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

Nubble Light Challege – Race Report

The Nubble light Challenge is a open water swim in the ocean off of the coast of Maine. It starts on Long Sands beach and ends on Short Sands beach going around the peninsula through “The Gut” where the Nubble Light house sits. Total distance is estimated at about 2.4 miles and the water temperatures vary between mid 50s and low 60s.

This years race started at 9am so that the tide would be high enough for us to swim between the light house and main land without running aground. Mike and I arrived at the race around 7:15 and headed down to the beach to sign in and get ready. That took all of about 10 minutes so we had plenty of time to stand around and contemplate just how cold the water was and wonder if I was actually going to make it.

Some of the guys we know from Stiles were there getting ready as well. Chuck was opting for no wetsuit. My thought was good for you, I would be committing suicide attempting it without a wetsuit. I think only a total of 13 people opted for the non-wetsuit category of the 140 something people that entered.

About 10 minutes before the race started Mike and I headed down into the water. Just in time for them to announce, “All Swimmers out of the water”, so they could brief us on rules and safety. I managed to get in up to my waist. My feet immediately hurt and I thought to myself this is Stiles October water. They were reporting temps of between 60-62, it felt colder, yes, I’m a wimp. The rules that were announced were, stay to right of buoys and swim between Light House and Main land. DO NOT swim around like that guy Joe something did the first year.

After that it was time to start, off goes Mike and the first wave. I’m in the next wave and the only person I know is Chuck. I know he is faster than me but he is not wearing a wetsuit so I figure I could probably keep up. Hmm, maybe I’ll let him pace me… Well, race starts, Chuck runs into the ocean and stops, he has problems with his ankle strap with the chip. Well, there goes that plan, so I just head out into the swell. Water doesn’t feel too bad and the more I swim the more comfortable I feel. There are kayakers all around us so I don’t really bother to sight much. It took me a while to get used to the rolling ocean, there wasn’t any chop so I was able to breath either side without a problem. The first 3rd of the race out toward the Nubble Light went pretty smoothly.

The next 3rd of the race? Well, that was the point in the race when I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this?” Heading between the Light House and land I needed to do a lot more sighting and was a bit rougher. I was ok with that, but then the water started getting really cold. Ice cream headache cold to be exact. I was glad at that point that I had gone with two caps. My feet and hand both went numb. I took a few breaths to my left and there is some guy swimming without a wetsuit. You know he was cold.. Hey, wait a minute!! It’s Chuck! Great, my pacer caught up with me, so I started swimming next to him for a while. Then poor Chuck had more ankle strap issues, but he was my general area for a while as we went finished up going through the Gut.

The next 3rd of the race was just heading into the beach to the finish. At this point I was ready to be done. I was cold and the excitement of doing the ocean swim had worn off. I could finally see the beach, still a long way off, but still, the finish was in sight. Chuck passed me at this point and I was kind of disgusted with myself. I’m in a wetsuit and I can’t even keep up with a guy not in one. WTF!!!!  I felt like I was swimming pretty sloppy at this point, so I tried to relax and just concentrate on form. When I did that, it actually helped and I caught back up with him. Of course, he probably had more ankle strap issues, but in my mind I was swimming better. Whatever it takes to get to the finish! Finally make it into shore. Kelly and the kids are there along with our friend Julie cheering me to finish. Mike is there as well of course, because he finished 11 minutes ahead of me. Yes, that’s right ELEVEN minutes. I need a swim coach! Congrats Mike on a great swim!

When I signed up I had hoped to do the swim in 1:05. I figured I had done the Ironman swim in 1:04 of the same distance. However, swimming in the ocean and swimming in a lake are very different experiences. I’m looking forward to going back next year and improving my time.

My GPS from race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/199139365

Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/12/me/Jul14_Nubble_set1.shtml

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
Race

The Patriot Half – Race Report

I have to say that the day ended a lot better than it started. My friend Mike stops at the house at 4:15 am to pick me up. We load up the car and I put my bike on the back. We are ready to roll. We start heading down 95 and Mike looks in the rear view and says “What is going on with the bikes?” I look bike and my bike is flying along behind the car!!! Mike slows down and pulls over. Bad news, race wheel tire is shredded.

The bike rack has rubber straps that hold the bike in place while driving. The problem is that when you have race wheels that have a large surface area the wind catches them and lifts the bike up. When the bike gets lifted up the rubber straps can then come undone as I have learned from personal experience and doing a little search on the net. Fortunately we had some bungy cords and were able to strap the bike back on and be on our way again without having to worry about the flying up.

We finally get down to the race venue at just about 6 am. First thing I have to do is change out my wheels. Luckily I had brought along my other wheels. My thought there was that someone was going to need them and I didn’t feel like changing tires and tubes so I was just going to give them the whole wheel. Turns out it was me that needed them!! It took all of about 10 minutes to get the other wheels on and adjust the brakes. One thing that I did forget about though was that the cassette that I had on these wheels is setup for a hilly course and not the flat course we were riding. There were a few times I missed those in between gears that my 11-25 cassette has, as opposed to the 11-28. So, the bike is finally all squared away and we are setup in transition. Hopefully that would be the end of the problems for the day.

The Swim

The swim is a counter clockwise swim that works out nice as the sun is never an issue. The water temperature was reported to be 68 degrees, not bad at all with the wetsuit on. There was a little bit of a wind blowing in at us though and that caused the first leg of the swim to be a litte tough with the choppy water. I quickly moved out in front of the other 93 people in my wave and caught up to the wave that went off before me. I think I even saw Julie and Janet during the swim. Jan, on other hand, was far too fast and I wouldn’t have seen her even if she started in my wave. The swim took me 32:24, my goal was 30 minutes flat.

SWIM NOTE: My friend Mike K. tied for 3rd overall in the swim and probably would have won it outright if he started in an early wave and didn’t have to swim through 8 waves of yahoos….

The Bike

The bike ride for me was pretty much the same as last year as far as time. According to my Garmin I was at 20.5 mph for both loops of the bike. The first loop I was 20.6 and the second 20.5, probably a little less since the average was 20.5. I had hoped to go at least 21 mph, but without the Zipp wheels I probably lost about .5 mph. I’m ok with the ride, it was a bit more windy than last year but I was able to ride just a little bit faster and certainly did not push nearly as hard as last year. My goal, which I know was a stretch was to bike the course in 2:33:25, and I did it in 2:44:47. So I was way off on that. Still a lot of work to do on the bike. While my overall biking fitness has improved a lot from last year I still need to get stronger on the bike. A lot stronger.

BIKE NOTE: Didn’t see it happen, but Coach Bri went down pretty hard on the bike with about 18 miles to go. This probably has something to do with Mike and his bike rack. I’m not sure of the connection but there must be one!! Coach Bri is a little sore, but doing ok and his bike is already ready for the next ride.

The Run

Part of not killing myself on the bike was wanting to be able to run this year. I increased my fitness enough on the bike over the last year that I was able to put in the same bike time but still had legs left to run this year. My goal for the race was 1:47:00 or 8:10 pace. This is the only goal that I managed to accomplish I did the run in 1:45:59 for an 8:05 pace. My total time was 5:07:53, a new personal record. I had hoped to break 5 hours, but I can see I still have some work to do to get there. I felt my nutrtion was pretty good and I didn’t have any cramping problems. Even though I didn’t cramp I still feel like I need to hydrate better.

The rest of the Sunday morning crew

The rest of training crew, with the exception of Coach Bri, had pretty good days as well.

Heidi M. doing her first ever half ironman distance event had what I thought was by far one of the most impressive times of the day at 5:14:22. Heidi pulled this off with barely any bike training and only a few open water swims. We expect her to quit her day job and turn pro soon!

Mike K. had a personal best of 5:24:46 and beat me in the bike leg. Now we know why my bike fell off the car!! All part of his master plan!

Jan D. also had a personal best of 5:35:11 and improved her time by half an hour. Improving both her bike and run times significantly.

Julie V. while about a minute slower overall at 5:40:17 improved her run this year by over 10 minutes. Now if we could just get her to swim a little more and stop hanging out in transition…..

Janet B. took first place in her age group while setting a personal record of 5:42:11 at the half ironman distance.

Brian B. needs to keep the rubber side down!!!!

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
Race

Great Bay Half-Marathon

This past weekend I went and did the Great Bay Half-Marathon. I think this is the 4th year in a row that I have done it. It is one very hilly course! Looking at the profile map can be very deceiving. When looking at it you think I just have to get mile 4.3 and it is bascially down hill!! WRONG. After that it is basically a series of up and down hills. Some of them very steep. There are very few places on the course where it is flat and you can just zone out and relax and run.

Great Bay Profile
Great Bay Profile

 

 

 

 

Like every year I was planning on running with my friend Ray and his buddy Pete. Pete wanted to start out at 7:45 and that sounded good to me. Unfortunately for Ray though he sustained a calf injury earlier in the week and it flared up on the run. I noticed he had a little limp going on early and then I guess at mile 4 he was toast. To his credit he gutted out the race and finished. Pete and I continued on at the 7:45 pace for about another mile or so and then I picked it up a bit on the next hill. Miles 7 and 8 were my fastest miles, one being 7:10 and another 7:15. Once I got to mile 9 I knew if I just held 7:30s I would be able to come in under 1:40 so I just concentrated on keeping a steady pace. Finished up at 1:39:19 7:33 pace. Pete finished right around 1:42 right on his 7:45 target pace.

Past Results

2012 – 1:39:19
2011 – 1:42:39
2010 – 1:42:30
2009 – 1:57:45

Weight: 156.5 lbs

 

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

Categories
Gear

X-LAB Torpedo Mount and Bottle Cage

Recently I decided to change things up a bit with my hydration system on the bike. I’ve had a number of different solutions on my bike, from the Specialized aero water bottle specifically made for the bike, regular old metal cages, to the Speedfil tank with the tube. Each had their pluses and minuses. I liked the Speedfil the most of those three, but the problem is that it is very large, not very aero dynamic and a pain in the ass to clean.

For spare bottles I have the XLab Wing with carbon cages. Perfect for carrying two extra water bottles and stays out of the way. It is very convenient to grab one of those bottles and fill the Speedfil, or switch it out bottles on the down tube. I’ll be sticking with the XLab Wing on the seat.

Up front though, wasn’t really sure what a good solution would be. I liked having the tube from the Speedfil in front of me, it reminded me to drink. I also didn’t have to take my hands of the handlebars or come out of the aero position. I saw a lot of the Pro triathletes simply put a water bottle between their aero bars using zip ties. I tried that, but never felt comfortable with the way the zip ties were holding the cage in place. That led me to the X-Lab Torpedo Mount.

XLab Torpedo MountX-Lab Torpedo Mount

This mount worked great. It comes with four Velcro straps that wrap around the aero bars to hold the mount in place. I was going to use a regular old cage, but X-Lab also sells the Torpedo Cage made of carbon as well. This cage isn’t quite as long as a normal cage, which is kind of nice for inserting and removing your water bottle.

I tried the entire system out last weekend on my first outdoor ride. So far so good, it was easy to get a quick drink from the water bottle. So much easier than grabbing one off of the down-tube cages. Also having it right in front of me was a constant reminder to drink. Switching bottles with one of the ones on the wing was also pretty easy too.

The only downside to the setup is the expense.  The price for both of these items is $84.90 on Amazon. That is a bit much for a water bottle holder, which is why you see a lot of people using the zip ties and an old cage.

Categories
Cycling Running Swimming Triathlon

Back on the road

This past week I ended the week with over 9 hours of training. I think that is the most I have done since sometime before Ironman Lake Placid last year. Most of that time was spent on the bike or in the pool.

Swimming

I had a good week in the pool. Monday morning was awful, but Wednesday I managed to get a couple of thousand yards in and then Friday was a very good workout. Mike K. showed up in the morning and that kind of motivated me to keep up. Ended that morning with 4400 yards and was pulling 4×200 @ around a 2:40 clip. We did them on a little under a minutes rest. From now on Monday and Friday the goal is to get in at least 4000 yards.

Biking

Tuesday morning wasn’t very good. It had been warm the day before and the garage was warm and I started getting way too warm. I barely was able to finish the 4th of my 6 intervals and called it a day. That afternoon I ordered up a fan with a remote to try and help keep cool on the trainer. Cranked up the fan on Thursday morning and had no problem completing the 2×20 minute intervals.

This weekend was the first outdoor ride for the season for me. Well, the first outdoor ride in the Northeast anyway. It felt good to get outside. Still a little chilly at the start, but I had plenty of gear on. It will be nice when I can start the ride without all the gear. I managed to average around 18.4 for the ride. Felt very comfortable and never really pushed that hard, heart rate stayed between 140 and 150 while leading. The only time it ever popped over 160 was for a short sprint up a hill. I know the spot is one of the segments on Strava.com where everyone compares themselves to others. I’m ranked 16 of 78 at the moment.

Running

Only one run this past week. I need to get out at least twice this week and make one of them a long one. I’m thinking of making my Wednesday run a long one.

Weight: 157