Tri-Clips and Yankz product Reviews

This past weekend was the first chance I got to review some of my corporate partner's products on race day.

This weekend I used Tri-Clips proprietary Tri-Clips and their transition mat. I used Yankz T2 transition bag.

Both partners products worked great and were all a step up from what I have been using for other races. So, I will continue the use of all three of these products and can recommend them to others.

The Tri-Clips were great because as you are sprinting out of T1 to get on the bike your shoes are not dragging the ground and they are elevated and ready to go at the mount line. As a bonus they are attached via a velcro strap so after the race you can easily remove them. I have added a pic to the right so you can see the set up.

The Tri-Clips transition mat was also great as it was soft, a perfect size and stood out making my whole transition area look a little more professional. You will be able to see a picture of the mat below.

The Yankz T2 transition bag worked better than I thought it was going to. I have been using another transition bag for a couple of years but like I said in my earlier post it was a seemingly bottomless pit when looking for something. With the Yankz bag everything has its place and the bag opens up flat so you can have easy access to the contents. This made setting up transition a breeze.

I would like to thanks both Tri-Clips and Yankz for making quality products with the triathlete in mind and then partnering with us at Apex Endurance.

Shadow Creek Triathlon - Race Report

I want to start off by thanking my wife for putting up with this triathlon addiction. This past weekend was our 5 year anniversary and she was awesome enough to let me race.

We went out Saturday night while my parents did the babysitting and I got in bed a little after midnight.

Then I woke up at 3:30am ate my blueberry muffin and went back to sleep for another hour. I did this so that my stomach would be empty prior to the race by giving myself 3 hours to digest all food.

Swim: The swim was a 500m straight point to point swim in a neighborhood lake. The first 100-200m or so was definitely crowded with no clear water but then people started to fall off as I am sure they hit a wall and remembered they could not swim that fast.

I could have swore according to my data I had the swim I was expecting just under 2min/100m as I have only been swimming 1-2 times per month with my schedule being crazy but they timed me at 7:26 for the 500m swim. That pace is ridiculous to me and put me in 3rd coming out of the water.

T1:My transition spot could not have been in a worse location. Most of the times a transition spot will balance out during the race because of different entries and exits. This race swim entrance was the same as run exit and bike exit and entrance was in the middle. My spot happened to be on the last row against the fence farthest from the swim entrance and run exit.

With that being true it is a good thing I am decent at transitions.
I had the 3rd ranked T1 time and was a second away from 1st.

Bike:This was my first race on my new custom Apex Endurance bike and second race using power. After learning not to put a top end power during the race from my last experience I rode much better this time. I averaged right where I wanted to ride and had a PR on the bike at 22.7 mph. It was a flat course but had lots of 90 degree turns and 3 u-turns I believe. This race I watched my power, HR, cadence and speed to make sure I was working hard and smart enough. I avg a 179bpm and 92rpms. Even though I thought I killed the bike and I did for me there were some good riders and I ranked 5th on the bike. This dropped me to 4th place which is where I would stay.

T2:Again, I would be affected by my bad transition spot but I managed to kill the field and rank 1st in T2, with 2nd place being almost 9sec back. I even mad a small mistake racking my bike.

Run:Well I started the run great in the low to mid 6's but that did not last long. By mile one my fatigue hit me hard. My HR was up around 190bpm which is where it should be but my speed for that effort was not there. So, I just managed my effort according to HR and tried the best I could but that was not good enough to catch anyone as it shouldn't have been. Finished the run with the 4th best run but it was about 40sec/min slower than it should have been. Oh well.

Final Result 4th place. Crazy part is I was second during awards on race day and got the belt buckle for it but according to online results I am 4th.

Good race overall and I know now I definitely need more sleep and I am going to start working more short race pace brick runs in after bike workouts. I guess even though they say my swim was good I need to swim more and goal is to swim 2x's a week.

Next race is www.bridgelandtri.com the first weekend of August. This is a super popular race here in Houston and I will be lucky to get a top 10.

Race Nutrition:
I am trying very hard to get my body away from using/needing carbs to workout and race. So, the only carbs I got were at 3:30 with my muffin. Pre-Race I had a couple Hammer Race-Supreme caps and 3 Endurolytes.
On the bike I took in another 3 Endurolytes fairly early and another 3 just before getting off.
For liquid I used www.gozym.com catapult tablet in my water. During the run I drank some water and swished cytomax.  Did not swallow.

My goal is the get my body more efficient using fat stores because our bodies have a lot more of that than they do glycogen.  Plus our body stores about 90mins worth of glycogen so you can get through a sprint without any.

Ironman Texas

Well I finally took the plunge after 2 months of delaying the inevitable and signed up for IMTX.

I will be attempting it on a less than ideal training load but it is a good test to see what time starved athletes can do if they follow one of my plans.  I will be the guinea pig on this test.

I am excited but knowing that it is 10 months away is killing me.  Oh well I have a race Sunday and then several more before then.

 

Related articles

• Ironman Texas was a hit (infinitizera.wordpress.com)
• Ironman Texas -The Woodlands, Texas May 21, 2011 (infinitizera.wordpress.com)

Chance to Win a Triathlon Transition Bag by Yankz

The T2 Yankz! TriathlonBAG is a great multisport backpack with great shoulder straps to help make carrying the bag that much more comfortable. It unzips to lay flat in the transition area. The team at Yankz thought of everything and this bag has a place for all your endurance gear.  Instead of a huge cavern of a bag like I have now.  With this bag you know where everything is and there is no more searching for your goggles or HRM. There are special areas for your helmet, each pair of shoes, and a great removable mesh bag to hold your dry/wet wetsuit (and a wet towel). There’s also a key ring and separate cell-phone holder. The bag also comes with a free Yankz lacing system so you won’t have to tie your shoes losing precious seconds in T-2.  

To enter this contest, please comment here. The contest winner will be chosen at random on Friday, July 8, 2011. Please provide a legitimate e-mail address so I can get a hold of you should you win. Contest limited to the USA and Canada.

We need more comments to be able to give this bag away.  So, please tell your friends to read and comment as well.

First Jersey Mock Up for Apex Endurance

Need less to say I think these jerseys are going to come out awesome.

I am thinking about making a few small changes but overall I am very happy with them.

Cliff Keen sent me the fit kit the other day and these are probably the highest quality tri kit I have ever put on. The material is thick but not heavy and the compression is perfect.

I cannot wait till I am wearing this on race day.

Silverlake Tri - Race Report

I thought better late than never with this race report.

The Silverlake Tri is a local sprint tri located only 12mins from my house. I love this race as I am very familiar with the course and the competition.

Swim
The swim was good as I knew who my competition for the race was going to be before it started and all of us were on the left hand side for the wading swim start.
The gun goes off and so do we. I stayed next to one of the guys for the entire swim and we reached transition at the same time. The eventual winner in our age group was out 20 sec or so before us and is long gone.

T1
I think my transitions are fast and I had no issues except as I came out I messed up pushing buttoms on my Garmin and had to fiddle with that while on the bike for a minute.

Bike

This was the first race I raced with a power meter and I raced like the power meter was god and it really did not work out well. I tried to avg a certain power number but in the end I avg 20 watts lower because of some flawed thinking. ITs probably best to just redline for sprints and olys but oh well.

T2
This went flawlessly.

Run
I knew I was in a good position to podium going onto the run but I had no idea where I was at. So, I decided to try to put up a very solid run and see what happens and who I might catch. I use pace to keep me going hard on the run but for the first .5-1mile I just let my legs run as they are used to the 88-92rpms from the bike they tend to keep doing that for a while and that is a good pace, so I don't worry about it.
I do not see too many people during the run until about 1mile left and of course it was the guy I came out of the water with. I caught up with him and stayed on his heels for about 1.25miles just letting him set the pace. Then when I knew I could hammer it home with about .75mi or less left I dropped the pace and the other athlete.

After all of that I felt fine so I knew that I did not bike hard enough and probably could have ran harder. I will leave that to next race.

Results:
I ended up in 2nd in my age group despite the effort and I am happy with the results and the lessons learned.

More New Corporate Partners - Polar and Maybe Cliff Keen

Today is a good day for Apex Endurance as we have landed Polar as a new corporate partner.

Now I will be able to subsidize my athletes technology needs so that we can get the most out of their training.

I am also in talks with Cliff Keen as our custom tri uniform designer.  Just need to make the minimums to get that ball moving.