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Christmas Running

Just like 2009 we made the trip to Rochester NY for the holidays to visit Heather's Mom and Sister. We always have a great time.
I also enjoy running around here when the weather is good. Yesterday I got in an easy 12.5 miles. My longest in a while. I looped down to see if the trail near the river was clear but it still had snow on it, ahwell at least the streets are good and clear.
Today after we opened presents I got in a steady cut-down 9miles closing out in 5:42. Tomorrow I will swim and run.
Merry Christmas .
Robbie

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Century Club

Wow has it been cold in DC the past week or so. Running in 35 now feelings awesome. On Sat I got nice and early to jump on the DC Velo 7am ride with my boys Zac and Darrion (DCFleming92.blogspot.com)
Starting out it as cold and there was still snow on the ground but thankfully the roads were for the most part safe.
On our warm up I asked Zac and the D-man to guess how many guys would be riding. Zac said 15, D-man 22 and myself guessed 25. As soon as we joined the group I counted 12ish riders. We may have picked up 1 or 2 more alot the way. Anyway I keep it steady as I knew I had the opportunity to ride the 10am due to not having to go to work. As soon as the pace got going my body felt warm, I was getting a good work out chasing down Chuck and Tim Rugg (Talented rider and great dude). As soon as we got back to Rock Creek I stopped for Coffee and a Bagel with Chuck and Tim. We fueled up and chilled before riding over to meet the 10am ride. Which included my boy Shawn Johns . Which started off smaller than 7am (even with the sun out and it now felt great to ride) The pace of the 10am starts easy and then becomes very solid for the majority of the ride. The route has alot more hills than the 7am, nothing crazy just rollers. The main different is there is no catch up point. Once your dropped its bye bye. I was entering new ground after 66miles but was feeling strong and kept doing my pulls and chasing down to get in a great ride. Coming home the last hill I was dreaming of food !

Overall December has been a very relaxed un-structured month for me. I'm glad to be back running and looking forward to follow more of a plan starting Jan 1st. As for swimming I hitting the workouts and will join back with my Masters Program in the New Year.

Hope everyone is having a good Holiday and is plotting and planning their 2011 goals.

Robbie

Irish Triathlon – Your base for all Triathlons, Duathlons and Adventure races in Ireland » Blog Archive » Ironman 70.3 World Championships report by Robbie Wade.

Irish Triathlon – Your base for all Triathlons, Duathlons and Adventure races in Ireland » Blog Archive » Ironman 70.3 World Championships report by Robbie Wade.

Sub Par

I wish I was referring to golf score with the Title. But unfortunately it in reference to my race at the US Open Toyota Cup down in Dallas. We all have our ups and downs and it sucks when it happens on races days. I feel a little sick and that is my conclusion as to what happened. I know a lot of people who have been picking up sore throats. (which I have now) Anyway effort of the negativeness !

The whole weekend was a great experience and I was so happy to see Heather's Dad and the kids. It was there first time to a Triathlon. So I was excited about that and I feel they had lots of fun. I love seeing the kids and wish we could hang out more often.
I don't really have much to say about the race other that I had a poor swim, lost the group after 100m, disappointing as I was having some great swims last week in the build up. No really power on the bike, felt like my body only could give tempo effort. It was my type of course too, rolling hills. I out split all the guys in the Elite wave but needed another 1min more back on them. On the run I had no drive (same as feeling as the bike) I managed to run my tempo pace 5:29. So I probably was a good 3-4mins from my best right now. There was no way I was beating Van Ort he was flying . Sounds like a solid guy too, always great to see sound people win.

On the positive I'm now hungry for Clearwater 70.3 World Champs. So Monday was a rest day. 2 easy runs today and back to working hard tomorrow. I'm going to try a different approach and only back off the last 2-3 days before the race. I feel my body responds better to hard work as it stays in top gear. From looking back at my best races they always come when I don't taper.

Thanks,
RMW

Nations

Its been about to long since Nations Tri. Sorry for the long wait with this post. Been crazy with work, life and training. Anyway I want to say thanks to anyone that played a part in my successful race. I have so many great people in my support network from Heather (best Team Manager ever , my training partners Andy, Dirk Zac who push me, John from getting me to believe I can swim and many more. Thanks so much to all you do.

The race couldn't have been more perfect for me, the lovely Irish weather that delayed the start was fine by me. It gave us time to get Dirk a back wheel, as his had a slow flat in it ! Well done to my boy Dirk who had a great race in only his second Olympic Distance. Also Andy crushed his goals.

I got out good in the swim and ended up out of the water in 23:47. Before hand I said to myself get out hard and hang onto some feet. A 80 sec PR, but need to be faster.
Then ran to the bike and Heather shouted 7min down as I got on, I realized afterwards her watch much have not hit the split for my Transition so it really 7min since the 1st guy exited the water, so I was about 4min down. The first 10miles on the bike I hammered it holding close to 30mph, as I was thinking I was alot behind. I caught the group and then couldn't see anyone, was I leading ? No way to early ! At the turn around I saw 4 guys ahead and did a split on each. I knew then I could relax back to tempo pace for the 2nd half of the bike.I caught one of the guys around mi 15. I got another time check from my man Edmund Burke on Key Bridge. Again I was closing in on the lead, then I took another time check about 4mi to the finish. As long as I had my running legs the race was mine. Off the bike I didn't have the best T2. The insole of my shoes curled up, so I spent a couple seconds fixing it. Ah well ! on the long run out I could see Dirk coming in. So I gave him a shoot.
Out on the road my legs felt good, to be honest real good. I caught 3rd well before the mile, then my eyes were set on the 2 guys ahead. I knew Adam Ostot was the man to beat he is well balanced in all 3 sports. Also a solid dude as I found out after the race. I caught 2nd place around 2.5mi and Adam was about 5 secs ahead. I rolled up with 5k to go. He ran with me for a bit we had a brief exchange and I held my pace. I did pick up the last 2miles to around 505-506 pace. I felt like I could have ran another 2miles if I needed today. Clearwater came into my ahead, but hey its a differant ball game when you have to bike over double the distance
Coming down the finishing straight was awesome. I realized I was achieving one of my main goals for 2010 and got excited. I couldn't help but celebrate, normally I just put my hands up as I cross the line. But I felt the need to do more. The crowd was awesome too, they came out in the rain.

Now back to work for Dallas and Clearwater. Oct 10th and Nov 14th.

Harambee

Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms. The other day I was running past the Kenyan embassy and saw this sign. It reminded me of Kenyan Runners training together to achieve their goals, working hard and pushing one another. I personally find I train so much better when I work with a team of like minded athletes.

On Monday evening I swam with my buddies Andy and Dirk and I got to be honest I was tried and if I was alone I would have probably headed home or just have swam easy. But instead I got in a great workout and even ran home to end my workout. Furthermore, Saturday I had another solid swim and a great bike ride with Andy and Zac.

My training has been going decent, I hitting more volume that last year, my running is a little behind were it was in '09 due to my Achilles limiting my run workouts. But swim and bike are on track for Dallas.

My plan is to add some miles to my legs the next 3 weeks, I want to put in a good showing at Nations then I will do a tougher 3 week block before a rest week for Dallas, following the another 4 week phase for Clearwater. Basically I'm taking a leaf out of my Cross Country Training with anyways got my peaking for Championship time, and with my Tri races dated the same as XC time. It make sense to follow a tried and trusted periodization .

Ridin' Solo

The last month has been not so exciting for me when it comes to running. It has been limited mileage and no workouts.
Finally as my boy Jason Derulo sings "Yeah I feelin' good tonight"
Did a 5.75mi run after work and had no tightness in my Achilles. Lets hope this is a turn for the good. Yesterday I hit up the track for some pace work effort. 6 X 800m with 200m jog. I av 2:32 in the pouring rain. Goal was 2:35-2:30 to help the legs find 5:00 pace again. Nothing to write home about. But I now take an approach that you need to progress when it comes to getting back to full speed, a few yrs ago I would be banging this session out in sub 2:20, the first week back. Not very smart, right !

This weekend I got the Sprint Super Race in Manassas Va. http://www.triitnow.com/
It should be a fun race, draft-legal on the bike. 400y swim , 8 mile bike (8 X 1mi loop) and 1.8mile Run (2 loops).

On a side note I remember thinking when I started this blog, that I would talk about the tunes that I listen too aswell. So from now on expect to have some more music shit. Well it won't be shit to me. Right now My boy J Derulo is on replay in my ears everytime he pops up in the playlist.

Night !

RW

NYC TRI

What a great weekend. Got to hang out with my friends and race in the Big Apple. Going into the race I was a little worried that my Achilles would not be able to handle the effort needed to achieve my goal of Top 3 Elite and qualify for the Toyota Cup in Dallas.

Fast forward to race morning, my taper and patience's paid off. (Thanks Dirk !) Walking over to the start just before 4am, I felt really good. I was rocking out to U2 in the streets of New York watching the drunks leave the bars. After I set up my transition, I headed to my swim start for my wave time of 5:54am. It was my first time ever doing a dive start, the pontoon was rocking as we stood still and it was a decent drop down into the water. I actually got a good start then within a second the fun began, as the guy next to or behind me landed right on me and there were legs and arms flying everywhere. But I was in the mix and fighting a good fight. I jumped out of the water in 15:44. I could hear Heather shouting "3mins down". My Achilles hurt on the long run to Transition but I just stayed relaxed and focused on my task ahead. The Aria was sitting pretty and looking ready to go hunting. Straight out of Transition the path was narrow and I got struck behind some guys on the first turn leading into the hill. But really got going when I hit the highway. At the first turn around (12miles) I could see a big group ahead of me about 30 seconds up. It was honestly like they were riding in the Tour. I caught them within the next mile and shared my disapproval of their drafting. But looking at the results afterward the refs did give out penalties. So I hope it was to these dudes. I feel bad for James Burns he was at the front of the group and it was clear they were sitting on him when I passed. But he got 6:00mins. Crazy. I caught Justin Harris around 17 miles and he was moving good like Columbia. We had a little bit of a battle for a few miles, then I picked up the pace around 22 miles. At the 2nd turn around I saw Duffy (last yr winning and Toyota Cup Champ). He was less than a min up the road, I pushed the last hill really hard and I was rolling so fast I missed the sharp turn that lead us back down to the path to Transition. I was basically heading put the course again ! Damn Robbie turn around 'what are you doin ?' was my thoughts. I had to cut across people coming out of T1 and it cost me about 30secs. Funny now looking back and my buddy Zac got some good photos of it. I will post them as soon as I get them. I reached T2 and got in and out as fast as I could, 45secs in fact. I knew he was up the road and I had to chase on 75-80% legs. The Achilles didn't feel too bad and thanks to Robert Gillanders my PT, I was not compensating with my running form. At mi 3 I caught Duffy and picked my pace for about 1/2mile and looks after I knew he was out of the race and shut it down to save my Achilles. It was a great feeling to cross the line and hear Heather and Zac shout your the winner.
I had a good time catching up with Justin Harris and some of the other guys after the race. Always good to hear how the other got on after the race.
Now its time to work harder and be ready to race for the cup down in the Big D.

Thanks to all my friends for their support and guidance the past 2 weeks.
See you all on the road, in the pool, on the track or the trials.

Cheers,

Robbie

What amazing weather we have got the last 2 days here in DC, looks like it will continue for the 4th July weekend. DC is the place to be for the best fireworks show in the country. I can't wait !

Training has been going well this week. Still trying to increase the swimming. If you focus on your weakness you will be a stronger athlete. I'm lucky to have one of the best coaches around to work with, his name is John Flanagan. John is such a charismatic man and pushes us hard while keeping it fun. Thanks to my friend Linda Kennedy, I joined John's masters program last June. We swim at Hains Point's 50m outdoor pool.

Anyway here is a run down of what I have been doing this week:
Monday:
AM Bike 30 mi, 2X7 mi effort on MacArthur. Still Hot. Faster than 40k race pace.
25mins CORE after.
PM Run: 8.8 mi, with Bert. Nice and easy. After the rain, so it was humid.

Tuesday:
AM Swim: 3200m main set of 2x300,4x50,2x200,8x50,2x100,12x50.
PM Bike: 23 mi, Contes Hill Ride. Lots of hill riding with the roadies around the Hills of Arlington.
Run: 8 mi, 10x400m with Garret my new track workout man. 74-60. 200 jog between.

Wednesday:
AM Run: 6.2 mi, nice and easy around Roosevelt Island. Start of the nice weather !
PM Swim: 2000y main workout was 1000y T.T. 15:05. Pleased with the effort. heading in
the right direction. Lots of work left.

Thursday:
AM Swim: 3000m, main set 2x50,100-200-300-400-2x50,100,200. Then 500 T.T in 8:07. Tired this morning . John set me the goal or breaking 8:20. Now as Dirk says 10secs a month improvement.
PM Run: 5mi real easy around Roosevelt.

As for the rest of this week. I will run our race tomorrow: http://www.independence5000.com/
Use it for some speed work really. More swimming and another effort on the Dolan to get ready for NYC Tri on July 18th.

Finally good luck to my boy Bryan Keane at the European Triathlon Championships which is been held in Athone Ireland.
Europe's Best Set to Battle for Continental Crown in Athlone | Triathlon.org - International Triathlon Union

Triathlon 2010 Madrid Promo

Hot Hot

Another hot one !
Today was a scheduled for a nearly record breaking Temperature. Thankfully for me I just had an Olympic Distance to complete. So I was hoping to be done before the heat of the sun.
The race start was delayed about 30mins but they cut the distance between the wave so my wave of the Olympic got off about 15-20mins late.
We jumped in and had about 2mins before the start. Man I'm such more relaxed this year in the open water. A year ago to the date I was shitty my self and it took alot for me to not drop out about a few hundred meters into the swim .
I wanted to start out harder and attack the water, normally I go straight to the back and let everyone go. I found myself leader a group for the first 700m, I attempted to lack onto the pack ahead of me but they were flying right at we got to 800m I let the 2 guys behind me slip in front of me and followed their feet. Hey they were following me for 700m ! I felt I had a ok swim without the wetsuit. I was ranked 52nd so not bad. Still need to get myself into the sub 23 range soon.

I sprinted into Transition and ran the long distance out over the bumps to the bike mount line. I knew I was moving good on the bike by checking my usual 10 mi and 2o mi checks. However I didn't really find my legs until 17 miles. On the 2nd lap I hit some major traffic (bikers on their first lap) between 12-14 miles. But I just shouted on your left as much as I could. I think they need to bring back the race briefing as everyone and their mom was riding all over the road.
I was 2nd faster by 12 secs on the bike behind a solid rider.
In regards to my bike approach I find it better to stay in control on the bike so I have some legs for run. I guessed on the biked I was in about 2nd place and afterward I realized I rode into the leader by about 1 : 30 but man he is a fish and the race was over after the swim !

Onto the run, I planned to go out in control and maintenance my pace. I was hitting 5:15-5:20 for every mile other than 5. Which was up Capitol Hill. That hurt big time. The killed in the last 1/2mi. I split an ok 32:56. I need to get back on the track and add some tempo's to hit sub 32:00.

Afterward I found out the winner was a stud ITU guy fro Ukraine who recently finished 23rd at the biggest race of the season in Iowa. What was he doing in DC ? Did he think that this race was a Dextro World Series race like last year. JK

Overall Time 1:56:28
Swim 25:08
T1 1:27
Bike 56:00
T2 2 59
Run 32:56

My goal was a sub 2:00 and if I had a good race hopefully take the win. So yes I'm pleased with my result!

Back to pool in the morning with John to work on my weakness.

DC TRI Week

Training this week went pretty well.

Monday
Total rest day,

Tuesday
AM Swim: 3000m tried ! Bike 25.7 mi- with most of it @ a good pace.
PM Run: 4mi Easy. Followed by Swim 1400m with Zac. Some speedwork in the pool.

Wednesday
AM Swim: 4000m Biked to and from 10miles
PM Run:7mi- with 3miles @ 6:00,5:45,5:35 in the middle
Bike: 33.7mi @ Hains with Matias and Bart from Team Snapple.

Thursday
AM Run: 4miles Easy
PM Run: track workout of 4 X800m/1min rec. Goal to find some speed !

Friday
AM Swim: 1600m. Just did some of the Masters Workout to be ready for Sunday.
AM Bike: 26.4mi. with 3mi-2mi-1mi-3mi hard. Just some faster than 40k pace stuff.

Saturday
PM Swim: 800m @ the DC TRI swim practice
PM Run : 3mi Easy Jog.

Eagleman 70.3 AKA Sufferfest !

This past weekend I did my first Half Ironman. Going in I knew it would be a tough race, my 3 goals were to (1) qualify for 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, (2) do a sub 4:15 and (3) have the faster run split.
I achieved just one of them, the most important one. Basically all the 70.3 Ironman have 1-3 slots for Clearwater in each Age Group. (depending on how competitive your age group is and how many people are in it). Eagleman had 2 slots for 25-29 and I got the second one, the race was billed as the most stacked 70.3 of the season lots of the best Pros and top Elite Amateurs looking to roll fast times. However, with temperatures getting up close to 100. The race was all about surviving out there. Check out what the race winner Terenzo Bozzone had to say about it.
http://terenzo.blogspot.com/2010/06/eagleman-703.html

As for me, I honestly didn't have a great race but learned alot about the Half Iron distance . My swim was terrible, even with it been non-wetsuit and more than the correct 1.2miles. I was way to slow in the water. Lots of work needed here. I did have a decent swim at Columbia so I know I can do it. On the bike I was to conservative, but I can count on one hand the number of rides that I have done over 56 miles this year. So room for improvement here. I did average 24.5 MPH on a flat windy course so I will take this as a good benchmark. I need more hills to out split the power guys.
The run was a disaster after 5 miles, I was just really thinking about getting to the finish line. Need to get some more long intense bricks done to prepare me to run up to my fitness level over the Half Iron distance.

So the positives outcomes ! well I nailed my nutrition thanks to Brian Shea of
PersonalBest Nutrition.com . I will be working with Brian moving forward. Anyone having trouble with race day or training nutrition let me know and I will put you in contact with him. Oh and yes the other big positive. I get to do it all over again down in Cleanwater in November.
This time I will be ready to roll !

RMW

Back to Work

Sorry for the long time without a post. So June 1st became the official start of my phase 2 training cycle. Mainly meaning lots more meters in the pool, more miles in the saddle and tempos and reps on the track. Also my swimming group moved to our 50m outdoor pool, which is so sweet ! As for races I recently did the Columbia Triathlon, it is an amazing race. Overall I was pleased with the result on a wet day. It shows me were I'm at and what we need to work on to achieve my 2010 season goals. (More on that later)
Next up was a 40km Mid-Atlantic Time Trial this past weekend, I also rode the Team Time Trial with my new cycling team Battley Harley-Davidson/Sonoma Restaurant/Teasism . My rest time between the races was about 25 mins. The temps was hot and it was also humid. At 11:23:30 I rolled out and hit a 54:59, I rode a massive negative split, partly due to the tail wind, but I also did go out conservative. After some water and a number change I joined my lads on the line for our 12:40 send off. We ended up hitting a 52:07. Tough as all 4 of us rode the ITT but we gave it our best shot and took 2nd overall. The last 25km Chuck and I did all the pullling. Fair play to Arthur for hanging tough ! I won the Cat 5 by alot and would have win Cat 4 and 3 and placed 6 or 7 in Cat 1.
A good practice for my next race at Eagleman 70.3 on June 12th.


Keep on Rolling.

Robbie

Earth Day !

Another week in the books. I have to say April is my favorite month of the year. Not just because my birthday occurs during it. It is due to the Spring weather and early season races which gets you excited for the season ahead.
When I looked at my goal races for 2010, I was really interested in the European Duathlon Championships in Nancy France May 1st. I can know officially declared I will be representing Ireland and racing with my Dutch training partner Dirk De Heer. About 10 years ago I got to put on the Irish Singlet a couple of times as a Junior for Cross Country. This is an opportunity for me as I decided to fully focus on Multisport starting 2010 and I would like to thank everyone at Triathlon Ireland for being so helpful.
More to come on the Europeans, back to the weeks training.

Mon- Tempo run 8miles 44:50 on the canal. Just locked into 5 35 pace after the first mi. CORE afterwards.

Tue-AM 3miles jog and light Swim w Zac PM 5miles easy after working all day.

Wed-PM Bike 37.5miles @ Hains for most of it.
Run 9miles total (3miles 19:00- 5 X 800/200 w 200 jog between. 2:24/33sec pace)

Thu-Run 6miles easy
Bike 35.5 miles short reps with Dirk. 1mi-2mi-3mi-1mi-2mi-3mi

Fri-Bike 6miles to the race.
Run 8.5 miles total .Crystal City 5km Tempo pace with Matt. 15:44. Relaxed.

Sat: Swim 1900 with Zac, who was flying. W-out was 4X500. I did 3 and did 2X100, 1X200 on the last, as I was hurting. Shoulder was sore at work afterwards. After the Duathlon I need to swim 5 times a week.

Sun: Run 8miles Total. Earth Day 5km. Tough course. ran 15:41, but the effort was a lot faster. Ask Nate B and Erik K! Last mile was all the way up hill, first was fast we went out in 4:45 then the second was twisty just a bit above 5:00. But overall a fun race.
Bike 15miles afterward the race. It was cold out and didn't have enough clothes on.
PM Bike 19miles on my ride for Nancy. Thanks to Revolution Cycles for allowing me to borrow a nice Trek 4.7 . Best bike store in the DC Area. Check out their new store at Crystal City.
http://revolutioncycles.com/

The Dolan Keeps on Rollin !

Duathlon Race # 2 for 2010

This was a race that I decided to do when I selected my focus races in 2009.
It was listed as a 5k-30k-5k, but the bike was over 34k ! No worries as it was a great bike route. A little windy but rolling, which suits my riding style.

The field was pretty strong and I was excited about racing after some good bike workouts in the last 2 weeks. After a not so prefect warm up- we set off at a decent clip. 5:03 1st mile with 1/2mi of it on dirt. Both runs were mostly on a twisty bike path, out and back. Going into T1, three of us made up the pack hitting 15:29-30 for a bit under 5k . I had a good transition and got out 1st on the bike. (after a scare for a split second as I looked at the wrong spot for my helmet). The bike started up a big ass hill. about a mile long. I rode Lance style checking my competition out . But their were no pace takers or makers, I decided after a mile to roll as it was only 30k right !! JK. I hit a solid pace after I got out of the park (just under 2mi into the bike)
The wind was weird, felt like a cross wind but I found myself hitting 38MPH on the flats . So as per usually on the bike I focused on feel more that pace. Knowing I could run a strong 2nd run if needed, I didn't push all out on the bike. Also normally I don't like to lead this earlier but prefer to come from behind in the second half , So I played a little poker by checking, checking on the turns while keeping my cards close to my chest . Don't get me wrong I was riding good tempo putting in a solid effort but not all out, right around 12mi I could see a guy closing in so I let up a little. thinking I had only 14mins left on the bike, going off 30k listed race distance . Anyway this Fregre guy who I discovered later was a strong cyclist (did some serious Pro riding) caught me with 2mi to go. No bit deal, as I knew he had to ride pretty much all out to make up the ground. I could have out split him if required in a Tri or TT. But its a Run-Bike-Run not a TT !
I relaxed and got focused to run, Going into the 2nd run I started easy and worked into it, my goal was to hold a strong pace. No need to crush it.
I honestly had to say I knew it would only be a 2 man race and when I didn't see my buddy Dirk until 1/2mi to go in the run, I was worried that he had crashed or something. It turned out he went way way off route on the bike. Which sucks but I was proud of how positive he was about the situation. A true testament to his strong personally. Bigger things to come from Dirk !

Great race and will be on the 2011 Race Schedule.

RW

Take back the City !

Training has been going well and the store is busy busy everyday. Got to love the Springtime weather. Come in and get your new Brooks Green Silence.
PR or Coarse Record guaranteed !
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/runpacers?ref=mf

Last week I was motivated after the Powerman Race. I put in a solid week, Here are my totals and some highlights:

Swim-6750 yards (3 swims)
Highlight was Saturday morning with Zac we swam 2x1000 as our main workout.

Bike-130 miles (5 rides, 1 only 10miles)
Highlight was a 60k with Dirk in 1:31:20. The last 20k I felt really good and rolled. Dirk is a great training partner and told me to "JUST GO" ! I ended up hitting 28:20ish last 20k.

Run- 53miles ( 6runs)
I did a brick on Wed of 2mi-1mi-2mi. felt ok. Highlight was running 15:24 @ the Crystal City 5k Friday. Last yr my fastest was 15:28. Felt relaxed and had put in some training already that day.
Lots of turn on the coarse, but real fun with all the runners out there! Good job to the 933 people that showed up.

Next up Doylestown Duathlon 5k-30k-5k on Saturday.

Powerman Alabama

Heather and I made the road trip from Arlington VA to Birmingham AL. A long drive, but a beautiful one. I also didn't realized VA is so big !

Anyway back to the busy end. I planned on doing this week back in November and got really excited about it after winning Powerman Florida. However, all the snow in February killed my goal of getting in good Bike preparation. 60k is the longest I've raced on the bike. Honestly it wasn't really that bad, it helped that we did 20k loops. Which is similar to what Dirk and I do for our hard tempo. Both the run and bike were Hilly as hell. Check out the profile.

The Pro field was stacked and a Pro only race, which provides more space on the route especially on an out and back loop. We lined up at high noon, and bolted up the hill. My plan was to relax the first 5k and roll after the turn around. But somehow I found myself committed to the pace in the first mile. I hit Mile 1 in 5:03 just off the pace of two leaders. I should have just held back, as the majority of the mile was uphill. So I worked on staying relaxed and was ahead of Jorrie V (world champ) as this stage. At mile 2 he was right with me. Then it was a pack of 3 closely following by 2 more. At this stage David Yoker was flying ahead of us. The bike was rolling for the 60k (we did 3 out and back loops). I wasn't really happy with my bike time, but when I look at my winter training I can't complain. I did catch some guys on the bike and had Matt Russell and David Thompson fly by me . Heading into the second run I was 5th, but my legs never came back to me, as they normally do. I ended up getting run down by Derick Treadwell. (a sub 4min miler). Glad to see the top 4th US guys get to go to Worlds.
Good Job to Team Magic and everyone who raced.

Pacers Racing Team visits Ireland

One race down in 2010, lots to go. Yesterday I lined up with many old friends and road warriors in the Kilmacthomas 5 mile Road Race. Kilmac is only 9mi away from home and I went to secondary school in this village. So in a way it was a home race. I had run some parts of the road back in the day, the route was mostly on the old main road and the new Kilmac by-pass, we did pass my school about 1k into the race I had a flashback of the many football games we had on the so called all weather pitch. Fun times !
The race started at 11am 210 lined up all together. (funny this is an early start over here !) It was around 35 at the start, sunny but with a little chill in the air. We couldn't complain about the weather. I knew the race would be fast with the Waterford based Latvian Internationals ruling the roads in recent years. Long ago it used to be the Harty bro's Philip and William and myself taking the wins. County Waterford now belongs to the boys for the Baltic region, Sandis (the faster of the group ) who had recently ran 30:20 solo on the roads for 10km was the only one to show up. Ravis the first one to make the voyage to Ireland, went up to run the National Intermediate Championships in Roscommon.
Back to the race, we got out pretty hard. 4:43 for the opening mile, I had the plan to run behind Sandis for as long as I could and try to stay with him. The second mile was uphill and we hit 9:43 at the 2mile mark, shortly after he dropped me, I was 14:43 @ three mile, the 4th mile was again 5:00, then I closed in 4:59 to run 24:45. Sandis won in 24:22. The course was an average one for the Waterford area, a few hills but really good road surface.

Overall I'm happy with this effort, my main goal going in, was to be around 24:35 and I was thinking it may get me the win. With some more tempo type efforts, I will be right were I need to be this Tri/Du season.

Now I need to get back to the US and put the work in on the bike before the March 27th showdown in Alabama.

Next week I'm excited for our LOVE THE RUN YOU'RE WITH 5K - Home

Thanks to Dan Mcgrath for the great photo. Check out his website below.
http://www.editorialimages.ie/

2010 Races

So as this weekend is my first race of the year, I figured it was about time that I publish my Racing Schedule for 2010. Some are not for sure right now and there are others whichI would love to add ! for example Clearwater 70.3 .

But the ones that are in bold I have signed up for.

-Kilmacthomas 5 miles, Feb 20th
-Love the Run You're With 5K, Feb 28th Pentagon Row, Arlington, VA
-St Paddy’s March 14th
-Powerman Alabama, March 27-28th
-Doylestown Duathlon 5km-30km-5km, April 11th
-Rumpass in Bumpass Olympic Triathlon April 17th Sat
-European Duathlon Championships May 2rd Nancy France
-Pacers Half Marathon May 9th Arlington, VA
-The Columbia Tri, Sunday May 23th, MD
-Eagleman 70.3, June 13, Cambridge, Maryland
-DC Tri, Olympic, June 20th DC
-Road Race July 4th Weekend ?
-New York Olympic, July 18th, NYC
-Morgantown, WV Half Iron or Oly August 8, 2010 or Falmouth Road Race Sun Aug 15th MA
-World Duathlon Championship, September 4th , Edinburgh Scotland.
-Nations Tri September 12th DC
-Powerman Munice Oct 2nd 10k-60-10k IN, Oct 3rd

Garmin Connect - Back home in Ireland. Forgot how hilly my forest is !

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Muddy and fun run after traveling for 12 hours +.
For the next week I will be putting in some solid work in the woods while I'm back home in Portlaw. Getting hills in to prepare me for Powerman Alabama on March 27th.
The elite field is growing everything I check the site.

I need to get to work on my biking over the next 6 weeks.

Roadies !

So today I rode with the legendary DC Velo 7am Saturday morning ride I guessing there was at least 40 guys from the start. Pretty hardcore and a great route. Some of the roads are part of my normal routes, but a few times I was unsure of the way. I worked my way to the front, as we got rolling on Clara Barton Parkway. Saw Mattis rocking his new Dolan. I knew there was so good hills so I just relaxed until we hit Old Anglers Inn (start of the climbs) and jumped on the pain train ! JK. I actually was feeling good and rode at the back of small group that broke away as we rode up and down the hills before re joining the guys that got dropped on the big climb. The rest of the ride was steady until a sprint at the end. My boy Shawn Johns dropped out the front and got things rolling. We hit 38.5 MPH on the flat. flying !

Hit 57miles on the day-

This week has been a solid week, and will be capped with a long run tomorrow.

2 weeks into 2010

So I need to get better with my posting at the very least one a week.

My plan for 2010 was to focus on running for the 1st 2 weeks then swim and then bike (hopefully the weather is nicer the first 2 weeks in Feb)

Week 1 of 2010
Jan 4th-Jan 10th
Totals:
Swim: 9000
Bike: 12mi (so cold out I got in one cold hills ride after swimming one morning.
Run: 55mi

Overall I'm behind a little in swimming as I took way to much time off from it around Christmas, as for biking I'm not to worried as that comes back to me fast.
With running I'm in decent shape main workout for this week was 16X400 in 70sec with 40 sec rest, Also did a 8mile cut down.

Week 2 of 2010
Jan 11th-Jan 18th
Totals:
Swim: 6400
Bike 50mi
Run 54mi

WTF am I doing in regards to swimming- its my weakest and I need to make the effort. I did actually go to the Pool Sat night to do 3k or of work, but the pool was closed for a meet.
Biking: main workout was a 10mi tempo effort to test myself again did 24:05 relaxed @ Hanins Solo. So just need to put in more volume aka the 80k's that Dirk and I were doing before I went to Powerman Florida. Also did a solo 15mile straight after the 4mi tempo run.
Running- Main workout was 8X800 in 226 av 200 jog. cold out so just ran relaxed, Also did a 4mi tempo with Dirk in 21:05 (530,510,514,510) Ended the week with a Solo 15.5mi in 1 H43 in the rain.

So time to get to work for base week 2 and 3.

Fairfax 4miler

Last night was a positive ending to the year. Over 1000 people ended up finishing our New Years Eve race. Good job to Kathy for the hard work she does with races. 2010 will be exciting for Pacers Events. The weather was not as bad as predicted earlier in the week. The rain did come down right before the start. But hey I like running in the rain !

As the gun went off a pack of four broke away Will,E Burke, M Wardian and myself. I relaxed and worked my way to the front. Before the mile Will and myself moved away, hitting Mi 1 in 4:56, the 2nd mi we worked together and hit Mi 2 in 9:52. It was cool as right in the middle of the race the course looped around a local High School Track. Coming out I pushed a little but we remained together hitting Mi 3 in 14:50. The last mile was pretty much all up hill and we held together until about 600m to go, were I surged and moved away winner in 20:01. 2nd time winner ! Felt relaxed the whole race and recovered fast.

Now its time to focus on my first full year of Multi-Sport. The last 10 days I have been mainly running. But Monday is week 1 of my new training plan.

Happy New Year to all !

Robbie