Race Report #3 - Keystone State Triathlon

   

This morning I headed down to Lewisberry, PA for a sprint triathlon. I traveled down with fellow Team IQC member Chris Bailey. Sometimes I wonder why I do this stuff when I am waking up at 4:00AM to make it to the race. Chris was swung by the Grove about 4:45AM to hit the road. With the forecast calling for some showers, we were both hoping that the showers would hold off till at least after the bike leg. We drove through one brief shower but as we got to the race site the roads were dry and I was still trying to be optimistic about the rain holding off.

The length of the race was .5 mile swim/ 18.2 mile bike/ 3.2 mile run

Swim(1/2 mile) - 15:20 not great but not bad. Water temperature was warm as it was announced that it was 81. Not that I was planning to use a wetsuit for the half-mile swim as I was hoping for faster transitions, but with water temperatures that warm, wetsuits are not allowed. I felt good at the start but about 150 yards into the swim my goggle were filling up with water. It was my fault as my goggles were sitting on top of the swim cap and could not form the proper seal around my eyes. So I had to flip over to clear goggles and hope that it would not fill back up. The swim was crowded as two races combined on our lap of the circuit.

Transition 1 - 1:08 - Finally a good transition other than struggling to get wet shirt on...oh yeah started raining during the swim.

Bike(18.2 miles) - 51:40/21.2 mph - The rain was steady during the bike with several downpours. Still a bit timid on the bike in those conditions after the crash last year, I rode a conservative bike. I felt very strong throughout the bike but with the conservative attitude on the downhills I was not able to shake some guys completely. Some of the crazy guys would hammer the downhills in the rain only to be crushed on every uphill by me. In dry conditions I am certain I would have dropped them on one of the uphills and just kept pulling away if the roads were dry. I struggled a bit to get into my shoes clipped on the pedals as my foot slipped off the wet shoes a couple of times. I felt very strong on second loop and was starting to feel confident for the run.

Transition 2 - 45 seconds. Now this is what I was looking for in a transition.

Run (3.2 miles) - The run was 95% trail running with only one true hill. I felt incredibly strong heading out of transition. The plan was to just go hard as long as I could and try to hold on. It never came down to any holding on as I felt smooth and strong the entire way. I ran down three people pretty early on in the room. By this time the rain had stopped (figures) but with the cloud cover it felt cool on the run. Even with the fast time, I was hoping there would be some mile markers on the trail to get an accurate measure of how steady the run was.

Overall, I am very pleased with the results of 7th overall and winning my age group. I also accomplished my time goal of breaking 1 hour 30 minutes. While the swim goggle incident cost me some time but that was my own fault, it would have been nice to see how hard I could have really hammered that course if not for the rain. I may get over that fear sometime.

If lucky enough, one more race this season....stay tuned!

Race On Tomorrow!

 

With a nice shake out run and bike this morning, I am feeling ready to race tomorrow. It has been real easy to be motivated to train this week with the start of preseason camp for the cross-country teams. After a few days, it was evident that the teams trained hard this summer and came to campus motivated to compete and get back the championships of two years ago! Both the men and women are young teams but they are talented and driven to succeed.

It was a crazy week of scheduling my workouts around two-a-days for the team and meals but training went incredibly well. Coming off working RunningWorks, my running has remained strong and the best I have felt in over a year. Something is really starting to click on the bike as I am cranking out some serious speeds even in small chain rain. It felt really good to get back into the pool as I completed my biggest week of training. My swim may not be the fastest tomorrow after having last week off but at least the comfort level is back.

New Training Totals:
Bike - 5 rides/ 150 miles/ 6. 69 hours/ 22. 4 mph
Run - 4 runs/ 21.25 miles/ 2. 49 hours/ 7:02 per mile
Swim - 4 swims/ 4 miles/ 2.17 hours
Total - 13 workouts/ 175.25 miles/ 11.35 hours

2012
Bike - 183 rides/ 5827 miles/ 273.93 hours/ 21.3 mph
Run - 117 runs/ 739.75 miles/ 89.38 hours/ 7:14 per mile
Swim -73 swims/ 63 miles/ 31.05 hours
Total - 373 workouts/ 6629.75 miles/ 394.36 hours

Goals This week
Race - 1/2 mile swim/ 18 mile bike/ 3.2 mile run
Bike - 5 rides/ 150-170 miles
Run - 4 runs/ 22-26 miles
Swim 4 swims/ 3-4 miles

Race report tomorrow!

From Camp Off To Camp On In 24 Hours

  

Another great week at RunningWorks Cross-Country Camp is in the books. It was a great week of hanging with good friends and working with inspired high school runners. As always, I come out of the week refreshed and ready for the start of Susquehanna University Cross-Country preseason, which begins today. Each year, I learn many new things at camp to bring back to SU and make the Crusaders a better program. This year both teams will be looking to return to the top of the Landmark Conference! Let the fun begin.....

As expected, my swimming was nonexistent at camp and I will be making up a lot this week to prepare for the triathlon this week. My cycling continues to go very well and I did not miss a beat this week on the bike. I think this week was a breakout moment for my current running status. I ran for 7 straight days and tallied 53.25 miles of running. I also did my first true workout (not counting brick workouts) in probably 5-6 months. Now, I may not average 53 miles every week but now I know I can physically handle it but I am also more motivated to add to my running.

New Training Totals:
Bike - 5 rides/ 155 miles/ 7.52 hours/ 20.6mph
Run - 7 runs/ 53.25 miles/ 6.59 hours/ 7:25 per mile
Swim - N/A
Total - 12 workouts/ 208.25 miles/ 14.11 hours

Bike - 178 rides/ 5677 miles/ 267.24 hours/ 21.2 mph

Run - 113 runs/ 718.5 miles/ 86.88 hours/ 7:15 per mile

Swim - 69 swims/ 59 miles/ 28.94 hours
Total - 360 workouts/ 6454.5 miles/ 383.06 hours

Goals This Week

Bike - 5 rides/ 160-175 miles

Run - 4 runs/ 28-32 miles

Swim - 4 swims/ 3-3.5 miles


If the schedule workouts I will be racing this Sunday at the Keystone State Triathlon - Sprint Distance. Hopefully this week will not be too crazy. I am also hoping to find two more triathlons for September to end the season with 5 races. I am already so pumped for the 2013 race season!

Keystone State Triathlon
http://www.trimaxendurancesports.com/KeystoneState.html

2012 QuakerMan Triathlon
http://www.genesisadventures.com/v4/main.php?left=triathlons&center=quakermantri

Need one more!

TdO ' 12,13, 14????? Who knows when it will happen.

Tomorrow = Camp On!

   

It is hard to believe that the summer is nearly over. Tomorrow, I will be heading to Canadensis, PA (Pocono Mtn.) to work at Running Works Cross-Country Camp for 7 days. It is always a fun week and a great prelude to my teams return at the start of preseason for the Crusader Cross-Country season. This week I will be working along side good friends who share the same passion about the sport of running as I do. It makes for a great opportunity to exchange coaching ideas and learn some new things. It will also be nice to ride and run in a new area and get some good climbing.

Training continues to go well leading up to my next race in 15 days. I will be racing a sprint distance (.5 mile swim - 18 mile bike - 3.2 mile run) at the Kestone State Triathlon. This week with staff meetings I missed two swim sessions but was able to get some great running and biking. As much I as hate the swim portion, knowing that I will lack swimming this week I really needed those swim sessions. At least I will have a week to get back in the pool the following week to prep for the race.

New Training Totals
Week
Bike - 6 rides/ 185 miles/ 8.35 hours/ 22.1 mph
Run - 4 runs/ 26 miles/ 3.09 hours/ 7:08 per mile
Swim - 2 swims/ 2 miles/ 1.1 hours
Total - 12 workouts/ 213 miles/ 12.54 hours

Bike - 173 rides/ 5522 miles/ 259.72 hours/ 21.3 mph
Run - 106 runs/ 665.25 miles/ 80.29 hours/ 7:14 per mile
Swim - 69 swims/ 59 miles/ 28.94 hours
Total - 348 workouts/ 6246.25 miles/ 368.95 hours

Keystone State Triathlon
http://www.trimaxendurancesports.com/KeystoneState.html

Hopefully I will be able to find two more races in September to finish off a great comeback season. With each training week and race I am realizing that next year's goals will be big! Stay tuned....

Another Race Done!

  


Brigantine Island Triathlon
Yesterday I competed in my second race since my return to triathlons. It was a race that competed in just my first year of triathlons way back in 1992. I was one of 508 individuals and 52 relay teams to jump in the water on a very hot muggy morning. It is a sprint triathlon as the distances were .25 mile swim, 11 mile bike and 4 mile run. I did not intend to use a wetsuit but I was surprised to see some people in them especially with water temps 80+.

Swim - .25 mile
It was warm swim in the back bay with the first 125-50 yards straight into the current. The current was not issue as much as the time interval between waves. I was in the 4th wave with 3:00 minutes between waves. I am not the strongest swimmer but to my surprise we swam into the wave before us before the first buoy and it slowed a lot of my age group down. It probably slowed me down by a good minute but I was happy with my swim given the traffic jam. My time was just over 8 minutes but to me the most important part was feeling much more comfortable in a mass swim start. My transition could have been faster but it was a good 150+ yard run to my bike and then another 75-100 yards to the bike exit.

Bike - 11 miles
Plain and simple I hammered the bike as I knew I could. I may have even been conservative on the first 3-4 miles but I felt incredibility strong on the bike. I don;t think you could have designed a flatter course but there were numerous turns on the course but I was able to take them all pretty fast. I made up for the slow swim with the 4th fastest bike split of the day. My time over the 11 miles was 27:54 or 23.7 MPH. It was also the first time I used my new aero helmet! Transition into the run was a bit better but I know I need to work on my transitions. I think if my transitions were where they were when I competed regularly in triathlons I could have saved 30-40 seconds which moves me up to 5th or 6th overall, so some serious work needed there.

Run - 4 miles
By the time the run started, the sun was out and baking all of us. The humidity at this point was very oppressive. I started out very conservative and just maintained a steady but slow pace. I was passing people on the run so in my head I thought I was moving faster than I actually wound up running. One thing that may have helped would have been mile markers on the run but there were none. I think that would have helped me to run the second half a little faster but I guess when you are passing people and nobody is passing you, you don;t realize how slow you are moving. I held a steady 7:11 per mile to hit 28:45 for the 4 miles but should have still run 15-20 seconds faster despite the conditions.

Total - 1:08:02 - 10th overall/ 2nd age group

Overall, I am happy with the race and felt like steps were taken in the direction of getting back to where I was 14 years ago. I do need to work harder on the run as I know some solid track workouts will make drastic improvements there. I hope to also have better transitions when I race again August 26th at Keystone State Triathlon. I have the option of sprint distance or Olympic distance.

http://www.trimaxendurancesports.com/KeystoneState.html

New training totals:
Week
Bike - 5 rides/ 151 miles/ 6.90 hours/ 21.80mph
Run - 4 runs/ 23.25 miles/ 2.80 hours/ 7:13 per mile
Swim - 4 swims/ 3 miles/ 1.60 hours
Total - 13 workouts/ 177.25 miles/ 11.3 hours

2012
Bike - 167 rides/ 5337 miles/ 252.37 hours/ 21.2mph
Run - 102 runs/ 639.25 miles/ 77.20 hours/ 7:14 per mile
Swim - 67 swims/ 57 miles/ 27.83 hours
Total - 336 workouts/ 6033.25 miles/ 356.40 hours

I am hoping to get in 2-3 more races before the end of the season. All I can say that the 2013 triathlon season is looking good at this point!

TdO '12