A Weekend of Racing…Well!

It’s the first big weekend of racing on the East Coast. Kerry went back to St. Anthony’s Triathlon. Last year, her first year in the female 30-34 age group she won the age group. This year saw a repeat of that performance but with a faster time. Which is never shabby.

Kerry 1st place F30-34 St. Anthony's Triathlon

Up the coast in NC, James and his race ready steed showed up at the Huntersville Sprint Triathlon.

James Haycraft's race machine

James posted the 2nd fastest swim, then topped the field with the fastest bike and run time to comfortably break the tape for the WIN! This will earn him some valuable points towards the overall title of the IOS NCTS.

Moving west Billy Oliver captured 7th place in his Age group at USAT Duathlon Nationals by posting a faster time then he put up last year on this course.

Finally even further west, Dusty grabbed 3rd place by half a wheel in the Chuck Pontius Crit. He took all he has learned over the previous races where he’s tried to break away every which way is possible often to be caught just before the line. Today he raced tactical and grabbed a podium spot.

Lots of races and lots of top places. That’s the way we roll at Accelerate 3!

Super Sunday Sweep

James blitzed the Mayday Biathlon in Morganton, NC. He lead wire to tape and set a new 5k run PB in the process. It wasn’t enough that he gapped the field on the run, he also made sure no one got close with the days fastest bike split. His efforts earned him the $125 first place check which amounts to just over $2 per minute of racing. In triathlon speak that’s not too shabby of an earning per minute rate.

Heading south to Florida, Kerry it seems, won the women’s age group race at St. Anthony’s Triathlon for the third time….in four years. The results list her second overall but first in her age group. The person who beat her originally was first overall but got a drafting penalty to end up dropping a spot. Kerry and I were both worried about this race. She changed jobs, changed work schedules an had fair bit of down time during that transition. She managed to get enough work done to get the job done and have a solid race all around.

What do James and Kerry have in common for the year? They’ve both won cash while making the dash to the finish line this season. This is the 8th or 9th year in a row Accelerate 3 athletes have won cash racing.

Five athletes raced this past weekend. Two age group fifth places and an age group sixth place as well as one of those athletes sneaking into the top 20 overall at Duathlon Nationals. A you never even got to see the front of my jersey overall win at the Mayday Biathlon and it appears to be an age group win along with topping the rest of the women’s age group field at St. Anthony’s.

When it came time to produce results, Accelerate 3 athletes stepped up to the line and delivered.

This coming weekend sees Accelerate 3 athletes racing at Ironman St. George, the Iron Gear Sports Triathlon and the White Lake Half.

6th, 5th & 6th

Consistency would be an accurate description of how the Accelerate 3 athletes did in their age groups today at USAT’s 2011 Duathlon National Championships.

In the older guys division (45-49) Billy finished 6th in his age group and 48th overall. One thing that is amazing about Billy is, as he has moved up in age groups he has gotten faster. He is faster now then he was at 40, 35 and 30. Billy is anti aging. He also has nice running form and rhythm. It probably doesn’t hurt that he does his track workouts with some of the best female triathletes in the world.

In the 40-44 age group Francois and I ended up leaving T2 next to each other. Francois turned in the 5th fastest bike split on the day to take 6th in the age group and 22nd overall, while I grabbed 5th in the age group and snagged the bottom step of the top 20 overall. Francois and I were :05 apart. 14th through 22nd place on the overall results sheet were separated by :56 seconds.

Francois and Coach Brian

It’s been a long time since I’ve race Duathlon Nationals. I was amazed at how tight everything was at the second turn around on the first run. Only the first two guys had cleared the field. Everyone else was strung together in groups of 4-8 runners with small time gaps. The other thing that surprised me was the fluidity of the groups around me. The group in front broke apart then my group swallowed them. Then half of my group got spit out the back. It seemed the first run was a constant catch the group in front, spit half out reform and repeat. I hit the second mile marker in 27th position in the wave with a 11:30 :01 back of Billy.

T1 was a giant CF. There were people everywhere. It seemed like 30 people were all grabbing bikes rushing down the center aisle to get out. I left T1 with 2 people in front, one to my right side and two behind me, all of us wheel to wheel to wheel. But then I had to drop them enroute to the 13th fastest bike split of the day. See you later fellows. Not. My power output was 237/246 AP/NP over a rather rolling course.

Dusty raced Wildflower today. It was his first run over 45 minutes in 3 months. I’m relieved to say he had a solid race and seems to be back on track. WF is no easy course. I was nervous how his groin would hold up on the brutal run course.

Now it’s time to sit on my hands and wait for Kerry’s results for St. Anthony’s tomorrow and James’s results from the MayDay Biathlon in NC he is racing. I’m hoping she snags the top amateur age group spot again and I predict he has a solid shot at the overall win.

This is also my first blog post on the new Mac. Exciting no doubt, probably more exciting for me.

Uh Oh, This Can’t be Good

After last weekend’s triathlon turned duathlon I was pretty beat. My calves and hamstrings were sore. I took Monday and Wednesday off, just did some easy spinning and swimming on Tuesday. Today I ran on the treadmill. I’m not sure you could call it running. My hamstrings were sore right off the bat. About four minutes into the run they felt great. About five minutes into the run, my calves were sore and continued to get worse. WTF? It’s never taken me this long to recover from a duathlon. I can’t recall a single duathlon, even when it was 10k/60k/10k where four days after I’m still hobbling. I’m walking like an old man. Oh wait, I did age up into the 40-44 AG.

I’m supposed to race on Saturday. I don’t know if that’s such a wise idea. I suspect that with only 8k of running vs the 15k or really 19k after you factor in warm up that the duathlon required, that I won’t be this destroyed. With Duathlon Nationals looming up on the race calendar, it might be smart for me to skip the small fry for the bigger fish.

On the brighter side of things, my poor laptop has officially been admitted to hospice. Yesterday it stopped displaying my screen picture. Today it uninstalled both of my printers. Both days, it’s turned off the wireless and failed to turn it back on when I commanded it to. I wonder what tomorrow has in store. Half the time when I close the lid, I have to do a hard reboot. This forced me to take drastic action today. I bought a new laptop.

It’s official, I’ve crossed over to the other side. I’m getting a Mac. Since they didn’t have my model in stock (go figure) at the Apple store, it had to be ordered. I’m looking forward to crossing over to what some call an evil empire. I wonder if I can use Google Chrome on it? If you’re going to go evil don’t do a half ass job at it.

In the meantime I’m going to lie down on the floor and foam roller my aching calf muscles. Seriously this is ridiculous that I’m still sore. Even more sore now then earlier today. DOMS, it’s really true. Who knew?

More Dreams….CRUSHED!

Another weekend of racing for Accelerate 3 athletes. I think we managed to fill the big shoes Kerry laid before us last week.

Cory completed his first ever 50k race this weekend as he continues his prep for IM St. George. He turned in a bang up race there last year and is on track to do the same again this year.

The Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon was this weekend. Last year was a cold, wet affair. This year it poured and was very windy the day before the race making the trails a sloppy mess. Race day, while looking like it would storm, stayed dry and calm until after the finish. Then the temps dropped out of the upper 40’s and the rain came.

Billy and Coach Brian Before the Race

Sarah ran on a relay team taking 3rd place in the relay division. She has a back problem that has sidelined her for the last three weeks and it seems to be clearing up. That’s good news unless you are a female triathlete. Not a bad way to start to get back into some light training.

Billy finished up second in the Mens 45-49 AG. He lead the second group through the first run and moved into second place for good on the bike. You can read his race report here.

Billy in T2

I won the 40-44AG in my first ever masters race! F*ck me, I’m old. When and how did that happen? Typically this AG in AZ is one of the fastest. You have a bunch of former sub 8:45 IM pros and guys who have touched the 1:50 Olympic distance triathlon mark. If you’re not on, you’ll find yourself off the back quickly.

Today though the pace started off kind and gentle to these old legs for the first half of the run. I managed to make the first group in the run as it dwindled from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3. About 10 minutes into the run, my friend Ted dropped the hammer and gapped 2nd and 3rd place. Unfortunately I was in second place. After a surge to drop 3rd place that didn’t work, I found myself falling into 3rd place. Note to self, when in doubt don’t surge. But hey, I guess you can teach and old dog new tricks. On the bike Ted threw a chain and I moved into second place in the wave while taking over the lead in the M40-44 AG. Entering the final run, I was down a bit. About 2k into it, I caught a glimpse of the guy leading the M40+ wave. He had about :45 on me. I managed to claw some time back through the 2.5mile mark. Not much and not enough. I was just over :30 down when we hit a half mile to go. Suddenly the gap started shrinking rapidly. My mind was saying “GO” and “Wait Not Yet You Idiot I’m Hurting” all at the same time. I tried to reel him in. Over the final 150 meters, he was coming back to me faster then the finish line was coming towards us. Closer and closer he came, I went from seeing logos to making out the writing on the logos of his singlet in that final 150m. Alas though I ran out of real estate ending up :12 down, making up a quarter of a minute over the final 200m or so of the race.

What do I have to do to win my wave at this race? Seriously? This is the 5th time I’ve raced this race. This is the third time I’ve finished second in my wave. One other time I finished 3rd. At least I’m pretty safe bet to place or show.

Coach Brian running into T2

In the end I picked up a gift certificate from Trisports.com and some bonus money as well. Not bad for a cold, wet and sloppy day.

The Mess that Becomes Transition

Doing It Again and Again

Most people wish they could win one race per year, in fact even for most pro triathletes that would be a pretty good season if they got a win. Billy has won two races this year and claimed two more second places overall. Today in Sierra Vista, at the Third Annual Sierra Vista Firefighters Biathlon Billy stays close to the leaders on the 5k run, keeping himself in striking distance of the lead. Then he hops on his trusty yellow Felt B12 and throws down a bike split that moves him from third up to first overall. Since it’s a biathlon, there was no second run. Billy was able to cruise across the finish line with a comfortable 1:40 margin of victory. Hardly worth the effort of putting the race wheels on. This should give him a confidence boost going into Silverman next Saturday.

I don’t not suck.

Cold. Wet. And not just your girlfriend. That was what we were faced with at the Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon on Sunday. The trails were a muddy, sloppy mess, as if mud makes any other type of mess. Judging from my kit it sure doesn’t make a clean mess. But damn it, it’s so much fun to run in the rain. Especially on trails dodging cactus and stomping in puddles. My high school and college xc skills are still there. My leg speed, um, well, not so much.

It wasn’t so bad on the bike, the weather that is, not my riding. My riding, now that was an awesome display of patheticness. With all the kit I had on the only cold part came with the 5k downhill that saw me cruising along at 29+ mph. Couple that with a chain that skipped unless I was applying some upward pressure to my shift lever and the fun factor wasn’t near an all time high. The front Zipp 1080 is a bit twitchy at times. Sort of felt like I was hydroplaning. Hydroplaning, twitchy and wet roads = some puckering here and there. The rubber stayed down and the Styrofoam stayed up is a decent summary on my biking. Other then I suck, which is the best assessment of it currently.

I accomplished my goal of a personal worst time on the course. 1:39:21. A PW by 4:31! F*ck yeah I rocked it! I was still 2nd in the Men’s 35-39 Age Group. The streak of never finishing out of the top 3 in my AG in this race continues. This is a very sad reflection on how pathetically weak this AG is in AZ. Next year I get to play with the big boys in AZ, the M40-44 AG. When did I get so old?

The run went somewhat well. I’ve never witnessed this race from so far back. I was 25th in my wave in the first minute. The gun went off and I just cruised out from the line. About 100m from the turn to get on the trail, just like when I’ve been up front, those in the back suddenly started to slow. Who knew? I moved up 5 or 6 places in the 25 meters before the turn. Ran past a few more and hit the first mile in 6:10. The first mile of this race is more or less downhill and flat. The real challenge on the first run is between miles 1 to just beyond 2. The course goes uphill the entire time. Hit the 2 mile mark in just under 12:40. Just beyond 2 miles, the course turns downhill again. The smart play is run the first mile within yourself and the second mile hard to make time on those behind and/or pull in those in front. The section from just beyond mile 2 to the end of the run takes care of itself…..if you’ve run smart up to that point. Hit 3 miles in just over 18:10 and continued to push. I got passed around mile 3 then just clung to the dude and let him pull me. When all was said and done, it worked out to about 6:02 per mile for a 21:06 3.5 mile opening leg. Last year I ran 19:30. sigh…..

You know triathlon/duathlon really isn’t that hard when you aren’t pushing the bike leg. I can’t say except for the steep pitches back into the park that I really rode hard. My 202 watt average power would confirm that. Like I said, I Suck.

Second run was fine, had to tie my shoe starting the run, which consisted of struggling to get my neoprene gloves off then tying my ghetto lacing system. I’ve got wide feet and hate my running shoes flopping around, what can you do?

Some dude sprinted past me near the finish. Crossed the line, walked for 2 min then went straight to the Trisports.com trailer where all my (dry) gear was. Got naked, dried off the best I could, put on my dry clothes and got back to the hotel for a hot shower. If you were running up the final 75 meters to the finish line and saw a skinny dude with a really white ass in the back of the trailer, that was me.

The nice thing about racing is it allows you to objectively assess where you are at. Running, I’m ok. A few long runs and some miles consistently and things will be good. Cycling…well I’m going to need a moped if I want to go fast.

What a difference a year makes :-(

This time last year I was building my Lucero back up for the Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon. The big question wasn’t how was my fitness, although I was wondering about how it would pan out, but more like are my cranks going to fall off at some point, did I tighten the seat or did I remember to tighten the bolts that hold the brakes in. Stopping is important after all.

Now one year later, I have big questions about my fitness. Actually that’s bullshit. I have no questions about my fitness, I’m just not fit. Comparing year over year for the last three years at this time my FTP in 2008 was 272, last year 290 this year a burly 235w. I’m heavier now as well. Nothing says getting your ass kicked better then being fat and having a low FTP. Fortunately the news gets no better on my quest to set a PW (personal worst) on this course. My run pace two years on the first run was 5:42, last year was 5:31 per mile. This year, I’ll be lucky to be below 6:15. All in all I figure I should be out on the course for about 4-6 minutes longer then it’s ever taken me for this race. That doesn’t sound like much, but at last years race, I ran sub 6:00 for the second run. So I’ll be at least 1 mile behind where I was. 1 mile is a beat down.

Any punters on how slow I go compared to last year? I’ll lay $15 on 5:47 slower. What’s your bet?

What can you do? When the fitness isn’t there there is no faking it. I’m going to get my ass kicked for sure. There should be several happy people in my age group. I noticed several names on the start list that have never beaten me before, many of those guys are 0 and double digits against me. Sunday is their big day!

The only bright news heading into the race, is I’m running a slightly faster wheel set and a faster frame then last year. That should get me, oh call it :15-:20 seconds back.
.

There it is, the old, new ride. I need to come up with a nickname for it. My old bike was the Bad Ass Lucero. It was black so what did you expect? This is red. Bad Ass and red bikes just don’t go together. Maybe the Cute and Polite cycle? Or Thank God I’ve got black wheels otherwise I’d be a poser bike. Seems kind of long.

Check back in next week kids to see how bad I get my ass kicked.

Pragmatism

Since getting back into decent shape is proving to be a struggle, I need to be pragmatic about the early season goals I set out for myself. While doing well at the Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon would be great, and racing at the front of my age group and the amateurs in Oceanside was a goal, given that I’m in piss poor shape right now, maybe a reset is in order.
It’s one thing to be optimistic, it’s another thing to be unrealistic. Realistically, I don’t have the time to get into the shape I need to be to meet my original goals. This is the worst shape I’ve been in in the last 6 years or so. Since October, the pool has seen me once for 800 yards and I’ve yet to make an appearance this year. After crashing my bike, I didn’t run for 24 days. Over the last two weeks I’ve managed almost 37 miles of running. That is not going to help me get to the finish line in a speedy manner. Neither is running at the speed I’m currently plodding along at. My cycling has been almost none existent as well, maybe 150 miles since the crash. At least that seems to bounce back fairly quickly if past history is any indication.
What needs to be done? As I’d tell any of the athletes I coach who are making a comeback from injury or illness, consistency is the key. No days without working out. A workout or two or three a day keeps the rest of the competition at bay. Or at least gets them closer then they would have been. So that’s the plan. Workout and workout often.

On a side note, congrats to Erin, 3rd place at the U of A crit in her category!

1 Week to go until Race Time!

I still have not sorted out my TT bikes.  I’ve got the Lucero but without the SRM and a seat, riding that bike looks a bit sketchy.  I’ve got the Specialized Transition with half a back brake zip tied to the downtube. Riding that bike seems a tad dangerous if I need to stop.  Me thinks I’m going to have to pull the SRM out of the Transition and re-install it in the Lucero at this point and swap the seat.  Of course I’ve still got 7 days before the race so plenty of time to sort it out….sort of.  Although it would be nice to ride one of them this year before the race. At least to make sure they shift while going uphill.

I race the Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon next Sunday.  Should be a good season opening hitout, hopefully.  My power data says my riding isn’t too shabby right now.  The big concern is since Thanksgiving week, I’ve been averaging only about 43 mile per week of running.  This time last year I running on average 57mpw, with a higher frequency as well. That’s a fair bit of running.  But since I’ve been riding quite a bit more then last year at this point, my thinking is, if I give anytime back on the runs I should more then make up for in on the bike leg.   It’s just a thought. We all know thinking is dangerous. 

Here is a pic of the Lucero in it’s current state and two of the specialized.  Note half the brake zip tied to the cage.

 

Wonder how fast this thing goes?

 

Stopping = sketchy at best

 

 

 

 

The new TT ride! With the repair ticket on the bars.