Mad Manatees 2015.3 CLOSED (or Poptarts? Pet pics?) (Page 38)

Originally posted by mtnbikerchk I blame all of you. :p also add: I've been to 3 different fitters. It's definitely me!

Originally posted by jmkizer

I may have picked up this shirt on sale last weekend. You can't see it very well in the photo (stolen from Macy's website) but it's all sparkly.  The bicycle and the sparkles remind me of one of our MIA Manatees.  Didn't Monica have a spiffy cruiser bike?

Originally posted by StaceyK Is it sad that this little email has totally made my day and got me very excited

Originally posted by rrrunner Nice! I've been eyeing a bike t-shirt on yerdle. I figure I should be riding regularly first I'm at the airport headed to SC!!!

Originally posted by rrrunner Nice! I've been eyeing a bike t-shirt on yerdle. I figure I should be riding regularly first I'm at the airport headed to SC!!!

Originally posted by jmkizer

Why wait?  I see that it didn't stop you from changing your FB profile picture!

Originally posted by cdban66

Yeah, what's up with that, poser?!?! That would be like me having a running pic. Oh, wait, nevermind. I have to find one of me swimming 

Originally posted by laffinrock

Randee, so sorry to hear about your grandmother.  (((Hugs)))

Originally posted by jmkizer

Haha!  Good one!

Originally posted by laffinrock

Surely there's a good one of you in a wetsuit somewhere.

Originally posted by jmkizer

Racing Manatees!

July 4-5
Darren - Long Course Weekend Swim on Friday
Darren - Long Course Weekend Sportive on Saturday
Jen - 4th of July Parade Run on Saturday
Yanti - Bali Ocean 10K swim on Sunday
Kirsten - Subaru Vancouver Triathlon on Sunday
Mary - Cross Country Clash #5 on Wednesday

Disabled List
Erin - knee

Originally posted by jmkizer

Racing Manatees!

July 4-5
Darren - Long Course Weekend Swim on Friday
Darren - Long Course Weekend Sportive on Saturday
Jen - 4th of July Parade Run on Saturday
Yanti - Bali Ocean 10K swim on Sunday
Kirsten - Subaru Vancouver Triathlon on Sunday
Mary - Cross Country Clash #5 on Wednesday

Disabled List
Erin - knee

Originally posted by popsracer

Good luck racers.  Be safe and have fun.  Take care of that knee Erin.

I must be getting old.  I took a step up a ladder and my knee just screamed.  Seemed to be ok and I had a good, hard trainer session a few hours later but had jabby pains later in the evening.  It is the weirdest thing.  Only hurts if I step a certain way (most going up stairs) and then it feels like a knife under my kneecap.   I'm going to swim today so will see what happens tomorrow when I run.  Hope it's a passing thing. 

Originally posted by jmkizer

Racing Manatees!

July 4-5
Darren - Long Course Weekend Swim on Friday
Darren - Long Course Weekend Sportive on Saturday
Jen - 4th of July Parade Run on Saturday
Yanti - Bali Ocean 10K swim on Sunday
Kirsten - Subaru Vancouver Triathlon on Sunday
Mary - Cross Country Clash #5 on Wednesday

Disabled List
Erin - knee

Originally posted by StaceyK GO RACING MANATEES GO! And happy 4th July to our 'Merican Manatees. Steve I hope your knee is fine today. Oh and Yanti assures me that she is not swimming the 10k. Kingsley is going to swim the 5 and she is going to paddle for him. She is feeling much better for about 5 hours a day but still sleeping a lot. Apparently she is trying to take it easy but she said she actually feels better if she trains "lightly"

Originally posted by laffinrock

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO racers!!! The day of my previous XC Clash race, I had epic quantities of work and there were tornadoes, hail, and epic rain resulting in flash flooding.  Only 11 people showed up for the race and I wasn't one of them.  I'm hoping for better weather and work this time.

Steve and Erin, just say no to ouchy knees.  Yanti, please do not allow any jellyfish or bizarre disease-bearing creatures of any sort into your water craft and tell Kingsley he's not allowed to get bitten, stung, or hit by your paddle.

 

Originally posted by Richardsdrr

Nice bike.

I'm not bothering with a RR as such, so here is my write up for a shyte storm of a weekend...

What a complete and utter shambles of a weekend on my part. I think it's been a case of resting on my laurels and a complacency with the course difficulty based on last years effort. One big serious wake up call for moi.

The swim.

I DNF'd. I only completed one lap of the swim. I found it incredibly difficult compared to previous efforts. I guess I've been lucky with the tide on the last few years and this has given me a false sense of security. To put it into context, 2013 LCW I swam 2 laps at 1:18:??, last year 1:14:??, this year it took me 55:?? to complete one lap and I felt foosed. To get to the first buoy took me 15:?? in 2013 and 2014, this year it took me close to 26 minutes. Admittedly, I have done next to no swim training, apart from a tri camp where they tried to re-teach me how to swim for 5 days. But then, I did absolutely no swim training in the 2013-2014 period either and dropped 4 minutes. Okay, we now know the swim was long, the consensus being 400-500m long on the IM Wales facebook group, also agreed by the person that set the course. So, perhaps I should have not looked at the time and just got back in for the second lap, it's just I felt defeated and spent. Probably a huge psychological problem I must overcome. If the swim was the correct distance, and I had got out the first lap in 45 minutes, then I probably would have gone straight back in for the 2nd. Things for me to take away from this. Don't jack it, crack on and get through it. Get some swim endurance training in. Try using a nose clip (I kept getting salt water going down the back of my throat even though I wasn't breathing it in on my breathes, it made me throw up a few times on the lap).

Bike.

I was booked in for a 0745 start time. Got up as planned in order to get the bike from the car and get down to the start mat in time to grab some breakfast and use the ablutions etc. I got my bike and got down there no problems. It was only when I was queuing for the toilet that I realised i'd left my race numbers in the car. Back up to the multistory to get them and started to get them out of the car when I heard pstttttttttttt. Nope, wasn't someone trying to grab my attention to sell me knock off goods, it was my front tyre. So, whipped off the tyre, pulled out the inner, pumped it up, located the hole. Had a look in the wheel and tyre for anything, nothing. Stuck a new tube on, pumped it up, got to 100 psi, pssstttttt, AAArrrrrrggghhh. Took that one off, repaired 1 st tube, put back on, pssssttttt. FFS. Back off, patch not taking to the tube,tick tock, start time fast approaching, repair 2nd tube, pump up, pssstttttt, a hole somewhere else. GGRRRrr, can't fecking believe this. Threw tubes in car, locked up and carried bike down to start to see a mechanic, where they fitted a new tube. He couldn't find anything wrong either. Possibly had a dodgy batch of tubes? Anyway, missed start time, so DQ'd already. Didn't grab any breakfast, so set off at 0830am with no food since 1530 the day before, not good, especially when I find out later my gels are on the bedside table of my B&B.

First part uneventful out to Angle, held back at about 180W, no strava segment pb's on this section, which is good. Angle to Pembroke @176W, which gave me a PB over this section, possibly due to the tail wind. Got to Lamphey and filled one water bottle, left the juice bottle half full, thought I'd have enough :-/

Out to Narbeth was okay, by the time I was approaching Princes Gate I was depleted of carbs after going through the 100 calories I was carrying on the bike. Both bottles were depleted by now and I was seriously bonking, the shakes, dizzy etc. I was pushing 90 watts toward the end of that stretch and it felt more like I was pushing 400. Sat down and got some fuel in me in the form of a bacon butty, some root beer and some flap jacks from one of the marshals. Now, I've down this ride on no fuel before without a problem, in fact, I'd done it in the past 5 weeks with no food at all. Perhaps the lack of training this past month has lead to a bigger drop in my FTP than I have accounted for and I was riding at too great an effort for my current fitness level. Another thing bothering me is my left knee was giving me gyp. Both the knee cap, as in a tracking issue, and the bony protrusion on the outside of the knee were hurting. I'd fitted a new set of cleats to my shoes prior to the ride. Normally I fit yellow sdp cleats, but this time I fitted a red set I had lying around. Could this be the problem? Even today, as I write this, the bony protrusion is hurting to touch.

To top it all off, I had a text through from work with my start time for the night. which was 2200 hrs instead of 0200 hrs like planned. Oh well, to be honest, it was kinda nice to have the decision of doing the 2nd lap taken out of my hands after a rather shambolic weekend on my part.

This weekend as proved to be a serious wake up call, and a good slap across my face to get my shyte together. I've become complacent and have been relying on previous fitness gains to get me through, which their not. It is now a case of damage limitation for the next 9 weeks and I need you lot to keep me honest if you will. I'm not going to try and get any major gains, just to try and get some consistent training in for 9 weeks. Azz, well and truly handed to me on a plate.

(^^^This is how not to do it^^^)

Edited to put in profanity