Let’s start back in  elementary school real quick to give some perspective.

Just like most kids, my mom tossed me in the local soccer, baseball and basketball leagues. Unfortunately, I was about half the size of all the other kids and SUCKED at soccer, baseball and basketball. The whole hand-ball coordination thing was just not my thing. I stuck with little league for a while because all my friends were on the team, but it was more of a test of my mental endurance than my baseball skills.

I was the tiny kid stuck in right field picking daisies and not even paying attention to the score because I hated being there. The one time I made solid contact with the ball, it was a laser of a line drive. But it went foul. And almost took out my coach standing on the first base line. That was my one “hit.” At the end of the season I won the award for most walks. I was a joke.

Basketball was no better. Having awful hand-eye coordination and always being at least six inches shorter than all your classmates makes it pretty hard to become the next Lebron. I almost scored a basket once. Almost.

The one thing I was good at was running.

Running the mile fitness test in middle school

When I got to high school, my mom refused to let me become one of those kids that came home from school at 3pm and played video games all night. She forced me to pick a sport for every season. She didn’t care what it was, she just wanted me out of the house, being active and making new friends after school.

Freshman year cross country

Since ball sports clearly weren’t my thing and the one thing I really loved about middle school gym was the annual mile run test, I went with Cross Country. I knew a few guys in the team from Boy Scouts and jumped right in. They introduced me to people that would change my whole high school experience and I never turned back. Over the next four years, I  went from the skinny, shy and nerdy kid who could barely run two miles to the guy that was the captain of the winningest (is that a word) athletic team in the school and bringing home bad ass conference championship trophies. Sure, I still was skinny as hell and looked like an albino Ethiopian, but that was fine.

I was running. Running was me. All was right in the world.

Cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring.

I went from the quiet awkward kid to the captain of the team. I wasn’t breaking any state records, but the team we built went deeper than any other in our conference and we started to build a little running dynasty at my High School. It was all about being a part of something bigger, and more awesome, than yourself. Our team rocked.

My senior year was a major turning point. I switched from “that tiny quiet kid” to the captain of the team and leading us to another championship. While living four years of pure running was great, I was burnt out. I was a six foot tall, 140 pound stack of ashes. It wasn’t the end of my athletic career, but there was some twinkling of more endurance sports to come. I just needed to get off my feet for a while.

I broke away from my pack of running friends and dove in to the pool, literally. From seeing a flier at the grocery store that I worked at for a local triathlon and watching Kona on TV, I started to think “hmm, maybe I’ll do one of those some day.” To get there, I figured out that I  needed to learn to swim freestyle. Joining the winter swim team quickly became the next step in my athletic career. Plus, it meant hanging out with cute athletic chicks in bathing suits six days a week. In High School, 90% of the decisions I made revolved around girls, so this was a pretty easy call. It was well worth having to rock the speedo.

I swam. It was fun. I almost drown at first, but slowly got faster and faster.

College came, and I was still burnt out on running. I had no desire to pick up my racing flats and go back at it. Instead, I focused on school, pizza and cheap beer. On top of that, I realized that college chicks, unlike High School girls, didn’t like 140 pound toothpicks. I started hitting the weigh room hard. Over the next four years, I ended up gaining more than 50 pounds, losing 100% of my running fitness and picking up myself a pretty cute girlfriend. Things were changing fast, but it was all in the right direction.

Still with that twinkling of triathlon in  my eye, I asked for a road bike for my  21st birthday and I got just a little closer to being a multisport athlete. Cycling kicked my butt at first, but I didn’t give up and took my bike to class whenever I could to get faster and faster.

Once I had my undergrad and grad degrees under my belt, I decided to finally take the step to complete what had become a race six years in the making: my first sprint triathlon.

I floundered my way through the swim only to battle back and forth with a 300 pound, 60-year old man and a 15 year old girl in cheerleader booty shorts on the bike. Humiliating. The run? It was clear that I was nowhere near the hard core single sport athlete that I once was, but I made my way to the finish.

Holding back vomit, I remember Sam meeting me at the finish line and asking “How do you feel?!”

All I remember saying is “SO HARD! Let’s do it again!”

And that is how I became a triathlete.

I made it to the top of the Ap Gap!

Click here to view the embedded video.

9.42 miles to the top in 55:15. Yeah, that is 10.1 miles per hour…

Total elevation gain: 1,775.

My quads are screaming (as was my mouth as I was climbing the last mile, which was also the steepest part).

Thankfully, the descent was a helluva lot easier. Plus, I found this little mountain stream off the side of the road. Perfect for a little cool down soak.

Portrait of a happy triathlete.

The biking routes are pretty sweet too. Just about all the country roads are framed with TONS of these blue and yellow wildflowers. I’ve gotta snap some good pics of some of the wildflower fields up here later this week to post here. I’ve been having too much fun riding to stop and take too many pictures, but there will be plenty of time for lollygagging later on.

See those mountains WAAAAAAAY off in the distance there? They are calling my name. I want to go ride over there later this week and conquer a few.

But enough rambling, lets get to the story behind the title to this blog post.

Yesterday a bunch of my friends I’m vacationing with went off to play 18 holes of golf, so I figured it was a perfect time to knock off one of my epic adventures for the week: head North to the Canadian border. I didn’t have my passport so I couldn’t go too far into Canada, but even if I could just roll across the border and turn around to head back home, I’d be a happy camper.

I loaded up my water bottles, pointed North and started pedaling. It was hot, but most of the route followed the lake shore so the breeze coming off the water was a huge gift.

Half way to the border. Stopped for 2L of water and inhaled a chocolate chip muffin at the Hero, VT general store.

As I started to get closer to the border, my phone started buzzing. I got a message from AT&T warning me about extra charges for international data rates, I knew I was close! I rolled past the “Vermont Welcome Center” building and there she was, the ultimate destination of the ride. Welcome to Canada: the land of maple syrup, hockey, God knows whatever else those crazy Canucks do up there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The border patrol was about a quarter mile past the border sign. I didn’t bother trying to go through since I didn’t have my passport and the map didn’t seem to show anything worthwhile across the border for at least another 10 or 15 miles. Not wanting to deal with over zealous border patrol or adding another 20-30 miles to an already 80- or 90 mile ride, I did an about face and headed home.

On my way back, I was riding along and kept hearing this crow squacking right over my head. I didn’t think anything of it until I realized he was following me. Actually, it was more like he was chasing after me and dive bombing me, as if he was trying to shoo me out of his territory. This went on for a solid mile or two, no joke. Once I realized that he wasn’t going to stop, I just yelled “SHUT UP BIRD!” and he disappeared off into the distance. Pretty bizarre. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

And did I mention that it was hella hot?! This thermometer was in the SHADE at the VT welcome center. 90 degrees and barely any shade for the entire 88 miles. It was a really good test of my Rev3 Cedar Point hydration plan though. Nutritionally, everything went really well. I couldn’t have been happier.

Next up: exploring Burlington, running and whatever other adventures I can manage to think up while floating out in the lake and staring at the clouds…

I’ll be heading up to Burlington, Vermont with 11 of my college buddies to kick our feet up lake-side. Do some swimming, grilling, boozing and IRONMAN TRAINING. Apparently Burlington is super bike-friendly too. I can’t wait.

None of my college buddies are athletes, so I’ll be the only one doing any actual working out. Needless to say, I’ll be packing WAY more spandex into my suitcase than all 11 of my friends combined. Instead they’ll be doing their part to make sure that everyone is keeping up with their 12 oz curl training regimen.

On top of hanging out with good friends, enjoying some good food and great local brews, there are some key parts of the trip that I’m looking forward to.

1) 90 mile bike route around the lake that requires 2 ferries. I’m not sure why, but this route just looks hella fun to me. Apparently there aren’t many bridges that span Lake Champlain, so taking the ferries across could be an adventure, but isn’t that the whole point?

2) Climbing the “Ap Gap”

I’ve only heard rumors of this legendary climb. Once I figured out that the house we are renting was within riding distance of it, I decided that I HAD TO DO IT. This is the elevation map of the last section of the ride. Need I say more?

3) Descending the “Ap Gap”

There are few things I love more than nasty climbs with awesome views. One of them just happens to be nasty descents with awesome views. I’m hoping that flying down the “Ap Gap” doesn’t disappoint. (Don’t worry Mom, I’ll be very safe and won’t go to fast and flying over the guardrail.)

By 5:45, me and about a dozen other endurance freaks gathered at the Boston Common, mounted our bikes, pointed South and started pedaling.

Destination: Provincetown. The very end of Cape Cod. 135 miles away.

We knew we had to get there by 7 pm or we’d miss the ferry bringing us back to Boston and we’d be stuck there for the night.

You’ve gotta love it when you can do such an epic ride with a group of awesome athletes and friends. Having great company for +8 hours in the saddle makes all the difference in the world.

The sun was out, my legs were feeling strong and the smiles just kept coming. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

At the half way point, we stopped at the Sagamore Friendly’s for some refeuling. They delivered my pancakes before I got my silverware. I was so starving that I just dug in and started tearing apart the pancakes and dipping them in strawberry syrup and eating it with my hands. Note to waitresses everywhere: don’t get between a triathlete and his food. Oh, and keep bringing over that big pitcher of water.

The P’Town Crew chowing down

Back on the road and we kept cranking along. We still had another 60ish miles to go.

Thankfully the second half had much nicer roads as we officially entered Cape Cod and rode up and down the dunes and through some gorgeous neighborhoods.

At about 70 miles in, I hear someone  yell out “TRAKKERS?!”

I didn’t recognize the voice as belonging to anyone in our group, and all of a sudden Trakkers Pro, Dede Griesbauer pulls up alongside and starts chatting. Too cool. We chatted about race plans, I oogled over her sick Shimano Di2 setup and before I know it she blew past our entire group and faded off into the distance. Gotta love surprise team meetups.

The biggest surprise of the ride came at around mile 90. I ended up leading the paceline for a solid 10 miles or so and felt really strong. We had some pretty fast riders with us and I kept expecting them to come up and make me either their dust. It never happened. I didn’t even realize that the tight paceline had formed right behind me until we stopped at the next major turn to make sure everyone had caught up to us and I got a few compliments about leading the group and keeping a fast even pace. Gotta love surprise compliments on skills I didn’t even know I had! Warms my heart. It also helps when we are at mile 90 and everyone’s legs are sufficiently drained and no one’s egos are threatened by sucking the wheels of slower riders.

Once I rolled through the 112 mile mark, I did a mental check. At this point at Rev3, I’d be getting off the bike and starting the marathon.

My legs? They actually didn’t feel too bad. The idea of running didn’t make me want to punch someone in the face, it actually seemed pretty pleasant after all day in the saddle! Could I run the whole 26.2 miles? Maybe only with a miracle, but I have two more months to squeeze out some extra run fitness. More than a training ride, this adventure was more of a confidence booster than anything else.

Nutritionally, I felt like I really nailed it too. While my effort level was way less than the bike course at Quassy and there won’t be a breakfast stop for strawberry pancakes, potato chips or beer at Cedar Point, I think I have a nutrition plan that I can trust. I started off the day drinking a TON (2 liters) of First Endurance EFS. Since it is less concentrated than liquid shot, starting with something that was easier on my stomach didn’t give me the GI issues that I had at Quassy. For the second half of the ride, I survived on straight water from my camelbak and a water bottle full of First Endurance liquid shot on my bike frame. I still have to work on the frequency of sipping on the liquid shot, but that detail shouldn’t be too hard to nail down and test.

Cruising down the Cape Cod bike trail

At around mile 120, we made our last stop of the day in Wellfleet. The Beachcomber.

Seriously, how could you ride past this place and NOT stop for a beer?

Pretty awesome views, right?

People were apparently very surprised to see a bunch of cyclists stroll up to the bar and grab a few beers and corn on the cob. I thought there was a good chance that because of the hot stink that we were laying down from 7 hours of sweating out in the sun, we would be ostracized.

Surprisingly, it was the exact opposite. Several groups of cute girls approached us and asked what the heck we were doing, how the hell we got there from Boston and were sufficiently impressed with our bad-assness. If I was a single guy, apparently strolling into a bar smelling like BO and wearing a cycling kit and leg stubble (I haven’t shaved since Rev3 Quassy) is apparently an AMAZING way to pick up chicks. Like fish in a barrel.

We stuck around for the last few minutes of the USA vs Ghana game. We lost. Got eliminated. The whole bar was silent, slowly dispersed and we jumped back in the saddle to finish the last 15 miles to Provincetown.

These were definitely the hardest miles of the whole route, probably simply because I knew we were getting close, but I wasn’t getting there nearly as fast as I wanted. I was eager to get off the bike, venture around P’town and toss back some ice cold beers. The last few miles were straight, flat and lined with beach cottage after beach cottage. The whole road smelled like beer, lighter fluid, charcoal and seaweed. It doesn’t sound like it would smell amazing, but it had me grinning from ear to ear.

Once we pulled up to the Provincetown pier, I rewarded myself with a pulled pork sandwich, onion rings and a root beer. EVERYTHING tastes better after 135 miles on the bike. My face was covered in ketchup and BBQ sauce like I was a 2 year old trying to eat spaghetti, but I didn’t care. I was just happy to have made the journey with an awesome crew.

The one last reward of the day, a bright orange sunset off the bow of the ferry as we ventured home.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now I’ve gotta plan some more epic adventures. Time to get creative…

Following Sonja‘s orders, I headed down to the Blue Hills Reservation just south of Boston for a long day of hiking. I packed up  my Camelback full of goodies to keep me going for the whole day.

Side note: I LOVE my camelback for trail running. Maybe it is just because I have no hips and my fuel belt is just too big and won’t stay in place, but this thing is the best. It has little pockets for my wallet, FlipCam, Clif bars and my iPhone and is the most comfortable way with 2 liters of water strapped to my hump. Definitely one of the best gear purchases I’ve made lately.

But let’s continue…

Heading out into the woods and seeing rays of sunshine peek through the fog and tree leaves makes getting up early completely worth it.

Gorgeous.

Despite the name, I was a little unsure about just how hilly the “Blue Hills Reservation” actually was. I didn’t want to go out to attempt some epic hike only to be let down by some ill-named walking path. Thankfully, the blue hills did not disappoint. Within the first quarter mile I was walking up a steep rocky hill and was well into Z2. Happy boy. An epic day was had.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There were awesome views of the Boston skyline, tons of bounding between tree roots, sprinting down rocky descents and a helluva lotta sweat.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Four hours later and slightly embarrassed that I got a legitimate workout from hiking (which is just another name for a walk in the woods) I was done. My toes were pretty beat up from banging them into rocks. I may need to invest in some legit trail shoes instead of just my regular Saucony Hurricanes, but they did hold up pretty well. There was also a little beach and pond right at the end of the trail. Perfect for a little post-run soak. SCORE!

I managed to average 120 bpm for the whole day. Not too bad for endurance training? Right?! I’ll have to do this a few more times and bump up the time/distance each time.

Saturday night involved two games of bowling, an arm full of beers, a BBQ cheeseburger at midnight and a 1:30 am bedtime. Not ideal for an early morning Sunday ride, but definitely fun. Gotta have that triathlon-life balance!

5:30 am rolled around pretty fast and I felt like death. Thankfully I knew Kim was joining me, or I may not have made it out. Planning my weekend workouts early and sending some peer-pressure filled emails was definitely a good idea.

Fifty miles, lots groaning about my sore quads from yesterday’s hiking, staring at Kim and Mike’s butt’s, and plenty of poop and vagina jokes later, we rolled back into Concord High School and tossed back a few beers before calling it a morning and going our separate ways. Drinking at 11:30 on a Sunday morning in a high school parking lot? Gotta love it. Mike supplied the beer. It was the first time I’ve ever met or ridden with him, but he is definitely a keeper.

So I know what you are thinking. Epic hike is checked off the list. What is next?

Next weekend: one day. +120 miles. Boston to Provincetown.

Time to lube up the road bike!

I’ve got 300 free special gifts to give out (well, currently only 297 since three already got snatched up).

If you want to stay smooth and speedy this race season without razor bumps, this should help get you there. Plus, getting new toys that aren’t available in stores yet is always fun, right? I’m purposefully not mentioning the name in this post so that my regular readers get first crack at it and all the google lurkers don’t snatch them all up, but click on the widget in the sidebar and you’ll figure it out.

I’ll be posting a review later on, but when you get yours in the mail, let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

I want to get some final tweaks in my half iron nutrition/pacing/hydration before Rev3 Quassy next month. What better way to test out your fitness than to replicate a 56 mile bike and 13 mile run back to back?

If you like shaky videos with lots of wind noise, this explains my whole day.

If not, here is the quick synopsis.

The bike went great. I was rocking it. The best long bike ride of my life, then I cramped up at around mile 40. My legs still felt pretty good, but my stomach was all bloated and unhappy.

56 miles later, I rolled back to my car, downed some water in hopes that it would help reset my gut and jetted off on the first of five loops for the run.

I pushed it hard for the first 5 or 6 miles of the run. I got into a rhythm pretty quick and was feeling good, but then totally bonked. I kept on  pushing through, tossing water over my head and alternated sucking down EFS and straight water. Nothing was really doing the trick, but I eventually made it through.

Once I got home, I realized what the problem was on the run. All that water I sucked down went right through my system and didn’t get absorbed at all. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but at least it helped me figure out what was happening to me.

So here are the lessons from today’s epic race simulation.

I have a lot juice on the bike than I thought.

Sucking down tons of sports drink is great, but I’ve gotta mix that with plenty of water to keep things flowing.

“Emptying the tank” before a race and pre-hydrating is just as important as hydrating durring the race.

The more I learn about how my body works at race pace, the better I’ll be able to rock it once Ironman race day comes around. I’m slowly getting there…

We immediately amended this with a 50 mile ride on Saturday morning. Besides just catching up on all the “life” that happens between each other’s blog posts, I did some major brain picking about tips for ironman training. She rocked a major PR at ironman at Cozumel last year and I absolutely respect her training dedication. I tried to act like a sponge as much as I could during the whole ride.

This is what we decided.

• I admitted that I NEVER pee on the bike during races, even half ironmans. Nver. This is apparently a problem. I know that I need to get better about my pre-race hydration, and if I’m not peeing on the bike, I still probably haven’t fixed it. The goal is to have to pee somewhere around mile 35-45. This needs some testing, but should give me a good idea of how hydrated I actually am so that I can adjust my intake on the fly and I can rock the run.
• Don’t spend the day before bumming around the expo without a bottle of fuel in my hand (and probably another in my back pack) to make sure I’m properly pre-hydrated.
• Keeping a semi-normal social life while rocking an ironman is possible. She is proof. Now I’ve just gotta repeat what she has proven.
• Pre-lubing with chamois cream is essential.
• Dropping some $$$ on swim stroke analysis will probably do me way more good than the same amount on coaching, V02 max testing or anything else. My swim stroke is almost definitely the low hanging fruit of places I can improve on to get my finishing times down.

We shot the shit about local triathlon club gossip, her latest boy stories and It also gave me a chance to show off my new Trakkers cycling kit that came in the mail this week. Gotta love some fresh threads.

Playing with my camera while Kim “takes care of business” off in the woods.

Here is to hoping that all these lessons learned transfer into some faster race times this year! I’m starting to feel a little more confident about making the potentially insane decision to coach myself to my first ironman.

The crocuses are sprouting in my front yard. The weather is warming up. Daylight savings time is here. I broke out the knee warmers and took my road bike off of the wall and out onto the road for the first time. After a winter of spending more time on the trainer than I ever have before, it feels strange cranking down on the pedals and bursting forward. Somehow my body forgot that bikes are actually meant to go anywhere at all, let alone FAST and not just spin endlessly in one place.

The first ride of the spring is always the most fun because it reminds me of why I spent all that time watching movies on Hulu over and over while it is snowing outside. Going fast is FUN.

I was also reminded of another sign of spring on my 30 mile ride this afternoon that is probably unique to the Boston area. The red coats.

I stopped to say hi and watch them pass along the trail and was greeted with a friendly “Loyal subject of the King I presume?”

I ride through Lexington and Concord a lot, so I see these guys out a lot throughout the summer. It made me smile knowing that if they are out, winter is DEFINITELY over.

And on a side note. I did another CompuTrainer time trial/fitness test this weekend. It was the same course last year’s TT at the Multisport World Expo, a 10k through central park. I thought I was in worse shape than last year since I’m not teaching quad-busting spin classes twice a week anymore, but was able to crank out the exact same wattage!

Last year: 283 watts

This year: 283 watts

Both years, I tasted puke and loved it.

Maybe I’m in better cycling shape than I thought…

I had only done one computrainer time trial once before (last March), and I was doing a LOT more running and was teaching hardcore spinning classes twice a week, so needless to say, I was in much better shape. I didn’t need a test to tell me that I wasn’t in the shape I was last year, but I was pretty curious to see exactly how much farther back I was (and how much ground I had to make up).

I did last year’s 10k TT in 15:56 (283 average watts/ HR: 174 avg – 189 max). As long as I finished in sight of that 283 avg watts, I’d be a happy camper. The course profile was the last 10k of the Boston Marathon, backwards. From Copley square to the top of heartbreak hill. Almost completely uphill. Yikes.

The results:

Time: 18:21 (CLEARLY a much harder course)

Avg Watts: 259

Avg Speed: 20.3

HR: 177 avg – 189 max

I have to give credit to a few of those watts to Kim who was behind me screaming almost the whole time, cheering me on. She is an awesome motivator. THANKS KIM!

24 watts isn’t a TON, but definitely enough of a difference in my fitness to hopefully motivate me to get my butt in gear. It is pretty interesting that I had almost the exact same HR as a year earlier, just lower watts.

This season one of my main goals is to focus on recovery more. Not just physically, but nutritionally too. I don’t think I paid enough attention to that last year and led to me getting pretty burnt by mid-summer. Feeling wasted before your workout even starts isn’t good. Thankfully I’m loving the cappuccino flavored Ultragen. I’ve only used it a few times so far after some of my hard workouts, so I can’t say much yet about how effective it is (yet), but it definitely is freaking delicious.

Oh, and last year I somehow just barely edged out Triathlon hall of famer Karen Smyers. This year, (I think, but am awaiting the final results to be posted) I think I beat out ’08 Lake Placid winner Cait Snow. I’m sure that there is something wonky going on with the computrainers since I know for a fact that both ladies can tear me apart on the road, but it is still pretty cool thinking that I can compete with them on SOME level (albeit fake).

Now that I know where my fitness stands, I’ve gotta get this whole ironman training plan thing squared away so I can hit it hard once March hits. More on that soon…

So I got an email the other day that went something like this…

“Hey Jamie, remember the Phonak pro cycling team?”

“Yeah! Floyd Landis is the man! What a BAMF!”

“Agreed. Well Phonak primarily makes hearing aids, but they have some pretty sick earphones. Wanna test ‘em out?”

“Heck yes I do!”

Unlike last winter when I was still teaching spinning classes a few times per week, I’ve been spending a TON more time listening to music by myself on the bike trainer (and even more once I really ramp up my running) so I thought this would be the perfect piece of new gear to review. Soon I got a nice surprise in the mail and started putting ‘em through the SwimBikeRun product testing gauntlet.

Introducing the Phonak PFEs.

PFE stands for “perfect fit earphones.”

For such tiny little earphones, they sure promised a lot (a perfect fit and and incredible sound quality – without the distraction of ambient noise) so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  After poking around and finding some pretty impressive reviews, including this one from CNet, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I tried to stay as unbiased as I could and give ‘em a fair shake.

Giving ‘em a good sweat test on the trainer.

FIT/COMFORT TESTING:

Pretty tiny, right? The wires are held back behind your ears by these thin silicone ear guides (little plasticy tubes which can be easily taken off if you want). They are really light and comfortable, but most importantly of all, with the ear guides you don’t have to worry about the earphones jumping out of your ears while you are running.

Most people use the standard iPod earbuds that came with it, but if you listen to music at all with your iPod while working out, I’m sure you can associate with my frustrations. I’ve tried everything from wrapping the earbud wires around the sides of my sunglasses to tucking the wires into the sides of my hat to help hold them in my ears. But that doesn’t change the fact that the inside of my ears are not round little circles, but iPod earbuds are. It is no wonder they are such a pain to keep in place. Any mild jostling is going to shake them out.

The PFEs came with a three different sizes of silicone ear tips (small, medium large) and one set of Comply foam tips to help you get the right fit for your ear shape. The foam tips are by far my favorite. Think of the same type of material as earplugs. You smoosh ‘em down, place ‘em in your ears, and they expand, fill in the gaps, block out noise and give AWESOME sound quality. Plus, they basically hold themselves in place from INSIDE your ear. I am loving that. Sure, something expanding inside of your ear does sound pretty uncomfortable, but trust me on this one.

It was pretty hard to hear anything else with these on. I loved that for the sound quality, but for that reason I doubt I’d ever use these while riding my bike outside or in the car. If I’m on the bike and being overtaken by a car, I want to be able to hear it and give them plenty of room before it is right on my wheel, but everyone has different comfort levels with riding.

Okay. Fit and comfort gets an A, but let’s talk about actual sound quality.

AUDIO QUALITY TESTING:

Just by looking at their size, I wasn’t expecting huge sound quality from these little buggers, but I was pleasantly surprised. Songs that I had listened to thousands of times in my car, computer stereo and iPod earbuds (note: none of which are all that fancy, except my Harman Kardon computer speakers) sounded clearer than ever there were even all these background notes and sounds that I had never even noticed before. Some parts sounded like a brand new song, it was pretty crazy.

The one and only part where these earphones fall flat a little is the bass, and unfortunately this failing is pretty obvious. Highs and mids sound amazing, but on hardcore spin fest intervals where I was trying to tear my legs off and blast some beats to keep me pushing hard, the music couldn’t keep up. Now, it wasn’t awful, and I may not have even noticed if everything else didn’t sound so great, but even at low volume the lack of bass thumb-ability was pretty obvious, even when listening to acoustic stuff. It wasn’t only noticeable when listening to techno or rap either, but for such tiny earphones this is forgivable given how clear everything else sounds.

Sound quality: B+

SIDE NOTES:

The version I tested also has a microphone built in to the wire that is compatible with the iPhone. It was great for taking calls while on the trainer and not having to get up, pause my workout and hope that it is actually someone important. I haven’t tested the microphone quality as much yet, but was pretty impressed with how much it picked up and I didn’t feel like I had to talk awkwardly loud just to be heard over the background noise from my bike trainer. Plus, the microphone button works to pause the music so you don’t have to worry about your sweaty hands all over your iPhone. Happy camper.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

All together, I was pretty impressed with the Phonak PFEs. They definitely have a reason why they are named “perfect fit earphones.” If you spend a good portion of your training time listening to music, these would be a good choice of upgrades from just about anything else that you are plugging in to your MP3 player and sticking in the side of your head.

They aren’t super cheap at $139 for the regular model and $159 with the microphone, but the quality definitely justifies the price. Plus, let’s be honest. I’m sure you have spent a lot more money on more frivolous training gear that barely got any use. Lets just say that after reviewing these over the last two weeks, I’m not sure if I’m ever going to use those junky standard round earbuds from Apple anymore.

If you want to check ‘em out and get your own pair, start here: http://www.audeoworld.com

Disclosure: These earphones were provided to me by Phonak to review. Phonak had no part in contributing to the content of this review.