So I accidentally forget to put on chamois cream before a couple of rides recently. Yeah, I know, bad idea.
I was out the door and just about on the pavement when I remembered, but said, "Screw it. It won't be that bad." Um, it's that bad. I know there's a reason that a put on chamois cream every day. I guess a reminder every once in a while isn't so bad. Even with really nice bike shorts the cream's pretty important.
Back in the day during roller skiing practice we'd through vasoline under the armpits to fight body chaffing. And that actually worked pretty well. Works pretty well on the groins too.
But since doing Tris I've started using Body Glide which is my overall favorite. A couple of years ago they changed the packaging and I swear they changed the formula and i don't like it as much but it still seems to be the most versatile and consistent product to date. Plus it's pretty cheap. 8 bucks for a stick and it lasts for many a swipe. And while vasoline works fairly well it's a little to sticky and sloppy.
I recently bought a tube of Chamois Butt'r. Works okay, but doesn't seem to hold up really well in all day situations or through the swim portion of Tri's. However the big plus is the tube format. You can squeeze a whole butt load of this stuff into your hand (and then your loins) and the quantity factor def seems to count for something. (I'm not sure about the larger dose in practice, but squeezing half a cup of goop into your draws sure makes you feel like you're going to have a smooth ride!)
Taking a hard stick of Body Glide and trying to rub it all over your goodies just isn't as pleasurable. In fact isn't not very pleasurable at all, and much less so when you're doing it in a parking lot before a race, with people around.
Any who, the other product I've used recently with even less success is Assos's Chamois Cream. I tried to blob it on but found that it didn't have much tenacity and wore out quickly. On the up side the witch hazel is tingly and cooling, and that's nice. Plus it reports healing properties and a whole list of stuff but I don't really buy it. I tried to rub it all over my chamois before my ride like they kind of suggest, but still with lack luster results. They suggest using this product to keep your chamois supple after your wash your shorts. But this stuff's also too expensive for that. In my book 20 bucks is too steep for keeping your chamois soft when you're not wearing your bibs and then having to come riding side saddle. I think I'll mix in some Gold Bond with my Body Glide and save a couple of bucks.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Ahhh, that's a win!
I raced the Give Peace A Tri race yesterday. For its third year, it's a well run local triathlon over near Keene, NH. It's capped at 200 participant, but could most likely pull in more. Clean swim in Surry mountain lake, pretty flat short 8 mile bike and a senic '3 mile' run with one little pop of a hill.
I got in the water a little late for my warm up and barley got back to the swim start when the horn went off. That was a little crazy and poorly timed (since when do these races start on time?) I remember last year's swim being a short 1/4 mile around one maybe two buoys. But I think they got a couple more markers and stretched the swim out this year. This was the first swim where I could really tell how many people were ahead of me and about how far up they were, that was kind of cool. Despite the hectic start I managed to get in a groove as best I could.
I came out of the water 5th and had a smooth T1 'till I jumped on the bike and heading up the steep hill out of transition couldn't get my foot on my right shoe. I like thinking that putting my shoes on while I'm biking is a faster way to go. But the last couple of races it's been a little tricky sliding my feet in or finding the top of my shoe as I jump on the bike. It's definitely the way to go with long transition areas or longer races. But with short races and short transition areas shoes before bike might be the way to go.
I passed the good swimmers quickly on the bike and then focused in on the leader Don Mills. For most of the bike I could see him but could do little to pull him and his road bike in. Turns out he's a roadie that's moving over to Tri's and it shows after he threw down that ride without so much as aero bars.
In and out of T2 with a couple of seconds gained on Mills. For the first half of the run he was right there in front of me, oh so close, but I didn't seem to be gaining any time on him. Then we hit a little dirt road stretch with the pop of a hill and I started closing the gap. I ran behind him for a while waiting to see how he would hold up. I put in a small attack with a little more than a mile to go but with nothing doing. I poured it on 400 yards before the last turn and the downhill stretch into the finish. Mills hung tough for about 300 yards and then finally started to lose some steps. That allowed little relief through the home stretch and I had to keep checking my shoulder.
Battling it out and coming up with a Win was/is a really good feeling . It finally makes triathlon feel like a real race and not just a time trial. Pretty exciting I gotta say.
Results haven't been posted yet. (In fact they didn't even have them to post after the race, which was a little lame. They got to work on that) But I finished in about 41 minutes. Which is about 3 minutes faster than my time for last year, and 2 minutes faster than the winning time from last year. Plus it seemed to me that the swim was def longer this year.
Also the '3 mile' run is a little dubious in length. I put down a surprising 16:48 last year. Which is possible but fast. But this year my watch looked back with a 15:20. Almost a minute and a half faster than last year! I'll take that. But that would mean 5 minute miles, and I'm just not sure that I'm pulling those off yet.
All and all a really fun race (winning is definitely fun!) with lots of good cheering support (Thanks Mom, Dad, Miche, Sarah, Ben, Liz and that over friendly guy you all made friends with). It makes it a lot more fun to have people out there to race for.
Of note is the TEAM WELLS relay team: Michelle's first Aquaman experience started with a smooth swim and a nasty fast bike. Then my Mom pulled out a ripping 5k race (under 30 min!). Great job guys, it was great to watch you race!
Oh, I almost forgot to add that I made the paper! Check it out here: Keene Sentinel Article
Results will be posted here: Give Peace a Tri
Schwag: A gift certificate for two to lunch at a bistro in Keene (that was for first place)
A stainless water bottle (that was for first in my AG)
I got in the water a little late for my warm up and barley got back to the swim start when the horn went off. That was a little crazy and poorly timed (since when do these races start on time?) I remember last year's swim being a short 1/4 mile around one maybe two buoys. But I think they got a couple more markers and stretched the swim out this year. This was the first swim where I could really tell how many people were ahead of me and about how far up they were, that was kind of cool. Despite the hectic start I managed to get in a groove as best I could.
I came out of the water 5th and had a smooth T1 'till I jumped on the bike and heading up the steep hill out of transition couldn't get my foot on my right shoe. I like thinking that putting my shoes on while I'm biking is a faster way to go. But the last couple of races it's been a little tricky sliding my feet in or finding the top of my shoe as I jump on the bike. It's definitely the way to go with long transition areas or longer races. But with short races and short transition areas shoes before bike might be the way to go.
I passed the good swimmers quickly on the bike and then focused in on the leader Don Mills. For most of the bike I could see him but could do little to pull him and his road bike in. Turns out he's a roadie that's moving over to Tri's and it shows after he threw down that ride without so much as aero bars.
In and out of T2 with a couple of seconds gained on Mills. For the first half of the run he was right there in front of me, oh so close, but I didn't seem to be gaining any time on him. Then we hit a little dirt road stretch with the pop of a hill and I started closing the gap. I ran behind him for a while waiting to see how he would hold up. I put in a small attack with a little more than a mile to go but with nothing doing. I poured it on 400 yards before the last turn and the downhill stretch into the finish. Mills hung tough for about 300 yards and then finally started to lose some steps. That allowed little relief through the home stretch and I had to keep checking my shoulder.
Battling it out and coming up with a Win was/is a really good feeling . It finally makes triathlon feel like a real race and not just a time trial. Pretty exciting I gotta say.
Results haven't been posted yet. (In fact they didn't even have them to post after the race, which was a little lame. They got to work on that) But I finished in about 41 minutes. Which is about 3 minutes faster than my time for last year, and 2 minutes faster than the winning time from last year. Plus it seemed to me that the swim was def longer this year.
Also the '3 mile' run is a little dubious in length. I put down a surprising 16:48 last year. Which is possible but fast. But this year my watch looked back with a 15:20. Almost a minute and a half faster than last year! I'll take that. But that would mean 5 minute miles, and I'm just not sure that I'm pulling those off yet.
All and all a really fun race (winning is definitely fun!) with lots of good cheering support (Thanks Mom, Dad, Miche, Sarah, Ben, Liz and that over friendly guy you all made friends with). It makes it a lot more fun to have people out there to race for.
Of note is the TEAM WELLS relay team: Michelle's first Aquaman experience started with a smooth swim and a nasty fast bike. Then my Mom pulled out a ripping 5k race (under 30 min!). Great job guys, it was great to watch you race!
Oh, I almost forgot to add that I made the paper! Check it out here: Keene Sentinel Article
Results will be posted here: Give Peace a Tri
Schwag: A gift certificate for two to lunch at a bistro in Keene (that was for first place)
A stainless water bottle (that was for first in my AG)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
XTERRA Rant
Okay, so clearly I'm not gonna be happy with dropping out of my first race ever. And because of a stupid broken chain none the less. But let me just list a couple of other things that are crappy about XTERRA.
90 bucks for an off road race. 90 bucks!!! There's no police detail, no road permit fees. I'm down with paying for a good race that is safe and well run. But dude, seriously, for a race that doesn't even have chip timing. Come on. There must be a butt load of fees to pay to the XTERRA peeps.
Due to no chip timing and the havoc that waves starts would wreak upon the stopwatch holders there was one big ol' funky mass start.
....Which is actually kind of cool, because then you know how you're doing against everyone in the race. So that part I liked, but it still sucked because I paid 90 bucks and had to drop out.
And seriously who's good at off road triathlons any way? Notice how all the really good triathletes do regular road triathlons and then jump into XTERRA races and throw down? And how'd Conrad do in Hawaii ironman last year? Huh?
Naw, I bet some of those guys are still pretty nasty athletes. But XTERRA is so the Busch league. Kind of fun, and hard, but so the red-headed step brother.
I'm hoping to give another one a shot later this summer and have a change of heart (and a chain tool).
90 bucks for an off road race. 90 bucks!!! There's no police detail, no road permit fees. I'm down with paying for a good race that is safe and well run. But dude, seriously, for a race that doesn't even have chip timing. Come on. There must be a butt load of fees to pay to the XTERRA peeps.
Due to no chip timing and the havoc that waves starts would wreak upon the stopwatch holders there was one big ol' funky mass start.
....Which is actually kind of cool, because then you know how you're doing against everyone in the race. So that part I liked, but it still sucked because I paid 90 bucks and had to drop out.
And seriously who's good at off road triathlons any way? Notice how all the really good triathletes do regular road triathlons and then jump into XTERRA races and throw down? And how'd Conrad do in Hawaii ironman last year? Huh?
Naw, I bet some of those guys are still pretty nasty athletes. But XTERRA is so the Busch league. Kind of fun, and hard, but so the red-headed step brother.
I'm hoping to give another one a shot later this summer and have a change of heart (and a chain tool).
Coming down is the hardest part
On my list of athletic goals is to tackle as many state summits as possible. I think for now that pretty much means New England and New York and I'll take it from there. But I hiked up Mt. Greylock last fall and am looking for more.
After a disappointing attempt at Four Gaps up in Warren and a mechanical DNF on Sunday morning I decided to knock off Vermont's Mt. Mansfield in the afternoon.
Coming from the north side I drove up over the pretty crazy smugglers gap road (Scenic route 108). The cliffs and mountains that rise up above the road are pretty amazing and distracting. The boulders that determine the road's windy course are equally impressive but turn out to be more of a hazard while you're driving too fast and trying to look up at the gnarly crags.
Down on the Stowe side of the gap I parked at the hard to find trail head for the Long Trail and started on up. In my mind this is my perfect idea of a challenging hike; Very few flat sections, lots of rocks to work up and plenty of hand over foot sections. But in reality I had no pop in my legs and it turned out to be a very slippery, quick, not so fun walk up the mountain. I covered the 2.7 miles, and what must have been a couple thousand feet, in just about an hour. The top was covered in clouds. I caught a couple passing views of the valleys below, some fluids and half a powerbar and turned around.
I recently got a pair of GoLite Sun Dragon trailer runners that look pretty bitchin. The aggressive lug was reason enough to buy them. They're actually really great for trail running. But they really suck on rocks. Particularly really wet rocks. It's like having half a dozen slippery little spikes under your foot. Soooo not the right shoes for my hike. The whole hike was pretty much on rocks. Rained on, cloudy, misty, damp rocks.
Cautiously back down to the car in a little under 40 minutes. I thought that a round trip a bit under 1:50 was a good way to top off an otherwise disappointing athletic weekend. My ITB's and quads are still a little sore due to all the eccentric loading from coming down the mountain. But it's great to have another mountain crossed off the list.
After a disappointing attempt at Four Gaps up in Warren and a mechanical DNF on Sunday morning I decided to knock off Vermont's Mt. Mansfield in the afternoon.
Coming from the north side I drove up over the pretty crazy smugglers gap road (Scenic route 108). The cliffs and mountains that rise up above the road are pretty amazing and distracting. The boulders that determine the road's windy course are equally impressive but turn out to be more of a hazard while you're driving too fast and trying to look up at the gnarly crags.
Down on the Stowe side of the gap I parked at the hard to find trail head for the Long Trail and started on up. In my mind this is my perfect idea of a challenging hike; Very few flat sections, lots of rocks to work up and plenty of hand over foot sections. But in reality I had no pop in my legs and it turned out to be a very slippery, quick, not so fun walk up the mountain. I covered the 2.7 miles, and what must have been a couple thousand feet, in just about an hour. The top was covered in clouds. I caught a couple passing views of the valleys below, some fluids and half a powerbar and turned around.
I recently got a pair of GoLite Sun Dragon trailer runners that look pretty bitchin. The aggressive lug was reason enough to buy them. They're actually really great for trail running. But they really suck on rocks. Particularly really wet rocks. It's like having half a dozen slippery little spikes under your foot. Soooo not the right shoes for my hike. The whole hike was pretty much on rocks. Rained on, cloudy, misty, damp rocks.
Cautiously back down to the car in a little under 40 minutes. I thought that a round trip a bit under 1:50 was a good way to top off an otherwise disappointing athletic weekend. My ITB's and quads are still a little sore due to all the eccentric loading from coming down the mountain. But it's great to have another mountain crossed off the list.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Well that was fun
I ran by Living Memorial Park last Friday just as the lane lines were being pulled out for the summer Bratt swim team swim practice. I stopped and asked if the lanes are up when practice is over. Turns out there's a lane up all afternoon and evening.
It was a beautiful afternoon and I decided to see how the swimming was at LMP. Feeling a little out of place in my speedo I made my way into the pool as quickly as I could. There was like a bajillion kids running around, eating notchos, splashing in the pool, jumping off the diving board etc. But, I mean who cares what a bunch of teens and grade schoolers (and some parents and guards) really think right? Yeah....Not unless you're wearing a speedo.
Any way.
The pool was pretty kicking. Not that I dislike the Craponial. But this pool felt so clean and fast. Granted being the public town pool with more kids than a J.T. concert, there was probably a very large urine to chlorinated water ratio. But I tried to block that out and enjoy the sun and open sky and fast water.
The pool's only open 'till the end of August, but man what a treat to be pulling laps out side. Plus there was only one large black girl that ducked under water to watch me swim by every lap. Bonus!
It was a beautiful afternoon and I decided to see how the swimming was at LMP. Feeling a little out of place in my speedo I made my way into the pool as quickly as I could. There was like a bajillion kids running around, eating notchos, splashing in the pool, jumping off the diving board etc. But, I mean who cares what a bunch of teens and grade schoolers (and some parents and guards) really think right? Yeah....Not unless you're wearing a speedo.
Any way.
The pool was pretty kicking. Not that I dislike the Craponial. But this pool felt so clean and fast. Granted being the public town pool with more kids than a J.T. concert, there was probably a very large urine to chlorinated water ratio. But I tried to block that out and enjoy the sun and open sky and fast water.
The pool's only open 'till the end of August, but man what a treat to be pulling laps out side. Plus there was only one large black girl that ducked under water to watch me swim by every lap. Bonus!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A win is a win....I guess
But when you win by a 10% margin, get lost for 4 minutes on the run and are in a first year race with only 80 people it somehow doesn't feel so special.
Arguably I've worked hard to be able to go as fast as I went. But I've been wanting to win a triathlon for a long time and it just doesn't seem to have that luster to it.
But my run felt really good and that's a positive sign. I had the fastest swim split and I think that'll be the only time that'll ever, I repeat EVER, happen. The Tolland sprint was a good race and I figured out a couple of things, so it was a good day.
Results are here: Tolland Sprint
Shwag: A bottle of '06 Sterling Vintner's Collection Chardonnay and a paper first place certificate
I also raced in the Putney Mountain bike race on Sunday.
Another pretty decent day on the ponies. I came through with a muddy 2nd place. The skies opened up (and I'm talking serious down pour, inch and a half of rain) on the 3rd of three laps and turned the dusty trails to slick mud. I was ridding Cary Fridrich's wheel for the first two laps and planed on making a move before the beginning of the technical section on the last lap. But he kept pushing harder than I felt like ridding on the ups. Kind of demoralizing to let some one take off because you don't feel like hurting. But after all I'm a triathlete right? Not a mountain biker. Hum.....well, that's what I'm gonna tell my self so I can sleep.
Results are here: Putney MTB
Shwag: A pair of west hill socks size medium and a Silver root 66 medal
Arguably I've worked hard to be able to go as fast as I went. But I've been wanting to win a triathlon for a long time and it just doesn't seem to have that luster to it.
But my run felt really good and that's a positive sign. I had the fastest swim split and I think that'll be the only time that'll ever, I repeat EVER, happen. The Tolland sprint was a good race and I figured out a couple of things, so it was a good day.
Results are here: Tolland Sprint
Shwag: A bottle of '06 Sterling Vintner's Collection Chardonnay and a paper first place certificate
I also raced in the Putney Mountain bike race on Sunday.
Another pretty decent day on the ponies. I came through with a muddy 2nd place. The skies opened up (and I'm talking serious down pour, inch and a half of rain) on the 3rd of three laps and turned the dusty trails to slick mud. I was ridding Cary Fridrich's wheel for the first two laps and planed on making a move before the beginning of the technical section on the last lap. But he kept pushing harder than I felt like ridding on the ups. Kind of demoralizing to let some one take off because you don't feel like hurting. But after all I'm a triathlete right? Not a mountain biker. Hum.....well, that's what I'm gonna tell my self so I can sleep.
Results are here: Putney MTB
Shwag: A pair of west hill socks size medium and a Silver root 66 medal
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Double Up!
I'm no pro triathlete by far. But if a couple years ago you told me I'd be waking up early before work to get a morning swim in I'd have thought you were crazy. Not to mention putting in a full day of work and then getting out on the road in the afternoon. I used to think the idea of waking up at 5 to get in the pool before work was nuts. I still do.
That said I'm lucky that the Craponial doesn't open 'till 6, otherwise I might be getting up earlier. And getting up at 6 really isn't too bad (most mornings).
I guess I'm just a bit surprised that I've started to do something I swore against. I must just be wiser and faster than ever. Huh....
That said I'm lucky that the Craponial doesn't open 'till 6, otherwise I might be getting up earlier. And getting up at 6 really isn't too bad (most mornings).
I guess I'm just a bit surprised that I've started to do something I swore against. I must just be wiser and faster than ever. Huh....
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