Suz and Steph's Sprint, Oly and First Tri group! OPEN (Page 7)

yes! that's a superb attitude.

I hear it's FAST. We have one in Georgia call the 70.3 Augusta... it's a down river swim. People love it... particularly if they are swim challenged.

That's funny right there.

Took the day off from SBR yesterday. Six days in a row of training, so I decided to rest. Long run (4) today. Bike/run brick tomorrow.

Need to get on this bike buying thing, but I'm so undecided on what I want. Roadie, cross, tri?????

The new technology comes out in October so lots of shops are having sales! Road bike is best IMHO but if you want a Tri bike (technically a time trial bike) you'll want to spend the extra dough for fitting and refitting etc, (add a few hundred dollars) so you are perfectly positioned. Also, unless you are doing half irons, usually not worth the money.

DANG...I was planning on doing a 70.3 next September.

BUT I did get a bike. An old friend who I occasionally run into from time to time just GAVE me an old roadie today. It needs some upgrades, but the price was right.

Compared to modern frames, this one weighs a ton. It is still lighter and has better gearing than my rusty clunky MTB.

What upgrades should I get first? Clipless peddles? Gears? Tires? Wheels? So lost.

Pedals and tires. You can put aero bars on it too...pretty cheap, if you want to ride in the aero position. Lots of people do that rather than drop a few house payments on a tri bike.

You'll want to be able to relax and give your back a rest on that 56 miler.

OK so how was everybody's saturday? I just talked to my brother in South Dakota... it was 43 degrees last night!! Wow, anybody experiencing beautiful cool weather?

I ran today, with a friend, and for the first time I was actually able to run and talk... new thing for me! finally found someone at my pace!!! YAY!

Riding tomorrow with another friend, hope to get in 40 miles. It's been a LONG time... I shouldn't be so aggressive, but I just really need to get out there.

Also... I was offered a new job... BACK IN MIAMI! so after 6 months in Georgia.. I'm back in Miami for the foreseeable future.

My Mom is doing great, it's been stressful... I'm not even sure I shared that with all of you. But she's able to take a few steps, with a walker. A month ago, she couldn't move at all. She's my hero.

So my life has been ALL OVER THE PLACE, but it's been such a thrill to log on here and see you all just KEEPIN' ON, becoming triathletes, and loving the sport. Keep it up, and keep me posted on what you are doing.

Any questions? or funny stories?

Cheers!

Hey Gang,

Wow. Guess I’ve been MIA for a while now, but I’ve been reading as time permits. Sounds like lots of training programs are in full swing, and races are a huge success. Go Team. Suz – Feel better quick. We miss you. Being sidelined is no fun. Steph – great news on the job. Gary –you’re like a training ninja. Congrats on the new(ish) bike.

Finished my 2nd Olympic race today. I’m pretty sure it was uphill the whole way. Lol But I finished in a vertical position, even though my B-R training fell off substantially over the past couple of weeks (like to n-o-t-h-i-n-g). Oops. I’m thinking I will sign up for 1 more sprint (IronGirl) in a couple of weeks and call it a season. I can’t get excited today about the other race that’s in September – it’s full of nasty hills too.

Can’t believe it’s almost August already. Hardly had any summer at all in the Midwest.

Happy training all.

Terri

On the topic of funny stories, I don’t really have any. No one took the wrong bike today like last year, but my dog was really mad when I took off on the run without him.

On another topic, I have noticed a big change in my approach to race day. Last year was my first season doing tris, and I will honestly say I stressed over every last detail in all 5 races that I did, including the things I couldn’t control like the weather. To the point that I would get no sleep the night before. The season was a success for me, no catastrophes or major issues, but I didn’t realize that my Type A could go a little haywire.

This year, I’m 4 races in so far, and where I used to do things like start packing my transition bag at 9am the day before, now I do it at 9pm. I used to make myself a timeline of the things I needed to remember to do (like pickup my timing chip by X o’clock), now I only do it for races like today which have complicated logistics. Last year, I consistently documented my race reports in detail immediately after the race. This year, I don’t think I’ve done a race report at all.

Maybe it's just part of the learning process, or some of this may be related to the fact that I’m repeating the races I did last year, so they are already familiar. For me, knowing the course for any type of race is a critical element – I don’t like surprises (like hills lol). And, I am by no means pursuing any type of awards, so my transitions are comically slow and I tend to joke with the volunteers during the race.

Anyone else experience this kind of change in perspective? Race or non-race related?

Well, this isn't exactly a funny story but... I had a scary cycling experience last week. I was almost shaken up enough to quit doing my commute home from work. Here's what happened: I was going down a long hill, doing >20 mph, and I came around a blind curve to find two joggers coming at me in the bike lane. I checked the car lane to try to pass them and there was a city bus coming down next to me at that exact moment. So, these two joggers are just looking at me and (inscrutably) not moving out of the lane, the bus is directly to my left, and I'm braking as much as possible without flying over the handlbars, fish-tailing all over the place and generally sort of freaking out. I stopped just in time to not knock them down. It terrified me that if they'd been just a little faster, or I'd been just a little slower, I would have smashed right into them and there really wouldn't have been anything I could do. Has anyone else had a near-miss like that? And how did you get to feeling confident again? It sometimes seems that, no matter how careful you are, if you want to cycle at speed out there in the world it's just a matter of time before something terrible happens. Words of wisdom, anyone?

Julia

I just got some red blinkers for my bike to increase visibility. I'm scared to death every time I ride. The suffering helps alleviate some of that, but when I get all swervy going up a big climb I get nervous again.

First Oly distance next weekend.
Going to a wedding this weekend. I'm not worried about derailing my training:

1. Staying at a lake house (OWS here I come)
2. I don't drink
3. I have good self control when it comes to food
4. Can go on a new and exciting bike ride and run
5. Time to begin a mini taper anyway

My A-race is an off road Sprint in September that is being held at a former place of employment. My plan is to show up and completely smoke ALL of the current employees (individuals and relay teams).

That sounds ideal!

Hope there aren't any leeches.

I hope you asked them nicely to get the f#%k out of the bike lane!

People are such idiots. So sorry, I do hope you spoke to them. I run in the bike lanes too, but I get out of the lane for cyclists. I hope they weren't jerks to you.

Yes, the over planning and stressing is normal I think. I used to download and look at my Garmin stats ALL the time. Trying figure where I could shave off a few seconds here and there.... I was usually drinking a beer while I did this...

Much calmer, and more fit now. Still drinking beer... but not as much or as often, and not dissecting every workout session.

Running with the friend is working! we ran Saturday, Monday, Wednesday!.... and we are schedule for this Saturday! Now if I can just get myself to the gym for some weight training.

ALSO>>>>>> NEW JOB!!! I start on Monday!

Back to Miami with me!

)

In Miami you are not safe running on the sidewalk apparently.

A friend was running on the sidewalk and was hit by a car yesterday. He's OK. The person was a runner... 13.1 sticker and all on his car. Ugh. People here should not be allowed to drive without extensive testing and lessons. EXTENSIVE.

Absolutely! Today was my second time racing the same course that I did last year (for my first Tri) and the difference is huge. Even on a new course last month I wasn't anywhere near as nervous and I got a lot more sleep because I wasn't really worried. And I'm much less paranoid about forgetting something, being late, etc., etc.... Today our swim was cancelled (due to algal blooms), so that made it a lot more casual as well... I was disappointed not to be able to swim but I think I did pretty well and I had a lot of fun.

Julia

Whoa. I'm so sorry for your friend - glad he's ok but that must have been terrifying. And to think I usually feel pretty safe on the sidewalk...

Steph, I really did try to talk to them - politely. I expressed my concern for their safety and said it was really not a good place to jog but then they actually WERE jerks about it, which kind of surprised me. One of them said they were perfectly legally allowed to be in the bike lane (technically true, as there was no sidewalk - but still really stupid on this road) and the other one blamed me for my "poor reaction time." Oh man, I was so mad. But what are you gonna do?

I'm fine with joggers in bike lanes most of the time - that is, when the jogger can see a bike coming and move in plenty of time. But jogging up a big curvy hill and paying no attention to what's coming at you is just asking for trouble.

I guess I'm over my shock though, because I'm back out on the roads again... I did practice my bike-handling skills a lot last weekend.

Julia

Yeah there's no winning that one. Same thing happened to a friend and I today on a bike path. Idiots walking dogs. Multiple large dogs on long leashes. Ugh. I'm guessing there's a special place in hell for all these people.

I had a good workout though!

We have a big algae bloom happening here as well. So the beach that is normally used for tri workouts itsn't, and people are at south beach instead.

Things change so fast I hardly know what to think. First day on the new FULL TIME job today! It was good. I think I will enjoy this rather long term.

Saturday I met my friend for a long slow run... which at our current level is 4 miles. Starting over again due to life circumstances is not fun, BUT as they say... "start from where you are with what you have". So I am. Sunday/yesterday my husband and I got up early so he could do his 15 miles and I could do a mini-brick. I did 6 miles of drills on the bike, then got off and ran 3 miles, and then took an ocean swim. It was brief.. I just really have a tough time with the salt water in my mouth. I'm going to try some lozenges next time, before I go. Ack. But it was beautiful and clear and it was nice to see the fish swimming below me.

Hope you all had a great weekend! This coming weekend is Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I have a number of Tri-Friends who have qualified to compete! Woo Hoo!!! WolfPackTri!

Tell me about your workouts... what is everybody doing this week? any strength training going on? how's the fueling... getting some breakfast? trouble with any particular time-of-day meal issue?

Back from the weekend.
Longest run of the Summer gave me a touch of the IT kneesles. Stretch and rollling.
Oly this weekend, so I'm going light this week. 4 days off with some SBR in there somewhere.
Put a razor deep through my hand at work and my first thought BEFORE looking for medical supplies was:
"If I need stitches, I won't be able to race."
Priorities...but I did stop the bleeding and should be good to go.

First Oly in the books- 2:55.
The website is down so I don't know my individual splits...

..but I placed 37th overall, smack dab MOP,

which landed me 2nd in my AG (Technically 3rd, but the first place in the AG was one of the top finishers, so he doesn't get AG credit)
Yep, that 2nd place trophy is a pretty cool pint glass,
and it is now the most expensive pint glass I have in the cupboard.

ETA: fixed some numbers

Edited by skibummer 2013-08-11 5:42 PM

Could I join your group. I did this many years (5) ago and pooped out and quit after one triathlon. I am back at it this year with 4 sprints 3 of which were really short.
Any way a few of the peeps on this board may recognize my name and for those that dont, I am a few days away from 47 years old about 40# overwieght and I am a terrible swimmer I know how to ride a bike and I hate to run;-). I have been married for 20 years and have 2 beutiful daughters jusr recently aquired a son in law.
Looking for some mofivation and a kick in the butt to get me moving each day. Thanks.
P.S. call me rob