SWBKRUN fast, furious, and closed (Page 71)

A key learning for all of us...never compete in a race where John is a spectator!!

Awesome video.  Great to see some of the action from the weekend!

Hey everyone.  WOW that was a super hard race but such a good test.  For all of you half people who feel you had a bad swim, don't worry.  The word on the street is the course was too long. I've heard it was actually closer to 1.5 miles so they are suppose to be taking 6 minutes off everyone's time.  

It was so nice to see people again and get to meet new ones.  Although I see I didn't make it into John's photo gallery  

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the video!!!! Did I mention that I love it???

Julia... sweetheart... I'll cut you some slack for your lack of strategy getting to your bike, but even once you got there, well, I'd like to see more pep in that step!! Ha!!

Oh, and I forgot to comment in your RR about coming back to T2 and noticing all the bikes there. That is the story of my life!! Ha!!

When I did a tri class at the Y (two years in a row), after our OWS we'd always exit the water and run out and strip off our wetsuit as fast as we could. And a few times we'd set up all of our bike gear to practice that transition. It's free time -- might as well get as much of it as you can!! Ha!!

That was so much fun to watch. I told Dave this morning that we're heading to Portland for Rev3 next year. Shea was there and was all over it. Hope you'll join me, Julia! Steve and Ryan and Erica too??? Good times!! 

So John, do you plan to have the fastest IM transitions on Saturday? I will say that I did try to slow down a bit and take some deep breaths and make sure I had everything I needed. Yes, it's free time, but it's a LONG race so you want to make sure those i's are dotted and t's are crossed!! 

Awesome job, everyone. And thanks Fatty for sharing! Will Jarrett have the camera going this weekend for us???

That's big of you.... I would have never said that.  He's not on this forum....

one race, one course, unique conditions, and so on and so on.....  here's what i see based on Rev and....

• you v first place in your a/g.
• you v top 3
• you v top 14 on the swim because 1 and 3 were very fast

you have a lot of work to do on the run.  *i say a lot knowing that going from 11 min/mile to 10 min/mile is not the same thing as going from where you are at 7:33 to where you *need* to be which is somewhere around 6:25 probably closer to 6:10. 

work on your transitions.  you gave up an avg of 2:13 through both to the top 3. 

work on your bike a bit more.  1.86 mph to the top 3.  almost 3 mph to the winner. 

i'd say the swim is the least of your issues.  but you still need some work there as well.  ;-)

now, you wanna know how to do the work....  pay up sucka!    ha!  edit... there's way more than 5 minutes there for ya!

and don't forget to stop and think about where you were a couple of years ago to where you are today.  it's f'ing impressive man.  seriously. 

i just found out that we have to go through the tent to get our bags.  lame.

Does anybody here have any experience with acupuncture?

Somebody suggested looking into it for my knee, and since I have my doctor's appointment today, I'm assembling a list of things to ask him about.  Right now, I'm asking about either seeing a PT or seeing a chiropractor.  Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

Good points John and Dave,

Dave, not sure I agree completely on abandoning the swim in the off-season, I've tried that and it seems I lose speed when I do that and takes me time to get it back, but I do like the point in the article about triathletes spend too much time pounding out the laps and not enough working on technique.  Going to talk to my coach about hitting more of his stroke clinics.

And I agree with you too John on the run, the swim gap is pretty big also but that's going to take a lot more work than getting my run down if I want to be competitive.  Scary that I have to get in the low 6's for a 10k.  LOL though that seems to be a much easier task than making myself a 1:20-1:30/100 swimmer.

Don't get me wrong I am happy with my finish at Rev (other than transitions) this was the first race ever I have actually had everything work right in the same race, but even then I still had a ways between me and 3rd place.

LOL, it get's me more anylitical since I didn't screw up one discipline so can't use it as a crutch why I wasn't faster.

Hi Erica-

I did acupuncture for a repetitive stress (tendonitis in my forearm) injury from work (I guess spinning little dials and twisting little screwdrivers is a common stress injury in my work-but it didn't happen til about 15 years later). 

My chiropractor tried the ultrasound technique for about 4 weeks and that did nothing for me, so he recommended the acupuncturist, and after 6 weeks, I was pain free.  I was doing exercises daily to strengthen the surrounding tissue, so I think that helped, too.  Unfortunately or fortunately, I still do the exercises a few times a week especially when it starts getting a little bit tight or sore.

I know! What's the deal? Ridiculous.

REV3 Portland 2012 is on the calendar!

x2. 

Great video!

And Julia, I give you props as you were so calm in T1. 

Tony it seems you have moved up a level. You had a race where you had no major glitches. You have worked your general fitness up to a good level. With all that you did not get 3rd place. You CAN do it. It will require patience as it is the law of diminishing returns. The next smaller increases will require more work.

I think you can improve the swim w/o too much more work. It is technique. Getting your movements more hydrodynamic will make you faster and make you LESS tired. Throwing a lot of muscle into the stoke just tires you out faster and ruins your lines through the water. I do lots of sets where all I am doing is workin on my extension, my pull, being long, and rolling my torso. I have had sessions where amongst the triathletes in my coaches group I was the fastest (only when Jason fails to show). I would have my a$$ handed to me in the Masters class, but it has been a significant improvement. Don't leave that time gain in the water, just use your training time more wisely. Maybe some video sessions would help.

Absolutely loved watching you come running down the chute with your kids on the live feed!  Did you hear the announcer keep saying your first name?  I said to myself, I bet he doesn't want to mispronounce her last name, so Julia, Julia, Julia it was!

I love how 'deliberate' you were in T1...securing your bike shoes 'just so' and then hearing John's crazy "You're killing me, you know you're killing me, right?"  omg, i would have given him the stink eye, but you are SO genuinely nice, you would never do that.  Love it! 

I guess Portland's not too far from SF...it's a firm Maybe. 

Thanks Kim and Rob for the advice!  I am looking into it as a possibility. 

Saw the doc again today, and he said ANOTHER 4 weeks of no running!  Wow.  I just can't figure out how I messed up my knee this badly.  So we talked about other types of active recovery, and he wrote me a prescription for a physical therapist, so I will hopefully start PT later this week!  He also said that he thinks "alternative medicine" is a really good idea, and if I find any chiropractor or acupuncturist that I want to see, he will give me a referral for insurance purposes.  He worked on my leg, and said he's not concerned with anything else.  I still have full mobility and everything else, just the pain when I run.

He also said to take it easy on my walking!  Boo.  I've been walking my dog for at least 4 miles/day for a while, and he said I had to be super careful since where we live is so hilly.  Thanks, Wisconsin.  He also said to take it easy on stairs, which is my favorite, since we live on the second story, no elevator!

Looking for aquabikes in my area now! 

I'd love to hear any other forms of active recovery you guys have!  Also, do you think I can use this for an excuse to not help Ryan move to our new place in a couple weeks?

I know -- I think I totally would have flipped him off, ha ha!!

Portland is so awesome. Make sure you watch a few episodes of Portlandia before you head this way, ha ha!!! I'm already super excited for that race. Dave loved the idea when I told him how family-friendly it was. He said, "What? You mean it's not like IM where they have nothing for the kids??" We're talking nothing.

And then we had a flashback to when we literally lost Thing 2 after the race, in the dark, at 10pm, on the run course (in the center of CDA, on the waterfront). We spent about 15 minutes trying to find her -- I wasn't moving very fast at that time (obv)... it was actually very scary. We hope to avoid that this year, ha! John, be careful with your kids post-race!! Your brain will be very fuzzy. Jarrett's too, likely....

I've found acupuncture and chiropractics effective for back problems and less so for knee problems.   I would go with the PT or a good massage therapist for the knee problems, but that is just my experience.       

I just got my last issue of Lava Magazine. There is a triathlete on the cover named Logan Franks. He has a helmet on with th logo I just had made on my trisuit. Then inside he has it on his tri-suit! Mine looks better and he doesn't have my slogan on the back. If I hadn't taken it from the omic book character the Punisher, I would sue him! (Where do I get an emoticon sticking its tongue out?)

:-p

Just got to watch that video, it's GREAT!

Really gave a good idea of the atmosphere for the race; what's funny is that I had flashbacks from my childhood of my dad chasing us around at school sportsdays with his "cine-camera" and then using them later to humiliate us at family gatherings!

I'm sure the "tick-tock,tick-tock" during Julia's transition was exceptionally annoying!

Hey Erica--glad you went back and got some PT put in that training plan!  For what it's worth, you do not need to look for races that have an official aquabike category (there aren't many), you can simply SB and quit.  You'll get a DNF, but you'll get the experience.  I did that in Lonestar last year due to injury and never looked back.  Great training.

Hey Doug--hubba-hubba on that dude.

good lucking racing peeps!!!   we're all in this mess together so smile when it sucks!!!