B-day weekend

This past weekend was my birthday, the big 27….. or something like that.  Who doesn’t like to talk about the toys they got.  I had been wanting a new pair of sunglasses for a while.  As much as I love my Bolle’s, and my Tommy Hilfiger shades, they don’t work great while exercising. 

I must have an odd shaped head or something, because finding sunglasses that sit correctly on my face is a challenge.  I did some research… yeah big surprise here.  Narrowing down my list and aiming the application at running and biking, I came across multiple sources that said Tifosi made some quality sunglasses at a price that was reasonable. 

A few months back I saw that one of our local bike shops had all Tifosi models on sale, about 15 dollars off the 60 dollar retail.  Not too bad, well by the time I went to the store to pick up a pair, the sale was no longer valid so I held off.  It was around Easter that I was surfing, read killing time, and saw that the model I wanted, the Tifosi Slip, was on clearance at less than half price!  I called and had a pair held until I got back into town. 

What a great pair of shades!  They are not too big and bulky, yet have good coverage.  The best part is the vent on the top part of the lens that allows some air flow to keep them from fogging up.  Tifosi has many lenses but I got the Fototec model.  These are basically “transition” lenses that you see advertised for regular glasses.  If it is bright, they darken up, if there is little light, they lighten up. 

Now at first glance, I saw red lenses and crossed them off the list.  After some use, I am glad I went that route.  These lenses make colors pop.  Since they were an early b-day gift, I got some use out of them ahead of time.  They are awesome!  Highly recommend them to anyone seeking an affordable shade that works great for sporting.  They also make different lines that offer different lens combos.  There is a golf model with polarized lenses, a base model that comes with clear, red, yellow, and smoke (none are Fototec)

On to the birthday weekend.  I had some family in town and we did the tourist things, went to Mall of America….on a Saturday… I took my parents to eat at a pizza joint, called Punch pizza.  They make your pizza in a wood fire oven.  800 degrees for 90 seconds. Yowza!  What good food!

Sunday was my bday, and also the Lakeville, MN Ironman bikeride.   Now I remember this race last year when it was 45 degrees and rainy, thinking those people are insane.  Nothing changed this year, maybe a bit warmer, but still rainy.  I was a fair-weather participant.  If it would have been nice, I would have considered going (35, 65 or 100 mile ride)  That was also excluding the 24 hour flu that hit on my bday. 

I felt miserable Saturday night, but when there are so many good foods – veggie pizza, chips and fresh salsa, steaks and cakes.  I thought I just overate, but come Sunday morning, that was not the case.  I had a bad case of the 24 hour flu that stuck around until mid day Monday.  My training was light early this week as my first Tri approaches this weekend.

Although most would not recommend having a bike fit done before a race especially, my wife offered as the second part of my present to take my bike in and get it professionally fit.  I have tried, using my webcam on my laptop, a protractor, and all the non sophisticated tools, so I decided I better do it since I still was not comfortable on the bike like I wanted to be. 

I went in for the fit on Wednesday and thought my fit was close, boy was I wrong!

Adjustments made:

Shifted seat back to forward position

Raised seat height to get me into the correct leg angle range, boy was I off!

Swapped the 90mm stem for 110mm, that made a huge difference how my weight was distributed up front.

Installed some cleat shims to level out the platform my foot is on.  Turns out I have about 7 degrees of difference between the inside and outside of my foot, part of what is causing some numbness in my toes being on a non level platform.

I did a easy ride Wednesday night and felt great.  It is more aero and aggressive, but man does it feel good.  Hope to do another ride before the race and rock out this weekend.  Check back for a Race Report!

Last night, I pushed a bit harder than I should have, but I wanted to test that I would be comfortable on the bike for the race.  I fought a wind on the way out, 19 MPH.  On the way home, 25 MPH.  I had some times on flats that was spun out of gears 31.x odd MPH on a flat!  That was a trip.  

Home to pack after work tonight and then to make the trip up for the race tomorrow.  They cut rain out of the forecast, now predicting 20+ MPH winds gusting to 35+, hopefully the wind will be at my back!