New ride arrives!!!!

So last year about this time I saw a bike fitter to take care of some knee and foot problems I was having. At the same time, I asked him based on my riding position, size, etc what a great fitting upgrade would be. From my measurements, I was told to look for frames with geometries that were long and low... meaning that they had longer top tubes in proportion to the seat tubes. The two main competitors in the geometry were the famous Cervelo P3 and the Quintana Roo CD0.1. Everyone seems to ride a P3 and the fitter was really driving me towards the Quintana Roo. Note that he did not sell bikes at the time. He is now partnered with a bike shop that sells Cervelo's... and he still recommended the QRoo.

So after saving my money from working way too much this winter.... Here it is:


It is a 2010 QRoo CD0.1 frameset equipped with a Zipp Vuka front end with the vuka aerobar system and the new VukaShift R2C shifters. Its outfitted with SRAM Red derailleurs and SRAM Red BB30 crankset. Pedals are the new Look Keo Blades. Topped it off with the tried and true ISM Adamo road saddle. Here are some closeups:




A few comments...

• Shift Technology - Note the downtube shifted to the chainring side. Not sure how much this matters in its attempt to divert air to one side of the bike. It is a very interesting concept
  
• Internal cable routing - Cable entry/exit system is top notch.
  
• Brake placement - Notice the hidden front/rear brake behind the fork and behind the bottom bracket.
• Seatpost - The bracket to mount the seat is pure genius. The post gives seat angle markings for 76 through 81 degrees (odds on the other side) and as you move into steeper angles, the bracket groove moves up slightly. This makes fitting relatively easy!!
• VukaShift R2C - These are awesome! Return to center shifters which are like big paddles reducing strain on wrists.

Now comes the hard part.... Working on the engine!

Analysis of power numbers

From the 20 minute power test done yesterday, my final number was an average power of 209 watts. As I've stated, this can be used to calcuate an FTP. I'm using a multiplier of 0.92 for mine. This gives this test an FTP of 192. This number is then used to set training zones as follows:

• Zone 1. AR – Active Recovery. Less than 56% of FTP.
• Zone 2. E – Endurance. 56-75% of FTP. Used for aerobic endurance training. The intensity at which an Ironman Triathlon is typically raced.
• Zone 3. TE – Tempo. 76-90% of FTP. A moderately hard effort. Equivalent to half iron racing intensity and also to riding in a fast moving pack in a road race.
• Zone 4. TH – Threshold. 91-105% of FTP. A hard effort sustainable for roughly an hour. At 100% of FTP you are riding at CP60 – the critical power you could maintain for 60 minutes. This is the intensity at which you begin to redline.
• Zone 5. VM – VO2max. 106-120% of FTP. The upper end of this zone is sustainable for about 6 minutes depending on how anaerobically fit you are. This intensity often determines the outcomes of bike road races on hills, when there are breakaways, and in cross winds.
• Zone 6. AC – Anaerobic Capacity. Greater than 120% of FTP. Again, this intensity is common in road racing, but is never a factor in non-drafting triathlons.

This puts my zones at the following levels:

Zone 1: <107
Zone 2: 108 - 144
Zone 3: 145 - 173
Zone 4: 174 - 202
Zone 5: 203 - 230
Zone 6: 231+

Now I have to do a little planning and come up with a detailed training plan. Right now, I'm in the base training phase where the majority of the rides are spent in zones 1 and 2. Based on memory, I'd say most of my rides lately have correctly fallen into zone 2. I don't think I could bike for 2-3 hours at zone 1 unless it was a recovery day.

First ever power test

Last year, I purchased a Computrainer to help with my offseason training (or lack thereof) to avoid trainer boredom. I honestly can not stand pedaling at the same constant resistance that most if not all air, fluid, and magnetic trainers. The biggest benefit for me that the Computrainer provides is the ability to vary the resistance, ride real courses, and the ability to translate GPS data either from a Garmin or from Google maps into a course to train on. This is the only way I can stand trainers... so much so, I spent 3:45 doing a 65 mile ride this past weekend.

Although this is a nice feature, this is only maybe 30-40% of its benefit. The biggest benefit as far as training goes is the ability to create specific training plans. First: I live in New England, where driving is downright scary... and riding on the road is a nightmare. Second: Doing any type of interval/hill training is almost impossible since there is too much traffic and hills are non-existent. The Computrainer gives you the ability to avoid all of that and carefully plan the training. If you need an hill repeat workout, go to the course creator and program in the segment lengths and grade you want... A tempo session, set your wattage based on your FTP... Intervals, use erg mode and set the time of each segment. The final usage is that it allows the rider to track progress through a series of periodic tests that eliminate variables such as wind and most weather. It doesn't take all variables out because heat/humidity play a large role in the human physiology and without constant air conditioning, this just isn't going to happen.

So today I started down my path of "real" cycling training and did my first power test of any kind. The test I did was a 20 minute power (MP) test. This test is effectively a 20 minute time trial on a flat course. The goal of this test is to maintain the maximum amount of constant speed/power that the rider is able to. The final output can then be used as an estimation of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) or the power that a rider can output for 1 hour. The estimation is done by multiplying the 20MP results by .92 - .96. For my non-profession self, I'll use the low number. As long as you use the same number all the time, I don't think it matters. In the end, it only matters when comparing FTP against other riders... and well, unless you are on the same course at the same time, it doesn't matter. The calculated FTP can then be used to set your training zones for your tempo, interval, and active recovery rides.

I hopped on the trainer and gave it a whirl. Here are my results for the beginning of the season:


Not bad results... but not great either. Considering I did a 55 mile portion of a half ironman in 2:43 and then ran a 2 hour half marathon at the end of last year. Basically I've got a long way to go!! Two things I did wrong: didn't wear my heart-rate strap and had a tough day of snow boarding the day before. There is probably more information in there that I can't see, but what I like the best is the straight lines... constant speed, power, and cadence.

Now all I have to look forward to tomorrow is a 4 hour spin class to benefit cancer research taught by a girl that works for me. I can't believe I signed up to let her yell at me for an hour!

Big news... Race list for 2010 all set!

In my last post, I came up with a list of races that I had hoped to do... well, by sheer luck, good timing, and some donations my race list for 2010 is complete. Here is what I'm looking forward to:

• June 6 - Rev 3 Half Ironman at Quassy Park in Middlebury, CT
• July 17 - Narragansett "Save-the-Bay" 1.7 mile fundraising swim
• FIRM Old Colony YMCA Olympic Triathlon (Hopefully on a different day than the swim)
  

And here is the exciting news... my "A" race for next year will be:

• Sept 12 - Rev3 Full ironman at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH

There it is. In September of next year, I will attempt to become a true endurance athlete in my attempts to complete a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bicycle ride, and then run a full marathon of 26.2 miles.

The reason this news was on hold was that the registrations to the Rev3 races were made through Ebay charity auctions to raise money to benefit the WarOnALS and the BLAZEMAN Foundation. For those of you that don't know the story of John "BLAZEMAN" Blais... I invite you to watch a short documentary on his journey here.

So now the easy part is done.... time to start training. If you notice I added a training mileage log on the left to track my progress and how far I'll travel in my season. I'll post the cumulative updates along side the weekly mileage.

2009 over... 2010 starting...

In review, 2009 was my first triathlon season, complete with a bunch of new firsts... my first Olympic distance, my first wreck during a race, and completion of my first half ironman. When all said and done, I was proud of what I had done in a short time. To top it all off I had also dropped 11 more pounds from winter highs down to 175lbs. My total weight loss now over 4 years is at 73 lbs!

So, the big question is what will 2010 bring?????

I would like to continue into my second season of triathlon. The results of Dr LAG, who hasn't lost his age group and won 3 overall races, has motivated me to get better. So, after 3 weeks off, I've started training. Training for what you ask... well, the races are still in the planning stages but there are a few local races that I'd like to do:

• Rev 3 Half Ironman at Quassy Park in Middlebury, CT
• FIRM Old Colony YMCA Olympic Triathlon
• Narragansett "Save-the-Bay" 1.7 mile fundraising swim

The "Save-the-Bay" swim, I've lived most of my life near areas that have bay swims like this and always wanted to do one. Well the masters team I practice with tried to talk me into doing it telling me that I could win it. Next years goal will be to raise the $300 to benefit the local bay cleanup effort and to attempt to win the race!

The FIRM Old Colony will be a repeat of an Olympic distance race I did this year. This will be a test event to measure overall improvement year over year and my last measure for my "A" race. Given similar conditions, I hope to beat last years time by 5-7 minutes.

The Rev 3 HIM will be a fitness race. Reports from last year claimed this race was a very challenging bike course with fairly flat run course. It is also a family friendly event which is held at an amusement park and the spectators are able to watch the race from a large projection screen.

Then there is my "A" race. This announcement will be forthcoming.... all I can tell you now is that I've got a lot more training to do! So stay tuned....

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...

Sprint triathlon goes horribly wrong

Of the races that I had put on my schedule this year, this race was the one I was really looking forward to this one. Its a sprint distance of .5 mile / 12 mile / 3 mile. Due to the town its held at, Barrington, RI.. the competition is actually really, really good. One of the local teams, Fuel Belt, races this as the owner and most of its members are local area residents. Note that one of the guys on the team is Todd Kenyon of TTBikeFit.com who did my tri fitting. They have a few 9 and 10 hour ironmen (and women) on the team.

I had a goal coming in of breaking 70 minutes provided the course was the same. My time last year at the event was 74 minutes breaking down to 10:49-1:47-34:10-1:17-25:55.

This year I had more races under my belt, more training, and supposedly faster equipment... so 4 minutes is nothing right??? Right!!!

I got the race site and registered, finding that the race number had grown to something around 300 entries. 300 entries, 3 waves... going to be a crowded swim start. I find my transition area and thing are a little depressing. I got stuck on one of the very inside slots meaning I had to run all the way down the row of bikes, grab mine, and run all the way back out, then head to the exit. Not a bike deal, but probably another 10-20 seconds of transition time. It would be great if the organizers put the racks in the middle and had an option to go around one side or the other.

So on to the race. I warmed up on the bike first. Actually felt really good. Maybe its the new pointy helmet! Warmed up in the water and felt awful. It was a little choppy, not much, but still enough to make a difference. I knew that I wasn't going to have a great swim.

The swim was as expected. The first buoy was about 35 yards from shore so it was an all out sprint. I placed myself better this time and had an easier time of managing the crowd. I knew based on the registration list that there would be some faster swimmers than myself (especially with no wetsuit). I saw the lead group get out in front of me and I just didn't want (and couldn't) keep up with them. I just don't have the speed anymore. Right now I'm about 5-10 seconds per hundred meters slower than the "really" fast swimmers. My overall time for the swim was 10:31, 18 seconds faster than last year in rougher water and a course which I felt was not strait. Not bad, but I'll have to go back and look at the results. My cheering section said I entered the first transition in 7th place. Considering 2 people passed me on the beach run (time included in the swim) not bad.

The first transition I tried the old saying "slow is smooth, smooth is fast". I had been practicing the day before.... so I expected a descent time. Ended up finding my bike, rinsing feet, slipping on shoes, through on my helmet, and running out in 1:05! A full 42 seconds quicker. I'm already ahead of last year's time after the event I expected the least gain from by a full minute.

As I headed out on the bike, I spun for the first mile or so as it was slightly uphill. I had a few people within sight of me and considering my placing on the swim, I thought it would be great if I could "hang" with some of these riders. Now maybe some were relay teams, I don't know. But in that first mile of me spinning, I passed two people. Here is were all of the good this go bad.....

You know that instant in time where you make a split decision and are either rewarded greatly or suffer dire consequences. This could be in anything... from driving a car to sporting events. Well I had one of those moments:

As I passed the second person and continued increasing my rhythm, I hear the familiar sound of a riding coming up next to me. As he does, I head to the right to not block. As I do I take a quick glance over to see who it was. It wasn't even a head turn, just an eye shift. Well that's all it took. BAD DECISION! In the blink of an eye, I feel my whole front end drop like a rock. I can't control it: 1) because I'm in the aero bars 2) because I wasn't looking forward 3) because I had caught the side of a sewer manhole cover. If the manhole road gradient would have been sloped, I would have been fine. Because I was moving right, I effectively turned right into it, causing my front tire to effectively drop off the side of the road. Next thing I know I'm hurdling through the air at over 20 mph! As I now laid on the road, I wonder what the heck just happened. I take a look and everything is in one piece. Then I start feeling the burning. Ahh, lots of road rash. Somehow, I managed to walk away from it.

So here is my decision, call it a day and end the race right there... or finish the 10 mile bike and 3 mile run? I'm not injured, the bike looked like it still worked... I'm finishing! While I was laying on the ground, a mechanic pulled up from the race organizers and asked if I was alright. He gave my bike a quick check, then before he handed it to me, he started with the medical questioning. Good call on his part. My helmet (which was basically brand new) didn't even have a scratch. He checked this, I didn't. So he finally cleared me and off I went.

So I went from trying to race to trying to finish. I spent the next 8 miles just kind of working some kinks out waiting for my body to tighten in one place or another. Well it did. My lower leg between my calf and ankle. Must have injured it (tear or bruise) in the crash because that part of my leg was in the front triangle of my bike. It tightened... and tightened... but gosh darn it, I'm finishing.

I finished the bike cruising along ending with a whopping time of 46 minutes! A full 12 minutes slower than last year. Oh well. Into the transition I went. No reason to hurry. From off the bike I knew I was going to have problems. My leg was real sore. I struggled to walk to my area. It's all your head... push through it. I casually switched shoes. and took off jogging.

I tried to use the 3 mile run to focus on running form. I tried to focus on forefoot running vs heel striking. Focus on form was what I kept telling myself. I didn't really push the pace because 1) I was injured and didn't want it to get worse and 2) no real need to as beating my time was no longer possible. I ended up being a rabbit for a few other people out attempting their own personal bests. For the first time in a race, I did not get passed on a run! It wasn't because I was blazing out there either. My run split was 23 minutes! A full 2 minutes faster than last year. Could have been that I was fresher, could have been more training... I don't know, but I like it! Still not fast, but a 2 minute improvement over 1 year on the same course in 3 miles is excellent.!

I came around the corner and the clock read 1:24 and change. Disappointing time... yes. Disappointing finish... absolutely not!

When I look back on this race, sure I'll be upset. But I will always have with me the fact that I pushed myself mentally over the hump to finish the race when battered and bruised. So in the next race I do when hitting that wall, I'll have something mentally to push me over that hump...

Second Olympic distance triathon in the books

This past weekend I participated in my second olympic distance triathlon. It was the Old Colony YMCA Triathlon in Middleboro, MA organized by Firm Racing with a race participant number of 230. I had a goal of 2:30 hours coming into the race.

First, it needs to quit raining here. I feel like we live in Seattle, WA. My last race there was a steady rain during the swim and first lap on the bike. This race didn't have rain during it, but it almost monsooned the night before. The whole transition area had 2" of water in it. It made racing and spectating a bit of a mess and a little dangerous as I'll explain.

Course:

The course was broken into a 2 lap mile swim, a lap of 6 miles, 4 times made the 24 mile bike, and a single loop for the run. Besides the loops, the bike also had a short run up a slight hill that was covered with large chunked mulch and then a 1/4 mile entrance road with 3 speed bumps. The run had a soft dirt exit path and then a winding trail run after the bike entrance/exit. Overall it was a fairly flat course.

Prerace:

The morning didn't start off so well as my alarm didn't go off. So wake up went a little behind schedule which meant no warmup on the bike. Grabbed a bagel/egg sandwich, water, coffee, and a sports drink then packed up the car and headed out for the hour drive to the site.

Arrived at the site about an hour before race time. There was no parking at the site itself so packed my bag and walked 1/2 mile. Registration went without hassle. I got to my assigned rack and was lucky to get an outside spot. In my last race I made a mistake in not walking through the transitions before the race. A mistake I wouldn't make this time. I walked through and asked questions to volunteers making sure I knew entry and exit directions.

Race:

Swim went as expected. I felt good but not quite as good as I had two weeks prior in the pool. It was my first race with a 2 lap swim and I didn't like it. Just the brief time out of the water tightened me up just enough where it probably knocked my pace down on the second lap by 30 seconds. Finished the approximate mile swim in 19:05 for 2nd in age group, 8th overall. Here is a nice shot of me passing some of the faster people in the first wave re-entering the water:



Bike started ok.. The transition went great as I had the 4th fastest time overall. The bike time included the run up the slight mulched hill. The first loop went ok. I tried to focus on spinning. I didnt really feel warmed up and since it was 4 laps I would use the first as a survey loop and try to descend each one. Here I am coming around on one of the loops:



The approximate times at the end of each of the first three laps were:

1. 16:10
2. 31:50 (15:40)
   
3. 47:10 (15:20)
4. 1:04:43 (17:33) Recorded as bike split

The first lap I started the clock as I started the loop. The last lap included the last 1/4 mile of speed bumps plus the small hill. As I exited the last loop, my Garmin said I averaged 22.6 mph. It also included my unfortunate attempts at a dismount. When I went to dismount, I unclipped one foot and when I did, my front wheel went off the pavement into the mud. Road tires and mud don't mix well. I went directly over onto my side. My shoulder bore most of the fall into the mud but my hip and ankle landed on the pavement. Luckily I only came away with a brused ego. So I picked up my bike and walked down the hill. Here is a great shot I like that my wife took:


Not much I can say about the run. It was the run. My goal as I headed out was to not walk. I got a cramp in my side about 1.5 miles in and just tried to run through it. I was determined not to walk. The cramp went away about 3/4 of a mile later. I actually started to feel good between miles 3.5 to 5. I fell out of the grove in the last mile and struggled a bit coming home.

As I was running I had no idea of my swim time, no idea about my bike time, and no idea about my run... so I began to question my 2:30 goal. As I hit the finishing shoot, imaging my surprise when I look up and see 2:24! Subtract the 3 minutes off of the clock due to the second wave and I'm at 2:21. NO WAY! I was so happy. Final Results (Age Group Rank/Overall Rank):

• Swim: 19:05 (2/8)
• T1: 1:06
• Bike: 1:04:43 (9/43)
• Tw: 1:12
• Run: 55:26 (21/140)
• Total: 2:21.34 (9/53)

My first top 33% age group, top 25% overall finish. I'll never really finish much better than that due to my lack of running skills... but I'll keep having fun and keep working at it.

One thing is that the support at this event was great. Not only did my wife come with me again at 6am but I got a surprise cheering section from Sarah and her husband Jeff. Its nice to have some riding friends there. I keep trying to talk them into a Cyclocross race or something.

Interesting night of riding

Tonights ride was one of the most interesting rides I've had in a long time. Thankfully it didn't involve any vehicles this time. It starting off as a usual ride that we do during weeknights which is a 36 mile loop. We went tonight because the sun was out for the first time in weeks!

Three of us were kind of cruising along around the scenic Ocean Dr chatting and just enjoying the weather. After reaching about the half way point of the ride, I see a cop on a motorcycle coming slowly around the corner flashing his lights. Uh Oh.... But wait!!! Following the cop were 40-50 cyclists! Well, each year a local bike shop where we live puts on a "Longest Day of the Year" ride which circles around the small island we live on. In total, I think it ends up being a 45-50 mile loop. So after about 30 seconds, the adrenaline kicked in and my decision was made. TURN AROUND! Back the other way we went. The group was kind of cruising as they had just started and the police escort was there to keep the Newport, RI traffic in check as they went around. Looking down at my computer, my average speed over the first 17 miles was about 17.7 mph.

So out of Newport we went... and up went the pace. Soon I had dropped my mates that I was with, but was hanging with the front group. It was kind of cool to go out in a group of 20-30 riders. Gone was the fear of getting hit by a car. Next thing I know, I'm at 37 miles total and my average mph jumped to 20.1 mph. To raise the average that much that quickly gives you an idea of the pace we were keeping.

Unfortunately, staying with the main pack didn't last. Its not that I cracked, its that a small group of us got caught behind a truck that kind of passed us and made a turn just as we were making a turn. That caused the back half to slow down just enough that enough of a gap was opened that we couldn't gap the distance. We (myself included) didn't have enough firepower. We tried with 3 of us, but that became two quickly and all was lost. A hill was upcoming and I had no gas left. I hadn't planned on doing this ride so I had 1 water bottle and no food/gels. Now I had been out for over 2 hours. After 50 miles I was toast. I also had a problem in that my car was on the other side of the island (My house is in the middle). So I said my goodbye's and decided to use the upcoming light to avoid traffic on a road that just should not be ridden by a solo rider. Off I went at a slower pace and cooled down the last 3 miles home.

Final Stats:

• 51.2 miles
• 20.2 mph
  

Summer Race Schedule

After completing the race a week ago, plans were set in motion to complete the season schedule. I had to do this around two planned trips during the summer and also include some recovery time (It took 3 days for the muscles to feel good again). So here it is:

• July 12 - Old Colony YMCA ITU Triathlon, Middleboro MA
  
• Aug 15 - Bayside YMCA Sprint Triathlon, Barrington RI
  
• Sept 13 - FIRMMAN RI Half-Ironman, Narragansett RI

A mix of distances there with the primary race being the completion of my first half ironman, 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run to end the season.

Here are the goals I've set:

For the July race, which is another ITU distance like my last race, my goal time is 2:30. The race course is supposed to be relatively flat compared to the last course I did... plus it doesn't have the 5 minute jog between the swim/bike transition area.

The Aug race is a repeat of the race I did last year. In last year's event, my end time was 1:14:00. Last year I wrecked a month before the race and had little swim or run training. I didn't get back on the bike until the Wed before the race. If the course is setup similar this year as last year, then I'd be happy with something under 1:10.

The half-ironman - FINISH! Seriously, this is one long race. Something in the 5:30 hour range putting in a 30 min swim, 3 hour bike, and 2 hour run (plus transitions).

Ashland Lions Race Report!

This was my first Olympic distance triathlon. Olympic distance is listed as a 1.5, 40, 10 km race (1, 24.8, 6.2 miles). Basically double any other race I've done. There were a total of 189 entries in the race today.

First obstacle was the weather. It was horrid. 60 degrees and rain! Which just makes going 20+mph on the bike downright miserable. Here is a shot through the trees of the lake where the swim was... you can see the rain hitting the lake:


I started the swim in the second wave, four minutes behind the first. I was unsure of the lake temperature so I borrowed a wetsuit from a neighbor. The wetsuit lasted about 50 yards of warmups. It ended up that the arms were a tad to big, causing water to enter the suit each time my arm entered the water. So I dropped the wetsuit on the shore and went with the tri-suit. I ended up with a decent position at the start so when the gun went off I didn't have too many people to climb over. Sighting was a small problem as I had light blue goggles which on a rainy day didn't work so well. I finished the swim in 2!:41 earning a 2nd place in my age group and 17th overall. Not bad for only 2 practices!!! Just wait till the end of the season when I have more time in the pool.

The second obstacle was the 1/2 mile, uphill run that the organizers made us do through the woods. It crazy! Due to the rain, it literally became a mudlide. Luckily I brought some gore-tex trail running shoes. But they still didn't matter. The trail was just large boulders, tree roots, and puddles. Basically, I ran up it by stepping in the puddles.

The bike was a rolling course with small rollers and two small hills. One was 3% grade for about a mile+ and the other was 4-8% grade for about 1/2 mile. The rain made the course miserable. There were rooster tails everywhere on the first lap. Thankfully, the rain stopped for the second. I finished the 26 mile course in 1:16:10 for an average of ~20.5mph. Considering my legs felt like garbage from the first pedal stroke it wasn't a bad time. Coming off the bike, I was probably in 35th place. Here is a pic of me rolling past my cheering section after the steeper hill:


It was all downhill (performance wise) after I hopped off the bike. I just don't do very well when my feet hit pavement. For one thing, I've never run more than 3 miles in a race. So, I decided to run/walk the 6.2 miles, 8 minutes running, 2 minutes walking. Some of the hills on the course modified this, but I kept to my strategy. The run didn't hurt very much, although much of that had to do with the pace I kept. I finished in a whopping 57:30 for a split that was 137th overall. Here is my finishing shoot shot:


My final stats:

• Swim: 21:41
• T1: 5:50 (includes muddy run)
• Bike: 1:16:10
• T2: 1:32
• Run: 57:30
• Total: 2:42:44 (62nd place, 9th/21 in Age Group)
  

Race Season starts!

Most of the winter was spent nursing two injuries, the kneecap fracture and the shoulder dislocation, both of which kept me out of any training. However, I spent the last two months upping my training level (now up to 100-125 mile a week on the bike) so its time to give some races a go.

So, tomorrow is the official start of race season. I'm taking part in an Olympic distance triathlon of 1 mile, 26 mile, 6.2 mile distances. The course is what I would call rolling. There are two "bumps" in the 13 mile loop, one short hitting 8% grade and one longer 1.5 mile 3-4% climb. The run is supposedly rolling too.

My current pre-race activities have consisted of packing, hydrating, and talking with Dr. LAG (fellow former swimmer and much better triathlete than I) about his Olympic tri race that he did today. By the way, congrats to him as in his first race in years, he pulled off the victory by 4 minutes! Averaging 24 mph on the bike and then putting in a 42 minute 10k run.

All I know is that I'm excited but a little nervous.....

Very, very close call today!

If anyone isn't aware, the town of Newport, RI has a large tourism industry. I've learned over the last 3 years that cycling and tourists are not a good combination. I've had close calls before from people paying more attention to what they are doing while driving than looking at the sights. Anyway, today I came real close to eating someone's license plate for lunch.

I was just in the first 5 miles of my ride. The first part of the ride is a straight, rolling road. I was unfortunately on the Tri bike. This means that I'm in the aerobars. Due to the fact that I was on a slight downhill, my speeds were fairly fast. Well, all of the sudden, a 20 year old decides to back out of his driveway from the opposite side of the road as me to head the same direction as I was going. Even though I was in the middle of the lane, the kid either didn't see me, or didn't look. I jump off the aerobars onto the brakes as fast as I can, which isn't all that easy, and start slamming on the brakes. As I do, a lady comes running out of the driveway screaming trying to get the kids attention to pull back in. For some unknown reason, he decides not to move. Which turned out to be a good thing. I had only one option: head left into the oncoming lane and turn into his driveway. Because he was sitting in the middle of the road, the car coming the other direction had stopped. The woman came over to me asking if I was ok. I was just shaken a bit.... so I clipped in and headed back out. As I'm leaving, the kid tried to say something but all I hear is the woman (who I assume was the mother) yelling at the top of her lungs at the kid that he could have killed me.

After this incident, the decision was easy to avoid Newport at all costs, especially on a holiday weekend! My weekday local evening rides may have to stop...

Pics of Tri Position and Road Ride Results

Figured since I had the fitting I should post a photo of the results along with a ride report. So here is the photo:

This past Friday the weather was nice so I cut out of work a bit early. It gave me enough time to do one of the longer routes where I live. It is a really nice 36.2 mile route around the southern part of Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island heading through Newport onto Ocean Dr. Traffic was a little heavy in parts as some of the tourists were out driving around. On a blind corner, I almost ran into the back of a tour trolley that had just stopped near a farm.... "Serenity Now"! The sun was out in force until I hit mile 30 passing the beaches. The wind had shifted, the air cooled off, and it brought the fog in. The fog/mist eliminated the sun which dropped the temperatures 10-15 degrees immediately. My speed took a huge hit. I lost a full .5-.7 mph average on the last 5 miles.

Result: 36.2 miles, 1:51 minutes, 19.57 mph (Garming said 20.2 mph at the first 31 miles)

Fairly inline with my 10 mile Computrainer TT results.

Start of the season indoor ITT

Now that my knee seems to feel good and I've managed some good paces on weekend group rides, I felt as if it was a good time to do a start of the season ITT. Doing the test indoors on the computrainer gives a good indication of fitness and power eliminating effects from the bike aerodynamics and outdoor elements. On the trainer I chose the Computrainer 10 mile TT course. I believe it is one of the default courses that RacermateInc uses in its 20% performance increase money back guarantee. The course is basically a rolling course with not greater than 3% gradients.

• Avg Speed - 21.0 mph
• Max Speed - 23.7 mph
  
• Avg Power - 210 watts
• Peak Power - 385 watts

That is my starting point. Unfortunately, I didn't attach either the cadence sensor or the heartrate monitor so I'm missing a few numbers. If the guarantee is accurate, my power should increase 20-30% and a speed increase of 2 mph by using the trainer a minimum of 3 times per week at a minimum of 1 hour each session. You also have to do a ITT once every 4 weeks to determine progress. The next one will be scheduled for June 9th!!

New Goodies!!

So the first item was actually purchased during my bike fit. It is the infamous ISM Adamo saddle. For anyone doing triathlons or TTs that has problems with seats putting pains where there really shouldn't be pains, these seats are for you. Basically, its design puts the pressure right back on your sit bones where it is supposed to be. There are several models available. Each has different amounts of padding so its just a matter of finding the "right" one.


The next item was a recommendation by the fitter. I needed to lengthen the front end of my bike. I did this by replacing the standard Vision TT aerobars which were 250mm in length with the Profile Design T2+ S-Bend aerobar clip-on extensions. Since I was changing the bars, I also changed the light gray shifter and brake cables. After a week of adjustments, I finally have what I feel is a manageable setup. Once interesting thing was I routed the shifter cables through the plastic ends of the aerobar extensions. You can see these barely in the photo. I outfitted them with Zipp bar tape which I am pleased with.


One of the problems I ran into was where to mount my computer. The bars are fairly narrow and doesn't give much space. The computer I have, a Garmin Forerunner 301, is a wide computer and will barely fit between the bars. Off I went to Home Depot. I came out with a 3/4" curved PVC pipe. After a little bit of dremeling, I came up with the following mounting bracket:

The PVC is dremeled so it has curved ends to fit between the bars yet rises up slightly between them. The gray PVC was then covered in black electrical tape to semi-permanently mount it between the bar ends. The computer mounting bracket is then zip tied to the PVC. Here is a final shot showing how the actual computer fits in between my arms.



The last goody I got was related to running. If you have been following my blog, you know that I've had recent knee problems that have kept me from doing pretty much anything. Well, I finally decided that after 500 miles of biking, I should make an attempt to run. I started slow doing 2 minutes walking at 4mph and 2 minutes running at 6.5 mph. Not blazing at all. One big thing that I noticed was that if I accidentally over-extended my stride, my bad knee would experience sharp pains. I came to the realization that my running form may be what caused my injuries in the first place. I may have had a double whammy of overstriding and a major heel striker. In an attempt to fix this, I bought into the marketing hype of a shoe company. No its not a major player... its Newton Running. So I am using their 30 day "free trial" period and bought the following:


The shoes are their "Gravity" cushion trainer model. The shoes are very interesting concept. They are designed to promote forefoot/midfoot running form. The heel material is less, they have a more flexible forefoot, and they have "lugs" underneath the midsole. The lugs are supposed to be some type of energy retention system. Whether these lugs work or not have yet to be seen, but I'm not getting my hopes up. So after I got home I took them for their maiden voyage. Another 2 min walk, 2 min run session at 4mph/6.5mph. What I noticed right away was the shoes wanting to "keep me on my toes". Its a good thing I was only running in 2 minute intervals, because I don't think I could go further. Two observations were made after the 20 minutes of running. My cadence improved 10 steps per minute from 80 to 90. Changing to this running style is going to take some time. In the end, I didn't once get a jolt of pain up in my knee. I attribute this to not heel striking and letting the knee try and absorb the shock, this was since the foot was doing most of the shock absorption. Over the next month, updates will continually be made on these shoes and my progress in a gait change.

Great Weather, Great Ride!

After a terrible week of work and no biking it was finally time to get outdoors and pedal. The weather cooperated with temps into the upper 80s with no wind.

Packed up the bike and headed for the weekly group ride at Village Bicycles. Met up with a friend at work. They pulled out the maps and had planned for a 68 mile ride. The groups got setup and I thought I was going to average in the 15-18mph range. That would have been fine. Off we went when my friend said that we should check out who is in the lead group. So off we went sprinting to play catch up.

50 miles later, and I was in a group of 4 including the shop owner and one of his employees. Both of whom are doing the Race Across America. I cracked in the end... But I averaged 19.8mph. Not bad for an early spring ride coming off of knee injury!

Speaking of the knee injury, the shims that were added to my cleat worked wonders. No knee pain at all... no ankle roll... no numb foot on the outside. The money spent on the fitting was well spent.

I can't wait till Tuesday's group ride!!!

Tri-Bike Fitting at TTBikeFit

As a result of my recent knee injuries, I decided to spend some money and get a proper bike and cleat fit by someone who knows what he is doing. After looking at two places, I decided to visit Todd Kenyon. at:

http://www.ttbikefit.com/

Todd is a triathlete, a much better one than myself. His wife is a really good age grouper who has set bike split records. Todd fits some of the worlds greatest triathletes. He does everything through cameras and video analysis while you are on a computrainer.

Results:

After spending over 2 and a half hours, I had my seat actually raised a bit. I got a recommendation that I need new aerobars as the one I have are two short. Overall, he liked my actual position on the bike.

The biggest time spent was on the video analysis of my pedalling. At first, Todd was perplexed as he had never seen anything like what was happening to me. Basically, I don't stand knocked kneed, but as I pedal, at the top of the pedal stroke, my feet go out while my knees are in close to the frame. On the down stroke, the force causes most of the pressure on the outside of the foot and follows with ankle roll. This is apparent during climbing. To fix this, he added reverse shims underneath my cleat to tilt my foot. This put even pressure on my whole foot and aligned my hip, knee, ankle, and foot to my natural position.

I also had a chance to try out a ISM Adamo saddle. While not the prettiest thing, it attempts to eliminate hot spots in the appropriate areas if you know what I mean. I had a fizik saddle that everyone seems to recommend... but it just didn't work for me.

The final thing he did was measure me and provide me with a recommendation for a "dream" bike. He provides measurements in stack and reach. I have a freakishly long torso, so I need a long and low bike. The Cervelo I have fits into that category, but it is still too small. He recommended a 51 stack and a 43+ reach. This is the one I liked the best: