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.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Nutrition obsession and the verdict on swimming
I finally dragged myself reluctantly to the water for a 2000 y swim on Monday. Despite my long entry on swimming, for the first 500 y I couldn't remember anything I wrote about, so I kept thinking of Mr. Smooth.
Then I remembered the sinking exercise, so after my warm-up I did that. I'm sure the lifeguards judged me, but I had just swam 500 y successfully so I don't think they thought I was drowning. My conclusion: Yep, I really hate just chilling underwater. That whole "feeling peaceful" thing doesn't really happen to me and there was just no way I was getting my butt to stay on the floor of the pool. Needless to say, upon remembering this exercise I remembered the whole exhalation thing. Part of my workout consisted of a 4x300 so for that I worked specifically on the strong exhale thing and you know what? I felt pretty good because it relaxed me and gave me something else to focus on so I'll probably keep trying it. It makes being underwater so LOUD! haha
That being said, a few days later I told Brad about my exhaling and he was told precisely the opposite by some seasoned swimmers- that air in your lungs makes you more buoyant, it may make it easier to focus and.. oh, you know, the pros don't. AWESOME. Brad exhales into the water all at the last minute, ultimately creating that pocket of space next to him, making it easier to inhale and not gasp in water. I'm trying to find more writing on what he's talking about, but it seems that may be the more "elite" way of doing things and all this online literature is geared towards beginners. Brad did find a post from Olympian Gary Hall, Sr. on Slowtwitch about this whole topic. Here is what he said: "No matter what breathing pattern you use, keeping air in your lungs as long as possible is extremely important. The added buoyancy of the air in the lungs lifts the body in the water and reduces drag. Therefore one needs to burst exhale just before taking the next breath. In other words, don't trickle your breath out under water (except on backstroke off the wall to keep water from going up your nose). With a 2:3 pattern, so long as one is not using a super high stroke rate (mine is in the 60's...but I use a strong kick), there is time to take a good breath and exhale before taking a successive breath. No one gets a 'full' breath when swimming, nor exhales completely. There just isn't enough time for that. But getting a fresh load of oxygen in and CO2 out more often than 20 to 30 times per minute is physiologically desirable.....with the corollary that you do not slow your stroke rate too much nor drag your upper arm underneath you under water in the process. The former reduces inertia and the latter increases drag."
The contention kind of confuses me, but hey... I'll just keep trying different stuff until I'm faster, right? Right. Here is the whole thread in which people sort of hash out this issue.
In terms of the other topics: body roll is something I always think about, and generally fail at, but just keep swimming... right? I'll probably think about these core things tomorrow. I have to take things one step at a time.
Speaking of core, I have two goals for this summer: educating myself on healthy sports nutrition and incorporating strength training. So far I have lifted twice this week, and generally I'm aiming for 3x a week to start out.
I have also been working with our teams nutritionist Linda Samuels to better my diet. I'm already a pretty healthy eater, but now I'm learning the ins and outs of athletics and food. I'm also reading Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook which is surprisingly fascinating. Today I've learned all about fruits/vegetables as well as the truth about vitamins and minerals. It's a good book if you're into this sort of this thing - think about it.
Then I remembered the sinking exercise, so after my warm-up I did that. I'm sure the lifeguards judged me, but I had just swam 500 y successfully so I don't think they thought I was drowning. My conclusion: Yep, I really hate just chilling underwater. That whole "feeling peaceful" thing doesn't really happen to me and there was just no way I was getting my butt to stay on the floor of the pool. Needless to say, upon remembering this exercise I remembered the whole exhalation thing. Part of my workout consisted of a 4x300 so for that I worked specifically on the strong exhale thing and you know what? I felt pretty good because it relaxed me and gave me something else to focus on so I'll probably keep trying it. It makes being underwater so LOUD! haha
That being said, a few days later I told Brad about my exhaling and he was told precisely the opposite by some seasoned swimmers- that air in your lungs makes you more buoyant, it may make it easier to focus and.. oh, you know, the pros don't. AWESOME. Brad exhales into the water all at the last minute, ultimately creating that pocket of space next to him, making it easier to inhale and not gasp in water. I'm trying to find more writing on what he's talking about, but it seems that may be the more "elite" way of doing things and all this online literature is geared towards beginners. Brad did find a post from Olympian Gary Hall, Sr. on Slowtwitch about this whole topic. Here is what he said: "No matter what breathing pattern you use, keeping air in your lungs as long as possible is extremely important. The added buoyancy of the air in the lungs lifts the body in the water and reduces drag. Therefore one needs to burst exhale just before taking the next breath. In other words, don't trickle your breath out under water (except on backstroke off the wall to keep water from going up your nose). With a 2:3 pattern, so long as one is not using a super high stroke rate (mine is in the 60's...but I use a strong kick), there is time to take a good breath and exhale before taking a successive breath. No one gets a 'full' breath when swimming, nor exhales completely. There just isn't enough time for that. But getting a fresh load of oxygen in and CO2 out more often than 20 to 30 times per minute is physiologically desirable.....with the corollary that you do not slow your stroke rate too much nor drag your upper arm underneath you under water in the process. The former reduces inertia and the latter increases drag."
The contention kind of confuses me, but hey... I'll just keep trying different stuff until I'm faster, right? Right. Here is the whole thread in which people sort of hash out this issue.
In terms of the other topics: body roll is something I always think about, and generally fail at, but just keep swimming... right? I'll probably think about these core things tomorrow. I have to take things one step at a time.
Speaking of core, I have two goals for this summer: educating myself on healthy sports nutrition and incorporating strength training. So far I have lifted twice this week, and generally I'm aiming for 3x a week to start out.
I have also been working with our teams nutritionist Linda Samuels to better my diet. I'm already a pretty healthy eater, but now I'm learning the ins and outs of athletics and food. I'm also reading Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook which is surprisingly fascinating. Today I've learned all about fruits/vegetables as well as the truth about vitamins and minerals. It's a good book if you're into this sort of this thing - think about it.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
the swimming issue
I have one key thing to put in this post:
http://www.swimsmooth.com/
I hope this makes me faster. I'm going to watch it for hours.
Some other things I'm learning while reading about swimming (because it is 100% my weakest leg of a triathlon AND what makes me think I cannot continue triathlon for the rest of my life):
Exhalation
I swim with my mouth open, and that's how I exhale into the water. Whenever you are swimming, you should always be exhaling into the water except when you are inhaling to the side. Mouth or nose... doesn't matter it just needs to happen. It's also supposed to be pretty strong too - not some wimpy exhalation. All though I may think I'm doing this, after breathing most people hold their breath for 1 or 2 seconds before actually starting their exhale. It's important, however to keep exhaling because it keeps you relaxed and keeps tension to a minimum while swimming. When you hold your breath, you begin to feel a build up of CO2 which makes you desperate for air, but if you are constantly getting rid of it, you don't feel that desperation (and thus you don't tense up). Tension causes swimmers to want to lift their head and ruin their body position. Similarly, having full lungs actually screws with your body's position in the water by making your chest too buoyant and your legs sink, which is not ideal for speed because it causes drag.
So how do you learn how to exhale correctly? This cool sinking exercise that I'll probably do in the near future at make everyone at the gym pool judge me so hard core (it's about 2/3 of the way down the page).
Body Roll/Rotation
This is something that I know is supposed to happen and it happens when I breathe, but isn't really being well executed when I just swim. I always try to rotate and feel super weird, probably because my hips are rotating, but not my torso. Doing this correctly allows you to use larger muscles for power and elongates your stroke. The fun thing about body roll, is that you rarely see too much and, in fact, you want as much as possible while still keeping a nice rhythm to your stroke.
My question, is how best to practice this. The answer: kicking on your side. The problem: this makes me drown. Why? Because I'm an awful swimmer. Ah, what a conundrum. But a little fix is, while swimming, thinking about pushing your chest forward and your shoulder's back. I'm going to try that first and see what happens. That being said, I'm sure I'll also give this swimming on my side thing a second chance.
Using your core
Things to think about while you're swimming (while I'm swimming... you know, whatever)
1) Stretch through your core. Think about an elastic from your rib cage to pelvis and keep it taut while swimming.
2) Tighten your butt muscles. Don't get crazy now (no squeezing the hell out of your glutes)... but apparently it helps your kicking technique too!
3) Keep good posture! Remember that thing about chest out, shoulders back? Yeah do it. Stomach in. Shoulders back. Chest out.
Those are my words of wisdom/research for the day. I stole a book from my mom called The Fit Swimmer. It will be my next endeavor today.
http://www.swimsmooth.com/
I hope this makes me faster. I'm going to watch it for hours.
Some other things I'm learning while reading about swimming (because it is 100% my weakest leg of a triathlon AND what makes me think I cannot continue triathlon for the rest of my life):
Exhalation
I swim with my mouth open, and that's how I exhale into the water. Whenever you are swimming, you should always be exhaling into the water except when you are inhaling to the side. Mouth or nose... doesn't matter it just needs to happen. It's also supposed to be pretty strong too - not some wimpy exhalation. All though I may think I'm doing this, after breathing most people hold their breath for 1 or 2 seconds before actually starting their exhale. It's important, however to keep exhaling because it keeps you relaxed and keeps tension to a minimum while swimming. When you hold your breath, you begin to feel a build up of CO2 which makes you desperate for air, but if you are constantly getting rid of it, you don't feel that desperation (and thus you don't tense up). Tension causes swimmers to want to lift their head and ruin their body position. Similarly, having full lungs actually screws with your body's position in the water by making your chest too buoyant and your legs sink, which is not ideal for speed because it causes drag.
So how do you learn how to exhale correctly? This cool sinking exercise that I'll probably do in the near future at make everyone at the gym pool judge me so hard core (it's about 2/3 of the way down the page).
Body Roll/Rotation
This is something that I know is supposed to happen and it happens when I breathe, but isn't really being well executed when I just swim. I always try to rotate and feel super weird, probably because my hips are rotating, but not my torso. Doing this correctly allows you to use larger muscles for power and elongates your stroke. The fun thing about body roll, is that you rarely see too much and, in fact, you want as much as possible while still keeping a nice rhythm to your stroke.
My question, is how best to practice this. The answer: kicking on your side. The problem: this makes me drown. Why? Because I'm an awful swimmer. Ah, what a conundrum. But a little fix is, while swimming, thinking about pushing your chest forward and your shoulder's back. I'm going to try that first and see what happens. That being said, I'm sure I'll also give this swimming on my side thing a second chance.
Using your core
Things to think about while you're swimming (while I'm swimming... you know, whatever)
1) Stretch through your core. Think about an elastic from your rib cage to pelvis and keep it taut while swimming.
2) Tighten your butt muscles. Don't get crazy now (no squeezing the hell out of your glutes)... but apparently it helps your kicking technique too!
3) Keep good posture! Remember that thing about chest out, shoulders back? Yeah do it. Stomach in. Shoulders back. Chest out.
Those are my words of wisdom/research for the day. I stole a book from my mom called The Fit Swimmer. It will be my next endeavor today.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
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.
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.
Random post. More to come.
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.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, May 6, 2011
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?
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?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Christopher McDougal TED talk
I love TED talks. Maybe that's because I'm a total nerd, but here is a fun 15-minute video to watch.
A while ago I posted a video about how elite runners can possibly break a 2-hour marathon. I like it because it says a lot about good running form and I think that has been the most helpful thing for me this year at getting better.
But after sharing that, my boyfriend and I have argued about how realistic it is that only form is holding these guys back from finishing in 1:59:59 and sure... these are all flaws with that video. However, this video is really just for funsies.
I hope that works!
A while ago I posted a video about how elite runners can possibly break a 2-hour marathon. I like it because it says a lot about good running form and I think that has been the most helpful thing for me this year at getting better.
But after sharing that, my boyfriend and I have argued about how realistic it is that only form is holding these guys back from finishing in 1:59:59 and sure... these are all flaws with that video. However, this video is really just for funsies.
I hope that works!
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