Musings

The past week has been an exciting learning experience. The new Kestrel Airfoil Pro SL Special Edition arrived about a week ago and I got it put together. What a sweet looking ride it is! After one ride on it, it was pretty clear I had entered a new dimension in cycling. I described it as scary fast to a family member last week. I thought I had a pretty nice road bike, but this Kestrel is like being on a rocket ship. It handles differently from a road bike (not nearly as nimble), which I had been forewarned about. I had the opportunity to get up to Ft. Collins on Saturday evening and get a custom fit done with Steve Owens of Colorado Premier Training. I've been working with Steve, Rick Crawford and Nancy Eastman to establish a training program and they've been terrific from the start. It's a unique opportunity for an amateur like myself to gain the experience of some real professionals. Steve's worked with the likes of Apolo Ohno, Christian Van de Velde and David Zabriskie, among many others. In our Saturday session, he really brought to me an appreciation of the impact of aerodynamics on the time trial positioning. We worked on the set up of the aerobars, the seat, positioning of loose cabling and the hydration system that will go on the bike, head positioning and a few other pointers. Anything that will help slice thru the wind more efficiently will obviously save energy and improve time. Got my first test post-fit on Sunday for a series of brick workouts down near Waterton Canyon. It was quite an eye opener. I rode up through Deer Creek Canyon, which is a very popular cycling trek outside of Denver and was not passed by a single road bike in two hours of riding... and there were plenty out there who were better cyclists than myself. After my first ride on the aerobars the previous week and some pretty intense discomfort, I felt pretty good down on the aerobars on Sunday. The Kestrel is SO much faster and really easier to power thru pedal strokes than my road bike. Also realized it works on some different muscle groups than the roadie does. I'm now eager to see how well I can keep my positioning on the aerobars out in Kona in a few weeks. Jumping on the bike fresh (like I did on Sunday) is quite different than jumping on the bike after a 1.2 mile swim. We'll see how it goes soon.

Earlier on Saturday, had the opportunity to get out for a DESA meeting for the local Denver chapter. Thanks to Mark Haywood for getting that set up. I continue to meet some remarkable people at such outings. John Moore and I had the opportunity to meet a young nine year-old (recently diagnosed) and her father and it's so encouraging to see someone like that battling through the up's and down's daily management of this disease can bring. Awesome to see the smiles on young kid's faces who deal with this. Also had the opportunity to meet the parent of a Type 1 and witness the toll it can take on a parent - something I've tried to understand better but that I don't have the real world experience to draw on. It was a reaffirmation of everything Insulindependence, Triabetes and other similar groups are doing.

Stay well!