Internal Mono(b)log

GU’s Chief Endurance Officer (CEO), Brian Vaughan, has embarked on the 485 mile, self-supported Colorado Trail Race, which travels from Durango to Denver, CO.

This is the next frontier, if you will, in his racing/riding career, and is an adventure that he has been training for all year. Beyond his goal of hoping to finish in 6 days, he hopes to bring awareness to an epidemic that is sweeping our country: childhood inactivity. One of the organizations that he wants to help raise funds for is the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) , a high school mountain bike organization that IS getting more kids throughout the country to move and make healthier choices.

Way to go Brian!  You can track his progress here and here.  If you want to help with his fundraising goals you can go to NICA’s home page which asks people to donate to become part of their Booster Club. All donations will receive a special gift from GU: http://www.nationalmtb.org/boosterclub/.

Here’s a link to the home page of the Colorado Trail Race in case you want more information: http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/

8 Reasons Triathletes Get Injured.

Yup couldn’t agree more.

Slightly off topic, but recently I had the opportunity to trial a set of Wicked Reverb Headphones.  For those of you who haven’t known me for a long time, I used to be a DJ.  I played out occasionally at clubs and spun electronic music: psytrance for the most part.  I don’t DJ more, but still love music and quality sound, so I decided I’d take up the offer for the trial.

When the headphones arrived and I unboxed them, I have to admit I was pretty dubious.  Understand, mind you, that headphones I’ve used in the past while DJing where designed to be very sound insulating (so you didn’t have to blow your eardrums out trying to cue, mix, etc.) and as a result were pretty heavy.  The Reverbs are, in contrast, very light.  No, you wouldn’t use these in a club as a DJ: they don’t have the sound insulation required for that, but they aren’t built for that task.

The Reverb is, however, a very solid contender in the consumer headphone space and at a price that’s extremely attractive (quick google searches show prices in the $20 area).  For $20 you may not expect much, but the Reverb may surprise you there. In terms of sound quality and reproduction, they easily compare with $200-$300 headphones that I own, and their weight means  you won’t get fatigued just holding them on your head.    As a kid, the bullies always made fun of my ears.. perhaps they’re a little large, I dunno.. but the ear cups built into these headphones was certainly comfortable for me.

In Summary

So wrapping it up, I have to say I was pretty surprised by these headphones: they produce really quality sound even at high volumes with little to no distortion and are still capable of reproducing quiet and subtle nuances, they’re lightweight and comfortable and seem to be pretty well constructed.  At the price point, I think these headphones would be hard to beat!

Now for the Giveaway

While these headphones are pretty sweet, I have so many headphones and earbuds and wireless, bluetooth, etc. etc.. headphones that another pair are just going to gather dust.  Wicked has given me permission to raffle them off rather than return them.  So here we go: I’m going to try a rafflecopter giveaway for these as a new mechanism, rather than my historic labor intensive “names in a hat” method.  Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

FINIS Neptune MP3 Player Receives 2013 red dot Award for High-Quality Product Design.

Livermore, CA – (July 10, 2013) The innovative swim company, FINIS, impressed a 37-member jury of design experts with their newest product, the Neptune MP3 Player, to receive the “red dot award: product design 2013”. The international jury only awards this sought-after seal of quality to products that set themselves apart significantly from comparable products because of excellent design. The jury members received 4,662 entries in 19 different categories in this year’s competition, and the Neptune came out an award winner.

Well done Finis.  I’m not surprised.  Definitely deserved!

The Director-General of the World Health Organization warns that we may be facing an end to modern medicine as we know it thanks in part to the mass feeding of antibiotics to farm animals to accelerate growth.

via Past the Age of Miracles: Facing a Post-Antibiotic Age | NutritionFacts.org.

What do I have in common with Marcel Kittel, Argos-Shimano and Jamis Hagens Berman at Le Tour De France?  Watts/Kg?  Heh, yea right 🙂 Peak power? 2s maybe on a good day, but no..  Bike selection?  Nope, no Storcks at LeTour.

Give up?

Ok, ok.. it’s not that big of a deal.  We all use Ogio bags.  Yea ok, it’s kinda lame, but kinda fun too and probably the closest I’ll get to LeTour.

Last year I bought myself the Ogio Flex Form L bag.  They don’t sell this bag anymore, but it’s my goto:  It’s a really well thought out bag that I use frequently when I’m setting up for a big training day.

It’s built like a tank, has shoe compartments on either end (one for running, the other for cycling in my case), the main compartment is massive with plenty of room for helmets, nutrition, and has an expanding side compartment for those days when you need to pack the kitchen sink.

But like I said, you can’t buy this bag anymore… well maybe on ebay or retailers that still have stock, but Ogio no longer lists it on their site.  The bag they’re using on LeTour is the Endurance9.0.  The Endurance9 is definitely well thought out (again) and purpose built with the endurance athlete (us) in mind.

The Endurance9 is just a bit larger than the  Flex L (78.6L vs 70L for the flex), but more importantly, the Endurance9 makes better use of that space.  Here are some highlights:

• Molded EVA “Tech Vault” protective electronics interior pocket

• H2O resistant wet/dry clothes storage compartment
• 360 degree air flow ventilation gusset in wet/dry compartment

• Fully adjustable ventilated pack style shoulder straps with ventilated back panel padding
• Ventilated shoe compartment (holds two pairs)

• Expanded Lycra helmet storage interior pocket (this is just brilliant!)

• Changing mat storage compartment
• Nutrition specific organization panel (I especially love this – keeps things separated rather than just a big jumble.  I was just using a big freezer zip-lock bag, but this is much more elegant.)

• Large main compartment with additional end storage pocket
• Two insulated hydration bottle pockets

• Transparent race day/work out check list sleeve
• Staging area hanger clip
• Hide away interior zippered pockets for valuables

This bag is a really solid performer for any athlete, but especially for triathletes setting up for a big training day, or for prepping your transition area for race-day.

Well done Ogio!

GU Energy Unveils Salted Caramel Gel – Endurance Sportswire.

MMmmm must get some… I was just thinking the other day that I wish there were other non-sweet flavours like Gu Peanut Butter flavoured gel.  Lo and Behold!  Salted Caramel!  Boom!

Well the uptake on my RoadID give away was certainly not what I expected, but made for great odds for the 15 entrants.

The 3 lucky winners, chosen at random using the “names in a hat” method (with one entry per comment, share, or like) are…

• Marcio M
• Daniel L
• Nathan N

I’ll be in touch shortly with your coupon codes so you can get your RoadID ordered and on its way.

Congrats!

Albert McWilliams – You’re Going to Kill Someone – You’re Going to Kill Someone.

Training has been going really well.  Looking forward to testing my fitness tomorrow at the Welland 1/2 Iron distance tri.  Hopefully the weather co-operates.  Currently calling for 30C, humid and thunderstorms.  I’d be happier with no humidity and sun, but you can’t control the weather.