Huge congrats are in order for Jordan and Kim on their incredible performances at the Clear Lake 101.. just surfing through results of what had to be one of triathlon’s busiest weekends and found that Timex took both the 2nd male & female overall - Go Team!!
Wait, I’m not doing Ben’s job, am I? Now where did I put those pom-poms..
“The Becker Buzz”
June 10, 2007
“Buzzing Down To Rockford for the Weekend”
Rockman Race Report
Swim: 28:22 Bike: 2:16:03 Run: 1:24:40 Finish 4:11:39
1st Overall
The Rockman Race Director, Chip Griffen, asked if I would like to come down for the weekend to race the inaugural Rockman Half Ironman in IL. The race sounded like it had potential to be a great one down the road, so I committed.
The Rockman Race Director, Chip Griffen, asked if I would like to come down for the weekend to race the inaugural Rockman Half Ironman in IL. The race sounded like it had potential to be a great one down the road, so I committed. I have just joined up with a new coach, Luis Vargas (www.luisvargas.com), who works with Mark Allen at the www.markallenonline.com coaching website. After training with Luis for only 2 weeks, I really feel that he knows what my specific limiters are and how to improve them. I am very excited for Ironman Wisconsin on Sept. 9, knowing that I will be fully prepared to rip that race.
I made the trip down to Rockford on Friday to scout out the course and relax a little bit, thanks to the race management who put me up the host hotel for the weekend. I got in and was pleasantly surprised to find that my hotel room was upgraded to a suite because of overbooking. WOW, all I got to say is that taking an Epsom Salt Bath in a Jacuzzi is SAAAWEEET!
The course looked to be challenging and beautiful. The race took place in Rock Cut State Park, which is a few miles north of Rockford and only about an hour south of where I am living in Madison, WI. The two loop swim was straight forward. The only issue would be negotiating the weeds on the backside of each loop. The bike was an out and back with the first 15 and last 15 miles having numerous steep rollers. The run was, well, HARD! There were steep ups and downs for probably 75% of the run. We were protected from the wind, but not always from the sun, making fueling and hydration even more important.
Race morning I got into the water for the mass start swim and bobbed around for a while in my Blue Seventy Helix Wetsuit….This is my second year in the suits and I love ‘em. Gun went off and I found myself in the front pack with some guys that can really swim. We made the first turn and all of a sudden my goggles were pulled down by a huge clump of weeds. I flipped over, adjusted the goggles and kept working. I had only lost a few meters, but couldn’t close the gap in the weeds. I finally had to swim with my head out of the water, which caused my low back to get a bit tight. I backed off a touch and let the group go, now focusing on getting my back to relax. After several hundred meters, I finally was able to pick up the effort again and exited the swim in 8th position.
I got onto the bike in 6th and planned to keep things pretty civil for the first 20 miles or so. I needed power data, I so was riding my training wheel built with a Power Tap Pro Hub and a disk cover (thanks to my good friend Josh for lending it to me for the weekend). It weighed about 400lbs, but having the data was a lot more important than an extra few minutes on the bike.
I caught the leader at about mile 20 and then picked up the pace. To my surprise, he stuck with me. As we headed back into the wind and over a few rollers, he was really punching it. I wondered if he could keep this up. I raised my effort a bit through last part of the rollers at about mile 45 and opened a gap that quickly turned into about 90sec. I have really started to love my Trek TTX. The machine is aerodynamic, super stiff and is a bike that suits almost all types of terrain.
I got out onto the run and relaxed through the first section of steep stuff. My HR was steady and comfortable, while my pace was quite good for this terrain, about 6:30/mi. I ran strong and kept pounding the salt tabs, which I feel are the key to long distance success. I enjoyed the beautiful course and great volunteers that were at the aid stations. I approached the 11mile turn around and saw a gap of about 7 minutes. I cruised the last downhill and arrived at the line in 4:11:xx.
The day revealed a lot of information that I feel show signs that I am getting strong. I saw a 4% power improvement from my previous HIM PB and felt that my run was very strong given the terrain. I want to thank the Rockman Race Management, especially the race director Chip; this race is going to get big. The Timex Multisport Team along with all the affiliated sponsors, The Trek Bike Store of Madison and Fleet Feet Madison for supporting me this year! You guys are great!
I look forward to seeing everyone soon. I will be racing some local TT’s and road races, as I prepare for my next race in Lake Stevens, Washington on July 8th.
Here are some related links:
Rockman Race Website: www.rockmantri.com
Race Results: http://www.onlineraceresults.com/pdf/5615.pdf
Timex Team Site: http://teamtimex.timexblogs.com/
Madison Trek Bike Store: www.trekstoremadison.com
Fleet Feet Madison: www.fleetfeetmadison.com
In only it’s third year the Mooseman Triathlon Festival has come into it’s own with all the makings of a world class event. Endurofun puts on this great event and much like that of their more widely known Timberman Triathlon Festival, Mooseman is a top notch triathlon event. The atmosphere at this event is for the most part pretty relaxed and friendly, as it is primarily a local race and, for the mostly New England based triathletes, the first race of the season. Mooseman has particular importance to me because it was my first ½ Ironman in 2005 shortly after I began racing triathlon.
The day began with an overcast sky and low lying clouds which obscured most of the pristine landscape surround New Found Lake in Bristol, NH. However, the rain stayed away from most of the morning and the air temperature hovered in the mid 60’s to 70 all day making ideal race conditions. I began my day meeting and talking with several athletes in transition and around the race site. I always enjoy showing up very early so there is plenty of time to relax and take care of any problems that arise. After a short splash in the water I was ready to face the day.
New Found Lake was around the low 60s, a great temperature as long as you had a wetsuit. The perfectly flat, cool water made for a fast course. With the help of my new Blue Seventy Helix and goggles, I achieved a swim PR, exiting the water in the lead pack chasing Nicholas Dufresne with a blazing 23:16 swim.
A quick T1 and I was on the bike course, which did not have many long sustained climbs, but there were consistent rollers and quite a few difficult spots on the scenic course. It would best be described as a technical and relatively challenging course. I decided to push my Trek TTX pretty hard knowing that I would have to if I wanted to finish well. Shortly into the race Dean Phillips cruised on past and I kept him in my sights for most of the first loop. Completing the first lap having seen only one other cyclists I wasn’t exactly sure where in the field I was, until completing the first loop I was told I was about a minute behind the leader. Although I wanted to see if I could catch him I decided to simply maintain a steady effort and set myself up for a solid run.
By T2 my legs were feeling the effects of the choppy hills on the bike course. I threw on my Brooks Axiom racing flats, Fuel Belt and headed out on the run. “You’re 1:30 behind him!” a few folks yelled as I began to find my stride. I was expecting it to be a long chase and as result I decided to take the first three miles at a slightly conservative pace, but to my suprise at mile two I took the lead. At the first turn around I got a good look at the competition and they looked strong. Tim Snow and Billy Edwards were running especially well only a few minutes behind. I picked up the pace on the way back to the halfway point opening a 2:15 gap over the second runner. Again, I relaxed a little into my pace back to the second turn around; however, at that point Billy Edwards had closed the gap to about 1:30. This made me a little scared and knowing that I had come this far I pushed the pace to cover the last three miles at a 5:47 pace to cross the tape in 4:06.
What an amazing day! I couldn’t have dreamed of a better race. I finished feeling on top of the world, probably due to the adrenaline and all those sets Kurt Perham has me do late in my workouts. I thought that I might have a chance to tie my ½ Ironman PR, but I never dreamed that I would set a new course record and set a new PR by over 8 minutes!! There were a lot of athletes out on the course who I knew and it was great to see them along to way, especially Timex’s own Keith Myer racing his first ½ Ironman. Keith Jordan and Endorfun again put on a top notch race that did not disappoint, I can’t wait until next year. 
http://www.lin-mark.com/moosehalfoof07.txt
Big Victories for the Timex Multisport Team
May 12, 2007 - Panama City Beach, FL
Timex Multisport Team member Carole Sharpless scored a victory at the 25th annual Gulf Coast Triathlon (Half) with a stellar time of 4:39:36. Carole stepped two places higher than her 3rd place in the ’06 event and took her 1st overall victory of the year. Gabriella Loskotova placed 4th in the event with a time of 4:45:03.
May 20, 2007 – Millington, TN
Twenty-three year old Timex Multisport Pro, Laura Tingle, from Louisville, CO, stole the show at the prestigious Memphis in May triathlon coming away with top honors in the overall women’s field. Her time of 2:02:32 was enough to take her biggest win to date. With a consistent swim, bike, run, she was able to hold off 2nd place by a few seconds.
June 3, 2007 – Bristol, NH
Vermont native, Alex Mroszczyk-McDonald showed that you can train and have good results even in the colder regions of the US as he pulled off a solid overall win at the Mooseman (Half) Triathlon up in Bristol, New Hampshire this past weekend. His time of 4:06:11 let him enjoy the victory and give him good morale headed into Ironman Lake Placid on July 22nd.
Yesterday I ran the Cellcom Green Bay half marathon. This was actually my first time ever running a ½ marathon outside of a ½ ironman. So I was expecting that I should PR. This spring I have worked to improve my running quite a bit, but on my last long training run 3 weeks ago (an 18 miler) I suffered some pes anserinus bursitis in my knee that has been lingering lately. This has meant that I hadn’t been able to put in the mileage or intensity that I had hoped for recently, thus I didn’t plan on running as fast as I initially anticipated. Two days prior to the race I made a classic rookie mistake of wearing sandals on a day when I would be walking around quite a bit and decided to give myself a couple of blisters which resulted in me walking around like I was on a stick (you’d think after a few years you stop making rookie mistakes but I guess not). But thankfully, I had some SPENCO blister pads (www.spenco.com) on hand which practically solved the problem in 1 day (I used the regular ones during the day and the sport ones when I had to run/ and race. It seemed to work like a charm.
On race morning the great Wisconsin weather was again greeting us, with 35degree temps and 20mph winds out of the North and a chance of mist or flurries. Hard to believe it was 80degrees the day before. (I was having nightmares of IMWI last year). But definitely manageable for a 1.5hr race (glad I wasn’t doing the full this year.) I ended up running a strong race and maintaining my pace for the whole race. My overall time was a 1:18:39 for a 6:01/mile pace. This put me at 25th place in the ½ out of over 2000 runners (the total event had about 6700 people, so it is one of the bigger races in Wisconsin) I was very happy with this time considering at the 10k mark I was at PR time for that distance. This gives me some running confidence going into the first ½ ironman of the year in 2 weeks (The Deuces wild triathlon in Show Low AZ. www.trisportsracing.com )
Check out the full race results at www.cellcomgreenbaymarathon.com
