The Advice of Experts

On the quest to build a bike, I have decided to engade experts. The alternative was to spend some time reading the internet to understand what the tradeoffs are in picking parts, and then eventually just buying whatever was close to my budget. It works, but it could be better. I think that I am looking for a bike that is better than the sum of its parts. Hopefully the experts can guide me to pieces that are best for me.

I contacted a bike fitter, and started discussing what my options are as far as fitting the bike. This gives me a better idea what to look for as far as getting bars, cranks, gearing, seat. This should make the fitting easier to do.

Now, I really should have talked to a bike fitter first. But at least I found out that I am not so far off on frame size, which is good.

I also contacted a friend/aqauintance/FOAF/second cousin-in-law/smart guy who is into building bikes, and he is willing to answer any techy bike building questions.

Between the two, I should be able to find the parts that have the best fit to me, and still within my budget. As you well know, you can put a stupid amount of money into parts. This project is to get as much good ride out of what I have for budget, and find the best trade-offs. Treat it like engineering, where you are solving the problem at the lowest cost. No shimano DI2, that costs much more than remaining budget.

hehehe, let the bike building begin.

I have been thinking about getting a Tri bike for next season, and started thinking this week that I should be looking at fall sales, as the new models come in. My bud Rob pointed me to a frame that was available at the bike shop, and on sale as well.

Its Sexy.

Its a Specialized Transition Pro, which I acquired for $900 off list. I did ask if they were willing to move any more on the price, and the young lad did check, but informed me that it was priced pretty much at their cost, so they couldn't really move much. Thats OK, I think it was a great deal at the price I got it for. And there is something to be said for supporting the local bike shops, and not buying everything off the internet. Of course, if they sold it at their cost, I don't know how much help I am giving them. Well, cashflow at the very least.

Now I have a ton (tonne?) of research to do for the rest of the parts. Suggestions that I have had so far are:

Shimano Ultregra groupo
SRAM Red groupo

Need wheels, handlebars and seat as well.

Let the research begin!

Just having fun being a big kid...

My training buddy Rob put it very sucinctly the other night.

"This is the best way to spend your time. I am splashing in the pool with my friends, sometime soon we are gonna go ride our bikes around the neighborhood, and then we are going running around the park".

Perhaps this is the real attraction of Triathlon. You get to do all those things you loved to do as a kid, and spend time hanging around with your friends, enjoying being outside in the sun, and just plain having fun.

Yeah, I think I like this sport.

Racing season is sort-of over, time for winter training.

OK, I have been away for a while. Don't quite know why, but time to start talking about training again.

I qualified for Boston at the Calgary Marathon on May 31. 3:28:14. Awesome run, awesome race. Have to write up a race report.

My next years schedule is already filling up. I have Boston - Apr19, Calgary May 31, lethbridge sprint tri - Splash, Peddle, Gasp, Mothers day, Chinook half Ironman (olympic distance) June 24ish, 24 hours of adrenaline, July 25, Viterra Ironman 70.3 Calgary - Aug1. This is a busy schedule.

So I have started training again, and trying to get serious about it. Perhaps I should talk about getting serious for racing, and serious about training, and all the while, have fun doing it.

Sounds like fun.

Training plan for the week of May 4

Hey Hey, we are in May! There is only 4 weeks to go to the marathon, so our schedule will be three more weeks of ramping up the distance, then doing a 1 weekish Power-Taper to be ready for raceday. The only complication this week is the Lethbridge Sprint triathlon on May 10 (Sunday), so I will need to do some kind of mini-taper before it arrives.

Monday: Triathlon Resistance - 1 Hr
:Swim 30 minutes

Tuesday: Tempo Tuesday! - 8K of tempoing
Swim - 30-45 minutes, at Talisman center in the 50M pool

Wednesday: Triathlon resistance - 1 Hr
:Milers on the Shaganappi hill. We have to run this hill in the race, so lets go train on it. 8x1m@T - one mile up the hill, one mile back down perhaps.

Thursday: 10K of recovery run, so easyish
: Swim Lesson - 30 Minutes

Friday: Nothing at all for lunch - have a business presentation that goes to noon anyway
: Swimming with Helen - 30 minutes

Saturday: Cycle 1 hour

Sunday: 500m of swimming, 20K on the bike, 5K run - 1:20 of intense effort

Thursday, and swimming lessons

Had another swimming lesson today, and it was interesting. Lea? Leigh? was my instructor, and we had no set thing that we were going to work on. I started out by doing a few lengths and letting her critique my technique, so to speak. On the first few, she commented that I needed to keep my elbows higher, but other than that, said my technique was excellent. My kick is still weak, so that my bum is still low in the water, and therefore dragging too much.

We did a count of how many strokes it take me to get from one end to the other, and it takes 30 strokes. She wanted to work on improving that, thinking that 20 strokes to cross 25 meters would be a good target. It would require a really long stretch, and good pull and good technique, and therefore a good target.

We worked a bit on my technique for breast stroke. If I remember, when I first did it, I had absolutely no coordination, and was floundering immediately. Now, I get good propulsion on the kick, she said my head level in the water was just about perfect, only thing that I might do is take some extra time in the glide. I did find that when I am gliding in the breast stroke, I am really straining in my legs to stretch out as much as possible, and my quads were almost done after a few lengths. This is weird, as there is lots of time to relax in there, and therefore, the quads should not be burning at all. Another thing to work on, spending more time in the glide, and relaxing the legs so that this is an easy stroke.


All in all, a good lesson. I first got in the pool in mid february. In just shy of three months, I have huge improvement, so this swimming thing just might be doable. Still searching for my rhythm though, but it feels like its really close now. Practice makes perfect, and thats it what the next few days will bring, more practice.

Time for more sleep. Seems thats the one part of the training that I am not paying attention to, and we should talk further about this topic...

Vive la Resistance! Wednesdays workout

Resistance training today. Lindsay has been reading the instruction manuals again. Ended up by myself, with my training partner recommending to her that 'she go really hard on me, since I was by myself'.

First Grouping:

• 3 sets of 20 chest press using the long straps on the weight cage, You lean forward at about a 45 degree angle, and they end up kinda like pushups. You can adjust the difficulty by how far back you place your feet. We ended up going farther back each set.
• 3 sets of 30 pullups using the straps. These are somewhat like body rows, knees bent, leaning back, and pull upwards.
• Deadlifts - 45 lb bar, with 15lb on each side (75 lbs total).
  
• One legged squats to the bench. On one foot, other extended forward, lower bum to the bench and up. Knee does not go over toe, so that you are extending bum outward as you lower.
  

Second grouping, we mized it up a bit more to allow for recovery time of the muscles:

• Planks on the BOSU, holding for 2 minutes the first time, then 90 seconds after. Did the roll to the side, and raise one arm after 80 seconds of holding.
• Shoulder press, 1 set with 15lb bells (15 reps), then 2 more sets with 17.5 lbs, only made it to 12 each time.
• Lat pulldowns. First set of 15 with 85lbs, then adjusted form so that I was pulling bar all the way down to chest, 2 sets at 70lbs (15 reps)
• Did one set up hip work, where you start hands on floor, one foot outside hands, other foot extended backwards. Now switch, jumping to new position. Again. for a count of 20.
• Back extensions on the BOSU. You lay across the bosu, and raise your upper body as high as you can, then lower. Do that 15 times.
  

Then lots of stretching, working the hips to stretch them out. Good workout!

Evening run, got together with Geoff, and we did our 10K of fartleks. We picked up another runner, Sandy, who is also training for marathons. it was good, called three or 4 farts, mixed it up a bit, threw in some strides, multi-gear shift up and downs.

We also met up with Ken Hill, he of the six-in-sixty fame (http://www.sixinsixty.ca/). He will be running Calgary as well, and was just back from Boston. For a now 61 year old guy, he is amazing, and I hope to be running marathons that fast in another 16 years as well.