A friend from triathlon club was doing a purge of his pantry from bike gear he decided he no longer needed to hold on to. I would agree that his house was overflowing with bike stuff and because I can still turn around in my room and don’t yet have enough biking clothes to do the entire 64 days next summer without doing laundry, I aquired a bunch of new-used stuff. A stack of jerseys, cyclocross tyres, race tyres, some cold-weather tights, and some new wheels!

They’re Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels, aluminum alloy, medium profile with blade spokes. I intend on equipping the rear with a carbon fibre disk shell (wheelbuilder.com) and using them for racing and the occasional simulation training ride. I guess this summer isn’t going to give them a ton of use but I’ll be sure to break them out for “Tuffest Three” in October as I need to help our team defend the title.

It’s exciting when I’ve got the opportunity to talk about why I’m riding next summer with people who are far more serious cyclists than myself. There’s something about biking across an entire continent that captures the imagination of everyone. It’s atypical when the “imagination” turns to how cool it would be to put in 9 weeks of high volume bike training back to back, but in some sense it’s the same thing. It’s doing something big enough to cause some apprehension, doing it with a purpose, and being super excited about the opportunity. That’s what makes this whole bike ride into such a good place to begin a conversation. Where God allows that conversation to go is the exciting part.

The bike has returned from the shop. It’s awesome and I love it. I forgot how sweet it was to have gears indexed perfectly. I had them indexed to what I would consider “great” accuracy and shifting was “great” but since the return from the bike shop shifting is ridiculously nice. Oh, and the important stuff… The new handlebars are great, they’re a super-wide pair of drops, the widest in the cataloge and I really appreciate it. The ability to breathe fully may or may not be just in my head, I can see it from both angles, one I kinda expected it or two I have a minuscule improvement but am able to notice because I’m seeking the ability to notice it.

Cliff couldn’t find a 27 tooth cog that comes for a 9-speed. Basically because they don’t exist apparently. That means I need to decide in the spring what I’m going to do for gears. I may have to go for an extended length dérailleur and then put a mountain cassette on the rear. That would make it possible for me to go even past a 27 tooth, all the way to 31 or something crazy low (well I guess 35 is technically an option but an unnecessary one).

The Cervélo went into the bike shop this afternoon for an overhaul in advance of the big ride next summer. The parts I ordered came in from out of town and I got the call to drop it off for the changeover, it should be back in a couple days a rather different bicycle.

• Bullhorns and Aerobars swapped off for a pair of drops
• I’m keeping the indexed shifters from the aerobars and moving them around to the drops, some touring style shifters
• Swapping TT brakes for some real ones
• Rear cassette changed from 11-23 to a 12-27
• New chain and cables
• I’ll be putting on some superfat tyres, well like 25mm, but that will have to come at a later date when stores start carrying summer stock again.
• Some white bar tape to tie things together and trick people into thinking I’ve been a roadie all along

The parts that actually needed to be changed were the cassette and handlebars. The bigger cogs will be appreciated so I’m able to manage climbing some passes next summer and not slaughtering myself in the process. The handlebar swap though is a matter of safety. I intend to ride almost everyday in a paceline (of sorts) and bullhorns are not the safest nor the most comfortable way to do so. So sadly I’ve given up the aero-position for the next year or so, I’ll probably miss it but I have to remember the tradeoff, my thighs will grow faster this way!

I raced the UofA Tuffest Three race with Campus Rec this morning. It’s a run-bike-run relay in Hawrelak park. I was on a co-ed team and we won the whole thing, beat the guys only teams! My portion was the bike, 23 kms (approx) and consisted of 10 laps of Hawrelak park. My splits were as follows:

1. 3:59.65
2. 3:50.10
3. 3:53.70
4. 3:51.90
5. 3:53.10
6. 3:53.75
7. 3:50.40
8. 3:52.00
9. 3:51.10
10. 3:39.45

• Total Time: 38:35.2

That’s 35.8 kph. I was just over a minute behind first place of all the cyclists. The dude was pretty crazy who beat me though, he came with a trainer and rode for 30 minutes in the parking lot to get warmed up. That’s probably a correct amount of warming up to do but it was a bit odd for a low key event like this one. I honestly don’t think that I could have gone any faster. When I decided to give it everything I had on the last lap and was only 10 seconds faster that lap than all the rest… I think it’s an indication that I had dialed in exactly how quickly I could go. Average heart rate for the trip was 191, that’s about 90% of my reserve, pushing 95% MHR. Anyhow, well into the anaerobic zone.

More…

Before shot (in red), and after (in championship green T-Shirts)

Well, oddly enough the news from our “hero” Marion Jones didn’t surprise me all that much. I sucks for everyone to deal with stuff like that, I mean each time someone else gets caught it makes us second guess our heroes. I don’t think any less of all the guys preparing this week to race in Hawaii because of a stupid decision by an athlete and coaching system back in 2000, but I’d be lying to say that it didn’t make me wonder a bit about the cleanliness of my sport.

I certainly wasn’t the only person wondering what it’s like to take drugs in the past week, it’s a topic of conversation that’s running rampant on internet forums right now. Someone dug up a feature story from the Outside magazine of a guy who went on a collection of drugs back earlier this decade and competed as a steroid loaded machine in the Paris-Brest-Paris bike race. The story is from 2003 and is available online here.

Here’s a snippet that gives you an idea of what kind of enhancement he was getting.
“Within three weeks, my hematocrit level had risen to 48.3. By this time, my testosterone levels had shot up to 900 nanograms per decaliter, from a previous mark of 280. (My starting level was just below normal.) My HGH had increased only slightly, which Dr. Jones found unusual. He upped my HGH dosage to 1.2 IU a day, speculating that the long hours I spent training might be keeping the level down.“
Those numbers, for those of you that don’t know what they mean, are great! I would estimate my hemocrit level as “good” but that means I’m somewhere around 42-44. You get ejected from competition at 50 because you’re superhuman.

The guy went on to add an anabolic steroid to the mix and I think that’s where things started to get a bit past where he was comfortable as he writes:
“I got a glimpse of myself in the glass of a freezer door. I had a light on my helmet and a bunch of other blinking gizmos attached to my arms and ankles. My face looked like one of those “thousand-yard stare” photos from Vietnam. What have I done? I wondered. I had a life once, and now I’m standing in the Easton WaWa in the middle of the night, looking like a cyborg, with thousands of dollars of drugs coursing through my veins.“

Basically the author decides, as I had known all along, that if you’re looking to use some drugs to gain a bit of an edge, to improve yourself as an athlete without damaging yourself as a complete person, your best bet is HGH. He started at 0.1 IU of HGH, which I think is really at the low end, but was up to a daily 1.2 IU of HGH by the time his race rolled around, I think that’s pretty high. This is under the advice of a doctor though, so maybe 1.2 is ok, I’ve never really read of anyone dosing above 0.5 or 0.6, maybe that’s because the only people who I read about are those who aren’t taking the drug with anticipation of making serious performance enhancement.

So 1.2 IU of HGH in my opinion is intelligent, but I would suggest that anything anabolic is unintelligent, any testosterone supplementation in excess of the 98^th percentile of natural testosterone production is unintelligent. I would say that use of EPO to put your hemocrit level at anything more than 5 points above natural would also be unintelligent. I think this guy is nuts to go so extreme with the drugs if he’s only trying to explore them for personal interest. His numbers suggest to me that some people must be really hyped up on stuff if that doctor was prescribing those doses without really being pushed or convinced to make the guy into a monster.

Am I ever going to take HGH? Maybe it sounds like I’m considering it because I know what kind of dosage I’d be comfortable at. Well the answer is yes I’ve done my research but it’s out of interest and the answer regarding putting the stuff into my body is a resounding no! Triathlon is a challenge against myself, it’s an opportunity to see what I can get myself to do. If I start taking something, I have not treated myself fairly, what kind of success is it if you’re not pushing for your absolute (real) best. I suppose the perspective exists that you’re still competing against yourself, but you’re just doing it at a higher level. To that I’d say, bullshit, I can bike fast enough that it’s scary without drugs. There is no “entertainment” enhancement achieved by competing against yourself at a higher level than the one you’re at. If you’re a pro there is certainly a reason to dope though, you’re not competing against yourself, you’re competing on a playing field with everyone else and you’re manipulating the topography of it. I’ve got very little respect for those that are doing so.

I also feel like adding a few reasons why drug use is not honoring to God, as I believe I’m a created being. I’m 6′5” tall for a reason, I’ve got funny knees for a reason, and I don’t have a hemocrit level of 55 for a reason. I’m not going to elaborate a ton here though. I just feel like you’re not really honoring God if you’re enhancing yourself via chemical means. God calls us to worship him in all things, doing things that human beings do is honoring to him.

“Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars… Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.” Psalm 148: 9 & 13.

That means that riding bikes, running in the river valley and swimming in freezing cold lakes are expressions of worship and praise to God if you participate in them as such. I have a hard time justifying doing those kinds of things through a means that was not created is as honoring to God as those people who aren’t.

Here’s a parent with their child’s priorities in order…

Trainer before training wheels. Aero before normal bars. Steep seat tube before banana seat. Carbon fiber before plastic.

I decided to do a last minute registration to race at Summerside in the olympic distance triathlon… I figured that with a solid 215 km bike ride and my lsd run still comfortable somewhere around 2.5 hours I was in good enough shape to register and race purely for fun. My goals were:

1. Give the swim my best shot but stay aerobic
2. Cycle at approx anaerobic threshold minus 3-5 beats, perceieved exertion steady-plus-plus. I was aiming for above a 36 kph split, considering that the roads are brutal.
3. See how I would manage on the run, not particularily interested in aiming at the 43-45 minute range that I think I was capable of but making the bike split count and having a tough run. I hoped I would be challenged to keep it under 50 mins if I had the chance.
4. Have an enjoyable time at all costs, I love triathlon and that is the point.

I had a good swim… it was really cold and I opted not to warm up in the water because I didn’t want to stand around and get cold arms (sleeveless wetsuit) waiting to go. I crawled out of the pond after just less than 33 minutes which was pretty good considering the only swimming I had done that month was a little splash the wednesday before (even colder!). I got into transition and fumbled getting the arm warmers on due to a combination of cold hands and wet arms (well duh!) I was out on the bike and ready to get to work.

I averaged 37 kph through the first half (out and 2 laps. I was stoked and had really picked up a huge portion of the mens olympic field. I passed at least 28 guys, which in retrospect means that I had moved up to nearly 5th place.

Then things fell apart, summerside is a brutal course and there was construction and deep gravel on the road. Volunteers had swept gravel from the corners to give a bare patch to ride across. The corners (luckily only 4 on each lap) were a big bunching up spot for riders and I ended up going into one following someone around. I paid attention to just matching their line instead of getting through the gravel and I ended up in the gravel bank. My front wheel went out from below me and I landed on my side. Bleeding from the hands and knee I tried to get going again but I had bent my front derailleur. I stopped, caught my breath and decided that I would take it off the bike instead of trying to fix it, I only needed the big ring anyways. That worked alright and after 15 minutes of fiddling to make the bike ridable I got out of the ditch and headed “home” to T2. I had bottle cages hanging out of my bike shorts (littering is a DQ so I was careful) and looked an interesting sight, there was no flying dismount, I came to a complete stop and steped cautiously off of my bike.

After paying a visit to the paramedics to scoop the gravel out of my knee I headed out on the run and met up with my friend Jill who was doing a sprint distance race. I ran her 5 kms first and got her in to the finish in just over 28 minutes and then I headed out for my last 5 kms. I was aiming for a 21 minute run which would certainly be a stretch but I figured I should make it a challenge. I got my 2.5 km split correct and was starting to experience cramping in my left (bleeding) side. I didn’t feel like I slowed down but obviously did as I finished in 21:30, still inside 50 minutes for the run but outside 3 hours for the whole shebang.

All in all it was still a fun time and the most important goal was still realized. We had a great pasta lunch, I stopped bleeding and the sun came out; things turned out great!

About 75% of the people I tell that I have a fixed gear bike ask the question: “What use is a bike like that?” I believe they’re mostly asking why the second bike still looks like a road bike and not a mountain bike, a distiction that the average person understands. I came across the article by Patrick McCrann of Performance Training Systems and I think it really does a fine job of summing up at least the training aspect of the fixie, not entirely the fun or the awesomeness or the flow… but this is certainly an important aspect.

Single Gear Riding (SGR) is a powerful exercise in learning how to manage your effort level on the road. Instead of shifting gears to compensate for terrain changes, SGR teaches you how to use “internal” gears to deal with hills, descents and flats. This is an essential skill for Iron-distance athletes, as you will encounter a wide variety of terrain on race day – often two or three times depending on the number of loops on the course. Every small roller, false flat, and serious climb is a chance to appropriately manage your effort; SGR will give you a solid skill-set that will be incredibly useful come race day. This is not a time trial workout; I think of this as a variation on a weekly endurance ride of 2.5 hours (or more). SGR teaches you:

1. How to “roll into a hill,” using momentum to start the climbing process . Climbing hills is hard work. The fact that we use our gears to manage the hill actually mitigates our true appreciation for exactly how hard it is to climb any given hill. SGR will give you a much deeper understanding of how tough any given hill is without a crutch to lean on. (yeah, Emily Murphy on a fixed gear is a rocking fun time!)
2. The nuances of climbing seated regularly or on the back of your seat . One key way to manage your climbing is to maneuver your body into different positions on the bike to make the most of your effort. In the case of seated climbing, most folks can make it easier by simply sitting up. This opens their airways and facilitates quality breathing. As the climb increases in difficulty, some athletes find an advantage to shifting their weight back towards the rear of the saddle. This allows them to push the pedals forward and over the top of the pedal stroke.
3. How to roll into a standing climbing position and keep your momentum . So many triathletes lose speed on each climb. And no, it doesn’t have to be a mountain to slow you down. If you have ever ridden with roadies, then you know that little “gap” that opens up every time they stand on the pedals. And if you have ridden behind a triathlete who stands up to pedal, then you are familiar with the jolt of adrenaline you get when their rear tire drifts back into your front wheel (yikes!). Learning how to keep your bike moving at the same pace is much easier during SGR as there is no sudden shift in cadence due to shifting. This allows you to develop the skills needed to keep your wheels turning without losing your momentum.
4. How to pedal quickly . Lance makes it look easy, but for anyone who has tried to pedal at 110+ rpms, you know exactly how much coordination that takes. And not just on a physical level, but neuromuscular coordination as well. SGR will force you to pedal at a much higher cadence on some descents (hey, you don’t have to pedal over 28 mph!), teaching your muscles to fire more effectively. This work will make pedaling 95 rpms seem ridiculously easy.
5. How to recruit different muscle groups . Working in a single gear will allow you to explore using different muscles at different stages of your ride. You can focus on the hamstrings pulling the pedals backwards, or on your hip flexors lifting the pedal upwards. You might try engaging your core muscles to aid you in a climb; or you can try relaxing one leg as you let the other one do a bit more work. Whatever you do, this recruitment process will make you a better rider simply by virtue of teaching you all the separate elements that work together to move your bike forward.
6. How to manage your internal gears. This is perhaps the most important part of SGR. Riding without gear options forces you to learn when you should (and should not) pedal with force. On smaller hills, you might be able to roll up them halfway with your momentum and then soft pedal your way over the top. On the longer / bigger hills, you will be forced to learn how to provide an appropriate amount of force to the pedals in a consistent manner. Since you can’t shift, you’ll learn to moderate your effort based on the terrain, instead of just hammering your way through the ride. Your first attempts at SGR will be a bit rough (shifting is a hard habit to break!), but as you progress you’ll eventually erase the dead spots in your riding.

Derek got married in Whitecourt this weekend. It’s about 180 kms “nominally” from Edmonton to Whitecourt so I figured it would be a good bike ride, an Iron kind of effort… it would be the furthest I’d ever ridden but not by a whole bunch so I figured it would be a good opportunity to take a day off work and go for a nice ride in the countryside.

I arranged to have Matt and Jill pick up my camping gear and take it out with them with the plan that they would meet me at the rehearsal dinner on Friday evening. I then learned that the rehearsal dinner wasn’t at Derek’s parents’ place in whitecourt as I had assumed. It was 25 kms north of town. I then also found out that the 180 kms between Edmonton and Whitecourt is based on Whitecourt to the edge of town, it was 10 kms further to Blue house in the middle of town.

The trip (map link) ended up being approximately 215 kms and took me 7:48. That time includes a 30 minute break in Mayerthorpe to lay on my back, chow down some food and refill my water bottles. There were a couple other quick breaks to snap photos so my average total time was 29.5 kms per hour, I would guess I was around 30.5 to 31.0 kph if I would have only counted cycling time. My only other time check was when I first met up with the Alaska Highway and that was an average speed of 31.6 kph to that point.

I brought 4 powerbar – chocolate harvest bars, 2 Protein Blast – caramel fudge bars, 2 Oskri (vegan oddly enough but 460 cals!) – coconut bars, a decent dose of Gatorade and a granola bar. So 2500 calories while on the bike (my basal metabolic rate is only 1900!) I put in nearly a thousand calories for breakfast and that rehearsal dinner tasted pretty awesome but I have no idea how much I ate…

Triathlon club was in the midst of a website revamping by a couple people who were a little low when it came to internet design skillsets. I pulled a late night (well all-night I guess) and pulled things together giving a new look, maintained the simple to edit approach to the whole deal and made sure it didn’t look like it had recently crawled out of Windows 3.1 ualberta.ca/~tri.