SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 38)

Wow, it certainly sounds like LP was quite the experience for everyone! Great job on the race everyone, just toeing the line is quite an accomplishment.

Did your pull get faster or your swim slower?

I have to throw in for the IMLP folks with a huge congrats.  Sounds like it wasn't an easy day for anyone - that's why it's IRONman I guess - but it's a hoot see you all go through it (and I learn every time someone has a tough day - back, feet, pacing, all of it - so my gratitude and congrats out to ALL of you, not just the finishers, of course). 

I still have to get through my first HIM (soon... soon), but reading your comments and experiences put that little bug in my ear of, "Someday" for the IM, and for the journey just to toe the line.  Putting in the time and effort to line up on race day is what I find the most amazing/inspiring.

Thanks and congrats again!

Matt

Kinda both, but more towards the pull being faster. I'm not able to swim as hard as I'd like to consistently, making some of this a bit trickier to decipher, but I think the gap is still there. Swim is still fairly close to the others I swim with, but pulls have really surged ahead.

Ordered a pair of Hoka One One Bondi Speeds.  We'll see, but I'll let y'all know how they work out.

I really do love running in my Newtons - they are faster than my Asics or Brooks by what seems like 20-30 seconds/mile - but they beat up my feet from 10k on.

Probably will continue to race the Newtons through Oly distance, but I'm hopeful for the Hoka's (otherwise, I'm probably racing my Brooks at Timberman, and I am less and less loving the high drop).  Again, we'll see...

Experimenting on myself is fun! 

Matt

Somehow managed a 3rd place finish in my AG despite an "average" performance.  I must have intimidated a lot of people into not showing up yesterday.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=496514

ETA: Rusty/James...important swim skin info inside too.

Matt, I'm also experimenting with the Bondi's.  After 3 fairly short/easy runs, I'm still open minded. I've been running in Newton Distance U's and like them a lot but constantly struggle with back issues.  The Bondi's definitely have a different feel, both in terms of foot strike and glutes/quads. In addition to the difference in heel drop, the upper is more substantial and cut higher on the foot. That's a bit of an annoyance for me as I have something called an "accessory navicular bone" in my right foot. It protrudes right up against the lace grommet of the Bondi. A bit of moleskin or foam padding helps, but I know from other shoes that contact against that bone/tendon gets irritated over time. Will be interesting to see what you think.   

Originally posted by mndymond Sorry about your low back Rusty. No fun. Nice work to the IMLPers. I wore my IMLP cap from 2011 in the pool today. So I made a coaching switch. Thought hard about it over the past month while I was getting settled here in PG and decided I'm going to stick with tri through residency. So far on the slate for the "season" (I'm going to do seasons via July-June cycle since that's how residency rolls)...Victoria Half Marathon...the run that I ran last year while febrile and ended up with bilateral pneumonia...I feel the need for a repeat. and Wildflower HIM next May. I might enter into the lottery for Escape from Alcatraz...I'm playing around with some ideas. New coach is Shane...some of you might know him.. Back in the water today. 3500m. I haven't been in the water since IMF. Ready for bed.

You like the tough stuff eh?    Sounds like a great bunch of races!

Arend, are you doing the tests outside?

On the trainer.  I think if it was outside I could manage it a lot better as small changes in terrain and wind etc would allow me to get to a comfortable cadence.

Ok. I use a dedicated wheel and have an 11-21 cassette on there. Takes care of issues like that. Others might be better off with a 12-23 or maybe even 13-25 if they can find it, as I'll do everything outside of recovery level in the big ring with that one. The gaps are incredibly bothersome on the trainer.

Hard to have a dedicated wheel when you are a Powertap user.  

Agreed on the annoying gaps on the trainer.  A 12-25 should give me only single cog jumps where I do most of my interval work on the trainer though.  13-25 would probably be the ideal one for me - I've never seen one of those.

And there is the reason if I ever went with power it would be crank based.  Course, no need for any kind of power if I don't get on the bloody bike...

I got in on pre-order 7 from Flo and was obsessing over what cassette to buy for it.  Set up a spreadsheet to see what kind of speeds I'd get at various cadences (most importantly, my self-selected cadence range) and promptly decided that if it didn't have a 16 tooth cog, it was out of the running!  It seems to be kind of my sweet spot for outdoor rides....and I hate getting into that zone where you just don't have a good gear regardless.  That would really irk me for a 20 minute power test -- those are brutal enough without having to worry about that!

Had an interesting swim at noon today. I don't normally go to the Y during the middle of the day so it's a different group of people than I normally see in the pool. There was a guy in the next lane that I'd heard of in the local press but never met. He's very active in the OWS community in NYC/NJ area. We chatted some and he gave some feedback on my stroke. Then we swam a set of 6 x100 where he basically floated along with me for the first 50 then took off and was waiting at the wall while I finished.  His next OWS race is part of the NYC Swim around Manhattan Relay (28.5 miles) where he's swimming 3 legs. He's 82. 

If you have a few minutes the attached video is pretty cool. You'll see him swimming in the Manhattan relay from a few years ago around the 2:20 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EzYiTI6V4Y

Gearing is obviously a personal thing, but when I rode a standard crank I liked a 12-26 cassette for most general riding. When I switched to a compact I changed to a 11-25. Gears are gears, and what you are really interested in is gear inches (there are good arguments for other metrics, but I am most familiar with gear inches). 50 front/25 rear and 53 front/26 rear are almost the same exact gear inches, so they feel the same. When I rode my standard crank I lived in my 17 in the rear, but when I switched to the compact and 11-25 I felt like I was missing that gear. It turns out that a 50 front/16 rear is almost exactly the same gear inches as a 53 front/17 rear. So what I did is switch to a 12-25 cassette (which has a 16) but took the 12 off and swapped it with an 11 tooth cog that I use for climbing and racing. It is a big jump from the 12 to the 13, but I don't notice it at all as I really only use the 11 for steep long descents in order to keep a little pressure on the peddles.

For those that are new to thinking about gearing, there really is no magic to it: compact and standard cranks are both able to create the same gear inches, just using a different combo of gears on the cassette. The argument for a compact for most of us is that there are fewer overlaps between the the big and little combinations so you actually get a broader range of combinations. Trouble is that most folks don't ever learn to use all the combos and just simply wind up dumping there gears up and down the ladder.

I think I read about a Di2 hack that actually used a two button system: one to shift up and one to shift down. The cool thing is that it was programmed to shift the front and rear derailleurs simultaneously so you got the smoothest, broadest range of gearing possible. Neat!

Fyi, the "inches" would include the wheel size as that is how far the bike moves (goes all the way back to a penny farthing). The ratio would be just the front to back as explained and tends to be good enough with most using 700 wheels. 650 wheels do need to take this into account, however.