Sunday, July 22, 2007

first of all...

if you're flippin' stupid, there is no way i would actually spoil Harry Potter and the Magic Thing online. that would be so lame. So read away. Or ignore away.

Next: 2Day. first ever Tri.

results Pretty good result. Could have done better. I had a achy hammy, due to over training. Thats' for those of you you read the blog, and go, gosh, how could dipshit possibly train that much.

Apparently I can't.

But the race was super fun.

Pre Race: I get up at 5, and kind of lounge about. My self requirement is that I eat 3 hours BEFORE the bike. My race starts at 8:25, so I eat at 5:20. So far so good. I pack the bag, grab the pam (wetsuit lubricant), and show up at the race about 1 hour before start. I was the last to register (like, each bike rack has a number, 1-100, 2-200, etc., and it ends at 493. Me). Apparently, that's what happens when you register day before 5 minutes before close. But Some Jackass has followed instructions. Get there early, place your bike, set up your gear. Of course it's some kind of mountain bike with bikerackes, and like 5 square feet of towel with shit on it. Me, I get lean my bike up against the rack, and throw my shoes in the grass.

Ok, the swim. In the water, and yes, there is one good way to warm up the wetsuit in cold water. I'm not sharing. Use your imagination. But it was a down river swim. I was Psyched, right up until I got caught in the gilly weeds. I'm swimming along in shallow water, because I failed to practice in the river, and I can't find the channel, and I look over and some dude is standing up about 2 feet from me. Ouch. Regardless of my poor navigating, apparently swimming for 30 minutes a year is not the best warmup for a Tri. ALSO, it appears you should practice transitioning from swim to bike. I didn't do so well.

The bike was fine. The run was OK. I had a mild hammy that i nursed. IN summary, it was OK.

Lessons for next time.
1) scout the rout
2) practice the trannys. swim/bike. bike/run. totally key.
3) taper properly. resting up an injury is not the same as tapering.

so it was fine.

In the world of oxymoronic good TV...
I'm diggin' John from Cincinatti.
Flight of the Conchords.

That's it.

ciao.

5 comments:

kbf said...

ok, i'll bite. i don't know why your blog is on ultimatetalk, but i read it anyway because (a) i'm always looking for some way to procrastinate, and (b) i'm continually amazed at how much you train. like seriously, do you have a job? or a life? but there are things i've taken away from your blog (thinking of salsa as more like a soup/gazpacho than as a condiment) and things i can relate to (the "effing cars" story...drivers can be bigoted idiots!!!).

anyway, i just had to write in as a long-time listener, first-time caller, because i, too, attempted my first triathlon this past weekend. except i didn't train nearly as much for it as you, and it wasn't even an official one -- i just did it on my own for kicks because i had a weekend off from ultimate. so i don't know if it counts since it was on my own, but the main impression that i took away from the experience was how unexpectedly difficult & time-consuming the transitions were. it wasn't something i had given much thought to before i went to do it. i'm sure there are tricks, and i wasn't wearing a wet-suit (i did my swim in a pool), but i remain befuddled & amazed.

also, running after biking is harder than i thought it would be. it took me a good half a mile to establish a stride that bore more resemblance to 'normal' than to 'hobbling'.

rock on,

-kendra

Luke said...

congrats on your tri. take the 75 dollars you saved, and go buy a nalgene, and a pair of defeet socks. i don't know how you can simulate the crowd...

but great, another one of these 'why are you on ultimate talk people. i will rise to the bait, but not today. probably i'm on it because i'm a noted raconteur, and the once and future king of rsd, and i'm prolific. beyond that, i'm thinkin' idris needs to balance jim's intellectualism, or george's caring and selflessness.

plus, i'm prolific. so i'll crank out another ultimate related site in the next couple days.

b) well, right now i have the summer off. so, i train, or read, or continue my neverending futile quest to learn the guitar. part of my training is my daily coaching... you don't coach skiing by standing around with a whistle. you ski. same with xc running. i mean i could get a golfcart...

during the school year, the extra training keeps me sane. ish. and i don't take ritalin anymore, so i'm pretty fidgety.

so, i have a job. i like to bike, and run, and play frisbee, and so, i have a life.

back to the tri. the link doesn't work, but in the race i did, they chip time everything... so you get your transition times too. pretty interesting. my swim/bike transitiion was like 3.5 minutes. experienced people were a full 2 minutes faster. not as bad but similar in the bike/run transition.

you can train yourself to handle the bike to run transition by pracicing it. you might go to the trouble to do this several times...

i'm particulary bad off the bike. i'm about 2.5 minutes slower in the 5km off the bike than i am in a normal 5k. given time supposedly, you can get your run pace to be almost the same....

for my next one... i'll do the following.
more swim practice.
practice swim exits including running out of the water, de-suiting, and getting on the bike. i figure, if you can knock over 3% off your time without doing any hard training.... no brainer.

to summarize, i don't know either, i don't feel like i train that much, i love food, i hate cars, congrats, practice the transitions, ultimate content to follow

kbf said...

i wasn't seriously questioning your choice of lifestyle. my ridicule is in fact thinly veiled jealousy at your summers off and ability to get up early.

ha, you could get a golf cart. or a segway. i guess my XC coach would usually run with us for the longer, slower stuff, but not when we did repeats. except for that one time...it annoyed me for some reason and served to motivated me to run faster (to beat my coach). maybe that was his intention...

i went and bought a camelback with the supposed money i saved by not competing in an official tri. this way, maybe i won't be a dehydrated prune by the time i get to the run next time.

yes, an ultimate post, please -- or at least one where you talk about your underwear or pudding again.

rob.barrett said...

Night Train,
I meant to add from your wetsuit post, re the picture: you could be a part-time model...but you'd probably have to keep your real job.

and did you really read the book? we readers here at NC's Outer Banks stopped before we were spoiled anyway...

Luke said...

Oh, I totally read HP and the Magicical STufff on the day it came out. Picked up my copy at 11, done by dinner, w/ a couple naps, and some time in the feed trough... but my "spoilers" have basically nothing to do with the actual content of the book... maybe some oblique connections, but only in my typical manner of non sequitors and absurdist obscurist art.

I doubt many people even knew who i was talking about when I referred to Alfalfa and Opie... but I was really proud of that one.

So, just for purity's sake, you may want to hold off until finishing the, I guess, 'ultimate' potter novel, vs the penultimate volume 6 _Harry Potter and No Shit Snape is a @##H98*_...

Anyway... finish the book first, then read my spoilers, but the spoilers are all in jest, as I would never ruin someones HP read.

I could be a part time model, but only of wetsuits. Nothing like the constriction of closed cell foam (in basic black)... very slimming.

Later LT.