Fink for Outlaw 2012

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  • TJ - at the Vit most people grabbed a bottle while still moving on the bike(most quite quickly too) but I can't do that so had to stop and I'll be doing that again at Outlaw. You chuck your empty bottle down and get a full one so don't bring your best bottles cos you'll lose them.
  • TJ1004TJ1004 ✭✭✭
    Perfectly cheers andy
  • TJ1004TJ1004 ✭✭✭
    Thanks soup as well think I will be same as you. Probably forget to unclip and topple over!!
  • TJ - they didn't even unclip!  Just went speeding through, arm out, grabbed a bottle and went - zoom!!!. image  One chap this year at the Vit when I was watching even threw his up in the air with a spin, caught in one-handed and dropped it into his bottle cage.  Show-off. image I can only just drink when riding and even then sometimes miss the cage putting it back in. So by stopping I know I'm safely getting a refill and not leaving it by the road side.
  • TJ1004TJ1004 ✭✭✭
    The only spin I will be doing is trying to keep my wheels moving.

    Juggling bottles is a different sport and belongs in the circus!!
  • Get practising picking up bottles and putting them in the cage on the move, you will become more confident and although you may not think so now it will save you a lot of time on the day
    Multiply the stops by at least 8 and the stopping and starting and you will lose 10 mins, if you are chasing a cut off then you can ill afford to do this
    Practice now and you will be pleased you did

    If I can do, you can  image
  • 8?  I thought there were only 3 feed stations on the bike?  I used to stop every time I wanted a drink but I do this moving now, its just throwing bottles down and picking up a refill I'm planning to stop for. But of course I might be better at that come July too with the amount of time I'm going to be spending on my bike between now and then. image
  • I am assuming that you will pick up more than 3 drinks during the bike leg
  • hmmmm - I've not thought this through have I? imageimage Oh well, another skill to practice.  Nutrition worries me a lot on this cos I've rarely got it right so the advice here is great and I'm going to be ordering in a stack of gels and stuff. And malt loaf. And bananas. And marmite.
  • Honey works well on the bike for me and it's cheap. Just put it in a drinks bottle and top up with water.
  • But then be careful not to throw your special honey bottle away instead of an empty water one at the first feedstation... image
  • Stopping may not take a great deal of time and although most people will slow to pick up bottles to a degree you factor in the time it takes you to get back up to a decent speed from stopping to pick up bottles and then even more minutes are ticking away

    Practice your nutrition now, get used to it, play with different sorts and find something you can tolerate

    If you intend using what is on the course then make sure you can tolerate that, use a weak solution because you can bet your last gel it will be !!  

    If you are intolerant to lots of makes/models and need to use your own stuff then make sure you can carry everything you need

    aaaaaaand lastly ... be prepared.  Its not unheard of for events to run out.  Nice ran out of water and gels, Beachy Head ran out of water this year and there are various similar stories and it only takes an unseasonal summers day for people to be taking twice the amount of water they need !
  • *Frodo* wrote (see)
    But then be careful not to throw your special honey bottle away instead of an empty water one at the first feedstation... image
    only a fool would do that! image
  • Argh! Nutrition and now hydration.

    For those that have used speedfil, it is much faff? I'm suddenly not keen on the stopping to return the empty bottles. And it seems silly to have to carry a speedfil and bottle cages (rear of saddle?)  purely not to have to stop at a feed station.

  • You dont *need* to stop

    Bin your bottle in the zone and then pick up another on the way out
  • Aye, but emptying a bottle into a speedfil in the length of a feed station? How long are feedstations?
  • Ok, you will be able to dump a bottle after the feed station as well or put the empty in your back pocket and ditch it at the next aid station .. its not going to weigh anything?
  • Frig, I haven't a bloody clue about any of this.  I have never even witnessed a triathlon first hand, never mind participating in a long distance one. 

    Nuun tablets?  Breaking news to me. 

    Speedfills? I'll have to see one of those.

    If I have a double bottle holder out back and the two holders in the A frame (even my terminology is woeful) will that be enough?  I take it that I can carry a couple of emergency water bottles in case (say the underseat double holder) and collect/throw away the supplied bottles.

    Good news for me is that I'm back cycling, swimming and now running (albeit with heavy legs) after my Dublin Marathon and subsequent week long drink/eat fest.

  • Not sure but I think speedfills sit in between your tri bars with an open top with a sponge like covering. It is a water bottle than can be filled quickly by squeezing another full one from a feed station leaving your own bottle in place. It has a straw to drink from that is easy to locate from your tri bar position.
  • VT, thats plenty
    You have many options for bottle set up if you have 2 on the frame as well ... more than enough

    I have 1 on the frame and 1 at the back for emergencies and the other at the back is full of spares and tools

  • Thanks Meldy image.  So much to take account of, and without the benefit of talking face to face with someone I have to ask the seemingly obvious questions on here.  I have lots more to come so please be patient with this old fool.
  • VT they may be seemingly obvious but you wont be the only one who is thinking or asking
  • Would you need more than 6 bottles for the bike leg ?

    Start off with two then that's only two stops if you use 2 cages. That would cost you less than a minute over slowing down to grab bottles wouldn't it ?
  • If you are out there for longer than 6 hours then yes you possibly might?  All dependant on your nutrition strategy
    All that said, it is far better to get used to picking bottles up and putting them in a cage now rather than get to race day and wish you had taken the time to learn  image

  • Wouldn't disagree Meldy - every little bit counts I suppose.

    I wouldn't get too worried if I was doing the race it and couldn't grab a bottle though - better safe than sorry. Someone linked that Hyde Park womens tri clip on some forum earlier and it's a classic example of people trying a skill that is beyond them to try and save a few seconds and costing themselves minutes.
  • Lots of angst about nutrition and hydration, as there was prior to last season. All understandable, but try not to cook your heads too much. The folks from One Step Beyond are absolutely mustard at staging the event and looking after the athletes.

    There are plenty of places to change drink bottles and plenty of ways of doing it. No hassle if you woosh on through the food station grabbing a bottle (or two) from the friendly helpers, and equally no hassle if you stop - the stations also have bike mech facilities and toilets. From memory last year;

    - 1 station after about 15 miles of the bike with no toilet
    - Oxton Bank (which you pass 3 times)
    - The "nursery" at the back of Southwell  (which you pass 3 times)
    - 1 on the boring drag back to town with no toilet

    So you can happily make a pils of one of them and know that there are plenty more opportunities coming up, and you don't ever need to stress. Genuinely. It's no stress. 

    Taking 4 x 750ml bottle onto the ride? Am I right in thinking that's about 3kg of extra weight? That's about the same weight that you saved by spending £1,500 on a new bike to get you round faster than your old aluminium one. So unless your guts are so cosmically f*cked-up that you can't risk anything you haven't packed, you're best to use the stations provided. That's what they're for.

    Food? I screwed mine up very consumately for Outlaw last year, mainly by stuffing myself like a veal calf on the day before the race. Next race I did worked a lot better - eating like a human on race day -1 and supping a few bottles of energy drink. Nutrition during the race takes care of itself if you pack plenty of the right kind of fuel, and use what's made available for you.

    I wrote a very detailed plan with "1 of these every 20 mins... and 1 of those every 30 mins". At the end of the day, it's all fuel that you're going to be packing. You don't want to slow down or get out of your tuck to furtle around in your bento for an "x bar", because you could only find a "y gel". It's fuel. Grab it, frim it in your chops, keep working your pedals. Easy! 

    By the hurty end of the run, if you're anything like most first timers, you'll see the food stations (which are every 2.5 miles on Outlaw, which is better than any of the other events) as an Oasis in the desert. My body told me what it needed by that point. For me it was crisps... mountains of the lovely, salty buggers. And coke and water. Gutted that it didn't want Jaffa Cakes, because i like them!

    Sorry if I've just wasted 5 minutes of your life trying to read this. I need an Editor.

  • Don't depend on the wonderful magical flat coke. I remember grabbing it at IM Switzerland thinking it was going to be my saviour as I could no longer tolerate gels and found it wasn't flat! Trust me, 10km into a marathon when you've already been out there for about 10 hours, is not the time you want to be takingo n carbonated drinks.

    I started Fink today. I don't take my rest day on Mondays hence why I started today. 1 Swim session down, Only about 80 or so swim sessions to go image

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