Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 60)

Good luck, and I agree that even if you haven't targeted this as an "A" race, once the gun goes off it's a race.  Bring all you have that day.  (Unless it's an accepted training run, like the Golden Gate run).

Great news on the back.  I'll probably never learn to flip turn, even though I know it's a good move.  In some ways I'm just an old curmudgeon.

That sounds like a great plan Matt. I can't wait to see the final product.

Jo63 - 2012-03-20 7:16 AM Gosh I definitely need to take a bike maintenance class......another thing I truly know nothing about yes I will admit it I don't even know how to change a flat.

I can change a flat, but not much more. I actually suggest you practice changing your tire in the friendly confines of your house since you don't want to be on the road trying to learn in that environment.

To Matt's point, I would love to find someone to walk me around a bike a bit.  I had some roadie buddies at my last job who did all my work just because they loved working on bikes - but it became a crutch and I don't know anything.  Maybe Jonathan will hold a clinic someday.

 That's about what I use to clean.  I like this video from a tour mechanic cleaning a bike.  Jonathan or Jeff can comment whether this works for all brands of gear of if the SRAM stuff can be treated differently.

Dina,  the video that Warren linked to is a great example of the car wash style of bike cleaning.  It's a great way to get it done.  It will save you time and headaches if you have a way to mount the bike in a sturdy way while you work it.  Some people just put them on their car's bike rack.

You will really want to invest in a few of those brushes. 

Your simple greeen is an ideal bike cleaner.  It dissolves the grease which is a great first step, then the water/soap mixture and spray hose. 

Notice how he spends time on the chain, spinning it through his hand while holding a rag?  Spend most of your time doing that.

When done, completely dry it before re-lubing the bike.

If you don't want to use the car wash method, I will describe what I do inside.

I remove the cassette and wash it in my small parts washer in the basement.  It keeps a stream of mineral spirits running over the parts while I brush them.  I also remove the chain and do the same.

I run a rag over the chain until it stops getting black. 

I take a wet rag and wipe down all the dirty surfaces of the bike.

I make sure the derailleur jockey wheels and chainrings are cleaned.

I relube the chain and reinstall on the bike along with the cassette.

I do this only once per year UNLESS I get caught out in the rain, then I do it all over again.

I can get away with only once per year because after each ride or two I will take that clean rag and run the chain through it until it's mostly clean.  No re-lubing is necessary after this step, but can be done.  Any time you re-lube, you should try to remove all the lube immediately after.  This is impossible to do, but 'trying' ensures you remove all the extra that would just attract more dirt.

Wow, a lot of crazy stuff to respond to!

Great to hear training is going well for everyone and we have some races coming up, and a few people coming back from injury - I'm glad to hear things are still going pretty well!! I'm going to have to go back and catch up on where everyone is - following along by phone doesn't really do it justice.

I've had a super busy training week and weekend last week and I'm feeling pretty tired. Long run was on Saturday instead of Sunday and I struggled to complete it because it was too close to several other runs I did. Fortunately, my Dad and I quit a little early so neither of us suffered anything except tired legs. Definitely a warning not to push too much distance into a short space of time.

Sunday was the first long ride I've done with a guy in my neighborhood (first ride I've done with anyone since I was a kid!). Great guy and following him forced me to keep the pace up higher than I normally would. I also added 5 miles to my longest ride to date. It was actually a ton of fun, but I'm felt it in the legs today and yesterday.

I've also decided that my HR monitor is probably on it's last legs. It's an old Polar one that's about 5 years old and has worked (mostly) for a while, but recently it has started jumping around and not picking things up when it should. From a little Google-ing it sounds like the battery in the transmitter is going and unfortunately, that's not replaceable without breaking the transmitter. Frankly, it's not that comfortable anyway!

Since my bonus and tax return were both a little bigger than I was expecting, I have permission from my wife to purchase a Garmin 910XT to replace both my cell phone-based GPS route and pace tracking and HR monitor. It seems to be a good investment, particularly since I can get some accurate swim metrics too... Those of you who have one - how are they working out for you? It would be my first serious piece of gear aimed directly at triathlons.

I think that's all the news on my front!

How's everyone else doing today?

Speaking of bike cleaning, I am needing a serious cleaning myself.  I have rubber all over the bike from the trainer rides this winter.  I also purchased a new chain and have yet to put it on.  But, since I am not particularly bike techie, I need to make sure I get the chain on correctly.  I bought the chain yesterday and the mechanic at the LBS may heave been selling me a bill of goods from what I have heard before.  He told me to replace the chain every 2000 miles and the cassette every other chain replacement (4000 miles).  If I recall correctly the cassette should last for MUCH longer than that distance and the chain for about 6000 miles.  Who is correct?  I am fairly certain I remember seeing Jonathon post the 6k miles and the cassette lasting 10k+ miles.

Paul,  Good luck this weekend.  I'm still very non-committal about an early seasin HM this year.  I have been trying to decide whether I should do a HM or an Oly in the May time frame but right now I am leaning strongly to the Oly.  If I do an Oly it will be in Muncie on May 12.  That 's likely to be a cold water race UNLESS the 80 degree temps continue through March and April.

David, I'm glad to hear the running is getting better for you.  And the swim will take time for you to really grasp some muscle memory.  I wouldn't rush anything, just take your time and learn it correctly now and the benefits will come later.  It's kind of like the running talk that you hear so much from this group.........Run slow, Run a lot!  Only for swimming it's learn slowly for the future speed.  If you rush the strokes you will find yourself stuck in a rut of bad stroke technique.

Brenda,  I have signed up for the Great Buckeye Challenge.  But I am pretty nervous about it.  I think Jeff's right BUT I am going to struggle to keep my racing under control.  Like Paul said, if your running a race it sure seems like it should be hard.  I'll need some accountability for this on race day.  I'll be counting on you and Matt to keep me in check.

Jo63 - 2012-03-20 6:16 AM Gosh I definetly need to take a bike maintenance class......another thing I truly know nothing about yes I will admit it I don't even know how to change a flat.

I started out this way - now I'm the grease monkey in our house. I just changed the tube for my husband on his hybrid bike last night. My second spring on my road bike I had 11 flats - I was forced to learn some bike maintenance!  

Good info - I'll check out the video. I have never removed the chain myself but I would like to try. And I didn't know I should remove the lube after I re-lube! What about using an old toothbrush while spinning the chain? I've done that a few times when it seems like I just can't get it completely clean with the rag. 

I have only used mine for running so far, but loving it.  The HR monitor works flawlessly (I had a Polar before and it was flaky from the get go).  It gets satellites quickly and has pretty small profile.  Now I REALLY need to do some pool swimming and the buy a power meter to overload myself with more data!

Hi All! I drove down to the bay area Friday in 40+ mph winds and driving rain. It was pretty hairy.

After that the weather changed and I had a fantastic weekend in San Francisco with my family. Academy of Science Saturday, then some walking around and shopping in the fisherman's wharf area. Race Sunday morning followed by an afternoon at the Exploratorium and a bit more shopping in the wharf district Sunday night. Then slept in late before an afternoon at the Zoo on Monday and finished it off with the long drive home. Lots of great memories made this weekend!

My Race Report is up!

I'll try to get caught up with the group as the week goes on.

Todays lesson lesson learned:  If you are dready a run then drag an 8yr old along with you!  From time to time my daughter will want to take her bike to the park and just cruise along with me.  This makes for a great way to forget about any discomfort.  Between all the stories about her friends and other happenings at school and then her telling me that I run too slow I don't have any time to worry about a sore knee or even the tightness in my chest.  These are the good times

Vero: that sounds like a great weekend with the family

Dirk:  IF you want to hold back then stick with me, I am the PRO at going SLOW!

Lots of activity on here.  It's hard to keep up!

Jeff, I hope you are feeling better.  It looks like you are right back at it, so I am assuming you are doing fine.

Joanne, I am in your club.  I don't really know anything about bike maintenance and should probably consider taking a class.  I usually just take my bike in to have the pros do it for fear that I will mess it all up.  One of these days I am probably going to be stranded on the side of the road with a flat.  Although I have all of the equipment on my bike, I would have no idea how to change out the tube. 

How long does it take to learn flip turns?  I have never really committed to doing it, because it has always seemed pointless for open water swims.   Whoever mentioned that it more closely resembled swimming in the open water because you don't get a break got me thinking that perhaps I should consider doing it.  Do I need to just spend a session in the pool doing flip turns over and over?  Or should I just start incorporating them into my regular workouts?  I'm not sure that I am ready for this!

Paul, good luck in your race this weekend!  And nice race, Vero.  I enjoyed seeing your pictures.

Matt, I love that you took your daughter on your run with you.  I really look forward to the days when my kids can ride (or run) along with me.  For now I am happy to have them with me in the jogging stroller though. 

Dirk, I promise I am not trying to blow you off on your offer to help with my swim.  This weekend I am available Saturday.  The next two weeks after that I should have Fridays available but will be out of town for the rest of the weekends.  I know you are busy, so I'll try my best just to make whatever works for you work for me too if there is another day that works for you. 

On a personal note, I got a new pair of running shoes.  As Dirk advised, I just went to the local running store and got fitted for something new.  I ended up with a pair of Sauconys, the same pair that my husband picked out (lol).  I have been trying to break them in with several short runs.  I am just having a little bit of trouble adjusting right now- some blisters on the bottom of my feet and a sore knee (possibly from the compensation in my form to not irritate the blisters?)  I have 2 weeks to return them if I need to, but I am hoping that they will feel pretty good in the next few days. 

With all of this great weather, I have been running frequently and getting on my bike pretty often too.  However, I have lost a lot of motivation to swim, as I just want to be outside and not stuck inside at the gym! 

Happy training to those of you who are well.  To those of you who are injured or sick, rest up and feel better soon!

I am in love with my 910!  What really has made the difference for me are the swim metrics.  It makes for a much easier WO when I don't have to remember the exact number of laps and overall distance for each swim.  I am sure in the past I have cheated myself by miscounting or adding my distances wrong to come up with a slightly longer WO than I actually did. 

The watch keeps me a little more hones too, on the particular swim intervals too.  I can see exactly how much rest I have gotten for each interval and it's a little harder to cheat on the rest's.

The only thing I see different from my 305 is satellite acquisition.  I think my old 305 was faster.  Not by much but it does seem to be fairly noticeable.  Oh yeah, during running, the pacing bounces all over the place for the current pace.  As much as a minute at times.  Honestly this isn't an issue for me though, it's more of a reference for you if you make the purchase.  don't be concerned with this and only pay attention to the avg. pace during your runs.

Agree on the instantaneous pace with the 910 - it's useless.  I had a 205 before this and the pace was actually pretty good, but I really only watch average lap pace or total average pace anyway.  It seems odd that Garmin wouldn't use the same firmware for all their products, but not a big deal.  As Dirk said, just a point of reference for the purchase.

For those of you who don't change bike tires, I strongly urge you to learn it at home.  Do a few changes to get used to it, watch the web for help if you need some tips.  There's nothing worse than getting a flat on the road and trying to figure out how to change a tube for the first time in that setting.

Matt, I hate to break it to you, but after that last 10 mile race you officially relinquished the right to associate "slow" and your running pace!

I sometimes use a toothbrush on the teeth of the gears, but unless it's done in the solvent bath it doesn't seem to do much (for me).  If you find that it's working for you, then certaintly use one.  The rag will be absorbent and trap the grime. 

If you stop before the chain is pristine, that's fine.  Or you can spend quite a bit of time and get it nearly clean.  That's the best you can do.  A chain will trap and hide tons of junk in the rollers and the only time it's actually clean is when you open a new package.

I don't know the 910, or Garmin products in general, but I DO know there is a setting for current pace.  You can change the interval over which current pace is calculated.  If you average it out over 5-10 seconds you get a much better experience.  It won't bounce much.

Sounds like the default setting is not to average it at all (sometimes called 'smoothing').

I don't think Garmin has a way to change the instant pace smoothing time, but they released a new firmware version (2.40, released Feb 23) which supposedly has fixes for instant pace and a few other things.  My guess is they just used some averaging.  I downloaded it into my watch and I'll let you know how it works after today's run.

That's what I've heard. A few of the reviews on Amazon were updated to include the new firmware and said it really helped with the pace smoothing.

I'll probably end up using the instant pace a little more than you guys because I'm not as experienced, so sometimes I need something to keep me where I'm supposed to be, particularly during intervals.

Frankly, even a bad average pace is better than writing six miles worth of interval times on your arm... (otherwise known as "you sweat them off before you hit mile 3)...

John

I did some googling and you are right.  The 910 does NOT have the pace smoothing feature some of their other products have.  And it's a VERY common complaint that the instant pace is completely wrong and unusable.  It's a firmware bug and should be fixed soon. 

I actually saw this comment out there dated a few weeks ago:

Guys,When I first got my
910, the instant pace was useless. I uploaded Version 2.4 and did my first run
with the new software yesterday and it worked perfectly. If anything, I would
say that it is better than my 310 on instant pace. No more large jumps at all.
That being said, I rarely use instant pace but its still good to know its no
longer an issue.

I actually turned up the smoothing on my timex GT and it made a lot of difference.  Unfortunately it's still not that reliable.  I use it most to gauge how I am doing at each mile marker.  I have it set to automatically lap at each mile.  It's pretty accurate.  I do my runs on almost the same road every day and it laps at almost exactly the same spot every time.  Within 5 steps or so.

Something I have noticed as I now have "longer" runs on the weekends.  If I am trying to run 6 days a week (which I am technically trying to do), I find that if I run my long run on Sunday, by Wednesday or Thursday my legs are begging for a break.  I have increasing my overall monthly mileage by less than 10% each month, so the volume difference isn't huge, but with a long ride like I had Saturday, my long run pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for running every day by Thursday.  I start to have little issues here and there.

Not to put a damper on things, but my achilles pain is back again.  I'm icing and massaging and stretching, but the longer rides and runs seem to bring it back.  Any suggestions?  I may just stick to 7 miles as a max for my long runs until the issue goes away.  I have the half marathon schedule in the fall and could probably run it right now, but all my races are sprints and olympics this year.  No real need for 10+ mile runs.  What do you think?

I agree here.  I am not sure I agree that the second race should be your "A" race, but you can definitely do it.  The only HIM that I did, I could have done it again within a month.  Especially if you don't injur anything during that race.  Jeff is right though.  Recovery won't ever be more important than directly following that race.  You normally recover very well, but if you are to make the second race your "A" race, this will be crucial to get down to a science.

Jonathan, glad to see you posting!  Very sorry you are experiencing the return of the achilles issues. 

Remaining able to continue training is your #1 priority as a triathlete, so if cutting the distance of your runs is what is required it's got to be done.  On the other hand, I don't see the logic in going too far the other way and taking time off from running to avoid an injury....it's the same result as being injured...so why not wait for a full-on injury first? 

It requires a very careful balance, and of course you (or anyone) is perfectly fine in determining that you place a higher priority on 'wellness' than on race performance.  In which case, backing off is good.  But if your priority is race performance over comfort...then you may decide to do what I've done and continue training through achilles trouble for the past year.  In my case, it's getting better and I never needed to stop running or interrupt my training for it.

The accomodations I made were:

• Aleve
• Ice and Heat daily (especially valuable was morning heat before workout)
• Always running after bike or swim (better warmup for achilles)
• Nearly all runs on a flat treadmill
• Always ran in high lift training shoe
• Stayed OFF the trails and hills
• Did all slow runs with no speed

Depending on your specific achilles problem, an active care program like mine may be best for you.  And your suggestion of capping your runs at 7 miles are an excellent step in recovery.  Best of luck with it.

On another note, aside from your achilles pain the rest of your description of fatigue following your longer runs seems pretty normal.  All of last year I was challenging my body via the sheer volume of my training and I always felt pretty much like dead meat.  I would usually find that I NEEDED a rest day each weekend.  I figured it would be that way forever, but have found now that after a typical week I feel good.  After any particular training day I feel pretty fresh.  It just took a year, but I adapted (and at my ripe old age no less).

Consider scheduling your long runs on Saturday with Sunday being a non-run day.  (or you could just make Monday the non-run day). 

Jonathan, I'll also throw my hat in the "don't stop running quite yet" ring.  Jeff hit all the key points to staying on your feet.  For me, the biggest key was easy, easy, pace and use the shoes the fads say don't use.  I also did the stretches Baroody showed me and some negative focused calf raises - up with two legs down with one.

I have to report that the 910xt instant pace was MUCH better today with the the new firmware.  I'm still not sure I'd use it for, say, pacing a race, but it didn't go all over the place second to second.  I did a few dramatic speed changes while watching the pace, and they've definitely added smoothing as it takes a few seconds to readjust to the new pace.

One of the best times I had all last year was a trail run I took my 10 year old on with his Mtn bike.  I pushed him up all the hills.  It was great having him along, talking, watching him navigate the down hills like a champ.  We even happened upon a LARGE, unafraid whitetail deer.  He/she walked off slowly from in front of us about 30 feet away. 

Kids on bikes and parents on the run can be very compatible pace and distance-wise.

It sounds like you can attribute your achilles distress directly to the bike ride.  If that's the case, I've experienced something similar.  As you know, I have had my issue since last Spring, almost 1 year now.  I can tell it was 'bothered' a bit by spin classes and my SPD shoes used for spin class.  I also felt it mtn biking last year.

However, road rides always felt surprisingly pleasant.  Even the long, hard ones.  This leads me to believe that there are subtle differences in either the style of riding, the gearing, the bike position, or the shoes that changes the way the achilles is stressed.

One thing that I feel stresses the achilles more is riding out of the saddle.  There's a LOT more of that during spin classes than on the road.  It's critical to get that cleat back as far as possible, but both of us have done that already.  So now when I'm out of the saddle, I do 1 of 2 different things to help.  One is to point my toes down.  This effectively shortens the lever and decreases the amount of weight being supported by the achilles.  The other is to relax the calf and let the heel sink.  That is a different way of decreasing the tension on the achilles.

As for riding in the seat, turn faster gears and ride with the calf relaxed and the heel down.  It doesn't sound right to relax the calf, but it really does not decrease your power to the pedal.  After the ankle flexes to the limit of your flexibility, all the force is applied across your tight (but relaxed) calf/achilles/arch. 

That's just a bit of the process I went through last year adjusting to the achilles issue when it was aggravated by cycling.  Don't know if any of that will help you or not.

And when it's all said and done, you can be confident that if you maintain your frequent runs, even though they are shorter, you will not be losing your fitness gains.  So as soon as the achilles lets you, longer runs will feel just as good as that recent one you describe.

This Saturday is about to blow me out of the water for anything other than a long bike and a very long band practice in preparation for Easter services at my church.  I am thinking next Friday would be the best time for us to get together for the swim.  I would like to set up a time as soon as we can so I can put it in my calendar before I allow something else to creep in.  Let me know what time works for you.

I am glad you were able to get to 3 Rivers for the shoes but make sure you use the opportunity to get the shoes back before you end up having to keep them.  I would say that if you are experiencing blisters right away they probably aren't the right shoes for you.

Also try to be very conscience of your stride and don't allow the shoes to change that.  Allowing this to occur can lead to injuries over time, so you may need to get some runs in with older shoes until the blisters heal and you can run comfortably.  Maybe alternate shoes while you are breaking in the new ones.  I always try to cycle my shoes in such a way that I don't need to buy 2 pair close together and one pair is always in the middle of the wear cycle.