterday I was at 35. So, last-minute rumblings are happening, and we'll see how extensive the tremors are and where it all shakes down.

My preoccupation now is revsiting my flat at West Point Tri and the mess I made at changing it. I didn't time it, but my guess is 9-11 minutes. Yech! That bugged me plenty enough at the time (maybe more on that later), but now it is coming back to haunt me. If I was "only" 9 minutes in changing it, then that wouldn't affect my ranking. If it was 10, it would be close. If I took a staggering 11 minutes, then that difference would've been enough to give me a score for that race that would've bumped me up about three or four places -- and seeing as how you've looked, you know where that would've put me. Oh my!

Yeah, more on flats later.........

CRAIG -

Overall, well done on delaying your gratification and keeping to the guidelines of the run. I know from vast experience in this area how easy it is to push beyond the boundaries of a workout just to prove a point to myself. And while that may feel kind of sweet at the time, it's one of those things that you forget about entirely before too long. It's kind of like that great Thai meal you had a few weeks ago, but you can't remember exactly what you ate. It sure was good............but what the heck WAS it??

Hopefully, you will have many, many, many, many more "breakthrough" runs between now and when you hang up your running shoes when you're 79, so what might've happened if you'd extended the 38-minute run will just get swallowed up by the mists of time. And probably sooner than later (like that Thai meal!).

Now, having said that, none of this stuff is carved in stone, and in all likelihood you could've extended it with no ill effects. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW! I really am a good one for having a nice, brisk run, and then deciding I'm going to kick it home for the last 100 yards or so..............and end up with whining Achilles tendons. Or turn a 10km run into an 11km run, just because, and aggravate a neuroma or something. I keep waiting to finally learn my lesson and move on to some more intelligent way to finish training runs, but apparently I am an especially slow learner in this respect (along with other respects..... ).

Anyhow, that was a very good week for you, I say! Enjoy the easy/recovery week, and treat it as a launching pad for a great following week!

Haha JEFF - sorry about that that. You gave me a good chuckle any ways

What's the highest you've ever been officially ranked, STEVE? I've not had a flat on a race yet but I'm sure it'll happen. I wonder if there's a statistic out there that calculates your chance of having one. Regardless, your current ranking is uber uber outstanding.

Well Hello everyone, I'm still Alive...... The race was great.. I posted my race log so you can check it out
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=241183

Well I did not meet part of my goal today.. 1 goal was to finish and I did, but I wanted to finish under 32 minutes and I finished at 35:28.. Oh well, my next 5K is in 3 weeks and then i plan to finish under 32 minutes.. I tried to run the additional mile with my son in the fun run but my legs would not let me so I ran the last 50 yards with him.. Man I was so proud today.. My wife completed 5th out of 34 in her age group and 61 out of 223.. Me I was 8 out of 10 and 131 out of 223.. But My SON there was about 20 kids and he finished 3rd.. Yeahhh for Evan..  He is 8 and me and him talked about when it warms up we are going to start training because he want to become a racer also.. There is a race in Alabama (Adventure Race) we will bike through trails, then run and then paddle in a canoe.. We are going to train for it next year..  Well it's time to get back to the family, but I wanted yall to know I did the race and check out my log...

GEORGE -

Good report, and a fine assessment of what you did and how you felt. Your overall placement is really quite good, and I hope you are pleased with it; you have every reason to be!

Your wife and Evan also have reason to be proud of what they did. I was going to say to give Evan's hair a tousle from me, but then I figured maybe your wife would feel left out. So, give her hair a tousle from me, too!

That is very cool about you and Evan training together. He must be on Cloud Nine tonight, eh?

That was cruel and unusual punishment, having the wind in your face on the return. Actually, it's not all that unusual, come to think of it!

And my good money says you WILL break 32 in three weeks!