This turned out to be a great book./

After interviewing Rachel Cosgrove (click here to read part I and part II) about how she balances her training for two very physiologically diverse sports (powerlifting and triathlon), I became a fan of her methodology, philosophy and overall approach to multisports. She was gracious enough to send me a copy of the book she co-authored with Erika Lilley, “So you want to train for your first triathlon” to review.

Since the only thing I owe anybody in this world is the truth, I’ll confess that I did not have high expectations for Rachel’s book. While she has a solid background as a personal trainer and athlete, she is not a household name in the triathlon community. Plus, there are far too many triathlon books on the market that parrot each other and I’m automatically suspicious of the quality of any self-published e-books. There is a lot of crap floating around in the land of cyberpublishing.

Once I read through Rachel’s book, however, I was very impressed with her writing and the information she provided. If you had a tape recorder running while I was reading the book, you would have heard me mumble several times, “Wow…I wish I would have had this book when I started.”

As the title suggests, the book is geared toward the first-time, or neophyte triathlete. It is chock full of solid concepts and strategies that comprise the foundation of the sport and even seasoned age-groupers would benefit from going back and looking at this material from a fresh perspective.

Title: So you want to train for your first triathlon
Authors: Rachel Cosgrove and Erika Lilley
Pages: 119
Publisher: Results Fitness
Price: $39.99 (book); $29.99 (e-book)
Where to buy: www.rachelcosgrove.com

Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
The authors introduce themselves and how they met each other through the sport of triathlon and later became training partners and coaches. They also provide a very brief section on the history of triathlon and talk a bit about who the book is geared toward.

Chapter 2: Setting goals and getting focused
This is the section that every triathlete needs to learn, and re-learn. Myself included. As someone who has a history of setting lofty goals and regularly getting his ass handed to him, I found this chapter quite insightful. The authors advocate using the S.M.A.R.T. tactic for goal setting: Specific, Measurable, Attainable (note to self: re-read this one!), Realistic, Timetable. They include some exercises and worksheets to help you think through the process to plan for your first race and your first season. After all, triathlon is a complex skills sport and unless you are coming into with a strong competitive background in swimming, running or cycling, you will need to plan on having your first few seasons, if not more, dedicated to spending a lot of time (and money) learning about your body, your abilities, your limits, and your strategies.

Chapter 3: Endurance training philosophies
Various key terms like maximum aerobic power, lactate threshold, exercise economy, and other tidbits of endurance lingo are introduced and put in their proper context. This is all done without trying to intimidate the reader with five-dollar words. Consider this the theory section that does a good job of explaining the overall philosophy of good program design without making your head spin with overly complex terminology. I was particularly thrilled to see the advocation for focusing training around an athlete’s weak spot. If you suck at the swim, guess what you’d better emphasize in training? The swim. Speaking of the swim, they also include a great section “6 for 3 Rules for Swimming” that addresses the one aspect of triathlon that scares more newcomers than anything else. They repeat this advice with “6 for 3 Rules for Cycling” and “6 for 3 Rules for Running.” In short, they boil down concepts into useful, take-away advice rather than go into the painful detail that Joe Friel usually takes a chapter to cover.

Chapter 4: Triathlon training program
Here, the authors get into the meat and potatoes of the book and start you with one of their semi-customized training programs for sprint or Olympic-distance races. They help you identify your training intensities with the help of a heart rate monitor and take you, week-by-week, through a 24-week training program. They provide an outstanding variety of effective, and time-tested workouts for the swim, bike and run. If you are new to the sport and can’t afford a coach, this section alone is worth the price of the book.

Chapter 5: Strength training for endurance athletes
Right out of the gate, Rachel and Erika tackle the aversion most multisport athletes have to picking up a barbell. They then dispel common myths about strength training and demonstrate just how important it is to incorporate the iron game into your training program. The program outlined in the book is excellent. It’s not the standard “do 30 reps with a 2-lb. pink dumbbell in each hand” type of routine. I can guarantee you won’t find any other triathlon book recommending Bulgarian squats, mobility drills, side planks, T push-ups or Romanian deadlifts. This is where the authors’ background with conditioning really shines. In addition, while small, the instructional photos are quite helpful.

Chapter 6: Flexibility for triathletes
Once again, the authors start out by explaining the importance of improving your flexibility as well as introduce several types of flexibility “philosophies.” They then move on to prescribe a flexibility routine with photos to show you the various movements.

Chapter 7: Getting the right gear
The reader is given two lists, “Need to Haves” and “Nice to Haves.” They’ve compiled a great list, with explanations for each item in each of the three sports and have sub-divided it even farther with gear recommendations for training and racing. The section covering wetsuits is particularly helpful if you’re considering making the investment in the second most expensive piece of gear (next to your bike).

Chapter 8: Nutrition and hydration
Nutrition is divided into “basic” and “performance” and covers a fairly broad topic with just the right amount of detail for the aspiring triathlete. This is not a diet book. Nor should it be. They do, however, get into a bit more detail on helping you develop a more specific nutrition strategy in the week leading up to your first race and tactics for nutrition and hydration for each of the three sports on race day.

Chapter 9: Injuries and prevention
If you stick with triathlon long enough, there’s a good chance you will encounter some type of setback due to injury. The authors cover the most common injuries in each of the three sports and provide recommendations on not only how to avoid the injury, but to how to fix it so you can get back in the game.

Chapter 10: Optimal recovery
The opening paragraph says it all: “You don’t get results from your actual training sessions. Your body actually gets broken down during your training and then rebuilds stronger after the workout is over. Your results come from your recovery. This is why recovery is so important to your success as a triathlete.”

Chapter 11: This is my first tri-what can I expect?
This is a great section for the first-time triathlete and is one I’m sure will be read over and over again. Heck, even those with a few seasons under their belt would find some great advice here. The authors cover the race from packet pick-up to post event planning. Who would ever think to plan for what happens after the race is over? Yet, with current trend of race directors turning the race into more of family-friendly festivity, you do have to start thinking about how you’re going to handle your gear, friends and family once your race has concluded.

Chapter 12: Wrap-up
It’s really not fair to even label this a chapter. It’s a one paragraph farewell from the authors.

What I Liked

• No extraneous details. The authors get right to what’s important and why it’s important to your success as a triathlete.
• The design is nice and simple and the photographs are well lit and well-done.
• Everything you need to know for your first triathlon is here. This book has it from A to Z.
• While I think there is plenty of information here, it is not enough to overwhelm the new triathlete. That’s a good thing.
• The strength training program appears to be well thought-out and I would predict an athlete would see some great mobility and strength (which equates to speed) gains if they incorporated it into their training.

What I Didn’t Like

• The pictures showcasing the various exercise and flexibility movements should have been at least twice as big.

Bottom Line
In spite of my initial apprehension about the quality of this book, I liked it. A lot. In fact, I highly recommend it as an addition to any triathlete’s library. I would even go as far as saying it should be mandatory reading (hint: a great gift) for anyone considering entering the sport of triathlon.

Here’s one man’s tale of how sitting behind a computer all day can ruin your vision. Back in 1990, I received my honorable discharge from the Navy and left Coronado to start the next chapter of my life in Las Vegas. How I picked Las Vegas over any other Western city still remains a mystery to me.

Over the course of a month, I went from being in charge of my boat crew of eight men on the sunny beaches along the Pacific Ocean to sitting in a remodeled closet at one of the top ad agencies in town. To say I went nuts is an understatement. I had no windows and sat next to a 65-year-old woman who blathered all day about her alcoholic sister and spent the rest of the time yakking on the phone…about one foot away from me.

I also stared at the 12-inch screen of an Apple computer the nine hours I was at work. One foot behind the screen was a white wall. Absolutely no eye relief. My vision went from 20/15 (better than 20/20) to 20/40 within six months.

Since I was still attached to the Naval Reserves, Uncle Sam required me to have corrected vision for my next physical. That meant I had to get glasses. Since a series of very delicate muscles contort your eyeball to bring things into focus, I felt that wearing glasses served the same purpose as a crutch. The muscles would continue to atrophy over time because the lenses were doing all of the work. Since I only wear them for driving at night, when my vision is perhaps at its shakiest, I’ve never had to get a stronger prescription in 18 years…and I still stare at a computer screen nine hours a day.

Since prescription glasses are expensive, and I have a tendency to lose them or more frequently, sit on them, I like to have a back-up pair that don’t cost an arm and a leg. There’s always the el-cheapo Wal-Mart and corner drug store variety. However, their styles are bit lacking in, well, style.

A friend told me about the online company called http://www.ZenniOptical.com. You order the glasses direct from the manufacturer so there are no middle-man mark-ups and the glasses are very inexpensive…which makes them a great choice for your emergency or back-up glasses. Although I have yet to put in my first order for a pair of glasses to stow in my backpack or the saddle bag on my bike, I’ve only read great reviews about the company and their service. The frames are fairly stylish and with most glasses coming in around $8, they definitely seem worth a try, especially if you’re getting new prescriptions every year (for those constant eyeglass wearers). I’m thinking about getting a pair of the Metal Alloy/Stainless Steel Half-Rim Frames to keep stowed in the truck for those late-night mountain pass drives.

If you get a pair, please let me know what you think about them in the comments below.

To get in on the March drawing, you need to head over to Curly Su’s blog before the end of the day on February 29.

If you don’t get the book for March, don’t fret. You still have plenty of chances since we’re running this through June.

Not sure what the book is about? You can read my review of “Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior,” or keep your eyes peeled for Curly Su’s review which is due any day now.

Why in the world would I review a fat loss product when nearly all of my readers are endurance athletes? Shouldn’t I be exploring high performance methods on how to improve performance, run longer, bike faster and increase our VO2 max? Yes, I should and that’s why I’m telling you to give Fat Loss Pros a serious consideration for adding to your training library.

Let’s face it. Most of us got into endurance sports for one of two (or perhaps a combination of) reasons:

1. To boost our ego (e.g., I can run a marathon, complete an Ironman, etc.)
2. To look good naked (e.g., I just want to get in shape…which translates to I want to get rid of these extra Krispy Kremes hanging off my ass)

Please save the hate mail for someone else that you’re different and are doing this for loftier reasons. That may be true once you’ve been in the sport for a while, but I bet your original motivation can be boiled down to those two goals. As a side note, I was talking to a local triathlon retailer a few months ago about the new trends for 2008 and guess who the tri-industrial complex is banking on for the 2008 season? Athena athletes…those women tipping the scale at 150 pounds or more.

Personally, I think this is a great new development for our sport. But the sad truth that many of these new athletes will discover is that while endurance athletes may do well at accomplishing the ego boost, most of us are in a sorry state of affairs when it comes to looking good naked. Our physiques seem to run the spectrum from the Olson twins to Rosie O’Donnell. There are very few Desiree Fickers and Steve Ilgs out there.

Before you accuse me of being a shallow bastard (I really am), put down that Gatorade and bagel and think for a moment. Would looking good naked also boost your performance on race day?

You bet your sweet bippy it does and I’ll get into that a bit later in the review.

For each endeavor, seek the counsel of experts
When you want to improve your swim times, you turn to a swim coach, right? You would be an idiot if you called up Dave the local powerlifting coach to help you improve the finer points of your stroke. Then why in the world would you hire a triathlon coach to help you burn off extra fat and make you look good in a Speedo? Your tri coach will help you get to the podium, but who’s going to make you look good for all of your adoring fans?

A physique coach. In other words, when you want to change your physique, seek the counsel of a bodybuilder.

Jen Heath (whom we’ll meet later in the week), sought out the advice of some of the country’s top physique experts, from science geeks to bodybuilding and performance coaches, to learn the secrets of fat loss. She’s assembled quite the collection and one could argue that she has provided too much information. With 18 different experts, there are bound to be 18 different opinions and methods, especially when you see who the experts are:

• Dr. Eric Serrano
• Dr. Lonnie Lowery
• John Parrillo
• Roger Riedinger
• Alwyn Cosgrove (seen on our site from time to time)
• Scott Able
• Cassandra Forsythe
• Dr. Mauro DiPasquale
• Erik Ledin
• Kelli Calabrese
• Don Alessi
• Charles Staley
• Chad Ikei
• Krista Scott-Dixon
• Craig Ballantyne
• Paul Chek
• Chad Waterbury

Fat Loss Pros is a downloadable collection of MP3 interviews that you can listen to on your iPod or computer. Ranging from 35 minutes to over an hour, each interview brings some fascinating, and humorous, information to the table.

Alwyn Cosgrove, for example, discusses how wonderful low intensity steady state aerobics is for conditioning, but how it sucks for losing fat. “It’s about as useful as eating donuts.” From my perspective, Cosgrove’s interview alone is worth the price for the entire series. He’s a Scot and has a great accent which just underscores his advice. I’m particularly fond of a discussion he was having with Heath on the theory behind a particular performance model. “I don’t give a shiiit why. I just know it works better and that’s what I use.”

Another Cosgrove gem comes out of the discussion about how most people try and copy the pros and spend all of their energy and time doing fine-tuning exercises. “Most people don’t have stubborn fat, they’re just fat.”

He then describes a fascinating study comparing interval and steady state (low intensity) training where the steady state athletes ran an hour a day, five days a week while the interval athletes ran 20-minutes a day, four days a week. Although the interval athletes burned half the calories of the steady state group, they burned more fat. Adjusting for the average caloric burn between the two groups, the interval training group had nine times greater reduction in subcutaneous fat than the steady state group.

Krista Scott-Dixon, on the other hand, takes a more gentle approach and gets into a lot of the psychological and nutritional concerns specific to women. She has a great view when it comes to helping women overcome their fear of looking too muscular if they lift weights. Scott-Dixon encourages her clients to change their perspective from looking at a body part’s appearance to it’s function. For example, rather than thinking that “My hips are too big,” you should see “My hips are my power center.”

Big difference in mindset.

While I won’t go into all of the interviews here, one of particular note is the conversation with Don Alessi and the significant impact that body fat has on V02 max. While Alessi has a rather kooky theory on the relation of body fat distribution and hormones, his discussion on subcutaneous fat and its direct relation to V02 max is eye opening.

Pros

• This is an advanced course in cutting body fat, exercise design, human performance, and nutrition.
• There are several approaches to reducing fat and they all work. Just pick one that resonates with you.
• If you’re an endurance athlete who has limited experience in this area, by the end of the series, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve learned about the capabilities of the human body.
• Heath does an amazing job of keeping the interviews on topic and soliciting the best that these experts have to offer.

Cons

• While the information is fantastic, it is varied and the experts do contradict each other at times. While this is to be expected in any athletic endeavor, it could lead to someone being confused as to which approach to take by the end of the series.
• The audio quality can be tinny. While Heath sounds like she is talking into a soup can at times, the experts came across pretty clear. You’ll have to crank up the volume on your iPod.

So should you buy Fat Loss Pros? Only you can really answer that question but I’d give it some consideration depending upon the level of your experience and success cutting body fat. The program is set up in a great format and provides a wealth of knowledge. I consider myself to be quite educated in this area, albeit admittedly shitty when it comes to execution, but I learned quite a bit that I will be putting to use in the months ahead.

My advice is to listen to all 18 interviews, find the common ground they share, and then incorporate that information in your fat loss/performance program. Then again, you may find one coach’s advice that just clicks with you and your experience. Either way, this audio series is a fantastic bargain at $97. Hell, if you paid the hourly rate just to talk to these professionals, you’d have to mortgage your house. But, if you move quick, Heath has sweetened the pot with a New Year’s special that gets you all 18 interviews for $47. At this price, it’s a steal.

Once you get the series, you’ll also have access to 11 bonus items which give you the nuts and bolts, step-by-step, instructions on how to incorporate many of the lessons learned from the audio series.

The run into hell
You’ve come home after a long day at work and you’re debating on whether or not to go out for a late-night run. Not wanting to fall behind in your training, you lace up your Asics and head out the door.

While the streets are mostly vacant, the area is pretty well lit so you start to relax a bit and enjoy the music on your iPod and the steady cadence of your footfalls on the pavement. At the halfway point, you decide to take a turn down a residential side street to cut the run a bit short since it’s getting late.

A white piece-of-crap sedan passes you from behind. You notice there are three or four young men looking at you as the car goes by. They slow down and pull to the curb on your side of the street about 500 meters ahead.

“No biggie,” you think to yourself. “They’re probably just visiting someone in the neighborhood.”

You slow your pace and keep an eye on the car.

Nobody is getting out.

Your palms get a bit sweaty and your stomach does a flip-flop as your inner voice starts to express it’s concerns.

As you run closer to the car, your rational mind tries to drown out your instinct. “You’re being paranoid. Nobody’s going to do anything in such a well lit area. These things don’t happen to me.”

You slow down some more to give them time to exit the car. Nobody moves.

About 50 meters from the car, your instinct is screaming so loudly that it finally drowns out your inner liberal pansy who believes that everyone should love one another and those who don’t are just misunderstood. Not wanting to test your civilized mind’s theory that these young men may simply want a hug and an earnest conversation about saving the gay whales, you decided it’s time to turn around.

But, it’s too late.

At this point, your threat radar has moved from Condition Yellow to Condition Orange*

You execute a swift 180 and pick up your pace again.

Behind you, you hear the car start and your heart rate jacks up another 20 beats when you realize the car is approaching you. You look over your shoulder and see it is slowly pulling up along side.

You start running through options. “I could get on my cell phone and call for help, but it’d be too late by the time someone showed up. Hell, I run here all the time but I can’t remember the street’s name!”

And of course, the rational mind classic: “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

The car pulls alongside and the driver’s window rolls down.

“Hey lady,” the young man says with a smile. “We’re trying to find Martin Dr. Know where it is?”

“I’m sorry. No.” The rational mind dictates you be polite even though your instinct is redlining it for you to haul ass down the street.

“We have a map. Can you look at it? You probably know the area pretty well, right?”

The car accelerates a bit to get ahead of you and stops. All four doors open and all four men exit the car.

Your life just took a turn toward Shitsville and a brutal reminder that in spite of Oprah saying to the contrary, you are still part of the food chain.

Fight or flight?
Oftentimes, the best defense is the Nike Defense: Turn on your heels and run like hell. “Feets, don’t fail me now!”

Sometimes, you don’t have that option. Most likely, this is because you missed the warning signs and/or failed to listen to your instinct. Or, were tuned in to your iPod instead of your environment. Oops.

Last month, I was on a neighborhood run with my two daughters (ages 10 &7) when a white beater sedan pulled the same maneuver with us. Once I noticed that they were parked in an odd spot and were in no hurry to get out of their car, I turned around and backtracked.

Would anything have happened to us?

I doubt it. However, I can take that chance when it’s just me. I will not take it with my daughters.

For those times when you’ve missed all of the cues and you’ve found yourself in a pickle, it’s nice to have a bit of a deterrent on hand. Normally, when I run at night, I carry my BGBG stick** that fits in my hand just like a runner’s baton. I have no illusions of going all Steven Seagal on anyone’s ass, but I figure if I’m going to the hospital, I’m bringing some company with me.

Women, who are the favorite prey of male predators, need something a bit more persuasive…and pretty.

Fashion with a bite
Introducing the C2, where fashion meets fucking someone up. The folks at Taser International unveiled this little beauty during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. It’s a standard Taser (up close zapping plus the ability to shoot the darts and give someone 30 seconds of high voltage affection) and MP3 player.

How cool is that?

The C2 comes in seven designer colors: Fashion Pink, Leopard, Red Hot, Black Pearl, Electric Blue, Titanium, and Metallic Pink.

It looks like you have to purchase the zapper and MP3 player separately. The 1 GB player is built into a carrying case so you don’t accidentally fry your brains when you’re plugging in your earphones.

Now you can rock out to your tunes and have the ability to put out someone’s lights at the same time.

If you want to see the C2 in action, check out the video in the L.A. Times.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

hak

*The Color Code of Awareness. I’ll write more about this Wednesday.
**Bad Guy Be Good

Many of you would be wrong.

That’s the problem with labels.

I believe if it weren’t for the New Age label associated with Millman’s volume of work, he would put Dr. Phil’s fat ass out of business.

But, enough of that. On to the book.

At first glance, this book, which is billed as the companion to the classic “Way of the Peaceful Warrior,” just seems to be a re-hash of original. Filled with pithy quotes and excerpts, it can come across as a lazy author’s attempt to recapture the glory of a book that is more than 25 years old.

Once I got past the first few pages, my initial labels were blown out the door. This book is a masterpiece in disguise as a Reader’s Digest novella.

Millman has taken more than 100 of the original book’s most intriguing passages and has dissected them in detail to showcase the core ideas behind them. As a testament to the author’s talent, he adds new takes on his original perspectives and provides practical lessons on how one can directly apply them to everyday life.

This is no pop-culture “Chicken Soup for the Soul” nor is it call to go back to the Stone Age and follow the 15th generation interpretation of teachings of some dead guy. It’s not even the Zen-type hippy bullshit where everyone must dance through flowery meadows singing Enya songs. No, this about the marriage of the two seemingly contradictory terms of “Peaceful” and “Warrior” and how one can use these concepts together. It’s the classic yin/yang brought forward to modern times.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt of one of many passages that touched me:

“When we improve or refine one of our habits or behaviors, we may find that friends, colleagues, loved ones, and peers take notice and offer comments or opinions. When one part of a system changes, it creates a pressure for another part to change, so it’s natural for others to react to our changes.

More concretely, let’s say Joe and Sally, a married couple, have both gotten out of shape from too much eating and too little exercise. Then let’s say one of them decides to start a regular exercise routine and to eat less. Do you think the other spouse is going to cheer the first on and follow this good example? …

” … Walking a different path, no longer fitting in, can be a test of character. It may entail finding new friends who share our values. We have to deal with the fear that our changes in behavior or lifestyle may distance us from our spouses, partners, or friends. When moving into new and unfamiliar territory, explorers typically face the fear of separation, being cut off from the group. At times like these, we need to remember that we’re not all here to fit in; some of us are here to lead.”

I recommend this book for any serious multisport athlete looking at the bigger picture to examine how their passion for sport is currently integrated into his or her life.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

hak

P.S. I interviewed Dan a couple months ago. To find out more about this fascinating author, click here to read the full interview.

I don’t know yet. I do know that I love The North Face Apex Zip Shirt Jacket.

What I Like
I’ve had this piece of gear for a year now and it’s been with me on all sorts of adventures: as a base layer, insulating layer, or even as an ultralight shell. While one wouldn’t think of our Las Vegas winters as anything near a Minnesota winter, we do get below freezing at night and it will typically be in the mid-40s for our colder daytime temps. This shell has performed admirably in those conditions.

The DWR-coated Apex Aerobic fabric kept me remarkably dry throughout most of the Soulstice 12-mile mountain trail run last October (click here to read the race report). That day saw temps hovering around 38 with a continual drizzle throughout the race. It wasn’t until I got hammered with a steady rain on the last stretch of the run that the jacket succumbed to the precipitation.

The quite breathable Apex Zip Shirt Jacket is rated to 10 CFM, the number of cubic feet of air that can pass through one square foot of fabric in one minute at a pressure differential equal to approximately 30 m.p.h. To put that number in perspective, a totally windproof garment rates a 0, most wearers would feel a garment was windproof if it was rated 1-10, and your typical fleece pullover rates 200.

As pullover, it’s a no-fuss-no-muss durable garment with elastic cuffs and a center front zipper that drops down to just shy of the halfway point to allow for a plethora of venting options when things start to warm up. Plus, the soft brushed lining and the ultra-thin construction (it weighs only 291 grams) make it quite comfortable when you’re on the move.

What I Don’t Like
The jacket features one Napoleon-like pocket on the chest. That’s it. Although it’s a decent size, I don’t like being limited to one storage area for gloves, hat, gels, etc. when I’m out in snow country.

There’s no cinch cord on the bottom. With my other high performance wear, I like to be able to control ventilation with bottom cinch cords. With some imagination, you can also you the cinch cord to turn the entire jacket into a pouch.

Summary
If you’re looking for a well-priced, durable and if I must say so, rather stylish multi-use wind resistant shell/base layer Uber garment, you can’t go wrong with this jacket. In addition to the rather limited men’s color palette, the women’s Apex Zip Shirt features a brighter color palette.

The only downside of this great weather is that the sun sets earlier and more riding and running will be done in the dark. Running in the dark is one of my favorite pastimes. Cycling in the dark, however, I’m not so crazy about. I do my best to light myself up like a Christmas tree so the booger-eating, latte-drinking, cell-phone gabbing Las Vegas motorists I share the road with will see that I’m out there with them.

After mistiming a ride earlier this year where I was caught in the dark with no blinkie thingies and not a streetlight for miles, I thought to myself, “Self. This is not so smart.” Cars were zipping by me at 60 m.p.h. and the shoulder was only two feet wide and was covered in rumble strips.

The next day I went to the closest bike shop and picked up an inexpensive front light for my bike, the Giant Electron Xenon. I liked that the batteries were re-chargeable and that it had a quick-release handlebar mount.

First, after several attempts at re-charging the original batteries and having them not take a charge, I gave up and put in four standard AA-Duracells. With the light finally working, I clipped it on the handlebars and took the unit out for its first…and last…ride.

It sucks.

It’s like a taking a weak flashlight and encasing it in a coffee filter. What little light this unit puts out is shotgunned in front of the bike. The Xenon allegedly has a high beam and low beam which really just means weak (high beam) and weaker (low beam).

What I need is a front light system that has a sharper focus and puts out a bit more wattage. Any suggestions?

Find your edge and dance upon it.

hak

Rather than the Home Depot generic storage hook, the Delta Leonardo Wall Mount Front Wheel Bike Rack has caught my eye. Although it’s a bit pricey at $14 to have hidden away in the garage, this would have been perfect in my old bachelor pad. Heck, it would look great in any college dorm room or apartment. Just think how cool you would be if you were like the guy in this photo? Your art deco bike hanging on your art deco hook while you lounge in your tragically hip black ensemble reading Slate.com on your Apple Powerbook.

If that ain’t cool, I don’t know what is.

Seriously, this a nifty piece of gear and I’m racking (get it?) my brain out trying to figure out a way I can convince my wife that we need one…and that my bike needs to hang on that hook…and since it’s such a pretty hook, well, it would be a shame to hide it in the garage….

You think it would work?

Late last year I upgraded to the Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor Watch, the super-cool ninja version that all of the Uber triathletes were using. This baby does everything except pedal the bike for you:

• Displays your heart rate as beats per minute and percentage of maximum heart rate, average heart rate, and exercise duration
• S1 foot pod shoe-mounted sensor that continually relays computed velocity and distance information to monitor
• Runners’ data including total speed and distance, speed displayed in pace or kmph/mph
• Wirelessly sends exercise data to PC via infrared connection
• Allows you to set 5 exercise sets for interval training with HR target zones and recovery calculation
• Records a complete file and five summary files of the exercises
• Predicts your maximal oxygen uptake
• Reduces possible interference from other heart rate monitors
• Target heart rate zones with audible and visual alarm
• UpLink feature enables download of exercise set from Polar web site
• Large easy-to-read display with backlighting and split screen
• 24-hour clock with day/week indicator and stopwatch
• 1.5-year average battery life
• Water resistant to 30 meters

Although I try to fight my gadget geek tendencies, I finally succumbed to the S625X’s siren song. Once I got it set up and configured, I printed charts and all kinds of cool things. My favorite feature is the foot pod. It is amazingly accurate for measuring distance on runs, so no more wasting time trying to use Google Earth to measure out my runs. Unlike the Garmin units that rely on satellites to track your motion, the Polar model uses a hyped up pedometer that will still measure your distance even if your under a thick tree canopy or running in canyons.

In addition the S625X confirmed that my old Polar was still dead on. After all of the abuse the old model took, it was still accurate and ready to show my mind what my body had been trying to tell me for years: My heart rate is abnormally high and my aerobic capacity still truly sucked.

While the Polar S625X may be overkill for most of us, it can be a valuable training aid. I don’t leave home without it. Plus, if you want to wear a mobile research lab on your wrist, then this is the must-own heart rate monitor.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

hak