Got the front wheel in the mail

The Zipp 440 came in the mail today, pretty cool looking. Feels light, Dura Ace hub. 990 grams w/o the skewer (and with the tire). Compare that to my training front wheel (Mavic Open Pro with Ultegra hub, clinchers with tire liners) which weigh 1300 grams, thats a pretty big drop (almost a pound off the front wheel alone). Plus the 440 is aero.



Some more pics:




The frame should be here by wednesday, the rear wheel who knows?

my new rear wheel

is going to be a pretty sweet Corima 4 spoke tubular race wheel. I was thinking of a disc, but decided against it in favor of something like this. These 3 or 4 spoke wheels are better in cross winds, which is nice.

$$$

Ebay's a great thing. I just sold $1126 worth of bike stuff on Ebay, in order to purchase some different stuff. The focus is Eppies. Got the new frame for $610 plus $30 shipping. The only thing I truly need is a rear wheel and some bar tape. I will be using everything else I already had on my Cannondale. Once the Cannondale gets stripped down, I'll sell it too.



I might look into another set of training wheels. But probably not. Theres nothing wrong with my current set, they're beefy and easily serviceable which is a nice combo.

Im thinking of maybe a HED trispoke rear wheel, ofcourse tubular. Seen em go on Ebay from $220-$400.

Im hoping to get $300 ish for the Cannondale frame/fork. I'm already up $486, so I got that to spend on a rear wheel. I might save the rest of the money in a piggy bank to spend on bike part stuff later, I do lust after Zero G brakes, but dont know if I can rationalize them. As Ultegra brakes work pretty darn good.

Got my frame

So I decided to save some $$$, and buy a used Soloist frame. This way, I can use the money elsewhere on other fun things like a cool rear wheel.

So I just won this Soloist off of Ebay for $610. Retail on the Soloist is $1200. So about half off. The other bonus for saving a bundle on this is that, I will buy another Cervelo seatpost, one that is set up for TT's. With the nature of this bike, the post head can be flipped around to make this either road geometry or time trial geometry. If I have another seatpost with saddle pre-mounted, making this switch will be really simple.



The only major issue with this used frame is it has some tire rub with wore through some of the metal in the seat stays, but I dont think this will be an issue, other than cosmetic. The only other thing is that I really wanted the anodized black frame as they sell it now. But with the amount I saved on this, I could get this custom anodized, but I probably wont.

a bridge to nowhere...

just a pretty cool song title to title this post.

If I run 6 min miles next year, That would give me a run time of 33:32. Or....5 minutes faster than this years run time. I avg'd 6:56 min/miles this year. So yes 56 secs faster per minute, but ive been close to that pace before in my life. With a lot of hard work, i think i can be back there.


All the Eppies champs have been great runners. Lin Feil, Mike Ammon, Don Hicks, Leonard Veare, Vic Vicari. They could all run.

Run: 33.5
T1: 1.5
Bike: 29.5
T2: 1.5
Kayak: 39

Thats a 1:45 exactly. Winning material. And honestly, I think I can bike under 29.5 and paddle under 39 on a good day.

I dont just want to win my division, I wanna bring the under 40 crew back to a respectable position. This year was the first year (i think) I beat ammon on the run, but he's 61! No under 40 ironman has gone under 1:50 since Veare. Thats the mark, going under 1:45 now that is the stuff.

"If this is a race, then you hope you come last. put it in the past." Sam Roberts Band

A new bike soon...

Next year, I'll be sitting on the Cervelo Soloist. Sexy! and Fast. No more gifts.





Im cleaning out a lot of my other bike stuff to make way for this beast.

Ill be running this on the front

No messing around, I sold my time trial wheels a year ago or more to buy other stuff, well Im buying the stuff back now, or even better stuff.

No more messing around, next year ill be rolling this front wheel:






No more free seconds will be given away.

i got 3rd

Yeah so this was the plan:

Run: 39 mins
T1: 1 min
bike: 30:30
T2: 2 min
kayak: 39

would be like a 1:51 or so.

The run was pretty good actually. I ended up actually beating mike ammon, which was a first for me.

Yeah so that was cool, also it was cool that i went 38:40. cause thats faster than my goal time.

The T1 was fast, i hopped on my bike and thoguht i had a rear flat tire! AArgghhh! it felt like a slow leak, but then i realized that it was my tire liners that i installed the day before to prevent thorns. they slowed me down a lot!

I got on a good draft, and we went up the course pretty good. It was me, Larry Feldhaus, another 40+ ironman, and two team guys.

The two team guys just kept switching off drafting, which left us to jusst hang on. Larry let a gap form and i came around him to cover the gap. in doing so, larry was dropped.

We caught a lot of cyclists, in that draft! like maybe 30 guys or so. I kept expecting to see Nick (the guy i barely beat last year), but i never did. Our group did catch Craig MccMannis, I yelled at him to hop on the draft. He rode with us for a few miles, then another gap formed as we maybe that hard left bend (where Vic went off the road in practice).

I finished the bike, had a good cyclocross dismount, ran across the bridge, and down to the boats. as soon as i hit the water and started paddling steve wilson shot out in the center of the river, and there was no way i could cover that draft. he was fresh, and my abs and core were fried.

then craig mcmannis came by me, and again i couldnt match his speed. my dad had told me that there were 12 ironmen ahead of me (which is a lot, last year it was like 5). I began to feel okay, by Rossmoor, but still didnt never really got the pace jacked up too much. I caught another ironman at the last corner, which was good. The water flow was like 3900 or so, a little down from last week, but still pretty high. That didnt help me.

I ended up 3rd. 36 secs off of first, 18 secs off of 2nd, and 25 secs ahead of 4th.

it was a close race in my division, but the old guys kicked our ass hard again, Don won the overall at like 1:45 something. I went 1:53

next year will be a different game.

my prediction? my time: 1:46:06

My Aero Drink

So I want to drink a bottle of fluid on the bike this year. Last year, as mentioned previous, I didnt manage to do that. You get caught up in the moment, your drafting 1" behind a guy you've never met, hands on the brake levers ready to squeeze and also pumping massive amounts of blood throguh your heart and veins and drinking just seems to slip my thoughts. Especially because I dont want to take my hands off the bars.


Now, I have my aero drink.

It is a 50 cent bottle from the thrift store. and $2 of tubing from the hardware store. And 4 zipties.

faster transitions

I got a little faster today, and i didnt have to do anything but think a little.

I got faster in the transitions.


In the kayak, I am going to leave my running shoes on. Ive always paddled in a "aqua sock" type shoe, but this time, I will be using a pair of racing flats that have a small enough heel that they fit in my boat. I tried it out the other day and it was fine. I will race tomorrow in the pre race with them.

Time saved: 8-9 seconds

I will be using my waist pfd which I think will save some time. It will keep me cooler (not sure how much or what kind of time will be saved there?) But it is easier to put on, just one clip.

Time saved: 4-7 seconds

I will be doing a cyclocross style dismount at T2. This will be a much faster dismount than I have done in years past. Because I raced cross all last year, I'm very comfortable doing this now.

Time saved: 6-12 seconds

So total time gained: 18-28 seconds

Say, 30 seconds. Thats a lot of time. Especially on the water. 30 seconds is a lot of time to make up, that I wont have to make up this year, because I threw some smack down in transitions.

Notice, these gains were all made in T2. Im still thinking about how to take some precious ticks off of T1.

hydration will be key

before


after


Last year, i didnt even think about hydrating during the race. As a result, I suffered and im sure my performance did too. If nothing else I was thinking about how thirsty I was and how much I wanted water. In the boat, i almost stopped to scoop some river water into my mouth, i went through rapids with my mouth open hoping to catch some spray etc. I was thinking about it, if nothing else.

This year, im thinking about it. I'm going to carry a small bottle on the run filled with a Clif/Gatorade type drink. When the bottle is empty, I'll chuck it down. The small bottle filled 5/6 with water weighs 13.9 ounces. So not too bad, less than a pound, which is good.

I bought two Calistoga bottles, then switched their lids (because the big one came with a "sport top" and the small one came with a screw off top.)

Only a $1, and I think it will work well. Also, ill have a hose hooked up to my bike bottle, so i can drink out of the aero position. That will come shortly. The first prototype wasnt as perfect as I wanted.