You think your bike handling skills are good??

This video is one a buddy of mine had up as an away message and I watched it and it was a little trippy, but I got mesmerized by the fluidity of the riding. Just wow, great video. I can only imagine the cohones these guys have going up against NYC traffic with no helmets on. That's ballsy. Enjoy!

Why I tri.....

Ok folks, I want to give you all a little background on this entry by stating that I came in about 3 hours ago after running 6 miles in 9 degree Fahrenheit weather with a windchill of -3. That's right NEGATIVE three...

I don't know if many of you have ever experienced negative three weather, but if you have any exposed skin, it feels as though it is burning. This is a recovery week for me right now, but as I was running these 6 miles, I thought to myself, "the only thing I want to do is run faster so I can get these miles over with...my face is going to freeze solid!" Unfortunately I had to run them in zone 2 and that was 8 minute per mile pace this time of year. Not fun. For those non-math types out there, that was 48 minutes in the negative three degree cold.

Now a post without a picture is a boring one, so I ran inside after I was finished and grabbed my camera, take a gander at these two beautiful winter running "head shots":

Yes that is ice on my goatee...like a quarter inch of ice....

I guess the reason that I am smiling so much in the bottom photo is that I was the only one crazy enough to try and navigate the streets of downtown Rochester today. There were no other footprints in the street and I saw no one for those 48 minutes who was running. I guess I was the only one crazy and with enough dedication to run today.

It makes me smile because when I am in a race, I might think of today and know that the person that is right in front of me, or the person slowly gaining on me, probably wasn't out training today in the snow and wind. They were probably indoors watching TV curled up around a mug of hot cocoa. I can only hope that the memory of today makes me stronger when I need it the most.

This my peoples, as a Bolder person would say, is why I tri... I do triathlons not only to challenge myself from day to day, but to get out there and convince myself that if someone places better than me in a race, then they really earned it. They must have trained more or been out there TWICE as long as I was on the coldest of days.

Triathlon is my negative three degree day, its tough , but once you get out there and do it, you have the bragging rights forever. Cheers friends.

Sometimes X-mas comes late

So folks, I caught a lot of flack from people for that last post there that I was complaining about the IMFL rankings not being as high as I would have hoped. I understand that the Lake Placid and Florida Ironman races are not easily comparable as Florida is as flat as a pancake and IMLP looks like a rollercoaster. I can understand that the times would not be comparable. But I still feel as though a 10:31 ironman deserves more than a 81 point ranking. I got an 88 point ranking for running a relatively slow 2:14 in an olympic distance tri this past year and the 2:07 that I ran in September only netted me a 84.6XXX ranking. So, in their eyes, running faster on a relatively similar course will get you a lower ranking? I'm just saying that I think maybe the ranking system might need a little fine tuning.

However, to brighten things up a bit. I logged on to check out the rankings today and to my surprise, the preliminary 2006 year end triathlon rankings were up! Preliminarily, I have a 88.3963 ranking, good for 77th out of 840 in the male 20-24 age group which sneaks me into All American Honorable Mention status!!! Whooo-hoo! I'm pretty excited to see that as I was no where NEAR that kind of a ranking last year and working your tail off for 12 months is finally showing on a national basis. This was the only picture I could find...and as we all know, a post with a picture is more interesting to read :) It's kinda like this, but not really:

Pulling out the 2005 rankings edition of "Triathlon Life", I ended my 2nd season of triathlon with a 81.6450 and was ranked 173/532 in my age group. There were no honors last year, I was just another number. This year it was a secret goal of mine to get into at least HM status, and it appears that I snuck in. Turns out I was the first New Yorker in my age group, so I can say I am number one in my age group in NY right now :) - I like to think of all the positives that can be construed out of this ranking!

Well, it wasn't only me that performed well this past year, there were many many others who got honors from their hard work. (Specifically, the top 10% in each age group! - top 5% get AA honors and the next 5% get AAHM honors) So congrats to everyone for a stellar 2006 season.

Other notable fast friends from the Rochester and Buffalo areas include those who made All American status; Curt Eggers (he is ranked 4th in the 50-54 age group! - sick!), his wife Mary Eggers, and Carl Johnson. Notable friends that hit All-American Honorable Mention status include; me :), Joseph Meyer, and Joe Niezgoda. (which ironically, we were the top 3 spots in the Score-This!!! multisport series this year...) If there is anyone I missed, I'm sorry, let me know and I will add you in later.

So congrats to everyone who had a stupendous season and my hopes are for 2007 that it be faster and better than 2006. Train hard and I'll see you on the roads. Cheers.

My Christmas gift didn't come thru

So I had said in a previous post that the Christmas present that I wanted the most was that I wanted to finally get the USAT rankings for Ironman Florida. To my surprise, today was the first day that they appeared on the website.

Unfortunately, as I was hoping that the rankings would catapult me above the current 88.3963 average that I currently held, they did not. To my chagrin, I checked the rankings website today and my 10:31 at IMFL was only good enough for a 81.9543 thereby not being one of my two best races.

It's funny because this year, a 10:31 at Ironman Lake Placid was good enough for around a 93.XXXX which would have really thrown my average rankings up there. I've found it is extremely hard to get above a 90.000 in upstate NY without travelling around to some of the really LARGE championship races around the country (which in part tends to be a burden on the wallet). I'm just ranting, anyway, this is it, my official USAT ranking for 2006 will be a 88.3963.

Here's to hoping that it will be enough to crack into the USAT All-American Honorable Mention status! (Disclaimer: Rankings will be finalized in mid February 2007) Cheers.

First day back in water since IMFL

Just like the title says, it's been over 2 months since I have touched water with the intention of doing laps in it. Rachel and I went to the Webster Aquatic Center for a short little 2000 yard workout today and boy I can already tell, my arms are going to be super sore tomorrow.

This was the first workout back and I kind of just sloshed thru the water feeling VERY VERY slow but also feeling good to be getting back into racing shape. I recently sent out an email to the tri-buddies around here alerting everyone of the next installment of the Hammerfest mile swim races. (The next one is on January 27th at 2pm at Nazareth College.)

These Hammerfest races are something I created with the help of my friends and it was a reason to get everyone off of the couch in the wintertime and back practicing their most "favorite" discipline of triathlon. Its just a mile swim, but it seriously kicks the crap out of everyone that does it, mostly because they are held in the off-season. People have posted some serious times as well, check the bottom most part of the sidebar for last years best times.

Since the next Hammerfest is in 20 days, I better make like a guppy and get my arse in the water a few more times to kind of "tune up" before the Hammerfests begin again. Till then, I hope you all are enjoying the off-season, planning for 2007, or putting some serious base miles in for those early season races. Take care.

It's for the kids people, for the kids!

So, the 2007 season is almost upon us and a lot of you have probably started training/shedding off the unwanted pounds from the holidays like I have. I'm not doing much right now, but it's enough to jump start the year. I just did a 12 mile hilly run at Cobbs hill yesterday and have been logging a consistent 6-7 hours of working out a week. Nothing too strenous, but enough to get my lazy butt off the couch and doing something.

Speaking of doing something, I'm running a trail race 5k this Saturday which was supposed to be a snowshoe race, but the 50 degree F weather we have been having kinda nixed that one. So they turned it into a trail race, fun times. The next "race" I have on my schedule is an indoor triathlon on February 4th, 2007 at the Metro Center YMCA. This one is special to me because it helps out the "Invest in Youth" campaign for the YMCA and raises money to send underprivleged kids to camp for the summer.

I did this race last year and it is really a fun time. It's a typical indoor triathlon and you swim for 15 minutes in their pool, have a 5 minute T1, spin for 15 minutes, have a 5 minute T2, and then run for 15 minutes on their indoor track. They count and keep track of your distance that you have covered and allot points to each person based on the distance you went. The highest cumulative points wins. Last year I was ousted by less than 3 points... and my crotch KILLED me for about a week afterwards because I was on the spin bike hauling ass so fast. I think I tore part of my hamstring... The results said I went 8.3 miles in 15 minutes, which by my calculations is over 30mph. (I think the bike wasn't calibrated to real world distances...) This year I plan to place exactly one position better :)

But the reason that I am typing this post and letting so many people be aware of this is that I am looking to raise some money for the campaign this year and by default, get my $30 entry fee paid for... :) I'm looking to do my part and raise over $100. So, if you would like to donate to help the Invest in Youth Campaign, please send me an email at travisjearley at yahoo dot com, or you can even paypal your donation to me at that same address. It's for the kids everyone and I'm doing what I do best by swimming, biking, and running my little butt off for them. Do your part too. The money needs to be in by January 28th, 2007, so if you plan on getting a break on your taxes by donating, do it early. Thanks.

If anyone else is racing this weekend, good luck and stay warm. Thanks for reading.