Big Daddy Diesels New to the Sport Group - Full (Page 5)

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Another cycling question:

I keep seeing a lot of threads on the forums talking about 'power' is important when your cycling. The exercise bike at the gym measures something called 'mets' and 'watts'? I mean, obviously power is important, but is there some way of measuring that I should be tracking?

I have a garmin forefunner that I will use for rides, but do I need the cadence sensor too to somehow measure my power? I may get the cadence sensor anyways, just to make sure I am staying around 80-90 rpms, but is it going to tell me anything else?

I just want to know where I am now, and where I need to be.

I was looking at the website for the HIM I want to do this summer (muncie endurathon), and the average bike speed for my age group (M 30-34) was over 20 mph. I don't think I would be near that. Only 2 people out of 37 in that age group were under 20 mph. Granted, I don't necessarily care where in the pack I finish, just looking for an idea of where folks are at. The course for this HIM is very flat on the bike, so that may help, but I don't know if it would make 4/5/6 mph difference?

Edited by bscoles1 2011-01-13 2:03 PM

Liberty Twp, Ohio.

Mark - SPD are the cleats you need for a standard spin bike at the gym, your Shimano cleats will not work, there is a chance that they might have your pedals for your cleats, but bring your running shoes as a back up, better yet, contact the gym and ask them

These indoor tris are fun, except at the end, you just go home, no real finish line party, but it will get you some race experience, I suggest pace the swim, go at a faster then normal constant pace on the bike, and hammer the run. and most importantly HAVE FUN

LB - Good to hear you ran pain free, I know you have been hurting for awhile now

Todd - training partners rock, makes training alot more fun, I suggest looking into seeing if you have a local tri club and goto there scheduled training sessions, great way to make new friends and talk about training, picking peoples minds for information

Tim - I suggest a trainer, in my opinion riding inside gets real boring, thus the need for music, tv, dvds, so worth to help kill the boredom, rollers are fun, but require a ton of concentration to make sure you dont fly off of them (which is easy to do) and get hurt. Most people start with a trainer and progress to rollers a couple years later.

Robert - I am register for Muncie. As you read the main forum, you read that everyone is trying to get to the magical "20mph", my suggest is to just ride as much as you can and keep riding, you will get to that point. Some things that can help, practice all out sprinting on the trainer for 30 second intervals, add 30 seconds to your interval each week to build, ride with people who are faster then you are, that is what I did to ride at my current pace, yes it sucks getting dropped, but the more ou ride with them, the stronger you will be on the bike. Also 30-34 and 35-39 are the TOUGHEST age group out there to race against, everyone is fast, but remember everyone had to start with their first race at one point of their racing career. My teammate on my bike team tell me its takes at least 3 solid years of biking to become a good, strong biker. Just keep moving forward.

To train with power you need a power meter, which are quite expensive. Your cadence sensor, which I have one on both of my bikes, will help you see your cadence on the bike, also it serves as in indoor computer for your trainer as well along with your Garmin. So you can track your milage on the trainer. There are 2 types of bikers, "the dancers" like Lance Armstrong, who use food speed and high cadence to race, "the mashers" are the big gear grinders that generate alot of power with their legs and mash the pedals with pure power and force. Both have their spots in racing. I would work on keeping your cadence constant, then every week try to go faster in a lower gear, keeping your cadence at the constant speed. The bike portion of the race is all about pace, setting up for the run.

I am in Columbus OH

Weekend Homework

Pick a workout that you are not comfortable doing or that is your weakness and make that workout your main focus for the weekend, example, I do not like running hills, at all. So I will be doing hill repeats to get stronger at my weak link.

First - Tell me what workout you are worried about when you read this and why

Second - Make this workout your main goal to complete this weekend

Third - post about the experience, what did you not like, did like, what surprised you and how you felt afterwards when you are done with it

Here is a link to a bunch of good articles about indoor bike training

http://www.active.com/cycling/Articles/Indoor-Cycling-Tips-and-Training.htm

Rob here...representin' Jersey (no ...not the shore!)

So I went to register for my first tri and the question of clydesdale confused me.  Should I register as Male 40-44 or Clydesdale...I'm about 220?  what's the difference...start time, competition...?

Thanks,

I'm out of Sacramento, California.
My most troublesome workouts are any kind of swimming...So I will tackle it this weekend...I did just purchase a pull buoy so I'm going to see how that feels, either way, I will be in the pool!

If you register as a Clydesdale, your times will only be compared to other Cyldesdales, if you register in 40-44 AG, then your times will be compared against those individuals. Register to what ever one you feel like to. More newbies will be in the clydesdale division.

i wish i could work on running, but because im just getting over the knee flare up, i dont want to push it....otherwise, i would probably do hill repeats too.....i DESPISE hills LOL. 

i will probably working on swimming, working on bilateral breathing, longer sets, more freestyle...less breaststroke for rest/recovery.  what worries me is the fact that i will again be outside my comfort zone, i feel like i have so many things to work on and dont want to be overwhelmed by it.  but, i  look forward to getting more comfortable in the pool in general.

for those familiar with indoor swim tris......do they allow for flip turns or not?  if not, im not going to worry too much about it.  i can do flip turns, i just need to work on them since its been a long time since ive done it. 

Yes they do allow flipturns, but be careful, at of times the end of the lane is clogged with other swimmers

I am most nervous about longer rides on the bike, so that is what I am going to try to do. I'm going to shoot for a 90 minute ride, and see how it goes. One of the reasons I am nervous is that when I had previously built up to about this distance of ride, I had some numbness in the perineal area that lasted for a couple days. So I am hoping that is not a regular occurrence, and I can't imagine how I would run after that.

Awesome! Hopefully, I will see you there!



Definitely going to try this!



I'm gonna have to check and find some local riding groups in my area.



I didn't think about that. I will check back and see the average for the full field.



I can tell I am definitely gonna have to get an actual bike trainer, and bring my bike inside to train, instead of using the spin bike. I feel like the only thing I can measure on the spin bike is time and heart rate (with my HRM) and perceived effort. Can't get a true measure of distance, and there's no gears.

Trainers dont need to cost an arm and a leg. There are 3 types of trainers, wind (dont ever get, so freaking loud), Magnetic (loud, but not as noisy as wind) and fluid (the quietest of the group)

If you have a Performance Bike Shop where you live, you can get a trainer fairly "cheap", here is the link to their trainer page

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/SubCategory_10052_10551_400133_-1_400006_400037

i have a cycleops mag+ trainer and its ok, i wanted the cycleops fluid, but it was almost twice the price.  i think i paid $160ish for a kit from Dick's, included a mat, riser block, bike thong....with the trainer. 

training partner advice.......

i have a new riding/running friend.  we get a long really well, and i really enjoy running/riding with her.  she is also training for her first tri, but she is much much slower than me.  my dilemma is that when i run, and especially with riding, with her i dont get much of a workout because i have to slow to her pace.  i am very time crunched and need every workout to count.  i could use my time with her as recovery or easy days, but our schedules work out to where we can only get together on weekends....when i typically do my longer harder workouts.  so im caught between choosing to ride or run with her and not getting much of a workout, but AWESOME company.....or going it alone and getting the workout i need.  what would you do????

Edited by laurabs24 2011-01-14 1:19 PM

LB - Train with her, a couple things that might work to help you out. Ride/Run to the destinated training starting spot, you can get some miles in before you meet with her

- Tell her your gonna do intervals, you sprint for 30 seconds, then slow down and she keeps sprinting till she catches you. Then recover

- Pick up the pace, do it on your own, dont tell her, see how long she can hold it, if she starts to slow, then slow down, to let her recover some.

- She will get stronger and faster, she might already be faster and is just afraid to push the pace.
- Share trainer / riding / running tips that you know to have her train on her own to get faster.

- Good training partners are really hard to find, I would train with her and help get her stronger and faster.

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Biggest most glaring weakness is the bike. I'm a masher and not good at the longer rides. So I'm going to do a longer (90 to 120 minute) tempo ride with a higher cadence. I have a buddy that is a major roadie and has invited me to ride with his group in San Diego so I think i'll tie in with them and get my butt kicked.

i blogged about this earlier today.....i know its all individualized, but how much is too much racing for everyone?  i dont want to get burnt out, injured (or re-injured), or break the bank either.....but there are SOOOO many races i want to do.  what is everyone else's schedule looking like?  do you focus on one big race for the season, do one or two a month, etc????

Weekend Homework:

I finished the 90 minute ride on the spin bike!! YAY!!

With me not really having a way to track speed, or what gear I'm in on the spin bike, I decided to keep a good cadence with decent resistance and aim to keep my HR in zone 2 (132-148 bpm for me) I was able to do this virtually the whole time. No real soreness or numbness this time, so I am happy about that. I was really feeling the endorphins within the last 15 minutes of the ride, similar to when I know I am almost done with a long run. Listened to the 'TRON' soundtrack, so lots of good beats to keep me going.

It surprised me that my legs are not as tired as I expected to be. I gained a lot of confidence about moving forward and extending my time in the saddle even further. I also decided yesterday, that I am going to look to sell my spin bike on Craigslist and instead get an indoor bike trainer, so I can get some more measurable data points to gauge my progress.

I found myself pedaling in the standing position about once every half hour for about a minute or so just to rest my 'seat'. Is this common among cyclists, or do people actually stay seated for literally hours at a time?

Also, after about a half hour, I found my hands getting tired of being in the same position, and I had to keep adjusting to different positions on the spin bike handlebars about every few minutes. Is this common? Is this something that will get easier with time? Is it more about hand/grip strength or arm/shoulder strength to hold that position?

All in all, it was a great workout; I thought about going longer, but I still have to run 7 miles tomorrow, and I didn't want to overextend on the bike. So progress is progress!!

I hope to hear about everyone else's experience going well also!

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i dont think i did very well on my homework this weekend.  although i got some time on the bike and in the pool, they were pretty much junk miles. 

saturday-basically a rest day, ran 1.25 miles just to give the knee another test.  will probably kick it up a notch to 1.5-2 miles.  im really building back up from scratch.  i want to give my knee a real chance this time. 

sunday-
   ~swim~ had planned to swim 750ish yrds or 20min, working on bilateral breathing and more yardage without breaks.  none of that happened.  the pool was full and the i shared a lane with got me all flustered.  i couldnt concentrate and didnt even bother to keep up with my distance.  prob no more than 500yds.  but at least it was time to get comfortable in the pool. 

   ~bike~ rode with the girl i mentioned earlier that is much slower than me.  at least the route was moderately hilly and got my heart rate up somewhat, but we rode almost painfully slow today.  unfortunately i fell when coming to a stop.  (this is only my second ride with my new clipless pedals) hurt my knee, quad, and pride.  hopefully i didnt do any damage. 

but i am happy that i managed to workout 6 days this week in some form or fashion.  it has helped me figure out time management in regards to fitting in 3 sports into an already busy lifestyle. 

I am in Temecula....my first Tri is going to the the Temecula Challenge on May 1st

Weekend homework report:

I didn't end up riding with my buddy in San Diego because he was sick so I rode on my own. I rode for about 90 minutes and it was tough. I don't know if it's because I haven't focused on the bike or if it's just I haven't gotten out and rode on the street. My quads were on fire within the first 10 miles. I was really trying not to mash and focused on spinning at a high rpm range but I still felt pretty gassed early. It seemed like the more I relaxed the better I felt. I need to either ride more on the road or do some more focused weight training.

In total I ended up ridingabout 25 miles. I had to really push for a while of it. I stretched out and then ran about 3 miles later in the afternoon since it was almost 80 on Saturday.

Any ideas from anyone would be awesome. I will take anyones input on biking. What works for you guys or whatever.