FoggyGoggle's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 23)

Your enviornment can definatley help to motivate your training, I love my own surrounding.

Had to drop out of the Duathlon tomorrow due to my ITB forcing pressure on the knee whilst on the bike during transition training this morning so I opted for a 15 mile run @ a 8.59min pace, crashed around the 12 - 13 mile mark but pulled it back and finished in good steed with a 144bpm Av. heart rate.

NOt getting back on the bike until I have it properly fitted and I've gained a little lenght back in the ITB, school boy error going mad with the new toy...

Today made me realise that although my fitness has increase I need to get the long miles back into the legs for my end of May marathon, I'll be having to put my thinking cap on to come up with a decent training plan that will accommodate both my HIM AND M Goals.

Great job on the run.

Finally the end of a very long training week.  On top of 3 swims and 3 runs I managed over 200 miles on the bike this week and only 80 of those miles were outdoors, all the rest were in on the trainer in the basement.  

Really looking forward to a total rest day tomorrow.

Lots of stretching.  Generally in the morning when I wake up I spend some time with our friend, the foam roller.  After that I generally get in a ride and hit the foam roller again.  Later in the day I do some yoga.  In the evening foam roller again and if I'm really nice, My wife will give me a massage. 

I really like this yoga DVD due to the section they have that is dedicated to IT band stretching.  When I was first getting into cycling, I started out to fast without a good base and developed IT band issues.  This DVD helped a ton.

Have you gotten fit for your bike?  If not, I highly recommend it.  There are so many knee issues that can develop from a bad fitting bike.  Seat height, cleat position, seat position ( fore and aft) can all lead to IT band tightening and discomfort.  I'm lucky enough to have a buddy on my cycling team that is a F.I.S.T certified fitter.  I have him re fit me once a year and it makes a huge difference.

After the fit, go out, have fun, and get those base miles in. 

I know I've been MIA for a while.  Vacation and work getting in the way of my good time.

I did run my first race this past weekend.  Race report and picture posted.  It was a great time.  I learned a lot, was humbled often, and really enjoyed myself in the little duathlon in Seguin.  Of the two Clydes that ran (4 entered but only two of us ran) I place first.  Not much of accomplishment but I was just happy to finish.

It was really a great race.  Well organized and ran smoothly.  Small race as there were only 140 people competing.  I learned alot about what I need work on.  Awesome learning experience.  Now I can reset and look to start training for a Sprint Tri in June.

Thanks for that Josh will check out the vid, I'm getting the bike fitted in the next couple of weeks and have incorporated a 30 min stretch routine for morn and evening which includes ITB, hamstrings, quads, aductors, calfs and glutes.

My legs are a bit tired from the work outs so I'm dropping back this week with mostly recovery sessions, just plan on a light 10 mile on sat before I hit the parades and a few pints of the black stuff (St Patrick's Day!)

Half marathon the following week which I'm looing forward to...

Question relating to the bike fit and aerobars, there are two different fittings they carry out:-

Retul (electronic) - £125 (2-3hrs)

Classic (mechanic) - £60 (1hr)

Should I be considering aerobars for the HIM? my feeling is that as my goal is to finish this year that I shouldn't over complicate things (enough new things to consider).

I am advised that if I go the aero route that the Retul fitting is a must.

Don - Welldone on the run, don't think there's a race I've entered where I haven't learnt something. 

Thanks for that Foggy, the day I done the 62miles on the bike I felt really comfortable that's what made my decision to go for the HIM so I'm going to leave the aerobars out of the equation this year.

I also think I'll go for the classical fitting this time, I know at my level I'm not going to notice a difference between the two fittings (if there is any), and at least I have piece of mind.

My legs are feeling really good again after my 30 min morn and even stretching exercise, also feel re-energised. Hard to beat a good rest period......

I'm back! Again! I've been keeping up with the training in my absence although I haven't logged it on BT yet. Disappeared from the thread because of school but I've been reading and everyone seems to be doing awesome with race season really kicking off. I'm on Spring "Break" (read: Spring Work Week) right now, so I organized my life and picked a birthday HIM in Lake George. I think I'll be at the right fitness for it by the end of the season, but I'm going to use early season races to gauge progress before I actually commit. Got out for my first few rides on an actual bike in the last few weeks and was super stoked with the feeling of being outside. Awesome weather has also been conducive to the bike-shorts tan that I love rocking. 

The cupcake job is finally paying off. I no longer want to eat anything terribly sweet (not even the cupcakes, though I will admit my taste-tests demonstrated they are delicious). Also getting paid and having money for actual groceries is nice. So nice I blew most of my first paycheck on fresh produce. 

Congrats to anyone who has raced in the past few weeks! 

Robbie,

Not that I'm the adviser here but I would agree you should stick with whats comfortable.  Aerobars are a completely different animal as you can see by reading some of the posts.  It moves alot of weight out over the front wheel and makes the bike "twitchier".....  I've been on aeros for about 6 mos. and training hard on them for about 3 and it definately does have a longer adjustment period than just a few rides.  The only concern I would have and maybe you've already checked this out but after swimming for 1.2 miles your arms will be pretty tired and not looking forward to supporting you for another 56.  Just something to think about.

I wish I was ready for a HIM.  I'm taking it slow and easy this time though.  When I jumped back into running I signed up for and ran a HM from couch to 13.1 in 8 months.  I did it and am proud to say I did but it also burnt me out because of the volume of training I had to do to be able to make it, consequently after the race I regressed and quit training and eventually ballooned up to 258 lbs.  (side note got on the scale this morning and I'm down to 226.0, 24 lbs. lost over 2.5 months)

I'm taking a different path this time round.  My plan this year is to get in a Duathlon (done) knock out a sprint tri (June) and an Oly (Sep.) along with a few other races (running, another Du, and a bike team TT).  Keep up my training over the short Texas winter and get 2 Olys in and a HIM in 2013.  Continue to train and depending on how the HIM went for me it 2013 go for the full 140.6 in 2014.  That is my plan, my quest....its off to the right start we'll just have to see how it goes.

Hey all! Well, I finally got around to "fitting" my bike, only to discover that it's FAR from being the right size. Almost 2 sizes too big! I had no idea, and didn't really have problems last season, but every time I get on it now I have painful issues with my wrists (immediately) and my back (after riding a while). Given it's a 56cm and I now know I need something in the 49cm range, no WONDER I've been struggling. Unfortunately my budget is severely limited but I'm going to spend a chunk of this week visiting the used section in bike shops. Any recommendations for decent (but not fancy) road/cyclecross/tri-bikes? I can probably produce about $600 tops, so clearly it's gonna be hit or miss. I do have the low-end schwinn to sell/trade, so hopefully I can get a little bit for that to put towards my purchase.

Any brands to stay far far away from?

With that budget CL is definately the way to get the most bike for your buck.  If you have a little patience and are willing to negotiate hard you can get a really good bike.  I picked up my 2008 61 cm QR Tequilo for less than your budget.

Good luck.

You've put the fear into me know, my bike is 58" and I'm touching on 6ft 2" I don't believe its too big and I feel comfortable on it.

As it broke the budget I pray I don't get told it's too big....

You've put the fear into me know, my bike is 58" and I'm touching on 6ft 2" I don't believe its too big and I feel comfortable on it.

As it broke the budget I pray I don't get told it's too big....

From what I've been told it mostly comes down to what's comfortable. I'll be looking at a range from about 48cm-51. I'm only 5' 4"!

I was too slow for this one. Looked like a great deal too! I'll keep looking and I'm gonna check out my usual shop tonight. Anybody have an opinion on this one?

http://thehubbikecoop.org/products-page/bikes/marin-lombard-4/

this particular one isn't my size, but I'm curious as to your thoughts on quality at this price (it's on clearance).