Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 86)

Just got back from the dr and got a shot of cortisone in the knee...  No running until monday he said   He is also sending me to therapy but my 1st appt is not until August 1.  They are swamped!  That is a mus be a good industry to go into.

I'll soon be trying a new swim instructor, she is the sxwim instructor for for our local tri club.  I'll keep ya'll informed.

karl

Hey Warren!  Great news.

First off, what you have experienced is a good bike, not something specific to Serotta.  And because it was custom for someone else it's not custom for you (so that's not the reason either).

1.  Yes, that's what TT bikes do.  So much of your effort at 20+mph on a road bike is aero drag and the difference you experienced is due to the aero position.  (which I want to see by the way)

2. Twitchy definitely.  That's a function of having your weight shifted so far forward toward the front wheel.  I'm only getting to feel comfortable on my TT bike this season...Just try slipping your feet in your shoes on that bike some time!!!  be careful...Oh, and can you stand up and pedal out of the saddle?  I don't do that on my bike....the only way for it to 'work' is for my weight to be behind the bottom bracket which I can't do because my seat is all the way forward.

3. This surprises me.  I would like to see the hip angle. 

4. High speed stability isn't unusual...all bikes get more stable at higher speeds due to the gyroscopic force from the wheels.  When descending at very high speeds, make sure you slide yourself back on the seat quite a bit because that will also help to stabilize the bike.

5.  Don't assume you'd have to pay a price similar to this Serotta.  There are great bikes out there where the frame component is < $1k.

As for the crank/cassette change...I think that you will be just fine with the current crank if you have a 28 tooth cassette.  If you go with the compact crank then you would be fine with an 11-25 I would guess....Can't be sure without seeing the hill, but if you go compact definitely make sure you have an 11 because you will want it or you will find that at 27 miles per hour you are in your top gear and can't go any faster. (don't know the actual speed that would happen, just a guess)

Now let's see a picture of your side view on the bike.

Karl,  it's good to hear that you were able to get a little bit of training in despite the traveling.  I wouldn't even consider swimming in a hotel pool for training though.  It is just was too small and congested to get any real workout in.

It's good to hear that your sin was able to get some wins at the tourney.  It has to be a great experience for him.

Joanne, I'm glad to hear the cruise went well and I'm also happy you have been able to get back to some training.  Don't you have a HIM coming up this weekend?

Allison,  we have been missing you in the group.  Hopefully all of your time away from the post's have kept you in training.  If so we'll forgive you.  If not, well, yo may be banished from the Junkies and relegated to being a punkie instead.

The storms over the past couple of days haven't caused me any real issues and for that I am more thankful than you can imagine.  I have an official count of poles we had broken off in the DERECHO storm that went through on June 29.  Officially there were 401 broken AEP transmission poles in the NW Ohio and NE Indiana.  In Indiana we only had 21 poles so obviously Ohio took the brunt of the damage within the AEP system.  It was an enormous recovery effort and amazingly enough we recovered from this storm in 9 days.  All poles and conductor was back up and in service in very short order.  BUT, this was just the Transmission system.  Our Distribution customers may have had a little longer wait.

Also, for the bike/  I got mine for just over $1,000 at Redi Bike on the west side of Ft Wayne.  You could check out their selection but they don't have a large variety of WTB in the store.  You can definitely pick up a very ice Trui Bike for reasonable money.

Warren,  the bike sounds like it great!  I know you're probably going to get a huge hankering for a nice one yourself.  I know it's all I ride unless I am riding with Lis and then it's back to the roadie.  If I do group rides I'll take my roadie out too but I haven't had time for many of these so far this year and that kind of aggravates me.

Matt,  I am still trying to consider if I am racing Kewpee on Sunday.  I haven't quite decided yet.  I checked the other day and they are taking registrations right up until race day.  So it might be a game day decision.

Matt it was my husbands birthday yesterday too!

We are celebrating today with (drum roll please) DATE NIGHT!! Just in case you all think no one is paying attention .

Actually we are having an entire afternoon and evening and for our date guess where we are going? The bike shop! Hubby is finally settled on getting a road bike and our favorite shop is having a sale so he will likely take the plunge today. He has picked out the Giant Defy 1 as the top bike on his list but of course I'm reminding him to test ride and pay attention to fit.

Training is going ok for me. I hurt myself a little in my right glute on a workout Sunday. I rode 52 miles with hills last Saturday then Sunday decided to ride to my friends house, swim in the pond and ride home. I pushed the pace on the ride there then my swim started out feeling really bad. On the ride home I noticed a pain in my glute.  I didn't notice anything the rest of the week until I hopped on my tri bike for a ride yesterday. I couldn't not push a higher effort without pain so I'm a little bummed about that. The Tour Challenge is almost over, I only have 2 more rides to meet my goal. I think I will try riding my road bike for those then have a swim focused week next week and cross my fingers for some improvement.

Have a great Friday everyone!

I know!!!  Lis wants to go back there just for the pizza.  The problem is Laiken's swim meet.  She got begged to swim summer swim and the City Tournament is tomorrow and the finals are Sunday, so if I race Lis won't be there because she will want to stand in line for a couple of hours to make sure she gets really good seats at the natatorium.  I only care to see Laiken swim and would be content to sit way away from all the action and just get close during her races.

I'm still deciding.

owl_girl - 2012-07-20 9:47 AM Can you guys give me a primer on power meters?  I really don't know much about them.  Are they really that expensive?  OK......tell me what you know. 

I'm completely oblivious to anything about power meters.  I think you'll have to wait to hear from Jonathon or Jeff about them.  I am certain Jonathon has one and could help you out.  The only thing I kow about power meters is that they are definitely expensive unless you like spending in the neighborhood of $1,000 for data.  Personally I would rather spend the money on other things like wheels or an aero helmet with other accessories.

Jo63 - 2012-07-20 9:45 AM Matt Happy Belated Birthday hope you had a great one! Warren I love hearing about yur new bike I can feel the enjoyment in your posts. Karl heres to a quick recovery. As far as me the HIM was last weekend I opted to not do it because we were cutting close on time with the cruise. I DID get to high five Craig Alexander and he asked me to take care of his sponges for him...I know its a bit gross, my kids were like REALLY???? but what can I say it was motivating he's just so darn cute and my hubby got some really great pictures of him.

Joanne, "meeting" Crowie would have been a pretty unique experience regardless of the sweaty sponges.

Haha, I will enjoy it for sure.  My wife's first comment when I walked in the door giggling like a 6 year old on Christmas morning after that first ride was "you're going to hate your bike now, aren't you?".  Probably no tri bike in my near future!

Jeff, I'll try to get a pic but will probably wait until after the fitting next week.  We just set it up close for now and then I'm going to the shop next week for the real thing.  The hill in question is about 2 miles, topping off at 13%.  On my road bike I'm in the 30/27 combo going about 5-6 mph.

Dirk and others, in terms of riding a TT bike all the time,  I think 2 things would keep me from doing that.  The first is that many of the roads I ride on are shoulder-less, so I'm sharing the lane with cars.  I just don't feel comfortable being in aero all the time on that type of road.  Second, and probably more important, i LOVE climbing hills, so the road bike probably makes more sense for that type of riding.

owl_girl - 2012-07-20 9:47 AM Can you guys give me a primer on power meters?  I really don't know much about them.  Are they really that expensive?  OK......tell me what you know. 

Everyone I know who has one says it changes the way to train and ride dramatically.  You can't cheat the watts so you are able to dial in the correct training efforts, both in terms of pushing hard enough on intervals and not pushing too hard when you should be recovering.  The negative side is that you can become attached to technology rather than feeling the effort and understanding your body.

One big benefit seems to be for long course racers, who have said the power meter really helps keep the IM bike leg at the right effort to allow a good run.  It's not magic, but it prevents them from working too hard when they feel strong early on the ride.  Again, I do not have one so I can't speak personally, but that's been the feedback I've had from people I know who use them regularly.  No one I have talked to who has one has regretted using them.

Like all things related to the bike, you can go from fairly cheap (used wired power taps for ~200 or iPod type units for even less), to ridiculous - 2k+ for Quarq and other high end models.

owl_girl - 2012-07-20 9:47 AM Can you guys give me a primer on power meters?  I really don't know much about them.  Are they really that expensive?  OK......tell me what you know. 

A primer, eh?  When it comes to gadgetry, I find it hard to just "nick the surface".  Essentially what you need to know is that a power meter, like any other gadget is a tool that must be used correctly to benefit from it.  I takes a bit of time to get used to it and understand what all the "numbers" mean.  For me, it is a very beneficial training tool and even more effective racing tool.

BENEFIT:  A power meter is so beneficial because it allows you to focus on a specific zone/power number for a given period of time.  There are many training plans out there that focus on staying within a certain zone...this tool allows you to do that.  Other tools like a heart rate monitor and relative perceived effort can allow you to train certain zones, but on any given day, the output of your "perceived effort" may be different based on how much sleep you got...what you ate, etc.  A power meter doesn't care if you are hung over and had fourteen cups of coffee.  If you are putting out 200 watts, you are putting out 200 watts. 

THE MATH:  The meter essentially measures the strain you are putting on the bike and converts it to a specific amount of work you are doing over a given amount of time. (power = watts = joule/s = kgm^2/s^2)

So I know this sounds a little complex...but even a monkey could use it effectively.  You basically use the meter for a while and get a rough idea of what effort equals a certain power...then you take a "power test" or FTP test to determine your training zones (much like a threshold test for heart rate zones).  So once you have the zones, you follow a plan that specifies which zone to be in.

Then when you race, you stick to your target racing power.  This is great for me because I always go out too hard and feel like crap at the beginning of my runs.  Now this doesn't happen because I stick to a certain power at the beginning of the bike.  I imagine that for a HIM or IM, it would be awesome.

I hope this sort of opened your eyes to the idea.  Hit me with some questions if you need more detail.  It's sort of like running easy all the time.  I guarantee you if you do it you will improve drastically.

To everyone interested in training with power...I actually have two powertap wheels for sale...both with computers and one with a disc cover.  One of the wheels is essentially new.

Links?  I'm marginally interested (well, I'm VERY interested but it might be a tough sell.)

Warren, you have a 30 tooth ring on the front of your road bike?  Is that a triple?

I take back what I said then about not needing both of those changes.  You will want a 27-28 on the rear AND a compact crank.  But DO try hard to get a cassette with an 11 tooth cog.  That way you don't lose any gearing on the way down. 

[edit..more data]

I did the gear calculations:

Standard crank and 12-28 cassette (my setup) 10.2mph - 31.1mph at 90RPM cadence

Compact crank and 12-27 cassette 8.9mph - 29.3mph at 90RPM cadence

Compact crank and 11-28 cassette 8.5mph - 32.0mph at 90RPM cadence

So you can see how having that 11 tooth gear on a compact crank will not lose you any top end.  Plus, if you really can keep a 90rpm cadence on that long, steep climb then you will find yourself performing far better than if you had yourself grinding away with 50rpm (that would be my situation!)

The above assumed 53/39 for a normal crank and 50/34 for a compact.

Matt, happy belated b'day!  What did you do?

Dina, enjoy the bike shopping experience w/ H and the date!!!  They come all tooooooo seldom!

Yeah, I have a triple on my road bike, don't hate me!

I talked to Geoff today and he has a 11-28 ready to go.  In fact, he said sram has an 11-32, but I don't think we need to go there.  He also thinks a 52-36 compact might make sense, but he may have to change to the red group - bummer!.  Does that sound reasonable?

36/28 (33.8) is pretty close to my 30/27 (29.2).  I think I could easily manage that difference.  However, the 11 would be great since with my 50/12 I'm about tapped out at 35, and some of the hills would allow for a more speed than that, particularly since for Timberman I'm only doing the bike leg.

Dina, great job on the date night, keep it regular!

Joanne, it's awesome to see the pros like that, and they seem more or less "normal".  That's one of this things I love about this sport.  Can't imagine LeBron doing that during a game.  I got see Chrissie and Potts during the Timberman half a few years back - I was volunteering - and it was incredible to see them at the finish line handing out finisher's medals hours after they finished.

Matt a belated happy birthday to you, sorry to hear that your gift from your employer was to work a longer day. Congrats on a another good performance on the 5K yesterday.

JoAnne that must have been pretty cool to get a chance to meet and talk to Craig Alexander.

Dina glad to hear about your date night, hope you both enjoy the time together.

Red is a great group!  But I'm sure you don't want him inconvenienced any more than necessary so discourage him from making that swap just for the gearing (and why would he need to swap?).  I think that if you are using a 50x11 you have plenty of speed and once I'm over 35mph I like to use the opportunity to catch some rest.

And a 34x28 will get you up anything while sitting I would think.  But it sounds like Geoff would be better qualified to give this advice than me...he probably knows the hill and he may want his bike to have that gearing for his own purposes too?