G8r80's training / dieting / cycling / log
- Thread starter g8r80
- Start date
I received the bottom half of my tri wetsuit today. I practiced stripping it without help and it was no problem. This tri wetsuit with the larger calf openings is a lot easier to put on and take off than my 6.5 mm tight dive wetsuit. The Body glide helps too.
In the pool, I am buoyant enough to breath while upright, which will allow me to rest for a few seconds after every 50 or 100 yards. I noticed when swimming that my legs were right at the surface, right where my swim coach wants them to be.
I am going to do one more drill before I leave Saturday; swim 22 laps in my pool with the wetsuit and without touching the bottom. But I am not running or cycling today or tomorrow.
In the pool, I am buoyant enough to breath while upright, which will allow me to rest for a few seconds after every 50 or 100 yards. I noticed when swimming that my legs were right at the surface, right where my swim coach wants them to be.
I am going to do one more drill before I leave Saturday; swim 22 laps in my pool with the wetsuit and without touching the bottom. But I am not running or cycling today or tomorrow.
The wife and I went out to dinner and drinking afterwards so I am not going swimming today.
On another note, I have progressively changed my clothing from XL shirts and 36 pants in 2006 to M or L shirts and 33 pants today. For laughs, my wife had me try on my younger son's size 32 shorts. While they are a little too snug to be comfortable for long, the fact that I can wear them after a 20year hiatus is very encouraging. I realize that US pants are looser to accommodate jumbo-sized Americans, but nevertheless, I have lost 4 pant sizes and am pleased with that.
On another note, I have progressively changed my clothing from XL shirts and 36 pants in 2006 to M or L shirts and 33 pants today. For laughs, my wife had me try on my younger son's size 32 shorts. While they are a little too snug to be comfortable for long, the fact that I can wear them after a 20year hiatus is very encouraging. I realize that US pants are looser to accommodate jumbo-sized Americans, but nevertheless, I have lost 4 pant sizes and am pleased with that.
My wife, my daughter, my older son and I flew from Tampa to Minneapolis/St. Paul airport Saturday morning. The Northwest ticket counter agent gave us the wrong bag claim and one of our bags didn't make it and still hasn't 36 hours later. There was a 1 in 5 chance that the bag that didn't make it had my mask, wetsuit, shorts and cycling shoes that I needed. Fortunately, the misplaced bag contained clothes for my son and some work stuff that is not critical.
We get to MSP, file a baggage claim and drive to the hotel where I had shipped my bike. It is there waiting for me. We drive the 50 miles to Rochester and pick up the pre-race info. There is an overview and we are told that the hills are harder than many think (certainly harder than I was thinking). I had broken my front derailleur in Alaska 3 weeks ago and my local bike shop had difficulty finding a replacement for the old Klein with its oddball 31.8mm tubing. I was planning on riding the bike in the big chainring exclusively as I did not think hills would be an issue. With hills, I decide to get a replacement derailleur and I stop at the sponsoring bike shop and take care of this. Afterwards, I drove the bike leg and I could have ridden the bike in the small chainring exclusively, but with some decrease in speed.
This morning I have breakfast at the hotel and we all go to the site. I am anxious to get going. I am in the 14th wave, 40+ sprint. The horn goes off and we're off. Just like I was told, it looked like a school of mackeral attacking baitfish at the surface. Arms, legs, frothy water everywhere. I make reasonable progress for the first 100 yards with 1 stop. I look at my HRM and it is flashing 155, way higher than I can maintain. I stop and hang on a float while my heart rate drops to 145. I continue. I repeat this process for the rest of the way, having to stop about every 50 yards. I am the last person to finish in my wave and because I was in the last wave, I was the last person out of the water.: (As I was finishing, Joan told the announcer that I had aortic surgery 12 weeks earlier and he announced it a big ovation. That was very moving, even though I was too fatigued to really appreciate it.
I hobble to the T1 and my T1 is loooonnnng. I was concerned that I would be cold on the bike leg, so I swam shirtless under my wetsuit. But, although I was able to get the wetsuit off easily, I had a ****ens of a time getting my shirt on. Then, because I was still somewhat winded, I took another 2 minutes to put my socks, which didn't hurt me much in the big scheme.
I finally get out of there and, surprisingly, I am not the last person out! I don't have much zip in my legs, still recovering from a very hard swim effort, but take off and promptly run down 15 - 20 riders, fighting wind and uphills, a nasty combination, much of the way. At the 5 mile turnaround mark, I am refreshed and have a long downhill with a strong tailwind. I hit high 30's on a downhill and a few seconds later hear pffffffft from my front tire. Now most folks don't carry spare tubes on a sprint, thinking that if you flat you're probably out of the money anyways, but who wants to carry a bike 4 miles? I replace the front tube, start to pump it up and no air is going in!
I check the nipple and realize it is cracked and breaks off. A rider goes by and I tell him mechanical failure, send help. A volunteer shows up and I tell him I am done. Then, I think, ya know, I came here all this way, I have been preparing for this for months, it is my first triathlon since my surgery and carrying a bike 4 miles isn't gonna kill me! I take off my shoes and start walking with the bike over my shoulder all the way back in my socks. After about 1/4 mile, rider 97, Valerie, pulls over and asks if I need a tube as there was no tire on my front wheel. I say yeah and she says she has two! I graciously accept and am back on my way. I pass several riders, but the tire issue cost me 30 minutes.
I do a faster T2 and am on the road again. I am totally fatigued and trying to keep my heart rate under 155. I stop 3 times and walk for 20 - 30 yards and resume.
My 1/4 mile swim time was 14:22, slow as expected, run time was 29:45, a little faster than I expected. There was no bike time or T1 time, but if I subtract the swim, T2 and run from the total, my bike time + T1 equals 72 minutes. My total chip time was 1:56 which included my 30 minutes of down time on the bike.
Overall, I am pleased with these results. With better luck with the front tire and I would have broken my goal of 1:30.
#256
A reporter for the Rochester Post Bulletin interviewed me about my experiences with surgery and this triathlon. The story should be online tomorrow.
Here is Drex and his daughter and me. Drex, his wife and daughter made the hour drive from near St. Paul to Rochester to watch my effort. That was very cool. Drex and I are gonna work out and ride this week.
We get to MSP, file a baggage claim and drive to the hotel where I had shipped my bike. It is there waiting for me. We drive the 50 miles to Rochester and pick up the pre-race info. There is an overview and we are told that the hills are harder than many think (certainly harder than I was thinking). I had broken my front derailleur in Alaska 3 weeks ago and my local bike shop had difficulty finding a replacement for the old Klein with its oddball 31.8mm tubing. I was planning on riding the bike in the big chainring exclusively as I did not think hills would be an issue. With hills, I decide to get a replacement derailleur and I stop at the sponsoring bike shop and take care of this. Afterwards, I drove the bike leg and I could have ridden the bike in the small chainring exclusively, but with some decrease in speed.
This morning I have breakfast at the hotel and we all go to the site. I am anxious to get going. I am in the 14th wave, 40+ sprint. The horn goes off and we're off. Just like I was told, it looked like a school of mackeral attacking baitfish at the surface. Arms, legs, frothy water everywhere. I make reasonable progress for the first 100 yards with 1 stop. I look at my HRM and it is flashing 155, way higher than I can maintain. I stop and hang on a float while my heart rate drops to 145. I continue. I repeat this process for the rest of the way, having to stop about every 50 yards. I am the last person to finish in my wave and because I was in the last wave, I was the last person out of the water.: (As I was finishing, Joan told the announcer that I had aortic surgery 12 weeks earlier and he announced it a big ovation. That was very moving, even though I was too fatigued to really appreciate it.
I hobble to the T1 and my T1 is loooonnnng. I was concerned that I would be cold on the bike leg, so I swam shirtless under my wetsuit. But, although I was able to get the wetsuit off easily, I had a ****ens of a time getting my shirt on. Then, because I was still somewhat winded, I took another 2 minutes to put my socks, which didn't hurt me much in the big scheme.
I finally get out of there and, surprisingly, I am not the last person out! I don't have much zip in my legs, still recovering from a very hard swim effort, but take off and promptly run down 15 - 20 riders, fighting wind and uphills, a nasty combination, much of the way. At the 5 mile turnaround mark, I am refreshed and have a long downhill with a strong tailwind. I hit high 30's on a downhill and a few seconds later hear pffffffft from my front tire. Now most folks don't carry spare tubes on a sprint, thinking that if you flat you're probably out of the money anyways, but who wants to carry a bike 4 miles? I replace the front tube, start to pump it up and no air is going in!
I check the nipple and realize it is cracked and breaks off. A rider goes by and I tell him mechanical failure, send help. A volunteer shows up and I tell him I am done. Then, I think, ya know, I came here all this way, I have been preparing for this for months, it is my first triathlon since my surgery and carrying a bike 4 miles isn't gonna kill me! I take off my shoes and start walking with the bike over my shoulder all the way back in my socks. After about 1/4 mile, rider 97, Valerie, pulls over and asks if I need a tube as there was no tire on my front wheel. I say yeah and she says she has two! I graciously accept and am back on my way. I pass several riders, but the tire issue cost me 30 minutes.I do a faster T2 and am on the road again. I am totally fatigued and trying to keep my heart rate under 155. I stop 3 times and walk for 20 - 30 yards and resume.
My 1/4 mile swim time was 14:22, slow as expected, run time was 29:45, a little faster than I expected. There was no bike time or T1 time, but if I subtract the swim, T2 and run from the total, my bike time + T1 equals 72 minutes. My total chip time was 1:56 which included my 30 minutes of down time on the bike.
Overall, I am pleased with these results. With better luck with the front tire and I would have broken my goal of 1:30.
#256
A reporter for the Rochester Post Bulletin interviewed me about my experiences with surgery and this triathlon. The story should be online tomorrow.
Here is Drex and his daughter and me. Drex, his wife and daughter made the hour drive from near St. Paul to Rochester to watch my effort. That was very cool. Drex and I are gonna work out and ride this week.
Last edited:
Monday: rest day.
Tuesday: gym day. Worked out with Drex. He is an animal!
Bench Press: 135x5x3
Dumbbell Shrugs: 55x10x3
Dumbbell bicep curls: 20x10x4
Hack squats: 10x3
One handed lat pulldowns (to simulate swim stroke): 10x4
Dead lift: 135x10x3, 155x10x1
Ran 2 miles
Wednesday: Cycled 20 miles with Drex. 17.8 mph avg.
Tuesday: gym day. Worked out with Drex. He is an animal!
Bench Press: 135x5x3
Dumbbell Shrugs: 55x10x3
Dumbbell bicep curls: 20x10x4
Hack squats: 10x3
One handed lat pulldowns (to simulate swim stroke): 10x4
Dead lift: 135x10x3, 155x10x1
Ran 2 miles
Wednesday: Cycled 20 miles with Drex. 17.8 mph avg.
I assume you are going to post the link or post it here for us to view?
That is just fantastic, Richard......We are all humbled by your growth and personal accomplishments.
Thank you for sharing your life and experiences on the forum.
I am glad you had a good time with Drex.
TO MUCH SUCCESS, young man!
Best wishes,
Chillen
Last edited:
Thats a pretty sweet article dude. Your story is quite amazing.
I didn't know you were a wetlands scientist. Do you get to wrestle alligators down there? LOL
My cousin lives in Tampa next time we are down there to see her we'll have to hook up and go for a bike ride.
Sounds great. You'll have to put me on some Tarpon or Redfish. LOL
Okey dokey. The mainstay in Tampa Bay are redfish, spotted seatrout, spanish mackeral, kingfish, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, snook, and tarpon. Reds, seatrout and snook have seasons. All have minimum sizes and some have slot sizes. Spanish macks, kings and poons (tarpon) are migratory so they are either present or not.
I can usually catch any of the above if they are around and if I target them. Snook are sneaky bastards and I have trouble with them. Poons are strong mutherf***ers and if you latch onto one of those, you'd better have you schedule free for the next 2 hours.
Weekly hammerfest bike ride: 48 miles, 18.5 mph avg. on the road with stop signs, red lights, traffic, etc. This was a brisk pace and I pulled more than my share and attacked several times with some fast accelerations. This was a blast having much, if not all, of my energy, strength and endurance back.
I think I might have been as strong as I ever was. Hopefully, this wasn't a fluke. I am gonna test myself next saturday with an 86 or 100 miler with Flyinfree.
Also, I swam in the pool yesterday with my daughter. It was too warm to wear both my sleeveless and Desoto pullover, so I just wore the sleeveless. I couldn't believe how it helped me. It lifted my legs up but not my chest and made me either horizontal or even slightly tilted downward. I had much better positioning with the 3/5 mil sleeveless than I did with the sleeveless / Desoto pullover. I went 11 laps in the home pool, 220 yards, without having to take a break. Either I am that much stronger than I was a week ago (unlikely) or the sleeveless wetsuit helped me that much.
I am going to swim with the sleeveless for a while as I am psyched about this. If I could have trimmed off 5 minutes off the swim to 10 minutes (still slow), speed up my T1 time, not flat on the bike and do sub :30 on the run, I could probably have done that sprint in 1:20 - 1:25, which I would be proud of.
I think I might have been as strong as I ever was. Hopefully, this wasn't a fluke. I am gonna test myself next saturday with an 86 or 100 miler with Flyinfree.
Also, I swam in the pool yesterday with my daughter. It was too warm to wear both my sleeveless and Desoto pullover, so I just wore the sleeveless. I couldn't believe how it helped me. It lifted my legs up but not my chest and made me either horizontal or even slightly tilted downward. I had much better positioning with the 3/5 mil sleeveless than I did with the sleeveless / Desoto pullover. I went 11 laps in the home pool, 220 yards, without having to take a break. Either I am that much stronger than I was a week ago (unlikely) or the sleeveless wetsuit helped me that much.
I am going to swim with the sleeveless for a while as I am psyched about this. If I could have trimmed off 5 minutes off the swim to 10 minutes (still slow), speed up my T1 time, not flat on the bike and do sub :30 on the run, I could probably have done that sprint in 1:20 - 1:25, which I would be proud of.
Swam in the sleeveless tri wetsuit:
440x2 continuous (no rest stops): 10 min each. I could have done a continuous 880. Heart rate was controllable the entire way but I did start getting arm fatigue and form breakup near the end of the second set.
This was an incredible step up from just last Sunday when I needed 14 minutes to go 440, needed several rest stops, and was too fatigued to hop on the bike and take off. I have to attribute at least some of this to the wetsuit, but the rest?
880 is about halfway to the 1500m of my Pumpkinman oly length in October. With a lot more preparation and a little, well, lot of luck, a Boulder City News writer will be writing about a 49yo triathlete 6 months out of aorta open heart surgery coming out of the water in mid-pack, chasing down many of the riders in his age group, covering the 10K in less than 55 minutes and doing a respectable time in his age group!
On the downside, I hit a nasty pothole yesterday and it threw my rear wheel out of whack. The rim is not bent, but I will have to true it when I get back from Boston Friday evening before I meet up with Flyinfree to ride. I splurged and bought a Park professional truing stand a few months ago and am pretty good at wheel truing. Also, my right knee has no ACL from a softball injury in 1983, but, amazing, has not bothered me since then, but acts up a little now in the morning.
I owe myself 50 pushups when I settle into my Woburn hotel tonight.
440x2 continuous (no rest stops): 10 min each. I could have done a continuous 880. Heart rate was controllable the entire way but I did start getting arm fatigue and form breakup near the end of the second set.
This was an incredible step up from just last Sunday when I needed 14 minutes to go 440, needed several rest stops, and was too fatigued to hop on the bike and take off. I have to attribute at least some of this to the wetsuit, but the rest?
880 is about halfway to the 1500m of my Pumpkinman oly length in October. With a lot more preparation and a little, well, lot of luck, a Boulder City News writer will be writing about a 49yo triathlete 6 months out of aorta open heart surgery coming out of the water in mid-pack, chasing down many of the riders in his age group, covering the 10K in less than 55 minutes and doing a respectable time in his age group!
On the downside, I hit a nasty pothole yesterday and it threw my rear wheel out of whack. The rim is not bent, but I will have to true it when I get back from Boston Friday evening before I meet up with Flyinfree to ride. I splurged and bought a Park professional truing stand a few months ago and am pretty good at wheel truing. Also, my right knee has no ACL from a softball injury in 1983, but, amazing, has not bothered me since then, but acts up a little now in the morning.
I owe myself 50 pushups when I settle into my Woburn hotel tonight.
Last edited:
S
sparrow
Guest
Get down with your bad self...look at you run! Good job!
I am on the road (Woburn, Massachusetts, near Boston) and after a long work day, I went to the YMCA.
100 x 4, 50x8 (800 yards) in the pool. Without a wetsuit, this was tough going. It is sooo much easier in a wetsuit I just couldn't get my legs up.
Deadlift: 135x10, 185x10x3
Squat: 135x5x3
Bicep curls: 25x10x3 each arm
One armed lat pulldowns: 70x10x3 each arm
Stationary bike: 35 minutes @ moderately hard pace, avg. heart rate: 140
50 pushups
100 x 4, 50x8 (800 yards) in the pool. Without a wetsuit, this was tough going. It is sooo much easier in a wetsuit I just couldn't get my legs up.
Deadlift: 135x10, 185x10x3
Squat: 135x5x3
Bicep curls: 25x10x3 each arm
One armed lat pulldowns: 70x10x3 each arm
Stationary bike: 35 minutes @ moderately hard pace, avg. heart rate: 140
50 pushups