Being an amateur on Team Timex is like being the proverbial fly on a wall; you hear a lot of stuff that’s not being said to you. Sometimes you pick up some helpful or funny pieces of information from the team sponsors and pros. By helpful/funny information I don’t mean “Our brand X is the fastest,” or “You need to swim 42 X 100’s on sub 1:07 to get faster at the IM swim”. The first isn’t kept as a secret and the second isn’t helpful…or funny to someone who swam 1:20 last October.

Take wetsuits, for example. Sure, we’ve all heard that Vaseline petroleum jelly is bad for wetsuits, but is the damage to the suit worse than the damage to your neck from a wetsuit hickey, and if so how bad is it? And how about swimming in chlorinated pools with wetsuits? How much will knowledge about my 1000-yard wetsuit aided time cost me in terms of wetsuit wear? According to blueseventy’s Ben Bigglestone both Vaseline and chlorine will degrade the stitching of your wetsuit. But if you’re a pro and get a new one every year, what the heck do you care? Apparently, neither eats away like acid so base your behavior on how long you want to keep your suit.

How about Pam non-stick cooking spray? OK, according to Ben, except that it makes you smell like “chips”. That’s across the pond talk for french fries.

But the big question everyone wants answered is, what about peeing in your wetsuit? Will this shorten wetsuit life and friendships? Ben says you can use your wetsuit like your own private port-a-potty with no worries, enough water gets in the suit during the swim that there is no harm and no one will ever know.

The Timex pros are also a great source of tips. Ever had trouble pulling the ankles and wrists of a wetsuit up high enough for a snug fit? You should, it takes time to put a suit on right. Timex pro Blake Becker said he puts his suit on starting with it inside out. I had to see it to believe it. It works.

Encourage Blake to post pictures or video of this tip. There is no way I’m posing in a Speedo for pictures on the Internet!

Next time I’ll post what I heard about the Equinox TTX from the man know as “Lance’s bitch” at Trek. It’s not on their web site!

At the Timex training camp I had the pleasure of meeting Anne from Spenco®, who introduced me to the Spenco® Ironman™ cycling gloves, which are designed to help reduce numbness in the hands while riding, with the Shock-Tek™ patented grove in the padding.

I work as a physical therapist, and one of my co-workers asked for advice on reducing the numbness in her hands while riding her bike, specifically for the median nerve or “carpal-tunnel” type pain. My co-worker is also a physical therapist and knows about proper bike positioning and keeping the weight off her hands while riding, but that didn’t seem to reduce the numbness completely. So, I lent her my Spenco® Ironman™ cycling gloves. She returned back from riding this weekend and asked where she could buy a pair. The gloves had alleviated her numbness completely for her one-hour rides and reduced it by ~75% for her longer rides. 

Also, last week I had the pleasure of taking a ride in my brand-new Cold-Snap™ MTB series cycling gloves, also produced by Spenco®. I was very excited about riding in the gloves because of the silicone grip dots that allow for maximum control and their fleece lining for the added warmth. My first ride in the gloves was on a cold and rainy training day. Although, my last pair of gloves kept my hands warm and dry in the rain, I always felt like my hands could slide right off the handle bars if I hit the unsuspecting pothole in the road. The Cold-Snap™ gloves took all those fears away with those silicone dots and kept my hands warm during the entire ride. These gloves also have Shock-Tek™ patented grove in the padding to help prevent numbness in the hands. What a great bonus!

Thanks Anne!!

So Team Timex has been something that I have wanted to become a part of for the past 3 seasons.  Each year, something else has come up that has prevented that from taking place.  Well, this year I wan’t going to let that happen again. 

 I am now a part of what I believe of the greatest multisport team in the world.  I am not just speaking of the talent on our team, which by the way is AMAZING.  I am speaking about the types of people that are here.  Yes, everyone is nice and they are fast and they are have been in the sport for a while.  But everyone is also a ”good” person, they have good morals and intentions…maybe that is why everyone gets along so well???

By the way, I am speaking about the athletes, the team support crew and everyone else that is linked in with Timex.  There is a reason that they are in. 

 Either way, team camp was great.  SoCal is much different than i thought…at least on the coast.  It is beautiful, but VERY crowded.  Traffic jams at 11pm????  You have to be ok with the fact that you could potentially be delayed for HOURS, sitting in your smog filled car.  If you lived on the coast, the training would be tough, I can see why and how so many cyclists get killed each year.

 Besides a bit of training and meeting the team this weekend, we also got a chance to meet the sponsors. 

 The wetsuits have been updated and are even better than last year.  The big feature is a cuff that blocks water from entering and leaving through your sleeves when swimming. AWESOME!

The Trek Bikes are probably the stiffest bikes on the tri market and I think that it will show by some of the times that people put up.  Just wait, everyone is going to want one.  You won’t be able to miss them either, because the new team color is ORANGE!!!!  BLAZE ORANGE for all the Wisconsin-ites out there.

Ok, that is all for now.  I am currently in Tempe putting the finishing touches on my taper for IM Arizona in 10 days.  Should be a HOOOOT Time. 

 Also, a thank you to Ben H., Keith M. and Tom S. for everything that they put into this team…can you imagine living out of a truck and trailor for 2 months at a time???????????  I owe you all a few beers after the 15th.

 BB

www.blakebecker.com

Ever wonder what the athletes wear when they are racing and training? Here’s the equipment that they proudly wear.

Men

New Bodylink System	New Men’s 50 Lap Sleek watch
Men’s OVA	Data Recorder II

Women

New Bodylink System	Women’s 50 Lap Sleek
Women’s OVA	Data Recorder II