December 2009 Archives

The dead of winter is the time that folks are thinking about a new bike for the next season. I'm dropping this entry to suggest if you are thinking about this, look at a Campagnolo groupset. It's not hard to find Shimano-vs-Campy advocacy on the 'net and if you want that, google will find it quickly, I'll try to avoid advocacy and simply relate the features and my experiences with both. Im leaving SRAM out of this article for two reasons, first, I've never ridden on SRAM, second SRAM designs their gear to be interchanged with Shimano, their cassette and chain dimensions are identical, as such I expect their maintenance requirements to be identical.

Up until 3 years ago, all of my riding was on vintage stuff, standard 3/32" chain and 6 cogs on the rear/freewheel. I rode this setup on my '83 Peugeot in my first two '06 triathlons, looking on with envy at the more modern gear that's most folks were riding. I'm still riding that bike, although it's now my second-choice commute/work bike behind the fixed gear.

In early winter of '06/7 I found a great titanium triathlon bike at an attractive price on Ebay, outfitted with 9 speed Shimano. Over the course of the next two seasons I ran up a little under 6000 miles on that bike, (along with another 2500 miles ridden on the trusty Peugeot). I liked the bar-end shifters, and was quite amazed at how well indexed shifting worked. True, it needs adjustment every so often to keep running smooth, but that's a fine trade off against having to reach down to the down tube for shifting.

Over the course of the next 2+ seasons I found I could get about 2000 miles from a chain (I check both using Park's go/nogo gauge and by measuring chain 'stretch' over a 12" length*). This is about the same life I get from 3/32" chain on my Peugeot.

In late '08 I put together a new bike, selling the tri bike (for more than I'd paid for it, always nice). I decided to go with a road bike, and commenced with research into a groupset, choosing to go with Campy in part because I've always lusted after it but also because what I read about the features sounded right on the money for what I wanted. I've now gotten in a year of riding on it.

Summary:
Because so few bike manufacturers spec Campagnolo groups on anything but the high-end bikes (Bianchi would be a rare exception), to get the long term cost advantages that campy offers, you pretty much have to select a frame and component set and build the bike or have it built, this is going to cost more up-front.

The break-even point is hit if you're going to keep a bike for 4 years or longer. Select the full article below for the details.

I find it hard to dial in the right amount of electrolytes when training. The first time I became aware that there was a problem was in the '07 Mooseman Olympic when I was beginning to experience cramping in my calves and quads by the end of the bike leg and after finishing the run, my hamstrings got into the act also so that for an hour or so my legs were trying to cramp in both directions at once -- not good.

Until then I'd been hydrating with alternating bottles of Cytomax™ and water, which gave me about all the carbohydrate I could absorb, I'd experience some issues with cramps in training but written it off to muscle fatigue. After the painful post-mooseman experience I started adding more electrolytes to the mix and found that my problems with cramping had passed.

This fall I had a routine physical and checked in with my doctor about my tendency to experience passing out when I stand up during periods when I'm training hardest. I've always written it off to my relatively low blood pressure and heart rate. The doc suspected insufficient hydration / blood volume but we ruled that out because I routinely check my weight after training to ensure that I'm hydrating well enough. What she suggested is that I'm down on electrolytes. Since then I've further upped the amount of salt I take in when training and I think I can say that this is addressing the problem ... a happy thing as needing to be frequently cautious about the simple act of standing up gets tiresome.

How to manage hydration requirements

The first thing is to measure your sweat rate, this will vary depending on exertion levels and the weather conditions you're training in, so do check in a variety of circumstances. It's a simple thing, just get on the scale before you head out and then again when you're done.
([start weight]+[water intake]-[finish weight])/[time training] = sweat rate.
I lose something north of 3lbs per hour of water when going hard in high temperatures, given that, it probably shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out that while I was hydrating fine, I was losing more salt than I was replacing.

live and learn :-)

Usually I talk about bike repair and safety here but this week I'm thinking about training, so here goes.

I think all endurance athletes fully understand the need to fuel with preferably organic, high-nutrient foods, lean proteins, highly-colored veggies etc. We also understand the need for active recovery to build the muscles that we're developing in training.

One of the keys to repairing the damage done in training and accelerating recovery is ensuring that your body has a healthy supply of antioxidants. Endurance training creates significant stress on the body in the form of free radicals, which are damaging to cellular membranes, antioxidants are responsible for cleaning up these free radicals.

See the full article for ways to get antioxidant's in your regular diet as well as ideas on supplements ->>