GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 135)

stevebradley - 2010-04-29 9:39 AM MANDY - Somehow, we'll have to figure out a way to "moose" Wes before Pirate! (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know -- I have no clue as to what it means to "moose" someone. But whatever it is, it's got to work, right?)

thall0672 - 2010-04-29 5:49 AM Lisa: How did your son's team do??

midlifeinsanity - 2010-04-28 11:03 PM LISA & DENISE - Best luck to both of you, too!

stevebradley - 2010-04-29 8:47 AM



TRACEY -

I'm sure that Timberman also has a novice/newbie/first-timers wave. As for doing them all season long -- sure! Why not! There are some people who never feel fully comfortable with the swim, and they sign up for those waves whenever they have the chance, regardless of how many years they have been racing!

I have now done about 78 triathlons, and only once -- last May, at Bassman (NJ) -- have I been "swum over". This is mentioned frequently as a caution when swimming in a race, but obviously for me it is a very rare occurrence. There is a lot of incidental contact that can happen, but 90% of the time the two contactees just veer immediately away from each other. ("Excuse me!" "No, excuse ME!" "I'm So sorry!" "I should've looked where I was going!" "My DEEPEST apologies!" ---- you can almost hear that being burbled and grobbled through the water.) And even in races that don't offer novice waves, it is easy to position oneself where contact will be minimal, and maybe even non-existant. In a wave of, say, 75 people, 50 of them will be within five feet of the start line. Another 15 will be a few feet further back, and that leaves the rest of the area for the remaining 10 or so. So even if one is 12 feet behind the start line, how long does it take to swim 12 feet - five or six seconds? Nothing at all, really. The other good place to line up is off to the sides; not too many people start there, either.

One good reason for getting into open water before Escape, if you can, is to work on sighting. And come to think of it, another good reason is to find out to what degree you are a "drifter". I am a drifter, meaning that I tend to drift to the left a fair bit. Even though i am an excellent sighter, I still tend to drift if I try to go too long between sightings (sometimes, though; I'm not all that consistent). For me, then, it is slightly helpful if I get over towards the right when I start, so that if I am drfifting to the left, i will keep having people off which I can deflect! ("Excuse me!" "I'm so sorry!"...... )

So if we can get in a swim before Escape, that might be helpful!

manfarr1974 - 2010-04-29 9:29 AM

Tracey-

I did the novice wave for my first tri, glad I did.  But, after that I did age group for two reasons. 1) I am impatient to get into the water 2) I am impatient to get into the water

One thing to remember about the novice wave - you go into the water last, so you are going to be in the group of people last out of the water - the fun part is passing different color caps.  Don't panic when you come out and don't see many bikes - at the Pirate, my first tri, I did the novice wave and came out of the water and thought, "Holy crap! Where is everyone!"  At first I felt this sense of panic that I was the last one out of the water.  Well, ofcourse I was, I was the last one in! Get on your bike girl! GO GO GO.

Your time starts when your wave leaves, so folks are in some cases many minutes ahead physically when really in time, you are ahead of them.  Weird right?  SO I came in 4 seconds of my friend Wes at the Maine State Tri (still rubbing it in, mostly because it bothers him ), but he crossed the finish line 30 seconds before me - his swim wave was first (he killed me), I passed him on T1, beat him on the bike (he had a mountain bike, poor guy ), he passed me on the run (I was gunning for him!) and when we saw the results, we cracked up. 

Well, I did.  His male ego was a little bruised.  Fragile things that they are.  In the end, my transition times were faster than his.  He just bought a tri bike, I am dead meat now.

Mandy

thall0672 - 2010-04-29 6:24 AM Anne: How's the neuroma been? Or do you now just have the knee problem? By the way, welcome back! Tracey

thall0672 - 2010-04-29 6:47 AM Shaun: Funny you should mention about the positioning of the racers. I always assumed to be "pro" you had do always be on the drops since that's where you have least wind resistance (or so I thought). But a couple weeks ago I was talking to a guy my husband knows who runs a bike shop and who used to race semi-professionally, and he said he always keeps his hands up at the brake hoods.

stevebradley - 2010-04-29 8:47 AM TRACEY - There is a lot of incidental contact that can happen, but 90% of the time the two contactees just veer immediately away from each other. ("Excuse me!" "No, excuse ME!" "I'm So sorry!" "I should've looked where I was going!" "My DEEPEST apologies!" ---- you can almost hear that being burbled and grobbled through the water.) And even in races that don't offer novice waves, it is easy to position oneself where contact will be minimal, and maybe even non-existant. In a wave of, say, 75 people, 50 of them will be within five feet of the start line. Another 15 will be a few feet further back, and that leaves the rest of the area for the remaining 10 or so. So even if one is 12 feet behind the start line, how long does it take to swim 12 feet - five or six seconds? Nothing at all, really. The other good place to line up is off to the sides; not too many people start there, either. One good reason for getting into open water before Escape, if you can, is to work on sighting. And come to think of it, another good reason is to find out to what degree you are a "drifter". I am a drifter, meaning that I tend to drift to the left a fair bit. Even though i am an excellent sighter, I still tend to drift if I try to go too long between sightings (sometimes, though; I'm not all that consistent). For me, then, it is slightly helpful if I get over towards the right when I start, so that if I am drfifting to the left, i will keep having people off which I can deflect! ("Excuse me!" "I'm so sorry!"...... ) So if we can get in a swim before Escape, that might be helpful!

stevebradley - 2010-04-28 8:07 PM ANNE - Found it! And maybe more incredibly, the doohickey I was referrring to actually IS the vastus medialis. Ta-da! The book is called "Peak Condition", with the subtitle "Winning strategies to prevent, treat, and rehabilitate sports injuries" The authors are James G. garrick and Peter Radetsky, and the publisher is Perennial Library. My copy is about 12 years old, and the price on it is $8.95. (At 344 pages, if it is still in print, it will cost a bit more than $8.95!) I'll give you some, verbatim: "Your insurance policy against this happening is a tiny section of the quadriceps muscle called the vastus medialis. It's located just above and to the inside of the kneecap - you can feel it - and its job is to counteract this tendency of the kneecap to drift to the outside by tugging at it from the opposite direction and holding it in place. Unfortunately, the vastus medialis is the first muscle to get weak when you don't use your thigh properly, and the last muscle to get strong when you're coming back from an injury. Which means that the first thing that happens when you limp, or favor the knee, is that this stabilizer goes and your kneecap is left to its own devices - not the happiest circumstance for it. "Usually about the only thing to do is tightening exercises. It's simple: straighten out your leg in front of you. You can sit on the floor, or sit in a chair and rest your leg on a coffee table, or even sit on the edge of your chair and extend your leg, with your heel on the floor, so that the knee is perfectly straight. Just make sure it's relaxed. Then place your fingers about an inch above the top of your kneecap and an inch to an inch and a half toward the inside of your leg (toward the midline of your body) and tighten you thigh. If you're doing it right, you should feel the small muscle below your fingers get tight - REALLY tight. If that's the case, you've found your vastus medialis, and you're in business. Tighten up and hold it for six to eight seconds, relax for a couple of seconds, tighten and hold for six to eight seconds, relax for a couple. Do three of four of these sets ten to fifteen times a day." Straight from the horse's mouth! I was mostly close, but was off on the distance it is from the kneecap (I am terrible at estimating distnces, even small ones! ), and also on the number of reps. So, try what he says and see if it helps!

latestarter - 2010-04-29 3:17 PM

STEVEB and anyone else who is interested.    Following is some information on some guidelines for nutrition while training. 

180 lb athlete                     CARBS                   PROTEIN                   FAT

                      Calories        %  Grams                 %  Grams                %  Grams

Foundation   2,800-3,300    65  450-540              13  90-110                 22  65-80

Preparation   3,300-3,900    65  540-630             13 110-125                22  80-95

Specialization 4,100-4,600   70 720-810              14 140-160                16  70-80

Transition      2,400-3,000    60 360-450              18 110-125                22  60-75

120 lb athlete                            CARBS               PROTEIN                         FAT

                              Calories       % Grams            % Grams                 % Grams

Foundation          1,800-2,200   65 300-360          13  60-75                  22  45-55

Preparation         2,200-2,600   65 360-420          13  75-85                  22  50-60

Specialization      2,700-3,100   70 480-540           14 95-110                16  50-55

Transition            1,600-2,000   60 240-300           18 75-85                  22 40-50

Taken from Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness (Foreword by Lance Armstrong)

Eat Right to Train Right.

Following a periodized nutrition program will keep your body weight nearly constant throughout the year, but will probably notice a decrease from the beginning of Foundation through the end of Transition.

I (reluctantly) followed these guidelines a few years ago and was surprised that I had more energy, performed better and still lost a bit of weight. I was kind of freaking out initially, putting that many calories into my body, but now know it works. Too many of us restrict our calories to our detriment.

 

Thought you might find it useful.  

thall0672 - 2010-04-29 6:32 PM In these guidelines, do they differentiate between male and female?

latestarter - 2010-04-29 5:09 PM

QUESTION.....

For all the riding I have done, I really don't know the difference in function of aero bars vs the drops.    Can anyone clear that up for me.?