Product Giveaway

Before I get to the product giveaway, I'll answer some questions left in the comments on my blog. I'm never sure whether I should answer them on blog blog, email the commenter or something else.

Jill asked how I get so lucky to get free gear? Well, one of my product reviews generated a lot of traffic so I'm guessing people hope my review generates as much traffic as my Tommie Copper knee sleeve review. It receives 10x more views per day than any of my other posts. To get the knee sleeves I emailed Tommie Copper and asked for some to review. All my other reviews were at the request of the manufacturer. Last week I was contacted about putting advertising on my site and asked me what my terms were. I politely declined.

James asked how we sign up for a giveaway? Read on James, read on :-).

When Steven at Kiefer asked me if I wanted to review some swim gear I jumped at the chance hoping it would help me find my swimming mojo. I hadn't been swimming since my last triathlon which was four months earlier. Well, it took me several weeks to get the motivation to go to the pool so I can't say I found my mojo. I did figure out where I left it though. I left it in Door County!

That was the best swim I have ever had by a long shot. Four years ago, I couldn't even swim 100 yards and here I was swimming 1.2 miles in open water in a 70.3. Not sure how to get it back. Maybe I'll need to go back to Door County and retrieve it :-).

On to the giveaway. I'm giving away one pair of slightly used Kiefer Mach 5 goggles. They have only been worn once :-). To enter, you get one chance for following my blog, following me on twitter @ransick, and following me on instagram @ransick. One entry for each, please leave a comment for each. Yes, Facebook isn't an option because I'm one of at 17 people on eart that don't use it. Some dude named Shivam tried to use my email address to make an account but never was able to activate it.

I'll give them away in my next post, probably over the holidays, maybe sooner, mayber later :-).

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Cohasset Tri 2012

We combined a family visit with a race this past weekend. My son and I flew to Boston Thursday and took the ferry to Hull where my sister picked us up. My daughter and mother flew out Friday to meet us. It was really nice to catch up with my sister, BIL, niece and nephews. We spent a lot of time at a beautiful local beach, playing games, and just hanging out. We also spent a lot of time around the tri. Further proof triathlon is a selfish sport.

View of Boston from the ferry

In preparation for the tri, my sis and I ran the run course Friday morning, then drove the bike course a couple times. Later in the day, my BIL took me to the Bike Barn in Whitman MA to borrow a test bike that happened to be nicer than my normal bike. They let me test ride a Specialized Allez. The guys at the shop were super nice and spent time helping me get it set up properly. I brought my saddle and pedals and the bike guy (John I think) put it on the trainer and got things dialed in for me. The bike was fabulous and I never once thought about racing on a bike I had only ridden once. Thanks guys, you rock! If you are in the Boston area, go check out the Bike Barn, these guys know what they are doing.

Start of the run course

Saturday morning I met up with a friend from BT, his swimming instructor and her friend to ride the bike course. It was a beautiful morning and beautiful course. Mid morning, my sis and I went to packet pick up and got my race numbers applied. The woman applying the numbers mentioned I had nice muscular hairless upper arms, so the tats went on easy :-).

Packet pick up

 

Saturday afternoon was more beach time for the family while I went for a practice swim. The kids thought the wetsuit was pretty funny (which it was), then we went back to my sisters place for a cookout. During the cookout, a big storm blew in and knocked out power. We ate, then everyone played Apples To Apples but me. I get a little edgy the night before a race so I said I was on a team, then proceeded to finish reading Chrissie Wellington's book before going to bed really early. I was starting to worry I wouldn't have hot coffee in the morning, but power came back on about 11 pm. I tried something new for this race. I woke up at 4 am and ate, did my business and went back to bed. The idea was to digest breakfast before leaving for the race site to avoid 4-5 trips to the nasty Porto potties. Woke back up at 5:30, did some more business, then my sis drove me to the race site at 6 so she could drop me off, then get my cheering section up and moving. It worked! I only had to hit the portable potties once.

 

Beach time

 

Once at the race site, I got my timing chip, set up my transition area, then chatted with Mike_D from BT and a few other athletes. Despite this being my first ocean swim in a tri, racing on a borrowed bike, and knowing going all out hurts, I was pretty calm. I went for a warm up jog then swim and just hung out until my HUGE (for me) cheering section arrived. The kids got busy making signs and I just chilled with them. It was awesome.

My bike still had a price tag and said testbike

My transition area

My peeps making signs

 

My kids before they colored in the sign

Me and my sis (not a chobani commercial :-))

Me and my mom

Chillin with my nephew

I felt like a rock star!

Just about game time

I was in the third wave with 92 of my closest friends. I lined up near the back since I'm a slow swimmer and really don't like lots of contact. Once the horn went off, we ran down the beach and into the water. The water wasn't as calm as it was Saturday. I swallowed three or four full mouth fulls of water. I didn't panic or even stop and tread water, I just kept swimming. I think this was the first swim I didn't stop and tread water during the swim (except when rounding the buoys), I felt strong and just kept going. Once we got out of the water, we had to run several hundred yards up to the transition area. This time was added to the swim time.

 

Once in T1, it was wetsuit off, socks, shoes, glasses, and helmet on, then run out. No trouble at all.

Once out on the course, my goal was to keep breathing hard the entire ride. I had no hr, cadence, or speed sensor, so it was all by feel. I'm a relatively slow swimmer, which gave me plenty of people to pass on the bike. I passed a bunch of people and played leap frog with a couple guys in my age group. We joked around as we passed each other which was kind of fun. The course was rolling and beautiful with some fun turns.

Once off the bike, I ran into T2. Racked the bike, helmet off, shoes off, run shoes on, visor, number belt and I was out of there. To quote my nephew, it was time to "embrace the pain" :-). The course was hilly (for me) and absolutely beautiful. The crowd was great and there were kids spraying runners with hoses which was nice since the temp was moving into the 80's (I think, I never really looked). I was happy with the run given I'm not very use to hills. The rest of the run was uneventful. I was able to chat with some other runners, so I think my cardio is currently outpacing my leg strength/speed.

After the race, I had a couple bottles of water then waited around to pack up. After a big lunch and a big nap, I was pretty much back to normal. We all went out for an early nice seafood dinner then back to play Apples to Apples. I played this time and we all had fun. Seeing that it was supposed to storm all day Monday starting early and I had a 2 hour run scheduled for this weekend, I went to bed early again and got up early again (what kind of vacation is this?) Checked the hour by hour weather at 3:30 am to see if I needed to leave at 4, 5, or 6 am. I was happy to see the storm wasn't coming as early as expected and went back to bed until 5:30. Then at six, I ran the bike route from the race and felt pretty good. If things go well tomorrow, I'll get my long ride in when we get home.

Overall it was a great weekend visiting with family. If my sister and/BIL sign up next year, we might just have to come back :-).

The numbers

Overall rank 220/801

Age group rank 30/92

1/4 mile Swim - 10:34 (352/801)

T1 - 1:44

12 mile ride - 35:35 (167/801 20.2 mph)

T2 - 1:11

3.2 mile run - 27:20 (319/801 8:33 min/mile)

Total - 1:16:21

 

Nutrition Testing

I started doing some testing with maltodextrin this weekend at the suggestion of fellow blogger Mike. Maltodextrin is a common food additive containing easily digestible carbohydrates, yet is cheaper than sports powders. It can be purchased online or at your local brewing supply store, since it is a common ingredient used to brew beer. My local brewing supply store is 40 minutes away, so I ordered a pound online so I could experiment. There was no calorie label on the package but doing a little googling, it looks like a cup contains about 360 calories.

I had a long brick work out scheduled for Saturday for which I planned on mixing a one hour bottle and a long ride Sunday for which I planned mixing a four hour bottle. My first attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one scoop of Gatorade powder and one tablespoon of salt. I mixed that up, took a sip and promptly poured it out :-). The Gatorade flavor was way too strong as was the salt taste. My second attempt was one cup of maltodextrin, one Succeed S!CAP for electrolytes and a little lemonade flavored Crystal Light for flavoring. The taste was pretty good so I went with it for my first test.

On the plan for Saturday was a brick workout consisting of an hour swim, an hour ride, and an hour run. Unfortunately, lap swim didn't start until noon and the temperature was forecast to be in the mid 90's with the heat index being over 100. If nothing else, it would be a good nutrition test. If you can take in calories in the heat and keep it down, it should work in just about all conditions, right? The workout went fine, nutrition seemed to taste good and sit well but I did cut the run short due to the heat (5k instead of a 10k). Cutting it short had nothing to do with nutrition. I didn't want to hurt myself and risk missing the long ride Sunday.

With that success, I decided to make a four hour bottle for Sunday. I mixed three cups of maltodextrin, three S!CAPS, and lemonade flavored Crystal Light again. Maltodextrin is easier to mix hot, so i mixed the bottle Saturday night and put it in the fridge. Sunday was a little cooler than Saturday, but not much. I set off on a four and a half hour ride with ~1100 calories in one bottle and a second bottle of water only. My plan was to take a sip of calories every 15 minutes and drink water to thirst. This plan seemed to work ok. A couple times I skipped a calorie drink because I was feeling a little bloated. This worked out so I finished the bottle four hours in. I think finishing it in three hours would have been a little soon. I did notice a slight after taste a few times, but nothing stomach turning.

The last half hour of the ride wasn't pretty. I was exhausted and over heated and stopped at every water fountain to pour water over my head. Afterward I think I hopped in the shower too quick because when I got out, I started sweating, got the cold shakes, nausea, and really light headed. Let me tell you, its tough to shave when you are about to pass out (and probably not a good idea). I laid down for a while and felt better. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I weighed seven pounds less than when I started. I don't think it had anything to do with nutrition, I think it had to do with heat exhaustion. I guess when I do a full IM, I need to find a cool one.

With four and a half weeks until my 70.3, I'm running out of time to experiment. I did run to my local brewing supply store and buy some more maltodextrin and plan to try mixing some powdered Gatorade instead of Crystal Light for my next long session. Speaking of which, my next long ride is scheduled for Sunday, but I'll be in Cohasset, MA for a family visit and a little racing. The race should be challenging as it will be a cold ocean swim and ill be riding a borrowed bike. I'll try to fit in a long run while I'm there and a long ride when I return.

The goods :-)

 

Gateway Olympic 2012

This past Sunday, I raced the Gateway Olympic tri put on by 3 Disciplines Racing. This is a great race venue and the folks at 3 Disciplines put on a nice race.  The course is flat and fast and would be perfect in the weather would turn out to be a little cooler, which it hasn't for the last three years.

I met up with my BT/blogger friend Anne and Troy, who I met last year. This was Troy's first Olympic Tri and he just learned to swim in January.  Despite his lack of experience, I wish he was in a different age group :-).  He is fast!  I also met up with BT friends Mike and Jennifer.

It was really great meeting up with friends at the race.  I never really got any of the pre-race anxiety I normally get.  I attribute that totally to hanging out with friends that had the same concerns as I did.  The day before the race we met for packet pick up then drove the bike course, swam the sprint course, and rode the run course.  It was a perfect pre-race warm-up and course check out.  After that we went out for some pizza and beer at a local establishment and it was delicious.

swim start

Unlike last year where I stayed in a camper, I stayed at home since the race site is only an hour from my house. Actually it's much less time at 5:30 am but I'm glad I have a radar detector because there was an officer shooting radar at 6 am on a back country road.  What's up with that?

I didn't dwell too much on my goals for this race but after coming off a five minute PR last weekend, I figured a couple minute PR would be no trouble.  More on that later...

So race day I had my usual yogurt, banana and coffee and headed to the race site.  Got set up in no time and chatted with my friends and those around me.  Headed down to the water, listened to the pre-race instructions and got ready to go.

I'm a pretty slow swimmer so I seeded myself near the rear and with everyone inching forward before the siren went off, I started out DFL.  Oh well, no where to go but up, right?  The swim was uneventful and I felt pretty good.  Just tried to keep it smooth and steady and do a better job of sighting this year.  The water temp was 74 degrees and I wore my sleeveless wet suit for the first time in a race and it was perfect.  Last year the water temp was like 62 and a full wet suit was perfect.  I kept it smooth and steady and sighted every six strokes on the first half and every four strokes on the way back.  I had the normal negative thoughts at the start of the swim.  I suck at this, why am I doing this, this is crazy, I can DNF now and save some pain.  Pretty much the same drill every race. About half way through, I decided to tread water for a bit and my feet hit the bottom!  I stood up and looked around and it was weird standing up that far out in the lake.  I started swimming again and had the normal second half of the swim thoughts of, I'm going to do this, no problem, just keep swimming.  I swam until my hands hit the bottom and stood up. I wasn't tired at all and started jogging up the big hill to transition and stripping off my wet suit.

hill up to T1

Once in T1, I had a little trouble with the wet suit but not too bad.  My lower back has been bugging me a little making it tough to bend over so I sat down, which I usually don't do. Rinsed some sand off my feet, put on socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses and I was off.

The bike is a very flat and fast course and just like last year we had a tail wind going out and a head wind coming back.  I was holding 22-24 mph on the way out, so I knew the way back would be 16-17 so I hammered the way out the best I could.

flat and fast with a couple small hills

the roads weren't closed but the traffic was light and the locals nice

nice country roads

About 15 minutes into the bike, I took a gel and drank some water.  The gel didn't sit so well, so that would be it for nutrition in this race.  I drank to thirst, but that wasn't sitting so well either.  I ended up taking in about 2/3 of a bottle of water.  By the half way point I got a stitch in my side.  I've never had that happen in a race. I was thinking it was a bad sign, but couldn't stomach any more water. About a quarter way in, I passed a racer with a 26 on his calf.  Of course he would have none of that and chased me down. A bit later I passed him again and he returned the favor.  He would pass me up the hills and I would pass him on the flats.  We started chatting a bit and kind of laughed at each pass.  I passed him with about a 1/4 of the way to go and he said he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to catch me again.  I said, don't worry, I'll see you on the run :-).

T2 went fine. Changed shoes, grabbed race belt and visor and I was off.  By this time it was mid eighties and my side stitch was worsening making it hard to take a deep breath.  A PR was in reach if I could just run 9 minute miles.  After running sub 8 minute miles last weekend, I still thought a PR was in reach.  The run is across a rock lined dam on asphalt with no shade.  It's like running in a sauna.

start of the run

pretty run, but hot!

At mile one of the run, I took a sip of water and grabbed an ice cold towel (nice touch 3D racing!) and kept going.  I don't have a Garmin so I was trying to do some math in my head.  I don't really remember but I think I was still on track the first couple miles.  At each aid station I poured some water on my head and arms, grabbed a towel (until they ran out on the way back) and took a few sips of water.  At about mile 4 I was really getting hot.  I was tempted to pull the shorts out and pour some cold water in to cool off but I didn't want to freak out the volunteers, many of which were kids :-).  Somewhere around here 26 guy caught me and said he was surprised he caught me.  I told him he was having a great race and he ran away from me very quickly.  I looked up his time later and he averaged 8:34 miles.  I was no where near that.  With about a mile to go, I started getting cold chills even though it was 87 degrees and I was in full sun. I'm not sure if I stopped sweating, but I knew chills were a bad sign, but walking would have taken even longer.  At this point I also knew a PR was out of reach (I could do math with one mile left :-). I finished a little under 2 minutes slower than last year and have to admit I was a little disappointed.

I didn't feel well after the race and continued having bouts of chills even though I was still sweating.  Drank about 5 bottles of water and gatorade, looked at the food but I felt so crappy I knew it wouldn't stay down so I skipped it.  Hung around for a while visiting with friends then took off for home.

They never posted the transition times for last year, which makes it tough to compare, but here are the numbers.

2011		2012
swim	0:37:04	swim	0:39:29
		T1	0:03:19
bike+T1	1:18:21	bike	1:14:06	1:17:25
		T2	0:01:14
run+T2	0:59:22	run	0:58:13	0:59:27
total	2:54:47		2:56:21

While I didn't think it was possible to swim slower than last year, I managed to by over 2 minutes!  The run up to T1 was quite a bit longer this year so while my combined T1+bike shows a minute faster, it was probably closer to 2.  My run+T2 time was about the same which is disappointing since my run seems faster this year.  A couple reasons I can think of for missing my PR.  First, I haven't been swimming much, duh! Second, last year I was coming off big volume getting ready for NOLA 70.3.  I'm still ramping up for my HIM in 8-9 weeks.  Third, I was dehydrated.  I weighed myself before and after and lost 8 pounds which is 5% of my body weight.  I drank about a pound of water during the race so I finished 7 pounds lighter.  I drank about 5 pounds of water after the race and on the way home and still lost 2 pounds by the time I got home.

Oh well, assuming I stick with this crazy sport, there is always next year.

Season Opener

My first race of the year was a repeat of the first tri I ever did.  The event is May Madness in Effingham Illinois run by Cutting Edge Events.  The folks at Cutting Edge do a nice job so if you are in the area and want an early season tri to get the season started, check it out.  This year the weather was perfect, upper 50's to start, sunny and calm, nothing like it was two years ago at my first tri. This year I also got to meet up with a friend from work, his wife, and a BT friend, so it was much more fun than racing alone.

Race day, I got up at 4 am (for the third time in four days).  It's about an hour and a half drive, but with no traffic at 4 am, I was able to make it a little lot faster :-).  It was pitch black when I left, but drove into a nice sunrise to start the day.

nice start to the day

Once at the race site, I quickly registered, got body marked, and started setting up.  I was set up in no time, and just hung out and visited.  Ran into a super fast guy from my fitness class and chatted with him and his wife for a while.  Chatting with friends does wonders to limit the pre-race anxiety I feel.

The water was a nice 66 degrees (with a wetsuit) and smooth.  I started near the back since I'm a slow swimmer and didn't have much contact.  I felt pretty good on the swim and sighted better than normal.  I'm just not a real strong swimmer.

beautiful morning

distance looks longer in open water to me

The bike route was a flat out and back with a couple little rollers at the beginning.  My goal was to make sure I was breathing hard the whole time. I managed to do that most of the right until my knees started feeling bad so I backed off a tad.

The run is also a flat out and back and I had the same goal as the bike, keep pushing it.  I ran as fast as I could and just tried to hang on.  I passed a woman with a Garmin at about half way and asked her our pace.  7:42, yikes! No wonder it was hard, that's fast for me.

My goal going into the race was to shave three minutes off my time from two years ago.

	2010	2012
swim	10:53	10:03
T1	2:00	1:23
bike	41:10	39:23
T2	1:00	0:51
run	26:53	24:35
total	1:21:54	1:16:14

I'm a little bummed my bike average was below 20mph but it doesn't surprise me given my knee issues.  I was pleasantly surprised I was able to run under 8 minute miles, actually more like ecstatic!  I haven't run a 5k that fast in 20 years.

I did manage to take home some hardware.  3rd in my age group! Don't tell anyone that there were only three in my age group, that would make it an attendance prize :-).

The TYR tri top almost hides the 8 pounds I'm trying to lose :-)

Looks like I need some spray on tan and to work on my guns :-)

Sprint tris are a lot of work for a short race.  I probably spent two hours packing my gear, racking my bike, etc, an hour and a half driving there, an hour and a half driving back, then another hour cleaning up my mess all for a little over an hour of pain. I think I like the Olympic distance the best.

back seat mess

front seat mess

Overall, it was a great start to the season.  My first Oly is next week and I'm dreading the swim.

Just Like That

It's race season!!!  I've been so busy I feel like it snuck up on me kind of like vacation did :-).  I did order some replacement tires and tubes and well as dig out the Yankz laces I won doing XLMIC's Jingle Bell Hell run .

swapped these out over the weekend

Those are butyl tubes.  I got tired of pumping up my tires every 3 days with latex tubes.

New shoes with Yankz laces installed

I still need to go over my gear checklist and decide what to bring to this event.  I'll have to less the house about 4 am Sunday, not really looking forward to that.

Here are a couple random throw in pics from my ride this evening.

I can see for miles and miles

and miles and miles and miles :-)

Oh, an update on Goal #3 I set at the beginning of the year. With eight weeks to go, I was down six pounds.  I figured I had it in the bag since I can lose a 1/2 pound a week just by watching my diet.  Well, after three business trips in six weeks, I gained all six pounds back! Luckily I normally don't travel that much (and lucky I didn't gain more), so I should be able to lose it again, just not by my goal date.  With that said I have a couple trips coming up in the near future.

Resetting Expectations

My first tri of the season is less than four weeks away and I find myself having to adjust my expectations. This tri is the same venue as my very first tri two years ago.  I signed up since some people from work signed up and decided it was a B, maybe even C race.  I'm trying to keep my A races as my 70.3 in July and 13.1 in October though if the 70.3 goes well I have a secret goal of sneaking in a late season 140.6, but I digress.....

When my training looked solid like this in February, I started thinking about crushing my Sprint PR.

After all, I have a couple years of training and racing under my belt.  Should be a piece of cake, a painful piece of cake, but you know what I mean. Then life happened and my consistency went down hill.  Adding the weeks since the end of February and my chart now looks like this.

First a dip at the end of February, beginning of March for my trip to China.  Then a "normal" week, then three weeks of low volume due to knee problems.  The big spike in April was hiking and skiing, hardly any sbr.  Now I'm building back up and happen to be traveling this week and next as well as taking it easy on the knees.  I'm trying to reset my expectations to a "C" race for fun.  In some ways, that takes the pressure off.  In another way, I know I'm going to try to crush it anyway if I'm feeling good.

In other news, my first Oly of the season is the following weekend and it's at the same venue as my first Oly last year.  Let the season begin!

Buying My Bike For My First Try

So now that I finally got the swim out of the way, I started bike shopping last October. I wasn't sure if I wanted a tri bike or a road bike. All I had ever ridden before was a mountain bike. I started researching bikes and found a lot of great information on beginnertriathlete.com. I started hanging around the forum more and logging my workouts there. If you are looking for good info, check it out.

Anyway, I went to several bike stores and received many different opinions. Go with the Gary Fisher because it has a cool paint job. Go with the Trek 2.1 because it has a compact crank. Don;t go with a tri bike because it is less stable and a much harsher ride. People that tell you that a tri bike has a harsher ride don't know what they are talking about, it has more to do with the wheels and frame material than the geometry. Go with a low end Cannondale, it's a good beginner bike. It went on and on. When I asked some people about getting a bike fit, some looked at me and said, you need this size while others new what I meant and described their fit process.

In the end, I decided on a road bike with aero bars. That way I can ditch the aero bars and ride with the local bike club, and if I don't stick with triathlons, I can ride a road bike for exercise. I also had a limited budget and decent tri bikes started outside my range. I am stashing $20 in an envelope here and there to start a tri bike fund. Maybe I'll find a decent used one in a year or two. I ended up buying a Giant Defy 1 just after New Year's. To save money I have spd pedals on so I can use my mountain bike shoes for now.

I picked up a Cyclops trainer on Craig's list and I was ready to add biking to the list. I road it for about 30 minutes two days in a row and had some extremely painful issues. After a couple (make that four) trips to various doctor's everything checked out ok so I bought a new seat. I bought an Adamo road saddle and my problems were solved. The seat looks funny, but it feels great.

So with the bike under control, I started upping my mileage every month, signed up for the St. Louis 1/2 mary in April, and my first three tris. Effingham, IL on May 16, Carlyle, IL on May 23, and Innsbrooke, MO on June 26th. I'll be middle of the pack, but I'm pumped to be two and a half weeks from my first tri. It's been a fun journey so far.