Goosepond Island Half Race Report

Sept 9 - Oct 6 (last 4 week averages)
S:  14,458 yds - 3hr 25min
B:  139.63 mi - 7hr 34min
R:  41.32 mi - 5hr 20min
Total:  16hr 19min

Oct 7 - Oct 13 (taper time!)
S:  13,518 yds - 3hr 13min
B:  87.10 mi - 4hr 8min
R:  24.88 mi - 3hr 1min
Total:  10hr 22min

The Goosepond Island Half has been on my schedule all year.  With this half ironman distance race being in Alabama and only 2 hours from my house, it's hard to turn down.  I feel like supporting races in one's home state is always a good thing to do, especially when you know the RD and think highly of him.  Anyways, ever since racing fellow Accelerate 3 athlete Chris Borden at Gulf Coast back in May (and LOSING), I was looking forward to going head to head with him again.  Alas, Chris had different plans and managed to earn a trip to to Kona...I guess I can't blame him for skipping Goosepond!  Nonetheless, there would still be good competition.  Jonathan Krichev is ALWAYS a threat and must be respected.  I really didn't recognize many other names on the start list but figured there would be 3-5 of us in the mix.

Racing into October can really be tough, especially when the first multi-sport race of 2013 happened back in late March.  It's been a very rewarding and successful season, but as September rolled around I really started to feel a little lacking in the motivational department.  No matter how much you love the sport of triathlon, doing anything a lot can lead to getting burned out...sometimes these are just temporary feelings though so I just told myself to suck it up.  As the weather in Alabama started to cool off a little bit, training got a lot more fun and I started putting together a string of good workouts, mainly a nice little run and bike a little over a week out from the race.  After that, I knew I was ready.  My goal for the race, unequivocally, was to win; and these last hard workouts gave me all the confidence I needed to think it could be a reality.  Race week went perfectly; plenty of sleep, clean eating, and a nice little taper that left me feeling primed and ready to go.

On Saturday afternoon, Lori and I drove up to Scottsboro for the weekend festivities.  After a quick swim on the course, we headed to packet pick-up and then a good pasta dinner before calling it a night.  Race morning came early at 4am, and with it came the pre-race breakfast routine:

• 2 scoops Ultragen
• Cereal bowl
• 1 cup Koala Crisp
• 11oz Almond Breeze single serve
• 1 banana, sliced
• 2x Salt Stick Caps, emptied into bowl
• 8oz espresso roast coffee in AeroPress
• 650 calories

We headed to the race site and got there as transition opened at 5:30am.  I always like getting to races early, especially when there's a chance you could flat both tires during your warm up.  With those memories fresh on my mind, waking up earlier didn't seem like too much of a price to pay.  After a short run and bike warm up and with 30 minutes until race-time, I downed a Gu energy gel and swigged some water before making my way over to the swim start.

posing, pre-swim

Swim - 29:38 (4th)
The swim was a 2 loop counter-clockwise course, with all males under age 40 starting in the first wave.  I positioned myself on the far left of the group since that was clearly the fastest line.  The horn sounded and we were off.  Two guys (one of which I assumed was Krichev) jumped out right off the bat way faster than I was willing to go.  After 100 meters the pack settled in and I found myself in third position leading the rest of the pack.  After the first loop I was all alone.  The rest of the swim was uneventful.  I was completely by myself except for hitting some slower swimmers on the 2nd loop.  I exited the water in 3rd and was feeling pretty good.

on the front at the far left

T1 - 0:46 (3rd)
No mistakes here.  Lori called out that I was 3 or 4 minutes down to Krichev.  This is about what I expected and I KNEW that I could make this up on the bike, hopefully on the first half.

heading out on the bike

Bike - 2:22:46 (1st)
The bike plan was pretty easy.  Hit 225 watts and don't do anything stupid like wreck or drop all nutrition or set a new 20 minute power record.  Over the last year, I've done a lot of experimentation, racing, and test runs with nutrition and have settled on the bullets below.  Basically I have two plastic flasks in the zippered pocket on the back of my tri suit, a salt/calorie bottle between the aero bars, and then a hydration chamber in the frame near the top tube that can be re-filled.

• BTA Bottle: 3 scoops EFS with 6x Salt Stick Caps (drink evenly throughout bike)
• Frame Fuselage: ~30oz water (15oz refilled at aid station)
• Flask 1: 1x EFS liquid shot, watered down (drink over first 1/2 of bike)
• Flask 2: 4x Gu, watered down (drink over second 1/2 of bike)
• 1088 calories 

starting the bike

After a couple miles, I passed the 2nd place guy and started setting my sights on Krichev.  The course was super flat, but with a sketchy area in downtown Scottsboro and some terrible road surfaces I wouldn't say that it was a "fast course".  At around the 20 mile mark I could see the leader and I was reeling him in quickly.  A mile later, I made the pass and the rest of the bike was uneventful; I just focused on the lead motorcycle, remembered to take in my calories, and kept the wattage constant.  At the turnaround I could see that my gap on Justin Prior and some other dude was only a couple of minutes.  This started getting to me so I picked up the power slightly on the way back in.  Everything was feeling great so I was fine with picking up the power a little bit.  I rolled back into T2 ready to finish off strong.

position optimized, check

T2 - 1:24 (33rd)
This was slightly slower than I wanted.  My hands and feet were kind of numb so putting on socks seemed to be slightly more difficult than it should have been.

Run - 1:31:43 (3rd)
Brian harps on the mantra "proper pacing = proper racing" all the time, and it is ever so important during a long course race.  My plan was to start off at a pace that would allow me to negative split the last 10k, knowing that this would afford me my fastest possible race.

starting the run

After failing and succeeding at a handful of half ironman races, I think I've figured out what works best for me nutrition wise.  The Powerbar gels are a bit less viscous than the Gu gels so I've found these are easier to digest while running.

• 3x PowerBar gel, watered down in a flask (drink at mile 3, 6, 9)
• 4x Salt Stick caps
• Swig of water/gatorade at each aid station
• 330 calories

Despite feeling great coming out of T2, things quickly turned grim.  Both of my quads started gradually "tightening up", almost like they were in the beginnings of seizing up and cramping.  What?  No way this could be happening!  Thoughts of run/walking the half marathon and losing the race flew through my head...this can't be happening!  Then, realizing how stupid I was being and the fact that I'm just out here for fun, I told myself to keep running and see what happens.  After about a mile, my legs got loose and things were back to normal.  Up until mile 7 things were uneventful.  I kept the pace "difficult but reasonable", took in fluids and calories, and concentrated on running the tangents.

• 1st half - 46:30 (5th)

Somewhere around that point I saw Krichev at one of the out-and-back sections and deduced that he had made up a little bit of time on me.  Knowing how strong of a runner he is, I knew I had to finish strong.  Using this as motivation, I manged to pick up the pace over the last 10k.  Hearing runners should out encouragement on the way back in certainly helped out.  A handful of Vulcan Tri members were on the course so seeing them was a boost in morale.  The last mile was the most painful but also the most awesome.  Realizing that almost 600 hours and 6700 miles of trials is about to pay off is one of the greatest feelings in sports, ever. 

• 2nd half - 45:13 (1st)

With hot conditions, a carefully paced half marathon proved to be successful.  I gave up a little bit on the first half, but out-ran everyone by almost 2 minutes over the last half of the run.

the one shady part of the course...

Total - 4:26:16 (1st overall)
Wohoo!  Looking and thinking back over the race, I made absolutely zero mistakes and had, quite possibly, what I consider to be the best executed race in my 6 years of triathlon.  My swimming has improved a lot this year, which helped me not lose too much time to the leaders and really set up the rest of the race.  Although I was a little over target on my planned wattage, it was one of those race day things that kind of happened and I don't think it really cost me anything.  The run...was tough...it was hot and humid and I felt like I ran just about as fast as I could have, leaving nothing in the tank after crossing the line.  Based on feeling like I was going to throw up for the next 15 minutes after crossing the line, I don't think I could have paced it better.   

into the finish line chute

All in all, it was a successful end to the 2013 multisport season.  I can't be more thankful to Lori for supporting me and often racing beside me at all these races...and of course many thanks to Brian for giving me the master plan to get me through the season!

hard work is worth it!

Alabama Coastal Triathlon Race Report

Aug 26 - Sept 1
S:  15,050 yds - 3hr 39min
B:  166.41 mi - 9hr 16min
R:  30.02 mi - 3hr 51min
Total:  16hr 46min

Sept 2 - Sept 8
S:  9,171 yds - 2hr 8min
B:  113.44 mi - 5hr 58min
R:  20.38 mi - 2hr 38min
Total:  10hr 44min

Well, since this race happened about a month ago I figured I'd go ahead and try to sum it up before it's long forgotten.  The Alabama Coastal Triathlon takes place every year in early September, and it really is just a good excuse to take a trip down to the beach.  Lori and I headed down to Gulf Shores, AL on Saturday morning and after arriving at the beach we picked up packets and then had a nice dinner at King Neptune's Seafood Rstaurant.  This place reminded me of an old adage; "don't judge a book by its cover."  After a good night's sleep and the usual breakfast routine, it was time to race.

Warm Up
Now I know what you're thinking; why am I doing a write up on the "warm up"?  What could possibly happen in a warm up that is worth talking about?  Well, lots of things.  My race started at 7:30am but the sprint distance started at 7:00am and so transition closed at 6:30am, so we opted to get to the race site at 5:30am.  For intense races like an olympic distance triathlon, I like getting a good 10-15 minute ride in, a 10 minute run, and a short swim.  After dropping our bags off at the racks, Lori and I headed out for a bike warm up.  At around 3 minutes and almost a mile into the warm up I heard every triathlete's worst nightmare...air coming out of my rear tire!  And with it being a latex tube, that was $18 down the drain.  With nothing to change the flat I started the walk back to transition.  Instead of changing the tube myself I let bike support do it to save time and a few minutes later I was on my way for another warm up.  After riding around for a few minutes I rolled back towards transition, got off my bike, and then...pop!  Front tire flat!  What the heck!  Another $18 latex tube down the drain.  I was about 10 feet away from bike support so I rolled over there and they changed it real quick.  By this time it was already 6:35am but I rolled out for another warm up just to make sure.  After 5 minutes of riding around without flatting, I rolled back into transition at around 6:45am.  The race directors were yelling at people to get out of transition but I put my shoes on, did a few laps around transition, and then got out at around 6:55am.  Whew!  From there I had 30 minutes to let the nerves settle before starting the race, but hey...at least I was going to make it to the start line!

Swim - 21:41 (5th)
The swim was a 2 loop course, which is slightly annoying because it makes the 2nd loop pretty congested.  Nonetheless, that was the course and everyone had to do it.  I was 12th or so in the time trial start and after a few minutes found myself all alone.  I can never tell if I'm having a good swim or not but it felt like I was moving pretty good so whatever.  At the end of the first loop you had to get out on the beach, run down 30 yds or so, and then get back in the ocean.  On the run out back into the ocean I decided to dive through the wave a little too soon and took a mouthful of water.  Besides dodging swimmers on the 2nd lap the rest of the swim was pretty uneventful.

T1 - 1:26 (3rd)
On the run up to transition someone yelled out that I was in 4th position so I figured it was a good swim.  T1 was quick with no mistakes, and I headed out ready to reel in the other 3 riders.

Bike - 57:54 (2nd)
As soon as the bike started Sam Hudson jumped in front of me and I ended up just riding legally behind him for a few minutes while recovering from the swim.  A few minutes later we passed Lori (she crushed the swim) and after yelling some encouragement I decided to go ahead and pass Sam because I wanted to go just a litttttle bit faster.  It was very, very hot and humid out and bike watts felt a little low, but I could see that we were reeling a guy in up the road.  At the turnaround we had reeled in the guy and I moved into 2nd place, with Tiago Barriera a few minutes up the road.  Tiago is a great swimmer/biker but I felt confident I could reel him in on the run.  That said, he had a slightly bigger lead than I had expected so my nerves were on edge.  On the way back in we had a nice tailwind but I was not feeling good at all.  Sam was content to legally sit behind me so I just focused on trying to keep watts steady and not falter.  Sam and I arrived into T2 together and Tiago had a 3 minute lead.

T2 - 0:48 (2nd)
No mistakes here.  I managed to put 20 seconds into Sam here, which would hopefully put him out of the picture for good.

Run - 41:54 (4th)
Only one word is necessary here: HOT.  It was almost a repeat of last year, which was without a doubt the most miserable 10k run of 2012.  This year proved to be no different.  The first 2 miles or so weren't bad.  The tailwind was nice and I could see Tiago slowing down up the road, which provided some good motivation.  At about the halfway mark I passed Tiago and saw that I had a good size gap on Sam, but that's when things really started to hurt.  The thrill of moving into first got me through mile 4 but miles 5 and 6 were about the most miserable thing I've done in recent memory.  I figured everyone was suffering just as bad but I became paranoid that I was slowing down too much and that someone was going to come pass me.  Seeing Lori in first place for the females helped get me through mile 5, and from there it was all I could do to make it to the end.

Total - 2:03:42 (1st overall)
No matter what or how it happens, a win is a win.  My swim felt good but I felt like my bike was poor (given other performances this year) and the run was a slug fest in the heat.  It was miserable but crossing the line was the most awesome thing.  The complete contrast of different emotions of pain/suffering and then joy/happiness is really kind of weird, but I guess it's what draws people to compete.  Oh yea...and Lori took the overall female win by...8 MINUTES...so awesome! 

Rocketman Triathlon Race Report

Aug 12 - Aug 18
S:  14,700 yds - 3hr 26min
B:  232.45 mi - 12hr 32min
R:  28.37 mi - 3hr 37min
Total:  19hr 35min

Aug 19 - Aug 25
S:  12,191 yds - 2hr 59min
B:  91.47 mi - 4hr 51min
R:  31.69 mi - 3hr 55min
Total:  11hr 45min

I've been looking forward to the Rocketman Triathlon for pretty much the entire year because it's an awesome race course and it is very well run, but mainly because this year race director Mike Gerrity decided to do an "elite open wave".  Since there are practically ZERO races in Alabama that do any sort of mass start or wave start, I was really looking forward to actually racing head to head against my competitors.  I'm really not sure why other races don't copy this format, but kudos to Mike for doing it.  If the goal of a race is to actually race against and compete against your competitors, anything other than a mass start is not ideal.  IMO, it just takes away something from the race.

Anyways, there were about 20 or so of us men and women in the open wave.  I thought I had a chance to bring home a win, but it would be tough.  Bruce Gennari is a stud swimmer with a very good bike, so if he's having a good day then he is hard to beat.  Jonathan Krichev and Kendrick Gibson were the other 2 guys on my radar.  I have beat both of them before but have also lost to both of them before.  In my mind it was going to be a pretty close, hard fought race.

Swim - 26:43 (23rd)
As we were all treading water waiting for the swim start, that first turn buoy looked a long way off!  I lined up near the right side and as the gun sounded, we took off.  The pace was high starting off but after a couple hundred meters I found myself solo with no one around me.  I immediately noticed two things: we were swimming into a very stiff current, and that first turn buoy really was a long way away.  Bruce was likely going to put some good time into everyone so we all had our work cut out for us.  As we were almost to the turn buoy, every triathlete's worst nightmare happened: I felt my chip come loose!  I stopped swimming and as I stopped it slipped off my ankle.  Luckily I turned around and immediately saw it, and then stuffed it down the front of my suit.  My goggles had already filled with water due to the heavy chop so I took that opportunity to put them back on.  Alright, time to race again.  After rounding the turn buoy we were with the current for the remainder of the swim.  At about the halfway point I saw a familiar stroke swim up next to me, and it was none other than Hallie Blunck.  We swam beside each other and then I finally moved in behind her and finished off the swim in her draft.  After hearing Hallie tell me that we swam 26:30 I was slightly nervous that I had lost the race for myself, but as it turns out the swim was long and the current really killed people.  I came out about 2 minutes behind Kendrick and Krichev, which is about where I expected to be.  Bruce had already put 5 minutes on me.

jumping in for the wave start

T1 - 0:38 (8th)
Transition was fast and uneventful except for spending 5 seconds putting my chip back on my ankle.  In hindsight I should have just stuffed the chip in my pocket...

Bike - 59:03 (2nd)
Coming out of transition, I felt my chip come loose again!  What the heck!  I reached down and grabbed it, and then stuffed it in my pocket.  From there the main goal was to reel in Kendrick and Krichev, as they are both good runners.  After a mile or so I passed by Sara and then Lori and wished them both a good race.  A few miles later I could see some men up the road so I knew I was in business.  We had a tailwind going out so I tried to get us aero as possible, save a few watts, and really focus on speed.  At about mile 10 I was rapidly approaching Kendrick and then passed him.  This put me into 4th because Jeff Fejfar had a stellar swim and was riding in 2nd place behind Bruce.  A few miles later I passed Krichev and moved into 3rd.  I could not even see Bruce or Jeff up the road so that was kind of demoralizing.  Watts were good on the way back in and I tried to kick it up a notch into the headwind, knowing that I needed to at least give myself a shot at a win.  As I rolled towards transition I reached into my pocket to pull out my timing chip, and then noticed that the chip had fallen off the strap!  Crap!  I yelled to all the timing people as I rolled into T2 and they made sure that I was marked down.

on the bike

T2 - 0:59 (14th)
No mistakes here, and I was quickly out on the run course trying to reel in the leaders.

Run - 39:39 (8th)
The run course starts off with a section on trail before moving onto gravel roads, and then finishes up with a nice little climb and then downhill into the finish.  I was hurting pretty good but felt like I could still throw down a good run.  The first few miles were all around 6:20 to 6:30 pace and I felt like I was managing myself good.  During the out and back section at around mile 3.5 I could see that Bruce had a sizable lead and that he would take the win, but where did Jeff go??  Somehow I was now sitting in 2nd place.  As it turned out, Jeff made a wrong turn out of transition and was way behind.  At mile 4 on my way back towards the finish I saw Kendrick and Krichev and they only appeared to be 30-40 seconds back...crap!  I was running scared now, but I managed to speed up just a hair and maintain the gap, crossing the line in 2nd place.  As I crossed I yelled to the timing officials to make sure they got down my final finish time.

on the run...

trying to stay strong

Total - 2:07:02 (2nd overall)
A win would have been nice but Bruce had a stellar race and crushed it.  Unfortunately for Jeff, he made a wrong turn that probably cost him 2nd place (although you never know), but that's part of racing and I've certainly been there before.  Kendrick and I go back and forth a lot so it was nice to be on the winning end of that match-up, although I'm certain that he will be back and ready for revenge next time.  Also, huge congrats to Lori for taking 2nd overall female with a 2:19:09 in only her 2nd Olympic distance race!  And kudos to Birminghamian Hallie Blunck for taking the win and to Sara Gibson for rounding out the female podium in 3rd! 

A Trip to the A2 Wind Tunnel

Why go to the wind tunnel? 
After spending a couple days roaming around the mountains in Asheville and surrounding areas, it was now time for business...the real reason for the trip was a visit to the A2 Wind Tunnel.  So why go to a wind tunnel?  Well, science tells us that a large amount of a riders power output will go to overcome the resistance of the air, so getting in a position that minimizes drag is pretty important.  It's also important not to sacrifice power too much when getting in this optimum position.  It's a trade-off: more watts make you go faster, and less drag makes you go faster too.  If your position is super-aero but severely limits power then it may not be the best position.  If your position is very powerful but is not aero at all, it might not be the best position.  The key is finding the best of best both worlds for your optimum position.   The wind tunnel helps you do that.

How do you know if your position sucks?
Well, it's pretty tough to know without the use of a power meter.  Using power allows you to (in a controlled environment) compare average power (watts) vs. average speed (mph) to get an idea on "how much speed you are getting for your power output".  The more "aero" you are, the faster you will go off of a given wattage.

One beautiful thing about statistics is that as sample size increases you can begin to see trends.  I've been riding with power for 4 years now and since I race a lot I've got a rather large collection of power vs. speed data points in races.  Now, I'll be the first to say that you have to be careful when comparing these measures because they can be affected by things like wind and elevation, but as you increase the amount of data points you can begin to see trends and outliers.  With all this in mind, I've created the plot below from all of my races over the past 3 years.  Most of these races were on a Cervelo P2C with a Louis Garneau Superleggera helmet, and a HED Jet disc and Jet 9 with Vittoria Open Corsa EVO tires. 

Firstly, you can see two groups of data points with each group following a somewhat "up and to the right" trendline.  Obviously, this is what you would expect since it takes more power to get more speed.  What I've called "hilly" courses in the chart are races with an elevation gain rate of around 50 ft/mile or greater.  Five of these eight points are actually races on the same course.  These points are all shifted over to the left, and seemingly follow their own curve.  Over to the right you can see another group of points that consist of what I call "flatter" races.

Secondly, we can look at this chart and begin to see how terrible my time trail position is.  Lets key in on a bench mark that may cyclists and triathletes have: how many watts does it take you to go under an hour for 40k, or 24.86 mph?  Well for me, the chart says it will probably take me around 270-280 watts.  Keep in mind that I'm 5'11" tall and weigh 148 lbs.  Now how do you know if this is good or not?  Well, anyone that knows anything knows that this sucks.  But if you didn't you can do a couple things; you can see how people your size compare to you (I've got plenty of friends racing with power), you can ask coach (which I did), and you can get on forums (like Slowtwitch) and read about the vast multitudes of forum users and hear how many watts it takes them to go a certain speed.  As sample size increases you can begin to chunk some outliers and hone in on what a "good, bad, and average" power vs. speed relationship looks like.

I say all this to say that my decision to take a trip to the wind tunnel is the accumulation of knowledge and experiences over the last 4 years of training with power.  The more I trained and the more I raced, the more I realized that I was "wasting watts" somewhere.  And the faster I got, I realized that it was costing me races.  Like if I could just save 20 watts on the bike (which I thought was reasonable based on the above chart) then all of the sudden I've won 3 more races so far in 2013.

My Results
James had the session right in front of mine so I got up there early with Heath and Brian to watch his tunnel session and figure out how things worked.  You can read about his results here, but lets just say that his position was already pretty awesome and the tunnel pretty much confirmed that.  I got a lot of value out of watching his test and seeing how the guys at A2 made their decisions and ran through all the runs.  I also realized that having Health and Brian there was a very good thing, since they were providing insight and offering up suggestions based on their knowledge of James and how he rides his bike...and they would do the same for me.  Alright, enough of the pre-game, now it's time for my results.

The Baseline
The first thing you do in the tunnel is establish your baseline, as this is what all other runs will be compared to in order to determine if any position or equipment changes are "better or worse".  A2 uses a spreadsheet format that is pretty easy to understand.  The easiest thing to do is to look at "aero watts" from the spreadsheet, or the wattage to overcome aerodynamic drag.  Of course this varies with speed so for all cases we had 25 mph plugged in, as this is close to what I would average in a race.  Another note is that all of the runs were done at 0 and 10 degrees yaw.  Basically, yaw describes the idea that airflow doesn't always hit a rider head on (0 degrees) but sometimes at some other angle as determined by the wind.

As seen below, my baseline is 230 and 225 watts at 0 and 10 degrees yaw.  Basically, what this says is that to go 25 mph on my bicycle I would need to generate 230 watts plus any additional wattage required to overcome rolling resistance.  For the sake of this example we'll assume that 40 watts is a good number to assume for rolling resistance, although this depends on what kind of tires you are running.  Adding that 40 to the 230, it should take me around 270 watts to go 25 mph.  Not that the wind tunnel needs any validation (because really the tunnel is validating my previous thoughts), but this matches up pretty good with the power vs. speed chart from my last 3 years of racing.  Here is the data and side/front view from my baseline:

Position and Equipment Changes
After testing the baseline, the guys came out basically saying "yea you've got a lot of room to improve".  I expected this, and it was music to my ears.  It's also kind of obvious from the front view that my helmet is really wide, and I've got this weird lean to the right thing going on.  I'm not sure why...maybe one of my arms is shorter than the other.  One thing to note about the following test sequence is that given the current setup on my Specialized Shiv (stem slammed, Specialized proprietary stem/bars), there is no way for me to drop my front end without changing the stem and base bars.  That being said, the plan was to test a couple of other things first before moving to some new bars that would allow me to get more drop.

Pad Widths, etc
The first thing we did was play with pad widths and extension angles.  We tried moving the pads in 1 cm, 2 cm, and even out 1 cm.  We also tried angling the extensions up just a little bit.  As you can see from the table below, this didn't' change things very much.

pads in 2 cm

pads in 2 cm, extensions rotated up

Bottles
Next, we took off the bottle on my seat tube to quantify its impact, and this resulted in a 6-7 watt savings from the baseline, going from 230/225 down to 224/218.  I repeat, taking the bottle and cage off of my seat tube resulted in a savings of 7 watts!  In other words, I could now go 25 mph off of 7 less watts just by taking 30 seconds to remove a water bottle and cage.  So awesome!  We also verified that at 0 yaw the wind does not see a bottle between the aero bars, and at 10 degrees yaw I was 2 watts better without the bottle.

no more bottle on the seat tube

Helmets
After this, we tested helmets.  It was evident that my current helmet was rather wide when viewed from the front, so I wasn't going to be surprised if I found some savings here.  Given that my head is a weird shape (long from front to back, narrow from ear to ear) I had trouble fitting in most of the helmets that they had there.  The 2 helmets that I tried were the POC Tempor and the Giro Selector.  The POC was Brian's idea because based on watching me on camera he thought that the shape of it fit my contour well.  According to the tunnel guys, Giro usually tests pretty well on most people and the shape of the Selector seemed to fit me well.  As seen below, both helmets tested significantly better than my LG Superleggera, with the Giro getting the slight nod.  It resulted in massive 7-8 watt savings from the previous run!  My aero watts (at 0 and 10 degrees yaw) are now down from 230/225 at the baseline to 216/211...that's a total 14 watts...huge!

Giro Selector front view

Giro Selector side view

POC Tempor front view

POC Tempor side view

Drop
We spent the next 5 minutes or so changing the stem and base bars to an adjustable stem and Vision base bars.  This would allow me to quickly test lower positions.  We tested the front end 1 cm lower and 2 cm lower and while we didn't see any savings at 0 degrees yaw, there was a 4 watt savings at 10 degrees yaw.  I felt like anything more than 2 cm really started pinching my hips so we stopped there.

drop 2 cm front view

drop 2 cm side view

The Final Position
We started playing with extension angle again and went through a run or two with no savings.  At this point, either Heath or Brian had the idea to try me in a full praying mantis position with extensions rotated up as far as they would go...saying that just based on watching me on the computer screen it looked like it "might work out good".  Well...they were right!  This modification resulted in another 5 watt and 2 watt savings at 0 and 10 degrees yaw!  The stats are below, and the final position is #14.

Final Thoughts
In summary, I started out with a baseline of 230 and 225 watts at 0 and 10 degrees yaw and after making a couple of changes (remove seat tube bottle, new helmet, drop front end, rotate extensions) my new position ended up at 211 and 205 watts.  That's a savings of 19 and 20 watts at 25 mph.  Here is the brief summary of the changes.  I've been referring to all savings in terms of watts at 25 mph, but keep in mind that at higher speeds these savings will be even higher.

Anyone that uses power knows how massive this is!  Seeing as how it used to normally take me around 270 watts to go under an hour for 40k, the wind tunnel would suggest that I could now do it at 250 watts.  Or I could go 270 watts, which is my normal Olympic distance power output, and just go a lot faster.  Well, after 2 races with the almost new setup (I've done everything but the 2 cm drop, waiting on bars to come in), I've updated the power vs. speed plot:

You can see the two new green dots that represent the last 2 races.  Even after only two data points, it is clear that the changes have produced a faster setup.  Most notably, the far green dot to the right (273 watts, 26.2 mph) was on the same course that I raced the previous 2 years at 289 watts and 25.7 mph for both years.  I'll do the math for you.  That's 0.5 mph faster off of 16 less watts.  Free speed is awesome!

Mountain Lakes Triathlon 2013

Aug 5 - Aug 11
S:  11,460 yds - 2hr 45min
B:  100.96 mi - 5hr 20min
R:  17.44 mi - 2hr 20min
Total:  10hr 15min

It's early August and that can only mean it's time for MLT.  In the wee hours of Saturday morning (4am to be exact) Lori and I headed up towards Guntersville, AL to race the Mountain Lakes Triathlon.  Firstly, I just have to say that I LOVE this race course, mainly the bike and the run.  For a sprint, the bike course is slightly longer than "normal" at 16 miles which certainly suits my strengths.  The clock-wise loop around the lake has all right-hand turns and is mostly flat with a few slight rollers that you can easily power over in your big ring, so speeds are always fast.  The run is a scenic 3 mile out-and-back on a paved running trail right along the lake.  The swim is just average though, and is advertised as 600 yards although it seems like it's always either much higher or lower than that.  The only thing I really don't like about this race is the same thing I don't like about almost every other race in the southeast; it's a time trial start.

I've done this race the last 6 years and there has defintely been a progression to faster times, as one might expect.  This is, of course, a good thing.

Year     Swim    Bike      Run       Total      Place
2008     9:18     41:32     20:31     1:13:44     52
2009     9:44     39:23     19:38     1:11:00     24
2010     7:11     40:18     19:43     1:09:03     19
2011     8:51     37:43     18:49     1:07:28       3
2012   10:22     37:47     18:09     1:08:22       5
2013     8:56     37:10     18:49     1:06:45       3

The swims are all over the board, mainly because the swim is different every year.  If I were RD I would actually measure the swim.  How hard could it be?  Not very.  2008 through 2010 were my learning years, and then all of the sudden 3 full years of consistent training started paying off and my times started dropping.  One other interesting note is the bike splits.  2011 and 2012 showed practically the exact same splits, which makes sense because my average power was pretty much exactly the same in both races.  This summer I've done some work on my position and even made a trip to the soon-to-be-blogged about A2 Wind Tunnel.  The conclusion of the trip was that my helmet sucked pretty bad and I made a few other changes to optimize my position.  The result...drum rolllll...is what you see in the chart below for the years of 2010-2013 at the Mountain Lakes Triathlon bike course. 

That's 26.15 mph off of 273 watts compared to about 25.7 mph off of 289 watts the previous 2 years.  So basically I went 0.42 mph faster off of 16 less watts...got to love free speed!  To give another idea on how huge this is and how much physiological difference 16 watts makes when you are near threshold, so far throughout all of my rides in 2013 my duration for a mean maximal power of 289 watts is about 63 minutes and my duration for a mean maximal power of 273 watts is 93 minutes.  So as power increases by just 5% from 273 to 289, the duration that I can maintain said power decreases by 32%. 

Anyways...going faster off of less is always a good thing.  Now enough with the analysis...I just got excited for a little bit.  Here's how the race played out.   

Swim - 8:56 (13th)
I was the 9th racer to start in time trail fashion.  Andrew Hodges was the first racer to start and I knew he would be tough to beat...it would basically take the bike of all bikes to overcome the swimming and running deficit that he would put into me.  I was also surrounded by a bunch of kids from the Southeast Junior team...most of them are pretty good swimmer/runners so you can't take them all for granted.  As I went off I tried to find some feet to catch and just swam as hard as I could.  I exited the water right with Lori who started 30 seconds behind me so I felt pretty good about that.

T1 - 1:15 (30th)
Ok, I'm just going to say it...this was terrible.  I think it's because the straps on my new helmet have smaller buckles or something because I fumbled around for what seemed like 15 seconds with it.  Crap!  In a sprint race this can easily be the difference between winning and losing so I was not happy about that.  I finally got it buckled and was off to catch some bikers.

Bike - 37:10 (1st)
I knew I had my work cut out for me here, figuring there were 5-10 people out on the course in front of me.  Trying to settle into a sprint distance bike is tough because you don't want to blow up in the first 10 minutes but you don't want to leave anything on the table either.  After a few minutes I found my sweet spot and just tried to keep the power output steady from there.  From there I passed 6 or 7 people in the first 5 or 6 miles before the roads became empty.  At this point I thought that Andrew was the only one in front of me.  Somewhere around mile 10 or so I came upon a rider who I knew wasn't Andrew and it turned out to be a relay racer, but with a few miles to go I finally caught sight of him up the road.  With about a half mile or so to go I made the pass, thinking that I was first in off the bike and sitting in the virtual lead of the race.  However, after rolling into transition I noticed that there was one bike on the rack, so one of the kids must have been having a good race. 

T2 - 0:37 (26th)
No mistakes here, just a quick in and out.

Run - 18:49 (11th)
As I started the run Andrew couldn't have been more than 10-20 seconds behind me, if that.  Sure enough he came flying by me a minute or two in and there was nothing I can do.  It was hot but more than that it was super humid, and I was struggling with 6 to 6:30 pace.  From what I could tell there was no one close behind but I knew that Jeffrey Shelley had started a good bit behind and we would be close.  At the turnaround I could see the leader (some 15 year old kid) and Andrew not far behind him.  The rest of the run I just tried to focus on not blowing up and staying strong.  It was nice to see familiar faces on the way back in, and with a slight negative grade on the return trip it made it that much better.

Total - 1:06:45 (3rd overall)
I knew I was 3rd across the line but only time would tell if that would hold up.  As it turns out, Jeffrey finished a mere 5 seconds behind me so I was able to secure 3rd overall.  He later got hit with a bogus 2 minute drafting penalty that was likely some sort of mix-up.  I think that makes me 2-2 against him this year...it's always a hard fought battle.  At the end of the day I was pleased with the race although I know I can still run faster.  It's just hard to execute everything perfectly in this Alabama heat and humidity!  Also...huge props to Lori for winning the overall female race by a good 2 minutes...in only her 4th triathlon ever! 

overall podium, Lori got the win!

River Cities Triathlon 2013

July 22 - July 28
S:  12,101 yds - 2hr 48min
B:  197.03 mi - 9hr 27min
R:  28.57 mi - 3hr 37min
Total: 15hr 52min

July 29 - Aug 4
S:  11,827 yds - 2hr 52min
B:  95.50 mi - 4hr 59min
R:  27.04 mi - 3hr 29min
Total: 11hr 20min

It's really hard to not do all the local races around and near Alabama every year, but sometimes that gets old.  When Lori mentioned traveling to Shreveport, LA to do the River Cities Triathlon and to visit her Alma mater (Centenary College of Louisiana), I was pumped!  We headed out on Saturday morning to start the 7 hour trek over to Shreveport.  Local triathlete Jennifer Christy grew up in Shreveport and her parents graciously put 7 of us up in their house.  Jennifer's husband Micah made the trip as well; props to him for snapping a handful of superb pictures during the race.

The next morning we awoke early for our breakfast routine and then made the 40 minute drive to the race site, which was based in some sort of a park.  With the race being a sprint (0.5 mile, 18 mile, 5k), I wanted to make sure I was nice and warmed up.  Lori and I went for a 2 mile run with some striders and it was at that point that I knew it was going to be a brutal day.  It was already getting kind of hot and the humidity was BRUTAL.  Usually this would be no problem, but summer in Alabama has been somewhat mild this year so this was a complete shock to the body.  Anyways, here's how the race went.

Swim - 12:52 (7th)
I lined up with 21 other guys in the elite/invitational wave.  The swim course was a 0.5 mile clockwise triangle so I positioned myself on the right hand side on the 2nd row.  As the gun sounded, we-took off.  The pace was high for the first 100 meters but I found myself still in the pack.  At this point things spread out and I could see 1 guy out front and handful of others in front of me, but it was hard to tell how many.  Everyone else was behind so I just focused on swimming hard and swimming straight.  The rest of the swim was uneventful and I thought it went pretty well, although I didn't have much clue on my position.

swim exit...hurting pretty good

T1 - 1:19 (13th)
T1 went smoothly.  My new helmet takes slightly longer to put on (it's a snug fit) but probably only by 5 seconds or so...nothing substantial.  13th sounds terrible but most of us were in the 1:10 to 1:20 range.

Bike - 43:12 (7th)
The bike was interesting.  This was my first ride with a new helmet that has less venting.  This was also the 2nd ride on my new bike setup, which basically has me in a praying mantis position with extensions rotated up 25 degrees.  It still feels somewhat awkward but I'm getting used to it.  That being said, the first thing that I noticed out on the bike was that it was very hot and my heart rate was very high (and not coming down as quick as I wanted).  As I spent the first few minutes settling into the effort, it became apparent that my wattage was going to be lower than normal.  Oh well, some days are like that.  I managed to pass 1 guy within the first few minutes and 2 others at about the halfway point.  From there on I was completely solo for this 18 mile clockwise loop course so I just focused on a high and steady effort.  I came off the bike in 4th place, but keep in mind that I had absolutely no clue what position I was in.  This would have been nice to know!

new helmet, new setup

finishing the bike

T2 - 1:20 (15th)
I spent about 5-10 seconds fumbling with a shoe but other than that, no issues here.  We had to run a loop in transition before getting out on the course.

Run - 20:07 (7th)
This is where it gets even more interesting.  The run was a semi out-and-back, but on the return trip the course took several "diversions".  This would prove to make it very difficult to gauge what position I was in.  Post-race analysis told me I started the run in 4th but I had no clue and throughout the race I did not see a single person on the return trip.  At that point it was so hot that I was in survival mode anyways, so it probably would not have mattered.  As soon as I came out of T2 I knew it was going to be a suffer fest.  My head was on fire and my ears were slightly "stopped up", which seems to happen to me when I start to overheat.  A couple minutes into the run, two guys came by me running substantially faster than myself.  I was struggling with 6:30 pace and they flew by me.  Crap.  Mile 1 was a 6:30...not going to cut it but it was the best I could do.  I told myself to suck it up and I cranked up the pace a little bit.  Two other guys passed me but I passed two more so I'm sitting in 6th.  Mile 2 was a 6:13 and I was overheating bad!  At about the 14 minute mark, my whole stomach started to cramp up...it was weird...almost like a side stitch...but my whole stomach.  I tried to carry on but the pain was unbearable to I started to walk.  This was such a terrible feeling, especially when I got passed by another guy, moving me into 7th.  After about 30 seconds of walking I gradually started running again and was able to pick the pace up a little bit and finish at a decent clip.

rounding the corner to the finish...

...ready for this thing to be over!

let's play "where did Chad start walking?"

Total: 1:18:52.6 (7th overall)
In the end I didn't have a bad race, but I didn't have a good race either.  I thought I swam well but my bike and run left a little bit to be desired.  Bike watts were at least 30-35 watts lower than normal for a sprint, and my 5k was at least 1.5-2 minutes slower than what I've done earlier this year.  If you shaved 2 to 2.5 minutes off my time I would have been right when 2nd and 3rd place.  It's crazy what a big difference a minute or two can make, it certainly emphasizes the importance of execution on race day!  The big question is how much of this was due to the heat?  All of it?  It was hot, and by hot I mean way hotter and more humid than it's ever been in Alabama this year.  You certainly can't discount that.  At the end of the day, however, I'm happy because I know I went as hard as I could and could not have gone any faster.  It's unexplainable, but some days you have it and some days you don't...and today I did not quite have the top end speed.  Many thanks to Jennifer Christy for putting us up in her parents house.  Jennifer had a solid race herself, finishing 2nd place in the female masters category.  And of course, congrats to Lori who finished 3rd overall female in her 3rd triathlon ever!  What a stud!

post race, Lori got 3rd overall!

Chattanooga Waterfront Duathlon Race Report

July 8 - July 14
S:  15,791 yds - 3hr 39min
B:  124.89 mi - 6hr 44min
R:  28.38 mi - 3hr 33min
Total:  13hr 57min

July 15 - July 21
S:  10,134 yds - 2hr 32min
B:  154.21 mi - 9hr 2min
R:  18.38 mi - 2hr 30min
Total:  14hr 5min

I've come to realize that I have a love/hate relationship with the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon.  This race usually falls around mid-July, and anyone that lives in the southeastern United States knows that July is about as miserably hot as it can get.  The Chattanooga course is wide open on the bike, so if it's hot then you absolutely cook.  The run is somewhat shaded but is right on the water so the humidity seems to really skyrocket on the course.  Add in a decent hill at the start/end of the run and it's a recipe for suffering.  This would be my 6th year in a row to do this race, and it's pretty much 50/50 as to whether I'll have a decent race or not.  I usually pride myself in being able to execute most races pretty well, but this course has historically been the exception.  I even vowed last year to never do this race again!  Ha!  But Chattanooga is just an awesome city, so it's really hard to turn down this quick 2.5 hour drive for some good racing and good competition.

This year's race brought some unexpected changes.  Chattanooga saw record rainfall the week before the race, so on Tuesday of race week we all received an e-mail informing us that the swim would likely be canceled.  Both the swim start and finish docks were completely underwater, so there was pretty much no other option.  The swim would be replaced by a 2 mile run and the rest of the race would proceed as normally planned.  So...on Saturday Lori and I drove up and headed straight to packet pick-up.  Lori was signed up for the aqua bike but with a swim cancellation she opted for a credit to another race.  Next, we headed to Lupi's with Hallie and Lee/Heather Simms for some pizza...probably my favorite pre-race meal.  Luckily we made it right before the crowd and were able to eat and get back to fix up our rides and get some sleep!

pre-race

Rain was in the forecast but luckily it stopped about an hour or two before the race.  We biked down to the race site from the hotel, as it was only about a mile away.  The day was shaping up nicely in terms of conditions...the rain was gone, the sky was cloudy, and temps were actually somewhat low (70-80's)...a recipe for a good race!  Here's how it went:

Run 1 (2mile): 11:48
Unfortunately, even after this race was turned into a duathlon it was still a time trial start.  I was the 21st racer off the line and quickly settled into a very comfortably hard pace.  I was thinking I'd probably settle in around 5:50 pace and that's exactly what happened.  Jeffrey Shelley started a couple numbers behind me and quickly bridged up to me, and then we stayed together for the rest of the run.  I knew we would be dead even for most of the race so staying with him was crucial.

Leading Jeffrey into T1

T1: 1:06
Usually T1 is pretty fast and uneventful, but I really screwed this one up.  I *thought* that we were supposed to run out the far back corner of transition but as it turns out, that was not the case.  Since transition was rather large (this race had close to 1,000 people in it) this cost me a decent chunk of time.  Jeffrey exited T1 23 seconds faster than me...crap!!  I saw him up the road and could just not believe how stupid of a mistake I had just made.  It really only cost me 1 position in the overall but it was still a huge screw-up.

Bike (42k): 1:04:09
The bike course was somewhat hilly so I had a plan of upping the watts slightly on the climbs and backing off slightly once up to speed on the descents.  I came out of transition close to Bruce Gennari  and we traded off back and forth for at least the first 10-15 miles.  It was good to have him near me for some motivation.  Watts felt good, and I found myself wanting to hover around the 270-280 mark with a slight increase/decrease on the climbs/descents.  I could see Jeffrey up in front of me at the turnaround and we were practically dead even.  I finally got away from Bruce and reeled in one other guy, who then passed me back as we rolled the last few miles.  Coming into T2, I knew I 'd have to lay down a good run to catch Jeffrey and the other guys up the road.

T2: 0:58
No mistakes here, thankfully.

Run 2 (10k): 38:39
The run starts off with a hill and after learning from my past mistakes I eased into the first mile.  After a slower mile 1, I clicked off a 6:13 and 6:16 before nearing the turnaround.  The leader was 5 minutes ahead and Jeffrey was a probably 1.5 minutes...probably too much to catch but I would certainly try.  Mile 4-5 were 6:14 and 6:18 before hitting the final mile and one last hill before the finishing sprint.  Alex Solomon came around me with 200 meters to go and we had a nice little sprint but he edged me at the line...not that it mattered because he started behind me anyways.

the final sprint

Total: 1:56:38 (9th overall, 3rd AG)
All in all, this was an excellent race.  Both runs were executed well, and considering I wanted to quit about 5k into the 2nd run I'm happy about that.  As it turned out, this was actually my fastest 10k run ever in a triathlon so that's certainly a good thing.  The bike was my fastest time at Chattanooga my about 1.5 minutes, which is massive!  The only mistake I made was in T1, which cost me an overall spot and an age group spot.  *But*...if I had not made this mistake I would have started the 10k run with Jeffrey and would have been in a head-to-head race with him to the line.  Oh well...you race, you learn...I just can't make that mistake again.