TriSupporter

Read a follow up to an story about an inspiring athlete who finished Ironman CDA.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/an-update-from-an-ironman-and-oprah/

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

Kansas 70.3 eve

Had a great pre race dinner for Bob. He's hours from his first 70.3 and Rianman and I are looking forward to cheering on him and all the other triathletes tomorrow. I'm surprised how much more relaxing it is cheering for good friends compared to cheering for your spouse. But I'm still so excited for the experience that he and his wife will go through. Also glad to sleep in a bit more.

Best of luck Bob. Have fun and don't take too long, ok?

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Too cold

Saw a cyclist on my way home from shopping today. The person looked like he was struggling up a hill..I mean this person was barely moving. I thought the bike would just fall over. It looked like the person might be having problems with the bike. As I got closer and closer I realized the cyclist was my husband.

I pulled up next to him and asked if he wanted to throw the bike in the car but like a trooper (idiot) he said no. He did admit maybe riding the fixie on a windy day was not a good idea. It was also 32 degrees when he left.

There is a perfectly good trainer in the basement...I'll remind him.

Starbucks welcomes Ironman

IMOO 2010 Here we come

Bike tune up - check
Race day gear bag - check and double-check
Workout clothes bag - check
Cold weather clothes bag - check
Non-race clothes - check
Reservations for dinner - check
Chairs in a bag - check
Dog sitter - check
TriSupporter SWAG - check
Checklist on iPad - check

Just need to gas up and load the car and we're on our way...Chasing Ironman Again

1300

That's Rianman's bib number for Ironman Wisconsin. I guess there's no going back now. I plan on using Twitter again to send updates during the race. Now how do I Tweet again???

The work to prep has already started. An initial packing list was created this past weekend while Rianman watched people cross the finish line at IM Louisville. He assures me he will not be needing to do any overnight orders from Hammer or TriSports or anywhere else for that matter. Check back to see if that holds up.

This weekend we pack. My goal is to get it all ready so that on Thursday morning at 5:30 am, we just load the car and move out without a second thought. Keeping my fingers crossed the plan goes off without a hitch.

Counting down, ding ding.

 

Whatever happened to simple tools?

As the sherpa bike mechanic in my house (that's not saying much), I have now been confronted with the third instance of instructions telling me to use a torque wrench. Who the heck has a torque wrench??? I'm already spending a lot of money on these accessories and now I need a special tool? Why can't these come like my furniture--with little allen wrenches and instructions to 'hand tighten'?

The first time I was instructed to use a torque wrench was when installing the XLab Carbon Wings. We gave up and brought Lola to the bike shop to have it properly installed--since I didn't have a torque wrench and we didn't want the whole thing to fall off on a long ride.

The second time was when trying to install a similar product on the road bike. Again, I said 'screw it. Bring it to the shop.' Not only did I not have the torque wrench but I couldn't get my tools into the tight spot needed. Let someone else do it.

Last night, I came face to face with 'using a torque wrench, tighten to 30 pounds'--UGH. This time I was installing the new XLab Torpedo mount which mounts between the aero bars so you can then mount a cage for a traditional water bottle.

Well installing the mount is easy...a small flat piece of carbon and four Velcro straps are all that's needed to get it on the aerobars. The torque wrench comes in when mounting the cage (we chose Chimp) to the mount. Needless to say, it was 8pm at night and although this product has been sitting around the house for over a week, it had to be installed. So, I hand tightened the bolts and told Rianman to hope for the best.

He's on his ride now. Let's hope my hand tighten is something close to 30 pounds of torque.

Jackson County Tri 2010 in the Record Books

Yesterday I joined Lurch, Christy, and Candie to cheer on Rianman and Bob (we need to get him a nickname like Crazy Bob) as they raced the Long Course Jackson County Triathlon. The Long Course is just a hair shorter than an Olympic with each event being a bit off from a regular Olympic distance. It was a hot day for a race despite starting out foggy.

This was Bob's first Long Course and he did great even though he said it kicked his butt. Next time, he'll be the one kicking butts. Photo: Bob is in the middle and Lurch is on the left and Rianman is on the right.

Rianman had a goal to PR his 2008 showing by improving on the bike and maintaining the run pace. Well he did set his Personal Record (PR) on the course by just under 6 minutes--yeehaw!! When I searched the results (which took a painfully long time to appear online--c'mon people it's all computers) and saw he finished 51 out of 201 Age Groupers, I said, "That can't be right." But indeed, I underestimated my man. He was 8th in his age group and rocked the bike with a 21.5 mph pace besting his previous race by 3 mph. That of course took its toll on the run where he ran about a minute per mile slower but he still had a great run with an 8:16 pace.

I think this has been a great season so far with three for three PRs. (CORRECTION: 2 for 3 PRs.) See turning 40 isn't that bad.

Wonder what Madison will hold. Bring it on.