Michele Moore - learning the ropes
Next week starts swim camp. Hubby is out of town so getting to the pool will be tough. What I really need is more bike time. I've been outside for just two weeks now - that would be the first two weeks ever outside on a tri bike. At this point I'm scared about where I am on the bike.
Can I substitute something else besides a swim camp right now?
Is there anything I can do specifically to get more comfortable on the bike? I am a little wobbly.
I will probably do a 2.4 mile swim race memorial weekend. How many other races should I be doing across the net six months?
I feel like the races in the training plan sneak up on me. I want to plan them out across the season. I plan to do a few 1 mile ocean swims, but not sure about running.
Michele
IMCHOO
NYC - Olympic 8/3
West Point sprint 8/17
Thank you.
Can I substitute something else besides a swim camp right now?
Is there anything I can do specifically to get more comfortable on the bike? I am a little wobbly.
I will probably do a 2.4 mile swim race memorial weekend. How many other races should I be doing across the net six months?
I feel like the races in the training plan sneak up on me. I want to plan them out across the season. I plan to do a few 1 mile ocean swims, but not sure about running.
Michele
IMCHOO
NYC - Olympic 8/3
West Point sprint 8/17
Thank you.
0
Comments
Michele, Did you get your bike fitted? If not, that would be the first thing I would do. I had been telling my wife that she needed to get her bike fitted for years and she just wouldn't take the time to do it. Finally she bought a tri bike and a fitting was a part of the price. When she got it out on the road for the first time she couldn't believe how well it handled. A well fit bike should disappear underneath you and go where you want it to. If you did get it fitted and it's still feels wobbly then you may want to have someone else take a look at the fit just to double check it. Not all fitters are created or educated equally.
If the fit is OK and you're still feeling wobbly, then the only thing to do is to get out and ride it and get used to the set up. Try to relax when you're on the bike. That can be hard when you're getting used to a new bike. When I got my tri-bike (I did triathlons for 10 years on a road bike with clip ons) I found that I was hunching my shoulders up around my ears when I was in the aero position. I kept hearing my yoga teacher to relax my shoulders and move my shoulder blades back and out. It helped me relax a lot into the bike and the ride improved significantly. If you can find a low traffic roadway or some other area with light traffic (think a mall parking lot early on Sunday morning or we have a cemetery close to our house with nice quiet driving lanes) then go out there and ride so you can get comfortable on the bike without having to think about traffic. After you get a little more comfortable start playing some games. I look for little rocks on the road and try to get my front wheel to to the left of the rock and my back wheel to go on the right or vis-versa. I also do long swoops (like a sign wave) from one side of the lane to the other just to get the feel of how my bike handles and what it takes to do that. Just have fun practicing your bike handling skills.
I'll leave it to the coaches to answer your swim camp question since I don't know what you just finished or what you're going into, but Coach R put me into swim camp between OS and a bike focus so that I could rest my legs. If you are doing some of the stuff I suggest above, those rides shouldn't be too taxing on your legs. In fact, if you're just practicing your bike handling skills with those rides you shouldn't be trying to do intervals or anything else because that requires your attention to be on that type of workout.
Good luck.
Monday I'm exactly 6 months out. Yikes.
I'll try some of your suggestions.
Thank you.
Sic months is a long time. You'll be fine.
I was reading a blog by Joe Freil yesterday and he suggested that frequency on bikes is important, just like it is in swimming, since it's so technique specific. Just keep getting out on the road and you should get more comfortable.
Take care.
Wow, Ok, that must have been pretty scary!
Sounds like you just need to ride your bike more/more frequently. Don't worry, we've all been there. I would suggest adding 1-2x "whatever" rides to what we've scheduled in the Swim Camp plan, then carrying on the bikes as scheduled in your next training plan.