Manatees Roar into the 20s! CLOSED (Page 71)

I am sorry I have been AWOL from here for a while. April has been quite a chaotic time in our house. Besides the usual transitioning to working from home, we also had a COVID19 scare. Since the child care facility that my grandson attends was closed and both of his parents are not financially stable, they both had to work. My wife was able to work out an altered work schedule and was able to watch our grandson here at the house. It was working great until a few Sundays ago...

She calls me from work and says that she is experienced labored breathing. She said that she was getting off early and was going to go to a local urgent care facility that has COVID19 tests. She did the test, got the directions for being safe while waiting for the results. She comes home and we isolate her in our guest bedroom. It took about 48 hours to get the results of her test.... NEGATIVE! Earlier in the year, she had a few bouts with bronchitis. The medication she received starting really working after 3-4 days of use. She is back to feeling well, but it had me really scared there for a while. 

Yesterday I had my doctor's appt. I discovered that my blood pressure and blood sugar is too high, so we've constructed a plan to expedite the downturn for the numbers. She has also urged me to get on my bike more often. This month is not going well. As my Manatee friends know, I was hoping to do my first event this year, an aquabike race in Colorado. I've been checking the promoters FB page and their web site. No cancellation(yet), but I don't think I'll be comfortable to participate in an event this summer. I just don't feel comfortable being around that many people, and with pools closed, I won't be physically ready for this. 

So I am going to cancel my event goal and just concentrate on my health (physically and mentally). 

I hope that Janyne will let me still hang out with y'all! The Manatees are a great group of folks!

--Tom

I am sorry I have been AWOL from here for a while. April has been quite a chaotic time in our house. Besides the usual transitioning to working from home, we also had a COVID19 scare. Since the child care facility that my grandson attends was closed and both of his parents are not financially stable, they both had to work. My wife was able to work out an altered work schedule and was able to watch our grandson here at the house. It was working great until a few Sundays ago...

She calls me from work and says that she is experienced labored breathing. She said that she was getting off early and was going to go to a local urgent care facility that has COVID19 tests. She did the test, got the directions for being safe while waiting for the results. She comes home and we isolate her in our guest bedroom. It took about 48 hours to get the results of her test.... NEGATIVE! Earlier in the year, she had a few bouts with bronchitis. The medication she received starting really working after 3-4 days of use. She is back to feeling well, but it had me really scared there for a while. 

Yesterday I had my doctor's appt. I discovered that my blood pressure and blood sugar is too high, so we've constructed a plan to expedite the downturn for the numbers. She has also urged me to get on my bike more often. This month is not going well. As my Manatee friends know, I was hoping to do my first event this year, an aquabike race in Colorado. I've been checking the promoters FB page and their web site. No cancellation(yet), but I don't think I'll be comfortable to participate in an event this summer. I just don't feel comfortable being around that many people, and with pools closed, I won't be physically ready for this. 

So I am going to cancel my event goal and just concentrate on my health (physically and mentally). 

I hope that Janyne will let me still hang out with y'all! The Manatees are a great group of folks!

--Tom

Will Triathlons Come Back This Year? What Will They Look Like?

https://www.triathlete.com/events/will-triathlons-come-back-this-year-what-will-they-look-like/

Any thoughts?

I can't imagine that we will see any races this year other than perhaps small local races. The mitigation steps discussed seem to require a much smaller field than IM would be able to do and still make money -unless they double the entry fees!  One of the things mentioned was a bigger opening chute - for some races that is not possible. Then if you stagger the start even more than the rolling waves we have now, the course will have to be open longer which could be hard to convince cities to allow. And then how do you stop people from being near each other during the race?  

Ironman Wisconsin DRAMAZZZZ

Announcement this morning that the 70.3 (scheduled for June) will now take place alongside the full in September. So many questions. If you want a glimpse into how athletes are feeling about this, check out the conversations on the Ironman Wisconsin 140.6/70.3 Training Secrets Facebook page. Oyyyyy.

Wow! Scary stuff! I hope that your wife has continued to improve and that you are able to get on your bike more.  For me, that helps both mentally and physically.

I think that most of us have had our 2020 event goals altered!  I just canceled my gym membership because I won't feel comfortable going there for a while.  I totally get why you don't want to commit to a race in July!

Sorry you've had a tough go of it, Tom, it does sound like a very trying month for you and your family.  Such good news, though, that your wife's test came back negative.  By all means, PLEASE keep hanging around the Manatees, they are a great support group.  For sure they've helped me through some rough times.

So they increase social distancing by doubling the number of participants?

Will Triathlons Come Back This Year? What Will They Look Like?

https://www.triathlete.com/events/will-triathlons-come-back-this-year-what-will-they-look-like/

Any thoughts?

Edited to make link clickable

Both he and USAT CEO Harris believe that athletes want to race, though, and think that if they can provide a safe enough option triathletes will be hungry and eager to get back out there.

“I think athletes badly want to race,” said Messick. “If we’re able to take the right steps, athletes are going to be the first people to come back.”

If we want to do another Zoom session, I would definitely be interested in joining in! 

They did this with IM Texas too. So IM on Saturday and HIM Sunday. How is that remotely a good thing?

I think this is the scary part.  We all know that we (triathletes) are kinda dumb in the head and will go beyond what is safe or healthy for our bodies (how many of us have pushed through an illness or injury?). I like to hope that most are smarter when it comes to this virus, but what if not?  OF COURSE we want to race.  But will the majority of us be smart enough to recognize that it might not be safe to do so??

Edit: I.e. just because things open up and we CAN doesn't mean that we SHOULD

They did this with IM Texas too. So IM on Saturday and HIM Sunday. How is that remotely a good thing?

[I know that I don't want to answer that contract tracing question. 

Healthcare workder: Who were you with in the past xx days? 

Me: Oh, I did an Ironman event.

It sounds like the Wisconsin races will both be on the same Sunday.

My biggest complaint right now is that they're not anticipating questions and preemptively answering them. This is communications 101. Figure out what people are going to ask, create/approve an answer and post everything up front so people aren't left to create their own answers and speculations. If you don't have the answers yet, say that and acknowledge it's information you're working on. Update the Q&As as things evolve. This is not rocket science, but as someone who does communications for a living this is like fingernails on a chalkboard. 

Personally I would have appreciated a communication as someone who is registered for the 140.6, just to answer my questions.

All that said, I don't think any of it's going to actually happen in September. 

From a communications standpoint, this is a big FAIL.  First, they have Andrew Messick going out and talking the the New York Times and Triathlete Magazine discussing how triathlon can be safe this fall -- including smaller field and preemptively addressing concerns about their events being high risk.  Then they double the number of athletes at an event.

Right now we are Zooming every Monday at 11:30am Eastern.  We can add another time when someone names one :-)

Monday Meetup: https://bit.ly/RacingManatee

I think that you remember the password.  I hope.

I didn't know the password but my first guess was correct. I will put it on my calendar. Thanks!