Monday, March 30, 2009

Retül on SEAL/s Base today


Today we have the opportunity to work with US Navy SEAL athletes who race triathlon and cycling in their free time. We will report back, but we have a feeling these guys are accustomed to putting their bodies and minds through pain. We're going to make sure their bike fits are not a contributing factor to that.

Stay tuned for updates later this week.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Superfrog Weekend


Boulder & Denver were on the receiving end of a healthy spring snow dump yesterday - 13 inches & counting!

With all the white stuff accumulating, we thought it was the appropriate time to Get out of Dodge, pack up the bags, and fly to sunny San Diego.

This weekend, Retül fitters are flying to attend the oldest running half-Ironman in the world, the Superfrog Triathlon on the US Navy SEALs Amphibious Base in Coronado, California.

We will be joined by Elite Bicycles head honcho & expert bike fitter, David Greenfield, to bring bike fitting to the San Diego area. Greenfield is offering severly discounted bike fits on Saturday and Sunday at the race expo at Loews Resort in Coronado to the general cycling public. He has slashed his normal rates of $489 and is offering 60-90 fits for only $149. If you want Greenfield to fit you, email us as slots are going fast (david@elitebicycles.com).

But, our fitting extravaganza won't halt there. Todd will fly in on Monday and join Greenfield to fit four SEALs, who are also elite athletes. We will provide updates and coverage on this weekend of fitting, so stay tuned.

- Bauer

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Retul Asia Takes Form


Just a day after witnessing Retul Australia's, Craig Alexander take his "tour de dominance" to Singapore and set a new course record at the 70.3 Triathlon, the fearless staff of Crucial Innovation were welcomed by our newest partner who will develop Retul Asia. As there will surely be an official press release to come, I won't spoil the moment with the details of who will run Retul Asia, but we are very excited to have such a quality organization choose our technology and invest in the future of bike fit! Rock on and safe travels home boys

Monday, March 23, 2009

Victory in Singapore!


Crowie started his '09 season with a BANG with dominating 70.3 wins in Geelong, Australia and in yesterday's supposed showdown with Macca. Crowie left no doubt about his early season fitness with a nearly four-minute victory in the searing heat and humidity in Singapore.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Why Aussie's move to Boulder

Over the last few summers, Boulder is becoming home to a growing number of Australian triathletes. Most claim it's because of our mountains, training at altitude, proximity to an international airport, and abundance of running trails, but we've discovered the real reason. They can't even escape sharks during an ocean swim race!

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-GB&vid=50acdbeb-b61a-460f-9c01-6596a442b37c

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Don't Mess with Lance on the Media stand

Paul Kimmage is pretty brave. Taking on Lance in front of the Media. Brave or Stupid?

FIt Institute of Slow Twitch

The man has spoken...using his Retul system to validate his theories. Another fine bike fit article written by Dan Empfield

"....What both Jordan Rapp (my F.I.S.T. workshop "lieutenant" and one of triathlon's top cyclists) and I, in our n=2 experiment, have discovered is that we pair of 6'2" riders have found that 172.5mm cranks seem most appropriate for our own timed racing efforts. What I don't know is what my best crank arm length is for road riding. I rather think it depends on the specialty. For example, criterium riding is a lot more like timed racing than like, say, long ascents. My flat-back, on-the-rivet, hands-in-the-drops try like hell to keep the elastic from snapping seated sprint out of a corner is pretty much identical to my TT position, just that I don't have amrests under my elbows. Indeed, my closed hip angle in this position is 48°, identical to this angle in my TT position, as determined by a Retul motion capture analysis."

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Monday, March 16, 2009

Pearl is Cool

The Retul team met with Pearl Izumi today re some potential co-operative projects and for most of us, it was the first time in their new(er) building. Exciting Stuff. All I have to say is....that company iiis cool and mucho generoso as well. Saw a sneak peak at the new Garmin team getups - and it looks like triathlon will see be seeing a newly signed familiar face wearing Pearl this year. Retul Training Date tomorrow

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Earmarks

Now that's an Earmark

I'm annoyed as hell by all the promises made in the recent US Presidential campaign about "going line by line to eliminate unnecessary earmarks", introduced by tainted politicians. I mean millions of dollars for the Utah Mormon Cricket problem? Come on! If the Bicycle Industry got a few million for the purposes of promoting fat Americans to ride their bikes to work, wouldn't that be better than promoting "astronomy, irradiating Utah crickets, and funding pork research?" This is ridiculous - 9000 earmarks??

Are the people running this country smoking the Phelps? Why is like half of Obama's staff getting caught cheating on their taxes? Apparently these senators don't feel like they have to pay Uncle Sam....and are they volunteering these "supposed" oversights before they get caught?? Of course not. The White House needs to get a clue and realize that if the American people can't trust them, then there are far worse problems than a few crickets crawling on Salt Lake City's temples.

The photo above is the type of earmark I would like to give to those who are proposing such fiscal irresponsibility. And finally to end my rant....Bernie Madoff should be put in Gitanamo Bay

Ironman New Zealand's Queen: Jo Lawn



You don't find them much classier than Kiwi, Jo Lawn. A fierce competitor with a soft heart and a great attitude, Jo sent this video link out after crossing the finish line 2nd at the oldest International Ironman event in existence: Taupo's Ironman New Zealand. Jo has won that race the past 7 years and although many great champions would have sent out a race report describing her day of battle, Lawn's report this year was fitting (no pun intended)

http://www.3news.co.nz/Sweat-and-tears-at-Taupos-Ironman-competition/tabid/367/articleID/94591/cat/84/Default.aspx

Friday, March 6, 2009

Barack Obama Mo-Capped!



well this is pretty funny.

Obama Mo-Capped here

Travel Day?

It's merely the size of an empty wallet, small enough to fit snugly inside your pocket, and tiny enough to evade detection before carelessly ending up in the washing machine. It also holds the power of keeping citizens confined within their country's borders if it is not in your possession while traveling internationally.

One month ago my wife and I finalized our travel itinerary to visit my parents who live in Saudi Arabia. One month ago we put into motion the tedious process of securing a Saudi Arabia visa which would provide us single entry and exit access into the otherwise closed country. Today is our travel day, specifically at 5:00PM tonight, and we have still not received our passports with country visa back from the Saudi Consulate here in the US. I would say I am worried it will not show up, but for some reason I have enough blind faith in a culture that tends to always wait until the last minute to produce the goods.

People always ask before vacations or longer trips if I am "excited" and my answer is always the same. I never seem to get excited until I am checked into the airport and board the airplane. That is when the trip begins, before that there are too many factors out of our control that can delay or terminate the process.

What I am excited about is to show my wife the country where I spent the first 13 years of my life, to see my best friends from childhood who are also flying back to "the big sandbox", and to even race in a sprint triathlon back in my hometown! It was in my father's P.E. class in Ras Tanura I raced a triathlon for the first time and almost 15 years later I compete at a professional level in attempt to earn a prize check!


The swim for this tri will be in the Persian Gulf and not the local swimming pool like in 8th grade P.E. and I won't be racing to get an A (finish all 3 sports), a B (finish 2 of the 3 sports) or a C (finish 1 of the 3 sports). My folks live in the international community of Dhahran, where the US military made it's home during Desert Shield and Storm, and their teacher friends have volunteered to outfit my wife and I with bikes to use on race day too.

I was told our little blue books would be arriving this morning via FedEX Overnight delivery and they have almost an hour to fulfill that promise. After that, our trip to Saudi Arabia might be put on hold until another time! But, I continue to hold out hope.

-LF

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Next stop, Superfrog

A few days after the Tour of California stopped in Solvang, a sleepy wine and farming community with Danish heritage, ex-US Postie Robbie Ventura held his annual Vision Quest cycling camp in town. Vision Quest is one of the latest Retül owners but they still invited 3-D fit guru Todd Carver to service 15 bike fits for their campers.

These were some long days punched in on the clock (6am - 10pm each day) but we met some great people and made some great fit changes. And, better yet, the riders were able to experience their fit changes immediately since Robbie had a full slate of riding with upwards of five hours of riding each day with loads of climbing!

In the past, we had performed bike fits at expo shows and as part of training classes but this launched our camp bike fit program, and with great success!

At the end of this month, we are traveling out to the world's oldest half-ironman race at the Superfrog 1/2 on the US Navy SEAL/s base to perform three days of bike fits. The final day will see us fitting four current SEAL athletes who put in long hours training for triathlon after all the training hours they put in to defend our country. We will be traveling out there with a full entourage including Carver and expert fitter and Elite Bicycles frame designer David Greenfield. Stay tuned.

Ride smart, ride hard
Viking