The Specialized-Lululemon women's professional racing team continues to dominate international racing. 

Evelyn Stevens, an American who left her investment banking job to race professionally, just won the International Thuringen Rundfahrt stage race in Germany. 

Specialized, which makes the Amira frame for the team as well as the Ruby and Dolce especially designed for women's riding, created a pre-season video about the team. It's beautifully filmed and shows the power and dedication of these women. Watch the pre-season video production here.

Teresa Rocks Her First Tri on a Ben's Bike

When Teresa came to us a few months ago to rent a bike, she had never done a triathlon before. Nor had she ridden much. 

So we've been excited to tag along for her training and watch her fitness and bike skills improve. She rented a Specialized Dolce from us, a bike that many triathletes use since it is light, fast, and fairly inexpensive.

Last weekend, she finished the Pewaukee Sprint Triathlon, pleased with both her placing and the progress she made in how fast she rode the bike. We're so proud of her and her accomplishment, and we are thrilled to be a part of the journey!

Here is Teresa's race report. 

Pre Race: I got to the race around 5:30 am and set up my transition area. Everyone got enough space to rack their bike and lay out their towels and gear. Once I was all set up, I got my body marked with my race number,  then I jumped in the lake and swam around a little bit. 

Swim: 400 meters

Athletes were released in pairs every three seconds which was a really good way to keep the flow of people steady. I kept to the outside with the other slow-pokes to avoid others swimming over me. It was really wavy, which made me slower and made breathing difficult (I swallowed about a gallon of lake water), but other than that, it was great! I was pretty tired afterwards, but I ran back to my transition area in preparation for the bike.

 
First Transition

The run from the beach to the transition area felt really far. When I finally got there, I had to wrap my ankle (I sprained it the week before), then I grabbed all my bike stuff and ran to the bike start. As soon as I hopped on my bike, my water bottle flew off. Though I really wanted to drink that water, I didn't bother chasing after it because I would have caused a collision with all the bikers coming out of transition. Off I went.

Bike: 17 miles

Check out Teresa's dismount!

I was so happy to be on my bike. I felt most excited for this part of the race, until I turned out of transition and saw the first long hill that was greeting me. I didn't ride the course before the race, and although I heard it was hilly, I didn't expect quite so many hills. I slowly pedaled up each hill, and then I had a great time going down each one. Although many riders passed me, a lot of them chatted with me as they passed, which made being passed stink a little less!

Second Transition

I must have been feeling really confident when I finished the bike course, because when I got to the transition area I dismounted while riding. That was a fancy maneuver for me that I had never tried before. I am not sure how I didn't crashI Anyway, the second transition was quick, I was wearing my running shoes already so I just had to rack my bike and grab my iPod.

Run: 3.1 miles

The run felt mostly flat. I think I really would have liked it if I didn't have a sprained ankle. At 1.5 miles they had water which was really welcome because the sun was pretty bright at this point. There were two huge uphills in the last half mile, but then you got to run downhill to the finish line which made me feel like a champion, and also made for a very badass looking finishing photo (look at me go!)

Finishing strong!

I completed my goal of doing a triathlon! Finishing felt great, and a year ago, I never would have thought I'd be able to do it. I think that signing up for something like this is a great way to keep yourself focused as far as working out goes, and there are triathlon training plans for all levels of fitness. 

For me it also introduced me to cycling, a sport that I may never have tried out had I not signed up for the triathlon. I really liked the sprint distance triathlon, and I definitely plan to do another one at some point. 

Thank's to Ben's Cycle for their support.

Teresa Keeps Making Progress Toward First Triathlon

A couple of weeks ago, Teresa came into Ben's needing to rent a bike to prepare for her first triathlon. We asked her to keep us up to date since she was not an experience cyclist, and her story might inspire others to start riding more. We're thrilled she's making so much progress!


Here is her original story.

Here is what she wrote on June 19:
"My training is going well. I've started swimming every day during my lunch hour and I run about 3x a week after work. On the weekends I have been taking 10-ish mile bike rides on the Oak Leaf trail. 

I was very surprised at how slow I am on the bike. It's going to take me forever to finish the bike portion if I don't speed up. I plan to go to Pewaukee this weekend and ride the 17-mile bike trail to get a feel for the hills and see how long it takes me now. I also am starting to do brick workouts, which are combining two events in one workout to practice adapting muscle groups. Swim to bike is fine, bike to run is difficult."

Here is her report from Monday:

"The Pewaukee Lake Triathlon has a mandatory swim clinic for all first-time triathletes. I attended a session today which was great. I have been swimming a lot in the pool at my gym, but being in the open water with other swimmers was way different! It was great to experience that and I feel a lot more prepared. Besides the swim, the instructors gave us newbies tips on how to effectively swim with others (e.g. if we're slow, keep left and take wide turns to lessen the chance of getting swam over). The instructor also answered all our newbie questions about the triathlon day. I've been having nightmares about not being able to find my stuff in the transition area and she calmed my fears.

I also had a great weekend ride on Saturday. I went to Fond du Lac to ride with a friend of mine. I thought I was really slow, but it turns out I just needed my seat moved up and a little more air in my tires!  I averaged around 14mph rather than 10 mph which I'm happy about. Having a speedy cycling buddy to lead me probably helped too! I also downloaded Strava which is a really cool way to track my rides and compare myself to other riders. Overall I'm really excited about my cycling progress.

After my ride last weekend, and the swim clinic tonight, I feel pretty good about those two disciplines. Running is still my least favorite, but I'll be focusing more on that the week before the triathlon because I'll be away from my bike and pool while I am in Colorado."