5 Miler Central Park Race Report 2011

Achilles Hope & Possibility Results
Beautiful morning for a race. It's going to be a warm one but not a scorcher.
I biked 58 miles yesterday so it was hard for me to know what I was going to get out of my legs this morning.
The warmup was decent but when I tried to do the striders there wasn't much pep to them. Nothing new there I suppose. I just knew I would have to run a solid pace run today rather than go for a PR.
I got to the corral early but made the mistake of not moving up further. There was plenty of room, I just had in my head that I shoudn't get in the way. It was a very congested first mile+. The fact there was some uphill also had the mass moving a bit slower than I had expected. Not a big deal.
I forgot my watch today, so no splits. I was going to go by perceived effort and try not to be too lazy. Once the course opened up a bit, I decided to find someone that looked to be running a pace that I should be pushing and then go with them. I'm glad I did. I think we negative split every mile by a little bit.
I passed all the aid stations because once again my stomach was a mess. (not sure why this is happening so often lately). My pacer went over to the last water station, that's when I was on my own again. It was a downhill with a mile to go. I tried to open it up as much as I could. My pacer pulled along side of me at one point but I was bursting at times to break through the people that run downhill poorly. Towards the end of that mile, I was hurting a bit more that I thought I would be but I guess that's a good way to finish.
I knew I was under 8 min miles but wasn't positive of my time until I got home and checked online.

37:58 7:36 min/mile.
390th of 3327 Overall
345 of 1684 men
46 of 212 Age Group.

That time is a bit slower than it probably should have been. The long bike the day before definitely played a part. I'm alright with it. Glad to be out there runnin'.
I don't think I'm going to make it to another NYRR race until September maybe October. I shouldn't have a problem getting my 9 races in. Today was my 5th of the year.

I think I need to challenge myself to setting some PRs at these races next year. This year I had to learn how the coaching thing for triathlon was going to play out. Next year I should be able to plan out which run races I should make goal races to get me ready for the Triathlon season.
I'm interested in doing this now, but with a Half Iron and a marathon ahead of me, I need to think distance not speed.

RPMs

This is the 2^nd weekend in a row where I’ve put in a 56+ mile bike day. Between the 2 rides I got a bit of an adjustment from the coaches. I mentioned that I feel pretty comfortable in the 82-85 zone for my cadence. Well, that’s not good enough. I guess we need to see a 9 as the first number.

Other years I’d try 90+ RPM and I think my HR would go too high and my legs would fatigue as well. That was before, I figure I’d better give it a shot with my current conditioning.

First thing is I think I requires a bit more warmup for me to get into 90 rpm mode. Once I got there, I think I accepted that as the tempo and didn’t find myself drifting lower. I definitely spent more time shifting. That should improve with a couple more rides.

I’m very interested to see how my legs feel running off the bike with this cadence. I have a brick scheduled next weekend, should be interesting.

My other big concern is hydration and nutrition. Both of these long ride I had a disaster for a stomach and I didn’t drink enough fluid. I’m going to have to start practicing race day breakfasts before these rides because I think it’s what I’m eating before I ride that’s causing me trouble. I also think I need to get my watch to beep at me every X:XX minutes to remind me to drink. It’s been hot the last couple rides but I’ve been comfortable as long as I’m in motion. The lack of fluid will kill my run tho’, so I’ve got to get that taken care of.

AC Joint

So I went to the chiropractor this morning. I was very curious to find out what he could tell me about my shoulder. To figure out what is wrong, you do a bunch of resistance tests, pushing and resisting with your arm in various positions. I guess I should have counted how many different tests we did. I think it was about 8. It doesn’t take very long to go through them, probably 2 minutes. After each one he’d ask “Any pain?”. No.

So that was good news, except that I was thinking it had to be something. I know it’s feeling better but it’s not perfect. He wasn’t done with me yet. He has me lie down on the table and then we do a test where he’s pushing on my shoulder. I grimaced as he did this one. “There it is, that would be an AC joint sprain”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromioclavicular_joint

http://www.athleticadvisor.com/injuries/ue/shoulder/a_-_c_sprain.htm

Always good to know what we are dealing with so we treat it properly. I should have been icing it. Not swimming was the right call. (easy call, it was painful to even try). It is much better already tho’. Hard to say how much longer I should rest it. It’s basically day to day. Maybe Monday? Hopefully.

Try as I might…

The other day I was very close to posting a few things but I didn’t want to jinx myself.

Those things were:

The tendonitis in my left elbow seems to be gone after 5 months.

My tight right hamstring seems to have given up it’s fight. (started in April I think)

Because of the hamstring, I think my right foot might finally be tracking properly.

Fantastic! Really I was psyched because my 8 weeks of intense training had arrived.

I mentioned my core workouts and how cautious I have been in choosing my exercises to avoid injury. So far so good there, I’ve also been very careful with my weight lifting. Sadly, still not enough. Instead of pullups, I’ve been doing negatives. (simply lowering myself from the pullup bar). Wednesday night, that was the first thing on my list. As soon as I lifted my feet from the ground, my right shoulder tweaked. Seriously?!!? You’ve got to be kidding. So I bailed on the negatives. Only to find out I couldn’t do a number of the other exercises now either. (not happy).

Then we went to the pool. I knew I wasn’t likely I was going to be able to do much but I had to find out. Sure enough, swimming was not going to happen either.

Went home and soaked it in icy/hot for the night. It didn’t help. All day today if I move my arm a certain way it’s painful. I’ve got a chiropractor appointment on Saturday morning. Maybe he can adjust it and get it to heal up a bit quicker.

I guess if it’s going to happen, now is as good of a time as any. I just hope this problem doesn’t stick around as long as that list up above did.

If this was a twitter post I'd add something like this right? #madeofglass

Sleep/Train/Work/Train: repeat

Yep, I’m still around. It’s just been very busy, mostly a fun busy so I’m not complaining.

All sorts of stuff is running through my head. I know I don’t have time to organize a good post so I’m just going to throw a bunch of stuff down here.

Racing Columbia and Mooseman 13 days apart: I just wanted to note that physically I was recovered from the first race. At my current fitness level, racing 2 Olympic distance events that close together is definitely doable.

Things I would change for next year:

I need to make Mooseman or Columbia an A race and peak for that event. This will build speedwork into my workouts earlier_.

I also have to spend more time running hills. I’m not exactly sure what the balance is, but I know that my standard run course isn’t good enough to prepare for Columbia’s run course.

For Mooseman I’m wondering, if I lose the clip-on aero bars on my road bike and get fit for road position, would that make for a faster ride for me than my tribike? I definitely need to look into this after Timberman this year.

Ironman Events: The other day was signup for two new Ironman venues. The one up in Quebec in late August looks like my kind of venue. I also think that it’s probably at the right time of year in terms of having time for outdoor training. Genine asked me if I was thinking of signing up. I said no.

Some may argue it’s not many more hours than I’m training now, so what’s the difference? Well I think the big thing is this. I don’t think I want to be an ironman enough and I think that it’s a pretty big key to being successful. That may change in the future. Heck, if a bunch of my friends called me and said they were signing up, I’d probably jump in pretty quickly. Of course it would be nice if they were local and we could train together but we’ve trained “together” through this blog before, so I know that’s pretty good motivation as well.

A couple of minor injuries (if that’s what they are), also have me concerned that even a half iron may be too much. (so far so good tho). My right foot is still not striking properly when I run. Which is likely cause or effect of my right hamstring being tight. I definitely got some relief with chiropractic and massage but I’m not cured. Dealing with this is definitely impacting my outlook.

Motivation is still good. It might even be better than it has been in quite some time. I actually was up at 5AM and completed a morning workout Mon-Thurs this week. So I haven’t had to brick workouts at night like I had been doing from time to time.

The two mornings that I ran this week I had my HR monitor on. As I was standing in the kitchen getting ready to go, I noticed my HR was hanging around 53. That seems lower than previous years. I’m not sure I get that same reading in the evening.

My swimming speed has been below average. Really odd how the week before Mooseman I had such a great workout, since then it’s been pretty awful. Frustrating but not surprising. Same as it ever was…

I’ve been getting better about building core strength. I’m really taking my time with it. In other years I’d tried pull up plans and push up plans. They were too aggressive and I paid the price. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. Make a plan that goes slow and steady, then stick to the plan. So far so good with the core plan.

Looking at my training schedule, it doesn’t get much more difficult than what I did this past week. I survived it, but as you can tell by my lack of posts, I don’t have much free time as a result.

I set a new PR for distance on the bike this Saturday. 62 miles. I’ve finally done more than 56 miles. Maybe that means I’ll be better prepared for Timberman this time around. I had to run after those 62 miles, I found out that I was somewhat dehydrated. It didn’t feel like it on the bike, but it was obvious on the run. That is something I need to focus on in the future.

The next day, I swam 5000m then ran for about 10-11 miles. The swim was slow but consistent. The run, perhaps a bit dehydrated again. I had my fuelbelt on but indigestion was pretty much in play the entire run. Ah well. I got it done.

There are many other things I’d like to ramble on about but once again I’m out of time and I’ve been working on this post almost all week. (sad I know). Sorry my posting is so infrequent and for my lack of comments on other’s blogs. I’m just having a heck of a time finding the time.

Hope everyone is fit and injury free!

Photos I get...

So you've seen the photos I've taken of other people racing. Well here is the set I get to choose from.
Race Photos
At least the bike picture shows the jacket I chose to wear that morning, which is kind of funny.

My race number was kind of on my hip during the run. So my annual moose antlers picture during the run can be found in the lost and found section. Sort by male runners and look for my yellow jersey.

I think Genine had better luck with her pictures.

Mooseman 70.3 Photos Age Groupers

Here is a link to the pictures I took of the Age Groupers on Sunday.
Mooseman 2011 70.3 Photos Age Group

Ironman NYC 2012

Looks like it's a go. Here's the link.

Matt's RR Mooseman 2011

37 degrees on the way to transition. 59 degree water.

I've been at this beach probably 35 of 41 summers of my life. I could only be more familiar with the area if I lived there. (and then it probably wouldn't feel as special).

I get to the swim start with a swim PR on my mind. I swim for about a minute. Massive face freeze pain. I take a short break to let that subside. Then continue to warm up. Better to deal with that pre-race than during the first 200m. (or at least that's what I think).
I line up right of center. I have a tendency to swim to the left when things aren't going well. This is the perfect lake for drafting. You can see everything. After about 200m I start to search for someone to follow. Unfortunately, I've limited my options because I'm pulling so far left. I'm right on the buoy line. I spend the next 300-400m trying to get into a groove but every time I look up I'm directly between buoys and everyone else is to the right of me. At the turn, heading for the beach, I caught feet for about 150m, then that guy flipped into a back stroke. I never got comfortable on the swim and knew I missed another chance to PR a swim this year. In T1 I look at my watch and see 29:xx. Disappointing. It was a 28:29 swim. 83 Overall I believe.

I took my time in T1. I toweled dry. Put socks on to try and keep a bit warmer and also pulled on a jacket. Not a bike jacket but it was close enough. I really wanted to keep from freezing up. I know this course very well. I decided I'd keep it fairly easy to start in hopes that when I got to the "devil's hill" I'd be ready to climb and my legs wouldn't cramp from the cold as they have other years.
When I got to Devil's Hill, there was a guy crashed out in the middle of the road unable to clip out. Someone was walking over to help him. At the same time a car is passing me in the other lane to my left and cars are approaching in the other direction.... I get around the downed cyclist and then can only climb as fast as the cyclists in front of the car that is now ahead of me. That, kind of ruined that experience. Just bad luck.
I make the turn onto 3A and that's when figure I'm warmed up and it's time to roll. I leap frog with a guy from the 50AG for awhile. He was a 70rpm'er. I probably would have been with him the entire course but he stopped to help a guy with a flat.
Other than devils hill and the descent into Bristol. I felt the course was wide open to me. I knew I wasn't breaking any records tho. I roll in at 1:27:14. 18.7mph. 128th overall.

Starting out on the run. One of the runners near me yells "I can't feel my feet!" Yeah, it's definitely a strange feeling. In fact I was almost certain that I must have left one of my running socks in my right shoe, because the toes on that foot feel like they had something in there with them. I had my GU in there this morning but I'm pretty sure I took it out. I kept running. (there was nothing in there, my feet were just numb)
It's pretty flat for 2 miles and SUNNY. Yes! HEAT! Mile 1 8:10, Mile 2 7:50, Mile 3 hills 8:00. Seeing 8:00 for the 3rd mile gave me a boost, I thought it was going to be worse than that. Not to mention my HR has been about 10bpm slower than my typical race pace. I was just having trouble getting my legs to move.
Back up the short steep hill and then it's on. I was able to get myself moving finally. I started passing people and I don't remember being passed. I missed taking my splits but my 10K was completed in 48:21, 7:48 pace, 103rd overall. (of 800? I wish I knew) Edit: 440 participants.

They finally sent us our results today (Tuesday) but it's only Age Group. It doesn't break down Split placement. Nor does it give us our T1 or T2 times. Second year in a row where this is all they've provided to us. Many people are upset by it. I now have a better understanding of why people call the Ironman brand, the WalMart of Triathlon.

I ended up 17th of 65 in my AG.

Here is the odd thing. I've raced this 4 times. Only 2 have been unaltered races. One was shortened swim, the other no swim and short bike. Here is how I match up.
This year I'm :39 seconds slower than my combined S/B/R splits in 2009.
This year I'm :01 second faster on my Bike/Run splits in 2008 when the shortened the swim
I'm certain I couldn't finish within a minute of my time if I actually tried.

It was fun. I love this course. We will be back up there in July to vacation and train.
To be honest, I wanted to make some nice improvements at this race because I'd like to move up to the 70.3 at some point. But I'd really like to rock the International Course at least once before I do that. Maybe next year.

Mooseman 2011- Genine's Race Report

Where to begin… I’ve been telling Matt I need to post something for months now. I have 3 run races and a sprint tri that I haven’t reported on as well as some other things worth noting, but for some reason I haven’t made it a priority. For now I’ll fill you in on my Mooseman weekend. Maybe that will inspire me to write what else is on my mind and share my other race experiences. We will see. Not that it is anything particularly exciting, but I would like to keep an account for my own recollection.

Mooseman for us this year was, well… dare I say…relaxed. Unlike the previous 3 years, it was only 1 other friend racing beside Matt and I. There was very little in terms of preparation, no big meals to host and only 1 night of overnight guests. While I missed the fun and excitement of having a big group up at the farm, it made for a lot less to think about. So going into the race on Saturday, I was quite at ease.

Wednesday Matt & I arrived in NH. It was sunny and in the low 80’s. We unloaded everything at the house, and went straight down to the lake for an evening swim. Aahhh….. how I love Newfound! So beautiful and perfect. When we drove in the park entrance, Ironman trucks and crew nearly filled the parking lots, but once we were on the beach we were among only a handful of people there. So peaceful. There was 1 other swimmer doing laps. Matt and I put on our wetsuits and very easily got in the water. We swam for about 30minutes. The water was quite comfortable. Cold, yes, but not crazy. After we got out of the water, we parked at the trailhead lot and rode our bikes out from there for a quick ride. As I went to put my front tire on my bike, I noticed my aerobar pads were missing. I asked Matt if he had taken them off before putting the bike on top of the car to travel. Nope. My aerobar pads were somewhere along a highway between NJ and NH! Ah well. We did our practice ride and decided we would McGiver something for the race. After posting on Tri-Fuel, we went with the suggestion of using computer mouse pads.

Thursday was a day for cooking, race prep and a 30min practice run followed by some good stretching and yoga to relieve my aching lower back and pinch in the left side of my neck. I was a bit of a wreck after the car ride up. After checking with the local bike shop in Plymouth for aero pads (which they didn’t have), we set out to find mouse pads, rubber cement and Velcro tabs. We found all of the required items, made a stop at the grocery store and then headed back to the house. First I had some cooking to do. Just because we didn’t have a big crowd, you didn’t think I wouldn’t be cooking did you?? I made a spinach pie, chicken parm with baked ziti and black bean/sweet potato skillet over whole wheat couscous and black bean & corn salsa. Just some of our favorites. Oh…. and brownies and blueberry scones. In between cook times, I began making my aero pads. I used Matt’s pads as a template- tracing them on to the mouse pads. I cut out 2 layers of mouse pads and rubber cemented them together- letting them dry sandwiched between 2 heavy books. Once they were dry, I attached them to my aero bars using the heavy duty Velcro pads. Worked like a dream!

My 30minute run felt pretty good. Matt & I ran the beginning part of the course from the beach to the ledges, then looped to the bridge by Fowler River and back. I was hoping to feel like this on Saturday.

Friday brought final race prep, packet pickup, easy 30min bike/15min run brick, and Eric & Ryan (Matt’s brother & nephew) arrived in time for dinner. I felt very relaxed all day as thing came together simply. Matt & I went down to the beach around 3:00pm to get our race packets and do our last pre-race workout. We biked away from the commotion at the park toward Alexandria & then found a little residential loop by the lake for the run. All was good. Set, packed and ready to race. We had a small dinner & chatted with Eric, then headed up to bed around 10:00pm. Alarm set for 4:00am.

Race Day: Alarm goes off at 4:00am. Out of bed by 4:10. Breakfast of 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with PB&J, Kashi biscuits with almond milk, apple and tea went down easy. We were out the door by 5:00am and parked about a 1/2mile from the park at 5:15am. (Love being so close to the race site!) We got packs and bikes and started walking. The walk was a welcome warm-up as it was only 37 degrees!!! Yep, it was a freezer! I was actually looking forward to putting on my wetsuit and getting in the water. Getting OUT of the water was a different story. Transition went together quickly.

Here I am in my spacious transition spot thanks to the stump at the end of my rack! :-)

Matt and I had time to stand in the sun on the beach an enjoy a view of the lake while I ate a bar and a banana and stretched.

Matt and I pre-race. The only photo of us all day.

Then it was time to take off the warm clothes and get ready to RACE! Wetsuit on and walking down the beach to the swim start, the sand was so cold & wet that is seemed to pull all of the heat out of my feet. Matt pointed out that is was actually warmer to walk in the water, so we did.

Beautiful, calm Newfound Lake on race morning.

Once we got close to the start, Matt did his warm-up (literally) swim. He swam out and quickly came back with an ice cream head-ache face freeze. He said it hurt, but after a few more minutes, it subsided. Matt’s wave started 12 minutes ahead of mine, so once he left to start his race, I began my warm up. The water felt fine, but the face freeze was brutal! I’m glad to get that shock out of my system before the race began. I swam short laps for about 8 minutes and then stood up to walk out of the water & get with my wave start. No sooner did I get out of the water, the shakes started. I was that cold. So back in the water I went as I waited for my wave start, got out to walk over the timing mat and got right back in the water. Perfect plan!

Swim: I always have butterflies right before the gun goes off. The swim, especially the start, makes me anxious even when I otherwise feel relaxed. Newfound, “our lake”, always eases this a bit. I lined up in the middle of the pack, knowing I was faster than many, but didn’t want to get in the way of those faster than me. The gun goes off and I quickly work to claim my space. I pass several people, work my way to the inside and find a pocket and a pair of feet for the next 200-300m. That person veers to the right, but I just keep swimming on the inside, passing close to each buoy and avoiding most contact. The swim felt good and I felt confident. The first half of the swim went by quickly, but by the end I was ready to be out of the water.

T1: Even though hands and feet were a bit numb from the cold, my wetsuit came off easily, bike gear on easily and I layered on a long-sleeve tech shirt over my tri top to bike in to help with the chill factor. Very glad I did.

Bike: Not sure what to think to think of this. My legs were soooo cold & tight- try as I might to spin and warm up. They were bricks most of the ride as was my lower back. So bad at times that I felt my legs had no power. But I chugged along doing the best I could, managing to hold my position among the riders around me and eventually passing a few.

T2: Matt and I have commented to each other how much we miss having the rows in transition posted with a letter at the end of each row. It makes your spot so easy to find. Well, today as I ran down the wrong row, I yelled, “where are the darn letters!!” and ducked under an empty rack with my bike lifted on it’s side to get to my correct row. Grrrr… Bike racked, run shoes on my still numb feet, grab hat and Fuel Belt Sprint palm holder and out on to the run course like a herd of turtles!

Run: I started out this run feeling quietly confident. I was hopeful. I had run a solid 5k and 10k race in the past 6 weeks- meeting my goal times in both races. Today, I just wanted to finish in under 1 hour. That’s all. Not too much to ask, right? Apparently it was. My quads, hamstrings, calves & lower back were having no part of running hills – not to mention my numb feet. Pick a reason excuse in the book. I did walk part of the first big hill (not sure I would have run faster anyway) and the short hill back onto the road after the turn around point. There were some good points though. Pretty sure I negative split my run, and my stomach cooperated allowing me to push at the end. And I was happy to see Matt and get a high-five on my way out around mile 2 when he was on his way back. :-)

Post race thoughts:

1. I LOVE my new Cervelo P2-SL! Fun- Fun- Fun!!

2.Nutrition worked well today. Both pre-race and the Nuun & Gu Chomps on the bike & run. I didn’t use any gels and my stomach seemed to be quite a bit happier.

3.My heart rate training appears to be paying off. While my results (all 3 splits) from a time standpoint are within a minute of 2009 :sigh::- my average heart rate for the race this year was 149. I don’t have a record of what it was prior, but I know for certain it was higher than that.

4.Depsite some of the changes that have happened to this race over the past 2 years with the involvement of Ironman, it remains, in my heart, our hometown race. Newfound Lake and the surrounding area is hallowed ground. It tugs at my heartstrings – reminding me of Matt’s mom, Judy, and her beautiful spirit. It will always be my favorite race course!

5. Racing with Matt is the BEST! We make a good team. I am so thankful for his his support and that we share a love for this crazy sport.

6. Sunday we spent the day as spectators and photographers for our friend, Ed, as he raced the half-iron. It was a beautiful day and he had a GREAT race. Plus I had fun doing some pro-triathlete stalking watching. Good times all around!

7. LOTS of work to do to feel prepared for Timberman. (My FIRST 70.3!!) But I am focused & ready to take it on. It’s going to be a transformational 10 weeks. Aside from dropping a few extra lbs (story of my life), I know for sure that I need to focus mostly on my run. Especially my run off the bike, hills and speed work (ok - Pretty much everything!). Not to mention the farthest I have run to date is 9 miles. Eh…what’s another 4.1 after that…right? Bring – it – ON!

FUNDRAISER FYI: For those of you that may be wondering, Matt and I have decided to run our annual Leukemia Fundraiser (thru Dana Farber Cancer Institute/The Jimmy Fund) in conjunction with our Timberman 70.3 this year. Historically we have run this fundraiser with Mooseman. This year we figured that it would be a good incentive for me (and Matt) as I train toward my first Half Ironman. More details to follow.

And I will leave you with my Mooseman 2011 finish.

Mooseman 70.3 Photos

Here is a link to pictures I took of the Pros today at Mooseman 70.3
Mooseman 70.3 2011 Pro Athletes Set

Look for:
Paul Ambrose #2
Matt Mangen #17
Raynard Tissink #1
Nick Waninger #13
Zach Ruble #5
Jesse Vondracek #8
Tim Snow #12
Moises Torres #7
Ryan Kelly #9
Tom Lowe #4
Caitlin Snow #21
Jerome Bresson #15
Amber Ferreira #24
Melanie McQuaid #22
Logan Franks #14
Annie Gervais #25
Erin Spitler #26
Maxim Kriat #3
Raymond Botelho #11
Lesley Paterson #23
Dave Harju #16

Mooseman International 2011 Results

I really wanted to get good pictures of the unofficial results posted at the race. Unfortunately the pages weren't lined up well, it was crowded and the camera didn't focus too well.
But here is the link to the pictures I took of the posted results.
Photos of Results that were posted at the race site.

Link to Official Results

Ha! They changed the results page again. I'm guessing people would like to see both Overall and AG breakdowns.

Link to Results Order of Finish.
Link to Results By Age Group

Quick Mooseman Result Update

Unofficial Results

Matt's Swim: 28:29 83rd place 1:21 Slower than in 2009 (modified swim 2008)
Matt's Bike: 1:27:14 128th place 1:42 slower than in 2009 3:05 slower than 2008
Matt's Run 48:21 103rd place 2:24 faster than in 2009 3:06 faster than 2008

2010 was no swim, a modified bike and normal run so I didn't even bother with this.

:39 seconds slower than in 2009.
:01 faster than 2008 on the combined bike/run

Amazing right? 3 years with nearly the exact same total race. S/B/R splits.

Now my transitions are all over the place. This year after my swim, I toweled down, put on socks and a jacket to ride in. (which I could say slowed me down on the course, but who knows).
Full Report later.

Genine: 31:10 swim, 1:33:02 Bike, 1:01:03 Run
She will provide commentary regarding her race later.

Genine is a Superfan

So she's perusing the entry list for the 70.3 Mooseman. Making sure we know the who's who for the race. She come across the name Tom Lowe, looks up at me and says. "Tom Lowe is Chrissie W's boyfriend right?" We then wonder what the chances are that Chrissie is going to be around as well. We also think it was kind of dumb that we didn't offer up our place to host a pro this year, we have the room and we are very close to the race site.
If the weather is decent, we will be all over the course with the camera Sunday. Maybe if Chrissie is around she will want ride along to be a superfan like us. At the very least, we will do our best to get some good action shots of Tom for her. Ha!

The other thing we found out is that, Maxim Kriat will be back. I think he holds the course record and the best bike split.

Raynard Tissink, 5th last year at Kona, his 3rd time in the top ten there. Is also competing.

I'm glad she's so into it. I get to take advantage of her Triathlon knowledge on weekends like this.
I really hope it turns out to be a better day than what's forecast!

Update from NH

Doing a terrible job posting lately. Too many events too quickly I suppose, not much down time.

Genine and I went to the Y Sunday and we both were swimming very well. We both left hoping that type of swim will happen for us up at Mooseman.

Monday was spent at the Tour of Somerville Bike race and then just getting stuff ready for our trip to NH. I had decided that I wanted to swap the roof racks on the cars. Our old Saris roof rack has a great locking system that the new Thule system doesn’t. It has cables that you can run through your frames and tires then lock them at the bar ends of the roof rack. It also gives me peace of mind that if something were to break free, it wouldn’t make it off of the roof. So I spent quite a bit of time changing our rack equipment around. The Saris was not compatible with the forks on our Cervelos. I had to take the Thule Domestique bike mounts and install them onto the Saris bars. I also bought LocTite to put on the bolts. It doesn’t seem to hold together without it. When I finished I had it set up to carry 5 bikes fork mounted and 2 wheels AND I’d be able to lock it all down with 2 cables. Only I couldn’t find the cables. We hadn’t used them since August of last year but we both remember seeing them recently. I looked everywhere. I had to give it up for the night and move on.

Tuesday: One day work week. My brain is on Mooseman. I get home and start packing. It all came together easily enough, except for those cables for the roof rack. I look everywhere again as does Genine.

Wednesday: Packing up the car, there is a small compartment on each side of the car in the back. I know I looked in the right one probably 3x now, but did I look in the left one? I open it up and there they both are! Sheesh, I’m guessing I wasted 2-3 hours looking for these things.

Our trip to NH was at least an hour longer than usual due to construction zones along the way. We’ve dealt with worse, I guess we were hoping for an easy mid-week trip is all. Then when we are in Massachusetts we start hearing about tornado watches. Fortunately all we drove through was some light rain once we crossed into Vermont.

When we arrived, we quickly unloaded some stuff from the car and headed down to the lake for a swim.

This was parked in the lot.

It was a hot day, which is odd for NH this early in the year. It made for a really nice swim. The lake was amazing. The surface temp of the water was rippled. Comfortable and then Freezing constantly changing your entire swim. I love it! Incredibly refreshing. Saw many 12-14" fish out there during the swim as well. I worked hard to get my balance and stroke together with the wetsuit on. I would love to have a PR swim on Saturday.

We also wanted to get a bit of a bike ride in. Just to move our legs after such a long trip. I pull Genine’s bike off the top of the car, she looks at it and asks, “Where did you put my aerobar pads?” Uh oh. Yep, they were blown off the bars somewhere between NH an NJ. We’ve never had that happen before so we never thought of removing them for the trip. Now we know.

We biked for all of 30 minutes. Then as it was nearing dusk the bugs came out. In a BIG BIG way! I felt like I needed a face shield on my helmet. Bugs were stuck all over, arms, legs, hair… Fortunately we weren’t far from the car.

Then we had to go buy groceries and get water from the spring. Got back to the house around 10. Long day.

Thursday: It’s no longer hot, in fact it’s cold and windy. It was a pretty relaxing day for us. Ran some errands, got a 30 minute easy run in and did some bike tech stuff. When I went to put my rear wheel on yesterday, I noticed it didn’t want to sit square. I ended up having to lock it into position, holding it just so. Well upon closer inspection today, the set screws were completely uneven. So I got those set back correctly. Those set screws seem too loose tho’. I’ll have to take a close look at this once we are back home.

Genine on the other hand has a more entertaining project. Building home made aerobar pads. Sponges may be the most comfortable option until they get wet or sweaty. So we bought a couple mouse pads and she is building them out of those. They aren’t as thick as we were hoping, so she’s doubling up. It will be interesting to see the final product.

I feel like I’m going into Saturday’s race, overly tapered. That’s fine, I usually do well when that happens. It’s just that I feel like I haven’t worked out since Sunday. My biggest frustration tho’ is my right hamstring. I still feel a pull or something along one of the muscles up near my glute. I’ve been dealing with this for awhile. I’m a little concerned as to what’s going to happen there as I do more speedwork.

Speaking of speedwork. I did my first bit last Saturday morning. Wow I am not built for speed right now. I realize I haven’t done much/any speedwork but I guess I wasn’t expecting those muscles to feel THAT out of shape. I guess the good news there is that things should continue to get better (somewhat easily) over the next couple of months.

More Tour of Somerville Pictures

Here is the full set of pictures / photos. I think some of my rejects actually made it into the set but I don't have time to worry about that now. I should probably regroup the sets into the different races as well. Maybe someday when I have more time.

Here's the link.
Tour Of Somerville Pictures 2011, lightly edited.
Link to Sets that are grouped by race. Click here.


The set includes the Cat 3 race. I took quite a few of this one.
The Cat 2 race I think we took some shots and then ended up going in for a bite to eat and to cool off.
The Masters Race: We caught the 2nd half of that.
Women's Race: Caught all of that race
Pros: Caught the first 5 laps and headed for home.