bdwaud

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  • #19663
    bdwaud
    Participant

    what is the proposed ETA for rolling out on the Saturday morning ride?

    #19594
    bdwaud
    Participant

    The first post in this thread has all key details, safety, etc. but here are some short answers.

    Sergio -Cap Hill meets in front of Trader Joe’s , at 8th and Penn on the little triangle of bricked walkway. Clip-in by 0810.

    Richie – probably not a no-drop. Pace ranges from 15mph up. Minimum Distance is 25 miles from Georgetown or 35 from Cap Hill. Some folks ride 60-100 miles.

    #18204
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Still 9am in Georgetown? So I’m guessing 8:30 or so for slower Cap Hill folks on the NW corner of 8th and Penn. near Trader Joe’s.

    #13417
    bdwaud
    Participant

    We had discussed doing Patriots Half in September but my body is just not ready, especially the running. While we’ve done some moderate bike rides – 35 miles or so – I’ve been struggling to get through 4-5 mile runs at a very slow pace. That may be turning a corner now as I try to balance time off for recovery with moderate exercise.

    Had my body been ready to jump back in after a week or two of downtime then I probably would have gone for it. Instead, we’ve decided to do Giant Acorn Olympic to close-out the Tri season, with hopefully a few of the organized metric centuries (Cider ride; Pumpkin ride; 50 States; etc.) and the Richmond 1/2 marathon in November.

    But I’m hoping to get back in the saddle and do 1 or 2 more next year. But no idea what or when.

    #13028
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Thanks AJ. I’ll follow-up a few items. On the bike I did not really push. I truly wanted to just get through the bike and get out on the run. So I tried to keep it dialed back and close to what I’d been training. The bike was my only worry so I was willing to ride easy, keep in similar gears, and maintain a high cadence (88 for the entire bike).

    As for nutrition, I drank 2 bottles of Skratch and 1 of Gatorade endurance while eating 2 Clif bars (and a few shot blocks over the final 15 miles). I intended to eat a 3rd bar but got sick of them (need to vary flavors), so lost a few hundred calories there.

    In terms of cramping, I have only had real issues in the pool and in my legs. I drink roughly 4-5 liters of water most days and thought this was an electrolyte imbalance so I started drinking a lot more Gatorade and taking a daily magnesium pill (still doing that even today). Since those adjustments I’ve had no swim leg cramps. But I only ever felt remotely like this late in my first marathon. And that was nothing compared to this 1/2.

    On Friday and Saturday I drank several bottles of Gatorade as well as water and iced tea.

    In future I would probably need to add salt tabs and more food on the bike. And possibly work on pre-race nutrition so I am fully primed on race day.

    I am happy I finished. I did get there. Just not the way I intended and the Mallory challenge was not what I expected.

    #13019
    bdwaud
    Participant

    A tale of two races (musselman 2017 – total time: 7:25):

    it was the best of races. It was the worst of races.

    The day began with that damned alarm clock sound followed by a tight/achy quad. I dismissed it because I’ve had lots of minor aches the last few weeks that I treated as phantom-tapering aches. Morning went smoothly.  Food, nutrition, bags packed the night before.  Out the door within 10 minutes of our goal. We settled into transition, set up, enjoyed clean, available port-a-pots, and chatted with folks. At the designated time we headed to the water. We continued chatting with DC trip folks and I asked B. Frank’s a question on the buoys – he confirmed that the first orange buoy was way offline and just ignore it.

    swim (37 minutes):

    this was so comfortable. I had no stress and knew I could do it. My plan was 45 minutes and my goal was 40, so I crushed that (wetsuit – yes). I accepted my pace and just swam it. Each time I sited I saw the white caps (my wave) get further away but my goal was to finish, not win. I had total comfort with the water and the minor current/tide.

    T1 (6 minutes):

    yeah, I took my time here. I mostly walked from swim out to transition because I wanted to keep my body under control. Then when I was finally ready I really to grab my bike I had to pee.

    Bike (3:43):

    Finally hit the bike and rolled out. Immediately realized that my HRM was not working so I had no HR to gauge effort. Apparently my internal F-bomb was actually out loud because suddenly I heard “just ride by feel” from a bystander. This also happened at Peasantman but not at Rock Hall so I thought it was a fluke. Having driven the bike route Friday I was expecting a long opening slight downhill which turned out to be a flat with a headwind. So low speed, high cadence, and lots of folks passing me. Which is fine because I’m doing my own race (and I am a slow cyclist anyway). But I kept the cursing internal for the first 14 miles until the turn out of the wind. But my legs were not feeling strong even this early on. By the midway point I was out of 2 bottles, replaced with Gatorade, and starting to stretch out on the bike. There were some minor hills but the overall ride was only ~2/3 the climbing of the Saturday ride to the “T”. But I was really dragging at the end – just waiting for it to end. I was not finishing strong.

    Funny story – I finally caught Kelly at the 15 mile mark of the bike and gave her a comment as I went by. A bike judge passed and yelled at us for colluding and working as a team and he better not see us together again. Matching DC trip kits. I couldn’t really tell him that we bike at THE SAME SPEED! And we finished the bike within 30 seconds of one another.

    T2 (6 minutes):

    Took my time again, swigged some really warm water, and pre-emptively hit the toilet. No go. Jogged out of transition to get a head start on the run. My favorite part.

    Run (nearly 3 hours):

    As I was leaving transition the announcer was wondering aloud if the female winner had broken the course run record (I.e. She was done). But she is not my competition – I just want to finish. By the way, remember that sore quad I woke up with? Yeah, it started seizing around the 0.25 mile marker. This happened on one of the training runs and I shook it out successfully. then around 1 mile the UC kicked in and I barely hit the water stop toilet in time. So all that was done and time to get a moveon. And then my quad completely seized up. I tried to shake it out and stretch. It felt a little better so I jogged again. I continued this and walked the next 2 water stops and a hill. After the hill both quads seized and I couldn’t move or relax them for some time. That was around mile 3 or 4. Let’s just say the next 10 miles were hell. This was, by nearly an hour, my worst 1/2 marathon. Every mile was a combination of jog, cramp/seize, walk, stretch, maybe a few curse words. Kelly caught me around the 10-mile mark and helped talk me to the finish.

    I really don’t know what went wrong. I drank lots of Gatorade on Friday and Saturday. Drank and ate on the bike course. Kelly thinks some of it was due to us volunteering Saturday on the swim exit boat ramp to pull people out of the water which may have stressed the quads (she had some issues too). I am just at a loss. Running is usually what I love most.

    Overall I feel like the bike was harder than expected and harder than it should have been. I think I have a lot of work to do there – both endurance and speed.  had my run been anything like normal, even a slow normal, I would have been ecstatic. But I met the primary goal – finishing. I’m glad I finished and proud I got through it; thrilled with my swim. But it feels, off, somehow.

    #12795
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Thanks all. Appreciate the feedback. After this past weekend (40 mile ride +45 minute brick and then a 90 minute run), I suspect I’m teetering on the edge of overtraining and burnout. while the heat plays a role, it just doesn’t seem sufficient to explain how something that was “comfortable” is now be hard – and I’ve done it before with run training. My suspicion is that I’ve been biking too hard on the long rides (effectively at goal race speed although perhaps not race HR) and it’s now taking its toll.

    Anyway, 3 weeks from the race (not doing Rev3) so tapering begins soon. Hopefully dialing it back will help get everything back in place.

    #12770
    bdwaud
    Participant

    The bridge incline sounds like it might be similar to Capitol Hill, for any folks that are used to running that.

    #12596
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Because of the conditions, Rock Hall went amazingly well (for me and apparently for everyone else who did it). And due to the short distance and cool temps, it was hard to focus on nutrition and hydration. I did force myself to down about 1 hours worth of food on the bike and most of a bottle of skratch, just because. and I had a shot block or two on the run, just to try. I just focused on cadence, HR (high-2/low-3), and feel while ignoring speed completely. Coming off the bike, I knew that even a terrible-for-me 10K would still beat last year’s time.

    I did actually screw up my run pacing – shot out too fast again (more straight-up 10K pace than Tri or Half IM pace). It felt smooth and easy, and my HR was fine; but pace was faster than planned. But, again, due to the cool weather I was fine and just pushed that pace. Could have been a disaster with warmer weather; and not at all what I have been on the bricks all season long. So I really need to watch that in the goal race.

    And I beat my wife (in the triathlon). Which may sound snarky but she finished 10 minutes faster than my Rock Hall time from last year, so not an easy win for me.

    #11935
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Had a pretty pleasant weekend. Got in a solid 45 miles Saturday so the “race” was more a gauge of what was left.

    Swim was a few minutes slower than last year (despite a lot of winter pool hours). That was disheartening – despite the chop (and yes Heidi, 1 buoy disappeared  mid race).

    Bike was solid. I felt like I was pushing and working hard the whole ride instead of praying for it to end. I’m not fast but that felt good.

    The peasantman run always reminds me that I love running. That last mile of shaded downhill through the woods rocks. So I ran a third lap.

    Overall, I basically need to work on swim and bike speed going forward while continuing to build fitness and stamina.

    #11927
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Still thinking of doing the Saturday Georgetown ride. Is the Capitol Hill meet time at 0700?

    #11670
    bdwaud
    Participant

    I’ve been using Nuun on rides and swims (had lots of leg cramping issues this past year). Recently we tried Skratch and will use that now also; our goal race uses Gatorade endurance, so I need to get some of that and try it out too

    I use normal Gatorade post-workout regularly. I also started taking Magnesium supplements to help with the legs. I realized I drink tons of water but don’t get sufficient electrolyte replacement so I was diluting my body salts too much. Since I started, very few leg cramps and seize-ups.

    My suspicion is that many are similar in terms of quantity of electrolytes so consider what else is in there (sugar,etc). So the major issue is probably whether you like it enough to drink it several times per week for months on end; and how your body reacts to using it.

    #11669
    bdwaud
    Participant

    One other thing, Tuan makes clear that Peasantman WILL be wetsuit legal, regardless of water temps; unless it is dangerous. I’ve done it the last two years and most people wore them. But there are always some that don’t.

    If you are ok with cold and don’t plan to race in a wetsuit for your goal race, then maybe skip it. I’m bringing mine though.

    #10589
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Follow-up – we did the Thursday drill this morning; about half clipped and “not pedaling” and half unclipped. definitely noticed a difference in the working leg and in the pedal stroke when we unclipped the non-pedaling leg.

    #10523
    bdwaud
    Participant

    Agree 100% with Heidi (just bring your wetsuit to UDC at this point). But would add that you will likely end up swimming with a few folks near your pace and workout with them regularly. If they are faster then you will feel pushed to work harder. Or to stay on the same set. I don’t have that sense of “needing” to do more, faster when I am on my own.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)