Praire Dog Century fun

Last Saturday (Sept 22nd) was the 5th century for the Indian Crossing Century series. As I missed the August Century in Millstadt this was my 4th for the Century series and will do the makup century ride in October.
The ride was in St. Paul Missouri, north of St. Peters and not too easy to find in the dark. We all managed to get there and prep for the ride. I had signed up ahead of time which makes in processing much faster then the previous century bike rides.

So the start of the ride was later due to a later sun rise and someone was late.... Anyway the first loop (am route) was fairly hilly and we even meandered over to Wright City, MO where I was just a week ago for the Innsbook Triathlon. I stayed in the small group for the first 30 miles and then I decided to accelerate and push myself a bit on the last half of the mourning ride. I was able to manage a 19.1 mph/avg for the mourning ride. Unfortunately, I wasn't the first rider to finish as I saw other rider leaving to start the afternoon ride. I punched in (the card keeps track of your total time) and sat down to eat from the tasty buffet served in the Knights of Columbus hall. The food was great, lots of bread, ham, turkey and peanut butter and jelly served in small plastic cups!

The lunch was short (about 15 minutes ) as I wanted to finish the ride before the weather heated up and head winds started. The two loops for the course, one for the morning and afternoon intersected so some bikers would be from the morning loop not the afternoon loop. This made it imperative that you watched the road so as not too miss any arrows for any turns. Well, it turns out as I battled two bikers on the pm loop I missed a turn and ended up back at the start. I decided to restart the second loop again and after 20 miles saw where I missed my turn. I was already at 90 miles so I decided to bike back to the start and call it a day. After six hours on the bike I was tired, my legs were in pain and so was the rest of my body! I did a total of 95 miles which was close enough. I learned not to race through the course as I might miss a turn and get lost of even bike more miles! (which never happens!)


Till the next Bike Century....


Red Horse


Brett

Innsbrook part deux

Yes, here we are almost at the end of September! It has been a busy month. A bit late for my review of my last triathlon but here it is!

A few weeks ago, the Championship Tri was here in Innsbrook again. I and some friends of mine took the challenge and competed in the QuarterMax on September 16h. The HalfMax (a half IronMan) was the previous day but that will have to wait for next year!

Overall it was similar to the Tri in June, same course but now twice as long. I stayed with a friend at one of the condos at the private resort so I didn't have to make the 1 1/2 drive to the private resort out in Wright City, MO from Illinois. It was already a long day as earlier that day I was up in Springfield, IL visiting my brother's family for a birthday. After all of that I went home and checked all of my stuff and drove out to Innsbrook that evening. We relaxed and watched some previous Ironman videos to inspire us to greatness for the big event.

Sunday was warmer than the previous morning, and as we arrived at the transition there were a few dawning their wetsuits for the swim. I had no wetsuit and the water was still a warm 73 degrees so I wasn't worried. There was a moment of silence for former Triathlete Kevin Hunt who had died in previous Triathlon in June. His father was there to say a few words which had to take lots of courage but showed great respect for the sport.

After all of the prep work and training it was time to test ourselves and push our bodies to the limit once again. As we wading in the water anticipating the start (now there was a new option to start after the mass wave now) I wondered how I would do and if I could finish before 3 hours. It was possible, the temp was cooler so our heart rates would be lower, therefore resulting in a faster time.

The swim went okay, still having problems with the goggles (leaking during the swim) I managed to finish in little over 20 minutes (1000 meter) and off to the T1 transition were I dawned my helmet and bike shoes to tackle the 28 mile bike loop of undulating hills. The bike part is my strongest and I did well although I lost time behind a tractor trailer (ugggg!) trying to pass two other bikers so that slowed me down but still managed a 19.6 avg for the entire ride. Then it was off to the T2 for the fun run of 6.5 miles. I wanted a quicker transition this time and ran with no socks! I paid a bit for that at the end as I started some blisters on my right foot (doh!). I managed a sub 9 minute pace (8:46 to be exact) and that was more than 30 seconds faster than my June Tri at Innsbook with all of the hills and gravel on this run so that was an improvent (boo yahh!). My total time was 2:42:05 about 32 minutes behind the leader in my age group so I was 12th out 17 in my age group, which is not good but this was the championship weekend so this brought out all of the tri studs, which, as a beginner, am not.

Lots of fun, good food and lesson learned for the next Tri race. I enjoy the course there at Innsbrook although it would be nice if those country roads we biked on were closed as this can cause problems sometimes. Overall I gained some more experience and hope to fine tune my T1 and T2 times for the next Triathlon in the future. For now, I will concentrate on my run as this is my biggest weakness and where I lose most of my time.

till next time....

Red Horse - Brett

Today I registered for....

The IronMan Wisconsin in 2008!!

Guess I had better start training so I can finish and qualify for Kona!*
*Kona is where the IronMan started - Hawaii Baby!

Lake Saint Louis Triathlon

Yes, its been a while since my last post. Busy busy busy.... Anyway, on September 1st was the Lake St. Louis Triathlon in, of course, Lake St. Louis. I had been there last year for the triathlon, but only as a sub for the long course swim. This time around I signed up for the short course which this 500 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 2.5 mile run.

This was one of the biggest Triathlons in the St. Louis area, with 750 participants this year. This was also the 25th year anniversary of this triathlon for Lake St. Louis! Had heard that there were four individuals that had participated in all 25 triathlons and they were here today! Wow! What an achievement! Will I be doing triathlons for the next 25 years? Wait 25 more years and find out!

Because there were so many participants this year I had to get there early! So I was up at around 3:30am in the morning (everything was packed the night before) and was on the road by 4:15am! I arrived at Lake St. Louis at 5:15am and was able to get a good parking spot near the transition area. I picked up my packed, (number 651) and prepared my short stay in the transition area for the big race.

This was a lake swim and a relatively hilly bike and run course so it was going to be a challenge but my goal was to finish under 2 hours and to better my transition times.

Here are my posted results: Swim - 8:46 Bike 37:58 and Run 19:53 total time 1:10:25

I placed 16th out of 224 participants.

Total time for both T1 and T2 was 3:37 which was a huge improvement over my last triathlon for the Stoneman in Springfield. The bike average was a measly 19 mph but there were hills and a turnaround spot where we had to stop! ugggg! And of course the run, just slightly better than the Stoneman and at least a sub 8:00 min/pace. I had changed the routine for the transitions, no Garmin Edge 305 and no socks for the bike or run. So with those changes I was able to shave off time for both this time around.


later,

Red Horse out

Brett