2 weeks ago I made the move to the state I have always wanted to live in… Colorado. Unfortunately the move also indicated that I am now a member of the working force, meaning less time for training! My first week here I jumped in the Garden of the Gods 10 mile road race, www.gardentenmile.com,  in my new hometown of Manitou Springs. This race brings a whole new meaning to the term “an easy run in the garden”, as this is probably the most challenging course I have ever run with it being constantly up or down. Additionally, the course elevation ranges from 6200 to 6500′, meaning a little lack of oxygen for those of us coming from sealevel. I knew I wouldn’t be in running for a top position as there are quite a few ringers going for the prize money, and the winner this year set a new record 52:30, yikes! That is smokin! I managed to pull a decent 1:07, good enought for 42nd overall out of 1600 runners. Not bad for a recent lack of training due to the big move and starting a new job (and a hard ride up in boulder the day before- whose coaching this guy??). Hopefully at my next race at sealevel I will be able to utilize the altitude to my advantage! Sorry, no pics this time… I was flying solo.

Brian

The wisconsin “triathlon” season began as usual with a duathlon this year. The paper valley duathlon, 5k run- 22mile bike- 5k run, would be my kick off event. This race is part of the year long race calender put on in Wisconsin by midwest sports events (http://www.midwestsportsevents.com/) and usually draw pretty good crowds. My main goal for the race was to put in a good effort and get some “speed” training, as my main events are not until late summer/ fall, so the fitness is just starting to get going. With it being the first event (for me anyways) of the year, its always interesting to compare your fitness (or lack thereof) to everyone elses after the long winter. I would say the race went as predicted with the usual players at the front of the race. The first 5k saw a lead group quickly form, and the first mile taken out at a 5:04 pace. The course did have several short steep hills making the effort hurt just a little more. I knew I couldn’t hold this pace so I had to back off a bit, and came into T1 about 30sec down on the leader in fifth place. The bike I had to make up some time, and was able to bike into second place, but the leader was long gone and I couldn’t see him or the lead car after the first couple of miles. Coming into T2 into second, I knew first place was out of reach (about 2.5 minutes down), and that I didn’t put as much time as I needed into the third place athlete, as he is a much stronger runner than myself. I managed to hold him off until about mile 1.5, and stuck with him until mile 2, and then lost him on a slight downhill section!! That is really frustrating to get dropped on a downhill, but I just didn’t have the turnover speed. I cruised in from there to take the last podium spot at 3rd overall. Not a bad way to kick start the season.

Last week I gave my second annual preseason triathlon clinic at Bike N Ski http://www.bikenski.net/ in Sheboygan Wisconsin. This year we organized the event in conjunction with the Redline Triathlon Club http://www.redlinetriclub.org/. The event was a huge success, as we had almost 40 people in attendance. The audience varied from novice to experienced Ironman but I think everyone came away with at least one tidbit of information that they didn’t have before. Swimming, biking, running, transitions, equipment, nutrition, and training were all covered, which made the talk a little longer than anticipated (but I didn’t notice any yawns in the crowd). I was also able to give away a fair amount of schwag, the grand prize being a Timex Bodylink GPS system! Almost everyone was able to go home with some goodies, which is always the best part of any clinic.

The Schwag!

Male Model demonstrating Blue Seventy Helix Wetsuit

Trek Equinox TTX Bike on Display

The weather here in Wisconsin has made a great turnaround in the past couple weeks. We have gone from record snowfall to temperatures in the 40’s with sunshine for the past couple of days. Although the snowdrifts on the side of the road remain quite high, the roads have been great. The past 3 days I got in 121 miles, with fridays ride being a loop of the IM course. There is not much water, and very little gravel, so some early season training is definatley in order. My legs are still finding themselves after transitioning from skis to the bike, but a couple solid days and I am feeling much better. Unfortunately the next couple days look like a rain/snow mix with temperatures back to the 20’s/30’s. A great weekend of training goes a long ways for the mental attitude and motivation after being stuck inside on the trainer/ treadmill.

The American Birkebeiner http://www.birkie.com/ is the boston marathon of cross country skiing. A 51k point to point nordic ski race in the northwoods of wisconsin from Cable to Hayward that attracts more than 7,000 skiers from across the U.S. and world. The top finishers are often composed of World Cup and Olympic champions. This was my first year at the race, and it was a good year to race- as the snow conditions were the best in recent memory. Due to the large number of skiers, the race is split into a wave start, and I would be starting in wave 5 based on my qualification race at the Badger State Games a couple weeks ago. My one concern was the cold temps, -10deg when we woke up, then about 2deg at the start, but it wound up warming up nicely to 25deg by the time I finished. The start of the race went really well, I had a good line-up in the second row and got out really quick with another skier to take the lead in our wave. We worked together for the first 5k until we started hitting the back end of wave 4. The rest of the way would be a battle attempting to get through all of the skiers infront of us, as there is only so much room on the trail. I did manage to get through the crowds without any broken poles or skis, so that is always a bonus of any ski race. My goal time was 3hrs, and at the halfway mark, I was close to 8minutes ahead of my pace, and I was still feeling very comfortable. This time I also nailed my nutrition, thanks in no part to my bonk in the last race. Coming to the finish you are skiing right down Main street in Hayward where the crowds are unbelieveable and you feel like you are in the olympics. But only in Wisconsin will you find a cold Miller Genuine Draft waiting for you at the finish!! I ended up finishing in 2:45:17, and 363 overall out of 3219 finishers in the freestyle race. A great result considering the race traffic I had to work through. This result will put me into Wave 1 for future years so I will hopefully be able to improve on my finish next time.

The Winner of the Race was Ivan Babikov of Russia in a time of 2:07:08. Check out the finish video, and the sprint for second!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNsjv43mzzE