Sunday follow up

Headed to the pool after church this morning for a :45 minute workout then to the trails where we got a nice :50 minute run in. Stayed in a comfortable zone for the majority of both workouts. The legs didn't want to turn over for the first part of the run but then came along pretty good, it was a good run. We didn't do any swimming or running during the week at all because we wanted to have fresh legs for the Malabar race, so Scott (my cousin) was going through withdrawls. He seemed pretty happy today though that we were all back together and he could once again train at an (an)erobic pace............... Dude, you gotta start bloggin for yourself, I'm givin you way too much love here!........

Later all.

Masters win

Pretty good day today. I raced aggressively and chased down a few breaks that looked like they might go somewhere and if they did I wanted to go too. Made a move on the big climb in the back with another rider that brought along a total of 4 on the last lap. We were away on the rollers and were riding pretty hard when I got a gap on the last steep roller before the downhill to the right hander and onto the main valley road back into Malabar. I was able to hold it to the finish and finished with a (semi) strong climb for the win. Actually the 3,4 group was just up the road a bit but I couldn't reel em in, but not too bad for them starting 3 minutes ahead of us. I wouldn't say that I felt 100% today. I was actually hurting pretty good in some spots following Tym Tyler, wow he can climb, he ended up finishing 2nd.


Tony did the I II III race and did very well. He rode with the main group for 4 1/2 out of 5 laps and lost contact on the last steep roller in the back. He said he started cramping and just couldn't hold that pace up the hill. He was upset, but for the first race of the season a 50 miler with mucho hillage is a hard race. His average speed was still near 23 mph. Very nice race Tony!


Chris Riccardi was 9th in the 3,4 race and said he felt pretty good for not having that many miles in yet this season.

See ya.

Malabar road race

today. headin' out in a few hours. I'll update later on this evening.

Good one

yesterday. Nice short hard efforts. Hit a pretty high number on the ole wattage meter too, actually the highest I have ever hit, maybe something is going right......Gotta race smart though as an old wise man once told me, or the strength doesn't really do you any good....... I hope the weather is decent on Saturday, we're making the trip down to Malabar. Windy as hell again today, nothing major planned for today anyway so no worries.

See ya.

Composite team

ride today from Squires. Got to Squires this morning and met some of the Spin boys that were just about finished with their training ride. Dave Steiner rolled in a few minutes later and hooked up with our group. The plan was a 50 miler with some climbs, not the real big ones out of the Chagrin Valley but some rollers and of course Berkshire, gotta do that one.

Rode about 5 miles south of Chagrin Falls and then East to Dines and did the rollers there and then back into the Valley via Old Mill and rode race pace tempo back from Old Mill to Squires with a nice finishing sprint. 47 miles @ 2:35.

Nice riding today guys.

TLE Training camp day

Jacob Fetty met us at the shop this morning for about an hour and a half meeting on racing strategies, tactics and questions and answers. After the meeting we headed down to the Valley near the Covered Bridge race course to practice race tactics all at very intense race pace. We split up into 5-5 man teams and did sprint lead outs, break aways, bridges, counters, etc. Everyone rode very hard today and Rudy said after we were done that he hasn't gone that hard since last year at Westlake, I confer!

Thanks go out to Jacob for coming and putting on the clinic and for Shawn to get him here, it was good stuff.

Ride tomorrow at Squires @ 11.

See ya.

Good ride today

Did some climbing out in Kirtland Hills, some tempo on the way home so Scott could get to his daughter Jessica's volleyball practice at a decent time and a pretty strong fininshing sprint after 42 miles. It started snowing a little when we got closer to the lake, a very noticeable difference in temperature too from when we were out in Kirtland Hills, which is about 20 miles South. The weekend is looking good weather wise though for our Team tactics training day / group ride and our Team ride Sunday from Squires Castle.

Hittin up the Willoughby Brewing Company tomorrow night for a retirement party for one of the fella's from work. I'm gonna limit myself to a couple pints of the Razz Ale......Good Stuff!

Later

Yesterday was good

but today was wonderful. I got in 2 1/2 hrs. on the bike in some of the nicest weather we have had in quite a few months. Less than 2 months ago I was working just about every night and into the day plowing snow during the snowiest January we have had on record, cussin' like a drunken sailor when I had to get my butt up at 2:00 a.m. I know they say it was the 2nd. snowiest, but they measure the snow at Hopkins Airport and not out here in the snowbelt. It was in fact the snowiest January ever. But all that is a memory now and I wasn't even remotely thinking about it when I was out riding this afternoon. Lots of runners and other bike riders out doing their thing enjoying the early warm weather. Thats nice to see. Other people were raking leaves that they weren't able to get up last fall and I kind of felt a little guilty for not doing something at home like raking leaves or picking up a few sticks here or there. But then I snapped out of it and remembered, we don't have any leaves to rake up and Tony and Nick picked up sticks last week. As I shifted down a gear I said to myself "Life is Good"!

TT spin this afternoon

Felt great today so we went out on the TT bikes for about an hour and a half for some steady state riding. 34.5 miles and I could have rode twice that much, just felt very good. Maybe have to do the long rides like yesterday more often. Tomorrow is more structure so back with the powertap AND it's gonna be 60 degrees. The extended weather is looking good, so hopefully our team tactics and group ride this Saturday will be with nice weather.

Catch ya later.

3:45 on the bike

and 70 miles today from Brecksville. Lots of hills and some pretty fast tempo sections. We had about 15 riders show up with 9 being Team members. Everyone rode strong, very good to see. Shawn was going to end up with about 105 miles after the days end and Rudy will be near 90 since they both rode from home to B-vlle and then back after the end of the ride. Here's a pic at the end of the ride. Great day you guys!

St. Malachi

5 mile road race recap. I saw quite a few familiar faces this morning. Pete and Jane, guys that we race tri's with, Mickey and Justine and some folks from work, etc.........

Scott, Tony and I opted for shorts and long sleeves, not tight's because during warm-up with our tights on we were already getting pretty warm, and that was about 45 minutes before our race was ready to go off at 9:45 and it only got warmer from there.

We got a pretty decent spot near the front of the pack so we wouldn't be tripping over other runners at the start, there was 1,685 racers, it was impressive. The race director said go and we were off down the big hill and we were flying. 1st mile was a 5:50, I couldn't help myself as I always look at a downhill as free speed and more time taken off at the end of the race. 2nd. mile I settled in and the rollers started. I hit the 2 mile marker at 12:27 so I slowed on the flats some. 3rd mile I was at 19 flat. I tried to keep a constant heart rate and not get it too high on the up hills for the most part on miles 4 through 5 so I wouldn't totally blow up on the big uphill at the end. I ended up running fairly comfortably for the last mile and had a good up-hill finish to finish with a 32:49, good for a 6:33 pace. I really didn't have a game plan in place so I was just running to see how the top end was coming.

The last time I did this race it was a different course with not as many hills in it. This time the course was different and it was mainly hills, but a good course and a good test of the running fitness.

Tony did very well and placed 2nd. in his age group with a 30:53 and a 6:11 pace, not too shabby, Scott did a great job and bested his last 5 mile time by over 3 minutes with a 33:50 good for a 6:46 pace, Nice job you guys! I think the winning time was 25:19 and that's a 5:04 mile, wow if we could only do that off the bike.........

Post race party and awards ceremony was held at McCarthy's Ale House right at the bottom of the big dowhill at the start of the race. Ton's of people and lots of Irish beer being consumed too early in the morning.....It was a great time and a great race. Heres a few pictures.
Later all.

Easy ride

today cuz we didn't want to trash the legs too bad before tomorrow's running race. Scott, Tony and I did 28.5 miles at an easy pace. Sundays ride will be longer and harder from Brecksville.

Heres a little pre-race nutrition. Pizza from Carlucci's, Killians from IGA.

Ciao

Off day

today so I thought I would come home and drink some coffee and get busy on the bike room / garage. I recently installed some new carpet and I had a few more things that I wanted to do and since I had an off day it was a perfect time to get it done. All finished now and we're good to go.

Good fast workout on Monday. 4 mile run with 2 miles at near race pace, followed by a 26 mile fast bike with some hard hills and fast sprints. Good race pace efforts.

Yesterday was Masters swim and it was hard. I was tired to begin with from swimming almost 3,600 meters on Sunday and the hard efforts we did on Monday. We did another 3,000 meters last night with some long sets with minimal rest in between, the rest day was welcomed today for sure.

Scott, Tony and I are racing the St. Malachi 5 mile road race on Saturday so tomorrow is just a short fast run to get the legs tuned for the race.

Heres a picture of my new training shoes.

Thanks for stopping by.

New bike

for Lance. I sure hope he rides as good as his new bike's look. He did a charity ride in Los Angeles yesterday and had another brand new one with straight bars and platforms, pretty cool bike too.

Good swim and trainer spin workout today. This weeks weather is looking better. Planning on running the St. Malachai 5 mile road race this Saturday. Just a test to see how the top end is coming, not expecting anything earth shattering that's for sure.

Wanted to ride

@ Brecksville today but couldn't due to the storms. Big run instead. Watchin World Baseball Classic USA vs. Canada, US is up 6-3 in the top of the 7th. Hopefully get in some ride time tomorrow.

TT workout

today in the wind. Scott, Tony and I rode to the Leroy TT course this afternoon to get in a hard 20 minute TT effort, and that's just what we got. The wind was super strong out of the south west so riding up the hill on the way out and the flat back to the finish were right into the wind. We kept our hr's in the 170's most of the time (Tony's was in the 190's) and finished with some pretty respectable times for this time of the year, Presque Isle is right around the corner you know..........By the time we got back home on the bikes we had 26 miles in with a hard TT workout and a few hills thrown in for good measure. We then laced up the sneakers and ran a 5k brick. Good workout today and yesterday we got out on the bikes for 43 miles with a few hills as well.

Saturday is a group ride from Brecksville @ 11 O clock. 3-4 hours of endurance and tempo.

Later

Finally

some warmer weather on tap for tomorrow. Trainer today with swim workout later tonight, tomorrow will be on the bike, (outside)

Here's a sick picture of my cousin Scott's son Jake Marut hangin' 5 this past weekend @ 7 Springs in P.A. Nice job dude!

Got out on the TT bikes

this morning for 25 1/2 miles followed up by a 6.2 mile run. It was cold and pretty windy from the north but very sunny. Bike and run were done in 1:57, not too bad for training. Good workout to round out the weekend. The weather is looking better for this coming week with the Arctic temps. starting to move on outta here, good riddance I say..

Oh yea, and if he hasn't already heard it a bunch of times, Happy Birthday Rudy!

Bike Authority TT on Thursday.

Later