Rock and Republic Podium Girls provide "technical" explanation of bike technology

Okey dokey

Pretty cool: Formula 1 Aussie Triathlon Video (late 90's)

Track & Field injuries from University, Core/Weights, ITB syndrome and oh yeah.. Week of 2/22

Long story short, when I was in college I did a VO2 Max test on my own, (because I was pretty far behind the curve coming off active duty military) and proceeded to use the data to attack my weaknesses.

I figured out what heartrate and for how long I needed to be operating at that intensity to increase my VO2; instead of doing this sanely I decided "more is more" and hit the track 3x a week.

Eventually disaster struck. I tweaked my ITB on a recovery run on the trails..

Fast foward to the late 90's.. I'm running faster then ever, living and training on the Central Coast; manage to get myself invited to some good track meets where I can jump into some heats with faster athletes in hopes of getting pulled to a fast time..

All of that entailed super intense track work in spikes, that quite frankly, fit like horseshoes..

And when I say intesne I mean just absolutely drilling it.. One of my training partners was a 1.46 800/46 pt sec 400 guy from SLO.. He never ran anything longer than a 300, everything else was 200's or 100's.. Managing those sessions was a handful.

Well, none of this was really great for my left leg which has a couple of issues off and on over the years.. Turns out all of the ITB and lately, random pain in my hip is from years and years of intense use..

I've recognized the problem and I'm lifting light weights again (I did in early 90's to correct the issue the first time around).. Just lower body stuff to get the hip abductors square, it's made an immediate impact and I feel fine currently.

And, as many of you know, I'm not an advocate of weights or core work unless there is an injury present or a person has a known issue where weights act as a hedge against future problems.. I can safely say, at the moment, I fall into this category.

Thank goodness I took up Triathlon when I did.. I don't know how much longer I could have tortured myself as a runner.

Ah, so this last week I had a good solid 14hr -ish week.. Managed five swims, four rides (outdoors even!) and a three runs..

I've been back at the track doing longer "L" pace workouts and they feel good; plus, I'm ahead of goal in terms of what "L" looks like in any random Feb year over year...

Bike wattage seems good and swim velocity is holding nicely..

I'm not sure I'm really jonesing to race just yet but happy to be fit in winter for sure..

Gah.. what shills, Re- Newton Running shoes

C'mon guys... Do you have to endorse everything that might have a Triathlon tie-in?

Add to that everyone in the video all works for NA Sports, (event director for North American Ironman events) and it really just looks like they are more than happy to get another sponsor/partner on board.




You know what really bugs? When I was at the IM Canada expo Newton had a booth and was hawking these silly shoes to athletes who I assume were going to run in them..Totally irresponsible..

At times I'm embarrassed to be a Triathlete because the demographic is easily duped into magic bullet/snake oil fixes for performance..

Wanna go faster on the bike?

Not a problem, we've got your Cervelo P4.. No need to even pedal !

Wanna go faster across the course of the day just by eating?

We've got special Gels, Roctane, energy drinks!

Triathletes just love to eat, ever see a skinny triathlete? (I don't count) :)

And of course the Newton...

Not a forefoot striker because your bio mechanics don't allow it?

We can fix that! Yes, though you are restrained bio mechanically from forefoot striking which we have (erroneously) determined to be faster than heel striking wear a pair of Newtons and magically go faster...

Ok, seriously, I don't really understand why people just don't get sold on training more, training differently or just getting a coach who might help them.

I guess paying for "free speed" is less work then, well, working

Week of 2/15, It'd be nice to be in Montana or Idaho...

Well, not entirely nice. Both places are pretty cold and snowy right now but I'm drawn to both by their unique endurance sports culture..McCall, Idaho specifically is home to some of the best Nordic skiing I've ever seen, (half of the battle for XC skate is how well an area's trails are groomed) and this upcoming weekend is the Payette Lakes Ski Marathon, 35k freestyle, meaning you skate the distance.

Over in Butte, MT this weekend is the Powerhound Winter Triathlon. Folks will run 5k, bike 10k, skate 5k.. It's fairly short by Winter Triathlon standards, but seeing as there are no hard and fast rules around what each segment's distance is proportionately relative to another race directors can more or less make it up as they go, in fact, some Winter Triathlons opt to re-order the sequence of events to: bike, skate, run..

It's all good, Winter Triathlon is very grassroots and Nordic ski racing in the US has always been a labor of love for everyone involved.

I'm mostly fantasizing because I haven't been skiing enough this winter and to be candid, the skiing just outside of Seattle sucks. The Nordic areas are infrequently groomed leaving athletes with mostly icy, rough snow and sometimes powder. Neither is fun to skate over, but you can if you are hard core. I've done both and once I discover an area neglects their Nordic area I usually never come back. I guess I'm spoiled, I'd rather drive 5 to 10 hours for solid skiing. All that said, I'm getting on skis in the next week or so, I'm jonesing to skate.

Oh yeah, I do swim, bike, run still, it's was a roughly twelve hour training week, so onto the week at hand..

I was really out of it over the first half of the week, though managed to continue plugging away the daily two-a-days. Last half of the week energy levels came around, in the end still managed 4x swim, bike, run and happy to be on plan with slightly reduced volume.

Catching up.. Training week of 2/8 & Mtb'ing, XC ski

I think I managed to go from 9-10hrs to about 14hrs this past week, weather was better which explains the extra time; it's all accounted for in the extra days riding outdoors, plus better consistency across the board, I was able to do a solid 4/4/4

At any rate, I now own yet another mountain bike. That's a total of four in the last five years, the first was a rigid c'dale that was stolen, then I had an older S-Works (M2) also stolen, and prolly too small for me; another c'dale F900, nice bike but way too big for me, XL frame (22in !), really for a someone around 6'3-6'5-ish... The frame was the right size for the road though, because it'd been someone's commuter pre-me.

At any rate, I have a Gary Fisher Paragon, alu frame, genesis geometry, hard tail XC rig..It's also my size (16in frame), who knows if it'll make a difference or not, I was never bad before, just slow on technical single track and descending, go figure on that 22in C'dale, it was just far too big for me to toss around.

So, even though I'm slow where racing is concerned I'm committed to shaking things up this season.. Winter Triathlon, XC Mtb races (beginner class, sport was way too long for me previously!)..

Why?

Well, all of these activities do not play into my athletic strengths, they are sports that require technique that I don't have (xc ski), strengths on the bike that I've never bothered to develop (because I lack them).

Sure I'm a proficient xc skier now, but only after a few seasons of pain and a lesson, plus a ton of reading. I'm not a bad climber on the mtb, can keep up on the flats given the pure amount of volume of bike miles I log.. But the reason for changing things up is that there is really no pressure to do well and to be candid it enhances the fitness that I have built..

Both XC skate & Mtb tend to be very anaerobic at times, and I just rarely go there Swim, Bike, Running day in, day out.. Throwing in the occasional race/training session in these other sports/disciplines will (and does) force me mentally and physically way out of my comfort zone, which I think will be good when I actually race road Tri in the summer..

I won't be showing up on Bike Lemming's doorstep in my green tri shorts...

But maybe in that yellow speedo I bought two weeks ago, which, although my size seems cut differently, e.g. small pretty much everywhere.

http://bikelemming.blogspot.com/2009/01/y-foil-files.html

Actually, no I won't even wear the yellow speedo. Just to clarify, if I were to have to coffee, tea, etc. with BikeLemming I would wear clothes, but not drive a Saab on my way to meet him/her.

At anyrate after a few spins in the swim suit drying machine it's starting to appear a bit see through. Wearing it has become quite humourous at the pool and what's ironic is that normally folks who swim 4-6x a week get used to seeing men scantily clad.

It turns out there are varying levels of modesty and ways to express that in a pair of swim togs.. As a matter of fact I nearly bought a white speedo last weekend as joke but was told in a hushed whisper "you can't buy that, it's scandalous" which is exactly why I would buy it.

Either way, I'm retiring the yellow speedo (I'd like to think of it as tangerine) so that I may race in it this summer, and when folks complain and tease about the green tri shorts I'll remind them of the time I raced only in the low-cut yellow speedo.

The upside is that I saw a "Mark Spitz" style Speedo in classic red the other day..

I'm thinking of growing the Magnum PI stache, ala Mark Spitz to have the look just so..

Week of 2/1

Recovery week... totally shelled coming back from Oregon and a weekend in the hospital..

Swim- 4
Bike- 3
Run- 4

Monday-

Run- 55min easy jog around Marymoor.. Still didn't get much sleep due to Kaale being in Hospital..

Tuesday

Swim- Terrible swim.. Was totally listless (good thing it's a recov week).. Managed about 1000yards before swim cap broke..

Bike-45min spin on trainer in early eve.. feeling much better

Wednesday

Swim- 5x200 on the 3.30, coming in between 3min-3.05

Bike- 50min trainer spin

Thursday-

Swim- Mainset: 3x400 (last 200 broken) (6.25, 6.20, 3.05x2)

Run- Two laps around Greenlake in the eve steady, 41min

Friday-

Run- lunchtime run around Greenlake 61min

Saturday-

Bike- 2hr 30m, nice weather, a bit cool as well..

Sunday-

Run- 62min pre-bfast run, nice & easy...

Swim- Big mid-day set, 5x200 on the 3.30, coming in around 3.00 -3.05