TriSports.com Blog

Race Report: Leanda Cave, 2nd place Columbia 5150

By Leanda Cave

Over the weekend a good friend reached out to me in search of help for his young nephew who was just diagnosed with ALS (also known as Amyotrophic  lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).  And two days later I learned the triathlon community has lost another life to ALS: Doug MacInnes (RIP Doug). This incurable disease takes lives every day and for the most part ALS is not heard about and sufferers only live for a short time beyond diagnosis. The health of the patient deteriorates so quickly leaving family and friends with very little time to adjust to the decline of their loved ones health.

A lot of athletes train day in and day out to participate and ultimately achieve a great result in triathlon, or any sport for that matter.  To some degree, we race this sport of triathlon for no reason other than our ego driven goals.  But I like to feel there is a purpose for everything and to know there is an even bigger reward.  And so racing for a cause, or in the name of someone else, is one of my favorite ways to race. I encourage all athletes to consider the value it brings to your life and to others by getting behind a charitable organization and racing for them.

Besides raising money for research and awareness, the Blazeman Foundation for ALS has been a huge support network that distributes knowledge and assistance to families and friends of ALS sufferers.  For this and many other reasons, I lend my time, name and voice to the Blazeman Foundation in hopes to increase their visibility and hopefully be a link in the chain to those who I reach.  And what does this all have to do with my race at the 29^th annual Columbia 5150 Triathlon? Rob Vigorito, the event owner and organizer, is a Clinical Instructor at the University of Maryland and has done key brain tissue research on Jon Blais (of whom the Blazeman Foundation was named after) in pursuit of a cure for ALS.  Rob has given up his own time and raised over $4million in aid of charitable organizations.   I raced Columbia 5150 in honor of Jon Blais and to support the charitable efforts of the Blazeman Foundation for ALS who help and encourage those and their families who have been affected by this disease.  I will add that Rob was also kind enough to let me play around in his Porsche Boxter before the race!!

Back to the race report!

Let’s just say that I did it again.  I managed to pick (or I should say it picked me) another one of the toughest races on the triathlon circuit to continue my early season racing campaign with equally tough competition!  Columbia 5150 is probably one of the hardest races over the Olympic distance that I have ever done…..and I would just like to remind readers that I have been doing triathlon for 20 years! So it goes without saying that to do well over a course of this difficulty means that you are doing something right and your form isn’t that shabby.  Hence, I’m pretty pleased with achieving 2^nd place at this stage of the game.  But what is of more significance to me is that I am still able to lay it down in an Olympic distance event.  I have morphed into an Ironman triathlete over the past 5 years and technically I should have no speed in my legs at all!  Additionally, the 30 hour training weeks I have been putting in prior to this event are not exactly conducive to Olympic distance racing.  I hurt myself quite a lot at this event and it felt really good!  That sounds like I seek pleasure in pain but in fact it is just more the fun of racing neck-and-neck again.  All too often, with long distance races, I find am more or less on my own the whole way.

On to how the actual race went down……

The clear leader out of the swim for the women was Sara McClarty.  Sara actually caught some of the men because she is such a demon in the water!  Next was a pack of 6 girls: Annabel Luxford, Lauren Goss, Rebecca Wassner, Debbie Tanner, Lindsey Jerdonek and myself.  I forgot how fast transitions are in short course racing and I was like an old woman running to my bike.  Right there I lost about 100m on the girls but I reeled most of them back in after the first few miles of the bike……..the exceptions being Rebecca Wassner and Annabel Luxford.  And then, Sara McClarty was still in the lead somewhere in the distance!  The bike course was a toughie: Hills, hills, and for kicks and giggles, a few more hills!

At about 20miles into the bike I finally caught McClarty which moved me into 3^rd place.  I was busting my lungs to keep up with Wassner who was busting her lungs just trying to keep the gap between herself and Luxford turning into daylight. We came off the bike about 90 seconds down on Luxford, and we were caught by Margie Shapiro who put in a valiant effort after coming out a bit down out of the swim.

Considering how bad my swim to bike transition, I was the first of our little pack to shoot out on to the run.  I wanted to just go as hard as I could for the run but this was not an easy run. The longest flat section was a 400 yard stretch in the last mile.   Everything else was either up or down but I kept telling myself: “it’s only 10km”, quite a bit shorter than the half or full marathon distance which I am now accustomed!  I swear, 10km seems so short after you have raced a few Ironman! At the end, I managed to hold on to 2^nd place.  I only gained back 30secs on Luxford who took out the win, but I had to fight the last mile with the 3^rd fastest run to hold off Laurel Wassner who ended up with the fasted run split by about a minute.  I completed the race, with of course, the Blazeman Roll…….which all started with Jon Blais who said he would make it over the finish line at Ironman Hawaii even if he had to roll.

I’m so very happy with this result. It’s nice to know that I still have a bit of speed and it also felt incredible to fight so hard during a race.   When I raced Wildflower, I was coming from quite some time off from racing and felt that it showed in my performance but now, after Columbia 5150, I feel like I’m truly racing once again and am more in love with racing and triathlon than ever.

My next race will be the famous Escape from Alcatraz.  I already have won this one 3 times, and I have my sights set on another win.  Thank you to all my AMAZING sponsors who I appreciate to no end: Driscoll’s Berries, Pacific Health Labs, K-Swiss, Trisports.com, Pinarello, Easton, Giro, Blueseventy, ISM Saddles, Tor Hans, Skins, TriBike Transport, Oakley, Computrainer, PowerCranks and Katalyst Multisport.

TriSports Tempe Store Update #2

With a narrow 14-week construction timeline we are seeing rapid progress on the construction at the new store in Tempe.  When we installed our Endless Pool in our Tucson store we ran into permit problems and now we are running into them again up in Tempe (for some odd reason city permitting offices don’t know how to handle above ground pools in a commercial space that are used for wetsuit fitting); however, this time the U.S. Department of Justice is giving us grief.

A look at the shoe area – With 80-100 different makes/models of  shoes TriSports will have one of the best run shoe selections in the entire Phoenix valley for both runners and triathletes!

The early morning sun in late April shines into the store with the famous ASU A-Mountain in the background.

TriSports Tempe Store Update #1

Construction is moving along rapidly up in Tempe on the new store. We took what we have learned at our Tucson location and teamed up with Architekton to accomplish one small task – take the greatest triathlon retail store on the face of the planet and make it even better in Tempe, and oh, yeah, keep sustainability at the forefront of the project.  Our general contractor, Caliente Construction , is now well on the way to getting us moved in by the end of June, 2012.  Here are some pictures of the progress.

A walk through the empty shell just after the lease was signed (and the day after Ironman Arizona).

Here is an early mock up of the store layout, most of the actual build will look this way.

A look in the store April 13, 2012

Houston, can we get a Go, No-Go, for Launch?

There are many books written on business – many, many books.  The highs and lows, the good and the bad have all been documented over many decades.  It is actually quite remarkable, pick up most of the popular business books and, if you are involved with a business, the thought that goes through your mind is “Dang, how did they know that?  They wrote this book before I was born and I can plug my business right into this situation.”

TriSports.com is no exception to these business rules and about a year ago, like many businesses, we had to make a critical decision to upgrade the software that is used to run our company.  This software will, once we get the bull under control, improve efficiencies for all of our operations that will ultimately help our customers.  The dedication of our entire staff has gotten us to this day, the day we walked up to the edge and looked down.  Over the next four days we will be making all final preparations for our Go-Live on May, 7.  From the outside it may seem like a simple task – all you guys do is sell triathlon equipment.  Yep, and all that NASA did on July 20, 1969 was get a man on the moon.  With this, can I get a Go, No-Go for Launch?

Receiving Logistics – GO!

Tucson Retail – GO!

Returns Integration – GO!

Wireless Warehouse – GO!

Purchasing Ops – GO!

Marketing Command – GO!

Tempe Launch Controls – GO!

Data Systems – GO!

TriSports.com, we are all clear for Launch! On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of customers from around the world, and the former and future employees of TriSports.com – Godspeed.

TriSports Coming to Tempe

I would say that it was back in late 2005 that the first real thought of expanding our retail store came into my head.  At that time, we were just moving into our new facility in Tucson and our previous retail operations had been nothing more than a showroom.  Once we moved into our current Tucson location, we started a multi-year experiment on triathlon retail.

Tempe Gateway – the home of the new TriSports Tempe location.

During this retail experiment, Debbie and I happened to be in Tempe in December of 2008 for the Phoenix Tri Club Holiday Party at Monti’s.  I don’t know how I missed it, but they had just built a fabulous new building smack in the epicenter of triathlon in Arizona.  I pulled Debbie out of the party and we walked around the building.  I told her that if we were going to expand our retail outside of Tucson that this was the location.  We weren’t ready on an operational standpoint to expand at that point, which was disappointing initially because we didn’t want to lose the opportunity for the space, but ultimately didn’t matter because the people who built the building went belly up and it went back to the bank.  After a couple of years sitting idle, Paul Allen’s (co-founder of Microsoft, owner of the Seattle SeaHawks, Portland Trailblazers, etc) commercial investment group came in and bought the building. So, in February of 2011, Debbie and I finally got our first look inside the building.  After a lot of negotiating, we got the deal done in November of 2011 (although it looked planned, it coincided perfectly with Ironman Arizona; sort of a big race that finishes about 300 feet from the store).

The day before her victory at Ironman Arizona, Leanda Cave poses with Angela Naeth (both proudly sponsored by TriSports.com) in front of pictures of themselves at the new store location.

The store is now slated to open in late June 2012 and in the home stretch I will be updating the progress on our blog.  For employment information, please visit http://www.trisports.com/employment-opportunities.html

Battle of Words: A Conversation Between Two Endurance Geeks

This past summer I did quite a bit of crazy riding to get ready for the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race.  One of the guys that I trained with was Paul “PT” Thomas.  This conversation took place about 16 hours after the finish of the Leadville 100 Mtb  Race (August 13, 2011) between me and PT (who subsequently went 7:13, a blazing time especially at the young age of 41).

Thesaurus:

Vangina – the name of Paul’s VW Euro Van
Noreen – Paul’s wife
Debbie – Seton’s wife
Molino – A basin about 5.5 miles up the famous Mt. Lemmon climb in Tucson.
Sabino – A popular walking/running/cycling canyon in Tucson.

Seton and Paul at the finish of the Leadville 100 MTB Race.

(7:00 PM)

PT: How do the pistons feel?

SC: Feeling good, I just got back from an easy ride up to Molino Basin.  It was a bit warm.

(7:57 PM)

PT: I am actually motor pacing behind the Vangina as I write.  I told Noreen to keep it between 45-48 mph.

(8:49 PM)

SC: Just got back from my run.  Kept it easy, just two repeats up Sabino.  I had to run on the road because it was getting dark.

PT: Interesting….I don’t want to make it seem like I am one upping you, but Noreen ran outa gas after 3 hours of motor pacing.  We are fixing up a cabled harness and I am going to ride the Specialized, pulling the Vangina 30 miles to Deming.

(9:07 PM)

SC: That sounds similar to my experience earlier today.  Our plane ran out of fuel right after we landed so I volunteered to hop our and pull that bitch to the gate.

PT: I am way too familiar with runways.  I once had to tow a plane up to speed that needed help as it was carting the space shuttle Challenger back to Florida….not to “one up” you though.

SC: Yeah, I remember that, they had me on that mission hooked up to a power bike to provide aux power for the shuttle.

PT: Sorry for the delay in responding…I was pre occupied with taking the lug nuts off with my bare hands.  Noreen thought I should rotate the wheels as the Vangina was pulling to the left a bit.

PT: F#*c….after all of that manual labor, we figured out it was not the wheels, as now it is pulling to the right.  I switched my one legged drills from left to right leg.

(10:00 PM)

SC: Damn, I am spent.  There was a creaking under the house so I had to lift it off the foundation so Debbie could have a look underneath.  Turns out it was just noise from my one-arm clap push ups I was doing.

(2:26 PM next day)

PT: Just read this one. You are the winner as I am laughing hard!!!!!

After many hard hours of training, it was good to see PT at the finish line.

TriSports Introduces Patented Hybrid Shave Technology

Tucson, AZ  (April, 1, 2012): TriSports.com, the world’s premiere triathlon store, announces its patented new leg shaving technology known as Hybrid Shave Technology.  After 2-years of research and development using wind tunnel, CFD and real world data, the engineers at TriSports.com have released their findings.  Seton Claggett, who earned his Master’s in Hydrology from the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona, says “we have been using this proprietary shave method with our athletes for years but as we have grown as a company we know that for the betterment of the sport and in light of great customer service that we should reveal our research to the world.”

The final results comparing 1) Hairy leading edge, 2) Fully shaved leg, 3) TriSports.com’s Patented Hybrid Shave Technology

The Hybrid Shave Technology uses a scientific approach to removing leg hair on cyclists and triathletes to improve aerodynamics and speed.  “The experiment,” says Tom Demerly, one of the chief investigators on the project, “was performed over many conditions and using many different shave patterns and what we found was that using basic aerodynamic principals of laminar boundary conditions coupled with muscle formation resulted in the ideal real-world power conversion on the bike.”

The partial differential equations for the continuity and Navier–Stokes for a two-dimensional steady incompressible flow with Cartesian coordinates.

The final testing came down to analyzing the real world results of 1) Hairy Leading Edge Legs, 2) Full Shaved Legs, and 3) Short Stubble Leading Edge Legs (the Hybrid Shave Technology).  Full hairy legs performed exponentially worse than the three chosen tests.  The results are shown in the diagram above.  “It was amazing how superior the performance was using the Hybrid Shave Technology”, said Claggett, “the power savings were staggering. It is amazing how basic aerodynamic principles such as using the Navier-Stokes equation and Reynolds numbers  to estimate the boundary layer conditions of a hairy legs work in wind tunnel and real world testing.”

The results have shown an actual average power savings of 10 Watts over distances greater than 30k (compared to a full hairy leg and almost 6 Watts over a fully shaved leg).  Over a 112 mile relatively flat course with little wind the TriSports Hybrid Shave Technology will save you about 6 minutes.  “6 minutes”, says Claggett who used the Hybrid Shave Technology at the 2011 Ironman Arizona, “is a ton of free time, especially if you are trying to get to the finish line as fast as possible.”  Claggett consequently won his age-group by a mere 45 seconds.  “You can spend hundreds of dollars on an aero helmet, thousands of dollars on aero wheels and an aero bike, or you can use the TriSports Hybrid Shave Technology and get the same benefits – do everything and you are all-in.”

A video showing actual footage of the TriSports Hybrid Shave Technology

The aerodynamics of a full hairy leg are so bad that we did not use this model in our final testing.

Careful muscle measurement ensures proper shave pattern.

Precise marking during the measurement process.

Clippers are used to remove the Sasquatch hair.

Final clipper shave.

Using a new blade to clean up the remaining stubble on the back of the leg.

The final hairy leading edge leg.

Shaving down to the stubble for the Hybrid Shave Technology.

The final version of the Hybrid Shave Technology.

Conclusion: Hold off as long as you can during the season to get the training benefit of hairy legs and then shave them just before your “A” race. The results of the TirSports Hybrid Shave Technology speak for themselves, so when you do shave, use this method if you want to optimize aerodynamics.

Old Pueblo Grand Prix: Men’s Cat 2/3

By Brian Ellis

On Saturday, March 16 the TriSports Cycling/Eclipse Racing team lined up in Tucson’s biggest cycling race of the season, the Old Pueblo Grand Prix. Expectations were high as the team was still enjoying their recent successes in Murrieta, Avondale and Tucson Bicycle Classic. With nearly a full squad including Brian Ellis, Andre McNulty, Justin Orkney, Ben Lair, David Welsh, Shawn Daly and, making his first Cat 2 start, Christian Maldonado, the plan was to stay at the front and ride aggressively.

The pace was fast right from the gun and within the first few laps, gaps in the field opened and riders were shelled off the back. Things settled down about 5 laps in and Brian took the opportunity and flew up the right side to launch an attack. A group of 4 slowly but surely pulled away from the field. The group of 4 grew to 6 with riders from the teams of TriSports Cycling, Jetset Racing, Green Team, Tachycardia and Tolero (and one unattached rider).

Content with their representation in the break, the TriSports team sat up and left the chase efforts to the rest of the field. Meanwhile, up in the break, Brian and his companions drove the pace and increased their gap on the peloton.  As the lead grew to 30 seconds, Justin Orkney made a valiant attempt to bridge up to the lead group.  Just as he was within ~25 meters of making contact with the leaders, he overcooked a turn and went down. Not to be deterred, he got up, dusted himself off and continued racing.

The lead group continued to push the pace and further increased their gap to the main field. After nearly 45 minutes of riding off-the-front, the leaders had the tail end of the peloton in sight. The field would be lapped!

With 5 laps to go, the field was lapped and things got messy. A handful of the breakaway riders were content to sit on the back and take their top 6 placing but the rider from Green Team quickly made his way to the front of the pack. Brian was in hot pursuit and the rest of the TriSports team did what they could to position him near the front. Amidst the confusion, the Green Team rider sprinted a lap early and thought he had the win but in reality, there was still one lap to go. The final lap was fast and the field was strung out.

Andre led Brian out of the last turn but a long day in the break had taken the toll on his legs. Brian gave it his best but the finish line was just a tad too far and he was passed by the rider from Jetset Racing who took the win. No one else from the break was able to come around Brian though and he held on to 2^nd place overall.

Justin Orkney gets the Spirit Award for this race. Despite crashing early on, he continued to race and even made a second attempt to bridge up to the leaders! Unfortunately he never made contact with the lead group, but his efforts would net him 7^th place on the day! Andre would finish in 9^th overall and Ben, David and Christian rounded out the top 15 with 12^th, 14^th and 15^th respectively.  All in all, a great day for the TriSports Cycling/Eclipse Racing team!

2011 TriSports.com Athlete of the Year

As the sponsorship coordinator here at TriSports.com I think I have the coolest job in the building because I get to work with some of the best athletes in triathlon. Every year I am blown away by the incredible athletes that come to us wanting to represent TriSports and wear our red, white, and blue uniform. 2011 was without a doubt one of the best years for Team TriSports athletes and I would like to take a minute to brag about some of their accomplishments.

Amy Regan won her age group at Ironman Coeur D’Alene for the second year in a row, and finished 10th in her age group at the Ironman World Championship.

Karin Bivens won her age group at Ironman Brazil and proceeded to beat her husband in Kona.

Thomas Gerlach was the Rev3 amateur series champion and turned pro at the end of the season.

Angela Naeth won the inaugural Leadman Epic 250 and wrapped her season up with her first 70.3 win in Boulder.

Mark Tripp was 3rd in the highly competitive M30-34 age group at Vineman 70.3 which was also his first half.

Craig Pansing was the overall series winner for the Los Angeles Tri Series.

And Leanda Cave won Wildflower, Miami 70.3, Rev3 Knoxville, Ironman Arizona, and finished 3rd at the Ironman World Championships.

While these accomplishments are all very impressive there is more to being a TriSports.com athlete than winning races. It about living a healthy lifestyle, pushing ourselves beyond what we ever thought we were capable of, sharing the joy of sport with those around us, and our 2011 TriSports.com athlete of the year truly embodies the spirit of the sport.

2011 Athlete of the Year: Craig Sheckler

As a coach, club founder, and accomplished triathlete Craig Sheckler has turned the sport of triathlon into a lifestyle. As founder of the Endurance Multisport club in Pennsylvania he has helped grow the sport of triathlon in his community and inspired others to follow his lead and live an active lifestyle. His club now boast a membership of over 125 members. When Craig isn’t coaching he is busy training. After many years of racing Ironman Craig was ready for a new challenge and this year tackled Ultraman UK: a ridiculous 3 day double Ironman in the horrible weather of England. He then proceeded to do and Ironman 3 weeks after his return from Ultraman. As a 7 year member of Team TriSports I am honored to present the 2011 athlete of the year award to Craig Sheckler.

Solar Update 4

The TriSports.com Solar (Photo Voltaic) project went online December 23, 2011 and we had our commissioning ceremony on January 30, 2012.  This event marked a major milestone for TriSports.com and me personally.  About four years ago, I stood in front of a packed TriSports.com filled with vendors, family, friends, customers and loyal TriSports.com supporters and vowed that we would have a company powered by the sun within five years.

The TriSports.com Solar Open House and Commissioning Ceremony.

Seton Claggett cutting the “grand opening ribbon” with several key people from Tucson Electric Power, Pima County, Technicians for Sustainability (the folks that put in our system) and the new Mayor of Tucson (Jonathan Rothschild).

As the economy turned in south in 2008 we forged on and were able to stay focused on the first core value in our company – Sustainability.  Here are some facts on our system:

• 128 kW powered by 416 SunPower panels.
• Produces the equivalent energy of 20 average sized homes in Tucson, AZ.
• Saves about 9,000 gallons of water every month that would otherwise be used to make energy in a coal fire plant.
• The system is currently producing 120% of our power requirements (this will go down during the summer months and we should net out 90-100%) and has produced a total of 51.2 MWh of energy since we turned on the system.
• In the first three months we have saved the equivalent of:
  • 3,960 Gallon of Gasoline
  • 1.86 Tons of Methane
  • 39 Tons of Carbon Dioxide

A glimpse of the dashboard that monitors all aspects of our solar and water harvesting systems.

Swim, bike, run, powered by the sun.