Lose 7lbs in 2 days! Try Mike's Diet for Free!

Well, not entirely free. I won't charge you for my secret diet information, but you will have to pay for the triathlon equipment, entry fees and traveling expenses. In a moment of insanity four weeks ago I decided to register for the Steelman Triathlon in Darien Lakes State Park held 6/17 and the Medved 5k for ALS held on Sunday in Rochester, NY at Frontier Field.

The triathlon seemed like a good choice since it was within an hour of my home, I hadn't done one in two years and need to train for the Lake Placid Half-IM in September and sprint distances suit me better. The 5k race is for a good charity, a Rochester Runner of the Year race, starts and ends at the baseball park and is well-organized. So, two races, one weekend, it was. Why not beat myself into shape?

The sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) was advertised as a flat, fast course. The organizers were right, the swim was flat and fast. Stupid me, I thought the bike and run would also be flat and fast. The swim began with the men, with women following five minutes later. The water was 74 degrees and for once the bouys, of which they had five, didn't seem a long way off. Unfortunately my goggles fogged so much I had to stop three times to clear one side so I could see anything. I definitely swam off course a couple times, but still finished in a respectable (for me) 14:02. My transitions also went well, no panicking, just kept moving along. 

The bike course was rolling and with one very significant hill around mile 5-6, a hill several people had to walk up. There were times on the course I was biking at 25mph and other times at 7 mph. It was also a hot day, and humid, 77 degrees at the start and 64 dew point. It was a small race, only 101 triathlon participants, so we were pretty spread out on the bike. The volunteers, police and traffic control was fantastic.

Going into the run I was tired and hot and we started up a long incline/hill. The course went off road and onto some trails and cross-country type running. We passed the finish line and had to do a second loop. I always go into a triathlon thinking the run will be the leg I dominate at, but it seldom works that way. This race was no different.

The great thing was that I finished third in my age group, the first time ever winning a medal at a triathlon! Of course there were only five in my group, but hey, in the past I would have been fifth.

My total time was 1:33:08. I had the bike segment at 13.2 miles, the organizers 12.4. They have my bike speed averaging 15.5, me 16.5 based on my distance and time (and my bike said 16.5 too).  The run was a slow 27:56, 9:01 pace. I really need to bike more.

Sunday's 5k turned into a blistering, hot, humid morning. It was 80 at the 8:30am start time and 70 dew point. My legs felt really tired. My first mile was good, at 7:54, but then I went quickly to survival mode, finishing in 26:09, about two minutes off what I would normally do. Jan also had a tough time, finishing in 29:21. We both earned RROY points, though, me 6 and Jan 4, so that was a bonus. I guess everyone had a rough day.

Jan, blue shirt on right

 Oh, and I lost a total of seven pounds from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. This despite drinking as many fluids as I could from pre-race Saturday to post-race Sunday. So try my diet plan out, it may just be what you need to get over the hump of not losing a few pounds.

Next up, more training; longer swims, bikes and runs. 

Medved 5k to Cure ALS

Sunday, June 19th, was the 18th running of one of Jan's and my favorite races, the Medved 5k. The course has changed a bit over the years, but is always flat and finishes with running the entire outfield track of Frontier Field and ending at home plate.

At race time, 8:30am, it was already 71 degrees and sunny, but the humidity was low and there was a gentle breeze at a few points in the race so the conditions really weren't too bad for a summer run.

The Medved 5k is always a Rochester Runner of the Year series race and we were hoping to get credit for participating in one of the races, not even really considering getting an age group point for being in the top ten. I've run this race in reasonably fast timea in the past and not gotten a point, so that didn't really enter my mind as anything to be concerned with. This was my first race since November of 2015 after falling while out on a run just before Christmas.  I was basically out of running from January-March, in physical therapy for eight weeks, and ran/walked my first mile in the beginning of April.

My pre-race nerves were out of sight until about five minutes before the start (It must have been the passionate starting line kiss Jan gave me that brought a sense of peace and that calmed me down and made me ready for the race). The race also became a test of Garmins in a non-scientific way, as Jan, Lou, Jennifer and I all wore them and had different distance results. None of us matched the course distance exactly, which would have been weird to do anyhow since no one runs all the tangents the course would have been measured with. I had the highest result, at 3.19 miles. It is a certified course at 3.1069 miles (5 kilometers), obviously usually called 3.1miles. So my Garmin had the course about 140 yards long. 20+ of the yards would have been my starting in the pack before the official line. Not taking the tangents well would account for more distance. The rest, who knows? Jan had 3.15 on her Garmin, I guess she runs the tangents better.

The Sal's team had excellent results at the race! Mike W led the way with a 22:47, 3rd in age group, Jennifer K 23:03, 4th AG, me 24:47, 5th AG, Eileen 25:26 4th AG, Lou K 25:30, 6 AG, Pete L 26:18, 3 AG and Jan 28:40, 4th AG. So we all ended up with mega RROY points! Yay. Complete results may be found at PCR timing.