Vo2 Multisport http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/ VO2Multisport team discussion forum en Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:14:10 GMT vBulletin 60 http://ellie.rwhmax.biz/~svttuski/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg Vo2 Multisport http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/ new subforum - Social Events http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1600&goto=newpost Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:38:51 GMT Hi All,
Based on a suggestion from Marne, I've created a new forum called 'Social Events', which we can use to help the threads about social events stay a bit more visible among all the others. To date we have:

Members: 61
Threads: 1,587
Posts: 11,623
Top Poster: benbiggles (1,397)

so it's easy to see how quickly social event threads can drop off the first page in the "General' category that has been their previous home.

Chris ]]> Announcements chrisesposito http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1600 Heart of the Sound - Vashon Triathlon Sun. July 25 http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1594&goto=newpost Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:33:31 GMT This was a fun and low-key event. My girlfriend lives on Vashon so I had decided to do it. Bryan Urukawa decided to join me and I thought 'uh oh, I'm bringing a ringer!'. And then Bryan invited a friend Greg Probst whom he said was probably faster than him, another ringer. And then when we go there they told me "uh oh, there's a real ringer here" Drew Magill.

We took the 7:30 ferry and met up with swim guru Kimberly Lorton and 2 Team-in-Training friends of hers. Kimberly had forgotten her running shoes, so I loaned her my race shoes (kind of small for me) and decided to run in my trail running shoes. We caravaned down to my girlfriends house right next to the transition. Where she made us coffee and we could walk down to the race site.

We setup in the lowtech transition area, but Budu Racing was there to do chip timing. They gave me #13, and I made the mistake of keeping it (see bike below).
The swim was in Quartermaster Harbor and a nice solid .5 miles. It was a "mass" start over 40 years old, followed by an under 40 wave 3 minutes later. But there were only 70 people total! The tide was flowing a bit but the water was refreshing, probably around 65. There was a bit of seaweed and stuff but hey it's the ocean.
Hard hilly bike! 14.5 miles... and I got a flat about halfway! But I changed it quickly and rode more carefully so lost some time there. There were some really fast downhills and pot holes were a bit scary to consider.

Double loop, sort of hilly, 3.8 mile run, good for spectating though since it's 2x around and you can 'learn' the course to go faster on lap 2. I ran 27 minutes..7:33 min./mile. Pretty good!
I still won my AG although no one cared, in fact I was fastest over 50!

BryanU was running in 3rd when I saw him but it wasn't totally clear since Greg had started the swim ahead since he's over 40. Amazingly Greg beat Bryan by .7 seconds total overall for 2nd and 3rd place. Drew Magill won hands down.
Interesting point here is that Greg beat Bryan by 2 minutes on both the bike and the run but Bryan beat Greg by 1 minute on the swim and almost 3 minutes in transitions! Great job Bryan.... you deserve a medal! :) I should mention that Bryan was fastest under 40!

There were no prizes (sorry Bryan)! But this was a super fun race and a good challenge. Sort of like Beaver Lake. The prize after was hanging out with Bryan and Greg and his fiancee and kid for a BBQ on the deck at my friends in the sun! ]]> Race Reports EdBull http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1594 <![CDATA[Ed's Excellent Vineman70.3 Adventure]]> http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1580&goto=newpost Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:20:45 GMT This was my 'A' race and I went in feeling really well, relaxed healthy strong. Ben had me well prepared. I was a little worried about the lack of heat training. I had scouted the course in December including running the run course.
As most of you know it's a beautiful venue. This was the 20th Anniversary race and it's clearly got a great reputation. I went down on Thursday and stayed in Guerneville where the swim is and T1. It's a 2 'transition area' course like PacCrest. Guerneville is a really interesting place, we stayed at a nice small hotel/motel (west sonoma inn) which had a saltwater pool and redwoods on the property. It's cool there so they don't have aircon. My girlfriend Kimberly came along for support and my buddy Tom Paladino came to race too.
We attended the Friday night 'pasta dinner' which had talks from Sister Madonna, Cherie Gruenfeld and Harriet Anderson (in the 2008 IMHawaii video), also there was a pro-panel of Miranda Carfrae (love this gal) and Tyler Stewart (not so much). Our hotel filled up on Friday with athletes including from Texas, some folks from Active.com, and even from Norway!

Race Day: it was nice and cool in the morning, the fog rolls in from the Pacific and can hang around until 9 or 11 and can change how hot it gets. Chris Lieto was there and that was cool.
The Swim: The river was warm but not too warm, about 72. I started at 7:26, pro's started at 6:30 last wave was 8:30, pretty small waves so it wasn't a mosh pit. There was some fog and it was a bit tricky to see but you can easily follow the shoreline. At the turn around I stood up a few times and dolphin dived! That was kind of fun. I did a 38 minute swim ( a PR!).
T1 was wild, it's rocky ground and there are a few carpets to run on along the main aisles. But it was interesting, kind of 'old school' and even the pro's had the same conditions. I was in-and-out pretty quick in 2:30.

The Ride: this is a great bike ride. There are narrow roads but traffic was never an issue for me. It's a lot of up and down but some really fun corners, fast ups and fun downs! For us NW athletes this is not a hilly course, our Texas friends thought it was very hilly. When the sun comes out the shadows become very dark and it's hard to see the road surface. There was a timing mat at mile 30 or so... I missed it thinking it was construction cones, and turned around so I could go over it, cost about 1 minute. I drank 2 bottles and didn't take any other liquid... in the end this may have been a mistake. But I felt great and finished in 2:47 at 20.1 MPH, a very good ride for me.
T2 is in Windsor, nice grassy surface, but very little markings and all that's there are your shoes. I went to the wrong rack, but quickly recovered and ducked under 2 racks to get to my shoes. There were very few bikes in my rack area. I did a pretty fast 2:30 T2.
The Run: it was now getting hot. The run is pretty hilly actually. I came out of T2 at 3:30, knowing I could break 5:30 with a sub 2-hour halfM. The aid stations were really great, the volunteers were fantastic, and they had lots of water, gatorade and ice. It's an outandback run so you get to see the earlier folks coming in. By halfway I was fading and not too happy with myself. But I was able to draw on experience, walked up hills, kept the legs moving and in the end stumbled in for a 2:04 HalfM;

Final Results: 20th out of 113 in AG finishers, more than 125 started. 479 out of 1259 men. A personal best swim time and I beat my buddy whom I had never beaten before. It was a good day and an excellent effort!
Thanks BB and all my friends at VO2! ]]> Race Reports EdBull http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1580 Tiger Tri - Olympic http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1578&goto=newpost Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:10:00 GMT This race is a shorter distance Olympic race and I approached it like a sprint. It was an appealing venue for me as the swim was at a small lake in... This race is a shorter distance Olympic race and I approached it like a sprint. It was an appealing venue for me as the swim was at a small lake in the Colville National Forest, the bike was point to point on the North Cascades Highway, my favorite road to ride on, and the run was on packed dirt. The one drawback is Colville is 350 miles from Seattle so it was a long drive over there, but well worth it as the scenery is spectacular and the weather was perfect. I also wanted to do a race in the heat before the Troika HIM in two weeks and do a long bike ride in the mountains the day after on the way home which worked out nice.
Swim – The water temperature was around 75 but it felt cooler than that. It was a triangle swim that was .6 miles. The men all went off in the first wave. This was a smooth start with no contact at all. I swam the first turn without drafting off anyone. When I made the first turn I got on somebody’s feet and stayed with him the rest of the way in. I occasionally checked his sighting and noticed that he was swimming a little wide but I stayed with him since I was out wide as well and he seemed to be swimming straight at the second buoy. I also noticed he looked really slow and was a little disgusted that I must look that slow too.

Goal – 18 minutes
Time – 17:46
Swim place – 39th
Swim pace 1:41

T1 – 1:44

Bike – This was a point to point course with about 1000 feet of climbing but 2600 feet of descending for a net elevation loss of 1600 feet. Alexis rode the course the day before and told me I was going to crush it. After hearing that I knew there was no way I was going to hold back to I didn’t both trying. There was a left turn ˝ mile in onto the North Cascades Highway and a left turn in to T2 and the rest was a straight shot on the 24.8 mile course. It came to my attention that I had to run 5 miles after the bike ride but I ignored the fact and pushed as hard as I could. I only got passed by one person, Haley Cooper-Scott who is a pro who qualified for Kona with a 9:42 at IMCdA so I didn’t feel that bad, especially since she only ended up out biking me by a minute. (the swim and the run were a different stories) There were two climbs I had to get out of my big ring for but other than that is was all rollers and decending.

Goal – 1 hour
Time – 56:22
Bike place – 11th
Bike pace – 26.62 MPH


T2 - :51

Run – There was not a cloud in the sky or a bit of shade on the course. My legs were not feeling cramped at all which was surprising based on my history and I had hammered the bike course. I reached the first mile marker at 8 minutes and was able to hold this pace for the most part. I reached mile 4 and I was at 32:08 and I really wanted to break 40 minutes so I gave it what I had left. The last 600 meters were on the high school track, I looked at my watch and realized I was going to achieve my goal.

Goal – 40 minutes
Time 39:16
Run place – 28th
Run pace – 7:54

Overall goal – 1:59:59
Overall time – 1:56:00
Overall place – 20th
AG – 7th
Masters – 7th

Sunday was an awesome and scenic 70 mile ride from Republic to Grand Coulee over Disautel Pass. ]]> Race Reports Lee http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1578 Chelanman Olympic http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1576&goto=newpost Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:47:38 GMT My Chelanman race report. Chris and Ben sat down at one of their pow wows and planned out the year and it was decided that Chris would do the... My Chelanman race report.
Chris and Ben sat down at one of their pow wows and planned out the year and it was decided that Chris would do the Chelanman Half this year rather than Troika. As it would happen the date fell on my 50th birthday and being that I love to tri too, I settled on the Olympic the same morning. It’s a perfect plan!

I’ve had an interesting training year in that after bailing on the New Orlean’s 70.3, I have just been running, swimming, and biking as I feel like. No specific plan, no concrete race goals. I’ve had a bunch of great rides with teammates, girlfriends, Luna Chix and Chris. Good times! My run training is shameful. I think I ran 2x in the month leading up to the Rock n Roll half and that event really hurt. Ouch! Following that I had run once or maybe twice before the Chelanman. I’ve been enjoying OW swimming with friends but have been pretty relaxed about it just going whenever I can.

On to the event. At the athletes meeting the night before, the RD tells us the wind we were enjoying would be gone in the morning. It blows with regularity in the late afternoon and evening but the mornings are calm. We woke up to wind and swells in the lake. Oh joy! I’m having twinges of remorse about my race wheel selection and I wonder if I’ll throw up in the water. The water was a pleasant 71 degrees or so. I was in the same wave as Porter, Porter’s mom and her fiancé. Hanging out and talking with them really took the edge off of the water slapping against our knees as we counted down. The wind had blown the buoy line into a large curve and I decided to move over to the left and swim straight out to the turn buoy rather than follow the underwater line that was now in a nice long arc. We took off. It became immediately evident that I would need to breath every right arm stroke rather than my usual alternating style. I found a rhythm almost immediately, settled in and adapted as best I could. The waves were coming head on at a rate that allowed me to take a breath at the crest of each swell. I felt relaxed and found myself passing quite a few swimmers who were having major issues with the conditions. After turning at the first turn buoy the water seemed much less choppy and then after the final turn buoy it smoothed out. I followed the underwater line at this point but it was so deep down it was difficult to see from time to time. I accidently swam over a few folks and tried to say sorry but that doesn’t work so great when your mouth is in the water. Oops! I came out of the water feeling OK not overly tired or stressed.

Swim 1500 meters 35:16.7 4th AG

T1 1:55.3

For the bike leg you run up this very short hill out of the transition area and mount your bike. It is an out and back along the shore of Lake Chelan that is scenic. A week earlier I had gone to Chelan and rode the course with a girlfriend on a day that was very hot. It was slow going and every little hill and incline was very noticeable. I can tell you that you are either going up or down for most of the route. There is very little flat. However, during the race it was much cooler and I was riding much faster and the course seemed pretty flat. It occurred to me that the faster you are traveling on the bike the less hilly it seems simply because your momentum carries you up hills farther before additional effort is required. There you have it, motivation to go faster. It’s easier! I didn’t get blown around at all. I think the wind already died down. My stomach was a little unsettled but I was able to drink according to plan. Downed one gel at the turnaround. At the dismount I started to run and guess what? I had my legs! I think I even yelled, “I have legs.” Those spectators must have thought I was crazy. I let the gravity pull me down the short steep hill into the transition area to rack my bike. My ride was great. I used the powertap to record data, but didn’t use it for set power range goals. Rather, as a guide to make sure I stayed above a level I knew I could do, but overall I was hoping to ride it more like a time trial and just see how strong the numbers came out. I didn’t feel tired or like I was over working. In retrospect I probably should have ridden it a bit harder the first half as I had plenty in the tank when I finished. The ride was a personal best.

Bike 24.8 miles 1:22:03.4 3rd AG

T2 1:48.8

The run. Going in due to my lack of running, I thought best case would be to run aid station to aid station, worst case walk the entire thing and most likely scenario would be to run/walk. I started to run and began to have stomach issues. It felt like running with intestines full of knives. Sharp pains. The run goes along the water on a path inside the park and then up and out onto the street following the same course as the bike. I walked up the hill and out onto the street and tried to run again. My stomach was not having it and I walked with some intermittent running. Walking was the easy choice since that didn’t bother my stomach much at all. Before long a guy runs up next to me and tells me I’m his soul sister being 50 and he was 50 too. Then he tells me he thinks I need some help. I’m thinking Wow, I look that bad? Then he tells me that I have to run with him to the next telephone pole and then I can walk. Complaining my stomach is killing me; I do run to the next pole. He walks with me to the next and then I run again with some prodding. This guy talks me through almost the entire run this way. The run became a pole to pole run rather than a waterstop to waterstop run. I finished faster than I would have otherwise. I can now tell you all about Bill’s race at the Lake Padden tri if you’d like. He say’s it’s hilly! Thank you Bill from Bellingham. You’re a lifesaver!

Run10K 1:23:39.2 9th AG

Total time 3:24:43.4 5th AG (out of 11)

At first I thought the stomach issue was race related. Maybe I really did go too hard even though I didn’t think so. As the day/night wore on, it continued to get worse and it was clear that it wasn’t race related. C’est la vie!

All in all, I’m happy with my performance. I enjoyed the event and Chelan. ]]> Race Reports maureenf http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1576 ChelanMan Half Iron http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1574&goto=newpost Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:32:00 GMT Pre-race: I knew it was going to be a hot day, and given my cramping / hydration problem, I drank a few bottles of water+Nuun+Liquid Endurance... Pre-race:
I knew it was going to be a hot day, and given my cramping / hydration problem, I drank a few bottles of water+Nuun+Liquid Endurance (glycerol) per day for the 3 days leading up to the race, continuing through race morning. Going into this event I was primarily concerned with being able to prepare for and execute well doing a long course race in hot weather. During the pre-race meeting Friday night the race director said that it was only windy 4-8 PM, and that it would be calm for the morning.

Race Morning / Swim
up at 5, breakfast of bagel + cream cheese, 1 cup of coffee, and a bottle of water + Nuun. It's windy. We get to the race site @ 6 AM and get set up. The water is rough, with visible swells and a strong wind blowing towards shore. It would be even worse on Sunday, with plenty of whitecaps and waves crashing against the wall, and several people would quit their races during the swim on both days due to the conditions. We saw from the shore that the wind had blown the outgoing buoy line from a straight line into a big curve so there was no point in following the longer distance. The swim was rough on the way out, and I got tossed around quite a bit with quite a few mouthfuls of water instead of air until I sort of worked out how to time strokes and breathing a bit better for the waves. I was determined not to let the conditions get the better of me so I kept mentally repeating a mantra I heard Ben say once - "rhythm, roll, reach, relax" and finding something to focus on helped keep my composure. I was hoping that that the waves would work to my advantage on the way back. After making the turn at the far buoy, I found the orange underwater buoy line and followed it as best I could - it would often go too deep to see and normal sighting was directly into the sun and blinding glare off the water; maybe some goggles with different lenses would have helped as finding the next bright yellow buoy against the bright background was difficult.

The only eventful decision in T1 was to not take the time to put on socks, as I had put plenty of talc into my bike shoes. I drank most of a bottle of water + Nuun on the way out of transition. Although my feet never bothered me on the bike, examining them post-race would show that going without socks was probably a mistake ( a total of 7 blisters, 2 of them bleeding).

Bike
I felt only OK for the first hour on the bike, but my powertap head unit kept losing connection to the hub so although my displayed avg power was low I didn't know if it was really low or just a problem with incomplete data on the device (i'd finish with a displayed avg of 210 watts, about 15 watts below target and with 40 minutes of missing data) . At just about an hour it was as if somebody flipped a switch and I felt great, and continued to feel good for the rest of the ride. The race web site lists the course as having 3986 feet of climbing but after riding Canada the weekend before, the 3 big climbs here were not as hard. I'd finish the bike in 3:10 and go through 2 bottles of EFS, 1 bottle of HEED, 2 bottles of water, 2 gels, but 0 cramps. While the course was quite windy in spots the 404 I rented from V02 worked out very well, and I could go down the descents without worrying about side wind gusts.

Run
I took the first 2 miles of the run easy (about 40 seconds / mile over goal pace), and then settled in to about a 9:20 pace. The combination of hills, increasing heat, a strong sun and little to no shade began to eat away at this, as I would throw a cup of water on my chest at each water stop, only to have it dry out before the next one (the air temperature at the finish line when I came in was measured in the low 90s). My pace faded badly in the second half of the run, and I'd finish in 2:26, for an 11 minute/mile avg but still no cramps or problems taking in water or calories during the run. At the finish line I'd wind up 9th of 15 in the 50-55 AG and 116 of 200 overall. ]]> Race Reports chrisesposito http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1574 Vancouver Half Race Report http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1557&goto=newpost Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:03:26 GMT 5:01.15– 57th – 12/32 AG – 46/169 Gender -- 228 finishers http://rich.lander.ca/2010/07/13/RaceReportVancouverHalfIron.aspx 5:01.15– 57th – 12/32 AG – 46/169 Gender -- 228 finishers

http://rich.lander.ca/2010/07/13/Rac...rHalfIron.aspx ]]> Race Reports richardL http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1557 Forum Calendar http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1554&goto=newpost Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:34:11 GMT A reminder that everyone has access to the forum calendar to post future workouts and races. This is a good way to plan ahead knowing everyone's busy schedules and personal commitments.

The forum threads can still be used to confirm details and attendance as needed.

Just posting this to maximize the full functionality of the site. Feel free to add birthdays and any other important dates too.

Chime in with any other questions or suggestions as I know Chris Esposito our forum administrator will find a way to make it work. Thanks Chris for your support of the team forum! :)

Marne ]]> Announcements Marne Sall http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1554 CDA Race reports moved to Race Reports Forum http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1535&goto=newpost Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:17:30 GMT Hi All,
In response to a few requests I've moved the recent CDA race reports to the forum we've set up for such things - the Race Report forum.

Chris ]]> Announcements chrisesposito http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1535 <![CDATA[Lee Ann's IM CdA RR 2010]]> http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1529&goto=newpost Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:07:03 GMT Warning this is a little on the long side which is surprising since it was a pretty smooth day. Cheers, Lee Ann Warning this is a little on the long side which is surprising since it was a pretty smooth day.

Cheers,
Lee Ann
Attached Files
File Type: doc The Ironman experience for me is so much more than the actual day of racing.doc (32.0 KB)
]]> Race Reports lkinkade http://www.teamvo2multisport.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1529