You teach them fine nuances of swimming stroke and laboring love of running at their limit but they get swept off the feet by the flashy hotness of road cycling… Another bittersweet racing success for a Lifer that is now going to a church of road cycling – Allyson Kutler wins overall yet another crit in South California riding for Dolce Vita. I am not surprised when she wins ITT’s, after all, cycling time trials and long distance triathlons are “kissing cousins” but crits?!… What happened to “triathletes can’t ride” bromide? I guess some can handle their bikes after all – and here is a lesson to the current and future Lifers: not to avoid our drills-and-skills bike handling training sessions.
Archive for the ‘Results’ Category
Uncorked Ally K. (note wine bottle being saved)
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Come and get it, fresh results here… still with aroma of sweat and skin lube
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
First congratulation is going to a Lifer who now prays in “another church” – of road cycling racing. Olivia Dillion took a rare double victory last week in Sligo, Ireland – she won both Irish National Time Trial Championships and the Road Race Championship. Prior to becoming an elite bike racer, she was a triathlete. Her cycling talent was transparent during her half ironman training history with us. Unfortunately, she never had a chance to show off her another athletic talent during our “sandbox training” (she used to play on the National Irish Volleyball team).
Earlier in June, in out own local version of ITT and TTT events at the Bear Mountain Seven Lake races, TriLife Racing (composite team of “Big Phil” B., Tim “Do not make nicknames for me” W. and Michael “8 Pack” F. were second overall in the Men’s TTT event beating out almost all (real cycling) teams. Tim W. also took second overall in Cat. 5 ITT race (making that weekend a pleasant SuperBrick for him - with triathlon race, couple road cycling TT’s and other training). Michael F. and “Big Tim” were respectively fourth and fifth in ITT race.
Back to triathlon scene, Tupper Lake races saw its usual TriLife invasion this year. Megan Wiseman took overall half ironman race, with Michelle Mag. and Colleen H. taking age group spots. In the sprint distance, Mike “8 Pack” F. took either second or third overall (something about equipment-based DQ for a person in front), Jac. Lake was first in her age group (speeding to be also the fastest even among the men in her age group 
, and Jim “Fisherman” C. also taking the first in his age group.
I drop the hammer and hope for the best
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Oh Lenny… how far have you come in one year. From tri-geek bike and (very adequate) nutritional supplies for 100 mile training rides to “I’m jumping through holes 12 inches wide just to stay with my lead out and fighting for every inch of real estate. We hit Cat’s Paw… I veer right and I shoot up the gutter on the right, one rider tries to squeeze me into the curb I start yelling ‘coming through’ hoping he will give way. He does. Now approaching the top I can see the front of the peloton to my left with about 6 riders across. After cresting… I drop the hammer and hope for the best. Next thing I know I’m crossing the line first.”
Congratulations – your first race after upgrade from Cat. 5 and overall win!
For those whose dreams were crashed that race… where are you every Tuesday at 5:00 am when I greet Lenny before his sprint practice and I see noone else training with him?
Summer + RD’s = Race Results
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Too many successes, too little time to list them…
Multisport
Mr. Consistency, Mike Farrell, got enough dignity to get 18th overall in New Jersey Devilman Half Lite 50 race.
Celeste traveled to Knoxville to race Rev3 Half series and was rudely crashed by a volunteer at the bike aid station, got back into the race and took 2nd in her age group with 5:14:46.
Training race on May 16th (Toga Duathlon at Rockland Lake) resulted in almost complete sweep of the AG spots by Lifers – too many to list… since it was a training event, and we do not publicly celebrate training successes, you know who you are. OK, OK… first places in AG were takes by Michelle McGuire, Aly Gindi, and David Wagner (4th overall), other AG “top 3″ spots went to Krissy Finn, Mandy Wong, Nicole Mermet, Diane Zinn, Brian Korb, Salah Tanlay, Tim Walton (6th overall), Phil Brewster.
Cycling
Jennifer Gott was leading this weekend Giro Del Cielo in the Cat 4 women’s field with 37 points, winning Montagna di Sole ITT and finishing well in the Cielo crit. Sadly she was not able to get to the start of the Sunday’s Veloce Circuit Race.
Lenny Galati wins his first first place in a sprint finish in Prospect Park series on May 8.
Must be winter’s end… fresh odor of race results
Monday, March 29th, 2010Too early for triathlons, open water swimming and paddling but too warm for skiing and snowshoe races, so what is left? Cycling and running and speed eating, of course. Here are some recent reminders that at least some of us are fit already and racing away:
Dennis Ball – 2nd overall (3:49:01) in Queens 50K running race on 3/28/10.
Cynthia “C-Lo” – 3rd overall in her field at the NYC Spring Series race at Floyd Bennett Field on 3/20/10. Race director race report: ” The women’s race was run as a handicap race with the Cat 4’s starting 2 minutes ahead of the Cat 1-2-3’s. In theory, the 123’s should have caught the 4’s or come very close to catching. Instead, we witnessed some of the best Cat 4 women’s racing we have seen in awhile. Like seasoned pro’s, they quickly organized a super smooth paceline and instead of losing time they actually started gaining time and by the end they had a 2:10 gap. In the end, Kissena’s Kelsey Crew took the win over her teammate BrittLee Bowman with Cynthia Lo rounding out the podium in third.”
Bill W. and Lenny G. – 4th and 5th respectively in their field at the NYC Spring Series on 3/14/10 in Central Park.
Recent results
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Random list of what filtrated to coaches for the last couple of weeks…
Lynne Hewitt – 14th overall (32:18:47) in the Grand Teton 100 Mile Ultra run in Wyoming.
Megan Wiseman – 1st Woman overall, 11th Overall (11:01:26) in the Iron Distance Tri at Plymouth Rock, MA.
Green Mountain Stage Race 2009:
Cynthia Lo (3-4 Women field) – 6:15:54 total time. Riding for TriLife Racing.
Peta Takai (3-4 Women field) – 6:08:48 total time. Riding for CRCA/Teany Cycling.
Lenny Galati (4-5 Men field) – 6:55:05 total time. Riding for CRCA/NY Velocity. Finished top 10 on Stage 2 circuit race.
Governor’s Island 2 Mile swim:
Amanda Betsold 50:32
Todd Houchins 1:03:13
Deanne Draeger 1:03:22
Ironman Canada 2009:
Ryan Pacifico 10:52:01
Jen Cennedella 12:07:04
Shawn Duffy 12:48:27
Kristin Duffy 13:50:55
Recent results – weekend of 8/15/09
Monday, August 17th, 2009Cynthia “C-Lo” sprinted into top 10 in her first CRCA road race. Her women’s field did five Central Park loops – lap times: 17:12, 15:40, 16:35, 16:09, 16:27.
Lynne “Can I save your life?” Hewitt flew in for a day to Sacramento to run in 88 degrees “Hotter Than Hell 12 Hours” ultra in order to do required 50 miles under 11 hours (her actual time is sub-10 hours) for qualification into Western States 100. Lynne was second woman and eighth overall (first woman also won race overall and established new women’s race record). Good luck to Lynne in upcoming Grand Tetons ultra on Labor Day and her progression to ever brutal events.
Gerry “No, I did not tow my blue cooler this race” Louw, a part of fab D&G team, did “reversed duathlon” on Mt. Washington – Bicycle Hillclimb 7.6 miles “overgear interval” followed by the downhill scramble/uphill run of part of the Tuckerman’s Ravine Trail.
And now <drum roll>, the weekend’s ultra duration event award goes to Heather Maloy for her marathon delivery session of 30+ hours! At the successful finish line, her support crew (Rick) was increased by one – Riley Anson Maloy, 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 and 1/2 inches. Damn these Lifers are so fertile… must be something about the bike saddles?
PS. Feel free to reveal your own and your teammates race results. Coaches protect their information sources…
Ironman USA Lake Placid – post-race
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
It is done but it is not over. Ironman for most Lifers (see more on “most” below) is now a past experience with actual splits and finishing times, loads of laundry, credit card bills, and some mental luggage to sort through…
Short assessment of race and team performance: difficult weather conditions were not transparently so and this made race and nutrition plans fall apart for many. Torrential rain before the swim start and during the swim made athletes expect a repeat of the “Rain Race” of 2008. But once on a bikes, sun was out and air/ground water vapors created very high humidity. Rapid weather change was brought about by the wind (both near ground and jet stream above) which was not of typical direction and intensity for early part of the race. Combination of wind, sun, temperature, humidity, and inability by many athletes to read actual conditions (many arm-warmers, vests, extra layers, knee warmers observed even on the second loop of the bike) lead to overheating, dehydration, under-diluting sport nutrition, under-dozing electrolytes supplementation, and overdoing effort level/pace on the bike. The hope for magic “maybe I can sustain this speed/fueling/effort” appear not to materialize for many, resulting in high number of DNF’s for elites and crashed performance/time goals for many age groupers.
In addition to the environmental challenges that negatively affected pacing and race plan execution, there was the usual “ironman tax.” Such is inflicted on most participants because the human body and environment are complex and interconnected systems, and no matter under how many different conditions athlete stressed body and mind in training, one can never replicate the exact set of circumstances of the race day. There is probably an infinite combination of stresses/conditions that unite on this particular day – race course elements and weather, hormones and emotions, state of fitness and of recovery and of muscles/tendons/ligaments, logistics, gear and fueling. So such “ironman tax” hits you in addition to the obvious explanations for decreased performance (was sick, trained too little, did not eat/drink, raced at to harder of an effort level, had technicals).
This was a long wind up to address whose athletes whose race plans/expectations/experiences was sub par of their goals. While most of the time, especially in short distance races, athletes are successful in performing within a set range of expectations, it is inevitable and unavoidable that there will always be some athletes who will fall short of their goals in ironman because of the complexity of the elements that affect one in such race. I mentioned (in low voice) couple times before that ironman is so addictive and interesting because it does not directly corresponds to the preparations, that it is also a gamble and subjected to lady luck. Even the best DNA and the greatest preparations do not guarantee planned performance.
Now to the IronTeam. This year, athletes again prove that consistency across the racers does not exist – some had great eye-popping performances, some showed heroism of digging themselves from under the “pianos” and even running with such, some ended up below Plan A… I can say that finishing ironman distance is a challenge in itself (true and valid statement) but TriLife athletes are conditioned to see and to reach above this obvious goal range. And this is what separates “participants” from athletes, and what makes it harder on one if race goals were not met (independently on reasons – be they your own mistakes or outside conditions/elements). For those, I can offer only “I have been there” and “there is always another race” and “time will help you to see the true assessment of your race performance”…
This post (on public blog) does not permit me to discuss individual athletes on a team, especially since I may have only race results to analyze (no race reports yet) but I still wanted to mention pride in seeing how well team performed and our one DNF.
Yes, Natasha Did Not Finish, and looking at the race results and seeing her listed among DNF’s made me feel weird as it was not DNF in classic sense – she was prevented from continuing to race by actions of others… As I looked over two hundred names in DNF list, I realized that such list should be broken down into three: UTP (“Unable To Proceed” due to crash/accident/injury/technicals), DNF (due to wrong pacing and other race day choices), and SNAP (“Should Not Attempt Participation” for people who were clearly underprepared, undertrained, under everything). Natasha is definitive example of UTP. Undeserved crash resulted in her race dream being postponed (notice I said postponed, not crashed). More info on Natasha in the following post.
Congratulations, rest hard, Coach Ross
Sharing good race results
Thursday, June 11th, 2009TriLife coaches are not known for “selling” their services based on their own athletic achievements (overall race and/or age group wins, ironman distance finished, Kona qualifications, or finishing times). We believe that coaching knowledge and skills COMBINED with personal racing and training successes are needed to provide good advice. Great results are nice, and even very helpful when coaching certain level of athletes, but they are not something that should sway rational selection criteria in choosing coach or his/her methodology. We also feel that one must control your own vanity or size of your head might outgrow available helmet sizing.
Most of TriLife athletes end up following this approach for their race successes – not bragging to the whole world (or even mentioning it to their training partners). In a way, we are proud of such humble and reserved attitude. But sometimes coaches wonder if such silent approach is a correct one. Last couple of month, there were many good and great performances worth indicating but since athletes did not say anything, not all information ended up public.
This week, my cup “runneth over.” Enough being secretive about good results! And we, as coaches, should feel proud to mention our athletes successes. What brought this up – Lenny G. from IronTeam 2009 casually noted that he “was doing just OK” during the long Sunday Brick on River Road, and commented how late he got there since he had to drive from Harriman SP. Well, the reason for doubled location is that he won Seven Lakes Time Trial road cycling race on June 7, 2009. Than someone noted Bill W.’s “King of the Mountain” points at the recent MTB race.
Just before that news, I saw USAT “magazine” with 2008 All Americans and Honor Mentioned lists. I was too lazy and randomly looked into only one age group (I am not revealing it since all our female athletes are so mature but young) but Allyson K. and Aly G. names jumped out.
Before that, Coach Dennis taking second third overall and first in age group (coach note: corrected by Dennis – isn’t he so honest and humble – if I could run that fast, I would be insufferable elitist) at the Hook Mountain half marathon… and Jarod S., Alex DeN., and Cristine T. placing first or second in their age groups…
And this continues probably to some extent… Lifers, please remind us on on your great performances during “training races.”
Boston Monday
Monday, April 20th, 2009
Supposedly triathletes can’t run. Someone forgot to tell these Lifers:
Parks Strobridge 3:02:56 (42:39 10K, 1:29:36 half, 2:52:33 40K; 6:59′s)
Earl Walton 3:03:51 (10K 42:39, half 1:29:38, 2:53:54 40K; 7:01′s)
Michael Conlon 3:05:10 (42:39 10K, 1:29:38 half, 2:54:24 40K; 7:04′s)
Chris O’Rourke 3:13:17 (43:27 10K, 1:31:53 half, 3:01:33 40K; 7:23′s)
Ali Gindi 3:14:36 (43:21 10K, 1:32:47 half, 3:03:09 40K; 7:26′s)
Celeste Laraja 3:19:02 (46:23 10K, 1:38:20 half, 3:08:29 40K; 7:36′s)
Vicki Mazur 3:42:32 (50:40 10K, 1:47:32 half, 3:31:02 40K; 8:30′s)
Charlee Garden 4:03:41 (52:57 10K, 1:53:08 half, 3:49:39 40K; 9:18′s)
Congratulations and let’s focus on the bike now…