Tag Archives: Cervelo

Padden Race 26.7 worlds recap

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Very few races have required me to dig as deep as the last mile in this one, and I did so while watching 3rd place slip through my fingers no matter how hard I tried. Every race I have had this season has been many lessons learned and this was true once again for this race. As you can see in this picture 11027498_476291382530267_1376671950477560405_n at the finish line I had done everything I could have but all a little too late. This is the nature of short course racing you have very little time to react and to eat deficits put into you on the swim but enough with the caveats. The start was perfect, perfect weather, perfect companions and perfect water temperature. It was a out and back course of a little less than half a mile, the gun went off and the sprint was on Swim stats. I swam well, a little conservative but well. Unfortunately I had to clear my goggles twice because of water and swam a lot of it peaking out of one eye so considering that I was very happy with 12 minutes coming out of the water. I then proceeded to follow my race plan which was to try and chase down the race leaders on the bike. I knew that I would have to have one of my best rides ever to chase down the strong bikers of Kyle Carrick and Chris Hughes as I knew they would be out of the water before me. I did not account for another local strong biker, Joseph Giannetto, after dispensing with him, or so I thought, I went to work looking for the leaders. It was not until the second part of the bike section that I realized Joe had latched on to my back wheel. Now this was a non-draft legal race but I had never dealt with someone drafting off of me in a race so it was weird. I made up my mind to race my race and not worry about what he was doing. As we headed in for the last downhill section before the big climb, aptly named “Bertha” out out of Fairhaven, Joe passed me and I dropped back to the three bike length out of the “draft zone” I tried to pass again twice but he was on fresher legs then me so I decided to wait for “Bertha” to try to make my move. I sprinted up the hill and did not look back flying into transition to the run, T2, I dismounted got my shoes on, to the cheers of my family and friends and ran off. (Bike stats) The ride had put some pain in my legs and so for the first two miles I tried to find my rhythm. At mile 2.2 I saw 2nd place, Kyle Carrick, who is a world class runner, and a slight bit of hope hit me. I put some gas on the fire but no response so I settled into a rhythm again and tried to hang on for the second lap, knowing the whole time that Joe was chasing me down. On the second lap I was shooting for a negative split of time from the first lap compared to the second. I was running through and Joe caught me at mile 4 out of a 5.2 mile course. I was spent but he spurred me on with encouragement to run my fastest mile split and finish strong. We sprinted the last 200 meters and he beat me out by 5 seconds for 3rd place.(Run Stats) I crossed the line exhausted by thrilled with my 4th place overall and a  personal recorded from last year off 6 minutes shaved off my total time. The beer and Ice cream did flow, let me tell you! Next race is The Chelanman and I look towards it with great anticipation as I have a couple of hard build weeks here and am feeling great right now. 

  • 1:40:46 Overall
  • 12:29 Swim
  • 1:09 T1
  • 52:11:00 Bike (fastest)
  • 0:43 T2
  • 34:17:00 Run

P.S. Also got my pic in the paper woot woot

Racer X makes his debut. Moses Lake Olympic recap.

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So let me start off by saying that the race was indeed a great success, just in case I failed to bring that point across. The Location of the race, in Moses Lake, Washington and the weather which had been quite warm had finally cooled off to a pleasant 80 degrees. The lake was warm at 75 degrees and I was worried about it becoming a non-wet-suit legal race. As a adult onset swimmer, the idea of a non wet-suit race makes me shutter as it adds about 15% of a time penalty because of the decreased buoyancy provided by the wet-suit. My childhood friend Dan made the trip with me and we found a great place to camp out and did a quick run through of the course to familiarize ourselves. I was nervous that my legs had not recovered from my Mt. Baker climb the weekend before but in the run through they felt great so it was time to put them up and grabbed some dinner. I have had great luck with sushi as a pre-race meal as it has a good balance of rice carbs, which my body loves, fats and proteins. With sushi ate and the last gear check finished we closed up the tent and got some sleep. The morning greeted us with clear sky’s and comfortable temperatures, as we made our way to the course. Set up was a breeze and I got in the water for some warm-up strokes. Recently my coach, Daryl Smith, had tweaked my stroke length and I had seen significant improvements in the pool but as this was the first race of the season I had yet to see if it translated in the open water. We all lined up in the water and the gun went off at 8:00 am. With heart pounding in my chest I battled for the first buoy. I found several people to draft off of during the race and I felt as if several times that led me a little off course so as I came out of the water I was expecting a time of 28 minutes or so for covering the 1 mile distance. I was blown away, 24:30! (Swim Stats) I went to work on the bike picking off people as I went and approaching the turnaround on the out and back course. I saw one rider on a beautiful Cervelo P5 (a 10,000$ bike) coming fast back. My heart sank a little as I saw his ITU jersey with his name on the back, signifying that he had been to the world champs at some point in his career. Still, on I fought, pushing that much harder. (Bike Stats) I flew into transition and found my legs quickly off the bike. The goal was to keep comfortably fast off the bike, with a good rhythm until the turn around on the 10 KM course. I saw the leader again when he hit the turn around and it looked like I was slightly gaining on him. I put the hammer down but my form fell to shit and as a result so did my split on mile 4. I regained composure on mile 5 and waited till mile 6 to hit it again. (Run Stats) My legs responded better and I finished the race with a time of 2:01:53, 2nd place overall, and with PR’s in all three categories! I conversed at length with the race winner Mike Vrbanac, a racing legend, who had just moved back from North Cal and learned a great deal about racing in general. It is amazing to talk to someone with over 30 years of racing under their belts and still going strong at 57 years old! Inspirational for sure. Overall i could not be happier with the outcome and I feel very good about the upcoming races for the rest of the summer. Also this is my new pump song. Racer X out.