Holy Crap, that's a lot of "stuff".....

Just for kicks I layed out the "stuff" that I brought down to the Outer Banks for use at the Triathlon. 

Roughly left to right and going from top to bottom:

Track pants
IOSDT long sleeved T
Socks
Bike helmet
Bike gloves
Sun glasses
Patch kit
Sharpie
Tape
Garmin 301xt watch
Heart rate monitor strap
Goggles
Chamois butter (to keep my "tender parts" comfortable on the bike
Body glide
Knee band
Race belt
Towel
Tri top
Tri shorts
Wet suit
Bike shoes
Accelerade (sports drink mix)
Water bottles
Running shoes
Protein shake

....and that doesn't include the bike and the spare tubes, tire levers, tools, CO2 cylinder etc, packed under the saddle!

Delta Triathlon

As a result of my increasing fixation on triathlon and endurance training I have spent a lot of time online recently lurking in forums, reading articles and so on.  It's apparent that the Triangle area of North Carolina has very active triathlon and biking communities.  One of the groups that caught my attention a while back is a club called Delta Triathlon, which is sponsored by Inside Out Sports in Cary and, therefore, also goes by IOSDT.  http://www.deltatriathlon.com/  It's an open club of like minded individuals (some even as old as me!) and offers benefits such as training sessions; access to coaching; discounts from Inside Out Sports and, importantly, social get togethers at local establishments dedicated to providing liquid beverags of the adult kind!

A few days back I took the plunge and sent an email to founder/organizer Todd Spain.  I was incredibly impressed that Todd called me back personally to tell me all about the club.  Based on that alone I signed-up, so I'm now officially a member of a triathlon club!   As part of the very reasonable membership fee you get a very nice package of goodies.  Todd encouraged me to hustle on down to IOS to pick up my package, as if you wear the tri shirt during a race you can enter a picture into a drawing to win a sweet tri bike.  I dutifully headed over to Cary to pick up my swag.   Here it is:

A sweet tri shirt (Sugoi); a long sleeved T-shirt and two water bottles.  Nice! (and easily worth the membership price!).  I will wear it tomorrow and hope that it brings me luck!

Aerobars

Here are the latest way in which local triathlon stores have managed to squeeze a little bit more of my hard earned cash out of me.....   aerobars!

In this case I consider it money well spent.  For the uninitiated, apart from borrowning Roberto Contodor's heart, lungs and legs, one of the best way to improved your cycling efficiency is to reduce drag by becomming more aerodynamic.  These babies help by allowing you to hold a more streamlined position by resting your forearms on the pads and your hands ahead of you (and close together) on the bars.  These are Porfile Design T2+.  They are made of aluminum and pretty light.  A carbon version is available, but the few extra grams in weight saving didn't seem worth the extra money.

You do lose a bit of control, but after only a couple of rides I now find them pretty comfortable!  Here are a couple more pictures:

Another plus is that they also provide a place to add a drink holder without significantly affecting aerodynamics.  With this set-up you can "drink on the go" during races - I'm looking forward to trying it out during the race on Sunday!

Here's what the "cockpit" will look like for Sunday's race:

And here's my trusty steed all kitted out and ready to race!  Lubricated; brakes checked; saddle tightened and tires (or tyres if you're in the UK!) inflated.

Kind of pleased with myself....

First post in a few days.  Things have been busy at work and, of course, I'm coming off the gum surgery and wisdom teeth extraction.  It all seems to have gone very well and, thankfully, I have suffered little discomfort.

The toughest thing was staying on the "liquid only" diet for four days.  I was a bit concerned that it would mess-up my training, but I'm pleased with the way I managed things.  I ran on the morning of the surgery (now six days ago) and then obviously rested that afternoon.  The nurse said no exercise for 48 hours and She Who Must Be Obeyed (with very good intentions for my well being) made me stick to it.  I switched my rest day to the day after surgery and then the following day, once 48 hours was up, I headed to the pool in the evening.  As it happened, I hadn't realised that it was closed for maintenance so a little extra rest was imposed!  By the weekend I was back up to a normal routine - 10 k run on Saturday at moderate pace and a beautiful 42 mile ride around Falls Lake on Sunday morning - one of my longest so far and it felt good!

During the liquid food phase I survived pretty well on a mixture of Ensure, high protein shakes, V8 fusion, Accelerade, EnduRx iced coffee (oh yes, and it was a good excuse for a few extra beers!).  My biggest concern was keeping my calorific intake high enough, but it seems to have worked out.  Now back onto "soft" solid food, which is a relief, especially with the OBX sprint event coming up on Sunday.  The only real torture of the whole "wisdom teeth episode" has been having to attend friends annual "Pig Pickin'" event and not being able to partake in the yummy food!   A huge plus is that as part of that same event friends from the DC area visited and surprised me with a new Ascent fluid bike trainer for a belated 50th birthday present - awesome!   More on that later, along with some pictures once I rescue my camera battery from where I carelessly left it plugged into the wall - perhaps senility is creeping in?

Oh yes, and a possible extra benefit of the whole thing?  Weight down to 198 lbs.

Four teeth lighter!

Well, it's done!  I am now four wisdom teeth lighter than I was this morning.  The procedure seemed to go well - no discomfort at the moment, but then again the anaesthetic hasn't worn off yet!

Going to put a dent in my training - no exercise for 48 hours and a liquid diet.  I guess that it doesn't hurt to give my legs a good rest though and I can ramp it up at the weekend.

At least I don't feel any dumber than I already was, and I still have all my stupid teeth....

Darn it!

I had a great birthday weekend on the Outer Banks of North Carolina but left my camera battery charging in the wall and so can't download any pictures for a while.

Yep - I have officially reached the BIG 5-0!  Half way to one hundred!

Took a day off training for the big day and, OK, steadily imbibed "adult beverages" over the weekend, but you're only 50 once, right? 

Did a pretty good 5k run on Sunday.  Tried again today, but my legs were tired so I am officially designating this one a recovery run. 

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be forced into another couple of rest days (may not be a bad thing) as tomorrow I am having all four wisdom out!  No doubt there will be stories to tell.   Possibly the worst of it is that I have to be on a liquid diet for 3-4 days and then on a "mushy food" diet (yum!  sounds appetizing!) for a couple of weeks after that.  Will have to make sure that I'm getting the right nutrition prior to my big first race in a couple of weeks.  On the plus side, someone has suggested a shake made of Guinness and chocolate ice cream - sounds great!

Oregon Inlet Ride

Just back after a quick jaunt on the bike down to Oregon Inlet and back.  Started off really well and was averaging around 21 mph but eventually ran into a traffic back-up which threw a wrench in the works.  I hadn't counted on them having just opened the Bonner Bridge after Hurricane Earl and the world and their grandmother trying to get back onto Hatteras Island to continue their vacation or enjoy the beautiful weather this Labor Day weekend.  Difficult to believe that  we had a Cat. 4 hurricane barreling down on the area just a few days back.  Here's the traffic back-up at the Bonner Bridge and some residual overwash from the storm:

I did finally make it to the Oregon Inlet fisging center:

That ridiculous goatee has to go!

I thought that I would take a good picture of my new favorite toy - Cannondale CAAD 9-5.   I must admit that I was a little worried that there would be a gust of wind and that I would have to fish it out of the water.  Luckily everything stayed put:

A much harder ride on the way back up north into a strong head wind.  A good work out!  Here's what the ride looked like on the Garmin 310XT (more on this really nifty device later) - doesn't include the slow going in traffic.