Dominion's Sprint and Olympic Distance - OPEN !!! (Page 7)

This seems to be a widespread issue in this country. Drivers seem to feel entitled to complete ownership of the road that they shouldn't have to share with anyone. Cass's situation is a bit different as it sounds like she was crossing the street at a crosswalk and was more a victim of inattentive driving. But I've had numerous close calls with motor vehicles in the last couple years since I started my triathlon training and ventured outside.

Between racing and training, I have been lucky to avoid this same thing happening to me so far. I've had a number of near misses, but no actual contact yet. As they say, "it's not a question of if, it's a question of when". A friend just recently shared an article about 4 cyclists being run over while on a group ride in North Carolina. The driver's daughter was quoted as something to the effect of "she didn't know what to do". Gee, here's a thought, slow down!

I think that is the biggest culprit. People's desire to get where they are going on their terms means they don't want to have to slow down for you or anyone else. Your safety doesn't matter to them. All that matters is getting from point A to point B. Could they get there 5-10 seconds later? I'm sure they could. But they just don't seem willing to spare those 5-10 to slow down and allow for a safe distance between you and their car. I can only wonder how that driver would have felt if it was her daughter that got hit by another vehicle because they were too stubborn to slow down.

I'm sure many of you were already aware of the perils of having to train on roads that force you to share space with motor vehicles. I have been hyper-vigilant about safety and the reckless nature of drivers since I started training outside. I never assume that a driver can or did see me (or that they care about my safety). Cass's accident just proves yet again that you have to always be paying attention to where you are going and your surroundings and to train "defensively". I don't like the fact that I have to be the one that is paying attention for all parties involved (me and the driver), but it's better than being run over! Be careful out there, friends!

That was not far from me! Ironically the state had good bike laws were bikers were entitled to the whole lane. They are trying to push thru legislation to limits this, and prevent two by two riding.

I'm feeling really good about my last 3 weeks of training. Maybe it was the fluke week of 70 degrees and sunshine, but the "on" switch got flipped in my brain and I have been having a blast. I'm not sure I've enjoyed training this much in years. That's got to be a good sign, right?

Jaime

It's getting warm here too! 60 last weekend and 50 this, and we dodged a bullet on the snowstorm that hit nearby areas during the week. I have my first ever bike fit scheduled for Monday, and I'm excited to start riding outside! Except that I live in fear of cars, and I'm not a strong cyclist which makes my fear so much worse. Which makes me not want to ride, and makes it hard to become a better rider, and the cycle continues.

It's been a week now since I got hit, and I swam for the first time today. Woohoo! I've been in the pool a couple of times this week, but I couldn't really swim. I've been doing water aerobics, bicycle kicks, back floats, etc just to get my body moving in a weightless environment and work through range of motion in my arms and legs. I also made a point of getting up every two hours at work and walking the halls for ten minutes, as well as doing some yoga and other stretches, and also short walks and yoga in the evenings. Between keeping active, Aleve, ice, relaxing in the hot tub, and compression stockings, I've managed to recover pretty fast. It doesn't hurt to move anymore, which is extraordinary because my legs..well...look like they've been hit by a car. The bruising only bothers me when I try to sleep at night, so a friend recommended a certain medicinal herb which recently became legal in this state. That was a first for me, but it works! I sleep like a baby, and I'm sure that helps the healing process, too.

So, I'm back to being able to swim and ride my bike. I'm taking it easy with the running and will probably wait another couple of days, although I ran 3/4 of a mile the other night, and it felt great. However, I don't want to push it. Swimming and cycling are non-impact, so they're easier on my body. I'm hoping I can now ease back into my training schedule and be back up to full speed by the end of this next week.

I wasn't in a crosswalk when I was hit. There was no crosswalk in the area. The road I was on is the back way to a couple of businesses, all of which were closed Saturday morning, except for the fitness club. As I told the officer, there was no reason for that guy to be on that road. If he had turned right, as I thought he would, he would have gone to the fitness club. Instead, he turned left and hit me. Incidentally, if I had been in my vehicle, it would have been a head-on collision, with him facing oncoming traffic. He was in the wrong bloody lane! But, whatever. Karma will catch up to him some day. I honestly think the police officer sees runners the same way a lot of people see cyclists--if there's an accident, they assume it's the cyclist's fault. With this officer, his attitude was that I shouldn't have been on the road, and that's why I got hit. He had already made up his mind and didn't even want to hear my side. Whatever!

I ride my bike a lot on the back roads where I live, and I have a lot of close calls with vehicles. I had one just a few weeks ago when someone refused to share the lane and came within inches of clipping me with his/her mirror. There was no other traffic and plenty of room for the vehicle to swing wide, but the driver just plain refused to move over even a few inches. And I've had several altercations with drivers, including two incidents where drivers stopped traffic and refused to move until I not only got off my bike and moved it clear over to the shoulder, but also carried it across the ditch to the cow pasture on the other side. Normally, I would have told the drivers to kiss my rosy red cheeks, but both times, they were holding up traffic behind them, which wasn't fair to the other drivers. I even had a guy nearly hit me during a race last year by not looking where he was going as he tried to turn (left again!) from a side road. I knew he wasn't going to look before he pulled out, so I screamed at him as he started pulling forward. It scared the daylights out of the old guy; I thought he was going to have a heart attack, but he should have looked in BOTH directions.

I'm now pretty jumpy around vehicles. I finally got a chance to ride outside for a bit today, but I was too nervous to ride on the road, so I took my bike to the local high school and just rode around the parking lot, which is OK because it gave me a chance to practice handling skills. This was the first real opportunity I've had to ride my tri bike outside since purchasing it, and I think having practiced handling skills will be a big help when I am brave enough to head out onto the roads with it for the first time.

Has anybody on here ever experienced any pain or discomfort in their rib cage during training? For maybe about a week now, I've been having some pain in my rib cage. It has mostly only occurred when I sneeze. It hasn't bothered me at all when I'm running or cycling. However, when I was in the pool on Saturday, I did feel a little bit of a pull in the middle of my workout. I stopped for 2-3 minutes and then went back to swimming and it didn't return. It's weird, not like anything I've ever felt before during training. I have the very bad habit of holding my sneezes in (which my wife constantly bugs me about). I guess it's possible I did this one too many times and pulled a muscle or something. I've started trying to break myself of that habit, but I was just curious if anyone had ever experienced this during any of their training such that it might not be related to my stifled sneezing.

Swim: 3h 11m 20s - 8450 M
Bike: 3h 18m 13s - 51.2 Mi
Run: 7h 53m 20s - 52.35 Mi

All of my numbers were just about the same as January across the board. With two fewer days in the month, I think that's pretty respectable.

I finally got outside for a bike ride this month. Sunday afternoon was in the low 50s, so not a bad day. A couple weeks ago it hit nearly 60, but I had family visiting so I didn't get to take advantage. I actually had a very good ride and surprised myself with the average speed I was able to keep up. It was only 16.5 miles, but I did better than expected. I guess I can credit those intervals, Chris!

Looking forward to keeping my momentum going in March. My racing season starts in less than 2 weeks. I've got my first 5K and I'm looking for a PR right out of the gate! LOL It won't be easy because the course is a little long, but I'll give it everything I've got. At least I'll know this one is a legit 3.1 as opposed to some of the races I ran at the end of last year.

I have had this issue a couple of times after experiencing migraines which caused me to have to pray to the porcelain god. I think, as you said, it's a pulled muscle. Generally, it's gone away after a couple of days, or maybe a week, depending on the severity of the "praying."

S: 14,080 yards
B: 222.10 miles
R: 44.02 miles

Not bad considering I missed two days of training because of a bad cold and nine days after being hit by a car. I’m pretty much back on my feet and starting training again. We had beautiful weather yesterday, the first day in a long time (and, according to the weather nerds, the last for a long time), so I went out for a short run. It felt so good to be outside and in the sun that I ran five miles, all trail running. And, I posted a pretty good time (for me): 1:00:38.

I also managed to get in two outdoor rides, one on my mountain bike, and another on my tri bike. I really want to get as much practice riding my tri bike as possible so I can get used to the handling differences before my race. However, both times I was out riding, I nearly got hit by the same gray Chevy Trailblazer, who refuses to share the road with cyclists. I have an idea where the driver lives, so I’m going to go have a chat with him/her, possibly this weekend, and then also have a chat with the local sheriff. Having had two near misses now with the same driver, plus being hit while walking by another driver, has made me pretty jumpy.

Also, I competed in the USAT National Challenge Competition again this year as part of Team USAT and came in as the 3rd highest competitor, logging a total of 883.97 miles from December 1 to February 29: Swim - 27.04 miles; Bike - 689.43 miles; Run - 167.50 miles. I was tempted last night to go for the last 16.03 miles to make it an even 900, but I just didn't have it in me.

Edited by burner2 2016-03-01 12:41 PM

Feb totals
S 2:56 7700 yds
B 5:43
R 4:33 25 mi

Respectable enough, especially since I missed most of the first week due to illness.

Burner, so glad you're feeling better, that's still nuts. What an $&@";($&! Hopefully you can run again soon, but don't go to crazy pushing it, let your body heal. And enjoy the ancient herbal medicine, haha!

I finally got a bike fit done yesterday. Our LBS does them free for Tri team members, which is nice, and it was a good experience! The guy spent about 2 hrs with me, made a bunch of adjustments, and got me into a saddle that I think will be a much better fit than what I was using. I didn't get to ride outside last weekend with our nice weather due to life, and we got a bunch of snow again today, but hopefully I'll get to ride outside again soon. I feel like the country roads I'm usually on are semi-safe, but I'm terrified of the first few miles until I get out of the city! I need the practice though before racing season starts, most of my lifetime miles are indoors.

monthly totals

SWIM 3h 20m 36s - 11300.00 Yd
BIKE6h 10m - 108.50 Mi
RUN7h 42m 29s - 52.94 Mi

Below my training goals on all three accounts, Missed 5 days due to travel to NH and a couple more due to being sick.
Hit a little training funk, but starting to recover back to previous levels

First race is next week, a sprint with pool swim. Feel ready

Randy, never had that kinda pain before

NP

Among the gear purchases I have been considering for this year, one of them is a set of clip on aero bars. I have a road bike that I just bought last offseason and I plan to use this bike for quite a while, so I won't be buying a tri bike any time soon. Does anybody else in this group use clip on aero bars? If so, any recommendations? Outside of brand, any advice on aspects of clip on aero bars that are important to take into account. I recently got the Triathlete Buyer's Guide in the mail and they gave a good review to Profile Design's ADL, and at $100 it's right up my alley! I was just curious if anyone else had this set up (road bike + clip on) and if they had any buying advice.

Also, how much of an advantage do you think they would be in shorter races like a sprint or an Olympic? I'm buying them mainly because of my goal of doing a 70.3 next year. I suppose I'd probably just put them on my bike and leave them there, but I'm curious how much of an advantage they might be in shorter races.

I find I go 0.5 to 1 mph faster in areo. Was reading in triathlete mag that in speeds over 14 mph (I think) there is an are advantage.

Nate

And are you using a tri bike or do you have a road bike with the clip ons?