The U.S. Open

The U.S. is now behind and the 2010 season has come to a close after 8 months of solid training and racing. Compared to my expectations for the event, I have to say I'm disappointed, but there were definitely reasons to be happy after it was all said and done.

The day started off pretty exciting as I got to the race site and discovered the Amateur Elites (me) would be sharing a special transition with the pros. Yes, the pros. Hunter Kemper, Greg Bennett, Bevan Docherty, Filip Ospaly, Stuart Hayes, Lisa Norden, Daniela Ryf, and the list of Olympians and World Cup champions goes on.
As I set up my transition, going through the usual motions of attaching my shoes to my bike etc, one of the pros came up to me and asked if he could borrow some elastic bands. It was Stuart Hayes. This was going to be an awesome day.

I got in a good warm up and got ready to get into the water for my seven o'clock start. The water temp was borderline wetsuit legal, luckily on the lower end. We dove into Lake Ray Hubbard my goggles smashed straight onto my face. Unable to see clearly I just stroked madly for the first set of feet I could find and held on. I worked my way up through the middle of my wave and came out of the water with a respectable 25 and some seconds after swimming in a rectangle into the current. I made the long run to transition and hopped on my bike, hitting the climb out of transition at top speed.

Once my shoes were on I tried to settle into my time trialing rhythm...but it never came. The course was covered with short, steep hills and narrow, curvy roads that really slowed my time. I got off the bike very dispirited with an average speed of just 21 miles an hour for the slightly shorter than 40K course. I slipped on my running shoes fairly casually as I looked around at all the bikes on the rack, seeing that I was one of the last elites into transition.

I set off on the run, legs on fire from the tough bike. The first three quarters of a mile was uphill so I just tried to relax and let it flow, not pushing too hard knowing how much racing was left. As I finally crested the hill I started to come up on the mile marker and saw 6:12 on my watch. This wasn't going to be a fast race. I kept pushing forward, lifting the pace just a little now that it was a little flatter and just tried to find a good tempo. I passed the two mile and looked down at my watch. 5:45. Things were heating up fast! I kept rolling and just felt the pace get easier as I neared the turnaround and my splits continued to get faster. With two miles to go I started to push really hard and just hoped I could hang on. Up and over a few more climbs then the long downhill run to finish was all that remained. With two tenths to go I caught a runner from the sprint tri and tried to beat him to the line, falling just a meter short. Run split: 35:49. A two minute triathlon 10K PR! Finally some silver lining to an otherwise unspectacular performance.

Looking at the results that afternoon I saw that I had the 22nd fastest run INCLUDING the pros, and was the 22nd non pro, 45th overall. Not what I was hoping for, but definitely something promising to build on for the future. Now it's time to take some time to relax and do some base work. There's another long season ahead.

Outdoor Adventure Triathlon: Two In A Row

The OSU Outdoor Adventure Triathlon took place on September 25th and I was easily able to defend my title and take my second victory in a row after my win at PrairieMan. I stayed with the leader (who ended up being a relay) in the water after doing a lot of extra work to fight my way to front, dodging around the overzealous. I ran fairly comfortably, meeting up with Dad who was on his cross bike around the halfway point. I kept the pace pretty high, but still conversational; it felt like it was about in the 5:45 to 5:50 range. Cruising into T2 with no one else in sight behind, I set off on a pretty casual ride out and back on the hills of Bronco Road. I saluted the crowd with two fingers as I glided easily across the finish line, well over five minutes ahead of the next finisher.

This weekend is what counts. The U.S. Open triathlon. The race Marcin and I have been aiming at for more than fourteen months. It's finally here. The last two weeks have been the biggest taper of my life and I have to say that I've never been fitter and never more optimistic. I know a top three (for a pro card) is in my capabilities if I have a good day, I just have to perform when the time comes. I'll be in the Elite Amateur wave, starting right behind pros like Matt Reed and Greg Bennett. I'm ready to go.

PrairieMan Sprint: Ending the Drought

Two weeks shy of a full year after my last multisport victory, I took home the overall title at the PrairieMan sprint triathlon, posting a course record bike split en route. It was a satisfying win for sure, as I came from the last wave (which started six minutes after the first) to nearly cross the line first after flying past most of the competition on the bike and grabbing all but one on the run.

After a tough swim of dodging and weaving past stragglers from the previous waves, I looked at my watch with a bit of a shock at the slow time, but more than made up for it with a scorching fast bike that was my best-ever average at 24.5 mph for the 27K course. On the run, I felt a bit tired and dehydrated from the super humid weather and was able to push my way to a respectable 17:42 to cross the line in 1:08:35, 4:01 ahead of the second place finisher!

This was definitely a big confidence boost for me and tells me that my fitness (especially on the bike) is finally coming around when I need it to for the U.S. Open on October 10th. Just one more race on Saturday here at school and then two weeks of solid taper and peak workouts for the big day!

The Last Wednesday and Trinity 5000

Last week was my last Wednesday night crit of the year as it's time to go back to school. Figuring I definitely had nothing to lose, I decided to try to get away in the B race and try out the A race for the first time.

On the second lap of the B race there was a prime for $10 at Colter's BBQ. Having one BBQ prime from early in the season, I have been trying hard to get a second to make the trip to Arlington worthwhile. Sitting in the back, I didn't know there was a guy up the road so I took off and got a sizable gap and , even better, had two guys with me. Grabbing the second place bike fit prime I pushed on, taking turns with my two partners. Unfortunately, our time out front was only two laps and we were swallowed up by the group on lap four. I boded in the back and just a couple laps later there was another BBQ prime. With no one up the road, the pack didn't push the pace and I slowly worked my way to the front by the time we were halfway through the lap. I stood and sprinted off the front early, drawing only one challenger who pushed ahead of me and I grabbed his wheel. He faded just a little and I blew past him, chancing a glance back to see I had built a pretty sizable lead. After getting the $10 of BBQ I was pretty satisfied with my effort thus far.

A couple laps later my B race ended as there was a big acceleration that broke the pack up and forced me to unsuccessfully chase my way back into the race. Knowing I was done, I turned the opposite direction to do some easy spinning before the A race.

Twenty minutes later the A race began and I was really nervous. Standing on the starting line with Kyle Sigl and Stan Phillips was pretty intimidating so I stuck to the back. I had really good time in the race, even though I didn't last too long. I stayed in the group and tried to just hang on, which I did for four laps. On number 4 there was a big acceleration as a guy made a move up the left side and I had no chance to keep up as Stan and Dillon from ThinkCash pushed hard to bridge up and left me behind.

The next week (Aug 19th), I raced the final Trinity 5000 of the year, looking to break the season best of 16:33. Right away I was off the front and pushing hard. I went through the mile all alone in 5:14 and was already hurting a little and my mouth was dry from breathing hard in the heat. I went around the U-turn cone at 7:59 and knew the time was slipping away from me. Pressing alone I went past the 2 mile sign in 10:43, well off record pace. I was going to need to drop my time down on the last mile quite a bit, but I knew it was in reach if I pressed just a little bit more. As 16:00 ticked by and I had yet to reach 3 miles I knew the record was gone, but at least the victory wasn't. I crossed the finish in 16:48, a less-than-stellar performance but reasonable for the high temperatures and after an A.M. bike ride. Second place came across the finish line in the 17:40s; I took consolation knowing he finished the year as the overall series champion, but I really wanted to break the record as it was set by a certain professional triathlete...

Now I'm at school and hoping to keep up with my blog as much as possible, probably mostly on weekends. Expect Daily Headbang to take a little more priority as it is news. Thanks for reading!

Wool Capital: Finding My Inner Cyclist

Finally I'm back in the game. Aside from a sub-par swim, I found myself on form at Wool Capital after a string of less than glistening performances.

After a good running warmup, I found myself a little late for a swim warmup. There was a prerace meeting the night before, so one race day was unexpected and just as I got my feet wet, athletes were called out of the water. I tried to get through as many arm rotations as possible to get everything going. Starting in the 3rd of three waves, I was 9 minutes behind the 40+ guys and 4 minutes behind the 30-39s. I started off probably a little too conservatively and didn't get any feet to follow because everyone took different paths to try to get through the curving swim course. Coming out in 25:30, I was a little disappointed but felt better than I did after going over 26 in Waco.

I got onto the bike and felt good right away. The first mile out the park was with the wind and I used that to get into a comfortable rhythm before facing a headwind the rest of the way to the turnaround. I stayed calm and pushed hard, past the level I am usually willing to go, knowing that a non-priority race is the place to try things out. After 29:30 of riding the leader passed me in the opposite direction, telling me I was probably closer than the 9 minute starting gap. At just over 32 minutes I passed Will Brewer who is in my age group, signaling that he was probably the leader of the race. To my shock, I came up on the turnaround in just over 33 minutes, giving me hope up going under 1:03 if I could ride the wind to its full potential.

I swung around the turn cone and quickly went up to speed, passing a couple guys right away to put me in 16th on the road. Flying faster than I ever thought possible for 20K I came into 2nd transition in 1:02:49, a 40 second PR for 40K, and moved myself into 15th. Posting one of the top transitions of the race, I passed two more people on the way out and got into a groove right away. I had no idea how far behind I was so I just had to push hard and hope for the best.

I cruised along the "Dirt Road From Hell," passing its many victims along the way. At 18:08 into the run (the course was out-and-back but not the same distance, still totaling 10K though) I passed Will who had already passed everyone that started in front of us. I got to the turnaround a minute later telling me there was hope if he wilted, and even better, I was 2nd in the race even though I was 7th on the road. I continued to push the pace as hard as I could until I reached 4 miles and started to really feel the ride and tough pace and hills of the run. I fell to about 6:30 pace the last couple miles but still posted the 2nd fastest run split with 38:28, ten seconds slower than Will. I crossed the line 4th but still finished 2nd in the end with a total time of 2:08:05, an Olympic Distance PR by more than 4 minutes!

I'm fired up right now and ready for some more racing. I know I'm fit right now and I can only get better as the countdown to the U.S. Open continues. The homestretch of the season is here and I'm ready!

Ready for Wool Capital

The last couple weeks have been really tough in the water. The extra volume and intensity have been getting to me in the extreme, and today, I finally got it cleared out. I was long overdue for a trip to Steve Looney's massage table, and I was in for a painful day. I don't think it's ever hurt that much! I was moaning and groaning as scar tissue and tension was cleaned from my upper body, but now I know it's well worth it. I feel better already, and am fired up for this race!

This week everything's felt a lot better than during the run-up to Waco. Just to maintain my mental high, I watched Javier Gomez's powerful win in London from a couple weeks ago and now I'm more pumped than ever. I have a lot of pent up race energy to let loose, and it's going to all come out this weekend!

Waco Tri: Unlucky 13

Disaster. That was Waco. I got bib number 13 and wearing it upside down didn't help my luck (It's because I kept my bike number right side up). I checked into transition and the volunteer checked my brakes like is customary and then he asked if I wanted my front brakes closed. I told him no because they'll rub. Well, in the darkness of morning and the fact that he seemed to clearly understand what I meant, I didn't notice or think to check that my brakes might be rubbing...until 10K of the bike.

At that point in the race, after a swim where I threw up in the water due to swallowing a huge amount of river, I was dying. My bike average was barely more than 20mph and I was suffering. Up to then I just supposed that I was having an off day. Then I looked down at my computer and saw the brake, rubbing silently on my wheel. I opened it up and immediately went up to almost 25mph. Buoyed by this I tried to push on, but at 30K I threw up again and my legs gave out from the extra effort of the first 10K. Knowing my race was over but not wanting to withdraw, I jogged through the run, still posting the 8th fastest split and cruised to a seventh place overall finish, only 2:30 off the podium (which was all lost in that 10K).

I put in nearly twenty hours in the following week and am in the middle of another mini taper as I look to make up for the dismal performance in San Angelo at the Wool Capital Triathlon. We'll see how it goes...

Finally Racing

Training's been great recently. My volume's gone way up so I'm hovering pretty close to 20 hours now. This week is recovery/mini taper as we head toward the Waco Triathlon this weekend. It's been 5 weeks since Hy-Vee so I'm looking forward to getting into a multisport race. The competition should be pretty good so it looks to be a lot of fun.

I think the biggest challenge recently has been the heat. Doing hard and long afternoon workouts when it's over 100 degrees is tough! I don't know if it's possible to drink enough. So far it's been 80 when I wake up in the morning and the temp only goes up from there. Weather aside, everything's been great. All three sports are definitely coming along. I'm feeling a lot faster in my quality sessions, especially on the bike. All the long rides and hard interval sessions are already paying off. I adjusted my seat height yesterday because I've been feeling a little cramped, then I realized it's been two years (two years!) since I moved my seat up. I did a short, fast trainer session yesterday and it felt a lot better. I think this is going to have a big impact on my race performance.

I'm heading down to Waco with Jacquelyn tomorrow and we're staying at a friend's apartment so as to avoid the hotel fee...should be fun! Thanks for reading!

Hitting Pavement...Kind Of

This weekend's Peach Pedal was definitely interesting. After carefully positioning myself to get into the lead group, I found myself in a bit of trouble after less than four miles. Going down a sweeping descent to a bridge, a few seemingly inexperienced guys at the back of the group slid on the wet pavement. I watched in horror as their brakes locked and they skidded across the road, bodies piling up everywhere, bikes flying. I had no choice but to slam on the brakes and aim for a fallen rider so I'd have a soft landing. Fortunately, I only banged up by right calf/knee a little bit and was able to finish, albeit mostly alone.

Austin and I trekked on together but he started to fade a little around 23 miles and I went by myself through 35 where I picked up Mark Whittier and his sister-in-law's boyfriend (JT). We stopped at the 40 mile rest stop where Austin caught up then we continued on. After 55 we lost JT and Mark stayed with him. After another mile Austin stopped at the final rest stop to pee and I continued on. Once I reached the finish I turned around and went back to look for Dad who was riding with a friend and didn't take part in the racing. All in all I recorded 69 miles, my farthest ever!

Yesterday I went to the Iron Brothers Sprint Triathlon with Jacquelyn and witnessed a pretty spectacular Team Ironhead 1,2,3 on the men's side and 1,2 on the women's side. If only I'd raced maybe we'd have gotten a 1,2,3,4...

This week is another build week then recovery next week leading up to the Olympic distance event at the Waco Triathlon. Looking forward to it!

Recovery Week and Bike Racing

Last Week was a recovery week which meant testing once again. My performances were not great, probably due to increased fatigue from hard training. My first test was the bike, where I averaged 270 watts for 20 minutes, which, after a Wednesday race, Friday intervals, and Sunday long and hard ride, I was pretty happy even though I did 272 last time. The run was the next day, Thursday, where I was able to average 5:28 for 4x1 mile with 90 seconds rest. I started out conservatively in 5:33 and tried to bring it down from there. The swim was Friday, and was probably my most disappointing effort. I swam an 800 time trial in 11:02, 23 seconds slower than last time. I am buoyed though, by the knowledge that I hadn't shaved my legs for a couple weeks and that swimming in the boiling hot water at the Y is a lot different that the cool water at TCU where I can see my splits on the wall clock under the watching eye of Marcin.

Saturday was the Firecracker 100K. After a hectic start left me off the back of the main group, I found myself sitting in with the main Broken Films women. I'm happy to say that we fought hard and they earned second and third in the women's race.

After a Sunday long run, Tuesday brought the beginning of another hard week. I biked to the track at Aledo Middle School and immediately proceeded into a run of 16x400 @ 82-83 on 2:00. But I didn't do 82-83. I felt good. Just cruising I was able to average 79.04. It was great! I was just rolling and felt comfortable the whole time.

Wednesday was the return of the Wednesday crit after a week off for the 4th of July holiday. I attacked several times with Caleb of Lone Star but we couldn't get away. My only consolation was a relatively useless prime for an overly expensive bike fit. Next week I'm going to go for it and try for every prime, sprinting like it's the end. Today it's a hard swim and run then the Peach Pedal tomorrow. It's going to be great!

Quality Rides

Training's been pretty awesome this week. I finally got to go to the Wednesday night Crit in Fort Worth. While I wasn't overly aggressive my first time out this year, I did manage to get a prime for $10 worth of BBQ at Colter's in Arlington. I followed that up with a tough trainer ride on Friday morning and my first trip to the Minyards ride on Sunday morning, which was AWESOME! I went farther than I've ever gone in my life. 67.24 miles in 3:37. We had a pretty good group even though it was small. Five of us went the full distance with others pulling off at various points.

This week is another build week which will be highlighted by the Firecracker 100K in Stephenville Saturday. It's an unofficial race, meaning it's not USA Cycling sanctioned but there's prize money so people will be there to race. For those of us on Broken Films, we won't be racing for ourselves, but rather our top woman, taking full advantage of the coed race while other teams are battling for their top guys. It should be great!

Hy-Vee Triathlon and Mendota 5K

Sorry about a lack of posts lately, I've been in Illinois visiting family and it's been pretty hectic.

The biggest news is last weekend's Hy-Vee triathlon and today's 5K run in Mendota.
Hy-Vee was a bit of a disaster as a storm caused a last minute race change as they altered the Olympic distance to a 400m, 20K, 5K. The swim and bike were both a little bit long, and the start was changed to a time trial beach start instead of a wave start.
My swim was pretty good, but I found myself struggling on the bike, especially the second half coming back toward transition. On the way out, the wind was relatively calm, but it was blowing hard by the time I got to the U-turn. My trip back was almost three minutes slower than on the way out and I found myself losing a lot of ground on the bike.
I went pretty hard straight away on the run and found that I had someone to run with, which was a bit of a relief. The other guy and I pushed each other all the way to the finish, catching another young runner who ended up sprinting away from us in the home straight. My run of 17:04 was respectable, along with my 3rd place finish in the 20-24 and 32nd overall finish out of 1340 competitors.

After a solid week of training I ran in the Mendota 5K this morning. I went out aiming at the relatively slow 16:44 course record. I was a bit nervous at the start though because there were a couple guys that looked pretty tough. Right away two guys took the lead and I sat in behind them. After two minutes one of them had already begun to fade leaving me alone with one guy. Four minutes in, I could already hear him laboring so I decided to make a move since I was feeling pretty comfortable. I quickly gapped him and just worked to stay ahead. I passed two miles in 10:26 and slowed a little bit over the last mile when I knew I had the race in hand. I finished in 16:26, 29 seconds up on the next runner, sewing up the course record!. I'm pretty fired up about the run because it's a PR and it really wasn't too difficult. I was hurting, but definitely not maxing out; I know I have a lot more in me.

We're heading back to Texas tomorrow so things will be back to normal. Thanks for reading!

CapTex Behind, Hy-Vee on the Horizon

CapTex was this past Monday, and expecting to have my best race ever, I initially labeled it a disappointment, but in hindsight have a lot to be excited about. The course was far from the correct distance in two of the three events, with the swim mistakenly being measured for a half Ironman and the run extended to 6.8 miles instead of the standard 6.2. My swim was good for me at 28:52, pace for a 22:15 1500, but it left be more than six minutes down heading into the bike. I had my best ride ever, averaging 23.3 mph, but that wasn't nearly fast enough to contend with the top athletes who had all come out chasing an Elite License since this was a pro qualifying race.
My run started off pretty well, but I quickly found myself dropping off my target 5:40 pace, and with no mile markers on the course (probably because they knew it was wrong), I was left to wonder how bad it was going to be. In the end, I covered the supposed 6.8 miles in 41:16, pace for around 37:30, which isn't terrible, but isn't where I should've been.

Right now I'm trying my best to recover and prepare for Hy-Vee next weekend, the 13th. This is also an Elite qualifying race so I'll be aiming (fairly lightly) at the top three. It also offers a good opportunity to watch the pros competing in the World Cup event held later that afternoon. I'm looking forward to it. I think now that I have a good "Olympic distance" race under my belt, I can put out an even better performance at Hy-Vee.

Ironhorse Tomorrow

The Ironhorse Triathlon in Cleburne is tomorrow morning. Training's been going pretty well. I had a killer swim on Tuesday, maybe my best ever. I completed 21x100(2 on 1:25, 1 on 1:35). I was pretty fired up about it, the swim is really coming around. I got to ride with Alex again on Thursday, which was really good for me. We did 4x4 minutes hard with 3 minutes easy. I held around 300 watts or so for the stretches, going hard, but not max.

Tomorrow's race is going to be pretty small. There are about 160 or so signed up. I didn't have a chance to check out the start list so I won't really know who I'm up against until I get there. It's probably going to be the usual Team Ironhead crew and some local guys. Benbrook is being held by Playtri tomorrow so there's been a bit of a battle to see which race gets more people. We'll find out tomorrow!

Solid Training at Home

This week's been great so far. I started off by getting some massage work done on Monday by Steve Looney. I was pretty sore afterward, it was tough. I haven't been for a couple months so there was a lot to clean out; he went deep.

Tuesday was a set of 5x600 running 200 close to max effort then finishing with another quarter within 8 seconds of double the 200 (eg:32/72). The wind was straight in my face on one straight and at my back for the other. I was significantly faster than when I did this same workout six weeks ago. The 200s averaged in the 33 second range and the 400s around 73.

Yesterday was awesome! I rode with Alex Williamson and Justin Wallace in the morning and got my butt kicked, but it was really good for me. We did 2x10 minutes with 5 minutes easy then another 5 minute interval. The pace was pretty much a maximal effort for me as I tried to hang on to their wheels. Of course, they weren't going very hard at all and I was suffering behind them with everything I had. Alex's power meter said he was doing about 320-340 watts so I was most likely holding about 300-320 for the hard efforts, definitely good for me since I did 272 for the threshold test last week.

Today's going to be all recovery then back at it tomorrow, hopefully I'll be swimming with Marcin in the morning.

Finally...Some Fast Swimming

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't know it during my long run that morning as I slogged through a painfully slow 12.5 miles, legs just dead and tired. But when I met Marcin at the pool at 3, I felt revitalized.

My legs were still less than 100%, but I felt smooth and comfortable warming up as I prepared for my swim test, an 800yard time trial. I started off as comfortably as possible, but still split the first 100 in 1:17.6. I tried to keep the pace around 1:20 per 100 and just got into a groove. It started getting tough around 500 but i just tried to push through and keep going. With 100 to go I went for broke and sprinted with everything I had left knowing I was on pace to dip under 10:40. I was pushing down the last length and hit the wall in 10:39.8. A 35 second PR!

This was a huge workout for me. I've been putting in thousands of yards and have been feeling improvement but this was the first time in a while that I've been able to see the benefits of training so plainly. I'm fired up now and ready for more. With CapTex just three weeks away, it couldn't be a better time to start getting in a groove.

Bike Test

Today was a good day, I did the 20 minute threshold test on the trainer using Austin's PowerTap. I put the Tour of Flanders in the playstation and went at it for 20 minutes as hard as possible. It was painful! It was probably one of the most painful experiences of my life. My quads are still burning ten hours later. After the first ten minutes my arms were shaking and sweat was flying all over the dorm (lucky I'm leaving tomorrow). In the end, I averaged 272 watts, which isn't amazing, but it's a pretty good mark for me. I was hoping to keep it over 250 so I'm pleased with the result for sure. All there is to do now is train hard until the next recovery week and see if I've progressed.

Well, that's all I have time for right now, tomorrow's the last day of school. Two finals and I'm home free (literally). Thanks for reading!

Run Test

This week is recovery which means three quality workouts...a test in each sport. I was sick during my last recovery week so I only completed the run and swim tests which did not go well and were basically thrown out.

Today I set out to do my run test, 4x1mile with 90 sec rest, trying for the best possible average. Of course, the nice calm 5mph breeze of yesterday was replaced with 25mph of terror and gusts blasting at 35. I still felt pretty good, after the quality workouts of last week where I was able to produce some decent performances. Not today.

The first mile was good. I hit 5:15 and felt pretty comfortable doing it. Since my goal was to get in under 5:20, I was buoyed by my early success. The second wasn't so great. I passed the half in 2:39 and was relatively comfortable, then it went downhill and I trudged in in 5:25. Not too far off, and with only two to go, it was time to push. On #3 I split the 400 in 82, putting in more effort than the faster times of the first two repeats. I went through the half in 2:51 and slowed even more severely from there as I ran (more like jogged) past the finish in 5:57, probably the slowest 1 mile interval I've sun since middle school.

Oh well, it's recovery tomorrow then the bike test on Thursday, which I feel I'll be a little fresher for as I really didn't beat my legs up that much today. 20 minutes on the trainer all out. I'm pretty excited! I've never done the threshold test before so this will be something new, just going at it for 20 minutes in the dorm, probably re-watching this year's Tour of Flanders for motivation...Thanks for reading, I'll check back in soon.