Trying to be positive on here...

and I apologize for the rant but every time I ride a particular trail in St. Louis there is always one idiot on Grant's Trail. The only time there wasn't an idiot was when it was 105 degrees out. Maybe I was the idiot for riding in that heat.

Tonight was supposed to be a leisurely ride since I'm going to switch my long run to tomorrow and do a double brick this weekend of significant distance. It was a decent pace until I turned around. Then I caught up to these two guys, one was drafting off the other. I assumed they were together and I was wrong. I got within 50 feet and the drafter pulls out in front. I pass the draftee and a few seconds later I got into the slipstream of the drafter and quickly swung around him.

This guy decides to get on my wheel. I figured he might since I saw him drafting the other guy. I slowly kept picking up the pace to see if he would back off but he didn't. After about a mile we finally hit a light, I grab my water bottle and then I hear "Is it alright if I draft off you?"

WTF!?!?! Seriously? We're on a busy multi-use trail, I have no clue who you are and you want to draft off me? Just because I look experienced doesn't mean I'm comfortable with just anyone drafting. How do I know if you have any idea how to draft? For that matter, if someone looks experienced they will probably be smart enough to not be okay with you drafting. I guess at least he finally asked but really?

I said "Not really, I don't know you. If you want to draft tonight go to Carondelet Park." (Carondelet Park has Tuesday Night Crits with races of several ability levels.) He didn't say anything but I took off when we got a cross signal and he was moving as well. He didn't last very long...not sure why he felt the need to try to get in front of me...since I averaged 29 for the next mile.

What is wrong with people? Did you not get enough drafting today because the Tour de France has a rest day? If you want to draft there are a TON of group rides every night and most mornings in the area. Drafting on a busy trail is dangerous especially if you don't know what you're doing and if you're asking me to draft on this particular trail I'm going to assume you don't know what you're doing.  Sometimes there is a lot of braking before a pass is possible due to people coming the other way. You also shouldn't be drafting off unsuspecting people as you might scare the crap out of them or they might brake suddenly and you could easily cause an accident. I'm not interested in using hand signals or telling someone what I'm doing when I wanted to ride "alone".

Some guy did this to the nurse a few weeks ago on the same trail for a long time. She rides 15-16 mph. If you have the ability to draft well you should be riding faster than this.

Furthermore, why would you go to a trail BY YOURSELF to find people to draft off? Go find a group ride you morons.

Not Tri Related

....unless you consider it related to Vineman but funny. Click on the pic to enlarge it

"If you're drunk when the package shows up, you will not be allowed to receive it."

Dear woman in the lane next to me...

Last night was the second time this happened. You're swimming along for who knows how long while I'm swimming sets. Don't worry about me pushing off the wall at the same time you do, I can't help that you turn around at the same time as the pace clock hits 30 or 60. I feel bad about it but there is no need to stop because you're distracted, I'll be ahead of you in no time. Just relax and enjoy swimming in my wake :-)

Freedom 4 Miler and Group Ride

The 4th of July was rather uneventful for me. The g/f, who shall now be referred to as "The Nurse," had to work so I had the day to myself with the pup. Since there was nothing better to do, as I still don't know many people here and Wednesdays are running days, a 4 mile race sounded like a brilliant idea...even if it was 90 degrees at 7am.

The race was fairly uneventful. I headed downtown a little after 6, did my usual warm-up routine and headed to the start line. I considered wearing my flag bathing suit but, it's too big and just running around the house in it was a pain. That left me wearing my Stars and Stripes Aviators. In the corral there was a guy wearing flag tights, a flag shirt and a flag as a cape. The girl running with him was dressed up as the statue of liberty. I wish I had my camera but I never run with one. I stayed near them most of the race and people were amazed by their costumes. There was a costume contest and I'm assuming they won since no one else was dressed up. I can't blame anyone for not dressing up due to the heat.

After the start the race was, like I said, uneventful. I decided to run an easy tempo pace, faster than Oly race pace. Actually it was faster than my last sprint pace but that doesn't really count. I was slightly above 9s on the way out and slowed down a decent bit in the 3rd mile as there was a decent incline. I've come to the conclusion that people in St. Louis do not run hills or they just go out too fast in short races...or they didn't pace properly for the heat. Nevertheless, I slowed on the incline but everyone else slowed more than I did and I started passing people. I ended up finishing in 36:50. I can't say I'm unhappy with my time as I wasn't trying to run a fast as possible. I don't think I've run a 4 miler but my last 8k (4.96 miles) was 45 minutes +/- a few seconds.

I planned on heading out to the Wednesday TTs which was moved to 10am due to the holiday but, I didn't get home soon enough and didn't feel like rushing to make it there on time. So, I watched Mark Cavendish crash and hung out with Loki the rest of the day, then cooked dinner for the nurse.

Yesterday, the Thursday group ride was canceled, via Facebook, due to the heat. I'm not quite sure why as it was hotter last Thursday than yesterday. Oh well, I still planned on riding because if I didn't, I would be violating my policy of "it's never too hot to train." I headed to the normal meeting place and did about 20 miles. I found out later that some people didn't get the message and still showed up. I guess I shouldn't have screwed around and got there at the normal time.

There won't be any racing this weekend but, next weekend could possibly hurt. I have the Tour de Donut in Staunton, IL on Saturday. Oddly enough, this race is put on by the Boeing Employees Bike Club...there are a lot of defense contractors in St. Louis. Probably because of the Air Force Base just outside the city. The Tour de Donut is a 35 mile spoof of the TdF. Basically, you ride and eat donuts at two stops. For each donut one eats, 5 minutes is subtracted from one's time. Last year someone ate 40. Should be interesting. Then on Sunday is the New Town Triathlon. It's put on by Ultramax and sticking with their tradition of races with odd distances, it's a 0.62 mile swim (1k...I guess they don't like the metric system), 20 mile bike and 4 mile run. Last year I happened to be in St. Louis the weekend of the race and raced it. The run was brutal, 90+ degrees with almost no shade. Hopefully more of the neighborhood is out with sprinklers this year.

Race Cost Benefit Analysis

After paying to run only a mile, I thought about the value or entertainment value of a race. Personally, I don't care how much a race costs. If I want to do it, I'm going to pony up the cash and not think twice about it...except for maybe the Tough Mudder. I've been going back and forth on this one because I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself or get hurt by someone else.

Anyway, the Macklind Mile was $25 for a mile that took me 6:49 to run. The triathlon I did last weekend was $65 (due to a nice discount I got), the 5k the weekend before that was $30 but you got a medal and the Half-Ironman was $175 because I signed up really early.

So, for the Macklind mile that race cost me about $3.70 per minute, a very expensive race. Below are the cost per minute for the other races mentioned.

Octomax Tri: $0.67/minute (would have been $0.97 without the discount)

5k: $1.15/minute + medal (only mentioned because this is odd for a 5k)

Rev3 Knoxville Half: $0.39/minute

Average Ironman in 2012 if completed in 14 hours (excluding IMNY) would be $0.71/minute

So, it seems like two things are true. The longer the race the less it cost per minute until you step up to the Ironman distance (granted there are cheaper 140.6 races out there) and obviously the slower you are the less it costs per minute. Remember that if you're not winning races or your age group, you're just getting more bang for your buck and most importantly you're doing this because it's fun!

Macklind Mile

There is a running store about a half mile from my house that I've run or walked to more than once. They're probably the biggest running store(s) in St. Louis. If not, they put on the most events. One of them being the Macklind Mile, named after the street it's run on Macklind Ave. The finish line is directly in front of one of their stores. Since it's the first race I could walk to the start line and it's only a mile, I decided to do it. The main reason is because I've never run a race that short before. Sure, we've all done mile repeats but running a mile race is a little different. It's almost an all out effort.

I meant to practice my pace on Wednesday night but that didn't happen because it was the first week of puppy training for Loki and I couldn't work around it. So, I figured I'd try to keep it under 7 minutes.

The Men's race didn't start until 9:20. I tried to kill some time with Loki before I left at 8:30 and I would be gone most of the day. It's been a record setting week of high temperatures with every day being over 100 for the high. Needless to say, I had a good sweat going by the time I got to the start and an even better sweat after I warmed up.

I think it was around 90 at the start

The mile is a very interesting race, I started out sub 6 according to my Garmin probably due to a steep downhill. The race is around an 80 feet drop in elevation. I slowed to sub 7 during the slight incline and picked it up a bit for the last half mile. I felt fine until it flattened out for the last 1/8 mile and my legs could feel it but I managed to hang on until the end.

Finish Time:
6:49
Mostly towards the back in all the groups as the slower people run the Friend's and Family wave. However it was kind of a shame as the excitement was over so quickly. If you think a 5k goes by fast, run a mile.

Then I ran...sorta...home to get the dog and head to the end of the street to watch the elite runners go by. I was drenched and decided to change my shirt but it didn't matter as that shirt was drenched within a couple minutes. The fastest male was 4:09 and the fastest female was 4:48.

A couple hours later, I went riding. I needed to ride for 2 hours according to my training plan...it sucked. The heat was brutal and my arm coolers dried out in less than 5 minutes each time. I didn't not plan accordingly for hydration and basically ran out of water. Stopping for a light made it feel like I was in an oven.

Speaking of running fast there was an interesting post on Slowtwitch about how long you can maintain the world record marathon pace of 4:43/mile (12.63 mph). I never attempted it but after that I would guess 300 meters if I'm lucky. That pace has to be faster than most people can sprint 200m. Hell, it's faster than your average person can ride 26.2 miles on a bike.

Tomorrow, I'll have more clever analysis on paying to run a mile race.

Group Ride Camaraderie

Last night I did the usual 25 mile Thursday night ride with the tri club, in 108 degree weather...113 if you were to consult my car's thermometer. "Hey, at least it's not humid" everyone said. They're right, I'd rather the temperature be over 100 degrees than 85-90 degrees and 90% humidity. The only problem is sweat evaporates so fast in that kind of heat. Oh well, good thing I bought arm coolers so I can look even weirder whilst riding. 

So, the ride appeared to be going fine until we were about 2 miles passed the halfway point of the ride. A point where everyone stops to regroup after several hills. One of the older gentlemen that rides with us stopped and asked me how my arm coolers worked. I didn't realize, since he was slightly behind me, that he didn't look so well. Two other people did and then asked if he needed some water, he was out, or salt tablets...The woman who asked about salt tablets also asked everyone else and then asked if anyone wanted Gu. She does this every ride and it's pretty awesome, shes like a rolling nutrition store. Anyway, we decided to stop for a few minutes even after he told us to just keep going. I realize he didn't want to hold everyone up but come on, we're all friends and not going to leave someone behind on a friendly ride no drop ride when they're struggling. 

After the few minutes we decided to just head to the gas station a little ways down the street and refuel. Then we slowed the pace a bit and all stuck together for the rest of the ride. He was very grateful that we stopped for him. It's kind of a no brainer, I'd probably want everyone to hold up a bit for me if I were having problems. I'd still feel bad that I held everyone up but, I'm sure they wouldn't mind. I did feel a little guilty about not offering him any of my water since I always try to carry more than I think I'll need but, I made a salt tab concoction in all my bottles because of the heat. I suppose I made up for it two weeks before when someone forgot their water bottle and I gave him mine...after the ride I found out it was almost all for naught as he put the bottle upside down in his cage. Good thing it wasn't open.

I think we're a much better group to ride with than the other club that starts in the same place as we do. This father and his son seem to have a goal of leaving everyone in their dust on their rides...we always have a sweeper.

Remember, help a fellow rider in need...one day you might be in need.