Ironman Louisville Race Report

IMLou... this was my A race. I was really hoping to go sub 10:25 and set myself up for some confidence going into the winter. Alas, that didn't happen. Getting to the race was easy, I flew down thursday morning and met up with amber at the louisville airport. mike flew in later that night, john and danh drove from wed evening until thursday. by the time they got there, we were ready for dinner, we had el taco lucadore. it was uber tasty, i ate all the tacos.

friday we checked in and lounged. we ended up meeting up with mike and steve for vietnamese food, which ended up being pretty authentic! saturday was a bit more eventful than we wanted. we dropped off our bikes to find danh's rear wheel seized. he called every shop in the louisville area, no one had a 650 hub, we thought he was going to have to do the ride in a fixed gear. i got home and decided to make a post on slowtwitch. luckily, someone was kind enough to reach out and lend danh a rear 650 zipp wheel. his name was mark weghorst, total trooper.

the cool thing about sat was sitting in at the pro meeting. it was interesting, and really cool to see the race from a pros point of view. to be honest, most of us who know how to ride a bike, or finish in the sub 12 region really feel the same way. the refs need to do a much better job enforcing the rules.

we also watched kona.. all of it. no one could sleep, we all wanted to see sanders finish, lange ran an incredible race to catch him. though we all felt he should have been dq'd for the jersey being zipped too low, rules are rules, right?

race morning: 

i get up at 5am, have some covfefe, an rx bar, bannana, some juice and water. i pack an extra banana and a gu for pre swim. when i get to the transition, i realized that i left my garmin at home... fuck, i can't believe i did this again. i asked danh's fiance ("twin") to grab it at the house when she had the chance so i can possibly snag it during the run. how could i be so stupid to forget it, two races in a row... ugh. 

swim: most of my friends are stronger swimmers than i. i ended up in the 1:10-1:20 line. probably halfway through the pack because i realized my morning bag didn't have my number on it, i rushed to find a volunteer with a marker and we slapped 319 onto it. hopping in the water, i felt fine. i had no idea what i was going to do for time, i knew i would swim faster than my imkph time of 1:17 but i also didn't want to get tired like i did at kph. the water was dark, so it was really hard to follow any feet, more than 1.5 feet and you can't see anything. the swim out to the turn was fine, i got a bit off course a few times (all the way to the right, then left of the course). by the first turn the water got really cold, then warm, then cold. it was really weird. by the 2nd turn i knew i had gone almost half way... i just went into cruise control mode. i realized the current was stronger to the left of me. a few times i was swimming in really calm water, that was a mistake. the last 500 yards of the swim were probably my best 500 yards ever. i started kicking and for the first time ever, i didn't feel awkward, or expend more energy. i should try that more often. 

swim was 1:12, my new swim pr (choo was 1:12, without a wetsuit, but probably stronger current?)

t1: i got out of the water and ramped my heart rate up towards the bike. it was colder than i wanted it to be, so i was careful to dry off as much as i could. as i ran out, my helmet fell off, DOPE. i got my bike and as always, had to be careful of people stopping to hug family and friends. gotta remind myself that not everyone does these events as a race, some people are happy to dilly dally. in the end, it's my fault for being a shitty swimmer. 6:XX (i think)

bike: i generally am slow to get my HR up on the bike. but i think running hard through transition (despite the shitty time) helped me get amped up. i took in my water and calories and was feeling good. i was pushing good speed for the power as well. it was probably the best i have ever felt coming out of the swim. about 30 miles into the bike, before the sharp left turn, i was coming down a fairly straight hill. i was going about 40mph and screaming for people to move over yelling "on your left" 5-6 times. these 3 guys up front were riding 3 wide, and just not moving. i hit my brakes, crossed the double yellow and swerved back. in doing so, i hit a crack in the road pretty hard. i knew i flatted. about 1k yards later my tire went flat, i pulled over immediately as the 3 dotards rode by a min later.

i ripped off my pitstop, only to realize the plastic nozzle had fallen off. whelp. there goes my race. i just sit on the side of the road and asked folks to let neutral support know. about 7 minutes or so goes by and john yen rides by. he blows by me, but comes back to offer me his pit stop. great, this will work. i put his cover on my pit stop. i had never used one in the past, but it seemed pretty self explanatory.. nope. the foam blew out the sides, nothing went into the tube. i then use his.. same thing. now we're down 2 pit stops. i told him i would need his tube co2, lever and co2 inflator. but told him i didn't want to take his only one. he was under the impression i had one, but didn't want to use mine. so he agreed and went on. a few other friends rode by, i just sat and waited. then one guy stopped. #380. jim deruby of maverick multisport. he asked me what i needed, i said everything, just go. he offered me a tube, levers, and co2. i quickly did the repair and he was off. i got off not long after and to lack of better judgement, decided to push the watts to catch up.... unfortunately that's where the course tilted up, it was brief, but it was enough to really drain me. i didn't realize it, but i was sitting for so long that my bike computer turned off. i'm guessing it had to be at least 20 minutes of sitting around getting cold.

at mile 50 i felt pretty crappy, the same feeling i normally get when i am at mile 95 or 100 of the bike portion. i wasn't sure why, but i was really uncomfortable and i couldn't push any watts. i realized my bike saddle was off, i must have landed on it, causing it to tilt up. i couldn't ride aero for more than 1-2 minutes d/t the discomfort, and i couldn't pull on the pedals d/t the saddle position. i think i got things fixed at around mile 84 or 87 which allowed me to put out decent power again. it was good timing though, the winds had picked up and i needed the watts to be able to keep going straight.

bike: 6:13 or 6:17. my 2nd worst im bike ever.

t2: i got off the bike and did the long run on cement (god, i have the softest damn feet in the world). as i grabbed my bag, i reached into my bike bag to grab my arm warmers and gloves as well. by the time i get into the tent, i realized my watch was in my run bag the whole time.. oops sorry "twin"! i scurried out to the run, making a pit stop to clear my insides. because i was on the bike for much longer than expected, i had to take on gatorade, which just doesn't sit well.... time: 7:xx

run: whelps, i probably had a decent run in me since i didn't put out too much power on the bike, at least that's what i had expected. about a mile in i felt my legs cramping (i didn't get enough salt in on the bike). i stopped to stretch for 2-3 mins and got going again. i felt pretty good, i saw a bunch of friends on the course, but as the sun was setting i could feel it getting colder. not good. i just don't run well in the cold. i caught up to joe and we ran together from mile 3 or 4 all the way to 11 where we caught kimball, we ran together for a bit and i con't onwards with joe until mile 15 or 16. at that point i was too cold to run well and told him to carry on. when i'm not having a great race, i take care to take on lots of nutrition and pee about every 3 miles. perhaps those mini intervals to pee and catch him were taking a toll on it. i ended up linking up with jim deruby again, we ran 5-6 miles together and chatted until it suddenly warmed up at mile 24. my stride was widening and i saw della at mile 25. i ran up to her to say hi and told her we were at 25.37, possibly further d/t me delaying my watch start. when jim caught up i took off with him, and pushed a bit faster towards the finish, not because i cared about my time, but because i just wanted to run hard since it was warm. i crossed the finish line. 12:13:XX my 2nd worst ironman time. marthon was 4:45 or something horrible like that. 

i saw john, mike, and amber at the finish, it was nice of them to wait for me, they must have been cold. i then saw kimball, joe, kate, and jeff at bag pickup. we went home to shower and come back to cheer danh but he finished before we could get back out.

this was a tough race for me. the bike was really mentally taxing. my mind went from such a happy place, to such an unhappy place. i knew i put in the time and effort to have a good bike, to have a few mechanics (also dropped my chain 4 times, long story, but i've never done it on a race), really throw a monkey wrench into things.  2017 was a rough year for racing, that's for sure. this is now 4im's where i have done much more poorly than expected. yeah, there are excuses for each one, but in the end, this is a long race, i have to do a better job reducing the chances of these mistakes.

back to the drawing board. i'm hungrier than ever for a strong race in 2018. 

Ironman Shingles Race Report

A few years ago I was treating a teammate of mine and he suggested Ironman Copenhagen. It really wasn't on my radar, potentially cold race, traveling to europe would be expensive, etc etc. We ended up doing IMMT together a year later and I guess that seed he planted just sprouted. Next thing I know I signed up for IMKPH.

I had a pretty crappy buildup. I was trying to do my own thing and train under 10 hours a week. Not because I thought it was the best plan, but because I was still mentally broken from IMChoo Sept 2016. For those who don't remember, or don't know. I dropped a key nutrition bottle 40 miles into the bike leg, during the hottest day Chattanooga has ever seen in Sept (165+ degree heat index), 30% of the race ended up requiring serious medical treatment. Well, it was a sufferfest to say the least. I put in a few monster weeks of training and it went all down the drain.

I figured a shorter buildup with lower volume would help me jump start things. It didn't. I couldn't get going until it was too late, but that's ok. KPH was a tuneup race for me. I was going to test myself in the swim, push the bike hard and the plan was to CRUISE the run. ZR/Z1 training pace.

A week before leaving, I noticed I had an itch on my back. I had my co-worker look at it and she said it was a pimple. I thought it was a spider bite for sure, but ok, whatever. Except it kept itching and just got worse. By the time I got to Denmark it began to spread to the front of my chest and started to hurt. By friday (2 days before the race), it started to hurt to move, and take a full breath. I thought it was bed bugs, which is the most terrifying thing to read about online. I freaked out, started putting all kinds of bed bug killing shit in my amazon cart... almost pulled the trigger too. My buddy John said it looked like shingles. I was kind of surprised, I'm 32, I eat well, I'm fit, I'm not supposed to get shingles! I decided to FB my PCP (holla ajay!) and send him some pics. He also diagnosed me with shingles and advised me to get some meds if I could, or suck it up. Well I didn't have time to see an MD then get meds from a foreign pharmacy, so I decided to suck it up. Not going to lie, I never thought I would be HAPPY to have shingles, I mean, it beats bed bugs...

Race morning:
I get to the swim start, it's starting to drizzle a bit, but not bad. I realized that I left my solids at home (2 cliff bars, 1 pro bar)... ugh, that's 600 damn calories. I really need real food during cold races. Not good. John offered me one of his bars, but I didn't want to dip into his backup food. I declined. The swim was pretty cool, single lap swim, wetsuit legal and you enter the water depending on your pace. I lined up with the 1:10-1:15 group and we were sent into the water 6 at a time, every 5 seconds (something like that). The swim went well enough for me, I had a lot of trouble sighting, but that's nothing new for me. After about 700 yards, I found a pair of feet to follow, except some guy liked those feet and pushed me out of the way. Nothing you can do when you're 5'3" and he's 6" and fat. I made a few mistakes on the swim, 1 was not getting a new pair of goggle, the sun was in your face on the back half of the swim and it would have been nice to be able to see better. There was also a ton of seaweed, but meh, you can see the bottom. I swam 1:17, which is a PR (for the full 2.4 swim) for me. I knew my neck was really chaffed, it stung as I swam. More body glide next time.

T1: was cold, and wet. I didn't like how there was no changing tent, it would have been nice to get a bit warmer. I ended up stuffing a plastic bag in my jersey to help build up heat for the first 5 miles. I hate being a crap swimmer, I get out of the water with a bunch of horrible cyclist. Did I mention how shitty triathletes are when it comes to bike handling skills?

Bike: I was ready to crush the bike. I felt strong, a bit cold, but strong. The first 40 miles of the course is FAAAST. There was a slight tail wind and I was averaging 23+mph with 120ish watts. The race director warned us of flintstones the night before the race. He said to put on tires that had protection... ooops, I was rocking my supersonics and grand prix tt. aka the tires with the LEAST puncture protection, faaaaak. Flintstones are round stones that flip upside down and go point side up when it rains. Rain was in the forecast, I was scared. The first lap was uneventful, I was blowing by a lot of people, which is normal for me since I'm such a crud swimmer. By the time the 2nd loop started, it got a bit cold and started to rain.. crap, I threw away my bag already. The rain really killed me, I started to get cold and my power started to drop. Oh, my BTA bottle also broke, so I was forced to hold it on during the whole ride, that sucked. I realized I wasn't going to PR the bike, so I just rode tempo and used it build on my bike fitness. I finished the bike in 5:26. Not my best time, but considering everything, I could live with it.

T2: I got into t2 and I really wanted some vaseline for my bottom, just in case. I knew it was going to be a long run.

Run: KPH course is incredible and shitty at the same time. The crowd support at KPH is the best I have ever seen in any IM. The downside is that its' 4.5 laps, which means it gets REALLY tight in some sections. By the time I was on my 2nd lap, the part that runs through the cobblestones was really congested, I'm really surprised no one twisted an ankle or fell. I took off a bit faster than I wanted to, which was fine, cus I planned on walking a ton of the marathon. Every water stop, every hill, then at least 6-7 bathroom breaks. I stuck to my plan, walk/run a lot of miles, with the exception of mile 23 or 24? It started to rain, I got cold and cranky and I just wanted to be home. So I took off and put down a random 8:15 mile snuggled between a 13 and 14 min mile segment. oops. I also forgot my charger at home, so I ran with my garmin 520 (bike computer) hitting lap every mile. This means I found my pace AFTER I ran the mile. It was a fun little experiment. I was going to just walk from 24-26 since I was vacationing in Iceland the week after and I didn't want to have junk legs for any of the hikes, but my 520 battery was low, so I ended up jogging it in.

During the whole race, the shingles didn't bother me too much. Sure I couldn't take a full breath, but I only had like 1-2 moments where I thought my body was going to break. It was actually worse the days before and the days after. I always thought shingles was adult chicken pox, that it just itched. NOT TRUE. it feels like someone is taking a blowtorch to your skin, it hurts to move, impossible to sleep. But hey, it's not bed bugs.

This is a shitty race report, I know. That's cus I have to wake up at 6 tomorrow to run with my croo. I promise a better race report for IMLOU in 6 weeks.

Why we keep the things we keep

Over the past 5-6 months I have been trying to reduce the things I own. It seems like it would be easy to get rid of things you just don't use, or just don't need, but it's not. People are sentimental creatures, we give life and emotion to inanimate objects, we project our feelings onto them. Thus we hold on to things because they are "important" to us. It is because of those feelings that it has taken me over a year to get rid of some of the things that I have.

I started small, getting rid of things that had no sentimental value, nor use. The next round, I got rid of race shirts that I didn't think would go well with my race quilt (yes, one day, i'll learn how to sew and quilt all my race shirts that don't fit).... Then came sneakers that I didn't wear anymore.

I tend to be a collector, but not always of things worthy of collecting. I had things like old redsox ticket stubs, all my concert ticket stubs, and old race bracelets. Those things were a little more difficult to get rid of. But I found that once I committed to getting rid of them, it wasn't that hard. The reality is that people only have so much to give. These objects are taking up part of my emotional energy that could be better directed towards other things/people/activities.

More recently, I donated a few items that held a lot of sentimental value. One was a hoodie that I have had since 9th grade. It was one that I designed with my high school best friend (for our paintball team). That hoodie represented almost everything about me in my early life. Paintball was my passion, and I spent every moment of my free time with Jared. I thought about it long and hard. I put it in the bag, I took it out of the bag. In the end, I let it go. The fact is, Jared and I don't even talk anymore. This tends to happen with most of my friends who have had kids and are living more of an "adult" life, whilst I play vagabond bachelor. I think part of letting the hoodie go was telling myself that it was OK that people come and go in your life. Part of it was that it just wasn't a very comfortable hoodie anyways. I needed to downsize, and now I am down to 3 hoodies that fit well and are comfortable. Of the 3, 2 have sentimental value, and the 3rd one is starting to develop a little history. Eventually, I'll let one of them go, but for now, they are too comfy...

The other items I let go were my first pair of racing shoes. The Brooks ST Racers. I haven't worn them in 10 years, but I still held onto them. In fact, I had 4 pairs (to go with my almost 50 pairs of sneakers). The last purge was a big one. I had donated over 27 pairs of sneakers to goodwill. I must say, donating the sneaker was relatively easy compared to the MFL (massholes for life, that was the name of our team lol) hoodie.

This particular blog entry was inspired by my friend Rebecca. She asked me to send a photo of something that had sentimental value to me, and tell a story about it. For a week, I thought about what I would write about. I have all my race bibs, I have my race medals, I have my pint glass collection, I have my first carabiner, I have something that was given to me the day I was born.

Whilst rummaging through my race bibs (looking for Big Lake Half Marathon 2007), I stumbled onto my Penguin Pizza beer list and immediately knew that I was going to write about it. It's funny that I keep a piece of paper that chronicles exactly when I had each beer. It's really a 10 month journey that encompasses undergrad and grad school. From a Bachelors degree, to starting the Doctorate program. All the trials and tribulations throughout that period of my life. New friends, old friends, breakups, new loves, all of it is there. What an emotional journey. I never really kept a diary growing up. I would write things here and there, but I've always had a knack of remembering things so I have never felt the need to write things down.

It's weird, when I gave up the hoodie, I was ok with it because I knew that my memories that the hoodie encompassed would not go away. That period of my life meant so much, but also so little in the grand scheme of things. I still remember the tournaments, the long drive to the cape every weekend, the custom paintball guns, to paying 12 bucks to fill up the tank. Yet here I am, holding on to this piece of paper, not willing to let it go.

Part of being minimalist is that things have to serve multiple purposes (at least it gives more reason to keep the item). This journal into my past takes up relatively little space, compared to a hoodie, not to mention, Jared (high school best friend) was also part of many penguin nights. Is it weird that this all came up, 24 hours from his birthday?

How does someone who is so sentimental (myself), cope with trying to be a minimalist. I'll let you know when I move into my van next year.... ;-)

Proof that white people are the most racist....

OK OK OK, the title was click bait. But now that you are here, you might as well hear what I have to say, right? Earlier today I made a post on facebook about an incident that occurred on the way home from Concord. I'll spare you the details, you can read it on facebook. I had no intentions of posting about it on facebook, but I mentioned it to my roommates and I was fascinated by their responses.

My roommate Mandi was surprised by me telling her "I was called a chink for the first time in years". Her face was priceless, she thought, due to the tone of my voice (which apparently was happy) that I would have great news for her. She immediately apologized for what I had to go through. My socialist (just kidding) roommate Matthias comes out with his input as well. I was floored at how upset they were. For a fact, they were more offended than I was. I think I was too busy figuring out where to place my 15 cases of DRINKmaple (which you can get for 15% off with the code FRIENDofJDT, shameless plug, I know), to be upset. We had a brief discussion about race relations, how we each defined racism, and what is (in our opinion) acceptable and what isn't. I really relish these conversations, it forces me to expand my understanding of others, it forces me to push on all 6 sides of the box.

I decided to blog about it and parlay it into a shout out for DRINKmaple (I happen to be chugging a bottle at the moment anyways), partly to break up the seriousness, partly, because I think I'm funny.

This blog post is about my friends, the outpouring support that I have from my social network. You people, are truly inspiring and I am so incredibly proud to call you my friends. I didn't make the facebook post so that people could tell me how sorry they are for me, I didn't make it so that people could pity my life as a minority in this country. I wasn't even offended by the racist, I just thought he was stupid and I thought the post would get a few laughs.

I didn't get a few laughs (well, I know at least Eliana thought I was funny), I got an enormous amount of support. I had friends text me, I had friends call me, the first thing that happened at band practice was hugs and apologies for what happened. It was incredible, and I want you all to know that you DO make a difference, you folks are the game changers in America. Do not be silent. I don't buy all the love trumps hate bullshit, but I do believe in sharing knowledge, sharing stories, and supporting one another.

Within all this, is a small lesson to be learned. A very important one, if you ask me. The majority (and we're talking great, you could say YUGE majority) of racism that I have experienced in this country have come from white people. But this blog is dedicated to all my friends, especially the YUGE (ok, that's just a funny saying) majority of support that has been poured out to me were from white people, some even trump supporters (no, I'm not getting political). This is important because I am fortunate. I am fortunate to have a diversity of friends to pull from, to learn from, to experience. This diversity of friends allows me to understand that not ALL white people are racist. I think we as people, need to better understand others. There are minorities out there that are not as fortunate as I am. Their surroundings, their social networks, their friends, are the same spectrum. Take a black child in Compton (gah, I'm dating myself, Comptom is probably gentrified by now), his friends are going to be other poor black kids, he's not going to be able to draw from experiences like I am. The same can be said about many other ethnic minorities in our republic. The same can even be said for "white supremacist" in parts of America. It's hard to think otherwise of someone of color, if you have never had the chance to get to know that person. You take the 4 year old of a racist and put that child in the playpen with 5 other children of color, they'll play. They'll fight too, but that's because of a toy.

Perhaps the key is diversity, perhaps the key is forcing children, at a young age, to be friends with people of color. School desegregation works... but it is vehemently fought against, as per the case of Michael Brown's mother. Episode 562 of This American Life did a phenomenal job covering this.

I'm not sure what the point of this blog was, this is quite typical of my blogs, if you are a follower (do I have any followers?). I start off with this grand idea, then my mind floats, perhaps it was the 2 fingers of scotch... nah, it was probably the second 2 fingers of scotch....

Vegas baby, VEGAS!

OK OK OK, so this is probably not your typical blog about vegas. I didn't hit any strip clubs, nor did i get shitfaced drunk. in fact, the only time i step foot into a casino was because i had to in order to get to see rock of ages (more to come later).

i had my first taste of red rocks earlier this spring, it was great. my sister from another mister couldn't make it out so we talked about doing a fall trip. i've been needing to tick off nevada for my 50 states marathon, so i figured i would combine the two. luckily, vegas marathon happened to be in november, which is perfect fall climbing season.

my training for vegas was pretty spotty. i had about 5 weeks after ironman choo to recover and train. the recovery happened, the training itself.. meh. i had a 20ish mile week, a high 20's week then a 38 miler week followed by a 2 week taper. i had originally wanted to run a 3:20 or lower but i knew that wasn't going to happen race day. again, we'll get there.

i got into vegas early, around 10am. deirdre, one of kristie's friends from SF was getting in at 10:30ish so i waited for her at the lounge. we kind of had a little goof moment, taking the tram to terminal 1, only to realize we were not actually leaving the airport, then when we tried to order an uber it took us a good 20 minutes to find it. it was as if mccarran airport didn't want the coolest 1.5 asians to leave.

we were both pretty hungry (ok, i'm always hungry) so we decided to find this ramen shop where we decided to eat and wait for kristie and johnny to get in. we ended up waiting for quite some time, the shop closed and kicked us out (perhaps we should have eaten more, or more slowly) so we sat outside like bums until our friends showed up.

the croo on frogland

the original plan was to do some single pitch climbing on friday since the marathon was saturday (or so i thought), but we decided to go after it and do some multi pitch climbing. frogland is a classic 5.8 climb that i had done in the past but not lead any of the pitches. i wanted to get back and try to lead a few pitches and it was something kristie was stoked about. we got up early (not early enough) and headed there with dierdre and jacob. there were 3 parties ahead of us, but we decided to wait and eventually all got on the climb by 11. mannnnnn, was my lead head gone. i got lots of work to do. maybe the injured wrist kept me worried, maybe not. i'm not sure. but i'm glad i got some lead climbing in on my trip. the climbing was good, we had some rope stuckage the last pitch which slowed things down. hiked out as the sun set and got to the car in the dark. i was toast. only had 1 liter of water and 2 bar (340 calories). we got back to the house, picked up johnny and headed out to goyemon for awesome all you can eat sushi.

jacob destroyed after all the sushi... we ate all the things. 

i was pretty pooped the next morning. i was dropped off, got my bib etc but realized on the way home that the marathon was sunday, not saturday. by that time it was past noon and everyone was out climbing. i decided to take it easy, chill in the hot tub, have some beers and just relax. i ended up eating ramen and meeting up with dana as his teammates had 2 extra tickets to rock of ages at the rio.

dana and i met up with folks, had komex (korean mexican fusion) and headed over to the rio where we met some folks. i would recommend rock of ages, it was a funny show, had some good songs and the seats were pretty good. the next morning folks slept in a bit, i didn't want to spend another day sitting around doing nothing, so i opted to head out to kraft boulders with thomas and beau, with ryan and cat joining a bit later. we worked some warmup problems, i snagged both classics on potato chips and then got 6 or 7 burns on the pearl, which is an awesome boulder problem that starts with a 3 finger pocket that you have to crank on to get to a pinch while cranking on a toe, only to bump to a super super shitty 3 finger slope, to bump off to a rail. it was extremely painful, it did not go, it was in the sun all day.

i was getting tired so i decided to head back to the house and chill and get ready for the marathon. after some resting, i took a lyft to the race, but the traffic was poop. i ended up being almost 2 miles from the race and had to walk there drop off my bag and then make my way to the front of the line. it was really awesome walking down the strip, no cars on the road, a pretty cool experience.

the whole strip, all to the runners!

the marathon was... well, it was interesting. the first 6ish miles were on the strip. afterwards it took us into old vegas and into vegas and took over a billion turns, in and out of industrial parks and regular parks before it looped back onto the strip. i put down an expected time of 3:20 so i could start in corral 2. but next time i run a rnr marathon, i'm going to lie hardcore so i can start in corral 1. i was extremely annoyed when i saw a lot of folks with high corral numbers make their way up front. the first 4 miles of the race was a complete cluster fuck. races really need to at least threat disqualification when slow runners get up front and bog up the race. what's the point of going out at 8 min miles for the first 4 miles when you run 11 minute miles to finish the race. either way, i kept a solid pace for the whole race. by mile 6ish the 3:30 pace group passed me. i'm not one to run in groups as i prefer to run my own pace but for some reason they seemed like a fun group, the pacer was enthusiastic, so i decided to join then. we ran together for a little over 6 miles, he was not the best pacer. at times 8:20 pace, at others 7:05ish pace. i figured the surges back and forth would hurt my later so i kept at my even pace and just yoyo'ed with them. by mile 10 i decided to just stay with the group. mile 12.5ish came and the 2 people i was running with kind of started to pull ahead of the group. that was when the pacer yelled "ugh" and grabbed his leg, i asked if he was ok, but he told me to keep going. i looked around and it was pretty obvious the 3:30 folks were a little lost. i could tell that folks were thinking "oh fuck, now what". i looked around and a few folks were with me so i said i would hold the pace. i pushed it a bit to catch up to 2 others who were in our group. by the time i caught them, the 6-7 folks with me withered down to 4. we stuck together from 13-18 miles. by then the 2 picked it up a notch. it was clear they were a little competitive with each other, it was pretty cool to watch, but i had a feeling they were going to pay for it. about a mile into it they were about 100 yards ahead, i looked at the 2 guys i was running with and told them that i would bridge the gap. i could see that they were losing steam a bit, so i picked up the pace steadily until i caught the two. i stayed with them until 22 and the 3 of us started to work a bit harder since we both knew we were really close to the 3:30 marker (or so we thought). i was the first to break, probably at mile 24. but i found a 2nd win and caught them again only to have to pee and get passed. i dug in another time, caught one of the runners and tried to chase the other down but decided that i wanted to enjoy the rest of my trip and just jogged it in. 

it was a pretty cool finish line, with all the buildings lit up, with all the people watching and cheering. it was a bit lame to watch all the folks finishing the half in 3:35, most of them walking the last mile.... i mean, not because they didn't train or whatever, it was more so that there were sooooo many people on the course, you couldn't run if you tried to. i ended up doing a 5k cooldown walk/jog and took a lyft home to join folks in the hot tub for beers.

the next morning i decided to sleep in. thomas and i hit up the crag afterwards but it took a good 90 minutes to find everyone. i got on one climb and realized i was too tired to climb, so i just hung around, took photos and chatted people up. 

later that night we hit up lotus of siam. it was amazing food. we ate all the things, and all of the things of all of the things. even the white people ate all of the things, i was impressed with my new friends. 

red snapper by: myself, deirdre, aaron, jacob, and ayaka

red snapper by: thomas, kristie, martin, and johnny

don't worry, we helped them finish their red snapper. we also ate both pad thais, soft shell crab noodles, pot of soup, pineapple fried rice, papaya salad, stuffed chicken wings, shrimp salad, pork belly, and then had some bubble tea. i'm pretty sure the bubble tea was what pushed me over the edge. we got back, redid hot tub and beers, and everyone crashed early. 

tuesday morning involved some cleanup and we all departed the house. kristie and johnny hit up the strip to explore. the rest of us decided to boulder, and boulder we did. i ate all kinds of crap and didn't scend any of my projects. but i was happy to be in nature, among new and old friends. 

i think someone is tired.....

the croo checking out potato chip boulder

how the hell does this girl climb in those?

pork chop boulder, super fun problem

the pearl v5, my new favorite project

sick shot

martin on monkey bars traverse

jacob, finishing the climb

this is why bouldering is better than ropes... ha ha

of course, we finished the trip with ramen and i hit up the lounge for a few hours with jacob, deirdre, and ayaka whilst i waited for my flight to board. 

all in all, i didn't get nearly the amount of alpine climbing i wanted to get done, i didn't get on any of the hard sport problems in the sport crags, nor did i scend anything higher than v3. but considering i didn't climb for 3 weeks and i'm still nursing tears in my dominant wrist.... well, i'll take it.

super stoked that i made new friends, ticked off nevada, got to see kristie and johnny (and brooke! who we bumped into leaving the 2nd pull out), and got to eat at lotus of siam.

as for vegas marathon: if you think running 7 miles out of 26.2 on the strip is worth it, do it. otherwise, there are likely better marathons in nevada. it's one of those bucket list items that only kinda sorta live up to it.

That one time I visited hell, and came back.... IMChoo 2016

Every triathletes goal is to get to kona (the ironman world championship) at one point or another. Some are smart enough to not set goals they can't accomplish and aim for a lottery slot (now legacy spot), others (ie; myself) will just plug away and try. After finishing my first 2 ironmans i though that i would have a chance. my 3rd one gave me confidence as i con't to shave another hour off (that's 1 hour off each ironman. i chose ironman choo (aka chattanooga) because it is known to be an "easy" ironman. with the exception of florida (and maybe maryland), i don't really think there is such a thing as an "easy" ironman. each course has its own challenges.
i chose choo because swimming is my worst discipline and i knew the swim was current aided (yeah, so what about it). i had a feeling whatever i gained on the swim, i would give back d/t lack of wetsuit, poor sighting, the extra 4 miles on the bike, and the humbling run. but then again, everyone would be racing the same course, so as long as i negated as much of my weakness as possible i would have an outside shot at kona.

i had done immt 5 weeks prior. i know, not the best idea, but it was good to get the long swim under me, the bike was a great ride. i knew the courses were going to be similar so immt would help me judge where i was. the run was easier at immt, but i wanted to use it as a long training day (again, i know, stupid).

the weeks following up to imchoo were uneventful, i trained well with my teammates (holla DRINKmaple crew), and i "raced" reach the beach with the channel 4 news team (ASSEMBLE!!!!). i pushed a little harder than i should have, and drank a little more than i should have, but whatever, i love my teammates and it was a great time. needless to say, i felt fine after a few days and i don't think it affected me race day.

week of the race i felt good. i flew in thursday and just hung out. checked in, explored the city and just tried to relax. i looked at the athlete guide, was bored at my air bnb, so i decided to check out some of the times of the other AWA folks (didn't even realize i was AWA, aka i race a lot so i score points, i'm not actually fast). immediate i found 5 guys who had gone sub 9:35, and another 5 who have gone sub 10... i pretty much thought, well, my kona shot is GONE.

friday i moved into a larger airbnb with a few folks i met at st. croix 70.3 in 2015. we became friends and i was able to lure some of them into racing imchoo with me. the place we rented was great, it was around 2 mile from transition and was right down the street from a bike shop, an awesome organic juice/breakfast joint, a great coffee shop, and most importantly, an authentic mexian street food spot.

my sister flew in late thursday night. so friday we spent the day exploring the city, trying out as many coffee and juice shops as we could, and seeing as many sites as i felt was ok for me to walk. i decided to hold off on running all week and use walking as an alternative.

pretty cool rock gym they have here. "outdoor" climbing, ha ha. 

the aquarium is pretty

it was pretty warm thursday night... i knew race day was going to be a scorcher

i know i'm going to get flamed for this.... but bluegrass grill just wasn't that good. i mean, it was good, but it was typical breakfast joint food. bacon, eggs, hash, sausage, grits and biscuits.. nothing "special", not worth the 25 minute wait. go across the street and have an acai bowl from the local juice. 

our airbnb host left us a bottle of whiskey. i mean, heck yeah to southern hospitality. 

impromptu marching band! remember when you were a "loser" if you were in band? damn, people are so mean in high school. i thought these kids were rad as hell. 

legit mexican food. i ate here 3 times on monday before my flight.... 

i finally found a whole foods, so trish and i went and grabbed some healthy food to make for dinner (though i still nabbed 2 tacos, ha ha). roasted some sweet potatoes, made broccoli rabe with ginger and tumeric root, some brown rice, fresh caught grouper, guac, and some red wine. 

and... the moment you've all been waiting for. the real race report. 

to start, i made a few mistakes. i picked up a new pair of bike shoes, and new cleats. the shoes were a bit more aero (yeah, i was looking for all the marginal gains), but after talking to my friend brendan (who vouched for their comfort) and a pro from slowtwitch (thomas gerlach), i felt it was a good decision to give them a shot. well, on the test ride, i couldn't clip into my pedals. figured i just installed the cleats improperly. i took them to the bike shop and they said i was just too light for the walkable cleats d/t the newer springs being harder. darn, back to the old stanky shoes. 

mistake #2. i forgot my aero bottle. i ended up buying a new bottle cage with a side entry. i knew it was going to cost me a few watts, but after learning so many fast guys were in my AG, i figured my shot was gone anyways. so whatever. 

mistake #3. i bought a bottle cage that was a side entry, never used with a side entry. 

anyways, the night before, i'm all prepped and finalized my nutrition. i knew it was going to be 95 at peak temps, so i opted for more liquid nutrition. i tend to be hungry often, so i knew i would want 350-500 calories per hour (yes, that's normal for me, i ate 500 per hour at immt), and upwards of 1200mg of sodium per hour (i took in 800 at immt and it pretty much rained and was cold for half of the bike. 

the red bottle had another 400 calories are carbo pro and 2 roctane salt tabs in it

race morning: 

we agreed on a 4am alarm. i woke up, ate 2 hard boiled eggs, drank 8 oz of fresh beet/apple/ginger juice from the local juice shop, had a gluten free bagel with fresh ground peanut butter on it, a bottle of green juice (kale, spinach, apple, kiwi, lemon, all kinds of grasses), 10oz of cold brew, and a kind bar. i also put half packet of skratch ultra hydration in 12oz of water and carried it with me. 

we get to transition early, everything is setup and i meet with folks and we get on the bus to take us to race start. 

everyone happy and goofing race morning

i get to race start and get in line for the pooper. i'm pretty proud of myself, 2 good poops before the race. we sit in line and wait. and wait and wait. i decided to check my goggles and realized i still had my di2 battery.. my heart sank. i took it off because i didn't want it sitting in the sun. when i moved my morning bottles to my run special needs bag, i forgot to move the battery. it was a pretty shitty feeling. luckily, jonathan was there and he was able to take the battery and get it to me at bike out. yes, i realize this is probably poor form in terms of the rules...

swim: 

goal time: 1 hour (that would be a 20 min PR)

real time: 1:08

with about 20 minutes to go, i really had to pee, but figured, i would just wait till i entered the water. bad idea, i just couldn't swim/pee. i grabbed the first kayak i saw and tried to pee. i still couldn't pee, my tri suit is pretty tight (i sized down to be as aero as possible), so i had to pull myself out and use my hand to gap the suit in order to pee. it was the LONGEST piss of my life. i literally gave up 3 minutes peeing. ok, i'm done peeing and off i go. i was told that i should swim in the middle as the current was strongest there. well, i suck at sighting, so i aim for what i think is the middle. i'm just all over the place. sometimes i'm with a ton of people, other times i'm solo. the one thing i didn't realize was how poorly the sleeves would work in the swim on my kiwami suit. each stroke my arm was a parachute for water. apparently i needed to size down 2 sizes for my arms..... regardless, i don't think it cost me more than 2 minutes. the swim didn't feel fast, in fact, it felt long. mostly d/t the fact that i felt lost very often. the tennessee river is quite wide, thus there were swimmers far right, and far left of me. at times the water was choppy, but i figured that mean there was a current, so i tried to stay in that type of water. all of a sudden, it was gone. i just gave up and aimed for the buoys. about 40 mins into the swim i had to grab my 2nd kayak. my regular race goggles broke (at the nose) so i wore my backup pair, some ones, but i lent them to my roommate all season so i had to re-adjust the tension. it felt fine at first, but after swimming my left eye socket felt like it wanted to pop out. i stopped once more to fix it, but just gave up. all in all, the imchoo swim is a fast swim. minus my mishaps, with better open water training/sighting i'm very confident i could have gone sub 60 minutes on this swim course. this was with only 6700 cfu released race day, vs upwards of 14000 in past years. a guy in my ag said he did a 47 minute swim... that's gnarly. regardless, with a 68 min swim, i still felt i was in the mix for a podium since i tend to race well in the heat. 

t1: i got out of the water thinking i swam a 1:30. i thought, kona chances are gone for sure... i still wanted to PR, so i moved my way into transition. i ran pretty hard, but took my time to make sure i grabbed all my nutrition, ate my cliff beet/bananna packet etc. i could have gone faster, but overall, i'm pleased. i wanted to go 3.5 minutes and ended up taking 4.5ish

bike: final time: 5:54 (garmin)

goal time: 5:10

i had one shoe (left) on the bike and i ran out with the right one in my hand. i snagged my bike and raced towards bike out where i saw jon and snagged my di2 battery. i plugged it in, put my shoe on and got on the bike and pretty much charged out of the gate. i knew i had some ground to make up, but with my generally slower than average swim, it meant a lot of cyclist in front of me (even though i was lined up pretty far up front in terms of the swim line), that means more slingshots. a few miles into the bike we crossed some train tracks. the course was still congested, so i was on my horns. as i hit the tracks, the left ziptie on my bta snapped and the bottle flew upwards. i quickly grabbed it. i didn't panic as this has happened in a race before (never with a new zip tie though). as long as i stayed in aero, i knew it would be fine as the right sided 2 zip ties were still on strong. i took it as a sign to stay in aero. 5 miles, 10 miles, 15, miles, 20 miles, 25 miles, 30 miles. i feel the temperature rising. no biggie though. i started with solid nutrition (i can't perform when my stomach is empty) so i ate two halves of a cliff bar, took in 3 salt tabs, and had a gu. by the time 35 miles came i snagged my first sip of my concentrated bottle in the down tube (red bottle from photo above). everything is feeling great. somewhere between mile 40-43 i had just taken a sip of said red bottle when i saw lump in the road. i was moving at a good clip, so i knew i had to get in aero to keep my bta from ejecting off. i quickly threw said red bottle in the age and got in aero. i hit the bump. no big deal.

- mind you, i'm also wearing a brand new aero helmet (the POC helmet), which has no vents. 

i reach again for the red bottle at 45ish for a quick sip and boom. it's empty. that's when i realized that i probably didn't get it in all the way at the bump and lost it. by this time the temps were climbing. i had 2 salt tabs left and i had the blue bottle. i still had 4 gels left (two were powerbars with 200mg na2+), but still not enough salt for what my body demanded. i decided that i needed to save the blue bottle for the last 25 miles of the race, so i left it where it was. 

by the time 55 miles came around i was starting to feel off. my power was down, my effort was down. a female athlete that was yo yoing with me asked if i was taking enough salt because my back was covered in salt (that has never happened before in a race). i thanked her and took another gel. looking back, i really should have reached for my blue bottle. the 2nd lap was pretty much the hardest 58 miles i had ever ridden. i know non ventilated helmets don't change core temp as long as you stay properly hydrated, but god damn. perceived temperature is a mental hootannani. i had to take the POC off and pour water on my head at one of the stops. all in all, i came to a complete stop 2 more times because 2 bottles of gatorade i got still had the safety seal on them. no biggie, kona was out for me and the volunteers were champs for even being out there. 

every water stop for me was dump bottle on my back/body, refil water, grab gatorade. 

by the time i hit mile 102-104, i saw a friend that i had just met the day before. he was pulled over with a flat. i asked if he needed anything and he mumbled some words. i decided that i wanted to help him. again, by this time my bike was just shot. 5:54 ride was just garbage. i gave him my pit stop, i had no idea how to use it, i explained the best i could (picked it up at expo since i flew in) and just rode off, hoping i wouldn't flat the last 10-12 miles. those were some haaard miles. i was really feeling the affects of the heat, it was about 2pm, at the peak of the sun and i was just roasting. i was out of salt, out of gatorade, out of gu, and just had some warm water. i just wanted to get off the bike. to give an example of how hot the ride was... i rode THROUGH the sonara desert in AUGUST with an 80lbs bike when i cycled across country (going through new mexico, arizona, and southern california), this was easily wayyyyy hotter.  

in case you wanted to figure out how hot it was. temps peaked at 97 w/ humidity at 87. this chart shows the heat index in shade. in direct sun, it says to add 15 degrees. it felt like an oven out there, i don't know if it was 170 deg, but it sure felt worse than 118 (when i rode through sonora desert). 

t2: i got off the bike and was surprised to feel so good running. i ran into the tent and when i sat down to grab my shoes it just hit me. i was sooooooo hot. the guy next to me was just staring into the roof of the tent, volunteers were just dumping ice and water onto him. i got all my shit ready and started to head out. until i saw pretzels. i stopped, grabbed a cup, sat there and ate it. grabbed ice water. put a punch of ice down my shirt and then covered myself with sunblock. for those who know me, that'll give you an idea of how hot it was.... i NEVER wear sunblock. for me to put it on, that means i was actually scared of the sun. 

expected time: sub 3

real time: 6:xx

run: this was my 7th ironman, NEVER have i seen people WALK out of t2. people are always running, excited because of the crowd. i saw people walking.. i thought, oh man, there is going to be some serious carnage out there. i tend to run very well off the bike, so i was going out fine. i had to remind myself to slow down. walk the hills and water stops. i talked to thomas gerlach briefly before the race and he reminded me how horrible racing in that type of weather could be for your body. the first 4-5 miles of the run were some of the hottest miles of my life. the course started off on the freeway and i felt the pavement just reflected even more heat. each water station i dumped 4-5 cups of ice in my suit, dumped 4-5 cups of water on my head, took in water, gatorade, and coke. i supplemented salt with base salt, mixed with roctane salt and salt tab salts. when i was running, i was doing 8-8:25 pace pretty comfortably, it was just hard to get motivated to run knowing that my goal of kona and/or pr were pretty much gone. oh, it was also really hot. miles 12-22 were the darkest miles of my life. i wanted to cry. i gave up my whole entire year to qualify. my body didn't hurt, i just didn't want to run. i literally didn't care. i wanted to just quit at lap 1, but saw my sister who encouraged me. a little kid ran up and asked for double high 5's, that kinda just helped me move on. he was sooooo stoked to get those high 5's. at mile 14, i regretted carrying on. like a lot. my water stop walks were getting longer and longer. at around 16 i totally just gave up and committed to walking. i stopped on the grass to stretch a little from time to time. i tried power walking, but i just suck at it. i was more fatigued power walking at 15min pace than i was running 10 min pace. 

- i've done my fair share of "hot" ironman races and "hot" marathons, i have never seen the carnage i saw on sunday on the run course (i was told the bike course was bad too), at least 15 people were carted away in golf carts/ambulances. i saw 10-15 laying on the ground with medics etc... i know it was epic in terms of heat/etc, but i'm confident that a lot of people could have saved themselves a lot of misery had they trained more in the heat, and actually understood proper sodium intake. 

my friend darryl (flat tire dude) caught up to me at around mile 21ish? right past the bridge, at the start of the barton ave climb. he thanked me, we shared a few words and he scurried along. i thought, well, i'm going down hill, i should at least run. i caught up to him, passed him, then jogged up the hixon pike before taking a bathroom stop. darryl passed me again while i was peeing, when i came out he was about 100 yards ahead of me. i was feeling ok, so i decided to jog up to him. we jog/walked and at around 24 i had enough. i was pissed, i just wanted to go home and shower. i regret not sharing a few words with him. idk what happened, i just snapped and took off. i jogged hixon and barton, ran over walnut bridge and con't to run hard to the finish line. about 20 yards to finish, i stopped fully in my tracks and acknowledged the crowd. it was an epic day for everyone, not just the racers. 

goal time: 3:30

final time: 5:05 

post race photo

i snagged 2 slices of pizza and a coke, just to get some calories in. i raced home showered, got a 15 minute cat nap in and headed back out to cheer on the rest of the gang. i didn't actually see anyone cross, but it was good to get post race photos. my friends were asking me how i had so much energy, as i was dancing to the finisher shoot songs and goofing around.. well, i was supposed to run 26.2 miles, i only ran about 10 of it at race pace, and the rest was walk/jog, lol. 

i didn't even care to check my final results. but the next day, i was surprised to find that i came in sub 12:30. final time of 12:23:xx.... it was over an hour slower than mont tremblant, which i did at 80% im effort as a training day. so many lessons learned....

the next morning we all woke up, cleaned up the house, returned to the local juice for some good stuff. and made our way to lookout mountain and ruby falls. PSA: do not wear shorts and a tanktop to ruby falls. it gets cold when you are over 1000 feet underground. if you go to ruby falls, try going when the tours are the smallest. it's really hard to enjoy mother nature when 50 people pull out their cameras and are flashing the shit out of everything. 

it's not really purple, they use colored lights

i'm like a mini buddha, except i can eat organic and vegetarian (most of the time) and not be a fatty like buddha. 

chattanooga, you were a hoot. loved the city, loved the course. you put me in a pretty dark place, you made my rethink my desire to race again, you made my rethink my desire to do another ironman, you made me walk in a marathon (that i didn't plan to walk) for the first time in almost 4 years. but thanks for showing me what hell is like, no more bad words (after this blog, that is).

good news though, i'm feeling pretty good. that means i went to the rock gym today to boulder a bit, and i'll start running again this week. time to set an open marathon PR and crush rock climbing season.

special thanks to the DRINKmaple crew for training with me all season long. never would have the fitness i have without all of you. good luck to folks racing maryland and kona in the upcoming weeks. 

thanks to my sister for coming and supporting me. it was really good spending quality time, very happy you were able to get a closer glimpse of what makes me tick. i greatly enjoyed the talks, cooking together, being my personal sherpa, and you putting up with all my crap. 

big ups to acosta for being an ultimate sherpa, for making some dynamite coffee every morning. believe it or not, i was much less stressed race week, simply knowing you were around. 

stacey: IM #6! i'm not sure how much longer i can stay ahead of you. keep up the positive attitude, your energy is infectious. 

daniel: it was great meeting you brotha. sorry you had such a rough day on the bike and run. knowing you, i don't think you would change it for anything. it's races like this that define your character. super proud that you stuck it through and never gave up. i still remember bumping into you at mile 18 and the words you said. it kept me from dropping out. 

tj: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! congrats on popping the cherry. friggang A man. i know you said you'll never do another one. but i swear, they are usually not this hard... plus, don't you want to know what it's like to have proper nutrition and do the whole race without throwing up? ;-)

jen: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! ditto what i said above (minus the throw up). perhaps next time, you won't PR a half marathon the weekend before, or run 5 miles the day before in 90 degree heat.... perhaps is the key word. 

edwin: it was great seeing you on the course, congrats on the PR. to do it on a day like that.... that's all character man. 

darryl: too bad about the flats man. glad you were able to get them worked out. it was great running side by side for the hardes 4 miles of the course. maybe we can do it again sometime, minus the heat.

john/jeff: congrats on finishing, i'm sad i didn't get to see you guys on the course, we were all probably zombies as we walked by each other. next time?

lastly: thanks to TOPO for sporting me with a pair of magnifly's for the race. 95% of my milage this year has been in TOPO's and i could not be happier. i know it's cheesy to thank a brand/company that gives you free shoes. but this is one of the rare companies that gives me free stuff that i would gladly pay for at full price (and those who know me know how rare it is for me to actually pay full price for anything). as a seasoned triathlete, as a physical therapist that has a special spot for gait analysis, i cannot recommend a better pair of shoes. 

Bike numbers for us "shorties"

I see it all the time at races. People with numbers taped poorly on frames. Draped over the top tube to the point where you can barely see the numbers, crammed onto the seat post, then covered by a saddle bag.

Those bike stickers were just not made for folks with small bike frames. The number is important, how else am I supposed to find photos of myself for facebook?!?!?! (moderate sarcasm there).

Personally, I have been cutting around the numbers and placing them on my frame in locations where race officials will not complain. Oftentimes, its the bottom triangle, others it's right at the end of the seat stay, under the seat.

Here is a photo of me cutting a race number. Notice how I taped it onto my frame (sideways). This was at patriot, the numbers were not sticky and I had forgotten packing tape, so that was the best position I could find.

At WTC races the numbers can really get STUCK onto your frame after a really hot race and leaving them on for a week (lets admit it, we all forget to take them off immediately). A neat trick is to put the number on a piece of packing tape (sticky side on sticky side). Trim the number again. Once you have done this, you can now place the sticker onto your frame and place packing tape over it. This will ensure a few things:

1) the number will be in the MOST visible spot, for photographs and what not

2) the number will not get in your way in terms of hitting your thigh

3) the number will not flap in the wind (which can be quite annoying during longer races)
4) the number will not have an aerodynamics drag penalty

- the last reason is especially true for slower cyclist. remember, the longer you are on the course, the more (in terms of total time) drag affects you.

My teammate, Jay Powell wrote up a nice piece regarding chain waxing. I won't echo him so here it is. I also added:

"i just started waxing my chain as well. Jay Powell i had great success with an ultrasonic cleaner. it's 70 bucks and i run it at 50 deg C for 15 minutes and the chain comes out silly clean. from there i run it through some denatured alcohol. 

for the wax, i use a slow cooker. i also suggest heating your chain in the oven to 120 degrees (or under 200) before you put it in the wax, this allows the wax to penetrate better. as the wax cools (when you take it out) the pressure will cause it to sit into the links.

for post wax cleaning, just use CLEAR mineral spirits and shake until it stays clear....

i personally rotate 4 chains so i can wax once a month. i find that each waxing lasts about a week and change for me (that's about 300-350 miles).

you can also add teflon powder at the end of your waxing treatment to give it an extra little boost.

for those who don't want to go through all this effort... try squirt lube. it's within .5watts of waxing your chain. "


Happy riding, everyone!