Ride around the Lake

It took me while to ride and log in to my account and then my phone battery died before I got back to town.

What are we doing here in North America? Cleaning up an oilspill.

Nike Free Running+

These shoes were intended to be my summer everything shoe, and so far they have been. Speed work on the track, stair training, some short distance running, single speed cycling, and even some tennis. I slipped on a few of the Free models, but I went with the Running+ because of their wider platform. And I knew I wasn't going to dedicate these kicks to running.

They take a fit of getting used to. First of all they are soft and my calves fatigued for the first week or so, but the body adapts right? Contrary to the corporate claims, they are not barefoot running, let's be clear. Sure they are a long way from a structured shoe but those marshmallows on the sole do not resemble the balls of me feet in any way. They are a departure for a big corporate machine to an unstructured shoe, but barefoot they are not. They are way to comfy to make that claim.

The bootie-like uppers are seamless and really are a great fit.

I like the shoes and I'd get another pair, I've even recomended them to a few people already.

(It appears they were aware of the shoes, but were waiting for someone like me to make the jump.)

The knock I have against the shoes is durability.They lack this important feature. The shoes are about six weeks old, but look more like six months. My toes are beginning to peek through the mesh and the soles are pretty much shot and I'll be lucky if they last until the leaves turn.

PRICE $125 CDN.

Vail Colorado. Close to my heart

Rapha Continental | Vail to Vail from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Bike Polo Video by gearhound

Vittoria Zaffiro Pro

My last training tires were a high thread count racing tire, so they wore down pretty good after two seasons and a couple thousand Km's. I have made this mistake in the past, but I vow not to get drawn into the sexiness of road cycling again. I train for Triathlon, sometimes with aero bars and sometimes without, but always with the endurance of TT in the back of my mind.

This year I opted for training tires, it says so right on the box. Lower tread count, TPI=60, and a harder casing for resisting road abrasions. The deep tread fades on the shoulders, and is good for fast cornering and water dispersion, and it has a foldable bead.

The tire comes in five flavours. I went with vanilla, because white is the new black.

PRICE: $45 CDN

...because the TdF begins tomorrow