I'm thrilled to announce that C&C Insurance will be supporting me next year. It seems to be a great fit as I ride by their office every morning on my bike! Jake from C&C is racing his first Ironman in a few weeks in Florida...all the best to him! I'm hoping to have a few more announcements in the coming weeks :)
I've also been kept pretty busy with work...I know what you're thinking - employment is against my principles. But running and napping rarely pay the bills. This past weekend I put some serious hours in at the Toronto Bike Show with MSZ, and as a bonus for my hard work they were generous enough to provide me with a bonus to upgrade the new TT rig!
I got some very nice comments on my pretty new toy in my last post, and since I've made it even faster looking I figured I'd tell you more about it...for all my techy friends. I take a lot of pride in the build and aesthetics of my bikes, and I'm very particular with the quality of everything, so I prefer to make the investment to build up my own bikes with my choice of components rather than ride a sponsored bike. So no shameless pitches here, I just feel like talking about my work!
2011 P3 Frameset - in my opinion this is the best no BS bike in the world. No built in water bottles, no useless hidden brake calipers. Its just an intelligently designed, extremely aero and very comfortable bike. My gimp back approves.
SRAM Force/Rival Components - After riding Shimano since my first road bike, I started riding SRAM last year on my road bike (Red) and I was instantly a convert. Super smooth shifting and a better feel than Shimano in my opinion. When its dialled in Red shifts faster than DI2, and my Force/Rival combo is lighter and much cheaper than Ultegra.
Wheels - I really like Mavic wheels for their durability and coolness factor. I ride Aksium training wheels along with a Powertap wheel, and for races I have Cosmic Carbone Pros (only produced for one year). Similar to a Zipp 404 but better hubs and a stronger rim. And as a recent addition I now have the option to roll a Zipp 900 disc, just for a little extra speed.
ISM Adamo Road saddle - I switched to the ISM earlier this year when I was searching for a seat option that would keep my bum and my back happy over 90k in the aerobars. It took me the better part of a month to get the seat and rail angles where I wanted, and I also pinched the nose pieces together with a zip tie to get the front end narrower. Its a very different feel but I find I can rotate my hips more with the ISM which saves my back a ton. I've also added an XLab cage mount to keep the frame clean. I've never been in a wind tunnel but common sense tells me its more aero.
3T custom front end - I'm really finicky with my aerobars. They have to fit to the millimeter and still look funky. So I've taken a 3T Aura Pro integrated bar and replaced the narrow unadjustable pads with Profile Design F-22 pads and J2 clips to get the reach and pad width I want. Really comfortable but coolness factor remains high. As you can see I've also ultilized the cheapest ($4 bottle cage, 100 for $1 zip ties from the dollar store) and most aerodynamic bottle setup you can get.
OK no more tech talk.
As for training, I'm in a bit of a run focus for another few weeks gearing up for a couple run races. Nothing crazy but I'm putting in some decent run weeks - up to about 100k - just for fun before getting serious about tri training again in November.
I'm looking forward to being in the pool 5-6 days a week between the UWO Tri Club and Balance Point Training to build on a big growing year in the water. I'm starting to get an idea of what swimming is supposed to feel like, and with the guidance of Coach Gabbi I'm really looking forward to seeing some progress through the winter.
But the bike is where I'll be putting a ton of focus on my training, likely riding 6-7 days a week. No more half ass draft legal bike workouts, I want to be strong on the bike next year for my non-drafting and long course races. I'll be doing some training and racing with the CoachChris.ca cycling team as part of their development racing team, and I'll be banking some epic rides with a good friend of mine and strong long course athlete Chris Pickering.
So far my little experiment of taking my programming into my own hands seems to be working out fairly well. I really like knowing I have complete control over what I'm doing and its keeping me very focused. No one's going to give me hell for half-assing a workout...its all on me. I already have my plan for next year's races, which will likely include two or three Rev3 events and 70.3 Muskoka. I know...WTC...grrrrrr. But the reality is its the closest high end race to me with the best chance of at least breaking even with my travel expenses. And in all honesty, I would consider it a huge success and an accomplishment as an elite triathlete next year if I managed to break even with my expenses between prize money and sponsor support - its not easy. Maybe then I can really call myself a professional athlete :)
I'm really very excited for racing next year.
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