An acquaintance from church volleyball died in a auto accident today.

He was not long out of college and bound for dental school this fall.

Sometimes life really blows .

^^^ Oh man ... really sorry to hear that VV. Life at times does indeed blow

I didn't know him real well (mostly from playing volleyball over a few months) but he seemed like a real nice guy.

To continue the steak of bad news (Velo Vol, sorry to hear it).. I have heard that the one guy who ran away after being suspended (confirmed) had bombs and maps of the school found in his house (rumor, don't know).

This is all scary.. It's a bad thing when I feel more confident biking at quarter to midnight at 35 mph than at school. I don't wanna go there on monday.

I said steak. I meant streak, but I'm gonna leave steak there.

We will be riding today, me and my pal Dave, in the pouring 45ºF rain. That's gonna suck.

I'm considering going over to the "dark side". I'm thinking about buying a new bike and tossing my used, good for nothing bike.
Just checking on finances before I even look. A basic road worthy bike here (don't laugh) is about $1200. Yeah I know that's
a pittance to y'all but for someone that is just cross-training ...

I thought you liked that kind of thing?

Did a 3.2/17/3.2 mile duathlon this morning. Heavy wind on the course, struggling to hold 17-18mph one direction then recovering at 24mph going the other. That second run sucks.

Don't tell the guys in the 33. They will probably ban me from reading posts there just for admitting this.

I have a rear hub that costs more than that toots.

What's the "dark side"? I thought that's mountain biking?

I've never seen a duathlon. The concept has some appeal to me since I can't swim for a triathlon.

So you run, bike, then run again? That must disorient the leg muscles.

Run/bike/run, correct. My legs were like jello on that second run. Though somehow my second run split was only 10 seconds per mile slower than the first, which surprised me because I felt so terrible. I'm sure a full on triathlon would be easier, since you can jump on the bike with relatively fresh legs.

How are typical duathletes built? Do they seem more like runner-types than have picked up cycling? Or is it fairly balanced as far as the cycling times versus the running times?

For runners, the 5'7-5'10, 130-140 pound type of build is where a lot of the elites are, which probably lines up similar to climbers on the bike. Basically, the people that actually run them are just triathletes though. I can't imagine there is enough money in the duathlon for an athlete to actually specialize in it and making a living.

The duathlon nationals race is 10k/38k/5k. In 2009, the winner took 7th in run 1, 3rd on the bike, and 3rd in run2. Second took 14/1/20. 4th was 8/18/9. So just in that top 4 places it was an overall balanced guy, a strong biker, and a strong runner. Of course, the guy that took 1st in the first run finished 235th on the bike and finished 36th. Seems like it favored a strong bike leg overall, as places 1,3,4 and 5 on the bike were in the top6.

In this case is it safe to assume the "F" doesn't stand for Fahrenheit?

It wasn't so bad.

A cold rainy day with a ride is still better than a cold rainy day without a ride.

Yeah I hear ya, but I'm only gonna ride once a week or so and spending more than that for
what I want seems like a lot of money. Especially since my SO just got some custom handmade
skates from one of the best, if not the best makers in the US and all in (boots, frames, wheels), they
were only $2,000. If I go out and buy a bike for $3,000 - $4,000 (yes I know that's not much either),
just to ride once a week ... well it's tough to explain.

In my case, that'd be cycling instead of skating.

Roller skates for $2000, huh? Are they made of carbon fiber? Ceramic bearings?

holly
you Can find some good entry level bikes for $600.00 and up. find a good shop and go test ride some, the right one will talk to you. and welcome to the dark side. you will be assimilated.

carbon shell boots, that price doesn't include bearings ... here's a link to the bootmaker's site ... he's made custom inline boots for Chad Hedrick, Apollo Anton Ohno. So he's good.

https://www.simmons-racing.com/

Well I'd love to find one for under $1,000. Just gotta make sure the funds are there and then
I'll start looking.

it happened again. everyone keeps having thread parties and not telling me. what am i? chopped liver?