Mad Manatees 2015.3 CLOSED (or Poptarts? Pet pics?) (Page 55)

Mary you will rock it!  I will second what Janyne said about the wetsuit and what Stacey said about getting your face in and used to the cold water [btw 18C is not cold where I come from ]; and add to it to warm your self up too!  Get a couple hundred meters in before the start.

Anyone following the TdF at all should Google images for "Les Lacets de Montvernier". This is the Cat 2 climb late in today's stage. Amazing how something like this is almost an afterthought when looking at the course profiles. These guys will get dizzy going up it.

Not entirely sure, but maybe another half hour or so? I've been following here. They were mostly of the way up the HC when posting this.

Originally posted by StaceyK

Originally posted by IronOx

Originally posted by laffinrock

Originally posted by jmkizer

Originally posted by laffinrock

Originally posted by amd723

Originally posted by rrrunner

Originally posted by Asalzwed

Originally posted by laffinrock

Just found out that the water temp for my race this weekend will be 65-66*.  That's colder than other races and OWS's I've done.  As I've mentioned before, I have a sleeveless wetsuit and haven't practiced in a one with sleeves.  How's the cold going to affect me and is there anything I can do to mitigate any problems?  Is it worth considering renting a wetsuit with sleeves and practicing in the pool to before Sunday? Or I should just HTFU?

 What is the race distance?

I would be inclined to just race with what you have so long as it is a shorter race. Especially since it's what you are familiar with. 

What is the outside air temp? 

I agree with Salty. 65-66 probably isn't much colder than the pool you swim in, correct? Plus you'll have the benefit of having everything covered but your arms and shoulders. I think you'll be fine.

I'm so glad I don't swim in your pool! The only thing I can add is, nothing new on race day!

The swim is 750 m.  My main pool is pretty warm, like 84* warm.  Some of the others I go to are cooler than that.  The OWS swim I did this past weekend was about 68-70* I think and I was okay.  The air temp will be on the cooler side as well. My wave starts at 6:15 a.m. and the lake is at 7,000 ft.  When DH and I rode the bike route last time, it was probably in the mid-60's at 9 a.m.  I'm planning to wear a light wind vest and socks on the bike to help keep my core temp up.

Two suggestions:

(1) stuff a zip lock bag (1 or 2 gallon size) under your top on the bike.  If you get hot, drop it at an aid station.  

(2) remember how wetsuits work -- you warm the water.  Some people think, "Oh, the water is cold, I will get in at the last second." These people are cold until the water next to their skin warms up.  During the warm up, get in the water and get the suit fully wet.

The ziplock bag is an awesome idea!!  I'm wearing a 2-piece suit, so that'll be really easy to do.  Gets rid of the vest and trying to fumble with a zipper when my hands are cold.  I don't know that there are aid stations for the bike, but I can always stuff it in my back pocket.

Thanks for the reminder about the water in the wetsuit thing--and to all of you for your reassurance about the colder water.

This tri is such a huge stretch goal for me and having such a big cheering section of knowledgeable racers makes an enormous difference!!  Tonight's race is a fun little XC run to shake out the legs.  I still love that I can say that a 3 mile race is "just a little run"!   It's almost hard to believe that only 18 mos. ago, doing any of this would have been impossible.

Mary you will rock it!  I will second what Janyne said about the wetsuit and what Stacey said about getting your face in and used to the cold water [btw 18C is not cold where I come from ]; and add to it to warm your self up too!  Get a couple hundred meters in before the start.

and dont forget peeing in your wetsuit warms everything up quicker

Oh, trust me, I know that trick!

Ergh.  So much work to do and the race is at a crucial point!!!

I can't recall if I posted my race report for my last 5K but there it is. I forgot to mention what a clever idea I thought this race was. They piggy-backed the 5K into a parade that already existed. That way, the permits and street closures were already happening and they could split the cost with the parade. It was also fun pretending all those people out there were lined up to watch a local 5K Have you guys seen anything like this is your local races?

Many years ago I ran the race right before the Seafair parade through downtown Seattle.  It was crazy running past a couple hundred thousand people.  I remember it being very warm as it's in the early evening in August. 

A lot of the local races around here are part of a community festival and while not on the parade route per se are run before their parades.  Makes it kind of fun to do a race in a neighborring community and stick around for the parade and other festivities.  

Ah yeah, I always forget about Seafair. That's coming up this weekend actually. I haven't ever run it. 

Originally posted by laffinrock

Originally posted by StaceyK

Originally posted by IronOx

Originally posted by laffinrock

Originally posted by jmkizer

Originally posted by laffinrock

Originally posted by amd723

Originally posted by rrrunner

Originally posted by Asalzwed

Originally posted by laffinrock

Just found out that the water temp for my race this weekend will be 65-66*.  That's colder than other races and OWS's I've done.  As I've mentioned before, I have a sleeveless wetsuit and haven't practiced in a one with sleeves.  How's the cold going to affect me and is there anything I can do to mitigate any problems?  Is it worth considering renting a wetsuit with sleeves and practicing in the pool to before Sunday? Or I should just HTFU?

 What is the race distance?

I would be inclined to just race with what you have so long as it is a shorter race. Especially since it's what you are familiar with. 

What is the outside air temp? 

I agree with Salty. 65-66 probably isn't much colder than the pool you swim in, correct? Plus you'll have the benefit of having everything covered but your arms and shoulders. I think you'll be fine.

I'm so glad I don't swim in your pool! The only thing I can add is, nothing new on race day!

The swim is 750 m.  My main pool is pretty warm, like 84* warm.  Some of the others I go to are cooler than that.  The OWS swim I did this past weekend was about 68-70* I think and I was okay.  The air temp will be on the cooler side as well. My wave starts at 6:15 a.m. and the lake is at 7,000 ft.  When DH and I rode the bike route last time, it was probably in the mid-60's at 9 a.m.  I'm planning to wear a light wind vest and socks on the bike to help keep my core temp up.

Two suggestions:

(1) stuff a zip lock bag (1 or 2 gallon size) under your top on the bike.  If you get hot, drop it at an aid station.  

(2) remember how wetsuits work -- you warm the water.  Some people think, "Oh, the water is cold, I will get in at the last second." These people are cold until the water next to their skin warms up.  During the warm up, get in the water and get the suit fully wet.

The ziplock bag is an awesome idea!!  I'm wearing a 2-piece suit, so that'll be really easy to do.  Gets rid of the vest and trying to fumble with a zipper when my hands are cold.  I don't know that there are aid stations for the bike, but I can always stuff it in my back pocket.

Thanks for the reminder about the water in the wetsuit thing--and to all of you for your reassurance about the colder water.

This tri is such a huge stretch goal for me and having such a big cheering section of knowledgeable racers makes an enormous difference!!  Tonight's race is a fun little XC run to shake out the legs.  I still love that I can say that a 3 mile race is "just a little run"!   It's almost hard to believe that only 18 mos. ago, doing any of this would have been impossible.

Mary you will rock it!  I will second what Janyne said about the wetsuit and what Stacey said about getting your face in and used to the cold water [btw 18C is not cold where I come from ]; and add to it to warm your self up too!  Get a couple hundred meters in before the start.

and dont forget peeing in your wetsuit warms everything up quicker

Oh, trust me, I know that trick!

Go HappyStoned go!

Yeah, if you can get in right before your start, that's best. Stay really good and warm for as long as possible; you can pour warm water into your suit as well before you get in.

Double cap for sure. Some find that earplugs (the soft silicone kind especially) help them feel warmer and reduce the dizzies.

I don't plan on even getting out of bed in the morning until temps are in mid-teens

I just stole all of Mutti's cold-weather gear we bought for her for Germany. I've lost some weight (quite a bit actually, and reshaped well) so I actually fit in her teeny tiny stuff now.

Speaking of Muttee Manatee ... she's having a hard time. Physically she's very good but is really struggling with the progressive and inevitable mental declines. Very agitated and anxious (and agitated and anxious about BEING agitated and anxious).

Other than being as massively busy as usual (with 1/3 of the time/energy to do it with) ... my most recent full-time project is Oscar. I can hardly think or write about him without being moved to tears. No, it's not a cancer story or like my paratriathletes, but still ...

Oscar's the Indonesian triathlete I talked about before in here who can outbike Macca (actually, who can outbike anybody) on the short course and can damn near outrun them too. His swimming is FOP AG but BOMOP pro. I've encouraged him in the past and given him some advice; now I coach him full-time.

He’s never been coached. He’s never followed a training program. He’s hardly able to; he has three kids and two jobs, selling fruit and giving swim lessons, which don’t pay well in any country and Indonesia especially so. On weekdays he trains (always by himself) between 2 or 3am and 6am, works from 7am to 7pm, spends the evening with his family and gets about 4 hours sleep. He works weekends too but can usually squeeze in a long ride and/or run. He’s only ever done races on his island and Singapore, which is a short ferry ride away. Sometimes a race or race-affiliated sponsor will give him an entry, but he otherwise has no support.

The guy can’t even use email. He has a smartphone and knows how to use some apps on it (Facebook and Strava) but that’s it. No spreadsheets, no Word docs, nada. We message on FB and SMS, call, and I’ve taught him how to read workout and training program notation. He won a Garmin bike computer and 920XT in races and has taught himself how to use some of the functions and (now) records data, which is great especially because his English isn’t.

Oscar is good. Oscar is really, really, really good, and he’s done it by himself on nothing, with nothing but a giant heart, will, effort, and discipline.

And again from our national sport and national Olympic federations the support is actually negative not just zero--because we can’t and won’t pay them large bribes, these committees withdraw our athletes from international events they’ve qualified for. It’s an ongoing battle, even the same battles trying to get current and prospective Paralympians into competition.

I'm lining up sponsors for him. He's so funny ... he's like, "what I don't have to pay, that's not right, I should pay for my own stuff" ... he doesn't really get this whole sponsorship thing!

Trying to manage my husband is also a full-time job (Stace Face can attest to his stubbornness!) ... sends me a FB message asking me to look at his BT logs and wondering about fatigue ... what an idiot.

Really cannot imagine how we wound up together ...

ETA: I pretty much just sent him a msg saying, WTF.

This was his reply.

"TRAINING: I really don't think I've done much and I've also become a big pv$$y when it comes to training when fatigued. I used to live like that now it makes me miss sessions. I should be able to do 20 hours week 1, 25 hours week 2, 30 hours week 3..."

He's 47 years old. He fails to understand he's not 17 or 27.

(K.Tlog.jpg)

Well his first sentence might be sorta true. He never made it to week 1 in what's shown.

Today the part of Janyne, updater of races will be played by Chris (albeit, not very well and with considerably less flair!):

Racing Manatees!

Janyne - Vineman IM on Saturday
Adrienne - USATF Mountain Running National Championship on Saturday
Kate - Blood, Sweat, and Beers Trail Run on Sunday
Stacey - Perth Swan River Run 5k on Sunday 

 Race well and enjoy the weekend!!!

GO MANATEES GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I'm doing a sprint in the Waco Tri this weekend, but we don't really need to add that...   

RACE WELL AND HAVE FUN  MANATEES - INCLUDING YOU MONICA !!!

Isn't Mary's race this weekend as well?

Go LADY MANATEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RACERS!!!!

One addition:  me.  I'm doing the Evergreen Sprint on Sunday.  Won't you all be glad to have me stop whining about the cold and the hard ride?

The weather here in Denver was in the 90's yesterday and is predicted to be the same through the weekend.  For once, I'm actually rooting for the heat!  The hotter the better as far as I'm concerned.  The race is early morning and Evergreen is about 1,700' higher than Denver, so it won't be hot during the race.  However, the air temp should be higher and the water a little warmer than anticipated.  Feeling a *lot* better about the race and ready to tackle and conquer it.

BTW, my race on Wednesday was HOT (85* and mostly on concrete/asphalt).  I didn't get cramps or blow up and my knee didn't hurt at all.  I used it as a training run and my time was about as expected so I'm happy with how I did.  Plus I rode my bike about 1/2 mile to the site so I wouldn't have to pay to get into the state park.  There's a hill to get back out of the park.  Last year, that hill was hard.  This year, it was a piece of cake.  What a difference a year makes!

GO NYNY!!!
GO SALTY!!!
GO KATIFROG!!!
GO STACE FACE!!!
GO TANGERINES!!!
GO HAPPYSTONED!!!

Yanti, you and your husband are two peas in a pod.  Such a great fit, you two!!  I'm betting he thinks handling you is a full time job too.

Thanks for sharing Oscar's story.  What an amazing man!  Thank you for all you do to support him.  He's so fortunate to have you in his court, cheering him on and helping him in any way you can.