Larry's Blog Pages

April 30, 2013

Sponsor Announcement - 3SIXTY5 Cycling

Great news leading into the 2013 race season! Chris and Mark from www.3sixty5cycling.com were generous enough to throw their support behind me and have set me up with some awesome carbon wheels.

I made some time this morning to slap on the rubber and mount them onto my road bike for the first time. I elected to go with the C50M set to add some aero profile to my ride. 3SIXTY5 Cycling also offers a number of other excellent options (C38M, C88M, etc.) so please contact them (3sixty5cycling@gmail.com) if you are looking for some great carbon wheels or accessories at incredible prices.



 About 3SIXTY5 Cycling




3SIXTY5 Cycling bicycle parts are made by a group of companies in Taiwan and China who are major Original Equipment Manufacturers of carbon bike components and sports equipment. These are the same manufacturers that produce some of the most high-end products for many well-known brand names. We are a Canadian company selling direct to customers worldwide.

So why are our prices so good? Because we sell direct and we don't incur huge costs in brand building campaigns. Our typical customer is a cycling enthusiast with good knowledge of bike riding and technology, knows a good product when they see one, and found out about us through research or from their cycling network. By minimizing our cost of product promotion to a wider market audience, we aim to make the best cycling technology affordable to people who will truly enjoy it.

We believe that carbon composites make the most amazing bikes. Our products are designed for their high performance, strength, durability and good looks. Now everyone can afford them. All products come with a satisfaction guarantee and are warranted against defects in workmanship.
Let us help you ride 3SIXTY5 days a year...





For more information, please check out their facebook page.

 https://www.facebook.com/#!/3sixty5Cycling

April 29, 2013

Spring into Motion 5k - Race Report

One of the early season races I love participating in is the Spring into Motion 5k held at the Gellert Community Centre in Georgetown. It is very close to home and hosted by Brad Mailloux and his Feet in Motion (local running store www.feetinmotion.ca ) crew.

This year we were welcomed by a warm morning considering the cold weather we had been blasted by this spring. Finally seeing the sun in the sky made it much more fun to get outside and enjoy a quick tour of the neighbourhood.

Feet in Motion does a great job in the community getting the youth of Georgetown active, which shows in the range of ages in the racers at this event. Having many of the local high school runners out, I was not sure how fast the younger gentlemen would travel across the 5k course but I then noticed a multiple champion of the race, Tim Shannon, warming up so I knew I would have one pacer out there for sure.

After a good warm up we were directed over to a new starting location which added about 120 extra metres to the route. I guess Brad must have re-measured the track and wanted to offer a true 5k for our stats. This was fine with me as I would like to challenge the sub 17min 5k on a correct course instead of pulling off the feat on a short loop.

When everyone had settled at the new line, the timer gave us our count down and we were off along the narrow park trail that led us out to the running path along 8th Line at the southwest corner of town. As usual, a large group of young guns went out very hard but I did not get distracted and kept Tim in sight as I knew he would be the one to beat on this day.

The stretch to 8th line was just over 200 metres where Tim and I took the lead as the younger legs started to burn out already so it was just the two of us out front heading north, up a slope and into a strong breeze. This is about a thousand metre section of the course where I stayed tucked in behind Tim as he broke the wind so I could save a little energy. I remember two years ago running shoulder to shoulder with him on the path as we both tackled the wind. As soon as we turned left into the sub-division he showed off his impressive speed and left me in the dust.

This year, I learned from that mistake and tried to save my inferior speed to see how long I could hang on to his heals. To my surprise, we made the turn together and I was not blasted off so I held onto his shoes as we received some tail wind support back down the slope in the nice neighbourhood of large homes.

Hanging on longer and longer, I started to get some confidence that this was going to be the race that I finally hammered that 17minute barrier so I pushed as hard as possible to not allow a gap each time it seemed a space was opening up between us. Eventually, he started to put in some distance and just before the 3k marker, he was showing his strength so I knew second place would be where I would settle but I thought I would still have a shot at my ultimate goal so I did not let off my accelerator.

At the 3k marker I was at 10:10 and a few seconds ahead of my pace at the Good Friday 5k so it was promising for sure. I kept up the intensity but as is my usual energy drain at this point of these 5k races showed up and I fought to minimize the damage I was doing to my chances. Tim was not too far up the road so I was starting to get mixed signals as to how I would end up. I estimated that I was around 20 seconds down on him and he had run 16:13, 16:32 and 16:08 in the past three years on this course. I figured if I kept that gap and he came in around 16:40, I would be in a sprint for my goal.

We soon looped through a few side streets before making our way back into the park across a community bridge. There was only around 500 metres left but I must have suffered too much in the  last kilometre or so as my watch was not showing a good reading. In the end, I miss my goal by 30 seconds but only 17 seconds behind the winning time. I guess the wind and extra portion of the course had some effect on Tim as well as he was over a minute off his amazing run of 2012.

Thinking back on the race, I was not upset as I put in a very good effort and was closer to a win than my previous few years. As always, I was impressed by the community support of this small town race and the amazing volunteers and organizers that made it such a great morning of running for everyone! It is also nice to be home in a few minutes to enjoy a full day of the weekend.

  Happy Training,
Larry
www.3sixty5cycling.com
www.endlessendurance.com

April 2, 2013

Good Friday Road race 5k - Race Report


GOOD FRIDAY ROAD RACE 5K - RACE REPORT

Being away from the race scene since my bike crash last August, I was both nervous and anxious to finally make a commitment to get on a starting line. I have felt ready since the start of 2013 but nothing has worked in my calendar up until now so I knew I needed to get back on the horse.

Even knowing I was going to be a little rusty going into this first event, I still wanted to push for that elusive sub 17min result at this distance. Mentally, I prepared for an all or nothing approach and bought into pushing as hard as possible knowing my training was leading me in that direction.

When I arrived at the race location early Good Friday morning, I realized that my work was going to be cut out for me as the course was not exactly flat and fast in nature. I took the extra time to drive the route and noted a few places I would have to be ready for as the gradual climbs would eat away at my legs having spent a lot of time on the treadmill during this cold and snowy winter.

After taking the tour, I got parked and took the shuttle in from the train station set aside for a majority of the folks travelling in for the run. I still had plenty of time after picking up my kit and slowly got into warm up mode trying to pick out some of the bib numbers I read off the registration lists. Some of the speedsters I wanted to chase around the Burlington roads were familiar by name but I had never seen them in person so I had to resort to finding them in the crowd based on their race numbers.

Finally, feeling ready to leave the warmth of the school gym, I decided to get changed into my favourite racing shorts so I went to the men's room as not to scare anyone with my white compression shorts. As I entered the first change area I placed the shorts on a bench and went into the washroom section for a very quick visit. I wasn't in there for any more than a minute and then returned to the empty change room to discover someone had lifted my shorts! I was bumbed out as I only had my tights now and it was getting too warm to race in them.

Luckily, I knew Peter from www.mynextrace.com was working his booth and, thankfully, he was able to hook me up with some shorts. They were basketball style shorts but at least they would allow some ventilation so I happily accepted his offer. Thanks Peter!!!

Running to the line in Peter's Shorts

SO now it was time to race! I picked out my targets on the start line and then settled behind them in the second row leaving the younger runners to rule the left side of the road. We waited around listening to instructions before the sporadic countdown began. I remember a few call outs at a minute and thirty seconds with a little pause before we were sent off surprised not to hear a gun or horn.

As the youthful athletes sprinted out, the older side of the line cautiously picked their way through the field heading downhill to through the eventual finishing line. At this point there were a good 30 or so kids up ahead of me as we commenced the first climb of the route. It was a mild tester on the legs but seemed to slow down some of the teenagers so I moved up a little through the field still following my two markers who were closer to my age category.

We then zig-zagged around a few side streets for short distances before hopping on one of the longer streets we would run along. As we turned on this stretch, we had a quick downhill twister to negotiate where things started to string out a little more closing in on the first kilometre sign. Just around that section we started a long portion into the wind that took us back up the other side of the valley. I knew this would cut into the great opening km (3:06) I was able to roll off so I just wanted to minimize the damage and tuck into a few of the runners around me to help save my legs for later.

As we continued closer to the second kilometre one of my pacers had moved up the field and out of reach while the other gentleman was hanging right beside me flip-flopping with me as we both took turns cutting the breeze. Coming up to the halfway portion of the race we turned north as the road climbed up again through a mild S bend on the street before a few quick turns to get us onto Plains Road.

Soon after starting our journey east on Plains, we hit the 3 km marker where I finally looked down at my watch again and saw 10:12. At this point my legs were feeling good but also knew that I tend to fade badly around this part of a 5k before waking up again in the final 500 metres. Doing the math, and knowing we had a tail wind and mostly downhill final two kilometres to the line, I really felt like I had a chance to hit my goal on this challenging course.

Starting the third kilometre, I was still in contact with many young high school and university runners but one of the guys around my age was starting to find his second wind. I tried to pull closer in the following few hundred metres heading south off Plains but was not making any progress on the runner I wanted to stay tight with. I continued to dig deep but was running out of run and gas as we made our final turn  onto Fairwood Place Road. The man volunteering on the corner mentioned it was 400 metres to the finish so I tried to muster up one final push knowing the downhill area where we started would keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the wheels on this day and I saw the board hit 17:00 as I rounded the bend about 100 metres from the line. I still had a PB in mind but was not getting up to full sprinting speed. As I passed the clock it was just reaching 17:10 so I just tried to get it to stop as close to that as possible and settled for 17:12 on my watch but 17:14 on the results sheet. Not sure how that happened but have a feeling they used the second timing mat as I let up as I hit the first one.

In the end, I beat my previous best of 17:18 on a much tougher course so this was a very satisfying result coming back after a long layoff. I was able to place 1st in the 30-39 AG and tip my cap to Andrew Taylor and Paul Leduc for their impressive races in the 40-49 category. They were the two gentlemen I followed around the Aldershot roads, eventually coming up a little short of my ultimate running goal.

Stay tuned for some exciting Sponsorship information to come very soon on this blog!!!!