Monday, December 27, 2010

XMas Eve Macgyver Project

24 Dec 10- Osan AB South Korea

Well XMas eve brought me an SRM in the mail that I had ordered about a month prior. I had mailed it to my buddy Eric who lives in Colorado near the SRM shop. I had the batteries replaced in both the computer and cranks. Thanks to Eric it saved me some time and headache of having them shipped here first then having to ship them back to the states.

Since it was my first SRM I had my buddy Zach come over and help me out so I didn't screw anything up. It took us about an hour and a half to get it all hooked up and ops checked. A little longer than expected but it worked and we didn't have any major problems. Being a triathlete for some reason I wanted to be a perfectionist and make sure all the wires were routed cleanly and that it looked clean.

I really didn't think about getting rid of my Garmin Forerunner 305, but hadn't really thought about where it was going to go on the tri bike. Once we had it all setup is when I started thinking about how I was going to get my "cockpit" all setup on the tri bike. With nothing better to do on Xmas eve the project began........

Step 1- Remove 305 quick release kit from the stem and figure a way to get it up in between the bars.
Step 2- Remove water bottle holder in between aero bars and reverse it to where the bottle ejects towards my body.
Step 3- Hook the SRM Computer (PCV) up with velcro on the back and put velcro on the aero bars.
Step 4- Had to undo all the bar tape on the aero extensions and jimmy rig up some zip ties to the aero extensions for the quick release bike mount.
Step 5- Re-wrap the extensions and make sure everything was in place and worked properly.

The whole process ended up taking about 45 minutes once I had figured out how I wanted it.

Below are some pictures of the before and after. When I re wrap the bars and re route cables before the beginning of the season I will take photos of each step.


The before setup. Garmin Forerunner 305 setup on the stem with the quick release kit. Bottle cage is just zip tied to the aero extensions
The new setup with the 305 at the top, then the PCV and then the water bottle now exiting towards the back.
The two red zip ties are where I had them on the old setup except they wrapped around the stem. Now they are just there and each zip tie on the aero extensions hold it in "air". It leans quite a ways forward and you have to pull it back towards you to mount the 305 in the quick release and then it sits fine in between the bars. My bars are a little narrower than the 305, and this might be why it works so well.
The bottom view of the zip ties.


The next project was to hook up the wiring harness to my road bike. The second harness I had did not have the nice mounting bracket that the first one had. The normal bracket is easily attached under the bottom bracket with the screw that is used to route your derailleur cables. I couldn't figure out what else to use so I came up with an initial plan of using zip ties.

I took two small zip ties and slid them through the two holes in the magnet pickup device. I then slid them under the bottom bracket mount that is already there for the cables to be routed. I then tightened down the screws and it held the sensor in place just fine. Once I put the cranks on zip tie heads rubbed on the cranks so that idea was out the window.

Next I walked around the room and thought about what else I could possibly use to make a mounting bracket. Well on Xmas eve you get some crazy ideas. I looked at my floss plastic case and figured if I cut it apart I could possibly make it into a bracket. Using limited tools of a cable cutter and knife I went to work. I cracked the first side I was going to use and ended up getting stuck with the back of the case as my only option.

I sculpted it out into what is similar to a field goal shape. At the end of the "posts" I made the end larger though so that it would keep the sensor in place and would not slip out. The bracket is kind of big but I didn't want to crack it and figured it could possibly work. Sure enough after a lot of cutting and sculpting I had a final product. I hooked it up and eye balled where I needed to put a whole so that the screw would hold it in place. I used the knife and put a whole in the "bracket" and screwed it in. Put the cranks on and luckily nothing rubbed and the sensor was picking up cadence and power once I got it on the trainer.

So if you have time on your hands and want a late night project take a floss case and a few tools and have at it. Beats spending $70 on a new wiring harness and new version of the bracket or maybe I just don't know where there is an accessory that makes the old harness work.

The floss case that I used:
Below are some pictures of the bracket:


The final project was done some time ago, but post keep popping up on Slowtwitch in regards to bottle setups for different races. I figured I would add my setup to this blog so that if people wanted a reference with pictures I could just post this link.

I have taken a cheap Profile Designs water bottle for my rear mount (Excel Sports has them for $5.95) This back bottle holds a multi tool, tube, pump, C02 cart, and C02 Adapter. I also have a spare tube under my ISM Adamo Saddle. I took 4 zip ties and hooked the cage up to the seat post. Two of which are hooked just on the bottle cage in a vertical manner. The other two go from the two on the bottle cage to the two holes in the seat post. Below are two pictures of the setup.



I then use the setup pictured above for my cockpit setup. In that water bottle I keep my electrolyte drink which is either Cytomax or Hammer Heed to start with. After that I use whatever they have on course.

I then have one bottle in the downtube which I use as a concentrated Perpetum or Sustatined Energy bottle. It holds all of my calories with 4 scoops and then 2 gel servings. Below is a picture of the overall setup, prior to my cockpit setup up front changing.

I use this setup for 70.3's/Half Ironmans and plan on using it for my first full IM in May. I will have an extra concentrated bottle for my downtube at special needs.

When I race Oly/Sprints I take the rear bottle off and move the tools to the downtube and just have a single bottle of Hammer Heed or Cytomax in the aero bars.

If you have any questions about any of the above setups feel free to email me and I can take more detailed photos or answer any questions.

Sleep Deprived 10K/Merry XMas Training

18 Dec 2010- Seoul South Korea

Well I have been on night shift for the past couple of weeks now and had previously signed up for this race thinking that I was off the night after the race. I was hoping to get out of work a little early and be able to sleep a couple hours prior to the race, but like the past race I tried to attend the crazy Chongger up North decided to ruin my plans. This time I decided I can't have my life controlled by some crazy guy up North and would go crazy if I kept missing races.

I ended up not getting out of work early and still had to work the night when I got back from the race. The race was on Sunday at 10 am. Saturday I had got up at noon to get out for a 3 hour group ride with the guys which departed at 1. Upon arriving back to base I headed into work from 1800-0600 and then came home and packed up to head up to Seoul for the race. A new girl here runs for the AF Cross Country Team and AF Marathon team and it was going to be her first race in Korea. I was waiting at Starbucks for her and sure enough she slept through her alarm. Luckily I plan accordingly for these kinds of things when traveling with anyone else to races, especially females ;)

About 30 minutes later than expected we departed for our adventure up to Seoul. Two train transfers later and we were right at the race start, it was literally right outside the train stop. It was a cold morning with temps down in the low 30's. The course was an out and back along the han river. There was still some spots of snow/ice which made for a lack of traction and some taking it easy spots during the run. They had a marathon and half that day as well and they took off ahead of us.

We started 5 minutes after them which meant we had to weave through quite a few runners until the turn around. I started out a little too fast and split a 5:36 first mile and then a 5:55 second mile. After that I settled into low 6 minute miles and ran in the top 5 the whole race. I tried to put on a surge with about 1 mile to go and just couldn't catch the 3rd/4th place guys. They ended up about 200 meters or less up on me and I ended up finishing 5th. It was a PR for me with a time of 37:10. I was really pleased with this considering the lack of sleep and the course conditions along with temps.

Time- 37:10
Overall- 5th/Approx 200-300 runners

Well I had a workout scheduled for Christmas since I knew I was going to be off that day and figured I could get in a good long workout. Luckily there are other people out there as crazy as me believe it or not. My buddy Zach came over and we put in a solid 2 1/2 hours on the trainer while watching the Kona broadcast. Nothing better than getting in a good workout while sitting there watching coverage of a place you dream of being in 10 months. After the ride I finished off the workout with a 30min run. Wasn't a bad way to start Christmas. Following the run I got in my days sleep of about 4 hours and then headed down to the VFW for the Christmas feast.

The VFW has been my place away from home during the holidays. They always have a great spread of food and always a good group of people down there for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I went down there with a few friends and it was a good time.

Below are some pics from the 10k:

To the left in the picture is Norah the speed demon from Seoul Flyers. She has been undefeated this season as far as I know. She makes a nice little earning by kicking butt in races. The guy in the red to the right in the picture won the race in low 33's.
Coming down the last 100 meters.
Glad to be done and ready to get some sleep, ended up getting 3 hours of sleep prior to work. That was a long 12 hour shift that night!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A Couple Races in One Blog

Well since Chuncheon a lot of my plans have kind of fell through. I came up with this crazy idea to run 2 marathons 3 weeks apart. Sounded like a good challenge since I couldn't find an Ultra for the end of the year. The original goal was to run 2 sub 3 marathons 3 weeks apart. Then reality hit and I was going to shoot for 2 Boston Qualifiers in 3 weeks. So I started the training plan for that and I had a lot of soreness. I ran a half the weekend after Chuncheon as a long training run for the week and just took in the sites and stopped and ate at all the aid stations. I hit the split I wanted and enjoyed the day. After that my IT band was giving me some problems, so I took it easy. I figured rest was better than an injury going into a 2nd marathon that soon. Race weekend was approaching and I still wasn't feeling great. I got a phone call about a bike race that was 70K and figured I would do that with less impact on the IT band. Attempts to get into that last minute failed so back to square one and running the marathon. Getting ready to leave on Saturday to head up there I get a phone call from work. 2 hours before leaving I had to be into work. So it just wasn't meant to be for me to run that marathon. I figured it must of been someone above looking over me.

When that happened I figured it was time to take a "break". I took a whole 8 long painful days off of doing absolutely nothing. I can't say it was great, because in all honesty I was going stir crazy. So to start things of right I did a 5K race on base after my 8 day break.

It was the Turkey Trot and they had a 30 pound turkey up for grabs. So of course I had to run hard, I mean it was a 30 pound turkey for just winning a 5K. I went out hard and was trying to set a new 5K PR, but it was cold and the body just wasn't feeling it. I split a good first mile and then after that I backed off a bit. Ended up 18:18 and was feeling pretty good with that time considering how cold it was and the break that I had taken.

Well I figured there was no better time than to get my first bike race in then this off season. I have been training with a CAT1 cyclist here who rides for the Armed Forces Team. We found a hill climb up in Seoul and headed up there to ride with a foreign cycling team and then do the hill climb the following day. Saturday turned out to be horrible weather, snow, sleet, rain, wind and COLD! It was pretty miserable but we got to pre ride what we thought was going to be the course. Sunday morning it was even colder than the previous day and the race started with a 12K warm up/neutral start. What really sucked was after the 12K they bunched everyone back up and we sat around for 10 minutes before beginning the hill climb. It was only 6K but it was brutal. I got put in my place and the little koreans gave me a lesson in climbing. Overall though I was happy to get my first bike race in and learned some valuable lessons that day.

I am going to close out the year with a 10K this weekend and then the focus begins for 2011. Some of you know what the plan is already and others may have seen it somewhere on here as well. This is officially week 1 of training for the big race in 2011 and things are going good so far. I will post a season recap and 2011 plans here in a few weeks. Big News is coming so come back and read!