Challenge Knoxville 2015, some (hundred and something) photos!

Insert bemoaning about not being able to race. (I wasn't bothered by the fact up until race day... I miss racing!!)

The Cobb Mobb was out and about, with Thomas Gerlach right off the podium in 4th (I'm sure his blog will have a recap of some...shitty happenings from his day...) and Nick Brodnicki finishing strong in the pro race. William Ritter had a tough day in the half with a flat. (along with a trip back to Texas post race!) Sharon Deane won the Athena division. Other Mobbsters were on course doing work! Jimmy brought out the magical pink Unicorn cheering outfit.

Now that that is out of the way, we'll get right to the ice cream. I got a good amount of pictures, particularly from T1 Exit, but unfortunately I'm a better triathlete than I am photographer (which means I can "sometimes" get the camera on and pointed in the right direction) which, mixed with my low end camera and downpour that was going on, means they aren't the best pictures in the world. Nonetheless, have a look, see if I got a shot of you or someone you know. Enjoy!

Sharon, William and Jimmy on the dock

escort to transition

Martin, RD for Racedayevents volunteering

William with no helmet ;)

Race Morning

Wetsuit rip glued back together

Dye on his way out

Dimond!

Thomas headed out

Rocky Top Multisports... what a bunch of goofballs

This guy had to dismount immediately (before mount line) but he did an awesome job on, off and on again, especially having shoes on.

William Ritter heading out

Another Dimond, Borden maybe?

This was a slick paintjob on this Dimond

Nick Morgan heading in to t1

Nick heading out

Don't do 40 miles...don't do 40 miles... dangit...did 40 miles

Bill Beecher coming out

Sharon through the swim

go go go

Jimmy posing in front of the Sunsphere

Dye crushing the run

Hey guys...buy Cobb saddles

I made sure to get a picture of Thomas and Jimmy in the same frame ;)

Bill Beecher snagging 3rd in the Oly

After flatting out, William decided to get his run in anyways

Dye with an absurd lead 

Thomas bringing it in

Aww... a wife / hubby moment

Nick, having made his own course (doing 40 miles on the bike instead of 25) laughing it off

Finally I managed to get a picture of Nick

Surprise Doc!

William a bit disappointed

Add caption

Sharon right after finishing... she looks thrilled

Thomas Getting paid

Again, sorry about the quality... congratulations to everyone who competed on a tough day. Glad everyone ended up (relatively) unscathed. Lots of crashes, could have been a lot worse.

Thanks for checking out the blog... more reviews in the coming days... I got my hand on an Omega X that is ready for a breakdown.

- Christopher Morelock

A short, painful race report. Berry Peddler TT

I'm happy to have a race report back on the books.

I admit, I was back and forth on whether or not I was ready to return to racing... not from the physical sense (I know I'm not back in "form" or anywhere close yet.) but mentally. I had doubts as to whether or not I was ready to get back in the racing mindset, and whether or not I could push myself to finish as well as I could when I knew it wouldn't be anywhere near where I was last year.

Eventually I realized I needed to HTFU and get my butt back in the game. So I came up with a compromise. I would race the Berry Peddler TT, but not the road race. This was a practical move, since the Cat5 road race was 30something miles, and I've yet to ride 30 miles yet. I figured the first time probably shouldn't be in a race setting. A 6 mile TT though... I could do that, and if I fudged it up, my embarrassment wouldn't involve a lonely ride off the back... it would be a lonely ride the whole time!

I'll just say... knocking off some of the cobwebs will take some work. You could take my preparation routine and classify it in the "ways not to warm up and execute a time trial race." By warm up I mean I got slicked into my new Knoxvelo skinsuit, fastened my Specialized TT helmet and spun down the road for a few minutes... honestly it's the first time I've been on the "road" since before November, so I was a little rusty. I didn't pre-ride the course, stopped my warmup about 10 minutes before my start time, didn't drink enough water before hand... you know, basically all of the things you read not to do.

Me all "alien" and Jenny trying not to be embarrassed about it.

Heading out after finally managing to clip in.

Then it was go time. Unfortunately there was no handler, so it was a foot down start, and I showed my unfamiliarity with clipping in by very nearly missing on takeoff.  Once I'm in and down in aero a thought hits me... man this is uncomfortable... how the hell did I ride like this for 50+ miles.  Around the first sweeping bend I get another unpleasant surprise, the wind whips rather hard and somehow knocks one of my contact lenses out of my eye! I've never had that happen before! I very nearly call it a day right then and there, as I already hurt and I'm half blind (literally) and squinting just to see what's in the road ahead of me.  I also am a giant dummy who didn't adjust my TT helmet, despite it having an easy dial sizing, so every minute or so I was pushing the tip of the helmet back down. Nice.

Hurting... so much hurting

The kit actually matches my bike/helmet/gloves/covers almost perfect...coincidence ftw!

Finish Strong!

Here you get a good look at extra hair and extra pounds I've gained in my off months.

As the halfway point (180° turn) comes into "sight" I take some pride in not wiping out and maiming myself and/or the volunteer. I feel absolutely terrible. I've gone out entirely too optimistic hard and I've got to limp back for three miles seemingly endless incline. My neck begs for relief but I try to make one moral stand and that's that I stay as aero as possible. Eventually though the incline gets the best of me and I get out of aero (and the saddle) to do some grinding... at one time in the small chainring. (gasp!) With signs telling me the end is nigh I tap into the last bit of energy I have and try to finish strong. As soon as I cross the line I can barely hold it together... it was a bit of a physical and emotional roller coaster. I cool down a bit and find Jenny, Jimmy, Sharon and my mom.

Jimmy snagged 4th in the Cat4 road race and 2nd in the TT... on someone else's bike!

Sharon, Jimmy and myself trying to cheese after the TT

Somehow, due to some very, very good luck (along with only a few of us being under 40) I managed to sneak onto the podium in 3rd place!

Knoxvelo/Hicks Orthodontics team

The Cobb Mobb crew, Allison, myself, Jimmy and Sharon.

So, despite it being a rough six miles, I got to take one step closer to coming back to my old self. It's a harder process than I expected... honestly I've been surprised at just how much power and endurance I've lost... but it'll all come back soon with enough blood sweat and tears. (I hope)

As always, thanks for checking out the blog! Challenge Knoxville is this weekend and although I won't be racing I should be running around taking pictures. I'll be wearing my Cobb Mobb gear, so if you see me, say hi!

- Christopher Morelock

Pictures from 30A, and musings from the laziest Wit in history.

Oh bittersweet times... I'm back from the beach and re-introduced to "normal" life. More than that, I started my first day of the LEAP Immunocalm diet (with the slightest of variation... I will have my coffee every day.) But more importantly I have pictures and wit to share from beautiful 30a!

Let me just say the week was far too short considering just how little I actually did. This is the first time I've ever been in the position where I didn't have much to worry about in regards to my fitness (that is to say, I didn't have any to lose) so I went full bore beach bum. I ate some terrible (but wonderful) food, drank entirely too little water and too much booze, and didn't do much more strenuous than ride my fixie down the street to get (a late) breakfast. All in all, it was pretty darn awesome!

Of course you don't want to hear me tell you about how great it was when I can just show it off! Starting of course with a good mugshot.

Me and the missus enjoying brunch at Great Southern Cafe

A friendly gator cheesing for the camera at a nearby pond.

Sunset on 30a is truly a thing of beauty. The deserted beach doesn't hurt either.

There is a professional sand castle building squad... they did this right in front of our beach chairs one morning!

One of the coolest looking shots I got. The sunset is ridiculous!

Wes' big head in the foreground, and another shot of the water in the background.

These are almost Monet skies.

Praline Brown Sugar Bacon from Cowgirl Kitchen. Yes, I ate here multiple times and it was awesome.

Being totally shown up by the missus practicing her yoga.

On my last night. Just me and Sinatra sitting on the roof of our condo. The best Jack Daniels I've ever had.

So I'm recharged and ready to get back to training and racing! I'm probably going to do a short time trial this weekend (!) to really get an impression of how far I've got to go again.


Thank you all so much for checking out the blog and keeping up with me. More reviews, more pictures, more blogging, more WIT to come!

- Christopher Morelock

Lactate, V02 and the beach.

This week has CRAWLED by. Isn't that always how it is the week before vacation. Well, it gives me plenty of time for my blog post since I'll likely be MIA next week.

Yesterday I had my Lactate/V02 test done at Provision with Dr. Sprouse. It marks (for me) my true return to structured training. Although the numbers were nowhere near where I had hoped, they were realistic to the amount of time I've been laid up. I'll save you all the boring details about the numbers (they can't help you haha) and just post some pictures!

Aero...yay.

At least I've got a good front profile to make up for my poor power :)

Really hurting now.

It was the step protocol (pretty standard) with blood taken every 3 minutes (and resistance increasing) until I could no longer hold 70rpm. I had expected it to be hard, but man... it was hard. I actually felt pretty good up until the last 2 minutes or so of the last step, at which point I just smashed into the wall head on. I can at least take a little pride in the fact that I didn't stop the test myself, I went until I couldn't hold 70rpm.

Thanks for checking in on me... Hopefully when you next hear from me I'll have some good beach pictures, a suntan (Vitamin D!) and the hunger to do some work and get that FTP back up!

- Christopher Morelock

Review of The Mediator Release Test (MRT Test)

Touted to reliably Quantify Diet-Induced Inflammation, I, in my new-found fervor to become a smarter (and healthier) athlete, was intrigued. The test is around 94% accurate (considerably more accurate than past tests) and *CAN* (depending on how you use the information of course) be a useful tool in the quest for better performance and health. Although I've only just received my results and began to study them, I'll try to give a "layman's" review, or at least my initial impressions.

First, to get it out of the way, the test isn't cheap, pretty much regardless of what tax bracket you belong to. I've found the "home test" system online for around ~$600, (looking at the 150 tests, it is less expensive as you test against fewer things.) and of course once you add a facility and doctor/nutritionist to that, you're looking at a pretty expensive blood test. Is it worth it? Currently my opinion is that it depends on a couple of things, probably mostly how you expect to use the information once you have it, but also just how bad some of your results are. (that is, if you aren't reactive to anything, which is admittedly not likely, but I suppose possible, then you get the green card to eat what you want I guess.)

Here is a sample of what the test results look like

Simple right?

One of the big positives of this test is that even if you haven't read a single thing about it, you can very likely read the results almost immediately and fairly accurately. If you guessed red = bad, yellow = caution and green = ok, then you have the general gist of it.

To break it down a little further, it becomes pretty apparent that Zucchini, Lettuce and Potatoes are a highly reactive food to this particular person, and that (according to MRT) those should definitely be eliminated from the diet. It's worth noting that doesn't mean you're going to have an allergic reaction, swell up and die if you ate a Zucchini... that's not what this test does (and you could be allergic to something in the green for that matter. In other words if you have Celiacs, don't start eating bread if you have this test done and wheat comes back in the green.) but your body does not like Zucchini and will create much more inflammation than if you had replaced it with Carrots.

What does all of that mean for us? From an athletes point of view, inflammation is primarily bad, (I know that is not exactly true and WAY oversimplifying but in this case...) and something you ideally are looking to minimize. Inflammation is a response to tissue damage, and it helps remove cellular "trash" so that the healing can begin. Inflammation is also important for the training adaptations that take place AFTER you break the muscles down. However, Inflammation can also do damage if it lingers (DOMS, secondary muscle damage) and, in the case of endurance athletes, it's very possible that you end up with consistently building fatigue and inflammation due to... well... endurance sports nature really. Constant (chronic) inflammation is not a good thing.

So what the hell does all that mean in regards to the MRT test. Well, take myself for example. I'll spare you the full details of my personal test results, but something struck me almost immediately when I got them back. Two things I had tested poorly against were banana's and yogurt. In preparation (generally starting in my taper and especially in the last 2-3 days before a race) for a race I almost always limited my diet to what I thought was "very clean." Two things I ate in VERY large amounts... Banana's and yogurt. (usually 10+ banana's and 8+ cups of Greek yogurt in the day or two before a big race.) What I was essentially doing was "inflammation loading" during my taper for a big race... then maxing out on it the day or two before! Besides that, both of those had been DAILY (yes, daily) staples in my diet for years... that's not the best way for someone who already produces a lot of inflammation to combat it and is likely one of the contributors to some of my "on/off" performances the last few seasons.

The next step (for me) is meeting with the nutritionist. The other half of the MRT test is the LEAP rotating diet plan. Anything that is a "diet" plan already reeks of failure (in my mind) because it is not flexible enough for a real life scenario. However, that doesn't mean it can't work or that parts of it can't be incorporated in my lifestyle. I do think I will do the suggested LEAP food reintroduction schedule, but I have put it on hold until I return from vacation. I will likely update this post with more on the LEAP half after I have had more experience with it.

So, what do I think.

Knowledge = Power. I'm a firm believer in that. The more you know (especially in regards to your own body) the more informed choices you can make, which usually equates to better choices. This test isn't for everyone, both as a result of it's currently prohibitive cost and the simple fact that knowing the results and not acting upon them is a total waste. (So if you aren't giving up Eggs / Bacon / Ice Cream / Zucchini no matter what, maybe it's not for you.) However, for the athlete who is interested in squeezing everything they can out of their body, or just the regular person who would like to feel a little better day to day, this is a great tool to be considered.


Thanks so much for reading. I'm very excited to be back to "sort of really" training again, and I have seemed to find that for the first time in a long time I'm looking forward to workouts instead of dreading or trudging through them. I'm excited for the future once more!

- Christopher Morelock

Getting back in the swing of things

Slowly but surely, I'm putting in some time. Sure, I'm at a measely 43 miles so far this month with most of my rides being around 30 minutes... but it's moving again and I'm actually starting to feel more like I belong on a bike once more.

Almost all of that has been on Zwift Island. I have to say, it's been a long time (actually...ever) since I actively look forward to getting up in the morning(!) and ride my bike. In the past I've been notorious for not doing bike workouts until afternoon, but on my re-start one of the things I wanted to do was break that bad habit. And so I have, with a little help from my virtual friends...

Zwift is pretty sweet overall, and though there is only one course, the constant influx of people (Laurens Ten Dam is pretty often finishing a ride when I'm waking up)  keeps it interesting. It's easy to forget that Zwift is a video game...and plays like one. (I made the mistake of not using my power ups the first week)  It's also important to remember that it is...JUST A GAME. I've logged on a few times to see people butthurt about what watts somebody can or can't produce... and while yes, it is annoying to see somebody in the orange jersey doing laps with a 7w/kg avg, it's not a big deal. 

My first day getting a green jersey was also on a big wheel! 

So far so good, I'm going to ramp up a little more in preparation for my Lactate test, and then it's off to the beach at the end of the month! Hopefully with lots of pictures!

Until next time

- Christopher Morelock