Well I admit I have been slacking with the blog posts so I will go ahead and add in where I left off.
The Evergreen Tri was my first Olympic distance tri and I was not that nervous until I got there. I decided to go in on Friday night as I did not want to get up and drive the two hours the morning of for a seven a.m. race. So I got in around six and I immediately saw the swim course lay out. The nerves immediately set in, a mile swim marked out seems like such long way.
I was at the race about an hour early and it was pouring down rain the whole drive over from my hotel. So I am starting to wonder what will happen and I am going back and forth in my head, "a du wouldn't be that bad you wouldn't have to attempt the mile swim" to "suck it up, you know you can swim that far and you have already driven all the way down here"
So the race goes starts as scheduled with it raining on and off through the hour before the start. I am the second wave, so immediately in the water and the swim is off. I ended up just going my pace with a goal of just keeping up the pace and feeling comfortable. It turned out that I over hyped the swim as I felt great the whole time and out of the whole day the swim felt the best.
So I get out of the water and head out for the bike, it had continued to rain off and on why I was out swimming so my bike shoes which i attempted to cover up have a little lake in them. I dump out the water and head out. The bike course was nice and flat but man the rain really played with the whole course as it was pouring at some points and left the turns to be a little tricky. Overall I may have spent a little to much on the bike as I dearly paid for it on the run. Overall the bike time was pretty decent for me.
The run started with the same problem as the bike, soaked running shoes. At this point it is a complete down pour and I am really feeeling the fallout from pressing it on the bike. The run was flat but the two miles back in were directly into the
rain.
Overall it was a little over 2 hours and 32 minutes right around where I wanted to be so I can't complain. As soon as it was over I couldn't wait to take a shower and head home I was wiped and sick of the rain.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
First Oly
Well this weekend is my first Olympic Distance Tri, it is the Evergreen Lake Tri down in Normal, IL. I will be heading out on Friday night as I do not feel like getting up at the ass crack of dawn to drive down.
I will say I am a little nervous about the swim as I have never swam that far in a race before but that is the majority of the purpose of this race to prepare for the Half IM in October. Swimming last night at the local quarry helped as we were swimming six and eight hundred sets and the one thing I learned is that the longer I went the better I felt so feeling a little better about the whole thing. The one downside is that the water is quite warm so it will me a no wetsuit race, darn.
Let's see how it goes and hopefully it won't get rained out.
I will say I am a little nervous about the swim as I have never swam that far in a race before but that is the majority of the purpose of this race to prepare for the Half IM in October. Swimming last night at the local quarry helped as we were swimming six and eight hundred sets and the one thing I learned is that the longer I went the better I felt so feeling a little better about the whole thing. The one downside is that the water is quite warm so it will me a no wetsuit race, darn.
Let's see how it goes and hopefully it won't get rained out.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Schedule
Well the rest of the 08 schedule is set. I have finally registered for everything that I am planning on doing up to the IM Half in October.
I added the Evergreen Lake Olympic to the schedule to get in a longer swim race and added in the Chicago Half Marathon to get in an actual race in the Chicago heat, will be interesting to see how that time compares to the Indy Half this spring.
So now that everything is set time to start training even more in preperation for my first half.
I added the Evergreen Lake Olympic to the schedule to get in a longer swim race and added in the Chicago Half Marathon to get in an actual race in the Chicago heat, will be interesting to see how that time compares to the Indy Half this spring.
So now that everything is set time to start training even more in preperation for my first half.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Group Ride
So this weekend I decided to try a group ride that is organized by my local tri club. I have ridden with at most three other people so this was a new experince for me. The ride was labled a Intermediate ride with a distance of around 40 miles.
The ride started off extremely slow and spent the first part waiting a lot for the other groups to catch up, this got old real quick. So after about 15 miles of the stop and go myself and about four others just rode to the finish to get a nice continuous ride in. Let me tell you riding with a group is way different, even with the stop and go from the beggining we were still able to average a nice 18 mph while not feeling tired at all.
I was hesitant at first about the whole group ride thing but let me tell ya it was a blast, the ride was nice, the company was nice and it went a lot faster than expected.
Looking forward to the ride this Saturday.
The ride started off extremely slow and spent the first part waiting a lot for the other groups to catch up, this got old real quick. So after about 15 miles of the stop and go myself and about four others just rode to the finish to get a nice continuous ride in. Let me tell you riding with a group is way different, even with the stop and go from the beggining we were still able to average a nice 18 mph while not feeling tired at all.
I was hesitant at first about the whole group ride thing but let me tell ya it was a blast, the ride was nice, the company was nice and it went a lot faster than expected.
Looking forward to the ride this Saturday.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Been to long...
It has been quite awhile since I have posted so let me get things caught up.
Indy Half Marathon, this race was great couldn't of expected a better race. It was cool and overcast at the start of the race but cleared off about 5 miles in so the weather was spectacular which may have led to why I felt good the entire time. I started off easy the first three miles or so running with Matt. I was feeling good so I decided to pick up the pace for the last 10 miles running most of it with a some lady I met along the way who was running the same pace. I find it always easier when running with someone as it tends to help carry you through the last couple of miles and adds a nice competitive touch to the race. Overall time 1:44:11 more than 15 minutes better than last year and a sub 8 minute average, very happy with that time let's see if we can duplicate in Chicago heat in September.
Galena Tri, this was the first Tri of the year and was also the first Tri ever back in 06 and did not attempt in 07 so I was anxious to see the improvement as 06 was a disaster looking back on it.
Galena is a very challenging Tri to start out the year not so much on distance but on the course layout in general. It starts out with a quick 660 yard swim, not bad you say, oh the water is on average 60 degrees and way to many turns for that short of a distance. Overall the swim went well right at 10:00 minutes about what I expected, I always treat the swim as just finish.
Next up the bike, this is the fun part, Galena is very hilly and Naperville and my trainer are not so this is always a challenge early in the year. This was the first year doing a race with some real hills on the new Cervelo so was a little nervous about the downhills and staying in the aeros but overall was not to bad, much improvement over 06. Time 59:20, 13 minutes better than 06.
The run, first it is 4.3 miles and starts out with a huge hill followed by a smaller hill with a gradual incline out to the turn around, calves were a burning once you hit the turnaround the majority back in is all downhill. Overall not to bad, 33:32 over 6 minutes better than 06.
Overall time, 1:47:56 almost 18 minutes overall better than 06 with an additional 200 yards added on to the swim.
Next up was the Batavia triathlon, this is a nice local sprint with a beach quarry swim. This will be the last year for me doing the Batavia Tri maybe the Du next year. The swim is horrible it is for all purposes in a pool but it is two laps of a circle and you end up running half of it as the beach part is to shallow.
The bike portion on the other hand was great, it was flat warm and fast. Averaged almost 22 mph and felt great the whole time.
The run is a 4.1 along the Fox River and also felt great, well shaded and average 7:19 miles. Overall time 1:21:49
And finally the Quad City Triathlon. This is the hometown Tri, I grew up in the QC and I will say this is a one of the best run and all around great race. The swag is good, Tech T and a huge beach towel all for a $65 reg fee.
The swim is a great 600 yard triangle lake swim, felt great the whole way. The bike is a quick out and back country road ride followed by an easy 5K. Time was 1:20:28, 11 minutes better than 06.
So overall it had been a nice start to the Tri season, next up the Oly Evergreen Tri in Bloomington, IL July 19th.
Indy Half Marathon, this race was great couldn't of expected a better race. It was cool and overcast at the start of the race but cleared off about 5 miles in so the weather was spectacular which may have led to why I felt good the entire time. I started off easy the first three miles or so running with Matt. I was feeling good so I decided to pick up the pace for the last 10 miles running most of it with a some lady I met along the way who was running the same pace. I find it always easier when running with someone as it tends to help carry you through the last couple of miles and adds a nice competitive touch to the race. Overall time 1:44:11 more than 15 minutes better than last year and a sub 8 minute average, very happy with that time let's see if we can duplicate in Chicago heat in September.
Galena Tri, this was the first Tri of the year and was also the first Tri ever back in 06 and did not attempt in 07 so I was anxious to see the improvement as 06 was a disaster looking back on it.
Galena is a very challenging Tri to start out the year not so much on distance but on the course layout in general. It starts out with a quick 660 yard swim, not bad you say, oh the water is on average 60 degrees and way to many turns for that short of a distance. Overall the swim went well right at 10:00 minutes about what I expected, I always treat the swim as just finish.
Next up the bike, this is the fun part, Galena is very hilly and Naperville and my trainer are not so this is always a challenge early in the year. This was the first year doing a race with some real hills on the new Cervelo so was a little nervous about the downhills and staying in the aeros but overall was not to bad, much improvement over 06. Time 59:20, 13 minutes better than 06.
The run, first it is 4.3 miles and starts out with a huge hill followed by a smaller hill with a gradual incline out to the turn around, calves were a burning once you hit the turnaround the majority back in is all downhill. Overall not to bad, 33:32 over 6 minutes better than 06.
Overall time, 1:47:56 almost 18 minutes overall better than 06 with an additional 200 yards added on to the swim.
Next up was the Batavia triathlon, this is a nice local sprint with a beach quarry swim. This will be the last year for me doing the Batavia Tri maybe the Du next year. The swim is horrible it is for all purposes in a pool but it is two laps of a circle and you end up running half of it as the beach part is to shallow.
The bike portion on the other hand was great, it was flat warm and fast. Averaged almost 22 mph and felt great the whole time.
The run is a 4.1 along the Fox River and also felt great, well shaded and average 7:19 miles. Overall time 1:21:49
And finally the Quad City Triathlon. This is the hometown Tri, I grew up in the QC and I will say this is a one of the best run and all around great race. The swag is good, Tech T and a huge beach towel all for a $65 reg fee.
The swim is a great 600 yard triangle lake swim, felt great the whole way. The bike is a quick out and back country road ride followed by an easy 5K. Time was 1:20:28, 11 minutes better than 06.
So overall it had been a nice start to the Tri season, next up the Oly Evergreen Tri in Bloomington, IL July 19th.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Galena Results Excel Format
I have exported the Galena Results to an Excel File so you can sort the file by division, swim time or whatever else your heart desires.
Galena Results
Galena Results
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Indy Half
Well this weekend is the first big race of the year, the Indy Half Marathon. This is a great race for anyone that hasn't done it, over 35K runners and walkers. The organization is one of the best I have been to and the course is an excellent choice for this early in the year. The course is pretty flat with the middle 2.5 miles ran on the Indy Motor Speedway. The track portion is a little trying as it is usually hot and kind of boring after the initial excitement that you are on the Indy 500 course.
This was the first half I did last year and it was a bit challenging so looking to improve on the time from last year. The wife is also running, first half for her so should be exciting as well.
Let you know the results come Monday!
This was the first half I did last year and it was a bit challenging so looking to improve on the time from last year. The wife is also running, first half for her so should be exciting as well.
Let you know the results come Monday!
