Race Coverage
Hungry For Growth...
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Sunday, 17 September 2017 19:10
By Gaby Bunten
Reflection... Looking back at this season I have grown; not just as an athlete, but as a person, a coach and in confidence.
My race at the 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga may not have met my personal goals, but I proved to myself that I possess grit and gumption.
A solid swim for myself with the challenge of swimming upstream. I struggled to get position with the leaders and keep them in sight. Typically, I like to keep control of the pace, but you roll with the punches when they're thrown!
The bike certainly did not disappoint with its challenging climbs, ballsy descents and hairpin corners. I climbed very well and had a total blast. But with packs around me, I struggled to find consistency in my pacing and spacing between riders; landing me with my first, ever penalty. A whopping five minutes... I rallied and did my best to fight to the finish on that bike and into the run. But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a bit gutted.
The run was just as challenging as the bike. I had a minimal run build up to the race from a low back niggle. So, I wasn't speedy and didn't have my usual gears on the run, but I was happy to run with zero pain and feel smooth. I worked through injury, got stronger and made it to that start line with a smile. ...
Adventure & Unpredictability...
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Monday, 11 September 2017 23:10
By Nathan Ansbaugh (nathanansbaugh.blogspot.com - September 7)
SUPERIOR MAN RACE REPORT - With Ironman Wisconsin looming two weeks down the road from Superior Man, I told myself to take it a little easy, don't over stretch, play it safe, etc... well you will see in a moment that this simply did not happen. Last year at Superior Man, I came off the bike in 3rd but had to call it quits after about 6 miles into the run due to a nagging calf injury that became a real issue for me a few miles into that run. It took almost four months after Superior Man last year for me to start to feel like I could get out for a run without worrying a ton about my calf, and that was thanks to a lot of conservative management, physical therapy, and trying to be a good patient since I am notoriously bad at this. Needless to say, last year's Superior Man race left something to be desired for me, and 2017 gave me exactly what I asked for.
70.3 Worlds & IMOO Stuff...
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Sunday, 10 September 2017 09:10
CHATTANOOGA 70.3 WORLDS - Here are the results for Minnesotans at last weekend's ultra-challenging and competitive 70.3 World Championships: ...
Taylor's Happy Birthday...
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Saturday, 09 September 2017 23:10
Photo L-R - Someone we don't recognize, Morgan Bell, 15, Taylor Lundquist, 18, Simone Lundquist, 15.
BLAINE TRIATHLON - With her decisive victory at Lakeside Commons Park yesterday, TAYLOR LUNDQUIST nailed down a Junior of the Year nomination. The victory was her third of the season, and her time - 1:23:57 - nuked the prior Junior standard. The performance came the day after she competed for her high school at a cross country meet AND celebrated her 18th brithday.
Taylor wasn't the only Lundquist to turn an impressive effort at Blaine yesterday. Her sister SIMONE, who will turn 15 next week, was the 3rd female finisher, which marks the 2nd time this season that the up-and-comer cracked the women's overall podium, and fifth time she threw down an overall Top 10 finish.
Finishing between the Lundquists was QUIN SEILER, who we think is a lawyer. She's married to KOLE SEILER, who finished 9th in the men's race. The Seiler's have a big, fluffy, brown dog that they sometimes take to the Minnehaha Falls Dog Park.
The race for podium spots in the men's race was hotly contested, even hotlier than ever before, featuring BRIAN SAMES, JOSH MORK, two-time Blaine champ / course record holder CHRIS TATTON and 2016 Rookie of the Year nominee JOEL LAFRANCE. ...
Guts, Heart and Screaming Legs...
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Friday, 08 September 2017 23:10
By Mike Buenting (mikebuenting.wordpress.com)
2017 DUATHLON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS RACE REPORT-
The ITU multi-sport festival landed in Penticton Canada for 2017 and hosting a week of World Championships races! It kicked off with Sprint distance Duathlon and will end this coming weekend with Long Distance Triathlon.
If you have never been to British Columbia and especially the Penticton (Okanagen Valley) area you must visit!! It’s simply beautiful and well pretty much the most amazing place I have raced or vacationed!
2016 USA Triathlon Duathlon National Championships was the qualifying race for this event, and I had one of my best races there that year as I won the National title for the Male 40-44 race and was the 2nd overall Master that year. So 2017 ITU Worlds were my goal race of this season! This was the race I focused on all year, and trained myself to peak at! However this all went south when the Wednesday morning before I flew out west to Canada I tweaked my hamstring running a simple 400 at 85% effort level on a track. I can’t explain what happened other than just the Saturday before I had been in Omaha and raced USA Triathlon Nationals had a solid race qualifying for Team USA in Triathlon for 2018 in Aussie land! Felt great early in the week but when I rounded the last corner of the track that morning a sharp zinger shot down my leg and I knew something was wrong! I stretched, iced did all the recovery things I could think of but no way I could get it lose again to run. UGH!!! Once I arrived in Penticton on Friday afternoon I went straight to the Team USA massage room and had our...
REDEMPTION....
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Thursday, 07 September 2017 23:10
By Joe Adriaens (triad.triadriaens.com)
CHISAGO HALF IM RACE REPORT - Toughman long course: aptly named. This race usually has some rolling hills on the run with little to no shade. Although the course was changed a bit this year, the hills and heat remained the same. This course is tough no doubt, but honest.
Leading up to the Race
Theme of the race: REDEMPTION. Coming off the Heart of the Lakes debacle and the complete bonk-fest last year, I was looking for a performance I knew I was trained for. Chisago came just two weeks after HOLT, so that didn't give me much time to gain any additional fitness. The workouts leading up to this were pretty low key with a few harder effort bikes and a couple tempo runs off the bike. Other than that, pretty standard....
