TriSupporter

Happy 5th Anniversary

TriSupporter is celebrating 5 years this month. I can't believe it's been 5 years since Rianman started on the Ironman journey and I started on the TriSupporter road. Since we started, Rianman has completed two Ironman races and a number of halfs, olympics, road races, and a marathon. We've also cheered on good friends, Marcus and Bob, who began their Ironman journeys and those that continued on theirs, Monty, Kat Anne, and many others.

Rianman has taken a leave of absence as it were from triathlons but we're still TriSupporters! Five years ago, I didn't know where this journey would lead...I just wanted to create a tshirt for a race. And now, this week, this TriSupporter will partake in her first 5k. Wish me luck. And don't worry. I'm not going any further or adding any other sports.

Ding, ding.

Just a TriSupporter

7:17

That's the time I was awakened by a call-not the first-to pick up Rianman due to a flat. Ah blissful,Sunday mornings to sleep in.

2011 Seasons

I've been remiss in updating the blog. For many reasons I guess...after an Ironman, I get lazy. I never did post Rianman's results from IMOO last year - but he did great (I will post on that soon).

Rianman is not racing this year. He actually wasn't planning on racing Tris this year so he could focus on cycling. But that sort of got derailed by a serious medical problem earlier this Spring which required two 5 day long hosital stays and major surgery. He's fine now and was cleared to exercise the last week of May. So he started to work out after three months of nothing. You can imagine how this will turn out.

He began with Insanity - a bootcamp-like daily DVD workout clearly not aimed at 40-somethings. After 4 weeks of Insanity and a few bike rides, he ended up in the Urgent Care when we were out of town. He couldn't move--his back had seize up. Luckily it doesn't appear to be disk related. Nevertheless, it is Rianman's first back injury. Not likely his last.

It's been almost two weeks and he sees a physiatrist tomorrow. This season isn't looking good so it's really good he wasn't planning on racing this year.

But I'm still TriSupporting - our friends are racing and we're cheering when we can. Go Bob, Kat, Monty, Marcus et al!!

Ding Ding

Huh? Huh? Is that the phone?

Rianman and Joe left at 5:30 am for a 75 mile ride. At 6:41 am I was slowly awoken by what took some time to realize was the phone downstairs ringing. I ignored it thinking it would go to voicemail. But then it rang a second 'cycle' and thought "Shit, this is it. This isn't good." and I ran downstairs. If you're a TriSupporter or a cyclist's spouse, you know what I'm talking about.

I got to the phone and saw it was Rianman's phone so I thought, "It's not that bad." It's amazing how much goes through your mind. Then I heard his voice. Whew.

So what happened? Rianman blew a tube on a manhole cover, and lost two tubes trying to change the tire - yeah who knows how that happened. He wanted me to drive down a couple tubes and a pump cause he was also out of CO2 cartridges. He was about 5 miles from home.

I rushed to brush my teeth and put some clothes on and grabbed three tubes, a towel, and the pump and was off. I was still a little fuzzy as I pulled out of the neighborhood and hoped I wouldn't hit the cyclists I came across.

I got to the guys about 20 minutes after the call and Rianman started on his tire. Notice how happy Joe looks. Can you see the pile of tubes on the ground? One was blown. One had a broken stem - who knows why. Not sure what happened to the third one--see below.

The best part was that Joe mentioned he gave Rianman his spare tube...but get this, Joe had a Shrader valve tube. He can't even use that on his tire! He has been carrying around a useless tube for who knows how long. Maybe it was like an umbrella and rain--it never rains when you have one. This is like dumb and dumber on a long ride.

 

After a quick test ride, and a pose with all those tubes, they were ready to get back to the 70 remaining miles of their ride. I learned that I'll probably need to plug the phone in upstairs.

TMI: Chafing

So Rianman's been wearing all things Zoot lately. Well at least the compression tri shorts, active short, socks, calf sleeves and who knows what else. He's been experiencing more than normal chafing as a result of the really long miles he's starting to put on--even around the leg band of the shorts. As a result, he's now a fan of Aquaphor for healing--we never really knew why it was in so many swag bags. Now we do.

You're thinking, "No TMI yet, TriSupporter. What's up?"

Well yesterday as we exited the Target store and walked towards our car in the 100 degree heat, he informed me that his 'frank' is also chafed--probably due to 'frank' placement in the compression shorts. Right about then I wanted to press rewind. But I couldn't. It was out there. And now, sorry honey, it's out for all the world to see.

I guess the lesson is for men to apply Body Glide or Chamois Butter to the 'beans' AND the 'frank'.

(Thanks to Lurch for providing the Frank and Beans euphemism. And no, you don't shave the Frank!)

We all fall down

On Sunday, Rianman went on a 50 miler with neighbor and riding buddy Adam. Rianman made it within 1/2 mile of home when he approached a busy intersection and couldn't get out of his clips in time. There was a car behind him and on the other side.

And there is was...even after 5 years of riding and thousands of miles on the road, he fell over into the grass at a complete stop.

It's happens to everyone. So newbies be warned, you'll have to check your ego at home and just know that it'll probably happen to you too.

Spring Weather F*cks with Training

Last night as I was headed west during evening rush hour and Rianman was preparing to go west for a ride, I noticed the clouds darken and heard reports of hail. As a dutiful TriSupporter not wishing her triathlete to be struck by lightning, I called home and informed him of the threatening weather. The map from about that time doesn't look that impressive and it turned out that if he had gone out, he would have gotten very wet, not electrocuted. But you can't be too careful right?

This isn't the first time training was postponed for weather. This season alone has been pretty tricky what with 11 inches of snow on the first day of Spring, torrential rains on weekends, and cold weather. But it's like this every Spring. I personally can't wait till Summer when the only excuse is hot...okay and maybe a tornado. It is Kansas afterall.

Happy New Year!!

Okay so I'm back. I guess since Rianman took a few months off, so did I. But since he's training for IMOO 2010 I figured I needed to get back in the blogging saddle.

January 1 started with a very very cold run. Rianman, Steve and Andrea (visiting from Lexington KY) went for a 10k led by Coach Ken. It was 7 degrees when they left the house! I should have gotten a pic with them with all their cold weather gear on.

Overheard...

A fly on a wall of house in Fairway, KS heard the following at about 5 am.

Man: [moves around in bed]

Woman: [sleepily] Where are you going?

Man: No, I just got back from swimming.

Woman: What time is it?

Man: 4:45 am.

Woman: You're a f&cking idiot.

Man and woman don't awake again till 7:30 am.

The life of a triathlete and a TriSupporter.

Oh yippee...Triathlete Magazine's Swimsuit issue is here

I opened the mailbox yesterday and it was full of magazines including a Martha Stewart Living that I never requested. Under that was the monthly Triathlete magazine which I just left on the foyer table. When Rianman got home, I tossed it over to him to tell him his new Tri Mag came. The cover finally caught my eye...it was the dreaded swimsuit issue.

This edition gets a lot of mail complaining about it and in support of it. In years past the letters to the editor in the edition that follows include comments from women in support of the issue and men who complain. I guess that's fair--you were probably expecting women complaining and men not, that happens too. Personally, I don't care if they have one but they should have some groundrules:

1. Models should be triathletes pro or amateur (and doing one sprint doesn't count).
2. Models should wear what they would wear in a triathlon.
3. There should an equal ratio of men to women .

I'll explain each groundrule in more detail.

1. Of course the models should be triathletes...the magazine is about triathletes and triathlons. Any magazine can hire a bunch of models to wear swimsuits. I've seen models that I doubt are triathletes in Tri Mag's swimsuit issue--ugh. This isn't SI...we know those ladies aren't athletes but they aren't supposed to be. This is not a general sports enthusiasts' magazine so the models should represent the epitome of the target market. (Tri Mag did a better job of this this year.) Oh, can I say..all natural would be a plus here.

2. Tiny bikinis? Really??? I haven't seen a female triathlete run in a string bikini...the day I do is the day I think they should have them as part of the swim suit issue. Also why are the women in tiny bikinis but the men are always wearing a tri top. I see many men come out of the swim without one...Rianman is one of those men. Some male triathletes have awesome bodies...I'd like to see them without the tri top on. You can keep the shorts on though...no one wants to see more than you can already see in a spandex tri bottom.

3. I know tris are heavily dominated by men and the target audience for the magazine is men. But, as the person who actually maintains Rianman's subscription...I read it too and I would appreciate a little eye candy. I put up with a lot...throw me a bone...er...you know what I mean. Plus for all the female triathletes out there, don't they deserve more than one male model?

So...maybe you thought I would be indignant and up in arms about the issue...did I surprise you? I'm not one to cancel the subscription like people say they will, but I just think a few guidelines would minimize the annual debate and gain some fans. But maybe Tri Mag is smarter than we think...they welcome the debate. Can't hurt but sell more copies right?