Newbie - Triathlon Week

chappy · 09-13-2006, 11:27 AM

Hey everybody. I decided to enter a triathlon. I'm doing my first sprint on Oct 1st. Here is what I did for the first week I signed up (8/30) and have stayed fairly consistent. I've mixed in an extra rest day and the giving of blood may have been a bad move (slowed my 5K times), but I had signed up for that before the tri so I figured I should go ahead and do it for the karma. I previously had pretty much run and mountain bike for exercise before signing up for the tri.

Monday: 3.5 mile run
Tuesday: 7.5 mile bike(on the streets) and 3.1 mile run (1 hour)
Wednesday: 1200 meter in the pool
Thursday: 7.5 mile mountain bike ride (55 minutes of biking) This was my first ride on the trails after buying clipless pedals. Needless to say, I had a few spills. The best of which was a very nice handlebar to the chest. That one still hurts right now. I also signed up for the tri today on this day (8/31)
Friday: 1 mile in the pool
Saturday: 6 mile bike (on the streets) in the morning, 6 mile run in the afternoon just before my appointment to donate blood. They were slightly concerned about my pulse rate of 98. I told them it was OK since twenty minutes ago it was 174.
Sunday: Riding the bike around pulling kids in 2 person stroller and played follow the leader with my 6 year old at the park.

I've decided to set a goal of 1:35 in the sprint triathlon (really 1:30):
750 meter swim (17 minutes), 12 mile bike (44) minutes, 3.1 mile run (26 minutes). That gives me 4.0 minutes in each of the transitions, plus I think I may be able to shave a minute or two off the bike. I'm pretty pumped and I'm glad I finally decided to enter the race. This should put me about in top third of the clydes judging from last years results. However they did cancel the Olympic distance for this year so their may be a few faster people entering the sprint.

sfricks · 09-13-2006, 01:40 PM

Great goals Chappy. Looks like you're already ready to move into Oly Distance. If you want to knock off a few minutes look at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. 4 minutes in a sprint T is a little long. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

chappy · 09-13-2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfricks

Great goals Chappy. Looks like you're already ready to move into Oly Distance. If you want to knock off a few minutes look at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. 4 minutes in a sprint T is a little long. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Wow, judging from your times it looks like about 3:30 long. The long transition times is why I said my real goal is 1:30:00. That would only give me 00:01:30 in each transition if I don't get a road bike and shed some time off of the bike portion.

I'm using my mountain bike shoes and pedals so running in them shouldn't be a problem. I practiced leaving my shoes on the pedals (the only way I could get clipped in when I first bought the clipless pedals), but for everyones safety I think I will put on and remove my shoes before getting on/off the bike for the first one. I do plan on buying some of the shoestrings, though.

gvey · 09-13-2006, 11:01 PM

Good luck in October, Chappy!

Thanks for the link, Scott. Good stuff.

jwier92 · 09-14-2006, 02:54 AM

Welcome Chappy. I think you will find that if you practice your transitions at least once and mentally visualize it, then you will be okay. 90% of your transition is the prep work. Having your helmet and sunglasses ready on your bike and your socks and shoes out is key. I hope you are not running the 5k in your mountian biking shoes, but I would not worry about leaving them clipped or the transition. To bad you do not have a road bike you can use for the race. Fit does not matter that much for that short of a ride, just make sure you do ride it once before hand. Oh and offer to buy new tubes or spare tubes for the person you are borrowing it from.

Enjoy and be ready to be hooked.

Jason

chappy · 09-14-2006, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwier92

Welcome Chappy. I think you will find that if you practice your transitions at least once and mentally visualize it, then you will be okay. 90% of your transition is the prep work. Having your helmet and sunglasses ready on your bike and your socks and shoes out is key. I hope you are not running the 5k in your mountian biking shoes, but I would not worry about leaving them clipped or the transition. To bad you do not have a road bike you can use for the race. Fit does not matter that much for that short of a ride, just make sure you do ride it once before hand. Oh and offer to buy new tubes or spare tubes for the person you are borrowing it from.

Enjoy and be ready to be hooked.

Jason

No, not running the 5K in moutain bike shoes. I meant run with the bike in the transition area. I plan on just wearing a pair of running shorts through the whole thing and throwing on a dri-fit T-shirt for the bike and run.

On the bike, I was probably just going to buy some cheap slick tires for the mountain bike and maybe some aero-bars and raise the seat. How much do the aero bars help and are they hard to get used to? I also have a friend with a Raleigh Scott Tinley Tri-lite Technium road bike. He hasn't rode it in 8 years and I could buy it from him, but I would have to get new tires and tubes for it (current ones have dry-rot). Does anybody know what a good price for it would be? It was a decent bike back in the day and it has the teal,grey,yellow frame which appears to be the good one. My hesitation is that the tires and tubes will probably cost more than the bike is worth.

sfricks · 09-14-2006, 01:37 PM

Chappy,
Fine to run out of T in your shoes. You're a brave soldier to bike in running shorts. If you have time, see if you can find tri shorts and a tri singlet or tri top. Wear both on the swim, bike and run.

As for the bike... Decent tires can be purchased at performancebike.com for $30 and tubes for $4 each. Add $8 for shipping and off you go.

Personally, I'd be more hesitant about the powertrain than the tires. How's the chain? Deraulers? Shifters? Cables? STI shifters? Down tube shifters? Trueness of the wheels? I suppose if you can pick it up dirt cheap you can have your local bike shop once over it but it could get ugly. Just my $.02.

Aerobars? Probably not on a mountain bike and not for this race. They may save you 30 seconds on the bike. Spend the money on a tri outfit and save 4 minutes in transition and have a happier backside for it (padding in the shorts).

Good luck!!!

chappy · 09-14-2006, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfricks

Chappy,
Fine to run out of T in your shoes. You're a brave soldier to bike in running shorts. If you have time, see if you can find tri shorts and a tri singlet or tri top. Wear both on the swim, bike and run.

As for the bike... Decent tires can be purchased at performancebike.com for $30 and tubes for $4 each. Add $8 for shipping and off you go.

Personally, I'd be more hesitant about the powertrain than the tires. How's the chain? Deraulers? Shifters? Cables? STI shifters? Down tube shifters? Trueness of the wheels? I suppose if you can pick it up dirt cheap you can have your local bike shop once over it but it could get ugly. Just my $.02.

Aerobars? Probably not on a mountain bike and not for this race. They may save you 30 seconds on the bike. Spend the money on a tri outfit and save 4 minutes in transition and have a happier backside for it (padding in the shorts).

Good luck!!!

Dude, You're an IronMan, Are you calling me tough for riding 12 miles in running shorts? I decided to rent a bike for the race. I'll get it for a few days and ride the course a couple of times on it and do the rest of the training on my mountain bike. I'll actually be traveling the next two weeks before the race so I will probably do most of the rest of my bike training on a stationary bike. Well, Its time to go bike and run.

sfricks · 09-14-2006, 07:20 PM

Tell you a nasty little secret... I'd rather do an Ironman than an Oly. You can almost coast through an Ironman. :)

gvey · 09-14-2006, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfricks

Tell you a nasty little secret... I'd rather do an Ironman than an Oly. You can almost coast through an Ironman. :)

Please quit saying things like that. All it's doing is making me think...

sfricks · 09-15-2006, 04:45 AM

Think on... Lee Iococa said, "If you think you can, you're right. If you think you can't, you're right".

jwier92 · 09-17-2006, 03:59 AM

Scott, thank you for the quote and I think I CAN.

Chappy, as far a buying the bike, I have to things. One is that I did the same thing, purchased a '88 Te Tour from somebody at work and here is a list of my pros and cons

Pro - Good price for a good bike. I paid $100 for the bike and have put $50 in tires and $10 in tubs.

Pro - This is my second season and the bike is still going. The tires were purchased this year.

Pro - If I sell it, I can get my $100 back from anyone else tring a Tri.

Con and this is my second point - now that I am ready for a new bike, my wife says "you already have a nice one".

But you are renting now, so keep on renting and then purchase a nice one. I need to make up a "fix up old bike plan" to give to my wife to justify the purchase of a new one now. Things like switching to 700mm rims and tires from my 27". I can move my peddles and use my shoes on the new one (cost on that was 2x what I paid for the bike) and if I can sell the old one(or keep it for a winter bike) I think I can eleminate that only con.

Jason