Ouch!

A couple podium girls from the US Pro Champs. Oh yea, Big George won too.

Presque Isle Triathlon 09

Well my 2009 triathlon season came to an end on Saturday with this race. It was a good race too, one which I am happy to end my season on. I'm especially happy for my family members that raced as well as they had great finishes and times too. Tony was 4th overall, only 15 seconds off of 3rd which is good race for him because there was a lot of good competition there from PA, NY, OH, to really push him and he raced strong. Scott was 3rd in his 35-39 AG. 23rd OA. Carrie was strong in her AG. finishing 7th and came through the finishing chute VERY fast, Doug was 3rd. in the 45-49 AG, 18th OA. and I was 2nd in the 45-49 AG. 14th OA. There were almost 350 triathletes in the open division. Congratulations everyone! Doug, Scott and Carrie are doing the Border War tri in a few weeks for their last tri of the season. This race is an Ohio vs. Pennsylvania points race for bragging rights. PA has some very strong triathletes, so hopefully we'll get good representation from Ohio to make it a good race. This just happens to be the weekend that we are going to Michigan for the UCI CX weekend in Davisburg, so Tony and I wont be there.

After the race we all headed back to Dougs cabin in Franklin PA. for the rest of the day and the night. What a GREAT TIME we all had. Abbey, Jess and Lauren did some tubing in the French Creek while Jake, Tony and Nick grabbed the fishing poles and the canoe and off down the creek they went in search of smallmouth bass. Carrie and Lynn grabbed a few ales and lawn chairs and found a nice sunny spot to relax in while Doug and I grabbed the kayaks and boated down the creek a few miles almost to the Allegheny River, only to have to fight the strong current back. Actully in one of the rapids sections we had to get out of the kayaks and portage them because the current was so stong. We tried about 4 times to get through and would get about 3/4 up only to come to a standstill while our shoulders were screaming. The triathlon was much easier than trying to get back up those rapids. We had great food and many nice beverages too last night. This morning we got up and had some strong Peete's coffee, made breakfast over the open fire, cleaned everything up and reluctantly headed back home recapping our weekend and how much we wished we could have all stayed for the whole week at Dougs. Thanks for EVERTHING Doug, your a truly a great friend!

My tri season went pretty decent overall. I finished the 7 multisport races with 5 age group wins and 2 2nd.s. Overall were, 3 top 5's , 2 top 10's and 2 14th's. I'll take that. Now that it's cross season and there's a whole lot of racing coming up, I'm going to take some time off this week to rest up a bit and then get the barriers out and start jumping.

See you all very soon.

The Blair Road Hill Time Trial

not to be confused with the Blair Witch Project though........Jim Behrens had a great idea this year of having a hill time trial on one of the steepest hills in the area, and the #1 hill that came to mind was Blair Rd. South. Now this hill isn't very long, approx. 1/2 mile, but it's steep, in places the grade tops out at 14-15%. This hill is on Tony's and my regular bike routes so we are very familiar with it and have ridden it literally hundreds of times if not more, but rarely do we ever blast up it like we did last night. Jim started us in the river valley about 200 meters North of the bridge over the Grand River, which allowed us to get slightly anerobic and somewhat of a decent speed up before the start of the climb. I drew first stick and was actually nervous! Like I said, I have ridden this hill forever and was NEVER nervous about riding it, but theres something about racers lining up and knowing you are going to compete that makes the nerves kick in. I could have a TT right in front of my house and I would get nervous about it.........Anyway as soon as Daryl let go of my seatpost I took off like I was doing a flat TT. I went over the bridge at 24.5 mph and was breathing pretty heavily. Normally when I go over the bridge my HR is less than 100 due to the long 40+ MPH downhill beforehand that begins at River Rd. which also allows alot of momentum for the start of the climb. I hit the base of the climb and dropped down into my small ring and stood and pumped, not giving 100% yet because the steep part was yet to come. As I rounded the corner where the guy with the tennis courts lives I opened it up full throttle. I hammered the steepest section so hard I literally was seeing stars at this point, which I had never seen before on this hill. I crested the top and rode the false flat to where Jim and Alice were taking times just before Ford Rd. and I was feeling really dizzy, damn that was hard, but fun all at the same time.
The distance of the short but intense TT measured just .49 miles from point to point and my finishing time was 1:59 seconds. Could I have lessened my time anywhere? I don't really think so, at least not on this particular night. Could I prepare for it by having fresher legs? sure, but it was all relative last night.
Matt, AKA Mario (sorry Matt) won with a time of 1:44, Tony was 2nd. with a 1:48 and then me with a 1:59, I don't know about the others times but I'm sure they were nearly as good and I do know everyone suffered, thats the great thing about starting first, you get to see the agony in everyone as they cross the line.

Afterward, Matt, Daryl, Tony and I did a cool down ride which was anything but a cool down. We rode about 15 or 16 miles at sometimes race pace and slightly lower. Legs felt good during the ride and we all did our turns taking hard pulls. Once we got back on the regular Leroy TT course by the turnaround we opened it up all the way to the finish. Matt took the final pull from about 1 mile out and was pulling at over 30 MPH. I was sitting 3rd. wheel and jumped at about 200-300 meters out and opened up a 34.5 MPH finishing sprint to end a great training ride. It was alot of fun last night and thanks once again to Jim for organizing this, nice job Jim.

Last triathlon tomorrow at Presque Isle then it's cross season. Bring it on.

P.S. The header picture on my blog is actually Blair Rd. hill facing North, which isn't as steep.

Lorain Sprint Triathlon

Good race this morning and great conditions. The swim was a little chaotic at the start until we hit the North side of the breakwall and got away but other than that it was great. Start time temps. were about 64-65 degrees with a light rain and a litte bit of a wind. After I did a face plant in the sand getting out of the water and then was semi covered in sand, I ran up the hill to transition grabbing 2 cups of ice cold water on the way to throw on me so I could try to wash away most of the sand that was on my hands and legs, they had 2 foot bath basins to wash the sand off of the feet on the way to T1 too.
Once on the bike I knew my legs were going to be good today. I passed quite a few that started in the 1st. wave which was 4 minutes ahead of my group. I tried to keep turning over a pretty big gear keeping the speeds in the mid to high 20's in the wet and rainy conditions and ended up coming into T2 with a bike avg. of 24.8 mph. for the slightly less than 15 mile course. Transitioned pretty slow actually and tried to make up for it on the beginning of the run and started out fast. My legs felt great though and I figured I would just keep the pace throughout the 5k run if I could. I seemed to manage the run fine and actually picked up the pace to anerobic toward the last few hundred meters to finish 4th. overall and 1st. in the 45-49 age group. I love running in the rain!

Tony ripped the course. He was 2nd overall in on the bike and was 1:00 down on the leader on the way out of T2. When Tony, the leader and I passed each other on the run going in opposite directions I yelled to him that he had 2nd locked up and nice job keep it going. He was about 100 yards or so behind the leader at that point and they were both running fast so I thought that's where they would finish. When I finished Tony said that he won overall. I said where did you catch and pass at, he said just a little ways up from where we had passed in the opposite direction. Tony said that he could hear the guy behind him was in oxygen debt trying to keep his pace and that made him push all the harder til he couldn't hear him breathing anymore. He said when he looked back the guy had fallen off the pace and Tony ran in solo for the overall win.

Scott got his first age group win today. He had a great bike and a great run. He averaged over 23 on the bike and beat the 2nd place finisher in his age group (35-39) by over 6 minutes and finished in the top 10, Nice! He's getting better each time out. He did say though if we didn't talk him out of wearing his wetsuit he would have done much better on the swim. He's been doing great on training rides and runs and it's just a matter of time before he starts cracking top 5 overall.

Great job you guys and it's awesome racing with you.

Also a big thanks to Doug and Nate who were at the Bike Authority tent yelling support and just being there.

Openers today

for Lorain tomorrow. Gonna do 2 or 3, 5 minute steady intervals on the tri bike today to open things up for the race tomorrow. I went out easy on the road bike last night for a couple of hours and my legs felt pretty good. Maybe a short open water swim today would be nice too, hopefully I can fit that in as well.
For anyone that reads VeloNews, there is a good article on a weekly training plan during cross season, one to assure no burnout come race day, check it out.
Looks like nice weather this weekend and for next week too. I really would like to get out for the last Westlake race this season. Driving out on Tuesdays didn't really work out for us this summer due to a huge remodeling project that I was involved with, but hopefully that is all done and over with now and I can get back into this no extra work and riding my bike everywhere lifestyle that I have come to enjoy so much! :-)

Later

Easy workout today

We've been hitting it pretty hard since Sundays long ride with Monday doing a 26 mile TT steady state interval workout followed by a race pace 2 mile brick run, and it was in the 90+ degree heat. Tuesday we did high wattage jump intervals so tonight was just an easy ride and run. We actually rode to the beach to get an open water workout in only to find it too windy and rough to swim. We rode home and did an easy 5k run and now I'm done for the night, not to mention I'm tired and my body is cooked. We're doing the Lorain Triathlon this weekend and the Presque Isle Triathlon next weekend, then it's crossin out til the end of the year!

Long ride

yesterday out to Jefferson and back. Scott and I did a 65 miler into Ashtabula County and took mainly the back roads into Jefferson. While there we stopped at the Circle K to refill bottles before the return home. We rode mostly rolling roads with some steep hills out and back. Scott did a great ride for this one being his first ride over 50 miles, not to mention it was 92 degrees.

I think I'm going to hit up Westlake tomorrow for some hard jumps and speed so I can start getting the legs into cross shape.

Later

09 CX schedule

is up and running on www.teamlakeeffect.net. Off to scout out a course at Wendy Park now, see ya all very soon.

Gone fishin'

No training today so Nick and I did a little river fishing. We dropped into the Grand River at the Outdoor YMCA and walked about a mile up river and back and did pretty well with Nick catching the nicest fish of the day. All in all we caught about 20 fish from Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Catfish, White Bass and Rock Bass, it was a great time with Nick and we're definately going to do this more often. We were out for about 4 hrs and it seemed like only an hour.
Great day!

CX practice

last night followed by a 45 minute trail run and I was whooped afterward, wow. I came home and ate and laid down on the couch and the next thing I know it was past 9 oclock. Gettin old I guess......
Heading out to Leroy tonight with a new setup to see if I can go faster or just see if my legs are what they are. We'll see if equipment does make much of a difference or I have to chalk up my slowness to "it is what it is" OR "you can buy speed" I can't imagine if I do go any faster that it will be very much anyway, we'll see.

Oficial CX schedule will be up very soon. 9 total races in the Bike Authority / Lake Effect series with 4 being put on by us (Lake Effect) Lots of cross racing this season between us, Orrville, OVCX series and some UCI weekends thrown in as well, so get the Belgian beer ready.

GCT

was a duathlon today due to the storm that was going on about an hour before race time. The lake was like a washing machine again for the 2nd. year in a row so Mickey had to make the decision to change the triathlon to a duathlon. There was an Olympic distance duathlon today scheduled as well as an Olympic distance triathlon, so the duathletes didn't have a problem because that's what they train for, the triathletes, well that was another story. The course was a 5k, 40k, 5k, instead of a 1500 meter swim, 40k bike and 10k run for the triathletes. Oh yea, they lumped all the duathletes and triathletes together in the same race categories too.
Anyway the first run was fast, I ran a 19:20 something, (6:15's), the bike was WINDY and hilly and WINDY and wet and WINDY, and did I mention WINDY? Bike times were still pretty decent though for as windy as it was, it was pretty nice coming down Rt.44 back into Headlands, speeds were in the high 20's and low 30's nice tailwind there, averaged over 22 mph, not bad too considering the wind, believe it or not. Back into transition and out onto the run and I was feeling ok, not great but not bad either. I finished the 2nd. run in just over 22 minutes for a total time of 1:51:06, good for 2nd. in my age group, (1st. was a duathlete) and fairly high overall as well.

Tony had a great race and finished 1st in his age group and 6th overall. His first 5k he averaged 5:50 miles and over 23 on the bike. The overall winner qualified this year for the U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team!

Scott and Carrie both raced strong and Carrie missed 4th. in her age group by only 20seconds! Scott got a 2 minute bad boy penalty for a double yellow rule he wasn't aware of, we'll get a USAT rule book and you can study up this winter on the rules there bro.

Great day and Mickey did the best thing he could have did under the circumstances, this is a great event and a big thanks goes out to all the support folks and all that were associated with the race.

Leroy

had the largest turnout ever last night and we had 4 teammates there as well. Gwen and Chris TT'd last night as well as Matt and myself. Matt almost set a new course record too, nice job Matt and nice job to Gwen and Chris, they both Mercx'd it and went FAST! The conditions were nice for some fast times. I managed to keep a good speed up both hills (best ever) on the way out and finished strong but might have been a wee bit conservative at the beginning. Had I gave it a little more at the beginning and still finished strong I would have averaged over 26 mph. I finished with a 25.86 mph. avg., but if I would have gave it more on the flat on the way out would I have hit the hills as hard? I have always rode on the way out pretty much flat out and tried to blast up the hills only to loose power, now I switched it up and still came in with basically the same time and speed as always, it's a little frustrating to say the least. Always a work in progress I guess, no matter what age you are.

Packet pickup in the morning, then an easy swim and quick run.

Open water

workout tonight at Headlands and the conditions were perfect. No boat traffic and no waves, actually the lake was calmer than it has been all year. Good 35 minute straight swim with no wet suit. I'm not going to use one this weekend so I've been swimming longer distances without one lately. Shoulders are fatigued so no more swimming till warm up before the race on Sunday. Leroy TT tomorrow to get some hard efforts in then cool down, hopefully it will be as calm as it is tonight, this is perfect. Weather guys are calling for 94 degrees on Sunday.....Arghhhhhhhhhhh
Everyone racing this weekend must stay hydrated!

Later

Workout in the rain

We got a great workout yesterday all in the rain. Swim was in the rain and then when we got out to get our running stuff that was inside of the truck, I found that I locked my keys in. Tony called Lynn and she brought the extra set of keys down............sorry..........Laced up the running shoes and ran. Our legs were a little stiff from Saturday's workout but after about 2 miles they loosened up and felt great. We ran the last 2 miles at a quick pace with a much lower heart rate than the day before.

The weekends seem to go by so quick so I took today off to just ease into the week. Sittin here drinking some strong Peetes in front of the HD Samsung, great way to start the week!

Long workout

yesterday morning at Headlands. Scott met Tony and I and we headed out on a 1.5 mile open water swim. Good swim but there were 2-3 foot rollers coming in and we got in the water just after 8 am. it's been very windy lately, actualy all year long. Transitioned and headed out on the bike but we added to the Olympic course and threw in a few more hills for a total of 30 miles instead of the 24.5 mile course. Bike felt very good today too. Came back and slipped on the running shoes and ran the 10k run course and now by this time it had to be close to 82-83 degrees and humid, which doesnt work very good for me especially when running. All of our heart rates were higher than normal on the run due to the heat and humidity, but it's good practice for races, I just don't do very well in it, practice or not, I can only hope for cool temps or maybe rain on the run next weekend for the GCT, I'm sure not too many racers will want to hear that though. After the run Tony and I jumped back into the lake to cool off and it was so comfortable I told Tony I feel like I'm laying on the couch right now..good stuff.

Today we're headed out for a 50 miler with a 3 mile run afterward then grillin and chillin.

Later all