First Race out of the Way…

By this time last year I had already competed in a 5k and a half marathon, so I was starting to get a little anxious to get that first race of the year done, especially with my new TriSports.com racing kit… The event of the day was Froze Toes, a 31 mile road race.

While I seldom enter a race without high expectations, realistically I knew that with only 3 to 4 rides under my belt for the whole year and less than 200 miles total, my chances in a 31 mile race probably weren’t that high. Even though I would be racing in the lowest category, CAT 5, that doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be good riders in the group, it just meant the chances for a crash were that much higher. So I had two goals for the day, avoid crashing and stay in the lead pack, if I succeeded with those two goals, than maybe I would be in a position to have some fun at the end.

I succeeded with both goals and was able to have fun at the end. With about 2 miles left in the race there were still well over 40 of us remaining in the lead pack and what had been a moderately comfortable pace of around 22mph quickly picked up to around 30mph. The referees had been pretty clear in warning that crossing the yellow line at the finish would result in disqualification, yet with 40+ cyclists thundering down the road in one lane, and CAT 5 riders at that, I was just a little nervous… I probably should have moved forward sooner, by the time I started working my way to the front we were less than 1 mile out and the front was tightly bunched. At least I didn’t have to worry about jumping to soon like I had in my last road race, taking the lead with a round 500 meters to go only to find myself swallowed up by the pack. It was looking like I would finish well out of the top 10 as there were still around 20 cyclists in front of me. Finally, in the last 500 meters with the pace rocketing up to around 35 mph, things began to open up a little and I started moving up through the pack. A little too late to compete for the win, but not too late to break into the top 10 with an 8th place finish, just edged out on the line for 7th place. It’s nice to be racing again!

17:54:22 – Tony Rigdon

Top Result in Google Search!

Just out of curiosity I googled “triathlete guru” and guess what came up first… this site! I’ve been wondering why my hit counts continue to increment, I guess there might be people out there stumbling across this site looking for a real triathlete guru… Sorry to disapoint you I just pretend I am on this site. I heard someone say that Joe Friel was the “triathlete guru”, maybe check his site out if that’s what you’re looking for… personally, I think it’s kind of boring, all serious and stuff like… anyways, I bought the name triathleteguru.com first and I’m keeping it!
21:08:52 – Tony Rigdon

New Sponsor and 06′ Schedule…

This year I’ll be racing with a new outfit, the cape and US Half Championship skinsuit is being retired… but I’m excited to announce that I’ll be representing TriSports.com! I received my new racing apparel two days ago and I must say it looks sharp. That combined with the fact that I have yet to race this year has me itching for some competition, I’m ready to get out there and race! I won’t have to wait too long, Froze Toes road race is this Sunday… I’ve been riding the fence on this event, I’ve been out on the bike probably a total of 4 times this year, and 50% of the time that I’ve gone out riding, I’ve come down with strep throat in the subsequent day or two :) But, I think I’m over that and despite my lack of riding, I’ll be saddling up come this Sunday and like always, I’ll be quite confident that I actually have a legitimate chance of winning… Oh, and about that cape being retired, it actually kind of goes well with the new apparel…

Click here to see my 2006 schedule.

Take the time to check out TriSports.com and when you decide to buy something let them know I sent you…

20:50:08 – Tony Rigdon

2005 Groundhog 5k report

I was curious how Groundhog would go for me seeing that I have dramatically increased my mileage and cut out all speed training, running everything at about 8:00+ pace. I was expecting that I might run it around 18:36 or 6:00 pace, maybe even slower as my concearn was that by training slow I might end up racing slow…

First mile I tried to pace myself but at the first mile marker I was told “5:05″. Since it had felt pretty easy, I was certain the first mile must have been short. Sure enough, the second mile which I felt I ran around the same pace was 6:07. At some point around the second mile marker the eventual female winner began to pass me. I’m pretty sure it was the same girl that had passed me in the first night 5k down in Columbia, only down there she had passed me in the first mile. Since I still felt pretty strong I picked up my pace and went back ahead of her a ways. Probably around 2 or 3 minutes later I began to slow down from too much lactic acid and she passed me for good this time…

Ended up running 17:51 which I am very happy with, especially for this early in the season. Once I lose my extra 10lbs and start incorporating some speed work back into my training, I expect my times to drop considerably. This time served to validate my current training approach, I’m expecting great things this season.

posted at 13:19:22 on 02/12/05 by Tony Rigdon – Category: Race Reports

Comments

Tony Rigdon wrote:

I should elaborate on my current training. When I say I’ve increased my mileage, I’ve gone from running around 30 mpw (miles per week) to 50 – 60 mpw and an eventual target of 70 mpw. This approach is developing my aerobic base, a foundation on which future anaerobic training will be built.
02/12/05 13:28:17

Landon Hough wrote:

Nice job, I am interested to see your 5K times after doing some speed work training. I tried a speed work training program out of Runner’s World (May ’04 issue) this fall, and dropped just over a minute in my next 5K. It can really make a difference.
02/19/05 12:52:18

Kevin W. wrote:

Not too darned shabby Tony…..that Hadd fellow is onto something :)

see you soon

02/23/05 14:30:55