In my bike last night I held an aero position more than I have any other ride. Started to feel it in the muscles right above my hips in my back. I am sure it is some form of abdominal muscle that controls this. More AB work to keep this from happening. I don't think more time in the saddle will cure it and it showed up on the uphills worse, so I may need to at least sit up during the uphills rather than trying to stay aero. I am feeling it a little this morning, tender in my lower back muscles. Anyone else noticing this? How about during the Bassman?
Matt, I think you may have signed us up for a very competitive triathlon. I keep looking at the bike times for the Mooseman, and still appear to be fast. So, I thought well maybe the distance is wrong, but your map of the bike route seems OK. So, I compared times of the Mooseman with the Mountaineer Tri. I asked what % of the field did each in 2 hrs 30 minutes. At first the Mountaineer won, but then I adjusted for the longer bike in the Mooseman. Over 15 % of the field at the Moose went under the 2:30. Where as only 11% did it at the Mountaineer. So, my results tell me that the Mooseman is attracting more athletes and better athletes. I know you can't see that from what I wrote, but I looked at a couple other things too and I don't wan to bore you. So, the bike times are fast because the athletes are fast.
I am getting a ProMotion sleeveless suit. I am ordering today. I have been back and forth. ProMotion has a sleeved top you can buy with the sleeveless, I will see how it goes and if I need to order this at some later date. Ultimately, I plan to continue tri's but I will be limited after this year for a couple years and even after getting my tax return and stimulus package I find myself wondering how I will someday pay for four college tuitions and at least a couple weddings. So, the less expensive suit is the way I am going, because I also need some descent tri shorts, something with a little padding in the crouch would be nice.
That is all. Good luck tomorrow at the Half Marathon.
7 comments:
I am clueless about biking "technique" but I seem to remember reading somewhere that if you speed is below X mph. It makes very little difference if you are aero or in the hoods. As I write that I think, that sounds like a bunch of BS.
Point I'm trying to make is, I don't think you are going to hurt yourself too much by leaving aero when you are climbing.
My Lower back was very very tight after finishing the Mooseman Bike that day. Same thing on the 30 mile ride in NJ with Steve the week before Bassman.
At Bassman, maybe because the course was so flat, I didn't notice any problems. I spent the majority of the ride in the drops.
I seem to zone out pretty good during a race, so it could be I just ignored the fact I was so tight. I know I was using my bike as a support as I ran back across the beach to T2.
I'm curious in the results you are seeing. Perhaps population density plays a part? There are a ton more people within 3 hours of the mooseman than Morgantown.
Or perhaps the fact that it's a qualifier for Lake Placid?
No worries, We can take em.
Very cool about the wetsuit. Obviously it helped me tremendously. I now understand why everyone would wear it every race they are legal.
As for the expenses later in life. I'm sure your kids will understand that the wetsuit is beneficial to your health and well being and won't hate your for it later in their life. :-)
I'm curious to see how I manage the Half Marathon. My scheduled training for this really took a hit. I'm not worried about finishing, I'm just curious about how I get there.
Thanks for the Luck.
Awesome about the ProMotion. I just e-mailed them about a 3XL suit recently and they said they were making a red-accented one. I was hoping for green, as I am an Earth Sprite, but red might be better when they are searching for my floating corpse in the lake. I haven't ordered yet, so maybe it's already gone. But if I'm going to do it, I better get on it. They did have one sleeveless in 3XL already available, so that might be an option too. I was also looking at their sleeved tops for future use if I got the sleeveless. I'm not too worried about getting cold. I just want the extra buoyancy. I'm supposed to be getting my tax return on May 9th, and it is pretty good-sized due to the Pittsburgh property, aka The Money Pit. But waiting until then might be pushing my luck. Whatever, as I've said before, if I don't have a wetsuit at the Mooseman, I have a good excuse for losing!
You guys and your sleeveless. I'm surprised you didn't ask if they had one that said "Welcome to the Gun Show" on the suit.
I'm still a few thousand pushups a day short of getting that T-shirt.
Oh, I also have lower back pain when riding in the crouch, but lately I have only been riding my bike while wearing a heavy (30lb) backpack. I assume that has something to do with it. I never experience this pain when on the trainer, and actually when I get in the aero position it usually goes away because I relax that part of my body. I love the aero position. It is like taking a nap on the bike. I don't use it going up hill though, and I agree with Matt's idea that you are getting little benefit if you are going under 10 mph (16kph for Craig), which is the speed I usually go uphills. Yeah, it doesn't really matter how big the hill is. If it qualifies as "up," I am going slowly. I imagine if you just ride in the aero some more, those muscles will become accustomed to being called upon, and you will become more comfortable too. Work on relaxing everything except the parts you need. How many times have you ridden like that so far? Three?
Ahhhh Three or Four? Isn't that a looney tunes sketch. It has probably been five or six actually, but this would be the second where I concentrated in staying in it for almost the whole ride.
I got the "Green Lantern" Promotion. It looks nuclear waste green enough that they will find the body on the bottom, plus if I get a styling cap like Matt had at the Bassman you probably see me floating on the bottom.
I went with the XL based on the guys recommendation. He said the smaller the size the larger your "guns" look. No, he said I was so close to a size that with the sleeveless I would be a XL and sleeve XXL, due to trying to keep a tight fit with the sleeveless, where as the sleeved version I don't want to be restricted. I am nervous about the fit, but I talked to him a while.
Sleeveless is not about the gun show, it is about my rugged individualism, not going with the flow, lone wolf, and says I'm a "Maverick" (John McCain would get sleeveless if he did tri's). Of course this could turn into a Harley Davidson bike rally where 10,000 rugged individualists go to Daytona beach dressed exactly the same way.
I wasn't sure if we needed the gun show shirt because we are gonna look like hick farmers in our sleeveless suits or what, but then I grasped the humor. I am trying to reduce my guns. They make biking harder. Running is harder. More resistance in the swim. I guess they come in handy in the Tango swim, at least the way I do it. Screw it. I'm never gonna win anyway, so I might as well make 'em bigger. I guess I better get a massive kettlebell and see how high I can throw it, and also do 1000 push-ups in May, so I can wow the spectators, who will all get very nice views of the guns as they putter by in slow motion.
Wait a minute, Matt is making fun of the gun show and he is the one running around in the FANCY, SMANCY Tri suit. HUh, what about that, Huh, Huh? I might have to get a wife beater t-shirt, and put some mustard stains on it. Then people would know I am from West "by God" Virginia, now that is a stereo type. (Please don't anyone take offense to the wife comment, that is an actual description of a type of t-shirt, well around here it is anyways. It is really an A-back sleeveless t-shirt, usually ribbed meant to wear under )
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