TriSports.com Blog

Tri Before You Buy Demo Wheel Program

The TriSports.com Tri Before You Buy Demo Wheel Program offers triathletes a great way to test ride a wheelset prior to purchasing.  The wheel program gives you a full 7 days of riding so you will have plenty of time to test the wheelset on your home roads and be 100% sure that you are making the right choice.

When you demo a wheelset you will receive a complete package including tires, skewers, 10 speed cassette and the demo wheels in a padded double wheel bag. Currently, TriSports.com offers Enve and Profile Design wheelsets for the Tri Before You Buy Wheel Program.  TriSports.com will cover the shipping to and from.  If you decide to purchase the wheelset within 30 days of returning the demo wheels, TriSports.com will apply the cost of the demo wheels to your purchase!  Complete Demo Terms are available HERE!

Profile Design Altair 80 Full Carbon Clincher Wheelset

You can order online or call one of our customer service members to reserve your demo wheels.  The cost of the 7 day rental for the ENVE demo wheelset is $275.00 and the Profile Design demo  wheelset  is $225.00.

TriSports Triathlon Club at the Ronald McDonald House

Despite what a lot of people might think, triathletes don’t actually spend ALL of their time training. This fact was proven last Saturday when a group of TriSports Triathlon Club members got together to play Chef For A Day and cook dinner for guests staying at the Ronald McDonald House here in Tucson.

The Ronald McDonald House, provides a “Home Away from Home” for families who must travel to Tucson for medical care. The House serves over 700 families per year from communities throughout Southern Arizona, as well as the surrounding region and to athletes who love to cook and eat, the opportunity to give back and have fun was just too appealing.

The TSTC “chefs” decided that a little comfort food was in order and planned a menu of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and corn, rolls and fresh baked brownies for dessert. Each person was assigned a few ingredients and instructed to arrive at the House ready to cook. Being Type-A trigeeks, it seemed that everything was planned and no surprises were anticipated. That was not to be the case, however as the first thing we saw when we walked in the door was none other than Ronald McDonald himself!

With the exception of one clown-phobic “chef”, everyone was pretty excited about getting to spend some quality time with Ronald, who kept house guests and the TSTC “chefs” entertained with magic tricks, corny jokes and some pretty amazing ukulele picking! Never would have suspected that!

After serving a hearty meal to resident families and restoring the kitchen to its pre-cooking state, the TSTC crew headed out for a little comfort food of their own…….beer and pizza!

Hydration- Water for life

There is no greater impact you can make on physical performance than there is with hydration.  Poor hydration can lead to disaster on the race course or in training as I’m sure many of you have found out the hard way.  Let’s face it there are four basic nutrients that your body needs, carbohydrates, protein, fats and water. You can survive for many days without carbohydrates, proteins and fats but you will not last more than a day or two without water. It is 100% necessary for life as we know it.

Let’s take a look at what proper hydration does for your body from an athletic point of view. One of the most important roles hydration plays is in body temperature regulation. Water acts to cool the body down by absorbing heat and acting like an evaporative cooler via sweat on the skin.  Another important role hydration plays is in maintaining proper blood volume. Since water makes up a large portion of blood if you are dehydrated your blood will become thicker like syrup making it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body. You become less efficient. Studies show that a 2% loss in body weight during prolonged endurance activities is enough to impact performance capacity. So if you weigh 150lbs that is only 3lbs lost!

Stay hydrated:

• Drink early. Drink often.
• Pay attention to the color of urine. Darker the color the more dehydrated you are.
• Activities lasting more then 90 min use a sports drink that contains electrolytes
• Pay attention to weight loss in training. If you loose more than 2% body weight during activity drink more water.
• Carry a reusable bottle of water with you
• Practice hydration in training this will transfer to race day

Benefits of proper hydration:

• Improved athletic performance
• Cooler body temperature
• Faster recovery from training
• Improved circulation

Hydration plays an important role in athletics as well as in everyday life. Pay attention to how often you are drinking water and you may be surprised. So go ahead and have a glass… of water.

Weekend Race Updates: 70.3 World Championship, Rev3 Cedar Point, and Super Frog

This weekend was nothing short of action packed as Team TriSports athletes toed the line across the nation. From San Diego to Sandusky athletes climbed on top of the podium wearing their TriSport red, white, and blue as they celebrated not only their own accomplishments but those of our troops.

Ironman 70.3 World Championship:

5 Team TriSports athletes made their way to the desert of Nevada to compete on the new 70.3 World Championship course. Across the board athletes agreed that the course was challenging and they thought it was “a true championship course” and they even lucked out and had a nice cool day for racing. Leanda Cave was off to a great start exiting the water in first place, unfortunately she received 2 penalties! Leanda posted a note on her Facebook explaining: “Over the past 5 weeks I have put in one hell of a block of training in preparation for Kona. That’s my “A” race. So it was not surprise that my body couldn’t find that extra gear on race day at the 70.3 World Champs in Las Vegas over the weekend. I wanted to go out and win. I always do. But my body was on a different page! There was also another factor that held me back. I can ride a bike pretty well, and I was getting messages after the race from people who couldn’t understand my slow time. The truth is I received two penalties. Not for cheating or drafting, but just because I drifted away from the right side of the road. It’s really frustrating when officials do not really understand that this is our living and if we are not blatantly cheating, a warning would suffice. However, some will argue that rules are rules and for that reason, I just have to take it on the chin and move on. The competition was fierce. I led out of the water and overall, in the whole scheme of things, I’m pretty pleased with my performance. I’m in great shape for Kona. So onwards and upwards! Thanks for all your support.”

Leanda Cave at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship pro panel. Photo from Triathlete Magazine.

Kona bound Elizabeth Waterstraat proved she is in good form, running her way from 16^th to 7^th in the highly competitive F35-39 age group. Mark Tripp qualified for the World Champs just a few weeks ago at his first half-Ironman, Vineman. A master of short course, Mark showed us once again that he is also a threat at the 70.3 distance exiting the water 6^th amateur, and placing 9^th M30-34 and top 30 amateur overall.

Rev3 Cedar Point- Full:

Thomas Gerlach and Tom Wood meet up in Sandusky, Ohio to race the full distance Rev3 Cedar Point Traithlon.  After an unlucky season of flats, mechanics, and crashes Gerlach caught a break winning the amateur overall in a time of 9:02. Wood had an equally successful race placing 2^nd M25-29 and 6^th amateur overall with a time of 9:35. Thanks for representing in Ohio guys!

Super Frog:

In San Diego Chrissy Parks, Chris Chesher, and Billy Oliver all brought home hardware at the Super Frog half-distance triathlon. Chris Chesher was 2^nd amateur, and 5^th overall. Chrissy Parks and Billy Oliver were second in their divisions.

Chrissy Parks

New product Friday: Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r With Methanol Tube

Triathletes can now enjoy the cool refreshing feel of Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r with Methanol in an easy to use 4oz. tube.  Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r with Methanol can be applied directly to your skin, chamois, or both and washes up easily with soap and water.   The methanol in the Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r provides a brisk yet cool refreshing feeling to your sensitive areas as well as added anti-bacterial protection.

As with all Chamois Butt’r products Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r is paraben free, gluten free, and contains no artificial colors or fragrances.   Made in the USA!

Winning the polka dot jersey… on my bike commute

I love riding my bike to work because there is always some sort of adventure along the way. These adventures include weird conversations with the man at Starbucks who guards my bike while I grab a chai tea, nearly getting run off the road by half-asleep drivers or my brother finding me on the side of the road stretching a glute cramp.

Bacon Maple Bars from Alvernon Donut Shop

Today my boyfriend, Kurt, from California joined me on my ride in which is always a nice treat. We left nice and early so we could enjoy the cool weather and stop at Alvernon Donut Shop for bacon maple bars (breakfast of champions), one of our favorite activities when he is in town. Shortly after leaving the donut shop there is a short “climb” over an overpass where the polka dot jersey is awarded. Today was my day! The light turned green and I hammered. I could feel Kurt right behind me, and the bacon maple bar rumbling in my stomach but he was not going to win this time! I get to the top of the overpass, hands go in the air, and I WIN! The best part was that a fellow commuter behind saw us and knew exactly what was going on and joined in on the climb.

Aviation Highway Overpass Hill Climb Results

Jaclyn- WINNER!

Random commuter- Second

Kurt- Loser

This is pretty much what it looked like when I won the Aviation Highway Overpass Hill Climb.

What kind of adventures do you have on your bike commute?

Torsten Abel 2nd Place Ironman Canada!

A HUGE (and belated) congratulations to Team TriSports’ Torsten Abel on his second place finish at Ironman Canada! See you in Kona mate!

Custom Internally Routed Shimano Di2 Scott Plasma Premium

Its always a challenge to be on the cutting edge.  Like the mad scientist, your results can make you a hero or an expensive failure.  When Trisports.com was asked to build one of the first Scott Plasma Premiums with custom internal Di2, we cautiously jumped at the chance.   Judging by Facebook comments and comments from coworkers who witnessed the bike in person, the TriSports.com service team came out with hero status with one of the country’s first Scott Plasma Premiums with custom routed Shimano Di2.

What made this project a challenge is the fact that the stock Plasma Premium frame is not set up for internally wired Di2.  For this build we didn’t want exposed wires running along the outside of the frame.  Everything would have to be routed internally, which meant heavy modifications both to the inside and outside of the frame.

There is a saying in the medical field, “Do No Harm”.  That applies just as much when modifying a $4000 carbon fiber frame.   Literally hours were spent drilling, grinding, sanding, and soldering in order to make this frame a reality.  Great care went in to keeping the structural integrity intact and untouched.

The result is one of the most satisfying bike builds to come out of TriSports.com.  Since there is no manual for this type of build, everything was planned and executed by us.  We are not afraid to brag that it came out beautifully.  The Di2 is integrated seamlessly inside and outside of the frame.  The bike is as clean as anything you’d see in the pro field and is a perfect example of what Di2 is capable of.  We look forward to doing more cutting edge builds for you in the near future.

Ladies Night at the TriSports Store

What do you get when you put more than 100 athletic-minded women in a large room with balloons, feather boas, wine, food, gift bags, a fashion show and a bunch of women-specific vendors and service organizations? Why, the first ever Ladies Night at the TriSports Store, that’s what!

Last Friday night a fairly large percentage of Tucson’s women who run, bike and swim showed up for a fun evening that included NEWTON Running Shoe demos, a fashion show highlighting Skirt Sports technical wear, sports bra fitting specialists from Moving Comfort and a wine tasting by Beard Vineyards. Guest could also take advantage of free massages and mini-manicures by the talented folks from Hasahani Spa.

Add informational booths from a variety of other local businesses and you have the makings of a party that ended with everyone asking when the next one would be. No date has been set, but you’ll want to keep checking our facebook page for updates on Ladies Night #2 and our other upcoming events.

Do Newton MV2′s Make a Difference?

Abdi Abdirahman lives down the street from me. Abdi is from Somalia and runs a 10K in 27:22. That is a 4:24 mile pace. When I see Abdi run it looks entirely different than when I run. He is lighter, leaner, taller…

Abdi Abdirahman

I know a shoe won’t make an 8:00 minute miler a 4:30 miler but I wondered if something about Abdi’s running style might benefit me.

A key thing that makes Abdi so fast is his weight. Abdi is 72 inches tall and weighs between 138 and 141 pounds or about 1.9 pounds per inch of height. I weigh 2.5 pounds per inch of height or about 24% heavier per inch.

Abdi hits the ground with less force and for a shorter period of time. At my weight and height, not much I can do about that except eat less and train more. And, while those two things are 95% of what would make me faster, there may be one additional thing that could potentially help a little…

Newton introduced a new shoe that combines a series of current trends in footwear design: low drop, ultra-light weight and the new MV2 Action/Reaction Technology tuned for minimal shoe running on hard surfaces.

Newton has done in a shoe what Abdi has done with his entire body: Lighter, more efficient, less impact, less time on the ground  and higher cadence.

Newton MV2

Will Newton’s new MV2 make me run like Abdi Abdirahman? Nope. Will it help? I’ll let you know tomorrow on TriSports University when we dissect the new Newton MV2 lightweight, natural running shoe.