Seafair Tri.....

Sunday morning came much too early!!!



The Seafair Triathlon awaited team “Klopeder” in Seward park under the clear blue skies with eagles flying low overhead. I was to man the half mile swim leg, Eileen was on the 12 mile bike ride, fresh off her STP ride, and AK was blazing the trail to the finish line on the 5K run split.

We were all pretty excited about the day and the morning luckily went off without any trouble. As we hit the transition area the excitement started to build. We talked about not having any pressure of having to do all three legs and just enjoying the day. Sounded great!

Then Eileen asked if she should run the transition zone once she gets tagged for the bike. Both AK and I jumped into race mode. Totally!!!

I believe AK told Eileen to “Drop to hammer” on the bike leg. I was looking forward to sprinting the half mile swim. I was talking to AK about this. When I looked at the swim buoys marking the half mile course the first thing that went through my mind was ‘ that’s so short, the buoys are so close’. The second thing that crossed my mind was ‘ how much energy do I have left?’.

Fridays 42 mile bike ride, Saturdays 1-2 mile swim, I felt tired below the excitement.

I wanted to start in the front of the pack on the swim, but didn’t want to get five minutes in and totally hit the wall and get stuck in heavy traffic - nightmare situation!!! So I held to the usual plan of back left side and wait just 2-3 seconds after the horn goes off.
About 2 minutes in I upped my pace and caught the five guys in front of me with a clear view of the first buoy. The view over my right shoulder was amazing!!! I was doing 2-2-3 stroke breathing and every time I looked over I’d see about 40 white capped swimmers slashing through the water with the sun blazing through their silhouettes. A quick hard effort around that and I felt my energy explode with plenty in the bank to draw on. I almost started laughing??? I held hard on pace, high 85-90%, but not redlining, felt great rhythm through to the second buoy.

From the 2nd buoy it’s just a straight 200-250 yrds back to the beach. This is a hard area because this is were you start catching packs of groups in the water. Last year I got boxed in by four guys that were swimming in a slow bunch, but kept fanning out so it made it too hard to go around. This year, I paced down a bit for what felt about 20-30 seconds and as soon as I hit the first group and jumped and went “Full On - Mango”!

I love passing people in the last 20 yards of the swim and running out of the water. Running out of the water is one of the best feeling during a race, I wouldn’t understand why anyone would walk. You have hundreds or thousands of people cheering and running gets you closer to your bike!!!

I make it to shore run up the ramp, rip goggles and cap off the tag Eileen for the bike leg.

Time - 14:22 PR : )

Eileen took off fast and I knew that once she got about 1-2 minutes in and got up to speed she was just going to fly. Having ridden with her before it would of be amazing to see the speed she could of reached on the course. The feeling in the transition zone was more party than competitive. Which was great! We figured Eileen would take about 38-40 minutes and that’s about what she thought. So of course when we saw her at 35 minutes we knew she was hauling some serious ass to the finish.

Time - 36:01 Sweet!!!

AK had the longest wait and it was funny because she said she wasn’t looking at it as a race until she saw how fast Eileen was moving. Then she said’ Holy crap, you rocked the swim and Eileen throw the hammer down on the bike, I have to keep up my end!’.
Leenster rolled in and made the tag.

AK sprung out like a shot, this would be her first aggressive run since her stress fracture almost a year ago! She said her legs felt fresh and ready. The up hill to the top is a nasty bump in the road, AK says she enjoys the challenge up the hill. For some reason I just don’t see that???

Eileen and I headed around to the finish to see our anchor cross the line. It’s always great to be at the finish line. All the excitement, cheers, people sprinting in the final seconds to cross the line. Some with in themselves, some hurting, but still pushing. All the stories that everyone has that got them to the start and then the finish.

Along came AK with the sun blasting behind her, moving fast and gaining on the small pack in front of her. Eileen and I yelled as she went by in a flash, not slowing down, but finishing strong to the end.



Time 25:26 - 20 seconds off PR!!! WOW!!!

Total Time - 1:17:34 - 12th out of 65 teams!

What a great way to enjoy the excitement of an event! The relay was so much fun to do. We placed 12th overall for relays and had a great time doing it. Eileen said we should one every year! That would be cool.

............................................................Where's AK? Can you fine her in the crowd on the right?







Giant Dog!

20 Days .....

These last two weeks I’ve had ready great training with longer workouts. I have to keep in mind that training rides and runs that I did last year or 3 months ago can only count for about half of what I need to do now.

I have to put it this way - the time for the bike course for the olympic distance will be as long as an entire sprint race. I’ll have to pace more than sprint. From a runners point of view I half to look at it as a 10 miler or half marathon rather than a 5K.


Got a good ride around the top of the lake and over to St. Eds a few days ago


20 days out from Federal Way and I feel ready good about the swim, which I didn’t think I’d be saying. I have a mile(ish) swim at Green Lake coming in around 31-33 minutes. And feeling pretty good coming out of the water.

I still need to do a swim/bike brick, probably this weekend, .88 mile swim out at Seward, then I’ll bike a 26 mile route home.

About when Eileen should be hitting Olympia !?!?
Eileen’s riding all hard core this weekend doing the STP(Seattle to Portland) in one day instead of the standard 2 days. ............... Full On! She’ll totally rock the bike this weekend. Good Luck Girl!!!!

Also, wanted to say good luck to the women from my track group racing Hagg Lake in Oregon this weekend also!

Once more with feeling....

Let’s try that again….2 weeks ago

2 bikes 39.25 miles for 2:55 minutes
3 runs 12.83 miles for 1:33 minutes
1 other for 30 minutes

6 workouts for 5:01 hours, hit total hour goal, sick first part of the week. Had a good bike and a run on Saturday to make up for the lack luster week of training. Went out with Eileen to Seward Park, easy ride for us, we kept it pretty slow. Which was great because I was only riding fast enough to be left behind by a few minutes. After getting back home I felt pretty good so I changed into running gear and hit the road for 3 miles. Pushed the run a bit to make up for the bad week with a ave. of 7:18 per mile. No swims this week, Arrg!

Out and about....

Last weekend I got out with George on the great ride. From the house to the Ballard Bridge then around the Mag Loop ( Magnolia bike loop) via the Disco for a out and back from the Locks. Then up 34th St. around by Swansons and back to the house. It's kind of a butt kicker of a course and I wanted to see how the legs were doing this early in the season. Lots of running and swimming so far, but not really any bike for the last three months. However, tomorrow I'll ride the Chilly Hilly with Eileen, Shell and a friend of hers and that will start real bike training for this year. Nothing like climbing back into bike training. Plenty of pictures to come after.....

Week totals
1 Swim .71 miles 40 min
2 Bike 24 miles 1:17 hrs
2 Run 9.47 miles 1:14 hrs
3 Other 1:32 hrs

8 workouts 4:45 hrs

Not a very productive week, too many other things going on last week to put together any really good intense workouts. One good run and a 13 mile spin is about all that felt right. The goal for last week in hours was 6:30. The goal for this week has to be 7 hrs minimum.

AK totals

4 Run 16 miles
7 Core 2:10 hrs

What's the weather like tomorrow?

OK, I’m so ready for the sun and heat of spring and summer to start. The cold and rainy days are I know ”Life”. I still wouldn’t mind maybe a small chunk of warm weather to run in maybe once every 3 weeks or so. It’s kind of funny because I vividly remember on my 22 mile training run for Phoenix last year, on a cold freezing rain day, running down the Burke saying or yelling to myself “ NO MORE TRAINING THROUGH WINTER!”. And thinking last year at the end of the Pumpkin Push,‘ Just 3.1 miles away from having to run in the cold’. Well, I can’t understand what happened, one minute I’m sitting on the couch munching on cheez-it’s and the next I’m looking at the 29 degree weather as I’m strapping on my forerunner. I blame AK, or Moose for having lousy conversations on the couch???

Moose blowing the candles out on his birthday cake this last year.

With this years training starting out in December it’s hard to get up and face another 28-38 degree weather run or “ cringe, yuck “ bike ride. I can run in most any weather, for better or worst, but unless I’m caught in it and have no choice, I can’t bike in ice cold weather. However, seeing the progress this far in my swim and strength training, as well as keeping my weight at “fighting weight”, even over the holidays is a great payoff.

I got to take out the new bike the other day for a quick 20 minute ride down to Green Lake and back. I can’t wait to get it fitted and start doing longer training rides. Speaking of rides, last Saturday I took George on a ride with Eileen. George was running really smooth and felt like a champ on the hills. He was running good enough to let me keep up with Eileen, which isn’t the easiest thing to do most times. She’s training for the STP this year, to finish in one day. Totally cool.

What are you thinking?

So I was looking around online at upcoming races and came across the Austin 70.3 Ironman. How cool would that be? The date is Oct. 5, so it comes right at the end of this years tri season for myself. My goal for next year was to be ready for a 70.3 at Lake Stevens, but you know, this would be cool too! I'd be up to racing at Olympic distance at least twice by then (hopefully)! I'd have Black Hills and Kirkland back to back weekends then three weeks for the Austin race. SO tempting!!! What to do, what to do. I guess this would be as good as any time to do it.

Back to this weeks training. AK is tearing up her weekly runs and pounding out 5 nights of running a week. I'm impressed, and trying to keep up! It's so much easier though with knowing that when you feel like bagging on a workout, that there's someone to help kick you out of the house and push you down the road. I got in a few really good runs and workouts, but I'm really happy with 2 strong swims I've had this week. No biking yet, George still has a flat that I need to get to. Which reminds me, our friend Eileen said she was signing up for the STP (Seattle to Portland ) sweet! That would be a great ride to do some year and of course give a holler when you get to your training rides.

Also, the Tour of California just posted it's roster for the upcoming race. Still time to get some time off work, rent a RV and camp out in the Altamont Pass and run with riders ....
So I'll be thinking about Austin and trying to figure it out by the end of next week or before it sells out.