Post 23 - Italy and valve extenders

I got back from Norfolk late on Sunday evening, and a not much more than a few hours later I was on a plane to Italy for a work trip. I was a fairly unhappy guy heading to Italy, because I had a sore knee that needed treatment and medication, and I had bike problems I needed to solve. The flat tyres and unreliable valve extenders were playing on my mind, big-time. I was also conscious that in the aftermath of previous work trip to Aberdeen, my back had completely and excruciatingly locked up, leaving me really incapacitated. This was done by possibly carrying my suitcase on public transport. I’m usually the subject of some good-natured banter on these work trips because I always have the biggest suitcase by miles – there's no way around this, as I have to bring my training gear, food supplements, powders, pills, and on this occasion, loads of fruit and spinach too.

Keeping Holland & Barrett in business

I made it to Italy, Monday passed, and my left knee felt sore, although not disastrously so. Ideally I’d have gone to a physio, and I’d have been giving it heat, ice and anti-inflammatories, none of which I could do in Italy. The knee was sore probably because I’d gone too hard in Norfolk, pedalling too hard and too fast without an adequate warm-up. Changing the flat tyres also didn’t help, being bent double over the bike and wheel to fix the punctures. It’s fair to say that my body is quite highly-strung and it doesn’t take much out of the ordinary to injure it. For example, I absolutely couldn’t contemplate kicking a football, never mind playing 5-a-side.

I found out that the hotel in Piacenza in Italy had a few “city bikes” to borrow for free. I also found out that the Giro d’Italia was passing close by, but going to see it was out of the question as it was a work trip and not a holiday… However, I couldn’t let the opportunity of a bike ride pass me by, in 25 degree heat in the Italian countryside, towards the distant mountains. I was worried about my knee, but I told myself that I would go for an easy, leisure ride, not a hard training session.

The bike left a lot to be desired compared to my triathlon bike. Talking of being highly-strung, my bikes are custom-fitted to my body geometry using computers, sensors and science. I’m used to riding my own personalised settings. So, riding a random bike has its own risks, as it’s impossible to set it up identically to my normal settings. The angles and pedalling motions, even if subtly different, can cause problems. But again, I told myself it would be an easy ride, not a tough push.

I had 3 hours of daylight after our meetings had finished, and there were hills in the distance. So I set off. What a pleasure to ride in the heat, on quiet, unpolluted roads, with no pressure. I started to see signs for a castle and decided to try to reach it. On the way, I crossed the magnificent Trebbia river. What a contrast from London, and the filthy Thames.

 

I reached the castle. I took a few photographs. You can even see the bike I rode in one of the photos below.

 

I saw loads of cyclists out enjoying the evening. It was brilliant. I carried on further into the hills. I crossed the Trebbia again. It got to the point where I had to turn back or it would get dark. I turned back, got back to the hotel, and went for dinner feeling a lot happier: I’d had a great bike ride and my knee had held up. The following evening I went for an easy run, and again it held out. I wanted to push it a bit harder on the last evening in Italy, but was invited out to dinner with all the meeting attendees. It turned out to be something resembling a state banquet, in none other than the castle I had cycled to a couple of evenings before… The Italians are very hospitable to say the least, and I had to force myself to stay off the alcohol and limit my food consumption. If I’d wanted, I could have eaten for the entire 3-4 hours, non-stop.

I flew back on Friday feeling like the knee wasn’t going to get any worse. Over the weekend, I did some training, did my food shopping and had it home delivered, and spent far too long stressing about my flat tyres and valve extenders.

Delivery of porridge, among other things

I knew I had to do something about the tyres/wheels/tubes/valves, so I decided to deflate my tyre and remove the remaining good tube. When screwing off the valve cap, the core came loose in the same manner as it had in Norfolk, and in the blink of an eye, the tyre went as flat as a pancake. Great, I thought, another tube wrecked. At this point, I didn’t have much confidence in these tubes.

So I did some research on the internet. Firstly I learned a few tricks for removing wheels, and putting them back on again, particularly rear wheels. Front wheels are easy to deal with. Rear wheels have gears and chains and integrated brakes to consider. Prior to my research and practice, I would have said that a flat rear tyre would be game over in the Ironman, as I thought it would take me 20-30 minutes to put right. Now I’m confident I can do it in 5 minutes, which isn’t quite game over. I’d obviously rather not lose 5 minutes, but 5 minutes is better than 25 minutes, which really would be game over for Kona. If I had tubulars rather than clinchers, things would be a bit more straightforward, but clinchers are a bit more convenient.

I needed tubes with a 100mm valve, to run with my Zipp 808 deep rim wheels, which are 80mm deep. However, no such tubes exist anywhere in the world, and so I had to accept that there was no way around using valve extenders. I read a lot of blogs, message boards, forums and so on, with the general consensus being that valve extenders are evil things, dreadful things, a pain in the ass, and not something that anyone wants to have to deal with. From my own personal experience, I have to agree. These damn things cause far too much stress – they don’t seal, they leak, they are fragile, you can’t pump them up again, they come undone, and they ruin races. Conventional valves are none of these things.

The problem is that only a very few wheels actually need tubes with valve extenders, so fitting them is not something that’s commonly done. I came across a few useful websites offering tips including using pliers to intentionally damage threads, glue to secure the valve head, and PTFE/plumber’s tape to create secure seals. My housemate Steve lent an invaluable pair of hands, as well as tools, PTFE tape and help. After much debate, internet browsing, taping, twisting, pumping, and after far too much time spent, we finally had 6 tubes using two different kinds of valve extenders, all ready to go. One key was not to use the screw-on valve caps, as unscrewing them can also unscrew the valve core and then PSSSSHHHH would go the tyre.

The next step was to check that the CO2 cartridge inflator would work with the two types of valve extenders. The idea behind these cartridges is that if you get a flat tyre, you whip the wheel off, whip the tyre off, whip the punctured tube off, whip a new tube in, whip the tyre on, whip the wheel back into place, and then re-inflate it with a CO2 cartridge. These cartridges claim to re-inflate wheels up to 80, 90 or even 100psi within a couple of seconds. Contrast this to using a small hand pump which would get 40-50psi tops, would take ages, and would be a tiring job.

These cartridges are like small bombs. They come with a “gun”, which goes over the valve, then the cartridge is screwed into the gun, and boom, it discharges, inflating the tyre. So, I sacrificed my remaining cartridge and one of Steve’s too, to satisfy myself that they would work. It was like holding dynamite, screwing the cartridge into the gun and waiting for it to discharge. I kept screwing it into the gun, and nothing happened… the anticipation grew… surely it would blow soon… nope… it didn’t. I then found out that my “gun” required depressing when the cartridge is screwed in. So I depressed the gun and boom, it discharged and the tyre went up like a balloon. It was quite impressive. And freezing cold! I subsequently read blogs about hands freezing onto the cartridge. It's possible to buy insulating cartridge sleeves, which would be a worthwhile purchase.

Anyway, after so much time, effort and stress, I was finally satisfied that I had reliable tubes/valves/extenders, and that I could deal with a flat tyre within a few minutes. So, ultimately, the whole disastrous experience, that has been a total pain in the ass, has actually turned out to be worthwhile. But surely never before has something so seemingly insignificant turned out to be such a monumental pain in the ass to get right. Yes, I’ll agree the valve extenders are a pain in the ass, but this is exacerbated by unfamiliarity, which I was undoubtedly guilty of. Experience is worth a lot…

 

 

 

A successful bank holiday

 

 

Anyway, I’m a lot happier today than I was when I flew to Italy. I said something similar two weeks ago, so without wanting to tempt fate, bring on the Icknield 100 mile time trial at the weekend… I’m looking at renting a disc wheel for it. If I could get under 4 hours for the 100, then there would be a good case that I could do a sub-9 hour Ironman on a fast course. The Irish record is 8:45…

On a final note, training with a heart rate monitor is proving very interesting. A power meter really would be a very beneficial training tool, but for now, the heart rate monitor is interesting to use and will definitely help me in my training and racing. I’m sure I’ll blog about this in more detail in future.

Training this week was as follows:

Monday 19th May 2014: Rest
Tuesday 20th: 2 hour bike
Wednesday 21st: 40 minute run
Thursday 22nd: Rest
Friday 23rd: Swim 3.8km
Saturday 24th: 2:05 turbo, 20 minute run
Sunday 25th: Swim 3.3km (hand paddle drills), 1:10 turbo (single leg drills: 10 x 2 mins left/right/both)

Totals: Swim 7.1km, Bike 97 miles, Run 9 miles