Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 83)

In my opinion, the best thing you can do is be over-thankful when people give you a lot of room on the road.  I always wave and say thank you when a driver slows down and gives me 5 plus feet of room.  If I do that every time, those drivers will know it's important to us and hopefully the chain will continue to other drivers.  Some just suck...not much you can do there, but be careful.

This is my tri-suit this season:

http://www.amazon.com/Podium-Spiderman-Cycling-Skinsuit/dp/B008QBXW1O

Jeff, the big back ring on the tri bike appears to be 25 and the road bike 24 but it was very difficult to count.

Is the road bike OK or do I need to change it up?

I wanna see you in the spiderman...lol

Let's assume the tri bike is 12-25, and you have a 50/34 compact crank front.  I think for FL you are all set.  At 90 RPM, that will take you from 9.6 mph to 29.3 mph.

Jeff, if you promise to wear that suit to Tri Indy, I'll do everything I can to get there.  And if Lis promise to make that special finishers t-shirt, double effort.  I'll burn all my chit favors for the summer.

I'm sure that was a difficult decision for you to back out of the duathlon.  But it probably is for the best.  Get well soon!!

That is awesome!  I've actually looked for a jersey before... and I def need a spidey shirt for my little girl when she's born!

I'm sure your road bike is OK.  No particular need for the gearing to be the same between all the bikes.  The only reason to change that road bike's gearing would be if you find while riding it that once you get to your easiest gear it's still not easy enough.

I would actually wear one!  That's a cycling skin suit for TTs.  It is rubberized for aerodynamics which means it won't allow evaporation....and would probably be illegal for the swim!

I will look for a tri-suit version. 

Day 5 of stomach bug.... Finally able to eat some solids, totally bummed that my training has been set back.

On the bright side, looks like I might be feeling decent just as the weekend is approaching, normally never that lucky.

Heading to the gym at lunch today for a stretch and hopefully a walk on the treadmill. Hoping to log a few miles on the bike tomorrow, but just need to wait and see how it all goes.

Sounds like you are probably a bit leaner now!  Meaning FASTER! (once your strength returns).

Just trying to look at the positives.

I hope the weather there in Cairo is going to be as nice this weekend as it is here in Middle TN!

mambos - if the man boobs ever come back, consider this:

Seinfeld clip

In other news, I had another record day in the pool... 3500 meters straight, 4200 total.  Question for the pros here:  Should I continue to rattle off these long swims?  Or do some shorter sets?  If I go for the full IM later this year, it will be just to finish, so I'm not really worried about gaining 15 minutes on the swim...

Awesome job with the swim!  Here is my 2 cents.  I do a long, continuous swim about every 4 weeks.  I'd like to do it every other week, though.  The other days, I work on technique.  I don't consider myself to be a fast swimmer.  I think the technique days are really critical to making my long swims feel easier.  They are not necessarily faster.....just easier.  My strength is the bike.  If I can come out of the water feeling fresh, then I know I can rip it up on the bike leg.

Foot update!

It has been feeling AMAZING!  I'm following that plan that I posted a while back.  I'm going to repeat week 3 since I've been absolutely exhausted this week.  I don't want to derail myself.  My foot is usually really achy the evening when I've run.  No sharp pain, though.  The achy-ness is always gone the next day without any ibuprofen.

I really can't believe I ran on it for so long when I was in so much pain!  Triathletes are a stubborn bunch!

Tracy that is great news. I think you are being very smart by sticking to your running plan and not pushing yourself. I think it is so true about triathletes being stubborn and trying to push through everything.

Matt glad to hear about another strong week of training for you. I had a big week last week and have been made this a recovery week. It's good in a way since my pool is closed this week and next so I can't swim and since I'm in week 15 of Jorge's plan and it is actually and easy week it made sense. The one plus is I have been increasing my run mileage and getting back to 4 runs a week. Having the treadmill is a big bonus.

I did the home addition 4 or 5 years ago added a master bedroom and bathroom and had some other work on the house done. It took them forever to finish all the work. Be very picky about who you choose to do the work. We had to micro manage these guys to get all the work done. I was not happy with them and with having to do that. Also you may want to lobby now and see if you can get the indoor lap pool as well as the gym for your treadmill and trainer!

Will nice job with the long swim. I'll defer to the experts on the swim question but my two cents would be to do both. I think both the long continuous swims and the shorter sets will help you.

Morning Junkies!  What's on tap for everyone this weekend?  I took Friday off to do a little climbing.  Please tell me if you guys get sick of the photos.  I just like to share the experience because it's so awesome!  We climbed a gulley called Shoestring Gulley.  The first picture shows what the gulley looks like at the beginning of the approach.

My feet are a little beat up from the boots I wear climbing, but I'm going to try to get at least an hour and a half in on the trainer this morning.  Then of course.....clean the house.  Sounds like a nice little Saturday I have planned.  The wife is down in Jersey at a baby shower so the dog and I may just chill out and have our own party tonight.

Jonathan great pics, thanks for sharing them and I think it is pretty awesome that you are getting to do all this climbing and taking advantage of the beautiful places that are near you.

Not much on tap for me this weekend. Since the pool is closed, I am in week 15 of Jorge's WCP which is actually a recovery week of sorts and after the big week of training I had last week I have treated this week as a recovery week. I will probably get an hour or so run in on the treadmill today and I will do my long ride tomorrow which is only an hour (woohoo!) followed by a short 30 to 45 minute run. I am planning to clean up the backyard on tomorrow as well.

The one good thing for me is I have been increasing my run days and mileage. I was running 2 to 3 days a week now I am up to 4 days and am slowly ramping up the mileage. Hopefully I can get maintain 4 days of running a week. I sort of missed not running more as the bike has been the priority. 

That was a great Seinfeld episode!  But my favorites are Castanza's wallet and "shrinkage."

I think your swim looks really good.  Doing LSE swims can be a really strong confidence booster as you draw closer to making your decision on an IM.  Swimming longer sets will also develop more fitness too.  That said, if you are l;oking to be faster you'll need to get some shorter sets in too.  I know you're in the "finish is a win" type of mindset but being faster can help ensure that you have the ability to back your disciplines down several notches and not be a 17 hour event. 

If you like the long stuff use 500's as a key to all of your WO's.  Make sure you complete any kind of interval work on a time that will leave you tired at the end of each interval and cause you to struggle for the last one or more reps (depending on how many you do.  I think, as Tracy suggested, doing one very long swim each month is a great way to judge fitness and gain confidence in your training. 

Each month you attempt a long swim try yo compete against your old time.  This will give you some idea of progress and you new fitness.  My most recent long swim beat my month old swim by :34 and the swim felt mostly easy giving me a feeling of strength and confidence I have been moving in the right direction.

Sounds like a good week! 

I have a thought about your swimming.  I know last year at the Buckeye Challenge you struggled and I have a current thought that your swim was what may have been the culprit.  Right now I am thinking of your head position wen swimming and how your technique looks for normal breathing.  Do you raise your head much when you're at the pool?  Only you or someone spotting you will be able to answer this question well.  And most likely it would take someone else with a camera to provide the truer picture to you.

My theory is that lat year you may have been raising your head rather than simply turning your head to breath.  Then when you need to sight you obviously need to raise your head further.  If you are raising your head all the time your an unable to relax your back throughout the swim and your back begins to stiffen.  Over the 1.2 mile swim and then 56 miles on the bike combined with the likely fact that you have never done both back to back during training it may have been too much for your body to handle.

I would suggest you get back in the water sooner and more regular to make sure you have this technical aspect down.  You will make solid fitness gains on the bike by getting 3 RPW.  Sure 4 RPW would provide more but you are looking to get a great HIM effort in this year and a solid swim will set you up for he long bike coming.

Just my thoughts on setting you up well. 

(I can't believe I keep giving advice to an OSU fan!  What is wrong with me?  It's a good thing we're friends and I can cross the sportsmanship lines and help out "the enemy" as much as I can. )

I love the pics Jonathan!!  It's really a refreshing site for me.  The flat lands here are sensationally boring.  I would love to have the scenery that you and almost everyone else in the group has on a daily basis.

My training for the weekend has been a 15 mile run, 3500 yard swim, 3 hour trainer ride and tomorrow has a 7  mile run and another hour on the bike.  I feel I'll be ready for my racing season to begin in a big way when I chose to get rolling.  It'll probably be a mid May race for my first triathlon as long as the marathon doesn't torch my legs and my foot badly.