Iron Prayer

Ironman must be close. Last night I had the dream where I wake up an hour late for the swim start! Luckily my Timex watch alarm went off and I was on time for my easy swim at the YMCA. Most of the stress for me leading up to a race involves forgetting something. I have a checklist and I’ve been lucky so far with only one slip that occurred at the Rock and Roll half Ironman distance triathlon in Georgia.

I had my normal swim and made a quick exit with the bike onto the roads of Macon, GA. Within the first mile I looked down at my long shadow from the rising sun and low and behold I forgot my seat bag with tube, CO2 and tools! Worse yet is knowing I left it on the ground in transition! Knowing I had 55 miles to go I started the “Race Prayer.”

Dear Lord…I know I’m not one to ask for favors from you but I do need a little help here. It seems in my haste I forgot my seat bag (in transition no less!!!) and need 55 miles of debris free roads so I can keep the air in my tires. Yes, yes, yes I know I yelled at the guy who gave away my hotel room last night but it was late and I did fly 1300 miles to get to the race. Sure I could have been a little more patient with the age grouper floating on his back in the middle of the lake but I was in a hurry and a little push never hurt anyone…right? I’m really a good guy Lord…I don’t cut corners at races and don’t littler gel packets when I train. When I pass people on training rides I always wave and when someone has a flat tire I always ask if they are OK…sure I might not stop when I am racing but it is a race after all.

OK…how about a trade? You can have my shoelaces come untied during the run if I can just get back to transition without a flat. C’mon big guy…I’m already half way through the 56 mile bike…why waste a good thing? Is that glass in the road?! Are you toying with me? I know you have a sense of humor; you allowed recumbent bikes to be created.

OK we are only 5 miles from the finish. Just a little more sunshine sent my way please. How embarrassing would it be for me to flat 5-miles from my AWOL seat bag? It just wouldn’t be right…you know?

All right! We are in the home stretch! We did it! I mean…you did it! Thanks, thanks for letting me get away with one today. I appreciate the love. Is it too much to ask for flat-free racing for the rest of the year? What is that noise? Is that thunder?

Respect

Team Tommaso’s march to Ironman started in December of 2008. I informed some of my potential sponsors that I could pull a top 10 overall bike split at Ironman Louisville. A big boast that I would not have made if I did not believe I could back it up. I try not to write checks with my mouth that my legs can’t cash. To pull of this feat I would have to turn a 4:50 and change on the bike. I would have to average about 23mph.

The set up for me was perfect. I live and train with my coach. I have a cycling background, an amazing Tommaso prototype bike to ride and the grit to get the job done. So I signed up for the race and hired (yes, hired my roommate) my coach (Like the Joker said in The Dark Knight: “If you’re good at something never do it for free.”). I was surprised she agreed to the challenge. She is a pro triathlete and what I was asking was a little insulting to the sport. I wanted to float through the 2.4-mile swim, kill the 112-mile bike and take a nice 26.2-mile walk. She knew right away that I would be too destroyed to think about running. I was still surprised she agreed.

Starting on January 3^rd I was training to be an Ironman. I’ve run marathons and raced enough tri to know my way out of a transition area. I spent 10 years racing road bikes and the occasional mountain bike event. My first day found me in the pool. Soon I was swimming, biking and/or running almost every day. Most days I had two workouts so my personal life died quickly. Work was of course the most important boat not to rock. I love my job and refuse to let work suffer due to my athletic ventures. I don’t get paid to ride bikes…I get paid to make great bikes. You don’t screw up a gig like that.

Before I knew it I was in Atlanta running a half Marathon and visiting friends. I had my best run ever! Then I was back in Colorado racing an early season tri event and had the second fastest bike split and another solid run! The training was changing my body and there was newfound power. During this time I gained 8 pounds but was going faster. I let my coach steer and I provide the engine.

My favorite days were on the bike. I just wanted to kill everyone I saw up the road. As most of you know it is how I came up with the name for the Tommaso tri bike. I finished a race and told my girlfriend: “When I ride the Tommaso and look up the road all I see are dead people. I should call this bike the sixth sense!” A little humor from the movie The Sixth Sense.

As the training and the racing progressed I started to learn a lot about the sport and myself. You have to respect all the disciplines. I started to wonder if my coach knew what I would find as I progressed down the path to Ironman. The more I trained the more I wanted to improve all the aspects of my game. While I didn’t get much faster as a swimmer, I could easily swim 4000 yards straight and go out on the bike for hours. My biking continued to improve in that I was cruising along playfully whistling with a heart rate of 130bpm while tearing down the road. It was going so fast, so easily, it was frightening at times. My run was the biggest surprise. I was doing long runs and wanted to keep running. Before I knew it every Saturday or Sunday I was running at least a half marathon on top of all the other training! It just seemed normal.

So now I am 13 days away from the big show. The Ironman awaits and I still have a decision to make. I’ve worked so hard and come so far for this day. I realize that anything can happen between now and the finish line. I could twist an ankle, get sick or even crash the bike. Just this past weekend my coach crashed and broke a rib and my girlfriend looks to have broken a bone in her foot running. So today I sit and wonder…what side of me will show up on race day?

When all this started the goal was to torch the bike and show the world that the new Tommaso carbon tri bike is a killer! I would like nothing better than to post a super fast time so the people would see that this bike means business. No pro-athlete and no over-hyped wind tunnel data. Just one man on a machine he believes in. Or will the triathlete that I have become dive into the water to swim, crank out a descent bike so I can let my legs finish off an amazing day? Will this be enough to show the world what I know: The Tommaso Sixth Sense tri bike is a KILLER!

The bike is amazing. It is light and fast and fits perfectly. It accelerates really well and descends with all the confidence you could ask for in a bike. Bikes are really only as fast as the pilot pushing the pedals. If you’re going to buy a bike buy it because you know it will perform as a bike and he price is right. Don’t buy a bike because some amazing athlete won a race on it. He could have won the race on any bike out there. It’s the warrior more than the weapon. Tommaso does a great job in getting people on “weapons” at low prices. We (and by “we” I mean “you” through higher prices) don’t pay athletes to pimp our product).

Yeah, I make silly videos on race day and while training. I want everyone to feel like they are training and riding with me. That is how much I love this bike. Could I tear it up and post a crazy-fast bike split? Yes. I could bury myself and put up a good number for the sake of promoting the bike. The rest of the day would be walking to a slow finish. Could I race to the best of my ability and place well and finish like a true Ironman? I believe so. That’s the big question with less than two weeks to go. What is going to happen when I get on the bike? Please tune in to see what happens on August 30^th in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the coming out party for the Tommaso Sixth Sense.