New Toy / Acknowledgments

Yesterday after work I went to Speed Theory to pick up a new addition to my training/racing tools/repertoire. Hopefully the last expensive one in a while (and by a while I really mean a whillleeeee). 2009 was an expensive year: new bike, new wheels, new trainer, Australia, annnnndddd yes, a Powertap.

Most of you know me well and know that I don’t spend money easily. It takes me a year to decide if I should spend money on a racing bike or I should keep racing on my 1200$ stock bike, I have a low end wetsuit, haven’t replaced my googles in 5 years (very true), use tires until they are square (and then I keep them and destroy them happily in the trainer during winter), and so on. But this year was different… I realized that I really really enjoy the sport, I am making lots of friendships, I spend 12 hours a week on a hard piece of plastic called “saddle” and I am into this for a good while. That, combined with a great sponsorship from Speed Theory is how I ended up with all this. Murray, Jeremy, Doug, Mike and company have really helped me out a lot with advice, service, and above all friendship.

Now that the emotional section is over, let talk about POWER hehe – I wanted to say that for a while-. I have been in the sport for about 4 seasons (my very first tri was the UBC sprint in 2006 in 1:18 ooohhh yeahhhh) and have come a long way. Every year I have improved a lot making 2009 my best year so far (couple of sub 2 hour Olympic Tris) Despite all that I have never done a VO2 max, lactate threshold, any sort of power measurements. What average power am I able to hold? How hard should I go on the 40x1min intervals on the bike? How easy is easy? Am I really struggling or I think I am but I am doing just fine? How long will it take me to blow up at 400W? Actually, how do 400W feel? Up until now I have no idea about anything. If I want to make it to the next level, I think it will really help to know and be able to train better.

Over the last couple of years I have made my own workouts, training schedules, volume, intensity, you name it. It has worked pretty well so far -actually sometimes I can’t believe how far it has got me- but I am not sure for how long it will keep working. There is where good swim coaches (Dale and Dario) at VAC, Alan and the LETC squad for running and cycling, the support from the Speed Theory crew, and the Powertap all come into play. This year/season (2010) I am relying on them, as well as myself and my dedication and hard work, to take me to the next level. I would like to mention that there is lots of other people that support me as well and all contribute to my continuous improvement. Ryan and his company on long rides is key, my brother taking care of most groceries during the week amongst other things, my parents supporting me at all times, my friends for understanding when I am busy/tired/training and despite my business still being my friends.

Crap, I said no more emotions already… Lets try that again. So, I installed the Powertap yesterday and got 3 mins on it just to play with the 50.000 screens that are operated with 2 (yes, only 2) buttons. Today I will get the first decent ride, and start gathering information for future training adjustments. Needless to say, I am a happy camper right now =)

Facundo