TriSports.com Blog

Mountain Bike Clinic with Grasky Endurance Coaching

“You are not too old to learn to “bunny hop”” or so Brian kept telling me at last Sunday’s mountain bike clinic that was put on by Grasky Endurance Coaching at Sweetwater Preserve.  Instructors Brian and Jill Grasky and Bryce Phinney did a top job in coaching a mixed skills groups of mountain bikers through a set of skills drills and then took us off to ride.  This was a great opportunity to practice and hone your mountain biking skills with some Pros – or in my case try to actually acquire some basic skills and increased confidence.  Although I have raced twice in the Tour of the White Mountains and the Kona 24 hour race, my actual mountain biking skills are abysmal.  It’s hard to take years of triathlon and road cycling in straight lines and convert that into the wild down hills, boulders and cactus of Arizona mountain biking!  When this clinic opportunity came up I knew it was a must for me!

View of Tucson from Sweetwater Preserve

They offered a workable combination of individual skills drills and actual riding, and with three instructors we were divided up into beginner, intermediate and advanced skill levels, so everyone’s needs were adequately met.

I never mastered the “bunny hop” and even fell in the parking lot trying – but I came away from the clinic with better confidence after the ride and some real instruction on  weight distribution for cornering at low and high speeds, climbing and, of course, the downhill.

Speed is your friend when mountain biking – the brakes are not, especially the front ones!  Everyone participating enjoyed the clinic and left asking for more of these!

This was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to meet other Mountain bikers and get some Pro insight into how it should be done!

Coach Bryce tearing it up at the Deuces Wild Triathlon XTERRA

myTEAM TRIUMPH of Southern Arizona

This weekend I had a chance to be a part of a race for a non-profit organization; my TEAM TRIUMPH.  Inspired by Team Hoyt, the father/son racing team, the goal of mTTis to provide racing equipment and racing opportunities to individuals with physical or cognitive impairments. These individuals are the “captains” of a team and a minimum of three “angels” are assigned to assist them to complete a race. This weekend 10 captains led teams of 75 angels to complete the El Tour 5k.

The myTEAM TRIUMPH captains and angels joined volunteers  at around 5:30 in the morning at the mTT VIP tent to start the day with hot coffee and bagels donated by Einsteins. The lineup at the start was a sea of red as the mTT participants were all dressed in red t-shirts.

Each angel on our team took a turn at the helm of the captain’s racing chair, some pushing uphill,  some flying downhill,  and through some bumpy terrain (to the delight of our captain).

Our captain came in for the finish to a crowd of cheers, broke the banner at the finish line, and received his medallion of a Ben’s Bell for completing the race.

All in all it was a fantastic day- this was the inaugural event for myTEAMTRIUMPH-southern Arizona, and they will be busy getting to work to plan the next race. Anyone looking to be a part of a truly inspiring experience please visit www.mTT-southernarizona.org.  They are always looking for more angels, captains and of course donations, so that the  next event allows even more captains the chance to “fly”.

The Nation’s Triathlon, AKA My First DNF

This season was not my season. I alternate seasons with my husband, Seton, so that we don’t struggle over who gets to train when, who was supposed to take the kids to school, etc. It’s just easier this way when you work together, live together and both want to compete. When I forwarded Seton the email offering USAT members first dibs to register for the Nation’s Tri in DC (which always sells out) and he said I should do it, too, I jumped at it. I knew it wouldn’t be an ‘A’ race, heck, it wouldn’t even be a ‘C’ race, just a “for fun” race in an historic city I had never visited. Besides, if we were both racing, we couldn’t take the kids, so good excuse for an adult-only vacation! Sure enough, as race weekend approached, my training was comprised of commuting to work at TriSports.com on my bike, running about 30 minutes a couple of times a week and I had swum, oh, about 3 times total since IM CdA in June 2010. Given that this would also be my first Olympic Distance event (I had somehow managed to skip that distance through the years), I knew that it would not be my best performance.

Fast forward to race week…we get an email telling us the swim has been cancelled. DC has received rain for days and days, increasing the flow of the Potomac to the point where a good swimmer would be able to swim in place and a slow one would end up in the Chesapeake Bay. Seton’s cursing since that’s his strong point; me, I don’t care so much other than that I now can’t say I have completed my first Oly. Dang! Luckily, the rain pretty much stopped when we arrived on Friday and we were able to enjoy the sights and play tourist. Even after bike check on Saturday, we were able to rent bikes from one of the many city bike stations around town and cruise around. I was fighting off an illness and feeling pretty yucky, so I didn’t even know if I’d race come Sunday. But Nation’s Tri is the largest triathlon in the world (they hold the Guinness Book record), so I wanted to experience all it had to offer. So far, everything had been seamless. Packet pick-up was a breeze, the expo was a good mix of vendors, communication was excellent and signage made it easy to always find your way. 

Sunrise over transition and the Washington Monument

Race morning.  I didn’t feel horrible, so I got my you-know-what out of bed and over to the venue. This race is always held the 2^nd weekend of September, which caused the race to fall on the 10^th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks. Being in this city on this day, with a dedicated wave for military and first responders, was pretty emotional. I have never “heard” such silence as the National Anthem was sung. It was a perfect race day, the event organizers had dealt with the lack of a swim by creating start corrals which worked well and we were off!  Seton started before me, allowing me to take many photos as he began his day. He is in arguably the best bike condition of his life right now, with the run not too far behind, so he was planning for a fast day.

Seton & Debbie all smiles pre-race

I sat around for almost an hour, then it was my turn. I felt good and settled into my aerobars, realizing that I hadn’t been on this bike in over a year, but it felt good. I saw Seton heading back about 10 minutes after I started, so I knew he was going to be close to a sub-hour 40K. This is a HUGE event, so lots of debris on the road. I was doing a good job of missing it all and was actually passing most of the ladies with whom I had started. I reached down to replace my bottle after taking a swig of my Infinit, when disaster hit. My attention briefly off the road in front of me, I bumped something. I still don’t know what, but it was enough to pop my right foot out of my pedal. With my right hand off the bars and my right foot out of the pedal, all of my weight was on the left side of the bike and CRASH! It was like slow motion, noting each body part as it hit the ground, feeling the shock as my head slammed into the pavement, then realizing I had stopped, I wasn’t dead and I needed to get out of the way before someone crashed into me. Everyone was great, yelling out to make sure I was OK, and there were two volunteers on me by the time I made it to the curb. I did the quick inventory, and everything seemed to work, but I had rung my bell pretty hard and my day was over. I had never DNF’d a race, so that was disappointing, but it wasn’t important enough for me to continue. I did finally end up slowly riding back to transition after getting treatment on-course, simply because I didn’t have the patience to wait for the SAG following the last rider (slap on the wrist for me). Then came the long process of finding Seton because he had no idea I had wrecked and was probably waiting for me to finish. Turned out he ran the whole run course backwards looking for me and finally figured out that I had dropped out and went to find his phone. Once reunited, we grabbed some food, hit the awards (my only real complaint…they changed the time because of the swim cancellation, but never noted that on any of their emails, so Seton missed going up on the podium. They had updated everything else, why not that?), then collected our things and rode back to the hotel.

Me being cared for post-crash

The most shocking thing to me after wrecking (this was my 2^nd wreck ever) is the condition of my helmet. It is an ABSOLUTE MUST to replace your helmet after any crash, even if you can’t see any physical damage. Any blow to the head, however minor, causes all kinds of things to go on within the microscopic confines of your helmet. It is designed to protect your noggin, but after it does that once, things change and the foam doesn’t react the same and will not protect you the same in a subsequent crash. The foam also breaks down over time, so if you are one of those holdouts from the 80s (heck, 90s, early 00s), it’s time to get a new lid. This crash resulted in my helmet getting pretty dented and cracking through in 5 places. Needless to say, my new Lazer Helium is on the way! And I guess I’ll pick another Oly next year! 

Helmet Damage

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!

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?

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.

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.

Arizona State Team Time Trial: Take one for the team…and then puke.

This past weekend we had the Arizona Team Trial Championships that was put on by the good folks of the Southwest Hand Cycling Team.  Since I am a triathlete at heart it is always good to get out and do time trials with the roadies because they are playing in my space, not to mention the fact that in a TTT you are expected to be in a pack in your aerobars!   The TTT is a fun discipline because you start with four people and your finish time is taken by on the time of the third person.  This means you are able to lose a team member and still get an official finish. Also, in the team competition you are very limited by the weaker riders on the team because you can’t exactly shell them off the back so you need to work a bit harder (taking longer pulls at the front) to keep the team intact as long as possible.

TriSports Cycling member puking in the bushes.

The TriSports.com contingent was super strong at this event – we had 7 teams (6 of them from the TriSports Cycling Club and Team and one team of all triathletes).  Our two women’s teams took the top two spots on the podium while our best men’s team took 3^rd.  It was awesome to see all of the red, white and blue out there on the road!

Billy Brendon, Seton Claggett, Steve Acuna, and Craig Pansing

BikeFit training at TriSports.com

TriSports.com strives to be the leader in all areas of triathlon. We recognize the value of additional education and training so that we can provide a better solution for our customer, no matter what the area of triathlon.  At the end of the day there should be no question we cannot answer.  Recently we booked Paul Swift to come and give more of our retail associates an in depth, two day fit clinic.  We locked them up in our fit studio for 17 hours over the course of these two days in order to get them comfortable with the methodology.  The class contained lecture portions that focused on the theory and anatomy behind bike fitting, and then the associates did a number of practice fits under the watchful eye of the fit guru.  The associates came away from the class overflowing with bike fit knowledge and confident and comfortable in their bike fit abilities.

As you can see in the picture above, the three ladies pictured here will all soon be certified bike fitters, and with the support of our more veteran fitters, they will be well on their way to providing exceptional fit services.  I am not sure I know of any other shop that has 3 female bike fitters, including one that also has a nutrition degree and can give you a recommendation on your race day nutrition.

Eric Mellow putting a wedge on a cleat

The Shaft at Fantasy Island

The Sonoran Desert covers 22.3 million acres in Arizona. The average Temperature is 100º F and is still one of the wettest deserts in North America.

This is my playground.

I don’t remember thinking, I don’t even remember breathing. I am just riding.  My eyes narrow as I descended down The Shaft at Fantasy Island. The Shaft is a downhill drop of 15ft cut and molded by the monsoon storms and other MTB’ers like myself. I ride to the far right of the downhill slope to start; I hold on and let the bike do most of the work as I hit the first dip. The bike reacts to the descent and begins to fight me with every rock and dip; I grab ahold of the handlebars more tightly.   Halfway down I notice that the monsoons have created a canyon drop in the middle of the slope. I shift body position adjustment and lean my weight over the left of the bike and it helps insure my safe decent down without crashing below. I dip or rather launch off a small ledge one more time before speeding to the bottom flying through the washout of rocks, branches and other unknown materials from storms past before I begin a short climb up and out of the Shaft, which can be just a tricky because it sharply turns left halfway up.  The Landscape changes so much. Mountain biking requires me to be more alert to my surroundings and the sudden changes.

It's steeper than it looks!

I reach the other side and I take a breath. I immediately replay the events in my head because now I have time to think. My first thoughts are “Did I even use my brakes?” “How did I just do that?”  The adrenaline is pumping. This is why I mountain bike.

I began riding MTBs about 2 years ago and I’m still very new. My  posts will chronicle my adventures in mountain biking.  Tucson provides a wide variety of trails. I became a mountain bike addict after many failed attempts to try my hand at triathlon (that’s another post). There is a certain rush to MTBs that I can’t explain, maybe it’s the mystery of never knowing what the next 15ft will bring but I am for sure addicted.

Where are your favorite places to ride?