Zipp 606 Wheelset and Vuka Bull and Aero Bars

Having already posted a very amateur review of the Cyfac Mythique I thought that I would follow up by posting some pictures and comments on the Zipp equipment we were given.

Before I show you the 606 wheelset and Vuka ‘tri porn’ I wanted to just make a quick comment on how struck I have been by the similarities between newborn babies and triathletes. Here are some of the similarities I have noticed but I am sure there are many more:

• Weight: Triathletes food/calorie intake is monitored to reduce weight. Babies food/calorie intake is monitored to increase weight.

• Outfits: Both get through a lot of laundry. Triathletes change clothing regularly as they get wet swimming and sweating. Babies change outfits regularly as they get wet.

• Sleep: Both need a lot of sleep. Triathletes need their sleep to recover and babies need their sleep to grow. I know I look terrible in the picture but at that stage I would have given my eye teeth to swap places with Ben.

• Gear: Both need to travel with a lot of gear. Triathletes have bikes, nutrition, butt butter and bike pumps. Babies have buggies, nutrition, butt paste and breast pumps.

• Wind: Triathletes live on a lot of GU and Carb supplements which are designed to be digested quickly which in turn generates a lot of wind. Babies it goes without saying.

• Rashes: Triathletes nipple. Babies nappy (please note that this is not a picture of Ben (or me for that matter)).

• Time consuming: I have no idea where the last three weeks have gone both Triathlon and Babies take up a lot of time.

So on to the Zipp Gear.

One of the first things you notice when you see the bike is the stunning Zipp 606 wheelset. The 606 wheelset combines a 404, 18 spoke, 52mm deep rim on the front with an 808, 24 spoke, 82mm deep rim on the back. The combined weight is a svelt 1753g and both wheels benefit from the Zipp ABLC dimpling treatment. ABLC is Zipp's Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control and in their own words:

"The idea is that these highly modified and designed rim shapes can only take advantage of the airflow if the air is sticking to the surface of the rim. With a V shaped rim or flat-sided rim, the airflow becomes separated from the leeward side of the rim as soon as the rim begins to face airflow more than 1 or 2 degrees off axis. This separated airflow creates a vacuous region behind the rim, which is the primary source of pressure drag on the wheel itself. With a curved section, we are able to keep the airflow on the rim surface out to 7 or 8 degrees of yaw, but eventually the flow begins to separate or 'stall' on the backside. With the dimples, we are forcing the airflow into a higher energy state, forming a turbulent boundary layer near the surface of the rim, which allows the air to remain attached to the rim even at higher angles."


Seems obvious when you say it like that but in a nutshell they act like a golf ball and greatly lowers pressure drag whilst only slightly increasing skin friction drag. Although I could never hope to prove or disprove Zipp's claims I can only say that when I was rolling down the hills at Columbia without being able to peddle I was still passing several people pedalling their heart out. The wheels roll great and when I am along side someone with regular wheels and we are freerolling I often have to apply the brakes to stay with them. There are obviously many other factors for this but I am sure Zipp would not have achieved such a position of dominance if their wheels did not in fact perform as claimed.

The other key Zipp component on the bike is the Vuka Bull Bar and Clip Aero bars. The bull bar weighs only 195g (about the weight of 2 small bags of peanuts or a 195 paper clips) and it is as flat pancake. I must admit that the first time I used them they were so flat that I thought I would slide off the front of the bike but I soon got used to the feeling. It is also worth pointing out that Vuka brake levers are also wickedly thin but again they feel strong when you pull on them.








The clip in aero bars are very easy to adjust and they are clamped to the base bar by a rotating cuff which is a very neat and aerodynamic solution. I find the pads are easily as comfortable as anything I have used before and the chicane (slight bend up and then straight) bars fit me really well. Zipp also do the bars in a ski tip or flat.


All the Zipp gear is unquestionably top quality, high end gear. Whether I would buy it myself, if it was coming out of my own pocket, would probably depend on the price I could get it for on the day and whether or not I thought I could justify it to Wendy without sounding ridiculous. If you have the money to spare I believe the gear is effective and there is always the psychological effect. I read the race report of someone I must have passed at last weeks race who talked about being passed by guys on nice bikes with aero helmets. A quick looking bike makes me feel faster and may even discourage the competition from trying to close you down. I am also pretty sure that if I had not won the gear I would have bought some Zipp wheels this season. The 606 set is a very good buy in that the 808 rear is nearly as aero as a disc wheel so if you can only afford one wheelset the 606 covers a lot of bases.

The Latest Twist on the Lake Placid Vote

Thank you to everyone who has voted and thank you to all those who have asked me how I got on in the vote.

It turns out that there has been some confusion with when the vote would close and that it did not in fact close on Monday as it claims on the Triathlete Magazine page. Hopefully that date will be corrected soon but I can confirm that the vote is still open and remains open until 15th June.

Sorry for all the confusion but it all adds to the suspense.

Columbia Tri ‘Unplugged’

This is my Columbia Tri Race Report and the reason I have classed it as ‘unplugged’ is that my Polar HRM packed up, which was not a drama as I had my trusty Suunto for back up but then that too failed to register a pulse throughout the race. Confident that my heart was still beating I ran the race on perceived effort, rather than HR, which is actually a first for me.

Before I get into the ‘nitty gritty’ of the race I thought I would bring you quickly up to speed on triathlon life following the arrival of our new milk processor (a.k.a. Ben). Somehow he can take a small amount of milk and turn it into a vast amount of pee and poop.

Ben was born on a Friday and we were all back home the following Sunday. By Tuesday I felt able to get out of the house for a couple of hours and pick up my training with a group ride in the evening. The rest of the week didn’t call for any particularly long workouts and I managed to achieve 95% of my training. I was probably only getting around 5 hours sleep a night and I paid the price over the weekend. Wendy looked after Ben on the Friday so I could get some sleep and I did a long ride on Skyline Drive on the Saturday. Sunday called for a ‘hardish’ swim and another long ride. I managed the swim but then I was completely beat and could only lie on the settee drifting in and out of sleep.

This week has been slightly easier (for me not necessarily Wendy). I am back at work and able to train over my lunch. I am probably getting 6 hours or so sleep and again the volume was not too bad in light of the upcoming race. Again Thu and Fri Wendy let me sleep through most of the night by taking care of Ben. The night before the race Ben was pretty well behaved and fell asleep promptly after each feed giving us a little over 5 hours sleep. We wanted to be at the race site by 5 am to ensure a parking spot so we were not too bothered about getting up early.


We arrived at Centennial Park just after 5 am and were able to park very quickly. My bike was already racked so I went down to set up my transition and sort out my nutrition. I had done a short brick the day before and I knew the bike course was rolling and although I had not seen much of the run course everyone warned me how hilly it was. I had also met up with my Cadence Coach, Holden. He and his girlfriend Kerry were there as Holden, as well as coaching, is a Pro Triathlete and had decided to race. He was in a pretty select field of Pros which included Chris McCormack and Chris Lieto along with some other ‘big names’.

Me, Wendy, Holden, Kerry and Ben
(who does normally have a face but the pic is a little over exposed)

Ed and the Team Z triathlon club were all congregated by the start finish line and I left Wendy, Ben and Janet, Wendy’s mum, to feed Ben while I waited for my wave start. As a 30-34 age grouper I am used to my wave starting pretty near the front but at Columbia it was the other way around and the pros were followed by the older age groups first. The pros went at 6:55 and I didn’t go until 7:39.

Swim 26:39 (place 631/1722);

In water start and the temp was in the mid to high 60’s and was actually very comfortable. My wave consisted of 20-24 and 30-34 and was therefore pretty big. I lined up near the front but when the swim got underway I found myself in the middle of the worst scrum I have ever experienced so far in a swim start. I was prepared to swim fairly hard for a bit to get clear of the mêlée but I was well and truly boxed in. Every time I went for breath I was taking in water and I was really unhappy. After a few more minutes of this I had had enough, I sat up and breaststroked out of the mess. I have never swum breast stroke in a tri before and I started to think to myself that I was already blowing this race after only a few minutes. That being said, as soon as I had some open water I settled into my rhythm and actually enjoyed the rest of the swim. Strangely I was not being overtaken in the water and I actually swam 26:39.

This is not a great swim time by a lot of people’s standards (Holden posted an amazing 16:07) but when you compare it to my fastest Oly race, the Nation’s Tri at 29:26, it is a good solid step in the right direction. More importantly, my swim pace was 2.0984392975609753 mph (roughly) which if I were to maintain over the Ironman distance would give a finish time of 1:8:37, under the 1:10 goal I am setting myself (subject to change). I also got out of the swim feeling strong and certainly didn’t over exert myself.

Transition One 2:22 (158/1722);

Nothing really to report other than the pros are all doing times in the 1:20s. Obviously they save some time not putting their shoes on but that cannot account for a whole minute. Time there to be saved me thinks.

Bike 1:09:09 (78/1722) (ave 22.0 mph);

You may have seen on this blog that I have been spending quite a lot of time in my sexy new, all matching, colour coordinated Cadence Cycling gear and hanging out with some road cyclists. I was even going to do a road race a couple of weeks ago until Ben’s 13 day eviction saga, when his refusal to vacate his 9 month, small, rented pied-a-terre, put pay to the plan. Even without actually racing the fast paced group riding, with plenty of high heart rate efforts, has made me a lot stronger on the bike and I was determined to put in a good bike split.

Armed with my evil looking (in a good way) LAS aero helmet and bullet like Cyfac, decked out in all its Zipp Spead Weaponry glory, I was ready to do battle. I turned out of the car park onto the course and made the shift up to the big chain ring ready to kick butt but as I did so I heard a ‘pting’ sound and after a split second I realized that my front derailleur cable had snapped. “B@#$!@ks”, I thought to myself, I was all psyched up but now stuck in the small ring for the whole race. It’s a bit like winning a life times supply of beer but having to drink it all with a shot glass.

Long story short I rode 42km of fast cadence leg drills, pushed hard on the uphills and really went to town on achieving an aero profile for the descents. I have probably taken many 100s of miles off my chain by riding small ring front and back and many people must have looked at me funny as I passed them with my groupset clicking away horribly, but pass people I did. I felt great on the bike and with so many people having started ahead of me I was going past people in their droves. It was by far the best bike leg I have ever had. Average speed may be way down on something like the Nation’s Tri but this was not a flat course.

Even more reassuring perhaps is the knowledge that if I had of had a big chain ring who knows what I could have done. In recognition of all the high end gear I have been given I have to admit that I was a lot faster than most people on the descents, even though I was not peddling, thanks entirely to the Cyfac, Zipp and LAS aero equipment. But, if I could have used some of my spare strength on the descents I believe I could have knocked a couple of minutes more off the bike split.

In some ways I am pleased that I didn’t have a HRM as I believe that with the cycling I have been doing of late my LT threshold on the bike has probably changed considerably.

F.Y.I, Chris Lieto did the bike in 56:35 at an average speed of 26.9 mph. Wow!

Cumulative Time 1:38:09 (147/1722);

Interestingly at this stage I am pretty close to where I finished overall in terms of placings. 630 people swam faster than me but only 77 people biked faster than me. This highlights how much difference the bike can make in comparison to the swim (which is a good thing when you swim like me).

Transition Two 1:19 (231/1722);

Still wearing socks with trainers but I am only roughly 20 secs slower than pros so no biggy.

Run 45:19 (206/1722)(7:18 min/mile);

Coming off a high on the bike it was back to reality with the run. I came out of transition feeling good and I think I had pretty good form. I started to pass a few people but much fewer than on the bike. When I came to the climbs (I think there were 7 steep climbs in total) I had decided I would just take it very easy with little baby steps before regaining ground on the descents.

This strategy worked for me. My run time was OK, nothing special, but certainly solid. I could not have gone any quicker up the hills without doing myself serious damage and I am not as quick or as light on my feet as I would like. Having said all that I finished strong and on a flat course I think I would have ran a very good split.

Happy with my run.




Overall 2:24:46 (151/1722) (Age group 25/143);

Not one of the top 5 in my age group by about 15 minutes, which is quite significant, but then it was a very strong field. Ideally I would like to have gone harder in all 3 disciplines, particularly the bike and run but I am not sure how much was in the tank. That being said I am not training for short course, I am in this for Ironman and I did feel perfectly fine at the end of the race (and today) which is a great sign. I often ask myself whether or not I can possibly hope to do a 10 hour Ironman. Sometimes I think I am in cloud cuckoo land and sometimes I think that maybe, just maybe, it is possible. Today is definitely one of those maybe days.

Let me out I've finished

I enjoyed the Columbia Tri and would definitely recommend it to others. The field was very strong and there were plenty of world class athletes there but I didn't actually get to see them (obviously exluding Holden). Bare in mind that there are over 2000 competitors which means that logistically this race can be a bit harder than others e.g. parking, waiting for the toilet.

Congratulations to Team Z members Brian and Monica; Kathy and Dave who are all expecting and big thanks to Kitty and Jeff for their genourosity. I would also like to thank everyone who has already voted for me in the Cadence Kona Challenge. It was rather surreal that one of my fellow racers recognised me (I was wearing my Cadence Kona Challenge T-shirt) at the race expo and knew my name. It turned out that he too had been one of the 100 finalists who tried out for the challenge back in New York.



Please do not forget you can still vote by emailing triathlete magazine at triathletemagcontest@gmail.com, with my name (PEARSON) and the name of one other of the finalists who you would like to see compete for the chance to qualify for Kona. Voting closes at midnight tonight. For more details please see triathlete magazine on line.

P.S. Holden had a great race finishing in 7th place with a time of 1:59:55 only 2 minutes behind Chris McCormack and Richie Cunningham, not a bad day at the office.

"There can be only two."

For anyone that has not read the header, or is new to this blog, the whole reason I am training for Ironman is to try and qualify for a slot at Kona 2008 as part of the Cadence Kona Challenge. Before I can qualify for Kona I must first be selected as one of the 2 Cadence Kona Challenge finalists to race at Ironman USA, Lake Placid.

The 2 finalists will be selected by a public vote that is being hosted by Triathlete Magazine and the vote is now open. So forget Obama and Hilary and exercise your right to vote by emailing triathlete magazine at triathletemagcontest@gmail.com, with my name (PEARSON) and the name of one other of the finalists who you would like to see compete for the chance to qualify for Kona. If you do not know the other finalists please follow the link to the 'tracking the Cadence Kona Challenge' where you will find the other 5 finalists blogs. Voting will close on the 15th June 08.

Thanks to anyone who votes for me and although I feel very lucky to have come so far on this adventure I do not want it to end. If I win the vote I look forward to continuing to share with you the trials and tribulations of Ironman training and the opportunity to put it all into practice at Ironman USA.

7lbs 10 ozs, a new PB

I have been keeping this one close to my chest but it gives me enormous pleasure to announce the arrival of our new baby boy Benjamin Carden Pearson.

Ben was born at 0858 at the National Naval Medical Center Bethesda and weighed in at a very reasonable 7lbs 10ozs.

I cannot claim that this time around the pregnancy has been particularly easy. We knew fairly early on that his heart was OK and that he didn't have the same problems as his sister but then soon after we received a positive Quad Screen Test Result for Trisomy 18 which knocked us both a bit sideways.

Thankfully repeated ultrasounds at the Prenatal Assessment Clinic at Bethesda all indicated that the Quad Screen result was in fact a false positive and that Ben was fine. I must say a big thank you to Dr Peterson and all the Prenatal Assessment Staff who have all been wonderful. Obviously we were not going to rest easy until we had Ben in our arms and he kept us waiting to the bitter end coming out 13 days overdue. His actual due date was the day of the Lake Anna Half Ironman and the fact that I raced on the day Wendy was due caused a bit of excitement. Obviously with hindsight there was nothing to get excited about and I am glad that we didn't put our lives on hold awaiting his arrival.

It was a huge relief to find that he was perfectly healthy, in fact he aced his APGARS and hearing test (proud father moment). Both he and Wendy did so well that the Doctors let us out of hospital after only 2 days despite the fact that Wendy had required surgery.

Since Friday he has decided to sleep all day and wake up around midnight for a 6-8 hours of crying, eating and being fidgety before falling asleep again for the rest of the day, storing his energy ready for nightfall. Thankfully he seems to be settling into a slightly more regular (but still tiring) routine. Obviously my training over the weekend went out of the window and I had to miss the road race on Saturday but I did manage to get out this evening for a bike ride despite the fact that I was so sleepy.

I am as pleased as punch and have to say a big thank you to Wendy whose monumental efforts, both mental and physical, put even an Ironman into context.