I’ve been offline for a while, but plenty of things afoot!
First, I’ve been slowly inching back into my training, which has been great. Put in a big 120 mile ride down in Carlsbad last Saturday with my boy Dave Meyer. We rode the infamous “German Ride” — the training loop Norman Stadler and Faris Al-Sultan trained on prior to their Kona wins. I felt it working for me and my fitness was great for such an early season ride. When I compare my current fitness to that of a year ago, its a joke. I’m off to a great start headed into 2009 and super excited for quantum improvement, especially in my cycling, which was my major limiter at Ultraman last year.
In addition, I’ve been in the gym doing alot of CORE work for the first time ever and coming into an understanding of just how important this type of strength work is, especially at my age. After only a couple weeks of working a rigorous core routine, I can feel my entire body working better, stronger and more efficiently.
On the sponsorship front, I’ve made some great inroads. A couple weeks ago, I met with Lloyd and Teresa Taylor, the owners of TriathlonLab in Redondo Beach. They are excited to sponsor me for 2009 and I am thrilled to have their support. If you don’t know these guys or the shop, this is the premiere triathlon specific retailer in the Los Angeles vicinity — they know what they’re doing and more importantly, they are great people. And what is even cooler is that they just signed a deal with Chris McCormack to be his official retailer for all things triathlon. So needless to say, I am in very good company and look forward to working with them. I’ll keep you posted as this relationship continues to develop.
Check out this video of Lloyd talking about their partnership with Rocket Science Sports, the manufacturer behind a great line of wetsuits. If you follow swimming, you know that Rocket Science just came out with a competition swim suit that by all scientific accounts is FASTER than the Speedo LZR. Skin suit issues and debate aside, this is incredible!
I wore the Rocket Science sleeveless wetsuit at Ultraman and it was just great. The best wetsuit I have worn to date. I look forward to experimenting with some of their new TriathlonLab branded suits this year.
On other fronts, I was contacted by Sziols Eyewear about sponsorship. They have a very cool line of performance sunglasses, so I look forward to seeing what develops there.
In addition, I look forward to continuing my relationship with Vega and Juvenon, who supported me in 2008.
Training will remain a bit light for a period to avoid burnout when things really start to ramp up in the Spring. But I am itching to start really hitting it!
If you are in FACEBOOK (who isn’t?), Check out TriathlonLab HERE.
