kk's tri blog

Tour de Tamarack Bike Race

2009-09-09T14:52:00.005-04:00

My friends and co-directors from the DamTri, Steve and Nina Bell, have been putting this race on for over 10 years now. It is not a USCF event but they offer a 20 mile novice race, 30 mile intermediate race and a 40 mile expert race. In my return to road racing in 2006 I did this race and finished 12th in the 20 mile event and 2nd in my age group. I have not done a road race since then and other than Spain and my occasional group ride every training ride I've done has been geared toward triathlon and not competitive cycling.

I had planned to do this race all summer and was going to do the 30 mile race, as most of the top road racers from the area, Ohio and New York come to hammer each other in the 40 mile version. Coach John, however, told me to do the 40 mile race and use it as training.

The week leading up to the race was far from what you would call a good prep week for a hard 40 mile elite race. Monday was a long run, 16 miles, with the first7.5 as a warmup at 7:45 pace and the last 8.5 hard at 6:45 pace. Oh and it was a hilly run. Tuesday was a swim with 90 minutes of hard intervals on the bike in the evening. A 7+ mile hill run Wednesday at sub 7 min pace, then another swim and hard interval set on the bike again Thursday. Friday brought another hill run, this time 8 miles including one long grinding hill in under an hour and to top it all off I was to ride a long hill ride Saturday followed by a 1 hr run. I got 66+ miles of hills in Saturday on the bike at a nice steady but not too hard effort, and decided if I was not going to embarass myself Sunday I needed to skip the run. Also, my run I did Wednesday was an unplanned run so I was still on pace for the week. I had put up on Facebook earlier Friday that my legs felt like noodles and I was probably bowing out of the Tour de Tamarack but enough people 'urged' me on with the final push being John telling me that Rideout (from the Spain trip) would do it, so I had no choice now but to go and enter the 40 mile elite race.

I tried to rest as much as possible Saturday and get some fuel in the tank after the long ride and got my bike ready for the race. Got up early Sunday and rode the 5-6 miles, mostly downhill, to the park for registration and got signed up for the elite 40 mile race. A lot of people from Meadville and Erie were there as it was a perfect day for a nice race. My legs felt just ok during the warmup and before the race, but I knew I had no snap to them so I had no idea what the day would hold.

The elite wave started first, at 9 am which was nice as I hate super early starts, with the 30 mile and 20 mile races starting in 5 minute intervals behind us. About 50 riders, most on teams with several teammates there, lined up to start the elite race.

The course is basically 4 loops around Tamarack Lake. It starts with a short but steep climb up Devore Rd, which you end up climbing 4 times. At the top of Devore you make a right and continue a slight climb up Pettis Rd and then it becomes a long gradual downhill until a hard right onto Freyermouth Rd. for a short fast downhill, then a right onto Tamarack Drive for a 5-6 mile flat to slightly uphill section another right onto Williamson Rd for a small false flat/slight Hill and then a right back onto Devore Rd where you have a steep fast downhill to the start and then it's back up Devore to begin the next lap. For the 40 mile course on the 2nd lap there's a bonus hill, Phelps Rd, that comes about halfway down the flat section of Tamarack Dr and on the 3rd lap you continue straight on Freyermouth and go up a steep, hard hill for another bonus climb.

The course profile shows this is not a flat race by any means, with 6 good hills that although they are somewhat short are rather steep with all of them being over 10% in at least some sections and the beginning of Phelps pushes 20% for a little while.

The first lap was rather boring. Almost the entire group of 50 stayed together up the 1st climb up Devore right off the bat, and then it was simply a very fast large group ride around the lake. The descent of Devore was fun and although it was a large group most of these guys were seasoned riders and there were no twitchy bike handling skills on display.

Lap 2 started with a much harder effort up Devore Rd and we dropped about a dozen or more riders. The pace was hard but the longer the climb went the better I felt and I had no problem holding the main group. We continued around the lake to the first bonus climb, Phelps, which is a hard left turn and is immediately a steep 20% grade for the first couple hundred yards. Having ridden this road many times I knew to just make sure I stayed with the lead group at the start and that the climb eases up after the initial ascent and that is exactly what I did. I think we lost a couple of more riders going up Phelps and the group split up into several smaller groups for a short while but with the rest of the lap being flat to slightly downhill everyone came back together like I knew they would.

Lap 3 was again hard up Devore, but the third time up this hill comes fairly quickly after the hard climb of Phelps so the pace was not too hard. I again just made sure to stay with the leaders and did not have much trouble doing so, and although my legs were tired and had very little power to them my energy level and endurance felt good as I'd been fueling up on Clif Shots and Infinit during the ride. At the end of the long downhill we got the 2nd bonus climb up Freyermouth for our 5th hard climb of the day. This hill is steep at the bottom, has a short easier section in the middle before getting steep again and then one more easy section before a short hard section with a long drawn out top that eases over the hill. As part of my long ride the day before I put this hill in as it seemed like a good idea at the time. The accelerations on the steep parts were hard and the lead group, now about 30 guys, quickly got strung out and I found myself at the back of the pack. I kept my tempo under control and slowly got back in touch with the group until one more hard acceleration at the last short steep section spit several of us back out. I was now about 30-40 yds behind the tail end of the lead group with 2-3 guys and I knew once the leaders got over the easier top part of the climb it was a long downhill stretch to the start of lap 4. I knew I needed to be with them when they started this section as I could rest then and if I did not join them I would never see them again so I dug down and sprinted as best I could back towards the leaders determined to catch back on. As I did this I passed two riders from Erie and I told one of them to get on my wheel and they needed to catch up or they, and I, would never stay with the lead group. They did not react so I kept going and joined back up to the group just as we began the long gradual descent back to the start of lap 4. I used this time to rest and knew I just had 1 more climb up Devore to not get dropped on and I would be finishing with the lead group. I recovered well and felt good starting lap 4.

The 4th lap is the same as the 1st lap, and the starting climb up Devore was the best I felt all day. I stayed near the front of the group and had no problem with this climb. I think after 30 miles and 5 climbs I was finally warmed up. On the way up the climb we got a split that the two leaders were 1:10 up the road, and I honestly had not seen where they got ahead of our pack. After the climb up Devore there were 1 or 2 attacks on the long downhill but with everyone going along at 25 to 30+ mph no one was going to get away. Once we made the final turn onto Tamarack Dr for the last 4-5 miles of basically flat road the pace really picked up and there were multiple attacks with none of them successful. The final turn before Devore road was a bunch sprint to the top of Devore followed by a 50mph descent and then a short climb about 1/3 of the way back up Devore to a hard right hand turn then a short 150 yd sprint to the finish.

I got a little out of position at the turn at the top of Devore and was too far back in the pack. I tried to make up a few spots on the descent but so did everyone else and when we started the mad dash back up Devore I found myself at the tail end of the group as we made the right onto the finishing stretch. I sprinted hard and passed 7 or 8 people and finished right with the main group, which was now strung out. I really should have made sure to be at the front at the start of the descent of Devore.

Final results 40 miles in 1:47:11, 22.39 mph avg, 18th overall, 6th Male 30-39.
Given the week I had leading up to this race, lack of rest and lack of training for road racing I was very happy with the results and the fact that I stayed with the group all day. Later, while checking my HR file, I noticed that I never got much over 180 going up the hills which is slightly low for me as in training if I have the legs to really push things I can always hit 190+ going up short steep hills. The spread from me (18th) to 3rd was only 9 seconds and the two leaders only finished 30 seconds or so in front of our group. Oh, the two guys from Erie that missed the train at the top of Freyermouth finished next 3+ minutes back.

For a first road race in 3 years and on a strictly triathlon only training plan I was more than happy with the outcome. Next year I might actually train for this race.

Picture: The final sprint up Devore before the hard right onto the finish road.

Presque Isle Sprint Race Report

2009-09-09T09:43:00.003-04:00

Saturday, August 29th was the Presque Isle Sprint tri in Erie PA. This was a race I did my first year in the sport in 2006 but due to conflicting with Ironman Wisconsin I had to skip the last 2 years so despite only being 6 days after the Cannonman Half I still wanted to do this race and do well. In fact I had e-mailed coach John and told him I wanted top 3 or was going to be very disappointed. I registered the week before and was lucky as the race sold out with about 350 entries and I had been planning on just signing up race day.

The week after Cannonman I took easy, with a few recovery rides and some easy spins on the bike and just tried to concentrate on re-fueling the body and letting the legs recover, although my legs did not feel sore or tired at all. I got up Saturday morning and drove to Erie in the rain to get ready for this race. Oh, did I mention it rains EVERY year for this event for some reason??

Swim .35 miles: 10:13 (1:39/100, 9th Overall, 7th Male, 2nd Age Group)
The swim felt long, as there is no way I was almost at a 1:40/100 pace. It was also held in the bay instead of the lake this year so the water was relatively calm compared to years past. All males and females 39 and under went first, so it was a pretty big wave. Nothing really exciting happened in the swim however I did feel a little drained energy-wise which would be a sign for things to come.

Bike 12.5 miles: 31:32 (23.8mph, 11th Overall, 11th Male, 2nd AG)
This was a huge disappointment. The bike was held on the exact same course the yearly time trials are held on and it's a dead flat single loop course. Both times in the time trials this year I've gone just a few ticks over 28 minutes, so I was thinking anything around 29 would be acceptable for today. The rain was light and steady and not really a factor and I got off to an ok start but did not have much snap to the legs. I had passed a couple people in transition and on the course quickly worked my way up to 3rd. Dan Pierce, of course, led the swim and based on my times vs his on the bike at Edinboro and or the time trials I was planning on getting at least a minute back. Unfortunately around mile 7 I simply ran out of gas and the half the weekend before was catching up with me. The legs felt fine, but I had almost no energy. Finished the bike disappointed with my time and would later check results and see that people I've been easily beating on the bike all summer finished ahead of me and that did not make me happy. Despite this I was in 3rd place and anxious to see if I had anything for the run as I had a really bad bike a few weeks ago at the Yellow Creek race but a good solid run.

Run 3.5 miles: 23:50:35 (7:01/mile, 19th overall, 19th male, 4th AG)
Unfortunately the legs were fine but the gas tank was on empty as I started the run. I had no turnover, no energy and was just slogging away in the wet and rainy conditions. Also the run felt a little long as I am pretty sure I was doing better than 7 minute miles, but maybe not!

I saw two guys coming into T-2 as I was leaving and held them off for about the first mile until I got passed by a young guy in the under 20 age group. He was going along at a clip I should have easily been able to match but I just had nothing. The run was a basic out and back and we saw Dan coming back running strong but 2nd place looked to be lumbering so it appeared that maybe we'd catch him. On the way back I got passed by the second guy that came into transition and he too was going at a pace I should have easily been able to top, so by now I was just mad and wanted to be done. I followed him by about 5 seconds to where the last 300 or so yards of the run splits off the road and goes through a wooded bike trail to the finish. I didn't see anyone behind me so I was just going along until just around the corner from the finish I heard footsteps and I frantically tried to kick it in. Some young kid came barrelling by me with about 100 yards to go and got a step ahead of me. I dug deep and caught back up to him and we were shoulder to shoulder going as fast as we could with about 50 yards to go. I was on his right and the trail made a slight right hand bend to the finish and at this point the people cheering were crowding the finish and he was drifting right going around this bend. I had three choices: elbow him off, wipe out someone in the crowd or just say f@#k it and let him go, which I did and finished about 1 step behind him. I don't know if I could have beat him to the line as he had youth and a winged-foot tattoo which in my book makes him fast, but I know I could have given a little more that last stretch if not for getting crowded but by that point I just didn't care and wanted to be done. My run was almost 3 minutes slower than at Yellow Creek which was also a 3.5 mile run but was on a tougher, rolling course. Oh well.

Final Result 1:07:29 (7th overall, 7th male, 1st AG)
Not the result I wanted, and in fact almost 5 minutes slower than I thought I should have been going into the race. The overall winner, Kevin Park, started in the second heat so I was 7th overall and 6th in my heat. My legs felt fine, I simply was still drained from the half just 6 days before. Got a picture for winning my age group, which is normal for this race and I don't understand why they could not at least put a tag on the picture saying what you won. Also, wish there would have been mile markers on the run, although it probably would not have made any difference other than to tell me how slow I was going.

The only good thing to come out of the day was the McDonalds Angus Bacon Cheeseburger I treated myself to on the way home. That was pretty good!

Cannonman Half Ironman Race Report

2009-09-09T08:38:00.003-04:00

Cannonman Half Ironman race, August 23rd.

This was kind of a last minute entry. A friend e-mailed me the details a week or so before and I looked it up. It was a first year event put on by Piranha Sports and was about a 3 hour drive away from home and looked to be in a nice little state park. I had been looking for a late season half to get in because I was still mad about not going sub 5 hours at Jersey man after all the course problems there, and knew sub 5 at the upcoming Savageman Half was going to be out of the question so I talked it over with Coach John and we decided to do a mini 1 week taper and use the race for a tuneup to Savageman, which is to be my A race for the year. Drove down the night before, scouted the course, got some pasta and pretty much relaxed most of the evening.

Swim 29:30 (1:24/100 yds, 3rd overall, 2nd male, 1st age group)
The swim was a 1 loop course in a nice little lake. Got off to a quick start and soon found myself on the feet of the lead swimmer with only 1-2 people behind me and another group about 5 seconds back. The pace was good and hard but the guy leading was swimming all over the place. It didn't help that the RD had used very few buoys and the lake was foggy. Compoudning this was the young kid in the lead kayak was going along side us until we made the first left hand turn and could not see the next buoy. I yelled for him to lead us from buoy to buoy and he did. At this time the lead swimmer followed the kayaker and was just a touch too fast for me to hang onto and opened up a small 5 second or so gap. As we got to the last buoy to turn and make the long stretch back a woman came flying buy me. I got on her feet for a while but she was on a mission to catch the leader about 10 seconds in front of us. The rest of the swim was uneventful except for the last 2-300 yards where it was really poorly marked as to where to make the turn to go into shore for the finish. I felt good the whole swim and with a few more buoys and better marking think that this should have been a sub 28 min swim easily. Note to the RD: You need more than 5 buoys for a 1.2 mile swim!

Bike: 2:30:16 (21.6 mph, 4 oa, 4 male, 2 ag)
After a long run up the beach and to transition, very reminiscent of the Damtri, I got on the bike and began the climb out of the park on the park roads. One guy that was not too far behind me on the swim caught me and he and I left transition together. I followed him out of the park, we quickly passed the female that led the swim, and we were about 20-30 seconds behind the leader/lead vehicle.
The bike started with the climb out of the park then a nice little climb before a fast descent on some pretty windy roads. The two of us traded 2nd place a couple of times until we got through the descent and onto the first of 2 loops of the main course where I sat in 3rd, just riding legally behind 2nd with 1st about 30 seconds up the road. The bike course was a two loop affair with the first 10 miles or so of the loop a constant uphill. There were only a couple of semi-steep climbs but nothing too bad but it was a never ending grind that just kept going up and up. Finally there was a short steep straight downhill where you lost all the elevation you had spent the last 30 minutes climbing in about 5 minutes and then a long flat open stretch before the second loop.
I rode behind the 2nd place guy for the entire first loop, then at the start of the second loop he motioned for me to come to the lead and followed me for about 3-4 miles at the start of the climb. Apparently my pace was just a touch too slow for him because he passed me back and I again just stayed behind pacing off him. About this time a dot appeared in my rear view that grew faster and faster until it went by me at an impressive clip. This turned out the be Josh Beck, who would go on to win the race. My 'rabbit' tried to go with him for about a minute or two but he got dropped and then just stayed several hundred yards up the road where I continued to pace off him for the rest of the ride.
The bike course was a nice fair course, but it was at least 1.5 miles short.

Run 1:44:00 (7:56/mile, 19th OA, 19th male, 2nd AG)
I came off the bike feeling good, in 4th place, ready to run and determined to go 1:3x for my run. The run also reminded me of the Damtri with a nice mix of park roads, trails and run across a small dam. Unfortunately, like the Damtri, it was a hilly run and in fact was one of the harder runs I've ever done. Like the bike it was a 2 loop course, starting with a nice climb out of transition on park roads, a quick downhill to another climb, on a trail for a brief spell, then a short steep uphill to a meadow to another short very steep rocky climb up the side of the dam, across the dam, onto more trails going up, up a short steep grassy trail to a park road that was an out and back up a hill, then it was through some more rolling park roads to a short downhill on a trail that followed the lake down to the dam, back across the dam and then split from the trail out to a gently rolling trail back to the second loop/finish.

I ran steady but not too hard the first loop because after seeing all the hills I wanted to save something for the second loop. About 3/4 the through I got passed by 2 guys a few seconds apart, neither were in my age group and I now knew I was sitting in 6th place overall. I finished the first loop in about 46 minute so I knew I was on pace for a 1:3x run if I could just hold it together. Then my mind started doing math and I was thinking a 4:3x overall time was very much within my grasp. The second loop started ok, but it was starting to get hot out and the hills were taking their toll. I ran all the way to the out and back section about 2/3 way through the loop but then I had to walk a short ways up it but I figured that was better than blowing myself up. I continued on the trail but I was really starting to get loopy by this point and was trying to take in Gatoraide and Clif shots to keep fueled as I knew I had blown my nutrition on the run. About 1/2 mile from the end of the dam on the return trip I ran up a small incline on the trail and just stopped. I was shot, wanted to lay down right there and nap by the trail but knew I only had less than 2 miles to go. I forced myself to get going again and unfortunately got passed by another guy at this point. I got across the dam, took in some water and Gatoriade at the last station and tried to run the last mile home. While passing a couple of people on their first lap they told me I looked good and so on, but I was a wreck. The legs felt fine but I had screwed up and not taken in enough calories and was really goofy by this point, and at one section where there is 2 way traffic I almost ran into some poor girl coming out as I just never saw her. I got to the part where the trails split and then went up the last few rollers until I crested the final one and could see the finish line about 200 yards away and all downhill. At this point my body was done and I simply stopped, bent over with my hands on my knees and unable to move within spitting distance of the finish. I thought about just walking in and then saw someone running strong coming at me also trying to finish, so I just focused on the line and ran as hard as I could to the line holding off the guy that was coming from behind. I finished and collapsed in the grass after they got my timing chip completely drained of all energy and unable to move for 20 minutes. After getting a coke and some Gatoraide from a volunteer I finally started to feel human again and was able to get up and get moving after laying there for what seemed like forever, got some recovery drink and went and floated in the water at the beach for 20 minutes.

Final Result 4:47:06 (7th OA, 7th male, 1st AG)
While this was still a 20 minute personal best at the half iron distance race it was still a little bit of a let down as I know I can go faster. The combination of a really tough run course along with not taking in enough nutrition on the run really hurt me. I estimate I lost close to 10 minutes in the last 2-3 miles that would have put me in the 4:3x time zone.

It was a fun race however, and the run was perfect training for the upcoming Savageman run that is also tough and hilly. The park where the race was held had a really nice beach, nice showers and changing area and the run course was tough but fun. The only complaints I would have is that there were no markings on the run and post race food and extras were pretty minimal for a half.

Willow Creek Sprint Tri, Recap...VIctory Shall Be Mine!

2009-08-06T15:03:00.005-04:00

I decided to do this race about 5 pm the day before. Nothing much was going on and it was supposed to be a nice race, although it was a 2+ hour drive, and it was this or a simple 5k 5 minutes from home.

Arrived at the race site around 7:30 or so for the 9am start. Got signed in and tried to figure out the logistics of the race as it was a point to point race. They gave me a plastic bag to put my running stuff in and stapled my race # to the bag and said it would be waiting for me at the end of the bike along with all the other racers' bags. The bags were supposedly going to be stapled to the deck of a bar and in order by race #. Sounded like it had ample opportunity for trouble but I put my faith in the race staff and put my brand new Newtons in a bag and left them with a pile of stuff from other racers.

Headed off and did a nice little 3k+ run and felt good for my warmup, then a very short swim.

Swim 300yds, 4:38:30, 5th fastest overall, 4th fastest individual, 4th fastest male.
I lined up in the second wave of racers on a small concrete wall at the beach to start the race. There was about 20+ people in the wave ahead and about 40 in our wave, which was all the racers 25-39 I believe. Young guys (and gals) went first, and geezers and teams followed us. Since it was such a short swim I opted for no wetsuit. The Team Continuim gear by Champ Systems is awesome, but I could definitely feel some drag from the tri top when warming up. But I had made the decision to skip the wetsuit and knew it would be too hard to get it on since I was wet and didn't have time before my heat, plus it was only 300 yds! Got off to a good start and on some feet belonging to one of the many members of the Erie Tri Club that were racing. Followed him for the whole race, came out of the water 2nd in our heat and sprinted as fast as I could up the long run (very reminiscent of the run at the Damtri) up to T-1 and my bike, passing the lead swimmer from my heat in transition.

Bike 15 miles, 37:51:60 (2:31/mile pace), Fastest overall bike individual and teams.
I felt good on the bike and immediately started passing people from the first wave that started 7 minutes ahead of us. The bike is a really nice course along the reservior and for the most part was on some nice gently rolling roads. Being a point to point course however it was basically uphill almost the whole way, whith a lot of false flats that made you really work to keep a good speed. I continued to go as hard as I could and contiued to pass people, although they were getting more and more scarce towards the end of the ride. Caught another couple of guys about 2 miles from the finish and they stayed about 15-20 seconds behind me coming into T-2.

T-2 was amizingly well setup, although the dismount line came up really quick and without much warning which left me sitting on my bike instead of riding on one shoe ready to run. They actually had handlers there to take your bike and take it to the racks they had setup, and ther was a bar/restaraunt with a porch that had all the bags stapled to the outsid of the deck and plastic chairs setup every few feet in front of the bags. I let a guy take my bike and tossed him my helmet, hoping he would keep it with the bike and I quickly found my bag, ripped it open and sat down in a chair and threw on my shoes and headed off. More transitions should be setup this way!

Run 3 miles, 21:45:10 (7:01/mile pace), 3rd fastest overall, fastest individual run.
So to be fair the run was actually 3.2 miles AND included your T-2 time, so I wasn't that slow! But back to the race. I took off out of T-2 and began the run, which like the bike was point to point to a finish line 3+ miles down the road, which was also ever so slightly uphill. Two guys followed me by about 10 seconds out of T-2, but I had no idea how many people were in front of me from the first wave, but I knew I was leading the second heat. The first mile seemed to take forever, but now I know it was actually a mile plus. The mile markers for both the bike and run counted down, so at about 7:20 I hit the first sign that said "2 Miles to Go" and I knew it was supposed to be a 3 mile run so I thought there was no way I was that slow as I felt pretty good. I churned out the second mile in right around 6 minutes flat and about that time passed a driveway with a family out watching the race. A guy yelled out "go get him, he's only a couple of minutes ahead of you and you're in second", which had me wondering just what a couple minutes meant, as the waves started 7 minutes apart. With just over a mile to go the course hits a long straight stretch and I saw the lead runner and car about 3 minutes or less down the road and knew I had him beat! A quick check over the shoulder showed me that the one guy that had stayed about 10 seconds back for the 1st mile had really dorpped back quite a ways, and even though I was technically 7 minutes ahead of him I still did not want anyone to pass me on the run.

I came into the finish and did a quick watch check so I could start my timer to see if any of the racers from the last heat were going to come in within 7 minutes of me.

The first couple of minutes flew by, but then the closer it got to 7 minutes the longer the clock seemed to take. A few people came in here and there, and some I could tell were from my heat or the heat ahead of mine, but a couple looked like they could have been the later heat, so I was unsure. I caught up with the guy from the heat ahead of me that finished before me and asked his time, but he had no idea and thought he was under an hour, which would have put him ahead of me. I finally saw the lead runner, another guy from Erie, from the second heat and he was well beyond 7 minutes behind me, but I was still confused about just how far the guy from the lead heat was in front of me. I thought from seeing him he was less than 2-3 minutes ahead, but if he really broke an hour I knew he got me! Finally Curt from the Erie Tri Club, who was there watching but not racing, stopped by and confirmed that the head guy was only a minute or two in front of me so I was pretty confident I had won the race overall.

Final results: 1:04:15, 1st overall (individual and teams).
After they posted the results it was confirmed, I had won! Not a big race, but a victory nonetheless. I felt good all day and really did what I wanted to accomplish, which was hammer the bike and still be able to have a decent run.

The only bad thing was I had to bum a ride back to the swim area to get my car, then drive back to the bike finish to get my bike. Chip from the Damtri was there so he gave me a ride (the race does have a bus that will do this for you but I did not want to wait) then I stuck around for some good food and the coolest trophy ever, which was presented by the family of the young man that was killed overseas and was named in his honor. Overall not bad for a last minute decision to go race!

Where did July go????

2009-07-31T15:29:00.002-04:00

So July is here and gone...wow that was fast.

The end of June flew by with all the work the last 2 weeks putting on the Damtri. Overall it was a great success. A few bugs to work out but not too bad for a first time event.

After settling down from the Damtri it was time to get ready for the bike leg of the quad games. I was feeling good and ready to set a good time. I rode a 28:50 something here 2 years ago on the gently rolling 12 mile course and I am in much better shape now. Plus I've been putting up times over a minute better than my time 2 years ago at the Presque Isle Time Trials, so I was bound and determined to do a sub 28 minute ride and my goal was 27:30. Alas, it was not meant to be. The start times are supposed to go by alphabetical order and my name put me in the 140's out of 400, or a 9:35am start. Unfortunately there was a lot of weather moving and the wind really started to pick up.

I rode the first 7 miles at a 26 mph pace, conserving for the final 5 miles after the turn around. As soon as I made the turn however I knew I was in trouble as the headwind was awful and I was killing myself to hold 23-24 mph. I had good strong legs and felt great and kept my HR right at 186-187, which meant I was right at my limit where I needed to be, but the wind killed me. Ended up with a 28:50, or about the same time I had 2 years ago. And to cap it all off, I got beat by several people I had beat by 30-90 seconds just 2 weeks earlier that had start times 20-30 minutes before me and did not have to deal with the headwind (and a lot of them had last names that should have put them after me.....hmmmm). Oh well, the people that had the real late starts were really getting a rough go of it though due to the storm that by the end of my ride was almost on top of the course, so it could have been worse. At least I looked good in the new TT Suit from C oach John/Team Continum! Sunday after the Quad TT was the Milton Man Olympic tri in Lake Milton, Ohio. Up at 4 am and off to the races, again.
This was a last minute decision but turned out to be a nice race, and I recognized numerous people that had done the Damtri a few weeks earlier and talked to several of them.

The swim was a 2 loop affair (they also had a sprint going on at the same time) and I took off hard at the gun. I quickly found myself in 2nd place with first place about 10 feet off to my right. I angled over to him to catch his feet but he was going at a blistering pace that I knew I could not hold for both laps, so I let him go and saw another guy about 20 feet to my left get by me too. I settled in and drafted off a 3rd guy for most of the race and came in at 22:13 for the 4th fastest swim.

The bike was a 2 loop course, pretty decent roads except for one spot and with no major hills to speak of other than towards the end of the loop there was one short steep hill. I caught 2 guys (one about 1/2 way through the second loop) and got passed by 2, which I did not like but the legs were a little sore from the previous day's TT. About mile 20 I heard a metal on asphalt sound as something from my bike rattled off and down the road. Later I would find out it was my micro-flate and CO2 cartridge. As I looked down to see what fell off my bike I also realized I had no timeing chip on! Uh-OH! I prayed it was stuck in my wetsuit and figured I'd just have a really long T-1 time!. Got off the bike in around 1:03 or so, averaged somewhere between 23 and 24mph (I later found out they had a problem with the mats so no one got splits between swim end and the race end). Ran into transition and quickly found my timing chip stuck in the bottom of my wetsuit, threw it back on and headed off on the run.

The run was a 2 loop course also, again a nice little run. Short bit through a park/trail, along a main road and then an out and back through some side roads before the last 1/4 mile or so back in the park to the second loop/finish. I felt good on the run and hit the first mile in 6 minutes flat, passing the really fast swimmer guy right out of transition. Kept a good pace for the first lap and did not get passed by anyone, although 1 guy was gaining on me pretty good. Finished the first lap in right around 20 minutes and finally got caught by the fast runner about 1/2 mile into the 2nd lap. Turns out he was one of the guys that raced elite at the Damtri a few weeks earlier. Held my position for the remainder of the run and finished with a 10k of 40 and change, which is a PB for me! I felt I could have gone a little harder but had no one around. Sub 40 is definitely close though. Ended up 5th overall, 1st Male 35-39. They did not have splits but I did have the 4th fastest combined T-1, bike, T-2 and run time.

After Milton man it was just some good solid training weeks. Headed to a beautiful winery down by Seven Springs PA for my cousin Erin's wedding, then came back and got ready for the trip to Lake Placid to volunteer and sign up for Ironman LP 2010, but that's another post.

Rick Gorzynski Memorial Time Trial

2009-06-23T14:16:00.003-04:00

Not much to write here, this is held on the exact same course as the Iroquois School District races in the spring and fall. After going 28:05 in the spring I was pretty sure I could do sub 28. Well too much beer and pizza the night before and staying up too late sure didn't help! Burping up bigfoot pizza with sausage and pepperoni for 28 minutes while your heart is averaging above 186 bpm is not fun. Plus I did not start my computer until about a minute into the ride so I did not really know where I stood, just that it hurt like hell the whole time I was riding.

Oh well, results still showed a 3 sec personal best and top 10 finish.

Indiana Co Sprint Triathlon, June 13, 2009

2009-06-20T11:38:00.007-04:00

This was a last minute decision. Thursday I decided to go down to Indiana Co and was able to talk Steve Bell and Chip Fuller (co directors/founders/bosses etc...of The DamTri) that it would be a good idea to get up at 4:30am and drive 2 hours and 15 minutes for a 1hr sprint race. The race seemed to be a nice little event from what we could see so we headed out of Meadville in the wee hours of the morning.

We arrived to Yellow Creek State Park about 7:30 or so and registered and got set up without much hastle. There seemed to be a nice little crowd gathering so this had the promise of a fun day.

Swim: .5 Miles, 13:47 (1:34/100yds, 7th Overall, 6th Gender, 1st Age group)

The swim was a straight out and back marked by a continuous string of buoys. Seemed easy enough, although a few people reported that there were some weeds about 100yds out. What they meant by some weeds was a huge weed bed that came clear to the surface and lasted about 1/4 of the swim. Stopped to pick weeds off my goggles/watch several times, as it was like trying to swim on shrubs! Stayed in the 2nd group after 2 guys got a lead after the first couple hundred yards. Just stayed tucked in the draft and had an uneventful swim, other than hitting the same massive weed bed on the way back. Overall the swim felt longer than 1/2 mile though.

Bike: 9.5 Miles, 28:18 (20.1 mph avg, 14th OA, 14th Gender, 3rdAG)

I got on the bike and came out of T-1 with the two other swimmers that I had been with the whole swim. Time to put the head down and get by them and go after the two guys in front of us. The ride started wtih a 1 mile road through the park out to the main road. I was working hard but not gaining at all, and the one guy was pulling away. After we got out of the park and onto the main road it was an out and back that was basically all uphill for 3-4 miles, a short flat section, then back down. As we hit the hill and the road started going up I started feeling worse. I lost sight of the one guy up the road and the other one was pulling away. After a great bike a few weeks ago at Edinboro I was having a really bad day here. Then, to add insult to injury, I got passed and passed easily on the climb. I felt like I was going backwards and there was nothing I could do about it.

This went on until about mile 8, then I started to feel a little better, but by that time I only had 1.5 miles to go through the park. For the first time since I started racing in 2006 I was looking forward to getting off the bike and running because no matter how lousy I feel on the run sometimes it was still going to be better than this bike ride was. Reached T-2 about 30 seconds behind one of the guys that I had swam with.

Run 3.5 Miles, 20:35 (5:53/mile avg, 12th OA, 11 Gender, 2nd AG)

As the run started out I was just glad to be off the bike! The guy (actually it turned out to be a 14 year old wonderkid!) in front of me just kind of stayed about 10-15 seconds out. He kept looking over his shoulder and I was gaining a little at a time but not enough.

The run was a gently rolling out and back with nothing major to speak of by way of climbs. On any slight uphill I would gain a few steps on him, but on the slight downhill his youthful leg speed would pull him away whatever I gained. Overall I felt better and better as the run went on and the few miles ticked off pretty easily for a sprint race (although the course may have been a little shor as I did not feel like I was running sub 6 minute miles).

I was never able to reel the young kid in, but at least I did make him turn around a few hundred times during the race!

Final Results 1:05:07 (8th Overall, 8th Male, 1st AG)

Although I did not have the result I had wanted because of a bad bike, which has been my strongest leg all summer, I was pleased with the overall outcome and how well I ran. Plus, the new kits from coach John were awesome to race in. Some of the most comfortable gear ever! There was some good post race food, a nice little medal ceremony and we were able to talk to about a half a dozen or more people that were signed up for and doing our race on June 28th and were looking forward to the DamTri.

Edinboro Olympic Race Report 5/30/09

2009-06-05T10:56:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 30, was the Edinboro Olympic race in Edinboro, PA. I did this race 2 years ago and finished 16th with a 2:12 and change. Skipped it last year when the race organizers claimed there was a bacteria issue with the lake and they canceled the swim and turned it into a duathlon. My goal was to finish top 10 and possibly get an age group spot and beat my time of 2 years ago. Goal time was 2:05 or better.

After talking about the race with coach John we decided to go hard on the swim, hammer the bike, try to settle in for the first 5k and give it all I had left the last 5k of the run.

Swim .75 mile: 15:39, 1:15/100 pace, 10th overall, 8th Male, 1st Age Group.
Two years ago I think the swim was long, this year it may have been a little short. For whatever reason two years ago I got stuck in traffic and had an awful swim, I was not going to let that happen again. Lined up right in the front and the cannon went off with no warning. I sprinted hard the first 200 yards and found myself on the tail end of the lead group, which I knew included a couple really fast swimmers. The pace was too fast for me and I knew I'd blow up before the turn around so I backed off just a little and found myself in the second group of 5 people with no one even close to being behind our little group. 2 or 3 of the people in this group made repeated surges to leave/pull ahead but every time they just pulled the rest of us along. Me and another guy stayed right at the back in a nice little draft behind the first 3 people that made a nice wedge shaped draft pocket for us to ride the whole second half of the swim.

T-1 was uneventful, although at this race transition is kind of unfair as the entrance and exit are both on the same end of transition, so if your rack is near the back you have a lot further to run than someone that has a rack near the entrance. My rack was right in the middle.

Bike 23 miles: 59:14, 23.3 mph avg, 3rd fastest bike overall, 3rd male, 1st ag.
The bike went just about exactly to plan. The course consists of 3-4 miles gradual uphill, a nice 8 miles of flat with some gradual downhills and then another longer gradual uphill section of 7-8 miles followed by some downhill and flats to the finish line.

I caught a couple of riders right out of transition and headed out onto the one-loop course feeling good. Caught another rider a mile or so out of town and yet another about a mile later at the start of the uphill section. From there on it was pretty lonely and I could just see two riders out in the distance. I kept the effort up and slowly reeled them both in at about the halfway point of the course just as you start the long uphill sections. From there on we all traded the lead, staying legal of course, back and forth for the remainder of the course. In retrospect I may have backed off just a little but it was still a 3-4 minute improvement on the bike over my time 2 years ago. Came into transition feeling good and ready to run with the two other guys.

T-2 was quick and smooth, and there were not very many bikes on the racks at all which is always a good sign.

Run 6.2 miles: 43:44, 7:03 pace, 23rd overall, 21 male, 3rd age group.
The run did not go as planned, although I did negative split, which was the plan.

I started out feeling fine out of transition. The other two guys I came in with that I had caught on the bike left just in front of me. The one guy was from Ohio and I knew was in the 20-24 ag from his age marking on his leg and he tore off like a rocket. I think he ended up third overall. The other guy was a local guy in the 30-34 age group and I kept him in sight about 50-100 feet down the road as the run started.

The run course is an out and back and has a couple little hills right away and is gently rolling and gradually uphill on the way out. Legs felt just ok to start but about 3/4 of a mile in I started to get side stitch, which I never really get. I backed off, let the guy down the road in front of me go on and the pain got worse/sharper. I really backed down and came to a very slow jog/trot trying to get rid of the cramp in my side which was really frustrating as my legs felt good after the first mile and I wanted to run but could not.

There were no markers at the first or second mile but there were aid stations approximately every mile according to the race director. I got to the second aid station and was still not running near where I should have been but the cramp in my side was slowly getting better, and I could not see anyone for a ways behind me so I backed it off a little further to get rid of this cramp. About the time I got to the final little hill before the turn around I started to see, and count, runners coming back. I started to feel a little better and reached the 5k turn around in 23:50 something, which was about 3-4 minutes off my goal pace but I finally started to feel better. I counted 5 runners in front of me and I knew at least 3 of them were definitely not in my age group but the only guys I did not know were 1-2 and I was figuring they were going to be overall winners so I was still in good shape for an AG spot. On the way back I felt much better. I got passed by the eventual 2nd place guy that started in the second wave, a relay runner and then another guy caught me right about a mile from the end. He was going along at a pretty good clip but he looked older and only after he finished 30 seconds in front of me did I realize he was only 39 (Apologies to V Bauer, 39 of Pittsburgh for the 'older' comment :)). Anyway the run back felt a ton better and the side cramp was gone and I was able to come back in 19 something so I did negative split the run, although by a little too much!

Final results: 2:01:06, 9th place overall, 9 th male, 2nd age group.

Felt good after a 10+ minute personal best at this race, although I know I could have run 3-4 minutes faster easily. Definitely will work on some more hard 1-2 mile runs off of hard bike efforts just to try to figure out what caused the cramp at the start of the run that hampered my first 2 miles so much.

Jerseyman Race Report

2009-05-12T14:58:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 9th was the Jerseyman Triathlon in Clinton, NJ. I went into this race with really good fitness after a strong winter run focus and a good bike focus in Feb-March. I was looking forward to breaking 5 hrs, which I was more than confident I would easily do, and was even envisioning the hope of an age group spot if things went well.

I planned on doing the race with fellow John Hirsch coached athlete Joe, so I took off for Joe's place Friday morning. Arrived Friday evening, got some great pasta and chicken and headed back to watch Joe try to put his bike together in the driveway to get it ready to go the next day. Nothing like waiting till the last minute.

Slept very well and felt good and rested despite the 5am wakeup for the 1 hr drive to the State Park where the race was being held.

Swim: 30:31 (22nd OA/ 25:26/mile). Not my best effort, but I was holding back a little. I was in the first wave and they had us go through the swim start chute and then said we could enter the water up to our ankles. Eveyone lined up just in front of the chute, which really compacted everyone, and I noticed a few guys going way to the right. This actually presented a straighter line to the far turn buoy, and a few of the guys looked fast so I too ventured all the way to the right. Horn went off, and I pushed the first 2-3 hundred yards pretty good. Looked left and there was a group of about 10 people about even with me on the inside line of the course, looked to my right and there was no one. I angled left towards the inside line to try to catch the group but just missed them and ended up swimming the entire course solo.

Bike: 2:45:47 (34th OA/20.5 mph) After a good Spain camp and feeling great on the bike all spring I really was counting on having a great bike split while keeping the effort light. Unfortunately, this got off to a bad start. Coming up out of the park to the main road there was a park road with a blue sign and yellow arrow pointing right. At the pre-race they said follow the yellow arrows. I was in a small group with 2 other guys climbing out of the park and there was no one in front of or behind us, and no one at this intersection. The guy ahead of me went right, I thought he was doing the correct thing so I followed and the guy a little behind me went right also. We rode about 1/2 mile and came to a table set up (with no one there) for a run aid station and I thought this does not look right. Went about another half mile and came to another right arrow at a dead end that was pointing to a gravel trail. Apparently we had just ridden part of the run course. Damn! We all turned around and headed back and by this time when we got to the road out of the park there was a steady stream of traffic going straight past the road we had just ridden down and out to the main road to begin the bike course. Probably lost 5-6 minutes easily doing the little down and back.

Once on the course I was frustrated but determined not to try to hammer and get the time back. The first 10 miles or so were gently rolling, the middle thirds was flat and fast and the last few miles were hilly but with only one hill that made you shift to the small ring. Overall though the course was very technical with a lot of turns and traffic at busy intersections. Several times as you approached a busy road the volunteer or cop would only half be paying attention and only after you almost completely stopped would they waive you on and stop opposing traffic. Lots of momentum breaking stops. The last few miles also came with the added bonus of catching traffic on the sprint race that started later that day. It looked like a charity century ride at times with a ton of slow bike traffice and at two intersections cars were backed up quite a ways forcing you to ride single file along the shoulder bhind slower sprint riders to get past the cars.

Final totals on the Garmin showed I rode just under 59 miles at an average speed of 21.3 mph.

Run: 1:48:27 (47th OA, 8:17/mile). Here's where the wheels came off, but not in the usual blow up and start walking kind of way. The plan was to run steady for the first 6-7 miles then pick it up if I could the last 6. Felt good right away and mile 1 went by in just over 7 minutes. Same with miles 2 and 3. During the second mile however as I was headed out the park and came to the arrow where I turned right earlier in the day I was confused as the guy running ahead of me kept going straight out to the main road. Now I was really confused as the arrow pointed right, I knew the 2 mile mark was down that road and I knew there was an aid station. I stopped, yelled for someone to tell me where to go and finally another guy further ahead of me said to turn right. I never saw the guy that went straight again! Turns out the road to the right was the way to go and I continued on. Stopped for a second at mile 4 to take a pebble out of my shoe and continued down the main road, which was a steady climb to a turn around, to mile marker 5. Reached this in just over 37 minutes and was feeling good.

Now I was trying to do math in my head, adding up how much time had elapsed, how much time I had left vs how far I had to run yet and so on. I figured that even with the lost time on the bike I could still run a 1:40, which I felt I could easily do, and be sub 5 (although I thought the bike screw up did take me out of any AG contentions). So I planned to be safe, run steady to mile marker 7 and then try to pick up the pace for the last 6.

I started looking for mile marker 6 at about 44 mintues into my run, but didn't see it. Thought I just missed it and no big deal, I'd stick with the plan and pick things up at mile 7. Around 51 minutes I started looking for marker 7 (meanwhile I was still running with people so I know I never went off course) but didn't see it. Finally after a little out and back in the park I see a marker ahead on the road and look at my watch. I realize I'm going to hit the 7 mile mark at around 57 minutes and I get confused as I know it did not take me 20 minutes to run the last two mile as I felt good. Maybe it was the 8 mile marker coming up, that would make more sense but I didn't pick things up that fast.

My heart/spirit literally sank when I got up there and it said 6-miles. WTF! I had just 'run' a 20 minute mile! There was no way, I must have been sent off course. I walked for a minute ready to quit, as at that point I was right by the start/finish. Then I thought, maybe that was a mistake, run to the next marker and see what it says. I run, starting the second loop, and on the road down to the marina I come to the 7 mile mark. Now I'm pissed. I stop at the aid station to tell them something is wrong, someone is sending people off course or something but they are just a bunch of young kid volunteers that don't seem to know what to do. As I'm talking to them (at this point I've given up on the day, breaking 5 etc....) another runner is coming the other way after doing the marina loop and he sees the 8 mile marker facing him. He stops and says the same thing I do, that something is way off, he's on a much faster pace and so on... He starts walking as I jog the rest of the marina loop and head out on the main road. I pretty much trot the next mile or two until I realize I didn't see a 9 mile mark and I'm at the 10 mile mark all of a sudden. I then am really confused and just run a steady pace the rest of the way in not wanting to dig too deep or bury myself for no reason after all the miscues of the day.

You can see the look of excitement on my face after driving 6 hours, each way, to run a messed up race as I finish dejected/frustrated and unsure of what just happened.

FINAL STATS:
5:08:48, 31st Overall, 4th in AG.

UGHHHH....even with all the miscues I missed 3rd by only 2 minutes and second by 8 minutes. I know I lost at least 5 minutes on the bike and another 10 minutes on the run walking/talking to people at 3 different atid stations trying to figure out what was going on!

Post Race: When I got home and saw the results and how close I came to an AG spot I was pissed. I sent an e-mail to the RD asking just what happened. He stated that the mile markers were messed up and that markers 6,7 and 8 were in the wrong spots apparently. Well, actually marker 8 was in the right spot but it was at an out and back and it was facing the wrong way!

Despite all the miscues, and another disappointment at the half distance, I felt really good fitness wise and looking forward to the next race.

Breakin the Law....PI Time Trial!

2009-04-28T17:10:00.013-04:00

Since there wasn't anyone there to take pictures and they did not have an event photographer, I've had to improvise for this report on the Spring Time Trial at Presque Isle on Sunday, April 26th.

This is an anual event and I've consistently done better each year. In 2006, my first year back in the sport after a 16 year absence, I barely averaged 20mph. Last spring I was almost at 26 mph, so this year I had high hopes after the Spain training camp.

The race came at the end of a recovery week, so I felt good and rested. As I started, the first mile (on the 12.5 mile flat course) felt great, but soon realized I needed to back it down a little. The heart rate was 185 just a few moments into the race and I was trying to hold 180 or just over for the duration.

Here's what it felt like at the start, and for the first mile or so. I was on a rocket ready to go and have a great race.

Miles 1-3 went by quick. Riders started every 15 seconds and I was picking the riders that started ahead of me off with ease and regularity. It's nice to have a 'target' ahead and around each bend to ride to and then head to the next rider. Heart rate remained high, never saw anything below 185 for this stretch. Also, it's on a one-way road with 2 lanes for much of the first part of the race and the right hand lane is for bikes, the left hand lane is for cars. They are limited to 25mph so for the first few miles of the race I was passing cars, which is always fun.

Miles 4-6 felt good. Just kept trying to hammer and keep the effort as maximum as I could. I didn't feel quite like I was riding a rocket anymore, but I still felt good and imagine I looked like this as I sped on.

I had stripped my bike down, no water bottles, and although I tried to hydrate all morning I was really thirsty and dying for a drink early on. Heart rate remained high but I felt good otherwise.

After mile 6, or maybe a mile or so later it started to really feel like work. Legs felt like noodles, every little breeze felt like a hurricane and any little incline or the one small bridge the course goes over felt like mountains. I kept my head down, tried to maintain an aero tuck and never came out of the aero bars once. I knew if I could get to mile 10 that I'd be ok, and I just kept focusing on getting to the 2.5 to go mark. Heart rate remained high and by now my sunglasses were covered in sweat and getting hard to see out of. I continued to pass riders and had not yet been passed. As per usual there was a slight headwind during the return phase of the loop, and although I was still going along at a pretty good clip I felt I must have looked like this.

Got to mile 10 quicker than I thought, and the rest was a blur. By now could hardly see out of my sunglasses and I was simply holding on. Came around the final bend and saw the small group of people standing at the finish line way down the road, but I was not 100% sure it was the end of the ride. Looked at my time on my Garmin Edge and saw I was at 27 and change. I knew it was going to be close for me to break 28 minutes, but for some reason I was still not sure what I was seeing was the finish so I didn't try to sprint just yet. Once I got a little closer I realized it was in fact the end but I had nothing left in the tank for any kind of sprint to the finish. Just put my head down and tried to finish the last 20-30 seconds as hard as I could, which at the time felt like 12 mph.

Got done, hit stop, and saw 28:10, but I know it took me a few seconds to hit the stop on the Garmin. Rode around for 5-10 minutes to try to cool down then went to the car to ditch the sweaty clothes, get into my sneakers and get some recovery drink in me. Waited around for the results and found out I came in 12th out of about 175 or so, 2nd in the Male 35-39 age group. Final time was 28:05 which resulted in an average speed of 26.7 mph, and was a 57 second personal best from the same ride last spring. Final HR average for 28 minutes was 185. And for kickers the Garmin data shows I did about 1/4 of the loop in Lake Erie.

Afterwards went home, rested up for a little bit then went out and did an 8 mile run with some hills. Legs felt really good and was able to clip along at a 7:10 pace without feeling like I was putting out a ton of effort.

Up next is a big week of training and one last big weekend (HIM simulation on Saturday, long ride Sunday) before a short taper week and then Jerseyman Half on May 9th.

Week of 4-13: Intervals, Hills and 100yds of fury...

2009-04-20T09:22:00.003-04:00

This was an interesting week. It was the last week before a rest week that precedes a big training block from 4/25 through 5/2 which will be followed by a taper week in prep for the Jerseyman Half on 5/9.

Lots of hard work was put in this week:

Monday- Was supposed to be an off day, but since the day before was Easter Sunday that ended up being my off day so I used Monday as a tempo run with hills. 7.2 miles in 47:30, or about a 6:40 pace. Legs did not feel fresh but it was still a PB for that route.

Tuesday-Swam 2,600 at lunch time. Mix of drills, some 100's on 2 min rest (coming in around 1:03-1:05) and 5x100' ind medleys.
In the evening did 1 hr hard on the trainer (Charmichael Training Race Simulation DVD). This is a 1 hr+ ride that has some sustained hard efforts, sprints, and hill climbing to simulate a 1hr race. Since I plan on doing more shorter faster stuff along with some more bike races this year I try to do this about once a week. I hate and love this DVD at the same time.

Wednesday: Swam 2,200 at lunch. Worked on pacing 100's, holding about a 1:20 for 100yd pace on my 'steady' sets.
Evening long run started out solo but immediately ran into a racing buddy out for a shorter run. We ran about 5 to 5.5 miles together in about 45 minutes. It was nice to have some company. Finished another 6.2 miles solo in the next 45 minutes for a total of 11.7 miles in 1:29 (7:36 pace). Was really happy how fresh my legs felt and easy the pace seemed.

Thursday: Swam 3,200 in 50 minutes in the pool. Pool was packed with a lot of slow 'wavemakers'. Main set was 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 hundred resting 10-50 seconds between. Even numbers were swum easy, odds were harder effort.
Evening brought another trainer ride. This time it was intervals with a short warmup followed by 2,4,6,8,6,4,2 minutes hard, resting 1/2 the time of the previous interval. This can be a kick ass hard workout, and never will 8 minutes seem so long nor will a 4 minute rest interval go by so quickly! This is my 3rd or 4th week in a row doing this workout and I am now doing it 1-2 gears heavier than the first time I did it and using 1 more level of resistance on the trainer so I know it's working.

Friday: Was told to run hills, 1hr. Went from the YMCA at lunch with a couple of guys to run Radio Tower hill. Pace was easy on the way to the hill, I pushed the hill (about 400 feet in 1 mile) and made it down the other side well before the other guys. Turned around and ran about halfway up the backside until I met up with the fellows on their way down and turned around and took it easy back home. 5.4 miles in 44 minutes, but that's with a lot of climbing! Legs were tired after this run and the week was starting to catch up. Profile of the tower hill (note, it's also a great power climb on the bike.):

Saturday: This is where things got interesting. Plan for the weekend was to mix my long ride in Saturday with the first leg of the Quad Games, the 100yd swim, then do my ride/run early Sunday. Threw my swimsuit and goggles in a small pack and headed out Saturday morning. Took it easy and did a nice 25-30 mile ride up to Edinboro University to the pool for the swim. Kept reminding myself that I had to swim yet and even though it was only 4 laps sprinting requires a lot of kick and my legs were already trashed from the week's efforts. Arrived at the pool/fieldhouse to find a huge volleyball tournament going on and no sign of anyone swimming. Double checked my registration papers to find out I was there a day early, the swim was not until Sunday! Headed home, dropped off my pack and went out to get another hour or so of riding in with some good hills. Had to be home by 1:00 so I cut my planned 4hrs short and got in 3:26 of base miles with some good climbs the last hour for almost 70 miles total.

Sunday: New plan was to drive the car up, swim, then come back and ride later in the day as I was tied up from noon until 5-6. Arrived to finally find the swim meet in progress. My session started at 10:30 and we were given a 15 minute warmup. During warmup my legs were definitely tired but I felt good otherwise. I used to be able to swim 55 or just under easily in meets. Often this was done as part of our 4x100 relay and often it was done shortly after swimming the 100 breastroke, so I was used to swimming tired. Two years ago I swam a :58 something so I was hoping for :57xx or so as I had actually worked more on sprinting in the pool the last few weeks. As soon as I hit the water for the first lap I knew I was in trouble. Had a good start but I had zero kick. I got to the first wall just behind the people in the lanes on each side of me, had a good turn but not much of a push off. 3 more laps of trying to kick with dead legs and I struggled to a 1:00.29. In the quad games format each second equals 30 seconds, so my time for leg 1 of the event should be around30 minutes, or just over. Not too worried though because I will be able to make up a lot of time on the bike and hopefully run this year. Was tired so for the rest of the day I took the kids to the park and we had a picnic and played on the swings and jungle gym and stuff for a few hours.

Now I get to enjoy a rest week before the PI Time Trials this weekend followed by a very hard training week leading up to the Jerseyman taper.

Benchmarks and goals for 2009...

2009-04-13T22:55:00.006-04:00

So racing season is right around the corner. It seems like it's been a long time coming as with the trip to Spain I've got a several week jump on last year. Also it seems like I'm way ahead of where I was at this time last year fitness wise due to the effects of a big run focus over the winter and the Spain training camp. That, along with a continued improved diet from QT2Systems has really got me looking forward to 2009.

Coach John and I talked at the end of last year about doing more shorter races with more speed and power workouts thrown in. So far it's seemed to have been working like a charm and I'm looking forward to putting things to the test soon. The plan, as you can see, still has some distance workouts but when faced with time constraints I've been doing what I can but adding more intensity and not focusing so much on the long-slow-distance Ironman workouts that I've done the last two years.

During the last couple of years I've come to do some regular routes that I use as benchmarks of fitness. You know the kind where you know where you should be when you reach a particular intersection or landmark whether it be on a bike or run course. Sometimes these can be good as you can continually see improvements, other times if you are having a bad day you can be discouraged by getting to these landmarks in a time slower than you think you are capable of, or your total time for a familiar route may be off what it should be.

Lately, though, I've been busting through barriers just a few years ago I never thought possible.

On the bike, I have really noticed the hills, if you can call them that, seem much, much smaller after riding in Spain. Hills I used to climb in my largest rear cog I now regularly do with 2 or more gears left to go. One ride I used several times last year was a nice 60 mile ride with some rolling hills from my house to the Edinboro Olympic Triathlon course then back. I always rode it at a 1/2 Ironman pace or so and last year was happy to average 20mph or just under. I think in 3 rides last year I finally broke 20 the last time.

This year I went out a few weeks ago on a cool spring day and kept the effort light, probably slightly below 1/2 Ironman pace. End result was an easy 20.5 mph pace on a day I wasn't even trying to push things. The road to and from the course is fairly flat but there are a couple of good hills in the middle and of course the always present climb home:

The first test on the bike comes up in a couple of weeks with the annual Spring Time Trial at Presque Isle. A flat 12.5 mile course that I rode at 25.8 mph last year. Goal this year is to crack 26+. After that I'm thinking of racing several local races when they fit into the schedule.

I am also surprised at how much I continue to see improvements in running. I figured this would be the case while doing 40-75 miles per week over the run focus this winter, but with the added bike and swim training the mileage has dropped to about half that. Yet I continue to see marked improvements in the run. My weekly long run on a rolling course has remained in the mid 7 minute pace without feeling too hard. I also entered at the last minute a 5k two weeks ago on a cold and windy day. The course was advertised as flat but it was actually pretty rolling and from 1.5 to about 2.5 miles it was uphill into what seemed like a 20mph headwind. Last fall I ran my best 5k in 19:52 on a perfect day on a flat as pancake course. Two weeks ago I ran a 19:07 on a crappy day in crappy conditions. Like an idiot I forgot my watch so I did not know I was that close to breaking the 19 minute barrier but I'm confident had I known I was so close I could have dug a little deeper for those last 8 seconds.

I also have a training run I do every couple of weeks from the local YMCA. We call it the Monday 7 as it used to be run every Monday by the group of guys that runs regularly from the YMCA at lunch. It's uphill for 3 solid miles including some stretches of 5-6 percent that come at you pretty early. I remember running it in 2007 and breaking 1 hour for the first time and thinking it was hard. By the middle of 2008 I could run it in 52-53 minutes consistently, although it still seemed hard. In the middle of my run focus for the Disney marathon I think I was around 51 minutes and could not think of how hard it would be to break 50 minutes. However a few weeks ago I surprised myself and ran a 48:30. Today I lowered that by another minute which worked out to 7+ miles at 6:40 pace. My new goal is to run it in 45 minutes by mid summer. Here's the run profile that proves it is not fast.

Up first for the season is the JerseyMan half on May 9th. I'm headed to the Garden State for a smackdown with buddy Joe in his home state. I was not able to put together any good 70.3 races last year and that still burns me. So if things stay on track I will be racing angry at JerseyMan and finally cracking that 5hr barrier which I know I can do.

Other that it will be a slew of local races that will probably include the Highmark Quad Games, Edinboro Triathlon, Presque Isle Triathlon, maybe Cleavland Triathlon, a few local 5k's, some more bike races and then the ultimate test, the Savageman Half in September. Oh, and still in there is putting on a race, The Dam Tri, at the end of June.

Should be a fun year...

2009 Spain Training Camp Recap

2009-02-23T17:51:00.019-05:00

Feb 5-15th was the 2009 Strong Like Bull (SLB) camp in Southern Spain about 35 minutes from the town of Malaga. The camp is run by John Hirsch (my coach), Sean Langford and Mandy Braverman. After a big run focus in December then 2 weeks off after the Disney Marathon I realized I had about 2-3 trainer rides total since November of 2008 so I was worried the day to day mountain riding was going to be too much for me and I did not know what to expect from the camp. In a panic I spent the week before leaving doing 30-50 minutes each night on the trainer with some hard interval sets in hopes that my fitness from running would carry over and I tried to get the legs used to, in short time, being back on the bike.

Feb 5th, travel day: My plan was to meet up with another SLB guy, Joe, in Newark. About 2 weeks earlier my 10 pm flight from Newark to Madrid got bumped up to 8:15, so my 6pm flight from Pittsburgh to Newark was cutting it too close so they moved me up to a 4:00 departure from Pittsburgh. I was just going to have a 3 hour layover in Newark. Well the Pittsburgh flight ended up leaving at about 6:30 and I had already made arrangements to have a 10pm flight from Newark to Madrid hold me a seat as there was no way I was going to make my connection.

Somehow we arrived in Newark at about 7:50. I was off and running through the terminal at breakneck speed. I arrived at my gate just in time to hear last call for boarding. I asked if there was any chance my luggage would make the connection and I was assured it would. I was the last to board the flight and from then on the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Feb 6th, Arrival: Joe and I arrived in Malaga in the afternoon on the 6th. We were picked up by John, Sean and Andy Idle who hosted the camp at Idlebreaks. I was glad to see that my bike and luggage did in fact make the connections and somehow arrived without any problems. After a short drive we were 'home' and started the work of unpacking and assembling the bikes and meeting the other riders.

Feb 7th: 38 miles, 3 hrs, 4,500 feet of climbing.

Started the day with a nice 10k run with Joe, Phil, John and Ken R. Then it was a short ride to Concepcion in the van and then we set off in some cold and dreary conditions. This was the first taste of outside riding I'd had since October and the legs felt pretty good and I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the group. After a couple hours of riding we came back to Concepcion and about 5 of us took the option to ride home instead of calling it a day. This added a good hard climb out of Concepcion with some pretty steep sections at the beginning. Overall it was a good first day and for not having been on a bike at all for months I felt pretty good.

Feb 8th: Zaffaraya. 57 miles, 4:07, 5,700 feet of climbing.

It was another cold and dreary day with temps in the upper 40's and some light wind/rain. We rode about 25 miles of rolling terrain until we reached the base of my first big 'real spanish climb' into the town of Zaffaraya. At the base of the climb we started to shed some of our extra clothes and layers for the 12k, 2,300 foot climb ahead. Several of the group of 13 headed off early while the rest of us took our time getting ready. I left about the same time as John H. and we spent the first couple of kilometers chasing down the 'leaders' and caught up to them about 1/3 of the way up the hill. One rider, Ken M. had about a 200 yard gap on the lead group and soon it was down to John, Sean, Ken Rideout and myself chasing him down. About 2/3 of the way up the winding road Ken R flatted and Sean

stayed with him. John took off and bridged up to Ken leaving me about 50 or so yards behind.

I worked like a madman for the

next 10 minutes and all but caught up to them only to lose my sunglasses around one of the switchbacks. By the time I turned around

and picked up my glasses I had lost contact with John and Ken and decided to soft pedal the rest of the way up. I saw Rideout was gaining on me but there was also a great view so I decided to forgo the 'race' to the top and enjoy the view and snap a pic of what we had just climbed.

After a regrouping and recovering with a lunch at the top of the climb we headed off on a desolate 5 mile stretch of road straight into a brutal headwind with another 1,000 ft climb that greeted us before a nice long descent to end the day.

Feb 9th: Long ride/Ruta. 77 miles, 5:15, 7,500 feet of climbing.

Another cool, damp day to start the ride. The theme of the day was attack, attack and attack as the pace was quick right off the bat. A couple of good climbs and some nice fast descents started the day. I was warned by Sean that this was one of the harder, longer days and that the real work began after about the first 30 miles. The lead group started up the first big hill, a 700 foot climb in about 2-3 miles at about mile 32. It was a quick pace and was just a taste of what was to come that day. After a nice descent we reached the climb at Ruta, a beautiful 1,000 foot climb with several switchbacks in about a 3-4 mile stretch of road. Rideout and I went off the front rather early and dropped most of the group, only to have John come barrelling by us about 2/3 of the way up to take the climb. We never caught him, but we know he put in a good effort to gap up to us and lead out the climb. After that it was hill after hill after hill, including a stretch of 'rollers' through some olive groves that had some wickedly steep sections. Sean had legs for this stretch and he led me through the rollers with John and Ken R. a short ways back. After the 'rollers' Sean, Rideout Voodoo Phil and I stayed on a good clip for the last few climbs including a really nice climb out of a quarry that we would come to go through a couple of more times this week. After this ride I was feeling good as I stayed with the front group for the whole ride all day.

Feb 10: Recovery ride. 30 miles, 2hrs, 1,450 feet of climbing.

Not much on this ride, it was a nice easy 2hr ride with some rolling hills and one decent climb. I felt really good and pushed things on the one decent climb about 2/3 of the way through the ride but for the most part this was a sightseeing ride and a chance to snap some good pictures, also the weather seemed to be breaking in our favor and some sunshine was out. There were some nice roads through some more olive groves and a real nice climb out of a valley to start the day. To finish out the day we took a trip into town where we did a nice 2,500m swim workout.

Feb 11:Porta del Sol time trial. 62 miles, 4:37, 6,600 feet of climbing.

This was the first real 'test' of the camp. A 7k, 2,300 foot time trial up the winding road to Porta del Sol. At Idlebreaks they keep all the time for this ride on a the wall and I was wondering how I'd do after riding so hard on every ride up til today. It was a 25 mile ride to the start of the 'race' with about 1,000 feet of climbing just to get there. This also included a nice steep 'bonus' climb at the 5 mile mark that only about half of us did. The rest of the ride to the climb start was more of a slow steady march. Once at the base of the climb we shed all unneeded clothes and Andy started us off as a group.

The pace was fast right off the bat, with John and Sean getting about 20 yards in front of Ken M, Ken Rideout and I. After about the first kilometer we came around a switchback and I noticed John H had gone off and left Sean. Rideout and I caught Sean and I was feeling good so about 1/2 way up I pulled away and could just see John about a minute up the road. I stayed in no-man's land the rest of the climb, staying just behind John and by then Ken M had caught Rideout and the two of them battled back and forth for 3rd behind me. Once I realized I wasn't going to catch John I just kind of stayed on my own and made sure I didn't blow up and let Ken and Ken catch me. Total time was 26:10, with John about a minute ahead and Ken M just beating out Rideout for 3rd about 40 seconds back. Here's Ken John and I for the 'podium' atop Porta del Sol.

After re-gropuing at the top of the climb we had a nice long descent followed by more climbing. I was still feeling good at this point and Rideout and I kept the pace up the last big climb and kept going on the remaining climbs before a nice descent back to 'base camp'. Another tough day and although the riding was getting harder and harder I was feeling better each day.

Feb 12: Recovery/Cafe con Leche Day. 30 miles, 2:03, 1,800 feet of climbing.

This was supposed to be our 'off day' to tour town and go to Granada, but I was feeling so good and strong that I, along with several others, did not want to quit riding. So we opted for an easy Cafe tour of about 30 miles. John, Sean, Joe, Ken R, Johnny English, Andy and I set out on a nice ride where we stopped at 2-3 different local coffee bars for a delicious Cafe con Leche at each one. We got to do the quarry climb again and I was feeling really good and spun up the climb in the big ring to get a good workout in as the pace was quite slow for the whole ride, but for a 'recovery' day it was just right.

Feb 13: Friday the 13th, Pico Veleta time trial. 18.6 miles, 1:50:50, 5,975 feet of climbing.

This was the big one. The ride of the camp, a 19 mile time trial from a small town just outside Granada to the Sierra Nevada Ski Resort on top of Pico Veleta. It was a 45 minute van ride to the base of the climb where we then spent a few minutes warming up before the start. I was nervous as the previous week's rides had all been at a quicker pace then I expected for an early season camp and I had made sure I was never out of the front group, but we had an easy day the day before and I was feeling good. We had been told the first 10k or so were through a quarry and were very hard, then there was a slight downhill and then it was steady climbing for the next 18k or so to the top. The original plan was to pace off of Sean as he is a solid rider and had a top 10 time on the board.

Like the Porta del Sol, the pace was quick right off the bat.

John went hard right away and I said to myself what the heck, lets go now. I went too right out of town and stayed about a minute or less behind John through the quarry and we were putting a lot of time on Ken R and Sean who were in 3rd and 4th. The quarry was brutal, with several short sections well over 20% grade. Once through the quarry the road goes up, and up, and up some more and soon there was snow and few trees and soon we were above the tree line with 2-3 feet of snow on either side of the road.

I lost sight of anyone behind me for the last 1/2 of the climb and kept John ahead of me. A few times I'd close the gap to less than a minute and I could see him repeatedly turning around to check on me, but I wasn't gaining enough. I thought about putting out the extra effort to gap him but I knew if I did I would probably catch him just in time to blow up so I kept the effort steady and just tried to not let John get too far ahead. The last 2-3k seemed to take forever and it was steeper at the top than I thought. I finished in a respectable time of 1:50:50, good enough for 5th on the board and about 3 minutes behind John and about 7 minutes ahead of Ken Rideout who came in third.

We hung out at the ski resort waiting for the rest of the group to finish in the snow and after a weeks hard riding and a good 2 hour effort I actuall felt really good. The view from the parking lot was amazing and you could see forever and the road we climbed just a few minutes before seemed like it was hours away as the cold and excitement of being at the top seemed to take away any pain or fatigue in the legs.

After the van ride home a nice 35 minute run actually felt good and the legs didn't feel too bad.

Feb 14th: El Torcal. 59 miles, 4hrs, 6,400 feet of climbing.

This one hurt. After a hard week of aggressive riding we had one more 4 hr ride to do. About half the group decided to take a shorter route and we had one new guy, a friend of Johnny English, with us on this ride. Right away he pushed the pace on the flats and we had a fast first hour averaging almost 22 miles an hour before a 1,000 foot out-and-back bonus climb. I felt good on the bonus climb and pulled ahead of the new guy and Ken Rideout and felt good. After that it was a re-grouping then a turn around and we headed into Antiquera for a few cafe con leche's before heading off to El Torcal.

Before reaching El Torcal there is a 3 mile or so steady climb up a windy stretch of road. Ken M., who had battled a week full of mechanicals and had to pull out of the Pico Veleta race the day before went off right away and no one seemed too anxious to follow. After letting him get about 1/4 mile in front of us Ken Rideout and I, who had tried to duke it out on almost every climb with each other, went after him. I pulled away from Ridout and caught Ken M. at the base of El Torcal which I soon learned was a steep, hard climb up a very loose/gravelly road. I had put out quite a bit of effort to catch him and when I did I was just able to stay side by side with him for the first half of the climb. We were both straining and standing a lot on the steep sections but neither of us was gaining much ground. I collected myself for one last push and about 2 miles from the top was finally able to put a little distance on him. I had come in second on all the big climbs (Ruta, del Sol, Veleta) and really wanted this climb so I made sure and went hard all the way to the end.

I reached the top, which looks like the moon with all the weird rocks, and laid down at the support van to chill out while the rest of the group finished. Overall this was the hardest climb of the week, or at least took the most out of me. Once at the top however you are rewarded with an awesome view down to Concepcion miles below.

After lunch and a 12k descent we were back into Concepcion where we had started a week earlier. Once again we hit the same road and climb which was the 'bonus' climb at the end of the first day's riding. I was tired from El Torcal but figured I had just one more in me and Sean and I set a nice hard pace all the way up the climb and finished on our own several minutes in front of the rest of the group. He said I was setting the pace and pulling him up the climb, but had he pushed any more at all I would have really had to dig to keep up with him. After the climb we rode in soft pedaling and cooling down on the nice downhill stretch back home.

Summary: 340 miles, 7 days, 24 hours riding and 35,500 feet of climbing.

Although I was ready to go home, I felt like I had more riding in me. Each day I seemed to feel better and stronger and with each passing climb my bike confidence grew. I wanted to get a lot out of this camp and although it seemed to be more like a stage race at times then a nice base-building camp that is exactly what I felt I needed and was glad to push and be pushed on every ride by a bunch of fellow athletes.

Disney Marathon

2009-01-15T18:44:00.009-05:00

The race starts out early...3 am the shuttle leaves for the start line. Waited around for the start with a ton of other people then headed out of the tent to the start line which was about a 20 minute walk.
Race starts at 5:45am with a bang...literally!

The first mile is a mess of dodging people and weaving in and out of other slower runners. Seems like forever but it's a nice smooth 7:45 warmup. Get out of traffic and head off at about a 7:20-7:30 pace in the dark.

The first 4-5 miles are a loop around Epcot in the dark. Then it's a 4-5 mile trek to the Magic Kingdom on the main highway. It's flat, dark and boring but there are bands and cheerleaders out every now and then to keep you moving. The miles seemed to tick off effortlessly at about a 7:10-7:20 pace. I'm feeling good and take a quick potty break about mile 9 and manage to still run a 7:30 with the stop before reaching Space Mountain and running through Cinderella's castle. It's still pretty dark at this time but the miles are going by nice and easy. My HR and breathing is low and under control, I'm passing people left and right now and since mile 3 or 4 haven't been passed by more than 1-2 people yet.

After the brief tour through the Magic Kingdom it's through Frontier Land (with the country bear jamboree in full effect) and then back to the main roads and off towards animal kingdom.

After mile 10 I pick it up a little and proceed to run in the low 7's, with a couple of high 6's in there that felt easy. Hit the 1/2 marathon mark in 1:35 and change and know I'm on my way to a good race. The next few miles tick off easily, it's getting light out now, people are starting to drop and my pace is still in the low 7's and I'm feeling really good.

We hit the animal kingdom around mile 17-18 and it's a little bit of winding through the park and past some of the rides. The staff
here is out in full too with some characters thrown in to cheer us on. Here's a shot running in front of the Expedition Everest ride, which is a kick ass ride by the way.

Things are still good at this point but the left leg/quad is starting to get tight. I had been taking water at every other aid station with power aid every third, but I don't really like the taste of it so I probably was not taking enough electrolytes, which would come back to haunt me later. In addition to the water and power aid I was taking a cliff block every 3-4 miles which seemed to be just right to keep the energy level up.

Hit mile 20 in 2:25 or so and was slowing up a little due to the left leg getting tighter with each step but I was still on pace for a 3:10-3:11 run. Mile 21 was around 7:45 and I knew if I could back off a little and run 8 minute miles I would still break 3:15 and be ok for my Boston qualifying time. Mile 22 was 8 minutes flat but by now the leg was really starting to lock up. At a couple of aid stations and one medical tent I asked if anyone had salt tabs but alas no one did. Mile 23 really hurt and by the end my left leg was full on locked up. Tried to stop and stretch it but it wasn't happening and I struggled to a 10 minute + mile.

Miles 24-26 were more of the same. Trying to run, stopping to stretch and hobbling along as best I could. Struggled into a 3:21:21, which was about 10 minutes slower than I had wanted.
Overall it was still a 20 minute PR for a marathon. The 259 miles ran in December along with the better nutrition from QT2 and Coach John's mentoring let me run 23+ miles in a low 7's pace feeling easy and relaxed for much of the run. Next time I will make sure and drink more sports drink for the race even if I don't like it and have my own salt tabs with me for sure.

The overall race is a definite must do, and the folks doing the Goofy Challenge got some really nice medals (the Marathon and Half Marathon medals are really nice too). There are a couple of boring/flat parts on the course between the parks but the overall atmosphere and crowds more than make up for that. Almost 15,000 people finished the marathon, I was 361st or so.

250!

2008-12-28T19:03:00.003-05:00

With a nice 20 mile run today in 2:26 I hit 250 miles on the nose for the month. Mileage this week was 75 and it felt great. A little tired but no joint issues, soreness etc... One blood blister on a toe is all I have to show for my effort.

Total time running 30hrs, 52 minutes (averages out to a 7:25 or so pace). Some faster runs of 8-10 miles were done right around 7 minute miles, 'recovery' runs were done just under 8 down to 7:30, depending on how I felt that day. The increased mileage along with weight reduction really helped the pace. However instead of feeling drained/tired the fine folks at QT2 had me losing weight AND feeling great and energized for every workout thanks to their custom diet plan.

Now I get to enjoy the taper time, make sure I stick to my diet and two weeks from now I will put all the work to the test at Disney. Until then I feel like superman having ran so much and feeling so great. Josh agrees with me that Daddy rocks!

200 and counting.

2008-12-26T18:04:00.002-05:00

So while I was at first worried about getting to 200 now I'm past that and am pushing towards 250. I'm at 224 right now with an easy 45 minute run scheduled for tomorrow so I should get around 6 miles in and a 20 miler scheduled for Sunday. That would land me on 250 on the nose, with three days to spare. I know I can get 250 by December 31st so my new goal is to hit 250 by Sunday the 28th. With taking the 1st of December off that will have given me 27 consecutive days of running and 250 miles in those 27 days. That will also give me close to 75 miles for the week, which is huge for me.

Two more days to go....

25 miles to go.

2008-12-21T16:21:00.001-05:00

Ran 68 miles this week, that gives me just over 175 miles for December with taking December 1st off. That works out to 175 miles ran in 20 consecutive days. Funny thing is my legs feel better than ever. They are tired, but there are no joint issues and or soreness that I would have thought would come with running so many days in a row.

I should easily pass the 200 mile mark this week, in fact I should be able to hit close to 250 now by the end of December. 1 more big week then the taper for Disney starts.

1/2 way to 200.

2008-12-14T20:40:00.002-05:00

Week 2 of the 200 mile in December challenge is done. Another good week:

Monday easy 7 miles on treadmill, varying incline, 50:35 for a 7:14 min/mile pace.
Tuesday run outside in rain/slush. 7.2 miles in 52:11 (7:21 pace)
Wednesday crappy out, 9 miles on treadmill, tempo run. 1:04:30 (7:10 pace)
Thursday easy run outside. 6.9 miles in 52:54 (7:40 pace)
Friday crappy out, 7 miles on treadmill easy, 51:30 (7:21 pace)
Saturday still bad out, 8 miles on treadmill in 58:40 (7:20 pace)
Sunday freezing rain outside. Long run, treadmill, 16 miles in 1:55:50 (7:14 pace).

Total mileage: about 61 miles for a total of 107.5 for the month so far.

Runs are starting to feel a lot easier. There was a little more treadmill running than I would have liked but unlike last year all runs are done with the machine set to random incline instead of a constant flat run.

Today's long run was also done differently. At coach J's suggestion my pacing consisted of 1 mile warmup (8 min pace), 7 miles at race goal pace + 30 seconds which equaled a 7:30 pace followed by 8 miles of goal race pace which was just a touch under 7 minute miles. I was surprised how easy the 7:30 pace felt and the 7 min pace was a little more work but still felt easy.

Two more weeks to get some big miles in before Disney on Jan 9th.

The Road to 200.

2008-12-07T14:26:00.003-05:00

A goal has been set by John and I to have a big running month in December. This will allow me to build a nice big base for prep for the Disney Marathon Jan 11, 2009.

Also, it will be a good way to keep fitness up and weight down during the holiday season. As an added incentive I have signed up for the Slowtwitch challenge to run 200 miles in December. This is nothing more than a group of anonymous people that have banded together to challenge each other to meet this goal.

The winter conditions have made for an interesting first week of running. After taking Dec 1st off the rest of the week has looked like this on the way to 200 miles:
Tues: 6 miles in 45 minutes on treadmill, random incline. (7:30 pace)
Wed: 8.75 miles of rolling hills, one big long climb, 1 hr 7 minutes. (7:43 pace)
Thurs: 7.1 miles, first 3 uphill w some steep trails, 51 min, 36 seconds (7:16 pace)
Fri: Easy 6 miles on treadmill, 48 minutes. (8 min pace)
Sat:13 miles of rolling hills in blizzard conditions. 1hr, 43 minutes (7:58 pace). 20 deg temps.
Sun: 5.75 easy miles in 48min (8:20 pace). Near white out conditions, roads not plowed.

Week 1 total 47.3 miles. Legs felt good for all runs, recovery seems to be quicker too.
Now only 152.7 miles to go!

Thanksgiving day 10k

2008-11-28T13:01:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving 2007= Sleep in then eat, eat and eat some more.

Thanksgiving 2008=Get up at 6 am, smoothie for breakfast. Drive 45 minutes to Erie PA to run in the 2008 Erie Runners Club Turkey Trot around Presque Isle Peninsula.

Run first ever stand alone 10k in 41:34.

Go home, eat some recovery food, drive back to Erie for turkey dinner and relaxation.

Was hoping to go sub 40 minutes, but right at warmup I knew it wasn't going to happen. Legs were tired from all the running over the last week. Just went at a good hard pace but tired legs only let me push so hard.

But it was still a good, fun run, and made the huge slice of pie at dinner taste a little less guilty.

Past/Present/Future

2008-11-05T20:07:00.002-05:00

The Past

2008 is just about done. Another good year with some mixed results.

Disapointments:

DNF at the Kinetic Half, but with the pain in my knee on the bike I knew after 1 mile of running that there was no point in continuing.
TTT Stomach issues. Whatever I had after the first race Saturday would not let me eat so I had 0 energy for the very hard half on Sunday.
Missing my goal at WV Half by almost an hour. I went 5:17 in 2007 and was confident I would be under 5 hrs easily but a flat tire, rain and finally some nutrition issues made for a long miserable day.
IMWI was not a total disappointment, but I was 27 minutes off my goal of sub 11. Riding 20-30 minutes before realizing I had a tire going down plus the time to change it plus the wasted energy trying to gain back time really hurt me the 2nd half of the run. Still a 20 minute improvement over last year but not what I wanted.

Positives:

20th place at the spring 12.5 mile time trials in Erie. 25.8 mph avg, just missed going sub 29 minutes by 2 seconds, but still a 50 second pb.
3rd place overall at the Butler YMCA sprint race.
5th place overall at the Savageman Olympic tri just 2 weeks after IMWI.
Breaking 20 minutes in the 5k. This was done after a week and a half of basically doing no swim, bike or run training at all.

The Present:

Enjoying spending family time now that I'm not trying to squeeze in 20hr weeks of training.
Ramping up the running for the Disney Marathon in January. Best of both worlds, a mini family vacation and a marathon. Everyone wins.
Learning how to eat and fuel for workouts correctly courtesy of the fine folks at QT2 systems. I now have a better understanding of diet and will be a lean, mean racing machine next year.

Future/2009:
Plans are for no Ironman race, but a lot more races. 1 Marathon, 1 half, 4 half IM's, and lots of sprint races and olympic distances. 2009 is the year for me to build speed working on the shorter races. Still a lot to plan but so far I've got:

Disney Marathon on Jan 11.
Strong Like Bull training camp in Southern Spain Feb 5-15. 9 days of sun, mountains, snowcaps and lots of riding. Should lead to a good bike base for 2009.
VA Beach marathon weekend March 22. Probably just doing the half, family is going again and doing the saturday races.
The Dam Tri on June 28. Ok, so this one I'm one of the race directors so I won't be racing, but it will be a good fun weekend and lots of work.
Savageman at the end of September is my only other definite race. This time it will be the Half though. Lots of other races will also be done this year, probably including WV Half, maybe the Kinetic Half, Edinboro Olympic, Presque Isle Sprint and so on.

There's still a couple of 5k's and 10k's to be run this fall, but for now it's time to start looking ahead to spring/summer because we all know what's coming:

Savageman!

2008-09-22T12:43:00.007-04:00

This weekend was the Savageman International and Half distance triathlon in Deep Creek, MD. I decided to do this race after feeling OK a few days after IMWI and only because my friend Dave has a condo 2 miles from the race start so I had a free ride and room and board if I wanted it. Since it was so close to IMWI I opted to just go do the shorter Olympic (International) event for the fun of it.

The 2 weeks between the end of IMWI and this race consisted mostly of rest, eating and a few light workouts. In the couple of bikes and runs I did following IMWI my legs felt ok but the energy levels were low so I had no idea how I'd do for the olympic event.

For those that are unfamiliar with the event it is billed as the world's toughest half, and from what I saw on the shorter race they are probably right.

The olympic race started after the participants for the half went off and was in two waves, with my race the first wave off. Overall there were about 165 (100 male/65 female) racers in the olympic plus a bunch doing the race as a relay teams.

Swim 1,500 m: 24:41 (7th fastest male ind)
Felt like a long swim, just tried to take it easy after going out hard the first couple of hundred yards. I thought I was further back but I think there were at least 1/2 dozen relay swimmers ahead of me besides the 6 individuals. Lake was perfect temps and for a freshwater lake was pleaseantly clean and clear. Very little contact and not much else on the swim.

Bike 40k: 1:12:51 (20.4 mph/7th fastest ind male)

Bike was a rolling course with a few decent hills and one really steep short hill. This hill is where the olympic participants earned their savage titles. I passed a couple of people from the olympic leg and a few stragglers from the half in the first few miles. Then after a decent climb the half and olympic courses split. From that point on for about 10-12 miles I didn't see any other riders so I figured there must be a small lead group from the swim that I never saw. I had no idea how many were in front of me. About halfway or so you hit the one really steep climb of about 1/2 mile or more. I was definitely glad for the 27 tooth rear and got up the climb without too much effort. On this hill I caught one cyclist doing the bike leg of a relay team and at the top came within a hundred feet of catching a guy walking his bike up the hill (yes, it was that steep and Dave who started in a later wave told me he saw a lot of people walking). I followed the 'walker' for a few miles and would gain on him each hill until I got passed by a guy doing the race solo but he was not in my ag so I let him keep going. I caught the 'walker' and he had an R for relay on his leg so I knew he was no threat to individual or ag placing for me. The last 5-6 miles are gently rolling to downhill so you can make up some time and the 'walker' and I went back and forth over this period. At the pre-race meeting they warned all participants a lot about the dangerous and technical downhills so I took things real easy on them. Had I ridden the course before I would have definitely gone harder on some of the downhills. Overall I was really happy with the bike as I just tried to go nice and steady and not blow up if I was still a little tired from IMWI. This is an elevation profile of the olympic course:

When I reached T-2 I was pleasantly surprised that there were only about 7-8 bikes total in transition and none on the rack for my age group. I followed the 'walker' out of T-2 as apparently he was doing the bike and run leg of his relay team. When we went by the finish line for our run loop the announcer stated his name and what place his team was in and then said there goes Kristoph Kocan from Meadville PA who is currently our 5th place individual. That was a nice thing to hear and very unexpected!

Run 10k: 48:09 (7:45 pace/9th fastest male ind)
This was not a fast run course. Only one individual male got under 40 minutes, and not by much. At first I was disappointed with my time until I started to see the times of others were not fast either. The run course profile shows it's anything but flat!

I followed the walker guy out of t-2 and stayed about 10 seconds behind him. The first mile was flat along some trails by the water and then up a couple of small hills to the main road. Went easy and did a 7:15 first mile and felt pretty good. The next mile seemed all uphill through a campground road and around some campsites. It was over 8 minutes and I was a little discouraged, but I was still the same distance behind the walker and when I made the loop only saw one guy coming into the loop behind us, but he was flying. Between miles 2-3 the guy flying caught me but he was doing the run leg of a relay so I didn't really care that he blew by me and the walker. I saw the leaders headed out as we did a little out and back and mile 3 was flat to downhill and close to 7 minutes flat. Mile 4 was rolling and near the end you came to the fire tower hill. This was a 1/4 mile climb straight up a dirt path to a turn around and then straight down. The walker and I reached this climb with him about 10 seconds in front of me and when we headed down the path it was only at the bottom that I started to see any other runners headed up the hill. I figured I had a 2-3 minute lead on them and hadn't been passed by anyone other than a relay guy so I should still be in 5th place overall. The last mile was all uphill with three good little climbs and then ended with a quick fast downhill into the start area and a short 100yd run along the path by the shore to the finish line. The walker guy pulled away from me the last mile but I coulnd't see anyone anywhere near behind me, and the last mile you pass the runners on the way out to the fire tower road and I didnt' see any from the second heat that looked like they were within 5 minutes of me.

Finsihed in 2:30:05 for 5th place overall and won my ag by about 7 minutes!

This was definitely not a fast course, and if the bike was hard the run was even harder. The half participants do the same run only twice with a slightly longer loop in the campground, so I was really glad I was not headed out for another loop of that course.

Afterwards they had free massages for the athletes, free french fries and barbecue sandwiches and best of all free ice cream from a local ice cream shop that was really good. This is definitely a top notch event. Deep Creek is a really nice area with lots of great roads for biking. The half course includes a hill so steep that they offer a way around it and if you make it up without stopping you get a brick in the hill with your name on it. After that you have a 7 mile climb up big savage mountain and then a hill after that called killer Miller that is just described as cruel. (At the pre-race meeting the course architect described the half course and his only comment on killer miller was "...and then you come to killer Miller, and, uhm, well sorry.")

The fastest bike split by a pro, Bjorn Andersen, was 2:36 and change and this is from a guy that flirts with 2hr splits on other courses. For anyone interested here's a page describing just why this is billed as the world's toughest half and here's the bike course elevation to back that up:

For awards the winners and age group placers got nice framed pictures of the Savageman logo. And the winner and winners of the age groups got a bonus in that our pictures were all individually signed by Dave Scott. My friend Dave finished 9th overall and got top male master so we both walked away with signed awards.

Next year we are definitely doing the half, and for anyone looking for a great year end race on a great course in a super location should look no further. This race is a must do for many, many reasons and I look forward to coming back next year for the half.

IMWI by the Numbers

2008-09-10T14:42:00.003-04:00

A comparison to last year with some hard numbers and details on the day.

Swim with overall placing and ag placing:
2007 1:03:36 (244 oa /41 ag)
2008 1:02:44 (267 oa/ 45 ag)

Instructions were to take the swim easy, and that's just what I did. Just like last year there was a ton of contact and jockeying for position for the entire first lap. Just when you would get in a rhythm someone would try to climb over you or you would get to a turn and things would get all bunched up and go to hell again. Looked at my watch after the first lap and was at 28 minutes and change so I just cruised the second lap trying to mentally prepare myself for the day to come. Finished with a faster time than last year but a few spots lower in the positions. But I definitely had an easier swim this year and did not push as hard as I did the previous year as I was trying to set myself up for a good day.

T1:
2007 6:47
2008 6:34
This is deceiving as I was faster this year, but I was smarter too. Last year I ran up the helix as it was hard not to with all the people lining it and screaming for you. Then you change (in my case put on shoes/helmet) have a 2-300 yard run to your bike and then another long run to the mount line. This year I went a lot easier up the helix, got my bag, threw on my helmet and carried my shoes to my bike rack. I saw a few people doing this last year and a lot doing it this year. You can run a lot faster and easier carrying your shoes on the concrete parking deck then running with your shoes on. So I went easier up the helix but carrying my shoes saved a few seconds but more importantly my exertion was a lot lower.

Bike:
2007 5:53:43 (295/66) 19.00 mph avg.
2008 5:53:10 (366/79) 19.03 mph avg.
This is what hurt me the most this year. I lost a lot of overall spots and ag spots compared to last year despite having an almost identical time.
The bike started out great. I went with water only for the first 20 minutes to make sure my stomach settled and then started out on Gatorade Endurance. I started the ride with two cheap bottles, one water, one G-Endurance, and just replenished them as needed at aid stations. This worked great and was simple and efficient. Started on gel from a gel flask at 1 hr and took a 'hit' of gel every 30-45 minutes. Things were going good and it seemed like I was passing a lot more people than passed me for the first half of the ride. I hit the timing mat at about mile 41 and my avg speed was just over 20.5 mph to that point and the ride had felt easy. Temperature out was ideal and I had pretty much not even broken a sweat to this point. I was cruising the few flat sections and spinning the hills. The bike course is a real tough course, lots of hills and turns and a couple of nice big steep climbs lined with cheering fans. We rode the IM Louisville course last weekend and I have to say after doing both back to back I think IMWI is much harder. Things were really falling into place well and I was still at about 20.5 mph avg at the 56 mile point.

Then things got funny. The wind really started to pick up for the second loop and I started to get passed. I then started to ride a little harder as I soon started to really get passed by people one after another. At first I thought the wind was slowing me down but then I could not figure out why I seemed to be the only one dropping off the pace. Then I thought I might be bonking, but I did not feel out of energy. I tried eating some sports beans and taking a power bar but I was still getting passed and I was now in a zone that I knew was much too hard for an IM race but it was all I could do to just keep people in site as they zoomed by me. Miles 60-70 or so were really a dark place and I was beginning to wonder if or how I was going to keep this effort up or if whatever was going on was going to even allow me to finish. Then, at the top of a climb on a 90 degree left hand turn my bike acted really loose in the front as I made the turn and I then finally realized I had a front tire with a slow leak and had been riding for who knows how long on really low psi's.

I was furious, with both my rotten luck and my own stupidity for not realizing what was going on 30 minutes earlier. This was the third flat tire this year in a race and I was so mad I pulled over and tossed my wheel over a ditch into a cornfield and was ready to quit right then and there. Those thoughts only lasted a second so I hopped the ditch and grabbed my wheel. Took a few seconds to find a stick or reed to shove down my valve extender to let the rest of the air out, changed my tire in under 5 minutes and headed off down the road. I had stowed the bad tube under my seat with my bungies (I only carried a spare, CO2 and Microflate under my saddle bungied to the rails with no bag or anything) and 30 seconds later the bungie came loose and everything fell. I wasn't about to leave it on the road (especially with a draft marshall right behind me) so I had to turn around, go get the tube and CO2 cartridge and get off the bike and re-attach them. All in all I propably lost 10 minutes dealing with the flat, 5-10 minutes riding on a low tire but more importantly I had spent too much energy and dug too deep riding too hard for the time my tire was low and that's what hurt me the most.

Once on a properly inflated front wheel I found it easy to maintain 20+ mph for the rest of the ride but I did so by trying to ride as conservatively as I could to try to recover from the extra effort I had put out on the bike. But even with the flat, more wind and riding on a lower effort I was still able to beat, just slightly, last years time so I tried to take that as a positive from the race.

T-2
2007 4:54
2008 5:34
Nothing much going on here. I used traditional laces instead of speed laces as I find some of the speed laces uncomfortable on the top of my feet on long runs.

Run
2007 4:36:18 (497 oa/112 ag final position)
2008 4:19:49 (398 oa/78 ag final position)
The run was disappointing, but compared to last year it was an improvement and I only lost 31 overall places as compared to 102 the year before and actually gained one final spot in my ag as compared to losing 56.
I started out ok, but I knew the short hard effort on the bike was going to bite me in the end. The first mile came and went in 8:15 or so. Next two miles were between 8:15 and 9:00 with walking the end of the third aid station included, so I was happy with the start of the run. In 2007 I was barely able to run aid station to aid station and walked each and everyone. This year I was skipping every other aid station or just getting water and taking gatorade and coke at alternating aid stations in between. The first lap came and went pretty uneventfully in just a tad over 2 hours. I was feeling ok energy wise and had no stomach issues, but the legs were starting to cramp a little. I started salt tabs towards the end of the first lap and the second lap was a cramp fest where I was able to run aid station to aid station but was hurting at each one and trying to stretch out. I also was not able to run a couple of the hills that on the first lap I had done a slow trot up but I did not walk them. Finally finished the second lap for an overall time of 11:27:51. I even got into a little mini-sprint with 3 of the runners who I had been playing leap frog with for the last 4-5 miles and was able to outkick them!

My goal was sub 11 with a 1 hr swim, 5:40 on the bike and a 4 hr run. That left some time for transitions thrown in there. I think I was really on pace for a great bike and would have been sub 5:40 or right on my goal with out much effort had it not been for the flat. On the run I was defintely paying for the extra hard stretch on the bike, especially during the second loop.

But I still took almost 20 minutes off of last years time with much more wind and a mechanical issue so that was definitely a positive.

For anyone thinking of doing this race it's a great venue in terms of crowd support. The crowds coming out of the swim and up the helix are incredible. On the bike the crowds in Cross Plains and especially Verona are amazing, and riding up Saulk Pass with the road lined with spectators is crazy. On the run there are very few spots where you don't have a cheering section, and running up and down State Street with the crowds lining both sides of the road is a great motivator.

Ready to Roll.....

2008-09-03T14:39:00.002-04:00

After going down to and watching IM Louisville it is now time to focus on IMWI. Louisville was a great weekend, had a good ride on the bike course and coach J ran his way to a top 10 pro finish, which was awesome.

Got back, started packing and got the ride all decked out and ready to go. Now I just have to drive 10+ hours....

Better now then on race day....

2008-08-24T22:58:00.004-04:00

The assignment from my coach seemed easy enough. It's taper time, go out Saturday and do a 3hr ride at 'just riding around pace'. After weekend upon weekend of rides from 4-6.5 hrs, sometimes on two consecutive days, all at a decent pace or with a specific goal, this was going to be fun. Just riding around for 3 hrs. I remembered the same type of ride last year before IMWI and I remember how much I enjoyed being able to look at the scenery, wildlife, creeks, streams etc... on that ride and to enjoy everything knowing that I had put months of hard work in and was able to do what a lot of 'normal' people can't do or wouldn't call easy, and that was to go out and do 50-60 miles on a bike without putting out a lot of effort. Also, I guess most normal people would not consider a 3hr ride short either, but then again I'm learning there's not a lot of 'normal' people that do Ironman.

For this ride I decided to ride with the local roadies. They leave every Saturday at 8 am for a longish ride at a relatively moderate to easy pace. The group can vary between 4 to 8 people. My plan was to sit in, not push any climbs and just hang out and enjoy the ride and day. About 8 of us showed up, some wanted to go long (4 to 4.5 hrs is their idea of long, I silently chuckled) and a couple were limited to 3 hrs which was perfect. We started out at an easy pace, I sat at the back and talked with two other triathletes for the first 20 minutes. We came to the first hill, a good 2-3 mile climb that has a pretty steep section for the first 100 or so yards so I put it in the easiest gear and started spinning. Unintentionally I ended up leading the group up the whole climb as I sat up and spun comfortably. Nobody was really pushing it, however the other two riders on my wheel seemed to be breathing a lot harder than me and we dropped the rest of the group. We reached the top of the climb and the two roadies sprinted the last few yards for bragging rights then we waited for the rest of the group while they struggled for breath and I chatted to them about what a nice day it was. The rest of the group caught up and we continued on, again I was enjoying the day until I felt my front tire going down.

This was the 4th or 5th flat this year. Different wheels, different tires, some in training, 2 in races. I went all of 2007 with no flats. Pulled over and the group stopped with me. Tire off, tube out, checked tire for glass or punctures, didn't find anything, new tube in, tire on and
3-4 minutes later I'm ready to inflate. Hook up CO2, and hissssss large 1/4 tear in the tire with glass in it that I somehow missed. OK, now I've used my one and only spare tube but I get one given to me, borrow some CO2, put a dollar inside the tire to cover the rip after removing the glass and go to re-inflate and hisssss now air is coming out from another missed cut on the opposite side of the wheel. Repeat above steps again, by now it's been 15 minutes and the group is getting antsy, tell eveyone if this doesn't work to go on and I'll call for a ride. Ready to inflate for the third time and hisssss another leak, this time it's a faulty tube an it's leaking from the base of the valve stem. Defeated, I tell the group to carry on. They wait until I get confirmation that my wife is on her way and then head down the road on a beautiful Saturday morning while I am left to wait for a ride in the middle of nowhere in a church parking lot.

I then proceed to e-mail my coach telling him that despite his guidance and training me for the last 9 months I am not worthy and can't even finish a 3 hr ride. Following is evidence of the events described above.

The final push to IMWI

2008-08-19T11:19:00.004-04:00

Since I am too tired to blog, thanks for pointing that out Coach, I will simply reflect on the last 2 weeks. Also in looking back over the last several weeks I have not had a weekend off since I can remember and have done at least one 4-6 hour ride every weekend with several back to back long bike days. The numbers look like this:

Week of 8/4
Monday: Off.
Tuesday: Swam 2,200 in the am, rode 36 miles of hill repeats with a group in 2:14.
Wednesday: Ran 16.5 miles in 2:15. Legs were tired from hills.
Thursday: Went to swim, pool was packed, felt like crap, bagged it after 1,500.
Friday: Swam 2,700 at noon, ran 9.9 mile in 1:19 in the evening, felt tired.
Saturday: Went to swim 4,000 time trial, felt dead, only made it to about 2,500. Had no legs.
Sunday: Race simulator. Planned on 120 mile ride at race effort with 3-5 mile brick. Was going along good on new ride, got rained out at mile 106. Felt good to that point, took just over 5-1/2 hours to get to 106 miles.

Week of 8/11
Monay: Instead of off day, ran since I didn't run day before. 6.5 miles in about 49 minutes.
Tuesday: Swam 3,000 in the am, felt better. Rode 39 miles on hilly course in 1:58. Felt pretty good.
Wednseday: Ran 17 miles in 2:23. Not fast but it was a HILLY route. Made sure I didn't walk any hills. Miles 10-17 were all basically up hill with a couple of short steep climbs. I was more focused on maintaining form and running up hills than overall pace of run. Tough run though.
Thursday: Swam 3,200. Feeling better on the swim. Still no legs to kick though.
Friday: Swam 3,800 in the am. Felt pretty good. Went for my 90 minute run in the pm. Legs felt like toast for the first 1-2 miles, then next thing I know I set a pb on a hilly run that has some steep trails, short steep hills, grass paths and a good climb 2 miles from home. Time was 1:32 for 11.6 miles.
Saturday: Swam 3,500 steady. Legs a little tired (wonder why?).
Sunday: Planned for 4 hr ride/2 hr run. Ride went well, very hilly and very windy. I was trying to save for the run but still managed 75 miles in just under 4 hours. Run started out and, yep, legs felt tired after the last two weeks. Made it to 5 mile mark and was surprised I was cruising along at just under 8 minute miles. At 7 mile mark ran into two triathletes that were trying a potential 10k course for a race we are putting on next year. Decided to run with them although they were headed the wrong direction. They were running a 10k pace but I was keeping up with them just fine. Got to the end of their run that put me further from home than I cared to be so I called it a day and hitched a ride home with them. 9.5 miles in 1:14 and it felt EASY, which is a huge confidence builder.

#'s for the year to date (last 8 months, not including last years time spent in October-December):
300 hours training.
151,500 yds swam.
2,600 miles ridden.
610 miles ran.
16 miles x-country skiing.
320 miles raced.
Three colds, one stomach bug, one case mild pneumonia.
Two crashes (on same ride)

Finally, some comparisons between last year and this year in prep for IMWI.

Longest run:
2007- 16 miles (1 time)
2008- 20 miles (2 times in March), 6 runs over 17 miles last 8 weeks.

Most miles ran per week:
2007-34 about 6 weeks out.
2008-45 about 3 weeks out.

30 + mile run weeks:
2007-2 total.
2008-7 total (4 over 40).

Longest bike:
2007-115 miles.
2008-120 miles.

100 + mile rides:
2007-4 total.
2008-6 (all in last 8 weeks).

200+ mile bike weeks:
2007-2
2008-5 total.

Largest bike week:
2007-200
2008-260.

Finally, this is the first race I feel ready for. Going back to IMWI last year something seemed to happen that hindered my last week or two of training before the taper for IMWI '07, the shamrock marathon this spring and the Mountaineer earlier this year. Each time I ended up not meeting the last week or two of training and inadvertently started my taper a week or two early. This time I nailed every workout up until the end and reached my taper having hit my plan as best I could.

IMWI 2008, bring it on!

1 ride, two crashes.

2008-07-27T22:25:00.002-04:00

Both were my own dumb ass fault too! Saturday was a planned 125 miler. Rode 30 miles at 6:30 am and then met up with the local roadie group ride at 8 for some company. They were planning a century but only 2 guys showed up for the ride instead of the usual 4-5.

Crash #1, mile 80.
It was at the top of the biggest climb of the day. I was about 100yds ahead of the two other guys and when I reached the top of the climb I was coasting and twisted around to see how far back they were. When I turned myself back around and put my right hand back on the aero base bar I missed and my hand slipped off the bar sending my whole right arm and upper body quickly down past the bars. This violently turned the wheel to the right sending me over the top of the bars. Luckily the bike had veered enough to the right that I flipped over off the road and into the gravel of someone's driveway. I landed on my left knee and shoulder, some how twisted quickly on my back and my head snapped back hard enough to crack the back of my helmet and embed it with pea gravel. I was having a good ride up to that point and my first reaction was to lunge for my bike to hit stop on the computer because I did not want the time I was not moving affect my avg speed or time for the ride! Collected myself and stood up. Bike looked ok, shifters were a little scratched up and the left armrest pad plastic was cracked. Minor road rash on my left knee/shin, my back was scratched up and my head rang for a minute or two. Oh, and my blackberry pearl that was in my back pocket got broke. The roadies caught up to me standing by the side of the road and asked if I was stretching/cramped and only after seeing my bloody left knee did they realize I crashed. I think I was only doing 15 or so mph at the time, so I was a little stiff/sore but decided to press on. About 5 miles later the roadies had to get back to town so they bailed and I continued on determined to get 125 miles in. I think riding again right away also helped to keep me loose and not tighten up because once the ride was done my right hip got really sore/tight.

Crash #2, mile 110.
This was a much more spectacular crash, at least to look at I think. On this route there is an amish run store that I planned on stopping at to get some fresh water for the ride home. I was going about 15 again and pulled into the gravel parking lot. Apparently they recently re-graveled this lot because as soon as I hit the lot my front wheel buried and came to an abrupt stop. Again I found myself going over the bars, although this time I was holding on to the bars tightly so me and bike did a whole front flip in the middle of this parking lot. This time I landed on my right knee/shoulder and got a small gash in my right knee and sore elbow. I tried the "get up as quick as possible hoping no one saw that" maneuver but it was too late. The amish storekeep saw everything and came running out to see if I was ok. I mumbled something and told him I was just stopping to buy water. Cool thing was he felt bad for me, I think, and gave me free two ice cold bottles to top off my supply and I sheepishly went on my way.

By now I was counting my blessings that I wasn't more hurt and my bike wasn't more messed up so I made a bee line home and finished with 118 miles. Today woke up sore with a stiff neck, two sore elbows and a sore right shoulder. Took some ibuprofen,waited for an hour then headed out the door for a 100 miler and set a PB and luckily made it home in one piece today.

In better news, the 'stat's' for this week's big base week were:

Monday off.

Tuesday swam 3,300, bike 38.5 miles of hills in 1:58.
Wednesday ran 17 miles in 2:17 (8:03 pace)
Thursday swam 3,200 yards.
Friday swam 2,200 (had to get back to work early), ran 11.2 miles in 1:30 (8:02 pace)
Saturday biked 118 miles of hills, and crashes, in 6:29 (18.2 mph avg)
Sunday biked 97.5 miles in 5:05 (19.2 mph avg), ran 6.5 miles in :52 and change (about an 8:10 pace).

Total time was 21+ hours, including 250+ miles on the bike and 34+ miles running. Overall legs feel great, especially after back to back big days.

Butler County YMCA Sprint Race Report

2008-07-13T12:14:00.002-04:00

Finally, some good results!

This is a race I did 2 years ago as my second ever race and I remembered it as a small, short fun event so I signed up for it again this year in hopes of a high finish and or placing in my age group, the ever competitive male 35-39.

The race is billed as a 1/4 mile swim, 7 mile bike and 5k run, but we later found out the run was changed to a 3k instead of 3.1 miles! I was also surprised that there were a lot of people here. Quite a few were not serious racers or on mountainbikes but there were still well over 250 starters, which is bigger than I'd remembered.

I was in the second wave as all males up to 35 years were off 5 minutes ahead of us. This kind of made me mad as it was going to be hard to see where I was in my ag/heat once we started catching the racers in the first wave. They did not mark ages on calves so I figured I'd just go as fast as I can and hope for the best once I lost track of who was in what heat.

Swim 4:52. I had the 4th fastest swim overall I think. It was 100 yards or so out to the first buoy, turn left go 200 or so yards then turn left at the last buoy and come the 100 yards or so back into shore. I went fast to the first buoy and got there first in my wave, made the turn with one guy wide to my right and 3-4 on my feet. The last few races I've done have all been longer races so I was used to going hard to the first marker then settling in. I did this and a couple of people got along side me then I realized this was a SHORT race and no time to settle in so I picked it up and came into T-1 with 2 other guys right beside me.

Bike 21:09. I had the 3rd fastest bike overall, the fastest only 39 seconds faster than me. I remembered from 2 years ago this was a rolling course. What I didn't remember was just how rolling and or twisty it was. There was literally only 2 stretches of road where you could be on your aero bars. With all the short steep climbs, fast descents and sharp turns a road bike would have been the way to go and the top finishers all were on road bikes. I definitely made a mistake with the tri bike and with a disc. I only got passed by one guy, the eventual winner, at about mile 3 just before the turn around. He had started next to me in the swim but was older than me so not in my age group. I had passed 10-15 people from the first heat and when I saw the leaders of the first heat coming back I noted where they were and my time. I knew I was at the time in second in my heat and wanted to know if I was gaining or losing on the people that started 5 minutes ahead of us. I was glad to see that when I got to that same point the split was about 4 minutes, so I knew at that time I had gained on all the people in the previous heat and as best I could tell I was in second place overall! I finished the ride, came into T-2 on the pedals, rode the bike right to the mat and had a good dismount.

Unfortunately, my string of bad luck this year would continue as running to my rack in bare feet I stepped hard on a piece of gravel in the parking lot that was being used as transition. I landed square on my heel on this small rock and it hurt bad.

Got through t-2 quickly, and headed out on the run prepared for a 5k.

Run time 9:30, about 10th best run. So the run was somewhere between 1.6 and 1.8 miles, as best anyone can tell! I started with a guy right beside me but he was someone I'd caught from the previous wave. The run is an out and back on a rolling paved bike path. Up the little hill out of transition I was easily able to drop the guy beside me and set my sights on the 2 runners about 50-100 yards in front of me. At this point I was pretty sure I was still 2nd or 3rd at worst overall. My heel was really pounding from the rock I landed on and I know it held me back a little but I just kept trying to keep gaining on the guys down the path. I hit the first 'mile marker' at about 3 minutes flat, so I knew something was wrong and maybe thought it was supposed to be the 1/2 mile marker. About a minute later I saw 2 younger guys from the first wave coming back already and thought, damn, if this is a full 5 k they are way ahead of me but I noted where they were and the time on my watch. About this time a tall, lanky guy from my heat was gaining on and caught me. Next thing I know about 5 minutes in we hit the run turn around! By now the guy that passed me is about 20-30 yards in front of me as I later found out he hit the turn around and gave it hell. At that point I did the same and went as hard as I could back trying to gain some distance back on him. I couldn't gain much on him, but he wasn't pulling away. I did however catch 2 more guys from the first heat and when I got to the point where I had marked the leaders of that heat only about 3 minutes had passed so I was pretty sure I was ahead of everyone in heat 1 and was pretty sure that put me in 3rd overall. I still am not sure how long the run was but I know we were going at a decent pace. My goal was a sub 20 minute 5k and I think I would have been easily on pace for that. One thing I thought kind of odd was that the guy that passed me for 2nd on the way back the run course was shouting to people that it was a really short run to pick it up! I thought 'hey, we didn't have that luxury, why are you telling people that now!" because I know had I known how short the run was I'd have gone out even harder to the turn around.

Finished the race with a good sprint with one guy from the first heat and we finished neck and neck, although it was nice knowing I was really 5 minutes ahead of him!

I was right ended up 3rd overall out of 233 finishers. I was just hoping for an ag placing and ended up with an overall podium spot, so I was really happy with that. Including me, like 5 of the top 10 finishers overall were in my 35-39 ag.

After talking to the guys that finished 1st and 2nd overall I was glad to hear that they do short olympic and sprint races mostly. The second place guy said he had really been training for short fast stuff. Given I'm still training for IM Wisconsin and haven't done a lot, if any, of short speed work I was really glad with my finish. Got a nice little trophy too! My heel is still sore and I have a nice black and blue spot where I landed, but otherwise 15 minutes after the race I barely felt like I'd done anything.

In retrospect I definitely could have rode a lot better on a road bike. It would have been easier on the short steep climbs, fast descents and maneuvering through the turns. For the run, obviously it was so short I should have gone harder and also not landed on that damn stone.

Meltdown in Morgantown

2008-07-03T12:35:00.004-04:00

June 29th was not a good day to race. I did the Morgantown HIM last year as my second every 1/2 and went 5:17 and change. I had been looking forward to and training for this race as one of my A races this summer and was shooting for sub 5 hours, hopefully close to 4:50 as I was in much better shape and had more training than I did at this point last year.

Two weeks before the race I came down with a cold/sinus infection and sore throat which screwed up my last week of training before the taper. I took things easy, felt better, had a good taper and felt great the day before the race.

The swim was uneventful. 29:36, about 40 seconds slower than last year but I felt like I went a lot easier. I was 3rd in my age group, 27th overall whereas last year I was 41st overall so I was happy with the improvement. Also, last year's swim may have been short. As a side note I again felt great in my Xterra wetsuit.

The bike started out great. Felt good, went steady on the flats and spun up the two hills. I only got passed by a couple of riders and only one in my age group I think through the first lap. Rode it in 1:17 which was my goal, and was 3 minutes ahead of last year. There was some rain and more wind than last year also, so I was definitely having a better ride. But then about mile 35 I hit a pothole, hard, and flatted my front. I lost about 8 or more minutes changing the flat and got passed by a ton of people. I then rode too hard for the next 10-15 miles trying to reel back spots and could feel a dreaded blow up coming so I tried to soft pedal and really take the last 6-8 miles or so easy but the damage was done. I coasted in to a 2:47 bike, about 10-12 minutes slower thand I wanted.

On the run I knew instantly it was going to be a bad day. Fought through two massive quad cramps, the first time ever, the first mile then things started to just shut down. Worst half marathon ever and if there was ever a picture to tell a thousand words of disappointment the following does so:
Yep, that's me finishing about an hour behind the time I wanted and about 35 minutes slower than last year! (The clock shows race time and my heat was about 15 minutes after the clock started, but still a bad day).

Later I learned my coach, John who was racing the pro division, had a bad day also and had to DNF after the first lap of the run.

Got home and felt lousy for the bad performance and felt like an idiot for taking the bike out too hard after flatting. Still couldn't stop coughing for the next day or two so I finally got to the doctor on Wednesday. Turns out I have a double ear infection, sinus infection and walking pneumonia, whatever that means, and have probably had it the last few weeks. So I'm now sure that had a lot to do with the blow up and lack of energy at the finish. I'm now on lots of antibiotics and medication and should be ready to go again in a week or less.

MS 150 Escape to the Lake

2008-06-13T14:30:00.002-04:00

Ok, so it's not a race but a 2 day 150 (or 170) mile charity ride from near Pittsburgh to Lake Erie for the MS Society. The plan was to do the 100 mile option they give you instead of the normal 80 on Saturday at a good pace. The ride started in Cranberry PA, just above Pittsburgh and took mostly back roads all the way to Allegheny College in my home town of Meadville just about 1.5 miles from my house.

Two years ago I did this just to get back into some semblance of decent physical shape. A buddy of mine and I did it and even with stopping at every aid station (about every 10 miles) Saturday's ride of 80 miles was brutal and Sunday's wasn't this much better. Now, two years later it felt EASY...

I was riding for team Armstrong Cable. There were a couple of decent fast riders on the team (James and Peter) who did most of the Saturday 100 mile ride with me and there were also some team members that were simply out to survive the weekend's ride. It was pretty nice to have someone to ride/pace with for Saturday, plus we got some really nice jerseys. Here is Team Armstrong Saturday morning ready at the start.

We didn't make the first wave of 200 starters so we started bout 5 minutes later as part of wave 2. This made it a little interesting as for the next hour or so we constantly had people to pass and or catch up to.

One of the great things about the MS ride is the range of people doing the ride. You will see single speed fixies, serious mountain bikers, people on 20 year old department store bikes and $7,000 racing bikes. But this guy takes the cake. The picture is lousy as I was riding by him in low light at the time and trying to use my cell phone but he was chugging along on his big wheeled antique bike. Rumor has it he's a bike shop owner from Pittsburgh that does the ride every year on this bike. They let him start an hour or more early and he just chugs along, walking up and down hills when he needs to.

We rode the first 30-40 miles pretty steady. Peter, James and I were joined for much of the ride by a couple of other riders here and there. By about mile 30 there was very little traffic although we knew some of the serious riders from the teams, including the UPMC team, were probably well up the road. James and Peter stopped at the 30 mile aid station and I kept going to Grove City for lunch at the 40 mile station. Two years ago I think we got to this station sore and tired at about 11:30 or later. This year I was there at 9:40 and was contemplating skipping it but decided to stop and wait for Peter and James. They stopped, we ate, and then headed on. The rest of the ride is pretty hilly, with the hilliest sections coming at about mile 60 and lasting until the end. At the 72 mile station we didn't follow the normal route and went ahead with the turn for the extra loop for the 100 mile ride. At the only aid station on this loop Peter stopped (we had dropped James on the super steep hill that someone decided would be fun to put about mile 85) and I kept going. The last 10-15 miles are on a loop I ride a lot in training but they are all uphill and this day were all into the wind. After about 80-85 miles my avg speed for the ride had been about 19.5, but the wind and constant hills of the finish were really pretty tough, and I rode this last section without ever seeing another person until you get back on the 80 mile ride for the last 3-4 miles. Finished at Allegheny College in 5:22 minutes for an avg speed of 18.4 or so. I felt pretty good and not tired/sore despite the heat, humidity, headwind and hills of the day.

I decided to change the strategy for Sunday's ride of 70 miles (actually it's really about 65) from an easy up and back to a hard one way effort on the tri bike with no stops. This day was going to be a little more serious. To make a long day short I simply rode hard and steady for the whole way up, only stopping once for a few seconds about halfway after making a wrong turn to ask for directions back on course. The fast guys from the UPMC team and a couple of other teams stopped about a third of the way up at a rest stop and I got ahead of them, then they got ahead of me when I made the wrong turn. Other than that I was constantly passing people, including people that obviously started way before the 7:30 start time and also passed several small groups of 4-5 riders trying to work together. Every time I came upon a small group like that I made sure that my speed/effort was good and strong so that I went right around them at a pretty good clip. As stupid as it sounds I pictured myself as a missile coming up on riders and then I was a high speed train as I barreled by them. I re-passed some of the UPMC guys about 15 miles from the finish when they were changing a flat then 4 guys got back in front of me about 5-10 miles from the end. One guy blew up but the other 3 stayed about 30-60 seconds in front of me until the finish. Total ride distance was just over 66 miles and my time was 3:03 and change for an average speed of 21.4 mph. I had been shooting for a 22mph avg but the last 30 minutes or so were near Lake Erie and the wind coming off the lake was absolutely brutal and straight into you.

I was tired and hot, but the legs actually felt pretty good after close to 170 miles in two days. It was only when I got in the car for the ride home did I realize just how hot the day was, as shown by the car temperature gauge. So given the heat, humidity and wind again on Sunday and the fact that I did a good hilly 100 the day before I was very happy with the weekend's rides. Plus it's for a good cause to boot.

TTT Race Report

2008-05-27T20:14:00.004-04:00

Short version:

Met some great people, the water was cold, the course was hilly, the run is insane, my stomach is still effed up, I'd do it all again....

Longer version:

Got hooked up with RROOF through the Slowtwitch forums to race as a team. Rod ended up getting a cabin from One-Lap (Donald) who posted he had an opening. Ended up staying with Rod, Donald, his friend AnneChristine (one tough chic!) and Joe Bonness. Everyone was great cabin company, although we spent more time zoning out in the cabin than anything between races. But the beauty of the internet is I was racing/rooming with a guy I never met before who had us staying with someone neither of us met before and their friend along with a legend in the sport.

Prologue:

This was a blast. After training for long distance racing what does the TTT do but make you go all out in a super sprint 25 minute race! The water was cold, but after a while it wasn't too bad. I was using my new Xterra Vector Pro 2 wetsuit for the first time and absolutely loved it. The swim was a TT start and it was a mad dash with everyone sprinting like crazy into the water, out of the water and through transition. The bike was basically an up then down course and it looked more like the last few miles of a road race than a tri, as people were passing and riding all over the place, which along with wet roads, made things interesting. Then after another mad dash through transition sprinting a mile was another new experience. The race was over before it seemed like it even began and I was OK with my time of 25:30 +/-.

Later I learned in our cabin that AnneChristine had some nitwit cut her off and take her out on the bike. Dude didn't even stop. She was banged up and scraped up too, but Dr. Rod being the traveling ER that he was had everything from good meds to the second skin stuff in his Dr's kit and our cabin looked like a hospital room while he treated AnneC. But she did finish the race and go on to race the rest of the weekend despite being banged up. Also met Tribodyboarder (Jay) at dinner and talked to him for a while.

Sat am Olympic:
Another TT swim start. I was seeded #58 and felt good in the water. Again, my new wetsuit feels awesome with no shoulder fatigue at all. Exited the water in 19:30 according to my watch and headed to transition. Bike course was tough but fair, some hairy downhills but they had plenty of warnings on them.

The early start combined with the cold water meant my hands/feet were cold for most of the bike. I went sockless which was a mistake as my toes were cold until halfway through the run. I took the bike easy until Rod caught me then tried to hang with him (not allowed to draft yet) and came in around 1:20, pretty slow for an olympic but the course was not easy. Started the run feeling ok and this was my first look at the infamous dirt trail run course. Like everyone says, it's hilly. Just concentrated on holding back and saving energy for the next race(s) and ran a comfortable 52 minute run for a total time of around 2:35 or so.

Went back to the cabin and relaxed. Got some food in me early and then just tried to stay hydrated until the second race of the day.

Sat pm Olympic/team TT:
This was a new format as most know by now, bike, swim then run. Rod and I started off and early on I knew something was up with my stomach as I started to get some bad pains/heartburn. Tried to keep getting Infinit down but it was definitely hurting, and not in the usual way the stomach acts up/shuts down when going too hard and your nutrition is screwed up. This was just plain pain in the stomach. I had gotten sick a few weeks ago and ended up in the ER the next day where they were convinced I had appendicitis. Several hours later and multiple tests and a catscan and the doctor told me it was most likely food poisoning or something I ate. Was fine until the Saturday before TTT when I got sick again and didn't eat at all Sunday or Monday and only had a little bit on Tuesday leading up to the TTT. Anyway, this same pain/nausea was now back in full effect less than halfway through the bike leg of the second race. Rod and I shared pulls on the flats averaging a pretty good clip but I was hurting on the hills. He finally left me on the last hill to get to T-1 ahead of me to start changing into his wetsuit for the swim. I got to T-1 and he was almost changed, used the plastic bags (which worked great) and got into my wetsuit and we both headed off to the swim. By now the rush to the water and through transition from just a day ago was replaced by the most part by a comfortable walk and wade. On my second lap of the swim the people in front of me literally waded all the way out to the first turn buoy until they were into water about up to their neck before swimming. No dolphin diving/rushing just a lets get it over with kind of mosey along. Swim went ok but my stomach was screaming. The first lap went by way to fast and the last buoy came up again too fast on my second lap as I was dreading the run. T-2 was a hoot as a lot of people were cramping bad coming out of the water. The guy next to me was literally sitting down cramped so bad he couldn't move 2 feet to get his stuff and had a guy next to him hand him some endurolytes. Started the run and right away knew I was in for trouble. Every time I ran for more than a few minutes my stomach was into my throat and I felt like I needed to hurl, but couldn't. I'd run until I couldn't stand it then walk to let the stomach calm down then run again. Coming up the big climb after the turn around I saw Donald and AnneC. I knew he had his camera with him so I hollered hey Don, get a picture of me falling apart, which he was kind enough to do.

I suffered through the longest 10k of my life with continuing stomach issues and finished the second olympic around 2:55, or 30 minutes slower than the first.

Hung out afterwards and tried to eat as much pizza as I could to get calories in my for Sunday. Sat with Tribodyboarder, Rod, Joe B and met his wife (SupportCrew) and daughter. Great company once again, and man for a little dude Jay sure did put away a lot of pizza at dinner. For me every bite was an effort to simply get calories I knew I was going to need the next day. Went back to the cabin where we chilled out some more and tried to recover.

Sunday Half:
We all got up at the crack of 6am, or 1 hr before race. Tried to eat some breakfast and then headed to the race about 6:30ish. Everyone was moseying around and at 6:55, or about 5 minutes prior to the start I would say 90% of the people still hadn't donned their wetsuits. It was cold, about mid 40's, and that combined with the fatigue I think caused the athletes to stage a mini-protest until the sun at least started to peak over the hills. Finally the race started about 15-20 minutes after 7. The water was cold, but felt good after a little while. I just tried to swim steady and keep a good pace. Again, coming out of the water and going in for the second lap no one was rushing. Came out in 32 or so, but already was feeling stomach cramps. Got on the bike and headed out for the 2 course loop. I was froze, as I imagine most were, and spent the first 30 minutes trying to warm up. Good thing is there was a huge long steady hill early on that helped to keep the speed down and get you warmed up. It was a pretty awesome climb on a neat fire road with beautiful scenery. Spun up it best I could and tried to keep things on the bike under control. I had tried taking only water for the first 20-30 minutes on the bike to settle my stomach before I started on Infinit. Again, knew I was in trouble as every drink of Infinit hurt and did the whole bike with my stomach in my throat. Not being able to get nutrition was really starting to take it's toll as I had little or no power going up the many hills so I just spun and did my best to not totally blow up. To add insult to injury about mile 20 or so when crossing one of the patches in the road I blew out my rear tire. I then had the pleasure of trying to change a tire with hands that were still pretty much frozen. It was damn frustrating trying to get the tire off and then back on the wheel when I couldn't even grip the tire. It was like trying to change a tire with 10 frozen sausages for fingers. I got passed by a ton of people, most of whom were kind enough to holler to make sure I had everything I needed. Finally after about 10 minutes I got the tire change done and headed back to the bike. I caught Jay about 2 miles from the turn around who had passed me when I had my flat and he said he was feeling good and saving something for the run.

The bike course is totally unsupported so you put any bottles you want/need on a table at the start/finish so you can get them for the second loop. I had an extra bottle of Infinit and a bottle of water waiting, but due to my stomach I had only taken in about half of what I planned on so I didn't even pick them up. It was funny though riding through the bike turn around as it looked less like a race and more like a rest stop for the local charity ride. There were people hitting the port a pots, moseying around the aid station and there just seemed to be an overall lack of urgency, but after 3 hard days I don't blame them and felt like stopping myself but by that point I just wanted to be done.

I knew I was in for a long day before I had even started so I didn't even bother starting my watch as I didn't want to be discouraged. I think my bike time was around 3:30 or more, or almost 1 hr longer than my time on a 'normal' course, but then again nothing about this race is normal. The second loop was pretty uneventful, I just pretty much spun as best I could and tried to force myself to drink Infinit whenever I could. I ended up taking in less than half of what I had planned on for calories on the bike though.

The run was a complete suffer fest. My legs did not feel bad at all but any length of running jostled the stomach like crazy. It was 2 plus hours of run for 2-3 minutes, then walk until the stomach settled. Jay caught me about mile 2 holding a nice steady pace. I ran with him for a mile or less than told him I had to back off due to cramps and wished him luck. I finished the first lap and as I did they announced that someone was just heading out on the bike for their second lap and I literally wanted to cry for that person! The second lap was more of the same I was now only drinking water as that is all I could handle as the gatorade in my fuel belt was killing my stomach and the Heed was doing the same, so I literally got 0 calories in on the entire run/walk. Donald and AnneC. caught me near the last climb before the downhill to the turnaround and told me to run in with them but I couldn't. About 5 minutes after they passed me I had a fleeting moment where I felt good and ran as fast as I could on the last mile or so and caught back up to them at the turn around before being brought back down by more stomach cramps. I did a good part of the run with another guy that was hurting too, #61 I think, Dan from Chicago. I'm not sure who was hurting worse, he or I, but we both had bad a day. By the time I got done it was all I could do to force myself to 'run' the last 1/2 mile which is back into the spectator area of the start finish and then it was finally over. Final time was a god awful 6:48, or 1 hr slower than my first ever HIM which I did a couple of years ago and was totally undertrained for at the time.

I got a little food in me but not much, sat in the creek with Rod, Donald, AnneC and several others then headed to the cabin, got ready and headed home. Stopped in Portsmouth at DQ, saw another guy there with his family on his way back to Columbus and as I was leaving I think St'er Jodi and her partner (he was still in his tri-suit) came in. Apparently DQ is big for triathletes after a 3 day sufferfest. For me, the DQ was a huge mistake as I spent the 6 hr ride home suffering more stomach pains and popped more tums, pepcid and ginger ale than someone should be allowed. Afterwards I don't feel too bad as my legs are tired, but not shot, but I'm still fighting something with the stomach so I'm off to the doctor's this week to see what the hell is wrong with me. Overall it's pretty frustrating as I've always had an iron stomach but whatever I have combined with such a hard event literally wiped me out.

Other than that it was a great weekend and great to meet a lot of St'ers and finally put faces to some of the names.

Rroof is one fast dude and super nice guy, Donald (one-lap) was a great cabin mate and AnneChristine is one tough woman for grinding it out after crashing. Oh, and Joe B. is a really great guy in many ways beyond triathlon and it was great talking to him about many things. I only wish I'd just had to deal with the course/races and not the added problem of a bum stomach all weekend. Anyone that finished or has done that race in the past is awesome because it's an entirely different experience from any race I've done to date. Congrats to all.

Up next....

2008-05-15T17:51:00.005-04:00

Is the American TTT triathlon in Shawnee St Park, Ohio. Not sure why, but based on the buzz about this race I think I'm as nervous or more nervous than when I did IM Wisconsin last year. The common theme among most internet forum posters when referencing this week is that no one is trying to race it and everyone is 'looking forward to their good long training weekend'.

Basically it's 4 races over 3 days in what sounds like a very hilly area. It all starts Friday May 23rd with a really short sprint. 250 yd swim, 5 mile bike (apparently straight up a hill then straight down) then a 1 mile run. Saturday morning is another race, this time a standard Olympic distance race, again on what sounds like a very hilly course. Saturday afternoon the real fun begins with the first 'team race' where you and your teammate, if you have one, do a team time trial style race where you are allowed to draft off each other. Only deal is you start on the bike, then struggle to get into your wetsuit for the swim then try to run a hilly 10k after swimming. And then there's Sunday. Again, another 2 man team event. This time it's a standard 1/2 ironman distance race. Only again, very hilly. Everyone says to figure 1hr longer than your 'normal' 1/2IM time. Every race is a time trial style start, and by the end of Sunday you will have done more than 140.6 miles of racing. At the start my teammate and I are ranked #57 and 58. I can't wait!

In other news 2 cool items. First my new wetsuit arrived and it seems awesome. Went with the Xterra Vector Pro X-2. I didn't get to swim in it yet but it already seems way more flexible than my old entry level suit. Hopefully no more tired shoulders early on in the swim. Thanks again to coach John for the sweet discounts.

Secondly, I am now on the Achilles Running Store team! They are a running specialty store that just opened up here in town and are catering to local school athletic teams and serious runners. There are some really fast guys on the running team and I am the only 'triathlete'. So if you need to buy running stuff in NW Pennsylvania, go there first.

Presque Isle TT, a new PB.

2008-04-27T20:14:00.003-04:00

Today was the spring time trials at Presque Isle state park in Erie PA. The race is a flat 12.5 mile time trial on Presque Isle Peninsula. Shannon, Zack and I got up early this morning to head out to the race. Got there about an hour before and took our time getting ready and warming up. It was Zack's first race ever and Shannon was there to take our pictures and cheer us on.

I had only been focusing more on the bike the last few weeks, and haven't really done any speed work and or many intervals other than strength progression sets on the trainer. So I felt good, but I didn't know if I would be able to beat last spring's time when I had been working more on the bike in the spring. My goal was sub 30 minutes, or avg of 25mph.

I always get a kick out of how serious the roadies are in these races. Yeah, every second counts but some people are going out at barely over 20mph with skinsuits and shoe covers on looking like tour riders! I was going to rock it triathlon style with a singlet, tri-shorts and my funny one-strap tri shoes. I even considered starting with my feet on top of my shoes and pretending I was taking off out of T-1 but didn't, and because it was cold out I skipped the singlet and used a simple UnderArmour long sleeved top.

One great thing about short TT's is that you get to strip your bike to it's essentials. In IronMan training you spend so many hours on the bike working on pacing and fueling and your bike is often laiden with 2 or more water bottles to keep you going for 6 hr rides. Add in a seat bag for spare tubes, tools and CO2 and it's like your taking a Ferrari out for a family vacation. With a short TT it's the bike, race wheels and that's it. No water bottles, no tools/spares, nothing but your bike and you. Pure speed, hopefully.

I was #159 out of 185, so I was starting near the end. The finish line is just across a wooded strip from the start line, so many people were roaring across the finish as we got ready to start. Started out good and found my legs right away and settled in. Here I am holding perfect form just about 200 yards from the start :)

The first 5-6 miles are traditionally downwind or with no wind. It's only after you make a big sweeping turn and get on the road closer to Lake Erie that you start to catch any wind. This rang true today and the first 5-6 miles were all at 26-27 miles per hour. It's a cool feeling to look at your bike computer and see 26.5 mph and to see the indicator with a down arrow indicating you are going slower than your avg speed for the ride. Made the turn and of course there was the wind as we got closer to the lake. I continued passing riders (never got passed) and was struggling to hold 24-25 mph for miles 7-10. Once I hit mile 10 put my head down and gave it everything I could to keep the momentum up to the finish. All the while I never had my bike computer showing anything but speed and distance. I knew my speed was going to be better than my past personal best of just over 25mph average wich resulted in a time of 29:58 last year, but I had no idea by how much.

Saw the finish line with about 1/2 mile or less to go and kept the speed at about 27+ for the last 1/2 mile. Crossed the line and hit my computer and saw 29:02 for an average of 25.83mph. Almost a 1 minute PB! I have no idea what my HR was as I didn't wear my monitor, but I know it was definitely an all out effort. Given that I have done little or no training for a race of this type I was thrilled with the result and came in 20th overall out of 180+ riders. Here's a good pic of the finish. I've noticed from coach John's web page pictures that you have to make 'angry face' to go fast. I was doing my best JH angry face impression here at about 200 yards to the finish.

Definitely a good result for all the more biking I've put in. Plus through all the IM training sometimes it's just fun to throw all the pacing and strategy out the window and just go ride fast!

Zack also had a good day and despite not doing much riding all spring other than trips around the block rode a respectable 41 minutes for the ride. He defintely had fun and will be back for more racing in the future.

Kinetic Half Race Report

2008-04-23T11:31:00.002-04:00

Headed to Lake Anna VA early Friday morning for the Kinetic Half Iron race on Saturday. Drive was not too bad, and I was meeting my coach and another CREW member, Joe, there Friday afternoon.

Got to the race expo about 2:30 after stopping off by the cabin John had rented us for the weekend. Some cabin, this thing was a beautiful house in the woods. Private drive, rustic looking but brand new house, path to the lake and so on. Yeah, this is going to be roughing it!Heard from John and Joe that they were running late. I hung out at registration. Took the bike out for a 10 minute spin, then decided to test the water. Last year apparently the water was so cold they shortened the swim. It was a nice surprise then to see the water was up to the low 60's and felt perfect for a wet suit swim. Hung out for a little while longer then John and Joe finally showed up. They registered, we did another short ride followed imediately by a short 5-10 minute run. We ran the last 1/2 mile or so of the course which was down a wooded path. Running downhill recently has been aggravating for my knee, so that had me a little worried.

Went back to the cabin, dumped off some gear and headed out to find food. Ended up driving for about 30-40 minutes then finally found a small pizza shop. Got or pizzas to go, went back to the cabin and chilled/ate then went to bed.

Slept fine, no anxiety, after all this was just to be a training race. Got up, had a bagel and peanut butter, some Gatorade and a little coffee and it was off to the race at about 6:30. This race didn't start until 8, which was awesome!

Set up transition, got ready to go with about 1/2 hour to spare then just relaxed.

SWIM TIME 31:55.
The swim started off bad. Joe and I were in the third wave, 6 minutes after the first wave, and we were just kind of standing around waiting for the countdown when all of a sudden the horn goes off. I sprinted into the water while trying to put my goggles on and dove in, getting a good lungfull of lake water right away. Not how I wanted to start. By the time I recovered and got into a rhythm the lead pack was about 20-30 feet in front of me. I tried to settle in and find some feet but I was kind of in no-where land. I hooked up with another couple of guys from our wave about 3/4 through the first lap then just staid on their feet as we began catching lapped swimmers. Got out of the water to run the beach to start lap 2 and realized in the confusion I had never started my watch. Oh well. Swam the second lap kind of on cruise control and just stayed with the other 2 swimmers from my wave. When I got out of the water I saw 37:40 on the race clock. Taking 6 minutes off for our wave I put my swim time at high 31's, about 3 minutes slower than my PB. Afterwards John commented that his swim time seemed slow too, so then I didn't feel too bad.

BIKE TIME 2:45:58.
I was supposed to take the bike easy and work on a good run. This was hard because the bike course I thought was pretty fair and I knew it could be a fast course. My plan was to ride 18 miles really easy, 20 miles a little harder but not too hard, and then take the last 18 miles really easy. That's pretty much what I did. I rode around the same 4-5 riders for the first 18 miles. Then, for the next 20 I pretty easily pulled away from them and spent the next 20 miles cruising/passing folks. I think I only got passed by a couple of people in that stretch. Then took the last 18 miles really easy. During the bike however I noticed that on any little incline if I tried to put any power down my right knee started to hurt a little. Therefore at even some of the smallest hills I just stood and spun over them as best I could without putting any strain on my knee. Finished the bike feeling pretty good and got ready for the 13.1 mile run.

RUN DNF!
Coming into T-2 you had to dismount and run down a steep little grass incline. That kind of hurt my knee so I knew I was in trouble. Took my time in T-2, got my shoes on and headed out for the run. The race director at the pre-race meeting had reminded everyone that the first mile or so was pretty much up-hill. With that in mind I took the first mile out at what I thought was a reasonable pace but not too hard. I passed a couple of runners, one guy walking already and got passed by a guy going along at a pretty good clip. All the while my right knee seemed to get more sore with each step. Came to the first mile marker at about 7:40, so I was happy that the first mile being uphill and at a reasonable pace was sub-8. I then tried to pick up the pace a little and that made the knee hurt even more. As I approached the first aid station at about 1.5 miles I decided to stop and see if stretching the knee would help, it didn't. A volunteer came over and offered me some ice for my knee, and at that time I decided to call it a day before I screwed things up with my knee and ruined my season.

Hung out at the aid station for a while then decided to hoof it back, with ice pack on the knee, to see if I could catch the race finish. Saw the lead male then a bunch of other fast looking pros/age groupers but I could not tell who was on what lap of the run and what division. John came through about 3.5 minutes down on the leader. I just missed the mens finish, but I saw a lot of people suffering on the hill as I walked down it. Afterwards got with John, told him what happened and he agreed I made the right call not to aggravate things. We hung out for a little while and caught Joe's last lap and finish (a PB for Joe too, congrats) then waited around for the awards ceremony. John got a sweatshirt for finishing second (also a PB).

Went back to our cabin, chilled out, ate the remaining pizzas then watched some bad TV.

All in all it was a decent training day, but a disappointment to not finish. Yet just two days later and my knee is already feeling much, much better, so I know I made the right call. It's definitely a fun race though, well run, good course and will be worth doing again next year.

1st Tri of the year in T-minus 42hrs.

2008-04-17T14:24:00.002-04:00

Heading to VA, Lake Anna to be specific, for the first triathlon of the year. Swimming feels a little less than where it was at this time last year, but the bike and run is way ahead. Last year I had almost no rides over 3 hrs this early in the season. In fact it was July before I hit 200 mile weeks. The last two weeks have been just under 200 miles on the bike, plus a couple of solid 3 hr rides on Saturday's followed up by 7 mile brick runs and then long (5+) hr rides on Sundays.

Plus, the run is way ahead of last year. In training for the Shamrock marathon did numerous 40+ mile weeks. Bigger than any run weeks last year and had a couple of weeks just under 50 miles. Since then run has backed down to about 30mpw, but still getting a good long run in on Wednesdays, some hills on Fridays and then the brick on the weekends. During a long run two weeks ago I 'tweaked' my right knee a little from going out too hard (7:10/mile for the first 6-7 miles of a scheduled 2 hr easy run). It was too hard too fast and too close to the marathon I ran on March 17th. The knee is about 90-95% now. It's sore/tight when sitting but once I get moving it gets much better/looser. Hopefully it does not become an issue Saturday.

Coach JH has me under strict orders this weekend. I'm to go out hard for 100-200 yards on the swim then find a group and or some fast feet and cruise the rest of the way. Then I'm supposed to take it REALLY easy on the bike. Let them pass will be my motto. For the run then I'm supposed to go out fast and get faster each loop.

Since this is the first race of the year I'm not too keen on setting goals other than to shake the rust out, but for a general guideline I'm looking at:

Swim 30-31. My personal best in a half is 28 and change, but the water is going to be cold and my swim has been down from the past year due to all the biking.

Bike 2:45. This is pretty variable as I don't know the course. Last year on a hilly course I did a 2:40 in my only half, and I feel faster/stronger on the bike right now. I think I could go 2:35 but I have my orders so I'm thinking conservatively.

Run 1:40 or less. My only two HIM runs were disasters. I have yet to break 2hrs! Yet I've done a ton or running since last year, my achilles that hurt all last year is good to go and if my knee holds up I think I'll be fine. PB in training is a 1:30:08 half marathon time, at the Shamrock my split at the half way was 1:35 something and most of my 2hr runs are at an easy 8 min/mile pace. If I can go 1:40 or so then I will be happy.

Either way, it is looking like a good weekend, should be fun.

Shamrock Marathon Race Report

2008-03-18T12:18:00.001-04:00

How not to run a marathon:
1. Get sick with flu about 3-1/2 weeks before race, take week off and start taper early.
2. Ease back into training for last few real workouts, realize that from flu that after 35-40 minutes of even light training you feel whipped with no energy.
3. Recover to 90% by weekend before race. Do easy 2 hour bike ride and realize it's good that you didn't completely poop out after 35-40 minutes like in #2 above.
4. Get sick, again, with sinus cold three days before race. Take Zicam, vitamin c and lots of oranges for 2-3 days.
5. Wake up race day feeling so-so, take one last shot of Zicam at 5 am, go to start and sleep in car in 45 degree rain for 2 hours.
6. Start out with your projected pace group based on last 4 months of training, no matter that you've been sick off and on for 3 weeks. Run what feels like an easy first 5k (21 and change), 10k (43 flat) and half (1:36).
7. No matter how easy the first 10-12 miles feel do the right thing and resist the urge to go off the front with others that leave the 3:10 group.
8. Hit the 'wall' at mile 14 when the last 3 weeks catch up to you and the body says, hey, I'm still sick, WTF are you doing running in crappy, windy weather.
9. Spend the next 12 miles doing a slow trot while periodically blowing snot rockets and trying to catch your breath/clear your sinuses. Become unable to keep pace and heart rate up and start to get cold and spend the next two hours shivering.
10. Wait for the 3:20 group to catch up to you, try to hang with them for a mile or two, body again reminds you of being sick and says no way.
11. Repeat #10 with the 3:30 group. Realize that the last long run you did in training was 22 miles of pure hills at a faster pace than what you are trying to run now and that felt easy. Try to use that logic to argue with your body and convince it to keep with the 3:30 runners. Body again says no.
12. Realize you are sick/defeated and are probably doing more harm than good. Think about dnf'ing, but find poor guy cramping that was shooting for a 3 hr race and is now just trying to finish. Shout him words of encouragement as you pass him, then have him do the same to you as he passes you back. Repeat for the final 5-6 miles.
13. Struggle in to a 2:03 second half for a 3:39 run, or about 20-30 minutes slower than planned.
14. Log it as a long training run, be happy with the splits for the first half, move on.

That pretty much sums it up.

Shamrock Sportsfest 2008

2008-03-18T11:47:00.001-04:00

2008 So far...

2008-03-08T14:57:00.006-05:00

Some 'stats' from 2008 so far:

	This Week	This Month	Year to Date
Actual Time	2:48	4:42	72:29
Swim	3200 yd	3200 yd	40080 yd
Bike	20 mi	20 mi	348.5 mi
Run	6.3 mi	20.6 mi	284.4 mi
XC-Ski	0 mi	0 mi	16 mi
Race	0 mi	0 mi	5 mi

Run is way ahead of where it was last year at this time. Here is a comparison of miles per week for the same time period from last year to this year:

Nov 2006-March 2007

Nov 2007-March 2008

Many more miles put in this year vs last year. Only had 1-2 30+ mile weeks last year, so far this year I've had 7 weeks of 40-50 miles. Of course most of this has been in getting ready for the Shamrock Marathon March 16th.

In addition to all the miles, long runs have been up 21 miles. And once mid Feb came around some interval/speed work was added that included:

A half marathon training run in 1:30:08.

Interval run of 7 1-mile repeats with 1 minute rest in between. Ran the first at 6:20 and the last at 6:05, each mile was faster than the first.

The only setback so far this year has been a cold that derailed my last week of February and basically had me start the taper 1 week early for the Shamrock marathon.

Overall the run is much improved from the last two years, which should make for a fun season.

2007 Recap

2008-03-07T14:33:00.005-05:00

After signing up for a sprint tri on a whim in june of 2006, suffering my way to a 5:45 half Ironman that fall and signing up for IM Wisconsin in 2007 I was really looking forward to 2007 as my first full season of triathlon.

2007 started out on the wrong foot, literally. On an easy recovery week run in late December or early January I started to get a sore pain in my right heel. By the end of the run and later that day I could hardly walk, and a week later I was diagnosed with a mild tear at the insertion of my right achilles. I took it easy, lots of water jogging and elepticals January through March, and started running again after a couple of months. But the heel was never 100% last year and as a result it hampered my already limited running all year.

Regardless I did a few races and improved my fitness. During this time I was also part of a group coached program building up to IM Wisconsin in Sept of 2007. This would be my first full IM, and first marathon too.

Some of the highlights/results from 2007 were:

April 2007 - 25th out of 174 in a 20k time trial. Avg speed was 25.13, which considering up to that point I had done nothing but base work on the bike was pretty cool.

June 2007-16th out of 131 in an olympic triathlon. Time was 2:12. Had the 13th fastest bike split and was suffering from a stomach flu at the time so I know I could have gone faster.

July 2007- 5:17 in the Mountaineer half ironaman in Morgantown WV. A 28 minute swim, 2:40 bike on a hilly course and a good first half of the run until lack of run miles caught up to me. A 30 minute improvement from my previous half ironman time from the previous year.

July 2007-Quad Games bike tt, 20k on a rolling course, 11th out of 396 participants, 24.93 mph at the end of a tough week of training.

September 2007, IM Wisconsin, 11:45. 497 out of 2,209. Good swim (1:03), decent bike (5:50) but the lack of long runs and overall lack of running miles limited me to a 4:35 marathon.

Signed up for IMWI 2008 the next day. Took a month off and then was reading a race report from a guy on Slowtwitch.com that actually ended up finishing 3 seconds ahead of me at IMWI. In his report he praised his coach, John Hirsch. After checking out his coach's website I decided to contact John about coaching. After a lengthy phone call I decided this guy was the real deal and really seemed to care about his athletes and then signed up for his CREW.

After a pretty easy October John and I decided on a winter run focus that would culminate in a spring marathon. My training plan as laid out by John can be seen here.

IMWI 2007 Slideshow

2007-09-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

IMWI 2007 Race Report

2007-09-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

So I figured after a week it's time to get my IMWI thoughts down in a race report.

This was my first IM, and my first ever marathon. In March of 2006 I was overweight (about 185lbs at 5'10" tall and about 23% body fat). I decided to get my ass back into shape and bought a road bike and signed up for a local 2 day 150 mile MS charity ride. I then, as a long time ago former swimmer and cyclist, decided to enter a local YMCA sprint tri in June of 06 and was hooked after that. Did 3-4 sprints and one HIM last year, signed up for IMWI 07in fact 3 weeks before ever trying the first HIM last year. I had also never run more than 3 miles in my life before last year's sprint as I always hated running. It's been a long, strenous, expensive and time consuming journey but it's been worth it in the long run!

My main plan was to focus on running over last winter as that was by far my main limiter. Unfortunately I suffered a minor tear in my right achilles back in December and didn't run for Jan-Feb and only lightly started again in March and worked my way up to 35 miles a week peak running. However the achilles was always sore to the touch at the insertion and has never been properly rested to the point it should have probably been. Additionally, the birth of my son August 9th meant the months of July/August were spent dealing with a pregnant wife and then sleepless nights with the new baby, this resulted in less than optimal training conditions over some key weeks. So I decided to make having fun and soaking up the IM experience my main goal and to just get one under my belt before trying to 'race' an IM so I didn't have any real expectations.

I showed up in Madison with about 420 hours of training under my belt and at 160+/- lbs and about 9-10% BF, the best shape I've probably been in in 17 years. My wife couldn't come with me dealing with the newborn and all so my Dad decided to come and we brought my 2 year old daughter and 10 year old stepson.

Thursday-Saturday were spent soaking up the experience. Had a minor issue Saturday when I saw a 1/4" gash in my front tire as I was taking my bike off the car and heading to check in. Fixed it but I missed the Trifuel lunch. Slept OK Saturday night and got up around 3 and ate a bagel and banana with peanut butter. Up again at 4:30 and had 2 slimfasts and loaded up and headed out.

Nothing really exciting about the morning until we headed out of the Terrace and down the helix to the swim. When I saw the crowd I was like holy cow, there are a LOT of people here for this thing.

Swim, 1:03+/-, Grade C-:
I gave myself a C- because I should have easily been under 1hr. I didn't swim agressively enough and the swim is my best event. Seeded myself in the front row by the ski jump and it was a slugfest the entire way. Everytime I got on someone's feet I would only be on them a few seconds before it seemed like someone else would come by and try to wipe me out. In retrospect I should have started more on the inside near the buoys and still up towards the first row or 2 as from the pictures that seemed to be the faster line. I was suprised that there was that much contact all throughout the swim, even as we headed to shore after the 2nd loop.

T-1, 6:30+/-.
T-1 was a riot, running up the helix lined with fans and into the bag room. It was crazy and guys were acting like they were in the local sprint tri's and every second counted. There was yelling and screaming for people to get out of the way and so on. Got my helmet, shoes and sunglasses on, headed out to the sunscreen people then on the bike with no problems.

Bike, 5:53, Grade B-.
Gave myself a B- for the bike only because I think I went too easy. Plan was to go easy for the first hour, then steady for the remainder. Rich S and Pat M said at the pre-race talk that people would be flying by you on the first 20-30 miles of the bike and they weren't kidding. Guys were standing and sprinting out of every turn and up every little rise in the road again like they were in a sprint tri. I distinctly remember one point early on at one of the early hills going out to the loop getting passed by 3 guys, drafting of course, standing and pounding on the hill. There was sweat dripping off their faces, they were sucking air and all three of their HR monitors were beeping like crazy. I just kind of did my own thing, spinning up the hills and working on pacing and nutrition. Took one 900 calorie bottle of Infinit with me and picked up a second one waiting at special needs. The crowds in Verona and going up the two big hills before Verona were amazing and really the bike leg seemed to go fast. I did notice a LOT of drafting. I really thought this course was too rolling with too many turns to result in big packs, but I saw several of 10-20 rider packs. And I know it wasn't unintentional drafting because the guys in the rear would sprint out of every turn to catch back up to the pack and then settle in. At one time it looked like a mini road race on some of the roads. I think I rode a very conservative bike and feel I could have easily gone 10 minutes faster without much more effort.

T-2, 4:XX (4 something).
Only comment is, remember the bike catchers! I approached the dismount with my feet on my shoes and did a smooth dismount. I stopped before the line so I couldn't figure out what the deal was with this woman running trying to grab my bike. I saw my rack and was focused on it but she just kept coming at me! Only a split second before she got to me did I remember that there were bike catchers here and it was OK for her to take my bike! T-2 was a complete opposite of T-1. For all the energy, excitement and rushing going on in T-1, T-2 was like the march of the dead. One guy across from me looked like he had no desire to get up. Debated, for a second, changing into running shorts then decided against it, threw on my shoes, more sunscreen and out the door.

Run, 4:35 +/-, Grade Sastisfactory ;).
Nothing like trying to run your first ever marathon after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 bike, but hey, why not!
Plan was to run the first 5 miles very easy, 10bpm below zone 2, walk the END of each aid station. Then, run the next 13 miles right at low end of zone 2 then hopefully be able to give it what I had left after 18 miles to finish. A funny thing happened however in the first mile, my achilles didn't hurt at all. This hasn't happened since March and whether it's a run, brick after short bike or transition run after long bike I knew that my right achilles was always very tight for the first 5-10 minutes then it would be fine. But for whatever reason I had no discomfort at all the first couple of miles. Mile 1 was at 8:30, I was happy. Mile 2, 8:31, again feeling good. Mile 3 however the top of my right foot started to hurt and it took me closer to 9 minutes, but HR was still good. After the aid station around mile 3 and at the first big hill through campus however my foot really started to hurt. New pain, not sure why, never felt it before. Walked the big hill and part of the bike path out to State street to see if that helped but every time I would run it would hurt. Decided then just to trot as best I could from aid station to aid station, again walking just the end of each station to get my water/nutrition then run again as well as I could to the next. Legs felt ok, stomache felt ok, just only had one speed due to my foot hurting. I pretty much did this jfor the next 22 miles. No slow down, no bonking, just steady trotting trying to manage the pain/discomfort in the foot. In all, it actually seemed to go by pretty fast, and again the crowds were great, especially along State Street.

Finished in 11:45, felt fine and only had my 'catcher' hold on to me for a few seconds and they were gone once I got my picture taken.

The aftermath: Got a massage and headed back to the hotel. One big mac and chocolate shake for the hotel then showered and went back to the finish to watch the last 2-1/2 hours worth of finishers. Woke up feeling a little stiff monday and foot was a little sore. Funny thing is/was I've had no pain or discomfort in my achilles at all since IMWI. Not sure why. Wife had a blast watching it online and in a moment of weaknes she told me I could sign up again for 2008, so did that Monday morning. Got home Monday night around 11pm after a 9+ hour ride and was pretty stiff after being in the car that long. Got a pretty good cold/sore throat that lasted until Friday, but other than that felt pretty good all week. The top of the foot is still a little sore but that is about all. Oh, one blister and one black and blue toenail too!

Now I'll take a couple of weeks off then it will be some run-focused time this winter and back at it for 2008!

Mountaineer HIM RR

2007-07-01T10:03:00.000-04:00

This was my second crack at the HIM distance and almost a year to the day after doing my first ever tri (a small sprint). The short version for those with ADD:

Nice race, well run, good atmosphere/town support, great weather.

28:40 swim (1:22/100 pace)
2:40:30 Bike (20.9mph avg w/ about 3,000 feet climbing)
2:03 run (Cramped after BIG hill)

5:17 total time with transitions thrown in.

The long(er) version:

Checked in Saturday, you had to leave your bike overnight in the bottom of a secure parking garage. Got up, ate some toast/peanut butter and a banana about 5:am and headed down to the race site. Set up transition (thankfully no one moved my bike from the end spot on the rack).

Swim: One big rectangle in the Monongohella (I think it's indian for 'smells like rotten fish') river. Our wave was the third or fourth after the pros and other age groupers. Seeded myself in the front row (deepwater start) because I didn't want to get boxed in like I did at an olympic a few weeks ago where I had an awful swim. Got off to a clean start ahead of the rest of our wave with one other guy. Drafted off him for a while until we hit traffic from previous waves then just fought through swimmers. Came to the finish where you had to pop yourself up onto a dock, or they would grab you by the pits and lift you out, and got up and was happy to see 28 minutes and change on the watch. Overall pretty uneventful and a nice smooth swim. Water temp was 74 and by the end though I did feel like I was overheating a little.

T-1: Normally wouldn't mention anything about transitions but on this race your T1 time started right after you got over the mat on the end of the dock. You then had to run up an aluminum dock and several hundred yards down a bike trail to the parking garage. Time for T-1 was a whopping 3:45, but about 2 minutes of that was running to the garage.

Bike: Two loop course that went over a bridge then along a flat but very rough road along the river. You went out a ways, then back then made a turn up a false flat that from miles 6 to about 10 or 11 were a steady uphill that gradually got steeper. You could stay in the big ring for all but the last mile or more at the top. Then you went down a mile or so, more flats and rollers, then a shorter (3 or so miles) slight uphill with a nice steep finish. Then it was 2 miles of nice down hill and then back on the crappy road then back into town to repeat. Didn't push the bike, just kept up a nice tempo on the flats and spun up the hills. Was really comfy on the bike and never felt like I was pushing things. Took infinit and drank it steadily during the ride along with salt and gel's about every 50 minutes or so. It was not a crowded bike course but at one point early on in the flats I got passed by a nice 3 man (all in my AG of course) group where the last two guys were glued to each others wheels. I mean like 12 inches of seperation, and the guy in the back was coasting half the time. They rode like this for a while until I lost sight of them.

The only beef I would have with the race at all was the rough road leading in and out of town. Especially coming into town. There was one spot where I saw about a dozen water bottles, a few spares/tubes and several CO2 cartidges. They all must have been launched from behind the seat systems.

Had a solid bike and my spits for each lap were within a few seconds of each other so I was happy with my pacing and time for the effort I put forth on a somewhat hilly/rough course. Total time was 2:40:35 for almost 21mph avg. Polar S725 showed just under 3,000 feet of climbing.

Run: Course was on a bike path out and back past transition for about 4-5 miles. Then, after running past transition, you made a right hand turn up a steep a$$ hill for a couple hundred feet. Steep as in many people were walking it and there was a guy dressed as the devil shouting at you at the middle of it to get moving. Then you turned and went up another smaller hill and through the WVU campus with a couple of up and down rollers before cruising the last mile down to the finish or start of the next loop.

I have no background in running and only started running for Tri's last year. I have been learing how to run with a HR montior and pace myself. My long runs have shown improvement and I have been keeping 7:40 or so pace on runs up to 13 miles and for my short (2-4 mile) transition runs after long rides was holding about the same pace. All of that fell apart after going up that hill the first time! In my short (1-year) tri carreer I have learned two things that I do not do well, and that is run after walking and run after drinking too much water/gatorade etc... So for the first 5-6 miles I was chugging along at about 7:40/mile pace only taking splashes of water and or infinit and only walked the one big hill. At the top of the second smaller hill there was an aid station and I took too much water and a coke. I was able to keep running downhill into the start of my second loop and continued on until about mile 9, although I was slowing down and stomach was sloshing. Then I walked the next couple aid stations however if they were handing it out, I was drinking it. That, along with the walking of the aid stations, made each run between aid stations that much more difficult.
Total run time was 2:03, about 15 minutes short of my goal. I was on pace to hit that goal until about mile 7 or 8 I think.
Just really need to work on my run nutrition and keep reminding myself to not intake so many fluids at one time during the run.

Overall I was OK with my time on a tough course. It was a nice day, nice event and there were some pro's there also racing which is pretty cool to watch as this was the first race I did that had any pro's at all. I would highly recommend this event to anyone interested.

Edinboro Olympic 2007

2007-06-12T10:09:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was the Edinboro triathlon. It was my first ever crack at the olypmic distance and I was anxious to see how I did. The race wasn't a true olypmic as the distances were a little off (.75mile swim, 23.96 mile bike, 10k run).

In summary, I was able to turn a bad race into a good day of training. I had been on the tail end of a stomache virus all week so I hadn't been eating well and I was generally sore/run down from my IM training. So I went into this race without much expectations.

The swim started out awful. I seeded myself at the front of the first wave (39 and under athletes) and got penned in by 3-4 guys right off the bat. The guy in front of me was doing a breastroke kick every 10-15 seconds when he sighted, which jammed me up and got me stuck with the guy behind me. It was a good 200-300 yards before I could get around him and or out of the pack I was in. Saw that the lead pack was a good bit in front of me and me and one other guy set out on our own. The other guy was a slightly faster swimmer than me, but the dude could not hold a line to save his life. He'd be in front of me, with me drafting, then within a few seconds he'd be 10 feet to my left. I'd continue on straight then all of a sudden I'd get taken out by someone cutting across me from my left as this guy swereved to get back on course. Then he'd be off to my right and a few seconds later he'd come across again from that side. I wasn't quite quick enough to get by him so this was very frustrating! This continued for about the middle 3/4 of the race until he got way to my left and could finally see the beach and he made a straight line to the shore. Total swim time was 20:20, an awful 1:32/100 pace. Not at all good considering just last week I swam a 20:20 for 1,500 yards in the pool and my pace last fall for a HIM swim was 3 seconds per 100 faster.

Got out of the water and into T-1. Didn't have my Tri-shoes as I was having fit issues and was using my road shoes, so I didnt' leave them mounted to the pedals. This cost me as I had to put my shoes on then run with them on. Much slower than leaving them on the bike, IMO, but I didn't want to deal with trying to mess with putting my feet into my road shoes on the bike. 1:57 for T-1.

Once on the bike I decided to use the day as a HIM goal pace ride/run. My HR was high, it had been all week I think from not eating well/stomache issues, so I went by perceived exertion. I rode at a pace that I felt I could keep up for 56 miles. The course was slow at first as you went through some residential streets to the main road. Once on the main road it was a steady climb to the first turn, then long flat/downhill section and then returning with 5-6 of the last 8 miles all uphill. I passed several people on the first climb relatively easily, then proceeded on the flat section to cruise at a comfy pace more suited to a HIM ride than an olympic, again passing several people on the way. I passed one guy about 10 miles in that was working hard, a lot harder than me. As soon as I passed him he blew right back by me. The old roadie in me wanted to crush him but I thought, hey, this guy's red faced and probably in high zone 4 and he sounds like he's sucking air until there's no tomorrow and I'm out having an enjoyable ride. Lets see how long he stays in front of me. He only lasted about another minute before I blew back by him. I did get caught by one guy on the bike who got about 100 yards in front of me then just stayed there for the whole ride. In all it was a very comfortable pace for me and I felt like I could have held it all day. For nutrition I took one gel about halfway and one about 2 minutes or so before T-2. Total bike time was 1:02:30 for a 22.6 mph pace. All in all the bike course was not fast as the quickest time as a 59 something (from a guy that has a sub 9:30 Ironman)

T-2 was smooth and fast. Feet were out of the shoes after the last turn, rode the bike to the mat and hopped off for a 1:00 even T-2 (second fastest on the day).

The run. I have never been a runner and have never ran a stand alone 10k, so I had no idea what to expect. The run was an out and back on the same road as the bike. One steep hill coming out of the beach area, then steady uphill with some rollers then back down. Goal was to run at a HIM pace then, if I needed to in the last mile or so, hang on for position. First mile came at 7:30, right on cue. Same with miles 2 and 3. I didn't take any water at the first or second aid station and only a splash at the turn around. Got passed by two people, both working hard and running about 6:30 or faster paces. Neither were in age group and I was sticking to my goal of simlpy holding a HIM pace so I didn't try to stay with them. Crossed the line in 46:00 for a total time of about 2:12:32. Felt like a hard but comfortable run, and I was able to talk to people at the aid stations as I ran through, shout encouragement to my friends that were on their way out as I was on my way back on the run course and didn't feel too fatigued at all at the finish line. I think I could have held that same pace for another 6 -7 miles without too much trouble.

Ended the race with a smile on my face waving to the wife and kids as I crossed the line!

Ended up 16th out of 150 entrants, 5th in the 35-39age group (man this AG is tough!) All in all happy with the result considering I was doing a HIM pace with my effort and there were a lot of people working a lot harder than me out there, or at least from the looks on their faces as they finished looked like they were in a world of hurt!

So, while I had a goal time of 2:10 or below I was happy with my race. Considering the stomache issues, being sore/run down from training and an awful swim I feel I was still able to put a positive spin on the day and it gave me a great deal of confidence for the bike/run coming up at the Mountaineer Half in 3 weeks.

As for the olympic distance, it is a fun distance and I think it would be fun to race instead of the long steady IM pace.