About a month ago Hornet Juice asked me if I'd like some samples to try out and sent me some info. on their product. It sounded interesting so I tried it out to see how it worked for me. Here's my thoughts.

What is it and How Does it Work?

Hornet Juice is a mix of 17 amino acids developed after researching the giant hornet's ability to fly 50 miles a day. The short description of what it does is that it metabolizes fat to give you energy during extended workouts since glycogen can only take you so far. See their site for more info.

Usage

They suggest you take Hornet Juice 30 mins. prior to a workout on an empty stomach. It comes in individual servings that you mix with 8.5 oz. of water, juice or sports drink. For longer workouts, they suggest taking it every one and a half hours.

Workouts

My first workout I used Hornet Juice was a 50 min. run after coming off a day off after a pretty tough weekend of riding and running. I did a strength workout in the morning so my legs weren't feeling the freshest when I started my run. I felt good throughout the run and even though my legs were heavy, I felt like I had a good energy level the whole time.

The next day I did an hour bike on the trainer and had some Hornet Juice about 30 mins. prior and on an empty stomach. I felt good during my ride but really no different than any of my other hour trainer session over the past month. My stats were about the same and my energy level felt normal.

Two days later were my longer weekend workouts: a 2:15 ride on Sat. morning with a 20 min. run in the evening and a 1:40 run on Sun. morning. On Sat. I didn't have the Hornet Juice prior to my workout but put it in my water bottles with Gatorade. This turned out to be a bad idea without diluting the Gatorade since it made the flavor too strong and sweet. It wasn't undrinkable but it would have been much better with diluted Gatorade or another sports drink or just water and some Carb Pro. I felt good during my ride and my energy level was strong throughout. Usually on longer rides, my energy starts to taper off toward the end and the last few miles end up hurting, but not this time. It was an easy ride since I had a run the next day but not much slower than I normally do that distance.

On Sun. I drank the Hornet Juice on a full stomach about 30 mins. before my run. The workout was an hour warmup followed by 30 min. at tempo pace and then a 10 min. cool down. My legs were tired for the warmup and my tempo pace was only 0:15/mile faster than the warmup pace but I was able to complete the workout and not cheat on the cool down :-) I was happy that I was able to finish it and do pretty well on my times.

Conclusion

So, did it help? I think I'm mixed on this one. It felt like it did help on my runs and may have made a difference on my longer bike. I do want to get some more and try it for a couple months to see how it works on various distances and disciplines. From most of the reviews I've read online, everyone felt like they performed better and their longer workouts with it.

You can buy it directly from their web site. Shipping is free and they accept major credit cards and PayPal.

If you try it out, here's a few tips:

• It does not taste good (at least to me). This doesn't bother me too much but I don't think that it "tastes like a mild fruit drink with a berry flavor" as they say. It tastes like a workout supplement.
• Don't mix it with another full-strength sports drink.
• Don't drink the last few sips in your glass/water bottle. Whatever is in there that doesn't fully disolve is very bitter.
• Check out their FAQs for tons of other info.

This year, I've been getting most of my triathlon and running gear from TriSports.com. Their prices are very competitive and they have just about everything I want in stock. The clincher for me the first time I used them is that they take PayPal so I get so spend some of my ad revenue quickly and easily.

For small orders, their USPS shipping prices are typically cheaper than UPS Ground but at some point (likely weight and/or number of items), UPS Ground is less expensive so you'll want to try both options at checkout. I've found that the delivery times for both are about the same and sometimes USPS is even quicker. TriSports gets stuff out quickly and I've never had a delay in getting what I ordered or any problems with my orders.

A nice touch that I noticed after an order or two was that the packing slip for each order had a hand-written, personalized thank-you note on it. Another nice touch came in the mail yesterday: their holiday card with a group photo on front and everyone's signature inside.

While I like to support our local running and tri shops, for consumables (gels, supplements, etc.) I just can't justify the travel time and larger markup. If you're looking for running, swimming, or tri gear check out TriSports.com.

A couple weeks ago, I ordered my wife and I the Bike Hugger jersey. I was impressed by the looks of the photos they had on their site of the actual jersey and also of the product graphics. Even though they note that the jerseys are made by Hincapie Sports of their best materials, I was still surprised how nice this jersey is.

The fit--as noted--is slim. Since I am as well, I ordered my normal Large size which fits perfectly. It is a bit snug but not tight. There are two features that set this apart from any other jersey I've had. First, is the full-length zipper. Being able to unzip all the way and open the jersey on a ride is nice and it also makes it easier to get on and off--especially over sunglasses or a helmet. The second is the gel-grip waist. This is similar to the rubbery line at the bottom of most cycling shorts that keeps them from riding up. Same thing goes here and this does a great job of keeping the bottom of the jersey where you want it.

Other than the technical features, this jersey just looks and feels great. My wife and I are both happy with ours and at $75 the price is very affordable. I've had jerseys that were the same price or a few bucks more that weren't nearly as comfortable or as stylish. I'm waiting for the next design :-)

Related side note: I ordered these via Amazon on a Monday to get here by Wednesday (free shipping since I have Prime) so I would have Julie's by the weekend for her ride. On Wed., I left the house for about an hour and that was when UPS said it was delivered to my front door. I checked about an hour after I got home and didn't see it. I searched my yard and also the side door and couldn't find it. I waited until Thurs. to see if maybe it would get redelivered or if one of my neighbors got it by mistake but it didn't show.

I used Amazon's callback feature and was called and connected to an agent who had my info. on her screen. She said they would re-ship the order and she added the items to my cart and said I'd get a credit for the purchase price plus $5 to cover my cost for Prime overnight shipping. Sure enough, in about an hour I got an email saying the credit had been processed and I placed the order with overnight shipping. The package showed up on Fri. afternoon and everyone was happy. Amazon rocks!

I bought my wife a Forerunner 305 for her birthday yesterday (yes, I'm a nice guy) and noticed that at some point since I got my replacement in late March, they are now shipping them with power adapters. This is a nice touch so you don't have to plug it in to your computer--or have one available--to charge your Forerunner. Perfect for traveling.

If you're still thinking about getting one of these, now you have one more reason. Amazon.com has them for $210.69 as I type this.

As part of my own sprint series, I did the GFT Super Sprint this past Sat. Julie didn't join me like she did last year since she's training for Ironman Arizona so I went solo. The race is a 1/4 mi. swim, 8 mi. bike, and 2 mi. run.

I got to the race site early since there were half and full iron distance races that started at 7:30 AM. I bummed around in the dark trying to spot my friend Adam who was doing the half until it started raining a bit. I moved under a tree until is started raining even harder so I found shelter near the restrooms under an overhang.

The race started about 30-40 mins. late since we had to wait for the last swimmer from the iron distance race that started at 7:30 AM to get out of the water. We ended up starting a bit after 10:00 AM.

The water is so low in Lake Minneola that the first bouy that is about 20 yards past the swim area was probably only in head deep water and the edge of the swim area was waist deep. This meant you had about 60 guys running to within about 20 yards of the buoy and trying to start swimming and make the turn. Total chaos. Luckily, I got a bit ahead after that and had a straight shot to the final buoy and the finish.

This year, the transition from the beach was better since we went in the transition area at the end near the beach and didn't have to run on pavement but had nice, soft grass. I spent too much time in T1 and hopped on the bike.

I don't know why I don't remember how much the first few hills at the beginning and end of the course take it out of your legs, but they do. I passed a bunch of people on the bike but didn't see anyone in my age group that remembered. Only one guy passed me toward the end and he was in a higher age group so I hung on for a bit but let him go.

Since the run is so short, I tried to go all out and keep it up as long as I could. I slowed down a bit toward the last half mile but ended up at a 6:50 pace so I was happy. The run course was a bit different and definitely better than last year and bit flatter.

I ended up 2nd in my age group and had a good time at the race talking w/people doing the half and full prior to their race and with a bunch of people doing my race in the transition and swim area before the race. I didn't hang out for the awards since they didn't even have the preliminary results posted after I had packed my stuff up and put it back in my car. Hunger won out over pride :-)

My stats:

Finish time: 49:19
AG Place: 2nd out of 9

Swim Time: 5:13 (calculated off finish time since posted time was 2:35)
Swim AG Place: 2nd

T1 Time: 2:53
T1 AG Place: 6th

Bike Time: 26:08
Bike Pace: 18.4 MPH
Bike AG Place: 9th

T2 Time: 1:25
T2 AG Place: 2nd

Run Time: 13:40
Run Pace: 6:50 min./mile
Run AG Place: 2nd

Due to the heat of summer, I decided to only do a few sprints this season after the half in May. The second one of these was the Buttar Fall Triathlon Festival on Sat. 10/6/07. I did this race last July and it was a great course and put together really well. This race is a 0.75K swim, 20K bike, and 2.75 mi. run.

The weather when I left my house was rain with thunder and lightning but it cleared up by daybreak. I went for a short run after racking my bike and did a swim warmup in the dark. The bugs were thick so I stayed in the water for as long as I could.

The swim went by quickly and I felt good throughout and tried to pull hard the last 50-75 yards. The run to the transition is long and a mix of sand, rocks, twigs, and other assorted foot hazards. I kept up an OK pace and hopped on my bike.

The bike was great since the course is flat, nicely-paved, and has only a few wide turns. I felt good on the bike and tried to keep my form in check to get some more power and speed.

I tried to do like last July and go off fast on the run and try to hold my pace for 2.75 miles. I did pretty well but slowed down a bit on the last 3/4 of a mile. As part of my workout plan, I had to run for 30 mins. after the race. I felt better than I thought I would on that part but I forgot to put my socks back on for it so had to stop about 20 minutes into it due to blisters on my arches. Live and learn...

Overall, I had a good race and came in almost four minutes faster than last year--almost all on the swim portion.

My stats:
Overall time: 1:11:51
AG Place: 3 of 9

Swim: 11:30
Swim AG Place: 3rd

T1a (beach to transition area): 1:59
T1a AG Place: 3rd

T1b: 1:12
T1b AG Place: 3rd

Bike: 35:33
Bike Pace: 20.98 MPH
Bike AG Place: 5th

T2: 0:52
T2 AG Place: 6th

Run: 20:36
Run Pace: 7:29 min/mile
Run AG Place: 3rd

Well, after the Gulfcoast Half I've been doing very little training. I was good for a week or so after the race and then my training frequency became inversely proportional to the temperature in Central Florida (for you non-geeks, that means I haven't been doing much since it is damn hot).

I've been running on and off which is a bad idea since the off makes the on hurt that much more. I ran last night and carried a water bottle with me (the Ultimate Direction FastDraw Plus, which I highly recommend) and went through the whole thing in less than an hour. And that was on an overcast, somewhat cool night.

Julie and I had plans to do the Loggerhead tri in Jupiter on Aug. 11 but we may skip it since we haven't been training much. In the next few weeks, I'm going to try to ease back into things by scattering a ride, run, and swim in when I can. I'll be in Ohio next week and plan on running, open water swimming, and plenty of wakeboarding.

I upgraded Safari on my MacBook to Beta 3 yesterday. The MotionBased plugin loads fine and it all looks good when doing an upload since I see the transfer messages on the Garmin, however it never completes and uploads it to MotionBased. I uninstalled the beta to go back and it works fine.

Just an FYI in case anyone is thinking of upgrading.

I finally did the Gulf Coast Triathlon, a half iron distance race (1.2 mi. swim, 56 mi. bike, half marathon). It feels like I've been training forever for a half since I decided to put this distance off until this year since trying for the end of last year took its toll with training in the heat.

Julie and I drove up on Thursday and Kirby and Bev met us there that night and Adam met us there on Friday. My new camera came in handy and Kirby took some great pics.

Speaking of heat, now I know why this race is affectionately called the "Gulf Roast". It was hot, hot, hot! Here's my race recap:

Race Morning
Wake up at 4:00 AM and eat, take some Endurolytes and other vitamins and supplements I normally take, and start hydrating. Our bikes were already in transition and we stayed at the host hotel, so we just had to walk down and get our stuff ready.

I go to pump up my tires, and my rear is flat. I pump it up and can hear the air escaping and even in the darkness can spot the hole in my tire. I don't have any spares so I ask the guy manning the Dragon Sports tent for bike repairs if they have a tire or patch kit. He says he didn't pack the stuff so he's not sure and the guy that did will be back soon. I head to the room to grab a dollar bill in case I need to rig a patch. I get back down and they had a few tires. Most of them are the Continental Grand Prix 4000s I wanted to get anyway. They are all red which works perfectly since my new bike has red on it.

I grabbed my bike and tossed it over the transition fence and they picked it up and had it ready to go by the time I got back from the room with cash to cover the tire/labor. Had to go back to transition to rack my bike and then get all my stuff laid out for the bike and run. Back in the room, we all got suited up and wetsuited up and went down to wait for the swim start.

The Swim
The ocean was fairly calm and the wind wasn't too bad. The Course was a long out, short over, and long back. The current was going to be with us for the over section. The water was 75 which was perfect for my sleveless wetsuit.

About 150 yards out, there were jellyfish a couple feet below the surface which made swimming fun. Got stung a bit and had to go through them again on the way in. Luckily, the itching wasn't too bad.

I don't carry my Garmin on the swim so I didn't know my swim time. I had planned on 40-45 mins. and ended up doing it in 36.

T1
An uneventful, yet slow as usual, T1 which is a good thing.

The Bike
The bike course is flat and runs along the beach for a bit and then out into the woods where the heat picked up and the road alternated between nice and crappy. I skipped the first bathroom stop which was a mistake since I was dying about 5 miles before the next one. Stopped at the next one and leaned my bike up against a post. When I got out of the port-o-let, one of the volunteers handed me my bike. I told her she rocked and went on my way. My rear tire was in the gravel so I peeled out which probably didn't look at all cool.

My butt was feeling sore by about mile 35 when I took another bathroom break. This one was preemptive. The last 20 miles, I had to get out of the bars and lean back to get rid of the butt pain. Luckily it didn't slow me down too much. My goal for the bike was 18 MPH average and I was at about 17.7 according to my computer and my Garmin which I didn't think was bad considering I had two stops. My new bike rocks and made it easy to keep that pace. Still, I was happy to get off the bike and start running.

T2
The port-o-lets next to my rack were occupied so I had to jog over about 100 yards away from the transition exit to get to an open one. Still, uneventful.

The Run
Ah, the run... I felt great coming out of transition and had to slow myself down to keep a 9:00 mile pace which was my target. That lasted for a couple miles and then the heat got me. Miles 3-7 really sucked. Hard. 8-10 were better and the last three were tough. I walked all the aid stations and took water, gatorade, and sponges at each one. I got a bit of chaffing in an area I didn't want chaffed and had to deal with that for a couple miles which wasn't too fun. I was going to stick a sponge down my tri shorts to try to stop it but the next aid station was out.

The Finish
I was very glad when I was done and very happy to get a nice cold beer after a recovery drink. A swim after that in the pool felt really good. They were out of pizza when we went back down to get food so we had another beer and then showered up to go to Carraba's for dinner.

My Results
Swim: 36:21
AG Place: 103 of 221
Gender Place: 379 of 919

T1: 5:18
AG Place: 173 of 221
Gender Place: 664 of 919

Bike: 3:07:29
Pace: 17.9 MPH
AG Place: 198 of 221
Gender Place: 793 of 919

T2: 2:36
AG Place: 107 of 221
Gender Place: 406 of 919

Run: 2:26:59
Pace: 11:11
AG Place: 151 of 221
Gender Place: 541 of 919

Overall Time: 6:18:10
AG Place: 168 of 221
Gender Place: 640 of 919
Overall Place: 824 of 1239

My wife and I finally broke down and bought new bikes. Speaking of broke...

We both got 2007 Cervelo P2Cs. These bikes are beautiful, light, and fast. And, they're fast. Really fast. Even a slow schlub like me can fly on this bike.

I've only put about 50 miles on it so far but that will change this Saturday when we do the Gulfcoast Half in Panama City. I'm dying to see how this feels during a race since during training it has added at least one MPH to my average speed and even that feels easy.