Coming into form

Amy caught me practicing transitions

Since I've had my bike, it's amazing how much more I want to get out and ride. I was looking at my Garmin data history and I found out that I started cycling last July. I would put in 20 miles/week here, 50 miles/week there...Every once in awhile jump up to like 100, then back down to 45...All over the place! A lot of that had to do with the nagging IT band issues that were associated with my old bike, Blue Steel (which I sold last week) and the fact that it just wasn't that fun. Jim at The Bike Shop always told me that riding a nice bike just makes it so much more fun and exciting to ride. I didn't really believe him at first, but boy was I wrong! For the past month I've averaged around 125 miles/week of riding and within that short time frame I've seen HUGE gains on the bike. Living in Temecula I have the luxury of a lot of hills and a lot of wind at my disposal. I often ride after work when the wind is at it's peak and it's amazing what being in the TT position can do to Slice (pun?) through the wind. No doubt it's a bit sketchy ---you get knocked around quite a bit with wind hitting you in all directions. However, I know it is making me STRONG. I get so fired up looking at data after my rides and showing me hitting averages of 19mph+. Even on my recovery rides, 20 seems so easy and when I compare that to my recovery rides on my old road bike it's like 3-4 mph faster!

No doubt climbing is a bit more challenging and awkward in the TT position. When I'm in the aero position, it seriously feels like I'm going 10mph and when I get out of the bars I feel powerless. I guess I'm gonna have to stick with fairly flat races until I get myself a road bike that is a racing machine...After I get a cyclocross bike...sheesh. This sport is WAY to expensive. The inaugural NY Ironman has like a $900 entry fee. Are you kidding me??

I'm excited about racing this weekend--although last week I tweaked my calf and haven't run since. I'm actually going to test it out tonight. The good news is after rolling/icing/massaging that sucker, it feels a lot better. Either way, I'm going to toe the line. The swim should be interesting. I haven't done an open water swim since my last race at Xterra Las Vegas. One of the biggest factors in my poor swim in Vegas was the cold water and lack of mobility/being comfortable in my wetsuit. It's warm/er now and I've been doing a lot of swims in my wetsuit and feeling much more comfortable in it. I did a semi-comfortable 500 meter time trial this morning. I kinda went at my 1000 meter pace (which is the race distance this weekend) and dipped under 8 mins. So I'm hoping this weekend being in the salt water and getting on some people's feet I can get in the 15 min range --which will hopefully keep me in the race. Last weekend I also practiced some transitions, picked up a few good tips online and hopefully that will quicken them up a bit.

Stayed tuned for next week's Race Report----