Here’s how I’ve been doing lately…
Biking:
We’ve had some really great weather here in NC for biking these past two weeks. It’s been great – I love to ride on the open road. It really makes me forget my problems and I feel so free. Today I rode 2 hours, 33 miles. My bike odometer says 2717.6.
My butt’s been hurting me lately after riding. I think it’s a combination of the following:
- less riding overall since starting my job
- lack of core strength since I’m not doing any core exercises any more. I think core strength helps you maintain good posture on the bike, which keeps your butt/pelvis in a good riding position.
- I’ve gained some weight
- maybe my saddle is wearing out. I need to find out how many miles a saddle lasts.
Last week I was out riding, and saw a man and a boy walking alongside a tandem bicycle. I stopped to ask if they needed help. They had a flat tire and no repair tools, so I offered to fix it for them. We chatted as I worked at fixing the flat tire. The man is blind and the boy with him was his teenage son. The man also runs marathons and was featured in a local newspaper. Inspiring story…I have met the most interesting people in my triathlon journey. (my flat tire repair skills leave much to be desired, tho…I think it took me 15 minutes!)
Running:
Running is giong well again finally. My knee is feeling alot better. I went on a 10 miler the other day and the knee only hurt a little when done. No foot pain. I’ve been trying to work on my stride rate, since that is key to running faster. I spent the middle of that ten mile run counting my strides and every other minite trying to get up to 180 footstrikes per minute. I could only get up to 165. My natural stride rate is about 140-150.
Swimming:
I’ve been swimming at least once or twice per week. I use paddles quite a bit to keep up my arm strength. Not sure if using paddles so much is a good idea or not, but it feels right. The paddles also emphasize any imperfections in my stroke, so I alternate repeats of using paddles and regular swimming and try to focus on correcting what I feel is wrong. I have the TYR Catalyst paddles, small yellow size.
Re: cadence
I went through this a couple years ago. I’ll tell you my experience, maybe it will be useful to you. I actually wore a band metronome–a little thing that clips on your ear–to get my stride rate right. It got wet and died, but my running buddy made me feel foolish for buying it when he said that he just counts three steps to the second on his watch. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it, just look at your watch for ten seconds whenever you want to check your cadence. Your third step should mark a new second, and it’s easy to tell if you’re going too slow. I still do it once in a while to make sure my cadence is up.
Keeping your cadence up there will probably make running a lot more comfortable for you and make you less likely to get injured. If you’re doing 140-150 now, you’re probably overstriding. Your foot should land directly beneath you, not in front. It feels strange for a while, but it’s worth it in the long run.
The best advice I read was to run barefoot to learn the proper stride–this should be done on grass at first, and for short distances. The feedback is excellent, you know right away if you’re doing something wrong. It teaches you not to land on your heels.
Take that for what it’s worth to you; it has made running much more comfortable for me.
Dan