Fred D's triathlon training group CLOSED (Page 25)

Good morning!

I am mad at myself for being a total weenie yesterday and doing no training.  It's all recoverable but I still know exactly where it all fell apart and i was just being lazy.

Anyway, today did an easy spin on the trainer and i have my swim group tonight so that will be good. Back on track.

How's everyone else's day and week going?

Ran 3.5 yesterday. Skipped track practice, but I'll go on Thursday instead.

Today, it's a swim and a bike if all goes as planned!

I was looking at Duathlon Nationals rules... the top 18 in each age group are invited to Worlds. Only 11 raced my age group last year. Worlds is in Nancy, France but it's the same weekend as my cousin's wedding. Guess I'll stick with the sprint instead of trying to qualify. 

Ha.  Here is a reason to do the standard.  Did you see the start times?  It was very hot last year.  No way I'd want to finish any later then I did last time.  Plus you would miss the fun hill they put at the end of the run.  My AG is stacked.  But it did roll down to me last year.  But I only race as a Canadian so I declined. 

 
OK here you go…….
 
Basic Bicycle Tools: (IMO)
 
Screwdrivers flat blade 1/8 & 5/32
Phillips screwdrivers #1 & #2
Allen wrench’s 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10mm
Flat wrench’s 7, 8, 9, 10mm
Pedal wrench 15mm (most common but could be 9/16), flat
Adjustable wrench 6-inch, thin
Cable cutter, good ones
Adjustable wrench 12-inch, this will be use with for the cassette removal tool.
Cassette removal tool, compatible with your cassette
Chain tool, compatible with your chain
Spoke wrench, to fit your spoke nipples
Chain whip
Crankarm removal tools
Regular pliers
Needle-nose pliers with side cutters
Vise-Grip pliers, small
Ritchey TorqKey, Great for carbon seat post, handle bars and stems
Torque Wrench 1/4 drive (3-15 Newton Meter range or you can convert Inch Pounds
 
Floor pump with gauge
3 tire levers
Tape measure metric/English
Caliper Outside/inside
Knife
Scissors
Black electrical tape
Lubricants
Rubber gloves
Rags
Cleaner
Alcohol
Zip-ties
Tire tube patches
Tubes
 
 
Some Notes:
You can never have enough Allen wrenches, T-handle, Y-type and long style are good choices.  Stay away from folding type.
Use pliers sparingly.
When it comes to a cable cutter and chain tool get the best you can afford.  Park makes a great cable cutter its CH-10 Park Pro Cable cutter $20-$35 range.  They also make a great chain tool the CT-3 with replaceable pins it only works up too 10 speed chains.  You may pay less for these but they won’t last long. 
Learn what you are doing with a spoke wrench before you use it.  You can destroy a wheel or make your bike unsafe to ride without you knowing it if don’t what you are doing. 
If you have carbon bike and component properly torque them or you will destroy them.
If you have a threaded headset you will need a pair of 32mm (most common but could be 34, 36 or 40mm) flat wrenches to tighten or loosen the locknut.
A 8mm Allen wrench may work on your pedals instead of a 15mm pedal wrench to remove or tighten.
Flat wrench’s can go up 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17mm etc...
Torque Wrench 1/4 drive will be the most expensive tool then you will sockets and Allen key bit sets for it.
 
 
Of course you can always expand or shorten this based on your own needs.  I have much, much more over the years of cycling. 

OK weenie girl.......

Get up, brush it off and go train. 

I got in a couple of decent rides the last two days and some ocean swimming yesterday. Still having some stomach and acid reflux issues but generally on the mend. I hate not being able to train the way I want but this stuff happens I guess.

Rudy - sucks about the injury but stay positive. RICE it and hopefully that helps.

Tom - ideally go with the new bike to get properly fit on it and also get the warranty benefit. You will have to pay 200 bucks for a fit if you buy used more then likely.

4 more days in paradise for me.

James - thanks for putting that list together, very helpful (I've printed it out).  I'd say I'm at the very early stages of my mechnical know how, but want to improve.  I won't touch anything on the SC, especially cables because of the internal routing.  But I have my faithful Trek 1500 that I plan to tinker and learn on.  I mess something up, I can always restart - don't want to take that chance with the race bike at the moment.

Torque Wrench - top of the list.  I have needed to adjust some bolts on the SC, and was scared to death of overtightening.

No, I haven't.   I attempted something similar which I won't do again, you could read about that in my overly long IMAZ April 2008 race report    I know nothing new on race day....   I suppose it's nothing more than feeling like I can kinda control some aspect of the weather by fooling it 

Very helpful... thanks James.  Now if I could figure out what to do with all of that....

Not great...  this happened last year, found it hard to stay motivated after an early season half.  Have a race this weekend so I can sorta justify being lazy and sleeping in.   After tha. we'll see, mostly shorter stuff and aquathons, swims, etc.   Do have a half in Sept that I have to stay in reasonable shape for.

TankBoy - 2012-04-18 2:21 AM The only thing I found to be incontrovertible in that thread is the fact that Jason promised us a video of the 400 race between his coworkers.

I've seen the video...I'm just waiting for it to get posted on Youtube.  I'll gladly share then. 

James, thanks for the list.

As i build all my bikes, i am always looking for new tools to play with!!  you gave me a couple great ideas!!

Shouldn't a hand gun be somewhere on that list? 

Well actually.............

When torque’ing you may have a range 4nM-6nM or a single number 5nM.  With a single number is displayed it is generally the max setting.  I will torque until tight and zero slippage, trying to avoid the max setting.  Just the way I do it.
 
Your bike manufacture should provide a list of torque vales.  Make sure you check them.  The term nM = Newton meters. 

I would love to see your list or anthing to add.

Hey all.

Just got back from what may as well have been a 9mile swim with how hard it was raining! By the time I got home, every piece of clothing I was wearing was soaked!

And all this as we have been issued a drought warning due to not enough rain for the last 18 months.

Hope the rain has a break on Sunday and that your weather is better than ours.

Fred...being that you log your workouts, is there anything you have looked back on to point to what caused the injury in the first place?  Were you doing anything different last year compared to previous years?

I think someone posted before in response to a question regarding running, and how do you increase fitness and avoid injury.  The response basically was...you slowly add frequency...you slowly add volume...you slowly add intensity.  You get injured, you rest and heal up.  You learn from it, then start the process over again.  Rinse...repeat.

I guess sometimes it's that simple.  We're naturally going to push our limits till we find them out.

Awesome list, James!

One of the things that I would add that are really handy is a set of "Cheater" bars - basically long metal pipes that fit over the handles of your other tools. For instance I have a pipe that fits over the handle of my pedal wrench and by taking advantage of the extra leverage the cheater provides I have NEVER found a pedal that I could not remove. I also have found it helpful to have a variety of "third hand" type tools (small clamps to hold brake calipers in place, velcro straps to hold wheels in place). I also have a funny little thing I made out of a long bolt, washers, and a variety of nuts that allows me to easily remove and tighten the retention cap on sram cranks.

Do you (or any of the other wrenches in the group) have any other "make-shift" tools or implements that you find useful?

Rusty that is a great thing to have to get out of a jam.  If you use (I believe 9/16 washers) on your pedals before threading into the crank arm it will ease or reduce over tighten.  Then you may not need a “cheater bar”.  Just ask your local bike shop for the washers.  After all we are working on bikes not trucks.    I do have one in my tool box but very rarely us it.  Maybe I just don’t put the torque on the pedals like I use to. 

Third hand and Velcro straps great idea.  Have them.

I have various small spacers of different thickness and diameter for my crank arm puller.  I have another type of pliers that have rubber jaws for gripping things that I don’t want marred. 

I am glad the run went well.  I fully see what you mean by "go for it".  I am crossing my fingers on the best outcome.