Granby cafe ride

Granby cafe ride.... 60 or so people showed up to ride from the Granby cafe up to the top of skinner mountain and back followed by grinders, frosty beverages, and the annual voting in of club officers. A good time!!

19 miles, 1500 ft of ascent, average HR of 151.

1 mile swim and 6 x 2 min fartleks

1 mile swim in the morning at Haviland pond, then a 40 minute run with 6 fartlek intervals in the afternoon. Run felt VERY good today.

Average HR for run 165. Mid 180s for the fartleks.

Ride to the track for 400M intervals

Rode the bike to the track and did 400M running intervals. The running felt really, really bad.

Quick ride

I just had a quick ride today up to the Quabbin gate.

9 miles, average speed 17 mph, time 31:46, average HR 140

5 mile run

5 miles. 45:41 Didn't start to feel good until about mile 3 then felt better and better and was able to run my HR up and finish strong. Originally intented to run 7 but turned back at 2.5 out. Now I wish I went the extra mile...

Average HR 152

50 mile group ride out of Northampton

50 mile group ride out of Northampton up through Greenfield with Jim, George, Dan, and myself along with a couple others. Awesome ride, with George, Dan, and myself alternating pulls literally as hard as we could to catch Jim. He smelled blood at 2/3 the way up a chopper and took off and it took us going 45 mph to start to reel him in!!

49.5 miles, average speed 18.1 mph. Average HR 137

Swim and run

3 mile recovery run and an easy 1 mile swim at Haviland, Run 27 min average HR 155

Swim and a ride

1 mile swim at haviland pond and an easy ride. Legs are still pretty sore from Timberman.

12.2 mile ride, 46 minutes, average HR 140

Recovery run

3 mile recovery run. 27 minutes, average HR 141

Timberman 70.3

Our day started pretty early at 3:15 AM. I don’t think that any of us slept very well anyway anticipating the race. We ate quick, bushed teeth, last gear check, then off to transition which opened at 4:30. The direction we were staying in relative to the transition area and where everyone else was staying worked out really well. Since we were coming from the opposite direction we slipped right in without hardly any wait, pretty close up front too.

First order of business…. Get a coffee!! Then set up transition, pump up the tires, and load up nutrition on the bike etc. Stood in the port-o-potty line to take care of business and start to freak out because transition was about to close… Worked out ok and got my wetsuit on quick quick. Time to head to the swim start.

It was kind of chilly out but the wetsuit made up for it. The wet sand on the beach was COLD! Walked in the water because it was warmer there. Met up with a bunch of Cyclonauts. Sara and Andy came up to cheer which was freaking awesome. I gave Rick who was awaiting Dick’s start already in the raft a thumbs up and good race. Quick swim warm up, more to just get my head under water than anything else. 40 – 44 males were the 6th wave. We had about 185 people in our wave. By the time we were off there were 1400 people on the course; big race! Swim was good, albeit slow. My sighting sucked so I ended up off course. After the first turn we were swimming into to sun so that didn’t help. It really got choppy after turn 2 and it was hard to see the swim exit. Made it out in 43:44 which was about 4 minutes slower than I expected. The wetsuit strippers got to work on me… I think that I may have been able to get it off faster myself but who’s counting?

There was a little bit of a run to T1 and I ended up getting out of there in 3:24. Off on the Bike. My heart rate was jacked big time in the 170s initially. This course is 10 or so miles of hills, followed by 30 or so miles of flat to rolling, and then 10 miles of hills back to transition. It’s not exactly an out and back, but some portions have bikes in both directions. Eventually my HR settled down and I ended up at a 159 average for the bike. I wanted to be working pretty hard, but not so hard that I would blow up on the run. This is just under my steady state pace, and above tempo. I raced this race completely by feel so that’s just what it ended up being. Bike was 2:53:05 @ 19.4 mph. Saw a lot of Cyclonauts and passed Kevin and Cindy.

Felt pretty good. T2 was 2:37.

The run course is rolling with 2 loops of a 10K (about). Miles 1 and 2 were a sluggish 9:09 and 8:57. Mile 3 clocked in at 8:29 and from there on out I was at about 9:00 plus or minus for the duration. I saw EVERYBODY on the run course and felt very strong although a little slow. A lot of hand slapping with Mike, Dan, Kevin, Jill, Cindy, Dave, the other Kevin. It was freakin awesome. I cheered for the MRC guy that I always see at local races and fucking prick just kept plodding along without acknowledgement. That's ok because we roasted them in the FIRM points and the NE tri club championships. Maybe he shouldn’t be such an asshole.

The highlight of the run for me was seeing Sara and Andy close to the turnaround cheering like mad; this was an incredible boost and felt great. Got to the turnaround and Kevin M passed me, he was looking incredibly strong and made it look effortless. I saw Dan and him pretty close together and made it my goal to not get passed by Dan on the second loop. When I started out on the second loop I was starting to feel it. Didn’t quite hurt yet, but I knew it was coming. At the turnaround there was ‘Marti Gras street’ which was quite a pick me up which was good, because at mile 10 it started to hurt. Bad. I knew it would come, WTF, it was a ½ IM. It’s gonna hurt. I was able to keep it steady on the way back to the finish. There is 1 pretty good hill that I walked up, finished off my Infinit and committed to finish strong. I was hoping to see Sara and Andy again, and picked up the pace ahead of where they were last time. I don’t know why but it was incredibly important to look good going by them. They’re both incredible athletes; Sara qualified for Kona this year coming in 3rd in her AG at IMLP and Andy may very well have as well but was struck by GI issues at IMLP on the run. They weren’t there but the course was packed with cheering people so I kept the pace up. Now it hurt BAD, I took the left into the ¼ finish chute and my legs and stomach started to cramp up hard. I burned a few too many matches towards the end. To late now, too many people, can’t back off. The cramps are screwing up my stride now, and the last 50 M my legs are just screaming. And its done!! The ½ marathon time is 2:03:10 at 9:25 mm with a total time of 5:46:03. The cool thing is my goal time was 5:45:00. It’s amazing to me that I was able to predict it so close. Next ½ will be mooseman next season as a tune up for IMLP.

Saturday, big race tomorrow!

This AM we went to gunstock in the AM for breakfast. We sat with an elite and his wife. He ended up 12th overall in the race, ahead of some of the pros. Cool freakin stuff! Hung out, drove the course, went back to the hotel. Rode 20 min and ran 10 at race pace. The roads are funny, they are rolling, but are still fast. Feel like you are going slow but look down and you’re at 22 mph. Could be the adrenaline too… We went to the pasta feed, checked in our bikes, then went back to the hotel. The rest of the night was setting up transition bags and getting our course nutrition together. It was an early night. Courtney crashed in our room.

For this race I’m trying out Infinit nutrition for the first time in a race setting. It’s all liquid and I have trained with it over the last month or so and it seems to work well for me. The idea of not having to mess with bottles and gels was really appealing. The plan is 4 bottles on the bike @ 250 calories each and 1 scoop in each of my fuel belt bottles with the plan to consume 1 bottle every 3 miles and take water as needed on the course. Had another bottle in transition as well. We’ll see how it works…. Today the lake was super choppy with a lot of wind.

Swim at Lake Winnipesaukee

Jill and I got up to NH at about 4 PM. We met up with Dave H and swam around the area of the swim course for a ½ hour or so. The water was a little choppy but not too bad. About 70 degrees and man was it clear!! We found a restaurant that I was pretty leery of from the outside but I had Scottish lamb or something like that and a nice glass of Pinot Noir. It was awesome! Definitely not what we were expecting. The hotel was pretty basic, and $543 for 3 nights. So expensive because it was right on the lake though. It was nice, but we did not take advantage of the amenities offered. We headed up to gunstock to pick up our packets and register as well as meet up with a bunch of other Nauts. The expo was pretty hokey but we did spend a bunch of time talking to Dick Hoyt who will be racing the 70.3 with Rick. Man that’s an inspirational guy. It’s an honor to be on the course with them.

Recovery ride

35 minute recovery ride. Average HR 142.

Recovery run

30 minute light recovery run. Average HR 154.

Ride to the tower

Just a quick ride up to the tower....

15 miles average HR 143, 55 minutes

1 mile swim

1 mile swim at Haviland pond.

Recovery run

36 minute recovery run to the water. 4 miles. Average HR 148

Brick

Last brick before Timberman. 33 mile ride and 7 mile run. Average speed on the bike was 20.1 with an 8:04 mm for the first running mile and an 8:31 for the last mile. Did the workout by feel with the bike at about a PE of 6 and the run at a 7.

Bike average HR was 149 with the run HR at 163.

Pool workout

It's been forever since I swam in a pool (probably May) and I needed to get a workout in. Was ok but I forgot my watch so had to rely on the big one on the wall for intervals.

7 mile run

7 mile run up the fire road to Quabbin. Felt terrible at the beginning but better and better as I went. At about mile 4 felt really good and decided to try to break an hour (stupid to think of this at 60% into a run I suppose, but I was feeling good after all). Came in at 1:01:39 with the last mile a 8:17. Average HR for the run was 158.

Ride and a run

Tonight was the annual Millenium press ride and BBQ. Jill came along as well which was awesome! 30 mile or so ride followed by a 3 mile run. These Wednesday night rides are awesome and I wish that I could do more of them but it's almost an hour drive each way so it doesn't happen to often. The BBQ is a great opportunity to catch up with friends that we have not seen for a while. These rides are always social, but you can count on them getting a little spicy too. Even with several stops my HR averaged in the 140s. Did not have a HR monitor on the for the run.

8.3 mile run

Ran to the high school and back. 8.3 miles

Average HR 163

1 mile swim

1 mile swim at Haviland pond.

Ran to the track with 400s

Ran to the high school track with the intentions of doing 3 800M running intervals and Jill picking me up afterwards. Once I covered the 4 miles there and started the first 800 I became immediatly aware that I didn't have them in my legs after yesterdays brick. So I did 3 x 400M instead. Started running back home and Jill picked me up towards the center of town.

Probably ran 7-8 miles, average HR was 157. 400s were 1:34, 1:28, and 1:38

Brick

Nice 49 mile ride / 7 mile brick workout. Averaged 19 on the bike and 9:08 mm on the run. Pretty flat course with only 600 ft of ascent on the bike and 340 ft on the run.

Average HR 157 (151 bike and 171 run)

1/2 mile swim and short run

1/2 mile swim at Havialnd pond and a 2 mile run. Others went further but I had to cut it short in order to get to a meeting...

Spin class in MTO

Had to travel to Morristown, was able to take a spinn class at the employee fitness center. Wanted to get there early to spend some time on the bike but could not get out of the hotel at a decent time.

Average HR 151 for 47 minutes.

1.5 mile swim

1.5 mile swim at Haviland pond.