TriSports.com Blog

2010 Team TriSports.com is chosen!

As of a few days ago, we finished choosing our new Team TriSports.com triathlon team!  We are excited at the talent and exuberance our new (and returning) team members possess.  We hand pick those not because they are “fast”, but those who are dedicated to the sport of triathlon and have a willingness to promote the sport and TriSports.com.  We greatly appreciate all those who applied and encourage more of you to apply next year! 

We will soon get more information up about each of our team members and in the meantime, be on the lookout for the red-white and blue at your next race!!

Sarah (Marketing Director), Amy (sponsored athlete) & Lisa (Sponsorship Coordinator)

Forgotten race gear = creative solutions?

A couple weekends ago a few of us from TriSports.com  travelled out to Elephant Butte, New Mexico to race one of our sponsored races, Elephant Man.  We have a sponsored athlete who welcomed us to stay at his home and share his campsite with his family for the weekend – yet another joy of having such a wonderful TriSports.com Team!!  By the way, if you’d like to be part of the team, our 2010 Team TriSports.com sponsorship application is online!! 

The evening before the race, as we finished dinner and began to relax for race day, I realized I had forgotten my bike shoes in the TriSports.com trailer that was passing through from its breakdown experience in Albuquerque (see previous post for this story). This was a first for me to forget such an important piece of equipment.  We started making phone calls to see if anyone had any extra shoes with them….um, sure, we’re out in the middle of a recreation area in New Mexico at 8:30pm.  I had eventually settled on the option of duct taping my run shoes to the pedals and then cutting them free in T2 to do the run.  I really think that could work…

I was lucky enough to find someone who had an extra pair of mountain bike shoes and pedals for me to borrow – they were a couple sizes too big, but I wasn’t complaining at this point.  I struggled to get into the shoes at T1 (especially since there was about a 1/4mile climb out of transition), but I was able to make it out with one foot partially in the shoe and the other one out.  I was lucky I didn’t ride out of the shoes with all the climbing on the bike course! I was extremely grateful for the borrowed shoes, but very relieved to get into my own run shoes at T2!! 

Any lessons learned from this one?  Well, first of all, be sure to double check ALL your gear before you leave for a race (or before the gigantic TriSports.com trailer pulls out of town) and second, take some time to dream up (and practice) some creative ways to rig your equipment when all else fails!!  I will be practicing the duct tape option, as well as some others…anyone have any creative alternatives they have had to use that worked for them?

It was great to be able to meet some of our awesome TriSports.com Sponsored Athletes at the race!!  Oh yeah, did I mention that TriSports.com women swept 1st, 2nd, and 3rd OA in the race??

World Championship racing

Here’s some info from one of our sponsored coaching teams, Carmichael Training Systems Coach Nick White, while he was in Australia at this year’s Age Group World Championships with a couple of athletes.

International competitions aren’t really that much different than the normal races you go to every weekend in the States.  Well, at least not here in Australia.  The race expo, registration, parking, transportation, the whole works seems pretty typical.  Needed to hit the race expo on day one as we weren’t able to bring all the flat repair equipment on the plane that we might need, and some Vittoria Pit-Stop could definitely come in handy for an Olympic distance triathlon; no time to stop and change a tubular flat while the race is passing you by!  But seeing the contingents from other countries does give you a small taste of what the Olympics are probably like. If you can swing it, and you can qualify, I’d definitely recommend getting to a World Championship at some point just for the big race feel, and experience of toeing the line with the best from all around the world.

Children, don’t try this at home…or in your car…

July 29, 2009  Goal: Decide for the first time on this day I’d like to race TriSports.com Halfmax USAT Long Course National Championship to attempt to qualify for Worlds (sure, why not?).   Setback:  Realizing I have to qualify before I get to Halfmax and I have only a few races available to do so.  Plan of action:  Race UltraMax Kansas 50 to qualify.  Another setback:  race is only a week and a half away and there is no way I’m paying that much for airfare at this point!  Plan of action:  Channel my inner trucker and drive there!!

Friday, August 7, 2009, 3:00pm:  Car is all packed up (I love my little Honda Fit – it fits everything!) and I’ve finished my to do list as TriSports.com‘s Sponsorship Coordinator.  Head on out of town for some pure asphalt love on the 17.5 hour drive to Kansas City!!  Ahh, nothing like the beginning of a  road trip; there is so much hope and promise in the air… My goal is to get to Amarillo, TX to sleep for a few hours before moving on.  Reality – I only made about an hour outside of Albuquerque before I couldn’t go on.  The gale force winds that started blowing from the southwest helped me to get 40mpg – awesome!  A few hours sleep in the back of the car – yes, the Fit can hold a twin sized air mattress in the back – with a bike tucked neatly on the side.  Nothing like spooning with your Zipps before a race…

Continue the drive to Kansas City…is that a really pretty sunrise, or am I just seeing colors at this point?  I cannot stress how important my CEP compression socks were to me the entire trip – not a sign of cankles yet and I get all the attention with my knee high socks at the gas stops!!  Remember all that hope and promise as the trip began?  It’s gone now.  I’m starting to get bored with my ipod  and my voice is getting hoarse from singing to all the songs.  The trip gets quiet as I now begin to realize I haven’t bathed in almost a day and I need to be hydrating for a race the next morning AND I still am not sure where I will sleep tonight.  Minor details, I guess.

I start to get closer to the race site and it’s getting close to dinner time.  There are prerace rituals I won’t give up, and thanks to my iphone, I find an Italian restaurant on the way, call in my order, and swing by to pick it up on my way to Hillsdale Lake, where the race is the next morning.  Oh please, I hope the campsite doesn’t close at 6pm – it’s 6:05 now and if I’ve missed a campsite by 5 minutes after this long of driving, it could get ugly!  Whew, I made it.  Got my camping map, starving from the smell of garlic bread and pasta in my car, I drive along to find a place to “camp” for the night.  Compression socks on, still no cankles – a miracle. 

I pull into an area (I’m lost at this point), and ask a friendly family where I am.  They’re not sure either and they offer me a spare parking spot they don’t need – SCORE!!  I look to my right and there’s the showers, to my left, the tents from the start/finish line!!!  I couldn’t have found a better spot.  I shower up, break out the pasta, air up the mattress, open up the hatch to the car, sit back, relax and watch the sunset…perfect!!  Get the bike set up for tomorrow morning, set alarm and spoon the Zipps again for another night – awww, how sweet.

I’m wondering why in the world I’m doing this and what kind of toll it will have on my body for the race the next morning.  Then I’m realizing I only have a short time after the race tomorrow before I get to pack up the car and head back to TriSports.com by Monday morning!!!  Nevermind that for now – tomorrow’s race day.  Remember that sweet tailwind blowing the car up to the race?  Not going away for race day.  Next thing?  I’m too stubborn to abandon my 1080 Zipp front wheel because, well, it just looks too cool paired with the Zipp 900 disc.  All in all, the bike ride wasn’t too bad, but my shoulders were way more sore than they should have been from trying to hold the bike steady… 

Add to that wind the 95 degree temps and the classic Midwestern humidity and you have an eventful race day!!  I managed to finish, despite the questions I asked myself during the run – thinking I was going to pass out, I slowed the pace to something manageable, took as many waters at the aid stations as I could, and stopped at the aid station with ice to stuff ice into every imaginable piece of clothing to cool me down.  I’m glad I wore socks for the 10 mile run, with the tiny gravel pieces on the trail, and my Zoot Ultra Race 2.0′s held up quite well, although I may argue they are best suited for distances only up to 10k. 

All in all, I raced well – well enough to claim a spot as a “qualifying entrant” to the TriSports.com Halfmax USAT Long Course National Championship!  Just enough time to pick up race schwag, throw on my Zoot Recovery Tights – priceless – and hit the road for home.  Would I do a crazy trip like this again?  I don’t think so.  But man, does it make for a good, long story…

Track racing – part deux

Back to the velodrome for the AZ State Track championships.  Yes, we Arizonans have to go to California for our State Champs…maybe one day we won’t have to. 

This time I went back much more prepared than last time – I borrowed a bike and slapped my newly acquired Zipp 1080 and 900 disc on it.  I claimed the prize for biggest time differential between frameset and wheels – my guess is about 20yrs.  I did, however, get quite a few compliments on the setup.

Having tried every event available at the last race, I narrowed my focus this time.  It was a good quad-splitting fest for the 2K and 3K races, and the 500 and flying 200 weren’t any picnic either.  Again, in my rookie state I screwed up the 500 and attempted to get into the aerobars – wrong!  Too violent of a race, starting from a dead stop and having to crank it up to full speed in 150m, then hammer for the remaining 350m – not enough time to successfully get aero and keep the bike under control.  I’m lucky I didn’t bite it on that one. 

For the State races, they do a Keirin – now that is a race to behold.  Picture about 9 people lined up one behind the next, with a motorcycle pacer in the front.  The pacer starts around 15mph and paces the riders up to about 32mph within about 4 laps.  Once the motorpace pulls off – all bets are off and the race begins!  It is a virtual free-for-all to the finish line and I am told there is always a lot of head butting and almost always a crash in that race.  I stayed safely on the sidelines for this one, and luckily there was no crash.  This race is extremely popular in Japan and their Keirin riders are like celebrities there.

Once again, we had a great time at the velodrome and I will certainly do it again!  Here’s a picture of the TriSports.com truck on its way to the races! 

The “track”

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to San Diego to ride the velodrome.  Nevermind the fact I have not ridden a fixed gear bike since I was, say, about 10 years old (and there were a couple little guys around that age out there racing – quite well I must say) and I have never even seen a velodrome in real life.  But, there I went.  Not knowing what events to register for, I just signed up for everything they offered – and I quickly found out what a “flying 200″ was and why my gearing is super, super important.  I was able to rent a track bike for $10 (a chrome plated Bianchi) and participate in any events I wanted for $15.  Not a bad deal. 

My mantra for the entire week leading up to the trip was, “don’t stop pedaling, don’t stop pedaling”, and I did much better with this aspect of track riding than I thought I would.  I have to say that the only similarity between track racing and road racing is that you are sitting on a piece of equipment that has a seat, two wheels, and some type of handlebars.  Brakes? Nope.  Gears? Nope.  I have to say it is the purest, most simplistic form of cycling you can experience.  Just you, the track and whatever gear you choose to ride (I won’t go into the details of the gearing here, maybe for the next post). 

I tried the 500, 2000, 3000, flying 200, and match sprint.  My favorite was the 3000, mostly because I’m a TT’ing ”diesel engine” (my friends claim) who just likes to ride as fast as I can for as long as possible.  But do have to say that the tactics involved in the match sprint is a good way to tap into that part of the brain that actually has to think a little while riding – and it does remind me of being a kid again.  I’ll go into match sprints later too, and in the meantime will be searching through YouTube to watch past races to see how they’re done. 

I do have to say that after the uncomfortable, “fish out of water” feeling wore off, and I got out there to ride, I will definitely go back to see how I can better my times and techniques.  And I do think that some regular track bike riding will help my pedal stroke on the road bike in the long run.  I highly recommend everyone should give it a go at some point!  Hope to see you out there!