2012 In the Books

The 2012 season came to end on October 27th, more than 8 months after the first race of the season and almost exactly a year following the first day of base training. Despite a couple major letdowns and a big setback in the swim, I can say that this was the most successful season so far, as I totaled a record 5 overall wins, bringing my lifetime multisport total to 13. PRs in the Olympic distance, half-iron distance, 5K, 10K, 40K bike and 1500m swim helped too. The season kicked off in the usual lackluster fashion at the Texas Motor Speedway duathlon. I led into T1, got smothered on the bike and managed to barely run back into the top ten with a decent second run. Things picked up at the Mean Green triathlon where I captured my first win of 2012 with a strong 24+ mph bike split followed by a cruising 16:12 5K split. Tough winds dashed my hopes at a course record. Maybe in '13... The OSU team traveled to Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie for the SMW Collegiate Regional Championship. After a mid 14 minute swim for 1K, I found myself in 6th on the bike and moved into 5th by the end. With only one catchable athlete ahead, I cruised into 4th and stayed there, still posting the 2nd fastest run just a few seconds off 2nd place finisher Mark Primeaux from LSU. 4th doesn't sound great, but after a poor bike I was pleased enough, especially since I finished behind three guys (Mark Saroni, Mark Primeaux and Ben Hall) that I have a ton of respect for. The highlight of the day was the OSU Men's team finishing 3rd, behind only perennial national championship contender Texas A&M and Texas. We punched our tickets to Collegiate Nationals in the first year of qualifying. Three weeks later we made the trek back out to Tuscaloosa, AL for Nationals. This was the week where my swimming setback began. I felt extreme pain and fatigue in my arms and couldn't push as hard as I wanted to. From that point on training was only intermittent and enough to try to maintain the fitness I had gained over the winter. A 23 minute swim (still a PR) put me in the 80s in the first wave. I mediocre bike split basically held my spot before I moved up using the 6th fastest run of the day at 34:32, to finish 52nd. The team improved seven spots over 2011 as we came in 42nd, despite our number three man dropping out due to a flat tire. (We estimate that we would've been 36th with him across the line). We're gunning for a top 25 finish as we are bringing back everyone but him, and even made a great addition in current sophomore Greg Seymour who has already done great things with the team. Introduced for the first time at this year's National Championship was the draft-legal relay that has been run by the pros for the past couple of years. A girl-guy-girl-guy relay where each athlete completes a 250m swim, 6K bike and 1mi run. Put on a team with two subs for people who dropped out, we didn't do well, but it was fun to be out there if for no other reason than to say I was in it the first time ever. With Nationals behind, the focus turned to CapTex where I would compete for the fourth straight year with the hopes of getting my pro card. Two weeks out from the Memorial Day event I raced the Rockwall sprint tri to tune up. Still battling pain in my arms I cruised through the 300m swim, then gained a big lead on the bike that I extended on the 5K run, splitting 16:10 and ticking off win number two. At CapTex, I couldn't have asked for much better, except for a pro card. Out of the swim in a non-wetsuit PR of 23:54, and a bike split on the pace that based on 2011 would put me in contention for the top 3, I found myself in only 17th place heading into the run. One of the day's top runs at 34:39, I ran my way into 10th, the same place as last year despite covering the course nearly 4 minutes faster. My new PR of 2:05:28 was just 20 seconds off the time for the last pro card a year earlier, but last year there were wetsuits. With the competition present I couldn't be disappointed, especially since I would have another shot in just five days. After a quick turnaround I was in Irving, TX for the Elite Development Race held in conjunction with the ITU Continental Cup. I had a poor swim and found myself in the 5th group on the road, the fastest group to not converge into the main pack. Feeling Monday's race I ran well, but not to my usual standards. I managed to stay in the top half of the 75-man field in 29th. A much welcomed week off was next, capped by a course record at the Metroplex Sprint tri. Taking the next few weeks to train, I rode every Friday morning with Todd Hamilton to help my cycling. To test myself I made the trip to Waco for the Olympic Distance race. Unfortunately the weather reduced the bike leg to 20K. After a terrible swim and reasonable bike, I experienced something unusual. I was run away from. Battling for the lead through four and a half miles, my abs cramped badly and I couldn't sustain the quick pace. Fading to the finish, I could only claim 4th. Redemption came quickly at the Wool Capitol Triathlon, my favorite course in the world. Following a mediocre swim I held onto 3rd on the bike. On the run I started out quickly until I could see the leader, last year's winner in the distance. I cruised until I caught him, and made the pass just after the 5K turnaround. Taking my time to the finish, i enjoyed the rest of the run and finally got a win at Wool Cap after four tries! The next race on the schedule was the first year Trifecta Triathlon at Possum Kingdom Lake. I led the way out of the swim with a massive wetsuit PR (maybe a little short...) and was rolling on the bike. At the bike turnaround, the only athlete ahead of me was one guy from the first wave. My time estimate told me we were pretty even. With two miles to go I started feeling some bumps, then slowed dramatically. I was flat. I gently rolled the rest of the way, stopping twice to check the well-being of my 404, all the while watching other riders fly past me. I sprinted out of T2, knowing a poor run by the leader could still give me a win. Pushing all the way to the line I smashed my 10K PR with a 32:44 split, bringing me withing 40 seconds of the win and earning 2nd overall. Two weeks later I claimed my 4th straight win at the Outdoor Adventure triathlon as the final tune-up for the US Open. Lucas and Alex finished 2nd and 3rd, even though Alex flatted. The U.S. Open finally came on October 7th, the last shot at a pro card in 2012. I wasn't expecting much as the competition is always deep. Following the roller coaster swim year that came with my injury I swam only 24:30 with the wetsuit. That was followed with my worst bike split since I can't even remember when. Even my run struggled in the wind and cold at only 36 and some seconds. I finished 36th overall, my lowest overall finish outside of Collegiate Nationals since this race in 2010. The only silver lining was that I finished 4th in the Collegiate division and earned enough points to keep my lead in the SMW Collegiate Rankings. Five of us from the OSU team closed out the season at the Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, TX which also served as the Collegiate Half-Ironman National Championship. In my first half since 2008, I knew a PR was coming. During the season I did one long brick a week to prepare. I wasn't quite ready for the tough bike course, but I was able to run my way back into the race with an 83 minute run split. My total time of 4:42:43 gave me 6th in the Collegiate Division, one spot ahead of Greg who came in at 4:47. Alex rounded out our scoring in 11th and gave us 2nd as a team! After a few weeks worth of disappointing race results that was definitely a great way to cap off the season. This week has been the prep week with Base 1 kicking off on Monday. I will not be swimming until November 26th to give my arms ample recovery time before they get going again. After that I will be taking a very conservative build up to normal volume. Here it goes!

2012: A New Era

The 2012 racing season began yesterday at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the first opportunity to see the state of my fitness after a career changing decision to leave Marcin's guidance last October. Since Halloween, I have trained diligently, killing myself in the water and on the bike to improve my major weaknesses. In the past three and a half months I have gained seven pounds of muscle, despite logging training hours in the upper 20s per week.

I finally had a respectable performance at the Speedway, posting an opening run of 10:01 that brought me first in to transition. All winter I had feared that 2+ hour long runs and the the swim and bike focus would diminish my speed. That wasn't an issue as I cruised through the first mile in 4:49. My bike lost the race as usual, but it was 90 seconds faster than last year. Lucas had the ride of his life though, besting me by a minute. He put together great runs and finished less than two minutes behind me.

My second run of 10:25 brought me in in 1:03:58, nearly three minutes faster than the 2011 edition of the race. Finally some results. Despite the increase in speed, I finished 9th compared to last year's 10th due to the fact that it was the SMw Regional Championship and drew some heavy competition. Will Huffman won for the second year in a row.

This race is a big step forward. I wasn't tapered in the slightest. It's only going to get better at Regionals and Nationals, especially since Lucas and I hung with the top A&M guys. Maybe there's hope for a Regionals upset. Maybe...