Gary's Mentor Group - Re-OPENED for Training (Page 33)

I can't say that I've ever had this problem. I do the majority of my rides with gloves though, but I don't race with them. My bike has the bontrager cork handlebar tape and I love it. It is just a little cushy so it's great for my short rides when I don't wear gloves. Of course, I have nothing else to compare it to so I guess I'm not a ton of help.

hth anyway,

Shelly

Santa Rosa Triathlon- Oct. 1- Sprint

Dorm -  Where is your knee soreness?  I've had all sorts of knee pain - inside, outside, top and bottom - and finally went to the PT.  I did a running analysis there and explained my problems and they diagnosed me with weak hip muscles.  So when I ran my hip joint weren't staying in place which was causing my knees to get out of alignment and really hurting.  I have a whole bunch of hip flexor/abductor/hamstring exercises that I do now and its really helped.  I went from running 50 minutes to two plus hours pain free.  You might want to look into doing something similar.  And my insurance actually covered it. 

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Dorm,

I love you tube for training also. It's my personal coaching service- lol. My 8yo taught herself flip turns from us watching youtube so there's definitely some good videos of it. There was one guy who did step by step drills to teach it , which were the best for my dd. I don't remember who he was but I just searched flip turns and it was one of the first to come up. He just broke it down into steps and had you practice each step before you added another part to it. Dd had it down that afternoon at the pool.

And running slow and easy and increase the time over time is my motto also- It has to be cause I can't do anything else- lol. I've read tons and tons of books, magazines, internet articles, forum q&a's and do really believe it's the best advice. Course like I said, I can't do anything else so it's definitely the way to go for me ;-).

Be careful with that knee and good luck in your next race. 

Shelly

Santa Rosa Tri - Oct. 1 - Sprint

Dorm - Checklist, sorry its taking awhile.  I have been adding items and will return to you soon.  As for the knee, check out what Elizabeth stated.  Also, have you been properly fit for shoes?  When I was running with the wrong shoes my knees started to hurt and the pain went away with proper shoes? 

JPF -  Could be time for new tape, how old is your current tape?  Everyone will have their favorite and I will send mine later.

Randy - Aerobar tape or pads for the aero bars or handlebar tape?  But I am wondering if this is a fitting issue.  Even when the pads on my aerobars were needing to be replaced I never had an issue with slipping.  Can you give more details on did you slide forward, sideways, etc?  If it truly is tape I use a gel tape that I love and will send the name when I get home

As for running, when I purely was a runner my motto was time, then distance, then speed.    I haven't done much speedwork lately but I am a believer that eventually you need to do some.  What it does for your overall form and fitness is invaluable but you should not start it until you have built your base.  Make sense?

GLOVES ... I use a dyed soft pair of leather work gloves and cut the fingers out of the gloves about 1/2" below the palm.  These are super easy to pull off-on, don't slip, are inexpensive and easy to replace.  I'm a bit vain, so I dye these with a cheap can of black spray paint ... hard to tell they're cut off el-cheapo models.

Knee soreness is with the patellar tendon on my left knee, at the point where it attaches below the knee.  I've been to a "TrySports" shop here and been fitted for running shoes ($200 cost), and actually think it's the shoe that's contributing to the problem.  My right foot has a significant pronation, whereas the left foot ... the one with the sore knee ,,, is not so bad.  The store fitted both shoes with orthotics, which I believe causes some of the problem with the left knee.  When I walked-ran last night, I replaced the orthotic with just a regular footbed and there's no soreness today I can attribute to last night's session. 

So this is working for now ... and I'll keep up with the slow and steady approach to running. 

Thanks for your comments and advice.  I cannot begin to tell you how helpful this web site is as compared to my local health club. 

I'd put together a pre-race checklist for race prep ... mainly stuff to bring and pack and was going to distribute to the group. 

I did a blog post with my list that I go back to when prepping for a race.  If you have a chance to review it, let me know if I missed anything.

http://blog.ransick.org/2011/04/hes-making-list-and-check-it-twice.html

Hey all!

Tomorrows my first Oly.  Its going to be hot and the water is supposedly in the mid 80's.  Will be my longest non-wetsuit OWS to date.  Will use the new swimskin and hope it will help.  Not shooting for any particular time due to the heat, as long as I finish I will be happy.

Later!

Hey all!

Finished, didn't have a great swim time but still managed 3rd in my AG for the swim (over 6 guys in my AG).  Took it too easy on the bike and the run was slow but hot and ran the whole distance.  RR to come later

Congrats Gary!  Can't wait for the RR.

Well heck that swim sounds pretty awesome to me if you were 3rd out of 9. I would have been 9 of 9. Can't wait to read the rr. The heat would have killed me. My run would have been a crawl on all fours- lol. Congrats on finishing strong and running the whole distance.

Shelly

Congrats on the oly, top 3rd in the swim is great! Do you credit the skin? Looking forward to the RR.

Hey all!

working on the RR and should have it up soon.  As for the swimskin, yes it did help.  Not sure if it was a placebo effect but it felt like I glided thru the water.  That said I was approx 5 mins longer than the same swim last year.  BUT, that swim was in a wetsuit and water temps in the 70's.  This year water temps in the mid-80s (at least).

Okay, question for you all:  Aero helmet, do you want one, would you wear one if you had it?  Why not?

Not interested. Especially since I ride a mountain bike, but don't think I will ever compete against anyone but myself and trying to better my times using like equipment. I I am still at it for a 3rd year, then I will consider a road bike, but still can't picture an Aero helmet.

similar to dw, i don't really have any interest in one right now. Mine comes down to budget. When I do have a little extra money to spend on triathlon, it's usually going towards something I don't have yet or that's a necessity. I've only been in the sport for a little over a year so maybe down the road 3 or 4 years but articles like the following sure make it tempting:

http://gearwestbike.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/who-said-you-are-too-slow-for-an-aero-improvement/

I have one that I picked up on clearance last year for ~$75.  I wore it in NOLA and think it helped.  I didn't wear it at my last two Olympic distance races because the temperature was pretty warm and they have less airflow.  

I keep a small towel and water bottle in T1 in case I need to rinse them.  I also have my socks "pre-rolled" so I can roll them on to wet feet (let me know if you need more explanation).  I've only done 7 tris that had a swim and haven't had to rinse them once.  By the time I run from the lake to my spot, my feet are clean enough to roll the socks on.  I'll keep bringing the water bottle and towel to make sure I don't need them :-)

JPF - similar to Mike, I just brush my feet off with my hand or a towel and has worked fine.

My answer to my question:  But first some background.  I have held off getting an aero helmet as I didn't want to look like "That guy"  looks fast (or in my case trying to look fast) but isn't.  Well at the race I happily put on my swimskin and was heading to the water when I noticed I was one of the few wearing one.  I knew one of the guys that was wearing one and he is a rocket in the water.  Suddenly I thought Hey I am now "that guy" then realized "no one cared".  Literally no one cared, I ended up MOP and 3rd out of 6 in my AG in the swim so I think it helped.  Gary is getting an aero helmet for his B-Day and will wear it with pride now that I am "That guy".

Hey all ... had a really good swim/run brick session yesterday.  I was able to increase segment distances overall with the swim ... instead of swimming a bunch of 100m lgths, I did more 250 and 300m segments.  And with the run I did a slow and easy 13m pace.  Even a couple of turtles passed me by!

I was really pleased with both, especially the swim, as there were several lengths wherein it took fewer strokes, the effort seemed minimal and the wall was there before you knew it.  And the run (have I mentioned before how I hate running) ... well the run went well.  Problems with knee soreness aside, I strapped on one of those Pro-Tec knee braces; took is slow and easy and felt good over the 2 miles.   Minimal soreness this morning ... the brace works for me.

The Rex Wellness race is this weekend and I'll finish off the week with a bike/run brick on Thursday, some pool time Friday and transition practice Saturday. 

Added a fun adventure event to my list. Going to team up with my oldest son and do a run, bike, canoe event on 9/3. Only swimming we might do is if we flip the canoe, but looking forward to a little fun with the event. http://www.quickeventplanner.com/17740-BBWLM5K/ in case you want to check it out. One of those things that I couldn't even think about doing if I hadn't discovered this group and regular training for Tri's.

BTW - Gary, loved the "That Guy" story. I can relate.

"That guy" was the only cyclist who passed me at a duathlon in April ... TT bike, Zips, Aero helmet, et al.  I was cruising ~25mph on flat road ... he yelled at me from behind and passed me while we were making a left hand turn.  I yelled over to him to "GO faster - push" and got a quick grin, thumbs up and he was GONE!

Poseurs excluded ... it's cool to be "that guy" as long as you have some chops to be "that guy".