SBR Utopia ~~~~ Permanently OPEN!! (Page 16)

Great job James!  I look forward to reading all about it.

I had a good 3 hour ride with Tab yesterday.  My knee still didn't like pushing any hard efforts but was fine otherwise - didn't try any running.  Biked to the pool this morning, swam and then rode back home. The pool doesn't open until 6:30am now so I'm going to have to get creative with swim workouts.  All winter I've been going at 5:30, then driving back home to drive Tab to work.  A 6:30 opening doesn't give me enough time so I'm going to try the bike commute option.  Working from home this week (for an online course) gives me a little extra saddle time.

Great race James!

I have heard that the Syracuse run is pretty rough and sounds like it might have been warm out too. 

Great job James.  Look forward to the report.

This weekend wasn't supposed to be anything crazy...but my legs felt really flat.  Part of it might just be mentally worrying, but the power and HR numbers also don't lie.  I slept like a rock last night...a good 8.5 hours straight which I haven't done in a long time so I suppose maybe that's a good part of it.  

Yup...been in that situation before.  Rather than worrying too much about it, I was more glad (and somewhat chuckling to myself while riding) that my race wasn't that weekend because it would have been a huge letdown.  At this point, I can only control a handful of things.  The rest is just where the chips fall so to speak.

Got another good nights sleep and legs feel much more responsive.  Little short bursts on my way home last night and on my way to work this morning and everything seems right.

Good to hear Jason!  When are you travelling over for the race?

I had a short windy ride after work today doing 2 x 12:30 @ 275w.  First outdoor ride in quite a while where I pushed the watts up a bit - felt good.

Head out Friday morning, race Saturday morning, leave Sunday around noon.  Basically just get in, get err done, have some beer and pizza, and come home.

Still cranky.  It's fine 99% of the time and then I do something that is just the wrong little movement and I feel a stab going through it.

What have you been doing?  Running the bike through the course with the 808 and then updating the bike to a cover and then updating the race again?

I just tried and it gave me a difference of only 3 seconds (over the 70.3 distance).  All I did was change the rear wheel from a deep 90 to a disk and left everything else the same, saved the bike then went into the race and told it to update it without changing any data.

There was an interesting thread on ST last week discussing if you could actually be faster on a windy day vs a windless day.  It was fairly interesting, and some of my results back up the claim that with a disc, and decent cross winds, you can actually go faster.  The wind tunnel tests for discs vs a 80-90mm deep wheel back that claim up as at 10-20 degrees of yaw, a disc creates negative drag...or more negative drag than a deep wheel.  But for yaw ranges between 0-10 degrees, there are very close.  So whatever small gains you might get at low yaw with a disc, may be negated by the additional weight on the climbs at Mont Tremblant.  Especially if the descents are technical and require some braking.

I'd bet if you entered the same scenario for a race like Western Australia (flat, with lots of crosswinds) the disc might prove to be a bigger advantage.

FWIW...if I had the cover already, I'd still run it even if it were a 3 second gain.  I feel much more stable in crosswinds with a disc versus the same depth wheel front and back.

Outside and along the back.

Second this in it's entirety.  Might be a small weight penalty that evens it out on a hilly course, but if there is decent (but not biblical) wind, I prefer the disc.  Growing up on the water, it just feels like a well controlled sail and I feel way faster (might just be feeling more stable) with a crosswind than on my 808's or even my 808/404 setup.  Also, given where it pushes on the frame, the disc in back is much less destabilizing that deep in the front...

If it's hilly and no wind, I'd personally run the 808's.  Otherwise, 900/808.  YMMV (and I might be FOS).  

Arend - hope the knee comes around quickly.  I know how much it stinks feeling aaaaalmost better.

James - great race and congrats!

Ben - tornados just flat out scare me.  Had a car crushed by one and our daughter's window ripped out of the house (while she was sleeping) by one in, of all places, the 'burbs of Philadelphia.  That has had a lasting effect…  

Matt

For what it's worth, A Zipp 900 is 1219g, versus about 1000g for the 808 rear.  So I'd still say aero is the way to go even on a hillier course.  Otherwise everyone would be using tubulars

When I did IM Western Australia, it was a particularly good day for a disc because it is an "H" shaped bike course and we were getting a diagonal crosswind off the water, so you could really feel a pull.  Hard to describe if you haven't ridden one.

I used the disc at Tahoe as well.  I think it was probably a wash versus the 808.  Weight-wise, 200g was nothing compared to all the cold weather gear we had to wear

If I can ride the disc then I'm riding the disc. 

Partly my own fault I suppose, but I'm scrambling to get a new tire mounted on my 202 rear tubular.  I had lent it to a friend a few months ago, he got a flat, I bought a new tire and he reglued it for me as his way of paying me back (he's a broke college kid...I wasn't about to make him starve for a week and pay for the tire).  But I waited till last weekend to pick it up from him (he glued it 6 weeks ago) and only yesterday did I pump it up and test it out.  Turns out the tire is defective as it has a small bulge in it.  I got it off ebay (Vittoria Corsa CX) so I suppose I may have been buying from a bad batch.  Price wasn't super cheap...around $70, but less than the normal $90.

I ripped the tire off, reinflated it, and the bulge is still there, so it's not the rim.  I was able to pick up a pair of spares that a friend had that are already pre stretched and will glue them on tomorrow once I land in Maui.  Shipping the bikes via an air cargo service today.  Glue should have about 16 hours to set, and since the course is all uphill, I'm not worried.

Just venting that I think I'm done with tubulars.  This will be the 4th time I will have to replace a tire and I've only used the wheels for one race as a complete set.  This is the 4th time I've had to replace the tire less than 3 days before a race.  Sigh.

Hoping to sell them and maybe get a set of FLO 30's which aren't the lightest, but at least have some aero properties.  That and I could actually use them for fast training rides without worrying about flatting a tubular or damaging an expensive rim.

On a positive note...my legs feel great.