Cold fridge and hot water

Ahhh, life is good once again! Relaxed and got a hard workout in this morning at Mentor Headlands with Scott and Tony. Did the Oly course at tempo, LT, and in places, race pace, it was a hard but necessary workout. We did swim a little longer course than the 1500 meters, which is good and I worked harder on the 10k run than I have in a while following Tony. I pulled to the 5k mark and Tony pulled the 2nd. half. He pushed me to run at race pace for the last 5k and in the last mile he opened it up and I could not keep his pace, but I still ran very hard to the finish, Thanks for making me work hard today T, I needed a good hard run.

Great workout this morning and now we're watching the 2003 Tour tribute to Lance on Versus.

Good day.

$$$$

As the old saying goes, when it rains it pours. We were noticing the other day that the fridge wasn't quite keeping the Sam Adams Summer Ale cold enough when we would reach in the back for one after a hot workout. I turned the dial to the coldest setting and figured it would get colder within a day, no such luck, the popcicles and ice cream were even starting to melt in the freezer, damn, time for a new fridge. Last night Tony, Scott and I were getting ready for a workout when Tony said, why is it so wet here on the floor (in the garage) which just happens to be near the hot water heater. I opened up the cubbyhole door where I have the hot H2O heater located and I saw water all over the floor, okay, new hot water tank now too, great, this is all after we just bought a brand new Hi Def LCD 42" Samsung last week.............Also, Lynn just informed me that her overused washing machine is starting to make funny noises now, hmmmmmmm, I don't like the sounds of that either, more cha ching.

Anyway we made a trip to Home Depot this morning for a new H2O tank and fridge. Came home and the boys and I took the old tank out and installed the new one while Lynn took the food out of the old fridge and transplanted in the new one after it chilled for a while, now we're good to go for another 10 years or so. I might even get a chance to get a ride in later this evening, that is, if my stove doesn't decide to blow up!

I think I'm gonna ride now.

Good days

Tuesday instead of doing Westlake, Tony and I did another 60 miler with hills at above tempo pace. We climbed hard and rode the flats hard as well. Tony's avg. heart rate was 180 bpm. for 2:50, damn kids! We sprinted hard at the end of the ride and came back in and collapsed on the garage floor for about 15 minutes, it was pretty hot Tuesday too.

Yesterday evening, Scott, Tony and I met at Headlands for an open water swim workout followed by a run. The Lake is really starting to warm up now, I think it's in the mid to upper 60's, which is pretty refreshing, especially on a day like today. We did just about 30 minutes non stop in the water, transitioned and ran for about 5 miles, it was a good workout. Our legs were a little heavy for about the first mile following Tuesday's hard training ride, but they loosened up and we did a few fast pace sections during the run.

Cannondale replaced my totally broken up Super Six with a brand new one too by the way. I finished building it yesterday. Thanks to Rudy, Mike, Sherman and Deb for the quick response, it was very much appreciated. I think I will race my CAAD 9 at Westlake though from now on, just for safe keeping!

I think I'm going to venture up to the Leroy TT tonight and see how fast I can go in this heat, if the rain holds off.

Later

Bike, run, bike

The bacteria count was way high in the lake today (Fairport) after the past couple days of rain so swimming was out yesterday at the GCT training day and today so we opted to do a bike run bike instead. It was a great workout today and we pushed it with some good intensity and we both felt strong. We rode the Greater Cleveland Triathlon course for the first bike leg and rode it at just under race pace. Now Tony's race pace and my race pace are just a little bit different....Tony's being harder than mine of course, so when he would take over at the front there were a few times I thought of telling him to slow down, but I thought, this is making me stronger now instead of me pulling Tony along and making him stronger, wow how things come full circle. I told him when we were on the run that he was killing me in a few sections of the bike and he said he was hurting too, but wanted to keep the pace high, so I didn't feel that bad.

We transitioned and did a 7 mile tempo run with few rollers in it. Averaged a 7:10 mile and felt very good. Got back on the bike and rode the Fairport triathlon course since we were at the Fairport Beach. Rode it pretty decent and once again the legs felt good averaging about 22 mph.

It was a great workout today and I'm truly blessed to be able to do it with my son.

Hope all went well for all of my Lake Effect teammates that raced today at the State TT and my BA/FF teammates that did Maumee Bay and Munroe Falls.

Peace

Headin out

this morning to get a 1 mile open water swim with a long bike and a 10k or so tempo run. Weather is sweet with minimal wind, lookin' good.

Feeling better

I built up my CAAD 9 the other day at the shop and have rode it the last 2 days over 80 miles. Surprisingly enough my Zipp's didn't have a scratch on them, which made a bad situation better. You would have thought by the looks of my frame that the wheels would have been blown out too. Last night my legs were feeling pretty good. I rode to the Leroy TT and then back home through Painesville and I felt strong. My arse is still pretty sore from the crash and still quite skinned up, but it could have been way worse for all of us that were involved. Jack said that he is feeling okay too, I'm relieved.

Saturday is the Greater Cleveland Triathlon training day at Headlands and we're planning on doing the whole course with a double bike, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

State TT this Sunday near Dayton. Good Luck to those that go down.

Later

Time to kill

I'm sittin here in the Seattle's Best coffee shop in the Westlake Promanade @ 4:15 geekin out on my laptop before the race tonight. I really don't like getting here this early but I have no choice. I get off of work at 2:30 in Wickliffe and it wouldn't make sense for me to travel 20 miles back home (east) and then come back out here, so on the days that I do Westlake, this is my hangout. I get a medium Seattle's Best Americano which has a little more caffeine than most coffee and it really helps me stay awake until race time. Then when I get home tonight at about 10:00 p.m, I won't be able to get to sleep, everyone know's how that goes though, all amped up still from the drive home and the hard race makes it really hard to get to sleep, needless to say, Wednesday mornings are a little rough.

Well I'm sure it's going to be a hard fast race tonight as it always is out here and combined with doing 50 race miles, I hope my legs are up to the task after the hard effort I did on Sunday, I shall soon find out.

Peace

World o hurt

was the name of the game for me today in Willoughby. Duathlons HURT, at least they do for me and todays race was no exception. The first 5k was okay, running at a 6:17 avg. mile. The transition was decent and then started off on the 3 lap 20 mile bike course. The 1st. lap sucked. 2nd. was better and the 3rd. was my best, consistantly riding at about 24 to 26 mph., if only the first two laps could have been that good. Transitioned once again and as soon as I got onto Lakeshore Blvd. both of my calves seemed like they were wanting to cramp up. I ran up a rise in the road on Lost Nation and the cramping feeling stopped and they were okay for the rest of the brutal 2nd. run. I pushed the 2nd. run about as hard as I could and still got passed by 4 people and finished the 2nd. run in 21:15, almost 2 minutes slower than the first. I still managed to win my age group with an overall time of 1:35:14 and finished 8th. overall. and the first old fart to cross the line, but still much room for improvement.

Tony on the other hand is on fire right now and really going good. He and Jack Sutte battled it out for 1st. and 2nd. overall with Jack besting Tony by about 1 minute. Both had blazing fast bike splits with both run's being equally impressive. Awesome race you guys and way to represent the Bike Authority/Fleet Feet Tri Team as well as Team Lake Effect Racing!

Mike and Christina Vanucci raced well today too with Christina nabbing 2nd. overall in the womens field and Mike getting 2nd. in his age group, nice work U2.

Decent competition today with some very fast runners and great weather. Nice race organization and congrat's to all, everyone looked good.

Hope everyone did well at the State RR today also.

Out

Feeling stale

lately. My workout today started off with a 4 mile run at tempo then building into LT then back to tempo and my legs and body hated me, neither wanted to run and I felt horrible. Once back home I had the aero bike set out so I would do a quick transition and go for a 15 mile tempo ride. The bike felt better than the run at least. We're planning on doing the NCN Willoughby Duathlon this Sunday so I hope I feel better by then. I don't particularly care for duathlons but this one is so close to home we almost have to do it. We're just gonna use it as a training race for the Olympic distance tri's due to it's 5k run, 20 mile bike and a 5k run distances and I'm sure it'll hurt, but then again, they all hurt.

Good luck to all that are going down to the State RR this weekend too.

Adios

60 miles o hills

Tony and I passed on Westlake tonight due to not having much snap in the legs from the race this past weekend, so we went out on our own. We rode into the hill region of Lake County and Geauga County and climbed all the hills out there. We didn't feel that bad after all and could probably have raced but the climbing felt good. We did all the climbs at a good tempo pace and even attacked each other in a few spots, it was a great training ride and we were both pretty spent when we got home.
Good day today.

Back from the race

Man, what a nice day and congratulations go out to our Bike Authority / Fleet Feet tri team members that raced today, everyone represented well.
I was 2nd. out of the water this morning in my 40+ wave with a strong swim and ended up out of T-1 first, even though I though it was slow. My lead didn't last very long though, Nate and Brian caught me around the 3 mile mark on the bike never to look back, wow you guys were flying, very impressive! This was one hilly ass bike course too. I managed a decent bike split, climbed well and thought I did my best on the course. T-2 went OK and I ran what I thought was longer than a 5k @ a 6:30 pace with an overall time 1:10:17, good for 1st. in my 45-49 age group and 9th. overall out of 170 athletes.

Tony had a helluva race. He was 4th. out of the water in his 39 and under wave with a strong swim, he said he had a slow T-1 and came back into T-2 in the lead with a smokin' bike split. He gave up 3 spots on the run and finished 3rd. in his wave and 5th. overall, just narrowly missing 4th. in a sprint finish. Tony said that the guy that beat him had a bigger nose than he did. Nice race T.

Nick had a nice weekend too spending alot of time in the water also, but his time spent in the water was spent sliding down the slides, jumping off the high dive boards and generally eating anything he could get his hands on, Rock on Nico!

A few pics.

Pre-rode the course

and got a short run in this afternoon. The bike is going to be pretty challenging I think. It pretty much climb's all the way to the turn around and then toward the finish it has a pretty nice climb with some rollers. I rode it today and it was fairly windy and 85' and pushed it pretty good for an opener ride then just ran easy for a short time. The small lake is going to be nice. The water was dead calm and 72' even though it was windy. The lake sits in a valley that doesn't get much wind apparently, so no wetsuit for me tomorrow.

Just got back from dinner at Rockne's, nice place and good food too, I don't think we have one of those in the Cleveland area, do we?

Ok, that's it for now. Later

Saturday morning

Nice breakfast this morning with some strong Peete's to get things rolling then we have to make a few stops before we head down to the race @ Clays Park in the Canton area, which we are racing tomorrow, but we are going to make sort of a mini weekend out of it. My dad is at an antique car show this morning with his 1929 Model A and the show is on the way to the route to the freeway, so we're going to roll through there, say hi and possibly park and pop the slighty rusted hood on our 1992 Dodge Caravan with 107,000 miles on it for all to admire..........I wonder how long it would take before someone would ask us to leave??? hahaha
Anyway we are going to pre-ride the bike course and get a short swim in today hopefully, and get the blood flowing before tomorrow's 500 meter swim, 16 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. The sprint races are short but they hurt alot so warmup is key, just like a cyclocross race.

Later

Taper week

Rest day yesterday and starting off today on the TT bike my legs were DEAD. The track workouts on Sunday take a few days to recover from especially from running the bleachers at the end of the workout. It took about 6 miles today for my legs to feel good again but then they felt great. Tony and I rode a hard 25 miles averaging 23 mph and then jumped off and did a LT 2 mile run in 13:17 then did a 10 mile cool down spin. Good stuff today and I felt good again after my legs came around. Short quick swim tomorrow and maybe the LeRoy TT on Thursday. We're staying overnight in Canton before the race on Sunday so we'll be able to check the course out with an open water warm-up.

Hope Westlake went well for everyone tonight and it looks like the weather help up nice.