Freezing Lakes and Training!

Swimming in 54 degree temperatures is a new development for me. Coming from Hawaii, I have experience in warm open water racing conditions, but I traded the swells for cold water when I decided to race 2 miles in Idaho a few weekends ago.

I wore the 2009 Zenith and I was treated to a very comfortable swim, as comfortable as I could be in 54 degree water. The Zenith is very fast! The 2 miles went by in about 39 minutes and I did not have any problems staying warm. A small crowd competed in the race, I can only imagine why, maybe the temperatures scared them away. I ended up winning the event by about 5 minutes and I look forward to defending next year. I hope more people come to do it because it was a very scenic swim.

I had some very tasty GU Chomps before the race, the Strawberry kind, and the energy from them kept my spirits up during my cold journey through the lake. I am savoring my Strawberry GU Chomps because if I don't control the urge to eat them during my training rides, I'll run out of a box in a week!

On another note, training is going very well. I ran into some shin splints a few weeks ago, but icing and Alcis have made the pain go away! I've enjoyed training with my Suunto t6c, especially since I can keep track of my heart rate, allowing me to dose my efforts during my rides and runs. I get excited when the altitude display reaches over 3000 feet on some of my rides because I've never trained at altitude and a nice 1 hour climb up to Mt. Spokane gets me up higher than I've ever been before.

Focusing on ITU events, I spend a lot of time on my road bike, the Orbea Orca, but I also do some non-draft Olympic events, which I thoroughly enjoy. It's nice to throw on a Zipp wheel set, usually the 999 set, and go screaming fast on the Orbea Ordu. It's very light for a TT bike, but it's also stiff, which I love. I'll be doing my first non-draft race 3 weeks from now in Chelan, Washington and am looking forward to riding fast!

I'm preparing for my next ITU event in San Francisco, the Treasure Island Triathlon, on July 11th. It should be a delightful race. I am almost fully recovered from my crash a month ago and look forward to racing fast.

Thank you to all of the sponsors for the great support! Good luck to everyone in your up and coming races!

Kalen