brick94513-GoGoGo Mentor Group - Closed For Now! (Page 106)

Thanks guys!


Ok..........

I had to do it. My wife is going to kill me, but the deal on this trainer was too good to pass. I got a Kurt Kinetic road machine with mat, riser, and powermeter for $383.92 shipped/no tax!!

Very nice.  You wont regret getting it!  How does the PM work?  Is it integrated into the trainer?

I believe so, it's an add on for the Kurt Kenetic

No sir, moving down to oceanside in two short weeks  I hope to never come back to this armpit of the world!

Edited by shmeeg 2010-12-01 12:11 PM

Hey, good to see a few of you still active on this thread!  Rough couple of months here, my stress is through the roof (finances and job type stuff), my eating has gone to , and I've put on 15 pounds in the last 2 months...  The race promoter I like is running a nice discount this weekend, so I just did some scheduling for next year, and have a few races on the calender now.  The first is a MTB duathlon on January 23, so at least now I'll have a new goal to train towards.  I had a great run today and my enthusiasm is renewed.  Long and slow, that's going to be my mantra this month. 

I had $700 saved up for a road bike a while ago, but ended up spending it on a motorcycle for my daughter instead.  Damn priorities...   Looks like I'll be doing another season on the old mtb with slicks.

Anyway, I'm going to get back to following this thread again, it definitely helps my motivation to hang out here a bit more instead of over at advrider (my other online hangout).  

david.
 

Welcome back David -- nice thing about the group is whenever you get down/discouraged you can always count on someone to pick you up.  15 pounds just gives you an "easy" New Year's goal as you were there just two months back!

Dave,

I will probably see you there for the duathlon.  Not sure if I will be racing or my wife.  My oldest son is pestering me to get him signed up for the race.

Did you see the 50/50 event?  5 mile run - 20 mile road ride - 10 mile run - 15 mile MTB ride.  This looked like a really fun format to me.  I might take kid duty on the first duathlon so I can do this one.

Good to see you back on the forum.

Thanks!  I can hope for new years, but with holiday parties and family stuff it will probably take a little longer...  I've found that diet is 99% responsible for my weight gain/loss, and my history is December is not that great.    

I did see the 50/50.  Looks fun, but a bit over my head right now.  Maybe next season?  I calculated out my entire season, and the entry fees alone for my whole family will be around $1200!   And that's just counting the TBF stuff.  My plan is to do the early season MTB du's, then the XTERRA in March, then the three Oly's over the summer.  My wife and kids will be doing tri's those weekends too, most likely.  I'm going to see about volunteering with them to offset the entry fee costs.  Seems like volunteering would be pretty fun to do also.   

Picked up the new roadie today.  Took it on ~28 mile test ride up into Joshua Tree monument.  That thing rides like a dream compared to my TT bike.  I may not even ride the Kestrel again until race season!

Have we seen any pictures of this beauty yet?

It sounds like both the Dave's on this thread are experiencing high stress. I've been working crazy hours recently, and didn't get a day off this weekend. Our final RFP came in from our customer and we have 60 days to turn around a proposal for a $4B program. They are ordering lunch and dinner for us 7 days a week so my diet has changed dramatically recently and my workout time has completely fallen off the table. I've got to figure out a way to do some early AM workouts...


In case you're interested in Missile Defense...http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2010/1203-ss-gmd-rfp.html

No sir, no pics yet.  I'm waiting on another saddle and stem to show up, might wait until after I get fit on it before I start throwin pics up on here.  And I might change pedals, not sure.   Sounds like a crazy schedule for you! 

In what way do you mean, "rides like a dream compared to my TT bike."

Just curious the differences you feel.  Do you think it's mostly positioning, or is it other damping type charactaristics or something?  Are the TT and road bike fairly comparable in terms of pricepoint/materials/components etc? 

TT bikes are about one thing.  Speed.  Comfort is secondary.  I've never been really comfortable on my Kestrel.



Tri bikes tend to be more twitchy.  I'd never think of taking both hands off my tribike, but riding hands-free can be done on a roadbike much easier, should the need arise.  I feel every bump, rock, and uneven aspect of the roads I ride on the TT bike.  It's a muted feeling on the roadie.  The upright position on a road bike is also different than sitting upright on a TT bike out of the aerobars.  The hip angle is different if I'm not mistaken, but it's definitely a much more comfortable experience for me.    I haven't gone to get a fit done on it yet, just used my TT bike measurements as a starting point and tweaked things until it felt 'ok'.  Not really comparable between the two, other than carbon frame.  My Kestrel was about $1800, Ultegra components, Profile stem/cockpit, full size crank.  I had the F1 built, but if you were to buy it, it would be about $6500.  DA components, wheels, Bontrager/FSA stem and cockpit, compact crank.

I would say the biggest difference between the two is obviously the geometry.   Remember, the goal of the TT bike is to minimize wind resistance.  With that in mind, the steeper geometry of the TT bike will place the rider more toward the front of the bike.  Also, the wheelbase will be shorter which will aslo lend to the TT bike being more twitchy.

I find myself reserving the tri bike for the races and brick sessions and using my road bike for all other road training.

I use my TT bike every chance I get. I guess my roadie is not really comparable to my tt bike, but I'm faster on my TT bike for sure. I can literally average 2-4 mph more on my avg for rides 25 miles or longer. I don't know what it is about the tt position, but I feel sooooo much stronger on that bike. This winter, I've made the mistake of only riding my roadie on the trainer. This week I put my tt on the trainer to make sure I stay comfortable with the tt position. It's a couple months since I rode it. I was not very comfortable in the tt position at all. Bottom line, I need to ride the tt bike in the winter more.

A little update on my Kurt Kinetic for you guys:

On cyber monday I was able to score a deal on a Kurt Kinetic road machine, power computer, mat, and riser for $387 shipped to my door. I got it right before I went out to Boston last week and just rode it for the first time last night. Overall, it was a great purchase. I set it up in my living room so I can spend time with my wife and train at the same time.

the good:
1. it's nice and quiet- wife can watch tv while I ride no problem
2. it's pretty realistic as far as resistance goes
3. the power computer is great for doing intervals with watts
4. I won't ever have an excuse not to ride when weather is bad now.
5. It's great to get on the bike and spin lactic acid out of the legs when I'm soar


the bad
1. The wire computer is a bit of a PITA to have on the bike and now I have 2 computers on it.
2. I'm a little concerned about the accuracy of the power computer with watts
3. The road machine itself seems well made, but the tension mechanism seems like it could be designed better than just a plastic knob on a bolt with a spring.

In the coming weeks I'm going to take my bike with the Kurt Kinetic power computer to computrainer class with me and compare the watts between the two to check accuracy. I'm concerned because the computer calculates watts based on speed and weight of the rider. That may be ok, I guess, given the controlled conditions of the trainer (no wind, or elevation gain/loss). However, there is no calibration at the flywheel and there still may be other variables. But, for $80 you can't beat it for some sort of power reading to go off of.

Anyone have any thoughts on training with this power reading?

I'm ramping my running back up, and just can't keep my heart rate in Z2 at all!  My body feels fine, and I feel like I could keep on going at the end of my run, but I'm up in Z3/4.  I'm assuming it's just because I haven't been training in a while, and my cardio system has a bit of catching up to do before it's back to it's old self.  Anything to worry about?  Should I just keep on running where I'm at and ignore HR for now?

If you're training off the same wattage #s on the same trainer there shouldn't be an issue.

Nah, I wouldn't worry. My Z2 is a really frkn slow pace, I usually don't ever train in Z2 because of it.

+1 I would just keep going till you get back in the groove. You may want to test your max hr running vs cycling too. Especially, with your background in MTB'ing. You may be much better conditioned cycling and your max hr might be a lot higher running. Or, of you are a gear masher you may not even be using all your HR on the bike. I know, I'm not comfortable at the high cadence needed to achieve my max hr on the bike. Therefore, my max HR on the bike is 187 where running it's 210. That could be throwing you off on your zones.

I hope you're not really running so hard that your HR gets up to 210!  

not often. Actually, my max on my turkey trot said 223, but I don't think that's right. It's gotta be a blip......I think.

I just have a high hr when I run. I'm actually pretty comfortable running above 160 and 170 for extended periods of time. On the bike, get me to 170 and I'm dieing!! LOL I don't know why there is such a gap there, but there is.

Edited by Meulen 2010-12-10 12:10 PM

There's no way that's right.  Your heart would explode at that point.  What are you using to measure HR?  I know it's not an accurate method, but there's some value in the fact that the 220-age method chose that # as a starting point