marut's cycling & triathlon

Trail runnin

2012-01-28T18:41:00.000-05:00

A sold out field gathered this morning for the first race in the Dirty Trail Series. It snowed during the morning and was still snowing a bit when the race started which put a new coating of white stuff over the whole area and made the trails and woods look pretty fresh. This was a prediction run rather than an actual race, which means it doesn't matter what place you finish or what time you run as long as you run as close to your predicted time as you can. The race was a click over 4 miles so I figured I'd be conservative and predict about a 37:30 since there were some pretty long steep climbs on the course, Nate did the same. When we took off the first 1/4 mile was on the road til we hit a set of stairs and then entered into the trails and were still keeping a good steady tempo pace and all sense of time pacing gone completely out the window. Nate, Tony and I said we weren't concerned about getting a prize for being closest to the time, which we most likely wouldn't have hit anyway, so we just kept up the tempo and ran. We ended up finishing with a 33:30, four minutes faster than our predicted time, which was still over an 8 minute mile which was pretty good especially for the trail conditions and the hills that we climbed. We all felt great afterwards and headed out for another hour of running on a different set of trails and finished up running back up Truxell Rd. hill to the entrance road of the Octagon Shelter for a total of 11 miles on a great morning of trail running.

Next up is the Dirty Love 10k (this is not a prediction run, but an actual race) in the North Chagrin trail system on Feb. 12th which we'll be getting xtra mileage in after as well, anyone interested c'mon out.

Dirty Snowflake Prediction Run

2012-01-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

Next weekend starts the Dirty Trail Series, which was the XTERRA Trail Series in years past. This first race is being held in the CVNP at the Octagon Shelter on Truxell Rd. This is a prediction run, so all watches, Garmin's, etc. are to be left off so we don't pace ourselves by time, just get out there and run what you think your time will be..Afterward for those that want to run another loop or two or three.... to see the elevation and what not is, donning gps devices are allowed.. Awards will be given out to the top five females and males closest to their estimated times, should be mucho fun.

Snowmagedden 2012

2012-01-15T07:16:00.000-05:00

We got hammered with a true Lake Effect snow storm yesterday! Most Cleveland suburb areas saw only a dusting to maybe six inches, out here in the snowbelt we got nearly 36", I can honestly say I never remember getting as much snow as we got yesterday in such a short time. It started snowing at about midnight on Friday and only intensified as the night and day went along, it eased up for about an hour and we thought OK this is good. We finished clearing all the snow in the driveways which took about four hours then went inside to get something to eat. When we looked out the window about an hour later it was like snowmageddon again, this time possibly worse than the first round. We ended cancelling our trip to our Bike Authority Fleet Feet triathlon get together in Brecksville due to the impassible roadways around here and opted for more shoveling to keep what we worked so hard all day long clear. We've actually dodged several large storms like this the past few winters so I guess we were due, the price we pay for living in the snowbelt of North Eastern Ohio.

2012 Calendar

2011-12-29T15:11:00.002-05:00

Starting to get things in order for the 2012 season already, yea I know it's not even 2012 yet, but it will be soon.
Going to do an early season triathlon once again in Virginia followed by a 5 or 10k race the next day. We have some nice bike races and some team events that are in the works that should be awesome. I'm going to hit up the Mideast Regional Triathlon Championship race in August and also do a road trip to Burlington Vermont for a lil tri up there as well as some HFP races and the local must do's... (Greater Cleveland, Fairport)

I think I'm going to race most of the NEOCX cross series races this coming season since we are going to travel a little more for triathlon this year, (have to hit up the UCI weekend in Cinci though). We did more out of the area races this season with the Cap City, OVCX and UCI events which equaled a ton of driving. I also plan on doing about the same mountain bike races as I did this season just to keep things fresh and fun.

Training has been pretty smooth, nothing major, just adding some distance to the runs and having fun staying fit.

Happy New Year to everyone and see you all soon.

Running and Swimming

2011-12-17T17:12:00.001-05:00

Been putting quite a bit of time in the pool and running once again now that cross is over. The swimming has been going good and I'm feeling pretty smooth in the water. I havent been doing as much trail running as I would have liked but I've been getting some nice miles in on the road. Been working on the leg turnover quite a bit lately as I have been on the bike, pedaling a little higher cadence than usual. The weather has been pretty cooperative lately so we've been on the bike more than normal for this time of the year, which is nice, mostly doing training paced stuff or rolling out on the cross bikes. Today was the first really cold ride of the year when Tony and I started out at about 9:00 am it was only 31* and didn't warm up, but there wasn't much wind which equaled an hour and a half on the cx rigs, then after that we hit up the pool for 1600m with the ole 10x100 w/o since we were kinda time pressed and the geriatric group was starting their water aerobics class.
Looks like a snowy trail run in the morning then off to Akron in the afternoon for an early Christmas party at Wasabi.

Out.

Kings Cross Midwest Regional CX Race

2011-12-05T18:32:00.001-05:00

Saturday was the Midwest Regional cross race at Kingswood Park in Mason Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. The course was awesome, but very muddy, which I guess is what cross it sometimes all about, I just happen to dislike mud quite a bit....OVCX did a nice job on this race and their series, which I happened to race 6 of them.

Nate and I rolled down this weekend together staying at his condo in C-bus on Friday and heading to Cinci early Saturday morning to get in a good warm up ride and run and the plan was to go hard from the start. We lined up with a pretty nice field, some that we've raced with many times before and some we haven't seen before. The gun went off and Nate got the hole shot and never looked back, he took the win in fine fashion on a super muddy, technical course and rode strong. Congrats!

I was in a 4 man group at the start until about the mid point of the race and then we split apart and were on our own. We all seemed to be holding our own and I was looking behind to see where the Pappa Johns rider was and he was really closing in on me. He got around me on a technically muddy corner and gapped me and rolled away eventually catching the 3rd 45+ Master Lou Beckmeyer from 7 Hills Racing. I was now 5th or 6th on the road and 4th Master 45+. I kept on the gas around the corners and kept the speed up on dry/firm sections of the course, and ran the steps and barriers well and rolled in for 5th overall and 4th Master 45+ on a hard fought technical race.

Nate and I decided that we'd had enough mud for the weekend and bagged the Sunday's mud-fest and drove back to C-bus to his condo once again for the night and met Doug on Sunday at his place in New Albany for a nice road ride in great dry conditions. We actually spent quite a bit of time with Doug and Angela this weekend on their home turf spending quality time at the Mellow Mushroom and BJ's Brew House as well as meeting for the ride at Dougs place. It was a nice weekend and time really went quick.

I'm thinking of doing 1 more race this weekend near Pittsburgh but the weather is going to play a major part in my decision if I go or not. If I go it will definitely be my last one, if not, I'll have at least gone out on a decent note.

Later all.

Kirtland Park finale

2011-11-21T07:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the final NEOCX race of the season and I think it went out on a good note. On Saturday my family and extended Team Lake Effect family gathered at Kirtland Park to set up for Sundays race. We all hit it very hard, and after about 400 stakes, 5 miles of tape and 7 hours later, the course was complete... (well for the most part). Sunday morning came and we arrived at the park at about 9 am to find Bob Breedlove already warming up on his trainer, alone in the parking lot, now his race doesn't go off for another 2 1/2 hours, so I thought wow, we better get busy on the final touches before everyone else comes rolling in. It wasn't long before the parking lot was full of racers with 2 big food catering trucks parked right in the middle and a line a mile long at registration.

The course was bone dry, technical, hilly and fast which in my opinion made it the perfect cross course and everyone that I talked to said the course was hard, but not extremely hard but fun also, which was the goal.

I raced the combined Masters 35-45+ and was in a tight race the whole way battling for a top 5 spot in the 45+ group while racing hard with the top 2 in the 35+, it was good racing, attacking, exchanging positions, trying to pass and getting shut down etc... everything that good hard racing is all about. In the end I finished 5th Master 45+ and 7th overall in the combined group and was pleased with my placing and effort. The top 5 in the 45+ was Tom Franek, Joe Pollato, Nate Loman, Derek Wilford and me, so those are some pretty tough hombre's ahead of me.

After the Elite race was over, the course that took about 9 hours total to set up was taken down in about 30 minutes. We had so much help from different teams and individuals it was incredible, and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped. Afterwards we all drove over to the Bohemian Center in Slavic Village for the series end awards ceremony and a perfect ending to a great day of racing and a great cyclo cross series.

I ended up finishing 8th overall in the series, but I only raced 6 out of the 12 races, the other races I did were the UCI3 3 day in Cinci, Dayton 2 day and the Columbus 2 day State Champs which were all held on the same days as the NEOCX series races..., so not too bad I guess.

Next up is the Kings Cross Regional Masters weekend in Mason on December 3rd and 4th. then we switch gears and get back into the pool on a regular schedule to get ready for tri season in another 5 months.........

Thanks for reading everyone.

4th @ Willoughby

2011-11-13T18:09:00.000-05:00

Not too happy, but oh well, at least the course was dry.

Nursery roads by lcrunner at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-11-12T19:48:00.000-05:00

Nursery roads by lcrunner at Garmin Connect - Details

Group ride through the nurseries today on the cross rigs, muddy in some places and windy, but a good ride.

UCI Weekend

2011-11-07T08:01:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a weekend of cyclocross racing in Cincinnati. Friday afternoon was the first of the three events that was held in Devou Park just over the Ohio River in Covington Kentucky, atop a big overlook looking into the city. They have held this race here for the past four years on a Friday and it's pretty well attended. The course was laid out pretty nicely, but all the rain the area got on Thursday and Thursday night made it very muddy (and with the hills on this course) very hard and challenging. I lined up with a field of 55 Cat 3 35-45+ riders and when the whistle blew we we're flying on the pavement start. Along with the normal first lap crashes and chaos due to everyone trying to be first to the tight corners etc. the racing was pretty good, everyone rode like they knew how. The field separated quite a bit and I was with a group of five when I got some course tape wrapped around my crank and had to dis-mount and untangle it....argh! Another group of two came up to me and we were working pretty good together when I gapped them and tried to catch on to a couple that fell off the group ahead of me. I was in the middle until the last lap and ended up crossing the line in 7th. in the 45+ and 12th. overall, not a bad start to the weekend I guess.

Saturday was and is my favorite course of the weekend held at Sunset Park in Middletown Ohio, North of Cincinnati. It's a smaller venue but very spectator friendly and more like an off-road crit course. Out of the three races this is the race that I typically do the worst at, I don't know why either because I ride it well.
Another long fast start on the pavement and more pandemonium once all 66 of us hit the switch-backs, with guys blasting into each other, running through the tape etc..,I know you guys are all good road racers but please learn a few bike handling skills if your going to race cross at this level........ I managed to hold it up and avoid any carnage and got with a group that was working well together. We stayed together for most of the race, exchanging positions and on the last lap it separated thinly and we all came across the line seconds apart, it was a fun race and we only had to deal with one muddy section. I finished 11th 45+ and 20th overall out of a 66 man field.. Not really what I would have liked but like I say for some reason I don't really do too good on this course.

Sunday was Harbin Park in Forest Hills, this is the big long course that always hurts because of the long slow slogs through the fields, the up-hill sand pit and the soggy, muddy grassy areas that makes this cross race so hard.
There were about 85 in our combined group and the start was furious, wow, this was the fastest start of the three races.. We hit the grass corner off of the pavement then the straight then the muddy corner and that's when all hell broke loose. I was somewhere near the front when the guys ahead of me lost control in the mud and all went down, I was on the right and the guy ahead of me got squirley and plowed head first into the tree, I tried to veer off to the left and got plowed into and from there it was like something you would see on TV where a car gets hit from behind on the freeway and cars just keep ramming each other from behind...it was nuts which takes me back to my previous comment about being a good road or crit racer but needing to learn some technical skills, there was a actually no reason for all of that mess.
Once we all got untangled, most of us ran that twisty off camber section, some tried to ride it only to slip back down and take more guys out that just got going again. I ran my way to the start of the long grass up-hill leading to the sand pit and by this time was totally anerobic, I re-mounted stood and tried to catch back on the the fragments of the lead group. I got to the sand, dis-mounted and ran the pit, re-mounted and caught back on to four guys right near the pits....good, I can sit in and re-cover a bit. I recovered some and started to attack just on the other side of the downhill sand pit which everyone rode nicely, I got a few places back going into the twisty tree area and another going through the mud to pavement 180 switch-back then re-covered some more when I looked back and saw the rider with me happy to recover too. We stayed together for a while and he attacked me and I was able to stay with him. By now another rider came up to us and we were together til the long grass climb to the finish. I rolled in 10th. 45+ and not sure overall as of yet. It was the hardest race of the weekend for sure but good racing minus the start

This was the last travelling weekend for me this season, in May we plan on an early season triathlon with Doug, most likely in Virginia once again. Beautiful weather and a great series down there and much more reasonably priced than the REV3 Knoxville that we had talked about doing. We have two more NEOCX races the next few weeks and then it's off season for some easy trail running, gym work and a whole lot of time in the pool.

See you all in Willoughby.

States and Chagrin CX Challenge re-cap

2011-10-30T17:45:00.000-04:00

Last weekend on Saturday and Sunday were the Ohio State CX Championship races in Dublin, a suburb of Columbus held in Coffman Park. Nice weather and a pretty decent course set-up was the theme for the weekend. There were twists, mud, sand, power sections triple barriers and on Sunday they threw in a barrier before the sand pit that was hoppable and then you could still ride the sand, pretty decent for some, not so much for others. I raced the combined Masters 1,2,3,4 race and did fair, I placed 11th overall, certainly not the placing I wanted but I was in the race the whole time. There's still some mighty fast 45+ Cat 1,2,3's out there.

Sunday I raced the open Cat. 3 race and had to race with all the young guys. Still did fairly well, but not what I would have liked to do. This year they took out the Category races with age and lumped everyone in together regardless of Category or age. So on Saturday I was racing with Cat 1's and 2s and on Sunday I was racing with the 3's but they were young....... I had no chance! LOL. That's perfectly fine though because I knew that going into this year's State race and I had used the weekend as good fast training/racing for the UCI weekend coming up next weekend.

Today was the Chagrin CX Challenge at Brett Davis'. It was a good, hard course that was different than in the past. There was more wooded singletrack and creek crossing's due to the massive amounts of rain that we've been getting. Brett did a nice job with the course re-design and the whole race atmosphere. I raced the B-1 Masters 35-45+ race and also raced on the mountain bike. I took advise from Bob Breedlove the day before when he said he was bringing the mountain bike on Sunday due to the mud sections and singletrack. I rode a couple loops before the race to set tire pressure and never really opened it up at all because the day before I did a hard 10k trail run with some hard hills so I knew the legs would either be too fatigued to do anything or they would be ready to race. The official said go and we started of pretty fast and I was feeling good. I tried to not get anerobic so I would have legs to go the entire distance instead of fading toward the end. I rode the course technically sound and never dismounted the bike once. I hopped the triple log barrier and the muddy log barrier in the woods and seemed to be hitting the right lines. I was on the gas the whole race since there were about 4 guys within 20 / 30 seconds back almost the entire race and I was closing in on 5th place overall. I ended up finishing 3rd. 45+ Master and 6th overall, so I was pretty happy with the result and even got to take home some cash for my effort.

This weekend is the OVCX UCI three race weekend. Friday is Kentucky, Saturday is in Middleton and Sunday is Cincinnati. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week and dry things out a bit for some fast hard racing.

See ya in Cinci.

Going to blog real soon

2011-10-26T19:38:00.002-04:00

As soon as I get a few minutes and I can pull myself away from Facebook long enough...

Applefest weekend

2011-10-12T16:25:00.002-04:00

I'm not going to blog about the Applefest 5k race even though it had over 900 racers in it on a beautiful Saturday morning and everyone that ran, ran pretty good, especially Madison and Mikaylie Park and Courtney Sullivan who all set PR's on a course where PR's aren't really the norm and Angela's son Ben, for his first "real" 5k who ran an outstanding 18:23 , but I am going to say that I'm really blessed to have such a great friend with such a great family, friends and families like you don't come around very often Doug. Thanks again for a great weekend Doug and Angela!

Dayton CX weekend

2011-10-04T18:58:00.003-04:00

The short of it was....... I was supposed to be 7th call-up both days but for whatever reason, (the officials said it was a computer error) I was called up dead last. Not really a big deal since I'm not going to be doing the series, but it would have been nice to be able to battle for a podium spot which I believe I would have been able to do since I had good legs and felt good both days. Saturdays race I battled from last in a 50 man 35-45+ field to 9th overall 45+ and 20th overall, Sunday was a 70 man field and I fought my up to 14th 45+ but dont know the overall position. I rode strong and worked my way up the field aggressively and felt good about the way I rode. My motto is, it is what it is and things like that happen, it also happened to Shawn Adams on Saturday for whatever reason, it sucks but oh well, it's just a bike race.

We had good representation of Bike Authority/Team Lake Effect for 5 podium spots, Julie, Johnny, Robert, Tony and Rudy, congratulations to all of you!

This weekend is the Applefest 5k in Franklin Pa. and Doug's annual clam-bake at the cabin, it's going to be an awesome weekend like it always is at the cabin.

Ohio State CX Championships are coming up in a couple weeks in Dublin which is a suburb of C-bus, but first it's Spin's Cross Your Heart CX race in Willoughby next weekend, that's always a great event.

See you there.

Double header weekend

2011-09-26T18:05:00.004-04:00

Saturday was the Stark Velo cross race at the Kent State Stark campus and what a good course it turned out to be. There were power sections, techy sections and the long road climb, with a few differences in it from the past couple of years that I really liked, the course had great flow to it. I raced the large Masters 35-45+ combined class. The start was fast and by the end of the first lap I was in a group of four with three leaders just ahead of us. The lead group contained two teammates and I was content with the four others I was with. Soon two of the four were away and I was with Rick Parr from Stark and we were working together for the most part until he crashed in a slick spot and I was away trying to catch the Chris Huck and Michael Larimer duo that were just ahead of me. They were drilling it and I couldn't bring them back so I settled into a pace for the next lap and a half or so assuring me that I wouldn't get caught and rolled across the line for 6th overall and 3rd Master 45+.
The 45+ 1,2,3, was all Lake Effect with Nate Loman winning, Joe Pollato 2nd. and me 3rd. Good stuff. Nate also won the overall, he's on fire! Teammate Johnny Proppe also won the Elite race out sprinting Paul Martin in one of the best cross races we've seen, congratulations Johnny!

Sunday was the OMBC Westbranch mountain bike race. I was hoping for good legs since it was my final mtb race for the year. I raced four mtb races this season as was the plan and did pretty well and had fun racing them. I plan on a few more next season as well. I did the 40-49 Sport race which consisted of two laps equaling about 17.5 miles, at least that's what Garmin had it at. I had a good start and felt pretty good through the muddy grassy section leading into the single track and into the first climb. I rode well through the rock gardens and out of the first section and onto the suedo road leading into the lake section. Once I hit the rooty areas which seemed to be everywhere my lower back tightened up and was on fire. I had to sit up in spots and tried to climb out of the saddle so I could stretch out my back. I finished the first lap and got onto the road and stood and stretched it out a little and it seemed to feel a little better. I hit a gel and some Perpetuem and was quickly back into the field area. Rode the first section pretty good again and once I got the the lake side my back was once again screaming. I stopped and let some air out of my tires to try to ease the back pain and soften up the ride and that seemed to help alot. Ipicked up the pace on the way back in but the time that I lost earlier didn't do me any good. Results showed I finished 6th in my group but I have doubts about that result, not that it matters but I know who passed me and I knew who was in my group. They were having problems with the results anyway, oh well, no big deal.
Tony managed a 2nd overall in his 20-29 age group and brought home some gas money for the week, nice racing. Rudy and Julie both won their groups, nice racing to you both also.

This weekend is the double OVCX cross race in Dayton. Saturday's race is in Eastwood Park in Dayton and Sundays is at John Bryan in Yellow Springs, see you there.

Last tri of 2011

2011-09-18T17:21:00.001-04:00

Today was HFP Portage Lakes and our last triathlon of the season. I haven't raced here in over 10 years and forgot how hard this course is. I did the Sprint race as was the distance for all of my tri's this season. Next season, if I stay running healthy this winter I will race some Olympic races again with maybe another 70.3. We've already decided that we're going to open the 2012 season in May with the Rev 3 Knoxville, the race we were going to do this spring but couldn't due to my jacked up knee, but that's still a way off and I have a full cyclocross season to contend with.

The temperature at race time was 47 degrees, we got a nice run in to warm things up a bit then put on the wetsuits to get in a swim warm up. The water was pretty nice, maybe in the high 60's which felt nice compared to the cold air temp. I was in the third wave going off so I had to contend with lots of people in the water and just weave my way in and out. I think I tacked on another couple of tenths to my swim by trying to swim around people. I had a decent swim and exited the water strong, not having a clue where I was in my group.
Ran up the steep long climb to transition, exited and started off on one of the hilliest bike courses I have ever did on a Sprint race. There was around 800' of climbing on this course with some very steep climbs and some really nice 37 mph downhills. I had one of my strongest bikes despite all the climbing and my heart rate was very steady in the aerobic zone.

Came into T-2 feeling good, started running out and my feet were numb, it took maybe about a 1/4 mile to finally get feeling back into them. The run was all uphill to the turn around and I was running strong. Ran around the turn and it was all downhill, that was way nice. My heart rate was actually higher on the return because I was really pushing the pace since it was free speed. The only uphill on the way back was a short side section off the main loop that we did that had a nice little kicker in it but the return was nice. Turned up the speed to anerobic on the last finishing section and came through the finishing chute 6th overall and 2nd in my age group, averaging 6:42's per mile.

Tony WON OVERALL and Doug was 4th overall and 1st. in his age group and all of my BAFF Teammates did a helluva job today as well, congratulations!

For thinking I wasn't going to be able to race triathlon this year I raced 7 triathlons, I say raced because I was in a race in each of them battling for a top age group spot and mostly top 10 positions. I finished up with 4 age group wins and 3 2nd's. Hopefully if I stay healthy this winter and do things differently than last year I can better that.

Stay healthy, enjoy your training and racing and we'll see you at the cross races.

The new cross rig

2011-09-16T19:12:00.000-04:00

Felt F4X

Cascade Cross

2011-09-12T19:14:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Michael Larimer and Snakebite Racing for designing this course and hosting this race, this was a great event. My race wasn't so great though, although it could have been worse I guess. I'm racing the Masters class this season and it's a fast group for a bunch of "old guys" again, you have to bring your best each and every weekend. This past Sunday I didn't have the legs that I did the weekend before at Manatoc, most likely because I did way too much in the way of openers on the trainer the day before that really left me feeling tired and fatigued, I will NOT do that opener workout before a race ever again.

This race was a 35+ Masters group, so there were some pretty strong fast guys here. It opened up pretty fast and the conditions were good. The traction up the big hill was good and the mud pit was hard core. I was going pretty good for the first two laps but could feel my legs fatiguing and I wasn't putting out the power. I started to ride at my pace and try to limit my losses for the remaining three laps, keep climbing steady and stay reasonably fast on the road sections. The last lap I was in a group of four and that motivated me to stay on the gas. There were three of us that came into the finishing straight together with just the set of barriers to split us up . I went hard over the barriers, gapped one and almost got the other at the line, but still only rolled in for 9th overall 35+ and 3rd. 45+. There was no 45+ group but I looked at the guys ahead of me on the results sheet and figured that one out for myself. Even though I suffered in this race more than usual it could have been worse, a top 10 finish isn't too bad.

This weekend is the last triathlon of the season for us at Portage Lakes, I'd love to be at Wendy Park and Nate Loman and I even kicked around the idea of doing the tri and the cross race on the same day but there wouldn't be enough time... There's plenty of cross racing coming up.

See you all in a few weeks.

Back to back races

2011-09-05T08:57:00.000-04:00

Saturday was our first NEOCX cyclocross race at Camp Manatoc in Peninsula sponsored by our team. A ton of work went into this one and it turned out to be a great course and a great race. Hot, humid and dry were the conditions which made everyone suffer even more than normal, but everyone raced strong and fast and we had good team results to show. I raced the combined Masters 35-45+ and was 7th overall and 3rd. Master 45+
A group of 5 of us got a gap after the first lap and worked together for a while until we started to split apart still holding off the field when 2 more riders got across, one being Rudy Sroka on his single speed who started 1 minute behind. Rudy rolled in for 5th. team mate Joe Polloto 6th and me 7th. Rudy won the single speed, Joe and I 2nd and 3rd. 45+

Day two (Sunday) was the cross country mountain bike race, same place different course. I raced the Cat.2 Sport Master 40-49 race which consisted of 2 laps equaling 18 miles. This course is only open one weekend a year for riding and racing but the trails there are some of the best in the State. I lined up in front and when the gun went off Nate Loman and I got the hole shot and were gone. We stayed together for a large part of the race with Nate in front until the trail conditions got pretty slick due to the rain and then we separated. I was running the correct tire pressure and was hooking up in the techy spots pretty well. I felt good from the previous day's cross race and rode strong the last part of the second lap and finished 5th overall. I was happy with this finish since I haven't spent too many hours on the mountain bike this year and I was racing against straight up mountain bikers.

This weekend is Snakebite Racing's Cascade Park cross, I didn't do this race last year but I hear it's HARD!

Presque Isle 11

2011-08-28T16:42:00.004-04:00

This actually turned out to be a pretty decent race after all the pre-race confusion was over. It started out at registration that apparently Active.com hadn't turned in all the online registrations to the race people and when we tried to pick up our race packets they had no idea of who we were or if we even registered. Long story short here, we had to do same day registrations etc. since we did have confirmations that we did in fact register online.

Second, since we were considered same days, which there were actually none since it was all online, we had terrible rack placements because it was all rack by numbers. I got to my rack spot and there wasn't any room so I looked around and saw a tree all by itself and I thought that would be a good spot, so I set up there, not the best of spots but it made due.

After I set up, we went out and rode for a few miles and grabbed a quick run to get the blood flowing and then suited up for a warm up swim. We headed for the water entry area and the race people said there would be no pre-race swimming since they had to announce the swim orders in detail and everyone had to listen, come on, everyone swims before a race...they said we could have a few minutes between waves to get in a quick warm up....well,, better than nothing I guess.

Since I was considered same day I got to go off in the very last wave too, that was nice, so, since there were eight minutes between waves and there were four waves I started 23 or so minutes after the first wave, the one that I should have been in and the wave that my competition was in, again, oh well it is what it is. I ended up mixing in with the group ahead of me and exited the water and felt good.

Transitioned fairly fast and rode the Presque Isle TT course averaging 25 mph and stayed under anerobic capacity, that was good. T-2'd fast and was soon picking off runners since there were so many of them on the course at this time. I hit the 1/2 point of the 3.8 mile run averaging about a 7 minute per mile pace, at least that's what the runner that I was running side by side with said we were running. I upped the pace a little on the home stretch and finished strong, again staying under anerobic capacity finishing 16th overall out of 379 racers and second in my age group. If I would have been racing with the guys that were in my group I might have been able to better my times, maybe........

Overall I'm pleased with my performance since I was kind of taken out of the game a little at the beginning of the day. Hat's off to Tony for finishing 7th overall and 1st in his age group on minimal training. With some good training I'm sure he would have been a bit better. Doug was 1st in his age group and 13th overall, another good race for him even though he wasn't happy with his run split, as always if he isn't running 6 flats he contemplates suicide.....

HFP Portage Lakes in a few weeks and this weekend starts cross season with the 331 racing weekend at Manatoc with our cross race on Saturday and the mountain bike race on Sunday. Lots going on from now until the end of December.

Good training and racing to everyone.

HFP Vermilion Triathlon

2011-08-16T20:08:00.000-04:00

Short of it, good course, great competition, choppy swim, good bike, fast run ='d 8th overall, 2nd age group 241 in the Sprint race. HFP does a very pro job and I plan on doing more HFP's next season, I used to race these in past years and forgot how competitive they are, they can only make you better. Next up is Presque Isle next weekend and the finale is HFP Portage Lakes on Sept. 18th. Gettin ready to cross it up shortly.

Good training and racing to everyone.

Tres moreno

2011-08-13T07:36:00.002-04:00

As in three more....triathlons. Tomorrow is Vermilion's HFP race, then Presque Isle on the 27th and the final HFP Portage Lakes tri on September 18th. That will make 7 tri's this season when I thought I wouldn't be able to race one earlier in the year. Cross is getting closer so I've been changing up my bike workout's a little to incorporate more jumps and hard sustained efforts, but it'll still be hard changing gears from tri to cross.
Looking forward to Jim Behrens' hill TT on Mitchell Mills coming up in a few weeks and our weekly trail runs, Life is good!

Good training and racing to everybody.

Weekly ride and runs

2011-08-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

A few of us have been riding and trail running from Kirtland hills on Wednesdays for about a month now. We usually start the run at about 4:30 running Penitentiary Glen, Holden Arboretum, etc. Next week we're meeting at Chapin Forest to run the trails there and we'll be riding before hand as well. Usually we get in between 20 and 25 on the bike then it's an hour or longer trail run. If anyone wants to join in gimme a yell.

GCT 2011

2011-08-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

Usually I blog about how my races went and the high's and lows of the race, but today I just don't have it in me to do that. I will however say how impressed I am at the amount of volunteers and how everything came together for this race, there is so much work that goes into it. Mickey, you do a helluva job and thanks for everything.

I'm sure everyone has already heard on the news about the senseless murders that happened in Copley. Mike Johnson, long time Team Lake Effect Racing member and close friend to many on the team lost most of his family Sunday morning in this happening. His Father, Mother, Brother and Niece along with neighbors lost their lives in a senseless shooting spree by a disgruntled boyfriend of a next door neighbor. I'm not going to go on any further since the details aren't really that clear yet and I'm sure you will all hear about it soon enough, but I will ask everyone that believes in God or a higher power to please say a prayer for Mike and his family, especially his young children.

Fairport Triathlon

2011-07-24T16:29:00.001-04:00

It was hot! The swim was good except for the first 100 meters which was pretty much a slugfest until we opened it up a little. I got pounded on the head pretty hard too by none other than Douglas John Sedivy and the pounding continued all race long as he beat me hands down in a race that neither one of us felt very good.

Once out of the water we had a long run to T-1 and then another long run to the bike mount area then up the hill and out onto the bike course which was fast on the way out since the winds were from the North West this morning. We hit Painesville Township Park area and all the corners slowed everyone down a bit which was the reason the overall times were a bit slower than in previous years and also the high humidity which drained alot of runners. The straight a way back into Fairport was hot and windy and I was not putting out the power that I would have liked and my heart rate was much higher than usual due to the heat and humidity, but hey everyone was in the same boat, I just never do well in these conditions.... Got back into T-2 and had a good pit stop and was out on the run pretty quick right behind Doug. I got to the top o the hill and my hr monitor was beeping loudly telling me that if I go any harder my heart was going to quit working and I was never going to do another triathlon again.... I recovered a bit and then ramped it up again and ran steady on a very hot run course always keeping Doug in sight but not being able to close the gap. He ran into the finish somewhere around :30 ahead of me with both of us winning our age groups but both of us knowing we could have and have done much better. The overalls weren't posted but Kevin Park won overall again and had a great race and Tony was 4th overall. I would say that Doug and I were somewhere in the top 10-12 overall in a sold out race of 447. I'm very thankful though for this race since I didn't even know if I was going to be able to race this year after the knee issue I was dealing with this winter, so I'm very happy!

After awards we all gathered under the shade trees of Lakefront Park and had a nice get together with some very good friends, it was a good day indeed no matter how much I felt I suffered.

Greater Cleveland Triathlon in two weeks, look out!

Busy weekend

2011-07-18T17:41:00.002-04:00

Had a good training week along with hosting Nick's graduation party on Saturday. Did 168 miles on the bike with an OWS and an interval session at the pool along with two bike run bricks and a track workout, which equals not too bad especially for working four full days and setting up for the party on Friday and Saturday and tearing down on Sunday, of course we had quite a bit of help which was very much appreciated!
The party went very well and it was so nice to see everyone all together having a nice time, especially Nick, he really enjoyed the day.

This Saturday is the 3rd. and final training day for the Greater Cleveland Triathlon before the race on August 7th. and on Sunday, the Fairport Triathlon, which we have been doing for 12 years now. Fairport gets bigger and better each year and this year the bike course has changed a bit and the run course changed last year to try to keep thinks interesting, so it should be a fun and competitive race which always is the case for those of us that have been doing it for so long.

After Fairport we have three more triathlons, Greater Cleveland, Presque Isle and Portage Lakes, a few mountain bike races and then it's full on cyclocross, bring it on!

Large amounts

2011-07-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

of home work went on this week with a minimal amount of training. It had to be done though and once I get going on one thing then I just seem to find more stuff to do, that's okay because we have it all done now for Nick's graduation party next weekend.

I did manage to get in a bike run brick, a hard interval run at the track and a swim bike workout and tomorrow Doug and I are doing another bike transition run workout so I guess it wasn't such a bad week after all, although I did miss the Tour of the Valley which was originally on my race calendar. I didn't plan on doing anything in that race except to try to help my team mates as best as I could, but I'm sure they're doing just fine..... :-)

Fairport tri coming up in a few weeks, then Greater Cleveland, Presque Isle and Portage Lakes with some mountain bike races then it's full blown cyclocross til December and possibly January, lotsa racing yet on the horizon.

Happy 4th. of July

2011-07-04T07:58:00.000-04:00

The weekend started out with an endurance ride to Dougs cabin in Utica PA. We left my house and five hours later pulled into Dougs with 90 miles and 3500' of climbing under us.. The route that we took (Rt.86-322-358) doesn't feel as rolling in the car as it does on the bikes, which can be said for alot of roads that most of us ride, but there are some long climbs on 322 and with about 25 miles to go the steep hills near the cabin start kicking in. We relaxed that afternoon and did a few things that needed to be done for Angela and Doug's engagement party / crableg fest the next day and went to bed fairly early since we were going to get up early on Saturday and get in a brick workout on the Allegheny River trail.

Saturday we did a 25 mile tempo bike workout and our legs were feeling pretty decent. We maintained about a 22 mph. avg. and then got off and ran a quick 5k. The heat and humidity started to kick in on the run and I'm glad we started our workout early. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, cooking, eating and having a great time at the cabin with family and some great friends.

Congratulations Angela and Doug on your engagement, I couldn't be happier for you both!

Cross Fit Triathlon

2011-06-26T14:36:00.000-04:00

2011 Akron Cross Fit triathlon, formerly known as the Akron Summa triathlon. Same venue as the RATL series except the bike course leaves the park and basically makes a big square for two loops then enters back into the park through the service road since the main entrance is gated off because the RATL bike course is used for the running loop with a few modifications to make each loop 1.55 miles and the run was backwards of the bike race.

My age group was different in this race, they changed it to 35-49 since the race sold out and there were 200 or more athletes racing, so they had to fit more age groups into only five waves for time purposes. The swim started out fast and I was soon in another group of three as I was in the last race, this time it was with Kevin Park and Adam Hunter. We exited the water together, transitioned together and left the park together, soon Kevin was gone and Adam and I were riding close by each other with me slightly behind Adam til near the end of the second bike loop then he was gone as well. I rolled into transition feeling pretty good and ready to hit the run hard. I felt flat early on but got in my groove and when I saw Adam at about mile one I thought I might be running pretty decent since Adam has a good run. I only saw him briefly as he picked up the pace since he said he didn't want me to catch him and he was soon out of sight once again. I ran negative splits and picked off many that started in the waves ahead of me (there were six minute intervals between waves and I was the 4th of 5 waves) I finished strong and crossed through the finishing banner in 8th overall, 1st in the 40-49 age group and 3rd. overall in the 35-49 wave. I was racing with 2nd in my age group which I didn' know....I just know he and I were having a nice run battle going on and I ended up gapping him on the uphill section and then kept it going down and over the bridge and through the finish to beat him by a mere 10 or 12 seconds, that was good racing.

Next race is the TOTV road race where I will without a doubt get my ass handed to me in a paper sack!

Reagan Park Time Trial

2011-06-20T19:28:00.000-04:00

Race #1 in the 331 Racing NEO Power Series. Over 200 racers showed for this event which was 8.5 miles of technical, switchy single track. This is the first time that I have ridden this whole course so I really didn't know what to expect. Gregg Brekke, Chris Simmons and I rode a section of the Huffman Park trail before the race just to get the legs going and I thought this was going to be a fun race. The trails for the most part were dry, there were a few muddy sections and a couple creek crossings and all in all a nice course, but very twisty. I'm not the best at technical singletrack while riding fast but I aim to get better and my intent is to race more mountain bike this year to prepare for cyclo cross and also to mix up the racing.
I thought I had a pretty decent race with only a few bobbles and one hard crash on a slippery rocky section just into the Hufman side, where I found out quite a few others crashed hard too. I rode hard and my average heart rate of 170 bpm proved it, but only managed a 6th. age group placing which I'm blaming that on all the guys ahead of me that ride full suspension 29ers and that I'm still riding a 28" hardtail........nah just kidding, my technical skills just suck badly. I raced mountain bikes way back when and I now have to regain my tech skills if I want to be up in the placings which I do because I forget how much fun I have riding and racing mountain bikes.

Congrats to my Lake Effect team mates and friends for their placings yesterday as well!

Clays Park Triathlon

2011-06-12T15:38:00.001-04:00

Went into this race not really knowing what to expect since I haven't been running all that much due to a tender knee and it's also the first tri of the year for me. I've honed my swim alot over the winter doing alot of intervals and technique work and have been on the bike quite a bit, so I felt confident there. My plan was to take the swim out hard, transition quick, get in a strong bike and then let the run be what it was. The swim was good, I was in the group of three that exited first, quite a bit ahead of the pack. Transitioned fast and was off on the windy bike course. My legs were feeling pretty decent all week so I was hoping they would feel good today as well. I got a few climbs under me in the early part of the bike and was feeling good, I could tell my legs were going to respond well to the climbing on the out part of the course and then it was a fast back section since it was mostly downhill. I used my road bike for this race with the 404's since it climbs way better than the P2C and I figured it would benefit me more on the climb out and I could get fairly aero on the way back, which was the case. I had a strong bike and my position stayed the way it was out of the water, 3rd in the 40+ group.

T-2 went fast once again then I was out on the run. I didn't feel any discomfort in my knee (which I was concerned about) and I was catching and passing quite a few of the 39 and under group. I was running about 25-30 yards behind the 2nd. place 40+ guy the whole run but could not close the gap on him. I got close one time but went anerobic, I was having a good race so far and didn't want to kill it so I backed it down just a hair under anerobic and ran steady to the end to finish 1st in my age group, 9th overall and 3rd in the 40+ group, not a bad race and I felt good.

Tony raced well to finish 1st in his age group and 5th overall after some pretty intense cramping in his calves. He hasn't been putting as much training time in as he did last year due to school but the training he is doing is paying off.

Hats off to my BAFF tri team mates for racing strong and all getting top age group results.

Mohican and Pymatuning

2011-05-29T17:16:00.001-04:00

Got in two great rides over the weekend, Saturday was a 10 man group ride on the mountain bikes at Mohican State Park which are the best mtb trails I have ever ridden. Next weekend is the Mohican 100 and 100k mountain bike races. I don't think I'm going to be doing either one of those races but will be doing the 331 mountain bike series which starts in a few weeks with the Reagan Park TT. We had a great ride Saturday with 2,400' of climbing and just absolutely the best singletrack, it was a great day.

Today we did a group road ride starting at Pymatuning Lake that Jim Behrens organized, riding in and out of Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was hot and windy which made the ride hard and the pace was pretty good, averaging 21 mph for 54 miles with the last four miles in the 25-28 mph range, good stuff and everyone rode very strong today.

I had a decent week on the bike this week getting in almost 200 miles. I would really like to get to Westlake this Tuesday since the weather looks like it's going to be okay for a change so hopefully everything works out.

Hope everyone that went to Michigan this weekend had a good race.

Heres a pic from Mohican after a loop.

OMBC #3 the Grassman

2011-05-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a super hard race this was. Not yet accustomed to the heat which was 85* and sunny, which was actually nice rather than 60 and rain. The course was mainly dry with a few mud sections, but nothing major. The laps were around 5 miles long with over 700' of climbing per lap with some very steep grades 16-17% for over a mile a.k.a Heart Attack Hill and some technical single track, a few rocky areas and some single track through jeep trails, actually all equaled alot of suffering. My legs felt good on the 10% grades but those nasty steep ones I had to walk my bike as did EVERYONE else, we could have ran the whole course much faster than we did racing it on our bikes, and I don't know if I would really call this one a race as it was more a death march.

I was at the the end of my three lap Master 40-49 race with about 500 meters to go on an uphill gravel road when the inside of my left quad decided it was going to knot up and not let me pedal anymore. I hopped off the bike and tried to run to the finish and the cramp was so excruciatingly painful I literally thought I was going to pass out, and believe me I can handle some pain. I froze dead in my tracks sitting 3rd overall at that point when one of my age group guys came by, I could not take a step forward, it was crazy. Lynn saw me and started to walk towards me and asked if I needed water but I had some, it eased up somewhat and I climbed back on my bike and rode to the finish. Not the finish I would have liked (5th) and especially to see guys going past me and there was nothing I could do about it. I hydrated what I though was enough and took in gels and two packs of Clif Blocs, but evident-ally that wasn't enough. I know I wasn't the only one suffering out there as the race director said it was the most DNF's ever for an OMBC series race.

We definitely got our money's worth.

RATL

2011-05-08T19:43:00.001-04:00

Stretched the legs out a little on Saturday and was pretty active for my first race this year, finished 9th and felt pretty decent, Westlake this Tuesday with Chippewa Creek coming up this Sunday. Nice 44.5 miler today in the beautiful weather....

PA weekend

2011-05-02T19:03:00.002-04:00

Spent three days at Doug's cabin and we all could have spent much longer there, it's such a great place to train, relax and spend quality time with family and friends. We swam at the Oil City Y on Friday night since it was raining and we didn't have a whole lot of time to get out on the bikes and followed it up by a great, but late dinner at a nice little Italian place in Franklin called Leonardo's. We loaded up for Saturday's training ride which consisted of 50 miles with 4,500' of climbing with perfect weather conditions. Tony and Nick drove up for the day too so Tony could ride and then left later that afternoon. We headed down to Slippery Rock later on to North Country Brewing for some dinner and a few micro brews which by the way were awesome. We had some Cherry Garcia's and Firehouse Red's which I highly recommend if anyone is ever down that way along with a few steak sandwiches, burgers and sweet potato fries, after spending three plus hr's on the bike, the food and beers tasted very good! Here's the website for the brewery. http://northcountrybrewing.com

Sunday we woke up to rainy conditions but headed down to Franklin for two loops of the Deep Hollow road loop. Deep Hollow road is over four miles long with a 5% grade with a sweet fast downhill back into Oil City where we took a road that parallels the Allegheny River back to the start of the loop. We were feeling pretty good so we took the hill pretty hard both times along with the flat back to the start where on the second loop on the flat Doug was feeling pretty good and kept the speed around 25 mph, Don and I weren't feeling quite that good and stayed a few bike lengths behind....... ;-) It actually only rained on us for the last five miles of the second loop, but we got soaked to the bone within that time. We loaded up the bikes and headed back to shower, pack up and say our goodbye's till next time.

Tour of the Big Creek Valley

2011-04-22T12:40:00.000-04:00

aka the Flanders ride, is tomorrow at 10:00 am leaving from the LeRoy Fire Station. Jim Behrens mapped out another Spring Classics course which involves about 2500' of climbing in a 35 mile loop. Going to be a good one. A few of us are planning on riding extra mileage also.

Next weekend we're heading to Doug's in PA to get in a good weekend of training. We're planning on three days of Allegheny Mountainous riding with a swim and run workout thrown in for good measure. Looking forward to it.

Going to do the last Covered Bridge race and the last two RATL's. Looking forward to the Chippewa Creek race too even though I know that one is going to hurt big time. Have some MTB races on the schedule coming up too, so things are coming together with the training and racing.

Have a nice Easter weekend everyone.

Getting race ready

2011-04-17T14:47:00.000-04:00

We've been having some pretty intense bike workouts and training rides lately and I feel like I'm about ready to race. My knee is still feeling just a bit twingy if that's an actual word but I'm able to put some good power to it. I'm going to start with the 2nd. RATL race since the first one which is next Saturday is the Flanders style ride that Jim Behrens is putting on starting near the LeRoy TT course. He has a 35 mile loop mapped out riding in and out of the Big Creek Valley to Chardon and back which consists of steep hills, both short and steep and longer and steep. He said there is around 3500' of climbing in the 35 mile loop.

Got in a good 30 mile ride with Ray Huang, Craig Hannibal and Dave Berlecamp this morning from Squires Castle in some brutal winds, climbed strong and managed to get a run in before the ride started and my knee felt good, so I think I'll start hitting the track a couple times a week now, hopefully on a consistent basis.

See you all soon.

Roubaix re-cap

2011-04-11T17:32:00.002-04:00

It was a Great day for the Roubaix and I would have to say it was by far the best course Jim has yet designed and the most riders too at 25. We rolled out sharply at 11:00 am and once we hit the first sector of gravel / dirt the race was on. We were in full race pace with guys launching attacks and taking strong pulls at the front and actually picking up the pace in the bad sections. It was more than I expected and I thought that if this keeps up we're going to make fast work of this course. I looked down at my computer at one point in a very rutty dirt gravel section and it read 27 mph, that's not too shabby. We would regroup at stop point sections and as soon as we would get together once again it was gravel road racing at it's best. Jim found a really neat long narrow, gravel climb out in the middle of nowhere, I though coming into this climb that it was going to be pretty neat to hit this climb at a reasonable pace and enjoy the scenery......wrong! Emilio Poggio hit the front and drilled it and from there it was a full on attack to the top and once at the top we downshifted and kept the speed high until the next stop point so we could once again regroup. There were several more attacks off the front and some of us that missed the turns had to ride like hell to catch back on the main group. Once recovered we would go again until a break of 5 of us stuck with about six miles left and it was full gas to the end. Three of the five had road bikes and two of us had cross bike and cross gearing. I was one that had a cross bike with cross gearing and spent legs from being one that missed a crucial turn and had to ride hard to catch back on. I got popped out of the break group with about three miles to go and TT'd in solo for 5th. with 700x34 cross tires at between 21-22 mph. Rolling in the parking lot I was spent but very happy with the day, the course and the way we all rode, it was definitely great race training.

Jim once again has did so much work to make this ride happen. He had a six prize raffle afterwards with some nice swag from local businesses. We all sat around for a while had a few cold Belgian beers, ate some fruit and talked about the upcoming Flanders type ride that we're going to have in a few weeks and then left for home. It was a great day and a great ride again all thanks to Jim.

Roubaix weekend

2011-04-09T08:31:00.001-04:00

Jim Behrens' 7th annual N.E.O. Roubaix ride is this Sunday, new course, new starting location but all the same types of rural roads with some Euro type gravel / dirt climbs. In a few weeks Jim has planned a Flanders type road ride as well. We'll be riding in and out of the Big Creek Valley which has more steep hills than riding in and out of the Grand River Valley. The ride will consist of somewhere around 3000'+ of climbing, distance is to be determined but this would be a great group training day for those racing Chippewa Creek next month.

We've been increasing the bike mileage lately and also the intensity of the rides. We've been feeling pretty good so we're going to give the fitness a test starting with the RATL series. I'm opting out of the Valley series this year so Tony and I will be able to race on Saturday's together, since he has classes on Sunday's. We did ride some hot laps of the Valley course on Thursday and I hope that the back side of the course doesn't cause any damage to rider and machine, even though the holes are patched, it's till a mess.

Swimming is status quo, although we've increased the length of our long intervals to 500 meters, still keeping the 100s and 150's though. We've been putting in between 2700 and 3000 meters per workout which is quite alot since we're not doing any 70.3's this season, but it does wonders for the fitness and will make the Olympic and Sprint distances all the better.

Trying to get in a few runs per week too as long as my knee will let me. The impact of running seems to make the knee sore the next day. If it's still not 100% by the time Clays Park rolls around in June I'm going to skip the season opener and wait for July August and September and hopefully get three good months of tri racing in. I'm going to concentrate heavily on cyclocross this year so I want to come into the season at my best and not have to worry about injuries.

Well it's off on the bikes now.

Later all.

Opening day

2011-04-01T18:40:00.000-04:00

for the Indians today. It sure is nice to see baseball again after the cold hard winter we've had here in Cleveland and across N.E. Ohio. The day started off with snow and 33 degrees at eight this morning and I thought for sure it was going to be another typical dreary cold day but it cleared up nicely for the start of the game. The tribe ended up loosing to the White Sox 15-10 but they went down fighting and look promising for the 2011 season.

Tony and I rode our time trial bikes to the running track today too and laced up the running shoes for a tempo paced 5k. It felt great to get back on the track again and to run on a soft surface which I think I'm going to keep doning until I get more of a base under me and I see that my knee is going to be able to handle running three days per week. Everything felt good and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it only get's better from here since tri season is only a few months away.

Valley Circuit races start next weekend but I'm committed to Jim Behrens' Roubaix ride on Sunday. I've rode this ride every year so far and Jim does a wonderful job mapping out a course and making sure everything goes just right. This year's ride starts from Orwell and is a totally different course than last year's, so it should be very challenging and very fun at the same time.

See you all in a few weeks.

S.O.B.

2011-03-28T17:58:00.000-04:00

Its been cold.....This would be great if it were January, but it's almost April......

Great weather for lingerie football!

Getting back to normal

2011-03-24T17:42:00.000-04:00

We've been having a pretty decent week and the weekend looks like it's going to be cold but at least dry and sunny, so decent riding. Been doing some shorter but strong swims and I even got a 5k run in after a swim earlier in the week, so the knee is definitely getting better. Looking forward to some warm weather coming up so I can start riding to and running at the track...in my shorts. Local Spring bike racing is starting up shortly, see most of you there.

Ciao

Xllent training ride

2011-03-20T15:29:00.000-04:00

today starting from the Brecksville Reservation. We had 10 teammates show up for A COLD start which was 33 degrees at 9:00 am. We headed out going down hill from the top of Brecksville Rd down the Chippewa Creek road race hill and I was so cold I was shivering which caused my bike to start wobbling while doing nearly 40 mph. I thought this isn't going to be good to crash going this fast especially on a brand new bike. I soon warmed up though as we turned left onto Riverview and started to climb out of the valley. Everyone rode well and took good pulls at the front. We did 62 miles, climbed over 3000' and averaged a decent 18 mph, which is a perfect training paced ride, good day today everyone!

Team training rides

2011-03-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

Group training ride yesterday from Bike Authority. Great conditions at ride time which was 4:00 pm. Clear skies and warm temps. We did 42 miles with 2000' of climbing and a few sign sprints here and there ;-). Weather permitting, we're going to try to make this a weekly ride.

My new Felt FC

2011-03-11T17:14:00.000-05:00

Built up today at Bike Authority, Thanks for everything once again Bike Authority, Rudy and Chris, you guys are awesome!

Felt FC

2011-03-11T06:45:00.000-05:00

Making the drive this morning to Bike Authority to build my new Felt FC frame. Earlier in the week before we heard about this snowstorm that seemed to sneak up on us, we were going to build the bikes and then drop into the CV for a little riding, but that's a no go now with a snow storm that is covering all of Northern Ohio once again. I'm swapping components from my Cannondale Super Six over to the new Felt and Tony's building up the Super Six with the parts from his CAAD9. It should feel like summer in the bike shop this morning with the bike building and talk about races and such, that is until we look outside. New carpet for the house is coming in the morning, we tore out all the old stuff last night and are excited about the new stuff tomorrow....yup, I'm at least doing my part to keep the economy going...................:-/

I'll post a pic later today of the bikes.

Later

Good day today

2011-03-08T19:17:00.002-05:00

even though my legs were not the best, still a decent training ride for this time of the year.

New shoes

2011-03-05T19:51:00.002-05:00

Bont A 2's, Super nice shoes, light and very stiff. Mold-able carbon fiber with a nice ratchet velcro closure system, if they don't help me go faster this year, they'll sure look good.

Thanks to Mike, Rudy, Sean and Chris for hooking me up with them today and for breaking out the toaster oven!

Working on form

2011-03-03T18:33:00.002-05:00

We've been out on the bikes quite a bit lately and the form is coming along. We've just been doing endurance, climbing and a little bit of tempo with a sprint finish at the end of the rides with no sprint intervals or hard tempo sets yet. Tonight was the best ride yet, we did our local 35 mile climbing loop which consists of short steep hills and some steady state long tempo climbs which equaled a good solid two hour training ride . Legs are coming along and the knee is feeling pretty good on the bike, good stuff!

Heres the Garmin
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71111604

Warmer weather

2011-02-27T16:10:00.001-05:00

is on the way this week. After tomorrow's rainstorm it looks like we're in for some nice stuff for a change and it looks like we're turning the corner to warmer weather. This week was a decent week for training, I got about 100 miles in on the bike, two days being outside, a couple good swims and some strength work. It's been three weeks since I have ran and my knee is feeling better yet, hopefully in another three weeks I'll be good to go on it as far as running is concerned. I'm going to start off lightly and definitely not over do it, my fitness should be decent from swimming and biking so maybe it won't take too long to get back into running form.

I'm planning on doing the spring bike races this season with more mountain bike races and some Xterra running races. Tri season should be pretty much the same as last year with the exception of the Dam Tri in Meadville P.A. which has been replaced with the Raccoon Rally road and mountain bike race weekend, which is a great weekend by the way. I would like to do a few more time trials this year as well and if the schedule permits, do the Ohio State TT again this year. Planning on a full cross season again with possibly a few more races and I'm really gunning for the Cat.3 45+ Masters Ohio State jersey this year. I was close this past year with a 3rd. place podium and a few crashes that cost me, so if all goes well.............

Just now wrapped up the indoor home improvement projects, we went way above what we were originally going to do. One thing lead to another and next thing you know we're three months into it. That's okay things needed to be done and now that the nice weather is close I don't have to worry about them this summer and most of all Lynn is happy!

Hope all is well with everyone and see you all soon.

Pic. from todays ride going up a three mile climb.

Pretty good week

2011-02-20T13:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was two weeks and my knee is feeling better, still sore and twingy but I was able to get into the weight room and get a few swims and bike workouts in. Yesterday Tony, Kevin and I got out for for an hour and forty minutes with some climbing and riding in 30+ mph wind gusts, it felt good to get outside and off the trainer and my fitness was pretty good and I felt good on the climbs. We did a endurance, base paced ride, but with the wind it felt much harder and my average wattage showed. Today I got 2000 meters in the pool with an hour in the weight room again and felt good, so hopefully in another month or so I'll be able to get back to some running...hopefully!

Been working in the house still, we just finished up the kitchen so I think I'm done for a while so now I'm going to be concentrating more on the training. The weather is going to be getting better so I'm excited to be able to be getting outside on the bike.

Heres the Garmin from our base ride yesterday and a couple pics of the kitchen......
href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69170483">http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69170483

Catch y'all later

Things are looking up

2011-02-12T14:54:00.003-05:00

It's been one week today since I re-injured my knee and one week since I did any type of physical exercise other than every day stuff like walking/hobbling and work stuff. I wanted to take one week off and just come home from work and put the knee and leg up and let things sort of calm down. It's better today than it has been all week but it's still stiff when I get up from sitting and I can definitely feel it when I walk, which that is getting better too. This morning Tony and I hit the gym for some upper body, legs and core work. While Tony was on the leg sled I grabbed the 45 lb. bench press bar to do a few squat like exercises to see if I would feel any pain in the knee. None what so ever...hmm this is a good thing, but the middle of the knee isn't what hurts it's the medial side of the knee but on the outer bony part, but still, I didn't feel a thing. I did calf work on the leg sled and didn't feel pain either, but didn't do any leg sled pushes, I don't want to chance it. We finished up our workout, stopped at Home Depot to buy a new kitchen faucet and headed home to get in a short trainer workout before Tony had to head to work.When I finally got on the bike and started to pedal the knee felt fine. I kept it fairly conservative while doing some single leg drills but could have gone harder, but again I'm not pushing anything hard yet for a while!. I could feel a little twinge in the knee on the single leg drills but nothing big and when I clipped back in with the right foot my left knee actually felt better. We finished up, I stretched, removed the old faucet and installed the new one, took a shower and now here I am, telling everyone that my knee is getting better.......things are looking up!

Thanks for reading

It is what it is

2011-02-06T14:55:00.000-05:00

Well, this winter season so far hasn't been very good to me in terms of feeling all that well. Maybe because I ramped up my running mileage a little too quick after cyclocross season or it could have been that I was doing a little too much trail running which left me feeling quite sore and somewhat injured. It started off in November when we were doing a group trail run at the North Chagrin when I rolled and sprained my ankle on a rock hidden in all the leaves. I managed to train and race (cyclocross) through it and it eventually got better, but not completely healed. After cross season was over we started running primarily on the trails, my ankle was still tender but nothing that I hadn't experienced many times before. As the mileage progressed so did my aches and pains especially in my feet and ankles. I know they were caused by the uneven trail surfaces and all the snow that we had got which makes for hard running. I would come home and stretch, take my Recoverite and a couple of Ibuprofen's and everything would be alright.

One afternoon a month ago Tony and I did a trail run at the outdoor YMCA in the snowy and rutty conditions and my feet and ankles were sore and tight. We only ran four miles that night because I told Tony that I was really sore and that I didn't want to over do it. Went home, took a shower and went out into the family room to stretch out, since I was still warm from the shower. I knelt down on the floor and leaned my body backward for a upper thigh stretch and when I did that I felt a hard stretch and maybe even a possible tear on the inside of the left knee, not on the inside of the knee where the ACL or Medial Collateral is but on the inside on the outer part of the knee where the membranes of the tendons attach to the upper tibial bone. I have always had a tight left knee and have had knee pain in that area before from stretching. Well I knew after I did it, I might have overdid the stretch and everything was most likely tight from everything being sore from all the running that I was doing. I took a week off of running and then Tony and I did a short easy run before the trainer workout just to see if the knee was getting better. We ran for about a mile and a half warm up and the knee felt sore but not painful. I continued to ride every so often and swim about four days a week while the knee still healed. About a week later we did our local 5k run around the neighborhood to see how well the knee was progressing. We did a faster negative split run starting off at at 7:15 pace and ending with a 6:40 pace for the last mile. I knew when I got home that it was too much too soon so I stopped running outside and did a few elliptical workouts and an easy treadmill workout, all while still doing a few bike workouts on the trainer and still swimming.

Yesterday I made a trip to Fleet Feet to pick up a new pair of cushioned shoes since I was feeling the best I have felt in the past month. I was going to come home and try another easy 5k neighborhood run and see how the knee was. I was very eager to try the new shoes and was excited to get out and run a short distance so I could say YES, I'm feeling better and I can at least get out on the roads for a few short runs a week. I headed out and my knee was feeling pretty good and the Type A in me was saying you can pick up the pace, but I ran very conservatively and looked at my watch at mile one and I was just slightly over eight minutes, not bad. I hit a mile and a half and was stopped dead in my tracks with the same knee pain in the same place as before. I didn't continue to run and walked the rest of the way home thinking the worst thought I could think. Am I going to be able to run again?, Am I going to need surgery? Am I ever going to be able to race again? Please God, help me. I know..I've always had a tendency to over think things and sometimes I'm a bit of a pessimist especially when it come to a personal injury. Well here I am now, after hours of internet searching of what the possibilities of this injury could be. Lynn and I have it tracked down to a strained, or possibly sprained medial retinaculum which is connective tissue that help stabilize the medial and lateral side of the knee and my knee is bony enough that I can actually see and put my finger on the spot that is painful, and as I said I can actually see the band of tissue coming from my knee cap, so there is no swelling, just discomfort. I have decided and have to, take six weeks off of running and take this whole week off with just rest and then begin easy swimming with some bike stuff starting next week.

I know I'm probably making this whole thing out to be more than it is, but this has made me realize, as I should have anyway, that you have to listen to your body and with some things you just can't work through and you have to have the discipline to just say no. If I would have did that I would not be sitting here writing this... Oh well, it is what it is.

Thanks for listening.

E-Life

2011-02-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

I have just became a follower of the E-Life! Nate Loman's blog, excellent athlete and good friend. Nice work bud.

I don't know

2011-01-29T16:31:00.002-05:00

I think it's seasonal disorder syndrome that I'm going through. I'm so sick of seeing gray skies every day with ugly dirty snow along the roads and not being able to see while driving without the windshield wipers going while draining the wiper fluid bottle. It wouldn't be so bad if it would just snow and then the sun come out, but I believe that one weather man said that within the last 59 days, 50 of them were thick cloud cover and the other nine being only partly sunny...... damn already! I know I'm not telling you anything any different than what you're all going through too, but I just hope that come the spring, when we all do start bike racing, that everyone is slow from not doing that much training cause the weather sucked so bad....but I know that won't be the case, just another reason to be depressed......

One good thing about this crap weather is that the inside of my house got some new lovin'. Oh well, maybe February will be a little better, it sure can't get much worse. Thanks for listening to me bitch.

Later.

Not much bloggin'

2011-01-22T18:09:00.000-05:00

happening lately. It's cold as hell outside so I've still been in the pool alot and riding the trainer. Tony and I went for a tempo 5k run on Thursday to test the knee out since I've been dealing with some strained tendons in my knee from over stretching while cold and tight, did a negative split run and felt really good but the knee wasn't feeling the same. I'm going to shut down the running for a while till there's no more discomfort so I'll be able to run later on. I've bought a compression sleeve for the knee and that seems to help along with Ibuprofen. Swimming and riding doesn't bother it, just the pounding of running.

We wanted to do the Nordic Flurry XC ski race this morning but decided to go to the pool instead, that was hard but I didn't want to put the pressure on the knee, Tony, being the ultimate son, training partner and friend said that he was going to stick with me no matter what, and said if I couldn't race he wasn't going to race either.......I Love ya Tony!

Tomorrow is going to be cold as hell again, but I think I'm going to be getting out on the mountain bike for a while and tool around the nursery roads. Hope everyone is healthy and training smart at this time of year, see everyone soon.

Status quo

2011-01-10T19:15:00.002-05:00

Well I'm not doing anything much different than anyone else at this time of the year training wise. We're getting outdoors on the bikes as the weather allows and have been running and swimming quite a bit, we even did a track workout last Wednesday. The weather was cold but nice, so we rode to the track and did a 1600 warm up and then 4x400 at 1:20 with a 400 jog in between, then a 1600 cool down. It felt good to turn the legs over on the track again and we even ran them at a pretty decent pace for this time of the year. Last week we got four swim workouts in also which equaled nearly seven miles with intense intervals. The stroke and kicking is much stronger than in the past due to the drills we're doing as well. The trainer is, well, still the trainer...A necessary evil for those of us that live in this part of the country. I do think we're going to be getting out on the Greenway trail on the mountain bikes coming up though, just to be able to ride outside some.

This weekend we have a Lake Effect Team meeting / party at Bike Authority with possibly a team group ride before, so I'm looking forward to seeing our teammates that I haven't seen since road season and also everyone that I raced cross with. On Monday we also have a Bike Authority / Fleet Feet triathlon team meeting, so I'll be back in the neighborhood once again, which is a good thing.

Started and finished another home project. This time we redid the master bedroom. Stripped all the wallpaper, border and some trim. New paint and some new trim and it looks like a brand new room.

Only two more bedrooms to paint and that concludes new paint throughout the whole house.

Catch y'all later

Good week

2011-01-02T11:57:00.003-05:00

This past week was genuinely a good training week, mixing up the workouts nicely. Sun., Mon. and Tues. were all ski days since the snow was perfect and the conditions were awesome. Got out a day at Chapin and two days at Girdled. Wednesday I tried to get into the pool at my not normal time, but since it was Christmas / New Years break, every kid in Mentor was hangin out at the pool, so no swim for me on Wed. I went home and got on the trainer and spun easily for :45 and then slipped on the running shoes and did a nice 5k run around the neighborhood. Thursday was a planned longer trail run since I had my last 1/2 day of vacation. We headed up to the North Chagrin and got in almost 10 miles in the trails, and they were good solid miles where you feel good. Not that they were blazing fast miles, just solid, feel good miles, the speed will be ramping up within the next month. Friday we headed off to the pool once again to see if we could possibly get a morning workout in but again no chance, so we headed home, suited up and got out on the road bikes for 30+ miles with about 1500' of climbing. Saturday was another planned long trail run at Penitentiary Glen and Holden Arboretum but we knew the trails were going to be really wet and possibly icy and definitely muddy, so we left from home and did a combo. nursery road and regular road run. We did 11 miles with some nice hills and actually ran negative splits with the last four miles being our fastest. Again not setting the world on fire with fast miles, but we averaged a solid eight minute mile for 11.07 miles with some long uphills and muddy nursery roads, so all in all not a bad run. This morning we were able to get into the pool for a 2700 meter workout with our main set being 16x100 meter ascending and descending intervals on 2:10, along with kicks and drills. The almost week off of the pool left my shoulders feeling strong and my technique felt good too...The technique and kicking drills are paying off.
This coming week will be easier, more of a cruise week and also starting one TT bike trainer workout per week.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year...now back to reality.

Later

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

Nice longer run of 11.07 miles this morning to bring in the New Year after a 30 mile hilly bike ride yesterday. Took some Recoverite and a hot shower afterwards and felt good. Getting ready for the traditional New Year day dinner of pork roast and sauerkraut. Happy New Year everyone!

Three days in a row

2010-12-28T19:47:00.002-05:00

Sunday we ski'd at Chapin for about 2 1/2 hrs in the best conditions and I felt great. Tony, Julie, Rudy, Daryl, Larry and I along with many other's out for a post Christmas day workout. We got out about 9:00 just after the course was groomed and it was awesome. Monday I ski'd at Girdled for an hour and a half and today I was at Girdled again for an hour and fifteen for a three day total of 40 miles with mucho climbing. Looks like tomorrow might be the last day for skiing around here for a while since it's going to warm up and hit the high 40's by the weekend and start raining. Might be doing a long group trail run this weekend at Holden, running the Old Valley and the Woodland trails....epic stuff right there!

Christmas Day ride

2010-12-25T13:27:00.002-05:00

Tony and I headed out this morning after all the gifts were unwrapped, the coffee was drank and everything was tried on just to make sure everything fit. The food was starting to be prepared so we thought too many cooks spoil the soup and suited up for a couple hrs. outside on the mountain bikes. It was great conditions with hardly any wind and the temperature at 28 degrees. We got in 1:45 with 800' of climbing during a great ride.

Yesterday we did a 10.2 mile trail run starting at Penitentiary Glen. We ran over to the Holden Arboretum and ran the Old Valley Trail which is awesome singletrack with a a sweet creek crossing, a huge sections of steps, bridges and steep hills. We ran up into the Arboretum and looped back down the Valley trail and back up to PG where we ran the 5k NERC xc loop. Garmin said we climbed almost 1,000', what a great trail system over there.

Tomorrow we're getting out on the ski's at Chapin for a few hours. We're going earlier so we can ski before the trails get all packed down and slippery.

Merry Christmas everyone!

New bindings

2010-12-23T18:37:00.000-05:00

Made a trip out to Ferdl Astor's today to pick up a new pair of ski bindings since I broke one a few weeks ago. I got the Fischer Profil's in place of the Salomon's that I had before, they're the same bindings and the holes are the same so they were easy to replace. Looks like more snow is on the way, although not too much but Chapin and Girdled has a nice base so it looks like we're skiing this weekend.

Shortest day of the year

2010-12-21T19:59:00.000-05:00

today aka the Winter Solstice....It's all uphill from here folks! We completed a two week home interior re-do, painting, trim, some new furniture, etc..... and after the Holiday's we are going to re-do the bedrooms, mainly just repainting and re-trimming, not that big a deal.
Running and swimming has been going well since cross season has ended and also with a few trainer sessions and some mtb and cross bike outdoor rides and little xc skiing, the training has been fun. Going to start back with the Masters swimming classes after the first of the year also, I'm feeling better in the water now than ever so hopefully the classes will make it even better yet, they're hard, but worth the efforts.
Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 is still on tap for May with some trail running races and a xc ski race or two slated for this winter. Hope to see some of you on the running trails and or Chapin Forest for a little skiing over the Holidays.

Peace

Ice Armor X glove update

2010-12-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

We set out this morning on the mountain bikes in 17* temperatures...damn cold and kinda crazy to be riding outside, but hey, it's beats the hell out of the trainer and it's not like we were out time trialling. Had plenty of base layers on and we were actually warm the whole ride which lasted 1:55. My hands were the warmest they have ever been in these temperatures while riding the bike. They were actually sweating a little when I removed the gloves after the ride, I would definitely recommend these gloves to anyone looking for an extreme cold weather glove for any outdoor activity, not just bike riding.

Thanks for reading.

Check these out

2010-12-18T16:02:00.000-05:00

I've always battled numb fingers and hands in the winter, especially while riding so I thought some ice fishing web sites may be a good place to find a warm, flexible, cold weather glove that would be a good glove for riding, since none of the winter bike gloves that I have ever had or tried were warm enough. I found these gloves on a site that are made by Ice Armor and they also sell the whole line at Gander Mountain which happens to only be about six miles from my house. This particular glove, the Ice Armor X is very flexible so you won't have a problem with shifting or holding on to the hoods. They have a velcro strap to tighten around your wrist, also a small zippered pocket on top of the hand which my first thought would be if you wanted to stick one of those small hand warmers inside it would even add to the warmth. The glove comes halfway up my forearm with another drawstring for added warmth along with 70 grams of Thinsulate. I paid $40 for these gloves but they have all different prices on the different ones. I'll give a follow up on just how warm they are tomorrow since we have a two hour ride planned for the morning.

Damn it's cold

2010-12-15T18:52:00.000-05:00

Snow systems and bitter cold temperatures have caused us to move the workouts indoors for the past 4 days except for Monday when Tony and I ran a 5k outside in blizzard like conditions. It was actually a good run on snow covered streets 18 degrees and 30+ mph winds. The few cars that passed us had to think either to themselves or out loud that those guys are nuts to be out in this stuff, but it was a pretty good run, that stuff makes you appreciate the nice conditions..... We've been in the pool and rode the trainer yesterday for the first time. We're going to get out on the nursery roads this weekend on the cross bikes or the mountain bikes and a run on the trails and maybe take the bikes on the trails too since there's going to be a break in the weather action.

Cav's and Heat on tonight from Miami. This time no LeBron bashing from the Cleveland fans, just a self predicted Cav's ass kickin from LBJ and his supporting crew. Maybe I'll be able to make it til halftime at least.

Stay warm.

Chapin Forest ski day

2010-12-11T18:39:00.003-05:00

It started off as a potential bad day as I looked in the rear view and saw a Kirtland Hills Police SUV behind me with flashers a blazin' while driving/speeding down Markell Rd. So I pull over and the officer walks very slowly up to my truck with his hand on his sidearm and asks me for my license, which I already had out, I handed it to him and then asked him if it was a speed violation that I was being stopped for and he said yup! He asked me if I knew what the speed limit was and I said 35? he said nope, 25 and I politely asked him how fast I was going, he answered 45.....Ooops! He saw my ski's and gear in the truck and asked if I was going to Chapin to ski and I said yes I was. He asked if I had a ticket within the past year and I said no and then he walked back to the truck to run my license, came back about 10 minutes later and handed me a warning violation and said Merry Christmas.....Hahahahahaha, I said Merry Christmas to you too and Thanks alot and if I had some cold beer with me I'd give you one....No, I didn't say that... So I was on my way to Chapin.

Tony was working at the lodge today and I was going to actually run the course with him while he was on his break, but I brought my ski's with me just in case the conditions were good for skiing. I got there and there were folks out on the ski's so I got my stuff on and headed out. I ended up skiing for an hour and a half until the snow got too sticky to corner and then called it a day. Just as I was finishing up I crossed my ski's and flopped down and broke a ski binding which are Salomon's by the way just in case anyone has an extra that they might be willing to part with.. I didn't get to run which was fine cause Tony ended up having to string lights on the course and couldn't run anyway. We're going to head back there tomorrow to get in a longer run before the world comes to an end with the latest major storm we're going to get tomorrow afternoon.

House project is rolling to an end so it's going to be some full on training come the first of the year, getting ready for Rev3 Knoxville.

Group run

2010-12-05T16:13:00.000-05:00

this morning at the North Chagrin. Tony and I met about 25 runners at the Strawberry Picnic area that are going to do the Run For The Heart trail race in February. This was the first group familiarization run to be held and headed up by Beth Trecasa. We started out as a group but soon it was pretty split up with Tony and I running with the front group of 7. We stayed together until the long steep bridle trail hill near Squires Castle where we split again with Tony, Emily Terlop and me reaching the top gassed but still pushing pretty decently. We got back to the parking lot, grabbed some water and Tony and I headed back out for another loop. We ran a combination of single track and bridle trail on this loop and ran the long bridle trail hill once again pretty strong, in fact my heart rate hit 178 bpm. Once we got to the parking lot for the second time we were at nine miles exactly. We felt good and decided to make it an even 10 so we did a cool down mile on the road to finish the 10 miler in 1:30. Another run that climbed 600' and averaged a nine minute per mile pace, not too bad on this course with the snowy conditions and the hills.

Switching gears

2010-12-03T15:08:00.002-05:00

to running on the trails now that cross season is over. I've been running all week and haven't yet cleaned the mud off of my cross bike from States last Sunday, just hung it up and there she hangs......I'll get to it eventually though I'm just not in any hurry. Stopped at Fleet Feet today and saw Ed for a new pair of trail shoes and he hooked me up with the new Brooks Cascadia 5's. I tend to run more on the outside of my foot rather than pronate (run on the inside of the foot) like most people which makes me more prone to rolling my ankles, especially on uneven surfaces, although more so with my right foot....weird. I was telling him this and he checked me out and suggested the Cascadia. The shoe is very stable but neutral at the same time due to the minimal midsole and outsole and the independently stabilizing pivot points. When I ran in them today at the Girdled Rd. reservation, the feeling they gave me when I first started running was that they keep my foot on a flat plane and almost kind of rolls the foot inward rather than outward, and thats exactly what I need. It's almost like putting spacers on one side of a cleat on a bike shoe to help a mis-alignment problem out. Tony and I ran 6 miles with over 600' of climbing and the shoes felt great for the first time running in them. Hopefully they'll be a good shoe for me and for others that have a similar gate as mine.

Check out http://www.fleetfeetnorthfield.com/

3rd @ States

2010-11-29T17:19:00.012-05:00

Well this race was bittersweet for me since I really wanted to bring the Cat.3 45+ Masters jersey to NE Ohio. The day before the race we previewed the course by riding and doing some hot laps to find our lines and open it up. The course was bone dry and we had our lines picked, tire pressure dialed in and we were feeling pretty confident leaving the park heading back to the motel to head out to chow with Rudy, Julie and Robert.

Race morning we awoke to 28 degrees with a heavy frost and the weather folks calling for 40's near noon and that was my start time. We got to the park for the early races and the course was still pretty firm but as it warmed up the course started to get muddy and like ice in some spot's especially in the singletrack which caused me to change tire pressure three times and pick new lines on my practice laps. As noon approached they threw in a Junior race which set us back 30 minutes...and when you have a pre-race routine and get set back a half hour it throws you off a little, but oh well it's happened before and everyone else had to deal with the same issues.

Once we got called to the start line in the huge Cat.3 fields of Opens, Masters 35+ and Masters 45+ it was hard to see to he front of the starting line from way back to where we were. The 3 opens took off and it was 30 second start intervals in between groups, so 35's took off and then us. As soon as the whistle blew I was on the gas hard up the long road start and into the sweeping grass turn and into the twists and turns of the front section of the course. I was with the leaders of the 45+ group and we had already started to mix in with the 35+ guys. I was keeping the couple 45+ guys close and we were moving up nicely. Through the twists, over the two logs into the singletrack and down the steep 180 run down and up near the road. We took the inside of the run up and remounted the bikes right at the top of the hill and stomped on it once again. Through the twists and into the grass climb through the twists across the road and into the sand. I took the inside line near the tape in the sand and wouldn't you know, I got pushed hard into the tape and totally got tangled up. Guys were flying by and I see last years State jersey pass......dammit! I stayed composed, got my bike unwrapped and took off in hot pursuit. Adrenaline was pumping now and I was making up spots fairly quick. I heard the announcer say as I was approaching the asphalt by the finish that last years State champ was closing in on 2nd.......I was only a few rider's behind last years champ so I buried myself and caught him. I sat on him through the maze area and hit the barriers side by side with him and attacked hard over the barriers and never saw him again. The next few laps I was chasing hard and knew who 2nd was and where he was. On the last lap there were two Cat.3 Opens between me and 2nd. At the 180 run down and up I passed one 3 and was close to 2nd in my 45+ group. I tried my best to catch him on the last 1/4 lap and closed it to within a few seconds on the grass climb near the pit. Through the twists I was right behind, over the road and into the sand I was still right behind but still couldn't pass. Once onto the asphalt I nailed it, got passed the Cat.3 but was just right behind the 2nd. Master 45+. Awesome racing to say the least. I didn't win but made the podium and I'll take it....

Team Lake Effect stood on the podium in nearly all of the races and represented NE Ohio well. Julie won the Cat. 3-4 open, placed well in the singlespeed and Elite womens races. Robert won the 15-16 Junior race and placed well in the Cat.3 open. Nate Loman was 3rd in the Cat.3 35+,Rudy got money in the Elite Masters and Jeff Craft was 3rd Elite Master. Nate Szabo raced strong in the Cat.3 open but had a nasty crash but finished. Matt Weeks was 2nd Elite behind John Card, J.Proppe was top 10 and Tony was close behind in the Elite race.

Congratulations to all of my team mates and everyone from NE Ohio on some great racing!

NEOCX Finale

2010-11-22T16:04:00.004-05:00

Great weather, great racing, and a great turnout for the final race of the NEOCX series on Sunday at Kirtland Park. First I want to thank my family and friends/teammates for working their butts off in every way to make this race happen.

Race day couldn't have been better. Temps were in the high 50's to low 60's and sunny, conditions were dry and fast which led to some fast racing and fast laps. I lined up with the large 60 racer B Open field behind the call-ups and when Go was said I had a good start. I hit the 90 degree corner and then opened it up in the long field to the 90 degree right hand corner and then to the fast downhill. I was making up ground and picking off spots in the tight uphill 180's and then would jump hard

onto the flats. My legs were feeling pretty decent but not as good as the past few weeks and I assume it was due to the amount of work that we did the previous day setting up the course along with some hot laps afterwards. I was now working with the top 6 or so and we were hitting the gas pretty good. We reached the long stair run-up on the East side of the course and we were pretty much together with bikes hitting one another as everyone was trying to get better position. Down the rooty section to the 180 and into the terrace ampitheater to the up-hill switchback behind the tree and everyone rode it well, on the first lap. Out of the ampitheater and onto the road at the top and then the downhill 180 to the West side stair ride/run. Everyone at the front rode up and did pretty well then it was on to the spiral in the ballfield and through the start finish. First lap had max HR of 175 which is 3 clicks off of my max, so I was working hard. The next 2 laps were pretty much the same as the race started to sort itself out. Nate moved up and got by Brent and I as we were battling once again the whole race and eventually caught the leader and ended up winning. We were caught by a group of 2 that Brent and I worked with for a lap or so when things got split up in the field on the last lap and it stayed that way to the finish with me finishing 5th overall and Brent 6th. on a final race that could not have been better in my book, (well I could have won but.....) Hard as hell but a good race. Average heart rate was 168 for 8 hard laps. Afterward Nate, Brent and I did a cool down ride into Cleveland and back in time for the A race.

Matt dominated the A race once again, Paul was 2nd. Johnny 4th and Tony rounded out 10th., which wasn't too damned bad since he only rode the trainer for an hour all week due to work and school. The NEOCX awards were given following the races and afterwards a large group of us headed over to the Happy Dog bar on West 58th and Detroit Ave. for some chow and some well deserved beers, it was a great day and a great end to the NEO cross season.

This weekend is the Ohio State championship races in Yellow Springs near Dayton. We have a large Cleveland area presence going down so hopefully we'll be able to bring home a few State jerseys!

Nice job everyone!

2011 Ohio Xterra

2010-11-19T19:56:00.001-05:00

Trail running calendar....Check out the 8/6 date, nice!

http://www.xterraohio.com/

4th @ Blue Sky

2010-11-15T18:30:00.002-05:00

Had to delete the last post due to technical errors that I didn't know how to fix, so I won't go into as much detail on this one.

Had a pretty poor start and a first lap crash that put me way behind the leaders, so let the chase begin. I worked my way up fairly quick and was feeling pretty strong and was sitting 5th behind Brent Thompson who is a strong very technically sound rider. We worked together for a few laps when I went by him and was now chasing for 3rd. With two laps to go I was at :22 back and closed it the best I could on the last lap and came across the line in 4th :12 off of third. Nice job to the leaders, they rode solid and held their positions under pressure. The hill got me in this race. I don't have toe spikes to get a decent grip and was struggling while climbing....I know everyone else was struggling too it just would have made the climb a little easier with toe spikes...I think I'll do some engineering on my shoes over the winter and put some in.

Tony raced strong finishing 7th in the A race. The ground firmed up a little but it was still a hard race and guys were struggling up that hill too. Nice race T.

Blue Sky Cycles did alot of work to put this race on and a tremendous effort went in to designing and setting this course up for all of us to come and race on and for that I Thank You guys, your whole event was awesome!

Kirtland Park this weekend and it's the last NEOCX race before States, see you out there.

Three more

2010-11-10T19:19:00.003-05:00

cross races left for the season, two in the NEOCX series and then the State Championships. It seemed like the season went by pretty fast too, probably because the local teams stepped up and hosted races of their own rather than us hosting 10 races, which can be very stressing. The series has been going very well this year too with some very good turnouts at all the races.

After cross season triathlon training is going to be ramping up once again with alot of trail running and racing. We've been putting quite a few running miles in during cross season as well with most of them being on the trails. We've been doing group trail runs on Wednesday afternoons at the North Chagrin Reservation and have been getting 5-6 runners each time, which is great. We're still planning on doing the Rev3 Knoxville triathlon in May so it's just going to be longer base stuff after cross season since we're planning on doing the 1/2 IM. and not ramping up the speed for a while yet.

This weekend is the Blue Sky CX race in Euclid with a new venue that we've never raced before, I'm looking forward to it. See you all there.

Cross Your Heart CX

2010-11-08T19:07:00.004-05:00

Spin once again did a first class job on this race, congratulations to you guys and Thank You!

The course was true cyclocross for sure. Mud, hills, spirals, grass flats, concrete, water, 5 dismounts per lap, twists and some running. The course had a nice flow to it and I know everyone had a hard time on the hill so everyone suffered there. I started out in a crappy position and tried to make up some places before going into the first barrier and run up, which I did. Got to the top and passed a few more before blasting down the short steep drop and settled in until the grass outfield area where I jumped again to get near the front of the group before dismounting in the muddy twists to start running. Remounted for a short time until the base of the big hill where I dismounted and shouldered the bike and climbed/slipped my way to the top as fast I could and remounted toward the downhill side. Flew down the other side through the large water, mud area where I caught the leader just at the log dismount. We rode together and started the climb at the base of the sled hill together when I tried to pass on his in

side and ended up stacking it when my pedal got caught on the stake by trying to be a little too aggressive. I endo'd into the tape and was really hoping that I didn't throw the leader off of his climb by my mistake. I got back on and saw that he was now entering the muddy infield and was riding good, pheww, my crash didn't take him out at least! I chased hard and caught back on sitting second wheel past the start/finish when I rode by and was now in the lead. I kept the lead for 3 laps and was watching a rider move closer every lap. On lap 4 he caught me and we rode together for about a half a lap but he was running the hill and climbing better than me and he put a slight gap on me that I couldn't close. I also thought I was getting a rear flat so I pitted and grabbed my mountain bike which I rode for the last lap and a half or so. I wound up finishing second overall and about :30 behind the leader in a great fought race. It was a super hard race but fun at the same time, the way I used to enjoy cross racing and the way I could very well get used to enjoying it again! Thanks for the cheering section too by the way all you *old guys* we all have to stick together.... :-)

The A race started out so fast it was scary and within a lap it was split up already! There were a few nice battles within the race and Tony and Rudy were in one again as they were last year where they were both side by side coming into the final barriers and finish. Rudy finished just ahead of Tony again this year for 8th place and Tony 9th., that was good racing! Matt worked his way up to the front again to get past Steve Twining and Paul to take the win, that was another hard fought battle and Ernie rode his butt off for a great 4th place finish.

Jules rode to a 4th place in the womens open after racing the Iceman Cometh mountain bike race the day before in Traverse City Michigan and with another bruised and possibly broken rib. I think Julie deserves the Ironwoman trophy of the year award this year for racing most of the season injured.

Great racing by all of my team mates once again on a very hard and true cyclocross course, you guys are awesome!

This Sunday is Blue Sky (or not) CX in Euclid, see you there.

My other pastime

2010-11-05T06:39:00.010-04:00

Other than riding bikes, running, swimming and doing endurance sports, is trout fishing. I started trout fishing when my cousin introduced me to it back when he was attending Edinboro University in Pennsylvania nearly 20 years ago. I would say that I have been "hooked" ever since. I started fishing more lately than I have in the past few years mainly because Nick has really gotten into the sport and is quite good at it. It allows Nick and I time together and to share something we both love since he doesn't race endurance events like Tony and I.

We fish mainly for Steelhead trout which are cold water fish and most fishing takes place in the fall, winter and into early spring. Good cold weather gear is an absolute must to stand in the freezing, sometimes ice chunked rivers for hours at a time. Actually the Grand River here in Lake County

is one of the best Steelhead fishing rivers in the country! It's also well worth standing in the cold when you hook into one and it starts taking yards of line out of your reel in an instant. When they hit a fly or spinner and take off, you sometimes have to follow them down river or stream so as to not loose them, keeping your rod high and line tight the whole time. They're very strong and very aggressive fish and that's what makes the challenge so great. We use very light tackle as well. Nick uses a fly rod and I use what is called a noodle rod. Nicks very expensive G.Loomis fly rod coupled with the Okuma reel is like looking at a sweet carbon fiber bike with some 404 tubies not to mention the action on the rod and reel is unparalleled. I use the noodle rod which is a 10' very thin, light action rod with an ultra light Daiwa reel with 6lb. test line and for the most part I fish with 1/16th oz. spinners and an occasional jig or fly.

The fishing has been pretty light so far this fall season but Nick and I have been doing pretty decent when we have gone out. Nick has caught six fish so far with the nicest being over 30" and weighing in at just over 13lb.s which he caught in Big Creek. I'm at five right now with my nicest being 30" and weighing in at 12lb. which I caught in Conneaut Creek. With light tackle and light test line, Steelhead fishing is an awesome challenge.

We also proudly release each and every fish that we catch so other's can enjoy the sport too.

Chagrin Cross Day 2

2010-10-31T17:58:00.002-04:00

Much better day for me today at Chagrin. The B field was loaded and large and when Go was said I didn't get the best jump I've ever had. I was sitting about 8th or 9th for a bit when I made a move to get to the group of 5 that was ahead of us. I bridged to that group and sat on for about a lap until I recovered. On lap 2 on the straight-a-way in the field I jumped the group and established a gap which I hoped would stick and was also hoping that I didn't go too early. I buried myself on lap 3 to get a gap on the 5 man group and also tried to bridge to the 2 man lead group. I had to recover a bit but kept my pace steady and would jump out of each corner and ride the flats strong. I rode the techy sections pretty fast and managed a bobble free race. With 2 to go I was gaining on 2nd since the 1-2 group had split and we both picked up the pace and I wasn't able to catch him. Paul Donatelli (Stark Velo) was the 2nd place guy and he pretty much has the overall B series won with 3 races left to go in the NEOCX series and I can see why, he's fast and a good technical rider. I'm not sure of who won today race but he raced for Pro Bikes and my hats off to him for a great fast race. I managed to roll in for 3rd and in the money since Brett pays to 5 deep in the A's and B's.

Julie was 3rd in the womens open for her 2nd podium in as many days. In the A race Johnny P. was 5th, Tony, Rudy, Jeff C and Robert all raced hard and had strong finishes.

A HUGE shout out to Brett Davis and his parents for hosting this great weekend event again this year and for all the organization, course set up, etc, Thank You All!

Next weekend is Spin's Cross Your Heart race, see you all there.

Chagrin Cross Day 1

2010-10-31T07:51:00.004-04:00

Lined up with the large B field somewhere in the middle and when the "GO" signal went off I worked my way to near the front pretty quick. I was 5th going into the barriers on the first lap and we were moving pretty fast. I had a hard time unclipping with my right foot and when I finally did it was too late and I smashed into the first barrier with my foot. I almost walked over the barriers after that and it took me a while to finally get back to speed again after getting passed by a few ghouls and gobblins, damn thy ankle! Anyhow I kept it at a steady pace for the rest of the race and tried to stay close to Brian Ramsey who had a great race, rode technically sound and did not have any crashes on this twisty, sometimes slippery course.

I sprinted it out at the end for a top 10 finish and enjoyed "racing". I'm hoping for a better result on day 2 that is if my ankle will allow it. Tony did well in a hard fought battle to finish 8th in the A race, Robert around 12th, with Rudy finishing 6th. and Proppe in 3rd. Nice racing you guys, it was fun to watch for a change.

Julie was 2nd in the womens Open and Lori Erwine (Robert's Mom) was 3rd in the womens C, her first race of any kind since before Shimano came out with STI shifters.........Great job Lori!

More to report later on this evening.

P.S. in case your wondering what's up with the costume, the race was a Halloween costume race and if you didn't wear one you would get a :30 penalty.................

Old school cross

2010-10-26T18:14:00.002-04:00

Check this out, this is definitely not your weekend dirt crit race. I wonder how many would come out to race these?

Cyclocross, 1950s-style

No racing

2010-10-22T15:21:00.003-04:00

for me this weekend. I rolled my ankle pretty good again on Wednesday on our first group trail run in the North Chagrin Reservation and it's still pretty sore. It's not that bad of a sprain, maybe around a grade1, 2, I can walk on it and I can ride and put good power to the pedals but I can't dismount and run on it yet. It's very early and I'm not expecting it to heal in just a few days so I'm going to bag the Elyria race this weekend so it'll be good to go for Brett's two day race over Halloween weekend.

I did go out on a nice road ride this afternoon into Kirtland Hills and did some climbing. I ended up with 45 miles and climbed Kirtland Chardon, Mentor, Hermitage, Mitchell's Mills and Morley. A couple swim workouts this weekend with another bike possibly and that'll be good stuff.

Hope everyone races well this weekend in Louisville and Elyria and good luck to you all.

See you all next weekend.

Creek Cross

2010-10-18T19:23:00.003-04:00

Nice job by Kevin Kimmich and his friends the Bartels for allowing us all to invade their property all day. The course utilized the whole property and I don't think that there could have been any more turns put in, it was one helluva hard course with a gravel climb and a grassy/muddy field section that kinda sucked the life out of the legs. The Lemans style start was interesting and without a doubt the best and only way to start this race. Everyone jumped the gun and sprinted to their bikes in a wild frenzy. I stayed off the back not wanting to jamb anyone up through the spiral of death once we all got going. As it was we were running the first lap through the spiral with bikes hitting folks in the head and alot of pushing and shoving going on, kinda reminded me of a triathlon swim start. Once through the sprial it was so strung out already all you could do was try your best to hold the wheel in front of you and not slide out or bobble in one of the thousand corners and if you did your race was over before it even started, as was my situation.........I managed only one slide out but by the time I got through the spiral at the beginning I would say that the leaders were at least 1/4 of a lap ahead of me and with the caliber of racers that were in the race it wasn't going to be long before they came roaring by.

I managed to hold Matt and Paul off until lap 9 of 10 then Lynn pulled the plug on me and told me to take a seat. I snuck off in the weeds where no one saw me and laid down for about 10 minutes till I was able to see somewhat clearly again. My contact was stuck up in my eyelid from about lap 2 and was burning like hell. I tried to get it out after the race but couldn't....not only did I get my ass kicked in this race, I thought I was starting to go blind too!

Proppe once again kicked it for 3rd and Matt got 2nd. with Paul Martin winning. Tony was in a fight with Brent all race long and got 8th. There were only 24 in the A race but it was full caliber with the local top guns present. I came to a final conclusion during this race that I have been kicking around for some time now. I'm just not as strong of a cross racer as I once was and the A race is above my abilities...I'm moving down the B's for the rest of the series so I'm able to *race* and just not hold on for dear life like I have been doing lately. Next season, hopefully there will be a separate Masters race aside from the A's and B's. It works well in other series and especially in the Cincinnati races and not to mention it will thin out some of the B field that can't race in the A's for the same reason as me.

Props go out to all of my Lake Effect team mates in all races, you guys and gal did a great job, I'm proud to have you all as friends and to be able to race with you all.

Elyria cross this weekend......should be a better day!

Peace

UCI Cincinnati

2010-10-12T18:39:00.008-04:00

Beautiful, hot as hell weekend for cyclocross down in the tri state area. Friday we raced in Kentucky at Devou Park where we raced the last 3 years. The course was on the other side of the park this year and none of the previous course was used. This was the hardest most hilliest cross course I have ever raced on, not to mention it felt like holding onto a jackhammer for nearly an hour. The course was extremely dry and bumpy and did I mention hilly? I do believe there was not a flat section on the course and all the corners were either uphill or downhill off camber stuff. I'm not complaining because it was a different course to race on and the folks that set it up did a tremendous job and for that I'm very appreciative. I managed to finish 8th in the Cat.3 Masters 45+ group which I wasn't very happy with, I probably should have been since my cross legs are just now coming into form. I thought Saturday would be a better day.

Saturday we moved North to Middleton and raced in Sunset Park, again where we have raced the past three years. This year they changed up the course a bit and it had a really sweet flow to it with some technical twists. We raced again with the huge Cat.2-3 group and Masters 35-45 Cat 3's combined for a total of almost 160 racers on the course at once. First lap was nuts. I worked my way up fairly quick and had good legs. Passed alot of people and was riding strong but could only manage a 7th in the Masters 45+. I rode technically sound for both days so far for the most part (a few bobbles on Friday) and was pretty happy with my skills, just have to work my way up a little better and get more aggressive if I want a podium spot which I was totally capable of. Oh, got a serious case of cross lung going on too by the way.

Sunday was the last day at Harbin Park where I rode to a 5th. overall in the Cat.3 Mens 35+ race last year. We lined up with the 2-3's and Masters combined again and when the gun went off I managed to get in the middle of the chaos and keep my bike up amid a few nasty crashes early. My legs were feeling fine for the third day of hard racing and I kept the pressure on. I kept hearing the announcer say that I was sitting in 3rd. and Julie and Lynn kept telling me the same. I was carving the corners pretty fast and jumping hard out of them, riding and running the sand sections good as well, everything was going to plan in this race and I was getting excited as the race was on the last lap. I bridged up to a Cat.2-3 guy running through the uphill sand section and we stayed together through the twists before the downhill sand section. He entered the sand before me and was rippin, I was right behind and all of a sudden he stacked it just as he exited, I was just a few feet behind him and didn't have time to veer off anywhere and as he was down I hit him. My bike and I went crashing hard to the ground but I got up within seconds, grabbed my bike, jumped on it and took off around the corner. The front end washed out under me and I went hard into the tape with a punctured front tire. Guys came flying past me as I was running my bike to the pit only to find the front wheel gone......Tony had a flat too. Day over for me, but by the time I got to the pit I had probably lost 5 places anyway, so another lesson learned, two sets of wheels or, two bikes. I had third locked up on the third day of racing which I felt the best, but oh well, that sucks but thats the way it goes.

Team did well and it was a great weekend with everyone. Proppe and Julie kicked it and locked up the podium. Everyone else was in a fight all three days, congratulations everyone. Team Lake Effect represented very well!

Up next is Creek Cross this weekend in Solon. See you all there.

Applefest recap

2010-10-03T12:42:00.004-04:00

608 runners in the 5k, wow! Temps. were perfect, 48*, light winds and clouds. Got a good warm-up of about a mile along with 3 openers and striders. We lined up and had to wait for about 10 minutes before the gun went off so everyone cooled down somewhat, so it was all relative there.

Once we took off the front row absolutely sprinted off at 500 mph and Tony was in the group.

I ran a little more conservatively and ran the first mile at 5:45 since the return was going to be slower and I wanted to have gas in the tank for a strong finish. Reached the turnaround and started the terraced uphill run back to the finish. Reached the 2 mile mark at 12:11 and the hills are starting to kick in a little more now. I was running the hills pretty strong and keeping the pace consistent on the false flats until the next one. Doug and I, and three others were all running together until the 1/2 mile to go when Doug made his move. He attacked and took another younger guy with him and I couldn't match his pace since I was redlined at this point. I did pick the pace up a little and slightly gapped the other two guys that were with me, not knowing that one of them was in my 45-49 age group. I knew one was younger but I still wanted to finish strong and get as high a placing as I could. As we reached the left hand turn back onto Main Street with probably 3/10 of a mile to go I started my sprint and brought the other guy with me that was in my age group. We gapped the other runner and sprinted it out to the finish with me taking it by once second! Totally spent, we almost collapsed as the volunteers cut our chip off our shoe. We shook hands and congratulated each other and went our own way. When we got our awards was when we realized we were fighting for 1st in our age group.

I ended up winning the age group, finished 5th master and 19th overall. The course mapped out just slightly less than 3.2 miles, meaning I averaged a 6:13 mile for a harder than it looked course and as Doug said "it's no P.R. course"

Doug had a great race and won his age group, was 15th overall and 4th master with a mile average of 6:10. Tony won his age group and was 7th overall and averaged a 5:45 mile.

This coming weekend is UCI Cincinnati, bring on more hurt!

Applefest 5k

2010-09-28T19:21:00.003-04:00

This week is basically a running week for me, on and off of the trails. Sunday after the Stark Velo KSU cross race and our 20 minute post race run that Sara and I did, we switched gears and did a 1:35 trail run with lots of hills. It felt good to get back on the dirt again after road running and fast track workouts this summer but my quads are paying the price for it now from all the downhills... We did an easy swim workout on Monday as an active recovery day and did an interval run today to gear up for a 5k race we're doing this weekend in P.A. This Saturday is the Franklin Applefest 5k and we're all headed up to Doug's on Friday to spend the night and race in the morning. Kevin Park and his family are going also so we should have a nice group representing Ohio, not to mention it's always a great time at Doug's cabin.

UCI Cincinnati is on the horizon next weekend starting on Friday at Devou Park in Kentucky. I wimped out on this race last year due to the torrential rains that hit the area the night before and the terrible conditions but raced Java Johnny's and Harbin Park, this year I'm racing all three. I'm racing my category and age group this year as well which is Cat.3 45+. They run the Cat.3 35+ and 45+ groups together so it should be some good "racing" and that's what I'm excited about and really looking forward to.

As of right now it looks like we're heading to Tennessee in May for the Rev3 Knoxville 1/2 Ironman. We planned on doing Rev3 Sandusky 1/2 this year but the long running off of the bike just wasn't there this summer so we scrapped it. This will be our early season "travel to" race #1 and it's always easier for me to run long in the cold weather so training will be good leading up to it.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and see you all in Cincinnati.

Border War Triathlon

2010-09-19T09:08:00.008-04:00

The Border War tri was the last tri of the season for us and we went out on a pretty decent note. This race is a competition between P.A. N.Y. and Ohio. The scoring was just like a cross country meet so the state with the least points overall was the winner, (example) 1st place would get one point and so on. In our group we had pretty decent results. Kevin Park was 2nd, Tony 3rd, Doug 4th, me 7th. Doug and I each won our age groups as well and Kevin and Tony were on the overall podium. We got the overall trophy given to us too which Tony graciously gave to KP's daughter's Mikaylie and Madison who both raced and did extremely well.

The temperature at race time was about 50 degrees, but the water was in the mid 60's which felt prettycold too once it got into the wetsuit. The swim was fast and the water was calm since the wind was out of the South. I exited the water and started the uphill beach run to T-1 and couldn't get my wetsuit unzipped.....Oh no. I'm fumbling around running into transition and see Tony just getting his bike shoes on and since we were racked near each other I yelled to him to unzip me, he did and then he was off on the bike. I got my shoes and helmet on and being the cold weather wuus that I am, put my rain over jacket on so I wouldn't be cold on the bike............I was trying to velcro-up my jacket after I mounted the bike and was off out of T-1 and was having a hard time with that too...man, this transition is costing me ALOT of time, probably the worst transition I have ever had, I know now I should have just sucked it up and froze for the first lap on the bike. Doug passed me about 1/2 mile into the bike and said "what the hell are you doing" since I was sitting up still trying to get my jacket done up, I said "what's your hurry, wait for me" and he kindly replied "negative". Once onto the main road I kicked up the speed and was feeling like crap. The swim was good but I could tell my bike wasn't going to be. About six miles into the very windy bike I had to shed my jacket that cost me so much time putting on. I took it off and threw it next to the police officer that was monitoring an intersection and told him I would be back for it after the race. It seemed once the jacket was off I immediately felt better. I completed the second loop of the bike hovering around 24-25 mph and feeling much better than the first loop. Once back into the Park I was hoping for some good running legs as I dis-mouted the bike and ran the bike to the rack. I threw the shoes and visor on, picked up my number belt and was off, much faster and much better than T-1. Once out onto the road I was feeling good and my legs were in running form. The run was very spectator friendly, almost like a 5k circuit race and was pretty fast with a few inclines in it. I finished the run averaging a 6:25 mile which was good for 7th overall and first in my 45-49 age group. I missed out on 6th overall by just 5 seconds! The PA guy that chased me down on the run ran a 17 and change and was pretty young. He passed me in the last 200 yards too and I was really trying to hold him off since I looked back a few times and knew he was gaining on me, that was good racing for sure. After awards Tony, Doug and I rode home from Geneva, time trialing all the way back. I think the ride home was harder than the race!

Well that completes our 2010 multi sport season and what a fun season it was. I did 10 races with one DNF, 9 age group wins and 9 top 5-15. We concentrated on multi sport more this year because that's where our strengths lie. I think the same is going to be for next year as well, doing some early season bike races with the Raccoon Rally in the summer, multi sport during the main season and cyclo cross in the Fall.

Now it's cyclocross and trail running season, oh yea!

Wendy Cross

2010-09-13T16:35:00.005-04:00

Not a whole helluva lot to blog about in this race that's for sure. The A race was stacked and started out very fast. Big pile-up just before the first stone crossing, I heard expensive carbon wheels getting whacked around and crunched behind me. I kept on the gas to try to get away and got way too anerobic, especially in the beach sand section where it was carnage again. Got through the sand and onto the flat and was really gassed. Made the sharp left and up the little climb and the false flat and down the gravel, (which I rode like a 10 year old I might add) was very conservative on the stones, made the 180 and was out onto the concrete in the headwind heading to the lighthouse. I knew by then it wasn't my day. Made the round about on the concrete back with a nice tailwind and still was lacking power. Climbed the steep section to the switch back and up the steep grassy, weedy knob and over the top to the next grassy knob. I was lacking power big time. Made the barrier jump nicely and from then it was all downhill and actually fun and that's where I would gain on the guys that we're ahead of me. Unfortunately we had to come out of the technical sections and wind it up on the power sections and that's where I lost my time. No legs today, no excuses, no crying, just no power in the legs. I was by no means lolly gagging around out there either, I was riding hard but just not up to my capability and that happens. Managed to ride a hard tempo for the rest of the race, rather than a race pace. I would ramp it up a notch and go anerobic again so I just rode hard and at least did the climbs strong. After my 8 laps were over, I leaned the bike against the truck, put my running shoes on and ran a lap of the course, cursing it the whole time..... (not really, only in one section)

Spin did a great job designing this lung buster of a course and Mother Nature did a great job allowing us to race in beautiful conditions, thank you both. Great job to my team mates that raced, everyone did well and to Robert that took a nasty header and had to be carted off to the hospital to get his gray matter checked out, he's A-okay though.

On tap for this weekend is the Border War Triathlon at Geneva State Park. Last tri for the season for us too. That makes 10 multi-sport races for Tony and I. We've had a really good multi season and we're looking to have a good race this Saturday as well, then it's all cross for the rest of the year.

Manatoc weekend

2010-09-06T07:13:00.004-04:00

Saturday morning before the CX race at Camp Manatoc was my cousin's memorial 5k run for his son. Rather than running in the event like we did last year we chose to help volunteer in some way. Nick and Tony marshaled the turn around and Lynn and I did the scoring, I'm sure by not running it helped our legs for the cross race that was yet to come in the afternoon. The turn out was great for this race and all the proceeds go to the Riverside School District to help with playground equipment, classroom needs, etc.

That same afternoon our team hosted race #1 of the NEO cyclocross series held at Camp Manatoc in the Cuyahoga Valley in Peninsula. Actually it was a festival weekend dedicated to just off road bike riding. There was an expo held on Saturday with open riding on the trails, kids races, a trail 1/2 marathon and much more. The C race went off promptly at 2:15, the B race at 3:00 and the A race at 4:05. I lined up in the large A field ready for an hour+ of suffering and when the gun went off immediately we were flying trying to get to the front to get into the woods in a good position. The course was a combination of technical singletrack, power sections, sand and a set of barriers. The course had excellent flow and the conditions were perfect. I was together with about 6 for most of the race in good position and we were racing strong and hard. Nate and I did a lot of work together to try and bring the group that was ahead of us back but it wasn't happening. We kept steady and would jump out of corners and ride the singletrack smoothly. In the end I finished in 17th overall, not upset about my placing since it is a 1,2 race with some fast guys in it as always. My legs felt strong through out the race, but with a couple laps to go my back was really on fire, but that's common in cross. Tony was 5th and was in a great race with the top guys and he and Scott Gartman had a great race battling back and forth the whole time.

Sunday was the Big Valley Mountain bike race. This is one of the best mountain bike races and courses around. It's only open for riding and racing one weekend per year and the singletrack is awesome. There is technical stuff, fire roads, steep climbs, roots, run ups and fast downhills with jumps so you can get some air if you so choose..... Each lap is 9 miles and the Novice class does 1 lap, Sport does 2 laps and Expert does 3. I did the Sport 40-49 which would be the same as a Cat. 2-3-4 road race. When the gun went off again it was all out exactly as a cross race, this time for much longer till we entered the single track. My whole first lap I was on the gas, always jumping and pretty much at a red lined pace, technically I rode fine at a high speed for not really racing my mountain bike that much in the past few years and my legs were responding just fine after Saturday's hard cross race. I was in a race with a strong group and that's really motivating. On the second lap I opened up a gap on a long gravel road climb and tried to keep the pressure on for the remainder of the race. Technically I rode sound and still kept the speed up and rolled in for 8th overall out of again, over 30 in the 40-49 group. Tony was 3rd in the Sport 19-29 group and said he felt strong as well.

Team Lake Effect did a great job racing this weekend in both races and a huge thanks go out to Mike Johnson and family and Rudy for all their hard work on the cross course and Lori, John, Brenda and Lynn for scoring, announcing and registering.

Wendy Park cross this Sunday!

Presque Isle

2010-08-30T17:47:00.005-04:00

Pretty solid race on Saturday. Swim was chaos...four groups of 100 went off in five minute intervals. The groups of 100 were based on alphabetical order of last names, so Tony and I were in the same group, which never happens. Anyway we exited the 816 meter swim (yes, 816 meters) according to one of the swim course designers, in just over 12 minutes due to mingling in with the group ahead of us and having to navigate through them. Fast run to T-1 and a quick change and Tony's fumbling with his wetsuit...I said come on lets get going cause he's usually faster than me in transition. I couldn't wait all day for him ;-) so I took off and knew he would catch up on the bike and pass me anyway. He did catch me at around mile 3 and was haulin' ass. I jumped as he was passing and was matching his speed for about nine of the 13.5 miles. Just past the photographers he jumped on it and got about a 100 meter gap and that's the way it stayed for the remainder of the bike and we entered T-2 averaging slightly better than 24.5 mph. We transitioned together with Tony leading out and once on the road he opened it up on the run never even looking back to see if the old man was close or if he was laying in the middle of the road having a heart attack, he was gone. I knew I couldn't match the pace so I settled into my race pace and kept thinking I have to keep the pace up because I knew Doug was going to be pushing hard as well. I was on the way back and saw Doug on the way out. He yelled some sort of obscenity at me and was running hard, I said uh oh, if he catches me I'll never live this one down, since he did start five minutes behind me. I couldn't have picked the pace up anymore I don't think since I was red lined as it was so I just kept it steady. I rolled across the finish line of the 3.89 mile run averaging a 6:45 mile even though the results show differently. The run splits were off slightly. Doug finished strong and came in a few minutes behind me, bettering my time by a MERE 16 seconds......... but he did beat me and what a great race he had. It was a very motivating race with Tony and knowing Doug and I were trying to better each others times, if only we could have started in the same wave..it might have been different!

Tony ended up winning his age group and finished 10th overall, Doug won his age group and was 13th overall and I won my age group and was 14th overall a MERE 16 seconds behind Doug.... Mickaylie Park (Kevins 13 year old daughter) won her age group, Nice job Mickaylie, K.P. finished 2nd overall and Brian Stern was 5th overall. There were 400 total in this race with some good competition from the Erie Tri Club and the Buffalo Tri Club along with The Cleveland Tri Team (that would be us).

After the race we went back to Doug's cabin and He and Angela, Lynn, Tony, Nick and I and a couple of other friends all had dinner at the cabin. Doug, Tony and I did a recovery ride on Sunday with a climb up Deep Hollow into Oil City and took it easy on the way back due to the four mile climb up. What another awesome weekend, it just doesn't get any better!

Miller Marut Memorial 5k run this Saturday morning, then transitioning to the cyclocross bikes in the afternoon for the first Team Lake Effect cx race at Camp Manatoc in the Cuyahoga Valley.

Wow.

Multi sport athletes

2010-08-24T14:16:00.002-04:00

It's great to be a multi-sport athlete around Northeastern Ohio. There are more races around here now than ever. Between all the wonderful trail running races that have became so popular in the past few years to the great cyclocross series, triathlons, duathlons and bike races along with all the running race series', open water swims and kayak and canoe races and xc ski races we could actually race something different every weekend all year round if we wanted to. Along with the weekly bike races (Westlake and the Leroy TT) even the straight up bike racers can race their bikes at least twice a week during road season, not including weekend races, how could we ask for more? Of course it's nice to travel to an event or two each year to race other venue's and against other competition, but how can you beat the Cuyahoga Valley and the North Chagrin Reservation for trail running, the tri's right off the North Coast of Lake Erie and the inland State Park lakes, the road and criterium races that the area is noted for that are promoted by the local bike clubs and of course all the great venues for cyclocross...wow. So if you do it all, run, bike swim, ski and kayak, you are very fortunate to live in such a race friendly part of the country.

CC races and TT's

2010-08-20T16:50:00.003-04:00

We've been putting is some pretty fast milege lately both running, riding and swimming. The last two Tuesday evenings have been 5k cross country races in Kirtland Hills. This past Tuesday there were 460 runners with a shotgun start, talk about throwing some elbows in the first turn. These races are all about running as fast as you can and try not to get embarrassed too badly by the High Schoolers that are churning out 5 + minute miles. It's excellent training and very fun to run with all these guys. There were over 20 in my age group this past Tuesday and the winner turned in a 17:56 to my second place 19:30. I will try for a faster time next week and I think I have it in me, I just have to better maneuver past some of the runners that take off on a 5:50 pace and then fade just past the first mile.

We've been doing the Leroy TT's on Thursday's and have been staying pretty consistent. I tried something totally different last night than I normally do in these races and it worked out just as I had planned. I used last nights race as a triathlon bike leg and didn't come close to blowing myself up and finishing in a dizzy haze as I have the past two races. I kept my heart rate lower and steadier on the flats, kicked it on the uphill and downhill and steadied it out on the flat back in. I finished with my heart rate just where I wanted it to be so I still had legs for a strong run and came in with an average speed of 25.75 mph. We transitioned and ran a 3.2 mile run averaging 6:35 miles, so, thats going to be my plan for Presque Isle next week, even though the distances are longer than what we did last night.

Swimming is staying steady and I'm going to hit the breakwall swim again this coming Tuesday morning. Two more triathlons and I want to finish out the season on two good races and then it's CX in all it's glory! Bring it on!

Hard week

2010-08-14T17:01:00.003-04:00

The training and racing has been pretty intense this week, along with the high temps we've been dealing with. It just finished raining here and seemed to cool things down a bit but it's still pretty muggy out there. Next week is looking like it's going to be much cooler which is good for me when it comes to running on the road and doing bike run bricks. The shaded trail runs are nice when it's warmer though. Anyway after the GCT on Sunday we did a short easy recovery bike ride on Monday and stretched things out. Tuesday was the first Northeast Running Club sponsored cross country race held at Penitentiary Glen in Kirtland Hills. This race draws all the High School CC teams along with anyone else that wants to run a hard, fast and hilly 5k course. For the first week there were 187 runners that showed up and raced with some VERY FAST young CC runners, guys and girls alike. I lined up somewhere mid pack not wanting to jamb up the youngsters during the first mile and ended up loosing time and quite possibly a placing or two....no big deal I will just move toward the front next week. I crossed the first mile at 5:55 and that was with a couple hills in there too. I felt good throughout the race and ended up winning the 40-49 age group with a 19:55 and finished 24th overall and there were actually 12 in my age group. This is a hard but fun course with some good climbs and one long finishing hill that totally kicks your butt. There are two more races this month, both on Tuesday nights starting at 6:30, with a one mile cool down run after the race.

Wednesday was a long pyramid interval workout in the pool and Thursday was the Leroy TT. It was very hot and humid Thursday night and hard to get a good deep breath. I hit it hard on the way out into a slight headwind and was keeping the speed around 25-26 mph. As I turned the corner on Kniffen the wind was at my back and I was able to keep 25 mph to the start of the hill. My speed dropped to about 22 there and that was about as good as it was going to get. My heart rate was spiked and my legs were on fire and I couldn't get anymore out of them what so ever. Once I started the last steep climb to the turnaround I dropped it to the little ring and spun up rather than hammering up, my legs were spent. I hit the turn and started back down into a headwind but was able to keep 30 mph for the most of the down section until it flattened out and my speed dropped to around 26. Back around the corner and the flat back to the finish I was totally red lined and feeling very dizzy by Indian Point Rd. and came across the finish at 32 mph. I spun it out very slowly on the cooldown and was feeling dizzy all the way back to the parking lot, so I'm assuming I used everything that I had in my body that there was to use. After Carrie came in she and I did a 3.2 mile brick run and by the time we finished we were both totally spent from the night.

Friday Scott and I did a hillier 30 miler on the road bikes but rode pretty easy, it was a good ride.
Today Lynn and I rode our bikes to the track and I did a pyramid interval workout. The temps were about 90 degrees today but the track had to be at least 100. The last three intervals were insane and I couldn't wait for them to be over.
Tomorrow is another swim and bike and that completes a big week of fast training and racing.

Next week will be similar then the week after will be an easy week with Presque Isle on Saturday the 28th.

Good luck to all that are racing the Milk Race tomorrow!

Out.

Bittersweet race

2010-08-09T18:50:00.005-04:00

It was a beautiful day for the Greater Cleveland Triathlon this year. The courses were laid out perfect, lots of volunteers, minimal windage to start off with and sunny skies. After making the mile long walk to the East end of Headlands State Park from transition wearing wetsuits, we were all more than ready to hit the water. As soon as everyone was present Mickey was quick to get the Olympic race rolling. We all went off in 3 minute intervals and my age group (40+) was the third to wave to go. As soon as the siren sounded I sprinted into Lake Erie and was quickly at the first turn buoy. By now there was about a 2' chop rolling in, nothing major, but you had to really concentrate on sighting the buoys or you would end up too far out in the lake or too far inside the buoys and that meant you would have to get back on line and make up time and use more energy than what you would have had to. Once I got past the first turn buoy I was settled into a pretty fast rhythm and was pulling hard. I caught and mingled in with some from the first two groups that started ahead of us and was out of the water in just over 22 minutes. The long beach run up to T-1 was hard but my breathing wasn't too labored, I thought this might be a good day....

My transition rack was the 2nd rack from entering from the swim so I had a long run with the bike out of T-1 after stripping the wetsuit off and cramming Clif Gels into my jersey pocket. I mounted and got a good jump and was soon climbing up and out onto the bike course. As soon as I hit Rt. 44 I felt the headwind. I was at about 22-22.5 mph and working hard, harder than I wanted to at that point and my legs were not feeling good. Kevin passed me at about mile two and was flying and was soon out of sight, (nice job by the way) I tried to keep the speed at or around 22 on the way out into the wind and it's all uphill into Kirtland Hills and beyond. At some places I dropped below 20 but just couldn't help it, my legs were not responding today! I know the course well and where to hit the gas and where to conserve a little so I just tried to limit my losses till basically the half way point and give it the gas on the way back in. As soon as I crested the climb past Mentor rd. I was able to pick the speed up to around 25 mph and hit almost 45 mph on the downhill past Little Mountain CC. It was all smooth sailing from there and once back on Rt.44 back to the Park I was steady at 28-29 mph. Not that bad of a bike but had my legs been better I know I could have gone a few minutes faster. I was thinking while I was on the bike that I sure hope my running legs feel better or else I'm in serious trouble.

Came back into T-2, feet out of my shoes, dismounted fast and lost a shoe. I didn't even bother to look back to get it, I thought someone would kick it off to the side for me and sure enough Sean Gilbert picked it up and had it under the Bike Authority tent (Thanks Sean) and gave it back to me at the end. Racked my bike next to Tony's, pulled on the shoes and was off on the run. The run course is an out and back 10k with 5 small hills/rollers that seem to kick the life out of your legs at least they do mine and even more so when it's hot. By now the wind picked up quite a bit and it was quite a bit hotter than at the start. The wind felt good but I was working hard into it. I felt decent for the first half then made the turn and didn't feel anymore wind even with my tri jersey wide open. My core temp was high and I don't run well in the heat. It wasn't that humid but there's hardly any shade on this course, especially on the first and last 2 1/2 miles which only leaves about 1.2 miles with any type of shade, if that. I tried to keep the pace steady and I actually picked up the pace slightly on the flat past the industrial section of the course which is always the hottest. I knew my heart rate was high but I was at mile 5 and knew I could hold a high hr for another 1.2 mi. I finished with a time of 2:19:30 which was good for an age group win and 11th overall but I know for sure I could have gone at least 2:15 had my legs been better. Oh well, it is what it is. This race wasn't an "A" race for me so it was some good hard training and there isn't any better training than racing.

This course is hard. The swim is wide open with no breakwalls to shield the wind, so it's either fight the wind and waves or sign up for the duathlon. The bike is hilly and hard for the first 15 or so miles then it's flatter and usually pretty windy on Blackbrook rd back to Rt.44. The run has the five rollers that zap the legs when your trying to run a fast 10k. But overall I love it. It makes you work hard and after your finished you know you raced on a good course.

Tony did well and finished 1st in his age group and 9th overall and said his legs didn't respond well either...Maybe it was something we ate the night before, I don't know. He did a 2:13 and change. Carrie and Scott did the Sprint race and both won their age groups and Carrie was 10 overall and Scott was 4th. overall, sweet!

Mickey did another amazing job with this race (as usual) and so did all of the volunteers. Congratulations to all of my Bike Authority/Fleet Feet team mates that raced this weekend in different events, way to represent our sponsors, you guys and gals rock!

Also, congratulations to all of my Lake Effect Racing team mates and good friends that raced this weekend at Masters Nationals and John Bryan Mountain Bike Race, see you guy's very soon at Cross!

Out.

Gettin' ready

2010-08-02T19:22:00.002-04:00

for the Greater Cleveland Tri this weekend with some light fast workouts during the week. I'm hittin' up the Tuesday morning Fairport breakwall swim tomorrow for the first time. This swim is from the beach front to the breakwall and back which is about 1.2 miles total and is held every Tuesday morning and attracts LOTS of swimmers. Afterward Kathy Roe makes a nice breakfast under the pavilion for everyone so they can recharge the carbo stores that were lost in Lake Erie. Later in the day we're doing our track workout. I do actually have a job, I just have lots of vacation........ Life is good and I'm blessed to be able to participate in this great sport with some great people!

Rock on

Friday's rant

2010-07-31T07:19:00.006-04:00

I really wanted to get on here yesterday afternoon after my bike ride and vent about all the insane drivers but I didn't have the chance since it was Lynn's birthday and we were heading out to dinner. In my short 1'21:19 not so sweet recovery ride yesterday I was buzzed repeatedly by people who were on their cell phones or whatever else kind of hand held device they had, not paying one bit of attention while driving. I was almost ridden completely off the road by cars and trucks that just absolutely have to pass you while there is another vehicle in the opposite lane directly next you, like they couldn't wait .0258 of a second and let the other car in the other lane pass instead of squeezing in-between going left of center so the other car has to literally go off onto the berm to avoid a head on collision. What in the world is wrong with people anymore? Is it the fast paced, so-called rock star lifestyle that people think they live in? Is it all the Blackberry's, Iphones, cell phones, camera phones etc. that they think are so important, that to them are more important than paying attention and pulling they're heads out of their asses and actually concentrating on driving? I don't know, but I do know one thing, the traffic is getting heavier, (especially around 4:30 on a Friday afternoon........... ) and we ALL have to be heads up when we're out on our bikes or running, and God forbid if it's one of our loved ones that get hit by someone who's driving like a bat out of hell while on their cell phone!

I know I'm preaching to the choir but I had to rant, and as you all know I don't normally do that on here, I try to keep things positive. But, I think I'm going to send in an editorial piece to the Lake County News Herald for them to post in their "readers rants" column and express my "displeasure" with the way people seem to take their driving privileges for granted and how driving seems to have taken a backseat so to speak to their texting and talking on their phones, which has obviously became more of a priority than anything. I will let you all know how much hate mail I do receive as backlash.

Until then, please be careful out there and stay off your bikes on Friday afternoons when everyone is in a hurry to get home while their all on their cell phones talking and texting each other to make big plans for the "BIG" weekend, while driving!

Later

Fairport triathlon report

2010-07-26T19:03:00.005-04:00

The weather was epic and they delayed the race for about 30 minutes until the lightning stopped. Race director was hem hawing back and forth about canceling it all together and doing it this weekend and or changing it to a duathlon which drew a major chorus of boos, me along with the masses. So the decision was since the wind was howling from the Northwest at around 25 mph and was creating quite a washing machine in the inner harbor that the swim would just be a one way out and swim to the beach and run the length of the beach back and then into the chute that leads to transition. The total distance of the run to transition I'm guessing was probably around 600 meters along with about a 250 meter swim in the utmost unfriendliest conditions that are known to man. A whole lotta kicking, grabbing, banging, flailing and I think I even felt someone bite me in the ankle! Anyhow we finally made it out of the water and immediately stripped our wetsuits off to begin the beach run in a torrential downpour toward the chute leading to transition, actually that part was pretty neat and I felt decent getting out of the water and running and I was thinking this might be a good day since I love running in the rain.

Once into t-1 I got my bike stuff on pretty quick, ran the bike a long way before I could mount and when I did I was off and up the hill fast. I got rolling and my legs were feeling good. About a mile into the bike Doug rolled up along side of me and looked good. We rode almost side by side to the turnaround keeping the speed around 25 -26 mph. Once through the turnaround Doug drilled it and got a gap that I could not close. I was slightly anerobic at one point and I thought if I keep this up to t-2 I won't have anything left for a strong run, so I kept it at a high zone 4 but kept Doug within 100 - 150 meters all the way back to t-2.

I rolled down the hill and into transition and the marshalls kept yelling careful, slow down due to the wet conditions cause it rained almost the whole bike and was windy, but for some reason the wind didn't seem much of a factor, maybe I'm a little stronger than in previous years on the TT bike, I would like to think so at least.... I ran my bike into transition and I could see Doug taking his helmet off and slipping on his shoes and I thought I better get my butt moving because If he gets a gap on me on the run forget it, I'll never catch him. Well I racked my bike and he was just taking off out on the run. I had a fast t-2 so I could try to catch Doug. I was about 100 meters behind him on the start of the run and by the time he was at the top of the hill I was about a quarter of the way up. I jammed the uphill and turned left and had him in sight. I thought for a brief minute while we were running on East Street towards the condo development that I might be able to catch him, but it was only a brief thought. He opened it up out of the condo's to the finish and I wasn't able to catch him. He ran an awesome race and finished 4th overall and I came in somewhere around a minute or so behind him for 5th overall. Doug, that was a helluva race brother and I luv ya! Good stuff and I hope we can race like that for many more years, even if it's in our wheelchairs or electric carts.

As for Tony, he had a good race, 2nd overall behind Kevin Park. Kevin rocked the course again after being injured basically since May when we all went to Virginia. He's been battling pain in his gluteous medius that radiates down into his foot and toes along his leg, very frustrating injury for him. Tony said his legs weren't the best he's had on the bike but he still managed to pass nearly all the kayak racers that started off five minutes before the first wave of swimmers and was third in on the bike. He had good run legs though and finished the race strong for 2nd. overall, not too shabby and in god company with Kevin. Nice work you two! Hats off to Adam Hunter also for finishing 6th overall, his last mile was clocked at 6:00, nice job, the track work is paying off for ya.

Scott and Carrie raced and both finished strong. Tracy Park (Kevin's wife) and their two daughters raced and it was the twin's first adult sprint triathlon, congratulations girls! Chris Park (Kevin's brother) and his son Josh raced and they both drilled the course. Josh is only 13 and has had some very nice results so far. Definitely taking after his Dad and Uncle.

After the race and awards were over we all had a cookout. The weather cleared and the sun came out and it was beautiful. Mickey Ryzmek and Theresa came along with Mickey's big Gatorade tent which was the ticket. We had a couple grills going and Scott and I did the grilling along with partaking in a few cold beers. We sang Happy Birthday to Lynn and Kevin since their birthdays are a few days apart, Kevin's birthday is today actually and Lynn's is the 30th. We had some beach volleyball games after grilling and cake and after a few sets I was ready to call it a day down at the Fairport Beach since I had major cleanup to do on bikes when I got home.

It was a great day with all of my family and friends, yes, even Nick, Jess, Abbey and Tonys girlfriend Gabby were there too. Yup, Abbey and Gabby, it don't any better than that!

Le French Roast and the Tour

2010-07-22T15:12:00.005-04:00

Came home and brewed up a fresh pot of French Roast since it's an off day for me today, so now I'm on le couch watching the Tour. I know who won and how it played out by following the race on www.cyclingnews.com at work but I still have to watch it, especially the sheep that were all over the road..... I haven't missed a stage in this years Tour yet. Gotta hand it to Lance once again today for finishing 17th on this stage which isn't too shabby for an almost 39 year old with lotsa gray hair under that helmet, he can still climb with some of the best in the world. It will be exciting to see him racing triathlon next year too. We'll have to watch the schedule and see where he's racing and possibly make a race that he's at if it's not a crazy distance away. We are going to do a "travel to" race each year, so maybe............

Anyway, the graduation party went well and Lynn survived, that was the important thing. It was touch and go for her for a while and the stress factor was quite high for a couple of days leading up to it. Everything worked out and for those of you that were there that read this blog, Thank You for coming and I hope you had enough to eat and drink, and special thanks to Doug who had a very busy day that day and still made time to come, THANKS brochacho, looking forward to this weekend too!

This weekend is the last Greater Cleveland tri training day before the actual race next weekend. It will be an easy day because we're racing the Fairport triathlon on Sunday. Fairport is a great local sprint race that's a must do if you live in this part of the country (East side). The Lake Metroparks do an excellent job putting this race on and it's the summer equal to the XC ski race at Chapin Forest in the winter. Lynn and Kevin Park also have birthdays that are very close to each other, so a group of us have a post race cookout at the beach and birthday cake for Lynn and Kevin, it's always a great day to look forward to.

That's all I got for now, race report on Monday.

Later all.

No racing this wekend

2010-07-18T07:24:00.002-04:00

Just finished a big week of training along with doing the Fairport sprint course and the Greater Cleveland olympic course. It was hot as blazes this week which made for some hard running especially on our track workout but yesterday's 10k from Headlands was the hardest of all.
We got 3 open water swims in, 4 runs along with about 150 miles on the bike. We're heading out for a couple hours on the bikes pretty soon before Tony's graduation party gets rolling at one this afternooon. Hopefully the forecast for strong thunderstorms will change, we have too much invested in this party to have it washed out.........I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Later

O.N.E XTERRA Recap

2010-07-11T18:15:00.007-04:00

It was a decent day today at Westbranch. This being a USAT event and the water temps. being above wetsuit legal (I think the temps. are 72* and above) everyone swam equally today with no wetsuits, which was good for some and not so good for others I'm thinking. The swim started out fast and furious with no group starts, meaning all men started together and then the women started together. For probably half of the swim the lead group of swimmers were together when it started to split up on the turn back in. I managed a decent swim and came out of the water near the front.

Once out and onto the road from the water exit I set my bike shoes near by so I could slip them on and begin the long run to T-1 which is where the mountain bike races start, so It's at least a 300 yard run and I didn't want to run barefoot on the road up into the parking lot area. I was feeling good on the run to T-1 and could tell my legs were going to respond today as long as I didn't crash on the bike or flat or roll an ankle on the rocks and roots. I had a fast T-1 and was soon in the trails. They ran the bike course clockwise for this event and we ended up finishing with the downhill into the grassy power sections. I haven't "raced" a mountain bike in 2 years so the first half of the bike along with the rock gardens (which I dismounted and ran by the way) were a bit touchy and I probably got passed by at least 6 strong mountain bikers, man those guys can fly. Once I got into a rhythm I was holding my own, but nothing like some of those guys. Racing your mountain bike on technical trails is something you have to keep up with if you want to do good at especially on a course like Westbranch with all the roots and rocks, I finished the bike in one piece with no flats or mechanicals and only went down one time and that was because I was going so slow I think that I just fell over because I cant trackstand...........

I came into T-2, racked my bike and grabbed my number belt and a gel and was off on the run.
The first mile and a half in the trails looked like we were in the Pacific Northwest with all the big green rocks, mossy roots and ferns, it was awesome running. The trail was very technical and you had to be careful due to all the rocks and the climbs but still keep speed. I had a runner in front of me that exited transition ahead of me that was running at a good pace. I thought I would sit on him through the rough stuff and when it opened up a bit I would surge and see if he would go with me. We got into an opening and I moved around him and picked up the pace and he wasn't able to stay on. I stayed strong throughout the rest of the run which we were now on the mountain bike trails that are probably the last two and a half miles of the mountain bike course which are very twisty and up and down. I came into the finishing chute strong at 1:54:40 for the 1/2 mile swim 11 1/2 mile bike and the 4.75 mile run which was good for 14th overall and first in the 45-49 age group. That was one tough race but alot of fun with strong competition. The overall winner was a 48 year old Master racer from Michigan, definitely a tip of the hat to him.

Tony placed 3rd. overall in 1:47 and change with a strong swim and run and two blazing fast transitions. He said his mtb skills need alot of work. He hasn't raced his mtb in a couple of years either so maybe we just might hit up a few mtb races per year in the future with Rudy and Robert, they're hard but fun.

Champ racing did an excellent job with the whole event and the run layout was great.

Great job to all of my Lake Effect Teammates in the Tour of the Valley Stage Race this weekend, everyone should be very proud, they represented well! Congratulations on a great weekend.

Pheww!

2010-07-05T13:46:00.008-04:00

Definitely a busy weekend but a great weekend with family and friends. Friday morning after the Thursday evening Leroy time trial, Doug met me at my house and we saddled up and rode our tt bikes to his summer cottage in Franklin P.A. It was a 91 miler and the idea was to ride a decent tempo and work together to keep each other somewhat fresh and strong to the finish. The route we took was fairly bumpy in terms of rolling hills, but it was nothing compared to the last 25 or so miles. Doug wanted to take an alternate route which added some hills and I welcomed this route even though it was hard. We did a couple of 1 mile climbs at 7 to 8% and many smaller rollers and some that we had to get out of the saddle and stomp up, but the beautiful roads out in the middle of the country and the scenery made them seem not so bad. We pulled into Doug's place with 91 miles in 4:30 and an average speed of 20.3 mph., that wasn't too bad for us considering the hills and rollers along with the headwind that we were riding. The plan was to run 4 miles off the bike but it wasn't to be that afternoon. After a nice shower and a Recoverite we we're set for the evening till Lynn showed up and we all went out to Dinner with Doug's family.

On Saturday we did an above tempo ride up a 4 mile climb called Deep Hollow. The average grade is about 4 1/2 to 5% for 4 miles. This is a climb that actually looks like you would see in one of the Tour stages. It's a beautiful road and climb that takes you into Oil City and once into Oil City we took the very popular bike path along the Allegheny River back into Franklin. We averaged about 22 mph. for the ride and when finished we pulled on the running shoes and another friend met us and we ran a quick 3.3 miles. Legs felt good and after the run we got back on the bikes and took off looking for Lisa (Don Sedivys wife) and Lynn because they had been on their bikes for about an hour an a half and we were wondering if something happened to one of them. They were fine but just decided to put some extra mileage in, all good.
Later on that afternoon everyone started rolling in for the cookout that lasted until near midnight, it was Awesome and a great time with great friends.

Sunday morning Lynn and I left for home and the plan was a mountain bike ride with a trail run afterward to get some XTERRA training in for this weekends tri @ Westbranch. I went to Hogback and did 4 laps on the bike and then ran a loop of the course and then down to the river and back and it was smokin' hot and I was ready for some R&R for the rest of the day.

This morning we had an East Side group ride planned that consisted of hills, heat and wind riding out into Geauga County.We did 52 miles on the road bikes on a challenging route and I must say that everyone on this side of town is very fit right now and riding and racing strong, nice ride this morning guys and thanks for the invite.

This week is going to be a couple swims, a few easy mountain bike rides and a few runs before the XTERRA triathlon on Sunday, so basically a wind down / taper week which I'm sure is true for most of you guys that are racing the Tour of the Valley this weekend. Good Luck to you guys and gals too and race safe!

The pic is downtown Franklin.
Later all.

DNF in Meadville

2010-06-28T19:29:00.003-04:00

It had to happen sooner or later I guess. I have had some bad luck during cross season's but not many problems in triathlon's, guess I've just been lucky. The swim went well for me at least and I felt pretty fast getting out of the water in just over 25 minutes for the 1 mile swim. The run was a long uphill to the transition and I stripped my wetsuit off as I came out of the water so I wouldn't have the extra weight to carry uphill and managed a decent run to T-1. I got my stuff on and ran my bike across the timing mat and did a cyclocross mount and jumped on it hard to get to speed quickly and my front end felt very strange, I looked down and my tire was as flat as a pancake....damn.....hmmmmm, Dam Tri, kind of a coincidence??. I sat there for a minute collecting my thoughts thinking where my bag was that had my tube but that was back at the van which was quite a distance off, no luck there, I was looking for a possible spare wheel sitting around..(yea right) no luck there either, so I chalked this race up as a loss. Oh well, #$it happens.
I parked my bike and got my stuff out of transition (illegally) and slipped my running shoes on and went off on the 10k run. It was hot as hell too yesterday and the run kicked my butt. I suffered like a dog on the second 5k too cause it was virtually all uphill. Actually alot of the run's on both the Olympic and Sprint races were slower than normal due to the high humidity and heat. I still ran at a high heart rate and finished the run totally drained.

Tony finished strong and ended up 9th overall and 1st in his age group with the 7th fastest bike split and Doug raced the Sprint race and finished 3rd overall and looked great. Nice job you guys and great racing.

Another great weekend at Doug's and we're heading back this weekend also. Doug is meeting me at my house on Friday and we're going to ride our TT bikes to his place in Utica which is 90 miles and on Saturday we're going to get in a swim and a run before a nice cookout Saturday night.

Congratulations to all of my teammates that raced the Raccoon Rally and the other races throughout the region, way to represent Team Lake Effect and Bike Authority Fleet Feet.