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Hi all.
In support of Team Riptide I'll be blogging on the Riptide blog here.
Also, if you're on Twitter then follow me at jordanj191

S-Works 2010 Prototype

Racing triathlons professionally can be a tough life. You have to train your ace off day in and out then go to races to square off against the best in the world who more oft than not send you home crying.
But once in awhile something happens that completely redeems the difficulty.
Today was one of those days. UPS came by and it was a big box so I was wondering what could be inside. I was all pumped up and opened it right up.
Inside was this beauty. I'm pretty sure it's a 2010 S-Works Tarmac prototype. Looks to be debadged Zipps for the wheels which will top things off.
It's a touch heavier than previous S-Works. This must be due to some kind of engineering improvement they dreamed up.
Also, look closely at the shifters. Interesting touch there with the downtube shifters. I'm not sure what caused that change but surely there's a good reason for it. Perhaps they want to offer a product that can directly compete with bikes equipped with Shimano's forthcoming electronic shifting.

Snow at last

We finally got a snowstorm this winter and got about a foot yesterday. It'll probably all melt by the end of the weekend with the roasting CO sun.
The Y was close yesterday from the storm which was probably a good thing. I've felt like junk in the pool for a couple weeks now and felt much better today. Got in a main set of 4x300y on the 4:40, 4x200y on the 2:50, and 4x100y on the 1:30. Got it going and swam the 3's in 3:45, 2's in 2:28, and 1's in 1:10. Not crazy fast but much better than my middle school girl swim level as of late.
Last week Sean laid on the biking. Thursday we had a ride/run at the crit loop. I felt awesome and was rollin. At the end we finished off with a 1 lap TT that I did on my road bike in 3:35 so I'm def in very good shape.
Saturday we hit up Chatfield Worlds. Ahh good ol' Chatfield Worlds. It's an unofficial race every weekend where all the local teams show up, ride the same loop every weekend, and crush it. I think we were the only guys there not in full out team get up. Every guy there had team jersey, team top warmers, team panties.
There were a bit too many folks there and it was a bit dicey so we won't be making it a training staple. About one hundred riders showed and I counted 5 crashes.
Riding felt good though and we were all up in the mix, especially Matt who caught the front break with 4 other guys.
After that as if I wasn't tired enough we rode Lookout Mtn (1500ft vert) 3x on Sunday. I rode decent with the Bang Salon cycling guys on the first one in just under 21. After that I chilled out and rode 23 average, keeping it all under control.
Next week is the TT up Lookout which I'm locked and loaded for. Tom Danielson (of team Postal fame) has the record in 16:01 which makes riding it in mortal times feel a bit less special. 16:01. Sick. But if the winds are right I think I can best my 19:30 PB.

Friggin Chain

My Miami race started well enough. Out of the water in about 15th with a good but not great swim. As is the norm, the first minutes of the bike didn't feel too great but then the legs opened up and I got moving. Kept it under control the first lap and moved well through the field, getting by 6 guys and into 9th place with Galindez up ahead of me.
Went through the first of two laps in 28:10 which was right where I wanted to be. At this point I was feeling great. I thought riding TT for the first race of the season would be uncomfortable and that the effort would feel odd on the legs but I was feeling better than ever. Really started pushing on the last trip up the bridge about 33 minutes into the bike when I heard the dreaded chain braking and falling off the gears noise. My day was done. Cheered Dan on as he went buy and watched for Amy but didn't see her go by on the bike.
Rolled down the other side of the bridge, dropped the bike off in transition and cheered Amy and Dan on in the run. Dan ran well and got 12th overall. Amy had a so so bike but got it going on the run and got 5th amateur woman.
Once they were done I hit up an hour run along Key Biscayne. It was hot but felt good, it's nice to sweat it out after not getting in the heat in a while. I was definitely bummed about my chain breaking. I was really getting things going on the bike and with a nasty run I would have finished well. But at least I got in a good swim and know that the bike is still there if not better. So I know I'll be ready to rip at St. A's in a month which is a race I'm keying on as a big one. Plus going to Florida with Amy was awesome so it's all good.
We swam twice at the Swimming Hall of Fame. Highly recommend that pool - open nearly all day, 1 block from the beach, and it's only 4 bucks to get in. They've got 2 pools, a 25y and a 50m. Check it:

and here's another of Amy's ride. Locked and loaded:

DEN to the Izzo

Swam a good one at state meet last week - 19:22 for the 1650y (1:10 pace). To celebrate the occasion the fellas all pitched in and bought me my dream car, the aforpictured Trans Am with custom blue rims. Bad a$$.
After that we had an intense week of training last week. Lookout Mtn 2x on Monday, felt solid and went up in 20:55 and 21:30.
Crit loop Friday with 6 loops bike, 1 lap run, 3 laps bike, 1 lap run. Caught the right day and I was rollin'. Felt much more explosive on the bike than I expected, good to know that the cycling legs are there.
Then Sunday to Highline for a 12 miler with 4 at tempo in 22:10.
So we're getting into some work now and prepping to race. Amy and I are going to Miami on Thursday for the Miami Intl Triathlon this weekend and I am pumped. I was debating whether to do this race. I wasn't sure if it would be too early and I'd be in no kind of race shape but I'm definitely ready to roll. The swim is tops right now, bike is somehow there, and the runs always there so I'm good to go.
I best be ready since it's a stacked field: Potts, Reid, Lieto, Galindez, Legh, and more. Dan Mackenzie is racing too, it's always good to have teammates at the race.
Today was auction day for me. A CNC machine is moving its operations to Kentucky so they auctioned off everything from the shop. I love live auctions. eBay's cool but there's nothing like the real deal mano y mano battles at a live auction. It's always a manfest, somehow women just don't get into these things. Today there were 50 guys milling about bidding away. There were 3 women and they were all with guys and had ticked off looks om em. Good thing Amy was snowshoeing so I couldn't try to talk her into going. To add to the manliness of the occasion the shop wreaked of some kind of sweet smelling musty grease and all the tools had a gray coating of it.
First up that interested me was a box of allan wrenches(I always thought it was allen wrenches but apparently not). When you fiddle with your bike you can always use more allan wrenches. I won out at $45 and raked in 20lbs of allan wrenches. It's seriously the motherload, about 8 sets of metric and 8 imperial as well and a bucketfull of random ones. Let me know if you need a set.
Next up was a sweet digital scale that would be perfect to improve our ski shipping operation. Our current scale is tiny and a pain to read. This one was sweet and sells new on eBay for $200. I figured it would be a deal at $100 but it sold for $250! Come on bidders, you gotta show up prepared. Dismal showing on that one.
Next what I really came for. A sweet 21 drawer tool cabinet. I scoped it beforehand and it retails for over $1k. The battle started and it was me versus some old fella. $100, $125, $150... I was staring him down and upping as soon as he outbid me. Don't hesitate, show him I'm craze. At $300 he would have no more and the cabinet is now full of my tools and sitting at work! Check it....

And one more thing. Just to prove how hot it's been here lately. Check out how roasting Gulliver was sitting in the sunbeam the other day:

Ski Vail

Hit up a ski day at Vail today. Jammed to the standard on the way up - Girl Talk's Feed the Animals album. It snowed a few inches to keep it fun and Blue Sky Basin was the stash, less crustiness unerneath than the other bowls. Above is a shot from the lift, a pic of Matt and Ofer, me jumping a little rock on Scree trail, and one of Amy and I. Unfortunately Amy fell, hit her head, and had to DNF on the day so I couldn't get any glamour shots of her hitting her normal 20 footers.
I'm restless to get in one more ski day this year with a 2 foot dump to hit some good kickers and what not.
Afterwards to the pool. We're swimming CO Senior State meet at DU this weekend and yours truly qualified in the mile. With that in store the training is down for the week and I felt great swimming team goals today even though we only swam two, hit 1:00 for 100y on the first and ditto on the second.
Time to bust out a good one this weekend. 19:48 PB is going into the trash.

Golden is golden

mmm mix1

Riptide is now sponsored by mix1 which I'm very pumped about. I've liked them since they hit the scene and started appearing in King Soopers and City Market (where I always end up going while skiing). It's a protein juice drink but best of all it doesn't have to be refrigerated. So you can pop it in the bag when you go to work in the morning and have it on the way home from the evening workout. Very convenient. No need to worry about the entire bottle exploding when it goes bad. Most flavors have 15 grams of protein to keep you going strong and best of all they have a lime flavor. Props to them for the great drink.
Yesterday was incrdibly warm, high 60's so I got out on the bike at 8am as soon as it was temperate out. I thought I'd mix it up and try out Golden Gate Canyon which I've never been up. It only took 10 minutes to get to the start and then I was climbing up into the canyon and it felt like Golden was hundreds of miles away. I hadn't heard people talk about this climb so figured it wasn't very good but it's a gem.

Golden Gate is an easy grade so it's a nice change from Lookout which always turns out to be an intense ride. You can ride it hard or just spin it in an easy gear. Now I've got it in my head that I want to ride way up Golden Gate, meet up with Coal Creek Canyon and ride that back down to Rt. 93. Next time, next time.
And the random quote of the day, this one from today's Wall Street Journal. "Today, the college is facing a $5.5 million loss in the alleged Madoff fraud...a Stony Brook University spokeswoman says the collapse of Mr. Madoff's firm in an alledged Ponzi scheme will have only a 'slight' impact on scholarships, research, and academic support."
So does this mean that the university tells potential $5.5 million donors that their donation will have a "slight" impact on scholarships, research, and academic support?