Equipment review: Speedfil Hydration System

One of the things that bothers me the most during training and races is hydration. When looking at a bike to buy, one never factors in hydration. Its all about the bike fit. Well in triathlons, hydration can be key in races that can be as short as 1 hour to over 8 hours. Unfortunately, most time trials/triathlon bikes come with a single bottle holder mount. This means that you might have 20-24 oz of fluid. Not very good.

The first improvement in this area is the behind the seat bottle cage mounting system. When I first purchased a tri bike, I got one of these. The benefit of this system was that I could strap CO2 cartridges, inflators, spare tubes, and tire levers to it as well as two water bottle cages. This now increased the fluid capacity to 60-72 oz. All well and good until you no longer have your bottles. In the first year, I spent more time stopping, turning around, and collecting a full bottle that had been launched after hitting a bump in the road. People that use this system know exactly what I'm talking about. I tried multiple types of cages and bottles and nothing seemed to work.

The next system is the behind the seat fluid system by NeverReach. This system looks like a motorcycle gas tank attached behind you. It holds 64 oz of fluid and can be refilled on the fly. A tubing system goes from the rear of the bike to the front and has a bite valve for drinking. While this system looks good, when full the system holds like 3 pounds of fluid. I wouldn't feel safe with a couple small screws hold that much weight over my rear wheel with competitors behind me.

The final system that I found is the Speedfil system by Inviscid Design. The system holds 40 oz of fluid, has a port to refill fluids on the fly, and a port for a tubing/bite valve system to run to the front of the bike. Unfortunately, my current Cervelo P2-SL only has a seat tube bottle cage mount. At the time I was looking at it, the system could not be mounted to a seat tube. One year later and the company came out with a mounting bracket. Perfect! I ordered the system the week before my half ironman. The system provides aerodynamic benefits over a standard wattle bottle, holds more fluid, can be covered with a neoprene sleeve on both the plastic and the tubing, and is a perfect fit into the bottom triangle of the bike. Here is the installed system on my bike:


As you can see, the design fits nicely into the bottom bracket area. It is narrow so it is out of the wind and is a system that is hands free (until you need to refill it) allowing the rider to stay in the aero position while drinking. The tubing runs up the down tube to the aerobars and is comes with a cover with a wire in it that retains a specific position. I didn't like the wiring so I borrow a hair elastic from the wife and it snapped back upon release along the aero bars. There is an optional neoprene cover to allow your liquids to stay cool on those longer rides on hot days. The only drawback to this system for me is I haven't quite learned how best to refill it on the fly. I'm sure this is just practice. For $99, you get an aero hydration system which you never have to stop... don't have to worry about carrying a tank... and don't have to reach behind you for bottles that may or may not be there.

Well worth it!

Race Wheels - Are they worth it??

In the triathlon/cycling world, carbon bling is everywhere from the Quintana Roo CD0.1 frameset to the newest Zipp Vuma Chrono cranks. In the interest of speed, athletes can spend more money on a wheelset than on the frames they ride. Venture to any local time trial or triathlon and you'll see a variety of age groupers with the latest and greatest. Is this money well spent?

In short, unless you are dealing with placing on the podium or qualifying for Kona, the answer is no. Yes, they do have an advantage and they will save you time. But a better use of your funds would be to hire a coach.

But what fun would that be? None. There is something psychologically in all of us age groupers that gives us that extra "umph" when using slick technology. It makes us try just a little harder... makes us feel a little faster. I took the plunge and purchased a set of Reynolds SDV66 wheels. My only reason for selecting these over the countless other brands was the reputation of Reynolds carbon products and the fact that I found a deal for the $2249 tubular wheelsets new in box for under $1000. Here they are:


I outfitted the wheels with a pair of Continental GP4000 tires and a SRAM RED 11-26 cassette. While the tires aren't the lightest of tubulars like the cassette, they were purchased for durability. I traded weight for a little flat protection. Then, taking a queue from the mountain biking community a small amount of Stan's Tire Sealant was injected through the valve core.

These wheels have DT Swiss 240 hubs which are some of the best non-ceramic bearing hubs available. The wheelset weighs in at a whopping 1358g! Its strange picking up these wheels because you expect them to be heavier.

After spending the money on the wheels, tires, cassette, and having them glued up I couldn't wait to give them a shot. This season, I had 4 opportunities to ride them totaling 120 miles. My first opinion is that for my first time on carbon tubulars, I felt next to no difference while riding them. The following is a list of supposed advantages of tubulars vs clinchers:

1. Better rolling resistance when properly glued
2. Less likely to pinch flat
3. Better cornering
4. Less rolling weight on the outside of wheel

Of the above, I really only noticed number four. Using these wheels, I can tell a huge difference in going from a relative standstill to full speed using these wheels. The problem is, unless you have a very technical course involving a lot of turns, you don't feel this often.

When using wheels that cost this much, obviously the worst thing would be to spend a lot of money and then have the wheels damaged in a crash. In one of the four races I had the priveleges to test the strength of these wheels. I hit a sewer drain going about 20 mph which pulled my wheel to the right causing me to flip over the front. In my prior two crashes, my front wheels have not survived very well. Maybe it was the type of crash, maybe it wasn't... but these weren't even out of true.

So in summary, the carbon wheels are strong, lightning quick to accelerate, and have an estimated savings of between 30-70 seconds over the course of 40 kilometers. Are they worth the money? As stated, for the average athlete, no. But they sure do make you "feel" fast.

Half Ironman Completed...

After the unfortunate events in the last race where I launched myself over my handlebars at 20 mph, it was really up in the air whether I'd be able to continue training and complete my first half-ironman.

Well, the road rash kept me out of the pool for a week and the slight leg bruise kept me from running for a few days. Nothing was going to stop me!!! So I increased my training, started back up with the running... And 3 weeks later I was standing on the beach at 7am staring at the waves preparing to race 70.3 miles.

Here were my goals:

• Swim: 25 minutes
• Bike: 3 hours
• Run: 2 hours
• Transitions: 5 minutes
• Total: 5:30 hours

Most of the goals were achievable, the biggest challenge would be the 2 hour half marathon. Now on to the race:

Swim:

The swim was a lot of fun. The race had 400+ entries which were broken into 6 waves which made it much safer to start. The first buoy was also farther out so people weren't climbing over top of each other. The course was a "J" course where you ran out from the beach through the break, headed to a buoy, made a right turn, swam 1 mile, then made a sharp right turn back into the beach. It was great to head out through the break. It made the less confident swimmers start back further. I didn't even sprint and found myself rounding the first buoy near the lead. My internal GPS must have been working because without seeing the smaller buoys, I ended up swimming right over them. I was just working on pacing and remaining calm when I kept seeing all of the different color caps in the water. All of the sudden I hit the last buoy and headed in. I didn't quite hit the timing right on the waves and I went to stand up and had a wave land on top of me and put me under. Remained calm and collected and continued on. Finally got to where I could run up the shore and there were 2 other caps of the same color with me. Turns out I lost my age group swim by :08!! Final time: 25 minutes. How is that for hitting your goal.

T1:

I had walked the transitions as I had done in previous races to make sure I knew which rack to head to. Well, they changed the swim entrance after we left the transition for the swim start. So when I entered, I ran down the wrong rack. Not a big deal. Wiped some sand off my feet, ate a half banana, downed some water, threw on my shoes and helmet and headed out. All done in 1:33 minutes. Cool, 1 minute ahead of pace.

Bike:

Was way too excited here. When I got going, I noticed my cadence sensor wasn't working. It's a shame because for the first time, I wore a heartrate strap during the swim so I could have it for later in the race and having both sets of info would be great. So I tried to spin to warm up my legs but they wouldn't cooperate. This might be a long bike ride. 5 miles into the race my legs started feeling better. Unfortunately, I made a huge mistake and started pushing bigger gears. I looked down and my heartrate was hitting consistent 160-170 bpm and I was averaging 22.7 mph for the first 15 miles. Either their was a huge tailwind or I was just a bit excited. Based on the heartrate and how I felt later, I pushed too hard to fast. My wife and I had driven the course the day before and even she was commenting on how hilly one section felt. It was constant up and down. Nothing real steep and nothing too long, just up and down over and over for 15 miles. I worked through the hills hit the first aid station. Grabbed a bottle of Hammer Heed and some pretzels and kept going. A mile later, a semi-truck decided he needed to make a delivery to a local farm and back into a driveway completely blocking the road. It force me and 5 of my closest friends at the moment to completely stop and have a nice chat. There went the minute I earned during T1. As I left the hilly section, I literally ran into friends Sarah and Jeff who road out to support me in my efforts. They have been great friends coming to two of my races this year. As paybacks, I decided that they deserved some free SWAG from the race. Here is a photo of me coming down the hill re-entering the highway and catching Sarah out of the corner of my eye:


After the hills my average was now down to 20.4 mph. And I was feeling really strong. I had 8 miles till the turnaround point signifying 18 miles to go on the bike. Time to pick the average back up and see how my legs respond. Boy did they ever. 8 miles later my average was at 21 mph. Unfortunately, 40 miles was my limit, especially with a decent amount of climbing. My legs were now heavy and starting to hurt. At this point I started to doubt myself. So I made a tactical decision to back off and not race the people I was around. It took an hour for me to complete the last 18 miles, but when I looked at my watch, it said 3:11 minutes. Given that my watch time was around 24 minutes exiting the water, that put my bike split around 2:46! Now the question becomes whether or not I pushed too hard. Ahead of my goal time by 15 minutes!

T2:

Relaxed as it was time for my moment of truth. Grabbed my shades, hat, race belt, slipped on my shoes, and grabbed some food. Spent a fair amount of time in the transition area unfortunately but still was just another 1:30 minutes. I'm now 16 minutes under my goal time.

Run:

Anyone that has done endurance sports knows there is a fine line between maximum effort and hitting a wall. I hoped I had not hit the wall. I came out of transition all smiles as I saw my wife cheering for me. It gave me hope and inspiration to finish.

So I start running... well in my case, jogging at a leisurely pace. My legs aren't on fire, but they feel aweful. I don't know the muscle, but the lower part of the quad heading to the inside of the knee is borderline cramping. But I finish my first mile in 8:30. Look at my watch and do a double take. Distance is wrong, has to be. Next thing to hit me is cramping in my ribs. Fight through it. I'm not walking this. Next thing I know, I hit 4 miles... 36 minutes and change. Not bad, right on 2 hour pace. As the miles go by, my pace starts slowing down. Soon I'm hitting 10 minute miles. My cadence is too slow I say to myself. Its now half way and I'm still running.... AND PASSING EEOPLE!! That never happens. Too many people had blown gaskets on the bike or were not prepared. More motivation. So I focused on slightly increasing the cadence and eliminating heel striking. Mile 7 - 9 minutes and change; Mile 8 - same; Mile 9 - same. Four more miles... total run time was sitting at 1:23 hours. I was really close to 2 hours. The bad part was at mile 10.5 where the race course had a sizeable hill. I almost walked up it. But no I pushed on. I now was ignoring my watch and thinking of the finish line. Actually I wasn't, I was thinking of the 1/3 of a mile run that was designed to torture competitors at the end of the race. The course took you onto the beach to run in the soft sand. As if running 13 miles after swimming 1.2 and biking 56 wasn't enough.

So I reached the beach!!! And then the pains hit. It was brutal. But I ignored the pain and tried to run. I entered the finishing shoot alone and had my wife there cheering and actually getting others watching to urge me on. I felt so bad but so good. I stepped onto pavement, rounded the corner and through the finish line. I made it!

Final Official Splits:

• Swim: 25:00
• T1: 1:33
• Bike: 2:45:34
• T2: 1:30
• Run: 2:01:33
• Final: 5:15:12

Beat my goal time by 15 minutes and was only slower in 1 of the 3 disciplines. I placed 2 age group and 20 overall in the swim (without a wetsuit) and 16 age group and 117 overall out of 375 entries.

In a few days some posts will be showing up about the new equipment I've used this year: Reynolds SDV66 wheels, LAS Chrono TT helmet, Newton Running Shoes, 2XU Endurance TriSuit, and Inviscid Design SpeedFil Hydration system...