Antilag

Well…..

As a Triathlon N00b, that could be viewed in two very different ways – either as a success because it was by far the longest event I’ve done or…. an unmitigated f*** up.

Bit from coloumn A, bit from coloumn B? Dunno, I’m actully a pretty harsh critic of myself.

Annnnywayyyy…

Apparently, this is a biiiiiiiig weekend for the NSW Triathlon community. Miss Jess was certainly into it, I’m not really that much for that kinda thing but I am down for the first real step in the road to November’s 70.3’s (and that in truth is the only reason I chose to do the event at all… that and the fire breathing bike :D). So anyway, lots of bike kms, even some swimming and running (which is about as likely as a politican being honest) to make sure I could finish the event at all, a wetsuit and also an early BIRHTDAY PRESENT!!!!!!!!!!! of a Garmin 910XT!!!!!!!!!! from Miss Jess 😀 😀 😀 – I’m also not the most emotive of humans (except various looks going from mild disapproval to full on I Am Going To Kill You With An Axe) thence this is mighty good and welcome. I’m the human versoin of Grumpy Cat so a rare smile says a lot.

Altho the 910XT is about as confusing so far to use as a policy annoucement from a politican, I’m working on decrypting it’s abilities. Might take me a year but I will get there, you can never have too much data.

First things first – packed the Commodore full of bikes, wheels, wetsuits, energy bars, bike repair toolboxes, more tyres, more wheels, pumps, helmets, removed stowaway cats, wondered what a small green bird was doing, found a small place for clothes, Jess and I wedged into what space remained and went for a drive to Forster. Frankly the Commodore is the clown car of bike carriers – it’s amazing how many bikes can fit.

After a what is becoming a boring drive up the coast now that Buladelahalalalalalala is bypassed – got to Hills Tri Club HQ, unpacked the clown Commodore, wondered what a green bird was doing in it, got the room filled with the amazing array of crap out of the car, built the bikes, tested the bikes, went for a course check on the Venge and the Roubaix, posted shit on the Internet, did a bit of socialising…. or what passes for socialising for me which amounts to feet up on the table and disappearing into a corner, ate food, went to sleep.

Race day – humid as grandpa’s nutsack or a fangirl posting Robert Downey Jnr pics to Tumblr. And my bowels decided to not co-operate. Like a green budgie on a shitting spree over clean clothes. Not THAT with the tri suit and a wet suit wasnt going to be a good thing – luckily the No-Poo worked. Or whatever it was they recommended in the chemist – frankly at that point I would have taken a cork and a hammer to smash it in. Thence after the bike is racked, the breifing is done (WHAT is it about officials and briefs? Havent they heard of boxers?)  and the rather disturbing process of getting a wet suit on – involving cooking oil and body glide, I swear sometimes I jsut dont have to write the jokes – a bit of a warmup swim to get used to the wet suit, at 1:20pm it was OFF AND…. smashed backwards by the first ill timed wave.

And frankly the swim just went downhill from there.

Open water swimming at a place where I’ve had some bad experiences isnt recommended. Nor was it exactly anything else other than soul crushingly hard. At 400 meter (out of just over 1km) I had to grab hold of a waterski and cough up a lung of water. I was damn close to throwing it in, but the bloody lifeguard told me to try and keep going.

Prick.

Another misreble 200 meters later that felt like hours…. turn towards the beach. Another misreble 200, turn along the beach. Then 150, head for the breakers. And get dumped. And drag myself out, somehow not last in my wave. And really feeling pretty misreble and pissed off. Drag my sorry ass up the beach to transition, strip the wet suit off (Gotta work on that), get the bike out and get going on it. And as much as I love riding, it took nearly a full lap of the bike course to really recover from the swim and settle into the bike leg. By which time I’d burnt up enough on the legs in brute force to make it also not thta nice a ride until the last few kms when the legs came back. Rythym and technique are so important and it takes a bit of time usually to get mine on a bike, even with the kms I do.

And now the run. Feeling somewhat like shit, dragged my ass around the 8 km course. And to be honest….. actually wasnt as bad as I expected, I went with a jog/ walk strategy and it worked resonably well. In fact towards the end I was even picking the pace up a bit more. And even didnt feel that bad at the finish.

Results? Eh. Finished. Swim fucked the race up for me. Bike was…. okay it was decent enough for the horrible start to it. Run…. actually smack bang what I wanted from it. I’m kinda thinking I wouldnt mind the Duathlon season coming up, my run is definatly imprving and I’m not feeling crap in the legs.

But I really am going to think carefulyl about any more open water stuff. That really was a race wrecker.

Well, Triathlon N00b was out there Triathlon-ing today. The new super bike got a workout. There was thunder bolts and lightning, very very frightening and cue eventual headbanging and hanging onto tents to make sure they dont fly away

It did look pretty dubious in fact, the storm that screamed in was intense but thankfully resonably short lived. For a while tho it did look touch and go wether it would take place but eventually we got going – late but away we went

Unlike other triathlons we have had out there, the wind was light and so there would be no “downhill” scream to make up time. And nor would there be a tailwind on the swim…. water wasnt cold either. But this time I did decide to line up and go for the it on the start, usually I hang back and cruise for the first 100 meters. It was…. different. A lot rougher, a fair bit of shoving about and hitting other swimmmers, a bit of sneaky drafting and eventually began to get a nice bit of water as the go for hell starters flagged. Basically I just started at a higher pace that I felt I could hold, held it and just started to make inroads from there. The thing is, going hell for leather is not a good idea – it gets you tired. Set a pace and hold it.

T1 transition was slow – But I wasnt bothered. Today was simply about pacing and not fucking up the treacherous cycle leg.

Cycle – pretty much to plan. Yes, had a plan! Simply select a gear, select a cadence, and hold it. Dont push 100%, dont kill my legs, just do 35-36 kph. And that’s exactly what I did – a bit slower than the fastest I’ve done (15 seconds slower in fact) but average of 34.3kph, max of 39.6. Almost smack bang where I wanted it. Plus with the tri bars mounted water bottle, I was able to drink a fair bit more so I came into T2 well hydrated and feeling pretty good.

To be honest, also came into transition somewhat slower than I have too. Took my time to get the shoes off and stopping (also avoiding a crash), but was able to run the bike to the rack, put the runenrs on, have a quick drink and not need a few seconds to catch my breath.

And then surprised the hell out of myself with a 12:58 2.5km run.

I turned at 6:50 so I knew the run was nearly a minute up from my best. But getting under 13 minutes? Doing a 10.7kph average? 13.81kph best speed? Pacing at 5:39 per km? This REALLY was great! I’m no runner so to do a decent time is awesome.

And I knew I had more left in me too, there was no collapse over the finish. I… actually felt pretty good. Well for a minute or so because a guy with a magnificent beard who finished a bit behind me was a bit miffed he had gone 40:41. And at that point I realised I had missed going sub 40 minutes by even less.

SHIT!

Annnnnd…. 40minutes, 21 secs. Well…. damn. That was close indeed! But to be honest all that is is actually hurrying in transition or giving the bike a bit more. Probably 30 or more seconds lost in transitions. 15 seconds could have been grabbed on the bike for sure. 38 minutes could have been done.

Eh…. to be honest I’m really happy. The run was for me quite a turn about for a sucky run to not bad at all. Swim? Decent. Cycle? Did exactly what I wanted to do and the fact is, I wasnt going for a time at all. The object of the day was pacing. 9/10, good race.

Some thoughts tho – the bike may not have been the thunderous 15 minute blast I think it’s capable of, but the thing is, the pacing and the ease of which the bike held it meant I was quite a deal fresher and opened up the run leg. There was no recovery 500 meters, fighting to get the run legs going. It was yep, lets run. And away I went. And that’s where the value of the new bike is…. it allowed a 2 minute faster run. Sure it was still fast and probaly I bet will have a fast in comparison bike leg, the air was slow today but the fact is plain, I could run and run well. I hadnt blown myelf up simply due pacing and the bike being a godawful load easier to maintain that pace.

Yep, 22 seconds and I would have that 39 minute race but….. you know what? I’m really pleased with how it all went. I’ll take this result nooooo problem at all and I know I can go faster. I did exactly what I wanted to do and surprised myself as well.

The thing is now I see I am opening up the run leg for myself to not be a struggle. 😀

Well…. a day of mixed emotions allright. Lets start with  the not so good

Franjo Ceh, 1930 – 2014. Originally from Croatia, migrated here in the 1950’s. Built a plumbing empire from nothing. He was a next door neigbour and in fact he gave me my first job and I help physically build his house – laying bricks, carpentry, landscaping, plumbing…. hard work for a youg teenager but I loved it. So in fact I do know how to have a real job 😀
Also the skills learnt have certainly come in handy ove the years.

A good man and our family was close to them so it’s sad to see him passing to be with Jesus. I certainly remeber the parties his sons had… and young Frank’s Porsche was the first one I drove in anger. Real, absolute flat stick anger. So yeah built cars with them too. He had a C3 Corvette we dropped this monster 454 into – didnt handle for shit woooooo weee did to go in a straight line!

Old Franjo was a man who lived modesty and knew the value of hard work. His work also just happened to make him incredibly wealthy but he never showed it off.  He will be very much missed.

The somewhat better –

Triathlon N00B is something of a keen cyclist and I do have a few. The present bike is a Roubaix that has done a lot of kms in just a year – great bike but not exactly a thing that can open up like a TT or a Tri bike can. I have hired a Specialized Venge Pro a couple of times in road bike form and it’s 2 minutes faster over 10 kms….. that’s a fair bit of course. So what with two 70.3’s later in the year, I got not quite the ultimate time trail aero weapon…..

But I did get a Specialized S-Works Venge. And hooooooly shit, what a piece of carbon fibre that is! I think there is a review floating round that sums up the Venge perfectly – a Cervelo is more of a scapel, a Venge is a sledgehammer, there is nothing subtle about it, it’s a brute force machine for big power and just going as humanly fast as possible. And in this startlingly bright orange… yep nothing subtle about this bike at all. It’s an angry bike and it goes like nothing else I’ve ridden. It isnt quite the instant spin up of the ROubaix but it really REALLY burns road when you work it up to speed. It just gets better the harder you hammer it.

Unlike the usual Venge builds tho, this one is set up as a TT bike as well, so the builders have called it the Shvenge – a unique blend of Shiv and Venge. Actually it’s not a unique idea, A Venge is a very good TT bike, but in my case I’ve gone a bit further so it is now a very different build to my specifications. It is also incredibly light for a TT bike as well, ready to ride (so no weight cheating) of 7.8 kgs, ie with all the bottle cages, pedals, aero bars, etc. Strip it down and swap to road bars plus a light seat, SPD to Speedplay and yes, it would get under the UCI weight limit of 6.8 kgs, ready to ride. Most TT and Triathlon bikes are a few kgs heavier.

The other vitals –

• Carbon aero bars
• Xentis Squad 4.2 carbon wheels + cermic bearings
• Specialized carbon S-Works cranks
• Sitero TT seat
• 24mm Turbo tyres
• 11 Speed Ultegra Di2 11-24 cluster
• 52-30 Pro Compact
• Ultegra brakes
• Dura-Ace brake levers

Oh and to REALLY top the build off……

• Dura-Ace 5 way electronic shift controller
• Dura-Ace button shift on the brake lever and on the TT bars
• Ultegra Di2 front de-railleur
• Ultegra Di2 rear de-railleur

Yes, it’s got electronic paddleshift brakes…..! It’s truly freaky to tap a button and it shifts smoothly and fast. Hold the button down and it multishifts. And you can just hammer and it wont be bothered at all.

So after the fit and a few tweaks to suitme, I took it for it’s first run …… and well…. it really surprised me. When you spend the cost of a small car on a bike, you really want something good but just how good is the Shvenge? Well it takes a bit to wind up as it doesnt have the low gearing of the Roubaix but when it’s going…. it’s fast! And unlike most TT bikes, its fast uphill due to it’s bugger all weight. Of course downhill it’s fast but it’s party trick is when you go aero – you can feel the bike just become something else. It WANTS to go even faster. And it becomes easier too. I found myself ripping along at 40+kph and it felt like I wasnt really working. And being in aero just worked. But it didnt matter, out of aero it’s just as fast and willing to go. And given its a road bike turned into a TT monster, it handles really well. Quite a surprsingly smooth ride too. Even without going above 90%, it’s comfortably 3-4 kms an hour faster average over 50 kms.

And it looks so outrageous in it’s bright orange colour too. It’s a real attention getter!

I doubt it’s a bike for anyone else other than me – it is a custom build to suit what I wanted. And given it’s just been customed for me…. yes it is damn near as perfect as a bike can get.

Quite an interesting day to say the least.

And now for something completely different….. A man with a cat on his head! Wait no, that’s totally normal for me. Annnnyway I went and did something a bit different – I actually used the race MTB for an actual MTB race. All that lightweight carbon ued for commuting and the odd firetrail run actually got used in anger….. well maybe mild annoyance….. at Lake Crackenback. Yes I know cracks are usually to the beack, that’s the actual name of the place. I suppose the namers were thinking about something dirty, given this was the 1800’s and there were more or less only cattle for a late night bit of lovin.

At 75km and in what appeared to be difficult terrain, I was pretty much expecting to fail to finish. Moutain Bikes do put a lot more drag on the legs than a road bike and while I’m at home pushing out the kms on a roadie, 75km on a MTB was a very tall order, esp given I had never done such a distance in one hit. And also, 8-10% climbs are pretty much stock rather than the exception.

On the Friday afternoon after we got down there, I did a bit of road time to settle inot the MB and also get a guage on the topography. Annnnd…. 5 kms of 3-8% climb that peaked out for 400 meters of 20-32% going over a ridge at 1300 meters. Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that made me breathe hard. 21kms in total for a 512meter total climb. And that was the road……! I did ride a bit of the course and it was actually easier.

Saturday rest 7th Day Adventist style. Or do they rest on Sunday? Okay I have no idea. The point was doing as little as possible and stuffing my face with food. Mmmmmm steak goodness.

Sunday

The first thing is getting up at 5am for a race is actually pretty normal for me over the years of motorsport. 1 degree however? In SUMMER? That was a shock to the system. It was time to pull out the winter clothing big time and try to somehow stay warm….! With race breifing at 645am and the race starting at 7am, I set up the feed zone, found a cup of tea, checked the bike over and battled the penguins for a place next to the heater. The Magpuies were also hopping from leg to leg to avoid being frozen to the wire fences.

Race

The Garmin was switched on and set to race mode. But frankly my strategty was quite different from the straining at the bit raw meat eaters up front – I’d just tool around and just try to beat the cutoff for the last lap at 1pm. With a rather approriate song by Cake (Going the Distance) blaring, the horn was blasted, startling the magpies and penguins to a battle for the nearest warmth and some 100 competitors sprinting away…. while the stragglers like me cruised up the first hill and onto the coruse proper. And yes, I was very much cruising, there was no hard push at all. Over take a couple of slower riders, get overtaekn, ride through kangaroo shit, a creek crossing then a bit of climbing to the Ski Tube car park, cross that and then up again. 100 meters climb in 5 kms. The nexk 5 kms were easier and a lot quicker – with some great jumps and some vicious single track that really wasnt made for 29er. Oh and wombat holes with more wombat shit. By this time we are by Threado river and it was COLD. Frozen water and frost, my feet utterly numb and this sheen of shit everywhere. The front of the bike was in fact black with shit. A roll uphill then around some more bridges slippery with ice, back to the blaring music and….. 1 hour for the first lap. Run to the bathroom, run back (Note utterly no feeling in feetquick water bottle refill (noting to take the lid off before drinking) then away again with a clif bar in the gob.

And to be honest for the next two laps that’s about all the highlights. By 10 am I had done 45kms and worked out hey…. I was pacing well and even if my knees were not happy and my legs pretty much held together by my leggings, the finish was possible. I was keeping up fluids and also scoffing gels regularly so I wasnt bonking….. just doing a nice consistent 1 hour for a lap kinda pace. But I did notice that if I got off my bike my legs would howl and get VERY sore. Not sure why that would happen but the last lap was certainly a do. not. stop not even for a breather. I did that at 55kms and my legs were not happy. I would have hought a slight rest would be a good thing? I guess not and I’m not sure why.

Anyway, decided to throw a bit more in at the end pedalled for the line and threw the bike down as I finished and collapsed. And smelt myself. Oh…. holy…. moly! Sweat mixed with kangroo and wombat shit is NOT a good thing. The bike was cleaner due to a couple of water crossings but my leggings and shirt….! And SHOES! Agggggh! I could not imagine I could smell worse dead!

Not exactly the most plesant of drives home and even the washing machine fought hard to not have those foul clothes stuffed in it. It wants to press charges of cruelty to washing machines. The shoes got dunked in alcohol and hot water. I basically took to myself with a wire brush to scrape stink off me.

So….. yep, different. Finished. Time wise? Eh. Dont care. It was slow. The point was never to go at the pace I could have gone at, but to finish. It’s basically a good bit of training for the Novemeber Hell month of two 70.3’s in three weeks. A good long hard event to give me confidence I’d have energy left even after 5 hours. Thence… ticked the boxes, move onto the next one. Which is a Tri Sprint in Wollongong.

But before I get there….. ew equipment is coming.