As y'all know, I've decided to throw myself into the triathlon scene as a way to crosstrain for swimming. I've run before Saturday practices with the running group a handful of times since March, so figured I might as well get on the bike, too.
Lately I've been focusing on the bike side of the equation. I can run just fine, although my speed isn't what it used to be when I ran far more often. I have easily held a 7:30-8:00 pace on the runs I've done lately, my longest of which was a 7 mile run a few weeks back. I'll get more into that over the next few weeks. Swimming is obviously not an issue.
I've decided to throw myself fully into cycling. I already had bike shorts, and I've since ordered clipless bike pedals, shoes, a jersey, and some maintenance gear. I've also got the bike picked out, a Motobecane Le Champion Ti. The bike has great reviews and for the price, it can't be beat. The components that are on the bike (gears and all that stuff) retail for about the price of the full bike, so that's a huge savings. I'm decided that I want a solid upper mid tier bike, and that one should serve me very well in that capacity. I've decided to go with a titanium framed bike because, frankly, I'm not the gentlest on a bike and I don't want to have to replace a carbon fiber frame ($$$) due to getting in a bad crash. With a titanium frame, I could probably play chicken with a dump truck and just need to polish the frame afterwards. That and I kinda like the simple retro look of that bike! As I get better at cycling, I'm open to getting into racing, and that frame is suitably light to where I won't need to get a lighter bike for quite some time, if ever.
I'm planning on ordering that bike in mid July and have my first organized race/ride shortly after that (more on that in a bit). In the meantime, though, I've rented a road bike from a local bike shop so I can start training for the July ride. It's a 2005 Orbea Onix, and while it's showing its age, isn't a bad bike to train on, although it is carbon fiber instead of titanium, so I can't directly compare it to the one I'll buy. That being said, coming from a mountain bike, pretty much any road bike would be light years better for training purposes. The difference between riding a heavy steel framed mountain bike and riding a light road bike is astronomical. For those of you who aren't familiar with road bikes, I'll go over some of the biggest differences.
1) The weight. My mountain bike is around 30 pounds (or more), while the rental bike is around 16 pounds. The bike I'm going to buy is around 18 pounds. The rental feels like a plastic toy, and I'm so used to lifting my heavy mountain bike that whenever I lift the road bike, I use way too much muscle and invariably overbalance. On the road, the lightness is remarkable. I was used to having to muscle through a few pedal strokes on the mountain bike to get any sort of speed going, and could just feel the weight of the bike. With the rental, it's not even close.
2) The ride. My mountain bike has a plush gel saddle and has a suspension. In addition, the tires are really freaking wide. The result is that it soaks up bumps like no other. The asphalt is all cracked and pitted? No problem, it rolls right over it and I just feel a few minor bumps. The rental, on the other hand, has no suspension, really narrow tires, and a pretty hard (and small!) saddle. The same road imperfections are *slightly* more noticeable. Over smooth pavement, though, the ride is just fine. I've read reviews of the LeChamp that say its titanium frame does a better job than most carbon frames at soaking up road imperfections. Still, the mountain bike has a road bike beat hands down.
3) The gearing/speed. My mountain bike has 21 speeds (three rings in the front, seven in the back). Of those 21 gears, I've never used more than 10 of them. It's got a lot of low gears for hills and stuff, but since it is an off road bike, they are pretty much pointless on paved hills, as they are too low to produce any speed. On flat road riding, I'd stay in the top 2 gears, and with hills, I'd extend that to the full top 7 gears, maybe the top 10 gears if it was a particularly daunting hill. The rental bike and the one I'll buy have 20 gears (two rings up front, ten in the back). Thankfully, they don't come with the smallest gears, which I found totally useless for road riding purposes. On my two rides on the rental so far, I've used about six gears. I haven't gone above the 18th gear yet, and that was at a full sprint down a hill. The highest gear on my mountain bike feels to be the equivalent of the 14th gear on the road bike. In addition, road bike wheels are larger, so I can get more speed out of each pedal stroke. My full sprint on the old bike is equivalent to my moderate effort cruise on the rental. If the gps on my phone is to be trusted, I hit 34 mph in a dead sprint in 18th gear coming down a fairly shallow hill on Sunday, and could probably tap out at around 30 on the flat road with a strong effort. I can keep a much higher pedal cadence on the rental than I could on the old bike, which helps keep my overall effort level down quite a bit from what I'm used to. Yesterday on my ride, the last couple of miles were into a pretty stiff headwind, around 20mph, I'd guess. My phone had me at averaging 18mph over that stretch. In contrast, riding my old bike in Charleston in what felt like the same headwind conditions, I averaged just over 10mph. In summation, I can ride a lot faster with a lot less effort on the road bike than on the mountain bike.
4) Riding position. As I'm sure y'all know, a mountain bike has a much more upright riding position. It's nice and comfy, but creates a LOT of air resistance at speed. On a road bike, however, the seat is higher up and the handlebars are lower down. When I'm cruising, I ride with my hands on the hoods (over the brakes/gearshifts on the handlebar), but when going for speed, I put my hands in the drops (the bottom part of the U shaped handlebar). The former position is more akin to riding the mountain bike, although I'm stretched farther forward and my butt is higher. The latter position has my upper body much lower down and is quite a bit more aerodynamic than on the mntn bike. I think it's quite fun to ride in the drops, but my neck can only take it for so long before I have to go back to the hoods for a bit to stretch my neck out.
Now, on to the races I've definitely got coming up, starting off with a three weekend triple header!
- On July 28th, I'm doing my first ride/race, the Shenandoah Valley Bike Festival! At this point I'm debating between the 50 and 100 milers. I'd like to do the century, but realistically don't know if I'll be up for a 100 mile ride by then. On the other hand, I could go out and do the 50 miler today. Most likely wouldn't be very fast, but I could do it just fine. The century would be a much more exciting challenge. I'm leaning towards the century, but won't make that call till mid July.
- On August 5th, I'm doing my first triathlon, the Culpeper Sprint Tri! It's a 750m lake swim, followed by a 16 mile ride, then a 5k run. It's kind of a team event for the swim team, as we generally have a good group of folks who compete in the triathlon. It should be a blast!
- On August 11th, I'm doing the Cumberland Valley Century. They offer a metric century (63 miles) and a full century (103 miles), and I'm leaning towards the full century. Same as with the Shenandoah Valley ride, though, I'm not making the call on which distance to register for until mid July. This one goes through the Antietam battlefield, which hits my Civil War history buff-iosity, so I'm very keen on this ride.
- After that I get a month breather, then on September 15th, I do the Piedmont Wine Challenge Bike Ride. I'll do the full century, which provides great scenery and visits to 9 wineries... :-)
- On October 6th, there are three rides for me to choose from, I just haven't decided which yet.
Can't wait to really get into it!
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EDIT: I forgot to mention earlier that I'm having a bit of trouble adjusting to the sizing of cycling and tri clothing. More specifically, jerseys and tri suits. I'm quite heavy through the chest and shoulders, and have been since going to El Cid. My upper body is much larger than most cyclists and triathletes. Reading several cycling forums, it's pretty common to read about a guy who is 6'1" and about 150 pounds, or 5'9" and 135. Kinda like I was back in highschool. I'm 5'9" and about 180. In highschool, it wasn't an issue (I was just scrawny back then), but it is now. My chest measurement was a 38 in highschool, I believe. Midway through my time at El Cid, I was up to a 42. Since I started swimming again, I've put on back muscle that I haven't had in quite a while and I'm currently at a 44. When I eventually get back into the weight room, I can see that going up an inch or two more. Anyways, back to the point at hand, tri suits and jerseys are supposed to be pretty form fitting. I've still got extra weight around my middle, but I wear size 32 pants/shorts. Per the sizing charts that the various manufacturers provide for their tri/cycling clothing, I'm right at the border between M and L for my waist, but am at the bottom end of XL for my chest. I ordered a L sleeveless jersey (the blue one) last week, and got it on Friday. It fit just fine around my midsection, but was too tight on my chest. So, I returned it for an XL. It's supposed to arrive today, so I'll have to see how that goes. I also ordered a L tri suit (duh, the blue one), which is supposed to arrive later this week. I'm rather iffy about the sizing of it. Per its measurement chart, the XL is for dudes with a 44-47 chest, which is just fine. However, the XL is for dudes with a 39-42 waist. I just hope the material is tight enough that it won't balloon out over my waist, since I'm a good 8 inches below that rating. My big fear is what will happen when I finally get rid of the extra weight around my middle. If I drop down to a 30 waist and put another inch or two on my chest, that'll put me firmly as a M for my waist and XL for my chest. I really like the concept of tri suits, but I just don't know if it will be feasible. Sigh. I'll have to see how it goes.
