konichiwa's mentor group - Are we having fun yet? - FULL (Page 12)

We'll be in town.  Right now the wknd looks something like...

Fri - HIM race rehearsal (So 56mi bike with 45min brick run.)  Prob go to a friend's house afterwards for a cookout/bbq.

Sat - 2h30m ride and then a second cookout/bbq

Sun - 14mi run and a swim.

Somewhere amongst all that we'll be stuffing our wedding invitations too!

Here are my June numbers.

 July's numbers will certainly be lower as we taper into Musselman HIM on July 19 and recover afterwards.

Cruise!!!! I missed that.  Where you going Keri?  How long?  Which cruise line?

 I am flying from Houston to Florida where we all meet up and spend one night then we get on the Carnival boat Friday morning sailing to The Bahamas.  The plans are drinking, debochery (sp?) mixed with karyoke, a stripper pole and some time in the sun.  A few of us have vowed to work out but we'll see how that pans out   We come back the following Monday.

This will be my first time away without any kids in almost 9 years.

This is my first cruise.  Anybody been on one?  Words of advice?  I am a bit worried about motion sickness, suggestions???

I've been on three...all Caribbean and all with Royal Caribbean.  Twice with my family and once with laura and some friends.  I never had any issues with motion sickness...its a big ship and the waters are generally quite calm.  You can get dramamine or a motion sickness patch if you are nervous about it.

http://cruisediva.com/seasick.htm

Everything is paid via a "folio" card...basically your own charge card for the ship.  Drinks can add up quick so keep an eye out.  If they offer a alcoholic drink card, take advantage of it.  They didn't have it on my last cruise but it was available on previous ones.  Basically it allowed you to buy 10 drinks up front at the cost of beer and then you could redeem for any drink.  Not sure about Carnival though plus I think a lot of cruise liners are looking to get the extra $$$ out of you since vacation travel is down given the economy.  RC allowed you to buy an unlimited soda pkg since its not included.  If you are a coke/diet coke drinker, this is a great deal.

Besides that, they are a TON of fun.  You are sure to enjoy it.

You can talk to laura about the stripper pole...she did a glass for a bachelorette party...she said it wasn't easy...had some bruises to show for it too.

ya brad and kristin are the ones that got me into tris and they are our best buds.  We did that wknd trip with the in Gettysburg, that recent ride in Frederick, MD and most recently the Philly Tri together.  You should definitely say HI to them at the race.

As far as shoes on the bike in transition, I use Sidi tri shoes that have a loop on the back and this makes it easy.  Most tri-specific shoes have the loop whereas most road shoes do not.  I do the following;

- I put the drive side crank arm forward.  I break the rubberband and loop it through the loop on the shoe and then through one of the spider arms of the crank.  Tie of the rubberband and you are done.

- On the non-drive side the crank arm will be back, parallel to the chain stay.  I loop the complete rubberhand through the shoes and then loop the rubberband through itself.  I then attach this to the rear quick release skewer. 

- My shoes stay in place until I am on them.  I mount the bike with my feet on my shoes and then I get up to speed.  Then about three or four revolutions later both rubberbands are broken.  Next I'll bring my R foot to 12 o'clock and get it in the shoe.  Repeat with the L foot.  Just be sure to use small thin ones.

I use SpeedPlays, which has a large cleat on the bottom that can quickly accumulate dirt and then makes clipping in very difficult.  Laura uses LOOKs and she runs with her shoes on out of T1 but then she'll go barefoot off the bike into T2.

If you have road shoes you'll need to find a way to fasten them to the bike since you probably won't have the loops on the shoes.

besides that, make sure you practice.  getting into the shoes while moving can be tricky.  not all shoes open really wide to make getting your foot in easy.  This is laura's biggest challenge with your Specialized Trivent shoes.  Getting out of the shoes late on the bike so you can run barefoot into T2 is much easier.

Hope this helps.  If you want I can setup my shoes/bike and take pics.  Just let me know.

Must've been a bad day for blackberrys as we were out in downtown Philadelphia for a free cheryl crow concert and the fireworks and a friend of my sister lost her blackberry into the sewer!  you could see it lit up in the water when someone called or txt'd.

nice job with the ride and i'm jealous that you got an ow swim in.

Charlie 1 - Sorry to hear about your crackberry   I keep my cell phone in my bento box when I ride alone and could totally see that happening.

Sounds like your OWS went well.  Clinics are always great and practicing in your wetsuit will serve you well.  But what do I know I've never worn a wetsuit - of course I live just south of Hades so we don't need them much down here while we are swimming in bathwater temperatures.

I meet for OWS on Sunday mornings with a great group of triathletes.  Yesterday there were 15-20, a lot of BTers and just a great group of folks.  We don't have many OWS options down here and this lake has some buoys and small docks for markers so it really helps.  My next race is OW so I really need the practice.  Though I am concerned because the next one is 500m and I have yet to swim that in OW.  The race isn't until August 9 so I have some time.

Got the suitcase out - the packing has begun.

Thanks!  Was definitely very happy to go sub 2:15 for an oly.  Next up is an attempt to go sub-5 at Musselman Half in two weeks.

Actually I have a PowerTap and Garmin.  I use PT computer on my tri bike and I use the Garmin 705 on my road bike.  I switch the rear wheel (powermeter) to which bike I am riding.  I don't have the cadence sensor but it still uses some algorithm to calculate cadence.  I dn't think its as accurate as the sensor, but good enough.  There are a number of inexpensive bike computer that provide cadence.

CatEye - The Astrale 8 is a cheap wired computer that I used for years.  Very dependable.  Has cadence.

I have a CatEye Double Wireless and a VDO double wireless just sitting around.  Anyone can PM me if they are interested.  I'll sell them cheap.  

Any idea what kind of cadence you typically run?  If you are anywhere b/t 80 and 100 you should be fine.

-Tim

Congrats on collection some hardware in your AG.  Looking fwd to reading your RR.

It shouldn't be too hard, but it can depend on the shoe.  Its easy for me and my size 11.5s in my Sidi, but Laura with much smaller feet but with Specialized Trivents has a much harder time.

UGH, I totally cannot get my feet into my shoes when they are clipped in. I practiced a bunch before the Philly tri, but I just couldn't get my feet in to the shoe without struggling and taking up too much time. So, I resigned to putting my shoes on in T1 and running in them up to the mount line. Yes, it does cost me a few seconds in T1, but I think I would lose much more time trying to get my feet in my shoes while riding. I'd rather play it safe than sorry. Plus, I've had a few instances in races where people are trying to get their feet into their shoes at the mount line and its caused a traffic jam. In my opinion, I wouldn't want to cause other racers to slow down because I haven't properly learned how to execute.

I typically switch gears to keep my cadence at what feels comfortable for me...that typically is high 80s to low 90s.  If the road gets really steep and I run out of gears sometimes I am mashing it out at a much lower cadence....70s, 60s, 50s.  It hurts.

85 is a fine cadence.  I don't think you really need to change it.  I've actually read some stuff from Brett Sutton (Chrissie Wellington's old coach) where he suggests the longer the ride the lower the cadence you should have.  Ironman distance you are looking at low 80s whereas a sprint or oly may be in the 90s.  The idea being a lower cadence will allows you to keep a lower HR and in a longer race a lower HR on the bike may help you save something for the bike.  Anyways, I wouldn't necessarily seek to change your cadence...85 is well within the normal range and if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

I do do some spin-up and one-legged drills.  Most often its on the trainer in the winter.  The spin-up type drills I like use during a warm-up on the trainer.  Gets the blood flowing, heart rate up and helps smooth out the pedaling a bit.  I really like the one-legged drills to work on pedaling form.  Nothing crazy...something like 6-10 minutes where you alternate legs every 30s to 1min.  keep the resistance low and try to spin smooth circles with the one leg.  I typically do them at the end of a trainer workout.