Gloucester Tri PR

I can't believe the momentum that the Gloucester Tri is building. The event is already close to sold out (St. Peter's Square is going to be bursting at the seams with athletes!) and it seems like everywhere I turn, someone is talking about it. Dawn Guarriello happened to be walking through the Burlington Mall the other day and came across this:

Pretty cool.

Even the Mayor of Gloucester is gearing up for the inaugural event. She's clearly fired up and ready to roll, as evidenced by her most recent column in the Gloucester Daily Times.

Speaking of races, it's time to roll again. I kick my season off with the Cohasset triathlon tomorrow. I have zero expectations as far as racing is concerned right now. My only objective for this year will be to punch my ticket to Hawaii '10, so anything leading up to IMWI is going to be nothing more than a training session. I backed off my IM prep yesterday and today, so I'm hoping that the legs have a little life in them tomorrow as I would prefer to NOT get beaten by the entire elite Jr. field that will be in attendance. I'm sure that the race will seem like an all out anaerobic sufferfest, but it's all good; at least it'll be over quickly :)

It Won't Be Easy

This past weekend featured my first round of IM specific intro sessions and served as a nice wake up call to the reality of what prepping for this distance will entail. In a nutshell... being "70.3 fit" doesn't mean a thing when you're prepping for a 9 hour race and I am NOT (currently) in shape to successfully pull off the Ironman finish I'm hoping to on 9/13! That's okay, still plenty of time until race day, but there is work to be done.

I spent Saturday out on the open roads chalking up nearly 3 hours of IM pace work in the midst of a 4 hour ride. I wasn't feeling so hot towards the end of the session and can't say that I enjoyed my short "T" run post ride either! Lessons learned: I need to be dilligent with my asthma medication during the summer months, especially when it's humid and air quality is poor. Wheezing on the bike and struggling through T runs isn't my idea of fun. Other lessons learned: There's a big difference between simply riding your bike for hours on end, which I have no problem doing, and pinning your watts up around 260+ for 5 hours. I'll be emphasizing the later with my training.

Sunday was a much better day. The rain and cooler temps left me feeling nice and relaxed while out on the bike. I spent a little over 2 hours spinning out @ 230+ watts (nice and easy), practiced the art of "peeing" while in the saddle (hey, why the hell not? I was already soaked anyway. And... if the goal of this training is to emulate the stress/realities I'm facing on race day, I've got to accept the fact that pissing while on the bike is going to be something I have to learn how to do because there's no way in hell I'm giving up 2+ min. to pull over to the side of the road during the race) got off, consumed 1 pria bar, took a couple of puffs off the inhaler and was on my way around the cape. I was surprised how easy a hilly 17.1 mile run felt after riding, but was especially surprised by how good I felt after Saturday's session. I think that my inhaler made a big difference though as I could barely breath towards the end of Saturday's ride.

Anyway... good sign that I could ride for over 2 hours and then run for nearly another 2 on nothing more than 100 calories and 1 bottle of water (a stupid move on my part to go without adequate liquid, but given the rain and cooler temps I was able to get away with it this weekend).

I used my new training toy, the Garmin 305, for my run yesterday and uploaded the session to the Garmin site. Pretty cool training tool, I must say. Here's the session if you'd like to check it out.

Well, I get to enjoy a well deserved active recovery day today (swim only) but it's back to the grindstone tomorrow: Heavy dose of FT work on the bike and run fronts. I hope the rain will end. It's been raining here for nearly 2 weeks now.

It's ON

Mr. Pavlov

New M50 - 54 National 1 hour record set yesterday (Wed, June 10th) at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, PA. Mike smashed the old record by about 2.5 miles! Official results out soon, but it looks like 27+ miles covered in 1 hour.

I do not think that I could do that and I'm 20 years younger than Mike.

Damn.

Well, at least I can say that I helped him with his training!

Weekend Results

• John Babcock: 1st place overall/new course record @ Mystic River Tri

• Mary Ann Smith: 1st place overall @ Olympic distance race in CA

• Dereck Treadwell: 2nd place overall (70 sec. back!) @ Mooseman Half Iron Tri

• Quinn Borchard: 2nd place overall @ sprint tri in CA
  

• Crystal Anthony: 3rd place overall @ Mooseman Olympic Distance Tri. Crystal's first tri and she's already keeping pace with the pros!

• Margot Robinson: 5th place overall/1st AG @ Mooseman Aqua Bike

• Amanda Russell: 18th place overall/3rd AG @ Rev3 Triathlon

• Dawn Guarriello: 15th place overall/5th AG @ Mooseman Olympic

And we're just getting warmed up. Next weekend = Athletes racing @ Eagleman 70.3, Boise 70.3, Kansas 70.3 and a bunch of sprints. Stay tuned!

In the mean time, congratulations to all who competed this weekend.

4 Down, 3.5 to Go

Another great week of training in the books. Weekend sessions included a 13 miler on Saturday with about 12k/40 minutes of high end tempo work over very undulating terrain and today's 80 mile ride w/50 miles @ just above goal IM pace (avg. of 272/norm of 277 watts). Yes, slowly but surely I'm already preparing my body for IMFL by inserting small doses of IM pace work into the mix. HR was staying down in the high 140/low 150 zone and the watts were very easy to produce despite some residual fatigue from yesterday's run, not to mention the past 4 weeks of good training.

So... it's all coming together. Another few weeks and I'll be ready to roll for R.I. 70.3. This "crash" approach seems to be working out pretty well; Not that I have any other option if I want to race well by mid July!

We had some great results this weekend too: Nick Dufresne returned to action and won the Ludlow tri, leading wire to wire and the Donatellos (Jeff and Kat) went 2nd/5th overall (both winning their AGs) up at the King Pine Tri. Not too shabby.

The action REALLY picks up over the course of the next 2 weeks as we have athletes racing @ Mooseman (Olympic and long course), Rev3, Eagleman 70.3, Kansas 70.3, Boise 70.3 and a bunch of other locales. I expect some BIG results and even BIGGER PRs.

Game on.

Time to eat (again) hit the sack and get up/get back to work. Another big week ahead.

Dangerous Dave

So my most consistent, hardest working athlete, Dave Smith from Virginia Beach, VA, stepped up and got the job done this past Sunday at the Rocketts Landing Triathlon in Richmond, VA.

3rd place overall, including all pro/elites in attendance. Dave walked away with a little loot and, more importantly, a GREAT bike split/average power output of about 285 watts; not bad for a 24 year old (or are you 25 now Dave? I forget) full time PE teacher who only weights a buck 48 or so. You start pushing 4.2 watts/kg over the Olympic distance and you're really getting somewhere...

Keep an eye out for Dave at Ealgeman 70.3 in 3 weeks time. Based off of what we saw this past Sunday, he's got a 270+ watt bike leg and a 1:2x low run in the legs. If he can throw those splits down, he'll certainly make an impact in the amateur race, that's for sure.

Other shout outs go to:

• Newbie Quinn Borchard (another one of my workhorses), who won his AG and placed very high overall in a stacked sprint race in Encinitas, CA.
  
• Cyclist Thom Connor for shrugging off a full workweek and a bunch of missed training time and still managing to set a new PR (and pretty respectable avg. power of 291 watts) at the Crank the Kanc TT.
  
• UConn triathletes John Babcock and Evan Barry who went 1st and 3rd overall, respectively, at the 6th annual Bobby's Run 8 miler in hilly-as-hell Vernon, CT on Saturday. Both of these guys got up and rode long the next day as they continued prepping for the Rev3 half IM that's right around the corner.
  
• Triathlete April Bowling's breakout day at the JCC Tri in Marblehead, MA after rebounding from an oh-so-fun case of fifth disease (training and racing isn't much fun when your joints are screaming in pain)
  
• and... last but not least to Marty Miserandino for his PR day at the JCC Tri as well.

That's a wrap. Seems like everyone is doing well. The real fun begins next month when the crew starts hitting the 70.3 scene along with a few other major events, one of which (I have to keep it under wraps for now) will include an attempt at a national record. More to come here in early June.

We have A LOT of horses in the stable right now and they're all chomping at the bit to get out and run free. Although some of the athletes I work with have already begun racing, MANY are still locked down and immersed in heavy training. That's all about to change within the next 3 weeks or so.

Exciting times. It's going to be a very good year.

Fired Up

Man... nothing gets me more fired up than watching live results from 70.3 races. Florida 70.3 came to a close a few hours ago. I was tracking the tail end of the men's race as I waited for the rain to subside before I headed out for today's long run.

Pretty stacked field, with Santiago Ascenco from Brazil running his way up into 3rd place overall. Santiago is the the tough bastard who made my life miserable for a good 6 miles at Muskoka 70.3 last fall. Usually, when you pass someone mid way through the run they don't have the stones to up the ante, suffer and make a go to have at it and stick with you. Not the case with this kid. I had to hyperventalate through miles 7 - 11 on the Muskoka course before he finally popped and fell back. That was probably the most painful race of my life to date. Here's a pic from an epic day that I'll never forget:Anyway... I carried a little extra spark into my hilly 17 mile long run today, and passed through the 1/2 marathon mark in 1:22 without too much effort. Not bad considering I laid down a good block of training this week. Yesterday's set of pace intervals on the ECV course were executed at an avg. of 304 watts per 11.4 mile loop, so the form is starting to return. I'm about 2 months out from being ready to ROLL. Just have to make sure that I overhaul my shitty swim stroke before I pull the trigger and start racing long again.

Another good week in the bag. Time to eat and then start working on the house again.

My New Steed

It's been 14 years since I spent much time on a MTB (Mountain bike racing is what led me into the world of triathlon back in 1995) but man oh man is it nice to be back! Don't get me wrong; I won't be trading my 70.3/IM focus in for Xterra anytime soon, but it's nice to get back to my "roots" and add a bit of variety into the mix by getting off road 1 - 2 x per week.

Thanks to Seaside Cycle in Manchester MA for setting me up with the latest addition to my 2 wheeled "family" (although I parted ways with my old Cervelo P2k to help finance my new steed).

Awesome ride tonight; 2 hours of singletrack with only 1 significant crash to speak of. Over to the TT course tomorrow for some extensive 70.3 pace work. I commited to Timberman today (couldn't pass up on the opportunity to mix it up with the field Keith Jordan has assembled) but REALLY hope that I can bring my fitness up to par so that I can join the fray at RI 70.3 in 2 months time...

The fire has returned!

p.s. The Gary Fisher "Paragon" is a 29er; I can't get over how much more effective the bigger wheels are. I'm easily traversing the same singletrack that use to force me to dismount and run over a decade ago...