O.N.E Kickoff Tri at Clay's Park

Sunday was the O.N.E Triathlon Kickoff at Clay's Park. We raced this race last year and told ourselves we were going to bring our road bikes instead of our TT bikes because the bike course has a lot of hills in it. Dad's 35+ wave started first and he blazed out of the swim in 3rd place. My wave started 10 minutes after my Dad's wave, so now I know how he feels when he is waiting to get the race going. I felt like I was wasting my energy being anxious and nervous waiting for the gun to go off. About a minute or two after Dad came out of the water, our wave started and we all ran into the water. I felt like I had a good swim. After a couple of kicks in the face, I luckily escaped some of the chaos and held a fast pace to put me and a couple of racers ahead. I made it out of the water in either third or fourth place. I had a fast transition time I'm thinking, and then I was off on the bike. I felt like I had strong legs on the bike, but I've felt better before in races. After the hilly/windy bike, I sped into transition and my transition time I felt was again pretty fast. During the run, I tried to run with a racer that was ahead of me but his pace was greater than mine. He told me to stick with him but I was going to blow myself up if I would have tried. That racer ended up winning overall. BAFF team member Christian finished 2nd overall, and I finished 3rd. Dad finished 9th overall and 1st in his AG. BAFF had a great showing yesterday and we all had very good results with four of us finishing in the top ten (Christian, Me, Frank, and Dad). After the race, the team drove over to Steve's RV who is a teammate. There we had some burgers and hotdogs along with some healthy dishes such as fruit, and a very tastey rice/pasta salad that Christian made. Great day yesterday and this weekend is the GCT training day #2 at Headlands Beach so Dad and I are not racing. Next week is the Dam Tri. Lots of training ahead of us in these two weeks. Everyone have a good day.

Late

H.S. No More

Well, I graduated yesterday. Also, that morning, Dad and I raced the Twinsburg Duathlon. It started off as a completely horrible morning. Rain, lightning, thunder and heavy winds were making it seem like there was going to be no race. But thankfully there was a long break in the weather and the race was on. I felt good throughout the whole race and finished second overall. Dad raced great as well, finishing 6th overall. The whole BAFF team had awesome results and we all had a nice showing. After the race, I received my High School Diploma and that's that for my High School days!

Good Weekend Ahead of Me.

I am very excited for this weekend for a couple reasons. One, I'm racing the Twinsburg Duathlon early on Sunday morning. I'm feeling great lately and I feel like I can finish with a good result. After the race, we have to head back home so I can get ready for Graduation. I'm very excited to finally be finished with High School. I am also currently working for the Lake Metroparks now. I am life-guarding, working a tiny bit of maintenance and staffing in the recreational department. Going back to the High School theme; the thing that is confusing to me is that most seniors are so excited to leave High School and never come back. Today, the seniors thought it would be "FUNNY" to have a cookout in the High School parking lot. I don't know why anyone would want to go back after they said they were never going back. O well. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and hopefully I'll post a pic or two of me receiving the wonderful piece of paper I've worked so hard for in the past 12 years.

HaVe A gOoD oNe!

Kinetic Tri. Weekend

Friday morning, we left for Virginia for the Kinetic Triathlon. Saturday hosted the Half Ironman, and Sunday hosted the Sprint distance. After about 8 hours of driving, we arrived at the race venue. The race was held at Lake Anna State Park. Once we arrived, we suited up in our wet suits for an open water swim. After our open water swim workout, (and 'yes' I said open-water swim workout. The water temperature was in the low to mid 70's.) we went to the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to. It was called Angelo's and they had the best Spaghetti and Chicken Parmesan ever.

The next day, we got up to go watch Kevin Park and Brian Stern race the Half Ironman. Both raced great. Out of hundreds of racers, Kevin finished 5th overall and 1st in the Masters. Brian finished 29th and looked strong throughout the race. Sunday was the Sprint distance triathlon that consisted of 730 people including me, Dad and Doug. I was in the 35 and under group, which took off at 9:00 and Dad and Doug were in the Master's group, which started at 9:14. The weather was perfect for the race and the temperature was around the low to mid 60's but the high winds kind of made it difficult to race in some spots. I had a horrible swim I thought. Every breath I took, I swallowed water. I ran out of the water and into T1 in 15th place. Once I started on the bike, I was catching people left and right. The bike distance was longer than an original Sprint. Usually the bike distance in a Sprint triathlon is around 12 or 13 miles. The bike distance for the Kinetic Triathlon was 18 miles with long gradual hills and a couple of short, steep climbs. The wind wasn't a huge factor though. I thought I was going to be fighting a huge headwind the whole time but all the trees on the sides of the road created a wind barrier it seemed like, which was great. I felt very strong on the bike and came back into T2 in fourth place with the 3rd place racer just in front of me. After T2, it was time to open it up on the run. I was still in fourth place after transition. I ended up catching the 3rd place racer a couple minutes into the run, and opened up a gap. I knew I would not catch the 1st and 2nd place racers at this time, so I just wanted to keep up the pace and not make any mistakes, like rolling an ankle or getting a stomach cramp. After my turn around point, I saw some runners closing in on me. I picked up the pace a little more and I tried to keep myself focused. I ended up holding off the couple runners and finished 3rd overall out of 730 racers. I was very happy with my performance, considering it was the first triathlon of the year.

Doug and Dad raced as well and they both raced excellent. Doug placed 1st in the Masters and Dad finished 3rd. Dad has been battling a pulled calf muscle lately unfortunately, but he took it easy on it for the week and the day before the race. He also had special kinds of tape wrapped around it before and during the race and also raced with a calf compression sleeve. He said the calf still hurt but he was able to run on it and not do any more damage to it. At first he said he wasn't going to race because he did not want to do any more damage to his calf, but thankfully the tape and the compression sleeve worked and brought Dad to a 3rd place finish in the Master's field.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend. Lots of racing and lots of sun. Virginia is a great place to visit if anyone is interested in taking a vacation there. The area we stayed at was called Spotsylvania, and around that area consists of some of the most brutal battle sites from the Civil War, along with the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. Lots of history and lots of great training roads and trails for the athlete and the History lover.

Later Days!

Scholarship

Today I had an interview for a possible scholarship for Fire/EMS. When I got to the fire station (where the interview was going to be held at), I was somewhat nervous. Once the interview started, I soon started to relax a little bit. After some questioning, I was awarded the Scholarship. I will receive the actual scholarship on May 16. That will mean that I will be unable to race Chippewa Creek but, I am very thankful for the scholarship and this will be a huge help in receiving my Associates Degree in Fire Science next year. This weekend Dad and I are heading to Virgina to race the Kinetic Triathlon. There is going to be a lot of racers there and I am looking forward to it.

Later Days!

Current Updates

Sorry for not posting a lot this month, or many times at all this year. I feel like I left out a lot of information of our current training and our races. The biggest race for me this month was the Covered Bridge Race two Sundays ago. There were a lot of attacks and the pace was very fast. It kinda sucked racing in the rain though. That was the first bike race for me this year and it had to be in the rain. The weather didn't affect me when I was racing, the thing that was bad was the cleanup after. I am definitely feeling very good so far though, but I don't want to be peaking for any races soon because I am aiming to peak for the Tour of the Valley and the Rev3 Half Ironman in September. We are traveling to Virginia during the first weekend of May to race a very big, early season Triathlon. As of today, there are 701 racers. I'm very excited to race and hopefully Dad and I, as well as our friend Doug pull out some good results. I am also working a lot on my track standing at red lights, stop signs, trains, etc. I'm getting a lot better at it and soon, I won't have to un-clip at all when I go out for rides! Again, sorry for stalling on my posts and I will update a lot more as the training and the race season goes on. Thanks for reading.

Later!

O yea.

Yesterday, Dad and I rode a fast, and windy 55 miles on our TT bikes. It was a perfect day to be outside. After our ride, we laced up our running shoes and did a brick run for 30 minutes. It was difficult to get used to riding and running in the warm weather because I am still used to training in the cold, but I'm not complaining! After our workout, I felt a burning sensation on my arms and legs. Wow! I have never been so happy to have sunburn. After a couple minutes of relaxing in the Cave, we washed our trucks and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful day. Today I won't be able to do any riding because I have lifeguard class from 11 to 4, which isn't so bad I am thinking because it is supposed to rain a little bit today. I'm hoping Easter Sunday is looking good for another good ride. Hope everyone is doing well.

Later