I’ve jumped straight back into my latest obsession.
For once I’m not avoiding the swim. I suck at it, but I have a plan. I’m trying to swim at least 3 times a week, that will build up strength, and every session I’m working on my faults. I’ve an ongoing battle with the breathing. I need to keep my head in the water and my mouth has to barely clear it. That is tough. But it’s something I’m committed to mastering. I’m having better luck sorting out my stroke. There is a simple drill to stop you windmilling. Basically keep the front hand stretched out until the other hand slaps it in passing. As soon as I stop thinking about it I go back to windmilling and one stroke just disappears in a powerless flop. But I’ve managed to do a few lengths where I stick to it. I’m hoping it will become muscle memory. The other thing I’m working on is rotating on to both sides, so I have a high elbow, clear of the water. And forcing my chest down to make my legs stay up. I’ll work through my faults as best as I’m able, building some strength in the process, then I’ll book a one to one session with a swim coach.
In the last week I’ve done three swims. I found out on the second swim, my watch, by some voodoo, can record laps even in an indoor pool. Cool. Way better than manually clicking the ring-like device I was using last time, I always missed clicks.
Swimming is my big challenge on triathlon. I’m weak and slow. I always think if I’ve beat the cut off for the swim section I’m on to finish the race. That’s why, this time, I’m determined to crack swimming. For a half tri it’s a 1.1 mile swim with a 1 hour 10 cut off. I did 53 minutes swimming on my second go and covered 1.05 miles. It’s in the bag!
The next discipline is the bike leg. For a half its 56 miles. In the past I had a Canyon all singing, all dancing tri bike that cost thousands. And I was crap. So it made the bike an embarrassment. All the gear, no idea. This time I wanted a cheap bike that was good enough. I stumbled across Quintana Roo brand. They specialise in tri bikes. I’ve gone the way of fitting tri bars to a road bike in the past, but he geometry is always compromised then. I saw a few on eBay for around £400+, which is a good price compared to thousands, but they were all too big. Then I saw one for £200, in a S/M size, and the seller was 5′ 6″! Perfect! I set a bid sniper and got it for the asking price. The only downside is it was collection only in the ghetto of Kensington, London village. I thought going late on a Sunday I would have a clear run down, but the weather was atrocious so it was queues all the way down. It was a nightmare. On the way back the satnav took me a different way, and within a few miles I knew exactly where I was, and the roads had cleared, so getting home was a doddle. It was an 8 1/2 hour round trip, but now I’ve got it I’m made up with it. It’s carbon fibre, so pretty light, it’s got lots of quality components, I love the feel of the tri bars, the review said because it’s tri specific it’s “comfortable” for the whole race (I remain sceptical) and it was £200! I love a bargain!
The only thing I’m changing is the seat. It has a road bike seat, but because you are rotated forward in a tri hunch, you aren’t sitting on your sit bones, but on the soft flesh underneath. The latest thinking is to take the weight off the nerves there.
I’ve heard that “comfortable is fast”. If you can hold the position, in comfort, you are going to be faster than someone in an extreme position who has to keep sitting up or wriggling about. This is my goal. I’m going to put insoles in my cycling shoes. I may lose a fraction of the power, but if my foot doesn’t go into agony/ numbness, I will be faster. Now I’m thinking about cycling to work and selling two of my motorbikes (keep the Harley).
I’ve done a few session of swim, cycle for 30 minutes, then run for 4 miles at the gym. It smashes your legs for the run, but you have to get used to it. The worst part though is the heat. It’s a slightly cool gym. You’ve done a lot of effort on the swim, by half an hour of cycling the sweat is pouring off you, then running, with no fan… ugghhhh. At least it’s fantastic heat conditioning. In February. By September I should be Sahara ready!
Today I just did the swim (1k) then it was my long run. I won’t be doing that again. It was misery. I wanted to quit the whole run. I did the 16 miles, but no. Not on long run day.
Obviously I jumped straight in and did too much, too soon. Now I have a pain under my knee cap. I’m going to rest it for a few days.
Later,
Buck.
PS, there’s more. I said to Wendy yesterday that I’d ordered the exact same gears cassette that’s on the new tri bike, to fit to my grinding noise trainer until the Jetblack trainer is back in stock. The thought must have been going around my brain. I’ve just thought ‘hold on a minute!’ and checked the cassette that’s currently on the trainer. It’s the same amount of gears but a lot bigger than the one on the pushbike. I think it must be a mountain bike cassette. D’oh! Literally years of cursing the trainer and thinking I’d broken it because it was making grinding noises. The gear teeth are the wrong size for the chain! I’ll know for sure when I get the new cassette and fit my new bike to the trainer, but there is no way that was helping.