Practicing the Small Stuff

I'm racing the Rocky Mountain State Games Triathlon tomorrow. It's the only local, open water triathlon in Colorado Springs and a very low key event. It's the perfect opportunity to work on the small stuff in preparation for the big events down the road. This event is important to me because I did it last year and messed up LOTS of small things. Let's look at a few of last years mishaps with this years fixes:

#1 Coming out of the first transition, I jumped on my bike. It was a slight uphill start. I had left my gearing as I usually do for a flatter start. When I went to pedal, I could barely move the cranks since I was so over geared. I fell off my bike to the side, remounted and fell again. It was very embarrassing and cost me a lot of time.

The fix: This year, the start is flatter. That being said, I will err on the side of being slightly under geared and work my way through my rear cassette as needed.

Before crashing, life was good!

#2 This was a looped course with a 180 degree turn at the end of each loop. Once you had completed all loops, you bypass the 180 degree turn, stay to your right and ride towards transition 2. I had been riding well after the T1 mishap and was about 10 seconds behind a guy riding equally as well. He veered left and slowed to make his 180 degree turn. He then realized that he was done and didn't need to make this 180 turn, and cut back hard right, directly in front of me. He then inexplicably stopped after he had already cut me off from his turning error. I slammed into his back wheel, my shoe flew off tearing up my big toe and lost my chain. I guess my point is that no matter how well someone can ride, assume they don't know what they are doing and be cautious. This is even more true for this event with a large number of first time triathletes. 

The fix: I will focus on every person in front of me under the assumption that they are newer to the sport and could make a mistake at any time.

Every step hurt.

#3 I started the run with the skin from my big toe gone and bleeding profusely. I was in pain and angry at being taken out by that rider and started hammering on the run. I lost my cool and violated my number one rule of racing, patience. Of course I blew up after starting too hard and had my worst race in many years.

The fix: This year, I will run with patience. I will start fast but controlled knowing I have 18-19 minutes left in me to deliver a good result.

Bottom line is I need to "THINK" through this race tomorrow so things like transition become second nature in future races. After all, the big ones are in September at Ironman 70.3 World Championship and finally, Ironman Arizona in November. No time to screw up the small stuff.

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!

Cheyenne Cañon Hill Climb

For the past 8 years or so, I have been joining a group to run up Cheyenne Cañon. Most are folks from Team C.R.U.D. www.teamcrud.com , a local ultra running group that does crazy stuff on a weekly basis. This run happens every Thursday morning from the time change in November until the times changes back in the Spring. After the first run of the year and people have a time to base future runs off, it's done as a handicap run with the goal for everyone to finish at 6:40. This means that a 35 min runner would start at 6:05, a 40 minute runner at 6:00, a 45 minute runner at 5:55, etc. The goal is to have everyone coming up that last straightaway with the entire group insight, hopefully all finishing within seconds of each other. It makes it really fun, regardless of ability level since the playing field is evened out with the handicapped timing at the start. It's a little over 4 miles long but is ALL uphill. For comparison, times for the climb are pretty close to what people run for a 10k flat run. 2.2 miles less distance, similar times. It's a real kick in the rear. I thought I'd share my file via Training Peaks so you can see the challenge. It's and awesome run! Please come out and join us. My Training Peaks file.

Trying to Get Back Where I Belong

This summer, I experienced my first real injury. I tore both my calves during the Garden of The Gods Ten Mile Run. Just before the 3 mile mark, I started cramping badly. I foolishly pushed on and tore right through one, then the other calf. I ran about 6 or 7 times over an 8 week period after that. I lost some serious fitness during that time. I'm still trying to get back to where I was but am happy to report that I am injury free* and "close" to the fitness level I expect of myself. I have been trying to get back into proper shape and  have been using this time of year to make sure I get out and run with my friends as often as possible. We have been doing Tue/Thu Track/Tempo workouts the past 4 weeks and it has been great. First, I love seeing some of these guys improvements on both the physical and mental side of things. Second, I think I will be able to race soon at near peak fitness for this time of year. Most of our group is gearing up for the Rock Canyon 1/2 Marathon on December 1st. Personally, I'm working to get to the point where I improve on my time from last year. I'm pushing for the guys to get down there and go after it.

*I had typed this up one day and the next, my right calf started hurting again. Nothing like the summer injuries but enough to back me off. I was able to run 48hrs later up a 4 mile, 1700 foot climb and descend with no issues so I'm fine. Just to be safe, I'll be smart and give up running for the next 5 days. I just used an elliptical machine for the first time to compensate for the lack of running. It was a weird feeling coming off that device then walking on solid ground.

Back on the Horse!!

I have not posted anything here in a very long time. I've had many thoughts about posts I would make and then never put it down. I regret this as it helps me see where I've been so I can plan where I will go in the future. That being said, I am going to try to post at least once a week with training, racing and just where I'm at with my endurance sports life. I am coming off a summer of some lows due to my first real injury. Through that, I experienced a breakthrough race (Pikes Peak Ascent) that only came about because I was forced to be conservative. I'll touch on that more as I write over the months. Until then, please stay tuned. This should be fun!!

Ironman World Championship 2010

What a fun day! I had a goal of racing sub 10 hours regardless of conditions. I was so close last year finishing in 10:03+ so I thought this was quite doable with the experience I gained from 2009. Read below to see how the day went.

                       Pre-Race

I woke up my usual 3 hrs early to get some food in the system. I took a shower. I know it seems strange that I'd take one knowing I'm going to sweat all day but it refreshes me and helps me get going. Not being a coffee drinker, this gets me going. I went down to the race area and got marked. I went into the hotels internet cafe and just relaxed in there for a while. I was trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. Around 6:30, I went down to the transition area and sat there until 6:50 before heading to the beach. I went in, looked around to truly appreciate the crowds and competitors and then swam out to the race start.

             The Swim

This years rules changed so that we couldn't wear a speedsuit. I had no idea how this would affect me but guessed it should be the same for everyone. I just wore my tri-shorts with no top and was ready to roll! Unlike last year, I started well to the left of the pier. I had been bruised and battered during the early part of the swim in 2009 and was looking to avoid that this time around. The gun went off and I was surprised by how much clean water I had in front of me. I was drafting others and not getting beat up. I was feeling great! About 10 minutes into the swim, a huge group all got together. We beat the heck out of each other for about 20 minutes plus. It was slow going but I stayed focused and just took the beating while moving forward. At the turnaround, things started to spread out. I tried my best to draft but wasn't doing so well with it. I swam solo most the way back and unfortunately, there was a current we were swimming directly into. While it's the same for everyone, it's still hard. Unlike last year, I came out of the water feeling GREAT and I was about 2 minutes faster than last year in 1:13:12. I was in 1017th place after the swim. I am a TERRIBLE swimmer!!

                               T1

I had practiced this a little because I knew I'd have to put a dry jersey on a wet body. I'd never done this before because I've always worn my full triathlon kit under my wetsuit or speedsuit. Everything went as planned and I got out of transition in 3:07.

                            The Bike

I jumped on the bike and felt pretty good right away. Rather than hammer away right out of the gate, I went into an easy ring. I did this for the first few minutes to make sure I was settled before the short climb up Kuakini Hwy. Once on Kuakini, I put it in a gear that was not giving away any speed but not beating my legs. After the turnaround on Kuakini, I was flying. I was also incredibly relaxed. I was more relaxed for this race than I have been at any of the 6 previous Ironman distance races I've been in. It felt kind of weird not being all worked up. There was a slight tailwind with the downhill from Kuakini.. Everyone was motoring so my concern was to not get caught up in someones poor bike handling skills that could take me out early. The bike was really uneventful for the first 30 miles. I was taking in my nutrition at regular intervals with no issues. About that time, I was coming up on a small group of riders. There were 6-8 of them riding legally and I figured I would pass them over the course of the next mile. Right as I came up on the guy in the back, a group of 10-15 guys who were not riding very legal boxed me in. At this point, I was full on drafting the three guys riding three abreast at the front of the group so I immediately hit the brakes. Doing so had all those other guys spring past me. I was trying to stay legal and doing a good job of it but was now going pretty slow. The group ahead were jockeying back and forth, out of the saddle....just hammering. I knew I needed to get past them but these guys weren't the type to let someone pass easily. I saw an opening that was created when the original group of 6-8 guys got passed by the group of 10-15. I hammered past them and tucked in to a legal position between the two groups. I gave myself a couple of minutes to get my heart rate where it needed to be then hit the gas to get past them. I got past all but 3 of them. Those last 3 were not going to let me go. 2 of those 3 guys got penalties over the next 3 miles. I have to say, one of them was a tough call because he was trying to pass someone then got blocked. The guy blocking got no penalty but the guy who didn't (couldn't) pass got nailed. I was now past this big group and only focused on passing individual riders and small groups ahead. As I made the turn to climb to Hawi around mile 41, I was feeling good. There was no wind and no whitecaps on the water so I was thinking this could be an easy climb. I made sure I was up on nutrition after riding harder than I wanted to get past that earlier group. Everything changed 2 miles later. There weren't whitecaps in the water. It was more like waves. I had my bike completely leaning toward the water to stay upright. The wind was relentless. I was in the small ring on the front and needing all of my gears on the back to keep moving forward. There wasn't a whole lot of passing now. I was just trying to keep my HR at a reasonable level until the turnaround. About 2 miles before the turnaround at Hawi, the wind eased. It did pick right back up on the descent but I did much better with it than on the trip up. I ended up getting past a lot of people who were upright and nervous. Once at the bottom of the climb, I was feeling really fresh. I didn't go hard but went at a pace to keep my speed up but not pushing hard enough to damage the legs for the run. There was a head wind the final 30 miles but nothing too bad. Living in Colorado has made that type of wind the norm so I just focused on getting calories in for the upcoming run. There were no issues the rest of the ride and I made it back to T2 with a bike time of 5:12:39. The ride was pretty drama free except for that short section where I was trying to avoid drafting. My time was slightly faster than last year and I passed 437 people during those 112 miles. I was now in 580th place..

                    T2

I came into transition and just let my bike fly off to a volunteer as I was trying to save every second possible.  I had a little issue with the tongue of my shoe but got through that and headed out to the run feeling AMAZING. My T2 time was 2:49.

                  The Run

The run was where I hoped to pull back the majority of those 3+ minutes from last year to break 10 hours. I had never felt so good starting an Ironman run as I did on this day. While not 100% fresh, my legs were completely underneath me. No Ironman shuffle or anything like that. I was able to immediately start running like I would on any other day. I was running most of my miles in the low 7 minute range (don't pay attention to those run splits or Ironmanlive...they were quite inaccurate). I was really focused on a solid first 10 miles. This is by far the fastest section of the run. It is completely flat and there is a good breeze off the ocean before you head out to the Queen K Highway. It really helps keep the core temperature down.  I hit the 10 mile mark feeling pretty good. I was determined to run out of town better than I did in 2009. This happens just after the 10 mile mark. I took me over 11 minutes for that particular mile last year. Not only did I run it that slow, I was beat down and it took a couple of miles to get back into a good rhythm. Not this year. I ran up the hills well focusing on my cadence. While climbing Palani was tough, I managed to run that same tough mile in 8:24 this time. It was way slower than any mile I had run so far, but a lot faster than 2009 and I still felt pretty good. This was very encouraging. I continued to keep checking my internal systems to make sure I wasn't losing cadence and keeping fueled. I would count my cadence at least once per mile for a minute and I was holding the same turnover. The conditions were pretty good. While still hot, there was this cloud cover that would come and go throughout the run. I tend to do well in the heat so when we'd have longer stretches of direct sun, I'd end up passing a lot of people. When the clouds would come out, I'd just kind of hold my position. I started to feel the effects of the day around the 13 mile mark. Nothing drastic. Just some fatigue in my hamstrings. It was a reminder that this was not easy! My cadence was still the same but the push off wasn't quite as strong. I had no issues for the remaining miles into the Natural Energy Lab. It was pretty hot down there and I passed a lot of people even though I was slowing down. After the climb out of there, I was feeling good but ready to be done. The legs were achy and wanting to stop but I never did. I'm proud to say I never stopped the entire marathon...not even to walk an aid station. I was taking in all the volunteers energy and hopefully giving back some of my own with high fives and hang loose signs. They were fantastic the entire day. I hit mile 24 and all of a sudden, things weren't feeling so good. The left hamstring was really tight. This went on for the next 15 minutes or so but eased up to the point where I was loose and running well. That was the only excitement of the entire run. Here are my run splits. Miles 1 and 2 are combined because I forgot to hit the lap button out of transition.
1.14:40          8.   7:13         15.  7:50       22.  7:59         
2.                   9.   7:22         16.  6:35       23.  7:53
3. 7:11          10.  7:28         17.  7:43       24.  8:39
4. 6:59          11.  8:24         18.  7:32       25.  8:38
5. 7:00          12.  6:51         19.  7:48       26.  6:59
6. 7:11          13.  7:20         20.  7:59       .2    1.22
7. 7:11          14.  7:39         21.  7:45

Signaling to my family watching me back home

I ended up running the marathon in 3:17:55 passing another 256 people in the process. This had me finish in 9:49:42, 13:44 faster than 2009! Overall, I had a good but not great day. I do consider my run to be great for my standards. This was a run PR in an Ironman by almost 8 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

               Wrap Up

I look at this race as real boring as far as things happening out of the ordinary during the race. There was no spot where I was in a real bad place that I had to pull myself from. That doesn't mean it wasn't very hard. It was and I had to dig deep at various parts of the race. That's expected and had been planned for so it was very normal in that sense. I enjoyed race day much more than last year. Having done it before, I knew a lot of what to expect. I was able to enjoy the crazy groups of spectators, the energetic volunteers, men hammering so a woman wouldn't pass them, and most importantly the amazing group of athletes that I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to race against. This is a race I would love to be able to do every year. I had to go without my family so I had an empty feeling the entire week as well as post race. They are such a big part of this journey and to not have them there took a lot away from it. For that reason, I am done racing Ironman as far as I can tell. Unless we come into a bunch of money to bring the entire family over, I'm going to go for some different things here in Colorado. It's been a great ride. I raced my first Ironman at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005 in 11:52+. Since then, I've been able to take over 2 hours off that time at the World Championship. With the help of a great group of friends and an incredibly supportive family, I've been able to race in the pinnacle event of our sport in Hawaii twice. Hopefully I'll be back some day but if not, I have no regrets.