5 miler report

I never wrote about the 5 miler I did back in September, so here it goes:

The weather was horrific: 30-40 mph winds with torrential rain. Probably some of the worst conditions you could expect for a September weekend.

By the time I was on the line, I was cold and felt a little crazy for being out there.

The race got off and I was fast, it was hard not to be. So much adrenaline and energy just sitting around in the rain.

During some hilly portions of the course I felt really good and passed some people-----running hills around my house prepped me well.

My goal was to negative split the course and I did! Avg'd 7:26 min/miles which is pretty decent considering how long its been since I raced and the weather.

Snowshoes!

Just picked up a pair of running snowshoes on eBay. I figure, what better way to embrace the cold white Boston winter than to go out and enjoy it.

There are many snowshoe races in the area as well, so I'm out running again to get into race shape.

basebars with handlebar tape

They look cool:

Aero brakes

Based on Tom A's front brake (which is a Tektro rear mounted on the front and actuated as a centerpull, rather than a sidepull V-type brake), I am going to try and develop my own aero brake.

Surprisingly, bike companies haven't come up with anything good as far as aerobrakes go, since the 80's and 90's.

I actually had this idea for an aero brake when I saw the Specialized Transition bike 2 years ago, specifically, this picture:



That looked like a Ubrake to me, on a special fork built to hold a U brake. That fork is probably tough to get, but luckily ubrake adapters are sold.



Will this work? Brake-wise yes, it should work. Aero-wise...will it integrate well enough into the fork crown so as to become one with the bike/fork? Or will it stick out into the wind in unplanned ways?

Well, I get the brakes in two days and the bike in three. We'll see.

Before I plunked down the $30 to try it, I did some mockups in Photoshop:

First I laid two brakes that looked good to me on top of each other, to see which was smaller. The images were different sizes originally, but I resized them based upon the pivot bolts.



Notice the pink "Hombre" brake is narrower near the brake pads.

Then, I mounted them onto the Ubrake adapter:



Lastly, I mounted them onto a photo of a fork (I dont have the Jetstream fork as pictured, but it was the best photo I could find of a fork at the time):


The location on this last photo is an estimate, not sure how high or low the aerobrake will actually sit. We'll see...

Project Unicorn: Basebar mod 2

Thin and narrow = aero

I narrowed my Vision aluminum basebars by 6cm to 34cm center to center. The stock Vision basebars have so much round section on them, it's almost silly. Now, as you can see above, most of the bar is wing section not round section.

Potentially, this could be dangerous. While the last basebar mod of adding extensions to the handgrip area isnt so dangerous, this one kind of is. So dont try this at home.

I think it looks pretty cool though. Also, I have cinched down the faceplate of the stem and could not get the bars to budge, however, I will be drilling 2 screws through the faceplate and into the bar and wood to secure things further.

Internally, its oak dowel sanded to fit perfectly inside the round section of the Vision basebar. This gives some support to the halved bars and attempts to re-join the two halves. Also, by screwing into each side (as mentioned above) I will perfectly unite what was once one piece.

The right side is a little longer (sticks our wider) than the left. This is to accomodate my aerobars. It was symmetrical at first, but I couldnt resist narrowing the bar an additional cm at the price of asymmetry.



Now, I hopefully have a very aero set of basebars for little cost.

Also, I want to take this time to praise the Profile H20 stem. It gets a bad rap among tri-snobs, but I think this could possibly be the most aero stem out there. One reason for this is the width, or I should narrowness of the stem itself. The faceplate is about 4mm wider than a Vision stem. The way I see it, the stem's faceplate sees clean air (assuming a Landis type position) and thus, the narrower that faceplate the less drag created. Probably not much, but something. And little something's add up to something measurable.

Take a look at the pic of Levi below, now assuming he had an non-integrated aerobar, that stem would be hitting clean air, the more that clean air hits wing section the better off his drag "should" be.



Additionally, the only real way I could be able to do this mod is that my aerobars will take up very very little barspace. Stay tuned...

P3

About 4 minutes...

…That’s all that has separated me from the winning Eppie’s Ironman times over my last few tries.

My plan is to continue running throughout the winter, including some snowshoeing races! As well as buying a bike trainer and sweating it out in our apartment.

Also, I’ve been having a lot of fun planning out my bike setup for next year; I think I can take 2:40 off in bike gear.

 

 

 

Training Status

Been keeping up my running. Going about 3 times per week, with a longer type run on Sunday’s.

 

Only 23 days left to the Ollie 5 mile Road Race. My top end speed is pretty good I think, based on the track workouts I’ve done. However, when running tempo, its difficult to hold onto an 8 min mile pace. I’ll keep trying to drill some lengthy speed into my legs to prepare them for the race.

 

I know the race will give me some extra speed, what with nerves and excitement but my goal of a 7 min mile pace is looking lofty right now. But, I’ll continue to try and up the pace of my workouts to develop the aerobic endurance I’m going to need.

 

 

Project Unicorn: Basebar mod 1

Did some good work this weekend, modifying the VisionTech basebar to make it more aero----at least to the eye.

Cut off the upturns (this is basic) then added extensions to increase the hand grip area and so that the Vision levers could be mounted inline with the basebar itself (like the USE Tula bars below).



Then, I drilled a hole in the front of the wing section to allow the brake cable to pass through. With the brake levers mounted sideways like this, the cable makes less turns than it would if the upturns were cut but the levers were mounted in their standard position.














Here's an example of what a typical Vision setup would look like:



Those upturns really look to create a lot of drag. Considering, MOST of the time you should be in the aero tuck, the wind is flowing over these upturns. Also, a standard lever, like those above are wider and bulkier than the Vision brake levers.

I'm not done with the basebar though. My ability to extend the grip area on the Visions has inspired me to do something even crazier to these bars. Stay tuned.

Another Track workout

2 weeks ago I did my first track workout, yesterday I did my second. And in those 2 weeks, I got faster!

On 7/29 I ran 6 x 400’s and averaged 1:30 per lap. Yesterday, I ran 7 x 400s and averaged 1:26 per lap.

Bonus is that, yesterday, I ran with a heart rate monitor, so I can use that HR data the next time I do this workout to see how my body responds to this kind of pressure.