Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 65)

Just a quick note and I look forward to reading over the past few days posts soon. 

If anyone know of a good used road bike for my wife, size 51 or 52 let me know.  She is getting the bug...she said the cheap part would be her bike, the expensive part..you guessed it..CLOTHES...

Son pitched in the all-star championship game.  He had a no-hitter going thru the 3rd inning and they took him out due to the score.  His team won 16 -1, now off to State...  tougher teams there.  I hate I missed it but I had to go out of town for work...yuk!

Oh I miss this site so much when I'm gone...no races around here now due to the heat..mid 90's and rain every day.  Low's are in the upper 70's...have to have the a/c on, on the way to work...

i trained a lot during my way away from here.  I'll post later...

I saw a massage therapist today. She specializes in deep tissue massage. She was so awesome!  She was so thorough with all of her explanations, and I felt that she did so much more (in a lot more time too) than the ART specialist I saw.  In no way am I discounting what the ART specialist did, because I do feel like he helped me, but there was just something about today's massage therapist's approach that I really liked.  From what I know about ART, she was basically doing that, she just didn't officially consider it that.  It was interesting because she was talking to me about how she was thinking about looking more into ART to see if courses would be beneficial for her, etc.  From what I gather, the massage school she went to was just really thorough, so it seems like she may have learned some ART techniques there, it just wasn't called that.  (Again, from what I understand about ART.)  She did a full 30 minutes on my problem areas, mostly just holding the tense spots.  Let me tell you, I NEVER got 30 minutes with ART, and it's the same price.  I think it's more because the ART person I went to is a chiropractor first, and it seems like it's standard for chiropractic session to take a very short time, so that's probably what he was just used to.  Overall, I was just really happy with today though, and I've made an appointment with her for next week.

Oh, and generally speaking, no majorly ill effects from the race in terms of the injury I was worried about.  Although, separate note, I ran to/fro the massage therapist (it was 1.7 mi one way), and I got side stitches!  I honestly think I've just been eating way too much the past 3 days... I can just feel it...

Tomorrow hoping to bike up to what seems to be the closest lake suitable for OWS from where I'm at now... I have an off day tomorrow, and it's 11 miles away, and I've just got my mountain bike, so it's more about how much motivation I have.  22 miles on a mountain bike quite frankly is not very inviting... but it's like the only biking I'll be doing this week, so I think it will bother me if I don't... we'll see.

I know its about 4 months late but I still need help!!  One of the other members posted earlier in the week and got me thinking about my position.   Above is my current position on my bike.  Over the weekend I started having pain in my lower back after a longer ride.  Then I thought about it and realized I really only had 1 ride that I could think of where my back didn't get sore at some point.  The soreness is in my lower back just above my shorts line.  My questions are:

1. Anything Obvious?
2. Is my seat High enough? I still feel like I may be a little crunched
3. Also thought about moving the seat forward more, but not sure if it would be correct position.  I currently am out on the point of the seat and I think I need to get more on the pad of the seat.
4. I just lowered the handlebars by a 1/2 inch, and have another 1/2 inch or so I could go down.  Should I lower them more?  My 1st ride at the current position felt a little shaky but I could get used to it.  One thing I did notice is that with the bars down I felt the effort more in my quads.
5. Whats the correct position for the forearms to be on the pads for the aerobars?  The photo with my knee down is my normal position.  My elbow is out on the pads and it feels like I am reaching somewhat.  The photo with my knee up is something I tried today for a short time where I pulled my arms back and the pads were more on the forearms.  Should I pull my arms back so I the upper arm is straight up and down?

bswcpa - 2012-06-10 7:38 PM  I think I get to see and meet Matt (and maybe his lovely wife and kids?) for the first time next Sunday at the Maumee Bay tris in Ohio. I saw your name on the participant list. I'm looking forward to another Oly distance to see if I can finally run a 10K strong after a swim and bike. I've been doing more brick workouts this month so we'll see but I'm not feeling overly optimistic since it's been so long that it's come together for me. Are you getting ready, Matt? I don't know if you'll be camping there, but we have site #13 and will be coming in on Friday. The state park sounds beautiful so I'm looking forward to exploring it. Did you do the race last year? Do you know if it's normally wetsuit legal or not? Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Anyway, I have another friend that is doing the olympic so I should be around the finish line!  What is your expected finish time?

I'm sure the women on this board would love to give advice on where to get functional and fashionable workout clothes

Warren, I posted in your RR but thought I would let you know here that I think you ran a great race.  It seems to me that the bike course may have been brutal. With the climbing it would have taken me out of contention for my AG I suppose.

Samantha, it sounds like you had a really rough race but a nice finish and a reward to go with it.  There is always a great feeling when you find out that you placed or did much better than what you were expecting.  Those days make all the pain of training worth the frustration, fatigue and tiredness.  Congrats!

I'm also quite happy that you were able to race and finish without having to suffer through any more pain from the muscular issues you have been having.  The deep tissue became a staple post race deal for me after my first marathon last year.  It was amazing how much faster I was able to recover and move easier and after only one good session.  It is definitely on the planned agenda for every big race I do from then on.

On the stitches, follow the idea that Brenda threw out.  Try eating well before you run or at least eat much less in the hour before you run.  One more thing too, make sure you are keeping your tempo slow especially after race week.  Your body may be trying to recover and by spending time at a slightly higher pace may be causing a little bit of physical retaliation.

Tracy,  I'll check out the stuff from Hammer but I haven't had to buy much of that for some time.  Around here that is a big award at the races I attend and I have been able to get my Hammer for FREE!!!  At least so far.

How is your body taking the early weeks of additional running?  Are you following the 10% rule?

Matt,  I am almost out of time before work but.............Quickly......The first thing I noticed was your arms.   They are stretched out in front of you to much.  Try to move the seat forward some so that your arms create an angle closer to 90 degrees.  After the seat comes forward you MAY have to raise the seat a touch, but at the vwery quick look I had time for it looks fairly close.

BTW, I am getting checked for asthma next week.  I'll let you all in on my story later (unless you want to check my log) but it may have been coming for a long time.  Right now I have to head to work.

Checking in real quick. We are on our way to Florida, drove 12 hours yesterday. It was a bit of a stressful drive as we hit a lot of traffic hold ups that set us behind. Ended up driving through Atlanta in rush hour in the rain. We made it just fine though and I'm so thankful the kids were excellent passengers. Today we should only have about 5 or 6 hours.

 Of course I am the first one up and getting ready to hit the fitness room .

Matt, enjoy the billiards tourney..that would be fun going to Vegas and if U go, have a bunch of adult beverages for me...

Samantha, enjoy the massage...they are awesome but I tense up so much I'm not sure how much good they do...lol

Owlgirl, how R U feeling from the increase in mileage for the run?

Jeff, How R U?

Just a sidebar about side stitches, my sons cross country coach told his team not to drink OJ, or grapejuice prior to a meet.  Nothing containing a lot of acid...

Karl that is great to heat that your wife may be making the transition over to doing Tri's. That would be great if you could both do that together. Congrats also on your son's performance at his all star game. Sounds like you may be looking for an agent pretty soon.

Matt I can't comment on the bike positioning either and will defer to those who have more experience than I do with that but good luck to you and your wife this week in the billiards tourney and good luck to you and Brenda in your upcoming races this weekend.

Tracy glad to hear that the revised training schedule is going well for you and so far so good with the additional running. I am thinking I will probably need to start doing the same come July as I have my marathon coming up in Nov. and will need to start running some more.

No, I don't live near Traverse City, and sadly I haven't been to that part of northern Michigan either.  (I live in southeastern MI.)  However, I hear it's nice up there.  The only thing I can say is, I believe TC is known for cherries, so try some cherry products!   Although, I'm not sure if the cherries are struggling this year with the weather we've had...

Not a new mountain bike, in fact just the opposite.  Since I'm back in Ann Arbor for a week or so (with no car), I am using an old mountain bike to get around.  I've had the mountain bike in Ann Arbor for over a month now, so just for the sake of ease/convenience (and less worrisome for it to get stolen), I use it, rather than bringing my better bike and having to transport it here.

Matt, let's make one change at a time to the bike.  First up, raise the seat 1".

I've been thinking about running early, just because it would feel good to get the workout done and over with early.  Plus, it's light out by 6am nowadays here, so I thought maybe it would be quite a nice thing to do since it's not like it's going to be like that forever!  This is just me thinking though, I haven't actually done it yet.

Dina,  I hope you enjoy your trip with the family.  Disney is an awesome place for family to spend a few days.  We took our girls there when they were 4 and 6 and it was an incredible time.  Enjoy the times as they will go very fast and before you know it you'll be in my shoes..........HS grad!

Matt,  when I looked at your photo this morning I thought the seat could go up some, just as Jeff said, but I thought starting with the fore and aft might be better to get an idea about the seat position.  I most certainly will defer to Jeff for the proper fitting procedure.

Karl,  I have a 52 road bike but sorry not for sale.  I would advise as Brenda did, check out the BT classifieds and other online resources.

Samantha, I think you can get just as solid a WO on the mountain bike as you can on your roadie.  For the short term your not going to cause any issues with riding either.  What you might lose over a longer period of time would be some positional strength, say in your arms or back by having a more upright posture on the MTB.  Right now keeping or gaining cycling fitness is still a possibility provided you are attacking the bike.

Now about me:  I have been struggling with some type of respiratory "illness" for a little while.  Since Memorial Day's 50 mile ride in some really high temps. I have been fighting a cough that won't let up ro appears not to be going away any time soon.  I fought something similar for a couple of months over the winter and only saw relief when I went to Wyoming with my brother in February.  When I got home from my trip out west I had no symptoms that I had left with.  I hadn't been dealing with anything much since then, but that Memorial Day ride appears to have taken a toll.  The heat and air quality warnings have been running occasionally over the past couple of weeks and I believe that to be a contributing factor to my problems.

Brenda called me out after reading my logs a day or so ago.  She told me if it had been anyone else in the group that I would have suggested a doc appointment some time ago.  And she is correct.  It was really ironic that she called me out because I planned on letting everyone in on my decision to get the check up.

My personal feeling is that this is nothing more than exercise induced asthma because it didn't seem to exist until the past year or so, about the same time as my intense training began, especially cycling training.  (Cycling seems to be the precursor to the bigger breathing issues due to the intensity I try to ride.)  I also have a family history of asthma.  My mother has had really bad problems with it for a number of years and is now on O2 on a nearly full time basis.

I will be looking to take of this problem through an as needed basis if in fact I am diagnosed with this condition.  I am NOT a fan of taking meds. and will do an awful lot of work to stay off of them f I can.  I will be seeing a doc on June 22 (the day before Warsaw Sprint) and find out the dealio......so to speak.

I'll provide an update when I have any info.

Samantha, once U start running early, it is hard to break, cause U feel so good all day and you are not fighting traffic, etc and it is cooler and so peaceful.  It is ADDICTIVE!!!!

Dirk, good luck w/ the DR.  Please keep us informed and you'll be in our prayers.

Hey Dirk... part of what you are describing sounds slightly familiar as something my brother has.  It seemed as though last year~ish (or the year before) he suddenly started getting a cough that just would not go away.  For awhile it was really bad.  He was literally coughing all the time, and it was loud.  Nowadays, the cough is still there I think, but it's a little (lot) less.  He had gone to see a lot of specialists and I don't think they really ever came to a conclusion as to what was the cause.  I think "our" (family's) own conclusion was that it had something to do with reacting to something in his college apartment.  Because I'm pretty sure whenever he was away from his apt, the effect was minimized...  It was really weird though.  At one point he was taking asthma medication too.  I'm not sure if he's still on it...

Were you doing any of your home projects back when it started and/or when it returned? Either way, maybe you were exposed to something over the winter and your recent projects got it started again?  Maybe something about the chemicals/dust/something or such which you were exposing yourself to for prolonged period of time had an effect on your lungs?

Dirk please keep us updated on your situation. I echo Karl's setiments and hopefully it is something that the Dr. can diagnose and it's not anything serious and it won't derail or limit your training in any way. Make sure you take care of yourself.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.  I  feel pretty confident I won't be sidelined for whatever is going on.  I am continuing my training and even trying to kill a couple of sessions this week.  I just did a 7 mile run with 3 at tempo (or maybe a little faster) and fell pretty decent right now.  My chest has calmed down but it wasn't significantly bad anyway.  Tomorrow is a brick if I can get the time.  Obviously I am not trying to limit my activity any but rather I would prefer to go to the doc with the symptoms in full blown activity.

Something else for everyone: This article is about preventing shoulder injury from swim training.  I think it is wise to review occasionally as a reminder of proper swim form.  I got from a tweet yesterday but forgot to post it then.