Posts Tagged ‘racing’

2012 Race Season – 70.3 Focus

December 30th, 2011

2012 is right around the corner.  Time to set my sights on target races this season.  Say bye-bye to the holiday sweets and that “extra” glasses of wine.  Jan 1 will mark the beginning of a build phase toward Ironman 70.3 Mooseman on June 3, 2012.  Mooseman will be a “train through” race as I progress toward Ironman 70.3 Timberman on August 19 , 2012.

No race goals yet other than qualifying for 2013 70.3 World Championship with a solid performance at Timberman.  Non-racing goal is to improve my swimming.  The swim is killing my overall performance in triathlon. For example, I was 66th in the M35-39 division this year at the USAT Age Group Nationals, but if you remove the swim split, I crested the top 20.

Not changing equipment this year. This will make my wife happy, because I spent a fortune last year:)  Just a switch to a 910xt whenever released by Garmin.  My Forerunner 305 has seen better days.

Happy Training

 

 

 

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Cohasset Triathlon – Race Report

July 1st, 2011

The family and I headed to Cohasset MA this past weekend for my first triathlon of the 2011 season.  The race was fittingly named, the Cohasset Triathlon.  We had a great weekend staying at the Nantasket Beach Resort, just 4 miles from the race venue in Cohasset.  We arrived Saturday morning, settled in, then checked out the race location.    Race check in was interesting in that Streamline Events, who put on the race, decided to go with tattoo race numbers this year.  So I took advantage of the assisted “tattooing” before heading out.  Check out my guns:)  Yeah, I’m a weakling….

Anyhow, after lunch I did an easy 1 hour spin, which included the bike course.  Realized the course was much easier than I had remembered from last year, so that was good.  Now back to the family for a nice relaxing evening.

Race Day: Got up at 6am after a decent nights sleep.  Had the family and gear ready to roll by 6:30.  Dropped of the Family and drove to the parking area which was about 1.5 miles from transition.  With my gear bag on my shoulders, I biked to transition while chatting with other racers along the way. » Read more: Cohasset Triathlon – Race Report

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Ironman California 70.3 Check-in

March 31st, 2011

At lunch today, I drove down to check-in for the Ironman California 70.3 race in Oceanside, CA that is being held Saturday April 2nd.

This is my first Ironman brand race, and only my second half iron distance race. They have registration and check in open on Thursday and Friday from 12-7pm. No check in race morning. I figured I’d go Thursday rather than Friday as it’s less likely to be busy (2500 expected racers at this sold out event). Plus I didn’t want to be walking around in the sun getting dehydrated on Friday. In fact, I don’t plan to do much of anything physical on Friday.

Upon arriving in Oceanside – it was a pretty much a zoo to find parking. Open registration, coupled with a 78 degree day had people flocking to the beach in droves. Drove around a bit and scored some free parking and headed down to the Expo area. I checked out the Nytro booth (bought some GU), the Specialized tent, the Ironman Expo store and a few other vendors here and there, I found my way to the check-in building.

Check-in was an interesting ordeal. Again – I haven’t done any Ironman brand races before, so registration as I’m used to it, is basically walk up to a smiling volunteer that has either a range of numbers or last names assigned to her, show your ID and grab your swim cap and race number. Not in Ironman. Registration was held in a building… much like a conference center. The first level of “authority” the Iron team (those not taking a cigarette break nearby), split us into two lines. Left for people who need a daily USAT license, right for people who already have a USAT license.

Once in your proper line, you need two fill out 2 waivers. Once basically stating you release Ironman from all liability, another staying you release the county of any liability. Initial, sign, sign. Proceed inside.

Inside the building I wait my turn and get greeted by 2 volunteers to check me in. They look at my USAT license, and ID, find me on their computer and hand me a yellow ticket with my race number (956). Now I can proceed into the conference room. Ok, onward I go. At the door, another volunteer checks my yellow ticket, allows me entry, and directs me to another volunteer with a crate of files labeled 750-1000. I’m in that range so I go there. He hands me a green form and a blue form. More waivers. Go to a table, verify all the information, add emergency contact information, local stay information. Sign, sign, and proceed to another table where I drop it off. At this point I think I’m done with the paperwork. I get directed to the packet pickup table. Again look for the volunteers servicing my range of numbers, and they had me my race packet, in which I find a blue swim cap, timing chip, various numbers, and 2 bibs. They also furnish me with a bracelet which I am to wear until after the race. Cool, now we are talking! Off to the next table!

At the next table I get my race swag. An Ironman Oceanside 70.3 bag with a shirt, and some various promotional flyers, a small box of Wheaties, and a few other things. Not bad, not great. Off to the next table.

At the next table I get ankle strap for my timing chip (that was easy), and I get directed to a briefing room where a video is playing in a loop talking about what to expect race day, where everything is, etc. Basically the same information found in the athlete guide. Which I read.

After 15 minutes (and this was with no lines!) I was checked in, had my race packet and was ready to go home.

Get one more day of rest, and do some last minute checks for race day!

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Last Minute Prep and Taper

March 30th, 2011

Oceanside 70.3 is here. Well, pretty much. Today is Wednesday. Race is Saturday. I’m nearing the end of a 10 day taper. My last hard workouts were last week, since then it’s been easy going. Prepping my bike and gear to make sure everything is all set.

So what’s the plan? Well I got some new Michelin Pro Race 3 tires from Probikekit.com (side note: they are a UK based bike shop with great prices, no tax and free delivery). They had a special where the 2 tires with 2 tubes were $65 delivered. As compared to $63 EACH at local bike shops. Of course, due to limited supply I got the beige ones, so my bike looks like it has old school white wall tires. But I’m going for the vintage look.

I also spent some time cleaning my bike, and cleaning and lubing the chain. There was a lot of sweat, salt and grime everywhere. After nearly 6 months of indoor riding. I also replaced my PowerTap hub batteries. Just in case. The head unit looks ok.

What’s left? I need to install my new 44oz Profile Design aero bottle, mix up some Infinit and we are good to go. I figure 44oz there and 24 oz on the downtube should provide enough nutrition (about 1000 calories) for the bike portion. Might throw in a few GU’s as well. I also need to install my rear wheel cover once it arrives (it’s currently on a plane from Boston with my parents…).

Tomorrow I plan to go down to the race site to register, get my race packet and soak in the tri vibe. The race season is here. I go off at 7:08am Pacific, #956. Follow my race online…

My Oceanside specific training started Dec 1, 2010, and after 1406 bike miles, 306 run miles and 81,000 yards of swimming, it’s show time. Though when you look at it like that – doesn’t really seem like much.

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Team Psycho ITT; ready, sweat, go!

February 17th, 2011

Dave and I participated in the Team Psycho, hosted by Fast Splits, indoor time trial last week. It was 9.3 mile (15km) ITT on Computrainers. Heats went every hour starting at 8am, consisting of 16 riders per heat. We both signed up for the 11am heat and arrived around 10am to watch that heat and start warming up.

Unlike other ITT’s this one wasn’t the best in preparation. Very casual… to say the least.

At 11 we got setup for our heat and when the timer counted down, we went off. We both had a plan from our coach to stay “easy” for the first 3 minutes (for me that meant 335w), then kick it up to the 15 minute mark (for me, go to 350w), then for the remainder hit your average to that point, which should have been about 345w. I started out to plan, but about 10 minutes in, I could no longer hold the 350w and started slowing down a bit. My HR was pegged at about 176 and I just couldn’t do it. Power started dropping drastically. At this point I was 2nd plance in the heat, and hanging about 300ft back of 1st, but couldn’t make any gains.

I ended up finishing with a time of 22:57.9 which was good for 12th on the day. I’ll take it. 334w average. Not great… but good enough. Local stud Ethan Brown took the top spot with a 21:27 @ 376 average watts. Crazy power for a 144 pound lanky kid. Hannah Freeman was top female with a 24:05, besting pro triathletes Karen Smyers, Dede Griesbauer, and Cait Snow.

Dave finished 20th overall with a 23:24 @ 304w. But believes his CT was off – and should have been closer to 265w. You never know.

Oh, and there was no beer post race at the event as promised – so we hit up Chipotle for some burritos and Dos XX‘s!

Let’s get to some outdoor racing!

Full Race Results

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Patriot Half Iron Triathlon Race Report

June 23rd, 2010

Last weekend, 6/19/2010, I raced the Patriot Triathlon. It was my first 1/2 Ironman (technically half iron distance, since Ironman is a brand name). Normally, a 1/2 is 70.3 miles. 1.2 miles swimming, followed by 56 miles biking, and then finally a 13.1 mile run. Patriot is a 72.3 – the bike portion is an extra 2 miles for a total of 58 miles.

I signed up about 3 weeks ago. Basically for 2 reasons. 1), I had a 3 hr bike planned for that Saturday, and Masters Swim / 70 minute run for the next day, Sunday. So I figured, why not put them back to back and do the race. And 2), I wanted to feel out this distance to see if I wanted to focus on it next year, and this race was the only one in the year that fit in the schedule without screwing up my “A” races…

I’ll start by saying, I was WAY undertrained. 90% of my training has been focused on short course; sprint and olympic. High intensity, short durations. But, you definitely need train for this distance. There’s no faking your way through (though I guess that is what I did…).

The 1.2 mile swim. Nice calm swim, it felt great for me. They say the swim was longer (they being other swimmers, but I have no sense of distance/time when swimming so I don’t know), I went freestyle non stop the whole way, which I’ve never done in any race of any distance. Just tried to stay smooth and steady and not rush. Very happy with the 37:44. Was hoping for 40 minutes or better, so there it was. Water was warm, calm, very nice. I zig zagged a little, so I’m sure I lost some time/energy there, but not too bad.

I came into transition feeling good. I didn’t rush, but I didn’t try to go slow either. I know it’s a long race, but damn it if I lose time in transition. Just under 2 minutes. Not great, but I put on socks too…

The 58 mile bike. Bike was fast and flat. 2:30:58. 9th fastest overall and 4th fastest non-elite. After the race everyone kept telling me I rode too hard (hence the bad run). But the thing is… I didn’t. I stayed below my target HR. I didn’t feel like it was a hard effort (though after 40-45 miles I had enough… right around 2 hrs.). I just kept my cadence steady, geared right, HR just below the right zone. I didn’t feel I went too hard at all. In fact, I think I could have gone much harder. Ate 5 gu’s about 30 minutes apart, 48oz of Gatorade, 24oz of water. If I don’t eat another gu/gel for while I’ll be very happy.

Transition two (T2). Nothing exciting here… I got off the bike, and there was no way I could run through transition after 2 and a half hours of fast biking so I walked as fast as I could. Grabbed my running shoes, race belt, hat and was off. < 1:00.

The 13.1 mile run. Run was just bad. It started out good, though. First 3 miles were ok. 8:05, 7:57, 8:30. Felt good, thought I would settle into a nice pace. Had some water at each water station, had some clif bloks… Instead it got super hard. Every mile after that I walked at least a little. Started to get some 9:40′s, 10:00′s and 10:15′s, When I was running I was still moving around 8:30 I think… but I had to take more and more walk breaks. Every aid station and mile marker was like a desert oasis. I started the run and a volunteer told me I was 17th overall… not bad considering I was Wave 3 (Wave 1 started at 7:30am, Wave 2 at 7:35, Wave 3 at 7:40, etc). But then a freight train of 60 or 70 runners came rolling by. Also, not sure how the heat affected me (it was about 85-90 degrees), but it was hot. My run was a 2:02:47. I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon earlier in the year at 1:30:xx… so I thought I had something better than 2:02 in me, but being able to do something, and then being able to do it in a 1/2 triathlon are two completely different things.

Overall – I finished in 5:14:40… 20 seconds faster than my goal time. But I had anticipated a 40:00 swim, 2:40 bike, 1:50 run and transition time… not 38/2:30/2:00…. 51st overall, and 5th in my age group. I believe I was 2nd in my age group at the start of the run….

As much as I suffered and cursed it during the run. I would do it again. I can’t believe how much my legs twitched, spasmed and seized up as soon as the race was over – though during the race was OK. Immediately after the race was worst, but pretty much into the evening. The next morning was just sore. Legs sore, back sore, shoulders sore.

I guess for the next one I’ll have to really focus on training. Sprint training doesn’t translate well to this distance. Great job to everyone that raced. Takes a lot of guts to do this (and self loathing?). And thanks to the volunteers. It was great pick me up to see and hear everyone.

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The FIT is go – indeed

March 11th, 2010

My Honda Accord was on it’s way to car heaven. It has served me well. I bought it in Sept 1999, brand new. 2000 model year Accord Coupe EXV6. It has been with me through a wedding, first home purchase, move from east coast to west coast and back, two kids… and now after 10.5 yrs, it’s being replaced.

So what to get? I’m much more practical today then I was in 1999. While in 1999, it seemed ok to spend 50% of my annual salary on a car, in 2010, there wasn’t a chance of that. Granted I make more now, but I wasn’t even interested in spending as much as I did for that Accord.

I needed to find a car that fit my lifestyle, father of 2, 100 mile round trip commuter, triathlete. So I poured through reviews and narrowed my choices to low $20k’s – VW GTi, Toyota Matrix, and Mazda 3, as well as the $17k Honda FIT. When all was said and done the FIT still came in $6k to $8k cheaper, so FIT it was. I went in for a test drive (at Boch Honda – while not my favorite place in the world, they do have great pricing) and loved it. I had driven one in the past, so I knew what to expect but wanted to reassure it. Reassured I was. The zippy little FIT is way more car than it seems. I bought it. 2010 FIT Sport Automatic (with F1 inspired paddle shifters!).

I went to the test drive in the Accord, and Boch took the trade in, and set up the purchase right then and there. 2 hrs later we were driving home in the new FIT. And I only came in for a test drive…

I’m 6’1.5″ and I fit (no pun intended) perfectly in the car. Lots of driver leg room, head room, shoulder room. Both my kids fit in the back, my daughter in her forward facing car seat, and my son in the baby carrier. No problem. In fact, with my drivers seat in my comfortable position, I was able to fit behind my setup – proving that this little car can easily carry four 6′ footers. A side trip to Costco on the way home utilized the trunk space. Again no problem with space. So now we had 2 adults, 2 kids, and Costco in the trunk (something like 7000 diapers, 42lbs of oatmeal and various other things…).

I’ve driven to work once so far and it’s a blast to drive. While it’s slightly underpowered (117hp, VTEC 4 cyclinder), a tap on the paddle shifter to drop it a gear allows quick lane changes/passes with ease. Road noise is slightly higher than I’d like, but with the radio at my normal listening volume, it’s not noticeable at all. Radio off you can hear it, but it won’t interrupt your conversation.

Lastly – how will it fit into my tri lifestyle? The answer – Perfectly! At my height, I ride a size 56 bike and the seat is pretty tall – I was worried the only way to get the bike in there would be to lay it down, compromising room for all my other gear (helmets, clothes, beer). Not so! There is enough height I can stand it up, with the front wheel off, leaving ample room for gear. And if that weren’t enough, I can even put up the larger of the 60/40 rear seats and still have a bike in there plus a passenger in the back. Perfect. Though I haven’t tried it, I’m convinced I could get 2 bikes in there no problem.

So here are my findings.
Pros
- Stereo sounds great
- Unbelievable amount of space – biggest little car out there.
- Nimble handling
- Sport mode/paddle shifters
- MPG’s (38 or so highway!)
- Aux input AND USB/iPod interface, CD/MP3/WMV
Cons
- Slightly louder, but what do you expect from a little engine like that?
- No center console (available aftermarket)
- Lacking in lumbar support
- No floormats standard (Ordered some OEM’s already though… $72 online)

Conclusion. It is by far the best car in it’s class. And Car and Driver agree. They’ve named it into their annual 10Best Cars special again! It’s roomy, it’s sporty, it’s fun. The shortcomings are so small, that they don’t even matter. You have plenty of room for 4 adults or a family of four. Or bikes. Or surfboards… I’m very happy with my purchase, and at $16,255 and 0.9% financing, it can’t be beat.

Fuelly

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Indoor Time Trial

January 20th, 2010

Coming up January 30th, David and I (among some other BayState folks) will be participating in the  Harpoon Brewery Indoor Time Trial in Boston. It’s an a 10km (6.2mi) 8 mile all out effort on computrainers. Heats will be running all day starting at 1:00PM. The last heat goes off 9:45PM. 15 riders are pitted against each other in each heat. I’ll update post race and report how it went.

Update: Apparently the race is held in the warehouse / brewing area of the building which has no climate control. So, due to recent cold weather, temperatures inside are expected to be 40-50 degrees F. At least there’s no wind!

Go!

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