Triathlon
Looking Really Fast….Or Looking Like a Tool
I like passing people when I’m on my bike.
You might too. In fact, I think there’s probably some innate feeling of conquest that many of us feel when we blow by someone. There’s some hidden joy in overtaking and passing someone else. Nevermind that they might be going 8 mph on a beach cruiser. Or look like they’re as old as Methusela. It’s just…FUN!
Now let me preface this a little. Lance Armstrong I am not. I’ve never doped. Oh, wait…wrong analogy. I meant to say that I’m not some uber-fast quassi-pro cyclist who averages 25mph or better every time I’m on my bike. I’m like most other age group athletes. I have good days where I can hold and sustain close to 22mph. I have other days where it’s killing me to go 18.
This Saturday, the weather for a ride was exceptional. The temperature was relatively low. The humidity was lower than normal, and there was hardly any wind. Plus, and early morning start meant that there wouldn’t be much traffic out.
And yet….there was a lot of traffic. Lots and lots of folks were out on the bike. This shouldn’t surprise me too much – I mean, the part of town where I live and ride is superb for cycling. Wide open roads (most with bike lanes) and not too much traffic. The picture below shows what part of my ride looked like Saturday morning:
Here’s a view of the types of roads I get to ride on here in FL. Flat, wide, and usually not crowded.
Well, I saw literally hundreds of cyclists out.
After about half my ride, it dawned on me that there was a charity ride going on. I actually figured this out by reading lots of the little signs that were stuck in the shoulder announcing sponsors, distance, rest stops, etc. This weekend was the Tour de Cure – a charity ride that raises money for the American Diabetes Association.
I was passing folks all morning. My ride was an out-and-back, so on the way out I was headed opposite of most of the Tour riders. On the way back, though, I was riding with them. I passed a couple of fairly slow groups along the way, but the biggest group was saved for last.
As I was approaching home – literally only 2 or 3 miles from home, I made a left-hand turn and was suddenly upon one of the Tour rest-stops. I cruised by, getting some “Thanks for riding” and applause (I’m thinking that folks were cheering for my cool Rev3Tri bike kit and not mistakenly thinking I was riding in their ride), and then suddenly came upon a group of close to 30 riders. I stayed behind them for a hundred yards or so, and then decided to go into full-on badass mode.
I plopped down into my aero bars, geared down two gears and started grinding – all the while shouting “on your left”. I took it up to 25mph and blew by the group, keeping my speed and momentum until I completely dropped them and gained a solid gap. By the time I reached the end of the road and had to turn off to head into my neighborhood, I could no longer see the group. Ahhhhh….satisfaction. Not only had I passed this group, but I had totally decimated them and dropped them!
Now, I’d like to think that as they saw my blue and white kit zoom by them that they were awed at the sheer speed in which I passed, and were blown sideways by my slipstream. I hoped that they wondered if I were some top AG athlete or something.
In reality, though, I suspect that most of them likely thought, “Oh what a tool.” “Poseur”. “Show-off”. In retrospect, that’s what I would have thought were I in some group ride and a yahoo on a tri bike sped past.
And so, even though I had a really fun ride, and it was amazingly epic to blow past this last group of cyclists – plus the fact that I did it really FAST – the reality is that I probably didn’t do much for the goodwill building part of triathlon. I likely looked like an ass in the process. Part of me feels bad about that.
The other part wants to do it again.
Helping Boston’s Victims
Without a doubt, you’ve likely seen a tremendous outpouring of support for Boston and the victims of the horrific attack last week. There are so many people who were impacted and injured it’s almost unbelievable.
All last week – and even as we headed into this week, local running clubs all over the country (and perhaps world) were holding solidarity runs for Boston. People ran to honor those injured and killed.
While each of those impacted certainly is worthy of being honored, I fear that so many of those impacted will have a greater burden to bear. The sheer monetary cost of the crime will be difficult for many to overcome. I can only imagine how staggering the medical bills and costs for ongoing care will be for the most injured. Far too many will incur huge medical bills. Many will be out of work due to their injuries.
There has been no shortage of fundraising efforts, either. The One Fund was established as one way to get funds to the victims. Announced earlier this week by Massachusetts Governor Patrick and Boston Mayor Merino, the fund was seeded with a $1,000,000 committment from John Hancock.
Closer to home, the triathlon community is stepping up to support victims of the bombing.
Rev3 Triathlon announced yesterday that it was partnering with the city of Knoxville and the University of Tennessee Athletic Department and will be donating all proceeds from the Revolution3 Glow Run 5k – which will be held on Friday evening, May 3rd – to help fund the treatment and recovery of a former UT swimmer, Nicole Gross.
Nicole was near the finish line with her husband and a friend when the bombs went off. She suffered a catastrophic leg injury – and has had at least seven surgeries already. Her sister was also critically injured.
If you’re planning on being in Knoxville for Rev3′s race that weekend, hopefully you’ll consider also running in the Glow Run 5k on Friday night. If you’re not able to race – or aren’t even going to Knoxville for the weekend, please consider making a direct donation to help Nicole with her medical bills. You can contribute directly at www.bestrongstaystrong.net.
I’m encouraging you to help support those affected by this tragedy. Please consider supporting Rev3′s efforts to raise money for Nicole. Please make a donation to the One Fund. I know that I’m going to do both.
A Terrorist’s Impact on Endurance Events
Exactly seven days ago we were struck by a horrific terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. The deaths and injuries were horrific and full of gore, as we all know. By week’s end the terrorists were dead or apprehended, bringing one chapter of the event to a close. Certainly the story will have more and more chapters for those who were impacted directly or indirectly. Bodies will heal. People will cope with the stress and mental trauma. Perhaps law enforcement will find out what motivated the attack.
In some regard, life will begin to return to normal. (That could be a blog post in and of itself…whether or how we could return to normal after a horrific and tragic event like last Monday’s.) Our sport, on the other hand, while physically the same – we’ll still swim, bike and run – likely will change in many ways both large and small.
Imagine the life of a race director now, post-Boston. While I’m sure that RD’s already had a multitude of considerations at play, now they need to worry so many more things. Among their concerns could be having to worry about having cameras on the course (or at least if buildings along the course have cameras). Do they need to have hazmat teams available? Should patrons and spectators in finish line areas be expected to go through security screening? How do you contain an entire course (upwards of 140 miles) such that a would-be terrorist can’t harm an athlete? Can you even contain a full course? Should RD’s employ undercover police officers to monitor race expos? What degree of background checking of volunteers should the race organization do? How can they guard against food-borne terrorism?
Any person with even scant imagination could dream up untold scenarios where athletes in endurance events could be at risk. Frankly, all the potential concerns are a little overwhelming to me. I’m glad that is not my day-job. Truth be told, I’m even more appreciative of the hard work that race directors and race companies do now that I’m beginning to think about all of this stuff.
Here’s my perspective. I really hope that endurance events don’t change. Certainly RD’s and race companies owe us a duty to make sure that we’re safe…and that hasn’t changed just because of Boston. I hope that just because of last week that race experiences don’t pale. I hope that Rev3 continues to have a great finish line experience. I hope thousands of spectators line up along marathon routes. I hope people continue to flock to places like New York, London, Kona, Los Angeles, Cedar Point and Boston so that they can compete in big marquis events. I also hope that athletes and spectators alike continue to go to races in Greensboro, Boise, Fort Wayne, Knoxville or Jacksonville.
Surely there are some things that will change as a result of Boston. Perhaps there will be tightened security. Maybe there will be bomb-sniffing dogs or more surveillance cameras. There could even be armed competitors (think air marshalls in aero :-)). Lord knows, registration costs could go up. But so what? You and I – we’ll continue to do events. We will keep running. Biking. Going to triathlons. Marathons. And if we’re lucky, more and more people will also. In fact, I predict that demand for the 2014 Boston marathon will be higher than ever. Perhaps all marathons will be like that.
People will be concerned about safety, but at the end of the day we will not allow ourselves to become paralyzed in fear. We will run for those hurt or killed in Boston. We’ll continue to have completing an iron-distance race on our bucket list. New athletes will do their “couch to 5k” plans.
And that is a GREAT thing!
And The Winner Is…
Much like the NCAA basketball tournament, the first-ever TriMadness March Madness contest is over. One team was voted as the overall triathlon national champion; one lucky person won an awesome prize package from Powerbar and SBR Sports!
There wasn’t as much voting in the final championship match up as I’d hoped (only five entries – least of the entire March Madness), but regardless, the game came down to two really good competitors: Rev3 Maine and Craig Alexander. The results were close, but decisive:
Throughout the contest, we’ve been talking about an amazing prize package that was to be given away at the end of the contest.
Today, I consolidated all of the entries (giving additional entries for tweets, follows and correctly picking the winner). There were a total of twenty-four entries in the pot. A little trip over to Random.org to enter the particulars, and I got this:
I checked my handy-dandy spreadsheet, and the winner is:
Congratulations, Melanie! You’re the winner of a HUGE and AMAZING prize package courtesy of Powerbar and SBR Sports.
Here’s the amazing prize pack you could win if you’re the lucky winner of the TriMadness March Madness giveaway!
You win:
- A case of 24 Kona Punch PowerBar gels.
- A tub of Powerbar Ironman Perform Lemon-Lime Electrolyte drink mix
- Two 6-count boxes of the brand new PowerBar Energy Blends (one Apple-Strawberry-Mango flavor, the other Banana-Blueberry flavor)
- Full-sized containers of Tri-Swim anti-chlorine Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, and Lotion!
- Two cans of Tri-Slide…the BEST anti-chafe lubricant on the market
- Two three-pack containers of Foggle…premium anti-fog wipes. Each wipe can be used up to five times if re-sealed after use.
So – Melanie – head over to the contact me page and email me your mailing address so I can ship this goodness off to you!
The rest of you….hang tight…we’ll do another contest soon enough!
Thanks for reading – and for playing along in TriMadness’ March Madness!
A Shockingly Cool Experience!
One of the really cool benefits of being on Team Rev3 is that we get access to some very amazing products. For example, we’re lucky enough to be able to use Normatek’s awesome MVP pneumatic compression system, we get superior products from Powerbar and SBR Sports (Tri-Slide, Foggle, and Tri-Swim products), and have other great sponsors. We were really excited to add Biotta Naturals to our sponsor list this year (maker of great tasting and healthy juice products).
Well, this week the folks on the team and I are getting our hands on a new product – and I’ve got to tell you, it’s electrifying!
No really. It’s shocking how cool this product is! It will really amp you up!
OK….ok. I’ll stop with the puns.
The newest tool in our triathlon stable is Compex’s Sport Elite Muscle Stimulator.
For those of you who may not know what a muscle stimulator is, basically this is an electrostimulation unit that has been widely used in the health care industry. Compex is a tool to assist with building muscle size and strength, increasing power, active recovery and more. Basically, electrical muscle stimulation mimics the way your body works to cause muscles to contract and fire. For all intents and purposes, your muscles act as if you’re working out, lifting weights, or whatever – except that instead of voluntarily firing off (because you, say, lift something), the muscles fire when given a very particular electrical impulse. There’s a whole ton of science behind the use of electrical muscle stimulation (I’ll get more into that in a future post).
I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this tool – and mine finally arrived earlier this week. Having scoured the materials that came with the Sport Elite unit – as well as other information online – I was super excited to give this thing a try!
And so, last night I used my Compex for the first time.
And I think I really liked it!
I did a 30 minute trial run on my foot to see how this might help with my plantar fasciitis recovery. I did a 30 minute “active recovery”. This felt really cool. I’d describe the sensation almost as tingling – sort of like your foot or leg feels when it falls asleep…but not painful. It is odd, though, to watch the muscles in your foot move and jump without me trying to do anything.
You can literally use the Compex Sport Elite to help you strengthen any muscle group you’ve got. Back? Check. Shoulder? Check. Gastroc? Check. Abs? Check. Wait…..ABS???? Seriously?
Absolutely!
On the off-chance that this can help me build a six-pack of abs, I decided to (don’t judge me) try this on my abs! I hooked the leads up to my lower abs (or as my wife calls it…my frontal muffin top) and turned this thing loose for an hour on “Endurance” setting. I jacked the setting up as far as I could tolerate, and went to town while watching a couple of episodes of Duck Dynasty on the DVR. Here’s where it got cool….it felt like I was doing a ton of crunches – but I wasn’t actually doing anything. Muscle contraction. Rest. Muscle contraction. Rest. It was AWESOME!
Guess what? Today I feel like I did about 1000 crunches. My core is really tired feeling. I feel like I had one hell of an ab workout yesterday. How cool!
I’ll be experimenting with this on other muscle groups over the next few weeks, and will ultimately do a full-blown product review. More to come!
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Don’t forget to enter the TriMadness March Madness contest and giveaway to win $200 worth of Powerbar and SBR Sports products! Entry closes over the weekend – so get on in and enter today! Click below to do so:
TriMadness March Madness Championship Finals & Giveaway – ENTER NOW!
And then there were two!
The final, epic battle for the ultimate championship in Triathlon is upon us. The best of the best, facing off to determine the absolute champion in the multisport world! The TriMadness March Madness bracket contest has been narrowed down to just two teams. Now it’s time to decide who the ultimate winner is – but more importantly – get our groove on and enter the TriMadness March Madness GIVEAWAY!
A reminder about what you could win, if you’re the lucky winner of the contest and giveaway: A HUGE prize pack of great goodies from Powerbar and SBR Sports valued at close to $200US.
Here’s the amazing prize pack you could win if you’re the lucky winner of the TriMadness March Madness giveaway!
The specific contens of this huge prize pack include:
- A case of 24 Kona Punch PowerBar gels.
- A tub of Powerbar Ironman Perform Lemon-Lime Electrolyte drink mix
- Two 6-count boxes of the brand new PowerBar Energy Blends (one Apple-Strawberry-Mango flavor, the other Banana-Blueberry flavor)
- Full-sized containers of Tri-Swim anti-chlorine Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, and Lotion!
- Two cans of Tri-Slide…the BEST anti-chafe lubricant on the market
- Two three-pack containers of Foggle…premium anti-fog wipes. Each wipe can be used up to five times if re-sealed after use.
Here’s how you get in on this action. Luckily, there are lots of ways to play, and you can get multiple entries – thus increasing your chance to win (detailed below):
- Leave a comment below picking who you think will win the ultimate TriMadness National Championship. You get one entry for your comment. If you happen to predict the actual winner of the contest, I’ll give you 3 additional entries. So….you could get up to 4 entries, just by picking the ultimate triathlon champion!
- Tweet the following phrase: I just entered #TriMadnessMarchMadness giveaway featuring great prizes from @SBRSports @Powerbar & @TriMadness. trimadnessblog.wordpress.com You’ll get 1 entry for tweeting it.
- Retweet anything I tweet about the contest between now and next Sunday evening, and I’ll give you one additional entry for each re-tweet (limited to 1 extra entry per day…meaning you can retweet 15 things per day, but you will only get 1 extra entry per day)
- Put a link to my contest on your blog. Backlink the actual hyperlink above, and I should get a notice that you’ve done that. You’ll get 1 entry for doing that
- Follow @SBRSports and @Powerbar on Twitter. Leave me a comment below that you did so (and your Twitter handle). Once I confirm that you did so, you’ll get 1 entry for each company. If you’ve already followed these companies, leave me a note as well (again, with your Twitter handle) and you’ll get 1 entry for each company
- VOTE BELOW to help pick the TriMadness March Madness winner! This is actually pretty darn critical – you see, YOU pick the overall Champion in this March Madness bracket! You won’t actually get points for doing this, but you might just increase your potential entries by helping determine who the national champion is!
So there. You can get a truck load of entries into the giveaway. The voting and contest will remain open for both voting on the championship and entry into the contest until 11:59pm ET on Sunday, April 7th. On Monday, April 8th, I’ll combine all the entries into an Excel spreadsheet and then use a random number generator to determine exactly who will win!
Now….with all that cared for, WHO is competing for the ultimate championship….The TriMadness March Madness Championship? The Semi-finals were decided in two blowout matches, setting up an epic match in the finals.
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Who will win? It’s up to you. Vote below. There’s no limit on the number of times you can vote. Pick your favorite. The best looking. The strongest. The most epic.
Remember – if you want to win the Giveaway, you need to not only vote, but leave a comment, tweet, or follow the other directions above.
Fine print: The contest is open to any resident of the United States or Canada. If you are a member of the US Military and are deployed on active duty outside of the US, you can enter me by emailing me using the “Contact Me” link at the top of the page.
One Mile At A Time
It’s been a tough year for me so far from a running perspective.
I’ve literally only run three times all year due to a pretty nasty bout of plantar fasciitis. About three weeks ago, I visited a local podiatrist for an evaluation, and was diagnosed with a partially torn plantar fascia. He took x-rays, did an ultrasound of my heel, felt around (causing me a lot of pain) and then gave me a cortisone shot (causing me even more pain). I was advised to be fairly aggressive with stretching, icing, and some exercises. I’ve been a good patient, and followed this protocol almost perfectly (shocking, I know).
Yesterday, I went back to the podiatrist for a follow-up appointment and got some really good news. I am able to start running again!
Of course, I can’t run far. Or frequently. But I can run!
“HE CAN RUN! HE CAN RUN! HE CAN RUN” (invoking a phrase from Disney’s Peter Pan…”He can fly! He can fly! He can fly!”)
And so, tonight, I’ll run. One mile. Slowly. It’ll be a run, nevertheless. Hopefully it won’t hurt too much – either during or after. Frankly, I’m a little nervous about it. I don’t want to make the injury worse – and I sure as heck don’t want to suffer the pain again. I’m also really, really excited. I’ve been WANTING to run. That is the absolute worst thing – to really want to do something, but not be allowed to do it.
If you haven’t entered the TriMadness March Madness triathlon contest & giveaway yet – DO SO NOW! The contest is open for a few more days, and you can rack up lots of entries for very little effort. Click the logo below!
TriMadness March Madness Contest & Giveaway: ENTER NOW!
If you’ve been reading the blog over the last couple of weeks, you’re well aware that we’ve been playing a little March Madness game – triathlon style.
The game has had four regions and started with 32 teams. Just like our own little version of the college basketball tournament that has been going on in the US the last couple of weeks. We’ve whittled the teams down to the Final Four teams. It’s now time for us to not only figure out who the Triathlon National Champion is, but more importantly, it’s time that we figure out who gets to walk away with close to $200.00 worth of outstanding product from Powerbar and SBR Sports!
So who made it to the Final Four? We’ve got four really tough competitors: IT Band Syndrome, Craig Alexander, Bike Trainer, and the Rev3 Maine race medal. Who will ultimately win and be crowned the TriMadness National Champion? At this point, no one knows!
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Over the next six days, you have the opportunity to enter the giveaway and partially chose which team will win. You also have the opportunity to influence your number of entries and potentially increase your odds of winning the contest!
What will you win?
Here’s the amazing prize pack you could win if you’re the lucky winner of the TriMadness March Madness giveaway!
A TON of AWESOMENESS!!!!!! OK, more specifically, you will win:
- A case of 24 Kona Punch PowerBar gels.
- A tub of Powerbar Ironman Perform Lemon-Lime Electrolyte drink mix
- Two 6-count boxes of the brand new PowerBar Energy Blends (one Apple-Strawberry-Mango flavor, the other Banana-Blueberry flavor)
- Full-sized containers of Tri-Swim anti-chlorine Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, and Lotion!
- Two cans of Tri-Slide…the BEST anti-chafe lubricant on the market
- Two three-pack containers of Foggle…premium anti-fog wipes. Each wipe can be used up to five times if re-sealed after use.
This carton of goodness retails at close to $200.00!!!!! And it could all be yours if you’re the lucky winner.
So how do you get in on this action? There are lots of ways (detailed below):
- Leave a comment below picking who you think will win the ultimate TriMadness National Championship. You get one entry for your comment. If you happen to predict the actual winner of the contest, I’ll give you 3 additional entries. So….you could get up to 4 entries, just by picking the ultimate triathlon champion!
- Tweet the following phrase: I just entered #TriMadnessMarchMadness giveaway featuring great prizes from @SBRSports @Powerbar & @TriMadness. trimadnessblog.wordpress.com You’ll get 1 entry for tweeting it.
- Retweet anything I tweet about the contest between now and next Sunday evening, and I’ll give you one additional entry for each re-tweet (limited to 1 extra entry per day…meaning you can retweet 15 things per day, but you will only get 1 extra entry per day)
- Put a link to my contest on your blog. Backlink the actual hyperlink above, and I should get a notice that you’ve done that. You’ll get 1 entry for doing that
- Follow @SBRSports and @Powerbar on Twitter. Leave me a comment below that you did so (and your Twitter handle). Once I confirm that you did so, you’ll get 1 entry for each company. If you’ve already followed these companies, leave me a note as well (again, with your Twitter handle) and you’ll get 1 entry for each company
- VOTE BELOW to help pick the winners! You won’t actually get points for doing this, but you might just increase your potential entries by helping determine who the national champion is!
So there. You can get up to 14 entries into the giveaway. The voting and contest will run from right now until 11:59pm ET on Sunday, April 7th. On Monday, April 8th, I’ll combine all the entries into an Excel spreadsheet and then use a random number generator to determine exactly who will win!
Fine print: The contest is open to any resident of the United States or Canada. If you are a member of the US Military and are deployed on active duty outside of the US, you can enter me by emailing me using the “Contact Me” link at the top of the page.
Enter now! Vote below for the Final Four. I’ll update the bracket and give the final national championship game on Thursday.
The TriMadness March Madness Elite Eight Is Here!
Our fun little triathlon themed March Madness contest is in full-on fun mode! We’ve made it through the first two rounds. The pretenders have been eliminated. The contenders are left standing.
The Sweet 16 match-ups were essentially everything but sweet. Of the eight “games”, seven were blow outs. The closest match was the Bike Trainer vs Heart Rate Monitor match-up in the Tools of the Trade region. Bike Trainer won by just two votes! The rest were essentially no-contests. Especially in the Pro Triathlete region, which surprised me a little.
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Remember, all this March Madness fun is getting us narrowed down to the really fun part. The TriMadness March Madness National Championship contest – where you will have the chance to pick the ultimate national champion and win an AMAZING prize pack valued at close to $200 from SBR Sports (makers of Tri-Swim Anti-Chlorine products, Tri-Slide personal lubricant, and Foggle Anti-Fog wipes) and Powerbar (makers of wicked good nutrition products). To get to that part where you’ll be able to actually enter to win, though, we need to narrow down our tournament teams to the Final Four!
All you have to do is vote for your winner in each region. It doesn’t matter how you pick your winners. Just pick them! Had IT Band Syndrome but not Plantar Fasciitis? Vote for IT Band. Think Mirinda is cuter than Crowie? Vote for her. Like lobster better than blue crabs? Vote for Rev3 Maine. Hate your foam roller? Vote for Bike Trainer instead. Or whatever. Close your eyes and just click. Ask your dog to help you vote. Again – it doesn’t matter how you pick a winner….just PICK!
The TriMadness March Madness Elite 8 voting will be open from right now until 11:59pm EST on March 31st. So VOTE! Vote early and often (yes, you can vote more than once). YOU are picking the FINAL FOUR!
TRIATHLON INJURY REGION:
PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETE REGION:
TOOLS OF THE TRADE REGION:
RACE MEDAL REGION:
