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I got that mailing from PowerBar, and was going to mention this - you beat me to it! Thanks for sharing the info. The mailing also had some good info on nutrition that I'll write up later this week.
That IS a great day! Funny how we can sweat all the details of specific workouts and training, and in the end it can be a swing of just a few minutes in our times. There's probably a lesson to be learned in that. Way to tough it out through the swim - few things are worse than tough swim conditions at the start of a long race. And, yeah, that's some motorin' on the bike! Too bad you wimped out on the run ..pigskinliquors said:
Congrats!!!
Whatever it was that I did on the run, I'm paying for it today. My thighs hurt like a S.O.B. I had planned on taking an ice bath last night (some of the best advice I've received on this board; I believe from Tri-Man), but got too involved in the ESPY's and didn't do it. Big Mistake. FYI: if the Garmin Rebate above is anything like their last rebate, you'll get your $$ back extremely fast. Also, if they ask for a serial number, on the Garmin, it's the one on the back of the watch (the last rebate asked you to open the Garmin up, which wasn't necessary, and wouldn't lead you to find the number)That IS a great day! Funny how we can sweat all the details of specific workouts and training, and in the end it can be a swing of just a few minutes in our times. There's probably a lesson to be learned in that. Way to tough it out through the swim - few things are worse than tough swim conditions at the start of a long race. And, yeah, that's some motorin' on the bike! Too bad you wimped out on the run ..pigskinliquors said:
Awesome, inspiring story! Whenever you think you don't have the energy to get your butt off the sofa to do a workout, stories like this certainly help to motivate. Thanks for sharing
.
A neighbor just told me about an event that's starting on Sunday where bikers travel across the state of Iowa (about 470 miles). They take a week to do it, averaging about 68 miles per day. It sounds interesting - Iowa has a lot of rolling terrain, so I'd imagine the ride would be rather scenic, yet of course challenging. It's not a race, though, just a challenging ride and enjoyable experience. I understand they move everyone's camping gear from one location to the next. Biker's ride throughout the morning, and then relax and enjoy the rest of the day as part of the big (up to 10,000!!) community.Ride info.
Yes, this is one of the holy grails of cat 6- riding along with triple bypass, mt. mitchell, among others.
Can anyone elaborate on the ice bath idea? Is this what it sounds like - taking a bath in ice water? How can that be tolerable? What are the benefits?
I posted that on Friday, and it was quite prophetic for Saturday's run. I smoked (for me, anyhow) 5k in about 26:35.Tomorrow should be better.
Even better, my mile splits were 8:34, 8:32, and 8:34. I don't think I've ever run consecutive miles that consistently. If I can add ten more miles just like those, I'm sniffing a 1:40 half-marathon! I'd be happy with just simply breaking the 2hr mark, but smashing that mark would be like the 4:30 marathon I did last month = 
+ 
+ 
Of course, I should probably shut up, and not think about it. If I try to run ~1:45, I'll end up with a 2:20. 
Nice. Still never heard why that place shut down.Ran 5 miles this morning in just under an hour (59:13). It was an easy run and if I had woken up earlier, I would have tried for 7 miles. Need to get more motivated. Haven't signed up for any runs later this year because I was busy with vacation and now work (hence why I haven't been posting much here or anywhere). I expect to get this under control and set a goal soon so I can get motivated.We'll just bust into Basta and make our own.Emerald Isle might have breakfast they stay open late enough. EPI does have a kitchen but I wouldn't eat food there. Ever.Anyway, we should really get a Chicago run or bike event going one weekend. GStrot - do they serve breakfast at EPI??
really? huh. How easy is this to figure out? Am I going to need a PM? TIA.
It's supposed to provide a mild shock to the system in order to constrict the blood vessels. Then, as they relax, fresh blood enters to flush out the lactic acid and other post-run gunk, and aid recovery.It's more of a soak than a bath. No Mr.Bubble, no soap, no champagne. The trick is to fill the tub, just enough to cover your legs (wear a swimsuit to help insulate the 'nads, if that's a problem for you), with water in the tolerably cold range, then add ice. Soak for about ten minutes. Depending on where you live, simply using cold water out of the tap can work just as well. I did this earlier this year.I haven't been doing this for the past few weeks, and I think that's why my legs have been achey. So, I tried it Saturday and wasn't able to get any cold water out of the tap (effin' Arizona heat baking the ground and thus the water pipesRock Lonemilk said:
). My mom has a table-top ice machine that she's offered us (she's moving, and has no place for it), so I'll be sure to snag that to have a good supply of ice on hand. ####, if anyone deserves to be proud of what he has done through running it is you. If people don't get it who cares? Show your accomplishments with pride. You literally worked your ### off to earn them.
For a second there, I thought this was heading in a very weird direction ("mom, can you bring some more ice for my nekked ice bath?").I haven't been doing this for the past few weeks, and I think that's why my legs have been achey. So, I tried it Saturday and wasn't able to get any cold water out of the tap (effin' Arizona heat baking the ground and thus the water pipes). My mom has a table-top ice machine that she's offered us (she's moving, and has no place for it), so I'll be sure to snag that to have a good supply of ice on hand.
I can't believe I've never thought of that. I thank you, and more importantly, my "nads" thank you Nice job.
How does jet lag not kill you on these runs?
No need toRock Lonemilk said:I posted my slowest 5K time ever, but I'llby adding that I did run with my wife for the first 1.3 miles, and this was her first race ever. She started the couch to 5K program about 6 weeks ago, and seeing her finish was more important than anything else for me.This week I start getting serious, because I have my first tri coming up in mid September and haven't been in the water yet this summer.
. At least not in my book. 
I agree with the guy that is half the man he used to be. I am impressed that the tri guys even consider running after all that swimming and biking. Nice job with the race after the layoff!Great race and report. Most importantly it sounds like you had a good time. You tri-guys are much more energetic than I am. I suppose I could do it if I liked to swim. I like going to the pool and the ocean, but it is just to float and play.pigskinliquors said:FYI: I'm Alive...Barely, but alive (sorry Tri-Man = I'm keeping my bike).
Since my primary goals were to finish and not get hurt, the day was a success.
Race Day/Night Diary
I drove up to Dallas yesterday, checked into my hotel, set my alarm for 5am (ALL racers had to be into the park no later than 6:15, as a Juniors race started at 6:30), and was in bed by 9:30pm. My wife (who is in Cali.) called me at 10:00 (I had just fallen asleep) to vent about my MIL, and our 2 year old, who for some reason is acting like a 2 yr. old. 45 minutes of earning husband points later, I finally got back to sleeping. At 1:30am, I'm awoken by a party (full-on) in the room next to me. I called the front desk to say WTF (they sent somebody there, but they didn't really care). They were still loud a half hour later, so I knocked on their door, and asked them to please keep it down (there were at least 15 people in their room
Pre-Race Hilarity
The person announcing the race (he actually did a play by play for the whole event!) had these gems prior to the race:
"Everybody go down to the Lake to watch the Juniors start. They're a bunch of studs and babes, who have bodies worth watching (these are under 18 yr. olds"
"Guys, you are going to be passed by some beautiful women during the race. When they smoke you, don't be alarmed, just tell them to keep going"
The Race
Swim (1,500 meters +) =
The morning was very calm, but quite humid. For some reason, the race organizers only did 3 waves of swimmers (w/ 500 competitors) = the beginning was a cluster. We had over 200 in our wave, and I nearly drowned 4 times before swimming even 50 meters. Once out about 300 meters, my goggles were useless. They were filled with water, even after I readjusted them twice. I was about ready to swim back to shore, but sucked it up. After turning at the supposed 400 meter buoy, I actually had a great stretch (for me) to the supposed 1,000 meter buoy. The final supposed 500 meters was a cluster, with too many people in too small of a space (it was very narrow). I've never been happier to be on land, and as I feared, my heart rate was up higher than I hoped. [EVERYBODY's swim times were extremely slow, and the race organizers acknowledged that the course had to have been longer than 1,500 meter].
T1 =
I took a little extra time as my right eye had a big fog over it, so I flushed it w/ water (which actually helped!), and I wanted to take in some extra fluids. I was out in less than 2 minutes = not much time lost.
Bike (26.2 miles) =
Conditions couldn't have been better for the bike (low wind, and a flat course!). It included two loops, which meant four U-turns = slowed the course down a bit. After the first loop I was averaging 22.2 mph and the little man in my head (the smart one) said slow down to save your legs (they were starting to burn a bit, with a lot of race left). I took it down a notch, and with 3 miles left (entering the park again), a gorgeous 23 yr old (your age is marked on your legs) with a teeny-tiny suit on was directly in front of me. I decided this would be my best opportunity to rest my legs prior to the run, and stayed my 3 full lengths behind her the rest of the way in (no drafting allowed). I lost maybe 30 seconds by following her, but it was time well spent. My final bike split was 21.8 mph (.3 mph better than I had hoped for
T2 =
Not much to say here = change shoes and go. My legs did feel weird, as I didn't get a brick in at all prior to the race (last one was 7 weeks ago, and what caused my calf injury), but no pain. [under 1 minute = I'm OK with that]
Run (10k) =
Starting the run, I felt good, but knew it was going to be an effort. I had anticipated running at about 7:45 pace. My first mile was 7:54, and knew I wasn't going to be going any faster than that the rest of the way. With my second mile at 7:59, I told myself to try to settle into 8 minute miles. My body didn't want to play that game though. My legs were rubber at the end of mile 3 (8:15), and they literally had nothing in them. The heat got to me big time, and the only thing that was comforting, was that it looked like everybody was struggling). I decided to walk through the last 2 water stops, and to just reach my goal of finishing. Three slow miles later, and I kicked it in (what little I had left) the last .2. Right as I crossed the finish line, my right quad cramped up = thank God it didn't happen sooner. My final pace was 8:28 (a personal worst), but I did make it w/o re-injuring my calf or my knee.
Overall, I finished 4 minutes slower than I had hoped for, though I was ecstatic to have completed it. The day took a toll on the field as 10% didn't finish (51 people). The weather (heat) played a role, but the longer swim (+ the cluster) kicked a lot of people's butt (including mine!).
Post-race =
It was strange not having my family there, though they had MULTIPLE sponsors w/ a ton of goodies to consume. They held us hostage at the site until all runners were on their last leg = 11:30am. I then went back to my hotel, showered and met the Amazing CuldeusTM for a couple beers (he's as cool as anticipated), at his neighborhood pub.
Overall, a great day!
Congratulations on an excellent run!! And thanx for translating your times for us (slower) Americans...
Awesome job, Furley. You've taken a lot of baby steps so far to get where you are - you should be proud!knocked out 20 minutes of straight running on Friday. wound up being 1.6 miles.
my previous longest period of straight running was 8 minutes and i was begging for time to speed up. this time i went 12 and didn't really notice. felt great. the time between 16-20 minutes was pretty rough but i was determined to finish no matter what.
baby steps.
This guy gets it. There are things more important that finish time - Congrats on what will be a very memorable run.Rock Lonemilk said:I posted my slowest 5K time ever, but I'll
4 minutes isn't all that much, especially given some of the challenges - great job!! How did they hold you hostage? I've never heard of anything like that.pigskinliquors said:
It was sold - new owner increased prices and lowered the food quality. Rarely is that a recipe for success in that business.GStrot said:Nice. Still never heard why that place shut down.We'll just bust into Basta and make our own.
I never have trouble adjusting to DST. Of course, the fact that AZ doesn't observe it helps.
Gonna suck beginning next year if the wife is serious about moving to MN. I'll have to give up 40+ years of the no-DST habit. 
As for jet lag, I can't say that it's ever bothered me. Perhaps if I travelled more, it might. I never gave thought to blaming jet lag for my Nashville marathon performance. The way I handle jet lag is by changing my watch as I go through the time zones. That way I'm on local time immediately when I land. 
The park was closed, meaning no cars could come in, or leave between 6:15am and the end of the race. Police were manning all intersections = you couldn't even try. Spectators ended up having to park outside the park (entrance more than a couple miles from the race site), and trekking in.Even worse, they wouldn't let us take our bikes out of the transition area until the course was cleared. Once they announced that we could leave, it was a cluster with everyone getting their bikes out and only three volunteers checking you out (each person had to have the number painted on them, checked with the number on the bike ). From there it was another cluster, as everyone was trying to drive out at the same time.
You could have swam.HTHThe park was closed, meaning no cars could come in, or leave between 6:15am and the end of the race. Police were manning all intersections = you couldn't even try. Spectators ended up having to park outside the park (entrance more than a couple miles from the race site), and trekking in.Even worse, they wouldn't let us take our bikes out of the transition area until the course was cleared. Once they announced that we could leave, it was a cluster with everyone getting their bikes out and only three volunteers checking you out (each person had to have the number painted on them, checked with the number on the bike ). From there it was another cluster, as everyone was trying to drive out at the same time.
You could have swam.HTHThe park was closed, meaning no cars could come in, or leave between 6:15am and the end of the race. Police were manning all intersections = you couldn't even try. Spectators ended up having to park outside the park (entrance more than a couple miles from the race site), and trekking in.Even worse, they wouldn't let us take our bikes out of the transition area until the course was cleared. Once they announced that we could leave, it was a cluster with everyone getting their bikes out and only three volunteers checking you out (each person had to have the number painted on them, checked with the number on the bike ). From there it was another cluster, as everyone was trying to drive out at the same time.
With how poorly I swim, I'm pretty sure I'd drown prior to getting out of the park.There has actually been a study about ice baths also.
Yeah, this is the sort of thing that usually has me telling people to never stretch for any reason. It's gone beyond what I felt for the longest time where it makes no difference to it actually potentially harming people. It's one of those assumed truths for so long that nobody bothered to really see if it was actually true. It's only now that people are looking at previously ironclad paradigms in these ways.However, convincing some old timers of this is like talking down the jingoistic die hard monarchists in the FFA to give up their love of W.
I can't believe I've never thought of that. I thank you, and more importantly, my "nads" thank you
Oh, never mind. I thought I was in the "Gayest thing about yourself" thread for a minute there.
From the article: "It remains to be confirmed whether or not stretching on a regular basis away from the exercise environment is effective in improving some types of exercise performance or reducing injury risk."I say 'yes.' Stay flexible, stay loose on a regular basis, and it shouldn't be an issue during exercise (though it makes sense to start slowly and let the muscles warm up).
Man, I was beat afterwards. :exhausted:
52 is awesome! For me, weight loss starts about two weeks after intense training. If you keep putting these types of miles in, you'll be whittled down to nothing. Three hours is a lot of time in the saddle
I realize that we're talking about mostly water weight, but I finally moved to the woman's scale for the man's scale. Weighed in at 206 over the weekend and 197 today. I've been told that you burn 70 cal per mile which equates to 3640 cal this morning. I heard the tour guys consume 7800 cal per day which makes sense when they are cranking out a century a day.Regarding the saddle time...52 is awesome! For me, weight loss starts about two weeks after intense training. If you keep putting these types of miles in, you'll be whittled down to nothing. Three hours is a lot of time in the saddle
<----- my boysI've only logged 1550 miles since the beginning or March. Half in the mountains, but still surprisely low. I rode with a guy last weekend who already has 6000 in this year. A guy friend of mine has 2500 logged. I do have about 40 hours of spin classes which equates to another 700 miles. The focus has definately been on quality rides and ample recovery over just slogging out miles.:finger: We'd kill for 90's around here.
113 today, tho it's forecast to get down to around 100 for the weekend (yeah sure, we'll see). Fortunately, we've entered our rainy season, so we have a chance for a t-storm just about every day. Had a nice one last night. 50mile-across dust storm blew in, followed by a good soaking rain. 
Curious here. How did you figure the 700 miles from 40 hours of spin class? Based on resistance/pacing/your average ride speeds or does your gym's bikes have a simulated distance built in? 70 calories a mile? Must be the few extra pounds you have on me. I only weigh in at 162-165 and my 41 miler this weekend was only a hair over 1800 calories. My HR was manageable varying between high 140s and mid-high 160s (considering I top out between 205-210 I don't get in the yellow until the high 160s, low 170s). That equates to about 45 calories per mile, on par with other similar effort workouts which have averaged around 45-50 calories per mile.I realize that we're talking about mostly water weight, but I finally moved to the woman's scale for the man's scale. Weighed in at 206 over the weekend and 197 today. I've been told that you burn 70 cal per mile which equates to 3640 cal this morning. I heard the tour guys consume 7800 cal per day which makes sense when they are cranking out a century a day.Regarding the saddle time...52 is awesome! For me, weight loss starts about two weeks after intense training. If you keep putting these types of miles in, you'll be whittled down to nothing. Three hours is a lot of time in the saddle
Ugh. That heat sounds brutal and dangerous.:finger: We'd kill for 90's around here.
700 sounds about right to me. At 18 miles per hour, he'd have 720 miles in.Curious here. How did you figure the 700 miles from 40 hours of spin class? Based on resistance/pacing/your average ride speeds or does your gym's bikes have a simulated distance built in? 70 calories a mile? Must be the few extra pounds you have on me. I only weigh in at 162-165 and my 41 miler this weekend was only a hair over 1800 calories. My HR was manageable varying between high 140s and mid-high 160s (considering I top out between 205-210 I don't get in the yellow until the high 160s, low 170s). That equates to about 45 calories per mile, on par with other similar effort workouts which have averaged around 45-50 calories per mile.I realize that we're talking about mostly water weight, but I finally moved to the woman's scale for the man's scale. Weighed in at 206 over the weekend and 197 today. I've been told that you burn 70 cal per mile which equates to 3640 cal this morning. I heard the tour guys consume 7800 cal per day which makes sense when they are cranking out a century a day.Regarding the saddle time...52 is awesome! For me, weight loss starts about two weeks after intense training. If you keep putting these types of miles in, you'll be whittled down to nothing. Three hours is a lot of time in the saddle
Got my new gear today from trisports.com. Tri-shirt and shorts for the race; cap for running (white, but black under the brim to help shade the eyes); a thin but warm hat for cold weather running (will work under the bike helmet, too); slip-ons for the toes of my bike shoes for cold days; and a thin, vented, light-weight rain coat. I told my daughter when I placed the order that I'll either look very cool or like an old, geeky guy. She voted for the latter. She's probably right.
All of those items will help you be more comfortable = who cares what you look like while training/racing? I care what others look like, as it is one of the biggest benefits of racing, but as an old married guy, me no cares how geeky I look. Quick question to all: anyone else have problems with sweat on sunglasses? I have used headsweats and headbands, but still have a problem keeping sweat from getting on my sunglasses (= I don't race with them for that reason). Any suggestions?
Good 50 minute swim this morning after an off-day yesterday. I'll be hitting the pool (and hopefully lake) daily this week, then adding in a 4-5 hour bike ride Saturday and a 8-10 mile run Sunday before starting the two week taper.
I use a headband, and I don't have a problem.
There's a good chance I'm sweatier than mostI use a headband, and I don't have a problem.
. 
I have trouble adjusting to Daylight Savings Time!
