No Spots Remained on TriLife 2012 IronTeam; HalfIron, Comrades and Trail Ultra Running Teams are in recruitement phase

July 1st, 2011

The addition of two new Ironman races in the Northeast for 2012 has sparked interest and increased the number of Ironman hopefuls in the NYC Metro area.  TriLife Coaching is in its ninth year of providing ironman distance training, and remains committed to providing the highest quality program for our athletes. As part of such, we must maintain deliberate selection process and limit IronTeam size. Therefore, we have to announce that currently there are NO training spots remaining for IronTeam 2012 which already started training during the last week of September 2011. Only sponsor spots remain available. We sincerely hope that all the Ironman hopefuls (beginners and recidivists) will achieve their Ironman training and racing potentials, no matter where and with whom their training might occur.

Meanwhile, TriLife is accepting and interviewing athletes for 2012 HalfIron Team, Trail / Ultra Running and Comrades Marathon teams. Please contact Earl Walton (earl@trilife.org) for HalfIron Team, Ross Galitsky (ross@trilife.org) for Comrades Team, and Scott Willett (scott@trilife.org) for Trail / Ultra Running Team.

Bruce Fordyce and Stephen Muzhingi in New York City

November 2nd, 2011

Comrades legends Bruce Fordyce (the “Comrades King”) and Stephen Muzhingi will be in NYC to run the marathon next weekend. These two multi-year winners of Comrades and other ultra distance running events gracefully donated their time to talk about ultra-running, Comrades Marathon, and run this weekend’s “training run”.

Event organized by TriLife Comrades Team 2011, and conference space is being generously provided by Microsoft. 

Location: 1290 Avenue of the America’s and 52nd St (across from Hilton Hotel), 6th Floor. You will need photo ID to get through building security.

Please feel free to distribute this information to any running cl ub, athletic store, or mailing lists you participate in.

RSVP required and here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188413731238266 {corrected}

Storm effects

September 1st, 2011

More information is still filtering in about condition of local roads that some of our favorite races use… but it looks grim. Unless professional politicians get their you-know-what together and open up a spigot of public funding very soon, we might not have some of the local races next year (and locals, even more importantly, might not have a liberty and convenience of their usual travel routes).

Lake Placid, Ausable Valley and that whole gem of that upstate area is in crisis. See images of the Lake Placid’s Ausable River bridge and Rt. 73 after Keene… no words needed. Images and more information is on Curt Stager’s Save The Carbon blog. Our training and racing venue staple, River Road, has many washouts, and Lake Placid itself cannot be reached anymore via Rt. 86 or Rt. 73 direct routes to Interstate 87 (the Adirondack Northway).

Bear Mountain / Harriman State Park also was hammered. I will venture that all cycling races scheduled there will be officially cancelled, including this weekend’s Nancy Morgenstern Memorial 2011 Fall Bear Mountain event. Some areas of the park just ceased to exist. Not sure how this will affect the SBR Triathlon series next year (which Competitor Group bought out just recently, re-branding them as part of CGI’s TriRock Triathlon Series as TriRock New York presented by SBR.)

SOS will be seriously affected. Damage on both local roads (as 44/55) and trails will force either race cancellation or serious modification this year. We can only hope that NYS Parks might find budget capacity to repair trail network and infrastructure. Specifically for SOS, run 1 (to Awosting) is passable but newly built berm/overpass right before the Cardiac/Miller Time hill does not exist anymore. Run 2 (to Minny) deteriorated to almost “hiking only” conditions in many segments. The Minny gatehouse bridge (see image of the water flow on the day of the storm) was damaged, collapsing on one side. The trail after it, from the falls and toward Lyon’s road ceased to exist as a recognisable trail/path (see image from the storm day). Route 55/55 also was damaged, including collapsed section of the roadway below Jenny Lane.

Another location dear to us, Rockaway Beach, was beat up by ocean surge and lost a lot of sand (estimated five to six feet), with some damage to boardwalk.

The darnest things Lifers say

August 26th, 2011

“I was so pissed, and I had to pick fur out of my break pads.”

“Part of my problem is that I start having such a good time I forget that it is a race and I don’t race…”

“A random fact about me is that I adore swim-up bars.”

“A blondie is basically a brownie but with brown sugar in place of the chocolate.”

“The downside of the late-night trapeze class was that I had a 10k race to run the next morning.”

“I just worked out for 13 hours and I didn’t lose any weight?!”

“And I had people literally swim over me many times, which really irked me.”

“Slowly and full of rage and despair I managed to change the tire.”

“I’ve recently been experiencing a strange numbing sensation below the belt anytime I hop on the bike.”

“I see that were is an available wetsuit stripper so I sit down and put my legs in the air.”

“I’ll count it as a workout.”

“I got a marriage proposal on the Mirror Lake Drive on Loop 1.  So maybe I look better running than I think, although he could have just been blinded by the embarrassing amounts of cleavage that I had showing the whole race.”

“Apparently when my mind shuts up, so does my body. When the rest of the world gets nervous and gets the runs, I get constipated.”

“I once was a polite, courteous triathlete which yielded to people and tried to contribute to overall harmony….no more after IMLP.”

Rose Pitonof Centennial Swim #2 (or is it #3)?

August 16th, 2011

The Rose Pitonof Centennial Swim from Manhattan to Coney Island this Saturday, 8/13/2001 was a great success.  17 mile swim from Kips Bay in Manhattan to Coney Island is based on a  route that 17-year-old Rose Pitonof swam 100 years ago.

All six swimmers finished:

Lori Carena: 5:47:08
Cara McAteer 5:51:05
Leonard Jansen: 6:01:15
Jaimie Monahan: 6:03:48
Alan Morrison: 6:09:04
Jason Malick: 6:24:53

Three generations of Rose Pitonof’s family were on hand there to celebrate. Two year old great, great, granddaughter Evelyn Rose helped put the finishers medal around the winner’s neck. TriLife athletes provided race management and race support. Another exotic and successful endurance sports event organized by Deanne Draeger and her Sherpas.

Ironman Lake Placid 2011 Notes

August 16th, 2011

It was the usual Lake Placid… unpredictable and far from perfect weather (including first ever, too-warm-for-wetsuits Mirror Lake), too many athletes swimming in a small lake, crappy road surface at many places on the bike, many examples of knuckle-headed behavior by participating athletes, and overall hard day for everyone. Which makes it a wonderfully perfect, this-is-why-it-is-ironman race day! It was a great day for TriLife too – everyone got to suffer and test their capacity, no one ended up in the hospital, very few visited med tent, and two athletes qualified for Kona.

Race day had an unusual wind pattern, not only the direction (reversed to the “usual”, if such exists) but also consistency (i.e., did not change through the day). Temperatures stayed comfortable early, rising primarily due to sun radiation to 90′s (not in the shade) by mid-day. Strong wind made bike segment feel less hot, as a result many athletes under-hydrated and got punished by the end of the bike or run start. More the usual of walkers were observed on loop one, as weather and condition of many athletes improved by loop 2. There were less than usual crowd conditions on the bike, either because wetsuit and no-wetsuit swim split athletes more evenly or because there were naturally large split in swimming abilities. And yes, we observed yet again athletes that could not swim.

While TriLife coaches are proud of all IronTeam athletes (seriously… just kidding… no – seriously), some names deserve a mentioning. Sameh Mikahl was given the honor of wearing race number #179, the memorial number for John Blais (if John Blais sounds unfamiliar, visit http://waronals.com/about_jon.php). While (due to injuries and/or health issues) not all IronTeam 2011 athletes were racing, some Lifers should be celebrated on their ability to even be at the race start… grit and pride and finish line sometimes are as important as PR. Amy Rosen broke her big toe during the swim (and no, she did not kick you) and still was able to complete another Ironman. Speaking of PR’s, we must also celebrate Megan Wiseman and Renee Gerardo’s Kona spots qualifications in their respective age groups.

Statistically, race (and sport) continue to grow – looks like over 2,300 athletes (and 1,013 first timers) finished (original DNF rate of 6.8% was reported), an average finish time for 2011 was 13:04 (or about 10 minutes slower than in 2010). Average bike time was 6:36 (supporting that IMLP has one of the tougher rides) and run segment of 4:52. Swim was no-wetsuit but with very popular wetsuit option for athletes not racing for Kona and/or AG spots. Special shout-out going out to the fastest age groupers on a swim who are locals – Griffin McNeese from Hoboken with 49:50 (1st), Tommy Dolan from Rockaway Beach (fellow lifeguard family) with 50:06 (2nd) and David Uprichard with 53:21 (5th; Red Tide Masters swimmer and chronic “under-runner”). TJ Tollakson won overall (long deserved) with 8:25, and rode 10 seconds short of Steve Larsen’s 2001 bike time of 4:33:23 (TJ was styling 1996 Zipp 2001 frame – some bike brand needs to step in and give this boy a full sponsorship ride, since he can win on Huffy). Heather Wurtele won women’s race, also with the fast ride of 5:08, and overall time of 9:19.

Here are IMLP DNF rates for future reference:

1999 80/1460 5.5%
2000 102/1544 6.6%
2001 152/1808 8.4%
2002 126/1751 7.2%
2003 162/1835 8.8%
2004 79/1961 4.0%
2005 145/1997 7.3%
2006 115/2160 5.3%
2007 157/2208 7.1%
2008 148/2344 6.3%
2009 207/2258 9.2%
2010 136/2611 5.2%
2011 170/2502 6.8%

Sameh Mikhail: Lake Placid’s Blazeman Warrior

August 1st, 2011

Good story on ironman.com about one of the Lifers… I just wish he would not attract motor vehicles as much.

Badwater – “That. Was. Hard.” by a harder woman, Dr. Lisa Bliss

August 1st, 2011

Angels cry, kittens are brought back to life, and Elvis reveals himself alive events happen as often as when a human does such stupendous achievement…  a solo, unaided, unsupported, self-contained 146 miles crossing of Death Valley from Badwater Basin (the lowest elevation in the US at 282 ft below sea level) and to the summit of Mt. Whitney (the highest elevation in the contiguous US at 14, 494 feet). There are 135 miles of paved roads through the desert and mountain passes, with additional 11 miles of trails to the summit. But Dr. Lisa Bliss effort is in its own league, first female athlete and second athlete ever. Again, it was solo, unaided and self-contained effort – carrying all supplies, including water and food, accepting no outside help or gear of any kind and without any refueling along the way. So 95 pound Lisa Bliss had to push and pull 250 pound cart loaded with frozen water, food and clothes. Marshall Ulrich made first similar successful crossing in 1999.

Of course, there is an official Badwater Ultramarathon race on the 135 miles of the paved route. But those athletes “only” run the murderous race…

Since we are on Badwater topic, this year we are very proud of Brittany Climowitz, one of the TriLifers from Coach Dennis Ball Trail Racing Team, with 45:31:11 finishing time in her first Badwater attempt! (Smiling Brittany is on the left.)

Now back to Dr. Lisa Bliss – here is a fresh summary from her right after the successful crossing:

Let’s see… how can I keep this brief and just give a quick summary. How about:  That. Was. Hard. And it was.

A few additional facts:

- I started at 6:19 am Monday, July 25.

- No crew, totally unaided.

- Witnessed by the SPOT tracker and many others.  Will detail later.

- Not sure if part of the official rules because I never asked Marshall (Ed.: Ulrich, the first athlete to survive self-supported Badwater) specifically, but I made it a rule to accept no advice about anything either.

- My official elapsed time from Badwater to the summit of Mt. Whitney was 89 hours, 48 mins, 38 secs.

-Traffic was a bit scary. Tim and Willy worked nearly non-stop to make sure cars were alerted that I was on the road.

– People are allowed to summit with me, but everything I needed for the summit had to be carried from the start. Nothing accepted. I summited with Tim, Willy, and Danny Westergaard (who also helped with traffic on the portal road – many, many hours).

- The cart weighed about 240 pounds, 180 pounds of that was frozen water (brought to start line by Jeff Sauter, who also helped with traffic for the first two days through the climb to Father Crowley)

- My biggest challenge by far was Towne Pass, the 18 mile climb starting at about mile 42. It took Marshall 16 hours to make this climb. It took me almost 21. It was incredibly difficult and yes, I thought many times that I couldn’t do it. I broke down mentally at the last stretch. I could see the top but I couldn’t pull up that grade with the fierce head wind. I had to cut “switchbacks” on the road in order to do it. I thought of Carl L’s message during Vol State about runners moving at 3 hours per mile. That was me. I thought it would never end. But baby steps, while painfully slow, still got me to where I needed to go…eventually.

- In retrospect, I should have dropped the cart in Lone Pine (there is a choice of LP or at the Portal Trail) because the Portal road climb was nearly as bad a Towne Pass. The cart was still heavy.

- I started the 11-mile summit at about 11:30 am. At about 3/4 the way up, Tim and I went ahead and Willy and Danny moved a little slower. It was bitterly cold. I was prepared for anything, carried all emergency and all weather supplies from Badwater, but it was still very cold and windy. I fought hypothermia the last few miles. Tim and I hit the summit around midnight. (Details later.) I was done. We took a couple of pictures with our frozen hands and the cigar had to wait until morning. I signed the book and then went straight into the survival hut to get out of the wind. Two hours later, Danny and Willy joined us. We spent the night in there and when I turned the SPOT device over to stop the blinking, it lost the GPS signal.

-We put on every piece of clothing we had (at this point, I was done and could accept help) and we slept.  Well, sort of. At least we were out of the wind.

-We were up at 5 am, and we started our descent around 7:10 am. The weather got progressively worse over the next few hours and most of the descent was made in rain, hail, thunder and lightening, complete with seeing 2 rocky avalanches.

-We were soaked to the bone back at the portal but that didn’t stop me from getting a cheeseburger at the Portal Store, and yes, I was stuffing my face when Marcia came over to the car to congratulate me!

-The first day was “cool” and overcast. I was lucky.

-I slept about 1/2 hour the first night, a total of about 1-1/2 hours the second, and none the third.

-I had enough water, even dumped about 2.5 gallons.

-I had enough food, about 20,000 calories.

-I started with wrist tendinitis (from training with the cart) but that seemed to resolve by the last day. I had trouble with anterior tibialis and achilles tendinitis but it was manageable. I had some pretty bad plantar fasciitis too, and thank goodness I was able to manage it. That is painful. These were new problems for me, certainly due to pulling the cart. I am surprised I had no back pain whatsoever.

-Denise pre-taped the balls of my feet and I had only one small blister that was easily treated.

-This was a record for me for the most days without a shower.

-It was an adventure of a lifetime!

-I will never do it again.  :)

I hope I have time to write a report. I really want to.

Lisa Bliss

Ironman Lake Placid 2011 in 9 minutes

July 29th, 2011

Pleasant surprise – IM Lake Placid post-race motivational video is already posted on YouTube (this is even before the final Final Results are posted… still no data with wetsuit/no wetsuit differentiation, penalties, etc.). Video contains nice images of several Lifers and some of the TriLife Support Team.

NYC Triathlon or NYC Duathlon?

July 27th, 2011

This Monday, citing an “abundance of caution,” NYC Dept. of Health ordered the three Staten Island East Shore beaches and Sea Gate Beach in Brooklyn closed until further notice. Swimmers and kayakers are also urged to stay out of the Hudson River. Beach closings were based “on review of both water flow through the harbor and evaluation of actual water samples taken in the harbor and at the shoreline.” Water quality samples from Sea Gate Beach are showing elevated levels of bacteria… demonstrating continuing effects of the untreated raw sewer discharge from the Riverbank State Park site (officially, the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant). Discharge was implemented last week due to the damage after a fire in the engine room. Some progress on repairs was reported, and NYC DEP said that the spillage into the Hudson River stopped last Friday evening. Some sources indicate that sewage is undergoing only partial treatment where wastewater passing through the plant is only receiving a primary treatment that removes solids and adds chlorine. Such treatment is enough to get discharged water quality after some time to the point where advisories could be lifted. It was also reported that the rest of the treatment process (where “good” bacteria kills dangerous bacteria) will not be on line for several days.

NYC Triathlon race management posted the following statement: “As you may know, the pumps at the sewage plant started working again on Friday, and it was reported that the spillage into the Hudson stopped that evening around 9:30. The mighty Hudson tides will continue to replenish the water in the river, and we will work with the DEP to test the water quality. More updates to come–our final water test will be late next week.”