But first the week in Training:
Swim
9,200 yards. 4 swims, 3:27. Its January Fish time.
Bike
41M, 1 ride, 1:56. Didn't ride on Saturday, as I had a Cub Scout commitment
Totals:
46.2M, 5 workouts, 5:23.
I've really gotten to like the BTA (Between The Arms, as Tri Rig calls it) bottle. So the A2 offers me the ability of drinking (or hydrating, if you're really a tri geek) out of a straw with very minimal effort. See now I don't have to pull the bottle out of the cage and tip it up and take a drink and then put it back in. I just grab the straw, take my drinks, and tuck the straw back down. The straw is just a really flexible tube. 
Also, it has a 'no spill' cap, that flips open so you can refill it on the fly. This is really nice as well, since I always seem to get some drippage out of my regular bottle BTA. Not a big deal when I just have water, but when I have a Heed or make a mix with maltodextrin, I have to really clean the head tube and frame of my bike.
I had to kinda play around with my cockpit setup some to get it to work. I had my BTA bottle so that it came out the front. With the A2 I had to flip around my bottle cage. I've always had my cage zip tied between my aero bars, so that was no big deal. I just use some black zip ties and you can't even really see them. So now my "carbon fiber water bottle cage from Singapore" (ebay rules!) is pointed toward me. No big deal now, since I won't be taking the bottle out during rides. 
As you can see, its pretty invisible to the wind and you look at it straight on. The only issue I had was that I cut the tube about an inch too short. I guess the lesson is that you should cut it long and test it and then cut it down some more. Not a big deal as it just a little too short.
I also need to get some velcro or something to help hold the tube down. It kinda was flopping around on me during my first ride. I got time before my first race in April to get it all figured out!
All in all, it sure was nice on that first ride to just drink from the tube. The bite valve works really well to keep the fluid at the end of the straw so its right there. Really easy to get a lot of drink. We'll find out more as the weather gets warmer. I took a 2nd bottle, but didn't do a refill "on the fly" yet. That will be more interesting.
