Meulen's 'Let's tri this Thing!' beginner mentor group-CLOSED (Page 36)

Congratulations Dale!  That is great that you were able to race so early in the season and that you accomplished your goals!

QOTD:  After my experiences on my bike yesterday, I would like to know the best ways to attack a hill when riding.  I do not know if this is a great question of the day or just a question, but I can't ride anywhere around here without facing hills. 

Question regarding hill riding.  One thing I learned from my race yesterday is to do more hills.  The race was all hill.  If you can practice on the hills, you will be ready for any race.  The flat parts won't be a problem.  The challenge is  in the hills.  I would practice as much hills as possible and find some really steep ones too.  I mean steep.  There were hills in the race so steep people were walking up them.  I have totaly rethought my bike training after that race.  I thought I was riding on hilly routes until that race.  The hills in the race were bigger, steeper and longer than normal riding.

Meulen - 2011-03-28 1:29 PM

mcommend - 2011-03-28 12:22 PM

Congratulations Dale!  That is great that you were able to race so early in the season and that you accomplished your goals!

 

QOTD:  After my experiences on my bike yesterday, I would like to know the best ways to attack a hill when riding.  I do not know if this is a great question of the day or just a question, but I can't ride anywhere around here without facing hills. 

simple answer: Practice!!! seriously, it depends on the size of the hill and circumstance of the race or training session. Either way, practice practice practice!! part of attacking hills is learning your body's strengths/weaknesses are with short and long twitch muscles. More time in the hills will give you a good feel on what cadence and efforts to put out. Some of this is simply learning what gear you like. The rest is power and endurance.

As you and Dale said, I know I need to practice.  My international tri is 12.5 miles uphill.  It's done in 2 loops, and each loop literally has 6 straight miles uphill.  I guess that my practice is really asking about the technical aspect.  What type of cadence should I be shooting for?  Should I be using gears where my legs are flying, but I am still moving? Or should it be trying to get gears where I am really powering though each stroke but have a low cadence?  Just some things that crossed my mind yesterday. 

Haha, if only it were that easy to get "pumped up" LOL.

QOTD: Favorite recipes anyone? This is a favorite for those decadent days when you need desert that can still be considered "healthy"!

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Mousse! (I think I got this from a beachbody.com email)
Makes about 2 quarter-cup servings - this stuff is rich, so ya don't need much. I recommend dipping fresh strawberries in it!

3oz avocado
2 TBSP cocoa powder (unsweetened/baking cocoa)
2 TBSP Agave Nectar (or other natural sweetener)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

combine ingredients in blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Can be served immediately but is best if chilled in fridge for at least 1 hour.  (after chilling the consistancy becomes more like frosting.)

Nutrition Facts

 Serving Size: 1/4 cup

 Total Fat8g

Saturated Fat 1.5g

 

Cholesterol0mg

 

Sodium0mg

 

Total Carbohydrate24g

 

Dietary Fiber 5.5g

 

Sugars 21g

 

Protein2.5g

 

From what I've read in my training books, ideally we would approach hills and shift gears efficiently enough to maintain the same cadence going up as approaching...that said, I haven't gotten outside to train on hills at all yet (I've been using hill programs on the stationary bike at least) so I have yet to test this intention. And like Brian said, different people have different ideal cadences so, yeah, for what it's worth that's my 2 cents.

CONGRATULATIONS DALE!!!!! You are so awesome, man! It is so helpful to read your experience and hear what things happened that were just out of your control. Like that idiot moving all your gear in the transition area! TWICE?! I know that there will be things out of my control on race day and all I can do is be as well prepared as I can, and roll with the punches.

I've been reading a book of short stories accounting various people's first triathlon experiences and yours definitely resonated like some of the ones I've been reading. In fact, you were far more prepared than some folks! I can't wait for my raceday!

Are you already planning your next triathlon?

CONGRATULATIONS DALE!!!!! You are so awesome, man! It is so helpful to read your experience and hear what things happened that were just out of your control. Like that idiot moving all your gear in the transition area! TWICE?! I know that there will be things out of my control on race day and all I can do is be as well prepared as I can, and roll with the punches.

I've been reading a book of short stories accounting various people's first triathlon experiences and yours definitely resonated like some of the ones I've been reading. In fact, you were far more prepared than some folks! I can't wait for my raceday!

Are you already planning your next triathlon?

this looks awesome, henry. my two favorite foods- i'm going to make it soon. thanks for posting!!

Meulen - 2011-03-29 8:46 AM Dales race also brings up an interesting point. THINGS DON'T ALWAYS GO THE WAY YOU PLAN!!! It's not a QOTD, mainly because I want to see more recipe's still! But....how will you deal with it when the plan gets derailed?

go with the flow, hopefully?  i remember last year at michael's race i watched someone's bike literally fall apart! needless to say, they were disqualified, but they were laughing hysterically. i remember thinking, what am amazing person. they've probably trained forever and so excited about race day and then their bike completely falls apart- what an incredible person for taking it all in stride. either that or they didn't want to cry hysterically so they started laughing about it. either way, i was impressed.

here's a recipe i made yesterday. i never really follow directions so i'm estimating the amounts. one of my favorite rip-off-indian dishes i made up.

a quarter cauliflower, cut up

a quarter of a yellow onion, chopped or a shallot, chopped

a cup of peas

a can of garbanzo beans

half a teaspoon of paprika

a tablespoon of yellow curry

two sweet potato or yams, cut small (microwave for 4 minutes prior to making)

a huge handful of chopped kale

1 cup of peanuts or pine nuts

a can or 1.5 cups of coconut milk

- sautee onion in olive oil until lightly brown in large skillet, throw in sweet potato and kale, cook for three minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. cook until bubbling and then turn on low for about 10 minutes. put in the nuts last (like the last 2 minutes). so good! i love this dish.

OMG I'm totally going to make this next week and add some chicken! I'll let you know how it goes. I love cooking by experiment too. I try to regularly mix in new recipes but I almost always modify them as I go.

Meulen - 2011-03-29 8:43 AM

libramom - 2011-03-29 8:29 AM

Meulen - 2011-03-29 8:46 AM Dales race also brings up an interesting point. THINGS DON'T ALWAYS GO THE WAY YOU PLAN!!! It's not a QOTD, mainly because I want to see more recipe's still! But....how will you deal with it when the plan gets derailed?

go with the flow, hopefully?  i remember last year at michael's race i watched someone's bike literally fall apart! needless to say, they were disqualified, but they were laughing hysterically. i remember thinking, what am amazing person. they've probably trained forever and so excited about race day and then their bike completely falls apart- what an incredible person for taking it all in stride. either that or they didn't want to cry hysterically so they started laughing about it. either way, i was impressed.

 

.

 

Alot of this stuff happens. If you ever get a chance and to be at a tri while not racing sit by the bike out. It's amazing how many chains fall off, tires are flat, or people just slip and fall. Anne had someone get their pedal stuck in her wheel last year at Chicago. She had to stop them as they were yanking it to get it out! Both of us had our new bikes scuffed or scratched by people who throw their bikes back into transition into ours. People are rude, not much we can do about that. It really makes me mad when my stuff gets damaged. I've come back to transition one time too where someone hung their wetsuit in my bike slot!!

My plan if something happens to keep me from finishing is to watch the rest of the race and then go home and sign up for another one! Hopefully I'll go home and sign up for another one regardless. I've been looking for other races close to me & timed right (I'm having surgery the end of July so it has to be before then) but haven't found anything ideal yet. At least I think my first race is pretty small. The cap is 200 - that's small, right?

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