Seeing RED...

Bought this Japanese made Pearl Izumi Tri suit for the bargain basement price of SGD$99 (USD$70, 60% off retail price)! Ok, so it is an older model and probably not the best looking suit, but the quality is excellent and the chamois is just about perfect for me - I don't much like those towel thin "terry cloth" type of Tri suit padding so common nowadays.

I was actually checking out another Pearl Izumi suit marked down 40% to SGD$156 (USD$111), which has black/white/grey, and a much better match to my bike. Just before paying, I saw the one above on a rack, which is an even older model with the "unfashionable" red side panels. I had to smile to myself, because less than 2 months ago, I ended up buying a more expensive grey helmet instead of just using the replacement red helmet, just because of vanity - I wanted it to match my bike. This despite my buddy and Mrs Nitrox both preferring the red helmet, and despite the still small voice in my head telling me to stop being so vain. Oh well, another lesson in life, I guess.

On the training front, after a break of more than a month, I am finally easing back into training. Easing being the primary word here. Been a busy stretch at work, been travelling 3 of the last 4 weeks and will be travelling again next week, this time to Sydney & Melbourne.

10min Video on How to Fix a Flat

Got a special deal on this tyre (Panaracer Stradius Elite Z 700X20C) at my LBS simply because it was the last one they have left. So I have done the radical - run 20C tyres at the front and 23C tyres at the rear. It works for rear wheel drive sports cars, so I guess it will work for my bike too. =)

Since I have to switch my current front tyre to the rear, and install this new tyre on the front, I offered to show a friend how to change a flat. Unfortunately, he got busy during the weekend and I fly off to India on Monday, so this video is for you, Philip. :-) What I forgot to say on the video is that if you've got a flat while out riding, it is IMPORTANT to thoroughly check the tyre after it is removed. Feel the entire length on the inside of the tyre and remove foreign objects if any. And of course, if the tyre is damaged, get your LBS to check if it needs to be replaced.

Rest and Repair

I guess it's time for rest and repair these 2 weeks before I re-start training again.

The same goes for my gear. First up new running shoes - these just arrived at the store and I got myself a pair. The sales guy told me I have the second pair to be sold in Singapore (someone else bought the 1st pair in the morning). Have not gone for a test run yet, but with so much techno mumbo jumbo, it's gotta be good! (The 30% discount I got for my TAS membership also helped.) :-D

Secondly, I managed to nick my rear tyre side wall somehow. Noticed a "bulge" which upon closer inspection revealed the fibres of the side wall construction (see below). Guess I better get a new rear tyre. I must say that I have not been impressed with the wet weather peformance of the Continental GP4000, so I think I may try another tyre.

Just realised that my spare inner tube work not work with my new wheels without a valve extender, so I think I will save myself the hassle and get a spare inner tube with a longer valve stem. Good thing I have a buddy who just got his first road bike, so the my current spare inner tube is not wasted. :-)

All Packed and Ready to Go

I have rather mixed feelings as I packed for tomorrow. I am thankful to be able to train and participate, but would have liked to put in more training. Then again, I guess I will always like to have put in more training. :-)

This will be my 1st real attempt at a Olympic Distance Triathlon - the same event got rained out last year and it so discouraged me that I actually stopped blogging for quite a while. When I look back, I may have been just as physically ready then as I am now, but mentally perhaps I just wasn't ready for it last year. A lot of thoughts are going thru my mind right now: With a late start (my wave starts at 1040am), would it get too hot? I did most of my training in the coolness of the morning or evening, will I be able to cope with the weather? Is my fueling plan correct? I will be biking/running through lunch-time, will I get hungry? Will it rain, and would my GP4000 tyres grip well in the wet? Is it gonna be strong currents like the NUS Biathlon? I usually get stitches in my sides in races, will they come back to haunt me again tomorrow? I had planned to do some light training during taper week, but I had to go to Manila and just could not squeeze in any training - have I lost form during taper week?

Then again, I think back 3-4 years ago when I could hardly swim 100m, bike 20km or run 5km, and was 16kg heavier than I am now, I guess I have come a long way. It has been frustrating many a time for me to note just how GRADUAL the improvements in speed and distance are coming along, but I cannot deny that I have gotten faster and fitter over the years. Am I going to complete the race tomorrow? I can't be 100% sure. But I am reminded that it is this uncertainty that draws me to Triathlons - the uncertainty that forces me to be humble and to just depend on Him.

God Willing, I will finish my 1st Olympic Distance Triathlon tomorrow. See you at the finish line.

New Helmet - Uvex Boss Race

Sorry the picture turned out quite small, but if you look VERY carefully, you will see that I managed to crack my helmet - a MET Sfero (only 2+ years old). Don't worry, I didn't fall or anything. Not entirely sure why it developed a hair-line crack. I get to buy a replacement helmet (same model) for half price, which I will sell to buy this beauty - the Uvex Boss race helmet.

Why didn't I just use the replacement helmet? Well, because the replacement helmet did not meet the most important requirement for bicycle helmets. It did not match the colour of my bicycle. :-) Yes a poor reason for spending twice my budget for a helmet, but middle aged men are vain that way. In fact the helmet cost so much that I am also selling my Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels and Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps racing clinchers. Had intended to keep them as training wheels, but my new carbon aero wheels are so sturdy that I will just use them as both training and race wheels.

So PLEASE tell me that my new helmet matches my bike perfectly... :-D

2 weeks from my 1st Olympic Distance Triathlon which means 6 more training days before my 1 week taper. Thankfully I did not seem to have lost much fitness in the 4 weeks of on-again/off-again training, God Willing, I will complete it.

New Carbon Wheels!

OK, technically they are not quite new. I bought them from a Finnish colleague at "buddy" price. He had them for a year or so and have been using them as race wheels for his BMC TT02. After trying the Easton EC90 tubulars, he had to get them, and I became the blessed owner of his carbon clinchers on Friday. Being colleagues and good friends at work, we did away with the second guessing and bargaining at comes with buying/selling, and I knew the wheels would be in good condition because he is quite a bike freak (like me). I also knew he would include the Titanium skewers and his almost new Continenal Grand Prix 4000s tyres, but was surprised on Friday was that he also included wheel bags and even a Dura Ace 9-speed casette for me as he knew I do not have one for the new wheels. Thanks Jarmo! As you can see from the pictures here, the wheels and even the tyres are in immaculate condition, so I am extremely chuffed to be blessed with these latest acquisitions.

OK, for the technically inclined, these are Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL Premium wheels (yes, quite a mouthful), and the main difference with the lesser priced Carbone SL is that the Premium comes with Titanium axle, nuts and skewers to reduce weight, and subdued white detailing (as opposed to the loud yellow decals on the SL). Technically, they are not really carbon wheels - as you can see, the rims (where the brake pads contact the wheels, and where the clincher tyres mount) are made of alloy. Only the 52mm "fairings" are made from carbon. As such they are not the lightest wheelsets out there, even for clinchers - 1755 grams per pair, compared to the likes of the ZIPP 404 clinchers @ 1660 grams and the Easton EA90 clinchers @ 1545 grams. Tubular wheelsets tend to be significantly lighter - e.g. ZIPP 404 tubulars @ 1252 grams and the Easton EA90 @ 1370 grams - but I can't be fussed with tubulars, glue/tape and pre-stretching. What's good about the Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL Premium wheelset is that they have the reputation of being strong and stiff. Since I have time to ride only once a week, strong wheels are a key criteria as I have half a mind to use them as both training and racing wheels. (I am still holding onto my old Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheelsets for wet weather riding, but leaning more and more towards selling them for some fast cash.)

Took them out for my 2 hr weekend ride this morning and I have to report that I am 100% satisfied. I was all smiles with the noticeable improvement in overall "smoothness" - e.g. free-wheeling produces a muted "purring" rather than the mechanical "clacking" I am use to. Ride quality is significantly improved, and overall response/turn-in is excellent. The wheels feel very solid and stiff even under full-on out-of-saddle stomping - this is no fragile carbon wheelset that I have to tread gingerly upon! :-) Given that my old Ksyrium Equipes are only about 100 grams heavier, there is no significant improvement in acceleration/pick-up, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a 5% improvement in average speed in my first ride today - i.e. 6mins improvement on a 2 hour ride despite a unusally hot and clammy day. Not sure if this is my enthusiasm coming through, and it is hopelessly unscientific to make conclusions from one test ride, so I will be keeping my eye on speed/total time taken for my rides in the next few weeks.

Ok, enough talk, now for the pictures:

I'm one of the bike "freaks" who proudly rack up my bike in the living room - Mrs Nitrox thinks of it as storage, but I see a work of art. :-) I still catch myself admiring it when I am watching TV sometimes - Besides being good wheels, the carbon aero fairings goes very well with the naked carbon weave on my Scott CR1 frame. :-)

Here's a close-up of the rear wheel:
And here's one of the front:


Yes, early test seems to suggest that it does go as fast as it looks. :-)

Profile Design Lightning Styke (Lotsa Pictures!)

Woohoo, I finally have my Profile Design Lightning Stryke installed on my 2005 Scott CR1 Team, and headed out for my weekend 2 hr ride yesterday. I couldn't find much useful information on this clip-on bar in the Web, nor could I find pictures of it actually installed on a bike, much less a road bike, so I have taken the liberty to include lotsa pictures. The short of it is that I found them to be comfortable and fast, and got it dialed up just right after a few quick stops for minor adjustments. In case anyone is wondering about the red bar tape, I was too cheap to buy an entire roll just to tape up the bar ends, so I ended up with used bar tape at the LBS. Would have prefered white (to match the rest of the bike), but the wallet prevailed. :-)

When it comes to using clip-on aero bars on a road bike (with a drop bar), I think I am one of many who have learnt things the hard way. There just is not a whole lot of relevant information about how to choose a clip-on bar, and what works best on a road bike with drop bars. Road bikes tend to have longer top tubes, which makes mounting a clip-on bar tricky. My previous Deda Clip-One looked good and worked great, except for 2 problems:

1. The elbow rests are mounted on top of the drop bar, which meant very little fore-aft positioning of the elbow rests are possible. This can be a problem especially on road bikes because the long top tube may put the elbow rests (on top of the flats of the top bars) too far away from you, which results in a "stretched" position when you are in full aero tuck. [Read: Tired neck, shoulders and back after a couple of hours in aero position.] The picture on the right is what my Deda Clip-One looked like mounted on my bike, compare it with the pictures below of the new Lightning Styke clip-on bar.


2. The Clip-One comes in two sizes (26.0 or 31.7mm diameter handlebars), this means that if (as in my case) your handlebars have 31mm shoulders that taper to 26mm, you need to fashion your own "adapter" (in my case, used MTB handle grips).

If you look carefully at the picture on the right, you will notice that the Profile Design Ligthtning Styke solves the above 2 problems for me, because it mounts on the stem and not the base bar. This means that: (1) I can position the elbow pads much nearer to me (which mitigates the longer top tube on a road bike), and (2) I don't have to worry that my drop bar has 31mm shoulders that taper to 26mm.

The Lightning Stryke also comes with pretty high spacers to raise the elbow rests above the base bar, so if you decide to use them (as I did in the picture above), much of the flats of the base bar becomes accessible. I.e. now I can also grip the flats of my drop bar in case I need to sit a little more upright in climbs or just to ease my aging back. :-) With the Deda Clip-One, the elbow rests mounted onto the flats on the base bar itself, which means I had to hold onto the elbow rests instead of the flats if I want to sit upright. That always made me feel a little odd (especially since I have difficulty getting the elbow rests mounted securely despite my home made "adapters" - see previous paragraph).

Perhaps one last nugget of information before I let the pictures do the talking. The Lightning Stryke comes with 2 choices for how far apart the elbow rests are. This is certainly more restrictive than the Deda Clip-One simply because you can mount the elbow rests anywhere on the flats of the base bar. I found that even the widest setting for the elbow rests were more narrow than where I had my Deda Clip-One elbow rests, but even this ol' body adjusted to that pretty quickly. I used to have my elbows outside of my knees with the Deda Clip-One, and now my elbows are aligned pretty much straight on with my knees. This means that even though technically I can set the Lightning Stryke elbow rests much nearer to me (by using the 6 available fore-art positions), I had to reach a compromise position so that (1) my knees don't knock into my elbows when I am seated, and (2) my knees don't knock into the elbow rests when I am "stomping" out of the saddle. As you can see from the pictures above, I still ended up 2 inches nearer, which goes a long way toward mitigating for the longer tube tube of a road bike.

Clip-on Aero Bars Work!

Yup, I have removed my clip-on aero bar. The "go faster" kit that I hinted at was a new carbon clip-on bar to replace the Deda Clip One (more here) that I have been using for over 2 years now. Well, the LBS ordered the wrong stem and so now I am without a clip-on aero bar for a few days. So, off I go for my weekend ride, and you know what? I was consistently approx 3km/hr slower in the flats. At my (slow) bike speed, this equates to almost a whopping 10% decrease in speed!

I have always felt that having the clip-ons make a lot of difference, and now I know for sure. So if you are considering clip-on aero bars for your road bike, GO GET THEM!

So why did I decide to replace my trusty ol' Dedas and what difference does it make? Well, you'll just have to wait till I get the new clip-on aero bar installed (hopefully tomorrow). :-)

Kicking Myself...

Yes, today I am kicking myself, because I am going to miss the Singapore Biathlon (1.5km swim, 10 km run, 1st March '08) - the registration closed early due to overwhelming response. It would have been such a good work-up to the OSIM International Triathlon too. It wouldn't be hard to cover the distances in one of my weekend training sessions, but I was looking forward to race conditions and especially the open water swim. :-(

While we are on the subject of Triathlons, I have been dreaming of exotic carbon gear since reading about InterBike 2008 in some magazines. Have you seen this super sexy Cobra Drop Bar from Profile Design? Not the lightest carbon drop bar out there, but check out the multiple contoured grips! The best part is that the center clamping section (110mm) has been strengthened to take clip-on aero bars and hence suitable for triathlon use. I wonder if the aerobar with the same name sake (T2+ Cobra) would be the perfect match... The website says that the Cobra Drop Bar will take any clip-on aero bar, but that I am imagining that this particular combination will sure look slick. :-)

Talking about carbon stuff, Mavic have finally made their own all carbon wheels - the Cosmic Carbone Ultimate. Yes, quite a mouthful and even more expensive than ZIPP 404's. GASP!

So as you can see, Ol' Nitrox is very capable of the sin of covetousness. :-) I think I will put up this post just to have a convenient place to oogle at the pictures when I have a few spare minutes. :-))

Back to ground zero, and the Polar service centre has finally called me back to say that my S625X footpod is busted. It costs SGD$180 (USD$126) to replace, so I have decided that I don't really need to know just how slow I am running. :-) I have a few regular running routes and I can guess at the distances so that's probably good enough for a recreational triathlete like me.

Oh, and I have NOT tried the PowerBREATHE either. I have a sneaky feeling that unless I do so soon, this will be another purchase that gets forgotten in the "good intentions" closet. Let's see...

Tri Gear Update: Shoes, Tri Shorts, Foot Pod, POWERbreathe!

Yup, got myself some value-priced gear from New Balance again. This time a pair of MR846 which are their stability/cushioning trainers weighing 374 g/13.1 oz. Was very tempted by the MR902 (292 g/10.2 oz lightweight, mild stability control), which are lighter, but decided to go for the more "heavy-duty" choice because I tend to have a heel strike and pronation in my running gait. Thanks to the Triathlon Association of Singapore, I get a 30% discount so the MR846 cost SGD$122.5 (USD$85.75), which is a pretty decent price for a solid pair of running shoes. I have run with these new shoes twice now (12-15km each run), and they feel more cushioned than the M767 that I used to wear. They also seem to breathe better than the M767, but that could be just my over-enthusiasm with new shoes. :-) Although there is a 35 g/1.2 oz weight penelty to the M767, as expected, it is not noticeable - if anything, the new shoes felt lighter somehow on the run (again, this is probably my over-enthusiasm again).
[Please note that the manufacturer posted weights above are based on the "standard" size 9.5 shoes, which are considerably smaller than my 11.5 shoe size.]

As you can see (if you peer hard enough), I also decided to try a pair of Lock Laces. These cost SGD$13.90 (USD$9.73) which are kinda expensive for laces in my books, but every second saved in T2 is one less second to run down, right? :-) So how do they feel on the run? I did not follow the instructions on the Lock Laces website, so I endup up with a rather loose fit which I did not like. Will try the secure method on the Lock Laces site next time. I intend to just get used to the Lock Laces and then move them onto my race shoes - which, if all goes according to plan, will be a New Balance competition shoe or MR902 at the stock clearance discount price of SGD$35 (USD$24.5) - being a size 11.5 in Asia means that there is usualy my size in stock clearance sales at the New Balance center near my workplace. :-)

While I was at the shop, I also got a pair of these value priced (SGD$34.3 or USD$24 after 30% discount) New Balance Tri Shorts that seem to be only for the Asian market. These are the most cost-effective (read: cheapest) Tri shorts on the market and they work pretty well for International (Olympic) distance or shorter. The padding is literally towel-thin, so I would not recommend cycling for more than 50km or so on them (unless you have a fantastic Tri saddle).

On a negative note, my 2 year and 8 month old Polar foot pod (for the S625X) is broken. Instead of blinking, the green LED stays on when it is activated, and the red button needs to be pressed again before it will start to flash. Once it is turned on, there is no way to switch it off except to remove the battery. It also keeps telling me that I am running 5-6km/hr when my pace is closer to 9-10km/hr. It's now with the Polar Service Center and I am waiting to hear what's the damage (warranty lasped 8 months ago).

One last bit of new kit, and I have indeed saved the best for last: the POWERbreathe! This seems to be the latest "miracle product" amongst endurance atheletes and I had the chance to get one at 30% "buddy discount" - SGD$70 (USD$49). I have yet to try it, but this is what the website says:

• 'Dumb-bells for your diaphragm' - Just as you might use weights to strengthen your arm muscles, breathing in through POWERbreathe for a few minutes twice daily, makes your inspiratory muscles work harder - thereby increasing their strength and endurance.


• It is an easy-to-use, drug-free, hand-held device with a comfortable mouthpiece. Within a few days your inspiratory muscles will feel stronger and within four weeks your lung function, and ultimately performance, will improve.

Too good to be true? I will tell you in about 4 weeks. :-)