CRC Trail Race Report - Mike Everett

Mike Everett, a new addition to the Triple Threat Racing Club Team, had this to say about  Saturday's Trail race:

Jan 22, 2011 and the race season has officially begun at the Charlotte Running Company Trail Race with the thermometer showing a brisk 27 degrees at the start.  The event was held at the US National Whitewater Center just outside of Charlotte and offered a choice of 4 mile, 9 mile and 13 mile lengths on the outstanding single track trails at the center (I ran the 9). 

I rolled up to the event site about 30 minutes before the start, bundled up in my puffy Michelin-man coat, mittens and hat and briskly proceeded through registration, hastily greeting familiar faces.  I quickly went back to the car and sat in the glowing warmth of heated seats for a few more minutes, then starting shedding layers and getting ready to proceed to the start.  Clothing choice for the race was a pair of running tights, base layer shirt with mid-layer pullover, skull cap and light gloves.  I decided to eschew my heavier trail runners for a lighter pair of road runners (end result was very sore feet).  Fueled up on a, power bar, E-Gel and a bottle of Gatorade, fired up the iPod and jumped out of the car around 15 mins before start to hit the bathroom one more time.  Jogged around for a few more minutes to warm up the frozen 44 year old tendons and ligaments then toed the start with a few friends.  I am still amazed at people who sport nothing more than shorts and a t-shirt in sub 30 degree temps.

The gun went off and the 9 mile and 13 mile runners were off, the 4 milers were to start 10 mins later.  I took off to hard as always but managed to stick with a good pack for the first couple of miles averaging approx 7:45/m.  The trails are twisty and offer frequent ups and downs which kept the HR jacked up into high zone 5 (about 178 for me).  After a couple of miles I drifted back to a more normal pace around 8:30 - 8:45 and stayed fairly steady in this range with the avg HR settling back to around 166.  The rest of the run was steady and finished with a respectful 1:18:16 ahead of my goal of 1:21. Not a bad start to the early season coming off of consistent but easy winter base training.

Results:

Time: 1:18:16

Place Overall: 17/97

Place Age Group: 4/14

Next Event:  La Vuelta Puerto Rico (375 miles in 3 days), Jan 28-30.

Triple Threat Trail Racing Fun!!!!

Today was the 2nd Annual CRC Trail Race at the White Water Center in Charlotte NC, and a very cold one at that! I was looking forward to it all week. Well, not the getting up early part, but because our Triple Threat Team has alot of fun supporting and cheering on the poor souls who sign up for this race!
The 8am morning started with each of us at different water stops. Our water stop #4 included: John Behme, James Haycraft, Andrew Fletcher, and of course, me! I will have to say, I do enjoy being a cheerleader out on those beautiful trails! I love it! Jumping up and down, screaming encouraging words to the runners, and getting yelled at by my husband to shut up. It's fun and it's a good chance to spend time with old and new members of the team this year. After a couple hours of hydrating the runners and directing which way to turn, we packed up and traveled back to our warm cars.
Now the real work. Trail clean up! Most of the team members wanted to get in their own runs, whether it be 9 miles, 13 or 20 miles. I should say, Colleen Cummins was the only one doing 20! So we bundled up and laced up our trail shoes for a sticky, muddy surprise. The first 3 miles seemed to be fine for me, a nice soft bed of pine needles to cushion my feet. My legs felt rested, and I had a honey and peanut butter sandwhich fresh in my belly. Maybe the 30 minute runs 4 days a week really have helped?!
I knew it would only be a matter of time until I would start cursing the trail. Then it started to not feel as fun, the hills were tough, especially these trails. There are parts of this course that really kick your @$$! Just when you think your in good shape, you start breathing like a horse and dragging your feet! In fact, John Behme was kind enough to throw himself into a mudslide downhill to show us how tripping on the trail was done! There was no doubt we were not doing any records breaking pace, I think we were crawling at a 9:30-9:45 pace!
By the time it was an hour into the run, with stops along the way to pick up signs and caution tape, I was fading quickly! Thank god it was over in 1 hour and 13 minutes!
The best part of the day was the WWC restaurant! Mmmmm... yummy hot coffee, sweet potato waffle fries, and creamy tomato bisque soup, homemade veggie burgers, awesome beer! What a perfect ending to a long cold successful trail race! Thanks should go out to Donny Forsyth from Charlotte Running Company (huge sponsor of our 3T team!) and all of our 3T members for supporting our local runners! Hope to see all of you again for 2012!!

Team Ride Recap

A cadre of semi-professional elitely dedicated recreationally amateur triathletes gathered in front of Bicycle Sport early in the morning on Sunday.  With a light breeze, blue skies and a temperature hovering around thirty-five degrees there was much grumbling and moaning about the amount of clothes each rider was forced to wear.  With the number of attractive women on the team, the men were also grumbling about the amount of clothing.  That being said, everyone exited from their SUV and mounted their chosen steed and headed off into the wild blue yonder.

With the chosen workout for the day being "none," the group headed leisurely down Selwyn, eventually making its way to East Boulevard before crossing the train tracks onto 8-mile road - oops I mean West Boulevard.  Because everyone was interested in chatting about their winter whereabouts and staying true to the chosen workout ("none") the group split at the lights and the "fast," more "aggressive" riders were slow-pedaling to allow the group to re-form.

As usual, the airport loop involved a pass by the airport, which is always as pleasant as listening to Chris Cummins wax poetically (and by poetically, I mean the opposite of that) about how he's going to swim 15k yards per week this year!

At the first incline on Mt Olive Church Rd James Haycraft made a bid to secure the January Ride MVP status by attacking with one hundred million watts on the long, gradual climb up to Dixie Rd.  Despite looking back multiple times in an effort to antagonize certain players in the peloton, nobody took the bait and James promptly blew up and came to a semi-standstill.  As everyone passed and harangued him mercilessly he struggled to get back on the back of the group.

On Dixie Rd the two Behmes began their workout of "threshold-y intervals" lasting long enough to hurt and soon left everyone in their dust.  Both managed to put out impressive speed despite the fact that their clothing weighed them down by an extra 18 pounds.  Of course, with John, it might have just been the extra weight his butt was holding, an award that Watkins usually manages to win with ease during these wintry rides.

Without further ado, the group made it's way up Sanctuary Hill and onto Sledge Rd before turning onto the most-trafficked route on the route, Steel Creek (or something like that).  The wind was nastily into the face and the effects of the longest ride of the year (for many of the riders) was beginning to tell on the participants.

James, trying yet again to drop everyone, received a red card from drafting official John Behme and was relegated to the back of the peloton.  At that point, for all intents and purposes, the ride was over and everyone was happy to be close to finishing.  As the group made it's way back to Bicycle Sport the thoughts of delicious brunch filled everyone's heads.

Scott Woodbury won Food MVP as he consumed approximately 45,000 calories at brunch as everyone else settled in to a more moderate pacing of their consumption.  But that is Scott Woodbury in a nutshell: go big or go home!

Everyone that was able to stay for brunch at Nolen's thoroughly enjoyed their food and the ride was a fun introduction back into long(er) rides for everyone!  Hope to see more people out there for future such events!!

New Team Gear

Our goal was to have all of the team gear ordered by today, and I happy to say that we are oh-so close. Sugoi has the full clothing order and is just waiting on one more sponsor logo. Poor Donny has been working so hard on getting that thing! Hopefully Monday. It will take Sugoi about a week to get the designs completed and approved by us, and right now they are saying only 4 weeks for production. So, things are looking good to have the kits by the start of the race season.

A big thanks to Jen Forsyth for working on the logo colors to ensure they meet the requirements of Sugoi. This has saved us a ton of time.

Next step is getting some additional gear ordered, like shirts, hats, visors, socks etc. Donny & I are planning to work on that once we get the Sugoi stuff finalized.

Also, we will work up a summary of our sponsors and the benefits they are offering.

Who Can Resist Pink Skulls?

January is the time for a lot of things: new year's resolutions, the scramble to sign up for your key races on the Setup Events calendar, and my personal favorite, the time to buy new swim suits. If you've ever had the unfortunate chance to swim with me you know I go old school: speedo, marble bag, banana hammock, 8 & under suit, whatever you want to call it, the suit doesn't come down to my knees. Unfortunately, it can't be just any speedo. It has to be one of the uglier, more audacious ones I can find.

In previous years, Speedo has had a pretty good selection of suits most people wouldn't be caught dead in. I know I've had flowered ones, ones with hearts and swirls on them, and some other choice numbers I can't recall. To start this year, Speedo's offerings are fairly weak. Plaid is ugly on a swim suit but TYR has pulled out all the stops. This suit kicks ass! No one in their right mind should be able to resist a swim suit with pink skulls on it. Feel free to do everything in your power not to swim with me.

Charlotte Running Company Trail Race

I'm fairly sure that everyone is aware of this, but it's always better to never assume anything! Team member Donny - who owns the Promenade CRC store - is putting on the CRC trail race for the second year in a row.

January 22nd, 2011 @ 9am
http://www.crctrailrace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.display&page_id=3633

Last year the race was a big success and many 3T members raced and volunteered.  Lat and Colleen both claimed overall victories in the 13 mile distance and Chris Cummins pulled in a solid third place.  This year the race is looking to be even bigger and we'll need as much help as possible from volunteers!!

So please remember to get in touch with Donny and ask him about where/when/how he needs help on race day!

No swimmy.....Snow Day:(

I woke up this morning excited about my 6:00am swim, when John looked out the window and said "ya, I don't think we're gonna swim today"-what?? why not??! I have to swim, I have a new Marky-Mark swim workout planned!  I then quickly jumped online to see if HFFA was open. It was! I'm swimming!  After John spent 15 minutes clearing off the car,  it was apparent that this swim was not going to happen. I slept in, which was great. Watched "Jersylicious", "Property Virgins", and then the best for last, "Ghost Whisperer".  I felt so guilty for doing nothing, ...well, other than walking the dogs in the snow and watching the cats reaction to being thrown in a snow bank. I finally decided I would do a trainer ride for 50 minutes. It felt great, and I feel complete:)

Team Rides and Runs!

This Sunday, 1/16/11 at 9am we will be meeting at Bicycle Sport (our sponsor) for a nice and easy 45ish mile ride around the airport, followed by brunch across the street at Nolen's Kitchen (our sponsor). These rides will continue on the first weekend of the month throughout the winter and then change over to earlier on Saturday mornings. In the case of rain, snow, or freezing cold, we will move to Pure Vida Fitness, owned by our teammate Jason Fish!

Look for more group rides and runs coming soon!

Scott

Welcome!

Welcome to Triple Threat Racing's new and amazing blog; hopefully in the future you'll be able to see race reports, training updates, previews, asides, references, short stories, anecdotes, some analogies, maybe a metaphor or two, etc etc.  You get the point!  Keep checking back in for more awesome-ness!

- James