Frog Performance Raffle!

Hey, guys!

Frog Performance has given me the opportunity to host a second drawing in conjunction with the one we are hosting on ChiTriBloggers!!!


All you have to do is log in with Facebook and/or your email address!
You can earn multiple raffle entries each day, so get on there and get your tickets!

Enter as many times as you want and make sure to invite your friends!!


 We're looking to give out a total of 2 prize packs each consisting of four FrogFuel Protein Shots and a Frog Performance sticker.


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Bigfoot Triathlon Race Report

First Olympic distance triathlon!!

First off, what an awesome venue! And now to the backstory:

Last year a friend of mine joined me at the RAM Racing Turkey Trot 5k/10k. Earlier in the year he had registered for his first 5k, but due to other obligations he was unable to be at the race that day. So, I talked to him about doing this race as I would be singing the National Anthem and then running the 10k. I told him he could do either distance. He said that he had already trained for a 5k, so he would be doing the 10k. Having finished that and feeling good about the whole thing I started talking to him about triathlon. I told him that I had done a couple sprints and an Ironman 70.3. After explaining the whole thing and explaining the distances he asked if I was planning on doing a 70.3 the next fall and if I did which one would I do. I told him I was planning on one, but I didn't know yet. He told me he was game and that he would be signing up with me. I also told him I was thinking about doing this race depending on my schedule and that it might be a good idea for him to do it just so he can get his feet wet and see what a triathlon feels like. So I reserved a camp site less than half mile from the transition and we went up that saturday afternoon before the race.

Lake Geneva is awesome. It is definitely a party town in the sumer because the lake is warm, the weather wasn't bad and the road is literally 2 feet from the lake edge making it easy to get to. RAM Racing chose a very good spot when they started this triathlon. I know the race director from the previous couple years of volunteering with RAM. I found Debbie on Saturday and asked if they had anyone doing the National Anthem before the race or if they were just doing a recording. She pointed me towards the gal who was in charge of that, I remembered her from last year's Turkey Trot 10k where I'd sung the National Anthem for RAM. She said they didn't have anyone so I was able to sing the National Anthem before the race. Always one of my favorite parts of the race.

Goal: I hadn't done any heavy training for this race and I'd never done this distance before, but I was shooting for 2:30:00.

All setup and ready to go

Swim:
Definitely the weakest of my three events. I'd only been in a pool twice in the six months leading up to the race and one of those times was for the sprint tri in Alaska a few weeks earlier. The water was perfect. It was clear and not too cold, just right for a little swim. One of my strengths on the swim, though, is my ability to not freak out. I positioned myself to the side of the group so I wouldn't have to worry about getting swam over or elbowed/kicked in the face. I'd had problems in the past with my goggles taking on water, but this time I didn't have that problem at all. I settled into a good pace and just cruised through the 1500m as quickly as possible without trying to burn any matches.

Time - 33:09 - 2:13/100m
T1 - 3:22 - The run from the swim exit to the transition was pretty far.

Strava link: http://app.strava.com/activities/62410413

Bike:
As it has been this year the bike has been my strength of the three events. I knew that this was going to be where I made up the time I would lose on both the swim and the run. While I hadn't prepared as much as I would have liked for the elevation gain on the course I did feel that the amount of riding and the amount of pushing it I had been doing really served me well when it came to keeping my power up. It was a really windy day and we had either headwind/crosswind combo or just plain headwind. The last portion of the course we were lucky enough to get a major tailwind coupled with a downhill portion. This made for very high speeds with less effort, which was a nice change, especially right before transitioning to the run.

Time - 1:06:01 - 22.6 mph avg 2:39/mi - 32/551 OA 5/32 AG
T2 - 2:03

Strava Link: http://app.strava.com/activities/62409451

Run:
In the beginning I felt fairly good. Then my legs started to feel extremely heavy. I thought that this would be a run on pavement, but it was actually on trail. And the very beginning of the first loop was around a lake, so the ground was soggy and my shoes ended up taking water through the sole, which led to soggy feet. Luckily I didn't have any blisters bother me at all, not even after the run. I ended up slowing to an easy pace that would let me just get through the run. I also made a habit of walking the aid stations, which is what I do at most races that I start hurting on. I really need to start getting my mental toughness built up and just pushing through because I know I can handle it, I just let my legs get the best of me. Overall the course was very nice. The soggy lake wasn't enough to ruin it at all. Very nice wooded portions and a mix of open and very sunny portions. Right before the finish line there's a decent hill that was fun to just push through to get up and over for the final sprint across the line. Overall I wasn't too sad about the run, but I know it's where I can use a lot of work.

Time - 56:48 - 9:58/mi

Strava Link: http://app.strava.com/activities/62409896/overview

Total time: 2:41:21 - 131/551 OA - 17/32 AG - 114/349 Sex

Finish line... Obviously.

Good things:
-Maintained a middle of the pack swim time with little swim training
-Biked a solid bike split that was only 7 minutes off the fastest bike split
-Nutrition was well-maintained with Hammer Gels on the bike and run
-I got to sing the National Anthem!

Improvements:
-Work on that swim
-Work on that run
-Practice more bike/run transitions to get the legs to feel more fluid after biking
-Practice transitions

Well run race and if I were going to be in the area next year I would definitely compete at this again!

Leon's Triathlon Relay RR

So, a few weeks back I was talking to one of my friends, who was having a minor freakout about having signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon as her first race. She has a problem with this because she starts every year with a sprint distance, then Oly, then half-IM... I dread the year for her when she decides to do a full-IM haha!

Anyways, she told me she was thinking of splitting it to a relay and was wondering if I wanted to do the bike. Having just built my custom race bike and having been focusing on my bike speed it really was a no-brainer for me. Of course I would do the bike leg.

Before the race I started getting interested in Team Red White & Blue. A friend who is prior-service Army had talked to me about them and I decided I would check them out. If you haven't already, you really should check them out. They focus on helping veterans overcome they're injuries by bringing them to athletics, which is such a powerful tool in curing depression, PTSD and many, many things that plague our veterans today. As a part of Team RWB I was invited to a dinner with the team members who were going to be racing the next day. It was pretty great to meet everyone and to hear a little about what their goals and experiences were. I had given Marnie the day off of mom duties, so Genevieve was with me and immediately made friends by tasting their fingers.

Caroline Gaynor of Team RWB and Genevieve

This morning I got up around 4:50 because my daughter wanted to be fed and then continued to get ready. I haven't really paid attention to my nutrition in the past with races, so I made a point of going for micronutrients that would give me an overload of healthiness. I've started juicing every morning and I feel great. My buddy Jeff met me at 5:30 so we could make the hour drive into Hammond, IN again for the race. We were expecting nice(not) weather. It was supposed to be cloudy with a 20% chance of rain. When we got to the transition at 6:30 we actually had sunny skies... 30 minutes later it was completely cloud-covered. And just as the opening ceremonies started a frigid wind came in and knocked 10 degrees out of the air. It was FREEZING. And I had to wait almost 2 hours before I would get my chance to warm up. Then it started to drizzle and mist making things way colder and more miserable. Once on the bike I was able to hammer out pretty good times and keep my hr around 170 to stay warm. I knew I didn't have to run afterwards, so I wasn't worried about fresh legs for the run.

At the halfway point before I overtook these two.

I ended up completing the bike which was on my Garmin as 25.3 miles in 1:08:20 maintaining an avg speed of 22.2 mph. Pretty happy with everything overall... I especially loved all the people on super aero expensive TT bikes with aero helmets and how I blew past them.