The most important answer first - yes, both of my legs are the same length.  There was one lady there who's legs weren't.  To just look at her, you really wouldn't notice, but John noticed something about her left quad that told him her legs were different lengths.  John was a real hoot to listen to and be around. Some of the things he was adjusting on the bikes were:

Seat in more of a 'nose up' position.  That is supposed to keep your butt on the bigger part of the seat, giving you a better anchor.  You don't wind up having to reposition yourself as much if your weight stays back and isn't sliding forward.

Seat 'offset' to right or left.  John claims you don't always line up staight over your top tube.  Your body may have a natural twist that would make it more comfortable for you to have the seat turned slightly left or right.  He says for guys, it's not quite as noticable of a change (being to either side) but for the women, it's really noticeable - if it's turned right and that's not proper for the rider, they will know if within a few seconds.

Cleat adjustments.  Sometimes moving them around to compensate for how your normal gait carries you - or for different leg lengths.  John also talked about a muscle temperature imbalance analysis that can be done that will indicate where your mucles are 'out of balance' and generating a temperature difference.  By doing this analysis with an analysis of your spin, you can see if you are performing properly.  He used an example of this temperature analysis as a reason for making cleat adjustments and knowing what those adjustments should be.

Joe Friel talked alot about physiology.  Some of this may be old hat, but he wanted to stress that most self-trained athletes go too hard and burn themselves out.  He was really pushing the need for recovery time - stress yourself, but then give yourself a chance to recover, don't push yourself really hard every day.  You need to maintain frequency, but the intensity level should vary from day to day.

Joe also talked about improving fitness by increasing aerobic capacity, though your ability to do this to a large degree depends on genetics.  Doing lots of volume and also doing intervals (3 min hard, 3 min easy) will improve this.  He said that from the time a mature person starts trying to improve this, you generally have 3-6 years of improvement, then you will not get better.  Besides aerobic capacity, elevating your lactate threshhold will improve fitness.  You can do this through longer training sessions at a level just above your lactate threshhold.  You can also improve fitness through better economy - technique improvements.  These he said were the easiest to do.  Among the ways to do this, he listed reducing body mass, lowering psychological stress, better aerodynamics with equipment, better aerodynamic body positioning and eliminating useless, energy-wasting movement.

When pedaling, at the top of the rotation, push your toes into the front of your shoe.  At the bottom, 'scrape the mud off' of your shoe.  On the way up, try to take all weight off the pedal.  On the way down, apply force.  Concentrate on either doing the top or bottom.  Also, keep your heel slightly above your toes.

He also suggested that you may want to train using a fixed gear bike, doing some single leg spinning or doing mountain biking on hills (this is to get you to keep the tension on the chain steady - mtn bikers apparently are good at doing this, so they don't spin their wheels).  Doing spin-up drills, going from a normal cadence increasing to where you are 'bouncing' in the saddle, then backing off to where you are not bouncing - and then maintaining that cadence for as long as you can - is a way to increase your cadence.

There was more.  Bet you're sorry you asked . . .

T

To stand up or not when climbing . . .

If your mass divided by your height in inches is less than 2, you should stand.

If that ratio is between 2 and 2.3, you could stand or sit.

If the ratio is 2.4-2.5, you will most likely want to sit.  If it is more than 2.5, you will probably only want to stand in order to change your muscle usage.

On Transitions - practice doing these once a week.  For sprint races, you don't need socks, gloves, etc.,

Reduce drag as much as possible - the average triathlete (5'9", 165 lb.) must produce 200 watts of energy to complete an ironman bike with an average speed of 18 mph.  To average 20 mph, you have to be producing 250 watts.  Efficiency reduces your watt usage.  It takes 30 watts of power to drive a standard front wheel.  A race wheel only requires 25, a disc wheel only requires 15.  A flapping race number uses 4 watts.  Sloppy gear cables use 3 watts.  A loose fitting jersey, 8 watts.  Low tires, 5 watts.  Reduce your drag (stick your number down with spray-on adhesive) and you will have more power available for the race.

Aero bars - can be tipped up, level or down.  Up is the best aero position, but you will get pain in the neck / back after a short while.  Level is not quite as good aero position, but can be maintained for longer periods.  Best use of aero bars are shorter bars with pads further forward. Level position, shorter bars, forearms, not elbows in pads.  This can reduce drag by 30 watts.

The older you are, especially past 50 - 55, you have trouble maintaining or regaining strength.  However, you can regain your cadence speed.  Generally, a higher cadence reduces your time under load which reduces the amount of lactic acid you produce which increases the time you can stay out there.  It takes a while to improve your cadence (months) so don't be discouraged.

T

This is very interesting and informative stuff. Have you thought of writing a review and tips learned in an article for BT? Then you could write about each sport with great detail in one place.

I have never understood Watts. In the gym I usually ignore that on the treadmill or bike. Is there a simple explanation of what the meaning of this detail is? And how I could use it?

Thanks, Nancy

allright...if Terry gives me the word, i will put this thread in article format and put it on the site....good stuff indeed.

just let me know.

Nancy,

746 watts = 1 horsepower.  Human's can't produce that many watts.  I think you could say that you might be able to produce, say 300 watts.  If you are wasting some of those by doing things inefficiently, rather than applying all 300 to your race performance, you are performing at less than your maximum.  John Cobb talked a lot about that - you might not be able to produce more power, but you can apply the power you do produce more efficiently.

For all you accountants out there, it's kind of like making net income by cutting costs instead of growing revenue.

T

John Cobb seems to be a good southern gentleman.  He doesn't mix words much.  He would tell you that you need to go to a triathlon specific bike shop for an adjustment.  His web site is below:

http://www.bicyclesports.com/

T

More good stuff in day 2 of the texas tri-camp.  LOTS of information.  Joe Friel is simply amazing to talk to and to learn from.

If any are interested, a new edition of the training bible with a new section on nutrition and revisions on weight programs is supposed to be coming out very shortly (or may be out).  I you were thinking of picking up the Triathletes Trainng Bible.

I'll post more information from the Saturday and Sunday sessions tomorrow. Going to bed now - it was kind of a long day.

T

Hey Trimom,

I'm going to try to write everything on the camp up later today (maybe I'll get to that).  I may post it into the thread or whatever Ron wants to do with it. 

Keep looking for more information. 

Terry

Terry -- thanks for the WATTS info, and many more thanks for writing the article for BT where the info will be "all together" for us.

Nancy