FT3's Return to Glory!

I admit I am to blame here for the lack luster effort on the FT3 front of late. Rock God is calling us out from a foreign country (look out for those crazy Canadians, although Kokanee is like PBR's brother to the north!)...looks like it is time to get on it! I am feeling good, have a couple runs and a bike ride under my belt and am ready to hit it.

Ride #59

Last weeks ride actually qualifies as the first ever FT3 duathlon! Way to throw in some multisport stuff there boys! Most of my creative juices have flown out of the my body with the five gallons of sweat pouring out of me every hour. Is it hot in here or is it just me? I am going to offer up the first ever swim-bike-swim outing for tomorrow if this weather pattern doesn't change.

I am giving this weeks ride the official "ONE" count in hopes that others can join. I know there are some camping trips, softball games, DTI recovery, work commitments, etc, but I expect to see a showing for Tuesday night. There have been some questions regarding pictures from the Ironman. Seeing how I was so smoking fast, there really weren't that many photos taken by my support crew. Either that or being sick of standing in the rain and the cold, they waited inside the super nice resort in Coeur d'Alene for me to finish! Either way, and without a trip to Kona this year, I feel the need to wear the pointing hat and skin suit one more time, this will clearly give me an advantage in the swim-bike-swim event! You got to show up tomorrow night to catch the new FT3 fashion!!!!

I believe Cap'n is working on a super secret bike build...guess it is not super secret anymore seeing how I just published it to the world. Someone turned 40! There was a guys backpacking trip. I have more race details...this is all to say that the taco portion of the night should be full of mostly true stories, peppered with just the right proportions of hyperbole and machismo!

Rumor has it that this might be In-Law's last ride for a bit. I do remember him stating that a last ride record attempt was in the plans. So what'll it be In-Law, can you hold 20/10 or is the lawn going to get fertilized some more?

5:45 at Mosquito...BAMBI, WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!


Until we ride again,
LOtB

Ride Report: Guest Author

Guest authorship by Cap'n and Councilman:

Xterra Call Out

Ride #58 was of epic proportions and after more than a year of outings, new ground continues to be broken on the FT3 front. Cap’n, B, Councilman, In-Law and X-Teric rolled out to keep it real FT3 style. Default ride leader Cap'n took the riders down a quick drop of the Hiccup Trail. The next move was down the technical section to the spillway, across the bridge and back up to Mormon Immigrant. Then we headed down the technical horse trail toward the spillway for a viewing of a beautiful pond site and not as beautiful old dump site or shooting range. Here, it was determined that tetanus shots should be up to date prior to going on rides with default ride leader Cap’n. Barrett managed to ride all technical sections and then crash on fireroad where X-Teric showed no mercy and ran poor B over. B was up and ready to roll immediately showing blood on the arm, spot on mate. During the visit to the dump site no FT3 rules were broken, and everyone was having fun, especially Barrett. At this time we pondered whether we were in for a second edition of the feisty five outing. After making our way back to M.I. (no Lars, not IM… M.I.) via the fireroad, we were off for a standard Fleming Loop. Fleming was good, albeit a bit dusty. There was much discussion of Xterra and Matt’s amazing Ironman prowess, but always tabled for later discussion so as to avoid long delays. We went up the very dusty Redneck Rising trail, across M.I. again and down the Left Lip. The Lady Parts were good, as it always is, and X-Teric was making FT3 proud in absence of Bambi or Rock God. At the bottom there was some discussion of XTerra again and a possible post ride swim and a few HTFU call outs. The call outs were made and ride leader forced the group to ride the horse trail on the way out. Back to the boat dock we had 100% participation in a post ride swim. Although only three of the riders took part in the swim race to the bouy, it was an honorable mention to Lars’ IM and may become a summer ritual. In-Law has swimming prowess and is now an FT3 XTerra swim coach. It was weak sauce at the Knott Hole again, and the shell texture was less than ideal. B went super deep with da bomb, deeper than ever I think, double siding six tacos, and others enjoyed pepper, a classic spice. Firepit was again taken over by French people or aliens, there were screaming babies, dancing toddlers wielding horseshoes, pissing dogs and foul mouth red neck smokers. Conversation hit rock bottom like never before as councilman relayed emergency room extraction tales from a surgeon friend.

Tuesday and Race Report

A little delirious with fatigue, but I am going to give this a shot...

First things first, its Tuesday and ride #58 is going off! Summer outings are getting a bit thin, we will see how tonight's rollout fares.

Mosquito at 5:45...Exit 54?

Race Report:

The day started on an upbeat for waking up at 3:00 am. The skies were clear and it was looking up. There was however a nasty breeze in the air. April and I got out to the race course and got breakfast rolling off at about 4:00, good timing. Got it to transition at 5:00 for bodymarking and the last minute check on my transition gear and bike. All looked good expect for the weather. Clouds were rolling in fast and the breeze turned to a good strong wind. At 7:00 for the start of the race, temps were in the upper 40's, wind was strong, but the rain was holding off. At 7:00 the gun went off and 2200 of us piled into lake Coeur d'Alene for a long swim. I rounded the the first lap in 33 minutes and was hopeful for a swim of just over an hour. The wind made swimming a bit difficult and I ended leg one in 1:10:00 a little long for the swim and bit more energy spent, but I happily took off for the bike. By this point the wind was strong and steady. In Ironman there is no drafting so wind be damned, we all had to deal with it. The bike leg was strong! The lap was broken into two very separate segments. The first was fast and flat, about 30 miles, and then there was a very hilly section of about 26 miles. I ended up passing over 200 people on the bike, moving into about 250th overall. About 10 miles into the second lap, I got passed by a bunch of riders, they were not in a pace line but there was clearly some serious drafting going on. It was very frustrating to be past but a group not really caring about the rules, oh well soldier on. I finished the bike leg in 5:34:00 maintaining an avg speed just above 20mph. I was very pleased with the bike and headed off for the marathon. I exited the transition area with about 3hrs and 10min to go to meet my goal of 10hrs and possibly a Kona slot. A 3:10 marathon is pretty fast and I saw my 10 hr goal going away pretty quickly. I was still feeling good and so I settled into a good pace and went for it. Mid way through the second lap the rain started and I was really looking forward to the end. I crossed the line with a 3:54 marathon and a 10:47 overall. Not too bad for a weekend warrior. There may not be a trip to Kona this year, but I am very pleased with my result!

Keeping FT3 Proud:
So I had just past mile 25 of the marathon and was heading toward home. I knew Kona was out, but I was very happy with my time and knew I would easily break the 11hr barrier. Just at this time, I came by a house party with folks having a lot more fun than I was. Well to make a long story short, there as a female party goer standing close to the curb with a beer in hand. So I motioned toward the beer and she obliged, giving me the final energy needed to get to the finish line. The rest of the folks at the party put up a cheer like I had won the race and took some quick photos and I was on my way FT3 style.

Quick Stats:
Finishing time 10:47:16
Swim 1:10:09
Bike 5:34:32
Run 3:54:43
Overall 257
Age Group 53/238

Slowest M30-34 Kona qualifier 9:34:24 (Apparently the field was fast this year, I clearly wasn't gonna make it this year)

Until we ride again,
LOtB