triathlon-training

Winter Water Woes

/ jernst12 / Leave a comment

Ah, alluring alliteration! (Sorry, I had to)

By far my biggest struggle with winter training is the swimming. Unfortunately there is an extreme lack of public year-round pools in my vicinity, a large total of 2. One is indoor while the other is outdoor.

The indoor pool is nice-ish and 25 yards in length. However, their hours do not work with my schedule at all. I use to be a member but, because of the scheduling issue, I cancelled it.

The outdoor pool, whose facility I am presently a member of, is very nice. Couple of drawbacks are its length, which is 18.5 yards, and the fact that it is outside. Now, this pool is heated to 85F. However, that does nothing for the cold air one will be exposed to upon placing any part of your body out of the water.

I haven’t done any swim training in 1.5 months and it is killing me. I know I am losing progress so I really want to, and need to, get back to training. It’s definitely more will power than anything, at least until the air temps get into the 30s. I don’t believe a wetsuit is needed and honestly, based on my scuba experience in very cold climates, they don’t do much to prevent coldness once you are out of the water.

I have seen various versions of warm changing robes that could alleviate this problem but I haven’t decided if I want to pull the trigger. Based on reviews they are great when transitioning out of the water, whether it is on race day or training. In particular I am looking at the USWE Robe (Not affiliated in any way, shape or form). It’s currently on sale thanks to the holidays so I may just bite the financial bullet. If I do I will post an update and review here.

So, dear readers, do you have any thoughts or recommendations on this?

New Bike, First Ride

/ jernst12 / Leave a comment

FINALLY got to ride my new tri bike, a Felt B Performance 105, on the actual rode today! Beautiful, early morning weather greeted me as I left the house with my bike racked up and my nutrition next to me.

I woke up a little earlier than I originally planned (my alarm was set for 7am) but that’s completely fine. When I saw it was 6:43 I almost rolled over to go back to sleep but decided I would probably feel worse if I did so I decided to go ahead and get started. I downed a bowl of strawberry protein Cheerios before packing up everything to head to my normal riding spot, mentally running through my checklist multiple times (although I really need a written one as I’m pretty sure the list in my head keeps changing). After assuring myself that I had everything I pulled away, excited for my first session on my new triathlon bike.

My planned session for the day was a one hour ride in zone 2 so I didn’t go heavy on nutrition. I always have two water bottles on rides; today one contained Tailwind Blueberry Lemon Endurance Fuel (hands down my favorite flavor) and the other had Mortal Hydration’s Salty Margarita. The endurance fuel is because I knew the cereal I ate really wouldn’t cut it for a good ride, the Mortal Hydration is because I would sweat even if I was in an igloo so I always need electrolytes.

Overall it was a fantastic ride! I need to get more comfortable riding in the aero bars as the handling is more touchy than I am used to. About halfway through the ride I finally felt my tension start easing up as I started learning how to handle the bike while in aero. While I currently do not have any way to measure my power I absolutely felt that my output was higher but I cannot quantify how much.

The only real bump in the ride, which ironically came from an actual bump, was one of my bottles being launched when I went over what I thought was a small bump. It did not feel small in the least. When I heard several loud clangs immediately after the bump I thought there was some major damage to the bike, so I was extremely relieved when I looked back to see my bottle sitting in the road.

I can’t wait to get back on it and keep pushing! My first triathlon is less than two months aways so I definitely need to get comfortable on my triathlon bike.