kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 8)

I've been running on the Virratas (swapping them in and out with my Kinvara 3s).  There was a slight transition (a little calf pain, which is normal when decreasing the drop).  I find them to be super comfortable and I like the fact that the Virratas are built on a fairly wide shoe bed to help disperse shock. 

So here's the race report.  As I mentioned, yesterday was my first triathlon, the Monticelloman Olympic near Charlottesville, VA.  I have broken down my impressions by section of the event.  Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be able to remember this myself.  The event people say that there was some problem with the time calculations, so my splits may change, but I'm going to put them here anyway, just so I'll have the data all in one place.  

Prerace

There's a lot to prepare in advance of a triathlon.  I got there almost two hours in advance, and still had to scramble to get everything set up in time.  Part of that was that the parking was a long way away (this was my only real gripe about the event - otherwise it was great), but picking up a chip, getting marked, lubing up with both body glide and sunscreen, putting on wetsuit (backward the first time - oops!) setting up the bike plus all the gear, setting up the transition area for bike and for run, final trip to the toilet, brief warmup swim, gel 15 minutes before the start, takes a long time!  Lesson learned: Get more organized, and maybe get there a little earlier next time.  

Swim - 31:12

This was the part that frustrated me the most.  I worked really hard all through the winter at the swim, and made good progress, as best I can tell.  Then when I got into the water yesterday, I found I couldn't go more than 20-25 strokes without looking up and swimming breaststroke for awhile in order to catch my breath.  I think the reason for this was the temperature - 66 degrees.  My body wasn't cold b/c of the wetsuit, but putting my face and head into the water made me gasp for breath.  I'm guessing the only solution for this is to do it more often, but maybe you veterans have additional ideas.  The chaos of the group start (123 people started in my wave) was also disconcerting, and I found that swimming over people (or having them swim over me) made it hard to establish a rhythm.   I also need to work on sighting - I think between my zigs and zags, I swam farther than the full distance.  I ended up swimming breaststroke a little more than half the distance, and felt fried at the end.  Sigh.  Lesson Learned: Do more open water swims in cold water, I guess...

T1 - don't know my time yet, but I think around 5-6 minutes.  

I had managed to arrange everything so I could get to it easily, so this didn't go so badly.  (Probably also helped that many people had come and gone already by the time I got there.) My wife had lent me a very cute, multicolored towel with teddy bears on it to use as my place marker, which I thought was awesome, but I imagined people smirking at me.  It was chilly (high 40s and overcast at the start) outside, though, so I decided not to wear any tri-singlet under my wetsuit for the swim, which meant I had to put it on in T1, plus two other layers.  I also put on socks in T1, which took time.  Lesson Learned: I'll try to learn to go without socks and do the shoes-on-the-pedals-in-advance thing at some point, but I'm not ready for those yet.

Bike - 1:14 

I felt strong and confident on the bike, so this went well.  It was a hilly course, and that's what I like the most, so I ended up passing a lot of people on the hills.  I wasn't sure how to manage the no-drafting rules.  The group occasionally got bunched up and I was nervous we'd be called for drafting, but nobody did, as far as I know.  Turns out I made the right decision about three dry layers for the bike, since I heard several other people complaining about how they were so cold they couldn't ride fast.  

After several miles, I ended up riding in the same vicinity as a group of about 4 or 5 others of about the same ability.  They'd pass me on the downhills, and I'd catch and pass them when the roads turned up.  We ended up all finishing at roughly the same time.  I also planned to have two gels on the bike, but ended up only having one.  I didn't really know what to do, so I went hard on the bike, without intentionally backing off to save energy for the run.  I might save a little more next time.  Lesson Learned: Have the two gels, and save a little bit more for the run(?).

T2 - Again, don't know, but around 2 minutes

This went pretty smoothly.  Ran in my bike shoes for about 40 yards from the dismount line into the transition area proper.  I'll eventually learn how to do the take-feet-out-of-shoes-while-moving thing, but I'm not there yet.  Stripped off the outer layer, helmet, popped on race belt with number, popped on shoes, and ran.  

Run - 54:57

The first four miles of the run were really hard.  My legs felt really dead when I got off the bike.  All of the people I passed on the bike passed me back on the run, at least if felt that way.  I had one gel on the run - around the end of mile 1.  Here were my (unofficial) mile splits: 8:51; 9:22; 9:04; 9:12; 8:55; 8:30; 0:53.  I thought I had gotten faster as the run went along, but looking at the times now, it wasn't as big a difference as I thought.  Maybe I should've run harder toward the end.  I also need to work on drinking from paper cups while running.  I either spilled it all, or gulped equal parts water and air - no fun.  I did have one awesome moment of inspiration - at about mile 2, when I really needed it, I passed by a guy running with a prosthetic leg.  Seeing him out there with only one leg but fighting it and not letting it defeat him made me feel really great for him, and it made me hurt a little less.  Lesson learned: Do more brick workouts!  Overall finishing time: 2:48:10.  

Post-race

I was pretty wiped out at the finish, but felt better after I sat down and had something to drink.  I had a great endorphin rush after finishing, and on top of that, the sun came out, so it was a nice way to finish.  I had hoped to finish faster than 2:45, but in the scheme of things I'm still really pleased with 2:48.  It gives me a good baseline to work from starting now, and gave me some great understanding of things to do and things not to do.  I lay down on a grassy hillside and sunned myself like a walrus for about 15 minutes, had some food, stretched out calves and hamstrings, packed up my gear, and got on the road back to DC.   

Good morning everyone!

1:30 Bike and :50 Run for me this morning.  Its about 45 degrees here this morning so it will be a little bit nippy.

What's on tap for everyone else?

So here's the race report.  As I mentioned, yesterday was my first triathlon, the Monticelloman Olympic near Charlottesville, VA.  I have broken down my impressions by section of the event.  Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be able to remember this myself.  The event people say that there was some problem with the time calculations, so my splits may change, but I'm going to put them here anyway, just so I'll have the data all in one place.  

Prerace

There's a lot to prepare in advance of a triathlon.  I got there almost two hours in advance, and still had to scramble to get everything set up in time.  Part of that was that the parking was a long way away (this was my only real gripe about the event - otherwise it was great), but picking up a chip, getting marked, lubing up with both body glide and sunscreen, putting on wetsuit (backward the first time - oops!) setting up the bike plus all the gear, setting up the transition area for bike and for run, final trip to the toilet, brief warmup swim, gel 15 minutes before the start, takes a long time!  Lesson learned: Get more organized, and maybe get there a little earlier next time.  

Swim - 31:12

This was the part that frustrated me the most.  I worked really hard all through the winter at the swim, and made good progress, as best I can tell.  Then when I got into the water yesterday, I found I couldn't go more than 20-25 strokes without looking up and swimming breaststroke for awhile in order to catch my breath.  I think the reason for this was the temperature - 66 degrees.  My body wasn't cold b/c of the wetsuit, but putting my face and head into the water made me gasp for breath.  I'm guessing the only solution for this is to do it more often, but maybe you veterans have additional ideas.  The chaos of the group start (123 people started in my wave) was also disconcerting, and I found that swimming over people (or having them swim over me) made it hard to establish a rhythm.   I also need to work on sighting - I think between my zigs and zags, I swam farther than the full distance.  I ended up swimming breaststroke a little more than half the distance, and felt fried at the end.  Sigh.  Lesson Learned: Do more open water swims in cold water, I guess...

T1 - don't know my time yet, but I think around 5-6 minutes.  

I had managed to arrange everything so I could get to it easily, so this didn't go so badly.  (Probably also helped that many people had come and gone already by the time I got there.) My wife had lent me a very cute, multicolored towel with teddy bears on it to use as my place marker, which I thought was awesome, but I imagined people smirking at me.  It was chilly (high 40s and overcast at the start) outside, though, so I decided not to wear any tri-singlet under my wetsuit for the swim, which meant I had to put it on in T1, plus two other layers.  I also put on socks in T1, which took time.  Lesson Learned: I'll try to learn to go without socks and do the shoes-on-the-pedals-in-advance thing at some point, but I'm not ready for those yet.

Bike - 1:14 

I felt strong and confident on the bike, so this went well.  It was a hilly course, and that's what I like the most, so I ended up passing a lot of people on the hills.  I wasn't sure how to manage the no-drafting rules.  The group occasionally got bunched up and I was nervous we'd be called for drafting, but nobody did, as far as I know.  Turns out I made the right decision about three dry layers for the bike, since I heard several other people complaining about how they were so cold they couldn't ride fast.  

After several miles, I ended up riding in the same vicinity as a group of about 4 or 5 others of about the same ability.  They'd pass me on the downhills, and I'd catch and pass them when the roads turned up.  We ended up all finishing at roughly the same time.  I also planned to have two gels on the bike, but ended up only having one.  I didn't really know what to do, so I went hard on the bike, without intentionally backing off to save energy for the run.  I might save a little more next time.  Lesson Learned: Have the two gels, and save a little bit more for the run(?).

T2 - Again, don't know, but around 2 minutes

This went pretty smoothly.  Ran in my bike shoes for about 40 yards from the dismount line into the transition area proper.  I'll eventually learn how to do the take-feet-out-of-shoes-while-moving thing, but I'm not there yet.  Stripped off the outer layer, helmet, popped on race belt with number, popped on shoes, and ran.  

Run - 54:57

The first four miles of the run were really hard.  My legs felt really dead when I got off the bike.  All of the people I passed on the bike passed me back on the run, at least if felt that way.  I had one gel on the run - around the end of mile 1.  Here were my (unofficial) mile splits: 8:51; 9:22; 9:04; 9:12; 8:55; 8:30; 0:53.  I thought I had gotten faster as the run went along, but looking at the times now, it wasn't as big a difference as I thought.  Maybe I should've run harder toward the end.  I also need to work on drinking from paper cups while running.  I either spilled it all, or gulped equal parts water and air - no fun.  I did have one awesome moment of inspiration - at about mile 2, when I really needed it, I passed by a guy running with a prosthetic leg.  Seeing him out there with only one leg but fighting it and not letting it defeat him made me feel really great for him, and it made me hurt a little less.  Lesson learned: Do more brick workouts!  Overall finishing time: 2:48:10.  

Post-race

I was pretty wiped out at the finish, but felt better after I sat down and had something to drink.  I had a great endorphin rush after finishing, and on top of that, the sun came out, so it was a nice way to finish.  I had hoped to finish faster than 2:45, but in the scheme of things I'm still really pleased with 2:48.  It gives me a good baseline to work from starting now, and gave me some great understanding of things to do and things not to do.  I lay down on a grassy hillside and sunned myself like a walrus for about 15 minutes, had some food, stretched out calves and hamstrings, packed up my gear, and got on the road back to DC.   

Good morning everyone!

1:30 Bike and :50 Run for me this morning.  Its about 45 degrees here this morning so it will be a little bit nippy.

What's on tap for everyone else?

I don't have anything to add about the Virratas, but I want to ask how much calf pain is normal when decreasing drop?  I switched to the Mirages from the Ghosts.  I'm only using the Mirages for shorter, easier runs.  When is it safe to try them out on a longer or faster run?  I don't want to get hurt.  

You didn't answer your own question yesterday.  What is your favorite workout and why?

I don't have anything to add about the Virratas, but I want to ask how much calf pain is normal when decreasing drop?  I switched to the Mirages from the Ghosts.  I'm only using the Mirages for shorter, easier runs.  When is it safe to try them out on a longer or faster run?  I don't want to get hurt.  

That is actually not a bad way to go.  Have someone trained to look at your gait refer something.  Once you're to that point though you can start to tinker.  I like more minimalist shoes so I started in a clunkier Brooks shoe and started to move towards a more minimal one.  Right now I have a pair of PureConnects and PureFlows.  The Flows are really Connects with more cushion to them (same drop/little heavier) and I'll be using them for Texas.

Have you discussed this with your coach yet? 

You replied while I was tying mine. I think that's happened a dozen times in the last year.

 I worked really hard all through the winter at the swim, and made good progress, as best I can tell.  Then when I got into the water yesterday, I found I couldn't go more than 20-25 strokes without looking up and swimming breaststroke for awhile in order to catch my breath.  I think the reason for this was the temperature - 66 degrees.  My body wasn't cold b/c of the wetsuit, but putting my face and head into the water made me gasp for breath.  

Bike - 1:14 

I felt strong and confident on the bike, so this went well.  It was a hilly course, and that's what I like the most, so I ended up passing a lot of people on the hills.  I wasn't sure how to manage the no-drafting rules.  The group occasionally got bunched up and I was nervous we'd be called for drafting, but nobody did, as far as I know.  Turns out I made the right decision about three dry layers for the bike, since I heard several other people complaining about how they were so cold they couldn't ride fast.