Simon Says

So I went on the Simon ride this morning that meets at 8am just North of Boulder. It is really interesting the difference between riding with Simon and riding with Macca. Simon rides are hard from the start. I do a lot of drafting (he even lectured me a couple of weeks ago about not pulling enough, as discussed in my last post). Macca rides are almost leisurely. They are long. We stop for coffee and talk the entire ride. What is really amazing is that both of these athletes are absolute legends. Both have been successful for long careers over almost every distance. Both have been ITU World Champions and both have won Ironmans. I guess my point is that what both of these athletes is doing is clearly working, clearly proven. But what works for one does not necessarily work for another. Keep that in mind and strive to figure out what works for YOU!

So my dear friend Yeong moved to LA over the summer to do research at UCLA. He's an astronomer, an astrophysicist learned his trade at both Harvard and Princeton and a PHD to his credit. He's a genius. He also gets himself into some really cool events. That's him on the right at With Brad Beven the Boulder Peak Triathlon last year. At the LA Triathlon this past weekend he was on one of the motorbikes working as a draft-buster (he and I shared a laugh about this the night before!). He texted on Sunday morning to inform me (and others I'm sure) that the race was about to begin. I called about 30 minutes later for an update, and though he said over the phone that he couldn't hear me, he continued to rattle off the leaders through the swim and the first part of the bike. He then called 20 minutes later and said "you won't believe what happened." Apparently a course marshall waved a car across the closed course right into the path of his moto, thowing Yeong (and the driver) through the air across the hood. Yeong apparently broke his ankle and last I heard he might have some internal bleeding. So send some good vibes to my Malaysian friend cooped up in the hospital in LA. I'm sure he's bored out of his gourd!

On a more cheerful note, the top 3 guys from LA all live in Boulder! Steve Hackett was the guy I was pulling for. He's so humble and unassuming, but also good for a laugh. If you read this Steve I've got a victory gift for you the starts with T and ends with oohey's New.

September 11th 2007

So, I'm getting pretty excited for the upcoming Interbike trade show in Las Vegas. This will not be the first time that I've been, but I'll have much more of a purpose in being there than in the past when I simply wandered around and got drool on the 'unobtainium' on display (please don't sue, Oakley!). There are a few reasons why I'm excited. I'm going with Colorado Multisport, so we're going to have a bunch of meetings with our vendors so they can show us their new wares for the upcoming '08 season. Well since we carry most of the best equipment that's on the market today, that means I'll get the lowdown on what people are going to be lining up to buy in the next few months.

I'm really excited to see the new SRAM Red group. I have a titanium frame with a carbon rear-end (a Primary, of course!) that is just about out of production, and I think I'm going to outfit it with the new Red group. I'm also going to put this awesome Fizik Arione saddle in the Acqua e Sapone team colors on the bike. It should be a sweet ride when it is done. I'll be sure to post some pictures of it. I'm becoming a total Fizik whore, these guys should sponsor me! I just got the AG2R saddle a month or so ago, the one with the black 'wings' and the white stripe down the middle. It was a hot saddle as well, but the AeS saddle is really hard to get. In fact, I lucked into one myself, as Ryan was on the phone to order some Conti tires from our distributor, who also happens to do Fizik, and we asked them as an aside if they had any. I fully expected a 'no' but they'd had a couple of orders cancelled and so had 2 of them. Lucky me, unlucky wallet!

I should be meeting with our graphics guy this upcoming Friday to try to finalize the finish on our carbon frames, which should be arriving very, very soon! The forks for the carbon bikes are ready to go, they in themselves are really nice. Made by Dedacciai and really light and stiff, with a nice finish. Anyway, I'm really excited about the ideas that I have for the graphics package. It will be used across all of our frames as well as on any clothing that we do. It's going to be some simple sort of stripes, strategically placed to have a good impact on the people looking at it. Think racing stripes but a bit more subtle.

I've been having some good discussions with a good friend of mine, Jack, who is my neighbor here in Boulder. He's in the surgical supply business, and it seems to me he has a great outlook on business as well as life. We've been talking about how some objects, some material items, posses what is referred to as 'soul.' Many items, such as lugged steel bicycle frames made in the hands of a master (let's say Richard Sachs) have an aura of such craftsmanship associated with them than the ownership experience is enhanced to a degree supposedly not found in items that haven't been created by the hands of a 'master.' What I'm wondering is why this is? What gives an inanimate object a 'soul?' I would submit that it goes into the relationship the owner has with the item. For example our bicycle frames. Our carbon frame for example, is a light-weight carbon fiber frame that rides really well. But beyond that it reflects the personality of it's owner. A bike's ride quality, for example, can be enjoyed under certain circumstances and at certain times while the bike is being ridden, while a bicycle's visual appeal can be appreciated at any moment. You cannot simply look at a bicycle and say that it is stiff or lightweight. But you can look at a bicycle and decide that you enjoy it's appearance. (you might just see this epiphany in some Primary literature at some point... I'm calling myself out!) I guess what I'm getting at is that there's more to what a bike means than one simple aspect of it's existence: where it was created, how it tests in the lab, or what material it is made of. A bike is a composite of many different aspects and they are all layered up one upon another. What Primary is good at doing is taking all of these layers and arranging them in a way that makes our bicycles desirable. I wonder what Jack would think of this, I'll have to ask him next time we exchange hello's.

Well it's off to bed, the Simon Lessing ride leaves at 8am tomorrow morning, and the last time I rode with that crew I got a mini-lecture from Simon that I should be pushing myself a bit more. I guess he would know what works, being a 5-time World Champion and all!

We're just getting started!

So.......

Lot's going on out here in Boulder. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Geoff Nenninger. I'm a triathlete and I live in Boulder, Colorado. I just got engaged to my long-time girlfriend Alissa, and we're going to be married next summer.

I've been racing triathlon since I was 11 years old while being raised as a swimmer in Northern Virginia. After successfully racing as a Junior, I came to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder (GO BUFFS!!!) and make my triathlon dreams come true. For the past 3 years I've been racing as a 'pro' (though not making much money!) but I've been thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Living in Boulder allows me to train with some of the most talented athletes in the world. As you'll see in the future, Boulder is a sort of 'fantasy camp' for triathletes. From swim workouts at Flatiron Athletic Club coached by Dave Scott to group rides and runs with some of the sports greats, I really have it good out here.

To fuel my passion (read: get paid and buy food and have a life) I work at Colorado Multisport, the best triathlon shop in the universe! Honestly, though, we have a really kick-butt team at CMS including Tim Troha (owner/athlete/fit specialist), Ryan Ignatz (pro Xterra triathlete/fit specialist), Aaron Hersh (top AG triathlete/master mechanic), and Lance Panigutti (GUTTI/short-course ITU guy/2nd place 24 hours of Triathlon [go figure]). I started at CMS after 3+ years working at Cutting Edge Sports, another shop in town with a great staff and overall enthusiastic atmosphere.

I also am co-owner of Primary Bicycles, a newborn bicycle frame brand based here in Boulder (I am trying to satisfy every stereotype of Boulderites through my racing, working at, and owning businesses all directly related to cycling/triathlon). We've got some awesome products in the works that you'll be hearing about in future posts. I've been riding one of our prototype carbon fiber frames for the past 3 months, and I don't mean to toot my own horn but we're onto something. We should have frames and forks in stock in the next month or so in the carbon model, and our titanium/carbon model will be released later this fall. I'm not going to say much, but keep your eyes peeled for a Triathlon/TT model early next spring!

My triathlon coaching business is boulderTRIATHLON. We're mostly an online coaching company, with athletes both in Colorado and on the East Coast. If you are interested in coaching get in touch with us as we are accepting new athletes!

So far as my athletic pursuits go, I've had a marginally good year. Started off the year with a win at the Triathlon Season Opener while in Florida visiting Grandma with Alissa on her Spring Break. Followed that up with a 3rd Overall at the Tri The Creek Triathlon in Denver and a 13th Overall at the Prospect Lake Triathlon to the likes of Hunter Kemper and the resident team from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs (which happened to re-qualify me to race as a professional for the next 2 years!).

Lately though, my season has taken a slight downturn as my running has taken a backseat to improve my swim for ITU style racing. My swim is just about where I need it, but the end result is that I self-destruct on the run as seen at Boulder Peak and more recently the ITU Pan-American Cup in Longmont, Colorado. So the past couple of weeks have seen a drastic increase in run volume. I think it is working as I just about hung in there on a group run this past Sunday with Steve Hackett, Craig Walton, Jake Timm (former CU/UW middle-distance guy), and Marek Dvorak (long-time friend and some-time training partner). We went for ~90 minutes in North Boulder and I was hanging tough until the last bit I just couldn't quite keep up the pace on the uphills. No biggie, in a couple of weeks I'll be good to go. I just have to hit the pool hard for the upcoming ITU race in San Francisco in November.

I've got the Harvest Moon Half in just over a week. This is my first Half so I don't fully know what to expect, but I'm really excited about it. My inclination is to think that I'll do OK just because I won't have to cross over into the red zone as much as in an Olympic (especially the ITU variety). So I feel like it will be more akin to a hard day of training than any of the racing I'm used to. Check back here in a couple of weeks to see if I still think this or if I'm really full of crap right now!

I've been doing a bit more cycling than earlier in the year as well, including some rides with Chris McCormack and Paul Ambrose. I figure if Chris is doing these rides pushing toward a win at Kona, then they're probably plenty good for me! As a matter of fact, we've got a ride tomorrow morning at 7:30, so I'd better hit the sack pretty soon. Our meeting spot is convenient as Chris and Paul both live in my apartment complex in Boulder! Chris has a sweet new ride from Specialized that you might have seen. The new Transition S-Works is really trick and has quite a few aero features that are going to become more and more common on bikes, but Specialized is really on the forefront including some of this stuff on a production bike. Innovative internal cable-routing and proprietary brakes are two of the features that I really took note of while we had Chris's bike in CMS earlier today. And the bike looks stunning in person. I have to admit, when I simply saw it in pictures, I had my doubts about the raw bike-lust that it might generate. But to see it in person the bike definitely screams out and captures peoples' attention.

You'll notice that even though I've got my own bike company gig going, I am a complete bike-nut at heart and lust after many, many makes and models of bicycles! It's kinda like what Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles says: "I would never say that 'At Vanilla we make the finest bicycle in the world' That's pompous. I can say, however, that I build the finest vanilla bicycle, with out question. If you see another bike out there and it makes you want to freak out and do what ever you can to have it then that's the bike for you." I really, really like this (as well as some of his creations... holy crap, talk about bike lust!!!). I feel the same way about Primary... we make some of the finest bicycles in the world as people who have ridden our bikes will tell you, but as long as your out there riding... we're all on the same team!!

Ok, bed-time. Until the next post...