HOWLS
Really fantastic weekend of racing. This is the third weekend in a row with incredible performances, of note, Adam "Kaiju" Smith finishing his first ever half-marathon at "That Dam Run" in Denver. Eric "Charlemagne" Charlebois getting a PR at Myrtle Beach Half Terrific performances all around. Then, at Murray Todd, Tara "Yes I Can" Corduan netting the first double PR/Podium of the year for the team. Then Andy "The Hammer" Solomon at Murray Todd, well, learned not to drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of food from a backyard party smorgasbord the day before. Still a pretty darn good race though! :)
On Saturday, Jason "Magnum" Smith took 10th Overall (5th Male - Some fast ladies in that race! Whoah!) at the Time to Paddy Half-Marathon. Absolutely crushed it by setting a Personal Record with a 7:21 Pace and was the first Master's athlete to cross the finish line. Jason is preparing for IronMan Texas and after, what would be described as a lackluster January (smiling Jason), has really kicked it in and had been game on the past 6 weeks on his ramp up and this run is indicative of his base fitness that he is tapping into to do well. Probably more of note is the massive improvement in his swim that he's seen by overdosing on H20 as of late. Really happy to have seen this result!
Then, Sunday was abundant with accomplishments.
At the, ridiculously competitive, NYC Half-Marathon, Matt "Jiffy" Lubiak pulled off a Personal Record by 1 second finishing in 1:28:45 (6:47 Pace). Ultimately placed, in his age group, 38 out of 1,100 racers! His finisher picture during the closing 1/10 mile is priceless as he worked to limbo under that PR. Of note, he just missed his PR a couple weeks ago in Vegas, so excited to see that ferocity show up at the finish line. Can't wait to see that show up on the bike! It's coming!!
At the Spring Fever Half-Marathon in Golden, CO:
Conner "Van Wilder" Franke also took home a double by setting a Personal Record and taking 3rd M<25. Van Wilder has been getting crushed at work while trying to maintain some semblance of a training program. Of note, he adapted to the "find time to do something daily" plan which, as I often so state, allowed him to leverage frequency in place of volume. Really happy to see how happy he was crossing that line.
Eli "Lethal Weapon" Madden had a fantastic day as well, just missing his Personal Record by under 60 seconds. Eli called me last week and opted out of a taper yet still showed up on race day and nailed it. One funny was that my race prediction had him coming across in 1:56:03 and he was just off with 1:56:45. The revision of that course was merciless as having 600' of climbing during the 2nd half of that run is painful! Nice work Eli!
Josh "Colossus" Hoeft. aptly nick-named, brought home a 2nd place Overall, just 42 seconds back, a massive PR, having finished the race in a blazing 1:22:54 (6:20 Pace). My warning to Josh is to back it down at times. He, like Eli, opted out of the taper, but proud of him for reigning in his Saturday ride to something manageable so he could launch on raceday. Josh is readying for IronMan Texas as well (and avoiding the descent of out Carter Lake this year...)
Yelp out to the Legacy Wolfpack Member, Kaitlin "The Dolphin" Buckley, who ran her half-marathon at Spring Fever in the middle of her 20 mile run that she is doing in prep for the Boston Marathon. After doing a 5.5 mile warmup (short of the 6.9 miles planned), she went on to finish in just under 2 hours on a tough course. And, you know what makes Kaitlin a "Winner", the fact that she went back out, after the race to run the 1.4 miles she was short to get her 20. That's really, really cool.
Yelp out to Eli's Girlfriend, Emily Wiles, who ran the 10K as well. Emily, Eli's girlfriend, is an awesome swimmer and is routinely called on to pull us around in the pool! Great to see her out running.
Chris "The Wife" Kachinsky won her Age Group in the Half-Marathon and I took 10th overall and won my age group in the 10K.
Also, Saturday, I raced the Frostbite Time Trial in Fort Collins, CO. 11 Miles of hell. Took 1st M50+ Cat 4 (also would have won M40+ Cat 4 with my time) and, currently, am ranked #1 in the Country for Time Trial M50-59 Cat 4.
VOLUME PODIUM
Howl out to this week's Volume Podium!
Coincidentally, both Taylor and RJ had the week off and, interestingly enough, both went to the warm weather in Arizona for vacation and amassed a ton of volume! Nice to see the jump in fitness!
1) Yitzy Sontag - 12:25 (Prepping for IronMan Texas)
2) Natalie "Legolas" Pitts - 11:04 (Prepping for IronMan 70.3 Morro Bay)
3) Andy "The Hammer" Solomon - 10:13 (Prepping for war with Jiffy at Jerseyman)
4) Tara "Yes I Can" Corduan - 9:59 (Another Jerseyman, I mean girl...)
5) Adam "Kaiju" Smith - 9:01 (Training!)
2024 Personal Record (6) and Podium (12) Counter = 18!
Conner "Van Wilder" Franke (M19-25) 1 - PR: Spring Fever 13.1
Josh "Colossus" Hoeft (M25-29) 1 - PR Spring Fever 13.1
Matt "Jiffy" Lubiak (M50-54) 1 - PR: NYC 13.1
Jason "Magnum" Smith (M40-44) 1 - PR: Time to Paddy 13.1
Tara "Yes I Can" Corduan (F-50-54) 1 - PR: Murray Todd 13.1
Adam "Kaiju" Smith (M35-39) 1 - PR: That Dam Run 13.1
Eric "Charlemagne" Charlebois (M45-49) 1 - PR: Myrtle Beach 13.1
Conner "Van Wilder" Franke (M19-25) 1 - 3rd AG: Spring Fever 13.1
Josh "Colossus" Hoeft (M25-29) 1 - 2nd Overall: Spring Fever 13.1
Jason "Magnum" Smith (M40-44) 1 - PR: 1st AG: Time to Paddy 13.1
Tara "Yes I Can" Corduan (F50-54) 1 - 3rd AG: Murray Todd 13.1
Nat "Legolas" Pitts (F35-39) 1 - 3rd F30-39: That Dam Run 13.1
Christine Kachinsky (F50-54) 3 - 3rd Overall Female: Polar Prowl 13.1 / 3rd F50-59: That Dam Run 13.1 / 1st AG Spring Fever 13.1
John Bye (M55-59) 4 - 1st AG: Polar Prowl 13.1 / 4th M50-59: That Dam Run 10K / 1st M50+ Cat 4: Frostbite TT / 1st M50-59: Spring Fever 10K
Relentless Forward Motion!