Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 29)

Stick with it David.  Sometimes the road is kind of hard but you'll find that the reward comes on the days when you get that work out in when you feel the most like NOT doing it.  I have found this to be true many times over the past several years, whether I was only doing run training or triathlon training.

I also love the pictures and I have no hills to speak of. I pass more cows than cars on most of my rides . Nothing but corn, beans and the open road as far as the eye can see. Bad thing about that is it always feels windy!

My strengths, hmm

I guess:

Swim

Bike - much better since the tri bike!!

Run is by far the hardest for me. My body just does not like the pounding.

Jeff:

that trail looks awsome! I have a nice XT course to run on near my home - but trails are the best.

This is an awesome moment.  Savor it.  Not wanting to do it, is not a reason to skip a workout!  It often feels great afterward when you really don't want to do it before.  And those sessions are sometimes the best and most enjoyable ones.  Congrats on sticking it out.  There's something powerful in knowing your mind is in control of your body.

Fixed it for you!  Wind is like a hill on the flats.  Makes you stronger rider and teaches you to be aero!

Hills, hills and more hills.  I love to ride alone, but I'd be up for some rides.  Once we get up to the lake, you can meet me for some fun up there too.  Nothing like climbing the Gunstock hill on Sat morning.  And later in the summer the circum Winny ride is an absolute blast.

Jonathan, I will almost universally recommend a compact crank for any triathlete that will ever train or race anywhere there are hills.  If you keep the compact cranks, but use 11-25 cassettes you will have just as tall a gear using 50x11 as you would have with a 53x12.

11x28 is fine too, the key is having an 11 in the rear.  11x28 is something I'd recommend for someone around my neck of the woods.

Here's a cool site to see what the speed effects are of different front/rear/crank combinations and pedal RPM.

I've been reading Total Immersion, and I've also tried to find some youtube videos of people swimming to get a a better idea of what my body should be doing in the water.  I have found a couple that were good, and a lot more that didn't really show me anything useful.  Can anyone here direct me to a good visual aid?  Reading about proper form is helpful, but it benefits me to see it as well, so I can visualize my body doing the right things.  Thanks, David.

Try this.

There's also an animated app for Mr. Smooth that shows a pretty nice stroke.

However, I have to say taking some video of yourself really helps.  When I started, what I thought I was doing and what I was actually doing were completely different.

I agree with that wholeheartedly.  I wish they would make the bottom the lap pools a mirror.  It would help people swim better so much faster. 

I believe you can do this.  Special care must be taken to make sure the spacing is identical, and I would guess that you should stick to the same brand.  Not sure where you'd buy a single ring though.

I say this because a bike dude from my last job did the Mt. Washington race and he mentioned making a special cassette for it.  Though he ended up in the lowest gear after something like 200 yards and never got out of it!

Jonathan, the smallest ring is a solo ring all by it's lonesome.  At least if it's a shimano cassette.  I think SRAM would be the same.

I really can't say that I'm aware of the manufacturer selling them individually, but I do remember running across individual cogs on ebay.  I would go to ebay and search in the 'cassettes' section (sporting goods->bikes->bike parts->road bike parts->cassettes or something like that).  Search by the same brand you now have and '11T'.

Warren,  That's the best thing I've seen yet.  That site is excellent.  I like that it has instructions starting for beginners.  It breaks everything down, like how exhaling is more important than inhaling.  I have so much more to think about now.  Thank you.

Well, that completely proves my issue with going 35 mph and not liking it.

I looked around for the 11T cog; there are a bunch for 9 speeds, not sure if that makes a difference.  I might just shimano a call tomorrow.  

Sounds like your body was sleeping through the ride and run Jeff.  I have had runs that have been easier than I thought they should have been after looking at HR but I don't think I have had one that had that much variation.  I see some that are 5-6 bpm lower than usual, but 10-12 would seem to be an extreme.

Hopefully the low HR continues and you can train around that and develop more fitness, maintain your normal max HR and race faster.

I liked this site too.  I watched the smoothest stroke guy on the link before I went to my swim tonight.  I tried to mimic the technique as close as possible but as I got tired I started getting sloppy.

I did have a decent swim tonight but I am still trying dial in my longer swim set.  I went too easy for my 3x500 tonight.  I need to work my interval time down and get my effort up.  I let myself swim to comfortably tonight.  I did find out that I am no where near where I should be compared to last year.  I guess I sacrificed the swim for a decent marathon last year.

BTW, I wonder if the wind has a similar impact on cycling fitness and spinning that riding in the hills does?  I have thought it might be kind of close at times but not having any REAL hills any where near here I can't really give my theory a test.  I actually think they aren't all that similar. It seems to me that the hills could require more power at times.  I don't know.  No experience!

Cycling is all about power right? All a hill does is force you to use more power to move forward because you have to fight gravity too. I have a hill near my house which takes a pretty solid effort to climb, I was on the drops going down it a couple of weeks ago into a wind of about 20 mph and I was having to pedal to keep moving. It felt more like I was riding on the flat. I'm no where near a good enough cyclist to tell, but it seems that a strong wind would do the same thing as a hill - force you to use more power to maintain the same speed.

Wind would have more of an impact the faster you go though, where as a hill is always consistent. I think that's the biggest difference, unless the seat angle and having all the weight on the rear tire increases resistance...

John

John, you are definitely on the right track.  The wind will affect one person differently than hills will though.  Remember that the hill only cares how much you weigh, like you said, because of gravity.  Biking into the wind takes into account the rider's weight and aerodynamic picture.  So the bigger you are, the more the wind has to hit, but if it's coming in short bursts, the more you weigh, the more momentum you will carry.  A heavier rider also carries momentum over small rollers, but a heavier rider with a smaller aerodynamic picture will be faster in the wind.  I'm missing something, but it's pretty close.

Let me fish around for what you're missing - wind resistance increases exponentially with speed, so the wind resistance at 20 miles per hour is four times that at 10 miles per hour, so going faster into the wind will get harder, whereas a hill is a hill. It takes a certain amount of energy/power to overcome gravity, you can put that in quickly with momentum and a few powerful pedal rotations, or slowly (like me) with lots of pedal rotations, each one taking me .01 yards closer to my goal.

This did get me looking at hills in my neighborhood - apparently I can find grades of up to 20% for short bursts! It's a shame I can't find a long steep hill except the one I climbed on Sunday and that's a 20 minute ride away.

Wednesday weigh in: Still holding at 8 with 2 weeks to go

Swim at the Y and a 2 mile run on the schedule for this afternoon

_{Wednesday weigh in: I'm at 7.4 lbs now (lost 1 lb this week).  I ate really badly this week, but my body has been working overtime to fight off whatever it is that I have.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.}