As everyone within earshot knows by now, this last year has been difficult for me with regards to training. I damaged my ankle on the Pacific Crest Long Course Triathlon last year, and it's been a very slow recovery.

So this year I went back to Pacific Crest again. I'd been training, but still wasn't quite where I'd like to be in terms of both speed and endurance. My main concern was finishing the run without further ankle problems; I had done long training runs without "breaking" anything, but it still felt fragile. With that in mind, I started the race with the goal of just finishing respectably, and at the very least finishing faster than last year when I spent over two hours limping through the run course. I figured 5:30 would be a reasonable goal.

The swim was refreshingly cool, and the temperature was perfect on the bike. My power meter went on the fritz early in the bike course, so I paced myself with heartrate alone and probably underdid it. There's a fair amount of climbing on this course —it goes over Bachelor Pass— but compared to my other half-iron experiences (Auburn "World's Toughest Half" and Wildflower Long Course) it's not bad. I got off the bike at 3:38, and then the real test began.

My goal pace for the run was 8 min/mile, and I must have checked my Garmin every 15 seconds through that whole 13 miles. For the first half of the run, it kept telling me to slow down! By mile 7, I was still on pace and my ankle was not giving me any trouble at all; that's when I began to really believe that I would make my goal. I slowed to 8:30 pace for the last two miles (exhaustion, not ankle trouble) but finished with a grin.

Final time: 5:25:37. That's a new record for me for half-iron distance, and my ankle is just fine.

And now, credit where credit is due: Chico Triathlon Club, and Kristi. It is an amazing privelege to train with this group of incredibly talented athletes. Greg, Sean, Joanne, Manny, Jackie, Jason, Josh, Justin, and all the rest of you: I wouldn't be anywhere near this level of fitness without the hours I've spent trying to just keep up. Thank you. And Kristi, thank you for all the physical therapy and for the training time. I couldn't do it without you.

Oceanside, anyone? I'd be interested in trying a half-iron course that doesn't have a mountain in the middle of it.

The Chico Tri Club had a great weekend of triathlon.

Boise 70.3

We saw some great performances from CTC athletes Boise 70.3. Sean Molina 4:44 (3rd AG), Michael Daily 4:43 (5th AG), Jason Berry 5:21(top 20% AG) and Jacqueline Sasaki 5:30 (5th AG). I can't wait to see some race reports from these grand efforts!

If you are interested and want to see what the finish line of an Ironman 70.3 event looks like you can see a video of the finish here - http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=boise70.3&y=2014#axzz349pCUbrP

You can see videos of the CTC athletes finishing on the middle video clip with the following times:

Sean Molina - clock time of 4:54:50 and video clip time of ~19:00

Michael Daily finished at 5:25:17 clock time or 49:58 clip time.

Jacqueline Sasaki crossed at 5:44:51 clock time and ~1:09:00 clip time (Jacqueline is on the left)

And, Jason Berry finished at 5:47 clock time and ~1:11:45 clip time

Screen Shots can be found here - Boise 70.3 Finisher Pics

Way to go CTC Boise 70.3 Athletes!!

USAP Events Folsom Triathlon

Our first "official" club race of the year was June 8th at Nimbus Flats State Park in Folsom, CA and we saw CTC members out in force.

Austin King represented our club at the Long Course Distance on a very hot day. Austin finished his FIRST Long course triathlon with a great effort.

The rest of us avoided the hottest parts of the day by taking on shorter distance races.

International/Olympic athletes were Josh Rowe (3rd AG), Jim Peplow (3rd AG), Daren Otten and myself.

Sprint distance athletes were - Alison Diaz (1st AG), Manny Mejia, Becky Hutchinson (1st AG), Josh Hutchinson (3rd AG),Carrie Naylor, Caitlin McCandless, Laura Van Dervoort, Dan Spencer, Mike Marvier and Mimi Brown.

If I missed anyone, please let me know!

Congratulations to everyone that ventured down to Folsom and competed! And special congratulations go out to several of our athletes completing their first triathlon ever! We hope to see you out there on the race courses again soon!

Of all the athletic adventures, one of the most competitive events of the day was the dance competition during the award ceremony. For the well being of all involved, I have chosen not to include pictures of that particular event. Just know that CTC was well represented in this contest. :)

Mark your Calendars:

The CTC Summer Party is also right around the corner.

When: Saturday, June 21st at 3:00pm

Where: Sean and Forough Molina's home

715 Parkwood Drive

Chico, CA 95928

This is one of the best opportunities we have as a club to just hang out and get to know each other. No, intervals or pace-lining allowed (ha ha). This should be a no-drop kind of party with family fun for all.

Granite Bay Countdown

We have 75 days until the Granite Bay Club Championship.

The race is going to be held on August 23rd at the Granite Bay course.

If you haven't already registered, let me know and I can give you the club discount code. You can register here - http://www.totalbodyfitness.com/race/events/Triathlon/the-granite-bay-triathlon-tri-club-and-individual-sprint-championship-race

*We currently have space in our race reimbursement program for several more athletes to reimbursed for race fees at this race. http://www.chicotriathlonclub.com/documents/2014_granite_bay_reimbursement.pdf

This is going to be a great event with a lot of representation by CTC. If you haven't marked your calendar already, please consider doing so. This is going to be a lot of fun.

The Week Ahead

This should be a pretty standard training week ahead:

Wednesday night 50's meeting at Rosedale elementary at 5:30p (Fun and Fit) and 6:00p (Fast) Thursday night track at PV High at 5:45p Friday morning swim at One Mile at 6:30a Saturday morning LSD Run at 5 mile starting at 8:00a and Sunday morning decide and ride leaving from one mile at 9:00a.

As daylight is available earlier, I have heard several comments about starting workouts at different times. if you are interested in starting workouts at different times, let it be known to the group and we can try to adjust accordingly or perhaps have a couple different start times.

And as always, if you are doing your own thing, but are open to company, let it be known on the Yahoo group and/or the Facebook page. The more the merrier!

Until next time...Swim, Ride, Run and have some fun!!

Justin

Six people braved the heat for this week's River Road 10-mile Time Trial. Here are the results:

25:06 Justin Waller

25:27 Tom Tucker

26:04 Jim Peplow

29:38 Justin Vaught

30:23 Paula Sunn

30:32 MaryAnn Bachus

Thank you to all who participated, and a big thank you also to Stefan for doing the timing!