Full Vineman Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 25)

Oops, apologies! Should work now.

Thanks for sharing! Nice job! I hope we get that same air temp! Do you know how long chalk hill is?

Edited by akrenik 2013-07-15 4:57 PM

Nice report. Looking forward to this! It's starting to settle in that sh*t is about to get real, real soon. I'm freaking out that I'm forgetting stuff and I'm rethinking my cloths this late in the game after hearing people say it's worth it to change into clean cloths for the the run. Arg... but hey, this week will be so easy I won't know what to do with myself. I even thought about catching a movie this weekend with that extra time and energy I'll have! Crazy!

I'll bring this up again. Was the plan to try to meet for breakfast/lunch/coffee on Friday still? This weekend I'm going to be making my final plans in my head.

OK. Not that I am obsessing over this but accu-weather now has the forecast for Windsor on race day at 96 degrees!!! Official high last Sunday was 77 and most were finished before it was even that warm.

I would prefer to meet for Coffee/B-Fast on Friday before the race meetings/ T2 Set-up/Expo. I can hand out BT Tatto's at that time.

I finally finished making my hotel reservations for the way down and back. Prices weren't to bad which means less than $100. Compared to what I'll pay at the Flamingo.

My son's dentist who has done Vineman 70.3 says make sure to strap everything down on the bike or You will lose it. Makes me want to rethink a couple of things. 3M tape might be on the menu.

The road conditions were definitely bumpy a couple years ago for Vineman 70.3. We saw a number of water bottles laying on the side of the road after being ejected from their cages.

Roads are still really rough with Westside being the worst.  Yesterday saw over a hundred water/fuel bottles on the road, even an aero mounted speedfill, so make sure your holders grab them firmly (I had no losses), gel flasks, multiple kinds of solid nutrition(I guess jumping out of open bento boxes), CO2 cartridges (from back of seat holders (?), probably 10 wedge bags, and even an aero helmet visor.  Also saw quite a few folks on the side of the road fixing flats, so check your pressure for sure before you start out, and carry at least 2 CO2 cartridges.  They have marked many of the really bad spots with orange paint but in the dappled shadow can be hard to see.  Watch out for bridge entry/exit points, there is one especially bad one on the Chalk Hill Road stretch before the actual hill.  I heard a report, but not verified, that one rider took a really bad fall there.

Edited by TTom 2013-07-16 1:14 AM

Thanks again for all the first hand knowledge! I'm going to see if I can bend one of my bottle holders because it seems to hold bottles loosely as it is. As for the weather...good gosh I hope that changes! I wish the race was tomorrow! I want to stop thinking about it and just get going! I will have to miss your Friday morning gathering. Had to save money so won't be getting there Thursday like I hoped. Will probably be rolling in around 1:30 Friday.

Edited by akrenik 2013-07-16 7:46 PM

Yeah I don't even want to look at the weather now. They don't know anything until about 4 days out. Thanks for the input though! I lost 3 water bottles this year due to my cages. I'm pretty good at checking them after hitting bumps now though. I'm more concerned about that hill. Holy cow...can't wait to do that twice (<--- sarcasm!)

Ok that is just too damn hot. I am bringing one of those Mission towels for cooling around the neck ( hankerchief version) plus sun sleeves on my arms to pour water over. Suggest a hat not a visor to put ice in and let it drip down. Probably already know that. : ). My wife is happy that it is only a total training of an hour tonight.

Good luck with the packing. I am slowly getting there.

For those of you who will not be joining us for coffee B-Fast Friday am did you want me to mail you a couple BT Temp Tattos? Let me know and send me your address.

Sugestion-Let's try to meet somewhere by the high school that morning.

Sorry for the many posts. Here is a coffee shop just down from the high school. By the Twon Green where parking is the The event.

Copperstone Coffee Company.
370 Windsor River Rd, Windsor CA 95492
(707) 838-3100

Sounds great to me. Looks like it has some food offerings as well.

Isn't everyone loving this week?! So much extra time on my hands!

Brian-I would love it if you would! I will message you my address.

Kenb-you dropped off the grid. Everything going okay?

So I thought I'd share this little device I made for the race. I was almost faced with having to purchase a new Bike Computer for Vineman. My Garmin Forerunner 305 works for the bike, but only will last about 8-10 hours. When I did my last long ride of 6 and went to run it beeped "low battery" in the middle of my hour run. It lasted, but it certainly wouldn't have gone 5-5.5 hrs more. I had to figure a way to get the 305 charged up on the bike.

After some searching, I found this link that a guy has on line explaining the use of a "Duracell My Pocket Charger" that has the same connector as the Garmin Forerunner 305, but it is a miniature size charging cord as the picture shows.

I had to find a way to mount the Garmin as well as the Garmin charger on the bike along with the Duracell battery charger. So with a little imagination I came up with the following. I Cut a 1 inch piece of PVC pipe and sliced it in half; it fits perfectly over my stem. I Used a couple of screws to mount the PVC to a piece of yellow plastic about the size of an Iphone. I used velcro and laid a piece on the plastic with the opposite side of the velcro under the Garmin charger. To keep the watch on the garmin charger I used thre green zip tie that can slide off and on, but tight enough that it won't slip off on its own. I'll mount the battery charger just about the watch (also using an additional zip tie just in case) when I need it and I am good to go. When using 2 AA lithium batteries in the charger I should be able to fully recharge during the ride. I will start charging about midway through the bike. I'll wear the Garmin on my wrist until I need to charge it up.

Thought I'd share if any of you are having the same kind of issues.

Edited by TriGuyBri 2013-07-17 11:49 PM








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Hey Akrenik,

Yeah, I guess I did kind of fall off the grid. but I'm still in it !
I got in a lake swim last night, just a little chop, but great for a practice swim
The plan called for an hour and a half run this morning, it actually felt good, I got in about 10 miles, I went home feeling all cocky about how good it went, then my wife reminded me, "Well it better be easy, its less than half of what your going to be doing 9 days !"

9 days !!

TriGuyBri, interesting that you found a hotel for under $100 this late. Some of my friends want to come watch the race, but were thinking of driving on race morning as hotels are expensive. If they can find anything under $100, that'd be super. Would you mind sharing more info about your hotel?

thanks!
-C

The hotels I found under a hundred were ones we are staying at on the way down an back. Eureka, CA and Grants Pass. I didn't find any close to race site for the amt. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Edited by TriGuyBri 2013-07-18 3:54 PM

Went for a 90-min run yesterday and felt great (11 miles) except I started to get a blister on my right foot around mile 8. I bought two new pairs recently with the goal of breaking them in before next week. The second pair hasn't given me problems (knocking on wood). Not sure if I should change socks this close to the event. I bought a blister kit to be safe and will have my old pair in my Special Needs bag as a back-up. FYI - Weather is trending warmer through next Wednesday and Thursday unfortunately according to Bay Area TV weather reports.

Separately, I went for a ride and got my first flat in long time. Quickly discovered that my CO2 cartridge "gun" wasn't working properly. It made me realize that I should double-check the working condition of everything I plan on taking. (I bought a small/light manual pump just in case) It was also good to practice changing my tire given the relatively poor road conditions.

Glad these challenges are hitting now versus next week!