Spring Into Action 10k

[caption id="attachment_1190" align="alignright" width="225"] Check out my shirt![/caption]

I decided the Wednesday of race week to sign-up for the 10k race.  It was my forst 10k running race and with the goal of an Olympic triathlon distance this summer it was a perfect time to see where my pace and endurance levels were at.

The morning of the race was chilly but turned out to be great once we started running.  The course is fast and perfect for setting PR's.  It was great to see the team there leading us out onto the course.  Just prior to the start I was able to take a picture of the team volunteer's and thank them for coming out and volunterring their time.

The start of the race was on the Lakeview HS track.  We went 3/4 of the way around the track before heading off onto the strret.  As a tech consultant, I have been trained to plan "go-live's" and I treat race days in the same manner.  Pre-race checklist, estimate race time based on training times, etc.  For this race, I was planning on a 9 min mile pace.  In order to help me stay on pace, I set a 10k workout on my Garmin 910 to keep a pace between 9:00 and 9:05.  From the start of the race my watch was alarming to let me know i was heading out too fast.  I was at an 8:23 pace as i was leaving the track to head out on the road and managed to start slowing my pace.

As i made my way around the course, I was hoping I was not annoying other runners with my watch alarm.  I was maintaining a a faster pace than what i had set but I was feeling comfortable and strong in the run and made it a challenge to stay under the targets I had set in the watch.  As we made our way back to the HS, I got a photo opp from Nikki Elder (Thank you) and got encouragement from our team of riders.

As it turned out, I finished second in my age group.  I missed the award ceremony because it was opening day for Avery's LYA team.  It was a pleasant surprise to receive a medal in the mail about a week after the event.  My kids thought it was pretty cool!

Male 35 to 39

                                                                                              Total  
    Place    Name                              City              Bib No  Age   Overall         Time        Pace  
       1    Eric Greene                       Battle Creek  MI      159   39        2          46:15      7:28/M
       2    Robby Robertson                   Battle Creek  MI      116   37       18          53:53      8:41/M

Double Time Tri

I was anxious to see how my off-season training was going to pay off this year. 2014 officially marks my 3rd year in the world of triathlon. To-date, I have only attempted sprint distance, but with help of Adam D, Mike W. and RJ, I am aiming at an Oly this summer. Having never used a wetsuit, I decided to bypass Seahorse and "tri" the Double Time, trusting the water temps would be warm enough to go sans wetsuit.

As any team member with children will attest, finding time to train can be a challenge.  I made a conscious decision to dial back some of the early morning workouts this winter (i.e. Masters Swimming) and concentrated on biking and run training.  For me, I could easily hit the treadmill and rollers at home after the kids had been put to bed and it fit around my dynamic work schedule.  With that said, I was a little worried about my swim time heading into the event…not from the standpoint of finishing the swim, but from a pace perspective.  Pre-race, I had jitters fluttering through my head like “Please let me swim in a straight line.  Remember to pick your head up and sight the buoy.  Remember coach said to picture your arm reaching over a barrel and let your hand drop 6” under the water before starting your pull, etc.”  As you can imagine, I was glad when the horn finally went off and all of my nerves and jittery thoughts went flying out of my head!  I found my pace where I felt I was not fighting the water and my energy level was comfortable.

Once out of the water, it was a jog to the transition area making sure to avoid rocks with my tender bare feet.  First transition of the year was a little clumsy as I could not, for the life of me, get my jersey on.  After a quick check for shoes, helmet and sunglasses (post jersey debacle) I was off.

My goal was to avg at least 20mph on the bike.  That quickly went out the window as my Garmin 910 was only displaying my overall time in the multisport mode so I decided to just go by feel but lucked out finding another rider to pace/race with.  The roads were surprisingly smooth so it was easy to get into a good cadence.  I dropped into the aero bars and began playing a game of “leap frog” with the other rider.  Each time we leapt passed each other one of us would shout something positive to the other which was fun!   While we were not racing under USAT rules, I still purposefully avoided drafting 1) because I thought it would be good practice for any USAT sanctioned races this season and 2) in my mind it seemed more like “fair play” to avoid the draft in a race.  We caught a few riders on our way around the course (again I tried to say something encouraging as we passed by...probably a Pavlovian response I have picked up from Trizelle training).  I had to keep a mental check not to drop into heavier gears as I knew I would have nothing left for the run if I did.

A quick check of my overall time on the way in from the bike and at 45 mins, I realized I was not going to make my goal time I had set for myself.  Once I was off the bike, my legs were feeling heavy but I tried to keep my biking partner in my sites for as long as I could.  In my mind, I was sure I was running a 10 min/mi pace.  Just when I started wondering where the turn-around was, I got a mental break when a road raging motorist started honking his horn and yelling at all of the runners on the course with expletives and in no-uncertain-terms, to get off the road.  To be honest, it was nice to think about something other than how tired my legs were getting.  As I neared the finish, a quick glance at my watch gave me the inspiration to pick up the pace.  I finished in 1:12 which was a PR by at least one minute.

 

Post-race, I got to explain the jersey to Cara Smith from Trikats.  She had seen the jersey’s at events but my team training kicked in and I explained what WSI stood for and and snuck the jersey into a Trikat team photo.  Turns out, I knew my bike course pacer.  It was Scott Miller from Agility Physical Therapy (turns out we had done the same sort of thing at the Cereal City Tri last year).  My race time breakdown is pictured below.

Goff Family Winter / Spring Race Reports 2014

Melting Mann March 9^th 28/14 mile Gravel Road Race

Dilan and I started the race year out on a very cold day in March at the Melting Mann race.  I did the 28 mile loop and finished 6^th of about 25 guys or so in my bracket. Dilan dominated the youth field and beat most of the adults on the 14 mile course.

[caption id="attachment_1132" align="alignright" width="225"] Dilan Melting Mann 2014[/caption]

Barry Roubaix March 22^nd 36 mile Gravel Road Race

Not nearly as cold as the Melting Mann but still a very chilly morning in Hastings, me and about 20 other teammates gathered for the first major race of the season.  I finished mid pack in my age bracket with a time of 2:25 about 12 minutes slower than last year.  The lack of training on defiantly showed up at this race.  Overall our team also finished mid pack with a team avg. time of 2:17.  Grat Job Guys!

Lowell 50 Spring April 5^th 32 Mile Gravel Road Race

Perfect race temps, course was a little soft and lots of wind in some areas making another tough day on the bike.  Had severe legs cramps at the half way point actually had to get off my bike and walk a bit.  This is first anything like this has ever happened to me still not sure what happened.  I was able to get back on the bike changed up my pedal stroke and finished the race finishing 4^th in my age group.  This is 3^rd or 4^th time in row I have got fourth one of these days I will make that podium.  Maybe I should try a cycle cross bike next time.

Fort Custer Stampede May 4^th

[caption id="attachment_1133" align="alignright" width="300"] Dilan Stampede 2014[/caption]

This year I stepped up to Expert Class for the added mileage and early start times so I could be around when my kids take off.  Not sure it was the right thing to do or not, was hoping to finish mid pack but that did not quite work out as planned.  Anyways I spent a lot of time training with Dilan this spring and getting him ready for the season.  He had very impressive race finishing 2^nd out of 13 kids in the 11 – 14 year old class.  Jacob my youngest at 6 years old wanted to do the big boys race, which is a full 9-10 mile loop.  I rode along with him and a few other kids and helped them navigate their way through course.  Good times!

Yankee Springs May 18^th

Again I raced expert big mistake they added 2.5 miles to each lap this year making for even more climbing, however I did beat a few more people here than at the Stampede.  The added mileage did not slow down Dilan he took 3^rd place this year and beat his last year’s time by nearly 5 minutes.  Due to the added mileage and the amount of climbing at Yankee Jacob opted for the kids race, from what I hear he dominated that race as well.

 

[caption id="attachment_1135" align="alignleft" width="225"] Jacob Yankee Springs 2014[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1134" align="alignright" width="225"] Dilan Yankee Springs[/caption]

Potato Creek~ more like Baked Potato with creek on the side...

Dwight and I raced Potato Creek on Sunday 06/01/2014. It is one of our favorite mountain bike trails. (Potato Creek is located in North Liberty, IN. about 12 miles southwest of South Bend) It is fast flowing single-track with about 8 miles of fun whoop-di-doos and rock gardens. It also flows through open fields and has some fast, sandy corners that can be challenging! I love it because there really is not any climbing!

We arrived a good hour and a half early to cheer on Cylone and warm up. During our warm up Dwight couldn't resist the concrete drainage ditch on the down hill and needless to say he had a couple scrapes starting the race.

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dwight per-race scrapes...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1152" align="alignright" width="361"] April Parrish and Dwight Denisiuk
My pre-race jitters...[/caption]

We raced sport class so we had 2 laps, approximately 16 miles with temperatures in the 80’s. Believe me,  you felt every degree when we hit the open field and there was just sun and sand!

I did my usual mingling before the race but was disheartened that one of the girls who I raced against at Bendix seemed to completely snub me when I said "hi." Maybe she didn't hear me or was having a bad day, but oh well, I guess I was there to race and not chit-chat (besides, that got me a little fired up and eager to hit the trail). There were only four of us racing Sport women, the official category has ages from 0-99, but out of us girls, we were 19-40 yrs. I was the oldest and these chicks all had 29-inch tires! Out of the girls, I had my eye on who I thought would be the strongest rider, so my strategy was to let her lead and hopefully wear her out or try and keep up!

We took off as a pack through winding, grass fields before we hit the single-track. To my surprise, there was more screeching of brakes through the downhill than what I would have expected with the caliber or women that were racing that day, but oh well. Entering the single-track I was sitting in third place. I knew the racer in front of me and she made the first move and asked to pass the lead rider. I chimed up to make that two passing! Well the leader got over to let one of us through, but that was not me! Her bike came back on the trail and ended up cutting me off. I asked her three more times to pass, finally I said, “I need to pass! You might be stronger on the hills but I have better technical skills.”

We reached a sandy climb enough for both of us to go through and of course everyone knows you do not take the middle of a sandy climb right? Well… she went up the middle and I called, “on your left” she reared to the left. I was forced to the left, just skimming a tree stump. I have never been so fired up during a race before, so that really got me going!

[caption id="attachment_1161" align="alignleft" width="300"] YAY! This race I remembered to look ahead while going through the rock garden ~ improvement![/caption]

 

A little while later I saw the winner and gave her a shout out that she was awesome and rocking the trail. I counted 15 second from her spot but that must have fueled her, because I didn’t see or hear her again! I came in second but excited to report… I beat the next closest rider by 8 minutes! I guess in this case, my little tires were helpful on the corners.

~ April Parrish

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="alignright" width="270"] April Parrish~ 2nd place[/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_1153" align="alignright" width="301"] Dwight Denisiuk ~ rocking his kilt on the podium...[/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dwight had a great race as well; he came in 2nd place single speed. It is hard to beat the locals, but we give them what we got!

[caption id="attachment_1160" align="alignnone" width="300"] SHADAZY! I forgot there was a rock garden!!!!![/caption]

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/wsicycling

 

Deer Creek Triathlon-Mount Sterling, Ohio

June 1, 2014
First triathlon of the season! It was a perfect race day at Deer Creek State Park which is located between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. HFP Racing-FIT Family Series kicked off today. If you haven't checked out any of their races I would certainly encourage you to give them a tri (pun). www.hfpracing.com
I have been doing their events for 20 years. Shannon Kurek and his team put on first rate events. The races are well organized, predictable, and affordable. HFP offers a wide variety of events that help grow the sport and make multi sport accessible to everyone. Importantly, they have mastered traffic flow which minimizes interference between racers of different abilities.

Deer Creek's signature feature is the dam run, you literally run down and back across the dam and levies. It offers a spectacular view of the lake on one side and cyclist on the road struggling up a climb on the other.

I don't typically like to race with the skinny Clydesdales. HFP has a cut off at a mere 200 pounds. That is bantam weight in my circle of meat eaters. Nonetheless, I am forever grateful that age groups exist so that we can all enjoy racing without be an elite. A third place finish in the Clydesdale age group was a nice reward for racing hard today. Overall there were around 600 participants mostly from the Cincinnati/Dayton corridor and the Greater Columbus area.

Shayne Thomas
WSI Cycling
Tiffin, Ohio

[caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignright" width="225"] Shayne Thomas-Deer Creek Triathlon[/caption]

Girls on the Run is so much fun!

It was a beautiful sunny evening as cars busses and groves of people filed into Binder Park Zoo. The attraction today was not the animals, but over 700 3rd-5th grade girls from Calhoun County. The vibrant spirit in the air matched the bright green of the girls' shirts and one could definitely feel that this was a special kind of event. Each and every one of these girls would be accomplishing great things today. Today was the culmination of a 12 week program where the girls learned about being joyful, confident and giving while incorporating running. Today was their final 5k and WSI was honored to once again be a part of the event.

[caption id="attachment_1104" align="alignright" width="300"] Dwight, April, Rose, Marie, Andy, Angela, Paddi and Kevin [/caption]As the girls filed into the start corral with their families lining the start line the excitement was overwhelming. The WSI riders rode past making their way to the start and a cheer rose up from the crowd. It was almost time. And what better way to support a Girls on the Run race with a cycling crew of mostly women? (Go girl power!)

The girls shouted out a "boom chicka boom" cheer and the race began. The WSI cyclists led the girls through the zoo, up the paths and boardwalks of Africa and back out into wooded trails all the way to the finish. As the cyclists rode back by signaling that the lead runner was a step behind, the spectators all rose to attention and cheered. Our cyclists did not stop there. They continued to pedal back into the woods riding in, encouraging and cheering on more and more girls until each and every girl had crossed the finish.

[caption id="attachment_1106" align="alignleft" width="300"] Although Katie and Nikki were not on bikes, they have had the honor of being coaches for the last 12 weeks. [/caption]Volunteering at events like these is definitely a rewarding experience. Being able to see these girls and the pride and joy on their faces as they cross the finish line will make you want to come back every year, which is exactly what we have done. WSI Cycling has and will proudly support the achievements of our local girls working hard on building healthy lifestyles and self-confidence.

Girls on the Run is so much fun!
For more information about Girls on the Run locally please visit www.gotrofcalhoun.org

Yankee Springs 5-18-14

Impromptu race day ~ Yankee TT was not on my list of races to do. It is usually held in April when I have finals and no ride time, so I tend to opt out of it and stick to the NIMBA series. This year the race was rescheduled and Dwight decided that morning he was going to do it. I was itching to ride my bike but did not want to race it. A good group of our teammates were racing so I figured I would take pictures and follow little Jacob Goff out while his dad and brother raced. Unfortunately for us, his trail was cut from 9 miles to 2 miles…he wasn’t a happy campier.  

[caption id="attachment_1070" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Goff family[/caption]

For a millisecond, I considered following Dilan Goff but realized that might be embarrassing to him and there was a strong possibility he could be a stronger rider. Those Goff genes are crazy!

          After going back and forth drumming up my excuses with my teammates they solved my issues and left me with no excuses but to look like I “wussed out.” By that point, I already gave myself prerace jitters and just needed to pull it together and warm my legs up! As usual, I did more of the warming my mouth up then my legs, but that’s just another reason why I love racing...mountain bikers are just awesome people!

That's Me!

 I made my way to the start where sport women were taking off in 10-second intervals. Cyclone was just two people in front of me and she had had her game face on eying the women on the white Niner. I hoped I could use Cyclone as my rabbit but only had a glimpse of her after takeoff. The women in front of me started strong, passing a couple others but by mile four, she bonked too and I had to pass. The 10-second intervals were ideal for me because there was always someone else to try to catch and chat up. It also gave me a big boost when I am doing the passing.

 On that note, I had just passed a girl who was a strong climber but couldn’t handle down hills and turns. I assumed she would get on my tail and follow my lines. Well... we hit the big, black, rubber mat climb. I charge it, my front tire started spinning out, and I thought she was blowing up my back tire. I didn’t think I was going to make it and moved to the right so she could pass. To my surprise, I heard a familiar male voice say, “Damn it!” Apparently, just as I reared off, Dave was passing me in the same direction and I messed him up. (No sad feelings… he still won his class and learned the lesson of calling his passes!)

Towards the end, I shifted to climb a hill and my chain fell off. It was a quick fix with the front ring and a spin of the peddle but the fact that I was at the bottom of a sandy hill with no momentum sucked! My legs were screaming all the way up and I just wanted it to be over…luckily I got some encouragement from a few spectators and cowbells, which felt like a gu shot, giving me that extra push I needed to finish.

To my surprise, I came in second!

[caption id="attachment_1075" align="alignnone" width="257"] Cyclone Cindy (1st ) April Parrish (2nd)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1076" align="aligncenter" width="280"] That's how we roll...[/caption]





 





 

I really have to give Dwight kudos here. He gave me his Gatorade and hit the racecourse without even bringing a water bottle. Since he didn’t preregister, he had a great deal of racers to pass and could have used those electrolytes. In the end, he was literally seconds from 1st place against our very own Keith Wilkinson!

 

Keith Wilkinson  (1st) and 

Dwight Denisiuk (2nd)