My ride

I finished this week just under 10 hours of training. I got in 4 swims, 3 bikes, 2 runs and 2 strength training sessions. I got off the bike 20 minutes early tonight because I was tired. I'm ok with that. Then I decided to take some pics of my bike and share them.

This is it. It's a custom built steel frame made (VERY rare in triathlon nowadays) with parts taken from an older Scott TT bike. I went with this bike rather than your typical aluminum or fancy carbon fiber because I know the builder, he does everything by hand, and the weight gain that I take on with a steel frame is worth it in my opinion because this bike is indestructible. It has a curved seat tube to tuck the back wheel in a little closer, an aero down tube for speed and curved seat stays to make it a little less rigid. It also has an awesome paint job... It's stiff and fast and still under 21lbs.

My bike was made by Bryan at Royal H. Cycles in Boston (www.royalhcycles.com). As I said he does everything by hand. He ordered the steel tubes, then measured, cut, filed and fillet brazed (welded) them himself - all based on my body measurements.

I got the other parts (drivetrain, wheels and cockpit) from a used Scott bike I bought off ebay. I resold the frame and just stole the parts. The big sellers were the carbon HED aerobars and the low spoke count bontrager wheels. The only carbon on it is the fork, aerobars and the headset (addition - I think the seat post is carbon too!). I recently dropped the headset about 1.5 inches so I can get a little lower and more aero this year. I can already feel it pulling in my hamstrings though...

The real gem on this thing is the ism adamo saddle! I had a fizik arione saddle but I was sooo uncomfortable on it. I thought the discomfort, numbness and wiggling around every 15 minutes was just something I would have to get used to. Then I read a couple reviews and splurged on this bad boy. I got it 6 days before the Syracuse 70.3 and decided to race with it. It was the best decision I could have made and helped me drop my 56 mile bike split by 20 minutes! (Plus, look at that American flag!)

Here is a little clip of me on winding down on my trainer session. I had Maddy record me so I could see how my form is. It looks like I could put the seat up a little higher, I'm a little forward on the saddle and my flexibility is really inhibiting my aerodynamics.... I guess it's only January, but I've got some tweaking to do in the coming months.

Ok enough for tonight. It's past my bedtime!