Friday, May 22 2009, was a sad day. Steve Larsen, the only pro road racer, mountain biker, and ironman triathlete died at the age of 39. He collapsed while on a training run. The cause is as yet unknown but a heart attack has apparently been ruled out by autopsy -not as easy to do as you might think. Attention is now focused on the breathing problems Steve developed over the past week.
Steve Larsen, who used to live in Davis, where he had a bike shop, recently moved to Bend Oregon and had a real estate business there. He retired from pro racing but kept competing at the amateur level. In the early 90's he raced for the Motorola team alongside Lance Armstrong. He also won Ironman Lake Placid, and came in a respectable 9th in the Hawaii Ironman. He won the National XC title twice and competed in XTerra events. He leaves behind a wife and five children.
The kids were off from school Friday for the Memorial Day weekend. Alistair and I rode 50 miles on Mines road around noon. It was quite warm at 84F and surprisingly windy. We rode out past the county line and over the first climb (midway to San Jose) to mile marker 23. The road continues as San Antonio valley road and then Hamilton Rd. The markers go up from San Jose and climb to 27 at the county line. Then they count down from 20 to Livermore. We took only one water bottle each and were quite dehydrated by the end of it. We also rode hard in sections and that may have added to our water deficit.
Today I swam 166 laps or 3,000 meters in the pool. I started out strong and fast -certainly as compared to the other two pool users, but faded a bit near the end. I took a brief stop at 106 (half ironman distance) to clear my goggles. Then I swam until 152 when I had to stop for a cramp in my foot. I continued on for another 14 laps with breaks in between.
No comments:
Post a Comment