Getting ready to head out for Vineman
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=7015 Athlete tracking
1081 is our team number.
I believe Marie starts the swim at 6:45 and I'll be out on the bike as soon as she get in, Then we get to sit around and have a cold one While Diana goes out for a little 26 mile jog.
Have a great day, I know we will!
1081 is our team number.
I believe Marie starts the swim at 6:45 and I'll be out on the bike as soon as she get in, Then we get to sit around and have a cold one While Diana goes out for a little 26 mile jog.
Have a great day, I know we will!
The first time you do something - It's going to be a personal record!
Niiiiiiiiiiiice ... Go get em
Your Friend In Health & Sport,
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
I pr'ed the swim! But didn't make my time goals.
Seht beat his best time prediction by 3 minutes or so. I don't know if he had PR or not. I think he did.
Our runner crossed the finish line in under 5 hours so our total finish time was under 14. Something I doubt I'd be able to do myself for a long time.
Seht beat his best time prediction by 3 minutes or so. I don't know if he had PR or not. I think he did.
Our runner crossed the finish line in under 5 hours so our total finish time was under 14. Something I doubt I'd be able to do myself for a long time.
HW - 225 SW - 191 GW - 132 CW - 122
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I'm still chasing that elusive 90 min. finish. I've been chasing it for 2 seasons now!
They moved the finish down from last year (when I thought the course was short of 2.4). Now they may have moved the turn around point to in order to make it all work out. Who knows. However, my Garmin said the course was 2.55 so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
They moved the finish down from last year (when I thought the course was short of 2.4). Now they may have moved the turn around point to in order to make it all work out. Who knows. However, my Garmin said the course was 2.55 so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
HW - 225 SW - 191 GW - 132 CW - 122
Visit my blog at Fatty Fights Back Become a Fan on Facebook!
Starting BMI 40-ish or less? Join the LightWeights
So the Full Vineman is actually a variety of races. They run a 70.3 race for women called Barb's race it is for Cancer Charity, they run a 1/2 and a full Aquabike, they run a Relay 140.6 and they run a full 140.6, so it hard to tell who your competitors are out there on the course. You may see an age on the back of someones leg, but you have no idea if they are working on a second lap or first lap.
So my day started bright and early. Of course I couldn't sleep worth a damn, and I was up at 2:45. I had my breakfast, played on the computer and did a double check of all my gear that I had layed out the night before. 4:00 rolled around and I started packing the car, load the bike all that stuff.
I met Marie and Diana at their hotel for the ride out to the event. The race is a point to point race, so the start and finish are at differnt loctions. Having 1 person drive makes the most sence so you don't have to worry about getting equipment back and forth.
Our plan of attack was Marie would swim, I would bike and Dianna would run. In each transition area, you swap the timing chip. We planned to have Dianna grab the chip off of Marie as soon as she got out of the water, run over and strap it onto my leg. That way a tired Marie wouldn't have to try and find me in transition. They would then go have breakfast and head to the bike course to cheer for me. Then at T2, Marie would take my timing chip and give it to Dianna for the run, again eliminating the confusion of trying to find each other among a couple thousand other riders. Nice plan but it didn't execute quite so smoothly. But I think it was still better than Marie fighting through the wetsuit strippers and athletes to get to me, or me blindly running into T2 and trying to find them among all the bikes and athletes. We only had 1 slip up when Dianna grabbed Maries RoadID instead of the timing chip. I'm glad I looked down to make sure it was secure, that would have derailled our day right there. So it took a little bit of time for her to go get the timing chip instead of the RoadID. It was just seconds, but I hadn't even pedaled yet and my H.R. had jumped.
Like Marie said she Pr'd her swim but didn't quite get her goal. 2.4 miles is a long way in the water. I think we had some swimming ringers in our group, because Marie was passing people in the waves before her, AWESOME!!!, but when she got to the shore, there were only 3 bikes life in the rack for the relay teams. So she set a PR and kicked butt, and now it was my turn. All I kept telling myself prior to the race is that I didn't want to be a weak link on the team. I didn't want to let anyone down.
The run out of T1 is long. We were as far away from the exit as you could be and it finishes with a hill that even the pros run up. So here I am trying to run out of transition and up the hill and I have people in front of me walking. WTF who walks? Apparently the 2 people in front of me that's who. There was no way around them, but again it was probably just a few seconds.
I was hoping to average 17 mph on the bike ride, that's a couple mph faster than my usual weekend ride pace. Ideally I wanted more, but I realize that was just wishful thinking. I told my team plan on a 7 hour bike to be safe.
So here is the bike ride
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103048569
I started out feeling great, actually I felt pretty damn good up until mile 80 or so. You can see the wheels come off the bus at that point.
So as I was looking at the bike computer during the ride, I was averaging over 20 mph for the first 10 miles, which was a flat section. I passed a ton of people there. I was actually glad to have the wave starts, because it always (almost always) gave me a target to run down at the end of the race. Then the next 10-15 miles I was in the 19 mph range, and still picking people off in clumps. I think I was only passed by a handfull of guys with serious looking race bike setups. The cool thing is I would catch a lot of these guys during the day on hill climbs, unfortunately on to get passed again on the flats, but it still felt good. I had told my team 7 hours, but it looked like I was going to put in a 6 hour ride. I was stoked.
This course has a lot of rollers, and very few long flat sections. but I really didn't even notice them on the first 56 miles. I finished the first 56 and I had averaged over 18 mph, which made me very happy since there was about 1500 feet of climbing during that 56 miles. I was looking at a 6 hour time for the bike and the day was looking like sunshine and lollipops. Then mile 70 came along and I felt the first twinge of a leg cramp in my right inner thigh. Not wanting to be left out of the party, my left leg right above my knee decided to cramp at mile 80 when I stood to climb a hill.
Luckily there was a nice downhill leading to a rest stop over that climb, I just had to make the death ride over the rest of the hill and I'd be at an aid station, I'd get off and stretch there. Well my stretching break was a bit extended, I ended up using the porta potta and getting some ice water to dump over my head, what was probably going to be 5 minutes ended up being 15.
Back on the bike to be treated by headwinds for the next 10 miles or so, I think this was the slowest I went all day. I just put my head down and kept pedaling. I wasn't even in one of the largest gears, but it felt like it. Keeping an eye on my time and average pace was depressing. I was watching that great time be ripped away. Now I was back to just hoping I wasn't going to be the weak link. I finally made it to the next rest stop where I got off to stretch out my leg again, probably about 5 minutes or so of wasted time, but I felt so much better.
From there it was only a few miles to the last big climb and I cramped again. This time I think all the muscle groups in my leg wanted to join the party. I could barely get off the bike. I couldn't raise my leg to get it past the seat. I had to almost lay the bike down on the ground to get off it. That hurt bad, and I watched a stream of people blow by me. All I could think was F@#$% there goes all that work catching and running down those people and now I'm dragging my team down.
I got back on the bike finished my ride to the top of chalk hill, which while slower, actually felt easier than the first time around. Weird, I guess it was because I wasn't working as hard.
The final 5 miles or so I did my best time trial impersonation I could muster. I put my head down, got into the big gear and started picking people off again. The final 5 miles is mostly flat or downhill, so that helped, and I was able to get my speed up over 20 again for that section which made me feel a little better.
Anyhow I managed to finish the ride at just under 7 hours, which was a little depressing, because I was at a 6 hour pace for half of the race, and with the cramping/stretching I lost about 1 mph average from my time.
My wife and son were out there at the finish line which made very happy and gave me a shot of energy to get a hug and kiss on the way into T2. Apparently Megan had driven out to see me on the bike course, but couldn't pick me out of the pack, so she missed me there. I wasn't expecting that, I wish I had seen here or known to look for her.
Dianna did an awesome job on the run. I think she was hoping for 4:30 is for the marathon but I think it ended up being 5:00 this is awesome because she was a fill in for us at the last minute. She had about 1 month to train for a Marathon and she came through with flying colors for us. I wasn't looking forward to having to run it as my base is nowhere near that, and my legs were so sore after the ride, I might not have made the cutoff. Thanks to Dianna for filling in for us in the last minute!!
The finishers medals are really cool, I'll have to get a picture to post. But the bottom of the medal is a wine stopper, and the top is a square placque that lists the event.
It was a good day, but a long day.
Scott
So my day started bright and early. Of course I couldn't sleep worth a damn, and I was up at 2:45. I had my breakfast, played on the computer and did a double check of all my gear that I had layed out the night before. 4:00 rolled around and I started packing the car, load the bike all that stuff.
I met Marie and Diana at their hotel for the ride out to the event. The race is a point to point race, so the start and finish are at differnt loctions. Having 1 person drive makes the most sence so you don't have to worry about getting equipment back and forth.
Our plan of attack was Marie would swim, I would bike and Dianna would run. In each transition area, you swap the timing chip. We planned to have Dianna grab the chip off of Marie as soon as she got out of the water, run over and strap it onto my leg. That way a tired Marie wouldn't have to try and find me in transition. They would then go have breakfast and head to the bike course to cheer for me. Then at T2, Marie would take my timing chip and give it to Dianna for the run, again eliminating the confusion of trying to find each other among a couple thousand other riders. Nice plan but it didn't execute quite so smoothly. But I think it was still better than Marie fighting through the wetsuit strippers and athletes to get to me, or me blindly running into T2 and trying to find them among all the bikes and athletes. We only had 1 slip up when Dianna grabbed Maries RoadID instead of the timing chip. I'm glad I looked down to make sure it was secure, that would have derailled our day right there. So it took a little bit of time for her to go get the timing chip instead of the RoadID. It was just seconds, but I hadn't even pedaled yet and my H.R. had jumped.
Like Marie said she Pr'd her swim but didn't quite get her goal. 2.4 miles is a long way in the water. I think we had some swimming ringers in our group, because Marie was passing people in the waves before her, AWESOME!!!, but when she got to the shore, there were only 3 bikes life in the rack for the relay teams. So she set a PR and kicked butt, and now it was my turn. All I kept telling myself prior to the race is that I didn't want to be a weak link on the team. I didn't want to let anyone down.
The run out of T1 is long. We were as far away from the exit as you could be and it finishes with a hill that even the pros run up. So here I am trying to run out of transition and up the hill and I have people in front of me walking. WTF who walks? Apparently the 2 people in front of me that's who. There was no way around them, but again it was probably just a few seconds.
I was hoping to average 17 mph on the bike ride, that's a couple mph faster than my usual weekend ride pace. Ideally I wanted more, but I realize that was just wishful thinking. I told my team plan on a 7 hour bike to be safe.
So here is the bike ride
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103048569
I started out feeling great, actually I felt pretty damn good up until mile 80 or so. You can see the wheels come off the bus at that point.
So as I was looking at the bike computer during the ride, I was averaging over 20 mph for the first 10 miles, which was a flat section. I passed a ton of people there. I was actually glad to have the wave starts, because it always (almost always) gave me a target to run down at the end of the race. Then the next 10-15 miles I was in the 19 mph range, and still picking people off in clumps. I think I was only passed by a handfull of guys with serious looking race bike setups. The cool thing is I would catch a lot of these guys during the day on hill climbs, unfortunately on to get passed again on the flats, but it still felt good. I had told my team 7 hours, but it looked like I was going to put in a 6 hour ride. I was stoked.
This course has a lot of rollers, and very few long flat sections. but I really didn't even notice them on the first 56 miles. I finished the first 56 and I had averaged over 18 mph, which made me very happy since there was about 1500 feet of climbing during that 56 miles. I was looking at a 6 hour time for the bike and the day was looking like sunshine and lollipops. Then mile 70 came along and I felt the first twinge of a leg cramp in my right inner thigh. Not wanting to be left out of the party, my left leg right above my knee decided to cramp at mile 80 when I stood to climb a hill.
Luckily there was a nice downhill leading to a rest stop over that climb, I just had to make the death ride over the rest of the hill and I'd be at an aid station, I'd get off and stretch there. Well my stretching break was a bit extended, I ended up using the porta potta and getting some ice water to dump over my head, what was probably going to be 5 minutes ended up being 15.
Back on the bike to be treated by headwinds for the next 10 miles or so, I think this was the slowest I went all day. I just put my head down and kept pedaling. I wasn't even in one of the largest gears, but it felt like it. Keeping an eye on my time and average pace was depressing. I was watching that great time be ripped away. Now I was back to just hoping I wasn't going to be the weak link. I finally made it to the next rest stop where I got off to stretch out my leg again, probably about 5 minutes or so of wasted time, but I felt so much better.
From there it was only a few miles to the last big climb and I cramped again. This time I think all the muscle groups in my leg wanted to join the party. I could barely get off the bike. I couldn't raise my leg to get it past the seat. I had to almost lay the bike down on the ground to get off it. That hurt bad, and I watched a stream of people blow by me. All I could think was F@#$% there goes all that work catching and running down those people and now I'm dragging my team down.
I got back on the bike finished my ride to the top of chalk hill, which while slower, actually felt easier than the first time around. Weird, I guess it was because I wasn't working as hard.
The final 5 miles or so I did my best time trial impersonation I could muster. I put my head down, got into the big gear and started picking people off again. The final 5 miles is mostly flat or downhill, so that helped, and I was able to get my speed up over 20 again for that section which made me feel a little better.
Anyhow I managed to finish the ride at just under 7 hours, which was a little depressing, because I was at a 6 hour pace for half of the race, and with the cramping/stretching I lost about 1 mph average from my time.
My wife and son were out there at the finish line which made very happy and gave me a shot of energy to get a hug and kiss on the way into T2. Apparently Megan had driven out to see me on the bike course, but couldn't pick me out of the pack, so she missed me there. I wasn't expecting that, I wish I had seen here or known to look for her.
Dianna did an awesome job on the run. I think she was hoping for 4:30 is for the marathon but I think it ended up being 5:00 this is awesome because she was a fill in for us at the last minute. She had about 1 month to train for a Marathon and she came through with flying colors for us. I wasn't looking forward to having to run it as my base is nowhere near that, and my legs were so sore after the ride, I might not have made the cutoff. Thanks to Dianna for filling in for us in the last minute!!
The finishers medals are really cool, I'll have to get a picture to post. But the bottom of the medal is a wine stopper, and the top is a square placque that lists the event.
It was a good day, but a long day.
Scott
The first time you do something - It's going to be a personal record!
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