Off and RUNNING! Or Biking. Or Swimming!

Welcome to the official launch of the LifeCycle Tri-Team's blog! What you'll find here on a roughly weekly basis are profiles of your fellow triathletes, upcoming races, team events, guest speakers, team workouts, race reports, article reviews, and kooky stories from the whole gang! Anything that we want communicated to the entire group can be posted right here for all to see! The beauty of it is that you can all post individually! If you ever feel like writing up a post about the in's and out's of post-workout recovery... or anything else for that matter... POST IT! More on that later...

For the launch of the team's blog, I thought it'd be appropriate to get to know the owner and manager of LifeCycle a little bit better. I sat down with Gilad and Jeff for a 6 hour intensive interview and here are the results!

R: Hi guys! How's things?

J: "Shut up Rob. What do you want?"

R: "I just had a few questions that I thought you could answer to help the team get to know you a bit."

G: "Golly Rob... that sounds nifty. You're sure cool. Ask away."

R: "Ok, first of all, when and where were you guys born?"

G: "I was born a poor child in Haifa Israel in 1980... that would make me 28."
J: "I was born in Eureka, CA in 1975, which makes me... uhhhh... ummm...."

R: "That makes you 32 Jeff. OK! What about spouses, girlfriends, kids? Any of the above?

G: "Married to a beautiful and brilliant woman and we have 1 puppy... as in a dog"
J: "I'm engaged to be married in May of '08"

R: "God help her Jeff. OK! So what do you guys do for a living?"

G: "I'm a bum"
J: "I'm the shop manager at LifeCycle and I'm also the local resident expert bike grease-monkey... emphasis on the monkey."

R: "Cool. What about your involvement in endurance sports? What's your sport and how long have you been doing it?"

G: "I've raced road and mtn bikes for roughly 14 years."
J: "I've been riding for 10 years and competing in mtn. bike, cyclocross for the last 3 years"

R: "What was your first paying job?"

G: "Evening newpaper delivery boy."
J: "Dish washer"

R: "Favorite food?"

G: "Whole wheat pasta, israeli salad, grilled chicken, and Blue Bunny ice cream."
J: "Shrimp tempura shushi... I can eat that until I puke... and then eat some more. I LOVE homemade apple pie... I had that for my birthday once."

R: "Favorite color"?
G: "Pink... no... sky blue. Seriously."

R: "Favorite toothpaste?"

G: "Halatosis mint."
J: "Crest Pro-Health Mint."

R: "Favorite quote?"

G: "Life is what happens when you're making plans." or "The really hard I'll do right away, the impossible will take me a second."
J: "A smart man surrounds himself with smart women."

R: "What draws you guys to endurance sports?"

G: "Pain. I like pain. I like the burn. Plus there's a social camaraderie amongst endurance athletes that you can't find anywhere else."
J: "There's more bang for your buck. The more you train the better you get. I like suffering over extended periods of time. Competitions are long... I like that too."

R: "What's your favorite workout?"

G: "Good long, hard free ride."
J: "1 hour time trial."

R: "Any long-term or short-term fitness or competition goals you want to tell us about?"

G: "I want to finish Escape from the Gorge 1 minute faster than you Rob, in Sept of '08."

R: "Good luck with that. What about you Jeff?"

J: "I'd like to win the CCP (Cream Puff) 100 mile mtn bike race in July of '08."

R: Why do you think LifeCycle needs a tri-team?"

G: "Triathletes are fun people. They're real athletes. It takes discipline to excel in the sport and I enjoy the sport myself. I like to surround myself with people like that."
J: "Triathlon is an under appreciated sport. We want to be different here at LifeCycle and we want to have fun."

R: "What's your vision for the tri-team's future?"

G: "I see it in a couple of different ways: 1) I want it to be a strong, social, FUN community of triathletes. I want to see massive amounts of people out there supporting, encouraging, and pushing each other in their training and racing. And 2) Ultimately I'd love to have the team known as a group of triathletes to reckon with... when we show up at a race I want people to know that we're there to take the podium in every age group we represent."
J: "My only role in this thing is to make sure that every one's bike is performing at its peak... that's it... that's my vision."

R: "Thanks a lot guys. I know we're all looking forward to the '08 season and we really appreciate all the support you'll be giving the team."

That's it for the first official post guys! Leave a comment. Let me know what you think. In another week or two you'll see another featured athlete!

In the meantime...

Breathe...