Late update

Sorry about this one... its been over a month since my last race and I still have not had time to write this post. And I actually have an interesting story this time.

Tristar 200 Andalucia was my last event of the year after I decided to skip Ironman 70.3 World Championships. The Tristar race was something totally different than what I or anyone has ever done.

Starting with a 169km bike, the race was draft legal and very competitive from the beginning. Obviously I had an advantage from my cycling background as the format was basically a bike race followed by a short 1km swim and a deathmarch 30km run down a beach. The bike section I knew was where I had to leave my mark.

Lining up on the start, I took the front row and basically kept that same position all the way to the finish. When the race began, it was still completely dark! And with about 200 athletes in the group, I was not risking anything and immediately went on the attack. It took a few tries but after about 15 minutes, I had established a group of three that built a significant advantage before the sun even came up. That was an experience I will never forget, racing out of the start town into the rolling hills when there was NO light. Crazy experience.

During the bike, there were four sprints for money. 500, 300, and 100€ for each sprint. I took this very seriously as I knew my fitness might not keep me going all the way to the finish for a overall placing. My goal was to clean up the sprints then hold onto my advantage as long as possible and suffer to the finish.

Everything went EXACTLY to plan as I won the first, second, and fourth sprints plus finished 2nd in the third bike sprint. There were also sprints just after the swim and 10kms into the run. Both of those I managed to get 2nd or 3rd.

By the end of the bike, I was pretty tired from working so hard to get the sprint money. And when I entered the water ever muscle in my lower body started to cramp. I was able to swim ok until about 3/4 of the way through the cross river swim, but then the cramping really started. 'Oh shit' I was thinking. I came to a complete stop and started to scream. I was sinking and was honestly nervous I would need to be pulled from the water. A boat came over to help but I tried to relax so I could complete the swim. After a couple minutes sitting in the water, I managed to start moving again, although the legs were still completely cramped.

I saw one guy pass me when I was standing still and I wanted to catch him again so I could get the swim sprint money. I swam super hard just to catch him then tried to run up the beach to the sprint line. OUCH... what a deadly slow sprint. We were both cramping so badly. I still do not know who won that sprint but after we both were lying on the ground in extreme pain from all the cramping.

Sitting in the transition tent floor trying to get shoes on was the next challenge. It took another couple minutes to get the shoes on as the legs were still completely cramped. However, once I got started on the run, things starting to loosen up a little.

Having won so many sprints already, I felt like champion. In fact, I had already decided my day was done and I just needed to get to the finish in order to get my sprint money. I took my time at every feed station on the brutally hot run along the beach and even walked for a little while when my stomach started to have problems, but going into the last 10 kms I started to feel better and picked up the pace. Basically I was bored and wanted to get to the finish faster.

I had been calculating how many people had caught me on the run and I believed I was already outside of the top 5 which were eligible for final placing prize money. I did try to keep my pace solid during the run in case someone in front of me started to have problems. But I never believed I would get into the top 5. To my surprise, after finishing, I found out the a couple of the guys who had passed me were disqualified for missing some of the course. I ended up in 5th place because of that!

The day was filled with incredible suffering but I was immensely happy to finally take home some decent prize money. I had worked very hard for that and it felt great.

Now I am on my fall vacation and wondering what adventures I will find for next year. The Tristar 200 event opened my eyes to the triathlon world outside of Ironman. Now I am hoping to find similar events for next year that are competitive but still offer a chance to make a living. With a young child and a house loan (still in the process of buying the house now) I would love to make a basic living from racing triathlon but it seems quite difficult to do so. Finding a sponsor from Finland is basically impossible, so I either need to win every race I enter, or keep a 2nd job, which is also hard to find in Finland these days.

I will try to keep writing about how my plans for next year come. The off-season this year will be a busy one with my wife finishing up medical school, our attempts at buying a house, my attempt at finding reliable income, and my everyday job of taking care of 15 month old girl.

Best,
Darby

Felt DA - You CAN buy speed!

This is a blog entry I really should have done a long time ago but I keep forgetting. My sponsor Huntteri, which is the importer to Finland for Felt Bicycles has been incredibly generous to set me up with what is perhaps the fastest bike on the roads today. The Felt DA.

In my past cycling teams I have had sponsors including Cannondale, Pinerello, Specialized, and Trek but I can honestly say that Felt has done their homework to make a superior time trial and triathlon bike. While it is obvious I am biased because of my sponsorship by Felt, I will try to keep this review as honest and straight forward as possible.

Historically time trial bikes were not very comfortable and handling was poor at best. The Felt DA set up blows away the previous standards for TT bikes and gives a comfortable and very precise ride. The steering mechanism is perhaps the key and provides a stiff and responsive feel thanks to it's unique design. Also the adjustable stem makes fine tuning the riding position very simple. The bikes all come with three different lengths of stems as well.

Aerodynamically, the bike has all the latest concepts represented with internal cable routing, massive real wheel cutout, hidden rear brake and the lengthened head tube thanks to the external steerer tube. Most importantly in my opinion is the choice of Zipp 1080 (rear) and Zipp 808 (front) wheels that are the best aero wheels available. Just take a look at what the guys are riding in the Tour de France time trials. Even teams not sponsored by Zipp use their wheels after removing the decals. I might not be able to afford wind tunnel testing to back up my opinions on aerodynamics but you can learn a lot from looking and reading about how the top time trial riders set up their bikes and why.

The Zipp 1080 rear wheel out performs any disc wheel because it can handle cross winds much better, which saves energy, plus the aerodynamics are virtually the same as a disc in a straight line. Especially in triathlon where the conditions will always be changing during the day, the combination of the 1080 and 808 is the best option to maximize aerodynamics while still being able to handle varying winds.

The overall setup for the bike including components and design is very well thought out. Shimano Dura-Ace is the best performing component group available and the DA includes the full group. Felt has been very smart in designing the aero frame to accept normal brake calipers and bottom bracket, where as you see many other current tt bikes requiring custom or special components just to fit within the frame.

The Devox (Felt's own brand) aero bar is surprisingly well designed for a first generation product. The bars include special rubber grips that are very comfortable and safe even when in wet conditions. The extensions come extra long in an 'S bend' style to allow for cutting down to either 'ski bend' or 'straight' style. Personally I cut them to the short ski bend for my ideal hand position. Only down side I see to these bars is the lack of adjust ability for the extensions to move narrower or wider. The arm rests are able to move side to side but the actual bars are in a fixed position. It works fine for me but some people might want more range there.

Perhaps the only other thing that could be improved is the seat post clamp design that is very tightly built and can make pulling the seat post out very difficult if it has been in place for a long time.

The Felt DA is the flag ship of Felt's time trial and triathlon series of bikes and they spare no expense in making the fastest possible bike. Its 9000€ retail price tag is steep but considering the wheels, components and design, I feel its a valid price. Its notable that their cheaper bikes are similarly designed and use almost the same frame but smartly chosen components to help reduce the price. If you are in the market for tt bike, Felt is definitely at the front of the pack and worth considering. http://www.feltracing.com/09-catalog-international/time-trial-triathlon.aspx

My Felt DA will be available for purchase at the end of the 2009 season in November after Ironman 70.3 world championships. If you are looking for the fastest possible bike and want to save a little money, my DA has only 700kms on it and is guaranteed to make you faster! Offers are now being accepted at darby1kenobi at yahoo dot comm.

Antwerp 70.3 - 2009

Antwerp was my first real triathlon three years ago and was part of what got me hooked on the sport. I have come back every years since then and this being my third year was equally as fun as the first one.

Three years ago on my first attempt I struggled through the day and was completely burned by the end. This year was a large contrast in that I was able to push hard the whole day. And the times reflect that too. 16 minutes faster than my first time in Antwerp!

The result for 2009 was 11th place, which was a hard earned place this year. Last year I managed 7th place but looking at the times and the feeling I had in the race, I believe this year was a much better race. Not only was I faster in ALL three sports, but my strength was solid the whole day. Unfortunately for me, there is becoming much more competition at the 70.3 events and Antwerp 2009 was no different. 13 different Ironman and 70.3 champions started the event combined with many olympic distance athletes including some who had competed in Beijing.

I knew the competition would be tougher this year so I made sure to focus on my own race and my own feeling the whole day. I tried not to get distracted when the swim start was INSANELY fast. When there were others on the bike who could equal my pace, I did not worry. And on the run when I felt it was my best run ever, and still someone ran past me like I was standing still, I did not freak out. In the end I am very proud that I was able to race within my limits and not push too hard. It has been my downfall in many races where I tried too hard to follow someone stronger than me only to have my race fall apart later because I burned my engine. I feel like I am finally learning how to race and feel when to push my body.

The only mistakes I made in the race were perhaps in the swim start by not forcing myself to the front line before the gun. Then during the bike I crashed on the last corner by not being careful enough with the rain soaked roads. And finally on the run by not concentrating enough during the 2nd of 3 laps and perhaps lost a couple minutes there.

BUT... it was still my best overall time with a 3:54. My PR run with a 1:18 and 2 minutes faster than last year. Bike was slightly faster than last year. So was swim with one minute faster than last year.

So, the feeling is good right now. While I was dissappointed to not come away with a better placing and some prize money to pay back the expenses, it is nice to know I am almost on the same level with the top guys. Only thing lacking at this point is a little more speed in the swim start, then the story is completely different.

Now I am taking a short break to recover completely before I start a serious block of training that culminates in November with the world championships. After seeing my performance in Belgium I have set my goals for worlds to be a sub 3:50 time, with a sub 1:15 run. All of which I believe are possible I can concentrate over the next three months of training.

Finntriathlon (SM puolimatka)

First looser again...

I seem to be good at collecting 2nd place finishes. I am not complaining. 2nd is better than most other places of course. But some day it would be nice to actually win a race!

Great race all around though. It was fun to have such a quality field of competitors this year and I think everyone was really hoping to win the race. I knew it was going to be a good battle but it was very hard to predict who would finally win.

In terms of my race, everything went very well. Swim was a little tough at the start but I managed to get into a strong group for the whole 1.9km. In the end I was only about 2 minutes behind the fastest, which is great by my swim standards!

I pushed very hard to go through transition fast so when I started the bike, I would not take anyone with me. I knew it was best to do the bike solo as I am usually the strongest there so anyone coming with me would be getting a free ride. I was not going to let that happen.

The first 10km I pushed very hard on the bike to keep any of my competitors from coming back to me and also I tried to bridge the gap to the front two guys. Unfortunately Marko and Teemu were going quite fast and I was only able to match their pace in the beginning. Starting the third lap, I knew Teemu had been dropped by Marko, so I lifted the pace to try and catch Teemu before the run. It was my only chance to win the race, if I could start with or before Teemu on the run.

I was able to bring back Teemu about 5km before the run start and began the run with only Marko in front. I knew I would be able to easily catch him on the run but I was mostly worried about Teemu catching me on the run. And he did, quite quickly. We ran together for the beginning few kms but then Teemu started to cramp. I took a sizeable lead until the final of four laps when Teemu's legs came around and he was able to catch up to me and really go fast. When he passed me it was like I was walking and he was sprinting! He really has another gear that I don't have yet. Perhaps next year I will learn how to really run like Teemu but for this year I have to be content with 2nd place again.

Still, it was my best performance yet and I can easily say it could be even better with just a few small adjustments. In two weeks I will race 70.3 Antwerp in Belgium where I feel very confident I can get a good result. Already feeling recovered well, just need to take it easy for a couple more days then do some tune up training before Antwerp.

BTW... I had to add one comment to Teemu Lemmettylä's pre-race prediction blog. I thought it was rather funny that only one person even predicted me as a top three finisher. I was 2nd two years ago. Last year I would have been at least 2nd place if I did not choose to drop out with knee pain. And this year I have progressed even more. So.... maybe next year we will see my name on the top three list? Hopefully I have earned that by now...

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3252325662181212647&postID=1596992651472008820

Until next time...

-darby