GOODIES!!

Today was a great day for me. I had a strong workout and got some great new gear from some sponsors as well.
I started with a swim at the Chatfield Res. at 7 30. I woke up around 5 30 to get my breakfast down and get ready. I experiment a bit with my pre race nutrition, so I use these sessions to see what works. I always have oatmeal or some hot grain cereal, but it's what I have with it that I mix up. I have done everything from bagels or toast to fruit. Lately though I have been using organic toaster pastries. They are basically health Pop Tarts. They taste great and pack 200 cal. per pastry. It worked well at the 5430 1/2 IM, and it worked well today.
I hit the water in my new BlueSeventy Pointzero3 suit. It's the over suit that is legal for non-wetsuit swims. It provides just a bit of bouyancy, and has a drag coefficient of .032 (hence the name). That is 50 times lower than bare skin! These suits are in super high demand for a reason. If you check out Blueseventy.com, you will see there is a link to pre-order then. The only people in Kona that won't have this suit will be those that didn't order it in time. Needless to say the suit rocks. I really noticed a difference from Wednesday when I swam at the Res in just my Descente shorts. I feel higher in the water and smoother. In an unscientific test, I found that it took me just over 1 minute less time to go the length of the pond, which is about 900 yds. That's about 4 minutes in an IM swim! A big thanks goes to Guy and Ben at BlueSeventy for helping me out with the suit.
The plan was to get on the bike right after the swim, but as I geared up I realized that I left my PowerTap at home. DOH! Without my PT I am riding without knowing my watts, and that's not good. Especially during the taper when I want to be doing specific intervals. So I drove home and started my ride. In total it took about an hour from when I got out of the water to when I started the ride. That's one slow transition time.
The good thing was that the bike was great. It wasn't long, only 1:45, but I did 2x20 min. hard, with 10 minute recovery, then one last section of 5 minutes HARD! I held 265 watts for the first two intervals, and 300 for the last one. The legs felt great, and my HR was steady at 135. At 5430 my HR average was 135, and my watts were 245. It goes to show what some rest can do. So I felt smooth and confident, right where I wanted to be. Getting off the bike I went for a short run. It was just 20 minutes, but it was steady to fast. Of course my Garmin went dead after 3 minutes (not my day technology wise), so I went by perceived exertion. I basically did 1 mile at IM effort, 1 mile FAST, and 1 mile at IM effort. Nothing crazy, just some solid speed work.
Back home I made my recovery shake, stretched and poked around on the net for a bit. Then it was time to run a fun errand.
I drove out to meet Erik, my contact at Oakley. He had some gear for me and it was right on time for IM Louisville. I picked up a few pairs of shades, including the new LiveStrong Radars, an ENORMOUS luggage bag, a watch (Court's B-Day present, which is still 3 weeks away!!) and some sitckers. Erik has been really good to me this season and I always look forward to seeing him. Another great guy I look forward to talking with is Paul Thomas, my contact at Kuota. I rung him up yesterday and we chatted a bit. He asked about my training and how things are going. Paul was one heck of a duathlete back in the day and he knows the Boulder area well, though he is now in California. So when I tell him I went up Mt. Evans on my Kalibur, he knows what I am talking about. Plus, last week I emailed Haley at FRS and they are sending me out some of their new stuff like the powered mix and a sweatshirt. I have started to use the FRS on my rides, not just as a pre-training or pre-event drink. Lance Armstrong is now on the board, so they should be getting bigger. That's a good thing for them, but I hope my competitors don't start to use it!
It's great to have such supportive sponsors and it doesn't hurt that all of their products are top notch. I know it's easy to say "well, you are sponsored by these guys, so you HAVE to say good things about them". But I really do think the products from Kuota, Oakley, BlueSeventy, FRS, Zipp and Saucony are top notch. I have put thousands of miles on my Kalibur while rolling on Zipps, and being protected by my Oakley's. In addition the great guys at BV Aurora have given my bike all the love it needs. I've run just over a thousand miles running in Saucony's, thousands of yards in the pool looking through BlueSeventy googles and have downed countless bottles of FRS while training and racing. All the gear and goodies have helped me in the day to day training that it takes to be successful, and I thank the people that support me.
Tonight we are going over to our friends Heidi and KIm's place to celebrate Heidi's birthday. We are going to have a BBQ and then go see The Bourne Ultimatum. I may not be home until 10:00! It's a big night out for me!