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.

Today I raced the 5150 New Orleans… duathlon. The swim was cancelled due to high winds. Apparently they couldn’t even get the buoys to stay anchored. I was bummed, but what can you do? I flew all the way here, I’m fit, so I just warmed up like I had been planning to do a Duathlon all along. The new format was 2mi / 40km / 10km; run / bike / run. I took off and ran with Kris Gemmell for the first 2 miles. I was pretty ecstatic to be running with such a great athlete, and even more stoked to see everyone else falling off the pace while I was wondering if we were going hard enough. After (what is becoming my normal) fumbling through T1 I got on the bike, caught Gemmell (he passed me out of transition while I was fumbling) took the lead and never looked back. It was the windiest race I’ve ever done, and really hard. I had a giant lead going into T2, but that was completely unknown to me. I just kept running. At 5k I had over a minute on Gemmell and the rest of the boys, which was great because the last couple miles hurt like no other race format. Duathlons are hard! I won with a pretty big margin.

I’m really happy with where my fitness is right now. I haven’t done anything special in training, I’m just working hard. I haven’t rested for a race yet, but I’m learning just how much work I can do and still perform well (I put in 24 hours this week in 5 days before the race, and did a hard track workout Thursday.) I feel like I’m finally making progress toward being an all-around triathlete, and being able to run away from a strong field at a duathlon certainly helps reinforce that. I wish we could have swum, I think there were some talented guys that didn’t get to show their strength today because of the course change. Still, being able to win under any circumstance is the type of athlete I want to become.

A huge thanks to K-Swiss, Garmin, Powerbar, Rudy Project, and Blue Seventy (even if I didn’t get to use my swim skin today) for helping me get there, along with all of your support, my family, my friends, and everyone that tells me to kick butt before my races. You all are awesome!

Here’s my reward for the day: a graph with myself as the zero axis!!

This is a “fun” little highlight video to start off the 2011 triathlon season. Get pumped.

Slowtwitch says I’m a “Man with style”! Check out the interview I did this week by clicking here.

And yes, the last picture shown in the interview (and the one above) was definitely taken specifically for the interview, including the afro picking I did beforehand.

…

In 2011 I will be wearing Rudy Project helmets and eye wear for the fourth season. I just ordered a bunch of new gear from e-rudy.com that is going to make me look awesome while training, racing, and gazing into my bright future. I got Fluo Pink road and TT helmets, which I’m hoping are not overkill. I’m also banking on USA Triathlon not to mandate that we wear red on our ITU uniforms, or I may look like a Valentines Day present while racing (probably not as effective as a bouquet of roses). For sunglasses, I’m a huge fan of the Noyz and Zyon frames, so it was with a bit of hesitation that I decided to try out the new Gozen and Swifty frames. Fortunately, Matt Chrabot and Sarah Haskins already tried out both of those frames and have assured me that they live up to the high standards I have for Rudy Project eyewear.

Rudy Project is also making Rx lenses for their sunglasses that pop right into your favorite frames. I’m planning to get some ImpactX Photopolorized clear Rx lenses so that I can train in the winter without contacts.

I take a lot of pride in the long-term relationships I’ve developed with my core sponsors since I turned pro in 2008. Rudy Project was one of my first sponsors, and after three years of working together I know I can trust the quality of their products. If you’re in the market for a high quality set of sunglasses with an unbeatable warranty from a friendly company, click on over to e-rudy.com or check them out at a local dealer.

I’m going back to San Francisco for another Tri-California race on Sunday. I will be racing the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz. My entire family is flying in to see me, even 9 month old Carter and his mom (my sister) Susan. This course is amazing. Probably the most beautiful urban race in existence, so I’m hoping my family can get some great pictures of me. Better than this one from the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in 2008, which I ran with an injured foot and no pink Rudy Project sunglasses – I still had the fastest time up the Sand Ladder!

I would write more, but I’m off to the airport with a book bag full of books! I started an MBA program at the University of Colorado this week, and suddenly I have no problem keeping myself occupied. My first three courses are “Leading and Managing in Changing Times”, “Intro to Accounting”, and “Marketing Strategy”. My Management prof seems really cool. Our first assignment is to write a self assessment, in which we point out our own flaws, our goals, our strengths, and how we plan to become better people through self-management and life balance. Step 1 to life balance: enjoy life. (check!)

This interview is reposted from the Zoom Performance website.

That’s part one.

And this is part two

After checking out of the vacation rental on the North Shore last week, Courtenay and I rode down to Honolulu while everyone else drove. It was raining, the roads were muddy, the drivers were in a bad mood, and the route sucked. The first ten miles took us part way up a portion of the highway called “pineapple hill” because at the summit is the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Right around there is when Courtenay decided to stop, eat, complain about something (Normally she can whine while riding, but this was a moaning session that went beyond either of our multitasking skills.), and wipe the dirt and water off her glasses so she could see again. It was me, however, who saw the big prize! As soon as we started riding again I saw a little green note plastered to the road with water – a FIFTY DOLLAR BILL!!!

[left: Courtenay during our B&M (bitch and moan) session on the side of the road]

Unfortunately, we still had two hours of awful, wet, dirty, dangerous riding left, and really all the $50 bill did was get me to start scanning all the litter on the side of the road (there was plenty), which was exhausting and likely unsafe.

The part of this event that is particularly funny (to me anyway) is that Courtenay’s brother and sister frequently comment on how captivating her story telling can be. They tell her that when she sees people falling asleep she should throw in, “and then I found $5” – just to reclaim attention. A few weeks ago, she did find a $5 bill laying in a parking lot (see the video below for our on-the-spot reenactment), but the story still left her siblings cloudy eyed.
“Maybe you need to find a bigger bill,” they told her. “Try $20, and if you still can’t make the story interesting, make it a $50 bill.”

So when we showed up at Courtenay’s brother’s apartment, we told the story of the $50 bill. Then we tried to tell them about the rest of the ride – like how we stopped at Jamba Juice because we ran out of the granola bars and PB&J we had packed – but once the money line had been revealed the story was no longer interesting. The punch line just came too early.