My Weekend News

My Weekend News

On Saturday Bonnie and I went out to Wekiwa Springs to try out swimming with a wetsuit.  The Florida springs are the only water in FL that is not about 80-90 degrees F.  Bonnie’s team was all out there training for Augusta 70.3 or Miami Man.  The water was nice and my wetsuit fit great.  My only complaint is there was no zipper in the front of the wetsuit.  What do you do if you have to pee in those things? 

We actully look pretty good in wetsuits.

Saturday’s 45 minute swim was followed by a 13 mile run in the part.  My running is starting to get back up to par but I still not hitting the speeds I do in the winter time.  This FL heat takes a lot out of you.

!!Cheesy Smile!!

After the morning exercise the family and some teammates went to First Watch for lunch (god I love that place).  Afterwards I went on a search for a new try top.  I swear I am going to start a company who make tri tops designed for someone other than 18 year old boys.  I am a pretty fit & skinny guy and some of these tops I cannot even get on.  And if I do most of the time my belly is showing.  To make it worse ever tri top is the SAME color with the SAME design.  All are BORING!!!

Strike a pose.

Sunday was a 61 mile bike ride in the hills of Clermont.  I forgot to restart my timer after we stopped for water so I thought I only did 41 miles total.  I started to worry I was not in shape for Augusta in 14 days. One of the other riders corrected me and said his computer showed the expected 61 mile. 

Also on Sunday I went grocery shopping.  After reading the list I had to chuckle.  Bonnie must really love her turkey.  She has me getting “turkey meat”, “turkey turkey” and “turkey meat 2lbs.”  I had to call her and asked what “turkey turkey” was and how it was different than “turkey meat.”  Sometimes it’s the little things that brighten my day.  We both had a chuckle.



What is "turkey turkey"?



Also on Sunday Chewie got a bath.  He ran around the house like a mad man after he got out of the tub.

Wet, happy dog!

Hey, whatcha call me?!

What did you do this weekend?

BTW is anyone really reading this blog anymore.  I was thinking about getting rid of it.  Let me know if you still exists.

So Tired...

I NEED COFFEE NOW!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I've worked 30 hours in the past two days.  Needless to say there has been no training for those days.  I hope to pick it back up soon.

Ironman Augusta 70.3 is only 18 days away.  If you plan on being there let me know I would love to meet up with you.

This weekend is 2K swim training in the springs so I can get use to wearing a wetsuit.  The springs are the only place in FL that is cold enough to wear a wet suit.  I will follow that up with a 13 mile trailrun.  Sunday will be a 60 mile bike ride.

Last Sunday I did VQ cycling training.  We did 3 hours of the Augusta bike course on trainer.  Nothing like sitting on a trainer for 3 hours.  Although surprisingly I had a fun time.  I made it 50 miles in 3 hours which means I may be looking at a sub 3 hour bike ride for the race.  :-)

The past several weeks I have been doing my long runs on the treadmill at LA Fitness.  On the treadmill I can avoid the high 90 degree heat and have water right at my disposal.  I can also increase the pace so I can push myself.  One thing I do notice is how quickly people get on/off treadmills.  They think 15 minutes on the treadmill qualifies as cardio.

Damian (my bike) is still having derailleur issues.  I hope they do no act up during Augusta.

Will any of you be at Augusta?

Walz Cycling Caps Review

Walz Cycling Caps Review

IMAGE SOURCE

Walz Caps Website

Ever have helmet-head hair after a ride?  Felt stupid sitting in the cafe after a ride because your hair looks like something from a punk rock video?  Does your head freeze during those cold morning rides.  I have just that hat to fix these problems and look great while do it.  :-)

For my birthday I received a wool, cycling hat from Walz Caps and was greatly impressed.  Their quality and materials are great.  They also have a wide variaties of cool materials (cotton blends, wool, moisture wicking, eco-friendly, etc).  They can even personalize and/or custom make you a hat.  Even better is these caps are handmade in the USA. 

This is the wool cap I received for my birthday!
IMAGE SOURCE

I have to say their customer service is above and beyond.  My noodle size was in the middle of the sizing chart so I ordered a small/medium.  When I received the cap it was a little too small.  I called Walz up and they immediately sent me a size large/x-large.  They then told me if that was too big they would custom sew me one to my size if needed.   I received the large and it was only slightly too large so I threw it into the washer and it came out the prefect size. 

Walz Caps are awesome and they are great people.  I would highly recommend ordering some caps from them.  I tried to score a discount code for my readers but their shopping cart system does not currently support it. 

BTW - thye have free shipping and can personalize and/or custom make caps.

Family Triathlon Weekend Photos

Not not easy being this cheesy!



The next Michael Phelps



T acting suprised (I love this photo)



It's a major award!



Bonnie with part of her team before she rocked the swim.
She is in the pink cap



Bonnie with her team after the race



T getting ready to swim. 
With a lost Mr HalfTRIng in the back ground.

Photos of Me

1. Rocking the Finish
2. Rocking the Bike
3. A decent pic of me on the bike
4. Sporting the magazine cover
5. At least they covered my face to spare others
6. Looking confused

Photos of Bonnie

1. A little dirty from the swim
2. On the bike
3. Winning the run

2011 Fall Triathlon Festival Lake Moss Olympic Triathlon

2011 Fall Triathlon Festival
Lake Moss Olympic Triathlon


My Results Comparison

Year	Pos	SwimTm	T0Tm	T1Tm	BikeTm	T2Tm	RunTm	TotalTm
2010	69/107	0:20:17	00:32	2:19	1:13:15	00:33	0:58:46	2:35:46
2011	52/98	0:23:52	01:53	2:47	1:08:51	01:27	0:56:10	2:35:01

Click here for my 2010 race review

The weekend was a family triathlon weekend.  Triston did his first even triathlon.  He did that Saturday sprint triathlon.  He had a great time and won third out of three in his age group.  He was excited to receive an award.  You go to love small events where you can place.

Bonnie and I did the olympic triathlon.  This is the same race I did last year so it is neat to be able to compare my results and see how I compared.  My swim time went down by 3 minutes (but the swim course was different and I believe longer).  I improved my bike by over 4 minutes.  My run time improved by almost 3 minutes.   Overall time was almost identical.  This was a training race for the upcoming 70.3 Augusta so my transitions were designed for a much longer race so they were longer than they should have been.

Last year’s race review is still pretty much the same, C-.  Almost all the comments are still the same.   At least this year they started checking numbers as people left the transition area.  This year still had no judges.  Many people were cheating on the swim and drafting on the bike.  The swim was so dark you could not see the people kicking you in the face (and that is no joke).  I kick and got kick more in this race than all others combined.  The run was nice and shaded but was pretty much a trail run.  No support on the bike course.  Only warm water was given out during the run.  Post race was water, granola mix and bagels.  BTW no race shirt was provided.  They offered last year shirts to other races or $10 off to another race as a consultation.  That is sad!!

At the race finish we all looked like we participated in a Muddy Buddy.  We had dirt everywhere (i.e. on your face, in our ears, on our clothing, shoes, etc).  Luckily there was a hose to rinse off with.  Any white on our clothing was dyed by the dirt and tannic water.  This race basically ruins white triathlon gear.

I will not be doing this race next year. 


Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I will post them later today.

Cursed Bike

The evil, cursed bike.  Stear your eyes from it.  Don't look it in the face.

My bike (who recently had a name change to Daemon) has been nothing but problems since the day I have bought it.  It has had a broken chain, multiple exploding and flat tubes, derailleur issues, wrong fittings, etc.  I am starting to think it is cursed.  How do you fix a cursed bike?   Throw holy water on it, exorcism, call Father Lankester Merrin, etc? Any suggestions? Any ideas for a bike name change? 

I’m back!!

I’m back.  Sorry for the long delay since the last posting.  I am sure all 3 of you who read this blog were waiting with baited breath to know what has been going on with me.  Well it has been a busy few couple of weeks.

1)      I had a certification I had to pass for my work.  Most of my free time for about 2 weeks was take up with studying.  I passed with nearly a perfect score

2)      The family went to Sarasota, FL for vacation.  It was a nice 3 days at the beach.  I was slightly rainy and overcast all but the last day but the overcast and rain was nice because you would stay at the beach/pool for much longer without baking in the near 100 degree heat.  We hung out the at beach, read books, drank beers and just hung out.  We also went to Venice Beach, FL and found some sharks teeth on the beach.

3)      Lots of training.  I have been running 3 days a week now to try to get my running legs back.  It has been hard because FL is experience feels like temperatures from 100- 110.  Strangely you get more use to the high temperatures after awhile.  But your pace times still a MUCH lower in this heat.

4)      Bike Issues.  I broke a chain during a training ride.  Luckily I did not get hurt.  I did remove a link to get myself home but locked up the whole system and fell on my butt.  I nearly get ran over by another biker.  Angel followed me home but he blew 3 tires on the way home.  We ended up having to call his wife to come pick us up.  

 After a LBS had multiple attempts to get the rear derailleur adjusted they gave up so I have to buy a new one.  Of course they did not have a rear derailleur so I had to take it to a different LBS to fix.  Too much money later and now it is fixed.  I think I will call my bike Daemon because of all the “issues “ it has.  I think I will get a priest to do an exorcism on the bike to get rid of the evil bike spirits.

5)      I got a bike fitting.  Daemon was manipulated to fit me.  Come to find out the LBS sold me too big of a bike so I need to buy a new steam and a zero degree seat post to get the beast to fit to me. 

Today I am back at work after a one week vacation and got a ton of emails and work to catch up on.

Only 42 days left till Augusta 70.3!!