Spudman Tri race report

Yesterday was the Spudman Triathlon in Burley Idaho. My first olympic distance triathlon, and one that was "helped" with the swim being in a river down stream. Shawna and I got into Burley with enough time the night before to get checked in and rack my bike at T1. With the set up for the race, T1 was down stream, with the start, T2 and the finish all being at the same location. After squeezing my bike onto the rack, we went to the hotel to check in and grab a bite to eat (Subway). After a very late dinner we went to my friend Todd's room so we could discuss the schedule for the next day. Todd and I had to figure out when to leave the hotel to get to T1 to drop off our nutrition stuff while Todd's wife and Shawna had to figure when they would leave the hotel to watch us. Once the details were figured out, shawna and I went back to our room to get ready for bed.
         Once in my room, I got all my stuff out and together for the next day. It was at this point that I realized that my nutrition bag was not as I had packed it. I was missing about half of the nutrition that I had packed. The problem was that the kids had found the bag in the pantry earlier that day (while I was at work) and took my box of Gu gels out, and my Tub of Roctane powder. Needless to say, I freaked out! The only saving grace was the fact that there was one Roctane powder single serving pack still in the bag, and that at the last minute I decided to grab my Gu gels from my food locker at work. So I had some nutrition stuff, just not everything that I was anticipating having.  With that "crisis" adverted, it was time to try and get some sleep.
       I slept fairly well once I got to sleep. I tossed and turned until about 145, and then slept until 530 when I woke up. Our start time was 720, and I was going to head out at 610 to get to T1 with getting to the start before 7. But then I couldn't find the swim cap and that pushed the departure time back. Once at T1, it was a mad house with people everywhere. Not a big deal except for the fact that the traffic to get out from T1 to the start was horrible. I ended up parking down the road and walking in. As Todd and I were getting close to the start we heard the announcer say that wave 2 was going to start in one minute. This gave us 11 minutes to get down to T2, prep our shoes, get into our wetsuits and get down to the water. So our warm up was the jogging in flip flops that we had to do just so we could make it in time. At T2, I got my shoes out and the socks in place; placed my Gu gels in position and took my watch off. I grabbed my wet suit and threw it on up to my waist. I quickly stretched out my calfs and hips and made my way toward the water. While jogging to the water I pulled up the rest of my wet suit. Unfortunately, in the haste of getting my suit on while on the move and dodging people, I didn't grab the thicker part of my wet suit and tore a huge hole in my right arm near the elbow. CRAP!!! Well, there was nothing that I could do about that now. I didn't have time to do anything about it. So instead I just griped about it and made my way toward the water. When I hit the water, I was even more frustrated as the water was warm. Very warm. Like so warm that I prob wouldn't have worn my wet suit if I knew how warm the water was. Oh well, it's time to race so lets get this thing on!

The Swim:   Like I said earlier, the swim was downstream in the river. Although there was the current, I really didn't find it to be helpful. With the rush of the morning, I definately didn't get a chance to warm up or stretch like I would have liked. This made the swim a little tougher when my shoulders stiffened up on me about 3-400 yds in. I am still struggling in the open water with sighting and drifting. Once again, I was all over the place in the water. When we started, I was right in the middle up front. A little fight here and there with the other swimmers, but nothing too horrible. I quickly was on the far right of the field and needed to come back to the left. Then I soon found myself so far left I was swimming into the bank of the river! I seriously couldn't win. I also couldn't really get myself into a good rythm. The swim was otherwse uneventful. I don't have any of the split times because they haven't posted them on line, but I'll update it when I get the info.

T1:  T1 went well. I got a little slowed down when I had to go back to where I had left my wet suit bag. I forgot to take it with me and drop it off with the volunteers on my way out. Otherwise the transition went fairly smooth. It's a little slow with having to get the Garmin on my wrist, but otherwise smooth. There was a little hiccup with trying to get out of transition though. There wasn't a huge space to get out onto the road, and then you add all the people who simply stop to click into their pedals and you have a traffic jam. This doens't boad well for me who keeps his shoes clipped in and straps in while on the road.

Bike:   I was curious to see what kind of speed I could put out on the bike with this course being labeled as a fast, flat course. Once I was finally on the road things started to move. It as a little chilly at first, but I dried off quickly. The bike took me a little bit to get into a workable rhythm, and I just tried to not over do it off the start. I got into a rhythm just as the head wind picked up a bit, but I kept my head down and tried to just keep my cadence up high. The one Gu pack that I had taped on my bike started to slip off and I ended up having to hold onto the pack during the ride. There were several people that kept up around me, and eventually we some how turned into a peleton. Drafting was supossed to be prohibitted, but with the lack of race officials on the course the peleton formed. I slipped into the peleton and went for prob about 8 miles or so with the pack. It was the first "group" ride that I had been a part of, and I was amazed at how fast we were moving with the little effort that we were putting out. I had trailed off the back of the peleton right before another turn. It was after the turn that we hit another head wind, and it slowed me down to where I couldn't catch up with the group. I had less than 8 miles to go on the ride at that point and just kept on trucking. With about 5 miles to go, I caught up with Todd, although he didn't know it. Todd is the stronger cyclist between the 2 of us, and once I found him, I kept with in 100yds behind him. It was also around this point that I got a wierd pain developing on the left side of my crotch. It was brutally painful at times, and reminded me of when I went on my ride after Antonio adjusted my seat. There was really nothing that I could do about the pain, moving around on the saddle didn't prove to make it go away. There wasn't much left of the race so I just sucked it up. Coming up toward T2, I wasn't sure how the run was going to go with having the pain down there. As I made the final straight away toward T2, I got out of my shoes and prepped for the dismount. The cramps in my legs started to come on while I was working on getting out of my shoes.

T2:    Heading into T2, the pain was still there and I had a little fumble when I dropped my sunglasses while making my way toward the racks. I racked my bike, threw my socks on and then slipped into my shoes. I also took a few swigs of my electrolyte drink and took some Hammer electrolyte pills as well. I grabbed my Gu gels and stuffed them into the legs of my tri suit while I was heading out of T2. My tri suit has 2 pockets in the back, but they are dead center and very hard to get anything into or out of. I have opted to not use the pockets unless absolutely neccesary. I did stuff a tube into the pocket that had some extra electrolyte pills just in case I started to cramp.

Run:    I was nervous going into this event about the run. My leg was feeling good, but I hadn't run on it in 3 weeks. Even then, I did only 2 short training times (15-20 min ea) on the eliptical at work. Leaving T2, I was feeling like crap. My legs were cramping up on me all over. Little spots here and there, and nothing debilitating, but enough to feel it and know that it sucked. I thought that the 10k was going to be horrible, and it would have been if the cramps stayed. I just stuck to my guns and never stopped. Yeah the cramps slowed me down, but it wasn't going to let them win. About a mile into the run, the cramps had pretty much worked their way out and I started getting into a good rhythm. I never pushed myself to the brink on the run, instead I was just focusing on keeping good form and having a good mid foot strike. My only complaint on the run was the lack of aid stations. They had a station right out of T2, at mile 1, mile 3 and mile 5. The upside was that there were many places to cool off. Burley fire had 2 seperate brush rigs with water spraying into the street to run through. There was also several houses that had turned a garden hose on with a sprinkler for you to run through as well. This was a nice relief from the climbing heat as the day wore on. The Garmin said that my ave pace was 7:40-ish, and I was happy about that. I felt good and strong on the run, like I could have gone forever at that pace. I had a Gu gel just before the mile 3 marker, so I was able to get some water to rinse it down. I stopped to a walk at every aid station to get the fluid and thank the volunteers. One cup of water for my mouth, and one on my head. Then off to the run I would go. Im seriously considering taking my Camelbak Delaney pack on the runs with me for fluids. This would make me faster as I wouldn't have to stop for the water. I'm used to taking it with me on the long runs outside of the races, and there is no reason why I couldn't take it with me during the race. The 10 extra seconds that it would take to put it on would easily out weigh the time savings from the aid stations. At the mile 5 mark, I took the last of the electrolyte pills just to be safe. I was feeling good and didn't want that last mile and a quater to be a suck-fest. I feel that the run is my strength between the 3 disciplines, and it shows. During the run, there was only 7 people that passed me, guys who were in the next older age group and were putting out a really good pace. This is oppossed to the ton of people that I passed while on the run. While running, it was just one after the other that was being passed.
           With about 3/4 mile to go, I passed a runner who had to stop because his shoe became untied. That sucks! For him at least; but it also enforced the reason why I spent the $15 for the Xtenex laces for my shoes. The last 200m had a semi steep down hill on grass and it did make me a little nervous with my leg. Up to that point, my leg had been feeling great, and I didn't want to take a spill or get injured in the last 200m of the race. Fortunatly I came through without incident and made it out to the flat land of the finish and crossed over the line in 2:27.  I got my medal, greeted Shawna and got some pics. About 10 min or so later, Todd crossed the line to finish his first Olympic distance triathlon too.

I still don't have the splits, or what my final placing was, but it was a great race, and a great intro into the Olympic distance triathlon. I am now looking forward to the Emmett Olympic distance race in 2 weeks. I'm anticipating a slightly slower bike for that course with no peleton to help me out, and I'm hoping to be able to find a better rhythm on the swim. The run will be faster as I intend to push myself harder on that run than on the Spudman.

Last minute race

                     In 3 days I'll be heading out to Burley to do the Spudman Olympic distance triathlon. I titled this post as last minute because it didn't look like I would be doing the race. Although I put in for time off for this race back in December, I was told when I got back from California that my PL was cancelled because of the budget. The department has essentially run out of OT money, and my PL was going to cause OT since I was the second medic off for the day. I feverishly emailed out everyone to see about coverage, but no one responded. Finally I resorted to texted people. Still, no one could do it. Finally, I texted Ann, and asked if she could just do the second half of my shift on Friday so I could race Sat morning. Lucky for me, she is able to, so I'll be heading out Friday night to race early Sat morning. This means little sleep since I'll get into Burley ~1030 and will have to be up by ~0500 since I have the morning of registration and then the transitions set up. Spudman should be a blast. The swim is in the river and we get to have the current push us. The bike course is supposed to be fairly flat, so I'm excited to see what kind of speed I can push out. The run, I'm not to thrilled about. My leg still isn't totally healed, but it's getting way better. More on that to come later.

                 Training has been going good. I can smell the end of this first triathlon season with only 2 more races to go and about 3 weeks left. I have taken the S+C (strength and conditioning) up a notch or 2 since I've been back from California where I couldn't get much in. I've been continuing to work on my swimming which is a love/hate relationship right now. I went to the rec center for a swim today, and had absolutely no motivation to try and swim fast. I was going to do a 10x100 on the 2:00; but instead I decided to mix it up a bit and did 3 rounds of 50-100-150 with the rest being whatever my time was. That was at least a little different from recent 100's or the 500's I've been doing. I did get out to the pond last week and decided to jump into the wet suit even though it was hot as hell. This was not a good idea as I was over heating in the suit. At one point I pulled my neck open and let the water rush in to cool me off, but then I had water in my suit and it was sloshing around while I swam until I got it all worked out. But it was a good idea for the suit because I discovered a fairly large, dime - nickel size tear in my right arm. After the swim I went to Tritown and got some cement to fix that tear, and a few small ones I found on inspection.

                  The bike has been going really well for me this last 2 weeks. I've decided that I would suck it up and ride harder on the bike. Before this, I was cruising with a cadence in the mid 90's with an average speed of 18-18.5 and the pedaling was easy for the most part. But I want to go faster, and know that I am capable of going faster. So I've made the conscience decision to not worry about my cadence so much as my speed. This means that I'm in a lower gear and going harder and faster with a slower cadence. Now the trick is to work my way back up to the higher cadence on the lower gear. I've been doing good so far, and feeling really good about my rides. Yes, it's harder, but now I feel like I'm actually earning it, and I am making progress. I have also been working on getting up out of the saddle while going up hill. This is something that is totally new to me. Even before, going up hills I would get off my aero bars, but never really stand up. I know that I should be faster up hill if I can keep my speed up by getting off my saddle, if even just for 20-30 seconds while going up hill. After talking with my capt (who is a hill climbing machine) it seems like it's just mostly on feel on when to get up. I've been trying to get up on every hill now, and have noticed a difference with my speed up hill. Most notably is when I was climbing the hill that gets me over the freeway and south of town. This is my main route when I ride so I can stay away from cars and enjoy the farm scenery. I've climbed this hill dozens of times. The other day I decided to get out of my saddle. I was able to keep it in a lower gear and got out of the saddle twice. I've never seen my speed so fast going up the hill. When I first started on the bike, my speed was in the 9mph mark going up. I was over 13 the other day, and I could just feel how much quicker I was getting to the top. So with my new out of the saddle climbing, and my lower gear/higher speed, I've gone to over 19mph as my ave speed, and I feel that I'm only at the tip of the iceberg for the speed. I can't wait to see what the next couple of months bring in terms of speed if I keep this up.

               Onto the run. My right leg is still tender at times. I can go most of the day and not feel anything, but then do one thing and get the pain to remind me that it's still there. I haven't actually ran since I was at the beach in California, and that was 2 1/2 weeks ago, and even that run was a short 2.3miler. My last long run was probably 3+ weeks ago. I went to see my physical therapist, Gavin, to pick his brain about the pain. he says that it's not a soft tissue injury. There is no swelling, no decrease in the range of motion. His best thought was a possible stress fracture, but even then he wasn't sure. He put some ultra sound on my leg, and it should have made me jump through the roof, but I just layed there, so he was confused. He said to just take it easy and if it's not better in a few weeks, then get an xray. Well, it's getting better, so no xray for me. At least not yet.

               With the Spudman, I'm looking to have a good swim since I have the current to push me. I'm going to really push myself on the bike and see how far and fast I can go. For the run, I'm just going to play it by feel. I really have no expectations for the run, so whatever comes of that portion of the race is what it will be. I'm looking to just have a good time and get out there.

To finish, let me send you a music video of a band called Dead Sara, and a song that I can't get out of my head called the Weatherman. I saw them open for Bush a while back and they ROCKED. Enjoy

California vacation

        I am finally back in Idaho after a long 20days of being away. I wish I could have a race report to tell you about. After all, that was the main reason of going to California this time of year. Unfortunately, the cost of the race prevented me from doing it, and here's why.
              I needed to take my bike, and therefore I needed a hitch for the back of the van to take the bike. $250
              Registration I thought was $100, but it turned out was going to be $240 ($100 for the police/fire games, plus $140 for the race itself)
              Extra hotel nights: $150-ish/night
              Extra food for the family: Don't even want to think about it
   Before you knew it, I was looking at almost $1000 for the race, and I seriously couldn't justify spending that kind of money right now. But we had already told the kids that they would be going to California, and going to San Diego too. At first we were going to take them to Lego Land, but at the last minute the oldest decided that he would rather go to Sea World than Lego Land. This was more than fine with Shawna and me so off to Sea World we would go.
    I'm starting to get a little ahead of myself about the vacation. We had planned to do the race, and told the family when we would be down. They planned a graduation party around when were coming down, so with the race cancelled for me, we were still committed to getting into town by a certain date. The problem was not when we got there, but when we were going to leave. Shawna's best friend was diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly before the trip and was going to be in LA to have the surgery to get it removed. Unfortunately, the surgery was scheduled for the end of our trip, so we extended the trip so Shawna could be there for her and her family. Luckily, I was able to get the extra days off I needed from work to allow Shawna to be there, but it meant being away from home even longer. This wouldn't normally be a big deal except for the lack of training that was being done while in California. This was one of my biggest frustrations about California.
               I was gone for 20 days and did very little training in general, and even less triathlon specific traning. I got 2 longer runs in, a 10k and an 8 mile run, along with a 2.25 mile run on the beach. The problem with the running, was that my right lower leg was starting to hurt again. During the runs, I'd feel fine, just like during most of the day. But after the run, my leg would ache a little bit, and I have some pinpoint tenderness as well. I can also move my foot in a certain way and make the pain come on. I'm not really sure what's going on with it. I have great range of motion, no swelling and no real pain. It's just a dull ache unless I touch a certain spot or make my foot do a certain thing. Very weird, and something that I should probably get checked out. The beach run did get my leg hurting while on the run, but only when my right foot was landing on the ground higher than my left. The slope of the ground was causing my form to be all funky and my leg was feeling it. I put the brakes on and slowed down on the run when that started happening.
               The other triathlon training I did while in California was one swim at the pool. My mom has a membership to the YMCA, and she got me into her gym so I could hit up the pool. My mom didn't know anything about the pool facility other than the fact that they have specific lap swimming times. So I went down there and quickly realized how spoiled I am with the Rec Center. The pool at the Y is tiny. It's only "20yds" long, and 5 lanes wide. I had to do a double take when I walked into the pool area because of the size. I put 20 yards in quotes because that's what the life gaurd said, although I think it was even smaller than that. Then there was the fact that every lane had old people in it. I ended up choosing a lane that had one old guy who was hanging out in the deep end of the lane in the corner. He'd lean back and just kick for a while, and then hang out. Then kick again. This went on for the majority of the time that I was in the lane. So I got one swim session in, and used it to work on my form. I saw a video of the Brownlee brothers doing some pool drills and they showed a drill where they play catch up with a kick board. You hold the board out as far as possbile, with your hands on the the very outside corner edges, just barely holding on. You stroke, but don't start you're other stroke until the first hand is back on the kick board. Because of the board, it forces you to have a good arm entry that is away from the body. This encourages the arm to stay away from the midline, and helps prevent crossing over the midline. It also encourages a high elbow for a good pull phase in the water.

This is what the YMCA pool felt like

             The rest of the training was done with what I brought with me to California, a kettlebell and a jump rope.

          I did a few workouts that I made up on the fly that used those two things, and it worked out pretty well. I was able to hit up Crossfit High Voltage in Burbank just once while I was down there and got a workout in with them as well. I had ZERO bike training and I'll tell you why (time to vent just a little). EVERY gym that I called about spin bikes gave this same answer. Yes we have spin bikes. No you can't use them unless you're in the spin class. Spin bikes are only for the spin classes. SERIOUSLY??? People are getting to be so retarded and afraid of someone getting hurt that you are not allowed to get onto a stationary bike unless there is an instructor there to watch you. Oh, I could of used the recubant bikes, but those pieces of crap are useless.

           The rest of the vacation went as well as could be expected for 3 small children out of their normal enviornment for that long of a time period. We had our good times, and our melt downs, but everyone survived, barely. I have yet to mention the sickness. Shawna had taken the kids to a play date with her cousin and their kids. 3:4 of her cousin's kids are within months of all 3 of our kids, which is crazy because we live so far away. Well the play date had a little something extra in store for us. A little virus that we like to call Hand, Foot and Mouth because that's where the rash goes. The cousin's kids had it, and warned us about it, but said that they were past the contageous part so Shawna went. Little to our surprise, they were still contageous and son #2 and the daughter got it. I'm still not sure how son #1 missed it, but he did. So we had 2:3 kids come down with this nasty bug. Luckily it never went to their mouths, which was the silver lining. Although Shawna came down with something that I'm thinking was a spin off from the virus. Doctors claim adults can't get Hand, Foot and Mouth, but I know those who have. Shawna never got a rash, but she did get sick shortly after the kids started feeling better.

       As far as Shawna's friend and the surgery, it went well, and everything is looking good post surgery. Shawna was essentially gone for 3 full days at the hospital, and another half day too. She spent all day on our anniversary at the hospital with her friend. We still went out that night, but didn't make it to a restaraunt until 1045 that night.

         Here's some crazy numbers from our trip

The total miles place on the van from the trip: 2,347.6

Money spent on gas (est): $463.50

Amusement parks visited: 3 by Shawna and the boys (they went to the water park), 2 for me and the daughter. All of us did the LA Zoo and Sea World.

Number of beers that I drank while in California: UNK. I stopped couting after the second 12 pack.

Number of sick family members: 4, out of 5. Somehow I didn't get sick, but son #1 did for a day.

Number of times someone puked before we got home: 3, names will be withheld.

Number of people who got wet at the Shamu show: None from this family, the kids were too scared to get wet!

Number of times I packed and repacked the van before the trip: 2 leaving, 3 times before coming home.

Outside temp while driving home through the California desert: 111*

Lance Vs USADA

Vs.

 

                Lance Armstrong has been banned for what will probably be the remainder of the 2012 triathlon season because of more doping allegations. These are not allegations into new doping, but rather a re-hash of the same charges that have been brought on years ago. I personally, and for the record, think that these charges are complete crap and that people are trying to simply smear Lance's good name. My biggest argument for this is simple. Lance is an American who won the Tour de France. Let me retype that with the appropriate emphasis.

               Lance is an AMERICAN who WON the Tour de France. The French historically dislike Americans. I don't know if it's because they're still bitter that Napoleon sold off the French territory to help fund his war known as the Louisiana Purchase, or if it's because the American's had to bail them out during both world wars (maybe it's because we remind them of the world war fact all the time too). In any case, the French are NOT fans of Americans. When you get an American who comes in and wins the Tour de France, crap is going to hit the fan. Not only did Lance win, he won MULTIPLE times. He won for over half a decade! If he was dirty, they would have proved it during that time, but they didn't. Floyd Landis was accused of being dirty before he was even able to leave Paris a few years back. Of course Floyd denied it for years, and then finally admitted it. He then had the audacity to try and smear Lance's good name.

               One of the other big issues that I have is that earlier this year the Federal Gov't dropped their 2 year investigation into these doping charges, citing that there was not enough evidence. During this investigation, people were interviewed, former team mates, ex-wives, coaches and trainers, support staff. Nothing was enough to prove anything, and the fed's dropped the criminal probe. Armstrong has said the investigation took a heavy emotional toll and he was relieved when it ended.

          But USADA officials insisted they would continue to pursue their own probe into Armstrong and his former teams and doctors, and notified him of the charges in a 15-page letter the other week. This all comes on the heels of Lance's victories in the triathlon world. Winning his last two 70.3 races, and gearing up for Ironman France, Lance was looking to test himself on the full distance and then tweak anything needed before going to Kona for the World Championships. All of that has come to a screeching halt because of USADA. Unfortunately, unlike federal prosecutors, USADA isn't burdened by proving a crime occurred, just that there was use of performance-enhancing drugs. Even then, the burden of proof is very slim for action to take place. Really all you need is someone who is willing to say that they saw, heard, or thought they heard something happened and you have an open case. If the fed's were unable to prove anything, I'm really doubtful that the USADA investigation will bring anything up. People have been named, but given super sweetheart deal for their testimony. So tell me, how honest is someone going to be when they are, essentially, getting paid for their testimony. Testimony that wasn't able to prove anything to the fed's will now, all of a sudden, allegedly prove something? PA-LEASE! This is just a BS probe to prevent Lance from being successful in the triathlon realm. I really wonder if USADA would be doing this if Lance wasn't doing triathlon, or if he wasn't being successful at it.

"It is a vendetta, which has nothing to do with learning the truth and everything to do with settling a score and garnering publicity at Lance's expense," Armstrong's attorney Luskin wrote.

So now, Lance is left doing this, and waiting to see what will happen next.

Armstrong, maintained his innocence, saying in his statement: "I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. ...

"Any fair consideration of these allegations has and will continue to vindicate me."

New Shoes

          After the Boise Ironman, I decided that I really should get a new pair of shoes. I had some right ankle pain for a couple of days after the race. I know that this was probably due to probably needing new shoes and a slight heel strike toward the end of the race (there's a pic of me with a heel strike). So off I went shopping. I started to consider getting a shoe with a little more cushion since I had the heel strike, and the residual pain. I looked into possibly getting the Brooks pure connect, the Saucony Kinevara or even a pair of K-Swiss. I was leaning toward the Saucony since I used to run in an unknown pair of Saucony's before I went to the minimalist side and got the Inov-8's.

         I ended up choosing a different pair of Inov-8's, the F-lite 220's. These shoes had a little more cushioning, and a little more of a heel to toe drop. My F-lite 195's have only a 2mm drop, and the 220's have a 5mm drop. I was all excited about the shoes until I tried them on. The toe box was way too tight. You'll notice in a pic of my olf 195's that I kind of blew out the sides where my pinky toe is at the toe box. This didn't happen right away, but did over time. The 220's have a completely different material for the toe box and there was little chance of any sort of stretch or blow out like the 195's. I called Inov-8 and talked with a rep about the 195's vs 220's, my "blow out" and my training routine. I told him that I needed a shoe that I could not only Crossfit in, but then turn around and push out a 10k or a 13.1mi without any questions on which shoe I should be using. He said that the 195's were the best choice, and that I should continue to go with those. With that, I returned my 220's having never even ran in them and had to order a pair of 195's from a completely different company. The running warehouse is phasing out the 195's and no longer had any in my size.

           I ordered another pair of 195's and had them sent to my mom's house where I was heading. I really wanted to get my new shoes and get them broken in before the next race. The 195's came on and I was super excited. I didn't realize how much I had used and worn out my old shoes, until I looked at how much tread is on the old Vs the new. I know that I did train for a 13.1mi Race to Robie, and then all the other training upto this event. It ended up being close to a year and a half since I had gotten the original 195's. I was definately due for a new pair of shoes.

          So I got a new pair of Inov-8 195's in the black/white like I had before. I've only done one workout in them, and it wasn't even a running workout. I will wait a week or two until I switch my laces out. I'm thinking that in October I will order another pair and have 2 pairs of shoes to burn through the next year. I'm thinking that other pair will be a white/black, or the "strom trooper" model, or something else fun. I'll keep that pair at work. I never had any issues before with my old 195's until this last race, and I don't plan on having any issues with this pair either.

The new and the old pair. If you look close enough, you can see a ton of tread on the new pair (left) and then really no tread on the old pair.

Here's a close up of the old pair with the "blow out" on the toe box where my pinky toe is. Both shoes have this feature now that they are well worn. The new pair will soon have this feature as well I'm sure.