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what "thing" happened to you right before your big race?
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First IM this weekend (IMLou), and got up in the middle of the night last Friday (8 days out) and jammed my pinky toe. I'm talking chunked a piece of toenail and a bit of blood. It's Tuesday and finally it's starting to feel better. but haven't been able to go for a run since it happened, just mostly swimming and a single hour on bike trainer.
I really think It'll be alright for the race, i've iced the shit outta it, and popped advil twice a day since (stopped today)

What "screw-up" have you done that potentially derailed your race?
Last edited by: srschick: Oct 11, 17 7:12
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve come down with a cold before every A race this year. Twice I was able to fight it off, but either way it sucked.

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Cold or flu 2-3 weeks before HIMs about 4-5 times now.

Plantar fasciitis a few weeks or a month before HIMs twice.

Got into Vineman finally. Crashed the bike before the race. 5 broken bones. Then next year race got cancelled.

Can't race without coffee. Coffee makes.... things... move. Coffee > port-a-potties >> great day. Well the coffee grinder, the one we owned and used every day for years, broke on race morning. Turned for 1 second, seized, then smell of shorted electronics permeated the kitchen. Had the BEST race performance of my whole damn life, other than the two lengthy stops at port-a-potties on the run course. Easily lost 3-4 minutes each.

Best for last. Woke up in Whistler on race morning with back pain so bad I could not walk around the hotel room. Had to hold onto furniture to steady myself to reach the bathroom and to get dressed. Hobbled to the race shuttles. Had to hold onto seats to get in and sit down and then again to get out at the lake. Still raced and finished but my time was absurd. I might have been the last finisher dunno. So here's the question? How often do I get back pain? NEVER. This was first time. Hasn't happened before or since.
Last edited by: Dilbert: Oct 10, 17 20:42
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Hospitalized from dengue virus 2 weeks before my 70.3 "A" race.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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srschick wrote:
First IM this weekend (IMLou), and got up in the middle of the night last Friday (8 days out) and jammed my pinky toe. I'm talking chunked a piece of toenail and a bit of blood. It's Tuesday and finally it's starting to feel better. but haven't been able to go for a run since it happened, just mostly swimming and a single hour on bike trainer.
I really think It'll be alright for the race, i've iced the shit outta it, and popped advil twice a day since (stopped today)

What "screw-up" have you done that potentially derailed your race?

R2C shifter broke 4 days before I had to put my bike on Tri Bike Transport for Steelhead 70.3 in 2016. LBS got it fixed the day before bike dropoff & I was cool. Still my 56 mile bike PR.

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Ten days before my wife defends her AG 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga, I come down with a roaring case of Shingles on the back of my neck and chest. (Yes, I had the shot - but it's only 50% effective) Doctor says we do NOT get on an airplane with possible pregnant or elderly passengers while infectious. Since she was an automatic qualifier, all the reservations and after race trip plans to visit relatives had been made a year in advance. Instead, I got 5 weeks of misery and my poor sweet wife missed her "A" race for the year. BTW - if you or yours are 60+ and had Chicken Pox as a kid - GET THE DAMN SHOT! My doctor says that my outbreak was much less severe because I had it - I've since heard horror stories from people who didn't.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Well...its been an interesting summer. It was quite a ways out from my race (July for a Sept race), but maybe the severity still lets it count?

While cutting out a section of iron pipe fence, the angle grinder I was using bound and kicked into my face. It hit me on the right side of my nose, dug into the bone and cut across the bridge of my nose. I had reconstruction surgery the next day. The plastic surgeon said there wasn't a lot of bone put back together...he just sort of molded it into the right shape.

Between the injury, the surgery, the recovery, and then repeated rejected stitches...I lost about 6 weeks of training. I wasn't able to resume full-training until the 3rd week of august---4 weeks from my race.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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I had two main races i was aiming for end of summer just gone. Was in great shape on for big PBs. Entered a standard distance for a bit of fun and to test some new race kit. Slipped getting on the bike, foot went into back wheel, sliced an enormous chunk out of my toe. That got infected and took a month to fully heal.

Lost 5 weeks training and had to pull out of both races.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Recently bike didn't show up at airport until 3 hours before registration closed for ironman. Only problem registration 3.5 hours away by car. They took pity on me. This didn't happen to me but I was told the story. Guy booked trip to IM New Zealand. Three of his friends going along to cheer him on. . As he is taking pedals off bike hand slips and almost slices thumb off. He has to stay and get thumb reattached. Friends go to New Zealand and have great time.

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Kona 2014 (1st time on the island): Two weeks out, first evening on the island went to the beach at Waipio Valley with the kids and literally walked into a rock that was hidden in the sand. Lost the toenail of right foot's index toe completely.

Kona 2016 (2nd try): Day before the race went for an easy spin and crashed the bike in a fuel station due to oil on the asphalt. Swollen right hip as a result.

Seems that I've somehow pissed off the tri gods.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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I know a guy who tripped and broke a bone in his foot the day before his race. At the olympics. Took him a while to get over that.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Only race this year is in a week and a half. About 4 weeks ago was a stomach virus that took me out of doing anything for nearly a week. I got about one week of good training in after that and then got a sinus infection that was so bad, doing a flip turn in the pool made me feel like my head was going to explode. Took about a week and a half to fully get over that.

I've given up any ideas of trying to make any personal goals I may have had from the start. I'm actually pretty relaxed now, just realizing I am going to go and have a good time completing the race. But I definitely missed a very important part of my training.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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srschick wrote:
First IM this weekend (IMLou), and got up in the middle of the night last Friday (8 days out) and jammed my pinky toe. I'm talking chunked a piece of toenail and a bit of blood. It's Tuesday and finally it's starting to feel better. but haven't been able to go for a run since it happened, just mostly swimming and a single hour on bike trainer.
I really think It'll be alright for the race, i've iced the shit outta it, and popped advil twice a day since (stopped today)

What "screw-up" have you done that potentially derailed your race?

I *broke* my little toe the night before the NJ Triathlon (Olympic). I didn't know if I could even get my foot into my running shoes until I dismounted the bike during the race. Managed to run a 40:54 10km, IIRC.

Went to the podiatrist the next day, and he insisted that he x-ray my entire foot, because there had to be something else broken to cause my foot to be that purple. I told him I did a 10k on it..."oh".

I also managed to toss my car keys into the lake just before swim warmup, but that's another story...

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Had a bike wreck on one of my last training rides before IM Lou one year. Then, that same week, I was unloading some stuff at the Goodwill and fell out of the bed of my pickup truck.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Blew my hamstring out throwing a heinous heel hook while rock climbing in Kentucky a month before my first 70.3 (Steelhead)

2019 T-Rex Tri Series
Last edited by: mknight84: Oct 11, 17 7:14
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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I've had numerous colds, and minor illnesses right after races. Some things were not so minor. In high school, I ended up having my appendix out 3 days after a championship swim meet. A couple years later, for probably the biggest race i ever prepared for, I won but then got a pretty bad case of the flu within 12 hours. Another time I was in a pretty bad car accident on the way to a swim meet but, out of pure luck, I was not hurt AND someone else heading to the same meet came past and gave me a ride so we got their on time. As a result of all this, I am convinced I have a special mental power to hold off disease and otherwise scare away or at least hold off bad things, like those old people who die the day after Christmas or right after their birthday ;-) I know it is BS but I seriously feel invincible leading up to races.

Of course, this could just be selective memory. There was that one time I broke my collar bone the day before a race . . . .
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Broke a toe on right foot 10 days before Steelhead one year. Said screw it, I'm doing it anyway, so I taped my foot all up and went. Was OK until the run and then my favoring of the right foot threw off my gate and resulted in massive thigh cramping and huge blisters on my other toes. I still finished but it was painful.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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It was the morning of bike check in in Kona and I went to put my rental Zipps with a PowerTap on my Felt B2. But they were the new wider rims and I couldn't open up the brakes wide enough without the brake arms hitting the crank arms. I was staying in Waikoloa. I went to the bike shop there and they couldn't make it work either--the only suggestion was to grind down the new cork pads to almost nothing to get a few extra millimeters of clearance. Given that there are only about five places on the course you need to brake--the downhill into the hot corner, the turnaround at mile 5, left turn at Kawaihae, turnaround in Hawi, and the dismount line--I figured I didn't need much pad and they ground them down and got it to work.

They also offered to fix the creaking headset/bars. The bike has a stupid proprietary system that always creaks. They said they knew Felts and knew what they were doing. I got the bike back about two hours before the check in deadline, and I couldn't turn the handlebars! They had totally cranked everything down way too tight. The mechanic had left, so I went back to my rental condo and watched YouTube videos and did it myself. I got to bike check in--45 minute drive from Waikoloa--just as it was about to close. My bike worked fine on race day but my stress levels were through the roof. I haven't paid anyone to work on my bikes in six years except to install a press-fit BB on my mountain bike because I didn't have the tools.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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srschick wrote:
First IM this weekend (IMLou), and got up in the middle of the night last Friday (8 days out) and jammed my pinky toe. I'm talking chunked a piece of toenail and a bit of blood. It's Tuesday and finally it's starting to feel better. but haven't been able to go for a run since it happened, just mostly swimming and a single hour on bike trainer.
I really think It'll be alright for the race, i've iced the shit outta it, and popped advil twice a day since (stopped today)

What "screw-up" have you done that potentially derailed your race?
Might be better laying off the ice. It's likely to make it feel better but slow down healing to the best of my knowledge.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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During IM Mont Tremblant, shortly after finishing my warmup swim before race start, my contact lens pops out of my eyes. By some miracle it landed on my goggles. I ran over to an official and was able to pop it back into my eye 2 mins before swim start.

I'm half blind w/o my contacts btw and it would have made for a very long shitty day
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Where's the "thing happened before the big race" good news?

Like "night before the big race, met the girl of my dreams. We wore ourselves out all night. Greatest 6hrs of my life. Don't remember much about the race. Married the girl."

So where's those stories?

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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1st Ironman race 2013 in Madison, hit by a car on an afternoon ride three weeks before. Broken collarbone. Still raced, but missed my goal time by a solid hour and change. Surprisingly, swimming and biking didn't kill me, but by five miles into the run, the pounding on the pavement caused me to want my left arm amputated. Long day!



http://Everydadironman.blogspot.com
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Going in to the water, Kona, 2011 (my first 140.6, one of the last of the lottery guys.... so not really a back door brag) I stepped on a piece of coral. At first it just hurt a bit like I had stepped on one of my kid's legos. But it kept hurting. A lot! I walked back up on the beach and picked up my foot to see a half inch wide gash, about 2.5-3 inches in length, deep enough that I could see the fascia/deep structures in the bottom of my foot...... with surprisingly little blood for the size of the wound.

I started to go see if medical could patch me up (15 minutes to Kona gun time) and it occurred to me that potentially I would be told that I could not race. So I went back in to the water and did my first 140.6 with a fairly large hole in my foot. At the end of the bike and run my shoes were both full of blood. I was amazed by how little it hurt during the race. The next day the pain was bad enough that I struggle to walk on it. It took about ten days for it to start to feel better.

And that is my story of what happened to me right before my biggest race, ever.

----------------------------
Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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Two days before the Xterra Pan Am Championships, went to pre-ride the course. After talking with a few folks at the lodge at Snow Basin, decided that riding the run course up the mountain may be a better option due to the mud on the bike course below. Started up the run course -- things were not too bad until I got about a mile in. Mud caked up so bad that my front wheel wouldn't even turn. Decided to bag it and just head back down the mountain.

As I was heading down, I was shedding all the mud thankfully, but as I entered a flatter section I took one pedal crank and completely sheared off my rear derailleur. There was so much mud in the rear cage that one crank of the pedals without the chain being able to turn through the pulleys and it just ripped off.

Spent the rest of that afternoon traveling to three different bike shops in Ogden and in Salt Lake City to find a derailleur, a derailleur hanger (it's surprisingly difficult to find a small hunk of metal), and a shop who could turn it around in a day.

USA Triathlon Level 2 Coach
Slowtwitch Master Coach
Head Coach, TriCoach Colorado, LLC
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Re: what "thing" happened to you right before your big race? [srschick] [ In reply to ]
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before my first IM this year, my allergies really acted up. I thought it was a cold at first but luckily it turned out to be allergies and a few days of allegra did the trick.
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