At the Drury Hotel, they take care of us for breakfast. It doesn't normally start until 6am, but they have it up and ready by 5am for us and a good chunk of it is available even at 3am when I wake up and make my way down. Awesome staff!
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| Drury Hotel Breakfast |
Then we drove back over to Rally Sport. The weather broke for us today for a good chunk of time, so I was able to get a lot of shots of the mountains. There's a good number of them today. Bear with my love for mountains. ...or just scroll through. Doesn't bother me.
I want to give a BIG shout out to Boulder Bike Works who not only put together a good number of our bikes, but also helped us out with storage the whole week. These guys are great!
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| Boulder Bike Works and our storage area |
Then, right across the street, another BIG (arguably larger) shout out to Rally Sport for hosting us! I'm sure the members aren't tooooooo happy about us taking over their courts and such, but we REALLY appreciate everything they are doing for us. Thank you!!
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| Rally Sport in Colorado |
Today started with watching Siri's Squad on the trainers for a bike ride. We got to watch Rafa, Dede, Mirinda, Paula, Jodie, and Rebekkah rock the Wahoo Kickrs and even 4 of our athletes got to ride with them. I couldn't get pictures due to sponsor conflicts, but it was great to see their INTENSITY. It is a completely different level and I would DIE to get a chance to jump in that for a week, month, year... One day!!
Then back to our day; the group and individual sessions. Green Squad had "Equipment" and "Bike." For equipment, we had a talk by Frank of Power Cranks and Seton of TriSports.com.
Frank showed us pretty conclusively how and why we suck at pedaling. Literally! His product, Power Cranks, really shows us how much our childhood bikes ingrain a pedaling technique that decreases efficiency. It ALSO helps correct your technique. I have no problem saying that this product would work!
Frank: Take a look at the graph. How do you think you'd describe your pedaling?
Athlete: Ummm....
Frank: Would "Sucky" be a good word?
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| Frank of Power Cranks |
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| Seton of TriSports.com |
Seton also showed us through a variety of equipment for swim, bike, run that he feels really helps for improving and speeding our times up. He broke it down to what was most cost efficient as well, which helped put everything into perspective. He also sat down and went over our equipment questions and concerns individually, taking notes on what pieces and info might help us most. Personally, I have issues finding wide shoes, so he was going to send me a list of what wide shoes he would recommend as well as a number of other products we thought might help. GREAT session!
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| TriSports gear |
At that point, it was noon and it was time for lunch and MAN were the vegetarian tacos delicious! We got to catch up with the other squads and see what they've been up to, how the other sessions were, and prep ourselves for the afternoon session.
After lunch, since it was bright out, I took a 15 minute walk out on the Goose Creek Greenway multi-use path. MORE MOUNTAINS!! And I do believe this is where we will be running on Saturday for our "triathlon workout."
Back to Rally Sport to hang out with Ivan O'Gorman for another 4 hours. Like I said before, this guy has an awesome personality. He tells it like it is and isn't afraid to insult. But he also knows his stuff! He completely admits that a lot of the bike is up to your individuality, "But hey, the wind tunnel data doesn't lie." I could pick his brain for days, but I have plenty to keep my mind busy for awhile.
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| Hanging out in Normatec as we listen to Ivan |
Ivan also did a bike fit for one of our squad members to give us a feel for what a fit involves including flexibility, strengths/weaknesses, what to look for, what some changes involve versus others, and a good amount of info on when and why to get a fit.
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| Bike fit with Ivan |
Finally, Ivan took us back into the cycling studio, set us up on the Wahoo Kickrs and put us through some work to conceptualize perceived effort versus our power ratios (Watts per kg). The kicker (pun intended) was that we did it while linked up to a simulation for the Kona bike
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| Ivan putting us through our paces |
Then after a quick shower and rearrangement (putting our bikes back, packing up our gear, last minute chatter with our session leaders), we hopped in the various vans and were off to dinner. And you BET that meant we had more MOUNTAINS!! =D
Dinner was at the Under the Sun. It was great to sit down and catch back up with the other athletes/coaches and how their afternoon sessions went. That turned into training stories and on and on it went. It's great to have such a large group of similar minded people around!
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| Buffet style food! Nom Nom Nom |
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| Under the Sun |
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| Fire Grilled Pizza! |
Aaaaaaand.... MORE MOUNTAINS. Our squad leader is training for ultras and uses those mountains to train a lot, so I got to chat with him about what it's like up there. One thing I could go without is mountain lions. WOW that'd be scary!
This state is so beautiful! Despite being thrilled about all the information we're getting from all of these coaches, I'm very happy to be able to see some of the state as well.
Okay, I need to go eat. Here's a quick run through of our schedule for today.
7am: Watching Siri's squad swim
8am: Swim session
1pm: Nutrition & Training session
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Questions
1. What is your favorite piece of gear?
2. How do you think you are as far as pedaling technique? Have you ever thought of it?
3. Who's been on a Wahoo Kickr? AWESOME trainer!
DREAM. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE.
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