Speed Machine with a Difference

I saw this on a international website and thought it was pretty cool, look at how well it is finished and i think if you had to throw a nice set of wheels on it and get down and dirty it would be pretty fast.

Not to mention everybody looking at you, so its just my kind of Bike, because if you can’t be first be on TV.

Run a Marathon up a wall ?

This has been on my list of things to do for ages now and since i am crossing them off at a furious pace thanks to the Bar-one Manhunt i thought i might as well continue to do so.

I present to you the Great Wall of China Marathon, 6th September and i think we should go and run it, who is keen on joining me ?

There website is : Great wall Run its in German i think ? but am trying to figure out how to get it to English. I think it would be one of the most amazing things i have ever done or will do.

Marathon’s Hurt like a mother….

So i worked out this morning that i have averaged 14km per week of running for the last 12 weeks incl today’s marathon.

Its a joke actually how much i haven’t been running and due to the Bar-One Manhunt TV that i am on, we are filming every weekend for the next 6 or 7 and wasn’t going to have time to qualify for comrades, so i had to run one at the drop of the hat today on valentines day.

I survived and survived well, i only started feeling a lot of pain around 38km and then the last 4km were really sore, but more joint and ankle pain from being on my feet so long as i haven’t been running at all.

I ran a PB, as it was my first stand alone marathon i have ever done and the only other one i have done was in a Ironman and i ran 4hr 39min. Today i ran the course in the howling wind and rain in 3hr 56 min which i am very proud of.

The only reason i was able to do this was good pacing during the race, i didn’t push it or care when big women were running past me, good equipment on the day and then lots of good base HR biking in December. I managed to keep my HR around 145 bpm the whole way which is about 70% of my sustainable max for me and still be strong. I would of been even stronger if i didn’t do a 2hr MTB yesterday but hey, you only live once, right ?

I ran in double layer compression tights, from Under Armour which i thought was going to be a overkill, but they were so super comfy and didn’t bother me at all during race, i also used there Compression socks and under long sleeve. I wore there clima cool cap as well. I rocked my Puma Tenos shoes which are my favourite in the puma range and have been ever since i got a set 4 years ago. I also used my custom Oakley radars to bring me home.

Another small piece of equipment i used was my Power Balance and i must say i felt strong most of the way and was able to hold my form a lot longer than i expected and believe that it gave me the edge.

If you interested here is my data from the day :

• Avg HR for the day was 149 bpm, i really started to run harder near the end to make sure i broke 4hrs

• 3271 Calories Burnt for run

• I took 5km run splits according to the boards : 29:28 ; 28.02 ; 26:41 ; 28:53 ; 27:07 ; 27:36 ; 28:13 ; 28:19 the first one was slower cause we were running through people and the faster one had long down hill but pretty consistant.

• My nutrition plan was light breakfast, a KORU every hour from the start, i only started coke around 18km and beofre that was only water. Once i started coke i hit a cup every table and made sure i walked the whole table. I also popped 1 myprodol at 21km which was awesome.

So there you go, was 1 hell of experience and i qualified for comrades which is going to be a whole nother mother, now i think its time i start doing some more running, thats once i can walk again of course.

See you on the road

Argon has landed and the Here are the Pornstars new Rigs

I have been very fortunate to be involved with such a great brand and such sexy bikes.

My TT bike is the 2010 Argon E-114 with Full custom Carbon Tri bars and Full Sram , ceramic Red with the Super sexy and fast Xentis Mark 1 TT wheelset, speedplay pedals to finish her off. I am not sure of the weight but its light, i guess complete like this it’s about 7.3kgs

Also rocking the new Specialized Romin saddle.

My road rig is there new Top end 2010 Frameset with full SRAM force, which is under the 2kg mark this year and retails for around R 8700.00 this is the best value for money out there as its lighter than the new dura ace and half the price. I finished her off with the new american classic victory wheelset which is good value for money and matches the rest of the bike and off course speedplay pedals. This weighs around 7kg complete and with training wheels…scarey, its a sub 900g frame so i had a good start there.

Now all i need to do is train again…Hmmmmm

70.3 SA, another long day at the office

I was very happy to pick up my Bar-One manhunt Nissan X-Trail and pack my bags and head off to East London for the weekend to race the 70.3, which is a Half Ironman, a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride and a 21.1km run after that.

We got a bit lost going there and drove about 2hrs extras, if you ever doing the trip remember to take the split just after bloem and don’t keep driving towards cape town as its the wrong way.

Leading up to the race i felt ok, but not great, i have done quite a bit of biking and so knew i was strong but hadn’t done much swimming or running due to the show and then being on holiday so i knew i was going to be in for a long day. I was very excited though to race my new bike for the first time in  the race. A Argon 18 E-114

The swim was a huge field of around 1400 men and i did well to exit rather unharmed and without spending too many calories. I was quickly on the bike and felt strong and so started to race my game plan. But soon disaster struck as i vomited up my first gel…i turned the half way point in around 97th place overall and was looking forward at riding hard back to town.

At 70km my race day ended as my body gave up, i hadn’t been able to get calories in and then the rest of the day became survival…the only thing that stayed down all day was a bit of coke on the run. So ended up with a 5hrs 36min race which isn’t too bad considering i only took in about 500 calories all day.

Well done to all of you who were out there surviving the day as the weather and course were all hard.

Thanks again to the wonderful guys who sponsor the cool gear i use, Orca Wetsuits and Apparel, Puma Racing and Training Gear, Argon 18 Bikes, Suunto Heart Rate Monitors, Troi Sport and Under Armour Compression Gear

You guys rock

Awesome new TT Bars i am importing

So i have been on the look out for something special when it comes to TT bars and i think i have found them. I am going to be importing ths brand of TT bars, they weigh 440g a set and although the extentions can’t adjust the arm rests can.

The extentions are in a such a sweet and perfect ride position though you wont need to change much. They will retail for  R3800.00 so its excellent value and carry a 2 year warranty.

www.UberhundDesigns.com for more info

70.3 SA here we come with new toys, Of Course

So this week i get to drive to East London to take part on the biggest Half Ironman in the country.

And being me, i cant rock up at a big race without some new toys…so here are a few toys that i am going to bringing the noise with.

Rudy Project TT helmet, this is the lightest aero helmet i have ever picked up and also one of the coolest looking

And my new ride , a Argon 18, E-114 with Sram Red and if all goes well i am going to have my dream wheels to race too..

See you there

Hottest Specialized and probably bike in the world

I got this off Conrad Stolz website and i couldn’t stop looking at it.

I would love to get on board this beauty and rip it up, think it would be super fast and fun to ride.

Zipp Limited Edition Wheels

NEW ‘Special Edition’ 404 Wheel Set from ZIPP (made in Indianapolis, USA)

ZIPP has been making light weight, carbon wheels for decades working with Professional Cycling Teams and Tri Athletes alike.  They spend millions of dollars on R&D, wind tunnel design (not only wind tunnel testing) and build the foundation of their business on superior quality products.

ZIPP holds the patent for a ‘structural toroidal rim’ and this ‘toroidal’ rim shape makes ZIPP wheels more aerodynamic than any of its competitors at the same rim depth.  In other words if you have any other wheel with the same rim depth the ZIPP wheels will always be more aerodynamic (at normal racing speeds of 15km/h to 65km/h).  ZIPP wheels also have a dimpled effect on their rims to give them better aerodynamic qualities.  ZIPP recently launched NEW hubs (88/188) for their 2010 range which has given them the opportunity to bring the ‘Special Edition’ wheels to market at a fraction of the price of the 2010 wheels.

The ‘Special Edition’ 404 wheel set is probably the best value for money carbon deep section wheel set out there (R14250 recommended retail price).  Although the rims doesn’t have dimples it uses the same ‘toroidal’ rim shape which is the most important aerodynamic feature.  They build these 404 tubby and clincher rims on the their 2009 (82/182) hubs using the same Sapim CX Ray bladed spokes.

The Special Edition wheels are aimed at the cycling enthusiast and competitive rider who is looking for performance wheels at a more affordable price.  The wheels are imported and distributed by Bicycle Matrix (011 466 9974) who have been the agents for ZIPP for the past 6 years and will be backed up and supported in exactly the same manner as all their other Zipp products.

Profile ups its Game

Its been awhile since i have seen something by profile that i actually thought was cool. Yes they have been a leader in the TRI game for many years but a lot of the stuff last year and the year before looked like our grandfathers designed it.

So i was really happy to see 2 things yesterday that caught my eye at Troi Sport. First was a superlight and super good looking Alu Base bar with a interesting design. Second was a new design front end water bottle which i think i am actually going to buy myself.

Go see all the new stuff at Troi Sport www.troisport.co.za or call them on 011 807 9050

Comrades here we come

SO the saying goes that you need to do something that scares you all the time or ever day even so i decided to take on the big guy.

Comrades marathon, i dont want to race it, i just want to go under 11hrs and get the standard Bronze medal. There is a group of us who are going to be all surviving it together which should be a awesome day out. Problem is it is 6 weeks after Ironman SA so it should be interesting.

Here is the proof i have entered, now just need to find a marathon to enter to qualify

Online Payment – Receipt

Dear Mr CB Alin,

Thank you for using the Comrades Secure Online Payment Gateway.

Your payment has been ACCEPTED.
The details of the transaction are as follows:

My new TREK ex8

The boys down at TREK were ever so kind to get me onto this beautiful machine. I am going to be racing the Triple Challenge in 2 weeks with Jeff Norton and so i needed a machine that was tough enough for the job. Its a 20km off road run, then a 56km MTB and then a 3km run. Just for you fun, you know as you do.

This kick ass machine has been tweaked this year from the previous version and come down in price which is great for our pockets which have already taken a beating this year.

I have the first 2010 bike in SA at the moment, and will give you a review of it in about 2 weeks once i have had the time to take her out for a thrashing.

YOU can see all the spec details here :

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain_full_suspension/fuel_ex/fuelex8/

Where do you put all the gels you take ?

Often i get asked how often i take gels and more often than not i get a look of surprise when i tell people i will take 1 gel every 30min when i am racing.

The next question is where do you put them all and that is a good one as you cant carry them all in your pocket.

Here is a great picture showing you where you can put them. This is Tom’s pic of him racing a half somewhere around the world. You can follow him as he goes about the world racing www.tritom.co.uk

The other option is to put all your gels into a flask like this…..It takes 100ml or 3 gels in one flask

Slow motion footage of top Pro’s

This is some really cool footage of the top men and a few women in slow motion from Kona 09

TYR launch new wetsuits

At the 2009 Interbike trade show in as Vegas, TYR is introducing a line of wetsuits, something that has been missing in the portfolio of the Huntington Beach, CA company with the slogan “Made for swimmers by swimmers.”

The new line of wetsuits has been named Hurricane, and there are 3 different models. Category 1 or C1 is the entry level suit, Category 3 (C3) the mid level offering and Category 5 (C5) the most high-end of the Hurricanes. Each model will be available in 8 sizes for men and 7 sizes for women.

According to TYR, this line of wetsuits has been 2 years in the making and they were getting quite a bit of feedback from 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Andy Potts in the process, but the brand has been around for about 25 years without wetsuits. That of course begs the question, why now, after all these years without? There are many brands of wetsuits on the market now, and it appears that more and more new brands are jumping into the game.

from www.slowtwitch.com