Ayerd{dot}com :: Triathlon

I don't know if you've noticed, but posting has been light of late. (Some, but not much more posting over on the main page.) 'Tis the off season where you do very little and claim you can start again whenever you want. You also do dumb things like agree to go running with your slightly insane (but not in a bad way) friends before finding out exactly when they plan to start running and how far the run is. It happens like this:

Insane Person: Run on Saturday?
Me: Sure, just let me know when and where.
.... time passes...
Insane Person: 5:30 AM at the gym, around 12 miles in a loop.
Me: /sigh. I'll be there.

The 12 mile loop then becomes a 14-mile struggle in the cold through hills and along the canal path followed by a 2,000 yard swim. I blame myself.

I've also been working on my core and overall body strength. Ek, I'm like girly-man weak. I know it will only take a week or two to get the abs into good enough shape that I'm not cringing the day after the workout, but man, those are a long two weeks.

Arrrrggghh. I've put it off as long as I could. I do not like getting up at 5:30 AM. I like playing video games until all hours of the morning. I don't like the pool when it is no degrees outside. Sadly, none of these things are compatable with finishing an Ironman in 12 hours. So, it begins. Again.

Last week I got started on the core workouts. In fits and starts, but started none the less. The other day it was off to the gym at lunch for a 30 minute run followed by a 30 minute swim. Last night hit the Masters workout for a relaxing 3,500. Saturday already have a 10 mile group run (that may or may not get upped to 20, depends on how I feel), and then on Sunday there is a 5.3 mile run in the hills at Tyler State Park. Yea for the Bucks Road Runners and the Winter Series.

Only a few more months of snow to go. Next step to start working the bike trainer. Joy.

As you may recall, I had a wee tire inflation problem during Ironman Florida. Since want to take back the 21 minutes I lost in the race, I thought I'd contact Genuine Innovations, the folks who made the tire inflator, and see if switching from the non-thread to the threaded cartridges would prevent the problem. At best I was hoping for a explaination why on earth you'd make two types of cartridges to do the same thing. Worst case, I'd waste some electrons sending email.

Well, I got a response.
They were concerned!
They cared!

I described my problem and said how I wasn't sure, but I didn't think I was doing anything wrong — and I have used the inflator thingy in the past so I wasn't a complete noob. Would switching cartridge styles prevent the problem or was my problem... me? Most computer problems happen between the keyboard and the back of the chair, so I'm pretty sure a goodly number of bike problems are located in a similar location.

They said, well could it be the inflator? Humm, problem with the Ultraflate Plus?! They had not heard of a similar problem anywhere else. Just to be sure it wasn't the inflator, they said if I shipped my current Ultraflate Plus, which has served me well, back to them, they'd send out a shinny new one and a cartridge. Oh yea!

That, my people, is customer service! That is what you want to hear when you have a problem with a product. That it isn't a problem. They were, in fact "send'in the Wolf."

So, yea, Genuine Innovations kicks ass. If you're not using their stuff, you should!