TARGETCHALLENGE

Congratulations to Allison Hirst who became to the newest client to complete the TARGETCHALLENGE. She completed the 6am track session at Staples High School, the 7:30am Indoor Cycling Class, the 9am TARGETBURN class and the 10am Core Class!

CT State Club Triathlon Champs!

This is a VERY short post, but due to the lack of official race results (huge result SNAFU), I can't discuss the specific performances of all the TT folk that competed in the Stamford KIC IT Olympic Triathlon this past Sunday. However, I do have it on good authority (Kristin) that TargeTraining are the CONNECTICUT STATE TRIATHLON CLUB CHAMPIONS! I can also say that a stellar 1-2-3 performance by the women (Suzie-Kristin-Megan) and (I daresay) strong races by myself and team newbie John Baxendale did the job. More detail, results, etc. to follow once they're delivered by race officials. Great job, team, and congrats to all the TT folk that raced!

Day 2 Masters Nationals Recap

A bit shocked from waking up after a full 8hrs of undisturbed sleep, it’s been a couple of years, I moseyed on over to my road bike disappointed to find that it did not fix itself over night. After a few choice words to it, I focused on the task at hand. Coffee!

It was yet another sunny and hot day here, which provided me a perfect opportunity to preview the time trial course. Unlike the road course, the time trial route was a good 35 miles from the hotel so I hitched a ride half way, and rode the rest.
Most national time trial courses are around 40k long and relatively flat. This year they threw the rules out the window. This course is short at 25k, but it doesn’t have a single flat section to it. Conducted on an exposed and wide open 4 lane highway, you are at the mercy to the elements. This may not be a standard test, but people will certainly suffer none the less.

Out in the middle of nowhere, I set about at the task of ridding back to my hotel. Easier said than done as it was a full on block head wind and rollers all the way back through corn, soy and tobacco fields. What a ride!

Having a couple of free hours in the afternoon, I decided that a trip to Louisville was not complete without a visit to the Louisville Slugger factory. This is well worth the $10 admission. The company does a great job with the factory tour and you feel proud to see the success of a local home grown business! The bonus to the tour was getting a mini bat which is going straight to my son Caden! Time to move the fine china as batting practice will ensue as soon as I get back.

Oh and that picture of a batt, it's a good 10 stories high!!

Eneas earns a podium spot

Congratulations!

Eneas took third at this year’s USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships.

TT women 1,2,3 @ KIC Tri

Sunday kicked of the second edition of the Kids in Crisis Triathlon in Stamford. A field of 500 athletes made their way from the Sound to north Stamford in this Olympic distance race and TT had a great showing. On the men's side Jonny Bax (endale) and Dave "old school" Yockelson tore through the route making good pace and wrapping up in the top 20 (results are delayed...not my fault!).

However, this day was all about the TT members sporting two "X" chromosomes. Megan, Suzie, Kristen and Laurie took control of the race right from the start and didn't look back. Megan "Pride of Stamford" Kelly led the charge with a blistering bike leg getting to the 2nd transition as the first place female. Kristen, Laurie and Suzie were in hot pursuit and by the first mile of the run Meg had a little over 2 minutes on Suzie and Kristen. All total TT had 4 of the top 5 postions on the road. That is when Suzie and Kristen found the extra gear and kicked it in. Keeping pace with each other they pushed to first and second overall with Megan taking the last podium spot. Laurie "I have a decade and 3 kids" Brannigan closed it out in 6th. place smiling all the way.

Day 1 Masters National Championships Recap

Like all of aspects of life, bike racing has its down hills and up hills.
Saturday was a travel day and unfortunately had to miss the double rides out of TARGETRAINING. I was traveling to Louisville solo on this trip, leaving my family behind. Things began ominously as I dropped a plat on my foot during breakfast which shattered and cut my toe wide open. But hey if Conrad Stolz can do it so can I.
What was to follow was the smoothest and easiest flight to Louisville that I could have imagined. We missed an accident on interstate 95 by 5min that shut the highway down while driving to the airport, and to boot the airline even took my bike box for free. What luck!

My good fortune continued when I arrived in Louisville. My bike had arrived in one piece and I even got a free ride to my hotel. Wow was I having a good day. I knew I wasn’t in Fairfield County when I noticed tornado shelters at the Louisville airport and was greeted with SUNNY skies and temperatures in the 90’s. Here are some fun facts about the Mint Julep town:
- 15th largest city in US (hard to believe)
- Home of Papa John’s Pizza
- Home of Louisville Slugger Bats
- Home to the Kentucky Derby
- Home to Bourbon

One of the unpleasant necessities to fling to bike races is that you have to pack, ship and then build your bike once having arrived at your destination. After years traveling around the world with a bike, I developed a system that makes the process less painful and keeps the equipment safe. But every once in a while there is a hiccup. Having shipped my road bike ahead of time, I collected the cardboard mummy of a bike at the hotel lobby, and quickly set to the task of building it up. My day of good luck quickly ended as I pulled the Cervelo from its tomb only to find that the rear derailleur and hanger had been damaged in shipping. So here I am in Louisville with no tools, no open bike shop and a seriously damaged bike. Well as they say this is the uphill portion to this trip.
Not wanting to waist the day, I threw the bike into a corner, hoping that it would fix itself and took my time trial bike for a recon of the road course just a few miles from the hotel.

It is of great value to recon courses before race day, so I quickly made my way to Cherokee Park in downtown Louisville which would host the road race championship this week. Situated in a beautiful Central Park like setting, the course contained not a single flat or straight road. It is like throwing someone into a pin ball machine. This is going to be one explosive course, a perfect template to work with on my Cervelo SLCSL, if I could get it fixed.

Having recovered from the shock of my damaged road bike, and the complexity of the road race course, I made my way to the street party atmosphere of 4th Avenue for dinner. The locals like there booze here as even a trip to CVS meant maneuvering my way around and outdoor bar only to find that you could also purchase beer, wine and spirits inside. I was getting the feeling that I was at a casino were around every corner there is a slot machine.

Having reached equilibrium with my luck, I was looking forward to some down hills in the coming days.

Good Luck Eneas!!

Eneas is off to the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.

From USA Cycling: "Louisville's Cherokee Park will host the first three days of competition with men's and women's road races being contested on a beautiful rolling course. After the road racing portion is in the books, contestants will travel approximately 30 miles southeast of Louisville to Taylorsville to race the clock on a brand new time trial course."

GOOD LUCK ENEAS!!

20K Time Trial Test

We had light wind, cloudy but dry conditions for our 20k time trial test this morning at the 6AM cycling session at beutiful Sherwood Island State Park.
Please find results below:

20K Time Trial Test Sherwood Island 6/23/09

(Age) (Time)(MPH/Ave)
Robert Weiss 45M 30:30 24.40
Rob Labanca 48M 30:37 24.35
Bill Schwartz 52M 31:31 23.66
Megan Griffis 30W 31:55 23.36
Mike Wallace 52M 32:15 23.12
Gary Julien 39M 35:06 21.24
Lauren Carey 27W 37:46 19.74
David Burton 38M 37:48 19.73
Josh Cooper 22M 38:30 19.37
Cornelia Horn 46W 38:44 19.25
Rob Adler 53M 43:12 17.26

Tuesday 23

The Track workout tonight will be held indoor at targetraining.

Thank you

The Track session for tonight will be held indoor at targetraining.

Thank you

TARGETRAINING Tuesday Challenge

Congratulations to Libby Kaplan who is our 1st client to complete the TARGETRAINING Tuesday Challenge!
This consists of 4 straight hours of training:

7:30 TARGETourque
9:00AM TARGETBurn
10:00AM TARGETCore
and the finale,
10:30AM TARGETread

Way to go Libby!

Hardcore

At XTERRA Richmond, 3 time XTERRA World Champion, Conrad Stolz cut his foot just before the race started. Did he head off the nearest hospital as advised? Nope, he went out and won the race, bleeding the entire way.

Conrad Stolz bloody Shoe

Spots available for the NYC Marathon and Half Marathon!

Want to run the ING New York City Marathon November 1st, or the NYC Half Marathon August 16th?

These events are closed, and just about the only way to get a spot on the starting line is to run for a charity team.

Help support one of our TARGETRAINING clients and run for one of the most highly regarded cancer research charities, the MMRF!

Your contributions and athletic endeavor, helps the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation reach the ultimate finish line, a cure for multiple myeloma. All funds raised through the MMRF Marathon and Half Marathon Program support research that will result in new treatments and, one day, a cure.

To learn more visit: www.mmrfmarathon.org or e-mail hoffmannj@themmrf.org.
To learn about the team visit: Why Run for Team MMRF.

We thank you for your support!

Eneas Freyre

Xterra Atlantic Cup Wrap-up

TARGETRAINING had one client, David Booth, and two staff members, Suzie Snyder and Dominic Gillen compete in the Xterra Atlantic Cup race in Richmond, VA on June 14th. In its 11th year, the Richmond Xterra has become one of the all-time classic races on the Xterra global circuit, and my own personal favorite race. The 1k swim is done in the James River, which was swift due to the current rains. The 30k mountain bike is on the James River Trail System, one of the best urban parks in the country. The 11k trail run takes the racers through the city, back to the trails, and over the "mayan ruins," a 3 story quad burning stair climb.

Dave and I did not have the races we were expecting, early flat tires and mechanical maladies kept us from finishing the bike and were forced to add a DNF to our 2009 race resumes...bummer.

Suzie on the other hand had a great showing in her first Richmond Xterra. She took the win in the 25-29 age-group, and a top-10 overall, including the pro women! She completed the swim, bike, and run in a time of 2:37:49. Congrats! Next stop for the TT Xterra crew is Sugarbush, VT on July 12th. Hoping for fast racing and good luck.

Newcomer

Hello all, as a new member to the triathlon team, this is my first post. I thought I'd share what has been going on race-wise for me since becoming a TT-er.  First on the agenda was the Bronx Biathlon on 4/26/09- distances are 3-20-3, and the best part is being able to ride on the Hutch car free!  I was both excited and nervous for this race because I was defending my title (female winner for the past two years).  Luckily, the weather was dry, albeit a little hot, and I managed to shave almost two minutes off my previous time for the hat trick! 

Next up, the Greenwich Biathlon on May 3rd. Was looking forward to this local race because of how many TT-ers were racing (Yocks and Eneas) and cheering (thanks Meg!).  A 2.5-10-2.5 course, it was really a sprint. I went out a little fast on the run but eventually settled into a good pace that earned me 2nd overall and an improvement over last year by almost a minute. Eneas won by well over two minutes, and Yocks had a 6th place finish overall, 1st in his age group. 

Last weekend was the Rev3 70.3 which Eneas already posted about. I was nervous for this having spent the three days prior to the race up in Syracuse with my Varsity girls' golf team at the State Tournament.  Luckily, I was paired up with some of the most amazing athletes (Megan and Eneas) who were SO fast that I started the run in between Natascha Badmann and Rebeccah Wassner. What an experience on the killer out-and-back run cheering on Matty Reed, Richie Cunningham, and of course Jordan Rapp, and getting cheers in return!

Yocks grabbing H2O:   

Me starting the run:   

Finish:            

This past weekend on Saturday, I competed in the Mighty Montauk Olympic Distance Tri (with a 20 mile bike in lieu of the traditional 25ish).  Last year I finished 3rd overall woman (Laurel Wassner won) and earned free entry back this year...how could I refuse? So this year, I wanted to place again, but also see how my bike split improved over last year now that I'm riding a new Scott Plasma 10 Tri bike!  I ended up 2nd overall, improving my time by three minutes (~1.5 minutes on the swim and bike each for a PR of 2:08:27). That's it for now...next up, Stamford KIC IT Olympic Tri where Megan and I will go head-to-head for the first time in the same age group! Yikes!

 New bike:      

Awards Ceremony: 

TARGETRAINING Yoga!

Enhance your training program with one of our TARGETRAINING Yoga classes. We have sessions on Monday nights at 7PM and Friday mornings at 10:15AM.

What will TARGETYoga help with?

- Increased flexibility
- Tones muscles
- Helps improve concentration
- Relax and rejuvenates the whole body

Our 1 hour TARGETYoga sessions feature a flowing mixture of varied stretches designed to lengthen your muscles, increase flexibility and open your joints. The sessions have a distinct muscle-toning emphasis while you get all of yoga's well-known benefits: balance, strength and toning.

The Vinyasa flow practice is designed to build your stamina and strengthen your core muscles. Hope you can join us for a TARGETYoga session that will help you achieve yoga's true mind/body benefits.

Park to Park Swim - Girl Power!

This weekend I participated in a 2 mile swim up the Hudson. Swimming in the Hudson is not as bad as it seems -sure, the course goes past the waste treatment facility plant, you come out of the water with a nice dark film on your face, oh, and the water was compromised because of all of the rain this week...but other than that it's actually quite nice.
The race was won by Australian open water swimming legend Penny Palfrey and I was able to make a late surge for second place by overtaking local "Hudson Queen" Rhondi Davies.
For anyone looking for some open water races to help prep for summer triathlons, this series has a great variety. Go to NYCswim.org for more details.

Below is the race re-cap from the NYCSwim e-newsletter
This week, the women ruled the waterways around Manhattan as they swept the top three overall positions at Sunday's Park to Park Swim. The 2-mile distance must have seemed like a warm-up for Penny Palfrey, the overall winner of the day and the second place solo finisher of last week's Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. She was followed out of the water by Megan Kelly and Rondi Davies, both veterans of NYC Swim events.

The race got off to a late start at West Harlem Piers Park as winds from the north and heavy rains upstate during the week conspired to slow the tidal change. The sluggish current meant that the fast swim that had been predicted took longer than expected, but that didn't stop nearly 150 swimmers from getting to the finish at 165th Street in Fort Washington Park.

Congratulations to all of the participants, and our sincere thanks to the boat captains, kayakers, and other volunteers who made this race possible. Full results and photos from the event are available on our website.
Park to Park Swim Top Female Finishers
1. Penny Palfrey, 42:16:45
2. Megan Kelly, 43:58:30
3. Rondi Davies, 44:02:55

Park to Park Swim Top Male Finishers
1. John Acton , 44:35:25
2. Jon Wilkinson, 44:51:05
3. John Sullivan, 46:10:15

TARGETRAINING Time Trial Morning Series

Want to test yourself against the clock?
Durring the months of June, July and August we will be conducting 20k, 30k and 40K time trial tests on the last Tuesday of the month durring our morning 6AM cycling training sessions at Sherwood Island. If weather does not permit us to conduct the sessions outdoors then we will test on the following Tuesday.
Results will be posted following the tests and will be categorized by age and gender.

Saturday ride map 6-13-09

TARGETRAINING Relay Team wins battle of the sexes at REV 3 Tri

The much anticipated REV 3 Half Ironman proved to be a monster of a course, but it was nothing that the TARGETRAINING Relay Team could not handle.

The weeks leading up to the race the TT relay team of Megan, Kristin and Eneas had been quietly preparing for what is the UN of endurance competitions. Flying under the radar we all met up in transition the morning of as we greeted familiar faces and kept calm before the start of what was to become a storm as other relay teams vowed for supremacy.

It was a nice change jumping out of the boys club that is road racing and joining our lovely, but seriously fit, TARGETRAININ Tri team laddies of Megan and Kristin. Megan was our swim expert, I the bike boy and Kristin was anchoring on a demanding run leg.

The gun was off and I relaxed in the transition waiting for Megan to come bounding out of the water. For those that don't know her, Megan is an open water national champion and can challenge any pro swim split. Sure enough Megan fought her way through traffic to clock 3rd best swim time and catch me off guard. Man that was a quick swim.

So off I went for an individual time trial on my P3. These kind of long solo efforts are a great test and I was looking forward to taking advantage of the perfect conditions. But fun as it is to do a 56mile time trial, I was glad to see fellow TARGETRAINING Member Eric Rouge marshaling at the 5K to go mark clad in his elegant medical wraps having made friends with a lovely pothole on his bike the day before.

Back in transition Krisitn was ready to go as I handed off our timing chip to her as she left us to defend our slim lead on the closing run leg. An hour and a half later, and countless rides on the ferris wheel with my son and wife, Kristin returned to the finish line successfully anchoring our team as we won the overall relay competition.

What a great display of class and team work as TARGETRAINING had the best podium girls of the race with Suzie finishing off the day with a stunning 2nd overall among amateurs.

The TT boys had excellent days as well as TT Member Delisi took 3rd in his age group, Tri team member David finishing 2nd in his group, and Mitch who sadly made a wrong turn on the run course to give away a very strong performance.

Revolution3 Race Recap: Ouch

Turns out that Dom is right -- never give up! That certainly played true in my case for the Rev3 Half IM this past weekend, though I wouldn't discover that until AFTER the race.

Like everyone else (perhaps the rest of the TT crew will post their views of the race as well), I showed up with a bit of trepidation about the race and the course. I'd been over the bike course but not the run course, and while I'd heard it was bad, I figured "How bad could it be?" Well, after a decent (for me) swim and a good but not over-the-top bike, I found out. The run is a sadist's dream. After 3500ft of climbing on the bike including the wonderful set of rollers in the last few miles, the run starts out an an "easy" downhill for about 2 miles. My quads were shot at the START of the run, and the downs just killed (especially one steep decline that I had to kind of tiptoe down). THEN, you climb for about 4 miles to the turnaround and get to go down again. Yikes! While my legs had loosened up a bit and possibly the salt tabs, coke, gatorade, cera, etc. I took in was helping, I was clearly shufflling. But nothing prepared me for the nightmare of the last mile's climb. By that point, though, I knew I was in at least 2nd place in my AG (45-49) and, lo and behold, I spied another old guy in front of me at the top of the hill. While I was fairly happy at that point just to be finishing in second, I was a bit miffed to be that close and not be able to catch him.

After the race, while I was trying to find my lost quads and replace the patch of skin that had rubbed off my achilles, I found the guy ahead of me. Sure enough, he had me by 41 seconds. I had to leave the race right away, but later I received some news -- he'd been penalized (drafting?) and I'd won the AG! Suddenly the ridiculously difficult 4:54 effort seemed a bit more worth it, and I was quite happy I pressed through the pain of the first few miles of the run to finish as well as I could.

Congrats to the TT relay team, Val, Mitch (sorry) and everyone else that raced on what pro winner Matt Reed called the hardest course he'd ever been on (yet still managed to go 3:59 somehow - yikes).

TARGETRAINING Duathlon Series #4

We had another great day for a race on Sunday. The race began with Kim Driscoll using her running speed to take the early lead. She held the lead all the way into the first transition, but Eric Goodman who was close on her heels used a quick transition to get out first on the bike. Once Eric took the lead he never looked back. Chris Bartlett who was third coming off the first run, used a strong bike to stay within a minute of Eric heading into the final run but was never able to catch him.



Eric Goodman 0:12:27 / 0:26:26 / 0:15:01 / 0:53:54
Chris Bartlett 0:12:49 / 0:26:51 / 0:15:18 / 0:54:58
Kim Driscoll 0:12:20 / 0:29:56 / 0:15:12 / 0:57:28
Chris Kinney 0:13:57 / 0:30:17 / 0:17:45 / 1:01:59
Alan Masarek 0:15:13 / 0:29:13 / 0:21:22 / 1:05:48

*T1 and the Bike have been added together for the second split and T2 and R2 have been added together for the 3rd split.

Never Give Up

Racing is not always about winning, sometimes it is about setting goals, staying positive and giving it all you have. This weekend I got the chance to experience that first hand. I went to NYC to race the all-city classic mountain bike race on Sunday. It was a small but competitive field. After getting taking the lead off the line, I flatted less than a minute into the race...bummer. On the side of the trail, I watched the entire field pass me by. It took an agonizing 6 minutes to change my tire and get it aired up again. I was in last place. It is easy to get negative when things like this happen, and I admit I started to get frustrated. In an attempt to regain a positive attitude, I told myself that I did not come here to win a race. I came to the race to get in a great workout and practice my mountain bike skills for the upcomming Xterra Championship race in Richmond, VA. With this in mind, I put the flat tire behind me and started to race again. To my surprise by lap 4 (of 5) I was back up to 3rd place. When I passed into second, I was told the leader was 2 minutes up, I attacked. With 1/4 mile to go, I caught the leader and held on to take the overall win by 5 seconds. I consider myself a triathlete not a mountain biker, but this was one of the most personally rewarding victories of my career. Never give up.

TARGETBURN

If you are looking for a great workout with a mix of both cardiovascular endurance and strength training, then come check out one of our TARGETBURN classes. In the one hour session you will be burning up calories with interval training, body weight exercises, plyometrics, weight training and much more.


TARGETBURN Classes are offered:

Mondays 9:00am
Tuesdays 9:00am & 5:30pm
Wednesdays 9:00am
Thursdays 10:00am & 5:30pm

If you are looking for other class options then check out the full schedule on our website or give us a call at 203-227-6177.

Megan Kelly takes 2nd at Ridgefield Tri and sets PR!

Congratulations to TARGETRAINING Member and Swim Coach Megan Kelly who set a personal best at the Ridgefield Tri this Sunday and in doing so took 2nd place overall.

She actually went faster in the swim than last year :), was almost 2min faster on the bike (love it!), and had a PR on the run.

Eneas wins CT Stage Race

On Saturday, riding a Cervelo P3 Eneas cruised to victory on the first stage. He won the 8.1 mile time trial by 10 seconds.

The second stage, a 25 mile hill circuit was challenging. Eneas having only one teammate Edward Angeli, had to fight off attack after attack from the larger teams. The race ended with a big spring. Eneas playing it safe finished in 6th but more important he held his lead in the GC.

The third and final stage was a 91 mile road race. Like the day before Eneas was faced with attack after attack. Teams were trying to wear him down in the first 10 miles. Tired of that game, Eneas took charge and forced six guys in a break. That breakaway group stayed out front for the next 81 miles. To add a little drama, in the first five miles Eneas had his bars bent and shifters damaged. As if damaged shifters weren’t bad enough he had a slow leak in the first half of the race. With 18 miles remaining a quick wheel change was needed, then a chase back into the break. The last 5k was a war. Everyone was attacking, trying to dig into that slim lead. In the end Eneas was able to hold on to the GC, winning by a mere seven seconds. Wow!

Critial feed zone support was provided by the lovely Nancy and the future bike racer Caden.