well you've got some P3C's so give us a low down, we all know it looks good

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Trizilla...My local bike shop a few thousand Ks away


Speed Hurts ...How fast do you want to go

How about something on Cipo?

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Suffer Well.

my favorite editorial you wrote was the one about calvin/colin. maybe you could do another piece on the other people in your world - bike shop employee/your cats/parents...

TRuthfully, it may be a while before I really review the P3C since I have yet to get one in my size and actually do a lot of work with one. The only thing I know at this point about it is that it looks nice and seems like a relative bargain.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I do like to write the sort of characterizations of people in my little world on this corner of earth. They are fascinating characters.

Do other people find this interesting? It is easy to get inspired by that- there is a lot to talk about.

Colin's brother Steven is an interesting figure now.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

How about some stories from your past as a professional cyclist?

That would be quick since I was never a professional cyclist.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Hey, I was just trying to be polite! I vaguely recall you describing it as "bush league?"

How about what it's like to be an Airborne Ranger.

That's easy:

Wait around.

Clean things.

Clean them again.

Wait some more.

Do secret shit.

Clean up after it.

Wait around for more secret shit.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It was an elite amateur team more specifically, which allowed us to race in events with Sean Kelly, Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond (can you tell how old I am). It was cool, but I sucked.

Actually though, that is a pretty good idea.......

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Simple..."Why is it a MOP'er keeps coming back...and why did they start to begin with...what is at the end of the journey for the rest of us..."



Or, track down some former FOP'ers but not top 10 folks...find out why they quit...and what they do now.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

That is huge. Five stars on that one.... I already have a title.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

All I ask is for credit on the idea :-)

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Tha's a given. I really do like that idea.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

How about an interview with your friend Frankie Andreu? It would be interesting to hear his take on the current state of things, and whether or not he's ever going to join the tri world.

More fiction, a la your special forces piece.

Maybe profiles on some of the Slowtwitch personalities ... who they are, what they do, why they do it. that sort of thing.

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*****
"In case of flood climb to safety"

I wrote a follow up to the special forces thing featuring the same fictional character who returned to Iraq in Gulf II as a private contractor. It was written when Scotty H. was killed in Falujah on the bridge.

It was too edgy though, and probably would get me in the same trouble as the first one (http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/...orials/0000023.shtml). I was pissed when I wrote it, so all the bad guys died ugly.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

how about where this notion of triathletes being "friendly" came about? Seriously, I hear about it, and have experienced it, but have also experienced some serious snobiness. Is this "encouraging notion" in tri, a part of what defines us? I hear people say "oh I started tri cuz I heard everyone's nice" etc. but at the same time I've seen some elitism from some towards newbies... which doesn't help some of our more fragile egos...

or maybe i'm just ranting about some jerks in a local club that were snubbing us today...

tell me some more about this please: What happened?

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Is that your story "An Elite Athlete?" because I just found that in our office recently and almost fell off of my chair when I saw you wrote it.

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______________________________
Have you hugged Your Mom today?

That's it. It turned a few heads.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Hi Tom

Can you do two new articles, these are of high importance:

What is the best bike?

and

If I remove the water bottle cages from my bike will I go faster?

Thanks

;-)

(now I sound like SAC ... or maybe Monk)

Hey, what do you get when you cross SAC with Monk? ....

A SAC-Monkey ... of course!

This may not be material for an editorial, but what is the status on your book deal? When are we going to see your work on the best sellers list?

My agent pitched it to damn near every huge publisher. As I received the most polite and flattering rejection letters from the finest editors he told me, "Don't be discouraged, you are competing with Hillary Clinton, Martha Stewart and Oprah for publishing space." I actually have a rejection letter from the editor who bought "The Davinci Code".

He was fishing in very deep water. Somewhat oddly, many publishers and editors said the category was full. Then the Dean Karnazes book came out and a lot of money was spent on the hype surrounding it- it was on the front page of CNN.com. I was like, "Ahhh, what about this?"

As a result, we are going through round two with "The Tango Variable", the book about terrorism and special operations. It is a cool book if I do say so myself and has potential.

The first book, "Race to a Distance Sunrise" has morphed into another concept called "Never Out of the Woods" about owning a small business in America.

One problem with my agent is that he may be too big and is pitching to publishers who want the Hillary Clintons, Martha Stewarts and other celebrity authors. The up side is that when a deal does get inked it will be huge. When he told me what he was proposing as a price tag I was stunned into silence. Suffice it to say, had any one of the couple hundred publishers he pitched it to taken me up on it I would have never had to work a day again. but of course, I would have worked them all- so nothing really changes.

I will get something out there. It it my primary lifetime goal.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

As a matter of fact, here is a link to my agent's page and the rights to my book.

http://www.zackcompany.com/...oadistantsunrise.htm

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Funny...I have written a small fragment of "Tickle" and have publishers oddly enough calling me. Seriously, I also got an e-mail from someone claiming to be from a "popular daytime televison talk show"...all have been deleted. I know that nothing is that easy

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

I vote for a story on Steven.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Tom, that post you had a week or so back where you talked about your path and Gordo's crossing at IMC in 99 was really interesting.

Something about the level of commitment needed to take things to the next level, and the next, would be cool.

From where I sit, you are clearly a pretty talented athlete, but I'll wager you have never trained full time for 2/3 yrs to see how good you could get. Most of us can't/don't. But if we did, how good could we get?

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kiwipat

per ardua ad astra

If the first chapter of "Race to a Distance Sunrise" I was lucky enough to read is anything to go by, I for one will be going to Borders when the deal is clinched.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

What about an opinion piece on how to pick your training partners and the pitfalls of picking the wrong one. I'm looking for a training partner for IN CDA for 2006 and there are so many angles I'm trying to figure before commiting to someone. Personality, drive, commitment, ego, all are factors I'm looking at before I say yes. How about a comparison between picking a mate versus picking a training partner. That might make entertaining reading!

Cheers, Karma

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

What about some more detailed descriptions of some of those "other" races you have done. In particular the desert race - Marathon de Sable?? Mountaineering escapades etc etc.

There is a week long desert race held in South Africa which sounds similar in design to the one you did and I sure would be interested in more info of what the race was like and how you prepared.

In the thread, who's your favorite pro triathlete, you mentioned a few that you really liked (don't remember which ones).

You could tell us your reasons for this choice, why they inspire you so much and why more than others.

What about a some anecdotal tales of races by yourself or other locals but not by big name athletes ? Lets hear some 'sit round the fire' stories.



Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

A lot of that can already be found here too:

http://www.actiontom.com/

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

How about something along the lines of "How do You Do It?" - the idea would be to follow a 'typical' triathlete through a 'typical' week. Triathletes are pretty well known (at least by other triathletes) for time management and finding ways to cram training into the nooks and crannies of everyday life - it might be of interest to follow somebody for a week and see how an actual person does it. I'd say, focus on a decent athlete - not a superstar, just an AG'er who is committed to training and works hard to do the best with the tools and time they've got. A diary of sorts, if you will.

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_________________________________________________
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com

How about the subject of pain as it relates to athletics and life in general. Some of us seek it out in varying degrees. Some have the ability to really suffer, whereas others don't like to go far outside of their comfort zone. Does pain make us feel alive? Is the pursuit filling a void for something missing? Bring in some elite vs. AG people stories. Blah..blah...blah.

Matt

Both this and mthammer's ideas are strong. I am glad I put this thread up.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom, Mike O says you stock Shimano shoes, do you arry the R215?

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Yup.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

How about the motivation that get someone from England to go to your shop?

I'm looking forward to read your book Tom. I was folowing and dreaming about the Raid years ago...

Good Luck with publishing

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Richard

"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever" - Larry Andersen

Two ideas that I think people may find interesting.

1. A day in the life of a pro.-I'm not talking about the glamorous stuff like home many miles a guy rides, or what his VO2 max is. I would be interested in following a pro (like Frankie) through a typical day. What time does he get up? What kind of music is on the radio while he's paying his bills? Does he call his buddies in the afternoon just to see "what's up"? Just everyday things like that.

2. Paying Back-I bugged a friend of mine to buy a road bike for 2 years so he could ride with "us". He finally buys one and shows up at the group ride. The problem is, no-one wants to ride with him because he's a "newbie". It was the week before an important ride, so even I didn't want to ride 15 mph with a guy that had sweat pants on and ski gloves. But I couldn't just leave the guy behind, so I volunteered to ride with him while everyone else took off.

This was one of my favorite rides ever. He gave me the scenic tour of his old town. Pointed out every golf course, where the dentist lived, where the best steakshouse was. He was so excited to be on the bike. No heart rate monitor, no sprinting up hills, no worrying about who has the latest carbon thing on their bike. Just a guy who was so excited to be out on the country roads on his bike.

It definitely reved up my enthusiasm (sp?) and love for just being on the bike. I thought when I told everyone in the group that I would hang back and ride with him that I was "paying back" something to the sport. I was "that guy" before and fortunately people helped me along. It turns out he was "paying back" to me more than I could have thought.

Jeff

That's funny you mention that. I just got an e-mail from my agent this morning. He mentioned he was still pounding the pavement with my book.

Sooner or later......

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

By the way Tom, a small off topic question,

I received the CSC Jersey (they're great thanks!!!) and was wondering if you had x-small? The small one is a little too large for my GF so I was wondering if I could send it back to you against a XS (If you have some of course). I would naturally pay the shipping.

Thanks

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Richard

"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever" - Larry Andersen

get a view from the middle of the pack. guys riding a mt bike or road bike who are simply racing to do thier best, not trying to win. wearing cotton shirts, floppy bathing suits, tennis shoes to run in. you see them all the time, wanting to complete their first tri; they lost a ton of weight or quit smoking, or are overcomng some demons to beter themselves. no skinsuits, no $4k bikes, no aero nothing...just a desire to do their best.

or, my buddy dave kanners. had his last chemo treatment for pancreatic cancer a week ago thursday, and was my teammate in the 8-hour adventure race at pontiac lake state park 2 days later. 2 weeks before, he had chemo on thrusday and did a 24 hour race in southern indiana w/dick west and 2 others on saturday am!!! inspiring stuff, and tough as nails. and never says a word about his condition. humble, strong as hell, and never lets this poison get in his way of kicking lots of ass.

I think we do. Can you give Mike Aderhold a call at (313) 278-1350 to check? He will take care of you instantly.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I ask this because I lost my Slowtwitch Dictionary.

What does MOP and FOP mean?

Tom,

Have you decided on a topic yet? Check your PM about what we discussed.

Bob