Prepare your cycle route

Cycling is a great way to tone up, stay fit and see the countryside. It is fun to do alone or with groups of friends or family. There are many cycle routes you can look up, some with cycle friendly concrete paths and others with dirt tracks for the more adventurous bikers.

Before you begin a cycle ride, be sure to look up your route so you know what to expect, how long it is and the intensity level. It doesn’t take long to do, so during a lunch break or after a game of partypoker , check out some routes and become familiar with them. Adventurous cyclist might enjoy off-road dirt tracks which allows them to cycle between the trees, ride over plants and tree roots and perform little jumps over ditches or race through puddles. It can be dangerous, but if you are used to these conditions and your tyres are sturdy, you should be fine.

Other cyclist might prefer the special tracks, designed for easy riding. They are normally gravel or concrete which makes it smoother to ride across. Easier routes tend to be flat paths, whereas a challenging route will take you uphill a lot.

It is always important to keep hydrated during your ride, so a bottle of water in your rucksack is recommended. Also, before you begin, it is important to have energy supplies with you. The best type of food for this includes bananas and energy bars. The night before you go cycling, try to have a big pasta dinner. Overnight this will digest and become fuel, ready for you to burn in the morning.

Continue reading Preparing for your cycle route

Compression Socks

running_O2_max_ In our opinion compression socks can be beneficial for triathletes.  They are great for recovery from hard runs, long days at work, or traveling. They can also be used during hard training runs if you don’t mind getting heckled by 99.9% of the population.  Wearing them in a race, however, we’re not sold on.  If you can put those things on in under 1 minute, they are most likely not tight enough on your calves to be having any effect anyway.  There is a compromise – calf sleeves, that you could tuck under your wetsuit during the swim and not have to waste time in transition putting the full compression sock on.

The people who run the Ironman show (WTC) had recently placed a ban on compression socks – but it does look like they’ve reversed that decision for Kona this year.  The issue was that they thought athletes were gaining an unfair advantage by covering up their respective age categories.  Sounds like they have eliminated the ritual of putting the athletes age on the back of the calf altogether.

One final thing – if you want to use them purely for recovery you can find the perfect pair for ~$15 at your local pharmacy.  These types tend not to be designed for training (thick cotton soles etc.) but if you want them solely for recovery,  they are way cheaper than the $50-$75 price tag found on compression socks in sports stores.

Continue reading Compression Socks

Driving to a race

suitcaseWell, Ironman Triathlon Tips is going to be on hold for a bit.  H and T will be starting their full time effort in the sport of long course triathlon and driving south to California. We’ll get going on the Internet connection as soon as possible and get back on the daily tips right away.  A few minor details to work out but it should be good. If you sign up for the email feed you’ll start getting emails again once the tips start coming. We’re hoping to incorporate a video section as well.

On that note – today’s tip is about driving to your race.

With the cost of air travel – plus the need to pack your bike, driving to a race can be a great option. If you need to power-drive be sure to get in plenty of rest stops. And not just a quick ‘out of the car and pee’ rest stop either, take the time for a good 10-15 minute jog every few hours. Playing hacky sack is another great way to get the muscles and joints moving. Hacky Sack will loosen up the tight driving muscles. Hip flexors in particular.  Kick a soccer ball or lie on the grass and stretch.  Anything to shake out the legs every few hours.

And we’re off…check back soon or sign up for email/RSS notification to let you know when we’re back in action.  Plenty of old tips to browse through as well.

Continue reading Driving to a race

Change your cog set



Keep this one handy ’cause it will save you a trip to the bike store before and after every race.  Swapping your cog set from a training wheel to a racing wheel and back again is super easy and something you can do on your own.  You’ll need 3 tools and 2.5 minutes.  5 minutes if you want to clean your cog set at the same time.

You can pick two of these tools up at most bike stores.  The other is your standard Vice Grip or Monkey wrench.

chainwhipTool #1. Chain Whip – Used to hold your cogset in place while you unscrew the lock ring.

freewheelremoverTool#2. Lock ring remover (A.K.A. freewheel remover) No need to get fancy.

Continue reading Change your cog set

Quiet time

A quick tip for race night, more like a reminder actually.  Don’t forget to bring ear plugs to your next race.  Most of us are extremely light sleepers the night before a race.  Mainly due to race nerves and pre-race angst.  Having a set of ear plugs within [...]

Never miss a tip

* = required field

Support