Triathlon the "Old School" way.

His/Her Tri at Lake Berryessa was October 6th and 7th. A sprint tri which really speaks to the changing demographics in the sport. On Saturday, the ladies only event drew 555 finishers, while on Sunday, the mens field drew 153 finishers. If you have never done a Dave Horning race, this one is very enjoyable.
definitely low key, low tech, and wildly basis. This course is actually closed to auto traffic during the race, both out and back. Here is a look at the after race eats...

This race however is well worth doing, it brings back a much more casual feel to the sport, while still being competitive. It is a weekend party, in an area that has "closed" down after labor day. The Triathlon was the Lake's entire entertainment.

Welcome to Louisville

The City of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and is named after King Louis XVI of France.The Cheeseburger originated at Kaelin's Restaurant on Newburg Road in 1934. Muhammad Ali, world recognized Louisvillian and Kentucky's Athlete of the Century, was a three-time heavyweight boxing champion.And now Louisville has an Ironman event.
Ironman Louisville was a mostly well organized and fun event. The modified swim course turned out to be a blessing, no mass start, just single file off a boat dock...all 2100 +, one after another. The water was unbelievably HOT at 86 degrees (not to mention that Kentucky can also get VERY HOT). Who would have thought that the Ohio River could get that HOT? By the way, the Ohio River stretches 981 miles and is one of the major rivers of North America.
Now for the swim...It was not my first choice as far as an easy course to pace on, but I cannot pace my swim anyhow. I have one speed. Or two, depending upon the current, which made my swim a little less enjoyable.
The bike course was scenic as I saw on my preview ride/drive on Wednesday. On race day, I didn’t look around too much, I was still suffering from the affects of being in the water much too long (no wetsuits allowed).Back to the bike, a nice combination of hills and light wind kept me fairly focused at first, and then riding with everyone that enjoyed their saddle time longer than me, I concentrated on avoiding bad situations.
I witnessed a couple of 5-10 rider pile-ups for simple reasons such as failing to pedal going up a hill.
I felt good for the first 3 hours, then realized that I pushed too hard, and had to notch back a bit. I suffered the last 30 miles with saddle issues and fatigue, sore shoulder and neck – and that should have been the easy part as the course which was rolling, heading down or flat. Adding to my misery, I was riding a Tri bike when the course REALLY wanted a road bike with way less of an aero position for comfort.
I think I saw my highest HR of the day at T2 and on to the run. After a short pit stop , I found my one-speed running rhythm, which eventuall changed to several speeds. I definitely needed to have trained more for the run, but it was too late now. This run course is straight out and back 4 times, and is a bit boring. But as boring as it was the heat was an issue all day. Moral of this story, those of us from more temperate west coast climates really need to accumulate to southern humidity, as it can make for a very long day…


dave hendsch-polar san francisco
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The END

Team Polar San Francisco goes to Wildflower

I along with 4 other of my team mates attended Wildflower this year. It started off to be a great weekend. I met one of my favourite Amazing Race participants; Sarah. She was representing CAF. Who knows maybe I can replace her old partner from the LA Tri club; Peter for the reunion show. Sarah can clearly see that Team Polar San Francisco is where is at at.

Although the sun was shining; it was was very windy and hot. In fact there were white caps on the lake on Saturday morning. I believe these continued into Sunday with even hotter weather. These made for a rough swim. The wind didn't help on the bike either until we turned that corner. From what I understand there were no records set on the course that weekend. However, Team Polar San Francisco did well.

Kyle did the Olympic course on Sunday he came first in his age group and 9thy overall . Another great finish for Kyle.

Also in the same age group as Kyle was Ed Swanson. He did very well in coming in the top 25% of his age group.

The other three members of Team San Francisco who competed at Wildflower were Myself (Mandie Rewcastle), Nicole McNair and Dave Hendsch. We all did the Long Course on Saturday.





Dave finished strong in his age group; he placed 11th.













After not fully coming back from my knee and hip injury I ended up doing the swim and the bike portions of a relay. Although I was feeling so good on my bike that I was hoping that my relay partner was not going to be there and I was going to take her shoes and run. She was in fact ready and the "M&M Chixs" were happy with our 3rd place finish. However, it is just as well Mindy did the run as I ended up with very sever sun burns from the biking portion. A tip for you do not use aerosol sunscreen on a windy day.

Kristina Pollak leads Polar Training Clinic

Kristina Pollak provided a training clininc for her fellow atheletes at the M2 Revolution cycle class.



Her group was ver excited to try out the new watches, learn about the features and most importantly learn about the benefits of heart rate training.

Front of the Pack

Team Polar kicked of its first retail clinic at Front of the pack in the beginning of April. There was a steady flow of people eager to play with the demo equipment and have questions answered by Polar Phil.

Kyle and Wil were also on hand to answer a plethora of questions and give out those really cool Polar hats.

Kyle Welch from San Francisco Team Polar takes 1st Place in Age Group at Oceanside

The race conditions were excellent in Kyle's opinion. The water temperature was just about 60F ... which was quite a bit warmer than it was the last few years (perhaps having it two weeks later in the month made a difference). The weather was good too, certainly a lot better than the last two years when it rained. The morning was a little nippy, but by the time he got on the bike it had warmed up and was never too cold nor too hot. Not too much wind on the bike either ... which was nice. There is usually a strong headwind during the last 6-7 miles of the bike course. The sun was out all during the run and it was breezy so it never felt too hot. All in all a very good day weather-wise. Of course after taking the top spot the outlook always looks sunny.

Team Polar San Francisco has kicked of the season with a series of events. The first training clinic was held in Solvang earlier this month. The CS200 were set up on the bikes. I think that the ease of setting up the monitors on their bikes was a huge plus. Since one of the participants had 650 wheels, and still got accurate data she was sold. It started off to be a grueling century with strong headwinds for the first 60 miles. At one point we weren't sure if the monitors were working since it seemed like we always had 40 miles to go for hours, but unfortunately it was the riders.

After positive feedback from riders doing the Solvang Century some of my team mates wanted to try the monitors out during a local metric century. Some of the bikes were set up again with CS200 for the Cinderella Century and others used the RS200. The 67 miles during this ride flew by. Unlike Solvang there did not seem to be a strong headwind, which seems odd since there are more windmills per capita in Livermore than anywhere else in the world (although that may be a local rumor!)

The RS200sd also made an appearance at Run like the Wind; a new half marathon/5K in the East Bay. The run was organized by my local run club; 2nd Wind. There were over 1000 participants. It was very well organized with a very hilly course. If you made the race you probably saw my kids giving out water at station #3 and if you didn't see them you probably heard them. Some of the 5K participants used the RS200sd. Most of the participants who used the watches were hooked. They were new to running and were looking to see how they were progressing. One of the participants left the race and headed over to Forward Motion the buy their new watch.