Back in the Game!

I'm back! After I raced the Ironman World Championship in 2010, I thought it may have been my last Ironman race. This sport can be very expensive and it was just prohibitive for my family to keep having me do these races. I always had it in my mind that I wanted to get back to Ironman. I've done a bunch of 1/2 Ironman races since then and they are great but they just don't excite me the way Ironman does. In early June, an opportunity came my way that got me pretty excited. X²PERFORMANCE® team announced that they were putting a triathlon team together to race Ironman Arizona and Ironman Florida in November 2013. I had sampled their ATP enhancing supplement at the Ironman 70.3 St. George in May and was excited about the product. This seemed like a perfect fit so I submitted my resume and was recently selected to the team! I can not wait to get back to Ironman. I have very high expectations for the day so hard training has begun. 

This year will be even more special as I have the opportunity to race the Ironman World Championship 70.3 in September based on my result in St. George. I have many wonderful friends that have helped my with my journey but Glenn Strebe and Tim Parchinski in particular made sure that 70.3 Worlds happened for me. I was going to pass up my slot for worlds but they forced the issue on me. I wouldn't be able to do many of the things I do without the support so thank you guys! My buddies Kevin Dessart (who just qualified for Kona...he's amazing) and Jay Pino are going to be along for the ride as we push each other the make the end of this racing year a successful one for all of us. Finally, thank you X²PERFORMANCE® for selecting me to be a part of this team. This looks to be an amazing summer of training and racing. Stay tuned for frequent updates on my progress. You can can check back here and at my Facebook page that was created for the team. Please go in and like that page. I would really appreciate it. You can also see my personal Facebook page for my regular updates. Thanks everyone!

Progress

I raced the Boulder Sunrise triathlon Last Saturday. I did the olympic distance event and it went about as well as expected. I thought I could crack the top 3 on a great day and definitely the top 10 on a good day. I achieved the latter of the two.This ended up being a good race with a few hiccups at the beginning and end that I'll get in to. Let's start with the swim. I felt like I was swimming and sighting well but I didn't draft effectively and I lost feet too often to get that big advantage. I mucked around the water and came out in over 26 minutes. I was using more of the new technique I'm being taught. It felt very different in open water and a wetsuit. I have a LOTS of work to do in this area but I have no complaints about how it shaped up as I was faster than when I did this event the year before. While I certainly wasn't thrilled with being 22nd out of the water, I believe I'm on the right track. Transition was nice and quick. The problem was what happened as soon as I got out of T1. I had my shoes clipped on to to my pedals as I headed out of transition. Rookie mistake #1-I didn't open up the velcro on the shoe and was playing with them for a good 60 seconds trying to get the shoe open. Duh. Once on, I sped out of the reservoir and started picking people off. I felt pretty sluggish the entire ride but managed to not let anyone pass me. I took 2 gels during the ride and was fine with nutrition. It was a very cool day so weather was not a factor. The bike went on uneventful. Since I felt a little flat on the bike, I would kick in a few intervals to see if I would come good. Never happened. After the bike, I had a quick transition and was off running. I felt great right out of T1 and was motoring. I had a guy on me for the first 1/2 mile and then he fell off pretty quickly. I was now in chasing mode but I didn't know who to chase with racers from a sprint triathlon, duathlon and 5k all on the same course. At the turnaround, the leader came towards me ( I know knew who was in my raced based off their bib numbers) and I knew I was in 7-10th place. There were a couple right ahead that I knew I would pass soon. I held a nice steady tempo and ran through the field. There are 3 sections where you have to do a 180 degree turn on this course. That means you get to see your competitors 3 times. At the final 180 degree turn, there were 2 people ahead of me I knew I was going to pass and that this would put me in 4th place overall. The guy that ultimately came in 3rd was running well and a minute ahead of me with 1.5 miles to go so. I passed the two people in front of me but could not see the 3rd place guy. Rather than dig deep and see what I had left, I dialed it down a tad knowing my 4th place spot was secure and that I couldn't catch 3rd since he was out of my sights. Rookie mistake #2. ALWAYS keep racing. I ended up only 27 seconds behind 3rd place. For all I know, he stopped and talked to his family, friends which is why I made up over 30 seconds in that short period but I just don't know. Also, had I pushed and got near him, it's quite probable that he would have had a kick too as evidenced by how well he was running earlier. Regardless, I need to at least give myself a chance. Ultimately, I came in 4th overall and 1st in my age group. I was happy with the result and the hard effort I gave for the "majority" of my race.  My swim split was 22nd overall, bike 2nd overall and run 4th overall.

My takeaways:

Swim-I am in the process of doing a lot of swim training with an outside eye on my technique. This is still new and a work in progress but I like where it's going. I've proven that I can have a bike/run that competes with just about everyone in my age group but none of that matters if I can't get out of the swim closer to others than bike/run well. My ultimate goal is my September race so I've got time to put in a solid, focused swim effort for the next 3 months.

Transition-This was the 2nd time in my past 4 triathlons where things done in transition (not loosening my shoe straps for this race) tripped my up. Both happened in low key races so I took it for granted that I was all set up with my bike. I need to give these races the same amount of thought as I do in my priority races. No excuses for a bad transition. It's the easiest part of the day.

Run-I am running extremely well right now. I ran sub 6min pace for the run portion after a hard bike so I'm very encouraged.

I need a lot of work on my swim with some increased power numbers on the bike. My training in May was very focused and I have improved a lot in that short period of time. I have a 5 day triathlon camp in Crested Butte with some friends in mid June where I will be gaining even more fitness as I move towards my late Summer race. I've made a lot of progress in a 4 week period. I intend to keep pushing myself through the summer to meet my ultimate goal. Things are looking up!