Warren Times Observer Tango Photos

Shawn Photo Canoe Thumbnails
Craig & Matt Canoe Thumbnails
Craig, Matt & KB2 Canoe Thumbnails
Shawn bike 1
Shawn Bike 2
Shawn Bike 3
Maija Run
Matt, Heather (Shawn's team), & friend Chris J (Heather's Boyfriend)
Kind of a where is Waldo (I see Shawn, Craig & Maija)
Another Waldo (Craig, Gregg & Shawn)

Kinzua Country Tango Complete!

I'll have a report and photos from the day posted soon. I just figured I'd better post something to let everyone know that we survived. We did better than survive, I think we met quite a few (most?) of our goals and had an awesome time doing it.

Maija is the first to post her race report. You can find it here.

I had been holding off signing up for any other races in the next month because I wasn't sure how I was going to feel after this one. That Brooklyn Half Marathon injury back in May is/was still in my mind. Well my quads are in need of some rest/repair but other than that, I'm ready to go.
Sooooo....
I think a return trip to Morgantown for the Sprint, Splash 'n Spin is in the works (Aug 23). Genine isn't very interested in doing an open water triathlon. This one has a 330yd pool swim. It's the perfect course for her first complete triathlon. It would also be my first "repeat race". I raced this event last year as my first ever triathlon. It would be fun to compare results.
Of course it's also a good excuse to go and visit Craig's family again. :-)

Tango Race Day:

Oddly I woke up at 5AM after all of 4:30 hours of sleep. Couldn't fall back asleep.... Grrr.
Can I PR the 13.1 on that little sleep? We will soon find out! Just need to psych myself up.
Wahoo!!!! Team C&C Whoop A$$ factory is ready!!!

A few notes before Tango

• Genine and Scotty will arrive Friday 1-2PM if all goes as planned.
• Matt and Maija will arrive 9PM or so. So Craig/Genine must go to race meeting
• Print out waivers. Maija will have to turn hers in Race Morning.
• Craig please contact Genine about checking out the orienteering section again.
• My dad has 2 canoes ready to go.
• Scott will have a trailer to put canoes into. It should be easier than loading them on top of cars?
• If the trailer fits 3 canoes should we pick up the Cerra's as well? Friday sometime?
• Oars and Life vests.
• Genine please contact Jerry and work out details with him and Scott.
• I plan on using Craig's Car as a transition area. Genine will be using our car as their transition area. Not sure when I'll be able to load the stuff into Craig's car. We will figure that out.

•Craig if you want to go with a team uniform. I'll have my WV Yellow Tech Shirt, Red Mooseman and the Runners singlet from Dana Farber with me.

• Scott will have our camera. During the Swim we need to find someone else to take over until Scott is back.

• Who's idea was it to do 2 person relay teams?

Now we are in trouble

Last I knew Maija was going to let me know if she was going to want to swim tonight. Well I hadn't heard from her at 7:30 so off the pool I go.
I haven't been to the pool by myself in months. I actually have to come up with some sort of workout on my own for a change. Here's what happened:
300 wu. I put fins on for the 2nd 100, didn't feel too good on the legs. Off they go.
So what's my mainset going to be if the fins aren't happening?
10x100 on 2:15 holding whatever my first 100 pace is.
I really expected to be on about 2:00, instead it was 1:50. Hmmm can I hold 1:50??
2nd one was 1:50, 3rd was 1:54... Nope! Not going to let that happen! 4-7 was 1:50. 8 was 1:52, 9-10 1:50.
This was encouraging. I stayed very relaxed, had good balance tonight and good arm recovery. I decided I didn't want to mess with the feel I had just accomplished by doing a bunch of sprints. So I did 200 cool down and headed home.

This is where the trouble begins. I get home, scan for updates on the blogs. Maija has a new post, I'll check it out.
Uh, oh.... I quickly checked my last email from her to make sure I wasn't going to get my butt kicked. By both Maija and Genine. (Genine because I'm messin' with her team).
Fortunately I found the email from Maija....I'll let you know about swimming tomorrow."
Next time I'll make sure I call no matter what. :-)

Lastly, I went to the chiropractor for my pre-race adjustments today. My right Hamstring is still problematic. He did some type of electrostim on it along with some heat therapy. I'm going to continue with the heat therapy, it seemed to help. The Chiropractor thing seems to be part of my routine. The other races have gone well. I hope the streak continues!

NY Times Article

Recent Triathlon Deaths Have Experts Searching for Answers

Rode Last Night

I did about a 15 mile ride. I did two pretty good hills and then went back and forth on a pretty flat gravel road to simulate the forest service road. My legs were aching from the weekend runs. I might get a couple runs in this week, but mostly take it easy.

Jumped on the inversion table, did wonders to stretch out my hips and leg muscles. This might be the ticket for Genine. I don't think I can fit it in the car for her to try. Maybe some other time.

I saw a picture of Majia in the NJ triathlon in a bathing suit that said Who Rocks? (front) I Rock! (back). Since she backs this up, I thought it was pretty funny.

I came up with an idea for a tri suit for men, especially in light of the KB2 (original design). The back would say "Who HAS Rocks?" Front "I HAVE Rocks!" With a small subtitle reading, "I hope they don't get kicked!"

For Shawn, I came up with Bike , Schmike , Hike, Schmike (see how I used it again), Run, Schun, Swim , Schwim, Canoe, Schanoe. It is like the name game. Last Verse, same as the first verse. Shawn, I wanted to mention that you are more than welcome to stay at my Mom & Dad's. I don't mind sharing a bed with you, but no Spooning!

My Grandma

Just so you all know, Grandma Kinley (my mom's mom) passed away Saturday. She was 92. So, my week became a little busy on the driving side. She was struggling with her physical health, but still lived alone and mentally real sharp. Had made clothes for my kids as late as this past Christmas. She was in the hospital for what they thought was fatigue and medication issues. I spoke to her Friday and she thought she might go home by Monday because she felt so good. She had done her cross word puzzle, the sudoku puzzle, watched both Jeoapardy & Wheel of Fortune, and read her bible that day. My brother talked to her Saturday morning and she told him she still felt good. Saturday afternoon and evening was a different story. Her heart just ran out of ticks as she would have told me. A little shock when I got the call, but not totally unexpected based on her health.

I spoke to my mom last night, to let her off the hook on getting back to Warren for the race. She told me I didn't need to do that that she would be there for the race. She said she has Ron setup to help move canoes and please bring Eleanor, because Sandy can watch her during the swim. She also said Dad has commitments to the Warren County fair, so they have to get back. She said she will be back to Grandma's many times to take care of all the affairs, that she would enjoy helping us.

I ran yesterday which helped keep my mind in good perspective. I did a 4+ mile run with a good downhill run and a good uphill run in it. My legs felt rough. The 5k the day before had a nice hill in it and my buttocks hurt from running. I hope to rest a little this week, but want to get in one good bike ride tonight.

I know I will get comments with condolences and I thank you in advance for your thoughts.

HHO Anyone?

Has anyone ever done any research on oxyhydrogen kits for automobiles? I don't know a thing about it, but I think I will try to read up on it. Supposedly one can build and install a kit for about $100 in parts and a few hours of spare time. My brother plans to make an attempt at it on his truck in the near future.

Here is a sales pitch:

http://www.water4gasreview.com/

NJ State Triathlon

Genine and I went to the NJ State Triathlon today to take pictures of our friends racing.
I was using the "Old" Canon 300D and Genine had the new Canon 40D. Good news is it's tough to see the difference in the photos. The difference in the speed of the cameras is amazing though. The 40D is awesome.

Well even a fast camera isn't good enough sometimes. It's amazing that they can still Swim, Bike or Run past us without us seeing them. They have to be within 10 feet of us as they go by!!! Ah well, we did our best. It was a fun day and we learned a few more things about the new camera.
On the drive home I was saying we needed a spotter to give us a heads up a minute or so before they are going to be in "our areas". Frank had this awesome horn from the Ironman Lake Placid race last week (you can see it in the pictures), I figure next time he just needs to be a minute in front of me at all times. Once I hear the horn, I know I've gotta be on my toes. You could hear that thing from a mile away. :-)

Oh, I added a set of "Fun links" to the side of the main page of the blog. You can find the photos of our friends there. I'll be posting all the other "random racers" sometime tomorrow.

Gloves have shipped

My "secret weapon" for the Tango, webbed gloves, supposedly shipped yesterday, so hopefully they will arrive in time to try them out a couple of times before the race. Alright, so it's not so secret anymore. I haven't tried these yet, but I hope they live up to my expectations. The cool thing about webbed gloves for surface swimming is that you can instantly adjust the amount of surface area with which you are pulling, rather than being stuck with one size as is the case with the paddles. I don't think you would want really big paddles for the whole swim because it becomes pretty anaerobic after a while, so this way I can choose to engage whatever muscle fibers I have available on a constantly adjustable basis, like a high-tech constantly variable transmission. I also did some swimming workouts yesterday, and got some more lessons, so Craig can rest easy. I am going to be okay. Above average split is all I can say right now.

I discovered a second potential secret weapon yesterday, but I have to try some things out before I decide whether I will use that or not. It shall remain secret until race day. I can't be sure if it will work at all, so tests must be run. Not much time. This biking before the swim is also kind of an unknown quantity. Never did that before so who knows how it will affect us? Ah, well. I'm not worried. I hope my safety canoe can keep up.

Boom Goes the Dynamite!

Eleanor was not able to pull off a third consecutive year being first in her age group at the Rainday 1 mile run. She was second. What she did do was run a 10:37 mile as a six year old. This was about a minute faster than last year. She also beat her older brother and sister. I think what happened was Levi went out way to strong he was leading all three. At the turn around he cramped like a big dog and started to walk, but since he was in the lead Eleanor decided to catch him. She did.

I believe Maddy was pacing Eleanor, but seeing Levi in trouble stayed with him as Eleanor pulled away from them. Maddy was not hurting and wasn't going to. Levi's time was slower than last year, but we have a few things to work on. Maddy was slower, because she was helping the other two. They had fun, I was proud of all three and we got free passes to the local water park because we participated in the race.

Here is the Boom part. My father-in-law asked "How fast do you think you will go?" I said if I am under 24:30 I will be happy. Boom, I did a 23:13, I repeat a 23:13. I was stoked at the two mile mark because I was sitting at 15:30 minutes and felt good. My breathing was awesome and I had punch left in my legs. To some this time may seem a little slow, but you have to understand my fastest 5k race was 24:37. I had done a 24:13 once as a test run, but that is unofficial. You had to crest a small hill at the end then you could see the timing board at the finish. A guy I knew screamed at me to sprint and I could get 23:10, I looked up, and thought the clock must be wrong despite seeing a similar time on my watch. Boom!.

OK. That's it. I'm going to post it

I had started a post that was basically me complaining how I was having a tough time getting the workouts I had scheduled in this week. Then I decided you guys have way more distractions than I do so I shouldn't bother.... Well, I've had it, so here it is.

Monday: Stuck in Traffic for 3 hours making our trip home from NH 9 hours.

Tuesday: They canceled my train going into the city in the Morning. So I got to the city about a half hour later than I was hoping. Another welcome back to the real world. I did get a swim workout in after work tho, that was good.

Wednesday: No trains leaving Penn Station after work. No power on overhead lines. So I take a subway down to WTC and take the Path to Newark. 2 hours to get to Newark from the time I left work. Fortunately, I caught my train in Newark right away. 3 hours to get home but I was going to make Masters Swim after all! Um... No. It's canceled because of lighting. Grrr

Thursday: 5:30 Am swim for about 90 minutes. Good workout. Wahoo!
After work. I go out to run 5 miles. Was at an 8:15 pace or better after the first half mile. Everything is feeling good. Then I get a stitch in my side. Ah well, turns out this was my best workout day of the week.

Friday: Get home, run some errands, head to the pool. Someone Pooped in the Pool! No swim. It's too late for me to go bike. I'm not feeling like I should run. UGH!

Bad week of workouts. Really makes me appreciate the great week in NH last week.

Looking forward to the next couple weekends

I'm curious about tire selection. Genine's bike currently has a "road slick" on the front and a knobbier tire on the back. I'm not positive that is the exact spec of the rear tire but the tread appears to be right. Good combination? She did some riding while in NH but I'm not sure she was in as much gravel. I would like for her to complete the bike without tire issues, as it is the event she is most looking forward to. The thing is I have more confidence in the smoother tire's puncture protection.
I just did some reading. on tire mixing. Now I'm considering the small knob tires front and back. She just isn't going to have time to try all this stuff out for herself.

I think I'm going to pass on my scheduled 12 mile run Saturday. My hamstrings have been tight all week. So I'm going to run more often and shorter. Then really work on stretching them back out. I will probably get on the road bike to do the longer cardio workout.

This Sunday Genine and I will be taking pictures at the NJ State Triathlon. We will both have a camera this time. We are hoping to get some fun shots of our friends. Should be a nice relaxing day for us. I'm really hoping it doesn't rain!

Bike, Run, Bike . . .

I am alternating between Bike, Run, Bike ... etc. for Tango training. No Swimming, so I hope Matt doesn't throw out a rotor cuff during the half marathon, because I'm not prepared for the swim.

Runs are about 5 miles. I have a 5k race tomorrow (Rainday 5k) then I think I will bike home from there to get in some more training. The kids are running the 1 mile fun run. Eleanor is going for the third year in the row as her age group winner. She will have to step it up this year. The female 5 and under has been a week division, but the 6 & 7 year old female division, the cream is starting to seperate. Don't tell the other two, but they are usually "also-ran" in their divisions, of course that is what I am too, so the only historical placer in my family is Eleanor.

Back to my training. I have exclusively been riding the mountain bike. I did 19.9 miles in 1hr 25 mins last night. The big hill I did lacked the distance, but was more intense than the Jakes rock hill and dogs were present. I am sure the Tango does not have this obstacle. Sometimes they startle me when they don't bark until they are right on me. Man it makes my heart pump!

I also have been making sure that gravel is part of every ride. It is exciting sometimes, even on the flats. I have only come out of the pedals once, and no harm. If only I had no fear and could be a bomber, I could take back a couple more minutes or receive a nice helicopter ride. They can get me to the hospital in time and still make it back for the search and rescue at Rim Rock.

Tango Post Race Party

So is everyone up to going out to my Dad's cottage again after the race? Or did someone have other plans?
All are invited of course, friends/family. Very kid friendly, my dad can take people up the river on the boat. I believe Levi was hoping to do that last year but there were technical problems with the motor. It's running well this year. Maybe he will get to see the eagles up there.

Also we could get a mean game of croquet going. I won't be surprised if Scotty shows up with his own mallet this year. :-)

Let me know how many people and what kind of eats people would like to have.

Watch out Boys!

Thought the guys competing in the Tango next Saturday would want to get a sneak peek at the image they will see as the girls are leaving them in the dust!
Ok..... I can't even type that with a straight face!! :-)

I actually just wanted to share the team name and logo that Maija and I will be sporting on the back of our race shirts for the Tango. The name KB2 (pronounced KB squared) stands for "Kicking Boy Butt". The image is borrowed from the C5 studio manager at Matt's work. The original image has the guy turned around facing the girl, so she is kicking him in the unmentionables. While funny, I thought it was a bit too vulgar (as this is all intended to be in good, clean fun) so we flipped him around and added the team name, You know how girls are...we always have to co-ordinate our outfits! Besides, it' all fun and games until some girl kicks your butt!! ;-)

Swim Pace

Last night at the pool, Esther decided she wanted to time her mile swim. She competes in her first Olympic Distance Tri this Sunday (NJ State).
So we do a 300m warm up, then swim 64 laps. She lapped me 3 or 4 times, not surprising. I'm not sure what my time was. Then she says she wants to do it again with a different approach to see if there is a time difference. So off we go again. She lapped me 4 times and I finished in 34 minutes.
Using this time to provide a worst case scenario for the Tango, I'll guess 74 minutes. I hope to do much better than this. The wetsuit alone should drop that time for me. I'm comfortable with the new fins as well. The question there is my ability to use them after running 13.1.

Also, I'd like to mention that Esther and Armando drove up to the Lake Placid Ironman this past weekend. They both registered for IMLP 09. Good luck with your training!

Sad News from Kinzua

My dad had to run rescue boat last week under the Kasey Bridge. A kid jumped off the bridge and got hurt. He was drowning so the older brother jumped to help him and drowned trying to save the younger brother. Link to Story

Very sad. They jumped off the top. I guess they had done it in the past. They were from the Pittsburgh area and made an annual fishing trip up each year. I think the worse part was some of their friends were down below videoing from the shore.

My dad worked 12 hours that day, mostly running support boat for divers. He said it was rough watching the kids being pulled up together, they think because the uninjured one wouldn't let go of his injured brother.

Say a prayer for this family, very tough situation.

I SCREAM

I am going to put in a formal request for ice-cream at all the Orienteering check points. I didn't know if I should do this in email form to Thad, so he doesn't think we got soft on him with our lack of questions, or if I should just stand up during the pre-race meeting and explain how I was promised ice-cream last year and had none, so I hope he won't disappoint us this year.

Shawn have you started your pre-race correspondence with Thad yet.