It’s like Christmas around here! I have new product showing up on a daily basis.
I have managed to gain some great sponsorship support again this year. I feel very fortunate to be able to swim, bike and run in some of the best gear available. Here is a breakdown of what I’ll be seen in/on in 2009:
- Rudy Project- On board for another year. One of my most supportive sponsors. I’ll be riding in there newest (and lightest) helmet the Slinger. For road tri’s I will be sporting the Syton Supercomp Aero lid. For glasses, they hooked me up with several pairs of their latest and greatest styles, including the new Karboneye. Super lightweight, frameless one piece lens with carbon arms. Sick!
- Pearl Izumi, another big supporter, is returning for a second season. They are providing me with all my training and racing clothing and footwear. I feel very lucky and grateful to have them on my side. Awesome product and great people.
- New sponsor YETI Cycles stepped up big with an aluminum ARC hardtail frameset for racing and a ARC-X cyclocross frameset for training. Wheat Ridge Cyclery is helping me out again with a YETI ASR Carbon bike for racing as well. I’m excited to have both a hardtail and full sus bike to choose from in my arsenal this year. I’ve been a big fan of YETI since high school. I remember lusting over their bikes and now I’m stoked to be riding them some 15 years later.
- Another new sponsor, Magura and Syntace put big support behind me with two bike kits: Durin SL forks, Marta SL brakes, Carbon bars and posts and stem for both bikes! These forks look sweet and I’m anxious to give them a go.
- Crank Brothers, returning from last year, provided me with headsets and 4ti pedals for both bikes. Perfect lightweight complements to my rides.
- Powerbar returns for a fifth season supplying me with all the energy foods I need for the season. Best stuff out there!
- Schwalbe tires is returning from a few seasons ago with sweet lightweight tires for racing and training. They have some the lightest tires out there and great tread patterns to cover all course conditions.
- Blueseventy is back for a third year covering all my swimming needs. Wetsuits, goggles, swim skins are big time help on race day.
What else? I know I’ve left a few out, so I’ll be sure to update with photos and more sponsors in the coming days. Can’t wait to get out there!
CW
Training is cruising along. Last weekend consisted of a Saturday ride/run combo. The ride was my regular strength ride with 3×15 minutes big gear, low cadence climbs. 280-300 watts. Following the ride I hit the trails for a 20 minute transition run. First of the year. Jason Hilgers and I ran it out and felt surprisingly good coming off the bike.
The following day was the annual Running of the Green 7k road race in downtown Denver. Hilly course with lots of turns. My legs were a little heavy from the day before, but I still managed to run a few seconds over 24 minutes (5:33/mi pace). I’m pretty stoked with that. My running seems to be really improved this year.
Monday was a recovery day with a light swim, weights, and a short ride. Tuesday was an endurance swim with four 400′s followed by two three hundreds with pull gear. After the swim I hit the trail for an hour run to loosen up the legs a bit. Definitely feeling the race on Sunday, but I came around after 40 minutes or so. Tuesday evening was trainer workout 10A (power sprints followed by six three minute VO2 intervals).
Yesterday I opted to skip the ski trails (not snowing much here) in favor of a 3 hour endurance ride on the road bike. A mellow 50 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing felt great. Good solo ride time to figure things out.
This morning I hit the pool again for some strength work: 4×500 as 300 pull, 200 kick w/ fins. The first 300 pull was rough, but I loosened up and felt better as the set went by. After the swim I hit the treadmill for my weekly speed run. This week was another 5 sets of 40 and 80 second repeats at 5:00/mile pace with full recoveries. Legs felt great during and after the session. More proof that my running is coming along as just a month ago, this workout would leave me stiff and sore with only 4 sets!
Tonight I’m off to Wheat Ridge Cyclery for workout 10B on the trainer (more power sprints and Vo2 intervals). We have 5 more sessions left on the trainer. This series always leaves me in a good place to build the rest of my season from on the bike.
That’s it for now!
CW
Woke up to snow this morning! Light snow, but damn cold. 19 degrees at 6:30 am.
After a lighter day yesterday (technique swim, weight training, stretching), I have a swim, treadmill and trainer workout on tap for today. So I say, let it snow, we need the moisture after having such a dry and snowless February. After my pre-training breakfast, multigrain hot cereal with all the fixins (flax oil, brown sugar, walnuts, blueberries, soymilk), double 2% latte and OJ, I’ll be off to the rec center.
Today’s swim includes a 4×100 kick build then 5×300 maintaining 17 strokes or less per 25 meters then 3×200 pull with paddles and band. Endurance, form, and strength all rolled into one 60 minute 3000 meter swim. Love it!
On the treadmill I have speed intervals. Five rounds of 2×40 second and 1×80 second intervals will get my leg speed (and HR) up. I’m targeting 5:05/mile pace for the intervals. Plenty of recovery between each (twice the duration of the interval) to allow the overall stress to remain relatively low.
Then later this evening we are into week 9 of my trainer series at Wheat Ridge Cyclery. This workout includes a 20 minute “climb” with 15×15 second surges to above threshold power followed by 6×3 minute Vo2 max intervals (120% LT power). Good stuff.
I finished off last week with another 90 minute trail run and hour strength swim on Saturday, followed by a 3.5 hour strength ride on the road bike on Sunday. The run consisted of 3000 feet of climbing up, down, and around Green Mountain. I covered about 10.5 miles on the singletrack trails. The swim consisted of 5×300 as 100 free, 50 breast, 50 back, and 100 free. I swam these with my girl friend Kathy. She swam the 300′s all free with fins and we raced. I would get a lead after the first 100, then when I did the breast and back strokes she would pull ahead leaving me to chase hard on the final 100 free segment. It worked out well and we met at the wall nearly every time, although she was always able to kick that little bit harder at the end so I couldn’t beat her. We both got a great workout in and it was fun to mix it up a bit and push the pace.
Sundays ride I met my training group for more climbs up Lookout Mtn. 4×10 minutes big gear, low cadence strength was on the menu again. I pushed 268 and 287 watts on the seated climbs, and 301 and 316 watts on the standing climbs. All climbs were done at 50 rpm in my 53×17. High torque, muscle tension climbs. Felt pretty good overall and expectedly tired after the final intervals.
This week I plan to lighten the load a bit and get some rest. I took yesterday off and hit the Chiropractor for a maintenance adjustment. Today I took a short swim and run to loosen up a bit before my trainer workout later this evening. The plan is to hold back a bit tonight and not push beyond 90% of LT.
