Manatee Mentors 2015.2 CLOSED (Poptarts? Pet pics?) (Page 43)

Awesome!!

Melanie - CodFusion?  

Jen - So sorry to hear about the depth of the GI situation.  Take care!

Salty - I hope that you are feeling better.   Great news on the visually impaired guide application!

Yanti - I said it on FB and I'll say it again here.  I am so proud of you for taking care of yourself.  IM Taiwan will be there next year.

Darren - I think that 5:30 under BQ should get me in for 2016?  We'll see.  Sorry about your daughter had her Harry Potter forehead :-(

Janyne, it is good to see you back. After seeing Kevin's photo of you by the bell, then Judi's post in green, I had to start looking at your history a bit. In the past 4 years you have cut over 40 minutes off your marathon time.  And this one came after a bike crash/surgery, so it seemed even more impressive to me.  You've always been consistent, so did you do anything different in this training cycle?  I noticed that you were around 35-40 mpw those last few weeks prior to easing back. Is that normal marathon preparation for you?  I believe your coach put together your plan, no? How much of your plan did you hit on target and how much did you miss (days or objectives during a run)?  Was BQ a goal for this race? I thought Vineman was your "A" race and all else was prep/base.

Now for the touchy  age based question, which a man should never ask a woman.  But, we're all friends here so: How much did your recovery runs, stretching, and yoga days matter at your age?  Please don't take offense. I am a member of the same age group as you and it is more and more evident to me that those things matter.

I hope you don't mind the questions, as I find it all very interesting.

I've done marathon builds two ways -- marathon only or marathon followed by HIM about five weeks later.  Marathon only is obviously much more run focused with only one day a week of riding and swimming.  This was a run only build with a a few weeks in the 46-47 range.  Last year I did a similar build for Myrtle Beach.  The main difference was the time between B2B in October and MB in February and the doG-awful race conditions last year at MB.

I also did MB in 2013.  The build included more tri stuff.  I did PR the event.  I attribute a lot of that to the recovery from a July IM to a February marathon.

Yes, my coach put together the plan.  I did not miss a single run.  For the speedwork, I did my best to hit the targets that were set out (10k pace, etc.).  I'm not saying that I always hit them but within reason, you know?  I do kind of wonder my two weeks of of weather-induced indoor running during speedwork time was a blessing in disguise? I much prefer to run outside than on the treadmill but it has the advantage of making you hold your pace. 

Goals for the race:  Finish with a smile on my face, PR, BQ, finish with the 3:45 pace group.   Shamrock and Vineman are my A races for the year.  I hope to do well at RnR Raleigh as well.  That one is more of an A-/B+ race.

Stretching.  I know that cold stretching gets a bad rap.  I do a lot of my running in the morning.  Rolling out of bed and slapping on my shoes is not good for me.  I do the stretching and dynamic stuff in the morning (Emma thinks that I'm nuts with my soldier marching, etc.) before I run as a warm up of sorts. 

Yoga does help.  I don't always love yoga class but when I wake up the next morning I'm always glad that I went. 

Massage helps as well.

I too would love to hear more about your training and buildup to your race.  I am so impressed with your results and hope to someday get to Boston.  Can't wait to hear the race report too.  I am very curious about your race strategy.  Congrats again.

Edit: you are indeed speedy as you answered Chris before I could post

How mental was mile 20-26.2???? Strava shows a bit of a change in pace.

Only stretching or foam rolling as well? You mentioned massage. What role do you think PT played, if any?

And you always finish with a smile on your face!  Well, OK, maybe not BikeMS, but there were extenuating circumstances

I was with the group until 21.  By 22 I could see them 100+ yards in front of me but I was off the back.  22-24 were where I gave myself a mental toughness pep talk.  I was still picking off people through here.  24 to the end, I was the one being picked off.

Stretching regularly, foam rolling as needed.  Massage at least every 5 weeks.  I don't think PT for the shoulder had any role whatsoever with recovery for the legs ;-)

Thanks Janyne, I look forward to the RR. I find the whole thing interesting and it has been educational for me watching you go through this cycle.  I'm fairly certain a mary may be in the future, but I'm also certain I have a long way to go to get there!

Quiet in Manatee-Land today.  Everybody must be working or something.  How silly.

I hope things calm for you soon, Stacey. I really hope that things adjust more permanently in the long run.

Stacey, I really hope that you got some good news today and at least the auditors will be out of the picture for the next 11+ months.  Take care!

What is your goal for the event?

Saw this and thought of MattTX:

Matt, that'll make you even faster 

Happy Birthday !!

For sprints I pretty much go all out the entire race.  I'm on the verge of puking by the end of each run.

This being your first, there will be inherent "Educational Opportunities".  That being said, I'm not sure how that education will factor into HIM racing(I'm thinking of Galveston in a month or so for you), but I'm sure some of it will. Since you state that you'd rather blow up than feel like the tank wasn't drained, then what do you have to lose?  Go with the high effort.  Do what you can on the swim, bust out a speedy bike, run until it hurts, then run some more.

ETA: Ann-Marie is dead on!  In a well executed race, one feels quite ill as one passes the finish line.

My personal approach would be different, though. I found that there was so much that I learned in my first encounter with triathlon, which was through volunteering.  It was simple stuff, but really helpful.  Things like sign in, transition entries and exits, (dis)mount lines, and a ton of other details that I hadn't even considered existed.  Then I figured out more stuff in my first couple of races like transitions, clothing choices, bike rack placement, and pacing.  I'm 4 years, although not many races per year, into this, and I'm still figuring out some things that work well for me. YMMV, but above all else, enjoy the experience and thank the volunteers.

For a quick response to this, going "all out" is likely to be assumed as "for the distance" in which case this is the goal of every race one is going for the least time possible regardless of the distance.

What you want to do is quantify the "for the distance" part with effort levels from some of the workouts. Likely ones that better represent what you'll see in the race. For a sprint, take a look at threshold level workouts. This will be close.