Gary's Mentor Group - Re-OPENED for Training (Page 74)

Finally got out today. First run (4.1mi) since the Cleveland half - still nursing a bruised toe that started to get painful about 2.5 in. Looking forward to starting training for my first tri next week!!

On a side note has anyone ever participated in any of the Rev3 events? They added a sprint tri to their Cedar point race this year that has peaked my interest a bit....I am a bit worried about the crowds though, it looks like it is a pretty large event. My current tri is on the smaller side with about 300-400 total athletes. i must admit I've heard they have pretty good swag!

Haven't done a Rev3 event yet but I've heard good things about them and hope to do one in the future.

Awesome.  That's flying!

Gary or Anybody:   What kind of riding experience difference is between running with a 11-28 cassette and a 12-25 cassette?

I'm sooo jealous. I have runner's envy-lol. Great job!

Shelly

I've never done a Rev3 but also have heard positive things about them.

I will also say that my first tri was 305 participants and my second was 1200. I was pretty nervous about the amount in the second and truthfully it wasn't much different than my first. Both were awesome. So I say do it and I'll bet you have an awesome time.

Shelly

If I was fast it would give me a little more speed at the top end but mainly it gives me more lower gears for the hills.  Also a little more room for using the small chain ring.  The one thing you may notice is that the jump between gears is a little bigger as your 9/10 cogs/gears are spread wider.  For the most part I like mine and pretty much just ride with the 11-28

Way to go left!

Left - wow, nice.  Enjoy the taper.

Tracey - I am signing up tonight for Austin so you'd better be there!  Planning on getting there Friday night or early Sat morning.  Last time I got there at 1pm Saturday and immediately in the long line for checkin, find hotel, etc.  I want a more relaxed pre-race and maybe get a swim in also.

Way to go Left.  You're inspiring me!

Good luck Tracy and Gary!  How much time do you guys have?

I blew up my weekend plans, go figure.  Ended up at the bar until 4am Friday night and was up at 6am next morning to go play ball all day.  Ended up losing in the championship game after a long day of ball.  Home about 10pm.  Slept all day Sunday to catch up.  Needless to say, that's 2 missed days of big workouts I had planned.  Lacked motivation, but forced myself out there today, and was glad I did.

Rode 30 in 2 hours, put the bike in the car, and ran 4 in about 44 min.  I think you vets call that a brick.  I'll refer to it as torture.  No way on God's green earth I would have been able to pull it off twice in 3 days, never mind 3 times.

On a positive note, I took some advice my neighbor gave me and got up on my front big ring as opposed to riding the middle ring like I had been.  Got up to slightly over 19mph on the flat in the back without wind, and was averaging slightly more than 18 in that section.  The strong headwind on the front stretch threw everything else off.  Big improvement considering I was topping out at 16.25 (including my race) and I didn't increase input at all to get the improved output.  Time to keep grinding.

Have a great training week everyone!

Nice ride! Enjoy the taper.

Way to get a nice brick in after a rough weekend!

Chris, sounds like a fun weekend!  I would love a guy weekend, trying to convince DW to go visit her sister for the weekend and take the kids. 

Just saw MIB3, good flick!  Saw Red Tails last night on cable, also a good flick. 

Tracey, I am signed up and will spend time tonight figuring out how to train for it without blowing up my Oly training.  DW is not 100% when her conf is so I may have to fly my mother in to take care of the kids.  Getting more expensive by the minute.

Just saw MIB3 myself and enjoyed it. Got my vampire of a son out of the house too. His schedule is opposite of ours for the summer :-).

:-) You must be a lot younger than me.  Drinking til 4 am then up at 6 would be rough for me. Fun, but rough.

Tracy, hands down ... go with the 11-28.  It has a much broader range.  If you stop to consider the 11-28 has everything the 12-25 has and more.  You can always cruise along on the 12 tooth, but if you have the 12-25 you do not have the advantage of the added speed of the 11 tooth and the 11-28 has a 24 tooth gear (close to a 25).  So again, the 11-28 has everything the 12-25 has and more.  The only advantage is closer spacing between the gears.  The 11x23 is a bit wide between the higher gears  21,24,28, but when you're climbing a tough hill it is sweet to jump to the lower gear.  Too, for climbing you have the advantage of the 28 tooth gear as well.  This came in nice for me today as I only dropped down into the smaller chain ring once ... the 28 tooth gear is super.

Got in an easy ~24m ride today that whewww turned out to be brutal.  Sun was out, with some puffy clouds and the humidity was way up ... one of those rides where you feel the heat from the road and the salty sweat burns and stings.  So by 20 miles I was ready for this to be over with.  It would have been really tough to have had to add a 5k to this as well.

Makes me wonder about my races scheduled for late July and early Sept.

Got out to the pool today for my first "offical" swim training session. Finally getting the hang of this bilateral breathing. Also worked on a catch-up drill for a few laps and I felt like I was going to sink..any advice/technique on body position? I did 4x100 with 30-45 sec rests then closed out the session with 200m in zone 1-2.

Thad

Not the resident fish but a couple of things.  First, when I use the pull buoy I try to learn how my body is positioned so I know how it should feel when its in the right spot.  Now my Masters coach stresses pullling up my belly button thru my back.  Additionally I do try the "Swim downhill" method which does push the hips and legs up. 

Not only I am not a resident fish, I'm not even a resident tadpole.  But - I would really suggest that you read the latest BT swim article: bigfuzzy's 10 lessons ( or something like that  http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=2452  Its' good stuff especially the stuff about the head and hands.

Also,   One other thing that I will  ad.    If you focus on rotating your hip forward with your glide hand, then the oppositte hip will naturally rotate to a good stacked position without over rotating.  If the hips are in a good spot than all else will follow.

Again.  I am not a resident fish.  Swimming is my weakest event on the endurance scale.  So, take that last bit with a grain of salt.

Hey all!

Great review to read (I know the author quite well ):

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=2473&vote=5

Nice read Gary.

I actually follow BT on Facebook and this was one of the feature articles.

Helmet is definitely on my list of things to upgrade soon!