Well it's been long over due, but this has been a busy week. Back to school full time, working 45 hours, and training for the past 10 days straight, it's been tough. Getting back in the water on Wednesday was rough. Having been out of the water for two full weeks was very apparent. I warmed back up to it and managed to swim 2100 yards. I also tried out some new goggles I picked up from Outdoors Inc. I tried the new Speedo Air Seal Tri and the Vanquisher. The Vanquisher was awesome as always and didn't fog at all. The tri goggles were nice with their wide viewing range, but seemed to fog a little quicker than I would have liked. All in all, it was a good day that rounded out with a weight lift, spin class, yoga, and another mile in the Merrell Barefoot Trail Gloves.
Thursday I was finally able to get on my new tri bike. The Slice is great. It is very aero and very fast. The handling is different, but that is to be expected when going back to an aero position after 8 months of regular road riding. The cranks are stiff as expected and the wheels roll very fast. My faith in Shimano was also restored. The Ultegra grouppo and Dura-Ace shifters were super crisp and fast shifting. It worked great. Down in the aero bars it was automatically 24 to 28 mph. It just took off in the aero position. I topped out at 34 mph which is also about the time I was fiddling with my computer and smacked into a pot hole. Surprisingly, the Cosmic's were still pretty true. The base bars came as alloy, even though it was advertised as carbon. That stinks, but it's still light weight. Complete bike with speedplay pedals weighs 19.3 pounds. I wonder how fast I can do a 40K in now? I wonder how fast I could have done Ironman Louisville if I had had this bike? Maybe I could have gone 5 hours instead of 5:21? After all, I did it on a road bike with heavier wheels that weren't aero and the complete bike weighed more too. Makes me wonder. But that's in the past and my day will come. I will put it and myself to the test in the next Ironman.
The Merrell Trail gloves are continuing to be awesome while being terrible at the same time. I am really excited about the changes coming in my stride and the possibility of racing Xterra's in these. The big toe box is great for my wider foot and the soles feel great and do a great of job of helping me with a mid-foot strike. However, they are still killing my legs. I have yet to do any more than a mile in them, and when I do a mile it's all I can do to keep proper form throughout the full mile. It kills my calves. I figured by now I would have adjusted and grown stronger, but no big advances. Granted it's only been a week and a half, but I expected more by now. Hopefully it will come soon and I can put some more serious miles into them. The miles I am doing now are fast though. The mile I did after work yesterday was a 6:37. Not bad for one week of running.
However, the most exciting new thing in my life is the Niner Air 9Carbon. I recently took the Outdoors Inc. demo bike out for a spin. I first did a night ride with co-worker Kenny on it Thursday night. The bike is fast and super light. It keeps it's line around corners and tight single track very well. Being so light helps the handling and maneuvering on the trail too. It's so easy to pick up over logs and to correct a line if a mistake is made. It speeds down the single track so well it was almost unfair to be riding with the guys on 26" full suspension bikes. I did crash once, I chalk it up to the dark and unfamiliarity of the trail. The bars swung around and smacked the top tube because I have it slammed. The bars took a good size chip out of the paint as it scrapped across. We had to undo the bars from the stem to rotate them so we could move the bars back to their proper place without scratching it any more. I was freaking out about it, but have come to terms with it. Like Kenny said, it's a demo bike. It needed to have its first scratch and why not me doing an awesome superman crash on the white trail of the wolf river bottoms. I took the bike out again this morning for a ride before work. I took the same trail system and put up some times that were quicker than I think I have ever done. I did the blue, white, yellow from Lowe's to Walnut Grove in under 15 minutes! Granted that doesn't mean anything to you unless you know the trail system, but I think I usually do that stretch in about 20 minutes. The bike feels great and as I have shown, it can take a beating. The crash and impact shows that the carbon is tough and won't break in a rough crash. That being said, if I had one, I would wrap something protective around the top tube to prevent that from happening again. These rides have pretty much convinced me that I need to get this bike. I truly believe that I will be faster and better on the trails if I am riding this bike. That's what I want and what I need if I really want to win races and win another regional championship.
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