Columbia Triathlon 2014: Aquabike (minus the Aqua)

 Yesterday morning, I participated in the 31st Columbia Triathlon, winning the Aquabike category.  Since I am restricted from running, I was pleased to discover when I signed up in the fall that they had added Aquabike category (in the past I have always done relays), but that ended up being just the tip of the iceberg as far as changes.  The Columbia Triathlon Association ended up folding, with the race looking like it might even be cancelled until just a few weeks ago the Ulman Cancer Foundation took over the race.  Then a few days before race day, they cancelled the swim for the first time ever for this race due to unsafe water conditions; I gather that the huge amounts of rain created high toxin levels in the water.  This turned the race into a bike/run for most of the participants and just a bike for the Aquabike division.  While that suited my training just fine, like everyone I was a bit sad not to swim.

 Training

As far as race preparation, I have focused almost exclusively on cycling for the past year, including significantly more total miles and more road racing.  Up until about 6 weeks ago, I hadn't been in the pool for a workout since racing last summer.  While the first couple of masters swim practices were painful and slow, I was surprised how quickly I was able to ramp up my swim speed with very little volume.  I was certainly a bit scared going into the race that my ~10 total swim practices were going to leave me hurting, but was also eager to see if I could be within a couple minutes of my previous times.  For the bike portion, I was confident that my higher volume of training would payoff and thought I might even be faster overall for the bike focus.  Of course once the swim was cancelled this seemed like a genius move.

Race Morning/Setup

The forecast for the day was colder than normal for this race at high 40s for the start and low 50s for the race itself.  With a swim, that would normally mean some hand wringing about what to wear on the bike since putting on clothes in transition is slow, especially when wet.  Without a swim, it was easy, just pile on as much as you need ahead of time; I went with a full sleeve skinsuit and leg warmers for full coverage.  The lack of swim also meant a simpler race morning setup.  I woke up, drove over to the race with a small bag containing my helmet, bike pump, shoes and some drinks and was pretty much good to go.  After checking over my bike, pumping up tires, etc, I left the transition area to wait for the race to start.  The plan for the race start was a "time trial" start where competitors ran two at a time from what would have been the swim exit to transition and then started the bike.  I cleverly decided that rather than sit around for an hour in my bike gear, I would wear light pants and a jacket and put them in a bag right before starting.  I then ran in with my bag held like a football, put it down in transition, grabbed my bike and went.

 T1: 100m dash

Perhaps for everyone else it was a "dash".  For me, given my injury history, and the fact that I was running in my cycling shoes, it was a very light jog.  I'm not sure how often I'll get to run with an aero helmet, cycling shoes and a bag of clothes, but it went off without a hitch.  I had intentionally lined up as the last person in my wave, hoping to get a better idea of where my fellow competitors were as I hopefully passed them.

 Bike Leg

In a normal race, this is the point at which I complain about how hard it is to do a flying mount, get my feet into shoes while riding, get over feeling crappy from finishing this swim, etc.  None of that applied here.  This was just a bike ride.  The only struggle was that for some reason my power meter wasn't picking up, so I was going to have to pace myself without (which is fine) and frustratingly not be able to look back at the numbers later.

I had relatively high hopes for doing a fast time.  I was in good bike shape and I didn't swim right before, so I figured I should do a best time (my previous best was about 1:02).  As my home course, I am very familiar with the ride and generally divide the course into roughly equal thirds.  There is a slightly net uphill starting third, a "lollipop" loop third and then the finishing slightly net downhill return third that reverses the first third.  My PR for the lollipop is ~20 minutes and the return third is also ~20 minutes.  The first third felt a bit slow; the forecast had there being a head wind for that section and it felt that way.  I got to the lollipop in 21:46, which was a minute or two slower than I was hoping for, but I thought with a good lollipop section and hopefully a tail wind on the return I might still break 1:02.  The lollipop section went ok, but also not as fast as I was hoping at 20:38; my legs didn't really have much "pop" and even though it is a loop I don't remember having a tail wind.  Still, I was vaguely hoping that if there was a whipping tail wind on the way back I had a chance.  I could tell that wasn't going to happen when going down the usually fast section the wind didn't seem to be helping much.  Looking at the post race weather, it seems to have picked up a bit and changed directions to more of a cross wind for the return leg instead of a tail wind.  I still tried to give it my all and ended up doing the last section in 20:09, for a total time of just over 1:02:33 by my watch.

When I got back to transition, it was empty of bikes in my section, making it pretty clear that I had won.  The relay teams were racked in the same area, so I actually ended up chatting with my former running teammate from the 2013 HalfFull relay that we won.  

Post Race

After finishing up, I met up with my family and we went over to the finish line to return my timing chip, collect a finisher medal and collect some food for my kids.  They had a nice time eating chips and cookies courtesy of the race organizers and we considered waiting for the awards. 

Who so Blue?

After the race, I had a bit of the blues, which seems strange for a race that I won.  Friends I saw later asked how the race went, and I basically told them "Fine".  I wasn't sure why I felt off, but I have some theories.  Certainly not swimming was a bit sad.  This was also the first year at Columbia where I didn't improve on my previous times.  I think I had setup expectations for myself that I would be faster.  I can look back and make some plausible excuses.  The conditions were cold, windy, with a non-favorable change in wind direction.  The nerd in me can calculate that higher air density in the cold  plus the wind slow you down by a couple of minutes vs. favorable conditions in a time trial.  Still, those feel like lame excuses.  Perhaps if my power meter had been working I would be able to get some satisfaction in achieving my target power numbers, but because it didn't work I have no idea.  In most races, you can say you just race the conditions of the day and try to beat whoever shows up, but realistically in this race the other racers in my division were not serious cyclists, so I was just racing the clock and my own goals.  Guess its time to move on and get some new goals...

Carl Dolan 2014

Today was the 21st Annual Carl Dolan Memorial/Howard County Library Spring Classic where I raced twice; once in the Cat 5 race at 8:45am and then again in the combined Cat 4/5 race at 2:15pm.  I ended up getting 7th place in the Cat 5 race and 1st place in the Cat 4/5 race.

Cat 5 (Strava)

I sorted out the issues I had with my bike mounted camera, so I have footage from both races.

The Cat 5 race was largely uneventful for the first 8 of 9 laps.  While I figured I probably had a shot in a mass sprint finish, I wanted to see if I could win on a solo flyer on the last lap and decided I would give that a try in this race and try my hand at the sprint in the afternoon race.  So I positioned myself to take off soon after crossing the finish line starting the final lap.  I jumped hard and got a nice gap with no one on my wheel.  I then worked to try to keep a strong steady effort, periodically checking behind to see how the chase was going.  My hope was that the field might be a bit slow to react and that if I could put in one good fast lap that might be enough.  Unfortunately, that was not going to happen.  A couple short minutes in to my break, I get caught by two guys right at the corner before the long finishing straight.  I was told later that at least a couple riders in the field recognized me from a previous race and pushed the pace to chase me down.  As I got joined, I managed to hang on to the two guys passing me.  At that point I was figuring I was done, I had spent a big effort trying a break.  I wasn't quite going to give up though and managed to hang on to a few other wheels as our group of three got passed and even found myself in third place with about 100 meters to go.  I started to try to make an effort to go by and then gave up as I saw we were being passed on both sides.  I ended up in 7th place and a bit frustrated.  I knew that a solo break had a low chance of success, but still was a little disappointed.  One positive was that my wife and kids came to the race and managed to take a few photos:

Cat 4/5 (Strava)

After going home, resting a bit, having lunch and watching my 9 yr old's soccer game, I returned to race in the afternoon.  I was excited to have two teammates doing the same afternoon race, Shannon and Ryan.  By the afternoon the wind had picked up quite a lot, with a strong head wind right into the finishing straight.  We discussed strategy a little, mostly concluding that breaks didn't seem to be working that day and that we were likely to end up in a mass sprint finish.

Ryan and Shannon after the race

The race proceeded mostly as expected, with things bogging down heavily on each lap as we headed into the wind on the finishing straight.  On a couple of laps it seemed like we were crawling along at 10 mph and barely working because no one wanted to be in front working while heading into the wind.  It may have been this, or some other aspect of the race that I didn't quite pick up on, but we seemed to keep getting splinter groups of 5-10 riders going off the front.  None of those groups really seemed to be working that hard and most of the time we pulled them back without any effort from me or my teammates.  

By lap 9 of 10, there was a group of about 8-10 that seemed to have a gap bigger than I was comfortable with.  My teammates and a few other teams worked together to start trying to bring the gap down.  At about the halfway point, right as I was about to take my turn at the front and pull, my teammate Ryan comes by hard and says "Joe, lets go!".  Ryan and I managed to bridge up to the front group right after the one turn, right before the finishing straight.  I was a bit surprised that no one else in our chase came with us; apparently we accidentally caught Shannon a bit out after he had just finished a pull at the front.  

As we passed the finish line for the final lap, I peeled off a bit to check out our group and confirmed that we had a nice gap that we should be able to hold and the rough size of the group.  This was a lesson I learned from a race last weekend where I wasn't nearly as aware of a breakaway size and how big a gap the group had and ended up working too hard.  After checking things out, I urged our group to work together, took a pull or two and then tried to sit in the back and rest a bit.  By the final corner, I was happy to find myself at the back of the pack right behind Ryan who I was telling to be "patient".  From my experience in the earlier race and previous years at this race, I knew it was very easy to go hard to early, blow up and get passed before the finish.  As we started up the finishing straight, it seemed slower than I thought we would go; I assume that no one wanted to be the one pulling into the wind.  As we got to about 250 meters, I remembered the advice of a willy old road racer who told me that when the group slows down, you should go.  So I jumped as hard as I could at 250 meters, got a pretty quick gap and was a bit stunned to find myself alone.  I wasn't 100% sure there wasn't someone with me, so I pushed hard to the finish and came across first.  My teammate Ryan took fourth overall and was the 2nd Cat 5 racer (the two races were scored separately).  As we were doing a cool down lap, we came across the bad news of the day, seeing a few riders getting cleaned up after crashing and realized that our teammate Shannon had been involved in the crash.  As crashes go, this one didn't seem terrible, but it is never fun to hit pavement and Shannon came away with some fresh battle wounds.

For some reason my camera split the race into two files which I didn't bother to join when I uploaded them.  The second video conveniently captures most of the last lap, which was the most interesting part.

Edits:

Looks like a fellow racer caught some good footage of the end of the Cat 5 race:

http://youtu.be/lEBSHOveOmY?t=4m

Black Hill Circuit Race 2014

Sunday morning I did two races at the Black Hill Circuit race, finishing 1st in the Cat 5 race and 6th in the Cat 4/5 race.  The course is a simple 1.4 mile loop crit, with one shortish climb per lap that also serves as the finish line about 3/4 of the way up the climb.  The weather was not horrible, but certainly not ideal, around 40 degrees with a bit of wind.  At least all the snow was gone and the course was clean of debris and pothole free.

After registration and a bit of warm-up doing a couple reverse laps of the course, I made my way to the starting area for the Cat 5 race at 9:30 and lined up near the back of the group, figuring there would be plenty of time to work my way up in the field.  The race starts off with the one hill, which we took at a relatively relaxed pace.  I was planning on trying to mostly "sit in" for this race, but grew a bit impatient with what seemed like a slowish pace and a twitchy pack.  By the end of the first lap as we climbed the hill again, I had worked to the front and there seemed to be a small group of about six that had a little gap.  I went to the front, took a longish pull, and tried to encourage the group to work together, thinking that a break of six had a good chance to stay away in the short 10 mile race.  Sadly, that was not to be as the rest of the group wasn't working together and we were quickly re-caught toward the end of the next lap.  On the very next time up the hill, me and one of the other guys from the six got a pretty good gap and went for it.  He and I worked quite well together for the next two laps, although I had to wait for him a little on the climb and encourage him to keep at it.  The next time up the hill (4th overall?) I told him I would just do a steady tempo and to try to hold on.  By mid hill, he was struggling and one other rider (a young guy) had bridged across, so I ended up with a new teammate.  The new young guy also managed to work well with me over the next couple of laps, and by the bell lap the crowd was telling us we had a gap that would stick.  On the final downhill approaching the finishing climb I let my new friend lead me out and at 200 meters I gave it everything I had, came around him with a quick gap and held it to the finish.  The rest of the field was probably about 15-20 second back at the end.

The first race was short, only 10 miles and about 25 minutes, but I had been in a two man break for the majority of the race and was definitely feeling it a bit.  The second race wasn't going to start for about another hour and a half, so I had time to kill.  Apart from trying to avoid the cold (I was getting really chilly), the one funny thing that happened was that the Cat 5 preliminary results came out and I wasn't on the result at all.  I ended up having to go protest at the finish line, where they all agreed that I had clearly one and were mystified as to why I wasn't on the result and quickly rectified the situation.

The Cat 4/5 race was notably less eventful for me.  I stayed with my plan to sit in the pack.  In fact, I was so far back initially that I didn't even realize that there was a break (I gather one guy) or how many people were in the break.  By the time I had worked my way toward the front, we were 30 second down and the group was working pretty poorly at bringing the break back.  I tried a few times to do some pulls at the front, even ending up solo in no mans land for 1/4 lap or so before giving up on bridging and going back to hiding.  By the final lap it was clear the break had it, so I was just trying to get in the front group of a dozen or so for the sprint.  I didn't end up positions great, getting slightly boxed in on the sprint, but was able to pass a number of fading guys to end up in really close for 5th/6th, just getting clipped by a nose at the line.  After the race, some guys were discussing that the winner was a super strong cyclocross guy just getting into road who went solo and had some teammates doing a good job "blocking" at the front of the pack as he got away.

Overall a fun day of racing and really cool to actually be part of a winning break.  And also importantly getting a couple more starts in my journey out of being Cat 5 (races 4 and 5, so just 5 more to go).

Photos, Video?

While I had my camera on my bike, something seems to have gone wrong (battery not charged?), so I have no cool media of my own.  On the plus side, technology abounds and plenty of other people had cameras and video.  I can't use these photos without paying, but there are some really nice still shots at Wheeltastic Photo.

The guy who started the break in the Cat 5 race had a camera and forwarded me his video on youtube.  Given that we were in a two man break for a couple laps, he naturally has a lot of footage of my butt.  We start trying to go hard with the small group I mentioned at about 5 minute mark, start our two man break the next lap at about 8 minutes in and are together till about the 16 minute mark when you can see I join up with the guy who bridged.

http://youtu.be/5mjq2ahhSK0?t=5m

I also found this link from the Cat 4/5 race showing the final lap and giving a pretty good shot of how I handled (or mis-handled) the sprint as the cameraman seemed to be mostly following me near the end.

http://vimeo.com/89879010

Time Trial or Triathlon Wheels

A number of friends have asked me at various times to make wheel recommendations or explain some of what I know about wheels.  I thought it was worth writing a little blog post to explain my perspective.  I'm only an "expert" from the standpoint that I've spent a significant amount of time researching and collecting what others have written, but that sort of collecting of information can still prove useful. So here goes...

First Things First

Apart from looking cool, the reason people buy high end wheels is to go faster.  It is worth noting that an expensive set of wheels may be one of the worst bangs-for-the-buck that you can do to get faster when doing individual events like a TT or triathlon bike leg.  It is a bit of a false dichotomy to say don't get race wheels until you do "X", because you can of course get race wheels and do "X" and get faster than just doing "X".  If you are resource constrained and want to know where to focus your time/energy/money first, other things make more sense.  You can Google various bang for the buck aerodynamic pages, but my rough breakdown is:

1. Position matters most: low, narrow and compact in front is generally going to be best (although not for everyone).  Having a good fitter and/or playing with your position with a camera available helps.
2. Clothes.  Even if you are in a skinsuit or trisuit, there can be a big difference between brands.
3. Fast tires (low Crr) and latex tubes.
4. Aero helmet.  Needs to fit well with your position.
5. Declutter: Don't have a million things hanging off your bike.  Hide your cabling.
6. Wheels: not great bang for the buck, but definitely helpful.  
7. Frame: not easily (or cheaply) changed, but modern super bikes can help drop some drag

"Free Speed"

Some people refer to things like race wheels as "free speed", which others may find ironic based on price tags of >$2500 for "free speed".  My perspective is that good up-front investment really does make these close to "free" compared to my primary cycling performance investment, my time.  In particular, a good set of wheels is a non-recurring effort investment that holds some of its value (resale) and pays off in a faster time in every race where I use them.  My training in contrast requires continual up keep and investment.  If I want to be 1 mph faster in a TT, I might need to invest an extra 2-4 hours a week training.  If I stop training for a little while, that investment goes away and I need to start over again.  In comparison, the wheels start to seem like a bargain and start to seem almost "free".  Of course, you don't need to spend $2500 for wheels to get a lot faster, there are some options that cost far below that and will get you 99% of the same benefit.

What Matters for Wheels

As far as a set of TT/Tri race wheels go, here is a pretty complete list of what properties about the wheels might matter to you when selecting wheels. 

1. Aerodynamics: How much drag do you save?
2. Handling: Is it scary in the wind?
3. Braking: Can I still stop on a dime?
4. Maintainability: Is changing the tire a pain?
5. Durability: Will they break when I go over a bump?
6. Tire choice: Can I find fast/cheap tires?
7. Cost/resale/availability: How much $, can I resell, can I actually find what I want?
8. Weight: For TT/Tri this doesn't matter, but lightweight gives some roadie cred.
9. Looks: Almost all look cool, some look super cool.

The thing that makes wheel selection a complex problem is that different people are going to weight the importance of each of the above factors differently and different wheels may meet different parts of those goals.   For example, lets look at a few different wheel design properties.

Wide vs. narrow

One of the recent trends in wheel design is wider "U-shaped" rims as opposed to older "V-shaped" narrow rims.  You can go read the marketing for Zipp's Firecrest design or Hed's SCT to see what the claimed advantages are, but they largely boil down to better handling and better aerodynamics with wider tires (e.g. Conti GP4000s 23mm).  From the consumer's perspective, the downside is that these are still the new hot thing and thus come at a cost premium.  The older designs are not much slower with the right tires and can be had at a significant bargain.

Deep vs. shallow

Deeper rim wheels, all other things equal, are faster.  Deeper rim wheels, all other things equal, are less stable and harder to handle in crosswinds.  There is also significantly diminishing returns as wheels get deeper.  The difference between a Hed6 and a Hed9 or a Zipp 404 and Zipp 808 are there, but they are quite small.  Ironically, it is often in higher yaw (e.g. higher crosswind) situations where the deeper wheels are faster, which are exactly the conditions in which they are more sketchy.  Whether this matters is very dependent on an individual rider and their comfort with different riding situations.  I found that my Hed trispokes were just fine for me in quite windy conditions even though they are known as pretty twitchy wheels.  One thing you can do to make this easier is to always use a deeper wheel in back (e.g. a disc) than front.  That may be counter-intuitive, but it actually provides more stable handling.  An Hed9+disc will be both faster and more stable than a pair of Hed9s.  A Hed6/9 will be more stable than a pair of Hed9s.  If you are on the more uncomfortable side, investing in the more recent "wide" rims discussed above may be worth the extra money.

Carbon vs. aluminum rim

This is one of those places that Zipp and Hed for example made different decisions.  Your main Zipp race wheels are structural carbon with carbon rims.  Hed's clincher offering is a carbon fairing over an aluminum rim (their tubular is all carbon).  The carbon has some advantages in terms of weight and perhaps bling (both of which we mentioned doesn't actually matter for TT/Tri), otherwise it is a bit annoying.  It requires special brake pads, so if you swap wheels you have to swap pads.  While manufacturers have worked hard on improving the braking for carbon rims, they still don't behave as nicely and reliably as aluminum.  I personally have ridden carbon rims (and plan to ride them on my road bike), so I wouldn't be scared off by a good deal on wheels with a carbon rim, but prefer the aluminum Hed type of design.

Tubular vs. clincher

There are long standing debates about the relative merits of tubular vs clincher wheels, but I think it is fairly clear that clinchers have won.  Clinchers are far easier to deal with; a flat can be changed with a simple tube instead of gluing an entire new tire ($$$).  Tubulars are generally lighter, but I'll reiterate that doesn't matter.  They are aerodynamically equivalent and you can find equally fast tires for both, in fact finding good clincher tires is generally a bit easier and cheaper.  With tubulars you have to be careful that you buy one with latex tubes which manufacturers often don't make easy to decode.  Sounds like that makes this an easy decision, right?  Well, not exactly.  If you are a bargain hunter and are willing to put up with the trouble, you can find some really good deals on very fast tubular wheels.

Wheel cover vs. disc

Disc wheels are fast and can actually improve stability, so you should probably be using a disc.  However, they are pretty expensive, running as much as $1500 new, which seems like a lot for a wheel that you are unlikely to ride other than at races (lots of people are willing to rock their deep wheels all the time, but for some reason many fewer ride a disc all the time).  It turns out that you can buy a wheel cover for under $100 that will turn your training wheel into a disc.  A wheel covered wheel is aerodynamically pretty much equivalent to a "real" disc.  So why would you not do that?  It comes at the cost of some minor maintainability annoyance compared to a disc wheel.  The wheel cover needs to be installed carefully and if you want to take it on and off, you need to do that with some care.  If you are the type of person who does your own wrenching on your bike, this is not a problem.  If you have a shop do everything for you, this may be less appealing.  Especially because that $1500 new price tag can be more like <$500 for a lightly used disc.  At that point you are talking about a <$400 premium for ease of use and something that you may later be able to resell and the issue is less clear.

My Key Recommendations

1. Weight doesn't matter.
2. Always use a disc rear unless the rules prohibit it (e.g. Kona).  A disc cover is similar aerodynamically to a "real" disc and is cheap.  Even "real" discs can be had for <$500.
3. Go deep in front as long as you have a deeper rear (e.g. a disc).  A deeper rear wheel will be more stable and handle more reliably.
4. Match tire choice to your wheels.  Narrow wheels need narrow tires.  Make sure you can find fast tires/tubes for your choice of wheels.  No point getting aero wheels and throwing away the advantages with butyl tubes and high Crr tires.
5. Go used over new. Tubular are annoying, but are cheap used and can be good bang for the buck.

Example "Good" Choices

• Budget constrained: Existing rear wheel with a wheel cover + a used deep front. Something like a Jet6/9 or Zipp 404/808 or H3 can be had relatively cheaply and provide good value.  Getting a previous generation (e.g. non Firecrest Zipp's or the non SCT Jets) can easily make this a sub $500 setup that will be close to as fast as a the best possible expensive setup.  I don't have experience dealing with a disc cover myself, but there seem to be both positive and negative experiences.
• Best in class aero: Hed Jet9 front, Hed Jet Disc rear.  ~$1500 used.  Aerodynamically top notch, durable, clincher, alu brake track.  Note that a Zipp FC 808 front and Zipp disc are aerodynamically similar, with the main difference being carbon brake track.
• Budget constrained new: Flo90+Flo disc.  ~$1100 if you can get in on one of their orders.  I don't have personal experience with them, but their story seems good.  
• Kona bound: Jet6 front/Jet9 rear or Zipp 404 front/Zip 808 rear + wheel cover.  Race all the non-Kona races with your disc cover and use the wheels without the cover at Kona.  Of course you could also just buy multiple sets of wheels :)
• Totally tubular: Lots of great used options if tubular doesn't bother you.  I'm selling my own H3 front+disc for almost nothing and they are as fast as you will find.  On the slowtwitch classifieds forum, tubular wheels (e.g. Zipp 808s) regularly languish waiting for offers while equivalent clincher's get snatched up almost instantly.

What do I Own

I currently have a 2012 Jet9/Jet disc that I purchased used and am very happy with their performance.  They are very fast, stable in the wind, seem durable and have been very easy to use (e.g. clincher with aluminum rims).  I feel like they are compromise free wheels apart from cost.  My first set of race wheels was a pair of Hed3 carbon tubulars.  They are really cool and fast wheels (I love the way they look), but they definitely had more compromises than my current wheels.  I had to learn how to glue tubulars and worry about changing a tubular during a race (which fortunately never happened to me and can be helped by pre-treating with sealant).  The carbon brake surface required special brake pads and while fine is not as good as alu.  They also felt noticeably different than shallow rims in the wind; I found that they were predictable but took a little getting used to.  My "second" set of wheels was when I bought a rear tubular disc to use instead of the H3 rear.  That was a very incremental improvement; a disc is slightly faster than the H3 rear, and it improves the overall handling a bit.  On the plus side, these wheels were much less expensive than my current wheels and just as fast.  An H3+disc is typically the choice of guys like Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, while the Jet9/Jet disc is typically used by the likes of Tony Martin, so clearly either set is pretty fast!