Race season is in full swing with 19 athletes giving us race reports.  Details are below. 19 races and an impressive 74% PR rate!

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Races on July 8

Mike Joyner (photo above) finished the Utica Boilermaker 15k in 1:26:59 and said “Kudos to EN for helping me be well trained for Ironman® Syracuse. Despite a salt/electrolyte snafu, I had a great and memorable race. Post recovery was much better than I had years ago at my first half ironman. I recovered well enough to really enjoy the 2012 Boilermaker 15k, which is a favorite race of mine. All the things I learned about pacing, and listening to your body’s feedback really paid off in a quality experience in Utica!”  You can read a full race recap here.

Willard Hayes II ran the Missoula Half Marathon, his very first half marathon, and finished with a time of 1:50:00.  He said “I felt really good in this half marathon, and had a better than expected pace/time. Thanks!”  Members can read his full race report here.

Races on July 14

John Schneider raced in the Beaver Creek Xterra Mountain Championships and finished with a time of 3:27:46 nd a new PR!  He said “I think I followed the EN race execution strategy pretty close.  Much thanks to the coaches, plans and others who guided me along the way.”

Races on July 15

Racine 70.3

Jami McGinness finished in 5:24:30 for a first ever HIM.  Jami said “This was my first HIM and I was quite nervous the entire week before. I tried to mentally approach the race with knowledge and training in the back pocket, but a goal to have fun and enjoy this experience. It’s easy as an athlete to get so focused on place and time, but the pressure was off the minute I allowed myself to just enjoy it and race smart and smooth.     Being a swimmer I positioned myself in the front of my wave. Once I found my water I tried to stay in the box and focus on form. My old swimming teammate from Iowa happened to be in my wave and I was able to draft off of her the first 500m or so. I kept wanting to surge ahead and instead held back, stayed right on her feet and used the draft to my advantage. I think I swam smart and used little to no energy before the bike leg.   1.2 mi=28:11 (1:27/100m)  (3/138)    My bike started by leaving my bib at transition and having to circle back to get it. The bike: I am so used to doing the shorter distances and found it hard initially to just pace myself and stay in z2/3. I think the bike went fairly well, however a few issues came up. Around mile 25 and 40 I noticed I felt hungry but had a pain in my stomach. I took this to mean I was starting to shut my stomach down and just sipped water for a bit. Both times it helped and I was able to ride with no other GI issues. I definitely took in less water than I had planned (15-20 oz./hr.), but was able to keep up the calories and sodium (150cal/hr.) (450mg sodium/hr). In general I think I raced smart and maybe a bit too easy (??). My goal was 2:45 on the bike, but due to the weather and it being my first HIM I didn’t want to start the run with nothing in the tank. Overall, I’ll take it and be happy I learned a bit about my nutrition.  56mi=2:52:25 (19.49mph) (18/138)    The run started by my leaving the Garmin attached to the bike. Sh$t. After standing there for 10 seconds. literally. I decided not to go back and instead go by feel and listening to my body. Being my first race, I think by leaving my watch behind I was able to just “enjoy” the run and not keep focusing on the numbers and splits. It was 93 degrees at this point and I was putting ice where ice doesn’t belong. :). The first 3 miles I kept wanting to surge ahead and again, pulled myself back and just raced conservatively. It wasn’t until mile 9 when it got tough. IT band and quad cramped up and Coach R’s voice was in my head going “the HIM pain is pain from going fast and hard” so I knew it would happen, just didn’t know at what point. My husband was cheering me on ‘from his bike’ and all I wanted to do was knock him down. LOL. It was at this point I was happy I didn’t have my watch and could just focus on my body. Just keep running, shorten the stride because of the cramp, and increase cadence. It worked and I finished “strong”. I learned that I need to buy better socks. Today I’m not sore, but 2 nails are toast due to huge blood blisters from wet socks. It’s nasty.   13.1m= 1:56.17 (mile 1-3=8:00/ 4-10=9:10/ 11-13=8:52). I believe the pace conversion for heat allows up to 19% so I’ll be ok with not hitting my 8:06 MP.     Final time: 5:24.25  (13/138 AG).”

Matt Aaronson PR’d with a time of 4:39:39.

Michael Semmerling earned a new PR finishing the race in 5:41:15 and said “Great Race with EN team members! Hot day but made the best of it!!”

Melanie Neumann had a PR by 34 minutes with a time of 5:56:05 and said “Waking Thoughts:  Here we go again! Another Racine race day posting temps in the mid-90’s….Just like last year.  Let’s hope I manage the heat better this time.  Repeating mantra in my head “You are a good hot weather athlete….you are a good hot weather athlete..”  In short, the mantra worked.   Pre-Race: Woke up at 4AM. Ate gluten free instant oatmeal  with 1 TBSP almond butter(280 cal) in it at 5Am as Liz V, Forest and his friend Tim, Steve S from our team and I rolled out of the Holiday Inn Express at 5:00AM and in transition by 5:30AM.  Put two bottles of my custom formula of Infinit (thanks to EN for recommending this because I FINALLY do not have GI distress with sports nutrition on the bike!!) on my downtube cages and my aero bottle with water on the bike and set up the rest of transition. In and out. Goal was to keep nutrition and transition simple.  Left transition to hit the porta potty line.  Success! Its 6AM now, time to eat ½ a clif bar (120 cal) and chase it with my pre-workout BCAA drink. At 6:15AM the EN team met for a pre-race photo and some race strategy discussion which proved VERY useful later in the race day. At 7:15am I ate a banana (100 cal). Then found Mike B and Brian P (fellow EN teammates) in the water—we went in the 3 last wave starts of the day so we waded in the water to keep our body temps down .Total pre race calories: 500  Swim:  Wave #23 is FINALLY called. That’s me! I think this is the first time I have been excited to start the swim since it’s my weakest link, but I was done waiting and wanted to start racing.  I am in a “good” place in my mind, then the damn announcer makes me cry because he announced I was a cancer survivor (yep) so everyone clapped. I forget they ask that question when you register for an M dot race.  Ok, snap back to your happy place Neumann! 30 seconds, affix goggles and I hear the gun.  I actually had the best open water swim of my life! Calm, strong (for me as I am not a strong swimmer). Hit the timing mat at 39;07!? I never swam that distance in less than 43 minutes! Kick ass! The long beach transition run was not so kick ass though…  Bike:  Ran forever in my bike shoes to bike out where I see people falling off their bikes and pushing them up the hill out of transition. I was in my granny gear, mounted and was good to go.  I had recently gotten a power tap before this race so it was the first race I was able to go by power/watts vs MPH averages.  I had no idea what speed I was going. I was just going to stay in my watt range the whole time—80 to 85% of my FTP.  At times I felt I could go faster but my watts went higher than target so I backed it off. This strategy was supposed to save my legs for the run while still delivering a good bike split.  It worked. 2:55:44 / 19.12MPH average (good for me? ) and I had a solid run given the heat with a negative split to boot.  Nutrition was 600cals of Infinit, 1 Salt tab and 1 Anti-Fatigue cap per hour on the bike and about 70 oz water (not enough—they could have used one more water stop).  Run:  I ran out of T2 to be greeted by friends. I ran away to feel a distinct bounce in my jersey-crud I forgot to take out my spare tube from my pocket! Alas there is Jeff and Barb—handoff! Gave them the tube and got a cold water from them.  COLD water. Thought I was in heaven! By mile 5 I caught one of my close training partners Tom Randich and had the honor of running with him to his finish. It was such an adrenaline rush seeing him do so well! Then I had to make the dreaded turn to the second loop.  I yelled “Bye Tom! I’ll try to do you proud and hold it together the last half of this run!” Like fellow teammate Brian Comiskey my plan was to JKR—just keep running plus follow a 3/7/3 strategy—run the first 3 miles 30 seconds slower than goal pace, next 7 at goal pace and the last 3? Give it the gas and leave everything out there.  The last 3 miles were indeed my fastest—I was passing people left and right since we were in the hottest part.”

Brian Comiskey also PR’d with a time of 5:26.

Lake Stevens 70.3

Harry Cornwell finished with a time of 7:55 for a new PR and said “Lake Stevens had a good representation of Pros and AGs. It was awet windy day. A change this year was the single loop bike course. It was in a word “hilly” but more than that the tougher climbs were in the last third of the course. That in addition to the cold wet day this bike course was very challenging. I had a good swim at 48 and steady bike at 4:00. My quads blew up on the run and I think I lost about 30 minutes there finishing in 2:55.”

Jennie Wingad also competed in Lake Stevens.

Musselman Half Ironman

Brenda Ross raced to a finish of 6:05.

Races on July 22

Ironman® Lake Placid

Jim Cornell PR’d with a time of 10:44 and said “I really enjoyed the EN training, shared team knowledge and insights from the coaches.  It was great seeing Coach Patrick out on the bike course.    I really liked doing the long run thursday mornings and not required to do brick workouts.”

Carly Costanza (photo above) finished in 12:46:26 for a new PR.  Members can read her full race report here and she also said “Despite still not having the bike fitness I was hoping for, I managed to have a massive PR.  The EN Race Execution principles work.”

Kori Martini (photo above) finished in a time of 12:08:00 and said “Team EN took this mother of newborn twins from post-partum blues to a 14th place age group finish. Words cannot say how invaluable the EN execution strategy is. If you’re racing without that, you might as well be doing it on a mountain bike while wearing flip-flops. THANK YOU TEAM EN!”  Members can read her full race report here.

David Martin earned a new PR by 26 minutes with a finish time of 14:37 and said “PR at LP despite going down on the bike at mile 30!”

Antwerp 70.3

Niels Esmeijer PR’d with a time of 4:21 and said “New PR on 70.3, mainly because of faster swim (5min), faster bike (11min) and transition (3min).    The bike course was completely flat and I decided to go hard at it. Was in Z4 most of the time and although I realized I would have to pay for it on the run, I decided to give it a go since this wasn’t my A race (which is IM Louisville in 4 weeks). The first 10km at the run went really wel (40min) but the last 10km I had to slow down. Since I wasn’t really motivated and didn’t want to push too hard since I had another intense training week after the race I finished the run in 1.30 (vs 1.25 in my last HIM).    All in all a decent result I guess…”

Races on July 28

Anson Lam competed in the Full Vineman, another first-time finisher!, for a finish time of 12:38:38 and said “This was my first Ironman! I feel it says a lot about EN’s way of race execution when I’m able to run past masses of people walking in the last eight miles, and still able to cross the finish line thinking that it wasn’t hard as I expected. I paced the race quite conservatively and left a lot on the table, but I’m sure I’ll be able to set a massive PR in a second IM with the confidence that this experience has given me, and with the collective training and racing wisdom from the Team and coaches!”

Races on July 29

Brett Prince raced in the Pittsburgh International triathlon and earned a PR with a time of 2:35:27 and said “Just 4 weeks after Coeur d’Alene, I crushed my previous time at this race with a 9 minute PR.  I wanted to test my fitness after an OS and 12 week IM training plan.  Needless to say, I’m happy with my fitness.  I can’t wait for my next race.”

Mike Rudolph finished the Girlfriends and Dudes sprint triathlon with a new PR and a time of 1:13:39.  He said “I completed Ironman® CDA 5 weeks ago and this event was done ‘just for fun.’  Although I had done absolutely no specific training for this event, I went out and had a blast and PR’d by 2 minutes!  I had the fastest bike speed average I have ever had and my run time was just a few seconds off my previous run PR.      Doing cool and fun stuff with my fitness is a wonderful by-product of all the work I did during the Out Season and In Season training cycles.    Work Works!”  You can read more about the race here.