Happy training for the week of 8/27.

Mount Shasta Tinman:  Coming up Sunday is the next CTC club race, the Mount Shasta Tinman.  Online registration has closed and there will be no race day registration, but according to a website update on 8/27, the race has not yet filled and mail-in entries are still being accepted.  If you haven't already registered and plan to mail in an entry form, I suggest you contact Will Newman (Tinman@willnewman.com) to confirm your entry.  Look for a posting to the Yahoo Group later this week with more details on the pre and post race festivities.

Age Group Nationals:  Al Masterson (Olympic) and Shawn Hughes (Sprint) competed at the USAT National Age Group Championships in Burlington Vermont last weekend.  That's Al's picture on the front page of the Burlington Free Press.  Results from the event have been posted to the Results page of the website.

Ironman Utah:  A long overdue recognition goes out to Blake Anderson for completing Ironman St. George back in May.  Blake's results have been posted to the Results page of the website.  Sorry for the oversight, Blake.

General Meeting:  We had a great turnout for the general membership meeting on Sunday.  Nearly forty people enjoyed the pool, BBQ, great weather, and the camaraderie of their fellow CTC members.  Thanks again to Shawn, Joanne, and Lynn for hosting a great event.

CTC Gear:  As announced at the general meeting, CTC will soon have a new vendor for general clothing items such as T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, etc...  There will be an online ordering system with no minimums that will open a couple of times a year.  Look for more announcements soon.  In the meantime, we still have a lot of cool gear (shirts, sweatshirts, visors, tri kits, etc.) for sale at North Rim (178 E. 2nd St.).  These items are made available at cost as a service to current club members.

Membership Status: We have recently transitioned membership database responsibilities.  During the transition, some renewal notices were not sent out on time and in other cases, the processing of paid renewals and memberships was delayed.  We appreciate your patience during this time and believe that everything is now up to date.  Members can always check their membership status on the Membership page of the website.  Please direct any membership related questions to membership@chicotriathlonclub.com.

Happy training for the week of 8/13.  The Prez has been on vacation, so apologies for the delay since the last update.

Next General Meeting: The next CTC general membership meeting is coming up soon!  It will take place Sunday August 26th at 3:00 PM at the home of Shawn Hughes and Joanne Gilchrist (1267 Orchard Way).  CTC Member Ryan Santanna-Hart will give a talk on Nutrition Needs for Triathletes and the general membership will be asked to vote on a proposal of financial support for Girls on the Run of Butte County.  Please plan to attend this important meeting.  More details to follow.

Tri for Fun:  CTC was well represented at our most recent club race, the August 4th Tri for Fun Sprint Triathlon at Rancho Seco.  Racers included Shawn H., Jason B., Christina P., Mitch H., Mike M., Stefanie O., Dina R., Christine M., and Laura V (hope I didn't miss anybody).  Josh R. also traveled to Rancho Seco and volunteered.  Results have been posted to the Results page of the website.  Pictures from the event (thanks to Laura V.) have been posted to the Gallery page of the website.  Jason Berry's Race Report has also been posted.

Next Club Race – Mount Shasta Tinman:  I just received notice from the Mount Shasta Tinman Race Director that the race is about to fill, and he wanted me to encourage all CTC members to register as soon as possible.  The race takes place on September 2nd, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  It has been a club tradition since our very first year and is always a great event for CTC.  Several members will camp the night before and a post race feast will be arranged by the club.  Look for more announcements on camping, lodging, and other club activities as the race date approaches, but Register Now!

Final Club Race – Granite Bay:  Our final club race of the year is Granite Bay on September 23^rd, which is the California Sprint Distance TRI Club Championship.  Championship Points are awarded for all participants, regardless of finish time, so the more racers we have, the better our chances.  CTC finished second last year by a single point, just missing out on $500, a Huge TRI Club Trophy, and reserved bike racks next year at all TBF Racing triathlons.

More Pictures:  Thanks to Laura V. and Jason B., pictures from the May 26th General Meeting and the July 15th Vineman 70.3 have been posted to the Gallery page of the website.

CTC Gear at Northrim: CTC has lots of cool gear (shirts, sweatshirts, visors, tri kits, etc.) for sale at North Rim (178 E. 2nd St.).  These items are made available at cost as a service to current club members.

Xterra Wetsuits:  Xterra Wetsuits is a sponsor of the Chico Triathlon Club and is offering up to 60% off with free shipping to club members.  Orders can be placed through this website.  If you'd like the code, just send an email to president@chicotriathlonclub.com.

Triathlon at Pacific Grove:  CTC has been offered a $25 discount for the Triathlon at Pacific Grove which has Olympic and sprint events on September 8-9 in Pacific Grove.  Use the code CLUB2512 to get the discount.

Greg Watkins

President, Chico Triathlon Club

Well, I am on the downside of my Triathlon season now and have now finished 6 of my 8 planned races for the year.  The race on Saturday was to be a good indicator of my fitness level changes from last year to this year.  I would have used the Black Butte Triathlon, but due to the conditions of the day on that race, it was not a good indicator.

I went to Tri-4-Fun on Saturday feeling just "OK".  My legs still seemed a bit weak from Vineman 3 weeks ago, even though I didn't think that they should still be feeling the effects, but I hadn't ever gone that hard before so who knows.  I got up very early that morning (4am) but I had all of my stuff ready to go and in place the night before so I really only took 20 minutes before I headed out to pick up Mitch to take him to the race as well.  I got back to the house to pick up Josh and then we all headed out.

I had only had a granola bar that morning so on the way I stopped at fast food, which I normally hate, but out of necessity, it will work.  I had a crossanwich and some hash browns which seemed to be fine.  We got to Rancho Seco at about 6:50am, unloaded our gear, and headed to transition.  It was a welcome sight to have a single transition area since my last 2 races had separated T1 and T2 locations.  I dropped off my gear in about the same spot as last year, picked up my race packet and returned to set up my transitions.  Transition setup went smoothly and I had all of my gear ready to go with about 20 minutes before the start.  I grabbed my sleeveless wetsuit, pulled it on and headed towards the water with my ear plugs, goggles and cap in hand.

The start was a few minutes earlier than it was supposed to be but after the first wave went through, I headed out into the water.  The water was rather refreshing and not cold by any means which bodes well for me.  I positioned myself on the left hand side of the start with the buoys on the right.  This usually helps me out since I am a bit slower and can keep from getting swam on top of.  I felt pretty good in this swim.  I don't know if it was that I was really trying to concentrate on my form or what, but it was going pretty smooth.  I didn't go off course too bad at any point and ended up with a time right around 15 minutes.

T1 was pretty fast, I was able to get my wetsuit off fairly quickly, quickly swipe my feet and then head out on the bike.  Since the size of the transition area and the run from the water is fairly long, I was pretty happy with my ~1:30 transition time.  I feel I could be better with these if I were to have my shoes attached to my bike or maybe try some of the other tactics to make my transitions faster, but I think I may wait until next year for that.

Out on the bike is where I really started to feel my legs.  This is where I don't think I was fully recovered.  I was able to go fairly hard, but if I pushed it, my legs could really feel it, much more than they should have considering my pace and wattage output.  My average output was only a few watts higher than Vineman, at about 267, while Vineman was 262.  I felt for a 16 mile effort, I should have been around 300 or so, but my legs didn't have it but even then not a single person passed me.  I still had a pretty good time of ~42:03 for the 16 miles, which was still better by about 8 minutes from last year.

T2 was slow for some reason.  I just couldn't get my head together.  I fumbled taking off my shoes, put stuff on while in transition that I would normally do while I was running, and took time to get water when they have it right at the run entrance.  It should have been about 45 seconds, but it was closer to 1:30 again, and I was very disappointed with that.

The run was actually pretty smooth.  I headed out pretty quick, just under a 7:00/mile pace and seemed like a pretty good pace to hold.  I had to slow a bit on the hills but other than that I felt pretty good.  I got passed  by 2 people in the first 1.5 miles, but neither were in my age group so I didn't really care.  Then at about mile 2, I got passed by a 38 year old and I tried to keep up with him.  He was on about a 6:50 pace, so it hurt a bit, but then at about mile 2.5, we both came across another guy that was in our age group.  The first guy was still in front of me so when the 2nd guy saw his age, he started to speed up as well.  Great, now we have 3 guys all in the same age group, all headed to the finish with less than 1/2 mile to go.  The lead guy started to take off at a faster pace, so I tried to keep up with him as well.  In doing so I dropped the 3rd guy, but didn't have enough kick left to catch up to the guy that passed me.  Ended up with about a 20:47 total time on the run.

Total official time was 1:20:17 which is right where I thought I should have been.  Ended up 5th in my age group and 12th overall.  Compared to last year for the same race, I was almost exactly 12 minutes faster.  I think that if I had some fresher legs and a bit more speed on my transitions (even though they were better this year), I could have got at least 2-3 minutes better.  I will be planning to do one of these next year in order to gauge my fitness again.  Hopefully it won't be shortly after a 1/2 Ironman again.  I think that I am heading in the right direction with my training.  I still have 2 more left for the year, so I will still be training for the next few months until those are over.  Still the biggest thing for me to work on will be my weight and body composition.  I hope to get a handle on that over the winter and go from there.