Father's Day

A bit late posting but hey-ho. A great buddy of mine, Jon andrews, came to stay for a couple of days with his lovelly wife, Tors, and beautiful daughters, Clover & Luca. Jon and I used to sail together and work together in the UK and Australia. He then went to New Zealand, fell in love and the rest is history.

For Father's Day we decided to go to the Champagne Brunch at the Westin in KL. Great food, great service, clowns and balloons for the kids and free flow Veuve Cliquot champagne that they are not shy about filling and refilling and refilling your glass. So as you can imagine it didn't do much for my weight loss programme but it was great fun.

KL Marathon (Half Marathon for me)

(Photo courtesy of Tey)

I set my alarm for 4:30 so that I could get there in plenty of time to do a 4k pre race run/warm-up. So you can imagine my confusion and hollow feeling in my stomach when Shilpa woke me up at 5:37am asking me why I was still there.

Fortunately the start wasn't until 6:15, I only had 25km to drive, navigate a massive detour due to a closed road, 3 police road blocks to talk my way through, plus getting ready, not to mention drinking a litre of water and a pint of coffee.

Somehow I made it with just under 2 minutes to spare (needless to say I didn't get a warm up in).

The plan was to start at the back and let the race unfold while keeping focused on my injured calf and foot. Going slow was never the plan as that creates a different running gait from my norm and almost always results in further injury to my fragile feet. Equally this wasn't meant to be a time trial either.

I bumped into Ian, Bella and Sue and the gun went off and we were away. It was very slow going to start with as there were thousands of people doing the half marathon. I soon was weaving in and out and then hopped onto the footpath - BIG MISTAKE.

Asian footpaths are not meant to be walked on. Everyone drives EVERYWHERE. Hence you often find open sewers and uncovered storm drains. Today I found an uncovered storm drain that I stupidly assumed was covered as I ran over it at full pelt. My leg disappeared but fortunately it was only a couple of feet deep and somehow I managed to bounce back up before my leg literally snapped in two. As it was I tore the front of my ankle on the edge of the drain, went head over heels and landed very heavily on both knees.

Plenty of blood and lots of very concerned people (which was comforting, but I had a race to do so I apologise to anyone that asked me if I was OK if I appeared in a bit of a rush to get away). I knew it was pretty bad but after a couple of K I knew that it was only going to hurt after the race. I was just grateful that I didn't break my leg as I surely would had I done the same thing 19 times out of 20.

After the crowds started thinning out a bit I was in a nice rhythm and felt pretty good albeit a bit heavy (I'm carrying 7kg more than I was at IMMY and believe me the feeling is very different) and clearly my muscles were not race ready but I'm still pretty fit so I thought I'd see what I had in the engine while still keeping a careful eye on my torn calf and inflamed tendon in my foot.

At 10.5k (exactly half way) I was there at 52 minutes on the dot so I had a sub 5min per k pace going and I might squeeze out a sub 1hr40 if I pulled off a negative split. I was digging deep and just trying to deal with 1k at a time (for once there were what appeared to be accurate and regular distance markers).

I started going past some of the slower marathon runners (they started Uber-early). I saw Mohan the Great escorting a group of ladies around (what a gentleman!). I saw a one legged guy running on a "blade" (from Singapore I think). Those guys inspire me so much, I have so many sporting heroes but anyone that puts that kind of adversity behind them then they are top of the list in my book.

With 3.5k to go I thought I'd step it up a notch but soon after with 2k to go I realised that the wheels were soon to fall off - and only on a half marathon uh-oh! I need to get some ks in my legs before ITU - it looks like my calf survived and my foot is no worse at least so I can now focus on my running over the last few weeks.

Back to the race, I dug even deeper and somehow kept the mind and body together to keep the speed up to the finish clocking in at 1hour 39minutes and 33seconds. I was very pleased with that considering my oversleeping, lack of warm up, storm drain saga, injuries and lack of running training. The only problem is that now 2 days later I'm still suffering the effects of DOMS quite badly (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) not to mention badly bruised knees which is causing me difficulty cycling and walking down stairs.

Was it worth it? Damn YES! (it always is)

PS Mike Williams said after the race: - "Wow, that was only a half marathon and you looked like shit". He can always be relied upon to tell you how it is.

And I'm not complaining, I'm never gonna win a beauty contest but the worse I look coming down a finishing chute I know the more I gave it on the race course. I didn't kill myself today but it was a good measured, moderate pace and was just about right for now.

Watch out you Germans, I've got some revenge to wreak on behalf of England at the ITU Champs and then I'm gonna leave ALL MY PRETTINESS on the course.

Postscript: - I heard in the afternoon that a runner in the 10k race had collapsed and died. Sadly this turned out to be true, Lim Wei Ji, collapsed towards the end of the 10K and died on his way to hospital of a heart attack. So sad and tragic. My condolences go out to his family. I did not know you but we're all brothers out there on the road, RIP Lim.

Religious? - prepare to be offended

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn - I just posted it [but I laughed my a$$ off and agree with every word he said] but be warned that if you're religious, don't like swearing and/or don't like to hear facts then please don't watch this).

Indian accents Canadian accents

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

Blonde Joke to kick off the week

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

A PLANE IS ON ITS WAY TO TORONTO , WHEN A BLONDE IN ECONOMY CLASS GETS
UP, AND MOVES TO THE FIRST CLASS SECTION AND SITS DOWN.

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT WATCHES HER DO THIS, AND ASKS TO SEE HER TICKET.

SHE THEN TELLS THE BLONDE THAT SHE PAID FOR ECONOMY CLASS, AND THAT SHE
WILL HAVE TO SIT IN THE BACK.

THE BLONDE REPLIES, "I'M BLONDE, I'M BEAUTIFUL, I'M GOING TO TORONTO AND
I'M STAYING RIGHT HERE

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT GOES INTO THE COCKPIT AND TELLS THE PILOT AND THE
CO-PILOT THAT THERE IS A BLONDE BIMBO SITTING IN FIRST CLASS, THAT
BELONGS IN ECONOMY, AND WON'T MOVE BACK TO HER SEAT.

THE CO-PILOT GOES BACK TO THE BLONDE AND TRIES TO EXPLAIN THAT BECAUSE
SHE ONLY PAID FOR ECONOMY SHE WILL HAVE TO LEAVE AND RETURN TO HER SEAT.

THE BLONDE REPLIES, "I'M BLONDE, I'M BEAUTIFUL, I'M GOING TO TORONTO AND
I'M STAYING RIGHT HERE."

THE CO-PILOT TELLS THE PILOT THAT HE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE THE POLICE
WAITING WHEN THEY LAND TO ARREST THIS BLONDE WOMAN WHO WON'T LISTEN TO
REASON.

THE PILOT SAYS, "YOU SAY SHE IS A BLONDE? I'LL HANDLE THIS, I'M MARRIED
TO A BLONDE. I SPEAK BLONDE."

HE GOES BACK TO THE BLONDE AND WHISPERS IN HER EAR, AND SHE SAYS, "OH,
I'M SORRY." AND GETS UP AND GOES BACK TO HER SEAT IN ECONOMY..

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT AND CO-PILOT ARE AMAZED AND ASKED HIM WHAT HE SAID
TO MAKE HER MOVE WITHOUT ANY FUSS.



I TOLD HER ... "FIRST CLASS ISN'T GOING TO TORONTO ".

Made me laugh

(Courtesy of @SexCigarsBooze via Twitter)

Simon says: - "I can't help thinking that this may have been a little boy called Reid based on his father's unwashed truck stories. [Disclaimer: - Any disparaging undertones are solely aimed at the father not the mother]"

Black Beauty's younger sister in Singapore

Terry Walsh was kind enough to send me the pictures of Assad's bike in Singapore. I'm not sure if he's trying to drive me mad with jealousy but it's working. Take a look at these pictures - SWEET!

T-Shirt War

This video came to me by way of Ian's 9 year old son, Alasdair. Thought I'd watch for a few seconds and then get on with other stuff - as it happened it is really cool and fun - couldn't help myself - ENJOY.

More on the Speed Concept

(Courtesy of cyclingnews.com & Rueban)

First ride: Trek Speed Concept
By: Matt Pacocha, Bikeradar.com
Trek's Speed Concept 9.9 model.

Cyclingnews races Trek's new time trial machine

Trek’s Speed Concept is one darn fast ride. In fact, it’s the fastest aero bike we’ve ever ridden, and it shaved over a minute off our previous personal best at our local weekday time trial series.

Admittedly it’s the first of the new generation time trial bikes – including the Cervélo P4, Giant Trinity Advanced SL and Scott Plasma 3 – that we’ve slung a leg over, but we've put plenty of time in on the older Cervelo P3 and Giant Trinity Alliance.






Despite being built with the triathlon market in mind, the Speed Concept made its debut in the time trials at last year's Tour de France, so we figured the best way to test this bike was to go out and race it.

The fact that we set our fastest time in an event we’ve been racing for four years during our second ride on it is a testament to the bike's high performance. The 10.4-mile course is rolling and features three significant climbs that can be ridden in the big ring. Our fastest time in 2009 was 25:30, and our fastest ever time came in 2008 at 24:19.

We posted a 23:17 on the Speed Concept 9.9 this week. While this comparison is completely unscientific and the results are influenced by wildly different wind and weather conditions, equipment variables (we did use the same wheels as previously – a set of Zipp 999s), not to mention the test rider’s fitness, we have to attribute at least a portion of our saved time to Trek’s engineering team.

What is undisputable is that we’ve ridden this same race in horribly slow conditions as well as on extremely fast nights with the wind at out back and never gone this quickly.

[Simon says: - Interestingly their 1min02sec PB over a 16.6km course is almost exactly the advantage that Trek claim to have over their nearest rival (Cervelo) if you project it over an Ironman i.e. 10 minutes - coincidence?]

The test bike

Our Speed Concept 9.9 retails for US$8,924.99 (somewhere between £7500-8000 at UK prices) and is painted with the team colours and plastered with the sponsor logos of Trek’s Ironman superstar Chris Lieto.

It's admittedly a tri version, equipped with a UCI illegal base bar and seat post that exceeds the 3:1 ratio for airfoils. However, we didn't use the (also UCI illegal) detachable DraftBox on the back, and the rest of the kit is completely UCI legal. We also ran our saddle setback within the UCI’s limits.



(Two small lengths of shifter cable run from the extensions to the base bar.)

Our test bike comes equipped with a SRAM Red drivetrain, complete with R2C ‘aero’ shifters. Gearing pairs a standard 53/39 crank to an 11-23T PowerDome cassette. The base bar, extensions and seatpost are all from in-house brand Bontrager.

Trek take care of braking duties with their proprietary Speed Concept integrated centre-pull brakes and Bontrager carbon brake levers. The proprietary brakes offer plenty of power and modulation; the only disadvantage we can find is their somewhat complicated setup.

We tested the Speed Concept with a ‘control’ wheelset – one we’ve ridden on our test course many times – Zipp’s 999 disc wheelset, which pairs a 900 disc with an 808 front wheel. Ours are clinchers for convenience.

The ride

In addition to improving the aerodynamic properties of the Speed Concept, Trek also modified geometry for better handling. A slightly lower bottom bracket and mellower head tube angle make for a more stable ride, which is noticeable in crosswinds, but the modifications don’t hamper the bike’s prologue prowess.

While our Speed Concept still rides like a time trial bike, we wouldn’t doubt its abilities on a technical course due to the pedestrian dodging we’ve done on ours through Boulder’s packed multi-use bike paths.









(The rear seat tube and seat stays sport the Kamm Tail shape; the last loop to the derailleur is one of the only cables that shows on this bike.)

Criticism?

We found the front end to be somewhat soft, especially considering the small stature of our test rider. The frame and fork seem solid, but when standing and putting maximum effort into a climb or sprint, things start noodling around.

The impression is that the flex is coming from the bars and their connection to the fork, specifically through the back/top of the steerer – a price of the extreme aerodynamic properties of the stem, perhaps. This will not affect the performance for triathletes; however, we have to imagine the RadioShack guys will know what we’re talking about.

Pedalling stiffness is good, but the bike’s rear end isn't mindblowing when it comes to stiffness, as we could still make it move. The cockpit is compact, which is also only an issue when standing.



We had to consciously centre ourselves when standing to keep our knees knocking the bar or our backside getting poked by the saddle. Some of this can be attributed to the girth of the non-conforming base bar. It may also have something to do with how Trek fit the new bikes through stack and reach instead of a certain frame dimension; the base bar remains in a fixed position no matter the fit.

We weren’t entirely happy with the base bar’s shape, either. It seemed to put the bullhorns a bit too far forward for our size; we'd have preferred a version without the forward sweep. As for the 9.9 specification, the only nit we can pick is with the magnesium railed Fizik Arione Tri2 saddle. We’d expect a titanium K:ium railed version on a bike that costs close to $9,000.

Is this the fastest bike available? Ever?

Trek tell a compelling story with the Kamm tail virtual airfoil – see our first look at the Speed Concept for more on this – and such bold claims can often be written off as marketing hype. However, while it's difficult to judge without wind tunnel tests, things seem different with this bike.

The Kamm tail concept was originally developed in the the auto industry, and unlike time trial bikes, most cars aren’t sold based on their advertised aerodynamic advantages. When someone buys a Toyota Prius they don't do so because of its Kamm tail body shape, but because of its 50mpg fuel economy – an attribute that aerodynamics obviously play a part in.

While we were given the opportunity to test the top (non-Project One) Speed Concept model, we have to commend Trek for trickling the Kamm tail technology down to all of their price points, right out of the gate.

The entry-level 9 Series model (made in Wisconsin from Trek’s OCLV Red Carbon) comes in at $5,774.99 with a spec that’s still fully capable for professional level time trialling, while the 7 Series (made from Trek’s TCT carbon in Asia) bikes start at $2,519.99, and an aluminium model rounds out the line for under $2k, yet still sports the Kamm tail features in its down tube, seat tube and fork legs.

Bottom line

The Speed Concept must be a consideration for those in the market for an aero bike, especially considering that Trek offer the Kamm tail technology at a wide range of price points. The only thing missing right now is the option to buy the Speed Concept as a frameset. Trek say 'fuselages' (frame, fork, stem, bar, brakes) will be available by late summer. INTERESTING!!!!!

Tim Don scores big

British triathlete Tim Don enjoyed a massive payout after winning the Hy-Vee Elite Cup in the United States.

The 2006 world champion earned $200,000 (£136,388) after clinching the world's richest triathlon in one hour 50 minutes 20 seconds in Des Moines, Iowa.

Don, 32, finished four seconds ahead of New Zealand's Kris Gemmell with Australian Courtney Atkinson in third.

"This feels absolutely amazing. I was really hurting to hold them off at the end," Don said.

Britain's Helen Jenkins, the 2008 world champion, was third in the women's event, while in the men's race Will Clarke was sixth and Stuart Hayes was 31st.

Don, who ran a personal best of 28.56 at the Great Manchester 10k in May, added: "I felt great at the start of the run and just tried to hang on for the whole thing.

"I knew the guys were closing hard, but when I saw I still had 20 seconds heading into that last lap, I thought I could do it."

The Russian duo of Alexander Brukhankov and Dmitry Polyansky took an early lead in the swim as 66 men started this prestigious annual event.

Following the bike phase, Don built up a 20-second advantage after the first of four run laps, leaving Gemmell and Germany's Jan Frodeno with too much to do in the closing stages.

Jenkins, third at the recent World Championship Series race in Madrid, banked £17,000 after her efforts on Sunday.

Australia's Emma Snowshill, the Olympic champion, overturned a large deficit to finish top of the podium with a fine run ahead of team-mate Emma Moffatt.

Other Brits involved were Jodie Stimpson who was seventh, while Liz Blatchford secured a ninth position.

The races cap a successful two weeks for Britain's triathletes with world champion Alistair Brownlee storming to victory at the World Championship Series event in Madrid on 6 June in his first race back from a leg injury.

Trek's White Paper 2.0 - The Speed Concept

(Courtesy of slowtwitch.com and Trekbikes)

On Oct 23, 2007, Trek released their first white paper to the public after some debate concerning their Equinox TTX and its performance in the wind tunnel were called into question. At the time, our publisher, Dan Empfield, wrote that, "Trek Bicycle Corporation has granted Slowtwitch.com's readers transparency atypical in the bike industry. Trek's Damon Rinard has penned a white paper describing the protocol and results of a recent wind tunnel test that, among other things, compares its bikes to two others in its competitive set." In the past two plus years, the level of transparency regarding wind tunnel testing has changed dramatically. Consumers - at least our readers - now expect to know how the bike they are considering buying stacks up - with hard numbers - against the competition. Employees from Blue, Cervelo, Felt, Kestrel, LOOK, Specialized, Trek (listed alphabetically) and others all participate on the Slowtwitch.com forum. And the expectation is now that these individuals will make themselves available to answer questions about their products. At the risk of throwing him to the dogs, I will say that forum user "Carl" is the Carl Matson of Trek Bicycles whose name appears on this white paper. It was he who arranged for Slowtwitch to host this white paper. While neither he nor we can guarantee he will answer every question posed on our user forum, he has said that he'll do his best to avoid having any "chirping crickets" in threads about the SpeedConcept and this white paper.

The white paper can be downloaded by clicking here.

Simon says: -

I WANT I WANT I WANT.

Of course I'm bias but some interesting points I'd like to make. First of all, I think most would agree that the most popular tri bike around is the Cervelo. Some would say the P4C is the pinnacle others would say they already perfected it with the P3C. Either way they are fabulous bikes, attractive and aero and a great company behind them. However, in Trek's white paper for the TTX (Click here for my previous article on that white paper) the PC3 was in a clear second place to the TTX. Now you'll see in the graph attached that both the P3 and P4 are a distant way behind the Speed Concept.

Interestingly you'll note that the P4 actually has MORE drag at 15% yaw than the P3! (15% yaw is considered to be the benchmark of aerodynamic testing).

(Click on chart to enlarge)




Even more interestingly you'll note below from Cervelo's own testing that they had TWO MAJOR OMISSIONS: -

1)They only included P4 data up to 12.5% yaw!!!! What happened there, did they run out of wind tunnel time?

2) They included all the major brands EXCEPT TREK.

That says it all for me! I'm convinced - Give me a Trek Speed Concept over a P3 or P4 any day.

(Click on chart to enlarge)



Another interesting chart for you is the actual percentage and related time that you'd gain over a P4 using the new Speed Concept in an Ironman. It's a massive 10 minutes for a small rider and between 7 to 8 minutes for a medium rider like me. It may not seem like a lot of time but it's all "FREE" time and to think that I missed out on Kona qualification by 7 to 8 minutes!!!!! (I'm not blaming the bike though I was on a TTX so it was still quicker than the Cervelo).

(Click on chart to enlarge)















So in conclusion I've realised that I'm an average rider but my equipment makes me fast...hahahaha...actually my bike times speak for themselves and I average 400+k per week in training for 6 months leading to an Ironman, I work very hard at it BUT there is only so much that I can achieve physically so if I can make use of some "FREE" time I'll take it thank you very much!

And don't forget a disc wheel will make a difference but the best aero bang for your buck is an aero helmet - certainly cheaper than a new bike or a new disc and will knock minutes off your time.

Finally, sorry to all you Cervelo owners, I know there are lots of you and many that I ride with. This wasn't meant to be a Cervelo bashing article, I truly love the P3 and P4.

And look on the bright side, you have the third and fourth fastest tri bikes on the planet behind the TTX and now the Speed Concept, that's not bad is it?.

A palindrome

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite..

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant.

The Smoking Room

(Courtesy of Ian)

THIS IS A CEILING MURAL IN A SMOKER'S LOUNGE. If you don't smoke have a good laugh, if you do smoke I make NO APOLOGIES.

Powermeter or Di2

As most of you know my biking needs some improvement (OK OK, my swim needs the improvement and my run is currently nonexistent due to injury). So back to what interests me...the bike.

I ride an Olympic distance race based on the "red-line" factor. I push to the max from start to finish. No need for heart rate and no need for powermeters - it's only 40K and the run as the same all out approach as that's only 10k. I don't ever slow down (although I usually lie on the floor meters from the finish for anything up to an hour after the race - sad but true, at least I know I don't leave anything out there on the race course).

However, these pesky Ironman distances take a little more science. I currently measure heart rate and cadence as my pacing factors. I NEVER look at speed until after the race and even then don't take much notice of it. If the average heart rate is kept to the target range and the cadence is kept similarly at the right level then speed takes care of itself (provided you've tapered properly, trained well and healthy come race day).

However I've come to realise that Ironman biking is about one main thing and that's efficiency, i.e. going as fast as you can without expending or wasting too much energy. So wasted energy and power fluctuations destroy efficiency which will mean that you either have a slower time on the bike than you could otherwise have done or end up struggling at some point on the run - BUT USUALLY BOTH.

So that's where the powermeter comes in - you train with it and get to know your numbers and then stick to them on race day (assuming taper, training & health of course). Heart rate is then a good aid to see how you're performing at that power output (i.e. are you having a good day = rested and healthy) and of course cadence must be maintained at the target rates too in order to complete the formula of efficiency.

There are other factors of efficiency of course such as smooth pedal rotation, stable body, aero position etc but I'm assuming those are a given by the time we get to nailing a fast Ironman bike leg.

I like seat of the pants cycling and I usually beat the powermeter boys anyway (especially on the bike section come race day). However, I'm also a numbers geek and it disturbs me to see my split times slowing as an Ironman progresses - especially where it's a course with multiple loops, the numbers don't lie).

At Ironman China, I took off on the bike with a very high heart rate and knew I was in trouble, I was going super slow although I knew there was a slight gradient and a strong head wind. My ego wouldn't let me slow down and I paid for it three quarters of the way through the bike course when all power drained away from my legs. I'd like to think that a powermeter would have given me the confidence to have slowed down at the beginning as it would have shown the power was still OK even if the speed wasn't due to the gradient and the wind.

So with that all said it brings me onto the Shimano Di2 electronic shifters. The argument for getting these is very simple - they are sooooooo cool.

So what will it be - powermeter or Di2. Science vs Ego

The smart answer is powermeter, especially as I know it'll make me faster and thus feed my big fat ego anyway but did I mention the Di2 is sooooo cool?

Let's be honest this sport is 90% the cool kit/shaved legs/Lycra and only 10% fitness/health/fun/friendship and all that other good positive stuff but 90% is a big number. (By the way if, you don't believe that then you need to go shopping - you definitely need an upgrade, hell we all need an upgrade of something).

What to do, what to do?

Embrace Life - wonderful advert!

(Courtesy of Shilpa)

Now this is probably the best safety advert you'll ever see. (Nearly 8million views on YouTube when I checked today).

This is the new "wear your seatbelt" ad in the the UK - started by some guy, not hired to do it, but because the cause is important to him. He came up with this idea, and now it's being hailed across the world as a beautiful' commercial for seatbelts.

The video has gone "viral" - meaning, it has become so popular with the general public that people are forwarding it to friends & family so quickly that it has spread all over the world in a very short time.

Run fat boy run!

(Courtesy of "Mohan the Great")

CLICK ON ARTICLE TO ENLARGE.

Interesting article about not having to be the perfect build to still be competitive. Reassuring for short lumpy fat boys like me.