Now that I have some more running gear (because you can always use some new threads…), I just have to wait for spring to come so that I can get ditch these hair pants and get some sun on these pale white things!

The visor beanie and top are from the winter gear line, so if you want to snatch them up, get on it now before they are gone. They are on sale too!

Beanie Visor

DryLete Sportop

Elite Split Short

After just one year, the series has generated so much attention that Triathlete Magazine named Rev3 Knoxville and Cedar Point some of the most anticipated races of 2010 and Quassy as the most family friendly event of 2010.  No joke.

Just the number of world champions that are signed up to do a race series only in its second year is unprecedented. First Mirinda Carfrae and Matty “Boom Boom” Reed announce their return. Then Craig “Crowie” Alexander and Natascha Badmann signed up. Having my heros battle it out just miles from where I grew up in Connecticut is just so freaking cool. Winter isn’t even over yet and I’m itching to start racing again.

But the news keeps coming. Today Rev3 announced that 70.3 and XTERRA world champion Julie Dibens is joining in on the fun. She is hardcore, jacked, and definitely going to do her best to give Mirinda a run for her money in my opinion (if she leave T2 with a big enough lead).

This Wednesday Stu and Heather Gollnick are going to do a live Web interview with Julie about her prep for Rev3. I’ve been listening to Stu for a really long time now, but I’m not sure if he has ever done a live interview before. I’m looking forward to listening in and sending some questions her way.

Live Interview with 70.3 and XTERRA World Champ: Julie Dibens

Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Time: 8:00 pm ET

Link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rev3tri/2010/03/04/rev3-interview-with-julie-dibens

Me? Besides knowing how she is able to rock both the XTERRA and 70.3 worlds, I want to know what is up with this crazy reflective tri suit that she wore at 70.3 Worlds a while back. I’m not sure if it was supposed to ward off attacking birds, keep her cool, distract guys trying to suck on her wheel, or to try to stop guys from checking out her booty. Not quite sure, but I’m pretty intrigued. Will crazy silver tri suits be the next big trend in triathlon gear? Compression socks ARE getting pretty old. It is time we moved on to something else.

Oh, and if you aren’t sold yet on total Rev3 domination, just look at their cancellation and withdraw policy. If you get injured up to two weeks before the race, they will credit you for the entry fee. If you have ever tried to transfer or withdraw from a race before, you know how much of a PITA most race directors can be. The guys at Rev3 aren’t just trying to dominate the triathlon world to get greedy and suck as much money as they can out of athletes. They are athletes themselves and totally “get it.”

And remember, if you want to join me at any Rev3 race this year, you can get $10 off of any/all races if you use the code “Trakkers108” at registration. Note: I don’t see a single dime if you use my registration code, just a pat on the back for helping to promote the race series.

I used to have a pretty typical “bad American” diet. Tons of sugar, processed food, sugar, meat and barely anything that grew out of the dirt. I’ve done pretty well with getting rid of a lot of sugar and processed food, but cutting down on the meat for more veggies is always a constant struggle. A guy can only eat salads so many times before going insane, so I decided I needed to mix things up and test out some new recipes. The first on the list? Veggie burgers. I wasn’t too confident about this one since the only time I ever had a veggie burger I practically gagged and couldn’t finish it, but decided to give it a try.

I took this recipe and modified it a little to switch out the bell pepper for corn.

The original recipe says that they only have 190 calories and 3 grams of fat each. I know that most triathletes aren’t super concerned with cutting calories a ton, but not too shabby, right?! It was actually pretty filling too.

Looks pretty nasty, right? Trust me, it smells a lot better than it looks.

Looking a little more like something edible, right?

The final delicious patty of love, garnished with lettuce, pickles, ketchup and honey.

The final verdict? I’m pretty freaking proud of myself. I love burgers as much as any red blooded American man. This definitely isn’t one, but sure holds its own. The consistency was a little mushy inside, so I’ll have to play with either making them thinner or adding more bread crumbs, but this won’t be the last time that I’ll be making this burger.  I can’t wait until spring comes and I can try grilling these babies outside.

I had only done one computrainer time trial once before (last March), and I was doing a LOT more running and was teaching hardcore spinning classes twice a week, so needless to say, I was in much better shape. I didn’t need a test to tell me that I wasn’t in the shape I was last year, but I was pretty curious to see exactly how much farther back I was (and how much ground I had to make up).

I did last year’s 10k TT in 15:56 (283 average watts/ HR: 174 avg – 189 max). As long as I finished in sight of that 283 avg watts, I’d be a happy camper. The course profile was the last 10k of the Boston Marathon, backwards. From Copley square to the top of heartbreak hill. Almost completely uphill. Yikes.

The results:

Time: 18:21 (CLEARLY a much harder course)

Avg Watts: 259

Avg Speed: 20.3

HR: 177 avg – 189 max

I have to give credit to a few of those watts to Kim who was behind me screaming almost the whole time, cheering me on. She is an awesome motivator. THANKS KIM!

24 watts isn’t a TON, but definitely enough of a difference in my fitness to hopefully motivate me to get my butt in gear. It is pretty interesting that I had almost the exact same HR as a year earlier, just lower watts.

This season one of my main goals is to focus on recovery more. Not just physically, but nutritionally too. I don’t think I paid enough attention to that last year and led to me getting pretty burnt by mid-summer. Feeling wasted before your workout even starts isn’t good. Thankfully I’m loving the cappuccino flavored Ultragen. I’ve only used it a few times so far after some of my hard workouts, so I can’t say much yet about how effective it is (yet), but it definitely is freaking delicious.

Oh, and last year I somehow just barely edged out Triathlon hall of famer Karen Smyers. This year, (I think, but am awaiting the final results to be posted) I think I beat out ‘08 Lake Placid winner Cait Snow. I’m sure that there is something wonky going on with the computrainers since I know for a fact that both ladies can tear me apart on the road, but it is still pretty cool thinking that I can compete with them on SOME level (albeit fake).

Now that I know where my fitness stands, I’ve gotta get this whole ironman training plan thing squared away so I can hit it hard once March hits. More on that soon…

• Lance Armstrong: Just passed @chrislieto going the other way. He was hammerin. Hey Chris, a little TT showdown on the Queen K tomorrow? You, me, and whoever.
• Chris Lieto: @lancearmstrong see u on the Queen-K! Will have to be after 8am cause I have to swim first. Flying out mid day. Give me a call.
• Chris Lieto: Swim at A Bay at 7am. See u there @lancearmstrong.
• Lance Armstrong: Queen K Hwy TT Challenge. Tomorrow 9:30am. Start – Waikeloa Beach Dr to Kukio Nui Dr. 14 miles. Full gas. Take it easy on me @chrislieto.
• Lance Armstrong: This won’t be a twitter ride. First ever “twitter time trial”
• Chris Lieto: Official time for @chrislieto is 18:44. Thanks @lancearmstrong (think his time was 18:35) for a great TT.

Lets just say I am very jealous of anyone spending the week on the big island and got to join in on the fun. I was in Boston shoveling my car out of 6 inches of snow.

Pre Race Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Post Race Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have to admit, while I’m a huge Lance fan and supporter of just about everything he does, I was definitely rooting for Lieto. For a triathlete to be able to crush Lance after a 3 mile swim workout would be pretty amazing. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Lieto was only 15 seconds back, which is still a pretty amazing showing. Averaging around 35mph is pretty sick, tailwind or not.

Did you manage to spot the special guest appearance from Trakkers pro in that last video? Watch it again to see if you can spot her!

Then… this guy moved into my throat.

And not just him, his entire family. Without completely grossing everyone out, lets just say that two mornings in a row I coughed so hard that I immediately puked up my cereal. Nice way to start the day, right? Apparently my teammate Thor got hit with the same thing.

I gave my body three days of rest, vitamins and lots of water, but it failed. After that I started my new “sweat it out” treatment plan. Continue on as usual with my training, for as long as my sickness allows me and try to just drown the gunk growing in my throat in sweat and deprive it of oxygen.

So far, so good. Unfortunately I’m still pretty dependent on my Mucinex so that I’m not constantly blowing my nose and coughing, but hopefully that doesn’t last too much longer.

Ugh…

Granted, I cheated during the 300 yard kick and did a breast stroke kick the whole time. Hey, my kick sucks and it would take me 30 minutes to kick that whole thing.

The Aquaman Super-Hero 3,000 Yard Swim Workout

500 yds Free
4 X 100 Free on 2’
2 X 3 X 50-yd Drill (each 50 yds do Fingertip, Fist, and Catch-up Drill; then repeat)
400 yds Free — Build by 50s (start slow and with each “50” go a bit faster)
400 yds Free — Swim Steady (comfortable exercise pace)
300 yds Kick (with board, zoomers, fins or on side)
500 yds Pull-buoy with Restricted Breathing (RB) by 50s (on each successive 50, breathe every 2, 3, 5 and 7 breaths stroke
200 yds Warm Down (easy swim)

Enjoy!

So I got an email the other day that went something like this…

“Hey Jamie, remember the Phonak pro cycling team?”

“Yeah! Floyd Landis is the man! What a BAMF!”

“Agreed. Well Phonak primarily makes hearing aids, but they have some pretty sick earphones. Wanna test ‘em out?”

“Heck yes I do!”

Unlike last winter when I was still teaching spinning classes a few times per week, I’ve been spending a TON more time listening to music by myself on the bike trainer (and even more once I really ramp up my running) so I thought this would be the perfect piece of new gear to review. Soon I got a nice surprise in the mail and started putting ‘em through the SwimBikeRun product testing gauntlet.

Introducing the Phonak PFEs.

PFE stands for “perfect fit earphones.”

For such tiny little earphones, they sure promised a lot (a perfect fit and and incredible sound quality – without the distraction of ambient noise) so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  After poking around and finding some pretty impressive reviews, including this one from CNet, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I tried to stay as unbiased as I could and give ‘em a fair shake.

Giving ‘em a good sweat test on the trainer.

FIT/COMFORT TESTING:

Pretty tiny, right? The wires are held back behind your ears by these thin silicone ear guides (little plasticy tubes which can be easily taken off if you want). They are really light and comfortable, but most importantly of all, with the ear guides you don’t have to worry about the earphones jumping out of your ears while you are running.

Most people use the standard iPod earbuds that came with it, but if you listen to music at all with your iPod while working out, I’m sure you can associate with my frustrations. I’ve tried everything from wrapping the earbud wires around the sides of my sunglasses to tucking the wires into the sides of my hat to help hold them in my ears. But that doesn’t change the fact that the inside of my ears are not round little circles, but iPod earbuds are. It is no wonder they are such a pain to keep in place. Any mild jostling is going to shake them out.

The PFEs came with a three different sizes of silicone ear tips (small, medium large) and one set of Comply foam tips to help you get the right fit for your ear shape. The foam tips are by far my favorite. Think of the same type of material as earplugs. You smoosh ‘em down, place ‘em in your ears, and they expand, fill in the gaps, block out noise and give AWESOME sound quality. Plus, they basically hold themselves in place from INSIDE your ear. I am loving that. Sure, something expanding inside of your ear does sound pretty uncomfortable, but trust me on this one.

It was pretty hard to hear anything else with these on. I loved that for the sound quality, but for that reason I doubt I’d ever use these while riding my bike outside or in the car. If I’m on the bike and being overtaken by a car, I want to be able to hear it and give them plenty of room before it is right on my wheel, but everyone has different comfort levels with riding.

Okay. Fit and comfort gets an A, but let’s talk about actual sound quality.

AUDIO QUALITY TESTING:

Just by looking at their size, I wasn’t expecting huge sound quality from these little buggers, but I was pleasantly surprised. Songs that I had listened to thousands of times in my car, computer stereo and iPod earbuds (note: none of which are all that fancy, except my Harman Kardon computer speakers) sounded clearer than ever there were even all these background notes and sounds that I had never even noticed before. Some parts sounded like a brand new song, it was pretty crazy.

The one and only part where these earphones fall flat a little is the bass, and unfortunately this failing is pretty obvious. Highs and mids sound amazing, but on hardcore spin fest intervals where I was trying to tear my legs off and blast some beats to keep me pushing hard, the music couldn’t keep up. Now, it wasn’t awful, and I may not have even noticed if everything else didn’t sound so great, but even at low volume the lack of bass thumb-ability was pretty obvious, even when listening to acoustic stuff. It wasn’t only noticeable when listening to techno or rap either, but for such tiny earphones this is forgivable given how clear everything else sounds.

Sound quality: B+

SIDE NOTES:

The version I tested also has a microphone built in to the wire that is compatible with the iPhone. It was great for taking calls while on the trainer and not having to get up, pause my workout and hope that it is actually someone important. I haven’t tested the microphone quality as much yet, but was pretty impressed with how much it picked up and I didn’t feel like I had to talk awkwardly loud just to be heard over the background noise from my bike trainer. Plus, the microphone button works to pause the music so you don’t have to worry about your sweaty hands all over your iPhone. Happy camper.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

All together, I was pretty impressed with the Phonak PFEs. They definitely have a reason why they are named “perfect fit earphones.” If you spend a good portion of your training time listening to music, these would be a good choice of upgrades from just about anything else that you are plugging in to your MP3 player and sticking in the side of your head.

They aren’t super cheap at $139 for the regular model and $159 with the microphone, but the quality definitely justifies the price. Plus, let’s be honest. I’m sure you have spent a lot more money on more frivolous training gear that barely got any use. Lets just say that after reviewing these over the last two weeks, I’m not sure if I’m ever going to use those junky standard round earbuds from Apple anymore.

If you want to check ‘em out and get your own pair, start here: http://www.audeoworld.com

Disclosure: These earphones were provided to me by Phonak to review. Phonak had no part in contributing to the content of this review.

I mentioned our ski weekend video taping schenanigans last week and the final footage is in.

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

No candies were hurt in the making of this video. Just my ego.

So get off the dreadmill and get outside people!

Despite being a little chili out there, winter is still a beautiful time to get out! Today was a bright and sunny 30 degrees so I decided to get some snowy trail running in while it was still cold and before a big thaw comes tomorrow and it all turns to mud.

I took the frankenshoes out for another test and loved ‘em. The screws made my feet sore with too much running on ice or pavement, but packed snow is definitely their sweet spot. I logged somewhere between 5 and 6 miles and almost excusively packed snow and they performed like rockstars. I was flying down steep descents and climbing up snowy hills without hesitation.

Enjoy it while it lasts. Before you know it, spring will be on our doorsteps and all that soft white stuff will be a distant memory.

I wanted to just post a quick note that I had to get off my chest.

As you may have noticed on the right sidebar, I’ve managed to pick up a whole mess of sweet new sponsors. I’ve always been more into sharing the funny stories between training rather than reviewing the latest products and promoting my favorite brands. That isn’t going to change. I’ll just have the opportunity to put some new products to the test that I haven’t (in most cases) ever used before.

So this whole “representing companies online” thing is pretty new to me and a little awkward. But the point of this post is that no matter what my affiliation with any company, if something sucks, I’ll say it. Or I just won’t blog about it. What I post here is all my own.

The good news is that I’ve been able to shake off some less than ideal affiliations that I had last year and am already a HUGE fan of all my 2010 sponsors, so I don’t expect to have to hold back blogging on anything that lets me down.

I care what all my bloggy peeps think of me, so I’m not going to go whoring myself out just for some free gear.

Plus, whenever I can. I’ll try to hook up my readers with some new toys too! Stay tuned.

One of my favorite things about heading up to northern New Hampshire is the scenery. Driving through Crawford Notch with huge mountains on either side so high that you have to crane your neck just to see a slice of sky is so inspiring. We even saw some ice climbers out on Sunday morning off to conquer some frozen water falls. SICK!

Bretton Woods is right in the shadow of Mount Washington and is right at the end of the killer 90 mile/4 mountain pass bike ride that I’ve done the last two springs with my team’s training weekend. Just driving that route and thinking about doing it again makes me smile.

But back to snowboarding….

Given that I average (at best) one trip up to the mountain per year, I definitely wouldn’t call myself an “expert” but I’m definitely good enough to have a blast ripping up the mountain. Doing that just sometimes involves getting a butt full of snow…

We even each got a roll of mentos and decided to film our own “freshmaker” commercial while jumping over this fallen tree. Pretty cheesy. Pretty hilarious.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ll try and post a fully edited version with music later this week.

There is also a second video of us ducking under the other side of the tree and popping out the other side. I think I caught a branch or something and took a digger, but still came up smiling with the roll of mentos in my teeth. GOLDEN! Once I find out where that video is, I’ll try to share that too.

Last post, I joked about logging both days in Training Peaks. NOT joking about it anymore. After two days of snowboarding pretty challenging (for me) runs, my entire legs are torn up and I love it!

This whole ironman training thing can be pretty fun if you let it…