Updates, updates, updates...

So I finally got around to posting my 2009 racing schedule to the sidebar on the right and moved the 2008 results down towards the bottom of the pile with the 2007 and 2006 ones as well. Enjoy...

I've got some fun races planned with a lot of local running/snowshoe stuff in there in the early season to boost the running economy. The 2 big ticket races in 2009 will be obviously Ironman Lake Placid and then the New York City Marathon in November. I've lived in NY for 26 years, but never travelled to the CITY once. I'd like to head there to sight see a little bit as long as I am there too. It will be a fun trip nonetheless.

Also, I've got a slight problem...now I'm sure this is going to come across as super bitchy, but since it's my understanding that not too many folks read my ramblings here, I'll divulge a little thing that's been nagging me. So, I live in an apartment with a roommate here in Rochester and she's a friend of mine from high school, we get along famously. She doesn't mind the piles of clothes that are around and is okay with the more occasional that not, pile of dirty dishes in the sink. Very cool, she's honestly almost like my sister (that's the kind of relationship we have.)

But we live on the 2nd floor...and since this is the Western NY snowbelt, I ride indoors pretty much from the time that the streets are covered until the spring time thaw. And Erin is cool with that. Seriously the other day we rented a movie on demand because I had a 2 hour spin to do and she sat on the couch while I spun and we both watched and enjoyed. Awesome.

The thing is that since I have a magnetic trainer (not a fluid one) and since we live on the 2nd story, the people below us have been complaining about the noise from the trainer. Now this is not my first rodeo in this foray. The apartment that I lived in previous to this one had an elderly lady below me that used to complain to the management and bang a broom on the ceiling when I would ride forcing me to move my bike into the basement storage lockers and stare at a concrete wall when I spun.

The people below me are pretty much demanding that I move EVERY ride into the basement now....they have advised that the trainer shakes everything in their apartment and they cannot stand it for longer than a half hour. I train for IRONMAN's....I don't get on the bike unless it is for AT LEAST an hour. I usually NEVER ride for just 30 minutes. They have come up no twice and banged on the door, forcing me to dismount the bike, answer the door all sweaty, and then disassemble everything and move it into the basement to finish my ride. (I do this because I know it must be loud and I am typically a nice guy....or at least I think I am....) I have been affectionatively referring to the basement as the DUNGEON...

I'm cranking up my bike volume this winter and have been riding an average of 6-8 hours a week on the trainer complete with intervals and TT's as well. I've taken the liberty of moving the TT's and intervals in the basement, but there's really nothing to look at other than the washing machines down there. And as an added bonus, the lights are motion sensor lights and shut off after 15 minutes of spinning. Even if I wave my arms and flail on the bike, they don't come back on, so I have to ride in the darkness.

Tonight I was supposed to do a 2 hour long ride. I wanted to stop off at Blockbuster, pick up a movie and watch it while I spun really easy for my aerobic endurance ride. Instead I only lasted 90 minutes in the basement staring at cobwebs until the lights shut off. Honestly I'm a little pissed off that I can't do what I need to in the comfort of my own apartment. It's not like I am getting up at 4am to ride, I do it at like noon on the weekends or 6 or 7pm at night on the weekdays and never ride past 9:30pm. It's not odd hours or anything. I could understand if the constant white noise of the trainer woke them up at 5am and they complained, but now I have to lug the TANK (that's what I refer to my trainer bike as) outside in the cold, along with my trainer and all my stuff, into the building next door and into that basement (because the building I am in does not have a basement...)

This is going to be a pain in the ass if I am going to be riding around 8 hours a week (and increasing) for the next 3-4 months before the snow melts. If I have to do it all in the basement, I think I am going to go batty...and I really don't know how to approach this inevitable confrontation. Any ideas?

After a small hiatus, I'm back....FF Snow Cheap race #1 report

Well hello there, it's been a while since I last wrote and the reasoning behind that is that I didn't have much to say after the Ironman Wisconsin/Rochester Marathon combo. That was a pretty stupid idea and I wanted to take some time off to reflect on the season past and reorganize myself for the 2009 racing year.

I made it a self imposed rule that I was not going to race again until 2009 and after a few months of boozing and relaxing and just relishing in the off-season, I started to plan my 2009 season and include the big races into the grand scheme of things. I knew I was doing Ironman Lake Placid as my "A-race" and I had a few other races in there that I liked doing as well. I have built my calendar for the 2009 season pretty well and will post it to the sidebar in a little bit (maybe before year end? - No wait, I probably won't be THAT ambitious! :o) haha)

But I digress, I've been having a fun off-season relaxing a bit, travelling a little (I actually got a chance to hop a plane and witness a close friend of mine kick some serious ass in Arizona at the Ironman there in Tempe and also check out the course some too.) That was actually really nice because it snowed furiously the day before I left and I went from like 30 degree weather to sunny and 70 within hours. :o) It was a whirlwind tri of 42 glorious hours in the sun, but it was well worth it.

I've been doing some other stuff too, as I said before I wasn't racing again until '09 (unless it was non-competitive stuf or fun races) so sometime in October or November, I organized a trail beer mile. A few of us lucky souls decided it would be fun to do a beer mile again (If you don't know what that is, check out THIS site...) and we ran it on the trails at Mendon Ponds and it was a hit. So much so that we are already planning out a snowshoe beer mile. Should be a trip. If you know my facebook account, you can see some awesome photos of the madness from the Beer Mile and from Arizona on there. Here are two shots of the beer mile madness :o)So, other than that, I've gotten back in the pool with masters again on a regular basis, I've been ridin my trainer more than is normal for me in this off-season (last week I rode for 7+ hours) and have been focusing on the bike as that seems to be my weakness in LC racing. I'm running a little here and there and debating whether or not it is beneficial to do an early season marathon to boost my run fitness before a last 2 month build for IMLP. These are the things I think about when I daydream at work... :o)

And as for racing, I broke my own rule last night and hopped into the first of a 6 race trail series that is hosted at Cobbs Hill Park in Rochester that is called the Fleet Feet Snow Cheap Trail Series race. It's basically the dirt cheap series style race (very low key) but this time around it's in winter and you have the option to run on snowshoes or not... I am my own coach and I looked in the mirror yesterday and said quietly to myself, "coach says it's okay....there are only 2 more weeks left until January....DO IT" and I made some arrangements and signed up.
The race was actually pretty cool, it was held a 6pm in Rochester and headlamps were required (which added an extra cool flair to it) I got there in the nick of time, registered late, saw a TON of friends and got a bib # that was scratched on the BACK of a bib from another race (apparently more people than expected showed up to race...) Unfortunately for me and my walls, this is a repeat bib# from a dirt cheap race. First one in 4 years of raceing thats repeated... #117. Anyway, the run was a short 3 or 3.5 miles and the gun went off and we were all joking around and laughing and throwing snow balls at eachother. It is always goofy fun.

A nice pack of about 10 of us fell in to the front and we ran comfortably for about the first mile until the large hill and then it spread out. Kurt Spacher and I kinda gapped the field and went up some switchbacks in the course up to the top of the rez. We flew around on the trails and he was heading up the hills with some gusto. He started to slip a lot and I had some pretty good traction thanks to my YakTraks and got around him about 1.5 miles in at a clearing. That was the decisive move that took the race. I knew it too when I made it. I knew that this was the point where I had to pass him and not just soft pass him, but blow by and keep up that speed to drop him and gap him good.

After that it was clear trail, pretty easy markers to read (except for one spot that forced me to double back) and more clear trail glowing from the beams of my headlamp. The snow was about ankle deep and some sections felt like you were running in sand, but it was passable. I got some shouts of encouragement from spectators as I barrelled downhill to the finish chute. My time was 21:53 which means nothing because the course was approximate, but I felt good enough to go on a nice 2 mile or so cool down and I felt like it was over too fast. I like the longer races. Still a good time though Anyway, that was Snow Cheap and how I managed to end my season with a win on a high note. I'll try to post some pics and the 2009 race schedule as soon as I can, but until then folks, train hard this off season (race a little bit - but keep it fun) and remember Winter is the season for base, so get out there and do some long an slow and steady miles before any of this speed stuff. Take care, have a pint or five and JFT. 'Tis the season :o) Cheers.

Rochester Marathon race report

So on Friday September 12th, 2008, I had the stupidest idea I've had in a long time. I was talking with some friends via email and telling about how even though I had just completed Ironman Wisconsin on Sunday September 7th, I was feeling okay and my muscles were relatively recovered. So, seeing as how I didn't hit the time goals that I had wanted to and that I had all of this "extra fitness that I didn't want to lose", I decided I would keep my mouth shut and sneak an entry into the Rochester Marathon.

I've always kinda wanted to do the Rochester Marathon. It's a home town race and I'd be able to sleep in my own bed the night before (those of you that travel regularly to race understand this...) and I had run the majority of the course on training runs with my friend Brian along the canal paths. Easy I thought, I got this no problem.

Brian was also racing and I wanted to keep my entry a secret. I went down on lunch to the Armory to register and ended up handing my application to Pete VP (Phil's dad aka "Mr. 1 mile") and told him that I was trying to sneak in to break 3 hours in this race because I felt relatively fresh. Big mistake. First that I thought that I could break 3 hours, and SECOND for thinking that Pete could keep his trap shut, haha! :o) He did not, and word leaked out. No worries, I just still wanted to crush a race, I was in.

Winner's of the AG got a free pair of Brooks shoes. I've never won shoes before, so I was excited as I looked at results and noticed that Brian was really the only formitable opponent in the M25-29 AG that I KNEW was registered... (a little foreshadowing for those who know the end to this tale...) Well race day comes and in order to save gas a crew of us met at Brian's and we all drove over. I think it was me, Brian, Melissa, Brian's dad, and T$ all crammed into Brian's Accord. We got there, got the chips and headed to the start line. Rochester is not really a large city, but we DO have a GREAT running talent here. Seriously when you can throw down a 16 minute 5k and NOT win a race because there are 3 people in front of you, then you KNOW it's a running town. Crazy fast. So we all get to the line and it's a nice day, a little muggy, but nice.

Gun goes off after some words from the race director and the 600+ marathoners are away and running. I of course had to represent and wore my IMmoo finisher's hat and was yammering on like a schoolgirl to everyone that would listen about what I did last weekend. People must've been annoyed with me, hah!

Well we're off, Brian fell back after not being able to hang with our stupid jokes that I tell in the start of a race and I never saw him again. (he had a rough day too) I settled in with a nice pack of about 5-6 people with the likes of Matt Kellman (did IMLP this year and it was nice to finally meet him), Jill Skivington, and Darren (doing the Canandaigua 50 I think?) But we were away and chatting at a nice pace. It was quick, but there was a large GAP behind me and I really didn't want to run alone. So I held on at a little higher heart rate than I was used to.

We were blazing. We went thru the half marathon point in about 1:30 or so (maybe even under. the 13.1 was not marked) and the group had pulled away from me a bit. I was hurting and I knew if I kept that pace up, I was going to explode...so I toned it down some.

Mile 14 hit and I IMMEDIATELY regretted the decision that I had made to do this race. It was AWFUL. I was just physically spent. The fatigue that I THOUGHT had left my legs decided to creep back in and I started walking at points. Oh, and to make matters worse, it was hot out. Hot and muggy, hot as balls... I threw off my shirt at mile 5 (and it was DRENCHED at that point) it was disgusting.

I was starting to be in a world of pain and I was wondering why I was even out there on such a day. The only thing that kept me driving forward was I didn't want Brian to catch me (as I hadn't seen anyone pass me that was in my age group) I kept on looking over my shoulder but he never came by (turns out he wasn't dealing with the heat too well either) I was doing the whole "walk a little/run a little/lose hope/see friends and start running again/then walk when they were out of sight" thing. It was rough.

Mile 22 hit and I saw a buddy of mine on the U of R campus and he yelled out something like, "Travis! What are you doing?!?! You just did an IRONMAN?!?!" and that gave me motivation to start running again as I laughed to myself. The finishing stretch was fun and Ellen and Boots called me out en route to the tape. Here are a few shots in a sequence from the finish. Pardon the grossness, I was shirtless and still had my HRM on :-p

I ended up crossing the line in 3:28:XX and barely snuck under the 3:30 barrier. I was just excited to be done and to stop moving. I wanted that sub 3 time again, but given the heat (there was a head advisory out and temps hit about 90 that day) and the whole just-did-an-ironman-7-days-prior thing I was happy :o)

I ended up with 2nd in the AG (the first place kid was 4th overall) and 25th overall. Not my best time, but it was my best effort for that day as I was pleased. I'm done racing competitively for the year (I know, it's crazy) but I have to let the fire stoke for IMLP in July so I'm gonna let this one be a slow burn. Definitely my stupidest idea in a long time :o) But not bad for my 6th marathon (3 in IM's) -haha. (DISCLAIMER - don't try this at home!) But I survived and ate a HUGE pizza afterwards. It was delicious. But hey, I have a beer waiting for me, so I gotta run (not literally!) but take care, hope you enjoyed the report and I will be sure to get back here sometime soon to give you all an update on what's going on. Cheers folks. Rest and train hard.

A few other pics to enjoy :o)

I wanted to throw a few other pics up here that were stragglers. Some of them are a little funny, but I wanted them up here nonetheless. This obviously was the bib # for IM Wisconsin this year.A nice picture of the REALLY dorky calf sleeves that I used for the marathon (both marathons). I'm not sure if I really believe that they work or if I will ever wear them again (seeing as they retained a LOT of water during both runs) but they are pretty good for recovery afterwards and that is what I will keep using them for.

This was the BEAST hanging up in my bedroom the day before I left for Madison. Wheels courtesy of Doug Bush (thanks again!) and all of the fun upgrades. Had to get at least one shot of her up here :o)

And last but not least was a surprise for me today in my office. My brother in law, Dave, came in today with a mid-afternoon treat that my sister Jenna had baked me as a congratulations for completing Ironman number three. I affectionatively refer to this as the Ironcake. It was delicious and unfortuantely is now gone as the majority of the office helped to devour it :o) Nothing like a mid afternoon sugar rush! Mmmm mmmmm :o)

That's all, I still have yet to get a race report up for the Rochester Marathon and that will be forthcoming, so look out, there's some crazy photos with that too. I'll keep you posted. Take care folks and I will see you all soon. Cheers.

Ironman Wisconsin race report

Ok so that last post was simply just a warm up to get a few good photos up here from the trip and explain what I did over the few days leading up to the race... which is always important. But here comes the nitty gritty of what happened between the hours of 7am and 6pm the day of Ironman Wisconsin.

I had a lot of goals for the race which I had put down on the blog and been very vocal about before the race began. A good friend of mine read somewhere that if you say your goals to at least 6 people, you have at least a 25% better chance of attaining them. I'm a sucker for every little advantage I can get, so I obliged and was very forthcoming in my intent on this race. Now the only thing I can say (in the literary style of one of the greats) "even the best laid plans of mice and men..."

So without further adieu, here it is, the formal race report:

2.4 mile swim (goal of somewhere between 55:00-58:00, actual was 56:13)

I got into the water that morning and felt pretty good, anxious as always, but somehow, after getting in and splashing around in the shallows, I saw Phil and said good luck to him. Weird that with 2400 other people around (and all in black neoprene wetsuits) that I was able to find his goofy smile, but we said our good lucks and seeded ourselves accordingly. I lined up to the right about 30 feet from the inner buoy and was right on the front of the line. I actually heard some people talking about my red sweede goggles and they were saying that their 100m times didn't allow them to wear sweedes. I found this amusing as I was always an okay swimmer, but in Ironman races, you never really know who is next to you. They could be a sub 3 marathoner, but a slow ass swimmer, you never know. And besides the swim is like the easiest part of the day, it's over so quickly, it's sad...

But I digress. I saw some other people wearing swedish goggles and lined up with them. You may think it's kind of weird that I am going on and on about the types of goggles that people were wearing, but if you are sporting sweedes for an IM, it likely means that you were a swimmer once in high school or college and know your stuff. This is verified by the following situation. We're all floating in the water like 5 minutes before the cannon goes off and this guy next to me speaks up and addresses the little group that I was in. He says, "alright everyone, no kicking, no punching, no grabbing ankles, no dunking, lets just have a nice clean start" and we all laughed a little but then everyone started nodding their heads in agreement and said, "okay...yeah, that sounds good..."

The gun went off and no one touched me.

Let me repeat that, no one touched me. The ironman is affectionatively known as the "fight, bike, run" to some people because the swim can be a freaking masacre. People get pulled out of the water, punched in the head...it gets ugly at times. People swim over the top of you, it's insane to be in the middle of it. The only reason it happens is that everyone packs in so tightly vertically (because we are all treading water) and when the cannon sounds and you start swimming you go horizontally and you are suddenly on top of each other and getting kicked in the face and people are climbing all over you, it's weird. But this time...no one touched me, we all started swimming (and swimming fast) and by the time we got to the first turn, we were pretty well situated in our own space.

The first turn comes (after about a half mile) and again, no contact. Turns in the swim leg of the Ironman are notorious as well because people bunch up and try to sight on the turn and it just generally gets pretty congested. This time nothing. It was divine, amazing, and the perfect swim I think. The second lap was fast and I locked onto a good pair of feet and was drafting comfortably (or maybe a little above my comfort level) but regardless, we were cruising, so i was happy. I was pleased to be done with the second loop and as I exited the water and was going under the banner, I noticed I had split my watch at a 56:13 swim split. I was shocked, but in my head for some reason it wasn't fast enough. I think I had secretly wanted a 55, but I knew I had done it as fast as I could've. There was a long day ahead of me and the time was mine.

T1 swim to bike - goal time of 5:00 - actual time of 5:20

Not bad. I exited the water, got my wetsuit stripped off and was forced to run up the helix of the parking garage on the end of the Monona Terrace 3 floors before we hit the transition bag area. On the way up, I almost threw up a little in my mouth. My body wasn't used to running uphill after swimming so quickly and as we spiraled up the helix, my lunch almost came up. I choked it down and got into the transition zone though. Had a great volunteer who helped me with everything and I decided against the arm warmers. I put on my bike shoes and that was a bad idea because as I ran about the 300 yards around the corner, down the hall, out the door, and thru the transition area to my bike, I was clomping in bike shoes the entire time. If anyone wants to race IM Wisconsin, DON'T put your bike shoes on in the transition area. Wait until you get your bike and run barefoot holding your bike shoes, trust me, it will be MUCH faster.

Bike 112 miles - goal time of 5:35=20.3mph - actual time of 5:43:21=19.57mph

Out on the bike, we rolled down the helix (weeeee!) and onto the bike course. Dad and I had driven it on the Thursday before the race and he exclaimed, "it doesn't look that bad" and I knew better. There didn't seem to be a flat spot on the course. It's a 15 mile stretch before you get to the 2 looped 40 mile section and it's constant rolling hills.

I knew what I wanted to do on the bike and how I needed to do it. I am terrible at pacing however (most folks know this) and I attacked the first loop of the bike. Big mistake. I should've held back and kept it in the proverbial small ring (which you couldn't do because the hills were so steep and ever changing that you were shifting every 5 seconds) Regardless, I was flying thru the cornfields on the new pimped out bike with borrowed Reynolds Wheels (Thanks Doug Bush!) It was fun and I split thru the first loop directly on target at 20.31mph average speed.

Now a funny thing happened out there in the cornfields of Wisconsin. The road was really bumpy....I have an X Lab mini wing on the back of my saddle with some Profile Design Karbon Kages on it. During about every single one of my training rides this year, I launched bottles out the back whenever I went over bumps. So before the race started, I saw a bike in transition with a ruberband around the nossel of the bottle that he had in his rear cages. Great idea, so I bought a huge rubberband and tried it out. Thought it would work perfectly because I always eject bottles. It did not. Simple as that, it didn't work AT ALL.

10 miles into the ride, I reach back to grab some water after sipping on the CarboPro and Gatorade mixture that was in the chalupa and I reach back to find no bottle there, only a rubber band dangling from my cage. Ok, no need to panic, there's aid stations everywhere on the bike, I'll just grab more water in a bit. I do and as soon as I put it in, like a mile down the road, I hear it bouncing off the pavement. I had even put the rubberband around the nose of the bottle to hold it in place, but that just pushed in the nose and made the bottle slide out the BOTTOM of the cage...not cool. Now I have to wait another 30 minutes for another attempt at water.

So in the meantime, I still need to intake as many calories as possibble so I'm drinking the chalupa mixture and it's very concentrated. I should be washing it down with water but I can't seem to hang on to a bottle to save my life. So, I finally rolled thru the first loop and felt okay. As I said before I split thru in 20.31mph, not bad, but I knew I needed to back off a little because I could feel my legs getting a little more and a little more smoked as I rode on.

Miles 60-90 were rough. I hit a definite rough patch and saw a lot of 17mph readings on the speedometer. It was a trying time. I had already launched several bottles and at the halfway mark I got an actual plastic, green, gatorade water bottle handed to me at the bottle hand up. I was stoked. Maybe this one wouldn't fly out the back I thought. NOT A MILE DOWN THE ROAD, I heard it bounce off the pavement and it landed like a grenade ready to take out the people behind me. I apologized as they went past and they didn't look too happy at my inability to keep a bottle on my bike.

At this time, the chalupa mixture was just about gone and I had no liquid on my bike, only a Clif Bar which I unwillingly choked down sans water because I needed to. I had a rough patch at this time and the hills were hurting my legs. For an hour and a half I just wanted to be off of my bike and I was watching that average speed dip well below where I thought it should be (which kind of made things worse for my mental state) It was tough, but I survived it. I rolled back to the split off to go back to the transition area and gladly realized that was all net downhill, what a nice surprise. That might have just saved my average speed. My butt was sore from bouncing over all the lumps in the road and I just wanted to start running and have a good marathon.

T2 Bike to run - goal time of 2:00 - actual time of 2:22

Nothing really special here, I climbed up the helix (how awful after 111 miles of hills) and jumped off my bike at the top leaving my shoes in the pedals. I gladly gave my bike to a volunteer and ran into the terrace and grabbed my bag and sat down. A kid about 15 years old came and helped me. He couldn't get my bag open so I just told him to, "RIP IT!!!" and then apologized because I yelled at him. I got my shoes on and calf sleeves and was off. Nothing special, just happy to be running. I ran down the helix and was off on the run course.

26.2 mile run - goal of between 3:20-3:30 - actual time of 3:57:40

I was off and running. I said before that I have a really hard time pacing myself sometimes and running is a problem. I split thru the first 4 miles in 28:07 and knew that was trouble. I wanted to split 7:43's all day (or at least 7:45's) and that would get me to a 3:30 marathon. At 4 miles I was on pace to split a 3:00...that wasn't likely. But the thing is I was getting passed by SO MANY people in my age group on the bike and I wanted to make up the ground that they had taken from me. I desperately wanted to be on the podium again and this was my time to shine.

I split thru 8 miles really well. I was feeling good, passed about 15 people in my AG and then something hit. It was mile 9 and I suddenly felt weird. My legs were tight and my abs were too on my left side. I had been drinking Coke at the aid stations and that was okay, but I felt off. I stopped to breifly stretch my quad and pulled it up to my butt and instantly my hamstring seized. It was terribble pain, so I let go and tried the other leg, same result. It didn't cramp FULLY, but it was close. You know the feeling. I started walking a little to ease it out and just remembered the motto of dad's quarter and this blog, "Keep Moving Forward". I would start to run only to have my abs cramp so that I wasn't running upright anymore. For those who know him, I looked like I was Frank Farrar. It was crazy, but I soldiered on.

I think what had happened was that I was cramping from lack of water in my muscles from the bike. I hadn't taken any salt that day because I only peed once on the bike and it was not a lot and I wasn't intaking enough liquids anyway. So the combination of low salt and low liquid left my muscles ready to stop working at any time. But I made it thru loop one in 1:47 and multiplied that thru my head and realized that I could still pull off a 3:34 marathon. Pretty close to goal time.

Miles 9-19 were rough again. I was doing a combination walk run thing (no rhyme or reason to it) and by the time I got to Badger Stadium again, I thought that I could run the entire field and then just walk up the exit ramp to the rest of the run course. I ran down the field, over to the other side and my abs cramped again. I walked halfway back and ran until the ramp and walked up it. It was not pretty. I finished the first loop, gave a hug to my dad and a little ways down the road at the special needs station, I changed my socks and shoes because they were wet with sweat and water. I think I was just looking for an excuse to stop again. I was tired...

In retrospect, I should have removed the calf sleeves because they were retaining so much water. But I kept them on. After running a few miles it felt like there was a stone in my shoe, so I had the excuse to stop again and check it out. Turns out it was the stem of an apple...wtf?!?! I don't know how it got there, but I'm glad I took it out. I was finishing up the first loop and going up a main street to get to the start of the 2nd loop and all of the sudden a lot of people started cheering for what I thought was me. Turns out it was Chris McDonald coming up behind me and I slapped him five and congratulated him as he ran past on his win. Cool. :o)

At about mile 17 or 18 at an aid station, I knew I needed to do something drastic. I walked thru it and picked up a handful of pretzels, 2 powerbars and as much solid food as I could. My stomach was feeling weird from all the coke and I needed something. It worked. By mile 19 I was running again. I ran with a really cute girl in my age group from Colorado who was a PT and that was a good thing to distract the pain. We chatted a while and it made the miles click by faster. I got to the motivational mile and saw a message that my dad had written to me. I don't remember what it said, but it was something my dad would say. I was running and wanted to stop by soldiered on.

I crossed the line and tried to flast a #3 with one hand and the "hang loose" with the other, but i was tired. Even my post race photo looked tired. I somehow sneaked in under 10:45 for an official finishing time of 10:44:56. I'm pleased, but unhappy at the little things that went wrong that day. I feel like I could've done some things differently and had a different result. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy at my time, I know it's quick, but when you have a goal time in your head and it ends up different from that, it's unsettling... I ended up 25th in my age group and no where near the podium. I would've had to go sub 9:43 to get in the top 5 and sub 9:40 to get to Kona.

So that's how I'll leave it. I don't know if I will ever go back for the IM in Wisconsin. It didn't really suit my riding style on the bike. It was a fun one to check off the list and I'm already signed up for IMLP in 2009 anyway. I hope you are happy this is done, I sure am :o) Done and done. Take care (whomever is reading) and I hope that you train and rest hard. I know I'll be resting hard. Cheers.

Ironman Wisconsin 2008 pre- race report

Just call me Mr. Consistency I guess... well for those who were wanting my thoughts and (semi-skewed) views on this race, grab a bagel and a power bar, make sure you are adequately hydrated and be prepared for my rendition of the journey thru the farmlands that I like to call the Ironman Wisconsin pre-race report.

Most of you probably know by know that I went a 10:44:56 a few weeks ago and I'm generally pretty happy about that. (I say generally because a few things went wrong that were preventable and I am still stewing a little about that...but I digress, we will discuss that later on)

I signed up for my third attempt at the Irondistance race back last September when I realized that a good buddy of mine that I have known since the wee years of our adolesence was going to be graduating from parajumping school in the airforce in May or June and would be free to race with me in September. His name is Phil VanPeursem and he just married his high school sweetheart Kelly (also a dear friend of mine) and moved out to Portland, OR where he is stationed curently. We decided upon Wisconsin because it was the only IM race where you could still sign up online and it was almost halfway for us at that time.

Cool, we both got it...I was finally going to be racing an IM with the guy that originally got me into triathlon in the first place by convincing me to do the Penn Yann/Keuka Lake sprint triathlon in 2004. Yes it was still the Penn Yann tri at that point... :o) He's always been a big brother to me and this was finally my chance to show him the ropes as this was my third and Phil's first one. Neat :o) We were both rather eager to race together again.

Well, I was driving out to Wisconsin with my dad (as we always road trip to IM's together) and we left on a Wednesday morning to get there late on Wednesday night. It was a fun drive and a lot of goofy things happened (dad almost sitting in dog poo when we stopped for lunch) but I won't bore you with the details. It was fun and it's really cool to spend some good quality bonding time with my father every year and chat about a lot of things. (we had a 13 hour drive to yammer on...) And for those of you that know my father, he doesn't like to travel with the radio/CD player on, so that means no music and we end up chewing the fat about a variety of subjects during the ride. It really is one of the most enjoyable parts of doing an Ironman race, travelling with dad.

Dad always was and is really goofy (now you all see where I get it from) and when he climbed into the car, he taped a quarter onto my dashboard. I found this a litle weird and looked at the coin to inspect. It was a Wisconsin state quarter with a state motto of FORWARD which we both found rather appropriate. That kinda became the motto of our trip, thanks dad. :o)

I also wanted to mention that the funniest publication that I have read in a while is the onion newspaper. They apparently print it in Madison, WI and they have it for free on the street corner. If you ever get a chance, just go to http://www.theonion.com/ and check it out. It is freaking hysterical and here is a shot of my dad doing a goofy face and reading the Onion one day during lunch :o)

Well, we got there in one piece and settled in, did all the fun pre-IM stuff like the Gatorade morning swims, visited the local bike shops, went and checked in and got weighed (I was 158lbs!!) We checked out the beautiful Minona Terrace which was built by the amazing Frank Lloyd Wright. As dad was a draftsman back in the day, we had a lot of good conversation about styles of architechture and buildings. We also checked out the capitol and took some photos.

As the days drew nearer to the race I got all the fun things done, organized by transition bags, cleaned and lubed up the bike, dropped everything off the day before, stole an extra swim cap at registration (third year in a row!!!)

Now it was the day before the IM and we were done with everything by 11am. Dad and I kind of looked at eachother and wondered what we were going to do for the whole day. On our ride up, we had discussed the possibility of driving to Iowa from Madison, Wisconsin. We have this competition to see who can get to all 50 states first and neither of us had IA. So what did we do, but climbed back into the car and drove the 2 hours each way to Iowa... and had lunch there at this place called the Brickhouse. We both had really spicy Chicken Alfredo that made your nose run. We stopped in the visitors center before and picked up a few pamphlets, took some photos. For those of you that remember hammerfest swims - pat yourself on the back because the were "kind of a big deal" ;o)


This photo below was actually taken via cell phone in Dubuque, IA in front of the visitors center. Pardon the terribble shot, it was a self portrait and I have the ugly blue Tifosi's on my head because the oakley's were already in the transition bag that I handed in that morning...
We were looking for a place for lunch and saw a large neon sign that read "laughing ass lager" and knew we had to go there for lunch. It was the brickhouse and it was really good pasta. I treated dad to lunch and we ate and then walked around for about 5 minutes, then drove back to Wisconsin. :o) Cause that's how we roll.

Ok, enough of the pre-race stuff and now onto the actual race. I'm going to post the RACE REPORT in a different post so that it breaks up the monotony of this story. So cheers, I'll be back in a minute.

Catchup-IMoo screen shot, ramblings

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I need to get a race report up here sometime and I think I'm close to getting my thoughts collected about that race (it's just a lot happened in it...and the weekend after it) so that's taken some time to process everything in my puny little head. :o)

For the people who read this (hi, mom! - haha, yeah right, bet she doesn't even read this!) I raced Ironman Wisconsin on 9/7/08 and I survived. A screen shot of my results is below:

So, there were the results...I promise that I'm gonna try to get a honest to goodness race report up here with some photos (managed to steal them all from ASI Photo :o) haha!) and all that good stuff, but in the mean time,I'm a little under the weather and not really feelign like slopping thru an entire race report (in painstakin detail) right now.

You see, I came home from Wisconsin and knew that I coulda raced faster (lots of reasons why, but I won't get into those until the report) I was very pleased with the consistency of my finish, but you know how it is to expect one thing and have something else happen. So, me being VERY stupid me, I signed up for the Rochester Marathon on 9/14/08 seeing as how my legs were feeling ok and the soreness was virtually gone from them....bad idea. Well, I completed both (only 7 days apart) and my legs are now fried (and so apparently is my immune system...)

And all in all, I owe myself (and you the readers) TWO race reports. I wanted to keep the Rochester Marathon a secret because I have a feeling a lot of people would've yelled at me for being a moron and attempting something as stupid as that, so I didn't tell too many people. But the cat's out of the bag now and I made it thru the both in one piece, so now I owe it to myself to get the reports up there. I'll try to at least get the IM one up ASAP (maybe by the weekend?) We shall see.

I'm done racing competitively for the rest of the year, so I hope to get some good beers in me and back to normal people life for a while. I'm out for now, but a good race report is forthcoming, so be aware :o) Take care, rest (chicken soup for me!) and train hard and I'll talk to you later folks, cheers.

GOALS for my 3rd IM....

Well, it wouldn't be an ironman, and I doubt that I would have gotten as far as I have without goals in my life. I have a knack for being able to predict a goal time pretty reasonabbly for future races as I was able to hit the IMLP time within 5 minutes.

I have several goals for this race in Wisconsin coming up that I feel like sharing tonight....

1. Have fun - look at the photos from last year's IMLP, I was beaming in every photo. I want to have that in Wisconsin too.
2. Just go out there and do what I do, race smart and get to the finish line
3. Now here's the nitty gritty - get a PR in an iron distance race (sub 10:27)
4. Go sub 10:10
5. Sub 10 hours and place on the podium of my age group (M25-29)
6. Sub 10, AG placing and slot.

Obviously they tend to get harder and harder the farther that you go down the list. But without that "pipe dream" goal at the very end, what would we have to chase after? A good friend once advised me of an old Chinese curse, "may you attain all of your goals"....Very relevant.

I think that a majority of those goals are attainable with the training that I've put in this year. I don't want to jinx anything, but I also want to be pretty reasonable. Obviously if the weather does not cooperate (headwinds on the bike) the times will be slower than expected, but that's kind of out o my control. If I race to my potential and have one of those everything-went-exactly-according-to-plan type of days, then I think there is a slim chance that I could grab all six goals above. But things would need to really bend my way.

I have other little goals too. I want to be between 55-58 for the swim (reasonable considering that the swim is a strength of mine and I've been swimming with a masters group for quite some time now. I just need to seed myself accordingly) I would also like to bike strong enough to be in contention but not too strong that I blow out my legs and have a shitty marathon.

My marathon goal is the big thing here. I'm almost using Wisconsin as a stepping stone to going sub 10 in Placid, but I'm obviously racing it to the best of my ability and not holding anything back. I just want to race hard enough and to my potential. The best thing for me would be a bike split that allows me to run something in the 3:2X range for the marathon. I did a 3:41 in Placid and a 2:53 in Boston and a 2:55 in Philly, so I don't think a 30 minute drop off my PR for an IM run is unreasonable. Now that I know how to properly run a marathon, this should be interesting...

I plotted it out on my friend Beth's birthday last year on a post it note and hung it in my cubicle of what I thought my ideal everything-went-exactly-perfect race could come out to at IMmoo and it showed as a 9:55...I would be elated if a week from now that was my time. I guess we'll see what happens.

So those are my goals. I'm being COMPLETELY honest and not holding anything back. I want to come back with some hardware. Once you get on the podium, it's hard to do a race and not want to be on their again. My good friend Sarah (whom I met on the podium at Placid) endured the crazy conditions of IMLP this year and was a repeat AG placer. I don't want to dissappoint, I want to do that again too. But this year, I aged up into the M25-29 from the M18-24 AG, so it will be a little tougher, but nothing I can't handle. We'll see what Sunday Funday brings folks.

These are goals though. I obviously realize how fortunate that I am to be able to have the ability to race as hard as I do and as fast as I can. It hurts and as athletes we sacrifice a lot. But that's not all that I am about. My world will not be crushed if I on't hit the time goals that I want to or something happens during the race. Dissappointment will creep in yes, but the sun will still come up tomorrow and there are bigger fish to fry in the world. I'm just sharing these as a little added pressure on my ass that I don't want to let anyone down. I will race hard and do my very best, and however that shakes out is how it will be listed in the results. So on that note, I'm bringing my "A-game" to Wisconsin in a few days and you better bring yours to all of your races. Until then, dream big... cheers.

One week out...

Many thanks to Simply Stu for the pic above (I actually don't even think he knows that I nabbed it, but I was perusing his blog and podcasts and came across this and thought it would be a nice representation of the IMmoo run course and though I would put it up. Thanks Stu!)

I'm one week out from my third Ironman race in as many years and oddly enough when people ask me if I am ready or not, I usually tell them a cop out answer like, "we'll see if the training pays off" or something like that because I don't want to jinx anything. Ironically as well, I'm not really that nervous about it. I guess it's still a far way away and I'm sure I will get a little more tense as the race draws nearer, but so far, not many nerves yet.

Maybe the eerie calmness stems from the fact that I still have LOADS to do before I leave on Wednesday morning. Like for example, today I have a 10 mile run on the training dockett. Normally on a weekend that would be the only thing I have to do and I could be a lazy piece of crap until I did that run and then just relax and eat all day :o) mmmmmm eating :o)

But today, I have to go to the local Fleet Feet at noon today and pickup a new pair of shoes before the run today. I'm gonna try and grab a pair of Brooks Axcioms for the marathon portion of IMmoo. But the Fleet Feet doesn't open until noon, so I have to wait to do that.

The one thing that I did get done beforehand was travel from Rochester to Angola, NY to pickup a pair of Reynolds race wheels from a good friend Doug Bush. They are a pair of tubulars and they look really quick. I still haven't had a chance to put them on the bike because I still have to swap over the cassette and get that all straighted out (still don't know how to do that bike repair) But I will definitely drop some pictures here in the next few days of the chariot looking all dolled up pre-race. (a few folks have been asking for some bike prOn so i'll have to get some shots up there.)

I also want to do a post about goals for the race too (I know I promised that before) so will try to get that one up maybe tomorrow? Who knows. For now, it's off to the shoe store to grab a new par of racers (I know it's like the cardinal sin of marathoning to get a new pair a week before a race, but the last few weeks kinda slipped away from me) I'll at least get a 10 miler in them before the IM, so that will have to suffice. :o) Until later folks, cheers.

Bib #'s are up (finally...) :o)

So folks, I've kept bib #'s for the last 3 or 4 years of racing. They came out this afternoon for Ironman Wisconsin and I must say that I had to go home and check the bib's that are circling my bedroom to see if any were a match.

You can stop holding your breath now...none were a match. I'm bib # 338 for IMmoo this year, so that is the number to track on race day. Ironically Philly VP's is #339 which is one more than mine and I think that is because I registered us online one after another. Most of the 25-29 folks are between 300-400 so those will be the ones that I look for on race day. :o)

There are 166 entrants in the Male 25-29 age group who I have to battle in a few days. We shall see how it all shakes out. Happy tapering folks, cheers.

Just call me Chris Columbus...Dirt Cheap #5 report

So those who know me might be keen on the fact that I have a very, and I mean VERY poor sense of direction. I blame my mom as she once got lost going down a MAJOR road in our little town once when my sister and I were little kids. She would get lost in a paper bag....

Now I am an Eagle Scout, and as my brother in law, Dave would say, "I thought eagle scouts had a good sense of the direction from using compasses so much?!" It's true, I can use a compass, but I get lost easily. Just a matter of fact. In high school cross country we would run in the woods and I was one of the fastest on the team and I swear that I made those poor guys run so many more miles to find the busses. Sorry guys!

And still, it is the case. Just Wednesday this past week I ran in the Dirt Cheap race #5 (just a small trail race series here in Rochester) and as the gun went off, I was feeling okay and we all were joking around a lot. after 2 miles, I started to feel good and to pull away. There's something I really enjoy about bombing thru at top speed thru singletrack that is quasi overgrown in the woods. In the woods I ike to be a front runner and not have anyone in front of me in order to see the terrain beneath my feet.

So two miles out of five are in, I'm feeling good and I was thinking to myself before the race that Ironman training should have really sapped my speed, but I was blazing thru the woods and feeling good. Mile 3 comes and I'm still leading and have about 150 meters on Alan Powers, with Brian Matthews behind. I go a little longer and bounce up a huge hill and go a little longer to realize that there are no more cones and there are trails branching of everywhere...

"I must have gone the wrong way" I think to myself and silently curse. I turn around and about 2 minutes later I finally catch up to the race, I jump back in (I seem to have missed a sharp left into a stream - yes they ran us up a strea for about 200 yards) And yes at the pre-race meeting, the director called me out in front of everyone and said "Now Travis, don't miss the stream, it's a sharp left..." and I totally blew right by it. But I rejoined and kept on going. I was WELL out of the lead at this point....

I go about another mile, pass a few more folks and blow RIGHT by another turn. I realized it at the top of a hill AGAIN. I turned around and just kind of dialed it down to the finish line and cruised in going from a solid lock on 1st overall to 9th with not one, but TWO wrong turns. Oh well, it was a small little $10 trail race, but it would have been nice to get another W under my belt. But still not really the focus for this year.

A thank you goes out to Alan Hatch who said kept things in perspective by "reassuring me" and saying, "it's a good thing that Ironman is REALLY well marked..." Smart ass :o) But hey, I'd rather get lost in a small trail race then IM anyday. Keep running strong folks, and PLEASE go the right way. Cheers.

2 weeks out...

I love to taper...I love to have all of that training sink in and finally benefit you. I love just being able to go out and say, "hey, I ONLY need to do a 2 hour ride and a 4 mile run today". If you haven't noticed, I'm in the middle of the taper for Ironman Wisconsin. I had a good build (had a 17 hour week in there - most I've ever done) and I'm feeling ok about the training that I've put in. I guess time will tell and on race day the results will be posted.

Believe me, I still have my concerns though. The dreams are still there, and yes, they wake me out of a sound sleep about 2-3 times a week (just part of the game I guess.) I think the real reason that they are there is because I have put several really high goals on myself to attain. We'll see what happens. I'll post a good one later about my goals for this race. Luckily the ATHLETE GUIDE has shown up, but the bib #'s still aren't up on the website due to a technical difficulty. They should be soon as we are two weeks out. I leave in 1.5 weeks and still have a butt load of stuff to get done before I go.

Taper city blues (population - me) as I'm just getting more and more anxious to get this race started. I just want to "do what I do" and get out there and play. 2 weeks left. Hope I can make it.... cheers.

The dreams have started again...

So they've started again, and I think that's probably a good thing, but it still makes me wake up in a panic every time I have one. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone that's had a large race (cough, cough, IRONMAN, cough, cough) in the foreseeable future knows what I'm talking about....

Yes, the panic dreams.

You are exiting the swim in an Ironman and running into transition only to find that you are missing a certain piece of equipment that is VITAL to you finishing the race (last night it was the bike shoes and before that my helmet) Or it might even be that you are running towards transition and you realize that you have forgotten to put your uniform underneath your wetsuit, or various other silly things that probably wouldn't likely happen in real life but still cause you to wake up in a cold sweat. Hell, I had one the other day I dreamt that I had completely forgotten to drop off my transition bags and had stolen someone’s backpack en route to running to the transition tent and grabbed whatever I could out of it to help me finish (somehow they had bike shoes in it? I don’t know)

But yes, the dreams have returned. In a way it's good to know that they have returned, as that means that it is getting painfully close to the big dance in Wisconsin. But also, it just sucks to be woken out of a SOUND sleep and have your heart be beating out of your chest in a panic because you think that you were a dumbass and forgot that vital piece of equipment...(ironically most of my dreams have to do with bike equipment - don't know if that is a good/bad thing)

I would be worried if I didn't have the dreams most every week because that would mean that I really didn't care too much about the race and wasn't at all anxious, but I can say with a straight face that I'll be relieved when they are gone. I had them for a SOLID year before IMFL in 2006 and I hated it. It was like clockwork, every week I would wake up at the very minimum, in a panic once a week. I'm happy that getting thru 2 IM's has given me the foresight to only have them occasionally now, but they are still an annoyance.

So here's to crazy dreams, I hope they come for you, but then I hope they leave as quickly as they arrived. And I hope that they are replaced with thoughts of you attaining all of the most out of reach goals that you can think of and I hope that you envision yourself just doing what you do. Those thoughts are the ones that will get me to sleep over the next few weeks. Just do what you love to do. Just do what you do. Just do what you do. Just do.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cheers folks.

"Dress her in black...."

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention with the last post. I got my bars rewrapped at Berts when I got the new Carbon 1.5X integrated aero bars installed on THE BEAST. Jim Costello asked me what color bar tape I wanted and I told him (in Bold fashion): "Dress her in black... it's game day"

That one was for you Bold. Thanks for the good reads over the years. Cheers mate. You'll be with me in spirit in IM Wisconsin.

Thats all, take care folks. Talk to you soon.

UPGRADEs :o)

So I've made a few upgrades to my equipment and as most of you know I am a huge gear junkie. Especially when it comes to triathlon. So without further delay I'm going to showcase here some tri "bling" that I will be sporting in Ironman Wisconsin next month in September.

Bontrager aero water bottle. Holds 20 ounces and is super aero helping smooth the airflow over the middle section of the bike. H20 bottle cage is carbon and this thing I refer to affectionatively as "the chalupa".It's pretty slim, but it really looks like a soft taco from Taco Bell. :o) Next in line, just got installed about a week ago thanks to the BRAND new sponsor for 2008 Berts Bikes in Buffalo, NY. Jim Costello was so nice to swap out my old aluminum handlebar set and hook me up with these bad boys. It sports an integrated stem, basebar, and aero bars that are FULL carbon. It's sick. I spoke with a few friends and called it silly fast after smoking a 100 mile ride in 4:37 from Buffalo to Rochester and back to Buffalo. I'm taking them around Canandaigua Lake tomorrow to see how the climb. Since they are so light, I'm thinking it will be fast :o)The new bars also dropped my front end by like 3 inches and I feel like I can generate SO much more power being down low, so we'll see how it plays out in Wisconsin. The next upgrade hasn't come yet, but I ordered it today online.

I've officially joined the ceramic revolution and have broken down and gotten a pair of 11 tooth (I know the pic is wrong) FSA ceramic bearing derailler pulleys. They spin smoother and reduce drag and wear much slower than typical steel bearings. I don't know if I will be able to feel the difference, but hell, it's worth a shot.

This is the last upgrade that I made to the bike. It's a 53 tooth carbon aero chainring by FSA. 53 teeth of ramped and pinned aluminum that will smooth the airflow and just look really cool :o) Now, here's something that will definitely up the "dork factor" of my game in Wisconsin.Yes, I've broken down and gotten a pair of Zensah compression calf sleeves because of the nagging tightness in my calfs. (I almost got ART before the Philly Marathon last year and they are still notoriously tight) I took them out today on a 8 mile run and they felt good. They just provide a little support and feel like someone is hugging your calves. Not bad.

So those are the upgrades that I have made. Who knows if they will help at all, but I would feel bad if I didn't at least have all the right equipment to perform at my best. I've trained hard, the engine is hot and ready and I'll see you folks at the starting line in a little less than a month :o) Cheers.

Musselman Race report

So this one is a little late, but better late than never....right?

I had high hopes for Musselman this year, because I've had aforementioned "beef" with the course. To let you all know my true goal was to be in the 4:3X range. I had a rough race for a variety of reasons. First, the weather was crazy, second, I made a ROOKIE mistake by cramming 600 calories down my gullet in the first hour on the bike and it just wasn't m day i guess. The one thing that I wanted to do though was to have a solid run because I have always felt that I've fallen apart on that course.

Swim - my goal was a 28:xx because I thought I could pull a sub 30 out of my butt. The weather and the waves had another thing in mind I guess. there were 2-3 foot waves and one of the middle bouys came loose and drifted causing many people to get a little confused on the swim. Also they sent the pink capped wave out first and in conjunction with the waves, that made it hard to appropriately sight where we were all going. I hit the beach and was happy to be on dry land. I was 32:xx something so a little displeased, but happy to have that portion over.

Bike - there was this new course that they made this year. It's good, got one solid hill in it and a terribbly rough section thru the park in Geneva. I borrowed a pair of Zipp 303's from my buddy Alan and they helped a ton, but since I had drank 600 calories in the first hour and jammed up my stomach, I was bloated and threw up about 2-3 times on the bike. (You know how hard it is to vomit to the side and still control your bike??!!) No fun. My good friend Joe Meyer passed me with about 5 miles to go when it began raining and he was a wave behind me (4 minute deficit). I limped back to T2.

Run - All I wanted was a good run, Joe and I went out together and ran shoulder to shoulder for a few miles. I told Joe of my woes of vomiting on the bike and he told me that one of his shifting cables had popped causing him to ride the course in the small ring up front. Not fun. JOe was yelling and trying to encourage me to HTFU and keep it going on the run, but I was actually feeling a little ok. 5 miles in, I had pulled away from Joe a little and slammed a Gu at the aid station to see what would happen. The gu went in, then imediately out, along with the remaining contents of my stomach... I think I may have hit Joe with a little of it as he ran by. Ewwww. He yelled at me some more and suddenly I felt great. I had nothing in my stomach and had cleared everythign in my system. I began to drop the hammer. There were 8 miles left and I just ran like I wanted to. I ended up ripping off a sub 6 mile and putting in 6 minutes into Joe (thereby beating him by 2 minutes overall with the wave differential) and closing with a 1:24 half marathon (good enough to be in the top 4 half marathon times that day)

Overall I still had a 2minute PR, but it was not how I wanted it to go. I was pleased to have ran a 4:41, and winning my age group (ran down the first place guy in the AG in the last mile) and got a really nice bottle of wine for it :o) This was a rough race and it was definitely a stupid mistake that caused me to vomit everywhere.

Well enough of that, I went up to Placid the next weekend and watched the race in the rain and registered with Joe for IMLP 2009. I saw some amazing results there too! congrats again! and can't wait to go head-to-head with Joe there in 2009. (Last time he raced it, he went a 10:23, I went a 10:27 last year) He's the only guy around my age that's gone faster than me and it willbe a good showdown next summer. I know we both are already looking forward to it! Alright I'm gona ost some good pics in the next one of upgrades I've gotten (think bike Pr0n) so I have to go grab those photos.

Tomorrow is a 6 hour ride followed by a 4 mile run and 2 mile swim, Sunday is a 20 mile run folowed by a 2 mile swim. This will cap out an 18 hr training week. I'm tapering after this! Woo-hoo, see you on the flip side folks. Cheers.

Second week in a row..... QuakerMan/ATITB race reports

Well, it's been a good few weeks here at "Keep moving forward" with the last two races that I entered in resulting in the big W....check the sidebar, it's legit :o)

Last week was a rest week and I was feeling pretty spry. There was word of this new sprint distance triathlon in Orchard Park, NY that was called the QuakerMan. There was pretty good competition there (Joe Meyers, Kevin Patterson, most of my old Handlebars teammates) I wasn't really nervous about the race at all, just ready to get out there and "play". The swim started with a 600m jaunt in seaweedy, but clear waters. The gun went off and I had pretty much immediately gapped the field. I exited and made it to the transition mats in about 8 minutes or so. I hopped on THE BEAST and was off. For some reason or another, I was cycling like a man possessed and ready to win. I knew that I had some good legs and wanted to test the out. I split at 25.2mph for the entire 22 mile course.

The run came and I didn't know if I could hold the pace. I began the run and was chasing down Daryl Clarke (who is a good runner) and I knew he would bring me a good time. I hit the finish line and was the first one to cross it. (I actually started in the 3rd wave - ten minutes back) and they barely had the finish line arch set up when I crossed. I was really stoked to hit my first triathlon win of the year, and equally exited to win the inaugural edition of a race! :o) Good times.

Today however was a real shock. I'm still kind of reeling from it. Today was A Tri in the Buff (no not a naked triathlon, but a triathlon in Buffalo, NY) I had recently on the 4th of July done a solo session around Canandaigua Lake on my bike and for the first time ever I split above 20mph busting thru in 20.7mph average for the 56 mile route. So I was nervous that I didn't have a lot left in my legs today. Turns out I was wrong..

The swim was calm and I gapped the field again pretty quickly in the water. I hit the bike and was hoping that I packed my bike legs in my transition bag. Well, I amazingly somehow was able to split the fastest average speed for the bike of both the Olympic and the Sprint races. Crazyness.... I ended up looking at my pointer finger which I had written something on in Sharpie marker (as a friend advised me to do once....you know who you are...thanks!) I was doing well and feeling good too, next came the run which I knew would hurt. I like to think of this as the "no fun zone" because I usually dip into that zone on the run.

My second of the two loops was a little bit slower than expected, but I held on to best the 2nd place person by about 7 minutes. I was shocked and even PR'ed by about 2 minutes. I'm just hoping that I saved enough in my legs for next week at musselman. I'm completely excited to have won 2 races in a row and I'm just hoping to take this momentum into the half iron next weekend.

I actually have to run, but take care folks, I wanted to get a few race reports to you all before I forgot the details. A huge thanks to Berts Bikes for the sponsorship and taking care of some of the race fees for me. I'll be writing later on, but take care and I'll see you out on the roads. Cheers folks :o)

Foot in mouth...Keuka Lake Tri report

I know, I know... I said a while ago that I was back in the saddle and going to be blogging regularly (yadda, yadda, yadda...) but the truth is, I haven't. In case you couldn't tell the last post I had was from April. The general lack of a computer at my apartment has contributed greatly to the lack of posts. All of the fun things that I've been doing have also helped in keeping away the posts.

For those of you that didn't know (I was trying kinda to keep it a little secret) I joined the Rochester Area Master Swimmers back in March and have been swimming with them for a while and loving it. I knew a while ago that I needed some extra help coaching in swimming (because I self-coach) and this was just what I needed to get into the pool 3 times a week. I've been doing about 4-5k per practice and hitting about 8-12k/week in yards. And it shows. I did a 4x1km set the other day and held all 4 under 14:10 with only 1 minute between 1000m swims. It was sick because the last time I tried that (in Feb.) I was only able to average like 14:50's or so. So that's been really good and my swim time at Keuka dropped by about 2 minutes for a 1.5k swim from last year. Not bad (more on Keuka later)

I've been training a lot, staying pretty much healthy (minus the occasional hangover...) and hitting some good training. (Last week was a 13 hour week) Memorial Day weekend we had the obligatory training camp in Lake Placid and I headed up with Joe Meyers to do some monster miles. We did 100miles on the bike course on Saturday followed by a 30 minute run (oh yeah and we did one loop forwards and then one in reverse on the bike course causing us to do the 7 mile uphill climb at around mile 90 of that ride...) Sunday was a 15-18 mile run followed by climbing up Giant Mountain to cross another off of my 46er list.

I've been running lots and hitting up some good races and taking the base from Boston and riding that out as long as I can. My friend Greg has been organizing the Fleet Feet Dirt Cheap series which is really stripped down trail race series that is on Wednesday's (one in 2 days) and is low key and inexpensive. It allows me to go out and "play" mid week and I guess I'm kinda partial to it because I won the first one that I did. Good times and fun races with beers afterwards!

Keuka Tri was really hot. Let me preface everything with that... I had salt stains on my arm pads of my aerobars. I didn't have the best race that I could've but thats bound to happen. I was still pleased that I hung on to 4th overall (but pissed that I got passed with 2 miles to go like I was standing still - shows how much I was hurting) I just never felt good on the bike and never really got into a rhythm. The first mile in the run was done in 6:37 and was no where near the 5:56 that I popped the first mile in last year. Maybe this long course stuff is really getting to me... But I digress, I had a really good swim and that is my take away. A good friend told me to Sharpie on my finger a mantra for next race, so I'm going to give that a try. I'm thinking HTFU...

Next up is the dirt cheap race #3 and then the Quakerman triathlon which is a new one in Orchard Park. We'll see how that goes. But I gotta run, so have some fun on the roads out there, be safe and train hard kids. Hopefully see you sooner than 2 months from now...cheers.

Boston Marathon race report

As most of you know, this was not my “A-Race” of the year, and it was really really weird going to a race that was everyone ELSE’S big race of the year, but not my own. I guess it took a lot of pressure off of my performance and anxiety for this race. (Let me clarify - it wasn’t that I didn’t care how I did in the race, I truly wanted to race well and feel good, it was just that IM Wisconsin was a bigger race in my mind and my focus of this training year)

So, going into Boston I had a few distinct goals in my head of what I had wanted to accomplish. All of which were marred by the fact that I didn’t feel as prepared for Boston as I did for Philly last year in 2007. (I had an entire year of solid IM base underneath me in prep for Philly and I only had about 4 months of base for Boston) My goals were sorted out as such:

1. Have fun - always the most important goal
2. Requalify for Boston - needed a sub 3:10
3. Break the 3 hour barrier
4. PR - which meant a sub 2:55:17
5. Beat Lance Armstrong
6. Best Ian Webber’s time (friend of mine that is in my running group) - 2:51:23
7. Go sub 2:50 (2:49:59)

Now, I only broke 4 out of 7 which isn’t that bad in hindsight, but I think if I had raced this one a little smarter, I might have been able to have a legitimate crack at attaining all of them. Everyone warns you about the Boston course and how “not to go out too fast” and I even got a text from Travis Money (T$) race morning before the gun went off that said just that… most of you that know me well realize that some things I have to figure out for myself. J

I went to the doctors on Thursday and was diagnosed with a viral upper respiratory infection and there was nothing I could take to make me better. I was only hoping it wouldn’t affect the race. I left on Saturday afternoon after volunteering with Brian at the Muddy Sneaker 20k down in the High Tor wilderness on the south end of Canandaigua Lake. That was a fun time and really nice to give back and see how much effort it takes to set up and execute a flawless aide station (we did aid’s # 1+3) Immediately after that, I hopped on the I-90 and began the drive east making a stop in Cato, NY to pickup a dear friend Sarah who was going to be my travel buddy and conversationalist for the weekend to keep me awake while driving J This is Sarah and me in Cato:We departed and made it FINALLY to Boston around 7pm or so and found my hotel and went to dinner. Sarah found it rather funny that I ordered a beer with dinner, but I told her that I drank before Philly too and if it was the Ironman, I probably wouldn’t, but since it was just Boston, I would relax with a brew. As a random side note, this was the pattern of the bedspread in Woburn, MA at the Red Roof Inn. (I'm glad I didn't vomit just looking at it!)Hitting up the Women’s Olympic marathon trials the next morning was really cool. Not exactly something I would have seen on my own, but I had forgotten that an old college teammate of mine Melissa White was running and ended up placing 15^th in the trials. (not too shabby SUNY-G!) She’s in the Brooks Hanson’s singlet on the very left in the photo below:

So enough of the random pre-race stuff, I saw a few friends (Cason Jasey!) got a race shirt at packet pickup that was WAY too big for me (as usual) and had some good fun hanging with people for meals and just mainly throughout the days and hours leading up to the race. But, let’s get down to business.

Now I was registered as bib # 1991 for the marathon. This has its benefits and curses at the same time. Obviously the benefits are pretty cool in knowing that it took me only 10 seconds to cross the starting line after the gun went off, when some people it takes like 13 minutes, but also being able to start in a corral that was up near the front.

Race morning came without any hitches and I made it to athlete village without any problems. We were transported to the start via bus and this was a picture taken just moments before boarding the busses to take me to Hopkinton, MA.

In Athletes village, I wandered looking for anyone I knew and found no one. It was getting a little late (my wave went off at 10:00am sharp) and I decided to get into the line at the porta potties. Now remember how I was saying that a low bib was a curse? All I wanted to do was take care of my pre-race “business” and I was in line to do so. A couple behind me saw my bib and began asking me questions like, “so what kind of qualifying time do you have to run to get a bib that low?” and all these other questions. I was forced to make awkward small talk with the people and the husband was one of those “close talkers” and got right up on you when he talked to you. It was not anything bad; I just needed to do the obligatory pre-race poop and get to my corral.

I exited the porta and began looking for my corral. I was running a little late and ended up jogging to the starting line as it was farther away than I thought and we were the first corral and first wave (so I was RIGHT behind the elites) I was looking for my friend Dan Verdi, seeing as he was bib 1252, but couldn’t locate him. The gun went off and I had on gloves, a t-shirt and spandex shorts.

As soon as the gun went off the sun came out and the forecast had called for overcast skies and like 55 degrees. It was still a little cold, but it was sunny as hell and I had left my sunglasses and sunscreen in my dry clothes bag. (Rookie mistake) I never heeded those warnings about going out too fast and just started running. I clipped the first mile in 5:56 and needed to slow down BIG TIME.

At about 3miles in I came up on a small little group of about 20-30 runners and thought to myself, “oh we’re all running together, that’s nice” and it wasn’t until I had passed them that I realized that people were packing around because Lance Armstrong was in the middle of that group… Dan Verdi passed me about a minute or two later and we chatted and he said he hadn’t seen Lance yet and I told him to turn around because he was about 50 feet back! I wished Dan well and he took off and I wondered to myself if I was going to be able to hold off Lance for the entire race (how cool would that be?!?!)

I was going thru each kilometer in about 4:00 exactly and was pacing this really well thru the first 15k. Then the single K markers vanished and my pacing left. I went thru 15k in 59:05 minutes and remarked to a guy next to me that I ran that faster than my buddy Brian had done a stand alone 15k a few weeks ago. I said to him, “oh Brian’s gonna be pissed!” (sorry Brian Matthews)

I held that thru 30k (1:59:53) and was pacing really well. Wellesley College was really fun to go thru and this guy from Finland next to me was goofing off and making muscles to thousands of screaming girls and he said something to the effect of, “I’m moving here, girls in my country pay no attention to me!” It was funny. But anyway, thru 30k was really good and then the Newton hills started.

The last 12k of this race, I was in a world of pain. My Psoas major muscles (the part of your hip flexor that drives your leg upwards…) was killing me and each step was pain. The wheels were officially starting to fall off. Miles were ticking by slower and slower and at mile 23, the Lance Armstrong freight train BLEW by me and I just watched him get smaller and smaller as he pulled away from me on the road.

I crossed the line in 2:53:39 and that was good for a 1:40 PR and I found out later that it qualifies me for the NYC marathon (so I don’t have to do the silly lottery system) I was pleased but utterly exhausted. Post race was great and I recovered in less than a week.

I gotta get back to training now as IM WISCONSIN is right around the corner, but I wanted to get that up there as a memory of the first Boston that I have legally done. Cheers folks, see you out on the bike now that the weather is better!!! :o)