kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2013 (Year 3!) - CLOSED (Page 42)

I'm a fan of the cold too! There may be snow tonight/tomorrow here - I'm so excited!

It's going to be 0 tonight

We're looking at 12 . . . heat wave.

Chris, maybe I missed it, but what do you do?

Can you explain a bit about bike components...for example, I know there is a big chain ring and a small one right...but oval Vs (circular I assume) ??

Could you also explain more about wheels...I read tons of posts and other pieces of information about wheels and I know it would be a good investment to upgrade and I know a bit about the aerodynamics etc.. but I really lack a more comprehensive understanding about the differences in wheels....For example, Kelly - I noticed the picture of you on your bike and your wheel set up...why did you choose that vs a disc, vs something else?

So I officially heard today that I didn't get that job in California.  Can't say I'm upset, it was not quite the right fit, I was compromising on where we want to live, and they were certainly compromising on location since they want someone in Texas.  Anyway, I'm kind of relieved and can start planning the rest of my race schedule now.  Also, most of the "stress" at my work resolved itself just before Christmas.  There's a lot of potential opportunities here in Alpharetta, so we'll see how that plays out.

In other news, I did an LT run test tonight and my HR reached #'s I don't recall seeing very often.  My prior LT (on several field tests) was always between 178 - 180.  Today my average over a 5k time trial was 185.  Does that mean anything?  Am I in worse shape, better shape, didn't push myself hard enough on other tests, pushed myself too hard on this test?  I'm not going to read too much into it, just reset my zones, but curious why it was higher than I expected.

Can you explain a bit about bike components...for example, I know there is a big chain ring and a small one right...but oval Vs (circular I assume) ??

Could you also explain more about wheels...I read tons of posts and other pieces of information about wheels and I know it would be a good investment to upgrade and I know a bit about the aerodynamics etc.. but I really lack a more comprehensive understanding about the differences in wheels....For example, Kelly - I noticed the picture of you on your bike and your wheel set up...why did you choose that vs a disc, vs something else?

Yep.  Oval vs. Circular.  They're supposed to increase cadence and eliminate dead spots in your stroke. 

As far as race wheels it can go several different ways.  Torodial (sp?) vs V shaped, depth, etc.  Supposedly if you ride under 24 anything over 60ish on the front is just a waste.  Deeper is better on the back.  I really like what Flo is doing for the price point.

Race wheels are nice "bells and whistles" but are by no means necessary.  A good set of race wheels will cost you $1500-2000 and will give you about as much "extra" time as an aero helmet, which is significantly less expensive.  You pick different aero wheels for different reasons, the less wind on the course, the more aggressive the wheel set can be (e.g. 800 mm in the front and disk in the back).  I have HED 3s, which are carbon fiber tri spokes.  They're pretty aggressive, but they can be really difficult to handle in cross winds.  They tend to act a little like a sail and I can get pushed around.  I would like to change up my race wheels and go with 400 / 800 type set up.

If you are looking to improve aero efficiency of wheels without a big investment, a good choice is a rear disk cover -- http://www.wheelbuilder.com/aerodisc.html -- they're about $100 and turn your training wheel into a disk.  

Stacey -- this is a really good choice for you especially because the disk cover can go over your power tap.

For those of you who haven't seen --here's my wheel set up:

So I officially heard today that I didn't get that job in California.  Can't say I'm upset, it was not quite the right fit, I was compromising on where we want to live, and they were certainly compromising on location since they want someone in Texas.  Anyway, I'm kind of relieved and can start planning the rest of my race schedule now.  Also, most of the "stress" at my work resolved itself just before Christmas.  There's a lot of potential opportunities here in Alpharetta, so we'll see how that plays out.

In other news, I did an LT run test tonight and my HR reached #'s I don't recall seeing very often.  My prior LT (on several field tests) was always between 178 - 180.  Today my average over a 5k time trial was 185.  Does that mean anything?  Am I in worse shape, better shape, didn't push myself hard enough on other tests, pushed myself too hard on this test?  I'm not going to read too much into it, just reset my zones, but curious why it was higher than I expected.

You can't really push yourself too hard.  5 bpm difference is about 3% different than your previous tests, however normally LT does not go up -- usually it goes down by about 1 bpm per year as we get older. 

If your going to use a 5K TT as a stand in for threshold,you should drop the first mile of the 5K TT and just look at HR over the last two miles.  There can be lot of variability in the first mile, which can throw off the results.

I like your wheels Kelly, they are pretty cool looking.  Helmet too.  I wanted race wheels for the longest time, but decided for me it made more sense to just rent them.

I just ordered a powertap from wheelbuilders a few days ago.  My husband finally gave in to my begging.  I'm so excited!  I also ordered a wheel cover, it's a cheap option and from what I hear a pretty fast set up.

No snow - boo!