Hashers and Mashers - Open (Page 6)

Got room for 1 more? I'll post Bio tonight.

My name is Ted(although my kids call me Toad), I’m 45, married for 19 years and have twin 11 year old girls. Basically I’m hitting the reset button and starting my training over. My last race was an Oly in September of 2011….well that’s not completely true, I did a 5k Zombie mud run 2 weeks ago….does that count?

Last year I was training(inconsistently of course) for the Marine Corps Marathon when I gave in to Morton’s Neuroma and deferred my entry to 2013. Shortly after that, Hurricane Sandy started tracking up the east coast…of course I mocked the strength of any storm named Sandy and made multiple “Grease” references. I believe, purely out of spite for my insolence, the storm took direct aim at lower Manhattan and devastated my company’s DataCenter. Soooooooooo, being as my role is running Distributed Systems operations, I spent the next 8 months rebuilding our Data Center and Disaster Recovery environment requiring relocating myself(not my family) to NJ during this period.

I’m up 20 lbs since October and have done essentially no training. I have a couple of sprints, and a tough mudder on the calendar. I’m also beginning Hal Higdon’s Novice Marathon plan in 3 weeks for MCM at the end of October. Realistically, my goal is consistency, recovering my fitness, dropping from mid 190’s to mid 170’s and staying healthy.

BTW, I see my old friend Grandpa Dave is in this group who shares my hate of the Yankees and Love of Vizslas.

Welcome Ted.

I finally decided to spend the money and get me some clipless pedals and shoes as well as a clip on aero bar for my road bike. The package came in yesterday and I was all excited to try it all out today. Unfortunately I spend most of the day getting my old pedals of the bike. I finally got them off after a run to Home Depot and getting a longer adjustable wrench and putting my full body weight into it for about 2 minutes. Unreal how tight the old pedals were on there. On my last push on the second pedal I also slipped and yanked my thumb into one of the spikes on the chain ring. So a few hours and an injury later I finally got those @#!$!@$ old pedals of the bike. This all better be worth it

On a different note I'm finally getting to a point where I can run 20 minutes without any walking though I've had a couple of days in between where I had to throw some walking in there. I can still feel the aftermath from this stupid virus I had in January every once in a while as well. I hope that clears up for good soon.

Family is going out of town next week so I should have some more time to put into my training, especially the swimming.

I'm attaching a picture of the extra body weight I usually have to push during my workouts:







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That's some good sleeping right there!

Welcome Ted!

Recovery weeks are good training too. Great training!

failed on my long bike today. Was supposed to do 3:45 and could only do 2:00. My bike is still on the trainer, so that might be part of the problem, but my legs were just done and everything hurt, especially the saddle. I'm still using the stock saddle, not sure if I just need to ride more or if I should replace it.

Are you trying to accomplish 3:45 on a trainer? or on the road?

I switched to the Adamo road saddle after having issues when I first started cycling. I've heard good things about the Cobb V-flow as well.

I've done 4 hours on the trainer before and watched movies and played Xbox. I still have Velcro on my aero bars with the matching piece on the remorse for my tv. Otherwise, the remote kept falling. Also cover your bike headset with a towel or the sweat will rust your headset screw. An industrial fan helps a lot for trainer rides too.

Welcome Ted!  Can you add me to your friend list or change your security setting so I/all of us can see your training log?  I'm going to do the May stats probably tonight.

So many questions

Have you been bike fitted?  Do you have aerobars?  If so did you stay aero most of those 2 hours?  Was this the end of your training week or the beginning/middle?  My quads were toast on Friday too but it was the end of my training week so I wasn't entirely worried.  Do you have bike shoes and clip in pedals?  How long have you been riding this stock saddle?  Do you know if any of your LBSs have programs where you can try out a saddle for a week or so before buying?

I think you'll love the clipless pedals and shoes, they make a big difference.  I don't have a powermeter or anything so I don't have the measurables, but for me what I notice is I think about my feet less.  Even with shoe cages tight I'd feel my feet rising and banging against the pedals, and I'd be thinking about my feet.  Now it's not even part of the thought process (with the exception of transition) so I can focus on other things.  And allegedly it helps with the torque and the efficiency and blah blah sciency stuff.

Great picture!  I have a double jogger and a single jogger, but I really don't enjoy the double jogger.  The single is great, but the double really feels like I'm pushing a truck or something.  Also my son is awesome in the single jogger by himself but my daughter is not nearly as cool with the whole thing so when they are together in the double they both are a handful.  But seriously I can take my son by himself for a 1.5 hour jog and not even know he's there.  I'll get home and my wife will ask if he slept and I won't even know because he didn't make a peep the whole time so I never even looked at him. 

Don't tell my wife but I just signed up for the same HM I did last November here in Fresno.  The price was going up this weekend so I was looking at it and jumped on it.  The tshirt and sweatshirt alone were worth the price of admission (I paid $65), plus it was a good race.  And I'm really curious to see if my training this year improves my time.

Hi guys (and welcome Ted!).

Not too much news. Not trained much after my 19km run mid last week. Consistent rain has kept me off the bike (I'm happy to ride in the rain, but I don't have an appropriate jacket for long wet rides) and I was sore after the run so avoided running for a couple of days. I did run on Saturday 8km at 5min/km pace. This was really good for me. I have a friendly 10K time trial in a couple of weeks and I am hoping to go slightly under this pace for a flat 10km. I want to break 50mins.

Oh year, I bought a tri wetsuit on Friday, which was really cool. I literally tripped over a 2XU sale in a building next to my work, and the savings were huge. I wasn't looking to get a suit this early but I could not let the opportunity go by. I picked up a current model Project X suit for $300. They retail for $1,100 over here. Also picked up a tri top, shorts and full riding suit.

I am hoping to have my bike fit this week. I will be really interested to see what changes they make.

Happy training everything.

Cheers,
Chris

Took my clipless out for their first ride. Did a 10 mile ride and I Love then! Better than I expected. Had no problems clicking in and out, though I think I need to adjust the angle a little bit. I think I started off to fast and ran a little bit out of gas at the end. Also hit a bad streak of red lights today for whatever reason, and also realized that the sensor cameras at the traffic lights don't always seem to recognize bikes.

Nice wet suit deal!

@strykergt was trying to do 3:45 on trainer... have done several at 3:00, 3:45 would be new longest for me though

@ransick, yes trainer set up in front of the tv. Let GF deal with remote, she is usually pretty good about refilling water bottles too. Hard to use an industrial fan in a condo though

@Joe, got bike fitted when I got the bike in the fall. Don't have aerobars. End of the training week, but was following training plan. Don't have bike shoes and clip pedals, I use the cages. Been riding the stock saddle since the fall (I've spent lots of time on stationary bikes over the last couple of years, but haven't done any real cycling until this year since I was a kid. Don't know if LBS has saddle programs, probably worth looking into.

Good Job Kent!!!!

The longest i had so far indoors is 2 hrs. I normally end up borred, but man the indoor
trainer is the best $50.00 money can buy.

1.) Trainer beats your babysitting problems.
2.) Closest you got to simulate hills , coming fromTexas were everything is flat.
3.) Cheap!!! dont waste money on those spinning classes.
4.) Beats the winter weather.
5.)Most of all it is so so safe.

Anyway man try to get some outdoor time just to test your skills on the road on aero , just getting use to aero myself.

Happy Riding!!!!

Edited by strykergt 2013-06-02 10:28 PM

Lots to catch up on.

John the cat - Pretty precious looking extra body weight. Nice to get outdoors on the bike eh! I always hate red lights In town so I head out as fast as possible. It took me awhile to learn to unclip before intersections so I don't fall down (about 5 or 6 times).

Ted - Welcome to the group.

Kent - 2hrs on a trainer is pretty long anything longer is torture. A fellow I swim with once spent 7 hours on a trainer but he's a multiple Ironman and Ultraman. I can't comment on saddles but I had a thorough saddle fit last year and I still find after 3 hours on the bike that I start to get uncomfortable.

Chris - You'll love the wetsuit. I sure enjoy mine and swimming in local lakes and rivers. I'm considering getting a proper bike fit after my wife suggested I should after my long ride yesterday. I better book it before she changes her mind.


On Friday I set out for a planned 2hr run with the intent to run 16km. As soon as I started running I knew I was in for a bad run. I just couldn't seem to get going and I just felt slow. I had to walk frequently but I kept going and I did finish the 16km/10mi but it took me 2:13:xx. Much slower than I expected but then I read in a few posts back that being the end of the workout week I may not have the stamina I had at the beginning of the week.

So, just to make sure my legs were toast I went out yesterday with 4 friends a Sherpa and SAG wagon for a 4hr bike ride. We rode up a mountain then a big circle around a large local lake. It took me 4:11:xx to ride 80.7km/50mi at a pathetic 19.2kph/11.93mph. I was last and I was the only one affected by the nasty hurricane strength headwind we had on the entire circle route. In the end my Garmin says we climbed 1261m/4137' and the only good news was I kept going without stopping except at planned spots for nutrition and finished in good condition (I was still standing).

Now I'm considering getting a proper bike fit because I've been working hard to get faster on the bike and I was no faster yesterday than I was last June in a 140km Granfondo with lots of climbing as well. I would've hoped to be some faster by now.

Is it too late to join?

Post your bio, Cameron, I'm sure it is not too late.  Our fearless leader is afk, on vacation, so she may be slow to respond.

Well guys/gals

Yesterday I completed 102 mile bike ride virtually only with "spinning" classes and much experience as prep. (Chain-dropper barely made it through, was making a weird noise around mile 85-102 not sure what it is yet)

Today I became unemployed,
My 12 year old daughter Announced a female "change of life" OMG BTW
My 11 year old daughter produced a 20 page report on possible job opportunities and "down sized" homes waiting for me when I got home
My wife tells me how happy she is for me. Happy?? she is incredibly supportive.

I've had a ton of touching messages/phone calls of support/ I am a bit overwhelmed. today.

Oh and my fridge broke. and needs to be replaced.

Now I have always used training as a way of dealing (medicating?) with stress, and such. Soooo

I already have 7+ hours in this month. I am motivated.. and well more time to do it.

So if you are going to beat my training time, you are really, REALLY going to have to want it badly.

I may even sign up for a 70.3 afterall.


Edited by oriolepwr 2013-06-03 9:11 PM

Hi Cameron. Welcome aboard. Jump on in I say...!

Now... I'm hoping one of the group has some experience with bike fitting. I spent last night tweaking my set-up to see if I could get to a position that I liked. Trying to avoid having a bike fit at the moment.

I've attached a pic of me on my trusty 15 year old ride. I've added aero bars, a forward seat post and an ISM saddle. Just thought I'd see if anyone can see any problems with my set-up. It's not too aggressive because I can't drop the bars any lower (I've already lowered the stem below some of the spacers). But that's cool, because I think comfort is key for me. If I can't stay in an uncomfortable aero position and need to sit up then I'm not going to be too aero..!

You can't see from the photo but I've widened the aero bars for comfort. I now have wider elbows but closer hands. My main source of discomfort has been my shoulders from being squashed together. It relates to my ill constructed shoulders more than anything else (I have a minor shoulder problem) but I'm hoping wider elbows will help.

I have measured all the angels (hence the lines drawn on the photo). I am very analytical by nature, can't help it...

Anyway, if anyone has any comments I'd been keen to hear them. It looks OK to me but I have zero experience.

I'm heading out tomorrow morning so I will see how it feels on the road.

Thanks all...!











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