Skip's Sprint Tri



Today was the team Sprint Tri at Stevens Creek Reservoir and it was a beautiful COLD day.


This is when getting dressed takes a little help from your friends (thanks Pete).


The air temperature was in the 40s with a brisk wind and the water was in the 50s. Now doesn't that sound inviting?

(That is Skip on the left - sitting in the water waiting for his group to go.)

For those of you who have never tried this, it's kind of like getting in an ice bath so you can't feel you feet, hands, and face. You can't talk because your mouth is numb. You force your face in the water and try to make your arms and legs move in a semi-coordinated motion. You only get about 1/4 of your normal lung capacity because your chest is constricted. You get yourself going and when you turn around the first buoy and look up to see the second buoy, all you see is the blinding sun. At this point a common tactic is to follow the feet in front of you assuming that for some reason they are blessed with super sight and are headed in the right direction. If you're not careful you might even crash into a well meaning kayaker trying to help you stay on course by "herding" you along. The good news is that it is a sprint (very short) distance event and the swim only lasts about 5-10 minutes and you get to come out and try to walk or run up to your bike and struggle to get your hands to work so you can change into your bike gear. Very fun. (More fun than chemotherapy however!!!)

The bike is when you hope you put on enough clothing to protect you from the wind chill on those wet tri clothes, but not so much clothing that you will be over heated at the top of the first hill. Again, today's event was short so more was definitely better! That's why although Skip's ensemble was coordinated with his bike, you don't know it because he needed the jacket.

For those observant folks in the group - yes that is a new ride for Skip. He still has his faithful LeMond Buenas Aires, but this is a lighter, faster, cooler toy. It's a TREK Madone 5.5. Merry Christmas!

Now you can see that his outfit was coordinated to match the bike that he is no longer on. This is about the point were his feet thawed out, with 1/2 mile to go to the finish. Although the sun is shining brightly, I am still dressed in bike shorts, sweats, Uggs, long sleeve bike jersey, sweatshirt, a swim parka and gloves..... so no, it's not warm. (Sorry, no pictures of me this time - that's my job.)

He finished in a little over 1 1/2 hours which really doesn't mean anything because we don't really know what the distances were.... it's a training race after all. The bonus of the day was that he probably burned twice the calories as normal because he shivered so much. So now he doesn't have to feel too guilty about the Phili Steak sandwich and fries at the 49ers game - oops, we don't want to discuss the 49ers game....