Mill City Tri

Completed the second tri of my life today. I knocked 15 minutes off my time. I’m happy with my steady improvement,but still have a ways to go until I’m happy with my times and performances.

I woke up before my alarm, had some oatmeal and grabbed my transition pack. The Mountain smith bag is working out perfectly, I’ll continue to use it. As I was packing the bike onto the car Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” came on, perfect for the first song on a race day. The drive down to Lowell was unremarkable, I parked and checked in. Set up my transition area as before, and waited. I got in to early so I ended up with a fair amount of pre-race down time. I walked the transition area a few times, studied the water, and stretched. I used body glide on the neck line of my wetsuit this time, seemed to keep all the chaffing away.

My swim sucked, not as bad as last time. Katie let me know that there were 25 people in the water this time, instead of the 6 in Ashland. The river current was brutal, I ended up having to hang onto a life gaurds bouy to catch my breath 1/4 of the way through the course. The return trip was much better, with the current. I didn’t stop at all on the way back down. I am happy that I didn’t spend nearly the same amount of time on my back this time around. I got out of the water in about :43 miutes, a better time then last tri. I was pretty out of it going into T1. I actually felt light headed. When I bent down to pick up my socks I nearly fell over! I opted out of my socks for the bike, mainly becuase I didn’t believe I could stay vertical long enough to get them on, and my shoes. As I was leaving T1, I was taking the left onto the street, I thought I’d felt my cleat engage, but I was wrong. I went down as I tried getting my first stoke out. Not a banner start to my second tri. I was bloody, tired, and still had 26 miles of bike, and 6.2 of run left.

I regained my composure quickly on the bike, and was happily cruising at about 20 mph. After about 3 miles, I stopped quickly to see if a rider needed help, he was looking confused by his tire. Lucky for me he was running 650cc wheels and there was nothing I could do for him. I started back up and quickly got back on pace. About 8.5 miles in, I heard a rythmic thump. I thought it was the road at first, but half a mile later I heard the hiss of my tube blowing. Of course it was my rear wheel and not the front. Pulled over, swapped over the tube, and got back on my way. It felt like an enternity to fix my wheel,the reality is that it only took me 5 minutes. I got back up to pace, and finished out the bike with out any other problems. My favorite part of the race happened about 20 miles in. I was trucking along a nice flat road, and I spotted a rider in front of me. I looked and went “i’m passing him”. A quick changing of gears and I’m up to 25 mph. I was feeling strong. As I closed in, I notice he’s on a nice Cervelo. As I passed him I gave a cheerful “how ya doin’?” his reply as I passed him? “Not so good now…”

I got into T2, and was feeling pretty good. And this was where I made another mistake. instead of taking the minute to put on my nicely rolled socks, I opted out of them. I’m a fool, and a gluton for punishment. I’ve never run sockless, and probably won’t do that again. I made pretty good time, held an 8:20 pace for the 10k. I am paying the price for it tho, Two blisters on my arches, and one on my right foot!

Overall the course was awesome, I’ll try and work it into next years schedule. It’s a small tri, not a huge throng of people, so it’s manageable… and it’s close!

Trans NH Wrap UP

2009 Team DeRoche

It’s been a few days since the Trans New Hampshire bike ride, and I’m writing to thank all of you. With your help and support the ride raised $137,600! Katie and I personally raised $1895! This year we only had 101 riders, which means the average amount raised by rider was about $1300, in this economy it’s an amazing thing I can’t thank you all enough.

The ride started out on Friday morning. We trucked up to the Canadian border, and got prepped for the first 100 miles. I ended up at the front of the group to start, and averaged 23MPH to the first rest stop. This was a little faster then I’d been planning, so I stopped and waited for the rest of Team DeRoche to show up. We re-grouped and went off from the second stop with out incident. A few hours later, we had our first mechanical problem of the day. One of our team’s bike was making a bad noise. We flagged down the race mechanic and on the side of the road his bike was taken apart and fixed. Only 3 of us stayed while the rest of our group, 12 in total, rode up to the next rest stop. The next rest stop was being run by Katie. As I pulled into the rest stop Katie yelled out from her sandwich station “Riding a little slow today aren’t ya hun?”. A little later on we were riding out of Whitefield and had a small crash. The rider in front of me slowed, and I crossed wheels with him, the sent me across the road into the rider behind me. I stayed up, but the rider behind me wasn’t so lucky. Minor damage to the bike, and a couple small scrapes on the rider. His front tire popped, so we fixed his flat and continued uneventfully on. My average moving speed for day 1 was 19.2 mph.

I think Teagan's favorite toy is his wheelchair!

That evening was a spaghetti dinner at the Littleton Fire Department. Pasta, salad and cake. Teagan had come up to see the riders, and spoke at the dinner. As his mother was telling the story of Teagan being diagnosed with MD, she was understandably getting choked up. Teagan looked up at her and said “Don’t be sad mommy”. The courage that Teagan has is amazing. The next morning we were all getting up and Teagan was flying around the parking lot in his wheel chair. I think he had a permanent smile on his face the entire time he was up there.

We woke up the next morning and assembled out in the parking lot. The Littleton Fire Department gave us an escort to the town line and we were off. We hung back from the front to avoid the diesel fumes. At the third stop we remembered a nice sweeping S curve in Monroe. So I took a quick stop and hammered on down to the curve with one other rider, to position ourselves to snap some pictures of the rest of the group. I have some great pictures from Day 2, unfortunately I left my camera at the Fireside Inn in Lebanon, so I’m waiting for UPS to deliver it to me. Day 2 was nice, it stayed mostly dry. Right before the last big climb in Hanover, the sky opened up and we had a nice lightening show. Climbing in the rain wasn’t bad since it generates a lot of heat. Descending was cold thanks to the 20+mph we bombed down the slick roads at. My average on day 2 was 19.1 mph so another decent day on the bike.

Once we got into Lebanon I changed into my running gear and spent 35 minutes on the treadmill. You wouldn’t believe some of the looks I got after riding 75 miles and jumping directly on the treadmill. It felt good to run after riding for two days. We hung out at the hotel and some played ping pong, and we all drank a couple beers before dinner. Dinner was an amazing chicken and rice dinner. After the dinner we had the presentation of jerseys. Every member of Team DeRoche received a new jersey for raising over $1200. After the jersey presentation we retired back to the picnic tables for some more beer and laughter.

The profile from Day 3

On Day 3 Katie was the first rest stop, before “George’s Hill”. Day 3 is probably the hardest and most fun day of the three. There’s a lot of climbing on tired legs, the first 25 miles we climb 1200 feet. Then it’s just a high speed burn to Concord since from mile 25 to 55 we decent the 1200 feet we climbed. There’s two sections of day 3 that we just let it all hang out and ‘play’. By play, I mean we hammer hard, 40% of the ride I was above 23 mph chasing and being chased by some rather strong riders and good friends.

riding in with the other 102 riders

After we regroup at a Concord Fire station, we parade over to the Rundlett Middle School for a BBQ and to meet up with family and friends who have come up for the finish.

I know there’s a lot that I’m leaving out. There is no way to truly capture the spirit and community of the ride. The only way to understand why this is a staple in my summer, and why friends fly in from California, Illinois and Texas to come ride 250 miles through rain, cold and heat that is only available in New Hampshire, you’ll have to come out and do the ride one year!

Thanks again for all you support!

Joe

Heading up to Colebrook Tomorrow

Drinking a pint of Leviathan at the Vermont Brewery

In less then 24 hours we head north to the Canadian border to participate in the Trans New Hampshire Bike Ride. It’s been an interesting riding season up to this point and by interesting i mean WET. On my way into work this morning the radio reported that we’ve received double the average rainfall for the month, and it’s going to rain some more this weekend. Rain doesn’t deter our riding. On my first ride from Canada to Portsmouth we rode thorough a thunderstorm that put down some hail (good thing for helmets). I just looked at the weather for up north, and it looks to be the same as down here. Patchy sunlight through rain producing clouds!

Last weekends ‘warm-up’ ride from Boston to Vermont went off without a hitch. The day ended up being perfect for 150 miles on the bike. Overcast and not cold, with only 1 sprinkling of rain for the duration. If we can get that weather for at least 1 day I’ll take it!

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have donated and supported us for this ride. we’ve raised over $1600! That’s enough money to send 2 kids to summer camp! Thank you all for the support, and strange looks when I head out for a ’short’ 50 mile ride.

It still isn’t to late to donate. The ride has raised $95,500 so far, $500 more and we’ll have broken the $100,000 mark!

This year the ride is to honor Teagan House. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This genetic disease begins early in childhood and causes progressive loss of muscle strength and bulk and usually leads to death in the early 20s from respiratory or cardiac muscular failure. DMD occurs when a gene on the X chromosome fails to make the essential muscle protein dystrophin.

Teagan was the 2007 NH State Goodwill Ambassador and he has attended the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to present a check. Teagan greeted the TNHBR riders at the Rochester Fire Station in 2007.

The money donated goes directly to helping those in need. $85 funds an hour of research, $100 runs a group support session, $800 allows a child to attend the MDA summer camp, and $2000 will give assistance with obtaining a Wheelchair or Leg Braces.

All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation before 06/28/09. Your donation will help families in our community who live with neuromuscular disease. I can’t wait to add you to my list of contributors.

Thanks in advance for your help. Don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions.

Joe and Katie

P.S.  I’m counting on you, click here to donate.

If the link above does not work, please cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your Internet browser. https://www.joinmda.org/tnhbr09/jpitkin

My First Tri!

Coming over the timing mats 3:15:33 for my first ever tri!

I can officially say that I’m a triathlete. I completed my first tri today! I haven’t yet gotten my official times, have to wait for them to be posted, be sure that when they are I’ll edit this post to reflect the times. But I was in the 3 hour range.

3 hours 15 minutes thirty-three seconds to be exact.

I was a little nervous this week about hitting the tri this weekend. I’d been sick at the beginning of the week, and knew I hadn’t had enough swim and run time in. To top off matters, the weather decided to dump buckets of rain in the morning. I spent the day prior on the bike, 75 miles of hills with around 5000 ft of climbing. I didn’t hammer to much during the ride, so I was still feeling fresh after the ride. After getting home from visiting with Rob (he just returned from Tasmania) I took to getting my gear in order for the next day. I packed up all my gear into my mountain smith cube, worked out perfectly. I made some whole wheat tortellini and headed for bed at about 9 pm.

Click the image to see what I had packed

I woke up at 5am to the sound of rain. I wasn’t about to let some rain stop me, so ate some breakfast and loaded up the box.

I got down to Ashland by 7am. I parked, checked in, went through body marking, and then back to the car to get my gear prepped. I layed out my transition area, covered it with half my towel to attempt to keep it dry. As I was getting into my wet suit, Katie showed up with Pat and Cindy! I had thought that I wouldn’t have needed a cheering section, but I was SUPER glad they showed up.

We all walked the quarter mile down to the water, and I slipped on the mud! I got into the water, which was surprisingly warm, and took a few practice strokes. I was feeling good! the start was a wading start, so I got off to the left of the pack and got ready. I’m not comfortable enough with open water swimming yet. I had a decent stroke and felt good for the first 1/4 of the swim. After I rounded the first buoy I got into trouble. I got hit a little by faster swimmers, and took on some water. This threw my breathing off, and I never fully recovered. A spent some time on my back trying to get my heart rate down, and never did get it back in check. As I rounded the second buoy, I had my first ever cramp while swimming. Luckily it was ‘just’ my left calf, it hurt pretty bad. I spent some more time on my back, and finished off freestyle. I got out of the water, popped a Gu and hiked up to the transition area. I fell WAY to the back, I knew my swimming wasn’t strong. After the race, Katie let me know that I was 6th to last out of the water!

Ah, now for the bike! I knew I could make up some time there, the course was a little hilly but I liked the hills (as 5000ft of climbing the day before proves) I got on the bike and felt AWESOME. I settled into a nice pace, easily spinning up the hills, and bombing down the wet slick roads! I passed a bunch of people once I got out on the bike, and cheerfully talked with them as I passed! the course was great, I averaged 18 mph, with a top speed of 32. Never felt my heart rate spike, I popped a Gu at the 13 mile mark, and at the transition.

As I started the run I was still feeling strong, a little to strong. I looked down at my Garmin, and I was WAY off pace. I reeled back in a little, but the damage had already been done. At about mile 3 I felt my left calf acting up again. I walked a ways, stopped and streteched it on a tree, and walked a half mile or so. I tried convincing myself that after mile 4.5 I was going to run no matter what. But my calf had a different idea! I walked a little bit and ran. I ended up trying to conserve some for the last leg so I didn’t look defeated when I got in to the finish. i walked up the final hill, and then hit the last mile running, just not fast. My own timing gives me a 1:02 time, with a 10:28 pace. I NEED to run more. I finished up strong, came in to Katie, Pat and Cindy screaming and cheering. Katie had even made a sign that said “Go Joe!”

I crossed the finish line, and threw my arms up in a V for the photos! I was smiling, I survived, and now can call myself a triathlete. I grabbed a water, drank it, cleaned up my transition area, and walked over to the car, and popped a Sam Summer! nothing like a nice cold beer post workout! My next Tri is about a month away, and I’m planning a lot more open water swimming, and running. Since I now have some numbers to beat!

Special thanks to Katie, my wonderful wife! Thanks to Tasha, for putting the thought in my head to do this! Thanks to Pat & Cindy for cheering. And thanks to everyone who has been supporting me through this crazy endevour!

Trans New Hampshire MDA ride

Hi All,

Once again I’m going to be participating in the annual Trans New Hampshire bike ride from June 26 to the 28th to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This ride starts at the Canadian border and finishes 250 mile away in Concord New Hampshire. This will be my third year participating, and it has become my favorite weekend of the summer. Katie will also be participating in the ride again in most important role, support. She gained quite the reputation for her PB&J’s en-route. The route is a nice three day jaunt through NH, and over the white mountains.

This year the ride is to honor Teagan House. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This genetic disease begins early in childhood and causes progressive loss of muscle strength and bulk and usually leads to death in the early 20s from respiratory or cardiac muscular failure. DMD occurs when a gene on the X chromosome fails to make the essential muscle protein dystrophin.

Teagan was the 2007 NH State Goodwill Ambassador and he has attended the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to present a check. Teagan greeted the TNHBR riders at the Rochester Fire Station in 2007.

The money donated goes directly to helping those in need. $85 funds an hour of research, $100 runs a group support session, $800 allows a child to attend the MDA summer camp, and $2000 will give assistance with obtaining a Wheelchair or Leg Braces.

All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation before 06/28/09. Your donation will help families in our community who live with neuromuscular disease. I can’t wait to add you to my list of contributors.

Thanks in advance for your help. Don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions.

Joe and Katie

P.S. I’m counting on you, click here to donate.

If the link above does not work, please cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your Internet browser.
https://www.joinmda.org/tnhbr09/jpitkin

Quick pick me up

Enjoying a shot of esspresso before the multisport expo at toscanini’s

Great Writing

Spam has ruined email for the most part for companies. This isn’t a new revelation, a quick google search will show that the clutter that email campaigns cause is as bad, if not worse, then the clutter we see in traditional media. Here’s the exception, the shining gem that makes me hopeful that some marketing and some companies “get it”.

I look forward to an email every morning. It’s not a list serve email, or one from a friend in a far away place. It’s the opt in emails that steep and cheap send out. They know the people who buy stuff from them, and they don’t’ get to ’salesy’ This was the email that was in my box this morning:

Every morning some random thought or story is conveyed to me, as I wolf down a double helping of instant oatmeal and coffee. I actually look forward to the random nature of the story, and the great deals that steep and cheap offer. I’ve bought a number of things from them, and will continue to do so. I strongly suggest that you subscribe to the emails.

7 things you may not have known.

There’s a meme going around on twitter that’s “7 thing you may not have known” Since a was tagged here goes:

1) If not for having an appendectomy I would have enlisted in the Air Force.

I was in AFJROTC during high school, and my senior year I was going to enlist. The recruiter failed to let me know I had to have documentation about the appendectomy since it had been within 6 month and considered major surgery. I took the ASVAB, physical, and only had to be sworn in. After I got home, a few people talked me out of enlisting, and going to college.

2) I fell asleep backstage at a Megadeth concert,that Seven Dust opened for.

Through high school, and part of college, I worked freelance for a couple stage companies. I did a lot of different things, from driving trucks to running shows. I got the call to load and unload a show at the meadows in CT. By the time Megadeth went on I had been up for 14 hours or so (had to drive to the shop, load the truck, drive to CT, oversee the unloading of the truck… etc.) I sat down in a bin of feeder cable, which was warm, and promptly fell asleep while megadeth was on stage.

3) I was afraid of heights as a kid.

I don’t know when I stopped being afraid of heights. Now heights don’t bother me in the least, I’ve jumped out of planes, gone rock climbing, hung lights 100+ feet in the air, all with no issues.

4) I didn’t want to learn how to ride a bike.

I fought with my dad for a while because I didn’t want to learn to ride a bike. This makes me laugh, since now I’m an avid cyclist, riding multiple centuries in a summer.

5) I didn’t like bacon as a kid.

Again, this is one of those things that I can’t pinpoint when it changed. As a kid I didn’t like bacon, I would order sausage, or nothing with my eggs. I’m so glad that I’ve changed my mind on the bacon front.

6) I marched in Drum Corps and Marching band in High School

I played trumpet (and soprano horn) in high school. I only marched in Drum Corps one year, but the Spartans made it to the DCI finals the year I marched.

7) I took ice skating when I was a little kid.

I took figure skating for a year or two as a kid. Preformed a routine and everything.

Twelve is attainable.

The nostalgia of December is quickly wearing off for the hope and promise of the new year. Every year I seem to make resolutions, and ever year I don’t follow through with all of them, the dusty unicycle mocking me from the closet is a case in point. My 2009 Moleskin arrived in the mail over the weekend, and I took the time to transcribe the already committed and planned dates from 2008 into it. While leafing through the planner I started humming the  Seasame Street Pinball count, we all know that catchy 1,2,3,4-5-6-7,8,9-10-11,12. Then my thoughts turned to David Allen and GTD. Then I began, for the first time, to break my resolutions up into actionable items.

It is very easy to set attainable goals for my year this way. By breaking down my resolutions to actionable items.Historically I’ve set out with resolutions such as:

• learn to ride a unicycle
• run a 5k
• join the circus
• etc, etc, etc

This year I still have resolutions, but took the time to proactively break them down to smaller actionable items that aren’t nearly as daunting:

• Weekly spend an hour falling off the unicycle
• run 30 minutes 4 times a week
• defeat my fear of cotton candy
• etc, etc, etc

With my new found way of attacking my yearly resolutions I’m now also thinking about other “12’s” I can attain? I also believe that revisiting the goals and re-planning attainable goals will allow me to keep focused on the tasks that I want to lay out for myself over the coming year.

2008 in review

This is the time of year that we all take a ride down the nostalgic trail and remember the year. These are a few highlights for me. It’s been a whirlwind of a year, I’m married, I have a new job, and have had one of the most excellent years to date! Here’s a quick perusal of my year in pictures.

January

My first day at SeaChange, it snowed a little.

February

Katie and I moved into our new apartment with the help of friends and family.

March

We hosted our first family dinner (easter) and it was successful, and tiring.

April

Work sent me out to Vegas for NAB, and then a couple weeks later we went out to visit Greg and Petra in San Fran.

May

Ah, the second round of cupcakes from the enchanted back shoppe, just to make sure that we were going to have them do the cupcakes for the wedding

June

I did a fair bit of riding in June. Harpoon B2B, TNHBR, MS150. Katie came up for the B2B and TNHBR, she makes a great PB&J and was a savior with her magic beer runs!

July

Work sent me to Europe for some meetings, and I was able to sneak down to france and see the start of the tour!

August

WE GOT MARRIED!! Island Pond Road Rally and Katie did her first half century! and she didn’t kill me either!

September

We got some down time during September to hang out with friends and relax.

October

Katie and I realized we hadn’t camped all year, so “someone” had the smart idea to camp up north of Mt. Washington. It was a really good camping trip, just a little cold and windy on top of Mt. Washington.

November

Katie found inexpensive tickets to Iceland! So we went with Pat and CIndy.

December

Christmas is always a long event for Katie and I. This year we had a full week of holiday excitement.

 

Well, That wraps up my year in pictures review. I have so many more, and the memories are even greater.