Product Review: Colnago EPS matte black

I finally received my new bike about 2 weeks ago as I wanted a true italian steed- Made in Italia. The bike came with Campagnolo Record 10 speed group with sub 1300g carbon tubulars. I didn't have a full chance to appriciate the group, however the bike has since been outfitted with Dura Ace 7900. After openning the box, the bike was sub 14 lbs with the wheels. Wow this bike is light. It looks amazing too with the nude matte black raw carbon with subtle decals. Now with it set to a more familiar shifting componentry, I can actually learn the bike and get a feel for it. AMAZing is exactly how I can describe it.
At first glance, the bike looks like a stardard round carbon tubed joined together with carbon lugs.  Then you glance closer to notice the carbon weave pattern of the matte black exposed carbon.  What a beauty.  Reading reviews of the frame, it is ribbed inside the tubes and the layup of the carbon is in a particular manner that provides its characteristic Colnago personality.
I've been on the bike for about 2 weeks now and I can now understand that the shape of the frame and tubes, although traditional, has so much modern engineering that makes this steed one of the best bikes I have ever ridden.  If you remember back in February, I was riding a Cervelo S3 for a few months.  I love my old Cervelo R3 and my current P3C.  However, I was expecting to be blown away by the S3, but riding it, my expectations left me feeling a little empty. 
The EPS is everything that I expect in a top-tiered bike.  The bike is tips the scale similar to that of an anorexic 19 y/o college girl (no offense).  This makes it ideal for climbing. Weight isn't the only determination of a great climbing bike, but the fact that the Colnago propels you forward with every pedal stroke up a climb with all the power thru the pedals going straight to the wheels.  What goes up must come down and this bike does this even better then the way it climbs.  On the twisty decents, all you have to do is think of the next curve, and the bike seems to automatically have telepathy and make the thought a reality.  It is very swift and accurate making any type of decent confident.
On the flats, you can mash the power and it will be impossible for you to feel any flex.  As light as it is, the bike is stiff yet supple as the harsh road conditions are absorbed very well and little vibration it felt thru the handlebars. 
What can I say, I love this bike.  Every aspect of it- looks, feel, climbing, decending...
The final thing to do is to decide what groupset will grace this beauty-
1. Dura Ace 7900 mechanical
2. Dura Ace Di2 electric
or compliment Italian with Italian
3. Campagnolo Super Record 11
Help me decide.
More pictures click

Product Review: TYR Special Ops goggles

I received a pair of these prototype goggles from a special source.  Swimming at a competitive level is new to me, however I have been fortunate to have been given some high end gear from Jarrod and Alicia: Nikes, Saber, and other brand.  So when I received these, I was defenitely excited to see how well these would work out. 
It's been about 3months now that's I've had the opportunity to use these and I have to say that these are amazing goggles.  What I like most about them are how comfortable they are.  The rubber contact are even pressure around your orbitals.  Next up is the fact that they do not leak.  This also means that they do not fog up. 
When I used them at my 1st half about a month ago, the swim took a little over a month.  During the whole of the swim, I didn't have to stop once to adjust my goggles for any reason.
These are by far my favorite goggles and I look forward to using them more and aquiring a few more pairs.

Race Report: The Intimidator- Florida Challenge Half-Ironman

Vitals:

total distance: 70.3 miles

total time: 5:38:55

swim: 1.2 miles; 33:21 mins

t1: 3:21 mins

bike: 56 miles; time: 2:49; avgs- pace 19.9mph, 182 watts, HR 155bpm

t2: 1:42 mins

run: 13.1 miles; time 2:11; avgs: 10:02 min/mile; HR 145 bpm

The low down:
Race morning- up at 05:15 to get things ready and pack the car. We got down to the lakefront around 06:25 and I got inked with race number and race age. I got into the transition area to set up my spot, then to the potty to change and loose some weight. I got out and my support crew had grown by 200% as my brother and Darcey came early to hang out.  Shortly after, Josh and Jenny appeared.  I got into my wetsuit and headed down to the beach front to get into the zone.  Desiree took this opportunity to take glamour shots. 

Now if you remember back to my 1^st triathlon about a month ago, the swim wasn’t really pleasant for me.  So the anxiousness started to build.  They played the National Anthem and then set the 1^st corral to start- women.  10 minutes later, men over 40 and then my corral last- 5 minutes behind the over 40s.  3, 2…1 and we were off.  I ran/walked out as far as I could and then started swimming at my own pace.  The field was relatively spread out, so I didn’t have too much jockeying to do to defend my space.  I got into a rhythm and just concentrated on sighting and good swim form.  Before I knew it, I was turning the 1^st buoy.  I kept comfortable and then found myself rounding the second buoy to swim straight into the swim-out chute.  I looked down at my watch and swim time was only about 33 mins.  That’s awesome considering I budgeted myself about 40-45 mins for the swim.  I ran up the little sandy hill pulling my wetsuit down to my waist and make it to the carpet to drop down onto my back and have assistance pulling my wetsuit off.

I collected myself and headed to my bike and during this time I pulled my wedding ring off my necklace to put it back onto my finger.  A quick transition with a few seconds to just breathe before I pulled my bike off the rack and mounted to start the bike course. 

I anticipated the task at hand of about 2:30-2:40 budgeted for the bike leg.  “Stay comfortable and consistent. Take on nutrition.”  These where the thoughts going thru my head to meet my goal.  The turnaround on Wilson Lake was much sooner then I thought and we were back onto Cherry Lake for the long stretch of 19 before the climbs of Buckhill, Sugarloaf, and the Wall.  I felt comfortable and maintained my target threshold power.  On the way back on 19, we hit headwind and then turned onto Cherry Lake- the headwind seam to follow us no matter the direction we turned.  Towards the middle of Cherry Lake, My stomach started feeling queezy.  So for I had intake of about ½ bottle or fluids/nutrition, 2 gels, ½ powerbar, and some shot blocks.  I was feeling uneasy and was just over sitting on a saddle.  After turning off of Jalarmi and head around the lake, I wasn’t able to push any time of power thru the pedals.  The gas tank felt empty and my stomach was feeling more upset.  I got into transition to unload my bike and prepare for a ½ marathon, but the thought of the next task was daunting given how flat my legs felt and how crappy my stomach was.

Running shoes on, hat on, race belt on, and water bottle in hand- off I went.  Hear the legs felt even more flat as they felt like they weighed 100lbs.  I got thru the 1^st mile, and then second however as stumbled forward, my stomach worsened and I started to walk.  I passed by my support crew and they were cheering me on but could tell that I was not in a pleasant place.  Rose found me on her bike around mile 3 and “rode” far, but close to me and encouraged my, gave me a salt tablet and told me to just slow down and recover.  Miles 4 and 5 were spend mostly walking and by the 1 hour mark, I had only gone just over 5 miles.  I stopped at every water station and cooled myself off internally and externally dumping cups of H2O on myself.  I kept telling myself that the next water station, I would ask for a cellphone and call Desiree to pick me up as I was done.  Oddly, my stomach started feeling better and my legs could get into a rhythm.  My turnover was better and as I passed the lakefront to start my second lap, I was feeling more comfortable.  Team Dinh was out cheering my on and Kara found me and decided to do some jogging at a similar pace as me.  The miles started to diminish and before I knew it I was at mile 10, then 11.  I worked on staying comfortable and keep my legs turned over.  Mile 12- only 1 more to go.  I pass Kevin’s house and one last hose down and I’m rounding the trail for the home stretch.  I see the finishing chute and Team Dinh is there waiting and cheering.  I cross the finish and raise my arms up in relief that if was over and I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.  I was greeted by Team Dinh with praises of great job!

We hung out for just a little bit before rushing home to clean up and get ready for Chris and Maria’s Wedding.

What an experience.  I learned a lot from this race.  My training with runs of the bike have been about 7:30-8:00 min/mile pace.  However, that doesn’t always translate to what you’ll be able to do during the race.  Other factors such as an empty tank and stomach issues can definitely throw a speed bump in your plan.  I wanted to quit but stayed in and completed.  As Desiree said, part of the ironman/half-ironman experience is dealing with your demons and getting past it to do your race.  I remember watching The NBC special Ironman World Championship where a pro female finished in the hundreds where she finished top 5 the previous year.  She states, “why should I quit just because things aren’t going my way just because I’m a pro.”  She walked a lot of the marathon.  I had a similar mentality- “I’m going on for about 5 ½ hours now.  I should be finished soon.  There will still be people out here for another 2-3 hours.  Do what you need to do to finish!”

My goals now are to take a little time off, but continue to train and add in a better nutrition plan that should sustain be and that I would feel better to avoid running on E!

Thanks to all those for the support.

Race Report: Winter Garden Crit

Vital:
short
intense
ran out of gas
The run down:
I forgot to show up to the race. It started off intense as the 1st couple laps we were averaging about 27-28mph. I was towards the back so I was doing more work then I should have. After 6 laps, I threw in the towel and road a "cool down" lap solo. I just didn't have the anaerobic conditioning needed for the intensity.

I only started to do some anaerobic training over the last week- 20 second spin ups and 1 minute anaerobic threshold intervals. just not enough on the week of the race.

Oh well, my main training is for long aerobic tempo for the 1/2 ironman in 3 weeks.

Thanks to those for coming out and supporting me- the wifey, her nephew, John/Casey and the kids, and Chris and Kara. Too bad I couldn't give you more of a show.

Recovery...

Recovery

We got massages after getting back from church on Sunday and I took a nap after Lisa left. I woke up and I felt like I just got hit by a mack truck. Just moving was difficult much less walking. We decided to take the rest of the evening easy and head to bed early as I was pretty much useless. I told Desiree that I may call in tomorrow because of how bad I felt. She said that I need to go to work as it would have been poor planning not to ask for the day off ahead of time.
I woke up on Monday and I was feeling just as bad- both calves, right hamstring, and L IT band, and I was having pain in my right lateral tibial condyle that produces pain with eccentric control of my right quadriceps. I decided that driving to work would be a smarter choice then my usual commute on the bike. Work was tough as walking down steps is all eccentric quad control causing pain to my right knee. Also, if I would sit for just a little while doing notes at the computer, getting up and going was slow. Walking was difficult because of how sore my right hamstring was- with every time I would swing my right leg forward and extend my knee to step.
Fortunately I have a secret recovery tool- underwater treadmill. I headed over to Leah’s clinic and got into the pool. I jogged for about 30 minutes. After getting out, my legs felts a little heavy however weren’t as sore. I felt about 60% recovered after walking on land just a little and the legs feeling less heavy. Again a relatively early night for bed time to wake up and get onto the trainer.
Both Desiree and I woke up and got set up in front of the tv- her on the trainer while I got onto the rollers. I felt 75% better waking up but after about 40 mins on the bike, my legs really loosened up and then 85% better. Walking was better, no pain in the knee, and my right hamstring was no longer a problem. Work as usual but pretty much another day off from training, just recovery.
Wednesday I woke up feeling pretty good, just some soreness in the calves. So I decided to ride easy to work and back since I was feeling about 90% recovered. That was the only activity planned for the day to make sure that I was well recovered before getting back to the grind.
Thursday, it was go time back to training. I got onto the bike and road Cherry lake out and back as this is part of the course for my big race on April 15th. At lunch, I was able to get into the pool and did a straight 1500 meters. Both workouts felt pretty good and I am scheduled to head out to Lucky’s to spend more time with long distance open water swimming on Saturday.
Back to the grind and looking forward to the next few weeks of training.
Thanks to all for the support.

Race Report- Gasparilla Half Marathon

Race report: 03/04/2012 06:00
Vitals-
Total time: 1:41:57
Distace: 13.1 miles
Avg pace: 07:43 minute/mile
Avg HR: 167 bpm
Place: division- 35; overall 386/4547; top 10%

How it went down:
After my triathlon yesterday, we headed back to the house to unload, get cleaned up and wait for Josh and Jenny to pick us up. We got to Tampa and enjoyed a nice expo and checked into our hotel to enjoy a little nap. The hotel was located pretty much across the street from International Plaza and we decided to have dinner at Blue Martini and take advantage of their happy hour. Half off all drinks and the food menu. How appropriate for our half marathon today. We got back to the hotel after walking around the mall just a bit around 19:45 to wind down for the evening. What old farts we are.
04:00 the alarms started as we were set to leave by 10 to 05:00. It was a quick car ride to the start/finish area and Jenny found a parking garage a few blocks from where we needed to be. As we were walking over, the skies opened up and 20-30 mph winds were accompanied by torrential downpour. The rain was coming down sideways. We sought shelter inside the convention center as well as to unload some weight. After our duties were completed, we headed out towards the start finish with a promising sign that the rain was over. We all finagled our way towards the front group as there were over 4700 people running this AM. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long before the actual start of the race. Just a few seconds after 06:00 and the sound went off.
My plan was to stay with Josh. Our plan was to keep it about 8:15 pace for the 1st 5 miles, then 7:45 for the second 5 miles and then finish the last 5km with whatever we had left. The first mile pace was 8:13- right on target. However the next 4 miles, we were down to 8:00 pace.
Once we hit mile 5, we increased the pace down to 07:46. Again right on target. However the next few miles we drop the pace down again to around 7:30. Around mile 10, I was still with Josh having him pace me, however I could feel the tempo in my legs and told Josh to go ahead at his own temp and finish strong. I stayed around 7:25-7:30 for the last 5km. My legs were starting to feel really sore and the back of the right shoe was really hitting into my Achilles. However, I pushing at around sub 7 for the last .3 mile and stopped the clock for a total time of 1:41:57.
I grabbed a heat foil wrap and met up with josh who finished at 1:41:06. I then headed back to the finish line and waited for Desiree to come in and cheer her on. She stopped the clock at 1:55:51. Yay! A great run for her as she was plagued with sickness and some foot discomfort over the past 3-4 weeks. We grabbed our awesome finisher medals and headed back to the car. I was moving slow and bending over to pick up a dropped water bottle was painful. I legs were very sore- calves, hamstrings, IT bands…
We were ahead of schedule to check out and decided enjoyed a yummy breakfast at ihop. Then back home. Desiree and I had massages scheduled once we go home but changed our schedule just a bit given as the time would alot us to make it to noon mass at Blessed Sacrament. We dropped out bags into the house and hopped in the car to make it just in the knick of time.
Once we got back home, I hopped onto the trainer to spin the legs for about 20 mins as we waited for Lisa to come and enjoy our massages.
I felt like I had a great race. I wasn’t really nervous and what helped was having Josh and our plan. I felt that it was well executed even if we did push ahead of our targeted pace. We were able to stay consistent. Also, up until this point, the furthest I had for distance was 10 miles. Now I’m really hurting trying to recover and get food back into me.
Special thanks to Jenny Malcolm for making this experience awesome and for the support. She chauffeured us around and was a great spectator when the weather was more than less then ideal.
I’m not taking a couple days off before heading back to the training.

Race report- Clermont non-draft legal sprint triathlon

Race report 3/3/2012 07:30

Vitals-

Total time: 1:20:13

Swim: 750m , 17:23, avg HR 167bpm

T1: 3:02

Bike: 20km, 35:31, avgs: 201wts, 167bpm, 21.5 mph

T2: :22

Run: 5+km, 23:56, avgs: 7:22, 170bpm

How it went down-

Slight overcast in the AM and the temp as a mild 68-69 F. The first race of the day consisted of all non-draft legal participants. We stood on the shoreline and sang the National Anthem. Then we walked out about 50m into the water before the countdown of the start. 5..4..3..2..1..buzz. The group was about 60-70 and we all ran until the water level was decent enough to swim. I stayed slightly outward towards the right and focused on just getting going.

It wasn't quite so chaotic as you may have seen on tv with a Kona start. I worked on staying as comfortable as possible. However I found my head out of the water a lot for sighting and when my head was in the water, I was drinking. It's a feeling like no other that you can practice unless you just do it at a race. Hours and laps at the pool and practices in open water just doesn't fully prepare you. It was a little overwhelming and anxious. I never did find a rhythm and I don't even know if you an call what I did for ~17 mins as 'swimming.'

I was able to make it out of the water and had a long run ahead to get to transition area where I prepared for the bike.

While in the transition area, I had a difficult time getting my feet out of my wetsuit. Then, getting them into socks was another feet but eventually I managed. Next, I heard Clausen in the distance cheering me on and saying 'helmet.' Of course I kept the chin strap clipped and I fought to unclip my helmet. Bike shoes on. Helmet on. Then ourtof transition I went, pushing my bike before mounting onto the saddle.

I got into the groove quickly as the bike is my forte. I kept the cadance high and slowly picked off riders as I worked my way through the field to make up for lost time. 3 laps on the bike course and I worked to stay hydrated. I took in a gel with about 1.5 miles remaining before dismounting the bike and transitioning for the run.

This transition went by faster then the previous. However, I did run in my bike shoes to put my bike on the rack and switch into my running shoes, trade helmet for hat, and get my running on.

For the run, I stayed relaxed and didn't shoot out like a gun. Paced myself well and took on some water just after the start of the run, however I wasnt too successful with the water intake. Instead, I nearly choked as the water splashed in my face and only managing some into my month. Mental note for next time, water on the head to cool down instead of trying in the mouth and choke. The run was 2 laps, about 1.5 miles each. As I started my second lap, I was holding a good tempo but was slowly getting passed by a guy from Columbia. I decided to stay with him and have him pace me. At times, I would drift back from him just a little. He would encourage me, "come on". I stayed with him and we finished together. My mile pace dropped from a 07:35 pace for the first 2 miles down to 07:08 for the last mile. I wasn't gassed at the end but could feel that I worked hard and was a little fatigued in my legs.

Great race and then time for recovery. We grabbed some food at the participate tents and then headed to car. Onto the rollers at the parking lot inorder to flush the legs for tomorrow's half marathon. Desiree said that there were people staring and spectators watching me cool down while I was on the rollers. After about 30 minutes of cool down, we closed up shop and headed home to prepare for the next adventure in Tampa- the Gaspailla half marathon.

Thanks to all for the support at and during the race and those that were there in spirit.

Special thanks to josh for his help on transitions and the wifey for her love, support, and the PR.

Click for pictures.