LESS THAN 3 WEEKS TO GO!

Here I am just 19 days till my first race on the bike. Training continues to go very well despite my crazy coaching schedule this past week with Penn Relays and Landmark Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. At Penn Relays, Paul Thistle (post-collegiate) lost his show during the steeplechase in the first water pit, yet continued to run 6 laps with one shoe and still place 10th in the Olympic Development race (video link - he is the one in the yellow singlet): http://youtu.be/n2UTdg_s-ZA

Both the men & women's track & field teams finished 2nd at the Landmark Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. We had strong performances from all disciplines as both teams surprised a lot of people this weekend by exceeding what the performance list would have predicted. But that is why you have the meet. The team walked away with the Landmark Male Field Athlete of the Year (Ken Schetroma) and Male Rookie of the Year (Seth Landgraf); 7 individual championship performances; 2 new conference records (Alycia Woodruff - steeplechase/David Haklar 10K) and 1 NCAA Provisional Qualifier (Braden Klingler - javelin). It is now last chance meet season so let the traveling begin. We have 3 athletes currently who are provisionally qualified.

Training is awesome as each ride makes the hills easier. It is really tough to find a ride in Central PA that does not include some decent hills. Yesterday, I climbed my biggest hill to date as I rode from the hotel in State College and pedaled to Juniata College. It included a 770 foot climb in 2.72 miles.
Course profile: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/32952710 . The teams and the coaches from the other teams could not believe I was going to ride the route especially after the bus struggled to climb it the day before. Each day, when mapping routes, I am always looking for that new challenging hill. New training totals:

Week - 7 rides/ 228 miles/ 10hours 59minutes/ 21.00mph
April - 30 rides/ 1017 miles/47hours 43 minutes/ 21.60mph
Year - 121 rides/ 4027 miles/ 183hours 38minutes/ 21.80mph

I am getting excited for this race and the summer of racing. I am now getting a little bit more free time and can take a closer look at race schedules and start to put some on my calendar. Of course it goes without saying, we need to start to plan the bike race to end all bike races - TdO '11.

I am hoping that my schedule this week and into next week will allow for me to get a few training rides on the Mont Tour Race Course. It does have some good hills but I believe my training will have me prepared for it. Course profile for Mont Tour Race: http://www.mapmyride.com/s/routes/view/road-cycling-map/pennsylvania/danville/26741348