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.

Public Safety Announcement

After last weeks less than impressive race I have been trying to get back into my training and switch focus toward my next race. This week has been pretty uneventful but the training has gone very well and I am feeling much better.



On Wednesday, for the first time ever, my lunch time run was interrupted by a Head of State. The President must have been addressing congress and as he left Capital Hill the Capital Police shut the roads so that I was unable to get down The Mall. I had to wait 5 minutes or so before he passed but he did give me a wave to make up for it.



This weekend I had a 4 hour bike ride on Saturday and today I swam 3k, biked 2 hours and ran 40 minutes. Despite a blow out of my rear tyre as I descended Sugerloaf Mountain in Maryland I was able to stay on my bike and the rest of the ride yesterday went very well. I used the ride as an opportunity to do a couple of loops of next weeks Poolesville High School Road Race route. The route is not too bad but the gravel section of the course, for which it is infamous, has some really nasty pot holes and I am a bit concerned about my wheels.

So what is the public safety announcement? Well as this is a bit if a no news week I thought I would take the opportunity to share with you one of my experiences following a long summer ride last year which will hopefully act as a warning to others. Last summer I was out for a ride and I was wearing my tri shoes without socks, as I normally do. About an hour or two into the ride I was caught short and decided to answer a call of nature in the woods by the side of the road. Unfortunately being still relatively new to these shores I am not used to looking for Poison Ivy and must have brushed against some with my ankle. The resulting reaction did not clear up and I ended up having to go to hospital to get some steroid cream. So if you do need to 'spend a penny' beware. Here is a pic of my leg - enjoy.

Lake Anna Half Ironman Race Report

I am usually pretty quick at posting my race reports because so far they have always been very positive. Pretty much everything has gone as planned and I have seen a nice steady improvement in my race results. Even this year the Myrtle Beach Marathon showed that I could complete a marathon in a pretty good time with the bare minimum of marathon specific training and with plenty left in the tank. The Cherry Blossom 10 miler showed that my body performed exactly as predicted by the Cadence LT testing and the race went like clockwork. My tardiness in posting a race report for Saturday’s Half Ironman is a good indication of how badly that race went.

It was my first tri of 2008 and it was the Lake Anna Half Ironman at Lake Anna, Virginia. This time last year I did the sprint race at Lake Anna. It was my first ever Tri and I was really happy with my sub 1.5 hour finish. My coach’s advice for the half was to go steady on the swim, bike and first half of the run and then to go all out for the end of the run if I had the capacity. I had only done one other half prior to this race and that had taken me over 6 hours to complete which was largely a reflection of the very hilly course. I knew that Lake Anna was relatively flat and in light of all the training I have been doing I was hoping that I could break the 5 hour barrier.

I drove the 1.5 hours south to Lake Anna with Wendy and my mum, who is visiting from the UK, and we arrived at about 6.30am. I registered and started to get myself ready. I had a few butterflies, which surprised me, and it was clear by the time it took me to get ready that I hadn’t raced for a while. I lined up with the rest of my wave on the small beach at the lake and we were the 3rd wave to start. It was a beach start and we needed to do 2 laps of the triangular course with a short run across the beach in between. As we waited for the off the announcer was trying to whip up the crowd by telling them how hard a half ironman is to complete. As he explained how are legs would be burning coming off the bike and how are arms would ache coming out of the swim we all looked at each other in disbelief, his comments were certainly not helping the competitors.

When the horn went off I did the ministry of silly walks run to try and get across the shallow water and then started jockeying for position in the water. It was a fairly big wave and there was quite a bit of pushing and shoving. I felt like my heart rate was spiking and it wasn’t until I was on the third straight of the first lap that I realized that Eric “the Eel” Moussambani would be able to give me a good run for my money the way I was thrashing around.



For anyone who cannot remember “The Eel” he was the very brave wild card entrant from Equatorial Guinea who competed in the 2000 Sydney Games. He and his female teammate Paula Barila Bolopa, nicknamed “Paula the Crawler”, set records for the slowest ever Olympic swims but it was the first time either of them had been in a 50m pool. Apparently Equatorial Guinea only has 2 pools the longest of which is 20m.

The second loop was a lot smoother but not necessarily that much faster and I finished the swim in just under 40 min. Considering that I really need to go around 70 min at Lake Placid this time is very disappointing. I ran up to transition where I struggled a little to get my wetsuit off and took the time to towel off and apply suncream. I was a bit peed off and made a point of getting past some people before I settled down on the bike.

The bike course was 2 laps on rolling roads around the circumference of the lake. Although it was a pretty quick course some of the rollers were large and there seemed to be an almost constant headwind. The first loop I overtook a number of riders at the start and one guy in his late 50’s went past me. I kept him in sight and my heart rate in the low 150s and had a fairly uneventful 1st lap. Toward the end of the 1st lap I caught up with a group containing a couple of people I knew but that group then seemed to pull away from me. I didn’t want to push too hard on the bike and let them go. The 2nd loop was even more uneventful and pretty damn lonely. My heart rate dropped a little into the high 140s and I suspect the second lap was actually slower than the first. Toward the end of the 2nd lap a couple of blokes and a woman past me and we continued to jockey for position the rest of the ride.

Sue Pearson 2008 ©

I finished the ride in 2:46 which was again a little bit disappointing. If I wanted to finish in under 5 hours I should ideally be swimming 5 mins and cycling 5-10 mins faster than I did. Not to worry, I had been very conservative and although I had not felt comfortable on the bike, saddle sore, sore glutes and sore neck, if I put in a good solid run I shouldn’t be too much over the 5 hour mark. I threw on my cap and set off on the run but as soon as I hit the first climb straight out of transition I knew I was in trouble.

I still have not worked out what went wrong but my body just refused to get going. My legs would not fire up and my body refused to speed up. I decided that I was going to have to walk as I was getting nowhere fast with the run. After a few minutes I decided to try running. This time my legs were there and they were quite happy to tick over at quite a high cadence but after a few hundred metres my chest and stomach would clench, almost as if I was going to be sick, and I was forced into a walk again. I decided (very quickly) to forget about finishing in any sort of time and to walk/jog the rest of the run. At every aid station I would make sure that I drank 2 cups of water and when I broke into a run I would go flying past people and then a few hundred yards further on I would walk until they caught me and then I would go running past them again.

Near the end of the final lap I picked up the pace and ran the last mile fairly briskly down to the finish. It was a strange experience and I certainly didn’t feel like I had completed a half ironman. There was lots of running left in my legs but the rest of me was not playing that day. As I try and analyse the problems I could probably come up with some theories/excuses. The bike ride for some reason really took a toll on my gluteus maximus which may have caused the initial lethargy on the run. After that I could possibly try blaming the heat. The average temperature was 82 degrees and was probably in the mid to high 80s on the run. This is a lot warmer than I have been training in and as a fair haired anglophile the heat can really kick me in the teeth. The other biggish difference was perhaps my nutrition where I experimented with a couple of things for the first time in a race.

Sue Pearson 2008 ©

All the excuses aside I had a bad race and will have to chalk it up to experience. It is a hard pill to swallow as this is the first time a race has not gone well for me. I am trying to think of some positives and can only come up with the following:

My face and arms are now fairly brown (I did burn myself fairly badly on the back where I couldn’t reach with the suncream).
I got to christen my aero helmet and new wetsuit.
I had no problem with the swim distance.
My gut feeling is that I could maintain that bike pace for 112 miles and hopefully a fraction quicker.
Even though I walked half the run I still ended up with a personal best for a half ironman.

Ok what is done is done. No more long course races now until I hopefully line up at the start of Lake Placid. In between now and then I have a number of Olympic distances the first of which is Columbia and apparently both Chris McCormack and Matty Reid are both racing this year. I suspect they are both breathing a sigh of relief after seeing my half results but I hope to regain some confidence by putting in a good performance during that race.

Thanks to my mum for taking pictures of my race.

Big Cycle Week - Big Fun

Well it is Sunday night and I have had a good week but I am well and truly ready for a good nights sleep.

The week started with the Cherry Blossom 10 miler on a miserable, cold, soaking wet Sunday and finished with another cold overcast Sunday. In between, the weather has been wonderful getting up into the 80's. I have been sun burnt twice this week and yesterdays run left me a sweaty mess.

I have only done a little swimming this week and after Sundays race my runs have been around 75 mins long and pretty uneventful. The highlight of this week has undoubtedly been cycling. I have gone into Tuesdays group ride in some detail but on Thursday I tried to repeat the roadie group ride experience. This time I joined the lunch time group ride around Hains Point in downtown D.C.. Hains Point is a wonderful ride. Named after Major General Peter Conover Hains, this spit of land has a fantastic 3.4 mile flat tarmacked road that runs around its circumference and is therefore a very popular spot for local cyclists. There is a group ride leaving from the golf club every lunch time at 12:05.

Apparently Tue, Wed and Thu tend to be the faster days with Mon and Fri being a little more relaxed in light of the weekends racing. I left work at 11:45 and headed down to Hains Point. When I go there at 11:55 there was no one around. I started to think that the ride was off because of all the traffic there to view the Cherry Blossom. I did one loop of Hains Point thinking that I would go off for a solo ride but then I started to see other riders coming in the other direction. I turned around to join them and headed around Hains Point in the wrong direction until low and behold a peleton appeared. I tagged on the back and the first lap was very genteel as everyone warmed up. The weather that day was absolutely glorious, very warm and sunny. After the first lap the pace started to really pick up and again I began to struggle.

As the group got separated by traffic I saw the faster guys begin to disappear. Everyone seemed happy to watch them go but I decided I was going to close the gap. I launched myself off the front and rapidly started to close them down but .... I only made it 4/5 of the way across the gap before my legs gave up, oh well I was close and I am sure I will only get stronger. I fell in with another group and had a very enjoyable 40min cycling fairly hard in the sunshine before going back to work.

As I already had my bike and cycle gear with me I decided to go to the gym at work to do my weights session before going back out to Hain's Point again to join the Team Z group ride. It was a perfect evening and although I didn't do any pulling I had another very enjoyable ride.

A great weeks cycling was capped today with a Team Z ride along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. For those who do not know the area, Skyline Drive is a beautiful road that winds its way a 100 miles or so south from Front Royal in Virginia along the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The first 10 miles or so of the ride are all uphill but you are rewarded with the most spectacular views.

About 2600ft and getting cold (don't let the sunnies fool you)

Unfortunately, unlike midweek, the weather again took a turn for the worse. Instead of the 80's we had experienced earlier in the week the temperature was back down to about 47 degrees in the car park before we set off. When everyone rolled out Chris and I cut off to a garage to use the rest room. By the time we got to the entrance to Skyline Drive there was a big queue of cyclists waiting to pay the $8 entrance fee. I eventually got to the front and waved my National Parks card before we started to climb. I tapped out the rhythm and Chris stayed with me while we went up. Chris is a an experienced triathlete and having just turned 60 is in with a great chance for qualifying for Kona this year. When I joined the team last year I would regularly draft off him during the longer rides but now at least I have the ability to do my fair share of pulling.

I do not have particularly low gearing on my road bike so I found it easier to push quite hard on the climb in order to maintain a good cadence rather than go slow and get bogged down with a very slow cadence. Starting at the very back was actually good fun. We got to see other members of the team that we do not often get to speak to on a ride and it is always more motivating going past people than being passed.

Chris Wren, Ed Zerkle (Team Z founder) and Me - 3000ft'ish and bloody freezing

After a little over an hour and half we turned around started the descent. Although it had been overcast all ride it had until that point not rained. Unfortunately as we descended it began to rain. Because we were up at 3000 feet the rain had turned to ice and my face was pebble dashed by hail and ice rain as we flew down at 40mph+.

Back at the car park I grabbed a coffee and started to get the feeling back in my fingers. I could really feel the climbing in my thighs but I had that lovely warm, tired, satisfied feeling that comes after a good hard ride. We passed several of the slower riders on the way back down who all had another couple of hours of cycling ahead of them and in light of the weather I was really impressed by how cheerful everyone was.

So a great week but I also have to mention Derek, a friend of mine back in the UK who has just completed his first marathon, the London Marathon, in a very, very impressive 3.30.

Montagues v. Capulets

Man Utd v. Liverpool F.C. Fans,
Navy v. Army,
Hello v. OK Readers,

And of course;

Triathletes v. Road Cyclists

All classic rivalries but like Mahatma Gandhi and MLK before me, through non-violent means, I am striving to break down the barrier that exists between Triathletes and Road Cyclists by doing a bit of both. Of course I am being a tiny bit overdramatic but as I got into the sport of Triathlon last year I certainly got the impression (however misguided) that there was an underlying rivalry(?) between the two groups.

If any triathletes or road cyclists are reading this please do not get upset with me these are just my observations/points of view and as always my tongue is never far from my cheek.

I suspect that any antagonism between the groups stems from the fact that keen road cyclists tend to do a lot more biking for the simple reason that Triathletes also have to fit in time to swim and run. On top of this extra riding they tend to ride in a group most of the time. Triathletes on the other hand must race alone and are not allowed to draft off another cyclist. Many triathletes apparently prefer to cycle alone in order to train as they will have to race. Bottom line is that road cyclists do a lot more riding as a group.

They also ride quick. Top triathletes may be able to hold a fast pace over the course of the race but they do not have the sudden accelerations that road racers have. You do not have to be a cyclist to realise that a lot of people riding fast as a group within a foot or so of each other can be very dangerous. In order to remain safe you must be alert and most of all predictable so that you do not cause an accident. As a triathlete I had not experienced this requirement to such a high degree and roadies know this.

It seems to me that roadies instigate a policy of tough love when it comes to new cyclists. In order to keep the group safe if you do something stupid or dangerous you get shouted at. There is also no waiting around you either keep up or get left behind. If you get left behind you are done in a race and if you get left behind training you must ride more until you keep up. To that end they treat any new cyclist, including triathletes, as potential sources of danger until proven otherwise.

Triathlon group rides, on the other hand are very different. Most people, most of the time, are training in their endurance zone and are not after generating bursts of speed. As you are not constantly accelerating, decelerating and cornering there is plenty of time to discuss the weather, John’s latest haircut or the pros/cons of the yoga. There is inevitably less experience in the group and sometimes it can be a little dangerous but I bet it is no different to a novice group of ‘roadies’.

I have ran road races to improve my running and even did a swim meet last year to improve my swimming but as yet I have not done a road race to improve my cycling. That will all change on May 3rd when, with my coaches blessing, I do my first race. I have already mentioned that this race has more than its fair share of crashes and people continue to tell me that it is a poor race choice for you first race but things are as they are.

To try and increase my chances of completing the race I realise it is important to get in some group riding of the sort I have mentioned above. Last night I was down for a 2 hour endurance ride so I decided to spend 45 min cycling down to Wakefield Park where I would link up with a weekly group ride. 5 or 10 minutes before the ride start I was not sure that I was actually going to find (the rather large) Wakefield Park but sat at the traffic lights up ahead was a roadie decked out in his racing kit. I asked him if he was going to the group ride he introduced himself as Bo and said that I could tag along as he warmed up on route to linking up with the group.


We rode around the neighbourhood course backwards, chatting away, he turned out to be a nice guy and I thought to myself this pace is fine I can live with this. We then saw the rest of the group turned around and tagged on. I sat right at the back and Bo hooked up with one of his teammates. Again I was feeling fairly pleased with myself. As we went up a small rise I saw Susan, the ride captain from Team Z, who was out on a separate ride and I said hello as my group went past. Then suddenly the pace exploded. I tried to keep up and my heart rate shot up into the 180s. I was being dropped. Oh no! I am 2 minutes into my first roadie group ride and I am being dropped. To make matters worse I was wearing all my new, shiny Cadence Gear so I looked liked a pro but was riding like a toddler.

Luckily some one else was getting dropped and a few others were struggling to keep on the back. I pulled up and tried to get my heart rate down. I was slightly overdressed so I took off my skull cap and hoped that people thought I had pulled up on purpose to take off some of my winter clothing. The group had turned around and were on their way back. Bo and the other elite riders thundered past and I tagged back on. The group had now split into 2 groups and I hitched onto the back of the second group.

I was now in a group of about 12 cyclists some were older guys and there were a couple of younger guys in the group. I again felt out of place in my new gear as everyone else was wearing their beat up training gear which looked like it had seen many miles in the saddle but what can I do it’s a Catch 22 i.e. if I don’t wear it it will always look new. We kept the faster guys in sight for a while and it was obvious that the initial burst of speed was clearly aimed at breaking the group up. I think I probably got the worst of it as I was sat at the very back and unfortunately, for my pride, I passed Susan again as I was hanging off the back of the group. Although I was no longer with the elite guys my group was still moving at a quicker pace than I was used to. Instead of a constant effort the group would hammer out of corners and push hard up hills which is very different to way I train for Triathlon. That being said I was fairly comfortable staying in the group and even took a turn pulling. I did feel a burn in my legs a couple of times but luckily I seemed to recover fairly quickly from it.

As we passed the parking lot I dropped out of the last 30 mins of the ride as I had arranged to get picked up by Wendy. It was interesting ride. Although the initial burst of speed was scary after that I was OK in the second group. I would be interested to know who I was riding with and how the pace compares to what I can expect in my first Cat 5 race. It was not as much fun as my Tri group rides. There was no talking and the ride was very business like. That being said Bo and another guy I chatted to after the ride, called Chip, were both really nice guys and not fire breathing dragons.

I am planning on joining the group ride around Hain's Point tomorrow lunchtime so we will see how that compares.

Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Race Report

I hope this post is not to badly writed but I am fealing reelly shattered. Yesturday I was up at 'stupid oclock' to do the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and today Holden, being the simpothetic sole he is, had me up at the same time again today doing a 1.5 hour ride before breakfast. Befor i slump over the keeboard here is my report;

The alarm went off at 0530. Race start was 7:40 for the the elite women and 7:50 for the elite men, there were then a number of waves leaving every couple of minutes thereafter. As I got out of bed I looked out of the window and the rain was pouring down. Wendy was undecided as to whether she was going to come along and one look at the weather put her off completely. I cannot claim that I was particularly motivated at that point either and I was fairly slow to eat my breakfast and leave the house. I took the metro into the city as the race attracted something like 13,000 racers which is just staggering. On the metro I bumped into Kathy and Dave from Team Z (tri team) and we headed in together.

We got off the metro at Federal Triangle which was only a short walk from the GW Monument, the new start location for the 36th Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run. The rain was still coming down heavily and I was reluctant to strip down to the singlet and shorts I had elected to run in. To help fend off the rain I decided I was going to wear a bin bag until just prior to the start. When I struggled to be able to punch a hole through the bag for my head I began to wonder just how good I was going to be during the run.

Holden had made it crystal clear that I was to push hard during this run and I should be aiming to run at my Lactate Threshold throughout. If you go back to my last Cadence Run Blood Lactate Test my lactate threshold zone is from 164 to 171 bpm. The training zones table goes on to say that at 171 bpm I should be able to run 7:02 to 6:46 min miles. I had decided to set my dream goal as 65 minutes and my back up goal as 70 minutes. I had no reason to think I could run 6:30 min miles for 10 miles which would be needed for a 65 min finish but it seemed like such a nice clean goal. According to my training zones I should be able to maintain 7:00 min miles at LT so that gave me my more realistic goal of 70 min.

My wave of 2,500! runners was the red wave but between you and me I snook into the yellow wave corral in front. This was my first 10 mile run and when I registered I had no idea what time I could run. Following a winter of Cadence Coaching I was aiming for a quicker time than I predicted. As some of my team mates were starting out from the yellow zone I decided to join them. Looking around I was glad that I had moved as there were clearly plenty of slower athletes around, even in the yellow corral, and unlike Myrtle Beach I really didn't want to be threading my way through slower runners throughout the race.

I managed not to get kicked out and after the gun went off we found ourselves very quickly squeezed into the narrow road entering Hains Point. Hains Point is a big spit of land opposite the Reagan Airport and there is a very smooth tarmacked road around its circumference which is lined by Cherry Blossom on either side. Hains Point is not far from my office so I often find myself running around it at lunch times but yesterday morning the 3 and a bit miles seemed to be longer than I remembered.

Within a few hundred metres of the start I found my heart rate at 170 to 171 bpm and steady. I did have to overtake quiet a few slower runners at the start but after only a mile or two I found myself surrounded by pretty similar paced runners. It was clear by the time I got around Hains Point that the 6:30 min miles were not coming off at this heart rate and knowing where my LT was I didn't want to up the pace. In fact the opposite happened and my heart rate dropped a beat or two for the middle few miles which were probably my slowest.

By the time I had worked my way back around the tidal basin I was over half way and on the out and back past the Kennedy Center I managed to get back up to pace. The course took us over Memorial Bridge but as we came back across the bridge a slight uphill coupled with a gusty wind colluded to get my heart rate up and a bit of a 'sicky feeling' in the pit of my stomach.

As we headed back toward the wonderful finish location at the foot of the GW Monument there were signs marking 1200m to run, 600m to run etc. At 600m I decided to pick up the pace for the much cliched 'strong finish'. I don't know how they measured those 600m but they were long and again I began to feel sick. It was amazing that at 171 bpm although I was in a state of steady pain it was nothing I couldn't cope with but as soon as my heart rate rose a few beats I would feel sick.

I crossed the line in 68:35. That meant an average of 6:51 min miles which is smack-bang in the middle of Cadence's predicted pace for my LT and I ran the race pretty much dead on my target heart rate throughout. From that perspective it was a very successful race. I ran much closer to the wind than at Myrtle Beach but some how the finish seemed far less satisfying. Perhaps it was the mechanical nature of the race and my first marathon had that added sense of achievement. I am not sure my head was ever really in the race and I didn't take in my surroundings as I concentrated on maintaining my pace. The weather was depressing but actually a very good temperature for running and the rain did let up for the hour and a bit I ran.

The race marked the end of a week in which I had had a couple of disappointing training sessions and a bit of a slump. Please do not think that it was not a good race, it was.

To round out a long day Wendy and I went to watch a local Crit (Criterium) Bike Road Race at Tysons Corner. As I mentioned in my last post I have recently got my Road Race Licence and I have just (20 minutes ago) signed up for my first race on May 3rd (I am also on the waiting list for a Crit later in May). Not really knowing what to expect when I turn up at a road race we went to watch the Pro Men and Women race and get a feeling for what 'goes on'. The racing was interesting and I got to meet Ken Young, a local Marine Sergeant and very successful rider, who Brian Walton at Cadence had put me in contact with for advice on local group rides. He had a good race and was just pipped at the post following a sprint finish.



My first race will be at Poolesvilles and it is a 42 mile road race which is well known for a gravel section that is often the scene of a crash or two. Not ideal for my first race perhaps but it was the only date that fit. To try and reduce the number of times I will get shouted at during the race I will try and get in some group rides with local road cyclists.