A Look Back

2011 has been an interesting year, to say the least.  I began the year in great shape, with big racing plans, and was primed for a busy season.  This wasn't to be, unfortunately, as an ankle break in mid-February derailed my racing plans for the year.  I did a bit of writing on the topic (I did have a little extra time on my hands) and the following posts pretty much cover the ins and outs of the adventure.

The Dangers of Winter Running - Part I
Plates, screws, and Bone Sutures
Recovery, Rehab, and Thoughts on the ER

Needless to say my training this winter will involve a few more trips to the gym to use the treadmill when the roads might be a little suspect.  I don't need a repeat of this:

Ouch

The downtime this year did, however, give me the chance to be introspective and really look at how I want to be involved in the triathlon community moving forward.  I've been coaching a handful of athletes for a couple of years and have really enjoyed the time and effort that goes into the process.  More to the point, the satisfaction that I get from helping an athlete achieve their goals is more than I could have ever imagined.   I also had some time to look back on how I got hooked on triathlons. 

How it all Started: How I Became A Runner
From Running to Triathlons

More importantly, I thought more and more about coaching.  I took advantage of the free time and became a USAT certified coach.

Hey Coach!
USAT clinic recap

Since the clinic, it's been a busy year.  I worked a few triathlons - I think it's good to give back to the triathlon community and marshal / work a local race or two each year.  Most notably I was on the race staff for the Toughman Half Ironman.  It was a long weekend but it was well worth the time and effort.  Triathlons just can't be held without the help of volunteers and the tireless hours of the race organizing committee. 

Back on the coaching side of the house, it was equally as busy.  While all my athletes did well and achieved their goals, one of my athletes really had a great year.  Not only did she take overall Master (and 2nd woman overall) at her hometown race, but she had a PR at Steelhead 70.3.

Clark Lake Triathlon Recap

Her performances this year, along with the accomplishments of my other athletes, confirmed my desire to coach and make this a career.  It'll be a long road but I think I'm on the right track.  I'm working with a USAT Level III coach who is acting as a mentor and I've also been hired by Team in Training to coach the area triathlon team.  For this, I became certified at the Dave Scott coaching clinic just last month.  (I have yet to write about that experience - I'll report on that soon enough, I promise.)  But, I did get to meet the legend.  He's humble and generous with his time.

Dave Scott is on the left. I'm the short guy on the right (just in case you weren't sure!)

And finally, there were some interesting happenings in and around the running and triathlon community that I either experienced or wrote about.  So, going back through 2011 (and a couple posts from late 2010), here are a few links that I thought might be worth revisiting.

My Problem here is with the "Noodle"
Managing Life and Triathlons
Support in Injury and Health

And based on my run this morning - and two incidents with drivers who were just not paying attention - I thought this would be worth a second look: Common Courtesy - An Endangered Species

With that, it's now time to put bad mojo behind me and look forward to a busy, upcoming race and coaching season.  I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012 - full of health, fitness, and good racing. 

Gail's Trail Race Recap

 .....or "What a Difference A Year Makes"

It was a nice morning for a December trail race.  20F at the start up in Redding, CT.  People that had run this race before were looking forward to the single track, water crossings, and mud.  New participants were asking a lot of questions about what they'd gotten themselves into.  Much bigger crowd compared to years past.  But more on that later.

I wrote about this race last year and I've had three good years racing at this event.  This year, however, not so much.

I didn't bother wearing my heart rate monitor, as I was instructed to "not race" by my lovely wife.  She has a good point with that bit of instruction: My ankle just isn't quite up to full 'blasting through trails' fitness yet, so I never planned on trying to duplicate my efforts from last year.  I felt calm and relaxed as we warmed up, and was content to just "run" it and have a great time.  However, it wouldn't have mattered what my original plans were.

Fitness, or lack there-of, really showed.  I never felt good....not even at the beginning.  The hills were just crushing.  Last year, by the first 'peel off' into single track, I was amongst the top 5 runners.  This year as we headed into the woods I might have been lucky to be in the top 20.  I just never got into a groove.  It's a good thing I didn't wear my hear rate monitor as I'm pretty sure I would have seen my theoretical max today. 

By the end I was absolutely ready to stop running.  Quads were barking….lungs were burning.  I thought of my triathlon this past October and how good I actually felt after an entire season on the bench.  Heck, I even had a good result at that race.  Have I fallen that far off the fitness wagon?  Clearly there's lots of work to do this off-season.

But, let's not stray too far from the facts: This is a great race.  The folks over at Team Mossman really put on a nice event here.  The course was marked "just enough" for a trail race, and there was plenty of mud and water to keep things interesting.  Some of us were a little, what's the word here:  Disappointed?  Not sure.  But the race has grown from a small event with 40-50 die-hards, to close to 150 people this year.  While we were sad to see our niche race become more mainstream, this is great news for Team Mossman.  Great events will always draw crowds.

Anyway…..I was home by 1000a, and having a nice breakfast and coffee by 1030a.  A premium nap followed.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

Toughman Half Iron Triathlon 2011 Photo Gallery

Apologies for the massive delay, but below are a handful of pics from the Toughman Half Iron Triathlon .  As previously mentioned I was working over the race weekend, but did manage to get some photos in throughout race day:

Transition area - Athletes are headed to the beach

Athletes on the beach - Race is about to begin

Countdown to the first wave

Elites and M40-44 into the water

First swimmer out of the water

Second swimmer out of the water

First elite / pro onto the run (This guy smoked the course - overall winner)

The fan fave - "Tri-Dog"

Collar reads: "Swim - Bark - Run"

Some of the race staff at the start (I'm on the far left)

I would have had more pics during the bike leg, but we were crazy busy as the athletes came into T2 - controlled chaos in that last 1/4 mile!  It was tough to have my iPhone out and at the ready while working and racing around all morning.

Great feedback from athletes post-race as well.  Always encouraging to hear kudos from people that are racing.  Makes all the hard work and lack of sleep that weekend well worth it.

Cedar Beach Triathlon Race Recap

The Cedar Beach triathlon is one of the last triathlons of the season here in the northeast - at least in my neck of the woods.  I wanted / needed to get a race in after my ankle break this past spring, just to mentally get a boost and to tell myself that I can still race.  My running has been good as of late, and I've had a couple good tempo runs, so I was confident that I could race this event and not just coast through it.  I've been swimming and cycling regularly, but nothing significant in regards to speed workouts.  So I figured I'd give this race a shot and see how I could do.

The Cedar Beach triathlon is held out in Miller Place, NY.  This is pretty far east out on Long Island - I had a very early morning as I needed to drive about 90 minutes from my home to get to the event site.  In retrospect, this is a long way to drive for a sprint distance triathlon.

Really nice venue for the race.  We all watched the sun come up over Long Island Sound as transition area setup was underway.  Shortly after, I went for a warm up run with my new buddy Dan.  He and I met while working at the Toughman Half Iron triathlon.  He's a tough competitor and it was great to hang out with him pre and post race.  We ran a mile and half or so easy and then suited up for the swim.  The Sound was a bit chilly, so it was a full sleeve wetsuit kind of day. 

Being in wave two, I had five minutes to wait after wave one went into the water.  There was a bit of "sweep" or current coming in and as we headed out (anti-clockwise swim around a somewhat rectangular course) I could feel the tide working against me.  Making the first left turn, I still felt the current, so I figured it was going to be a longer swim for everyone.  That said, I was surprised to cross the chip mat into T1 in 10:30.  Not too shabby.

In and out of T1 and it was off for two loops of the bike course.  15 miles total (again, this was a sprint distance race).  As I hadn't ridden this course before, I checked some maps and elevation charts at home to get as information on the course as possible.  I was pretty well prepared for the mile-plus climb early in the loop.  Not killer, but it certainly slows things down.  The rest of the course is fast.  A few smaller climbs, but most of the course is rolling downhill.  After one loop there's a great turnaround area: right in front of a huge mass of spectators.  22 minutes and change for lap one.   Lap two was good, and I negative split my laps.

I was only passed by two individuals on the bike (yes, I checked their age on their calfs as they went past and, as they weren't in my age group, I didn't worry about it).  I was surprised, however, to not see anyone in the mens 40-44 age group as I made my way through the bike course.  My swim wave was comprised of everyone 40 years old and older and thought maybe I'd see a few people from my division.  I didn't think too much about it, but I did hope that maybe I was having a good day.  Off the bike in 43:30-ish and onto the run.  (I say 43:30-ish as I don't have the official results available to me yet to confirm my time.  And I was an idiot and left my bike computer on the back of my car while packing up.  It's now most likely laying in the parking lot never to be seen by me again.)

The run course was a flat, two loop course.  All along the ocean and through, for the first half of each loop, a nice nature trail.  Paved, but very nice.  As I made my way around for my second loop, I saw someone in my age group ahead - but realized that he was on his first lap as he didn't make a move to counter when I passed him.  Again, great turnaround area......you loop through a huge spectator area and then run along the side of the transition area.  I passed a few people and struggled to keep my form and cadence / stride in check.  My lungs were burning from my lack of training and race fitness.  I'm pretty sure I sounded like a Sherpa climbing Mt. Everest.  I came into the finish shoot and felt good about the effort at the end.  20:30 for the 5K run.  I was pleased with the pace and I didn't even think about my ankle once.

When final results were posted, I came in 8th overall and 1st in the mens 40-44 age group.  A great way to get my first (and last) triathlon of the season in.  Granted, it was a sprint distance race, but I was pleased to have finished as well as I did considering I'm not in peak race fitness.  Very encouraging for next season.

This winter is all about base building, and getting ready for next season.  I'm still deciding what races to target, but am pretty sure I'll throw in a couple Olympic distance races, maybe a sprint or two, and see how I feel about a late season 70.3 race.

Toughman Half Ironman Race Weekend Prep

Sunday was the Toughman Half Ironman triathlon.  I would have been racing yesterday - my second time racing Toughman - save for the broken ankle earlier this year that has derailed my racing this season.  As my good friend Rich is the race organizer and founder I worked as a member of the race staff and, as I did last year found it to be incredibly rewarding.  Lots of hard work and lots of hours spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the race site.  But just a great weekend overall.

This was a half iron distance race.  Just for reference that's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run.  I was involved in getting the aid stations for both the bike and run course setup, supplied with product, and ready for the athletes.  It was amazing to see how much product is required for a half iron distance race with close to 900 athletes racing:

500 cases of water
3,000 bottles of PowerBar Perform
75 cans of PowerBar Perform mix
4 cases of Enduralytes
80 cases of gel packs
80 cases of canned Coke
30 boxes of extra large trash bags
14,000+ cups

All of our product was stored in a shipping container at the race site.  Determining how much product should go where was something I worked out in the weeks building up to the event - yet getting the product out to the aid stations was going to be quite the undertaking.  Three bike aid stations, and 17 run aid stations (athletes would pass 8 of the aid stations twice) were on the map and needed to be stocked with supplies.

This past Friday I inventoried all of the above mentioned product.  Aside from aid station inventory, there were tents that needed to be erected, hurricane fencing to be placed, and a transition area to be set up.  I wasn't involved in all of it, but I arrived that morning and departed for home around 800p.  I know there were others that worked much later into the evening ensuring that site was not only ready for the race on Sunday, but that we were ready for the kids racing scheduled for Saturday as well.

We loaded the trucks with the aid station product late Saturday afternoon, but arrival at the race site for me was around 630a to start working on logistics.  After numerous other tasks, phone calls, and meetings, I had three box trucks backed up to the storage container.  Team members lined up to start the off-loading process and getting the required amount of product into each truck.  We finalized product counts per aid station, compared these counts to spreadsheets that I put together, and locked the trucks down for the night.  We then drove the course (three teams - one for the bike course and two for the run course) and dropped off tables.

I then had some time to watch the athletes check-in as the day came to a close.  The transition area was abuzz with activity with bikes being racked.  It was great fun to feel the vibe.  I walked the expo a bit - saying hello to a few folks I knew in some of the vendor tents - and finally left to get some sleep.  While I arrived home later than the previous night, I again left with an army of people still working to ensure that everything was in tip-top shape for race day.

Sunday is such a blur at the moment.  I couldn't sleep much on Saturday night, as I kept thinking of all the things I had to do and wanted to double check.  So I was up at 230a on race day, and with coffee in hand drove off to buy ice for some of the aid stations. While we did have ice delivered on race day in refrigerated trucks for finish line and post race purposes, getting ice onto the course was going to be handled separately.  (Love 24 hour gas stations...."Hi, I'd like to buy every bag of ice that you have, please....oh, and can I get an extra large coffee?")  After dropping off ice at a couple spots on the course, I arrived at the race site at 330a.  By 430a all the trucks left with teams of three to four people to hit the course and drop off product at the aid stations.  With running headlamps blazing, we left each aid station with all the cases of water, gel, PowerBar Perform, Coke, etc that they needed.  Thankfully, all the volunteers - can't do a race without them - setup the aid stations when they arrived not long after.  They really did an amazing job.

The first bike aid station - at mile 18 and 36 (the athletes would pass by this location twice) - would have 60 cases of water, and 1,500 bottles of PowerBar Perform endurance drink.  The second bike aid station - closer to mile 25 - would have 20 cases of water.  All the other product was split up at all the aid stations on the run course.  We also put 70 cases of water at the finish line, and had three 7 gallon jugs being filled with PowerBar Perform (continually refilled as necessary as racers finished.)  Of course there were bananas, pizza, and bagels for the athletes as they finished and a BBQ at the finish line for all the athletes and families as well.

I left the race site last night absolutely beat.  Again, there were crews still tearing down all the infrastructure while I was showering at home and subsequently falling asleep on the couch around 1000p.  I woke up this morning to stiff fingers, sore hands, tired arms, an aching back, and sore legs.  Oh, and an achilles tendon that's yelling at me for all the twisting and turning done while moving / tossing / placing hundreds of cases of water.  Thankfully I'm taking today off of work from my real job so I can recover a bit.

I have some photos from during the race.  I'll hopefully get a post with a race recap out later this week.