Results Talk, Talk Walks.
The final measure of our success, as coaches and leaders of a team of long course triathletes, are their peformances on race day. Our athletes pay us to make then faster. Period.
No “look at what I did as a pro, look at the intials behind my name, no you gotta pay me $$$/mo cuz I say so.” Our results talk for us. We are going to regularly and repeatedly hit you between the eyes with the performances of our athletes and remind you that none of them is paying us more than $79/mo to be a member of our team and that you can try us out, for free, for 30-days. Until we close the doors on 5/1/2009, that is!
Executive Summary:
James Lewis, Miami Internation, 2:2x, over a 25′ PR!
Dan Kerr, Caesar Rodney Half Marathon, 1:37:04, 1:25 PR!
Four EN Athletes, members of our Northern IL Sleeper Cell, raced the Cary March Madness Half Marathon:
- Mike Biarnesen, 1:33:58, negative split
- Matt Ancona, 1:20:08, 1:25 PR, negative split
- Hayes Sanborn, 1:36:58, 3:30 PR!
- Jim Hansen, 1:28:31, 2′ negative split, 9′ PR
Note: all of the athletes above (except Mike B, training for Boston) are training under our Out-Season Program (Download the free ebook here): 6-8hrs a week, all threshold work, no swimming, zero focus on building endurance. Yeah, they were totally under prepared for a half marathon….
Complete details below
James Lewis, Miami International, 2:2x, 2x’ PR.
“The EN OS plan works. Period! I am in the December OS and have done no other training but that. In fact, I went off the reservation slightly because I had a standalone half mary on Feb 22 that I worked into my OS Plan.
The EN OS plan works part II. Don’t swim in the off season! I have not been in a pool since last August (post IM) and I started swimming 3x/week on Feb 1. There is simply no reason to swim during the OS plan (unless, like me, you have a race before the OS Plan is complete!) Your swim form WILL come back and you won’t have lost any swim fitness! Unfortunately I don’t know my exact swim time, but considering my longest swim at the pool was 3x(4×100) I had plenty of fitness for an Oly swim, and my estimated time (25 mins?) was good for an early season test.
Dan Kerr, IMLP ‘07 Training Camp Alum
I ran the Caesar Rodney half marathon in Wilmington, DE (fellow EN’er Joe Ruiz was also there!). It was kind of a big deal for me because I haven’t finished a race since IMLP ‘07. I’ve been learning to manage a heart arrhythmia that surfaced in the fall of ‘07. I FINALLY had a good day with no related issues during the race!
I just wanted to start at a comfortable pace and hang around 7:30/mile until mile 9 or 10, then assess whether I was up for a final push. Here’s how it went:
Mile 1: 7:30
Miles 2 thru 5: 7:35 (missed a couple splits, this is the average)
Mile 6: 7:18
Mile 7: 7:39 (uphill)
Mile 8: 7:43 (uphill)
Mile 9: 7:29
Mile 10: 7:30
Mile 11: 7:12
Mile 12: 6:43 (downhill!)
Final 1.1: 7:39 (finishes on a difficult uphill)
Total: 1:37:04 for a 7:25 pace. Slightly off VDot prediction but still a PR by 1:24! I set that PR 5 years ago!
TeamEN Brings the Pain to the Cary March Madness Half Marathon
Mike Biarnesen (2nd from left, EN kit)
“So Jim Hansen, Matt Ancona, Hayes Sanborn and I met up today to race the Cary March Madness 1/2 marathon. Matt’s wife Theresa, along with fellow ENers Larry Gilbert (Chi22) and Matt Sullivan were there supporting da haus. Cary is a very popular local Race in NE IL – 1000 racer limit filled in 27 hours, no chips, lots of hills and a very strong field. (The winner this year finished in 1:10 and change, I think). I have been following the EN advanced marathon training plan in prep for Boston, and have been feeling some pains in the hip flexors and piriformis in the long runs. Finally, in my 20-miler last week, I got a long in with minimal pain. My race plan for Cary was to run at my VDot marathon pace (which is wayyy tooo fast for me in a marathon) for the first half, and then see how I was feeling. Jim H and I ran together for the first 3 at a 7:15 pace, and then he took off for sub-7 land. I continued on, hitting 7:14 average for the first half. It was tough to keep pace on the ascents, but I maintained the average by using the descents to average it out. Kicked up the pace for the second half, negative splitting for the back end of the course (where some of the worst climbs are), averaging 7:05! 1:33:57 (my) watch time, 1:34:07 race clock. Woo Hoo!! Confidence is building for Boston!
Matt Ancona, first on the left
“Today was one of those days were everything just seemed to go right:
- It was in the 50s with clear skies and no wind
- I PR’ed at a half marathon, that I had not trained or tappered for
- I had a great bike ride OUTSIDE
- Did I mention is was in the 50s in Chicago in March
March Madness Half Marathon
I did this race becuase a few of the guys I train with over at Endurance Nation were going to be there and I thought it would be fun. I had no real goals or plan, I was just going to start off at a pace I thought I could easily hold for the whole race and see what happened. Leading up to the race, I did not tapper at all, in fact yesterday I did 1:45 on the trainer with a brick run right afterwards and I pushed really hard. Warming up for the race this morning my legs were a little heavy and I could feel the fatigue in my quads from the hard bike ride yesterday, but overall I felt good. The race was by far the hilliest race I have ever done, and the timing of the hills is what makes it really difficult because from mile 9 to 13 is mostly uphill and rolling hills. As usual I went out too fast for the first mile, but I quickly setteled down and was pretty close to my target pace 6:15 for miles 2-8. From mile 8 to 13 I gave it everything I had and had a few miles at around 5:50 pace, coming into the finish shoot I could see the clock at 19:55 and I sprinted as hard as could. I put it all out there and came in at 1:20:06.
It sure would have been nice to break 1:20, but I’m really happy with my results, a negative split, and I was 1:44 faster then my previous PR which was set at a very flat and fast race last year.”
Coaches Note: But a PR isn’t enough for Matt. LATER THE SAME DAY he does a patented 2 x 20′ bike interval session. To be clear, Matt has been training with our Out-Season protocol, focused on lifting his watts and pace at threshold, zero to very little endurance work…and he puts together a day like this…in March.
“Since I was only doing the race for fun, I wanted to also get my scheduled 2 x 20′ at FTP bike ride in today. So after we got home, I dusted off my road bike which hasn’t been out of the house since November and went for a ride outside.
My current FTP on the computrainer is 245 watts and I was really hoping that I would still be able to hold the watts after racing this morning. My legs were pretty sore warming up, but I was so thrilled to be outside I didn’t care and went on anyway. I ended up holding 255w for the first interval and I figured I went out too hard and would fall apart, but on the way back I came up with 256w and finished stronger.”
Hayes Sanborn, third from the left
Last year, I set my Half Marathon PR here in 1:40:27 and couldn’t walk for two days. The Hills destroyed me. My goal was to start at 7:40 pace and build on each mile. This is a tough course to pace only because of the hills. The start of the race is a net downhill and the last 5K is just brutal. Splits:
M1: 7:25
m2: 7:15
m3: 7:11
m4: 7:31
m5: 7:22
m6: 7:30
m7: 7:30
m8: 7:07
m9: 6:56
m10: 7:37 -MAJOR UPHILL into the subdivision
m11: 7:34
m12: 7:33
m13: 7:30
My official gun time was 1:37:00:x, since this isn’t a chip timed race, I’m using my Garmin “chip” time of 1:36:58 I continue to PR this course, mainly because the hills scare the crap out of me and will never go out too hard on this course. This course is not only tough but the field is stacked as well. There really isn’t much of a MOP or BOP at this race. Ag 26/64, Overall 200/1019
As mentioned in Mike’s thread. Chi22 and MattS were out supporting the EN vibe and all the EN runners PR’d the race. Not bad for doing two eleven mile runs as prep, the rest of my running was bike focused OS 
Jim Hansen, 2nd from the right
One more race report from the Cary 1/2 Marathon and one more PR!
I originally intended on running this race for time. However, given that I never really ramped up my run volume as I had intended in the last few months (furthest run since October was 11 miles) and since this is a notoriously tough, hilly course I decided to use the the race to practice the 3/7/3 HIM run protocol. Having only run 4 half marathons ever (3 of those being in half Ironmans) I knew I could easily achieve a new PR (previous best was 1:37 in the White Lake Half last May).
My 53 vDot gives a guidance of 6:40 pace for a half marathon. So, the plan was to run 7:15 for the first 3 miles (thanks MikeB for the escort!), settle into 6:40 pace until mile 10, then give it all I got for the last 3 (and hilliest section). Actual paces as follows:
Mile 1: 7:16
Mile 2: 7:06
Mile 3: 7:08
Mile 4: 6:46
Mile 5: 6:40
Mile 6: 6:38
Mile 7: 6:43
Mile 8: 6:33
Mile 9: 6:34
Mile 10: 6:51
Mile 11: 6:30
Mile 12: 6:28
Mile 13: 6:13
.1: 5:44
End result: 1:28:31, negative split by almost 2 minutes and a PR by 9 minutes.
This is one of the few races where I felt totally in control the entire time, even though I was pushing myself pretty hard. The 3/7/3 protocol led to this control and result.
Great job to all my Team NIL peeps for PRs all around. And thanks again to mattsull and chi22 (Editor: on the far right in the photo) for taking the time to come out and support your EN bros. What an awesome group we have here!
Team Chavez
Steve and I raced this 5K just a few miles from our house. A big St Patricks day celebration as the town is Dublin, Ca. Big turn out, around 1300 runners and a really great turn out for our team.
Results: Steve 16:49 ( 5:25 avg) 1st M50-59 and 3rd OA
Carrie 20:06 ( 6:29 avg) 1st F40-49 and 6th OA female
We are so thrilled!!
With the wicked fatigue I felt yesterday after my ride with the new FT numbers, I arrived at this race just excited to run with my team and get a good tempo run in.
The warm up was tough, just felt super out of breath. Figured what the heck, just run. Gun went off and the legs burned a little which forced me to settle back a bit which in the end was a blessing. I just ran steady and surprisingly held on to fairly even splits, last mile 6:22, woohoo!!! Tons of High School girls around me. Gosh did I feel old. So many ponytails I just could not catch. Even got out run by an 8 yr old boy. Crazy fast kids.
Here are a few pics of the day:
Team Chavez
Our Team
From the Coaches:
The beginning of the racing season is our end of tax season, the closing of a big project, signing that big deal. When we finally begin to see the results of our team’s hard work. Spring just fookin’ RAWKS!!!
It bears repeating:
Results Talk, Talk Walks.
The final measure of our success, as coaches and leaders of a team of long course triathletes, are their peformances on race day. Our athletes pay us to make then faster. Period.
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