Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 77)

Don't worry about the challenge.  Cat hasn't posted the spreadsheet or teams yet.  Just keep track of what you've done and log it in when you get back from your vacation.  Have fun!

A quick check in........I am still at work and we are down to 86,000 customers out of power for our service territory.  We were the least damaged of our sister companies on the east side of my company (east of the Mississippi) and we peaked at 108,000 customers out.  Our Ohio co. peaked at 680,000 and our W Va/Va co. peaked aroung 570,000.   We have a couple of othe sisters that were much lower but still between the 2 of them added about 60,000 more customers.

This was one ridiculous storm!  It swept through so fast and furious that even Eric Holder couln't have kept up!   This is the worst strom I have seen in 25 years of line work.  The damage is far beyond what myself and my crew of 6 linemen can even touch.  We are gaining control and will back up fairly quickly..........I hope.

The stress has been extremely high at times.  I have had to manage 25 tree crews, 6 line crews, 2 Helo's for patroling, outages, switching, line clearances........................................yeah!  I am ready for a long nap................Good night!

Dirk I'm sorry to hear about the serious storms that passed through your way. I hope no one was hurt and I know you and your crews are doing everything you can to get service back to everyone. I hope you guys get that done as soon as you can and as safely as possible.

For everyone participating in the TdF challenge the teams and the team groups have been set up and posted. Good luck to all the Junkies participating in the challenge.

Teams are now selected, but the spread sheets are yet to be finished. Should be done today/tonight (I hope).

So, I had the Alta Alpina Century yesterday.

Some basic stats:

Approximate Feet of Climbing: 11788

My Nutrition was spot on. No issues. No mechanical problems.

I just took my time and didn't push it too hard. I had plenty in the tank afterwards and probably could have knocked off 30+ minutes easily. I had a couple rest breaks which added to the time. I was worried I was going to have a hard time with my new work schedule (new sleep hours & training hours) so I went at it with the attitude of just a leisurely ride.

No training today, just going to rest. I'll be back at it tomorrow.

Jo63 - 2012-06-30 6:36 AM Warren, I am so happy to hear the surgery went well and things are good! Dirk, I am glad your have a diagnosis and can now get rid of the coughing with a little RX Jeff and Dina: good luck this weekend stay cool and hydrated I look forward to hearing about your races Jonathon congratulations on an awesome ride, Nd being part of raising that much money, it must feel Great! For me, I think I made the mistake of switching training programs three weeks ago, I went from about 15 hrs a week to 20 in a week and I should of done it gradually, I think I may have achieved a bit of overtraining? I am having trouble motivating myself to even train and getting up in the morning to get right out there to do anything has become a chore, so I backed off this week a bit and am trying to feel better, I also ended up being a not particularly nice person to be around and at this point my sons girlfriend is not speaking to me in this instance I still feel i had every right to feel the way I did I just would of handled it diffeerntly had I not been so exhausted. I have ten more weeks until the IM so I am going back to my original program and adding just a bit more time to what Iam scheduled to do. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sounds like you have a handle on what you need to do for your training. 20 hours a week is really a ton of training. I hope things go better for you this week and you are able to mend fences with your sons girlfriend. Are you getting enough sleep to go with all the training? That is always a major issue for me when I get crabby and snap at my family.

Only 10 weeks to go. You can do it!

The workshop sounds like an excellent experience! Hope you have a great time.

The race today went well. PR'd my bike mph, and I improved my time on this course (I participated in this same race 2 years ago) by about a minute and a half. That is all thanks to the bike because my swim and run were slower but that does not surprise me. My friend that I train with won overall female, I won my age group and I *think* I was 3rd female overall which is always nice but in reality I was racing myself because the race only had around 50 participants total. I felt kind of sheepish when we racked our bikes. We racked by age group and mine was the only tri bike on the rack, there were a couple of mountain bikes. I had a significant advantage on the bike!  I'll get a race report up when I see the official results and times.

Now, on to a question. There was some blatant and unnecessary drafting on the ride. The ride was only 13 miles long - really, why would you draft. There was a pack of 4 guys drafting off each other who caught me but they did not pull away. I even stopped pedaling to allow them to move forward - nothing. I had to slow my pace by braking to drop back anymore or risk drafting myself. I was not sure what to do so I just put the pedal to it, hammered down and passed them back again. I reached down near the end of the bike course to grab my gel (I know I don't need the nutrition in a sprint but I get really hungry in the morning) with a little over a mile left I'd say and the pack overtakes me and a guy I had been chasing down, this time with 6 people in the pack. They took up the entire lane so I could not get around so I just hung to the back trying to keep enough distance between me and the pack. My training friend was in the second pack. She had the same problem I had. So what are you supposed to do in a case like this? Really frustrating, just race your own race people!

Dina congrats on the great finish and looking forward to the race report. As far as the drafting goes I am not sure what you can do about that but I personally think it's pretty weak and very unsportsman like on their part to do that. Same with the people who won't let you pass but are slowing you down.

Cagolddigger - 2012-07-01 2:44 PM

So, I had the Alta Alpina Century yesterday.

Some basic stats:

7h 03m 54s 109.54 miles 15.50 Mi/hr 4709 calories

Approximate Feet of Climbing: 11788

Had a great Race! Averaged 9mph-11mph on the climbs. Averaged 40mph-45mph on decents. Top decent speed: 47.65mph Averaged 20mph-21mph on flats.

 

My Nutrition was spot on. No issues. No mechanical problems.

I just took my time and didn't push it too hard. I had plenty in the tank afterwards and probably could have knocked off 30+ minutes easily. I had a couple rest breaks which added to the time. I was worried I was going to have a hard time with my new work schedule (new sleep hours & training hours) so I went at it with the attitude of just a leisurely ride.

No training today, just going to rest. I'll be back at it tomorrow.

 

Stan congrats on completing your century ride. It looks like you did a great job of pacing yourself and getting the right amount of nutrition during the ride. That is also some pretty serious elevation!

Just a quick note.  I was out of town visiting my parents this week and could only run.  My IT band is still giving me FITS!!!  Good news though, I did get my wife a Scott road bike and I got myself a Cervelo P-1.  Both were old merchandise that has never been used.  Gosh the P-1 is hard to ride.  I about crashed it, testing it out.  I'm not used to having to move my hands to find the breaks ...lol

I hope my wife gets interested in tri's.  She has the running part (she is signing up for an Ultra)  and can swim good.  Biking is her weakness.

I look forward to catching up w/ everyone soon.

Have fun in Traverse City!  Hopefully the weather is somewhat decent up there... um yeah, I basically had a similar thought when I went to check out the challenge!  I got very confused even on the first page of posts, so I just said I'll just do it on my own!   I'm hoping to ride on all the days they do.  I've set my biking schedule up so that when they've got longer (distance) days, I make those my longer days, shorter ones are shorter for me, etc.  This doesn't take into consideration course profile, but, the idea behind riding when they do is there! Overall, June was an awful training month for me, although, I'm quite surprised I did get in my 200 miles of biking for the month, which is the original goal I set for myself at the beginning of June!  Hoping to redeem myself in July... I've come up with a basic training schedule for the next few weeks, with an end of July triathlon in mind, although I haven't quite committed to it yet.  I'm also worried slightly about my hip adductor situation, so I would like to see how that goes during the next couple of weeks before signing up (assuming this race doesn't sell out too!!)  Today during my run, I felt the groin area, but I feel like I've always felt it... A couple weeks ago I was having issues with feeling a twinge in one of my glute muscles, and that seems to have died down a bit, so at least that's good... I just really need to make flexibility exercises a priority!!!!  I need to keep telling myself doing these little things now will help in the long run!  (I know I've said this before, but I need to give myself another reminder... like probably many more! ) I also lifted weights yesterday for the first time in foreverrrr!!!  Oh, and I got my gym membership back, so I am also hoping to get to the pool for more structured workouts.

I've gone on forever already... thanks to everyone who voted in the Jeep contest!!!  I'll most certainly let you all know the results... win or lose, it was a good experience, as we were able to get a professionally produced video out of it!  So we're hoping to be able to use that in the future as a nice way to describe what it is that we do!

Stay safe with all this wacko weather!

Just a quick checkin, I'll catch up later today.

One word of advice - if Jonathan ever calls and asks you to join him for a sufferfest, be very afraid.

Race report is finished but it looks like I messed up and typed my comments in the wrong space so it is kind of hard to read. http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=448786&posts=1&start=1

Happy Monday everyone. Have a great training week!

I'm not sure what to do today. My achilles felt 98% before the race. Today it is very, very sore. I was thinking either an easy paced ride or aqua jogging?

haha....if Warren ever tells you that he's too old, or slow.  He's lying.  He is a BEAST!  And almost got eaten by a dog. But that's not important.

Dirk, good luck dude.  I know you guys are working out of control.  Everyone appreciates it!

Here is my race report.  Or was that a dream I had while stuck inside a crock pot?

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=448873

BIKE QUESTION!

This happened on my ride both yesterday and today, and I'm wondering if I should be worried about a mechanical issue.  This happened both just once during each of the rides, as I was nearing the last mile or so.  It seemed like suddenly, there was like a hissss (psssss) sound that came from the area of the front tire (~ish), perhaps somewhere below the handlebars, etc. (I clearly don't know bikes, so I don't know how else to describe it.)  It sounded like air was being let out, this lasted for literally like a split second.  Any ideas on what I should check for, if anything??  Please feel free to ask questions if it helps.

How is your tire pressure today?

Well, I think it's safe to rule out air escaping from your tire.  It would be flat.

I have a sound that I hear sometimes that's very similar.  When my brake pads are dry and dusty and I apply them at just the right pressure (softly), I can get a sound much like a 'hiss' that I would describe more like the sound of a piece of paper between the pads and rim. 

It's just the sound that dry dusty brake pads make against the rim until they are cleaned and/or warmed by the friction.  So it only lasts a second and goes away if I release the lever or apply it hard.

Oh okay, thanks!  So I take it I should wipe down my brake pads... or something?

Sure.  Get a wet rag and wipe your rim's braking surfaces and wipe the brake pads thoroughly.  If they don't open wide enough to get the rag in there, remove the wheel to do that.

But it's prone to returning as they get dusty again.  (if this is what you are hearing)

If you hear this without your brakes being lightly applied, then it's something else.  And it's entirely possible that every once in a while your tire will pick something up and it will come around and get stuck in your fork or your brake arms and rub.

BTW, if your bike is older you may want to proactively replace your brake pads.  They never wear out (get consumed) but over time the rubber dries and hardens and they don't brake as well in addition to being more prone to making sounds like I described.