SalsMiles2

Click on this link to see a video of the 2008 mens 1500m race at Paul Smiths College in the Adirondacks. The race was held on February 23 around 10:20am. http://www.youtube.com/v/hM-xI5efaOM

A beautiful weekend for snowshoeing in the Adirondacks was made even better by the medals we won. Eileen won bronze medals in the 100m, 200m, and 400m races on Saturday. Jan ran a 9:12 1500m race and won a silver medal. I ran a p.r. 1500m race, 6:59 and won a bronze medal. The track was 18" of hard packed snow, it was 20 degrees with little or no wind, and there were many fast times in every age group. The 5k cross-country race was held at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on Sunday at 1:00pm. A mass start of 72 snowshoers took off on a challenging, rolling hills course through the woods. Jan finished in 33 minutes (7 minutes faster than last year) and won the bronze medal. I finished in 24:22 (4 minutes faster than 2007) and won a silver medal. Eileen ran her first 5k on snowshoes and finished in a very respectable 35+ minutes. I hope to post video links of some of the races soon. Go here for complete results. As much as Jan and I like snowshoeing, completing the ESGames is nice because it sig...

The winter and spring months are excellent times to work on swim techniques for the summer triathlon season. An article by Kevin Koskella in Triathlete Magazine discusses developing the correct freestyle kick and even includes a neat video demonstrating one of the drills. "There are 3 remedies to overcome Runner’s Kick: 1. Vertical Kicking drill . Find water that is deep enough for you to kick in place. Cross your arms, and kick in place in a vertical position (keep in a straight line), pointing your toes and keeping your chin above the surface of the water. Get your power from your quads and hips on this drill. Try 20 seconds at a time. 2. Use fins . Not just to "keep up" in workouts, but to actually improve your kick. If you have ankle flexibility issues, use fins for a few weeks, but wean off them as you get closer to your event. The shorter ones are best. I prefer Zoomers, but other brands may work okay as well. Fins can increase your ankle flexibility, allow you t...

The Empire State Winter games are this weekend. Mike, despite not being a big snowshoe devotee, volunteered to chauffer Eileen, myself and Jan to the games for the weekend. Jan and I had to give up our first born child to get Mike to go, so sorry, Andrea, you get to live with the Weinpress's. But, they just love animals, so bring the five dogs, horses, cats and assorted other four legged creatures with you. You will have to negotiate about Renee. Eileen qualified for the 100m, 200m, 400m and 5k races. Jan and I, not being blessed with any fast-twitch sprinting muscles, decided not to attempt the short races this year. Two years of being embarrassed is enough. We are running the 1500m race on Saturday, then joining Eileen in the 5k on Sunday. Click here for complete information about the games.

This Saturday, February 16, NBC will be showing the Ford Ironman race from Hawaii. The coverage is supposed to begin at 2:00pm.

Friday Jan swam 2,000 yards at SUNY Brockport , then biked 20 miles at home. Saturday we traveled from Spencerport to Bristol Ski Resort . The directions on the RoadsArePoison web site were correct, "When you think you're lost go another few minutes and it will be on your left". It seemed longer than a few minutes, but eventually we made it. Several miles of winding up a dirt/gravel/mud/snow/ice road led us to the top of Bristol mountain and the newly constructed cross-country skiing and snowshoe facility. You can always count on an adventure with Mort Nace and Tim Ratowski directing the event. A much smaller than expected number of racers (15) began five loops of the groomed trail. Zach Rivers, a nationally ranked snowshoer lapped all of us at least once on the 6k course. I was happy to finish fifth and do a 5k in less than 24 minutes. Jan finished 15th, running a 5k in about 31 minutes. Saturday afternoon we drove back to the pool and Jan swam another 2,000 or so yards....

The Super Bowl wasn't the only event with significance last Sunday. Eileen, Dick, Roger, and Lou competed at the Downtown Rochester YMCA indoor triathlon. The results were excellent, as Roger and Eileen won their age groups, Dick finished 3rd and Lou did well in a tough group. I think Lou would have been the overall winner, but rumors are he had a flat tire on the stationary bike. Apparently Roger has been holding out on us regarding his swimming abilities, completing 16 laps in fifteen minutes. The race consists of 15 minutes in the pool, 15 on a bike and 15 running indoors on the Y's track.

10. Rochester winters last 9 months, need to find some way to enjoy the outdoors. 9. Get an annual long holiday in the Lake Placid area for ESG. 8. A great source of funny hats. 7. Snowshoes last a long, long time. 6. Nothing better than cold, wet toes. 5. Snowshoeing on a track without snow is so much fun! 4. Burn 10x more calories than running (that’s a scientific fact, maybe) 3. Get out of breath in 30 seconds. 2. More equipment to buy (just like tri’s) 1. Winning medals cause the fast guys don’t compete (wimps).

As I write this Jan is pedaling away in our basement, following Coach Troy on DVD, who is riding the Lake Placid Ironman course. It seems like a good dvd for bike training, except for my wife staring at Coach Troy's butt for 3 hours. He concentrates a lot on cadence, shifting correctly and maintaining effort throughout uphills, downhills and the flat areas of the course. Yesterday Jan and Eileen snowshoed for about 55 minutes on the Erie Canal path. Later today Jan will be lifting weights.