Mike Schubert

2010 Scott Plasma 20
Originally uploaded by Iron Mike Schubert

After a year and a half of shopping for a triathlon / time trial bike, I have decided on the Scott Plasma 2 frameset with a full Shimano Dura Ace gruppo. Looking at the specs, you'll say "Oh, he's getting the Scott Plasma 10" - but my paint job will actually say "Scott Plasma 20". Do I care? No. But I have talked about the bike both ways, so now you know.

What went into this decision?

First, I had to meet all of my personal objectives. Frankly, I'm knocking them out of the park and these were pretty tough measures that I set for myself. Second, I had to research what type of bike best fit me as a rider. You see, I have a 34" inseam and I am 5' 10" standing on pedals (6' 0" in real life). This means that I need a bunch of seat post, but a shorter top tube. Bikes like the Cervelo P3 (my first choice), Felt B2, etc. are all made for people who are longer in the torso than I am. Those bikes are polar opposites to what I needed. So this pushed me over into the line of Scott Plasmas and Blue Triads. This is discussed further up on Slow Twitch, but essentially (Emphasis mine):

Who might best use a bike geometrically built like this? Two cases immediately come to mind. One involves a relatively fit, trim, experienced triathlete, who's probably going to ride with his or her seat angle at least moderately steep. If this person is short-waisted—that is, short in the torso, long-legged—that person is going to need a bike like this: short in length, taller in height. The height is required because that short torso means that rider's height is in his legs. Those taller legs prop the saddle higher, and that means the head tube has to be higher as well, to keep pace with that tall saddle height.

For whatever reason, I simply wasn't a fan of the Blue Triad. Not sure why. Add to the equation that I have had great success and enjoyment on my Scott road bike and things started coming together. I knew I wanted the Plasma 2 frameset which comes on the Plasma 10 and 20, and I wanted all Dura Ace which was pushing me to the 10. But the production run on the Plasma 10 was done and there were no remaining frames in stock. The sweet thing was that I could get a Plasma 2 frame with the 20 paint scheme, throw a Shimano Dura Ace gruppo on it and the only noticeable difference would be the color scheme. And I just happen to be a fan of the color green. So there you have it. It's like it was meant to be.

So why do I say it's "Mostly" a done deal?

I've plopped down a huge down payment, the bike is being built, and I am awaiting my fit appointment. I doubt any new information will come up during the fitting but you never know. And yes, having to cut the seat post is scaring the crap out of me. I'm not the one doing it mind you, but it's just one of those things that you can't undo. If the seat is too low you lose power. Ok - I'm done stressing for now.

So August 3rd is the day that I'll pick up my new ride and have the final fitting done. I will have almost 2 full months to train on it prior to the 70.3 in Augusta. I may even take it to ride on the IM Louisville course, but I'm still leaning toward using my road bike for that adventure. I'll post pics and maybe video from the fitting, as well as the full details of my new ride once it is in my possession.

Get back to work. Happy Monday.

Pre-ride 3-31-2010
Originally uploaded by Iron Mike Schubert

Baseball players have wound down Spring training and the regular season has begun. Atlanta has completely skipped Spring and gone from high temperatures one week in the 40's to last week in the 80's. I decided it was time to take some time off from work for a little Spring training of my own.

3/31 - 43 mile bike ride through Suwanee, Buford, Flowery Branch and Sugar Hill. High temp on the bike was right at 80 degrees.

4/1 - 5.75 mile run at lunch (I worked today). Again - the weather was perfect. This is evidently the start of heat training for the season so my run struggled a bit. I expect this to change quickly.

4/2 - Rest day. If anyone ever posts a week's worth of workouts and you don't see a rest day, you need to question them. You get stronger via recovery from the activity, not from actually doing the activity. I worked today, too.

4/3 - 6.7 miles run. This was an easy out and back on the greenway. Not a lot of elevation change. Right at the end I had to gun it to get around some annoying Team In Training people. Once again, they were occupying the entire 12 foot stretch of concrete with just a few people. They said "sorry" as I passed them on the right - meaning they knew they were in the wrong. Unfortunately, they continued to be in the wrong even after I passed them.

4/4 - Ride: 15.5 miles. Originally I planned this to be a swim as I thought it was the last day of the Tri2Remember Swim Clinic. Evidentally, it wasn't due to the Easter holiday. I have missed the prior two practices due to the ING Marathon one Sunday and dealing with my mom's estate the other Sunday. 

4/5 - Stott pilates. It's nice to work out with athletes. There is a common respect there - especially when they give you a workout that absolutely kicks your ass. That was the way today went. Imagine 1 hour of core work where the goal is to find all of your different breaking points and make them stronger. That's how it went. At the end, the instructor said she admired my ability to swim / bike / run for hours on end - she could do pilates for hours, but no way could bike or run for that long. And to be honest, an hour of Stott was all I could take. Mutual admiration isn't a bad thing.

4/6 - Long run. >10 miles. I wanted to go longer than that today, but it simply wasn't in the cards. As I mentioned earlier, it's heating up in Atlanta - they high today was around 88. So the heat training has kicked in earlier than planned. That's not a bad thing. I just ran 26.2 a couple of weeks back, so I'm not worried about the distance. I'll get in a 15 miler this weekend and a bunch of maintenance runs as well so I should be all set for 26.2 again in 2.5 weeks.

And thus Spring Training for me has ended. I feel better and stronger today than when I started 1 week ago. The base fitness has been awakened and proven. I am working on the 3rd solid week of logging EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth and my workouts. All that combined and I FEEL like an athlete again. That was the overarching goal of the past week and I met it with flying colors.

The top of Fort Mountain
Originally uploaded by Iron Mike Schubert

For many of us in the United States, the weather is getting colder and the urge to ride our bikes outside is dying down. Of course, it's not for me - but the rest of you people may be wimping out and that's okay. This is a friendly reminder for those of you out there still riding to be extra vigilant as there are fewer riders out and motorists may not be as aware of our presence.

If you ride enough miles you will eventually encounter less than friendly motorists that do things to you. I've had people try to run me off the road, throw bottles at me, yell, etc. I've even had stupid people in their own front yard yell at me to get off the road - as if I didn't know where they lived. What idiots.

One of my favorite stories came from the Athena Diaries this summer. Someone pulled a stunt on her while out riding, but evidently they were close to their final destination and she was able to note the address they pulled into. She wrote a friendly blog post titled Dear Pompous Idiot with this gem of a quote inside:

Oh, And thanks so much for pulling into your own driveway and screaming and swearing at us from your very own front yard. I checked on Google Street, and saw the same dark grey Volvo parked in your driveway, and now I know where you live. I’ll be sure and share that address on every cycling advocacy website that I know.

Just remember friends, you have as much right to the road as everyone else. Be smart, be predictable, and be safe.

Unless you have a heart rate monitor (and / or a power meter when cycling), you are probably not training as hard as you think you are. I came to this realization this morning in spin class. The batteries died in the HRM I use for indoor work about 8 weeks ago, but for a variety of reasons I had not replaced them. I would ride my 5 a.m. rides based on the old rate of perceived exertion (aka RPE) and judge my progress accordingly.

I purchased new batteries this weekend and went into class this morning ready to rock and roll. Unfortunately, when my heart rate hit 75% of max, my legs were screaming at me. In part I think this was due to my running the hills in San Francisco last week. But I cannot help but wonder if over the last 8 weeks I was taking it too easy. 

What gets measured gets done. And I'm back on it now.

Earlier today I wrote about visualizing race day and posted a video that contained a montage of photos and video clips from the 2008 Great Floridian triathlon. Later today I found this video of people on the Sugarloaf Mtn climb. If you can put up with the shaky camera work, and incessant chatter about her battery dying, you'll get a good perspective on what to expect when you turn onto Sugarloaf Mountain Rd.

The dude in the video rides down the mountain and back up in the span of the 4 minute video. I'm not going to attack the thing when I ride it on Saturday, but through this video I have now validated that it is no worse than anywhere that I have trained this year.