I had hoped to see improvement on the swim as I've been working hard on improving my stroke.

Jumped in pool and got wet make sure my googles were seated well. Off I go and swimming focusing on left arm and keeping elbow up. I could tell I wasn't going super fast as I did first 50 in just under 60". On third length my right foot cramped, why I don't know. Worked at swimming and trying to get rid of it. Saw & heard Kevin cheering me on. After about 150 yds I started to feel better.I was passed once and passed one person. Got out to the end and hit my lap button and out of the pool. I saw my time and was neutral about it. Part of the reason I didn't race with a watch past four years is it would effect my thinking and if I did worse than I thought I would on a certain part of race, it would negatively effect me.

Sure I wanted to be faster on the swim, and I PBed this race by a tiny bit but in the scheme of things gaining 15" very cool but not really that important.

2006:6:12
2007:6:18
2008:6:13
2009:6:08



Become a better swimmer

Quick transition...opted not to put on jacket even though it was 55.

Jumped on bike worked well.

Nothing pleased with this transition.

Plan was: Race hard. 2-3 min moderate high Z3 on bike then its a maximal sustained effort for remainder. Even if you have to take short breaks in pedaling on bike because of lactate accumulating in legs...thats ok.

After about a mile I just went as hard as I could. I picked people off here and there. A women on a Cervelo was ahead of me and I tried to catch her. I had that burn in my legs and they hurt. I started coughing while riding which is weird as normally with a cold I don't cough while exercising but start coughing madly when I stop. This was unique as I was coughing and coughing up stuff.

After about 15-20' the burn was bad and it was suck it up time. I did stop pedaling a few seconds couple times. I did some stretching as well on final mile hoping to keep legs from cramping as they tend to on the run.

Ludlow sprint:
Duration: 26:06
Work: 293 kJ
TSS: 56.1 (intensity factor 1.135)
Norm Power: 193
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: 44.98%
Pa:HR: 36.28%


2006: 31:36
2007: 27:14 with NP of 169 and avg HR of 166
2008: 28:29 with NP of 186; windy and cold day
2009: 26:06 with NP of 193, avg HR for part picked up right 161e

Best ever power and pace in tri. Tied my best bike time trial that I did last two summers. I'm pleased with where my bike is even though I've been doing mostly zone 2 IM pace work.

I love being told to go hard and get to do it.

Pretty sure FTP is up and zones need to be redone based on last two races. No way should my IF be 1.135 in a sprint more like 1.03 max.

Run into T2 and racking bike went well saw Kevin in T1 getting ready to go out on the bike which was special. Feet were numb so little hard to put sock and shoes one. Grabbed my inhaler, hat, garmin number and hand held water bottle and off I went.

Did well..happy

Plan: On run, 5 minutes moderate about 10:30 min pace. Then 5 minutes at 10 min pace. Then final 2 mile or so is hard effort

Out the gate put my Garmin on which took some doing as I had my watch on as well. Once I got going I checked my pace and realized I was running to fast so I slowed a little down and was amazed how much better I felt running 30"/minute slower. Picked it up per plan after about 5'. My feet were starting to get some feeling back as they were cold from 55 degree ride in wet tri shoes. After 10' tried to pick up the pace looking at the data didn't really do it.

I ran as hard as I could. Folks passed me like normal. As much as it was hard effort, it was tolerable. I checked overall time a couple times and thought I had beating my previous times piece of cake. As I went longer and longer I wondered if I would beat my previous time that I had the last two years.

Picked up my pace the best I could to finish strong.

More coughing up stuff while running.

Lap Data
Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR
1 05m 02s 0.49 miles 10m 14s /mile
2 05m 37s 0.56 miles 10m 02s /mile
3 10m 11s 1.00 miles 10m 11s /mile
4 09m 54s 1.00 miles 09m 54s /mile
5 01m 34s 0.16 miles 09m 35s /mile


2006: 32:55
2007: 30:37
2008: 29:58
2009: 32:15

Ability to push myself more; Morph into a better runner get better genetic birthparents with nice higher VO2 max to pass on to me.

Training for IM means more long and slow runs.

When I finished I thought I was 15" seconds slower than the last two years and was pretty annoyed. Turns out I was wrong on what my time was last year by a minute. I was 1:07:30 compared to last two years 1:08:07. I'll take 37" improvement but with a good run I could be 2-3 minutes faster. This is the only race I've thought I possibly could go sub an hour really doubt it will be possible as it would mean 2 min/mile faster. If I was going to be able to run that fast in a race I'd have made more progress towards that.

I'll say I'm pleased with how I did especially on the bike. PBed bike pace & watts and on the course PBed the swim by a few seconds. I placed 2nd which is cool. I'd like to be faster running and swimming but accept that I train my best and need to be content with that.

Walked around, chocolate milk, little stretching, waited to cheer Kevin to finish up his run.

He finished strong and looked great! I was proud of him.

This race is nice as different folks than most of the races I do as it is in Western MA. I tend to get higher USAT points here than most my races too.



Speed, genetics, age, training for IM


One thing I have noticed last two tris I done this year is that I feel mentally different while racing. I just execute my plan and seem to be mentally neutral and adjust and adapt as needed while racing. It is as if I just control my body not so much mental arguing with myself or being negative. It may sound strange but it is huge difference and makes racing much more enjoyable.

As usual Firm messed some things up. Everyone's time is one minute over real time and they couldn't figure out what was wrong and at the awards ceremony they didn't say anything about it. Given their screw ups I opted to use my watch time for my times as it is exactly the minute off. Splits are not posted yet.