Duathlon Nationals Weekend

This past weekend K and I went down to Richmond for an awesome weekend of racing... Saturday was the Off-Road Duathlon Race a very tough 11K 25K 3.5K. I raced while Kristin watched (she was resting up for the on-road event on Sunday). The trails where impresive for so many reasons, I've never seen such a great singletrack trail network within minutes of a downtown area. Here is a video of the highlights of the mtb course. Its speaks for itself.

The first run, althought fun, kicked my butt. Basically a super hard effort for 55minutes before I even got to the bike. Once on the bike, I thought I was going to have a chance to recover at least for a little bit, but it took me a good 40 minutes before I started to feel strong. Up and down stairs, flying through singletrack and over narrow bridges. I was glad I had a full 100oz of water in my camelback because there was little opportunity to take your hands of the bars to drink. The one mistake I made was forgetting my gloves in transition, and with my sweaty hands my grips where as slick as ice. Probably costs me a minute or two over the course of the ride, because I had to be a little more cautious in tricky sections and the death grip I had to maintain probably caused a little extra fatigue.

By the end of the bike I was pretty cooked. But the last run was only 3.5K and pretty flat and I actually felt pretty good once I got going, even had a little kick left to get across the line. Which I did after a total of 2hrs and 28mins.
I had no idea at the time, but I ended up winning my Age Group! I knew I had a pretty good race, without any mechanicals or flats, but winning was a complete shocker. I learned the news from Kristin who came running over from the results board. I think she was more excited than me!!!! I then learned that there were only 2 finishers in our Age Group, but there were many more that started, so I guess just finishing was an accomplishment.

Sunday came pretty quickly. The On Road Duathlon Nationals, a pretty flat and very fast 5Krun / 40Kbike / 5Krun. I felt surprisingly OK after a long slow warm up. the starting gun sounded and some of the fast runners where out of site within seconds... Unbelievable! I just continued running my race and trying to get to the bike as quickly as possible. My split was 20:05 (6:28 pace). The bike leg was fun. 3 laps of a figure 8 course. Very spectator freindly as it passed transition 6 times. Rarely did I have to get out of my aero position. My split was 1:04:17 (22mph). Only thing I wish I did differently was bring another water bottle. One wasn't enough. Then came the run, I was hurting and Saturday's race started to catch up with me. But I only let one guy pass me, so I guess I wasn't the only one suffering. My split was 21:19 (6:52 pace) so not too bad. Earned myself 14th place in my Age Group, and qualified for to be part of "Team USA" at The Duathlon World Championships in Scotland. Will I go? Probably not, but still cool to say I qualified for "Team USA".

Kristin had a great race. Her goal was to qualify for Team USA, and she definately did, finishing 5th in her age group... in the nation... crazy!!! So proud of her. All of her training is starting to really pay off. She loved the course and was all smiles the whole way through. She's already looking forward to Scotland!

Full race results HERE (the virtual race tracker is pretty cool... we were all racing with GPS chips around our ankles)

Next Race: Greenwich Biathlon

Fat Tire Classic

Fun day at Winding Trails in Farmington, CT. Brian came up and did his first mtb race ever. After his race, we had about 2 hours to kill before mine, so we did a 30 min run previewing some of the terrain...

The Trails were great for racing: fast and flowy and not too hilly, not too wet. I wanted to avoid getting caught up in the start nonsense, so I started slow and at the back. My goal was just to get a sense of where I'm at fitness-wise, and to get my mtb (which has been plagued with mechanical issues all winter/spring) dialed-in for next weekend. The race was 3 loops, 16 miles total. About 5 miles in I felt great, and my bike was working perfectly, so I turned it up and raced the hell out of the next 11 miles... I started steadily picking off riders and moving from about 25th place up to where I ended up finishing in 9th place. Was fun to race like that. I normally go out a little too quick and struggle to hold, but this is way more enjoyable.

This photo is with about 2 miles to go. The beginning of a fun drag race to the finish with the guy in red behind me. He ended up popping on a short muddy climb right before the finish.

Coming across the finish line in 1hr 22mins. Good for 9th Place Cat 2 M 30-39
Yep that hurt... Quads burning!
Results HERE

Glad to have a good race under my belt... Now looking forward to Duathlon Nationals next weekend. Doing both the Off Road event on Saturday, and the On Road event on Sunday... It's gonna be rough!

Racing Season!!!

It's almost time! The Fat Tire classic this coming weekend is the first race in a 6 week stretch that includes 8 races, 5 of which I've never done before. This is my version of spring training I guess. Very exciting, hope my body stays intact. Will be posting photos and recaps here.

Book Review #4

Very enjoyable read, nicely written. I think everyone can relate somehow. I especially like that he shares my enthusiasm for Hawaiian Pizza... and that he gives valuable advise on how to roll it up and eat it on the run. 4 out of 5 for this one...

Here is some quick vid nonsense from todays ride... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkmRLlTcN7o

March Madness Biathlon

38 degrees is not that comfortable for a biathlon. I sweat big, so after the first 2.2 mile run I was pretty much soaked, then on the bike for 12 miles the body got really cold with the wind and the wet. Even though I was expecting it and I tried to dress to minimize it, there was no avoiding the cold. Then came the last run which kicked my ass, primarily because I haven't done any brix workouts in a long time, my legs felt like they where filled with cement. But at least I thawed out again, or at least got warm again, becuase I certainly didn't get dry... I crossed the finish line looking like I had just crawled out of the pool... as usual.

According to the computer on my TT bike, the last time I rode it was exactly 6 months ago at the Westchester Tri. The bike is still dialed in perfectly from last year, and I forgot how much fun it is to go fast on that bike! Can't wait to put it to good use again this year.

Even though I felt sluggish, I finished the race in 1:06:15, which is pretty fast for me (versus previous years). But finished 36th overall which is much higher than normal... I guess the competition is just getting faster/harder.

4 weeks left until Duathlon Nationals, lets see how much better I can get by then. Time to work on my speed.

Results: http://www.nytri.org/results_full.cfm?ID=144

Map of the course: http://www.nytri.org/races00/mapcp.cfm

Book Review #3

Kept waiting for this book to get inside the man or the race, but it never really did. It was more of a journal of the author following the Tour around France in his rental cars, and the towns, hotels, and adventures along the way... Enjoyable read, but not what I expected. If you followed the 2005 tour, you're not getting anything new out of this one, so I'd say pass. Unless you want some French travel tips. Probably a 3 out of 5.

Uping the Mileage

A little taste of spring this weekend! Made increasing the training miles alot easier... Hope it stays this way for a while. On Saturday I rode outside for the first time this year. Felt so good to be back out there being dragged around by Pinky here...
...and the rest of our crew. We did just over 60 miles. Some miles fast, others easy.

At the end my legs where shot... But reserved just enough upper body strength to get through a few awesome Kart races with Pat and Fern.

Then Sunday started bright an early with a 2.5 hour trail run with Brian at Rockefeller State Park.

Followed by a loop of Graham Hills on the MTB's. I dusted of the 1994 GT Zaskar for this one... First time on this bike in years. Kinda fun to feel how far bike technology has come since this was considered one of the best XC rigs out there.

Next Week: March Madness Biathlon in NYC...

XTERRA Stillwell Trail Run

Snow still on the ground shortened the course from 5 miles to 3.5 miles. No matter, we still had fun, and it was plenty long enough to get the HR into the red zone for a while. Today's posse pictured here: Me, Brian, Kristin (who finished 1st overall female!) Rick and David.
Results HERE (yes, Brian beat me by 2/10th of a second. Never again Brian, Never!)

After the race we hopped on our bikes, and planned to trail ride for 2 hours.

We made it about about 2 miles before Rick's chain blew. It took us about 45 minutes to get it fixed...

Then a mile later my chain blew. This time it only took us about 20 minutes...

Then we pushed our bikes through the snow some more...

At one point we had done only 4.5 miles in 1hr 43mins! Hilarious! Running out of time we jumped out of the woods and found a road to ride back on... Ride totaled 6.5miles in 1:58 minutes... Not the most succesful of rides, but at least we are now all experts at chain repair. And we'll all come back again when conditions are better.

Here is a video of Rick's chain repair. We'd still be out there if this random guy hadn't walked past with a pair of plyers in his pocket!

WPTL - League Champions!

Greenburgh Paddle team photo. We took this right after beating Manursing and then Westchester CC in the same night to capture the 2010 title. With big rivalries, and great matches, this was an awesome night... This pretty much marks the end of the paddle season. One more tournament next weekend, and then its all about swimming biking and running for a while.

Book Review #2

I like the Catskills, Kristin and I have spent alot of time up there. And I'm fascinated by old stone walls. I see them alot when I'm on my mountain bike in the middle of nowhere. But this book was definately not for me. So boring. I really struggled to get through it.... I'm not even going to give it the three sentence review.

I guess I was hoping for it to be a little more like a book I had read several years ago. I remember liking this one alot more. And I still enjoy trying to figure out what each old stone wall was originally built for as a hammer by on my bike.

Next up I think I am going to read Chasing Lance by Martin Duggard. It's been sitting on my shelf for like two years, needs to be read.