MJEWEN Summer 2013 Mentor Group - OPEN (Page 8)

I too have decided to not buy a tri bike unless after this year I continue to want to race triathlons. I currently am riding a cross bike, and I don't think I'm very good at being aerodynamic on it, but I try to stay in my drops. I just don't have a lot of lower back flexibility anymore. I think the main reason I'm delaying is because I am looking to upgrade my mountain bike. Good to keep in mind the year end clearance sales.

For those of you with tri bikes, did you get fitted? I don't know anyone around the Lincoln/Omaha area that does fittings, but I think it could be a good investment.

My training has been crappy this week. No running (which has been a constant battle for me this year) at all, one bike session, and 3 swim sessions. In my defense I do have a 12 hour race tomorrow, so it might be good that I didn't do much this week.

On another note my swimming is coming along quite well. My swim partner and I did a little video footage this morning for the first time to see how we swim. I don't look at all like I think I do swimming. Eye opening. We're not very good videographers (sp) I will say that much! I'll see if I can figure out how to add the footage on here and perhaps you can critique me.

I'll fill you in on the race next week.

My goals next week are to get in a minimum of 2x4 mile runs, 3x20 mile bikes, and 2x30 min swims.

Crissy

Here is a link to the video of me swimming. I see a few things to work on, but let me know what you see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWG7gHNGF6w&feature=youtube_gdata

Chrissy - Yes I got fitted for my tri bike. First they took measurements to figure out which bike fitted best and then after buying the bike they did a bike fit to get the bike adjusted to me. I'm sure most the bike shops in your area do fits just call around and ask. I then would either ask around at local tri or bike clubs on who they recommended for a bike fit. If you can't find anybody through local clubs I would go to the bike shops and pretty much interview the fitter and ask for references. IMHO there isn't a lot of difference in performance from one bike to the next but a there is a huge difference in a bike fitters skills. I would first look for a bike fitter than a bike.

Have you put smaller tires on your cross bike? Smaller tires and latex tubes would make a huge difference on your bikes performance on the road.

I watched the video. I hate to give any advice because I'm sure your a much better swimmer than me. I only watched it once and I thought you looked pretty good the one thing that jumped out at me though was after your hand entry you raised your finger tips upwards. I was told that if you do this it is like putting on the brakes because your fingertips are causing a lot of drag as you bring them up. Instead after hand entry your fingertips should stay down.

Thanks for the video. I am not anyone to critique, as the swim is my weakest part. I am going to leave that to the pro's! I do like your idea of having someone video you. I am going to see if any of our devices are waterproof, and make one of my kids film me!
What race are you doing that is 12hrs? Another adventure race? Is it local?

Someone mentioned getting fitted (Chrissy I think it was you), I once contacted GreenStreet Cycles in downtown Omaha. They have someone that does professional fittings. If I had a couple extra hundred bucks, I would consider going there. Also, I think some bike stores have people that can fit you as well. I would just call the LBS and see what they offer. Make sure to ask what is all included and the type of training the person has. Also, make sure it includes the ability to come back at no charge if the fit doesn't seem right after you get out on the road.

I have had a great week of training. I have gone out on the bike several times, did a brick workout with friends yesterday and we rocked our run time! 8:07 for 2.5 mi. We usually run about 8:50 for 4.5 mi. Went out this morning for 21 mi. on the bike with my sister and another friend. I went swimming twice and hope to get to the pool today for a bit. My month membership to the facility with the pool ends today.

My husband and I are going to go out for a bike ride later today, so he can try out a bike that a friend of mine is looking to sell. I am really hoping it works well for him and that he likes it. I need to research the value of the bike, but I think they are willing to deal with us, as they want it to go to a good home and no longer ride it anymore. It is a Trek (2009 or 2010) 7.3fx, extra large frame, and in fairly good condition, low mileage. My husband is a big guy, so it is not always easy to find bikes for sale that will fit him! I am hoping to be able to say Happy Father's Day with a bike!

Terry, Great Job on the PR and 2nd place finish in age group at the Pan Americans! That's fantastic! sounds like it was a little crazy during the race, but you must have held your own!

The weather here hasn't been too bad. Got hot for a day or two, but cooling off at night which helps. We have yet to turn on our air conditioning.

I have been doing better about logging my workouts. After I took a look at some of all your training logs, I was inspired!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Good luck to those of you racing!

Tom - I would suggest going to Gear West and talking to them about tri bikes. They have a good selection of brands, knowledgeable staff and good fitters. I bought my 2008 Felt B12 from them and had a seat post clamp issue that they dealt with Felt on and in the end I got a new 2010 B12 frame. Since I'm in Rochester most of this was over the phone and emails. I did go up for afternoon after they received the new frame to transfer over the components. Emile has an excellent point, older models will go on sale in the fall. The shop I work at is getting some 2014 models now. Trek also has a good sale in the spring and around TdF time in July. Carbon will be lighter, give a slightly smoother ride and be more aerodynamic than aluminum. Go carbon if you afford it.

Terry - WOW! Congrats on the Pan Americans! I missed your post about your completion of the event so I went back and found it. It was one of those dreaded posts that end a page and can get lost. As always great pics! Have you lost weight? The one close up your face looks a lot thinner.

Denise - great job on this weeks workouts. With your pool membership running out do you have access to any open water? Good luck on getting your husband a bike. It would be an awesome fathers day present!

Crissy - Overall you have good form. I agree with Emile, watch the initial position of your hand in the water. Wrist slightly bent down is ideal. I do the same thing as you (thanks again to video). You do a good job of not crossing over, keeping your hands from going over the center line. I did notice your rotation appeared to be a little inconsistent. Good rotation (I'm talking hips and chest) when you breathe but less on non-breathing strokes. On some of the above water footage you looked pretty flat. I was told to think about your chest pointing to the pool wall. Nice job bi-lateral breathing.

Terry - Nice job at Pan Americans with your 2nd place podium finish and a PR too!

I've had a good week of training as I get back into it after a week off. My next race is 6/23, my hometown tri, so I like to perform well. Most years it is week after our BWCA trip and I don't get much training in but this year with 2 weeks it will be much better. I have the Chisago HIM on 7/28 so need to get ready for longer distances. I need to be like Terry and knock those HIMs off like they are mini-sprints .

Denise how did the bike shopping go?

My knee has been feeling a lot better until yesterday afternoon. Towards the end of my run it started aching a little bit. Still aching a little this morning so I took it real easy on my run this morning. Tomorrow I have family coming over for a cookout so I'm hoping to get 2:30-3 hours on the trainer in the morning before everybody shows up. I hope everybody has a great fathers day weekend!

Emile, we ened up bringing the bike home that a friend of mine is looking to sell. It seems to fit him, but it is a low end bike. I think with his big size, he is going to feel a lot of bumps and jolting. However, the bike is big enough and he went for a short ride last night and is out on a ride as I type this. I believe it is an aluminum frame, which may account for the less than smooth ride. We just can't really afford to get an expensive bike, and I would really like to know if he will actually ride a bike (long term). I also know that if one doesn't like the bike they ride, they won't ride it, so I don't want to get something cheap, because then I know he WON'T ride it, because it is not comfortable. (it seems to be double edged sword at this point). I am not against getting this bike now, and then saving up to purchase a nicer bike if he feels it s really a form of exercise he wants to do a lot of. I know when I first started riding (20 yrs. ago), I rode for several years and many miles on a very heavy Cannondale that rode like a tank, but I knew I liked riding enough that I wanted to save for something better. Then the something better felt amazing and I felt good knowing I was not buying on impulse.
He also said he didn't think the bike had enough gears for him. Not sure if that is something that can be dealt with by replacing gearing or what.

Emile - sorry to hear that knee is bothering you. I hope that resting it a bit over Father's Day weekend will have it feeling better by next week.

Denise: Well, that's definitely the right step - just taking a bike out, giving it a try. I share your concerns with the aluminum, though. Just today, we talked a little bit about that, and how jarring those aluminum bikes can be if the road surface isn't smooth. It would be great to get a used bike, though, just to keep those initial costs down. Maybe it won't even bother him much - if you have good places to ride, it may be a non-issue. I don't have a clue about the gears, though. It sounds like it could be expensive to put on new gears.

Who was asking about swim times? Now I can't go back and find it - but FWIW, I have worked my way down to the 1:40s and even a bit below. I will have to try that 3x100 and use the average. I'm sure it would be closer to 1:45.

Crissy, didn't you race today? How was it? I'm going to go check out your swim video in a minute...

Great bike ride today - 33 miles round trip in the best weather ever. There were more cyclists out there than I have ever seen - three groups going out from the bike shop and then a whole bunch of fast people there for a time trial. Our group - the "C" group, or slow-pokes - even did a double pace line today and we rode around 19 mph out on one section of road for about 8 miles! Wow, I couldn't believe that. Fun ride.

I am feeling much better, so I think whatever I had in my chest was just a little viral thing. I am still coughing, but I feel fine actually. Tomorrow is my next sprint tri, but I checked the participants list and there are some really fast ladies in my AG this time. Still, I can shoot for improvement in the bike leg - that's what I'm hoping for.

Denise, good luck with the bike shopping. It's really nice that your husband wants to ride with you. How many gears does the bike have?

Happy father's day everybody.... I'll be unavailable tomorrow......

Melissa... it feels great in a pace line when you can get the speed up for those miles, doesn't it? It's always nice to train with others....

Did my first workout today after two weeks and the fast. I felt pretty good but seemed to lack energy on the way back to the bike shop. It was 26 miles out, 30 minute run, 20 minute swim, and 26 miles back. I uploaded the data.

Back to the gym in the morning followed by a round of fathers day golf.....

Okay, everyone... welcome to the new week... I hope we can all get out there and get to it..... I'll be able to get to the beach after work now that school's out to run and swim two times a week in the heat. Will be on the bike trainer in the morning and getting ready for the second tri season that is upon us....

I posted a few photos from Saturday's training.... and for the golfers a photograph of #8 at Osprey Point GC from yesterday..... I hope everyone had a weekend as fantastic as mine

Sprint yesterday was pretty good! I had a feeling... well, let's just say, when I finished, I thought to myself - if that wasn't a PR, I am never doing one of these again! So, long story short, it was a PR, if just by 20 seconds or so. My swim was 30 sec. slower, though I think I know why. Bike was 30 sec. faster - and this is really where I want to start to work to see some improvement! Run was 20 sec. faster, and it felt good, so I am pretty happy with that.

I'll write up a RR later this morning. First... coffee!

Terry - Greats pics! Was that training with a tri group?

Melissa - Awesome job on the PR! Look forward to reading your race report, but I'm with you on the coffee. Nothing gets done until I have had that first cup of coffee in the morning.

I had a great fathers day yesterday. I loaded up the smoker with brisket, mac and cheese, and bologna and had family come over. My stomach still hurts from eating way to much last night.

My training is about to take a hit for a few days. Friday I'm heading to Cleveland to visit family and will not be back until the following Thursday. I'm going to try and keep a regular running schedule while I'm gone but there will not be any biking or swimming.

Great race Melissa congrats on the PR.

Yes, Emile, it was training with a tri team, and two tri clubs. There were about 60-70 people in all. It was a good workout.

I've been planning my training for next few weeks to get ready for NYC, I begin late this afternoon, about 5-6pm running and doing an OWS.
I don't like running at this time of day, but I understand that it's very hot and humid in the city in July and I want to be ready for that.


I love the smoker... ".....if you're lookin' - it ain't cookin'...."

I've always thought it would be cool training with a tri club. Although the nearest tri club is a little over an hour away and I just can't justify traveling that far to train.

Melissa, Great job on the PR! That is awesome. Looking forward to reading your race report! Let us know when it is up.

Terry, i am not sure how many gears it has. He doesn't like a very high cadence, so I think he just feels like he doesn't have a lot of gears to work with. I also don't think he has taken it on anything very hilly. I thought it had 21 gears, but I could be wrong. Good sign though, he has been riding it all weekend!

I got in a long bike ride with some experienced cyclists yesterday and if was great! We had great weather, a good route with some hills and some flats, and many miles! 56.8 to be exact! Sure was fun to ride with gals that are at or above my ability level. It rather humbled me at times as they shot right up the hills. I need to work on that.

And some great news! I got the call this morning that they added more participants to the Papillion Tri! So I am IN! Three of us MJEWEN's are doing the same tri! We will need to meet up for a picture Chrissy and Ken!

Plan to do several open water swims and try to get to a pool as often as I can. Emile, I think you had asked if I had access to OWS, well, I do, but no lakes are very close to me that are open to swimming and I would probably feel more comfortable with someone with me, so I have to plan for those. I do have a group ows that I just signed up for, July 8. It is through the gym that I was going to this last month. They have much more support for triathletes than at my gym, so I am really considering switching. I hate that feeling, b/c it is like breaking up with someone. I have lots of friends at my current gym and have gone there for the past 8 years or so.

Well, I gotta get some stuff done. The weather is really heating up this week and lots of buzz about the College World Series right now. I get to go to a game with my sisters on Thursday! CWS is always a good time, as long as the weather isn't severe!

Denise glad you got a spot in the tri! Great job on the long ride yesterday! Long rides are without a doubt my favorite part of training.

Congrats on the Papillon entry, and I agree with Emile... its always nice to ride with others, especially those at or above your level to push your training.....

I'm so happy for you that your husband seems to enjoy the bike and is riding a lot...

Emile, there are probably a dozen tri teams/clubs within an hour of where I live and twice that number of cycling clubs. They are always posting on facebook their training schedule....... it's nice, but most aren't on the same training plan as I am.

Terry sounds like you live in the tri mecca!

Sometimes it seems that way Emile.... There is always some team training, bricks, transitions, mass swim starts.... masters swimming.... But i choose those events that fit in with my training schedule.... Those teams and clubs all begin their training together.... next season i might train with one of them... but it is so difficult with work and being a "band/scout parent" to train with those teams....besides most of them are much younger than I am.

Ran to the pool this evening.... then swam, I had planned on running home, but my son waited for me and we had a nice walk and talk on the way home.

Denise: you, Crissy and I should definitely get together for a team mjewen pic at papio. It's really improbable that three of us are from the same area.... Especially Omaha/Lincoln which doesn't seem to have a ton of triathletes.

Melissa, congrats on getting into NYC! That is one of my long term goals to run.

Much like Denise.... I wanted to do the Omaha tri but its just too expensive. I'll probably end up only doing papio and one later in summer... I think it's called last blast tri out at branched oak lake near Lincoln.

Mike... Great job on the run pr for oly 10k. That's a solid performance for a standalone 10k, let alone after the bike and swim.

I had a really good bike ride on fathers day.. Swimming is getting easier but gonna come down to the wire on being able to complete the 500 yards in reasonable time. I still have 0 ows yards experience. On the bright side, I think I'm going to be pretty good at biking but that is based on my limited knowledge and experience. I'm sure ill be bad at transitions on this first race too .

Ken - I would definitely get in some ows time before the tri. Open water swimming is a totally different animal then swimming in a pool. You need to work on your sighting, dealing with waves, foreign objects in lake, water visibility, etc. Also, you might want to do a couple of short bricks to work on transition and to get a feeling on how your legs will react to running off the bike.

Denise - Cool that your husband is enjoying the bike. Gearing - most multispeed bikes have 2 or 3 cogs in the front and 7-11 gears in the back. The front is hard to change and typically not much need. The rear cassettes have different individual cogs and different combinations, typically referred to as 12-25 which is the smallest (measured by counting the teeth on the cog) (12) and the largest cog (25). Sometimes you may want a larger cog (easier) if you will be on a particular hilly route. If you have say a 10 speed cassette on the rear, you should only replace with a different 10 speed that has different gearing combinations. Chains are made for specific cassettes and a 10 speed chain will work best with a 10 speed cassette. Due to the different combinations of front and rear gearing combinations you will have some overlap. There are charts available that show the gear inches and speeds at different combinations and cadence like this one http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

Melissa - Great job on the PR!

Emile - You won't lose much fitness on a trip that short especially if are able to run some.

Group training - It's more fun than working out alone but there are drawbacks. As Terry points out probably scheduling is the most difficult. We are all time constrained and fit our workouts when we can. My tri club has tried some group workouts and they are sparsely attended even though it's one of the things members want the club to set up. The best are when it's group with similar speeds so you can stay together. Track speed workouts are good because you can run to the track at an easy pace and once there everyone can run at their own speed without getting separated. Same for OWS group swims, plus it's always good to have others with in the water. I did more group training last year and previous years when I was on the board of the tri club. This year it has been pretty much solo training.

Anyone else racing this weekend? I have our local tri on Sunday. I'll be doing the Olympic distance and my wife, Barb, will be doing the sprint. She bikes some but seldom runs or swims. Her goal is to finish and enjoy the day.