Kona Concluded

What a tale of real life racing. Andrew Strong pushes it all year long. Making the most of each workout in order to balance training, recovery, work and most of all family. So of course his family was in Kona with him and he was able to make it a bit of a vaca post Ironman Kona by staying in Hawaii for some family time. He killed Canada (where he got 3rd in his AG earning his Kona slot) with a sub 10 and had goals to shoot for a 9:40 at Kona. Tuned up and ready to go leading up to it, less than 24hours to GO TIME, I get a phone call from Andrew at the expo buying me a jersey for the shop and I hear the scratch in his voice. NOT GOOD! Of course we talked about how he is not feeling that great and is worried about starting in the morning with not feeling 100%. So what was the call??? In true Shama Cycles fashion he started the swim, made it through in a decent time for him but was behind last years time. Then I followed the bike and realized he was not having his best day. Ahhhh....it was painful to watch online and I know Andrew was pushing through even harder. Of course with dragging the family to Kona and the long training weekends and sacrifice he had no other option than to finish. That same drive and toughness that gave him a PR earlier this year carried him to the finish line to have his wife and two kids greet him...finishing the race and beginning his vacation and off season. Was his 10:40 what he wanted? No...but then again we all have those races...well not all of us can do a 10:40 on our best day but you get what I am saying. That is part of what makes those great days so great...knowing that you avoided a bad day. Next season...will only be better.
Thank you Andrew for your support and race ethic. You inspire us all.

Ironman Hawaii here we come!

Andrew out on one of his many long training rides
the simple machine...titanium...though he will be using HED Jet 6 wheels come race day

I think the pinnacle of any triathlete is to be able to race in Kona....the Super Bowl of Ironman. Better yet is to be able to qualify. Andrew Strong did just that on his Guru Merus by coming in 3rd in his Age Group at Ironman Canada with a 9:55!!! In preparation for Kona I spent some time with him to help make sure he is as ready as he can be. I am not scared to bend the rules, go against convention, make waves, set my own trends. Today was no exception, today we Retul fitted Andrew Strong for his Lazer Tardiz helmet in conjunction with wind tunnel testing. Yes...Shama Cycles has our wind tunnel. Ok, not like at Texas A&M but I have a fan and a smoke machine...what ever its the same thing! With the careful supervision of our local Pro/Coach Trent Stephens (Trent held the smoke machine in front of the carefully placed fan) it was determined that Andrew was actually more aero having the helmet on backwards....which means that Lazer designed it wrong. Don't worry, my daughter is writing them a letter with hand drawn graphs proving our theory. We did test the Giro Advantage 2 helmet, but because I don't sell Giro it was determined after extensive testing that it was in no way aero dynamic at all. There is a video and pictures of our testing procedure but of course that is top secret and just can't be shared...unless you spend $10,000 on a new Guru from me. Just saying...
Finally you will notice in the pic the Shama Cycles Wind Vest over his Ironman Canada finishers tshirt. We choose that tshirt for two reasons. One we are hoping that by wearing an official Ironman tshirt that the officials won't penalize him for drafting on the bike. Reason number two is cotton can retain more water than a tech tee, we are hoping that the cotton tshirt will make for a good base layer to hold in the sweat to help cool him down and the wind vest will protect him from the vicious cross winds on the bike course. Wind vests protect us from the wind right??? Personally I think these changes will be the secret to his sub 9 hour Ironman. I mean we already made him faster with his Guru Merus over his old Cervelo P3C. Why not keep going with what sounds crazy and make him even faster!

Next Saturday on the 1oth follow him on his quest to his best Ironman yet. I pray he has his best day. Good luck and God's speed Andrew!

Guru vs Cervelo update (spolier, Guru won!)

Andrew pre race at a local Starbucks. Gotta love it!

Several months back a posted about a project to get an already fast guy faster. From a Cervelo to a Guru to prove that custom/fitting is more important than shear aerodynamics. Yes I threw down the gauntlet and staked my business and reputation on the line.
Ironman is the distance that defines triathlon. Being in the game for a while I have had the privilege of meeting so many great people in this sport and even the honor of working with them...slow or fast...racer or rec rider, I appreciate everyone that trusts me with their hobby/addiction.
One such relationship I have had the honor to have is with my friend Andrew Strong, first of all this is one of the most honorable guys I know...but also one of the fastest. We all like riding with him...but hate it when he gets to the front cause you know its on...for longer than what you would want. Andrew in his first year of triathlon did 3 Ironmans. (sick I know) His first, he was hooked, his second he got a roll down slot to Kona and of course had to go. The next year he raced again and again got a roll down to Kona. This was all done on a Cervelo P3C that was even fitted in the wind tunnel by John Cobb himself. The guy was fast...but we wanted to be faster. So with much thought and due diligence Andrew, myself, and Robert at Guru came up with a frame that we thought would do the trick. We decided on a Guru Merus, a titanium rig for several reasons. One, Andrew is HARD on this gear, he is a busy guy trying to maintain a family along with a career and train for Ironman. When he is done with a ride he throws his bike in the back of his FJ and takes off to the next part of his day. Also with traveling to races he just doesn't want to have to worry about the frame. Titanium frames are indestructible and love abuse. Plus Guru is able to fine tune the ride of the frame for each rider through proper tube selection. We built the bike and as all the custom frames I sell the fit was pretty easy. We tweaked a little since and got it dialed in. The first test was Ironman Brazil earlier this year. At mile 70 Andrew wrecked in a turn around with a bagel in his hand and had to stop for about 15 minutes to get med check. Still he finished the bike but on the run he called it quits after a couple yards in a smart move to error on the side of caution and wait to race another day...
"another day" became Ironman Canada. A very hard course and while I have all the faith in the world in Andrew and his ability I was a little worried since, one I had not ridden with him as often as before to witness his power or heard many reports from Trent about their epic 3 jogs through Houston at 6 minute miles with surge after surge. Andrew made a big change professionally that while good for him, at first glance it didn't seem good for training at all. All you can do is what ever we have time for and hope its enough.
Race day came and he said he was ready so all I could do is log onto Ironman Live and update all day looking for splits. Swimming has been he weak spot in the past and things started off well with a 5 min pr (1:15ish) for the swim. Wow...he actually got in the pool a couple times since Brazil. Then the bike...following those updates were the best and worse. I was so happy to see the good times but stressed between each one hoping that what we did was correct...and also fighting my worse fear....that the bike I just built doesn't fall apart. Most people might wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking what if they lost their job, if their 401K dropped to nothing...I worry about client's fits. Did you see when Macca pulled out of a race due to busted rear derailleur cable or when Fabian Cancellara pulled out of Paris Roubiax due to a busted chain? Oh man...to be that mechanic to last touch that bike...talk about a bad day at the office. It drives me to pay attention to every detail of every bike I build and fit. Just my little quark on race day. haha So the bike was fast...really fast. 5:09:09 bike split, the fastest in his AG. Then his run...was sick. Good enough to get him into a sub 10. 9:55:44 which of course was a PR in every way. Third in his AG and 58th OVERALL!!!! A-FREAKIN-MAZING!!!! What a killer performance! Of course we were all happy for him, again, I got a text the next day talking about how great the bike was and what an amazing day he had. Also text messages asking when I am flying into Hawaii in October to support him there. I gotta go...just after I sell enough bikes to pay for it.
I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

Thank you Andrew for all your hard work, dedication, and your trust in me and the bike I built for you...you make me very proud!