Category: Triathlon

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid Triathlon

IMLP 2013

This month marked the real start of my training for Ironman Lake Placid. December was kind of a base building slash see where we are at period.

This time around I have hired a coach, Dave Sek, from Breakthrough Performance Coaching. I felt like a learned a lot from Fernando Braz during my training for the Marathon last fall and I wanted to use that same type of structure for my Ironman training. I’m learning a lot about how to train to get the most out of each workout. The most important thing I have learned is that every workout does not have to be an all out effort and that workout out like that won’t get you the best results.

I’ve learned a lot so far about setting up pace zones and power zones to help make sure I’m doing each workout at the prescribed pace or power. I’ve even decided to build a Windows 8 Store App to calculate paces and power from recent race performances. There are already similar type Apps in the Apple world, but none so far in the Windows App store. Look for more on this in an upcoming post!

So back to training. I feel like I’ve been making good progress so far, but this weekend will be the proof as I do another test on the Computrainer. This test includes an all out 20 minute effort to set up my Threshold for biking that will be used to setup my next block of training. I have a goal in mind as to what power I want to hold for the test. Hopefully I will hit it. Tune in for my next post with the results!

I hope to post more often on the progress of my training.

Categories
Race Triathlon

Race Report – Call To Honor

This race report is a little bit late, but hey, better late than never!  I have been doing this race for four years now. Each year I have managed to get a little bit faster. This was the first year though that I didn’t move up in the standings though. My times have gone from 55:45 to 52:28 to 51:18 to 49:06. I finally broke 50 minutes this year.

The Swim

The swim is a short quarter mile swim. The water was around 72 and I wore a wetsuit. I learned from last year that the time to take off a wetsuit is less than the time it takes to swim without a wetsuit. I felt pretty good about my swim and was 6th out of the water and first in my wave.

The Bike

The bike is a 10 mile loop through Boxford, for the most part it is pretty flat. There are a couple of rolling hills in the beginning and the end, but nothing major. My bike time was a little bit faster than last year and if I hadn’t run 16 miles the day before I probably would have been able to push harder. It’s not that my legs were tired so much, but they just felt a little heavy. At 20.96 mph I was little off what I have been doing for my last two races where I was at 21.59 and 21.40.

The Run

I felt good on the run and was about 20 seconds faster than last year. That doesn’t seem like much, but when the course is only 1.5 miles it become a little more significant. We had heavy rain the night before the race and the gravel road was a little more “gravelly” than usual and I had to be a bit more careful in some sections.

While I moved down to number 8 from number 7 last year. I’m happy that I improved my times. I’m looking forward to doing the race again next year. Congrats to Jan D. for being the first overall woman!

Categories
Race Swimming

Boston Light Swim

On August 18, 2012 at 7:00 am I jumped into the water to start what would be an 8 miles, 7 islands, 1 swim journey. Last fall Mike K. came up with the idea of some of the Stiles pond Scummers doing the Boston Light Swim as a relay. I thought it sounded like a pretty cool idea. Originally it was going to be Mike K., Erin C., Jan D. and myself. Jan bailed on us because the water was going to be too cold! Just kidding Jan! It turns out that it was the day her son was moving in at college and she obviously couldn’t miss out on that. Karen L. another one of the Stiles Scummers jumped at the chance to freeze in the cold waters of Boston Harbor and take Jan’s place.

There were all kinds of swimmers entered into the event. Some had gone to the Olympic trials, others had crossed the English Channel and there was even another team from Stiles pond!

The Boston Light Swim is a tide assisted swim and it is import to start on time. That meant getting down to Boston by 5:15 for check in and heading out 8 miles on our boat to the start at Little Brewster island where the Boston Light house is. The night before at the mandatory meeting we were warned that any lightening could end the event before it even starts and that storms would be moving through early in the morning. Everyone was hoping they would stay to the south of us. When I checked my phone just as we were heading out to the start the radar did not look good at all, showing heavy rain coming our way. Thankfully we were not seeing any lightening that would have cancelled the event.

On the way out to the start looking back toward Boston you could see the rain coming down. It wasn’t raining by us yet though, so that was good. On the way out we decided that I would go first because I was going to drive the boat while Mike was swimming and we would have Karen and Erin swim in between us to give us time to dry off a little bit and be ready to drive. On the way out Karen casually mentions that she doesn’t do well on boats and needs to get in the water soon!! Uh oh!! I offered to let Karen be the first in the water but she declined and said second would be good enough. I think that was a relief to Erin because it delayed her getting into the water.

Let’s talk about the water for a minute. We were told the night before that the water temperature had been between 68 and 73 all week. Yeah, sure it was, it just happened to drop 5 or 6 degrees in one night! The official temperature after the race was reported to be between 63-64 for the entire swim.

Ok, back to the boat and the start of the race. The other thing we agreed on before the start was that we were each going to do 10 minute shifts. Why? Because Joe said do 10 minute shifts, duh!!

7:00 AM – The horn blows! I jump into the water. My first thought is “bullshit, this water is not 68 degrees”. I start swimming and for the most part I’m trying to calm myself down because I feel like I’m flailing about because I’m cold. After about 5 minutes I start to feel better and finally slow myself down and get into a little bit of a rhythm. Then just as I was starting to feel pretty good I see Erin waving me in. My first turn is over. Great now I can get warm! In my head I was thinking I wish I could swim a little longer now that I’m cold and used to the water anyway. I make my way to the back of the boat grab the ladder and Karen jumps in.

I’m pretty much freezing and shivering uncontrollably, not a big surprise really, but I thought after only 10 minutes in the water I wouldn’t have been that cold. I throw my sweatshirt on and wrap my large beach towel around me and continue to shiver. Mike is up next so while he gets ready I take over steering the boat. Erin looks at me and asks how was it, I lie and tell her it isn’t too bad. She knows I’m lying because I’m still shivering like crazy. Ten minutes later Erin is in for her first swim and to finish off our first rotation through the line up. In 40 minutes we manage to swim almost 2 miles! With the tide rising we were really moving as the race director had predicted we all would.

The water was relatively calm for an ocean swim and the rain that was on the radar never really showed up out in the harbor. The second rotation through was probably the roughest water we saw with a little bit of chop and the wind blowing the boat around a little bit.

We went through the rotation one more time and all decided that on our next time in we would go for 15 minutes at a time instead of 10. Actually my first 3 swims were 10 minutes and Karen was the first to start the 15 minute turn. At the pace we were going it looked like we would all swim only 4 times each.

As we closed in on the finish Erin would be bringing us in to the finish line. So as we got closer to the beach Karen and I jumped in to join Erin and finish together. Unfortunately Mike had to dock the boat and couldn’t swim in with us. Our official time was 3:13:24.

We ended up being the third team to finish. The first team was the other team from Stiles, finishing about 6 minutes in front of us. We gave them a pretty good run for the first half of the race, but as we passed under the bridge by Long Island they just pulled away.

Here is the path we swam http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212317250

I had a good time and I would definitely do the Boston Light Swim again. Probably only as a relay because I don’t think I could last for 8 miles in the cold water and this year was considered warm! Thank you to Mike, Erin and Karen for including me on their team. It was definitely a great experience!

Categories
Race Running

Yankee Homecoming 10 miler – Race Report

I’ve only done the Newburyport Yankee Homecoming race a couple of times before this and have watched a few other years. Every year it seems that the weather is hot and humid for this race. Usually one of the hottest nights of the summer. This year though, the forecast was for 75 and a cloudy skies. Sounds like perfect running weather to me, at least compared to what you usually get.

Having done this race a couple of times before I knew that the second half of the race is the hardest part. There are a couple of hills that can eat you up if you start out too fast in the first few miles. My strategy was to do the first couple of miles as a warm up, pick up the pace to 7:20-7:30 for the next 3 and then let it out for the last 5 and see what I had.

Now what actually happened. I ran with Heidi, she forgot her watch and asked if she could run with me and I would pace her. Sure, no problem. Well, no problem for her, but for me it was a problem because it is tough to hold her back, she likes to go out fast!! Our first mile? 7:23. Yeah, that is close to 8. What about the next mile? How about 7:15! Those would be the slowest miles we did. At mile 5 we start up the hill and I notice that Heidi is falling back a bit and I ask her if how she is. She replies with “Just go”. I’m not ready to really go anywhere, so I just hold the pace going up the hill, right at 7:14. From here I know there is only one more hill at mile 7 so I start to pick up the pace and see how I feel. Mile 6 7:10 and I feel pretty good, not breathing too hard and feel comfortable. Picking up the pace a little more during mile 7 and I see I’m at 6:50 at the base of the hill. I finished up the mile at 6:57, but the hill has taken quite a bit out of me. I probably should have backed off just a little more. Next 2 miles are almost identical 6:56 and 6:57. The last mile I push with whatever I have left, which isn’t much and manage a 6:39 pace.

I was pretty happy with how the race turned out, even though I started a little faster than I planned. Official time was 1:11:28 for 7:09 pace. There is no starting mat so I lost about 15 seconds by starting back too far. It is good to know that I can start that quickly and still feel comfortable enough to run 7:10-7:15 5 to 6 miles into the race and feel like I could hold quite a bit longer.

Here is the Garmin history http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205247981

Categories
Ironman Lake Placid

Ironman Lake Placid – Part Two….

No this is not the second blog of a two part blog. It is the first blog of what will be the beginning of my second journey to Ironman Lake Placid. This past weekend I went to Lake Placid to watch the Ironman and to volunteer. Having only participated in an Ironman it was a great to see it from the other side, the spectator side. Watching something like Ironman doesn’t really come that easy for me, I kept thinking that I wished I was out their competing. I’ve worked hard all winter and spring and I know that I’m in better shape now then when I did Lake Placid in 2011. I enjoyed going out and training on the course, even though we only did 1 loop of each event, I felt good being out there.

This time Ironman will be different for me, the goals are different. The last time it was about finishing and pacing myself conservatively, make sure to get to the finish line! This time though, I want to race. I want to push myself and see just how fast I can go at Ironman. Can I go under 12 hours? under 11 hours? How fast can I run a marathon after biking 112 miles?  Can I bike the course at 20mph? All those questions will be running through my head over and over during the course of the next year.

The answers to some of those questions will become more clear after I run my first marathon this fall. If I’m able to run a 3:10-3:15 marathon, I should be able to train and build on that fitness enough to reasonably set running a 3:30 marathon at Ironman as possible. Similary my biking has improved dramatically from last year, it is rare now that I bike under 20mph on rides and that includes rides over 60 miles. That is something I couldn’t come close to doing in 2011. Another good winter of hard training on the CompuTrainer and I feel like riding the Ironman course in 5:45 or 6 hours is another reasonable goal. Riding just half the course this past weekend I felt like I was close to that already. To achieve that bike goal though I will have to spend more time on hilly courses, that is going to mean heading to NY more often to visit my parents and climbing the mountains around the reservoirs or heading up into NH on the long rides. It will mean taking on Peekamoose mountain again, a climb that is much harder than any on the Ironman course. It will mean riding around the Pepacton reservoir with climbs that are as steep as the climb from Jay to Wilmington, but longer. It will mean lots of time on the bike.

The last time I signed up I can remember thinking to myself, “what the hell did I just do?”. This time I’m well aware of what I did and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Categories
Race Triathlon

Appleman Triathlon – Race Report

I recently did the Appleman Sprint Triathlon in Littleton, MA. This was the first time I had ever done this event and it is in it’s ninth year. The race is very popular and sells out usually before I think about signing up. This year though, one of the residents is a friend of mine and asked me to come out and do it with him. Ted is a selectman in the town, so it was good for him to get out and support the local race. There was another politician in the race as well, some guy named Scott Brown. This is the second weekend in a row that I have been racing with the US Senator for Massachussetts. I think he is stalking me!!

The Swim

The swim was a half mile clock-wise swim. I thought the water temp was well over 78 degrees, but with F.I.R.M. racing I guess wetsuits are always legal. I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wear my wetsuit, the water was just way too warm. Doing that I was giving up some time to everyone wearing it, but it just seemed like I would over heat in it. My stratgey for the swim was to start out in front and race hard for the first buoy and then relax the rest of the way in. It really wasn’t that great of a strategy, the water was too warm to push hard in the swim. Also by starting in the front I had idiots that thought they were just going to jump on me and swim over me, that never works. Unfortunately when they attempted it I think they ripped of my timing chip. More to come on the timing chip. No official time for the swim, but according to my Garmin split it was 14:47. Pretty slow.

The Bike

The bike course is ten miles and not technical, but does have some short little hills in that keep you honest.  I felt like I was riding pretty well and passing quite a few people on the bike. I had no idea how many of my age group were in front of me though. I managed to average 21.3 mph, one of my fastest bike splits for a race.

The Run

The run course was not what I had expected. Kelly had mentioned that it was a trail run. I figured that meant it was on a gravel or dirt road. Oh no! This was like climbing a mountain, hopping over rocks and roots trail run. The run was tough and it was hot. At least for me it was.  My split for the run was 23:34. Just under 8 minute miles, most times I would be upset with this time, but considering all the climbing and hills I was ok with it.

Timing Chip

I never realized once during the race that my timing chip was gone. It had to have come off in the water, because I didn’t have a split for the swim. I crossed the finish line and they asked to remove my chip and I put my foot out and it was gone!! At the finish line there is a guy who is recording everyone that crosses so you do get an official time. Of course I go try to find my time and my name doesn’t appear anywhere on the results sheet. I end up having to go to race officials and  giving them my time off of my watch. I even was able to give them the splits. I guess the guy at the finish line doesn’t report in his results until the last racer has finished and that is why I didn’t see my name.

Finish

I was 29th overall in the race and 3rd in my age group.  It’s nice that I’m finally finishing up near the top of my age group. Hopefully I can keep improving and start finishing higher up overall as well.

Categories
Race Triathlon

Mill City Triathlon – Race Report

This past weekend I did my first Olympic distance triathlon in almost 10 years. Not sure why I haven’t done more of them, I have done plenty of sprints and a couple of half Ironman distance events.

This was the first time I have ever done a triathlon where a sitting US Senator was also competing. Yup, that’s right US Senator Scott Brown was competing in the Sprint Tri. I had a chance to speak with Senator Brown after the race, he was very approachable and friendly. While I didn’t talk politics with him it was fun chatting about the race.

The Swim

The swim was in the Merrimac River. I’ve only done one other triathlon with a river swim and that was in the Hudson River. The current in the Merrimac was much less forceful than that of the Hudson. The reported water temp was 76 degrees and wetsuits were considered legal for this race. The water felt much warmer than 76 and I felt like I was over heating. I wish that this had either been a non-wetsuit event or that I had a sleeveless wetsuit. My swim was ok, I was 12th overall out of the water, not sure where I placed in my age group out of the swim. My friend Mike whooped me by almost 5 minutes. I really need to work on my swim, that is way too much time to give up on one leg.

The Bike

The bike was a pretty fast and flat course, 2 loops of about 12.5 miles. This was the first race that I averaged over 21 mph. My Garmin reported that I averaged 21.7 mph, so I was pretty happy with my ride. My legs felt good throughout the ride and I never felt like I was pushing too hard. Even on the slight inclines I kept my power numbers under control. The back half of the loop was very fast, it seemed like the last 4 miles in I was cruising around 24/25 mph, the averages were a little bit lower when I looked, but still was a lot of fun riding like that.

The Run

The run course was very hot with very little shade. I started out running at 7:45 pace and it felt like I was running a 9 minute pace. The first 2 miles had zero shade. The 3rd mile at least had some shade and part of the 4th. Then it was back to the hot sun. I did manage negative splits on the run with the last being at 7:05. My run has steadily improved this year and it is nice to actually feel like I’m running when I get off of the bike.

Next up, Nubble Light Challenge!!!!

Categories
Cycling Race Running Swimming Triathlon

Where did May go!!!!????

Ok, so it has been a while since I posted. The month of May has just flown by.

Twin Lights Half marathon

On the running front I did another half-marathon, the Twin Lights out in Gloucester, MA. It was a fun race that I did with a few friends. I had planned on just running along with easy with a friends son who was attempting his first half-marathon. I was told that we would probably do about 8 minute miles, and I thought great, no problem! We started out running the first mile in 8:07 and from there we just kept going faster. By the 10th mile we were doing 7 minute miles! I end up having a PR of 1:37:52!

http://app.strava.com/runs/8397150

Stiles Opening Day

Next up was opening day at Stiles Pond. Water temp was 64 degrees and no one was wearing a wetsuit, so I didn’t either. I made it to the GAP (about 3/4 of the way across) and realized that I was getting really cold. I did make it across and told the guys I was heading back, no chatting for me. On the way back I stayed closer to the shore than I normally do because I was getting so cold. When I hit the beach I was shivering uncontrollably. I still might be shivering now two weeks later!! That is by far the coldest I have ever been in the pond. Took at least 30 minutes before I stopped shivering.

Tour de Pepacton

This past weekend I signed up for a 60 mile ride around the Pepacton Reservoir. NY states largest reservoir. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a great ride. I was fortunate enough to get in the lead group of 7 or 8 guys and had a great time riding in the pace line. I think it would have been good to have a road bike rather than my tri bike, but it all worked out.

http://app.strava.com/rides/9473193

Coming up in June is the Patriot Half-Ironman!

Categories
Cycling Running Swimming

CompuTrainer is paying off

Cycling

I wasn’t sure if the CompuTrainer was ever going to pay off. It seemed like I just couldn’t get any faster last year. Worked all winter, then we went out and did long slow rides. Seemed liked month after month my average speed was always around 18 mph.

This winter I started fresh with the CompuTrainer and decided that I needed to do at least four rides a week. The first two workouts of the week are the hardest. Tuesday is usually a 6 x 6 minute at 100%+ of FTP and then Thursday is 2 x 20 minutes at 90% of FTP. Then there is the long endurance ride and a Tempo ride. Last year I just did the first two and the endurance ride. I think adding the Tempo ride has really helped.

Every ride so far in April has been over 19 mph. The last ride being at 20.1 mph this past Saturday for 46 miles. I’ve only been able to maintain that speed for that distance once before and that was on a much flatter course. I’m feeling much more comfortable in the aero position on the bike and I’m able to hold pace for longer periods of time. I also feel like I really haven’t even pushed it yet.

Looking forward to getting out there this weekend and seeing what I can do when we go over 50 miles.

Running

On the running front, I signed up for another half-marathon. Probably won’t be any personal bests this time. I told a friend that I would pace her son to his first half-marathon finish. He has never run more than 8 miles, but I’m sure he will do just fine.

Swimming

Swimming is slowly improving. Pond season is almost here and it will be good to get some longer swims in. I enjoy the shorter interval training though.

The weight has been pretty steady at bouncing between 155 and 157.

Weight: 156lbs

Categories
Cycling Running Swimming Triathlon

First Pond Swim!!!

The weather has been so nice that last Thursday evening some of us decided to head to the pond for the first swim of the season. That’s right, on March 22, 2012 a group of us did the first crossing of Stiles pond for the season. The water temp on Stiles beach was 54 degrees and felt even colder. I forgot how much it hurt to put your feet in water that cold, no less your face! This is by far the earliest we have ever been in, for me personally I have never been in before the beginning of May. There are some really drastic temperature changes in Stiles this time of year. By the time we got to Camp Rotary (other side of pond) the water had warmed up considerable and we were able to hang out and chat a while. I would guess it was at least 60 on that side. The bad news was that we had to swim back through the cold. Great to be in the pond again though!

Swimming

Had some good swim workouts last week. I’ve been pushing up the yardage on Monday and Friday to around 4000 yards now. May push it a little further to 4500.

Biking

No outdoor biking this past week. Sunday it rained and was cold. I did manage to get in 3 days of riding. I took Saturday completely off to give my legs a rest. Hoping to make it out at least once this week, maybe Friday.

Running

I added some more running to the program last week. On Wednesday I went out for a 10 mile run. Felt pretty good and averaged around between 7:15 and 7:20 per mile. Here is the Garmin recording http://connect.garmin.com/activity/160064607. Also did a coouple of shorter runs. I need to get in another good week of running before my half-marathon coming up April 7. Looks like I will probably fall short of the 60 mile goal I set for the month, but not by much. I’ve managed to get in all of my biking and swimming miles for the month of March already.

Weight: 156