Oh how I love to get new things… even if it’s just to try out the latest and greatest. I have been blessed to swim in 2 Xterra wetsuits, the Vector Pro and the Vendetta. These are the flagship suits from Xterra and I really enjoyed them both.
Unfortunately the Venetta was one size too big which meant, for me, that it was a little loose in the small of my back allowing water to wash around as I moved. So therefore I will just talk about the features of this suit rather than my personal swimming experience in it.
The Vendetta is Xterra’s most technologically advanced wetsuit— it is the most flexible and buoyant wetsuit ever made.
FLEXIBLE
• 5mm front and 3mm back of neoprene
• Fully coated with the slickest possible Nano-Super Composite Skin
• Maintaining an industry leading 0.02 drag coefficient
BUOYANT
• Front panel, from neck to ankles, has X-Air Buoyancy Cells, tiny air pockets embedded throughout the neoprene
• X-Air paneling keeps your body high in the water, thereby reducing drag and increasing speed
CUTTING-EDGE DESIGN
• Anatomically correct arms— each arm and shoulder is made up of 6 individually cut panels of 1.5 mm thick neoprene
• Panels follow the natural curve of the swim stroke, allowing faster and smoother swimming with less effort
• Seam-seal technology uses a triple layer of glue and double-blind stitching to ensure waterproof and long-lasting seams
Now onto the XterraVector Pro, which I loved. It has won more Ironman races than any other wetsuit. Just incase you needed to know.
FLEXIBLE
• 5mm front and 3mm back of neoprene
• Fully coated with the slickest Super Composite Skin coating
• Maintaining a 0.03 drag coefficient
BUOYANT
• Maximum legal thickness for increased buoyancy
CUTTING-EDGE DESIGN
• Anatomically correct arms— each arm and shoulder is made up of 6 individually cut panels of 1.5 mm thick neoprene
• Panels follow the natural curve of the swim stroke, allowing faster and smoother swimming with less effort
• Seam-seal technology uses a triple layer of glue and double-blind stitching to ensure waterproof and long-lasting seams
The Xterra Vector Pro gave me a shape that I have never experienced in any suit. My hips stayed nice and high and there is loads of buoyancy in the chest. The panel layout is fantastic. The flotation vs. flexibility characteristics of this suit is, dare I say, perfect.
Another thing I love is the neck. If you have a problem with necks sealing and chafing the Xterra neck mechanism great. Although I wouldn’t call the neck piece perfectly comfortable it definitely works very well. It seals fantastically and for me, not chafing was a blessing. Just be careful when you attached the zip-puller Velcro to the neck piece. If you place it too high, it will leave you with what might look like a hickie from one of the Twilight characters.
The only downer I found was that the zip didn’t seal perfectly, but that might have been a little easier to notice because of the water that was seeping in was 12 degrees Celsius. I’d give the Xterra Vector Pro 9 out 10.
If you want to get your hands on one of these beautiful crafted suits you can contact me via the contact page.
Happy swimming
Thank you to Dean Kruyer and the guys from Xterra Wetsuits
In one of the greatest races of all time (in my opinion) Chris Lieto gave everything he could, but could not hold off one of the most perfectly run Ironman marathons ever. Craig Alexander ran the perfect race. Here’s an interview with Chris Lieto, 2009 runner up.
“Chris Lieto’s Score to Settle” – TriEurope
“Craig Alexander’s pass on Chris Lieto at the 2009 Ironman World Championships produced one of the great triathlon photos. It said it all. While Alexander was picking people off on the run, Lieto was wearing his heart on his sleeve giving it everything he had. In 2009, he only just came up short. Can he do it in 2010? Susan Grant chatted to one of the most popular triathletes in the world about Kona, running and that score to settle.
Photo: Chris Orwig
You were inspired to compete in triathlon after reading an article in Outside magazine about Mark Allen. He went on to become your first triathlon coach. What did you learn from him?
I was inspired to do triathlon originally after watching the Ironman on television. Also, Wendy Ingraham lived in my area and so I met her at school and watched her do the Ironman on television. During this same period of time I saw the magazine article with Mark, and there was a sample 16-week plan on training for your first triathlon, so I followed that plan. That’s how I got started. After that, Wendy helped me in my training and Mark came along and coached me for a year after that. I learned a lot from him. Professional athletes who become coaches bring their own experiences as athletes to the table, including their own trials and errors. But everyone is different, so you have to figure out what works best for you, especially as you get older.
During the last decade you’ve had three top-10 finishes at the Hawaii Ironman. You’ve said in the past that one of your goals as a pro was to become one of the top Americans in the sport. With your top-American finish in 2009, do you feel like you have achieved your goal?
There’s definitely more left out there for me to do. One of the goals I set for myself when I got involved in the sport in 1999 was to be in the top one percentage in the world as far as ranking. I’ve accomplished that, as well as winning several other races that I set out to win. The last thing on my list is really to win Kona. I’ve come closer every year, so it’s still out there for me to finish first. This year I will be out there to win.
How does your goal of winning Kona affect the rest of your 2010 season?
For the last couple years, my focus has really been winning Ironman Hawaii above all else. Every race I go to I have the goal in mind that I want to win, but ultimately my goal for the whole year is winning Hawaii. There are sacrifices I make throughout the year in terms of the races I choose to do and in my training so that I can be as fit as possible come October.
That said, even if I’m not as fit because of where I am in my yearly training plan, no matter what race I line up for, I shoot for winning and for giving my all and racing all out and challenging myself.
It’s always exciting to see what I have in me at any given moment in a race. It’s also beneficial to race closely against somebody else because it teaches you about yourself both physically and emotionally. I will take all the things I learn in every race that I do this year and try to adapt them to how I approach my race in Kona.
You are currently coached by Matt Dixon, founder of Purple Patch Fitness based in the San Francisco Bay area. Dixon is a proponent of rest and recovery rather than logging huge miles all the time. You’ve always been vocal about the importance of rest, but even you have admitted that it’s easier for someone to make time for recovery when training is their only full-time job. What advice do you have for age-group athletes on recovery?
To be honest, 99 percent of age-groupers train too much. I’ve learned a lot more of that from Matt Dixon. In the past, some coaches really overloaded me, and they just had a philosophy that training that hard is what you have to do, although it is more of a philosophy people believed 15 years ago.
Matt incorporates a lot of rest and recovery into my training program and it works really well for me, especially as I get older. I believe you really need to take at least one day off weekly. It’s hard to do mentally sometimes, but people would be amazed at the relatively small amount of training you can do and still have an incredible race.
Craig Alexander passes Chris Lieto at Kona. Photo: John Segesta
You spent six weeks leading up to Kona in 2009 training at altitude—roughly 8,000 feet—in Mammoth with marathoners Ryan Hall and Josh Cox, among others. What was the most profound change in your running during your time there, and how did it help you in Kona?
The time I spent up there was a great time, and being up that high works really well for me. It doesn’t always work well for people, so I was glad I enjoyed it and it helped me. I will be going back this year, although I will have to monitor when and how long I’m up there because what works once may not work the next time.
It was a chance to focus on my training for Hawaii, although usually I do training camps on Maui before the Ironman. This past year, I wanted to stay closer to home. It was more about a destination to get clarity and focus and to find balance in my training and myself.
Also, the surroundings were so beautiful and the people were so great to run with and learn from. Running with my friends Ryan Hall and Josh Cox and getting to know Deena Kastor and her husband and Meb [Keflezighi] was really a great experience.
It was good to be able to run with people at a high level.They are elite athletes at the top of their sport and we have mutual respect for each other and what it takes to be an athlete.
But there wasn’t any of that cloudiness of the sport of triathlon crowding my mind up there.
I’ve never really spent time at training camps in the traditional triathlon environment, for instance, going up to Boulder or wherever else other triathletes go. I’d rather train either with elite athletes I can learn from or just by myself. It was a time for me to challenge myself. There were times when I was more nervous about a track session with Ryan Hall and Josh Cox and all the Mammoth track team than lining up for a race. The running was great, I got a lot of good quality runs in while staying injury free, and it was just a great time overall.
In 1998 a friend accidentally ran over your foot, breaking it in more than 50 places. You were told you would never run again. Did you place a call after your Kona finish to the doctor who gave you your diagnosis and rub it in?
It’s funny you mentioned that. I did a talk with a triathlon club at a fitness club in my area and at the end of my talk it turns out the doctor who had worked on me after my injury was in the audience. He came up and talked to me after I finished my presentation and congratulated me. He was really impressed, and we’ve actually talked a few times since.
Doctors always give you the worst-case scenario with injuries like that based on the data that they have available to them. However, I am still dealing with the injury even today. I notice it in how my foot reacts to my run training, the soreness and the inflexibility in my ankle. I have some scar tissue in my foot even still. You just deal with it.
Thinking back to when you were healing from that injury, do you think it made you an even more driven athlete than you would have been otherwise?
In the beginning for sure it did. That first year, it was very much a driving force for me to rehab and get healed up. I was doing more on a rehab basis than they would have liked because I was so motivated. I would show up at the rehab place and they would tell me to warm up on the bike and I would have to explain to them that I just got done riding for two hours on the trainer. They basically kicked me out of physical therapy because I was doing enough on my own.
I was very proactive. As soon as I could get out of bed I did, as soon as I could ride a bike I did. Even with the cast on I would do activity. I pushed for a cast that would allow me to get in the water and I did a lot of aqua jogging. I never gave it time to rest and that was the key to my recovery.
A lot of times when people have surgery or injury issues they sit and let the recovery happen without being active, and that is when the scar tissue builds up. I really kept my foot and ankle moving and although I have some scar tissue it is so much less than I would have had otherwise.
You are one of the strongest cyclists in the sport, if not the strongest. Chris McCormack said that he thought you would be able to out-split Lance Armstrong if you had the chance. Do you think that you could?
I have no idea! I doubt it. Lance is a phenomenal athlete and he has the ability to excel at anything he puts his mind to. He is a mentor for me—someone I look up to. If he races in Kona this year or whenever and I’m out there racing too, I’ll do my best to keep up with him and hopefully I won’t let him go anywhere. I have no doubt that in the end he would probably smoke me though.
Prior to the 2009 Ironman World Championship, it was rumored that you were considering retiring from the sport. Was this true, and if so why?
I’ve gone through different stages in regards to retirement. In 2004, I thought about retiring and then I was able to have a good race at Ironman Canada and at that time I was thinking that it might be my last race. It goes to show how important your mindset is going into a race. At Ironman Canada I had no pressure on me; I just went out there and tried to have the best race I could have. I also held strongly to the belief that I had it in me to win the race, and so believing that I was able to win.
I learned from that experience that you always have to have that type of mindset where you are positive and you have big goals, but at the same time you don’t put pressure on yourself in an unhealthy way. You have to show up to your events, or whatever else you have to do in your life, with a relaxed, confident attitude, and that is how I really have approached the rest of my career since then.
“Ironman World Championship runner-up Chris Lieto talked with VeloNews’ Neal Rogers about the twitter time trial, training as a cyclist and exactly how fast he thinks Armstrong can finish at the Ironman World Championships.
Lieto at a recent team camp. Photo: Kurt Hoy
Those who follow Lance Armstrong’s Twitter updates may have noticed his first-ever “Twitter time trial” last week against Ironman triathlete Chris Lieto, held along Kona’s Queen K Highway — the windy stretch of coastal road that serves as the bike leg of the Hawaii Ironman world championships.
Later that day Armstrong issued a notice to his near 2.5 million Twitter followers: “Queen K Hwy TT Challenge. Tomorrow 9:30am. Start – Waikeloa Beach Dr to Kukio Nui Dr. 14 miles. Full gas. Take it easy on me @chrislieto.”
A video posted online quoted Armstrong saying Lieto had ridden 15 seconds slower than he had; Lieto later posted his time as 18:44; just nine seconds slower than Armstrong. Either way, it was an impressive ride for the triathlete, considering Armstrong has been one of the strongest cyclists against the clock of the past decade. And as Armstrong said, “Who knows, maybe we’ll be having a showdown out here [on the Queen K Highway] in a couple years, with the swim in the front and the run at the end.”
The biggest star of the new Trek/K-Swiss triathlon team, Lieto, who turns 38 this year, is famous for using his bike strength to begin the marathon run with a large advantage. That tactic has never taken him to victory on the sport’s biggest stage, but he’s won three Ironman-distance races, holding the bike-course record at Ironman Canada. He finished ninth in Kona in 2006 and sixth in 2007 (the top American), and last year Lieto posted the fastest bike split — 4:37:33, for an average of 24.22mph — before Australian Craig Alexander finally reeled him in at mile 22 of the run. Lieto finished second, 2:35 behind Alexander, a result that forced those who have questioned Lieto’s bike-heavy strategy to think again.
The Bay Area resident has also done his fair share of bike racing with the amateur team California Giant Berry Farms, playing the role of unknown wildcard at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, in 2006 and 2007, and at the Tour of Utah, in 2006 and 2008. At the 2006 Utah race Lieto made it into the day’s breakaway on the final stage, finishing fourth on the climb to Snowbird Resort, just nine seconds behind climbing sensation Phil Zajicek; he finished the race 11th overall, 5:32 behind overall winner Scott Moninger. At Mt. Hood in 2007 Lieto put in a strong performance, finishing fifth on the pivotal 18.5-mile time trial, ahead of two-time national time-trial champion Chris Baldwin. Lieto finished that race seventh overall, 3:08 behind overall winner Nathan O’Neill.
VeloNews managing editor Neal Rogers caught Lieto by phone to ask about how the recent “Twitter time trial” came about, how it felt to be less than 10 seconds slower than a rider who has stood on the Tour de France podium eight times and how Armstrong might fare against today’s Ironman men’s field.
VeloNews: So is there a Trek connection with Armstrong?
Chris Lieto: Yeah, I’ve known Lance a few years, through Trek, we’ve done some wind-tunnel stuff. He invited me out to his house last fall for the Mellow Johnny’s Classic, the mountain-bike race. I did that, and I hung out with him there. I knew he was in Hawaii and I connected with him. I saw him out riding one day, we rode a few times together, and then we passed each other one day — he saw me riding down a hill, and he was riding up — and he twittered right after that. We were planning on doing a good ride together, and then he twittered that. He emailed me, we had an arrival time, he was going first, and I was leaving behind him. We met at 9:30. He opened it up to anyone else that wanted to do the time trial. They just had to leave after us, and it was on the honor system, no cheating, you started your own clock at the start and at the finish. I think he was surprised by how much response he got, and how much banter there was, with the tri community getting in on it. It was pretty funny.
VN: What was the distance?
CL: I’d have to look at my computer. I think it ended up being 11 miles. I don’t remember exactly. The average speed was about 56kph, or about 35mph. We had a tailwind.
VN: And this was part of the Ironman triathlon course?
CL: Yep, it’s part of the Ironman course, probably from mile 85 to 95, or so, somewhere in there.
VN: Armstrong tweeted that you were only 15 seconds behind him.
CL: Yeah, I was actually nine seconds off. He quoted me at 15 seconds in a video that was shot right after we finished. But after I downloaded my computer, my time was a little bit quicker.
VN: That’s pretty fast — Armstrong won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in the time trial, has won several Tour de France time trials, and was third at the Tour last year. Did you expect to be there? Are you pleased with that?
CL: Yeah, obviously I’m pleased to be that close to the best cyclist in the world. It’s great. I didn’t know what it was going to be like, or how I would perform. I didn’t think I would be that close. It was my first hard effort of the year, doing something like that. I haven’t done any max efforts yet, so it was a new experience for the year, to get going again. We’d both had hard weeks of training. The day before I think he rode five hours, I rode five hours, a lot of climbing, intervals, so it was just an unknown. But it was good to just hit it out. It helped with the tailwind, it made it a little bit easier to stay within striking range, or minimize the time gap. I think if it was a headwind maybe it would have been a little different. I think it also shows the bike quality of our new Trek Speed Concept. It equaled it out. We were on the same bike, in similar positions, on similar size frames.
VN: Was there one rider that brought more aerodynamic equipment — wheels, helmet, skinsuit, anything?
CL: No, it’s funny, we talked beforehand, I said okay, no aero helmets, because I didn’t bring mine and he had his. He said okay, and then he showed up and he was in his skinsuit, and I was in my regular jersey and bibs. And I was like “What’s up with the skinsuit?” and then he looked at my wheels and said that I had race wheels on. They’re four-year-old aluminum training wheels, but they have bladed spokes. But I had a 24-count spoke count wheel, and he had a 32-spoke count wheel. He had a skinsuit and I had a jersey and bibs, I had an aluminum rim with less spokes than he had, so it all balanced out.
VN: I’m pretty familiar with Armstrong’s race schedule, and where he should be with his fitness at this time of year. You said that was your first hard effort of the year; what’s your first race of 2010, and where did this sort of effort fit into your training?
CL: My first race of the year is March 15th. His first race was, what, last month? I’m a few months behind the cycling community. My first big race isn’t until June, and then Hawaii in October. I break my year into two halves. There are two half-Ironmans that I will be focusing on, but I haven’t confirmed which ones yet. For me my main focus is October. For Lance it’s the Tour de France in July. I try to get a first half of the season peak in June, and then I take a few weeks off and rebuild and start my focus for October. The big build will be for Kona.
Lieto in his roadie kit.
VN: We’ve seen you race at national-level road races in the past, but not really last year. Will you do that again in 2010? Where are you with your side career as an amateur cyclist?
CL: I’m not really doing anything with the side career. I’m still with the (California Giant Berry Farms) team, I am still part of it. Last year was the first year I didn’t do any stage races, the year before I did Tour of Utah. Last year with my training schedule and my racing schedule, it didn’t fit in. I did a few small local road races. This year will probably be the same. I doubt I’ll show up to any stage races. I think the lead up for me is more specific, what I need to do leading up to a triathlon.
VN: So what’s changed? How has the lead up changed compared to years when you were racing stage races? Does that mean you need to work more on the run, and less on the bike?
CL: It’s the whole balance. Training for triathlon you have to balance all three sports. So going to do a stage race, like say the Tour of Utah, I may prepare differently on my bike leg leading up to it so I can be fit enough on the bike to maintain and to be part of that race. I’m also taking that five- or six-day block and just riding. In the past I would do little runs after the stage was over, just a short run to keep the legs moving. But you take a weeklong block to do a stage race and you’re not getting in the swimming and running. So you have to sacrifice those, and you have to figure out what is the grand effect, and how you manage recovery to make sure you’re still on plan for the ultimate race in your triathlon schedule.
VN: So out in Kona with Lance, training on the Queen K, you must have chatted with him about him returning to triathlon. What kinds of conversations have you had with him about it?
CL: We have chatted a little bit about it. Nothing is definite or set. It’s known that he has an interest in racing triathlon again. He’s made statements that he’ll come and race in the sport of triathlon at some point, in the next year or two, when he’s done with the Tour. I think we may see him at some Ironman events, or half-Ironman events, or something like that.
VN: From what you’ve seen in Armstrong’s comeback, and his rides on the Queen K, what sort of performance do you think he’s capable of in the Hawaii Ironman?
Photo: Chris Orwig
Craig Alexander passes Chris Lieto at Kona. Photo: John Segesta
Lieto at a recent team camp. Photo: Kurt Hoy
Lieto in his roadie kit.
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