Fred D Mentor Group Part III (Page 59)

I love it because it does what I need, however it is pretty basic.

It records every activity as a run. In order to change it to a bike workout (and see your pace in mph) you have to upload the activity to Garmin Connect. From there you save it as a file and can upload onto Strava (and maybe some other sites). BT does recognize it but unlike my 305, it doesn't upload straight onto the training log, you have to use the Upload feature. The other problem is that BT uploads straight from the Garmin so it records everything as a run, there's no way to enter it as a bike workout. I use Strava to find out elevation, pace etc so I'm not too bothered about it not interfacing well with BT. I usually manually enter my workouts here on BT anyways.

All in all, it's a great watch but probably way too basic and limiting for most triathletes. Might be good for your wife if she doesn't use HR. It is very user friendly. I'm a low tech kind of gal, so it appeals to me. 

Might want to check park tools website for more detail, but basically the delimeter screws set the deraileur's "range" for how far left or right it can move.  It could be that your delimeter screw for the small ring needs to be tightened, thus not allowing to shift so far to the inside. 

Or it could be your deraileur cage is bent.  Happened to me before when my chain got stuck in the deraileur.  Had to get a new one.  If your chain gets stuck, the deraileur cage is actually meant to bend or break apart to prevent more costly damage to your frame.

Lots of stuff to catch up on! You all are a chatty bunch! We made it through the hurricane with minimal damage (just a very frightened hound - she doesn't like the power flickering/outages). Kids got out of school early the day before it hit - but back to school the very next day.

Fred -both my daughters swim and watching the swim meets is both wonderful and agonizing. It cracks me up when one will complain that her 100M time is "too slow" while I'm thinking to myself, "I'd LOVE to swim at that pace!" If anything - it gets them in the water on a regular basis - and for us, I want them to be comfortable in the water.

For the weightloss challenge thingy - I struggle with this everyday. In my mind, I know exactly how I need to eat (I'm smart, I've read a ton, lurked on many an internet forum), but I find it much too easy to "slip up". I have also recently noticed a significant impact on my sleep if I eat too many carbs. I vow to think every time before I ingest anything, "Is this worth a crappy night of sleep?" for the rest of the month.

This weekend was much less training than I had in mind. After the hurricane, all the leaves were blown out of the trees (what a surprise!) and we spend all day yesterday getting the leaves off the yard (I live in a very wooded area on about 2 acres...so that's ALOT of leaves/acorns/pine needles). I figure 5 hours of raking has got to be good for some core work at least, right? Today, I was able to fit in a long(ish) bike ride on the trainer while watching a movie. No long run for me this weekend, but hopefully, I'll get back on the training band-wagon this upcoming week.

The clamp-on ones can also get spun or set too high / low.  Park has some good videos on lining that up if you need to adjust it.  If it's a braze-on then ignore me...

A related point is that they can get slightly bent (braze-on too).  I had that problem once.  It wasn't huge, but once I figured out that was the issue, carefully bending back (by hand) worked.

Last week I realized it was getting late to work on getting down for a race in December.  So I've been at this a week.  I want to lose 5-10 pounds.  I'd like to be solidly under 140, closer to 135 for racing if possible.  I realize that going from 145 to 135 sounds like a 'first world problem', but I've made it there just once and find it a real struggle.  On my frame, a 5-10 pound swing is pretty noticeable.

Challenges:  I used to drink a lot, but not any more.  When I'm stressed, this behavior can return, but lately I've been good about not letting stress take me in that direction.  I too struggle with food choices.  I was trained for a couple of summers at a Culinary Arts school in Paris (my parents lived there), and for years I cooked like that many times a week (and put on a lot of weight as a result).  I'm also a sucker for good barbeque, and sweets.  So far, I've cut out sweets (starting last week).  My real goal is to continue doing so.

ETA:  Fred, I think that any time we are surrounded by people quite different from us, it is difficult for us to stay the same, much less work to become more different.  I think Andy made that point nicely in an earlier post, and I agree.

You are a very strong cyclist to begin with, you have specific goals for running (BarryP program) and I'd bet that in your case, you wouldn't lose too much. You would just have to make sure you get in some bike specific training once you do have time in your schedule. I know that personally, I couldn't take that much time off cycling. I think it would take me a long time to make up for a month off. I also could not do it with swimming either but I did take months off from running last year for knee surgery and was surprised that I didn't lose too much.

I know this wasn't directed at me - but I am going to provide my $0.02. (All physicians - in training or otherwise - please feel free to correct me) First, the artificial sweeteners in diet soda trick your body into thinking they are getting sugar, which can cause an insulin reaction, which makes your body crave more sweet, starting a nasty cycle. Secondly, carbonation can leech calcium out of your system, and finally the vast number of nasty chemicals in the sodas (did you know Fresca is made with wood resin?) can't be good for you...for me, I just try to steer clear...although an icy cold Diet Dr Pepper once every so often on a hot day hits the spot like nothing else. Much like everything diet-wise, "Everything in moderation."

Riding is very time consuming, so if you don't have time, it's the easiest to cut out. Especially the long rides. Have you considered 2 or 3 short but intense sessions per week. You could probably squeeze 2x45min. 15m w/u, 20 min of hard intervals, 10m cool down. You will probably get more out of that that 1x2h on weekend in my opinion.Do you still have a computrainer ?

Completely agree.  I can't not think about the numbers, but I'm not measuring success i terms of them.  I've set myself the explicit goal of just not eating sweets -- the tough time for me is late morning.  That's at least a goal that is under my control.  If I make it and still don't lose the weight, then I'll need to think about some other goals.

I have barely ridden since IMWI, so nearly two months.  I'm going to start back this week.  I'll let you know how it feels...

Oh, and a story.  I went for a run last night.  It was supposed to be 15.  But around mile 9 a big thunderstorm rolled in with a lot of wind, and suddenly the temp dropped 10 degrees, it was wet and -- what finally did me in -- the wind was blowing nuts off of the trees (loads of them in this neighborhood) like hail!  I've got welts on my arms and head this morning.  Here's the sick part -- I got to my house at 9.7 and ran around the block to make it an even 10.  OCD anyone?

I did some research and came to the conclusions that some artificial sweeteners can create a slight insulin response but it is very small

Aspartane, Splenda, Equal and Nutrasweet are minimal to none.

As a diabetic I have tested they do nothing to my glucose levels.

Calcium, chemicals....I agree. Also caffeine in there.If I drink a diet soft drink it's diet 7up or sprite with no caffeine.

There were studies that people using sweeteners put on weight. My understanding of them was "I'll have 2 big macs and a diet coke please". False sense that having the diet coke justified an extra big mac.

My partner is like that.  Me not so much.  Can't tell you how many times I push stop and it says .9 or something.  I generally don't look until after I push stop. 

Heading out for a short run and think I might hit the trail for a tiny bit at the end of my street.  Got to dirty up the new sneaks.  Hoping for no elk attacks.  lol

Arend - consider one of these.  The K-edge was originally designed by a team mechanic for a rider on a cervelo TT bike.  After dropping the chain and having it wedge into my frame for the 3rd time this year on the weekend, I'm ordering one.

http://www.probikekit.com/ca/catalogsearch/result/?q=Chain+Catcher&brand=Search+by+Brand

Fred, my opinion and I've heard a couple of elite coaches say this.  Cycling comes back the quickest, especially if you are still doing a good amount of running.

I can say from experience and you can see my monthly volume graph for the past 2 years.  I did not do much work on the bike for a good long while from Aug 2011 - June 2012.  I had a brief period where I started back up for around 8 weeks in the middle.  I came back and started hitting it pretty hard and within 8 weeks I was stronger than I had ever been.  My endurance obviously isn't the same because I was only riding 2-3 hours, but my power was all back and plus a little.  I would imagine that you would have a very similar experience.

I can't go to Probikekit.  It's like Costco, you can't get out of there without spending hundreds of dollars!  

I would think this too.  Just a couple of short intense sessions to minimize the losses and you'll be good.

There are people that wouldn't do that??    Actually, what I would have done would be to pre-calculate how far I was from home and added that .3 on before getting home by going up a side street or something.  I dislike going past my house to finish off a run.

Fred - I may be going a different direction than you want with this answer as I know you have said for a couple months that you wanted to swim more.....but.  Do you think you can make significant gains in your swimming 3x week?  Due to your restrictions with work and your love of cycling it may be worth just pushing that swim back another month - especially since the tri season is so far away. 

Or, if you can sneak in a couple :45 workouts 2x week with some intensity as others have mentioned that would keep you from losing too much.

Dave Scott just posted this (after us, by the way). I think he reads this group :-)

"Started our offseason training program in Boulder. Still incorporating high end, fast repeats on the swim and bike."

What I posted earlier Fred, you don't need a ton of time to work on the left hand side of your CP curve and move more towards the right as the months progress.