Saturday, July 31, 2010

Colorado Springs Vacation

The family ventured over to Colorado Springs, Colorado for a short vacation this past week. We had a great time riding and site seeing.

I love riding at new locations and while in Colorado Springs we got to ride Falcon Trail (my favorite btw...), Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Santa Fe Trail and Red Rock Canyon.

We ventured out each day after we rode to places like Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls.

Some pictures of our week in Colorado...

Colorado Springs

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Tribute Triathlon


I decided to make the Tribute Triathlon my last triathlon of the season. A very nice triathlon, especially being a first year event. Saundra Overton and her wonderful volunteers did a great job today. This event was held in memory of Fredrick James Overton who passed away last year from a heart attack while training for a marathon. He was only 43 at the time. Fredrick was my age which makes you stop and think how precious life is. Fredrick's gear and bike where out today which was cool.

On tap today was a 500 yard lake swim, 18 mile bike and 5K run. Conditions were good except for it was on the hot side and a little windy on the bike leg.

Farrington Park was the location which had a nice little lake for the swim. A very well marked swim I might add. It is nice having buoys every 75 yards or so. Make it much easier to sight for us who need to wear glasses. We started in waves of about 25 or so today. I kind of like the smaller wave starts opposed to a large mass start. Much less struggle heading to the first buoy. My swim was good for me. I got out in around 9 min and felt comfortable in the water. I caught up to the tail end of the first two waves. It was very comical watching not one, but two swimmers swimming back stroke with both hands at the same time (like the butterfly stroke). I had never seen that before. Then I remember how I felt at the Xterra Red River earlier this year and how I must of looked when I got in trouble.

After a much improved T1, I headed out on the 18 mile bike. An out-back course with rolling hills and a kick ass head wind on the way back in. Did I mention it was getting ever hot. With a 0800 event start time the summer temps were starting to rise quickly. I settled into a good rhythm heading out and was going so fast at the 2nd turn of the day that I blew past it. I was looking at the police officer and he was motioning to go straight, but it turns out he was directing the car which was in front of me at the time. I turned around without much lost time, but it took me awhile to get going strong again. I was passing a lot of racers from the earlier waves (I was in the last wave of the day) and felt strong. That was until this guy with a disc wheel TT bike come whizzing by and took my fastest bike slip hopes away. I kept him within 10 seconds until the turnout. At which time we make the turn around and headed back into what felt like a hot furnace. The entire return trip felt like we were riding uphill and into the wind. No wonder I was in the 53 x 12 on the way out - downhill and had a tailwind. I even had to venture into the 39 for awhile. I stayed there because I was still passing riders who were trying to mash along. As I made the final turn for the last 1/2 mile I came up on a car which was on the course. This older lady proceeded to stop right in front of the narrow barried off road, which blocked me. I ended up getting off my bike and running around the car. As I remounted my bike I could hear some of the riders behind yelling at her to move. I was not as mad like they were, but was disappointed that it cost me some time on my bike split. Still ended up the day with the 4th fasted bike split and a 22 mph average. With missing the turn and having to stop for the senile old lady I will take the time.

T2 was a good one. I was quickly out for the 5K. I had been working a little on my run lately and hoped the time spent would pay off. The first mile work our way out of the park was very senic and had a nice little gravel section of trail that we used. I was running with 4 others at this point and was having a hard time keeping their pace. The heat was really effecting me and my legs felt very heavy. At the first water station I grabbed 2 cups of cold water - one for the head/body and the other for my thirst. If had had known there would not be another aid station for nearly two miles I would have gotten more. There was another aid station shortly after the first but it only had warm Heed. I like Heed, but not luke warm heed :-). The run course went by a grave yard. No shade at all just siring heat from the sun. At this point I felt like I belonged in one of the graves. I was a running dead man and was having to force my self to concentrate and push on. The 4 runners I was with had checked out. They were running for the overall win. Me, I was running to try and protect my lead in my age-group. I could hear some runners behind me and once we reached the aid station with a mile to go I picked it up some. Luckily this section of the course had some shade. I did good good the final mile and clipped off a 6:15 mile. I was dead at the end, but it was enough to win the Male 40-44 age group.

The Sedalia Democrat was on site taking some photos of today's event.

Here are some pictures that Carolynn took during our visit to Windsor, MO

Tribute Triathlon

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Mudwaters Triathlon Pictures

This past weekend was the 5th Annual Mudwater's Triathlon. A very well run event, great volunteers and a sweet venue - I now know why it sold out again this year. Will I be back next year? You bet. Mark your calendars for July 10, 2011.

I had originally planned to race the Shawnee Mission Triathlon, but the event sold out before I could enter. Turns out I lucked out because they called the Shawnee Mission Triathlon due to some rain. That is two years in a row. I still do not believe in stopping a race due to the weather, but that is me. This view most likely comes from participating in motocross events held in near monsoon conditions. Just ask my Brother Joey about the Loretta Lynn's qualifier held at Gatorback in Gainesville, Florida. Now if an event ever needed to be cancelled it was that one....

Back to Mudwaters....Carolynn and I made the trip to Goddard, KS on Saturday and enjoyed a nice evening at one of the many restaurants in town. Well not really, truth be told there were only 3 places to pick from and Taco Bell got the nod. Before we settled down we ventured over to Lake Afton Park to check out the course and pick up my race packet. Very nice little lake. A really nice venue for a triathlon. Packet pickup was very smooth and the Kansas River Valley Triathlon club were very nice. I was looking forward to my first Olympic distance triathlon. I've raced every distance from Ironman to short course, but never an Olympic distance. When I saw the new option for it when registering, I decided that I might as well give it a shot even though I have only been training for short course events.

Sunday morning came quickly and we were off to the race site. Everything went smoothly on race morning. The transition area quickly filled up, but I was lucky and got a nice spot with easy entry/exit. As the 0700 start time arrived I was ready. Everyone ventured down to Lake Afton ready for a 1500 meter swim. Well, everyone who was racing the Olympic distance. There was also a sprint event and duathlon event taking place at the same time. Running three events at once can be a challenge, but looking back everything ran very smooth.

The event began with a loud bang. They started the event with a gun. This scared the shit out of me as it quickly brought back childhood memories of being shot at while up at the family farm. I can still hear those bullets whizzing by my head as my brother and I ran for our lives. I could not tell you why she was shooting at us only that she was a crazy old lady that lived in the woods. But I digress......

Swim went well for the most part. Pacing has always been a problem with me. I have never completed a 1500 meter swim before and did not want to go out too fast. I settled into a nice pack and was able to maintain a good rhythm and keep my breathing under control. The only problem was the pack I was following went way off course. We added a couple hundred meters for sure. My goal was 25 min, but came in around 27. I finished really strong so now I know to push it a little harder on Olympic distance swims and maybe even try sighting myself instead of following...

Transition to the bike was good. I felt very comfortable on the bike and quickly started passing the faster swimmers. I had a good average going - around 25 mph. There were only a few small hills so you could really keep the pace up. All the roads were in good shape except for heading west on 391st street. That road made you feel like your were racing a cobble classic over in Europe. I started to overheat a little towards the end of the bike. The temps were rising fast and at that time I wished I had done the Sprint Distance event. I was not looking forward to a10K in the high 90's. Finished the bike in just over an hour.

Transition to the run was very fast. Only wish I could have maintained that intensity. I think I lasted about a mile running well. After the first aid station it became more of a fast jog. By mile 4 all I was doing was jogging partly due to the heat and partly due to my IT band injury showing it's ugly head again. I dragged my slow running self across the line in 2:30. I would have been o.k. with a 2:15 time, but nothing slower. I ended up finishing 2nd in the Male 40-44 group. There were a few fast times, but for the most part I was not alone in having trouble on this day.

Lots of improvement needed for this distance. In looking back I missed one important thing - having a Goal. I didn't have a goal last week, but this weekend I do. Kick some butt in tomorrow's Tribute Triathlon. A 500 yd lake swim followed by a 18 mile bike and 5 K run. The longer bike leg should help me and I am looking foreward to closing out the season with a top finish.

Some pictures from the 5th Annual Mudwater's Triathlon.

Mudwater Triathlon

Friday, July 9, 2010

Swope Short Track Racing

MTB-KC Presents:

Dirty Thursdays at Swope Park!!!

Who: Cyclocross and mountian bikers alike!
What: Dirt crits, short track MtB, cyclocross, call it what you will!
When: 6:00 pm, Thursday evenings, July 15—October 28
Where: Swope Park, Camp Lake of the Woods
Why: Why not?
Cost: $0
Format: Show and go, Format/course direction will change weekly

PLEASE MEET AT THE TOP OF THE HILL AT CAMP LAKE OF THE WOODS BY 6 PM THURSDAY EVENINGS IF WANTING TO RACE (near the Hogan)!!! YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO PARK AT THE MAIN TRAILHEAD AND RIDE THE HILL UP. ALL RACES ARE SUBJECT TO THE WEATHER/COURSE CONDITIONS.

Questions: Brett Shoffner, 785-nine79-too706, bscm8 (at) umkc.edu

Info: MTB-KC

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Walt Bodine Show - Biking and the Community

I got a call a couple weeks ago asking if I would be on The Walt Bodine Show. They were going to talk about cycling in Kansas City. I agreed to participate and joined JP Shores and Brian Jenson to talke about our favorite subject - Cycling. I was an interesting show and went rather quickly. Overall I did o.k. Still needs lots of work with speaking in a public forum.

Here is the podcast: Biking and the Community