TriFest and Swim Meets

So the Without Limits crew is heading down to Tuscon for TriFest tomorrow. It's kind of a banzai trip as we had originally planned on heading down then decided not to since the weather has been so good here. Then we found out just last Friday that Ian from Specialized will be there so, now the trip is back on. I'm really looking forward to the gaped mouth stares as I show up for the Mt. Lemmon ride on Friday on my BMC cross machine.

I'm sure there will be healthy selection of "name" pros at the ride on all their new '09 gear with plenty of TriFesters ogling there rigs. But then, I do love being the underdog. And part of the mission for heading down is to solidify some sponsor relationships and get a good chance to let them know what we are all about face to face. Most of being a pro triathlete is based on relationships and frankly I think most of the industry guys just don't know what to make of this upstart team from Boulder.

"What do you mean they don't swim at Flatirons? And Rallysport, really? Isn't that a sprint team? What about the 5x500 workout on 5 seconds rest at mind numbing plus 2 seconds per hundred? And BCSM all they know is cycling. Triathletes can't benefit from that.... etc."

When's the season start anyway? ;)

In other news. We had a bit of swim meet this last weekend. We all swam the mile (i.e 1650 short course yrds). I think it was a really strong showing for everyone, even myself in some ways but not all. Cam when 16:40 something I think, or maybe it was 16:30 something. I don't remember, the 16 was all I needed to be impressed (oh and that is at 55oo ft. just to be sure) I think he beat the old USAT world cup qual criteria by 2 minutes plus.

Lance went well also swimming an 18:33 which is very solid. Kristen did an 18:53 which is actually not a very strong swim by her assessment but then she just learned today that she had a displaced vertebrae and two miss-aligned ribs left over from her fall on the run a few weeks ago. So, lets just say she did an 18:53 with one arm.

I on the other hand did a 19:33. The good news is it is a mile pr (i'd never done it before). The other good news is I can do a 19:33 with nearly everything being done poorly or wrong. I was the 4th heat so I had about and hour before my swim after the start of the miles. Considering we all warmed up together I really screwed that one up. I basically sat around for and hour and lost all my warm up. By the time I got in it was like I had just woke up or something. I felt totally detached for about 500 yrds. But, it got better as I went. Also, my walls suck. Cam reckons I loose about a second per wall. Not good when you have 66 walls in the race. But, I did go through 1000 yrds 15 sec faster then I swam the 1000 six weeks ago. So, I really don't have much to complain about. It's just funny that I am probably the only swimmer in the world who can go faster long course. But, all in all, not too bad for my third swim meet ever.

At least it is the very beginning of March. I figure I should be able to go low 18 by race season in 2 months and in a long course pool.

We won't even mention the 7200 workout we had Thursday or the fact that it was a 27k week total.

So, the swim in coming around. Just not quite as quick as I would like to see.

See ya in Tuscon if anyone who reads this is going...