Yanti & Salty Mad Manatees PART 3: FULL POD (Page 66)

Funny ... I had you pegged as more of a beer girl than whine ...

I have drills you can do in the hot tub, too. Sheila says they count.

Oooooooh zing! Alright, alright I'll do it. 

I like this Sheila chick more and more. I need to read that book. My library has it, I just need to swing by some day before they close. 

you said pegged...hehehehehe

Funny ... I had you pegged as more of a beer girl than whine ...

I have drills you can do in the hot tub, too. Sheila says they count.

Oooooooh zing! Alright, alright I'll do it. 

I like this Sheila chick more and more. I need to read that book. My library has it, I just need to swing by some day before they close. 

you said pegged...hehehehehe

You know what's funny ... as I was re-reading parts of her book in prep for Kona-piglet, I had a very strange feeling of familiarity (nope, not THAT kind) ... and I realized that her level of zip, zing, zaniness, and slight snark resembles yours exactly.

She's hilarious. Who else writes a laugh-out-loud swim book?

Oooooooh zing! Alright, alright I'll do it. 

I like this Sheila chick more and more. I need to read that book. My library has it, I just need to swing by some day before they close. 

you said pegged...hehehehehe

Oooooooh zing! Alright, alright I'll do it. 

I like this Sheila chick more and more. I need to read that book. My library has it, I just need to swing by some day before they close. 

you said pegged...hehehehehe

I don't like to go for the easy targets 

The trusty steed is a 2003 Giant TCR Aero 2

The factory specs:

My tires are NM resistant (see prior goathead dialogue) so they are beefy and heavy, but they keep me from fixing flats every ride, which is what I was doing before I went with the armadillo/goo filled/lined set up

Oooooh fightin' words. I'll sit back and watch this one unfold 

I guess it's either change hardware or ride more, or a little of both.  If it were me, I would leave the hardware alone and just keep chugging along.  I can only speak from my own, extensive, 3 solid years of cycling experience.

My first road bike was a triple 52/42/30 with a 12/24 casette,  At first I would use the "granny gear" on climbs but I eventually got to where I did not use it at all.  So basically I rode the 52/42 with the 12/24.  The 12/24 was only 8 speed so essentially I had a 16 speed bike.  I went from MOP cyclist to FOP with that setup in less then two years time.

In my opiniion you do not necessarily to ride hills ALL THE TIME to get better at hills.  But when you ride flats, ride HARD!  Cycling is not like running where you just want a bunch of easy miles in etc.  On flats I'm hammering away with smooth pedal strokes trying to maintain a very high speed.  On climbs I'm at high effort trying to get up that hill as fast as I can.  The only time I "recover" is just after the climb for a bit but before long I'm hammering away again as the sting is my legs wears off.  I don't know what kind of tires you have (the kind that go on hybrid bikes, cyclocross?) but I suggest road tires that are durable, yet have low rolling resistance.  I ride on some crappy roads at times but I use Continental Grand Prix 4000S tires.  They're not cheap, but well worth the investment.  They have a GP 4000 which is not the same as the GP 4000S.  I few online retailers will sell them in bunches of four to ten for $40 a tire.  Bike shops usually want $65 to $80 each for them.

Of course now I have a newer bike which has the compact 50/34 with the 11-25 cassette.  But I don't feel there's a huge difference in my overall bike performance based on the crank/cassette setup.  Most of it is the result of some serious T.I.T.S.

I will say this however, on my compact crank I am hardly ever on the small ring which makes shifting much easier than it used to be.   My last two sprint tri's were on a very hilly course, with the "dam" hill per my RR, and I was on the large chain ring the whole time.  So there's something to be said about the compact crank.

Not sure if this is helpful, but's it's all I've got!

I feel like that is pretty solid advice. In fact, I'm kind of in the midst of doing exactly this. I don't plan on getting a new bike or upgrades any time soon so it's just a matter of chuggin' along, leaving that granny gear in the dust and T.I.T.S

I like your advice about hammering it in the flats, too.