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Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 11:07AM Click here to download or listen!
(Keep repeating to self, "Triathletes are not crazy.")
I interview Chris Hague of Bonzai Sports about all the hydration options on the bike. I follow that with a long episode of The Training Log. Enjoy!
Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 4:46PM Click here to download or listen!
(One of several giant shark sculptures in Port Aransas, TX)
On this episode of ZenTri, we interview Rob Goldman about the Ironman trademark. Find out what counts as infringement, what doesn't, and everything in between.
After that, we have lots of audio from our surfing trip to Port Aransas, TX. "Port A" is a great little surf town on a coastal island, full of outdoor fun.
(Kai standing up on a surfboard for the first time.)
I should also note that we took delivery of our new Suunto Ambit 2 S. We are going to have Emily use this one for her training for the Austin 70.3. I'll use a regular Suunto Ambit 2 for my own events. Lots of great gadget testing to come!
(The red matches her bike, which is apparently very important.)
Back to Port A, you can't go long without noticing everybody is driving golf carts to get around the island. We eventually had to rent one ourselves.
(Skizzle on the rizzle, yo.)
And it wasn't long until we found ourselves in a headwind, which makes all the aero position training come in handy.
Texas Beaches are a little unusual in that you can drive down most of them. You pull up your car to where you want to surf/swim and have at it. Also, Texas beaches are some of the cleanest in the USA. Oddly, California beaches have far more contamination. I believe it has to do with the fact that you can't build or live too close to a Texas beach without Mother Nature shoving a Cat 5 hurricane down your throat in no time flat.
And for the gratuitous family beach shot, here's photographic evidence of just how much I improved my family's gene pool by convincing Emily to marry me. I know this because my parents remind me frequently.
Ok, on to some triathlon stuff! Here's a couple of screen shots of my surfing sessions as recorded by GPS on my Suunto Ambit.
You can tell where I caught a wave to ride it in, then paddled back out again. The line is colored by speed. All this was done in Movescount's "surfing" mode. Pretty cool!
That's it for now, more later. Much more!
Monday, May 27, 2013 at 8:55AM 
The Suunto Ambit comes with an app store that allows you to customize the watch with all kinds of cool data readings. So, I built an App for the Ambit that calculates how much longer you have left on the bike during your Ironman race. This is far better than only knowing how long you have been out there or just how many miles you have gone.
The app takes the average speed of your current lap, figures out how many miles you have ridden, then applies your average speed against the distance remaining. In the example above, I was two hours into a three hour ride, and it calculated that it would take nearly 3.5 more hours for me to finish 112 miles.
This is a much smarter way to race Ironmans. How much time is left is what you are trying to calculate anyway when you look at chrono, average speed, and current speed. This does all that mental heavy lifting for you, live.
When you know how much time is left, you get a reality check that this is going to be a LOOOOONG bike ride and to pace yourself. You also can evaluate the amount of fuel and water you have left, which is where a lot of people get into trouble.
Below, I took a photo of another screen that is pretty typical of what people usually show.
You can see that I'm 40 miles in, my heart rate is low from stopping to take the shot, and my time elapsed.
But I can get to the first screen with a single button push, telling me that I will spend another 3+ hours out there to finish 112 miles, it's getting near 10 AM, so let's put on some sun screen. I used this app during Ironman Texas and LOVED it. For example, knowing that I only had another 20 minutes left before I needed to run was fantastic!
Here's what it looks like while you are making in app in Movescount, Suunto's web-based software that controls your watch. Pretty cool - 
Simple inputs tells me how much longer I'm going to be on the bike, based on how far I've gone and how fast my last lap was. If you don't create laps, it will just use your overall average speed. You can move the sliders around and it will show you sample results on the right.
What is super cool is that any app you use on your Ambit will also graph its results when you download the data. From my actual race, here is Ironman Bike Time Remaining decreasing from 7 hours at the start to just 2 minutes near the end (in orange).
You can see how the time would start increasing if I slowed down, but decreased gradually over the entire ride. If you want to look at the app in more detail, you can find it here.
What is amazing is this is only one of around a thousand apps for free in Movescount. And the amount of variables that you can use to make your own apps are mind blowing. If you want the watch to flash its backlight and beep six times every time you climb a hill that is over 10% grade, but less than 11%, I'm pretty sure you could build that.
For example, here's my effort at building a Normalized Power app (for bike power meters).
I eventually got in over my head with all the complicated math, quit, and then found a better one that somebody else had made anyway. (Smart move.)
Any Suunto Ambit can do one app, and the new Ambit 2 and 2 S models can run multiple apps AND can also pick up watts from power meters. Good stuff for sure.
Does this give you some ideas? I bet it does. I've got an Ambit 2 S on the way for Emily to train and race with, and I oredered my own Ambit 2 (longer batter life) for the longer events I like to do. Can't wait. :)
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 8:42AM Download the show or click to play here.
(Getting Kona's helmet fitted the day before the race.)
Listen in to this episode to find out all about one of the hardest races on the Ironman circuit. I also include lots of tips and tricks to make your own racing a succes!
Alright, let's get rolling with some photos and fun... Here are the race results and the logs from my Suunto Ambit watch.
Results (I'm bib #503) - http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/ironman/texas/results.aspx#axzz2UQg2USpK
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move13818982 Swim
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move13819007 Bike
tpks.ws/wRvG Bike with watts in Training Peaks.
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move13819027 Run
Before the race, I ate with Triboomer at Chipotle's. I was hoping for food like you can get at Freebirds like below...
(REAL food from Freebirds.)
But it ended up being a bunch of meat and grease and wheat. I kept telling them to put more veggies on. So much so, they tried to double-charge me for the extra food. How about this? Quit putting on junk and I'll quit asking for more healthy stuff.
(With Triboomer at bike check in)
We went and checked into the hotel. We scored a room with a view over the run course!
(Bucolic now, but this will turn into pure hell for most people in about 24 hours)
I don't have too many photos of before the swim start, but I got some great audio of that in the podcast. Make sure to check it out.
After the swim was over, Emily snapped a good shot of me heading out of the bike. Two good ones, actually.
(Happy to be out of that swim. Total pileup in the water for sure.)
All that white stuff on my leg is sunscreen. Volunteers wipe it all over you and then I like to rub it in while moving on the bike. Maybe I should photo shop that out get a good race photo out of it.
(Later!)
Not only is my aero position really good, but check out how the tail of my helmet is flush with my back. Not getting it close to the back causes a ton of drag. You can do this by wearing it the tiniest bit loose and rotating it back on your head. Just a tiny bit loose, though. You want it to stay in place if you crash!
The heat was absolutely out of control on the run. I slowed down on purpose and chatted with people to try slow down and cool down. Here I am with Devin Brown, who volunteered and was hanging out on the course.
(Wassup, people?!)
Even though the bike is pretty flat and the run is super flat, IMTX is ranked about the 5th hardest Ironman because of the heat. Slowing down on the run was both a choice and pretty much dictated by physics. I simply could not go any faster without exploding like a fireworks stand. People all around me were getting sick, passing out, and just trying to move forward.
In the end, I finished in 12:38. Not a PR, but not bad.
(At the finish line. Feeling fine, but definitely toasted.)
Emily took this after I crossed the finish line. I was fine, but only because I didn't push myself as hard as I wanted to. My eyes are red from contacts, salty sweat, heat, and who knows what. I'm usually not quite that offensive in the face.
The Amrita Bars kit was really, really cool. I loved standing out in that thing. It did chafe me a bunch on the swim, but I never wore it before this race. I think it needed some breaking in to take the edges off. I am definitely wearing it in as many races as possible from here out.
Ok, LOTS more in the podcast. If you enjoyed this, give it a listen.
Friday, May 17, 2013 at 6:55AM Click here to download or listen!
† fastest bike split
