Hello!
Thank you visiting our blog. We decided to create a blog to document our 2011 racing season, we think it is going to a good one for team TnT. We should probably start by filling people in on the last couple years for TnT. The last two years we have been very busy and 2011 will be the first year in a few that we should have substantial training time.
In 2009 we were planning our wedding. We raced and trained pretty hard up until the General Clinton. We had a good race there, 5th amateur mixed, 15th mixed overall. The first time we felt good the entire race. We focused on wedding planning for the rest of the summer. I continued to run quite a bit, doing the Baystate Marathon in a Nor’easter in October. It poured, I was soaked, I felt like I was in BQ shape but not in that weather. I hit the half in 1:35 and it really started coming down harder, I limped home to 3:35, disappointed.
2010 saw us buying a house. The 2010 paddling season started with me getting to go to Ireland for work for a few weeks in March. Terese got to come and it was a great trip. When we returned we raced well at The Rat Race and Westfield Wild Water Race on limited hours. At the ROTC (Run of the Charles) we didn’t have hours for a 3 hours race. We closed on our house the week after the Charles. Getting settled into the house took a lot of time during the summer. We did the Adirondack Canoe Classic 90 miler in the C-4 with my Dad and Skip Tobin. It was a relaxing and fun race, anyone who has not raced a C-4 should try it, they rule!
We continued to run with a goal of 2 half marathons in October. I love half marathons! It's an easier distance to train for and you can actually race them. The marathons I did (Baystate 2008 and 2009) were great to say I did them, I had respectable times, but training and racing them takes a lot out of you. When you are hurting late in a race paddling you can dial it back, take nice efficient stroke and still, semi-effortlessly move forward. Running is the opposite, once you are hurting even standing sucks, walking sucks, and shuffling toward the finish line sucks. It all comes down to training, but when things go bad I would rather be a canoe than pounding down the pavement any day. I did well at the two half’s, Boston Half 1:28 and Baystate the following week in 1:30. Terese did well in both off them also. I feel like I have taken a big step in my running in 2010. I have always run to keep fit but this year I had sort of a breakthrough. I have been running pretty consistently since spring 2008. We ran the Clinton (our new home town) Turkey Chase 5K Thanksgiving morning, very hilly course; I was 19:53, 6th overall.
So, that brings us to this winter. We normally get a gym membership every winter, our gym in town was offering a new class taught by Jeremy Frisch, called Achieve Performance Training. Jeremy is the strength and condition coach at Holy Cross in Worcester. The Achieve class is awesome. It is a fast paced full body workout, using lots of different muscle groups. It is like a gym class for adults and it is different every class. Jeremy’s philosophy is to get the entire body to be strong and flexible, and then focus on specific sport related activities. I learned I am not flexible, and some muscles I never use. He has some great ideas, when I figure out his blog thing I will post a link to his blog. I raced the Freezer Five in Sterling on New Year’s Day. I did not know what to expect, I had been running, but no workouts. We went out the night before to a karaoke party and I ripped it up pretty good. I surprisingly felt great on race day running a 5 mile PR in 31:20. I was stoked, I attribute it the Achieve classes. I felt strong and I was able to stay quick and efficient longer. We have been taking the Achieve classes twice a week all winter. I have been continuing to run with a goal race of Stu’s 30K on March 6th. This will be three years in a row for me at Stu’s. It’s a great hilly course that I feel puts me in great shape when we get in the boat. We also enjoyed the snow as much as possibly XC skiing and snowshoeing.
So that’s how we got to where we are today. We feel as fit as we have ever been and we are excited about the upcoming season. We are going training in Florida for the first time ever, so we should be in good shape sooner this year.
Travis
No comments:
Post a Comment