Syracuse Half Ironman

Bill, Bob and I decided to do this inaugural race because Bill’s parents live in Syracuse and Bob's grandparents live in Long Island. Chance to visit relatives and race!!!! How sweet is that!

Race day morning: heavy drizzle going to the race – rain over night. Our bikes were in transition all night but we plastic bagged them till the cows came home!!

Got to the race – the traffic was just the worst. We got in transition with 25 minutes to spare before they closed it – and that was because Bill dropped us off on the road outside the park (he was not racing due to injury). The police were in total Nazi mode and he almost got a ticket for stopping to let us off.They did announce a few minutes after transition closed they were going to leave it open for another 15 minutes – good thing for all those who had not even parked yet!!

The water was 62 degrees. Bob and I bought throw-away hoodies, shoes and socks to keep warm before the swim. Actually the air temp was not bad and we were not cold at all.

My wave went off about 10 minutes after Bob’s did – and since swimming is such a joyous part of my race, I decided to confront one orange buoy at a time so that I did not go into complete apathy about how far away the yellow buoy was – as that was the turn-around point. Swim was not bad with the exception of when I took in a mouth full of water at the beginning and had to stop until I stopped choking and could breathe again. Got out of the water at 52 minutes thinking I am doomed to never be able to do a swim in less time than Barry can in a FULL Ironman (for that I hate him!!!)

Transition was 350 feet from the water – so after the wetsuit strip it was a good run. I found my bike – all went smooth and was off on the bike.

2 days before we drove the bike course and it “looked” really hilly, all the hills seemed to be in the first 15 miles. I was a bit apprehensive about that since my tri bike is geared for flat. But the hills were not that bad and I passed a bunch of people. Since I am not a good climber, that told me there are many that are even worse at climbing than I am. At mile 10 my average speed was 13.5 mph. That was not too encouraging! I only got passed by about 20 people on the bike

The sky was still overcast and there were times on the bike you could not see more than a half block as the fog was so bad. This was never a problem with the exception of the hills that came out of nowhere and were major short climbs that were on you NOW!!. The bike course had about 2,700 ft of climbing on it, the rest were rollers. It was actually a great course.

All in all, the bike was a great ride. I thought I would be around 3:30 on the bike and came in at 3:11 and had an avg. mph of 17.5 by the time I got to the end. Better than the 13.5 at mile 10!!

Got back into transition and was out on the run. And I do not know about anyone else but starting the run with an uphill would not have been at the top of my list of what I would EVER “choose” to do.

The hill did not last too long and I was getting in the groove as the first 2 miles were then down hill – at that point I am praising the higher powers to be and thinking – life is G O O D!

And life did remain good until about mile 5 of the race that found us on Erie Blvd which was about 7 miles of the run course – flat, Bob thinks it was an incline, I thought it could not have been more boring and N E V E R, and I mean never ending!!! I was in nowhere man's land with a Blvd that never ends, my legs starting to hurt, my ability to entertain myself – GONE, and this was the part of the race where that finish line could not come soon enough. BUT you never think of things like finish line as 4 miles seems an eternity away from it!!

Finally turned a corner and got onto another street – new stuff to look at and UP hill. I am now refraining from my thoughts at that point. Finally made it to mile 12, a new street and ALL downhill to finish!! Bills parents, Bill and sister were about 0.2 miles from the finish, that was encouraging!

Finished Half Ironman #14
6:29:38
Swim – 52:29
Bike – 3:11:38
Run – 2:15:24 – that is my best half marathon time in a half ironman! Thank You Mr Steve Mackel – best running coach ever!!
Divison position – 5th of 9 – not that good but I thought my race was good and I was very encouraged by my run and doing way better on the bike than I thought I would do.

This was a great venue. The crowds were awesome, the weather was overcast most of the day making perfect race temperatures. I would recommend this race – good course – good support – great people!!!

Lynda

Tour of California - Stage 3

Stage 3 -

We started from San Francisco and went down Hwy 1. It was misty and overcast starting out. Then it morfed into just overcast. After about 20+ miles we turned and started a 10 mile hill climb to first King Of Mountain. We rode through a rain forest and the higher we got the wetter it was. The rain forest was nothing I have ever scene in California. The road was narrow and you almost could not see the sky for all the trees.

By the time we got to the top we were good and wet - then started the decent - one guy hit a yellow line and he was down. A CHP picked him up and took him to the top of the mountain. That is where our sag van was, then the van came and got his bike. We all continued on to the second KOM - this is where we were drying out until we started up the hill again into the mist and the rain.

Not too far from the top we found Patrick crashed on the side of the road -- he was coming down the hill after being dropped off by the sag van to meet us. He had gone down within minutes when we were all coming up. A CHP stopped, Marvin appeared with the sag van -- it was pretty amazing how fast everyone was there -- Patrick is currently at the hospital. He could not get up or walk without being carried. We hope he will be fine -- but his TOC is done for this year.

We all continued on to the top of the KOM. That is where Alice's Restaurant was -- for those of you who remember the song - "Alice's Restaurant" (where you can get anything you want - except for Alice!) It was cold and wet at the top and we spent some time up there getting all our stuff out of the van. Off we went down the mountain, freezing and... then no rain - dried out! But... then headed up to the last KOM. We once again got into the rain and the mist and then down the mountain to no rain and another round of getting dry.

The ride back to the coast was great roads and so much incredible scenery. It was about 5500 ft of climbing and 68 miles.

That's it for now..................

Tour of California - Stage 2

Stage 2 Begins -

Stage 2 - Started out of Davis. It was overcast with no big weather problems until the climb up to the first King Of Mountain. Then we encountered wind and it got nasty! The rain started at the top of the KOM, we did dry out once the rain stopped and continued on.

We all stopped at about mile 65 miles - the second KOM - Howell Mt. It was 2 miles of 12 to 18% grade. Once we got over that mountain we got picked up and that was end of day.

Good thing because it started to rain once we stopped and just got worse as we drove to San Francisco.

We did about 65 miles with 4300 ft of climbing

Tour of California - Stage 1

Here is my chronicle of The Tour of California:

Day 1
We drove up to Grass Valley on Saturday, May 15, 2010. Bill, Rich Strauss and his partner Patrick, Joann, Marvin and other Endurance Athletes from around the country - there are about 15 of us in the group.

Stage 1 - we started the tour in Grass Valley - the stage map looked like 1 big decent. That was pretty funny because after 60 miles my Ergo showed we had done 5100 ft of climbing!
The trip out of Grass Valley to Auburn was breathtaking. Beautiful scenery, great roads and lots of little climbs. We rode the sprint course through town in Auburn. I was REALLY surprised there were no incidents with the Pros as the turns were tight and there were many of them for a 172 man competition.

Notable on Day 1 - we went over the highest bridge in California, that was a bit unnerving!! The scenery was amazing. Over half the guys had a very hard day and the ones that did not make it were either bonked or picked up before the end of the 80 miles Day 1 was tough!

At the end of the ride we drove to Sacramento to watch the end of the race around the town. Wow, that was very exciting!

Los Angeles Half Marathon

This was a great race. The weather was perfect. My legs killed me by mile 12 and I am quit sure that the 3 hours on the computrainer yesterday with multiple grades of 10% - to 15% did not help.

Was not too unhappy with my time compared to Long Beach in October - I was only about 30 seconds slower and Long Beach was a totally flat course done after an 80 mile ride on the Saturday before. So conditions were similar.

The run was a loop and not too crowded, unlike Long Beach. Was around Bonelli Park and the views were nice. The run was hilly and flat - but not too much hill.

Bill, Piper, Bob and I did the race. It was an Inaugural Race so Piper HAD to be there even though he just done Ironman Cozumel 2 weeks ago!!

I would do this again. It was a good training day.

Miami Half Ironman

This was my 4th Half Ironman this year.

The weather was perfect except for the wind on the bike when it was not blowing in your favor! Which was most of the time!

This race was extremely well supported and very different from any other Half we have done because of the Zoo “flavor”

There were concerns about the temp in the lake being too warm for wetsuits. Got there on race day and they posted the lake temp as 77.9 - .1 degree away from being a no wet suit swim! Whew……..that was luck in my favor!

The swim was 2 loops, and once out of the water there was about a ¼ mile run to my rack which was the last rack before you went out of transition – that was nice!

My swim I thought would be around 48 minutes – my best ever – boy was I surprised when I came out in 54 minutes --- ugh!!!! What does that mean for me? More time in the cold pool at the Rose Bowl Sunday afternoons with Barry!

Because of the long run back to my bike, I had left a pair of running shoes by the swim exit to run back the ¼ mile to the bike. Oh... and they did have wet suit strippers!

My transition was s l o w, but got on the bike and started on the ride. My gluts were on fire! Was kicking during the swim more than I usually do because that is what we have been practicing in the “Sunday at the RB with Barry”. Guess I got MUCH more work to do to get those muscles ready for action!

The bike course was all flat – with wind – the tail wind was the BOMB! The cross wind was merely annoying and the headwind was 11 to 13 mph!

The bike went by fast...

Also, let me make a note on the weather, although there were winds there was also a cloud cover so it made for an ideal temp from the time we arrived in the morning at 5:45 through the race!

Then came the run – I think I was 2:43 or something equally horrifying! Needless to say I will be working on my swim and run in the off season. I have been doing a faster time since training with Mackel so I now need to get my endurance dialed in!

The highlights of the run were running through the zoo (twice). None of the animals were caged so you would be running and look up and there was an elephant or a monkey or a 300lb turtle - that was very cool!

The aid stations were extremely well stocked with Hammer gels, water, Gatorade, bananas and oranges and ICE! And they gave out great goodies:

In looking at this race - I ask myself what could I have done better with? Well, it is not like I know better, but there is this thing called recovery and going into a race well rested.

Yeah...don’t quite have that aspect of this sport down yet!

But all in all, this was a great race and I would definitely do it again. It is a good race to bring kids to because of the zoo factor.

This was a good race to end the year with. However, as I got on the plane after driving though the various road blocks set up for the 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater...I can not help but want to be here next year for the World Championship with SOME of YOU reading this report!

I placed 2nd in my age group in Miami Man!

Swim:54:14; T1 5:21; Bike 3:05:31; T2 4:00; Run 2:43:47
Overall Time 6:52:53.

Malibu Sprint Video

Here I am in transtiton from swim to bike! Enjoy!