Margaritas 5K - Exeter, NH

Official Results: 2nd OA, 1st AG M20-29, Time: 17:03 (5:29 per mile pace)

After running a PR at the 5 mile distance a few weeks ago I was curious to see how fast I could run a 5k. I was hoping to break 17:00, but I was 3 seconds over. It wasn't until I got home and called my parents and had them check to see what my PR was for the 5k since I couldn't remember the last time I had run one. My PR from high school which is probably the fastest 5k I've ever run was my sophomore year and was a 16:58. I'm hoping to break this PR soon!

I ended up going to this race by myself yesterday since Jess was so tired. I was up at 7am and out of the house by 8am. Even though the race wasn't until 10am I still had to preregister, stretch and drive 40 minutes to the race. Based on last years results I was hoping it maybe win it, but after getting there I noticed there were a few good guys that showed up for the race. I saw the guy that won the race warming up and had a feeling he might win it. Sure enough I was right. After talking to him after the race, he had just run the Boston Marathon and finished in 2:30 and had raced a 5k yesterday...this guy was in awesome shape! I started out in 2nd place and finished in 2nd place for this race. After looking over the data from the race, I ran at 98% Max HR and for the last few minutes I hit 100 to 101%...no wonder why I felt like I was going throw up the last 1/1oth of a mile! Hopefully I can break my 5k PR soon! I'd like to break my 5k, 10k and 10 mile PR's this year as well!

Up next the JCC Sprint Triathlon May 16.

96th Lexington Lions Patriots Day 5 Miler

Official Results: 7th OA, 5th AG M20-29 Time: 27:51 (5:34 per mile pace) new PR

This past Monday, which for those of you who don't live in Massachusetts was Patriots Day so I was off from work and I ran my first race of the season. It felt great to get out there again and test my race legs. I live for the competitiveness of racing and the strategy during the race. I picked this race because it was featured on coolrunnings.com as one of the to do races and because it is one of the longest lasting road races in the US, which is pretty cool! Going into the race I was just hoping to have fun with it and run around a 6 min per mile pace. I sure did surprise myself considering my first mile was a 5:23, but I slowed down a little after that. I was in 7th position for the whole race up until there was under a mile and half left I poured it on and was able to catch the 2 guys in front of me. The only problem was that I was going by the distance on my new Garmin Forerunner and it said there was still .08 miles left until the finish line so I didn't start to sprint so when I turned the final corner to find the finish line was right there the 2 guys caught me since they had started sprinting sooner that I had. Had I known about the course I probably would have finished 5th, but this race was for fun right! Overall I was psyched that I was able to run so fast this early in the season and I'm looking forward to the JCC Sprint Triathlon coming up this month.

A New Job!

I'm happy to report that I will officially be employed as of February 1st! After being unemployed for about a month and half I will be starting my new job at Consigli Construction in Milford, MA. I'm very excited to see what new opportunities await me there. I will be performing the same work that I was doing at my old company, which was Estimating. It's great knowing that I have a job now because for awhile there I was wondering how long I would collecting unemployment and if the economy was going to get any better. It was also hard to get motivated for training not knowing if I was going to get a job. Now that I know I have job it's time to put together a training plan for this year, stay tuned!

2009 Year in Review & What have I been up too?

Looking back on 2009, I'm so glad it's over! I'm not sure if I just lacked the motivation to get back into some hardcore training after coming off the Ironman in November of the following year, but I just couldn't put 100% into it last year. I found biking to be more enjoyable last year and that was probably why I had the best I times to date last year with my best race being Timberman where I averaged 22.0 mph, which was great! I unfortunately didn't have the running miles to put together a great half marathon time, which hurt me in the end. Needless to say I didn't meet my goals for 2009, which were to qualify for the Boston Marathon and make it to the 70.3 Championship race in Florida, so I will again make these my goals for 2010.

Here were my total miles for 2009 for each discipline:

Swim: 112,805 yards (64 miles)

Bike: 1,213.88 miles

Run: 322.43 miles


What have I been up too?
It's been awhile since I've posted so I just want to start off saying that I hope everyone had a great holiday and a Happy New Year! I was unfortunately laid off on December 11 and have been trying to find a job ever since. I've had some promising interviews over the last few weeks, so we'll see what happens. Since being laid off I've started training a little bit more, which has been great! I've even been doing double workouts every day. In the mornings I've been going to the gym to lift and then in the afternoons I've been doing bike trainer sessions. Hopefully I'll be employed again and can set my sites on some races to focus on for the 2010 season. As of right now I've only signed up for Timberman 70.3 and I'm holding off on signing up for any other races until I know I have a job again.

2009 Feaster Five

Here is a quick post of the results from this mornings race in Andover, MA

Time: 28:48
Pace: 5:48 / mile
18th Overall out of 2,734
9th Age Group M20-29 out of 228

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!

A Call to Honor: A Triathlon in Memory of Rick Cashin

Official Results: 2nd OA, 1st AG M30 and under; 46:32

Pre-Race
The night before this race I only had 4 hours of sleep since Jess and I were at a wedding the night before. Despite the few hours of sleep I actually didn't feel tired that morning and the good thing about this race was that it was only a 10 minute drive to the start because the race was in Boxford at Stiles Pond, which is the next town over from where we live. Also, Stiles Pond is where my triathlon group, Tri-Fury does most of there open water training sessions and where I usually do my open water swims, but this year I've only made it out there twice.

Swim 1/4 Mile: 5th OA; 5:53 (1:27/100m)
I was in the first swim wave for this race along with everyone under the age of 30 and all the relays. With the race being small enough it wasn't a crowded swim start which was nice so I started out at the front. The swim was a rectangular clockwise swim. I got out to the first buoy faster than I thought and felt great and I was in 3rd or 4th heading to the 2nd buoy. I had predicted to finish the swim in about 6:30 because that was about the pace I was swimming this year, but I ended up being faster than I though.

Bike 10.5 Miles: 2nd OA; 31:39 (28:53 - 21.8 MPH)
My official time was 31:39, but this includes my T-1 and T-2 times so this is why the 31:39 seems slower than I actually was. I was excited to get to the bike leg of the race since I've really enjoyed this portion of racing this year. After exiting T-1, my heart rate was through the roof and didn't settle down until the end of the bike ride. The bike route was part of the Tri-Fury group ride that I do on Saturdays so it was very familiar to me, which was great! I was hoping to average around 22 MPH, but didn't hit that and I think that was because of the lack of sleep.

Run 1.5 miles: 1st OA; 9:01 (6:00/mile)
Coming into T-2 I saw my competition from the 2nd wave right behind me, Kevin Reen. I raced against Kevin at the JCC this year and I knew that he might catch me on the bike, but I just didn't know where. As I exited T-2 I was right behind him the whole way to the finish, but I knew since he had caught me that he had made up the 2 minute gap on me. The run leg was pretty cool since it was an out and back on an unpaved, but graded road. It was nice running on that instead of a paved road.

Post-Race:
Overall it was a well run race by the volunteers, the town of Boxford, the State Police (who Capt. Rick Cashin had worked for), and the Boxford Police. It was also a great end of the season race for me and it was awesome that is was so close to home for once.

Timberman 70.3 - 2009 Race Report

Official Results: 144th OA out of 1808 / 19th M25-29 out of 110; 5:01:19

Swim 1.2 Miles: 433rd OA; 33:50 (1:45/100m)
This was my worst swim ever! I think part of the reason why my swim times haven't been that great this year because I stopped lifting all together this season, unlike last season where I actually did a full body workout once a week. I also keep having the problem that when I get about 10 minutes into the swim I start hacking up flem and have to stop swimming at least 2-3 times to get rid of it. It's very strange since I've never had this problem before while swimming. The swim leg of the race other than what I mentioned above was pretty uneventful.

Bike 56 Miles: 114th OA; 2:32:35 (22.0 MPH)
After coming out of the water and into T1 I knew I had some ground to gain with an awful swim time. My bike times have definitely improved this season, which I've been pretty excited about and I've only done 1 ride over 50 miles this season and that was before Amica 70.3 RI. I have been doing more shorter rides during the week at a higher intensity, so I think that this has helped me get a little faster. Once I was out of T1 and heading out on the course, I realized that the climb out to the flatter part of the course was a little more challenging that I had thought after driving the course the day before the race. The climb from the Lake was brutal at some points where I was only going like 8-9 mph up the hills. Once I got to the flatter part of the course to where the turn around was I got into a good cadence and was able to go 22 - 25 mph. It was slightly downhill to the turn around, which was great. Once I hit the turn around I still felt great was able to maintain about 21 mph. There was one last hill left towards the end but it was nothing after the climb up from the lake. The downhills back to the Lake were very fast and I ended up hitting 47.5 mph on one of the downhills, which is the fastest I have ever gone on my bike! I think I had a pretty good nutrition plan on the bike portion of this race and ended up taking 1 accelerade bottle, 1 small Monster/Gatorade mix and 1 water bottle and a gel squeeze bottle that holds 4 gel servings and straps to the tube of the bike, so it makes it convenient to get at while your riding. I should have taken in some salt tablets because once I hit the run I struggled the first 2 miles.

Run 13.1 Miles: 204th OA; 1:49:09 (8:20/mile)
Coming into T2 for some unexplained reason I had a mental breakdown once I got back to my bike rack and was almost ready to quite. I think that was because I felt so unprepared for the upcoming run, but once I got out of T2 and headed out on the run course my mental state quickly improved and I felt fine even though I struggled the first 2 miles because my quads cramped up so bad that it was affecting my form. I walked into the first aid station, took in some water and 4 Endurolyte tablets and after that I was good for the rest of the run, but it took about 4-5 miles for them to finally get into my system for the cramping to stop. I would have liked to have had a faster run, but my running mileage is severely lacking this year. I've found biking much more enjoyable this year then running and I think this is because my hamstrings have been so tight that running has been on the painful side, but if I bike I can bike at a high intensity and not feel any pain at all. The course was a good course, it was a 2 loop out and back course and it was awesome having a huge TriFury cheering crowd out there cheering us on and taking pictures as we passed them.

Post-Race:
After crossing the finish line I thought I was still under the 5 hour mark, but then when the official results were posted I was 1 minute over, but that was close to what I had predicted for my finish time. The greatest part of the race was getting my finishers medal from Chrissie Wellington! In my opinion she showed some great sportsmanship by doing that. After she won the women's race she came back to the finish line to personally hand out finishers medals, it was the coolest thing ever! I just wish I had a picture of it!

Other Notes:
On another note this was an awesome race because I got to meet up with Jason Widstrom with whom I ran with back in high school when he was a senior and I was freshman. I think that was the last time I saw him and he still looked the same. It was great getting a chance to race with/against him. I was secretly hoping to beat him and I did, sorry Jason I had to put it on here! I knew if I didn't beat you that I would get a ton of crap from Scott DeWire! I'm just hoping that the three of us can do a race together next year and all meet up. All and all it was good race, I still wasn't able to get that Clearwater slot, but looking back on this season, it just wasn't meant to be. I feel like my heart just wasn't in it like it was last year and at times I lacked some of the motivation that I had last year. I'm hoping I can take the lessons learned from this season and use them next season. I'm just happy that the season is over. I'm signed up for the Bay State Marathon in October, but with 5-6 weeks to get ready for a marathon with not much running mileage, I think I'm going to scrap this idea and possibly do a spring marathon.