The KodaFit Blog

First of all, my apologies to Jadin… I figured I’d put you out of your misery early.

I had the kids chanting, told the kid picking to choose your name, but I’m afraid it didn’t happen…. Sorry Mate!

Alright, so a day late I finally got the names and did the official drawing for the 50% off coupon up at BAM.

The official name selector was young Bronwyn, just 23 months old, completely incapable of being bribed, or reading.

Here she is with all 5 names in an official BAM 2008 finishers hat.

So after much ado, whining by the other kids about not being picked to draw the name and a drumroll…

The name was picked…

And the winner is…

Josh P!

Thanks to everyone who entered.

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I won again folks, and my good fortune could result in good fortune for you!

Here’s what happened…  The folks at Wasatch Racing do a twitter contest twice a month, and so far this year, I’ve lucked out twice and got my answer in first.  I won a gift pack from TriSwim first, which came with some TriSlide as well - Just awesome products, and then in the second contest, I got a whole bunch of stuff from Chamois Butt’r.  My wife proudly wears the shirt to work out now!

The last contest was for a 50% off coupon for the Battle at Midway triathlon in August, and I won it as well!!!!

 YAY ME!!!

The problem is, the Battle at Midway Tri is such an awesome race, that when registration opened last year, I signed up within a week.  Actually I’m doing the Bad-Ass challenge, which should be fun, and gets my little kids in trouble with my wife when it comes up in conversation too!

 ”Dad, are you really going to be a Bad Ass?”

Anyway, so since I already have an entry into the race, I asked the kind folks over at WARP if I could pass it onto a friend, and they were OK with that…

But, since I have sooo many great friends who might enjoy this race, I thought I’d make it a little fun.

If you would like 50% off an entry into the 2010 Battle At Midway Triathlon (Full or Lite division), all you have to do is ask!  Simply leave a comment here on my blog, or write something on my Facebook wall or shoot me an email, and on the evening of July 5th, I’ll have one of my kids pick a name from a hat.

BAM is truly an incredible race.  It’s put on by triathletes who been there and done it themselves, and they know how to do it well.

Not only is the race well organized, but the venue is incredibly beautiful, and as an improvement this year, you don’t have to climb the mega hill out of T2 to appreciate the beauty either!  They’ve made the run course a little easier this year, which I for one, am very appreciative of.

You can check out this very long and boring report I did after last years race if you want to read more about it, or check out their website here.

BAM was also featured in Triathlete Magazine last month as one of the best lesser known races in the US.  Guys it was the swimsuit edition too, so if you got in trouble for looking at it, this may be a way to prove to your wife that you were actually reading the articles!

So, leave a comment here, put one on facebook, and tell your friends as well.  You have until 7:30pm MDT on Monday July 5th to get your requests in.

And if you want to try and beat me out of their next challenge, you can follow the WARP team on Twitter

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I may need to rethink how I write my race reports, or perhaps I need to rethink my choice of races - and then again maybe not.

I link to this race report on an Xterra down in South Africa though Conrad Stoltz‘ blog.  Words by me cannot do this piece justice.

Xterra Grabouw

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Just a quick post tonight…  I’ve spent the last couple of weekends working on an idea for a side business, but I’ve found when you get close to a project, it’s hard to be objective, and a little outside help is always handy to have.

So…

I need a couple of volunteers, preferably people with a good eye for detail, and with an interest in triathlons, running and/or other endurance sports.

I promise you, that there is something in it for you, and that something is free!

So, if you’re interested in helping me out, just let me know in the comments below, and I’ll get hold of you later this week!

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Ben Greenfield is the guy I purchased my IronMan training plan from. So far so good, although if I blow it in St. George, I need to state that…

• I started on the plan late, since I already needed to be on week 15 of the plan when I purchased it.
• I haven’t been the most diligent follower of the plan because… Well, simply because life get’s in the way sometimes.

But that aside it’s appears to be an excellent plan, and I’ll likely plan on using it for my next Iron Distance race, assuming I survive this one. Perhaps Silverman in 2012!

I bring this up because, yesterday, Ben sent out a link to an article he wrote, entitled - 6 Things They Don’t Tell You About IronMan. You can read the article here, and I’ve posted a summary below. Most of the points need explaining though!

1) The Volunteers Don’t Have Built-In Auto-Banana Releasing Switches.

2) For The First 5 Miles of the Bike, Drafting Rules Don’t Really Count.  out.

3) All Your Pacing Rules Get Broken In Transition.

4) Your Special Needs Bag Isn’t Always At The HalfWay Point.

5) Wetsuit Strippers Aren’t Necessarily The Fastest Way to Go.

6) Don’t Plan on Seeing Your Expensive Tubular Again.

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I’ve been good friends with the owner of Bee Simple for a couple of years now, and as such my wife and I have served as guinea-pigs at times for her products or items which she thinks might become products!  I’m pleased to report that we have yet to develop any funky skin lesions, nasty rashes or anything like that.

The whole idea for Bee Simple started with honey, and incidentally, if you’re looking for a great source of raw honey, they sell that too.  One of the byproducts of honey is beeswax.  Actually, I was hoping to include a fun story about the history of the phrase “Mind your own beeswax”, but none of the sources I found seemed to have a consistent source of that phrase.  One indicated that women used to wear it on their faces, and it would melt off if they didn’t ‘mind it’ around the fire, and another anecdote had to do with women melting beeswax to make candles, and worrying more about others wax than their own.  The last one seems more likely, but neither have much in the way of a humor factor or historical support.

Anyway with an abundance of beeswax, she started thinking about things she could do with it and thus Bee Simple was born.  Primarily she sells lotion bars and lip balms, and then of course honey, as I mentioned before.  And the best part is that they are all natural!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever used the lip balms, but my kids have, and they all really them.  I have however tried out the lotion bars, and they rock!!  I’ve tried the natural and the citrus bars and love them both.  My sweet wife has tried the Tropical Flower one as well, but it has a flowery scent and while I may claim to be in touch with my feminine side at times, I just rather not smell that way!  I do like it on the Mrs. though!

The lotion bars come in a small tub, and when you need to use them, you just pop the bar out and apply.  It’s kind of like soap, but without the extreme slipperiness, or the soapy bubbles.  Actually come to think of it, it’s not really like soap at all, other than the fact that it’s in bar form, and you rub it onto your skin.

I like it because it goes on easy and clear, and you don’t have to rub it in, like you do with other lotion type products.   It works well, and it smells good too, so that’s a win/win in my book.

Taleen doesn’t know I’m doing this review yet, but since she just barely got her web-site up and running, I figure I would see if I could send some traffic her way - plus they are really great products.  I doubt she’ll give you a discount if you mention my name, but if you buy enough stuff, you might be able to pry some deep dark secrets about me from her, and thus have means to embarrass me on our next encounter.

You can find the products with full descriptions, pictures and all of that on her website - BeeSimpleNaturals.com.

They would make a great stocking stuffer for a certain impending holiday!

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Trizophrenia: Symptoms typically include an obsessive-compulsive need for the rituals of the sport: eat, swim, eat, work, eat, ride, eat, work, eat, run, eat, go to bed early. Delusional spending on expensive equipment, indifference to pain, and hallucinations of future grandeur intensify over years spent in the sport.

Trizphrenia is also a new book by Jef Mallett, which delves into the deeply disturbed minds of people like me, and young ShirleyPerly on whose blog I found out about it.

You can read more about it, and see the Q&A ShirleyPerly had with the author… here

ShirleyPerly is also giving away a copy of the book, and while I’m sure advertising it here will decrease the odds of me winning, I’m also a big believer in Karma!!

Finally, if you haven’t ever been over to ShirleyPerly’s blog, it’s worth a visit. This weekend she’ll be competing in her second Iron Distance race in 2 weeks. She’s the Man!!

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OK folks, I know I’ve been really slack with the blogging of late.  Huge project implementations at work and with my home business, and a couple of home improvement projects going on as well.   And I’m trying to be a better Dad to my kids as well…

First of all, I’m in the video from the Echo Triathlon!  Well, perhaps I should explain more though…  Here’s the video here.

It’s kinda long and monotonous.  I think they barely missed me at the swim exit.  There was a comment about a Desert Shark coming out the water, and I remember hearing that as I was struggling with the mud in transition.

However, if you skip forward to just a hair after 6:00 and look in the background, that’s me running into T2 off the bike.  Red bike, light blue Desert Shark race kit, and a yellow bandana under  my helmet.

Moving on though…

Training last week wasn’t that great…  Got some good long rides in this weekend, but missed my long run and didn’t get any swim workouts in.  Not good with my first half iron in 3 weeks….

This weekend I’m doing a unique sprint triathlon in Layton.  It’s a 300m swim, 5.5 mile bike and then 1.55 mile run, and then you do it again.  The volunteer shirts are really cool…  Green with the recycle symbol.  Recycle, Rerun and Reswim!

Should be fun.  Think then I’ll try a long bike and a longish run on Sunday to make up the difference, before I start a 2 week taper for the half.

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OK Readers, if there was any doubt in your minds how much I appreciate you reading and following this blog, then please allow me to remove that doubt…

Steve of Steve in a Speedo. Gross?! blogging fame is hosting a competition on his website.  I’m posting this here, so I can get an additional entry into the drawing.  The thing is though, that by promoting it here, he will likely get more entries, and thus decrease my odds of winning.

So…  Yes, I’m increasing my odds of winning by posting this, but at the same time, I’m decreasing those odd by telling you about it.

However you want to look at it though, I think the key thing here is… Get to his blog before next Saturday, read the details on how to get into the drawing and get yourself entered.

You can ready his blog here, or click here to link directly to the post about the Free Shoes.

Oh - and if you want to tell him that you linked over there through The Kodafit Blog, I would be most appreciative as well!!

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I guess this is actually more of a service review, and to make the deal even sweeter…  IT’S FREE!!!

Now in an effort for full disclosure.  I did get a free tech shirt for writing some reviews, but that was after I had already written a couple, and even without the shirt, I would have added more and make use of the site in the months and years to come.

I wrote a race report after I ran the St. George Marathon last year.  The St. George Marathon has been running for about 30 years and had over 7,000 runners last year.   If you google “st george marathon race report”  My report comes up as number 5 on the list.  That’s kind of sad, because it really wasn’t that great of a report.

It does however show the need for a place where you can find decent race reports on marathons, triathlons and the like.  If you’ve ever tried to find out information on a race prior to doing it, you know what I’m talking about.

Enter…

Racevine.com is a repository of race reports, written by real people who been there and done it.  The reports are short, and I really like the little section afterward with information on key aspects of the race.  Transportation, availability of restrooms, what the aid stations stock, etc.

Here’s the official word on the site -

Our website is called www.racevine.com.  It’s a place to easily find a race to do, write a review, read reviews of others, keep a profile of your races, and much more.  Our goal is to support the endurance race community and promote the sport by helping people find, review and share their race experiences, and also provide a great resource of feedback and to help raise awareness for race organizers.  Think of it as a “Yelp or Zagat guide for races” with our users saying “I heard it through the Racevine”.

I personally found the site very easy to use, well laid out and very informative.

It’s a site where you can both contribute to and extract excellent information.

I mentioned the Free Tech Shirt I got as well.  And if you’re a triathlete, marathoner or duathlete and would like to contribute 10 “quality” reviews to the site, you may be able to qualify for a free shirt as well.   Just shoot me an email at racevine_review@kodafit.com and I’ll send you more information.

Check out some of the races I’ve reviewed…

Rage Triathlon

St George Marathon

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