Well, another week, another race report. I know this is a little late, but Kevin and myself traveled to Bloomington, IL this past weekend to race at the Evergreen Lake Triathlon. It was an Olympic Distance triathlon that offered a little prize money that attracted a few professionals and fast elite amateurs. I decided I would give it a go and try and win some money. We drove up Friday afternoon and stayed with his aunt and uncle's house in Farmer City, IL. They have a large farm and it was a great place to stay the night before a race. Thank you to the Ryan family for opening up your house to me. We were served fresh corn on the cob and homemade pizza when we arrived Friday. We had a nice dinner in downtown Champagne, IL and then hit the sack early Friday night.
We had an early wake up call since we were about 40 minutes from the race site and we weren't exactly sure where we were going. We had no problems thanks to our Garmin. We got our packets, set up our transition areas, and were ready to go.
We were in the first wave and this was actually my first wave start this year that had more than 10 people in it. It was a little crazy, but a nice feeling. I have done too many TT starts and need to do more open water wave starts. I had a great start but then settled into my "not that fast" pace that I usually do during a triathlon. I was about 7th out of the water but a good 1.5 minutes down to the leaders. I had a good T1 and was out on the bike. I passed a few guys early and recognized Kevin up the road when I got to about the 5th mile mark. I chased him and another guy down over the next 5 - 7 miles and was in no man's land for the rest of the bike course. The 3 leaders were well up, and I was in fourth position. I came into T2 in fourth and took off after third place on the run. After about a .5 mile of running, I realized it was going to be a long day. I didn't feel good and it was hot. The run course had no shade and the sun beat down on us during the whole run course. I was slowly gaining ground on the third place guy, but not fast enough. Unfortunately, I got passed around the 4th mile by another guy. He came by me like I was standing still and I realized why when I saw his run split. He ran almost 3 minutes faster than me. I held onto 5th position and was about 45 seconds out of 3rd.
All in all, it was a good effort on a hot day. I didn't rest as Steelhead in 2 weeks is the main focus right now. Chattanooga on a Sunday, an extremely long and hard bike ride on Tuesday, and then this race on Saturday made for a hard week. But a nice relaxing Sunday made for a great recovery day, and I went back to work yesterday.
The race was a little eye opening showing me I need to work on all three sports. Especially since this wasn't that big of a race and I got out biked by almost 4 minutes by the fastest cyclist, and out ran by almost 3 minutes by the fastest runner. I believe all of those rest WEEKS that I took in the early season are coming back to haunt me now. I guess this will be the kick in my butt for next off season to get me training when the weather is cold and nasty.
Until next time.
Tony
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Chattanooga Waterfront Tri
Once again, I spent the 2nd weekend of July in Chattanooga, TN for the Waterfront Triathlon. This was my third straight year traveling there for the race and once again, I regretted my decision, haha. That bike course is really difficult, and it always hurts, ALOT. Which in turn, makes for a difficult run just because your legs are fried.
In all seriousness, it is a great race. I wouldn't have returned (twice) if I did not think it was a great race. Team Magic does a great job putting the race on and making it a fun race. The swim is down stream in the river, the bike course is on the highway, and the run is on the path that runs alongside the river. It's a great course, just not an easy one.
My brother and I arrived on Saturday evening. We picked up our packets, went to the "elite" meeting, then grabbed some dinner with some good company at the Big River Brewery. Sunday morning came, we rode our bikes down from the hotel, and prepped our Transition area for the race. Luckily, I was given race number 1 since I was the returning champion. Even though most of the guys I was competing against swam competitively in college, I was still the number 1 seed in the water (not cool).
Well, 7:30 am rolled around, and I was off. It didn't take too long for Zach Winchester to come flying by me. A minute or two later, two others came by me, and towards the end of the swim a fourth guy flew by. I guess I was happy to only have 4 guys pass me, but I was out of the water in about 18 minutes which is decent for me. I ran up to T1 and took off on the bike.
The bike was uneventful. My legs didn't feel great, and I knew that I was catching everyone that was up the road, I was only making up about 2 seconds per mile (rough estimate). They were still a ways up the road, even at the turn around. I passed one guy around the 15th mile, but that was my only victim on the bike. I rolled into T2 in 4th position and had a good transition. I took off on the run with two guys in sight. I caught Winchester about a mile into the run, and with a few encouraging words from him, took off after the next guy. It took me 3.5 miles to catch the first guy off of the bike, but I managed to go by him and put enough time between him and myself to cover the time trial start. I never caught Eric Limkemann who took home the big W for the event. I crossed the finish line in second position. It was a tough run, but I felt decent about it. Well, when I checked the results, another competitor had beaten me by 1 second. He was third across the line, but if he started 1 minute back from me, then he only had to finish 59 seconds behind me. it's hard to figure out placing with the time trial starting.
It was a tough and hot day but was happy to have finished where I did. There were some fast guys there. It was a much deeper field than in past years. It always brings out the best in people when you are racing against the best. I have a short week ahead of me, and another race on Saturday (the Evergreen Lake Tri) in Illinois.
Off to the pool.
Tony
In all seriousness, it is a great race. I wouldn't have returned (twice) if I did not think it was a great race. Team Magic does a great job putting the race on and making it a fun race. The swim is down stream in the river, the bike course is on the highway, and the run is on the path that runs alongside the river. It's a great course, just not an easy one.
My brother and I arrived on Saturday evening. We picked up our packets, went to the "elite" meeting, then grabbed some dinner with some good company at the Big River Brewery. Sunday morning came, we rode our bikes down from the hotel, and prepped our Transition area for the race. Luckily, I was given race number 1 since I was the returning champion. Even though most of the guys I was competing against swam competitively in college, I was still the number 1 seed in the water (not cool).
Well, 7:30 am rolled around, and I was off. It didn't take too long for Zach Winchester to come flying by me. A minute or two later, two others came by me, and towards the end of the swim a fourth guy flew by. I guess I was happy to only have 4 guys pass me, but I was out of the water in about 18 minutes which is decent for me. I ran up to T1 and took off on the bike.
The bike was uneventful. My legs didn't feel great, and I knew that I was catching everyone that was up the road, I was only making up about 2 seconds per mile (rough estimate). They were still a ways up the road, even at the turn around. I passed one guy around the 15th mile, but that was my only victim on the bike. I rolled into T2 in 4th position and had a good transition. I took off on the run with two guys in sight. I caught Winchester about a mile into the run, and with a few encouraging words from him, took off after the next guy. It took me 3.5 miles to catch the first guy off of the bike, but I managed to go by him and put enough time between him and myself to cover the time trial start. I never caught Eric Limkemann who took home the big W for the event. I crossed the finish line in second position. It was a tough run, but I felt decent about it. Well, when I checked the results, another competitor had beaten me by 1 second. He was third across the line, but if he started 1 minute back from me, then he only had to finish 59 seconds behind me. it's hard to figure out placing with the time trial starting.
It was a tough and hot day but was happy to have finished where I did. There were some fast guys there. It was a much deeper field than in past years. It always brings out the best in people when you are racing against the best. I have a short week ahead of me, and another race on Saturday (the Evergreen Lake Tri) in Illinois.
Off to the pool.
Tony
Saturday, July 3, 2010
4th of July
So even though it is the 3rd of July, I'll go ahead and post. Today was the annual Bluegrass 10k and I ran it for the 8th straight year. I ran a 10k PR last year on this course and I feel like I'm in better shape than last year so I was looking forward to running fast this morning. Well, needless to say, I am feeling a little tired from my little training block. I have had 2 straight weeks of the highest amount of training I've put in all year, and this is my third week of about the same amount. I had a gruelling bike workout on Tuesday and then a nice little track workout on Wednesday. The workouts went great, but they definitley feel less than optimal. I felt like I had heavy legs for the past 2 days, and it wasn't much better this morning.
I got in a great warmup on my way to the start list and was ready to go. The gun went off and I went straight to the front (still had speed in my legs from doing some 200's on Wed). Well, that wasn't smart and I paid the price. I ended up in no man's land for almost the whole race, and I only had 1 guy pass me between miles 1 & 6. Two guys caught me at the six mile mark and I was able to hold off one of them, but the other charged away. I ended up running 34:05 (almost 40 seconds slower than last yr) but I wasn't too worried about it. It was a great workout and got me a race paced effort. The middle of that race is always my down fall. Take out the 3rd and 4th miles, and I averaged about 5:20 - 5:25 miles. But those middle two miles are brutal, and a little long (according to Garmin). I ended up finishing 8th.
Casey ran her first 10k and she was happy to break 50 minutes in her first attempt. She has a big half marathon on the 17th of July, I know she'll do awesome. And Ben broke into the top 15 for the first time at this race so he was pleased with his effort as well. We stuck to our usual plans by going to Panera after the race and pigging out on cinnamon crunch bagels. Now we are about to go for a little swim, then watch some soccer and track. I am really missing out on the Tour of France since Lexington Insight doesn't carry "Versus." I need to file a complaint. At least I can watch it on DirecTV at work during the week.
Next week is going to be a little easier, then I'm headed to Chattanooga for the Waterfront triathlon on Sunday the 11th.
Tony
I got in a great warmup on my way to the start list and was ready to go. The gun went off and I went straight to the front (still had speed in my legs from doing some 200's on Wed). Well, that wasn't smart and I paid the price. I ended up in no man's land for almost the whole race, and I only had 1 guy pass me between miles 1 & 6. Two guys caught me at the six mile mark and I was able to hold off one of them, but the other charged away. I ended up running 34:05 (almost 40 seconds slower than last yr) but I wasn't too worried about it. It was a great workout and got me a race paced effort. The middle of that race is always my down fall. Take out the 3rd and 4th miles, and I averaged about 5:20 - 5:25 miles. But those middle two miles are brutal, and a little long (according to Garmin). I ended up finishing 8th.
Casey ran her first 10k and she was happy to break 50 minutes in her first attempt. She has a big half marathon on the 17th of July, I know she'll do awesome. And Ben broke into the top 15 for the first time at this race so he was pleased with his effort as well. We stuck to our usual plans by going to Panera after the race and pigging out on cinnamon crunch bagels. Now we are about to go for a little swim, then watch some soccer and track. I am really missing out on the Tour of France since Lexington Insight doesn't carry "Versus." I need to file a complaint. At least I can watch it on DirecTV at work during the week.
Next week is going to be a little easier, then I'm headed to Chattanooga for the Waterfront triathlon on Sunday the 11th.
Tony
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