Shoe fell off bike in T2

I should clarify that this happens after the bike portion of my race or training on my way to the transition area to switch to my running shoes.

Tighten your pedal to more firmly hold the cleat? My shoes occasionally drag the ground, but haven't (yet, knock on wood) popped off the pedal.

That's the only option I know of...other than leaving your shoes on and trying to run through T2 in them, then change shoes at your rack. that's a time killer, though.

How are they popping off exactly? I've only noticed my shoes popping off if one of them happens to get turned upside down where dragging causes them to catch, lift the bike up slightly and pop them out. However, the way I dismount now, they always fallen straight back so that they drag against the ground properly and don't get a chance to do that (Very different things can be happening though depending on the size of the shoes).

This is a myth.  My T2 times are routinely under a minute (in a normal-sized transition area) running with my shoes on to my transition spot and changing shoes right there. 

Now, if you want to say that running in bike shoes is more treacherous because they are slippery, I'd agree.

Edited by Mrs. brown_dog_us 2009-08-30 2:32 PM

Do many people use SPD/Mountain bike shoes/pedals since they are a lot easier to run in?

Mine are around thirty seconds (T1 and T2) leaving the shoes on the bike. Isolated data points don't mean a whole lot, if you looked at the just these two (yours and mine) one would conclude that your method is indeed a time waster.

You could try putting the bike in a harder gear so that when you push the bike the crank arms don't move as much and this will help keep your shoes from hitting the ground in the first place.

Do I have to pick the shoe up?  Obviously I don't want to lose a shoe, but do race rules say anything about it?

Yep. There is a rule against abandonment of equipment.

I use SPD mtn bike pedals (shimano 520) and since the cleats are inset, I can still maintain a pretty fast pace through T-2 with the shoes on and not slip.  The 5 seconds it takes to unstrap and change into running shoes is not a big time loss, especially considering that most of the time, if you are unstrapping your feet from the pedals while moving, I may be passing you (since you aren't pedaling).

So the discussion about T-1/T-2 splits are hard to compare.  I'd love to see some analysis of time to get to bike, then at full speed on bike to really compare.  There are usually a few people you pass right out of transition that are still messing with getting there feet in the shoes, while you took the extra couple of seconds.  While I agree, anything that can be done while moving is a time saver, not sure we get the full picture though.

Kinda like Nascar, a pit stop of 13.8 is flying but if the driver goes a little too slow entering and exiting, could end up being slower than a 14.2 stop.  Sometimes you have to go slower to go faster, lots of opinions on how to do that.  Love the feedback.

I was using SPDs for my previous races, they were lace ups (a 7 year old pair).  So I had to take the time to tie them in T1, but would often pass people once I got on the bike while they were still strapping theirs down... so without knowing if they came into T1 at the same time, before or after me, it's hard to tell how much time I lost by tieing them or made up by having them already on, or having SPDs so I could run in them.  Same thing with T2... I'd leave them on and run to my area.  I'd pass people coming in, but might have lost time having to get out of them.  But all in all, 3, 5, 10 seconds isn't going to make or break my MOP times.