kalalau's Group - FULL for now (Page 18)

I've sure we'll find one.  I haven't studied much beyond Eagleman yet.  Did I mention Double Creek yet?  June 20th I think.  Usually a half marathon and a metric century but since it is a week after Eagleman, I think I will be doing just the bike ride.  Will be nice to not be rushing to get done before the volunteers leave this year.  Usually I am starting the ride over 2 hours after the ride officially starts due to the half marathon.

Oh you have a race around that time.  Doh.

Ocean City update.  What a great weekend.  It's awesome out here, I would like to head back to the beach.  I posted my race report:

Ocean City Half Marathon

The ranking looks great, 38th place overall!  There were 409 people registered.  Age group ranking doesn't look as great, 9th place, don't know how many finished.

Standing in the 50 degree ocean after the race was awesome, but really hard to do.

Dave your results are up:

Pioneer Sprint Triathlon

Wow, 19th of 118.  6th overall on the swim!  11th overall in the run with a 6:50 pace!

I can't believe you averaged 18.7mph on a mountain bike.  It's too bad that this was a pool start, if everyone started at the same time, you'd stick out and people would be pointing at you for being up there in the front with a mountain bike.  Incredible.  You still might be the subject of stories.  "Dude, I saw this guy BLOW past me on his mountain bike!"

I would like to see what you can do on a real bike.  With clipless pedals, and aerobars.  And one day, all the other fast gear you are going to buy.  You compete in this sport pretty well.

It's pretty unusual to have a mandatory trash can that you are throwing cups into.  Most of the time you throw them on the ground off to the side where the volunteers can get them.  At bike aid stations, there is a mandatory area that you have to throw your old bottles to.  Usually right before the aid station, or right after.  If you litter elsewhere you will get a penalty.

The race results being printed with one copy is pretty normal, as well as the crowding around.  It would be wasteful to print more than one.  Also, keep in mind that since people are continually finishing, they are already printing multiple copies as more people come in.  Especially in a race like yours where everyone is starting at a different time.

Thanks for the props about the OC Half everyone. 

Roger and I went out on the Eagleman bike course today.  WINDY!  Wow.  And the Choptank River was.. CHOPPY!  Imagine that.  It would've been a rough race, if done today.  There was also a 5-8 mile section of grooved road on the bike course.  Sure hope they fix that!  Other than all that, the bike looks really really fast.  But those things significantly cut into our speed.

Becky, about the metric century, it looks like we have 7 hours to make the 63 miles (hey, when did 63 miles become a metric century?).  So 9 miles per hour if you didn't stop.  And we get lunch, ice cream, and brownies!  I sure hope we can put ice cream on the brownies.  Will bike for food!

Pioneer -

32nd fastest bike split, on a mountain bike. :-)  LOL.  Did you pass any disc or ZIPP wheels out there?

You actually ranked worse in your transition times than in any of your sports.  Still not that bad, especially for a first timer.  But where you are finishing, these become pretty important.

Say you used a road bike.  It would be easy to think you would've averaged the 21.6mph rider I see up higher.  If you did that extra 3mph on a road bike, you crack the top 8.

Now the bad news.  The hardest age groups to get awards in are the males 30-39 and males 40-49.  You might already know that from running though.

I sent a note to the race director just to make sure they know about it and can check it out.  I can't imagine them not rerouting the course if that stays there.  But, they probably know about it and have been guaranteed it will be done in tmie.

It's pretty normal for a metric century (or century) to be slightly off, as it's not that important.  It's just funny to read. :-)  Some triathlons are the same way but not as much so.  Trail running races are definitely in the same category.  They don't care about being exact on the "5 mile trail race".  Partly because it would be hard to do that, and partly because it's not in the spirit of the way trail runners think.

Ok, will read the race report today sometime.  There's nothing to be embarassed about with your transition times, you still ranked really well with them.  Wait til you see other first-timer transition times and see how slow they are. :-)  Time can pass by so quickly.

Which rules did you read that you think you might not have understood until racing it?

Why do you think you aren't ready for the Olympic size?  Saturday's race isn't an indication of your Olympic fitness because you would go a bit slower in a Olympic race.  That's sort of similar to saying you felt like throwing up after a 5k so you must not be ready for 10k.  But you felt like throwing up because you really pushed hard on the 5k, where you would be backing off slightly for the 10k.

You know better than us though.  It seems obvious that you are going to rank high in either one.  If you stick with this triathlon thing, you're going to get even faster and rank higher because you'll learn a lot and get more gear to make you fast.

That does stink, I hope you figure it out.  Sometimes the chain can come off in the front if you are cross-chaining (don't know if that's the right word).  Do you tend to be in the highest gear in the back, when you shift down in the front?  You should shift down in the back a little bit before shifting down in the front.  You should try to prevent the chain from being angled if you look at it from the back to the front.

It could also be a tuneup problem.  When was the last time you had it tuned up?  When I bought my bike, REI told me to bring it back after 100 miles for a free tuneup because that's about the break-in time for new cables.

About shifting in general, I wouldn't go downhill in a lower gear to resolve the problem, because you are just stealing your momentum.  You just need to recognize on the uphill, when you need to shift and how much.  It's all about timing.  Just keep going out there and practicing around the house (ok, outside of the house).  Find a hill that illustrated the problem and just keep repeating it until you figure it out.

There are some tips in general about climbing hills, and I'm not sure I'm that good at it, but I like these articles:

1.  I like this one because it talks about strategies on different kinds of hills, but doesn't really talk about shifting gears too much:

How to Climb a Hill

2.  I like this one because it covers so much.  Make sure you read 101 and 102.  Read up on where you are seating yourself.  I have heard about the "sit in the back of the seat" thing before.  I hadn't read about lower the heels before, I will have to try that.

Hill Climbing 101

This article also mentions making sure that you pedal in a circle.  This is sound advice for everyone in this group.  Most of us don't use force in our pedal stroke, all throughout the stroke.  You will get more out of your legs if you apply force all the way through.  To get a good feeling of this, try pedaling with just one leg, for practice.  When you are doing it correctly, this is not hard to do.  When you practice with one leg, make the stroke nice and smooth, all the way around.  On the bottom part of the stroke, move the feet back like you are wiping mud off your feet on a step or something.  I know I can improve on this myself.

It's good that you already know the trick of popping the chain back on without getting off the bike. :-)

I just searched our forums and come upon a nice hill climbing article that really drives home the idea of using force throughout the whole pedal stroke.  It describes it in detail and with illustrations:

Climbing Faster

These are good tips for me as well.

Wow, 102 in Phoenix.  No wonder they moved the Ironman Arizona race to the fall. :-)  It was in April.

Sounds to me like you are doing fine with your recover.  Just stay in tune with your body and don't push it when it is tired.  The fact that you can feel it getting stronger, is a sign that you are handling the recovery phase fine.  When you start going strong again next week, just pay attention, and if you are getting tired, take it easy a day or two.  If you push it too hard too soon, the tiredness will last longer.  I swear I was tired for months after Ironman Arizona.  Probably because I started training for the Disney Marathon too quickly. :-)

If you are looking to rock this 5k, yes, sure take off on Saturday.  If you get antsy, go for an easy bike ride or swim.

The tunnel will be two lanes, correct?  That sounds narrow for 2700 people. :-)  But most of these people will be casual runners.  If you are doing sub 8 min miles, you are going to be ahead of the pack, but still in a decent crowd.  Also, keep in mind that you are going downhill into the tunnel, so when you see a 7 min mile (or lower) for that mile, don't freak out that you are going too fast.  Use your body to judge if you are going too fast.  You probably will start out too fast, but I don't know how to tell you to hold back except to say don't start out too fast. :-)  Make sure you have plenty to crush that last mile.

If you REALLY want to get ahead of the crowd, then yes start out fast, but it might hurt your overall time.  Sometimes it is worth it to me.  Make sure you seed yourself so that you are not behind too many people.  I believe you should be easily in the top 25-33% of people.  Make sure you are around that spot in the starting line.  If you have to push through people to get to that spot, then do it, they don't mind.  You do not want to be behind 2000 people slower than you.

The tunnel may be cooler than the outside, but I suspect it will be humid.  Quite the conditions.  I also wonder how well the car exhaust will be sticking around.