Two years ago I had competed in the Best of the US (one man, one woman from each state qualify) Olympic distance triathlon for the first time. I had a lot of reservations about the race leading into it. However, once I arrived at the race and met some of the other participants, I quickly changed my perception. There were some super nice people and there were quite a few really fast competitors. I got my butt kicked. It was a very positive eye opening experience. I had such a great all around experience in 2007 that I’ve tried to qualify for this race each year.

My Connecticut qualifier was this past weekend, the Park City Mossman. It is billed as the fastest Olympic distance race in New England. The race takes place completely within Seaside park in Bridgeport, CT. The swim is one loop, while the bike is a five loop pancake flat course with a few turns, and finally the run is a two loop completely flat track. I guess I’m trying to say that this race is pretty FLAT.

I’ve had a game plan for every race I’ve done this year and I find that it helps to focus on different aspects while racing. Paul, my coach, wanted me to try to be aggressive for the swim and the bike, then back off on the run if possible. I’m scheduled to race 70.3 Timberman this weekend and he wanted to keep my legs as fresh as possible. While I was lining up for the swim start, I looked out at the water. It was smooth and FLAT, nice. I scanned over to my right and I saw, friend and Timex teammate, Ian Ray just putting on his swim attire. Ian hates to be early to races and this one was probably one of his latest arrivals. It doesn’t seem to really effect him though as about 2 minutes later, the gun goes off and Ian is rocking to the swim lead. It’s a beach start with a shallow section of water for about 50 meters. I watched a lot of competitors actually running through the water. I’m a bit vertically challenged, so I just attempted to do a few dolphin dives, then I tried to get into my own rhythm. I focused on trying to maintain the straightest route to the buoys and it paid off this time as Ian and another competitor managed to swing way out right. The remainder of the swim was a comical array of Ian doing his best impression of swimming like a snake, first off to the right, then off to the left. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining as it allowed me to catch up to him by the last turn buoy. At this point, I think he realized it was me. We both were wearing our sweet Aquasphere wetsuits with the golden soldier trademarks. I tried to take a different route into shore in hopes that Ian might continue his wayward swimming techniques. However, it did not pan out and Ian clocked the fastest swim from our 1st wave at 19:02. I climbed out of the water at 19:04 and focused on a smooth transition so I could get out on the FLAT bike course.
I was a little nervous about the logistics of a 5-loop bike course. I feared that it would become very congested and potentially dangerous. I was pleasantly surprised at the space on the course and I was able to just focus on my own effort. My Trek TTX was rolling smoothly and I was able to see my family on each loop , which is always a huge lift. I was not quite capable of riding the effort prescribed, but I gave it all I had on the day and exited the bike in 55:38 (distance was a little short @ 24.4 miles).

I came off the bike as the first body heading out onto the run course. However, with a 3 wave swim start and the under 35 crowd in the 2nd wave, I still was not exactly sure where I stood overall. I wasn’t able to fully adapt to Paul’s plan until I was heading back on the first loop and I was able to get some splits on the other racers. The run course was entirely along the water. There was ample room on the course even with the two loop format and narrow sidewalks. I crossed the finish line with a total time of 1:52:05 and I was able to solidify my spot for the Best of the US competition out in Mission Viejo, CA on September 27th.
I thoroughly enjoyed this race. It was a true privilege to be able to see my family and friends several times out on the race course.
Thanks for reading.
Results:

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After Lake Placid, I decided to head in a slightly different direction, dictated by a slightly different coach. In preperation for a November Ironman, the new boss gave me a list of things to work on. JD is bound and determined to turn me into a professional kind of professional. Oh sure, I was coached for years by Simon Lessing, possibly the most business-minded professional out there, but I was too busy trying not to die in workouts to accomplish much else. So now, I am working on my “professionalism,” starting with a list.
1. You will run in running attire.
I have been known to run in yoga pants, boxing shorts, golf knickers, I even did Ironman Canada in basketball shorts. Not to mention the race I did in a cape

This first task took me a long time to conquer, but I adapted to little shorts…unfortunately, I have also decided to rock old man socks with my little shorts- I like to call it “business casual.” So…on to the next task.
2. You will get a bike fit.
I have never had a bike fit. Something about it scared me. But, I am here to tell you- if I (girl who runs in cape) can get a bike fit, ANYONE can benefit from a bike fit. I met with Mat Steinmetz from Retul. Dwayne (my orange trek) and I were in for a fixing. I never pass up an opportunity to interview anyone. As Mat set up, I asked him a few questions.
LT: Are these the nastiest bike shoes you have ever smelled?
MS: YES
LT: Should I be riding 172.5 cranks?
MS: NO
LT: In my old position, am I more aerodynamic riding on the hoods, or my aerobars?
MS: For you, even money
*Attention blog readers- if you are just as aero on your hoods as you are on your aerobars, SOMETHING. IS. WRONG.
So, Mat went to work on aerodynmasizing (?!) me. He put sensors all over my body, and then I started pedaling my bike which was on a saris trainer with a built in powertap. Sweet. I rode at 100 watts, 150 watts, and 200 watts while Mat was able to see all of my body angles. The sensors made it possible to watch myself on a projector as I pedaled. From there, Mat lowered my aerobars, moved my elbow pads farther apart, moved my seat forward, and then gave me a talk about how to ride my bike more aggresively. He was also able to watch the path my knee travels in relation to my frame. My knees tend to point in, so he put inserts in my bike shoes (after putting on rubber gloves, hahaha) which corrected my knees. Brilliant!
After the fit, Mat waved a magic wand (I am not making this up) around my bike, and all of the measurements were saved in a pdf file, so the next time I get a bike, it will be easy to recreate my new, aerodynamic postion.
All in all, being retul-ed was a success.
Next on the list is learning how to descend in the mountains. I always told JD that I am a GREAT descender, then I let it slip that my bike could have been without front brake pads for the last 5 years and I wouldnt know. Task #3 may hurt more than the bike fit. Like, a lot more.

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I had just returned home from a ride on my Orange Rocket (also known as the Trek Equinox TTX SSL loaded with SRAM Red) expecting my three little chicks to just be arising for the day… when I heard a familiar sound coming from the Family Room.  I peeked around the corner and I could not believe what I saw!!!  My daughters had put in my A.M. YOGA DVD from GAIAM http://www.gaiam.com/ and were dressed in their “yoga attire”  about half way through the session.  As you can tell, they had moved the furnature, removed their socks, pulled out some of my stretching straps and my yoga mat (I’m not sure how the oldest won that one ;-).  Also notice the pile of other GAIAM DVD’s they pulled out on the floor as well.  I said to them… “Only in my house would this happen!”  and they responded.. “What?” I replied, “Coming home to a 9, 11, & 13 year old doing Yoga! Who’s kids do this?!” They said, “But Momma, it makes us feel so good!”  My heart swelled and I was grinning in disbelief.

Several months back, I started on Monday nights using my GAIAM DVDs. The four of us do one of the Gaiam DVD’s whether it is the 1) Stretching 2) Pilates 3) Yoga 4) Meditation 5) Abs.  They are always excited to join in and get really upset with Mom if I start without them.  I’ve learned not to do this any more!  I never imagined it would be something they would initiate on their own.  I guess they are learning and discovering things they enjoy and make their bodies feel good. 

It was beyond my wildest dream what I saw that morning. Good habits are forming =)

Enjoy your training. ~T

www.tristafrancis.com

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This was the third and final race of the Boulder series this year and I was hoping to put out a good effort to see where the fitness was at leading into IMWI. (IE- hoping the fitness is good and not having to put in a crash course the next 3 weeks).

Swim: 28:13, and right on track. This is a bit on the slow side but I think that the 5430 races are actually “true distance” vs. other swims which yield remarkable swim times. The main drama of the swim was the goggle choice in the morning since our wave started a good 30min after the pros and was unsure of the cloud cover. I ended up going with the Aquasphere tinted lenses thinking the cloud cover would burn off and leave us staring into the usual glare; good call #1.

Bike: 2:15:42, again right where I wanted to be. I was in 3rd place (I think) after the swim and gained the lead before the halfway mark on the bike. This is a deceiving course with no big climbs, but long false flats that can really slow you down if you lose power. I think I took it out a bit too strong, and didn’t take in enough early calories… more on that in a bit.

Run: 1:36:15, a bit of a disappointment. We will break this into two segments. Miles 1-7, feeling great, clipping off avg of 6:32 miles, perfect!! Take some H20 at aid stations and thinking will coast it in last 5 miles. Wrong! Miles 8-13; hit a brick wall of dizziness, light-headed, salty arms, and no energy!! Came out of nowhere and bit me in the arse! My pace dropped to 8:35/mile Ouch! The mistake here is not fueling when appropriate (even if feeling good at the time), lesson learned.

Total: 4:22:02, 25th overall, 4th AG

I was very happy with my fitness and with a few caloric adjustments should be right where I need to be for IMWI. A few more weeks of hard training, then taper time :)

Hats off to Tim Hola for a fantastic race and being the Amateur Champion!

Also good to See the “Timex Family” out cheering including Will, Trista, and Dennnis!! Thanks for the support guys.

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It was an interesting yet fun day of racing at this year’s 5430 Long Course Triathlon here in Boulder.  This was my 6^th ½ Ironman since April.  The weekend was busy with Friday and Saturday doing a video shoot for timexironman.com.  We filmed some training videos that will be similar to the ones you can find here and should be posted by September.  It was really a lot of fun and teammate Erin Kummer met us for a few shots as well.

 Overall the race went very well.  Nikki and the boys came up during the race so they could sleep in a little.  I was in the 5^th wave and my wave started smoothly after tapping my soon to be unveiled Timex Tap Watch to start my timer.  I led out of the water in approx 26 min.  The 2 loop bike course along the foothills was fast, but challenging in spots.  I kept my lead in the wave until mile 54 when our turn into the Reservoir took us by a fire station that got a call during the race, something I found out had never happened before. 

 Before I knew it, volunteers were stopping all of the bikers so the fire trucks could come out.  It didn’t quite register with me that they wanted us to stop…completely!   I approximated that I lost about 1 minute, but what can you do?  Timing is everything and sometimes that’s how things go.   I was thinking about how the gap I created on the rest of my wave was shrinking quickly and there was nothing I could do about it.  I managed to get into T2 and started the 100% unshaded hot run still with a sizable lead and kept pushing on.  At mile 4, I saw 6-time Ironman champ Dave Scott and he said, “Great job Tim, just let it fly!”

That I did and I finished the run in 1:23, placing 6^th overall and the 1^st amateur in 4:07 with complete results found here.  A huge thanks to Barry Siff for one again putting on a great race series! As usual, thanks a ton to Timex, Trek, Saucony, ARX, Trakkers, and Powerbar just to name a few!

Tim

 

 

 

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