Not All Triathletes Are Alike...

So I'm prepping yesterday for my long ride and I decide given my frustration with the aerobottle that I'd go to the bike shop and get a 2nd cage put on and look at Camelbacks. Now I've always thought people wearing Camelbacks during races were kind of dorky but I was going to set that aside in the interest of hydration and racing success.

I am getting my bike out of the Element (I drive an awesome Red Honda Element with custom plates that read TRI GRL) and this bike shop guy comes out and offers to help like I can't lift my super light bike or something. Anyway he starts talking about how that's a nice bike and where did I get it because he's the shop's tri guy etc. I was like that's cool. I got it here, maybe before you were working here. I head into the store with my bike and I explain what I'm looking for and he's like "you aren't actually going to wear that in a race are you?". I was so mad about his comment I totally put aside my perceived dorkiness factor and was like "yes I was thinking about it". In the meantime I'm getting my cage put on and he's telling me all about how he's trying to get a media slot for Ironman Florida.

Okay, I know about the media slots. So I say what's your story? Why do you deserve a coveted PR slot? Apparently he broke his leg in multiple places and was in the hospital 18months ago and couldn't walk. Now he's ready to do Ironman. Now this is going to sound mean but seriously dude there are soooooooooo many people out there who have come back from more major injuries than that and they don't try to get a PR slot. They just train and do the race. So I just looked at him and I was like huh, well good luck. Those slots are pretty competitive.

He then proceeded to talk to me about how I should get behind the seat cages instead of a Camelback and I'm like dude, you don't know me and there's no way I could get the bottles behind my seat, hello my butt's just a little bigger than your average triathlete. Next he starts talking about how I should switch my pedals to some that are faster and that was the breaking point for me.

NOT ALL TRIATHLETES WANT:

Faster, slicker pedals
$4000 bikes
Carbon bottle cages

and especially not after I asked this question:

How fast do you think you'll do IM Florida? He said 10:30 hours. Dude, hello, you are talking to someone who would kiss the ground at the finish line if the clock still reads 16:XX. You're thoughts on carbon cages and pedals are totally lost on me.

Lesson of the day: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!!!!

In the end it was fine because I had a great ride all the way up to Hagg Lake which is really challenging and I determined that I definitely needed my lowest gear to get up the HUGE hill there. I did get sunburned but I also clocked a top speed of 40.4 MPH.

OMG - On a bike, with no brakes. Once I saw that number I started freaking out a bit and had to get out of my aerobars so I could brake a little bit. That is a scary speed on a bike.

Great run this morning - seems this Leopard is getting speedy after all. 4.4 miles at an average speed of under 12 min miles. WOO HOO!!!!