Jordan Jones

Back on Track

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Amy and I just got back from a 2 week tour of our ol' stomping grounds in the Northeast.
We skied a day. Terrible. It's like my lil bro Alex' friend said once "Yeah, I don't really understand Eastern skiing." Amy and I felt like snobs but it really was terrible. Granted it looked like they hadn't gotten much snow all year so maybe that's what it was.
We spent a couple of days in Boston and lo and behold there was an all comers track meet at Boston U while we were there. I've barely been running - 20 miles a week over 3 runs and no intervals since before Portland Pro Nats in September. I couldn't pass on a chance to get on the old indoor track though.
I got in the 2nd fastest heat with the 9:12 seed time I drew of of my hat. Got through the quarter in 72 and it was smooth so I knew I could hold that and make some moves. It was like old times, I sat back early on and stuck to the rail to run the shortest distance. Hit the mile in 4:44 and a couple guys broke off the front. Moved up and caught them but they seemed to be slowing so I went around and into 2nd. 1st place fella had about 25m on me. I was slowly catching him and then all the sudden it was 400m to go and I HAD to go if I was gonna make a go of it. Managed a 66 last quarter to finish it up in 8:50 (about a 9:28 2 mile) and win the heat. Not spectacularly fast, I ran 8:20 in college, but I was pumped to me in that shape off my current run training. Good to know that the swimming is keeping me fit.
My college teammates mixed it up in the fast heat, Paul Ryan got 3rd in 8:29 and Liam Revell ran 8:35.
Awesome to be back in Colorado now. Ready to swim hard and start building in some good bike efforts to get ready for the season.

Winter Break

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:30:00 +0000

The team swam alot last week and capped things off with 10,250y of swimming on Monday. I went in expecting an easy morning swim and we got in 3750. Then that evening hit it hard with another 6500. The last 500y I was dreaming of Chipotle. Silver burritos were flying around in my head and I was ready for dinner.
I flew out to Jersey on Wednesday for an East Coast trip. I'm taking a block of time off to regroup before the last of the winter swim base training. I usually woudn't take a break now but since my season ended in September and I started training again in October this will be a long period of training. I find it's best to plan in some breaks in a time like this so that a) I don't get worn down and take forced breaks and b) I don't get to the final races of the season and want the season to be done with.
We just finished off an awesome Christmas season at Mile High Athletic which I'm happy about. We were able to nearly triple our sales compared to last year. Since prices drop big time after Christmas I tried to get nearly all our skis out in December so now it's slim pickins and we have under 200 pairs left. Although it seems odd not to have many skis during the season this is right where we want to be. Now we can take a bit of a breather before stocking up again as the season winds down.

Awesome Ofemus Party

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:27:00 +0000

So my girlfriend Jeanice and I went to my buddy Ofer's Ofemus party. It was supposed to snow that night so we took my 85 Trans Am since it drives sweet in the snow. You point that thing and it just goes.
The party was at my buddy Matt's house. What a house! The thing had to of cost a least a million.
Apparently it was a costume party which we didn't know about so we felt a bit outta place but it was all good. At first they had some kind of crappy weet beer but goin but once that was out it was Bud Light and the night was good.
Jeanice had a bit too much and called some other chick a tramp and they got in a lil scuffle but I broke em up.
Towards the end Jeanice and I won some kind of award, I'm not sure for what. Must have been for sweetest car or classiest or something.
Below is a picture of Jeanice and I:

McGaffigan Files $1,000,000 Suit

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:59:00 +0000

From the Wire Haired Wire:
Gulliver H.G. McGaffigan filed a $1,000,000 lawsuit in Denver District Court today alleging that Puppy Pics Corp. used his unauthorized likeness on their birthday cards. The German based firm responded that they would "vigorously" contest all charges and would not stop production of such cards. McGaffigan was visibly upset while speaking to reporters inside his Golden, CO estate.
McGaffigan, son of Jordan Jones and Amy Dannwolf, is well known among Denver's elite. The socialite youngster frequents the city's exclusive nightclubs and has been romantically linked to Lady as well as Tipsy. McGaffigan is currently preparing for sled dog camp in which he hopes to become the first sub-20 pound dog to lead a sled team.

Swim Meet Race #1

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:21:00 +0000

Swam the 1650y tonight at the big Fort Collins Holiday Meet. I was in Heat 2 with Dan on our team and 2 kids about half my age. I swam a 19:48 PB (exactly 1:12 pace). Much faster than the 21:30 I swam last winter. I went our a bit easy for the first couple hundred then got rolling. Just under 6:00 the first 500y then just over for following two 500's. I'm happy with it, great to take off so much time from last year. It'll be nice to get about two more 1650's over the winter to bring the time down a bit more.
Tomorrow is the 500y.

comScore Claims Online Spending up 15%

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:34:00 +0000

I woke up to read in the morning paper and read everywhere online that data from tracking firm comScore Inc showed a 15% in crease in online sales on the Monday following Thanksgiving from 2007 to 2008. That seems reasonable. Then I read on...
"And on Cyber Monday...online spending reached $846 million, up 15 percent from a year earlier, comScore found." (link here)
This $846 million figure seemed drastically low to me plus I'm always dubious of "analysts" claims so I thought I'd check a couple things out to see if this figure is reasonable.
Amazon.com reported $5.67 billion in 4th quarter sales in 2007. (Link here) Let's give comScore a huge gimme and assume that the Monday after Thanksgiving is an average sales day within the quarter. That puts Amazon sales at $63 million on the day (I'll also give them another gimme and not extrapolate their 15% figure and add it to the $63 million).
Next let's look at heavy hitter eBay. eBay had gross merchandise volume of $16.21 billion in the 4th quarter of 2007. Let's do the same math on that one and we get $180 million for Cyber Monday sales.
So now with just 2 website we've already reached $243 million in sales of the supposed $846 million total. Don't forget that we're assuming that this is an average day within the 4th quarter.
I don't have the time to go hunting around for loads of internet companies sales records but at this point for my own thirst for knowledge I'm going to assume that the claimed $846 million figure is very low.
Think of all the big online sites where people spend money that I haven't included:
Dell, Office Depot, Staples, Nike, United Airways, every other airline, Zappos, WalMart, Target, Buy.com, and my favorite MileHighAthletic.com. I think it's safe to assume that big sellers along with the tens of thousands of smaller ones will put us way over the total.
What I find annoying is how readily the media eats up "analysts" data. The "analysts" and "experts" are wrong so often that you think there'd be more analysis of their findings or at least the media wouldn't trumpet their findings with such zeal. Companies collapse all the time yet the expert analysts who track these companies for a living often don't predict their demise.
Search Google for "online spending 15%" and you get an idea of all the respected publications that publish comScore's data with a hint of research.

Look Out Middle Schoolers

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:12:00 +0000

Big swim meet this weekend up in Fort Collins. Our coach, Sean Wendt, always has our team race in some swim meets over the winter. The best part is that the swim meet is composed of middle school kids and then...us. We get up on the blocks and a look of terror comes across their eyes. Then more times than not they proceed to whoop us and get out of the pool sauntering around like they're Michael Phelps the rest of the day.
I've got the 1650y Friday, 500y Saturday, and 200y Sunday (yeah this weekends going to suck). The 1650 is the one I'm excited about. I swam 21:30 last year and I'm hoping I can get under 20:00 this time around. 1:12/13 will get me right around there. Sounds hard but once I get in the pool in a race I think I can swim way faster than I do in practice.
I've been sneaking in an outside ride a week, going on days when the weather is good. This week I went out the door and straight up Lookout and rode around a little bit. It was 65 that day. The next day it snowed. The weather's been all over the place here.
Other than that just been doing an additional hour ride on the trainer, two 30 minute runs, and one long run just under 1:30.
I ran this morning in the snow and I'm usually a mountain goat in the snow but all the sudden my left foot slipped out and whamo my knee nailed the icy pavement. It was hurtin' and I thought I did some damage but I kept running and it was fine.
Amy got herself into St Anthony's this week so now we're all set to go out there come springtime.

mmm Jersey Mikes

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:03:00 +0000

Just had a Jersey Mikes cheese-steak, those things are awesome.
Been sticking with the training. Lots of swimming and a few easy runs and rides mixed it. Except Sunday. Ofer started up a running group so we've been getting 20+ guys to come out for the 1:25 run on Vista Trail. I've never seen such a good group of guys. No big names but all very solid guys. If we were a team we'd have one of the nastiest 25 man XC teams around! I ran with the group 2 weeks ago and it was friggin painful. Last week, with the previous week under my belt, things were much easier and I was able to actually push it and feel good. Gotta hold back though, my legs were tired after that one and I gotta keep em fresh so I can concentrate my good efforts on swimming.
A note about long runs. They're important. I ran 15 miles nearly every single Sunday for about 6 years. Now I don't have to be as meticulous so it frees me up to bike/swim more particularly during the season when those long runs would tire me out a bit too much. But during the off season I like to get back into them and get my body used to the 1:20-1:40 efforts. I think the key for triathletes is to not go longer than that if you're racing half iron or under. There's a temptation to think longer is better but you need some intensity or else the workout is pointless. I find that once I go over 1:40 there is little to no extra return AND my body takes much longer to recover. Nearly all my long runs are under 7:00 pace. If I want to race at 5:15 pace then there isn't much point in running over 7:00 except on recovery days (when I'll run quite slow).
I got slower in the pool the last couple of weeks. I had a great team goals a few weeks ago and did one of my team goal 100's in 1:01. Yesterday 1:04's felt HARD. It's a bit frustrating but I know that you just have to keep at it. It's simplistic to think that the body will follow a steady progression and get 1 second faster a week but that's not how things work. Sometimes you take a few steps back then make a huge jump forward.

Fast Food Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:36:00 +0000

Good long run today with a group that Ofer started. About 20 guys showed up and we ran on Vista Trail to Eldorado Springs and back. I've getting back into some running shape so it wasn't an easy 1:27 but not crazy hard. If anyone wants to come next weekend it starts from the trailhead on Hwy 93 on Sunday at 8:30am.
After going to Park City last weekend for some good training with Taylor I got sick this week so took Tuesday and Wednesday off.
Last night was the Fast Food Challenge. The competition was born out of the famous Cornell dining hall eating competitions of the 1980's and 90's. Last night was a 2.8 mile run with 5 food stops.
1) A sloppy joe and soda at a sloppy joe specialty restaurant.
2) 7 Eleven for a hot dog and Slurpee.
3) Slice of pizza and soda
4) 3 tacos at Chipotle
5) 1 chili cheeseburger at Carl Jr's.

I was a judge at Carl Jr's. There were 9 competitors and I was anxious to see who would arrive at the 5th and final food stop first. Ofer and Matt came in neck and neck but it was immediately apparent that Ofer was feeling much better. He was steadily breezing through his burger while Matt was carefully watching Ofer, sweating profusely, and spending 1 minute chewing each small bite. Ofer was out the door and to the finish: 24 minutes. Impressive - 24 minutes to run just under 3 miles and eat 5 meals. Plus he had a beer at the post race party and made it through today's entire long run!

Aquadeath Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:46:00 +0000

Amy and I took Gulliver and Primo on an Aquadeath hike last weekend. Trail reminds me of the danger ridden Peruvian trails. The wood aqueduct goes for miles. Eventually we found a plaque that marked it's 1932 opening by the Golden Canal and Reservoir Company. That's about the excitement lately.
Last night I came through with a solid team goals. Last week we swam easy and I thought I'd blast team goals and come close to 1:00 but instead I felt terrible, along with most everyone else. 1:05's, 6's and 7's were tough.
Felt much better yesterday and swam 1:03, :03, :02, :02, :01, :03. Much better. Tried to go with Matt on the 2nd to last and blasted out but then hit the hurt big time the last 50y. Did them on the 4min this week which is actually easier than 6min.
Amy and I are driving out to Park City, Utah today to see Taylor and Martha. Taylor's got IM Arizona this fall so he should be eager to punish me on the bike with a long ride. I've done about 4 rides in the last month so it should be interesting.

Aquadeath

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:53:00 +0000

This post is titled aquadeath for two reasons:
1) Yesterday was the grandaddy of swim days. 2000y in the morning then another 5300y in the evening. Man was my back itchy from the chlorine afterwards!
2) This morning I got out early for a run. Since Amy and I moved to Golden I've been hunting for trails so yesterday I searched around on Google maps and zeroed in on a trail that ran along the south side of Clear Creek. Went up there this morning, found the trail, ignored the no trespassing sign, and was on the trail. 1:00 into it I was walking along a landslide retaining wall with a 50" cliff on my right side. Got through that and was able to run aside from the other retaining walls I encountered. It seemed like the trail was a really old aquaduct. Maybe it's what used to pump the water into Coors. Man that aquaduct has provided some enjoyment to people round the world.
Anywho, it was a bad ass trail that hugged the north side of Lookout Mtn along Clear Creek. Then came the crazy secntion. The dirt ended and the trail continued on a wooden structure straight outta The Goonies.
There bere pieces of wood every 5 feet with boards laid down to connect them that you could walk on. I walked on the ice covered boards for a few hundred feet then did the prudent thing and turned back.
I told Matt Balzer about the trail a swim practice and he goes "You mean the Aquadeath Trail." Apparently the trail is well know to the School of Mines guys.
VeloSwap is this Saturday. We've got a booth to sell some wares so come on by.
Sweet bikeBounce listing of the day is this Giant TCR Advanced. Too bad it's a size Small.

eBay Bike Selling Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:46:00 +0000

I spent a few hours yesterday writing a guide to selling a bike on eBay which you can see here:
http://www.bikebounce.com/bikesellingguide.php
I think I covered the basics but add a comment if you think anything substantial is missing.
The team swam hard the past two days. Thursday was team goals, 6x100y all in. I averaged 1:04 which I'm happy with for right now.
Yesterday was a bit better for me though. We swam 3 broken 500's. They were broken into 200y on 3:15, 150y on 2:30, 100y on 2:00, a 50y then a 5min minute break with 100y of easy swimming. The last broken 500 I managed a 2:17, 1:45, 1:08 and :29. That was my best and about 1 second per 50 fast than my others. It was friggin hard though and definitely all I could muster up. The arms were a bit tingly when I finished those last intervals. The workout was great all in all, especially after taking a couple weeks of and doing absolutely nothing after pro nationals.
The weather is beautiful today so Pete, Matt, Josh, and I met in Golden and rode easy up Lookout and then putzed around Genesee for a bit. Genesee has some sick hills and we rose one killer 15min loop with a brutal climb. We joked about doing a crit workout there next year. An epic crit that would be. Easy swim later today then off tomorrow, I'll be taking a day off a week for awhile as I want to build up a big swim base now but don't want to overdo it and wear myself down.

Back to pool, back to pool, to show to dad that I'm not a fool

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:05:00 +0000

Got back into the training last week with a solid 22k of swimming. It's only getting worse this week. We had a hard set yesterday and when we informed Sean that it was hard he let us know that "Friday will be our worst swim workout ever." I best be ready for that one as Seans dished up some mean swims in the past.
Yesterday was 5200y of swimming with a main set of 12x100 with the evens on 500y goal pace the the evens just 1-3 seconds slower. My arms have been tired from getting back in the pool but I swam this set well - 1:05 to 1:08 on the hard ones and 1:10 to 1:12 on the "easy" ones. We should have team goals today (usually 6x100y all out) and then Fridays predicted hellish swim so it should be a doozy of a couple days.
I was getting incredibly hungry during the swims which often happens when I'm putting in successive days of hard swimming. I feel like I get depleted and then after 3500y of swimming all I can think of is food. Normal sport drinks helped but weren't cutting it so I went with the grand daddy sports drink of em all, Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuum which packs 260 calories a serving. That definitely does the trick. I usually reserve Perpetuum for long rides of half ironmans but it's also serving me well on these long swims.
Matt Balzer has been crushing the swims as of late and we were getting out of the water together at most races we did so that has me hopeful that I can make a swim breakthrough like he has. If I can get my team goals all under 1:00 I'll be happy.
I'm running so little now that even the 50min run I did yesterday has my legs a bit sore. Starting to feel like a normal everyday runner, running actually hurts now. The first 30min feel great since my legs are fresh but then all the sudden I start to hurt where I shouldn't hurt, the back gets sore, shoulders get tight.

Busy Ski Season

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:05:00 +0000

The last week was hectic as we're getting towards ski season. Perhaps it's the economy but ski sales fluctuate wildly - one day is dead and the next the phone is ringing constantly. Amy and I were busy shipping out a whopping 21 pairs of skis this afternoon.
I've been reading up on Google lately, about the company and the Adwords area of Google. The most interesting thing I've learned thus far is that all Google searches are run through relatively normal off the shelf computers. Instead of buying supercomputers for nearly $1,000,000 Google buys hundreds of computers similar to home PCs. Then they hook them all up and Google searches are run through them. Part of the beauty of this system is that if one goes down it has a negligible effect on the search network. Smart fellas.

Time to chill

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:03:00 +0000

Thanks to Sonja's dad, Eric, for the sweet pics from Portland.
I decided after Portland to call it a season and look ahead to next year. I could go to Treasure Island for another race but I want to hunker down and get my swim up to ITU par.
Before I do that though I'm taking a couple of weeks completely off to let the mind and body rejuvenate. I'm so used to rushing from training to work then back to training that life feels way easy now. I've got time to watch TV and chill out at night. I can even watch the VP debate tonight. I really haven't done anything in 10 days now so am feeling like quite the non athlete.
The ski sales are picking up this week so we've been busy shipping them out and get more listed online. It's hard to say how much the economic freefall has been affecting things. Dan Empfield from Slowtwitch.com wrote a good article on the economy's affect on bike manufacturers and retailers. He thinks that contrary to popular cycling opinion a bad economy will have a serious affect on things. He bases this largely on a Slowtwitch poll that found that 3% of respondents reported losing their house to the economy.
Skis seem largely similar to bikes. It's generally a middle class or high end clientele which are less affected by a downturn. But everyones still affected. It could be a boon to our business since we're a discount etailer and never sell skis at full retail. Perhaps instead of buying at full price people will hunt around for deals and find good ol' MileHighAthletic.com. Then again maybe the people who usually buy from us will decide to stick with their current pair of skis for another year. It's difficult for us to notice any effect since we're so new and growing rapidly. If sales are up 50% it's difficult to know if they'd be up 60% if things were better. Old time businesses can tell much better since adjustments in their sales can be more closely attributed to the economy.
I've been doing some work on bikeBounce.com and the good news is it's now FREE. I figured a way (I won't bore you with the details) of making it free and still being able to make it profitable. We've had more people sign up this week so that's a good sign, hopefully people will like it and spread the word.
That's it for now, time to watch the VP debate.

Interbike and Elite Nationals Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:58:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:29:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:56:00 +0000

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

Chicago Tri Prep

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:35:00 +0000

Luckily I recovered quickly from the half. Didn't get any bad soreness and after 2 easy days I was back into the training Wednesday. Got in a good crit ride/run and 20k of swimming last week.
Finished it off with a workout at Highline on Sunday. 11 mile run with 4x1mile w 2min breaks with Josh. Ran 4:59, 5:20, 5:20, 4:59. The 5:20's were for the long mile, they probably all averaged out to 5:05 or so. Felt very good and it was a perfect day to run hard.
Tonight we swam a hard set of 200, 100, 200, 100 then 8x50y. Swam 2:20's for the 2's and 1:09's for the 1's. Solid workout so I'm feeling ready for the Chicago Triathlon this weekend. The race starts at 11am so it better not be a roasting day.

5430 Long Course Triathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:55:00 +0000

I wasn't planning on racing any half ironmans this year but then I had a 5 week gap in races, and 5430 Long Course was only 40 minutes away....so I decided to give it a go.
I haven't been doing the long runs and rides that I'd need to go into a half 100% but when are you 100%? I've been in very good race shape so figured that wold carry me through.
I flew from Jersey the day before but felt fine and the travel didn't take anything out of me. The 5430 Sports races are always roasting but miraculously the temp was only supposed to hit the low 80's.
Race morning was good and it was actually easy to get up at 4:00am since I was on East Coast time. I had a bagel with PB and a banana on top and I was good to go.
I swam extremely lazily, not sure why, just didn't get after it. Match that with what seemed a long swim and I was out in 31min. I swam 28min at Clearwater World Champs last year while being in way worse swim shape so either that was short or this was lengthy.
Onto the two wheeled machine. I had tucked my spare tubular into my seat bag and it was fine like that for my hour ride the day before but now 5 min in I see my shadow and the tire is flopping around! I pulled it out and tucked it into the chest area of my jersey. Got more into the bike and my legs felt ok but not great. I hunkered down and kept the rpms high at 100 where I like them and worked away. Passed a few guys and towards the end of the 1st loop and I ended up around Lars Finanger, Kirk Nelson, and another guy. We were all going about the same pace so were able to work off each other well. I'd feel good and try to take off then one of them would feel good and I'd just try to keep ahold of them. Once we got halfway into the 2nd loop they got some time on me then I was working alone. I had split 1:05 for the 1st loop, solid but not great. I knew holding down that pace would be some work. I just kept working away and came in off the bike in 2:10 for a 25.8mph avg. For once I didn't get the horrible cramped and overworked feeling I usually get in a half at the 40 mile mark. I was able to stay steady and was actually able to stay pretty close to Lars and Kirk which was good. I had 3 gels and 1 Sport Beans on the bike along with 1 bottle of Perpetuum and 2 bottles of Gatorade.
Onto the run and...my legs felt great! I wanted to run right around 6:00 pace but 5:50's felt like a breeze. I wasn't even pushing it and considered going faster but my smarter half told me to just hold it and work the 2nd half of the run. I split 5:50, 5:46, 5:48, 5:38, 6:02, 5:50. It felt too easy then all of the sudden 6:32. Cripes! From there my work was cut out for me. I had to work and keep focus to run 6:02, 6:17, 6:17, 6:22. I had 2 gels on the run, maybe more would have helped. With a mile to go I knew my PB of 4:03 was within reach so I went for it. I had been feeling like a leg cramp could strike at any second so I was running a bit scared at this point. I was getting little tremors like a full out cramp was about to erupt. When I picked it up this got worse but I managed a 5:40 then 0:55 for the final little bit. 4:02:07 final time, good for 9th.
All in all I'm happy with this race. It would have been nice to catch a great day like at the Peak and potentially get into the top 5 but I was able to work hard while not feeling great and still pull out a result I'm proud of.
Full Results Here
Inside Triathlon Recap Here
Slowtwitch Recap Here

Jersey Training, Doping, and Action Park

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:53:00 +0000

Somehow the weather out here in Jersey has been awesome this week making for some good training. Recovered Monday with a 4500y swim and short run. Tuesday was a 2:30 ride along the shore and an ocean swim. There were loads of jellyfish but they didn't sting, still weird to constantly bump into them. Yesterday 1:30 bike then an 11 mile run in the afternoon. Met Scott from the duathlon and we ran at Manasquan Reservoir, a nice 5 mile dirt loop with marked miles. Ran the 1st lap normal then for the 2nd ran 4 miles at 6:00 pace and a 5:30 to finish it off before a short cooldown. I was drenched in sweat, not used to that. Today so far I swam 3600m, finishing it off with 3 all out 100's on 4min at 1:09, 1:10, 1:10. Solid.
There's an excellent article in the Washington Post today about doping among amateurs. What I like about it is it treats OTC performance enhancers as what they are - performance enhancing drugs. Sudafed, inhalers (although those need a prescription of course) for those that don't need such things. And my favorite peev, caffeine. This is the first article that I've seen that challenges the common use of low dosage caffeine in endurance sports. It's beyond me why all the big gel makers make gels with caffeine. Do people take these gels when they roll out of bed in the morning? Can I buy a gel with r-EPO in low dosage? I just don't get why it's so commonly accepted to take caffeine during a race when everyone is so supposedly anti-doping.
On a lighter side. Amy's brother Tim has oft recounted tales of the now defunct amusement park Action Park. He's regaled us descriptions of their dangerous rides like the one where there's a giant fan that blows a rider up into the air (Tim went up into the air then off to the side a bit, causing him to come crashing down and injuring his back). So this week I did a little research and found a lengthy Wiki article on Action Park
Some of the descriptions in the article are hilarious. This sounds like the amusement park that I dream of. I always wish you could mix rides with rider skill, kind of like a mash up between skiing and a roller coaster. Give the rider some control and things would be way more fun. I guess this is what Action Park sought to do, "They gave patrons more control over their experience than they would have at most other amusement parks' rides, but for the same reason were considerably riskier." They had an alpine slide which is a favorite of mine where you go down a concrete quarter pipe down a mountain on a sledlike contraction. There's always a real danger that you'll go into a turn with too much speed a pop off the track like my friend Dan Shea did once, causing nasty cuts/burns.
Action Park also had diving cliffs, with cliffs of 23 and 18ft. Awesome. The Aqua Scoot also sounds impressive, a brilliant mix of a waterslide and alpine slide where you go down a track of rollers like the kind used in warehouses. At the bottom of the rollers your roll on into water where you skim along the surface. "The patrons' inability to follow these directions resulted in numerous severe head lacerations weekly. There were also some rare occurrences where a patron's hair became entangled in the rollers when their head made contact with the rollers. If the rider found themselves fortunate enough to make it down the descent unharmed, they were not out of harm's way yet. If the plastic sled the rider was on was facing any direction off center, the sled would, instead of skipping, fling the rider off upon impact into the water. Or the sled would veer sharply to the right or the left upon impact with the water. At times, this led to the patron on the veering sled colliding with other patrons whose ride had finished and were in the process of walking their sleds out of the water."
And best of all. "The one ride that has come to symbolize Action Park and its extreme thrill-seeking was, paradoxically, almost never used.
In the mid-1980s GAR built an enclosed water slide, not unusual for that time, and indeed the park already had several. But for this one they decided to build, at the end, a complete vertical loop of the kind more commonly associated with roller coasters.[15] Employees have reported they were offered hundred-dollar bills to test it. "It didn't buy enough booze to drown out the memory", said Fergus.[11]
It was opened for one month in summer 1985 before it was closed at the order of the state's Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety, a highly unusual move at the time.[13] One worker told a local newspaper that "there were too many bloody noses and back injuries" from riders, and it was widely rumored, and reported in Weird NJ, that some of the test dummies sent down before it was opened had been dismembered.[13] A rider also reportedly got stuck at the top of the loop due to insufficient water pressure, and a hatch had to be built there to allow for future extrications.[13]"
I like the riskiness factor involved in these rides. I like that you kind of have to decide for yourself whether you think you're up to the task of taking on the ride, you can't just assume that you plop yourself into it and be alright. "Ride designers may have had insufficient training in physics or engineering. "They seemed to build rides," one attendee recalls, "not knowing how they would work, and [then let] people on them."" The old staffs views seem in harmony with mine. "The staff's indifference to many of the park's own rules led to a similarly lawless culture among riders, who generally liked the high level of control they had over their experience and felt that any accidents were the fault of the victims."
Wow, what a place. If only I could time travel I would most certainly go to Action Park circa 1985.

Lighter Than Air Duathlon Win

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Jones) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Brian Shea of Personal Best Nutrition

Last weeks training went well. I got back to CO and our team rode 3x Lookout Mtn on Wednesday. It was roasting hot which made it extra tough. I rode 21:30, 21:00, 21:30 which I was happy with, no smoking trips up but all very solid, especially considering the heat. The next day I had the Boulder Stroke and Stride on the schedule. Matt and Tate pulled a quick one on me when they showed up with wetsuits. They we're giving me crap a month ago when I showed with a wetsuit and now that the water is warmer they show with wetsuits! Usually we're all battling on the swim so I didn't have them to hang around but I swam strong and then followed it up with a good 16:40 5k run. Good nuff.
We had a crit ride on the schedule the next day, Friday, and I started that but my legs were absolutely toasted at this point. After a lap it was apparent that I'd be best off taking the ride easy so I let the boys ride away and rode easy the rest of the ride. Somehow Josh is impervious to hard training but I can only take so much before I need to shut it down for a day to recover.
I woke up insanely early on Saturday to get to the airport for a 6:15 flight with Amy to the big NJ. Arrived smoothly and took it easy, just put the bike together then did a short ride/run to loosen up for the next days duathlon.
The weather was awesome the day of the DU so I was excited to stretch out the legs and race. Plus there was $400 on the line for extra motivation. I felt surprisingly good on the 1st run, I say surprisingly since my body had felt terrible the day before from the early wake up and flying. The only trouble was that there was a smooth striding guy next to me even though I was running right around 5 flat pace. We chatted a bit and it was apparent that this pace wasn't pushing him very much. Turned out to be Scott Defilippis a former Tennessee runner with a 1:05 half PR and who's now a solid triathlete. Hit 2 miles and the pace was fast but didn't feel exceptionally hard. Scott pushed it a tough and I let him get a 5 second gap on me, I didn't want to push it too hard that early on. Into T1 at 15:18 for the first 3 mile run.
T1 was smooth and I got out a few seconds before Scott. I let the legs get going for the first minute of the bike as I like to do then got into gear and started rolling. I hadn't brought my races wheels so I was hoping these trainers would move! Good thing my legs felt great on the bike and I was able to get into a good rythme and hold just under 27mph even with some decent wind. I was looking back to see where Scott was but he was dropping back. The bike was an awesome course. The whole race takes place on the Lakehurst Naval Air Station (it's not on the water though) so the course is on the sweet tree lined traffic free back roads of the base and even onto the runways for some sections.
I got off the bike (26.4mph average, fastest split) and headed out on the final 2 mile run. Race strong and finished up with a 10:30 split and the win. Nice to get my first win in about 2 years.
Lighter Air Duathlon Results