Blog Twiddling

I was about to put on my swimsuit and head over to the pool when I found that it was still wet from Wednesday night! Apparently swimsuits don't dry out very quickly in humid bathrooms. While it's in the dryer for a few minutes and I'm waiting, I thought I would write.

Last night after dinner I got some serious practice time in with my bike mount. I've decided that for tomorrow's mock tri I'm not going to do a "flying cowboy" mount (as it still scares me a bit) but instead to a "skateboard" mount, where you put your left foot on the left pedal, kick with the right foot, then swing your right leg over.

However, the problem usually is that you can't do this with clipless pedals/shoes as you can't run in them. So, I'm going to do a hybrid: clip the shoes in the pedals, then do the skateboard mount barefoot. Worked fine last night!

One hitch I had was getting my feet into the shoes while riding. After practicing about 20 times and working out a pre-buckling strategy for two out of the three straps on each shoe, I think I've got it down. I'll do a few run-through's tonight to make sure I'm ok with it and then we'll see how it works out tomorrow.

The other problem I have is that I get a blister if I run without socks. So I'm going to "hybridize" that too - I'll ride without socks, which should allow the sand and everything to wash off my feet while I ride (so I'm told), saving me "cleaning" time when I get to T1, and put socks on in T2 prior to the run.

Yesterday I rode 15 miles at Balboa (flat). I was supposed to do 18 but I was getting pretty tired and I didn't want to go overboard before the tri. When I got home I found that my front tire was partially flat: #2!

Ah - that's the dryer beeping - time for swim practice...