Author: davecriswell

NH transplant living in CO. Husband, Dad, cyclist, Ironman triathlete, runner, Digital Marketing Director for @Avid4Adventure. Dark chocolate is my weakness.
Posted on

Dang it’s cold out

I did a 90 minute ride this morning followed by a 30 minute run.  When I checked weather.com last night it said that it would be in the 40’s around 6:30 this morning, which is when I was planning to leave.  I didn’t get out until 7 and thankfully I checked the temp.  It was 33!  So, I went back upstairs and put my winter riding gear and headed out for my ride.

It didn’t end up being that bad. I had booties, hat, two pairs of gloves and three layers on top. So that is probably why.  By the time I left for the run, it was in the mid 40’s, sunny and comfortable.  Tomorrow is the first long run in a while – 15 miles. I’m planning on 2 – 7 1/2 mile loops with an opportunity to get water after lap 1.  Temp is supposed to be in the high 40’s/low 50’s so it should be a comfortable workout.

Posted on

Riding with my boy

Connor and I went for a bike ride last night. My training schedule had an easy 1 hour spin for yesterday so I asked if he wanted to join me and I was psyched he was up for it.

We took the mountain bikes over to college woods and had a great time (we even saw a deer!). We avoided some of the more technical terrain but found a great trail that followed along the Oyster River.

I had a great Dad moment on the way back. We were almost home heading down a hill and I was riding behind him. Connor crouched down on the bike to try and get as aerodynamic as possible. His long hair was sticking out the back of his helment waving in the wind. It reminded me of my early years on a bike and what a great feeling it was to be riding – one of the earlier feelings of freedom and independence I can remember. I hop he was feeling some of those same things.

Posted on

Easy jog

Today started out with an easy 4 mile jog on a typical route I enjoy. It is quiet, especially early in the AM, with some nice rollers. Completed it in 35 minutes.

It was the coldest morning I have run in a while. Temp was in the high 30’s and I wore pants for the first time since last winter. I probably didn’t need them but knowing it was below 40 made it tougher to get out of bed this morning and somehow wearing pants gave me the motivation to finally roll out of bed.

Posted on

Pumpkinman race result

I had one of the best races ever this past Saturday.  I placed 6th in my age group, out of 40 (the largest male age group), and 27th out of 373 finishers.  I felt really good going in and I’m glad I was able to pull it all together for a race.

Most of the races I do are much longer than the 1/3 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 3 mile run making up this race.  For the longer races it really isn’t necessary to do much of a warm up. When you are racing for 5 hours or more, the benefit of a warm up goes way down as you are just wasting much needed energy you’ll need later in the day.
The swim was a beach start – the first time I had to do this kind of start.  I wasn’t sure how it would go. Would I lose my goggles? Would I spike my heart rate on the run into the water and not be able to recover?  Well, it went fine.  I had a strong swim and finished in 8:43, the third fastest swim time for my wave. 
The transition to T-1 was the most unique I had ever done.  It consisted of a short but very steep run from the water.  It was so unique that there was a separate contest for the fastest one up the hill.  My heart rate was in the 160’s all the way up, which is the highest it would get for the whole race.  I had opted to wear a wetsuit, even for such a short swim. I had no problems getting out of the wetsuit and had a quick transition to the bike.
It had been raining most of the morning (and my awesome Wife and Son came to watch me anyway) so the roads were wet.  I wanted to average at least 20 MPH for the course , which I did.  I probably could have gone faster but the wet roads slowed me up a bit.
My bike to run transition was probably the fastest I’ve ever done, only 35 seconds.  I was able to stay strong on the run and finished with a sub-7 minute/mile pace, despite the final mile being mostly up hill.
Not the challenge, translate my ability to go fast over a short sprint race, to the half-ironman and ironman distance.
My focus will shift this week to getting ready for the Green Mountain Marathon.