The verdict

Kendyl made the 75-ish minute trip up to Evanston today to teach me how to swim! YAY!
We talked a lot about breaking down the freestyle stroke. Some I knew, some I didn't. Still, here is the breakdown.
Components:
The reach - making sure you not only put your hand in the water, but reach out a little before you start pulling back
The pull - after you reach, begin bending a bit at the elbow. Your hand takes almost an hourglass shaped path as it pulls in close to your body then push back down to your hip. This is where you are literally pushing the water out of your way. Your fingers really need to be closed!
- The back half of your stroke is super important. After you get to your waist, you want to continue pushing the water all the way to your thigh. Once your arm is fully extended you put a little extra effort in to flick the water away from your hip.
The recovery - So your arm is fully extended and it may feel a tad awkward, but you must immediately bend your elbow and pull your hand up, almost to your armpit ... then extend ahead of you and it starts all over again.

Swimming 101. I needed that.

Technique media fun time

I had a friend today ask me if she could do a triathlon if she didn't know how to swim. The irony is that I am the WORST swimmer literally in almost every field I race in. Whoops. Obviously, I told her I found it to be a big challenge and that I cautioned her that swimming is a big hurdle. In short, I think I talked her out of it.

Anyway, I'm back to fixating on my swimming... problems - so here's a "fun" video to break up the text! (At the very least, here's a really impressive guy swimming.)

As you may remember from an earlier post about the exhalation debate - this analyzer seems to be an advocate of the constant exhalation thing... but the fierce iron man dude isn't doing it and he's a fierce iron man dude. Just saying.

Race recap: Evergreen Lake Triathlon

For my first race of the season and first successful olympic-distance triathlon, I was off in Hudson, IL racing with the team. It was supposed to be 90 degrees and utterly miserable, but instead it was like 80 degrees with lots of cloud cover and just generally mild climate.

The swim, for once, was fairly successful or as successful as it can be considering I'm such an awful swimmer. I didn't panic and sighting went well and I swam pretty close to the buoys.

My bike was better than I expected. I averaged 19.6 mph which is 1 mph higher than my goal of 18.5 mph. It was nice to look down and see that I finished my bike leg 4 minutes early. That being said, the hills really slowed me down and although I have been working on standing climbs, I wasn't able to do it at all during the race. The corners were awful and I didn't take them nearly as aggressively as I took Memphis.

My run was not awful, but not as fast as I wanted it to be. Partially this may be because I knew I had a full 60 min after the bike to reach my overall time goal so I took it easier than I may have. That being said, just after the 4th mile my chest really hurt... awesome. I finished strong and came in 1 minute and 13 seconds under my time goal of 3 hours.




Lot's of people on the team had great races yesterday and I'm excited for us to head out to Sylvania next month. For now, I've got lots of stuff to work on and nicer bikes to dream of.

My First Road Flat and Other Bedtime Stories

It's hard to believe that I have been cycling as long as I have and haven't actually flatted on the road. Especially when you consider how many tires I've changed and how fast I can change a tube/tire. There is an explanation: I have a training tire and am on my second upgrade of tires-- so really my changing skillzzz are due to my addiction to souping-up my ride.

But this time, the first flat I had to deal with on the road wasn't even my own! My friend Erin, who I have spent a few of our recent long Saturday rides exploring Illinois with realized her tire looked a little... strange before we left. It kind of looked lumpy/dented. I can't really explain it. Enough to worry that the actual wheel might've been warped (thankfully, it wasn't). We decided to exchange her tire with my spare and still use her tube because it appeared okay. Unfortunately, it must've not been so "okay" because she flatted 12 miles into our ride. So I lent her my spare tube...

SO HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY:
CO2 is a PAIN THE BUTT
My first time dealing with CO2 was with Erin's tire. This time the canister didn't screw quite "correctly" into the charger and we lost all of it before we could even put it in her damn tire.

Oh no! What did we do you ask?
Well I went all out for about 15 minutes to the nearest bike store: Trek (which is conveniently located next to VQ so they know our team) and bought some more CO2 and tubes. In the meantime, some nice cyclist with a hand pump found Erin and put air in her tire. She met me at Trek and topped it off.

We were on our merry way for a little over an hour until, apparently, it was my turn. Baby's first flat. At first I wasn't even sure I flatted, and then I was sure when my wheel started thunking. :] Again, Erin and I attempted the magical feat of changing a tire. This time, the CO2 worked!... but I couldn't get it off in time (because I had a 16g canister) and so it overfilled my tube and popped it. So then I tried to use what little was left in the second tube and then some of the other CO2 canister I bought, but it all was an ultimate failure and I ended up biking around 4 miles on a flat. AWESOME.

Advice.
16g CO2 fills up to about 130 PSI. Great if you have some control... not great if you don't. Probably good for races when you need the air pressure, probably not the best for general rides.
12g CO2 fills up to about 90 PSI. Sure, this doesn't put you at a great inflation, but it's good enough to ride for a few miles to the nearest bike store! (Especially if you are in a semi-urban/sub-urban/bike-friendly setting where bike stores are common. There is probably one about every 3 or 4 miles for 16-18 miles out from Northwestern.)
Also, CO2 sucks for longevity. If you are going to be around a bike store and you are on a long ride... I'd say stop, empty out your tires, and have them refill entirely with a pump/air compressor. Even if you don't, be sure to do so when you get home/before your next ride. Don't top off CO2 filled tires with a pump. Take the extra minute to totally deflate them and refill.

Happy riding!

Also, race this weekend: Evergreen Lake Triathlon! Pictures, I'm SURE will follow. (Even if they aren't mine.) Second Olympic of the season!

Cycling is not as easy as it looks... seriously

This weekend I was biking with a friend on the tri team and we were discussing how challenging it is to be a truly "competent" cyclist. Sure you think it's "just like riding a bike," but even the most seasoned cyclists make mistakes. Brad was talking about his experience on a group ride with a bunch of very skilled cyclists (seriously, they kept like 26 mph WITH stops for lights). He made one mistake and the other cyclist it affected made a fuss about it and cued the whole group to start judging Brad. It's a rough world out there.

I feel like each time I go on a long ride I make another break-through, be it speed, skill, what have you, but there is always something you can do better. Sure, now I can get on and off/stop my bike (remember that post? yeaaahh challenge accepted) and I'm even doing pretty well with this drafting thing or balance and riding one-handed, but I've still got so many challenges to face.

When people say "it's just like riding a bike," sure you've got muscle memory but building up the skills it takes to signal, eat on the bike, do standing climbs/sprints (that's so difficult! and is consequently my next challenge), corner or do a flying mount/dismount, it takes a TON of practice. It's frustrating. Basically, that cliché is only 50% accurate. If everything people described as "it's just like riding a bike" was actually like riding a bike, do you know how bruised I would be?

Call me a noob. Go ahead.