Wow.  I can’t believe as I write this June has came and went.  When signing up for races last year, this month was going to be one of my biggest months of racing of the season.  Each of the 4 races I did worked out very well and I feel lucky to be safe and healthy and have fun at each one of them.  Specifically, with my most recent race, Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock, TX.

Two days before the race, I drove down by myself and camped on Friday night in Clayton, New Mexico, a small and quiet town just west of the Texas border.  After I got up and went for a little 20 min run, I was on my way to Lubbock.  After checking in and seeing some friends at the race meeting, I headed to my hotel and got into bed early.  I was very excited to race and was hoping that good things would happen on race day.

Race morning was cloudy and cool, an unusual trait for Lubbock.  Typically it’s very hot and dry, sometimes reaching up to over 100 degrees.  As I got my bike set up and did a little warm up, I certainly felt ready to go and well rested.  My wave was called and I was off!

Right away, I could feel a good rhythm in my stroke and soon led my wave of 30-34 men.  I was in the 3^rd wave while the pro men and women went off 10 minutes before me.  In a way this is a good thing because I can try to catch up to as many as I can during the race.  I came out of the water finishing the 1.2 mile swim in 22:36.  On the bike, I knew this was where I really had to work hard.  With my PowerTap rigged up (http://www.saris.com/) I was trying really to push up the watts.  I was feeling really good and soon caught up to some pro women and even a few men to my surprise.  The rain started to hit at around mile 30, so I just was extra careful on the down hills and turns as crashes could happen at any moment.  As I came into transition, I saw that my ride time was 2:23, my fastest bike time on this course by over 5 minutes!  Out on the run, my legs felt great and just kept pushing my pace.   I caught a few more pros and finished the run in 1:22.  I was the 1^st amateur and 8^th overall.  Total time was 4:11 and I was very happy!  After the race, I made the 9 hour trip home back to Denver to arrive just in time to have dinner with Nikki.  A long drive, but well worth it!

On a side note, and perhaps one of the more memorable parts of the trip for me was when I was walking to the car after I had finished.  I overheard a guy talking to his wife on his cell phone saying how excited he was that he qualified for the Hawaii Ironman in Kona (this race was one of the very few ½ Ironmans that you can qualify for the Hawaii Ironman).  He kept saying how great the race was, how good he felt, and how happy he was to finally able to be going to Kona –you could just hear it in his voice.    It reminded me of that first time I qualified in 1999 and what a special moment it really is.

 A  big thanks to my coach, Nick White from Carmichael Training Systems (www.trainright.com).  He has helped my biking in many ways over the past few months!  Also, thanks to Trek (http://www.trekbikes.com/) and Bontrager wheels (http://www.bontrager.com/) for hooking me up with a great set up for my ride, as well as Bicycle Village (http://www.bicyclevillage.com/) for a stellar bike fit!

Thanks for reading –

Tim

This morning I did the Mt. Evans Ascent which is a running race to the summit of Mt. Evans here in Colorado.  We started at a place called Echo Lake, elevation 10,600 ft., and ran up a paved road which climbs just about 4,000 feet covering 14.5 miles.  I was a little worried about the timing of this race as I did the Kansas 70.3 ½ Ironman only 6 days earlier, but I have always wanted to do this challenge.  Race morning was beautiful with just a few clouds in the sky. 

I rigged up the full Timex Bodylink (HR and GPS unit) as I was curious to see what the profile would look like when I got home.  Here I included a screen shot of the elevation and my heart rate.  Once again, the Timex Bodylink did a superb job of giving me information about my race which I can use to help my future training.

I started the race feeling very good and kept a steady rhythm.  A few people passed me and I passed a few as well.  At mile 9 my good friend Andrew Adamowski and I were running together and chatted a little bit.  By mile 11, he had pulled away and I was once again running alone.  At 2 miles to go, or around 13,500 ft., I was starting to get a little dizzy from the lack of oxygen, but I could see the finish only a few switchbacks away.  I ended up placing 8^th overall in 1:59.12.  It was a great run and very challenging!  Check out some pictures below including some mountain goats who greeted all the finishers!

Thanks for reading,

Tim

It’s not too often that I race an inaugural race, but once I saw that there was going to be a 70.3 race in Lawrence, KS that was “driveable” from Denver, I had to sign up.  More importantly, my wife and I had the opportunity to race together and have our friends watch the boys that morning.  We drove half way on Friday and got into Lawrence on Saturday, checked in, and dropped off our bikes at the lake.  I was surprised to see my picture on the side of the timing truck from the 2006 Halfmax National Championships! I think I got a lot of strange looks when people saw me posing next to it.  It was very hot and humid, but I felt ready to go and battle the heat! As always I was very happy to see many other Timex teammates racing including Ritchie, Andrew, Alex, Adam and Kim. 

We stayed in downtown Kansas City with our friends the night before.  We got to sleep late and planned to get up at 3:15 AM, always a fun time to get up I might add.  However, when travelling with kids you just never know what will happen.  So at 1:30, Spencer started coughing and since their cribs were right next to us, we were up for about an hour.  He was alright, but 3:15 came quicker than I thought and we were on our way to the lake with a little less than 4 hours of sleep! 

After we got everything set up in transition, we watched the Navy Seal skydiving team (the leapfrogs – http://www.leapfrogs.navy.mil/)  parachute into the water.  It was very cool as they landed about 50 feet from us.  Before I knew it our wave was called and I was off!  The swim went pretty well, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about the lack of sleep I had.  Never before had I gone into a longer race losing sleep, but when you have kids, anything can happen and I am OK with that.  I passed the waves that left ahead of me (I was in the 7^th wave of 8) and got out of the water in 27:47.  On the bike I didn’t feel the best,  but kept pushing on through each of the 3 out and back portions of the course.  My Powertap (www.saris.com) was giving me some good info so I tried to keep upping the wattage.  The midwest is full of hills and this course was no different.  I kept a good rhythm and lead my wave though the bike and finished in 2:24.  The run was a two loop course through the campgrounds in Bloomington Park.  I felt good on the first loop and by the second loop I saw that I had a sizeable lead over the next amateur.  At mile 11, my claves were starting to cramp a little, so I tried not to push it to hard to avoid it getting worse. I finished in 4:17 and was 1^st in my age group and 1^st overall amateur by 6 min.  I was 13^th overall with the pros.  I was happy with the result and now know I can push through a race with limited sleep.  It’s good to learn something new right?  Next time I’ll try to stay up all night and see what would happen on no sleep.  

I saw Nikki many times out there and she was looking great (see picture).  She placed 3^rd in her age group and I was so proud of her!  It was her 1^st ½ Ironman in almost 3 years.

Thanks again to all of my sponsors and athletes on the Timex team.  You certainly make my races memorable and fun.

Thanks for reading!

Tim

One of my favorite ½ marathons in Colorado has to be the Steamboat Springs ½ Marathon.  It’s a great little town about 3 hours northwest of Denver and well worth the drive.  This past Sunday was my 3^rd trip up here for the run and I was hoping to have a good race.  It’s a point to point run and all 1000 competitors are shuttled out 13.1 miles.  You run to town while surrounded by snow capped mountains and green rolling farmlands.  It’s one of the prettiest and scenic courses that I know of, but it’s hard to enjoy the scenery when you’re racing.  I won this race in 2006 and was 2^nd in 2007, so I was hoping to do well this year.  As the gun went off I just focused on my own pace and immediately settled into a good rhythm around 5:50 pace.  Right away there were three of us in the lead.  By mile 4, one of the guys pulled ahead and was leading about 1 minute up.  I could tell he wasn’t completely running away from me so I knew that I could catch up.  At mile 6, I pushed to catch him and we soon found ourselves running together.  As we started to go up one of the final hills, I pushed to create a gap ahead of him and it worked.  I pulled away and saw that he had dropped back considerably.  At 3 miles to go I just kept pushing to hold the lead.  I soon saw the finish line and I broke the tape 1^st overall in 1:16.57 and 50 seconds ahead of 2nd place, a new personal best for me in an open ½ marathon. 

Soon after I finished, I immediately took over all babysitting duties while Nikki went on a 2 hour trail run.  All in all it was a great day and I was so happy to achieve my goals and a new PR!

A huge thanks to our teams clothing sponsor Zorrel for a great running top (www.zorrel.com) , and to Profile Design for the best running shorts I have ever run in (www.profile-design.com).  Also, thanks to Saucony for a great pair of Saucony Fastwitch racing flats (www.saucony.com).  All are superb products!

Thanks for reading!

Tim

Every now and then I like to do some shorter triathlons.  I love the long training rides and runs, but sometimes it’s good to get in races shorter than a ½ Ironman to maintain the speed in my legs.  So I decided last week to race the Tinman Traiathlon held this morning in Ft. Morgan, CO.  It was a 1000m swim, 36 mile bike, and 10k run.  I was really looking forward to it because it’s in a new place and the ride was right smack dab in the middle of the Colorado farmlands. 

The weather was great for racing: sunny and just under 80 degrees.  The swim was 2 loops in a chilly 56 degree lake.  It was a time trial start so we began every 10 seconds until we were all on our way.  I felt pretty good for the entire swim in my Blue Seventy TST wetsuit (www.blueseventy.com) although it was hard to get into a rhythm since each loop was 500 meters prompting us to get out after each loop.  I soon was out of the water and hopped onto my orange Trek (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/triathlon)  which always seems to make peoples heads turn because of the color.  It’s a point to point ride and a lot of it was with a tail wind.  I felt very fast as I imagine a lot of people also did simply due to the nature of the course.  My CycleOps power meter was giving me a lot of info I was happy to see, and I was happy to finish the ride 1^st off the bike with the fastest bike split of the day in 1:20 equaling a 26.9 mph average!   The run was hard as I rarely run a 10k either in a race or in an open running race.  I ran the two loop course in 37:24.  Not my best running time for a 10k but certainly good enough for the overall win by over 6 minutes.  Final time 2:12.27.  It was a fun day and I was so glad my family was there to cheer for me!

Thanks for reading!

Tim