Fred Doucette's Half-Iron and Ironman Focused Group! -CLOSED! (Page 73)

That's my favorite part of racing (and sometimes training).  It often leads to profound experiences that have little to do with the 'race' itself.  The race is more like a way to create conditions for those experiences.

Thanks.  I felt like the zero in March didn't hurt swim or bike too much.  Def was a set back for the run though.  As everyone in here knows, very important to avoid run injuries for IM training.  Unfortunately, I've learned that the hard way.

Congrats Randy!

Very impressive results as I suspect that the 45-49 AG is pretty large.  I consider top three a podium finish.

Nice work~

PS Be sure to write up a race report so we can read more about your race.

I'm officially on taper now. I did a 30 mile loop of the Marquee (IMAZ) bike course today and averaged 18.5 mph. I was very happy with that. I followed it up with a 3 mile run on part of the Marquee (IMAZ) run course. I was going to do 6.5 miles on it but I decided that it wasn't worth it. I've done all I can do and it wasn't going to make a difference come race day. It was a great group of about 100 people out there today and it was nice to ride in such a large group.

My knee felt about 75% on the run today so I'm pretty psyched that it's holding up. The weather is suppose to be about 80 degrees on race day, which is perfect here in AZ. I'm getting my rental race wheels installed on Wednesday. They have to remove my rear sprocket and put it on the race wheels. I'm getting the Zipp Flashpoint FP40's for the race. It should be interesting to see if there's any difference. I'm going to try to save up for a Hed 3 (front) off ebay and a rear wheel disc cover from wheelbuilder.com. I guess that's the cheap way of doing race wheels. Any thoughts on that?

I had a lot of friends do very well at Oceanside 70.3 today. It kind of got me excited for my race.

slornow - 2011-04-02 1:08 PM Well, first race of the season in the books.  "Traditions Triathlon" in Biloxi, MS. 585 yard swim, 17mile bike and 5k run. Ended up third in my 45-49 age group with a 1:20:?? time.  Not sure what my splits were as I messed up the multisport function on my Garmin.  Only about 185 participants but the race was very well done and the weather was great.  Curious to see my times in each event. Swim seemed fine, bike was solid and run a bit of a struggle.

Does it qualify as a "podium" finish if its just an age group top 3?

Randy

Great Job!  Congrats!

tasr - 2011-04-03 6:07 AM

slornow - 2011-04-02 3:08 PM Well, first race of the season in the books.  "Traditions Triathlon" in Biloxi, MS. 585 yard swim, 17mile bike and 5k run. Ended up third in my 45-49 age group with a 1:20:?? time.  Not sure what my splits were as I messed up the multisport function on my Garmin.  Only about 185 participants but the race was very well done and the weather was great.  Curious to see my times in each event. Swim seemed fine, bike was solid and run a bit of a struggle.

Does it qualify as a "podium" finish if its just an age group top 3?

Randy

Great job Randy!  Congratulations on the placement.
 
I really wish we had Tri's in our area earlier in the season. 

 

Here in Arizona, our year is backwards from everyone else. We race all late Summer, through the Winter and into to early Summer. A lot of us will go up North in Arizona (5000-7000 ft elevation) to do stuff in the dead of summer. It gets to be well over 110 here so training gets moved to 4:30am-5am start times which kind of sucks but you're done by 8am which is nice.

Right now we are in full swing with races. I think we've had about 4-5 so far. This weekend alone we had a splash n dash (2000 m swim and 4 mile run) and a sprint/oly triathlon. Next weekend we have a sprint/oly/half. About every other week there is a race in town until the end of May.

On May 1st I'm doing the Warrior Dash which is just a run but it should be a ton of fun with all the obstacles.

Great job on your podium finish this weekend. Your year of triathlon is off. Congratulations.

Randy - great job on the race, 3rd is awesome.

Todd - "enjoy" the downtime as you get ready for the big race.  As you said, you've done everything you can do at this point.  Consider the Flo Cycling group for a front wheel once they become available.  I realize they are untested, but for the price, I don't think you can beat them.

 Big weekend for me with 90km between riding and running (I know that's nothing special in this group) .  Oh, Fred/Rusty - check my zones from the run today - it felt good.

Way to rock the bike Randy!! awesome. thanks for beautiful pic.

 Thanks Kathleen for sharing pics also... cold!

Good luck, Rene, with Lonestar.

Fred, I'm glad I am not the only one with "off" days. 

Had beautiful day here for running.... I love spring.

Kathleen - that is some seriously miserable weather.  I didn't have the weather than Randy posted but at least I got to ride this weekend and only had to wear knee warmers vs my whole winter kit.

Randy - awesome race.

Power question - I know that terrain and wind are going to impact everyone's speed on a given day, but in looknig at some of the logs from our group and the speeds that are being averaged, I'm admittedly a bit confused.

I rode 70km this weekend, with Avg Watts at 196, 2.9watts/kg, Avg Speed 27.9kmph (17.34mph).  The ride put me at right around 80% FTP/CP.  I took a cursory glance at some of your logs, and you guys seem to be manage much faster speeds at lower watts, so I'm trying to understand what it is I'm missing.

Admittedly the ride was pretty windy, with good rolling terrain, I'm just confused why my speed seems slower even though my watts or watts/kg would make me expect to be a bit faster.

I averaged 19.3 on an Oly course with rolling hills that was a little long with average power of 135. Same course different bike, same speed but watts were about 20 higher. How we define hills and type of course varies from person to person and what normal is where they live.

Bike, position, wind, weather all make a difference.  Your coefficient of drag makes a big difference and hard to quantify that.  Golden Cheetah has a way to calculate coefficient of drag. I don't think mine is very good for a number of reason. Another way to tell is use the Q2T tri calculator and compare it to one of the races they have in the data base and input power and see what they spit out as speed. I was involved in a discussion about position and drag on ST that was insightful.

Also you live in Canada, right? When it is colder air density is higher which makes you slower. I find same watts, end of May compared to early spring or winter, I'm about 1.5 mph faster...part is air density and another aspect is foliage on trees as here less wind when trees have leaves.

I used to be upset that every spring I'd get out on the road and see how slow I was compared to previous summer. I've been training with power since 2006 and have noticed the spring bump up in speed every year. Hold on, you will be faster in a couple months..more so if you continue to see solid power gains.