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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Columbia.... and thoughts....

Columbia was yesterday.. wanted to give it a good 24... no pun intended for the Jack Bauer fans, I am one of those... , great finish to an awesome series... Anyhoo, back to TRI's, Columbia seems to be living up to the last 3 years...a little chilly, a little percipitation, but alot of fun. We raced with some the best Pro Triathletes in the World, Shapiro, Wassner, Yoder, O'Donnell, and Deboom, absolutely incredible to be lining up with these folks in MD... so glad they came.

Down pours, and some more before the National Anthem, but everyone stayed fast, and said to themselves... "Let's race..." and we did. A little sprinkles on the ride, but warmed up for the run, and a wonderful finish.

And now some thoughts.....oh boy.. don't worry.. this is good stuff....Forgot in the last post to say how smooth, fluid, and easy it was for Florida IronMan 70.3, primarily of TriSportExpress , Darrin Scoggins of TriSportExpress did an incredible service, picking up our bikes at our home with Trans-Bags loaded with whatever you wanted, delivered them within 50 yds at transition, had a full trailer , support, pumps, and apres 70.3 , food, wine, beer, sodas, water.

First class. All he has to do now is include Nautica New York in July.... and he will be set .... :) ...

PS... forgot he also delivered everything back home... class act.. a huge plus in our sport.. Thanks Darrin!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Data

Back in MD... missing the palms... nice weather.... Columbia on Sunday.. should be interesting. First time doing a 70.3 ... then doing Columbia... pretty sure we will be ok on the bike, run .... well that might be interesting...

Thoughts...., always enjoy your race..., record.. share.... etc. but unless you have all the "DATA" and have all the end be all on some one else's race....don't post..., don't share... just say how great they did... reposting some errant data that is missed..or Ford IM did not have correct..., well just say... ain't worth the pain... in the brain...

Unfortunately I posted some times/splits which I pulled from the IM site, which were probably still being uploaded, and worse... they were not correct , not a cool move ... any hoo ...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Alleluha Good bye Lactate.....

Day 3 after Florida Iron Man 70.3 and finally we can go up and go down stairs without a side step, whincing, groaning or whining.....

Shredded the quads , hope they heal enough for Columbia this coming weekend.. should be interesting with the hills and the infamous run...

Read an interesting article in a TRI mag on a Marine Major William J. Connor, Naval Academy Grad, who has deployed numerous times, 15+ to Iraq and Afganistan, and has the multi sport life style embraced, racing many in full gear with a 35lb pack and boots just to make it interesting.

Most importantly he vows to finish what ever course, an Olympic, 1/2, Full or Ultra IRON MAN or leave in an ambulance. What caught my eye was his mention of a fellow Marine and grad of the Naval Academy who did not make it back, Doug Zembiec. Doug was our neighbor, friend, and an incredible person...

Major Connor stated he keeps pictures of his fallen in his room and looks at them every time he wakes up. I have a similar pic of Doug, at my office, an action shot taken in Fallougha of him on patrol... That pic is my inspiration as well, he was one hell of a guy... Check out the article on Major Connor, it is incredible, inspirational, and well worth the read, it is called "Die before DNF" Triathlete Mag May 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Alligator That Attacked Triathlete Is Captured

FOXNews.com - Alligator That Attacked Triathlete Is Captured

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Florida 70.3 Iron Man 2010

Wow....., day after....and it still hasn't hit me..... yet.....   first 1/2 Iron Man....  6 hours 58 mins.....

An unbelievable event...  definitely weren't in Kansas anymore...., more M Dots, cut bodies, and carbon that I have ever seen at a TRI.

 I  and fellow Iron Crabs Sandy Grosvenor, Mike Monaco, and Bill Murphy attacked the Florida Iron Man 70.3 on Sunday.

You had to be prepared for this one, and we were. I had great coaches, Ashley Halsley, from the training, workouts to nutrition/fuel/hydration during the event, he was spot on...spot on, and additionally had my swim coach Jenn Bistrack for my TRI Masters swimming...1.2 miles was a piece of cake after all of her tremendous work outs this spring. Would not have finished if not for Ashley's and Jenn's guidance and advise.

Beautiful start at sunrise, lake was clean, flat, nice SE breeze,  had a fast swim...  65th out 300..... Bike was very cool.... through Fort Wilderness then to surrounding roads/highways... strong head wind last 10 miles... brutal...  crushed the bike, 56 miles,  just over 3 hours.

Then the fun started, heat....and I mean heat..... hotter than a crab boiler for 4 steam pots.... For the 1/2 marathon we had 3 Four(+) mile loops. It was hot , dry , no air moving, no clouds....straight sun beating down, people dropping like flies.... held my own, ran the whole deal , walked a couple aid stations to load up on ice, fuel, and cold water. The kids took ferry over from Magic Kingdom, watched/ took videos/ pics of the finish.... really cool.

Keys to this race: Training, Prep, and race nutrition. Most importantly in this heat if you didn't follow a conservative race plan and follow a strict hydration/caloric intake ... you were history... as evidenced during the last 4 mile loop.... of all the 20-32 year olds that wizzed by on the bike in the 90 degree heat, a majority were walking their last 4 miles...and we passed them all on the run. Made me feel good that we were prepared and followed a game plan. It was very hard though to pull back and not "go for it" on the bike, glad I had the patience to stick to a plan and execute it... it worked.

The size of the event was great, 2430 +- Triathletes, being used to 4000 or even up to 7000 at some of the bigger events, this one was really cool, extremely well run, very professional, a whole different level.

Wow..... don't think this is a dream...... had so much fun..... thinking already about next year... best race yet...


-Fletch
ATC 17

Great Race