Category: Triathlon

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Cycling Running Swimming Triathlon

Damn that Java Updater!!!!

Time for the weekly update. This morning was NOT a good morning. Well, it was an good morning for the workout, but I’m pissed because I lost all my data from the CompuTrainer workout. I was using the Coaching Software this morning, the software that was written in the 80s or maybe earlier! Anyway, I was 80 minutes into the workout and the Java updater popped up. Of course the Coaching Software can’t handle that and crashed. The entire ride was lost. You would think that they data would be saved out to the drive so in the event of a crash you could at least have the data that was recorded so far. Nope, not with CompuTrainer software.

Racermate, Inc, the company that developed the CompuTrainer and the software has been promising new software for over a year now. Last year at this time, it was “New Software coming Fall 2010”, well, here we are a year later. Still no software! They suck, to put it kindly.

As for the past week of workouts, I hit the pool for the first time this fall at the ANA Y. Had some really good workouts and could really feel the lack of swimming, or structured swimming anyway.

On Wednesday I did get on the treadmill before the swim for a few miles. It felt pretty good to be able to run 2 miles with absolutely no pain at all from the IT Band. I was kind of expecting to feel something after the first mile, but nothing and just kept on going up to 2 miles before heading to the pool. Hoping to go further this week.

On the cycling side I started up the CompuTrainer PIG program again. While I was hoping to use the new Racermate One software, I guess that isn’t going to happen. This year I do a 10 minute warm up and calibrate before I even start my workouts to make sure the power is accurate. The workouts have been good so far, and I felt like I was working pretty hard this morning before the crash. Wish I had the data to be able to compare to last week!!!!!!

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Cycling Running Swimming Triathlon

No Power

No, I’m not talking about the Powermeter on my bike or the CompuTrainer. This weekend the Northeast was hit by a Nor’easter. This storm took down a lot of trees and power along with them. The heavy wet snow combined with the trees still having leaves on them had the trees snapping and falling all over the place. That left me spending most of my Sunday getting the generator running and no riding on the trainer. We are now heading towards 48 hours without power.

I did manage to get in a few swims this past week at the pool and I felt pretty good on my run Wednesday morning. Hardly felt the IT Band at all. Still looking for the new CompuTrainer software but haven’t heard a word from the company.  Looks like another long winter of battling the old software. I did ride it a few times this past week before we lost power.

This coming week I will be heading back to the pool at the ANA Ymca. Actually, I was there this morning. Tough workout, and I need to get back in swimming shape. All of these short swims at the pond has not helped my swimming. Hopefully the power comes back on for the CompuTrainer, or I will be running the generator early to get my time in on it.

Categories
Cycling Running Swimming

58 degrees and going down…

Time for the weekly training update. I’ve managed to get out and run a couple of times this week. Not very far, just the 5K loop around the Danvers Y. The good news is the IT Band is not killing me so I can run pretty good. The bad news is that I can still feel it a little bit. I know that it is there and not quite ready to push the mileage yet.

This week was also the first week of the CompuTrainer. Yup, back at it and guess what!? Still no Racermate One software. Not a big surprise really, reading the forum you can tell they have absolutely no idea how to design/develop/distribute software. It’s a good thing they don’t have competition on the hardware side or they would be out of business all together. To start out this week I did a couple of the 3D videos. Soon though I will get setup with the performance improvement program that they have and start using the coaching software as well. It feels good to be riding more than once a week again.

Only made it to the pond once this week. This morning and it was 58 degrees, but I think it is colder. I can’t remember feeling that cold doing a full 1.25 mile crossing in a wetsuit. It’s almost time to head back to the ANA Y pool. I did hit the Danvers Y pool this week for a short swim after a run and some lifting.

Speaking of lifting, my legs are feeling stronger since I started lifting again. I’ve been focusing mainly on my legs to try and build some strength back up. Also thinking about doing some P90x, have never tried it but I hear a lot of good things, so I might give it a go.

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Swimming

Textile free swim

Headed down to the pond this morning for what was probably my last open water swim of the season. Water temp was still 64, but Glacier George needs to get a new thermometer before I will believe that reading, and air temp was 47.

Since it was probably my last day and I knew the rest of the guys were not going to do a full crossing I didn’t bother bring the wetsuit. We did the October “L” as it is known by the pond Scummers. Out to Rohr’s dock over to the Haunted house, back to Rhor’s dock and in to the beach. I felt fine until we got out of the water, that’s when you realize just how cold you are because you shiver so much it’s hard getting your clothes back on. Just another crazy morning at the pond!!

I guess it’s possible we could be back, but there is rain in the forcast….

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Cycling Swimming

Great weather for mid October

Sunday turned out to be a beauty of a day. Started out a little chilly on the bike in the morning, but by 8:30 it was noticeably warmer. The group took our usually ride up to Newburyport and this time we came back 1A. I don’t think I have done that ride in over a year and it was a nice change of scenery. Leaf peeping isn’t quite at it’s peak here yet, but it was still a great day for a ride. I managed to get 50 miles in and felt pretty good considering I haven’t been on the bike since the Century ride a few weeks back.

Ride Data

This morning a group of us headed down to the pond for the official “Closing Day”, although we will probably keep going since the water isn’t that cold yet and the weather is holding up. Mike K. and I did a double, water temp was 64 degrees. We think that Glacier George’s thermometer is broken as it has been reading 64 degrees for a week now!! Hopefully we will be back again on Wednesday for at least a full crossing.

 

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Swimming

Another beauty of a morning at the pond

I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to show up this morning. We had over 3 inches of rain yesterday and the water temp was going to be colder. I packed a gym bag just in case so I could head to the Y. George finally showed up and it turned out to be a pretty good morning. I’m amazed that he did a full crossing without a wetsuit. Water temp was 66 degrees, but I have to say it felt colder.

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Swimming

Refreshing swim at the pond

I hadn’t been down to the pond in almost a week, so when George sent out an email to see who was in for this morning it sounded good to me. He had also mentioned that the water temp was 70 yesterday. That’s pretty warm, so I decided it was a no wetsuit morning. The water might be warm but the air is still chilly and it make quite a difference. This morning the official temp was 71. We didn’t chat long on the other side because it just gets too cold standing around. The water was like glass this morning, some of the leaves are starting to change and quite a few of the leaves were on the pond. Perfect fall morning for a swim.

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Swimming

CRW Fall Century

This past weekend I did the Charles River Wheelmen Fall Century ride. This is the second year in a row that I have done it. My friend Julie joined me this year for the ride. We have perfect weather, although it was a little bit chilly to start the day.

This is one tough century ride, with about 5000 feet of climbing. The hard part is that the climbs are pretty steep unlike say Lake Placid where they tend to just be very long. Which, by the way, if I ever train for again I will be making sure to get some training rides in on these hills. There are three stops along the course for the riders with plenty of food, water and gatorade. If you haven’t done it, give it a try, plenty of support. Hey, even U.S. Senator John Kerry was out enjoying the day!!

The rest of last week was mostly a swim week for me. The weather has quickly changed and it is now in the low 40s in the mornings and I just don’t have any desire to get out and ride in the cold and dark. Cold I can do, dark I can do, I just don’t like cold and dark together. I think I swam four times last week and was already in again this morning. The water temp was 68 and the air temp was 41. Makes it a little uncomfortable when getting out. The swimming part was actually pretty enjoyable with the wetsuit on. George and Fred were of course TF and by the time we got out George was pretty chilled.

Categories
Race Triathlon

Race Report – Call To Honor

Today was the Call To Honor triathlon in Boxford. This is the 3rd year of the event that honors the memory of a local resident and State Trooper who died in the line of duty. His family comes and races as relay teams and presents the medals to all the winners. They are a very nice family and very involved in the community espeically the town beach where the race is held.

The race itself is a very short, especially the run. Most triathlons the athlete will spend 10% on the swim, 50-55% on the bike and the rest on the run. This even though, It is about 10% 85% and 15%, so if you are a strong biker it really helps.

The weather for race day was very nice, a little bit chilly on the bike ride over, but it warmed up nicely and the water in Stiles was at least 70 degrees.

The Swim

I wore a one piece tri outfit today. A DeSoto Liftfoil speedsuit. This is the first time that I have ever worn one of these for a triathlon. This year the swim seemed to be a bit longer than it was the last two years. I think they actually measured it out. My time was a little bit slower than last year and I was 13th overall in the swim. I knew that I had fallen behind some of my fellow age groupers that were wearing wetsuits, but not by much and I figured I was behind maybe 3 of them.

T1

My transition was pretty good, but not as fast as I had hoped. I really wanted it to be under a minute, and part of that expectation was that I wasn’t wearing socks and I didn’t have to change out of a wetsuit or put any other clothes on. It was glass, helmet, shoes, bib number and go. I think I need to learn to mount the bike with the shoes clipped in.

The Bike

My expectation was to average over 20 mph on the bike and I did that. At least according to my Garmin GPS I did that. It said that I averaged 20.9 mph. My official time was 30:20, which I think was about a minute faster than last year. So, that wasn’t bad, but it would have been nice to break 30. I guess there is always next year. The only problem I had on the bike was when I slowed down to take the left onto Herrick Rd. I got up out of the saddle to accelerate and I got a massive cramp in my left calf. I had to stretch it out before I could start riding hard again and lost some time there.

T2

This transition was better than the first, but again I had trouble getting one of my bike shoes off, so that was a little disappointing. You would think I had never taken my shoes off before. I need better focus.

The Run

The run started out a little slow because of the cramp in my calf, but about a half mile in I started to feel better and was able to push more. After the turn it is mostly down hill and I really started to push a little more and wish I had my Garmin on to see some splits. My pace was around 7:30 for the run. Again this was about a minute better than last year.

My overall time ended up being just about a minute better than last year because the swim was a little bit longer and I was a little faster on the bike and run. I ended up placing 8th overall and 4th in my age group. The age group placing was a little bit disappointing. I really had hoped to be higher after looking at last years results, but I guess it is all who shows up that day. 4 out of 34 isn’t bad I guess. An interesting note is that 6 of the top 10 were in my age group and 8 of top 15. Tough age group to place in.

Well, that wraps up the triathlons for this season. Time to focus on getting better for next year!

Categories
Triathlon

Another 5K

I did another short run this morning when I got to the Y. My IT Band didn’t bother me at all for the first half of the run, but around mile 2 I could start to feel it. The pain never got as bad as it did on Tuesday. When I got back to the gym I did plenty of stretching today and some more light lifting. Today I didn’t do any leg exercises, mostly shoulders and chest.

I’ve been using the foam roller at night and will keep that up, hopefully that and the stretching will help me fix this IT Band issue.