Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon (Page 7)

what in the world is that 300ft spike?  some face climb get added that i'm not aware of?


Edited by jtaddei 2009-07-20 10:37 PM

The spike around 30 miles makes sense.  The later one may be an oops.  The road is pretty flat around 40 miles.

Okay - stupid question time.  It looks like you're up and down the whole time?  Is that true?  (I have no idea about how these things work ...) 

Helen said something about Pepsi?

Am I reading the athlete guide correctly, it says if the swim is canceled we will start with the bike in a TT format.  That will suck for the 1st timers.

So it will just be a Bike/Run?  I guess they're covering their butts after last year?

that's kind of lame about the bike/run.  I'd rather it be 3 events, even if it is a Du!

Anyone else see rule 10 about the swimming?  Says you can only change into bike clothes in a changing tent as chasing in the transition area will inhibit the flow of traffic through there?  Not sure if they mean "if you need to get naked use the tent" or "use the tent to take your wetsuit off and put your bike shoes on".

Common sense would have me believe they are for if you need to get naked - which I will not be doing... unless paid well.

Here in north east illinois it is going to be beautiful all week, I hope we're not using up all of our good weather karma, lets leave some for the race!

oh and i'm going up there this weekend for some OWS exposure for my wetsuit rental (did an online one so i'm anxious about it) and a little bike ride.  Is anyone else planning on being in benton harbor to get a lay of the land this weekend?

I thought maybe it was just my poor reading skills, but I found a few things in the Athlete guide that contradicted themselves from one page to another.

In one spot it mentions using a tent for changing, but later on in the guide it says there will not be any changing tents.

There was one other thing, but cant remember what it was.

When I volunteered two years ago, they didnt have any Pepsi/Coke, but did have bananas on the run portion. They may have done away with the bananas since the volunteers took home most of the bananas because pretty much no one eat any.

For those who have done Steelhead/Firecracker before, there is one big change this year from last. The transition area is no longer on the other side of the hill/dunes. With the addition of the golf course, the parking lot is completely relocated, and the spot where the transition were, is now a putting green I think. from what I gathered from talking to people at the Firecracker Sprint triahtlon, the transition area will be essentially on the beach in line with the pavillion that is just before the hill or dune. They have a long stretch of asphalt where the transition area will be. it cuts out probably 50 yards of transition from the water to the bike area. Just to try an clarify it a bit more, the transition area will essentially run from the pavillion to the cul de sac to the north, by the houses (Where the final run was along the beach). Hope I made that clear enough for everyone.

Curt

question for everyone:

earlier this year I got a pair of cycling shoes and after a few weeks usage I wound up with some awful knee pain and I stopped using them and started using just plain 'ol reebok classic nylon sneakers on my rides.  I got very used to riding in the sneakers and was happy to as the knee pain went away completely.

Well i just took the bike over to my bike shop because it had been having rear derailleur issues (cable adjustment barrel was stripped), and the nice guys over there fixed it up and cleaned up my drive train (unnecessary but appreciated).  Well I struck up a conversation with one of them about my knee pain and the guy looked at my bike and said your saddle is way too low... it should at least be 1 or 2 inches higher.

So i'm here at home with the bike on the trainer so I can make minor adjustments with the seat up higher and it still is pretty comfy but i'm asking all of you this.  Would you (given the history with the shoes) finish up my last week of training (a few 1 hour rides and one 3 hour ride) this week and next weeks taper with the shoes to get used to them?  Or should I just ignore the shoes at this point and go with my running shoes (not the reebok, but just trying to save T2 time).

Thanks in advance for the advice.

p.s. can't afford a fit right now, budget is almost zero.

Just a comment - I would guess it's a cleat problem - not a seat height problem.  (Which may or may not also be a problem.)  What makes me think that is that without changing your seat height - the runners corrected the problem.  I would probably adjust the cleat on the offending side. (Check to see where the cleat is on the other and if it's the same - then try shifting it forward or back.)  I actually put mine on in significantly different places and was having trouble with muscles in my butt seizing up on the left side.  Moved the cleat to match the other side and fixed the problem.

Are you faster with your bike shoes?   I don't know about making significant changes - but you do have several longer rides coming up - so it's not like you're adjusting the night before.  I'd probably make changes if it was me - but I'm nuts.

Edited by Silver_wlf 2009-07-21 4:13 PM

thanks for the info steph, yeah the knee pain was on BOTH knees back when it was flaring up.  I notice that naturally when I wear my sneakers my foot wants to downstroke with the arch of my foot (i know i'm a cycling form mess) and the cycling shoes force my foot a bit more back than that so i'm pedaling with the ball of my foot.

I may get away with moving the cleat back a little bit so i'm somewhere between the arch and the ball.

I'm willing to give the rides a try with the shoes tonight with their current cleat position and see how I feel when I get back.

Unfortunately the knee pain is not a gradual thing... once it starts hurting it's full on pain.

Edited by jtaddei 2009-07-21 4:20 PM

Ahhh ... okay - then disregard.  I'm sorry - I probably didn't read carefully... I didn't realize it was both. 

I think I'd still mess around with stuff though - you have some rides left and like you said - you'll know if it's hurting! *smile*  Otherwise - if it ain't broke - don't fix it! *giggling*

Just my two cents for what its worth, but I wouldn't be making any significant changes like that at this point.  Its one thing to make a minor adjustment to seat height or cleats, but 1-2" seat height difference is huge and going from sneakers to bike shoes is also huge - 2 big changes both at the same time.  My motto is "train the way you race and race the way you train"  At this point, you've been training using your sneakers and any big changes like that could either lead you to an injury or a really bad experience in 11 days.  If you want to make the adjustment and try it out between now and then, I don't see any harm in that, but if it were me, I'd stick with the way I've been training and then after Steelhead see about making the switch.

i'm thinking of trying each adjustment out individually.  I'm going to see how my body reacts to the seat height first and just ride with sneakers for a few rides... if i'm doing alright i'll add the cycling shoes in and i'll know if the knee pain is still there to just ditch the shoes.

I got a new bike a while back that had 5mm longer crank arms than my old bike.  The 5mm absolutely killed my knees.  I got a shorter crank and the pain went away.  With respect to seat position, I downloaded an article a while ago regarding knee pain and it said a too low seat ( or too far forward) causes painin the front of the knee.  That being said, raising a seat 2 inches seems extreme.

i raised it 1 inch and i do feel like i'm reaching for the handlebars.  I may to raise the handlebars.

Do you have a bike shop near you where you can go for a fit?  You might want to try that and get a text book fit and then adjust from there.  But I'd also make sure that you mark everything first so that if you find out that it's not working, you can easily put it back to where you started.

This is actually what I was thinking while running some bike errands tonight (getting wine for the wife).  It's the most realistic and safe option.