Hard trainer workout

today followed up by a 5k tempo run. 4x3 sets of descending intervals @ cp.6, my legs were not wanting to respond on the first set of 4 either, man those are hard. They got easier though as I went along. Finished up the 1 hour and transitioned pretty quick and for the first 1/2 mile I felt like I was running in quicksand, but runing fast....I know that doesn't make much sense, but thats what it felt like, it was weird but neat. Finished the run in 22 flat and the best part of the whole workout was the run in the rain, very nice but humid, hard to catch a deep breath.
Did a pretty nice steady state workout yesterday followed by a very easy 2 mile run. 38 miles on the tri bike in 1:40, not to bad, I have to do more of that.
Going to race the Covered Bridge race this Sunday so I would at least like to have some legs for that, so I'll take it easy until then.

Ketch ya all later

Good swim

workout this afternoon. 2,300 meters with drills, intervals and endurance sets, Scott and Tony swam strong today. No run afterwards though, instead we're going to get out on the tri bikes tomorrow for some steady state sets with a run afterwards. Supposed to be dry and in the 60's, perfect.

What's with this wind lately?

It never lets up, but at least it's WARM..........Easy 25.5 on the tri bike with an easy 3 mile transition run, nice day! Tomorrow 1 hour in the pool followed by another run with a few pick ups. Supposed to start raining and I love running in the rain.

Rudy informed me that the break to his wrist and forearm are more complicated that origionally thought. He said he will be in a cast over his elbow for 2-3 months! Damn, sorry to hear that buddy, hopefully you'll have the cast off sooner than they think.

Valley Race

Raced with the Master 35+ group this morning. I don't know exactly how many of us there were since they had the fields combined but there were a large group of masters it looked like. We attacked just past the finish line at the start and raced strong and aggressive for the most part with our TLE group doing alot of work. Phil Hines and Larry Pandy of MVC were super aggressive and strong as always too and did alot of attacking as well. Nate was on the front alot and managed to slip away in the back on the last lap and no one was willing to chase so we were attentive to bring anything back that was going to chase, no-one did so Nate attacked his break away partner near the parking lot of the school and solo'ed in for the win, Nice work Nate and a nice win for the Team. Phil and Larry, nice racing with you guys as always. My quads started to cramp on the last lap, I guess I'm not quite used to the heat yet and I was a little dehydrated too. Great day though and no crashes.
Easy ride tomorrow on the tri bike with an easy run. Getting ready for Ceasear Creek Tri at the end of May.

On a lighter note

This is the most incredible demonstration of bike street trials I have ever seen. Check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o&feature=player_embedded

RATL #2

Ugly day at the lake today. 4 man crash in the Masters race on the North side of the course. Sal Ponzio of MVC went down hard and had to be taken to the hospital. Phil Hines called and said he will be in Akron for at least 2 days. Punctured lung, broken ribs, fractured clavical and possibly shoulder and wounds to the head, on morphine at this time, this was relayed to him by John Fuimara. Rudy went down as well and after the x-rays were taken he found out he has 2 broken bones, 1 in the forearm and the other in the wrist. Others had wounds to the bike but nothing to themselves to speak of. The race was neutralized for 5 laps until it was completely called off.

Our thoughts and well wishes go out to Sal and Team MVC.

Thursday night

group ride from Bike Authority. B.A & Fleet Feet have started the Thursday night team rides into the Cuyahoga Valley leaving from B.A @ 6:30. We had 7 riders show up last night for a 25 miler with the finishing climb out of the Valley being on Snowville, that's always a fun climb.....

Great ride last night and we're going to probably incorporate some brick runs after the rides for those that want to run also.

RATL and Covered Bridge #2 this weekend, see ya there.

Another beautiful day

here in N.E. Ohio..... (yea I'm being sarcastic) Although, Tony and I were able to get out on the bikes for 25 dry miles including a half dozen FORM sprints. We rode a pretty decent tempo pace also just so we wouldnt get dumped on and managed to time it just right because just as soon as we got back home and hung our bikes up it started to rain, nice, because we did a brick run and I LOVE running in the rain. Did a fast 5k brick, came in and dried off and had a cup o Peete's House Blend waitin for me, perfect post workout beverage today.
Cav's @ home tonight for game # 2 against the Pistons, I own the couch tonight!

Cya

Windy, rainy days

aren't good for riding outside and the trainer just wasn't gonna happen today, so we hit up the pool for a much needed swim workout. Got in a solid hour with some nice drills and intervals and then came home and got a good weight workout in. Despite the weather it was sill a good training day. Just a few more days though til nice weather again, I wish that I could just go to sleep and when I wake up it would be 75 and sunny..............Thats not asking for too much is it?

Sunshine

Busy weekend

Finished mulching and installing a couple downspout catch basin's, cutting grass, putting in a driveway, did a bike race on Saturday and Tony and I managed to fit in a 34 mile bike ride today before the rain started, I'm done for the day. I have to go to work tomorrow to rest up.............

My cousin Scott's daughter Abby gave me a present. It's a book called Off To The Races and it's about the younger brother of a bike racer. The youger brother wants to race with the older brother but the older brother says he's too young to race and he will get hurt. Well one day the older brother leaves for a bike rally which will take 2 days to ride there. After he is gone the younger brother gets on his bike and rides there too, he gets flat tires, sees a bear and gets caught in a really bad rainstorm. Just as it seems hopeless for him and he thinks of turning back he sees a hostel where all the bike racers are staying. He walks in and his older brother sees him and gets mad but says since you rode all this way by yourself you deserve to race. The next day younger brother signs up for a cyclocross style race and comes in 2nd. The older brother is so proud of him he says he can train and race with him from now on and when they both ride to the bike rally next year the younger brother will win. It's an awesome book and I really like it.

Thank You Abby!

RATL #1

Did the combined Masters 35-45+, nothing too eventful, I wasn't in position to go with the break. I was stuck in the middle of the group and when I saw it slip off and no-one was chasing I said thats the race right there. I put in a few digs when I was able to get loose but nothing happened. I know we had the horsepower in the group but we just didn't get anything organized. Different race next week right guys..........? The overall finishing was a little jumbled up since they combined fields. I had a decent sprint and finished fairly well, but out of the money
Nice job on the front Nate and nice job Brian, John and Phil, it was nice racing with you guys, we'll do it better next week for sure.

We're going to try to get a bike and a run in today before it rains this afternoon.
Good luck to those at the Covered Bridge race today. Looking forward to some good race reports.

Out.

Cuttin in

a new driveway section this morning at the house. Now that we have 4 drivers in the family all with their own vehicles we need more parking space. My cousin's are coming over this morning with the equipment that is needed to make a driveway where there isn't one already. This whole ordeal shouldn't take very long since the section that we're putting in isn't that big, which is good because Scott, Tony and I have have to do an opener ride today before the big race tomorrow...................wow, are our priorities just a little out of touch?

Double workout

outside this afternoon for a change. The roads were nice and dry when we went out and the wind was at a minimum as well, wow what a day...........Did a nice easy 1:25 on the bike followed by an easy 5k run. The run felt a lot harder than easy though. My legs were still pretty sore from the weight workout on Monday and the hard trainer session we did yesterday. Stretching tonight, easy day tomorrow on the bike, maybe openers or ride to Nick's game on Friday and 2 days of racing this weekend, awesome!

Our new Cleveland Triathlon Team (Craft) clothing arrived at Fleet Feet on Saturday, here is the team race suit, pretty nice stuff. I ordered bib shorts and a jersey too, those will be in in a couple of weeks.

Freeking

bike trainer again. Cold, rainy and nasty day, Nick's baseball game was cancelled again too, he hasn't played 1 regular season game so far, they have either been rained or snowed out, you don't think he's bummed.......... Did the 30 30's workout today, actually it was 26 30's, but our brains weren't functioning real well while we were redlined and the recovery wasn't long enough for the brain cells to to do the simple math (like count to 10) , we thought we did 30x30's but after downloading the data from the PT it was only 26, damn!


Thats a tough workout but a very good one, I hope it will help at least somewhat, thats alot of hurt especially at the wattage we were trying to maintain for the 30 second intervals.



Over and out

Middlefield Roubaix

Nearly 40 miles with 12 riders, 8 flats, lotsa wind and sun, lotsa gnarly roadage, 1 speeding ticket and a great ride. Thanks Jim for designing a typical Roubaix style course right here in our own backyard, I think everyone was very spent after the ride was done, mission accomplished.

Congrat's go out to Tom Boonen for winning the real Paris Roubaix again today for the 3rd. time.

156m. in 6:15:53 @ nearly 25 mph, well done.

Up early

this morning getting ready for Easter Sunday Mass @ St. Anthony's in Fairport. Roubaix ride @ 11 then home for Easter food this afternoon.

Happy Easter everyone.

Headwaters Trail Duathlon

Janet Edwards and the Cleveland Triathlon Club organized a very nice small duathlon that was held this morning in Mantua. The distances were 3 mile run 16 mile bike 3 mile run. Both runs were an out and back on crushed limestone turning into double track which is the Headwaters Trail, it was a very nice running surface and a fast course. The bike was basically a 4 corner 16 mile hilly, windy and very challenging lollypop loop. There were some long climbs with short kickers and some very fast downhills with some flats with a nice tailwind, I saw my computer registering over 30 mph. on those sections, I wish there were more of them!

The first run was pretty fast, I havent been doing alot of fast running lately but managed an 18:37 for the first one. I was 4th in on the run, transitioned pretty quick and managed to get into 2nd position on the bike within the first few miles only to trail Tony and I knew I would'nt catch him, I was feeling pretty strong on the bike so I just tried to make time on the guy behind me. T-2 went well and I had a pretty decent lead over 3rd place but I knew he was a very fast runner, he was first in on the first run, so I kept my heart rate high and tried to keep the legs turning over quickly. At the turnaround he wasn't that far behind and I thought he was going to catch me, so I tried to up the pace and I managed to hold him off to finish 2nd overall. Tony won and set a course record of 1:22:49, I had a 1:23:58 and Scott finished 5th overall in 1:29:14 in his 3rd. multisport race, nice job Scott and Tony, you guys are awesome and its great racing with you both!

Shout out to Janet and the CTC for taking the time to have this race, Thank You.

Good Friday

Scott, Nick, Tony and I are heading out to breakfast then to Fleet Feet in Northfield to pick up our tri gear. Our Cleveland Tri Team gear and clothing from Craft arrived and were racing tomorrow so we gotta represent! After that were heading over to B.A., to indulge in some fresh ground java from the Saeco machine, sit around and b.s. for a while and then come home and get on the trainer for about an hour, or maybe even outside if it's not raining.

As the late Paul Harvey would say.....Good Day.

Perfect

day today for the loop that we do when there is a strong West wind. We have a 32 mile loop that heads due South for about 15 miles then a little East then back North that finishes the last 4 miles basically West, so out of 32 miles we only rode about 4 of them into the headwind, which again was very strong, and I'm kinda tired of riding into a blasting headwind. Good ride, we didn't kill it, but did do some climbing. We're racing the Headwaters Trail duathlon on Saturday in Mantua and the Roubaix ride from Middlefield on Sunday, so were gonna take it easy for the next 2 days and hopefully have good legs for the race and try our best to not get dropped on the Roubaix ride.

See ya.

No plowin'

for me at least. It really wasn't that bad here close to the lake, just squalls that didn't amount to much. Windy as hell but what else is new. You guys south of here really got your butts kicked again. Got in an interval workout on the trainer today followed by a 2 mile run. Made me feel much better.

Thought for the day, outlaw groundhog day because no matter what, there are still months of winter left whether that oversized rat sees his shadow or not, global warming my lycra laden ass.

Later

Oh the weather

outside is frightful and Jeff Tanchak is such an a-hole............I say it everytime I watch channel 19's weather. I swear that he get's off by forecasting nothing but gloom and doom, I do know it's his job but he doesn't have to be so damned happy about it! You'd think he would be 125 lbs by the way he jumps up and down and does backflips every time it snows..............Go have another bucket o chicken wings Jeff!

Just venting, I'm better now.

The voice of common sense

11 bucks for a cheeseburger, you gotta be ouch yo mind! I love this guy so we had to get our picture taken with him even if it was at a hydration stop during our ride today.......

Great day today, 65 miles @3:30 with over 4,000' of climbing. We rode most of the old Greater Cleveland Triathlon Half Ironman course with Kirtland Chardon, Hermitage, Sperry and Morley thrown in. Legs weren't too happy today with all the climbing we were doing since we did a pretty decent race pace duathlon workout yesterday consisting of 2-3.1 mile runs and a 21.5 mile bike.

The wind wasn't too bad today either. We were out near Novelty and it really wasn't bad at all, but as we were riding more North toward the lake it started to pick up a bit and must have been at least 10 degrees cooler. I'm surely not complaining though after the windage that we've been having. Looks like the beginning of this week is going to turn to crap, their even talking the S word! Oh well at least we can run in it.

Gotta eat.

Closed for cleaning

no swim workout yesterday due to the pool looking like a fishing pond. I really dont have a problem swimming in a fishing pond because I know its a pond, but when the pool starts looking like one, thats where we draw the line. Heisley is going to do the draining and cleaning routine starting today so hopefully the pool will be back up for business in a few days. Since the swim workout didn't happen and it was pissing rain and windy as hell Scott said lets stop over at BW'3s and get a quick ale, great idea. We ordered up a couple S.A. Boston Lagers, sat down and were having a nice chat when some guys from work came in and then we all started bs'ing about Toys R Us bike helmets, getting lapped in the pool.......(Scott made comment that I might be able to lap him in the pool, but when it comes to beer drinking to get out of his way and get back in the slow lane.........lol ) and a million other topics, it was a good time.

We're going to get out for a 3.1 mi., 21 mi., 3.1 mi. workout today, It's looking like we're going to do the Headwaters Duathlon in Mantua next Saturday which is close to the same distance, also, good luck to those going to Zanesfield today.

Later.

South Harpersfield

and back today. Decent day with a smokin' tailwind. Nice efforts with a few climbs. 43 miles with an average of 200 JIGAWATZ.

Brutal

is the word for the wind today, only if you were riding south or west that is. The plan was to ride the TT bike to Jefferson this afternoon to watch Nick's opening Riverside H.S. Baseball game which started at 4:30. Jefferson is only 28 miles away (east) Lynn was going to be there and I would just load the bike up in the van, do a quick change and settle in and watch the game.

I was about 10 minutes into the way out when Lynn called and said that the game was cancelled, apparently due to wet fields. Nick was bummed and so was I, I was looking forward to watching the game today, and I was also looking forward to riding like I was motorpacing all the way to Jefferson which is basically all flat and I knew I was going to be flying due to the 20+ mph tail wind. I changed plans and decided since I was riding east I would just do my 25.5 mile TT loop which is equal milage out and back. The way out was unbelievable, I was never really under 30 mph for nearly 13 miles and I was thinking to myself your really gonna pay for this on the way back....and indeed I did. There were times where I was putting out lots o watts and only creeping along at 15 or so mph, I actually started laughing saying this is ridiculous, I can't believe this wind can blow this hard for so long.

Anyway, after I finished up, I looked at the computer and I still averaged over 21.5 mph! Riding along at 30 mph is sweet.

C ya.