By The Numbers

I had a conversation last January with pro triathlete Richard Armstrong all about the numbers. I've been thinking about this discussion a lot the past few days, especially after a disappointing Orange County Time Trial on Tuesday. You see, as a scientist, I am a data hound. I collect as much data as I can with just about everything I do, analyze, then make changes based on what the data is telling me. Richard was telling me to "let go of the numbers" and just let things happen as they will in training. He said he goes for long rides, like 4 hours or more, without a watch, speedometer, HRM, or anything, and encouraged me to do the same.

So, this morning I was on the computrainer at 6AM to get a workout in before heading off the work, and like any morning, I sucked. I just can't turn on the good stuff that early, and as always my watts were awful. Becca came out to the garage to see how it was going, and then took a piece of tape and covered the watt readout so I couldn't see it. At first I was not happy since, even when the numbers are bad, I want to see them. But then, a sense of freedom came over me. Unencumbered by negative feelings about the wattage I could produce, I just rode the hill workout as best I could. It was fantastic. Thanks Coach.

Speaking of numbers, anybody want to take a guess what my White Lake number was? Nice inverted tan, eh?


Also wanted to mention, my friend Carol from the tri club was at the OC time trial, and she put together some really cool photos and movies of Rebecca and I. Be sure to check them out on her blog. I think I am on the You Tube clip #2 starting my TT.

Profile Design Carbon X 1.5 Aerobars

Toward the end of last year, I began to ride more than comfortably in my aero position, and decided this year it was time to make my bike position more aggressive. My set up last year was the stock bars on my Felt S25, a set of Profile Aerolites. Earlier in the 2007 racing season I had switched out all the stem rings so I was in the lowest possible spot, and also hacksawed off the arm rest support screws to remove the spacer arm and get me another half inch lower. Even after these modifications, I felt I could go even lower and still be able to crank out good watts.

The first thing I tried was to get a lower angle stem. I had the stock Felt stem at 6 degrees negative angle and 100mm. When I swapped in a 10 degree down angle stem, it only made a few millimeters of difference. So, I took that back to the shop and decided I needed an integrated "all-in-one" set up. After persistent campaigning for a month or so, Becca gave in and let me get my new bars, a set of Profile Design Carbon X 1.5.

These bars have an integrated negative angle stem, and the arm rests are at base bar height (as opposed to mounting them on top of the base bar), so right away you get a lot lower. The install was a bit challenging, since that's the first time I've ever had the whole front end of my bike apart. In re-cabling the shifters and brakes I discovered that tri bikes actually have mtb brake lines, that's weird. Anyway, it was only in pieces about a week, and then everything was back to normal...well except that I irreversibly broke the rear shifter so its stuck in "friction" mode. No problem, I prefer friction shifting anyway.

Here's my dazzling slow motion animation of the change it made:


In terms of weight, I estimate this change made my bike about 200-250 grams lighter. This is probably inconsequential. But, I think the big difference is in aero. I'm about 3 inches lower now, and see no difference in power output. I did have to put the stem rings back in so I am in the highest stem position, since in the lowest there was some weird cantilever effect with my elbows/wrists that kept pushing my hands off the shifters.

For Pros, I'd say they are nice looking, light weight, and very low (if that's something you've been limited by in the past).

For Cons, my only issue is there isn't much adjust-ability to them. For one, the stem is part of the unit, so be sure to know how long you want it (I think they sell 100, 90, and 80mm), I got the 100. And also, knowing you've got room to play in the negative direction with your hip/pelvis/back flexibility is good, since you can't "flip the stem" the way you can on a regular setup. Another lack of adjust-ability is in the arm rests. I found that I wanted them back as far toward the rear wheel as I could get them, but they were very unstable in this position, and tended to make my forearms point upwards. So, I had to use the middle or front most position instead, which was acceptable once I got used to it. Also, you can't move the bars to make them wider/narrower on the base bar, they are locked in place. I like to ride with my hands together like I'm praying, and it was tough to get this to work at first. I eventually rotated the bars so the bend pointed up and in, and it approximated my old bars. I highly recommend trying these on somebody else's bike or in a store before you buy them since they are not so adjustable. But, if you're lucky, they'll fit just right and you'll be good to go.

So, do they work? Well, I took 7 minutes off my bike time since last year at the White Lake Half. But, I also put in 500 more miles in training since Jan 1 versus last year, so who knows. What I can say for sure is that I feel faster, I'm lower, and they look hot. And that's good enough for me!

Bird's Eye View pics from White Lake Half

Fumbling for my wetsuit of course...I have dozens of pics like this.


I love this one, check out that bike position!


Sucking major wind on the run, notice the mouth wide open for maximum air flow!


Finishing Chute:

Sidi T2.6 Carbon Shoes

Since I tried out a whole bunch of new stuff at White Lake this weekend, I thought I’d start going over the reviews of the new gear.
At the end of last year, my old biking shoes simply had to go. They had three years of racing in them, and were, quite frankly, very smelly. I am one of those guys who doesn’t get off his bike to pee, so often it runs right down into my shoes. And these particular bike shoes, just some old roadie Shimanos I got for $80 the day I bought my road bike, tend to not let any liquid out. So, often I roll into T2 with stinky feet that look like I just got out of the bathtub after three hours. Anyway, they were pretty beat, and I decided it was time to upgrade.
I went with Sidi’s T2.6 full carbon sole triathlon shoes. I chose these based on some of my friend’s recommendations and because I found them cheap on eBay in my size. The features that won me over were the lightness, the weep hole, and the stiffness of the sole.

Pros:

1.Very light weight: Rotational weight is much more important than static weight on a bike, so getting rid of a few grams on the shoes can make a big difference. These shoes seem very well constructed, but there’s not much to them, and hence are really light weight.

2.Stiffness: There’s basically nothing between your sole of your foot and a slab of carbon to transfer power to the pedal. It doesn’t give the way molded plastic does.

3.Two-strap entry: I’ve had no trouble working the two straps to get them on fast out of T2, and with the help of these shoes have finally pulled off the barefoot mount. The straps provide ample support to the top of your foot so you can get a good pull too.

4.Heel loop: Very nice for taking them off and putting them on while riding.

5.HOT White color: White is the new black in triathlon. White just seems faster!

Cons:

1.Stiffness: Yeah, yeah, I know I listed this as a “pro” already, but it can also be a con. These shoes are so stiff that they make your feet hurt in ways never felt before after long rides. Mine tend to ache around the outside edges (probably because I am a supinator and tend to put pressure on this part of the foot). Its tough, but a small price to pay for knowing more of your power is going into the pedal than into flexing the sole of the shoe. As a result, I use my old stinky shoes in training, and only race with these.

2.Color: Again, white is hot, but also collects dirt like nobody’s business. After White Lake, the insides of these look brown.

3.Lack of walking surface: Of course you don’t want to add weight to the shoe by putting rubber all over the bottom, but the placement of the steping surfaces is just a bit off in my opinion. The front one is too far back and the back one is too far forward. Because of this, to avoid dinging up the carbon at every transition, you need to cover these surfaces with electrical tape.

In summary, I love these shoes and they were a good purchase. Their MSRP is something like $340, but I you look around on the interent you can get them for under $200. A good buy in my opinion.

My Biking Mentor

As I was spinning away on the computrainer this evening, I guess I was feeling sentimental because I kept thinking about how this all got started. I'm talking about way back, to when I got my first road bike, and who it was that taught me to ride it. For me, that person was my dad, and to understand how I got into biking, it helps to know about how he got into biking.

In 1990, I was in the 7th grade, and Dad was in the Navy, stationed aboard the USS Fulton, a submarine tender in New London, CT. This was also the summer of Desert Storm, and shortly after the conflict began Dad's ship was ordered to leave port, presumably to transport weapons to the Middle East. Before crossing the Atlantic, the Fulton stopped in Mayport, Florida. Some of Dad's shipmates were roadies, and even brought their bikes aboard the ship to do some riding in various ports of call. On their first weekend away, Dad's buddies were planning a bike ride and he wanted to join in, so he went to a place that sold bikes, and bought himself something to ride. This had to be one of the most ill-advised bike purchases in history. He went to Ron John's Surf Shop and got a 5 speed beach cruiser in HOT PINK. This bike must have weighed 35 pounds and had big fat tires for plowing through soft sand. The seat was like that of a lawn tractor, and the crank arms were short and stubby. It was truly a machine built for anything but speed. While I can't find a picture that looks just like it, this is pretty close, only imagine it in hot pink.



The ride was to be 100 miles, from Mayport to St. Augustine and back. I'm not sure why, but Dad was totally unphased by the idea of doing this. He was 36 then, and was not in terribly good aerobic shape (sorry Dad, slow pitch softball doesn't count!), and hadn't ridden a bike in a really long time. Smartly, he left 2 hours before his road bike owning friends, and made his way out towards St. Augustine. What I know of what the ride was like for him is very little. I know his friends caught him just outside of the turn around, and they ate lunch together before heading back. In the end, he got about 10 hours in the saddle that day. He said it rained on the way home, and I get the feeling that must have been a miserable last 50 miles for him. I can't imagine riding 100 miles for your first bike ride, much less on a surf cruiser. Truly insane.

When he got home from sea, one of his friends got him an old 1980s Schwinn Le Tour frame at a yard sale for $50. Unfortunately in was in size 52, and Dad is 6'2", but it was a step in the right direction. We got it new wheels and a seat post about 2 feet long and he was in business. He rode it on the weekends for awhile, then when my sister began commuting to college and needed a car, he started riding it to work every day. I think he did this for almost a year, in every season, and lost a ton of weight. His commute was about 14 miles each way, giving him 140 miles per week if he took the weekend off!

That spring, he decided to get me a road bike too. I can remember having no idea what it all meant to ride a really long ways, but being really excited to get a new bike (what kid isn't?!). We picked out the closest thing on the market to the Le Tour at the time, the Schwinn Worldsport, in size 54 (I was about 5'6" then). I remember at the last minute, a friend of ours tried to talk Dad into giving me the Le Tour and getting the Worldsport in a size 60, so he could ride a bike that fit him for once. But, of course, even though I told him it was alright with me, Dad would hear none of it, and I got the new bike. We paid $298 for it, which I know was a lot at the time. It seemed almost ridiculous to pay that much for a bike.



Through the next 3 or 4 summers Dad and I spent a lot of time on our bikes together. We'd do little rides after work, and then on the weekends we'd go big and he'd take me out for 20 or 30 miles (it seemed like a LONG ride then!). Some of my fondest memories are sitting in his slipstream riding down the winding roads of CT. He taught me how and when to shift a bike properly, and all about bike handling and maintenance. The culmination of our riding together happened when I was 15 and we set out to ride a metric century course from our house through Rhode Island and back. We planned for weeks, analyzing the route, doing build-up rides, and figuring out where to stop for lunch and extra Gatorade. Then, we did it. Dad never quite made it the whole way, but fought hard until about 55 miles. Looking back, I bet he had some nutritional problem seeing as we stopped for pepperoni pizza at about the 35 mile mark. I can still see him laying flat on his back on a picnic table by a rest stop, and thinking to myself how I was ever going to get us both home. Fortunately he was able to get back on the bike and ride into town to a gas station, where we used a pay phone to call Mom to come get him (this was pre cell phone days). I rode the last 8 miles alone, and it just wasn't the same.

I'm not sure exactly when or why we stopped riding together. I think it probably coincided with me getting a driver's license or with him getting a new job with a much longer commute, who knows. Either way, the Le Tour and the Worldsport began to gather dust. But for three or four years there, they had a good run together as a link between a father and a son. Had I not gotten back into endurance sports at the encouragement of my wife five years ago, I might never have re-discovered the fun world of cycling that Dad introduced me to back then.

Now, 15 years later, the Le Tour sits neglected in Dad's basement, but with a spirit in it that rises above its frayed shifter cables, rusted chain, and dry rotted tires. The Worldsport was given to a friend of mine when I left home for college, who rode it for a number of years (she's doing Mooseman next month, by the way, so that bike got two would-be triathletes started on their way). I have no idea where it is now. I have new bikes since then, and Dad even got himself another road bike a couple years ago. What I'd really love is to dust off that Le Tour next time I visit my folks, and take it out for a good long ride and just maybe I can convince Dad to come along too.

White Lake Half 2008 Race Report

Official Results: 4:41:49, 17th overall out of ~900, 1st M30-34 out of 68

Pre race stuff: This was a big trip for the DeWire's, seeing as it was my daughter's first trip of more than 20 miles from the house, and her first night in a hotel, not to mention one of my biggest races of the year. I took Friday off work to pack, mostly Elena's stuff. There's no question she had more accessories and luggage than I did. Once we got my packet and checked into Langston's, a lovely resort to say the least (those who know are rolling on the floor laughing), we had an appearance of what can best be described as the "White Lake Monster" (similar to the Loch Ness Monster in that she roars loudly, is terrifying, and only seldom appears, but dissimilar in that she's human and only 10 pounds). We decided it was best that I go to the pasta dinner alone for fear of another appearance. Hmmm...this did not bode well for my night's sleep.

Miraculously, the White Lake Monster was not seen again on this trip, and I had a great night's rest and woke up at 4:30AM ready to race. Here I am just before pulling on my wetsuit for the start. Like the new Sportsplex Tri Club uni's? Sweet, eh?



The Swim: 35:56, 116th OA, 20th in division
Not much to report here. I am still weak at swimming, there's just no getting around it. I continue to give up time to my competitors in chunks of about 5 minutes at this distance. Its perplexing, because I am about 10 seconds faster per 100y this year over last year, and I was over a minute slower. There was a rumor circulating that the course was 3-4 minutes too long, so maybe that's the difference. But in any case, it didn't stop 19 guys in my age group from whipping me, so I'm going to stop being so lazy and start swimming twice a week. I think the warm weather is going to help since I can start swimming open water soon.

The Bike: 2:25:34, 23.1mph, 19th OA, 2nd in division
First, T1. My danged wetsuit is still hard as ever to get out of, but I did it standing up this time. It wasn't pretty, or fast, but I did it without my ass hitting the dirt, so there's an improvement. Also, another first was running barefoot and leaping on my bike with the shoes already in the pedals. I did this like an old pro, thanks to some rubber bands.

Once on the bike, I remembered I heard somebody yell to a guy next to me "16th out of the water." Wow, a lot further back than I had anticipated being (in reality it was 20th), but whatever, it's time to get to work. I rode hard right from the start, and within 5 miles had gotten back about 8-10 AG spots. About this time, I found myself trading off passes with the same 3 guys over and over again. No matter how I surged I couldn't shake them off my wheel. So, after several tries to escape at 26mph for a few minutes, I resigned myself to line up and sit at 10 meters. 2 of the others (both in my AG) played nicely and kept their distance legal, but one guy was wheel sucking the whole time. I later learned he received 3 drafting penalties and was DQ'ed.

Eventually the group broke apart as people sorted out by ability. Even though I let a AG guy go, I kept the pressure on the whole time, and was able to pass a bunch more guys for the rest of the ride, too many to keep straight in my head given the amount of blood that was reaching my brain. I knew I was back in the hunt but wasn't sure where (I knew at least 2nd since a guy got away from me). The only problem I encountered on the course was that the water bottle handoffs were not there. I had planned on taking a bottle at 40 miles, and when it wasn't available I had to tough it out with nothing to drink the last 15 miles. Coming into the 50 mile range I really began to worry about the run. I have been running so well off my bike lately in training, easily putting down 6:20 miles, but I never felt like this before it.

The Run: 1:37:13 (7:25), 27th OA, 2nd in division
If there was one place in this race I really could have done more, it was the run. I had planned on running 6:51 pace right out of T2, and really thought that was being conservative. I had put a 1:30 in my pre-race prediction, but really I was thinking 1:28 might be more like it. Well, none of that happened, and the only things I can blame are the heat and my legs, which were bashed after that bike ride. Coach Becca is already figuring out what to do for this, never fear. Regardless of why, when I went to turn on what is usually my "bread and butter", there was nobody home. I loped through the first lap, and passed the guy who got away on the bike about mile 4. The heat was really getting bad, and I knew the second lap was not going to be fun. I tried to get in as much water and e-caps as possible until my stomach began hurting.

When I saw Becca at the turn around, I said "I'm running too slow. I just don't have it today." Then she said "I think you're doing A LOT better than you think!" That was helpful, since I was mentally falling apart. I knew she was right, I knew from reading people's legs that I was in first, but I just didn't think I could hold it. She even got Elena out and waved her arm at me as I ran past the second time. That kept me positive for a few miles.



At 7 miles a guy with 31 on his leg ripped by me. I had to ask him "first lap or second?" When he told me it was his second, I knew the AG win was gone (I learned after the race that he was an elite I had passed on the bike, he was just passing me back). At the last turnaround, I calculated I had about 1 minute over the next closest guy, probably not enough to hold on for second. Around 3 to go, the wheels really started to come off. I was no longer passing by all the people on their first lap, but was satisfied to run behind them at their pace. I had goosebumps all over and was really starting to feel cold on my arms. By 12 I honestly wasn't sure I was going to finish, as my left arm bgan to cramp up from my fingertips to my neck. Some how I found myself making the final left turn with wide open daylight behind me, and I pushed whatever I had on to the finish. The volunteers grabbed me as I slumped over and started hauling me off to the med tent. I said I was fine, but they knew better, and said they wouldn't let me go until somebody came to get me. Becca was there in a flash to help me down to the water, where I laid for about 10 minutes to cool off, rehydrate, and catch my breath.



I've honestly never felt that bad in any race ever before. It was pure misery from about 2 miles into the run to the finish. Other halfs and even the full ironman were a lot of fun. I just think I got too close to the red line this time, and flirted with nutritional disaster. So, lots to learn from this race, and that's what its all about.

After about 20 minutes, a bottle of gatorade, and a bag of Cheetos, just look at me, I look fantastic!



I got the good news when they posted the results and I saw I got the win. I brought Elena on the podium with me. I think she thought it was really something to see all those poeple looking at her. The prize was a panoramic 3 foot long picture of White Lake emblazoned with "1st place Men 30-34" on the bottom. Its hanging in my garage with my bikes.



So, in the end, even though I was way off my secret prediction of 4:33, I was happy with the result. I was surely disappointed in my run, but I am rationalizing it had something to do with the heat (not just me) since it was good enough for the second best run split out of 68 guys.

I also tried out lots of new gear in this race, so look for upcoming gear reviews on my Sidi T2.6 carbon shoes, Profile Design Carbon X 1.5 aerobars, Rudy Project Syton Supercomp helmet, and my Adamo saddle.

As a side note, lots of poeple from my club had great races on Saturday and Sunday. Congrats to all!

White Lake Half - Quick Recap

Hey, I just wanted to throw up the quick stats on the White Lake Half from yesterday. I'll write a full race report in the coming days. Lots of good stories to tell, so check back in.

Time: 4:41:47 (Swim=~:35, Bike=~2:25, Run =1:37)
Place : 18th overall out of ~900, 6th non-elite finisher
Division Place: 1st out of about 60, M30-34

...more to come!