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Wattie Ink. Elite Team Official Sponsors
Wattie Ink. Elite Team Official Sponsors

Monday, February 11, 2013

So the bike...No.More.Excuses.

So I kind of fell into triathlon back in 2004 and after one race decided I liked it enough to get a tri bike. I went with a 2004 (maybe 2003???) Quintana Roo Kilo - the price was right and it felt pretty good (hell, what did I know?). It has served me pretty darn well over the years, but this weekend, I finally made the move to something a bit more modern. I have a bit of a problem with brand loyalty - as in I can become obsessed with a given brand. My shoes? Normally Asics. Underwear? Under Armour (as well as almost all of my sweats, shorts, T-shirts, etc). Cars? Acura. That being said, my bike purchase followed suit and I stuck with the Quintana Roo family. I did upgrade to a 2012 QR CD0.1. And it's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Just outside Tri Bonzaibefore the drive home:
It was a good fit. Felt great from the beginning and I did my first trainer session this morning. I also did a few tweeks last night, but nothing major. Now, just need to get over a few nagging injuries and I'm all set. Of course, now the only thing to blame for poor performance is the engine. I plan on that NOT being an issue this year!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Grinding!

Well training is already in full gear and it is definitely taking its toll. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it definitely puts an emphasis on how poorly I prep myself in the off-season. No exercise=no good. 0-60 (or 0 to 14 mile runs in my case) is not the way to get into training mode. As a result I'm having some aches and pains - my left achilles worries me the most. Hopefully this is pretty minor and I can continue doing what I'm doing and closing in on my goals for the year. Some cool things are in the works. Sunday I'm heading over to my favorite Tri shop Tri Bonzai to do a little bike shopping. They have some killer deals going on with their 2012 selection of Quintana Roos. Since my first and only tri bike I've ever had is a 2004(maybe even 2003???) QR Kilo, I'm happy to stick with them and move up to a full carbon QR CD0.1 (2012 model).
I couldn't be more pumped! Hopefully the fit is on the money and I'll be upgrading shortly. There is NO excuse for going slow now!
I need to get my butt in gear in the run department though. Time to start upping the miles and speed work if I want to be anywhere close to a BQ at the Boston Marathon (my goal is to BQ at Boston leaving my fall less stressful). I have a lot of work to do where that is concerned though, but my dogged determination at hitting my goals will help me make sure I get there. That said, if Boston is pushing 90 again this year like last (when I was dying of heat just watching!), all bets are off. I just really hope my partner in crime, aka the wife, aka the fast one is cured of her current injury situation and can run Boston (she will not be "racing" though - although she'll probably still beat me). I'd hate it if she can't make it up there...
As far as bike work is concerned, I'm feeling really good knocking out the sessions on the trainer. Thanks to the HBO Go app on the ipad, I'm knocking out episode after episode of Entourage and loving it and it makes the sessions fly by.
Swimming should be added in the next few weeks is my guess. I have to at least get my 400 time down so I can crush the Splash and Dash I'm entered in at the end of April....
We'll see where this all goes, but I'm feeling pretty good!
Hope everyone is crushing their training!