Be the Crow

Buenos dias, mis amigos! I've been waiting a long time to put out a show like this one: A nice bike ride upon the new BMC while playing a ton of voicemails and then handing over the reigns to Drew so that our Virtual Host from the West Coast can take us along with him on his Oregon commute. I almost get run off the road, the Triborg5000 introduces a new segment, and there's so much more, you'll have to listen in and follow the shownotes below!  (CLICK HERE TO LISTEN)

• Out on studio 2B - THE BMC, BABY!


• Got spooked by crazy drivers and my new bike.


• I'm out on a 2 hour wattage ride, but went for 3.


• Listening to Intransitduo.


• A little saddle sore since I haven't been riding enough lately.


• Call the Gizmo line (512-CRY-DELI) for the "Found in the Road" segment that Jetpack will be using. I found a bottle of chocolate milk and a 2x4.


• I screwed up my workout schedule. Mike Ricci set me straight.


• Shoutbox on Triscoop.com is the collective consiousness of the triathlon community.


• I almost had mental breakdown over trying to workouts in during this crappy weather.


• Had a breakthrough run - 9 miles at a 10 minute mile pace with HR of 137 and pushing the baby jogger the whole time. w00t!


• Zipp wheels seem to make riding into the wind as easy as riding with it.


• My first experience on riding on a trainer at home.


• New show segment! Tri-Tips with the Triborg5000! Call the Gizmo Line and ask your question.


• Triborg5000 calls out Jetpack in a delusional fit.


• I'm on Corporate Radio talking about Geocaching amongst other things.! Not much better than podcasting.


• We got Netflix instead of Blockbuster and love it! My current fav is Scanners.


• How to get people to evacuate a shower.


• Voicemails!


• Dan from Davis, CA. talking about his 28 mile training runs.


• I become delusional and think I'm one with a crow.


• Robert from Chicago calls in about IceIceBaby.


• Martin Strehl and Tour of California updates.


• Wolfmother's "Collosal" is a great running song.


• My evil twin Jason calls in about Trivantage.


• Triboomer congratulates Emily on her half Marathon.


• Richard returns Fembot's call about the Puma H Streets.


• I go over the statistics from my ride on the Powertap.


• Measuring wattage is like knowing how much weight you're lifting at the gym.


• Drew finishes out the show riding in the snow in Oregon.


• Drew uses Night Rider light, a Craft jacket, and blinky lights on the bar ends.


• How to bike to work.

Tri-Fidelity

We throw down some mad Tri Science as the director of Trivantage holds a conference call and tell us what our testing results mean.

That's right, Alex from Trivantage pulls in myself, Trigreyhound, and Prof. Erich to tell us where we rock, where we suck, and how to improve. It's a must listen for all of you interested in the real science behind endurance fitness. Not only that, but I detail some of the science that went into the making the phone call happen and I play music from our good friend MC Plus +, a bona-fide Computer Science Gangsta Rapper from Purdue University.

Below is the show notes and links to my testing results so you can follow along.

• I intro the show after finishing a 40 minute trail run with the fam.


• I average out Saturday's workouts to equal 56% of an Ironman (SCIENCE!)


• We all drop in on the conference call and Alex tells us how to train better based on the results.


• Show outtro is End Of File by MC Plus +.

Overall stats.

Cycling results.

Running results.

Alex's results just to embarrass us.
Black, Alexander - Aerobic Cycling Test - 2006-12-20.pdf

Austin Half Marathon Review

We cover the 3M half marathon the way only Zentri can, BY DOING IT! My beautiful triathlete wife Emily takes on the beast in near freezing temps as Kai and I wait for her at the halway point and the finish line. We also meet up with two other listeners and talk shop and then I interview some Kenyans who say their 65 minute run time is "slow". As always, check out the show notes below for details and you can also listen to the show HERE.

Show Notes -

• I'm waiting at the halfway point and comment on seeing a former coworker the night before and the simplicity of running.


• Emily is running with another female friend.

• She is using my Suunto T-6. Here's the graph of her run - with HR. Click on it to be taken to a bigger image.


• Emily calls the Gizmo 512-CRY-DELI hotline from the start.


• I talk to Triscooper Fembot while waiting for Emily at the halfway point.


• Emily stops by and she checks her blood sugar and gets juice out of the car.


• Kai and I hit Genuine Joe's for coffee and breakfast burritos.


• Triscooper Armadillo and I wait for Emily at the finish line.


• I interview some Kenyans back at the hotel.


• Emily recaps the race while sitting atop her bike on the trainer.


• I play "Beautiful Life" by the Peach Stealing Monkeys.

What fueled Endurance Radio?

Endurance Radio (Also known as Enduranceplanet.com) announced recently that it has been sold to other holders, namely Kevin Patrick and USA Triathlon. As a listener to the program, a podcaster, and as a former guest, I find the sale to be quite interesting.

If you listen closely, you'll notice that old episodes of Endurance Radio were sponsored by Gatorade. I believe Gatorade wasn't too sweet on the early numbers and didn't re-up the sponsorship. Tim, the former owner, hit up the big boys too soon. A while later, big hosters like Libsyn, GoDaddy, and Podshow join the party and people like Tim and I can produce unlimited downloadable shows for nearly nothing. With bandwidth costs next to zero, who really needs big sponsors now? Gatorade was also very short sighted and bailed too soon. They've missed out on being a head badge on a pretty swell product. But Gatorade is just a company, full of executives without the ability or will to adapt quickly, while people like us are true believers and foresaw that podcasting would be huge.

I'm uninformed of Tim's initial intentions, but he built a community and communities are what's selling hot right now. Flickr, Myspace, Youtube, even Triscoop are all communities on fire with activity. I noticed on his website that it was extremely corporate looking, even though it was really just one guy. That look makes it more appealing for takeover from corporations and I would guess that he was doing that on purpose. The fact that Tim has a bunch of other podcasts and that they are financial makes it safe to assume that he had a lot of bait out there waiting for one to be successful enough to be bought out and he has a strong interest in making money.

Of course, I have no idea what his original interest in why he started Endurance Radio. I did hear him say several times that he had never done a triathlon and you almost never hear him say that he actually was doing anything himself. He did a really good job of making that not obvious. He could be riding his bike 500 miles a week and I wouldn't know.

Was it originally created for him to sell it? I don't know. What do you think?

Trivantage Update

I secured the results from the testing. Scope these PDFs out and imagine yourself getting the same treatment.

Overall stats.

Cycling results.

Running results.

Do you think you would do better or worse right now?