Saturday, June 19, 2010

Real men shave their legs

I should be writing a race review of the Sylvan Beach triathlon last weekend. Instead... bicycle safety. Last friday night, I headed out for a medium intensity brick workout. I had planned a fast paced 12-mile bike before a transition to a med paced 5 mile run. I didn't quite make it to the run. At mile 10 of the bike I approached an intersection, checked to make sure that it was clear, and then accelerated to make it through quickly. Little did I know, coming the opposite direction, a lady made the decision to try and beat out a yellow light. She made a quick left turn and managed to put herself directly in the path of my bike before I even knew what was going on. The most dangerous aspect of training for a triathlon is riding in the aero position. I need to spend a lot of time in the aero bars to simply get used to it. This is my first tri bike, and with a back surgery just 6 months ago, it is taking lots of practice and adjustments in spacing to find out how to be the most comfortable. The dangerous part about the aeros is your ability to react. When training, you don't have the benefit of a closed course like on race day, and when a driver gets careless your hands are nowhere near your breaks. By the time I saw the car, I knew I was going to hit it. Naturally, I swerved anyway, and was able to minimize the damage (namely staying alive). Instead of a direct impact with the side of her vehicle, my handlebars suffered the biggest punishment when they plunged into her tail-light. This wrenched my front fork, ripped the front tire off the wheel, and threw me over the back of the car into the middle of the intersection. So instead of the car stopping me in my tracks I was able to slowly decelerate on the pavement... hehe. But seriously, this was probably the main contributing factor for me walking away with zero broken bones. Instead, all of my clothing was ripped up pretty good, I separated my shoulder, got some pretty decent whiplash, plenty of road-rash, and a great little knot on the head. The helmet definitely saved my life, the tri-shorts and top absolutely minimized the amount of road rash, the gloves kept my hands from getting chewed up, and the fact that I had just shaved my arms, legs, shoulders... and well, just about everything, saved me loads of discomfort after the fact. When you have a particularly hairy disposition, such as myself, road rash is a fearsome enemy in the immediate days and weeks, post crash. Wound care is miserable when the adhesive tape is pulling out hundreds of hairs each time you change a bandage. And as the wound dries out and scabs start to form, you know your on the road to recovery. The funny thing about wounds.... the scabs seem to shrink as they heal, and this pulls out even more hair. So, you're fighting the hair pulling battle literally with every step, bend, lunge, and turn. So, If you're going to ride your bike, by all means... gear up, stay alert, and go to your bathroom right now and shave.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Races, Races, Races

This blog is well overdue. Memorial Day weekend was the 20th anniversary of the Captex Tri. WHAT A RACE!!!! This one is just plain fun, even if you're not participating. It takes place on Ladybird lake in downtown Austin. The water is clear enough to see the rocks as you swim just over the top of them (yes at times it did get pretty shallow... don't try to push off of them, some are sharp... cough cough... yes... guilty). The water temp was 68 deg. and I don't own a wetsuit... yet. Definitely an advantage on a swim like that. It was supposed to be a 1500m swim, but the word on the street says it may have been just a bit long. Just about everybody was posting longer times than they were expecting. I'm a pretty slow swimmer in the first place, but even I was surprised by my 38:50. I was expecting at least 35:00. But oh well, that's about the only thing that did not succeed to blow me away about the weekend. If you are a spectator, you can stand on the bridge and watch the swimmers pass underneath you, pass through transition and whoosh past you on that same bridge on their bikes, then walk over one block to catch an out and back section of the run. I have never seen a race this accessible to the fans. We ran a relay (in which I did the swimming) so I got to walk around a bit and check out the course as it was being run, and it was truely a good course. Slowtwich.com has a race review along with a nice image gallery in case you want to check it out. I saw Mr. Willie Fowlkes volunteering. He's the race director for the Woodlands CB&I triathlon. That was actually very exciting. The woodlands race is so well run, it's obvious that the director is taking some good notes from the best in the business. Hopefully the CB&I can begin to generate enough revenue to offer many of the perks that CapTex did. Zumtri.com gave a fabulous virtual race recap for all of the finihsers. Simply type in your bib number and even a comparison bib number of someone else and it placed tiny dots on a simulated race map that circled the course and let you relive the experience. I felt myself rooting for the dots on the screen as they neared the finish line, much like the old Dot Races on the video screen at the old Astros games.

This weekend is the Sylvan Beach Tri. Basically an Olympic distance. My first Salt water swim. I am anxious to see how that goes. Gotta get the bike ready. I have evidently already stretched out the rear derailleur cable after just a few rides. It is trying to switch gears by itself. I would love to make it down to Webster Bicycle to get the guys to tune it up before the race, but my week is so busy i don't think I am going to have time to make the hour & a half trek to drop it off and pick it up before the race on Sunday. If I can squeeze it in I will. Those guys know what they are doing and it would be worth it not to do it myself.

I made a comment that a friend of mine said he had actually heard is common among triathletes. Just about every race I enter, there is a moment when I ask myself why I do this. It's painful, it's not free, and it takes a lot of time. Then I look in the mirror and I see a guy that's lost 20 lbs since this winter, I sense the excitement building as the next race comes around, and I get a neat response via Twitter & Facebook from one of the many very accessible professional triathletes and the thought of quitting is a distant memory.

No go outside and sweat a little, It is good for you.