The running I've been able to do in the last 2 weeks has started to pay off... I felt faster throughout the race and fresher once I hit the run. It was a bit of a struggle towards the end of the course, but I still hit a P.R. on this particular bike course... Fastest Swim time, fastest Bike time and fastest run time!
The first race of the season went down this past Tuesday and I had a good time as usual. The family was represented by myself, uncle Eric and cousin Jason...
The usual butterflies were in place being the first race and all but I got through that before the start of the swim. I did a really quick warmup in the water and then had get out for the first wave to go off. I'll be in the second wave all year since I don't swim under 7 minutes and that was the cutoff that they chose for the first wave. I felt really good throughout the swim and managed to draft a bit more than usual. Came out of the swim right behind Eric but passed him on the run up the beach. Time for the swim was 9:47 and 45th place, which includes the longer run to transition. I'm guessing it's a minute and a half to two minutes for the run which means about an 8 minute swim, not too bad.
Transition went fairly well and I jumped on the bike. My biggest issue on the bike is that the middle ring in the front is shot and was dropping the chain every time I put a lot of power on while in the second ring. In retrospect, I really should have brought it up to my buddy at Tolland Bike to get it fixed (I have since dropped it off so I don't get this excuse next week). Finished the bike feeling really good and ready to run. Time was 32:13 for 62nd place. Clearly, I think I could have gone faster with a better middle ring, but we'll see next week.
Off on the run, and the usual results... not great. It was exacerbated a bit by the sore ankle, but mostly my lack of running conditioning hurt. I've been trying to strike a balance between letting my ankle sprain heal and getting some good run training in. The run was where the excitement came in though... I was walking on the last hill when my uncle came by moving pretty good. Immediately I took off after him, and actually felt pretty good about my chances because I had been able to catch my breath going up the hill. The other factor was that you can't coast down to the finish from that point anymore, the line has been moved out. That was the difference maker, as he couldn't hold the pace all the way to the finish and I caught him just after the old finish line but with 100 yards or so to go and pulled away. Run time was 31:38 and my total was 1:13:38 for 75th place out of 128.
Check out the full results here: http://thelastmileracing.com/results/results2009/09windingtrails1.html
Nice job to Tom Cornish by the way... #1 overall on the bike!!
Despite getting rained out on Tuesday night, I rode the new bike course and then followed it up last night with the official "Demo Day" at Winding Trails. The course has changed this year as the race has gotten much bigger, over 300 racers over the course of the year as opposed to 80 or so when I first started 5 years ago.
The swim course is the same, although I did find out that there will be 3-4 waves instead of the 1 or maybe 2 that we have had in the past. It appears that there will be an attempt to seed folks based on predicted swim times which would certainly be an important difference from the past. In order to support this they've moved to a chip system for tracking which will also give better split times and better accuracy. The other important difference is the location of the transition area which is going to result in a longer run out of the swim. It's close to a 300 meter run after getting out of the water on a sand covered road which has a couple interesting implications. First, coming out gassed and then running for that long will definitely slow down some folks and it will probably make sense to pace this run a bit more than the normal sprint. Secondly, your feet will be covered with sand so it may be worth having a water basin for your feet or even some shoes near the swim exit. Lastly, the question of where to take off the wetsuit will take some thought as well, I haven't entirely decided what my thoughts are on this yet.
I got a chance to ride the bike course twice and although I was originally disappointed because it seemed easy, I think it will be a decent course and definitely structured to not get congested. The main difference from last year is that the first mile or maybe even two is wide open trail and although it's a bit hilly it will be fast. Clearly the goal was to get the racers to spread out and I think that will be the case on this course. It gradually adds some single track and some hills as you get through the bike course. There is still very little technical demand to the course but cornering skills will be very helpful in making a difference to your race. It's definitely a twisty course with a lot of braking and accelerating where bike handling will help you a lot in addition to being in shape. The final touch of the course is where you ride on the deep sand that they laid down to protect the feet of swimmers running into transition... ug, really sucks your legs down just as you're ready to run!
The run course is the same as it was last year but shifted a couple hundred feet to the new transition area. Ultimately, this means a few less steps to warm up before the hill and then your finishing kick will obviously have to start at a different spot. I'm thinking just as you get to the bridge... but this will have to play out over the course of the season.
All in all, I'm really looking forward to next week and the start of the "real" season!
No race at WT last night, but it was postponed to today. Hoping to get back there tonight and bring my latest newbie along with me...
I did go for a bike ride on the course last night, it's changed from last year. It felt a bit longer, probably because there was no one else on it and we weren't pushing hard. Also, I have to admit to being a tad disappointed that it wasn't more technical. I have an advantage on tougher bike courses because riding skill becomes more important than fitness :) However, most of the single track sections are still in and the steep hill is still there but they've all been moved to the end of the course. I suspect the thinking is that this will allow racers to spread out a bit before the logjams.... we'll see how it plays out.
Free demo day next Tuesday!! http://65.75.50.50/announcement.php?id=29
Worth a trip out to check it out, then the weekly series starts the week after.
Last night was the final race in the series, and the whole gang was on hand for the final party. At risk was my brother's third place in his age group, but he mostly just had to finish upright to hold off his challengers and keep his spot. Everyone else was locked out of finishing in the money, myself included sadly :(
Personally though, I was ready for my best effort of the season. I was feeling very good, and have felt stronger and stronger as the weeks have passed and my knee has been feeling better. I was hoping to pull off a strong run and determined to push hard the whole way.
It was a bigger crowd again, the race has grown tremendously and gotten very popular. The size has an impact for sure, especially in the swim as I got bumped a lot. Overall, a good swim, and my quickest of the year by a few seconds. The bike was also good, I pushed very hard and managed to pass a lot of people. Unfortunately, the last 1/2 mile or so I had chain issues, dropping it once and making tons of noise and making me nervous the rest of the way. I took it easy to try not to cause any more problems. Ended up with my fastest bike split of the year (27:39), but I still felt that I could have been faster.
Started the run feeling good and running hard. I didn't slow for the first hill, and just kept running as fast as I could. I had hoped to hold off Brendan who's the quickest runner among the family group. I hit the last uphill feeling that I had done it when he went past me. I tried desperately to stay with him, but he pulled away on the hill and then I couldn't reel him in over the finish line sprint. I did still finish with a great run time, (27:39) also my fastest time of the year and finished with a year best (obviously) of 1:02:49.
Disappointed a bit that it's the last race of the year... but I'm motivated again to hit the off-season hard and be much faster out of the gate next year.
Final results here: http://www.plattsys.com/results/res2008/wt0810.htm
A bit late, but I had a great race this week... finished in first place in the family race, and 99 out of 212 overall at 1:03:58. I finally felt "good" throughout, which is not to say that it wasn't painful :)
Swim focused, biked hard, and tried to run fast, not just steady. Once again, it's the run stupid! I kept trying to move my feet faster instead of just stay moving... ultimately rewarded with a 28:17 run time, my best time of the year.
Final week next week... last chance this year for all you slackers.
Crazy week at work after the week off...
I did race this week, the knee is feeling much better with the prescribed exercises. It was a fun race, although I did try and take it easy. I finished behind my uncle but ahead of the two young guns, not sure that would have happened if Brendan hadn't cramped up on his run and been unable to keep his usual pace.
Also, interesting quote and reading from another blog that I subscribe to, relating to my day job a bit:
"Architecture, for me anyway, involves intention, game theory, systems thinking and relentless testing and improvement. Fine with me if you want to call it design, just don't forget to do it."
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/is-architect-a.html
And no racing for that matter...
My uncle, brother and assorted others did very well at winding trails this week, check out the results at http://www.plattsys.com/results/res2008/wt0806.htm
Going to see the Doctor tomorrow, I'm not sure I'll have an answer, but hopefully at least some more information.
In the last couple of weeks, I've referred at least 3 people who I wouldn't have suspected to Tolland Bike shop, is it becoming a trend???
Worse that last week, I couldn't finish the race. My knee is really bothering me, and it folded up on me at the beginning of the run. I was neck and neck with my uncle at the time, so it was a bit frustrating and embarrassing. I've never quit in the middle of a race before..
I do have an appointment with a Doc in a few weeks, not sure what I'm going to do between now and then...
Short report... thunderstorms last night caused the cancellation of the swim portion, so we did a Run - Bike - Run instead. Ugg... I'd rather swim, but at least the first run was short, about a 1/2 mile just to spread the field a tad before the bike. It didn't work, the trails were jammed but I still managed to pass quite a few. Unfortunatly, the first run meant that my knee was killing me throughout the race instead of just at the end. Not a great race for me, 1:02 but I'll take it I guess. My brother broke an hour and had a pretty good race.
Good fireworks in Vernon afterwards.
DNS - Did Not Start - As in no racing last night... why? Because I'm an idiot, that's why!
Last week, when attempting to take my bike of the rack on my truck, I broke the key in the lock and couldn't remove it. I spent a few days looking for the second key and after having finally found it I was relieved to not have to cut off the lock. So I got ready and headed for Winding Trails in order to race last night, but discover 1/2 hour before race time that I didn't bring the good key with me! Thus, I was all dressed up with my bike locked firmly to my truck! I supposed I could have lobbied for using the truck instead of my bike but I was out of the race!
Instead I headed for my uncle's birthday party a bit early and had some cake! Oh well... there's always next week.
From Platt Systems
Matt:
Overall 1:04:35 Place in Division 6/9 Swim 7:37 Bike 28:37 Run 28:21
Dave:
Overall 1:06:14 Place in Division 21/33 Swim 7:51 Bike 28:40 Run 29:43
Eric:
Overall 1:08:39 Place in Division 26/31 Swim 8:01 Bike 31:19 Run 29:19
Brendan:
Overall 1:21:10 Place in Division 5/6 Swim 9:45 Bike 34:14 Run 37:11
Nate:
Overall 1:21:13 Place in Division 6/6 Swim 10:01 Bike 34:01 Run 37:11
My brother!
It was a great race, we were neck and neck throughout the race. He was slightly better at each event, but I would catch and pass him in the transition area. He beat me out of the water by 13 seconds, but I changed faster and was out on the bike first. We went back and forth a few times on the course which they had changed from last year. It was a tougher course in that it was harder to get a good rhythm going because of all the turns. (From the times, it appears to be a bit slower course as well) He ended up passing me and staying ahead into transition where I promptly passed again and left for the run ahead of him. I tried my best to drop him for good, thinking if I could get out of his sight he would be a bit down and I could stay ahead but apparently I was never out of range entirely. We a little over a mile to go he passed me for good and I pulled up a bit realizing I would not be able to stay with him and I was hurting pretty good.
Really fun though and it should be a good season of us pushing each other back and forth all year!
Step up boys... who wants it most? We have the regular contenders, Myself, Matt, Eric, Greg, Nate, Brendan... perhaps a few new folks, Kevin, Jack, Satish, Jon... an old standby Sean!
There can be only one!
Well... do you have what it takes?
We all have goals in life and dreams that we wish to fulfill... well, I finally reached my last night ;)
As I had mentioned before, the end of the series at Winding Trails is accompanied by a post-race party and awards ceremony. This is always fun, and last year I won a door prize from the raffle and received a $50 gift certificate from Monarch Jewelers. (Stupidly, I forgot about it and it expired, but that's not germane to this post.) In any case, I was looking forward the evening since it was fun, not that I was in line to win anything.
You see, they give out prizes for the top 3 in each age group, along with overall winners and record setters etc. My age group is the 30-39 year olds, and I don't have a lot of chance at winning. The overall race winner seems to come from this group every year as well as a bunch of other fast guys. Essentially, you earn points for every race you do, after 5 races you're eligible for the series win. They keep your best 8 scores, so even if you miss 2 races you have a chance at accumulating points. Thus, you need to have shown up at least 8 times, and raced pretty fast in all those races to get enough points to win or place. I had no chance, but my brother and uncle who were in different age groups were close enough to at least be in contention.
Neither of them ended up getting into the top three, so we were all out of the running. Then Sharon, the race director announced that they wanted to recognize someone other than the fast guys all the time and they decided to award a "Mr Average" and "Mrs Average". I'm not sure if they picked the exact center of the male and female racers or what, but she called my name! Thus, my dreams were fulfilled, I've been appointed complete average and have nothing more to shoot for!!!
All in all a good time, and the best part is that the award came with a prize, a free series pass for next year... a $100 plus value!!!
As I wrote about yesterday, my remaining goal for 2007 after finishing the Ironman, was to break 1 hour at the Winding Trails sprint race. Well... I did it, I broke an hour, in fact I crushed my old P.R. (Personal Record) by over 2 minutes, coming in at 58:41.The splits are not yet posted, so I don't know the exact times but I'll post what I recall and then update it when I get the exact numbers.
Updated!
The swim went pretty well, we did two waves as this was a very large group again; in fact Sharon the race director mentioned this was the biggest ever. I had forgotten my goggles, so I needed to borrow my uncle's extra seal mask. I don't like it as well as conventional goggles, but it worked well enough although it got foggy and I wasn't able to sight all that well. The swim finished in 7:3x and I ran up the beach reminding myself to push!
I had decided I was going to spend the whole race going as fast as I could. I tried that on the run last week and did pretty well, but couldn't make up enough time from the bike. Over and over I asked myself if I could be going harder and didn't worry about whether I would blow up or not.
Transition was quick and I started riding well. Right away I could tell that my legs were strong and I was going to have a good ride. The only hiccup was the spot where the tree was down across the trail and I had to slow a bit for the rider ahead of me. I just hopped over it, once again glad for the extra riding I do on harder trails. I find in this race a lot that riders around me will catch me on hills or flats and then I go back up on the downhills and corners. I take this to mean my riding is generally good or better since they have the fitness or speed to out pedal me, but not the technical riding skills to take advantage of the course. This makes me smile generally :)
Coming into transition off the bike, I had a great change. Out of the shoes almost before my feet hit the ground and I was off, having caught a glimpse of the clock showing 32:50 something. I knew I had a chance if I could run strong. I stopped for a real quick slug of Gatorade at the end of transition and then started running. I walked 5 steps up the real steep hill at the start, took a big breath and took off. The whole time I just kept pushing with no regard for later. Every time a racer would come by I would try to follow and just go as hard as I could. I really started to hurt about halfway through, but I could tell that I was making the time and really racing. It was pretty cool. Coming into the final long downhill I could see people ahead of me and decided I was catching at least two. Running all out I caught one but couldn't reel in the other. Then I heard footsteps behind me and started running scared. I was going so fast that I caught a tree root about 15 feet from the finish and did a flying roll! Mad now that the guy behind was going to catch me I scramble to my knees and then my feet trying desperately to keep my momentum. Back up and across the line before I got passed and I saw 58 something on the clock. I was thrilled!
I watched the rest come in... my brother, uncle, cousin and two friends, it's become quite a party. Then off to Whole Foods to gorge on their buffet!
Final Splits were:
Swim - 7:39, Bike - 25:18, Run - 25:44, Total 58:41
Bike, Run, and Total were all records!
Second to last race tonight at Winding Trails, and I'm hoping I'm recovered from the Litchfield Tri on Sunday. I haven't yet him my goal of breaking an hour yet, although I've come close at just 53 seconds over a few weeks ago.
The problem is that I'm just a bit worn down from both Ironman USA and of course the Oly Tri this weekend. There's a fine line between being in peak form and under-recovered. I actually feel okay today, but it's hard to say what my reserves are going to be like when I put the pedal down tonight. I did a good job last week of running on the edge the whole time, something I've struggled with in the past. I kept asking myself... forget 5 minutes from now, can I run harder right now? This worked, but ultimately I didn't have enough speed left in my legs to go fast enough.
An interesting approach may be to skip this week and try to put everything into next week, but I have too much fun racing to take this approach. Hopefully I can put it together either tonight or next week...
Ho-hum... this is getting routine. I'm getting faster and faster on the Winding Trails course and now feel like breaking the 1 hr barrier just might be doable! I finished in 1:00:55 on Tuesday, and had 3 mishaps that kept me slower than I wanted to be. I got whacked on the swim and had to fix my goggles, caught a stick with my deraileur and had to stop to pull it out and put the chain back on, and wiped out running down the hill. It could be that the fall made me mad enough to reel off a great run, and that's why I was faster but I still feel like I haven't had the perfect race yet.
Maybe next week...
In other news, I have a long bike ride on Saturday and then I'll starting winding down the long stuff in order to be well rested on the 22nd. I'm thinking of heading up to MA and swinging around the Quabbin Resivour. My other option is a jaunt into RI. Should be fun either way I'm sure.
Results are posted on greystone racing for the first winding trails race. Solid race overall, although I didn't feel good on either the bike or the run, so I'm hoping to do better next week. Oh, and wacking the tree wasn't particularly fun either.
Splits: Swim-7:55, Bike-27:56, Run-29:26
Picture from the start... I'm on the left in the front with the X on my chest.
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