Quote:
Originally Posted by Laneco
You are doing GREAT!!!!
The clipless pedals allow you to make very smooth circles with your pedaling motion. Most people who a standard platform tend to pedal "squares" or "stomp postholes" in their pedaling action. You want a light, fluid feel, a very circular motion, like an engine's crankshaft - it should spin, not bang around. High RPM is your friend, even if it's just the last few minutes of the bike portion before the run. Go into a lightly loaded high rpm and spin out those last few minutes (don't bounce on the saddle, stay smooth). It helps with the bicycle-legs that you get on transitions.
Tri-bikes are notoriously twitchy. They are often aero-framed or bladed-forks, darty in the cross-winds, very steep seat angle, and often the rider's weight is very forward. They are also the fastest bike out there for non-drafting events. Definitely need to ride/ride/ride one to keep from flailing around. Clipless pedals actually help when you are able to smooth the pedal stroke and LIFT (engage the hammies and hiney). If you can find a local school track that you can ride on, put the bike in the outside lane and ride it, keeping between the lines. Very safe way to smooth this out. Otherwise, find a quiet, long road with a little shoulder and a fogline. Ride just to one side of the fogline, eyes focused ahead, not down at the line, follow the line using your peripheral vision. You should be able to make pretty quick gains in this area.
I think you're training is really coming along. Working out with the tri-club is a great idea!! You are on your way!
angela  |
Thanks for all the advise Angela. AND OTHERS. Much appreciated. I think the pedaling "squares" vs. circles is dead on. That's the difference.
I don't think our school will allow me on the track but We have some very nice long roads between the Islands I can ride early before traffic picks up. One just happens to be the bike course. Lucky me.
Some how I broke the forward derailleur cable this morning on the Tri-bike making the turn around at the five mile mark. The chain got stuck in the small gear on the front and the middle gear on the rear cassette. I couldn't shift more than one gear up or down on the rear so my five mile ride back home was high RPM's all the way.
Paco- we took a pic after the race but I am not posting my dehydrated ugly mug. I look terrible. I didn't post it above but the race organizers weren't much on hydration.
Let me put it into perspective. The race was put on by the locals Elks Club and Mid Atlantic Police and Fire to benefit the Police and Fire survivors. Anyone that knows our local Elks Club will attest those guys have no clue what a bottle of water is. A pitcher of beer yes. Water is used to make beer not to drink alone.
So the run starts at 9AM, 98 degrees, the sun is more or less over my left shoulder with a slight breeze in my face. A quarter mile in is a table with a few Dixie cups of water with a guy with the shakes handing them out. I ran right past figuring there will be another table later. At about the mile mark there was a table with a vendor selling bottles of water for $2. Huh? I kept going thinking there will be water at the turnaround. No water. Now the sun is right in my face and the breeze at my back. So now my choices are $2 for water a half mile away or the Dixie cup at a mile and a quarter. Since I didn't have $2 on me I opted for the Dixie cup. As I approached the Dixie cup table the guy is inundated with about fifty runners all grasping for his Dixie cups. It looked like the Zombie apocalypse, so I kept on going to the end.