SBR "U" (Page 72)

I actually checked the participant list against last year's results to see who was racing, who wasn't, who may have aged up, etc.  It's all rather silly, really.....

Race Report is up, lesson learned, don't just pull your cr@p off the shelf from last year and expect it to work!  (oh, and eat less and get faster....)

Redondo Beach Tri

Home from vacation and back to the grind.  We had an awesome 5 days after Alcatraz riding around Sonoma and Napa checking out the vineyards and other sights.  It's crazy to me how much the temperature varies in that area.  San Francisco's weather was similar to what we get here, an hour away in Sonoma was stinking hot!  I think 102 degrees is hot by anyone's standards is it not? I'm not just being a wussy Canadian.  

I'm also somewhat embarrassed to admit that while planning some riding routes, I discovered that I can load a route onto my Garmin 500 and use that to get around.  I've only had the computer for 3 or 4 years...  It's just a breadcrumb trail, not an actual map but it more than served the purpose.  I'm pretty sure I would have gotten lost multiple times without it. 

I'm going to switch from riding the road bike to primarily the tri bike now to prepare for summer races.  The last few months are the first time that I've spent a significant and consistent amount of time on the road bike and I'm interested to see how my power numbers compare.  Anyone have any experience comparing the two and what sort of difference do you see?

Hmmmmm...funny my coworker and I were just talking about this topic. Specifically how (freaking out about) day to day data is much less important than keeping an eye on the overall trends.

However, I keep track of almost no data and am still alive thus far

I think I posted it here a while back, but at the beginning of the season we received one of the first USAT grants to help support getting underprivileged and at-risk youth involved in the sport. We received enough funding to cover the cost of training (including swim coaching and pool access), a bike if the athlete did not already own one, and race entry fees for 2 races. So thanks to all of you who pay those annual USAT memberships! Over the past several years our umbrella adult club has also received recurring grants to support physically and mentally challenged athletes. We rolled some of those funds down to the youth team, and this week one of our 7 year old athletes who was born with no feet showed up to practice with a brand-new set of kicks:

She was so excited and proud of them - you would have thought she got a super hero suit! If any of you have a chance to work with youth in your area I can't encourage it enough. It is both incredibly rewarding and often humbling. It really reminds you just how much fun and joy there is in this weird made-up sport. Say what you will, at a basic level we have simply figured out a way to take all of the elements of summertime childhood fun (swimming, biking, and running) and figure out how to keep on doing that as adults. Every practice with the kids reminds me of that.

I think I posted it here a while back, but at the beginning of the season we received one of the first USAT grants to help support getting underprivileged and at-risk youth involved in the sport. We received enough funding to cover the cost of training (including swim coaching and pool access), a bike if the athlete did not already own one, and race entry fees for 2 races. So thanks to all of you who pay those annual USAT memberships! Over the past several years our umbrella adult club has also received recurring grants to support physically and mentally challenged athletes. We rolled some of those funds down to the youth team, and this week one of our 7 year old athletes who was born with no feet showed up to practice with a brand-new set of kicks:

She was so excited and proud of them - you would have thought she got a super hero suit! If any of you have a chance to work with youth in your area I can't encourage it enough. It is both incredibly rewarding and often humbling. It really reminds you just how much fun and joy there is in this weird made-up sport. Say what you will, at a basic level we have simply figured out a way to take all of the elements of summertime childhood fun (swimming, biking, and running) and figure out how to keep on doing that as adults. Every practice with the kids reminds me of that.

I think I posted it here a while back, but at the beginning of the season we received one of the first USAT grants to help support getting underprivileged and at-risk youth involved in the sport. We received enough funding to cover the cost of training (including swim coaching and pool access), a bike if the athlete did not already own one, and race entry fees for 2 races. So thanks to all of you who pay those annual USAT memberships! Over the past several years our umbrella adult club has also received recurring grants to support physically and mentally challenged athletes. We rolled some of those funds down to the youth team, and this week one of our 7 year old athletes who was born with no feet showed up to practice with a brand-new set of kicks:

She was so excited and proud of them - you would have thought she got a super hero suit! If any of you have a chance to work with youth in your area I can't encourage it enough. It is both incredibly rewarding and often humbling. It really reminds you just how much fun and joy there is in this weird made-up sport. Say what you will, at a basic level we have simply figured out a way to take all of the elements of summertime childhood fun (swimming, biking, and running) and figure out how to keep on doing that as adults. Every practice with the kids reminds me of that.

Has anyone ever done a (guided) bike tour vacation?  I'm looking to do one next year in the September/October time frame, but I'm very picky about what I want.  I want a tour that does a decent amount of riding (50-100 miles a day at a spirited pace) in a non-touristy location where we'll get to see the culture, and most importantly -- must have fantastic food and wine. 

I found InGamba, which offers basically everything I want, as long as it's in Italy (Tuscany / Chianti) or Portugal (Lisbon).  But I'm also strongly considering the wine regions of France or Argentina as well, and curious if there are similar organizers in those locations that anyone knows about. 

This would be part of a 2-3 week trip, and I'd be looking to ride for 1-2 weeks of it.  I could go either way on renting versus bringing my own bike.

Good stuff, Jason. A really good reminder of how useful it is to be vigilant in data recording, collection, and analysis beyond just the "did I do better on any strava segments today?" spotting possible trends like that can really help us understand what might be going on.

Or maybe your power meter is just broken.

Anyone had one of those seasons that just never seemed to jump start properly??

I just did the 11th iteration of the first tri I ever did last weekend so I've been at it for a little while.  This is the first year I have not raced before June (barring a couple seasons where due to health issues I couldn't), and between taking a 2 week vacation and various small, niggling injuries, sicknesses, etc, I just haven't hit my stride yet.  And it's friggin' JUNE!  

One of the benefits and drawbacks of living in Southern California is we can race from essentially March to December, which I have done to varying degrees of success and failure.  Usually if I start in March or April, I find it hard to give a rip about the October race as i'm just pretty much over it by then.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, as I can peak in the fall    But the year so far has felt like one step forward two steps back.

Also doesn't help that the inevitable has happened, and my performance (due to a combo of age and fitness) actually declined this year.  As an adult onset athlete I've been able to dodge this particular bullet to date. 

Anyway, that's my rant/whine for the day

Anyone had one of those seasons that just never seemed to jump start properly??

I just did the 11th iteration of the first tri I ever did last weekend so I've been at it for a little while.  This is the first year I have not raced before June (barring a couple seasons where due to health issues I couldn't), and between taking a 2 week vacation and various small, niggling injuries, sicknesses, etc, I just haven't hit my stride yet.  And it's friggin' JUNE!  

One of the benefits and drawbacks of living in Southern California is we can race from essentially March to December, which I have done to varying degrees of success and failure.  Usually if I start in March or April, I find it hard to give a rip about the October race as i'm just pretty much over it by then.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, as I can peak in the fall    But the year so far has felt like one step forward two steps back.

Also doesn't help that the inevitable has happened, and my performance (due to a combo of age and fitness) actually declined this year.  As an adult onset athlete I've been able to dodge this particular bullet to date. 

Anyway, that's my rant/whine for the day

Anyone had one of those seasons that just never seemed to jump start properly??

I just did the 11th iteration of the first tri I ever did last weekend so I've been at it for a little while.  This is the first year I have not raced before June (barring a couple seasons where due to health issues I couldn't), and between taking a 2 week vacation and various small, niggling injuries, sicknesses, etc, I just haven't hit my stride yet.  And it's friggin' JUNE!  

One of the benefits and drawbacks of living in Southern California is we can race from essentially March to December, which I have done to varying degrees of success and failure.  Usually if I start in March or April, I find it hard to give a rip about the October race as i'm just pretty much over it by then.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, as I can peak in the fall    But the year so far has felt like one step forward two steps back.

Also doesn't help that the inevitable has happened, and my performance (due to a combo of age and fitness) actually declined this year.  As an adult onset athlete I've been able to dodge this particular bullet to date. 

Anyway, that's my rant/whine for the day

Pshh yeah. Last year. Got sick 2 days before my marathon (which you can't exactly just go try again a few weeks later) had to have surgery, leaving me racing the 10K national championship with 0 training and then got punched in the nose by a rando, demolishing both my XC season AND my marathon build (although trying to multi task XC and marathon is on me lol)

Has anyone ever done a (guided) bike tour vacation?  I'm looking to do one next year in the September/October time frame, but I'm very picky about what I want.  I want a tour that does a decent amount of riding (50-100 miles a day at a spirited pace) in a non-touristy location where we'll get to see the culture, and most importantly -- must have fantastic food and wine. 

I found InGamba, which offers basically everything I want, as long as it's in Italy (Tuscany / Chianti) or Portugal (Lisbon).  But I'm also strongly considering the wine regions of France or Argentina as well, and curious if there are similar organizers in those locations that anyone knows about. 

This would be part of a 2-3 week trip, and I'd be looking to ride for 1-2 weeks of it.  I could go either way on renting versus bringing my own bike.

Has anyone ever done a (guided) bike tour vacation?  I'm looking to do one next year in the September/October time frame, but I'm very picky about what I want.  I want a tour that does a decent amount of riding (50-100 miles a day at a spirited pace) in a non-touristy location where we'll get to see the culture, and most importantly -- must have fantastic food and wine. 

I found InGamba, which offers basically everything I want, as long as it's in Italy (Tuscany / Chianti) or Portugal (Lisbon).  But I'm also strongly considering the wine regions of France or Argentina as well, and curious if there are similar organizers in those locations that anyone knows about. 

This would be part of a 2-3 week trip, and I'd be looking to ride for 1-2 weeks of it.  I could go either way on renting versus bringing my own bike.

Does this help? I haven't really looked at some of the details you really want though. And I pretty much only looked there for this sort of thing because I can get a substantial discount.

I think I posted it here a while back, but at the beginning of the season we received one of the first USAT grants to help support getting underprivileged and at-risk youth involved in the sport. We received enough funding to cover the cost of training (including swim coaching and pool access), a bike if the athlete did not already own one, and race entry fees for 2 races. So thanks to all of you who pay those annual USAT memberships! Over the past several years our umbrella adult club has also received recurring grants to support physically and mentally challenged athletes. We rolled some of those funds down to the youth team, and this week one of our 7 year old athletes who was born with no feet showed up to practice with a brand-new set of kicks:

She was so excited and proud of them - you would have thought she got a super hero suit! If any of you have a chance to work with youth in your area I can't encourage it enough. It is both incredibly rewarding and often humbling. It really reminds you just how much fun and joy there is in this weird made-up sport. Say what you will, at a basic level we have simply figured out a way to take all of the elements of summertime childhood fun (swimming, biking, and running) and figure out how to keep on doing that as adults. Every practice with the kids reminds me of that.

How do you get a discount?

I was starting to look into some different hut to hut options in the alps...it'll be a little bit of a logistical challenge but that's kind of my life these days...