Races and hard workouts

were the name of the game this past week. We did Westlake on Tuesday and my plan was to stay in the group til 10 miles to go, that's if I wasn't riding stronger and helping my teammates out at the front of the race, (which I wasn't) I was just riding in the group, then bag it and slip in the parking lot and get the running shoes on and run for 2 laps of the course, and I did just that.
The race was fast and hard and I averaged 26 MPH for the 34 miles of the 44 mile race. I started to run and my legs felt fine. I ran the first two mile loop at a 6:45 pace and slowed the second lap to a 7:00 pace, so overall it was good training at the Westlake training night for me.
Tony was in a couple of different breaks and rode well and finished sixth on the night with our teammate Pete Baughman winning, Pete also won the Cat.3 road race in Frankenmuth Michigan this weekend, nice racing to you Pete an congratulations! Phil Hines won at Lexington in the Masters race too this weekend, great job to you too Phil.

Wednesday we did a recovery and Thursday was the LeRoy time trial. The weather was pretty hot and humid with a slight wind from the North but not bad at all. Jim changed the start and finish of the course due to all the traffic congestion at the fire station from the base ball games and the fire equipment outside. The start is now @ Indian Point rd. and LeRoy Center and the finish is the distance down Indian Point that was taken off from the start @ the fire station which was .4 of a mile. This is only temporary until the baseball season is over. The TT went well but my legs were pretty heavy still from the race and run on Tuesday. The finish on Indian Point was actually harder than I though it was going to be since it is on a slight downhill. I imagined that it would have beeen easier but the north wind made it tougher after pushing hard for race. The end seemed a whole lot longer than .4 down the road but I know it was spot on with Jim's calculations.
I rode my butt off and finished 16 seconds slower than the week before, but it seemed like I was faster with a faster avg. speed?? I was saying this can't be right and then everyone said they were almost 20 seconds slower than the week before. I think it was due to the north wind and the extra corner that we had to make and then ramp up the speed again. I still turned a decent speed and was happy with my time.

Friday we left for Utica Pennsylvania for some tri training on the Dam Tri course which we'll be racing in June. The reason for the name is because the run takes you over the Woodcock Dam which dam's up beautiful Woodcock Lake, ( I know, the name is pretty funny) but there's nothing funny about this course. The bike is ALL up and down and there is nothing really flat about it and definitely not a PR course, I'm actually contemplating riding my road bike instead of the tri bike. After the bike it's all uphill for the first mile and then into the trails for the majority of the 10k run. When you exit the trails you hit the dam and then it's an out and back on the dam which is nearly a mile and a half til you get back to the trails and then it's all uphill again til the last downhill mile. I'm glad we re-conned the course so I know what's in store for me in a few weeks, some more trail and hill running and some hill riding. It's going to be good.

Sunday we headed out on the road bikes and climbed! In the Franklin, Utica, Oil City, Meadville area there's lot of climbing. We did some short steep intense 16% - 18% climbs that seemed unbelievably steep and some that were identical to Old Mill going West that lasted for about 2+ miles and then some with a gradient of about 4-5% for 4+ miles and then the fast 40+ mph downhills that were very welcomed and fun. We did some recovery on the Sandy Creek Belmar trail which is like the Greenway Corridor but with spectacular views of the Allegheny Mountains and the rivers and creeks that make you feel like your in Aspen Colorado. We ended up with over 4 hours on the bikes and that was plenty with all the climbing that we did.

What a great training weekend and the weather was perfect. Looks like another nice day on tap for today. Tony and I are getting out for an easy duathlon workout this morning, we have the Twinsburg Duathlon this Sunday. I'm not a big fan of duathlons by no means but it's a Bike Authority Fleet Feet sponsored event and Mickey is the race director so we would like to get as many on the team out for this event as possible.

Here's a few pictures.