kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 70)

Originally posted by everlong

So Froome opted to change bikes at 20 KM and was 11 seconds behind Contador but beat him by 8 seconds.

Originally posted by kr140.6

Glad my HIM is over. Very very sadly an athlete died the day before in the sprint part of the race festival. He crashed into a car in the bike portion. My thoughts are with his family. Of course, this had me in a bit of tailspin the night before (thinking "why am I doing this, I have two kids" etc....)


All that aside, the race was good... funny I would say that now because I do have to remind myself that during it I said to myself "I am going to pass out" ..... "why am I doing this"..... "I think I'll just pull into this hotel and call it a day". I think it is because I just don't race a lot and forget how painful it can be . All of this had mostly had to do with the run which was 90 degrees, humid, direct sun, virtually no shade.

I thought of a lot of you on the bike.... wishing I had put more hours into it like a lot of you rockstars around here do !...... legs started feeling tired even by the half way point, yikes!

I did set the bar not too high for myself because I felt I just hadn't put out enough hours (on the bike mostly), so I was surprised by my time (in a good way).... 6:03:07 which was 12 minutes faster than my "A" goal, yay!.....37:43 swim , 3:13:15 bike, 2:04:49 run. transitions were some of the worst in my age group

I have learned a lot from you guys, so thanks!! Happy and sad that is it for my season.

Originally posted by carrie639

For anyone considering Muncie I would offer these thoughts: Swim is beautiful and generally pretty flat, so pretty easy. Bike is super, super fast, even with the rough sections. The run is kinda pretty, but is hilly and very exposed to the sun. Huge disadvantage of this race: it is generally a VERY HOT race ... This year was an exception. Parking is really close. Course because it is closed to traffic (run and bike) which is awesome, makes it very difficult for family/spectators to get to. So don't expect a lot of fan support, but volunteers were awesome!

As a comparison to Rev3 events, huge WTC advantage is amount of aid stations, variety and quantity of what's offered. Rev3 Knoxville had aid stations about every 2 miles, Muncie was at most every mile.

Originally posted by Kuma

Well vacation is sadly over, and it is back to real life.  I had a wonderful time in Hawaii, and was even able to get in a reasonable amount of working out, including several runs, one long bike ride with a great long climb and beautiful scenery, and a swim race they apparently have every year called the King's Swim.  It is a 1.2 mile open water race in the ocean, finishing where the Ironman swim finishes.  It took me awhile to get used to swimming in lakes, so the ocean was something else altogether.  I did have one coughing fit while swimming breaststroke for a little while.  I came up and opened my mouth to take a breath - and was hit by a wave that gave me a big mouthful of salt water - yum. 

Happily the water was crystal clear, so you could see straight to the bottom, even in 50-75 feet of water.  I saw lots of fish and sea turtles as we swam past.  The water was pretty flat, so the swell wasn't high enough to affect breathing.  I'm told salt water is more buoyant than fresh, so perhaps that helped me some too. 

The course was pretty simple - we swam out from shore, around an anchored boat, and then back to near the start.  I ended up finishing in 39:17 - placing 154th out of 238.  Not qualifying for the real Kona race yet, but I'll take it.  First place went to a local 17-year old girl who finished in 25:10.  I'm told she's something of a local celebrity who plans to swim the 26 mile shark-infested channel from Oahu to Molokai later this year.  Second, third, and fourth places were all also teenage girls. 

I met several people at the event who were all really friendly.  Many of them swim this same course every day for their daily swim workouts.  I really envied them for their access to such wonderful places to work out and weather that lets them do so year-round.  Sigh. 

Now I have to re-adjust to real life again.  I'll catch up on everyone's postings for the last couple weeks, but did want to say hello. 

Originally posted by kr140.6

Glad my HIM is over. Very very sadly an athlete died the day before in the sprint part of the race festival. He crashed into a car in the bike portion. My thoughts are with his family. Of course, this had me in a bit of tailspin the night before (thinking "why am I doing this, I have two kids" etc....)


All that aside, the race was good... funny I would say that now because I do have to remind myself that during it I said to myself "I am going to pass out" ..... "why am I doing this"..... "I think I'll just pull into this hotel and call it a day". I think it is because I just don't race a lot and forget how painful it can be . All of this had mostly had to do with the run which was 90 degrees, humid, direct sun, virtually no shade.

I thought of a lot of you on the bike.... wishing I had put more hours into it like a lot of you rockstars around here do !...... legs started feeling tired even by the half way point, yikes!

I did set the bar not too high for myself because I felt I just hadn't put out enough hours (on the bike mostly), so I was surprised by my time (in a good way).... 6:03:07 which was 12 minutes faster than my "A" goal, yay!.....37:43 swim , 3:13:15 bike, 2:04:49 run. transitions were some of the worst in my age group

I have learned a lot from you guys, so thanks!! Happy and sad that is it for my season.

Originally posted by kaburns1214



It was estimated that the bike change took 10 seconds but the new bike was 30 seconds quicker over the back of the course.

Originally posted by ccmpsyd

Had my first bike crash tonight. Rounding a corner I hit a patch of some loose sand, tires kicked out, and I went skidding. Hip, knee and hand took the brunt and have a nice case of road rash. It was cool in retrospect and I am kind of glad I got it (the crash) out of the way. Bike seems to be fine. Finished the ride and the brick run without further incident. I don't anticipate being hampered too much for tomorrow's run...but we shall see.

Originally posted by kr140.6

I did set the bar not too high for myself because I felt I just hadn't put out enough hours (on the bike mostly), so I was surprised by my time (in a good way).... 6:03:07 which was 12 minutes faster than my "A" goal, yay!.....37:43 swim , 3:13:15 bike, 2:04:49 run. transitions were some of the worst in my age group

Originally posted by cheekymonkeys1 It seems silly to be excited for a race that I'm going into knowing it'll suck, but I'm actually starting to get excited. There must be some sort of odd mentality to that lol I guess the first one really is a learning experience. I have SO much more to learn, I'm not ready to quit yet :-)

Originally posted by kaburns1214



Congrats, those are some good times for Mussleman.

Its tough when someone dies on course, I think it affects us so much because its so rare. People die in car accidents everyday but we all still get in cars. In realm of life, triathlon is pretty safe. We all need to take precautions and act safe but occasional tragedies shouldn't stop us from training and racing.

Originally posted by cheekymonkeys1

It seems silly to be excited for a race that I'm going into knowing it'll suck, but I'm actually starting to get excited. There must be some sort of odd mentality to that lol

I guess the first one really is a learning experience. I have SO much more to learn, I'm not ready to quit yet :-)

Originally posted by kr140.6

Since I am done this year, I am trying to get myself psyched about next year. I "had" to do a HIM this year to qualify for this really cool race in New Paltz , NY that some of you northeasterners might know about: SURVIVAL of the SHAWAGUNKS!!! It is really cool 8 stage race that starts with 30 mile bike, and then alternating run and swim (you have to put your run shoes in your pants and swim with them )... it is like 18 miles of running and at least 1.5 mile swim I think. It is really small and you need to do a IM or HIM to qualify. Have you done it Kelly?

Originally posted by kr140.6

Since I am done this year, I am trying to get myself psyched about next year. I "had" to do a HIM this year to qualify for this really cool race in New Paltz , NY that some of you northeasterners might know about: SURVIVAL of the SHAWAGUNKS!!! It is really cool 8 stage race that starts with 30 mile bike, and then alternating run and swim (you have to put your run shoes in your pants and swim with them )... it is like 18 miles of running and at least 1.5 mile swim I think. It is really small and you need to do a IM or HIM to qualify. Have you done it Kelly?

Originally posted by DDVMM



That is so funny that you mention this race!!! I have been eyeing this race for a while now. I didn't know there was a requirement to get in. We love hiking in the 'gunks and I thought this would be so fun.

Originally posted by uhcoog

 

1.  It won't suck.  The experience is enough to overshadow any suck that you may feel race day.

2.  You're going to do better than you think.  I'm excited for you

Originally posted by everlong



But that would be quicker than the TT bike the entire way or the road with clip ons? Obviously enough people did the change to show the profit of the TT bike on the last 12K.

Originally posted by kaburns1214



Clip ons on road bikes are pretty useless, you are more aero riding in your drops than riding on clip ons.

Here the issue was weight, gearing and geometry. By doing the 10 second switch you got the best of both worlds.

Originally posted by kaburns1214



Clip ons on road bikes are pretty useless, you are more aero riding in your drops than riding on clip ons.

Here the issue was weight, gearing and geometry. By doing the 10 second switch you got the best of both worlds.

Originally posted by ccmpsyd Clip ons on road bikes are pretty useless? Really? Then I am trouble....as I have been riding for hours, months, and lots of miles on them vs the drops.