Saturday, March 29, 2008

Back on the Bike

I was at a conference all week, so I've been AWOL from the blog, but I got back today and jumped on the bike. I finally got a battery from the local jewelry store (last one they had) for the power meter I got with the trainer. Now I have to read the manual online, because I can't figure out what the heck the thing is telling me. It keeps changing, and I can't make sense of any of the numbers. It appears to be in some kind of scrolling average mode, and the speeds are metric, but I assume I'll have that fixed by next time. Really all I'm interested in is watts and speed, and the averages of those two things. It can't do cadence. I rode for 65 minutes while watching the award-winning film Scorpion King. Taking my mind off pedaling seemed to help, as I was able to maintain a pretty high cadence in my 3rd highest gear. Sweated profusely. Did lots of walking at the conference so it wasn't a total bust fitnesswise, but I didn't run or swim at all.

One thing I've discovered is that my biking shoes are going to be really dangerous to try to run in at the transition. They are hard plastic on the bottom, and are like wearing slippery reverse high heels. Any ideas on that? Craig, your shoes are like that too right? What are we supposed to do? I'd rather not eat concrete at T2. Might be safest to pull my feet out of the shoes and run barefoot, leaving the shoes attached to the pedals. Not sure yet.

Only a little over 2 months to go. I don't feel ready. In fact, I feel quite unready.

2 comments:

catmarlson said...

I did a long trainer ride yesterday. My lower back was getting rather unhappy with me as fatigue was setting in. This Bassman tri is going to be a good bike lesson for me. I really think I'm going to have to just take it easy on the bike. I still feel this is where you guys are going to smoke me.

T2 Bike Shoes:
depending on the transition area setup, you may not want to be barefoot. I think it may be in a grassy/sandy area. (maybe by the swingsets near the beach, if you remember where those are) I'll be sockless in my bike shoes and will probably put socks on for my run.
If you leave your shoes clipped on to the pedals, practice this. The shoes may cause your pedals to move and then your shoes are dragging and possibly tripping you up.
Because I'm not going to win this thing, my transitions are the least of my concerns. Do I want to be in transitions for 3 minutes? No. I don't expect walking my bike into the racks will cause me to lose that much time. In fact by walking in I probably have a better chance of being able to put my socks on without falling over.

CSquared said...

The shoes are slick and I have seen people go down. The on bike deal is interesting because the shoes don't stay right side up by themselves. I intend to not wear socks for the bike, so I will put on the shoes and walk my bike to the leaving area.

Coming into T2, I hope to learn how to get out of the shoes on the bike and be running in barefeet in the transisiton. But I left the shoes on last year without much trouble.