ECACs 2010

ECAC WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12/3/2010 to 12/5/2010

I have decided to post a discussion on my ECAC results up here because I am practically done with my collegiate swimming career and it’s my final hurrah before I am officially a triathlete for the rest of my life! Here are my individual event results. Hopefully they’ll be even faster at the end of February!

Friday PM:

1650 Freestyle = 17:46.17 (2^nd place)

Last year at ECACs I went a 18:16.39. In February I went a 17:54.86, and with the full LZR in 2009 my time was a 17:47.76. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with my best mile time ever! Just the fact that I beat my full LZR time by a second was thrilling. Hopefully this will translate to an even more kick-ass time at the end of this Feb. In 2009 that time was good enough for an NCAA B cut, but this year the cut has dropped to a 17:39.80 and that’s my new goal!

Saturday AM:

200 Fly: 2:07.32 (2^nd place)

Last year at ECACs I went a 2:15.45. In February I went a 2:10.28.

I blew myself away with a staggering performance that earned me an NCAA B cut!!! The cut is a 2:08.59 and I got it by over a second! Time to wreck that and maybe get the A cut? Dreamin big!

Saturday PM:

400 IM: 4:40.77 (5^th place)

Last year at ECACs I went a 4:52.89 and that was my best time to date because it was the only time I had swam the 400IM since before I was in high school. The only reason why I did it last year was because I had never broken 5 minutes. This year I wanted to do it again just for the fun of it because I like the event even though I hardly train for it. The NCAA B cut is a 4:36.69, so I was only 4 seconds off of the cut! I don’t know if I’m swimming this at Empire 8’s, but I might want to.

Sunday AM:

500 Freestyle = 5:09.64 (4^th place)

Last year at ECACs I went a 5:18.27. In February I went a 5:12.38, and the year before that with the full LZR I went a 5:12.21. Getting below my high school fluke time of a 5:14 was enough for me those two years ago, so I was pretty satisfied with getting under the 5:10 mark. I was actually disappointed with myself at the end of the race because I felt like I could have gone faster. But that’s just more fuel for February when I’ll hopefully crush that time and maybe snag the B cut of 5:05.36!

el capitans!

[NECTC] MightyMan Sprint 2010

This is it for 2010!

0.5 Mi SWIM --- 10 Mi BIKE --- 3 Mi RUN

  

It was tough going into this race knowing that I was in no way rested for my Championship race of the year. I mean, I did great at Westchester with all the swimming that week leading up, but I think I got lucky because my body wasn’t beginning the break-down point yet. This week, my body was not in tip top shape anymore. Luckily I only had doubles M W, and swam singles on T Th F, one less than last week and still around 38000 yards of swimming. But this race was Saturday morning, leaving me less recovery time from swimming as well.

Marc was driving me and Luke. Too many negative emotions and frustrations came through on the way to the race. I was frustrated about how tired I was going to be from all the swim practice we had done. And then to top it off I realize that I forgot my yellow Powertap computer right as we’re in the thickest part of traffic on Long Island. Noooooo! That thing is my savior on the bike. Luke calmed my spirits reminding me how short the bike is and that all I need to do is push as hard as I possibly can. Very true, but I was still annoyed.

After a ridiculous number of hours getting to Montauk, we finally checked in at the race site field and found the team at the Italian restaurant for dinner.

Our hotel was on the beach! Falling asleep knowing we get to play on the beach after the race the next day is a great feeling. We went to bed as soon as we could.

Warmup for this race didn’t go as well as it had at Westchester. I think my legs were not in racing condition and I actually just got tired as I attempted to warm up. It probably helped a little bit as I got the blood flowing but I was concerned. Lack of confidence going in = no bueno.

As usual, it was freezing. We had to set up in the dark and the light slowly creeped up on as we neared the start time. We were in the first wave for this race, just like last year.

Race directors need to understand that when you start a swim wave, you can’t just yell GO! You have to give some sort of countdown to let the athletes know the start is approaching. The start this year was horrendous. All the people who had watches knew that the start time was nearing, but we heard nothing. I was in a cluster of Stevens folk and Matt and Will and I started joking that they were probably just going to sound a horn and tell us to go without warning… guess what? We jinxed it because that’s totally what happened. I wasn’t prepared at all and I ended up getting trampled by people who had a good foot hold to push off and swim. Little short me was in no good launching position and the first stretch of the swim was just a fight to pass people. I hate that so much. Big guys can take advantage and get ahead in the beginning, and then they just die and get in my way. Frustrating. I need to get better at the start positioning next year.

  

Swim= 13:31 – 8^th fastest collegiate swim time

So as I’m fighting my way to get a good position on the swim, I see that there’s a lead pack of swimmers in the distance. They have a significant lead on me because of my terrible start, so I do everything I can to put my head down and swim in their direction. Apparently that’s what everyone else was doing because following the leader led us all to an extra few minutes on the swim. The way the buoys were positioned, we couldn’t tell which one we were supposed to be going towards. The leaders picked the wrong one and the stupid kayakers out there were dumb enough not to notice until right when they got to the wrong buoy. So we got redirected and all the lead people definitely got screwed over with the detour.

I couldn’t catch the leaders; guys like Evan up there were out of my league. But I had them in sight at the finish. Running out and to transition was tough because it was so cold. I noticed the West Point girl ahead of me. She was out of transition quickly and I wanted to catch her on the bike. I wish I had a better start on the swim because I knew there was no way that she was good enough at swimming to have that big of a lead on me. Frustrating.

  

T1= 1:17

Bike=29:52 – 16^th fastest collegiate bike split

Average power = N/A

Average speed = N/A

My bike time was nothing special. I couldn’t tell you the average power. I just played the game of finding the person ahead of me and cranking out to catch them. This method worked pretty well!

I knew this course from the year before, so I knew that I had to push the first half, especially the uphill. I blew through the downhill part and as soon as I saw the potential to catch Evan, Luke, and Matt all together, I turned on my game. Eventually I did pass all three of them, and I knew that they are all better runners than me, so I might as well give it my everything to pass them on the bike and see what happens on the run.

The fast Drexel kid passed me at one point on the bike and I tried to keep a safe distance behind him and stick with him as long as I could. Surprisingly I did a good job with that, just wish I was a better sprint runner.

  

Swim & Bike Average Hear Rate =

T2= 1:04

Run = 21:14 – faster than last year's split!

Average Run Heart Rate =

This run was gut-wrenching. This was the last run of the year! I had to give it everything!

I was getting passed left and right by the top runners who had bad swims. Those guys were hauling ass like crazy. I couldn’t even keep up with them if I had a flat start rested race.

At this point I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch the Army girl because West Point produces running machines. I just needed to put out my best effort and not let any other girl pass me. I did just that and sprinted my hardest through the finish on the grass field.

Hooray it was over!

Overall time = 1:06:56

Body heat and the cups of rice soup were to die for at the end. I was happy to be done so that we could have a nice relaxing weekend and celebrate the end to an awesome NECTC season!

I ended up with a 2nd place female collegiate finish! Not too shabby with all those swim practices. I know I could have done better though. And had I not been in swim season I would probably have taken the overall female point leader... but maybe we'll save that one for next year??

Nick braving the storm-generated waves in Montauk

Bonfire festivities with the NECTC gang were in order and we relaxed on the beach til the wee hours of the morning. Fare thee well, NECTC 2010 season, it’s been a blast!

[NECTC] Westchester Olympic 2010

A new, exciting, super competitive race!

1500M SWIM --- 24.6 Mi BIKE --- 6.2 Mi RUN

Hola, welcome to the in-depth analysis of one of my most memorable races of my triathlon experiences thus far…

Here’s the catch for this race. I had been going to regular swim practices for the entire week leading up to this race. What does that entail? Well about 8 swim practices: doubles on M W F, and singles on T Th. I calculated the entire yardage we did that week leading up to the race and it came out to be 42,000 yards.

Luckily Trevor let us opt out of lifting if we wanted to because it would have wrecked my body and thrown it for a loop had I attempted to race after a couple lifting sessions. We also didn’t swim Saturday morning thank goodness because we said we were leaving early to get to Westchester.

My mom came!!! She flew in late on Friday night and then came to me on Saturday morning from the airport in her rental car. Initially when I moved back in to my room at Stevens, she wanted to come back and help me settle in. But I told her it would be more worthwhile for her to spend the same amount of money and come watch one of my triathlons instead of just watching me unpack the first weekend before school started. It turned out to be a great idea and she loved coming out here to watch this race.

So when she came to my apartment on Saturday, we loaded up the car with my bike and my stuff and headed out to good old Westchester. Nick and Nicole’s car were going to leave a little bit after us.

Upon our arrival to the race location, my mom mentioned that this place looked really familiar. As we drove around the corner to the parking lot, she exclaimed, “This park was in the movie Big!!”

And sure enough, Google confirmed that the theme park was indeed in the movie Big when Tom Hanks is looking for the fortune telling machine but the whole carnival has left the park and it’s all empty. In real life the place is called Playland in Rye Town, NY. Later I could really recognize it on the boardwalk where he rides his bike near the water. Very cool! Especially because I used to watch that movie all the time when I was younger and that was probably how Mom recognized it haha.

Anyways, I walked to the Expo area with Mom and went to check in. Originally the collegiate wave was supposed to go off with the pros in the first wave. But when I checked in I was given the swim cap color for the wave with my appropriate age group. This was upsetting because the 18-24 guys were in the first wave and my wave was close to the end! Open road versus a clutter of riders to pass during the entire bike ride.. no fair. Tough luck because I was really expecting to be in the first wave and not worrying about passing.

Nick and Nicole got there with everyone else while mom and I were browsing the shops at the expo. They checked in and it was warm up time. Some people wanted a more serious warmup and they went off and rode hard and swam in the swim start area. Others of us wanted a quick warmup so that we could drive the bike course. I think we were pretty thankful that we drove the course, because it was very technical! Knowing where the turns were, where the steepest up hills were, where to push it and where not to push it was a serious advantage the next day.

Dinner with the team was a huge helping of penne vodka with chicken at a Russian-owned diner near our hotel. We were off to bed and up early the next morning to get to the race.

At races with tons and tons of people, I need to make sure I time my bathroom stop before the race way earlier. I was almost locked out of transition, because the potty lines were ridiculous.

One thing I did time perfectly was warmup. I jumped on the bike early when we got there and got the blood flowing. This was the best decision I made because my legs were so ready to go when I got on bike later. I was able to push the power right from the beginning because I wasn’t stiff coming out of the water.

There were so many people!!!

The tide was low for the start so there were just loads of triathletes hanging out in wetsuits as the sun came up and flashed pink hues across the sky.

We even had time to snap a few photos with the professional photographers. We look so legit, but I wish I had the high-res version of this picture.

The boys were in the first wave, so Jamie, Nicole, and I watched them run into the water a few minutes after the pros. We were so far back in the waves that we even saw some of them run out of the water at the end of the beach!

Swim= 18:40 – 10^th overall swim split

This swim start was pretty confusing. I thought I was in a good position running into the water and getting ahead from the beginning. I could have sworn no one got ahead of me. However, the swim was so rough for me because it turned into a head-up swimming passing race as opposed to just flat out swimming my hardest. I had to constantly look up and find the next old guy to get ahead of.

Other than that, the swim was really fun for me because it was the only swim on the east coast I’ve done in the ocean! Even then it was in a bay, but swimming out and around the jetty and making that loop was really fun and I had a blast doing it. Gotta love the taste of salt as you get out on the bike too.

 T1= 1:39

Bike=1:08:33 – 49^th overall bike split in the field, 2^nd fastest collegiate female bike split

Average power = 192

Average speed = 21.7 mph (for 24.89 miles total)
Average HR = 182

The bike was seriously a roller coaster. To describe it as such is too perfect because it was literally up and down and twisting like crazy. Like I mentioned earlier, I knew what I was doing thanks to the drive-through the day before. I’m convinced that scoping out the course was super beneficial because I knew exactly when I needed to push it and how long the hills were.

The first half of the race is essentially up hill. After the timed steep climb in the business complex, it was all downhill back to the race site and I had to keep telling myself that I needed to crank it out and not sit back and let gravity just take me. This is really difficult if you don’t have a power meter because you think you’re pushing it going downhill, but you realize that you can put so much more effort out downhill and go even faster. I think that ended up being a huge advantage for me because my bike split was pretty gnarly.

 T2= 1:15

Run = 48:06 – 222^nd run split in the field, 8^th female collegiate female run split

Average Run Heart Rate = 184

What a run! It was probably one of the most interesting race runs I’ve ever done.. and I’ll never forget it. The first few miles of the run were brutal as we wound around the Playland park boardwalk and I just felt like I was getting chased the whole time. I thought the good runners would get on my feet quickly, but I was running a solid pace for the first few miles. My watch is a good motivator.

Because I thought I was in a good position off the swim, I was surprised when I came upon a young blond woman running ahead of me. I caught her on the turn-around with a couple miles left. As I ran by, I yelled, “nice shoes!” because we were wearing the same Brooks. She said thanks and said “good luck, you’re in the lead!.”

What?!

Panic attack.

I just passed a lead runner? I’m a swimmer. I’m not supposed to be in the lead at the end of the run. What’s going on here?

Crap.

I have to pee.

There’s no way I’m going to spring this last mile unless I pee.

… And at that moment in time I sacrificed my dignity to be able to sprint to the finish. I don’t suggest peeing while you’re running, ever. It sprays as your legs swing and it’s not pretty. But I did what I had to do and chuckled at the story I would potentially tell everyone when I finished.

The last half mile was excruciating and I felt like I was blazing. There was this one guy that happened to be running the same pace as me from around mile 2. I stuck with him practically the whole way and asked him to sprint with me through the end but he said he didn’t have the sprint energy. I thanked him profusely after the race because he was the carrot I was chasing the entire run.

The downhill chute finish was priceless and I was hauling so much butt I couldn’t crack a smile for the finish line.

I thought I was going to pass out when I stopped so I had to keep moving. I ran into the Stevens boys and after doing some math and subtracting they were all shocked at how fast I just went. I sheepishly walked away to find my mom and got a little teary-eyed because I couldn’t believe how much I impressed myself. I have never felt that good about a triathlon finish.

I found mom shortly thereafter and we shared a nice moment. I was thinking about her the entire time and I wanted to make her trip worthwhile. I think she was just as surprised as me with my finish and very happy for me.

Overall time = 2:18:12

I ended up with 1^st place collegiate female finisher and the 3^rd place overall female in the race! Westchester is a pretty competitive race on the east coast and a lot of big names attend, so I really impressed myself with the podium finish! Relatively, I was also within 10 minutes of the female pros that were there.

Very amazing day and I’ll never forget it.

As an added bonus, Westchester was the northeast qualifying race for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in June 2011 in San Francisco! And I qualified!!!!

Mom said we’re going to San Francisco in June next year : )

After awards, Mom drove us back to her hotel and we showered and took an awesome nap.

When we got back to Hoboken, Mom had to stop at the Sedona store, and then we got dinner at the delicious Karma Kafe. Beautiful end to the weekend. I loved hanging out with my mom and it was hard to say goodbye again that night. She was going to fly out in the morning.

There’s only one more! I have to conserve energy, yet swim decently at practices this week.

The final race of the NECTC!!! Bring it, Mightyman!

[NECTC] Buckman Sprint 2010

Finally! A sprint! This is the first repeat race of the NECTC season. The Buckman race was the first one of the season last year. This year, it is the third of the NECTC season. It was fun to repeat a course because you can see how much you’ve improved or where you’ve stayed consistent.

0.50 Mi SWIM --- 17 Mi BIKE --- 3.1 Mi RUN

This race was super thrilling because the Stevens Triathlon Team had its largest showing! We had a record 15 Stevens triathletes come out to race this morning. There were a total of 51 collegiate athletes at the race, so we accounted for almost 30% of the collegiate field! That’s crazy for how small of a school we are.. but we did get lucky because the race was so close to campus.

Now let’s jump into this sprinting domination.

Swim= 11:47 – 4th out of the water behind Luke, Matt, and Nick! Stevens 1,2,3,4!

Well this swim was fantastic!
We thought we were going to be in the first wave like last year, but they had put us in the last wave for some reason.. Later we found out that instead of the quarter mile swim, we were doing two laps of the swim course for a half mile swim! Hooray!! That made the day so much better! Because not only were we swimming a half mile, we were running out of the water and running back in at the end of the first lap! So much fun! It was going to be like an ITU race where they get out and run back in!

Marc was signed up for the age group race, so he was off in the first wave and we all cheered as he ran out of the water in first place!! Adding extra enthusiasm to the air, we all lined up and got ready for a running start into the water. I should not have started so close to the rope because I got shoved over pretty hard and the elbow throwing ensued yet again. Finally out of most of the mess, I freed myself after the buoy and focused on covering ground back up to the swimmers. I saw Matt at the run turn around and stayed close behind til the end of the swim. I came out of the water 4th for a Stevens 1-4 sweep in typical fashion.
Overall it was 20 seconds slower than last year’s swim, but it was a completely different course, so that doesn’t matter too much. It’s similar enough. I was happy with the swim and started to focus on cranking out the short bike.

T1= 1:02

Bike=:49:56 – 8th fastest collegiate bike time!
Average power = 194
Average speed = 20.48 mph

This power was significantly higher than Quakerman.. mostly attributed to the shorter distance, steeper hills, and more rest for my legs. The bike course was the exact same as last year. Luckily I didn’t fall and scrape up my leg like I did last year and everything went smoothly. Can’t say the same for Kim, who scraped her leg up badly after falling on the first turn and subsequently breaking her wheel’s rim. She’s fine now though, it just shook her up a bit and taught her to never pass on the right!
The hills were just as brutal as before, but I was way stronger getting up them. Last year, I remember focusing on the last hill and thinking it was so brutal as I was going through it. This year I floated up it and wondered if that was even the right hill I remembered because it was so much easier!
It was nice to focus on a race that was going to take less than an hour and keep my eye on my Power meter to make sure I was pushing hard all the time.
There’s quite a good improvement here. Last year, I went a 53:46 on the bike. So that’s a good 4 minute drop!
Swim & Bike Average Hear Rate = 182

T2= 0:49

Run = 23:10 – 21st collegiate run time – @ a 7:29 pace!
Average Run Heart Rate = 191

Well this run was brutal. Luckily my legs hadn’t cramped up like they did last weekend. I just ran as fast as I could and moved my arms as fast as possible and made my feet keep up. Getting up the hill was tough, but coming downhill was blazing. I was really just trying to run as fast as my little legs would let me, hence the ridiculous hear rate average.
Last year, I went a 25:54.. so I ran way faster! That’s pretty evident from my crazy heart rate average. The uphill section really made it tiring. This was just a little sprint practice for Westchester 10k next weekend!

Overall time = 1:26:43

I ended up with 1st place Collegiate Female Finisher and the 2nd overall female at the race!
Since every woman in the race besides the collegiate athletes were in the waves ahead of us, that means I passed a majority of the women during this race.

The awards section was fun because Patanella is crazy. He had a lot of stuff to give away, so he was making up weird competitions to give stuff out.

After the awards, we got our stuff out of Transition and went back to the cars. Marc’s car and Nicole’s car went to the closest Wendy’s and then we all went back to Hoboken. Great races always end in a frosty : )

Westchester is going to be a blast next weekend! My mom’s coming to the east side to visit me and watch the race!

[NECTC] Quakerman Olympic+ 2010

Race number two of the NECTC season!

This was the second (not-so) Olympic race of the season. The third and final one will be Westchester in two weekends.
The reason I say this race was not really an Olympic is because it really wasn’t.

0.60 Mi SWIM --- 38.2 Mi BIKE --- 6.2 Mi RUN

It ended up being probably a 0.8 mile swim, 39 mile bike, and a 10k. And based on my powertap, closer to 40 miles for the bike. It was a brutal race, but a kickass one as well.

Eight out of the 12 Stevens kids racing made their way to Nick’s house on Friday night at 7pm. Nick’s car had Nick, Aaron Perelman, and Jamie. Nicole’s car had Nicole, Gabby, Luke, and Matt. The other four (Isaac, Orlando, Will, and Aaron) had gone to Isaac’s house earlier in the day. We ate some food and tinkered with bikes until bed time. Nick’s parents were very nice in letting us stay at their house for the night.
6am wakeup! Breakfast. Isaac’s car arrived to join us. Load the bikes. Go!
Wait……..
Isaac can’t open the car door!... they’re locked out, no joke. And I was getting blamed for it, but it wasn’t me! When I opened the car door to mess with Will, I never hit a button, the doors just locked. But we will never know what happened. All that mattered was that Isaac got the door open with a coat hanger.
And we’re off to Nockamixon State Park!

We had ample time to set up for this race and warm up. The Half went off at 8am and we weren’t taking off until 9:30am. This was the first race I have ever warmed up on my bike beforehand and I think it helped me tremendously. My legs were ready to go.
Transition set. NECTC photo taken. Wetsuit on. Goggles on. Jump in the lake to warm up.

The race date was September 11th, 2010. 9 years after one of the most important days in our generation’s lives. The Star Spangled Banner was especially meaningful this morning. Never forget.

Swim= 16:45 – 3rd out of the water behind Matt and Nick! Stevens 1,2,3!

I need to get better at being aggressive and not being timid at the start of the swim. It’s so annoying because I always end up surrounded by huge douche bags who think they’re good swimmers and who think it’s okay to do anything in their power to get ahead. I know I’m good at open water swimming, but if I can’t get ahead from the beginning, I’m screwed. Like during this race, for example, some guy grabbed my shoulders, pushed me underwater, and swam over me. I thought I was going to drown for a split second.. then the adrenaline kicked in and I hauled but past people and wound up swimming next to Luke all the way to the first buoy. I also had quite a few leg grabs, and elbows all over. Another stupid swim start.. those college kids are ruthless.
Once around the 1st buoy, it was Matt Smith up front, Nick behind him, and me right there. The three of us just swam a fast pace for the rest of the way til the exit. As we neared the shore, I saw Nick get up and try and walk on the rocks.. but he failed miserably and ended up face diving back into the water and swimming further until it was safer to run out. After I saw Nick attempt to stand, I started to stand as well, and also failed miserably as we both crashed and burned at the same time. There is photo evidence of this, and proof that Matt somehow tiptoed over the surface tension of the water and out way ahead of us magically lol.

T1= 1:23

Bike= 1:55:45 – 14th fastest collegiate bike time!
Average power = 178
Average power lap 1 = 184
Average power lap 2 = 171
Average speed = 20.8 mph
Average HR (swim & bike) = 179

Very very very very very very happy with the bike!!! It was sooooooooo much fun. I just had a blast the entire time I was riding. I loved the fact that it was two laps because I was able to pace myself much better.
Interesting point to note though, although my average power was much higher on the first lap, the second lap had the higher average speed. This was because in order to get out from the Marina park area to the main road, you had to go up. And then at the end of the second lap, everything was downhill back to the transition area. Makes sense.
The shoulder was wide, there wasn’t much traffic, it wasn’t too windy, everything went well.
The most hysterical moment, however, was the moment I saw THE WALL. There was a super fast downhill that ended at the base of a huge steep hill and coming down the hill, my face must have been priceless. I’ve never seen such a straight line uphill like that, it was just a wall in the distance that I had to make my way up. Granted, my speed heading down the hill into it was reaching 40mph to get momentum. Doing that twice was super fun!
So, very fun bike course. Only got passed by 2 guys, Colin and the Northeastern kid.
I felt like this course was a much better display of the power I have right now. My average power was higher than the Cranberry for 40 miles! Rest does my body good. Let’s just keep it up for these next few races, legs.

T2= 0:48

Run = 49:31 – 31st collegiate run time – @ a 7:59 pace!!! Scooooooore!
Average HR = 183

And I was excited two weeks ago with a 52 something. Scratch that PR, I went my best Olympic 10k in this race!!! Under 50 minutes!!!!
But it wasn’t all fun and games. There was a moment of fear when I thought I wasn’t going to finish the race. The first 2 miles was a false uphill run that curved and winded, so you couldn’t really tell it was consistently going up. I guess I didn’t drink enough right before the run because I cramped so painfully a little after a mile. It was on the two inner thighs and then once I stopped, the hamstring of my right leg. It was horrendous. Stopping was a terrible idea because I just seized up, and then collapsed to the ground in a squat position trying not to die. I was doing anything to get control of my legs. Three people passed me, I thought this was the end. I sat there for probably 30 seconds to a minute. But I grit my teeth, stood up, and ran about 40 of the most painful steps of my life and slammed a mini Cliff bar down my throat. Almost instantly after the Cliff bar was down and I was nearing the top of the hill near the first aid station my legs loosened up. I stopped and drank a cup of Gatorade and a cup of Water. The legs seemed to say thanks as I sped up and powered on. Instantly I felt amazing because not only was I finishing, I knew I was going fast.
At the turnaround, I drank another Gatorade and water and told myself to just sprint this 5k home. I saw Luke not too far away and I yelled at him to catch me… big mistake. After flying down a couple hills and booking it as fast as my legs could go, Luke finally caught me with about .2 miles left and ended up finishing 17 seconds ahead of me because I had zero burst energy left. Damn him.. so close. But it was okay, I really couldn’t complain because I blazed through my fastest 10k ever. I would have been happy with that time without having swum nearly a mile and biking 40 miles beforehand, so I’m pretty stoked about it. Bring on the 5k next weekend and let’s do some serious running!


Overall time = 3:04:12.25

Awesome for the Olympic PLUS race! My goal was actually 3:05 because I looked up the fastest female time from last year and that was it. So I got the goal and won, I’ll take it : )
What a killer day.

Top 3 guys and the top 2 girls from the race.

 
Stevens did amazing overall as well! Out of the 36 guys, Nick came in 7th, Luke 12th, Aaron Perelman 17th, Aaron Williams 27th, Isaac Spingarn 30th, Will Gerboth 31st, Orlando Martinez 33rd, and Matt Smith 34th (with 2 flat tires). Out of the 14 girls, Gabby came in 4th, Jamie came in some place shortly after, but she wasn’t placed in the collegiate category on accident, and Nicole was 12th.
 

Extremely excited about our huge and awesome team.. it’s so much fun. It reminds me of the swim team I loved my freshman year: smaller and more personable.

Final post-race note: I was stung by a bee for the second time in my life, and the second time this year. bee stings suck. After the race we ate some grub at Nick’s house. His parents were very generous again. And then we went back to Stevens. Solid day. I like races on Saturday because it leaves Saturday night all free for fun and Sunday for school work

7 days to the Buckman Sprint!!!

[NECTC] Cranberry Olympic 2010

I’m back on the East Coast!!! I got here on August 25^th. Had to come back for some Peer Mentor stuff with the new freshmen and took advantage of my ability to move in a couple days early. Unfortunately the fact that the Cranberry was only a few days after moving back in sucked because I was exhausted and spent from moving. I have a lot of crap to move around.

School starts on August 30^th, but NECTC triathlons start on August 29^th!!!

I’m so excited for our team this year!!!!!!!!! We’re huge!!!! And we’re representing Stevens awesomely.

On Saturday the 28^th we started the drive to Massachusetts. Nick’s car included Nick, Aaron Williams, Kim McCaffrey, and myself. Nicole’s car included Nicole, Aaron Perelman, Jamie Brabston, and Gabby Czernik. After some traffic leaving NY and one Subway lunch stop, we finally got to the race site in MA around mid-afternoon.

We had to check in, and then we planned on doing some warm-up stuff around the race site. They had messed up my name for some reason during registration, so I had to change my name from Amanda Allison to Amanda Nauman. Later, I realized, they had spelled my last name wrong after changing it on the name change form! I ended up on the results as Amanda Nanman. Idiots.

Sidenote on the goodie bag: the new “Cool Mint” cliff bar flavor is awesome. Another new tekwik shirt as well.

Once we were all checked in, time for a swim in the Pond!! There was confusion about whether it’d be wetsuit legal because it had been so warm for the previous few weeks and the temperature was right on the cusp of being wetsuit illegal. We went in with just our swim suits for warm-up and it was beautiful. I hate large bodies of fresh water, it’s just one of those weird things about me. So the first few minutes included me freaking out, but once I got used to it I loved it. I would love to have a pond/lake to swim in like that near my house when I’m older. Perfect for open water swimming.

Quick bike with the noobs.. some fast/easy stuff on some random offshoot rode from the main road in front of the park. Nick and I realized that we were going to have to work on some technique stuff with the team. After that, I ran around for less than 5 minutes with a few of the girls, we were really just scoping out the transition ins and outs and jogging from point to point.

After finally being familiarized with the area, we headed off to the Hotel. Dinner was at an Olive Garden and we were carbo loaded very well. The rest of the night we tinkered with bikes and got ready for an early morning race!

Morning of the race went smoothly. It was great to be back in the NECTC season because I love showing up to races with tons of college kids around.. it makes for a great atmosphere! The anticipation was high as we all got ready for the race. Luckily we squeezed in a “Before” team picture.

 

And here we go! Kim's first Olympic! woohoo!!!!

 

Swim= 19:21 – 5^th fastest swim in the entire race!!!!

There was only one guy ahead of me for the whole swim. I had one of the worst starts when Aaron Williams jumped on top of me and I got squished and thrown around until I finally was able to pull away and stay ahead. I passed Nick before the 2^nd buoy and from there I just followed the guy in front. Luckily he was there, because the sun was shining brightly and the buoys were hard to see around corners of the pond. I felt really good about the swim though, and I was very happy I made the decision to wear the wetsuit.

T1= 2:34

Bike= 1:14.25 – 105^th fastest bike in the entire race

Average power = 176.
Average HR = 179

The bike was not as powerful as I had hoped. All the moving in the previous days and all the hard/fast workouts I was doing at home just a few days previously killed my body. I knew I wasn’t rested whatsoever, so I was just trying to crank it out as best as possible. I focused on working the flats because I had zero legs for the tiny uphills. It’s a good thing that this course was relatively very flat with only small rolling hills because my legs were not happy.

T2= 1:49

Run = 52:12

Average HR = 184

THIS WAS MY FASTEST 10K TO DATE!!!!

I was reeeeeeeeally excited about that. Somehow I had some good legs following that bike split of 21.31mph. The usual suspects starting annoying me about a mile into the run, the inner quad muscles. They do not like running fast after biking hard and fast. So they started to seize up, but luckily it wasn’t a terrible cramping sensation. It just made it really hard to turn over and sprint. I had apparently drank a good amount before the run because my stomach was sloshing a little bit. At the same time I was thirsty, so I need to time things better and get a good pee in before the swim next time.

Overall I got a little discouraged on the run because I was in 2^nd and dropped to 5^th when 2 army girls and an MIT girl passed me. They were running soooooooooo fast. The first army girl ended up running under 40 and the other two in the mid 40s. that’s so fast! Yuck, I couldn’t keep up and I was pissed.

But I powered it home and was happy with my fastest Olympic 10k split!!!

Overall time = 2:30.19

Nationals last year was a 2:26, but that was with a half mile swim. And Lobsterman last year was a 2:32.10. So it’s my fastest official Olympic time! Woohoo!

At the end of the day, I was happy. But I knew it wasn’t my best and I have a lot of room for improvement. I need to rest up for a few days and see if I can get my legs back and ready to go.

Here is the “After” team picture!

 

Two weeks to the Quakerman!

Disneyland - summer 2010

DISNEYRRRRAND!!!!!

Disneyland con yessica for the day…

Brought back childhood memories and warm fuzzy feelings.

Last time I was at Dland was with Marc last summer when he visited California, so it was nice to be back.

All of our ride photos were hilarious.. it looked like Jessica was forced to be there for the day with me and she wasn’t happy about it haha just look for yourself:

I swear she was a happy camper...

Other highlights include: pineapple whhhhiiipppppp (Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm); injecting fear into Jessica’s heart on the Tower of Terror.. TWICE; a Blue Moon in CA Adventure; the CA ‘boardwalk’; the amazingness of Space Mountain; HIDDEN MICKEYS!!!; walking into the house of innovation for what felt like the first time; aging photos; it’s a small world; toon town; caramel apples; taffy; main street at night.

Stellar day at the happiest place on earth!

And for the funniest photo of the day:

yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Glacier Bay National Park, Arrraska

What an awesome vacation.. Alaska was way cooler than I expected.
Or as Garrison and I frequently called it in our native tongue, Arrrrrrraska. Haha

The vacation was full of pleasant surprises!

We did a ton of stuff, so I don’t want to bore you with all the specifics. I wrote in my vacation journal for all the memories for later. So I guess I’ll just post a picture for each momentous occasion of the trip.

Day 1

Arrival in Glacier Bay! A bright green bus drove us from the airport to the National Park Lodge.

Day 2

The off-limits trail we hiked on. Less than a week prior to this photo, a ranger was charged by a brown bear very near here, but we trekked on anyways..

 After the hike, on to a bike ride into town! Gustavus is a beautiful little town.

Day 3
Day boat tour up Glacier Bay!

Lamplugh Glacier!

Johns Hopkins Glacier! And some Nauman tourists…

3 Killer Whales!!! Shamuuuuuu in real liiiiiiife

Day 4

Dinner boat cruise around Point Adolphus. We saw so many humpback whales!!!

Day 5

This kid was psyyyyched to go kayaking haha

We were spoiled with a mama bear sighting with her two cubs!!!! The most AMAZING thing I’ve ever seen in real life, hands down.


Day 6
Last day in Glacier Bay

 Went for a hike before our flight. We walked out to the spot where we saw the bears the day before.

We found TONS of rocks with really awesome veins in them. May have pocketed a few of the really cool ones, but don’t tell the feds.

Finally
A couple shots of the most fun trail run I have ever had the pleasure of partaking in. It was a perfect mile loop trail. So if you’re hiking for this first time, this is your beginner trail. But if you’re trail running, it’s the perfect course! One of the days out there I ran around it 5 times, two laps with Garrison. My second favorite run next to Ali’i drive in Kona.

Can you spot the eagle carving in the tree??

More on the topic of working out on this trip.. Garrison and I found ways to do it. We were eating plenty of salmon and hiking, biking, kayaking, and running. Not to mention the two times we did P90X plyo and abs for fun! Alaska is a wonderful place to vacation for us active folk. I’ll never forget the whales, the glaciers, baby sea lions, bears, and abundance of salmon. I’ll be back, Glacier Bay. See you soon.

Alaska

I'm heading off to Glacier Bay, Alaska for the week. Constraining me to running a ton, hopefully..
Be back late Saturday night with an update!

Complete Day

Swim masters practice, short course 6am
Bike ride, trail
Run with Garrison, sonic loop
Surf with Jessica, San Onofre

what a beautiful day....