Seaside Sprint Tri

This past Sunday I was able to participate in a brand new local triathlon - the Seaside Sprint Triathlon. Set on the same closed course as the Park City Olympic Distance Triathlon, I knew this course would be flat and fast!

There were lots of TTers participating and watching including Ed, Cornelia, Kim, Whitney, Justin, CK, Steve, and the entire Masarek family! I always like participating in local races because it's nice to see lots of familiar, friendly faces especially during the race.

The swim start was interesting - it was especially low tide so the first 25 yards started with a run through wet sand then another 25 yards of running through ankle deep water. At that point, I was able to do a few dolphin dives and start swimming. I was also relieved that I didn't have any altercations with mating horseshoe crabs. At the turn buoy I could tell that there was a current going in the opposite direction (good for strong swimmers :)) and was able to build up a lead. By the second turn buoy I caught up to the majority of the men's 40+ wave and some of the men's 39 and under stragglers. As I headed into shore I was amazed at the amount of men wading through hip deep water while I swam past them. Keep swimming people - you swim faster than you wade! Some had even started taking their wetsuits off and still had over 100 yards to go till hitting the beach. About 10 yards to shore my hands started hitting the sandy bottom and at that point I quickly exited the water and ran up the beach into transition.

I was able to get through T1 quickly and headed out on the bike. The two loop, out-and-back course is flat and I started hammering right away in order to build my lead. At the turn-around I was able to see how far back the next woman was, it looked to be about 4 minutes. At that point I knew that as long as I didn't blow up I should be able to maintain a lead.

On the run I felt OK considering my lack of run training since the bike crash and kept up a steady tempo through the turn around. With about a mile to go I eased up a bit (at that point Ed passed me on the run and asked if I was OK - "yes...you just run faster than me") and was able to high-five Steve and Cornelia who were heading out to the turn around. At the finish I saw the clock and knew I had beaten my goal time of sub 1 hr! Yay!

I highly recommend this race to anyone who is looking for a good first time tri or an early season sprint race. Special shout out to Jared Masarek who won his AG in his first tri even though he had to run the last mile of the bike because of a flat! Also, Kim -2nd in AG, Steve -3rd in AG! Way to go!

Back in the Water!

TT Members undergoing some serious thermoregulation!
TARGETRAINING's Clare Zecher leading the outdoor swim at Sherwood Island this past Sunday.
Catch outdoor swims at Sherwood Island on Wednesday's 6:30PM and Sunday's 2:30PM.

2010 Connecticut Stage Race Report - TARGETRAINING’S Masters Team

Having done this race in the Pro/1/2 category last year when Eneas won the overall General Classification, and feeling all of my age with the young guns at the time, Badger and I opted to let the young ones battle it out while we did the Master’s Race. It was refreshing to see others with balding heads and smell the aroma of Bengay floating in the air. Although I must say Badger’s full head of non-graying hair doesn’t seem fair.

The race consisted of three stages including an eight mile time trial, a thirty-one mile circuit race, and ninty-one mile road race. In addition to competing for individual stage wins, we also battled for the Overall General Classification Competition (Yellow Jersey), King of the Mountains Competition KOM (polka dot jersey), and Sprint Competition (Green Jersey). Overall, a well run race over some quiet and beautiful roads. Here’s the link for more information: http://www.connecticutstagerace.com/

Stage 1 - Time Trial:

Jonny Bold, Troy Kimball, and Girard O'Shea came out on top with some pretty good times. Although Jonny’s a very strong rider and making up any time on him over the next 2 stages to contest the Yellow Jersey would be very difficult, this is biking racing so you never really know how things will play out until the end. In addition to challenging for the Yellow Jersey, there were other opportunities and competitions open for grabs over the next 2 stages.

Stage 2 - Circuit Race:

Even though this was a pretty short stage (31 miles on a 3 mile loop), there were KOM points and Sprinter points awarded frequently throughout the stage which made it both interesting and challenging. Visions of all those bells ringing and flags flying indicating the start of another lap and another opportunity to gain points made my head spin pre-race, so when the first KOM flag and bell signaled some points were up for grabs I set off solo to capture some points. I caught and passed another guy who took off on lap 1 and had a good gap on the field to capture the first KOM points as signaled by the official. Turns out that the official failed to ring the bell on the correct lap so I was one lap late for those points. Of course, at the time I didn’t know that so kept it going on my own hoping to grab some more points and small time bonuses.

I managed to build up a pretty nice 45 second gap and gobbled up top KOM and Sprinter Points as the laps counted down. It’s only 31 miles, but trying to ride the rest alone on a pretty challenging course with 3 or 4 laps left didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore, especially since I thought that had accumulated enough points already to at least give me the KOM Jersey. Plus it’s always good to save a little in the tank for stage 3’s long road race. I pulled the plug and re-joined the field just in time for yet another Sprint Point’s lap. Badger urged me to give it a go and somehow I managed to muster up the strength to hit the line first and accumulate a few more Sprint points and small time bonus.

As we hit the final lap and dash to the finishing line, I had a little left in the tank but got stuck behind some slower moving traffic on the right so couldn’t sprint for it. However, a good friend Monte Frank did manage to win the stage while also capturing the Sprinter’s Jersey having accumulated enough points during the stage to beat me. We’re still friends though :-)

Stage 3 - Long Road Race:

Badger and I were literally together for maybe 3 miles in this race. Shortly after the race started he set off on his own to put a little pressure on the leader’s team hoping to perhaps draw a few riders up to join him for the long haul to the finish at mile 91. No-one attempted to bridge and the leading team did a good job setting a steady pace keeping his gap in check at about 30 seconds or so. Back in the day, actually not too long ago, we were allowed to use radios which would have been pretty cool for communicating with one another. Eventually, Badger let up as no-one even attempted to bridge to him and we were still about 15 to 20 miles into the race. His move did cause the leader’s team to expend a bit of energy up at the front, especially the KOM Leader Bill Shattuck. As I wrote above, I didn’t get the KOM Jersey like I thought I did during the Circuit Race due to error both on the part of the officials for ringing the bell on the wrong lap and myself for not knowing better at the time. Hopefully the current KOM leaders efforts to chase Badger down would work in our favor later in the day.

Being the great team-mate that he is, Badger handed me a full water bottle which, to me anyways, signaled his passing the torch over to me for now. Shortly after he re-entered the field, I jumped slightly at the top of a little climb and was off on my own and there was no reaction from the field. With 70 miles left to the finish and a little over 30 miles to some additional KOM and Sprint Points it was going to take some luck, focus, and hard riding to get something out of this move. I put in a steady effort, looking back occasionally, and never saw the field again for many miles. It was a long and lonely road and my goal was to gain maximum points at mile 51 and 53 for both KOM and Sprint Competition and then hang on for dear life when/if I got caught.

The second half of the route is pretty darn hilly and will quickly drain someone who enters with tired legs. I was careful to eat and drink but at some point accidentally dropped some food that I was carrying. I knew this loss would eventually bite me in the butt. I gobbled up full points at mile 51 and 53, which was a relief, but now had to deal with a chasing field and many upcoming hills without food and energy levels starting to drop. This is probably starting to sound way to dramatic, but then the rain started to come down in buckets with lightening and thunder. I heard there was a tornado watch and was ready to jump into the lead car up ahead but couldn’t catch the thing. Trying to catch that car and jump in got me moving a bit faster I think, but the bastard kept going faster and offered no relief :-)

Eventually the rain slowed and so did I. The officials had me stop at a metal bridge and walk across at mile 70 and that’s when I was caught by a small lead group (Badger unfortunately wasn’t in it) but the leader and KOM guy were there (about 6 or 7 guys I think). Good friends Bill Thompson and Monte Frank were also there and provided me with a bit of food which saved me. We rolled along together until a slight acceleration on the final climb gapped me from the rest. We were only about 1 mile from the finish and I limited my loses and rolled in about 1 minute back enough to move up to 4th place in GC overall as well as winning both the Sprinter and KOM Jerseys. Kudos to Jonny Bold for winning the race and retaining the Yellow Jersey, but but our taking away 2 out of the 3 competition jerseys was not too bad.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and excuse me for all this talk about me, me, me.

Ed

Summer TT series event #1 20k results

Name Time Ave. Spd MPH
1 Robert Labanca 29:22:00 25.3
2 Robert Weiss 29:36:00 25.1
3 Michael Kirby 30:16:00 24.6
4 Bryce May 31:15:00 23.8
5 Eric Goodman 31:59:00 23.2
6 Mike Wallace 32:05:00 23.2
7 Paul Lapin 33:20:00 22.3
8 Andrew Schwartz 34:22:00 21.6
9 Jonathon Biele 34:54:00 21.3
10 Andy Kaplan 35:17:00 21.1

Monday Night Cycling Skills clinic 6:30PM at Sherwood Island! And outdoor swim classes!

Schedule Update:

Monday Night Cycling Skills clinic 6:30PM at Sherwood Island!

Learn the basics of cycling (e.g., how to handle the bike, how to spot and deal with potholes/rough road conditions, how to know properly handle traffic -- cars and bicycles -- especially when riding in a group, how to paceline, how to accelerate/sprint, how to climb, how to get bumped and stay up, how to handle a fall, how to cross an intersection as a group, how to pass slower cyclists safely for them and you, how to handle a loose dog/animal/squirrel, how to deal with in-town vs. country-road situations, how to do basic bicycle safety maintenance...) , these Monday night clinics are fun, safe and informative for all and they are also mandatory to attend for clients 1x monthly (make-ups possible...) during the summer for TT clients. This will help improve everyone's on the bike safety skills -- and we all know cycling is a two wheel sport done out on the roads so safety and skills are critical :)

Outdoor Swim Sessions are back!

Wednesday 6:30PM (Sherwood Island)

Sunday 2:30PM (Sherwood Island)