Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 closed out a solid 4 weekends of back-to-back races in Steamboat Springs, Kansas, Boulder, and Texas (3 of the 4 were with the family), and I loved every minute of it! Because of the repeated high level of stress on my legs, I decided to scale my runs way back during the weekdays.  I only did 6 training runs in the entire month of June, and saved my legs for competition.  It paid off and resulted in 2 new ½ marathon PR’s in a ½ Ironman.  Recovery is key! 

 Friday night I dove to Lubbock by myself and camped in a little town in route called Clayton, NM.  After a brief 20 minute run in the morning, I got into Lubbock in the afternoon, checked in, met with the Trakkers team and got some sleep.

Race morning came and I felt great.  I was expecting the sun and 102 degree temps that I saw on Saturday, but instead woke to clouds and wind.  I got to the race at 4:30, and lined up in my wave for the 6:45AM start.  This year I was wearing my Trakkers GPS device (www.trakkersgps.com). I was testing the device for Trakkers which allows you to be seen via their website on a Google map updated every few seconds.  It’s waterproof so I wore it for the entire race.  The swim went well and I exited in 25:45, just behind fellow Coloradoan Eric Petersen.  I jumped on my TTX and was on my way.  The precipitation didn’t really start coming down until mile 45 and soon developed into a steady rain. The wind did not let up either as it was a 20 MPH on much of the course.  I soon saw the orange glow of my fellow Timex teammates at the turnaround, Adam Wilk and Gabriella Loskotova!

As I rode back into the park, there were many downhills.  I tried my best to have the combination of cork brake pads, carbon rims and rain not allow me to lose control of my bike and successfully made it back in 2:22.  Out on the run, it was still raining, but I did my best and ran 1:21 on the hilly course securing my spot for 1^st Amateur and 7^th overall at 4:12.49.  I found out later that Cameron Brown finished just behind me in 8^th by 3 seconds!

 After a quick warm down in the lake, I packed up the car and drove 8 hours to make it in time for dinner and bedtime with Nikki and the boys.  No 72oz. steak dinners in Amarillo this year, but it sure was tempting!

 Tim

It took a while to get this posted…but better late than never :)  This season has gone well so far, race highlights being: Personal best time at Green Bay Marathon in May (3:04) and Second Place finish at Rockman Half IM (June 7, 4:44). 

I was actually waiting on photos so this could be an interesting post, but I can’t wait forever!!  Last Sunday I raced a half ironman race (along with fellow Timex team mates Mike Lavery and Will Smith) at beautiful High Cliff State Park (outside of Appleton, WI).  Here’s a recap of the weekend:

Friday (6/19):  I took the day off of work with the idea of leaving early for the race and getting to the campground with time to hike around or relax a bit.  Well…after sleeping in until noon, cleaning the entire house, and doing some yard work the day had quickly gotten away from me.  Soon it was 5:30 and we had a 2 (plus) hour drive….no big deal we’d still get there before dark (barely!)

Despite a long, winding detour and a GPS with a dead battery, we somehow made it to the campground at 8:30.  It had been storming the entire drive, so we immediately checked out the bikes…they looked fine, but were coated nicely in about 1/2 in. layer of sludge.  Awesome.   Anyhow…found the site, got the tent set up…Mike struggled with his a bit, but it went up eventually.  Amazing how the rain-fly belongs on the outside of the tent! :)  Unfortunately with the rain we couldn’t get a fire going so we spent the night burning our race packets and whatever else we could find.  Storms came hard all night…but somehow we managed to stay dry.

Saturday (6/20, race day):  5am came quick, but the weather looked great for the race. 

SWIM- took place in Lake Winnebego, a pretty large lake.  The water was very choppy and I had a very hard time spotting the buoys.  After a little detour off course I found someones feet and rode it pretty much the whole way.  I came out a bit quicker than expected (27:06) considering the conditions.  Had a good T1 and was ready for the ride.

BIKE- This is definitely my weakest section of the race, but usually I can hang in there.  My legs were not feeling great right from the start.  Luckily the course was pretty flat, except for the mile long climb just after transition.  I got passed by Mike at mile 20 (he started 5 waves behind me) and was not feeling so hot at that point.  I think one of the problems was that I never actually looked at a map of the course so had no idea if we were doing an out and back, or loops or what….oops!  I managed to only get passed by one woman at about mile 45.  I pushed to keep her in sight the rest of the way…but my legs were really not coopering.  Anyhow, came off the bike with a mediocre 2:40 (avrg 21.3).

RUN- I spend the last half of the bike portion of any tri thinking about how excited I am to start running.  I love the run and can usually make up some ground on all of the bikers that passed me earlier in the day.  I had a good T2 and took off with my Nathan handheld bottle (very key for the race since it was hot!).  The run started out up the same hill that the bike course did and there was no choice but to walk it.   The first mile was tough, but after that it was all trail running.  As an ex-cross country runner and being semi-injury prone, I run on trails as much as possible…so this was a very enjoyable run for me.  Finished with a 1:32 split for the run.  I’ll take it on a hot day.

Overall time 4:42, First overall.  See full results at : http://www.itiming.com/raceresults/519-high-cliff-tri-half-div09.pdf.    Congrats to Will Smith, overall Men’s winner and Mike Lavery, 3rd overall.  Great showing for Team Timex!

Viterra Ironman 70.3 Calgary is proud to announce five charity entry spots for the Calgary 70.3 half-Ironman. The proceeds of these entries are going to support that Jason Lapierre Scholarship fund at the University of Calgary.

On July 19th 2006 we of lost a very good friend when Jason Lapierre was hit by a car while he was out training on Highway 1A near Cochrane. Jay was doing nothing wrong. He was riding in the shoulder of the road (a wide shoulder at that) when a driver coming from the opposite direction passed out behind the wheel, crossed over the highway and hit Jay head on. There is a very good chance that Jay never saw it coming.

Jay made close personal connections with people and many would have described him as their best friend. Such was his strength of character. Jay and I first met in the summer of 2001 at some duathlon races but it wasn’t until the fall of 2002 when we joined the Kronos triathlon club where Jay and I really got to know each other.

Jay would often disappear during the winter as his duties with the Calgary Alpine Ski club meant that he was out of town quite a bit but when in town we would join up to hammer some running intervals at the Olympic Oval in Calgary. Both of us would often exchange ‘glory’ day stories as to when we thought we had some speed back running in university.

We started traveling together to races but I would admit that I wasn’t always the best traveling buddy, as I’d fall asleep when he was driving. He’d use this opportunity to play tricks on me like turning up all the heat on me. I’d wake up feeling sick not knowing what he had done. We’ve made half a dozen trips together to the Okanogan for races and training.

In the summer of 2003 Jay was focusing training on Ironman Canada. Even if we weren’t able to be there to watch Jay race, many of us were following it on the internet. I was both happy and proud of Jay at the same time. He inspired us. Here is a slide show that Trev Williams put together on Jay’s first ironman, which inspired us to take up long course triathlon the challenge.

http://www.jasonlapierre.com/Jaysvideo.wmv

That fall, Lap moved out to Canmore, so I didn’t see as much of him but Jay would often come into town and use my place as a training base. We would do a workout at night, he’d crash on my fouton and then we’d wake up in the morning to do another run or bike before he drove back to Canmore. I’d often do the same out at his place in Canmore. When he moved back to Calgary after buying his townhouse, it wouldn’t be an odd-occurrence to find us doing a three-hour trainer rides together in his garage.

Jay and I became close friends and I would not hesitate to say that he has been my best friend for the last couple of years. I talked with Jay for a good 20 minutes early in the afternoon of the day of the accident. We spoke of career opportunities (Jay had just turned down an opportunity with Alpine Canada); we talked about mutual friends, investment properties (Jay was looking at buying a downtown condo as an investment), and upcoming races. Jay was hoping for some good races by the end of season after taking a mid summer break from bike racing. He said that he had been feeling strong on his last couple of bike rides. We looked forward to a 200k ride together in the next weekend.

Our last conversation was a good talk, as we often had. In fact I remember we ended the conversation, and then I called him back again about 5 minutes later and we talked some more. Things were going well for him and I am confident that his last day with us was a good day filled with Jay having happy thoughts and memories.

The long road trips to races, our shared sense of humor and the great conversations were special times Jay and I had together. I will miss Jay as a great friend, training buddy and role model. There are so many people that owe so much to Jason for his leadership and coaching to help make us what we are in terms of athletes and people. Jay always believed in us and pushed us to accomplish more.

Jason has been a great friend and I will really miss him. Since Jay’s passing there have been many wonderful things done in his name. The fact that we are keeping his spirit alive is wonderful.  Click here to Register

Below is the a slide show that world champion down hill skier, Olympian and one of Jay’s best friends John Kucera put together for Jay. Jay was John’s coach when John was a teen. Jay was extremely influential in John’s athletic development.

For more information about the Jason Lapierre Memorial Scholarship, please visit:

http://netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/Page.aspx?&pid=290&srcid=231

www.jasonlapierre.com

First, Team Timex … what an honor!  I don’t believe I’ve been part of an athletic team since my days of playing tennis in college, and a bit after that.  The comraderie, support, and laughs are all great.  But, is it Lance who says it’s not all about the bike?  How wrong!  With Team Timex, it most certainly is all about the bike … and all the other great gear and sponsors we have.  They all help create that “Timex Euphoria” you hear about:

(running toward the finish at St. Croix 70.3 in May)

That same positive feeling was felt wholeheartedly in April, too, when several Team Timex folks joined about 100 others to help raise some money for Jamie Whitmore and her battle with cancer.  The fun run, put on by Zeal Optics in Boulder, attracted the likes of Will Kelsay, Carole Sharpless, Erin Kummer, and yours truly (hope I’m not forgetting anyone else).  Doing good things like this seems to be a common thread among the mindsets of those on the Team

Big thanks to 2 of our Team’s sponsors and supporters:  ARX and Power Breathe.  I have been taking 2 ARX tabs every morning for almost 3 months now, and absolutely feel like I can put together more high quality workouts back-to-back than ever before … and, I’m getting older (54 as of Sunday!).  Power Breathe was a product I was originally skeptical of; however, after 2 months of a consistent daily regimen of 30 breathes at about a 2-3 level, the breathing exercises are noticably easier; and, I would guess that has to do with the strengthening of the muscles used, but rarely exercised and pinpointed, like they are with the Power Breathe tool.  Pretty cool!

Lastly, besides St. Croix in May, an excellent Canyonlands Half-Marathon in April (1:30:22), and a solid Bolder Boulder 10K on Memorial Day, my life was pretty much consumed the past 7 weeks with the sale of my business, 5430 Sports, to WTC (Ironman).  As I reported in our 5430 Newsletter, the unofficial announcement of the deal, after 10 years of race directing, Jodee and I were/are ready for a change.  This certainly caused a bit of a setback in the short-term, racing-wise; but, I am now ready to get back to some serious training, with an eye on the Pikes Peak Marathon in mid-August (the full deal, up and down), and Ironman Arizona in November. 

Besides more training and racing, I plan on completing one of the 3 books I have begun in the past few years - one which is triathlon related.  I am also contemplating a run for Boulder City Council … a different kind of race.

So … after a 20 year serious business career, 10 years of racing and race directing, Part 3 of my life is soon to begin.  Stay tuned.

I spent this past weekend in Coeur d’alene as a coach and spectator.  I had 5 clients race this year and it proved to be the coldest year yet for the race.  The rain held out until halfway through the run for my athletes; always better to run in rain than ride in rain ;) This race regardless of the weather is always great and in a first class location!  The town embraces the athletes and the love for IRONMAN and it can be felt by all!

Saturday morning I headed to the lake for the Gatorade Swim and ran into Justin from Aquasphere.  He was out there outfitting athletes in the new Aquasphere Icon wetsuit http://www.aquasphereswim.com/us/products/im_as_wetsuit_icon.html  to try.  I had brought my Icon with me to swim in and gave Justin some great feedback on how flexible the arms and shoulders are!  This really minimizes arm fatigue in the water.  Fortunately the water this year was warmer than it has been in the past sitting at a balmy 65 degrees.

After showing my athletes the bene’s of the TP kit ( http://www.tptherapy.com/)  at my IMCDA Training Camp in Boulder a month prior to the race, we made a stop by the tent so the athletes could pick up their own kits.  Josh was a big help in getting them hooked up with the right kits and we appreciate it greatly!

It was a great weekend out there seeing our fabulous sponsors including Brian from Sugoi as well as other teamates supporting!  Roger Thompson, Emily Herndon, and Pheodra Cote were out there supporting as well.  As usual, Larry Rosa (photographer) was there and I love how whenever he would spot me in a crowd, I would here is big lungs yell out.. “Hey Timex!” 

The weekend ended on a really good note as after working with Denise Mitchell for over 18 months,  we acheived her goal of qualifing for Kona and placing 2nd in the female 45-49 age group!  Kona… here we come! www.tristafrancis.com