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Enjoy my suffering, and thanks to everyone for supporting me on this journey!

6 months Come and gone

6 Months has flown by in a flash with alot to show for it. I leave tomorrow morning for Kona, HI. One week of tapering, dialing in the course and racer prep meetings. I'm just looking forward to taking in this AWESOME experience! There has been a lot of stress this last 2 weeks leading up to me leaving. But I have taken it one hurdle at a time, with Meredith being unbelievably supportive. And that is the one thing that has meant the most of these 6 months, the LARGE amount of support I have received from friends, customers, teammates and family.

I decided to end my long training months with an Olympic tri. Chad Fikes a team member of the Sugar Cycles Factory Team, asked me to join him a male relay team. I of course have been working for the LONG distance race and just viewed this shorter event as a great training day. And Chad having recently been married, is using this as a reentry into the race season. So having our running dropping out, I will do the swim and the run with Chad handling the bike. So a 2 man team going up against 3 men teams. Should a interesting day. And it was, we took 3rd place, with Chad winning the bike. That was a great pay off for the long training days. And now for the real pay off, 6 days to go! I'll keep you posted throughout the week.

6 weeks away!

6 weeks is a long time before the event gets here. But looking a my last training plan it doesn't seem far at all. Not that I have been slacking, but I have to make these 6 weeks count. I'm not worried about the fittness because I have seen and notice plenty of gain. I have dropped from 176lbs to 163lbs, and on yesterday shop ride I lead the pack for a very good distance at 35.6mph and the running is getting easier. Ya, I know CRAZY! But again, it's becoming real with everyone making plans to head over to HI. And comments like, "it's getting close now. Are you going to be ready?". What!?! Of course I'll be ready, ready as anyone can be. A nice thing that recently happened, is I have switched over mentally to enter the race to finish it while HAVING FUN!

I cam off the horrorible Texas State Time Champoinship with a DNF because of a broken saddle. A event next to the Ironman in which I really cared about. But it just goes to show that anything can happen. And in a 11 hour+ Ironman, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. It's my first one and I have time goals in my mind, which I will keep to myself. And I will be just happy to finish it. But of course here comes the outside stress of life right before the event. Murphys Law I guess? My goal is to just stay health till HI, and the Kagan water is helping extremly well, thanks Bob! And I have made a bike change at the last minute as well. More to come on that if and when I get it in.

Sorry for the short to little to no info. But I am just keeping my head down and doing what I need to do, to get it done. I'll get back with you very soon. THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!

8/8/2010 BridgeLand Sprint Tri

Already tired of the slow and steady workouts I have been doing, I decided to mix it up alittle and race the BridgeLand Sprint Tri. Not the best distance since I have been training for something 10 times as long. But it would be a nice change of pace for me to keep me going till Oct. So I went in to this race just to have a good time and try some new things. The Tri was in Cypress TX 30min northwest of Houston, which Mer's sister lives. So Mer and I kicked one of our nieces out of her room and sleep over. This gave me a extra 45mins of sleep the morning over. YA.

I drive myself and go through the check in. Very simple with no hassles, so I head over to the swim start where surprisingly no one is. I swim about 1/4 of the course get warmed up. Man, love those master planned community man made lakes, stale. I am in the third wave after the Elite class and the 25-29age groupers. And I have a sold out field of 100 guys. I do something I have never done before, I move to the front of the group. After the 25-29er are about half way through the swim we start our race. I find that being in the front leaves me less bothered by other swimmers. But the stronger guys catch me very soon and put a good gap on me. I feel a little tired but I'm not fading to fast. I catch some of the slower 25-29 guys and some of the guys in my age group that ran out of gas. I come out of the water in 30th place with a 11minute flat swim. Not bad, but not my best, I think I could cut 1 minute off it easy. But not worried about it I had a drama free swim, which is rare.

I jog into transition and sit down in front of my bike. The rest of the guys are looking at me like I'm crazy! But I have decide to just race at a comfortable pace and focus on one thing at a time. I throw my shoes, glasses, tt helmet on and head out of transition. Now we are on the part I love, but again I have decided to hold back a little and drink plenty of fluids. One of my customers passes me at a good speed. Have a few hundred yards I notice he has stopped making forward progress and is holding his speed. So I decide to bridge up to him and buzz him a little bit. I close the gap and pass him with a thumbs up. We trade spots 3 or 4 times through the bike. We pass a large amount of people on the ride, holding a average of 24.6mhp. The only person to pass us is the "Dutchmen" who is a pro road racer. His wife does tri and they will enter the relay with him doing the bike section. Once in transition my customer tells me that is the fastest he has gone in a long time and his speed was 4mph faster then last year. I fell great and really feel I could of gone alot harder. Hope I didn't temp him to go faster and hurt his run time. I ended up placing 5th in the bike with the winner only averaging 25.1mhp. So a very tightly packed group of the top 5. I am very happy with that, because I know I could of ridden much harder and placed higher.

Now for the run, great! I don't feel bad or tired which is a good sign. But not really moving that fast. And here it comes the same amount of people I passed on the bike are now passing me on the run. I slow from about a 8.5 to a 10 minute mile. Not fast at all in a Sprint tri, but not to bummed out cause I have been training for that long distance. I push through the run never stopping and holding that same pace the entire time. But BAM it hits me, 98th place on the run. Wow, during the event I was really thinking that after the ironman I might be able to focus on sprints and really try to win one. But no way in HELL I will be winning anything with that run time. Anyway, all n all I had a great time and really enjoyed the "break" from long distance training. This coming weekend I get to finally race the Texas State Time Trail Championship. Coming off a very hard week of training I don't know how I will do. But looking forward to it very much. So till then, thanks for keeping up.

Staying Focused

Lubbock is behind me, thank god! After nights of crying on my pillow, I finally chalked it up to just having a bad day and going out to hard from the start. Lessoned learned and applying it to my training. Ahhh, training, training and more training, it never ends. I don't know if I am physically ready for the ironman yet, but I am mentally. Training every day is not a new thing to me. From road racing moving into cross season and ending with the winter mountain bike events. These two-a-days have been wearing me thin. Staying focused is getting harder and harder. My run is coming along and I am seeing big improvements. The bike pace is starting to dial itself in and running some distance afterward is getting much easier. The swim is great and really look forward to adding that into my training even after the ironman is done.

So what have I really drawn on for support and for that "poke in the chest" at 5am in the morning. MY FIENDS!!! That’s right its props time; My wife Meredith has been the biggest and best supporter by far. "Well that goes without saying", no not really. Mer has always backed me up in everything I've done since we have known each other. She is a very realistic person and keeps me in check quit a bit. With the Ironman she has spearheaded the support and reminding me to stay focused more then anyone. And that means everything to me, when I look back on this event I will think of her and for me that’s what it is all about. Second my parents, although not very aware of the endurance world, have gone out of their way to make it their own and keep propping me up along the way. As always my folks have backed me in whatever I have done. Third, there is our friend Martha Long, who in a way is responsible for getting myself into this "mess". Martha is the awesome athlete that I "supported" when she raced HI Ironman in '07 and '08. After that I caught the bug and tried to get into HI WC ever since. So she has been a huge source of information! I pick her brain at least once a week on what gear to use, or am I over thinking something, or trying to keep up with her on a Sunday run. And there really are so many other people who I will name and thank by the end of this all, but for now THANK YOU to everyone! I have 2 solid months to go, and I know it will be here VERY soon.

This Sunday I turn 30 and race my last sprint tri for the year. I'll let you know how everything goes. Just using it for training and to stay fresh regarding racing events. And after that I finally get to race the Texas State Time Trail Championship. This will also be great training on the bike and I will add a 40 min run afterward, not looking forward to that!

THANKS EVERYONE!

LUBBOCK 70.3 –

Sorry for the delay in getting this write up out to ya’ll. Lubbock is in the bag and I’m off to Kona. But it was not as easy as it seemed! The 2 weeks leading up to Lubbock where great and interesting training weeks. I had one 1 week left to build my fitness and really dial in my eating habits on and off the bike. I was able to get back on my road bike and mix it up with a crowd, instead of the long lonely miles on the TT bike. I decided to jump in the downtown Houston Death Ride, which went great. 90% of the time I am fighting to hang on to the back of the group that is getting dropped by the leading pack. But this week I was the one on the front with 3 attacks of my own. The tri training is really paying off. Next I get to join in the A group on the Sugar Cycles Saturday shop ride. It starts off really good, but only for a short while.

We hit mile 10 and everyone is warmed up and ready to start tearing legs off. I find myself in a break away of 5 riders, who are all working very well together. We have made a solid gap and it looks like it is going to stick. For once I am not in over my head trying to hang on for dear life. I am ridding strong and taking equal turns on the front. Then it all changes very fast. Out of the corner of my eye I see a small black flash, dart out toward the rider in front of me. In a split second I know it was a small dog not on a leash. I can either; veer to the right to avoid it or t-bone the dog and try to throw myself on the grass slash sidewalk to my right. O ya, we are moving at 31.8mph, so I have to make this decision VERY fast. I do think of Lubbock and Kona, then, I decide to hit the dog. Very funny how fast your minds work in speeds like that.

I hear a yelp, then, hear my hip hit the curb and then I am sitting on my butt on the side walk trying to catch my breath. I am nervous to move because I would feel a broken bone. I look at my body which is COVERED in grass. By now the rest of the pack is catching up and the other 5 riders in the break away have lowered their heart rates and are picking my bike up out of the middle of the road. I hear from several riders, “are you ok?” I hear the dogs’ owner asking that behind me too, but I don’t reply. Then I hear something about the dog is not breathing. The owner the dog doesn’t know what to do with himself. His wife’s lap dog is dead; he caused a bike wreck with 40 other rider all wearing the same cycling kit as myself. My bodies chemicals start to kick in and I am doing all I can not to turn around and deck the walker. It is not the dogs fault, it is the owners FAULT for not taking responsibility for his pet. And for putting my life and well being in danger. I stand up and try to notice if anything hurts, surprisingly I am fine, outside of some minor road rash, sore hip and a jersey full of grass. And if it wasn’t for the grass, Kona would now just of been a brief dream.

Without going into to much more detail, I got bike on my bike. Which was surprisingly in perfect condition for having been thrown at 30+ mph. Rode off, and immediately attacked the group again, to let out my anger of what just happened. Once the group caught me all went back to normal and even now 3 weeks later customers and riders still come up to me to talk about it. “You’re the guy that killed the dog?” Nice that’s all I need, is to be known as the dog killer.

LUBBOCK 70.3 –

After a light training week leading up to Lubbock, I am feeling ready for the event. My wife Meredith and close friend Stephanie make the 9 hour drive up the Thursday before the race. The college town is empty, except for the locals and Tri-Geeks. It is hot and windy. We go through all of the registration and briefly walk through the demo. The plan is to take it easy before the event with plenty of food and liquids. The Saturday before the race I swim ¼ of the course and feel great. I also do a short 10mile bike out of the park. The hills will be very interesting on race day. Lubbock is extremely flat with no place to hide from the wind and heat. Then all of the sudden you drop down into the canyon with 8 monsters climbs. It makes me totally rethink how I will race on Sunday.

RACE DAY – The 3 of us wake up at 4am, waste no time and head out to the start line. I am one of the early birds which is rare. I breeze through the number marking, transition set-up and prerace business. I find myself almost second guessing myself because it was so easy. Mer and I set up some chairs that over looks the lake and I try to relax before the swim start. All week the promoters have been back and forth on rather or not the swim will be wetsuit legal. The day before they assured us that we will not be wearing our wetsuits, which is rare for Buffalo Springs Lake. But walking up the morning there is a guy on the load speaker telling us that we can wear our wetsuits. I am glad I didn’t leave mine at the hotel. Nerves were not a problem the morning of, I never have direct competition in tris. I am always just racing the clock when I am out there.

I line up on the beach right behind the men pro cat. I am swimming in the men 30-35 age group which is considered the 2nd fastest wave, I already miss road racing! The pros go off at the gun and we move into the water for the 1.5mile swim. It is a pretty short wait till we hear the gun, and we start pushing and punching till all 200 of us start to spread out. I quickly get into a rhythm and am making good time. I could push it a little harder but just try to keep it steady and hold on to that energy as all as I can. The only down side to the swim is that I start to heat up in the wetsuit. But before it really bothers me, I am out of the water. My goal for the swim was 50mins and I turn out a 40min flat with a feeling that I could have gone harder. I knock the transition out in 2 min flat and am very happy with that, but that is about as good as it gets for me.


Right out of transition I start to climb away from the park. Nothing tough but also nothing you want to start with when you are trying to set yourself up for a solid bike time. The first part of the bike is flat farm land and I am gobbling up riders left and right. Stronger riders are passing me and I let them, although it is not in my nature to. As one stronger rider passes, tells me that he likes my pace and has been follow me for some time. If we us each other for pacing we can put in a fast time. Stupid me! By the time I knock out a 3rd of the climbs, I am starting to feel spent and its only mile 30. I normally don’t get out of bed for less than a 50 mile bike ride, so when mile 30 hits and I start to feel bad, I was worried. I downed a gue and sharp stomach pain hits me. Then my brain starts working over time, worrying about every little bump and saddle adjustment. What is happening is I am over heating from going out to hard in the start of the bike. I get the 8 monster climbs behind me and turn for the 12 miles back to the transition. I turn right into a strong hot headwind for the rest of the bike. I roll through the park trying to save the race and see Mer and Stephanie. I give them a limp wave and faint hey. They could tell I was hurting.

I roll into transition and starting thinking of how the hell am I going to run 13.2miles? This transition takes me 5mins, more than double the first one. I pound 2 waters and a sport drinks, and speed walk out the transition on to the course. It doesn’t take long to figure out that I’m in big trouble in little china. I run / jog the first 5 miles, which thinking back I don’t even know how I pushed that out. It is getting very hot out there and again no cover from the Sun. I look down at my kit and it has turned white with salt from sweet. Without any long boring details (to late right?) I “speed” walk the rest of the run course. All I remember is that was one of the hardest things I have even done. The best part was seeing Mer at the finish line, trying to make me laugh and cheering for me.

In short, I learned mountains about myself and how I need to change so many thing about my racing. Road racing will make you very a fast but want make you go all day fast. I’ll be back with more and try not to bore you with the next one.

I,m Back, Kinda Part II

So, June 6, 2010 Tejas Tri in Sugar Land, I jumped in this one for the open swim experience. I decide to join one of the Sugar Cycles Factory Team relays. I would do the swim, Shane Baldon a road racer would do the bike leg and Thomas Hardin a tri member would do the run leg. Sugar Cycles had other individual age groupers and one more coed relay team in the event. The training for Lubbock and Kona has been going very well for me. I have made a lot of progress in short a time period. This last week was a rest week with light workouts and plenty of taking it easy. So you think I would be going into this race firing on all cylinders. Ahhh, ya I made ANOTHER stupid mistake. But I guess that what these smaller tri are for?

Saturday I show up for the Sugar Cycles shop ride for an easy 2 hour spin. Ya easy, that didn’t happen, I just can’t let go of the one thing I am already good at. The ride turned into a cat and mouse race for the first 35miles then a quick tempo pace for the rest of the 80miles, mistake 1. What didn’t help was the Texas heat was in full effect at 98degree in June. Without any boring details, I was super dehydrated and fatigued the rest of the day. I wore my Zoot compression socks and down all the Kagan water I could get my hands on. I went home from work feeling as good as I could. I had a nice big dinner and went to bed early.

I wake up at 5am and head to the tri with Kelly and her son. We get there go through the motions and wait to start the race. And it starts to hit me, I am tired! All the relays start with the women’s 40+ class, which I have found to pretty laid back for a tri swim. Women’s 40+ are still fast swimmers but they like to spread out to avoid contact. This made me relaxed and not worry about where I started in the pack, mistake 2. The gun goes snaps and we are off, and the pack does not spread out. And the slapping and bumping began. I make a little opening and get after it. But I can’t even hang in there for the first 300. I could of rolled over on my back and gone to sleep in the water. I slap the water for the next 300. So, coming out of the water off that “awesome” swim, I can’t find Shane to hand off the chip. After a lot of yelling we make it happen and I try not to pass out. Not pre checking the transition zone, mistake 3.

I finished the 600 in 12:40:4, ya that’s what I said to, CRAP THAT’S SLOW. My slowest 600 swim till today was a 10:30:0, and I can easily have put in a 9:00:00 on a normal day. Which was the first thing to eat at me, but I found out the team that beat us, only had 1min and change on us. That’s right we placed 2nd in the relay, with Shane and Thomas winning the bike and the run. And me the ball and chain with an 8th place on the swim, lame. I feel really bad for my, understanding teammates, for not putting my best foot forward. I have been sprending the rest of the day recovering and getting ready for 2 solid weeks of hard training. With 1 week of tapering that leads up to Lubbock 70.3.

I'm back, kinda

Last Sunday I raced the Eastside Kona sprint in Baytown TX. This is the first sprint I have done in 3 years. I choose to do this one because it had a open water swim and all the distances were a little longer then normal. This would also be a great opportunity for me to shack the dust of and see where I need to tighten up. So I and 4 other Sugar Cycles teammates rolled out to the race at 5:20am.

We arrived and went through the normal sign-in, number marking, transition set-up and wait for your heat to start. It is just like fly on a plane; you hurry up and get there early and prep for the event then just sit there till it is your turn to board. Being the last heat, it did come quicker then I thought. So the 35 racers enter the lake at the sound of the gun and began the swim. I started toward the back of the group allowing everyone to spread out. The first problem I found out was I have a lot of trouble breathing out of my right side, and the buoys where on the right side for sighting. So every so many yards I would look to the right and see I was slightly off course. So I would correct my direction and repeat this for the entire swim. And with ¾ of the swim done someone decides to hit me in the face knocking my goggles off. I had brought myself right behind the leading swimmers. But with having to reinstall my goggles and re “center” myself I dropped some spots. I came out of the swim 17th, just about in the middle. I thought it wasn’t to bad for my first open water tri and first tri back in 3 years. On to the bike, YES!





I leave T1 in 8-place with a time of one minute flat, making up 9 spots. I decide to run out of transition with my cycling shoes on instead of clipped into the pedals. I haven’t really practiced this in a LONG time and now’s not the time to start. I settle into the bike and drink a little to get some energy back in me. It is a 17 mile bike with half of it straight into mild to strong headwind. I just start putting targets on peoples back and gobble the up. On the way out into the head wind I ranged from 19.5mph to 21mph, with not one person passing me. When other where recovering or taking it easy on two of the overpasses, I would use this chance to attack. I reached the reached the turn around and was loving the tailwinds. My speed quickly jumped to 30mph and I maxed out my gears, 53 x 11 baby! I continued to pass a lot of other riders, even stronger riders with fast equipment then myself. I started to think this pace was to fast, but I keep looking at my power numbers and was well under my VO2 for that distance. I quickly came to the transition and ready for the run, CRAP!

I get off the bike in 5th place, and roll through transition in 50 sec. I am feeling really good about this tri after placing 2nd on the bike, just .5mph slower then 1st place. But the run is my weakest discipline out of the three. And it very quickly starts to show, with an 8 minute mile. I make one of the biggest mistakes as well. I am running in brand new shoes with no socks. I know, don’t say it, I pay for it. With in one mile I have HUGE blisters on both of my arches and my run slows to a 10min pace. That is terrible for a 4 mile sprint. I never stop running and suffer the entire time. I end up placing 20th in the run and drop from 5th overall to 17th because of the run.

Over all it was a great event and I learned a lot about what I need to tighten up for. The rest of the Sugar Cycles Factory Team placed 2nd or won their age group or the over all event. And I went home with two very painful blisters. Next up I am doing another sprint in Sugar Land TX. I will be doing the open water swim in the relay.

Finding my Drive

After four solid weeks of training, things are starting to come together and flow very well. The only road bumps I have been struggling with, is the RUN. The track workouts are hard but I complete them to the fullest and feel great afterward. It has been the long steady runs that are really tearing me down. No matter if it is a 1 or 2.5 hour run, they all seem to set me back a bit. How am I going to keep this up?

I used to run track in high school, back in the 90’s, but only short sprints. I also played competitive tennis in high school as well. Both sports with a lot of running involved, I would run several miles a day, but pieced together with all small sprints. But nothing with any real distance behind it. Since I have been married, coming up on ten years, and decided to stick with cycling as my sport of choose. Running has not even been apart of my life in any way shape or form. I would always joke that the only thing that would get me running are the cops. And since I am a model citizen, I have never had to pick the pace up.

The next thing I have going for me is EXTREMLY flat feet and a curved lower spine. Both make my but tics and hamstrings very tight. I have to stretch several times a day to maintain my flexibility in those reigns. I really work on my core and lower back strength, but anyone will tell you that it is the last workout you want to do on a regular basis. These two things bring a lot of pain to my joints when pounding out the miles, all the way from the ankles, knees to the hips. So this involves me taking many preventive measures, from KT tape, custom insoles to buying several pairs of Super Feet.

So, tired of running and suffering by myself, I asked someone to join me. Kelly at work is the Sugar Cycles tri team captain and a ex marine (or once a marine always a marine, I don’t know). Kelly and I made plans to run in the morning before the park got to humid and crowded. I guess we have to wake up a lot earlier then 8am on Sunday to beat both of those. We planned to run an easy 1 hour at heart rate 1 to 2. Right off the bat my joints started killing me, I pushed through it on the first mile and it started to get a little better. My cardio the entire run was great, cycling has really built my lungs up.

When we completed 1 loop which is 3 miles I was ready to quite. But my plan back fired on me inviting someone, Kelly made me keep going. The entire time she would talk to me, coaching me on my stride. She told me things that helped her to focus on getting the workout done, songs to sing to yourself to help your pacing. Kelly runs with a Garmin 310XT forerunner, which helped out in a large way. It gave me goals and the info I needed to keep the pace where I need to be. I have already order one for myself and can’t wait to start tracking my data. Kelly was a huge help that Sunday and while I wanted to kill her during the run, after I got home and showered. I was the happiest I had been with any of my runs to date.

I really need to find what drives me on the run. Setting attainable goals, singing that song (in my head of course), tracking data and improving on it. This is nothing new to me, I think I have been wrapped up in cycling for so long and I have shut every thing else out. That I am really starting from square one with swimming and running. I have the fitness, now it is just dialing in that technique on both of them. And with friends like Kelly it should start getting a lot closer to happening.

What I saw on my run to through Houston, TX

Freshly cut grass / sidewalks / busy intersection with 3 Starbucks across from each other / circuit board to something / beer cans, a lot of beer cans, and all Light beer too / dead bird / bayou / dog park / yap-per dog that does not like me / skate park / dirt trail, my knees love you / my feet not dragging the ground any more / people in cars pointing at me like I have a third arm growing out of my forehead as they drive by at 50+mph / cyclist I know but wouldn’t wave back at me because I’m not in my spandex, helmet and bug glasses / urban wimpy kids that look like they want to rob me, which right now they probably could, but they think I can run faster then this / downtown skyscrapers / Minute Maid Ballpark / turnaround point / shinny floating spots / more guys who look like they want to rub me / a rolled up sidewalk, its there / cool old homes that I wish I owned and had unlimited funds to restore them / a block of sports bars all having crawfish boils / floating hamburgers / Sunday brunch crowd leaving the restaurants / my apartments off in the distance / other runners who look down their noise at me / my feet starting to drag again / my block / OOOOOOOOOO, THANK YOU ITS OVER!!!!

The Bike 2.0

Here it is, the Specialized S-Work Transition. And like I said before, it has remained fairly OEM with a couple of "upgrades". The biggest change would be the Rotor Agilis crankset. I have really liked using these cranks, being stiff and light weight. I have put a lot of miles on this set when they were on my road bike. Matched with the Rotor rings, which help get rid of my dead spot in my pedal stroke. The rings can be added to almost all cranksets and are adjustable up to 5 positions. Depending on your bike fit and focus of ridding.

Added to the crankset is my powermeter. I couldn't imagine ridding a TT bike without power numbers sitting in front of my face. I choose the Quarq power meter for the price and easy interface with my headunit, the Garmin Edge 500. Quarg allows you to change your own battery as well, which is big for me. Triathletes put long miles on their equipment and for me to get to Kona and have something fail. Then I would be without power, and if I had to send the cranks back to the home office to have the batteries changed out. That normally takes 2 weeks to complete. I have really tired to balance speed with reliability in my equipment chooses for the Ironman.

For training and short races I am rolling on the Roval carbon star clincher wheels. These Rovals' are some of the most aero wheel out there today. They provide a smooth ride due to the carbon hoop and cut through the head and cross winds with ease. This is because of the star hub, which allows the spokes to track straight down to the hub flange. When up to speed these wheels just feel like there is nothing there. I haven't decided on race wheels yet. Will post as soon as I have made my choose.

The Bike

Working at Sugar Cycles, I truly have the best options of TT bikes on the market today. The; Orbea Ordu(which has won the WC twice), Specialized Transition(which has won the WC once and several top five finishes), BMC Time Machine, Jamis Xenith T2, Stork Aero or a custom Lynskey Ti time trail frame. I am currently ridding a Lynskey R430 road frame that I have converted over to a TT setup. I love the bike and the fit works great. But it is used for short intance TT distance in road stage races.

So picking a new TT bike took a little time, but only a little. Out of all the frames I had to pick from, one always stood out for the Ironman distance. The Specialized transition won out in the end and with good reason. And just to throw it a worthy bone, the Orbea Ordu was a close second. I had the opportunity to be on Hawaii in 2007 when Specialized introduced the newly redesigned Transition. And saw all the research and development that went into designing the bike first hand.

The Transition just feels slippery when you are putting out the power to the cranks. Specialized puts so much focus into their BG fitting on all of their bikes. So I could very easily be fit as comfortable and aggressive as my body and fitness could bare on this frame. Combine with a full carbon FACT 9r frameset and carbon Roval Star wheels for a comfortable and areo ride. This made the most sense for staying fresh for the run, but still putting in a solid bike time. I have left the bike pretty much the way I found it, except for some minor changes. Right out of the box It is extermly hard to beat the S-Work Transition.

Pictured above is a example of the S-Works Transition that I will be ridding. I am currently working on installing my power meter, Quarq Rotor cranks. As well as dialing in the fit. I will be racing on the Zipp 808 clinchers. The Roval carbon Star wheelset is a perfect fix of training and performance. Once it is fully built with all my personal touches I will post the final result and specs.

Common Man

"Aloha and Congratulations William Davenport



You have been selected as a winner in the 2010 Ironman Lottery Program to compete in the Ford Ironman World Championship in beautiful Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on Oct 9, 2010! Crossing the finish line on Alii Drive is sure to provide you with many fond memories."

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/lottery/congratulations-to-the-lucky-athletes-who-have-qualified-to-race-in-kona-on-october-9-2010

" Thanks to the vision of Ironman founder John Collins, who insisted that a system be maintained to allow the "common man" a chance to compete in this great race, 200 far-from-common age-groupers will join the rest of the 1,800 strong in Kailua Bay on October 9, 2010 for the Ford Ironman World Championship. Once you're done celebrating ... get training!"

About the Race

I received this e-mail on April 15, 2010 while I was driving to lunch with my Wife and sister in-law. I set my phone down and dismissed the notice on the screen. After we parked the car, I took a second look at the e-mail and read it in its entirety. I just handed the phone over to my wife without saying a word. She quickly read the e-mail and handed the phone back to me. "Is this for real?" she asked. I never told her I had signed up for a Lottery spot for the 2010 Ironman World Championship.

About 5 months ago, right after the 2009 WC Ironman came to a close, I signed up for a lottery spot. Of course never thinking I would get a chance at a spot and never know anyone who had ever won a spot when they entered. And I have known a lot of people who have signed up several times. And yes, about every emotion started passing through me when the annoucement settled in. Sorry to my sister-in-law, Julie, because this topic dominated the entire conversation at lunch. And after we dropped her off at work, my wife and I quickly drove home and started planning.

Where I stand - I am a competitive cyclist, who rides every day and races the local Texas Cup events. I lead a very healthy life style with my diet and exercise routine. At the age of 29 going on 30, I have never been in great shape these past few years. Introduce triathlons to my life and that is a different story all together. Swimming and running are not even on my daily radar. I have completed several sprint tri's, but always looked at them as "cross" training. Always relying on my cycling fitness to carry me through the events. A sprint tri and the Kona Ironman are on totally two different planets!

After some back an fourth with my cycling coach, Momenta Training Systems, I decided to seek out a coach that could provide all 3 disciplines at once, swim bike run, and have me ready and confident go into Kona. After talking to a close friend about the mater, who has completed several ironman and Kona twice. She suggested, Multisports, which turned out to be just what I needed. I signed up for Hawaii training program and was on my way.

Now the only thing left to put final touch on my trip to Kona is that I have to complete a Half ironman before the WC in Oct. Which is another distance that I have never competed in! But a distance that at the moment seems a lot more attainable. So, I signed up for Lubbock, TX 70.3 on June, 27. I did so because it was "close", nothing in Texas is close, and it gave me enough time in front of Kona to make adjustments in my fitness. And know I am starting to find out the Lubbock is not as "easy" as I thought it was going to be. So here we go. . .