Successes and looking ahead

After a quite a few falls and a lot of struggles, I've finally figured out how to stop/start correctly (leaving one foot clipped and everything)! It took a few struggles from Brad trying to teach me and a few more from my coach at VisionQuest Coaching, but now my bike is making some awesome noises and dropping it's chain a bit (probably an issue with the rear derailleur). Time for a check-up with the bike doctors! All the falling probably didn't help it... or at least that's what knocked my hood out of place.

Other exciting updates:
I had another race - a sprint in Memphis! (Memphis in May sprint triathlon). It went pretty well. All though my swim was unnecessarily long, my other two legs went really well. I finally managed to pick my speed up on the bike, granted it was a flat course, but I averaged just under 18 mph which is pretty sweet. My 5k pace fell to 8:38 min/miles so that went well. More time to just keep on trucking.

Mandatory race picture - pushing it on the bike

Next I'm facing a new challenge in triathlon: getting sponsors for my team! I was recently elected to be the sponsorship and merchandising chair for Northwestern Triathlon. It's going to be a fun new challenge. Recently our team has been approached by Greater Than and Push Endurance, so if you're looking for some new sports nutrition - take a peek at those guys.

Merchandising? Swim. Bike. Run. Party.

Kendyl, Me & Brad - posing, you know

Random post. More to come.

STRUGGGLLESS

First of all, it's my 21st birthday.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. It's been a while:
Gottta fess up. I can't get on and off my bike correctly.. err, well efficient. I'm really really awful about it. I'm not even talking about fancy flying mounts and dismounts (which I probably think are even more fancy because I get on and off my bike in a very strange way).

Why is it stupid, you may ask? Well I get on my saddle first and then a try to get on the pedals which is dumb because the way bikes are fit (if fit correctly) you should not be able to touch the ground when on the saddle, which I can't... except with my toes, which makes it even more... special.

So what am I suppose to do, you may ask?
MOUNTING.
Stand straddling the top tube but not yet seated (that's where I fail).
Put your foot on one pedal while keeping the other on the ground. Push down on this pedal and stand up at the same time. Keep your weight shifted slightly to the other side so as to keep your balance. Get on the seat and put your free foot on the pedal. HOORAY!

My challenge, I think, is the part when one is standing and balancing on one foot. Hmmm. Maybe I should practice riding standing with one foot because, it's also key in the dismount:

DISMOUNTING.
Get off the saddle and stand. STEP ONE. Yeah about that. Take the higher foot off its pedal and begin to stop your bike. As the bike stops, tip it slightly to the side with the freed foot. Put that foot on the ground aaaannnnd STOP. Remove other foot, you know, if you want.

Well poo. Now I guess I have to practice these things. YUCK.

Building bikes and taking names

Today I helped my friend Lena put her bike back together after she had it shipped here from home. One of the things I've had stressed to me recently is the importance of your stem angle and the spacers underneath it being in the most aggressive position you can be in. So when I saw Lena still had all her spacers in and her stem flipped up, I wondered why no one had ever considered lowering them for her.

Stem angle and the number of spacers underneath it determine the angle at which your body situates itself on the bike. For racing, you idealize the most aerodynamic position, which is low handlebars with no spacers. What confuses me is that I've heard this position is not "sustainable" for long distances. This of course makes me question what defines "long-distance." Is long-distance a cycling trip across the country or 112 miles in the middle of an Ironman? I would guess that because professional Ironman athletes don't ride with their stems flipped up, and 3-4 cm of spacing, it must be referring to the former.

While for beginners it probably is more comfortable to ride in this position, it also doesn't really train them to work their flexibility for dropping their body to attain that idealized flat back that cyclists talk about, does it?

Something I've been considering lately is getting professionally fit to my bike by our team coach. My concerns are cost and how terribly I really need it (but mostly cost). This 2-4 hour process will literally analyze every angle at which my body falls on the bike, among other things. I went to a local store and got "fitted" in about 20 min, which was how I found out about this whole dropping spacers thing to get in a more aggressive position. When I initially got my bike, I threw my stem in a pretty low position because I knew that I wanted my handlebars to be at least somewhat lower. Now, however, I'm faced with this idea of getting a new stem also because mine is adjustable which is... weird.

I wish this sport wasn't so expensive because I'm entirely too nerdy about it to handle the costs I'm faced with. In the meantime, let's ponder aerodynamics, shall we?