ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 98)

Dirk, good luck and i'm sorry about the injury. Take the time off to get a complete recovery. You are in good shape and have the will and dedication to recover from any fitness you may lose, if any.

Also, look at your shoes. Are they in good shape? I know I normally wear mine to long and I end up paying the price for it....in an injury.

Dina, congrats on 50. With the trouble you have been having that is a huge milestone. All I can add is remember when i was injured all the time, Dirk, Jeff, Warren told me to run more often and not as hard. Coming from a lifting background, that made no sense to me, but they finally got it thru my THICK skull. When i started running every day, even just 1 mile, I started having fewer injuries. Remember not to up the miles to quick though.

Dirk sorry to hear about the new pain in your knee. I'm hoping this is not a setback and maybe it's simply the fact that you haven't been running or something simple like your form being off from the layoff. Hopefully things will get better as you ease back into your running.

Vero congrats on getting into the Vineman 70.3, I hear that is a very good race. So you will obviously be busy next season training for it but I've no doubt that you'll be able to not only do it but do well. Sorry to hear about the knee issue I hope that's feeling better. It's great to see you've been able to stick with your run plan and get the miles in. Doubling up your totals is a great accomplishment, keep up the great work!

 Yes I really did carve those pumpkins last night. I had templates for them that I had to resize to fit my pumpkins but they are a lot easier to do than many folks think. It's kinda like triathlon training. If you are willing to put in the time you can accomplish some amazing things. Those 2 pumpkins were like doing a sprint tri. Pretty minimal effort (1 hour or so each) to do. I kinda rushed through them too. If I'd done them before yesterday I would have spent more time to do a better job.

I'm really riding the high of getting into Vineman this morning. I checked the website 1 1/2 hours after it opened and even the waiting list was full at that point so I'm really glad I was sitting at the computer waiting for registration to open when it did.

Looking forward to the journey and sharing the experience with all of the Junkies.

Edited by JonnyVero 2013-11-01 4:03 PM

Brenda good luck to your son and his team I'm sure that they will do well and sometimes it not bad to be the underdog, no pressure. I hope he has a safe and enjoyable time in what may be his final game.

Karl, I also have a friend doing IMFL, Rick Rivera #2322. If you see him tell to stop playing around and to keep moving along lol. Actually Rick is pretty fast and I'm expecting he will do well. I think he went sub 11 and IMMT this year. He's a real big dude you won't miss if you see him.

Vero, congrats on getting into the Vineman. Looking forward to cheering you on during training and the race!

Well, after my IM the wife and I headed to the Asheville, NC area and I have been porking out... ha! Did a short trainer ride and I'm probably going to partake in a local 5K in the morning. Then, I may join a local group for a ride on Sunday... legs feel good, just not sure if they're up for anything big yet but I also feel like I'm in such a beautiful area that it would be a sin not to get out for a ride... ha

Dina, I love your 5k with Gabe! < / p >I am in Ohio working storm. I've worked a long day yesterday and planning the same today. My plans for workouts this weekend are tanked and a scheduled outage next weekend will require me to work much of next weekend too. Ah the joys of employment! I'll be back at it in a couple of weeks.

Karl.... have fun today!

Will....your stories are hilarious I need to remember to not be so serious and to have more fun when racing! Cuz it sure sounds like you had a blast!

Dirk sorry to hear about a new knee issue

Brends congrats on you run and having Tennie run with you plus the excitement of her wanting to get into triathalon whoot whoot! And I sure know how it feels at the end of the final season....

Vero congrats on getting in to the race and I like the pumpkins

Dina how awesome that you could run with your son and congrats on getting in you 50 miles!!
Tony how did your ride go yesterday?


Does anyone have a suggestion on posting video I have been trying to post and it won't attach.

Amanda and I have the Spartan run today, 5k with 15 obstacles....I tried to get a team together everyone bailed so we are joining a group that I used to work out with this should be fun!!!!

Dina congrats to Gabe on his first 5K finish, sounds like he had a great time and a great run. It must have been great to have been out there with him to share the run and the experience. I'm not surprised to hear you entertain the idea of another HIM. I think you could definitely do it.

Will glad to hear you are back at it and I agree I've heard Asheville is a nice place to get a ride in. Just take it easy for now and let your body have some time to recover. I think it took me two weeks to really get out of the fog I was in but I did have some pretty surprising workouts. Nothing long and nothing at a very hard effort.

Dirk sorry to hear that your training plans got put on hold this weekend and that you had to work. I hope you are able to get back to it for next weekend and I hope things went well with work.

JoAnne I hope you and Amanda had a good time and did well at the Spartan race. I have some friends who do them all the time and they really enjoy participating in them. Something I would like to do in the future.

Karl hope you and Pam had a great time at IMFL. My friend Rick Rivera killed it over there finishing in 10:13! I got to see him finish. He is one fast dude. The sad part is he finished 40th in his AG and 251st overall. 40th, that is unbelievable, there are some fast dudes in the 40-44 M AG!

Well my day sorta didn't go as planned. I was supposed to MTN bike in the morning and was going to try and get into the city and meet Matt and his friend Austin who is running the NYC marathon and I got to do neither. I was all ready to head out and meet my friends this morning to MTN bike and my rear tire was flat the second morning in a row so I figured I better pass on the MTN biking and get that fixed. I did, the tired needed to be replaced. That set me back on time as so since I didn't workout the last two days I went out and did an 8 mile run.

I traded texts with Matt and figured that I'd not be able to get into the city until late in the afternoon like 4:30 or 5 pm and did not want to derail any plans he and Austin had knowing that they'd probably want to get some sight seeing done and eat early since they need to be up early for the race tomorrow. I didn't want to hold those guys up so I didn't go in. It takes me 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get into the city and on the weekend it can take longer since the trains run hourly. So it wasn't exactly the day I envisioned.

Good thing is though I'll make up the MTN bike ride in the morning and I am off Monday so I will do another MTN bike ride in the afternoon. We'll have to do a Junkie event where I can meet Matt and everyone else.

Dina I'm glad to hear that the new road bike is working out well for you and that you are comfortable on it. Sounds like a very tough ride yesterday with all the wind for you and Tiff but it also sounds like you guys had a good ride. I always complain about the wind but at the end of the day those are always good rides. Wind is free resistance which always makes you stronger out there.

I thought Fred's post on the decline of BT was great. I think some of the points everyone made are valid. I don't post much outside the of this group other then the IM thread which I was a part of for Wisconsin and now Mont Tremblant so I have not experienced the bad vibes from other people directly but yeah some of the post at times are uncalled for. I can't say I blame anyone for being upset by some of the reponses that you see at times. I would not sweat that in reference to your new bike Dina, I think you need to take the info here for what it is worth. I also prefer to get this groups opinion and my close friends opinion before I ask anything out in the open forums.

On the whole thing with the princes of Bahrain doing IMFL. They shouldn't even be allowed in the country much less allowed to do anything here period. I though it was joke but if you are going to do it do it like everyone else or don't do it at all. I lost respect for WTC on catering to their needs.

On a brighter note I did get to do my MTN bike ride this morning and man am I totally wiped out by it but I am getting better. I did the 12 mile loop in 1:31 today. Last ride was a 1:47. I am making good progress. I hit one long stretch where I rode like I knew what I was doing lol. Seriously you would have thought I was doing this all my life. Then there were other sections I rode like the beginner I am lol. I also finally crashed not bad but I went off and over the side of the bike lol. I'm not sure how it happened but I sort of tried to stop in a funny way and I lost my balance and I went right over the side of the bike. I'm sure it is the first of many to come. The bike is fine and so am I, I don't think I even landed hard which was weird. I just got up and go back to riding. I'm so looking forward to gettting back out there tomorrow afternoon to try and best my 1:31 assuming I recover some. Honestly I'm in a world of hurt after every MTN ride lol.

I'll try to catch up later but just a quick note...
IMFL was a blast. Fri, they were considering canceling the swim due to the waves, Saturday it had calmed to about 2 - 3 foot waves (today after the race it was the calmest I've ever seen it..maybe 6 inch waves but the light N. wind helped.

Wife and I checked to be sure people had a wrist band and were marked prior to entering transition in the morning. One of the guys working with us was a jerk to the racers making them take off pants and even wetsuits to be sure they had a number..how about helping the athletes, not putting them in a bad mood to start with..and a lot were nervous about the swim....

We watched the swim, pros men, then pro ladies, then a mass start. Last year I saw 9 that didn't make it beyond the breaking waves, this year only 2. I did see an 83 year old man prior the race..so proud of him, I hope he finished!

WE left the swim and went to my parents condo to watch the bikes ride by...we were at mile 7 on the way out and it was mile 105 on the way back. The thing I noticed was there appeared to be a LOT of bike misfits.. now I don't know what to really look for but some people looked very uncomfortable. There was a LOT of $$$ on bikes. I only saw a few road bikes, most were tri w/ the zipp wheels and such. Now a lot of people on the bikes had the pointed helmets and were not riding aero..why spend so much $$ on a bike and helmet and not be efficient?? Just a thought.

We missed the run because I wanted to spend time w/ my parents and such but we did go watch a few cross the finish line.

Today on the way home, we saw some some people riding their bikes..I know at least 1 was an IM because he had his # on his calf, the others had on long pants.

Hope everyone is doing good...remember I'm out of town for the wek for work but will check in occasionally in the morning or at night.
Take care!

Hi all, hope everyone is doing well this week. My buddy Austin competed in the NYC marathon and I spent the day chasing him around the city, and chasing is the key word. This is the 1st time I have really watched a race from the outside so I figured I would share my day with you guys, similar to a race report but I will call it a spectator report, only read below if your bored with nothing to do . (This turned out to be really long)

our day started at 3:15am, which to me is just ridiculous! But since we had to drive into the city park and make it to the subway by 4:15 it was our only option. Our hotel is up by the GW Bridge on the NJ side so our plan was to drive over park and ride the subway all the way down to the staten island ferry. Most of this part went ok, except for the fact the time we reached the parking garage the local bars were letting outing and the place was crazy. It took us a bit to get the attendant and get the car parked but we did manage to make it to the subway in time. From here became an interesting ride, we were at the north end and as we traveled down through The city the train filed with more and more runners. I was amazed at the diversity of the crowd and the number of countries that were represented, talked to a few people from Britain and France and also a lady from Sweden who was doing her 1st marathon. The strangest part though was listening to a guy talk about where he was from and as I was listening to him I realized he was talking about OhIo, then he mentioned Sidney and Troy. I am in a subway in the middle of NYC and run into a guy that lives in Greenville Ohio which is 20 minutes from my house. After getting off of the train I introduce myself and realize that we have met before. He runs a race timing company and I have done several races of with them, most recently a few weeks back where there was maybe 25 runners so he recognized me. Good start to the day.

Once we reached the ferry there was about 30 minutes until Austin's boat left, we hung out for awhile and watched the crowd. Once Austin left it was still dark out and not wanting to walk around in the dark I just sat around and people watched for awhile. With all the runners coming through you could feel the excitement and tension all around. Once the sun started coming up I began my trip to my first stopping point. The night before I created a grand plan where I could take the subway and catch him at several different spots, starting at mile 4. My first task was to get into Brooklyn so I decided to walk up to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk over that. It was a bit of an adventure (translated as being lost) getting onto the bridge, but once I did it was well worth it. The view of the skyline from the middle was just amazing, also I was shocked to see the amount of people out doing Yoga and other exercises along the waters edge. This was mostly Asian people and it makes you wonder if this is why their elderly are so nimble, daily exercise!

once I was into Brooklyn it took me another few adventures before I found the race course! but once I did I was able to find the subway and go from mile 8 down to mile 4. I reached this point about 1.5hrs before the 1st runner so was basically standing by myself, but as the time came closer more and more people showed up. I chatted with some people and found that they had the same plan I did, use the subway to catch their friends and cheer them on. The 1st group to come through where the wheelers, and these peoples were extremely inspiring. All having different levels of handicaps but with a single goal, to finish the race! After this came the pro women, then the pro men and finally the hoard of Age groupers. I believe the final total of runners was around 50,400 people and I think I watched half of them cross mile 4. Over the next 20 minutes the people around me found their friends, cheered for them and headed off to the subway! , I gave it a few extra minutes but realized Austin passed by and headed to the subway to go to my next stop which was mile 8. This was where my "adventures" started, jumped on N train, checked the map and it was supposed to stop at Pacific street. What I didn't realize was they called pacific street Atlantic center or something of the sort, so I missed the stop. I was now on my way Back into Manhattan, oops. Found where the next stop and formulated a plan to get back into Brooklyn, now hoping to catch up with Austin around mile 13. To get to my next train, I had to go back out on the street walk around lost for awhile and find the next subway entrance, this turned out to be in the middle of Chinatown so that was interesting to say the least. Found the J train and headed for Brooklyn, once off I had trouble finding my way and could not figure out how to get back to the race course, then my navigation devices (phone) battery went dead and I had no way of figuring out where to go. Looked around, realized I was in a less than optimal part of town and back tracked to the subway station, now headed back to Manhattan, AGAIN! Charged my phone on the train and recalibrated the plan again, new plan was to get on the 6 and take it up to 110th street and hopefully catch Austin at mile 19 and if not go to mile 22 where I would definitely be ahead of him. Considering I was in lower Manhattan and my stop was way up North I had a long train ride in front of me. Checked Austins pace chart and had some hope, but the train needed to go quickly. During this ride I did meet a local, a 60ish year old lady who was just infatuated with the marathon. She talked about how she had completed several HM and still hoped to do a full marathon. I told her about my days adventure and she said I made the right choice to retune to the J train. The neighborhood was definitely sketchy at best!

Made my stop with an estimated 5 minutes to spare and 4 blocks to go to get to the 19 mile marker, kicked it into gear and headed for the race. As soon as I reached the course the 4hr pace group past and I knew I either just missed him or he would be coming up very shortly. Watched and cheered on the runners for a few minutes when I finally caught sight of Austin, it only took me 5 Subways and 3 wrong turns but I was finally able to cheer him on, and to see his face light up when he heard someone cheer him on was worth it!

Next stop mile 22, and this was easy all I had to do was turn around and head back the way I came until I ran into the course again. I passed through another neighborhood that was less than entertaining but I wasn't turning back. Once I found the course I finally found the one thing I had been looking for since 7:30am, a public restroom! At this point it was after 2pm so I was entering into a level of bladder pain that no one should experience. Of course the bathroom was on the other side of the course so I had to wait until there was a break in runners which really never did come, but there was a 10ft gap and I was able to get across with out getting into anyone's way. Waited a while and chatted with some other spectators, again there were people waiting on friends to pass by so they could cheer them on. We screamed and cheered for everyone we could calling out names and such, and at mile 22 you can really see how much people appreciate hearing their name. I caught a glimpse of Austin coming up about 100yds up and talked everyone around me into cheering his name as he ran by. The look on his face when a crowd of 10 people starting yelling his name was priceless! Once he passed I took off running to get up in front of him so I could get some pictures. For someone who had already ran 22 miles he was moving extremely well, I had to work to get ahead of him. Finally did get ahead of him and took some pics and caught my breath. I did tell him though if I was able to get ahead of to he needed to pick up the pace! After this I found my self at the entrance of Central Park, so I figured hey I could cut through the park and find him at the finish line but to do this I had to run! I was around 102 and had to make it to through the park and down to 64th, good thing I put on my running shoes this morning! Made it through the park and started heading down Central Park West. When I reached 87th I ran into a wall of dump trucks, trash trucks and cops! They politely told me that I could not proceed as the area was closed and that I needed to find alternate path. I was disappointed in this but understood the reasoning so I fell back on my original plan and headed to the designated restaurant we were going to meet at it. This was one block over and about 20 blocks down, but since I had time I just enjoyed the walk and the end of my journey.

At the beginning of the day, about 12 hrs earlier I decided to put on my garmin and track how far I went, I checked the watch and was at 25.7 miles. There was no way I was going to go all over town and not reach the same distance as Austin so I made a few trips around the block to reach 26.2. Finally ended my trip with a well deserved slice of pizza and a cold beer as I waited for Austin to finish and make it through all the post race lines!

Finish times: Austin finished with a 4:09 and never got lost, I finished with a time of 7:02 and was lost multiple times but it was worth it to cheer him on and experience this great race! I still have absolutely no desire to run a full marathon (except at the end of an Ironman) but I would definitely do this again!

I wonder if the people I met at mile 4 had better luck keeping up with their friend than I did? I told you this was going to be long