Kona Pt. 1
it is now friday before the race and i have been here 3 days. i was hired by IM Brasil champion Lisbeth Kristensen and her boy friend Andrew Johns (AJ) to help them with support for the race. The duo are awesome people and very polite and gracious. AJ is a two time Olympic triathlete and placed 5ht at IM Austrilia this year. I am also working with 2006 IM Malaysia Winner Petr Vabrousek as I am his manager. My tasks here are:
- Meet with exisiting and potential sponsors
- Massage and stretch the three atheltes
- Cook
- Bike mechanic
- all around gopher
PICTURES HERE: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=56294207/a=17584559_17584559/t_=17584559
I like this kind of stuff so it is fun work. I went out on AJ and Lisbeths last tough ride and DAMN they are goos especially Lisbeth. The last 30:00 of the ride was supposed to be at 300-330 watts and I blew a tire after a few minutes (there will be lots of that in the race as there are sharp stones littering the road from the earthquake). AJ told me she rode for 30:00 at 44K per hour and was just on fire. Lisbeth is a seriously good cyclist and stronger then some Pro guys so watch for her up front. I’ve also swam with them twice and that is loads of fun as they are great to draft off of. I have hung out with many Elite pre race and many of them are stressed out fanatics but these two are super calm and collected. Today is cloudy and calm winds but the Hawaiian Wind Gods typically strike viloently on race day!So look for them on race day!
oh boy that really blew
bottom line is that the athlete should know the course. i didn’t know the whole course obviously and on the second loop of the bike i realized i left off about a mile on the first loop so i had to DQ myslef. to be honest, no one probably might have known but i would have known and i can’t cheat to do well. it was a tough swim with high winds in the 30 knot range creating a turbulent water and with my lack of meters in the water recently i suffered, oh yeah but the suffering was fun and good and after a quick transition i was in the top 12. the bike rocked, i felt real good, that is until i realized i went off course. oh well look at me now, sitting in the Atlanta airport kicking it with CNN and a 10 hour flight to Kona. just great. bad food and a lot of the most unhealthy people i hav ever seen. TREADMILLS EVERYONE, they’re made for a reason. anyone that reads this and mentions the password: blog to me will get 10% off any of 2007 multisport camps. 2007 will rock.
Jamaican Blue Mountain
that is what i am drinking this morning as i am groggy and tired. tomorrow is the escape to miami, which i am racing and looking forward to. i have never trained so little and in frequently in ly entire tri career but i will go out and do what i can. it is really odd to think how little i swim now and how much i used to. for IM in 2005 i was swimming 10-15,000 yards a week. now i am lucky to put in 3000. oh well. the season is wrapping up and unfortunaltey many athletes are putting the traning on hold, which is a good thing so that they get a much needed break.
i read to day that a navy SEAL in Iraq jumped on a grenade to save his team. he unfortunatley died but what a hero. those uys and gals over there have to deal with such shit tp protect us. man what a tough gig. i often hope that this whole thing will end cause it is getting ridiculuous how many american lives are being lost. fatherhood changes your perspective on things doesn’t it.
more on the race later and then Kona bound on monday!!!!
A vote for the Senator
OK so I’ve raced bikes, tri’s and done pretty tough rides around this great country of mine and little does surprise me but this was. Senator John Kerry, 62, of Massachussetts gets my vote. The dude can ride. I train some guys in that age group who ride 200-300 miles per week and the Senator said he is lucky to ride 2x a week. He took right off from the go, hammered up or 5-6% bridge we got here and had some good pulls. He was really into the PowerTap we set up for him and into the watts. After an hour with him and some other spulling I went to the front and started a 6:00 interval @ 260-280 watts. He was right there. he then proceeded to hammer out of the saddle up the bridge and on the way back down, rode no hands while drinking. A stud! I told him, “If the politics career doesn’t pan out for you then yo ucan always race bikes.” A nice guy, good rider and to hell with politics! Next stop Kona- T minus 6 days!
A Senator and a tri coach…..
i am about to go out today and ride with Senator Kerry. that is the plan anyway. i am not a political guy but i am interested in meeting this man and listening to his ideas. a great client of mine is friendly with him and as the senator is an avid cyclist he tho9ught i would want to go ride with him. well, i’ll write back and let you know how it goes. i am enjying a nice cup of columbian brew right now compliments of athlete Ivan Sierra, it’s smooth and tastes bold so it is a good brew for this morning. i am working on some big things for 2007 so stay tuned. kaia blu is great and laughing so much. thanks for checking in.
more miles
i actually swam today, which is the first time in ten days. my swimming has been totally off the back all year. not more then 6000 on average during the week. by comparison during the IM training in 2005 i was doing 18,000 meters per week and in 2002 i was doing 20,000+ per week. one day i’ll get the desire back. the good news is that in the last 72 hours i rode approx. 125 miles total. YEAH! running is feeling good and Pearl Izumi hooked me up with a new sample of there one piece racing suit coming out next year so i’ll show that off at the Escape race. tomorrow is another tough day of work and training and balancing by baby duty with it all. BTW- a new bike might be coming for us—-stay tuned!!!!!!
i’m pretty wrecked today. i got off a red eye from the show on saturday morning and the show was sooooo much welking around and time on your feet that i was just shelled saturday. i spent the day with erinne and the baby in vero at erinne’s moms house. it was nice to be away by the beach and witht he girls. then i trained hard with eddie and lotte on sunday in vero. solid 2.25 hour ride with intervals. then a little run after but the weird thing is that my HR was 15-20 beats higher then normal. probably due to the stress and lack of sleep from the flight and 3 days off of training at the show. now it’s time to upload the photos to the site and get back to work. anyone out there?
too much
this show is too much. so many things to see and people to meet. of course the first day i pulled a back muscle and am in a lot pain carrying around my backpack. UGH. cool items: Felt’s new all carbon tri bike is very sweet, the Scott bikes look sleek and fast and add to the new rage of incorporating the seatpost into the frame. i checked out FSA’s line up and there components are so flash and i can’t undersatnd what it si about there products that makes them so cool looking. Giro has a new US legal TT helmet called the Advantage 2. very nice a la Lance the man. which brings me to my next point. how fast do you all think Lance will run NY marathon in? i say between 2:50-3:05. more later folks.
It’s On!!!!
oh yeah. after a nice early AM flight with my buddy Eddie, we are out at Interbike. we are staying at the Alladin hotel which is pretty nice actually and dnot totally smoky. smoke kills me, it just stinks. anyway, i hit the show for the last half of Wednesday and WOW there was some cool stuff. in no particular order:
- Orca’s no suits ROCK, wait till you see them. colors and function and just plain SPEED
- Felt’s new all carbon tri bike is real nice with some cool new touches
- cervelo has some cool new paint jobs on there line up
- got to say hello and shoot a picture of Dave Zabriskie, he is plain fast and a toothpick. he makes me look morbidly obese
- FSA has some great looking stuff in aerobars and cranks
more later today as we are on the hunt and all over the show. right now it is 4:14am and i am sitting by the lobby of the hotel. seriously messed up people still out from last night. these cats need some direction. anyway check back later.
fun weekend
well mondya is here and this is no ordinary monday. it is the week of Interbike. yes the largest bike hsow in the world is this week in vegas and i am headed over for the 4th time to get a look at what is hot and why it is better then last year. in the past i’ve met lance, tyler, axel merckx, levi leipheimer and fast freddy there so this year is all about appointments and work. but i will blog daily and have pictures for all of you for what is the new bling in the bike/tri world.
my buddy AJ DNFed in the Beijing ITU world cup race after having a cold. he flies and races around the world more then i travel around florida so it’s no wonder the immune system was down. the ESM race on South BEach was fun and the TV show shold be up in the next few weeks for those of you who have comcast. boris won and he is blazing now but my good buddy eddie b. came from 6th to go to 3rd overall. way to go stud!
check back later
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