"Don't Stop Believing" Journey to Ironman

The End of Flat Tire Nightmares?

Did you know about a product called Vittoria Pit-Stop? These are, quite possibly, the most beautiful words I have ever read:

Vittoria Pit Stop is a pressurized cylinder filled with compressed gas and polymer foam sealant. You carry the cylinder with you in a bike bag or jersey pocket. When you have a flat tire you simply open your valve stem, press the nozzle on the Vittoria Pit Stop canister onto your valve stem and press toward the tire to release the compressed gas and the liquid foam sealant. Both substances shoot into the tire under pressure. The gas inflates the tire while the foam sealant flows into the puncture and instantly dries, sealing the hole and fixing the flat.

I'm sitting here thinking--are you kidding me??? Something like this exists and might work???? And I didn't know about it?????  You don't need to take the wheel off (think the rear one), or use any tools! If this isn't intervention from the Divine, I don't know what is. On top of everything else, I've heard from a couple of people that it actually works!

Yes, I can change a flat, but I really don't want to in an Ironman, or any race for that matter. It gets even more complicated when you have bad close up vision. I don't need glasses for far away, but I can't see the details of tire changing very well. I just refuse to carry a pair of "readers" in my tool bag!

This could be the stuff that peaceful dreams are made of. I, for one, am ready to lose the race-day-flat-tire nightmares. I'm going to give it a try and report back.

Here's the review I read at Bike Sport Michigan.

I also welcome any other suggestions that have changed your cycling life!

The Powertap Just Arrived!!!!

Ohhh, Ohhh, Ohhh!!!! As I am sitting here typing my favorite UPS guy just showed up with my Powertap wheel!!!!! It's a beautiful wheel built by Rich Sawiris at Wheelbuilder.com.

I've learned so much about training with power since I've been at Endurance Nation. I was lucky enough to go into their program already owning a Computrainer, so I was able to get up to speed about how to train with watts from the get go. Everything we do on the bike is based on % of your functional threshold power.  We test, test, test regularly to see how much we can "raise the roof" on our fitness and power. In the off-season program I had a 10% increase in watts at threshold, which was a very good jump for me. My husband went up 15%, and just went up another 8 watts last week. He's getting scary strong.

I am now a total devotee to the cult of power, and knew I needed a power meter for training on the road. More coming in the weeks ahead about training with a Powertap. Now if it will only warm up a little around here!

If anyone is interested in learning a LOT in one fell swoop about training with power and using Cycling Peaks, Endurance Nation has a great Power Webinar download. Highly recommended. It's a great bargain too.

Half Ironman Training Really Gets Going Now

Half Ironman training is now in week 5, which means it's in full swing. Last week was a step down (rest) week, so I'll be back at it in full force for the next three. So far the week looks like this. April 1-6:

Monday
Swim
About 2,500 meters with lots of drills

Tuesday
Bike
Functional Threshold Test. I was undecided about doing this test, and was going to opt for a workout instead. But I felt pretty good starting out so I decided it was the right day to do it. As my coaches instruct, I do 2 x 20' with 2' rest, then throw the data in Cycling Peaks and see what I did.

I was nicely above threshold for 30'. I was going to try to do the whole 40' in one TT. Nyet. Couldn't hold it. I always have trouble in the second set getting up to my threshold watts, and this time was no different. I eventually get up there, but it just kills my numbers. I was hoping for a 5-6 watt increase. I stayed the same.

Run
30' brick run right after. I always feel pretty good running off the bike.

Wednesday
Long Run
In my plan, we usually run long on Thursdays, but work sometimes makes me move it around. I ran 90' with 30' EZ and 60' at marathon pace. It was really windy and cold, but it went OK.

Swim
This is a big swim day--about 3,400. It was hard after the long run, so I cut it back to about 2,700. That's where I'm at yardage wise anyway. This workout called for 40 x 50!!! I did 20. And some of them were drills with fins.

Thursday
Run
5 horrible miles. I felt pretty awful on this run, and only got through 2 out of 3 6-minute pickups at threshold pace. Felt trashed, and I had to run at 6 a.m., which did not help matters.

Friday
Swim
Friday is 1000m TT day. It went well, and I took 3" off of last weeks time. Total swim about 2,700.

Saturday and Sunday
Back to back bike days coming up. 2:30 on Saturday with time at 85-90% of threshold and some intervals at threshold thrown in for good measure.

Sunday the ride is only 2:00, with a version of the same work above. Unfortunately the weather looks at though I'm going to be stuck again on the trainer in the bike dungeon, I mean basement.

It feels great to be pointing to the July 5 half Ironman race.