Here’s a tip: Your Trek TTX uses a mighty long rear derailleur cable. At least mine did.

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.

See that thing that looks like a single serve pizza in the middle of my wheel? It’s a 27 cog and mine is part of a Shimano 10 speed 12 X 27 cassette which replaced the 12 X 25 I’ve ridden for years. While Laura Tingle finds it so hard having enormous hair, I love having an enormous cog.

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.

18 years of triathlon had convinced me that I didn’t like swimming. Every touch of the pool wall represented an opportunity to stop and go home to me. I seized many. Maybe if I did all my running on an indoor, dimly lit, 50 yard track I wouldn’t like running either.

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.

The Eagleman ½ IM, excuse me, 70.3, is one of my favorite races. It’s fast – the bike and run course profiles are the same as the swim’s… flat, and it’s fun – gets a big field with big name pros. You’ve probably heard that Natasha Badmann set a world record for the 70.3 distance but you may have missed her calling out cheaters (a.k.a. drafters) in her award acceptance. Now, that’s not your usual dull post race chit chat and always a crowd pleaser away from the ITU events. No names were mentioned, but I think it’s a safe bet that she wasn’t talking about the amateurs who were all riding behind her or the male pros riding ahead of her. You can check which suspects got out of the swim ahead of Natasha here.

I had my “usual” race; slow swim, pretty good bike leaving me behind an unknown number of fellow M50-54 starting off on the run. I like my age group. People in it introduce themselves to one another when we meet during the race. I passed a few people in my AG and chatted, but it wasn’t clear to me how many others in my AG were ahead of me. And since ours was one of the last male waves to start, the run course was crowded. I finished in 4:30 and the results said I was 1st in the M50-54 AG.

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

Last time I reviewed what blueseventy’s Ben Bigglestone said about wetsuits at the Timex team meeting. This time the blog is about bikes. Dean Gore and Scott Daubert of Trek showed up to talk about their bikes, specifically the TTX. The new TTX is suppose to be faster than the model that Lance rode in the TDF, but since none of us are racing Lance, (and Trek would probably give him the new model anyway) I’ll share their tips that will help against the amateurs most of us race.

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.