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April 1, 2006
A Deal Too Good to Pass Up
So we ended up buying a bike last night. And shoes and pedals, oh and a wetsuit too. What the heck? O and I cannot be trusted with our own money. We just can't. :)
See what happened last night is there was a deal going on. And deals are trouble for us. We see it, think of all the money we would be saving, and can't resist. The deal included the bike, the pedals, the bike shoes and a wetsuit (of all things) all for one "low" price. Truthfully I do think we got a good deal. The price we paid for everything (including the tax) was lower than what the bike itself cost normally. We had looked at another store and I also looked online quite a bit and it all seemed good. The question wasn't so much whether it was a good deal or not, but more, did I really need all this high tech stuff if I'm just going to be doing sprint triathlons, non competitive ones at that? I'm not really sure of the answer to that one yet. If anything, buying the equipment we did last night will probably encourage me to focus more on triathlons (vs just running) in the future. I have the gear. I want to put the gear to use. Let's train for triathlons!
So the bike is a triathlon bike (vs a road bike). It's got aerobars which frighten me. I'm seriously going to learn how to ride it on a closed course before I take to the roads. Just like when you learn how to drive, you find a deserted mall parking lot - yep, that's going to be me. I've learned so much about the differences in bikes and gears and carbon vs aluminum frames and on and on in the last couple of days. Yikes. There is a steep learning curve in this sport we call triathlon! I am very excited though. The bike is being built now (they measure you first) so I have to go back later this upcoming week to get fitted more and try it out. The store we got all this from is definitely into service. The guy told me to come with workout gear so he could set me up on the trainer and basically teach me how to ride it. They also do free maintenance on the bike and they teach maintenance courses which I'm most assuredly going to have to take. I'm feeling overwhelmed. But very excited too. I really can't wait to get out there and ride!
As for the wetsuit, I really had no plans whatsoever to buy one (at least not this year). I've certainly read how much they can help in terms of bouyance and of course warmth, but I didn't think I'd really need it. Of course now that I will have one (also have to get fitted for that this week), I'll definitely try it out! O suggested I wear it to YMCA for a trial. I imagine I would get more than one strange look. :)
And that's that.
This morning we woke up and thought about riding our bikes (the old ones that is) outside vs taking a spinning class, but then decided against it. I'm glad we did. It's in the low 50s which seems warm enough but it's overcast and looked like rain. It's also very windy.
So instead we headed to the YMCA and I swam first while O practiced his pitching and shooting (and he lifted also). I did a pretty hard workout in the pool, hard for me anyway.
400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy
5 sets of:
100 on 2
200 on 4
100 on 2
200 yd kick easy (3000 yds total, 2000 yds hard)
I was doing well until about the 3rd 200 when I suddenly felt like a brick. I seriously felt as if the bottom of the pool was pulling me towards it. But after the 3rd set was over I started feeling a little better. I was thinking a lot about the Ironman triathlon distance when I was swimming today and I just can't help but wonder how demoralized you would feel getting off the bike and knowing you had a whole entire marathon to run. UGH!
After the swim, I changed and met O for our spinning class. It was fine as usual. O likes the Saturday instructor because she plays lots of hard rock type music, more his style than oldies or pop.
My feet are feeling better. Definitely not good enough to be running tomorrow but I might try Tuesday again, or I just might hold off until Thursday. This is going to sound strange, but I feel like swimming makes my feet feel better. I don't know if it's the fact that you are totally non-weight bearing while you are swimming (vs somewhat weight bearing with biking and LOTS of weight bearing with running), or if there is something about swimming that loosens my feet up. Either way, I'm thankful for it!
And now the time has come - homework - in the form of statistics! I'm a total statistics idiot. I just don't like it. We also have a big grant project in this class wherein you have to submit a budget for a research study you've created. Let it be known that my budget definitely includes paying a statistician! :)
Hope everyone is having a great day. Don't forget to turn the clocks forward tonight!
Posted by beth at April 1, 2006 12:51 PM
Comments
The pedals can be very difficult to get used to. Did you get shoes that you can wear spinning? Some of our spin bikes let you wear SPD, Look, or mountain bike shoes. This way you don't have to worry about getting out of your pedals when you're moving.
I don't know if you'll need the wetsuit for a sprint in warm water. It may also take longer to get out of the suit than you save on the swim in a short swim (if you're a strong swimmer).
It's interesting that swimming makes your feet feel better. In swimming, your calves should be flexed nearly the entire time, since your toes should be pointed when kicking. This usually makes your calves tighter. For me, this makes my feet tighter.
I'm sure that you've tried nearly everything for your PF, but have you tried regular massage. That seems to work for me, but it gets costly.
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at April 1, 2006 2:47 PM
Sure you are "just going to do sprint triathlons", next will be olympic distance, and then who knows, half-ironman maybe?
Posted by: Dawn at April 1, 2006 5:47 PM