If you’ve been following me on twitter, you likely already know that I am working with a number of new sponsors this year. I have been so excited about each of these sponsors that while I have been waiting to confirm my partnerships I literally lost sleep. I woke up a couple of weeks ago at 3am and started browsing the internet for information on the Cervelo P5, which will be released in the next month or so. I was so excited about my new partnership with FSA that I started dreaming about how I would destroy the non-FSA brakes that have caused me so much trouble in 2011. And I’m so stoked to be signing with Hincapie Sports that I often interrupt conversations at dinner to ask what everyone thinks about my most recent idea for a custom race uniform. “What if it has a giant picture of a lion eating a shark while riding a unicycle?” These interruptions seem to be annoying to everyone besides myself, but you have to admit it’s exciting.

In 2012 I’m brining on Hincapie Sports as a new title sponsor. Hincapie makes custom clothing, and is rooted in cycling. The company wants to be a leader in the triathlon industry, and I’m hoping to help them develop their products to be better than anything currently on the market. And, while I probably won’t put any images of animals on unicycles, I’m pretty stoked to have the freedom to design a race uniform that represents me.

Over the past few years I’ve often felt like a kid on a road trip asking “are we there yet?” repeatedly. Only for me it was frequent pitches to Cervelo asking for a spot on their team. I’m not sure if it was persistence, or recent results, but in 2012 they finally said yes. And from now on I will be riding the fastest, highest quality bikes in the world. I really couldn’t be happier.

No less exciting, I am bringing on three Seattle based companies that make world class products. Computrainer, Full Speed Ahead and Brooks. In Seattle I ride by FSA, which also makes Vision aero products, and Brooks headquarters on every Saturday group ride. And the Racermate office, where Computrainers are designed, is next to the University of Washington where I was taking premed courses a couple years ago.

Computrainer is a vital part of my indoor workouts, and partnering with them means I’ll get to be featured in their real-course videos, and help them develop their products going forward.

Full Speed Ahead makes everything on my bike except the frame, and I’m looking forward to decking out my new P5 and S5 with their engineers.

Brooks not only makes great running shoes, but unlike many running companies, they actually have a lab with biomechanists doing research to improve how their shoes work. I’m really excited to get into the lab and learn what I can about my own running needs.

These five are in addition to my long term sponsors, Garmin, Blue Seventy, Rudy Project and Powerbar. All of whom continue to provide support with products that help me race faster.

2012 is going to be a really exciting season. Please check out the my sponsors websites to learn more, or contact me if you have any questions about picking a product.

Training has been going well. I spent the bulk of November and December building back into full swim and bike workouts, and running on the AlterG treadmill so that I could ease back into running on the foot that took me out of my last couple races in 2011. And all of that was terribly uneventful. There have been no setbacks, and my fitness has come back faster than I expected. So by the time the holidays rolled around I couldn’t see a reason to stay in Colorado. Instead I packed up and took 10 days in New York City with Abby’s family. There are three Olympic hopefuls in her family, which leads to a much greater understanding of “I need to go train” during the holidays. Basically I could train full time without ever feeling guilty about missing out of group activities.

One issue I had in planning the trip was in finding an AlterG treadmill for my last week of less-than-body-weight running. I checked out the AlterG website where they have a map of all the places that own Alter-G Treadmills so I started calling every place in Manhattan hoping to find someone willing to lend a hand. Two got back to me right away and said they would love to help me out. Equinox Fitness was first, which is a chain of gyms in New York that offer a five star experience. I walked in the first day and say Kiehl’s products in the locker rooms, models on the elipticals, and at the end of my run I was told I needed to hurry off so that Spike Lee could use the AlterG after me. There was a 25 yard pool, a boxing center, a TRX class was going on followed by kick boxing, and in the next room there was a cycling class lead by Robert Pennino, a triathlete who runs Terrier Tri Team on the West Side. This was the nicest gym I’ve ever been to.

The second place to offer me AlterG time, and where I ended up doing the bulk of my AlterG sessions was Finish Line Physical Therapy on 23rd and 6th Avenue. This was less of an “oh my god it’s Spike Lee” experience, but also less distracting. They gave me so much freedom that I sometimes wondered if anyone even saw me come in. From what I overheard and saw, the therapists seemed really knowledgeable. They used the Trigger Point systems and taught how to use them correctly, which I like because teaching people self-care is a big part of recovery and prevention from future injuries. I didn’t actually have any PT sessions, but if I ever need a PT with a good sport medicine base of knowledge I think Finish Line is the place to go in New York.

To the left is a picture from I ride I did with the president of the Columbia University Triathlon Club. Last summer I tried to be included in the Ivy League Championships, which was contested at the Nautica New York City Triathlon, but they left me out of the results. I guess having Columbia win the title by some 30 minutes would have been a little ridiculous.

We rode to New Jersey and did the same route of my first road bike ride in 2004 with my former college friend, Mark Backman. We go across the GW Bridge (above) then down to the banks of the Hudson. Ride north a few miles, then there’s a climb a little over a mile long. In 2004 I was riding an old Schwinn with down-tube shifters. It was so hard that I could barely get myself back to Columbia. I loved it, and that ride is what drove me to buy a road bike after graduating nine months later. Honestly, had Mark not taken me over there I don’t think I would be a triathlete now. Thanks Mark. This is your fault.

Needless to say, this time was much easier, and not just because of the badass bike that I was riding.

I swam with the Columbia Men’s Swim Team for my week in New York, which was a bit of a preview for ten days I’m spending with them in Puerto Rico for training trip. I rode around central park on my BH road bike, which I recently outfitted with some high end components from Full Speed Ahead and Vision. Then, just after Christmas I got the call I’ve been waiting for since my first day working at Speedy Reedy in 2005… It’s something so exciting it requires a post of it’s own, but I’ll leave you with this teaser photograph of Mojdeh playing with my dream machine.

This was my first week back at my normal training schedule. I’m delightfully exhausted, but the week was rather uneventful. My first ride in several weeks involved my buddy Aaron Trent helping me up a hill by letting me grab onto his jersey. What’s great about this time of year is that every workout is better than the previous. So yes, I had trouble getting up a short mild hill, but Aaron was the only witness, so if none of you tell anyone, then only a five or six thousand people reading this will know.

I also got my first flat of the off-season, which is good to get out of the way. Every year I get a gnarly flat in my first week of training, this year it was a carpenter’s nail stuck all the way through the tire and tube and into the rim of my wheel. Luckily it didn’t do any damage to the frame.

Last noteworthy event is that my parents finally made it to Colorado to visit me. It’s their first visit since I started training here other than when I was in the hospital with some crazy Hawaiian bacteria a couple years ago. It’s nice to have them here, but in some ways it makes me miss being home. Seattle is just such a great city.

I just had an incredible weekend in Los Angeles. It was the final lap of my off-season and I made the most of it. After all the fun I’ve had over the past 6 weeks, I’m exhausted! Delightfully exhausted, and really excited to get back into the grind. The trip to SoCal was prompted by Abby getting an interview at UCLA. Basically I was invited along as chauffer and activity coordinator for a weekend of fun. And it was!

Thursday we walked around Venice Beach and fulfilled our desire to smell some salty air and get our feet wet in the ocean. After that we met up with my college buddy Mark Backman for his birthday party in Hermosa Beach.

Friday morning I drove Abby to her interview, hung out at a local espresso bar for a bit, then met up with Peggy McDowell-Cramer, who you may remember as an occasional guest blogger on this site, a 16-time Ironman, and an extraordinary person who I met at my first Age Group National Championships in Kansas City. She took me to the Westwood pool and we swam together. I was just going to play in the water, but she made me do a real set. In return, I made her finish that set and go faster than she thought she could.

After the swim Peggy made me lunch and we chatted until it was time to pick up Abby from UCLA. From there we checked out Santa Monica’s Pier, rode the ferris wheel, shopped some, and had a Sushi dinner (these are all things we can’t do well in Colorado). The only part of the day that didn’t rock was the LA traffic, which is terrible.

Saturday Abby and I went to the Getty Villa museum near Malibu. There was a Picasso exhibit that showed his earlier works. It was cool to see how he started drawing classic antiquities, then slowly began to dissect his paintings as he developed cubism. The art, however, was not the reason for going to the Getty Villa. The museum itself is gorgeous!

From there we spent some time at the beach in Malibu, had dinner with Peggy and her husband Pat (I finally got to hear the story of how Peggy’s sailboat sank and she spent 15 hours in San Francisco Bay before being rescued. I wouldn’t be able to do the story justice, but I wish I’d had a tape recorder so that I could share it with you. Remarkable.)

Saturday night we went to a comedy show at The Improv in West Hollywood. They sat us in front and we ended up being a pretty big part of the show. The comedian, Ian Bagg,  struck gold, an Olympic rifle shooter, triathlete, the owner of True Religion jeans, Snoop’s agent, and a poor couple on their first date made up the front row of the audience. It was among the funniest standup comedy acts I’ve seen.

Sunday it poured the entire day in LA. We sat around and watched movies in the morning, then went to an organ concert, which was remarkable. The pipe organ at the Walt Disney center (picture on left) is a piece of art in itself. Plus, I never realized how much work goes into playing an organ. It looks like a serious workout, just the foot solo alone was impressive, but playing four keyboards, and fifth on your feet takes an incredible amount of talent. I was impressed.

Again with Disney, the concert was icing. The real treat was to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is a sculpture by itself. It was a great way to finish a weekend in Los Angeles. Abby and I were both craving some culture after spending so much time in Colorado Springs, and LA delivered.

Now, back to kicking my butt at swimming biking and running. I’m sick of off-season, time to get faster!

When it comes to analyzing data, I’m a total geek and my Garmin devices are total enablers of this obsession. In an attempt to share the method to my madness I wrote about how I use the data fields on my devices while I’m training. Check out the post over on the Garmin Connect Blog.

This week I reached an agreement with Racermate, makers of Computrainer, for sponsorship starting in 2012. I’ve been training on a Computrainer for a couple of years now, so the partnership is a natural fit. The hard work that’s taken me from an average cyclist to Hy-Vee prime winning cyclist has been overwhelmingly indoors on a Computrainer. In the past I’ve used only the basic functions of the Computrainer, but I’m looking forward to working with Raermate to laern how to use features like Spinscan pedal stroke analysis, real course simulations, and customized workouts. By maximizing my use of indoor power training I’m hoping I can reach a new level of cycling ability next year. Booyah!

[Above: Ben Collins and Mark Fretta riding Computrainers in the Olympic Training Center’s Triathlon Training Room (a.k.a “the basement”)]

I’ve been struggling to blog regularly ever since I got an Apple computer last year. I know it’s a bad excuse, but there’s just no good blogging app for Mac OSX. So today, after over a year of begrudgingly blogging in html, and hating the process of adding pictures and hyperlinks to my posts, I’ve caved in and loaded Windows 7 on my Mac, just so I can run Windows Live Writer – hands down the best weblog writing software around. Hopefully this will help me simplify my Halloween resolution (I couldn’t wait until New Year) which is to write more.

We’re well into the off-season (for me) even though there are definitely still races going on. 5150 Clearwater was cancelled, but there are two World Cups left. I called it a year after Huatulco World Cup. It was my 15th race of the year, and I have been trying to push through a tender foot for a couple months. It’s time to give it some rest and really heal up. Next year is going to be a big one, so to do well it will take a body at 100% going in.

For the next few weeks I’m following some advice I heard years ago but never had the guts to listen to: I’m doing nothing that’s like triathlon. I’m visiting friends, kayaking, sailing doing daily Pilates classes, playing with my nephew, watching lectures on iTunes U and sleeping 10 hours a day (okay that last part is a lot like triathlon training). There’s nothing routine about my days here in Seattle, and it’s really fun. It’s also making me crave the hard training and routine. I’m already counting the days until I get back to the grind.

The Pan-American Games triathlon was a really important race for the US men, as well as the Canadians. That race may have been both our Countries’ last best chance to earn a third quota spot for the London Olympics. The Olympic quota process is a little confusing for most of us, so I’ll try to break it down.

Eight countries get to bring three people to the Olympics, and those 3rd person quotas are given to the first eight countries to have three athletes eligible for the Olympics. All other countries can have a maximum of two quota spots. If you take a look at the Olympic Simulation it makes more sense.

The first five quota spots go to the countries that win their continental championships. So the countries of the athletes that win in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceana, and America all get one quota spot. The next three quota spots go to the 2011 World Championships podium.

After that there are 39 more spots given out by the Olympic Points Ranking, and then a handful of spots are given to emerging countries that wouldn’t otherwise have a representative at the Olympics.

Further, no athlete can earn more than one quota spot for their country, meaning that because Alistair Brownlee won both the European and the World Championships, his World Champs quota spot rolled down to 4th place, which was Javier Gomez. And since Gomez already earned a quota spot at Worlds, it doesn’t matter that he is first on the Olympic Points Rankings, he can’t earn a second spot for Spain.

Now remember that only eight countries can have three quota spots, and those quota spots are dealt out in the order described above. That means the third place person from each country is really only racing against other third place athletes. In order to earn that third quota spot a country must have a third ranked person in the top eight of third ranked people.

Right now, the third ranked American is Hunter Kemper, but he is the ninth or tenth third ranked guy in the world, meaning the US does not currently have a third Olympic quota for London. The eighth place third ranked person is Bevan Docherty from New Zealand, with a little over 2000 Olympic Points to Hunters 14 hundred and change. Manuel Huerta is another 100 points behind that, but beyond that are Kevin Collington and myself with just over 500 points. Meanwhile, Matt Chrabot and Jarrod Shoemaker are sitting in first and second for the USA with plenty of points.

The beauty of the system is that an athlete can earn a quota spot for their country without any previous Olympic Points Ranking at all by winning one of the automatic quotas at continental or world champs. So if a US athlete other than Matt or Jarrod had won the Pan-American Games then they would have earned the first quota spot for the US and Matt and Jarrod are ranked high enough that they would easily secure the second and third quota spots.

Now, the original plan was for Chrabot and Mark Fretta to domestique for Kemper at Pan-Ams, but then Kemper crashed in South Carolina a couple weeks ago and broke his elbow. Manny was the alternate and he did an excellent job. With Fretta and Chrabot’s help he stayed comfortable in the breakaway of 15 men, then ran with Renaldo Colucci from Brazil and McMahon from Canada. Since Canada is in a similar situation to the United States, they were equally motivated for a win, while Brazil is lower in the ranking and Colucci is their top ranked male (meaning his motivation was purely to win the Pan-American Games, with no ulterior motivative). Huerta and Colucci ran together the entire 10k, but in the final sprint the Brazilian took the tape. (I was at home watching the twitter feed and cheering loud enough that even though Manny couldn’t hear me, my neighbors definitely could.) Manny stepped up and did a great job. It was the best we could have done as a country, even if it wasn’t Gold.

Unfortunately what that means is that the US men are in a bad spot if we want to take three men to the Olympics next year. Kevin and myself are realistically too far back with too few races left to get back into the mix. Hunter is still injured, and there’s no telling how soon he will be back to winning world cups. Manny is 700 points behind Docherty, but that’s quite a bit considering that both of them well be racing and earning more points. Manny would basically need to place top 5 in two World Cups that Docherty doesn’t go to, and stay even with him in all the races he does.

And why should Manny go to every race from now until the end of the Olympic Points Qualifying Period? Even if he earns the third quota spot for the US it wouldn’t actually put him on the team. He still needs to be one of the top two Americans in San Diego for that to happen. In 2008 Matt Reed was in the same position, he raced every World Cup he needed to and just barely squeezed high enough in the rankings to earn a spot for the US. He qualified for the US team, but he was toast once he got to the Olympics, and the whole process burned him out on ITU racing. As much as the US wants the third quota spot, I don’t think the US wants to repeat what they put Reed through.

So realistically, what this means is that we’re all vying to be one of the top-2 Americans in San Deigo. If we’re top 2 and in the top 9 we get a spot, if we’re top two outside the top 9 then USAT has some discretion, but how that will play in is pretty uncertain.

In Mexico I stayed in a condo with Matt Chrabot. This year was his second win at the Huatulco World Cup, and he’s been on the podium there three of the last four years. If anyone knows how to race well in Huatulco it’s Matt, and staying with him was a great opportunity to learn a little from one of my most successful peers.

Even though Matt lives across the hall from me, we have different coaches and we rarely train together. And that’s just the way it is at the Olympic Training Center. There are about 15 athletes training out of the center in Colorado Springs, but none of us train together on any regular basis. It’s not any kind of animosity between the athletes, we all get along pretty well, it’s a mix of us having different coaches that never talk, and then once the season starts our training priorities are just different. It’s something that USAT has been working to fix, but we won’t see any real change in the structure of the resident program until after London.

In Huatulco, however, Matt and I were on the same plan. Even with different coaches our training objectives in the days leading up to the race were identical. We wanted to practice the hill, and get used to the heat. Even the water was warm in Huatulco, so we did a hard swim workout three days before the race to get used to working hard in warm water. Everything we did meshed up, and it was fun to have a training partner for the week.

We were in a condo, so we had a full kitchen and plenty of space. It was actually a really cool setup because the condominium was brand new, and the two of us were one of just two rooms being rented while we were there. We basically had an entire hotel staff just waiting around for us. We made ourselves omelets and sandwiches during the day then went to the town square for dinner. We found this hole-in-the-wall just off from the main tourist area. It was a little restaurant run by a family in the back yard of their house. They grilled all the food right in front of us, served us homemade lemonade (with mint and cucumber!) and charged us half what we would have paid for lower quality food elsewhere.

Our setup was not conducive to socializing, so the two of us ended up having an inordinate amount of down time, despite getting in everything we wanted to do.  It was by far the best accommodations I’ve had in Huatulco in the three years I’ve done the race, and it was all thanks to Matt’s planning.

….I need to put in an aside here, I’m on an airplane watching Hawaii 5-0 and they just interrogated a guy who was helping triathletes blood dope. I’m not a fan of the image their creating of triathletes…

The whole experience with Matt made me wonder why we’ve never been able to work out the obstacles of training together. We both like group training, but we both stubbornly insist on having our own coaches (for good reason, at this level you really do need a coach who optimizes your schedule for your own individual needs). USAT played with the idea of having mandatory runs and bikes during the week, but the older guys complained and it never happened.

…Now the TV is showing these two triathletes training together in an endless pool at a waterfront house in Kahala, which is probably a 10 million dollar home. That’s probably a more realistic impression of a triathlete, right?…

Anyway, it’s the off-season now. Matt finishes in a few weeks, and over the winter we’ll hit up the fire roads together on our cross bikes. Maybe next year our schedules will match up for more than a few days in Mexico.

…And now they’re showing footage of a race start at Ala Moana Beach Park.  I just saw my former roommate Tai Blechta! That is so cool! They got real triathletes! Now if only they weren’t showing two people in aero helmets climbing the side of a building to steal money from a bank vault…

What was I talking about? This show is distracting…