Drumroll: Race Report!!
Yeah, I know, I have a race report….and it’s kind of a good one because I ran the 5k out in Colorado, so it was at altitude and let’s face it, my running has been somewhat consistent, but altitude, hmmm….that would be interesting. I actually didn’t think it would be interesting at all, I was thinking “whatever, altitude, i’ll just go as hard as I can anyway..”.
So, the night before, the high for the morning was going to be around 12 or so degrees…..but I kept reminding myself that we were higher up and it as long as it wasn’t windy, i’d be fine. I asked both my sisters, and my new brother-in-law Ewam if they wanted to run and of course Dave…..I got solid “No’s” up and down the board..for various reasons, mostly injury-related….and it was just flat out too cold for my sister Trinette..fair enough. But, in the midst of my family there is ALWAYS ONE person I can count on to get out there provided he isn’t injured himself…my brother–in-law Jeff! I’ve blogged about him before he ran for Colorado State and he’s just a rabbit…very fast and even with the “I haven’t really run in a long time” he still knocks out miles somewhere in the 7:00’s..not too shabby for a busy dad who just got a promotion and barely has time for himself. He was more than eager to drive over to the Anthem…
Categories: Race Results
Phelps School Cross race report
Eastern PA was treated to some incredible weather this past weekend. What better way to spend a Saturday AM than with some friends / rivals on a TOUGH cyclcross course? No one was there to shoot any pictures, but here’s a video from last year to give you some perspective: Phelps Cross 2009 Men\’s Cat 4 on Contour
I was on the fence about doing this race. Last year the course didn’t suit my style all that much and wasn’t very technical. It had some LONG power sections that ate me alive. My friend Johan talked me into it, so we headed down to Malvern PA to check it out. When we prerode the course and saw the changes we were both impressed. It was a course that combined power with some climbing and cornering skills to really put the hurting on you! I was racing with Johan, my training partner that has put the hurt on me many times before on a bicycle. We were racing the Masters 35+ / 45+ which included riders from Cat 1 to Cat 4. They were paying cash back to 7th place in our 43 man field, but I wasn’t worried about that…I wanted to prove the ever accurate race predictor at crossresults.com to be wrong. Johan and I were predicted to finish 8th/9th respectively.
Temps were in the mid 50’s w/ bright sunshine for our 11am start. I had a 2nd…
Categories: Athletes, Biking, Race Reports, Race Results, Racing
USAT Nationals – Race Report
So Long Alabama…
USAT has a practice of holding their Age Group National Championship races at the same location two years in row. This year was my second trip to Tuscaloosa, AL for this race. I’ve learned to never say never, but I CAN say with reasonable certainty it will be a cold day in Tuscaloosa before I go back. I’m sure AL is a sweet home and all (tip my hat to some incredible college football tradition), but it aint my home. In fact, I’m amazed that literally millions of people choose to call the oppressive heat and humidity of the american southeast home. They do know its a choice right?
Describing this year’s race is kind of complex. There was a lot of crap swimming around in my head leading up to the race so if all my thoughts aren’t complete I apologize. I’ll try to tie things together as best I can. I wasn’t feeling all that great physically or mentally coming into this race and it was really weighing on my mind. I really had no idea what type of performance to expect. All season, I’ve wanted to knock this one out of the park, similar to two years ago in Portland. But coming in I knew that wasn’t going to happen. What I didn’t know was how far from that I would be??
Michele and I flew in Friday morning
…
Categories: Athletes, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Boulder 70.3 – Race Report
I’m not exactly comfortable saying this, but I’ve been having a pretty good year, so far. I’ve been very happy with my results in nearly very race. So why mess with a good thing, right? Well, coach kind a wanted to experiment a little with this years Boulder 70.3. The idea was if you’re always trying to push to your limits, sometimes you need to go over them just to be sure where they are.
In the past, I’ve felt like I’ve never been able to bike hard enough to damage my run. Well, we’ve been working on my cycling quite a bit this year and I feel like I’ve made some significant improvements. So, it was time to see if I could do some damage…
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! If the picture above were taken about four hours later you’d see a giant mushroom cloud just left of center, ‘cause thats precisely where I blew up. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming either. I just didn’t feel real great all week and it carried over to race morning. Neither my warmup jog nor swim felt good at all. It might have been a bit of a hangover from racing in Omaha the weekend prior. Or I might have been just dreading the long HOT run course that Boulder always brings.
Regardless, things got off to a fine start. I was pretty happy with my swim. It didn’t seem
…
Categories: Athletes, Events, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Omaha Triathlon – Race Report
Home Alone
If you read my Loveland race report you got an idea of how fun it is to part of the tri community around here and how much I appreciate and enjoy it. Well, Omaha Triathlon was pretty much the bizzaro Loveland. I knew my wife and not a single other competitor, weird! It was like being a stranger in your own home town. I started thinking about it and I haven’t had that feeling in a LONG time! Since my first two tris and I even recruited my friend Kutch for the second one. It was weird not to recognize faces on the out and back run. Maybe it was a little easier to focus, but it just didn’t quite feel right without at least some of the ol’ crew. I’ll certainly be looking forward to that aspect of my next few races.
So, a month or so before Omaha my coach, Steve, encouraged me to really go after this one, as in try to actually win. Don’t get me wrong, I always give it my all and do the best I can. This was more about mentally preparing to be in the situation of racing to win. Be prepared for some racing ‘tactics’, ditch the ‘time trial’ mentality of racing the clock and actually race the people around you, but most of all just being prepared to turn myself inside out if the race
…
Categories: Athletes, Family & Friends, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Tags: Omaha Tri
Wrapping up September
So September is finally over. Started out pretty rough but ended up being a nice transition into fall. Autumn seems to be getting the handle of this “Spanish Immersion” thing, we celebrated Lauren’s birthday and ushered in October with Autumn’s birthday.
My mom had us over for a nice family gathering to celebrate Lauren’s birthday on Friday, then we had a great party at Putt U mini golf with about 12 of Autumn’s friends on Saturday. Weather cooperated nicely. On Lauren’s birthday I raced my second cyclocross race of the season in the morning and we visited her brother and had a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the afternoon.
The Whirlybird cross race was in held at Bryn Athyn College outside of Philadelphia. It the first time I had been there and it was a great venue for a cross race. This year was the first time it was part of the MAC series and there were several sold out fields. I raced the (B) Masters 35+ class which was sold out at 125 people! I was lucky enough to get a 2nd row call up on the starting line due to a decent finish at the first race…Nittany Cross. The start was tight, but opened up into a LONG straight section before hitting the first few turns. I knew my skinny legs wouldn’t have much for the strong power riders on the long straights, but just hoped…
Categories: Biking, Events, Race Reports, Race Results, Racing
The Perfect Race
After Seven Years of Adventure Racing I have never completed a perfect race. It’s almost an impossible feat. That is why we Adventure Race. The concept of Adventure Racing is making adjustments as new challenges are thrown at you during a race. The team that wins is the team that goes as fast as possible and makes the fewest mistakes. You cross train by trail running, mountain biking, canoeing, swimming, orienteering, map reading, race strategies, and climbing. I now have 75 races behind me and one perfect race.
We have been racing as the Trakkers Adventure Racing team for the last two years and have gained a lot of good experience during that time. We are fortunate enough to be ranked #1 in the USARA ranking in 2010. With good results comes national attention and we have gained new sponsors because of our results. As of last week our team name changed to Remington\Mountain Khakis – Trakkers. We added two new premier sponsor to the Adventure Racing team. The Black Beard Adventure Race in Nags Head, North Carolina was to be our first race under our new name.
I was racing in the co-ed division with Veronica Ivey and Greg Voelkel. Veronica’s is in her 20’s, Greg’s in his 30’s and I’m in my 40’s, so we were representing a 20 year age gap. The race course was…
Categories: Adventure Racing, Biking, Events, Race Reports, Race Results
My First Peak
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well this profile is all you need to say about the Boulder Peak Triathlon course. Yes, the swim is flat and the run even flatter. But Old Stage Road is anything but flat. Despite the climbing, its a pretty fast bike course and I managed to have a pretty good first Boulder Peak.
Somehow, I’ve missed this race every year. I’ve race the boulder half three times, but never the Peak. Most of my friends have done it so many times, they’re sick of it. Relative to the Lake 2 Lake turnout, it showed. It probably didn’t help that the race sold to the evil cash register that is WTC.
Michele and I drove up the morning of the race, 3:30am wake up. Arrived in time to get a great spot in transition, RDs gave us a pretty great rack. I had plenty of time to go back to the truck and close my eyes for 30 mins before starting my warm-up. I like the Boulder races because they let you warm up in the water. Obviously, I’m not a swimmer and not being able to warm-up swimming only makes matters worse. So I took full advantage and got in a solid 10 mins of paddling around.
My new age group is getting a little rediculous. We had over 250 guys registered for the race. They had to split us…
Categories: Athletes, Events, Race Reports, Race Results, Triathlons
Shaltowee Redemption – Almost
Chris shot me an email this morning with the final results for the Shaltowee Extreme. It looks like we didn’t get a DQ as we expected but last place, which in this situation, I am very happy about. We were credited for the last check point we punched after losing the passport. Only one check point after racing for 26 hours? I’ll take it.
A few other points I forgot to mention in my last post about the race that need to be mentioned:
- The area of Kentucky where the race was held is truly beautiful. The canoe section was amazing. If you have chance to float down that section of river, take it.
- Stephanie Ross did a great job with the course design especially as some areas were changed in the eleventh hour requiring a major course redesign. I wasn’t sure if I would like the incremental checkpoint plotting but looking back I do like that format. Stephanie also gets Kudos for being pretty much everywhere on the course at all times making sure everything was running smoothly. I am pretty sure she must have a twin or even two.
- Final shout out to Chris and Danielle my team mates who hung in there as we added extra navigation miles.
Categories: Adventure Racing, Race Reports, Race Results
Quassy Photos
The Loch ness Monster appears….
Out onto the beautiful bike course…
And how the heck did I manage a smile in that heat on that course?
And another smile up the dreadful last mile hill :<)
One of my favorite shots of all time…look at that smile on Joshua’s face, PRICELESS!
And finally done….Rev3 does things right…look at this finish line area!
Categories: Athletes, Biking, Events, Family & Friends, Race Reports, Race Results, Racing, Running, Swimming, Team, Triathlons
Recent Posts
by Andree Miceli @ Sharpsburg, GA
by Andree Miceli @ Sharpsburg, GA
by Dean Sprague @ San Diego, CA
by Andree Miceli @ Sharpsburg, GA
Ironman Wisconsin 2011 – the ra...
by MJ Slikas @ Chicago, IL
Bloggers
- Amanda Lovato (3)
- Andree Miceli (60)
- Andy Krebs (3)
- Andy Rosebrook (37)
- Anne Moore (3)
- Anthony Beeson (21)
- Bree Wee (2)
- Chris Garges (22)
- David Ashley (1)
- David ORear (3)
- Dean Sprague (24)
- Elaine Debitetto (1)
- Jacqui Gordon (1)
- Jamie Bull (18)
- Janet Edwards (20)
- Jeff Dickey (2)
- Jessi Thompson (6)
- Joel Strickland (38)
- Josh Scobey (7)
- Kati Derrick (32)
- Kelly Covert (25)
- Kiersten Henry (17)
- Mark Harris (27)
- Megan Killian (17)
- Meredith Gordon (8)
- Meredith Trowbridge (35)
- Michael Lovato (1)
- Michael Spiller (13)
- Michelle Ford (1)
- MJ Slikas (24)
- Monika Sattler (7)
- Rachelle Little (6)
- Richie Cunningham (1)
- Ryan Oilar (21)
- Savannah Fuentes (1)
- Scott Skalny (12)
- Sherry Coulombe (4)
- Sonja Wieck (6)
- Susanna Loewy (8)
- Thor Kirleis (2)
- Tim Kasparek (1)
- Tim Manning (2)
- Tony Myers (1)
Categories
- Adventure Racing (38)
- Athletes (41)
- Biking (58)
- Events (38)
- Family & Friends (34)
- Nutrition (25)
- Product Reviews (31)
- Race Reports (72)
- Race Results (27)
- Race Schedule (9)
- Racing (37)
- Recipes (3)
- Running (58)
- Swimming (18)
- Team (22)
- Technology (4)
- Tips (17)
- Training (90)
- Triathlons (280)
- Videos (7)
Tags
Yoga, avi-bolt II, avi-bolt III, avia, rev3, ryan oilar, trakkers, Swimming, Nations marathon, Running, Omaha Tri, power meter, priorities, all3sports, tri-slide, Tri-Swim, compression, recovery, saucony, minimalist running shoe, Product Review, saucony kinvara, Race Schedule, Training, rev3 cedar point, Racing, Rev3Tri, Schedule, Triathlon, i8this,
