Ever had to make the call?
You know, that call? The "I'm too far from home and can't get back on my own" call?
It sucks.
Now... If I said I went for a long run on Saturday, and a short bike ride on Sunday, it would be natural to assume I made the call on Saturday, right? Long run, weather wasn't ideal (hot, thunderstorm, muggy, rain, etc.), seems perfect to set up the call of shame.
But no, the run went pretty well. I woke up early Saturday with the intention of getting out the door before it started getting too warm, but that didn't happen. As I was getting dressed to go run, I heard a clap of thunder and what sounded like a waterfall outside my door. Sure enough it was a torrential downpour. I couldn't see across the cul de sac it was raining so hard. I checked the weather, and there was one tiny little thunderstorm cloud that just so happened to be parked directly over Abita Springs. So I had my usual pre-long run breakfast (Froot Loops), filled the bottles on my Fuel Belt, put a couple Gu packets in the pocket and waited for the rain to let up. It finally did about 30 minutes later. In that 30 minutes though, I decided to try KT tape on my right knee for the touch of ITBS I've been dealing with since about January. I ended up shaving an odd pattern on the outside of my knee to facilitate taping it. I taped it up as per the instructions on their YouTube site, wrapped the band around my leg, and headed out the door.
When I left, it was probably close to 80 degrees at 100% humidity, and barely drizzling. Certainly not ideal conditions, but not horrible for July in SE Louisiana. At about the 5 mile mark though, the KT tape had given up and was just held in place by the strap I wear over my knee. I pulled it off and threw it away. The sweat and humidity was just too much for the adhesive.
I finished a 13.1 mile run (scheduled 13, Runner's Neurosis kicked in for the .1) in a little under two hours. I guzzled about a pint of chocolate milk, took a shower, and went off for the day to bring Brynn to piano and then go fight with a used up car salesman so my wife could buy a new SUV (Acura MDX, quite nice I must say).
Nope.. it was Sunday I had to make the call.
I just finished putting together a new tri-bike. I eventually found a frame to buy on eBay (NOS 2010 Kestrel Airfoil Pro) and put it together with components off of my Q-Roo Lucero as well as a couple other parts I wanted to swap out (bars, cranks). I finished up the bike last week, but I did my first week of "Dopey" running, so I ended up running every day last week and didn't get a chance to ride. I figured Sunday I'd put some Allen wrenches in my bag, ride, stop and adjust, ride, stop and adjust, etc. until I got everything feeling right, then I'd finish out 25 miles or so for the day.
I got to the two mile point, stopped and adjusted the seat position and angle. Felt better.
3 mile mark, further tweaked the seat. Felt really good.
3.5 mile mark, and I'm not feeling good in my shoulders or my back. I'm figuring the bars are a bit too low and the armpads are a bit too narrow. I couldn't do anything about the armpads, but I could flip the stem to raise the bars a bit and see how that would feel. But that would involve taking apart the handlebars and I didn't know if I wanted to do that on the road.
At 4 miles though, I figured why not. I've got tools. It's Sunday. I can do this in 10 minutes and be on my way. I got to Koop Drive, pulled off the Trace to a bench, and started disassembling my bike. It took all of about 5 minutes to get everything apart, get the stem flipped, and started putting it back together.
However, somehow I managed to cross thread two of the screws on the stem and couldn't get them to thread correctly after that. I fought with it for about 15 minutes before I conceded defeat. Being 4.25 miles from home wearing cycling shoes with Look cleats, I REALLY didn't want to walk back. And since it was so early, I knew my chances of seeing someone I knew were slim to none.
So, in shame, I pulled out my iPhone. I looked up my wife's number. I shook my head, then pressed the number for the house to dial it.
"Hey, I'm at Koop Drive. Come get me."
She's so loving and concerned about me though. Naturally, her first reaction was "Are you OK? Do I need to bring anything? Do I need to call 911? Are you hurt? Did you crash?"
I lie. That's not her at all.
"Why? What did you do?"
I told her about my mechanical issues. "Fine... But it's not going to be right away. I'm still in my pajamas and Brynn is asleep." Whatever.
I put the bike back together as best as I could and pushed it to in front of the playground. I ended up waiting a few minutes before she showed up in her brand new used MDX to bring me home.
"Brynn wants McDonalds for breakfast, and you're buying."
OK.
Not like I could object. It was the punishment for my shame.
Next time I'll call one of my friends instead.
HOWEVER, comma...
Road ID put out a cool app for those of us who tend to disappear for a couple hours on Saturday/Sunday for long runs or rides. It makes a lock screen for your phone with your emergency contact info, makes a link to a site where you can be tracked via bread crumbs on GPS, sends a link to that site through SMS, and automatically sends a message to your recipients if you stop moving for 5 minutes. I tried it this weekend and really liked it. It's free, and it's good piece of mind for those of us who have to go beyond the comfort of our respective neighborhoods to train. Go check it out.
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Training Talk
Enough with the introspective stuff... let's talk training today.
This past week has been the first 'real' week of training for Dopey, where my run volume has been appreciably higher than it has been in a while. It was also the first week with a progression of runs where distance increased each day in prep for running on tired legs for long distances 4 days in a row. The downfall from that is I haven't been able to do any other training at all. But some days you just need to be a 'runner' and nothing more. So let's look back on the past 9 days or so, shall we?
7/12 - 1500M swim workout, but was cut short at 1300M due to lightning. Yay summer thunderstorms.
7/13 - Rest. Not planned. Parental responsibility.
7/14 - 26 Mile bike ride. This was supposed to be a 20 mile ride. At about the 9 mile mark, I saw a friend of mine running and slowed down to say hi. He was out doing 20 miles in preparation for Ironman Wisconsin. So I figured I need to ride further than he was running, and did.
7/15 - Planned rest day. Needed.
7/16 - 2 mile treadmill run at Pelican Athletic Club.
7/17 - 4 mile treadmill run
This is a typical midweek pattern for me. The fun starts the next day.
7/18 - 2 mile treadmill run
7/19 - 3 mile run that went 3.1 because of runner's neurosis. I have a great 3 mile loop laid out in my neighborhood that works well for distances of 3 or 6 miles. Trying to run 9 miles on that loop makes me a bit nutty though.
7/20 - 4 mile run. Unfortunately a 4 mile run is awkward. Too many turns or repeated segments. And going to the Trace to do it means turning around after about 600 feet on the trace. I hate this distance. Still ran it under 32 minutes though.
7/21 - 8 mile run. Now I'm starting to put in some mileage. It was warm, but felt good on the Trace under the trees. Even slowed down enough to take a couple pics in downtown Abita Springs.
I need to do that more often. I know I'm training and getting ready for a race, but sometimes I just need to enjoy the scenery around me a bit while I'm out in it.
Back to the topic, I felt really good through all my runs, especially the 8 miler. I had to hold myself back quite a bit because I running a sub-8:00 pace early on. I probably could have carried it the whole run, but I'd be wiped out the rest of the day. When the races in Disney start, I'll have to hold back then as well, especially in the 10K and Half-Marathon. I can't go blowing myself up those two days and expect to have an enjoyable Marathon. And the last thing I want is to be in the middle of a death march through the Happiest Place On Earth®.
In other training related amusements, I did find another bike frame on eBay. This one was a Kestrel Airfoil Pro, 50cm, 650c wheel size. I scooped it up and a couple other incidental parts, and put together a new Tri-bike. The frame isn't UCI legal, but I have zero interest in participating in bicycle racing. It is light, and from a short shakedown ride yesterday, quite fast as well. I need to spend an evening with it on my trainer tweaking and adjusting to get my position right.
This week doesn't look nearly as intense in regards to running, so I'll get back in the pool a couple days as well. Mrs. Russ shot some video underwater of me swimming last weekend, and it's amusingly bad. My hips are probably 8-10" lower than my shoulders. It probably has something to do with the lack of bodyfat below my waist. Explains why the pull bouy makes things so much easier. I do have a 13 mile run next Saturday. Which will become 13.1 due to the runner's neurosis. Should be fun. :)
Congrats to Chris Froome on his win of the 100th Tour De France. His climb up Ventoux was the kind of climb that legends are born from. And also, congrats to Nairo Quintana on both the white jersey and polka-dot jersey signifying the best young rider on the tour and the "King of the Mountains". He's got a tremendously bright future in the sport, and I expect to see him in yellow riding into Paris in the next couple years. This was the first year I've watched the TDF in a while, and it was Nairo who had me captivated a couple weeks ago. Hopefully the drug controversies are done and we can go back to enjoying cycling again.
Stay safe and train hard. Those miles aren't going to run themselves.
Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view. - Yoda
This past week has been the first 'real' week of training for Dopey, where my run volume has been appreciably higher than it has been in a while. It was also the first week with a progression of runs where distance increased each day in prep for running on tired legs for long distances 4 days in a row. The downfall from that is I haven't been able to do any other training at all. But some days you just need to be a 'runner' and nothing more. So let's look back on the past 9 days or so, shall we?
7/12 - 1500M swim workout, but was cut short at 1300M due to lightning. Yay summer thunderstorms.
7/13 - Rest. Not planned. Parental responsibility.
7/14 - 26 Mile bike ride. This was supposed to be a 20 mile ride. At about the 9 mile mark, I saw a friend of mine running and slowed down to say hi. He was out doing 20 miles in preparation for Ironman Wisconsin. So I figured I need to ride further than he was running, and did.
7/15 - Planned rest day. Needed.
7/16 - 2 mile treadmill run at Pelican Athletic Club.
7/17 - 4 mile treadmill run
This is a typical midweek pattern for me. The fun starts the next day.
7/18 - 2 mile treadmill run
7/19 - 3 mile run that went 3.1 because of runner's neurosis. I have a great 3 mile loop laid out in my neighborhood that works well for distances of 3 or 6 miles. Trying to run 9 miles on that loop makes me a bit nutty though.
7/20 - 4 mile run. Unfortunately a 4 mile run is awkward. Too many turns or repeated segments. And going to the Trace to do it means turning around after about 600 feet on the trace. I hate this distance. Still ran it under 32 minutes though.
7/21 - 8 mile run. Now I'm starting to put in some mileage. It was warm, but felt good on the Trace under the trees. Even slowed down enough to take a couple pics in downtown Abita Springs.
I need to do that more often. I know I'm training and getting ready for a race, but sometimes I just need to enjoy the scenery around me a bit while I'm out in it.
Back to the topic, I felt really good through all my runs, especially the 8 miler. I had to hold myself back quite a bit because I running a sub-8:00 pace early on. I probably could have carried it the whole run, but I'd be wiped out the rest of the day. When the races in Disney start, I'll have to hold back then as well, especially in the 10K and Half-Marathon. I can't go blowing myself up those two days and expect to have an enjoyable Marathon. And the last thing I want is to be in the middle of a death march through the Happiest Place On Earth®.
In other training related amusements, I did find another bike frame on eBay. This one was a Kestrel Airfoil Pro, 50cm, 650c wheel size. I scooped it up and a couple other incidental parts, and put together a new Tri-bike. The frame isn't UCI legal, but I have zero interest in participating in bicycle racing. It is light, and from a short shakedown ride yesterday, quite fast as well. I need to spend an evening with it on my trainer tweaking and adjusting to get my position right.
This week doesn't look nearly as intense in regards to running, so I'll get back in the pool a couple days as well. Mrs. Russ shot some video underwater of me swimming last weekend, and it's amusingly bad. My hips are probably 8-10" lower than my shoulders. It probably has something to do with the lack of bodyfat below my waist. Explains why the pull bouy makes things so much easier. I do have a 13 mile run next Saturday. Which will become 13.1 due to the runner's neurosis. Should be fun. :)
Congrats to Chris Froome on his win of the 100th Tour De France. His climb up Ventoux was the kind of climb that legends are born from. And also, congrats to Nairo Quintana on both the white jersey and polka-dot jersey signifying the best young rider on the tour and the "King of the Mountains". He's got a tremendously bright future in the sport, and I expect to see him in yellow riding into Paris in the next couple years. This was the first year I've watched the TDF in a while, and it was Nairo who had me captivated a couple weeks ago. Hopefully the drug controversies are done and we can go back to enjoying cycling again.
Stay safe and train hard. Those miles aren't going to run themselves.
Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view. - Yoda
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Stupid eBay
I hate eBay sometimes. I really do.
Sure, it's great for finding oddball stuff here and there or getting a deal on last year's whatever, but it brings about a torture no other shopping experience can.
Let me back up a bit...
If you don't know me, I'm short. Not "kinda short for a guy" short, but straight up short. 5'3" to be exact. I'm outside of the bell curve on just about anything that involves sizes, so almost anything I have to buy that's sized has to be bought sight unseen on the internet. Shirts I'm usually OK buying off the rack, but that's kind of difficult also in that they're not cut for someone with a thin, somewhat athletic build and end up looking like a parachute if I'm not picky. Shorts I'll buy off the rack also, since they almost fit. But jeans, pants, shoes, stuff like that... Online since nobody stocks pants in a 29W 28L size. Or shoes in a 6.5.
Running shoes I can sometimes find in an outlet store. If I find a shoe I like I'll buy copies online though since outlets are so hit and miss on inventory. I went to a local running store to buy shoes once, did the whole gait analysis thing, got a recommendation only to leave empty handed because my size isn't one they stock and they'd "be glad to order for me". Well, I can order it myself and have it delivered to my house. Thanks anyway. At the expo for the Rock N Roll Marathon in February, Brooks Running set up a huge display where they shot a video of you running on a treadmill, showed it to you and explained what kind of gait you had, then recommended 2 or 3 models of their shoes that would work for you. My buddy and I did this and got recommendations. We walked over to where they were selling the shoes. He told the salesperson what he needed and in whatever size he wears, got the shoes, tried them on, and bought them. I got "sorry, we don't have anything that small in stock here". Blah. "But we can order them for you and you can pick them up at the store. :)" Double blah.
I never did get those Brooks shoes. I'm running in Nike Pegasus 29s I got at the Foley, AL outlet mall. I grabbed every 7.5 running shoe they had and went through them all to pick these.
Every size 7.5 running shoe in the store translates to five (5) pairs of shoes.
Yea.
So anyway, back to eBay...
A few months back after I got this idea of doing triathlons in my head, I found a bike on eBay that would work for a fairly reasonable price and bought it. It was a fairly old design though and not particularly pretty, but it's aero and pretty fast. I tuned it up, made some sizing adjustments to try to get it to be comfortable, and have ridden it a few hundred miles and in two races. It doesn't have the sex appeal some newer tri-bikes have, but it serves its purpose well.
One drawback to the bike that's related to my (lack of) height is that it uses 650c wheels instead of the standard 700c size. So it's not common to find tires in local shops (recurring theme here), or fancy wheels. Periodically I'll get on eBay to see if I can find a cool wheelset or tires or something, but haven't come across anything yet. But the other day when searching eBay for "650c wheels" something came up that was even better than wheels.
It was a Cervelo P2 49cm frame and fork. Like this:
"It never gets easier, you just go faster." ~ Greg LeMond
Sure, it's great for finding oddball stuff here and there or getting a deal on last year's whatever, but it brings about a torture no other shopping experience can.
Let me back up a bit...
If you don't know me, I'm short. Not "kinda short for a guy" short, but straight up short. 5'3" to be exact. I'm outside of the bell curve on just about anything that involves sizes, so almost anything I have to buy that's sized has to be bought sight unseen on the internet. Shirts I'm usually OK buying off the rack, but that's kind of difficult also in that they're not cut for someone with a thin, somewhat athletic build and end up looking like a parachute if I'm not picky. Shorts I'll buy off the rack also, since they almost fit. But jeans, pants, shoes, stuff like that... Online since nobody stocks pants in a 29W 28L size. Or shoes in a 6.5.
Running shoes I can sometimes find in an outlet store. If I find a shoe I like I'll buy copies online though since outlets are so hit and miss on inventory. I went to a local running store to buy shoes once, did the whole gait analysis thing, got a recommendation only to leave empty handed because my size isn't one they stock and they'd "be glad to order for me". Well, I can order it myself and have it delivered to my house. Thanks anyway. At the expo for the Rock N Roll Marathon in February, Brooks Running set up a huge display where they shot a video of you running on a treadmill, showed it to you and explained what kind of gait you had, then recommended 2 or 3 models of their shoes that would work for you. My buddy and I did this and got recommendations. We walked over to where they were selling the shoes. He told the salesperson what he needed and in whatever size he wears, got the shoes, tried them on, and bought them. I got "sorry, we don't have anything that small in stock here". Blah. "But we can order them for you and you can pick them up at the store. :)" Double blah.
I never did get those Brooks shoes. I'm running in Nike Pegasus 29s I got at the Foley, AL outlet mall. I grabbed every 7.5 running shoe they had and went through them all to pick these.
Every size 7.5 running shoe in the store translates to five (5) pairs of shoes.
Yea.
So anyway, back to eBay...
A few months back after I got this idea of doing triathlons in my head, I found a bike on eBay that would work for a fairly reasonable price and bought it. It was a fairly old design though and not particularly pretty, but it's aero and pretty fast. I tuned it up, made some sizing adjustments to try to get it to be comfortable, and have ridden it a few hundred miles and in two races. It doesn't have the sex appeal some newer tri-bikes have, but it serves its purpose well.
One drawback to the bike that's related to my (lack of) height is that it uses 650c wheels instead of the standard 700c size. So it's not common to find tires in local shops (recurring theme here), or fancy wheels. Periodically I'll get on eBay to see if I can find a cool wheelset or tires or something, but haven't come across anything yet. But the other day when searching eBay for "650c wheels" something came up that was even better than wheels.
It was a Cervelo P2 49cm frame and fork. Like this:
Ooh... purty....
The auction price started at $500 with $70 for shipping. The pictures of the frame were clear and there was some normal use scuffs and a couple chips, but it was in really good shape. That got me thinking...
I've got my tri-bike that I could use the parts off of to build this frame out and I'd be on a modern TT bike for way less than half the cost of a comparable new bike. And I'd get to build it. I love to build stuff. This is too good to be true! I put the frame on my watch list and started doing some homework. Over the next couple days I'd probably built and rebuilt this bike in my head a dozen times. I'd found an aerobar I liked, a hydration system I liked, figured out what components I'd reuse, and what I'd replace, and decided I wanted to buy the frame. I use a sniping program to bid on eBay, so I loaded it up with the auction number, put in my max bid for the frame, and told it to place the bid with 15 seconds left on the auction. All I had to do at this point was wait.
While I waited, I distracted myself by looking at bike parts on eBay and reading threads on the Cervelo forum. I'd already assumed I'd be buying the frame for $500 since nobody else had bid on it and there was only a couple hours left in the auction. And each second that ticked by convinced me it was mine.
Then my bid got placed...
I'm not sure what happened, but in 15 seconds I went from scoring a killer deal on a great frame to utter disappointment as I got the email saying "Sorry you didn't win".
Apparently the whole "use a sniping program and don't bid until the last second" strategy was in place by another vertically challenged triathlete with a bit more disposable income than me.
Stupid eBay.
"It never gets easier, you just go faster." ~ Greg LeMond
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