Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts

3/27/09

3* 50min spinning marathon

On thursday I did a 3 hour trainings session at http://www.vif-fitness.ch/. Great people! I even met some old-ager-triathletes. Very motivational to see them getting up and keeping pace even after 2:3o hrs, when I had to struggle to focus.

Overall training starts to work! Next weekend I am going for a long jogg. Today I brought my bike to Beat (santa monica). I am thinking about a new bike. So far there are two options:
- Cervelo P2


- Xerox QUARRA extra speed

3/22/09

Swim like a fish

This weekend was the total-immersion fresh-up to be ready swimwise for the upcomming season. I took a first beginners course two years ago and went this time together with Irina for a second time. I focused on rotation and on how to save energy and indeed learned some important things:

- I have to work on my core strength and have to focus to swim "on the "Latissimus" muscle" to be pushed forward by the water

- maintain body-tension and push back the arm/hand as much as possible towards the back

-
www.swimmersguide.com is a great website to find pools around the world! Check it out.

- www.finisinc.com are selling great equipment. Unfortunately not yet internationally. I ordered a special snorkel to focus more on the technical swim.

- "Swim slow to swim fast"

Happy laps!

3/2/08

equipment day



A raining, windy day in Zuerich - perfect for skipping the training schedule and go shopping. Since I am leaving Switzerland next friday for flying to Thailand (Krabi) I really have to buy some stuff to be prepared for the Thai-Trainings-Camp. ;- )

I bought the following things:

- Asics running shoes DS Trainer v.12 9.5/43.5, 240 CHF
They will become my competition shoes for 2008. Using the asics "nimbus" as my training shoe, since it is more absorbing. the DS Trainer is quite hard, but very efficient in terms of speed and weight. The guys at the triathlon shop told me, my running style looks good and I am starting to run on the forefood more and more to gain speed.
- Asics running socks 35 CHF
- new batteries for the polar heartrate-monitor-sender
- Booster Socks, Taille 11, Ref. MGG011, 73 CHF (quite expensive)
- Noene - shock absorbing soles, gr. 42, 49 CHF

From the pharmacy (for total: 190 CHF):
Magnesium, Calcium, L-Carnitin, Coral pulver

So, I admit triathlon takes quite some money from you, but I am convinced it is invested aright. I am happily taking care for my health right now, before the old age and the suffering comes along. It is also cost-efficient to invest in soles and medicals - small things with a great leverage.

When I am back from Asia I will check my bike and the equipment therefore. Probably I have to get new biking shoes and pedals. At the same point I should then check the seat-position.

Equipping is fun.

So long,
your free radical.

2/17/08

Beat knows & new distance record: 3.3 km Swimming

Today I went to Beat to discuss training issues I experienced while pushing the training for the Ironman. Beat is the shopowner of Santa Monica:
http://www.santamonica.ch/ and I think also founder of erox: http://www.eroxswiss.com/. Despite that, he is a great guy having huge experience for Ironman-Training. Anyone in the triathlone scene in Zürich/ Switzerland knows him. On top he really has the right equipment in his store. We discussed four points:

1.Freezing while on long biking tours
* Beat asked me for my clothing and explained I should change my combination. New layers:
1. net-shirt
2. Frottee/Terry-Fleece
3. New breathing active windstopper jacket for biker.

2. Biking shoes feel uncomfortable while being on the road more than 2 hours
maybe they are too small. due to the long distances the feet start swallowing after a while - for short periods then the foot feels numb and squashed. We will examin this in 2 weeks. Beat needs to have a look at my shoes.

3. Running Shoes
Maybe I need new ones. we will examine them also in two weeks.

4. Nutrition I wonder why I don^t loose any gram weight - although I train like a dog. Beat suggested to hide the scale and only look in the mirrow to see if everything is okay. He said: muscles weight twice than fat and right now I am replacing a lot of fat with muscles. :-( Good and bad - since I have to carry the muscles arround in the competition.

* Kieselerde
During Long swimming sessions I experience sometimes shoulder "adjustment-pains". So I think "Kieselerde" might help. Beat said, maybe I should rest a day or plan for "recovery" training sessions.

* Additionally Beat recommended stuff called "basic balance" from "Sponser". It is a "basic mineral salt" composition. It tastes like dishwater. No joke. It^s medicine- nothing more.

* At the same time Beat said: while training for the Ironman: no milk, but soya and no yoghurt and no cheese! Man, this will be really tough for me.

In the evening I swam 3.3 km - wich is a new swimming distance record for me. 65 turns. Meanwhile I get used to flip turns. :- )
Here an example I found on youtube:
It really helps to look at the knees while turning.


Stay strong folks, the next season is approaching fast!!!
the free radical

12/10/07

Weekend Warrior


Today's weekend training was naff. By bike nice 6k to the swim; 2k Swim in slow 1:06h, but fine technicalwise; then: flat tyre in the rain on the way back. - Switch to the metro and a darkness run for 5k. I am on the blink. Definitely, I am searching now for a spinning class and a magnet-bike-trainer.
A colleague told me he is doing an olympic tri every weekend. Respect. There is much to do for me....

11/25/07

New light

today I bought the Petzl "Zipka Plus" free hands lighting. It is really comfortable to wear during the running I never thought it is so convinient. Now I really enjoy the jogging in the night.

5/29/07

Swimming with the ducks - 40 mins in the river / 5 days to go

to be prepared and hardened I decided yesterday to swim today in the cold (=16°C) water. No other swimmers, but the ducks were there. They funny enough sneaked up to me, when I slipped in my neoprene. Afterwards they joined me even swimming. Now I am feeling good. Let the competition come...



In the afternoon I did some readjustment to my sattle to get a better 90° angle. My actual bike position is the red line. The blue line shows how it would look like on a triathlon-bike. Much better for the back, for speeding and efficiency. The long distances really require the right equipment. On the left side you can see a nice graph with comments from the website: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/karma/thumbs/famegeo.gif They have some good clues on the bike position at their website.

5/27/07

new wheels 4 the bike - 45 min/ 15.6 km = 20.8 kmh

Today I got my bike back from the santa-monica tri-shop. everything was super adjusted. I got also new wheels: Erox ultra speed 600. With 1490 g really light and speedy. Even today on a ride it was chilly, but the wind didn't interfere with the motion.Tomorrow I will test them at the race course. I wondered before, why does anyone need such wheels - here the reasons:

1. they are more aerodynamic (less crossings and bulgy form)

2. they are stabilized because of the bulgy form, which means shortened crossings).

Today I discussed the topic: Truthfulness in the triathlon. For me, the moment of competition is very truthful. In competition there are no excuses, no I-do-it-later. It is there - fast and real. The truth is revealed.

4/30/07

Singapore-Weekend

Last weekend we travelled to Singapore in order to prolong my visa & to shop some triathlon-things. Singapore is nice - still warm, but clean air and very regulated traffic!

The Triathlonshop I went to was: Bike Haus International - 785 Bukit Timah Road - before 6 Ave. Junction - Singapore 269693 Telephone: +65 6468 -3908 or -3887. bikehaus@singnet.com.sg Open: Mondays to Saturdays: 10am - 7pm. Although they were about to close at 7 pm, they organized for me to be open until 8pm! Thank you guys! Great service! You find Orca wetsuits, triathlon bikes and water backpacks there. Well I bought:

1. A double water bottle system (since the old one was broken during the flight-transport) - from http://www.elite-it.com/jsp/c-Prodotti.jsp?ID=00.02120-2117-1210* (patao standard red):

2. Triathlon -bike helmet - Bell Meteor II 55-59cm - white:



Great stuff, now I am hungry to test my new toys. :->
Some more triathlon/biking shopping opportunities for Singapore you may find at: http://eteamz.active.com/anzacycling/links/.

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