Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2023 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 114)

I've used the Garmin plans before and really liked it!

Greetings from India!

I'm sitting in our conference (the main reason for me coming here) as we speak and getting LOTS of work done. I have listened to the talks here and there, but I don't understand half of what they are talking about so am using the time to catch up on email/work. It's actually been quite productive. Yesterday would've been the same, but instead I went to visit a bunch of clinics around Delhi. It was eye opening to say the least. It's amazing how much they do with very little.

It's not quite as horrible heat-wise as I thought it might be. I think my method of thinking it would be super uncomfortable worked. It's certainly warm (low 100s F), but honestly doesn't feel much different than Baltimore.

The flight was long but business class is definitely key. I brought my stretch rope and made sure to do some stretching throughout the flight. I made it to the gym yesterday after all the clinics (was trying not to take a nap) and got in my PT exercises and a 15 minute walk on a treadmill with a 2 minute run around the 10th minute. I was going to wait until July, but decided to see how it felt. Definitely felt my hip a little bit, so stopped after one 2 minute run. It didn't hurt, I was just aware of it, but didn't want to push it. I'm going to do this a couple times during this trip, before I make it home.

Went again this morning and got a 35 minute walk in. Probably going to do some core and weights this afternoon. Or just nap. I'm so tired and keep waking up at 3am.

Happy Saturday everyone!!

Got my long run in with a friend of mine. We ended up going 9 because he wanted to throw his water bottle away, so we had to go a half mile extra to the next parking lot to do so. All good though. Felt strong and comfortable in the 80" humidity.

Oh no Mike! That sucks! At least you were close to home when it happened.

Mike flats are no fun! Definitely glad you were near home.

I have, not surprisingly, been struggling at regulating my eating. The food here is just So. Good. I also told my colleagues about being nervous about eating fruit and salad and they said I should be save with what is in the hotel. Not sure I believe them, but we'll see how this goes...lol
So I've been paying more attention now and just trying to try a little bit of everything to try to keep from eating too much. Traveling is also tough in general, b/c there is no regulation (if you know what I mean), so I'm feeling a little bloated. We have been in Delhi since Thursday, but fly to Pune today, Chennai tomorrow, then back to Delhi on the 26th, so I imagine I will not get my regularity until I'm back stateside...

I think I'm through the worst of my jet-lag. I slept until 5:45am this morning. Skipped the gym to pack and take a bath in my fancy tub. The next few days are busy, but hoping to get to the gym at least twice before we get back to Delhi, and luckily can do my PT exercises anywhere, so may do that in the airport. Ready for the weird looks though!

Nice weekend work everyone!

No training today here. Just sitting on the front porch enjoying the shade, listening to the birds.

Hi Guys still making my way home from wellington. I'll check in properly tomorrow when life's back to normal.
Short version. Wet, Cold, 2:24:28.
4 minute improvement from April's HM. 20 minute improvement from the last time I did this race. Progress being made but still more work to do.
Be good Everyone.

A 4 minutes improvement from April is great! Well done, looking forward to reading about it.

Nicole, I love Indian food, (or at least the Indian food we get over here, which has probably not much to do with the real stuff), just try doing some damage control while you are over there so you don’t put in any/too much weight but don’t let it spoil your trip, life is too short not to indulge in Indian food while in India!

Mike, lucky you were almost home when you got a flat.

Had a decent week:

Monday: sprint (ish) triathlon training
Tuesday: off
Wednesday hills with the running club
Thursday commute to work
Friday 20 minutes swim
Saturday 10k run
Sunday 50k bike and 1k swim

This week: training sprint(ish) tonight, then I don’t know, will take it a little easy before my race on Saturday. (sprint with shorter swim). The golf on Sunday.









Edited by Rollergirl 2024-06-24 4:00 AM

Oh, and the first streak of the 5 minutes strength a day challenge stopped at 13. I was going to do it after my bike ride but got a message from a tri buddy just when I came home that she was swimming in “my” lake so I had to join her. Took a shower directly after the swim and I didn’t want to get sweaty again.

But will start again today, no big deal.

Have a great week everybody!

Welcome to a new week everyone! I kicked off my week with a 14 mile bike ride this morning, just focusing on a Z2 / steady cadence ride. I am feeling a little stronger on the bike already.

This week's training:
- Monday; morning bike / lunch lift
- Tuesday: morning run / lunch swim
- Wednesday: morning bike / lunch lift
- Thursday: morning run / go into the office for work / vacation starts noon on Thursday
- Friday: TBD since we'll be up in Nebraska with my in laws. Maybe a short run, maybe a lift at their gym up there.
- Saturday: long run of some sort (not sure what my watch/plan has for me)

For those racing this coming weekend, I am excited for you and hope this week goes quickly as you anticipate race day!

It would make sense if it was that direction! Unfortunately, it is higher power numbers on the dd trainer and lower on the pedals. From what I'm reading online, it just seems to be that way with the kicker (although their info sheets claim +-1% accuracy (as do the pedals, so someone is wrong!)).

Back to serious training this week. Already started with a 2550yd swim and a session in the gym (1:13). Later today is a 60' Z2 foundation ride, which I'll likely do inside, because outside is approximately the temperature of the surface of the sun. And...and...I'm sunburned along the two strips on my back that I clearly can't reach with sunscreen from Saturday.

Last week's totals:
Swim: 6350 yds (2:38:31 total time)
Bike 89.42 mi (5:13:33)
Run: 11.25mi (2:31:32)
Strength--0, goose egg, nil, nada, lazy bones

Not bad for a rest week. This week ramps up the training time to a scheduled 20h 4m. I usually don't hit the scheduled, because I never changed my swimming CV speed in TP and so it always over estimates how long it will take me to swim a specific distance. I like to keep it that way, because the difference seems to be about what it takes me to shower and change pre/post workout, which makes scheduling easier.

Saturday's century ride turned into a 3/4 century after my brain took over and realized that I can't ride 100 miles in the three hours my training plan had on the schedule. I am going to call this training maturity. Years ago (and maybe up to last year) I would have done the 100 miles no matter what, because I signed up for a century and I intended to do a century and it didn't matter that I signed up for this event months before I would know what my training plan called for on this weekend (would have been great if it were one week later--this week I have a 6 hour ride on schedule). I would have done it no matter what. Anyway, Saturday I started out with the 100 mile group, and I felt great throughout the ride. I averaged 18mph for the whole ride, while staying in power Z2 (and HR Z2), it was the perfect ride. At about the 2:15 mark I was getting really hot (it was super sunny, hot, humid, and there is no shade at all on this route) and I was thinking I just don't want to blow myself up for this ride. There was a really handy turn where the 100 mile route diverges from teh 60 mile route and I hopped on the 60 mile route at that point. I was glad I did, because the wind kicked up and I ended up riding the last 20 miles home into a headwind, which was awful. My total ride ended up being 74 miles, because the 100 mile route does a 15mi loop the 60 mile route doesn't do at the beginning. I even got to put a little deposit into my riding karma bank. As I was coming home on the last 15 mile stretch, there was a guy just standing on the side of the road next to his bike, clearly suffering. He was wearing an all black kit (which was only part of the problem). I stopped and we chatted and he was just busted at this point. He was attempting his first metric century and wasn't ready for it. He was averaging 12mph at this point and he didn't think he could make it to the end (I agreed, but I didn't say that too him). We hung out for a while while he drank some gatorade and water and then I told him I'd pace him in if he wanted to try to finish. I could break the wind for him and tow him along in a pace line (a tiny pace line, but it might help a bit). He wanted to give it a try, but once we started it was obvious he wasn't going to make it. I was holding a steady 12mph and every time I'd look back he'd dropped off. It is hard to ride a tri bike 12mph on flat ground. After a couple miles of this we hit a farm with a giant elm tree in the front yard, so I stopped and he decided to call the SAG vehicle to pick him up. I waited until the truck showed up and then I rode on.

I've decided my July challenge is going to be to spend at least 5' a day stretching. I do absolutely no stretching right now, so 5' a day seems like a good place to start. I may start early, if the mood strikes me. I can't believe we are almost to July already!

Well done, Andrew!! 20' improvement on the same course from last time is massive!! And 4' on the distance from April is great too (although lots of other factors affect that!). Congratulations!!

Flats suck...no matter where you are! Being close to home is the best option in a bad situation though. I once flatted at the end of my parents driveway (which is where I was headed). It was still annoying walking to the house (500' long drive way) in my cycling shoes and then then having to change the flat.

I switched to tubeless when I got my disc wheel two years ago, and honestly, it is the single best decision I have made in triathlon in a long time. Flats are not a thing anymore (yet). I suppose they could happen, but it would have to be catastrophic, as in need a new tire type issue, to cost me a race or a long ride. The goo stuff squirts out and seals the hole. You still have to stop and refill the tire if it is a big cut, but the little pinholes you normally have to change a tube for just seal themselves right up and you don't even really have to get off the bike. It is more comforting for me to have this set up, because I don't have to worry about getting stuck on the side of the road changing a tire and pinch flats don't happen with tubeless. I used to get a lot of pinch flats because I am terrible at avoiding potholes and big rocks in the road.

Good job on the 2/3 century Gretchen and well done helping a fellow cyclist. Good luck on your 5 minutes stretch a day.

Day one of the second streak in the 5 minutes strength challenge is in the book. 7:30 minutes.

It was triathlon training tonight with the club but I didn’t ride and swam longer instead. Nice run after that, I almost managed to keep a 5:20/km tempo.(5:22, which is only 10 seconds over a 5k). Quite pleased with that. This will be my goal tempo on Saturday.

Hi Guys, Good to see lots of activity here, and out in the training world. Keep it up.

My race report from Wellington is here: https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... if anyone wants some light reading. Overall I'd give myself a pass mark, but definitely room for improvement. After a couple of days to think about it although I didn't meet my sub 2:20 goal, I'm happy that I'm making progress, and my times are getting better. Onto the next one I guess.

Onto other stuff;

Nicole It sounds like you're having a great adventure in India. I'm with Nat, enjoy the food whilst you're there. You're good diet and responsible eating decisions will still be there waiting for you when you get home.

Bodyweight Strength Streak Nat, we're living parallel lives. Race day was day 14, so my streak also ended at 13 days. And, I'm also 1 day into the new streak. Lets make sure this one lasts a bit longer.

Races for Motivation I'm also in the race entry helps motivate camp. Although, over the last couple of years I've come to the realisation that fewer, but bigger (as in importance to me, not necessarily distance) works better for me than racing lots. Don't get me wrong racing is fun, so racing lots is fun, but I think 1 or 2 big races a year make me really want to work hard and make it count. Too many 'B'/'C' races and I'm happy to just half arse the training. I think with the young kids and all the commitments that come with that having fewer races is a lot easier to schedule properly.

Biting Insects? Yeah, sorry I'm from New Zealand, we don't really do that here. A bumble bee is about as bad as it gets.

Power meters Gretchen, is it possible for you to sync your power meter to your trainer? I know mine (elite suito) can do that, not sure if other brands do. That way you alway have the 1 device doing the measuring, and all the trainer has to do is increase/decrease resistance. FWIW, if I think back to my engineering school days we used to talk about accuracy and consistency for measuring things. (I'm sure you know far more about this than I do with your work) And in the case of a bike power meter, so long as you always use the same one, consistency is way more important than accuracy. What I mean is it doesn't matter if your over or under reading, so long as it's always the same. If you know you need to hit 150-170W (for example) on your meter, it doesn't matter if another meter might read 10/20W higher. So long as the meter you're using always reads the same at the same effort.

Sorry for all the stuff I've missed, it's been too busy here.

Have a good week all.

Edited by bulfrog 2024-06-24 11:05 PM