Contemplating the Tri

So I've been posed with this question a few times,

"Why don't you do a triathlon?"

And the answer was typically,

"I hate swimming. And swimming hates me."

The last episode was when I went snorkeling off the coast of Zanzibar. (Yes Zanzibar is a real place.) I couldn't even keep myself a float for long and my friends had to help me not die. I saw like one fish. And drank plenty of salty water. Awesome.

But now I'm kind of considering it. I would def have a lot to work on. Speed, endurance, speed...swimming, swimming fast. It's a lot. I'm not a speedy person. I can go for a long time, but speed is not my thing.

I dunno, still contemplating. We'll see.

Poor Form

Since the MS150 I’ve only taken my bike out a few times and every time has not been so fun. It’s been kind of miserable actually. Within 2 miles of being on the bike I get pain right between my shoulders. Like a sort of inward crunching pain. Makes cycling not so fun to do. So I haven’t been going for very long. I consulted some forums and friends and I think the consensus is poor form.

My Jamis’s bars were a little taller than where I sat, so I could rest my upper body on it without much pain, reach a little, and not have to engage my core. In fact I never used my core to hold myself up. I was always confused when I would read about how important your core is, but never figured out why I was never sore there. Now I know. My Pinarello’s bars are on the same plane if not lower than my seat height. So that gives me a better race position, but since I spent a year on my arms, it’s coming back to kick me in the face…or jump on my back. I feel like I have to relearn how to ride my bike! I have to work on using my abdomen more, put little to no weight on my arms, keep my elbows bent and hips tucked.


A professional fit might be in order, too…which would be cool but they are expensive. I will try fixing my form first. If that doesn’t work, then off to the professionals. Good thing is that my stem is still about 50mm so I have a little bit of room for adjustments if need be. I am still more comfortable on the bars than the hoods.

New Gloves and the Giro d'Italia

Today I headed over to Performance for new gloves. It's been over a yr since I got ones and the gel in the ones I have now are pretty shot. I decided on the Pearl Izumi Select Women's glove. The gel felt good and it has a really thin mesh top. There is a lack of sweat/snot wipe though. Not sure what I'm gonna do come winter...maybe shoot snot all over the road.

Anyway the problem you usually see with any glove is that getting off is annoying. Most have this little tab at the wrist, but unless the glove is thin enough it only comes half off. And most of the time it inverts. I liked my Serfas gloves because they had loops between the fingers for clean removal.

However these Pearl Izumi's have a tiny tab on the ring finger. That allows for seamless removal.

I have to say this is better than my Serfas gloves. Fit is great, the mesh is light and comfortable, gel is in all the right places, and the removal tab is a hidden plus. 4.5 Stars on design Pearl Izumi. We'll see how the snot thing goes.

On another cycling note, the Giro d'Italia is starting tomorrow in Amsterdam and ending in Verona. If you follow cycling, it should be on Universal Sports tomorrow morning. I feel like I need to decide on a favorite rider, but really I have to learn more about them and the teams so I purchased a year's subscription to Cycle Sport America. This looks like a much better magazine than Road Bike Action. I'll tell you when the first one comes in. The Giro d'Italia Cycle Sport America edition is out on stands if you want a good look at the stages and what it entails.

Also I know I haven't been blogging. I got tired of listing every time I ran 3 miles or went to a step class. I'm sure you were tired of reading those. It also got tiring feeling like I had to write. There isn't always a constant flow of creativity in me, so when I don't blog you can tell that my jar is low and I need time to refill. However with all my free time on the bench I took time to surf YouTube and found a lot of fun/interesting channels including KevJumba and WongFu Productions. And I decided, why can't I do a video blog? So I've been trying to video tape events and stuff I go to. I did get a lot of good vid of the Sugarland Crits, so those will be up as soon as I figure out this editing software and am satisfied with my editing job.

Thanks for reading and watch the Giro.