Time to hit the road!
Ok, so after months of careful deliberation and research, I ended up buying a new tri bike while I was in Singapore last month. Actually, this is my first dedicated tri bike after using road bikes over my entire triathlon career of 19 years. My very first race was the Noosa Triathlon, a popular Olympic distance race (1,500m/40km/10km) , on the Sunshine Coast in Australia way back in 1988. And my new bike is only my fourth bike during this time, so I can't really be accused of extravagant spending on bikes. (I hope my wife will read this!) So with all this in mind, I decided to buy the best and fastest bike that I could afford, and one that will last me for many years. So here is my Cervelo P2C, an aerodynamic, light, carbon fibre, hi tech triathlon/time trial bike. A rather sexy beast!
It rides just as good as it looks, it is exceptionally smooth as the carbon absorbs practically all road vibration and is super comfortable when in the aerobars and it just feels fast! On my first ride I was concerned that I may not be a good enough rider to warrant such a great bike, but the more I ride it, the more I am sure that I did the right thing buy lashing out and buying it. My Iron Man bike leg should improve greatly, and a sub 6 hour ride is on the cards if I do the right training and make sure that the engine (me) is in peak condition. Another bonus is it's steep tri specific seat angle (79 degrees) that should make my bike to run transition easier and save me time, by 10 to 15 mins on the marathon if I can believe what the experts say. Most importantly, I have to go faster just to justify the expense!!
With now only a week to go to the Tokyo Marathon and with my training program seeming to go well, I feel confident that my target time of sub 3:30 is in reach. All my main training has been done and my program only has one 20 min tempo run and some other short and easy runs left on my taper this week. And I will be glad to get the marathon over and done with so I can concentrate on my main goal of going sub 11 hours at IM Japan in June. Have already started to amp up my tri training and will do even more after the marathon and the following weekend's cross country skiing trip (some R&R). After doing a lot of unstructured training over the winter with my focus on running and building leg strength for the bike, I have started a formal 21 week program. Just finished week three today and will ease back on biking and swimming next week during my taper.
Week One
Swim: 2,000m
Bike: 4 hours
Run: 56km
Total: 10 hours
Week Two
Swim: 6,500m
Bike: 5 hours
Run: 46km
Total: 12 hours
Week Three
Swim: 7,000m
Bike: 5:30 hours
Run: 36km
Total: 12 hours
posted by Keren_m @ 7:45 PM
6 Comments:
Ooohhh....very nice. Shiny. Blue. Sleek. Congratulations on your new baby.
Great to hear that hunger in your voice for IM Japan. I'm pretty sure 3:30 is a mere formality for you at Tokyo. Actually, I thought I heard somewhere that you were shooting for a 3:10...
Wonder where that came from, have never mentioned 3:10, always been shooting for 3:30? And I think a 12 min PB will be good enough for me anyway. Anything under will be a bonus.
I think that's just Steve's way of telling you that he thinks you are fit enough to run faster. I do to, jump on the 3:10 bandwagon...
Possibly true, but this marathon is just a mere bump on the road to IM Japan for me, and not my main goal. And I don't want to destroy myself in it as I have a lot of bike and swim training to do over the coming months. Got to make the bike purchase pay off!!!
Beautiful bike - nothing beats a Cervelo. Now get those valve caps off - no need for the things. And do I detect your saddle is pointing down just a tad?
For shorter triathlons you might also want to ditch the bottle cage or go for an aero bottle cage. MIT did research that found the drink bottle is an oft overlooked area of wind resistance on an otherwise sleek bike.
But great stuff - a great wheels too. (what are those tyres? Veloflex?)
Thanks Gord.
Yes, I have read what MIT said and I will either go with an aero bottle on the bars or a behind the set job with two cages. I have both already but will need an adaptor on the bars to make the bottle fit. And I still need to work out how to best mount my wireless computer on the cockpit. But the cage on the down tube is carbon and weighs next to nothing. There is no mount on the seat tube.
I whimped out and got the Jets which are clinchers, instead of the Stinger tubies. I think the Jets are more practical and durable and I like the idea of riding in training as well if I want to. Not much difference in weight between the two and they should be ok in windy conditions. But I will put on my Mavic Ksyriums as training wheels for the time being. Hell, the wheels actually cost more than my old bike did!
The tyres are Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps, which are supposed to have very low rolling resistance and can be inflated up to 145 psi. They seem good so far.
And the caps are gone!
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