Mesteren's Group - CLOSED (Page 9)

Great job Niezels you did awesome, celebrate. Well Mesteren sound like your bike is going on a trainer that blows literaly. Ive finally started riding outside yay, but mosquito season had started booh. So dont open your mouth while you ride. My race is getting closer and closer so starting to get a little nervous as I said earlier but definily excited. Rhas (I'm sorry i cant spell that, without looking) I'm sure you'll do great in your next event. You did great the first time around so maybe this time youll be a little faster. 

Great job Niezels you did awesome, celebrate. Well Mesteren sound like your bike is going on a trainer that blows literaly. Ive finally started riding outside yay, but mosquito season had started booh. So dont open your mouth while you ride. My race is getting closer and closer so starting to get a little nervous as I said earlier but definily excited. Rhas (I'm sorry i cant spell that, without looking) I'm sure you'll do great in your next event. You did great the first time around so maybe this time youll be a little faster. 

Volcanic ash! That sucks. I guess i'll stop complaining about the Texas heat and humidity. Went on a bike ride again today for the first time in a while. I sure felt the lack of time on the saddle (or tots as I like to call it, sounds better than the acronym for time in the saddle...) at first, but gradually got into the groove again. Felt good. Have to put in some serious training this week and then taper the following week. Just hope the humidity subsides just a little bit to let me not pass out by the run. At least the water will be warm.

Oh, for those of you who are like me and learning about the cycling world, there is very silly rivalry apparently between road bike racers and triathletes. Sounds like its mostly from the "roadies", but this video sort of mocks this rivalry that tends to come out on shop rides: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/sgarvey0001

Need some bike help!!  Took a short ride today to hit some hills, it's all my time would allow today.  But I'm having problems with my chain coming off when going uphill, and of course I manage to get my left foot out of the pedals and then fall to the right.  No more!!!!!  Apparently I need to do something different with my uphill shifting.  Here's what I've been doing.  I pedal in my middle gear and keep gearing down until I want to switch to my smallest ring.  As soon as I try that the chain comes off.  Should I be starting the hill in my smallest ring?  I don't think I can shift up gears before going to the smallest ring, the result might still be me laying on my side.  Would love to know how to fix this.  

I paid money for my first sprint today.  The race is on the 30th of this month.  I decided to do the race because it's at my home pool and I want to get a feel for a race before trying my next scheduled race which is an OWS.  Unfortunately the bike course has a couple of long, steep hills.  I'm not really sure how I should approach training now with such a short time before the race.  I haven't even bricked a workout yet.  I'm not worried about the swim at this point and plan to "wog" the run.  Any suggestions for the next week of training?

Christi

Well Christi your next week should probably be a bit of a taper. Where you take it easier until the race so your legs are ready. But if you wanna get some hill work in to get hang of shifting on hills that might help. To get good at hills ride to a long hill that is long slow hill cause those are killer hard. Or pick some of the hills youll be riding up in the race if your close to them. 

Anyways my approach to hills is since i live in a hilly area is to ride them in a gear that i know I can handle from bottom to top. I find shifting while going up the hill takes away so much time away from actually the pedaling it takes to get up the hill that it actually makes you slower. Now this is just a personal thing.  I start in a gear where your comfortable your moving at good pace but your not working your legs to hard. If do find my self in trouble in the climb I can still shift down. But find what works best for you by doing a couple hills. 

Yes, probably for this race I'll just start on the smallest ring as I approach.  I really don't want to deal with a fall during the race.  I'll work on the best solution at another time.  The bike course is very close to where I work, so I might go ride what I expect to be the worst of it, just see what it feels like.  I'm expecting it to make the "run" very difficult.  The legs will be rubber.

Regarding "tapering"....I was looking at my workout calendar earlier and decided that the week and half I just had where I didn't do anything but karate was a pretty sharp "taper".  I'm laughing about it now, but on the 30th I'm going to P.O.'ed.  

It will all be about the experience.  I'm hoping to meet with a friend on Tuesday to talk about transitions.  Any one have suggestions?  What about what I wear in the pool and on the bike?  I need a lot of help in a short period of time!!!!

Christi

Great work Niezels.  That's an incredible time!

That really sucks Mesteran, I heard about it on the way to work this morning.

Had a lazy Sunday with no training (busy with family time)  Not sure how much I can get in this week either.... school is a little crazy making my normal lunch time workouts tricky.

nickih - 2011-05-23 8:46 AM Wear what you have got Christi. My first tri a tri i wore my bathing suit and a pair of shorts

Yes, that's what I'll have to do.  I guess I should have been more specific regarding what to wear....

Wondering about socks....do you wear them for the bike and the run?  

Do you do any kind of drying off before putting on the bike shorts? I'm going to wear a sports bra under my swim suit and leave the suit on for the race.  I can't think of another way to keep the girls supported without a change in the locker room.  I could put my bike shorts on under my swim suit, but I can't imagine riding in wet bike shorts and chamois.

 Do you wear the bike shorts for the run, or swap them out for just shorts?  Have you ever tried running in bike shorts with a chamois in them?

I think that's all I have for now.  Thanks in advance for your advise!

Christi

I dont have bike shorts yet. So I'm guessing that i put them on after the swim just like I did with shorts i had. If you have tri shorts you can wear them during the swim, so if you can get pair of those ahead of the race that might be an idea. I just wore running shorts to put my number some where. I was on budget and didnt wanna spent to much money if I didnt like it. 

My list of supplies for my first tri was:

swimsuit

runners

Running shorts

bottle of gatorade 

my old goldy moutainbike

goggles

bike helmet (it was mandatory so had to go out and get one)

Towel for a quick dry

So yeah in all I spent thirty bucks on a helmet and my entry fee to get started. Nobody will look at you strange for not having the top notch gear for one of your first tri's. And you'll see many more people riding there first tri on a mountain bike. If you blister easily put on a pair of socks too.

This year since I have tried 2 tri a tri i decided to upgrade my bike. I may get some tri clothing as well before my race. But in the end all this doesnt matter and wont make you any faster unless your ready and trained

Thats good news Mesteren, hopefully the ash will be gone soon too. 

Does anyone in this group get runners high? Cause if you do I'm jealous lol. I've been working on my running the hardest with some improvement. But still no high yet. Maybe I'm expecting to much.

Just a quick note to show I'm still alive. Recovery from race is going great. Back at normal trainingload again.

In regard to the aerobars. I would get them. If it is not for the gain in speed it will be a gain in saving energy. At least that is my expierence. Once you get used to the position it will be a weird conclusion you make to see you will go faster will thinking you put down less effort.

And yes matching shorts will improve on the overall performance ;o)

I'm ready for my race on Monday.  The car is packed (I'm at work all day tomorrow), I practiced laying out my gear.  The bike is ready, the clothes are washed and ready.  Elastic laces and a pair of tri shorts added today.  

The best news is that not only am in the first wave, but they moved my group to the short pool (outside at 0800 could be interesting....I'll have to get moving fast) and I have only one other person in my lane (750 m).  This takes so much pressure off of me, I'm actually excited to go do it.  The bike portion was shorted a mile, to 11, and a hill was taken off the course.  Yippee!

The stars have aligned, please no more changes!!!  Mother Nature, if you please, can you wait to water my city on Monday until the afternoon?  Thank you, you're the best!

Christi

Joel: How did the race go?

Christi: That sounds like being really ready plus some added good Karma. Hopefully it will translate to a fun race. I will try to do a rain dance over here to distract the cloud over you hometown.

@ Mesteren: I know, I know. I'm blaming my new girlfriend for it. ;o)