New Title Sponsor!

So I have kept most of you all in the dark about the BIG NEWS that happened after the Keuka Lake Triathlon this past weekend, but the information has leaked out a bit too. Without further adieu, I will announce that since the 2006 season (after getting dropped by TriSports.com for budgetary reasons) I have been racing "sans-a-sponsor". That all changed after I crossed the line at Keuka on Sunday....I finished and the lady that was cutting off the timing chips from everyones ankle looked at me after she removed my chip and handed me a business card from Handlebars Cycle Company in Buffalo, NY. (this is the same place where I purchased THE BEAST and I have had a good relationship with the tri guru over there named Jim Costello) The lady told me that Jim wanted to speak with me when I got a minute.

So I hung out for a little, visited with some friends, went on a cool down with Carl Johnson and then en route to my car, Jim passes me and says, "so when are you going to start letting me sponsor you?" Jokingly, I answered, "How about right now?" and he said to come see him when I had a minute...

So before the awards, I went over to the Handlebars booth and started talking shop with Jim and chatting about where I can improve in the race and what my strongest/weakest legs of the tri were. He asked what my height and weight were and I thought that was weird, but answered and he went over to a rack of really nice wetsuits and I thought to myself, well maybe he's going to let me borrow one to race in the future in...

He pulls out a Profile Design Metal cell 2 by Aquaman. He tosses it to me and says, "here you go"... I was shocked. I thought to myself, "are you serious?" and was trying REALLY hard to keep my jaw from dropping to the ground. Jim then mentioned that my uniform probably wouldn't be ready for this Sunday at Muskoka in Canada, but it would be here in the next week or so along with my racing kit full of clothes, goodies and stuff... He then, just simply said, "Don't worry about it, we'll take care of you from now on..." and we then chatted about the future for me and where he thought I was going to go and how I would place at certain races, etc...

I told him about my 5 year plan to get to Hawaii and he agreed that it could be done and of course I thanked him like a million times. I was seriously stunned as I walked back to my bike and drove home. The wetsuit still had the TAGS on it and I already HAD a decent wetsuit and I was just shoked that he pulled it off the rack and just gave it to me! It's soaking right now in my tub and I'm going to go to Kershaw tomorrow and test it out before Muskoka, but it was SO COOL and weird at the same time. A handshake was all that was needed for our "contract".

I'm just still in shock. Jim said he would call this week and I gave him all of my information including name, address and phone number and the like and this is the same store that sponsors Curt Eggers (a triathlon legend in the Rochester area - everyone knows Curt. He was a national age group champion in both triathlon and duathlon in 2006!) I was just astonished that Jim took an interest in what I was doing and how he thought I would be good investment to sponsor for 2007. (apparently I am in good company :) ...)

Believe me, I will race often and I will do my absolute best to race well and show my sponsor that they are not wasting their time on me and that I am worth the $500+ wetsuit that was just handed to me. So, Handlebars, thank you SO VERY MUCH for giving me the opportunity to race for you and I hope I won't dissappoint. Just knowing that someone else is counting on me to do well in a race gives me that extra drive and motivation to not let anyone down. Thank you very much and I hope this is the start of a great mutually beneficial relationship!

Cheers everyone, thanks for reading. See you tomorrow night at Kershaw in my new blue armed wetsuit.

Keuka Lake Triathlon race report

Yesterday was the Keuka Lake Triathlon in Penn Yan, NY. As discussed on the last post, this was my very first triathlon... I love this race and for most it is the season opener (as the water around here in the Finger Lakes generally doesn't warm up to be bearable to swim until about now in the year....)

This year I was gunning for a good time and wanted to do well there. I wouldn't say it was an "A race" considering I am heading up to Canadia (yes, I spelled that correctly- just say it out loud. No offense Bold..) for the Muskoka Loung course triathlon to try and grab a slot for IM USA.

The swim was cold, but not as cold as in year's past. (and by not as cold, I mean that this year I didn't put my face in the water and get instant "brain freeze"...) The swim was good though, it was a little bit chppy which made us all inadvertantly eat a lot of lake water in the 0.93 mile swim. There was a dude that drafted off of me the entire top leg of the swim and was touching my toes and that is the WORST feeling in the world. It wasn't until I realized that I could lengthen my stroke and get a little distance on him before I got some reprieve. I was the first one out of the water and up the stairs, as depicted below. My time in the water was a 23:57 which also takes into effect the run up the stairs and to the transition area (where the timing mats were) so I can only assume that I was faster than what was listed on the results...

I had a MUCH faster transition than last year and was basically the only one in transition (which made it really easy to find my stuff...) I was out on the bike course in a flash and ready to tear up the infamous hills of Keuka.

The first half of the bike course is basically ALL up hill and is a beast. For me, I was in the lead with a nice escort truck leading me around (so I wouldn't go the wrong way, thanks Rich at Score-This!!!) I knew that Carl Johnson had started in the wave 5 minutes behind me and I was thinking he was going to just TEAR by me on the bike (like last year) and I was just BOOKING it hoping that he wouldn't catch me. There were 2 turn arounds in the course and I saw him and talked trash to him mid race ("Hey CJ, looks like your back tire is flat!"...it was all about respect though, he's blazingly fast!). Carl never caught me on the bike and looking at this years results, I had the fastest bike split of the race with a 1:07:00 for a 40k and that averaged to 22.4mph on THE BEAST.

I had a quick T2 and was ripping off on the 10K run and heard the announcer Rich advise over the loudspeaker that I was "going to have to run a blazingly fast 10k to hold off the guys in wave 2" and I groaned as I exited T2 becuase I knew this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. I dropped the first mile in 5:43 according to my watch and immediately got the BIGGEST side stitch/cramp in my 2nd abdominal muscle on my right side and was really worried after that. I was still the first guy on the course and I slowed considerably before the turn around (it was an out and back course) and I was just waiting again for Carl to blow by me because I thought it was inevitable at this point. I held on thru the 5k turnaround in 19:04 and when I turned did the pattented T. Earley spin move around the cone (always goofing off, even in the lead of a race) You have to make things fun :)

I tried to surge several times on the way back to the finish line in the next 5k and must have negative split it, but it felt slower. There was no one in sight for a while and I was astonished and beginning to think if I put 5 minutes on Carl that I could win this... I was determined, but there was no one to run down in front of me so the whole time I was just running scared. I crossed the line in 2:10:07 and didn't look at my watch in the last mile (otherwise I think I might have been able to pull off a sub 2:10 because I didn't kick too hardly - I just kind of forgot about the time aspect of the race) I crossed with a 37:36 10k and split my watch to see if I had put 5 minutes on Carl.

He crossed 3:20 later and he was the winner of the Keuka Tri. I was 2nd overall and it was a single place better than last year andmore than 4 minute PR from last year which was nice. The best thing is that Carl beat me by 7 minutes last year and only 1:40 this year (so I am catching him!) I got a nice new plaque for the office and it was all in all a great race. I was pleased and it was comfortable racing weather too (although the awards were REALLY hot)

I have other GREAT news about stuff that happened later after the race, but I will keep you all in suspense right now. (just think, sponsorship...) and I will post on this later this week. (with LOTS of pics!) But for now it is a rest week and slight taper going into Muskoka on Sunday to try and nab a slot for Placid. Wish me luck as this Sunday's race decides my whole summer! See you out on the roads and I'll keep you posted on the BIG NEWS later on. Cheers. :)

Weekend in Placid

So, the weekend in Placid over Memorial Day went a little better than anticipated. I came into the weekend with horrible images in my mind about the infamous “hills of Lake Placid” and was even thinking about changing the gearing on THE BEAST because everyone was telling me horror stories about these hills.

To sum it up, this course was not as bad as everyone told me it was going to be...

Now I do not fancy myself a climber. I do not climb well on the bike and I think this stems from my physique from years past (three years ago I was pushing a DEUCE on the scales. Almost 200 lbs…) Good climbers are generally rail thin and scrawny little guys that can bounce up the hills just because they have monster quads and have no weight up top to slow them down. I have slimmed down a bit since college and lost some of my bulk from up top but I think I had preconceived notions in my head about the course and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Saturday we headed out for two loops on the bike course and most everyone in our 6 person group was just going to do 1 loop. I did the one loop with them and even had on Excalibur, but in retrospect, X will probably not be worn for the race. IT was too hot and the decent into Keene was a little hairy as I felt like the Rocketeer (see below) going down the hills and at one time when I looked over my shoulder going about 45 mph, I felt like I was going to fly off the bike. The second loop I rode with T$ and J. Fish-Hunter, and after like 3 miles, I began feeling really good and wanted to see how fast I could do the entire course. I finished the 56 mile course in 2:50 and was feeling good about it. I was sitting for almost every climb and since the hills are long and very gradual, it was much easier than Canandaigua Lake . All in all, this was a nice and very scenic bike course. I even went out for a 2 mile T-run after the ride and it felt ok…my legs were a little shelled at that point though…

Sunday started at 7am when everyone decided it would be good to get up REALLY early and get the long run over with. Most people were hitting up 1 loop of the run course (13.1 miles) – I, of course, wanted to do 18 miles…
There is one LARGE hill on the run course, that you have to do twice, coming down from transition and it will hurt the quads in the race, but it is do-able. (My HR was 142 going up it during the run…my hill training must have paid off!). The run course will be a little different than IM FLORIDA, but it is do-able.
I’m getting stoked about doing this race as the scenery is AMAZING. It is SO much nicer than Florida and will be a blast to do as a bunch of my friends are going to do it this year too.

We all ended up climbing up Porter and Cascade on Sunday as well after my 18 mile long run and that was a challenge. I will have pics of the summits of those in another post later on this week.

This past weekend was more monster miles with a 113.12 mile ride to Buffalo, NY and back from Rochester, NY and Sunday was a 21 mile run in Webster, NY. I have the Keuka Lake Tri this upcoming Sunday and that should be a fun little speed workout. (My 10k there last year at the end of the Olympic tri was a 37:29, so I’m hoping to repeat that) Last year was also my very first podium finish overall in a triathlon so Keuka holds a special place in my heart. (It was also the very first TRI I ever did….thank you Philly VP for creating the addiction!)

I will report on that later after the weekend and I will let you all know how I do. I’m shooting to break 2:10 there and I think it MIGHT just be do-able considering the results from last year (2:14:26 finish) so we’ll see what happens. It will be a good show-down.

I hope you all are hitting the roads hard and they are not hitting back too badly, see you out there, the season is finally here :)

Just call me SUPERMAN :)

So this has never happened before. I went out on Monday evening after work and drove to Kershaw Park on Canandaigua Lake to take a nice and leisurely 56 mile ride around the lake. I thought nothing of it, had all my nutrition that I needed, enough gatorade and water to weigh down THE BEAST until she was like 20 lbs. I was set.

I depart and its a nice, cool, calm, balmy night and I embark to kick some ass around the lake. (I've been told that the course around the lake is about as tough, if not worse thatn the IMLP bike course, so it's good training.) - I'll report on my findings after I come back from Placid this weekend - we're doing a recon trainign weekend which I'll tell more about later.

So I'm there 8.61 miles in to the 56 mile ride and cranking up a larger hill in Canandaigua and all of the sudden, the tension is not on the cranks anymore and I spin free. I figure I slipped the chain somehow and I look down to find something dragging behind my bike....it was my chain. Apparently, you can refer to me as Superman from now on as my legs are strong enough to rip metal apart.

That's right, a 2 year old chain was completely torn in two on my cervelo P2C on Monday night and as I stood on the side of the road in disbelief, I realized that by the time I call someone and have them drive the 40 minutes to the lake from Rochester, I might be able to make it back to my car, so with a greasy bike chain in one hand, the beast in the other, and bike shoes still on my feet, I began the 8.61 mile trek back to the car on foot.

I coasted the downhills and walked the flats and uphills and 5 miles later, this REALLY nice guy who had just come back from coaching little league with his 2 sons, offered to drive me back to my car. His name was Curt. Thank you Curt. I know you likely will not read this blog, but my 3 hour ride was cut short and I was pissed enough as is and Curt made life a little easier. THANK YOU so much.

So today, I have to get a replacement chain for the Cervelo before I head to Placid tomorrow after work. 6 of us are heading up there and I am planning on riding 112 on the bike course on Saturday followed by a 2 mile transition run and then Sunday is an 18-20 mile run on the run course. Of course with beers in between and maybe a day hike afterwards on Sunday after we do the long run and we'll head up one of the 46er's in the Placid region (one of my life goals is to climb all 46 peaks that are above 4000' in the Adirondak region...)

Sorry there are no pictures in this post, I hope people read this far. I'll report on the Placid bike and run courses after the Memeorial Day weekend. Take care all, train hard and have a good beer or two on the holiday and relax. See you on the roads.

Things are getting better - swim lesson#1

So I promised you all a post yesterday and I apologize, but I had to get 4 new tires on my little 4 banger Honda last night because THIS happened when I walked out and was ready to roll on my 77 mile bike ride on Saturday afternoon. When the guy in the street said “hey buddy your tire’s flat” I instinctively looked at my bike and looked back at him confused, then he went on to say, “Isn’t that your car?” and pointed to the bright blue civic with TRI stickers PLASTERED all over the back end of it.

I’m the only kid on the block with a $4k bike and even aerobars and I know this guy was just ASSUMING that it was my car, but he was right….and correct that I had a flat tire. Some drunk @$$hole decided it would be funny to slash about 5-6 cars tires on my street on Friday evening/Saturday morning. So last night after work, I was getting new tires on my car (to the tune of $400+) rather than posting a blog entry…

Other than that, this week has been great. I’m moving away from the squirrels, the rain that POURS from my ceiling when it rains, slashed tires and parking tickets from leaving my car on the street. I’m moving into a nice complex that’s about a mile down the road from these guys…

These are my new nephews Jakob and Noah, they are 10 months old now and are cute as hell. When I was unemployed, I saw them everyday and helped out with my sister, now I get to see them like once a week and it sucks a little. They still laugh and smile when I enter a room because they know I am just there to play with them and thrown them in the air, but it takes them a little bit to recognize me now…hopefully we can get the instantaneous smile and laughter back soon.

Training wise, it has been great. I just logged a 14+ hour week and I had some MONSTER workouts. Most notably and the reason I am writing this post was the swim workout I did recently. 4 x 1km with :60 rest in between 1,000’s. I love this workout because it teaches you good pacing and endurance and I like to try and negative split the entire thing. This time with the help of coach Erin, I was able to hit some REALLY good times…here is coach Erin imbibing after a night of boozing at a friends house (it was a champagne party, so that’s why we are all classed up…)

Erin is a national level swimmer who swam all 4 years for SUNY Oswego and was a fantastic backstroker. She was an All-American her senior year and swam in high school as I did at our alma matter, Churchville Chili. Halfway thru the set, she told me to lengthen my stroke and do more “DPS” distance per stroke. I did and boy did the times go down.

This set is always done with no warm up, or cool down, just straight 4km’s in the pool. The first one ripped off in 15:09, the next was a 14:59, then Erin told me to concentrate on DPS and I initially complained, but then thought better and hit a 14:55…the next one was the shocker. After thoroughly concentrating on lengthening the stroke, I hit a 14:22 for the last 1,000. So this is it, props to coach Erin for reminding me of a valuable lesson. Listen to whomever can give you advice, lengthen the stroke and you will see dividends. This is a rest week now (so I can enjoy the late night pizza as depicted above....) so it’s nice and easy recovery for the next week before one last push of training in preparation for Muskoka in June. Keep getting those miles in. IMLP is right around the corner. Train hard folks and I’ll catch you on the flip side. Cheers.

Medved madness "15 mile" trail run race report

Would I lie to you? I told you I was going to try and write each week and it definitely makes it a TON easier to post when you have a race report to recap. This week is no different.

Sunday May 6th (el seis de mayo - if anyone was wondering....it's an old college joke, no worries) was the inaugrial Medved madness 15 mile trail run and relay at Mendon Ponds Park.

The trail run was put on by the guys at Medved Running and walking and was a great event, albeit a little hairy out on the course.

I was stoked about another trail run as I absolutely LOVE getting out on the trails and slopping thru the muck and the mire. I love it. This race was no exception as they had about a 15 yard dash THRU part of the lake. The only beef I had with the race was that the course was not really well marked in the middle leg.

The race was being marked by these little multicolored ribbons in trees and placed at strategic locations on the "trails". You may have noticed from the title of this race report that the distance of the event was in quotes. That is simply because everyone got lost SO much that we each ran a different distance of race. It was originally slated to be a 15 miler, but people with Garmins on had a rance from 13.3 miles all the way to over 17 miles, so it was a little hairy.

The first really bad section was where the first 10 guys were strung out about 200 yards between them all (I was in this section) and we lost the trail while going thru a field. Everyonne kind of stopped so there was 10 guys just standing around, then after a minute or two, there was 20, then 30...and we had been looking for the trail for about 3 minutes now. There were like 5 different ways it could have gone and no one wanted to go down a path because we were all worried that it might be the wrong one and everyone else would take off. Long story short, all the work we had put in in the previous 6 miles to gap the people behind us was gone and we were a pack of 30 now. We found the trail and I guess you could say the race started from there.

The course was brutishly hilly (as it was in Mendon) and the mud was ankle deep in some sections. It was a good muddy fun race to do and there was a BBQ afterwards before the awards so that was always fun. The finish was gnarly as my buddy Greg B. blew by me in the last 1/2 mile and I tried to chase him down at the finish and THIS was the result. I'm on the left gritting my teeth. We both finished same time, but he was like a FOOT in front of me for 6th place. Greg's got some good speed and it showed in the last 150 yards of this race. I was just happy to have a good race to the line.

All in all, it was a fun time and a little cold, but good racing conditions. I was stoked to have a lengthier distance of race to do rather than the 5k every weekend in town. I'm liking the whole "race for more time than you spend driving to and from the course" deal... my finish time was 1:42:10 and it was good for 7th overall and 2nd in the age group (Greg edged me out for #1 spot...) Results are here and I look forward to mashing the trails again. Cheers folks, I'll report during the rest week next week. Train hard.

A little catching up

Well everyone. As I described in the last post, things have been shaken up a bit in the land of Travis Earley. Like I said before, I got a new job and my official title is a "staffing consultant" and I work for a national recruiting company named Spherion:

And as we all know, a post without pictures is worth nothing at all (or at least is really boring to read) so I decided to spice this one up and include some candid shots.

Things work wise have been going really well. I still work in a cubicle, but it is no longer in a living hell. The last company that I worked for (whom I will not name at this time because of some grudges that still are held) was completely and utterly negative. I used to adjust automobile claims for an insurance company and constantly had to deliver bad news to people. (ie. we cannot pay for the damage to your car, you are at fault for this accident, you are getting sued by the other party you hit...etc).

But in contrast, this new job at Spherion has been incredibly positive! Every facet of this position is extremely positive. I interview people and screen out potential candidates for jobs and get to deliver news to people like, "XYZ corporation wants to hire you!" or "I found you a job!" and it has been so rewarding it is incredible. I love it. I've referred to this job as extremely anti-Safeco...(oops, I guess I did drop that company name) But to make a long story short (too late!) my new job is great and I'm loving it.

Training wise, even though there have been some set-backs this season (getting dropped by my main sponsor TS.com...) I was able to pick up a new sunglasses company to sponsor me and keep those UVA and UVB rays out of my precious eyes. Tifosi Optics is the new official sunglasses sponsor of Keep Moving Forward. They are a snazzy new affordable sunglasses company that has been keeping me happy to date and I can only hope to do the same for them in the near future. The sunglasses retail for around $60 and they sent me two promotional pairs (one being the ever good looking Q2 model) and here is a shot of the stuff I got from them in the mail a while ago:

The pair in the foreground are the Q2 and the model behind is known as the "slip" and they will be my racing glasses as they have three sets of interchangeable lenses for various light and racing conditions.

They are all REALLY comfortable and I've never had a real good pair of shades and you can REALLY tell the difference between good and not-so-great lenses. Tifosi's are excellent!!! (I know, I'm a little biased, but they are great!). So, yeah, it was nice to grab another sponsor in the mix after the loss of a major one. You may notice their logo in the sidebar.

I've changed around the 2007 race results section as well, since landing a new position and getting that steady paycheck again, I've had the opportunity to get out and register for several more races in the community, which is GREAT. I was going to do a post with a Spring Forward 15k road race report and title it, "Go out hard and die like a man" for that because that was my game plan for that race, but it turned out ok.

That race I hadn't run more than 5 miles under 7:00/mile pace for 2007 and I was worried as we hit the first mile marker in 5:50...I felt like I was going to explode as we passed by mile 7 but held on thru 9.3 to finish 7th overall and 3rd in my age group holding 6:12/mile pace thru the entire race. I thought I was going to blow up but was able to hold on strong and even edge a guy out at the line in a sprint finish. I guess good old base training pays off...

This Sunday, I'm signed up for a 15 mile trail race run thru Mendon Ponds Park in Mendon, NY. It's the Medved madness trail run and I'm stoked because I'm doing the solo division to get ready for IMLP (hoping I get a slot at Muskoka). They offer a relay for those people who like the shorter stuff, but I have been bitten by the endurance bug and I want to keep it that way.

I'll write up a report probably on Monday, so I'll get back to that once a week posting schedule again. I hope everyone is training hard and long. The season is upon us. I'll leave you with a quote I saw the other day that I am using as my new mantra, "Excellence is not easy, it is a decision you make every day". Train hard folks, Cheers.