70.3 IM Florida - 2 days out
Well it's only two days out, and Jen and I think we're ready to race. It was really humid here today, but the weather channel is estimating things will cool off a little bit.
The water temp is 86 degrees today, so unless some freezing rain comes through, (which the chances are 1 million to 1) wetsuits will not be legal.
We did our race check in and got our numbers, chip, and bikes. The expo isn't very impressive unlike IM Florida and Wisconsin, and the 70.3 Florida apperal was scarce. Maybe they'll have more goodies out tomorrow.
Slippery Rock Triathlon
With my half
Ironman right around the corner, I wanted to get a little practice on the new Felt and new
Zipps. At the last minute, Jen, Drew, and I decided to head up to Slippery Rock University for a sprint triathlon that supported CF.
The swim was a 400 yard pool swim which was 16 total lengths. I was in the first heat, and swam my fastest time at this distance which was 5:55.
I had a fast transition, and found myself in first place behind one of the teams. I
hammered on the bike, and averaged around 23 mph, but didn't have anyone to push me so I felt like I could of went faster. The bike was seven loops and 9.6 miles total.
I felt good on the run, but again didn't have anyone push me. I ran a little under six minute mile pace for the 2.5 mile run.
Overall the bike felt good, and I won my first
tri of the season
even though it was pretty small.
The Boston Marathon 07
I started the week off good with hopes of a sub 3 hour marathon. I've done the typical race to just finish, and have been training hard all winter to
beat that three hour barrier. Well after April 16
th, I'm going to have to sign up for another marathon if I hope to break three...however the race will go down as one I just barely survived.
I traveled from PIT to Logan International Monday April 9
th, an entire week before the race. About Tuesday or Wednesday the local news started to predict some of the worst weather the area could see as a
Nor'easter moved up the coast. As the weekend approached, there were even talks of canceling the race for the first time ever. Luckily the race director convinced officials to let the race go on.
As the weekend approached, so did the storm. Tracking it on the local
Doppler radar this week was really
dis alarming. As Sunday (1 day prior race day) approached, the rain was relentless. There were talks that the rain would subside by morning, but that never happened.
As I woke up at 4:30 AM Monday morning, I dressed and headed to the Boston Common to catch the shuttle bus that takes you to
Hopkinton. The bus ride to
Hopkinton was not a pleasant experience. It was raining, and extremely hot and stuffy inside the bus. Once we arrived at the
pre-race tents the entire ground was saturated with water and mud.
I walked to the start line at 9:30 AM with my make shift rain coat, and my throw-away clothes ready to run like I've never ran before. 10:00 AM approached, and the starting gun went off. It was slow at first, but I soon found myself running my 6:50 mile pace however I quickly noticed something was wrong.
Anyone that has ran Boston knows that the first six miles are the easiest on the course and also mainly down hill. I kept glancing down at my heart rate monitor, and it my heart was pumping 15-20 beats too high. My target rate was 165 for the first 10 miles, and I was already
creeping over 180 beats per minute. I felt good, but could tell I was working too hard.
By the time I got to
Wellsley and the halfway point, my race was over. I was completely out of gas, and there was nothing left in the tank. My
glycogen levels were depleted, and the lactic acid was building up ever so fast in the legs.
As I made it to the top of Heart Break, and began my final decent into
Beantown, I was already over my 3 hour target goal. I finished with a 3:20 or 3:21, which was
disappointing. However looking back on the race and given the conditions, I'm glad I hung in there till the end.
I just told myself that there will always be another race, and even the best runners have there off days every now and then.
My Blog is back
Well my Blog is finally back guys and gals. After I redesigned my website, and installed a new virus scan program, Microsoft Windows
miraculously turned on the automatic firewall thus shutting down my FTP site....anyways, it's back so enjoy. I know I have a lot of catching up to do. ~Chad
