Product Review: TYR Nest Pro Goggle

The frame of TYR’s newest goggle reflects the unique bird nest architectural design of Bejing’s main stadium for 2008. That is, the frame looks similar to the way a bird’s nest is intertwined for support.

Like: great field of vision, easy on-head adjustment, soft TPR gaskets for comfortable, watertight fit, and they look great.

Dislike: two-strap design (I prefer a single strap), problem with fogging up (all TYR goggles feature imbedded anti-fog properties, but these didn’t work for me).

Click here for more info: Tyr Nest Pro Goggle

IM-USA Race Report

Ironman USA Race ReportJuly 20, 2008This all started last June when I decided I wanted to do a triathlon, by mid July I was ready to sign up for my first Ironman.  Of course I had only completed a sprint at this point in time, so why not do an Ironman with all that experience.  I was one of the lucky ones when I signed up for Lake Placid online, the race sold out in 3 hours.  Fast forward through many months of training and races to the week of the race.  I remember waking up thinking that I was doing an Ironman this week.  The nerves started kicking in a bit.  Thanks to a bunch of positive support the nerves almost settled down.  Wednesday morning came and we were all off to Montreal as that was the closest airport to Lake Placid.  Driving into the Lake Placid area was fantastic.  The area up there is absolutely beautiful.Finally got settled into the hotel and took a walk down main street, starting to get excited as a bunch of people were already in town for the race.  Got a call from the Bike Sherpa and they were in town a day early and wanted to know if they could drop my bike off at the hotel.  Great service from those guys and would highly recommend them for other races.Thursday I went out for a swim and damn that water was cold.  Cold enough to knock your breath out when you put your face in the water.  Did a 30 minute swim and then headed back to the room.  Registration opened at 10:00 and the nerves kicked in again standing in line.  I was standing in line in front of some random guy from Spain who had a really low bib number (31).   Come to find out he was the overall winner of the race.  Went out to drive the bike and run course after registration and lunch.  The course was unbelievable; I was really looking forward to the race.  The hills didn’t seem that bad in the car, but they never do in a car.Friday was all about rest.  Only left the room for about 30 minutes to go get lunch.Saturday I went out for another swim and then a short bike ride.  Everything was good to go.  Was feeling good with the pre race routine of food and hydration.  Used Nuun tablets in every water bottle.  I was not going to make the same mistakes as I did at Wildflower with the pre race hydration.  Took my bike and gear bags down to the transition area.  Had a calzone the night before the race as I had done every night before a big training day.  I was sticking to my plan.  I finished getting everything ready and went to bed around 8:30 PM.Sunday morning at 3:45 AM, the alarm went off and just the sound almost made me throw up.  The nerves were kicked in.  Ate some breakfast and took a shower.  I was in a full panic at this point expecting at any moment to see my breakfast again.  I was ready to get started.  Headed down to body marking and to drop off the special needs bags.  Found a good place to wait and put on my wetsuit.  Kissed the kids and Jessica and headed off to the start.  Once I got into the water the nerves went away.  The water felt good today and I was ready to go.  With the helicopter buzzing around the lake, the pros went off and then the clock hit 7:00 and the cannon blast could be heard all around Mirror Lake.  As I started to swim I could hear U2’s “A Beautiful Day” being played.  I just smiled and started swimming; I had started my first Ironman. It wasn’t too long after the start the rain started too.  Little did I know it was going to rain all day.  The swim is in Mirror Lake right in the town of Lake Placid.  The water is so clean you can see a guide rope that holds all the buoys together, almost like a lane line.  The water is so still that when 2000+ people start swimming a current gets started in the direction of the swim.  I got out of the water feeling very good and headed to the transition area.  The transition area is about a ¼ mile run from the lake to the tents.  At this point the transition area was a soupy mess of mud.  Great for the bike shoes!  Headed out on the bike winding through town noticing all the hay bails at all the turns.  Finally got out onto the open road and started rolling.  My HR wasn’t reading for some reason so the entire day was going to be on a guess, which wasn’t ideal but would deal with it.  This is when I noticed the hills.  The course report said there was 8500 feet of total climbing and I was starting to believe it. The bike is a two loop course with a very long, fast downhill, lots of rollers, some short steep and then a 12 mile climb back into town.  Made my way around the bike course and was ready to hit the run.  My nutrition on the bike was perfect.  I was glad I had really worked out all the kinks.  Between the hills and the rain my bike time wasn’t anywhere near what I was expecting.  Started the run feeling strong.  I had nailed the nutrition on the bike and was feeling great.  I ran the first 13 miles at a decent pace and was excited that I would finish under 14 hours.  At mile 14 I had a pretty bad pop in my left foot that almost stopped me dead.  At this point I shuffled out to the turn around at mile 18.  With favoring my foot the pain moved into my knee and running was next to impossible.  I remember seeing the mile 23 sign thinking “its just a 5K to the finish”.  I ended up walking to mile 25 and told myself to “suck it up princess” and run the last mile.  Someone had told me that “It hurts just as much to run as it does to walk, so you might as well run”.  This run course was by far one of the hardest runs I have ever done.  Now I understand why Carole had me run at Kennesaw mountain.  I came down the final stretch and could see the finish.  My body hurt so bad but as I entered the oval all the pain went away.  The crowd was going crazy and I couldn’t believe the finish line was a few steps away.  It was hard to hear but I did hear “Paul Bennett…. You are an Ironman”.  Of course while AC/DC “For those about to rock” played in the background.  It was one of the best experiences of my life.  I crossed the line in 15 hours and 3 minutes.  Not what I was hoping for but who cares, I finished.  I had a couple Subway sandwiches and a slice of pizza after the finish along with a massage.  I was ready to grab my stuff and take a hot shower.Went to sleep as soon as my head it the pillow.  Woke up about 3 hours later feeling like crap, I was sweating and freezing, hungry and nauseous all at the same time.  Watched TV for a couple hours and finally went back to sleep for until about 7:30.  I hobbled out of bed and went down to the expo area to get my finishers gear.  The line was unbelievable to signup for 2009.  Went I got back to the room my son who had just woke up said, “There is our Ironman”.  Pretty cool coming from a 5 year old.  I sat around for a while calling people back and answering email.  We got everything packed up and headed back to Montreal for our early flight the next day, stopping to have a double cheeseburger and a root beer float on the way back.  Got up at 2:45 AM to head to the airport in Montreal, our fight left at 6:00 AM which means returning the car and getting tickets, going through customs, checking bags and getting to the gate left us about 20 minutes of spare time.   As I sat on the plane typing this up I looked at my watch to see what time it was and there on the main screen it said, “102 days, IM Florida”.  That’s right, I am doing this again on November 1 in Panama City Beach and I can’t wait.  This time I will respect the distance a little more and know what to expect.  I look forward to training again and hearing my name called out again.I want to thank my family for putting up with all the training and time away, that goes for the next couple month too as it will start all over again next week.  Also for them braving it out during the 3+ inches of rain that fell on race day.  I want to thank Coach Carole for getting me across the line, there is no way I could have done this without her.  Thank you to all the friends/training buddies for the positive support and waking up at the crack o’stupid every morning to go out and train.  Finally, thank you to all the people at All 3 Sports, your support and service has been second to none in providing all things needed for this race.  You guys ROCK.  Actual nutrition plan:Pre-race:  Bowl of oatmeal at 4:00 with a bagel.Bike:4 24 oz bottles with two scoops of Carbo-Pro and three scoops of Gatorade Endurance powder mix.  Each bottle had 374 calories in it.  I would use one bottle every hour.  After those were gone I drank three bottles of Gatorade on the course and had a Power Bar.  I also used two salt stick pills every hour (While these help stay hydrated, using them in the race was a pain).  I also ate a couple bananas on the ride too.Run:Water and Gatorade at every aid station.  Chicken broth at every three with water. Related links:http://ironman.com/events/ironman/lakeplacid/shea-kenney-and-pontano-win-the-10th-annual-ford-ironman-usa-lake-placidVIDEO:http://www.nasports.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imusa&vidname=RaceVid-2008-LP-high&playtype=wmv&w=480&h=360�

Early look at New Scott Plasma 2

Check out the new Scott Plasma 2. Nice design cues and killer looks. Looks to be one of the lightest, most aero bikes for 2009. This is definitely a shot across the bow of several tri bike manufacturers.

Look for this new Scott to get to the shop sometime this Fall, and keep checkout the tri bikes page at all3sports.com for great deals and the chance to pre-order the new Scott Plasma 2.

Please note the video takes a little bit to load because the creators did it pretty high quality.

Race Reports

For those who are not sure, a Race Report is a detailed write-up of how your race went. It can be long or short, but all the information is important. Many athletes wonder why a coach is so adamant about an athlete doing a race report. There are many benefits for both the athlete and coach in reviewing this information.

For the athlete, a race report allows them to do a data dump while the information is still fresh in their head. Putting down your thoughts, frustration, accomplishments, race tactics and anything else you can think of provides a release. Then when you’re done, you will have a backwards glance into what went right, what went wrong and what you can focus on.

For the coach, a race report lets them get a sense of how your race went not only by the numbers (HR, Speed, Cadence, etc) but how it went for you mentally as well. A race is more than just physical. The more detailed a report is, the more your coach can understand how your race truly went. How was your nutrition, did you stay positive, were you able to push? These questions and more can be answered in a race report. It also allows your coach to shine a light on what to focus on to make you a better athlete.

The other benefit of doing a race report is if you do the race next year. Your detailed memory of the course and what worked may have faded; but the words will still be there. It allows you and your coach to formulate a detailed plan for that specific race and the challenges provided for that course. It also benefits others when they ask you how to prepare for that race. You can just send them a copy of your race report and you will help your fellow triathlete.

So make sure that you take the time to write a race report every time you complete a race. It not only helps you, your coach but others as well. It becomes a great resource, which you will be happy to have now and in the future.

European Adventure Part 4 France

The Spanish Pyrenees were very beautiful as well. We stayed in France next to the Spanish border and about 16 miles from the Border of Andorra. Our long ride began in La Tour De Carol, France and climbed for 20 miles as we hit the summit of Col D’ Puymorens( Still in France) and then next we knew we were in the country of Andorra. Read the rest of this entry »

Karl goes back to Kona

Congratulations go out to team member Karl Wentzel at Ironman Austria. You want to talk about an Ironman, check out this result. In Age Group, Karl was 1st in the swim (1:28:13), 2nd in the bike (6:25:16) and 1st in the run (4:16:21). This put him squarely winning the 65-69 age group by over 2 hours to the 2nd place guy.

Ok everyone, Karl has set the bar. Time to get out there and throw down.

Chattanooga Race Report

Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon

July 13, 2008

I hadn’t ever done a race in the rain before… and I have to say it was pretty fun! Chattanooga is a point-to-point swim, and there are school buses that shuttle participants from the transition area up to the swim start. Once you get there, you hang out forever in a big field, and then the race organizers finally start lining everyone up. I wasn’t sure what it would be like trying to get 1200 people in line, but it actually went pretty quickly. I was number 180 with most of the girls in my age group in front of me. I’m not quite sure how that happened since we were supposedly lined up by estimated swim time, but it wasn’t a big deal. Being a time trial start with one person starting every 3 seconds, the course doesn’t end up getting too crowded. I started off with Catherine Meihofer right before me and Elaine Sipos right after, so that was fun.

My swim ended up being fair. I felt like I kept my stroke technique together but just never got into a good rhythm. Maria (the Master’s swim coach at Dynamo) and I have been working a lot on my stroke lately and finally felt like I had put everything together about two weeks ago, so I’m glad that it was OK in the race. I really like doing a long swim warm-up before a race, but because of the logistics of the swim start and the sometimes there/sometimes not current, the race organizers don’t allow you to warm up. Once I got started, I just tried to pick a good line and not run over too many people. It was a pretty uneventful swim. About halfway through, I started wondering why the water had gotten so rough – and I realized that it had started raining. The swim felt like it took a LONG time – I kind of like having turn buoys to break up the monotony a little bit, but we just swam straight downriver for what seemed like forever. They changed the swim exit this year. Instead of finishing at a dock where volunteers haul you out of the water, they had us finish on steps – just like at St. Anthony’s. That made it a little better, and it was funny because I looked over as I was getting to the steps, and there was Mandy Prophater finishing her swim too!

Once you exit the water, you run up some stairs, through the race expo, (which was pretty cool because there were people everywhere cheering) and across the street before you enter the transition area. I didn’t ever see the timing mats, but I heard that they were just before you entered transition – which would mean that part of our swim time included a pretty long run. I took a little longer in T1 than I should have, but it wasn’t too bad.

I wasn’t sure what the bike course would be like in the rain. Before I had even gone half a mile, I saw a girl who had crashed and was being taken off the course. There are a couple of turns in town, but we were out on the highway pretty quickly – and then it was just a straight shot (up and down several hills) to the turn-around. Trey caught me probably around mile 2 and yelled to be careful on the paint. I just kind of rode – didn’t want to do anything too crazy in the rain – got passed by a lot of people and passed a couple of people myself. It stopped raining about mile 7 or so, but the roads were still pretty wet. I had heard about how hilly the bike course was, but I didn’t think it was too terrible – maybe because I had built it up in my head so much. My bike time was slow, but I was glad to make it off the bike in one piece. As I ran into T2, I looked over, and there was Mandy again! We were together in T1 and T2!

T2 was uneventful. I had put a plastic bag over my running shoes, so I was happy to have a dry pair of shoes to wear. I threw on my shoes, grabbed my race belt and visor, and headed out on the run course.

As you go out on the run, you go up a hill, down a hill, up a flight of stairs, across a bridge… and then wind around for a while until you get to the river walk. There were volunteers all over the place making sure that we knew where to go. By the time I got to mile 1, the skies opened up again. It was POURING. I guess it didn’t matter that I had kept my running shoes covered in the transition area because my feet got totally soaked during the run anyway. It continued to rain my whole way out to the turn-around where there was a group of volunteers huddled under a tent trying to stay dry. Just before I turned around, I heard a long rumble of thunder, and one of the volunteers looked at me and said, “Hurry back!” The rain started to slow down as I headed back toward the finish line. I absolutely love out-and-back run courses because you get to see everyone. There were tons of All3 people and other folks from Atlanta out on the course, and it’s always nice to see a friendly face.

Chattanooga is always a fun race. Team Magic does a really good job organizing everything. There were awesome volunteers ALL OVER the course – handing out gels and drinks, playing music, pointing the way… they were great! It’s a nice, big race (1200 participants), and it’s not too far of a drive from the ATL. I definitely recommend it and will likely be out there again next year. Congrats to everyone who raced!

Biking in Spain

EUROPE ADVENTURE 2008

SPAIN!

Hola, from beautiful Spain. We arrived Wednesday July 2^nd after climbing Mt. Ventoux outside of Avignon. It was a wonderful climb, (can’t believe I said that!), climbing 13 miles with a 7.5% average grade. Some sections were 11%. The top looks like what I imagine the moon would look like. Lots of gray rocks, chilly, but awesome views! Read the rest of this entry »

IMAZ Race Report

Jeff Caplan

Ironman Arizona Race Report

What a day!  This was my 8^th Ironman.  I was pretty ticked when I first finished the race, but once I went back and looked at the results I felt a bit better.  The details were as follows:

Overall - 13:31:52
Swim - 1:13:35 (1:45 average /100 yards)
T1 - 6:41
Bike – 5:57:48 (18.8 mph average)
T2 – 6:25
Run – 6:07:23 (did I mention I did ok on the bike??)

The key for me for the day was that I finished 830 out of 2035 overall, and 144 out of 330 in my age group.  I know those are podium position, but they were far and away the highest I’ve finished in an Ironman race.  While I do have some things to work on (see below), these were definite signs of progress.

The race was in Tempe, AZ which is just outside of Phoenix and is the home of Arizona State University.  I got out there on Wednesday which gave me a few days to prep, acclimate, and chill.  The Tempe area is a lot like Austin, TX and is just about a perfect place for a race.  There are a ton of good restaurants and things to do in the area, and it is very easy to get around.  The swim was in Tempe Town Lake (part of the Salt River Project), the bike is on the flats and in the foothills surrounding the area, and the run is on a series of rolling paths that weave around the lake area.  One of the neat features of the race is that the bike and the run are 3 loops each, which makes this about the most fan-friendly IM there is.  While the swim and run pre-race workouts, one common complaint from the racers is that there really weren’t any areas near the course where it was cool to bike pre-race.  You really had to get up early and get out there to beat the traffic.

Training over the last few months went great, and I felt extremely confident going into the race.  The big news on the day, however, was the weather.  Racers had been glued to the Weather Channel all week as they forecasted the first big heat wave of the year to hit the Southwest on race day.  When I arrived on Wednesday and went for a run late in the afternoon, it was in the low 70’s and breezy.  By Sunday it was forecast to hit in the mid 90’s.  However forecasters through that the winds (a big problem in previous years) would be fairly calm.

I got up around 2:30 or so (after going to bed around 8:30) and mixed my bottles for the day.  I was staying at the Best Western – Tempe, which was right at the turnaround of the one loop swim.  There was a Denny’s attached to the hotel and I had a breakfast of 4 packets of instant oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and a little PB.  One of the neat things they do at IMAZ is have a reserved parking lot for the racers on race day, so I headed out early to park and had no issues.  Transition also opened early, which was super.  Generally speaking this was the best organized Ironman I’ve ever done – logistically, they had this thing nailed. 

When I got out to transition at 4:30 on Sunday morning it was already in the mid 60’s and clear as a bell.  That was to be expected.  However I overheard some local folks who had come in from the surrounding area saying that the winds were absolutely screaming just outside of the city.  Ok, that was new. 

The swim was an in-water start.  I got in the lake around 6:45 and treaded water and hung on the side till the gun went off.  The swim was a 2 min personal best for me, and would have been faster had someone not knocked my goggles loose.  The water temps were cool, but actually felt good once you started working.  I really have put in a lot of time to try to improve my swim this winter, and was happy about the positive feedback of a good result. 

I got out of the water, got through transition as quickly as possible, and jumped on my bike.  The bike course was 3 out-and-back segments, with a brief loop at the start/finish area.  Almost instantly, I noticed that the winds were strong and getting stronger.  As we rode out of town and into the desert country, there was a strong, steady wind the whole way with some very hard gusts.  I knew it would be tough for each of these laps and hoped that we would get some relief after the turnaround.  Just to give you a sense of the difference, it took me 70+ minutes to get out to the turn, but only 45 minutes to return.  I’ve got to admit that as much as the headwinds sucked I just loved surfing the tail wind back on home!  It was very challenging out there however, and the day after the race my arms and shoulders were sore just from trying to hold the bike on the road.  The ride had some more climbing than I anticipated with a lot of false flats (think a local ride like the Covington Century).  One other focal point during the ride was the road surface.  While they did a good job of using spray paint to identify holes and cracks, that didn’t change the fact that there were some serious gaps and potholes in the surface.  I saw quite a bit of bottles and other bike gear around some of these that suggested that there might have been a few spills. 

My nutrition was pretty solid on the bike, and I took in 2 ½ bottles of Infinit.  At a little over 960 calories per bottle, this gave me about 2,400 calories for the ride, or about 400 calories through Infinit per hour.  I also took in a little under 2 bottles of water per hour, and peeing pretty regularly.  Additionally, I grabbed some Gatorade at a few aid stations.  There were two reasons for this: 1) I wanted a different taste in my mouth, and 2) the Gatorade was much colder than the water. 

I kept a pretty consistent pace on the bike, and came back in for T2.  My plan was to hold a solid HR and shoot for 10:00 min miles.  Coming out of transition, I heard someone say that the air temp was 97.  With no shade on the course, the heat coming off the concrete run path was very intense.  The first 3 miles on the run were at 9:43, 10:16 and 11:15 so I knew that things were going to be a bit rough.  My HR was OK through that period (~140), but after mile 5 it started to take a dive.  While I felt ok at first on the run, but by mile 10, I felt cooked.  By mile 13, I was doing more walking than running and really not feeling great.  It was interesting, though, because I wasn’t alone.  I have never seen so many people walking so early in a race.  Thanks to the run course layout you could also easily see the transition area and I was amazed at the number of people who were still coming back into transition from the bike.  That was a long day on the bike – just incredible determination.

At mile 16, I stopped to use a porta-john, and then became extremely dizzy and nauseous.  I was at an aid station, and sat down on a bench for a bit.  At this point, I really had some doubts about whether I would be crossing the finish line.  I figured I had nothing left to lose, so I actually went under a tent by the aid station and laid down in the grass for a while.  After 15 min or so, my system started to feel better to the point where I felt like I could move again.  I walked for a bit then started to 5 min of running with 5 min of walking.  At this point, the sun was starting to come down a bit and it was a little cooler.  The next thing I knew, I was running and running fairly well.  I just said to myself that I knew I could do it and ran the last 5 miles or so.  With a half mile to go, I just kicked it and ran it in as hard as I could.  I was so psyched to finish!

At first I was disappointed with my time as I was hoping to break 12 hours, but then realized that with the conditions as they were I did relatively well versus the field performance.  There were also a number of people who DNF’d.  Most Ironman races feature a finisher rate in the mid-90 percentile.  This was the third highest DNF rate ever as only 82% finished. 

I still have some work to as I was shooting for a 4:30 marathon.  In breaking down the PowerTap file after the race, I found some areas where it was likely that I overworked on the bike.  Combining this with the hot weather led to a result that was off my goal, but I know what I need to do to get there.  That’s one of the huge advantages of doing an Ironman with a power meter – you can find out exactly what happened and why. 

My favorite thing about triathlon is the group of people with whom you have the opportunity to spend time, and the all3sports.com folks who were out in Arizona were no exception.  While I know the conditions really put a hurt on everyone in that race, anyone who toed the line in those conditions was to be commended.  Seeing Sarah Hackler, Andy Stephenson and Kristy Marino on the course was really motivating, and there were a number of others from the Atlanta area as well. 

IMAZ moves to November starting this year.  If you want a great race experience, I highly recommend it.