The past May weekends BPC athletes raced both near and far.
1. BPC Athlete John Fox tackled the Ashland Lions Sprint Sprint, a race that is notoriously fast but can suffer the ill effects of May in New England.
Overall Time: 1:07:30, 3rd in Clydesdale.
2. BPC Athlete Jason Gentili raced to a 3 minute PR in the Twin Lights Half Marathon, with an overall time of 1:31:04 (25th place overall)
then followed his race with a strong training day on the Mooseman Half Ironman Course.
3. BPC Athlete Sammie Levin (18years old) completed her first triathlon ever at the Columbia International Triathlon, one of the oldest and most competitive triathlons in the country.
She raced to a 3:24:27 overall, 4th in her age group.
4. BPC Athlete Jesse Wendell races The BIG LAKE HALF MARATHON (May 7) with an
overall time of 2:05:20.
Congratulations to all these athletes on their accomplishments. I would especially like to highlight our BPC athlete of the week, Samantha Levin.
Sammie came to me with less than 5 weeks to prepare for her triathlon. She choose training for a triathlon as her senior year project. She had been training all on her own, at a local pool, indoors on a spin bike and treadmill.
When I met Sammie she had a solid base of training, but no experience or knowledge of proper equipment, nutrition or transitions. We set up a series of appointments. First to teach her about how to properly shift on the bike, which gears are the right ones to be in for hills and flats, how to have an ideal cadence and how to be comfortable clipping in and out of proper cycling shoes. Next, I gave Sammie a 5 week plain on training peaks, keeping the bike, swim and run workouts very basic, as we were not worried about speed, just about her ability to complete the distance in the allotted amount of time. She followed her plan and then at our next meeting it was time to learn how to put on a wetsuit, how to swim in a wetsuit, how to transition from that open water swim to the bike and how to transition out to the run. We practiced several transitions and I had Sammie write out exactly what she was to do for each transition. At our next meeting we went over her plan as well as any questions and then spent that time on sighting, open water swimming, and ideal cadence and shifting to tackle the challenging conditions of the race course. After the practical we sat down and I had Sammie write out each event, from 2 hours prior to the race all the way to crossing the finish line. She needed to include what clothing she would need, how she would lay our her transition area, what items she would need on the run, bike and swim. We created a complete and indepth nutrition plan to follow, which she was to commit to memory to insure that she would had enough water and calories for her race.
After our in person meetings and multiple email conversations, Sammie was ready to go! I am extremely happy to report that she succeeded in her race. Here's a quote from her excited post race email to me:
"I finished alive! It went really really well I enjoyed it much more than I expected it would. I was so nervous at the start but as it went on I started feeling very comfortable. It felt sooo good to finish. It was all so surreal but so exciting I'll definitely be doing many more in my lifetime I loved it."
Congratulations to my youngest triathlete for 2011 and good luck to all BPC athletes in your upcoming races!
Here's to a successful season.
Ali
Comments
Post has no comments.