Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 88)

Here is a quick Race report.  Not much detail race was pretty straight forward and uneventfull.  I did manage a 3rd place podium in the AG which is pretty cool.  I also just found out that I had the fastest bike split in my AG, which is even better.   Only bad part is both of these positions came due to a buddy going down coming into transition and getting tore up pretty good.  Suffered severe road rash to the outside and bottom of his foot.  His average bike speed was 22.85 which is just flying!  After the crash he called it a day and DNF'd.

Dirk: it was great seeing and talking with you today.  As expected your performance was great!  I will catch you at some point though

Congrats Matt!!!  We hope your friend is OK!

Dirk, waiting on your report...

Owlgirl, glad you are better.

Ha ha ha ha - funny Dirk. Maybe I should add this to the you know your a triathlete if thread !

I thought of you when I was riding my road bike yesterday. I left my tri bike at the shop to get a check up. Yesterday I cruised out of the driveway on my road bike, reached for the brake and about fell over trying to remember where it was!

You just get used to it the more you ride. For position, when I started out I would just get into aero for a minute or so at a time to build confidence and get used to the feel. It was amazing to me how completely different the tri bike felt.

Have fun!

Tracy sorry to hear about the flu, I hope you and your family are feeling better and soon.

Karl, x2 on what Dina is saying. It took me a while to really get comfortable riding in the aero position. When I started I would ride in a road geometry and go aero a little bit here and there. I also practiced on the trainer as well. Any time I would ride on the trainer I would try and stay aero so I could get used to being in the position. Now I pretty much ride exclusively in the aero position. Give yourself some time and ease into it. One other thing I did was I practiced in the high school parking lot on the weekend a few times where I had plenty of room so I could get used to going straight and turning. Keep practicing and working on it you will get used to riding that way and you will get used to how the TT bike handles.

Great job Matt and great job Dirk!! It sounds like you guys had an awesome race and both had great finishes! And next time Matt you RR needs to include a note on the post race pizza. I'm just saying - that's what we're most interested in!

I hope your friend is okay. It sucks to see anyone DNF, but even more if they're a friend who get's hurt!

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I raced again yesterday - the first time since my disaster of a run back at the beginning of June. I figured out my side stitch issues to an extent by taking on more water on the bike (I tried less at Assateague and it ended in complete failure). I took less than I intended, but more than last time and the side stitch issues were less pronounced and I was able to maintain a higher HR than last time but still not as high as I want. I ended up at an 8:45 and I KNOW I can get below 8:15 without the side-stitch issues.

Here's some stuff I figured out and some questions that may help others though:

1) A lower cadence (83-87) helps me more than a higher cadence. Maybe I lack flexibility to spin fast - who knows - but I've been working on riding in the 80s and not the mid- to high-90s and my legs felt SO much better at the beginning of the run.

2) It's important to seed yourself properly for the swim. I was "that guy" who seeded himself way down and had to keep swimming over, under and around people... my bad.

3) Having shoelaces to tie makes T2 take approximately a month. Stretchy laces, here I come. Any thoughts on which are best?

4) A flying dismount is negated if your show unclips and you have to go back for it. Second time it's happened - any thoughts on how I can fix that?

Thanks for the motivation guys!!

ETA: RR is here.

#4:  Be VERY glad just your shoe fell on the ground.  I've seen this hurt people.  Keep that foot straight ahead without twisting it as you swing your leg around behind the bike.  But also tighten up your pedal retention screw as far as it will go if you will be leaving the shoes on the bike when you dismount.  (but you may want to loosen them back up when you finish your race!)

#3:  Kind of expensive, but in my experience these are the best elastic laces available on the market today.  I tried to go less expensive for years and finally went with these and am now very happy. http://xtenex.com/

I took the weekend off from racing and even training.  That's hard for me to accept due to my OCD tendencies.  But I keep telling myself it's OK...

I enjoyed watching my 11 year old son participate in a kid's Duathlon on Saturday and the two of us volunteered at the Music City triathlon yesterday. 

I'm impressed with Dirk and Matt's races this weekend.  It's really awesome to see my pals doing so well.  Dirk, you are beating yourself up over forgetting dish soap?  Really?  That's such a small thing.  I've had the goggles fog on me before and since then I've been racing open water tris with NEW goggles.  I buy about 5 pair a year (of the same model) and keep a fresh pair for racing.  I will race in that pair 2 or 3 times and when it shows the first signs of the anti-fog coating wearing out, I retire that pair to use at swim practices and promote an unused pair from my stash to 'race goggle' status.

A new, unused pair of goggles will be optically perfect.  Not a drop of water on the inside, not a hint of fog.  Open water sighting is hard enough already even with perfect goggles.  But that being said, I find that the rising sun is almost always an issue in every race I do.  It seems that 1 of the lines on the swim course has the sun in my eyes and makes sighting that buoy practically impossible.  What seems to work pretty well for me is to figure out where I need to swim by some combination of sighting multiple times, or guessing where it is based on the swimmers I can see in front of me, and then I figure out how many degrees off that buoy is from the sun.  If the sun is straight ahead, then you're in luck, you can swim straight toward the sun and don't even have to lift your head to know where that is.  If it's 10 degrees off to one side, then it is pretty easy to use the sun as your landmark at that point. 

But the cool thing is that with your swim mishap you still grabbed an overall podium spot!

Matt, getting your AGE group award is a huge milestone isn't it?!

Here is a link to my Race Report from yesterday.

Summarized: 3rd place overall but I had a MAJOR error on the swim.  You can read about it in the report but I am still kicking myself for making such a foolish mistake.

Dang, Dirk!  What a race!  How much time do you think swimming off course cost you?  Do you think it cost you a place (or two)?  Third place still ain't too shabby. And umm... I gotta know, did the Chicago guy make a return to the race... and win?    Also just curious, what did you eat in the morning?

Your race report brings me to a question, addressed to all.  I've decided to do a sprint this weekend (as long as my hip condition does not worsen!) and I'm trying to figure out how I should approach the swim and bike.  I've always had this mentality that I need to "save" something for the later legs (disciplines), especially during the swim, as I don't want to finish the swim (or bike) being completely exhausted.  The swim will be half a mile/800m... Should I be breathing hard during the swim?  I usually just go at a moderate pace (for me), generally sticking with bilateral breathing as a way to make sure I'm not going hard.  And how about the run??  How should I break it up?  Start strong, run comfortably hard, finish strong??  (Same approach for swim/bike??) Really, I'm just awful with pacing in general.  Any feedback would be great to get me thinking.

I am certain the swim cost me at least a minute and very likely two.  I checked my log from last years swim at this same race and I went 6:59 according to my time.  The official time from last year was 7:24 but they lumped the swim and T1 together and I estimated my T time.  This years official time for the swim and T1 was 9:25 and my Garmin had me at 8:57 and I forgot to hit my watch until I was standing at my bike in T1, so you could probably cut 5 or so seconds off my Garmin time.  It appears I lost nearly 2 full minutes on the swim and T1 segments.  The time differential between myself and second place was 1:07........I lost second to my own foolishness.

Food in the morning may disappoint many of you.  I had one low fat frosted strawberry pop tart and a 90 calorie Kellogg's snack bar.  Then about 30 minutes prior to the race start I had a GU gel.  I took the gel at 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled start and then it was delayed about 10 minutes.

Finally, I made myself a bigger fool by getting concerned about the guy from Chicago.......................................That did not go this year.  That's what I get for racing against someone rather than against myself.  Advice to all:  Race for the joy of racing.  Race for your health.  Race for "a cure."  But don't race against individuals for personal reasons.  It takes the fun out of it.

Your racing question?  Here's the philosophy I gave Jonathon on his FB page a few weeks ago: Control the swim, hammer the bike and survive the run.  This philosophy is for people able to race at 100%.  If you feel you aren't 100% than I suggest you race what you think you can handle. 

But to be more specific

1. Saving your legs during the swim is something that I think you have to be a little bit careful about.  If you are not able to wear a wetsuit during a race than you'll need to kick to provide good balance in the water.  (Remember, a good kick comes from the hips and not the knees.)  So it's alright to not have a hard kick, just make sure you use just enough kick to keep your body as high in the water as possible.
2. Breathing hard on the swim?  Sure.  Absolutely.  You don't want to be suffering from hypoxia but to be breathing hard is certainly alright.  Think about some of your harder swim sets, how hard are you breathing for some of the long sets?  Try remembering this and try to pace yourself in a way that you will be breathing slightly less hard or even as hard as those sets.  (This is a race so you want to tax your body.)  Using the bilateral breathing is a great way to go as a check.  Just try to be sure you feel you NEED a breath each time.......Don't be relaxed.
   
3. Pacing is something that has to be learned through experience and then challenging what you "know" you can do.  I know through experience that I can run a standalone 5k at a 6:25 pace.  But I have to adjust that during a tri.  Yesterday I averaged 6:40 for the 5k.  Because of the added work of the triathlon I had to drop the pace substantially to account for added loads already applied during the other segments of the race.  The only way for me to know how to do this is through feel or RPE with an occasional reference to HR.  But HR alone can be a very finicky way to gauge effort because it can lie to you.  Pacing is found by placing yourself in the hurtbox for a long period of time.
   If you want numbers I would suggest you ride the bike at 90%-95% of what you think you can ride for the given distance and then "feel" your way through the run based on your experience and HR if you have a HR monitor.  Just make sure your effort is intense all the way through the run for short course racing.

One last thing about racing.  Racing as I said in the beginning of this post should be for personal reasons.  As an ironman triathlete told me this weekend; "there are competers and completers."  Knowing which one you are makes all the difference in the world.  If you are happy completing all of your races, then you are a "completer."  But, if you are like me, constantly desiring to break your body down to rebuild it so you can be faster and maybe place in your AG or earn a trip to Kona you are in a very different category.  You are a COMPETER!  Neither is wrong.  Both categories are for all athletes and nothing can be taken from either one, for we are all different people with different ambitions and goals.

My "triathlete" definitions of each:

Completers: A person who endures the pains of countless forgotten laps in the pool or around the lake, flat tires and saddle sores on their legs and butt from the bike and mile after mile knee pounding abuse from running, diet restrictions and training in harsh weather environments to finish a race so they can raise their hands victoriously at the finish, knowing they have accomplished a tremendous personal goal.  A goal that without dedication and devotion to these hardcore efforts of the training that they love, would not have had hope to complete.  These people are goal oriented from a wide variety of reasons; health, well being, sense of accomplishment, personal satisfaction...............

Competers: A person who endures the pains of countless forgotten laps in the pool or around the lake, flat tires and saddle sores on their legs and butt from the bike and mile after mile knee pounding abuse from running, diet restrictions and training in harsh weather environments to finish a race so they can raise their hands victoriously at the finish, knowing they have accomplished a tremendous personal goal.  A goal that without dedication and devotion to these hardcore efforts of the training that they love, would not have had hope to complete.  These people are goal oriented from a wide variety of reasons; health, well being, sense of accomplishment, personal satisfaction...............

See the difference?  Neither do I.

Has this post been long enough?  You may now fall asleep.

Thanks for the post Dirk.  I also want to expand just a little on the competer vs. completer theme.  Competer can also come in flavors, as I would include those who are competing against their absolute best. While you may not be competing for podium spots, if you are racing and training to maximize your potential given your own life limitations, I’d consider you a competer.

I’ve really changed my thinking about this concept even these past two weeks.  Riding a smoking bike has made me realize I had no idea what an advantage triathletes who can/are willing to spend big $$$ can get on the bike leg, and I guess lessons/pool membership would count in there as well, and super wealthy people have more freedom to train more, etc.

So I’m saying as a competer, we should be comparing our effort not so much against what someone else is doing, but rather against what we are capable of doing, given everything.  If that best effort puts you on the podium, so be it.  If not, so be it.  Because in the end, finishing spots are largely, if not completely, dependent on who shows up, unless you are at the very top of the sport.

For instance, no matter how fast you ever get, could you have won the sprint I did to start the year given Jarrod Shoemaker showed up?  Or there are a few nationally prominent masters runners in the area, so if you run a local 5k, 10k, or 13.1 around here and they decide to show up, no matter how fast you think you are, you’re not beating them!  If you are doing your absolute best training, racing your absolute best race, striving to constantly learn and improve - I’d classify you as a competer.  Let the torture continue.

I'd classify myself as a competer.

That's why I've done the same sprint tri 7 years in a row.  I want to see how much better I can do given my training each year.  I don't know anyone that does that race so I have no idea how to compare myself to others.  Nor, do I care.  I only care about what I have done over the year to prepare my body to do it's absolute best.

Great post guys!

First paragraph: agree!  I was thinking about this on my run today actually.  I think that if you're doing triathlons, even if you consider yourself a "completer," you are likely also a "competer."  You don't have to be competing against others to be competing.  I would think that everyone is in it to better themselves, whatever that means to each individual.

It also crosses my mind occasionally about your second paragraph on money as well.  I think I am pretty much an absolute minimalist when it comes to triathlon.  No high tech gadgets, I am using a standard sports watch I have had probably since high school; no nice bike (relative terms in the tri world- I love my bike, it's got sentimental value ), I don't have a computer on my bike as that fell off my bike during a race and I never got it replaced; etc etc.  I do have a wetsuit though. And the only reason I have cycling shoes and pedals is because I bought them for my cycle tour trip a few years back (which I ended up not even using back then so they were just laying around unused).  But anyway, hearing about what tri gear/gadgets/etc people have, sometimes I find myself thinking it would be nice to have this or that, but alas, I am making do with what I have.

Can someone please explain to me why if you are lighter (body weight), your tire pressure doesn't need to be on the higher end of the max psi that's listed on the tire?  For example, on my tires I think it says max psi 110.  But it seems that because I weigh around 110, I really should only need my tire pressure to be around 90 psi?  Out of curiosity, what is the reason for this?  Is it bad if I pump up to 105-110?

Thank you

I will give it a shot...

For any given tire there isn't an ideal pressure, there is an ideal amount of 'deformation' of the tire at the contact patch.  How far down a tire 'squishes' when you put weight on it is different with different amounts of weight...therefore tire pressure can be used to ensure that different weight loads can all achieve the desired amount of deformation.

Why is that valueable?

For one thing, tire deformation creates rolling resistance.  As the tire spins in contact with the ground and 'squishes' some amount of energy is absorbed by the 'friction' on the tire and tube (on a tiny scale), and this adds up continually as you ride.  That's why you don't want your pressure any lower than necessary.

On the other hand, if the tire doesn't 'deform' some (imagine a solid steel tire) then every 'grain' in the pavement creates a microscopic lift upwards and then drop downwards.  You would feel cracks and seams as a pretty sharp jolt but you'd feel the microscopic 'grains' in the pavement as a vibration.  All of this is resulting in a lift, which is accomplished by using the kinetic energy you developed by building up your speed.  That kinetic energy is robbed to create the lift so you are slowing down.  To understand this intuitively ride your bike over a set of rumble strips on the road (if you dare!  perhaps this is more of a thought experiment).  Compare riding over these while coasting from an initial speed of 15mph and see what your speed is after a certain time or distance.  Then do the same coasting test on smooth pavement.  Those rumble strips are the same thing on a huge scale as the small imperfections in the pavement surface on even a pretty smooth road.

Various courses have a variety of big bumps a much larger number of small bumps and a continual stream of surface roughness and different sections of road may have different basic roughness.  However, doing the calculations with physics equations to know the perfect amount of tire pressure for each course is prohibitively difficult.  So the best we can do is use an average obtained from field measurement.  So the tire manufacturers and other cycling 'scientists' have come up with a variety of recommended tire pressures by rider weight that do the best possible job of giving us that optimal value.

The optimal value between tire deflection and firmness varies not only by rider weight, but by the tire's construction and it's total air volume. 

If you are on a road bike it's not unusual for 60-65% of your weight to be on the rear tire so sometimes the rear tire's optimal pressure is 5 psi higher than the front tire.

Sometimes your course is on pristine blacktop that makes a beautiful hum as your ride along it....5psi higher in your tires in that situation.

If the road surface is unusually rough, one that you notice is worse than most, go 5psi lower.

If it's raining go 5-7psi lower (this is not for rolling resistance reasons, but to give you more traction for safety).

Oh, to your final question of whether it's bad to inflate your tires to the max pressure.  It's not bad in any way except that your ride will be a tiny bit slower and it will be less comfortable.  Oh, and you will be giving up a little bit of traction needlessly (not that most of us ever use all the traction available to us).