My Blog

This sunday I raced my first, long awaited, tri of the season. The Mooseman Half Ironman distance, at beautiful Newfound Lake in Bristol, NH.

I was signifigantly less nervous than previous years at the swim start, as my swimming has come a long way over the winter, and I was in wave 1 with the big guns. Race started, and as usual, it was more like crawling over bodies than actually swimming. This is always my least favorite part of the race. I am usually thinking "why the hell am I doing this!" Anyway, I made good time out to the first turn bouy and had joined a good group of swimmers, so I thought. Unfortunately the group I was with somehow got way off course (I knew I should have sighted more!) and it cost me a few minutes. Exited the 1.2 mile swim in 28:53. Not my best time, but it could have gone worse

Onto the bike, which is my strong event. The 2 loop, 56 mile bike course was extrememly hilly and punishing on the legs. I got out onto the bike course in about 30th position, and immediately started hunting people down. I consumed about 2o of these people in the first 15 miles, and came through the first lap of the bike in 9th position. I kept the pace high through the second lap, in search of more victims, but was unable to catch any other riders. It got quite lonely riding alone for the last 41 miles of the race. Two riders caught and passed me in the last 5 miles or so, but I let them go, to be hunted down on the run. Came off the bike in 2:27, with an average speed of 22.8mph, 5 minutes faster than last year.

I headed out onto the 13.1 mile run in 11th position. The first mile of the run usually feels like I am running through water - painfully slow and taxing. I did a lot of run training this winter, and it paid off. First mile - 6:15! I actually felt great on the run and was having a great time. I hunted down 3 people ahead of me , including both guys that passed me on the bike. I had a 4th in site, but I ran out of course, not that I am going to complain about there not being more running involved. I had a 1:23 run split, my fastest half IM run to date, and finished in 4:21, also a PR and 7 minutes faster than last year.

In the end I finished 10th overall of the 700+ that started, and won the 20-24 age group by 15 minutes. Next race is in 7 weeks - Ironman Lake Placid. This is my big race of the season, so the next 7 weeks are devoted completely to training, and I am looking forward to it!

- mike

 

This sunday I raced my first, long awaited, tri of the season. The Mooseman Half Ironman distance, at beautiful Newfound Lake in Bristol, NH.

I was signifigantly less nervous than previous years at the swim start, as my swimming has come a long way over the winter, and I was in wave 1 with the big guns. Race started, and as usual, it was more like crawling over bodies than actually swimming. This is always my least favorite part of the race. I am usually thinking "why the hell am I doing this!" Anyway, I made good time out to the first turn bouy and had joined a good group of swimmers, so I thought. Unfortunately the group I was with somehow got way off course (I knew I should have sighted more!) and it cost me a few minutes. Exited the 1.2 mile swim in 28:53. Not my best time, but it could have gone worse

Onto the bike, which is my strong event. The 2 loop, 56 mile bike course was extrememly hilly and punishing on the legs. I got out onto the bike course in about 30th position, and immediately started hunting people down. I consumed about 2o of these people in the first 15 miles, and came through the first lap of the bike in 9th position. I kept the pace high through the second lap, in search of more victims, but was unable to catch any other riders. It got quite lonely riding alone for the last 41 miles of the race. Two riders caught and passed me in the last 5 miles or so, but I let them go, to be hunted down on the run. Came off the bike in 2:27, with an average speed of 22.8mph, 5 minutes faster than last year.

I headed out onto the 13.1 mile run in 11th position. The first mile of the run usually feels like I am running through water - painfully slow and taxing. I did a lot of run training this winter, and it paid off. First mile - 6:15! I actually felt great on the run and was having a great time. I hunted down 3 people ahead of me , including both guys that passed me on the bike. I had a 4th in site, but I ran out of course, not that I am going to complain about there not being more running involved. I had a 1:23 run split, my fastest half IM run to date, and finished in 4:21, also a PR and 7 minutes faster than last year.

In the end I finished 10th overall of the 700+ that started, and won the 20-24 age group by 15 minutes. Next race is in 7 weeks - Ironman Lake Placid. This is my big race of the season, so the next 7 weeks are devoted completely to training, and I am looking forward to it!

- mike