Indoor Bike Trainer Desk - Best Wahoo Cycling Desk Alternative

Medical overbeds make great bike
trainer desks and are affordable
Wahoo Kickr Desk Alternatives 

The best CHEAP indoor bike trainer desk I have used is a medical overbed. Medical overbeds make great alternative indoor bike training desks and are far less expensive than Wahoo's Kickr Desk or DC Rainmaker's Podium Desk. My personal favorite medical overbed (and the one I use) is the $60 Vaunn Medical Adjustable Overbed. Some people prefer a stand that has a slot for iPads and this RAD Cycling desk for $118 is similar to the Wahoo Kickr desk in design.

For those unfamiliar, medical overbeds are designed to:

• Have a telescoping table platform for easy height adjustment
• Slide underneath the bed of a patient making eating & tv watching easy while in a hospital.

However, these design features make for excellent indoor cycling desks, media carts, and laptop stands and the Vaunn Medical Overbed has the following specific features and benefits:

In lowest (28 highest) and
highest (40 inches) positions

• Adjusts from 28 inches to 40 inches.
• Has wheels and can be moved easily both for storage or in case you need to adjust the position while cycling. Think laptop viewing angle.
• The height of the table can be adjusted easily with one hand.
• Stable base with large platform for all your computer, water, and food needs
• Easy to put together (less than 10 minutes)
• Inexpensive

In addition to using the medical overbed as indoor cycling trainer desk, it can also be used in other ways including:

Putting the bike back together on a
nice & sunny Wisconsin summer day

Bike Maintenance - I will set a towel on top and place all the tools I will need for the job. The telescoping up/down platform is easy to do one-handed and the table moves smoothly.

Laying in the bed with the boots - using recovery compression boots and a laptop, although doable, sometimes I prefer to use the overbed as a more stable platform that isn't going up and down with the expansion and contraction of the boots. Some people believe you shouldn't keep a warm laptop in your middle region As a true TV Tray - I will admit, I have never actually used this as a TV tray, but I would presume many people could.

Recommended Bike Trainer Desks on Amazon:

- Vaunn Eva Medical Overbed ($60)
- RAD Indoor Cycling Desk (Alternative Wahoo Kickr Desk) ($118) - Conquer Desk (Alternative Wahoo Kickr Desk) ($139)
- Wahoo Kickr Desk ($249)

Other Recommended Bike Trainer Products:

- Amazon: Generic Cycling Mat (6 feet x 2.5 feet) ($30) (I personally own one, great mat!)

- Amazon: Cyclops Cycling Mat (5.5 feet x 3 feet) ($65) (I personally own one, great mat but pricey!)

- CompetitveCyclist: Wahoo Kickr Smart Power Trainer ($~1200) (I personally own one, my all time favorite trainer!)

- Amazon: Kurt Kinetic Fluid Trainer (~$350) - gold standard trainer for those that don't want a smart trainer - I used a Kurt Kinetic for many years before the dawn of smart trainers. Extremely well built and durable.

- Amazon: Cyclops Hammer Direct Drive Trainer ($999 $699) - great deal on smart trainer as Cyclops rebrands their company under the Saris umbrella.
- Amazon: Saris H3 Direct Drive Trainer ($999) - Newly rebranded and updated direct drive smart trainer.

Best Ironman Triathlon Bikes Tires - Continental Attack / Force, GP4000s, Supersonic

Continental Attack (22mm front) & Force (24mm rear) Combo

Recently I have received many questions regarding triathlon race tires and I wanted to discuss my selection of the Continental Attack / Force combo for my own Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman, and Ironman triathlon racing needs.

For those that are not aware, the Attack / Force combo is sold as a two tire kit with one 22mm front tire and one 24mm rear tire. They are clinchers and feature Continental's proprietary Black Chili compound and their Vectran puncture protection strip. The reasons for this tire choice comes down to the following:

Rolling Resistance - The better a tire rolls the less energy it takes to get to the finish. The difference between your race tires and a competitors could easily be 20 watts. Imagine that you put out 170 watts but used the slower race tires - you would effectively go the same speed as someone that put out 150 watts but with the faster tires. That is a huge difference. There are various sources for rolling resistance out there but the front runners include the following: Continental Attack / Force, Continental Supersonic, Vittoria Evo Corsa, Veloflex Record.

Aerodynamics - The other quality that can really slow you down or make you fast is aerodynamics. It has been shown that the wider you go in tires (given the same construction of tire) the less rolling resistance is. However at some point the wider tire and low rolling resistance doesn't offset the higher aerodynamic drag that is created. There are far fewer sources on aerodynamic data but data from Zipp, HED, and Trek suggest that the Veloflex tires and Vittoria tires are not that aerodynamic.

Continental tires have always been shown to be good performers aerodynamically. Specific data from Zipp has shown that both the Continental Attack and GP4000s are great performers with Zipp rims. HED and Bontrager have shown similar results for their rims. Of the four tires listed above I have to cross out the Veloflex and Vittoria tire.

Durability / Puncture Protection - Durability is an interesting topic as I often believe that things that go through one tire go through another. Most people are way too conservative when it comes to durability and worry way too much about flats. The Supersonic rolls extremely well and is aerodynamic, but it doesn't have a puncture protection strip and doesn't have a lot of tread. In practice I find it durable and have used in races of all length without incident, but I think for most people that going with the Attack / Force is the better route. Continental is widely-known to have great puncture protection with their Vectran breaker and having this in the Attack / Force gives you the piece of mind that if you get a flat that you would have gotten a flat in any tire.

Other Qualities - The deal breakers for me are rolling resistance, aerodynamics, and durability, but I wanted to mention that Continental tires in general handle great on both dry and wet pavement. In addition, they have a wear indicator built in to tell you when the tire needs to be replaced. They are also very light tires for how durable they are and the 24mm Force weighs ~195 grams and the 22m Attack at ~180 grams.

The Continental Attack / Force tire is my race tire. If you are racing on something else consider converting those tires to training tires and grabbing a new pair over at Trisports. New tires in general are more aerodynamic than worn tires anyway. You can always save 20% at Trisports on these tires by using my coupon code. Each code is unique for you so please contact me thru the above "Contact" tab and I will email you back the 20% off code. Codes can be used at anytime - no waiting for a special sale. They expire 12/31/14. Please remember to fill in your email address so I can reply back to you. If you don't provide an email there is no way for me to contact you. You can also tweet at me or message me on Facebook if you prefer.. Even if you already ride the Continental Attack / Force combo, this is great opportunity to purchase your next set and help support me in the process.


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Below I answer specific additional questions that people have asked in other places. 
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Why do you think the Attack/Force combo is better than the GP4000, GP4000s or the GP Triathlon? Is it because the Attack (front tire) is 22mm and the Force (rear tire) is 24mm whereas the GP4000 only comes in 23mm and 25mm?
In comparison, Jordan Rapp is running the Zipp Tangente (21mm in front and 23mm in back) on his Shiv.

I don't want to speak for Jordan, but he would probably tell you that he runs the 21mm front because it is slightly more aerodynamic than the 23mm upfront on his Zipp 808 Firecrest rim.

Zipp has demonstrated that both the Attack and 23mm GP4000s perform admirably from an aerodynamic standpoint on the Zipp 303 Firecrest rim. The 25mm GP4000s doesn't perform as well.  The Attack performs a little better at lower yaws, and the 23mm GP4000s at higher yaws. With that being said the 303 is wider than the 404 and 808 and I'm confident that the 22mm tire is a better aerodyanamic fit for those rims.

By the way, the GP4000 does come in 20mm, you just have to be sure if you want the Black Chilli compound that you buy a black tire. Black Chilli doesn't come in the colorized tires. The 20mm tire might be even a better fit aerodynamically, but then again so might the 20mm Supersonic. The Supersonic rolls better than the Attack, and the Attack rolls better than the GP4000s. I don't think you can go wrong with either tire upfront but I like the handling of a little wider tire and the durability that comes with the puncture strip.

As for the GP Triathlon. I believe that tire is being phased out but it is essentially the same tire as the GP4000s just with a completely smooth tread.

Making a Tubular Flat Kit for a Trek Speed Concept Draft Box

My Trek Speed Concept Draft Box

The question often comes up what can you fit in a Trek Speed Concept draft box? The simple answer is a lot. For me I always used it as a flat kit and it would fit everything I needed to fix a flat tire in an Ironman triathlon.  I have since switched from tubulars to clinchers and I no longer use the Trek Speed Concept draft box, but when I did, I stuffed it with the following:

- 1X Genuine Innovations Air Chuck SL

- 2X 16g C02s: Have to have an air source to get the tires pumped up. You could probably get away with 12g cartridges but I always packed 16g ones.

- 1X Spare Tubular: See the following article for the secret tubular tire.  I pre-glue it and pre-stretch it.

Buy Genuine Innovations Air Chuck SL

- 1X Pit Stop Can and Cap: The key here is to take the cap off and have the white stick of the can sticking out the whole of the bottom.  You will only have the hole though if you don't use the hardware used to attach the draft box to the frame and instead use tape.  I'll use the Pit Stop if I think it will fix a small flat otherwise I will just replace the tire.

- 1X Genuine Innovations Flat Stack Multi-Tool: This is needed for at least attaching the Zipp Valve Extender to the tire before mounting.  It is handy as well if something else - like a seatpost - becomes loose during the race.

- 1X Zipp Valve Extender 60mm: I don't have this attached to the spare tubular already because the valve would be too long and the tubular wouldn't roll up as nicely.  The length all depends on what type of wheels you are riding.  If it is too long you may not be able to pump up a disc, if it is too short you won't be able to pump it up in any wheel.

- 1X Tire Lever: Can be useful in getting off a tubular tire before resorting to the razor blade.

- 1X Razor Blade: For getting a tubular off the rim after I super-glued it with many layers of Vittoria Mastik One.

Stock Up On Tufo Tape Today!!!

- 1X Tufo Extreme Tape: If you have ever ripped off a tubular quickly you know that sometimes all you pull off is the base tape leaving the basetape stuck to the rim.  If this happened in a flat situation I wouldn't rely on the pre-glued tubular and instead would put down the Extreme Tape. Be prepared for a struggle to get the tire on though with the extra thickness.

One word of note. I never used the draft box with the top and instead just covered it with a piece of tape.  I find that using the top really limits what you can get in because of the way the top attaches to the draft box.  3M Extreme Strapping Tape is amazing product that I use and can be purchased from Home Depot.  It is: ridiculously strong; somewhat transparent, isn't affected by moisture; is smooth; and can be peeled, put back, and re-peeled many times over.

Best Spare Tubular Tire For Ironman Triathlon and Half-Ironman Races - Tufo Elite Tire

Triathletes using tubulars usually carry a spare for Ironman and Ironman 70.3 triathlons. Here is my recommendation for a spare tubular tire for your next race.

Simply put, you want to carry a track tubular as a spare. Don't take it from me though, I actually learned this trick from former Ironman World Champion Peter Reid. The reason for this is because they roll up to nothing, weigh nothing, and despite what people believe, they are actually fairly robust.

Tufo Elite Jet (Top) - Normal Butyl Tube (Bottom)

My preferred spare tubular is the Tufo Elite Jet <120. As you can see it rolls up to practically nothing. Because of its small size it is easy to find places for it it to hide on your bike. It weighs 120 grams and is 21mm wide. This tire is easy to get centered on the rim. I find beefy tires never go on quite right the first time around and in a flat situation you want the tire to go on right the first time. If the tire is not centered it is going to wobble.

Now unfortunately this specific Tufo Elite Jet is very hard to find (this was originally written in 2011) but they do have one that is just a bit heavier - 135g, and is also 22mm wide. It is the Tufo Elite 22.

My personal experience with this tire is that it is a fairly robust tire. At Ironman Wisconsin in 2009 I actually had to change a flat and ride this tire for 55 miles and it handled like a champ.

If you want a spare tire with a protection strip my recommendation is the Tufo Elite Jet Hi-Tpi <160.

I always prefer to glue my tubes with Vittoria Mastik One but if you don't want to pre-glue your spare, Tufo Tape is probably your best in race solution for a secure bond between tire and rim. If you are looking for my recommendation on normal tubulars for racing my recommendation is Continental Podium TT, but I don't race tubulars and prefer clinchers now.  You can read about my recommendation for clinchers here.

Vittoria Mastik One Tubular Glue

Ironman World Championship Kona Hawaii Race Tips - 11 Course Specific Tips

Getting to the Ironman World Championship in Kona is tough enough, but that doesn't mean you can't parlay your fitness into an Ironman PR.  Here are 10 tips for Kona virgins to help you have the best day you can out there. Some may seem obvious but the difficulty is actually following them during the race.


Swim Tips

The Melee

#1 - Don't Get Caught Off Guard - The start of the race goes off with a bang - but what you don't know is the Mike Reilly and the firing of the cannon is simply a moment of spontaneity.  Unlike your qualifier race where there is a loose countdown, you won't know when the gun goes off here.  And if you are NOT ready, then you will quickly find yourself behind the eight-ball as people start to crawl over you.

#2 - Swimming thru Madness - Regardless of speed, unless you are the top amateur you will be surrounded by more top swimmers than you have experienced before.  It is best to be conservative on the swim.  Overestimating your swim speed will just result in people crawling over you left and right - personally I would rather be crawling over people then the other way around.  And just because you lined up in the front at your Ironman qualifier doesn't automatically mean you can line up at the front in the World Championship.

#11 - Bonus tip added after I raced as a pro in 2013. Do not put your feet up against the sea wall before the start of the swim. There are tons of sea urchins and you will get stung. Ask me how I know, or just read my 2013 Ironman Hawaii Race Report


T1 Tips

Bright Bags Can Help You Transition

#3 All Hands on Deck - The 2.4 mile ocean swim can be tough if you haven't done a non-wetsuit IM swim.  And if you are at the pointy-end of the field in your qualifier race then you may be middle of the pack here.  That means many more bodies than you may be use to and the pier is small and can get quite congested.  My suggestion is just to relax going thru transition. With the competitive nature of the world-class field it is easy to get distracted and forget something important - like forgetting to take off your swim skin!!  Move thru transition methodically and let your HR fall.  The precious few seconds lost will be gained back on the bike.

#4 Beacon The Bags - I always like to add a little special touch to my bags.  It makes for easy identification of the bags and can be a real time saver in the event that the bag gets misplaced.




Bike Tips

A Tree In Hawi

#5 - Sail Away - People always ask: what depth wheel should I bring?  Asking this question likely means that you are worried about cross-winds and should err on the side of caution.  If you ride scared you will ride slower on a 808 than a 404.  If you have to bring an 808 then make sure you pre-ride the descent from Hawi and do it during the middle of the day.

#6 - Bike Pacing - There is no glory in a great bike split if you can't back it up on the run.  Kona is likely much hotter, and more humid than you are use to, and this can greatly affect the amount of power you can put out.  It also affects how much you can take in.  Course difficulty all depends on winds on the day, but it is best to take it out conservatively.  If you have to ask yourself out on the bike if you are going too hard then you probably are.


T2 Tips

#7 Enjoy The Intermission - The run is going to hurt, it is going to be hot, and you are going to suffer.  Enjoy the shade of the tent as you methodically move thru transition.  No need to rush this.  At worst you lose a few seconds as your body cools off and your heart rate falls.  I can assure you this will be made up once you get onto the legendary lava fields as you roast in the midday sun.


Run Tips

An Athlete Tackles Palani Hill

#8 Walking Can Be Faster Than Running - The Queen-K and Ali'hi drive can be absolutely awful, and keeping your core temp in control and allowing your body to absorb nutrients becomes top priority.  To get thru the marathon there are three strategic aid stations to walk and they include the aid station right before the hill at around mile 8, Palani hill, and coming out of the Energy Lab.  All three places are great places to walk for 15-20 seconds as you fuel, cool down, and let your HR recover before you tackle the climbs.


Heat Acclimation Tips

#9 Sweat It Out -  Bikram Yoga is a great way to work on heat acclimation while keeping you flexible, and rejuvenating the body and mind.  If you haven't done Bikram Yoga before then this might not be the time to experiment, but it can be great way for people from the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and East Coast to stay acclimated without going to Kona 10 days out.

#10 Hot-Box Biking - If you have a bathroom big enough, then turn on the shower, close the door, and start biking.   Use common sense when it comes to the temperature and duration and also don't bring any electronics in that could cause a short or that could be adversely affected by the humidity.  And NO, the bike doesn't actually go in the shower.