Hellifast Bike

After many trips to bike shops and test drives and hours surfing Criagslist, I got a bike, a really fast bike, more bike than my engine deserves.  In bike culture, you should have the legs to live up to your bike, and the Van Dressel Hellifast is an amateur racer’s bike (see Georgetown University Cycling team), I do NOT have a racer’s engine.  Back in Colorado, there was nothing more fun than flying by the guy in matching get-up on the latest full suspension bike, and doing it on your beater hardtail made all the sweater.  It’s going to suck to be on the other end of that.  On the other hand, if I ever do get a serious set of quads, adding an aero bar cockpit to this already sleek frame would make for a killer Tri-bike.

Huge thanks to The Wrench for all of the Beta prior to purchasing, and for having all the specialized tools, know-how, and most of all generosity, to help me put the bike back in working condition.  It still needs some work for sure (what the heck is carbon paste?), but working on a used bike and making it like new gives a great sense of ownership.

Strong Week!

Let's take a moment to celebrate the occasional week where you just feel strong, you can squeeze in a couple extra 100m of swimming, go for that extra morning run, and enjoy the confidence of having that extra effort in reserve.  I went swimming with Dr. Sprint, who has done a lot of short Tri's, and had a lot of fun going hard 9X100m in the pool.  I was so velocitized that I couldn’t slow down enough to do a longer set. 

A strong week does great things for your confidence.  At the end of last week, that meant doing  a fast 5 miles in 90+ degree weather knowing that the headache I had at the start would likely come back with a vengeance.  I pushed it all the way, and guess what, no headache!  Have to watch out for over-training in my excitement, so today is a rest day.

Away Game in Chicago

Had a great 15 minute run to warm up along Lake Michigan, followed by a 15 minute open water swim-very refreshing!  Everyone was out, including marathon training groups, with 30+ people in each, divided by pace, I overheard the organizer introducing the 8:30 minute milers to the 9:00s.  Anyhow, the lake coast is a Tri training paradise for four months of the year.

I got to practice sighting while heading toward the tower you see in the picture.  It looks like once every strokes works pretty well, although it is hard to integrate it into an efficient stroke without interrupting my flow.

4th of July Criterium Workout on the Mall!

Oh, I love the nation's capital!  I rode down to watch the fireworks on the national mall and got there a little early, so with the roads blocked off I decided to do a little criterium workout--so much fun.  If your mind is a little twisted, you can imagine that the millions of people are there to see you--off the front of the pack bringing it home on the last couple of laps like the guys above.  Did I mention it was REALLY hot and humid?

The fireworks were as great as ever, and as this photo shows, the wind was headed towards us, so the crowd I was with got a rain of ash and cinders their hair--a far cry from the digital entertainment we are so accustomed to. Try getting that out of your HD/blueray/surround sound!

Hip Hip Horray for the people at the Luray Triathlon.  They were very kind to let me switch my registration to the Sprint distance from the Olympic distance even though it is past the refund deadline--how cool is that?  Try that at your usual enormous race.  Anyhow, I feel vindicated for getting up early this morning and running 4 tough miles in the incredible humidity--at 8am crazy!  So now my target date is August 15th.  I also noticed that the swim is only 750m, which should be a nice change and allow me to go a little harder.