left.right.repeat group -closed - Full of a bunch of winners...YEAH! (Page 8)

Marianne! I can think of no more appropriate reward for not smoking! How perfect is that?! You so deserve it!

Oh and we went by Rick's Crab(edited, the original was funnier) Trap Bryan, but they didn't open until 3 PM (we were hoping for lunch) so we promised ourselves we'd get back there on our next trip to Tallahassee. I wonder if they take reservations? I'd love to get a table on the water! What a great location.

Ok, here's me and "Cool". She's about a year and a half old, and not a scratch on her; only ridden a couple of times. As soon as I'm over this bug, I'll get her to the LBS for a new saddle and platform pedals (don't think I can handle clipless yet). Please ignore the batwings and other bulges on the person in the pic. One day she'll be as sleek as the bike!

Lucky for you Juanita that the place wasn't open

Re: Cool Runnings Jamaican Bobsled Team - The Jamaicans were one of the big stars to emerges at the 88 winter olympics that were held in Calgary. In the movie the coach was played by (the now late) John Candy, one of the many great Canadian comics that became big stars in the You Ess of Eh. Interestingly, there was a bit on one of our sports programs this past weekend about the members of that jamaican bobsled team and turns out they have gone on to become very successful in banking, business, etc.

Did a 4k run yesterday at lunch. Had to run along the side of the roads (facing traffic of course!), dodging cars and huge puddles because the sidewalks are virtually impassable right now. Today I have a "double header" planned - 3k run at lunch and then my swim class at 8:30 tonight.

Ok, I'm dyin' here!!!!!!!!! Yeah, lucky for me they weren't open! And I KNOW that it couldn't have been the place Bryan had in mind! OUCH. You realize Peter, that I have to edit that post now that you've pointed it out to me? *still laughing*  And now I know that "crap" is in my microsoft dictionary and won't be pointed out my my spell checker... LOL

*ear to ear grin*

Be careful out there on the roads! And good luck with swimming!

Good morning sTRIvers !!

Great to read posts from "youse guys" (Dan and Leston). I completely understand your feelings about the swimming. I had my swim class last night and if I didn't know better I would say I'm getting worse not better. We started with 1 x 75m freestyle then 1 x 75m kicking only and finally 1 x 75 arms only. After that we were divided into 4 stations - (1) treading water while passing a weight back and forth (2) flip turns (3) 3 x 100m freestyle (4) 2 x 75 + 1 x 50 kicking. I was knackered by the end. Yesterday at noon I did a 20 minute run as well so today will be a rest day.

Dan - the solar car project sounds soooo cool. Any idea when you will be in Calgary? If it is during the time of the Calgary Stampede (I believe it runs the first couple weeks in July) you'll have an amazing time. Calgary has tons to offer anytime though. I was stationed there at the start of my military career. I liked it so much I married one of the locals! Spending a couple of days in Banff/Lake Louise would be a treat. great hiking, mountain biking, hot springs, etc. A visit to the Columbia Ice Fields glacier. Lots of great restaurants both in Banff and in the city of Calgary. The economy is absolutely booming there because of the oil industry.

Ok I am back too....sorry but last night I typed for an hour and got timed out before the post posted...so I was REALLY happy....So I am going to hit this again.  I will probably do two posts so it doesn't happen again.  This is the second time...has this happened to anyone else????

 Dan...congrats on the weight drop...it will work....I promisee.....keep at it.  Skiing...next time you go try some cross country or snow shoeing for your workout...I understand there are some snowsnoe races like 5k's...that would really hurt I think...smile

Leston - keep working on the swim...I am going to disclose a swim workout for you all in my second post in addition to an off the wall opinion on breathing...I think you will be shocked.  Relax...Relax...Relax....you will swim faster and smoother.

Flipper.....what a b-e-a-u-tiful bike.....WAY  "cool" --- by the way eliminate "just a used TREK I found on craigslist" - if "cool" happened to hear that he might throw you off the next time you ride...or at least rub one brake pad against the rim to make you pedal a LOT harder to go anywhere....remember bikes are sensitive machines.....smile.

FBP - you running machine....keep it up just don't over train...it is a long season.  I also really like your comment of demi vs half....I can guarantee you that anything that lasts 13.1 miles should NOT be called half.

MAV - you rock girl...but learn how to use a camera...these fellow sTRIvers should see that ride.  I checked it out online and it is SWEET.  I also really liked that the color is what makes the bike fast....it's almost like the T-shirt that says "Do these shorts make my butt look fast?"  By the way, your red bike it going to eject you the next time you go for a ride since you relegated red to 2nd place in the speed color contest....maybe you won't be able to clip out.....race smart this weekend...good karma coming your way...relax relax...keep the heart rate down and work through the miles one step at a time....left right repeat....and then it's hello finish line.

FBP - speaking of finish lines - indoor tri...here are some ideas from me on the indoors I have done.  Swim as much as you can but don't kill yourself because a longer distance in the bike and run will offset shorter distance on the swim more efficiently than a ok swim and an ok bike because you are exhausted from the swim...just work through the swim...get on the bike and spin at a cadence of 90 if you can..they usually set the resistance so just ride with a quick spin - sprinting doesn't really help you just spin quickly.  On the run, get on the treadmill or dreadmill as the case may be and hit it....pump the speed and hang on for the time on the treadmill - you are better off starting too fast and having to slow down some than starting slow and finishing with gas in the tank....go for it....

You all have absolutely no idea how hard this weekend will be for me with 2 of my team racing....it will be like the waiting room in the old days with a dad-to-be hanging out in the waiting room....Please post race reports asap so I will know we have two more finish lines...by the way....here's what I have so far - Finish lines in 2008 - Juanita - 1, darrens - 1, me - 2.  I want to keep a running total so we are currently at 4.  Any official race of any distance counts so let me know.

OKAY....get ready...I am about to blow you away with this one.....are you ready?

I think you may be trying to take on too much air.

There I said it.  I know, I didn't believe it when I first heard it either but hear me out.  When we have air left in our lungs as we inhale, we begin to create a carbon dioxide buildup that cannot escape.  Carbon Dioxide in our lungs really freaks your body out and it is dying to get rid of it.  I am of the opinion that sometimes we gasp for air and then we don't release it all because we want to hang on to it and then we try to add to it during the next gasp.  So here is an experiment for you.  Breathe every stroke, either to the right side or the left as you prefer and just take a "bite" of air.  Try to take as little as you need for the next few seconds...that is all it needs to last.  Just try this for a few strokes, stand up and see how you feel.  I will guarantee you this - if you are struggling to breathe, it is physically impossible to relax and you MUST relax to go smooth and fast. So try it and see what it does for you.  Here's another idea - sing to yourself as you swim, count stokes with the right arm, repeat the Desiderata, recite poetry, or practice your multiplication tables but DON'T think about swimming.  As you lengthen your distance (Flipper you can weigh in on this), you are going to just keep swimming in your rhythm.  You can swim further right now that you even imagine.  Much of swimming is in the mind.  We all have a survival instinct - go figure - and that is DON'T DROWN.  Once you convince yourself that you won't, you can go far...Give both of the experiments a shot and see if either help.  Let me know.

sTRIve on,

B

One more thing about the Ironman coverage - there are so many incredible stories NBC covers such as Jon Blais, Dick Hoyt and his son, Julie Moss (yeah it was in the 80s but I still think of her crawling as her body shut down) and the double amputee...he is incredible as he runs on his stumps to transition after they pull him out of the water, then he PUTS ON HIS LEGS (It is here I realize how lazy I am) and rides, then back to transition and he CHANGES HIS LEGS (here again I am a bum!) and runs the marathon.  If you don't know the Dick Hoyt (Team Hoyt) story or Jon Blais - He completed Kona with ALS in 2005, watched from a wheelchair in 2006 as a guy did it for him in his honor - they hugged at the finish line, and he died in May of 2007 but his legacy goes on.  If you ever see anyone barrel roll over the finish line this came from the Blazeman - he told Mike Riley (the announcer at Ironman) that he was going to finish even if Mike had to roll him across the line so when he got there he laid down and rolled over the line.  If you want to know more about these stories let me know...they are incredible.

sTRIving for the Finish Line,

B

In case you haven't looked lately, right now it is 6 degrees F at FBP's place.  Amazing, I am so intrigued by how cold it is there....man!  And he runs OUTSIDE.  FBP - YOU ARE DA MAN!

sTRIVe

B

mav - will this be your first Half Mary? I'm training for one that takes place at the end of May and finding it a challenge to integrate a training schedule for that with a training schedule for a sprint tri in July.

Bryan - thanks for the advice on race strategy. I will do my best to follow it.

Plan for today is a lunchtime swim doing 50's for 25-30 minutes, focussing on proper technique.

Watch for a race report on Sunday evening.

Hey Marianne! Good luck with your race! Geez, I can't imagine running in a race like that without a day of rest ahead of time... holy cow girl, hang in there. We are all so pulling for you!

About pics... if you don't already have a place to upload pics or you don't want to fool with HTML and links in your posts, you can use BT's photo albums. They let you have albums here, cool eh?  Just click on "Album" in the menu bar directly under one of your posted messages. You'll see a small window that says "Actions" and "Create and edit your video and photo albums." Click on that, then name your album, give it a brief description (I also checked the box to let registered users leave comments) and then click "Submit." The next window will give you an action bar that let's you upload your files. Browse to the folder on your PC where your pics are, make sure the files aren't too big, and upload! (I love BT.) Once you have pics in your album, you can direct us to your album to see your pics. Again, good luck with your race! Catnap and relax when you can before Sunday!

Bryan? What I do to prevent "timing out" and losing data, is I type my entire message in a text program. If I want formatting, color, font, etc., I use Word or Outlook, but sometimes the formatting is screwy, so most of the time I just use notepad. I save the file as I type. (I lost an entire page to a brown-out just the other day, grrr.) Once my post is complete, I copy and paste the entire thing to BT's message window. Also, you're right about Cool not being "just a bike I found on Craig's List"... SHE's awesome. (Notice the gender? *grin*) I can't thank you enough for your comments about her... you and Leston made my day. I was so excited to find a used bike that nice, and I wasn't sure anyone would understand. *sheepish*

Leston, great swimming! (Do you remember the line from the movie "Hook" with Dustin Hoffman and Robin Willams? (Oops, I'm a movie fanatic, can you tell? Hehe.) I love it when Peter Pan begins imagining the food and the little kid says "You're doing it, Peter!" Well, Leston, Dan, AND Peter are doing it! You guys have come SO FAR already with your swimming! I think you're great! And I agree with Bryan completely (IMO he's right on here) about the breathing and relaxing. When I first realized and incorporated the motion of pivoting my body on it's axis, it almost instantly became easier to relax. The rocking motion is very rhythmic and makes it much easier for me to breathe. Relaxing is no longer a problem for me. (Speed might be though... lol.)

Welcome back, Dan! What a great project for your son to be involved in! Incredible. In fact, YOU are incredible. You are so involved with your family and, omg, to me that's just about as important as it gets. (Still dealing with empty nest syndrome here. *sigh*)

Peter I love the "Ultimate Home Tri Simulator"! I GOTTA get me one of those! I'll be laughing for a week. I'm so cheering for you on your indoor Tri! Go Peter, GO!

Bryan your post was wonderful. Thank you, THANK YOU, for spending so much time on us! I love the inspirational Iron Man/Triathlon stories too. They sure take away my excuses... and I'm grateful for that.

I'll consider clipless pedals. Thank you, guys! I was trying to take it one step at a time, lol. I've never even ridden a road bike before, so I've a lot to learn.

The doctor put me on a different and stronger antibiotic. I'm a bit better finally even though I'm still coughing... hope to get back to the gym on Monday.

sTRIve on Turtles! YOU ROCK.

Leston, you made my day again! Thanks! I've been sitting here sick for 2 weeks now, "watching" you guys work out (I can picture it by what I read - I have a great imagination!) and I feel so left out because I can't train. Oops, self-pity, lol.

You had exactly the right idea... what you need is a "profile" pic. (That's what my swimming Lab is. *grin* I love dogs, especially labs, and I love to swim.) Your pic may not have been accepted - BT seems to be particular about the size of their profile pics. (A lot of message boards will try to squeeze a big photo into that little space.) Try to crop your pic to no bigger then 250 by 250 pixels; and actually it will look better if it's half again taller (in height) as it is in width, say 200pixels wide by 250pixels in height. So, go back to your control panel at the top left of your BT page, directly under the "Beginner Triathlete.com" logo. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of your options, to the "Upload Profile Image" window and browse to the folder where you have your pic. Click on "GO". Make sure you pick a photo that you've cropped small like I described above. In other words, if you have a pic of you running or biking for example, make sure it's a good close up and crop out as much of the background as you can. Maybe even make it an upper body shot. The final pic should be the size of a large thumbnail. And don't give up! Play around with the cropping and the size and maybe even different pictures until BT accepts the pic. You'll know when they do, because the pic will show up right under the upload window when it's accepted. Some people even use small animated .gif files. Those are always fun!

P.S. I love Star Wars! Great quote and may the Force be with you!

Happy Birthday, Leston!

It would be cool if it was real, but this way you can share it with those of us who are watching our calories.

Good karma flowing to all our racers today....go Marianne go....go Peter go.....you guys rock.

On our first page, I am going to start a tally of our finish lines.  Right now I have:  Flipper - 1, Darrens -1, me -2.....have I missed any?

Leston, great comments on the swim and congratulations...I don't delude myself into thinking all of the suggestions will help everyone but hopefully at some point everyone finds one or two that work for them.  For me, when I was gulping air I was also stressing myself which kept me from relaxing, so relax and breathe normally.  You are making great strides whether you realize it or not.  Keep up the good work.

Good karma, good thoughts, fast feet, go kids go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

B

*chuckle* (Trying to picture myself as a guru. Cool ) And trying to figure out what you mean by "X", Bryan... hmm... Haven't seen anything like that happen, I don't think. But I would try cropping the pic to make it more smaller, or find a smaller pic to try just to see if I could find something that works. "If at first.." It took me awhile to find one that worked. If I can tackle a 5k, you can do this! Good luck!

Can't wait to hear from Marianne and Peter! sTRIve on Turtles!!

Hey again, Bryan

I found the following in BT help. (Make sure your profile pic has a file extension of .gif or .jpg)

"How do I or why can't I upload a profile picture? 
MAX size is 50kb in gif and jpeg format.  Same with your personal picture.  If you don't have an image resizer to get the photos down to an uploadable size, go to http://www.irfanview.com/ for a free, basic photo resizer."

Hope this helps cuz I'd sure like to see our mentor with a cool profile pic! You're the best!

~Flipper

University of New Brunswick Indoor Triathlon Race Report

Pleased to report that everything went well today!

I was in Heat #2, Lane #4. My heat was 5 guys, one of whom was an experienced triathlete. By experienced I mean he competed at the World Long Course Triathlon Championships last year in France! Bet he hasn't seen someone competing in baggy orange swim trunks like me . After a short warm up we did our 10 minute timed swim and I managed 16 lengths of the 25m pool. Used a combination of crawl and breast stroke and felt invigorated but not exhausted by the end. I had hoped to do 14 lengths so I exceeded my expectations. Of the 5 in my heat I was 4th in number of lengths. We had 10 minutes to transition from pool to bikes. That was about twice as much time as I needed. Gave me a chance to test my blood sugars (I am diabetic and wanted to get a sense of how much my sugars would fall during a competition).

On the bike I managed to keep up a good 92-95 rpm cadence at a moderate resistance level the whole time. I actually finished way ahead of everyone in my heat in distance covered but I think there may have been something wrong with the bike's computer because Mr. Triathlete was pedaling at the same cadence as me on a much higher resistance level and he covered 2k less according to the machines. My bike said I covered 7.8km. Regardless of the distance though I felt really strong throughout.

We had a 5 minute transition to the treadmill, time to check my blood sugars again and then we ran for 15 minutes. I started at a 6:00/km pace and kept dialing it up until I ended up at about 5:40/km. I covered 2.64 km in total.

All in all this was a FANTASTIC experience and a great taste for what is to come in the summer when I do my sprint tri. Thanks Bryan for the great advice. It really helped me to have your words of wisdom running through my head!!

I'm now officially HOOKED !!!

WTG, Peter! You were AWESOME! I'm not sure I'd want to compete so close to other folks and lined up like that. That would intimidate the heck outta me. Just WOW. It's so cool that you didn't freak.
How in the world did you stay so calm?! Unreal. I'm so proud of you!
And the pics are GREAT. You look so good up there! Thank you for sharing those!
You da man!