Well geez, I’m embarrassed to say that we are approaching the midpoint of the year, and I’m doing a pretty lousy job on some of my earlier stated goals for this year.  The specifics of why I haven’t lived up to my goals are relatively unimportant, what’s important is that I failed to make daily choices that supported some of those goals, and it’s left me where I am.  A bit frustrated, a bit heavier than I’d like, lacking the fitness I envisioned having at this time of year, etc.  On the plus side, I am very happy with how Ethan has continued to integrate into the family.  We are just past the year mark since we had our family day, and I’m really happy to be at a point where it feels that he has always been here.  Being a Dad is an incredible experience and I’m grateful for it each and everyday.

The downside to all the awesomeness of being a parent is that it’s hard and it’s time consuming.  Added to the previous demands of my life it creates an environment that is a breeding ground for stress, which I’ve let myself be a victim to.  Rather than manage the stress by focusing on the critical path – I let myself spend a lot of time getting distracted with activities in my life that didn’t contribute to the success I wanted in the areas I wanted.  Though I did manage to accomplish some pretty sweet upgrades to my home storage environment, and home media center setup.  Making choices like – “I’m going to stay up until 2 am working on this computer deal” doesn’t jive well with the alarm going off at 4:30 am to go get on the bike trainer.  The end result is some combination of: I get up and have a sucky workout; I get sick; I sleep in.  Previously (before Ethan) staying up late for non-essential distractions was cancelled out by sleeping in and doing my workouts after work.

In hindsight, I ponder how I managed to not get so distracted last year.  Perhaps I just did a better job of compartmentalizing and prioritizing things, or I simply had a lot of motivation to prove that “I could do it” despite being having a kid, and now that burn has subsided a bit and reality has set in.  Matt once told me something along the lines of “When life is great, you’ve got nothing to run from or prove.  That’s when it’s hardest to be a driven person.”  It’s not a direct quote, but the meaning is clear.

No matter the exact reason, it’s time to pause for a moment, take a look around and then move forward making choices that will get me where I want to go regardless of if it’s family, work, triathlon, or something else.

A short post to share some of my targets and goals for 2013.

Goals:

Be present in the moment – enjoy every experience life offers me.

Go for walks with my dog and son on a regular basis.

Write a meaningful blog post every other week.

Consume less.

Sleep more.

Eat well.

Do not chase meaningless metrics in training.

Targets:

Have consistent performances at all races

Top Ten Overall placement at Ironman Wisconsin and Ironman CDA

Sub 4:00 for a Half

Sub 9:00  for an Ironman

Each goal is 100% within my control, achieving them should require nothing more complicated than me making the “right” choices on a daily basis.

Provided I make those choices, the targets I’m working towards should fall into place.  I see the sub-4 HIM as the biggest stretch, my only opportunities for that will fall less than a month after IMCDA, and less than a month prior to IMWI (provided I *do* decide to do Pigman).

The last two weeks have had some big results for a few of my athletes.  Matt ran a PR in the 5k and broke 20 minutes for the first time “since the 90′s”.  Nick blasted out a massive PR at 10k (3+ minutes) to finish second in the first race of the local Winter Running Series.  Finally – Kendrick had a huge PR at Ironman Arizona, slicing over an hour off his best time and breaking 10 hours to boot!

I am now accepting inquiries for the final coaching spots for 2013.  If you are interested, contact me for more information.

It’s that time of year again – how did my triathlon season go? As a whole it went very good.  There are parts of it that I’m not happy with and parts that I am happy with.

Training: with the addition of a 2 year old to my family in April – there was a strong possibility that I would have issues doing the training required for the performances I wanted.  I expected challenges to range from decreased motivation to train, to lack of time to train, to pressure to not take time away from the family.  In the end, I did experience all of these from time to time, but I am very happy with the balance that I was able to maintain between family, triathlon, and work.  Continuing to achieve improved results while being a father is very satisfying.

Results: I had 6 results this year that indicate that I am continuing to improve.  Breaking 1:20 in a half-marathon, setting the course record at the J-hawk Early Bird and my solid performance at the Triple T, are all great highlights.  IMCDA was a great experience and result for me within the context of my preparation.  Kona – well Kona was a great race.  While I “only” went 10 minutes faster than last year, when you look at my race relative to the field I made some very large gains across the board.

Luck: I continue to suffer from bad “luck” at my main races.  At Kona in 2011 I had a broken spoke, IMAZ a broken bike, at IMCDA seat post slippage; at Kona 2012 I was a bit under the weather.  Despite these setbacks, I am still delivering solid results – but each incident has without a doubt caused me to under-perform to varying degrees.  Going forward, I need to be much better about controlling variables, particularly in the lead up to my key races.  Food intake, safety, maintenance, sickness, etc; fitness and execution allow us to manufacture some of our own luck, but I would hate to suffer a bout of preventable bad luck that I can’t overcome.

Half Ironman: I continue to blow chunks at the half Ironman distance.  I’m not sure what combination of training, resting, or execution I have wrong at the distance, but I suck (at least in my opinion and the results tend to agree.)  At IMAZ I have shaved 46 minutes off my time 2007 -> 2011.  I would call myself competitive in my AG at Kona, yet I can’t break 4:20 for a half.  Loser.

Training inside: a side effect of adding a child to the family and working to minimize the impacts of training on family time, I spent an extremely large portion of my time on the bike inside.  I’m talking I spent so much time inside on the bike trainer, that I probably did more races then outdoors bike sessions.  I don’t regret this for a second, but I feel that this had a pretty negative impact on my bike handling and comfort level while training.  I’m not sure what I can do to mitigate this, but I did purchase a set of rollers and hopefully that will increase the variety of training and help to minimize the impact to my bike handling skills.

So what is the game plan going forward?

Honestly, I don’t envision doing too many things different from 2012 to 2013 in terms of training approach.  I feel that I made some big leaps in fitness this year: my 5 hour MMP increased by 8%, my 2 hour MMP increased 10%, I ran some very fast 5k efforts in training.  So I don’t feel or see the need for a radical change simply because I didn’t properly leverage that fitness at key races.  My continued improvement tells me that I have yet to reach the point of diminishing returns on the current approach, and that by focusing on the variables I haven’t been controlling; I will arrive on my target days able to leverage every ounce of fitness.

Specific to racing next year I have only committed myself to two: the Triple T and IMCDA.  Unlike last year, I intend to come into IMCDA fully prepared and ready to do my fitness justice, with the singular goal of qualifying to return to Kona.   Assuming that happens, I’ll head back to Kona with the same goal(s) that I had going into this year.

I will probably add a half or two in to the calendar to help rid myself of the frustration of poor performances at that distance.

I’ve posted my race report for Kona.  The long story short race report is such:  Race week was magical and glittery.  The few short efforts on the bike and run were a piece of cake.  My typical pre-race 1,000 for time on Monday was crazy – 11:17 @ 1,000 SCY and 12:25 @ 1,100 SCY (basically 1,000 SCM).  That all disappeared Friday morning when I woke up feeling off.  The off feeling lead through to Saturday, where I fought through with a great and very satisfying effort on Saturday.  Though I ultimately fell short of my goal of Top 5 Age Group finish.

Where to from here?  Well, prior to Saturday I had every intention mailing USAT the needed paperwork to become an Elite member – AKA a pro, intending to cut me teeth on that for a while, with my first major race being IMCDA.  Instead, after a lot of discussion with Mary, Monday evening I registered for IMCDA as an Age Grouper.  Hopefully that will go well, and next October I’ll be able to sit down for words with Madame Pele again.

While I’ve been pretty quiet about it, for the past year or so in addition to being a triathlete I’ve jumped into the role of triathlon coach.

With some of the recent results my athletes have experienced I felt it high time to brag a little:

A few weeks back Michele knocked out a 4th place in the W50-54 at Ironman NYC – just missing a Kona slot, but getting on stage for the first time at an Ironman!  Revenge is planned at Ironman Florida!

This past Saturday Kendrick finished second overall at the Nashvegas Half in Nashville closing it out with an impressive 1:23 run.

Matt is continuing his stellar season with an age-group win at the White Lake International Tri – which should put him solidly in second place for the North Carolina Tri series for M45-49.

Finally – the big news of the weekend was Andy blowing it up at Ironman Wisconsin yesterday with a win in the M50-54 age group, a 30 minute PR and a trip to Kona.

Well with Ironman CDA (race report here) in the books, along with a week of vacation to Glacier National park – it’s time for the next phase of 2012.

Phase 1 was primarily focused on improving my run significantly, which I think I’ve done.  Phase 2 is about building up some monster bike fitness to have a great race in Hawaii.  In the mean time, I’ll be racing the Door County Half in a couple weeks, and probably a sprint or two later in the season.

While I slowly work on creating some worthwhile content, I’ll direct you to some suggested reading.

In May of 2010 Trek launched the Speed Concept, it’s answer in the Superbike arms race.  They claimed the bike was fast, sexy, and pretty much the coolest thing ever, they went so far as to publish a detailed white paper backing up all the claims, and their testing methodology.

The white paper is a good read, it describes in detail the concepts and physics that Trek applied in developing the Speed Concept, as well as some head-to-head comparisons against the other primary players on the market.

So before we dive into my thoughts on the bike after 12,000 some odd miles on it, in the interest of openness you should know a few things:

• Prior to the Speed Concept 9 series, I rode a Cervelo Dual.
• The primary reason I am riding a speed concept is that it was the object of my lust at the time I bought it.
• The secondary reason I am riding a speed concept is due to my being sponsored by Emery’s Third Coast Triathlon, Cycling and Fitness.
• If I wasn’t sponsored by Emery’s I would likely still be riding my old Cervelo Dual.

On to the review – first I’ll tell you what I think about the bike, and then I’ll give you a comparison of the bike in terms of “fastness” compared to my old ride.

Fit

The first thing you really need to know about the Speed Concept 9 series is that it can accommodate an incredible large range of fits.  When evaluating what size to get, I discovered that I could replicate my fit coordinates on 3 different size frames.  While I am certain other frames can offer similar flexibility, it will often require purchasing some expensive after-market stems or bar. The Speed Concept is able to offer this flexibility with standard parts that are standard equipment for the bike.  Now it’s true, that the stock models of the Speed Concept may not come with a stem or seatpost option that meets your fit needs out of the box, if you are willing to wait you can order a “stock” bike via Trek’s Project One program, outfitted with the stem, seatpost, etc that you want – for no to minimal additional cost.

Draft Box

The next item on the bike that I want to talk about is the Draft Box.  My impression is that there is a lot of mixed opinions out there on this, but I really like having it on my bike.  On training rides it frees up pocket space – I can fit a spare tube, CO2, inflator, a pair of levers, and a multi-tool in the box.  On race day, I’m able to fit a spare tubular, an inflator, CO2, razor, and a tire lever – depending on how efficient I am at packing it, sometimes I do need a strip of tape around the box to keep the lid secure.  While the Trek claims that the Draft Box is “neutral” in terms of drag – if you’re able to fit your race day spare kit in it, that seems to be better/faster (and more secure) than in a saddle bag or strapped to your saddle.

I can’t help but notice that a lot of the top pros (Lance, Lieto, etc), and some prominent Age Groupers (Adam Zucco) forego the draft box.  I have no idea if it’s because they aren’t carrying a spare, can’t fit the spare in, because the box is unfashionable, or if they know something I don’t in terms of drag.  Regardless of the reason – some folks seem to use it, others don’t.

A final note on the draft box – shortly after the release of the Speed Concept Trek redesigned the draft box to resolve an issue that the box would slip and run on the rear tire.  If you have a 1st Gen box, it is a simple warrenty replacement to get the 2nd Gen version.  I initially had the 1st Gen box, and while I initially didn’t have issues, after about 12 months the box was nearly useless it rubbed so bad.  I replaced it with the 2nd Gen version, and it now has an incredible amount of clearance.

Brakes

The brakes on the Speed Concept 9 are proprietary and fully integrated.  I haven’t found any issues with them in terms of stopping power.  The front brake provides for easy access to set screws to adjust the brakes for wheels of various widths. The rear brake does not have these same set screws, but it is an easy enough task to switch around the spacers on the rear brakes.

The brake levers on the 9.5 are simple metal levers, they are functional and get the job done, but can be a bit slippery, sharp, and uncomfortable on a ride where you are on the basebar a lot.

Two important notes on the brakes, Trek has recently released new brake levers that have the ability to trim the brakes at the levers!  HUGE!  It’s on my list to pick up a pair of these levers to try them out.  If/when you have to swap the cartridges out between aluminum wheels and carbon wheels – big PITA!!!  The brake cartridges have a tiny (TINY) allen screw to hold the cartridges in place.  After a bad experience of having these screws strip, and the resulting panic to cut the brake pad out of the cartridge with a race start looming, I decided to remove these screws and let the force of braking hold the pads in place.  It’s probably just as easy, and less risky to simply by a second set of brake cartridges and swap out the whole cartridge rather then only the pad.

Other Things You Should know

Onto some random thoughts opinions I’ve developed over the last 2 years about the Speed Concept.  The first of those is, I really had a strong personal distaste for the stock aerobars.  I know that some people love ski-bends, but after several years on a set of Profile Design T2+ Cobras (S-bend) – despite giving them an honest 5 months – I had to go back to the Profiles.

Re-cabling this bike is a breeze, even if you have to run new housing.  While it took me about 2 hours to do it the first time (and several beers) – the majority of that time was spent observing how things went together.  I can now do it in about 45 minutes, though several beers are still required!  As is the case with any “aero” basebar – the toughest part of the job is feeding the new housing through the basebar.  Everything else is simple!

The clearance on the driveside dropout is very tight on some trainers – and you can scratch some paint on the drop out if  your trainer doesn’t have small enough cone cups.  I know for certain that the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine – has this issue.  I rode it for probably a year like this, before I added a couple nylon washers to space the cup out, but I did not notice any issues on that frame as a result of the contact.

There is an awesome thread on Slowtwitch – the Owner’s Thread has a lot of great info on sizing, and pretty much any question you might have has been answered.  Best of all, Carl, a Trek employee frequents the thread and is an incredibly helpful resource.  Buried within that thread is a post which summarizes all of the open recalls on the Speed Concept (dependent upon build date).

Is it fast?

In the end, this is what it really boils down to.  When you want to go fast, all the stuff I’ve talked about to this point is fluff.  I mean let’s be honest, if you are anything like me – and chances are you are – you would ride an It, if you knew it would help you go minutes faster at your next A-race.

I had every intention of performing some controlled aero field testing back in 2010 before selling my Dual, but training, work and laziness got in the way and that never happened.  So to determine if it was a wise investment, I fired up WKO and started looking at power files.

In an effort to control the variables as much as I could, I ignored any power files from training rides – simply too much noise: stop signs, varied tires, varied clothes, a lack of memory on weather conditions etc.

Instead I focused on a few races at which I had a distinct recollection of my equipment choices, and fairly solid memory of weather conditions (because they tend to be very consistant, they were memorable, or I could look them up in an Almanac).

In the end I selected 3 races as the baseline:

> Ironman Wisconsin 2008
> “Typical” Conditions for Madison
> Decent Tires (Vittoria Corsa KS)
> 5:25 @ 215 watts via my SRM

> Ironman Wisconsin 2009
>”Calm” Conditions
> Faster Tires (Vittoria Corsa Crono)
> 5:21 @ 212 watts via SRM

> J-Hawk Latebird 2009
> “Typical” Conditions
> Fast Tires (Vittoria Corsa Crono)
> 34:12 @ 294 watts via SRM

I than compared this results from the same races, where I had the same equipment, position – just swapping out the Dual for the Speed Concept:

> Ironman Wisconsin 2010
>”Typical” Conditions
> Decent Tires (Vittoria Corsa EVO CX)
> 5:21 @ 206 watts via Powertap

> J-Hawk Latebird 2009
> “Typical” Conditions
> Decent Tires (Vittoria Corsa EVO CX)
> 33:37 @ 283 watts via Powertap

Via side-by-side testing, I’ve determined that my powertap reads approximately 3% lower than my SRM, so when you adjust the powertap watts upward you get the following “results”:

>Ironman Wisconsin: ~2.14 seconds per mile faster
>J-Hawk: ~2.55 seconds per mile faster

While 2.3 seconds per mile faster doesn’t seem like a lot, when you extend that out to an Ironman, we are talking a savings upwards of 4 minutes.  While this is less extreme than the claimed 8 minutes over the P3 that Trek claims – when you consider that my “experiment” doesn’t have a lot of controls in place, and is only quasi scientific at best – it is obvious that the Speed Concept is a fast bike.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, I think the Speed Concept is the best bike on the market, between the tiers of offerings (9 series, 7 series, 2 series), you can get a very fast bike no matter your price point.  I highly recommend the 9-series, and will be on it until I feel that something better comes along, which might be a while.  The P5 might be close, but let’s be honest they will be envyware until late 2012 or 2013 at best.

IMO – the best endorsement I can give this bike is the fact that, last fall when presented with the opportunity to ride a new bike – I choose to get another SpeedConcept.

Hi again!

Now that the Triple T has come and gone, I can say that the 2012 triathlon (race) season is officially underway, and thus far it has been a grand success.  I managed to have a great weekend of racing at the TTT, doing it as a Solo for the first time since 2006.

The next race on the docket will either be Lake Mills or Elkhart Lake – I’m not positive which one I will do.  Lake Mills fits better in my preparation for IMCDA, but the prize money at Elkhart Lake is quite tempting – though the fact that I’ve floundered the last few times I’ve raced with prize money being on the line is in the back of my head.  So we shall see.

Well despite posting a month ago saying that I would be posting more soon, I didn’t keep to my promise very well!  However, it’s been an action packed month these last few weeks:

> I set a new PR for the half marathon at the beginning of April (1:19:24).  I’m quite pleased by that time.  Now that I’ve finally broken 1:20, it really puts the relative difficulty of that into perspective and makes me realize how much I was talking out of my ass here and here as well as a host of other places in the past (I’m sure).  I’ve come to realize just how fast running a 1:14 is – it’s truly frightening.  Let’s not even talk about the fact that the world record is well under an hour.

Between the adoption, J-hawk and the half marathon PR, I’m very much looking forward to the next few months of training, racing, and parenthood.

As I mentioned last time, I’ve got a lot of topics on the burner: Specific Prep, some product reviews (SpeedConcept 9 series vs. Cervel Dual, Zipp 808 FC, Carbon Wheel Brake pad comparison, shoes and some other fun stuff).  So bear with me and stay tuned!