Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 71)

Well I was able to get some speed work done today in the form of a 10 mile race.  Overall I feel I did fairly well but did have a 2 mile section that I struggled through, for some reason I just cannot push through the tough sections of a race, and the unfortunate part is I'm not sure that is something you can learn or train to do!  But I am definitely going to try.  I also did this race last year and made a ton of improvement.  Similar to Dirk I love comparing performance from year to year, and even more so to compare the same races.  I think it really shows how far you have come: so with that in mind below is a comparison of last years race and this year.  One Item that strikes me is that even though I was  much faster this year, my overall Pacing was poor (at least compred to 2012).  I wonder if I had held a slower pace at the beginning would the end of the race been stronger.

Good Times!

Holy Smokes Matt congratulations! What are you even talking about not pushing through? To me not pushing through is stopping and going home. All you did is temporarily slow down a little. Nice race and excellent improvement.

Also glad your back and it sounds like you had a great trip!

Thought I was going to have to put my tri training to work in some frigid open water today. The puppy walked out onto the pond at my in-laws and the ice gave way underneath him. I was at the bottom of the backside of the damn of the pond waiting on my daughter when I heard my son scream frantically for help. I ran up the hill to find the puppy hanging on by his two front paws. I really did not know what to do! I told my son to run as fast as he could to the house to get his PaPa and I grabbed a stick but the puppy was way too far away to reach. So started in after him. Two steps and my feet break the ice, now I'm in up to my shins but as I'm standing there calling he starts to pull and the next thing I know he manages to pull himself out of the water. THANK GOODNESS!

Nothing like a little walk in the country!

It's great yo made it back.  We've been missing you in the group. 

Getting a couple of workout s in while over there probably had more significant and fulfilling meaning, at least it would have been that way for me.  There's something about getting some workouts in when your not really feeling like you're going to have time and, more rewarding, you're in your homeland.  It had to have felt amazing.

You'll be well on track for your first sprint!  No problems there!

Tracy,  It sounds like there is a lot of tragedy out that way.  I can't imagine how hard your community has been hit with all of this.  Know that from halfway across the country there are people praying for the friends and family of this person.

Definitely use last week as the recovery week.  It may have been a tough week from mental perspective but your body was likely rested more despite an all nighter with a sick child.  Go ahead an jump right back into things on a full schedule.  One word of caution, you may feel pretty stale and lethargic for the first work out or two, but don't back down.

Possibly replace the battery if it's not a new device.

Also, check the alignment of the magnet on the spoke to make sure it is in the center of the line on the sensor.  Then check the proximity to the sensor arm.  There should be very little distance between the sensor arm and the spoke magnet.

If you aren't able to get it dialed in correctly you may need to send it back to Garmin.

Could you provide some pics of the sensor on the bike with everything lined up?  Maybe we can help with  some fine tuning.

That's some quality improvement!!! 

Judging from the splits it appears you may be correct about going out too fast.  That's not a bad thing though!  Sometime you aren't going to know where your limits are unless you challenge them.  A poor race or a DNF aren't always bad because there is something to be taken away and a lesson to be learned.

I definitely wouldn't be concerned about performance or over thinking if you could have split a little better.  I think it's an awesome race!!

Matt that's a great improvement over last year's race and I agree with Dirk it's not always a bad thing to push yourself it's the only way you find out what your limitations are. Nice to see that all the work you have been doing is paying off for you.

Tracy I'm sorry to hear the bad news. My thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of that cyclist. Seems like way too many of these things have happening in your town.

Dina thank goodness your puppy didn't go all the way into the water and that you didn't have to go in after him. That must have been some scare for you guys.

~sigh~

I know the man who was killed.  Straight stretch of road with the "typical" local shoulder on a busy stretch of 4-lane road for non-locals.  It was a local who veered off the road and killed him.

~sigh~

Like I said, living in a small town with a small group of avid runners and cyclists puts me at risk of knowing about all of the ugly stuff.

Please.....go hug your loved ones.

Wow. I have a hard time being on the computer during the weekend and ya'll are ACTIVE!

Samantha, are you feeling better?  How's your PT going? 

Warren, great article on the cadence, thanks for posting!

Jo, glad your son's deployment was canceled.  How are your sisters?

Tracy, sorry about the fatality.  Do they know what happened?  Also you had a GREAT ride, so you be careful too!

Jen, so sorry to her about your grandmother.  It is so tough to lose a loved one.

We are 5 weeks out until our TRI, so unless you are just using your typical 3 weeks hard 1 week not as hard, keep er gassed.

Bhargav, welcome back!

Tony, riding the trainer is much harder than riding on the road...to me anyway.  you are doing so good, you will be going uphill and thinking you are just coasting down hill.  You are gonna kick butt!  Congrats on a great winter cycling program.

Matt, congrats on the 10M race, great time reduction.  As far as looking back, it is just a tool to use.  Remember, how you feel, have you been sick, weather (heat, wind, rain, humidity) are all factors too and they change during the race.

Dina, so glad your puppy OK.  I bet you gave a lot of loving after that and gave him a warm cozy seat in front of the fireplace.

Dirk, great article on your history of starting triathlons.  That is what makes you a GREAT mentor...you have been there, had injuries and learned.  Thanks for sharing.

Jeff, the article in IronWar, I'm not sure if it is factual or not but they seemed to indicate that they trained long and hard with high intensity.  I am also reading "I'm Here to Win" by Chris McCormack and in 2002 he swam 720 miles, biked 18,275 miles and ran 2907 miles.  Broken out daily, that is 1.97 swim miles, 50 bike miles and 7.97 run miles.

Well we have been getting rain, rain and more rain.  I did get out and got a few runs in between showers but the humidity is HIGH and the  temp are about 70.  I'm also riding on the trainer (funny note, wife loves the trainer, she can ride and not worry about falling while clipping or unclipping and doesn't have to worry about cars).

Remember I missed 2 weeks of swiming due to work an sickness, well I can't seem to get the swim back.  I was swimming 800 - 1,000 yards non stop, well I'm back to like 200 non-stop and I'm sucking air!

I'm feeling good right now, no major injuries but ya'll know me by now, I'm not that smart, wife had to reign me in! I want to train more and harder, reading those books is NOT helping...lol  Give me a few weeks and I'll be hurting from something stupid I did.

Sorry this is so long. 

Tony & Dina-

Yup, I decided to treat last week as a recovery week and got on the bike trainer at 3:50 this morning for a long ride. I started with Jorge's Day #8 for the first 50 minutes, then took it easy for the second half. When I did the POwer test for the Jorge plan the second time, my numbers were much lower. I actually had trouble keeping the numbers as low as I should for the 65-75% CP. I decided to stick with what felt right on the second half of the ride. Finished strong and am hoping for a short treadmill run at lunch.

Thunderstorms are in the forecast down here for the next few days, so I have a feeling I will be getting in lots of bike and run sessions.

I must confess... this is the only thing I actually dread doing. However, I tried to take it easy this morning and found that it wasn't so bad of a ride. The thought of sitting there for one, two, or three hours just sounds overwhelming. Also realized that Dirk's comment was true - felt pretty stale and just tried to take it easy.

Great job Tony!

RunningYogini - 2013-02-24 9:01 PM Another athlete fatality around here.  A cyclist, this time.  Sometimes I really don't like living in a small town. 

I am so sorry to hear about this. During the years I was a snowboard instructor, there were so many fatalities on the mountain and so many times I knew who they were or knew of them. My tohughts and prayers go out to your small community this morning.

I would be getting very concerned about my own safety at this point. So sorry you have to go through this again and please take care during your own workouts .

I'm with Dirk...the pacing was REASONABLE at least.  I say this because of how well you held your pace in to the latter part of the race before falling off.  You just didn't know what pace was reasonable yet so now you know that something like 7:45 might be better.

Also, the amount of fall-off in pace was actually fairly small.  You probably have one of the more even splits out of the entire race field I'll bet.

Gotta agree with this.  That start may have been a tad quick, but you held the pace pretty much to the end.  A real drop off would be 1:00 or so, which I bet is typical for 10+ mile races. Incredible improvement.  As the guys are EN say, work works.  All you consistent work is clearly reaping benefits.

I've got a question for y'all.  I'm on a ski vacation this week.  Day 1 today, and my legs are FRIED!  My boys, particularly the older one, has just about caught his old man on the slopes and pushed me quite hard his afternoon.  So my question is this, should I do any S/B/R this week?  I just don't know if my legs would appreciate anything after the work I did today, and I'm planning on skiing probably every day, at least some.

There is a pool here, and my wife also wants me to do some snow shoeing with her.  Should I just take a cross training week and call it a day?  I have no races anywhere near the horizon.