The Philippine Hour Record

It's been a long time since I've blogged so now I think would be a good time to re-start this after setting the Philippine Hour Record at the Velo Sports Center here in Carson last Sunday.

 
The Hour Record has been a long time goal for me.   4 years ago I first came to track here in LA, I had already been corresponding with my now good friend and proprietor of the Pinoy Fixie website Arden Arindaeng.  I first met Arden online before I came out to CA and told him of goal to set the Philippine hour record.  When I first came here in 2009 I was able to see this awesome facility and also a 100 mile world record attempt.  Unfortunately the athlete stopped after about 75 miles around the velodrome and I realized that riding circles can be much harder than riding outdoors.


Contemplating the Hour 2009

Brief History of the Hour

The History of riding a bicycle around a track/veldrome for 1 hour started way back in 1876 where Frank Dodds Cycled 26.5km on a penny farthing.  The complete history can be seen in wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

  Then it was Ole Ritter and Eddy Merckx who brought it to the forefront in the modern cycling era cycling over 48 and 49km .  There was a great documentary made about them called the Impossible Hour.  You can actually watch the entire Documentary here! - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxsz7n_the-impossible-hour_sport

When I first heard of the hour, it was back in 1993/94 when I bought my first racing bike.   It was Graeme Obree who's "Obree Tuck" position really captured the imagination of the public because his innovative outside the box thinking about aerodynamics and biomechanics.   

Obree and Chris Boardman would then go back and forth re-setting the world record.  The UCI, the governing body of Cycling, also banned Obree's innovative position forcing him to invent the "superman" position which many cyclists copied in the 1996 Olympics. 

 

 

 

  Obree's now has an autobiography on Paperback and a movie made about him called The Flying Scotsman.  He also recently set the Human Powered Vehicle Land speed record and wrote a training manual called the Obree Way.   

 

My Previous Attempt

 

About 4 years ago, I researched if there was an existing hour record for the Philippines.  No one knew of one, so I decided I wanted to be the first person to set one.  The hardest and most technical aspect of the hour, other than the aero position, is the choice of gears.  Since the bike doesn't have brake or gear shifters, an athlete must choose 1 single gear for the entire duration of the ride.  I was training for long distance triathlon, and I had become accustomed to pushing heavy gears in outdoor time trials.  I even got the nickname 54x11.   I assumed those gears would be the same on the track.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  I did a test run and barely cycled 22 miles, as I was way over geared trying to spin a 54x12 gear.  In a previous out door road Time Trial I was able to average 25 mph on a 53x12 fixed gear so I assumed I would be faster on the track.  This attempt was done alone on the outdoor Kissena Velodrome with no spectators except for Twinkle and a USAC referee on a very windy day.  After that day I knew I wanted to do it again, indoors with a lighter gear and hopefully with spectators. 

 

This Attempt

 

So instead of focusing on the hour attempt this year, I just kept training for Ironman Long Distance Triathlon and hoped that fitness would cross over into the track.  In this past month leading up to last Sunday's event.  For intensity I came to Kissena velodrome only 1 time for some pack races, did a couple of practice crits at Rahway River Park and for endurance I did one 150 mile ride and one 107 mile - the NJ Gran Fondo last sunday where I was able to ride with George Hincapie. 

 

I arrived into LA on Tuesday, my first ride at the track was Wednesday night with Arden and boy it was a tough night!  I was completely intimidated by the banking of the track.  I was barely able to ride 5 minutes straight without going above lactate threshold.  I was really worried about sunday.  Kevin Philips my mentor for this event and National Record Holder for 35-39 told me to try to just average 23+ second laps.  Thursday, I rode again with Louie who was one of paceline group, and I started getting the hang of the track.  We stayed mostly above the blue line which made the banking feel less drastic.  On Friday, we did a few standing starts and I put in a few efforts on the black line.  I was starting to feel ready. 

 

9/15/13 The Philippine Hour

 

Saturday turned out to be a complete rest day.  Sunday am I tried to get in a short swim before heading to the track but the pool was closed due to a power outage.  We arrived to track pretty early to set up, and I had my final meal at Shakey's pizza.  When I got back to the track, Tony Zaldua had already started working on my bike transforming my standard track bike to Greased Lighting!  by lubricating all my bearings and my chain.  When I hopped on the track with an all Fil Am Paceline it really felt so easy as if there was no chain on my bike!

Then It was Showtime.  I was able to convince my good friend and former Child Star JR Calanoc to MC the event.  I also made a playlist for the event with mostly modern pop songs for the crowd and some OPM Filipino music also ;)  I also made sure to put in Empire State of Mind and California Girls to cover both Coasts.  We had the great privilege of having fellow Pinay Track racer Christina Ricofort sing the Philippine National Anthem (the first time ever sang at the Velo Sports Center) and American Idol Finalist Clint Gamboa sing the American National Anthem.  I must admit I did get a little teary eyed listening to both of them. 

The "Artistas": Christina, JR, and Clint

 

The Arden Show

 

The opening act to my 1 hour attempt was Arden's attempt at a flying 250 - 1 lap around the track from a flying start as fast as possible.  Arden needed a 14.6 for the record, he was about a second off.  but a real big hats off to him.  It is so hard to be the host of the party and also put on a best effort also.  And I've never seen anyone have as much joy in helping someone else out as this guy - the best domestique anyone could ask for and true friend.

 

Bike Issues

 

So even before I flew out here to CA, I knew there were a bunch of UCI regulations about my bike.  from triathlon I had been accustomed to riding with more forward seat angles so I put on a straight seat post for this event but when UCI examined my bike they told me my seat angle had to be more level.  The ISM seat I use is meant to be ridden slightly angled down.  So in a quick minute tony lowered and leveled my seat. 

Tony working his magic on my bike

 

I was then in the starting block and ready to go!

 

The Ride

 

The first few minutes were pretty good, the adrenaline and cheers from the crowd got me off the great start.  The goal of the ride was to average 40kph 24.8 mph or 22.5 second laps.  I was occasionally hearding the splits from Kevin and Arden I was holding 22 low and sometime 21 high so I knew it was a good pace so I tried to keep calm and settle down. 

 

The hardest thing about the hour ride is staying as close to black line as possible with out going over into the blue.  They set up very light blocks to prevent this and it is a good thing I was a able to do a practice run with them in place.  I was still perhaps a bit conservative with my lines.  I would try to hit the banked turns a bit high and then "fall" back down to the black line

 The Philippine Flag Flying High

 

 

 

About halfway, I saw I was at 81 laps so I knew I was ahead of schedule.  By this time the legs started to feel the burn.  My training leading up to this had just been mostly long rides where I push I bigger gear and pedal about 70rpm going 20mph.  Now I was trying to hold 90+rpm and go 25mph - a completely different animal.  Because of training with powercranks, I was on 154mm cranks and using as much upforce I could and my 49t Rotor q ring allowed me to also get the most out of the downstroke push also.  I would try to "mash" a little more on the straights when I could.  by 45 minutes, holding focus was starting to get very difficult.  There were also periods where the music would stop and I would let my thoughts get the best of me.  But having my friends at every corner of the track really helped.  Even simple thoughts like "remember to breathe" helped. 

Arden giving me lap times

162 Laps

The last half of the ride, seemed twice as hard as the first.  the fatigue finally was starting to set in and the initial adrenaline rush started to wear off.  Coach Kevin Philips, Arden, Mo Banats, Greg Uy and the rest of the Fil Am Triathletes and Adobo Velos in the crowd got me through those final difficult laps as well as thinking about my friend Joash who I had dedicated this ride to.  Finally the bell rang to signify the last lap and and history was made: 162 laps, 40.5km, 25+miles in one hour - a new Philippine Record

Epilogue

Once again I cannot stress enough about how this event was such a collaborative effort and would have never taken place had it not been for Arden Arindaeng who coordinated the entire event from start to finish, Noriel Simsuangco and Brian Masayon who also coordinated the velodrome and program of events.  John Landino from DRV who donated my skinsuit.  Coach Kevin Philips who donated his coaching services, Daniel Achondo from Claremont Designs who helped sponsor the event, as well as Joe Matias from a Runner's Circle.  And Most of all to all my friends from filamtri and adobo velo.  You guys have become my west coast family.  This was definitely the best birthday party anyone could have asked for an for sure the highlight of 2013.  

I stole a lot of the photos from Arden's blog about the event which you can read here - http://www.pinoyfixie.com/2013/09/usa-cycling-permit-2013-3230-historic.html

And so, I shall end with a quote from the Great Vince Lombardi

"“….I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

Thanks for reading everyone! Go fast and turn left!

Hunterdon Half Race Report

So to preface - going into last Sunday's race I was viewing it totally as a training day. The week before I had put in 74+ miles running approximately 10 miles/day for 5 days with a 20 miler to begin the week. This past week I started with 100 miles on sunday - the pumkin patch pedal - then tried to ride 50miles/day for 4 days - I missed out on Saturday's ride as I was glued to the TV watching the Ironman Hawaii Live Coverage. Anyway I knew I wasn't going to be fresh for this race as I still had 316 cycling cycling miles in my legs for the week. All this is in the hopes to get my base endurance up for IMFL on Nov 6.

Ok so race morning I have a super late start as I tried to pack as much stuff the night before. Ironman coverage was exhausting as much adrenaline was pumping watching Macca and Raelert duel it out on the Queen K. So we arrived at the race site in round valley 7:20am - not too much time for an 8am start! We even had to stop for gas on the way up as my trusty CR-V was running on vapour.

I knew it was going to be cold - so the original plan was to ride the bike trainer to get my core temp up before the swim - but since we got there so late - I just rode the half mile to transition which wasn't enough. Thank god Mike Nusbaum the RD postponed the start 15 minutes as I had a bit more time to get settled in. I found my racebelt in my tri bag - I hadn't taken it off since the Randolph tri in July and I still had bib #1 so I just re-used it!

THE SWIM

Most of us got in the water about 10 minutes before the start. The water was great! much warmer than the air - about 74 degrees was what the race people said the temp was - it still felt chilly though so I did some short sprints to try to warm up and wore my neoprane hood which was probably overkill. I peed in my wetsuit right before the start for some additional warmth. The swim finally started - and got in the lead group - drafting the girl who was part of the relay - swimming without a wetsuit! - but after the first bouy we made a left turn to the second bouy - the water was crystal clear btw - very nice! but in the line of the bouy were some big rock formations - so we had to swim left of them then go around the bouy. This is where Kit cut open his knee! Normally I think if the water levels were higher it would be less of an issue. So after the second bouy, we headed directly into the rising sun making visibility very difficult esp since I was wearing clear goggles - this is a similar situation in the Tupper Lake tin man and wyckoff tri - where you have to swim into the sun to the finish. Anyway I lost the group for a couple of hundred meters but then the group got off track where I somehow managed to swim a bit straighter - so when the group got back on track I was able to hitch back on the girl without the wetsuit. So I pretty much rode her bubbles all the way back to the swim finish but then sprinted out of the water so I would be first to the mat to have the fastest recorded swim split of the day ;)

getting fastest swim split - but only by having a faster run out of water ;)

Transition 1:

This race was logistically tough because of the cold weather -So I opted to do a complete wardrobe change in T1. Normally I pride myself on my fast transitions - but since I do not do especially well in cold conditions, I toweled off, put on leg warmers, put on dry shorts over my speedo (in retrospect was a mistake as I had too much padding on the bike) put on arm warmers, heart rate monitor, fil-am tri top, vest, helmet, glasses and then camelback - so that's 9 items not including my calf guards which I kept on for the swim! out of t1 I went, but then had to turn around again - I forgot my gloves! Item #10! - finally I was out! total transition time before coming back for gloves: 6:38 which ironically was not the slowest t1 of the day!

struggling in T1 watching the other athletes pass me

THE BIKE

As expected the legs did not feel great early on in the bike. I was glad I was warm though especially through that long descent early on in the shade. After the first few climbs I started warming up and passing people. Funny though I passed a heavier athlete and he kept trying to pass me back. It's funny how competitive some people are - but eventually I dropped him. I came up on another athlete riding an Elite bike - a nice white one! His name was Ross Reynolds from down the shore - we exchanged a few pleasantries about our bike and I moved on. I was finally starting to get my biking legs back - this shows you the importance of warm up! So I started catching all the guys who passed me in t1. Then we got to the Rt29 section which is the flattest part of the race. Rt 29 is also where they hold a time trial series in the summer - a couple of years back I did a few of those races using my fixed gear. It's also right along the Delaware river where many people go tubing including Eat Pray Love best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert who's store is in Frenchtown.

Ok so I started getting warm and my legs started over heating with the leg warmers and compression sleeves - so I took of the leg warms while riding and stuffed them into my vest jersey pockets - I lost a bit of time coasting but at least I was still moving forward. All this time I kept hydrating despite the cold weather since I knew we still had a half marathon - In my camelback I had 2.5 water bottles of a concoction of EFS grape and carbo pro I didn't supplement sodium because of the cooler weather. Wearing the camelback I was also able to ride right thru the aid stations as I also had a flask of EFS liquid shot on my top tube.

Right before the big climb on the bike from Rt 29 (as we knew about because we pre-rode the course 3 weeks before) I took another nature break to lighten myself up before the climb. The 3 guys I passed, passed me back up - in that group was my friend Dave Fabian. I started the climb and managed to pass them all back up again giving some words of encouragement to Dave who was way past the talk test going up probably the hardest climb of the day.

At the top of the hill there was one more rider up ahead who I was able to pass also which left only 2 guys and one of them being a relay who I did not have to worry about. The last part of the bike was probably the nicest easiest section as it is a net down hill passing through horse farms and corn fields a really beautiful ride! here is the bike data for my ride

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52758509

on the final climb I finally say Ryan McGrath who was the last rider ahead of me. I started making some ground up on him. But I really give this guy credit - he did the race without aero bars or aero wheels and he is just coming back off an injury - a bike accident where his tri bike was totalled! So I almost completely closed the gap but then backed off so I could get my arm warmers and gloves off before I got into T2. T2 went relatively smooth as I just had to take off my helmet and vest and put on my race belt.

THE RUN

So Ryan and I started together stride for stride - but by this point I had to take nature break number 3 as I was able to finish most of the contents of my 70 oz. camel back. So I stopped to pee once we entered of the off road section and relaxed and let it flow....for almost a minute it seemed and maybe it was cause Ryan was completely out of site! I started chasing him negotiating through roots, branches and rocks - I didn't expect this trail section - we previewed the bike course but not the run - bike mistake! We finally got out of the woods and into a clearing I thought I saw Ryan briefly but then he was gone. We passed a point where the sprint had a different turn so I thought the race marshals might have sent him the wrong way. So I kept running and no one was in front of me, except the relay guy who I saw after receiving some cheers from my Fil Am Tri friends who were doing a long training run.

Finally after reaching the 1st turn around Ryan was back on my heels and caught me at the top of the climb. We ran stride of stride for maybe the next 5K having a chat running under 7min pace. This was like Macca vs. Raelert the night before! only we didn't know who was who! Ryan mentioned about his injury and about how the downhills hurt him. I also knew Macca made his move on the downhill on Palani Drive - so subconsciously or really it was consciously I opened it up on the same downhill section where Ryan caught me going up. I created a gap but I knew I had to guard it and I put in more effort on the uphill going to the 2nd turnaround. I solidified the break as I was able to get myself out of site. But I didn't want to take any chances - I grabbed a 2nd Hammer gel at the turnaround and sucked it down at the water station. Here is where I saw Kit and he told me to smile - but after seeing ryan heading to the turnaround I was still focused on holding my pace - I was looking down at my GPS making sure I was holding 90spm - I was able to do this for most of the race except for the steep uphill sections. Here is the run data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52758531

So I finally finished the lollipop section and headed to the finish where I was greeted by cheers from the Fil Am Tri crew who were now having a BBQ picnic after their long run.

Finally one last climb and then the race director himself Mike Nusbaum ran the final 100 meters with me

and then my patented handstand finish

Overall results are here

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/nj/Oct10_Hunter_set1.shtml

All in all a great day. And being able to celebrate with friends afterward made it even more special and memorable. As always I'd like to thank all my sponsors and friends: Elite Bicycles, Newton Running, Rotor Bike Components, Computrainer, Quarq Powermeters, PBN nutrition, First Endurance, The Fil Am Tri Club and last but not least Mike Nusbaum and Paramount Adventure for putting on this great event. Thank you all for reading! Until the next race.....