BamaDC's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 5)

Which Challenge?  There is a whole forum for them.

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=27#s

phoenixrising404 - 2009-02-01 9:58 PM I have my dream bike--for now at least. Her name is Persephone, after the Greek goddess who lives half her life (winter) in the underworld with her underworld God husband and the rest of the time above ground with her mother. My bike doesn't exactly get out much right now She's a Trek E5 and she was expertly fitted for my funky body by a dude who went to a lot of schooling to get the fit just right. I enjoy my mountain bike more on the Rails to Trails around here in Wisconsin, and can better pull my kids on that. Been busy lately. I always bite off more than a normal human can chew and am taking a writing class, because that is another of my dreams. I'm also dealing with our ever favorite thing to do this time of year when you are self employed--taxes. Husband is laid off and so is doing a great deal of soul searching and will be going back to school. He's so bored that he's cleaned out the basement, the empty upstairs of my professional building, and is fixing them up for potential self employment. So, we are spending lots of time talking, dreaming and planning. My writing instructor is loving my stuff, and I am getting what I need out of the class. With all these big changes, my ironman dream seems a bit unimportant right now. Right now I am content to train for my sprint tri and enjoy the process. How are you all doing with balancing tri stuff and life stuff? Are we having fun yet? Sean, I'm happy to hear your knee is not as serious as we originally feared!

Sorry about your husband.  I'm having fun, but my life and time are due to change any week.  Amanda is due mid March but she will probably deliver end of feb.

A Cervelo P1 is a very good bike.  Don't upgrade your road bike.  Just ride the crap out of it and save for a tri bike.

Good luck with the swimming.  Just be careful when you push off the wall.  I screwed up a knee doing a flip turn.  I pushed off the tile and my knee twisted a way it wasn't meant to.  So I don't do many flip turns and when I do I make sure I'm not pushing off tile.

Dude I know exactly how that feels.  Okay not quite exactly how he feels.  At the Florida Challenge in 06,  I got hit in the side with a side mirror.  I was much luckier.  Only minor road rash, cracked helmet, 1 broken rib and 3 fractured ribs.  The amazing thing is I rode 20 more miles and climb sugarloaf back to transition. If your going to be dumb you gotta be tough.

The funny thing is back at tranisiton I was dropping out. Fred himself asked, if I was sure I wanted to do that.

I need to send Ahmed a welcome to the "club" card.

Can anyone give a note or 2 on how to pace and swim relaxed?  Unfortunately, I am swimming at the "retarded" speed and need to pace better...any suggestions?

Also managed to get a Cycletrack 1820 Magnetic for $80.00..now I can ride while the kids are fast asleep!!!

(cycletrack_2_320x240.jpg)

Can you clarify swim relaxed.  What is you stroke count per 25 yards/meters.  Most beginners I see at the pool have poor body position.  What I mean is do you keep your feet at the top of the water or do they drag 6 inches or more below the surface.

 See...this is the problem....I haven't been able to time that....I am in the process of getting something (digital watch at least) that I can time myself with, because I am usually there alone...

Any suggestions on how I could go about that?  Or something I could by to assist in my training?

I see.  The cheapest way would be to get a digital watch.   Go to a WalMart or sporting goods store and try them out.  I like the model I have because it shows split time(100 yards) and total time. And after a few weeks of swimming you'll, start to develop a feel between effort and lap time. 

Is this the right direction for an answer.  Or am I still off topic.  Or are you looking for stroke advice?

For dream bike I would love to have a Javlin Lugano with Campagnolo record 11 group set.

Went for a easy ride yesterday along the Columbia river trail with DW and before we could get started my front tire was flat. So I changed it and we went for our ride. A half mile before getting back my front tire was flat again. We have ridden our bikes on this trail maybe 12 times out 12 times I have had 7 flats Roni has had 1. There is this little G#$D#$% weed that drops it's seed that has a quarted inch spike that sticks out each end and a hard center (Goatheads are what the locals call them) so the demon seed always has one of its points sticking up. And because i'm so lucky my tire's have decided they want to rid the world of these little demon seeds. The local bike shops just shrug and say sorry ride with mountain bike tires you wont have a problem. I had slime tire's when we got here last November but the little spikes break off and will stick in the tire and the slime wont seal the hole because the little bastard is still in there, so ended up having to throw away both of my slime tire's and one of Roni's.

So I have a 2.5 hour bike ride today I wonder how mant tires I should bring hmm.

I was wondering about bike fits is there any thing I can do myself or should I find a shop and get it done.  

Is that the bike that includes wind tunnel time w/ mr. cobb. 

I would recommend getting a shop to do it.  I fitted myself last year, using the fist protocol.  I didn't like how it ended up so I winged it.  I'm getting fitted sometime in the near future by a Serotta certified fitter, with about 30 years in the bike business.

Mark...I appreciate everything you have offered....I am not sure what I am asking, but is good to know that I will get a feel for this stuff and not feel so in the dark all the time....

I am doing the first real anything tonight with an easy ride on my new (new to me) indoor trainer....should make watching 24 seem not so guilt-laden when I can do something other than sit there on my tookis...

That groupset(Super Record 11) costs more than my tri bike and powermeter combined.

Is the bamboo bike a Calfee Design.  Those look more like art work than bikes

Ya Campy is very proud of there stuff I have the Campy Mirage 9 group set on my Javlin and I love it. So I figured the more you spend the better the product. They also have the electric power shifters as well I have no idea how much those cost probably as much as my car.

Thats the Bamboo bike,I would hate to wipe out on that bike you would spend days pulling spinters LOL.