From bicycle dork to Tri Geek - to Zombie T.I.T.
Hey there,
So if you have been in personal touch with me any time in the past 6 months, you would know that I have become Triathlon obsessed. Of course all my roadie (and other) friends, are having fun with the jokes… Congratulations on moving from bi- to tri. Etc.
Otherwise you will know from reading this that I have been kicking (dreaming) about the idea of racing Ironman Triathlons for some time, since I used to do them back half a lifetime ago.
Since August I have been getting back in the water- my first times swimming in 15 years. I have gone from having my skinny arms cramp up after 25 yards, and struggling back to shore, to … well I still have a ways to go, but swimming 28km last week is helping to get me in the direction I want to go.
Cyclists do tend to poke a lot of fun at triathletes, but triathletes should not feel special about this, because as a road racer you spend all day in the sun, making fun of everything, though people in short shorts, and mis-matched clothing and chain grease marks on their arms do make themselves especially easy targets.
All digs aside, I have much more respect for my fellow Tri-geeks, training is frickin brutal. I am destroyed. Dehydrated. Yesterday I had to sit in my room alone for a few minutes and weep from simple fatigue. And that wasn’t even the day that my abdominals cramped up FROM UNTYING MY SHOES!
Because pools have lights in them, somehow it’s necessary to wake up at the butt crack (before the butt crack by my old definition) of the morning to swim. Cycling… well I can do that, and have been doing that in my frothing zombie state. I have been a wind up riding doll for years, so … go the pedals turn, I’m not loosing sleep about that.
But running. Simple right? We all did that seconds after walking. Somehow running, with the combination of cycling 
just shreads your legs. Compression stockings (yes a new high in fruity fashion) ice baths, and foam rolling, tension massage are 100% necessary if you wish to function the next day. And trust me the next day will be 5-7.5h of the same all over again.
What really helps is that I am training with some of the best, and a truly amazing team at Personal Best. You can come down a join Sean (Sean’s more chipper on blogging, so you will probably read more about me there than here!) and I for some high quality training, as well as experts in really every aspect of the sport (my swim time has already halved itself). There is simply no way that I could get in training like this on my own. The C3 crew, which has made a huge difference having floggers and flogee’s to train with… the more the merrier, hopefully I will see you at some of these camps, or
Yeah, those 2XU clad tri geeks are tough. Take it from me your resident Triathlete in Training (the TIT).
Also a HUGE thanks has to go out to Scott & Emery, as well as the Levines who have looked after housing us here in Tucson. Perfect weather, unreal running trails (think star wars speeder chase through giant cactus), and Mt Lemmon to ride with. I actually spent some time last week pedaling with Tom Danielson who was in town ultimately honing his Tour de France form.
Of course the group of people I am racing with are truly amazing. One of the biggest draws for me is the positive atmosphere of the group, which essentially is the National Training Center for Ontario. Of course being Canada there is no National funding for it and to make the budget work we all need to fund-raise $4K per person to make the season actually pan out.
I have raised exactly $0 to date. The organization is a legitimate charity, and I have the forms that you can fill out so that you will get money back at tax time. I will of course be able to get shout outs, do speaking engagements, and will be getting signed photo’s out. If that’s not enough top donors will get personalized autographed stuff from Simon. The gist is that it’s all good people, we’re thankful for the opportunities, and will make sure that you’ll be looked after.
