Quick spin around the blocks...

I've been in a training class all week and today we got out a little early!
I rushed home, the weather was just so nice, grabbed the bike and set of on one of my journeys. Well I’m not really sure of I can call it a journey because it didn’t take all day. So I going to change my mind and call it a leg and lung buster ride. I’ve spent much of the last 2 -3 months running and I have been neglecting the bike and I paid the price today.

My ride started with a quick look @ www.MapMyRide.com to find a route. I have knack to picking the route with the most and highest hills, either running or riding I am on the hills. I hope to race in the Mid-West someday…. So on the bike, the first 10 miles were a great, I was able to hold an average speed of 19+ and stay mostly in the aero position. Now this did have a bit of downhill so I have to credit part of it to gravity. During the second 10 miles I was able to hold an average speed of 17+, but I was starting to fade. The last 5 were painful, but I love pain and it felt good to ride again so I still had a smile from ear to ear.

If felt like it was 70+ degrees out, I just wore bike shorts and jersey and felt fine.

My new bike was great, I love ridding this thing. I need to adjust the max swing stop on the front derailleur because I was a little tough to get it into the big ring. Everything else was fine, smooth shifts and quite breaks, even the traffic was good.

I stopped off at a bike shop in Roswell, Ga. and they had my bike in stock for $250 more than I paid at www.GoTriSports.com. If you want a Felt B12 check out Go Tri Sports and ask for Alfred Olivetti, he will hook you up.

Next up: Swimming at lunch, I would like to get in about 30 minutes in the pool tomorrow.

Felt B12 Review:

Ok, I got me new Felt B12 Triathlon bike two weeks ago and now that I have some miles on it, I feel like I can give an initial review.

I could not make it back to the shop where I purchased it so I had them ship it. Once I got my bike I had to take everything apart and see how it works. I know, but I am a little crazy, I worked in a shop in another life. I put the wrench to a few in my days so I felt it was not big deal to give it the once over.

First things first, unpack it. Luckily the wheels where in great shape, my method for checking the wheels is to grab pairs of spokes and give them a squeeze to stretch and seat them. After of spending a few minutes working them I felt the spoke tension and checked for trueness and they where fine. The wheels are laced 20 radial in the front and 24 cross 2 for the rear. Now that the wheels are set I mounted them and got the bike in my trainer to use it as a stand. So from here I got everything squared away I started the bike fitting process.
I got the saddle height worked out; I kept raising the height until my leg was straight while my shoe heal was on the pedal spindle, and then backed it down 5mm. For me this is the most efficient position and I do not get any hip rocking. Next up was front to back position of the saddle, for this I got on the bike, sat on saddle and then put the crank at 90 degrees, then I used a level on the outside of the crank arm and then plumbed the level, then move the saddle forward or backward until my kneecap is about 3cm in front of the plumb line. For me this works, and I do recommend you get fitted by a pro, well worth the money.
So now that I have my saddle height and front to back position it was time to get my cockpit worked out. For now, I went for comfort, I need to get used to the aero position and over the next few months I will work out the details, so more to come on that.
At this point all that was left to do was fine tuning of the breaks and derailleurs, and getting a wrench on everything and checking tightness.
Now the fun part, a nice 25 mile ride.

Now that I have 100 miles on it and I have been all over the bike with a wrench I can give you my opinion of the Felt B12 Triathlon bike.
Let me start with the frame, this thing is tight, everything about it impresses me. The engineers at felt thought of it all. This frame is very aero and super stiff at the BB, I could not get it to flex, yet the ride quality was super, after 25 miles I was ready to run.

Wheels, I could not really find any info on the wheelset other than they where a new product for Felt. The first thing I did was to take the front hub apart, I know crazy talk, but I need to know how it works, how to keep it in perfect condition and how to fix it.
The front hub uses two sealed NMB type bearings, I love this, no cones to adjust, sealed from the elements, and very easy to find replacements/upgraded bearings. I have not pulled apart the rear, but I will update this when I have. The rims are nice and stiff, I pulled the rubber and could not find any marking that would tell me who made them. They use Ritchy rim tape, so pretty light, but if you’re a WW(weight weenie) you could spend a few and shave a few. Sports are no name, meaning I could not see a moniker imposed anywhere, now that’s not to say they are not to notch, time will tell. The nipples are the standard chromed brass. As a whole they are a fine wheel set and should do fine.
Front and rear derailleurs are Shimano’s new Ultrega SL. This is a new product so only time will tell, but I can say they shifted fine, even under my crushing of the cranks. The breaks are another mystery OEM product so again time will tell, but I can say the adjusted very easily seamed to be good quality, but I am not too sure about the weight. The cranks a BB are the FSA Gossamer PRO MegaExo, and the cranks arms are hollow. I am sold on the cranks, the rings are real nice, I am still breaking them in but the shifting has been great. Not too sure on the cassette and freehub, I thought I felt the hub get goofy a few times but I think it just needs some miles to break it in.
The cockpit is the best, I really like the base bar, this bar is the tubular type with bar tape on the entire bar, this way you do have a few positions to keep you fresh. For me in the hilly side of Atlanta climbing is a fact of life and I need to be able to move around on the bars. Now I know most of the high end bike do not use this type of bar because of weight and drag, but I think for a everyday bike it is not a wise choice. The clip-ons are Profile T2, super adjustable and stiff. Break levers are Tektro RX4.1, what impressed me about them is they have minimal side to side movement. I demoed a few other bikes and the levers killed it, I hate slop. Shifters are the standard Shimano DA 10 speed, and very crisp. The only gripe I have in the sifters is the front has not adjuster barrel, but even this is not a big deal because it’s not an indexes shifter.
Felts used DA cables for the shifter and Felt’s own brand for the breaks. All cables are internal for better aerodynamics. I do have a problem with the about of cable housing they left in the cockpit, they are much too long, and to shorten them might be a project because of the internal routing. I would ask your shop to shorten them, this way it would be more aero and lighter to boot.

The fork is real nice, it’s a full carbon fork, meaning the 1 inch steering tube is carbon as apposed to many that use metal. The fork drop-outs are full carbon with a metal laminate to protect the carbon from the hub. The rear drop-outs are carbon with adjuster set screws so that you can move the rim in or out to get the tire as close to the seat tube as possible.

If I had to rate the Felt B12 I would have to give it a perfect 10 out of 10.


If you have any questions, drop me a line.

-See ya on the road.

Good luck to all the runners.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I am truly thankful for all I have.

Good luck during tomorrows run, then eat drink and be merry.

I am hosting dinner this year, so I have busy day ahead of me, but I will still get my run.

Tomorrow is the first ever “Tribble Mill Turkey Trot”, I am assured first place, as I am the only runner. LOL

I hold my glass hign to you and your PR’s

-Brian

Pictures of the 2008 Felt b12

Today I got 25 miles, it was nice 65 and sunny. I have NOT ridden in about two months because of marathon training. This was my first 25 miles since summer and this bike was fast, I had an avg. speed of 16.5, while I wouldn't consider this fast, but 16.5 in some tall rollers isn't too bad
(I got to find somewhere flat to ride).
When I got home my legs where rubber and boy did that feel good, I love my new bike!

Here are a few pictures of my new ride, Felt B12.
When I was trying to research this bike I could only find stock photos, so I wanted to put up a few different angles. Crank shot, but the thing you can't see is that the rear brake is behind the cranks.
It looks like pad adjustments/replacement is a bit tricky.
Real nice cranks, the crank arms are hollow, nice touch.

Here is a another shot and you can just make out the brake.

Here is the brake from the other side.

Close up of the rear brake.

Standard shot.

If anyone is looking of any info let me know.

-Brian

Felt B12 maiden voyage:

Here she is.

After a quick 15 miles, I can say this was the right choice.

More to come.

-Brian

New Felt B12

I got my bike last night! This moring I am going over the entire thing and just checking it out.

Next up, test ride!

-b

Felt B12

I love bikes, if there is one thing I can get all geeked up about, its bikes.
This year its my time to buy what a TRI bike and it’s taken me countless hours / days of research, may trips to the bike shops, and I am loving every minute of it. I don’t know about you, but give me some shiny metal or some black carbon and I get all types of crazy thought in my head. I want to ride cross country or ride to work or ride … it goes on and on.
I am currently riding a ‘05’ Schwinn road bike with some clip on aero bars, and it hasn’t been all bad, but I really want get stronger and faster on the bike and I need fresher legs for the run.
I have worked my up in price so that I could consider a carbon frame, and this where you can go nuts. For me this is a big chunk of change and I really want to make sure I spent of correctly. It would be so easy to make a mistake, I could get the wrong side and then it game over, or I could buy an over priced bike from one of the big brands company, nothing against them, but I want an bike from a best of breed tri company.
I had narrowed it down to a few, I like the Cervelo P2C, Orbea ORA, Kouta K-Factor and the Felt B12. Every one of these bikes is a real tri machine and worth every penny asked.
But the wife said I could only get one, and I was just happy that we could agree one.
Choosing one out of the four is just about impossible. The Cervelo, what a bike, this model won IM Kona, sleek slippery carbon and killer looks. The Orbea, wow what a frame and groupo package, Orbea is really a nice bike, Kouta, the K-Factor is sweet ride, but for me the bike the makes me want to ride around the world is the Felt B12. This bike is new for 08, it’s the same frame shape as their B2 but with different carbon and a different part mix. This brand FELT really rocks, I know many people that ride Felts and everyone of them say it’s the best bike. I chose the Felt B12 for many reasons but here are a few in no peculiar order:
1) I trust the brand.
2) I like the carbon.
3) I think Felt has the correct geometry.
4) I love the groupo.
5) Nice wheel set.
6) It rides nice.
7) It was the best bike for my budget
8) It a proven winner.
9) It looks like a mad rocket.
10) I think it will improve my riding.

I love bikes.
Thank you my wife for letting me be a kid in a candy shop!

I bought my new ride at Go Tri Sports, this place is just awsome, please give them a TRI.

You are not going to find a better shop and staff anywhere.

I know they have the new Felt B12 instock so go on down for a visit or call them at 843.842.4786, and when you do ask for Alfred Olivetti, this is the person I worked, Alfred had in-depth knowledge of all the product I wanted and he gave me the best price I could find.

So if you're on a budget like me this is the place to shop.

http://www.gotrisports.com

So what do I do now!?!?:

My ‘A’ race is over and Holidays are fast approaching and I can feel myself getting fatter.

I need to find a goal, that dangling carrot to keep me on the straight and narrow. I need to find a race. That sounds familiar, I am such a nut, and I need to find some race to keep me honest. This last marathon didn’t kill me; maybe I could try another, wow that would be cool. If would need to find one soon and come up with a plan. Maybe if I could find one that would run over the winter, some time in January or February. I would need a new plan, one that would have me running 3 or 4 times per week. I still need to swim and bike, I have a half Ironman in May and I can not afford to neglect my triathlon training.

I really need to run this be the spousal unit, I might need to wait a week or two before I bring it up. I have been a little selfish with my training, 4 hour long runs and recovery kind of ruin most of a day. I have to weigh the effects on the family and make sure it’s fair to all involved. Now, I know what I am about to say is probably not correct, but I think at my current level I would not need to train as much as I did to Chickamauga. I think that if I could run 5 miles on Tuesday and Thursday, 7 on Saturday and maybe alternate between 10, 14 and 16 miles on Sundays, this might be enough. The Tuesday and Thursday runs could be done at lunch so they would not affect my family duties. The other weekday lunch hours would be spent in the pool working to improve my weakest of the three disciplines.

I loved running, walking and crawling my marathon. I am proud of myself, this was a challenge, one that I never in my live thought I could do, and it has made me a better man, husband and father. I set off on my journey some 18 weeks ago as a novice marathon runner. Since then I have run when it was 105 degrees out and when it was 35 degrees out, I’ve run through rain, I’ve been chased my dogs, I’ve been run off the road by divers talking of their cell phone, I’ve been yelled at by drivers on cell phones, I’ve run during the day and at night, I’ve run 10 miles in the dark and didn’t get home until 10PM, I’ve run a lot and learned so much about myself.

Now after my marathon, I stand a little taller knowing that I can do anything, it only takes work hard and mental toughness and well, it takes all that and your wife’s OK.

I hope that you will someday have the joy of training for and running a marathon, it will change your life it you let it.

-Brian

P.S. I just got of the phone with my endocrinologist and I am going to see her on the 21st.

The Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon is in the books:

Hey,

Here is the quick and dirty race report.

The race started off just about 7:40, it was a bit cold, I’m guessing but I would say about 40 degrees or so. I wore a long-sleeved tech over a short-sleeved shirt encase it got warm I could ditch the LS
I ate a Clif bar, banana and 20 oz of Gatorade this would give me about 450 calories and a good place to start.

On the run: The Chickamauga Battlefield in northern Georgia is known because it’s the site of the second bloodiest battle ever fought on US, it was fought September 19-20, 1863 and involved more than 150,000 soldiers. I did not really get a chance to see it in detail, but during the run, we ran past many cannons and countless monuments. So the route took us into the park, did two loops inside the park, and then back to the start. The hills by themselves weren’t too bad, but combined with the distance they provided some real challenges. I can only think of one or two places that I thought where steep. My training runs where on bigger and longer hills, so the hills in the park were fine. I made my first loop with out any issues, the sun was out and it was just warm enough, the leave where just about 50-60 of peak colore and a few where falling, it was quite picturesque. The mood on the pack I that I ran with was great, everyone was laughing and having a great time. By my second loop I was just about by myself, I had a few in front and a few in back. This is the way I like it, I am a bit of a loner on tough runs. Don’t get me wrong, I love running with people, but I really needed to focus on my form and make my miles. At about mile 16 I started getting heart palpitations; yep I inherited them from my Mothers side of the family. Doctors have told me that it is ok, it’s just a bit of a misfire and that I would be ok. When it happened I kind of shock me, and it freaks me out. Now the palpitations by themselves aren’t too bad, but along with them I was getting heart rate spikes. I would get a palpitation then my HR would rocket up to 210 and once 230. This is a problem because isn’t the max HR 220? needless to say I was worried. On my training runs I experienced it once or twice on my longer runs. The times that I have had this thing it been at mile 15 or better. I am thinking it might be from dehydration and fatigue. I was really working my nutrition, water stops were approx 2 miles apart, and it each stop it was drinking two cups of water and I and every other stop I shot a GU gel. Anyway I am going to make an appointment with my doctor Monday. Ok back to mile 16, when I got my palpitations and soaring HR I would stop and walk and within 10 seconds my HR would start to drop. So for mile from mile 16ish to the end, I had to run walk it. At times I could run minutes and others maybe 1 minute and then I would have to walk. Towards the end, miles 20-26, I had to walk more and run less and it took longer for my HR to fall back to normal, and it was killing me. The real painful part was that I had the energy to run, I was feeling pretty good and I wanted to run, but it felt like I was going to die so I walked. All summer, well for 18 weeks I ran and rested and got some legs, and it was bummer that I could not run it all with my normal walk breaks. So the extra walking added about 30 and maybe 40 minutes to my total time, but believe me when I tell you, I had the time of my life today, well just below my kids being born and my wedding. It was awesome, I learned a lot about myself on my training runs and marathon.

I was shooting for a time around 5:15, this was the time I really thought I could make it.
With the extra time spend walking I completed my run in somewhere around 5:55ish.
Anything over six hours would have gotten me a DNF so I was running/walking as fast as I could. At the end of the race you ran up and took a left onto the street in front of the church and the race organizers had a person on the corner so the could read your bib number and radio it up the finish line. When I could see the spotter I hollered up to him “Can I make 6!” he laughed at me and said “You got it”, so I poured it on and just make the DNF cut-off with a few minutes to spare. The race organizers do a cool thing, if this is your first marathon and when you cross the finish they give you a duplicate of your race number framed, really cool. When I crossed I got mine and I saw in the box there were about 10 frames still in the box, so I am thinking 10 or so first timers didn’t show or the DNF’ed. I think everyone after me DNF’ed, too bad, they really should go a little longer with the time. I think I saw part results with times over the six hour mark.

My goal was to complete a marathon, and I did!

So when’s the next race…..

I’ll post a few pic when I have some time.

Tomorrow is Marathon day.

Atlast its here, and I'm ready to go, all I need now is some sleep.
Good luck to all my fellow runners, lets have a good race.

-b

Week 18 of my Chickamauga Marathon training:

Well, it’s finally here, week 18.
I’ve got two more days until my race and I am getting a little nervous.
I have had the beginning of a cold for the last three days, and I thought for sure I was going to be sick for my race. I have using ZiCam for about 5 days and I am sure it helped.

If know a few people have been reading my blog are also going to be running the Chickamauga, please drop me a line if you want to meet up.

Email me @ try2tri@gmail.com


The weather forecast for Saturday looks good, maybe a little cool at the start but no rain.

See you race day.

-Brian

Taper, The New England Patriots and Sam Adams

It’s been real busy few weeks. I work in the IT world and we just had a huge upgrade and it’s been keeping somewhat busy. But the all the regular work that got put on the back burner is now upfront.
My little on turned 5 (I guess not so little anymore) and my Dad, Mom and Grand Mother in from out of town. And the old “this, that and the other thing”.
Things are slowing down for me, the Patriots play the Colts this weekend so I am going to get my runs in and just kick back, watch the game and drink a few Sam Adams.

I am getting psyched for my marathon next week, just 7 days away…
Got some butterflies in the stomach, I know I’m ready, its just nerves. The event I have been training for these 18 long weeks is almost here and it’s felling a little weird.

So, I am doing fine, trying to rest up a bit and enjoy the taper.

-Brian