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Stop by the shop to test ride some soon-these will be gone tomorrow.

Hutch’s is looking for photos of your favorite Co-Motion bicycles. If you have one to share, please post it on our FaceBook page. We are trying to gather fifty by the end of the year. Thanks!

First I want to thank everyone who put on the race. These events are a TON of work, and I think most of us underestimate how much time goes into creating a successful race. Thank you Rolf and Dark 30 Sports for putting on THE best race of the year.

This race was my first Olympic distance race. The Granite Man race was close, but not quite this long. A lot of people were surprised that I was going to do this longer race, but for me, it was just a natural evolution. This distance appeals to me the most and I felt mostly prepared for the race.

When race day came, I felt like an old pro. I knew what to do with my stuff in transition; and I knew what was going to happen in the water – I was ready to rip. The Sims and I got there early so that we would have plenty of time to setup transition and get Annette in the water at 8:00.

Annette’s race started without any issue and mine & John’s race followed shortly after. In the water I was bored. Forty freaking minutes in the water is a long time…. I felt good and went my typical pace of slow and steady. Considering where my swim started in December, I felt great.

T1 went well and I got the bike up to speed as fast as I could. I knew I had nothing in the run and need to make up time on the bike. The bike course was AWESOME. Thanks to Annie Loe for putting together such a great course. I finished 26 miles in 1:10 and averaged 21.5mph. I had put on a set of aero bars for this race and it was a noticeable difference.

T2 was easy and then I began the grueling 10k to finish up the race. The run was slow. I pushed myself as hard as I could, but I really didn’t have it in the run. I ran ten-minute miles and finished in an hour.

I felt great at the finish. I had left it all out there and finished my first Olympic distance triathlon. I know that if I want to continue with triathlon, I have to focus on running. It was clear that the race was won in the run. I was passed back by a number of people I crushed on the bike. The nailed me in the run.

I’m looking to improve my running this up-coming year by getting involved in a few running races as well as looking for some great running groups. If you have any good suggestions on falling in love with running, I would die to hear them !

Monday August 22^nd we will again combine the demo with the monday night road ride. However, this year the ride will be leaving from Evviva (evvivatraining.com) @ 6pm. Specialized will be here by 5:30 with bikes setup for customers to check out. Please show up early if you are going to take a bike so that we can setup seat heights and swap pedals.

I will again have a signup list for this night. I would like to reserve this night for those really interested in a particular model. This night is designed to give you the opportunity to test out the potential bike of your dreams that just needs the longer ride to be sure. I will update the blog with bikes available when I get the list.

Tuesday August 23^rd from 4 to 8pm we will be setting up at the Calvarly Fellowship Church. They are located on the corner of west amazon and fox hollow. Tuesday night will be a great opportunity to test out road and mountain bikes. I would encourage customers to do shorter rides and take out multiple models this night.

With this location, you will also be able to give a mountain bike a decent test on the ridgeline trail. The loop is short enough that you will be able to get a couple rides in and check out different bikes.

I will update the blog as things progress. We are looking forward to a really fun night and a great opportunity to check out models in a way that you just can’t get at the store.

It’s done! I finished the triathalon I have spent the last 6 months training for, and I fell really good. I was prepared for the race and it showed. I was calm and confident going into the race. John has turned me into a swimmer and it showed.

John and I drove down the night before and stayed in Medford. I was feeling good about things, but I was still a bit unsure about the swim. I had heard so much about these mass-start open water swims that I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew that if I was the only one swimming it would be no problem, but I was going to be swimming with 60 others.

The alarm went of at 5:20am. We got our stuff ready and headed out right away. We had built in plenty of time to setup our transition area’s and this really helped keep things running smooth. After not to long, we got our wetsuit’s on and checked out the water. I was feeling great.

As I started swimming, I thought, “ hey! I’m doing this and I’m killing it!” That was a great feeling. I was confident and calm. The swim was really over before I knew it. As I headed for shore, I was so calm I planned out my bike clothes.

Swimming in this race really taught me a lot. Everyone I know had heavily expressed their own insecurities and concerns about open water swimming, so much that I had taken them on. What I learned in this race was these problems were people’s mental barriers holding them back. If you relax, remain calm and focus you can nail the swim.

I got on the bike in record time and headed off. It was a bit disorienting at first while my body adjusted to being on land, but I didn’t crash. The bike leg was difficult, but fun. Mountain biking is much more fun than road time trials.

The transition to the run was really difficult. T2 was so much harder coming off the mountain bike. My legs were tired in so many different ways. I had used more muscles to push the mountain bike than I had ever done on the road. It took over a mile for my legs to even think running was possible. I was nearly walking coming out of T2, but I pushed through it.

The final 4 miles of the race were survival. The run sucked. It was extremely difficult to cut into a rhythm on the trail. I was bombarded by a continually off-camber course filled with large rocks, logs and creek crossings. At times, I thought I might have been going so slow that the finish line had been taken down and I would just run to the car and pass out.

In the end I finished the race right in the middle of the males overall. My bike, swim and transition times were solid. In the end the run was what pushed me down the results list. It’s my hardedst leg and it also seems to be the one where the race is won or lost. I have some work to do before the Tri At The Grove.

The Granite Man taught me a lot, but the biggest lesson I learned was that we are all tougher than we think we are. The human body is much more capable of things than we give it credit for. Our bodies can do amazing things when we get our mind out of the way. To often we tell ourselves that we can’t do something before we even attempt it. That’s just a bunch of B.S. You can do anything you want.

John and I went out to the Duck Bill Thrill and watched the race. This was a good opportunity to get a grasp on what I was getting into. As I was watching the swim, I felt pretty confident. “I can do this,” I was thinking. So after an hour we slipped on our wetsuits and headed down to the water away from the race.

It was SO COLD! I put my feet in the water, and I was sure they would fall off. Oh well there is no going back now. John suggested that I put my face in the water and blow bubbles. That was a great idea, because when I put my face in the water I really wanted to panic. It was freezing and I couldn’t breath. I felt like I was going to drown standing on the side of the lake, and blowing bubbles was the only thing that saved me.

Blowing bubbles allowed me to concentrate on something and it kept my lungs moving. I started to relax and began to swim. The hardest part of the whole open water swim is relaxing. There are so many new senses and experiences introduced to you all at once. You just want to freak out, and the most important thing is to not freak out. It’s difficult to get over mentally, but once you realize that you are ok and that the wetsuit will not let you drown, it’s easy. You have to remember that yes I can swim, I am going to do this and I’m going to do great.

Feeling really good after this first introduction to the open water swim, I decided to join John for the Multisport Advantage group swim the following Friday. I was nervous driving out there and a little panicky when I first got in the water, but after 100 meters I just loved it. Swimming in the lake is super fun! There is so much more to think about than in the pool.  I had a distance I could see rather than a lap counter. The swim was just awesome.

I love swimming right now. It’s super fun to continually challenge myself and push beyond what I think I can do. We are all a lot tougher than we think we are. If you just relax and accept that you are going to do this, you will. People have amazing strength’s physically that they just mentally need to allow themselves to use. Relax, have fun, and push yourself to see where you really can go.