Saturday, February 2, 2013

Saturday Morning Tri Coffee Reads - February 2



Registration opened yesterday for USA Triathlon Sprint Nationals (no qualification requirements) and Olympic Nationals (emails with special links for qualified triathletes have gone out). Sign up soon to save your spot!


Nutrition, Health, Safety
  • How to Pick a Healthy, Whole-Grain Product - Ayala Laufer-Cahana, MD, Huffington Post, January 25, 2013. Just because it says "Whole Grain" does not mean it's healthy, or even that it contains much whole grain. It can still be loaded with sugar and fat. Here's how to look at the nutrition label and use the total carbs to total fiber ratio to evaluate.
  • How to Not Get Hit by Cars - bicyclesafe.com. This site gives ten common car-bicycle collision scenarios and shows/describes how to avoid them. This is the most comprehensive resource I have seen on this.
 Training and Racing
  • How to ride like a pro with a pro - by Ben Zawacki, Embrocation Cycling, January 25, 2013. This article is primarily about pacing on flats, hills, and around turns in group rides - it's not the usual tired 'group ride etiquette' piece though. The author talks about the tendency to ride too hard up hills and not hard enought down. He suggests a poor-man's power meter is pedal pressure. To maintain even power output, be aware of how much pressure you are imparting on your pedals. I tried this in my last ride and found it revealing!
  • How Much Time Does it Take to Finish an International Distance Triathlon- Raymond Britt, Runtri.com. For the analytical among us! A detailed look at International/Oly split times averaged over 75 races and detailed look at the Chicago Tri by age group. 
  • The sub-8 iron men the list - by John Levison, Tri247.com, July 8, 2012. This is a little dated, but shows just how elusive and difficult it is to achieve a sub-8 hour iron distance finish. There are just 19 men on the list, led by Chris McCormack with four sub-8 races.
  • Speedo Pace Club - If you are self-coached and looking for swim workouts, Speedo offers free 8-week training plans, authored by leading coaches, and arranged by sport, goal, and level. They are on the light end for a seasoned triathlete, but the basic structure could be "amped up" to meet your usual yardage.

Gear
  • Stages Power Meter In-Depth Review - by DC Rainmaker, January 27, 2013. There's been a lot of excitement about this new $699 power meter that works by replacing the left crank arm with one that incorporates a strain gauge, accelerometer, and bluetooth. DC Rainmaker, in his usual style, gives us a very VERY detailed evaluation of this product. At this time, he didn't think the current version would work for him as a primary power meter.
Funny