Never

Maybe this is becoming a trend. Writing my race report from the perspective of the time that I finished behind whomever I choose to compare. You will recall that only a month ago the world was astounded by the fact that one Mr. Craig (Crowie) Alexander, two time Ironman World Champion, cleaned my 70.3 clock in Boise by two hours, his 4 to my 6. (Minutes and seconds being semantics). Many of you wrote consolingly to say that he is:

A) Twenty years your junior,
B) A professional triathlete,
C) Australian.

And while greatly appreciated, none of that helped much. To this day I find it incredible that he could travel the same course, the same distance and under the same conditions, TWO HOURS FASTER than the humble i.

Correspondingly, you will recall that all my "return to action" racing comes after a three year hiatus as a result of RCV scheduling. It was (and is) more important then (as now) to capture the courses on film than to race them, meaning that my racing fitness suffered severely as the camera, capture and RCV creation became priority one. You know, a paycheck.

As strategy, and missing the drama of the battlefield, we added the Bill Edwards theories of training intensity. From once a week to a max of three times per week, we added 12 second maximum power bursts to our existing high-intensity spin sessions. The theory being that explosive power can (under certain circumstances) replace traditional high volume training. In this case pretty much because the time necessary for HV no longer existed. What we found in Boise didn't further the cause.

Or did it?

We learned that distance is a factor. Explosive power assists endurance only so far. You still need to stretch it out on the weekends. Yesterday in Forest Grove we wanted to see if the theory held up over the Olympic Distance. A mere 1500 met in the water, 24.8 miles on the bike and a manageable 10K run.

And it did.

Instead of losing two hours to Crowie over 70.3 we missed wining the coveted AG crown by a measly two minutes over the shorter Oly distance.

The historians among you will quickly note, and rightfully so, that my time yesterday of 2:41 was 11 minutes slower than the last time we tested on this grueling course, back in 2002, but look what happened to place of finish: from sixth to second. Another hummmmm. Only my friend Stuart Lee (pictured) is still around and racing from the good-old-days. Longevity, time, distance, speed.

The warmth of the sun made for great racing yesterday in Forest Grove. Over the course of the five hour drive home I gave a lot of thought to the theory, the testing, the training, the racing, the goal, and the passage of time. The two minutes and yes, the two hours. Can I tweak the system even more, are the tangent details the true secret, can I commit to the challenge? Is the suffering worth it? Here is what I came up with:

You are never too old to try.

Pix: My friend Bob after his first Oly, a 2:44, good for a top ten finish. M55-59 Winner Don Geddes (right) and Stuart Lee. Photo by second place finisher, RCVman, and the silver medal as a result.

 MALES: 55 TO 59 YEARS OF AGE        

                                                                      BIKE                    RUN   OVERALL
                                     OVERALL    DIV     SWIM   SWIM   TRAN    BIKE    BIKE    TRAN  PL AFTER   RUN    RUN
NAME                 RACE # AGE SEX   TIME     PLACE    TIME   PLACE  TIME    TIME    PLACE   TIME    BIKE    TIME   PLACE  CITY & STATE
1. Donald Geddes          225  56   M   2:39:47      1    0:28:31   79   2:44   1:16:01    61    1:19    58     0:51:11   69   Portland, OR       
2. Kevin Lynch            185  57   M   2:41:14      2    0:31:56  143   3:36   1:14:35    46    1:43    69     0:49:24   55   Bainbridge Island, WA
3. Stuart Lee             137  55   M   2:43:23      3    0:30:30  119   3:21   1:15:16    50    1:29    63     0:52:47   80   Seattle, WA        
4. John Letts             186  57   M   2:56:06      4    0:28:49   86   3:15   1:26:20   145    1:43   125     0:55:59  111   Troutdale, OR      
5. Jeremy Coachedby        21  58   M   2:57:04      5    0:29:01   87   3:51   1:22:18   117    1:32   113     1:00:22  152   Portland, OR       
6. Mike Lehman            177  55   M   3:07:58      6    0:34:10  173   3:39   1:28:27   163    1:46   164     0:59:55  146   West Linn, OR      
7. Ron Sklar              101  57   M   3:18:39      7    0:35:20  180   2:53   1:35:18   187    2:14   186     1:02:54  169   Portland, OR       
8. Tom Phipps              47  56   M   3:19:50      8    0:35:58  184   3:28   1:33:59   183    1:53   184     1:04:31  177   West Linn, OR

Complete results here.