Mark Carey, Triathlon, Mtn Biking, & Cool Stuff!

Beach2Battleship Race Report

2010-11-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Going into Beach2Battleship I felt pretty confident in my preparation and abilities to race well. I’ve had a great season racing mostly Xterra, shorter Triathlons and a few Mtn Bike events. I’ve had so much fun Mountain Biking on the new trails here in Chapel Hill this summer that I didn’t touch the TT bike from early July to Early September. But I feel I put enough time on it and I felt good in the long rides that I did! Mountain Biking left me with enough power the hardest part was just getting my back and neck used to the TT position for 5 hours again!

Swim: 2.4 Miles - 57:40 - 8^th overall.

Race morning air temps for the swim were hovering right at 40 degrees. You take a Trolley to the swim start from T1 which was quick and easy. Once there you had to shed your clothes and get into your wetsuit. I opted for the long sleeve, mostly just for standing around pre-race and I’m glad I did. Walking to the swim start you had to cover about 400 yards on the beach. By the time I got to the water my feet were numb! Getting in the 65 degree water actually thawed them out! Warming up I noticed the stand up paddlers had to keep paddling to keep from going out to sea which happened to be the opposite direction in which the swim headed. Signing up for the race I had expected a good current, with the fastest time from previous years being 39 mins. But 5 mins before the start it was plain to see that wasn’t going to be the case! One of the stand-up paddlers assured me in the next 5 mins the current would stop and we’d have a slack tide for the race. I really didn’t believe him! (NOTE: next year the race will be 2 weeks earlier so since that is before the time change the current will be back in 2011!) The start gun went off and there was a pretty good crowd to make the first turn buoy, I was getting hammered between 2 guys so I backed off and let them go. Swimming in the inland water way is pretty cool, you just had to swim buoy to buoy but really any way you wanted to. There are a couple of turns so definitely have to keep your head up and looking forward from time to time. Swim was pretty uneventful, I felt ok, not great but not bad. Water seemed pretty rough, probably due to the head wind coming in at us. Stayed with about 4-5 guys most of the way and seemed to hold my position. I climbed up the wooden ladders carefully so I didn’t cramp and exited the water in 8^th position.

T1: 5:03

There is about a 500 Meter run from the water to the entrance of T1. I stripped the wetsuit as I was running and ran straight to my bike where I had all my clothes laid out. Given that it was still in the low 40’s I decided to put enough clothes on to be comfortable. In my testing pre race I noticed that if I was too cold my HR would go up. That is wasted energy so the time invested in getting dry and fully clothed was well worth it. I put my Trek 29r Crew bibs and jersey on over my tri shorts along with arm warmers and mountain bike gloves. Even after wrestling to get all that on I still managed to have the 2^nd fastest T1 time so the practice in the hotel my wife always makes fun of me for paid off. (Note to self though next time practice wet or dry off better, there’s huge difference!)

Bike: 112 Miles - 5:01:45 - 8^th fastest bike split.

This bike course is awesome! A few hills with bridges going out, but for most of the first 30 miles you’re riding on a Highway in a lane closed to traffic. Very sweet road surface for 85% of the ride and flat and fast. Some country roads in the middle, then the last 35 is on another state highway. In my mind this is probably one of the best bike courses out there after Lake Placid and Kona. And of course it’s nice that it’s mostly flat, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy with the wind that can kick up around there.

I started the bike off pretty conservative. Just kept it steady and slowly got my HR down into a comfortable zone which for me is around 140 bpm. I’d say it took a solid half hour before I settled in to this pace. I passed a few guys and watched some relay guys and 1 other full competitor go blowing by me. I ignored all of them at that point just wanting to just get into my own rhythm. I had my drink mix with cytomax and accelerade and powergels mixed together. My first bottle had about 900 calories and my second bottle in my special needs bag had another 1000 calories. I sip this every 10 mins with water. Easiest nutrition plan ever and it works well for me. I also had a camel back with 60 ounces of Gatorade in it. Hammer products were on course which a lot of people love but I’m not used to them so I carried my own sports drink. Worked out well since I could also put my spare tire and tools on the camel back as well and eliminate the behind the seat bottle launcher. I was happy, in my own world, until Peter Kotland went by me around mile 30. I knew Peter’s track record as a great runner in IM races so I made a competitive decision to stay with him as long as I could. I had to up the effort to about 150 bpm to keep pace with him so I hoped he wouldn’t keep that pace up for the rest of the day. For about the next hour I stayed about 5 bike lengths behind him and just gutted it out. The funny thing was I actually started feeling better somewhat after a while! Maybe the pace finally loosened things up and got the body warmed up nicely. After about an hour of this I finally attempted to go by him after he slowed to stretch a bit. Once in front of him I tried to slow the pace but he wasn’t haven’t it and passed me back pretty quickly. I went back to hanging on. But he was slowing a bit and every time I passed him I’d slow the pace and he’d let me lead a little longer. Eventually about 60 miles in we were back closer to my HR goals! We caught the 3^rd place guy around mile 65, so we were now a nice group of 3. I’ve got to back up here a bit and note that I missed my special needs at the mile 51 aid station. I didn’t see it there so I just thought it would be further up the road. In hindsight I should have stopped and asked but you live and learn. Luckily I had the Gatorade in my camel back or I would have had no calories until around mile 75. I grabbed some hammer gels and a hammer bar at mile 75 and got those down but looking back I figure I took in about 1000 calories less than I had planned on the bike ride and more fluids than I needed since I had to suck down the Gatorade early. I also had a pop-tart that I was looking forward to in my special needs. Being cool and drinking too many fluids caused me to have to pee a lot! This is always the part of a race report a lot of people skim over, but it’s part of Ironman racing. I don’t think I lost much time from it though, I would just have to drop back and stand up to get things flowing then I could pedal standing up for a bit. I’d drop back a 100 yards or so the I’d have to surge back to get back in touch with Peter but it was good in a way to change the muscle groups up on this flat course. We had a pretty good crosswind most of the day, which was against us for the first 75 and with us for the last 37. But you never really felt like it was totally with you. Peter stopped to use the bathroom around mile 75, so after that is was me and Arthur Mathisen into T2. I felt pretty strong and was able to keep my effort level constant all the way back. I knew I was right on a 5 hour ride pace heading back!

T2: 2:44 ( I think fastest of the day)

Coming into T2 a handler grabs your bike and helmet, then someone personally hands you your “bike to run” transition bag. Very nice! I stripped out of my smelly bike clothes and threw on my running shorts and Running Room/29r Crew running singlet. It is so nice to get out of the wet biking clothes and into dry running stuff. I do all my long runs in running shorts so lately I’ve been doing my IM’s in running shorts as well. I had a quick transition left Arthur behind by almost a minute just in transition. Peter came in about a minute after us so he had kept pace after his pit stop.

Run: 3:17:05 – 4^th fastest run.

This run course is actually pretty tough. It’s scenic though with crossing the river on the causeway and hitting the turn around in a really nice park with nice running trails and bridge crossings. In between T2 and the first turn around you run through downtown Wilmington which is really cool. Going into the race I had in mind an IM Florida type run, but I’d say it’s more like Ironman Wisconsin in elevation gain with a couple of long hills around a 1/4 mile long and 5-7% and 2 short steep hills on each loop.

I have to give a shout out here to the 2 pros that were kicking our butts. Zach Ruble and Alex McDonald who had both just participating in IM Florida the week before! My wife informed me they were 19 mins ahead of me out of T2. I knew I wasn’t going to run them down and my objective at that point was to hold onto 3^rd and see if possibly one of them would struggle a lot.

Felt pretty good starting the run. You go about a half mile out of Battleship Park and you have to climb up a causeway with a pretty good incline. Driving this course the day before I knew this wouldn’t be a super fast race. Figured I was going to lose at least a minute for every climb off my goal of running 3 hours so pre-race I really had more like 3:05 in mind. Kept a pretty steady 7 min pace for the first 10 miles and was trying to keep my pace pretty conservative. At the 1^st turn around I found I had about 3 mins on Arthur and about 6 mins on Peter. So I had the luxury of trying to stay conservative at that point. Things seemed great until I started to hit the hills again at the end of the first out and back. Then all of the sudden I started to feel nauseous and sore. Got some salt in and slowed the pace considerably at this point. I’ve been in this place before and I know once I go too far over the edge there is no coming back. Hit the first loop in 1:33 and grabbed a red bull shot at the turn around at Battleship Park which renewed me for a couple of miles. Around mile 15 things started to go bad. Ran past my wife at 16 and informed her I was in “trouble”. She hates when I do that. But around mile 15 I had taken 2 Pepto tabs and shortly after 16 I took 2 Excedrin. Kept shuffling through and finally around mile 18 I started getting my legs back and feeling better. I was able to start eating again and life was good. Going into the 2^nd turn in the park I felt good and kept hammering away. Coming back around mile 20 I still had about 6-7 mins on Peter and 8-10 on Arthur so it was looking like 3^rd was going to be mine. Zach and Alex were still a good ways ahead so at that point I knew they were out of reach. I kept it strong all the way back to the finish. I hit the finish line in 9:24 and managed to hold onto my 3^rd place through the whole run. At times I didn’t think it would happen! I didn’t have the run I was hoping for but on the day it was good enough and it always feels good to be able to struggle through the rough patches and still persevere.

Finish: 9:24:15 – 3^rd overall.

I’d recommend this race to anyone looking for a break from the IM hype but still wants to race on a world class course. The pre-race meal was probably the best I’d ever had, the race organization was superb. Check in was easy. Race day execution went great. They had a band and lots of goodies at the finish line. And the best thing was the warming tent! I didn’t want to leave there. Could have hung out and ate powdered donuts all night. The next day they had a breakfast cruise up and down the river in downtown Wilmington. It was a sunny day and after the awards we all went out on deck to enjoy the sun. It’s a little work for spectators with the different transition areas and with T2 being basically on an island, but all the good things make this race definitely one to put on your calendar in the future.

Thanks to all my supporters, especially my wife Erin who puts up with the hours of training and allows me to continue to achieve my athletic goals!

Xterra Wild Ride Race Report - McCall Idaho

2010-09-16T18:44:00.001-07:00

My 5th xterra of the season was a couple of weeks ago in McCall, Idaho. Met my buddy Nick from Washington loaded up the Fisher's and made the 5 hour drive from Spokane to McCall. Very cool area, never been through there. I guess what you would call high desert, Mountainous but barren. McCall is the main ski area for Boise, so this put us at a little bit of altitude. Lake was at 5000 ft and we climbed to about 7000 feet. Below you can see the view from the top of the climb on the bike course looking back on the lake where the swim took place and the creek crossing that begins the tough, steep and loose climbs.

Awesome creek crossing!

View from the top!

Swim: 800 Meters
About 65 degree clear water. Perfect conditions for a fast swim. Started the swim and felt like my lungs were going to explode! But after a couple of minutes I settled in and got on the feet of the guy in the lead. After the first turn buoy he started drifting right so I stayed on my line and started pulling away. Let out of the water by about 30 secs and for the 2nd straight race was first onto the bike.

Bike: 22 Miles
Bike course starts out on a road for about 2 miles, turns into gravel for about 2 miles, then turns into rocky double track for the last couple of miles. All this 6 miles is pretty much up, nothing too steep just a nice long grinder. Would have been nice to have a little singletrack on the way up but was still a challenge to gain 2000 feet in the first 30 mins of the race. The next few miles is up and down doubletrack. On the climb up I was passed by a couple of guys doing the race solo and 2 stud bikers doing a relay. I really didn't know they were relay but was able to sort that out later. After the double track, we entered a couple of miles of some really sweet singletrack. Lots of big rocks to maneuver around. Some very challenging lines. PreRiding this section definitely paid off on race day and I was able to get up clean. I was riding the bonty 29-3 tires and as usual they were hooking up well. After the single track you enter for me what was the most challenging part of the ride. About 4 really steep climbs that required the 26/36 combo for me to make it up. One of the climbs which starts right after this creek crossing, was super sketchy and I ended up running part of this climb. Didn't feel too bad though saw some fresh footprints from the guys ahead of me.

After the steep climb we had a sketch descent that was pretty much a motorcycle track. Very slippery 3-4 inches of silt. I've ridden in sand before but compared to this stuff sand is grippy. I went down once and was passed by 1 more guy while trying to get my chain back on. After that I slipped and slided around the 90 degree steep turns and finally made it back to the gravel road we came up. A short cruise back down and I was back into transition.

Run: 10k

Run was pretty uneventful. The trail is a great mixture of tight single track, paved trail and rocky sections. If you do this race don't let the flat first 1.5 miles fool you, the middle section is technical and hill. I would definitely recommend a good pair of trail shoes. I caught up to one guy which put me back into 3rd place overall. I never saw any one ahead of me, but at the finish I was just 30 secs back of 2nd and 1:50 back of first. So all in all I was pleased. Also Idaho gave me enough points in the series to take first place in the 35-39 division for the Southest Region. So one of the goals for the season, Regional Champ is done!

Next up is Xterra Nationals is Ogden, Utah. Race is a week from this Saturday and I'm just starting my taper. Feeling good so far, hopefully I can bring an Xterra National Championship in my age division to the Trek 29r Crew.

MC

Xterra Whitewater

2010-07-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday at Xterra Whitewater in Charolotte, NC was my 3rd Xterra race of the season. Race 1 in Vegas went real well, with a 1st place and max championships points in my age group. Race 2, Xterra Uwharrie, didn't go so well. So I was looking forward to putting another good effort and high placing.

The weekend started out with a road triathlon on Saturday. The Triangle Triathlon in RaleighA 1/2 mile swim, 17.5 mile road bike, and 3.1 mile run. I raced aggressively and after the swim I took the lead on the bike and held on for 3rd place starting the run, just behind the 2nd place guy. The guy in 1st smoked the bike and was out of sight. But as soon as I started trying to put my running shoes on my left quad cramped up. I had to stand there for a minute until it relaxed and then walked/ran my way out of transition. Once I started running, I was pretty much pain free but fried overall. I ran 6 min pace and held on for 6th. My buddy, Nick Ranson, a recent GF 29r convert was in town to race and hung on for 8th.

We picked up my wife Erin, and quickly headed out of town to Charlotte for Xterra Whitewater. Whitewater is a man-made rafting park, with rock climbing, repelling, kayaking and of course mtn biking. I really suggest you check this place out if you're in the area! We got there in time to pre-ride and was impressed with the trails. Rolling, smooth and very fast with enough challenges to make it fun. This was my first Xterra on my XX built superfly hardtail. This bike is amazing, I've read enough report about the superfly and the XX components and none of them are exageration. The precise shifting and responsive frame made an immediate improvement in both my speed and handling on the bike. Thanks 29r Crew!

Swim: 800 Meters (with 500 M Run)
The swim here is in 2 bodies of water. 1st segment was in a lazy river and we swam around 600 meters. I stayed in a lead group of 3 guys in the first heat of 2. When you get out of the first swim you had the option of stashing some shoes to put on. There was about 500 meters between swims, running up a single track climb, down a gravel road, across a bridge then up another steep hill, about 25% incline, through some more single track then into a holding pond for the rafting. They had the pumps off so we had calm water, but I didn't expect the 90 degree water in the 2nd 200 m swim. After getting over the heat shock the 3 of us headed across and to the transition area.

Bike: 13 Miles
I was 2nd out of transition onto the bike. The guy in 1st took off and I basically had a solo ride in 2nd for 13 miles. Had a great and almost mistake free ride. The ride would have been perfect expect for a a puncture on my rear tire. I rode it as flat as I could but eventually had to stop and put some air in and let the juice seal it up. That sort of worked, but by the last couple of miles I was rimming out frequently and had to pick my lines more carefully then I'd have liked. I ran a Jones XR 1.8 on the rear, which I like, but probably just a little too small and soft to race on rugged trails. I had puntured my 29-3 2.0 the day before so the xr 1.8 was a last minute addition. The 29-3 is a much better tire for the trails around here which are rocky, rooty and dry. I really like the 29-3 running 2.0 front and back. Grips nice and rolls fast.

Run: 8K
Came into transition on the run still in 2nd place in my heat. Legs were tired but once I started running I actually felt pretty good and was holding a nice steady pace. The run followed basically the same course as the first part of the bike and was 8K or about 5 miles long. With about 2 miles to go I started to be able to see the guy ahead of me but would run out of time and finished 20 secs behind him.
All in all I finished 5th overall, 3 guys in the next heat went faster but only 2 mins separated me from first, so my first xterra W is in sight!

Results at http://www.xterrawhitewater.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.display&page_id=4192

MC

Xterra Vegas Pre Race Prep

2010-04-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

A few pics for Xterra Vegas pre riding today! I managed to fall biking and running today so I'd call it a good day! This barren desert course has at least 2 climbs that I will have to walk part of on race day and one nice sketchy downhill that you just hit the brakes, slide and hope to stay up! One pic you can see my buddy Nick Ranson walking up the first steep climb that I don't think any of the pros will even ride, maybe one or two at best! No pictures of me walking but hey it's my camera.

Frozen Goose

2010-02-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

10k #2 of 2010 is in the books and I managed to knock 30 secs off my time from last week. Felt much better! I almost missed the start again! I completely missed the start of this race last year since they started about 5 mins early, we had to take an alternate route to get in the race. This year I was about ready to go early and bang I hear them announcing they are about to start and I'm still 100 meters and one huge snow pile away from the start! I ran and got in the back of about 50 starters as the gun was going off. Took me a about a minute to comfortably work my way up, but after that all was good. Was running with David Kallmes by mile 2.5 and we ran together for a bit until he started pulling away. He was wearing a drug shirt advertising something about Separation Anxiety on the back. I thought that was rather ironic as I was struggling to keep from getting separated! But in the end he was too strong and finished in 35:55 and and came in 10 secs later. But it's progress! I don't normally run well in the cold so I'm thinking that times will come down with warm weather this spring.

MC
www.blogspot.mctriguy.com

Groundhog Run

2010-02-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

Got the 2010 Race season under way this last weekend with the Groundhog 10k run in Kansas City. This unique event is run completely in a cave! 2 X 5k loops in the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis. Weather conditions are good, temps vary from 45 to 60 degrees depending on where you are in the tunnels. I was hoping for low 35's, went out with the lead group at 5:29, but I couldn't hold the pace finished in 36:34. You can see me in the picture all the way to the left, but I'm going so fast I'm just a blur.

Coming up this weekend is the Frozen Goose 10k in Rochester. Won't have the luxury of a controlled climate or clean pavement for this race!

MC

Less than 24 hours to go!

2009-10-09T23:16:00.001-07:00

It's time to get it on! Will try to get a full report in tomorrow night, for now it's off to bed!

Kona IM Day 2

2009-10-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

More hiking today! We found a secret trail heading up the cloud forest just behind Kona. We parked at 3500 feet and hiked up to 5500 feet. It's an amazingly different world here just 8 miles from the blue waters of the bay. Got in a good swim at the Kona community pool, was nice to swim some laps and be out of the salt water for the day. Did a hard but short workout and feel like the swim is ready to go. If I swim hard 56 or 57 is possible. My plan is to go out hard and try to get in a good group early. There is no shortage of swimmers here in the sub hour group! Short bike and short run, my body feels like it's ready to go. We ended the day with a nice rainbow, wouldn't be Hawaii without a rainbow! Less than 24 hours to go...

Kona IM Day 1

2009-10-07T23:58:00.001-07:00

Lolo native protecting his territory

Misty valley (that's humidity!)

Dad and I with great view!

Today was our first full day in Kona, getting ready for Saturday's IM Triathlon. Started they day off with a swim at the pier. Met up with Mr. Kansas , Bob Schloegel (Bob is singlehandedly representing the state of Kansas at IM Hawaii this year) and his friend Tim Monk from Texas. Always fun to see everyone hanging out at Dig Me Beach. Water conditions are great and the water is warm, heard 83 degrees from somebody. The rest of the day my Dad and I spent out time up North, past Hawi with a short little, but really great hike at Pololu Valley. A nice hike down about 1000 feet from the road to a black sand beach. On our way back up, in 14 mins I was soaked from head to toe with Sweat. Not quite sure how I'm going to get through 10 hour of this on Saturday! Then we floated around at Hapuna beach checking out the reefs and fishies. Not quite like snorkeling in Key West or Cuzumel but still fun! Finished the day with about a 20 min ride, legs feel good and I'm ready to go.

IM Louisville

2009-09-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Swim

I was fortunate enough to line up early in the swim. This year the time trial start went off 2 docks and I think I got in about 2 mins after the race started. I went so fast I didn’t even have time to look! After about 5 mins I had clear water and didn’t swim close to another swimmer until that last 5 mins of the swim. I was hoping for around 55 in the swim, but came out in 58. I had some tightness in my upper quad during the swim so I had to back off a little. My last couple of IM races I had quad/glute cramping issues so I was pretty worried.

Swim Time: 58:33

T1 - 2:44

No issues here, just had to grab my helmet and number, shoes were already on the bike. I did have to find my bike which was a first for me in IM but I had scouted my exact row before the race well and found it quickly.

Bike

Once onto the bike I could still feel the tightness in my quad. I took it super easy and also tried to let me HR come down. This is the first race I’ve ever monitored my HR and I was amazed at how high it was starting the bike. I’m sure I’ve gone way too hard in the past, since I had to go very easy to get my HR in the range I wanted. My strategy was to find a comfortable and even HR and try to keep my average steady throughout the ride. I will say that my HR in training was much lower than my HR on race day so I had to find a good zone on-the-fly. After about 10 miles of taking it easy it seemed about a 140 bpm avg would be reasonable. I would end up averaging 139 for the entire ride. On the hills I only let it go up to about 150, anytime I’d break that barrier I backed off. Getting an early start was great, I had no traffic until I hit the 2nd loop of the bike. Then it was actually pretty chaotic for the next 30 miles as you had to weave in and out of bikes sometimes 2 or 3 deep in the road. There wasn’t really that much blatent drafting I just don’t think there was enough road for people to spread out. Around halfway on the bike I started passing some of the pro women so that told me I was having a pretty good ride and relatively I was going fast enough. I really expected to get passed more, but getting the early start and swimming well put me just enough ahead of the crowds. The only real issue I had on the bike was a little bit of stomach discomfort. I probably drank a little too much as conditions were about perfect and I’m also thinking an aggressive aero position may be hard on the gut. For Hawaii I’m going to raise the bars a little to see if that helps. Won’t have to worry about drinking too much since it should be at least 15 degrees hotter!

Louisville is a challenging ride but I liked the course a lot, scenic and lots of change in views to keep you from getting too bored. Just enough hills to use different muscle groups as well. I’d say it’s similar to IM Wisconsin but about 5-10 mins faster.

The numbers:
Time: 5:18:49
Avg HR: 139
Avg Power: 219 (for first 2 hours, then the Polar PM quit working)
Avg Cadence: 84
Total Ascent 3700 feet.
Calories: About 2300
Sodium: About 1000 mg per hour

T2 - 2:54

No real issues here either, I did change into running shorts and a singlet for this race, SO much more comfortable than running in a tri suit for me, and cooler!

Run

From the first steps out of transition I felt good. This was really a surprise, since I didn’t feel bad on the bike but I certainly didn’t feel like a Rockstar either. My plan also on the run was to keep the HR low and consistent, I was thinking under 150 before the race, and was able to run about 7 min pace keeping my HR around 145, so I made goal of keeping it under 150 for the first 10 miles. I did this mostly. I was fortunate to start the run just behind one of the pro women, Kim Loefler. We talked and she asked me what I was trying to run. I told her I was thinking maybe sub 3:10. She matter of factly told me she would run under 3:10, so I had the perfect running partner! We ran together off and on for about 22 miles of the marathon, along with her bike escorts as she moved from 4th to 3rd place in the pro race. Around mile 12 I started feeling a little tight so I took 2 tylenol. Around mile 14 I was able to start picking my pace back up to around 7 min pace. I had slowed to around 7:20 pace from 10-13. Running with a speed/cadence monitor is fun! I have a feeling it’s only fun if your running well, if things go bad you probably wouldn’t want to know your pace at every moment! With the time trial start I really never knew how well I was doing, I knew I was doing well since there was no one close behind me and very few guys ahead of me but I had no idea how well. The last turn around is at about mile 20. It's around here that you can start to have some confidence that you're going to be able to finish and to know that you are going to be able to finish strong. I kept my pace around 7 mins per mile and my HR in the low 150’s over the last 10k. I tried to pick it up when I realized I was going to be close to a 3 hour marathon, but running any faster than 6:50’s just wouldn’t happen. My HR just wouldn’t go up, it seemed to be stuck in a zone! With about 2 miles to go I realized I would break 9:30 and run just over 3 hours! I always thought this type of run possible but had never been able to execute it quite this well. I ended up running 3:04 a 7 min IM run PR! 3rd best IM time outside of my 9:17 and 9:11 at IM Florida but a much better performance then either of those races.

The numbers for the run:

Time: 3:04:23
Avg HR: 151
Avg Cadence: 88
Total Ascent: 170 ft.

Total Time: 9:27:19
Overal Place: 24th, 4th amateur, 2nd in 35-39 Age.

Kona Here I come!

MC

Buffalo Springs Triathlon, Almost...

2009-06-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Heading home now from Lubbock, TX after yesterdays Half Iron and Ironman Hawaii Qualifier. I did not get a Kona spot but it was very close. I ended up in 5th place in my age group and there were going to be 2 spots. The 1st place guy had already qualified so I needed 2 guys ahead of me to pass on it. The 4th place guy didn't show up to the awards ceremony so if only one of the 2nd or 3rd place guys passed it was mine. But... not to be they both took their well earned spots leaving me motivated to train harder and get my hawaii slot on Ironman Louisville on August 3oth. I travelled down with TriRochester members Andy Shulha and Peter Maves, both did well especially Peter who also ended up in 5th in his age group!

Results at http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/bslt.php

2009-06-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my wife, Erin, kicked some butt at Ironman CDA! She went 12:50 on a very tough day and had her best Ironman marathon ever, she clicked off 10 min miles like it was just an easy training run! Despite getting kicked and dunked in the swim, fighting foot cramps on the bike and calf cramps on the run she just kept on cruising! Also it was cold in the 50's and rained for the last 3 hours of her run, I was wearing 3 layers and wished I'd had gloves on as a spectator! My buddy Nick set a PR at 10:18 and came close to qualifying for Kona, he'll get it next time!

Oh yeh I also met this really hot chick on the run course pictured above, but there was something not quite right about her...

Next up Lubbock 70.3 this Sunday, it's supposed to cool down to 91 degrees this weekend!

Winona Triathlon Recap

2009-06-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well number 2 of the season is in the books and I'm 2 for 2! I was able to win by a few minutes on a very tough and challenging course. I did not however when the battle for the bluff, the timed race up Garvin Heights! There must have been a few guys really going for it. Here's a pic of me crossing the top of the climb. It's about halfway through this slideshow. This was a really fun race I hope it continues, there were a lot of triathlons last weekends and most the fast guys were elsewhere, but I think everyone would enjoy the challenge of this race. Toughest bike course in an olympic distance tri I've ever done, outside of the Triple T race in Ohio.

http://winonadailynews.com/shared-content/story_tools/slideshow/?type=newsmaker&id=82

Results:
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10989

Next up for me is Buffalo Spring Lake Triathlon in Lubbock Texas. This half Ironman is an Ironman Qualifier and is next weekend. Gotta start getting used to the heat, it's been in the mid 90's in Lubbock. I'm thinking I need to go around 4:25 there to have a shot at qualifying, not an easy feat on a hot, hilly course but I think possible.

MC

First TriRochester TNT (Thursday Night Triathlon)

2009-06-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

First TriRochester TNT was last night! We had 28 participants to kick off the year. All completed a 400 M Swim, 7.4 Mile Bike and 2 Mile run! We even had at least 2 people that were doing their first triathlon of any sort! Come check it out on Thursday nights at Foster Arend Park. Tri Start around 6:30. See www.trirochester.com for more details.

MC

TriNona!

2009-06-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

TriNona race this weekend! First annual TriNona olympic distance race is this weekend in Winona, MN. Race will feature a beast of a hill on the bike on Garvin Heights road. There is even a prize for faster climber of the day! Can't decide wether or not to lay back early and go for the climb or just ride my tempo from the start. Common sense tells me to ignore the hill and do my race! But common sense rarely wins out so we'll see what happens on race day! Website is http://www.trinona.com/.

MC