Bozeman Triathlon

Saturday Schedule- Heading to Helena on Saturday by 3:30pm. Am driving over bike racks for the race. Not sure about what we are doing on Friday. Kind of would like to go camping or something. I need to talk to Erik and see if we need to work on the house. Sorry this is so up in the air. 

Me laughing because there were two people standing there clapping. Gotta love the low key Bozeman race. 

Race report- Taped up my foot on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think it helped a lot. On Saturday evening it wasn't hurting at all. Taped it this morning (Monday too. Just to keep it on track). Got heat and start time on Friday. I was wave two. Women went three minutes after the men. At first a little annoyed but then decided I wanted to outright win the race and if those men were in front they would be good rabbits. Turns out they aren't very good swimming rabbits, passed most of them in the swim.
Swim-Warmed up for the swim. Glad I did because felt better swimming after warming up than during. Feeling more confident in the water. Stayed pretty close to the front girls and passed all but one in transition. I think there were about 4 or 5 that exited the water together.
Bike-Got onto the bike and had a hard time finding my biking legs. Was feeling like I was in a bubble. Finally, on the way back I was able to settle in a better groove. Got a little off my game when I went to turn at the lollipop and the woman stopped me and told me to go straight that they had changed the route. Took a minute to re-group and then realized when I was coming back that were were crossing traffic (each other). I hope nobody wrecked. That was a mistake. Also, got held up on this fast downhill that I had been practicing by a truck that was all freaked out by the bikers on the road. Had to come to a stop and slow down a lot down the hill. I was bummed because I had practiced that hill. Oh, well. Only passed a couple of men at the beginning of the ride and another woman and then I was alone.
Run- Did what you said. Settle into good form for the first few minutes. Tried to make myself relax and not be too worried about my speed. My foot wasn't hurting. My feet were also numb, so that may have helped. Just stayed relaxed and got good turnover. There was a guy in front of me going the same speed, so the last 1/4 mile or so I decided I had to pass him and he slowed down in the woods. Passed him! Ran it in. Had no idea how I had placed and the finish line is always such a cluster with racers. Nobody knew who was finishing where. I think it is kind of disappointing. I think having a good announcer engaging the spectators and the racers is really nice for a race. Anyway, come to find out I ran faster than I ever have on that course! I am totally convinced all this PT and being physically more healthy is the key. I am getting another bike fit tomorrow (for my cross bike) and I am going to talk to Jason about my hamstring. If I can get that better I am going to be so set for running! I will trade PT for running time if it keeps me healthy.

Summary- Swim- great
                 Bike- so so
                 Run- surprised myself- yeah! pace 7:08, fastest pace from previous years was a 7:23.
Time 1:14:50 or something. Four minutes faster than last year and two from the time before that. 1st female and 3rd overall. There was one girl about 3 minutes behind, but other than that we destroyed the field. I guess the Tritons race is not the Grizzly :)

Am excited to have a longer ride next week at Spring Meadow. More time to settle in.

race week!

Schedule- Next week Monday and Wednesday will be somewhat busy work days. 10 mice so not huge but will try to run flow the same day too.  July 9th- Just to forewarn you is the annual booze cruise. Leave work at 1pm and party on the river for the rest of the day.

The week:
Swim on Wednesday - The one with all the 50s went really well. Was focused on my power of positiveity kept imagining swimming 5 seconds faster. Never got that fast but did cut a few seconds here and there. I felt like it was a great swim.

Thursday- Great ride- Left work early because it was my anniversary and wanted to get all my shit done. The three minutes were great. I did them on the Tritons course. I feel like I have a good sense of my efforts for the race. There are a couple of places that are tricky hard. Now I mentally know that.  That ride wasn't super long but I was feeling pretty tired by the time dinner rolled around.

Weekend:
Well the weekend started out a little rocky and I just never could get my groove on. After going out on Thursday I was tired Friday. I was very excited to run on Friday after work and I did go get the swim done, but then this big storm blew in right at 5pm. I left work and got blown away and rained on trying to get home. Was super tired and ended up attempting PT, ordering pizza, laying on the couch, and going to bed early. Basically started out without the run.
     Saturday rolled around and I was told that my Dad and Aaron were working on the house. Erik and I headed over there to help. Ended up shoveling this huge pile of gravel into the garage for the concrete slab, laying down and tying off some wire mesh, and then lifting this huge beam and putting it up onto the first floor deck. Then my old roommate came by who is doing our radiant heat and it was 5pm. I headed over to the pond for the swim and brought my running clothes. Did the swim, which hurt because my back and arms were tired from shoveling, and then went on a 30 minute run to test my foot. Totally missed the ride on Saturday and was tired.
   So, then Sunday rolls around. I was so excited to ride with Haley Chura and of course it has to be pouring rain. The forecast called for it to just get worse. I did a bunch of stuff around the house, mopped the floor, did the laundry, vacuumed and then got on the trainer. The forecast was backwards because the sun ended up coming out. I still wasn't trusting the weather. Then I got your email. In the end I rode the trainer for 3:30 and didn't get outside.  I added the extra 30 on because of the time I got off to check the weather, adjust the TV, get more food etc. I also really rode until I was tired. After the weekend I needed to ride myself to tiredness. The three hours just seemed like a good amount of time too. Not too much and not too little. Stupid weather. I think I need to move. Seriously.

50lbs of maltodextrin for 56 bucks and isn't that cat so awesome?!

pile of gravel that we shoveled on Saturday

house has most of first floor walls

My foot- Thought a lot about where the pain is and when it hurts. Wore my running shoes to my PT appointment on Thursday. We put superfeet in my shoes. It looks like I am kind of shifting my foot inward when I take off. The superfeet force my foot outward a little. On Saturday when I ran in the superfeet my foot felt okay on uphill/pavement but hurt on slight downhills and on trails/gravel.  However, on Sunday I definitely noticed (when massaging my foot) that the pain has gotten smaller. Where it used to hurt it no longer does. There is still a bit of pain on my heal but the area is getting smaller and very pinpointed. So, my diagnosis is. I tore the tendon a little bit and it has not been getting the attention and rest it needs to heal. The superfeet are now taking the pressure off the area so that it can get the rest it needs to heal. I think that if I keep stretching, keep the superfeet in my shoes, and keep massaging it, it should go away in a short period of time. I also think I am going to ask Jason about taping it because walking seems to hurt more than running. Maybe if I can keep it mobilized during the day better it will get a chance to heal.  I think if I keep the superfeet in there it isn't going to keep getting injured. So, a couple more weeks to heal it up and then hopefully I can run normal again. I think the process has been slow because even though I haven't been running a lot I was still aggravating it each time I  did run and I think even walking.

Sunday Race- What to expect from myself? I was thinking that I am going to swim as hard as I can and bike as hard as I can and run as hard as I can. However, I am not going to beat myself up if the run doesn't feel very good, or I can't get going as fast as I would like. I want to think my legs will show up, but my runs haven't been feeling that great the last couple of times. I really want to win this race! Super stoked to get out and give it a go. Already thinking about racing. Trying to stay hydrated and well fed. Can you make sure to write up a good warm up. That should include some swimming and I promise this time to actually get there early enough to do it.

Dive bombing blackbirds

Here is  a blurb from Heather Wurtele that I found spoke to me. 

But I'm getting off track. What I wanted to talk about was focus and winning. In my experience, it comes with focusing on the process and being completely in the moment, rather than worrying about the outcome. If you're thinking "shit, we're down by 1, and we really need to win this game" and are totally fixated on the result, you'll be less focused on the immediate moment in the game and more likely to miss a pass and not help yourself out at all. 

In races I can't control what other people do, or the weather, or the difficulty of the course. I can only control my focus and my effort at each moment in the race. 

Which leads me to another important point: Belief. And to believe you need optimism. 

A really interesting study was done with elite swimmers at the University of Arizona. Swimmers took a pretty involved questionnaire to determine their "self explanatory style" - basically whether their internal dialogue was positive or negative - and from that they were categorized as optimists or pessimists. They were asked to swim their best event as a time trial, but the coach gave them times that were slower than their actual splits. Then, they were asked to re-do the time trial.

Across the board, the people who were pessimists swam slower, while the optimists rallied and swam even faster, often hitting significant personal best times!  It is pretty fascinating that thier performance was so strongly determined by the style of their internal dialogue. Saying "I'm a failure" as if failure is somehow inherent to you is total bullshit and completely counter-productive. Saying "ok, I just failed, but that was just one time. I know I can do better", and giving your all when you try again leads to great things!

Heather Wurtele

This is the difference between what I think I did last year and what I am trying to do this year. This year it is about being positive and giving my all in the moment.

General comment- You should tell me a little more about your racing. Also, I understand what your job is, however, it is good camaraderie or even motivating for me to know what my coach is up to. I actually think it is good camaraderie and motivating to know what your other athletes are up to, too.  So, I am maybe exposing my feelings a little too much, but at the Grizzly, that just made my day to have a photo taken with you and all those other amazing athletes you coach. I think you should organize some training camps. I think we would all get better having each other and you there working together.

Funny little Bozeman thing: The trail that I run on from MSU has a protective red winged blackbird. It dive bombs all the passerby's pretty aggressively. Makes you sprint and wave your hands around like a crazy person. Makes me laugh for the rest of the day though.

I remember something from last week I wanted to tell you.
Was doing that swim of lots of fast 50's. This guy jumped in the lane next to me. He was doing backstroke really fast. It was all I could do to keep up with him, doing my fast 50's. Then he would do a backstroke flip turn and be 10 feet beyond the flags before I even came out for my first breath. Basically halfway down the pool on me at the turn. Three things I learned that day. That guy is fast. 2- I was not doing those 50's fast. I could do them faster, and because of him I did. 3- I have a lot to learn. In summary it ended up being a really great swim.

Schedule- I don't have anything super busy at work this week. Just trying to wrap up some experiments and compile a bunch of data. So far it looks like what I have been doing for the last 6 months might not have a lot of meaning. We kept seeing trends but nothing strong and if you put it all together there are no differences. Uggh.

Question- I need to volunteer at a Tuesday night bike race. I signed up for July 8th and then the boss sprung a potential post doc on us, so will need to be available for dinner. Can you schedule that in somewhere/sometime that would work.

Plantar Fascia- I am being completely honest here. It is not getting any better.It is better than when I told you about it a few weeks ago, but the healing has plateaued.  When I run it is sore for the rest of the day and stiff for the next couple of mornings. It doesn't hurt riding or swimming. I have an appointment with Jason again this week so I will tell him and we will see what to do next. I would like to know more about the timeline for healing etc. I may even have to look up some info. Update- Run on Sunday was good and I did PT 2x afterwards. It doesn't hurt on Monday!!

The week highlights:
Tuesday nighter- The road race was two loops and 36 miles instead of one. Didn't realize this until the start, so was thankful I had planned on the long ride home and brought enough food. Also, excited to race the extra miles and not slog them away by myself. Hung with the front group (except two guys that got away, I wasn't paying attention until they were too far gone) the whole time. Dropped a lot on the first hill and a few more on the second. Still need to execute my finishing ability, but chased down all the attacks. Even chased one guy back on. He was mad at me. My legs got more and more tired each attack but they could still respond. I am super stoked. Have never, ever, been able to race like this before. So, my question to you is what happened? I can't pinpoint a change in training etc. Is it just time? Working at biking for lots of years now? Feeling good Elliot, I am getting really excited about racing at the end of the month.

Friday swim- On Thursday I took off a few hours from work and helped my dad. I rolled on a bunch of waterproofing on the first floor to protect it before we get a roof. It wasn't hard, but my back was so sore on Friday. Also, I had a meeting Friday, stupid stuff with Maureen, and an experiment, so by 5 pm I was tired. Glad Audrey met me to swim and we busted that swim out. Again, it was tricky hard. Remember when we had a conversation on swimming once where you told me I was going to swim so much I would be so tired I would be forced to have better form? I think that happened just a little on Friday. Those final 4 50's were sooo tough. 1- I think the fore/aft of the band swimming jumped in there and 2- I was actually enjoying the flip turns for the rest. Most importantly though was that body position.

Saturday- Impressed the old guys so much on Tuesday that let me ride with them on Saturday ;). I was excited about the ride all week and honestly feeling really good about finding some new training people. I love Lawrence and Art, but I just don't get pushed with them.  Another reason I wanted to go with them was because of the route. They were going to the same route I was going to try. It ended up being 92 miles from my house to the end of the road at Clarkson and back. One hard climb and the rest pretty flat or rolling. We had a headwind the whole way out and a tailwind back. We also ran from the rain and did a pretty good job of not getting wet. Only stopped for a couple of minutes at the gas station in Manhattan each way. Felt really good. Pulled a few times pretty hard, made it up the climb feeling good, and felt much less worked than when we did Chico a couple of weeks ago.

Sunday swim- Feeling good in the open water. Pushed those 8 minute intervals pretty hard and felt really good.

Captain's log 06-08-14

What a week. Got thrown under the bus by MSU because of MSU for the Bobcat. Got it all sorted out, but spent three stressful days doing nothing to move forward with the race. For 2.5 days I had this vision of two llamas standing on their mounds spitting at each other. That is what happens between the two camps that manage the pool. Also, the red tape the MSU creates for itself is so inefficient. I am questioning my decision to affiliate the event with the Tri Club. However, I am sure there would be an equal amount of red tape doing that too. I knew months ago that this was way easier than it should be. Love how MSU took six months to start saying something. Anyhow, everything is worked out and there are a lot of people who are very excited about the event and very helpful.

Schedule-
In general, the past few weeks have been very good for the house. I have a few hours on the weekends to get over there. Spent a lot of Saturday helping my Dad which was good.

Friday- A friend wants to do a swim date on Friday. So, can you schedule one. She is a strong swimmer. Good for me because we have a tendency to try and race each other.

Sunday (6-15) Father's Day- My parents are going to have a barbecue so probably want to be available by 5 or so.

Swimming-  Master's Sunday swim is going to be at Bogert (the outdoor pool). Let's not schedule that. The pool is about 22 yards and you can't flip turn (really shallow on one end=scary). I like swimming there a couple of times in the summer because it is outside but nothing too serious. Jealous of your 50 m outdoor pool. Also, only Masters on Tues and Thurs for the summer. Bummer, no Dylan coaching. Hopefully he will do some open water with me.

Foot- Getting better, but still hurts when I start to run. Am doing the PT regularly so that I can get to running faster. My achilles is feeling great. Think the PT is working better for that than my plantar fascia. Jason is gone this week. I have another appointment scheduled for next week.

Okay, now the week and triathlon training and racing.

Tuesday TT- Cancelled because of a giant thunderstorm. Rode out to the race (and got really wet) and back. Felt guilty about not riding hard and I wanted to test my new bike position so did my own little TT. Rode a loop that I knew I could get 13 miles out of. Rode hard. Did it in 36 minutes. Time doesn't mean much since I had to slow down etc for intersections. I was really tired.

Friday- Missed the run because I ended up in an hour and a half impromptu meeting with the Rec. staff about the pool. I was so mentally exhausted and had spent too much time away from work. Also, had some work to do and was worried I would compromise the swim if I didn't get it done. However, the swim was absolutely amazing. I like the kickboard thing. It makes me go really fast. Had a lot of stored energy and frustration I took out on that swim. Timed the 300's just because. Felt good doing them on 5:00. Did the pull on 4:36. Felt sore on Saturday morning from the swim for the first time in quite a while.

Saturday
Ride- Didn't leave the house until around 5. Helped my Dad on the house for most of the day. Was feeling a bit tired for the ride. It was good though. Did the shorter intervals on an extra loop and then headed up Hyalite for the hill repeats. Felt awful on the 1st one but went the farthest. Felt much better on number two and three. Fell a little short on distance each time. Need to get new shifter cables on my bike.

Sunday- First OWS of the season. It was cold but manageable. Takes me a while to get used to the water temp. Went and bought some earplugs on the way home. Helps with the cold.  Also, am now convinced I am better swim shape than ever before.  Felt really good swimming two laps around that pond. Usually I feel much more tired. Tried picking up the pace on the second lap. Felt good too. I want to try and go out there with Dylan and get some open water tips from him. Next weekend. I think he has off from work.
Ran at the pond post swim. Glad I did because I was chilled from the water. The run solved that. It was a beautiful day out there. Got distracted a couple of times looking at the rivers. Good run. Feeling good other than my foot being a bit sore. Wish I could have gone for another couple hours.

Other- Have a new nutritional product. Maltodextrin. It costs 2$ a pound. I think CarboPro is just maltodextrin. Same flavor, texture, color etc. I have tried the maltrodextrin on a couple of longer rides and it seems to work just fine.

Bike fit- I like my bike again. The fit feels really good when I am riding hard. Much better than before. Also, it has only been a week but my SI joint hasn't bothered my at all this week. So, this may be a good thing for lots of reason. I have another appointment in a couple of weeks to get my cross bike fit. I ride it second to the TT bike so that should be good.

June

Schedule- Not much going on other than the regular work day for the next week or so. Also, not much to do with the house for the next week or so. My parents are going on vacation for the week. Have a meeting for the Bobcat with an MSU person on Wednesday (6/4) at 2:30 and a PT appointment on Wed. They don't appear to change anything for that day though

PT- Getting bike fit today. Got new cleats so need to get lined out again. Jason made me. Also, my right ankle has been sore and got really bad after a PT session last week. Will figure that out with Jason this week too. I think it is all attributed to my old shoes but we will see. My foot is feeling better. Will talk with Jason more about all of that on Wed.
Update: Bike fit was a way better thing than I had anticipated. We made a lot of changes. It felt much better in just the little time I was on the bike. Tomorrow's TT will be a good test. This might be good for my SI joint problem too.

Bobcat questions- Do you guys have a couple digital clocks? They are harder to find than I thought. Also, I need to talk to the kids about this, but I am thinking I need to establish a payment for me for the Bobcat. I was thinking a certain percentage gross income. That way as the race grows so does my income. Do you know if there are guidelines out there for something like this. Such as a Realtor makes 7% on sales. I was thinking 10%. Too much too little?

Random question- My Grizzly jersey is to big. I usually get medium but these were larger. Are there any smaller ones that I could trade my medium for?  I haven't worn it.

Week highlights-

Wednesday's ride- Got in a good workout before work. Found a good little loop to do those lengths of intervals on and it is on the Bobcat course. Win/win. Pushed the intervals hard. Was sore the next day.

Friday's swim. That was the strangest swim I have done that was written by you. It got hard though. The 600 at the end took a lot out of me.

Saturday's ride- 80 miles and lots of hills. We had a good day. Avoided all the bad weather and even had some favorable wind. I went hard. Really pushed it over the climbs, blew my self up even. Did a post ride run. It's funny how I dread those all day and then they get over with so fast.

Week's lowlights-
Thursday- I was dying. So tired. Ran flow in the other building and think there is less air flow or something in the air over there. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed. Didn't do the ride that day. Did ride around town a bit and drop off race fliers and then go over to the house and swept a bit. Then Erik's friend showed up with no notice (like usual) and we rode downtown and had dinner with him. Some riding but not dedicated. I hate doing that. It makes me feel unaccomplished.

Sunday- Randomly rainy all day. Woke up to heavy clouds and rain. Went to Masters. Didn't have the mental strength to swim outside. It cleared up a bit so I decided to combine morel hunting with a bike ride. Went outside lots of clouds were coming in. Rode for a while but mushroom hunting and bike riding don't go together. Crashed/toppled over and whacked my shin on my bike. Hurts. Hurt really bad for a couple of minutes. Decided the clouds and rain were too much for me to deal with. It wasn't warm either. A cold breeze. Went home and rode the rollers for an hour. Again, feel unaccomplished.

Cooking dinner on Sunday I open a can and cut myself really bad on the jagged edge. Sliced my finger open. It hurts really bad too. Woke up on Monday and got all dizzy trying to change the bandage and felt like I was going to pass out if I didn't lay down. Called in sick for the morning and went back to bed. Slept another hour or so and feel much better to rally for the day.