I concluded recently that there is a lot of hope being sold in the cycling business when I abandoned some of mine. I have come to terms with the fact that I will never need the top gear (53 x 11) spec-ed on my Trek Equinox TTX. And, unless their nickname is “colossal quads”, I question how many triathletes really need this intra planetary, over-drive, 126.6 inch top gear. ( See Sheldon Brown’s Gear Calculator for an explanation of gear inches.) There are no sprint bonuses in the Ironman and there is that activity called the run which usually follows the biking portion of the race.

Wouldn’t most triathletes be better served giving up the 11 cog and adding a easier granny or bailout gear? I think so and did last year when I added the largest cog that Shimano makes for a 10 speed (a 12 X 27) just before Ironman Wisconsin. (It’s So Easy Having An Enormous Cog) But is that the best way? I don’t think it is.

Compact cranks, which have smaller chain rings (e.g. 50/34) and a smaller spider hole pattern (110mm versus 130mm) offer another way to get some easier gears by giving up a hard one. There is an excellent analysis of the gearing options available with a compact in this Slowtwitch article.

To summarize, a 53/39 chain ring with a 12×27 cassette provides about the same gearing as a compact crank with a 50/34 with an 11×23 cassette. The compact gives you a slightly taller top gear, you can think of it as a 53 chain ring with an 11 2/3 cog if it makes you feel better, and the basically same size granny gear. The gear spacing with the 11×23 + compact crank is more even than spacing with a 12×27 and, all things being equal, it will be a little lighter.

By themselves these small advantages probably aren’t enough to justify buying a compact cranks . So how come I own a new one? Because I can see the day coming when I’ll need BOTH compact cranks AND a large cog. Despite it’s real world advantages, I don’t expect to see compact cranks spec-ed on the TTX any time soon; reality doesn’t sell.

A secondary benefit of the seniors’ wave is an empty bike course. The pros are long gone and I biked alone with no one in sight for much of the course. I pretended I was Wolfgang Dietrich, the man who has spent more time in the lead of the Hawaii Ironman than any other, but never at the end. We have that in common. I was passed by a few of the young guys from later waves, but I was the first one to ‘represent’ the seniors’ wave when I started the run.

You know what’s important to have as you age into the seniors’ wave? Younger friends and training partners. And someone who is both, John Wilson, was racing behind me, having started in a wave later mine. Since he’s a good friend, I really didn’t want him to catch me on the run, as in, “I’m here with you but I’m really 10 minutes ahead of you”. Ouch! It was hot on the run, my heart rate was right where I wanted it and I still couldn’t read my watch; so I thought I was smoking the run. I wasn’t but neither was anyone else.

I won the M55-59 age group and guess who won the M50-54? Check out the photo! The winner is my friend and training partner John Wilson who I was intent on avoiding on the course. If you don’t know us, guess who’s 50 and who’s 55. HA! It’s hard for spectators too, who say “way to go, first gray-haired fininsher!”. I know, the lighting is bad in the photo, there’s a row of port-a-potties in the background and we appear to be holding chicken heads. But imagine what it would be like for you to win your AG and have the person you spend more training time with than anyone else also win. Well, it’s cooler than that and I realized that all this getting older and slower isn’t all that bad.

Eagleman Tip:

If you’re driving north after the race and crave a cheeseburger and fries, here’s the spot, in Bear DE. The Charcoal Pit. 10 oz. of angus beef, fries,and yep, we ordered fried onion rings too.

Ouch! This spring I spent the week before the Ford Ironman 70.3 California on vacation in the Virgin Islands working on my tan. I was brown when I toed the race’s starting line, but wondered if I’d feel the effects of spending 7 nights on an island where rum is cheaper than tonic. I was not to find out.

The swim wasn’t as cold as I’d expected, and I’ll give a shameless plug for team sponsor Blueseventy’s neoprene skull cap, these things work. Hey, how about this action shot?
And check out the guns and the tan as I’m justing starting the bike portion of the race.

And here’s a picture of my bike after 10 minutes of biking.
Crash! Not only did I bust the bike, bend a race wheel and DNF, all for the first time, but I left some vacation tan on the road. Ouch indeed.

The inside is classic dinner, red vinyl swivel stools bolted to the floor and booths, straight out of the early 1950’s. They even have the original 50’s menu and prices posted on the wall. The four of us had the breakfast special, cheese omelet, potatoes, toast, bottomless coffee. You could have a pork chop with it; but since I was racing, I had bacon. Only at Mickey’s could bacon seem to be the healthier option. There’s more than breakfast, the food is real and the people are mid-west nice. It’s a must do.

Ironman Wisconsin tip #2: drink local beer. Pre -race , I had a couple of Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfests

each night (1 1/2 beers night before the race, trying to be healthy). It’s available Aug. - Oct., and in a 12-pack - good for sharing- so look for it race week. I laid in a supply of Capital Brewery’s Fest , another seasonal beer, for post race at the recommendation of team manager Ben Harper. After 140.6 miles and 3 Fests, I was moving slower than Frank Ferrar at midnight, and my day was done. Ben, I need some 3.2% beer suggestions if you want me to throw out hats at the finish. Day after the race and awards, I re-hydrated with more than one New Glarus Brewery’s Fat Squiral and a white brat at a bar on State St. I saw during the run the day before.

Where else but Wisconsin? No place I know.

I installed new cables in my bike in preparation for IM Wisconsin. It seemed like a good idea after watching (from 4 bike lengths behind, of course) my training partner, John Wilson, big ring it all the way back from Hawi in last year’s Ironman after he notice his front derailleur cable had frayed almost to the point of breaking.

Replacing the front cable is easy, just thread it through starting at the shifter. I removed the metal plate just below the front derailleur, but you don’t have to. There is a pocket behing the plate and the cable housing tucks in there, pretty neat, so the cable end pops out of the hole.

I tried the same thing on the rear derailleur cable but no shiny cable came out of the housing. I thought I’d miss-threaded. Then I saw just the tip of the cable sticking out; the housing was just as long as the cable, and this was a 2000 mm length cable. I solved the problem by cutting off 2″ of housing near the rear derailleur, it looked as if I had enough extra slack. You can see that the one derailleur housing in the picture is shorter…it’s all one piece, just push it through until there is enough coming out of the rear chain stay for a nice smooth loop behind the rear derailleur.

I ride a size small TTX, if you’re on a large, check with the mechanics, I don’t know if a 2000 mm cable will reach. Now if I could only figure out how to drop my fork out, I could change the housing. I’ll check in with Doug, the team wrench, at the race site.

Western CT where I ride is hilly, but I didn’t get one because I was “paper-boying” up the hills here with a 25 cog. I got it because I run better after spinning up those hills with a 27 versus dancing on the peddles with a more manly gear. The jump between gears isn’t as great as I thought it would be, as this gear chart shows.

I’m swallowing my pride and packing up this super granny cassette for Ironman Wisconsin. Last time I raced there, a spectator dressed up as the devil taunted riders struggling up Stagecoach Rd with bacon stuck on the end of a pitchfork. This year I plan to be smiling when I pass him.

I’ve blown off the pool for the month of August. I don’t claim this will make me a faster swimmer, or live longer, but I sure like swimming more. I’ve gone all open water, all wetsuit, all the time - no intervals, no drills, no turns.

I’m lucky, my training partner has access to a lake and 3X a week we’ve been hitting it for 65-75 minutes. That’s an eternity for me in a pool. Check this out. That was taken on a Sunday morning about 6:50 AM and I was looking forward to swimming because it would be fun. I haven’t thought that since summer camp.

Perhaps it’s the same type of fun Conrad gets from riding a single speed, simplicity. I enjoy it when the weather is nice because it’s a beautiful place and I enjoy it when the weather is bad because I’m encased in neoprene so it’s more comfy than biking in the rain.
Recently, I added adventure to open water swimming in the form of a few jellyfish and a lot of fog with a 2.5 miles point to point swim in Long Island sound from Stamford CT to Todd’s Point Beach in Greenwich CT. Reveille was 5 AM, car drop off at the beach was 6 AM and tide and fog made it a longgg swim. We weren’t going to take the short cut across the cove when we couldn’t see the other side. I don’t swim straight even when I can see where I’m going.

Here’s the start. We thought the fog would lift.

And here’s the finish with our leader, 70+ year old John Cook. He’s managed to keep swimming fun.

Whoo Hoo turned into Boo Hoo when I found out that 52 year old Herb Spicer had turned in a 4:12 and was listed as the 3rd place master (that’s 40+) somehow bumping him out of the age group results. Amazing time for a guy who has been getting mailings from AARP for 3 years.
Bob Vigorito, a first rate race director, gave Herb the award for 3rd place master and me the award for 1st place M50-54. I felt like I had been part of a tomb looting. While I had the trophy, it sure didn’t belong to me. So I gave it to Herb…damn, he is fast and perhaps Natasha wasn’t the only one to set a world record. That’s what I’m telling myself.

Oakes Ames

Here’s a time saving tip. Next time you see a forum thread on Slowtwitch asking, “Should I ride my road bike or tri-bike in such and such triathlon?” just skip it. The answer is always ride the tri-bike. The position benefit of the tri-bike trumps the weight penalty versus the road bike for every real world triathlon bike leg. The guys from Trek had modeled the first part of the Ironman Wisconsin course to show why. Only when someone creates a triathlon with a one way, mountain top bike leg finish should you re-address this issue.

Want to cut time off your bike split for free? Their next tip was to carry a water bottle on the down tube.Tests in the wind tunnel showed carrying a bottle here reduced drag versus a bare frame. By the way, this was the second time I’ve heard this; John Cobb found the same thing in his wind tunnel tests. Take the advice and carry your spare tube, tire levers and CO2 cartridge in the bottle and ditch your seat bag. Bontrager is suppose to have some cool aero water bottles, but the only place I’ve seen them is in a picture of Karen Smyer’s bike.

The last tip I remember was about tri-bike handling. When Trek was redesigned the TTX the feedback they got from their pro riders was a short stem handled better on the downhills. The jumps between sizes on the TTX are pretty big so if you are between sizes, you might be best served going with the larger size. I asked the Trek guys if there was a stem size that they wouldn’t recommend and that said they offered stems between 7 and 13 cm and all would work but…shorter seems better.
Those are the sponsor’s tips. And when I hear a good pro tip, I’ll post it.

Take wetsuits, for example. Sure, we’ve all heard that Vaseline petroleum jelly is bad for wetsuits, but is the damage to the suit worse than the damage to your neck from a wetsuit hickey, and if so how bad is it? And how about swimming in chlorinated pools with wetsuits? How much will knowledge about my 1000-yard wetsuit aided time cost me in terms of wetsuit wear? According to blueseventy’s Ben Bigglestone both Vaseline and chlorine will degrade the stitching of your wetsuit. But if you’re a pro and get a new one every year, what the heck do you care? Apparently, neither eats away like acid so base your behavior on how long you want to keep your suit.

How about Pam non-stick cooking spray? OK, according to Ben, except that it makes you smell like “chips”. That’s across the pond talk for french fries.

But the big question everyone wants answered is, what about peeing in your wetsuit? Will this shorten wetsuit life and friendships? Ben says you can use your wetsuit like your own private port-a-potty with no worries, enough water gets in the suit during the swim that there is no harm and no one will ever know.

The Timex pros are also a great source of tips. Ever had trouble pulling the ankles and wrists of a wetsuit up high enough for a snug fit? You should, it takes time to put a suit on right. Timex pro Blake Becker said he puts his suit on starting with it inside out. I had to see it to believe it. It works.

Encourage Blake to post pictures or video of this tip. There is no way I’m posing in a Speedo for pictures on the Internet!

Next time I’ll post what I heard about the Equinox TTX from the man know as “Lance’s bitch” at Trek. It’s not on their web site!