FLASH-POINT BLOG ARCHIVE: Mar 2007

I originally wrote these tips regarding running and marathon racing, but I think they apply perfectly well to cycling also. Just a few things that came to mind after my last big race...

1. If you have to change your race, also change your training. I knew the LA marathon was a week later, but I didn't add another long run for no reason other than that I simply didn't want to. Another long run might not have done anything physically, but it would have helped me mentally. And physically, it just might have been what I needed to scrape those extra 9 minutes off my time.

2. Pick a race that has weather similar to that in which you've been training. The heat was hard to deal with, but it wasn't really that hot. That same weather a little bit later in the year (when I had been running regularly in similar conditions) would have been a lot easier. The temperature in LA ended up being close to 80 degrees by the marathon's end, and I hadn't run outside in anything over 40 degrees for months. How could I not expect some kind of consequence? Aside from my legs cramping, the big problem I had during the second half of the race was my heart rate; it was way too high and out of control for the 9-10min/m pace I was running. I knew I couldn't keep it up, but I didn't know how to fix it. Looking back, I think it had a lot to do with the change in climate.

3. Use the race elevation as a basis for how you train. I did that at first. The Mardi Gras Marathon is flat and I was training to run flat. But, I changed the race a month out, and I knew it was going to be running a downhill start. I totally discounted the difficulty of that and figured I'd be fine. I was cocky.

4. Go out slowly, no matter how hard it is on your legs or ego. The start of a marathon is easy. The finish? Not as easy. Keep that in mind.

5. Don't wait until you're hungry to eat. By then, it's almost too late. Of course, you have to be careful to avoid an upset stomach from eating too much, so it's definitely a fine line to balance. But, I waited until mile 18 to finally take down a Hammer Gel and by then I was already kind of done. Why did it take me so long? My stomach was rebelling...but ultimately it was fine, and I should have at least tried to get something down earlier. Let's face it. Gu's are just kind of gross, and they always will be...but you still need them.

6. Numbers don't help with the mind games. If you're feeling sluggish, do your best to ignore the splits and just keep running. It was really hard to see my mile splits go from the 7 minute to 11 minute range. Looking at the numbers afterwards though, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Yeah, I got slower, but at the time I felt like it was a lot worse than it was. Sometimes the numbers can help, but you have to know when to ignore them.

7. As far as vacation enjoyment goes, you'll have more fun if you can stay afterwards instead of get there early. Of course you want some time to acclimate before the race, but afterwards is when you'll be able to relax enough to enjoy a beer. If at all possible (Saturday races!) stay afterwards to thoroughly enjoy your new surroundings.

8. Remember why you're out there. It's not about times and splits and qualifications. Yeah, those things are part of it, but ultimately you signed up because it was something you wanted. Enjoy yourself.

So, I guess that's it for now. None of this is lightening-striking news, but just some things I thought about when falling apart during those last few miles. There isn't much point in wishing you had done things differently, but there are a lot of reasons to try to remember these things for next time...

The Scene: somewhere near Painesville, Ohio. August 12, 2001. Two smelly, sweaty chicks flexing on a curb.

TriShannon: I am so pumped we just did our first Tri!

TriSaraTops: Me too! I'm pudgy! Let's get a Blizzard.

TriShannon: Seriously, we should probably pass on the Blizzards. You want to get one every time we finish a workout.

TST: OK, Dude, whatever. You so go with me every time and I don't even have to twist your arm.

TriShannon: Yeah, yeah. I know. Hey, I think our $19.99 Adidas trail shoes we got at Kohl's a few months ago are fierce!

TST: No way, man. The best part of my shoes is the COTTON socks I have on that I put on in T1. So necessary. They totally made my race.

TriShannon: Is that a nuclear power plant in the distance?

TST: Yeah...it's cool. I don't have a third eye yet, do I?

TriShannon: No...I suppose you're right. So, um, we did get here a little early didn't we?

TST: Well, the book I have says always to get to the race early so that you have plenty of time to set up your transition!

TriShannon: Yeah, but I don't think they meant to get there 2 hours early and before the Race Director shows up.

TST: Well?! We SO had lots of time to get ready.

TriShannon: OK. Whatever. These leis are hot!

TST: NO WAY. What's HOT is my shorts that I put on in T1 that made my thighs chafe because it poured on us and I like to eat Blizzards. Now THAT'S hot.

TriShannon: I executed a flawless pre-race strategy.

TST: I was at a wedding last night and my drunk roommate best friend forgot her key and had to throw things at my window at 1am to wake me up. At the time, I was really pissed but I bet in a little bit that will seem funny.

TriShannon: I am SO going to do an Ironman someday.

TST: YOU CRAZY! I will NEVER do one of those. That's just INSANE. I mean, HOW can you do that?! There's no way. I have no desire to ever do that.

TriShannon: Whatever, wuss. I've always wanted to do one.

NOTE: TriShannon would have done an Ironman LONG before TriSaraTops if it wasn't for a nasty injury she had to deal with. She would have most likely whooped her ass.



TST: I don't doubt it, dude. You do everything you set your mind to. Hey, maybe I'll do a marathon now!

TriShannon: Um, don't you think you should try something more than a 5K first?

TST: Nah! No biggie! I just did a triathlon, so now I think I can probably do anything!

TriShannon: Yeah, I feel strangely invincible. Like our training ride where we rode 21 whole miles on our mountain bikes! Our mountain bikes are FIERCE.

TST: Yeah! Remember when we were doing a ride on our heavy mountain bikes and I ran into a curb, skinned my knee, blew my tire, and we had to walk all the way home? That totally sucked.

TriShannon: Yeah. We looked like tools.

TST: I need a Blizzard just thinking about it.

TriShannon: Hey, if I ever move away, let's be tri friends forever!

TST: Totally.

So the Iron Kahuna is churning out 2,000 yards last night, and he got to thinking: Why did the sport of triathlon have such a hold on him?

His mind immediately flashed to John Locke, not the philosopher but one of the main characters on "Lost," the best show on television. Locke was an angry, depressed, beaten down man in a wheelchair when a plane he was flying on crashed onto a remote island.

But mysteriously, Locke found that he could walk on the island. And he was suddenly the man he always wanted to be: a tough, independent survivalist with all the confidence in the world. And while his fellow passengers try to find ways to escape the island, Locke works hard to make sure they don't find a way off the tropical rock in the middle of the Pacific. The island, he says, talks to him. It cured him. He found himself there.

For many of us, triathlon is our island. It has shaped us. Changed us. Made us the people we wanted to be. It's something

We were brought here for a purpose, for a reason, all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason. John Locke said it best. In the quote below, just substitute "triathlon" for "island."

Locke:

The island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you've seen that, I know you have. But the island chose you, too. It's destiny.

As we build Flash-Point wheels, we go though a number of quality checks. Each rim is inspected after molding for structural and aesthetic defects as it starts a journey towards becoming a wheel. After passing through the rim QC gates, each product is allocated a drilling pattern. In the case of FP40 rim this will be 20 or 24 holes.

Moving out of the drilling area, our rim is checked for sharp burrs in the tire bed, put in a suction device to remove stray particles and drilling residue, then closely inspected for dill hole orientation and the valve hole is sized with a go no-go gauge.

After being laced into rim by hand, (during this process the hub is spun to ensure the bearings are smooth), the proto-wheel is tensioned on a truing stand. Once the wheel builder has the wheel up to our tension spec, it is checked for dish, roundness, brake track variation and each spoke is measured for tension.

The last checks come after removal from the truing stand when the wheel is placed in a 'crusher', additional force is applied to the spokes to make sure there is no false spoke bedding and the wheel parameters are tweeked on the stand once again.

Before the wheel is boxed, it is given a final balance check, spun by hand and held very lightly to detect wobble and rotational imperfections. Be assured the wheel you get, has seen more than its fair share of hands, eyes and critique.

Now that I have some miles on my new Flash-Point FP-60 wheels, I should talk about them a bit. Unfortunately, I don’t' have a wind tunnel in my condo so I can't really speak about airflow or drag. And I'm not a competitive cyclist, so I might not be able to use all the correct jargon to properly discuss the wheels. But I CAN explain my experience with the FP-60s so far:

Less bumpy. More zoomy.

Let's first talk about the ride. My normal route along the San Gabriel river has a lot of cracks along the path. And by "cracks" I mean 2-3 inch wide fissures in the pavement every 30 feet in sections. On my old wheels, my entire skeleton would rattle when I hit every crack (canyon). I'm not sure what the wheels are absorbing, but my teeth no longer shatter during the rides. Perhaps I am naïve, but I was surprised how much smoother the ride could be with a new set of wheels.

As far as speed is concerned, I don't have a lot of documented data for a comlpete anaylsis. However, my regular outbound loop usually takes me a bit over an hour; on my inaugural ride I finished in 56 minutes in the rain. You do the math.

So obviously I'm extremely happy with my wheels. My only concern is that know I feel like I should uprade my frame to match the wheels- but I think that can wait until next season.

Things are changing around here...and I don't mean just the weather.

It's changing, alright. See, I live in Cleveland, where March has slightly bipolar and mildly schizophrenic tendencies. For example, today is 71 degrees and sunny. And Saturday, for the big Saint Patty's Day Parade downtown? Calling for 31 and snow.

I'm used to it. I like to think it makes me a hardy soul.

Anyway, my life is changing dramatically--fast. In some ways, I am absolutely in awe of what's transpiring. In others, I'm petrified beyond words. But I'm growing, and that's always a good thing.

I see so much potential in so many things right now. Maybe it's because I'm getting into what my students call "the good stuff" in our history classes...things they love to study, like World War II in World History and the 1960s in US History. And every year, I'm always amazed at how much fascination they have for these tumultuous, troubling times.

Potential is a beautiful thing. Potential is hearing a student today who is rather marginalized by his class and other teachers--who’s constantly sent down to the office (sometimes by me!) and getting into trouble--ask me how I became a history teacher because he really wants to do that. Potential...in the most serendipitous places. It’s what keeps me going sometimes.

Potential is looking at these wheels and doing the research on how a good set of wheels can save you up to 10% of your ride time. Now, don't get me wrong--I am definitely a firm believer that the engine is the most important thing. Put me on Lance, Floyd, or Michellie's bike and I'm still going to get dropped. But I look at my bike and I think potential. For me, it's the discipline with the possibility of the greatest improvement. I've worked on my engine a lot the past few years, from my first MS 150 all the way to Ironman Wisconsin, and while I still have miles and miles to go before I think of myself as a cyclist, I love that it challenges me. I love that it makes me frustrated at times, that it doesn't come easily to me...that some of the most troublesome rides I've had have taught me the most about myself.

So I look at these wheels and look at these legs, and think, "Man...we've got some work to do, but we're gonna have some fun, aren't we?"

I know that I can't possibly predict what my future holds at the moment. And this is something I'm gradually getting used to...which has been a bit hard for this Type-A triathlete girl who lives by her race schedule and puts her workouts into her PDA. And it is this, I think, which will make this year very hard. I feel a little out of control--kind of like when you're 3 or 4 years old and you figure out how to make yourself dizzy. It's fun, but soon it's a little scary because you realize it's out of your hands.

There's a great deal of potential in me. More so now, than ever. Not just on my bike, and not just in my classroom.

It's a little scary, but it's going to be pretty damn exciting to see how it all unfolds.

Okay, we all know triathlon isn't about just three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running. You also have to be profficent in a fourth discipline, nutrition, especially during any race longer than a sprint. But the Iron Kahuna knows there's a No. 5: mental preparation.

Long-time Tri-Geek Dreams readers know about Head Doc, a training buddy and sports psychologist. He's the best around and is now starting a very helpful blog that doles out great free advice so you can get into prime mental shape.

For those of you who want/need to go deeper, Head Doc (aka Craig) offers sports counseling similar to online coaches, with phone sessions and unlimited email. The Kahuna has used Head Doc's expertise's on numerous occasions, and the Kahuna always comes away with incredible insights and peaceful of mind.

At any rate, check out his blog. Your psyche will thank you.

The weather is finally getting better. Nothing beats waking up to 25F degree brisk mornings and getting a blast of cool air as I pedal through a county road in which a light cold fog sits in random spots and makes for miserable visibility. Lucky I have my blowtorch niterider light it helps to see how thick the fog is at times. Nonetheless, it feels good to be back on the bike. I know many of you are out riding these awesome Flashpoints does anyone recommend any certain rim tape?

Talk to you guys later

Jesse

"Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend, hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."

-- Red, in "The Shawshank Redemption"

It would be like playing at Fenway Park with the Red Sox, Madison Square Garden with the Knicks, Wrigley Field with the Cubs, Lambeau Field with the Packers, Boston Garden with the Celtics or Soldier Field with the Bears.

If you're not into pro sports, how about playing the violin with Itzhak Perlman at the Lincoln Center, acting with Robert Duvall on Broadway, teaming up with David Letterman in the Ed Sullivan Theater or singing with The Who at the Los Angeles Coliseum?

That's how competing in the Ironman World Championships at Kona would feel to the Iron Kahuna. Hallowed ground. Swimming, biking and running alongside the best in the world. In an event he's watched for more than 25 years. He's not sure his feet would ever touch the ground.

He's already done the next best thing: compete in an Ironman elsewhere. It was sweet, but Kona is The Show. Triple A vs. the Bigs. The problem with Kona is, the Kahuna doesn't have the credentials (speed) to earn his way there.

So he played the lottery. It's a low-percentage gamble, but the Kahuna laid down his money like the knuckeheads who line up outside of liquor stores for a chance to purchase a lottery ticket that could bring them $350 million.

He's not exactly sure how the Kona lottery works, but he's pretty sure it's more than a random drawing. On the lottery form, he was asked a series of questions about his triathlon life. He laid it on pretty heavy about the Tri-Blogger Alliance and the "Get Your Geek On!" podcasts. And he is starting to think that may separate them from some of the pack.

But there's the rub. Hope is a dangerous thing. The Kahuna has found himself fantasizing about competing in Kona. Not really a fantasy though. More like anticipating the real thing. And he's trying to tap that down. The lottery winners are announced April 15. He doesn't want to be like a little boy on Christmas eve, staying up all night to see Santa and then realizing the Big Guy doesn't exist.

Still, in the back of his mind, he wants to stay up anyway. Because there's still a chance that St. Nick could come down the chimmey. And wouldn't that be a sight.

If you are reading this blog, I assume that means you are a blog reader. An assumption that makes me smarter then a 5th grader (I would so kick butt on that show) One of my favorite blogs is TriGeekdreams.com. The curator of that blog, the Iron Kahuna has ammassed a couple hundred fellow athletes and blogs so it's a deep well of inspiration and community. He recently posted on a dream to compete at Kona, but like most age groupers (myself included) he lacks the speed to secure a spot by racing. He put in for the open lottery and speculated whether there was any weighting in the decision making process or if it was purely random. Ugg. It's random. Here is where I hope Paula Newby Frazier is listening. The great thing about Ironman, in contrast to every other pro sport, is that the joes get to race in the same venue as the pros. I admire the pros for their ability to train and race with a speed and grace I can only fantasize about. But I'm inspired by the everyman story. We all have them, what it took us to hear "Kari Holmes, you are an Ironman!" I think it would be fantastic if they opened a dozen Kona spots to the tri community in a sort of "Kona Idol" format. Let us nominate a group of candidates, read about them, question them, then vote on a dirty dozen to compete. These 12 could then train and blog their way to the big dance, perhaps compiling their own reality documentary along the way. They could be Janus community fund athletes, they could be lung transplants, weight loss miracles. Every so often they could be surprised by some sponsor throwing out some schwag. Now that would be some reality tv I could watch.

Hello, hello! Anybody listening?

Here in Minnesota we have a definite cycling "off season" where snow and freezing temps keep us confined to trainers and spin classes. There are a few brave souls that cycle commute year round, but even they seem to disappear when the daytime high's don't crest above sub zero. It's crazy training when your plan calls for a four hour ride and all you can do is look whistfully at your new Flash-Points hanging in a basement window framed with snow, roll your bike onto your trainer and watch yet another installment of Project Runway, and another and another..

I imagine this is what Paul Huddle had in mind when he spoke at a tri camp I attended last summer about having an off season. The triathletes I know are thouroughly dedicated to the sport, we love our swim, bike, run, and we love it year round. But I think I understand what Huddle proclaimed with incredulity, "Take an off season!"

In 18 months I transformed from an overweight, stay at home mom who thought it would be fun to try a triathlon to a 13:XX hour Ironman. What an incredible year and a half, but it was long. Every workout, every training session I did in spite of myself, every race, every thing I ate was essentially about Ironman. It's good to have a goal, and it's incredible to achieve a dream, but it's also essential to have an off season. So, in the last several months since Florida I've done all the things I cautiously avoided during those 18 months. I've played and coached basketball, I've returned to trail running, and I've dropped training sessions. It's been a great mental break without sacrificing my baseline fitness. I can still churn out 3000 yards in the pool, cycle the hills and flats and run like the wind (ok, maybe more like a summer breeze), and with the thanks of an off season I can do it with mental sanity and focus once again.

The single biggest improvement you can make to your bike split is a set of FLASH-POINT wheels. You simply won’t find a better value in aerodynamics, comfort and durability.

Reduce fatigue on your bike for a stronger run with these 40mm or 60mm carbon composite/aluminum wheel sets. They’ll help you get that final kick and give you a head start on the run.

All this for $1100 !!