Giving back? I think I did pretty well. I loaned out my old trainer to a friend training for Rev3 Cedar Point, volunteered at Quassy and another local sprint. Gotta think of some more creative ways to give back for next season.

Nationals? Done. I went, had a blast and improved my olympic-distance PR by about 15 minutes! It was a lot of fun, and I hope to make it back. The one thing that I didn’t like was the whole qualifying process. The qualifying criteria was fair, but it was just a big psychology change for me to be competing against the top guys in my age group instead of just myself and the clock.

I’m very competitive, but I’ve never cared about what anyone else in my age group was doing while I raced. I rarely ever looked down at people’s calves to see if they were in my AG. I just stuck to my own race and tried to meet or beat the standards that I set or myself. My competition used to be all internal. This year, it was all about competing with other M25-29ers. I wasn’t used to it at all. I ended up turning into “that guy” walking around transition before a tiny local sprint, nervously stalking the competition. Even at a tiny local sprint triathlon. Not awesome.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just different. And I wasn’t used to it at all. If I continue down the route of being more competitive within my age group, I’ve gotta get my head straight so I don’t let that get away from me and ruin my chances before the gun even goes off.

Other accomplishments this year?  I trained hard enough to be FAST on the bike and had a ton of fun.

I got a sweet new wetsuit that I lovelovelove. Plus it makes my ass look hot.

I went swimming outside a lot, made stupid faces underwater in front of my camera, and found a secret outdoor pool.

I did post-race cool downs in the ocean.

Oh, and I got to interview Natalie Coughlin.

I think I’ll chalk up the 2011 season as a win. Now I need to sit down and do some serious goal setting for 2012.

What are your big goals for next year?

It is that time of year kiddos! It seems like just about every single pro triathlete will be descending on either Kona or Anderson, SC for a big day of racing next week.

The folks over at CycleOps are having a contest to give away  to give away some gear and add extra excitement to the big day. So I ask – Are ya feeling lucky?

The Contest

Simply choose the male and female professional you think will post the fastest splits at Kona in each of the 3 disciplines (swim, bike, run), as well as the overall male and female winner and a winning time for each. See the contest website to participate and see the rules.

Terms
Submissions to the contest must be made prior to October 7th 11:59 PM. Only one submission may be made per person and submissions are non-transferrable. Ten (10) prize packages will be given out in total.

Prizes
Grand Prize
If a contestant guesses all 8 names correctly AND guess both winning times within a cumulative time differential of seven (7) minutes, they will win a CycleOps dream package including PowerTap G3 Carbon Wheelset, Joule GPS, PowerBeam VR Trainer and accessory kit (Trainer Mat, Bike Thong, Wheel Blocks and complete set of RealRides DVD’s)

First Prize
If no one correctly identifies all 8 names and/or a winning time differential within seven (7) minutes, the contestant with the most points (and lowest time differential, if in a tiebreaker) will receive a CycleOps training kit including a PowerTap G3 Alloy wheelset, Joule and SuperMagneto Pro trainer. Prizes have no cash value and substitutions cannot be made.

Runner-Up
The contestant with the second most points (or 2nd closest time differential, if in a tiebreaker) will receive a CycleOps SuperMagneto Pro trainer, Trainer Mat and Bike Thong.

Third Prize
The next eight (8) closest contestants will receive 3 RealRides DVD’s.

I’d tell you who my guesses are, but that is top secret! I’m not sharing my winning formula.

This is the race that I built my whole season around and picked my rache schedule just so I could qualify and earn my entry. All that work paid off and my work with Coach Hirsch has me feeling strong. Needless to say I’m VERY excited to race and VERY ready to taper.

I just got a new aero helmet that I can’t wait to rock this weekend too! I love it.

Last weekend I had two more days of hard workouts before starting my taper. It was raining so I took my 2 hour bike onto the trainer. Once I warmed up, no matter how hard I pushed I couldn’t get my HR above 135 or the life of me. It was just stalled. That is completely not normal for me. I don’t think that has EVER happened to me before. Or at least I’ve never noticed it before.  I cut the workout short and focused on stretching, massage, some time in my Recovery Pump boots and some good nutrition. I immediately booked a massage with Soar Body to get my muscles rubbed down and refreshed.

I talked to Coach and he said that my decision to back off was a smart one. My body was cooked and that is why my HR wouldn’t rise. Looks like my taper is starting early this time around!

Now I’ve got some easy swimbikerun sessions to keep the muscles fresh and loose, but I also need to make sure I don’t go stir crazy.

I felt a little scratch in my throat and started freaking out that I was getting a cold. I’m also relentlessly checking the Burlington weather forecast for this weekend. What looked like it could have been a really wet race, looks like it might be pretty sunny. Still, it is one more thing that I can stress out about forever, but don’t have any control over. I’ve gotta focus on preparing and not waste any mental energy on all that other crap.

So time to go have some under water fun! I can ALWAYS have fun taking stupid pictures of myself in the pool.

The rest of my To-Dos this week include cleaning my bike, degrease and lube my chain, eat healthy and get LOTS of sleep.

See you in Burlington!

Other than spending most of May not training and draining gallons of boogers from my nose and some random personal issues that are inevitable, my training hasn’t hit any major snags. Except for this weekend. Actually, just Sunday. I kinda wanted to curl up in a ball and cry a little.

It wasn’t a particularly spectacular or entertaining blow up, but just for the sake of making sure you know it isn’t always sunshine, rainbows and unicorns over here, let’s talk about it. Gotta keep things balanced.

They Fart Rainbows

Saturday was an easy 2k OWS followed by a hard HARD brick. A two hour blike at faster than race pace and an all out 30 minute run. It was a great swimbikerun session and the bike pace was faster than I’ve seen in a long time (read: ever). It was +90 degrees and my legs were destroyed at the end. I headed home for some ultragen, pulled pork flat bread and 90 minutes in my Recovery Pump boots.

I inhaled the crap outta this pizza. I’d been waiting for it all week.

Sunday is when the shit show started. My recovery work the day before helped me start to recoop, but I still had a long way to go and my legs still felt like death. Clearly I dug my hole pretty deep on Saturday.  I moved my 12 mile to the afternoon in hopes that a few extra hours would do the trick.

The plan was for six easy miles and six tempo miles. The first half was okay. I took a new route along the beach and enjoyed some really interesting people watching. Nahant beach has some interesting characters (I’ll save that story for another day). The second half, I tried to kick it up into some tempo work. The harder I pushed, the more it hurt, but I didn’t go any faster at all. My nutrition with EFS was spot on, but my legs just had no desire to come with me. It was like trying to argue with a toddler. The more I pushed, the harder they pushed back and threw a massive tantrum. Full on Ironman shuffle style. Dragging my feet forward with every step just to hold a 9:30 pace.

I held on for the last 6 miles and was barely able to sustain the same pace as the first 6.

Here is the route that I took. There is a sidewalk along the beach that goes from right to left. I went out to that little island sticking out on the left and back (twice) for 12 ish total miles.

The moral of the story is that no matter what you do sometimes with your planning, nutrition, stretching, recovery pumping and sleeping, sometimes the wheels just fall off.

In the words of Coach Hirsch: “In the end the legs have the final say in the workout we do!”

A kamikaze bee tries to take me out through a gap in my armor (my helmet vent) and lands a direct hit right on the front of my head.

I haven’t been stung in at least 10 years and it hurts just as much as i remembered. I slammed on the breaks, tore off my helmet and try to find the ninja attacker so I can have my revenge but he was gone as fast as he arrived.

Normally, I am a big fan bees. They pollinate flowers so I can have fruits and veggies and they make delicious honey that I love to put on everything. The also make Sam freak out when they come near her and keep me highly entertained.

But this undeclared bee war on my scalp has not gone unnoticed. You hear that bees? I have OFFICIALLY put you on notice. You join the list with bike drafters, elementary back stroke lane swimmers, the French TV car driver that tried to take out Hoogerland and Jennifer Lopez (she knows full well what she did).

As for the rest of you, you better be on your beat behavior. The On Notice list always has room for one more.

The last time I had a professional fit was when I first bought my P2 two years ago and they set me up with a really conservative fit. It worked well for getting my body adjusted to riding in the aerobars for hours and ironman training. Now I can ride in aero for hours, but am willing to give up a little comfort for some speedy oly bike splits.

Tonight I took a little experiment into my own hands and I dropped a few spacers from my bars to see what it did. I don’t have great “before” pictures, but here are some shots.

Old Bike Position: 

Shoulders up. Sloping back. 

New Bike Position:

Will it make me faster? Hell if I know. Will it make me any less comfortable? I hope not. Will it injure me? I REALLY hope not.

I’m riding a familiar route tomorrow, so hopefully some times will give me some evidence either way.

Worst case scenario, I move it back to ‘ol faithful.

It was hot and humid and even with a fan on me, I was sweating buckets. I grabbed a whatever was within reach to keep the sweat out of my eyes. A visor and a towel.

It just so happened that the Trakkers visor was an adorable shade of pink and the towel was so big that draping it across my back like a superhero cape was the only way to have it soak up the sweat but keep it just out of my way.

It almost looks like I’m trying to fly away on my bike. ET-style.

Have a great weekend everyone! Especially everyone out in Portland racing Rev3. I wish I was there with you.

I went out last night to enjoy some beverages with some good friends I haven’t seen in a while. I enjoyed an appropriate amount of beers and had to leave my car and take a taxi home.

I woke up at 5:45 am to realize that:

1) I had a training brick with Kim at 7am

2) My car was 2 miles away

3) My bike still had its trainer tire on it

Ugh. I threw on some running shoes and hauled my hungover body over towards the bar, just to jump in my car and turn back around. Within a half hour, I rushed to swap out my back tire, threw together all my bike and run gear, bolted on my SpeedFil and jumped in the car to go meet Kim.

Showing up late to the parking lot, I throw on my gear, fill up my bottles and pump up my tires.

With two seconds to go before I’m ready to roll and BAM! My front tire blows while still on my bike rack, hanging off my trunk.

Not. Awesome.

Kim and I just laughed and used it as an opportunity for me to teach her how to change a tire. I pulled out the old tube, threw in a new one and pumped it back up.

Kim slyly pointed out “Aren’t you supposed to check if there is anything sharp stuck in the tire?”

First of all, who is teaching who here?

Second of all, she was right. There was a big gash in my tire and as soon as I pumped it back up, it busted again. BAM! Two ruined tubes in 5 minutes. Not. Awesome.

I was out of tubes used her only spare to attempt one last repair. In reality, I just wanted to pack up, head home, and spin away on the trainer. This time Kim had the idea to put a piece of food wrapper inside the tire to cover the gash. That girl is wicked smaht.

45 minutes after I initially wanted to start, we finally roll out of the parking lot. Between the two of us, we had four wheels and no spare tubes. And none of the local bike shops are open yet. Annoying. We decide to ditch the original route and and do repeats of the 10 mile time trial loop in case one of us flats and needs to hitchhike it back to our cars. A great loop, but doing it 5 times back-to-back? Snooze.

The good news is that all my flubs REALLY fueled my bike. I came out of the gates and dropped Kim like a bad habit. She is a strong cyclist, but I had plenty of pent up frustration that she didn’t.

Three hours later, I finished up one of my fastest long rides ever. Not a bad way to end a morning, eh? And it was all held together by a piece of trash inside my wheel…

With all the mess that went on, I decided that my bike must be upset with me for not taking her outside enough lately. To try and make it up to her, I outfitted her with a brand new front tire and gave her a full on wash, degrease and lube job. Hopefully we are back on solid ground…

With the cool and wet spring that we have had in New England this year, making the investment and upgrading to a new high-end bike trainer was one of the best decisions that I have made in a while. Until this winter, I had been riding the same entry-level bike trainer that I’ve had since 2004. I bought it when I was back in college with spare change and money from returning empty beer cans.

Sure the CycleOps JetFluid Pro costs more than twice as much, but with how much nicer it is and how much use I’ve been getting out of it, I haven’t regretted it for one second.

There are a ton of reviews out there on it, but what is the real difference for ME?

1) Smoothness
This is a really hard one to quantify, but it is the difference between riding on slick newly paved asphalt and weather beaten and cracked roads. It just feels really NICE as you whip the pedals around, which makes a major difference if you are on there for hours at a time. It also helps make it a lot quieter, which Sam and my upstairs neighbors appreciate. I am sure.

I tried to record this before and after video to compare the noise levels and smoothness. It is hard to tell the volume difference, but you can definitely tell that the CycleOps sounds like a smooth jet engine while the old trainer sounds like I’m powering a coffee grinder or something. Either way, you get the idea.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Power
No, this version doesn’t tell me my wattage (see the PowerBeam Pro if you want a trainer with that). It lets me generate it. A LOT of it. Or at least it doesn’t limit how much my legs can put out.

I’ve obviously progressed a lot over the last +5 years from my meager beginnings as a triathlete, and the JetFluid doesn’t hold me back. With my old trainer getting worn down, I’d be spinning away on my hardest gear, yet far away from my top end HR. No.more. The only limit is now much pain I want to inflict on my own legs and lungs.

3)  Customer service

I had always heard good things about the CycleOps customer service crew before, but never had any desire to experience it for myself. I just wanted something that worked. Unfortunately in the first few weeks that wasn’t the case and the resistance unit kept disengaging from my tire mid way through a ride. Frustrating. I tried to fix it myself, but failed.

Instead of throwing it through the window (which I considered) I gave CycleOps a call. I explained what was happening and what I tried to do to fix it.

“Hmm. That is what I was going to recommend to fix it. Give me your address and I’ll have a new resistance unit in the mail for you tomorrow.” – Mr. Nice CycleOps Guy

No pleading. No begging. No nothing. Just a five minute phone call and they expresses shipped a new unit the next morning. It was at my doorstep in the next few days and they paid for return shipping of the old unit.

LOVE.

I may never know what the issue with the old resistance unit was, but the new one works like a charm and I am a very happy customer.

Disclaimer: CycleOps is a sponsor of this blog, but in no way contributed to the content of this post.

My second favorite is this panorama shot from the age grouper swim start. Click through to see the big version.

(click the pic to see the full version)

And lastly, I sliced up some clips from the camera that I had mounted to my aerobars. Rather than show the whole video (which is a MEGA big HD file) I just threw together some of my favorite parts of the course. It just happens to be that they are almost all speedy descents. It looks like I edited parts to fast forward through them, but it is all in real time. A few of the shots are of me hitting +46 mph. I even passed the USAT official on the motorcycle a few times.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy!

Chasing fishies.

See?! I told you it made me happy.

One of the reasons why I DON’T love triathlon is because sometimes learning those lessons is not awesome.

I woke up on Friday morning and realized I had a nasty rash on my right forearm. Sam was smart enough to have me draw a circle around it with a pen to see if it got any better.

Unfortunately it only got bigger and nastier later in the day. See how much bigger it is compared the pen mark outline that I drew in the morning?

Thankfully it started to fade after I took an antihistamine.

I didn’t have a clue as to what was causing it and why it wasn’t anywhere else on my body, which kinda freaked me out. At first I thought that it was something I ate and that I was having an allergic reaction, but I didn’t change my diet at all in the last week. Then I thought that I got bit by a spider in my sleep. I even hoped that it was a radioactive spider that would give me superpowers. But I tried climbing up a wall or shooting webs from my wrists, but failed miserably at both. Clearly that wasn’t it either.

My last theory was that I became Patient Zero of the zombie infection that would begin the end of the world. But the rapture came and went, and I never developed a hunger for brains, so that theory failed.

But the next morning I developed almost the exact same rash on my opposite forearm and I got even more confused.

After a trip to the doctor, we decided that my aerobar pads had become hosts to some fungal infection and rubbed off on my arm. Nasty, right?! Thankfully some new aerobar pads and some anti-fungal ointment cleared things up.

So here is the thing: how come nobody told me that you have to clean your aerobar pads too?! Okay, maybe looking back it makes complete sense that you’d have to clean/replace the thing that your arms are sweating all over for hours and hours week after week. I clean my bike shorts, shoes, socks, chain, frame and wheels, but somehow never thought to clean or disinfect my aerobar pads. Way to go, Jamie.