(This Post Is Cleverly Called) Triathlon Tuesday

I registered for this Monday:

Ironman California Oceanside 70.3 is on March 31st, 2012.  So it's still awhile away, but works out really well in my schedule.  I'll do the Big Kahuna 70.3 on September 11th, spend the rest of September, October and November having a little fun (mountain biking? cyclocross?) and then start ramping up training again just after Thanksgiving.  I actually like the idea of staying busy through the Holidays - I'll have some time off from work and maybe I'll be able to stay more focused on the training than the holiday cookies.

Of course, the question that will eventually come up (assuming I successfully complete these 70.3's) is "What's next?".  It'll be a fair question, and I have no idea what the answer will be.

The obvious answer would be a full distance Ironman.  But I'm not sure that's the right answer.  It's not because my man-suit was lost at the dry cleaners and as a result I don't think I'm tough enough.  Rather, it's because only a few years have passed since I got out of an all-consuming relationship with alcohol.  And I'm pretty sure that training for a full Ironman would be another all-consuming relationship.  I worry about this.

Sure, I could half-ass the training and let the chips fall where they may come race day.  But I have this internal performance standard that to be honest I can't even fully articulate yet, other than that it falls somewhere in the middle between winning and crawling over the finish line.  Finishing strong within the context of my abilities is the best way I can describe it at the moment.  I'll eventually need to quantify what "finishing strong" means and then decide if I want to turn up the heat or keep things where they are.  By the way, things aren't so bad at the moment.  But the parts that do need work would undoubtedly feel the extra strain of an Ironman training commitment.  Looks like I'll have some soul searching to do come next Spring.

I have set a goal for the Big Kahuna 70.3 race, though.  It's 5:10 or better, and being that the race is still a few months out, is subject to revision in either direction.  Calculating this was pretty simple - I took my best times to date for similarly distanced individual swims, rides and runs and then added 15 minutes.  I have no idea if this is reasonable or I am out of my mind.  I do worry about running a half marathon three and a half hours into an already intense day, though.  We'll see.

I got another bike fit on my Specialized Transition last Friday.  It had been a year since the last time I saw the fitter and I recently have switched out the aerobars and the saddle.  For aerobars I went Vision Trimax.  My understanding is that a lot of people don't like them but I love them.  They fit me perfectly and moving from an R bend extension to a J bend extension has been huge in terms of comfort.

After demoing an ISM Adamo saddle, I honestly didn't find the shorter nose length made any real difference for me.  So I stayed with what I knew and went with the Fizik Arione Tri 2 saddle.

But all these upgrades put my fit out of whack.  I was also hoping to get into a little more aggressive position.  Well unfortunately, the flexibility in my hip flexors still blows, so I didn't get a more aggressive position.  But we did bring the saddle height down a few centimeters and took out a spacer.  We also moved the saddle slightly forward and gave it a little bit of a downward angle.

The difference is unbelievable.  Power transfer is better.  Comfort is WAY better.  I'm very happy with the bike at the moment, though I'm really going to have to try and fit some yoga classes in somewhere.

Kick A** Weekend

Top of the Shady Canyon climb...

Man, what a weekend.  I had a great ride on Saturday and a great run today.  And the frosting on the cake is that Oregon is in the BCS National Championship.

Saturday morning I headed out with OC Velo on a 60 mile ride from Huntington Beach, down to Lake Forest and back through Shady Canyon in Irvine and Newport Coast in Newport Beach.  It was an epic ride, being that it was slightly warmer than last weekend and there was more climbing than usual.  The coastal range around here isn't too high, but if you cross over it a few times you can get some good climbing in - we did about 2300 feet.  I don't live for climbing, but I'm starting to enjoy it more than I used to.  Plus after every uphill there is a downhill, so there is always some sort of payoff in the end.

I had to take Ian to a birthday party Saturday afternoon so I texted all my Oregon Ducks loving friends and told them I was in a sports news lockdown until I had a chance to watch the game on the DVR.  I didn't get to it until about 9 last night, but I was still (thankfully) in the dark about it.  The game was a pretty good, actually great at times, and the end result was that Oregon won.  For that I am happy.

This morning I went for a 7.6 mile run in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.  I've fallen into this pattern on Sundays where I'll rotate a 7-8 mile trail run one week with a 10 + road run on the other.  Unlike two weeks ago, when I ran this route for Black Knight's Virtual 10K, the winds where calm and the trails where dry.  I even stumbled upon a quarter mile spur path I had never found before, so I checked that out as well.  No snakes, plenty of rabbits.  Just the way I like it.

Ian and some sword game.

I then took Ian to an arcade called "Nickel Nickel" for a few hours so Mary could Christmas Shop.  This place is a total dump filled with games that are all at least 10 years old.  But everything is five cents and we made $7 last an hour and a half.  It's also conveniently located next to Surf City Cyclery.  I've been meaning to buy a new saddle wedge bag since the one I have is terrible, so I picked up a Fi'zi:k bag that has a special clip system that integrates with their saddles.  Way better than straps.

Finally, I don't want to become known as the boy who cried wolf, but there are some things cooking with Endurance Athlete Project that might be cool and that I might be able to talk about later in the week or early next.  This means I might be a little scarce on the blog posting side for the week, but I'm going to do my best on the blog reading side.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Saddle Swap

I was supposed to swim tonight, but my wife ended up having to work late.  So Ian was in my charge and we had time on our hands.  First we went to the park so he could have some fun with the neighborhood kids.  Then it was my turn to have fun, so we headed over to Surf City Cyclery.

 Specialized Romin

I've been meaning to do a saddle swap between my bikes for awhile.  I've been using a Specialized Romin saddle on my Bianchi road bike, which I love.  But it's a little long (270mm) and quite stiff, so I wanted to switch it over to my Specialized TT bike, which still has the standard factory saddle on it.  I figure that since my position on the saddle is more forward in the aero position, the extra length would be a benefit.  On the Bianchi, I wanted a saddle with more padding.  So I did some research and decided to go with the Fizik Aliante K:ium.

The Aliante is the same width as the Romin - 142mm (The Romin is actually 143mm), but it's also a little shorter (265mm).  The reason I like the Romin so much is because the width is perfect for me and the cut out down the center-line makes a huge difference in terms of comfort and pressure on my backside.  Instead of a cut out, the Fizik has a 4 or 5mm deep center channel.  It is also quite a bit more plush, though not that much heavier - 238 grams to 208 grams for the Romin.

Fizik Aliante K:ium

I just finished installing it and will give it a whirl in the morning.  The Fizik makes sense on paper (and felt good when I rode a mile or two around the neighborhood), but just in case, I wrapped electric tape around the rails so they don't get scratched up by the clamp.  That way I can return it if I need to.

We shall see....