USAT NATIONALS
Jeremy Anderson (coach Pete, Chicago, Il) and Susan Johnson (coach Pete, Colorado) headed west this weekend for USAT Nationals at Hagg Lake in Oregon. Susan finished 44th in her age group and reports, although she felt fine, it wasn’t a good race. Jeremy, coming off 7th place over all finishes at Life Time Fitness and Chicago Accenture was cautiously optimistic as he was coming off a bad bike accident and had some old leg injuries flare up recently. As we approached the race we wondered how he would transition going from the Midwest and relatively flat courses to a course with rolling hills on both the bike and run. Jeremy set a personal best Olympic distance time in going 2:05.13 (11th age group) and qualified for the world championships next year in Australia. CONGRATULATIONS JEREMY!!!
CRESCENT MOON:
In one of the last local sprint races of the season, Jeff Liedy, Kevin Stoddard and Coach Kathy competed at the Crescent Moon at Cherry Creek reservoir. Kevin, who is a sophomore in high school and swims on a senior nationals team (he swims two times a day and has little time to devote to running and bike) took 4th in the 0-19 age group. Jeff Liedy, in his first full year of racing, came home in 1:12.12 to set a sprint distance personal best and a 12th place age group finish. Coach Kathy took home the over all female masters crown and was the 6th place women overall.
On a side note, Coach Kathy and Jeff have been trash talking each other for the past few weeks. Wagers were placed on foot massages, dinner etc. Liedy claimed victory with a 1 second victory and graciously picked up the dinner tab last evening with Kathy claiming “The winner buys dinner”. Jeff has bragging rights for the rest of the winter and Kathy was last heard mumbling about taking a wrong turn on the run course…starting in a later wave and the “wind must have picked up”……Liedy just grinned and took another sip of wine. It may be a long winter for Coach Kathy…
Congrats to all who raced this weekend. Clay is in Cancun for the 70.3 half but no results have been posted as of this writing. Clay reported in briefly on Monday morning. Heat index over 100 with 70% humidity!! He finished in 6:28 and was proud that he “stuck it out” as many others dropped. Nice work Major Taulman!!
Written by Peter Alfino
Peter Alfino is a level II USAT certified coach and the owner of Mile High Multisport. An accomplished triathlete who has completed 4 Ironman races, he has successfully coached Triathletes, Open Water Swimmers, Trail Runners and Mountain Bikers of all ages and abilities from sprint to Ironman races. If you are looking for a triathlon coaching plan you may contact Pete at peter.alfino@gmail.com to learn more about the triathlon coaching services he provides via Mile High Multisport.
I saw Kathy at the Cresecent moon. I did my best so far on a sprint tri 1 hr 39 min. not bad for me considering I got stung by a bee on the chest on the bike ride! then at that start of the run my right calf was hurting a bit. But nothing bad enought to make me think of stopping! Crescent moon a nice event for us beginners. Did a 5K today that I did last year in Lakewood and pulled my time down about 4 min YAHOO considering the tri I did yesterday. Now time to rest a little. I will run through the winter and move indoors for core training and get stronger.