Leegoocrap's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 9)

REAAAAALLLLY quick update to my group before I get a couple hours sleep, race report coming soon.


Spent the morning with Ron and Marma, checked out the pro's (OMG Matt Reed you are an ANIMAL)

Swim went bad...just bad. It was my first one this year though, and I'm a bit bigger in my wetsuit than I wanted to be, so I think that had a bit to do with constricting my breathing.

Bike... man, having the home court advantage payed off big time here. Smoking down hills, flying up hills. A lot of people got punished on TN's "rollers"

Run... never got my 10k legs under me. Still managed to salvage it with under 9:00/mi pace all the way.... I cramped up pretty bad mile 23 of the bike in my calf, and it nagged me through the run.

End result - 2:51:19 - 164th place of about 500 or so.  I'll take it... for now!

Ok, Race Report is up here

Hope everyone else's weekend and training has been going GREAT!



Edited by Leegoocrap 2010-05-11 9:29 AM

Nice job on the race!  Sorry to hear your leg cramped up, that's never fun!

Great to hear about the race. Good to hear about the home court advantage part on the bike. I'm not sure how that's going to work out for me on my DC races, since it's on a road I can't normally bike on due to traffic. I'll make sure to run the run route though. Good tip.

To everyone else, beginning half-iron training went well minus the back seize up. Felt GREAT once I got in the water the night of, ended up doing my whole workout. I also realized it was muscles I might have strained by swimming, since at the end they started tweaking a bit. I'm still at least partially convinced it was just something I did overnight though. Next morning, felt as bad if not worse than the previous day, so I broke down and took some Ibuprofen(I'm not big on non-vitamin meds). Felt LOADS better, and I think it helped me relax and probably heal faster. You win, modern medicine. As of this morning, I was still just a very small bit tight on my left side, but mostly solid and definitely almost fully recovered. Stretching it out on tonight's long swim should help.

I'm still going to wait til the end of this week to register, because I said I'd give myself two weeks to make sure I could handle the training loads, but I'm definitely feeling good about registering. On that note, looking for some advice on which race to do. The Myrtle Beach Halfmax looks awesome, but when looking around the website it looked like it's not really intended for people who aren't awesome (i.e., not beginners like me), since there are only 250 spots for non qualifiers. Anyone familiar with the race? Are those for people who are just shy of qualifying but feel like they can make it, or are they really first-come first serve? It looks like it'll be quite the time, with an Olympic and sprint going on at the same time, but I don't want to wind up entering something I'm not really supposed to be at. The other race I'd do would be up in Jersey, the bonus being that my buddy would do it with me, the negative being that it doesn't look quite as big and fun, and I'd prefer traveling to Myrtle. Help?

Here are mine





Kevin

Kevin's setup is almost exactly like what I had on my bike. I recommend something similar!

Dude I was the same way, no medicine for me. Finally I sucked it up and take an NSAID every morning (doc's orders) and my legs feel 100% better before and after my runs...



I say do the Myrtle Beach one if it looks more fun. Don't worry about everyone else, they will all be too busy with their own race to notice anything but themselves. Anyways, it's supposed to be about YOU, right!? Doing a race with a friend, however, is never a bad thing... it keeps you on your most competitive edge. (or it does me)  Still, IMO, do the race that looks the most fun.

Hello

I made it through all the excitement of my son graduating college and getting commissioned in the Air Force this past weekend.  Then Monday I finally get my wife to go to the doctor for stomach pains she was having all weekend and boom ruptured appendix.  So she is in the hospital on an IV with antibiotics trying to keep an infection from developing.  We are waiting for the doctors visit to get more information.  

When I get home tonight I need a trainer ride or a swim to clear my head.  I do some of my best thinking when I ride.

Kevin

Oh wow, Sorry to hear about that Kevin. Tell your wife she's in our thoughts!

Kevin,

Congrats to your son for graduating!  So sorry to hear about your wife's appendix! I hope she is doing better.  She's in my thoughts and prayers!

Christina

Ditto on the congrats and condolences. Hope everything works out.

Alright everyone, check in time.

Lets have it... how's training coming along?

After the Rev3, I was back at it the next day (albeit a bit sore and stiff) and now back to regular training. Long ride (tour de blount... my hometown bike ride/race) this weekend, I plan on taking it very easy and just enjoying riding with some of the local roadies.

Training is going well here.  Still chugging away at the HIM training, that race is in less than 4 weeks! Have a sprint this weekend in the Denver area, wish me luck, the water temperature is sitting in the mid-50s and it snowed there last night. Hopefully my face, hands and feet will survive the swim.  Other than that, I'm hoping to smash my sprint time from last year of 1:30, this one has a longer swim and a shorter bike which should even out.  There's also a charity 5k here on Saturday that I'm thinking of doing, but we'll see.

I have not had a chance to get to swim yet, so I am working on my worst activity, running. I think I might be over doing it a bit, but I feel good and look forward to the next days workout. In the past 2 weeks I have lost 8+ pounds, feel stronger and have increased my fit level over day 1.

I am "trying" to keep to the 2X Olympic training level, but without swimming I have just been winging it. Any pitfalls I should be aware of?

Thank you for all the kind messages and inspires.

Julie is making progress and starting to about the understaffed hospital. Plus nine straight meals of chicken broth is getting old.  She is hoping her doctor allows her some additional types of food today. She is still hoping to get released sometime on Friday.

Now Tri news.

My bike is ready for pick up at the LBS.  First major work done on my bike since I bought it two years ago.  Bearings pulled, cleaned & repacked, new shift cables with adjustment, new chain and rear cassette.  Plus new tape on the handle bars. 

Training-  maybe some this weekend. I am still racing next Sunday.

Kevin

Finals are overrrrrr! Thank god- particularly unpleasant this year. And after taking a week (at least) off for studying, I'll be back in the pool today. I have a week off next week before my summer job starts, so I plan on getting back on track and catching up as much as possible.

Sorry to hear about your wife's illness- glad to hear she's up and about! Hopefully your bike is a nice distraction.

Awesome news the whole way around! Nothing like a freshly tuned up bike to get you in the mood to put down some miles.

So i am trying to set myself some goals for my first tri, is setting a goal to not drowned during the swim reasonable?  But seriously for a first tri and being very weak on my swim, what should a good goal be (1/2 mile swim)

If it is open water especially, I think a good first timer goal is just "STAY CALM" the whole time and just have your own race. It's extremely easy to let things get to you in an OWS, especially if you are not the strongest swimmer out there. Just remember, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

And try to get as many OWSwim's in as possible beforehand... it's 100% different than being in a pool

What do you recommend for those of us with a bum shoulder on the swimming?  I'm getting geared up to start the swimming next week and am concerned I may experience some tightness in my left one (prior injury from a car accident 7 years ago).  As usual I'm a righty so I know my right side will be stronger, but I'm hoping I can beef up my left side with some added strength training.  

My left shoulder is also in a similar position (except mine was from a bike wreck / collarbone plate/screws/etc)

Just swimming more should strengthen it up (for swimming at least)

Personal experience only... after my surgery I can no longer breathe bi-laterally... I always breathe on my right side now, and I can tell that my reach falters on my left arm after a mile or so. I don't really know what to tell you the solution is other than just swim as much as possible. Good luck

Well, I finished up my second race of the season today.  And my first OWS ever!  The water was 55 degrees, brrr!  I couldn't feel my face, fingers or toes getting out of the water, and had serious difficulties in transition.  But a wonderful race overall for me, got a PR and won my AG too! Shaping up to be a good season. Should have a race report up tomorrow morning if anybody is bored.

Hope everybody had a good weekend too!

 

Heck yeah! Well done!

Nice! Well done!

Also, great to hear about your wife, Kevin.

Since I never answered the question about how training is going - it's going pretty well. It's definitely really difficult to get all my training done on time and on schedule, but I'm doing all right. Already passed my meters and time logged in the pool for last month, and we're only halfway through! Pretty pumped about that. Swimming is definitely getting easier and easier. My run times aren't coming down as fast as I'd like, but I'm not too worried about a small temporary plateau. I'm still learning to respect the run and that it doesn't comes as easily as it used to. Baby steps.

Well, I finally did it! I registered for Myrtle! Half Iron Man, here I come! 19 weeks to go!