Escape to the Lake MS 150

Event: bicyle ride in support of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Date: June 9-10, 2012
Location: Zelienople, Pa to Conneaut, Oh
Time: 5hr:15min on Day 1 (14.4 mph pace) + 4hr: 9min on Day 2 (15.5 mph pace)

Overall, this was the best experience I've had so far in 2012. The event had 1300 participants and was very well organized. There was an extraordinary number of volunteers that staffed rest stops every 15 miles, controlled traffic at intersections, drove Support & Gear Vehicles, and cheered us on. I rode with a good friend of mine, and we mostly stayed together on the route. We became very comfortable riding side-by-side, and if we wanted to pass someone, we'd just read each other's body language and pass as a team. A third friend was frequently behind us, but we waited for him at the rest stops where we ate free snacks, filled up our water bottles, and re-applied sunscreen.

Day 1 consisted of a ride from Zelienople, Pa., to Meadville, Pa, a distance of 75.8 miles.

Miles 1-16 featured a lot of shade, which was mostly nice, but given that it was in the upper 50s, it was a little chilly! There were so many hills on this route, I don't remember them all. But I do remember the first Category 5 hill where some cyclists had dismounted and were walking up the hill. And it was a big hill. Still, I thought "if they are walking and I don't have to, this means I'm in good shape to finish this!" At the rest stop at Moraine State Park, Mike took advantage of the free bike maintenance tent and had some adjustments made.

Miles 16-33. There was a second Cat 5 hill, but I don't remember it. Our rest stop was at a church. It was hot already! (This church needs more trees in their parking lot!). Anyway, there were some volunteers with horns and bells that cheered for us as we entered the rest stop. Nice gesture. Dan and I then waited for Mike who pulled in with a flat front tire. Mike hadn't noticed that (I guess it was such a gradual leak...), so we spent some more time at the bike maintenance tent.

Miles 33-47. There was almost no flat land anywhere along the route, but if I had to choose what section was flattest, this would be it. Here, we were on un-traveled country roads, many small enough that they didn't even have yellow lines down the middle. Very enjoyable. At the end of this section we had lunch at a Elementary School. A lot of cyclists sat on the ground to eat their turkey, PBJ, or cheese sandwiches, but the school cafateria room was open for our use, so the three of us ate there. The medics were motherly and told us to hydrate and use sunscreen.

Miles 47-61. This leg was uneventful for me. The elevation profile shows we had a steep descent to the rest stop at a local park. The gossip was going, though. Word was that a steep hill was about to begin. In fact, it was so steep, that the next rest stop was perched at the top, in just 4 miles.

Miles 41-45. This was the third Cat 5 hill of the day. It wasn't terrible, though. The steepest section was very steep--maybe a 25% grade--but it was short and I never had to walk like a lot of folks were doing. The rest stop was outside at a small country church. They had run out of ice but still had water and Gatorade. I enjoyed watching barn swallows fly under the eaves of the church to tend to a nest. Cyclists sitting immediately below the nest were oblivious. That was probably fine with the bird parents.

Miles 65-75. Home stretch! Very hilly, and I was feeling tired at this point. But after going 65 miles, what's another 10? The first day's route ended at Allegheny College where Dan and I shared a dorm room. There were several things to do on campus: pick up your bag from the luggage truck, leave your bike in the campus gym secured for the night, have dinner, enjoy a band concert with beer garden, swim in the campus pool, and get a massage. Dan and I inteded to enjoy all these activities but we ran out of time and energy. We didn't get to the pool or even have a beer. At 9pm everyone was packing up and heading to their sleeping quarters. Some of the cyclists had brought camping tents and camped on the campus green. I'm glad to have had a bed to sleep in, but I didn't really sleep well. I was still too excited about my trip.

Day 2 distance = 64.1 miles
The second day of the MS 150 ride to support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society began at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and continued to the shore of Lake Erie in Conneaut, Ohio. We awoke at 6am, took our bags back to the luggage truck, and were eating breakfast in the college dining hall by 7am. Dan and I had shared a dorm room but we wanted to meet Mike (who stayed at a hotel) for breakfast. The 7am meeting time was my idea, but it wasn't a very good one. Our event actually started at 7am (I thought it started at 7:30), so while we weren't the last cyclists to leave the campus, we were almost last. It wasn't a big deal; we were still cycling with a group of about 100 people!

Miles 1-14. Dan and I were feeling good and sped rather quickly through the leafy neighborhoods of Meadville. We encountered the first Cat 5 climb of the day at mile 6, and I don't remember it. That's a good thing, isn't it? The rest stop at mile 14 was at a volunteer ambulance service where we applied sunscreen. A woman about our age came over and asked to use some of our (Dan's) sunscreen. Dan said "sure," and this started a bit of conversation that started up again at later rest stops. That's one thing that was so neat about this experience--everyone was friendly and supportive.

Miles 14-27. This section was really rolling. Somewhat steep hills were followed by equally steep descents, and so on. Was this the section where a man with bagpipes stood on the roadside, playing for cyclists as we rode by? I forget exactly where that was, but he deserves mention. There was a Boy Scout Troop in charge of refreshments at the rest stop (picnic shelter in a local park), and they walked around asking if you needed anything. I kind of hated to turn them down, but I was still able-bodied enough to refill my own water bottle and grab a delicious slice of cinnamon raisin bread. Mmmmmmm! Mike was waiting in line at the restroom and he told Dan and I to go on without him. We agreed to leave him but then decided it would be fun to secretly hang back, give him a head start, and then pass him on the road. And that's what we did. I think Mike appreciated the fact that we didn't actually leave him, even though we said we would.

Miles 27-42. This section featured the fifth and last Cat 5 climb of the trek. Then after the climb, the elevation map shows we decended quite a bit. However, I didn't notice the decents because I was starting to get a sore back. And once you feel pain, you get tired (or maybe it works the other way around). Anyway, Dan kept going strong and so I pushed forward, too. Lunch was provided at the next rest stop (another local park), so it was good to sit at a picnic table and eat a lot of food. I took some Tylenol, too.

Miles 42-54. The route was in open farmland and we steadily climbed some more, but the slope was very mild. My back was better and since there was very little traffic, Dan and I rode side-by-side for almost all of this section.

Miles 54-64. The last stretch! I was back to feeling sore at this point, but what's another 10 miles after doing so many already? Despite any back pain I was feeling, I think I might have had the most fun in this last section because after we entered Ohio and got closer to the finishline, local residents started to be very vocal in their support for us. People in cars coming the opposite direction would wave or give us a thumbs-up sign. People put signs in their yard, welcoming us to Conneaut. Folks on porches would wave and cheer. In the neighborhoods close to the lake, there were actually some folks lining the streets watching us ride by. Wow! This wasn't the Tour de France but it sure felt like it.

Lake Erie was at the finish line, along with pork barbecue sandwiches, ice cream, and soda/pop. Music played, and an announcer would occasionally read the list of corporate sponsors. After the meal, Dan and Mike and I loaded our bikes onto a tractor trailer truck, picked up our luggage, changed into street clothes, and boarded a charter bus heading back to Zelienople, Pa.

Two-day total = 140 miles. Elevation gain = 3,638 feet.

A Rabbit Runs Through It 5K

Race: 5K running race
Date: April 14, 2012
Location: Latrobe, PA
Time: 25:16
Overall Rank: 62 out of 235
Age Group Rank: 9 out of 18
Results: http://www.runhigh.com/2012RESULTS/R041412CB.HTML

First 5K race of the year (and only my 4th 5K race ever). My fastest running pace ever. So it was a great race! The route was through downtown Latrobe, PA; it was mostly flat. They actually started the race 3-4 min early, which was considerably dumb, as there were some folks who hadn't gotten to the starting line yet. Glad I was early instead of my normal 2-min tardiness to everything. This was a family-friendly event and a surprising number of participants ran about 0.5 mile and then exhausted themselves. That would have been me a couple years ago. But not today. At that point, I was relaxed and enjoying the fact that I was passing lots of people. At each straightaway though, I'd see 50 or more people ahead of me, and that kept me going until I realized I'd never catch them. So I just found a pace I liked and kept going. At the midpoint I was a little concerned that I would run out of energy before the end. People around me were breathing hard and grunting and spitting, and even though I wasn't doing the latter two things, it kind of made me want to. Coming into the home stretch (which seemed to stretch a little more than I thought as we circled the stadium where we had started), I was ready to be done. But then I heard someone coming up from behind me and I thought "oh no you don't" and started to sprint, too. The man exclaimed "we've got to beat the ladies!" referring to two women just ahead of us. Somehow he passed me but I stayed on his tail, passing both women. I said "sorry" as I passed them, thinking it was a little obnoxious to zoom past them just ahead of the finish line. "We did it!" I said as the man and I crossed the finish line, and he and I did a high-five. We walked the rest of the track to cool down, during which he talked about going fishing later in the day. The man ended up winning second place in the 50-59 age group. That's actually how I know my own finish time, because I wasn't paying any attention to the finish clock when I passed it. I just wanted to "beat the ladies!" I'm sure they didn't care. It's all for fun.

AMYMSA Championship

Race: Masters Swim Championship (scy)
Date: March 31, 2012 - April 1, 2012
Location: Clarion, Pa.
 
DAY 1: I raced in one relay and four individual events.

(1) 200-yard Medley Relay--I started off my team by doing 50 yards of backstroke. I've been practicing backstroke recently and this paid off. I finished in 39.25 seconds, which is a personal best. Unfortunately I hurt myself on the start. I pushed off with such great energy that I pulled a muscle in my right calf. It's a chronic problem for me. I'll be OK, but it sure soured the rest of the day, since I knew I wouldn't be performing at 100% for the rest of the day. My team came in 4 out of 4 in our gender age group.
(2) 100-yard Freestyle--I was still worried about my leg, so it's not surprsing that I finished this event in 1:12.32, which was about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. I was disappointed. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 25-yard Backstroke--I had to do another backstoke start here with my injured leg. I finished in 17.41 seconds, which is almost a second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(4) 50-yard Freestyle--Oh dear, at this point I was psyched out. I had hurt myself and was under-performing. That's unfortunate because the 50-yard freestyle was supposed to be my BIG event. I have been slowly but steadily improving in this event all season long, and breaking the 30-second threshold was within my grasp. My personal best was 30.37 seconds, I wanted to break this record and finish under 30 seconds. Alas, I was unable to meet this goal. I swam it in 30.91 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
(5) 50-yard Breaststroke--I don't remember much about this event. I was sulking about my poor performance and didn't care so much about my last race of the day. It is ironic that I actually did very well in this event: I came within a tenth of a second of my personal best, finishing in 39.49 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 5.


DAY 2: I raced in one relay and three individual events.

(1) 200-yard Freestyle Relay--Once again, I started off for my team. This is not by accident, as I had mistakenly shared with my teammates my fear of diving into one of them during the relay (I had never done relays before). So they put me in front so that I'd be diving into an empty lane and no one would have to worry about me diving into them. I wonder now whether they will ever let me compete in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th position. So anyway, I finished my 50-yard segment in 30.67 seconds. As I mentioned in my report on Day 1, I was hoping to break 30 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle race, and I viewed this event as my second chance. I donned a swim cap for the very first time, thinking it might help me psychologically if not hydrodynamically. I got closer to my goal, but I didn't break 30 seconds, nor was my time lower than my 30.37 personal best. I felt good, though, and I was looking forward to the rest of the day's events. My team came in 5 out of 5 in our age group gender category.
(2) 100-yard Individual Medley--This event held promise. I'm pretty good at it. But bad luck was still following me. For the first time in a year my goggles fell off during my dive. I was able to slide them back into position during the butterfly segment and I thought I'd be OK, but then as I was doing backstroke I realized I couldn't see the flags or the wall. One cannot speed through the water and then not know where the wall is. So I slowed down, felt around for the wall, and with my other hand threw off my swim cap and goggles. I plunged back into the water for my breastroke and freestyle segments and I swam as fast as I could. I was determined to make the best of this bad situation and I nearly beat one of the other swimmers in the pool. But I didn't, and my time of 1:24.89 was obviously nowhere near my personal best of 1:19.30. It certainly didn't take me 5 seconds to discard my swim cap and goggles, but swimming with distractions is not going to break any records. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 50-yard Butterfly--What the heck! Nothing more can go wrong this weekend, so I was no longer worried about doing well. I concentrated on having fun. I really like the butterfly stroke, so let's go! I finished in 35.23 seconds, about 0.4 second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4.

(4) 100-yard Butterfly--This was my last event of champs, and I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. I had never competed in the event before, so I had no personal best to beat. I was also the only person in my gender-age group, so I was guaranteed a first-place finish. I had no pressure to do anything but finish. Should I do my best anyway? Given it was the very end of the meet, should I expend every ounce of energy to do well? Yes, that's what I would do. I would give it everything I had left. Butterfly is fun, and I wasn't feeling good about my earlier swims. So what was there to lose? I dove in and swam. I passed the 50-yard mark and didn't feel too bad. I got to the 75-yard mark and wasn't too winded. Oh, but the arms and shoulders started to fatigue. It became hard to convince those arms to come out of the water with each stroke. My undulations became exaggerated as my arms got weaker, and my kick started to disconnect from my arms (because the arms weren't doing their part). At 90 yards or so, I was a mess. But I made it, and my friends cheered. I finished in 1:23.58, which was 4.5 seconds faster than the seed time I submitted. I finally felt like I had won something. And then I went home. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: March 4, 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I did four events: (1) 500-free in 7:27.50, which beat my old record set last October by 22 seconds. Ha! This was the most fun I've had in a while, as I was neck-to-neck with the guy in the adjacent lane for the whole race. And then I gave it everything I had and beat him in the last 25 yards. He finished in 7:29.  Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

(2) 50-free in 30.37 seconds, which beat my old record of 30.60 seconds. I wanted to break the 30-second barrier but I'll take the incremental improvement and break it next time. Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5.

(3) 100-breast in 1:29.40. I failed to break my old record of 1:27.70. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.

(4) 25-back in 17.37 seconds. I had not done this event before so I have no old time to compare. This was another race where my lane neighbor and I were swimming at the same pace; in fact, we tied. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

Duquesne University's pool seems really old and in poor shape. I was mildly disappointed to see this. I'm surprised a university would have a pool in worse shape than most of the YMCAs where we typically compete. My next swim meet is Chapionships at Clarion University at the end of March. Maybe they'll have a better pool...

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 19, 2012
Location: Cranberry, PA

Had another great swim meet yesterday. I did 4 events.

(1) 100-yard IM in 1:19.30. This broke my old record by 2 seconds. I attempted to do the fly-back turn the way my coach taught me, but i think I failed in that endeavor. So it wasn't pretty but what I did still worked. I came in 5th out of 6 in my gender-age group. That's actually an improvement--this may be the first time I ever beat someone in my group!

(2) 50-yard butterfly in 34.84 seconds. This again broke my old record by 2 seconds. A third-place win (out of 3). My friend Dan said I looked good but held my head up. I'll work on that.

(3) 25-yard freestyle in 13.91 seconds. I did not beat my personal best this time. I was off by two tenths of a second. A third place win (out of 3). This was despite the fact that I had just cut my toe and the bleeding had stopped only a minute before I climbed to the starting block. I thought maybe I'd have to scratch, but no one around me seemed to care that I was swimming with a bloody toe.

(4) My best race was my last. I swam the 200-yard freestyle in 2:38.86 (3rd out of 3). This beat my old record from October 2011 by 14 seconds. I destroyed the other swimmers in my heat. I finished so much before them that I wondered if I had counted laps wrong. When I was done I realized I wasn't even breathing hard. I could have swum harder!

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: February 5, 2012
Location: Clearfield, PA

My meet yesterday was at the Clearfield YMCA. It’s a brand new pool. I did 4 events and set personal bests in all of them:

1. 100 IM = 1:19.64 is about 2 seconds better than when I did the event in October. Somebody on my team told me I flutter-kicked between backstroke and breaststroke. I said “yes, that sounds like something I would do!” I’m within 6 seconds of my best friend, so I know I’ll beat him at some point. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.

2. 50 Fly = 35.45 is about 2 seconds faster than my personal best. The swim went well, but my ending was terrible—I hit the wall at midstroke so that was a little awkward and probably added a second to my time. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.

3. 25 Free = 13.72 is about 0.3 sec faster than my personal best. Of course there is a lot of measurement error with such a short event combined with human stop-watch operators. I remember breathing a few times, and this shouldn’t be necessary so I know that’s one way to improve. I got first place in my gender-age group for this event because no one else did it. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.

4. 50 Back = 41.16 is considerably less than the seed time of 47.0 that I submitted, but that was simply a guess because I had never done this event before. I think my start was reasonably good for someone who hasn’t had much practice. I don’t know if my hands and head landed in the right spot, but it felt fine. I really flew on the first 25 and despite paying attention to the flags I flipped over far too late to do a flipturn at the wall so I did an open turn. On my way back, my friend said my hips/torso was undulating side-to-side too much. I sometimes (often?) do this in freestyle, too, and I’m not sure whether this is fatigue or just too much [wild] enthusiasm during a race. Speaking of wild enthusiasm, at the end of the 50 yards I somehow ended up in the corner of the lane and missed touching the pad, so I think I might have been a second or two faster than indicated. Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2.

I’ve now acquired 100 points over 6 meets this season. I’m still the slowest member of my gender-age group but I’m having a blast.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet (scy)
Date: January 8, 2012
Location: Grove City, PA

Event #1: 100-yard freestyle
Time: 1:09.28
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4

Event #2: 50-yard freestyle
Time: 30.57 seconds
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4

Event #3: 50-yard breaststroke
Time: 40.50 seconds
Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3

Event #4: 25-yard butterfly
Time: 15.55
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2

I did a 450-yard warm-up then waited for my first event: 100-yard freestyle. I kicked butt. My second event was 50-yard freestyle and I again beat my personal best. And you know what? I could have gone faster. My third event was 50-yard breaststroke and I messed up to the point that I should have been disqualified but apparently the official didn't notice or care. Upon diving, I got a bit of water in one of my goggle's eye sockets and this distracted me enough that my first stroke in the water was butterfly instead of breaststroke. It took me a while then to figure out how to start breaststroke from a butterfly position but I made it work. I did breaststroke for the rest of the race but I didn't push myself. I wasn't even winded at the end. My teammates were laughing really hard when I got out of the water. Glad to be the source of some humor!
My last event was 25-yard butterfly and I beat my seed time by 0.2 seconds. It's hard to improve by much with such a short distance. It's all in the dive. All in all, a great day of competition.