Blue Triad TT Demo

A fitting bike to replace Blue Steel

 Kind of like when you are in the market for a car, you want to do some serious research both online, at the dealership (bike shop in this case), ask around and most importantly, test drive the machine! This past weekend The Bike Shop let me demo their 2010 Blue Triad TT bike. I was pretty excited since I have never ridden another road bike besides Blue Steel since I was a kid. I really had no idea what to expect, especially since I had never even ridden in aero bars before. Not only did I want to test out what riding a bike like that would feel like; I also wanted to be sure that Blue Steel is the source of my IT band issues. Friday (the night before) I hopped on the trainer that night to pump out some intervals but only lasted 30 minutes. The IT flared up more than it ever has and I had to cut the workout way short. I was pretty pissed but excited to test drive the Blue the next day.



Sam Calagione makes some fine craft beer...

 Going back a earlier that week on Tuesday I hit the track for the first time since I hurt my foot at the Ragnar Relay. I really didn't know what to expect. I ran with Ryan, an athlete I've been coaching. He was a 3:40 marathoner and is trying to qualify for Boston next month at the R&R marathon. He's come a long way and I see a sub 3 coming in June. We did 8X800 meters with a 400 meter float (7 min pace). We were hitting 2:55ish and then the last three I picked it up a little and went 2:35-9 and felt pretty good. Nothing too crazy, I just wanted to see how the body was holding up after almost of a month of no hard efforts running wise. We hit the 10k in about 37 mins and realized Ryan had just pr'd. He's ready! Afterwards, we headed back to his house and had some Dogfish Head IPA which absolutely hit the spot.

Saturday after a hard 1 hour session at the pool I picked up the bike and then headed out for a 40 miler to test out the Blue Triad. It was ridiculously windy that day, which I actually looked at it in a good way because I'd really be able to tell if being aero really makes a difference. Boy does it ever! I was just kinda figuring out the gears and feel for the bike the first half of the ride and then the last 20 miles I let it rip. My garmin showed 47.3 mph going down a hill at one point. So crazy fast. It feels a little bit sketchy to be going that fast in the aero bars (breaks are not near your hands), but exhilarating at the same time, I had a smile all the way down that hill. I could easily say the bike was 2-4mph faster per mile for me compared to the same route/effort on Blue Steel. Even with the wind, I felt like a new cyclist on that bike. The climbing was easier too. You always read about the geeks that weigh every single ounce on every single component to make sure their bike is as light as possible. I think there's something to that to a certain extent. I did notice that I was using some different muscle groups from being in that position. My glutes were working pretty hard along with my hips and then had a very stiff back and neck from being in a new position. Overall, my experience was great on the bike. It's an older model that has been used quite a bit so the shifting was slipping quite a bit, but other than that, it was a great experience and I'm excited about the possibility of owning one hopefully soon.



Me and my sis

 The next day was going to be a busy one. First, I met up with Kevin at Lake Hodges and put in 12 miles on the trails. This is the longest run I've done in awhile and it actually felt really good. Last week when I tried to go long after riding Blue Steel the day before, I had to hobble back home and cut the run short so I think it's safe to say that bike is the devil! After knocking out the run, I headed back home, showered and hit up church with the family. Then my sister Rachel came up to get her dress hemmed by my amazing wife and then we went wine tasting. The wineries up in Temecula are amazing and it didn't take me long to really enjoy living out here. With old town about 10 mins away, wineries 5 minutes away, Vail Lake 15 minutes away and miles and miles of traffic free roads, you really couldn't ask for a better place to raise your family and train. Now in my twenties we would have hit about five wineries, but now that I'm old at that ripe age of 32 we only hit up two and that was enough for us.

I've decided not to race this weekend at the Kenda Cup Big Bear race. I still feel like I have a lot of work to do to get to where I want to be for San Diego International. I don't think a mountain bike race will elevate my fitness as much as a good weekend of training. With the intensity I've added to my workouts lately, I really feel like my fitness is starting to come around. I think a big reason why my performances have been sub-par to my standards is because I've been in aerobic mode for so long. Now it's time to reap the benefits of that aerobic fitness, get some solid build workouts in and race!

Few more pics from wine tasting:

Me and my boy

Longshadow winery has goats! Kids loved them



The fam