Fernando, Sullivan, Bradshaw, Kelly; Bird, Spanning the Country
Eric Fernando of Michigan won his first ever multisport event, the
Willow Duathlon, a 5-20-5k event.
A winter of primarily indoor riding on his Computrainer doing what are
typically 1 hour sessions seems to have served him well, as Eric
unleashed the fastest bike split of the day.
Eric is riding what has been a steady 3 year improvement curve since I
began working with him and and his local group. Eric is training for
the Eagleman 1/2 IM and hoping to qualify for Hawaii. With his fast
bike and faster running on his lighter frame, Eric will be in the
thick of things.
Sister Diana also fared well, finishing 2nd in her age group, despite
reduced training time; wedding planning and a long distance relationship
will do that!
******
Greg Sullivan of Maryland finished 9th overall in this past weekend's
very competitive Columbia Olympic distance triathlon.
In Greg's own words:
"I had a good race yesterday. I finished 9th overall at the Columbia
Triathlon. A good ego boost. Miserable weather -- cold water, rain
on the bike and run, so there were a lot of DNF's. Felt strong
climbing in spite of the 5-10 extra lbs I am still carrying. Felt
very good on the run, and concentrated on fast turnover. Went 4 min
faster than last year under worse conditions. Most people were 3-5
min slower this year than last."
M2 notes that Greg is a big guy, about 180+ pounds, some of which he
is shedding and will make him even faster. Despite training for IMUSA
Greg is significantly faster times for Olympic Distance.
*********
Joe Kelly of the Minneapolis reports back on a duathlon event there.
Joe is a long-time M2 athlete, known to enjoy manhattans after a hard
day of training while visiting the Bay Area, and who has trained around
a niggle-some calf injury. Much of Joe's run training has been the
Total Body Training Routine with plyometrics using a treadmill (MN not
a balmy winter climate) to maximize results for the minutes spent
running.
In his own words:
"Hi Michael,
I'll give a full update soon, but just wanted to let you know that I
feel as though I'M BACK from the calf injury!! The Duathlon went
GREAT this morning! I placed higher than I would have 2 years ago
before any of the calf troubles started and I beat last year's time
by OVER FIVE MINUTES! I was within about 40" of a friend of mine who
beat me by over 6 minutes last year. I'm totally psyched, and I feel
like I'm in great shape and I haven't even put in much training
effort yet - I feel like I'm really just getting started!
Also, Scott Hoyt was there competing on a team and I met Ryan -I'm
finally going to get him those too big shorts. We were all speaking
very highly of you and your program! All the same story - "I can't
believe I can get in this good shape on this amount of time."
**********
Ron Bradshaw of Kansas is a newcomer to the sport and is training for
the Eagleman 1/2 IM; no easy pill with a scant year of experience.
Ron shares last weekend's tri-result and demonstrates what we all know
to be true------just as all politics are said to be local, so too is
triathlon competition----nothing better than beating your buddies.
"Michael:
Now I have my own story.....this weekends race went well. As I told
you, this was the first triathlon I did last year and almost died.
They lengthened the course on the bike by a 1 1/2 miles and I still
beat my time by 13 min.... Thirteen min. in a sprint!!! I avg. 20 mph
on my bike on a "semi" hilly course and ran 7:26 miles...(last year I
ran/walked 9:54). I thought my watch was wrong..... I finished in the
top 10 of my age group (if I would have had decent transitions I would
have been in top 5) and the best part is I beat my training buddy by
4 minutes (last year he beat me by 10)... Hard to believe all this
progress happened in less than a year...everyone wanted to know what
I had been doing....
Been training for 16 weeks it was great to race again....totally
pumped...Looking forward to Eagleman!!!.........."
************
Walter Bird of upstate New York is training for IMUSA and reports back
on last weekend's 1/2 Marathon.
"Michael:
Well, we must be doing something right. I ran my fastest 1/2 marathon
ever yesterday. 1:26:39, which beat my previous best by 1:02. The best
part is I felt great at the end. My hamstrings have been bothering me
a little, particularly my left one that I injured at the marathon last
fall. I felt like I could have pick up my pace by about 5"/mi, but
everytime I tried to I could feel it in my leg and backed off to
avoid injury. Plus, I didn't wear a lightweight shoe either. My time
was 4' 22" faster than I did this same race 2 years ago, before I did
my first IM. So I guess everything is going just fine."
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