I Married Into a Sweaty Family

(...but before we get to that, a little more on something else.)

So the last few days of discussion on my blog have been very interesting to me! It was first an “iPod or no iPod” discussion, which soon turned into an issue about racing and race effort. I took some of these ideas and wrote about them in the forums on BeginnerTriathlete.com as well. Most people (on BT) agree with many of the sentiments left here regarding iPods: many don’t wear them, few people race with them, and everyone that uses them seem to be using them safety / smartly.

Then I put up a poll on BT asking “Can you hold a short conversation during a 10 mile race?” Here’s what I added:

I've been catching a little flak for not "racing hard enough." I recently did the TC 10 Miler in 1:02:43, which was good for 95 out of 5797. I was happy with that. But being I held a few short conversations with other runners at mile 1, 4, and 5, some people are saying that I didn't race hard enough. It was an "all out race" for me, and in a 10 mile race, I'm not racing so hard by mile 1 that I can't talk. SHOULD I be racing that fast?

Thoughts please! Thanks!

Around noon today (about 24 hours after putting up the poll), here are the results:

So 62% say it’s OK to have a short conversation, but I’m a little surprised to see 30% say you shouldn’t have enough breath to talk. I didn’t think it’d be THAT high! The way I race, I almost use talking as a tool in the first half (at least in a race as long as a 10 mile) to make sure I stay nice and easy. Then I can “unload” in the last half and know that I have the speed / power / energy to make it to the finish line. That’s the idea repeated by many people who commented on that poll - here’s one example:

If you can't talk a little bit in the early part of the race, you will be walking before the finish line.

A lot of people stated something like that. This next comment, although a little harshly worded, brought the biggest smile to my face:

You turned in a 1:02 for a ten miler and you weren't racing hard enough? Damn, I hate to see if you shut up and ran how fast you'd be! That's an awesome run IMO and if you are okay saying a few words, so be it. Who gives a fuzzy rats nut sack as to what others think ~ run your own race and only you can truly criticize what and how you performed. If I could run that fast and talk, I might do it just to show off. ;) Run on brother!

And was it any surprise to see that commenter was from Texas? I think not. ;) Ha!

But, there were plenty of people that also commented saying that ANY talking will add time to my overall race. Seeing 30% of people say I shouldn’t be talking at all was a surprisingly high percentage! Maybe I’ve been wrong! Maybe I need to be racing harder in the first half and not talking so much! I’m definitely considering this for this weekend’s Monster Dash 10 Mile race!

Changing gears: last night, Pharmie and her brother, Matt, had a date with their trainers in our basement. They did an hour workout together as I sat upstairs and ate pizza (really). Here they are about 3 minutes from the end of their workout:

Matt had a POOL of sweat under his bike, and it was actually flowing (in 2 little rivers of sweat) to our basement drain! Check this out:

That’s amazing!! We figured we could probably get about 6 bikes and trainers down in that space in front of our TV, so any locals want to have some winter “trainer dates” at our place? The only requirement is that you can’t be allergic to cats. (The litter box, a few cat mats, and all the cat toys are in the basement not too far from the trainers, so a workout would get pretty ugly pretty quick if you were allergic!) Seriously, who wants to come over?...

Big races this weekend!! Pharmie’s racing her first 50 K trail run, and I’m racing the Monster Dash 10 Mile!! Should be a fun Saturday!!