Bike Porn and Racing by feel

Triathlon is a sport filled with innovation and technology, which equals lots of fun toys to play with.

I had no idea getting into this that Triathlon would be a more expensive sport than motorcycle racing, my bicycle has enough tech now that it cost more than my motorcycle...how is that possible when it doesn't even have an engine!

I know its possible to get along without all of the extra toys, but I am such an analytical data geek that gets off on all the information available to analyse, and put into pretty charts and graphs.  Luckily Training Peaks makes it easy for me to to get my geek on, and see concrete evidence that I am improving.  

As much as I love looking at the info afterwards, I haven't really raced with data, at the end of the day I just go off of feel.  I've had intentions of watching pace, HR and now power, but in the moment it all goes out the window when I race.  Something I will need to work on when it comes to training for Ironman, but shorter races its worked pretty well...maybe shorter races isn't the way to describe a Marathon, but anything Marathon distance or less I've gone off feel.  I spot check here and there, but even in the marathon after the first few miles I stopped looking at my HR and Pace, it didn't matter what the watch said I had a pretty good idea of how much I could suffer and still make it to the end finishing strong, and my total inexperience with hills threw pace out the window.  Doing MAF training has helped me get an even better sense of self, a month of it and I could feel where my HR went over my range, I like feeling more in tune with my body.  

The bike is where the information can help me most, I don't have the same sense of what I can do on the bike yet, I'm still learning.  Thats probably the most fun of being new at something, gains come quickly as you build strength and efficiency.  

And now to the bike porn!  I was a very lucky girl and got a very nice Birthday present this year - Zipp 808's!!  And man does my bike look bad ass with them on.  I mean I feel this irrational sense of epic-ness just having them on my bike.  I know the change in wheel set wont give me an extra 5 miles an hour, but between how hard core I feel having them, and the confidence that I have an extra few percentage points of performance I may see those extra 5mph.  Its an expensive sugar pill, but I believe the placebo effect is applicable here.

 My baby started out as an entry level triathlon bike, but the last few months has been beefed up with a Quarq power meter, Zipps, dura-ace chain & cassette, dropped a few spacers in the front and now is being powered by some pretty good looking legs if I do say so myself (all this biking has sure whipped them into shape!).

And for those runners out there...Shoe Porn!  So excited to hear Newton has been picked up as Ironman sponsor.  I've been running in them pretty much since the start, and just love them.  I was glad I got into the more minimalist running shoes from the beginning, I hadn't been trained up in big heeled runners so there was no transition issues.  They just felt better to me, as a kid if I didn't absolutely have to be wearing shoes I would go without.  Summer brought my mom frustration as I would come home with scraped up feet, but let me tell ya by the end of the season my feet were impenetrable!

RACE DAY TOMORROW!  Race #3 in the Monikie Duathlon series, thats why I'm blogging, to prevent myself from burning off this energy by going and doing something dumb like a hard workout.  Sitting still has never been my strong point, but now I'm fuelled up and haven't worked out...I'm practically bouncing off the walls at this point.  So this may be even more all over the place than usual...

Carpe Diem!