Interbike and Elite Nationals Pics

Amy and I got back from Interbike on Saturday night after a loooong day of driving from Las Vegas. We had a good time promoting bikebounce.com and talking to owners of shops about selling on eBay. I was surprised by the number of people who talked to us who are already big time eBay sellers. I didn't expect many of them to be in the crowd. Many shop owners I spoke to said they had someone outside their business who helps them sell bikes on eBay.
One idea that I'll look into is having a listing of eBay bike sellers arranged by geographic area. That way when a shop has interest in using bikebounce we can put them in touch with someone with eBay experience. Of course this would take time to get eBay sellers accustomed to bikebounce and building up enough sellers to make it worthwhile.
Luckily our booth worked out great. We'd never done a show before so were sure that we'd forget something important. Someone we didn't forget a thing and things were smooth. We bought a projector on eBay for $250 a few weeks before the show and used this to show a slide show of bikebounce images. This saved us from having to buy a load of posters that would quickly become outdated. With the projector changing things around is a snap. The only bummer was that we were in the back corner away from alot of the crowds. The bonus was that the booths next to us were cool. Christian from Germany with Cyclus Tools. And the fellas across the aisle from Squirt Lube. If we got next year we'll have to book early to get a primo spot.
I did check out the bikes, many nice new frames that I'd like to ride on.

USAT Elite National Championship

Here's how the race played out. I was pumped up and ready to swim hard. Got out ok the first 100m then got vised between two guys and out the back. Popped my head up and saw a group on the right and one on the left, I was in the middle. I should have picked a side and gone all in for the draft but made an error and missed the pack. Swam on my own the rest of the way and got out of the water wayyyy back. Got going on the bike and once I saw Matt Reed charging along in the lead I knew I had to lay it on or risk getting lapped out. I went for it hard on my own for about 4 of the 8 laps. Finally I was closing in on my teammate Matt Balzer. Coach Sean Wendt saw me getting close and advised Matt to sit up which he did (Thanks Matt!). That saved my day as I would have really been struggling after the early bike effort. Luckily too there were tons of people cheering me on which helped, especially since there were so many laps. Big thanks for the Practical Coaching crew for giving me a cheer every lap.
So back to the race. Got in with Matt and it was like we were training at the crit loop. We traded back and forth. Caught 2 guys and they latched on. Dumped 1 of them and the other fella, an Army guy worked with us.
Onto the run and I was hurtin the 1st lap. Chris Foster blew by and I could hang on the uphill but his leg speed was incredible and he was roasting all the downhills. Kept working but it was tough as I didn't have many guys around me. Passed a few guys to get into 22nd place where I finished up. Clearly not the best first ITU race but it cemented that I have to swim loads over the winter.

Portland Elite Nationals

I've been in Portland, OR since Thursday night for the 08 USAT Elite Nationals. This race is a rare afternoon start so it's 10:30am now and I'm not going off until 2:15. Amy should have finished a few minutes ago and qualified for World Champs in Australia.
The pro field is huge with 43 guys including a bunch of studs. This is my first ITU race so I'm ready for a crushing swim. I'm pretty much just approaching it as a swim race. If I can swim well then I'll be happy and whatever happens after that is icing on the cake. The bike is beastly which I'm happy about. It's an 8 loop bike with no horribly steep hills but it's constant up or down at a fair grade. So hopefully that will blow any big bike packs apart and give me the opportunity to make up some ground on the bike. The run also has some huge hills but I won't think about that til I get there. I have to swim hard 1st before I can think of that.
Results should be posted here after the race:
http://www.triathlon.org/?call=TVRFdw==&id=MTE5NA==&keep=sh#

Ready For Portland

Training's been up and down as of late. I felt tired for a few days and swam a poor team goals set then couldn't muster much up on a hard Lookout Mtn climb.
Felt much better yesterday and did some hard swimming with a few hard 100m's on 1:15, 1:17, 1:18, 1:13 plus 2 good 200's on 2:40 and 2:32 for meters. Took today off to rest up a bit, I don't like to take a day off too close to a race. Amy and I are flying out to Portland on Thursday to race USAT Nationals on Saturday.
We're going to spend an extra day in Oregon, not sure where we're going to go yet, either Portland or the coast. It would be nice to surf but may be too cold for my skin and bones. From there we'll fly back Monday and...drive out that day to....Interbike where bikeBounce.com now has a booth.
We're working on some last minute changes to the site and if all goes well we'll make a big change that I'm confident will get bikeBounce out there and bring it to the next level.
Not much else happening. Amy and I took the Gullmesister General to Dog Days at the Carmody Pool yesterday. The day before they drain the pool they let dogs come and romp. All the laps and goldens were swimming around and Gull refused to get in except the time he slipped in and that other time when I threw him in. He took it all in stride though and had a good ol time.
Full Pics Here

Hard Workout Time

Got in some great workouts over the weekend. Yesterday we swam a main set of 6x400y with 1:30 breaks. The odds had the first and last 50y all out while the evens had the first and last 75y all out.
I started steady on the first couple - 5:04, 5:00, 5:00 then got to work. Went 4:52, 4:52 and a big 4:48 on the last one, probably my best swim set EVER! Felt very good throughout, Matt Balzer who I can normally swim around in races crushed me out of the water in Chicago with his 'new stroke.' So I figured I'd give this 'new stroke' a try and over the last week have been working on it with great results. My goal from now to the end of the season is to just swim swim swim. I'll get in the bike and run workouts but the focus will be on the swim. I plan on doing Portland Pro Nationals and Treasure Island which are both draft legal so I'm going to have to swim big time if I want to make those races worthwhile. I also figure that I've had a strong season up to now and I'm happy with what I've done so I may as well mix it up and change the focus a bit. If I want to put in some big results next year - top 5's at the biggest US races - then I'm going have to get out of the water minutes faster so I may as well get going on the swim now.
Today we did a 3x1 mile workout at Highline Canal with 2min breaks. My teammate Pete Mallett went after it from the get go on the first one so I figured what the hell I'll make a big go of it today. We ran 4:57, 4:44, and 4:48. Probably my fastest workout at altitude. So I'm coming back around after feeling a bit blah after Chicago and now I'm excited to get out there in Portland.

Chicago Done and Onto Portland

Chicago Triathlon was a good but not great race for me. I felt very good going in, felt very ready to rip it then I swam HORRIBLY. Lined up in poor position in the 2nd row on the inside and I was screwed in the first couple hundred as everyone bunched in. Major mistake on my part. Then I just plain felt terrible swimming. The water was 76 the day before the race and it felt the same on race day but the reading was 70 so it was a wetsuit swim. I just felt roasting and bad.
On the bike and it was hard to really get going. I stuck with it, passed a few guys but for the most part really didn't see anyone on the bike which made it tough. 59:XX for the bike which is alright, would have been nice to be a couple minutes faster though.
Hit the run and then all the sudden there were guys everwhere and it was a massacre! It felt sort of hot since we started at 11am but it was only in the upper 70's so didn't feel that bad. For whatever reason the other guys were having a tough time of it on the run. I was off the bike in 22nd then passed on guy then another then...I was in the top 15 and there were still guys to be caught. Managed to get myself into 12th which all in all is very good for the Chicago Tri with all of its 8,XXX participants. But with the bad swim I felt like I missed an opportunity to get into the top 10 and be in the mix. I really wasn't 'IN' the race the way things played out. Gotta swim better!
I felt a bit odd during the race with a headache on the bike and felt like I was about to past out right after which aren't common maladies for me. Then sure enough I got a cold the Tuesday after. I'd usually train through it but I haven't had any kind of break since about February so I figured I'd just sit it out, wait til I got better, then get back into the training. I also felt that a mental break from the training would be good.
This past week I got back into the full training and now it's coming together again. My buddy Jason Finch let me try his 2XU wetsuit and that thing felt great. Granted the other guys swam sans wetsuit but I was still swimming great. We swam some hard open water 300's with all out starts to simulate racing. The workout was great and I swam well.
Thursday we rode the crit loop. 16 laps time trial alternating hard/easy. Rode 3:42, 3:35, 3:40, 3:38, 3:39, 3:50, 3:57, 3:57. Hit the hurt at the end but I rode the early and middle ones "all in" so it was all good.
That's it for now, time for Mexican food and margaritas.

Jordan