Motiv-8

The wrath of mother nature

2012-01-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

I've been bitten by good old mother nature many a times in my days. Come to think of it, my dad has been struck by lighting twice, wonder if it runs in the family?

Well, as my birthday weekend rolled around (and the previously discussed trip to Louisville, KY for some big race) it appeared that mother nature had planned to draw blood again! My teammate Marten made it down a day before Greg and I did. He got to pre-ride the course on Thursday and it was POURING. A full day of racing / riding coupled with over an inch of rain left the course quite a mess. Enter Greg and I (who almost missed our connected flight due to, you guessed it, weather delays) on Thursday night. It's now snowing and 20 degrees. Fantastic!

We got back to our rooms after getting our numbers, built up our bikes and prepared for our seeding qualifier the next day. You see, I was concerned for the last three days as I was watching the weather. "This is the WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO you could imagine for a cross race. FROZEN SOLID MUD RUTS". We arrived at the course (freezing our asses off) to find a frozen tundra.

As we sat in the rental car getting our gear on, we witnessed something odd. There was a "flyover" structure that you had to climb up stairs, hop on you bike on top and ride down while the course passed under you. Well it was so cold that it was frozen to the point where people could not ride down it. They were sliding their bikes and then sliding down on their asses! Then we heard that the officials were going to delay the start because of that. So we headed out for our site lap. Basically all you could do was run, just about the whole course. And it was painful running, rolling ankles in ruts from the day before, etc.

At this point I was freezing, and quite frankly scared. Scared that I'd spend the rest of January like I did last year.....injured and on the DL. I wasn't scared about a big fall, but scared about twisting a knee or an ankle that would mess up my next two big races, the HAT50K and the Boston Marathon.

Back on track here. Our race was scheduled to start at 9:45. We were pretty sure we heard the officials say it was starting at 10:00. Well, we were in the car pinning up our numbers when all the sudden we see our race take off! This is only a seeding race for start position so I wasn't too worried, but we did get out there, and had spotted the field 3 minutes. I was running just about the whole course, it was a windy 21 degress and I was cold. I was however still smiling, and I somehow managed to catch and pass someone! Long story short, I finished 2nd from last.

Our main event was scheduled for 3pm the next day. Temps were not supposed to get above freezing. The sun did come out and turned the top layer of the course to a greasy, sticky mud with some fun icy ruts throughout the course. My heart just wasn't in this one. It was a bummer for me. I had taken a good shot to the groin in a site lap crash which took the breath out of me, so when we lined up, all I hoped for was a safe finish.

We took off, I made a couple of passes from the back row and Greg and I were marking each other until I got caught up with someone who had gone down in front of me. About halfway through the first lap I could tell my bike was pretty heavy from the mud, then I started to experience shifting issues. As I was about to complete the first lap, I was carrying my now 3 times the weight bike up the runup and I felt a pull in my knee. This worried me. I got to the top, put my bike down hoping to hop on and ride out the pain, but now not only was my chain skipping, my tires were so clogged they wouldn't move. That was it, game over. Save myself and save my equipment. There will be more days. Not what I had planned / dreamed in my head, and yet another blow from mother nature, but I was safe and still smiling.

I was glad that I pulled out in the long run. Of the three other people that I knew in my race, two of them broke their rear derailleurs. The other guy had two bikes, so he would ride a lap, grab a clean bike, ride a lap, grab clean bike, etc. That was the only way you could have finished. It was brutal. My hats off and congratulations to not only the winners and the new world champions, but to those who simply finished!

So now on to bigger and better. I had a great week this week training. Nearly 65 miles last week as well. My speed and tempo workouts are spot on. Now I'm getting anxious to test the legs out in a race.

UCI Masters Cyclocross World Championships by Exergy Preview, Louisville

2012-01-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

Cross season finished up nearly a month ago in these parts. I haven't ridden in the grass since then, but that will change this weekend. My race bike is en route to Louisville, as will myself and three Lamprey teammates, to race the Masters World Cyclocross Championships. I hadn't planned on racing this initially, but when we got to bench racing and talking about it, it sounded like a great opportunity to check it out. Now, I'm glad we're going and I'm pretty damn excited about it too!

Wednesday Greg and I glued up my first set up tubulars, Easton EA70x wheelset with Challenge Fango (ft) / Grifo (rr) tires. We packed our bikes into the cases, shipped down a car rack and bike stand and we're on our way! Cross Nationals are happening RIGHT NOW and seeing the coverage of that is peaking my excitement more!

So as I begin my official Boston training, I'll be squeazing in some grass workouts on the bike and a couple on the trainer, lowering my run miles for the week and (on Thursday) heading down to Louisville. My seeding qualifier is Friday morning which will set our call ups for the main event on Saturday January 14. I'll be racing for my place in the world rankings in the 35-39 age group. As of now there are nearly 60 people registered for my age group, if we hit 80 our seeding qualifier will be our chance to make it to the main event.

The course looks awesome. Even includes a "flyover" which is my personal favorite (well, I think it is cool, but I've never officially done one)! As for my goals, well GOAL #1 is to have fun. On top of that, a top 50% finish, maybe even a top 20 would just be icing on the cake.

Have a great weekend.

2011 by the numbers

2012-01-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Being the engineering type, I like to look at data...so I've collected endless data. So as I wrapped up 2011 I compared the basic numbers to previous years...

YEAR	Run Mi	Run Time	Bike Mi (road)	Bike Time (total)	TOTAL HRS	DELTA
2008	2,643	310:00	1,650	88:00	398:00
2009	1,961	233:09	3,548	233:19	466:28	68:28
2010	1,878	230:16	4,337	257:02	487:18	20:50
2011	1,889	225:53	4,503	289:40	515:33	28:15

Some good data in there. 2008 was the year of many PR's in running, but it was also when I more seriously considered multisport. Frankly, I do miss the running (not that I don't run now). The thing with running is that it's easy. All you need is a pair of shoe's and you're off. You can travel to neat destinations, I can run with my wife, etc. Last fall I started to realize that I miss running, so I suspect I may see more running mileage in 2012. The interesting thing to note about 2011 is that due to injury I could only run 11 months of the year, so considering that it was a decent year.

Anyone notice something? Yeah, no swimming in there! Well, there's a reason for that, I don't swim all that much! I probably swam more distance in races this year that I actually trained. Sad, but true. Swimming is tough at this season of life. Kids in daycare and school, a spouse that works part time and is also a runner, etc. I fit in what I can, and I don't worry too much about it. Expect to see me race more duathlons this year, it ain't getting easier to find swim time! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy triathlons immensely, I just have to do what works for me.

So, some of my personal successes in 2011...

Finished my first road race (Tour of the Battenkill), a TOUGH Spring Classic in New York. 64 miles, >4000' climbing, 20mi of dirt roads. It was fun, I will be back.
ONE WEEK later I ran the Boston Marathon and despite coming off of a foot injury and racing Battenkill the week before, I ran a decent time at 2:51.
I pulled off the Quassy Challenge, the OLY and HALF back to back. And I won my AG in the OLY to boot!
I managed to win both Duathlons that I did overall. (Wilkes Barre, Sunset)
I won my age group at the Steelman Triathlon
I had a great race at the ING Philly Half Marathon, my second sub 1:15 half
I paced Gasparilla Distance Classic, St. Lukes Half Marathon and Wineglass Marathon
I had a great fall of running and cyclocross
The Superbowl 10k (sold out at 550) and Town Hall Cross (240 registrants) both went off without a hitch.
Remained safe and injury free!

Some rough goals for 2012:

Have fun at Cross Worlds in Louisville
A marathon PR at Boston (gulp) sub 2:47
My first 50K (HAT 50K)
Podium in my age group at Long Course Duathlon Nationals
HAVE FUN, STAY SAFE and REMAIN INJURY FREE
Expand on my coaching (obtain USATF certificate)

So, Boston training has begun. I put my plan together below. Two key components this year are having one rest day per week (at least) and having a down week every fourth week. I'll expand on this training plan as I progress through it, but I'm excited to get rolling!

I wish everyone a successful, fun and injury free 2012!!

Sell Out

2011-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Well the Superbowl 10K I mentioned in the last post has sold out already! This race has become a classic winter race in the Lehigh Valley, I wish we could handle more runners but if there's snow on the ground we lose most of our parking capacity which is the real limit to the number of participants we can hold. The event has endured snow storms, ice storms and cold temperatures the past few years, but each and every year the crowd of hardy runners show up to test themselves in the middle of winter, likely to see how they're post Holiday / pre-spring goals are shaping up. I'm headed to a local municipal meeting tonight to (hopefully) obtain the final blessing on the portion of the course that traverses through an established residential neighborhood. The shirts are ordered, going with the "nightlife" green long sleeve Brooks shirts again this year. The Sock Guy wool socks are in production, this year they'll be given out to the top 50 male and top 50 female finishers as an extra pat on the back.

I'm also excited that two of our area's premier specialty running stores The Finish Line and Aardvark have again stepped up to provide gift certificates to the top three finishers in each age group. And as a special thank you to our runners, we'll have all kinds of Brooks goodies including Run Happy sweat towels, tote bags and wrist bands. Brooks has also thrown a few gift certificates in which will go to our top Masters finishers and our most spirited runners. A HUGE thanks to Brooks!

My wife, Lauren, has also stepped up and offered to enhance our post race food selection (previously a pizza, soda and BYOB party). We're looking at providing some hot soup and soft pretzels to add to the mix. Hopefully our runners will feel that they've been taken care of!

Since I can't race this race anymore, I've been seeking my own winter "test" race. Looking like I'll be shooting to race the next weekend at the very competitive Frostbite 5 Miler on 2/12. Last year there were over 1,000 runners! I'm feeling good, yet a bit antsy as I build up my mileage with all aerobic, easy riding and running. I'll hit over 50 miles this week, take a step down week next week then it's full blow marathon training. The goal is to build up to 80 miles per week at my peak, then make a solid run at Boston in April, maybe bring that PR down??

I'm excited for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Our children are at such a great age (4 and 8) and they're so excited. You can't put a price on that!

Geler Votre Cul & Limestone Cross at the Kiln Final Mac Weekend RR's

2011-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

This past weekend marked the final weekend of local cross racing, and the series finale of the MAC series. After taking a month off of formal training and racing for anything bicycle related, I was getting excited for a fun weekend. A weekend cold front (temps in the 30's at race time for both days) piled on top of a storm that dumped 3" of rain to many parts of the East Coast midweek could potentially make for some gnarly conditions.

I was the lone man from Team Lamprey / St. Lukes making the trek to Northeast Maryland, so after an uneventful 90 minute ride I arrived at Fair Hill, part of a huge nature preserve that was formally DuPont land. It was sunny, but COLD and WINDY. I was prepared, but worried about cold fingers and toes...which surprisingly were not an issue! I had put my skinsuit on before I left to avoid changing in the cold. Grabbed my number and hit the course for a preview. The course was the most unique course I've ever ridden. Something for everyone...two sets of barriers, a series of four logs, a steep/short/muddy run up, off cambers, sand, gravel, sawdust, single track through the woods and three trips through some form of structure!! All totaled, you were off your bike five times per lap...and the lap times were nearly 11 minutes!

I had burned myself out, expecting too much of myself, etc. So I decided today was total chill, just enjoy the day, be thankful to be out there and finish with a smile. The start call-ups got a little hectic and somehow I got squeezed out, no worries. I felt a little rusty in warmups, the lack of riding for the last month was evident...as was the 40 miles of running I had put in Tues/Wed/Thurs/Friday leading up to the race.

Off we went, I made a few good choices early and found myself top 15 in the field of 40+ riders. Then someone bobbled in the mud in front of me, forcing me to stop and a good 10 or more riders to pass me. Off to work I went. I played "yo yo" with my friend Johan...I'd catch him, then fall, then catch him, then fall. With two to go I found my groove, started consistently catching and passing people.

One of the 3 buildings we went through. I'm tucked in behind Johan.
(photo credit http://crosswife.blogspot.com/)

With a lap to go I had just passed Johan and set my sites on two guys fighting it out in front of me. By the last turn I was dangling just behind them, but came up just seconds short of them.

Last lap out of the sand area, trying to bridge the gap. Would not be. Note the soil sample on my leg warmers.
(photo credit http://crosswife.blogspot.com/)

In the end I was 17th. A solid day, lots of fun and got some of the rust out. Went home and got geared up for day two.

Day two was only 10 minutes from home. It's a cool venue at an old camp, located down in the valley which meant COLD and FROST. I basically wore the same setup to stay warm, no wind today but cooler temps in the low 30's. The sun was out, but only hitting certain areas due to shadows. The course was tough, a few good climbs which got slippery, some hard/frozen corners and the rest was greasy, thawed out mud. Plenty of corners that rewarded flow.

I didn't miss out on the call up today, grabbed a spot in the middle of the second row behind a few friends. I hadn't felt too good in warm ups, feeling the lack of riding and the race the day before....plus I was FREEZING! Game time came, and I put my game face (a big smile) on. We were off, and I had a great jump and shift through the first straight...coming out into the first few turns in the top 8 or so. Perfect, right where I wanted to be. I think my tire pressure in my Michelin Mud2's was dialed in on my Easton's, my cornering was really helping me, and I was riding the two consecutive uphills well. Three guys got off the front and I was dangling off the second group of three. I tried to drill the first few laps to get some separation, focusing on just being smooth. I kept checking the gap, and with two to go I could see Chad catching me. I was consistent enough in the long run, keeping nearly 30 sec on Chad and finishing in 7th. I was pretty stoked with this ride, my highest finish in this competitive field....and my first time in the money in a MAC race....sweet! A check for $35 won't pay the bills, but it soothes the soul!

Passing "the kiln" before hitting the climbs
(photo credit www.cyclingcaptured.com)

By this point the sun was out, temps in the mid 30's....just a beautiful day. I loaded my stuff up, grabbed a beer and enjoyed some great cyclocross racing. Got to chat with Johan, Joe, Fatmarc, etc. I was on the fence about racing this weekend, thought I'd just go for a long run and put cross 2011 behind me. I'm glad I raced....cross is filled with good people who like to ride bikes. I'm glad I'm part of it. I also want to thank the promoters of both races. Cross racing in December isn't priority on many people's list, but for those die-hards, and the ones racing Nationals and Worlds, Cross in December is a must. Props for saving the best two courses for the end!

Now to build up my running base in preparation for HAT50K and Boston in the spring....but I'm also going to mix it up with a trip to Masters Cyclocross World Championships in Louisville in Janauary....CAN.NOT.WAIT!

Lights in the Parkway 5K

2011-12-02T10:12:00.001-08:00

I love to race at night. The city of Allentown, only a 10 minute drive from my house, has a cool annual tradition of setting up Christmas lights throughout the Little Lehigh Parkway which draws people from all over. It's called "Lights in the Parkway" and you pay by the carload to drive through and pick out your favorite lights. So last year an industrious runner / race director came up with the idea to hold a 5K race through the lights the night before they officially open to the public. As I mentioned earlier, I love to race at night, so I was sure to toe the line for the inaugural event last year. I was not disappointed, so I decided to sign up for the second running which was held on Wednesday night.

It is nearly December in the dark, so it has potential to be COLD, but we were treated to decent temps in the mid 40's with a 10mph wind or so. The race doubled in size, nearly 500 finishers this year, so I made sure to start close to the front. I decided to forgo a headlamp this year and just use the light that was "provided" via the displays and a couple of portable light units.

I hadn't been running much lately, so I just wanted to go have a good time, and on a good night I would better last year's time. The course is hilly, and running in the dark on a gravel path slows you down as well, but I accomplished my goal, bettering last year's time by 6 seconds! I had a great time in the process, although you wouldn't know by looking at the picture below with only a half mile to go!

The Holiday season is gaining some serious momentum. We got our tree last weekend, and I even started to bake some cookies with the kids! The end of the year also means one more thing on my calendar, planning for the Superbowl 10K. This will be my third year directing the race, and we've already had nearly 400 people sign up. It is capped to 550 registrants, so I expect to have it sold out very soon. We're going to add soup and soft pretzels to our post race pizza / soda / BYOB party this year, I'm sure that will be a welcomed change. This is one of my favorite races of the year, I miss not racing it but I do enjoy giving back to the running community and directing it.

Fair Hill Cross Race Report

2011-11-15T11:15:00.001-08:00

At the last minute I decided to hop into Round #10 of the MAC series at Fair Hill MD. This would be my third MAC race of the season, but only second finish due the injury / cancellation of Granogue Day 1. I made the 90 minute trip down with a teammate and we were treated to a beautiful setting for a cross race, and bright sunny skies. Truly, the cross Gods were watching over us!

I've found that at this point in the season the complexion of cross racing changes. The size of the early season fields is diminishing and seemingly just the fast guys show up! This race was no different, instead of 100+ riders toeing the line, we had 35. That was one of the draws to this race, not doing the entire series typically puts me in a real bad position in the series points, which puts me in a bad position on the starting line. Today I ended up on the 4th row, not the best but certainly better than my last starting position at Nittany! The fast guys showed up indeed, the depth of the Elite Masters 35+ group is amazing. Crossresults.com had me predicted in 15th position, the pressure was on!

I did a couple of warm up laps about an hour before my race just before the start of the 45+/55+ race. I knew right away it was an awesome course. I may even go as far as to say it was one of the best courses I've ridden on to date. Power guys may have wanted more power, but there were plenty of tricky turns, some great sweeping turns, downhills, up hills, off cambers and even a sweet table top to catch some air! I knew my motocross skills would help me out, the way some of the turn sections were laid out forced you to nail the first turn to be able to set up and carry speed through the next turn(s). I was off my bike twice a lap, once in a tricky off camber that was rideable, but running seemed to be more consistent and not much slower. There was also a set of barriers just after a sharp left turn, forcing an awkward dismount. The course was mostly grass with a few gravel sections and not much mud. Got my tire pressure dialed in and we headed to the line.

I knew I needed to get a decent start to be in the right position for the first tight section. I managed to end up in the top 15 which was perfect. I sat in just behind a good friend of mine, Johan. You can see us at the top just entering the left hand turn in the shot below.

Fair Hill was a beautiful venue. Plenty of turns, power sections some great elevation and a cool table top!

The leaders snuck away immediately. I thought Mike Yozell and Maurice would have a good battle, but it wasn't to be. Maurice took it to everyone. Back to my race, I felt great on the first two laps, consistently making passes and eventually making it up into the top 10. I knew there were some fast guys who I had passed and I also knew that my lack of consistent racing this year would play a factor as we approached 45 minutes. I got hooked up with Dan from the Bicycle Therapy team and we had a great race trading positions.


Dan and I had a great battle.

He had some technical skills and rode this every lap. I thought is was safer and just as fast to run.

We went back and forth for the first couple of laps. I'm not far behind remounting after the barriers.

When we hit three laps to go I could feel the legs frying as we drug up the grinding climb near the pit. I had managed to make a pass stick on Dan, but I wasn't able to hold it. There was a really sweet downhill after you zig zag your way up through the woods. It seemed to change every lap and by the end of the race I found my way into the tape.

I managed to get a gap, but my lack of 'crossing this year caught up to me and he got me back. This was a sweet downhill into a tough 180 degree turn.

Dan passed me with about two to go, then I could see Joe coming from behind. Joe has an incredible ability to moderate his first few laps and just fly on his last three laps. That's not an easy thing to master, but I guess all of his experience definitely pays off. He passed me with about two to go heading up the finish stretch, nicely encouraged me to hang on but my legs protested such an idea. At this point I was in tenth just holding on. I knew I had a good gap on the rest of the field with the exception of one rider who was slowing making up time. That tape that I mentioned up above, well I had to stop and untangle myself on the last lap, giving away one more position. I crossed the line pleased with my race and my effort. Came to find out I finished 11th, one spot out of the money. Possibly my best race to date and definitely my best MAC finish in the Elite Masters race. Not a large field, but a fast one. Best of all, I beat crossresults.com!

Went home with a smile on my face, just the day I needed. There's another MAC race not too far from this location in a few weeks, I'm hoping to be there!

October Snow

2011-11-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

October Snow, sounds like an oxymoron to me. Well it did anyway! Two weeks ago word of a nor'easter broke about two days before it hit us. 4-7" of snow were predicted...."No way it will stick to the road" came out of my mouth.

Just a few short days before we were picking pumpkins in beautiful weather....

But not much could stop this storm. Only three times in history had our area seen measurable snow in October, the largest total being 2.2". When it was all said and done we ended up with about 12". Being such an early snow following a hot summer, the trees still bore most of their leaves which was a recipe for disaster. We were without power for >30 hours, but the absolute destruction in the aftermath of the storm left some without power for over a week. The roads looked like war zones, trees toppling like toothpicks and wires dangling like spaghetti. I spent all day last Sunday helping a friend clear branches and fallen trees.

Our Halloween "Snow Witch"

We did have a fun Halloween though. It was the first time I can remember trick or treating with snow covered yards. We made our annual trek to my mom's neighborhood and the kids had a blast with their cousins.

As far as racing goes...well this is cross season, but my season has yet to get any traction. I did manage to jump into a Halloween themed "Octo Run 13K" which was fun. Even more fun was the fact that I won the race and set a course record at 44:52 for 8 miles.

I did manage to sneak out for a cross race on Saturday. I raced the elite masters 35+ and finished 4th, earning enough cash to just about cover my entry fee! I hope to hit a few more races yet this year, give my running legs a rest before I build up for HAT 50K and Boston training.

My brother (white/yellow) on the front row managed two 2nd places finsihes this weekend!

I'm starting to plan out 2012 and I did notice the Long Course Duathlon National Championships have been announced, June 3 in Maryland. I'm excited at the prospect of a great finish, but not sure if I'll race there or take our annual trek to Quassy, CT for the REV3 triathlon weekend which the family loves.

And speaking of REV3, they're announcing the 2012 Team Rev3 on their new Facebook page, naming one person per day starting tomorrow! On another sponsor note, Lamprey Systems cycling team has added a GREAT new sponsor...FIRST ENDURANCE! Everyone on the team is really excited.

Full Moon Cometh

2011-10-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

So, as the title indicates, with the coming of the most recent full moon, well strange things have happened.

It all started last week at work, the phone was ringing off the hook and I felt like I was disfunctional reality TV show. WOW is all that I'll elaborate.

On to the weekend. From a weather standpoint, the late week rains were supposed to give way to some beautiful (yet windy) fall weather. I had plans to race the Granogue Cyclocross race on Saturday and the Hershey Half Marathon on Sunday.

This was to be my third cross race of the season, second in the MAC series. I had scored some points in the first MAC race at Nittany, but missing the next four rounds didn't help my call up. I again raced the Elite Cat 1/2/3/4 Masters 35+ race of which there were about 100 riders in the field. Granogue is a beautiful race on a private estate in Delaware with plenty of elevation and a REALLY LONG asphalt start / finish stretch. I was called up about 50th out of the 100 rider field, at six wide, that had me in the 8th or 9th row in an incredibly stacked field including several ex-pro's. Definitely not an ideal start position. My www.crossresults.com point predictor had me placing just in the top 30 which, considering the talent in the field, was about where my goal was. Starting that far back, you give up way too much time early in the race and your chances of making ground / positions really diminishes.

Anyway, my goal was to get an outside starting lane so I had room to bail in the event of a crash. As we rolled out the sound of rear derailleurs grabbing smaller cogs filled the air. I had a decent start and as the speed ramped up I heard a different sound....a loud "PING" and then the sound of tires, metal and bodies sliding on the pavement. I caught a glimpse of a wheel soaring high above my head. I immediately yelled "riders down", moved to my left and made it by the accident. From that point forward, the race was shear chaos. 100 riders battling for position on a technical course some 12' wide...let me just say there was some banging and some elbows flying. Here's a shot of me in the midst of the chaos....

Pink bike just to the right of the tree
(Photo credit Dennis Smith)

During the warm up I scouted out a few outside lines that I felt may help out during the craziness and bottleneck of the first lap. The first outside line worked to perfection, I rode right around 4 or 5 riders. Then as we hit the first run-up, I ran the outside of the entire section passing at least another 5 or 6 riders. As I mounted my bike I could see my friend Johan just a couple of wheels in front of me. I felt like I had made some good ground and I was now near the top 20. Then after the high speed downhill, I passed Johan who was now running with his bike...a flat tire, but not far from the pit area. Then I heard the whistles....our race had been neutralized and we were called back to the starting grid.

Turned out two riders were still down, and injured. Not good....mentally, I was out of the game at that point and ready to call it a day. Within moments, there were sirens and then a helicopter. As it turns out, despite some head trauma and a broken collarbone the two riders walked out of the hospital on their own later that day. Below is a video to give you a handle on what had happened.....

Watch more video of Granogue Cross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org

This was by far the worst thing that I've ever seen at a cross race. I consider them to be generally very safe and that is one of the reasons I enjoy them. Just another addition to the curse of the full moon?

On Saturday night we headed to an awesome Halloween parade. It was so much fun watching the kids sit on the curb with their candy bags and snag up the candy. Brought back memories of our annual trips to the Pennsburg Parade.

I went to bed packed up and excited to head out to the 2nd annual Hershey Marathon on Sunday. It wasn't to be, the next blow in the curse of the full moon hit me. Fever, sweats, chills...repeat...over and over. There was no way I could run a half marathon, not even drive to one! I slept in and as the day wore on I was feeling better. Then it hit me again and I'm still not recovered.

Can't wait for a new moon!

Wineglass marathon - Pacer Chris

2011-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, a little out of order from my last post, but two Sunday's ago, as part of the marathonpacing.com pace team I lead the 3:25 pace group at the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY. My mind pictured a picturesque day running through wine country and gazing at the incredible fall foliage. It wasn't to be.

Lauren and I made the 3.5 hour drive up on Saturday and worked the pace booth at the expo for a few hours before sneaking out for some wine tasting in the Finger Lakes. The countryside was beautiful, the weather...not so good. Overcast / drizzle and mid 40's. We kept our fingers crossed that the weather would blow out by morning and we'd be treated to a great day.

That night at our pacer dinner the reality of the next day were setting in. There were going to be MANY PEOPLE in my group counting on me to run a steady pace and get them to a Boston qualifying time, a personal best or just meet their goal.

We got all of our stuff ready and when we woke up race day our luck had run out. 40 degrees and RAIN!

Wineglass is a great race. It sold out at about 1200 runners in the marathon and over 2000 in the inaugural half marathon. A great small town atmosphere with big town organization. It was a point to point race, so we drove to the finish line and hopped our separate buses (half and full). It was a consistent downpour the entire ride out.

Once off the bus I found a nice little spot to stay dry and warm, then headed up to the starting area to stage and meet my runners. I had a great group that varied in age and gender, very enthusiastic and filled with goals and stories. The gun went off and the "usual" things that happened to a pace leader happened again. The first half mile was filled with one runner asking me over and over if this was the pace we would hold for 26 mile, and commenting how good it felt. It was downhill and I was trying to hold back. The rain was still coming down, but now that we were moving it didn't feel as bad and my misery level disappeared. At the point I crossed the start line the race wasn't about me, how I felt or how miserable it was. It was about my job...being consistent, being a motivator and providing confidence to my group.

This was by far the largest group I've ever had as a pacer. My runners were commenting how steady we were running (within three seconds of my 7:49 goal pace mile after mile) and how quickly the race was flying by. That's always a good sign, so I kept going with it. When we hit about half way we passed a clock, temp was 42 degrees and the rain was still pelting me. "I hope this rain doesn't stop now" I said to my group, we'd run too far to only run part of the marathon in the rain.

Pretty large group, about half way through

My goal was to run about 30 seconds under goal (3:24:30) and we cross the half marathon right on target at 1:42:15. The course was surprisingly flat and downhill and we kept chugging along. At mile 22 it had just about stopped raining and I told my group of about 20 runners that if they were feeling good, now was the time to slowly pick up the pace. As we clicked off the final miles I turned into a sweeper, grabbing runners who were struggling and lifting them up. About 10 of my runners went head and by mile 25 there were only a few with me. I cross the finish line in 3:24:43 with one other runner. Once through the finish shoot is where the real fun of pacing begins. It's great to meet up with everyone from your group and congratulate them...as well as hear their "stories" of how the race went down.

I'm blessed to have the opportunity and ability to be a part of such a special aspect of running. Is it nerve wracking, and a lot of work? I guess you could say that to an extent, but I never think of it as such....it's the reward at the end of helping others accomplish something more than they thought possible. That's priceless, something you just can't buy.

Will I return to Wineglass, you betcha!

Part Duex - con Mas Personas - Town Hall Cross

2011-10-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

The artwork for the back of what turned out to be a coveted t-shirt

I've been anxiously awaiting the coming of this past weekend. Our team has been planning and tweaking our race since October 2, 2010. The weather had not been cooperating which even added to the anticipation. A week before the event we had about 100 registered entries, ahead of where we were in 2010 which was good. Then, midweek, the weather took an awesome turn and things really starting picking up. By the time registration closed on Thursday night we had 213 preregistered riders (108 in 2010) and an incredible forecast for setup day as well as race day.

I pretty much wrote off my training and racing for the week knowing the tasks that were ahead. The weeknights of race week were filled with last minute errands, filling up prize bags and setting up our registration files, numbers and waivers. We had a great crew on Friday to set up the course, and since we'd done it a year ago we were much more organized. We made some changes to the course to allow for much more parking, and we also made a set of our own team barriers to add to the set that came with our setup kit. By 2pm or so the course was basically ready, and some local riders were starting to filter in to check it out.

The feared "St Lukes Staircase", a nasty, heart exploding climb!

I got geared up and hit the course to see how it flowed. After a couple of trips up the climb I knew I needed to put my compact crank / gearing on. Turned out to be a time-consuming affair that ended at Cutters Bike Shop. It was all good though after we got the stripped bolt out.

Race morning came early. It was a cool fall morning, but temps were predicted to climb into the mid 70's with wall to wall sunshine. There was a layer of dew on the grass which made things slippery, but our 9am field of 75 entrants managed just fine. They also managed to bring up some mud which was an added bonus to our fast course.

The mood was more of a festival than a race. Kids running around and screaming with joy as they explored the nature trails of the park and the various playgrounds. The announcer / DJ kept things rolling right along as people milled about at the St. Luke's nurses tent and the Saucon Valley Relay for Life food stand. If you needed something for your bike you could hit the Cutters tent for a tune up or head over to the Cycleops tent for a warmup on their trainers. I just tried to soak it all in.

The racing was great as well. The course featured nearly 125' of elevation gain per 1 1/4 mile lap, OUCH. Our team swept three of the top 5 spots in the Cat 4 race and fielded a podium in the Cat3/4 race. I lined up, without much warmup, for the 11am race. It was the masters 35+ race which was open to Category 1-4 and contained nearly 30 riders. Being only my second race of the year and considering my lack of training and sleep the week before, I wasn't looking for much. I had a PERFECT start and lead the field into the second turn. I managed to mix it up with the two leaders for the first two laps, but when I saw the 5 lap card I knew I was in trouble. It was warm, the legs were burning and I had probably pushed a little too hard, much too early. I was very fast in the technical and power sections but really struggled on the climb. The top 7 really moved away from the rest of the field and we'd fight the rest of the race out amongst ourselves. I finished a strong 6th, just seconds behind 4th and 5th. I was happy with that.

Just after my race was the kids "race". I headed down to the staging area and lead them off. Some of those little guys gave me a run for the money!


Leading off the kids "race"

I dropped back to grab Autumn and Ashley to lead them across the finish. We had medals and sweet prizes for all the kids, it was awesome to see the smiles on their faces!

Finishing with Autumn and Ashley

Just after the kids race was the women's race. We had a great field of about 30 women including Bicycling Magazine's "Fit Chick" Selene Yeager. These ladies battled hard and we gave cash and prizes to the top 10 finishers which was an added bonus! Selene wrote a great blog about our race HERE.

Happy faces on the podium!

The final race of the day was our men's elite Cat 1/2/3 race. 2008 Olympian and National Track Champion Bobby Lea showed up to join the field of 15 riders. He had ridden his bike for well over an hour to GET TO the race, planned to race then ride back home! Bobby is truly a class act and all around good guy. After winning the race he handed his winnings to one of our charities, the Relay for Life. Enough said, you will hear Bobby's name in the professional ranks and be sure to route for him!

Bobby Lea chatting at the registration table.

So when all was said and done we had over 240 entrants this year. That's nearly 100 more than the inaugural event which is incredible to me. Our race kicked off the PA Cyclocross Series in grand style and our team is proud of what we accomplished together. We had the course torn down and wrapped up before 5pm and had some beer in hand to celebrate our successes. We raised nearly $650 for the Saucon Valley Relay for Life and $550 for the HCM Foundation.

We couldn't have done it without all of our sponsors. Cutters Bike Shop, St. Lukes Hospital, Specialized, Motorex, Twin-Air, Honey Stinger, Cycleops Power, Fox and The Sufferfest

Photos of the race can be found at http://www.cyclingcaptured.com/share/2011-Town-Hall-Cross

And you can follow all the updates to our race at our FACEBOOK page or on Twitter @townhallcross

Now to get my butt in shape for some more cross, rest the running legs for HAT 50K and Boston Marathon training in Spring 2012!!!

Rock n Roll Philadelphia 1/2 Marathon Race Report

2011-09-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

On Sunday a whole crew of us participated in the Rock N Roll Philly half marathon. The crew included four "Garges's", myself, Lauren, my brother Jeremy and his wife Michelle. Michelle's brother also ran. This was to be the longest "run" that Lauren has done in quite sometime as she's on the mend from suffering Rhabdomyolysis this summer. Jeremey, Michelle and her brother Nick all had some goal times in mind. Jeremy and Nick wanted to break the 1:30 barrier for the first time and Michelle wanted to break the 2 hour barrier for the first time. Lauren was going to run with Michelle to help pace her to her goal.

Lauren and I drove down Sunday AM to meet up with the rest of the crew. We were treated to incredible weather....just enough sun and temps in the upper 50's....and slight winds. The race was nearly sold out with over 20,000 participants. It also drew quite an elite field, many of which were hoping to meet the Olympic standards of 1:05 (male) and 1:15 (female) to qualify for the trials in January. It was pretty cool to hang out in the corral and watch the likes of Adam Goucher and Kim Smith (led the first 18 miles of Boston Marathon 2011) warm up and be interviewed by race personnel.

I stretched and tried to come up with some kind of mental game plan. The course, although slightly different than the last time I ran the race, was a fast one. It started out running in down town Philly for the first 4+ miles, then ventured out past the Art Museum onto Kelly Drive, across the Falls Bridge and back down West River to finish at the Art Museum stairs. In all of the running events that I've ever done in Philly, I've never run out Kelly and back West River...odd! Back to my race, in 2008 when I last ran the race, I had a pretty big year - running mileage wise - and I trained pretty much specifically for this race. I ended up with a great time of 1:14:10 and carried that to a marathon PR later that fall at the Philly Marathon.

So what was the plan for today? I had run about 600 miles less year to date than in 2008, I had put some decent training in, but not really focused on this race, more for multisport racing. I hadn't really tapered either. I had no idea what I had in me. 13.1 miles is no short race either, go out too hard and pay for it. My plan was just to go by feel...not by watch, not by HR. So that I did, the gun went off and I just focused on a steady effort and tried to stay out of the wind.

As we took off, there was a pretty good sized group all around me. I just tried to run steady. Hit the first mile marker...5:30...OOOPPS! I did remember my 2008 race where I ran 5:31 first mile so I wasn't too worried. Tried to back the effort down, mile 2...5:39..that felt better. There wasn't a bunch of passing going on, everyone just getting in the groove. I hit the 5K at 17:26. By mile 5 a decent sized pack had come together, there were a bunch of elite females mixed in there marking each other's moves. My first 5 miles were consistently in the high 5:30 range. As we headed out Kelly Drive the pack stuck together, but we started to catch some people that had gone out too fast. Hit 10K at 35:04...a very consistent first 5 miles. My legs were feeling pretty good and I wasn't taxing my cardio too bad. "Seven more miles, I may be able to pull something good out of this" I said to myself....hoping I could even drop the pace more after 10 miles.

Our group's pace slowed slightly, I was no clicking miles off in the low 5:40 range. It was slightly uphill as we reached the Fall's Bridge and subsequently the 9 mile mark. At that point the whole race seemed to change. Those who had it dropped the pace....it went from quiet to much more noticeable and labored breathing (for me and many of those around me). At this point, which I thought would be slightly downhill, my legs started to protest. I upped my effort for sure, but the pace wasn't coming down.

I rolled through 10 miles at 56:50...."One of my faster 10 mile times" I thought, "OK, just hang on for the last 3 miles." Easier said than done! There were some strong runners coming by every once in a while...and I'd pick some slowing runners off here and there. I dug deep, recording my slowest miles of the day in miles 11 (5:47), 12 (5:48) and 13 (5:50). As I hit mile 12 I realized that I was going to hold onto a great time, finally did the math and realized I could break 1:14. The crowds were huge as we approached the line, the crowd was cheering all of the female runners on because they had punched their ticket to the Trials. I soaked it in and came across in 1:14:54. Not sure where I pulled that from, maybe my "Suitcase of Courage" as Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin would say, maybe just dumb luck on a beautiful day? Who knows, I'm not complaining...I'll take it! The field was deep, a sub 1:15 garnered me 133rd overall which is a testament to that. I was happy to finish 7th in my AG though.

I hung around the finish line to see how the rest of the crew was fairing. Jeremy kicked butt, crossing the line at 1:28:56, Nick not far behind in the mid 1:29's and Lauren and Michlle finished at 1:59:04! All in all it was a very successful day!

My new found (maybe a fluke?) running fitness has me re-evaluating my fall schedule. I think I'll put cyclocross on the back burner, still racing but not necessarily training specifically for it, and focus on some running races. I'm pacing the 3:25 group at the Wineglass Marathon on 10/2, then racing the Hershey Half Marathon on 10/16. I'm also considering registering for the Philadelphia Marathon on 11/20.

Missing REV3, Boston x 2 and Nittany Cross

2011-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a big weekend in many, many ways. First of all, we will never forget that day just over 10 years ago. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered as a result of a loss of life or major life change which directly resulted from that day. The innocent people at the three major attack sites, the first responders and all of those at war to defend our freedom.

It was a big weekend out in Cedar Point, OH last weekend. I wasn't able to attend due to some other commitments (see below) but I want to congratulate REV3 on another awesome event and my Trakkers teammates on some awesome performances!!

Saturday kicked off the cyclocross season, not only on the local series level but the UCI calendar as well. The Nittany Cross was a two day event held at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center. Typically a flatter, faster race, it took a 180 degree turn this year due to the record rainfall and flooding that has hammered the Northeast over the past 10-14 days. A quick summary, it was the muddiest race I've ever done. Mud pits that were un-ride-able, forcing you to run through shin deep soupy mud; standing water / mud puddles that were up to your crank deep; and of course some peanut-buttery mud through the woods. Throw in some barriers, short climbs and power robbing rutty sections and you've got a perfect recipe for pain and suffering.

I was originally going to race both days, coming back Sunday after pacing Lauren's cousin through a portion of his first marathon. Then found out Autumn had a soccer game that would conflict with that plan so I decided to move my registration from Sunday's Master's race to Saturday's "Killer Bee's" race (Men's 3/4). The Elite Masters 35+ race (Cat 1-4) contained a field of nearly 100 starters and started at noon. The Bee's field was over 100 strong and started at 3:45. Sounded feasible, but with the caveat that race #2 would HURT and I wouldn't be up to speed there.

So in a rookie move I was scouting the course out and missed my call up for the Masters race. I would have started mid-pack, but as I rolled up to staging to find everyone staged I realized my big mistake. I slid in the back row, hopped off my bike to clean off some of the heavy mud from my preview lap and all the sudden everyone takes off...while I'm standing there. DAMMIT, NOT what I had planned for my first race of the season in such a stacked field. You simply cannot give Cat 1 and Cat 2 'crossers a head start, you will not catch them!

Coming through the start / finish area on lap 1, I had already made some passes

I knew I had to make some passes early while everyone was bunched up. I was seriously in the red, it was humid and I was hurting. The course seemed to get worse every lap. As you went through the two standing water sections, your shoes would fill up with water with each down stroke of the pedal...

Photo credit to Joe Mallis

As I ran through the "peanut butter" mud the second lap my cleats got clogged up and I slipped and fell remounting my bike. A couple of guys back by me that I had just passed...DAMMIT

Right after the fall, trying to bridge back to the guys that just passed me.

I was never quite sure what position I was in, I just kept moving forward. I was pretty gassed with one lap to go and focused on a steady effort. I was in a pack, but didn't have much "fight" left for any form of sprint. I could see my friend a few turns up, but realized that there wasn't enough time to catch him. My thought was to get through the mud pit quickly and hopefully pass the couple of guys in front of me...and hopefully have enough to hold them to the finish. It worked, I passed two guys through the mud section, but they crushed me in the field sprint.

photo credit to www.cyclingcaptured.com

End result: 27th place out of 69 finishers. I unofficially gave myself the "hard charger" award for likely passing the most riders in the race! My friend and trainer partner finished top 20, right where I thought I'd be. Bummer, but I'll get them next time!

Photo credit to Dennis Smith (www.dennisbike.com)

Now onto race #2. After I waited an hour or so in line to wash myself and my bike off, I grabbed some food and got to watch some great racing. The sun stayed tucked away so the course only seemed to get muddier. I was called up in the last row due to my registration switch. Fantastic, only about 105 riders ahead of me! I made quite a few passes in the first few corners and my legs weren't feeling too bad. It all went wrong not long after that though....

Photo credit to Dennis Smith (www.dennisbike.com)

A clip of the barrier section in my Masters race

As I entered the high speed barrier section all I felt was someone drill me from behind...and land on top of me. He then proceeds to toss my bike across the track....classy, thank you! Turns out the impact ripped my saddle off of my rails. I could have limped more than half way around the track for my pit bike, but that wouldn't really accomplish much, so I packed up and headed home.

With my cross racing out of the way for the weekend it freed me up to run more with Doug in his first marathon / BQ attempt. The original goal was to have Lauren run the middle 5 mile leg with him, but he started to hurt at mile 12 or so and asked if I'd stick with him the whole way. "Sure" I gulped...I was in, to run the whole marathon. It was a decent day, high 60's, no sun but high humidity. Our first 12 miles were dead on the 7:15 range, but from that point forward I could tell that the race was now more about salvaging a decent time then being a hero and going for broke. We managed to stick to sub 8:00 pace for a while, but the late hills of the last few miles were tough. Doug hung in there through some bad cramps, a few walk steps to shake them out, but we made it in, 3:24:15!! About 7:45 average and more importantly an 11 minute Boston Qualifier time!! Doug was psyched.....and now he's ready to learn from marathon number one and take some time off his next one.

And speaking of Boston, yesterday was the first day of registration for the 2012 Boston Marathon. Registration was opened up to runners who had beat their qualifying time by more than 20 minutes. After the craziness of last year's registration (25,000 people registered in 8 hours), I didn't know what to expect. Online registration went very smoothly, and I'M IN!!

Next weekend is the Rock n Roll Philly Half Marathon....hoping the legs are recovered!

Vermont on my mind...

2011-08-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

When I think about Vermont a few things instantly come to mind....

BEN & JERRY's Ice Cream

Beautiful lakefront sunsets watched from the porch

Landscape dotted with covered bridges (and mountaintop backgrounds)

Great races and training

I'm sure many other things come to mind such as skiing, hiking and General Store's. I'm sure that most people throughout the country were affected by Hurricane / Tropical Storm Irene in some way (either directly or through friends and relatives). At our house, we were somewhat lucky and spared of any major damage (although we were without power for about 12 hours and no cable/phone/internet for a couple of days). Most of the talk about Irene centered around the shorelines and major metro cities, but the tiny, landlocked state of Vermont was absolutely crushed by Irene. I've been glued to the web, just searching for updates, videos and photos of the towns, roads and people that I'm a part of every summer. My mind cannot comprehend the extent of this catastrophe. The photo below is a map published by VT officials showing all of the impacted (closed or single lane) roadways. Take a look, you simply "can't get there from here" anymore.

Eleven towns were completely isoluted by washed out roadways and bridges. A base lodge at Killington was dislodged from its foundation. There are 400 people "stuck" in the resort. In the town of Bethel, there are homes that lost the bottom two stories....simply swept away. The Silver Lake shown above breached it's outfall and washed the North Road out. Quechee covered bridge (and the Simon Pearce glassworks) is hanging on by a thread at this point.

Quechee Bridge & Simon Pearce Building

In one town that was stranded by closed roadways and power outages, there are photos of people standing in line at the one and only grocery store. The store decided to give all of it's food away because it was going to spoil without electricity anyway.

My sister in law and her family were supposed to spend the week after Labor Day up there and bring my son. They've decided to cancel the trip because they simply couldn't get there. Route 107 from Killington to Bethel is completely washed out as Route 4 from Killington to Woodstock.

Route 4 East of Killington

My heart truly goes out to all of the Vermonters. They're a tough bunch and if any state in the union could get through it, it's Vermont. Thankfully FEMA, the Federal Government and the Reserve Forces have recognized the extent of this distaster and are working feverishly to help out.

Hard to believe that just one week before, all of the talk in the multisport world centered around an incredible Age Group National Championship event which was held in Burlington, VT.

Thursdays of late.....

2011-08-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

The last few Thursdays have been a fun change. Two weeks ago I went out to the Thursday Night training series for some good high intensity training. It takes place on a closed one mile paved "fitness trail". Thirty laps, sprints for points every three laps. Good chance to see what I had and get some good Powertap data! The group in total was in the 40's or 50's. I had 4 or 5 friends in the field. It usually attracts some pretty fast pro's so my goal was more to hang on than aspiring to get any points.

We ended up finishing the 30 miles at nearly 26mph average! I hit a few peak power records and I averaged 222w for the entire ride.The next Thursday I put on a small cyclocross clinic / practice near my house. Six people showed up, three total newbies which was great! It was fun to put some laps in on the grass, hit some off camber turns and run some barriers. Hoping to get a Thursday night training series going in the next week or so, we need one. Cross is coming...only a couple of weeks until the first race.

We had a great mini vacation to the beach last weekend. Luckily for us we moved our typical trip up a week because of an early school start for Autumn this year. If not we'd be missing out totally due to the arrival of Hurricane Irene. Speaking of Irene, I was supposed to race a half marathon on Sunday which has wisely been cancelled!

Planning is rolling along for Town Hall Cross on 10/8. Cutters Bike Shop and Specialized have kicked in some great merchandise prizes.

LVRR Kids Run & Steelman Olympic Triathlon Race Reports

2011-08-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend last weekend. On Saturday we hit the final Lehigh Valley Road Runners Kids Run series event. The Lehigh Valley Zoo was set up with some animals. This porcupine was fun to watch! Joshua ran in the 3-4 year old division (1/8th mile) and Autumn ran in the 7-8 year old division (1/2 mile). The event was very well run and they both did awesome! They were slightly intimidated at first as there were 300 to 400 kids out there total, but they were sad at the end when we told them we'd have to wait until next year when the series starts again!

Autumn had a big smile as she made the turn for the finish line....

Two happy kiddos with their medals and ribbons! (Not to mention post race popcicles!)

Sunday was what has become an annual tradition...the Steelman Triathlon. It was my first tri in 2007 (I did the spring) and this was my fourth time doing the OLY. The race is very large (1000 people total) and very well run. Lauren was going to do it this year as her first tri...but she's on the comeback trail right now and had to defer until next year. She did volunteer though, which meant a 4:30am arrival! We spent the night at my mom's house on Saturday night, she's only 10 minutes from the race site. We drove to the site in the pouring rain...uggg!

By 6:30 or so the rain had stopped, I got all my stuff set up in transition and geared up for the practice swim. The practice swim was important to me....why? Because I hadn't swam since my last tri in June....oooppps! Luckily it was wetsuit legal (at 77.5 degrees) and I pulled on my super fast TYR Category 5 suit. This thing kicks butt! By 7am we were off. I immediately realized that my goggles were sealed in my left eye. After three brief turns onto my back to adjust them, I was in business. The first 800 yards or so my sighting was awesome. Sighting was a tough thing though, no sun glare but not much light...PLUS our wave wore ORANGE swim caps...and what color were the markers? ORANGE! Just as I did last year, I got off course...well actually I followed the markers...but they were off course. I made the turn into the dock and headed to T1.

25:56, my fastest split at this race and good enough for 73rd fastest time out of 380 finishers...top 20%, WOW for me!!
A quick T1 at 1:52 and I was off onto the bike. Man did I feel like crap! The choppy water had me taking on more water than normal and I was paying for it now. As we climbed the steep climb out of the marina my dreams were crushed even further as I was passed by a 55 year old guy on a road bike...OUCH! During my last tri I had some stomach pains that really slowed me down. My goal today was to just see what type of speed and power I could build into my legs. Since we were the first wave and the road was closed to traffic I got a good glimpse of how many people were in front of me. I would guess there were at least 25 people. The course is two laps on the closed road and the total elevation gain was about 1500'. As I approached the spot where the first turn around was supposed to be I realized that they had lengthened the course....likely due to wet roads. I was now steadily building speed but realized that the humidity was going to make this a tough day. I was really sweating and by the end of the first lap (half way) I had used up my bottle of EFS...and realized that the first lap was 13.5 miles! I typically don't even use one bottle in the bike leg of an OLY!

I decided that I would take a bottle in the drop zone...if I didn't I would be jeopardizing the race. As I started the second lap, the bike course filled up with sprint triathletes. I was steadily passing people and by now feeling much better. I grabbed the bottle and put my head down.

Into T2 in 1:10:47 for 26.9 miles....22.9mph and good enough for the 3rd fastest bike split.

My dismount was spot on and after a blazing 28 second T2 I was off onto the run course. The run course is a very nice two loop (for the Olympic) course on a paved path. The sun was now coming out and the run was turning into a SAUNA! Once I got going I was steadily catching runners and picking off sprint and olympic participants... It was tough to tell where I stood in my age group and overall but as long as I was still passing people I was happy. There was plenty of water so I kept drinking and dumping water over my head...putting one foot in front of the other. I had no Garmin so I had no clue as to my pace. I felt like a turtle, legs were shot and all I could think of was the finish line. And finally it came.

A 37:46 10K split, good enough for the 2nd fastest run split on the day!

I crossed the finish line in quite a daze, found a cold wet towel and sat in the shade...drinking cup after cup of fluid. After 15-20 minutes I was feeling better. I probably drank two or three times my normal amount and it was barely enough. I ended up 7th overall out of 380 finishers and first out of 43 in the 35-39 AG. Our club had a HUGE presence and claimed a bunch of podiums which was fun to see. I was happy with my effort, and combined bike/run was even better than expected. It was a great event, looking forward to next year!
Not sure what's up next.... I'd love to do another Half Iron this fall. I have two half marathons coming up which I've been training pretty hard for and I'm pacing the Wineglass Marathon on 10/2! Throw that on top of planning for the 2nd annual Town Hall Cross, putting on a cross clinic and oh yeah, the cross season....and this fall will be busy!

MIO 5K & Sunset Sprint Duathlon Race Report

2011-07-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

I picked a nice warm Wednesday night to get back into some 5k racing. A friend of mine organizes a fairly large midweek 5k (350 finishers) not too far from my house which is well organized and well attended by some fast college and high school runners. This is a great race because the first mile is predominantly down hill and very fast in the first mile, but then you're tested over the next 2 miles as you regain the elevation and finish back at the park you start at. I got a good 2 mile "warm up" in (it was already pretty damn warm) and headed over to the start.

The gun went off and the race started off fast, very fast. The fun thing about this race is trying to figure out which runners that are in the lead pack as we pass the first mile marker will be there at the end. I haven't run a 5k in quite a while, but my recent race on July 4 indicated that my running legs seemed to be coming back.
As we approached the one mile mark I was in a lead pack of about 9 guys, of whom I was clearly the oldest. I recognized two of the others, one who was capable of going sub 16:00 and the other who had won the race the last 8 years (also very capable of going sub 16:00). We passed the first mile mark at 5:01....wow! As we started the gentle climb the breathing was becoming more evident and the pack was thinning out. Suddenly the race felt like it was slowing down and becoming a chess match...and now I was out front breaking the wind for the pack. We hit mile 2 at 5:27 and neared the crest of the gradual hill...I was now in 2nd and had surprisingly passed the 8 time winner. Out of nowhere someone came by me and along side the leader, I had not seen him the whole race but he was moving. About 2.5 miles in we hit a hard right turn up a short steep climb and the leaded made a Mark Cavendish-esque break for it....2nd place runner chased and I had nothing!

I knew I had a good race going and focused on keeping a steady pace and keeping the two front runners in sight. I hit the finish in 16:13, 3rd overall and last 1.1 miles in 5:44 (5:11 pace). That was 3 seconds faster than I had ever run on the course, my fastest 5k in about 3 years and needless to say I was pretty happy with the outcome!

That Saturday I was off to another event I've done a few times. My brother and I headed down to the Sunset Challenge Tri/Du. We both raced the sprint du which was a 2 mi run / 12 mi bike / 5k run around the lake. The sprint tri & du started at the same time, but due to the short swim most swimmers were out of the water in 7 minutes, meaning a more crowded race course for the duathletes. It was a warm morning with moderate humidity, but after sipping on some EFS before the race I decided to not carry any water on the bike. If all went well I'd be finishing in less than an hour, and hopefully be running for less time over 5 miles than what it would take me to ride the 12 miles. Legs felt pretty good, even after the Wednesday night 5k a few days before.

The gun went off and I knew I wanted to get out in front early if possible, it was an out and back run on a narrow trail. I managed to get out in the lead and about a third of a mile in I could hear some breathing, knowing it was one of a brother/brother duo that does very well in local duathlons, I figured I would try to do some surges in an effort to get him out of his comfort zone and maybe throw him off for the bike as well. The surges hurt me, but I could hear him breathing even harder. Came into T1 in 10:43, he was <10 sec behind.

I navigated a very crowded T1 and I was off. The first 4 miles or so I was moving along very well, passing people in a pretty steady stream. All the sudden someone came from behind and passed me. Not sure if I had just passed him or if he had a really bad swim (could tell he was from the tri, had some "pond scum" riding along with him). Well, as soon as he passed me he slowed down, so I passed him back. Low and behold he passes me again.....and slows down....this time there's another rider to our right, so I try to pass him. As I'm passing him he recognizes that I'm coming by again and proceeds to move further to the left, eventually pushing me over the yellow line as I go by.

Just as I pass him I hear a motorcycle come by and see the race official writing something down...assuming it had to do with what just went down between me and this guy. "Great, I just got a penalty for something" I assume, put my head down and try to stay in the lead of this race. Just then he goes by AGAIN, this time yelling and cursing at me, blaming his penalty on me!! I was fired up, yelled back, then decided that if there's $100 on the line for the win and I just got a 2 min penalty I can't be messing around with this clown. So I shut up, put my head down and let him distance me enough that hopefully there are no more issues. I had a great T2 (21 sec) thanks to my cyclocross dismount skills and figured I'd see him again on the run. 12 miles, 29:17, 24.6mph (tied for fastest bike split).

Out on the run I started to pick off more of the leading triathletes one at a time. This was great motivation as I knew I needed to win by >2 minutes to have a shot at the overall if I did in fact get a penalty. I ended up 4th across the line (first duathlete) in 57:39 after logging the fastest run 2 split at 16:49. Never did see "my new friend" on the run course, figured my T2 got me out on course before him. I eagerly watched the clock tick by.....and I had done it....I won by about 2:10! My brother came through 6th overall, first in AG and 5th fastest bike split all of which he was more than thrilled with.

So after the race I caught up w/ the referee to get her take, see if I did get a penalty and to see what I could learn from that penalty in the future. After >5 years of multisport racing and never seeing a penalty I was bummed out that I had in fact rec'd one, but it was for crossing the yellow line which I was "forced" to do by a blocking rider. She said that rider had also yelled and cursed at her while out on the bike and she would be dealing with him. She apologized that I had to deal with such an athlete, but she said I could have hit the brakes and complied with the rules...and she was right, would have cost me much less than 2 minutes!

As for "my new friend", after trying to start trouble after the race again and gloating how he was "a CAT 1 cyclist that can go 28mph" and I was a "disgrace and a cheater for drafting him", he was nearly clocked by one of my friends and apparently wasn't even allowed to enter the run course and completely disqualified! Come to find out that he's co-owner of a bike shop in Philadelphia and he's obviously not good at customer service....or keeping his mouth shut! I have vowed to never support a Breakaway Bikes or Quaker City Wheelmen event...and you may want to consider the same...

Vacation

2011-07-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, summer is for vacations, right? Can't believe it's been a month since I've updated....talk about vacation. I do have a good excuse though, we were on vacation for 11 days, out of touch with the world relaxing in Vermont. A perfect place for a permanent vacation....in the summer at least.

So what have I been up to? Well, since I've last posted I had some great training and racing...including a tri, two running races and a du. While up in Vermont I sought out a nice triathlon in Branbury, VT which was just West of the Green Mountain Forest and Middlebury Gap. I just simply wanted to race and not get all hyped up for the race...plus I didn't have room in the car for any "nonessentials" like my TT bike, TT helmet, etc. Figuring it would be a hilly course, I thought I'd fare well on my road bike...to my surprise!

Water was decent in the mid 60's, and after about 1o minutes of what felt like pretty fast swimming I was out of the water and off on the bike. Turned out it was one of my best swim's ever, 22nd overall out of a field of over 200 (big props to my TYR wetsuit, Lord know's it wasn't because I had been training for the swim!). Out onto the bike and I just could not get going. I had an awful feeling in my stomach that wouldn't let me push too hard. AND the hills never came. I was far enough up front that there wasn't a ton of traffic and after being passed early I made one pass and really rode the race by myself. I wasn't surprised to see I only turned the 22nd fastest bike leg. Off onto the run, an out and back 5K. I slowly started to work the bug out of my stomach and pick people off. As we neared the turn around I could see I was in about 15th overall. 2nd mile split was 5:3x, faster than the first. I made a big push at the end passing three more guys on the way back in running a 5:21 closing mile for 12th overall. Not my best performance, but a promising swim!

The rest of the vacation we spent hanging around the lake, playing w/ the kids and doing the typical tourist stuff...Ben and Jerries, Trappe Family Lodge, Woodstock, etc. We didn't have the best weather, but it was nothing to complain about by any means.

I took a small journey of my own. Did a ride up and over the Rochester Gap, rated as a Cat 2 climb. It was about 6 miles long and averaged near 5%. The view from the top was awesome! Managed to hit a huge pothole on my way back and bend my new Powertap rim though....
On the 4th of July we attended the 35th annual road race in Woodstock. A 7.2 mile loop starting at the Green and finishing at the covered bridge (with a few hefty climbs in between). It was a hot day, but I had a great race finishing 2nd, taking nearly 90sec off my course PR and winning some greens fees to the country club! Nearly everyone in the family garnered AG awards in the form of Vermont Maple Syrup and the family was well represented with Lauren, her Dad, her Sister and cousin's husband. The kids had a fun run of their own around the Green collecting medals and carrying big smiles!

We headed home on July 5 and the kids were lucky enough to stay up there w/ their grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins. Lauren and I had a few days of peace and quiet at the house...which was a bot eery....

I'll follow up with some more updates and race reports....including my return to the 5k and my first penalty....

Wilkes Barre Duathlon Race Report

2011-06-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I made my annual Fathers Day trek to Wilkes Barre for the 8th annual Wilkes Barre Duathlon. As I've said before this is a great race with a small hometown feel and a great hot buffet breakfast at the end. Also typically very competitive because there's a cash prize. It was my fourth time racing it so I was familiar with the course and layout.

I headed up solo this year, it's an early start (7:30am) so no family to cheer me on. My brother is on vacation so he missed the event this year. Rolled out of the house at 5am and arrived at about 6:15 or so. Great parking spot right across from transition and I headed to pick up my number and get transition set up.

The racks were numbered so everyone knew where they should be. When I racked my bike I noticed that the racks were a little unsteady, I was on the end so I thought I could control it and didn't expect any issues. I laced up my Avi Stoltz's and headed out for a 2 mi warmup. Weather was decent, low 70's and a little humid. Leading up to the race my running has really been feeling strong, but my bike legs have been eluding me. This being a "sprint" distance race, I knew it meant one thing...PAIN! The shorter races mean high intensity right from the start. My goal was to try to run up front in the first run, have a quick transition and get out on the bike ASAP.

I looked around at the start and I saw Sean Robbins. He and I have battled EVERY year! In fact, he's come in second six times and third once in the 7 years the race has been held. I didn't see last year's winner though :-) The gun went off and a few of us made our way out front.
There was a relay guy that was dressed in a running outfit that was a strong runner who seemed to want to be out front. I tucked in behind him and as we hit the first sharp turn at the top of the causeway and I could see Sean dangling a few seconds back. As we hit the 2nd mile marker a guy in a tri kit came to the front but was content to not push the pace. I didn't recognize him and all I could do was hope he wasn't a strong cyclist! As we crested the bridge and headed into transition area I slowed slightly in an effort to lower my HR for the bike. I had no idea of pace, I had my watch on but I never look down in the short races, I go by feel. Came into T1 a couple of seconds back, 16:19 for 3mi.

I ran right past my bike, but quickly turned around...helmet on, sneakers off, bike shoes on and out onto the course. Perfect flying mount and I was gone...and no one but the police car in front. "Here goes nothing" I thought and put my head down. The first 4 miles are tough w/ a lot of stinging climbs....down to 12-13mph....which I knew and just kept pushing. It was clear that my cycling legs weren't 100% with me, but I wanted to give my best effort. I hit the turn around on the out and back at mile 8 or so and I could see where I stood. Sean was coming, we exchanged waves and I put my head down. The strong runner from the first run was losing time to us so it was clear that the race was between Sean and I. Sean had beat me the first year I raced here, then he waxed me pretty good at the Steelman Triathlon in 2009 so I knew he was strong on the bike and event stronger off the bike on the run.

As I came down the last straight into town on the bike I could tell I was holding decent speed and there was no one close. Feet out of my shoes, nice fast dismount and then it happened...as I was racking my bike the rack fell down!! Luckily I was the only one in the transition and I could lay my bike down. Did lose some time there and as I exited the transition in 42 sec and I could see Sean was close. In a strange twist of events, I actually had the fastest bike split of the day and none of the fastest run splits (2nd in both runs)!

After nearly an hour being redlined I had no idea what my legs had in them. The sun was bright and it was getting hot. I mentally broke the run down into small segments and hoped I could hold it together. As we hit about 1.5mi a volunteer yelled "he's about 20 yds behind".. "GREAT" I thought, he's catching me! As we passed mile 2 I could tell I was redlined, but told myself I only had less than six minutes of pain left! With about a half mile to go we climbed the causeway one more time and made a sharp turn.....he was close and looking strong. My plan......get over the incline up the bridge and then open up my stride down the bridge and through the last city block. And that's what I did, the best sprint I could muster...and I hit the line a scant 17 seconds ahead after pulling off my fastest mile of run 2, a 5:31!
Sean crossed and we congratulated each other. And then I found out how cool a small race like that is when a couple of reporters came over to chat with me!! I caught up with a few friends and chatted with Sean for a while, then loaded up and hit the post race breakfast buffet. Did some searching today and found the front page of the sports section of one of the newspapers.....
Made it home before noon and had a great Father's day visiting and hanging out w/ family. Hard to believe the longest day of the year (IE: Summer) is hear already. Autumn just finished first grade and we're gearing up for our annual trip to Vermont.......

Here's some cool comparison info...it always amazes me how consistent the human body is. This has been the same course with the exception of the bike in 2010.

	2009	2010	2011
RUN1 Time	0:16:01	0:16:22	0:16:19
RUN1 Pace	0:05:20	0:05:27	0:05:26
RUN1 HR AVG	N/A	171	169
RUN1 HR MAX	N/A	180	179
BIKE Time**	0:39:45	0:42:27	0:39:19
BIKE SPEED	24.15	24.36	24.40
BIKE HR AVG	N/A	166	168
BIKE HR MAX	N/A	174	174
RUN2 Time	0:17:10	0:17:32	0:17:05
RUN2 Pace	0:05:43	0:05:51	0:05:42
RUN2 HR AVG	N/A	176	172
RUN2 HR MAX	N/A	181	181
	1:14:12		1:13:48
**NOTE: Bike course was >1 mi longer in 2010

What would you do??

2011-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking forward to late summer / early fall and I've got two things on my mind. I know I can't do both, so I've got a decision to make.

I've never really trained for a half iron as an "A" race, so part of me would love to see how fast I could go. But then there's the Age Group Nationals in my favorite state (VT). The other consideration (now I've gotta confuse things even more) is that my running is feeling better than it has in a while so possibly a fall marathon, but then there's the cyclocross season.......I digress......

AG Nationals consist of an Olympic distance triathlon and they're held late August in Burlington, VT. Half Iron distance races are hard to come by in the Northeast during the heat of the summer, but come September / October there are a few good choices fairly close to home. Can't go too far into October because I'm a wimp and hate the cold (see how complicated this gets..).

So the Half's I'm considering are:

Rhode Island 70.3 (never done an Mdot race and quite frankly don't care to)
Big George Half Distance Tri on 9/3. Beautiful section of New York, great timing and I'd get in on an inaugural event.
REV3 Cedar Point on 9/11. REV 3, can't go wrong....BUT it's opening weekend of the cross season (and a 7+ hour drive).
Half Full Tri in Elliott, MD on 10/2 Well, great people, great cause and REV3 times it. Smack dab in the middle of cross season, but fairly close to home.
Pocono Mtns 70.3 on 10/2. Very close to home, inaugural event but again...COLD and Mdot.

So there you have it. A lot of choices (and I haven't even thrown any fall marathon choices in there).

What would you do?
Why?
Any other suggestions?

Oh and BTW...who's the wise guy that caught me resting up for the HALF at Quassy after I finished the OLY??

REV3 Quassy Challenge - DAY 2 - Half REV Race Report

2011-06-10T07:24:00.001-07:00

Well, after a full day on the rides, some time at the indoor pool at the hotel and a great dinner I finally had some time to prepare my nutrition and transition bag for an early start on Sunday. As I mentioned in the OLY race report, the plan for today was to go for a "comfortably hard" catered training event, and of course to get some much needed swim "practice". Met up w/ my neighbors Randy and Mary who were doing the race and hopped a ride w/ them so the family could sleep. Rolled into the park, set up my bike / gear and headed to the bathroom to put my race number tattoo on. It was another chilly morning with temps in the low 50's, but the water was 69.5 degrees. No wetsuits for the pro's! I got all lubed up w/ Trislide and put on my sweet TYR wetsuit. I had my transition area laid out included a water bottle w/ EFS to sip on in transition and a second flask of EFS Liquid Shot for the run if I needed it. My bike was loaded up w/ a bottle of EFS in the holder and water in the aerodrink. I also had a chopped up Clif Bar and an EFS Liquid Shot in my bento box.

Headed down to get wet and watch the pro's start...
I remember looking out over the swim course thinking "damn that looks like a long way to swim" and before I got to the first sight marker my arms were talking back to me and I was wondering if I could make it. I had a decent rhythm and felt good for a crappy swimmer like me. Again, my sighting was really spot on (even going into the sun on the back leg) and I was happy with my 35:18 swim which was 57 out of 128 in my AG. Even better considering I had swam more in the past two days than I had in the past 11 months. Thanks to my TYR Category 5, I was actually faster than I was last year!
I had a harder time getting the wetsuit over my ankles this time, which led to a sluggish 2:39 T1. I was off and riding though. The sun was coming out and the temps were mid to upper 50's. Not too bad.
I could tell right away that my legs were pretty shot from yesterday. I knew I had to take it easy and not kill my legs on the climbs or the run would be BRUTAL. It was tough swallowing my pride and letting people pass me on the bike, but I stuck to my goals. As the race went on the day just got more and more nice. The scenery out on this course is incredible! Taking my time a little more also allowed me to talk to some other riders out there which was fun...and new to me! I made it past the sight of last year's flat tire without issue and by mile 30 I had to do something I never did before...stop to pee. What a freaking relief! I grabbed a bottle of water and refilled the aerodrink at the first stop. I sipped on my EFS Liquid Shot throughout the race and generally I felt fine nutritionally, just an absence of my normal legs likely from the hard effort I put out the day before.

I was comfortable on my bike the whole ride and I even picked it up the last 10 miles or so. Those last few miles of uphills and false flats can really kill you mentally, but it is cool to get a look at the pro's and your competition as they take to the run course and you're finishing the bike.
Off the bike in a lackluster 2:50:52 for 19.66 average (didn't forget Garmin today, says over 3700' of climbing). Got my feet out quick and easy and had a good T2 (but more mentally confused than normal) at 1:12. Grabbed a flask of Wild Berry EFS LS and I was off.
It was starting to get hot and I was looking forward to getting a check on the run legs and getting some shade. I felt pretty good in the generally downhill first few miles but I could tell this was going to be a tough one. I ran with one of the pro women for the first 7 miles or so, she was a great, consistent runner and we agreed we'd help each other out as long as we could. We were constantly picking people off, but the cumulative effect of those short steep uphills early in the race was hitting me. By the time we reached the base of the long steady climb at mile 8 I told her to go ahead. I had consistently been hitting sub 7's, but that was getting tough.

There were plenty of aid stations so I took advantage of them, hit the shade as much as possible and kept sipping the Liquid Shot to keep my body stocked up. I knew I had a decent few miles ahead before the killer hill at the end. It was hot, I was sweating and my "good" miles were in the low 7's, but I was running out of steam. As I hit the base of the last hill I felt some tingling in my arms and I decided to stop and walk. I walked for 90-120 seconds and started chugging along again, finally cresting the top and finally hearing the announcer in the distance.
I reached down to slide my number around and realized that I had tucked my belt into my shorts after I stopped to relieve myself...and subsequently pulled my tri top up to show some belly! As I entered the chute I saw Lauren and the kids. They were cheering and told me they didn't want to cross the line with me....so I crossed solo. Run was 1:31:54, 7:01 average and less than a minute slower than last year. Garmin showed over 800' of climbing.
I was so glad to be done. Got the medal wrapped around my neck, a nice towel and headed under the tent to relax. Ended up 5:01:57, 27th/128 in my AG and just under a minute faster than last year. Considering that I had just bike over 82 miles, climbed over 5700' in elevation, run over 19 miles in 2:07 (6:35/mi avg) and oh yeah, swam 2.1 miles I was pretty happy!
I got some food, gathered up my stuff and took a little rest while the kids hit the last few rides. REV3 is nice enough to award my completion of the Challenge and said they were sending me something in the mail. Are they first class or what?

Overall just a great weekend. The whole family felt like they had the best weekend for their own reasons....great hotel, treated like a pro, seeing all the pro's, ton's of schwag, fun on all the rides and the list goes on. We'll be back next year!

REV3 Quassy Challenge Race Report – Day 1 Olympic Rev

2011-06-07T08:08:00.001-07:00

Well, a few months back it sounded like a good idea. Last year I had volunteered at the Olympic Rev the day before I raced the Half Rev at Quassy The whole weekend was such a good time I figured this year I would just race both of them! As race day(s) approached the idea seemed dumber and dumber. It’s not like these were flat and easy courses. And I had only managed to get in the water two times for a total of two miles of swimming prior to this….and now I had to swim 2.1 miles total on back to back days! Anyway.

We packed up the family and headed out on Friday afternoon. We were expecting a 3 hour drive but didn’t expect all the traffic we hit on I-84 near Danbury. 3.5 hours later we arrived at Quassy. It was about 6:00 so still plenty of time to pick up packet and rack my bike. Again, registration was flawless. Everything was very organized and I actually picked up my packets for both races and was able to use the same chip both days. Got my bike racked (with the REV3 pro looking name/number tag) and we grabbed a bite and some ice cream and headed to the hotel. This race takes place in such a nice, quaint area….it’s so refreshing to come back here. Plus the kids checked out the rides at Quassy (which added a cool new roller coaster this year) and they were excited to hit the park on Saturday (another great reason to bring the family to a REV3 event, free tickets to the park). The host hotel is great as well, they provided shuttles to the race so the families could get up at a more leisurely time and not have to be disrupted by driving their athlete to the race. My goal for “The Challenge” was to race as hard as I could on Saturday and then treat Sunday as a catered training day.

Up bright and early on Saturday and grabbed the 5:15 shuttle. By 5:30 we were at the transition area and gearing up. The air temp was chilly in the high 40’s, low 50’s but the sun was rising. Water temp was a warm 69 degrees so I was happy to get to use my awesome TYR Hurricane 5 wetsuit. I was concerned about getting cold coming out of the water on the bike, I actually had arm warmers set up in transition. I did my traditional little warm up swim to get the body and mind ready and then we were off. Our age group was the first wave just before 7am. I actually felt pretty good in the swim once I got my goggles tighten up and the water out of them (note to self: do not let the kids play w/ my goggles). The water was a little choppy and I took on a little more water than usual, but the lake was great and I was able to keep an eye on everyone around me. This was probably one of my best jobs sighting to date. I swam right on course and stayed consistent. Out of the water in 27:16, 16^th out of 56 in my AG and 107 overall.

Thanks to all the TriSlide, my wetsuit came off without issue and I was on my way out onto the bike course. I hadn’t pre-ridden the course, but a good portion of the course was shared with the half which I had done last year. I felt great and stuck with my plan to really push this race. There were some good climbs but also some sweet downhills. I was passing people the entire race (a bonus of being a slow swimmer). With about a mile to go I finally was the one getting passed on the bike, one guy came by and passed me. Into T2 in 1:11:12 for 25.68 mi, 21.6mph and I was now 27^th overall and 3^rd in my AG. I was told there was >2,000’ of climbing on the bike course…wow!

I took a sip of my EFS in transition, threw my sneaks on and I was off. I knew portions of the run course that were shared w/ the half, but really hadn’t put much thought into the rest of the course. I forgot my Garmin so I don’t have any splits but the first two miles were mid 5’s. By end of the first mile I made a few passes including the guy that had just passed me on the bike. He was funny, yelling “you didn’t tell me you were a runner, no fair” to which I replied “you didn’t tell me you were a cyclist when you blew by either”! I just kept pushing forward and felt great. As we crested a small hill at mile three we were headed into the sunlight and all I could hear was an incredibly loud (over top of incredibly loud music) “GO TEAM TRAKKERS, GO CHRIS”. My vision was blurry and I could see a female in the distance…it was CAROLE, MOMMA BEAR!! Gave her a big smile and huge high five…only to round the corner and see a sign for “High Point Drive”. OUCH was all I could think! Mile 4 to 5 was a nice downhill after the “High Point” climb and I caught a few more runners. The last mile had the dreaded climb to the finish, but I was feeling good, happy and thinking I was in the top 15 or so overall. Through the awesome finish line chute in 37:00, now 1^st in my AG and 15^th overall! Looks like my bike was the 11th fastest of the day and my run was 5th fastest of the day, I'll take that!

And I've said it before...REV3 does it right. I received this awesome hand made award as well as all kinds of stuff from GU, AVIA, FUELBELT and Inside Triathlon. Now my race was over, it was time to go have some fun on the rides. The weather was beautiful by this point and we basically had the park to ourselves! The kids ran around hopping on ride after ride...and by 3:00 we were all worn out and ready to hit the pool at the hotel (well, Lauren snuck out for a run).
By the time we left the pool we had missed our dinner w/ the Trakkers Team (guess I should've brought my watch!) I did meet Kathleen Calkins and her son at the pool and we had a great chat. Not only is she an awesome athlete, but a real genuine person...and you know what, most of the pros deal with the same struggles we do. Finding time to train, keeping up w/ the house, etc. Thanks Kathleen and I hope your day went well on Sunday!

Before I wrap up (you'll have to wait a day or so for the HALF REV Race Report), I wanted to give a shout out to my daughter Autumn. She did her 2nd triathlon two weeks ago and she did awesome. It's a great, low key event that doesn't use a timer or anything. It's all about kids having fun. And that she did. After swimming 100yds in the indoor pool she headed out to the bike (and got some help in T1 from Daddy).
Two laps on the bike and she was headed to T2 for four laps around the parking lot! I love this shot of her below breaking the tape!
Joshua was sick the night before, so he missed out, but he was there cheering for sissy!

May Review

2011-05-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Wow how times flies. It's been a month to the day that I've updated this...and it seems like just two days ago! Well, the month of May is over and needless to say it's been a busy one. I kicked May off by volunteering to lead and organize the Garmin Pace Groups for the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon. As an added bonus, I selected myself as one of the pacers (1:35 group). We had a great day weather wise and it actually was a little hot for this time of year which caught a lot of my group members by surprise. Another added bonus was that I got to again spend some time with Jake and Justin from Garmin! I had a great group of people and we had a fun time out there!
Other than Autumn's baseball and both Autumn and Joshua's swim lessons, May was consumed by our trip to Disney. Lauren whole family went, so we traveled in a large group of 10. It was an absolute blast and we were treated to some great weather. We had to fight off some sickness, but the kids are still wishing we were down there. It was so magical for Joshua.

Group shot

Entering Magic Kingdom on our first day

We were treated to an INCREDIBLE light show at Magic Kingdom

I LOVE the shot of "the golf ball" illuminated like this

The kids got a kick out of the character breakfast at Tony's

Joshua LOVEs Buzz

Autumn and I had fun w/ Mr. / Mrs. Potato Head

It's really a shame that Joshua was feeling so bad this day, these were COOL. Here's Lightning McQueen

And of course, MATER!

So we got back late last Saturday, treated to some crappy weather which has now turned into HOT and HUMID. Things are busy around the house...we're finally getting some goodies from our garden and our pergola project has started.

I got to get some good run training in down in Disney. Now using my new Powertap and getting some good bike workouts in. Really lacking in the swim department (maybe 3 swims this year), but hopefully get in the water a couple times before the Quassy Double next weekend...just for peace of mind. Hoping to get some good training in over the holiday weekend as well. Not planning to kill it at Quassy, just going up to have a good time. The kids LOVED it last year and REV3 does it right. After Quassy, Doug Weatherby from Recovery Pump will be doing a midweek seminar to educate and demo their product to our local athletes, then it's time for our local midweek training series to kick off. Lot's going on, hopefully it will equate to some extra time in the water for me!

I have some local multisport races planned for June, then late June we're headed to vacation in Vermont. I found a triathlon up there which will be awesome, I love Vermont in the summer. We'll stay through July 5th and head back home. Still undecided as to my race schedule as the summer wears on. Would like to do some 5k's, some trail races then the Rock N Roll Philly Half in September. Also found a really nice looking inaugural Half Iron (Lake George, NY...the Big George) on 9/4 which I'm considering. In my mind it's either Big George Half or race the USAT Age Group Nationals a couple of weeks before. Then it's full blown CYCLOCROSS season. We're planning the 2nd annual Town Hall Cross for October 8, 2011.

Enough for now. Lots of painting to be done at home. Pergola may be finished by next weekend!

Easter & Baseball

2011-04-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

A few random upates here:

Autumn wanted to give baseball / tball a shot this year. Lauren and I figured what the heck. So she's had a few games now and she loves it! She's got a pretty good aim and at her last game she hit from the pitches at all of her at bat's (not needing a T).

Baseball is serious business! (Check out the sweet uniforms)
It's been fun. Joshua likes to watch and I actually got involved helping at practice (I didn't play much of ANY baseball when I was younger).

About two weeks ago we got a call from the library "Autumn has won our M&M guessing game". Apparently the last time they were there, Autumn saw the game and decided to guess. Her guess was 120. Lauren said "there's way more than that in there, why don't you add one number to it. So she adds 7 because that's her age and gets 1207. Well apparently there were 1217 or something like that. So lucky us, we get 1200+ M&M's in our house...plus Autumn got her picture taken (below) and will be in the library newsletter and she also gets a shirt!!

Wow, how quickly Easter has come and gone. The kids were so excited Easter morning, they were up before 7am (early, especially for Joshua) and couldn't wait to find the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden in the living room. Here they are in their PJ's showing off some new toys (a Disney gift card for our trip and a new matchbox car).

I made some breakfast and we headed to church, then down to my mom's for some sandwiches and another egg hunt, this time with the cousins. We had a great time..and I even snuck out for a bike ride afterward). The weather was awesome and the kids had a great time playing outside. I love Joshua's outfit in the picture below.

Then we headed over to have dinner at Lauren's sister's house and more fun with more cousins. And of course some more pictures!

This weekend is the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon and I'm in charge of the pace groups. I'll be working the expo tomorrow and then Lauren and I are pacing on Sunday. The weather is shaping up to be incredible and it should be a great race for the 4,000 plus participants.

Other than that, I'm gearing up for my two upcoming big races...the Dirty German 50K on 5/22 and the Quassy Challenge Olympic and Half Iron triathlons....

BOSTON 2011& First 5K

2011-04-23T07:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm sorry, it's been a while. Patriots Day in New England has come and gone (and so has Easter for that matter) and the 2011 Boston Marathon is in the books. We had a lot going on Boston weekend including my brother's first time as race director (directing a 5K) and two birthday parties. That meant that I would drive up to Boston on Sunday AM and meet up w/ the group. Had an issue on the drive up due to heavy rains the night before (maybe I would actually use a GPS in the car?), but made good time and I was treated to an incredible day. I parked at the T-line and boarded the train with all the Bosox fans. The expo was a madhouse, so I grabbed my bib, a couple of samples and hit the food court for lunch.

Sunday night we had a huge group at Bertucci's. It's great to catch up with everyone and see the race day jitters flowing freely! Sunday AM our bus would take us out to a friend's house in Hopkinton. We were treated to beautiful sunny skies and a chilly tailwind. As we lined up in the corral the sun was winning the battle and it was getting warm.

My race plan was to go out at +/- 6:30 and see how it went. With the stress fracture / loss of training and having raced Battenkill last weekend, I had no idea what I was capable of. I looked through my logs and I had just over 450 run miles logged from Jan. 1 through April 18. Last year I was over 900! My nutrition plan was to sip on my flask of EFS Liquid Shot (400 cal and plenty of electrolytes) and if I needed something solid I had some Honeystinger energy blocks.

The start of Boston is incredible. So many people lining the streets, fast steep downhills and runners going in every direction. It's easy to get sucked out too fast if you don't pay attention. I had a couple of 6:1x miles early on but I wasn't too worried, I had done the same last year. By the time we finished the first 5K it was getting hot. I was down to singlet and shorts and I was drinking at every water stop. The pace didn't feel too bad but I could tell it could get ugly at any point. We had a consistent 15 mi / hr tailwind which was nice, but also dangerous. Dangerous because instead of being cooled by front or cross winds, you were running in your own body heat. I was holding 6:30-ish pretty consistently and trying to take everything in. I love to watch other people, takes my mind off me. There were ALOT of people running by and I would try to pick people out and log them in my mind so I could score a mental victory as I passed them in the later miles.

I didn't look too bad early on

As we entered Wellselley and neared the half way point I could now tell it was going to be a tough day. I was hydrating well and following my nutrition plan, but it was warmer than my body had been trained for and I was starting to feel the lack of training miles. My legs were starting to feel like it was mile 20 and it was only 13! I typically feel like the half way point of Boston is mile 21 after you crest Heartbreak Hill. Uggghh Oooo.
I prepared myself for a mental and physical struggle. The entire race to this point I just tried to keep moving at the same pace and hadn't thought at all about finish time. I came through the half at 1:24:34 which on a good day would set me up well to go under 2:50. My goal now was not to stop and walk at all costs. Mile 16 was quickly approaching which meant the dreaded RT128 overpass. By the time I hit the overpass I had finished off my Liquid Shot and figured I had (hopefully) a little more than an hour left. At mile 18 I would see our group, so that gave me some motivation for 2 miles.

It was great to see them and get a boost of energy as I made the right hand turn at the Newton Fire Station. "Game on" I thought to myself and surprisingly I climbed the hills very well, passing a lot of people. The odd part was I enjoyed the uphills more than the downhills, because by this point my legs were like tree trunks and the downhills hurt like hell!

As I began to climb Heartbreak I could see the crazy Boston College kids screaming and yelling and I would finally see the BC banner at the top. I had made it over the hills, and still holding a decent pace. I've said many times before though, the last 5 miles of this race is the hardest. It just seems to go on forever and I just kept telling myself "keep the legs moving". It also helped that although being passed here or there, I was passing people who were having days much worse than mine. All I could imagine in my mind was crossing that line...and that's what kept me going.

The damn CITGO sign

There it was, the Citgo Sign. That meant I was getting there. Mile 25, Coplay Square. If I could keep going and get to that point I KNEW I could survive one more mile. As I crossed the sign I finally did a time check. Sub 2:50 had slipped away, but a 2:51 finish wasn't out of the question..

The last right hand turn on the course....headed to Boyleston

This photo is painful just to look at!

Made it to Boyleston...but I don't look happy to be there!

I looked MUCH better in 2010...and I was >4 minutes faster!

My first view of the 2011 finish line...

The last 3/8 of a mile is something you cannot describe. Boyleston is so wide and lined 5-10 deep with people cheering and making noise. Your leg hurts, your mind hurts but all you can do is focus...focus on that finish line! I gave it my all and I was actually passing people. As the clock came into sight I realized that after I subtracted my 13sec start gap I would come in sub 2:52!

I crossed the line in 2:51:48. I had "only" lost about 2:30 over the last half. Man did that hurt! I was happy with the outcome but I will train more next year! Once I crossed the line I grabbed my medal and headed for a massage. Bring on 2012!

On another note, as I mentioned above my brother put on his first 5K to raise money for his daughters' school. The weather was tough, a cold low 40's day with a brisk wind. He had over 100 registrants and all in all it turned out very well. Lauren (who really doesn't like 5K's) ran her first race of the year and had a great time....

The kids run was well attended as well. Autumn and Joshua had a blast (although I had to carry Joshua so he could keep up)!

Looks as though Spring is finally arriving. The grass is getting green, the flowers are coming out and the trees are flowering!

Tour of the Battenkill Mini "Vacation" Weekend

2011-04-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

This week has gone so quickly. I really wanted to put something together to document the incredible weekend we had in New York. Not only did the race live up to the hype, but our weekend with Doug and Nicole (Nicole is Lauren's cousin) was incredible.
We arrived after a surprisingly quick 4:15 trip on Friday night. The kids were hilarious, we didn't even make it 30 miles and they were asking if we were there yet. They were so excited! We pulled in around 8:30 and spent the next couple of hours catching up then off to bed.
They live on a 90+ acre farm which is about 2.5 miles from the ToB course. The scenery and views in this part of the state are awesome. We were only about 5 miles from the Vermont border. There was still some snow piles hanging around as well.
When we woke up on Saturday AM, Joshua looked out the window, and in amazement said "Daddy, come here...look we can see forever"!!
The farm had a stream, a pond, several barns and Autumn's favorite....chickens! She was the official egg gatherer for the weekend. Needless to say, we brought home two dozen fresh organic eggs!!
Joshua was excited to find Doug's race car in the barn. He was in heaven when Doug fired it up and drove it up and down the driveway with him in it. I was wishing I could take it for a ride down the road!
The weather was incredible and the kids spent the majority of the time outside playing, exploring and being kids. The way it should be!
We had no real plans. The race was on Sunday so Saturday was open. The girls and kids went to visit an Alpaca farm.

And Doug and I hit the road with his neighbor Van for 75 minutes or so. We checked out a couple of portions of the course including a new section for this year which was dirt and had just been graded by the Town which meant some loose gravel. It wasn't too bad. 75 minutes later we returned and Lauren and Nicole headed out for a run.

Doug and I watched the kids and got our stuff ready for the race on Sunday. When the girls got back we headed down to Cambridge to get our numbers and check out a few more sections of the course. This year most of the +/- 20mi of dirt roads were in good shape, meaning they were hard packed and had a reasonable amount of potholes. This would make for a faster race (for some people).

We had a great dinner and headed down to the Battenkill Valley Creamery for some Ice Cream...from the cow to the cone!. We loaded up the gear and hit the sack. Doug's race started at 9am, mine 9:30. The forecast was showing that the predicted showers would hold off, but the start temps would be high 30's and finish in the high 40's w/ overcast skies. Not sure what happened to the forecast, but we awoke to clear skies and by race time the temps were in the 50's w/ sun. I had a vest over my normal kit and some arm warmers. The race was self supported, which meant the standard 2 water bottles likely wouldn't cut it especially considering the warmer weather. The plan was to keep a bottle in the vest/jersey, drink that first and toss it in the field to pick it up on the way home. I also had a cut up Clif bar and a flask of First Endurance Liquid Shot.

This being my first road race, that I had a pretty full training week leading up to the race and that I hadn't put the hard efforts into my riding training I had no idea where I stood. I raced the 30+ Category 1-4 which was full (150 riders) and had some talented riders in it (and four of my Lamprey teammates). My goal was to stick w/ the pack as long as I could.

As we rolled off, the scenery was incredible. There was still a lot of Maple Syrup collection going on as evidenced by the set up seen below.
I wanted to stay close to the front of the pack so I could see danger up ahead if that was the case. The race started off surprisingly slow, but by mile 5 I had already slid my arm warmers down, it was getting hot! I stuck w/ the group as we hit the second big climb (Juniper Swamp). I knew Lauren and the kids would be there and it was exciting to see them cheering for me. Joshua found a nice cozy spot to spectate (below).
Here's a great shot of the group beginning the ascent. I'm toward the bottom of the photo in the center of the pack.
I stuck w/ the pack up the climb, reached for a bottle as we crested and all the sudden they were gone! I was unhitched on the descent. I tried to chase, but couldn't hop back on. It was about 20 mi into the race at this point, I found a few guys and we tried to ride together.

A few miles later we came to Joe Bean road. The second climb that Lauren and the kids were cheering from. It's a long asphalt climb that "steps" it's way up up up. I was smiling, still pushing but enjoying the beautiful day we had been given.
As the race wore on I would catch people who had blown themselves up trying to stay w/the group. I was overheating on some of the climbs so I would unzip my vest / jersey. I never cramped up but did get a sore back and foot (from my carbon soled shoes on the rough terrain). As we hit Meetinghouse Road (nearly 50 miles in) I was starting to feel the effects of the heat.
I focused on getting my nutrition in me and staying hydrated. My body came back around and I was able to push a little harder. The last few miles were awesome and I was excited to be finishing up. I cross the line solo, 3:20 riding time, 19.25 mph average. The total elevation gain was 4800-4900'. I finished 84th out of the field of 150. I was very pleased with the day, the fun I had and everything I learned.

Turned out that Doug had a great race. He finished in the pack but got squeezed out of the sprint. 18th overall in his field. Lamprey had a great race as well with a few top 10's and top 20's.

Getting ready to head home. Finish line festivities in the background.

We headed back to Doug's to shower up and pack. On the way back we stopped to cheer Doug's neighbor (Van) on in the 60+ race. He would go on to finish top 15!

The kids (and us) really didn't want to leave. They were so tired from such a busy weekend. We stopped at the Creamery on the way home for some ice cream and chocolate milk. The kids fell asleep in no time and Lauren and I had a quiet, quick ride home. We had a great weekend and we're so thankful for Doug and Nicole's hospitality.

Next up is Boston. I'm going to drive up on Sunday and meet the group. The name of the game this week has been recovery. I'm excited to head up, mosey around the expo and toe the line on Patriots Day.

Impending DOOM....

2011-04-07T13:24:00.001-07:00

Well, we're headed up to Salem, NY today. Lauren has some family just outside of Salem that happen to live in the heart of the Tour of the Battenkill course. Her cousin's husband is a very talented cyclist who lives for the annual spring classic bike race in his home town. They've graciously offered to put our family up and show me the ropes this weekend. They're a great family, we're excited to make the trip! So this week I've really been wondering how I got myself talked into this bike race. My first official bike race I might add? Nothing like hopping into a field of 150 30+ year old Cat 1-4 cyclists on a gnarly course which includes more than 20 miles of dirt road, right? Throw on top of that....I'm in the middle of training for a marathon, well actually it's 8 days before Boston! Regardless, it'll be a great (albiet painful) race.

Floyd Landis raced last year (photo from Battenkill website)

Looking at the course profile, it doesn't look that bad. BUT, the cummulative effect of the continuously rolling terrain and gravel surfaces will certainly wear the legs down....especially at race pace!

We plan to drive some of the course tomorrow, go for an easy ride, get our numbers and grab a good pasta dinner. Lauren, her cousin Nicole and the kids are going to be out on the course at various places cheering us on so I'm looking forward to a new journey!

Last week I had a scare. Coming off of my biggest training week since my foot injury (and a great race at Caesar Rodney) I hoped to follow up with another big week before I reduced the mileage. I had a great speed workout that Tuesday morning, and two other moderate paced 10+ mile runs on Wed & Thursday, then suddenly developed foot pain in the same area of the stress fracture. I immediately took 3 days off and by Monday I was able to get back at it. I had a great run this morning and I'm at 41 miles in 3 days of running this week. Now it's time for a few days of riding and get into some shorter faster stuff next week before Boston. Goal will be 30 miles or so w/ two workouts, one geared around marathon pace and the other geared around leg speed and form.

On another note, Autumn had her first baseball / tball practice last night. She's got a great coach and a large team of about 12 kids (9 boys, 3 girls). I've never been a baseball fan or been any good at it, so it was fun for me as well to get out there and throw / catch with the kids. Autumn did very well, I'm proud of her. I'm excited to see how she does this year. She's also now bumped up to 45 minute swim lessons and she seems to be really exceling in that. We signed Autumn and Joshua up for a kids tri in May which will be a blast!

Have a great weekend. Looks like Spring is starting to put up a fight now....only a matter of time before we have flowering trees.........

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Race Report

2011-03-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon is a gem of a race. It's the oldest road race in the state of Delaware at 48 years old. It's a little over an hour from home, has a field of about 1500 runners, never sells out, great amenities such as long sleeve Brooks technical shirts and a huge post race spread (w/ fresh cut pineapples). To me the course itself is also a gem. They've changed it slightly over the years, but the bottom line has not changed....IT's TOUGH! The first 6 miles is relatively flat w/ some great waterfront running, then the course get's down to business. A series of three tough climbs over the next 3 miles leave your legs SCREAMING by the time you get to the top. Then you have some rolling neighborhood running and a couple of miles of downhill. You get a real gut check in the last 1,000 meters or so...a lung busting, leg breaking climb to the finish. I'd done this race about 4 or 5 times before, so I know what to expect. What I really love about this race is how well it indicates your fitness level. I've found it a great predictor for Boston, so I wanted to see where I was at. The weather was not ideal, but turned out better than the predicted snow and cold. We were treated to the beaming sun, but had to contend with temps in the mid 30's and a pesky wind. My goal was to try to run 6:00 miles for the first half, then pick up the effort for the second half. Last year I had run 1:18:20 (5:58 avg or so) with a huge negative split. I planned to go out faster this year and see if I could hold on. As I toed the line I remembered the signature start for this race, a Civil War Cannon! I held my ears and we were off. I started out in the top 20 and tried to settle in on the fast, downhill first mile. I was treated to a single digit number (#6) from my high finish in last year's race. I saw #5 just in front of me so I tried to pace off of him. First mile was 5:42, a little fast but expected due to the downhill sections. As it flattened out I tried to figure out who I would be running with and who I could work with in these windier sections. The field really thinned out and by the third mile or so and I was basically sitting all alone. My splits were consistently +/-5:55 and I was feeling pretty good. As we approached half way one of the spectators said I was 8th overall and I could see 7th just ahead. As we hit the hills I upped the effort and by mile 7 I had passed the 7th place runner. The three uphill miles were 6:02, 6:04 and 6:04 but man did they feel faster! At this point I was all alone. I could see a pack of 3 about 75 seconds ahead of me and no one behind me. By the time we hit mile 9 my goal was to drop the pace and gut it out to the finish. I clicked off two sub 5:45 miles (#10 & #11) and headed downhill. I could tell I was slowing down but I could taste the finish. I had made it back to the out/back section of the course and I was encouraged by all the runners who were still climbing that were cheering me on. I rounded the corner and mentally prepared for the final climb. I knew I was on pace to better last year's finish so I just pushed. The last two miles were 5:55 or so average and I crossed the line in 1:17:58, 7th overall. I was very happy with my run. It's tough to run solo like that most of the race and it was a great fitness indicator as I progress through the injury recovery. Our group had entered in the team competition so I headed over to watch my teammates climb to the finish. My training partner, Jeff was racing his first half (oddly enough, he's been running for a long time...5k's through marathons). I spotted him about 300m from the finish starting to slack off....I yelled and ran next to him....and he made it across the line in 1:21:56! My brother also had a great race, he hadn't planned on racing it nor really trained for it but still PR'd in his thrid half marathon at 1:30:53. Our team would go on to win the men's open division!! As far as nutrition went. I had a Clif Bar and banana on the way there and finished off a bottle of Fruit Punch EFS. Didn't take anything during the race, it was too cold. I'm excited to fine tune the legs over the next three weeks before Boston and see what I got on Patriot's Day! Also, big thanks to my Mom and Jim for watching the kids (and the dogs!).

Weekend Fun

2011-03-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Lauren was attending a course in Frederick MD. It was the weekend before Joshua's birthday and he's been into cars lately. So I told he and Autumn that I would take them to Grandview Speedway to watch their free to the public open practice. Grandview is a 1/3 mile dirt oval where they race a few different types of cars. It sounded like a great idea when I offered it to them....I pictured a bright, sunny, warm Spring day sitting in the bleachers. Also figured that since it was free if it was too loud or if they were scared we could leave at any time. Well, Spring has forgotten to show up and we were treaty to sunny, windy day with air temps in the mid 30's. They said they still wanted to go (probably just to get out of the house since Mommy was away) so I bundled them (and myself) up, grabbed some blankets and we were off. I figured if we made it 15 minutes it was a success. As we got there and they heard the cars speeding by, Joshua got real excited. I think he forgot about the cold. Once we got into our seats and got covered by our blanket he was staring in amazement! I had spent many many nights there watching racing (I know what you're thinking...and you're right) so it was cool to see him (and Autumn) so into it. I was asking them every 5 minutes if they were cold and all I got was a quick "no". 90 minutes later I got the first "yes". So we grabbed our stuff and I walked them over to watcht he pit area. They loved it! The mission was a success, now they can't wait to go back (good news for daddy)! So on the way home we just so happened to pass "Longacres Dairy". The home of some awesome fresh homemade ice cream. The cold weather wasn't bringing us down, so we pulled in. After enjoying some great Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream the kids couldn't wait to go outside in the cold and play on the tot toys. So they did.....

(Keep in mind, it's about 35 degrees out!)

So we got home and the had a fun day getting warm and playing with their imaginary friends below....

I packed up the car (and the dog) and we headed down to my mom's house. We were spending the night there so I could race the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon on Sunday. The entertainment for the trip was having Walker (our black lab) ride in the passenger seat because it was too cold to ride in the back. Autumn got such a kick out of it.....as did the drivers who passed us!

Birthday Boy & First Race of the Season (Bucks 5K Series UBYMCA)

2011-03-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Joshua's 4th birthday is quickly approaching! We celebrated a little early with family over the weekend. Joshua had a great time and LOVED all of his new presents...all the cool "boy stuff" like a work bench, a matchbox track, John Deere tractors and Lego's. He's been playing with them every waking moment since Saturday! Here's the happy Birthday Boy blowing out his candles (while holding a lego toy).

Thanks to everyone that came to celebrate with us. His birthday is this coming Monday, I was hoping to take him to see a dirt stock car race this weekend, but the weather may not be cooperating. He and Autumn are excited to go so I hope we can go. Speaking of Autumn, she came home yesterday with her eighth "blue ticket" from school. Blue tickets are positive rewards for children "caught" doing something above and beyond and displaying proper behaviour without being asked. They only had a small number of them out per day so it is an honor to get one. She was so proud, but she's making us poor and Chik Fil-A rich! We told her that as a reward we'll take her out to her choice of dinner every time she gets a blue ticket...little did we know!

On another note, my training has been going well. I am finding it difficult to get the bike training in that I should be for the upcoming Tour of the Battenkill.....between work, swim lessons for the kids, weather, loss of AM daylight and Lauren working late and attending weekend conferences, there's not much time to add heavy training this time of year. I'm sure I'll survive, but as of now my focus is more on running and having a good Boston Marathon.

I did get to race my first race of the year. I wanted to get an idea of where my fitness is after having to take six weeks off earlier this year. It was a local 5k with about 600 runners. I had a big block of 3 days of training the three days before which included a 11mi run w/ 8mi tempo at sub 6:20, a 20mi TT on my road bike in windy weather (59 minutes), a 20 mile run and a 52 mile ride. I knew this wouldn't be a PR by any means, but it would be a good indicator of how my unrecovered legs would hold up.

It was a windy 35 degrees or so at the start. I ran the course to warm up and get some extra miles. I went with shorts, short sleeve shirt, gloves and light beanie. The gun went off and everyone really took off (or I'm just not used to racing 5K's). I started off in 10th-12th place or so. As some of the young guys faded I worked my way to 7th or so. The first section had the wind to your back but I knew I wanted to be in a pack going into the wind. I made two passes into 5th but couldn't bridge the gap to 2,3 & 4 runners (1st place was gone). I soldiered through the wind into mile 1 at about 5:12 or so. Not too bad I though.

The next mile was flat to slightly downhill. I gained a few seconds on the pack ahead, but I didn't want to push too hard and kill myself for the mostly uphill into the wind 3rd mile. Mile 2 was 5:22. I started to catch #4 as #2 and #3 started to pull ahead. I thought I may be able to get him, but his young legs had too much for me on the track. Crossed the line in fifth, 16:47. I was happy considering how much training I've been doing lately. My foot held up well and I hit the course again for a 3 mi cool down.

Overall it was great to be back in the racing scene and gave me some motivation. I also know where I stand for this weekend's Caesar Rodney 1/2 marathon. I'm excited now that the season has started and it seems that my running is coming back.

Just hope it doesn't snow tomorrow!!

Tampa & the Gasparilla Distance Classic

2011-03-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Lauren and I got the winter weather break we much needed in the form of a trip to Tampa, FL for the Gasparilla Distance Classic. It was our second annual trip to the event as pace group leaders. This event has four races packed into two days with total participation well above 26,000. They have a 15K and 5K on Saturday and a half marathon and 8K on Sunday (last year was the last running of the marathon distance race). I was only supposed to pace the 15k and the 1/2 marathon but my foot has been feeling pretty much healed up so when we were asked to pace the 8K it was a no brainer! I continue to be very impressed with the organization of the race as well as the INCREDIBLE expo and the free Michelob Ultra's post race.

We had a great group of pacers and I met some incredible people over the 27.4 miles I covered. One thing that was interesting was that nearly EVERYONE I spoke to was not native to Florida! I always thought Florida was full of "snow birds", but there people of all ages that have permanently fled the northern winters for the warmth of the South. The 6am start of the 1/2 marathon had us up bright and early, but it was great to get started before the sunny 85 degree heat of the day. Here's our crew assembling for the 1/2 marathon.

We had a great view from our hotel looking over the river and into the bay. We were treated to watching some rowing crew's practice, a ray sighting as well as some dolphins! We spend the day on Saturday soaking up the warm sun next to the pool. This shot is looking out onto the University of Tampa campus.

On Sunday after we had lunch and visited with Lauren's dad and Jean we headed over to St. Petersburg to check out the beaches and grab some dinner. We stopped at St. Pete Beach and put our feet into the Gulf then headed over to the bay side to scope out the scenery. On our way out of St. Pete Beach we were stopped for a drawbridge opening to let two sailboats through.

While stopped we had a great view of the bay and all of the activity. Still seemed funny to us that all of these people were out on the water, swimming in the ocean, etc and it was FEBRUARY! In the picture below you can see Tropicana Field, the home of the Tamba Bay Ray's MLB team.

In the far distance you can see the high rise buildings of downtown Tampa which is where we stayed for the race.

So then it was time to return to reality. Our plane landed to a rainy, dark 40 degree day...bummer! On the bright side the days are getting longer and the temps during the day are getting higher, so Spring is on the way. Those few days in the sun will definitely be what I need to get me through to Spring.

The kids had a great time with their cousins and with Mom mom. Lauren and I are truly thankful and indebted to Carolyn and Mike and my mom for letting us sneak away. They were so excited to see us and tell us about all they did and all the fun they had!

Lauren was off of work yesterday, so I decided to take my first bike commute to work of the year. It's light until nearly 6pm now, so I took the long way home and enjoyed some time on the roads.

My legs were shot after the weekend of pacing, two hours on the trainer on Monday, 10 miles of speedwork and a day of bike commuting yesterday. I was glad to once again spend some time with my Recovery Pump last night. What an incredible product!

March will be a big training month as I prepare for the Tour of the Battenkill and get back to running form for Boston. Hopefully also making a return to swimming as I gear up for Rev3 Quassy Olympic Distance and Half Iron Distance races in June.

Superbowl 10K follow up & What I've Been Doing

2011-02-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a little while since my last post. I've been "decompressing" since directing the Superbowl 10K a couple of weeks ago. The race went off well considering the circumstances. We didn't get the snow they called for but we got ICE. I got up early and ran the course on Sunday morning. Well, there was about 3 miles of course that were on lightly traveled roadways and they were covered from side to side in black ice. Temps at race time were predicted to be to rise above freezing before race time, but my gut just said sending 500+ people on these streets would be dangerous.

Now some food for thought here. ANYONE that signs up for a race on February 6th in the Northeast must be pretty adventurous and hardy. Lord only knows what weather and conditions we may get, so my thought process revolved around the fact that most of these people had signed up for this race TO RACE. Heck, it's winter and there aren't many races out there this time of year, PLUS the weather was going above freezing which we hadn't seen in a while. So I decided to hold the race anyway, but modify the course. I picked the best roadways
and made an out and back 5k course that would be covered twice. It worked out well and we had over 450 finishers!

But what have I been doing? Well, I'm slowly building my running mileage after 6 weeks away from the sneakers. It feels as though everything is healed up which is great. I'm following every rule there is, limiting my mileage increase to 5-10% per week, only adding 2-3 miles to each long run, etc. I did introduce some speed sessions which show that I'm definitely behind the ball in my Boston training, but there's hope on the horizon. Also got a pretty cool new pair of Avia's that I'll be working in as I gain confidence in my foot injury...
And I've been hitting the road! Yes, we've had some decent days of late and I've taken to the street. Still some gravel and snow melt, but it sure beats the trainer! Yesterday we were treated to some Spring weather so I took a half a day at work and got 60+ miles in. I just signed up for "America's toughest one day bike race", the TOUR OF THE BATTENKILL. Probably not the smartest thing to do 8 days before racing Boston, but I figured having a big bike race on the schedule would do two things: 1. Keep me on the bike and off my feet so I don't reinjure myself trying to run huge miles for Boston training. 2. Get some good bike bike base miles in for my early season races (REV3 Quassy OLY and HALF IRON). Battenkill is 64 miles of hilly terrain with 20+ miles of gravel roadways, some ascents of 15-20%! Should be an epic race, plus 5 of my Lamprey teammates are racing and the whole family is going up.

And I got this sweet new device. RECOVERY PUMP I've used them the past 4 nights and WOW. The combination of the Recovery Pump and The Stick has been doing wonders for me. I'll keep you posted as I spend more time with it. One thing I do like is that if forces me to take some down town and relax, read a magazine, look at the laptop, etc. I have taken it up and sat in bed (and fell asleep) with the machine on, which is convenient as well.

I finally ordered a CycleOps Powermeter. I just got the basic model, but I'm really excited to train with it and see the benefits. As of now I don't plan to use it as a race tool, more of a training tool. Powermeters are great because power is a real, measurable number whereas relying on speed, heart rate or a combination of both can really vary depending on temp, weather, road conditions and day to day changes in your body.

Lastly, I'm looking at taking the next step and becoming a coach. I'm starting out with Coachme Triathlon and by the end of the year I plan to obtain a USAT Level 1 certification. I'm excited because I've been interested in coaching for a long time and I enjoy helping others meet their goals.

Oh and how could I forget, next weekend I'll be in sunny Floriday with Lauren! We'll be pacing the 15k and the Half Marathon at the Gasparilla Distance Classic!! Yay!

Streaks

2011-02-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

So Sunday's upcoming Superbowl 10K will mark my third event as race director. And the streak will be alive and kicking. There are a few good streaks that I inherited when I took over directing this race, the streak that it sells out annually at 550 runners and the streak that the previous race director was able to erect a tent each of the first 8 years meaning that the weather was good enough to erect a tent in early February temperatures and weather conditions. Well, I'm not talking about those streaks.

This will be my second year as race director of the Superbowl 10k and the other race I directed was the inaugural Town Hall Cross cyclcross race in October, thus three races total. So what is the streak I'm referring to? Good ole Mother Nature. Last year we had nearly a foot of snow the day before the Superbowl 10k (and were unable to erect the tent, a source of warmth for the runners). Last October's Town Hall Cross was treated to nearly 10 inches of rain in the two days leading up to the race. Both races seemed to go off very well despite Mother Nature's attempt to derail them.

With another coastal storm hitting us on Saturday, I've been asking myself a few questions lately. "What did I do to Mother Nature that she insists on testing me?" "Is she trying to tell me something?" "How nice would it be to direct a race and not worry about weather, or have someone compliment me on the great weather I had ordered for the day?"

So planning continues and luckily most of the runners realize that, heck they signed up for a running race in the Northeastern US in February......there are going to be elements to deal with, that's part of racing isn't it?

I do have to thank the members of our club, their support and effort is unmatched. Also, our two local running stores, Aardvark and Finish Line Running store have provided some great awards. Brooks Running has provided some great shirts and bibs and The Sock Guy has come up with some awesome wool socks for the top 100 finishers. We're also going to have A-TREAT soda and Little Caesars pizza!! This is a local classic, I'm excited for it to go off. Nothing cooler than watching runners cross the line in a race you're directing. Mother Nature I'm a fighter, just take it easy on me OK?

Some random musings.....

2011-01-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

Random thoughts….

• Last week was my birthday. I typically worry about my birthday because over the years there have been some bad things that happened. This year was a great day. I went to the Limekiln Cross to watch some cyclocross in the SNOW! Really hoped to race, but my doctor said it wasn’t worth the risk of reinjuring my foot. Went home inspired and with a smile on my face, and despite temps in the low 30’s, went out on my cross bike for a 90 minute road ride! Sweet. The day was topped off with a great night with friends.
• Sunday was a good friend’s birthday. To celebrate we did a killer 60 mile ride over to Frenchtown NJ. Was supposed to be a relaxed pace, BUT. 60 miles in the wind with temps in the low 30’s hurts, but what hurt more was the fact that we averaged 21mph for the first 30 miles…OUCH. I was a tired boy that night…and feeling the extra year from the day before. Thankfully Lauren made some awesome Cheesecake to top the day off.
• It’s been nearly 5 weeks since I’ve run. I’ve gotten more used to the trainer than I ever have. Trainer workouts are now much more bearable with this little gem I found… www.thesufferfest.com Those videos are AWESOME, cheap and easy to download. Only one more week to go and I’ll be running!
• The time off has made me reconsider racing the HAT50K, a few short weeks before Boston and a few short weeks AFTER I return to running. Thankfully this awesome race offers refunds, so I’m going to wait until next year and do the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon on 3/27 instead.
• Last week was the PA Cycling awards banquet. Due to the timing of the cyclocross season I was recognized for my series win in the CAT 4 division this year, and brought home a cool little trophy! I also found out today that I finished 5th in the 35+ Elite Masters for the 2011 season, great considering I only raced half of the series!

• TYR was named a sponsor of our Trakkers team this year. I’ll be sporting a shiny new TYR suit for 2011. Thank you!
• I signed up for my first multisport race of the year. Actually, it’s two races. We’re traveling back to REV3 Quassy (in Connecticuit) in June and I’m doing the Revolution Challenge which consists of an Olympic distance triathlon on Saturday and a Half Iron distance triathlon on Sunday. Should be fun. The family had a blast at the host hotel and the amusement park last year. Can’t wait!
• I’m really getting sick of this weather. Two snow storms THIS WEEK, and some CRAZY COLD coming for the next 3 days. Can’t wait to get down to Tampa at the end of February to pace the Gasparilla 15K and Half on Saturday and Sunday.
Thanks for reading. BRING ON SPRING……

What I learned about nutrition in 2010

2011-01-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

Being relatively new to the sport of triathlon (3 years), I always brushed over nutrition as "something I don't have to worry about". Heck, I was never taught anything about nutrition by a coach (never had one) and I wasn't a big sweat loss guy, so it was one less thing to worry about. Sure, as I moved from Sprints to OLY's and on to the half iron distance I would think about it and have a plan, but my plan was simple....take what's on the course and carry an energy gel or something for the run. It seemed to get me through ok.

Well, in 2010 I was lucky enough to become a member of Team Trakkers. Team Trakkers had this wonderful nutrition sponsor, First Endurance and this wonderful website that had a wealth of information about nutrition. As I trained harder and longer, and raced harder and longer nutrition was turning into a bigger component than it had prior and now I was paying attention.

Two of the defining characteristics of First Endurance are their commitment to quality products and their persistent research and development to create the best products that work in real life race situations. They use nothing but the best, highest quality products. Their products are Gluten Free and contain no high fructose corn syrup. The three main components I was immediately drawn to were Ultragen (for recovery) and EFS / EFS Liquid Shot. After a long, stressful workout the first thing I now reach for is Ultragen. Ultragen has been proven to work best when taken withing 15-20 minutes of a hard workout and it is recommended that you not eat anything else for 30 minutes after you consume Ultragen, this allows your body to draw completely from the recovery supplement to encourage repair, recovery and healing of the muscles as soon as possible. Ultragen has allowed me to sustain a high workload during big training blocks and be able to produce the results I desired on a daily basis. And, the Cappuccino tastes INCREDIBLE!

The EFS / Liquid shot combo was an essential part of training workouts and races. EFS, the powdered drink mix has several defining qualities. The first is the taste. EFS does not have that overbearing sweet taste that you get from other sports drinks, it has a mild, just right taste (in all flavors, but the Grape has even less flavor). The second quality is the electrolyte ingredients. EFS has seven times the amount of Potassium and Sodium as say HEED. There's no need for salt tablets using EFS. Probably the most defining quality in my books is the fact that EFS won't feel heavy, slosh around in your stomach and give you GI issues. It's easy on your stomach and I have not experienced any GI issues whatsoever.

For longer training events and races I now consume EFS Liquid Shot. It has the same great characteristics of the EFS drink, but more "potent" if you will. I no longer use gels, I've replaced them with Liquid Shot for a few reasons. Reason 1: You can easily carry the flask and sip on it at will, instead of opening a gel and having to finish the entire thing (and the flasks are refillable). Reason 2: Liquid Shot is high in electrolytes just like the EFS drink. Reason 3: You don't need to wash Liquid Shot down with water, no more waiting for water stops. Reason 4: Liquid Shot has about four times the amout of calories as your typical gel. Reason 5: Liquid Shot is much easier on your stomach, no more GI issues. Reason 6: It tastes incredibly good!

So I am now officially hooked on the First Endurance lineup. Give it a shot, you certainly won't regret it!

A look back to focus forward....

2011-01-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

For some reason, last season did not stand out in my mind as a stellar season for me. I'm not sure why, maybe the disappointment of the injury at the end of the year, the bout with overtraining early fall or that I didn't come out swinging in cyclocross right off the bat as I wished. But as I put together my list of accompishments as our club prepared to approach some sponsors it hit me. 2010 was a great year for me, and I'm truly blessed just to be able to compete, regardless of how fast or what place I finish. When I went a little further and tried to list all of my community involvement I was even further surprised. That little exercise of pouring through 2010 has really given me even more motivation and drive as I head into 2012.

2010 Accomplishments:

•I ran six running events from 5K to marathon, setting PR's at 5 mi (Frostbite 27:27) and the marathon (Boston 2:47:01).
•I also paced a marathon (Gasparilla 3:20 group) and a half marathon (Lehigh Valley Half 1:40 group)
•I competed in seven multisport events ranging from sprint duathlons to half iron distance triathlons.
•Three overall multisport wins, a second place and fourth place overall in the 2010 season.
•I raced ten cyclocross events with eight finishes in the top six.
•Overall win at the Highland Park Mid Atlantic Cross (MAC) series race in the CAT2/3/4 Masters (83 finishers)
•7th overall in the Mid Atlantic Cross Series CAT 2/3/4 Masters (only raced 6 of 11 rounds)
•8th overall in the PA Cyclocross Series Elite Masters (only raced 4 of 9 rounds)
•Poised to be named All American by USAT for Triathlon and Duathlon in 2010

More than just the results, what really struck me was how immersed I've become in the realm of endurance sports. It truly is a way of life and it is awesome to be a part of. The racing is not the driving factor anymore, it's the training that I love, it's the challenge of directing a race, its the reward of seeing the positive impact the HCM Foundation is having in the community and it's the joy of seeing others become active, meet goals and obtain personal records. My family is a tremendous part of that. My wife is my biggest supporter, a great mother and a great runner (and potential triathlete in 2011?). And we've got two incredible children.

So why am I writing all this? Well, I think once in a while we all need to sit back and reflect on all of the positives that we are blessed with each day. Cast out the negatives, the bad self perception, the let down of not meeting a goal and charge forward. As I watched my first full episode of Biggest Loser (I know, I live in a box) on the trainer the other night, I was blown away by the will and determination some of those contestants have. They're at the lowest point in their lives with a HUGE journey ahead of them, but they're taking it on full steam, living with the blessings they have and making a change. Truly inspiring when you try to imagine yourself in that position, it would be pretty easy to give up or give in.

So, what am I up to in 2011? Well, first off I'm excited to be a part of Team Trakkers in 2011. There are some incredible sponsors on board this year including Kestrel Bikes, Avia, First Endurance and SBR Sports to name a few. And we've added some great people to our already awesome group. We'll be doing the REV3 Triathlon events (and possibly some of their new REV3 Adventure races).

Here's what I'm looking at for 2011:

February: Frostbite 5mi, Gasparilla (Tampa, FL) 15K and Half Marathon (Pacer)
March: Caesar Rodney Half Marathon, HAT 50K ultra marathon
April: Doylestown Duathlon, Boston Marathon, Mt. Penn Mudfest (LaSportiva Series)
May: Lehigh Valley Half Marathon (Pacer)

June: REV3 Quassy Olympic & 70.3, Wilkes Barre Du
July: Langans Run (Wodstock, VT), Sunset Challenge Triathlon
August: Steelman Triathlon, USAT AG National Championships (Burlington VT ), DeSales Road Race
September: REV3 Cedar Point 70.3, Skylands Duathlon, Nittany Cyclocross
October: MAC & PA Cyclocross, local running races
November & December: PA and MAC cyclocross series

What races am I most excited for? Well, I really enjoy pacing, so Tampa and the LV Half will be fun. I can't wait to go back to Quassy (and avenge the flat tire from last year), hopefully do the OLY and HALF. I'm also looking forward to the Age Group National Championships in Vermont as well as REV3 Cedar Point. I have no specific goals in mind, just want to enjoy myself and finish each race with a smile.

Garges Family Holiday 2010

2011-01-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a great Holiday season this year. Christmas Eve is usually our most hectic day as we travel to my dad's for brunch and gifts, then church, then my mom's for dinner and gifts. My dad enjoyed telling stories to the grandchildren while we got the food ready...

After church we headed to my mom's house. We had a great meal and the kids (including Daddy) got some great gifts! My gifts included some new trail gear and winter riding gloves.

Joshua got a new bike!
After a hectic day of running around Lauren read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids so Santa could get in and get that tree loaded up!

Christmas day was a nice relaxing day spent at home.....after the kids woke us up at the crack of dawn. They had such a great time. It's such a blast to watch them open the gifts...then to get to play with them as well. Autumn is a big UNO fan, so she proudly displayed her "UNO ATTACK" game that Santa brought.

Joshua is in a Toy Story kick now, so he was glad to get his Toy Story RC car!
Walker even got a new bed from Santa. And he was quick to break it in! Don't know why he's so tired though, we did all the wrapping and running around.
I even managed to get a nice cool bike ride in!

I did get some bad news for Christmas though, I have a stress fracture in my left foot. A few too many miles on the rocky mountain trails training for my upcoming 50K. It seems as though I caught it early enough that there won't be a ton of time off. I have been forced onto my bike though, which had been neglected the whole month of December. The trainer isn't "fun", but it's a necessary evil. Heck, I may even jump into the last cross race of the season next week!

Been thinking through 2010 and planning out 2011. I'll update more on my next post

Kutztown Cross (Delayed) Race Report

2010-12-09T19:03:00.001-08:00

November 14th, wow how time flies....almost a MONTH ago already!

I didn't know it, but I saved the best for last. The Kutztown Cross would be my last cross race of the year and it turned out to be my best performance of the year. It was a first time event, held on the grounds of a Flea Market in the nearby sleepy college town of Kutztown. The event was part of the PA Cross Series and the normal crew was preregistered. After my epic battle with Johan the day before (and some First Endurance Ultragen recovery drink) I wasn't sure what I had left, plus the ever accurate predictor placed me in 9th place out of 45 preregistered riders in the elite masters field. Could I prove the predictor wrong two days in a row?

The course featured a wealth of turns winding through flat fields surrounding the market. There were some tight tree sections, some gravel and two sets of barriers. Nothing crazy and nothing that would push you too far into the red. The start was a long false flat grass straight with a 180 degree turn on gravel. I knew a strong start would be key, get to the gravel first and let the rest of the field string out through all the turns before you hit the tree section. For some reason, the first few guys called up left the inside open on the front row, so I jumped in there.

I had a great start, maybe 6th or so. I pushed myself deep into the red through the first half of the course, trying to gain as many spots as I could before we hit the single track through the trees. It worked as I entered that section in 4th place and as we exited that section I made two more passes...suddenly finding myself in 2nd spot. Now I was nervous, I completely burried myself physically for the first 4 minutes of the race and I was sitting in 2nd place with a fast pack behind me.

I focused on smooth turns and lowering my heart rate. I got passed by one guy, we jockeyed positions a few times and I settled into 3rd place. The course was fast, laps were relatively short so we were looking about a 9 lap race...OUCH! I continued to focus on my turns and being smooth. To my surprise I kept the leaders dangling about 15 seconds ahead of me...and no one was gaining on me!

I rolled across the line to finish my best effort of the year, a podium in 3rd place. I was excited by what I had just accomplished (and that I pocketed some cash!) and satisfied with how I had ended the year. I can't believe that it will be 9 months until I roll onto the starting line again, but it is just the motivation I need.

I left the race on my way to wrap up another season, my daughter's soccer season (and my first year of coaching). We had a great day and it was really rewarding to step back and see how far the girls had come throughout the year and to see them all having fun.

We've been busy around the house...a great Thanksgiving with family, our annual pilgrimage to cut down the Christmas tree, decorating the tree and Holiday parties.

I've started to look at next year's racing schedule and my goals....more to come....including possibly a trip to the newly announced REV3 race in Portland?

Phelps School CX Race Report

2010-11-17T08:36:00.000-08:00

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 row start and hoped to get into the top 10 from the start. The gun went off and I got clipped in well, probably about 9th wheel into the first turn. I didn’t see Johan in front of me, but recognized most of the usual suspects up front. I didn’t want to lose contact early so I pushed myself pretty hard through the first hill, managing to grab the wheel of the lead bunch and fend off challengers from behind. By about midway through the first lap I had worked my way up to a solid 6th or so. Johan manged to sneak by me going into the back section. I had a strong climb and some good turns near the pit to come back around Johan. I saw Bradley and Jeff in front of us and yelled to Johan “let’s get them”. We made it by Jeff pretty quickly but Bradley was making it a 3 way battle for 5th and he wasn’t backing down.

As we passed the finish and got the 3 lap card we had finally broken free of Bradley and I was sitting 6th behind Johan but we had company, Glenn had caught us from behind. Each lap there were three climbs that just took everything out of your legs. As the race wore on I got better in the climbs…but they hurt more each time. Glenn snuck by us and we tried to stick to his wheel to no avail. The leaders were dangling about 20 seconds ahead of us but we couldn’t make time. Then after the run up with 2 laps to go, Johan muffed his remount and let me sneak by. I was watching his shadow behind me…..knowing sooner or later the inevitable would happen. Those last two laps I picked up the pace to hold him off and he picked up the pace to keep my wheel. All the while the leaders were dangling just in front of us. We had cracked the earlier charges of the riders behind us, it was Johan and I, mano y mano, sitting in 6th and 7th. I knew his weak area from earlier in the race and figured if I could charge that on the bell lap and get up the last climb smoothly it would be a sprint to the finish. Although I had never sprinted to the finish in a cross race….could I even throw down a good sprint?

As the last lap wound down I charged up the big / steep hill and held him at bay. I nailed the downhill and false flat afterward. If I could just make that last climb I had a chance. I made my way cleanly by the two lappers and into the final few turns with Johan glued to my wheel. Coming up the last little inlcine (my strong spot) I dropped two gears and stood up, now or never. Carried speed over the incline down onto the finish stretch. I could hear him breathing behind me, dropped two more gears and pedaled my butt off. We coasted across the line…6th and 7th….and exhausted. I had somehow managed to outsprint my own training parter, the guy who got me into cross two short years ago and the guy that drove me down there. None of that mattered, what mattered was the fact that that race saw us push each other faster and harder than we may have ever done. What mattered was the fact that this race will go down as one of our most fun, hardest fought cross races ever. We both collapsed trying to catch our breath. It was AWESOME. And what was more awesome….we both made out entry fee’s back in cash prizes….AND we BOTH proved the crossresults.com predictor wrong. TAKE THAT!

We’ll be telling stories about that race for a long time. Thanks to Kevin St. Clair for designing such an awesome course. Now to go home and rest up for Day 2…the Kutztown Cross!

Spring Mount CX Race Report

2010-11-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I traveled about a half hour southwest to Upper Salford Park. Philly Ciclismo hosted their 5th annual cyclocross event. It was a COLD (high 30's, low 40's) windy raw day, but nothing new to cyclocross. We had gotten some rain the few days prior and I expected a similar course to last year. Fun with some good mud! Well it was fun and there was some mud but overall it wasn't "my type" of course. There were a bunch of power sections and few turns...nothing too technical.

Started the day with a couple of warm up laps, then cheered on Greg, Jeremy and the rest of the team in the CAT4 race. Greg had a huge lead only to be caught on the last lap. He had a great finish in 2nd. Jeremy had another good ride in 7th.

My race (the Elite Masters 2/3/4) started at 12:15. Thanks to Saris / Cycleops for the trainer tent that kept my legs moving and kept me warm. I wasn't too crazy about the start, it was on loose gravel and I wasn't sure if I would get a call up. Luckily I did by virtue of a good race at Town Hall Cross...started outside the second row.

Pinky's first race!

I started off in the top 15 and worked my way past some riders. The mud and turn sections were great places to make passes and gain some time back on the leaders. By the end of the first lap I was up to 4th. Being relatively new to this class, I didn't know all of the competition, but I knew there were a few fast guys that had issues on the first lap that were breathing down my neck! I got locked in a good battle with Brad Ford (ahead of me in the picture below). With the wind blowing you had to be in the draft if you were with someone...and Brad was smart to take my lead and he stuck with me for the first couple of laps. I could see the lead guys up ahead, but just didn't have what I needed to get back up there.

After the first sand section there was a fast gravel path leading into some mud. You can see the "pink streak" below!

Once I got free from Brad I could tell that one guy was slowly making up time. With two to go he passed me. After 4 laps without anyone to block the wind I was shot, but I tried to hang on. I rode the back section well and set up a pass on the last lap through the tight stuff. I blew the next sand section and he got enough of a gap that I wouldn't be able to close it before we hit the line. I ended up fifth out of a field of about 45, so considering the competition I am very happy with the race. Missed bringing home some cash by one position, but hey I don't do it for the money that's for sure!

I rushed out of there and switched to coaching mode. It was Autumn's second to last soccer game. It's awesome to see the progress the team has made this year and they had a great game...scoring a bunch of goals and winning (although we don't really keep score)!!

HPCX Jamesburg NJ MAC#8 Race Report

2010-11-04T12:54:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I made my first trip out to Jamesburg, NJ for HPCX, round #8 of the MAC series. After a decent ride yesterday, I was hoping for much of the same today...maybe even a better start?

The day started out chilly, in the low 30's. That left some frost on the course as the sun came out turned things slippery for the first race, men's Cat4 C. I felt pretty good in warm up, nothing spectacular. There were a lot of turns, some roots and some good elevation gain...no big climbs per se, but you could tell you were going uphill. There were also no real power sections which suited me well. On this day, the guy that could manage the climbs and find some flow through the turns would be up front.

My race (B Masters CAT2/3/4) started at 10am. About 90 of us lined up outside the starting grid for call ups. The start was an uphill asphalt climb that led to a fast downhill into a series of tighter turns. Not exactly my forte, but I knew I needed to get into the first tight section in a decent position so I didn't get bottled up. Somehow the call up got messed up and I wound up in the 2nd row instead of the first. The guy in front of me didn't get clipped in right away which led to me being stuck behind him. I got out to the side and held my own, but as we entered the fast downhill I saw I as in 12th or 13th. I chose to take the inside into the tight downhill right turn which probably wasn't too popular with some of the guys that caught my elbow in that turn but it's what I needed to do. The shot below is about 1/4 way through the first lap and I was sitting 10th wheel.

www.dennisbike.com photo

I made a few passes in the lower section and up passed the pit area and as we hit the tight technical turn behind the start I saw I was up to 4th. I wasn't redlining it too bad and was feeling pretty good. Coming across the asphalt lot into the uphill section I was up to third and as the resistance cranked up going uphill I found myself easily riding by the two leaders. OH SHIT I thought, now what? I was pretty close to maxing out so I figured why not push the next two climbs and try to get a gap. Cross the finish line and I had somehow managed to open a gap. Could I hold it? As we made it by the officials one more time I could tell the gap was opening up. Kelly Cline was giving me some good words of wisdom and trying to tell me to settle, be smooth and let them do the hard work to bridge. I was still working mind you... (glad I brushed my teeth!)

www.dennisbike.com photo

Coming through the bell lap I was feeling pretty good. A few lappers here or there, but I could take my lines, be smooth, carry speed and minimize my efforts. I came across the line solo with about a 30 second lead. Race wound up being shorter than usual at 31 minutes, but I'll take it. I'm confident that I could have held the gap if not extended it. So, I grabbed my first MAC win...I would have never imagined. Shame I can't / couldn't do all of the races. With 6 races in out of 8 completed I sit in 4th in points. I don't know that my schedule will let me do another MAC race this year, but I'm happy for what I've accomplished. Now it's time for some local races. Can't believe the season is winding down already.

I love this shot...not too often you get to stand on the podium on top of the current MAC leader! Thanks for the shot Eloy!

Groovylab photo

So I high tailed it out of there to make it to Autumn's game. They mixed the boys and girls this week and Greg was kind enough to cover for me and get things going. Would have been there in time if I didn't win that stinking race! The game was good, the girls definitely upped their game with the boys around. We have two weeks to go and you can really see how much the girls have learned this year.

Then we headed down to my mom's house for dinner and some trick or treating. She's got a great community and the kids just love going from door to door with their cousins. Mom and Dad enjoyed it as well! (Autumn was the ladybug w/ glasses and Joshua was a golfer)

MAC Series #7 Beacon Cross Race Report

2010-11-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

The MAC series is rolling on. Last weekend's New Jersey double header started on Saturday at the Beacon Cross in southern NJ. We were treated to a chilly morning. I headed down with Greg and Marten who were racing the Cat 4 men's race. I had never raced Beacon before, but I had been to Sunset Lake numerous times for triathlons. Southern Jersey is known for its sand and this course was known for a few things...high speeds, the two story Ampitheater of Pain (AoP) and the 90 meter beach section.

I got bundled up and headed out for warmups with Greg and Marten. After the first lap I realized that I did not shift out of my big ring the entire time! There were a couple of technical sand sections with thick sand and of course the AoP and beach sections. The AoP was littered with banners, spectators and it's own announcer that heckled the riders as they gasped for oxygen climbing by him. The course brought back memories of my motocross days picking lines through fast sand corners and staying light on the front end.

Greg and Marten had great races. Greg got a front row call up and Marten was on the other end due to day of entry. Greg made a bid for the lead early but couldn't hold off pressure from behind and finished a hard fought 3rd. Marten found the HOV lane somewhere out there and had an incredible finish on Greg's heels in 4th!

I lined up on the 2nd row, and started in the big ring. It was a long gradual uphill road start so I knew the guys w/ the big legs had an advantage. I was confident in my running skills and hoped to make up time on the AoP and beach sections. The race started off fast and I found myself stuck back in about 15th position....not good on such a fast course.

The course was very wide in some sections and very narrow in others. I got hung up in one bottle neck on a technical uphill section when the guy in front of me got stuck in the tape. Surprisingly I was holding my own (somewhat) on the long flat sections and I was able to make passes on the technical turns. I had some great runs in the beach as well.

(Photo credit to Dennis @ http://www.dennisbike.com/)

Sweet panoramic beach shot courtesy of Marten

With two laps to go I could see that I had made my way into the top 4 and the leaders weren't too far ahead. I put in a good push to see if I could bridge the gap.

(Photo credit to Dennis @ http://www.dennisbike.com/)
Coming into the barriers with two to go I made up some time on the leaders and was not far from their wheels.

(Photo credit to Dennis @ http://www.dennisbike.com/)

I knew a good run through the AoP would put me where I needed to be, but did I have enough to make the pass after I got there? On the bell lap we were this close together, I had bridged the gap!

(Photo credit to Dennis @ http://www.dennisbike.com/)

By this point we were riding clear of the rest of the field. This was the first time this year that I had been this close to a win...and a win in the MAC series and a field of this size was at one point unthinkable. The three riders in front of me have been up front the whole series and I knew two of them were powerful road riders that I wouldn't beat in a sprint. I stayed with them through the beach but they were too strong in the flats and coming into the AoP for the last time they had a gap....too big of a gap.

So I came home a close 4th. My best performance of the year and I was very satisfied with how I rode. Finally felt like my bout of overtraining has worked its way out of my system.

Sunday I headed to round 8, HPCX in Jamesburg NJ. Then off to a soccer game and trick or treating. Sunday report coming up next......

Fall Fun

2010-10-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full of fall fun. We were treated to some incredible weather and the leaves are near their peak color. On Saturday we ventured out to the Promenade Shops for the Rave theatre's annual Halloween Party. We saw some great costumes and then walked around soaking up the day. On Sunday we headed out to a hay ride and brunch in the morning. The kids had a blast, Joshua is still talking about "the blue tractor". Then Sunday night we visited the park for the haunted hayride. There was a full moon which was slightly hidden by some passing clouds, the smell of hot cider and hay were in the air. The ride was tastefully "haunted" and the kids had a blast. All this fun and Halloween isn't even here yet!

Since I still have cross on the brain, I was reading Bicycling magazine and came across a great story by Elite 'crosser Adam Myerson about cyclocross. You can find it HERE. He does a great job explaining the unexplainable, here are a few of my favorites.....

It's nearly impossible to explain cyclocross to someone who has never seen it. "You do what with the bike? What if it rains? Do they ever cancel? You race in the SNOW?!" As a 'cross rider, you find yourself at a loss trying to give people a sense of the difficulty, the absurdity, the degree of seriousness participants bring to the sport.

.....the race ends. The feeling in your hands comes back, more painful than when they froze initially. Eventually you get home, take a warm shower, begin to put distance between you and the misery. Over the next few days, the memory of the pain fades and you're left with thoughts of how you could have taken a better line through that one turn...
You thought you were going to die at the time, but now all you can think of is how much fun you had, and how you'd do it again if you could, how you'd do it differently next time. You're left, finally, with the feeling of joy and satisfaction that comes with self-inflicted torment--the essence of endurance sports.

With cyclocross, you get that manic cycle every week if you want. Every Saturday or Sunday—or both—there's another race, with more joy, more pain, more passion, more satisfaction and another opportunity to create an amazing story to tell; a story about something you never want to experience while it's happening, but that leaves you with a feeling you long for once the anguish is passed. That is what cyclocross is all about. It's like real life, but better.

This weekend the MAC series continues. I've moved up to 8th in the series points so I'm hoping for some good races. Saturday is Beacon Cross which features an 80m long beach run and "The Ampitheater of Pain" where you run up (carrying your bike) a 2 story tall "natural" ampitheater which is build into the hillside. Should be interesting!

Picturesque (Granogue Cross Days 1 & 2 Race Reports)

2010-10-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

What a great fall weekend. Lauren flew out to San Fran on Friday and had a great day pacing the marathon today (Sunday). Her goal was 3:45 and she finished 3:44:46, not too shabby!

The kids miss mommy, but with the help of mom mom, we kept them busy! Mom mom was nice enough to watch them Saturday and Sunday AM so I could race a double header cyclocross weekend at the DuPont farm in Delaware....talk about a picturesque setting!

Back to the weekend. Saturday was a little windy, but mild for mid October. We spent the day outside (me working in the yard, them playing) then packed up and headed back down to my mom's. Got the kids to bed, watched some Phils and hit the sack for day two. The kids were excited for the morning because they were headed to my brothers in their PJ's to have some gourmet PANCAKES! Then when I got back we headed home and hit the Coopersburg parade. They got lots of candy and fresh air. They both missed mommy tonight, but they're sleeping like a log now. That's my secret, when mommy's away keep them busy....they're so tired at night and it's much easier to get them to bed!

Onto my racing....Saturday we woke up to temps in the mid 50's and some strong 20+ mph winds. We made the 75 minute trip down to find an awesome course greeting us. Some tough run up sections, winding downhills and a few tecnical areas. I felt it was much more of a power course than I liked, but it still was a great course. My field was sold out at over 100 entries and I was lucky enough to get a second row call up on the LONG asphalt start. Gun went off and I just got smoked down the road...probably sitting in mid 20's. One of the first sections was a sand section and it was chaos! This guy tried to ride it, I decided to run...you can see me on the inside.

I decided to run it just about every lap.....and it worked pretty well. I should have been riding it later in the race when a line formed, I got passed once on the remount.

It seems as I've been making a habit lately of starting off slow then picking people off. Spotting people time in a race is not a smart thing to do. I made a charge up to 8th and I could see 5,6,& 7 ahead of me but I felt fried. I had a rough 3rd lap and let two or three people by me. I came by Jer and heard him say one lap to go....I had no idea the race had gone by that fast. Time to kick it into gear!

I had a great last lap, made some passes and got to the LONG asphalt finish stretch. I gave it all I had, shifted into the big ring and took off. Managed to finish 8th (there's a guy I passed right behind me). I also realized that I should be using the big ring more on that course.

I was happy with 8th considering the size of the field, but I wasn't happy with how I rode. A rough patch in the middle, a couple of dumb lines. The day started off kind of crappy with a painful crash about half way through my first sight lap, so I was glad to turn that around somewhat. The wind wasn't as big of a factor as I though, but it was evident out there for sure.

Day 2 was predicted to be a beautiful weather day. I woke up to temps in the high 30's but no wind. After seeing how dry the course was yesterday I left my mud wheelset at home. Probably could have used it! They transformed the course into a totally different layout. MUCH more technical and a little sketchy because the dew / frost overnight had made the grass slippery and the dirt areas VERY greasy. The off cambers were tough. Overall though it was a slightly slower, more technical course that would reward those with good line choices and some power in their legs.

I had another good call up in another sold out field. One of the front row guys didn't show in time so I got sent to the front row which was nice. I decided to start in the big ring and it paid off big time. I was a little intimidated starting up there, but hoped I belonged! The gun went off and I had a great clip and and a great jump. I managed to come through the first few turns in 3rd! You really had to be on your toes because the slick mud could bite you at any time. I nailed my tire pressure and things were going good UNTIL I found myself on the ground...just like that. I was up quick but a couple of guys got by. I made another pass or two and found myself comfortably in 4th with 3 laps to go. The mud was tricky, on the run ups it would pack into your shoes and I had a hard time clipping in. I focused on my lines and rode a solid (and tiring) 3 laps to hold on for a podium in 4th! I was real pleased with that race.

After the race I realized that my 2nd lap crash had busted one side off of my egg beater pedal, I had done the entire race with a three sided pedal...no wonder I couldn't clip in!

So now I should have some pretty good points in the MAC series so I plan to hit two of the last 4 rounds, see if I can finish this series off close to the top 5 in points.

Pacing

2010-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, not a ton of stuff going on right now...but with registration for Boston opening on Monday and Lauren out in Sunny San Fran pacing the Nike Woman's Marathon...pacing came to mind.

What does pacing have to do with Boston? Well, apparently before my running "career" even started there was a 100th running of Boston (14 years ago). In an effort to get more people to qualify for Boston, Amby Burfoot had an idea....he could "pace" people to qualifying times. Pace groups are such commonplace these days that we just kind of expect them to be there, but that wasn't always the case.

I've been involved with pacing since 2007 when I was asked to pace the St. Lukes Half Marathon in Allentown, PA. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it sounded like something that would be fun and hey, it meant free entry into the race...cool! Well it turned out to be so much more than just a free entry. At the race expo we had a seminar so would be pace group participants could meet their pacers, learn more about their pacers, ask any questions they may have and hopefully calm their race day nerves. It was a great idea! Race day came around and as we gathered I had the feeling there was something more to this. I wasn't just running a race, going for a PR or out there to look good...NO, there were nearly 50 people COUNTING ON ME to get them to their goal. GULP, now I was the nervous one! Well as you meet the people in your group, the miles click by and it turns out to be the most fun, rewarding running experience you can imagine. Pacing turns a largely individual sport into a team effort in which EVERYONE is helping EVERYONE succeed. There's nothing more rewarding than crossing that line with a pace group member that met or exceeded their goal...or that comes up and gives you a big sweaty hug because they BQ'd. If you've never been involved with a pace group (as a leader, supporter or particpant) I urge you to check one out.

I have officially paced and led pace groups in two marathons and five half marathons. I've paced my wife to a marathon PR and she's paced her sister through a great half marathon. Annually, I organize the pace group teams and pace the St. Lukes Half Marathon and I'm lined up to pace the Gasparilla (Tampa, FL) 15K and Half marathon. And every single one of those races weren't run for me, they were run for the team and it truly is a unique, rewarding and exciting experience.

So, wish Lauren luck on Sunday morning. She'll be out there with the rest of the http://www.marathonpacing.com/ crew pacing the 3:45 group which I'm sure will be large because it's a Boston Qualifying time. And when I sign up for Boston on Monday morning, I'll be thinking of all of the people that are registering alongside me that have qualified because of pace groups.

As for me and the kiddos, busy weekend planned. Staying over at Mom Mom's house tonight and Jer and I are racing the Granogue cyclocross. Then some wood stacking, lawn mowing and hopefully pumpkin picking. Another trip down to Mom Mom's (thanks Mom) so I can race day 2 of Granogue...then home for the Halloween Parade!! Have a great weekend everyone.

Successful weekend....

2010-10-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well, the whirlwind weekend is over. It started off with the storm of storms, 7 to 8 inches of rain dumped in our area and it was just finishing up on Friday as we were starting to set up our course. The setup was for the inaugural Town Hall Cross. On a 8 mile drive Friday AM I had to turn around 3 times and re-route due to closed / flooded roads. Luckily our course was on a hillside and we were hoping to still be able to hold the race. The rain event was fitting for my luck. This was my second stint as a race director, last year directing the Superbowl 10K which sold out at 500 entrants and we endured a 16" snow storm the day before and now my first stint as a bicycle race director after a deluge of 7-8 inches of rain!

I must say for a crew of newbie course designers and builders, we kicked some butt. Our Lamprey Systems crew had the course up, lunch gobbled down and riding the course within 5 hours! Thats a nearly 1.5 mile course, barriers, haybales, banners, starting grid, etc all set up and ready to go. Luckily, the sun started to come out at about 4pm and a wind started to kick up. We knew we'd be able to get a day of racing in, but how much turf damage would we do in our first time using Town Hall Park as our venue? We had 126 preregistrants and some incredible weather predicted for Saturday.

Here are some shots of the course....

The dreaded "St. Lukes Staircase"..feared by many, conquered by few....

I rushed out of there and headed home for Autumn's birthday party. It was of course her birthday and she was super excited! We had a great time with family and she got a sweet present...

Race day turned out to be a beautiful day. Started out a little chilly in the 40's, but we started a little fire and had the smell of burning wood to wake us up. The sun was brilliant as it burned the dew off the grass before the first race at 9am. Our crew knew exactly what to do and made my morning much easier. Everyone was very complimentary and loved the course and the venue. Kids were playing and people were just enjoying hanging out. There were a few mud

spots, but hey...it's cross!

I was supposed to race at 10am, but the day caught up to me and I realized that I hadn't eaten anything or even ridden my bike to warm up so I decided to try and jump into the elite masters race at 11am. I started on the back row of a field of about 40 riders and decided I was just going to "have fun". Ended up working my way up to 6th and missing a money spot by 1 place!

Up the painful finishing stretch..

Over the barriers...

And the kids had fun in our equipment...

All total we ended up with 152 registrants which is great for a first time event which was competing with some other local events. Next year will be bigger and better as the word spreads. We even got some TV time on the local news! We also raised at least $750 for local charities which is pretty big for a small town bike race.

The course broke down well, not a lot of damage and it should "heal" itself up very well. The Township seems very happy and I've gotten a ton of great emails from racers.

I then packed up and headed out to Hershey to meet Lauren, her sister and the kids. They ran the Inaugural Hershey Half Marathon. It was Lauren's sister's first half and Lauren paced her to a sub 1:48 finish which was just awesome! It was a great first time race. Afterward we took the kids to Chocolate World to get them sugared up for the ride home.

All in all it was an incredible weekend!

Wrapping up September...moving into October

2010-10-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

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 to settle into a decent spot then work my way up. The gun went off and there was immediate chaos...two pedal strokes in a guy in front goes down all by himself? Riders everywhere. As you can see in this video, I made it around him but proceeded to get dusted on the long start straight (I'm in the yellow / white / gray kit, red bike) . I didn't realize how far back I had fallen until I saw that video, probably outside of the top 20. There were some long straights but also some technical sections which I seem to do much better on. I made some great passes when I settled in and could see only a small number of riders up in front of me. Had hoped to really work the last lap and make up some ground, but ended up coming in 5th. For the size and caliber of the field, I'm very happy with that finish, especially considering I came from behind.

Through the woods section at Whirlybird (photo courtesy of Rob Muller)

There's a lot going on with Rev 3 and Team Trakkers as well. Registration has opened for Rev3 Cedar Point next September. The team is now recruiting for next year as well. Here's a link to the application. If you want to be a part of one of the best teams in multisport racing, if you're passionate about your sport, your actively involved in social media and you want to represent a great company and some great sponsors fill out this application.

Next post.....Autumn's sweet birthday present.....and Town Hall Cross has come and gone and it was a success!

Some pictures from the Nittany Cross...

2010-09-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Anthony Skorochod.... www.cyclingcaptured.com
May follow up with some more from Sunday's Concrete Crater Cross

A field of 80+ riders at the B Masters start:

Bullying my way for position:

Down the "bowl turn":

Some style over the barriers:

Lamprey System's leader bringing home the hardware...nice race!

Rather forget

2010-09-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Well, other than the first day of school for Autumn the Garges family has had a week we'd rather forget. To start off with the good, on Tuesday Autumn started FIRST GRADE! She's in a Spanish Immersion program this year in which her class spends their entire day being spoken to in Spanish (with the exception of her electives like Art, Music, etc). Lauren and I were anxious to see how she would react, if she'd be tired, excited, frustrated, etc. She seems to really like it and it's been fun teasing my brain to remember some words. It's a great opportunity that our school provides and I'm glad the she's able to take advantage of it.

On Wednesday night we took Joshua over to Carolyn's house. He's up in Vermont with them for nearly 10 days. The house is quite quiet without him and we miss him, but it's fun to get calls from him and here how he's doing.

On Thursday night I came home from soccer practice with Autumn to find Lauren doubled over on the couch in pain. She had severe abdominal pain and tried to suck it up until whatever it was passed. By 10:30 she was still in serious pain so we came up with a plan to get her to the ER. Luckily our neighbor's father is so gracious and came over to stay here while Autumn slept so I could take Lauren to the ER. They got her in right away and checked all of her vitals and found nothing, but she was still in significant pain. I stayed until about 12:30 while they checked her out. Needless to say I didn't sleep well as I was anxious to here what was going on but had to stay home to get Autumn on the bus. Lauren called at about 5am and said they were admitting her and that the CT scan, Xray and ultrasound had all come back negative and they were going to do an MRI. I spent the day at the hospital with her and she was OUT OF IT. They had pumped some serious pain meds in her. We met with doctors all day and no one found anything...the results of the MRI were negative. While we were releaved that there was nothing major wrong, we still wondered what had caused it. Some of the docs had some theories, but nothing concrete. Friday PM they put her on solid food and by 7am on Saturday she had texted me that she wanted to come home. So they discharged her Saturday am and she has not had pain since. It is nice to have her home, Autumn kept saying how quiet the house was without her or Joshua. Hopefully that pain never returns and it was just a weird incident.

Yesterday was the first cross race of the season. A field of over 500 riders had preregistered and it was a great day. The event took place at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center (formerly the Lehigh Valley Velodrome). I had preregistered but with Lauren's trip the hospital I figured I wouldn't be racing. I picked her up on Saturday AM after they discharged her and it looked like I could make the start so I went for it. I brought Autumn along so Lauren could enjoy some quiet peace at home.

Showing up at 9:20 for a 10:00 race and a field of over 80 riders is definitely one thing that most people would recommend against, but I was just feeling lucky and glad to be on my bike after the hectic days we had just experienced. I raced the "B Masters" field which was Cat 2/3/4 35+ 45+. I showed up to the line with a horrible starting place, no warm up and no clue where the course went which are also something I would typically recommend against.

The gun went off and it was just craziness. I didn't know where we were going and people were fighting over 40th position and bikes were flying all over the place. The course was not set up for my style, there wasn't much technical stuff and there were a lot of power sections. The tree areas had some bad shade / dust conditions. I managed to stay up the first lap and learned the general course layout and some lines. From there on in I was passing people. It was fun, I learned some great lines and forgot about the pain (somewhat). It was odd for me, I was making most of my passes in the long power sections. I ended up working my way up to 14th which I was happy with given the circumstances. Certainly not my best race, but I'll take it. Average HR was 170 for 40 minutes (92% of max)!

Navigating some of the off camber turns...

Hitting the finish line.....

Always a smile after a cross race.....

Autumn had fun playing with her friends there, but something was off. She immediately fell asleep on the way home, then she and Lauren took a long nap together in the afternoon. She had a fever of 102, poor thing. Everyone in the house seemed to be a little off...I was feeling the effects of limited sleep as well.

So today was supposed to be day 2 of the cyclocross weekend. We woke up to the sound of some much needed rain. My immediate thought was to skip the race, but after some coaxing from my friends I packed my things and made the 15 minute drive to the race. The rain had stopped and the course was actually getting pretty nice! Much smaller fields today, maybe 25 guys in my race? I had a decent start until someone got bogged down in a very wet mud section. I made a few passes and came by my friend telling me I was 7th. I didn't want the leaders to get away so I made a push and passed two guys in the off camber beside the finish line then I pushed the finish straight away and passed 3 more guys. I now found myself in 3rd and we were having a great battle.

I was feeling fast and battled in 3rd/4th for another lap or two until I hit some type of wall. Mental? Physical? the fate of the week catching up? I don't know what happended but I pulled out of the race. My first DNF since a hamstring injury in Boston 2005. I'm a fighter, I NEVER give up..but for some reason at that moment it felt like what my body was telling me to do. It felt right. As I watch the rest of the race I was madder than a hornet, I was frustrated in myself and I was confused as to what was going on. I've been fighting some overtraining issues for the past month, was that the cause? Do I have cycling burnout? Do I need to get back to my roots and run some more? Will this cause the "reset" I need?

Today was also my first soccer game as a coach. Despite the early rain, we still had our games. I think things went very well and everyone had fun which is ALL that matters in U8 girls soccer. I know I had fun, it's so great to see the kids excitement and watch them learn and progress. Poor Autumn wasn't feeling well and had to "pull a daddy"... she sat on the sidelines with mommy for the last half. Just another feather in the cap that was our week.

So we've all agreed to just write this weekend off, pretend it didn't happen and start fresh tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great weekend themselves. I also hope you took some time to reflect on the September 11th anniversary. Where were you when you first found out? Remember to give thanks to all who lost their lives that day and in the days since protecting our country.

Nothin doin'

2010-08-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quiet here lately. After last Saturday's cross workout it was evident that my body was telling me to rest. I made the decision to take 4 days completely off and see how I feel. Looking back, I've been going full speed since January 1 when Boston training started, carried that into HIM training for Quassy then summer tri training. I've racked up over 3000 road miles of riding and 1400 miles of running. It was the right decision and the weather cooperated by raining for 3 of the 4 off days!

Wednesday night I hit the final Grin and Bear It tri training series event on Wednesday night and decided to make it a duathlon and use my cross bike. It was fun and great to get together with everyone. Bear Creek Resort said we're good to go for next year so it looks like mid June will see us starting up the series again.

Last night was my first official practice as a coach. We have 9 girls on our U8 team, all but 2 with some experience. It will be challenging but fun, I really hope I can help them learn and enjoy the game of soccer because having fun is really what it's about. The real test is my daughter, you know just how painfully truthful kids can be, and she said that practice was fun yesterday (without me "prodding" her)...good news for me!

We're moving forward with the details for Town Hall Cross. We have someone working on our logo and we ordered up our numbers which I think look cool! We're going to take the team advantage and start practicing on the course.

We've been practicing at Lehigh U and a local park. The conditions have been perfect, damp grass and cool temperatures. Here's a shot from this morning of Greg headed for the second set of barriers.

Greg carving up a turn...

Bench racing...

We're headed to the beach Sun, Mon and Tues. Should be fun. Kids love the sand, the water and the rides. I'm looking forward to a few runs along the beach.

My new lucky number

2010-08-16T06:06:00.000-07:00

When I showed up on a cool morning at Bear Creek Ski Area for the Bald Bear Triathlon, I was excited to see how I could do in a sprint triathlon with a short .25mi swim. Now that being said, the rest of the race was to be no walk in the park. The bike course was 14.7 hilly miles (hilly enough that I brough my road bike) and the run course was 2.2 miles of guess what, more hills! I guess that's what you get when you enter a race that starts at a ski area. I was prepared though, I had pre ridden the course and our triathlon club Endurance Multisport has bi-weekly training triathlons at the same venue (different run and bike courses...but with the same hills).

So when I walked up to registration and was handed #61 I was feeling some good vibes coming my way, like the rays of sun peaking through the early AM clouds were coming from God above, smiling down on me and filling my mind with excitement. See, #61 was the same number I had worn last week at the Steelman triathlon which I feel was one of my better tri performances...and the odds of sporting #61 two weeks in a row? Just coincidence, certainly, but I'll take whatever I can from it!!

So this was my third sprint tri, ever. My first tri was a sprint, I did a sprint last year in Killington. While I was counting...this was my 7th tri....3rd sprint plus three olympics plus two half's. Anyway, swimming was never my strong part, but thanks to coach Erica from Endurance Multisport it's getting slightly better. The water at Bald Bear wasn't the most pristine that I've ever swam in and it was 80 degrees so no wetsuits (the swim was short enough that I probably wouldn't have worn one anyway).

I lined myself up about half way through the pack (official results aren't posted, I was told +/-120 participants, 60-70 men). It was divided into two waves, a men's and a women's. I felt like I had a good swim, did some drafting, sighted very well and pushed myself like I don't typically do in the swim leg of a tri.

Well, to my surprise I came out of the water in 7th! I managed to pass a few people on the long run to T1. I had a great transition and came out in charging. I wasn't sure how many people were in front of me, but I managed to pass one guy on the steep climb out of the resort. At the first turn before the first big climb I asked the fire police gentleman that was there how many people were in front of me? "You're the first" he said. Holy cow!

I was really glad to have the road bike. I don't feel that I was at a serious disadvantage on the few flatter areas but I could get out of the saddle easily and climb. When we got to the first flatter area about 4 miles in, I heard someone behind me...a guy on a TT bike passed me. I put a strong charge on and passed him back on the next downhill. As we hit another flatter area he passed me back, but we stayed pretty close for the first 11-12 miles. He put a little bit of time on me as we headed back to the resort on a flat section, but I was hopeful that I'd be able to catch him on the run.

It was great to hear all of the people cheering as we dropped back down into the resort. I had a good T2 and was on the run in no time. As I exited the run, the volunteers directed me the wrong way...I shouted to them that it was the wrong way, ran for about 10 seconds and turned around. The old "it's your responsibility to know the course" saying was ringing in my head. I was confident I knew the course, I had ridden the first mile or so before the race. I was out on the run course all by myself...and luckily the arrows were all pointing in the direction I was going! I did nearly miss one turn, but got back on track. I had no idea where the guy that was in front of me was, but I could tell that I was now in the lead. Once I got my legs back and my Saucony Tangent 4's turning over, I had a great last mile or so and came across the line in about 1:06:10.

I was happy for my race, but bummed for the guy that went the wrong way. I'm very anal about knowing the course before the race and I guess it paid off for me for the second time this year. I talked to Daryl after the race, he admitted that he went the wrong way, he said there were no volunteers at all directing him out of T2 and he ran until he saw the arrows going the opposite way. So I was "lucky" enough to score another overall win and bring #61 some glory! I was going to leave the body marking on until the next race, but Lauren didn't think it was a good idea, said I would look silly when we go to the beach in two weeks?? Imagine that, I thought I looked silly all the time....a big #61 on my arm wouldn't change that would it?

So as the tri season winds down, Lauren is in full swing training for the Hershey Half Marathon that she's running with her sister and the Nike Women's Marathon which she's pacing. I'm starting to shift my focus toward Cyclocross which starts in less than a month. Got my first good cross workout in yesterday at Lehigh University on their cross country course, two 20 minute intervals which cooked my legs. I forget how much cross hurts, it is an awesome workout and a ton of fun though. It was also cool riding at Lehigh yesterday because it was Philadelphia Eagles training camp! Green jerseys were everywhere.

Other than that, we had a good weekend. Our niece spent the night on Saturday and yesterday my brother and his family came over along with my step father. It was great to have everyone together and talk about old times! Next up is Autumn's soccer practice...first one is next week and first game is 9/12!

Steelman Olypic Tri Race Report

2010-08-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was the largest local triathlon witin an hour of my house. In fact, it's only about 20 minutes from my house! They had about 1100 registrants, over 600 for the sprint and over 400 for the olympic. This was my third time doing the olympic and the site of my first triathlon four years ago when I did the sprint. It's a great event, very well organized at a beautiful park and they close down what's basically a 4 lane highway for the race! The weather was awesome, overcast and high 60's for the 7am start. The water was an toasty 80 degrees, so no wetsuits. A bunch of my running partners were doing the tri and a bunch of friends were coming over to watch the race. They had to make a slight change to the bike course from last year and my bike computer showed 23.5 miles for the bike including the transition areas.

I had been practicing swimming and it seemed like it was going well, so as the gun went off I positioned myself further up in the field than I normally would have. For some reason I got nervous and couldn't hit my breathing right. The bouys were all over the place as well. I got offline along the back straight and actually was caught by one of the kayakers and they guided me back in line. That being said, I had a decent swim, 28:13 for 1.5k. Last year was 34 min and about 160th overall, this year much better in the top 1/4. Lauren counted me at about 4oth out of the water (I was in the 1st wave which included everyone under 39 and relays).

I had a great transition. I'm a sock guy so I had to put my socks on. Tried a new trick today...used ankle socks...much easier and quicker to put on...why I hadn't thought of this before I don't know! Got out onto the two lap bike course after the killer climb out of the marina to a fairly open road. Nearing the turn around I could see I had my work cut out for me. I wasn't "feeling it" yet so I tried to be patient. My friend Johan was out there on his bike moving around cheering me on which was cool. I could see a great cyclist who had the 2nd fastest bike split last year...he wasn't far behind me at the turn arounds so I had some motivation to kick it up a notch. My second lap felt great, passing a lot of people and seeing friends out there. Came in from the bike in 8th overall, 1:00:22. According to my bike computer I was just shy of 24 mph and my bike split was the 5th fastest! It started to heat up on the bike and I drank a whole bottle of Mild Grape EFS from my aero drink. This was perfect. I also carried a flask of EFS Liquid Shot for the run.

I had a great T2, one of the fastest of the day. I got my shoes on and stumbled for a second before I realized I was done transition and ready to run!! I know I had some work to do on the run as the field in front of me was spread out. The run is a two lap course that usually gets a little crowded by the second lap because at that point the sprint tri racers are on the course as well. It was starting to get real hot now. I was afraid to take any water due to stomach issues, so I just dumped it over my head and sipped some Liquid Shot. It was awesome out there seeing so many friends who were racing and volunteering (thanks to the Endurance Multisport club members for the water stop and the cheering!).

I was able to pick two people off right away and just started charging. As the course got more crowded it was hard to see who I was racing against. I could tell noone was catching me from behind and I did recognize a guy from the Snapple Tri team in front of me and realized I was gaining ever so slightly on him. With about 100 yards to go I knew it was possible, put a big surge on and held it. Ended up running 36:48 for 10K. 3rd fastest run of the day and it put me up to 4th overall and first in the 35-39 AG with a total time of 2:07:24!

The race director had a nice awards ceremony. I even won a "Empowered Zone" t-shirt and a sweet beer glass for my efforts! My friends had a great time as well. It's such a great local race, I'm glad I can support it.

I was more sore than anticpated Monday, guess I really pushed. I got home Monday night to a package in the mail....

Some cool new Saucony compression socks. Just what the doctor ordered for some recovery! The kids thought it was funny that I wore them around the rest of the night with sandals on as I cooked dinner on the grill. Sure my neighbors were laughing too! So far they feel great. I plan to try them on a run as well. I'll keep you posted.

On a sad note, we burried my step mother's brother on Sunday afternoon. A sudden heart attack at the age of 46. He was survived by his wife, daughter and two young boys. Very sad but he's in a better place right now. I just lift his family up for prayer..for peace, comfort and healing.

The preparation has begun

2010-08-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

We're less than two months from my first try at promoting a cyclocross race. We've got it up on BikeReg, we've got our website up and going and we even have some registrants already! Last year was my first year in cyclocross which is limited to a fall racing schedule. It's an interesting sport in which you have multisport athletes that use it to stay in shape, road racers that use it to extend their road season and 'crosser's who train for this short season all year. It's definitely not easy or clean, but it will put a smile on your face from ear to ear (after you catch your breath). It's very addicting and the sport is growing like wildfire. If you see one near you, definitely go and check it out.

So I'm excited about the race on October 2nd. I rode the approximate course layout this morning and it looks awesome. Some fast sections, some slow sections and one heck of a hill which will likely be a run up. I've got lots of help from our local cycling team and we're soliciting some sponsors now. We hope to make it enjoyable for the whole family with a kids race, vendors and entertainment. Of course I'm excited to race it myself as well. The first cross race of the year is actually a UCI race, the Nittany Cross about 15 minutes from my house. All of the top pro / elites will be there.

I'm also raising money for the Town Hall Cross event which will be donated directly to the HCM Foundation. Check out http://www.hcmfoundation.org/. A good friend and fellow multisport athlete who lost his dad to cancer at a very young age organized HCM less than a year ago to provide support and relief to anyone who has been touched by cancer. I'm proud to be a board member and proud to see what HCM has done in it's first year. Three $1,000 scholarships have been awarded to students who have either lost parents to cancer or who are dealing with a family member who is struggling with cancer. HCM has provided gift certificates to families dealing with the disease. From gift certificates that made Christmas a joyful day to a single parent family to gift certificates that pay for gas for a family to commute to the hospital, HCM has been there in times of need. Please take a look at my fundraising website and consider a donation. This is as low overhead, grassroots, "mom and pop" as you will get, every dollar will go toward HCM's service to families in need. The energy and drive that Mike has brought to his mission is incredible and awe inspring...he and HCM are making a difference. My website is www.active.com/donate/hcmfund/garges Please feel free to forward it on to anyone that would support this mission.

One of my favorite races this year, Rev3 Half in Connecticut has made an exciting announcement....

"Rev3 Quassy registration is now open! Did we mention that the Quassy Half will only be $200 and $100 for the Olympic? Starts Sunday and only lasts for a week! Dont miss out! People are without a doubt taking advantage of the great price! One week only....."

The race is scheduled for June 4th (Olympic Rev) and June 5th (Half Rev). I would imagine this course is a perfect tune up for Ironman Lake Placid...a beautiful lake swim, hilly bike and run course.

In other news, Autumn's soccer will be starting in a few weeks. Looks like a friend and I may be co-coaching......a new experience for me. She's excited so it should be fun regardless!

Other than that, training is going well. I've really missed the sunlight though...over the past few weeks the mornings have become noticably shorter. Makes it tough to get out of bed for sure. I have a big local race this weekend, Steelman Triathlon. I'm doing the Olympic and hoping for a great day and great finish overall. Lots of family, friends and club members will be there racing and cheering, so it'll be great.

Vacation pictures!

2010-07-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of random pictures from our vacation at Camp. As you can see, fun was had by all!

Fourth of July family get together.

Autumn on the dock...I think Joshua actually took this picture!

Joshua on the dock...

On Monday the guys put a new floor down in the kitchen while the girls took the kids to the playground and the General Store.

Joshua didn't like the motor boat this year, but he didn't mind the kayak (doesn't look the most comfortable here, he's wiggling to get out as we approach the shore).

AAhhhh, the best part....

Ketchup

2010-07-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

No, not the Heinz variety either... It's been a while since I've posted so I'll update all the happenings. I had some more pictures of VT, but somehow they are lost in emails in cyberspace? I'll post them later.

Biggest news was our trip to the Green Mountain State. Our annual journey to Vermont had us staying for 8 days at the family Camp in Barnard, VT on beautiful Silver Lake. Not a lot usually happens at Camp and that's why we love it. We were greeted to a hot week with warm lake temperatures and lots of swimming. The kids loved it, the dogs loved it and Lauren and I loved it. Heck we even got to sit down and read some magazines!!

On the 4th of July the whole family (Lauren, her sister, her dad, her cousin and his wife) all ran the 34th annualy Langhan's run...a 7.2 mi race starting at the Woodstock town green, through the covered bridge and up and over Mt Tom. It was hot and challenging. I ran 42:46 for 5th overall and Lauren ended up 2nd female by less than 15 seconds! A fun time.

I got a few rides in, some swims and runs. Above Lauren's dad is supporting me on a swim across the lake. On Friday I met up with the group ride (Team Stupid) from the bike shop (Start House Ski and Bike) for a nice ride on some previously uncharted roads. A nice way to meet some new people. They named it the Team Stupid ride because the ride EVERY FRIDAY ALL YEAR....imagine riding in central Vermont in January...enough said.

We got home to a crazy week. Our church had their Vacation Bible School. Lauren and I volunteer on a rotating basis depending on who worked late and/or had meet

ings, but every night it was 9pm until we got home. That being said, there wasn't much communication with the outside world or much done around the house. It was a great program and the kids loved it.

Last weekend I did the Sunset Challenge. It's about 2 hours away in New Jersey, but it's well worth the drive. The water did not meet USAT standards so it was turned into a duathlon. I did the Olympic Distance which was 2.7mi run, 25.5 mi ride, 10K run. I had a great race, into T1 about 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place and out onto the bike in a hurry. Covered the 25.5 miles in a course record 1:04:15 for 23.8mph average which was great for me as well. I came into T2 with a 5 minute lead, there was NO ONE out on the bike course, and I woke most of the police officers up as I came through the intersections! The heat and humidity was brutal for the 2nd run, a two lap course. The race director was prepared with 5 water stops per lap which was nice. Ran 37:xx for the 10k and ended up winning by 7 minutes and finishing under 2 hours which was cool. My brother did the sprint du and had the 6th fastest bike split finishing 11th overall, taking 10 minutes off of his time from last year which was his first multisport race.

Last week was the first event in a training triathlon series which was started by our local club. It was very much needed in the Lehigh Valley and I felt it was well attended for a first time event. It will only grow from here and it's awesome to see what Endurance Multisport is doing in the Lehigh Valley.

Lauren was invited to lead a pace group at the Nike Women's Marathon in San Fran on October 17, 2010 which is awesome. She's going to have a blast for sure.

Hope the summer is treating everyone well. I'll post some more VT pictures in the next few days...some awesome sunset shots!

Also looking forward to trying out the new Saucony compression socks which may be on my doorstep today. I hope to do a shoe review of the Tangent 4's that I've been racing in, they're awesome.

Summer is here.....

2010-06-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

How can you tell you may ask? Well....graduations, heat waves, thunderstorms and fireflies are a sign of the season.

Last Friday Autumn graduated from Kindergarten....where does time go? It was a cute little "ceremony" where the kids sang some songs, heard from their teachers and received their "diploma's". Autumn was sad to see the year end and says she'll miss her teacher, her classroom and her friends. She's such a creature of habit...instead of being excited for summer she's worried about the change in routine!! So from there we headed down to my half brother's high school graduation. It was HOT, but no rain. We couldn't stay long though, Lauren and I had a concert to go to. It was a great concert, a Christian group comprised of 3 sisters...and we were treated to an acoustic concert which was even better. They were incredibly talented and funny...it was nice to have such an intimate feeling concert.

Saturday was another HOT day. We headed down to my dad's for Dylan's graduation party. The kids were excited to play with their cousins and do some SWIMMING! Autumn and Joshua have really improved in their swimming ability and confidence. Joshua walked right up to the end of the diving board and jumped into my arms!! We had a great time.

On Fathers Day my brother and I headed out early to what has become an annual tradition...the Wilkes Barre Duathlon. A great event about an 1:15 drive, hometown feel which was a 3mi run, 15.5mi bike and 3mi run. It starting at the town green, headed across the river and then ran along the river and eventually back across the bridge. The bike was a "lolipop" type course that headed west out of town (and uphill) into a large industrial development then back into town. It was HOT again, very humid.

The race is usually pretty competitive since it pays money. I won last year, but considering how I'd been feeling leading up to it and knowing that Jeff Miller who had won the event a few times before (and his credentials include an Age Group win at Duathlon World Championships last year) was going to be there I was less than optomistic about my chances. I also had three members of my cycling club (Lamprey Systems) there which was cool. The race had a record turnout of 213 entrants and a catered hot breakfast afterward..a good start to Father's Day.

The gun went off and a couple of the relay guys shot out like bulletts. About a half of a mile in it was Jeff Miller and I leading....and sweating! As we came to the first incline Jeff dropped back a bit so I took the lead. As I hit 2 miles I was by myself and really sweating due to the humidity. I was a little concerned that I had gone out too fast for the conditions so I tried to ease back. Came into T1 at 16:22 for 3.05 miles. A little slower than last year...probably due to heat.

I killed T1, out it 39 seconds, the fastest T1 of the day! I got out onto the bike and I felt like crap (even worse after I struggled to get my feet into my shoes!). The first 4 miles I felt like I left my legs at home. I hadn't pushed the run too hard, but the wind, humidity and heat were getting to me. It was so bad at one point I was sure that I was overtrained on the bike and the best thing to do would be turn around, bag it and recover....glad I didn't! I had gotten passed by Jeff and one of the relays and that didn't help either. Once we got in the industrial park I my legs started to show up. I was very concious of making sure I got my EFS in me with all the fluids I had lost.

At the turn around I could see that they hadn't gained too much on me...but I did have a guy chasing me down. At about mile 10 I came to a sheriff who was directing traffic. She waved me to the left which I knew was wrong. I yelled out to her that it was wrong and she strongly disagreed? Well, I thought, as long as she's sending everyone the wrong way it's no big deal. Turns out Jeff had snuck by her but the relay guy and I were are the wrong place at the wrong time. She did direct everyone else that direction which was good, but it added 1.2 miles onto the ride. No chance of catching Jeff now, he easily gained 3-4 minutes right there. That gave me some motivation to push a little harder though which was good. I was catching the relay guy again and no one was closing in on me. The last 4 miles I felt AWESOME, holding 27.5-28.5 on the flats. I recorded the fastest 5 mile split I've ever done (I have my Garmin set to auto lap at 5 miles) on the way back in....26mph for a 5 mile stretch! Into T2 in 3rd (2nd overall due to relay) and recorded the second fastest bike split of the day (Jeff was faster, much faster due to the extra 1.2mi that we did). I averaged 23.5 mph for 16.7 on a hilly, windy course which is a record for me.

At this point I wanted to preserve 2nd and stay in the money. I knew the guy behind me was a great runner so I had my work cut out. I managed to hold him off for a 17:32. 2nd overall in 1:17 :xx. About 3 minutes slower than last year, but understandable since I bike an extra 1.2 miles. My Lamprey teammates finished 3rd overall female, 4th overall male and 10th overall male (my brother). My brother made some huge improvements and had a great ride and run 2. Here's a cool shot of the front page of the newspaper on Monday! Check out the Trakkers green standing out in the crowd!!

Last night I headed up to the training series crit with my brother and three other guys who I used to race motocross with. We had an absolute blast and it brought back memories from 10 years ago when we'd all be riding and practicing together. Funny how we all find ourselves still on two wheels, still loving racing but no motors under our legs and now families and children.

Next week will be busy as we get ready for our annual trip to Vermont. We leave Saturday morning and spend a week up there. Can't wait!

Quassy Race Photos

2010-06-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

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!

Mental notes..

2010-06-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

First off, on the way home from Quassy we got news that Lauren's uncle had suffered a cardiac arrest. He was on day two of an MS150 bike ride in North Carolina which he had done many times before, in very hot and humid weather. He collapsed 5 miles from the finish line and by the grace of God was defibulated (sp?) very quickly. He went through some tough times over the following few hours and needed open heart surgery. We got word this morning that he was removed from the ventilator and is speaking although suffering some short term memory loss. God works in amazing ways and He definitely has bigger and better plans for Ken. He's not out of the woods yet but the recent news is very encouraging.

Things like that really make you take a step back. Here's a fit man in his 50's that was seconds from not making it back home after a weekend of doing what he loves. We as humans and as athletes are truly blessed. Blessed that we have great families, great bodies, and an incredible country where we live free of violence, where our children can grow up without any worries and where we have an abundance of all of our needs. I don't know why God has provided me with the blessings he has, but I am grateful that He has and I hope that I can glorify him in all that I do.

As I was enjoying the incredible morning this morning on a nice easy ride, I was praying for Uncle Ken and giving thanks for all of the beauty around me. 5:30am surrounded by beautiful scenery and the sounds of nature is just an amazing time..almost surreal and it feels like you're taking in what most people are missing out on...like if they only knew they'd be out there joining you? Well, on my ride this morning I was also thinking about my race on Sunday, not necessarily because I wanted to, but because my legs were hurting so much I couldn't NOT think about it! I came up with a list of things that went well and what I would change:

The good:

The whole weekend was awesome. It was great to have the family there, the host hotel was awesome as was the venue.
The Tri-slide that I used was awesome. I had no issues getting my wetsuit over my bony feet or wrists. No chafing either.
My nutrition plan worked out well. No cramping, no loss of energy. The combination of the First Endurance EFS drink mix (2 full bottles, 300 cal), the Liquid Shot (400 cal) and the Clif Bar (240 cal) on the bike was perfect. On the run I wasn't able to tolerate much, but I did get half a flask of Liquid Shot (200 cal) down as well as MANY cups of water.
I tried to keep my effort down during the first half of the bike course and push it after the big climb around mile 30. That worked out well and I was strong for the second portion of the bike as well as the run.
I tried to keep my heart rate and core temp down on the run. It worked out well, although I was crawling up the hills, I wasn't walking. I was dumping two cups of water over my head at each aid station.
I always carry two pumps and two CO2 cartridges. After changing a flat at mile 8 I was glad to know I still had one more set with me.
I decided to race in the Saucony Tangent 4's. With the uphills, downhills and gravel roads I was glad I had the added support. The Fasttwitch's work great for me for 10k and below, but the Tangents gave me the support I needed. I have no foot or knee pain. (It was awesome to chat with Michael Lavato post race and hear that he has similar shoe strategies with his Saucony's).

What I would do different (good news, there's not much here):

I would be more aggressive to start the swim and I would focus more on sighting early on.
Get a post race massage.

Rev3 Quassy Weekend - Race Report

2010-06-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we spent a long weekend near Middlebury, CT. I raced the Rev3 Half Ironman which was on Sunday and was held at Quassy amusement park. It was my second half ironman and being that it was so early in the season and I only swam about 6 times since last October, I wasn't expecting much more than having fun. It was a great event for the whole family and the kids had a blast. I'm pretty sore today...the hills of CT got me!!

We headed out Friday morning...

After a relatively uneventful and "short" 3 hour drive, we arrived at our hotel. Was a pretty cool "resort" if you will called Heritage. Condo's, hotel rooms, indoor and outdoor pool, meeting and reception areas, this place was huge...and about 10 minutes from the race site. The kids saw the pool and IMMEDIATELY wanted to go swimming, which we did for a while. I wanted to head over to the race site so I could find it Saturday morning when our team was manning the mile 1 water stop for the Olympic distance event being held that day. We met up with some Trakkers teammates and had a great dinner.

Saturday morning we woke up to some rain, so Lauren drove me over to the race site (instead of me riding over as originally planned). I headed down to the water stop as we got ready. Word has it we were the best aid station in the race......

Here's the "crew"!

After we were done at the aid station, I took a ride on the run course. It was billed as a hilly run course, and it delivered. There was a brutal uphill section about 4 miles in that was on a gravel road and the last 1.5 miles was a gnarly uphill. I was glad I at least got to check that out before the race. The lake looked beautiful, so I took a little swim to calm the nerves. It was warm enough (low 70's) that I didn't need a wetsuit...but I did plan to wear mine for the race on Sunday. We then headed back to the hotel, took the kids to the pool and down for a nap so we could head back to the race site to rack my bike and get a bite to eat...

Rev3 does it right. When I picked up my packet, they took a picture to use when I crossed the finish line, then when I brought my bike into transition, they snapped a picture of the bike! I get to my transition area to find out I was "pro"...

Racked my bike and we were off to grab some pizza.
As we were ordering our food on the outside patio.....the rain hit... The forecast for Sunday was not good, 70% chance of some rain, thunder and lightning! Woke up to dry conditions though, but figured it was only a matter of time. Had my oatmeal, packed my things and headed to the race. Sipped on some First Endurance EFS in, put a full bottle of it on my bike and filled my Aerodrink with EFS as well. It was humid and I was worried about getting the right amount of fluid and nutrition so I wouldn't bonk. I carried a flask of Liquid Shot to sip on the bike, had a Clif bar for the bike and I had another flask of Liquid Shot for the run.

The race itself went well. Water temp was mid 70's so still wetsuit legal. I was the 4th wave around the triangular 1.2 swim course. I started mid pack and felt pretty good. Somehow I got way off to the left so I wasted a good amount of time getting back on course. Once I hit the back leg I was feeling good, following the bouy's well and actually catching people from the wave in front of me (started 3 min. before me). There was a pretty good pack for most of the swim and I even got to practice some drafting! I had enough left to push the end of the swim and made some more passes, something I'm not really used to doing in the water. Came out at 35:26, AWESOME! 35 out of 96 in my AG and that's including my "detour", I'll take it. I really hope to continue to improve my swimming this summer.

SWIM: 35:26

Had a decent transition, and out onto the bike. Felt great right off the bat on the bike. I was passing people consistently on the rolling terrain of the first few miles. My goal was to maintain a decent effort for the first 30 miles until we got up the big hill then push it a little harder and make up some time. All was going according to plan until.....the "hiss of death". I had just put brand new tires on but still managed to get a flat. Off to the side I go...and watch my Trakkers teammates go by. Got it changed and back on the road, according to my Garmin I lost about 9 minutes. Once I got going I passed quite a few people and I was still feeling pretty good. I finished nearly two bottles of fluid by the time I hit the mile 29 aid station so I grabbed some fluid from them. The course wasn't very forgiving, always climbing, turning or descending. It was great though, because it really broke things up. Near mile 40 was a short out and back section where you could see who was in front of you and behind you. By that point I was pushing pretty good and felt strong. The next 10 miles were the best on the course, some beautiful scenery, great downhills and no traffic. The last 6 miles I was sweating pretty good and there were some good climbs so I tried to focus on getting the rest of my Liquid Shot down and keeping fluids in my. I rolled into T2 feeling pretty good. Official bike split was 2:52:52, 19.44mph. Actual riding time subtracting the flat tire was 2:43:43, nearly 20.5mph. I was only passed by one person (a relay) the entire ride, happy with that.

Official Bike Split 2:52:52 (now 30th in my AG)

Coming out of T2 I saw Lauren and the kids coming to the race site, it was awesome to see them!! So while I was out getting my butt kicked on the run course, they were having some fun.

The first 1.5 miles are down hill, so I was cruising along pretty well. By this point it was HOT and HUMID so hydration was huge. I would take one or two water cups to drink and one or two to dump over my head at each aid station. As we started to climb the first big hill about 3.5 miles in I heard an official say I was 128th overall. Considering my flat tire, I was surprised. I decided I was going to shoot for top 100, so I just started picking people off. I focused on a short steady stride up the hills and a recovery down the hills. Due to the heat I had to keep my HR low. I had counted myself down to the top 100 by mile 7 and kept going from there. At about mile 9 (ironically the same aid station that I worked the day before) I started to slow down. I don't think it was a nutrition issue as much as just the heat. I had done the math in my head and figured if I ran sub 1:28 I'd be pretty close to sub 5:00 at the finish, but I just couldn't hold it. I did get passed by one person on the run, coming up that killer last hill...he was the only one that passed me.

Run split 1:31:00 - up to 16th in my AG out of 96 finishers. I'll take it..I passed 14 people in my AG on the run alone!

As I came into the finishing chute, I saw Lauren and the kids. Joshua wanted to run across the line with me, so I grabbed him. His face was precious as he took all the commotion and excitement of the finish in.

We crossed the finish line and he got to hang out with me!

After the finish they came over to greet me...check out the awesome Trakkers shirts!

Overall chip time was 5:02:47, 89th overall and 16th in my AG. Subtract the 9 minutes for the flat and I would have been 4:56, mid 60's overall and top 10 in my AG.

This was my first Rev3 race and they did an incredible job. Every last detail was taken care of. A cool race shirt and a technical finishers shirt, names on the bibs, beautiful venue, well marked and staffed courses and a family friendly environment.

For those of you that tried to track me live with the Trakkers device, I think my device may not have been able to locate a signal. If you did try it and have any feedback, let me know!

Live Tracking @ Rev 3 Quassy

2010-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the live tracking site http://live.trakkersgps.com/events.aspx There's an olympic distance race on Saturday and Sunday will be the half. Come Sunday morning (I start swimming at 7:06, should be done by 7:40-ish) my name should be up there.

If you have any interest in watching the pro's there will be a live broadcast link at www.rev3tri.com.

Memorial weekend fun

2010-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

What an awesome Memorial Day weekend! The weather was the best I can remember and we had a blast as a family. Saturday Lauren went shopping for the day, so the kids and I headed into Quakertown to do some shopping (some shopping for Lauren's anniversary present, only 7 days until our 10th anniversary) and some people watching at Walmart. We had our first cook out an meal on the patio of the year. Sunday was a busy day, Lauren got her long run in, we headed to church and then off to Autumn's first kids triathlon, then over to Lauren's sister's for a picnic.

Autumn had so much fun at her first "race", it was so cute. A local indoor pool where she takes lessons put the event on for kids under 10 years old...no timing, no results, just plain fun for the children and the parents! She started off with lap in the pool. (Here's mommy helping her get ready for the bike)

Then she headed out to the parking lot for her bike, two laps on the road in front of her...a mile or two total. It was cute, there was a slight incline that was just killer for the kids. She came into transition, dropper her bike and she was off for 4 laps around the parking lot (I think she's a natural runner!)

All the kids got to "break the tape" as they crossed the finish line, then some refreshments and a "high five" from the Nittany Lion (PSU has a campus next door). Joshua just watched in amazement, I'm sure he'll be out there next year! Autumn's classmate Ashley did it too, as did her cousins Hope and Adi.

Monday we had a great day as well. I packed up the mountain bikes, Autumns bike and the trailer and we headed down to Frenchtown NJ along the Delaware River. We road along the canal path and stopped along the way to put our feet in the water. It was great to see so many people out and about, enjoying the weather, the time off and the beauty of mother nature. We had dinner out on the patio of a little restaurant along the path, then walked for some ice cream. Within minutes of leaving we had two sleeping kids! Mission FUN WEEKEND accomplished!

I had some great early morning workouts, Saturday Johan and I embarked on a rather hilly 70 mile bike ride. We started out early (5:30am) when traffic is non existent and the weather is cool, but after a few hours in the saddle it warmed up. I had only brought two water bottles (with Grape EFS), a Clif Bar and a Gu gel.

We had planned to stop about 2:45-3:00 into the ride at a church to refill our bottles. Much to our surprise, they still had their outside hose bib turned off and no-one in sight! So I knew that last 15 miles were gonna be rough and......

from the looks of this photo, they were!! Now before you laugh at me too hard, at least feel a little bit of pity! I was impressed at my ability to snap pictures from my phone as I rode (stealing my teammate Sonja's idea). Beside the goofy look on my face, my dorky hat and glasses...at least my Trakkers kit looked cool!

So, after 70 miles on the bike on Saturday, my recovery week had a great "start". I proceeded to do a 25mi bike / 3mi run on Sunday, THEN get talked into another ride with Johan on Monday, somehow ending up with another 60 mile ride....OK, gotta focus on tapering! All this beautiful weather has me training like a kid in a candy store, I can't sleep at 5:00 in the AM when the sun is out!