nevergivin's group (Closed) (Page 17)

when?  everyday like a vitamin supp  or only when doing longer 3+ hour training/racing sessions?

Been busy spending money on this expensive sport.  Wet suit arrives the 15th (XTERRA full).  Signed up for USAT since I plan to do 4-5 races this year.  Now I just need to sign up for them.

Still haven't picked up a heart rate monitor (I feel like Favre not being able to make a decision).

So far so good on the new bike seat.  I'm easing into it.  Can't wait until I can ride outside.

BTW, I cut and pasted all of Stuart's advice into a word doc so I don't have to dig through the ols pages to find things.  Shoot me a message with your email if you want a copy. 

Lori, I'm pretty sure it is just for longer (2+ hour) training/racing sessions. 

When its hot, 90+ degrees and when Im racing/training at a hard pace . The two times I cramp up are when its hot and when I am pushing myself really hard, at this time I will typically use them every hour. Depending on how hot and how hard I am racing will determine how many I will take . I dont use time as a determining factor, if its hot and Im really pushing it I will take 2-3 S- caps, if its hot and Im not really pushing it will be 1-2 per hour. In addition I will pop an extra 1-2 between doses if I can feel a cramp comming on. I have used them during masters swims when its really hot also, I dont limit them to just biking and running.

I will write two on Sunday because I missed last weeks. I am starting to talk about the racing stuff, race time is not too far away!

Effiency

Swimming in Triathlon is fairly complex, you can improve your swim time through improving efficiency and just getting stronger by swimming. If you can become very efficient at swimming you will be saving some energy for the next stage of the event. This can be more important to many than finishing the swim up front because they may be stronger on the bike or running. For me I became efficient when I started swimming more than 3 days a week, even if  I could not maintain that schedule, the block of time I invested changed my stroke. What you need to shoot for is lengthening your body as you swim and rotate your body along the length of your spin as you stroke keeping your hips straight. Keep your head down so your forehead is at the water line. You want to keep your body level in the water, don't let your legs sink, you want to reduce drag in the water. The key to having an efficient swim stroke is reducing drag in every aspect, think of yourself as swimming through a small tube, I will sometimes call this swim posture. I will get into even more details about race swimming when I talk about Open Water swimming.

Biking in Triathlon is a little different than swimming and running in that you can buy speed and efficiency to a certain extent by the equipment you can buy and use such a triathlon bike, aero wheels, gearing combinations, aero helmet. Bike fit is also key in cycling efficiency, a good fit can allow you to transfer your power from your legs to your pedals without any discomfort through many revolutions of the pedals, a bad bike fit can rob you of speed, efficiency and cause short and long term pain.
When cycling always try to be in the right gear. In general, you want to maintain around 90 rpm. This is the same cadence I will use for running so that in a race my legs are used to that rythm during the bike to run transition. Think in circles instead of pistons pushing up and down and lead the downstroke slightly with your heel. Pull through the bottom of the pedal stroke,  pretend you are slipping on ice and pull up on the upstroke. Always think about both legs, most cyclists tend to favor one leg over the other. Make sure to stay even.

Running in triathlon is totally different than pure road racing. In triathlon, with the swimming and cycling coming before the run, athletes have, in their legs, a limited range of motion that is caused by tight and overused muscles (the hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, etc). This limited range of motion will prevent you from bringing your legs as high during the recovery phase and from bringing your knee as high during the propulsion phase. Therefore, the stride length gets shorter and you’ll run slower.

The efficiency in triathlon running comes from the ability of running fast on fatigued and tight legs. To be able to do this, you need to develop a running style that is more like a “shuffle running”, where you’ll focus on a higher turnover to overcome the shortening in your stride.

High cadence running becomes even more important during long distance races like the Ironman, in which the distance will add an extra level of fatigue on your legs, thereby reducing your stride length even more. By running with a lower stride rate, your second half of the marathon will be much slower or even turn to a walk.

A lot of practice is needed to develop a high stride rate running style as your body at first is not used to the new neuromuscular pattern of firing your muscles so quickly. I have trained in Chi running and one of the tools we use for proper run cadence is this.

Bike maintenance

Maintaining your bike can typically be done at your local bike shop, in my town we have a few small shops and this would mean leaving it for at least one week for general maintenance. I have free maintenance in my bike with my purchase and that will include derailer adjustments , brake adjustments, headset and bottom bracket lubrication, these are all things I will not generally mess with. The things I do mess with and will change all at once on an annual basis are tire and tubes,chain,bar tape, brake pads. I have found the videos on youtube and BT  and Park Tools to be the most helpful to accomplish these tasks. If you prefer not to change these parts annualy and extend thier wear, brake pads and tires have wear indicators that will indicate when they are worn, you can also buy a chain wear indicator to measure your chain. Dont be affraid to ask your local bike shop how to make adjustments and how to check things, thats how I get allot of my tips.
The best thing you can do for your bike is keep it clean, it has allot of pivoting and moving parts that attract dirt and grime, this is your enemy because it will cause wear,. I use bike soap from my local bike shop specific for washing bikes, it wont harm my paint or parts and thats all I need, I will also buy degreaser for my chain and will spray it on after washing my bike, I use it on my cassette & chain & crank to remove all chain grease, then leave it on for almost 10 minutes and then rinse my whole bike from the bike wash and degreaser. In the winter I will wash my bike weekly, in the summer I will wash it every two weeks, its all based on the amount of time I need to ride and the conditions I ride in. I know there are cheap alternates such as simple green and dishwash soap and others, I only use wash and degreaser from a bike store to avoid staining my paint or metal parts. When Im finished washing and degreasing I will let my bike sit outside in the sun for fifteen minutes, then I will lift my bike up and bounce both tires off the ground about six times getting out that last bit of water from hard to reach areas, then I will lubricate using only T-9 bike lube. I will lubricate my chain then remove axcess with rag, lubricate brake and derailer cables that are not inside cable housing, and all pivot points on both derailers and both brakes.

Instructions

Washing Bike

Washing chain

I'm tired.  Skipped my rest day this week because I was able to get on the trainer right after work Friday plus I'll probably end up with two rest days this week.  Plan to go out to dinner with my family instead of exercise Wednesday evening (turning the big 44).  Wednesday morning is out because we have a tradition of breakfast in bed on your birthday.  The kids really loved it when they were younger.

After dropping off the 2 missing bolts from my bike stem, at my LBS . Decided to try on some of the new custom tri stuff they had just received.  Ended up buying a tri top with the shop logos, and some Pearl Izuma   tri shorts.  WOW you little guys have it easy, my wife just smiled and said those babies don't leave anything to the imagination, heheheh.  When I pick up my bike this week, im going to ask them why I had to pay for the top.  With the amount of advertising i'm giving them , they should pay me hehheh .  You can read things alot better on my back then on those small guys!!!

  thanks

Happy Birthday!

Beautiful you totally should!

Just checking in!  I really like reading everyone's logs and seeing what you all are up to, and following this thread and all the great question/answers from everyone.  Worried a bit about Panther though, anyone heard from him?  Are you out there?

I feel very confident on the run these days (originally my weakest link), mostly because I really focussed on it since November.  Unfortunately, despite loving biking and having a decent background in it, that is the one that is being shortchanged lately.  I just have not been getting out on many rides, and when I do it's usually for a shorter ride than called for in my plan.  I'm mildly concerned that I'm going to get my handed to me by the course in March.  Hard to know what to expect on a 16 mile mountain bike course (two 8 mile loops), could be a 12mph breezer on fire roads, or it could be a 7mph buttkicking up and down mountains.  I just don't know!  Probably somewhere in the middle.

In an attempt to make bike training more fun at home, I did just purchase a set of rollers from Performance Bike.  I'm scared to try them, haven't even opened the box yet...  Maybe tomorrow?

I also did my first wetsuit swim last week, and it has put my mind at ease.  I was SHOCKED at how much it improved my swimming.  like 25 seconds/100 on the same energy!  I guess that's just how much my form sucks, that a wetsuit makes that much of a difference. 

Anyway, I'm really appreciating all the articles/advice you are posting Stuart, a lot of it is different than I've read in other places (or at least stuff I had not seen before), and I can tell you really have done a lot of research/have a lot of knowledge on this stuff.  Thanks for all the effort! 

Thanks, allot of it is info I have picked up along the way, and if it works for me I always pass it on. I get my rollers tommorow at performance, the fun of rollers is learning, doesnt appear to be fun If you can already use them.

Because most of us work its always a challenge to balance everything, do the best you can, if its breezer or butkicker course you will have company either way. Didnt you ride the course already?

A wetsuit will help with your body position, you may have great form though, if your legs are splayed,dragging it will slow you down and a wetsuit will help allot. Try to focus on feeling your butt and feet at the surface when you swim in the pool, this will help you correct your body position.

x2.  Thanks Stuart.  I cut and pasted all of Stuarts advice into a word doc because I go back and re-read it.

I touched base with Dave (Panther) on the 8th.  He assured me he isn't giving up.  He needs to take care of something else first. 

Xterra wetsuit came in the mail today.  I broke in to a full sweat putting it on.  Seems to fit well, very snug of course,  and the shoulders don't feel too restrictive.  Not 100% sure about the neck.  I'll probably try it on one more time this week.

Anyone know what the coldest water it is safe to swim in?  How about comfortable with a wet suit (full)?

total Newbie question...

Do you think that you can be too buoyant?  if you legs and feet are not in the water, how can you propel yourself? it seems like you would be splashing too much?

thoughts?

I live in an apartment .... I wonder if my bike will fit in the shower?   I totally need to wash my mountain bike, I have been riding in the rain and mud for the last 2 weeks.

Great videos, thanks!

soo much good info!  I have been reading about and practicing chi running.

I set up the rollers tonight!  Not too bad at all, as it turns out.  it took me probably 4-5 tries to get my balance right, but after a few minutes I was riding along pretty well.  I rode for 30 minutes total, in about 5-6 minute blocks before either falling over or taking a water/sweat break.  The fallovers were very uneventful btw, I'd get off balance a bit, stop pedalling, and the rollers would stop within seconds.  From there I'd just put down a foot or grab the wall (or bed, depending on which way I fell).  I popped off the back one time when I think I grabbed the brake instinctively, but even that was uneventful, just put down a foot.  I did not clip into my pedals today, just rode in tennis shoes.  Next time I'll try clipping in, that will make it a little more challenging. 

By the end of the 30 minutes, I was able to start and stop without holding on to the wall.  It will still be some time before I'm ready to move the rollers away from a wall though...  here's a photo of the setup in my bedroom, between a wall and the bed.  Yes, I promise I will remove the panniers before I race :-)  oh, and I don't think I've ever sweated so much in just 30 miinutes before...




Yeah, that balance can be hard.  I have a very irregular life schedule, and it changes on a daily basis.  It sometimes gets frustrating when things don't go the way I thought they would.  It's especially difficult when the long bike rides are now getting into the 2+ hour range!  That's a serious chunk of time that is just not easy to fit in.  For the actual course, no I haven't ridden it, but the website description describes it as not technical, and able to be ridden by anyone.  we'll see...


yeah, body position is definately my challenge.  It's coming along, but I still am a sinker at this point...  I have so many flaws in my stroke right now it's hard to know where to begin.   my teacher has me focussing on keeping my head down (looking at the black line), and getting my hands to enter a little closer to my head (so I don't 'slap' the water, but rather 'slice' my hands in) and reaching down and forward before pulling. 

wasing the bike in the apt shower is the best!!! My mtn bike used to live in our 2nd apt bathroom before moving to our house .

I'm not for sure how different the swimming wetsuits are from watersports wetsuits, but a dry suit is good from 30-56ish, I would put on my wet suit from 57+.  Might be able to go colder, but swimming OW in colder would be something to do with a group.  I have dry/wet suits for wakeboarding, wonder how different they are(would be nice to not buy one for swimming) But I think the material is different.

cooooool that looks fun

another newbie question....

what is the difference or advantage of rollers over a trainer?

here's one article about the differences: http://coachlevi.com/cycling/pros-cons-stationary-trainers-and-rollers/  he seems a little biased towards rollers though, just a warning :-)

personally, I have been using an excercise bike in my garage (big cushy seat, flat pedals, not very adjustable) and wanted either a trainer or rollers just so I could train on my actual bike.  I decided to get rollers cause they looked more fun, and at $129 (on sale at Performance Bike last week) they were cheap enough to experiment with.

I have no doubt a trainer can give a harder workout (you can crank up more resistance), and is probably easier to use while mindlessly watching TV, but I'm not at a place where I need to be doing intervals or anything, I just need to ride more.  And the rollers, like I said, just seemed more 'fun'.  We'll see!

A wetsuit will keep you twards the surface, you will still maintain your kick and pull underwater. If you watch olympic swimmers you will see them swim on the surface of the water with most of the surface of thier backs above water.

Riding rollers is like trying to get a workout while staying on the solid white road line without going off, you have to constantly focus on balance, that is where rollers come into play, the help improve your balance and position and confidence.

Rollers keep your bike sturdy so you can just focus on the pedaling, you main goal is to get a leg and aerobic workout.