I just finished racing the Pumkinman Triathlon in South Berwick Maine.  It was the first year of the event although you would have not know it by how well run it was.  I would highly recommend this to anyone in the northern NE area.  My goal of the race was to swim hard and bike hard.  I felt I reached both my goals.  I stayed right on the feet of Will Thomas, whom is a strong local swimmer.  I then biked hard although my PM said that avg 304 watts.  I am not sure what my NP is but I bet it is quite a bit higher. 

  I ended up riding home after the race and felt great until about 30 min left.  I avg about 230 watts for 60 miles and avg 20+ mph. 

 I have been very tired recently, but in a week I am going to start to taper for Cancun.  Hopefully I can get through these next few days and have a good race in Cancun. 

Just got back from the Spirit of Racine and what a great race. This is the second race I have raced that was put on by HFP Racing and they do a great job. Everything from the volunteers to the race course to the food after the races was great! They even had slim jims at the finish. The aid stations on the run were jammed full of volunteers offering everything from water to gels to food.

On the flight over to WI from Maine my new Orbea frame was cracked in transit. I was a bit worried about riding a carbon frame with a crack on the downtube, but it seemed to ride ok when I tested it out the day before the race. I also had the race mechanic from Wheelie Fun check it out and gave me the OK. Race day morning went fairly routine, I did have to run to the start line which was about 1 mile away because it was a point to point swim. I made it to the start with about 5 mins to catch my breathe. When the gun went off I tried to stay with group, but about 300yds in I was swimming by myself again. During the swim the thing I am always waiting for is for the top pro women to come swimming over me. This had not happened this year, but it did this weekend. Not the best swim I have had this year but not too bad, 31:xx.

I got on my new Orbea bike was off to try and make up some time. The one complaint I do have with the race is the bumps in the road. Not pot holes but just lines in the road where I guess the road was fixed. Either way it was murder on my forearms. I just set up my profile aerobars so the only screw I had under the pad had a rounded top rather than a flat head screw. Every bump for 56 miles the head of that screw slammed into my forearms. Near the end of the bike I was riding with my forearms not touching the pads. I had a bit of trouble pushing hard on the bike and keeping my watts where I wanted but avg 273 watts for the ride, 2:13:xx. I got off the bike in 4th which I was a bit surprised about. I started the run and had a really tough time getting into a rhythm. It was a struggle from the very beginning. Some of that could have been due to the fact that I have only run over 6 miles once in 6 weeks due to tendonits. Either way I pushed on trying to hold back until about mile 8-9 then I start to push the pace. By doing this I think it helps me run even splits, which is the best for me, 1:16:xx. I passed one person on the run whom was in obvious pain so I moved up to 3rd where I stayed until the finish. Overal a pretty good day. None of my disciplines were great, but none were bad..

I would really like to thank Zoot Sports Team for the great equipment and allowing me to be able to travel to these great venues and compete against top pros. Again I would like to thank all of the volunteers they did a great job with support. Also to Shannon Kurek and Scott Erdman with HFP Racing for putting on a great race. I will definitely be back next year. Also I encourage others to check out either this race or the West Virginia Mountaineer for a well run race. There is also a good chance that I may be doing the Woodlands 101 race in Texas ;-)

Well it has been a long time since I have updated this.  I actually kind of feel like I am talking in an empty room. 

When ever my training starts to go bad I stop writing in my log and I apparently I stop writing in my blog.  The last few weeks I have felt pretty crappy training wise and feel I am getting slower and tired.  I got filmed swimming a realized that my swim stroke is terrible, not just bad but terrible!  I was hoping that by swimming a lot this winter I would be able to improve enough to come out of the water with the lead group or second group.  Instead I may be exiting the water by myself again.  Although I have recruited some people to help change my stroke.  Three different people, two whom swam D 1 and one that swam DIII.  That can't hurt right?

  The good news is that I am running well.  Running wise I am in the best shape since when I raced Duathlons 3 or 4 years ago.  I just ran at lunch and did 8 m in around 6 min pace.  It felt nice and easy and I was very relaxed.  Might have been a bit fast, but it was the first day I have worn shorts since like Sept of last year.  Maine winters got to love em! 

Biking wise I have deceided to race with Zipp 808 with a Powertap.  I really don't like that I am not racing with a disc but I think a power tap will help me race faster.  One of the traits that does make me a good athlete is I have a great sense of pace.  My body seems to know what is too fast and naturally holds me back.  So I am not sure if the PT will help me as much as others but it should still help.  

After reading the blogs of some other top triathlete and the power they are able to sustain for extended time I decieded to go out and see what I could do.  The past few weekend I had done a 1:00 and 1:15 tempo ride.  The first one was tough the second one I felt pretty strong., but the power was on the low end of were I wanted to be.  So I went out the other day with the goal of doing 90 min at 285 or so.  I ended up doing 2 hours at 292.  I also ran 5 miles at around 5:40-45 pace right after.  I felt really strong so that is a good sign.

Just a quick post.  Below is the announcement of the Zoot Triathlon Team for 2007.  Amazingly  I am a member! 

http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/News/2007/Introducing_the_2007_Zoot_Sports_Triathlon_Team.htm

I am super excited to be on the team and hopefully this is a great year for me.  The equipment that I was racing on before was OK, but far from the best.  My bike weighted over 22lbs.  I am also excited to be racing in the new Zenith wetsuit. 

Well that is all for now.  I will give an update on how my training is going shortly.

So I got a good solid week of training in last week.  The weather is finally getting nice around here so I am able to get outside and ride.  I took Friday off from work so I was able to get out and ride 3 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Sunday.  I felt like I was working really hard to maintain my watts around 220.  I also tried to stay in the aerobars, but it was killing my neck and upper back.   In the past I have been able to cruise along at 220 to 240.  This past weekend I was struggling to maintain even 210.  On a positive note I ran over 50 miles this past week with a solid long run and a tempo run at 5:33 pace for 4 miles.  I felt really strong on the run and was cruising with my hr at 168-170 bpm for the whole run.   I  swam this morning but it was a really struggle.  The combination of being tired, unmotivated and the water being nearly 85 it was bad workout.  I ran after and although it was slow I felt ok.  

Currently I feel really strong, but am a bit worried that my first big race is in 8 weeks.  I really don't feel that I have the speed to reach my goals.  Although every season I always feel that I am under prepared for the season.  I think I am going to start doing more harder stuff on the bike and on the run.  Hopefully a few weeks of speed will get me my power and speed back. 

Just a quick post before I am off for a lunch time swim.  Starting to feel good training wise.  Was a bit tired last week, but the legs feel good and strong this week.  Did a sub threshold workout last night 2x20 with a 3min rest at 320 and 330 watts.  Felt really good and found myself holding back.  Probably was a bit to hard for what I was trying to achieve, but it was a good mental boost.  I have been getting in some good running milage despite having a hamstring that could pull at any second.  I would like to start doing some tempo runs, but I am really worried I will reinjury the hamstring.   

 I got some new training tools for the pool on Mon, so it has made going to the pool a bit more interesting.  Although no matter what I bring into the pool, it is still swimming.  Well that is all for now.......

Well I am finally posting in my new blog.  Not really sure what to write since I am not really sure who the audience is.  If you have found me on here seems congrats. 

I guess I can talk about my training for a bit.  I enjoy reading other athletes training schedules and plans.  Although mine may be not as exciting as say Simon's, Jordan's or Zack's Blogs, whom I am all a big fan of reading about there training.   Unlike all of the names listed above I don't have very much time to train, 10-15 hours a week , so I try and make up for my lack of volume with intensity.  Not always the best idea.  So do as I say, not as I do!   I also train alone for nearly all of my workouts, although I have joined a masters group of some older guys who don't look like athletes at all but destroy me in the pool. (not that that is that hard.)  And when I mean destroy, I really mean destroy!  Although it is making me faster. 

  Through out the winter a goal of mine was to improve my swimming by swimming more. (that is a pretty novel idea.)  Also another goal is to try and bike 4-5 hours a week, ideally two rides of 1:15 and a long ride of 2:30.  Pretty impressive!  I read Zack's blogs and he rides more in a week than I ride in a month.  Yikes!   The other goal is to improve my running, mainly by staying health.   That worked for the first part of the winter, but recently I have been struggling with numberous minor injuries.  I guess that is what I get for not stretching.   I have really been running like crap the past few year. 

Well if anyone reading this has anything they would like me to talk about let me know.  I am game for anything.

This is a test to see if my blog works.