Green Mountain Triathlon Camp

New triathlon venture for GMM teammates this year:

GMM members Sean Luitjens and Donna Smyers have joined forces to host the first Green Mountain Triathlon Camp at The Essex Spa and Resort. Guest coaches include several current and former GMM athletes. The camps will be held May 10-13 and May 30-June 3, 2012.  More information can be found at www.greenmountaintricamp.com - Don't miss it!

Turning the Page to Twenty Twelve

2012 Roster is Complete- Upper-case Welcome to new members Keith & Michelle Rousseau, Alex Jasinowski, Marty and Kristen Courcelle, Todd Smith, Glen Howard, Luke Faryniarz, Jeff Schumann, Chris Aher.  We also welcome back formally hombre Dave Kestenbaum who took last year off from team kit ;)  

We are excited so much interest and talent, which paradoxically makes the membership board meeting so difficult.  We are honored to include you, and keep coming back to the simple mission that GMM will remain a community of friends, provide quality benefits /activities, and support the local racing community whenever possible.

Welcome also to three local sponsors!  These companies hail from the Green Mountain State and share an interest in active and healthy lifestyles.  They have invested financially in our racing team, and are committed to sharing our success over upcoming seasons.  We will be hearing more from each of them soon.  Until then, become familiar with their great product and service by surfing over to the right>>>

State of Vermont, Department of Tourism, Montpelier 

Metaball (dba Vermont Nut-Free Chocolates), South Hero 

EPIC (www.epich2o.com), Williston 

The off season brings some well deserved downtime for many endurance athletes.  However not all of our 40 members can be found actually resting.  One of the most colorful surprises this season was seeing Green Mountain Multisport athletes Ray Webster and Angie Defilippi win the 1st Annual RiRa Santa 5k.  You can pick them out of this red & white blur because they finished First Male Santa, and First Female Santa and got a bag of goodies to prove it!

Green Mountain Multisport also had good presence at 43rd Annual RunVermont's First Run 5k in Downtown Burlington.  Slushy puddles and foggy hangovers couldnt stop 13 team members from slipping on racing flats for a trip down to the pain cave.  Sarah Pribrum and Eric Darling even brought matching Pink Pajama-gram Hoodie-Footies for everyone to wear at this fun New Years Day event.  I'm not sure if we will be equipping the entire team in Pink terry cloth for 2012, but it was good fun for one day!

OnTrack Spin #1 was a success on December 17th, and please be on the lookout for our January date for #2.  Don't forget to shoot Mike (falcon6183 at yahoo dot com) RSVP so we can have sufficient bagel/coffee rations available.

-ST

Green Mountain Multisport Thanks Sponsor Black Dog Photography for Support

Owner Jared Katz gave us "race face" pics at both Lake Dunmore Olympic and USAT Nationals.  

18 team members raced in Age Group Championships this year, and by having a professional photographer we can now share some of that energy and pride. 

For a look at the team on race day CLICK HERE

When you need professional photography in the Vermont area, be sure to drop Jared a personal note at jdkatzvt at mac dot com.  Check out his site at www.blackdogphotos.com and note a special survey of Hurricane Irene's effects on his community. 

 

   

 

GREEN MOUNTAIN MULTISPORT IN PRINT

GMM team members were featured in atleast three publications this August, and we have saved their stories here for posterity:


Triathlon notebook: Adamant's Donna Smyers wins to lead Vermont contingent Excerpt from Burlington FreePress 10:50 PM, Aug. 20, 2011 

Written by Alex Abrami and John A Fantino, Free Press Staff 

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110820/SPORTS/110820013/Triathlon-notebook-Adamant-s-Donna-Smyers-wins-lead-Vermont-contingent

Donna Smyers added another championship to her impressive triathlon racing resume.

The Adamant resident prevailed in the 50-54 women’s division at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships to lead Vermonter contingent on Saturday.

Not that it was a big surprise, since Smyers also won world age-group championships in 2002 and 2004. Smyers is also an accomplished Ironman Triathlete but decided to focus on shorter races this year. She finished the 1½-kilometer swim, 40-k bike and 10-k run in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 9 seconds.

Smyers’ younger sister, Hall of Fame professional triathlete and seven-time elite national champion Karen Smyers, was the announcer during Saturday’s race.

Donna Smyers wasn’t the only Vermont triathlete to shine. Jessie Donavan of Shelburne finished third among 35-39-year-old woman. Stowe’s Keith Woodward also took third in the 60-64 male age group while Burlington’s Jason Frank was fifth among 25-29 men.

Other Vermonters who finished in the top 18 in their age groups and qualified for the 2012 World Age Group Championships in New Zealand included: Jeffrey Schumann of Salisbury (sixth in M 55-59), Peter Schneider of Shelburne (seventh in M 35-39), Andreas Nolte of Jericho (seventh in M 50-54), Albert Farrington of South Burlington (ninth in M 70-74), Lucus Moore of Wolcott (ninth in M 30-34), John Spinney of Waterbury (11th in M 35-39), John Brodhead of Craftsbury (12th in M 65-69), Dorthy Martin of Montpelier (12th in F 50-54), Angie Defilippi of Colchester (12th in F 35-39), Mariana Lara of Stowe (13th in F 35-39), Tom Montemagni of Stratton (15th in M 65-69), Chris Coffey (16th in M 30-34) and David Connery of Shelburne (18th in M 40-44).

Colchester's Angie DeFilippi to give USA Triathlon championships try
Excerpt from Burlington FreePress: 2:55 PM, Aug. 7, 2011 

By John A. Fantino, Free Press Staff Writer
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110806013

Angie DeFilippi is about to go out of her comfort zone in a familiar setting.


For more than a decade, the 35-year-old Colchester triathlete has thrived in grueling Ironman events. She hasn’t had much desire to compete in races shorter than those involving 2.4-mile swims, 112-mile bike rides and 26.2-mile runs. Until now.


Ironman specialists rarely drop down to shorter races on the national level, but DeFilippi didn’t think twice about making an exception to enter the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Burlington on Aug. 20.

“To have such a high-profile event here, right in my backyard, is so exciting,” DeFilippi said. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

Top-flight amateur triathletes from across the country are heading to battle in an Olympic-distance event featuring a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run. More than 2,000 competitors, ranging from 18 years old to 80-plus, will vie for national championships on a course starting and ending on Burlington’s Waterfront Park.

Considering she’s had very little time to train for the shorter distances that rely on speed more than endurance, DeFilippi admits her chances to beat the nation’s elite in the 35- to 39-year-old age group are slim.

“I can hold my own on local short-distance races, but I’m expecting at a national-level race to get crushed,” DeFilippi said. “I’ll give it my all, but I probably won’t place in this race the way I’d hope to place in an Ironman.”

DeFilippi has enjoyed plenty of success in Ironmans. Winning her age group at the Lake Placid Ironman last month in a personal-best 10 hours, 32 minutes, she was the 13th woman to finish in a field of 696 that included professionals.

“Everything came together,” DeFilippi said. “I had my fastest bike ever in an Ironman and followed it up with my fastest run ever.

“I think it’s just years of experience, learning from mistakes, trying new things, and I really think your endurance improves year after year,” she added. “After so many years of racing, it’s nice to still be improving.”

After the Burlington race, DeFilippi will ramp up training for the Ironman World Championships to be held Oct. 8 in Kona, Hawaii. The trip will mark the 10th straight year she’s earned a spot in the sport’s most prestigious event.

Triple Threat: Amateur triathletes race for the national championships this weekend in Burlington
Excerpt from Seven days vermont’s independent newsweekly 08.17.11 

By Warren Cornwall
http://www.7dvt.com/2011burlington-triathlon

Seven years ago, Jamie Harnish was getting a little soft.


As the accountant edged into his thirties, the years he’d spent building his career in Boston, the time away from his bicycle and a sweet tooth conspired to push his weight over the 200-pound mark.


So, when he moved back to his hometown of Essex, Vt., in 2004, Harnish started riding his bike again. When a neighbor mentioned a triathlon coming up in Shelburne, he looked at the distances and signed up.


“I was like, ‘Five hundred yards. Yeah, I can swim that,’” Harnish recalls.


Today, Harnish has more than two dozen triathlons to his name, including a couple of grueling Ironman races. What started as a whim has turned into a passion. He’s spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars pursuing the sport. Harnish’s face has taken on the faintly gaunt look of the endurance athlete, his 6-foot-1 frame whittled down to 175 pounds. Recently, his 9-year-old daughter didn’t recognize him when she looked at a photo taken nine years ago.


This Saturday, Harnish expects to add another race to his resume when he and more than 1900 fellow triathletes plunge into Lake Champlain along Burlington’s waterfront for the start of the annual amateur U.S. National Championship. (Full disclosure: I’m competing on the same triathlon team, Green Mountain Multisport.)


It will be the largest gathering of triathletes ever in Vermont, and the first time Burlington has attracted a marquee event in the sport. Local businesses and tourism promoters are hoping the region can benefit, to the tune of some $2 million. This milestone comes at a time when triathlons have evolved from a fringe activity for masochists into popular mass events that draw beginners and weekend warriors in Vermont and elsewhere.

Alex Geller: Mountain States Cup XC Race Report

Fun, Fun, and suffering.Excerpt from "Dreaming of Leadville: A blog about my trip to Colorado to compete in the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race"

Catamount Reservoir Looking at Pikes Peak

The last week has been filled with a lot of fun. I’ve been mountain biking around Woodland Park here and there with my host Roger’s two, adorable Australian Sheppard / Border collie mix dogs, Buckey and Kona. You can throw whatever you want at these dogs and they just keep pushing the pace and coming back for more. The other day I took them on a 15 mile, 3 hour bike ride at Catamount Reservior, which is located at the at the northern base of Pike’s Peak. Just about the entire time, these two rascals would be weaving their way through the woods at breakneck speeds to be anxiously waiting at the top of each hill. I’m sure they were thinking “man, this guy is fun to punish” I think these two are the best training partners I’ve had the pleasure of biking with so far.

The next day Roger talked me into (without much persuasion) tagging along on a trip to Snowmass Colorado while he competed in the Mountain States Cup Mountain Bike series. Roger has participated in just about every one of these races and is currently positioned as the number 1 racer in his age group. Although I just planned to watch and explore the local trails, it wasn’t long before I saw myself cutting a check for the XC race registration.

Saturday morning at 9AM, I took my place at the start line with all other Category 2 racers. The course was either up or down hill – no flats to be seen. In other words it kicked everybody’s ass. To make matters worse, it involved 2,000 ft of climbing from 8,000 to 10,000 ft each lap. Although I told myself that I would take it easy so that I could save myself for the grand prize, the Leadville 100, I couldn’t help but put the hammer down and figure out just how much all of my training has paid off.

The course was extremely difficult and I regularly caught myself in my heart rate zone 5, or the complete exhaustion / all out effort which can only be maintained for several minutes before lactic acid in your muscles burns you to a crisp or your lungs quit, whichever comes first.

In the first of two laps I stayed strong and mostly held on to my position in the first 10 riders of the field. However, on the second lap, my long training days of 6 and 7 hours in the saddle began to pay off. While most of the racers began to fade slightly, I kept my pace and remained stable with my output, passing people as I climbed up the ski hill. In the final section of the downhill, I saw what I thought was one of the top riders, so I aggressively sped up on the already fast, windy downhill section.

This landed me exactly nothing, as I lost traction on the final turn and wiped out going 30 mph. Luckily the tall grass slowed my yard sale of crash and I quickly remounted my bike with minor scrapes. About 200 yards later I crossed the finish line to discover that I, a sea level flatlander from Vermont had take 4thoverall in the category and 2nd in my age group.

The mental confidence this result has given me is invaluable and will surely go a long way this weekend in Leadville. Sunday was spent watching Roger compete in the short track race and then heading back home over Independence Pass. Independence Pass sits at 12,000ft, whereupon you can hike for an additional 1,000 ft to the top of Twinning Peak.

In order to properly prepare for Leadville, which reaches 12,600ft, it is greatly beneficial to spend as much time as you can at or above that elevation. So, Roger and I set about to hike for a couple hours at altitude. The views were absolutely spectacular and remind me of how different this place is from any semblance of the East Coast.

This week is my taper, or recovery week. This is when I scale back my training efforts significantly to allow for my body to heal itself from the long (about 4 months) training period that has passed. I will be focusing mostly on logistics for the race, like where I will be sleeping, my nutrition plan, and the more basic necessities, like finding a bike to ride for example (read between the lines, FedEx). Till next time (probably Thursday). Take care.
-Alex

Me on the left