Originally Posted by
cyclezen
Don't know much about Tri. I do know how to compete.
If you aren't already, join the Vegas Tri Club. Make friends, get pointers from others who have done what you are wishing to do.
Bike - the aero equipment will be important, eventually.
But 1st learn how to get the most out of you and the bike. Ride with others who will push you harder, not just alone. Learn your gearing and what works for you under conditions.
Only gear I would recommend is getting shoes and pedals which work for tri-bike - running shoes are not those. You need to get your position to what works for you, then modify as you improve aspects. Dont; know what shoes and pedals work best for Tri - the club members would.
You say you have power, so if that's not the main limitation then there are other aspects which hold you back - define those and work on them.
TT is an inner thing. 20 is not a boundary, it might/can be the next step.
Ride On
Yuri
The shirt you wore is fine, if not getting logged with sweat, lose the saddle bag for competition - what is the belt around the waist for? why? get Tri club help on a good position for you at this time, once you have shoes and pedals. Ride a bunch, know your gears and how you perform with them. Fuel the motor well. Be less 427 Chevy and more 12 cylinder Ferrari - power wasted is the same as not having it.
I'll have to check into Las Vegas Tri, but the problem is I don't actually live in Vegas anymore. I'm still close, about 50 miles away, so I do drive in from time to time. But it's not like it's right down the road either.
As for the bag, the only thing in it is my car key since I was by myself and all my valuables were locked in the car.
I would really like to ride with other people, especially, like you say, others that will push me. But there are relatively few serious riders out here where I live. I need to hook up with some people and get serious about it. Unfortunately, at least right now, the only time I have to do that is during the summer, which is really terrible time to be doing anything outside in the desert. My school schedule has me pretty much buried the rest of the year.
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Those racing photos . . .
You're doing great. You don't say how long ago you started training your 3 sports. How many years and how many hours/year are a big deal.
You are athletic, BTW. You're a Marine. Your build is not that different from my wife's. You can modify your fit to get closer to a TT fit. You need to open your hip angle to get as low as you can. Say you moved your saddle all the way forward on a zero-setback post. Then see what you'd have to do as far as stem length to get back your perfect upper arm/torso angle. You'll probably be able to go with a negative angle on that stem, too. If the mod was interesting, you should be able to find a setback seatpost which you can reverse.
From the knee angle on the far knee at TDC, I'd say you might do better with shorter cranks. For some of us, getting low becomes an issue of chest/quad interference.
The cockpit on my endurance bike. These Profile Design bars mount below the bars, which is quite a difference in height. With the bars set up like these, my forearms are approximately level. I agree that aero position is everything. Wring everything you can out of that before spending on fancy equipment
Running. Here's a good video, showing the 2 different techniques current in tri. I'm a glider, never was a gazelle. I keep my feet near the ground and my cadence as high as HR permits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWPwVF30yo&t=196s
Interesting you say that about the cranks and the chest/quad interference. I've had some people tell me my seating position is too high, but if I lower it my knee does come up pretty close to my chest at the top of the crank stroke.
Thanks for the video. After watching it I think I am in the "glider" category also. Not so much because I want to be but I am so much more bulky than those women are. I don't have many good pictures of my stride but this one may be the best representation. As noted before, I'm carrying quite a bit of mass up top where it's not doing me any good.
At the risk of taking this thread too far off the subject, I went back to my previous tri and put together an image of my run. Not exactly the best image. I had to piece this together from several separate photos. Now, bear in mind that this was an Olympic and I was exhausted. But I'm never far off the ground. Again, I'm carrying a lot more mass than any of those true athletes. But it goes back to what I was saying earlier in that I don't have the spring in my feet I used to have. I think some of that is simply age-related muscle loss, and some of it is that I'm just carrying a lot more weight than most athletes.
