So here I am in Lanzarote, at the La Santa Long Distance Triathlon camp, trying to enjoy the miserable winds and barren lava landscape... (kinda’ like Kona except even windier, a third world economy, and every other person in the resort is blonde and Danish). But I packed my almost brandy new Softride Rocket TT out here and the beam suspension was doing a superb job smoothing out some of the incredibly rough roads (reminded me of the lava rock jeep doubletrack that dominates the Xterra Maui mountain bike ride). But on the second day here, I noticed that my seat was feeling lower and lower. I started to adjust the beam, higher and higher until I finally hit the high stop. After the third day it becomes painfully obvious from my screaming quads that the seat is still too low – so I look for the real problem – it dawns on me that the beam clamp assembly has slipped a good half-inch along the beam itself, accounting for the lower beam angle and thus seat height. Agghhhhh!!! Any Softride owners ever have this problem? I’m 99% certain that there’s nothing I could have done to cause this problem – none of the beam adjustments affect the way the beam is clamped to the pivot assembly… And it’s not like I’m a exactly heavyset – 150 lbs dripping wet if that. Frustrating to say the least. So I get to spend the rest of the training camp gutting it out on a hotel-provided aluminum Cannondale road bike. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger…
By the way, this training camp is well worth the money (only 140 Euro, about $180 bucks for 8 days) if you can get a very cheap airfare from the states or live in Europe. This is the first year they’ve done it and it filled up with 30 triathletes, most of whom are serious age-groupers doing a summer Ironman somewhere. Good coaches, fairly challenging schedule, some very fast age-groupers and a few pros in the mix (Jody Swallow joined the fast group today for the 5 hour bike ride). Nothing much to do here on Lanzarote other than the triathlete mantra -- eat, swim, bike, run, and sleep/repeat following day. And the wind here gives you very good resistance training – today, Day 4, was the first day the wind was not howling at least 20-25 knots steady. Oh, and there’s a lot of European hardbody athletes walking around doing everything from swim team training to track and field. Francois, I have yet to see the topless girls doing 100s in the pool on the 1:30 but I’m keeping my eyes open. Now for that I may take some photographic evidence.
FIST Certified Fitter
Salt Lake City, Utah
By the way, this training camp is well worth the money (only 140 Euro, about $180 bucks for 8 days) if you can get a very cheap airfare from the states or live in Europe. This is the first year they’ve done it and it filled up with 30 triathletes, most of whom are serious age-groupers doing a summer Ironman somewhere. Good coaches, fairly challenging schedule, some very fast age-groupers and a few pros in the mix (Jody Swallow joined the fast group today for the 5 hour bike ride). Nothing much to do here on Lanzarote other than the triathlete mantra -- eat, swim, bike, run, and sleep/repeat following day. And the wind here gives you very good resistance training – today, Day 4, was the first day the wind was not howling at least 20-25 knots steady. Oh, and there’s a lot of European hardbody athletes walking around doing everything from swim team training to track and field. Francois, I have yet to see the topless girls doing 100s in the pool on the 1:30 but I’m keeping my eyes open. Now for that I may take some photographic evidence.
FIST Certified Fitter
Salt Lake City, Utah