Zoot Suit Riot

Finally the day has come.

I know several people in my 'inner circle' that have been waiting with bated breath for this moment.  The moment that the onesy is revealed to the world.  I took my first test run in the suit in the pool this afternoon and got real sketch before hand and took a self portrait in the mens locker room.

I'm not going to even try for a witty caption on this one

Took a few tries to successfully get this shot, I think the suit is so fast that the light was bending around it weird...or I just couldn't get my phone at the right angle.  I also spent some time trying to figure out the most appropriate pose/expression.  I ended up settling on the serious, hands on hips, looking down on you, condescending, uber-fitness nerd.  And I think I nailed it.

Suit (its a Zoot TRIfit Racesuit) performed as expected in the water.  I cut 30 secs off my personal best to date and almost broke the 9min barrier and that is coming off two weeks down time.  I think I have a good chance of hitting my 8min goal before July.

Suit seemed to dry fairly quickly once out of the water and I would imagine it will dry even faster out in the wind and sun (assuming there is some) on the bike leg.  I'll be updating this post this weekend after I do a bike/run brick up in Waterville on the course to test the suit in those disciplines as well as get some benchmark times so I can see where I'm at on the course itself.

**UPDATE**:

Well I did my first 'brick' today, and I think it went pretty well.  I drove up to Waterville this morning hoping to beat the heat (it was still pretty damn hot) and to see what kind of times I could put up on the bike and run courses back to back and to see how my onesy felt in action.

For starters the suit felt great.  The low profile chamois was plenty and I didn't feel any hot spots on the bike and the same for the run, no issues what so ever, except for the fact that I looked like a complete and utter tool.  It was also nice for the heat today, probably would have been struggling a bit more with a full jersey on.

The bike leg felt about how I thought it would but I came in about 1-2mins slower than I wanted to.  I put up a 47:20 which is still respectable for that course and is a top 60 time from results last year but I think I should be closer to 45mins.  I think I can dig just that little bit deeper on race day and there was some other riders on the road that were hard to pass due to bike week traffic but those are issues that will probably also be present on race day so I'll need to just focus on getting that last bit of fitness before July.  But I am pleased because I have a feeling that at least half of the other riders in the top 50 from last year put those times up with ridiculous aero gear that I don't have so I'm pleased with where I'm at for now.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37400977

My transition time wasn't blazing because I had to put the bike back on top of the car and lock it up, etc. but I basically went straight into the run.  I have been told by several people coming into today that the first half mile or so of the run coming off a hard effort on the bike is 'funny'.  And I would wholeheartedly agree.  Lets see best way I can put the feeling to words is that when you run even though its second nature and almost involuntary in a way there is a neural aspect where your brain tells your legs to go.  I felt like those signals were stopping at my hips.

I was running but there was this 'numbness' like the coordination was there but I wasn't 100% in control.  It did eventually wear off and I was able to pace surprisingly well, I just kind of fell into a pace early on that felt good and was decently fast.  First mile was under 7mins and I tried to turn it up a bit shortly after mile one but hit the only real climbing of the loop and kind of bonked a tad with the heat.  Slowed it down a bit to recover and then tried to speed back up on the home stretch.  Strategy seemed to work and I came in with a 20:05 but the distance came in pretty short.  I thought I had only really cut out the transition area which at most would have maybe added a .1 of a mile on each end and this route came in at 2.86mi and they advertise the run leg at 3.4 so not sure if the Garmin is off or promoters are off (but the bike leg came in closer to 16mi so they are probably just estimating)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37400972

Either way with my average pace, which I probably could have held with no issue for a bit longer, I would have put up another top 60ish time in the run which is quite a bit better than I expected.

All in all I am pretty pleased.  I think I might be able to do ok at this whole tri thing.  The only thing I am still kind of dreading is the difference between .25mi in the pool and .25mi in a pond with 315 other people...