The accumulated intelligence of the triathlon community has not come to very good conclusions regarding where on your bike is the most aerodynamic place to carry your water bottles. This is no secret and if you read enough articles from enough varied sources and try to determine where the smartest people tell you to carry your water bottles you will wind up rather frustrated. It doesn’t seem that people have even decided upon the optimal number of water bottles to carry during a race of a certain distance. The jury is out and it’s not likely to be getting back to us before this season is up so it’s time to listen to the logic behind the arguments that are made and then deduce what you believe to be a somewhat intelligent decision based on those theories.

Bikes of all shapes and sizes come equipped to carry at least one bottle in a frame mounted cage inside the front triangle. The lone exception to this rule (Cervelo P4) is similarly equipped. Studies have shown that carrying a bottle inside the frame of your bicycle is not detrimental to the aerodynamics of the bike. In low virtual wind angle situations it has been seen to improve aerodynamics by aiding in laminar flow over the front half of the bike. Basically research shows that it doesn’t make sense not to carry a bottle here. Trek has tried to tell us that this situation can be improved by carrying an aerodynamic bottle… and they would prefer if we select the Bontrager speed bottle. The research hasn’t been done independently but it does make intuitive sense based on what the triathlon world has come to learn about the general properties of cylindrical shapes. Specialized came out with their own response to the Bontrager speed bottle, namely the specialize virtue aero bottle which is meant especially for mounting to a specialized transition frame to create the faring effect (legally here because it serves an extra purpose) of the bottle integrated into the Cervelo P4. For ~$50 odd dollars you can upgrade the aerodynamics of your bike to include one of these aero bottles. Unfortunately it will also mean that you have to decide not to jettison that bottle during the race unless you’re happy to throw $15-$20 overboard. For an Olympic distance race this might make sense, when consuming anything more than 750ml is unlikely and there aren’t going to be aid stations along the way… but for a long course triathlon the logic fails. The aero bottle doesn’t make sense because they can’t be replaced en-route at the aid stations.

Then the question must be answered…. how many bottles to carry? The longest distance between aid stations that I’ve ever heard of in a long course race is 30 km (two aid stations en-route), meaning that most athletes will not be riding for much more than an hour between stations. They do come even more frequently on occasion, as close as every 20 minutes in some races, perhaps enabling you to go bottle free if you are brave enough to drink at the command of the race course (an unwise plan if you ask me). As the 45-60 minute durations are more common between aid stations, and because for myself this is the situation for both of my races this year, that is what I was designing my plans around. Drinking the 700ml gatorade bottle every 45-60 minutes is pretty close to as much fluid as is consumed during a long course race in what I would consider normal temperatures and going with one bottle is perhaps an acceptable plan. Most athletes want to consume a sports drink but do not want to be bound by that drink for all of their hydration. Chasing a strawberry and banana flavoured gel with orange Gatorade can be a bit of a shock to the mouth and ultimately the stomach. Water is better for chasing down solid or semi-solid food than sports drink. It doesn’t lead to peaks in the sugar concentration in the stomach which can hamper digestion and absorption of the precious carbohydrates that you have so dutifully put down the throat. In my experience and personal preference having water along with the gatorade is a wise choice to keep from having the sharp variations in stomach sugar concentration. Water should go down with the gels or shot-bloks, it feels better with good reason.

So, two bottles are necessary. But where does the second one go? If you’ve got two frame racks, then that’s potentially your answer. If you don’t there are two other options. The first option is to put a bottle behind your seat. The behind the seat solutions are typically pairs of bottles which is more than is necessary. The debate was between one and two bottles, not between one and three. That extra spot doesn’t need to carry liquid, and it shouldn’t. That’s potentially another 2 lbs that you’re going to carry for the duration of the race. To shave two pounds of weight off of your bike would almost certainly cost in excess of a thousand dollars of upgrades, carrying the third bottle is an expensive mistake. A single bottle cage can be zip tied to the seat rails and centered behind the seat… that’s the cheap option and has been used by many a professional in the sport. The dual bottle cages can be used with one bottle and one of the sides can be used to carry the spare tyre and CO2 cartridges, another plan used my many a professional in the sport. The debate over which kind of behind the seat bottle carrier is most aerodynamic is still a debate. The logic at the moment seems to be that lower is better than higher. Maintaining laminar flow of the air flowing down over your back is very important to the aerodynamics of positioning and keeping the bottles (cylinders = bad) out of this important area is, well, important.

The final remaining option is to put the other water in front. This has one distinct advantage over the other bottle placement plans. If you put a bottle up on your handlebars you wind up looking at it quite a bit, this inevitably means that you are reminded to drink more often than if you tuck it behind your bum. While a well disciplined athlete ideally doesn’t need the reminder, every less than perfect athlete does benefit from simple things like reminders. “Bottle In Front” can mean different things. The most common is to make use of the product that screams “triathlon bike” like no other, the profile design aerodrink system. Basically this is an open topped bottle with a straw up to head height that sits between the aerobars. There is a net or a sponge placed in the neck to prevent sloshing and splashing of the water but easy refilling on the go as a full bottle can quite easily be tipped into the container. The system seems to work although there are many people who like to complain about the bracket mechanism that is meant to hold it in place. Most people I know end up using zip-ties to hold the thing in there… which means it gets washed infrequently… but doesn’t come loose when you’re screaming down a hill at 75 kph. The up-front hydration system can also mean mounting a speed bottle vertically in between the aerobars and fitting it with a straw to drink from like a profile design aerodrink. This was seen on a pro bike at the world championships last year and causes a bit of a stir, it’s a smart idea to improve the aerodynamics of the aerodrink system which despite the name doesn’t seem to be overly aerodynamic. The speed bottle up front plan is a good idea except that it still requires filling like the aerodrink system. What if there was a way to carry bottles, real bottles, up front with decent aerodynamics?

Steve Larsen figured this one out and while I’m not sure if it’s been wind-tunnel tested, it does past my logical wind-tunnel tests. The issue with sticking a bottle somewhere on your bike is that it is cylindrical and inherently un-aerodynamic. Laying the bottle on it’s side makes the bottle look the least cylindrical possible. Placing the bottle onto the bike like this is potentially acceptable, and when it’s places between my forearms in my theoretical wind-tunnel it remains largely out of the wind. I have a habit of folding my fingers into one another while riding in the aero position. Photos here & here of the TT position, and there’s a bottle hiding in there in both images. This may not be as aerodynamic as is possible with my hands separated and gripping the aerobars but I find it keeps my shoulders relaxed which is important. If I hold on to the aerobars with any grip I am shifting my balance to be governed by the hands, whereas if I govern my balance through the armrests at my elbows my fore-aft balance is improved on the bike, my shoulders are relaxed and the end result of the relaxation is that my legs are free to operate independently of my torso which means big watts. I mention this to describe the reason that I am making a windshield for my aerobars with my hands. My forearms are spaced only slightly wider than a Gatorade bottle and as a result filling this space with a bottle is actually likely an aerodynamic improvement as the bottle likely behaves like a faring, filling in this gap. Keeping a bottle there can be done by a variety of means including just laying it on it’s side and hoping it balances between the aerobars. This doesn’t work very well for bumps but with the inclusion of a modified bottle cage, the bottle can actually be held in place securely.

I opted to design this modified bottle holder based on the Specialized Rib-Cage Pro Road. I didn’t go for the carbon version because I wanted to be able to cut it to fit. I cut the portion of the cage that is meant to grip the neck of the bottle off. This prevents sliding the bottle in and out to a large degree but not holding it in place. If I keep the angle of the cage with respect to the aerobars correct I can still add two more points of friction between the bottle and the aerobars. The neck-piece was un-necessary so it was removed. I also found that this cage design gripped the bottle equally firmly when the bottle was fully placed in to the point where it was approximately 1.5 inches from the bottom of the bottle cage. Because I wanted to keep the center of gravity of the bottle as far to the rear of the aerobars as possible and didn’t need that extra 1.5 inches of sliding room I decided to shorten the length of the cage as well. This meant that I was going to use the stem of my handlebar as the point at which the bottle “stopped” when fully inserted. The bottom corner of the cage was removed leaving the upper ribs to reach over the handlebar and brush up nicely against the armrests of my aerobars (Vision TT bar) allowing me to zip-tie these to the armrests to hold the cage in place vertically. I ran a zip tie through the upper mounting hole of the cage and around the bolt in my stem to keep it held back butted up against the stem horizontally. It took a few iterations of cutting the cage shorter to get it to fit like I wanted. I didn’t want to cut off too much too soon because there’s no way to put it back once it’s cut.

The result is what I consider to be the most functionally flexible and likely close to the most aerodynamic way to carry the second bottle on a TT bike. I am also partial to it because it is extremely simple to remove and drink from without stopping from pedaling and there is no need to break from the aero-position to remove or replace a bottle from behind the seat.

Here’s the progress from the push-up challenge. The goal is to get to 100 consecutive push-ups within 6 training weeks of beginning the program. I fell a week behind the program during my taper because I didn’t want to do push-ups to exhaustion when I was trying to recover. I will get back on track now but I don’t feel all that bad about loosing a week because everyone else I know who is doing it has already lost more than a week from their schedule thus far.

There are two components to each day’s work in the program. The first is a series of sub-maximal intervals based on your current ability and then the workout finishes with a daily test of maximal repetitions which is to be done with only slightly rested arms from the previous sets. After each two weeks of the program a maximal test with fresh arms is to be completed. If you want to see the program check out hundredpushups.com

One of the highlights of the post race dinner was the Race Director admitting that he named his race the Chinook 119.1 mostly to make fun of the World Triathlon Corporation. You have to be pretty brave to name the entire event that you plan something that you think is a joke. He has to hope that people either understand his sense of humour or is thick skinned enough to not care that people think it’s a silly name who don’t understand the jab at the world’s leading long course triathlon corporation.

I mention that because I think it gives a good idea of what kind of people run the race… they are there to put on a very high quality event and have a fun time doing so. That’s what it’s all about to them and it really sets the tone for a fun day for the rest of the athletes, myself included. Today was one of my funnest days of racing ever. I don’t think I’ve really had a race day that in general I didn’t find fun but pretty much all of today was a good time except for a tiny stretch of the run course… but I’ll get there soon enough.

I like to start out my race reports with a brief description of the taper. My last blog entry included a description of my final days of high volume. From there on out I dropped back primarily the training volume but kept the intensity up. I realized that there was a possibility that during my taper for the Yakima River Valley Marathon that my intensity actually went up during the taper instead of maintaining it as that was a full 20 day taper. My training stress wouldn’t actually be dropping off very much if I cut volume and boosted intensity and the recovery wouldn’t occur. I did my best not to ramp up the intensity too much… okay onto the description. Wednesday I did my typical interval session on the bike and then brick run of about a half hour. Thursday I went hard in the pool and Friday I did an easy 50 minute open water swim with some friends from the club. Saturday I did a sustained ~threshold on the bike for 30 minutes into a brick run of 50 minutes. I did this during the heat of the day and did the ride on my rollers on the patio in the backyard in 32 weather with no wind or breeze. I wanted to prove to myself that I could function in the heat to give myself some confidence if it turned out to be hot on race day. I didn’t fall apart in the heat nor did I thrive but felt okay about racing in hot weather if that turned out to be the situation. Sunday was off except for some pretty crazy dancing at a wedding reception. Monday I did an abridged version of my pre-swim run and then swam for an hour. I did my last run on Tuesday composed of 10 short hill repeats which I capped at about my running threshold effort. Wednesday I was coaching the bike workout and did a rolling hill simulation to get my mind in game for the rolling hills of the chinook half course and skipped my brick run. Thursday I took it silly easy in the pool and Friday was also off. I tried to make sure I didn’t go anaerobic anywhere during my last week and was successful with that although I did push the intensity up close to threhold in all three sports’ final workout not including the lazy swim on Thursday. I got to Friday evening feeling physically alright, no muscles were still tired from training but I wasn’t feeling super fresh and charged up like I have been during some tapers (I have other times cut even more volume than this)

On to race day. I didn’t try to do breakfast a full two hours before the race because my stomach would be growling so finished my meal at 6:30 for an 8:00 am start and ate a banana while setting up transition. This was my first time decking out the new bike for a long course race so had the spare tubular and CO₂ behind the seat, gatorade on my new cage on the aerobars a la Steve Larsen and a couple gels and 2 packages of shot blocks behind the steer tube. It took a long time to prep everything compared to any other horsing around training or other little races, kind of a surprise. I don’t want to imagine sorting out special needs bags and all that jazz for IM on top of this.

I was a bit rushed with putting on the wetsuit (decided to put in on at the 5 minute warning for the start!) but because I am fast at that compared to some of the others from Triathlon club *cough* Lesley & Becky *cough* I got it done in time and joined the masses on the sand. I didn’t really warm up so to speak but loosened up my shoulders. My first 200 yards swimming is always my easiest and fastest so why not include that in the race right?

We got to the countdown and soon enough we were off, I looked around for some feet that were kicking well to follow but the first pair I got on weren’t going in a very straight line so I left them and ended up going alone most of the way to the first buoy which is weird because this is the portion of the race where the pack is at it’s thickest. I picked up some feet as we turned directly into the sun after 400m and was happy to follow them as I couldn’t really see anything sighting anyways. He seemed to be going straight so I trusted him. I know it was a guy because he wasn’t kicking… most guys don’t kick in triathlon swimming that I know of anyways. I still felt like it was a bit of a drafting feeling but going around the next buoy I lost him. Sighting was alright again and I finished the first km solo. Out of the water my watch said 17:40 which was pretty good, on track for approximately the goal time of 35 minutes. If I got some good feet to follow I might still make it… but I couldn’t find the feet once back into the water after the on-beach turnaround.

Off I went alone again, someone picked up my feet at the buoy. I could tell because he was climbing up my calves all the way to hitting me in the backs of the knees. I pulled away with my arms and gave him a warning splash with my feet, I think he took the hint and left me alone. I tried to keep it steady and smooth as I was heading back into the sunrise and probably didn’t do it as straight as I could have but got there eventually. The final stretch to the finish seemed to go by really quickly and off I went up the beach. I wasn’t particularly speedy through transition and did an odd hopping along strategy down the carpet along the side of the row so I didn’t have to run on the pavement but did have to jump over all of the shoes splayed out on the carpet. Helmet on, race belt on, go! I’m sure I passed a dozen people through transition which is great and put me in a good mood for the start of the bike. I did mount with the shoes on the pedals which included a bit of a weave but there was a whole road to use and I’m convinced this is faster as long as you don’t screw it up. People say the only reason to do it is because the pros do it, I say the pros do it because it’s faster and I haven’t screwed it up yet.

I got going on the road and was up to 40 kph before I really realized it, I hit my highest average speed after about a kilometer, 44 kph! The gradual downhill probably helped but soon enough we merged onto Highway 22X and the quick bit was over and the hard work began. I could tell the story as I experienced it or as actually happened here. I had my aero helmet on and because it howls in my ears in any wind condition I wasn’t convinced that we had much of a headwind, the grass wasn’t moving all that much when I looked in the ditch. In reality we had a pretty serious headwind on the way out which starts out basically with a 20 km slightly rolling climb heading west. The kind that makes you wonder if you’re working hard enough or not when the average speed is falling. After that the hills are more distinct you’re either riding along mostly flat or going up or going down. Less of this gradual stuff which in my opinion is harder to do. I can ride along at a bit more than 20 miles per hour on the gradual climbs which is fast enough to warrant staying on the aerobars for the climb… but it’s tempting to stand up and hammer. I’m getting to the end of the gradual climb and the drafting police motorbike comes up beside me and pulls in ahead to watch the group of three riders who are up ahead of me. I watch them trade positions a bit as I slowly gain on them. Climbing our first steep hill I catch them and just as we’re cresting the hill I decide to make my move and push past them. I try to move by with enough speed that they don’t start pacing off of me which is obviously what they’re doing which has aroused the suspicions of the drafting police.

I roll through the place where the first aid station is supposed to be but there is nothing there other than a car with a few people sitting in it. I wonder what is going on and quickly decide that with my extra water bottle and the gatorade that I’m not quite done yet I can make it to the turnaround no problem just hoping that there is indeed an aid station there. Dad comes past in the car and I’m starting to realize that there is a truck driving half on the shoulder half on the road just a ways ahead of me. Dad stops in a driveway to take a picture and I ask “what’s this truck doing?”. The aero helmet prevents hearing an answer but I eventually figure it out. This is the lead vehicle. I’m leading the race!

I come bombing down the big hill with the truck just ahead of me, I get quite a bit of dust in my face and have to spit some dirt out. Here I come to a roadside pullout and there is a Budget rental truck in the ditch. There’s a guy with gatorade, great. I have my own personal aid station and he passes me a bottle as I have just finished my first. Off I go, wondering what exactly is going on until I am almost at the turnaround. The Budget rental truck passes me again within a kilometer of the turnaround and I watch as they leap out and the same guy who handed me the gatorade 15 kms back hands me another. Quite deluxe service! He also nicely tucks a banana in my back pocket for me and I make the turn and head back. It’s a bit downhill but only barely, it’s here that I realize how hard of a headwind we’ve been battling on the way out because I’m quite quickly cruising along at 55 along the flats. The gap to second place is longer than I would have guessed but I feel like I’m sticking to my race strategy so I don’t get too concerned about going to hard. I was to try and take it easy on the way out and give myself the liberty to pick it up a few notches for the ride back into town on the condition that a) my nutrition was on schedule (need to get in 1200 calories by the end of the bike) and b) that I was able to do so without compromising any aerodynamic position later on. (not allowed to get an achy back by pushing too hard). My nutrition was ahead of schedule by 100 calories already so I really cruised here, trying to capitalize on the tailwind as much as possible. I don’t want to go too fast that the Budget rental truck doesn’t catch up to me again to set up the course aid stations ahead of me as we drive but I’m lucky that I have the big hill to climb which takes a while and the truck does get ahead. Unfortunately I do the next three kilometers coming down from the hill and onto the flats at 65-70 kph and the truck never gets out of sight. He pulls off the road and as they’re setting up the table I come through. They have a gatorade to hand to me and I take it and keep cruising. The foil cap under the cap hadn’t been removed so as I cruise along at 60kph I’m undoing the screw top and peeling the foil off with my teeth and screwing it back on so I can get a drink. I’m having a really fun time now and get it in my head that I’m chasing this truck. Faris Al-Sultan in an interview after Kona a few years ago commented about chasing the video helicopter all the way to Hawi, I had my own little version here except this was a truck.

The long course merges here with traffic from the Olympic distance triathlon and I think I entered their field about 4/5 of the way back through the pack. That meant that absolutely no-one else was doing more than 50 kph and so I was hauling along and passing loads of people which became a bit nerve wracking at times because one person going 36 kph down the hill passing someone going 35.9 kph down the hill quite rapidly forces me to go 3 people wide down the shoulder. This is back on the long gradual descent into the city that I had described and at no point does my speed drop below 45 kph here. The police are doing an excellent job with traffic and I’m very rapidly into the community again and heading for T2. I finish the bike in 2:31 and change which is pretty good, about the fastest I anticipated I could go, 10 minutes faster than I though I would go, and fast enough by about a minute to set a new bike course record. I’m also 100 calories over my 1200 calorie goal which I’m happy with.

My T2 isn’t super fast but I try to limit the time as much as possible because I know it’s counted as part of my bike leg time. I’m wearing socks which is never a fast choice but for a half marathon it’s a necessary choice for me. I’m off for the run. The first 200m go splendidly and I’m happy and thinking that this will go well. Then I very rapidly start to feel cramps coming on in my quads (Vastus Medalis for those of you who are interested – that’s an aero-position cycling specific muscle also if you are interested in that too). I’m wondering if this is going to mean a very painful run or a very painful walk, I’m actually kind of hoping to negotiate with the muscle for a third alternative of a pain free walk versus a painful run. Hopefully things can correct themselves I think. I get out my e-load and take 4 little pills, that’s half the batch. If it’s going to help it will take a while I tell myself, motivation to keep running for the time being. I try to focus on my breathing instead of my legs. I’m actually breathing corresponding to an appropriate effort and that’s encouraging even though I feel like I’m going super slow. I remind myself of the race plan, I’ve allotted the entire first 5 kilometers to focus on getting my running legs together. This isn’t what I had anticipated meaning by that statement but that’s what it means now. I’ve done a pretty good job of distracting myself for the first 10 minutes until I head down the hill into the park and the muscles start to feel like they’re going to leave the verge of cramping and enter the realms of serious cramping up. Okay, I tell myself, this isn’t 5 kilometers yet it’ll come around before 5 kms is done and I do pause for a 5 second stretch of my right hamstring (actually it’s higher up, maybe bicep femoris?). I get some gatorade in me and keep going. Kilometer marker three is arrived at just under 15 minutes and I’m actually pretty surprised. I have to pee and this is the only washroom on the course except for maybe being able to find one back in transition so I take the opportunity. The little standing still break actually does me some good and by the time I’m back out on the path I’m feeling better. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to cramp up in a ball and start crawling. I don’t worry about selecting an appropriate pace until the 5 km marker, I’m just running as I feel comfortable to do so. Kilometer 5 comes at 23 minutes and I’m obviously starting to move efficiently at last.

The gameplan is to try and take it easy for the second half of this first loop, open it up on the first half of the second loop and then try to hold on as well as I can for the last 5 kilometers. I do back off the pace a bit at the 5 km marker but all is well and I try to run as smoothly and evenly as possible, the sudden movements are more likely to cause trouble than the steady and repeatable ones.

I’m off to the out and back stretch here and will get my first look at what my gap is like back to second place. I hit the turnaround and awaken the people who are sitting there to check my name off the list. “Wow, I guess our job starts now” is the sentiment of their statement even though those aren’t quite the right words. I’m congratulated and off on my way back. I keep watching for white numbers (red numbers are the Olympic distance athletes) and none seem to be arriving. I’m just about to complete the 1 km out and back section when Kyle comes by (I would learn his name later). He’s surprised to see how far off I am and I’m even more surprised to see how far ahead I am, this is weird. It’s hard to gauge the speed of someone going the other direction but I’m not convinced he’s going to catch me but I’m also not convinced that he won’t. I don’t really have any way of knowing anything about the gap so just keep trucking. Up the heartbreak hill and I don’t want to try any stunts so grab my water and gatorade at the bottom and walk up the steep pitch. Once on the gradual pitch I start running again, it feels pretty good and I head on back to transition to start lap 2. Transition is supposed to be an aid station but no-one expects whoever is in first place so there is nothing there for me. I don’t even really know where to look for water so I just keep going.

I am wary of the cramping coming back when I go through the same section of path (not because it’s bad path, it’s just because it’s been 50 minutes since my last dose of electrolytes) and I decide to take three more caplets. Off I go down into the park and I realize that it’s starting to heat up, it’s actually hot, certainly not the 19 degrees that was forecast. I slow down at the next aid station and pick up gatorade and water from the table so that none gets spilled. I need to get as much in me as I can. The last bit of water gets poured inside the front of my tri-top which can now evaporate kind of like a second skin to sweat from. The chill helps and it’s about here I realize that this is where I’m supposed to be speeding up. The missing water had me distracted but now I’m in the shade for 2 kms and I pick it up a few notches. I do at least 3 kms at around a 4:20 pace which for me is at the end of feeling like I’m running fast. It’s a good feeling and the cramps in the muscles have decided to depart for good. I get a cheer from Dad and head off to do the out and back, getting a chance to see my split back to the next guy again, is he gaining or fading, is there a new guy hunting me down or not?

It seems like the kilometer goes by pretty quickly to the turnaround and I get two volunteers to cycle with me in to the finish from here. It takes quite a while to see Kyle again who is indeed still in second place. He’s about 100 meters further up the path than last time so maybe 200 meters gained… but I’ve got more than a kilometer on him and am feeling alright. Gatorade and water at the last aid station and I’m walking up the steep section of the hill. No last minute cramping allowed. Off I go up to the finish, it’s fun to have some people along the way cheering and the announcer gets peoples attention. When you’re the winner people actually pay attention to the announcer and turn around and watch. It’s kinda weird, that never happened for 19th place.

I’m pretty happy to stop running and I don’t fall over which is some sort of success. I just want to lay down right away but there’s nowhere to lay so I have to keep walking which is probably good for me. My total time was 4:46:11 which is pretty good. The bike course and swim course are longer than the official half ironman distance so based on the paces completed today my comparable time for other half ironman races would be 33:58 / 2:21:17 / 1:38:59 = 4:34:14. That’s reasonably quick considering the relative difficulty of this bike course to some of the other ones out there like GWN or the Calgary 70.3 race I’ll be doing in August. Hopefully I’ll be able to ride close to 2:20 which I guess I showed today isn’t completely outrageous and then if my training progresses in direction I’m going to try to bend it I could run closer to 1:34:XX (ie sub 1:35). Who knows about the swim, 1700 people might be a washing machine that I don’t deal well with or maybe it’ll just be far easier to stay on people’s feet and I’ll wind up swimming a bit faster. I’ll hopefully also figure out this cramping stuff and not deal with it in a race again. I haven’t had it in training to the same degree so maybe it’ll be tough to figure out in detail, who knows exactly, giving this a trial run was the purpose of racing prior to tbe big show in August.

Oh, and the stat streak that I’m proud to continue. No one who has ever swam slower than me has finished ahead of me in any triathlon to date.

Complete Gallery of the day thanks to Reuben Krabbe is available here

I topped off my final bike volume week before heading into the Chinook Half Ironman race on June 20 this week. The focus of this build was consistency in all three sports, doing my longest runs on days after my longest rides to ensure I had somewhat fatigued legs and trying to keep the volume high, in theory building from 16 -> 18 hours over the three weeks prior. I didn’t want a full two weeks of taper and with my race on a Saturday my “weekly” goals got dislodged from the calendar week wanting to still schedule in rest days or off days appropriately. I felt pretty good with my final three endurance efforts placed back to back just before the taper began. I am planning a big bike weekend 2 weeks prior to the Calgary 70.3 race in August and wanted to simulate that to the best of my ability during this buildup.

The first was a 165 km bike ride the day following the race on the ring road. Ben, Lindsay, Stefan, Pat and myself headed out of the south end of Calgary along the Chinook Half course towards Bragg creek. We enjoyed the sunny weather while we could but knew there was a possibility of rain later in the afternoon so we were prepared. We ended up riding right into a snowstorm as we ascended the pass just past Elbow Falls and reached the top in a full bore blizzard. The descent was fun even though the roads were a bit slick and my fingers were absolutely freezing and we quickly broke out of the snowstorm back into nice weather. We recharged with a bit of food and coffee in Bragg Creek before splitting ways for the ride back to Calgary. Ben, Stefan and I were to head via the Millarville route into town to tack on a bit more distance and hopefully a couple more climbs. We ran into two riders from the H&R Block cycling team and they joined up with us and the speed of our trio leaped by a significant margin. They were taking turns up front and I was redlining in the back jut trying to stay in the draft as we cruised the rolling hills and curvy road. I couldn’t really stick with them on the steep little climbs where someone would inevitably attack the group but was able to stay in contact while giving it a serious effort along the rest of the way. Eventually winding our way over the the Road to Nepal we wound our way back into town. I was pretty beat from the effort but Stefan and Ben had plenty of energy to race a half dozen times during the final few kilometers.

Monday night I opted to skip the pool and do my long run that the trip to Calgary had delayed. I managed 24 kilometers in 2 hours which I was pleased with considering I tried to find the hilliest route through the river valley that I could on trails that were run-able.

Tuesday I took a vacation day and towed a bob trailer behind my retrofitted cyclocross bike. I’m planning a bike trip to Penticton at the end of August to watch Ironman and we will be towing all of our camping gear along for the week. 1100 kilometers in 7 days is planned so I wanted to ensure that I could do a solid 200 kilometers with the trailer loaded down with camping gear. I probably towed 40 lbs along with me for the day and will probably be closer to 50 once I’ve got an extra day or two worth of food loaded in there. We followed 16A out of town before switching over to the Yellowhead and then rode the beginning of the Alaska Highway towards Lac St. Anne. A quick lunch break in Darwell and then I spit ways with Glenn my riding partner and headed south to Wabamun. I elected to ride into town on the Garden Valley Road instead of 16A meaning it was a bit more rolling and would have less traffic (going my direction at least). All in all I was out of the house for 9 hours and spent probably a shade less than 8 hours on the bike. The grand total mileage was a tad over 200 (204) which was fantastic and I additionally had the winds in my favour for a good training day, tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way home.

Nothing with the trailer was a complete disaster which was the reason for the trial run. Glenn’s trailer though was a bit of a problem… he needs less weight if he hopes to get up the hills through the mountains, that shouldn’t be too difficult though, loose the hatchet and lawnchair and he’d be down more than 10 lbs already. I’m going to have a look to see if I can put a slightly smaller chainring on the front. I rode basically everything in my big chainring but a few of the climbs did require getting down to my lowest gear to remain seated. I have a feeling though that the steepest long sections of major highway aren’t going to be nearly as steep as the steepest sections of minor roads around Edmonton. I would have no problem managing central Alberta’s worst grades for 10 kms at a time and even a bit steeper for few hundred meter sections but couldn’t handle an 8% grade with this gearing plus the trailer. I might have to do a bit of checking in on the road grades before finalizing the decision.

The plan has already been made to take a small BBQ along for a triathlon club group ride with the trailer. I’ll definitely write about that if/when we do it.

Calgary is currently building a new ring road around the city. A section that is currently under construction north east of the airport is connected on one end to some useful roads but the other end currently leads to a dead end, there’s a 20 km gap until it will join up with the rest of the ring road sometime in the course of the next year. One of the bike shops in Calgary made a request with the contractor building this road to close down construction on a portion of it and allow us to have a bike race there. The request was granted and on June 6 people came from all over Alberta to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to “Race the Ring”. How often do you get the chance to ride your bike on a six lane superhighway that is closed to traffic?

I traveled down with four others from the Triathlon club to take in the race… packing up and leaving a chilly and damp friday afternoon in Edmonton to arrive to a downright cold and soaking wet evening in Calgary. There was snow overnight but the race wasn’t canceled only postponed by two hours to let the pavement dry off a bit. We arrived and scoped things out, this was one sweet stretch of highway but everything else was complete mud! I swapped my carbon fiber wheels onto the bike and Stefan did the same. Pat and my Dad rolled their eyes at how long it takes to change wheels (and a cassette for me, and brake pads for Stefan) while they can just unload their bikes from the rack and ride. We did a little preview of the turnaround and practiced a few 180 degree turns on the morning of the event just to make sure I was feeling confident. I’ve practiced this before but it always takes a few tries to get in the groove so I made sure to get the motion correctly in my head because I only had to do 5 during the race and didn’t want to screw up and overshoot or go wide or shift incorrectly while the clock was running.

The cyclists were sent out in approximately reverse fastest order with the quickest guys going last, because the groupings at the bottom end are wide I was still pretty late in the group even though I’m just starting out in my quest for the acquisition of points. I wasn’t to start for 1:42 after the first rider so took my time and watched for the first hour and walked around and chatted while we sent off Lindsay, then Glenn, then Pat then my Dad and finally Stefan. I hopped on my rollers for a half hour warm-up prior to the race. Things went well and the weather was slowly improving. Warmup was fine with short sleeves and no gloves even though I was wearing a toque. After 30 minutes spinning the legs I felt pretty good and ready to go so hopped off the bike, elected to go without arm warmers and fingerless gloves and made my way over to the start line.

Soon enough it was finally my turn and I balanced with the extra hand of Mr. Adam in the start gate before setting off (and not tipping over unlike many of the first-timers). Up out of the saddle the goal is to get up to race pace as quickly as possible and not waste time during the acceleration. I am very quickly cruising along at 45 kilometers per hour up the gradual hill (0.5-1.0% grade) and then under the bridge and down a similar grade at 50 kph The wind feels to be straight on from the east as I head south for the first of 3 laps. I’m 5 kilometers in and at my first corner already before I can dial back the effort level a tad, I’m feeling really fresh and ready to go so I’m not worried about over-pacing it just a little bit out of the start. I nail the corner, correct gear choice on the exit and am quite pleased as I start heading north and realize I may have had a slight tailwind assisting me on the ride down. No problem I tell myself, just stay aerodynamic. The next two lengths of the road go smoothly and I’m already halfway but at the third corner the rain/snow mix has started again and the wind has picked up. My forearms feel like they’re burning from the chill with no covering although my legs feel fine so I try to ignore the arms. The snow turns to hail and I’m getting to the point where the race really hurts. I look down to see the hail bouncing across the road with the wind and scattering off the trispoke I’m running up front. It’s a kind of mesmerizing pattern but I am strict with the aerodynamics and put my head back again with the eyes down the road. I make my way out of the hailstorm by the fourth corner and know that I’m about to head directly back into it. I’m leaning way over, just like the photos show from Kona on really windy years and imagine for a while that it’s 35-40 degrees out and this is the Queen Ka’ahumanu but it lasts maybe 30 seconds before I’m trying to keep my lips curled into my mouth because the hailstones really hurt when they hit them. Down the road I really fly but take the last corner extra slow as the water is starting to flow on the road which means there is a chance of hydroplaning. Unlikely with a 21 and 19mm tyre I suppose but none-the-less I’m not going to crash. I try to use up all of my effort during the final 5 kms and am cruising up the ‘hill’ at 45 and once I crest the peak it’s only 2 kilometers to the finish and I pick up the pace to 55 and finally 60 kms per hour as I cruise through the finish an head directly for my hoodie to warm up my forearms. As I stop I realize I am completely soaked to the bone with a saturated chamois. It was a chilly ride. I have a rough estimate of my time being 42:20 which I’m pretty happy with at this point but there has been talk of a few guys planning to go sub 40 and maybe getting close to 39 so I’m not all that impressed with myself.

The Cat 1/2 guys head off and they’re all looking speedy in their skinsuits and it’s pretty fun to watch. Surprisingly a few make mistakes through the corner as we watch and one guy has his whole backend slide out and needs to put out a tripod leg like an out of control MTB downhill even though it wasn’t even wet at the north turnaround. They all eventually come back and we start to pack up the bikes. The hail begins to fall again as we’re loading bikes and just as the race announcements are being made we’re all trying to load bikes and get going. Stefan places third in Cat 5 (where he should have been in Cat 4) and I come first, total time 42:07.2 with an average speed of 42.735 kilometers per hour. I’m pleased with another paycheque but am now out of the category and will have to work much harder for my next win.

The rest of the gallery from the day is here.Thanks to: Satnam Sidhu, Torin Segstro and Nicole Burnham for volunteering to shoot photos at the event!

We need a few of these on campus for all the commuter bikes.

The pigeon lake road race was to be my first road race of the season and my first road race ever. I purchased a racing license from the Alberta Bicycling association this spring to register me to race cyclocross in the fall and then potentially allow me to fit in a couple road races along the way this season for training. Cyclocross season does not conflict with triathlon season in Alberta, the lakes are just too cold by the time ‘cross season starts for anyone to race triathlon. I decided to give the road racing a shot only to the extent that it benefits me in training and experience. Success here was not to be measured by results, but rather by having fun and hopefully putting in a solid training day of race effort.

The past year has found me finding it harder and harder to do race simulation efforts during training because either 1) they are too long or 2) I go too fast to be safe. The former relates specifically to run workouts where the recovery necessitated by hard and long runs begins to jeopardize my ability to train the next day at an acceptable level. If I’m racing I feel a bit more justified to give it a go at race effort, namely the Calgary Police Half Marathon in late April and then take the necessary recovery protocols to get back on-board following a day or two with delayed onset muscle soreness. The ‘to fast’ is measured mostly on the bike, ripping around town at 40-45 kph in the aero position is impossible. I need to get out of town onto sections of road that have good shoulders to really do quality work on the bike or I need to show up to indoor workouts during the summer and crank out some intervals at our Wednesday evening suffer-fest.

The cross country race season mixed in some running race efforts to the spring training and I am certain that these race efforts benefitted my top end speed, more importantly they boosted my confidence to run at aerobic threshold. I haven’t been doing that. The winter is too slippery outside or the intervals inside on the track end up being too short to get the heart rate up and then hold it there for any measurable amount of time (for me, that’s got to be 10 minutes or more to seem important).

Back to the bike race. I’m racing category five with all of the other cyclists new to road racing and have one teammate in the category with me. Stefan is the triathlon club’s head coach for the 2009-2010 season and brings a bit of European racing experience to the table even though the ABA mandates he start in Cat 5. His goal this season is Ironman Canada at the end of August and certainly has a bike strength although his swim splits put lots of the club to shame and he runs a mean run. His plan is to break off the front, and go for gold. If he’s caught he plans to break away again. In pre race discussions we establish a gameplan of getting both of us into the breakaway and will not be concerned if it also includes a few more guys to help us put time on the peloton. He’s got the big power to win a drag race to the line and I’m pretty sure that I’m better off in a breakaway than dukeing it out in a category 5 bunch sprint. Remember the second goal is to benefit training and a crash is pretty much the worst plan for benefiting training.

We’re racing 65 people in our category and the speed theory team makes up 15 of them. So far as we know they’re the only team that has been doing race strategy practice workouts and we’re sure they’ve got something up their sleeves. At the line-up they’ve got 14 people at the back row and 1 dude perched nicely on stefan’s wheel. We roll out of the community center and out through town, I’m working to sit in the 5th row approximately and want to stick near Stefan’s rear wheel. The roll out starts out fine and we roll along but I quickly realize that maintaining position in the pack is trickier than it might seem. I’m sticking with the guys around me but riders are continuously scooting up the sides of the pack. That makes for a net-drift back through the pack. I loose stefan’s wheel just as we’re getting to the first corner and the motorbike that we’re following goes off down the road meaning that the neutral start has ended. Stefan immediately goes on the breakaway from the start and a couple people give chase but no-one with enough gusto to actually close the gap which is at perhaps 50 meters.

We roll along through some of the first rolling hills basically directly into a headwind and Stefan’s lead grows to about 100 meters at the largest before they reel him in on a downhill back to about 50m and it seems like he’s going to be caught. I’ve started to figure out how to maintain position in the pack and am making basically zero effort with my legs, lots of thinking though and watching all of the people move around through the group. The Speed Theory guy who was set up in the front to follow Stefan makes a few attempts at a break but is always drawn in by a Bicisport rider who counterattacks on a few occasions. The headwind is keeping the group packed quite closely together and I stick myself two or three rows deep, about a dozen guys up in front.

We reel in Stefan at the corner turning north onto a slightly bigger road. The speed theory team arrives at the front of the pack together suddenly. Their dedication to sticking at the back of the pack is over and I suppose their practice at group riding strategy pays off as they’re quite quickly all there, it’s not a trickle of black and red, they all come together. Stefan merges with the front of the pack and chats a bit with some of the guys right in front of me but so far as I know he has no idea where I am. One thing it’s impossible to do in a pack of riders like this is really to look over your shoulder, you can be a master handler and ride no hands on your rollers while taking off your shirt and eating a banana but it’s not a matter of staying in a straight line while looking over your shoulder to see who’s behind. It’s a matter of knowing exactly where the people ahead of you are so you don’t run into anyone. Stefan doesn’t know where I’m at as we cruise down a hill and around the corner into our first stretch of tailwind for the day. “The hill” looms ahead even though it’s not very steep nor is it very long. It is the only real hill of note on the course and the group splinters a bit as we climb it. It’s not like the hill splits things up rather it just spreads them out slightly allowing people to move around a bit. I’m free to move and come up over the crest in good shape, heart rate totally controlled and not having lost any position within the group. Some really little guys think it’s their job to show off how light they are and make an attack on the hill but their show ends at the crest when people who took the hill conservatively blow right by them. Onto the downhill I’m pushing 53×12 (biggest gear) and it makes a couple clicks, I don’t want any funny stuff with my gears so I back off to 53×13 and cruise off down the hill tucked in behind one of the Bicisport guys who also has some mass. We’re doing mid sixties and things are spreading out a bit. An ERTC rider makes an attack and is matched by Stefan, the Bicisport guy and one from Pedalhead Roadworks. I follow Stefan as the five of us snap the elastic with the rest of the group. Stefan pulls over to the side to see who else will pull through and I look over to see a huge smile on his face to see that I’m right there. We’re really pushing here for a minute or two as I take a turn and then Stefan is back on the front. We take the corner and it’s clear that we’ve got a solid gap on the group. The other three don’t seem to want to pull through when there are two guys from the same team out front with them. Stefan gestures to the ERTC guy to take a turn and when he declines I take it out hard ensuring Stefan is second wheel and push for a few minutes. As I begin to fade Stefan cruises by and I’m in the draft trying to recover as fast as I can. As soon as I sense him fading I come around and together we really push hard alternating for about 10 kms as we start the second lap again. Once into the curvy section of the road we’re out of sight and Stefan suggests that we back it off a bit, that we don’t need to overdo it into the headwind. We stay away and I’m focusing on keeping myself relatively aerodynamic when pulling as well as getting my bottle of Gatorade down. Those two tasks are about all I’ve got.

As we turn north again there is no-one in sight and Stefan says he can’t wait to read the speed theory blog about the race. I laugh a little but I’m working pretty hard to stay with him here. Back into the tailwind and up the hill. Off we go again, things are a lot calmer without 65 guys baring down on us and we’re free to use the whole road and move freely. The drafting is efficient and we really do our best to take advantage of the tailwind while we’ve got it.

We roll south and off of the lap. I mention to Stefan that I can taste blood and he laughs, ‘it means you’re going hard enough’ he says and we’re onto the home stretch. We’re following the lead motorcycle and come to a junction where he signals a right hand turn that looks like he’s trying to question the intersection volunteers for directions. The volunteers probably see his signal and then don’t think for themselves and point us south. We’re supposed to go straight and I mention this to Stefan but we can’t very well argue with both the volunteers and the motorcycle driver who is maintaining a 50 yard lead on us. We take the long route around the last block of the race into the finish and nearly beat the peloton to the finish line after covering about 2.5 kms extra. We pull around the finish line and discuss the problem with the comissaire who hears the story from the motorcycle driver. Stefan is going to be upgraded from Cat 5 based on either result so we decide that he’ll get the money for first place and points for second place ($140 and 20 pts) and I will get the points for first place ($80 and 25 pts). That’s a pretty good deal considering if it were to amount to a sprint he would have won with probably 80% certainty even though he probably did 60% of the work for the breakaway and I contributed 40%. That puts me in a good position to hopefully upgrade next weekend at the racing the ring ITT if I can place in the top 5 and get more than 5 pts otherwise I would only upgrade if I place top three… who knows, that might be enough either way or it might be enough neither way. If the difference actually helps it would be totally worth it as that would put me into the Cat4 team in time for the Devon Grand Prix and I could then race with Stefan, Dave and Mike from Hardcore with a bit more a complete team for the road race. I’ll otherwise be relegated to riding Cat 5 along with Jon Clark and maybe Albert if he comes out to do another race which wouldn’t be all bad, but Cat4 would be more fun.