This is a great panel discussion – definitely a good watch.
Discussion panel with Chris McCormack, Sebastian Kienle, Andi Boecherer & Rinalds Sluckis – YouTube.
4iiii’s are out there innovating again! Nice job folks!!!
Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the displeasure of having to deal with Ergvideo for real course training videos for my computrainer. My 1st experience with the company didn’t teach me enough and I actually went back for more when they issued the Mont Tremblant video. Why? I guess I’m just stupid!
This company is so paranoid about pinching every potential customer penny that they implement a consumer-hostile licensing scheme, limit re-installs if you need to rebuild your machine or upgrade and disallow transfers of the software license to someone buying your trainer.
Seriously, grow up! If you produce a quality product at a fair price, people will pay for it. I did, not because your licensing scheme required it, but because I wanted to support your efforts. You’ve made me regret it. So my experience can serve as a warning to others. Be careful what you buy into.
My computrainer is going and I’ll be so happy to never deal with ErgVideo again. Good riddance!
Not a big update but something in the “small thing, nice thing” category: I’ve killed all the online advertising on the site. It was ugly, I am poor at maintaining it, and it wasn’t generating any revenue anyhow.
Instead I’ve put together an amazon store of products I use in my training and racing. If you’re looking for new gear and feel so inclined, please use my product recommendation page to link into my amazon store.
Cheers
In my lead-up to Ironman Mont Tremblant I was given the opportunity to do an extended test of the Kickr bike trainer from Wahoo Fitness. Given that I’d just popped an innertube on my trainer wheel while doing an important intervals workout, the timing was perfect and I jumped at the chance.
2 very obvious differentiators exist for the Kickr: other than the power cable, it’s wireless; and, the bike chain attaches directly to the trainer (rather than a friction fit of a trainer wheel against a spindle). Both of these are major differentiators from, say, the computrainer.
“Wireless?!” you ask. Yup, the Kickr is controlled with either Bluetooth or ANT+. You can control it via software on a smartphone (apple or android) or software on a PC (and maybe a Mac, though I haven’t looked).
Unlike other computerized trainers that come with mandatory, bundled software, the Kickr has an open API that allows any software developer to build software for the Kickr. There is a free ipad/iphone app from Wahoo that provides pretty basic controls of the Kickr, but there are seemingly new releases from various developers weekly. In some ways this is a curse and a blessing: choice is good, but it can make getting started challenging. I historically was using PerfPro for my workouts with the computrainer and was very happy that it continued to work with the Kickr.
Also a big deal for me is that the Kickr works with my mountain bike. The trainer is adjustable in height to match various wheel sizes 29″, 26″, 650’s, 700’s, etc. this means you don’t need a front wheel riser to use the trainer AND you can simulate climbs/descents by changing the trainer height (not the front wheel height).
Here you can see my bike mounted to the Kickr as well as the tyre shreds left behind from my training tyre on the computrainer. Please ignore the sweat stains on the floor 🙂
Pro’s
Con’s
All in all, I have to say that the Kickr is exactly what this industry has needed for a long time: a strong competitor for Racermate and the Computrainer. At this point, I’d have to say that the Kickr is definitely just that. At a better price point, with wireless integration using proven standards in the fitness space (ANT+, Bluetooth) and with the open API so that many can release control and training software, the Kickr is now my absolute recommendation for someone looking for a computer controlled bike trainer.
Move over Computrainer, there’s a new top dog in town and it’s called KICKR!
Like most triathletes, I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my cockpit design: aero advantage, easier hydration and/or fuelling, fool-proof, etc. Speedfil has always been in the forefront of my mind when it comes to these products. I’ve used the original speedfil hydration system and currently use the Speedfil A2. I’d always struggled a bit with the configuration of the A2 because of my basebar/aerobar configuration and desire to have either my Garmin 910xt or Garmin Edge 810 visible when training and/or racing.
Once again, Speedfil to the rescue! Their new Z4 cage with integrated Garmin computer mount is exactly what I’ve been looking for all along! It snuggles my A2 nicely between my arms and puts the computer display where my view of it is totally unobstructed. The Z4 mounts to your bike in a huge variety of ways that pretty much guarantees you can find a good way to secure it to your particular cockpit design.
Speedfil has been getting a lot of accolades for the Z4 and rightly so: they’ve made the product that so many of us have been trying to piece together with tape and elastic bands and done a really solid job of it. Well done Speedfil!
I always wear sunglasses when I’m training, racing or just generally doing “stuff” outside, so when Running and Cycling Enterprises offered me the chance to try out and review a set of Runnng and Cycling Enterprises’ new, affordable, in-house XX2i line of shades, I absolutely jumped at the opportunity.
Affordable is an appropriate adjective for these shades: discount, entry-level, etc. all imply a poor quality product and these sunglasses are definitely not inferior quality or limited in terms of buyer options. Besides a large variety of frame styles and colours, you can get lenses that are polarized and/or have reading diopters built in and of course different lens colours and coatings. I haven’t done the math, but I expect that with all the permutations there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of sunglass combinations that could be built.
So let’s unpack them and checkout the kit.
The 1st thing I noticed was the exterior packaging: a zippered hardcase with LIFETIME GUARANTEE emblazoned in the forefront. This gives a hint at what’s within: you can’t offer a lifetime guarantee on something that’s going to fall apart if you look at it wrong.
Opening the case, I was shocked at how PACKED the case is. All the components are packed in dense foam to stop things from bouncing around.
In the case we find:
Wow!
These sunglasses fit my face very well right out of the case, and even if they didn’t they are pretty adjustable and have the (very important) adjustable nose so that you can have them sit well when you’re down on the aerobars.
One problem I’ve had with (other) sunglasses that have exchangeable lenses is that the retention system is flimsy and the lenses aren’t held in place well. I can’t say I have a huge amount of experience with these, but in my limited experience this doesn’t appear that it will be an issue here. The lenses are held very snugly into the frame and take a fair bit of strength to swap out.
Finally a word about the optics, the true indicator of value of a sunglass: “el cheapo” sunglasses have poor lens quality that distort and in the worst cases cause headaches. Not so here, these optics are pretty incredible: no headaches, no distortion, no fogging. Further, I’m pretty hard on sunglasses and frequently end up with scratches on the lenses pretty quickly: these lenses seem pretty “Rick Proof” at least so far and, of course, if you did manage to scratch them, you could just replace the lens and not the whole set of sunglasses.
The XX2I offerings have been winning awards all over the place like Gear Institute’s “Best Value” award and Outside Magazine’s “Killer Value Award” and it’s not surprise to me. These sunglasses are pretty amazing! If you have a late season race, maybe you’re getting to Kona, and you want to treat yourself to some nice optics without breaking the bank, definitely try out the XX2I Optics. You won’t be disappointed!
Jumping to the end I improved my 2012 time by nearly 15 minutes and almost did a sub-12 hr event. I’m happy that I improved my PR, I finished strong and feeling good.
Comparing the two years isn’t totally fair: it was hotter on the run this year and windier on the ride (and the wind was inconsistent seemingly blowing from all directions). Caveats aside lets compare the two years:
| 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | Total |
| 1:20:14 | 13:16 | 5:51:12 | 4:19 | 4:46:47 | 12:15:48 |
| 2013 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | Total |
| 1:11:46 | 10:11 | 5:53:42 | 3:46 | 4:41:43 | 12:01:08 |
Getting out of the water I was very happy with my swim improvement. Sub 1hr is the next goal for this distance in the swim and next time I’ll use the suit strippers to work on getting that T1 down (10 minutes is excessive… 5 would be much better).
Unfortunately, for all the things that worked well in training, my nutrition on race-day was total crap and I started feeling its effects even during the swim. I’m not sure if I swallowed water in the swim or if it was the Passion Fruit flavoured GU gels (#fail, I’d never tried this flavour before swimming before – dumb dumb dumb and yes I do know and should’ve known better) that I swallowed before the swim start, but something unsettled my belly. From about 1/2 way through the swim and all the way through the bike I had the “lump in your throat, you’re gonna puke” feeling. In T1 I managed to eat a bonk breaker bar, but unfortunately from then through the end of the bike I didn’t manage to choke down more than maybe 200-300 calories. Note: I trained with and normally consume 400-600 calories on the bike at the intensity level I was pushing on Sunday. So rather than 500×6 hrs (3000 calories), I had a bonk breaker and 200-300 calories of the nutrition I’d planned and trained with.
Given the lack of nutrients coming in, the lack of electrolytes coming in and the energy I was expending, it’s not much of a surprise that my back started to cramp and spasm at about 80km. I had to stop twice (briefly) to stretch out spasms that nearly pulled me off my bike and had to stop once to shake a bee out of my helmet (yea that coulda really sucked). Also nearly hit a deer on my bike coming down Lac Superior at Mach3.. at first when I saw it I thought a fan had put a hunting decoy beside the road, but then as I approached it decided that it was a good time to cross the road. Fortunately, I didn’t have to try to stop and she cleared the road without causing any incident. Given the wind, and my fuelling problems, I’m ok with my bike split, but would really love to know what it’d have been had my nutrition issue not been there.
Coming off the bike and into the run my stomach had settled enough that I could start taking in some nutrition without throwing it back up. My run, obviously, started slowly as I tried to slowly add some fuel to my system without putting so much volume in my stomach that I’d get ill running. The run was HOT but the fans were awesome: garden sprinklers, misters, hoses out to help us athletes cool down were very very welcome. Ice water sponges at the aide stations were also very welcome. My run actually started to feel pretty good, especially once the sun dropped a bit and we got some shade. My last km was done at all out sprint, my garmin has me at about a 4min/km pace (which for me is blistering). I hit the line and was all smiles. I felt great and had met several of my goals in the face of my fuelling adversity.
Ironman is never easy. This one, for me, was as much a mental toughness test as it was a physical endurance one: it took a lot of will and focus to continue to push on the bike and into the run on nearly no fuel. There was no way I was gonna stop, or even let myself pull back on the intensity unless my body just was completely unable (which it wasn’t). Sometimes bull-headed-ness has its’ value I guess.
2014 I’m not planning on doing any full-Iron distance events: just 70.3’s and Oly’s and maybe some off-road tri’s. I really want to work on speed: especially in my run. If I look at my typical age-group placement, I usually move forward in the rankings on the bike, then lose a lot of ground on the run. That needs to be fixed if I want to be competitive. 🙂
Thanks again to the staff and especially the volunteers who made Ironmon Tremblant a memorable event once again!
In a few short days it’ll all be over for ironman Mont Tremblant 2013. The hundreds, or perhaps thousands of hours of training will have coalesced into a day of excitement, challenge, doubt and victory. It seems like just days ago I was commenting on how far away the race seemed, now its here and sooner than I would like it will be done. In fact, this morning I’m feeling a little schedule tension for the few things that I must get done today and the time windows they must occur in (this will be better after I finish my coffee).
Am I ready? Sure I am. Could I be more ready? At this point in my racing career? No probably not. As with many others, I hope for a perfect day but have backup plans and goals for the less than perfect. In the end, I will cross the finish line with a smile on my face and a feeling in my soul that, perhaps, only ironmen can truly understand.
In many ways everything has come together so easily that my pre-race nerves are almost non-existant. Its’ kinda cool; yes, there is anticipation but more like that of going to the annual fall fair than that of going for dental surgery (lol). All that said, last night, for the 1st time ever, I had a race-related dream wherein I “finished” the race but somehow by accident didn’t do the second lap of the run course and thought I’d completed. In the dream, it wasn’t until after I was back in my room that I realized my error and I was debating what I should do. Definitely an odd dream. 🙂
Thanks to all who’ve, once again, helped me toe the line on Sunday:
I’m bib number 2233. You can follow my progress on www.ironmanlive.com, or with the smartphone app IronTrac.
Cya at the finish line!
Very nice improvement over the old app with more amazing things to come.
Introducing the New TrainingPeaks iOS Mobile App – Posts – TrainingPeaks Blog.
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