OneTriGuy

Garmin thinks I’m fast

Apparently my Fenix 2 thinks I am a way better athlete than I really am … or I have yet to live up to my potential. I prefer to think that these race predictors are based on being chased by a rabid dog or an armed, jilted woman. As I’m way behind in filling out my blog, I’m not going to waste my time, or bore you, with a review of a 2 year old, last version watch. I will add this, the “ignore this screen,” screen:   There’s no such thing as a three day rest for a triathlete.

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I’m officially bionic

I may not be the Six Million Dollar Man, but I am now artificially enhanced with the addition of a plate and five screws in my clavicle. After walking up “triathlon early” to make my 5:45 am appointment I had my clavicle transformed from a “worse than expected” (according to the doc) break angle to nice and straight once again. The entire process went pretty smoothly. It helped that I was the first surgery of the day. After stripping down and changing into the bare-assed hospital gown, I was given a nerve blocker to stop all nerve messages from my arm/shoulder making it to my brain. The nerve block process was pretty interesting. An anesthesiologist used an ultrasound machine to find a vessel upon which the nerve sat. I was able to watch the ultrasound screen as the device was guided under my skin through my shoulder/neck area. Once the…

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“Hey, slow down for this next corner”

Well, it’s official, I’m an idiot. While riding on an unfamiliar trail I ignored my partners’ advice and stayed aero going ~25mph towards a 90° corner. Needless to say, it did not go well. Once I realized I was moving too fast, I got on my brakes. I reached the rear first and it immediately locked up, sending my rear tire to my left. At that point I decided to run out into the field, but as my bike had rotated right, I was unable to make the field and ended up going about 17mph in the edge of the forest.   I ended up breaking my clavicle pretty bad (hint, that >45° angle is supposed to be a straight line), as well as my scapula and a couple ribs. I will be getting my clavicle surgically repaired on Thursday. Surprisingly, besides the aforementioned relatively severe damage, I came through…

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The 2014 Batavia Triathlon

It’s nice to finally know what to expect at a triathlon. You know transition, the course is familiar (giving you a good way to judge the gas pedal), you recognize faces, if not names … it’s no longer the first day at a new school. This year’s tri was a chilly one, but I had a new secret weapon – a wetsuit! Instead of being too cold to warm up in the water (my body takes a long time to open up and reach full potential), I was able to wade on in and get a few laps down before lining up for the staggered start. Plus, I just look good (or not, according to my wife). It’s a Orca Equip Full Sleeve Triathlon Wetsuit, in case you were wondering. It’s a nice mix of thicker (5mm) neoprene for buoyancy and thin stuff in the arms (2mm) for flexibility. Even though the swim…

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The cheap man’s “run id”

While I am sure some people find value in spending $30 or more for a fancy Road Id bracelet, I A) dont’t want to wear yet another thing on my body and B) don’t want to spend $30. I’d rather buy some unnecessary tri gadget with that money. :) One day when getting food for my two pups I noticed the little “rivetable” dog tag at PetSmart. To me it looked less like a dog tag and more like a cheap man’s Run ID. So I bought it, for less than ⅓rd the price of a Road ID and put my ICE (In Case of Emergency) info on it. Then I laced it into the bottom section of my Saucony Ride training shoes. (Yes, I photoshopped out some of the info, I don’t need my crazed groupies stalking me). I’d call this piece of low tech a big win.  

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The Naperville Triathlon

Finally, a triathlon that doesn’t require a long drive. I get to sleep in a whole 30 extra minutes! This time I get to transition right when it opens. I prefer to give myself time to relax and chase down any issues that could pop up. Rushing is no good. Here’s the obligatory, “I’m here before anyone else, including the sun” shot. And the, “now EVERYONE is here” shot. Some of you may be interested in how I set up transition. You’ll see that I place my helmet on my aero bars, with the straps out and front of the helmet towards the front of the bike. Then I place my sunglasses inside the helmet. This way I can out on glasses, put on the helmet and be strapped in as quickly as possible. As for my footwear, I put my bike shoes in front, on my towel to dry/clean…

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Concerts and tris don’t mix

It’s hard to turn down Phish tickets, so when your brother shows up in town with an extra lawn “seat” you tend to take it. Even if you have a sprint tri the next morning. It’s equally hard not to have a beer or three and impossible to not breathe in all the smoke around you. I was at least able to respectfully decline a hit from the most prepared concert goers I have ever come across in my life. But that’s another story. I even got to see Fishman do his vacuum solo! Well, in hindsight, that all was a bad idea. First, I set my alarm for PM instead of AM. Amazingly, I woke up in time to throw on my tri suit and run out the door to my (thankfully) already packed car. I raced to Oswego and beat the packet pickup cutoff by minutes. I believe…

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Meet Dr. Broeder

While logging hilly miles at The Arboretum (or Arb, my favorite place to run and ride), I came upon another cyclist. Being the friendly guy I am, I struck up a conversation. Turns out this guy was Dr. Craig Broeder (insert alphabet of acronyms here), the head of Exercising Nutritionally, a company that focuses on helping both world class athletes and regular Joes like myself reach their potential, as well as testing to see if a company’s new gadget or supplement does what it claims to do, (and I’m sure a heck of a lot more). He also happens to set endurance biking records. After doing a few 7.5 mile laps of the Arb he asked if I’d like to help him iron out the kinks in an upcoming study. Being the info junkie I am, I ready agreed. A few days later I was hooked up to an EKG and…

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It’s tri time!

Today’s an amazing mix of fear and excitement. My heart’s racing from the unknown. I’ve never done anything like this before. The 3am wake up call has me getting dressed into the tightest suit I’ve ever worn, which is not easy when still half asleep. The car’s all packed, so all I have to do is grab my coffee and drive the 30 or so minutes to the ET Batavia Triathlon. Transition is in a parking lot, a long, dark walk from parking at 4am, but only a few steps from the (way too shallow) converted pool/quarry we’ll use for the swim portion.  

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Time for a pain cave

In case you haven’t noticed, these first posts are backdated and somewhat out of order. That’s what happens when you procrastinate for two years to start you triathlon blog. Give me a few weeks to catch up. Now, back to the topic on hand. I picked up a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine so I can round out my pain cave and continue training in the winter. I paired it with their Riser Ring and a custom built laptop/book/whatever holder. (Note that my six year old is playing Super Mario 2 in the background, you gotta start them out right!) On top of that, I paired my Wahoo Bluetooth Speed & Cadence Sensor, Heart Rate Monitor and TrainerRoad (that’s my profile if you want to look at it) so that I could do realistic structured workouts indoors. TrainerRoad’s actually really cool and helps keep you motivated and working hard during what can become incredibly boring. It…

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