Fast Twitch Tri-FULL (Page 8)

Steve,

LOL no worries, I found the sports info to be completely relevant.  And I graduated from U of M, so that would be GO BLUE

Thanks Shane.  This is something I definately want to work on.

Good lord, I take two days to drive from Colorado to Nebraska and back, and you all put up 9 pages? It took me all morning to catch up!  Anyway, here's the bio.

NAME:  Dennis Bachman

STORY:  I started doing tris 3 years ago.  At the time I was working at a company with lots of very fit people, and eventually I got tired of feeling fat, lazy, and left out when they all went running at the end of the day.  I’d always thought tris sounded fun, but was afraid of the run.  So when I eventually topped 200 pounds, I finally said screw it and started training.  My first tri was all in the gym (pool, stationary bike, and treadmill), but I got the bug, and have been doing sprints every year since.  The crazy thing is that now I’m at a new job, and I’m the weird fit person who goes running every day at lunch.

FAMILY: Been married to my lovely wife for the past 6 years, have a 2 year old daughter, and as of tomorrow, will be joined by a 1yr old basset hound (name TBD).  Somehow I doubt he’ll be my new running buddy…

CURRENT TRAINING:   Most weeks I run 4, maybe 5 times, but they’re mostly short efforts with one longer run on the weekend.  Due to work and family constraints (and the sun setting at 6pm), I’m pretty time limited for running.  Since my last race in September all biking is on the trainer, which means I can get in 5+ sessions a week if I can HTFU and stay off the couch at the end of the day.  There’s no dedicated swimming in my schedule (lap time at my pool is pretty inconveniently timed), but swim is my best discipline, so I don’t mind focusing on bike & run for the time being.  My goal for this group, in addition to motivation, is to get help figuring out how to make the most of my limited run training time.

2012 Races:  I did 3 sprints this year (Cohasset, Boston, and Nantasket, for you New Englanders).

2013 Races:  Next year I expect to sign up for the same three races as this year, plus a few more depending on how they fit into my schedule.

2013 Goals:   I’d love to get my run pace below 8:30 mm (currently 9:00) and my bike above 20mph (currently 18.5).

WEIGHTLOSS:  I’m currently sitting just below 170, which at 5’10” means I’m a bit heavy for racing, but not egregiously so.  I hit my peak at 200 a few years ago, and managed to lose those 30 pounds mostly through diet changes.  I’d love to drop another 10, but the easy weight is already gone, so we’ll see.

That guy was swimming 1'23" with a tube around his ankles...amazing! Thanks for showing this. Love to hear if anyone does it and how it goes. I won't be in the pool until sometime next week but I'll report back when I try it.

Dennis,

thanks for the bio. 

I used to have basset hounds. Now I have pugs. I like ridiculous animals.

Q

KATE -

It's not tying the tube to your ankles, but tying the two ends of a section together so that your ankles are restricted from moving.  So, you'll cut the tube so it's long enough to tie, and also long enough so that it doesn't cut off circulation to your toes, but short enough so this snazzy new ankle bracelet doesn't slip off.

Now, I haven't looked at the video Shane posted, but what i just described is what I carry in my swim-toys bag and oull out a few times a year to mess with.  It's pretty nifty!

And I maybe shouldn't muddy the waters, but seeing as we're on the topic....

I similar object to use is the WHOLE inner tube for a wheelbarrow wheel.  To do this you need to go to a big hardware store and "try-on" several different sizes -- find the one that's right for you!  Seriously, I need to do that, as not all wheelbarrow wheels are created equal.  The next trick is figuring out how much to inflate it so that it doesn't practically elevate your feet out of the water, but also so it doesn't work to make your feet seeme to sink.  it also requires some core strength to fight the weirdo effects of this tight and chubby tube around your ankles, and beyond that there is one more problem -- the one I bought smells to high heavens of industrial rubber.  It is really quite unpleasant, and the one time a year I play with it in the pool, I bring it there in its own disposabl plastic bag; it's not fit company for all my other swim toys...........which just smell to high heavens of chlorine!

Back to the bike tube idea of Shane's ---overall much better than the wheelbarrow wheel!

DAVE -

Are you a shoe geek?  Once I get my feet on the ground here and have responded to everyone's bio, I will look at your shoe blog, which Q mentiosn.

I used to be a shoe geek, big time ------------- and trhen along came Newton in '07 and I have never really looked back.  I bought my first pair in Nov. '07, and am now on about pair #14.  I had a brief flirt with a few Saucony models in maybe '09, and that was when I got worried about the cumulative cost of Newtons, but i couldn't replicate elsewhere how Newtons feel to me, so I came crawling back to them, full of remorse and regret for having "cheated" on them with those Sauconys.

My early years were in Asics, and I had a good deal of success with DS Trainers -- when they could manage to go from one version to the next without reinventing the damn wheel.  They never settled for a few gentle tweaks from, say, version 6 to version 7, it was always a bunch of radical sea-changes.  Sheesh!

DONTO -

Happy anniversary!  16 is pretty impressive...although you still have some catching up to do to get to our years, which will be 37 in Dec (although we started living together 14 months before we made it "official").   (Does that count towards 38, ya think?)

Oh, it's been an up-and-down road for you, hasn't it?  But your current plan of working on the rediscovered mojo is very sound, as you are viewing it with a long view that doesn't see you scaling the heights again right away.

Having said that, though, it wasn't all that long ago that you won the ag in that killer 45-49 bracket, and placed 6th o.a., so somewhere not too far below the surface is a pretty good Base and a fair chunk of natural talent.  Yes?  So, lwet the excavation begin!!

Just through too-much running i ahve lost scads of towenails over the years, but maybe three years ago I didn't pull either shoe's elastic laces tight enough on an earlyearly morning run, and about 3km into it I satretd to feel the big toes not feeling right.  I adjusted the laces and cursed at myselfor being so sleepy-dopey to not do things right --- but it was too late.  Both of those nails eventually fell off, and unfortunately they have never grown back fully or correctly.  Don't think they ever will.  they never really bother me, although when the day comes that Idrop something heavy on them....................

Have you read about how many ultra-runners just go out and get all of their toenails surgically and permananently removed.  Sweet Mother of Mercy, how hard-core is THAT??  I a depressingly twisted way I can see the logic, just from no longer having to deal with the various levels of difficulty that are involved in losing any single toenails, but still --- waaaaay too radical of a "solution" for my tastes!  But when I look at my own big toes and feel badly for what has become of their own almost nowadays-vestigial nails...........I take some solace in contemplating an image of the feet of ultra runners.  (Oh, my!)

Which is the Nov HM, and which is gonna be the "A" tri in June?  Just curious!

@STEVE

Used to follow the Sox pretty avidly, but interests have skewed in other directions lately.  I suspect the fact that they only broadcast games on cable, which we cancelled years ago, may have something to do with it.  Not that the team has made it all that easy to be enthusiastic the past few seasons…

My run limiters?  Well, let’s start with the fact that I didn’t start running until three years ago.  Then toss in missing a few months last summer to PFPS, and another few months last winter to PF.  Then cap it off with a work/family schedule that lately doesn’t leave me much more than 20-30 minutes for running most days, and there you have it.  All that said, three years ago in my first race I think my pace was around 12min/mi, and this year I’m down around 9min/mi.  So I'm not DFL anymore, but still BOP for my AG (30-34).  Progress!

Now, how did I do with the 30-in-30?  Pretty well, all things considered.  I went into it knowing there were a few days where I just wasn’t going to be able to run, so my personal ground rules dictated that I could substitute a trainer ride after the kid was in bed when necessary.  Allowing for that, I only missed workouts on two Sundays, which I made up for with 2-a-days later in the week.  So we learned that Sunday’s aren’t reliable training days.  Then everything fell off the rails in the last 5 days or so with this unexpected trip out west, which I’m OK with under the circumstances.

TIFFANY -

Is your mom related to mine?  Mine used to kick me out of the house to "go play in the street" all day!

Very intersting story you bring to us here, and lots to think about and comment on.  You've certainly come from a very varied athletic background, and especially those "high-action" activites -- waterskiing, wakeboarding, motrocycle trackdays.  And then there was the pretty big leap into the half-marathon, and THEN there was the patch-together-some-gear preformance of your first tri.  You've guts guts and the good brand of chutzpah in abundance, is what I think!

I also see the references to physical and other issues, and I hope that for the former, it's just your back.  That's not to say that back problems are just a "just", because god knows I know how wicked they can be.  I'm just hoping that other parts of you aren't also problems.  Aside from the back, are you mostly injury-free?

The biggest thing I see in your bio is the anxiety and fear, and I hope we can get somewhere with that problem.  It is obcviously very real for you, and for this last season a repeat-offender deal-breaker for you.  For now, i'll just tell you that at times I get very weary of putting on my "game-face", going out and actually competing.  For me it comes late in a season, when I have been ultra-competitive for a few months and then get just palin tired of it.  The fun is gone, I don't really want to be there, I think about packing my stuff back up and heading off.  That affected me both in '10 and '11, less so in '09 -- and not at all this past season.  i can't explain that, but am just thankful that i didn't have to deal with it.

I never bailed on a race because of it, and ususlly once the swim started I was fine -- i could get on that game face, and would end up doing fine.  as near as i could tell, it was just repeated high expectataions of myself --- and getting real weary of having to feel that is was absolutely essential to meet them.  So, i ask you this --- do you certain expectations of your performance that you might be terribly afraid you won't be able to meet?  That's just a wild shot, but it's the first thought i had -- and also the one that I could must readily help you address.

Beyond that, I would venture a guess that what you need is what you eventually got "super stoked" about last weekend -- to wit, a sprint.  The fact that a few lines above you mentioned maybe being intimidated by the Gator Bait distance, and then reflecting back to what happened at NO 70.3, blares out to me that the way for you to go for a while is sprints and -- if they have them near you -- super sprints.  They would just give you a ton of confidence, and in either case, with your athletic background, you could be confidnet that you would be done with them in just a bit longer than a heartbeat.

One of the ways I view this group is that it's like the David of shortcourse triathlons standing up to the Goliath of longcourse triathlons.  Not only do way too many people get defeated by trying to go into longcourse racing far too soon in their "careers", but they also have to fight the bells-and-whistles "prestige" aspects of half-irons and irons.  I have been around this stuff long enough to know that there is NOTHING inherently more worthy about doing longcourse than doing shortcourse.  They may all be triathlons, but the skill sets for them are so different that they ahrdly seem related at all. That is, it takes an entirely different set of abilities and goals to handle the particular rigors of shortcourse -- just a sit takes unique qualities and skills to handle longcourse racing.

So, i just say that by way of letting you know that if you spend a season or two at sprints, or maybe sprints and olys (once you get past the distance-intimidation factor.....and that WILL happen!), that's all good.  It's what your mind and psyche are telling you to do, and I couldn't agree with them more.  It's what i ultimately think almost every "newbie" (which can extend into one's first handful or more of triathlons) should do, just explore the fun of this stuff, not beat the body up prematurely, and build skills and confidence slowly and surely.

Now, having said that................I see you are eyeing NO 70.3 again.  I can underastand that, as I sense you are quite competitive and want to get some revenge on that course.  (New swim plan for nest year; was this year a non-swim for you?  that never had a good swim in Lake Ponch, but the panned one for next year, in that marina-type basin, looks like a winner.  And no more point-to-point run to Jackson Square, just all nicely contained up along the south shore of Lake P.!)  that being the case, let's spend the winter trying to get around the psycholgical difficulties that plagued you this past season, okay?

Do you think you can get to Florida in December-February to do a sprint or two there -- just to get yoru distance-confidence in place before NO 70.3.  It would be great if you could, I can't recommend it higher!  If you haven't discovered the resourse of www.trifind.com, so there and check out how much is offered for tris in Decemvber.  It may take a while to get all the Jan-Feb '13 races up there, but in another month the schedule should be pretty much together.  And although I don't know this, it could well be that MS starts its outdoor tri season in Feb or March, which is still ots of time for confidnece-building leading up to NO 70.3 if you remain hellbound and determined to do it

Illegitimum non carborundum!

QUINCY -

Oh, I'm so giddy with excitement at the thought of a FULL PHOTO GALLERY of a costumed you at your h-m today!!!  My mind has been awhirl at all the possibilities there could be.  Snooki?  Lance?  Michelle Bachman? A yellow highlighter?  It goes without saying that I don't know you near well enough to try to guess which alter-egos you would most like to entertain in costume.......so Il  just squiggle here and await the FULL PHOTO GALLERY!!!!

Also, I really enjoyed your usage of the word "spawn" a few days ago.   Ribbit!

Q again -

Honey Boo-Boo?  Are you going as Honey Boo-Boo? 

WAIT!  The two of you are dressing as her parents!!  TA-DA!!!

SHELLY -

Yup, you were there, part of the original thread, so post that bio!  (Please?)

FYI, Quincy is off somewhere today, doing a half-marathon IN COSTUME, with spousal unit, apparently hand-in-hand.   I can hardly wait for the FULL PHOTO GALLERY to be posted!

DENNIS -

Funny story about you now being the wierd fit runner at you new job.  It's like you received Dharma Transmission at the other job, and now it's up to you to carry it forward.  Spread the word!

I'm a day "late" with this, so I guess along about now you're ankle deep in bassetland, yes?  Cool dogs, much character, but you're right -- not likely to becopme your running buddy!

Runs of short effort, with a weekend longie ---- sounds about perfect for short course tri!  And all of that time on the trainer will be very useful, so as I see a total of about 5 runs and 5 cycles....I wouldn't worry too much about HTFU -- I think you're pretty much there already!

It is also very ideal that your strong suit (swim) is the one that is most difficult to get to, and so in some quarters your situation would be considered ideal -- spending the off-season working on your two less-adept disciplines.  I guess I do the same as well, or at least spending the most time on the swim, which will ever and anon be my weak area.  the bike and run are both equally strong, or maybe the bike just slightly more so......and that's good as I find it hard -- ever and anon! -- to motivate myself to getting on the trainer or rollers in the  basement.  I DO it, but just not as much as I should.

But I digress!  If you need some refinements on your training time, we can probably help.  There are alot of ways to structure constrained training time, but focusing on short-course stuff majkes it many times easier.  I see that you want to repeat Coh and Bos and Nan, and so just what you are accomplishing now, if continued consistently, will go a long ways towards making your performance at those three even better next year. 

Any ideas which other ones might fit for you?  I think it was '10 that I did Escape The Cape, out of Onset, in early June, and that was a good event.  I've heard good things about Buzzards Bay, done by the same RD (maybe www.maxperformance.com??), and the Cranberry weekend, late August is also well-regarded.  And then FIRM puts on a slew of tris and dus throughout MA and RI, and they've been around forever.  they are slightly old-scholl...but in this day of bells-and-whistles races, that's a good thing.  I think their website is www.firm-racing.com.

You're not too far off those goal paces, so i guess keeping the focus on the bieka dnrun will help get you there!  maybe the approach for you to take is to make sure that there is a "quality" aspect to as many of your workouts as possible.  That is, you don't want too many of them to be "junk miles", a trap that almost all of us (myslef included) fall into way too easily.

So, if I asked you if your life would be simpler if you just did 3 trainer sessions instead of 5, would that make your life easier?  i'm just wondering if three well-structured seesions per week at each cycling and running would be better for you ---- or maybe you truly enjoy be active 4-5 times a week for each of those.  Just a thought or two!

Diet weigthloss, exercise weightloss, "easy" weightloss; it's tough to tell 'em apart.   I usually feel that my workouts "suppress" a few pounds, as in that if I go a few days without doing anything, two or three pounds can bounce right back.  I guess I figure I kind of have a "natural" weight of , say 175-180, which is what I will gravitate towards if inactive -- or gorging too much on stuff that isn't all that  great for me (think pastries!!).

Pats better beat the Jets today.   Rex Ryan is insufferable when he's asleep, and if they managed a win today...........

WOO-HOO!

HALLELOO!

I have finally responded to everyone's bio*, and can finally get on to the task of living post-by-post.  Wheeeeeeeee!

* None from Kevin or Cathy, who posted here early but just once (gone but not forgotten?).   And oysterboy and Shelly are very recent here(but from the Original 31), so I figure they'll get theri bio up soon.

As for the rest of you -- MANY THANKS FOR POSTING BIOS SO PROMPTLY AND IN SUCH FINE DETAIL!  All that info just amkes it so much easier to see where you've been and where you hope to get to.

Merci!

DENNIS -

With your history of PFPS and PF, you did well to hang with the 30-in-30.  In fact, you did REALLY well just steeling yourself to do it!  And as for those personal ground rules --- fair enough!  So many of the people who do those challenges are single and without significant responsibilities, so there need to be systems with either fair handicaps or the allowance of a certain number of "mulligans".  Yeah!

Going from 12-pace to 9-pace is very huge......and all in the face of those woes of yours.  Outstanding!

In my earlier days, I had a few bouts of PFPS, and in '08 I had a wicked case of PF.  my resolution of that was persistent, meaning I kept with the various therapies for a long time -- even when I may not have truly needed them.  PF is one mean customer, and you're fortunate to be doen with it!

GANG!

A few days ago there was a good discussion about power, to which I didn't add anything: (a) because I was responding to bios, and (b) I don't use any powere system.  However...........

For a fee yeasrsd, maybe '03-'09, I had a CompuTrainer.  Where it was located, out of abject necessity, was in just about the most depressing spot in our house, and so I didn't use it as much as I should've.  well, in the early years I did quite well with it, but then it just became too stultifying to use it, and I sold it.  Sad, but true.

It was especially helpful to me with the SpinScan functions, abusing me totally of the notion that i was agood, efficient cyclist.  Ha!  I learned just how "lopsided" my pedal strokes were, but paying attention to the SpinScan readouts did in fact make me more efficient.

I also gained from the watts numbers as, similarly with pedalling efficiency, I was disabused of the idea that I prooduced loads of juicy watts.  WRONG!  What I produced going into the CT was relatively paltry, but in time I got stronger and more of a decent wattage machine.

Other than that, though, I have never used power devices.

KATE -

As for wetsuit rubs, yes if there is enough surf to churn up the bottom sediments.  But thios nis nothing that a really good layering of BodyGlide won't prevent.  I have swam/swum/goneswimming in the ocean lots in my wetsuit and have yet to suffer any neck chafing -- but I am always scrupulous with my use of BodyGlide!  Remember, though, NO VASELINE, as the petroleum stuff eats neoprene for breakfast!

I love ocean swimming, and was very disappointed when my one ocean-swim-tri had the swim changed to a run due to really rough water from Hurricane Leslie.  It was about 400 miles off the Maine coast on race day, but it just goes to show how thsoe massive storms can produce wild coastal surf, even from great distances.  Holy tsunamis, Batman!

What you'll notice is how flotational the saltwater will be, and that should increase your comfort and confidence quite a bit.  As you can tell, i'm very envious of you, and will be swimming vicariously through you!

SHANA -

Well, those injuries would indeed force a wise person to be conservative in their running program!  I have been there any number of times, and I think part of my relative malaise this year was on account of reduced training due to just being tired of being hurt.  I haven't had any biggies (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!) for a few years, but it's the seemingly never-ending aches and wonks that tend to sap my enthusiasm some -- and lead to reduced training!

As for your persistent ITB problems, can you tell me (a) what running shoes you are using, and (b) what your foot type is (that is, high-arched or low-arched, and do you know if you over-pronate or under-pronate?)   As to the last part aboyt pronation, if you don't know we can maybe figure it out by going over your wear pattern.  I ask this stuff just on the off-chance that you wear a shoe with medial posting, but if you are a natural under-pronator, then that might force you legs into a running gait that is conducive to ITB.  Just a thought -- maybe or maybe not worth pursuing further!

Good morning everyone, hope everyone racing had the results they were hoping for. I'll post pix a little later today!

I have a question about something I need to figure out in the offseason. 

My wetsuit has always killed me. My T1 times are too slow and it's because it is always stuck on my heels. AL-WAYS.

Like I have lost podium spots because of my T1 time. It even got stuck when the wetsuit strippers tried to get it off at IM Wisconsin.

I've been at this long enough to feel like I should be better at this, and transitions are SO important in short course.

I read an article by Chrissie Wellington where she talks about cutting the legs of her wetsuit a few inches because hers gets stuck too. Wondering if anyone has done it. It's kind of an expensive experiment if I ruin my suit but I'm desperate.

Thoughts?

My first wetsuit (back in about 1989) was a "Wavelength" suit which bear striking similarities to many sleeveless suits today. Anyway, the legs stopped just below the gastroc muscle (the large part of the calf). NEVER had an issue getting that suit off. The NeoSport suit I have is just a little bit lower, but still fairly high on the calf, and it's okay. My Nineteen suit is pretty much to my ankle, and it hangs up unless I'm very aggressive with pulling it off my feet -- any hesitation and it hangs.

Two things -- if you do cut material, make sure you keep about 1/2" of seam tape left. If there isn't enough on there, you can glue some on, but you want to make sure there's some tape left at the end of the seam to keep it from unraveling. Also, it really helps to cut it at an angle so that it's higher in the back than the front (an elliptical cut).

Do you have any thoughts on where I can get extra seam tape that would be correct for a wetsuit? The unraveling is what worries me. My LBS is a tri shop and they sell and repair wetsuits. I guess I could take it in to them and do it in the shop...maybe reinforce the seams with wetsuit goo. This is my third wetsuit (they ALL have stuck) and my first "nice" (not cheap or used) one and I really don't want to screw it up.

But I'm so frustrated, I was thinking about going to a shortie, so I might as well try modifying my current suit first.

Another thing is to make sure you're BodyGlide-ing your heels and the tops of your feet to help the suit slip off.