Road bike search is over! Here's the 2011 arsenal...

I finally have a real road bike!  I picked up the deal of the year from a friend of mine and decided to pull the trigger on it.  I'm now the new proud owner of a 2010 Orbea Orca, full Sram Force with integrated BB30 Sram Red Crank set.  This bike is sweet only 2 rides on it by the previous owner and ready for some trainer miles!  I'm soooooo ready for cleared roads!  My first ride will be hill repeats on the Ohio street bridge in St. Paul, I can see it now, sweat on my forehead while I'm dancing on the pedals!!! 

Here's a look at my 2011 Bike arsenal.

Road Bike: 2010 Orbea Orca

My Tri-Bike: 2009 Cervelo P3C Full Dura-Ace:  (This was my Ironman Position, I'm more Aero on it now)

And My Optum Health Performance Fixie:  This is for sale if anyone is interested!

The Search for a Road Bike...

The search has been going on for a couple of months now, my quest to find a reasonably priced road bike for this race season.  I keep second guessing my decision to enter into the world of bike racing due to hearing about crashes in crit races, the costs of getting a tricked out bike, and the fact that I'm just getting into it being on the wrong side of 30.  However, I can't deny myself my passion for biking though, so I must continue on!  I started in triathlon to try out something new and push myself to do other activities besides drinking gin and tonics and working on my biceps.  During the process I fell in love with the competition aspects of the sport and like golf there is always room for improvement.  I also discovered my love for biking.  It's weird how much I like biking (outside not on a trainer), it's a feeling or a connection of me, my bike, and all my surroundings.  I know it sounds funny but to me it's therapeutic, just biking out in the country roads and climbing steep hills is my idea of serenity.  

Here's my wants in a road bike:  Carbon Frame, minimum shimano 105 components or better, and looks flippin sweet.  I originally set a $2k budget but that doesn't seem to by much at all and believe me I looked at just about every bike I could buy at a local lbs or on-line.  I even considered piecing a bike together by buying a Chinese made frame and piecing it together then I kept envisioning myself wiping out.  Even after all my searching I still found that $2k wasn't enough!  Here's the top contenders. 

Cannondale Super Six with 105 Groupo
Trek Madone 4.5
Felt F5
Bianchi Something ala Italian

Then I considered aluminum with better components.  Aluminum gets a bad wrap due to the technology advances of carbon fiber but, aluminum has advanced as well but consumer demand had driven most manufacturers towards higher end carbon fiber and almost eliminating that guy on a budget.  The two top contenders in this category were the new Cannondale Caad 10, and the Bianchi Via Narone.  Both very nice bikes and could do what I need but I think I have fallen into the I need carbon realm.  Price points on those two models are at $1300 with Shimano 105 and some heavy ass wheels. 

So where did I end up?  I'm not there 100% yet but a friend of mine might sell me his slightly used Orbea Orca, which is a size 54 which I'm a little worried about the fit being as I'm 5'6 and 1/2 tall.  My Time trial set up see pics is a size 51 and I'm trump tight on it.  Meaning I'm pretty compact on the frame and have maximized the size of the bike.  I hear road bikes you have to size up a bit so maybe I'm just analyzing this too much but 6 months down the road I don't want to feel like I'm stretched out on the bike.  So I'll sleep on it and keep updates here! 

Jersey Shore Season 3

This season of Jersey Shore is the best so far!  The season is only 3 episodes in and it has already had girl fights, random hook ups, Snookie in jail, Ron and Sam fighting, GTL, and all the stuff we love about this show.  It's great to see some of the Situation's and Pauly D's randoms from season one show up at the clubs.  I mean this stuff is hilarious! Last nights bonus episode was so funny they were at Karma their old stomping grounds/trash bag pick up center and out pops Pauly's stalker from season 1 she didn't seem to happy about seeing him and throws a drink in his face.  Then Mike the Situation finds Paula in the club, you may remember her as the ultra drunk chick that was in the hot tub then fell down the stairs when they were going to smash from season 1.  She was at Karma as well and they still had mad chemistry, and well they got to the business.  Deena got tossed out of the club after being there like 10 mins cause she was too drunk and falling off of tables and Snookie and Jwoww were doing their normal drunken stuper stuff in the club. 

Also, in the bonus episode a drunk Snookie and Deena try to convince Mike the Situation to have a threesome and Mike being the opportunist he is decides it a good idea.  They go to the room to 3-way smash but Snookie bails on Deena and the Sitch.  He say it's like you sit down to eat and someone puts a cooked chicken breast in front of you with salt and pepper then pulls the chicken off your plate.  After the 3-way was looking like a 2-way the Sitch pulls a new move called the Kitch'n'switch where he goes down to make some food and ducks in another room to get some sleep leaving he and Deena to a solo night. 

The episode winds down with Snookie on a 24 hr drinking binge and she's just a mess.  She went to work in the same dress she went to the club in and wrapped in a blanket then ducks out to do shots and drink some more.  Then in mid-day she's stumbling all over the board walk looking for the beach and ends up getting arrested.  I really hope she can pull herself together!  Although it is fun watching the train wreck! 

Awesome run work out, and food...

I had a great run workout tonight and one I highly recommend to anyone stuck doing a treadmill run.  If you are anything like me you'll avoid the treadmill at all costs.  Well living in the snowy frozen tundra of Minneapolis we must resort to treadmill runs every once in a while and today was that day.  Too much slush out there for me.

Since getting a cortisone shot 2 weeks ago in my planter fascia, I've managed to up my mileage and frequency of running which is awesome!  So tonight's workout was a 6 mile negative split work out.

5 min warm up

Mile 1: 8:30 pace nice and easy

Mile 2: 8:00 pace still nice and easy

Mile 3: 7:30 pace starting to get the heart rate up

Mile 4: 7:00 pace now it's tough

Mile 5: 6:30 pace huffin and puffin

Mile 6: 6:00/6:18 pace I couldn't hold the 6min so I dropped it down to 6:18 barely holding on but got it done. 

5 min cool down.

Now let's look at some of the choices I made today that negatively impacted this work out primarily being my stop at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, I had the regular cheese burger with fries and that's all I was tasting that whole run!  I wonder if I actually stuck to my nutrition plan longer than 5 days how that would positively impact my performances.  All in all this was an awesome run workout!

Ok, on to food!  Last week my wonderful woman and I actually put together a meal plan for the week and purchased all our food at the beginning of the week.  I was a great week of healthy meals and just eating healthy alone I lost 4 lbs.  Here's a couple highlights.

Turkey burgers on whole grain flat bread with carrot and apple coleslaw.

Freakin Awesome!!!  The slaw had an olive oil and lemon dressing with a little feta cheese.  Low cal and very filling.

Next we made himachi ceviche, chips, black beans, and black berries.

This was an outstanding fresh dish and surprisingly filling.  Coastal Seafood has the freshest fish in the twin cities and the fish actually cooks in the acidity from lime juice.  Really refreshing and brings back memories from Mexico!

zone 1-2 base miles and TV stuff..

So here I am deep in the off season, fighting my urges to eat Davanni's, Chipotle, Taco Bell, White Castle, and just about anything on a dollar menu with a lack of motivation to keep training.  This has always been a tough time for me because I have no races on the books and my coach wants me to do just enough to hold onto my fitness, no speed work, no tough bricks, no intensity.  So I tend to fall off the wagon hard at the end of the season and am always making a come back.  Well this year has been different I'm really trying hard to keep my focus on eating right and making some of these boring base miles fun. I'm trying to really get the most out of the works outs I am doing here's an example of my last few days of work outs.

Saturday: 6 mile run easy 8:30 pace, I started out slower than that but negative split every mile and increased the incline by half a percent each mile.  I still stayed aerobic most of the work out and it kept my mind occupied by having a goal for each mile.

Sunday: 2 hours of Snow Shoeing, even though this was not on my training plan it was great to get outside in the wilderness and get fresh air in my lungs.  My snow shoeing pace was about 2 miles/hr but great work out

Monday:  Strength/Plyo workout, A lot of jumping, one legged jumping, one legged squats while standing on a bosu, etc.  Fun stuff!

Tuesday: Swim 100 TT @ 1:20, 500 TT @ 7:50, and a mixed workout for another 2000 yds.  Anyone who knows me knows that I swim like a one armed man with a rhythm problem. So I have really been working hard on technique specifically the pull and my body and arm position when breathing.

Wed:  Brick workout 45 Mins climbing up the ladder 5 mins in each gear at 90+ cadence, biking is my strength in all three sports and I'm really working on my cycling economy and being more efficient in my pedal stroke (complete circles).  I'm really surprised at how hard you have to concentrate on efficient circles as when it starts getting tough a lot of us have a tendency to just stomp on our pedals.  I followed this up with a easy 1/2 hour run on the tread really focusing on shortening my running stride and increasing my foot turnover speed.  This is really tough! 

To sum it up I'm really focusing on technique and efficiency!  I hope this will pave the way for when I start the base build sections going into the 2011 season.

OK now onto TV Stuff!!!  I'll start off by saying I will watch just about anything reality TV.  Flavor of Love, I love New York, Real Chance at Love, Top Chef, Survivor (I've seen every episode), Real Housewives every location, the biggest looser, etc. etc.

Right now the networks are in the slow season and the only ones I'm paying attention to are The Biggest Looser, Top Chef All Stars, RHBH, RHA.

I'm mixed on this season of the biggest looser, I mean would they show the new trainers already!!!  The twist of the new trainers and the teams that chose to train with them and get 4 weeks immunity right away introduces game play into the season too early.  They automatically make it more about the competition than changing peoples lives.  So far the only 2 characters that are sticking out to me are the gold medalist and the 500 pound blue team guy.  I'll keep watching but just reveal the new f*_ing trainers!

Top Chef All Stars!  As a fan of the show who could ask for anything more!  You get all the past seasons great and their personalities with it.  So far from an elimination standpoint the judges have made some good decisions, but Jamie HAS TO GO!!!  It's like her ass got too big to fly coach and treats everyone like she's all that.  She hasn't shown any depth in her cooking, let's see More Scallops, More Soups, More of the same mediocre shiznit! I really think Angelo even though he's a freak is a top contender!

Real Housewives of Atlanta, where do I start with this season!  Kim Kim Kim uhgg!!!!  No Talent, No Class, Wig Wearing, Chain Smoking fraud!  I can't stand the fact that someone like her gets paid probably very well to do what she does.  Then on top of it her song Don't be Tardy for the Party was a little hit within certain communities, am I the only one hearing this? Come on!  This last episode her warm up to a singing performance was a pack of newports and 2 boxes of Franzia was hilarious I mean who does that?  I hope her for her and her kids that's an act but I have my doubts.

More on TV and English Tailoring to come.

First Blog and a New Year!

Well Happy New Year!!  I hope everyone had a nice new year and are now hard at work with their resolutions!!  This is my first blog ever, I felt inspired to blog about my experiences in training, racing, eating, TV, watching, and give my take on some aspects of men's fashion (limited).  This left me with a tough decision of where to start.....   How about I start by a little bio on my racing history... I started doing Tri/Running in 2007 with no real athletic background.  I had a cruiser hybrid bike, no knowledge of triathlons other than you swim (I didn't know how to do that), bike (yeah how tough is that I had a huffy growing up), and run (one foot in front of the other, check).  Well my rookie 2007 season shouldn't be called that it should be called short muscle bound bumkin wondering around, however I completed 3 triathlons, a few 5k's, a 1/2 marathon, and the NYC marathon.  What I lacked in skill, knowledge, budget, drive to train, I made up in my own drive to get better.  2008 was another year of a few races and acting like I was an athlete but not serious about the sport, but I picked up some training partners and began to understand that there was more to the sport than just showing up race day and wanting a T-shirt. 

2009 was the year I got serious, I bought an expensive bike, signed up for a 1/2 Ironman, and a Full Ironman, and was set on getting better.  I even got a coach and started training with an amazing group of people.  It was a great year of learning, training, racing, and I found a love for biking in it all.  I trained about 17-22+ hours per week for almost a full year and after compleing a number of Sprint tri's, 2 half ironmans, 1 full ironman, I was exhausted and was almost done with this crazy time consuming sport. 

2010 was my year of fun races I basically raced to stay in shape and completed 17 races with one (did not start), I did the TNT Time Trial Series and raced a Tri almost every weekend. It was awesome I finally found my balance, I could still eat anything I wanted and just race the calories off!  It was a great season with a few podiums, a 5k PR, bike split PR's, etc. 

Now's the time when all of us athletes must try to figure out our race calendar is going to look like for the year.  It's exciting but I really don't want to over extend myself this year.  Keeping a balance is key for my own personal sanity!  So here's what I'm thinking so far, Opus Criterium Series Race (This is a series bike race based on points over 6 crits on the same course), Tuesday Night TimeTrial Series (This series has 8 races, I will do 5 individual time trials on the 12 mile hilly course and probably 1-2 Team Time Trials with 2-3 other people, I am still looking at which Tri's I'm interested in, I am thinking about 2 sprints, 2 olympics, and 1 half Ironman. 

I'll post more on which ones I decide on or if you have any strong opinions let me know! 

Posts to come this week:  Reality TV, Off Season Food, Off season training, and mens suits!