Tag Archive for trideltathon

Event FULL Weekend

April 21, 2009 planet3rry 2 comments

This past weekend was jam packed of stuff…

But Friday had it’s own event going on as well. We met up with Kiley Yarbrough, the owner of Boogie Down Baby, to receive our check from the event. ASD Athletes was the beneficiary of that charity, with a portion of the event going to ASD Athletes! In an official check awarding ceremony, Kiley gave ASD Athletes a check for $114! A write up (formatted for ease of typesetting for publication) of the story is include here. The next Boogie Down Baby will be at the end of May, supporting the March of Dimes.

We wanted to include a flier in Saturday’s Race Packet that brought awareness to the Tellico Sprint Triathlon and getting people to participate! We stayed up late creating the flier and sent it via online to the local FedEx/Kinkos to print. Thank Goodness for 24 hour copiers!

Saturday was the Breakthrough Corporation’s Ribbon Run 5k for Autism. Breakthrough is a local organization whose objective is to help adults with Autism in all aspects of their lives, this run is a fund raiser for them and 2009 was the 3rd Running of the Event. I had contacted the race director to see if we (ASD Athletes) could have something in the Race Packet and/or a table at the event with some literature of Who we are and What we do. Judi was MORE than willing to let us participate in that capacity and with such short notice.

So at about 6:15, I went to Kinkos to get the fliers and then headed to the race to start putting our fliers in the race bags. Everything was packed in the race bags and setup to display. I’ll post a race report as not to bore those with all the race particulars here, but in a later post.

So Sunday morning I made it to UT campus and set up shop right where I usually workout each day. You know, the weather has been rather crazy the past couple of weeks. This weekend was no different! Saturday was INC-redible! Sunday started out okay, but then got a little windy and then ALOT wet! There was never a time that the triathletes were NOT wet! Thanks to Kevin at RaceDayEvents because he lent us a tent and we stayed kinda dry… but NOT warm.

We were setup right near the finishline, so people started coming into our tent area because they wanted to see the finishers… but at least there were getting some exposure! We came out with a number of good leads and some good experience! So we are looking forward to being the Charity for the Tellico Sprint Triathlon. We have ALOT to do!

And a heads up for all you Fall Marathoners. The software that we have has a way to host Personal Campaign Pages… if people are interested, I will set up a campaign for people in the fall to raise money for ASD Athletes for their fall race! How COOL is that! We can’t promise anything other than the euphoria of commiting a premeditate Act of Kindness… but we’ll see… not only am I a runner… I am the President!

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Trideltathon 2008 Race Report

April 22, 2008 planet3rry 4 comments

The second of two races on the weekend of April 19/20th 2008 was the Trideltathon, a sprint triathlon. The Delta Delta Delta sorority hosts the Trideltahon as a fund raiser for their local charity: East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. It’s a Sprint (meaning less than Olympic Distance) Triathlon that is held on the campus of Univesity of Tennessee. It consists of a 400m pool swim, 6 mile bike and 3 mile run. It usually draws a couple hundred participants and this year was no different.

This race was special to me because it fell on the 2nd Anniversary of my biological Dad’s death. I had to fore go the Trideltathon that year but was granted a pass to participate in another series event at a lower cost.

In the past, the swim had been in the indoor pool, but I think because instead of having around 200 participants, they were nearing 400, they moved the swim to the outdoor pool. There is nothing wrong with the outdoor pool except that it was only in the upper 50s while we were waiting. The pool swim is set up basedon anticipated swim times. The faster you are, the sooner you go. Since i had wrote down a 8:50 swim time, I was in the back of the pack. I think i stood outside for about 20 minutes in nothing but my speedo… Oi!

If you read my Ribbon Run 5k Race Report, I had a little bit of equipment malfunction. Today was no different. My swimcap, as i was getting ready to put it on my head, split into two. Oh, well… I just hoped that my long(ish) locks of hair wouldn’t get in the way. I don’t think that speed gained by wearing a swim cap would be all that much for an amateur like me.

I was pretty chilled as I was ‘released’ to get into the pool, but the UT outdoor pool is heated. Ahhh, it felt awesome and I took off.

The Swim

The plan for the swim was to be consistant. The nice thing about starting near the back is that the traffic isn’t too bad. I found a good rythym and stuck with it. By the 3rd (of 8) lap I was finding that I was passing some of the other swimmers who may not have been as fast as they thought. There is a HUGE difference between lap swimming and swimming in a triathlon.

At lap 5, I came to a point where I had to make a decision. There were two swimmers in the lane as I started Lap 5. I had been very consistant at this point and I was in the zone. As I came up on the two swimmers, both were struggling. I could tell in the water that the swimmer on the left was switching strokes to find something that worked, the swimmer on the right seemed to be doing a slow freestyle. I made an In Situ Race strategy Decision and plowed in between them. I know I kicked one of them, not hard, but I still hit him. This was a race, and I was not going to let him get in my way.

On Lap 8, as I was coming to the steps, I knew that I was doing well. When I saw my watch, it said 6:50 and I was shocked that I was doing THAT well. Later, I checked my watch and there was a 2:00 lap on there that I must have hit.

Official Swim Time: 8:47

Transition 1

I didn’t try to sprint to my bike. I just kept at a light run so that when I got to my bike I could get my stuff on. I had a small towel to dry my feet (I hate wet socks) and get my socks and shoes on. I put on a longsleeved shirt that already had my race number. Put on my Bike Helmet and yellow glasses. While in the transition, you HAVE to walk your bike. So I had to walk my bike out an the mount my bike and take off.

The Bike

The bike course hadn’t changed since I had last done the race. It’s 6 miles out and back mostly on campus. What this means is that it’s 1 mile downhill, 4 miles rolling hills and then 1 mile uphill. Since I hadn’t been on a bike in a while, I was only trying to survive the bike. I had a stomach bug earlier in the week, so I wasn’t going to jump on a bike on Friday and then Ride again on Sunday. I figured that my biking muscles would still be sore, so I was going for the “Shock and OW” method of performance. I didn’t do terrible in the bike… and I never had to walk the bike up Lake Loudon Drive. I tried to hydrate some as I was on the bike. I did get passed a couple of times, but they were by people with real nice bikes. My bike is a 1986 bike that I am basically “eternally” borrowing. One day, I’ll get a new bike, but this one is good-enough.

Official Bike Time 26:31 (officially contains both Transitions)

Cumulative Time 35:18

Transition 2

Again, you have to dismount and walk your bike to your rack, rack your bike, ditch your helmet and take off. I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade that I think that I would just ditch when I was done. So I was off.

The Run

My race strategy here was about the same as the bike, survive. I knew the course pretty well and the back-side is pretty brutal. I like hills, and this one has some big ones. When you get off the bike and go to the run, your legs feel like Jello. You don’t feel like you are running very fast. Some of this is perception and some of this is true.

I was feeling pretty good running. As a runner, this is where you can pass people left and right. Most cyclists who can blow by you on the bike, suck at running. Thus you can make up some time and the longer the race, the greater the advantage. What’s also nice in triathlons is that the put your AGE on your calf. Strategy wise, this is awesome. It makes it so much easier to figure out who you need to worry about and who you don’t.

Given that I had ran the Ribbon Run the day before, I had depleted everything in my reserve. I only had enough juice for about a 20 yard kick at the end. And I finished tired but very very pleased at my performance.

Official Run Time 22:40

Official Cumulative Time : 57:57

My personal goal was to finish in under 1 hour. I accomplished that and really had a decent showing. I think that I’ll be doing the sprint triathlon on Memorial Day and that I will do at least one longer triathlon, but I would love to do an Olympic Distance this year. I’m just not sure if I can get all the training in at this point. That’s not until June/July… so we’ll see.

Overall Place 151st out of 378

Age Group Place 11th out of 23

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Guess My Time

April 17, 2008 planet3rry 5 comments

That’s RIGGGHHHTTT! It’s time for another installment of the World Famous (believe it because I said so) Guess My Time Contest (that I stole from Marathon Greg). This week is a little difference because I have TWO races: Ribbon Run 5k and Trideltathon.

I’ve decided that I wasn’t going to have 2 contests… but I might give you TWO chances to win. Here’s the skinny: You can Guess My Time for either race or BOTH races. I’ll give you some statistics about the races below to help you make your Guess. The closest person to their respective finishing time will win. I’m not expecting a deluge of guesses based on last week’s contest, BUT should there be a tie of some sort, then I will come up with a great prize in addition to the one that I am about to describe (because I don’t have a picture).

Should you Guess the EXACT time, then I’ll add a BONUS gift because I can’t make this contest’s gift any cooler than it already is.

Guesses are to be made by leaving a comment to this post. Please keep it to this post because my bookkeeper is overworked and underpaid. I will put a link in the “usual” place in case you don’t want to guess now, but need a day to medidate.

Since, the races span two days, I will have to close comments on Saturday sometime. I don’t expect the Ribbon Run 5k results to post THAT day, but you never know.

So what crap-tastic price are you winning? Well, it’s a Planet3rry approved pad of Sticky Notes…. THAT’S right, from the presses of that Spam King, VistaPrint, a pad of highly fashionable sticky notes with “PLANET3RRY” emblazed on the top. Now, I didn’t have the funds to get the 24k embellishment, so it’s just paper.

Prize for you

******Information to use for your Guesses***************

Ribbon Run 5k – I have never run this race before, I don’t know what the course is going to be. I do know that it should be “rolling” hills around here… which to some translates to “Big Mofo Hills” to some. I am anticipating the course being easier than the Spring Sprint 5k from last week.

Although I have Never done this race here are some times of 5k pairings a week apart:

Love Your Library Mar-7-1998 5 k 24:12
Runnin’ O the Green Mar-14-1998 5 k 26:28

Ijams Nature Run Apr-11-1998 5 k 24:16
Dogwood Classic Apr-18-1998 5 k 24:35
Scholar’s Run Apr-24-1998 5 k 23:07

Greenways Apr-3-1999 5 k 25:29
Race for Ed Apr-10-1999 5 k 25:26

Gazebo Run Aug-21-1999 5 k 23:54
Scholar’s Run Aug-28-1999 5 k 22:07

Jingle Bell Jog Dec-4-1999 5 k 23:00
Jingle Bell Run Dec-11-1999 5 k 23:10

Reindeer Run Dec-7-2003 5 k 23:58
Jingle Bell Run Dec-13-2003 5 k 29:59

Trideltathon – This is a Sprint Triathlon that is run by the Delta Delta Delta (can I help ya, help ya, help ya?) sorority which goes to help East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (which has service both the boys). It’s a 400 meter (~1/4 mile) pool swim, 6 mile bike and a 3 mile run. I did this race for 7 years straight, often competing against my friend Gray, yeah… that’s Gray – Like the color. But in 2006, the streak ended and this is the first time that I have done it since 2005, when it was first race coming back from pneumonia.

So here’s the skinny on my Trideltathons:

May-3-1998
3.0 m 23:11
6 m-bike 22:16
400 m swim 14:28
Overall 59:55

May-2-1999
3.0 m 22:51
6 m-bike 2 01
400 m swim 11:05
Overall 53:57

Apr-2-2000
3.0 m 22:30
6 m-bike 20:51
400 m swim 10:26
Overall 53:48

Apr-29-2001
3.0 m 22:34
6 m-bike 19:37
400 m swim 10:06
Overall 52:17

Apr-28-2002
400 m swim 9:23
6 m-bike 22:33
3.0 m 23:56
Overall 55:51

Apr-26-2003
400 m swim 9:26
6 m-bike 24:20
3.0 m 28:28
Overall1:2:12

Apr-25-2004
400 m swim 9:57
6 m-bike 22:50
3.0 m 25:49
Overall 58:36

Apr-24-2005
3.0 m 22:56
6 m-bike 23:16
400 m swim 10:10
Overall 56:22

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NOHTATLEDIRT

April 25, 2005 planet3rry No comments

At about 4am Jen wakes up with some major nausea. It took about half an hour, but we got her stomach back to normal and back to sleep…

5:30 time to wake up so that Gray and I could leave at 6am to rack our bikes at 6:30 for the 8am start. The night before, I had packed my bags and laid everything out ahead of time, much like I do for a marathon. If you don't have a helmet, you are disqualified, so there are certain things that you have to make sure that you have. A cup of coffee and half a bagel with peanut butter was the breakfast menu before Gray and I left at 6am.

One nice thing was that the weather was still very cold but not as cold as predicted. Maybe 2-3 degrees warmer. We made it to the Aquatic Center in plenty of time and found a nice spot for our bikes. we laid out all of the equipment we would need for the transitions, a place in the locker room for our stuff and then waited… for about an hour. At 8:00 they announced that we would be starting late and that the run would be started in waves. Runners with numbers 1-100 would run first, then 3 minutes later 101-200 would run, then everyone else. Gray's number was 148 and I had 145, so we'd be in the second wave.

As we made it out to the start line from the warmness of the aquatic center, we saw Jen, Lauri and Eric who were coming to cheer us on.

The Run: The run went fairly well on a less than flat course. I noticed that my first mile was in 7:45 which was almost a minute faster than what I could suffer through on Thursday. I knew that I needed to slow down a bit to conserve energy for the bike. My friend Gray has beat me every time in the Trideltathon (5 attempts) and I knew that him being a much better biker that any advantage I would get would be on the run, so that was motivational. I would accelerate up the hills and then use the downhill to get my breathing back on track. I felt good coming into T1 after the run and figured that I might have gained a minute or so on my friend and that I needed to get out on the bike ASAP. I crossed the mat for the run at 22:56 a 7:39 pace.

Transition 1: As I made it into T1, I slowed to a jog as I reached my bike. Right as I got to my bike, my friend Gray was right there. Oh well, so much for competing against him. It was now me against the clock. I put on my helmet and glasses and took off. Time in T1: 1:50

The bike: I had problems mounting my bike. I do every year. You would think that I would practice this before hand. I might it out on the course and tried to find a gear that was comfortable speed without too much pain. The bike is least efficient discipline and so I tried to keep a good cadence with little fatigue as possible. I knew that I wouldn't really need to use my legs in the swim, but I needed some energy for the later part of the bike course. The hills were never a problem for me as I made it to T2 in 19:36.

Transition 2: You had to dismount outside the transition area and then run your bike to your rack, then get ready for the swim. For the run and the bike, I had on my “almost tights”, clothe undershorts, swimsuit, two shirts, a jacket, a hat and gloves. I disrobed as fast I could grabbed my swim cap and goggles and took off for the pool. Time in T2: 2:02

The Swim: I got into the pool and started swimming. About 20 meters into the pool, I realize that I still have my clothe undershorts on. Oh well, extra weight, but not bad. I probably only stopped for about 3-8 seconds at the ends of lanes, mostly to stretch my triceps. I could tell that I was getting tired, but I kept my arms moving the entire time. As I started my 7th lap, I could see Gray standing on the pool deck. “Wow,” I thought “he did well.” I used my legs to kick as much as I could and finished the swim in 9:58.

Overall time: 56:22
Age Group Place 16/22
Overall Place 144/301

So I ended up beating my goal time of one hour. YAY

Life In General ,

17760

April 25, 2005 planet3rry No comments

We a had a touch of cold weather here in East Tennessee starting on Friday afternoon, enough to prompt me to keep checking the weather for the Trideltathon on Sunday morning. Each time that I looked, it was getting colder and colder. From 36 to 34 and then the “feels like” temperature prediction of 32 then 29 and then 26. I could just imagine getting pneumonia again with temperatures like that.

Gray and Lauri showed up around 2am and proceeded to get right to sleep. I didn't blame them.

The only pressing matter on Saturday's Agenda was to go to Swim and Tri for packet pickup. Also we wanted to take them to Tijuana Taco because this is a awesome local mexican restaurant. It's like a gourmet Taco Bell only better. My favorite is the Nachos which is easily a HUGE meal.

we made it out to Swim and Tri around 3pm so that we could attend a Beginner's clinic they were having. Gray wanted to Lauri to see what was involved or really get some information from professionals on how to be effective in triathlons. The nice thing about the Trideltathon is that the short format, you can go all out in each of the discipline and be fine. Also, you don't need to train as hard to just complete the distance. The clinic was not very informative in terms of information about triathlons in general. It was very informative about the Trideltathon though. So it was worth hanging out in the cold. The one thing that we found out was because of the cold, the format was being reversed. That is, the run was first, then bike and then into the pool. Even though I like the traditional format, this was going to suit me just fine, because I would have a smaller chance of getting sick this way. Plus the pool is indoors and heated!

We also had a good time at Tijuana Taco afterwards. We tried to see some of the NFL draft and how are teams were picking. Lauri's grandparent has season tickets to the Steelers, so she goes to a game once a year. Gray is a big Raiders fan and I like Green Bay. Jen doesn't have an absolute favorite team but likes football in general. After Tijuana Taco and all of us stuffed out of our minds, we went to Ross to get some clothes for Eric. Since the change in weather, we have run out of clothes for Eric to wear. He has about 6 outfits that fit him and are seasonal for the spring time. So he constantly wearing the same thing over and over. Well, we picked up a few new outfits from Ross, so at least we potentially have a choice on what he is going to wear. Dessert was on the menu now… a trip to Marble Slab Creamery for some ice cream. I actually didn't get any ice cream but everyone else enjoyed the treats.

Gray and I ended up watching Star Wars that night. He ad brought with him some Arrogant Bastard Ale in 22oz bottles for us, which was very good. It had around a 7% alcohol content, which meant that only one bottle was sufficient to provide the desired effect.

Life In General ,

3 Disciplines – 2 Days

April 19, 2005 planet3rry No comments

With the Trideltathon looming on Sunday, I thought that it would be a good time to get some triathlete workouts in before the big race. Now, the workouts that I am doing is only to refamiliarize my body with what is involved with competing in triathlons. Triathlons are traditionally, swim then bike then run, but there are some that do it reverse order, such as the old format of the Trideltathon. Triathlons also come in a variety of sizes as well. The Trideltathon is considered a Sprint triathlon since the discipline distances are “short”, a 0.25 mile swim, a 6 mile bike and a 3 mile run. This size of triathlons are very attractive since they do not involve the rigors of longer distance such as the Olympic distance (0.9mile/25mile/6.2mile), Half Ironman (1.2mile/56mile/13.1mile) and Ironman(2.4mile/112mile/26.2mile).

So yesterday, I workout at lunchtime in the pool. I swam about half a mile and estimated my 400m time to be about 9:30 minutes. Well, I put down 9:00 minutes on my entry form, that way I will be seeded a little higher (start earlier) so that I can have some space to myself in the pool. I was a little sore this morning in my arms but no worse for the wear. I'll be going back to the pool tomorrow as well.

Today, I went to the T-Recs building at lunch and got on the bike for the first time in forever. I managed to get in 8.1 miles in 25 minutes. I doubt that my pace will be that good given real terrain on my bike but we will see. I'll be back on the bike Friday at lunch.

Now as a forecast of what I might do at the Trideltathon, I put down some time splits. I would really like to be under an hour this year. In 2004 I was just under 1 hour but in 2003 I had risen to 1hr 2 minutes and given my current training log, I want to keep it under 60 mins. SO here are my proposed split times for me to finish right at one hour:

discipline Time
swim 09:25
transition 01:50 (get out of the pool, put on socks/shoes, shirt & get bike)
bike 20:30
transition 01:00 (ditch bike and hit the road)
run 27:15
total 1:00:00

while I was riding the bike today at lunch, I got to see the excitement about the new pope. I didn't get to see the actual announcement of Pope Benedict XVI, but I caught it as I was leaving the building.

We have a busy week this week. Jen has a Mary kay even in the evening every night (Mon-Thurs) and on Tue/Thur I have tutoring. Plus Chris is crashing for the night on Thursday and then we are having Gray and Lauri in on Friday for the weekend. Saturday Jen has another MK event in the afternoon while gray and I get our race numbers. Sunday is race day, and the All You Can Eat ribs at Calhoun's along with frosty mugs of Marty Beer

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That was April

May 5, 2004 planet3rry No comments

I must say that my April was very busy on all fronts. School was very taxing this month. I had my Master’s project presentation, my Time Series project in addition to normal homework. The few things I have for the next week is to finish writing the paper to my Master’s project and the in-class portion of my Time Series class. That is it! Then I will be graduatin on Friday May 7th at 6pm on campus. I will awarded a Master of Science in Statistics and that should be with one of the Laude’s attached to it.

My time series project was to take a data set and analyze it using the methodologies that we studied in class. The data set that I chose was near and dear to me: it was data on the number of miles that I ran during a month for the time period of Jan 1999 to Mar 2004. What I found out was that the best model was a complicated model that invloved 3 different models. Results of the project suggest that I should run about 200 miles through Sept of this year.

Speaking of running, I completed the Trideltathon on Apr 25th with Gray Lipford. He beat me once again, so he has me 2-1 in overall victories. Maybe next year. I am not sure what my running schedule is going to be since I am looking for a job at the present moment. I figure that I have a few more runs here, if we eventually move. Regardless, I want to do a fall marathon. I think that if we are here that I’ll do the Richmond Marathon. That way everyone in Va will have the oppurtunity to come see Eric.

Since I have been very busy with school, I have not had a lot of job leads. I do have a good lead in Atlanta right now with a UT person who was a year ahead of me. When I get more information, I will pass it on.

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