Memphis In May Race Report

In May, Memphis is hot. Sunny, humid and 90 hot.
Sweating while setting up transition hot.
77.8 degree water hot. Making for an additionally hot swim because it's wetsuit legal.

I roughly calculated my 'wave' or AG to start about 50 minutes after the first AGer at 7:15. With the TT start one person entered the water every 3 seconds. So, lets see; That's 20 a minute. 200 every 10 minutes. My number was in the 1000's, which is 5 sets of 200 right? Or five sets of 10 minutes right?

Well for whatever reason my math didn't pan out and I jumped in with the girls starting in the 1100 block. But not to fear! Since it was an individual, or TT start my time started when my chip hit the mat.

But starting so far back still meant swimming, biking and running past a lot of people.
I didn't find a real sweet rhythm in the water, but still made it out in pretty good order all things considered.

In and out of T1 without trying to sprint my way through.
Oh and as an interesting note. Since we had to start the race from the transition area, the transition area never closed. It was really weird to see people milling about and still tinkering with stuff as athletes were coming out of the water. Additionally when the Pros went off at 10:30, people were still finishing, others hanging about and others taking apart transition set-ups. Very odd.

Once on the bike I had to adjust to using HR and RPE instead of Watts and did my best to find a good mix of pushing the tempo, but not going overboard in the HR department. The course was mainly flat but did have a little undulation. The dozen or so 90 degree turns started to become annoying, especially while having to navigate traffic.

I should have stocked the bike better for the heat, but figured my solo bottle would be enough, and I could refuel at the water stops. But it turns out the RD decided one poorly staffed bottle stop would suffice. Plus, it just came out of the blue. Bam! Water! Bam! Nothing!
Let me just say that, yes I should have loaded up with more water, and yes I should have known where the water stop was. I did know there was only one, but when it came I was surprised that was it. When you have a constant stream of a thousand bikers for two plus hours going at least two abreast, having only one guy to grab a bottle from is not a sufficient water stop on sunny 90 degree day. (As an additional aside, the pros didn't even get a water stop, as Matt Gloekler describes here. Ouch)

So after I grabbed a bottle took a couple sips and poured the rest over me I was rest with the last few oz of drink on my down tube.

Shortly before the 'water stop' I was passed by a guy I pretty much started with by passed while he was fumbling to get his shoes on. He was pushing it on a decline, while I was happy to spin it out at 30 mph for a minute. It gave me something new to watch for a while, as he bobbed and weaved ahead of me doing the 'legal draft' around the slower folk. I did the weave here and there but man, this guy was trying to grab every draft off of everyone he passed.
I did catch back up to him and he was nice enough to give me a sip of his water before I over took him. John Hanna, you're a good guy. Also he saw me after the race and we had a nice chat for a minute.

Once I was out of T2 I was astonished to see a pair of guys wearing MickeyDees kits. Hey that's me behind the golden arches! Looks like that guy should maybe look to Bgood for next year's sponsorship....I'm just saying.

With recent ITB issues in my mind I just plopped along for the first couple miles trying to keep things consistent and hopefully throw down some negative splits. And I'll just tell you right now, that's what happened. It was hot and a 7 min/mile def felt like work. It did feel good to hit the turn around and kick things up. There was carnage all over the course and the med/'cooling' tent was pretty busy.

My 2:06 wasn't record breaking but it's a good way to kick off the season considering the conditions and the previous few weeks.

Rev3 ho!

Pricey Yogurt

When I first saw siggi's yogurt and it's accompanying $2.50 price tag, my first thought was, "Who would pay $2.50 for a thing of yogurt." Then my second thought was,"Man, I gotta try that yogurt."
But alas my frugality restricted me.

Nevertheless, like the true American that I am, (And Welldini, for that matter) I had a hard time passing by the siggi's on sale in the dairy isle. I think I saved a whole thirty cents but thought of it as research. And as a special treat. And as a reward, for what I'm not sure. But I'm pretty good at coming up with excuses to justify moments of dietary weakness.

But on to the yogurt, or skyr as the Icelandics like to call it.
I didn't realize 'til I got home that the nutrition facts are totally awesome. No fat. Very little sugar, 10 g's. And 16, yes, 16 grams of protein per 6oz cup. Compare that to a Stonyfield Peach with 22g sugar and only 6g protein.



I'm a big proponent of getting protein from natural sources instead of shakes and bars. And this stuff def fits the bill. Granted if you're gonna eat it on a regular basis your food bill has to not be a big concern. But the dollar to gram of protein ratio between Stonyfield and siggi's is about the same.
Also, on the inside of the label Siggi explains that skyr is yogurt with the water strained away, making if dense and equivalent to three cups of 'regular' yogurt.

Plus with yogurt you get Live Cultures. And siggi's Blueberry only has 5 ingredients (plain has three). One of the ingredients being agave nectar and no cane sugar.


The yogurt itself eats more like a mousse than the watery slime we're used to. The down side of so few sugars: it's not sweet. Instead there's a subtle hint of blueberry flavor that's pleasantly lead out by a sharp tang.

It's good stuff and I'd recommend giving it a go. Especially if you've do something worthy of a reward.

Slippery When Wet...And Frozen

More than a couple of times this winter I've heard people tell me that they don't like to ride outside in the colder months because it's too cold, and the roads are dirty and icy.

I agree that the roads are dirty. And there's a lot of salt out there. But when the roads are dry it's not that bad.

And yes it is cold. No two ways about that. Except to gear up and put in two warmers.

But the icy thing I wasn't buying. We had a good deal of snow in December and January with a pretty eventful February. And sure, right after it snows the roads have snow on them. Even once they're plowed the sides/shoulders are ruddy. But I wouldn't really say icy. Of course there is the occasional spot where tons of snow run off congregates in the road and makes a big icy/snowy patch. But that's rare and so blatant it's easy to spot, to slow down for and to avoid unscathed.

However, as of yesterday I have a new perspective and icy road scenario.

Over the past week with a slew of storms passing over the northeast, outdoor riding has been a non-issue. If it was pouring the roads were soaked. And I can do cold, but not wet, and certainly not cold and wet.
We got a break from the rain on Saturday morning and roads were looking dry, which looked good for my 150 minute spin on Sunday. But alas, sure enough drizzle fell from the heavens and the roads once again turned from light gray to dark.

But ever the optimist, I awoke on Sunday hoping that the partly 30% chance of rain would mean a damp but not sopping tarmac and the possibility of further drying.
And I was in luck. At 7 there was no precipitation and I could see the pavement lightening in spots.

I checked the temp to dress accordingly and took note of the 30 degree temp. Humm, below freezing, I thought to myself. Humm, the roads are sill damp from that rain yesterday. Humm, the roads don't look frozen.
If had been my usually lacidasical self I would have gotten back in bed, snuggled with all the peoples, woken at 10, had some breakie and then gotten on the saddle. But I had a Boog to watch later in the day and wanted to beat any possible incoming rain clouds.

Once on the bike I did the tried and true "break test" (thanks dad!) to check the condition of the roads. All skid and no slide, the roads looked good.
I started out as I usually do on my favorite quite lead road, Cross Lane. I was still taking it easy a little easy on the corners as I was warming up. I crossed 128 and came into a little residential area that frequently has water on the road and felt my bike twitch a little as my tires hit the painted lines of a crosswalk. I should have made note of this and slowed up a bit. But instead, made note of it and kept on going.

Next up is the funky little triangle area where Groce meets Standley. And this is where the shaded corner was covered with ice. It's also the place were I slid onto my hip.
Fortunately I wasn't going very fast, there wasn't any traffic and my warm winter clothes added extra scuff protection. It's been awhile since I've fallen on the road and I was due. Hopefully It'll be awhile before I go down again.
Here's a shot one day after.

Bike's mostly okay. A couple of scrapes on the saddle and the bar tape. And my clothing is mostly okay, again a couple of scrapes. The mount for the powertap broke and short of holding it in my hand there was no way to read it while biking. I had to pop back home to switch chest straps to have some HR for the rest of my ride. Why can't polar and powertap get along?


Experience is the best education yah? Next time I'll have to avoid the side roads when it's wet and frozen.

Treadmills Should Have Spittons

I wouldn't call it an attractive habit. But it's a fact of life for running and biking. Not a problem when you're outside.
God I'm so used to spitting at will when I'm outside, when I come inside and do a hard treadmill workout I don't know what to do with myself.

What I did end up doing is grabbing some paper towels and dropping some saliva in there every once in a while. Once that got really nasty the bottle holder served as a free target. I was looking for a plastic cup, but there was nothing around.
Just to be clear I did make sure the treadmill got a serious wipe down once I was done. Gross right?

Left Overs

I think a good rule for leftovers is if you don't remember when you cooked it, you probably shouldn't eat it. Even if it doesn't smell bad.

It should be noted that I did not heed this advice with that chicken I just found in the fridge. Yum.

Train from Nong Khai

It's a long trip to Bangkok

Winter UP

So we're stuck here in the Northeast and the time for over indulgence and playing Wii golf has come to an end. Wouldn't it be sweet if you could Wii and bike on your trainer? I tried to Halo and spin once. But my hands got too sweaty to control with any finesse and I got annihilated.

But training in the cold doesn't have to suck. Nor does it mean you have to be stuck staring at your kid sister's poster of KB you're too lazy/obsessed with to take down....I mean that inspiring Tri picture you put up.

Here are a couple of my secrets.

Wind proof. Part of what sucks about winter training is wearing a ton of layers and being all uncomfortable. I got a couple different shirts of varying thickness from Zoot with wind panels on the chest and they're really great for keeping my core warm. Plus they're not bulky like jackets can be.

Also on the run when it's cold a peter heater is key. Need I say more?

And clearly on the bike if you're not blocking the wind you're just asking for trouble. I guess you can keep layering up and you'll stay warm/the wind wont suck all the heat off your body. But you can go lighter when you wind block.

When I bike I don't have super heavy duty insulated booties. But I've found that a couple of warmers on the toes do wonders.

Uh, that's all I got. The pool is still warm...ish.

Any suggestions?