chichitao's group - FULL! (Page 102)

Erica, I think you might need another Miami trip when all is said and done for some serious R n R, I can't imagine having to plan a cross country move, study for such a major exam and doing everything you can to help along the recovery of your knee after the surgery, you are amazing!  Just a short while longer and everything will be in place and you will move to your new home.  Portland is a great place to live!  Really happy to hear the new PT is working out for you and that you feel like you are making progress with your knee too!

Debbie, sorry to hear you are still having pelvic issues, shaking up how you attack the problem is a good idea, if you feel like you are out of alignment, a chiro could definately help and maybe like Erica, you need to look at tryin a different PT?  As for the rest, it sounds like you are having an amazing time in your life, with the photography, family(Can't believe Stella is already 6 months)  As for the weight, don't sweat it so much, get the pelvic problem dealt with and when it is healed, you can go harder at the exercise:-)

I am ready for the race to be here already!!!  I feel good and am ready to go.  Had a scheduled 2 days off yesterday and today and spent the time doing a lot of stuff I've been putting off around the house.  Also cleaned and lubed the heck out of my bike and she is showroom ready.  Been running through the race in my mind just to make sure I am not missing anything and have a good idea of what all I am taking.  Nice thing about this race is we get to drop off our bike and set up our transition the day before so it should be less to worry about on race morning.

And I just got back from an awesome 2hr sports massage.

Just checked the weather again and it has gotten even better.  60-76 with 5-10mph winds.

Weather changed again (as of Fri morning) and is now back in the range I expected for TX weather...warm 70-90, cloudy, humid, and windy w/ 11-18mph winds.  Should be a fun one, but everyone else has to race in it too, so all is fair.

Heading out the door for an easy swim.  Will be starting to pack and get things together the rest of the day.  Bike drop off and packet pickup is tomorrow.

Just wanted to thank everyone for putting up with me and my training this year.  You've all helped keep me motivated and on track with my training and I know I would've slacked on more workouts without you peaking in on me.  I feel like I am trained and ready for this thing.  I just want to relax and just try to enjoy the experience without putting too much pressure on myself.  I would love to get under 6:30 but I am not going to kill myself to get there.

Well, thanks again everyone and hope I do you all proud!

ps - When I signed up for the race as a clydesdale I was 220.  This morning I was at exactly 200.0.  Hope they don't weigh me and kick me out of the clydes!  Gotta make sure and eat enough today to keep me above 200.

Tim, I'll say it once again, you will be amazin!!.  I cannot wait to hear all the details about you day, beginning to end!! Swim, Bike, Run like you stole it!

Pete, nice to see you surface again, we miss you and glad to know you are still keeping up with the group even though you aren't currently posting:-) 

Just a quick update...swim went great, bike went as well as could hoped considering the hills and a really tough wind, but I stunk it up on the run.  My lower back seized up and ended up walking most of it with small bouts of running/shuffling.  I've never been in so much pain and never had back issues before.  It hurt to breath.

But I finished in 7:19 and can now say I completed a half ironman.

Thanks again for the support, thought of you guys while pushing through the pain.  Will definitely post more details later.

Nice job Tim.  Way to gut it out and finish the race dealing with all that pain.  There is a mantra that I have been using for the past year - RFP "Relentless Forward Progress" and by finishing you pretty much showed that.  When it gets to one step at a time it is easy to call it quits.  Hope you are recovering ok and feel great about your accomplishment.  

Thanks guys and gals.  It's been tough to wrap my head around everything that happened yesterday and I am still trying to process it and try to figure out what I can do to prevent it from ever happening again.  As promised:

HERE is my novel of a race report!

Enjoy.

So what is everyone up to these days?  I've been kinda in my own world the past couple of weeks. 

Seems strange to not have a set workout plan/schedule anymore.  But, I am contemplating doing another one this fall. 

So now we get to live vicariously through Sandra and her upcoming HIM!  Which is in June right?

Erica, when is your bar?  And when is the move? 

Pete, good to hear from you again.  We've missed ya! 

Meggan and Debbe, how is life treating you right now?

T2 is still working his way towards his IM...crazy!

Happy Hump Day!

Great race report.

The one thing about this sport is that nothing can ever be taken for granted.  We can have specific goals set out for each race but the real challenge is to overcome the unknowns that happen to us on race day.  The only true goals you can have in any Ironman event is to get to the starting line and to finish - which you accomplished both.  We can train until we are blue in the face but unless we are prepared mentally to overcome any unknown challenges we encounter during race day we will never succeed.  You did great considering what you had to overcome and should be proud of your accomplishment - not many people would have the guts to do what you did.

Hopefully you can figure out what happened so it won't happen again.

I'm just plugging away taking it week by week which is about the only thing I can do.  I just finished Week 12 of my plan and feel great.  It's crazy how your body adapts to the training.  The past 3 years 6-8 hours of training a week was a crazy week for me.  Now that is an easy week and would love to go back to that-haha.  125 days to go...

27 days and counting! 

Last week was a bit crazy.  My new boss was in town again, for more meetings which increases the stress levels for everyone because there is no trust since our boss got the unexpected boot a few weeks back.  I also got a bit of a crick in my neck after a nap on the couch and wasn't able to turn my head, making swimming impossible, but I took care of that by getting into my RMT quickly and got it handled. 

Then it was off to Oliver on Friday afternoon for an overnight trip with my training partner, so we could ride the course for our race on Saturday. So happy we did that, the course is quite beautiful, nice roads, although we had to get off our bike for the cow grates...assuming they will have those covered on race day!  There is one good hill that we will have to do twice, at 15KM & 57KM, it is tough(especially the 2nd time), but short and once it is over there is a nice downhill section for recovery.  Saturday was also my birthday, so after the bike, we packed up and headed home and I came home to dinner and a birthday cake that Ray made himself, something he has never done before, which made it all the more special.

Sunday I had a couple of really good friends doing their first Marathon and so I was up before the birds to go see them off at the start line and then had an adventure with our downtown transit system(that I never use) with some friends to find a good spot in the middle of the course to surprise them.  We were the loudest cheering group on the course and as we saw all our friends go by(some stopping for hugs and maybe a little cry) Then it was off to the finish line to cheer them in.  Everyone finished, upright and smiling and off we went for lunch.  I left at 5:45 in the morning and didn't get home till after 5PM.  Fantastic weather, tons of fresh air and I slept like the dead until 4:30am this morning, when some drunken idiot was outside our place yelling about some woman who done him wrong...and then proceeded to howl like a wolf...sigh got up and went to work...weekend over!

Massage appointment tonight and if I'm up to it after maybe a light spin on the bike or an easy run.  I missed my long run yesterday, but spent so many hours on my feet, it felt like I did it:-)

I hope everyone has had a great weekend too!

T2, I can't imagine how crazy your life must be with your training schedule and a young family!  I think your wife deserves a spa weekend when it is all over:-)

Erica, hope you are managing to keep it all together, with studying for your exams and getting ready to move!  How is your knee doing?  Is the new PT working out better?

Are your grates the same as ours?  Bars that go across the road.  If they are the same, we have a ton of those and they are never covered for the bike (only seen them covered if you need to run across them).  Just make sure you hit them straight on and you'll ride right over them.  I usually stand up and use my legs as shocks to absorb the roughness.

I wish they were, but these are round pipes that are not close together at all,  with only 3 very skinny(barely the width of the tire) rails across them.  I went across one, because I didn't see the sign advising cyclists to dismount and my back tire came out from under me, and I almost went down in a bad way. Luckily I managed to swing it back under me.

Wow, guess if they have to put up signs telling you to dismount then that is good advice!  Never seen anything like that before.  I would think the race would have to cover it in that case or there could be some serious lawsuits if someone got hurt.

So, what do you currently feel is your strongest sport or feel most prepared for?  Is this race close to your house?

That is my thought, because I could see more than a few people taking a dump on one of them, and I counted 4 of them and you have to do it twice, 8 dismounts is a good amount of time if they don't cover them up.

Strongest will be a toss up between bike and run, my weakest is and always will be swimming.  I love the water and swimming, but hate the pool so my training isn't as consistent there.  I just have to be sure to take in enough nutrition/hydration on the ride to ensure I have the best advantage going into the run. 

The race is a 4 hr drive away, so not really far, but not close enough to drive up, ride and return home every weekend. 

As of about 11 a.m. today, I completed my final law school assignment ever.   I would be more excited if I were more coherent right now, but I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted from everything that's been going on lately.  The move is almost completely planned, minus what we're going to do with my car (not sure we're going to bring it out with us right away).  Graduation is next weekend, so all my family is coming into town, which is just one more thing to figure out!  We're going to visit Ryan's mom this weekend to see all his side of the family before we leave, too.  LOTS still going on!

T1- I read the race report, and I'm super super proud of you!  You did great.  I hope you figure out what the issue was on the run.  Hopefully it was a one-time thing.  I know how you feel though, there are some days when that happens to me and there's no reason why!  Don't get down on yourself about it though because I think you had an awesome race!

Oh, and the Bar Exam isn't until July 24th-25th.  Pretty much means nonstop studying between now and then!  THEN maybe I can relax for a bit!

Have a good weekend everybody!

Congrats Erica!!!  I can only imagine how stressed and exhausted you must be.  Almost through it all though.  I am super excited for you to begin your new chapter in your life.  It'll all be worth it! 

And thanks for the support.  My brain has finally come to grips with what happened and I am OK with it.  It was my first ever and am just happy to have finished and realize not every person is willing or capable of completing one.  I am proud of what I have done.  Now I have something to improve on for my next one!

Have a great weekend of of training Sandra!  A little over 3 weeks to go!  I am heading out in the morning to go visit my parents and am taking my bike to get in a ride.  Hope everyone has a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to our mothers in the group (and I totally include pets in there Erica!).  My wife is getting a new Ipod Shuffle from our cats (kids). 

This weeks project:

Go back and look at page 1 and 2 of our little group here and see how far we have all come.  I was just reading through it yesterday and it is pretty cool remembering where we all were just a few short years ago.  I had only done 1 Oly at the time and decided to just focus on sprints b/c olys took too much time out of my life for training!  Haha

I'll be off the computer the rest of the day but enjoy the little trip down memory lane!

That is awesome Tim, when I have some more time on my hands, I will do the same:-)

Erica, have a great week and enjoy your graduation, and good luck on your move to Portland!

Pete, congrats on the new job, you will have to drop us a line and give us the details!

So Pete found a new job??

Yes he did, started last week, just don't know any of the details yet. Hoping he takes the time to get off his iPad to get onto a real computer and fill us all in on what is going on in his life:-D