Photo: 38-mile gravel ride, 3-mile run, 65 degrees, 8:00a.m., Bertram, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 0 yds (ytd 144,900 yds.)
Bike: 71 miles (ytd 3,668 mi.)
Run: 26 miles (ytd 835 mi.)

Photo: 12-mile run, 30-mile ride,  1-mile swim, 70 degrees, Marion, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 2,200 yds (ytd 144,900 yds.)
Bike: 99 miles (ytd 3,597 mi.)
Run: 29 miles (ytd 809 mi.)

I’ve been wanting a new bike. A road bike. A brand-spanking-new-look-at-this-and-be-jealous-of-the-paint-job road bike. It’s been a while. My kids are grown and gone, I have a good job, I deserve it. Sure, I have a tri-specific bike I race on, but I’m one of those weenies who doesn’t want to spend all his hours training on, wearing down and dirtying up a bike that’s fast, clean and always race-ready.

I also have 12-year-old tri bike that takes a regular beating and has served me well, but also begs me daily for just a little chain lube. Really, I hear it begging, and so does everyone around me. Listen for a moment. Hear it?

I have an older fixie I take for shorter rides (no, I don’t own capri pants or a messenger bag, but I do love the workout that the one fixed gear provides) and a single-speed mountain bike I enjoy on gravel and dirt. There’s even a unicycle I ride occasionally. (I can also juggle, but not at the same time. Baby steps.)

But still, no road bike.

So I started shopping, combing the Web, grabbing magazines in checkout aisles (the ones with bikes on the cover, not celebrities and their makeovers), even talking to a manufacturer’s rep or two.

PUT-MY-WALLET-IN-THE-WASH-MACHINE-AND-HIT-RINSE! Upper four and even five figures for a road bike?

Now I know I’m old and it’s been 40 years since I bought my first bike in the back room of a gas station for a whopping $47 after five weeks of delivering newspapers, but I didn’t realize I was THAT outta touch.

So I started thinking.

What if I took that beat-up, tired tri bike, chipped off the bubbling paint, stripped away the aero bars and shifters, set aside the base bars for my fixie, chucked the cracked carbon aero seatpost, removed the tri-specific saddle, scrapped the bent derailleurs, took to the landfill both outta-true wheels (unless you want them or happen to be the local guy who makes lawn ornaments out of bike wheels)…

And then started asking around?

It turns out I’m not the only one with a home that’s full of bikes, parts, tools and grease.

So after tearing down and cleaning my bike (Simple Green, best stuff ever!), I took the wheels that came stock with my racing bike (but were immediately shelved right outta the box); drop bars that once belonged to a friend; STI shifters and derailleurs no longer used by a riding partner; a stem that has a story, I just don’t know what it is; a favorite saddle still with some miles left on it; and…

Loaded the whole mess into the car and headed to my LBS (Sugar Bottom Bikes, try ‘em if you’re in the Midwest).

Two days later and I have a road bike… one that isn’t “new” but new enough, one that fits, one that rolls true and shifts smooth, and one that cost me a whopping, wait for it…

$100.

Think our sport costs too much? Pffft, only if you let it. Open that shed, look in your garage or your neighbor’s, talk during the next group ride, and give the local shop some business. Your new bike is out there, waiting, and you CAN afford it.

Photo: After the workout, 72 degrees, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Weekly activity log:
Swim: 0 yds (ytd 142,700 yds.)
Bike: 103 miles (ytd 3,498 mi.)
Run: 37 miles (ytd 781 mi.)

There are worse places to bond with your father and son.

Photo: 6-mile run, 30-mile ride, 1-mile swim, 9 a.m., 80 degrees, Linn County, Iowa


Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,100 yds (ytd 142,700 yds.)
Bike: 104 miles (ytd 3,395 mi.)
Run: 36 miles (ytd 744 mi.)

Not in race shape, but trying to look the part.

Photo: 30-mile fixie ride, 9 a.m., 80 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 4,200 yds (ytd 136,600 yds.)
Bike: 82 miles (ytd 3,291 mi.)
Run: 30 miles (ytd 708 mi.)

RAGBRAI or this...I chose this.

Another small waste of your time from C.P. on Vimeo.
Video: 15-mile run, 50 degrees, Summit County, Colorado

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 4,500 yds (ytd 132,400 yds.)
Bike: 89 miles (ytd 3,209 mi.)
Run: 30 miles (ytd 678 mi.)

One last run before leaving home for home.

Photo: After the workout, 74 degrees, Red Rocks, Colorado

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 2,200 yds (ytd 127,900 yds.)
Bike: 37 miles (ytd 3,120 mi.)
Run: 34 miles (ytd 648 mi.)

There are worse places to bond with your daughter.

Photo: After the workout, HOT degrees, Marion, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,000 yds (ytd 125,700 yds.)
Bike: 111 miles (ytd 3,083 mi.)
Run: 31 miles (ytd 614 mi.)

Here we go again… to whom it may concern,

The softening of our sport continues. When I first got into endurance sports, I often worried whether or not I would finish, but I never worried about the cancellation or shortening of an event due to heat. Until now.

I got into this lifestyle because it was a challenge, because it took effort, because it was HARD. I wanted to see if I had what it took to get into real shape, toe the line, suffer, and finish something that few people could.

Now marathons are being cancelled because it’s too hot. Triathlons are being shortened due to the heat. Swims are being stopped because the water’s too cold or there’s too much wind. WTF?! Nut up, people.

If you want easy, shuffle your way through a county fair fun run. If you want to be a marathoner, a triathlete, an Ironman, then do the work. Yeah, it hurts. It’s supposed to. It’s not for everyone. It wasn’t meant to be. You want perfect weather? Bowling is great, I hear. And you can do it all year long, indoors where you’ll be safe and pain-free.

Hell yeah, I’m pissed. I don’t train hard to show up on race day and find out the race was cancelled or shortened because the RD was worried about some pansy throwing down a lawsuit that blames the universe for his/her own laziness.

Years ago I did a tri where the weather was so hot, the road tar stuck to my racing flats. My head felt like it was going to explode on the run. I toughed it out and finished… everyone did. It was hot, REALLY hot. So what?! The whole idea is to conquer your demons and prove that you are tough; tough enough and in shape enough to kick the race’s butt, AT YOUR OWN RISK. That race, once an Ironman qualifier, was cancelled years later due to some lawsuit-happy jerks.

Have some pride, people. Bust your tail and get into shape. Deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at you. IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE HARD. If you’re only in it for the finisher’s shirt and bag of swag, buy a T off eBay and brag to someone who cares. The rest of us will earn it…in any conditions. I’ve run in -30 degrees and 100+. One was cold, the other was hot. Nothing more, nothing less.

Hot, cold, rain, drought… it’s weather. Deal with it. Read the waiver, sign it, shut your yap and compete.

Photo: 39-mile gravel ride, 2-mile run, 1-mile swim, 8:00 am, 75 degrees, Waubeek, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 5,100 yds (ytd 119,700 yds.)
Bike: 99 miles (ytd 2,972 mi.)
Run: 27 miles (ytd 583 mi.)

Are you my mother?

Photo: 8-mile run, 10-mile fixie ride, 1-mile swim, 11:00 am, 90 degrees, Marion, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,100 yds (ytd 114,600 yds.)
Bike: 113 miles (ytd 2,873 mi.)
Run: 22 miles (ytd 556 mi.)

Photo: Office kitchen, 8:00 am, 69 degrees, Hiawatha, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 3,600 yds (ytd 108,500 yds.)
Bike: 100 miles (ytd 2,760 mi.)
Run: 17 miles (ytd 534 mi.)

Bowl cleansing anyone?

Photo: 30-mile fixie ride, 2-mile run, 1,300-yard swim, 7:00 am, 70 degrees, Marion, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 4,600 yds (ytd 104,900 yds.)
Bike: 102 miles (ytd 2,660 mi.)
Run: 7 miles (ytd 517 mi.)

Photo: 5-mile run, 7:00 am, 60 degrees, Venice Beach, California

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 3,500 yds (ytd 100,300 yds.)
Bike: 42 miles (ytd 2,558 mi.)
Run: 20 miles (ytd 510 mi.)
 
Junkies to the left, surfers to the right.

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 5,700 yds (ytd 96,800 yds.)
Bike: 112 miles (ytd 2,516 mi.)
Run: 20 miles (ytd 490 mi.)

Photo: 7-mile run, 9:00 am, 70 degrees, Decorah, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,300 yds (ytd 91,100 yds.)
Bike: 91 miles (ytd 2,404 mi.)
Run: 26 miles (ytd 470 mi.)

Perspective

I recently received the following from a close friend:

     Day 29.

     I had time for a short visit with Dad this morning so I grabbed a couple of coffees and stopped down
     to see him.

     He was finishing dressing and was waiting for the PT to come and work with him when I got there a
     bit before 9 am. He had on a favorite broadcloth Oxford shirt, this one had a Labrador embroidered
     above the pocket and khakis that he had gotten on a hunting trip with my brother and nephew a
     few years back.

     I walked down to PT with him and he rode a Star-Trac arm/leg ergometer for 10 minutes while the
     PT, Dad and I talked of dogs we had all had in our lives. He had a brief rest and then he worked
    on balance skills, which included walking backwards down the hall.

     There were no t-shirts worn proclaiming "my warm-up was your workout" and there were no
     fancy supplements consumed post-workout to make expensive urine.

     Instead of giving him a participation award I will head back later to the hospital with some
     carry-out BBQ ribs, slaw and a fresh fruit plate and have dinner with him and my brother.

     And look ahead with them to tomorrow.

Perspective is good. Being involved in sports where words like epic, extreme, courage, warrior and fail are tossed around in every other sentence, it’s good to step back regularly and see what’s really important.

I started down this endurance road about the time my son was born 8 weeks premature. Up until that point I’d been fit, I’d raced and I’d done well, but I’d trained mostly for the fun, the friends, the party. Standing in the neo-natal intensive care unit, holding life and death in my hands gave me much-needed perspective and I vowed I was going to appreciate life, live it and be around for my son (and now also for my daughter) for a very long time.

I’ve had many moments like that, when I’ve realized what’s really epic, extreme, courageous and tough. What is a failure and what isn’t. When I make a list, it doesn’t include a finisher’s medal:

• Seeing my 18-year-old son fight through a botched surgery. He could’ve given up… he didn’t.
• Choosing to euthanize a dog… because it was the right choice. And then years later, making that choice again.
• Witnessing a teenager hold a needle to his vein… and opt not to push it.
• Skipping a race because my daughter needed me. Not an epic decision… a really, really easy one.
• Watching my father handle prostate cancer with dignity. I hope to do the same when my time comes… and it will come.
• Finding out over the weekend that a young co-worker decided to end his life… and succeeded with his decision.

Perspective.

Photo: 2-hour fixed ride, 3-mile run, 9:00 am, 50 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 6,000 yds (ytd 84,800 yds.)
Bike: 121 miles (ytd 2,313 mi.)
Run: 19 miles (ytd 444 mi.)

A sky like that.

Photo: 2-hour road ride, 2-mile run, 9:00 am, 60 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 3,900 yds (ytd 78,800 yds.)
Bike: 108 miles (ytd 2,192 mi.)
Run: 16 miles (ytd 425 mi.)

Clutter or necessity...depends who you ask.

Photo: 2-hour fixie ride, 2-mile run, 9:00 am, 38 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 5,100 yds (ytd 74,900 yds.)
Bike: 94 miles (ytd 2,083 mi.)
Run: 16 miles (ytd 409 mi.)

Fun begins.

Photo: 2-hour fixie ride, 10:00 am, 45 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 5,100 yds (ytd 69,800 yds.)
Bike: 127 miles (ytd 1,189 mi.)
Run: 0 miles (ytd 393 mi.)

Professionally, I work in marketing. Over the years, I've been directly involved in helping to raise billions of dollars for a very successful, global organization. Privately, I dabble in endurance sports, where over those same years, I've achieved a modicum of success.


Combine the two and I'm in an interesting spot. I see the marketing tactics of the various manufacturers in our sport and understand their methods. Some have honest ambitions and sincere intentions while others are simply looking for my/your money. They promise faster, stronger, fitter and healthier, knowing that our greed for bragging rights wins out over common sense. If a magazine or website advertises it, we must need it. If your buddy, or worse yet, your competition, races with it, you'd better do the same. While very few of us are out-n-out cheaters, most of us are always on the lookout for ways to cheat hard work.

Stop.

Don't be a sucker. Don't fall for slick marketing, empty promises, over-hyped hype.

Do you know why Dave Scott was fast? Because he worked harder than the rest of us. Tim DeBoom, same deal. Macca, him too. Chrissie, duh. They'd kick your tail riding any bike, in any shoe, downing any drink. They want it worse than you and are willing to pay the price for it… and that price isn't 'retail.'

Before you go begging your spouse for the next whatzit you saw on the roof rack at the club, ask yourself, "Is it really going to make me a better athlete?" Odds are, the answer is no. Don't believe me? Go to eBay or craigslist and search for bikes, frames, wheelsets, wetsuits, etc. You'll find plenty of "only used one season" from people who fall for the sales pitch year after year… after year.

Equipment won't put you on the podium, hard work will… really, REALLY hard work.

I've been around some of the world's best athletes. I've trained next to them. I've shared their lap lane, their draft line, their time at the track. They sacrifice, they show up early and stay late. I've never been willing to drop everything to be that good. They are willing and able. But one thing I've noticed… they rarely if ever talk about equipment - they're too busy working harder than the rest of us. They ride what they ride. They know a good bike is a good bike, a good shoe is a good shoe, goggles are goggles and a great work ethic is what counts. I once asked an Olympian friend what running shoe she wore. Her reply, "whatever's on sale at the outlet mall," and then she ran me into the ground.

But wait, you say, what about that quote from the superstar that you saw in the glossy magazine? Someone like me wrote it for them. Don't fall for that schtick. If you want to be faster, stronger, fitter, healthier, save your money and work harder than the person next to you.

Think you need a new bike? Convinced it will add 1, 2, 5 mph to your average speed? It may "feel" fast when you bring it home, but compare your times from this year to last and they're eerily the same. Instead, take the bike you own now and actually ride it more, work harder and train smarter, suffer with the big boys in your locale and see serious results. The best part, you'll start burying all those people who spent their off-seasons shopping for "faster" instead of truly paying for it.

Next time you're at the cash register, ask yourself, "what's it really going to get me?" If the only real answer is credit card debt, think twice. Sweat is free and pays huge dividends.

Photo: 11-mile run, 16-mile ride, 9:00 am, 50 degrees, Linn County, Iowa

Weekly activity log:
Swim: 5,100 yds (ytd 64,700 yds.)
Bike: 55 miles (ytd 1,062 mi.)
Run: 33 miles (ytd 393 mi.)

Thanks, fellas.