Facebook Photo Link HERE
Not too goofy and my feet are actually LEAVING THE GROUND when I run! Holy cow! No shuffling.... although I do look a little pasty. Time for some sunshine!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Kansas City Triathlon Photo
Here's a photo from KC Fitness magazine's facebook page.
Facebook Photo Link HERE
Not too goofy and my feet are actually LEAVING THE GROUND when I run! Holy cow! No shuffling.... although I do look a little pasty. Time for some sunshine!
Facebook Photo Link HERE
Not too goofy and my feet are actually LEAVING THE GROUND when I run! Holy cow! No shuffling.... although I do look a little pasty. Time for some sunshine!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I have to come clean...
I'm now two-timing Emily (my wife). The new girl is younger, more expensive, and has nice curves.... luckily Emily is very understanding and didn't really object. She took one for the team.
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I moved the bikes from the basement into our room to make room for OPERATION BASEMENT FINISH that starts this weekend when my Dad comes up and helps me tear into the basement to give us more living space. So... I'm living every bike nerd's dream to sleep next to your bike at night.
=)
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I moved the bikes from the basement into our room to make room for OPERATION BASEMENT FINISH that starts this weekend when my Dad comes up and helps me tear into the basement to give us more living space. So... I'm living every bike nerd's dream to sleep next to your bike at night.
=)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Kansas City Triathlon Race Report - 5/24/10
Another weekend, another event!!! It's like a marathon of events, much to my wife's dismay. =) She likes going, but not getting up for non-work fun at 4:45am. And, dragging the kiddo to Grandma's house at 5am. And being 5 months prego all the while... but I had a pretty decent time. That's all the matters, right? Well, as far as the bloggy world goes here, that's all that matters. When I'm at home, other things matter. =)
Ok, ON TO THE RACE!
Setup:
Forecast of mid to high 80's, sun, and some wind.
Got up... it was already 70's at 4:45am. Nice....
0.9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run.
Pre Race:
Packed my gear the night before, loaded the last of it, ate the trusty oatmeal, orange juice, 1 slice bread with PB, gatorade, loaded the wife and kid and we were at Grandma's at 5:30am for drop off! PERFECT EXECUTION!
Arrival:
It was odd... the entry into the lake is usually packed on the road and if you are slick, you drive past and pull a u-turn and come back to skip the traffic. No need this year. No line... was I running behind?? Not really. We paid extra for VIP parking reserved next to transition so we pulled right up. The spots were assigned by number to the racks and you could pick a spot anywhere on your assigned rack. PERFECT. Got a spot at the end so set up camp with my gear. Got in, got marked, got set up.
Pre Race Port-a-potty:
VIP tent, handicap port-a-potties. Got in early, made a deposit and got out to see the line grow to like 20 people. PERFECT.
Warm Up:
HOLY CRAP that water was COLD! I think they said mid 60's but it was ice water! Glad I brought the wet suit. I got in a few out and backs to get the arms warmed up but I didn't care to spend too much time in that water. But, the sun was coming out, clear day, It was shaping up to be a good race day, unlike last week's rain and mid 60's.
SWIM!!!:
Got transition set up, GU'd up, protein bar eaten, goggles, cap, ear plugs, wet suit... it was a GO! The one thing i would have changed about the swim was our group was men 30-49. That was about 100 people or so. My wife said it was a cluster F start. I was on the trail end to avoid that. The swim out and across was good but the swim back included some waves that kept smacking me in the face when i would go for a breathe and I think I drank 2 gallons of the lake (the same lake they find a dead body in every year for one reason or another - yuk). The wife also reported that the jet ski guy that patrolled the swim would buzz the swimmers and cause big ole waves and just about clipped an elite athlete... smart guy.
BIKE!:
Hit the bike in decent form. They had us run into one end of transition and by doing that, I had to run pretty much the entire transition to get to my rack on concrete on bare feet. That kind of sucked. Also contributed to my time in T1 exceeding 3 minutes. Not so cool. Hit the bike and the wind hit me. I thought something was wrong with my steering but it was the wind catching my ZIPP wheels. Tad bit windy. It was an ok course. Some parts go through a little neighborhood that I could live without. Tri Bikes don't lend themselves to shifting on tight turns. But the HUGE hill on the back side and wind at your back completing the bike loop was SWEET. I think I was around 35 or 40 mph down the hill ( I would know better if the dang Garmin would have switched to bike from swim - grr). The bike was two laps, and not bad. The wind also blew in some clouds that could have produced some rain but they held off. I was a bit nervous after last weekend.
RUN...:
Running is quietly turning into my not so fun friend. Maybe if it was first and not last. Who knows but man it took me a good 1/2 mile to get running feet going from shuffle feet. The run course was relatively flat. Couple little hills but it was two loops and there's nothing worse than finishing the first, running through transition, and wishing you were done!
FINISH!!!:
Good times. Done is the best part! Since I paid a little more for the VIP treatment we had a tent with our own port-a-potties and food and what not. Nothing too different from the regular finish line area but fenced off and a little less hectic. I was a little disappointed with the furnishings this year from last year. They had 3 massage people last year, only one this year. I did get smart and take my bike to the mechanic guy to have it cleaned first thing. That was a huge line last year. They also gave wristbands out for family members and the food "attendant" was giving my prego wife crap for getting me a water... um, hello we paid for it. GIVE it to us! I also did not get a special spot in transition like last year for VIP. I guess they couldn't do that since they numbered the racks??? We did get a goodie bag and some good bike tools and other coupons. It more than made up for the price, but you could see some cutbacks in the operation.
RESULTS:
02 : 36 : 38 - 2010
02 : 49 : 37 - 2009
Picked up 13 minutes from last year and moved up to 112 overall from 185. Bonus...
Splits:
Swim - 2 min / 100 yards - this is an improvement for me as I shaved 9 minutes from the swim last year. Double bonus.
Bike - averaged 20.4 mph. Would have liked it to have been better but the wind and hills nailed me. Last year was 20.3 mph, so I shaved 9 minutes from the swim and only lose 0.1 mph on the bike.. triple bonus.
Run - averaged 7:49 min miles. Better than last year's 8:30!
Look out elites... I'm coming for ya! Maybe... if I quit my day job.
RESULTS ONE STEP FURTHER:
So, I was curious how I would have stacked up to the sprint field. I extrapolated (fancy algebra term) my time using the long course averages and I would have taken about 01 : 20 : 30 for the short course counting transition times. That would have been good enough for 13th overall and 1st in my age group. Now, I bet I could have upped the speed on the bike and run not doing twice the distance, lets say 1/2 mph more on the bike and save 15 seconds per mile on the run, 01 : 17 : 40 - good enough for 8th overall and first in my age group. Very interesting. I may do a few sprints (already signed up early bird for some other tri's and can switch them to long or short course) after IM KS and see how I stack up. I wouldn't be oppose to a top 3 finish some race (like it would happen).
MY TAKE:
It was a good olympic race. Well organized and supported. There's some debate about race directors for this race and other races and the quality of the event. Personally I've never had mush issues with the other races and I wouldn't raise the flag that the KC tri is VASTLY superior, but it was a good event and more than like I will do it again next year.
POST RACE:
I rode my bike home 27 miles from the race to our house. I needed a big bike weekend for the IM KS training and to avoid burnout for the KC tri I had to ride after the race. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly fun. Luckily Mr Sunshine stayed behind the clouds and I wasn't too crispy when I got home. The sunburn I do have was from mowing the lawn (and wrestling the mower) Saturday and thinking "first warm day, I'll mow without a shirt and catch some rays... ya, too many rays).
PHOTOS:
The event photos are not posted, and the wife opted not to take pictures, so for now I'll have to leave you with the following stick figure recreation...
ps - News for the blog idea still in the works. Hopefully Wednesday the post will be ready!
Ok, ON TO THE RACE!
Setup:
Forecast of mid to high 80's, sun, and some wind.
Got up... it was already 70's at 4:45am. Nice....
0.9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run.
Pre Race:
Packed my gear the night before, loaded the last of it, ate the trusty oatmeal, orange juice, 1 slice bread with PB, gatorade, loaded the wife and kid and we were at Grandma's at 5:30am for drop off! PERFECT EXECUTION!
Arrival:
It was odd... the entry into the lake is usually packed on the road and if you are slick, you drive past and pull a u-turn and come back to skip the traffic. No need this year. No line... was I running behind?? Not really. We paid extra for VIP parking reserved next to transition so we pulled right up. The spots were assigned by number to the racks and you could pick a spot anywhere on your assigned rack. PERFECT. Got a spot at the end so set up camp with my gear. Got in, got marked, got set up.
Pre Race Port-a-potty:
VIP tent, handicap port-a-potties. Got in early, made a deposit and got out to see the line grow to like 20 people. PERFECT.
Warm Up:
HOLY CRAP that water was COLD! I think they said mid 60's but it was ice water! Glad I brought the wet suit. I got in a few out and backs to get the arms warmed up but I didn't care to spend too much time in that water. But, the sun was coming out, clear day, It was shaping up to be a good race day, unlike last week's rain and mid 60's.
SWIM!!!:
Got transition set up, GU'd up, protein bar eaten, goggles, cap, ear plugs, wet suit... it was a GO! The one thing i would have changed about the swim was our group was men 30-49. That was about 100 people or so. My wife said it was a cluster F start. I was on the trail end to avoid that. The swim out and across was good but the swim back included some waves that kept smacking me in the face when i would go for a breathe and I think I drank 2 gallons of the lake (the same lake they find a dead body in every year for one reason or another - yuk). The wife also reported that the jet ski guy that patrolled the swim would buzz the swimmers and cause big ole waves and just about clipped an elite athlete... smart guy.
BIKE!:
Hit the bike in decent form. They had us run into one end of transition and by doing that, I had to run pretty much the entire transition to get to my rack on concrete on bare feet. That kind of sucked. Also contributed to my time in T1 exceeding 3 minutes. Not so cool. Hit the bike and the wind hit me. I thought something was wrong with my steering but it was the wind catching my ZIPP wheels. Tad bit windy. It was an ok course. Some parts go through a little neighborhood that I could live without. Tri Bikes don't lend themselves to shifting on tight turns. But the HUGE hill on the back side and wind at your back completing the bike loop was SWEET. I think I was around 35 or 40 mph down the hill ( I would know better if the dang Garmin would have switched to bike from swim - grr). The bike was two laps, and not bad. The wind also blew in some clouds that could have produced some rain but they held off. I was a bit nervous after last weekend.
RUN...:
Running is quietly turning into my not so fun friend. Maybe if it was first and not last. Who knows but man it took me a good 1/2 mile to get running feet going from shuffle feet. The run course was relatively flat. Couple little hills but it was two loops and there's nothing worse than finishing the first, running through transition, and wishing you were done!
FINISH!!!:
Good times. Done is the best part! Since I paid a little more for the VIP treatment we had a tent with our own port-a-potties and food and what not. Nothing too different from the regular finish line area but fenced off and a little less hectic. I was a little disappointed with the furnishings this year from last year. They had 3 massage people last year, only one this year. I did get smart and take my bike to the mechanic guy to have it cleaned first thing. That was a huge line last year. They also gave wristbands out for family members and the food "attendant" was giving my prego wife crap for getting me a water... um, hello we paid for it. GIVE it to us! I also did not get a special spot in transition like last year for VIP. I guess they couldn't do that since they numbered the racks??? We did get a goodie bag and some good bike tools and other coupons. It more than made up for the price, but you could see some cutbacks in the operation.
RESULTS:
02 : 36 : 38 - 2010
02 : 49 : 37 - 2009
Picked up 13 minutes from last year and moved up to 112 overall from 185. Bonus...
Splits:
Swim - 2 min / 100 yards - this is an improvement for me as I shaved 9 minutes from the swim last year. Double bonus.
Bike - averaged 20.4 mph. Would have liked it to have been better but the wind and hills nailed me. Last year was 20.3 mph, so I shaved 9 minutes from the swim and only lose 0.1 mph on the bike.. triple bonus.
Run - averaged 7:49 min miles. Better than last year's 8:30!
Look out elites... I'm coming for ya! Maybe... if I quit my day job.
RESULTS ONE STEP FURTHER:
So, I was curious how I would have stacked up to the sprint field. I extrapolated (fancy algebra term) my time using the long course averages and I would have taken about 01 : 20 : 30 for the short course counting transition times. That would have been good enough for 13th overall and 1st in my age group. Now, I bet I could have upped the speed on the bike and run not doing twice the distance, lets say 1/2 mph more on the bike and save 15 seconds per mile on the run, 01 : 17 : 40 - good enough for 8th overall and first in my age group. Very interesting. I may do a few sprints (already signed up early bird for some other tri's and can switch them to long or short course) after IM KS and see how I stack up. I wouldn't be oppose to a top 3 finish some race (like it would happen).
MY TAKE:
It was a good olympic race. Well organized and supported. There's some debate about race directors for this race and other races and the quality of the event. Personally I've never had mush issues with the other races and I wouldn't raise the flag that the KC tri is VASTLY superior, but it was a good event and more than like I will do it again next year.
POST RACE:
I rode my bike home 27 miles from the race to our house. I needed a big bike weekend for the IM KS training and to avoid burnout for the KC tri I had to ride after the race. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly fun. Luckily Mr Sunshine stayed behind the clouds and I wasn't too crispy when I got home. The sunburn I do have was from mowing the lawn (and wrestling the mower) Saturday and thinking "first warm day, I'll mow without a shirt and catch some rays... ya, too many rays).
PHOTOS:
The event photos are not posted, and the wife opted not to take pictures, so for now I'll have to leave you with the following stick figure recreation...
ps - News for the blog idea still in the works. Hopefully Wednesday the post will be ready!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Big Idea!
Big idea just came to me.
Posted some topics on the Tri forums and got me to thinking about how to contribute to a few things.
Stay tuned for a MIND BLOWING idea.
Posted some topics on the Tri forums and got me to thinking about how to contribute to a few things.
Stay tuned for a MIND BLOWING idea.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Heritage Park Triathlon..er Duathlon Race Report - 5/16/10
Mother nature sometimes doesn’t cooperate and smile upon the multisport crowd. Last Sunday’s Heritage Park Triathlon was suppose to be a triathlon. It already had a duathlon event in conjunction with the triathlon, but because of rainwater runoff hiking up the bacteria count in the pond the swim was in, we were converted to a duathlon as well.
Duathlon started at 7:30am, tri-duathlon started at 7:40am. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve raced the Heritage duathlon 4 times before. It’s where my multisport endeavors really started, however, at this point in my multisport career I consider myself a triathlete type person. Duathlons aren’t really on my radar any more. But, what are you going to do when the weather isn’t going to cooperate.
Honesty I thought the whole even might be cancelled due to rain. Luckily (is that really lucky?) we got fog and mist for the duration of the race and I think pretty much everyone finished without incident. Lots of flat tires seemed to plague the field, but I don’t think that was weather related. Maybe they didn’t sweep the park roads lately??? Who knows? But, it was cold and wet but it got done.
There are a few highlights out of the dreary day. I set a PR for the duathlon course, so at least the ole fitness has improved. Average bike speed decreased from the tri on the same course last year but the finish run improved from last year. I attribute a fall in bike speed due to road conditions. No one wants to slam into another racer on slick wet roads… so I used my breaks more than I usually would.
Here are some interesting stats to check improvement (or not) from years past:
Leg One Run = 2 miles
Tri swim = 1/3 miles
Bike = 11.5 miles
Leg Two Run = 3 miles
Past Heritage Tri/Du PR’s
Duathlon best time (2006 Du) : 01 : 11 : 36
Triathlon best time (2009 Tri) : 01 : 08 : 55
Fastest swim time (2009 Tri) : 00 : 10 : 56
Fastest bike speed (2009 Tri) : 21.1 mph
Fastest Leg one pace (2006 Du) : 6.47 min/mile
Fastest Leg two pace (2009 Du) : 7.19 min/mile
2010 Du Stats :
Leg One – 6.50 min/mile (not PR)
Bike speed – 20.1 mph (not PR)
Leg Two - 7.11 min/mile (PR)
Total Time : 01 : 10 : 38 (PR)
Now, had I signed up for the duathlon, I would have been 13th out of 114. But, since they kept the results for the tri peeps separate, I was 49th out of 222. So I guess you could say I was 62 of 336 overall. BUT, should we count the guy they clocked doing the first 2 mile run leg in 3 minutes and 50 seconds that was listed in front of me a few spots???
Overall, not shabby, I won’t complain. This was a warm up tri for the IM 70.3 KS.
On a Garmin note, I need to invest some time to get up to speed on the multisport function on my 310XT. I tried to just switch modes and it didn’t happen so it treated the whole event as a run. 4 minute miles… not too shabby! Supposedly in multisport mode you hit one button and it moves to the next sport function automatically.
So it’s nice to see as I’m getting older, I can reach down deep and get back to 2006 form. =) Age is only a number, right? Actually, I’ve worked more on BRIK’s this year than in years past and I think it’s showing in the final run. I’ve finished events stronger than in years past. Now, I just need to put that in a bottle to keep for the whole season!
And check it out, I have pictures from this event and they aren’t too lame. =)
At the end as you’ve just pushed yourself to the finish line, they give you a medal and then immediately the photo exchange goes as follows:
Photo guy : Show us your medal
Me : Dude I’m too tired to lift it up…
Photo guy : Show us your medal (while blocking my path across a little bridge back to transition)
Me : I showed him the medal…
PS – I support the University of Kansas, even if they don’t sponsor me. =) AND, I beat the K-State guy at the race!
Overall it was a good race (after which I was on my trainer for 40 miles to get a long weekend in before ½ IM taper since it started raining afterwards). It’s a hometown race and I’ve been in it in one event or another for the past 6 years. It’s got a soft squishy place in my heart. =)
Week’s training below:
Duathlon started at 7:30am, tri-duathlon started at 7:40am. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve raced the Heritage duathlon 4 times before. It’s where my multisport endeavors really started, however, at this point in my multisport career I consider myself a triathlete type person. Duathlons aren’t really on my radar any more. But, what are you going to do when the weather isn’t going to cooperate.
Honesty I thought the whole even might be cancelled due to rain. Luckily (is that really lucky?) we got fog and mist for the duration of the race and I think pretty much everyone finished without incident. Lots of flat tires seemed to plague the field, but I don’t think that was weather related. Maybe they didn’t sweep the park roads lately??? Who knows? But, it was cold and wet but it got done.
There are a few highlights out of the dreary day. I set a PR for the duathlon course, so at least the ole fitness has improved. Average bike speed decreased from the tri on the same course last year but the finish run improved from last year. I attribute a fall in bike speed due to road conditions. No one wants to slam into another racer on slick wet roads… so I used my breaks more than I usually would.
Here are some interesting stats to check improvement (or not) from years past:
Leg One Run = 2 miles
Tri swim = 1/3 miles
Bike = 11.5 miles
Leg Two Run = 3 miles
Past Heritage Tri/Du PR’s
Duathlon best time (2006 Du) : 01 : 11 : 36
Triathlon best time (2009 Tri) : 01 : 08 : 55
Fastest swim time (2009 Tri) : 00 : 10 : 56
Fastest bike speed (2009 Tri) : 21.1 mph
Fastest Leg one pace (2006 Du) : 6.47 min/mile
Fastest Leg two pace (2009 Du) : 7.19 min/mile
2010 Du Stats :
Leg One – 6.50 min/mile (not PR)
Bike speed – 20.1 mph (not PR)
Leg Two - 7.11 min/mile (PR)
Total Time : 01 : 10 : 38 (PR)
Now, had I signed up for the duathlon, I would have been 13th out of 114. But, since they kept the results for the tri peeps separate, I was 49th out of 222. So I guess you could say I was 62 of 336 overall. BUT, should we count the guy they clocked doing the first 2 mile run leg in 3 minutes and 50 seconds that was listed in front of me a few spots???
Overall, not shabby, I won’t complain. This was a warm up tri for the IM 70.3 KS.
On a Garmin note, I need to invest some time to get up to speed on the multisport function on my 310XT. I tried to just switch modes and it didn’t happen so it treated the whole event as a run. 4 minute miles… not too shabby! Supposedly in multisport mode you hit one button and it moves to the next sport function automatically.
So it’s nice to see as I’m getting older, I can reach down deep and get back to 2006 form. =) Age is only a number, right? Actually, I’ve worked more on BRIK’s this year than in years past and I think it’s showing in the final run. I’ve finished events stronger than in years past. Now, I just need to put that in a bottle to keep for the whole season!
And check it out, I have pictures from this event and they aren’t too lame. =)
At the end as you’ve just pushed yourself to the finish line, they give you a medal and then immediately the photo exchange goes as follows:
Photo guy : Show us your medal
Me : Dude I’m too tired to lift it up…
Photo guy : Show us your medal (while blocking my path across a little bridge back to transition)
Me : I showed him the medal…
PS – I support the University of Kansas, even if they don’t sponsor me. =) AND, I beat the K-State guy at the race!
Overall it was a good race (after which I was on my trainer for 40 miles to get a long weekend in before ½ IM taper since it started raining afterwards). It’s a hometown race and I’ve been in it in one event or another for the past 6 years. It’s got a soft squishy place in my heart. =)
Week’s training below:
Sunday, May 16, 2010
And the winner is....
With much anticipation, the winner of the SOCK CONTEST has been decided!!
RESULTS LINK
Don’t forget, the “other” category was for voters to submit their info for the raffle and wasn’t a vote for other stories.
Story 9. BK in FL
Let me set the scene: I get through the swim to start off my triathlon. Then as I am getting on the bike, I felt the bladder tugging a little, but I thought, eh no big deal, I can make it to the end. Of course I had tried to hydrate well before the race, and was beginning to think I may have to pay for it with a stop to the port-a-potty. I get through the bike, and am running my bike through the transition. Out of NOWHERE, I feel like my bladder is going to explode. And of course I am still wet from the swim, adding to the thoughts of gushing geysers going through my brain. I tried thinking of ANYthing else to get my mind off the ol’ bladder. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking. As I am sitting down in the transition to switch from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, the geyser blows!! And, to make matters worse, there is a guy next to me in the transition, who is chatting about the race and is well within view of my uh….mishap. So, a mysterious trickle appears and is running strangely away from the area of my shorts, and the guy is STILL talking to me. So, I think fast, how do I avoid the awkward question of why there is a stream flowing beneath me? Ah, my water bottle! So, I very obviously say, “OOPS, I DROPPED MY WATER BOTTLE” and proceed to very obviously throw my bottle on the ground, squeezing water out to hopefully mask the other stream that has formed on the ground. Needless to say, I got a strange look, and he probably knew what was going on anyway. I avoided the water bottle for the remainder of the race, rinsed down in the lake afterwards, and changed so my cohorts at the race were none the wiser!
See artist rendering of scene:
Thanks to everyone that submitted a story! BK in FL, drop me a message with your pick of socks and I’ll get that order going!
Also a part of the contest was a raffle for those that voted and liked the FalkeeTriathlon facebook fan page. We had a total of 15 entries. Those were numbered in order of voting and using Random.org, a random number was generated from the 15 entries.
The winner is… #08, GH in PA. Please drop me a line with your 3 digit number you gave me and your address and sock size. Your burrito socks will be in the mail shortly!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed the stories.
Any ideas for a future contest? Gory crash stories? Near miss stories? What would people want to read??
Stay tuned for the Bikesource Triathlon race report. Should be interesting with 55% chance of rain all day and high of 64… yeah.
Also, submit a vote above for a kid name for our second kid, a boy! We had a girl name all picked out but we’re stumped for a boy name.
RESULTS LINK
Don’t forget, the “other” category was for voters to submit their info for the raffle and wasn’t a vote for other stories.
Story 9. BK in FL
Let me set the scene: I get through the swim to start off my triathlon. Then as I am getting on the bike, I felt the bladder tugging a little, but I thought, eh no big deal, I can make it to the end. Of course I had tried to hydrate well before the race, and was beginning to think I may have to pay for it with a stop to the port-a-potty. I get through the bike, and am running my bike through the transition. Out of NOWHERE, I feel like my bladder is going to explode. And of course I am still wet from the swim, adding to the thoughts of gushing geysers going through my brain. I tried thinking of ANYthing else to get my mind off the ol’ bladder. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking. As I am sitting down in the transition to switch from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, the geyser blows!! And, to make matters worse, there is a guy next to me in the transition, who is chatting about the race and is well within view of my uh….mishap. So, a mysterious trickle appears and is running strangely away from the area of my shorts, and the guy is STILL talking to me. So, I think fast, how do I avoid the awkward question of why there is a stream flowing beneath me? Ah, my water bottle! So, I very obviously say, “OOPS, I DROPPED MY WATER BOTTLE” and proceed to very obviously throw my bottle on the ground, squeezing water out to hopefully mask the other stream that has formed on the ground. Needless to say, I got a strange look, and he probably knew what was going on anyway. I avoided the water bottle for the remainder of the race, rinsed down in the lake afterwards, and changed so my cohorts at the race were none the wiser!
See artist rendering of scene:
Thanks to everyone that submitted a story! BK in FL, drop me a message with your pick of socks and I’ll get that order going!
Also a part of the contest was a raffle for those that voted and liked the FalkeeTriathlon facebook fan page. We had a total of 15 entries. Those were numbered in order of voting and using Random.org, a random number was generated from the 15 entries.
The winner is… #08, GH in PA. Please drop me a line with your 3 digit number you gave me and your address and sock size. Your burrito socks will be in the mail shortly!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed the stories.
Any ideas for a future contest? Gory crash stories? Near miss stories? What would people want to read??
Stay tuned for the Bikesource Triathlon race report. Should be interesting with 55% chance of rain all day and high of 64… yeah.
Also, submit a vote above for a kid name for our second kid, a boy! We had a girl name all picked out but we’re stumped for a boy name.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
It's a boy! Oh boy...!!
Check it out, sono of kid number 2 last week revealed we're having a boy! It was pretty obvious, if I do say so myself. I'll spare you from that sono picture but enjoy the profile shot below. He's kicking around in there and doing good!
Now, there are several logistical problems to get past....
1. Names!? We had a girls name picked out in less than ah hour... for a boy's name, it's not so easy. We came up with a list but find ourselves having a hard time deciding. Check out the list and VOTE for your favorite. Don't be fooled... we're not naming the kid after the name with the highest votes, sorry. =)
2. Space. We have 3 bedrooms but one currently is set up as an office. So... we need to finish part of the basement to make an office, move the crap down there and fix up the old office to Riah's big girl room, move her, and use the existing "baby" room as living space for squirt 2. Here's a picture of the process of getting rid of junk in the basement. I just about filled up a trash cart with notes from college... 5 years of my life in the trash. It was sort of hard to part with all of it since I put a lot of work into school, but in the end I never really looked back at the notes for help with work. Anything I did use, I kept, and instead of 4 shelves of school crap, I have 1 shelf. Not bad.
More to come. I'll probably do some progression shots as the basement is cleaned out, prepped and my father comes down to help finish it. He's the carpenter... I'm more of the logistics side.
So, that's all for now! Stay tuned for the Heritage Park Triathlon race report after this weekend and don't forget to VOTE on baby names!
PS - note that I've toned down the marketing on the site. If you are looking for deals and such, see the link at the top right for DEALS and SALES and that will take you to the blog I created just for that purpose. Keeping this blog a little cleaner for the good stuff. =)
PPS - check out the contest for funny story and VOTE before it closes this Friday.
Now, there are several logistical problems to get past....
1. Names!? We had a girls name picked out in less than ah hour... for a boy's name, it's not so easy. We came up with a list but find ourselves having a hard time deciding. Check out the list and VOTE for your favorite. Don't be fooled... we're not naming the kid after the name with the highest votes, sorry. =)
2. Space. We have 3 bedrooms but one currently is set up as an office. So... we need to finish part of the basement to make an office, move the crap down there and fix up the old office to Riah's big girl room, move her, and use the existing "baby" room as living space for squirt 2. Here's a picture of the process of getting rid of junk in the basement. I just about filled up a trash cart with notes from college... 5 years of my life in the trash. It was sort of hard to part with all of it since I put a lot of work into school, but in the end I never really looked back at the notes for help with work. Anything I did use, I kept, and instead of 4 shelves of school crap, I have 1 shelf. Not bad.
More to come. I'll probably do some progression shots as the basement is cleaned out, prepped and my father comes down to help finish it. He's the carpenter... I'm more of the logistics side.
So, that's all for now! Stay tuned for the Heritage Park Triathlon race report after this weekend and don't forget to VOTE on baby names!
PS - note that I've toned down the marketing on the site. If you are looking for deals and such, see the link at the top right for DEALS and SALES and that will take you to the blog I created just for that purpose. Keeping this blog a little cleaner for the good stuff. =)
PPS - check out the contest for funny story and VOTE before it closes this Friday.
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Training Log
So, you may ask, how do you keep track of all your training??
Simple… be diligent about updating my workout log spreadsheet. Most of my workouts are had between the hours of 4:30am and 7:30am. I do squeeze in some lunch swims, but I don’t like doing that too often since it runs me over my lunch hour a little bit. I have my spreadsheet on a jump drive so I can plug in at work and update it real quick right after my workout. Your plan is no good if you don’t know you’re following it… I also use daily mile, but it doesn’t give me the ability to analyze my workouts like I want.
I usually train anywhere from 6 to 10 hours a week at the moment. I’m preparing to up that as I get a last few large volume weeks for the KS ½ IM. In order to improve you need to keep track of your training in order to compare your race results as it relates to training volume and workout types.
If you don’t keep track, even with a busy life, how are you going to know if that new speed workout you’re follow is helping you when you don’t know when you ran it? Is that hill workout having an impact? What about that new bike trainer drill? When did I do that? Which triathlon did I start that??? Are my speeds improving? What was my distance last week compared to a month ago???? With my log, I can keep track!
I’ll post a few screen shots and go over what I find important to my training. Also a disclaimer, I don’t have time to play around with power tap for the bike, heart rate monitors, or most other detailed performance measuring devices. When I go pro (ya right) I’ll invest in that gear. I use one simple tool, my Garmin 310XT. It’s the pinnacle of all GPS tracking for athletes as far as I’m concerned. The only thing it won’t do is accurately measure swims… and if you find a GPS that tracks under water, you let me know!
First, I have where I enter the data and when the week is going on, I want to know how many hours I’ve spent training and what I’ve done. You can see it all there. This is after 5 years of perfecting to show what I need.
Color coded to separate weeks and divided by each discipline.
Right now I have 8 graphs set up with this data:
1. By week, averages for run, bike, swim and total workout time. It’s a little convoluted but a good way to see your training volume by time. It’s also good for looking at past years to watch your volume and averages to see improvements.
2. Swim average speed (time per 100 yards) per week. It’s laid out over 52 weeks and each year is assigned to a data set and transposed over each other. I also plotted the average to see where that places each year. This is good to focus on improvement of speed each year. It also works in concert with #3 so you can see if increasing swimming volume has a correlation to becoming faster.
3. Swim volume per week. Same concept as #2 only with yards per week. It gives you a flavor of knowing if you put your butt in the pool for more yards, does that make you faster? So far, YES!
4. Same concept as #2, only with run average speed (min/miles).
5. Same as #2, only with run volume per week.
6. Same as #2, only with bike speed per week.
7. Same as #2, only with bike volume per week.
8. Same as #2, only with average hours per week training.
1. Screen shot
3. Screen shot
8. Screen shot
So as you can see from some examples, I’m a little OCD about tracking my training… as are most triathlete type people! BUT, it does help me to see if I’m getting more work in this year than last at this point. It helps me to determine if increasing my volume helps with speed. In the case of swimming, I believe so. However, in my running I have incorporated more hill and sprint workouts. Short bursts and rest periods. My average speed for running has gone up this year (takes me longer to run a mile) since I’ve instituted these workouts, but I PR’d my 10k time this year. So by looking back at the data, I can see that I have a lot of hill and sprint runs that drag down my average but with that incorporation, I have improved my running. Proof is in the pudding!
Otherwise, you could be trying all these fad workouts and not able to pinpoint what’s helping you and what’s not. I like, I think I’ll stay with it. =)
Also, don't forget to check out the CONTEST and vote on your favorite story!
Simple… be diligent about updating my workout log spreadsheet. Most of my workouts are had between the hours of 4:30am and 7:30am. I do squeeze in some lunch swims, but I don’t like doing that too often since it runs me over my lunch hour a little bit. I have my spreadsheet on a jump drive so I can plug in at work and update it real quick right after my workout. Your plan is no good if you don’t know you’re following it… I also use daily mile, but it doesn’t give me the ability to analyze my workouts like I want.
I usually train anywhere from 6 to 10 hours a week at the moment. I’m preparing to up that as I get a last few large volume weeks for the KS ½ IM. In order to improve you need to keep track of your training in order to compare your race results as it relates to training volume and workout types.
If you don’t keep track, even with a busy life, how are you going to know if that new speed workout you’re follow is helping you when you don’t know when you ran it? Is that hill workout having an impact? What about that new bike trainer drill? When did I do that? Which triathlon did I start that??? Are my speeds improving? What was my distance last week compared to a month ago???? With my log, I can keep track!
I’ll post a few screen shots and go over what I find important to my training. Also a disclaimer, I don’t have time to play around with power tap for the bike, heart rate monitors, or most other detailed performance measuring devices. When I go pro (ya right) I’ll invest in that gear. I use one simple tool, my Garmin 310XT. It’s the pinnacle of all GPS tracking for athletes as far as I’m concerned. The only thing it won’t do is accurately measure swims… and if you find a GPS that tracks under water, you let me know!
First, I have where I enter the data and when the week is going on, I want to know how many hours I’ve spent training and what I’ve done. You can see it all there. This is after 5 years of perfecting to show what I need.
Color coded to separate weeks and divided by each discipline.
Right now I have 8 graphs set up with this data:
1. By week, averages for run, bike, swim and total workout time. It’s a little convoluted but a good way to see your training volume by time. It’s also good for looking at past years to watch your volume and averages to see improvements.
2. Swim average speed (time per 100 yards) per week. It’s laid out over 52 weeks and each year is assigned to a data set and transposed over each other. I also plotted the average to see where that places each year. This is good to focus on improvement of speed each year. It also works in concert with #3 so you can see if increasing swimming volume has a correlation to becoming faster.
3. Swim volume per week. Same concept as #2 only with yards per week. It gives you a flavor of knowing if you put your butt in the pool for more yards, does that make you faster? So far, YES!
4. Same concept as #2, only with run average speed (min/miles).
5. Same as #2, only with run volume per week.
6. Same as #2, only with bike speed per week.
7. Same as #2, only with bike volume per week.
8. Same as #2, only with average hours per week training.
1. Screen shot
3. Screen shot
8. Screen shot
So as you can see from some examples, I’m a little OCD about tracking my training… as are most triathlete type people! BUT, it does help me to see if I’m getting more work in this year than last at this point. It helps me to determine if increasing my volume helps with speed. In the case of swimming, I believe so. However, in my running I have incorporated more hill and sprint workouts. Short bursts and rest periods. My average speed for running has gone up this year (takes me longer to run a mile) since I’ve instituted these workouts, but I PR’d my 10k time this year. So by looking back at the data, I can see that I have a lot of hill and sprint runs that drag down my average but with that incorporation, I have improved my running. Proof is in the pudding!
Otherwise, you could be trying all these fad workouts and not able to pinpoint what’s helping you and what’s not. I like, I think I’ll stay with it. =)
Also, don't forget to check out the CONTEST and vote on your favorite story!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Social Suppers Reviewed!!
So back in a previous post I described Social Suppers and how they can potentially add some convenience in a jam packed home life.
The family and I decided to try it out. We ordered the chicken lasagna and California veggies. On Wednesday afternoon, I got the call the supper had arrived at my building’s front desk. I thought it would be a bag just sitting on a table I would get from our receptionist. Little did I know the rep from Social Suppers was waiting for me to come down so she could explain the features… storing and cooking. I wasn’t expecting that kind of personal touch. AND, it comes in an insulated bag to keep it cool until you get home to cook it or toss it in the freezer. Pretty good so far!
We decided to go ahead and rip into it the night we got it. We followed the directions; however, at 325 degrees it took longer than 45 minutes to cook the dinner. I think the 325 for 45 minutes might be for food not already frozen. They dinner was pretty frozen when I got it. Mental note for next time… higher temp or start cooking earlier.
So we cooked it until we got a good eating temperature and dug in! Check out this spread!
Please excuse the old school college age Chiefs plastic cup by the plate of fine vittles. It’s old, it was a school night, we were tired, and we have no fine china. Deal with it. =)
Overall the meal was pretty damn good! We had enough for 3 meals for 2 adults and 1 toddler. Still working on the leftovers now! The convenience of the delivery was great as well. All I had to do was go down to our front desk and get it at 4:20. They even called me instead of me having to remember!! The price was around $35 and we got a full 3 meals for our family out of it. Close to restaurant quality food for $11.67 per meal – you can’t get that on the street! We would definitely order that meal again and would use Social Suppers for future meals. They are budget friendly, busy schedule friendly, and it tasted good! We’ll just have to adjust the cooking directions.
I’d give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
Also, check out the sale at Champs! I found my Gel 1140's at a great price FINALLY!
The family and I decided to try it out. We ordered the chicken lasagna and California veggies. On Wednesday afternoon, I got the call the supper had arrived at my building’s front desk. I thought it would be a bag just sitting on a table I would get from our receptionist. Little did I know the rep from Social Suppers was waiting for me to come down so she could explain the features… storing and cooking. I wasn’t expecting that kind of personal touch. AND, it comes in an insulated bag to keep it cool until you get home to cook it or toss it in the freezer. Pretty good so far!
We decided to go ahead and rip into it the night we got it. We followed the directions; however, at 325 degrees it took longer than 45 minutes to cook the dinner. I think the 325 for 45 minutes might be for food not already frozen. They dinner was pretty frozen when I got it. Mental note for next time… higher temp or start cooking earlier.
So we cooked it until we got a good eating temperature and dug in! Check out this spread!
Please excuse the old school college age Chiefs plastic cup by the plate of fine vittles. It’s old, it was a school night, we were tired, and we have no fine china. Deal with it. =)
Overall the meal was pretty damn good! We had enough for 3 meals for 2 adults and 1 toddler. Still working on the leftovers now! The convenience of the delivery was great as well. All I had to do was go down to our front desk and get it at 4:20. They even called me instead of me having to remember!! The price was around $35 and we got a full 3 meals for our family out of it. Close to restaurant quality food for $11.67 per meal – you can’t get that on the street! We would definitely order that meal again and would use Social Suppers for future meals. They are budget friendly, busy schedule friendly, and it tasted good! We’ll just have to adjust the cooking directions.
I’d give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
Also, check out the sale at Champs! I found my Gel 1140's at a great price FINALLY!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sales Sales Sales
Some sales going on out there for the multisport crowd!
Report coming soon on the Social Suppers experiment!!
And FINALLY!! Champs carries my ASICS Gel 1100 series shoes!!!
Onlineshoes.com is having some sales as well and I found some good Asics Gel selections as well!
Report coming soon on the Social Suppers experiment!!
And FINALLY!! Champs carries my ASICS Gel 1100 series shoes!!!
Onlineshoes.com is having some sales as well and I found some good Asics Gel selections as well!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
THE CONTEST IS A GO!
Here are the entries for the embarrassing pre-race story contest.
1. Bob in KY.
This probably won't win your prize but at IM Kansas 70.3 last year (where they have two transition areas---i.e. T1 is about 0.8 miles from T2) I showed up at the swim and ran into another tri-er (Jeff from California).....The race was to start in about 5 minutes and I said can you help me with my wetsuit.....He said "Dude (So California, but so RIGHT ON) you got the thing on backwards".......Indeed I hadn't worn a wetsuit in a triathlon before and I had the zipper in the front.....Jeff and I quickly got me out of the wetsuit (fastest stripping of wetsuit ever!) and got it on the "right" way. It was a great second half IM for me but I will never forget this learning lesson about wetsuits.
2. RCB in FL.
Going through my usual pre-race routine and hitting the port-a-potty, all was going well. However, having my keys in my hand was not my usual routine, and you guessed it, I dropped them into the porta-potty. When I looked down into the hole, I was fortunate to find out the person before me liked to use a lot of toilet paper and my keys landed right on top of a pile of clean looking paper.
3. PDM in KY.
Not so much me, but a guy I knew in Florida said he did a race one year and had bought a brand new pair of bike shoes. Anyway, he had tried them on with his Speedplays, which he used on his road bike to break them in a few weeks leading up to the race. His triathlon bike had Look-compatible. Race day comes and he puts his shoes on realizing he has the WRONG cleats attached! Determined, he attempted to pedal the bike anyway...he figured he paid for the race so he was going to finish it regardless.
4. AFG in TX.
This happened to my coach but not me so figure I will go ahead and share it. This was a few years ago at Collegiate Nationals. His was going to be the first to start and for some reason he was one of the later people to the port-a-johns. I was in the port-a-john next to him. All of a sudden I hear a pounding on the wall..."Hey Chris is there any TP in your stall?"... "No, sorry all out over here"..."#$*&". I said I would go take a look around see if I could find any for him though and just hold tight. In the massive line of port-a-johns all of them were out. When I get back to his stall the announcer is saying it is time for his wave to form up. Well out he comes walking about as tall and proud as man with two shoes but only sock can........
5. BN in OH.
2010 Sarasota Half Marathon - Getting to the race 30 minutes before the start time (early for me) I have the usual nervous lower GI issues. So off to the Porta-Potty line. Wow, did i really "mess" up this time. The line seemed like it was 100 yds long. So the long wait begins. After what seemed an eternity a young guy in a golf cart stops right next to me. He says there are 50 empty potties at the finish line. NO WAITING! It's only a 1/4 mile away. So a young lady asks "can you give us a ride?" Of course. So 5 of us jump in. I'm on the back riding backwards. It's 7 am and very dark. About a mile later we get to the potties. And yes, there is no line. Of course not! We aren't even close to the starting line. So we do our business. And of course I'm the last one out. But where did everyone go? I don't recognize anything since it was dark. So I begin to get really nervous and I take of running to what I think is the starting area. As I reach the corral area I hear "2 minutes" to start. Cut that one way too close. Why would anyone put most of the potties at the finish area??????
6. Bead in NJ.
I got to a sprint race a few years ago and brought my 2 kids who were 2 1/2 and 5 at the time.
They came with me into transition while I set up my space and there were plenty of others doing the same. The girls waited patiently and I explained what I was doing while I got ready. I stripped down to my tri top and shorts and proceeded to put on my wetsuit. As soon as I got it on my 5 year old honestly announced in her overly loud 5 year old voice 'Daddy, you look so fat in that'. Needless to say that brought on chuckles from the 40-50 other triathletes in the immediate area. Since she got such a response she laughed too and then came up to me a patted my belly to emphasize her point, which brought more laughs. Kids will keep you honest ;-)
7. D in CO.
Before the start of a 70.3 this year I had to go bad, really bad. The porta potty situation is bad as there are none near the start that athletes can use and being in the first wave off M25-29 I was rushing to get my transition set up and at least start to get my wetsuit on when nature called me on line two.
I tried to wait in line as long as I could but I honestly had 13 minutes before I had to be in the water, so goggles and cap on, wetsuit at my waist I made my way to some packing stacked up packing crates next to the 18 wheeler they store the transition racks in(saw them loading it after the race). I essentially tried to make myself as invisible as possible as I leaned against the crates with my trisuit, wetsuit around my ankles and answering the line two call.
I'm sure I was seen by at least fifteen people as a white swim cap against a black truck tire doesn't exactly camouflage anything and I still had to run to join my wave and thankfully a volunteer zipped me up as I was entering the water. I tried to return later to clean up after myself but someone had already done it for me which is equally as embarrassing.
8. SG in WI.
Here is a pre race mishap I had 2 years ago.
Woke up the morning of a sprint triathlon and started to get ready. Took my bike out to the car and put it on the bike rack like any other race morning and I put on the cable and lock that I had been using as my bike was going to be sitting on the car for a while and i just wanted to be safe. Headed back inside to finish getting ready and let the Mrs. know it was time to head out. Got in the car and headed to the race site so that I would get there just as transition opened as I like to be early so I can relax before the race. Got to the site, parked the car, and grabbed my bag out of the back seat. Reached in my pocket for my keys and started flipping through them to get to the key for my lock, after going through them 3 times I thought to myself, "crap, where is the stupid key", somehow it fell off my key ring. Through everything back in the car, yelled to my wife to get in, and sped home. Got home, tore through the house and all of my stuff and could not find the key or even the spare.. Walked into my work shop, grabbed my sawzall and proceeded to cut the cable off, I am sure my neighbors enjoyed that sound at 5:45 AM. Sped back to the race site, and got there 20 minutes before the race. On a side note, this race had turned into a du the week before, and I hate running so I was not happy already. 4 miles into the bike I realized I had no rear break, but could not figure out why I couldn't get my speed up, so I got off the bike and determined that while cutting the cable off I kinked my brake cable and my brake was partially engaged for the first 4 miles. Ended up opening the calipers and going with no rear brake for the rest of the race.
Not sure how embarrassing that is, but it sucked pretty bad that morning. I tried to make the best of it though and did the first run portion of the race with a swimcap and goggles on asking everyone when the swim started.
9. BK in FL
Let me set the scene: I get through the swim to start off my triathlon. Then as I am getting on the bike, I felt the bladder tugging a little, but I thought, eh no big deal, I can make it to the end. Of course I had tried to hydrate well before the race, and was beginning to think I may have to pay for it with a stop to the port-a-potty. I get through the bike, and am running my bike through the transition. Out of NOWHERE, I feel like my bladder is going to explode. And of course I am still wet from the swim, adding to the thoughts of gushing geysers going through my brain. I tried thinking of ANYthing else to get my mind off the ol’ bladder. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking. As I am sitting down in the transition to switch from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, the geyser blows!! And, to make matters worse, there is a guy next to me in the transition, who is chatting about the race and is well within view of my uh….mishap. So, a mysterious trickle appears and is running strangely away from the area of my shorts, and the guy is STILL talking to me. So, I think fast, how do I avoid the awkward question of why there is a stream flowing beneath me? Ah, my water bottle! So, I very obviously say, “OOPS, I DROPPED MY WATER BOTTLE” and proceed to very obviously throw my bottle on the ground, squeezing water out to hopefully mask the other stream that has formed on the ground. Needless to say, I got a strange look, and he probably knew what was going on anyway. I avoided the water bottle for the remainder of the race, rinsed down in the lake afterwards, and changed so my cohorts at the race were none the wiser!
10. RM in ??
First time racing in a wet suit I put in on back to front, and just as I realised what I had done this very pretty girl looked at me and laughed, but to her credit she didn't point out the obvious to anyone else.
Also whilst preparing the bike and all of my equipment for transition I thought I would try the rubber bandy thing (I had practiced it several times), so there I was admiring my handy work and thinking that I'm not a noob anymore until a guy on the other side of the rack pointed out that my shoes were on the wrong pedals.
11. TT in NJ
During one sprint, the cheap, plastic band holding my timing chip on broke during T1. $&*@! The guy at the timing mat quickly took down my race number and told me to check in at every timing mat and hand in my chip to an official and they would record my numbers. Don't worry!
In every picture of me on the course you can see me desperately clutching my little chip for dear life. I faithfully handed in my chip at the end and waited.
I am such a suckah. According to the race results...DNF.
(went out an bought my own ankle strap the next day)
12. R from ?
I received some great advice from a seasoned Ironman friend/mentor of mine regarding nature's call on the bike leg: don't stop for a #1 - just get up off your saddle, relax, and let it go. I wasn't sure I could actually do that, but it turns out it was excellent advice and worked. What she assumed I'd know, but didn't actually mention, was that I should move the water bottle out of the seat tube cage before trying it. D'oh.
13. BP in NC
OK. This is more of a funny story about my boss than an embarrassing story about me, but it needs to be told, this seems to be the right place to do so. I have worked for the same man in North Carolina since 1983. Charley is a great guy, usually he has the most uncommon combination of intelligence & common sense, he is the type of guy everyone likes. He has always been behind all of the crazy endurance stuff I put my body through. He was very understanding during my run up to AZIM09, my first 140.6. Race day is upon us and he had previously told me that he was going to follow me on line. His wife has told me that he was never far away from the computer during that day checking my progress. He fully understood about the midnight deadline. He watched and watched until it finally hit midnight, I was not yet finished. Sadly he turned off his computer and turned in for the night. His wife asked how I did, assuming I was done because he was in bed. He told her that I didn't finish in time. She asked, "Isn't this race in Arizona?" It was only than that the time zone difference occurred to him. By the time he fired up his computer and hooked up to Ironman.com athlete tracker, I had finished. He missed what he had waited all day to see.
14. EEM in MN
Picked up my race packet the night before...everything is laid out nicely at home. Next morning set up my transition area with no problems and it's finally time for my wave to wander in the water. I am about to put my cap on and do a little warm up. MY CAP is ONE piece of latex! PANIC. After messing with it forever- with 2 minutes to the horn I fly back on shore and how lucky I was that the MC (of all people?!?!) has a box of extra caps and had one blue one left. Not the most embarrassing story, other than I was the girl who ran OUT of the water VERY frantic BEFORE she began and ran back in as the horn was going off. PS The rest of the swim was awful as my heart was beating about 220 before the horn even went off. I'll never assume my race-issued cap is actually a cap anymore. Lesson learned.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The person with the most votes by 5pm May 14, wins! I'll contact you and get your sock order going!
READ THIS! - If you vote, you will be entered into a raffle for you're own pair of socks! When you vote, choose the story number AND choose "other" and type in your initials, your state and a 3 digit number that I can identify you by if you win the raffle! You get burrito powered socks to go along with the port-a-potty horror story theme! You will also get a BONUS entry into the raffle if you "like" FalkeeTriathlon" on facebook and post the comment "I voted on the embarrassing story contest" by the voting deadline! Up to 2 chances to win socks in the voting raffle! YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THAT!!! Vote on your favorite story using THIS LINK.
Check back in May 17th to see who won the voting and who won the raffle so you can claim your socks and give me your size!!
DISCOUNT OPPORTUNITY!!!
TriVillage has graciously offered a discount code for readers of my blog. Use code triblog to receive a 10% discount on any order you place at http://www.trivillage.com/!
1. Bob in KY.
This probably won't win your prize but at IM Kansas 70.3 last year (where they have two transition areas---i.e. T1 is about 0.8 miles from T2) I showed up at the swim and ran into another tri-er (Jeff from California).....The race was to start in about 5 minutes and I said can you help me with my wetsuit.....He said "Dude (So California, but so RIGHT ON) you got the thing on backwards".......Indeed I hadn't worn a wetsuit in a triathlon before and I had the zipper in the front.....Jeff and I quickly got me out of the wetsuit (fastest stripping of wetsuit ever!) and got it on the "right" way. It was a great second half IM for me but I will never forget this learning lesson about wetsuits.
2. RCB in FL.
Going through my usual pre-race routine and hitting the port-a-potty, all was going well. However, having my keys in my hand was not my usual routine, and you guessed it, I dropped them into the porta-potty. When I looked down into the hole, I was fortunate to find out the person before me liked to use a lot of toilet paper and my keys landed right on top of a pile of clean looking paper.
3. PDM in KY.
Not so much me, but a guy I knew in Florida said he did a race one year and had bought a brand new pair of bike shoes. Anyway, he had tried them on with his Speedplays, which he used on his road bike to break them in a few weeks leading up to the race. His triathlon bike had Look-compatible. Race day comes and he puts his shoes on realizing he has the WRONG cleats attached! Determined, he attempted to pedal the bike anyway...he figured he paid for the race so he was going to finish it regardless.
4. AFG in TX.
This happened to my coach but not me so figure I will go ahead and share it. This was a few years ago at Collegiate Nationals. His was going to be the first to start and for some reason he was one of the later people to the port-a-johns. I was in the port-a-john next to him. All of a sudden I hear a pounding on the wall..."Hey Chris is there any TP in your stall?"... "No, sorry all out over here"..."#$*&". I said I would go take a look around see if I could find any for him though and just hold tight. In the massive line of port-a-johns all of them were out. When I get back to his stall the announcer is saying it is time for his wave to form up. Well out he comes walking about as tall and proud as man with two shoes but only sock can........
5. BN in OH.
2010 Sarasota Half Marathon - Getting to the race 30 minutes before the start time (early for me) I have the usual nervous lower GI issues. So off to the Porta-Potty line. Wow, did i really "mess" up this time. The line seemed like it was 100 yds long. So the long wait begins. After what seemed an eternity a young guy in a golf cart stops right next to me. He says there are 50 empty potties at the finish line. NO WAITING! It's only a 1/4 mile away. So a young lady asks "can you give us a ride?" Of course. So 5 of us jump in. I'm on the back riding backwards. It's 7 am and very dark. About a mile later we get to the potties. And yes, there is no line. Of course not! We aren't even close to the starting line. So we do our business. And of course I'm the last one out. But where did everyone go? I don't recognize anything since it was dark. So I begin to get really nervous and I take of running to what I think is the starting area. As I reach the corral area I hear "2 minutes" to start. Cut that one way too close. Why would anyone put most of the potties at the finish area??????
6. Bead in NJ.
I got to a sprint race a few years ago and brought my 2 kids who were 2 1/2 and 5 at the time.
They came with me into transition while I set up my space and there were plenty of others doing the same. The girls waited patiently and I explained what I was doing while I got ready. I stripped down to my tri top and shorts and proceeded to put on my wetsuit. As soon as I got it on my 5 year old honestly announced in her overly loud 5 year old voice 'Daddy, you look so fat in that'. Needless to say that brought on chuckles from the 40-50 other triathletes in the immediate area. Since she got such a response she laughed too and then came up to me a patted my belly to emphasize her point, which brought more laughs. Kids will keep you honest ;-)
7. D in CO.
Before the start of a 70.3 this year I had to go bad, really bad. The porta potty situation is bad as there are none near the start that athletes can use and being in the first wave off M25-29 I was rushing to get my transition set up and at least start to get my wetsuit on when nature called me on line two.
I tried to wait in line as long as I could but I honestly had 13 minutes before I had to be in the water, so goggles and cap on, wetsuit at my waist I made my way to some packing stacked up packing crates next to the 18 wheeler they store the transition racks in(saw them loading it after the race). I essentially tried to make myself as invisible as possible as I leaned against the crates with my trisuit, wetsuit around my ankles and answering the line two call.
I'm sure I was seen by at least fifteen people as a white swim cap against a black truck tire doesn't exactly camouflage anything and I still had to run to join my wave and thankfully a volunteer zipped me up as I was entering the water. I tried to return later to clean up after myself but someone had already done it for me which is equally as embarrassing.
8. SG in WI.
Here is a pre race mishap I had 2 years ago.
Woke up the morning of a sprint triathlon and started to get ready. Took my bike out to the car and put it on the bike rack like any other race morning and I put on the cable and lock that I had been using as my bike was going to be sitting on the car for a while and i just wanted to be safe. Headed back inside to finish getting ready and let the Mrs. know it was time to head out. Got in the car and headed to the race site so that I would get there just as transition opened as I like to be early so I can relax before the race. Got to the site, parked the car, and grabbed my bag out of the back seat. Reached in my pocket for my keys and started flipping through them to get to the key for my lock, after going through them 3 times I thought to myself, "crap, where is the stupid key", somehow it fell off my key ring. Through everything back in the car, yelled to my wife to get in, and sped home. Got home, tore through the house and all of my stuff and could not find the key or even the spare.. Walked into my work shop, grabbed my sawzall and proceeded to cut the cable off, I am sure my neighbors enjoyed that sound at 5:45 AM. Sped back to the race site, and got there 20 minutes before the race. On a side note, this race had turned into a du the week before, and I hate running so I was not happy already. 4 miles into the bike I realized I had no rear break, but could not figure out why I couldn't get my speed up, so I got off the bike and determined that while cutting the cable off I kinked my brake cable and my brake was partially engaged for the first 4 miles. Ended up opening the calipers and going with no rear brake for the rest of the race.
Not sure how embarrassing that is, but it sucked pretty bad that morning. I tried to make the best of it though and did the first run portion of the race with a swimcap and goggles on asking everyone when the swim started.
9. BK in FL
Let me set the scene: I get through the swim to start off my triathlon. Then as I am getting on the bike, I felt the bladder tugging a little, but I thought, eh no big deal, I can make it to the end. Of course I had tried to hydrate well before the race, and was beginning to think I may have to pay for it with a stop to the port-a-potty. I get through the bike, and am running my bike through the transition. Out of NOWHERE, I feel like my bladder is going to explode. And of course I am still wet from the swim, adding to the thoughts of gushing geysers going through my brain. I tried thinking of ANYthing else to get my mind off the ol’ bladder. Well, so much for the power of positive thinking. As I am sitting down in the transition to switch from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, the geyser blows!! And, to make matters worse, there is a guy next to me in the transition, who is chatting about the race and is well within view of my uh….mishap. So, a mysterious trickle appears and is running strangely away from the area of my shorts, and the guy is STILL talking to me. So, I think fast, how do I avoid the awkward question of why there is a stream flowing beneath me? Ah, my water bottle! So, I very obviously say, “OOPS, I DROPPED MY WATER BOTTLE” and proceed to very obviously throw my bottle on the ground, squeezing water out to hopefully mask the other stream that has formed on the ground. Needless to say, I got a strange look, and he probably knew what was going on anyway. I avoided the water bottle for the remainder of the race, rinsed down in the lake afterwards, and changed so my cohorts at the race were none the wiser!
10. RM in ??
First time racing in a wet suit I put in on back to front, and just as I realised what I had done this very pretty girl looked at me and laughed, but to her credit she didn't point out the obvious to anyone else.
Also whilst preparing the bike and all of my equipment for transition I thought I would try the rubber bandy thing (I had practiced it several times), so there I was admiring my handy work and thinking that I'm not a noob anymore until a guy on the other side of the rack pointed out that my shoes were on the wrong pedals.
11. TT in NJ
During one sprint, the cheap, plastic band holding my timing chip on broke during T1. $&*@! The guy at the timing mat quickly took down my race number and told me to check in at every timing mat and hand in my chip to an official and they would record my numbers. Don't worry!
In every picture of me on the course you can see me desperately clutching my little chip for dear life. I faithfully handed in my chip at the end and waited.
I am such a suckah. According to the race results...DNF.
(went out an bought my own ankle strap the next day)
12. R from ?
I received some great advice from a seasoned Ironman friend/mentor of mine regarding nature's call on the bike leg: don't stop for a #1 - just get up off your saddle, relax, and let it go. I wasn't sure I could actually do that, but it turns out it was excellent advice and worked. What she assumed I'd know, but didn't actually mention, was that I should move the water bottle out of the seat tube cage before trying it. D'oh.
13. BP in NC
OK. This is more of a funny story about my boss than an embarrassing story about me, but it needs to be told, this seems to be the right place to do so. I have worked for the same man in North Carolina since 1983. Charley is a great guy, usually he has the most uncommon combination of intelligence & common sense, he is the type of guy everyone likes. He has always been behind all of the crazy endurance stuff I put my body through. He was very understanding during my run up to AZIM09, my first 140.6. Race day is upon us and he had previously told me that he was going to follow me on line. His wife has told me that he was never far away from the computer during that day checking my progress. He fully understood about the midnight deadline. He watched and watched until it finally hit midnight, I was not yet finished. Sadly he turned off his computer and turned in for the night. His wife asked how I did, assuming I was done because he was in bed. He told her that I didn't finish in time. She asked, "Isn't this race in Arizona?" It was only than that the time zone difference occurred to him. By the time he fired up his computer and hooked up to Ironman.com athlete tracker, I had finished. He missed what he had waited all day to see.
14. EEM in MN
Picked up my race packet the night before...everything is laid out nicely at home. Next morning set up my transition area with no problems and it's finally time for my wave to wander in the water. I am about to put my cap on and do a little warm up. MY CAP is ONE piece of latex! PANIC. After messing with it forever- with 2 minutes to the horn I fly back on shore and how lucky I was that the MC (of all people?!?!) has a box of extra caps and had one blue one left. Not the most embarrassing story, other than I was the girl who ran OUT of the water VERY frantic BEFORE she began and ran back in as the horn was going off. PS The rest of the swim was awful as my heart was beating about 220 before the horn even went off. I'll never assume my race-issued cap is actually a cap anymore. Lesson learned.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The person with the most votes by 5pm May 14, wins! I'll contact you and get your sock order going!
READ THIS! - If you vote, you will be entered into a raffle for you're own pair of socks! When you vote, choose the story number AND choose "other" and type in your initials, your state and a 3 digit number that I can identify you by if you win the raffle! You get burrito powered socks to go along with the port-a-potty horror story theme! You will also get a BONUS entry into the raffle if you "like" FalkeeTriathlon" on facebook and post the comment "I voted on the embarrassing story contest" by the voting deadline! Up to 2 chances to win socks in the voting raffle! YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THAT!!! Vote on your favorite story using THIS LINK.
Check back in May 17th to see who won the voting and who won the raffle so you can claim your socks and give me your size!!
DISCOUNT OPPORTUNITY!!!
TriVillage has graciously offered a discount code for readers of my blog. Use code triblog to receive a 10% discount on any order you place at http://www.trivillage.com/!
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