Archives older than March 31, 2008

Monday, March 31, 2008 Thank you Buttar! Category: Sports I want to give my apologies to the fine folks at Buttar, they do fix their mistakes. They eliminated the second place overall, which appeared to have an obvious error in the timing. I looked again at the results from the the Wildman race, which happened on March 15, and I am now first in my age group and 13th overall out of 243 people. The guy who is now third overall, moved out of our age group. Now I look forward to seeing the mistakes fixed before they announce the awards, but this is a good step in the right direction! THANK YOU BUTTAR! 6:34 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Triathlon Season has begun! Wildman Tri! CORRECTION: Due to an error on Buttar’s part they have adjusted the scores. I’m now 1st in my age group and 13th overall as the first person in my age group placed in the overall. Also there were only 243 people in the race. The beginning of triathlon season is upon us! 1:08:08 - 2nd in Age Group, 14th overall out of 14 in AG, 158 men, and 250 total people. 3rd Annual Wildman Triathlon Festival Moss Park, Orlando, FL .8km swim, 20k bike, 2.5 mile run 2 296 Chad Pilster M ST M 30-34 DeLand FL 0:15:03.294 0:01:42.719 0:32:07.242 0:19:15.166 1:08:08.421 Was it the 69 degree water, was it the decision to stay away from the wetsuit, was it something I’m not even thinking about or was it the busload of Purdue and Navy Academy kids on spring break who were ready to get out of the snow and into an actual lake? I’m sure it was one of the first three, because I’ve been training hard in the pool and I had a pace of 1:49/100m. This is only a second faster than last year and I’m in WAY better shape. I have had races easily at the 1:30/100m before I started training in the pool and I know I was much slower before I started training with the masters swimmers. I only did about 100m of warm-up, because I didn’t want to tire myself out in the chilly water. I really didn’t feel like I started to get my stroke down until the race was half over. I then started to feel myself reaching. I probably spent the entire week debating about what I was going to do in this chilly water. I didn’t use a wetsuit all last year. I didn’t get a chance at all to train with it, so I was really leaning against using it in the race. I do have to give accolades to those collegiates from Purdue and the Navy Academy, they are FAST. After I exited the swim to the bike, I realized two things. First I found out that my feet were a little numb and my head was spinning as I went from the cold to the warm. Next I found my hamstrings aching. I really hope to get some practice time in with the wetsuit and I also hope to work with the Masters on figuring out where the kinks in my swim still are. I know I’m faster in the pool than this and I hope to translate it to the lake/ocean/intercoastal. Now that I’ve griped, I came in second in my age group and I’m excited about that! Also I was 14th overall and if you get rid of the foreigners (The collegiates), I would of been 5th, but competition is competition. On top of all of this I’m peaking and unrested before I start a taper over the next three weeks for my key race of the season. After I got the aches out of my hamstrings I blazed on the bike. I blazed and only had about four people faster than me. On my run I knocked over 4 minutes off my run, going from around 8:30/mile last year to a 7:00/mile flat! My goal is 6:30, but I’m still excited to see that much improvement and I feel the faster times coming! Once again I wonder about Buttars timing system and/or their refereeing. Last year I found a guy, who placed third in my age group, would of had to go 29mph (Can you say Floyd Landis at a time trial!) at Baldwin park, where riders were stacked three wide. If you subtracted a lap he would of been going closer to 22mph. This race the second place overall has believable, but slow, swim and bike times and suddenly he get’s an unbelievable run time. Did anyone make sure he didn’t just run from T2 to the finish line? I know it’s hectic out there, but you really think they’d look at weird anomalies before announcing awards. PHOTOS BY LIZ PILSTER 3:46 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, December 17, 2007 75 mile Monday ride and getting sick Category: Sports I'm going to be doing some back blogging here. During the busy holidays there have been a few posts that I've really wanted to put up here, but haven't had the time. On Monday I went for my first 75 mile ride. I woke up and had a little bit of a sore throat and it was the coldest day of the year here in Florida, but I told the McLartys' I was going to be there. I told myself my throat isn't that bad. Being a little bit groggy, I was moving slow and I got to the ride a little bit late. I forgot my computer, so I never knew how fast I was going or what mile we were on. We started at 8 a.m. when weather.com says it was 28º and 75 miles later it had only warmed up to 49º. Brent was an awesome friend and he let me borrow some leg and arm warmers. I put them over the Nike long sleeve shirt I had on under my biking jersey. I also had ear warmers, a knit cap and gloves on. It was painful when we bike through the shade and any bit of sunshine was treasured. I think my legs would of been tired, but I couldn't feel them, so I just kept pedaling away at what felt like a decent pace for the first 35 miles when we made a restroom stop. We started from our usual point of Skydive DeLand and headed out on 44 and then cut over to 42 until we made it to some civilization in Atoola (I think?). We biked about 20 more which took us through some rolling hills near Alexander Springs and the Ocala National Forest. We took an energy replenishment break in Astor. The last 20 was familiar and relatively flat through Barberville, DeLeon Springs and North DeLand. It would of been a completely different ride had the weather been warmer and I was actually able to feel my legs, my toes and my face. I am totally looking forward to doing it again and I definitely look forward to doing a century ride. The next day my sore throat stayed and I took a day off from training. On Wednesday I had some congestion and the rest of the week I had a little bit of a cough. By Sunday I was was mostly over it and relieved that it didn't get worse. I hope this is my biggest health challenge of the winter. 2:57 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Happy Holidays! and another new sponsor! Current mood: tired I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and enjoyed their holidays! I'm back into training as I get ready for the Great Clermont Triathlon, regional qualifying race, in April. I'm on a three day a week running program, training with the masters swim group in Port Orange twice a week and swimming once a week on my own, and mixing up my biking three times a week with spinning and group rides. I'm also excited that Honey Stinger has decided to sponsor me. They have gels, energy bars, and protein bars that they base off of honey! I have loved honey since I was kid, so I'm definitely looking forward to this partnership. 2:28 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Sponsorship I'm very excited to have my first sponsor. Rudy Project makes excellent helmets and glasses and I'm excited to be riding with their gear. I think one of the coolest things about them is their lens replacement program. If the glasses get scratched, I'm covered. It's a good feeling to know that I've reached a level where someone feels I will bring recognition to their product. This was one of my off-season goals and I'm still on the hunt for more sponsors. I really want to travel outside of my region and compete in more than the local triathlons, but to do that I really need sponsors. Thanks again Rudy Project for being my first! 4:17 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, October 07, 2007 Health First Sprint Triathlon (Melbourne, FL) Category: Sports Health First Sprint Triathlon 1/4 Mile Swim/15.9 Mile Bike/3.7 Mile Run October 7, 2007 Melbourne, FL Race Director: Christine Lighthill Timing and Scoring: Alta Vista Sports www.altavistasports.com MALE AGE GROUP: 30 - 34 Place O'All No. Name Age City St Time Rank Swim Tran 1 Rank Bike Tran 2 Rank Run Penalty ===== ===== ===== ======================= === ========================= == ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== ======= ======= 1 5 620 Chad Pilster 30 Deland FL 1:28:19 4 11:27 1:26 1 43:49 0:45 6 30:54 What a great way to end my season on a wet and windy day. I placed first in my age group and 5th overall. I was just 10 minutes behind the overall winner and most of it was because of my run. Because of work we didn't even get out of DeLand until 7 p.m. Once we got to Melbourne to check into our hotel it was past 10 p.m. I really feel a need to see the course a day before the race, so against her will I dragged Liz with me for a half an our ride around Melbourne. It's too bad that we didn't have more time, because our hotel was awesome and the town seemed really cool. Liz admitted that she did have a good time seeing the town, but we didn't get to sleep until 11:30 p.m. Because the Olympic race went off first, we were locked out of the transition area over an hour before our race. Even though the sun was up, I didn't have access to my bike or shoes. I tried doing some short jogs in a parking lot, until I realized it was littered with glass (I pulled a decent sized shard out of my foot later in the day after the race.) My swim went good. I still felt like I could of gotten into my rhythm sooner, but I was out of the water within a minute and thirty seconds of the leader and with most of the leaders. My transition was blazingly fast. I went without socks for the fist time, and was on my bike and flying down the road fast. There were two bridges and three big climbs. The first bridge had two climbs and we were biking into what someone said was supposed to be winds with gusts up to 25mph. I rode fast on the flats to get to the bridge and then pushed myself through the wind and over the hills with the knowledge that I would have about 5 miles of flats to recuperate before the next bridge. Through much of the race I was passing stragglers from the Olympic portion, so it was hard to tell where I was at, but after they made their turn I was all by myself. Next I made my turn off the flats onto the second bridge and things suddenly got easier. The wind was behind me and I was moving at about 30mph until I hit the bridge. I flew up to the top of the bridge without dropping below 20mph, and once I hit the downhill slope I reached a speed, I never thought possible on my bike in Florida, of 40 mph. This transition was a little bumpier, but I still moved quick. With overcast skies I decided not to wear a hat at the last second. Within the first five minutes of the run a downpour hit and it felt great. I felt a little weird asking for water at the water station, but that's what I felt my body needed. The rain stopped and I started back at the bridge, this time running into the wind once again and heading uphill. I had two people pass me on the run. When the second person got past me, I kept with 30 seconds of them. I wish I had stayed on them, because it would of made running into the wind a lot easier, but I don't think it would of changed my position because they had started a few minutes behind us. When I finally made it back into the transition area, I found everything very wet! Overall it was a great race and it was fun. My triathlon season is now over and I'm backing off of the heavy training in swimming, biking and running until December when I hope to start preparing for a couple major races coming up in April. 3:17 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, September 08, 2007 19th Annual Tarpon Springs Rotary Triathlon Category: Sports 19th Annual Tarpon Springs Rotary Triathlon .25 mi. swim; 10.5 mi. bike; 3 mi. run Howard Park; Tarpon Springs, Florida Tarpon Srings Triathlon Sept. 8, 2007 8AM Event Timing & Results: John Boyle Alta Vista Sports Place O'All No. First Last Age City St Finish Rank Swim Tran 1 Rank Bike Tran 2 Rank Run ===== ===== ===== ============ ============== === =================== ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== ======= 7 44 248 Chad Pilster 30 Deland FL 58:38 8 5:56 1:19 5 27:25 1:03 10 22:57 Tarpon Springs is an awesome little town. It started as a greek sponge fishing town and it still is. It has a really cool downtown area, brick streets, homes with old victorian architecture and awesome greek food. You can walk along the water front and see the sponge fishing boats. I would go back just to try more of the food. We ate at Mama's Greek Cuisine and had a greek sampler. I don't know if it gave me the carbs I wanted before the race, but it certainly tasted awesome. What a tough group of competitors there are on the west coast of Florida. I raced to probably my best time all year, under an hour, and I still placed 7th in my age group and 44th overall with a time of 58:38. This was my first salt water swim. It wasn't at a beach that had waves, I'm still looking forward to that. It seemed like a really short swim. After the charge into the water I started to try to move through the crowd. At one point I was trying to get by a guy who was doing the breast stroke. Every time the guys arm would come back I'd get hit in the head. By the time I hit the first buoy I think I was placed where I finished. I really need to work on my running water entrance, I don't think I'm getting far enough out there. The race for the top 7 in my age group was so close that my really sloppy transitions could of put me up about two places. I've decided to start working on racing without socks, which should help a little bit. I would like to try starting the bike with my shoes attached, but the velcro goes the wrong way and runs into the bike. Next season I might get some shoes that don't have this problem The bike went decent. I spent most of the time staying within a couple bike lengths of two guys on some serious time trial bikes with their aero helmets. It's kind of nice when I'm on my basic road bike with my Target "sale" helmet. Although I was reading that a aero helmet can save 40seconds on a 25mi ride. I'm actually considering getting one, more to help with my Halloween costume of a Star Wars Imperial Guardsman, than improve my time though. The brick streets are cool to look at, but not to ride on. At one point I hit a pot hole and heard a bang. I thought I messed up my front tire. I just kept riding without any problems. It luckily must of just been something in the hole. Also there must of been 100 corners on the course. At one time when I was fighting for position with one of the guys on the time trial bikes, we approached a slow mover as we were moving towards a corner. I was dealing with "time trial" and i forgot to warn the guy I was coming up on his left. He started to go wide to take the turn when he realized I was there. I apologized as "time trial" and I blazed past him. Another time I was fighting with the same guy for position and he took up the whole side of the street, so I went a little bit over the double yellow. There was a car coming, but not very close. The guy screamed like a girl, because he thought I was gonna get hit. No problem for me to get back into the regular lane. If that guy wants to see some aggressive riding he should watch Bike messengers are on Crack. My run rocked. I've been working extensively on improving my run and I dropped it over 30seconds per mile for a 3mile run. I went from 8:11/mile to 7:39/mile. I'm feeling really good about my run and I think I can drop it again for my last race of the season. I was leaning towards running the Olympic distance race during my last race of the season at the Melbourne Health First triathlon, but I got this crazy notion in my head that I might actually be able to attract some sponsors next year. Since I've been racing sprint distances so much better, I'm thinking that if I continue to do well it will look better on my race resume. Either way the race will be October 7 and then I'm taking a "break" until racing starts again in March next year. 6:49 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, August 19, 2007 4th Annual Moss Park Olympic Triathlon Category: Sports 4th Annual Moss Park Olympic Triathlon 8/19/07 1500m Swim, 40k Bike, 5.5mi run Pos Bib Firstname Lastname Gender Class City State SwimTm RunToTrans T1Tm BikeTm T2Tm RunTm TotalTm OT M 30-34 7 59 Chad Pilster M OT M 30-34 Deland FL 0:28:45.994 0:02:06.244 0:00:56.795 1:02:50.662 0:00:45.450 0:51:03.392 2:26:28.537 2:26:28, 7th place in my age group, 31 of 59 overall. My first Olympic distance triathlon. I felt like I did great until the run when I had to walk a little bit to recover. It was a whole different experience, it's amazing what adding a few more miles will do. I did ok in the swim. My time wasn't as fast as I would of liked, but I came out in the middle. I've only been in the water a couple times so far with this many people, and I'm learning what works and what doesn't work. I started on the side and I didn't get out to the front as quickly as I probably should have. Once everyones spots were determined I slide behind someone and started drafting them, but like any draft they would get tired and I started to try to make my move to pass them, but would end up running into someone. Everything that I've learned about spotting and heading to the point in the water was thrown out the window when the race starts at this time. For the first part of the swim it was almost too dark to see the marker or anything else in the distance and then as it got later I was looking right into the sun. I just started looking around me to make sure that other swimmers were nearby. I did learn that if you see a lot of people on your left and the buoys are supposed to be on the right, you are most likely inside the buoys and vice versa. I am looking forward to more races with a lot of people in the water, I still feel like there is a lot for me to learn here. I really feel like I can come out of the water even quicker just from experience and less from training. I'm sure if I left my shoes on my bike I could transition a little bit faster, the problem is that the shoes I'm using aren't great tri shoes. My next major upgrade is definitely going to be the shoes. The bike was awesome. I averaged about 23.7mph and felt good the entire time. For the first race ever I used gels during the race. This kept my energy level up. I ate one and then stored the packet in my race pockets (They are messy, but I don't want to litter the course.) At one point someone actually started to pass me on the bike, but I kept with them the rest of the race. This was a nice incentive to push myself when I started to lag a little bit. We constantly traded the lead back and forth. The run is still my weakest area and even after training hard to run 6 miles, I still could only make 4.5 off of the bike. My pace must of been good, because even with walking, my final pace was under 10minutes. The next olympic distance I train for I think I'm going to work on more brick workouts and train as if I'm running a half marathon instead of just 6 miles. I think I just need to strengthen my legs. A faster run has been my goal all season, and it's going to still be my goal when I start my off season on October 6th. I'm off to Tarpon Springs on Sept. 9. This will be the first race I'm going to stay overnight at a hotel. My last race of the season is either in Melbourne or again at Moss Park on October 6th. Either way I'm trying to decide if I want to do a sprint or end my season on an Olympic distance. 6:39 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, August 25, 2007 Ouch Injuries are weird. I've been training for triathlon's over the past year and I've stayed relatively healthy while training. The major injuries that I have had happen have been more annoying than anything else. In high school I partially dislocated a shoulder after I was goofing around at the end of a rugby practice. I went down to scoop up a ball on wet grass and hit my shoulder wrong. I still played, but it slowed me down. When I was out in Oregon recently a colleague (I'm not naming names.) put his chair down on my little toe of my left foot. I'm sure he broke it, because it swelled up the size of a grape the next day and still hurts a little bit, months later, when I touch it to this day. The other day I got a stupid injury. I was doing laps in the indoor pool which is 25yds. I haven't been inside to swim since summer started. The outdoor pool is 25m and has lines on the bottom. When I'm doing sprints I don't usually look up. Well I was set on doing a sprint workout, and right when I was getting into a rhythm I put my hand out into the wall. I jammed two fingers. The little toe doesn't seem that important though, because no matter what I do in training it doesn't hurt, not until I touch it. With the fingers it slowed me down, but once again it's not a season stopping injury. My biggest fear while training for triathlons is that I'm going to get hurt and have to sit around. That last season in rugby when I wasn't able to play a position, because it might hurt my shoulder, it sucked. I see injuries and hear about them with other athletes, I hear some of them shy away from even talking about injuries, and I see some who have been injured, but they have recovered to be even stronger. Some athletes think of themselves as invincible. I'm even more careful especially a few weeks before an event. I see myself as being able to accomplish something I never thought I could. My biggest obstacle isn't beating someone else or pushing myself to my physical limits, but keeping myself healthy. I think I'm afraid of that major sport ending injury, but I also think that if I wasn't afraid and I thought of myself as invincible I would be the farthest from invincible. All I can do is prepare myself, go do what I love, take life as it comes, be frustrated when I hurt myself and keep on working until my body won't go any further. 6:29 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, August 05, 2007 <$10 Wine Night a Rousing Success! Well the first annual <$10 Wine night (and Liz's birthday) was an awesome success. We had over 16 people and just as many different types of wines (Even some beer.). Not all of the wine was finished, so Liz and I have been trying to polish off what is left before it goes bad. Amazingly some of the wines which we hated that night, have improved after being open. We don't know when, but we'd like to have the second annual <$10 Wine Night. The only rule is that you can't bring a wine that was at the first one. The wines we tried are listed below... Whites 2006 Nobilo - Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand - 8.5 2005 Jane Ventura - Spain - Xasel, Lo Muscat, Subirat Parent - 6.0 2005 Bohemian Highway - Chardonnay - St. Helena, CA - 7 Reds Riunite-Lambrusco - Italy (Cold Red) - 6.7 2006 Little Penguin - Pinot Noir - East Australia - 6.5 (8.0 after 3 days) 2005 Luzon Verde, Jumilla - Monastrell - Spain - 7.5 2005 Fat Bastard - Shiraz - France - 6.5 2005 Yalumba - Shiraz - South Australia - 8.5 2004 Aaku - Shiraz - South Australia - 8.7 Rex Goliath - 47lbs Rooster - Shiraz - Woodbridge, CA - 8.5 2006 Black Opal - Shiraz - South Australia - 8.5 (9.0 after 2 days) 2004 Jacob's Creek Reserve - Shiraz - S. Australia - 8.0 2005 Zinfatuation - Zinfandel - Amador County, St. Helena, CA - 8.0 2004 RED - Red Wine - Sonoma County, St. Francis, CA - 8.5 2004 Red Diamond - Cabernet Sauvignon - Washington State - 7.5 2004 Fish Eye - Cabernet Sauvignon - Ripon, CA - 7.5 2004 Blackstone - Cabernet Sauvignon - Woodbridge, CA - 7.0 Desert Wines White Gold - Peach Wine - 9.0 Frutecia - Sunshine Blend - 8.0 2:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove