Light stuff

this past weekend I did. Not much at all actually. Spent some time in the water playing with the beachball, looked at my bike some and relaced my running shoes. Went out to eat, bought some furniture and spent more money than I really cared to. I figured the economy is in need of a little pick me up, so who is more qualified to help pick it up than I....

Got a big week planned this week though. Easy run today, Westlake tomorrow, short fast swim and run on Wednesday, LeRoy TT Thursday, short easy swim Saturday, Lorain Triathlon on Sunday, phew....Oh yea, I gotta pick up my new furniture tomorrow a.m. too. They wanted to charge me another hundred bucks to deliver. I already contributed enough to the economy for one weekend I say!

Late

LeRoy TT

Tony and I did the TT in LeRoy tonight. It rained pretty hard on the warm up lap and I got caught in it. Afterwards the sun started to come out and it got very humid. The roads started to dry somewhat during the start but about 3/4 of the way through the course the wind really picked up from the west and the skies got very black and it looked like it was really going to storm. I was on the finishing stretch with about 1.5 miles left til the finish when my speed dropped from 26 - 27 mph+ to 22.9 due to the headwind, it was crazy. up until that point I was thinking I was going to have a pretty good finishing time, maybe even a pr for the the year on the course, not so this week. Still we both finished with 25 mph+. I did feel better than Sunday at least!

Far East

side group training ride tonight. 6 of us met on the Far East side tonight (Concord) and did a 48 mile training ride with lots of hills. I felt pretty good tonight despite not feeling the greatest on Sunday. Sure do wish my legs would feel as good during some races as they do in training. Anyway it was a fast paced training ride and we attacked each other up hills and on the flats. We tried to get in as many miles as Westlake, just not as fast. My heart rate did hit 190 b.p.m. though on one hill! Great night tonight and for once it wasn't windy.

Gotta go.

State TT

today in Groveport, just south-east of Columbus. 23.78 miles on a rolling course that seemed to have not a bit of tailwind, all headwind in every direction, isn't that common though. Tony started off at 8:53 and I was 1 minute behind. The way Tony has been going lately I knew that I wasn't going to try to blow myself up trying to catch him, I was just going to settle into a rythym and go at my pace. The first 6 or so miles I was going to try to take a little conservatively, not go out blazing hard but just a few clicks under a max effort and save the rest for the finishing half. That didn't seem to be the case though. The rollers and the headwind had me working harder than I wanted to and my heart rate was much higher than I wanted it to be at that point in time as well. I knew that I was going to probably suffer for the early hard effort later toward the finish and that I wasn't going to finish as strong as I should but that seemed to be the race for me today. Far be it for me to complain but I just couldn't seem to get much rythym on the rollers today either. Oh well, just wasn't the day that I would have liked to have for the State TT. I did manage to get 2nd. in my 40-44 age group though. Ray Huang was 1st. with a tremendous time that I think landed him somewhere in the top 5-6 overall, Great job to you Ray!

Tony raced in the Cat.3's and narrowly missed 3rd. by 10 seconds. His first big boy TT and he did very well and rode consistant. I couldn't be prouder. He beat my time by: 50. He was very disapointed though when he heard he missed 3rd. by 10 seconds. I have to keep reminding him though that he's only 16 and that he's racing with stronger riders, be patient, keep your head up and your day will soon come. I think next year we'll have to invest in a TT bike rather than racing tts with his road bike with clip on's.

Overall a very good day for our team.

Julie - 1st. 40-44
Christina - 2nd. 25-29
Robert - 2nd. Junior 13-14
Rudy - 1st. 50-54 - Top 10
Brian - 1st. 35-39
Mike - 2nd. 30-34
Pete - 2nd. Cat.3
Derek - 2nd. 45-49
Bill - 2nd. 40-44
Tony - 4th. Cat.3
Matt - 4th. Cat.1-2 - Top 10

Congratulations everyone!

Lake Effect TT #2

Good race tonight. We had 25 racers and for the most part the times were faster and more consistant for each lap. Tony did one place better than last week finishing 6th. with a 24:17 for the 10 mile course, he was rippin' and is most definately ready for the Ohio Championships this weekend. I finished 10th. with a 25:02 bettering my time by a mere 17 seconds from last week and a little more consistant on my 2nd. lap. By no means great, but a little better.
The Ohio State course is 24 miles but much less hilly so hopefully we can hold some faster speeds and beat our last years times as well. Tony won the Junior 16-18 race and the overall last year so he's going to be racing in the Mens Cat.3 this weekend. He's never did a 40k TT before so he's a little nervous, but confident. I just want to try and better my time from last year and hopefully break 25 mph avg. I averaged 24.85 last year. This is all good training for triathlon and cyclocross I say!

Race report to come.

Intervals

on Saturday, 30 x 30 seconds at CP6 with 30 seconds rest in-between. Those baby's can start to hurt towards the end but I'm sure they will make one stronger. Ended up with 40 miles for the workout with some hills thrown in for some extra fun.

Sunday was a tri workout. Did the Fairport Lighthouse Triathlon course twice with Tony and another local triathlete. Great workout today. Took it easy for the most part. Running felt great, humidity was low and it wasn't super hot yet at the time we were out. I hope I can keep it up.

Happy Father Day to all you Dad's out there!

Lake Effect Time Trial

#1, Allardale Park in Granger Twp. Started out feeling pretty good on the first lap, came through the S/F at 12:17 for the first 5 miles of the 10 mile TT, not too bad for the hilly course. Went through turn 1 on the 2nd. lap, fumbled with my bottle trying to get a drink until the base of the climb, wasn't putting alot of power to the pedals which cost me quite a few seconds (have to get an aero bottle). Came through the finish for the final at 13:02 and a 25:19, horrible! 45 second difference between the 2 laps, uncalled for! Won't happen next week. Good for 9th overall out of 22.

Tony rocked, 12:07 on the first lap, 12:36 on the 2nd. and finishing with a 24:43, good for 7th. overall on another hot and humid night.

Thanks for everyone that came out and raced and volunteered. Race #2 is next Thursday, same time, same place.

Peace

Nordonia

update. Wow, hot and humid this morning. I can take the heat but racing in the humidity really takes it's toll on me, especially when it get's very humid very fast and you don't have a chance to get used to it. But anyway, first things first.
Tony has done quite a few triathlons and a couple biathlons but never a duathlon, this one was his first. I told him, since I'm the wiley veteran, to maybe not go out too fast on the first run, try to stay with the leaders, but don't overdo it because you still have another run after the bike, the 2nd. run which will be considerably harder than the 1st, especially in this humidity, which race time temp. was 90 degrees! Well as any normal 16 year old, he doesn't listen to the "old man" and rockets off the front as the gun goes off and is off down the road with the leaders, some of which are very fast runners. By the first mile I'm still within 100 yds. or so and I think this is okay, by mile 2 the gap is opening and by the time I hit T1 Tony is on his way out on the bike and I'm just entering. Okay, you go dog, I just hope that you can keep it together on the 2nd. run. I never saw him again the rest of the race until he was waiting for me at the finish line, all dried off and on his 2nd. gatorade :-) We had almost an identical bike split, 27 minute 10 mile on a rolling course, not too bad, but his 2nd. run was the determining factor, he blistered the run, finished just 4 seconds off of 2nd. place overall, finishing 3rd. overall in a very large field.

As for the wiley old man, he finished 2nd. in the 40-44 age group and vowed to never take another pull on a training ride or tow his son around on training runs ever again. It's Tony's turn to pull me around now!

I knew this day was coming, and I LOVE it!

Nordonia

duathlon this Saturday morning. This race is always a good fitness indicator for the upcoming tri season. It's short (2.5 - 10 - 2.5) and fast and your heart rate stays in the red zone the whole race (if your pushing it) like cyclocross. The bike is rolling for the most part and the run sections are very fast with a short uphill before entering the bike path that we stay on for about 1 mile til we make a turn to the finish. Great little race that draws lots of duathletes and triathletes. I'll fill ya in on the details Saturday night.

Adios

Time Trial series is set for June 12th. and 19th. at Allardale Park in Granger Ohio. Registration starts at 6:00 p.m., racing starts at 6:30. No prizes, just bragging rights. 2, 5 mile loops on rolling well maintained roads.

These 2 races can be used as a tune up for the Ohio State Time Trial held on June 22nd. in Groveport or as a gage of your speed and fitness. Great races for the multisport athletes as well. $15 race fee and a donation will be made to the Ohio chapter of the Nature Concervancy.

See ya there.

Race for Alex

went pretty well today. Great weather, minus the gale force winds on the start / finish stretch. In the Masters race it was Derek that was able to sneak away with Tris, Ray and Sal and ended up in the 4 man break that lasted, in the end he finished 3rd. Nice job Derek, your racing super this year, keep up the good work! I rode in support trying to go with anything that looked to be trying to bring it back. Everything stayed together for the most part despite a few riders getting popped off the back on the uphill in the back section of the course where sometimes we were hitting 28.5 mph, (nice tailwind). On the last lap Phil Hines took a flyer 3/4 of the way up the long climb in the back and 3 of us were able to respond, we got caught after the right hander before the start finish stretch, Phil kept it going and it was a full on sprint from the corner to the finish to bring him back and to try to nab 5th position. Well Phil had good legs left and managed to hold everyone off for 5th and I finished in 9th.

Tony raced in the 2-3 race today and rode very strong, out of 43 starters, Tony finished 17th. only a few seconds behind the 3 man break. He said if ONLY I would have had some legs to sprint I could have grabbed 15th!!
Give it time my man and eventually you'll be in the break sprinting for 1st.

Overall everyone did very well today, we had Matt, Mike, Brian, Derek, Scott, Nate, Tony and myself representing the Team in all races. Congratulations to everyone and it was nice to see Sean Wilford again at the races, fresh out of Boot Camp too that is!

Out