Naked Photo of Amanda Beard

Only World-Famous Photographer Terry Martin could catch Amanda Beard running naked on Zuma Beach.

In order to protect her privacy (because she's an Olympic gold medal winner), my office made me blacken her from ankle to neck. So, with a little photo-shopping I've "dressed" her in a wetsuit.

Team Amanda Beard happened to have won the Nautica Malibu Triathlon. www.nauticamalibutri.com. I don't know if Amanda was their "ringer" or if it was the TdF cyclist.

Celeb Aero Helmets

The Celeb teams were by far the fiercest competitors.

Each team had a "ringer" or two to ensure total victory and annilation only understood in Los Angeles.
Team Amanda Beard (co-ed) and Team Nautica (men's) won. Rumor has it that some TdF riders were on their bikes, but the body guards wouldn't let anyone with a camera get close. Futher, I tried to take photos of these bikers faces and actually DID. But, when I returned from my leg - the run - someone had deleted these pictures.

I'm not knocking any of the celebs, but they had to go the distance. But, with average bike speeds of 26.8 and 27.7 miles per hour, even a 9 minute mile would get you podium.

Malibu Tri - They're Off

The first wave of the Malibu Triathlon took off in the frigid waters. Macca is somewhere in front, prepping for his Kona 2007 win.

2,000 athletes in this sold-out triathlon showed up to hob-nob with Hollywood's fittest athletes. The weather was awesome. Everyone's family could camp-out on the beach while each wave got ready to go. You could literally sit with your kids up until 1 minute before the gun went off and then sprint into the water. The bike and run courses were equally spectator friendly. The run course was a super fast sprint 2 miles or so up the beach, and then back.

There were lots of teams out in their matching race garb. The LA Tri Team and Team Disney appeared to be out in the largest force, and there were lots of high-fives on the out-and-back run along Zuma Beach.

No Fat here, only rubber

Wearing the XTERRA Vector Pro 2, Mr. D explains that the "X" in "X-files" stands for "XTERRA" and that this is evidenced by the fact that he can pinch less than an inch of rubber on his wetsuit.

None of this makes sense to Mitch Thrower, and if you listen to the entire interview on www.triathlete.tv you'll understand why nothing on the X-Files made sense either, except that little alien that landed on Malibu Beach and out-split David.

David Duchovney Knows

TriathleteMag TV: [Mitch Thrower]: So, Mr. Baldwin, what do you have to say to that?
Bachelor: [Andy Balwin]: That? What's "that" you ask?
TMag: Yes, "that."
Bachelor: No comment.
XTERRA Wetsuit Rock Star: [David Duchovny]: Come on Andy, you wear the funniest wetsuit you can buy and "no comment" on why the VectorProX2 is the best wetsuit in the world. I'm going to smack you around Malibu if you can even keep up with me in the water.

EDITOR's NOTE: Andy Baldwin, MD was observed "doing surgery" on David's tires in the transition area. The Desparate Housewives had other comments about what they observed.

Jo's coffee

Sunday morning cup of ice & cup of joe.

Apex 2's shins

Here are the shins of the Apex2.

Orca's Apex 2 - chest up

Here's the Orca 2 from Eurobike.

Vibe

Triathlete Magazine, October 2007, page 88

Wave TT Prototype from Germany

Here's one of Germany's answers to the current TT bikes coming out by the various and sundry bicycle companies - the WAVE TT. The Germans have moved the real wheel even closer in than many other bike cut-outs, thereby trying to capitalize on this aerodynamic aspect that some companies just miss (e.g. others have the cut out but can't get the wheel close enough).

Transitions = Free Time

Transitions are free time. With practice, it's easy to be in the top 1% if you only count T1 & T2 as your total time. Last year I got a slot at IMAZ to Kona by beating the guy behind me by 18 seconds. He lost his slot during his transitions.

Off-days are a great time to practice transitions. There's no reason you can't shave seconds if not minutes off of your overall time by simply practicing. Quick transitions for me give me a few extra seconds to go to the bathroom so I don't have to go on the run, and this has worked on my last 3 ironman races (e.g. no bathroom break for 26.2 miles).

I'll never beat the top pro in my overall time. But my goal next year is to have the fastest transition overall.

They ought to give an award at every race for the fastest combined transition time, or maybe a prize at the Ironman World Championship & Clearwater to the fastest T1 + T2.

Texas Iron Stars

Texas Iron athletes were out today in force. They slightly outnumbered the J&A folks, and certainly outsplit them in transition. Coaches Cleveland and Fish are returning from IMCanada, where they just did the swim and bike as a warmup for Kona, or at least that's what Andrea Fisher reported after getting bronchitis from her husband (who is not racing Kona in order to support his wife).

Here's Ali Gardner, who will be racing Kona in October. The other guys are no-names since Ali beat them in today's race. I asked for their excuses but could not get one.

My swim nemisis

Jennifer Reinhart is why I actually show up for swim practice. She's one of the coaches with Texas Iron and she is a fish in the water. Often I have to sew lead into her wetsuit to slow her down enough for me to catch a draft.

Freddie Ferraro Smokes

F.Ferraro is fast for a 58 year old. He's also just plain fast, placing 11th overall and 2nd amongst age groupers. Every second counts for him, so he usually has the best equipment (e.g. he was one of the first to purchase the new XTERRA Velocity speedsuit), the quickest transitions, etc..

I can't figure out why he doesn't race 70.3 or Ironman distance races. Perhaps he's happy blowing away the competition at sprints and olympics.

Today he crossed the finish line looking relaxed and ready to race again tomorrow.

Avery Visser Rocks

Every Saturday I bike with 50 or so other folks from Austin Tri Cyclist on the "Taco Ride." It is an easy ride for the first 30 minutes of so. Then, slowly people are dropped one by one, or group by group. If I'm doing the 30 mile loop I somehow always get caught by Avery Visser (age 14) and her dad. I don't know how she does it but even when I'm on the eve of an Ironman race (when I am presumably my fastest) she always manages to catch up with me.

This morning's paper (Austin American-Statesman) front page and then page E1 features Avery, calling her the "triple-threat teen." Today she placed 4th overall in the Women's Open Division. Avery won the Austin Danskin earlier this year, which I think had been won by Desiree Ficker in the past.

Obama Releases Adam for the Weekend

Barack Obama released Adam from his prisioner's camp (campaign trail) for the weekend to do a little announcing for the race. All Austin south of the Capital could hear Adam's booming voice as he gave play-by-plays from his podium.

Adam is trying to schedule a meeting with the "Voice of Ironman," Mike Reilly, in the event that Obama falls prey to Hill Clinton. Rumor has it that Obama is going to race in the Longhorn Triathlon as part of a relay team and in an attempt to woo the triathlon voters who are by far the most educated of all athletes.

Jack & Adam's crew

Either Jack or Adam (ala Jack&Adam's) knows something that no one else knows - how to get winners to wear their race garb.
Here's Lon Breitenbach being chased by Todd Gerlach. Todd, usually ahead of Lon, had to stop to change his little kid's diaper. Lon capitalized on the diaper change by surging ahead. Lon was only bested by Jason McMillan (also in J&A tights) & Brandon. Not far behind was Paul Terranova (5th) in his J&A outfit.

Brandon Marsh - Men's Winner

Today was a training day for Brandon Marsh. He's thinking about next weekend and the Los Angeles Triathlon, a very overrated event with no-names like Emma Snowhill (2nd at World's in Hamburg yesterday). Brandon was all alone after a great swim and solid bike. The race officials left trucks in the middle of the course on the first lap to try to slow him down. Last year this race was won by a Canadian so Brandon wanted to make sure that an Austinite won the race. The Canuck didn't bother to show up.

Austin Triathlon - 9/3/2007

It started raining during the Expo yesterday. Yikes! After the unfortunate rain-out for the Cap Tex Tri a couple of months ago I knew there were a lot of eager triathletes with extra months of training ready to roar down the streets of Austin.
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My alarm went off at 6:20, giving me plenty of time for a shower, a couple of cups of coffee, and time to dress my daughter. I looked outside and it was really overcast. I knew that the race director would delay the swim start another hour so that I could get some extra sleep.
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The race appeared to go off as scheduled, at 7 a.m. while I was sound asleep. I finally got out of my condo by the time Brandon Marsh was out of the water in his Xterra Wetsuit and leading the second to the last race in the Texas Tri Series.

Trek TTX Equinox

Sharp looking bike and I'm sure that if you put Lance on it it would be blistering fast. Very few photos of Lance on display (maybe one large one where one might think it wasn't Lance). Not a lot of chatter about Lance, and maybe that's because the French (and possibly German) are still not fond of him. And, little about AC or the TdF for that matter in the Trek area that I saw.

Orbea's seatpost

The seatpost assembly looks better than my P3C's assembly, which used to slip but no longer does. Also, check out the bottle-holder seat. I think that there's an idea brewing here, especially if you choose not to ride with a spare tire/tube. If I get this seat and the bike, then I'm going to paint my profile aero water bottle black.

Orbea's pointed nose

For $2,000 a Dallas plastic surgeon will trim your nose.

For $4,000 you can buy this nose. (actually, I don't know the retail price).

Unlike the Felt, the tube does not hug the wheel. My guess is that Orbea would have done it if wind tunnel testing proved it helped.

Orbea's nose

Very pointed. I'm sure it's windtunnel tested and cuts through the wind like butter.

More Orbea

I know that this blog posts from most recent entry to oldest, but I'm still going to post a few shots of the new Orbea. I tried to walk off with one of the bike, but now that Orbea and Orca have joined forces, there are more folks watching over this bike. I have not affiliation with this bike company and actually compete against the wetsuit company. But, Ronnie Points (ORBEA USA) promised me a 50% discount if I could get 100 people to purchase this bike in the next 30 days if I returned the bike (after stealing it for a few minutes). They intentionally underinflate the tires at the Expo so thieves cannot ride off very quickly.

Orbea's slick bike

I'm only posting these photos of the new Orbea because I'll be purchasing one soon and I need to be able to get on line to see it before it arrives.

I forgot to find out how much I'll have to take out of my daughter's education fund, but I'm sure she can get a scholarship.

Cube mimics Softride

Softride has not gone out of business. It's actuall a 3 speed. So, we won't be seeing it on anything other than a pancake fast course. But, at least they are trying to come up with something new, or improve on a potentially good idea that disappeared.

Cube's patriotic color scheme

I'm going to guess that Cube is a French bike company. They did a better job in their rear-wheel cut-out then the Carrero. However, there's still that gap the must cause a little wind damage/drag. Note that the top tube slopes up, unlike the Isaac which seems to slope down.