This space is dedicated to the world of endurance sports. Although the focus is on Triathlon, the content has broad applicability, touching on subjects that are highly relevant to all endurance athletes from distance runners to rowers; pretty much all of the suffer sports. In addition to writing about this stuff, I compete too. If you are interested in learning more about me, browsing my writing that has been published on Xtri, or reading about some of my own athletic endeavors, just click on any of the tabs above.

Race, Training Reports


2013 First Half of Season in the Books! 
I've gotten away from writing detailed race reports after each event for two main reasons: 1) I'd rather devote limited 'writing time' to broader topics exploring things far more interesting than my swimming/biking/running (see home page of the blog) and 2) At their core, all my races are pretty similar: I swim (or in the case of duathlons, run), bike, run, and learn a few things along the way.  So, with that as context, I wanted to lead with a short summary of what stuck in my mind as the key lessons learned from Jan-Jul 2013, and then go into race reports/recaps, doing my best to keep those brief. If you want to hear more about any of these races/venues, just ask!  In addition, a big thanks is in order to so many that help me in my journey to get better, from old friends that understand my regular disappearances to new ones that have become the best of training partners.  Particular call-outs to the FW Caitlin who has become a teammate in all of this (and pretty much everything else) and Coach Wes, my triathlon Zen-master. Also, to the amazing companies I am so fortunate to have true partnerships with (more on that here) Extreme Endurance, Kiwami Triathlon, Greater > Than, HUUB, and Nuun; your support of my progression as an athlete and willingness to engage me in marketing and product development efforts is amazing.

Take Home Lessons: Always focus on bettering/beating yourself, and let the chips fall where they may on race day. If you are feeling like crap out there, odds are everyone else is too; never be judgmental during a race. There is an enormous difference between 'finishing' a half ironman and 'racing' a half ironman; be prepared to make this desicion about a mile into the run, and understand the consequences of choosing the former and the potential for regret associated with it. The swim is no longer [and perhaps never was] marginalized in the half ironman distance; it's now easy to swim 'effectively' and still give up 4-7 minutes, pool time is often hard to come by for many age-groups, but may provide the greatest net return. While it is very important to be specific in key workout sessions, sometimes the emotional gains from training with a group outweigh any exact specificity, and I find this especially true in longer workouts; in these situations, evaluate the overarching 'purpose' of a workout. For instance, if you have 4x30 minutes at 90% FTP baked into a 4 hour ride, the purpose of that workout is probably to go out and 'ride your bike hard,' but without totally killing yourself.  You can accomplish this in a group of the right athletes, even if it means a slight deviation from that exact main set. "Success is doing everything you could the right way and saying man, I did the best I could - that's success." - Aries Merritt.

Vineman 70.3 (4:34, 7AG): This was the focus race for the first half of my season, and everything before it was planned with peaking on this day in mind.  All of that said, I felt I had under-performed pretty significantly prior to this, but also knew none of that mattered anymore, and did my best to focus only on the present task at hand. I was fit and ready. The lead up to the race was uneventful which is exactly how i like it.  I was very happy to have Caitlin with me, and we stayed at a really nice B&B just 10 minutes from the start of the race.  It was also neat to be racing with a whole bunch of guys that I've not only trained a bunch with, but also become close friends with since moving to NorCal.  I was looking forward to a party in the vineyards of Napa!

Swim (32:30) Out-and-back river swim.  Everything was going well until the turn-around, when suddenly I was scraping the bottom of the river, and then all out punching it with each stroke.  Did a mix of dolphin diving and high knee jogging for a good minute before finding deep enough water to swim again.  While this was frustrating, it wasn't shocking since I was well-aware that this could happen before the race. Otherwise, not much else overly exciting about my swim.  Although I would have liked to be closer to 30-31 minutes (and my pool fitness suggests I should be) I can't really be disappointed with the performance, and am happy with my progression since I started swimming just over a year and a half ago. I definitely need more time in the water, and especially in the open water. It's probably a combination of needing to sight more effectively, doing a better job of judging effort, and not being afraid to push the envelope a bit further that will lead to better OW times (oh, yeah, and better fitness too).  I remember going through the same thing when I first started cycling...being too conservative and not realizing I could be more uncomfortable and still perform well running off the bike. In the long term I know that I still have a lot of room to grow (to the tune of 5 minutes) in the water, but on the day, this was a good enough result.

Bike (2:27) The first 45 minutes went great and I was right on plan pushing 250-255 watts. Unfortunately, as I got into the middle parts of the ride, the effort started to feel harder and the power gradually declined versus going up as planned. Instead of panicking or becoming negative, I focused on process and presence, accepted the feedback I was getting from my body, and made a desicion to ride hard, but not wreck by completely myself forcing the issue. I reminded myself that it's a long day out there and perhaps I would run more effectively this way too. I also remembered something that Coach Wes said before the race along the lines of "there will almost always be negative patches in a long-course race...don't freak out, just get through them, and trust you will start feeling better soon." I road the middle section of the bike at 235-240 watts, and started to feel pretty good again in the last 20 minutes and was able to bring the power back up.  All said and done: average power 244, normalized 246.  This is about what I raced at last year, so while it is objectively discouraging that I wasn't [and haven't been all year] able to put together a ride I think I am capable of (e.g., 255-260 watts), this wasn't 'bad' by any means.

Run (1:29) Not much else to say other than I was very pleased with this run.  I knew I had the fitness to go sub 1:30 off the bike, and I did.  The plan was to pace evenly, and every mile was between 6:42-6:56. The only real negative with the run was that I couldn't feel my left foot for 90% of it. While I have no doubt this slowed me down a bit, unfortunately I knew from prior races this could happen, and was in a sense prepared for it. The only real way to describe the sensation is running on a foot that has fallen asleep, so I just honed in on keeping proper form and really used the GPS watch to keep myself honest by doing pacing checks on flat portions. I am in the process of getting a flurry of diagnostic tests and having the proper consultations with experts to hopefully get to the bottom of the foot issue.

Overall Impressions: While this wasn't a perfect day, it was a very good one, and the more of these races I do, the more I am realizing it is better to target consistently very good versus perfect.  I think on a perfect day I maybe had 5 more minutes of fitness (e.g., 1 on the swim, 3 on the bike, and perhaps a slightly faster run without the foot issue too) but all and all, I crossed the finish line content knowing I gave an honest effort that was the best I had to give on the day. This was especially satisfying after my race in Boise, where I'm ashamed to say I became negative toward the end of the bike and basically coasted the entire run, only to
have regrets after.  I recently read an interview with Olympic hurdler Aries Merritt where he says success is "Doing everything you could the right way, and saying man - I did the best I could."  That really resonated with me as a working definition of success, and against that criteria, Vineman was a successful race.

Du-Toes Duathlon (1 OA Amateur): This was a fun one!  Thrown into the schedule 2-weeks out from Vineman (which was my key race of the summer) and thus with no taper, or subsequent expectations for a good day.  I sensed my fitness was good going in, and the format of this race (5 mile run, 22 mile bike, 2 mile run) was really conducive to completely going for it on the bike, which is exactly what I did!

First Run was extremely hilly and mostly on trail.  Local pro Brice Winkler went out way ahead of the group, and no one was stupid enough to chase.  There were two other guys that also went out fast, one I knew from the last race in this circuit (and someone I know I am a stronger cyclist than) and another someone I had never seen before.  Just keeping them in sight was a big effort, and I was starting to hurt around mile 2, so I kind of let them go, thinking this isn't a 5K race but an Olympic distance duathlon.  Sure enough, they came back to me, and although I was pretty uncomfortable for that entire first run, I ended up leading into and out of T1.

Bike: Per the above, I just went for it.  My legs were somewhat shredded by the harder than anticipated first run, so I ignored the power-meter and just road at a best sustainable effort.  I know this course well having done a fair amount of training on it and also having raced on it earlier in the season.  Three significant climbs, and on each, I went into the red-zone. On the last climb when my legs were falling apart, I remember thinking to myself "how bad can things go in just a 2 mile run..."

Always fun to toe the line with fellow
Team Kiwami Athletes
Second Run: Never really thought it was possible to completely blow-up in a 2 mile run...until now.  Came out of T2 and, in the spirit of really going for it, just barreled (not even sure what that means) up a sustained hill that started the second run.  Given it was a mile out-and-back course, I saw Brice as I was approaching the turn-around, and realized I was only about 3-4 minutes back...no chance I was catching him with just a mile of real-estate, but also knew I was having a pretty good day to keep him so close on a course that really plays to his abilities (e.g., hilly). So, that was a bit of extra motivation, and like an idiot, I started to run faster. This lasted for like 2 minutes and right after the turn-around (so about 1.3 miles in, with less than a mile to go), on a little hill, my legs literally just turned jello and I was a bit dizzy.  Yikes.  I slowed to near a walk for about a minute, re-grouped, and was thankful the run ended going back down the long climb we went up to start it.

Was very happy with the effort as I felt like this was the first race of the year that I really left everything out on the course.  Smaller field but a win is a win.  I really love this bike-loop and the local (e.g., low cost) organization of this race is great.  There is long-course race on the same course (e.g., 2 loops of bike course for 42 miles) in late August, and I look forward to coming back for that!

 Ironman Boise 70.3 (6AG): The only way to describe this one is weird, from top to bottom, just weird. Boise itself is a pretty odd-place...kind of like a poor man's Salt Lake City slept with Austin Texas and had a child that neither of them really raised.  Last year the race was shortened due to extreme weather of like 39 degrees with sleet.  This year, when the race went off at the weird starting time of 1 PM (an hour later for my wave) it was already over 90 degrees.  It was also a very windy day; nothing too strong (e.g., no huge gusts) but a consistent cross-wind of between 13-17 MPH, so between the heat and the wind, it was going to be a tough go at it.

The Swim was pretty uneventful.  It was a triangle course and we were against the wind for last 2/3, so it was somewhat tedious.  I exited the water at high 33, and while it wasn't the swim indicative of what I feel my fitness is, I am pretty good at not judging swims mid-race given conditions, course measurements, etc., are never constant.  Turns out my swim was actually pretty competitive against the field.

The Bike was windy, although my HED Jet 7/Disc combo handled great.  Every once in a while there was a feeling of being nudged over, but never anything drastic. Unfortunately, for the second race in a row I just couldn't get the power numbers up, riding a good 20 watts South of what I had planned.  I just didn't have it, and every time I made an honest effort to get going, about 3 minutes later, I felt crappy again.  While normally I am pretty good at keeping my cool, this was the second race in a row where this happened, and though I'm not thrilled to say it, I became down and negative.  I hit T2 after 2:32 on the bike, and was considering dropping out of the race since I was way off what I wanted to do.  Got through that (I've learned really well to deal with the negative thoughts that creep in, now I am focused on learning how to rid them from ever coming up) and started.

Looks can be deceiving, certainly was the case here...
The Run. I am much more willing to punish myself and suffer when I'm having a good day, and for the first time in my short racing career, I made a conscious desicion that instead of 'racing' the half marathon, I would 'finish' the half marathon, and I just settled into a 7:45ish pace and basically had a slow long run off the bike. Given how crappy I was feeling maybe I wouldn't have been able to truly go for it anyways, but the hard part is, I'll never know.  Ran like 1:45 and finished very disappointed.  ...But things were weird. To make a long story short, turns out I wasn't the only having a hard day, and finished 6th in my AG which was good enough for a roll-down spot to the World Championships in Vegas in September. This is weird because I thought that on my best day the odds of getting a WC slot at this race were slim, so the fact that I got one on my worst day made absolutely no sense. Consensus from the guys ahead of me was that it was just a slow day, with everyone going 12-20 minutes off their most recent solid performances.  There was only about 7 minutes separating me from third place, and 12 minutes from second.  So, while I was excited and happy to get the spot for Vegas, I was pretty pissed off that I didn't race the half marathon.  Like I said a little while ago, I'll never know for sure, but I would have liked to think I could run myself high onto the podium...but shoulda, coulda, woulda. After the race a good friend and training buddy of mine Andres gave me some great advice; when you are feeling really shitty out there, odds are everyone else is too.  Although I was pretty pissed off right after the race, looking back I am actually happy with how things unfolded since it really implanted a great lesson, which is especially relevant for AG racing with wave starts when it is very hard if not impossible to know where you are against the field. Don't stop racing until you cross the line.

HITs Napa Valley Half Ironman (4AG): Talk about a great value race.  I registered for this way early, and paid only $75 for a really well organized HIM.  I've heard that the price structure for HITs races is going up in 2014, which only makes sense given I just don't see how the HITs series could be sustainable otherwise.  Anyways, this was a sub-par race for me on all accounts.  I really struggled to get into any kind of groove on the swim, and felt as if there was contact the whole way. When I came out and saw 36:00 on my watch, I was pretty horrified, but knowing it's a long day, I told myself to keep calm and carry on, and did my best to have a short memory about the swim. I later found out the swim ran about 200 meters short, but it was still a poor swim result for where I thought I was regardless.

On the bike, things only got worse.  I’ll start by saying this is one helluva a course.  Garmin clocked over 3200 feet of climbing, and I swear-to-god every descent and or/flat stretch had crappy patches of road.  Unfortunately, riding with a power-meter very quickly gives you an honest take of external factors versus an athlete’s legs, and in this case, it was as much the athlete as it was the course and conditions.  I just couldn't get the power up to save my life.  Both my wattage and heart-rate were down 10-15% from target, which very clearly screams my peripheral system (e.g., legs) was stale from the get-go.  After multiple efforts to bring the power up, I realized it wasn’t happening, and I shifted focus to just being as aero and efficient as possible.  It was a double out-and-back, so throughout the second half of the bike, I literally couldn't avoid seeing the fact that my hopes of a top-5 finish were as cashed as my legs.  I hit T2 glad to be off my bike, but also very concerned about running a half marathon.  1) See bike and swim summaries above and, 2) due to a foot injury, my land-running volume had been about 35 miles...over like the past two months…
Heading out onto the run; I feel 10x worse
than I look at this point...uh oh... 

The first 3 miles of this run hands-down marks the worst I have ever felt during any training/racing of my life to date.  My legs were total bricks, I was running at a near-recovery pace/heart-rate (and couldn't go any faster), and after each longer uphill (pretty hilly course) my left foot went kind of numb.  Knowing there was an aid station at 4, at the third mile marker I went well past the usual “maybe I should DNF” thoughts that come up not-so-rarely in these things and into the realm of truly considering a DNF.  It was the first race of a long season, I was coming off an injury (though oddly enough, it was the other foot that was numb), and a respectable finish seemed hopeless.  But then I got my shit together and remembered that a respectable finish is just that; a finish, so by the time I hit mile 5 (at the pace I was running, this was plenty of time for the thinking/reflection process) I had committed to the race, even if it meant walking the second half of the run.  I was slogging along in quite a bit of pain and then the day got weird.  I would guess at around mile 7 (slight downhill) I started to feel great -- like really as good as I've ever felt during the run of a 70.3 great.  I’m actually still kind of perplexed as to what happened (I started drinking Coke in an effort to save myself at mile 1, so no magic bullet there) so if any physiologists out there have ideas, I would love to hear them.  I ripped off some very fast miles and although I simply didn't have enough real-estate to do what I wanted, I managed to run myself up a few spots into 14 overall and 4th in the 25-29 age-group.

Some take-away stuff from this race is that patience may be more a virtue in long-course triathlon than anywhere else, and this was only a half…I’ll surely call on this experience during IMAZ later in the year.  Drastic changes to diet in the 48 hours leading up to race (e.g., lots of simple and processed carbs) may not make sense for my individual body; even if it takes more effort, I will attempt to go whole-foods for my next carb load and not change nearly as much from how I eat regularly.  This race also highlighted the need for me to really address the foot numbness as this isn’t the first time I’ve had this, and think it has to do with lower leg compartment crowdedness and potential nerve compression. While I can deal with it in a half, I won’t feel as good about racing a full Ironman if this is still lingering.

Golden Bears Duathlon (1AG, 3OA): Great local event on a very challenging bike loop (3 Bears in Orinda).  I had only been running on land (lots of aqua jogging, though) for 8 days leading up to this race. Someone I didn't know flew off the front early at like 5:30 pace, so I let him go, but did my best to stay with the rest of the pack and went something like 6:15 pace for a pretty hilly 5 mile run on mostly trail. Perhaps too much effort on that first run, as I struggled to hit power goals on the bike.  Second run was short (just over 2 miles) and I had gaped fourth place pretty well by then, and saw at the turn-around that the guy ahead of me was like 45 seconds up...ran hard to the finish, but not enough real-estate to move into second. Finished third place, 30 seconds down to second when it was all said and done.
...clip...in...fast...er

Learned that aqua-jogging during an injury really works if you do it right as this race proved I didn't lose much run fitness at all after 7 weeks with no land running (e.g., you've got to get the right tools, be in the deep end, and then go-hard targeting natural running form and heart-rates similar to what you would see on land).  I also learned that racing in NorCal is no joke, as the guys that got me here were 1) Short Course Duathlon National Champion and 2) Top Cyclocross racers.  Finally, transitions matter!  After this race I remember evaluating opportunities for 30 seconds and no doubt about it, I fumbled too much with sunglasses, helmet, clipping in, etc. in T1 and you can always be faster in T2...30 seconds worth is hard to say, but you get the point.

Training Take-Aways: Jan 7 - Jan 13

1) Riding the trainer is *not* the same as riding outside: As many of you already know, I am one of the biggest proponents of trainer workouts that you will find.  I firmly believe that great fitness can be built in your living room. Very few environments enable the specificity of the trainer...and I'm not complaining [seriously] about the logistical ease and safety of riding on the trainer either. Now all of that said, triathlons are not decided on the trainer; if they were, I would have placed much higher in all of my races last year.  But we all know handling, position, and riding style can account for many minutes, and this really slapped me in the face when looking back at my numbers from last year. Given that, one of my New Year's resolutions was to do at least 3 long rides outside every month, so I spent the past two weekends out on the chilly East Bay roads (yes, I am softening up to CA weather, but nothing like Andres D, who dressed for Everest Base Camp when it was 48 and sunny). All I can say is that those rides left me feeling more depleted and far more sore than any equal [in duration and intensity] trainer workout I've done since ramping up with my training at the end of November.  No idea what is at play here, other than the outcome.  It's a completely different xxx watts over 3-4 hours on the road versus on the trainer.  Like so many things triathlon, I believe the answer falls in the grey; there is a time/place/function for both the trainer and the road, but these past two weekends on the roads were significantly harder than I thought they would be.

2) Tired legs, try carbohydrates: You know that feeling when your legs just don't have any spark...kind of heavy and jello-like from the start, even on your first workout of the day?  In my own experience, I have found that if you have that feeling for a day or two, it could simply be the body not being recovered from hard work put in during prior days.  But any more than a few days, and you've got to look at nutrition.  I am trying to get back into the same state as my race weight (neighborhood can wait until March) and have been focusing on cutting out some Carbs...which is good...but not when it comes to heavy periods of training.  Basically, if training quality is suffering and you can't figure out why your legs just won't "come back," try a lot of oatmeal before going on Slowtwitch and asking what type of blood-test you should get. 


Training Take-Aways: Dec 31 - Jan 6


1) Do *not* pre-judge workouts, just keep calm and carry on: My 3-hour endurance ride on Saturday felt more like a 5-hour threshold ride; by the last 20 minutes, I could hardly keep the power in Zone 2. Driving home from the East Bay, I was not only dreading the swim that was on my schedule, I was actually doubting if I could do it, and committed a typical triathlete sin; I called my coach freaking out! He told me I could cut the warm-up short by taking out 300 meters of kicking (thanks Coach, although I was hoping you would take out the 1500 meters of band swimming) but to just get in the water and do the work.  Long story short is that after warming up, I didn't feel so awful anymore, and I ended up having one of my most effective swims of the training block setting some new PBs with the band. The body is such a complex machine, one I will never come close to understanding...so don't pre-judge your workouts unless you are legit injured, and even better, if you can, approach them with a positive mindset on performance as pointed out here by Sweat Science Alex Hutchinson.

2) The even more perfect recovery food, fat-free frozen yogurt: The downsides of chocolate milk in my opinion are: it's gone before you know it, it often has fat content which doesn't have much immediate recovery use, and sometimes you just are not craving chocolate after a workout.  Solution, frozen yogurt.  Solves all of the above issues, is ice-cold out of the freezer, and if you find the right brand, can be equally cost effective as chocolate milk.  I add some XECUTE whey protein to hit my 4:1 ratio (carb to protein) and am set, and really only add the protein because I promised to "pay attention to details" this year...a lil OCD...


3) Best winter running hat for climate control: I'm very fortunate to be supported by Andre and crew at Kiwami USA, and if you follow this blog or  Slowtwitch, you know I've written some extensive product reviews on their triathlon apparel. I had been hearing a lot about this "beanie" which, to be honest, I figured was just a winter hat, and pretty much left it at that...c'mon right, this is a commodity.  Well, someone in my Masters group asked me about it (e.g., could it be worn under a cycling helmet) so I finally asked the guys at Kiwami to get me one.  I trained in it all weekend and can say the Kiwami Beanie rivals arm-warmers as the best winter-comfort tool I have come across. Breathes incredibly well (e.g., no sweat log), fits comfortably under a road helmet, and what I found best, roles up at the ears to enable heat dissipation once you get warmed up.  When I agreed to partner with Kiwami it was under the conditions that I would be brutally honest, so while I am not going to tell you that their tech-tee is much different than any other tech-tee, I am going to tell you to spend $19 on this hat if you live anywhere the temperature drops below 50.
 cap-kiwami-h-1
Training Take-Aways: Dec 24 - Dec 30

 1) On the music front, be sure to check out Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, "The Heist." This album got me through a 3-hour trainer steady-state 75% FTP trainer session.  My own opinion is that a lot of modern day rap artists try to poetically confront current events and the result is often a bunch of cliches and total failure.  Not the case here; The Heist is about 65 minutes of beautiful story telling to great beats.  Listen straight through, or start with the song Same Love.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0

 2) Don't underestimate the power of visual motivation. I finally got around to decorating the pain cave (e.g., training center to me, guest-room to Caitlin) with posters, motivational sayings, etc.  Sure, at rest you look at some of these things and think "I can't believe I hung that in my apartment," but 90 minutes into a tough workout when it's just you and the otherwise white wall you look at these things and think "let's freaking go and get this work done!" Sure, it takes time and effort to find the posters (or since most don't exist, create them in PowerPoint) and a little explaining to the significant other, but like many things in the word, deep into a workout it makes sense.

 

3) The New Balance 1400 is a great Neutral Trainer.  I had been in the Nike Lunarfly for quite some time, and was feeling the shoe was a bit too built up in the heel and heavy.  Transition to the NB 1400 has been superb.  "Just enough" there to make it a regular training shoe, but I could easily see it in transition at the HIM distance, as I was having some calf issues taking on the 13.1 off the bike in a true racing flat.



Reflections On My First Year Racing Triathlon
I’m at 30,000 feet heading back to San Francisco from Texas where I just wrapped up my season at Austin 70.3.  In terms of the race, it was a very odd day. My inputs were right on the target, but the output they produced was significantly slower than I would have expected - particularly on the bike where my speed for power to weight just doesn't make sense; at 252 watts (average power) and 160 lbs. I split a measly 2:31.  I think this has to do with a combination of my position, equipment and likely my riding style too.  The bad thing is that I left time out on the course and as a result was not even in contention for a division podium spot.  The good thing is I ended the season with my physical fitness in a solid spot and those other variables are all correctable.  I guess this race was pretty emblematic of my season; hard to be upset because a lot the inputs were there, but impossible to be happy because the outputs were not.

Against that backdrop, I am already in the process of reflection and looking ahead. On balance, it was a good year in sport for me.  My duathlon races in the spring went to plan and I finished at the pointy end of pretty competitive fields. Transitioning to triathlon was filled with ups and downs, but most importantly, tons of lessons learned; from learning how to swim, to learning how to swim faster (albeit for short periods of time, but at least I’m making progress), to managing all of the variables that come with racing across the three sports.  The goal of this season was to gain experience, I gained a lot of it, and that is a good thing.

That said, I am far from content.  I am confident that I never had the day I was capable of.  I showed bits and pieces of it here and there -- e.g., a fast run on a hilly Syracuse course, a 2:25 bike split which included time lost to a big crash in Racine, a strong finish in the water to win a local ‘reverse triathlon’ -- but I never put it all together.  Maybe it was naïve of me to think I could have a complete race and go fast so soon, but I actually don’t think that is the case; I really believe that my goal to be on or at least near division podiums was a pragmatic one, and I missed it.  I’m just calling a spade a spade here.  

Meanwhile, from a pure process standpoint, I am actually pretty happy.  In terms of training, while there is always much to improve on, I worked hard and smart, and most importantly, I was consistent.  I did a pretty good job with nutrition, never getting too fixated on weight, but leaning down at the right times when I needed to be.  I still need to fine tune my carb-load process since I often felt (and literally was) 3-5 pounds heavier (versus a few days before) going into races; this may have slowed me down, but it also may have allowed me to finish strong…so I want to tease this out more. 

What I did poorly at best was, in the words of another seasoned racer, “pay attention to all the details.”  I really think that I became so focused on the physical elements of training that a combination of me overlooking and just being too worn out to care about other important things crept in.  Looking back it is now pretty easy to say that at the margin, almost every “extra hour” spent training would have been better devoted to analyzing equipment selection, position on my bike, riding style, etc.   Like I was saying earlier, the most obvious example of how this caught up to me happened in Austin, where my physical inputs (e.g., watts for weight) were at if not better than a lot of guys that road 7-10 minutes faster than me because they took care of the details.

Looking ahead to next year, I plan on continuing to give it my all, and yes, devote more time and energy to the details, since I now know firsthand how much they can matter.  I’ll have a full season on the docket, targeting HIM events starting in April through late-summer, and then likely transitioning to a focus on gaining an initial experience at the IM distance at Arizona in November.  I had a great conversation about goals with another athlete that I admire and decided that rather than set specific goals such as getting on podiums, or qualifying for World Championships, I simply want to get better.  If I can do that, the rest will work itself out.

Finally, at this juncture of looking back and looking ahead, I need to thank everyone that supports me and makes this possible.  My family for slowly but surely coming around to this and starting to understand the more whacky elements of the lifestyle (e.g., said best by a friend “the only sport where you eat 4000 to 5000 calories a day and people still think you have an eating disorder).  My friends for hopefully still being friends even though I often disappear for somewhat significant blocks of time.  My FW (future wife, fiancée is just odd to say or type) for being my partner in all of this, and the only person that trains over 10 hours a week but is content to never race (talk about disordered behavior).  Extreme Endurance, Kiwami, and Greater > Than for believing in me, supporting me with top-notch products, and giving me the incredible opportunity to be involved in the business, marketing, and product development side of the sport.  Coach/Zen-master Wes.  And finally, to the triathlon community at large; there really isn’t a better one out there**

To those racing FL/AZ/COZ, best of luck.  To those that are winding down, enjoy whatever down-time you give yourself, and prepare to pursue your goals to the fullest next year.  

Brad

**P.s., I guess it matters just enough to mention that off the course I had a blast!!  Although I never would have guessed it, I now must admit I actually enjoying the whole social media thing.  It went from being something I felt obligated to do as an athlete ambassador to the companies that I partner with, to an admittedly vanity-based ego boost (which got old real fast) to what it is right now; a great way to stay connected with a community of incredible people that share a common passion and demeanor.  I have had countless experiences (literally so many that I have lost track) where the triathlon community has completely amazed me with an unbelievable caring and willingness to help out.  It’s become my Church.

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 Race Report: Merced Long Course Triathlon

Coach Wes and I decided it would be a good idea to put myself in a race situation prior to Austin since to be frank, it's been a while.  So this past weekend I toed the start line for the Merced Long Course Triathlon; the race is held in an interesting 'reverse' format meaning the order went: run/bike/swim. Although this isn't ideal in terms of specificity, it was the only race in the vicinity, and the format and distances actually played to my strengths quite well, so I wasn't complaining.  Caitlin and I made the 2-hour drive down to Merced Saturday afternoon, met a great friend from back home in Michigan at the Asian Buffet for dinner (critical to find these always), and then hit the sack early for a good night's rest.

The race plan was pretty simple; pace the run smart, TT on the bike, and swim based on the situation. I was coming into things on 2 days rest after a pretty big 18 day training block. I was no-doubt carrying plenty of residual fatigue, but I actually felt pretty fresh during my pre-race workouts on Saturday and by Sunday morning I was ready to roll.

Run. 38:45 for the 10K: I was in a group of 4 athletes that went out pretty fast [e.g., sub 6:00 pace] and after waiting a half mile or so for the leader to "settle in" and he didn't, I let him go.  The other 2 athletes moved in front of me which was fine, but slowed the pace down to around 6:15.  Given I hadn't run a single mile under 6:30 pace since hurting my hip in July, this made me kind of nervous, but I felt OK and decided losing contact with this group would be bad so I settled in.  Somewhere between the second and third mile I realized that the guys whose shoulders I was on were slowing to 6:30ish pace.  I still felt fine at the faster clip, and I also knew from 2 years of racing Duathlons that while time-trialing on the bike after running fast is extremely hard to do, at least I had experience with it, and I kind of assumed that these other guys did not. So, I decided to move to the front of the group and bring the pace down to 6:10.  Plan worked perfectly, as both athletes clung to my shoulder, and I could audibly hear their breathing rate pick up, and even a few grunts here and there.  Although I was running harder than I would have liked, it sounded like these guys were now running an open-10K and it was making them hurt.  We hit transition together as a group and Caitlin said we were about 3 minutes down of the leader, who was clearly a strong runner.

Bike. 1:00 for the 24 miles: My hypothesis about making the other guys that were running with me hurt was quickly confirmed.  I beat them out of T1 and didn't see them again until after the race.  At that point  [after the race] they both told me that they had completely overcooked the run and couldn't get going on the bike.  Score! Anyways, the bike was 5 laps around a square course, so this was nice in the sense that you never felt alone. Not going to lie, my legs were also a bit beat from the faster-than-planned run, and I was south of my planned power target by about 15 watts, but I knew that I had put myself in podium contention by making everyone uncomfortable on the run. It was a pretty windy day, so I just focused on staying low and aero, built into things as best as I could, and then basically time-trialed the last 3 laps all out, ignoring any numbers on the computer.

Meanwhile, I hadn't seen the athlete that blazed the run, so midway through the last lap on the bike I was mentally preparing to swim hard [in order to protect second place] but not necessarily bury myself.  All this changed at literally the last minute on the bike course, when I saw the leader's P5 and white disc wheel rounding the final corner...OK!!! I had reeled him in!  He started looking back over his shoulder and for a minute I got really excited since I love nothing more than "going hunting" on the run, but then I remembered that this race ended with an 800 meter swim...in an outdoor pool...with a crowd...things were going to get interesting...

Swim. Somewhere between 13:00 and 14:00 for 800M: I jumped in about 15 seconds back of the leader and started sprinting to try and get on his feet.  To my surprise, about 30 seconds later, I had passed him.  Was he cramping?  Was I completely killing myself early and setting myself up for a lot of pain and disaster later on? What was going on?? This made no sense.  Well, to make a long story short, turns out the leader was a pure duathlete, so swimming wasn't really his thing...and that's an understatement.  By the end of just an 800 meter pool swim, he had fallen from 1st to 5th place.  Funny part is, I hardly got to relax in the water.  Relative to the other sports, I am weakest swimming, and although unlikely, I knew that those other guys from the run could make up whatever time I put into them on the bike. As I was snaking up-and-down the lanes in the long-course pool (beautiful outdoor pool btw) I did my best to sight and at the halfway point it seemed like I was up an easy 150-200 meters on whoever was behind.  Right when I decided it was safe to take my foot of the gas, I saw Caitlin during a breath [she was in the stands] and she was doing this quirk of hers that she only does when nervous about something.  Shit!!  You're kidding me!!! I must have been sighting wrong.  The other athlete wasn't 2 lanes back, he must be next door! So, I went from shutting things down to hurting myself.  When I hit the 700 meter mark (1.5 lengths remaining) I got a good glimpse of the second place athlete who was clearly 2 lanes over...so I was able to enjoy the last 150 meters, coasting in the last 50.  After the race, Caitlin told me that isn't just the "nervous" quirk but also the "excited" quirk. Good to know for the next time.

Overall. Happy to get the W, and equally as important, gain more experience racing.  Lesson from this one is to stay engaged and race until the finish always.  You never know who the athlete ahead of you or behind you may be, what their strengths/weaknesses are, or even if they may cramp up or not.  Although these shorter races hurt a lot during [far too much for my liking] they are significantly easier to come back from, so after a few easier days, I'll begin my final build for Austin before tapering down.  Stay tuned!

Heavy hardware.  Glad this wasn't a "fly to" event,
would have cost me $50 more dollars

Training Update: Long Season, Final Push
I started training in earnest back in December 2011, peaked in April, peaked again in late June, and am now gearing up for my final push toward peaking for Austin 70.3 the last weekend in October.  From a training standpoint, there is nothing remarkable to report, which is a good thing!  I am executing my workouts across all three sports very well and with good consistency in terms of hitting targets.  Embarcadero SF Masters has been great for my swimming which continues to improve, and I feel stronger in the water than ever; being able to hold pace and keep my stroke together at the 100M, 1000M, and 4500M point of workouts. On the bike, my power numbers are the highest they have been all year, so while it is nothing but an indicator, it is certainly one in the right direction.  My return to running following my Psoas injury has been steady, and I've built my volume back up to between 27-32 mpw, which gives me enough base for whatever threshold and speed work Coach wants to layer on in the few weeks before go-time in Austin.

My fatigue levels have been high at times (e.g., the type that has you dreading the walk up a flight of stairs) but Coach Wes has been great about over-communication and adapting the plan to ensure that I don't dig any sort of hole that I can't climb out of.  Sure enough, two weeks after that period of feeling like total crap, I am drilling sessions and feeling fit as ever.  Just goes to show that over-reaching isn't a bad thing, so long as an athlete doesn't push too much, and fall too deep into the dreaded fatigue hole.

So from here on out, everything I am doing is in the spirit of being in my best possible form on race day. Form is a function of fitness minus fatigue (or sometimes expressed as fitness plus freshness).  It is critical to balance the push to gain fitness with the fatigue it induces, particularly this late in a long season.  As a brief aside, I think optimizing on "form" is the key to peak performances in any discipline of life; whether it is a big meeting, taking an exam, or racing a triathlon.  You can always do more to prepare (e.g., gain fitness) but at a certain point, the extra fitness you are gaining is outweighed by the fatigue that it brings on.  The  most simple example is cramming before an exam, or doing monster workouts to search for confidence a few days out from a race.  This is by no means to minimize the importance of fitness; hard work is critical.  But it is the timing of that hard work, and how one structures recovery from it that allows for optimization of form.  You can be as "fresh" as ever, but if you don't have the fitness, you'll fail whatever test is ahead...be it physical or intellectual.  At the same time, you may be the most prepared person there is, but if you haven't recovered from the strain of that preparation, odds are you will underform during the event. 

Meanwhile, I have had a flurry of recent reminders about just how long the season has been.  Although my body is holding up great, my mind and gear are showing signs of being ready for a break!  In no particular order, over the past 10 days:
  • The pizza and extra-creamy mac and cheese on the Bristol Farms buffet has never looked so good, and I'm struggling to resist it more than ever; I plan on dropping $20-30 there come November
  • My Power Meter magnet and battery both zonked out (on the day of planned testing, of course)
  • My goggles no longer seal and my swimsuits are close behind (I'm generally in lane 4, ladies)
  • My trainer tire is busted
  • My trainer itself stopped working as well, and I found out that 80% of the screws had come loose 
  • I found myself going to the pool for a workout instead of open water because the pool is closer (by a whopping 10 minutes) and warmer (that's a better reason, but still...) 
I've resolved the technical issues, and I know how much work I've put in, so I should be able to keep the good old mind at bay for another month.  Still, I can now see the value of "picking your suffer spots" a bit more selectively at this point of the year.  What I mean by this is that in March-May, I could pretty much ride for 4 hours, drive to open-water to swim, eat healthy, and foam roll within a 12-hour period with no problems, and then be ready to go at it again the next day.  Now, not-so-much the case, so it has become more important to selectively "pick my spots," as to avoid burning out.  This not only involves being honest with myself, but also with my coach. 

All of that said, and as I read what I just wrote (which sounds pretty soft to be honest), I don't think I'll have a problem putting the finishing touches on. Am I looking forward to a little break? Yes.  Am I looking forward to the chance to express my fitness at Austin 70.3 even more? Absolutely.  I've got just a few more weeks to gain fitness, and then the focus will shift to freshness.  I'm enjoying the whole process, and am excited for what is to come...pizza topped with mac-and-cheese included...

***I want to note that much of the above writing pertaining to "form" is not my original thinking, but the confluence of great wisdom from triathlon minds like Matt Dixon, Jesse Kropelnicky, and of course, the Slowtwitch Forum and Steve Fleck in particular...


Training Update: Austin 70.3 Looks Like a Go
It's been quite a while since I last updated the blog, since my crash at Racine actually; but if there was ever a good excuse for delay, I think I own it.  It's been a fun and super-busy end of summer. I got engaged to my longtime girlfriend [no more, haha] Caitlin, moved from Michigan to San Francisco, started a new job, and after looking at TrainingPeaks, trained as much as I ever have in my life.  The training has been tracking very well, but keeping with my goals of this year, it doesn't really matter if I am a champion of training, I want to be a champion of racing.  Anyways, I'll keep the update focused on triathlon, and for those of you in a time crunch, the section-by-section breakdown is below.

Austin 70.3 Looks Like a Go: I registered and even booked Tribike Transport.  There is no denying that my objective was to be racing in Vegas next weekend at the 70.3 World Championships, and I am disappointed not to be there.  That said, given the circumstances, I am thrilled that it looks like I'll be able to toe the start line in Austin come late October.  It's been a long season with some ups, and more recently, some downs, but I'm in a good place right now.  The bike crash at Racine is out of my mind, and just about out of my body, and with 8-weeks till race-day, I'm only looking forward!! ...But a look back...

Hip Injury: Turns out my crash at Racine left me a bit more banged up than I had thought.  Long story short, while I was able to continue swimming and biking pain free after just a few days of rest, there were 3 things that I couldn't do to save my life: 1) get in-and-out of bed, 2) get in-and-out of cars and 3) run.  After about 10 days the getting in and out of things improved, but not the running.  I finally saw a sports-doc, who diagnosed me with a torn Iliopsoas muscle, which is a hip flexor running from the lower abdomen down into the groin region.  I was worried about the dreaded "Sports Hernia," and it was good to hear this was something else. It is a finicky muscle, and the best thing for it was to do nothing but a few exercises to try and activate the neuromuscular pathway (too deep for ice to be effective, too irritated for much stretching and/or massage to help). Prognosis was 4-8 weeks off running, swimming and biking fine so long as there was no pain. I managed the short-end of that and have been working my way back into running over the last 2 weeks.  If you are interested and want more details on the injury, I would recommend reading this Slowtwitch Thread which covers Sports-Hernias/Psoas/Groin 

Swim: Given the above (on my hip) Coach Wes and I identified this as a period to really (and I mean really) work the swim and bike.  Not only would there be more time without running in the mix, but also, running tends to be the hardest stressor on my overall body, so in its absence we could push these disciplines even harder.  Outside of a recovery period, I've put in around 17,000 yards average these past few weeks. In edition to the sheer volume increase, I also used moving to SF as an inflection point to reevaluate my swim program; that's just a fancy way of saying I forced myself to join a fast Masters group.  I think that the two in combination (e.g., swimming a lot, and swimming with swimmers) will pay huge dividends, especially the latter.  This may sound weird to some, but I think a lot of triathletes will get it; swimmers swim fast.  Not until joining the Embarcadero Masters program did I understand that.  My arms haven't been this sore since my football playing days.

Bike: Similar theme to the swim.  I am in a really nice groove where I do intervals and recovery work on the trainer during the week, and then my long rides outdoors on the weekend.  While this is driven by logistics, even if I didn't have SF traffic to fight or a job to work, I would still do things the same way.  I am a big believer that unless you live out on country roads, fitness is best built on the trainer.  The mix of race simulation (e.g., no lights, stop-signs, cars, pedestrians), efficiency (e.g., no costing) and specificity (e.g., total control over inputs like heart-rate and cadence, and being able to stick to a specific output level like power) cannot be accomplished anywhere but the spare bedroom in my apartment.  All of that said, splurging on a premium Spotify membership to ensure endless new playlists helps ease what I like to call the "white wall pain."  My watts seem to be up across the board, and I'm excited to see what this means more objectively when I fitness test in a few weeks prior to my last build before Austin 70.3

Run: Slow and steady sums this up.  Started by coming back with 2x5 minute runs (AM and PM) and have incrementally increased my way up to a 30-minute run off the bike this past weekend that was...pain free!!  The major take-aways here are 1) patience is always the way to go with an injury and 2) low-volume, high frequency is a great way to "protect" a healing injury while rebuilding muscle memory.  I somehow managed to run 25 miles this past week...with a long run of just 30 minutes.  Looking ahead here, the plan is to take 2 more weeks of just building back a base, and then go at it with some intensity for 3 weeks during a final build phase prior to Austin.  That's the plan, but my hip will be the arbiter of it.

Training 18-20 Hours/Week, Working: Lots of people ask.  Basically, training/triathlon has to be a lifestyle.  You've got to a eat a certain way and sleep a certain way, and with that means forfeiting late nights and partying.  In addition, and far more important, it takes a supportive partner (not going to lie, helps if he/she embraces the same active "push yourself" lifestyle) and a motivated mind; for amateurs like myself, the drive is intrinsic, and if you don't enjoy the "whole" thing (not every workout is enjoyable, but the entire process ought to be), then you won't do it.  Day-to-day what this looks like:  5AM: Wake-up. 6-8AM: Key training session of the day. 8-9AM: Hygiene, commute to work. 9-6PM: Work, and work hard and efficiently (e.g., sad to say, but this means time on Slowtwitch is a generally a no-go) to make sure everything gets done. 6:40-7:45PM: Training session/chores (depends on day, I generally have doubles 3 days during the week) 7:45-9:15PM: Dinner, feet-up, relax. 9:15-5AM: Sleep. Long training is reserved for the weekends, and I still make an effort to start these sessions early so I can have them done by 2PM allowing the rest of the day to be enjoyed doing non-triathlon activities.  If I need to sneak in a late afternoon swim on the weekends that is fine, but I really prefer to string together my weekend workouts so I can "check-out" of triathlon come the afternoon, and surely the evening.  Like I said in opening, if you don't enjoy this, you won't (and shouldn't) do it.  ***It also helps to have Xendurance products on the shelf, both from a recovery standpoint (e.g., Extreme Endurance and XEcute) as well as supporting my immune system with their gold-standard multi-vitamin.  Knock on wood but I can't remember the last time I was sick, and I can work a lot of quality into these weeks.

Thanks for the Support: I'll end by re-stating how lucky I am to work with a few amazing companies in the triathlon space.  Something that makes our sport so cool is the partnerships available to amateur athletes.  The aspiring athlete gets product support, the expertise and knowledge behind it, and some additional exposure.  The brand penetrates the rampantly growing amateur triathlon market.  Personally, these three companies have shown nothing but steadfast support for me, even when things didn't go to plan and I traded a potential spot at the World Championships for one on the doctor's table. I'm so grateful to have them in my corner; world-class products and world-class people. Extreme Endurance for the best recovery/general health supplements, Kiwami Triathlon for the most aerodynamic and comfortable race suits, and Greater > Than for all your pre/post race hydration needs, as well as a brand philosophy that motivates me to do the work every day.
Not a bad view from the trainer
Incredible Support Packages from
XEndurance, Kiwami, and Greater > Than!!






May 2014!! It's on!!! 



Quick Update Post Racine 70.3 
I couldn't sleep much the night after this one thanks to a churning mind, the usual post-race hangover, and some not so usual pain.  The good thing is, all will subside over time. I will likely amend this a bit to make it a more complete race-report in the near future, but for now, I wanted to give all my wonderful friends and supporters in the triathlon community a quick answer to the question I have now received literally over 45 times (in all forms, even some good old fashioned voice-mails); "What happened out there on the run?"  The short answer is that I ran really slowly, pretty sure north of an 8 min/mile pace.  But the more complete answers starts at mile 15 of the bike...

After a shockingly good swim (for me anyways, to all the fish out there, remember this is all relative), I hit the bike feeling great and started hammering hard with one thing on my mind; an AG win and a Vegas slot.  I settled right into my goal power and was feeling very strong.  I couldn't help but start to think "maybe today is the one where I can put it all together."  The first aid-station came at about mile 15.  Per the usual, I made eye contact with a volunteer, pointed to him, and proceeded to take a water bottle from him.  For some reason, the volunteer ran with me (versus the usual stiff arm hand-off) which was fine, but this certainly made things a bit more complex.  In addition to the running volunteer, I absolutely took this too fast, and won't do so again.  Lesson learned the hard way.

Left side of the body took it good, and it's
that little bulge in my hip that was far more
damaging than any of the road-rash, cuts
Anyways, as I am reaching to put the bottle in my frame, next thing I know is that I hit a divot in the road; my back wheel fish-tails hard, and I am on the ground, across the road from my bike.  At this moment, adrenaline is as high as ever.  I do a quick inventory of myself; good amount of blood, but everything pretty superficial.  I then grab my nutrition which had splayed all over the road (thanks Chad for telling me to always take much more than you think you need, made it easier to quickly round up and not worry about leaving some behind), and make my way back to the bike. As I go to get on the bike, I see that the shifter that controls the front rings looks jacked up.  Anyways, I hop on my bike, but the pedals won't turn.  I yell out asking for a mechanic, and a volunteer tells me to go up the road to a yellow tent, so I walk up there with my bike.  No mechanic, but I am offered a tool-kit.  At this point, I murmur aloud "well, my day is over."  Thankfully, a volunteer overhears me and says, "Don't quit.  Try harder to fix your bike." I listen, and once I get myself a bit more together, I realize that my chain is off and rear brake slightly jammed.  Given that I know the course is rolling and my front shifter seems pretty busted, I put the chain back on the big ring.  Then, I unlock the back break, say a little prayer, and get back on the bike again.  It's moving forward, and at least 5 of the rear gears are working.  Alright!

I admit my thoughts are negative at first "I can't believe I just lost 3 minutes," but I put these thoughts at bay by riding like a bat out of hell for a good 10-mile stretch in hopes of working myself back into the race.  Over the course of the next 40 miles, I notice that my left stomach/hip/groin area is getting more and more sore, particularly the few times I had to sit back in the saddle or come out of it to get up over some rollers.  That said, it didn't seem to effect the way I was riding too much, so I continued to push my way to a 3rd best 2:25 bike split, which was actually a 2:22 "moving" bike split if you subtract my down-time...

Coming off the bike, within a 10 minutes of the run, I knew I was in trouble.  I say "within 10 minutes" because even though the first few steps hurt a lot, these always do, so I just told myself to be patient.  But when things got worse, not better, I knew my "race" was over.  I don't want to exaggerate here; it *was not* an excruciating or stabbing pain by any means, but simply a very uncomfortable "don't extend any further or this will be very bad" kind of pain that dominated a very touchy [to begin with] region of my lower stomach and inner groin.  I just couldn't run faster than a 7:45 pace.  My body went into protect itself mode and wouldn't let me open my stride.  I gave thought to DNFing a few times, but within 10 seconds of having those thoughts, the answer was always "screw that, if I can finish this race, I will."  So, that's what I did.  I grooved in (well, in reality, hardly a groove, more like an awkward settling in) to around an 8 minute pace and finished the race, running a 1:44 half marathon, in which I couldn't really get my heart-rate up at all.

On the one hand, I am absolutely disappointed, and as much as I hate to play the "shoulda, coulda, would have" game, if I just would have run a 1:30 to 1:35 off the bike (what I did on a Syracuse course that was 10x more challenging just 3 weeks ago), I would have qualified for Vegas, even with the lost time due to the crash.  But that really is a dumb game to play, so I am trying not to.

On the other hand, I am really happy that I finished the race.  So many wonderful people in my "little-life circle" sacrifice so much for me to participate in this sport, and finishing a race when I can is a commitment I not only make to myself, but to them as well.  And then, so many people in the greater "big-life circle" overcome so much more than a bike crash to finish their respective races, so at the end of the day, it's kind of like C'mon, just do it, get it done, learn from it, and move on...

So, I am trying my best to do just that.  The first half is taken care of (e.g., just getting through the race) and I  know I will learn from it too (already learned to really really slow down at aid stations the bike).  In terms of moving on, now that I won't have to worry about getting to Vegas in September, I am eyeing down Austin 70.3 in late October.  The one thing here is (insert drum-roll for tons of irony, please), every review I read of that race says the roads are just god-awful, and lead to many crashes...no joke...That said, if many of the top pros can race there, it can't be that bad, can it??  So I am pretty much 90% there (will still post on the Slowtwitch Forum asking how bad it really is) and then sign up, so if any of you want to join me, let's have a reunion in Austin, no?  If nothing more, I can't wait to get to that Whole Foods!!

In the more near future, I need to get this hip flexor/groin issue worked out as fast as I can.  It is still hard to evaluate because I am in the very acute stage, but I am hoping this is something that is a 7-10 day type of thing if I am smart about it.  I'll know more a few days down the road.

Thanks all for your support, caring, and engagement in my progress as a triathlete.  I love all you guys!

Syracuse 70.3 (Half Ironman) 
89 overall, 18 Division
This was the first of two priorty races scheduled for the first half of my season; the next being Racine 70.3 on July 15. While this was also my first time competing at the 70.3 distance, I felt that my preparation was strong, and this confidence in my fitness afforded me a fairly aggressive race-plan.  In the back of my mind I wanted to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Vegas, but per the usual, my primary focus was to execute my plan and to beat myself...and then just let everything else works itself out.  As you can see from the title of this race-report, I missed Vegas by quite a bit, but I was still happy with the day.  The course proved to be extremely challenging, and my output (a finishing time of 4:45) doesn't necessarily represent what the inputs (e.g., power, heart-rate) might have earned me on a more traditional course.  That said, 17 guys in my division beat me, and they all raced the same course, so the improvement opportunity is vast. Here's how it all went down...

Pre-Race: Everything went off without a hitch.  I was so happy to have Caitlin join me for this one, and really appreciate the huge effort she made to do so, as she is in her "peak-phase" of California Bar studying.  She gave clear instructions for me to make a good playlist, and I spent 90% of the 9 hour drive to Syracuse with headphones on, while she was in the backseat all over her note-cards and Barbari book. We spent a night in Erie, PA, and arrived in Syracuse on Thursday evening. This left me a full 2-days to acclimatize to the race site. My pre-race workouts felt great, and after learning from past mistakes, I nailed my carb-load quite well this time around, making sure to hydrate with Greater > Than coconut water to keep my electrolyte levels balanced.  I also want to make mention of how awesome the triathlon community is.  In an effort to buy Caitlin some more sleep/study time, I posted on the Slowtwitch Forum asking if any other athletes would be willing to give me a ride to the race site in the very early morning.  I got an overwhelming response of offers (5 to be exact) and want to give special thanks to Dave Profusek for giving me a ride on race morning.  Dave wasn't even racing, but he is a local that is intimately involved in the upstate New York triathlon community, and made it seem like no big deal.  Awesome, right?

Race Morning: Up around 3:45AM.  Normal breakfast of: Greater > Than coconut water, Extreme Endurance Xecute, and 2 Power-bars in the lead up to the race.  Dave had me in transition with plenty of time to spare, my final preparations were completed easily. I headed down to the water feeling extremely relaxed.  Since my swim wave went off last, I had a good hour at the shore, and it was great hanging out with Bill Robertson, another Kiwami athlete, and a stellar racer.  Bill had raced Syracuse last-year and gave me some great tips (via email, text, etc) in the lead-up, so it was especially nice to finally meet in person and share race morning together.

Swim (34:56) I wanted to be out in 33:30 to 34:00, but oh well, this was just a minute off and was probably lost due to fighting too much of a crowd at first, and then getting kicked hard in the face and needing to adjust my goggles [to ensure the health of my contacts/subsequent vision] midway through.  What I really need here is 4 minutes of fitness, not 1 minute of better luck.  This is a problem that will be solved in the winter, no doubt. 

Bike (2:31, 22.2mph) Stuck it pretty good. I had a 10-watt window for my average power on the day, and 56 miles later, I was right in that window, so the execution was there.  The course was pretty much a consistent climb over the first 15 miles, and then a section of rollers before a downhill finish.  The elevation profile on the website listed the total climbing at 1600 feet, and I remember thinking during the bike there is no way we were just climbing 1600 feet.  Sure enough, the data post-mortem showed 2900 feet of climbing...so yeah...not the hardest bike course, but clearly a very challenging one.  I pushed the power effectively for the front-end climbs, but was patient and kept things in check.  While I did everything I could to hammer the descents, it was hard to keep my power up during this portion, and things tapered off a bit toward the end of the bike race. Also worth noting, a little bit of BS toward the end of the bike; they had runners (going out) sharing a lane with bikers (coming in) and this declared the last mile of the bike course a "do-not-pass" zone.  Given that my wave went off last, I got stuck in a 6-person train behind 2 women for the last mile of the bike and had to completely let off the gas, to the point where my average power fell 3 watts during that small 3-4 minute window as I was literally spinning out in the easiest gear.  This was extremely frustrating, and while I know everyone had to deal with it, it may have especially hurt me since there was nobody within sight ahead of the slow athlete leading us in.  Who knows, I may have lost up to a full minute here, but what can you do (except give this feedback to the race director in a constructive way, which is next up on my agenda).  To summarize, a bike split that I was pleased with: I hit my power and heart-rate goals, and moved up significantly in the field, which I was expecting to do given my swim weakness. 

Run (1:34, 7:11 pace) The run course was a total doozy, the hardest official race course I have ever seen. It seemed as if we were either straight climbing or descending for 70% of the entire 13.1 miles of the double out-and-back course. Sure, it was spectator friendly, but that's about it as far as "friendly" goes for this one. I opened up with the first 2 miles at 6:55 and 6:50, really easing into things as I got my run legs under me. Then came the hills, and I saw north of 9:00 pace on my Garmin at times.  Long story short is I did the best that I could to control the climbs and then really pound the downhills.  My HR rose according to plan over the course of the run, and I hit my targets perfectly here; numbers that normally put my pace between 6:30 and 6:40 on a more traditional course.  The most positive take-away from the run was that I absolutely raced the last 4 miles. I ran down and made 3 passes of guys in my division that I had spotted at the turn-around). At the time, I thought I was vying for a spot for Worlds because last year my pacing would have put me in the top 6 (little did I know I was actually just working my way into the top 20 in a ridiculously fast field) so I really suffered here and just pounded the downhills with no regard for muscular pain. I made one pass at mile 11, another at mile 12, and the last pass in the final half-mile, and ended up putting 30 seconds into that dude. I ran the last mile at a heart-rate about 5 beats higher than I dial in for my sub 6:00 mile repeats, so not that I needed it, but this is some objective proof that I was really leaving it all out on the course. 

Nutrition: 1 cliff-shot before the swim, 9 on the bike, and 3 on the run. 5x22oz of water plus Nuun tablets on the bike. Aid stations for Cola and whatever else they were handing out to get me through the last 6 miles of the run. Works itself out to be somewhere between 1500 and 1600 calories for the day, or about 350/hour. No stomach issues at all.  Great!! The plan is completely gross, and the toilet has been since, but it set me up for a good race that was not limited by my stomach, and my consistent run splits and strong finish are proof I kept just-enough glycogen throughout the day (I say *just enough* because there is nothing like looking at the results 15-minutes post race and all-of-a-sudden the names start to move all over the place; nothing that a girlfriend, 2 bananas, and Coke can't fix fast, though). 

Final Thoughts: When I looked at the results and saw 18 in my AG, I was shocked for a minute, but never disappointed. I had a good day, executing my race-plan really well.  I am excited for Racine and a much more forgiving course in 3 weeks.  A pretty fast turn-around time, but with Extreme Endurance in my corner and a sound recovery/stay fresh plan in my back pocket, it's nothing that I'm worried about.  Thanks to everyone that supports me; especially my Coach Wes Johnson for the Zen guidance, and Extreme Endurance, Kiwami Triathlon, and Greater > Than coconut water for your belief in me and support with the best pre-and post supplements, hydration, and race gear. 
With Bill Robertson, another great Kiwami Athlete
With CB, showing true endurance with
 consistent 9 hour "Bar training Days"















Kiwami Triathlon
It's kind of ironic that this all came together leading up to a not-so-stellar performance (for more on that, see the previous post below), but I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be partnering with Kiwami Triathlon. Kiwami rounds out a great network of support that I'm so blessed to have that includes Extreme Endurance (recovery and nutrition supplements), Greater > Than Coconut Water (the best all-natural hydration) and Balanced Art Multisport (total Zen coaching).  I'm blown away and overwhelmed with thanks that all these wonderful companies believe in me and my goals as an athlete, as well as my involvement in the multisport community more broadly. 

Kiwami Triathlon is the hands-down leader in triathlon apparel, period.  Both their one-piece suits and short/top combos are the highest quality in terms of fit and heat dissipation, and the colorways and custom-printing options allow athletes to dial in their own style.  For the speed-geeks out there, the way your race suit fits is far more important (and far less expensive) than your disc wheel, so if you are a serious athlete, investing in a top-notch race suit makes a lot of sense.  It's for these reasons that Kiwami products are the first choice of so many top-elites, from ITU stars like Alexander Bryukhankov to Xterra champions like Conrad Stoltz. 

But equally as impressive as Kiwami's gear is the company's best-in-class customer service.  I have yet to hear of another tri-suit company that will literally work with you over the phone to ensure that your apparel is exactly how you want it; confirming fit, colorway, and logo details.  The turn-around time is *fast* (like 1-week fast even for customization), and the staff is a pleasure to work with.  I can almost guarantee you won't find this combination of quality, customization, and service anywhere else in the market. 

Needless to say, I am so excited and honored to be representing the Kiwami brand moving forward, and will do everything I can to put myself in a position to be sporting the incredible Kit on podiums for years to come!!



If you are in the market for a new kit, or even just some training gear (Kiwami also offers great cycling and running-specific options too) I would highly recommend that you check out Kiwami's website http://www.kiwamitri.com/ and explore the various options.  They often run specials, and at times I may have access to a promo code that can score you a discount on an order, so don't hesitate to reach out. 

I'll end by saying as I reflect on this development for just an additional moment, it's so damn cool that a common theme with all my partners is not only their high quality products (because let's be honest, their are tons of company's that make high quality products across the triathlon space), but also their incredible dedication to serving athletes that is not only present in their respective philosophies and mission statements, but also in their day-to-day operations.  This only works to serve as extra motivation for me to work hard in [as Simon would say] my relentless pursuit of excellence in multisport racing.  Next on the docket, Syracuse 70.3, and although I'm hell-bent on having a breakthrough performance, I'll look damn good regardless! 

Island Lake Olympic Triathlon Race Report, 2:15:xx. 
10th overall, Division Champion
"Stars and stones, but they are all bricks to build on."  Brett Sutton told that to Chrissie Wellington, who then told that to lots of folks via her autobiography.  The quote really resonates with me.  With so many workouts and so many races, some will be great, and others will be far from it; but cumulatively, every training session or time you toe a starting line is working to make you a stronger athlete and a stronger person.  It's a good thing that I genuinely believe that, because this weekend at the Island Lake Spring Triathlon was an absolute stone.  But when put into a larger context, there is definitely opportunity for me to build on the race moving forward, and that's what I plan on doing.

Setting the Stage: This marked my transition from duathlon to triathlon, and thus would be the first time I started a multisport event in the water!!** Along those lines, the purpose of squeezing this event into my schedule was simple; to gain experience swimming in a race situation, work through transitions, and more broadly, to have at least one triathlon under my belt leading up to my big 70.3 races in June and July.   I knew I would be going into race straight off the biggest training block in my life, so I wasn't really expecting to feel fresh. It's extremely hard for me to race in these situations.  I don't like doing it.  I would always rather enter a race tapered and thus truly ready (physically and mentally) to perform at my highest potential.  But, given the importance of June and July, and my total lack of triathlon experience, getting a start here was a must.  So, once the decision was made to race on fatigued legs, I put "fatigued legs" out of my mind and approached the day like any other race.  **In the spirit of full transparency, I did do a pool-swim triathlon last summer, and a sprint triathlon some five years ago as an undergraduate student

Pre-Race: Completely wacky.  During the last 2 minutes of my 20 minute run warmup, while coming down a hill on the way back to the transition area, both of my quads cramped up like they never have before.  I'm talking a full out knotting charley-horse sensation, bilaterally. I've never before had an issue with cramping in a race or training, let alone in a warmup.  So when these suckers came on I was totally stunned.  I did my best to keep my cool and react to the situation as logically as possible.  I walked to the med-tent, requested a banana and water and took those down fast, then I stretched very lightly.  This was all about 20 minutes from the start of the race, so I didn't have much time to work with. I got into my wetsuit and thought to myself "if anything is going to loosen this up it should be a swim, and if not, I'll know soon enough."  I swam out to the first buoy and back, and was thrilled to feel nothing uncomfortable in my legs.  At that point, I put the cramps out of my mind.  Time to do this triathlon thing.

Swim (26:30) For all the banter and hysteria about open-water swimming, this was a total non-event.  Sure there was contact, and I dealt with it.  Yes, I  swallowed some water too, and that was no big deal.  To be honest, the whole thing was almost like a formality.  Long story short, after the two-laps, I hit land not even breathing hard.  I completely "managed" the swim versus "racing" it, which I guess is fine given this was my first triathlon swim.  It tells me that I can, should, and now will go harder in my upcoming 70.3 races. When I looked at my watch and saw 26:00 and realized that I didn't really go above my easy aerobic exertion level, I was happy and sad at the same time.  Happy because the race accomplished it's primary purpose re; gaining experience and learning about where I'm at in terms of open water fitness, and sad because I easily gave up 2 minutes by being scared to swim hard.  Definitely better to learn this now than a month from now when I'm fighting to punch my ticket for the 70.3 World Championships. You never know what wind, sun glare, and other uncontrollables might manifest on race morning, but I'm extremely confident that I can come out of the water sub 35 in a 70.3 race, which is exactly where I wanted to be right now, after only 5 months of swimming.

Bike (1:05:12) Dead legs.  I'll spare you the details and heroism in favor of simplicity: I tried to get my power up to where it should be, and failed.  I tried again, and failed again.  My legs had no spark.  The muscles weren't working up to their potential, nowhere near it really.  When I realized that it just wasn't going to happen for me on the bike (I was a good 30 watts south of my target), I decided to focus on gaining speed however else I could; so from that point on, the bike race became all about being aero, turning smart, and pretty much everything else that can impact a bike split outside of a riders legs.  My moving average was 23.1mph, which I feel great about given my measly power output. Even though my legs weren't working, it's a good confirmation that my position and riding style are pretty fast. In terms of my legs not working, I'll delve into this just a tad bit more below at the end of the report.

Run (41:58): The pre-race cramping came back, and with a vengeance.  This was by far the most miserable run of my racing career.  My middle miles were all well above 7:00 pace, far off my typical 6:05 to 6:20 for this distance.  Miles 2 through 4 literally felt like with each step someone was hitting my quads with a hammer.  I thought about dropping out multiple times, but I have never DNFed in a race, and didn't want to make this my first.  So I just grit it out and did my best to survive.  Ironically, when I hit the last mile, I started to feel great... like truly great.  This just goes to show never, ever, ever, give up in multisport racing.  Even the short races are still pretty long days, and anything can happen.  I ran about a 6:10 last mile, and picked off 3 other athletes in the final 4 minutes of the race.   When I hit the finish line I thought maybe my body had somehow come around.  Not the case.  Before the volunteer could strip away my timing chip, both of my calves (yup, moving down the legs) completely seized up and went into spasms.  More banana, sports drink, and light stretching.  At least this bout of cramping was in a smaller muscle group, and came on after the race versus before it.  It just wasn't my day.

What to Make of This: As I said in the opening, the purpose of the day was to gain experience swimming in the open water during a race.  So, if I were to judge the day based on that alone, it was a wild success.  I swam effectively and learned that I can go much harder in the water and also important, my transitions were smooth and not at all stressful.  But to say the day was a wild success would be total bullshit.  As I said earlier, it's very hard for me to wrap my head around "racing for experience."  I can tell myself that all week long, but come race morning, I am racing to win, and I don't think it should be any other way.  So in that spirit, I am pretty disappointed with the day.  I could have been 7-10 minutes faster, which is a *lot* of time to leave on the course in an Olympic distance event. But...coulda...shoulda...woulda... Bottom line, I wasn't.

Putting the frustration aside and looking at the day in a wider context, though, things aren't that bad at all.  The bike split was ugly, but when I look back at the past month of training with more objective eyes, I really shouldn't be too surprised; my legs were fried heading into this, and to think that somehow I could magically ride above my threshold because I was coming off of two easy days is probably nonsense.  And the cramping, who knows if it was a one-time sort of thing that just had to happen, or maybe it was simply my body's way of telling me that it wasn't ready to suffer.  I'm not going to read into it any more than that.

I still won my division quite easily, but for what I want to do in the sport right now, winning my division in local races is far from enough.  And, most importantly, I didn't beat myself, which at the end of the day, is always my goal.


Best award at a race yet; Now I  can drink my troubles away!  
The good news is that this race wasn't an important one (not important enough to rest for anyways) and that I have one month to get ready for Syracuse 70.3...which is an important one.  I'll have some micro-recovery from this race [and the massive training that came before for it] for a few days, train hard for 10-12 days, and then taper down heading into 'Cuse.  All in all, I feel very good about where I am at right now.  I really believe that with a smart taper, my body will absorb the massive work of the past 5 months well, and I will be fresh and ready to roll come late June.  That's certainly a crazy/scary element of this sport: you don't really know if the training plan worked until the few days of a year where you get to find out.   For me, that first set of few days is coming up, and I couldn't be more excited for it!!

Update: May Training, Transition to Triathlon
It's been a little while, so I figured I would provide a glimpse into what I've been up to over the past few weeks. At the highest level, after my mini "duathlon season" in April, I dug in for a massive build of training aiming to increase my fitness heading into my priorty races for the first half of the season; 70.3 Syracuse in June and 70.3 Racine in July.  I'm now enjoying a bit of recovery before I'll toe the line at my first Triathlon this weekend on Saturday, May 26.  The update follows.

Training: More than I ever have before at a 20 hour three week trailing average.  While the primary focus has been on increasing durability through volume, these weeks have also been filled with some very high-quality sessions.  Parallel to increasing fitness, emphasis is on dialing in race exertion levels. A few workouts:
  • 3 hour top-end endurance ride followed by a 13 mile run including 4x1 mile repeats
  • 6x300's in the pool at best-sustainable effort alternating paddle/swim
  • 3 hour ride including 2x45 minutes at goal race power
  • Open water swimming whenever possible
On top of the sport-specific training, I'm also focused on the other critical elements of peak performance such as dialing in a race-weight that will keep me light and able to dissipate heat well, but also will allow me to remain powerful.  Nutrition is also key, and along with logging my HR and Wattage, I've been logging my fueling and how I've reacted to it as well.  And last but not least, I'm experimenting with the growth of a "training beard," although it's really more a hodge-podge of hair growth on my face.  It's life-span will be determined by what James the barber can do with it later this week. 

Transition to Triathlon: My #1 limiter is clearly the swim, so in addition to working on raw physiological swim fitness, I've also been working on race fitness. As mentioned above, this has involved a lot of open water swimming, sighting, and some contact drills.  I also need improve my T1; it seems getting out of the wetsuit presents a greater challenge and may take longer than the swim itself.  Not good, and will get better.  While Duathlons are undoubtedly tough on the legs, I am learning [and learning fast] that triathlon racing really is a completely different sport that presents it's own fitness and logistical challenges.

Upcoming Race: I can simulate all I want, but I won't really know what a triathlon feels like until I race one, so I am hugely looking forward to this coming Saturday when I'll toe the line at the Island Lake Spring Triathlon.  It's an Olympic Distance race that fit my schedule perfectly, coming at the end of a recovery week.  There should be no confusion: I absolutely plan on racing to win, but at the same time, this is more than anything a great opportunity for me to gain race-specific experience.  The plan for this race is simple: survive the swim and pace similarly as I will at my 70.3 races, ride at my threshold power, and per the usual, run strong off the bike. 

Stay tuned for an update following the Island Lake Race.

Greenswell LC Duathlon Race Report
2mi/22.2mi/6.2mi: 1:51:xx (6:00/23mph/6:15)
3rd overall amateur, 2nd division
The goal for this race was simple; to build on my strong performance at the Cary Duathlon three weeks ago, and continue to focus on "racing" versus "managing" the day.  In addition to those overarching goals, USAT scores two duathlons toward an athlete's national ranking, so Coach Wes and I wanted to sneak this race in so I could meet that quota before my focus shifts to triathlons for the next part of the season.  With that as context, the timing wasn't ideal since we could only afford to sacrifice so much quality training in my build for Syracuse and Racine 70.3's (later this summer), both of which are priority races for my development. So, rather than heading into this race with a proper taper, I toed the start line on the tail-end of a recovery week.  Given the distances of the race were shorter (and wayyy too short for my "long-course guy" liking which is another issue altogether), we figured 6 days of reduced load would be enough for me to attack the day.

Against that backdrop, I made the drive down to Columbus Ohio with my training buddy John Kahler and his son, had some sushi and loads of rice for dinner, settled in smoothly, and caught a very restful night of sleep. The weather on race morning was great for a Duathlon.  About 45 degrees, strong sun, and enough wind to keep everyone honest, but nothing too brutal.  The field for the long-course race was quite small (many more athletes opted to race the sprint distance), but included some heavy hitters, highlighted by a local pro and multiple-time National Champion Jonathan Hastings. I knew it would be a very competitive race at the top.


Run 1: Both runs were on trails and included many steep climbs and descents...and many turns. This combination rendered the lead-out bike (pictured above) relatively useless (he literally stopped a half mile into the race), and sure enough, chaos ensued.  A lead pack of about 8 athletes went out together, barreling down a sharp decline and when we hit the "1-mile mark" on the trail, assumed we should turn around (e.g., the first run was a 2-mile run, out-and-back, and the map showed a turn-around at this marker) so as 7 of the 8 of us went to turn, the guy leading the race bombed past it.  In the spirit of good sportsmanship, we called out to him, and he quickly rebounded, though was visibly and audibly frustrated. When we all hit transition at between 11:40 and 12:00, you could tell everyone was confused since the Garmins showed about 1.85 miles (confirming why my 6:00 trail run-pace felt way too comfortable) and it turns out that we probably should have gone past the errant mile-marker to another turn-around point, but even after the race ended, no-one really knew.  The good news is that the entire lead pack made the turn, so the race remained honest. I only felt OK throughout the run; I was worked from the undulating nature of the trails and for the first time in recent memory, experienced some pretty bad mid-section cramping; but the run was short at only 12 minutes, and the main pack was pretty conservative with pacing, so even though it was far from ideal, by the time we hit T1, I was with the group, and felt good-enough.  Mission accomplished, and onto the bike.

Bike: To make a long story short, I just didn't have it on the bike today.  I felt flat from the get-go, and every time I tried to pick things up, my legs just didn't want to cooperate.  I think I hit my goal power output for all of 5 minutes.   This was very unfortunate because the engine felt ready to go; I remember thinking that I'm not even breathing hard right now!  My bike legs simply did not show up.  After all the post-mortem analysis, I think the answer is simple.  Days 14-7 out from this race included 12 hours on the bike, and the weekend before the race was overloaded with pretty tough 3 and 4 hour rides.  I ended that previous weekend glycogen depleted, and while it will yield huge fitness benefits for my priority races later in the summer, I just hadn't bounced back from it in time for this race.  In any event, I did all that I could do; forced myself to go as hard as possible, and focused on fueling and hydration to be well-prepared to try to salvage things on the second, and longer run.  For the data-oriented folks out there, the story can be told this way too:  my power numbers from this race were 10 watts lower than at Cary three weeks ago, yet this race was a third shorter in distance and on a much flatter course.  I also dropped off more than 20 watts from the first lap to the second (the course was two 11.2 mile loops), all confirming that residual fatigue from the prior training week caught up to me, and did so much faster than we thought it would.  Unless the bike leg would have been under 2 miles (talk about a super-sprint, haha), I wasn't going to race anywhere near my power potential today.  I rolled into T2 slightly deflated after watching the siren of the lead-vehicle slowly fade into the distance over a painful and frustrating hour, but I didn't let the negativity last too long.  From the minute I dismounted, I was excited to do what I love most; go hunting on the run, and it only helped that given the short distance of the bike, I knew those ahead of me were likely within striking distance.

Run 2: Per the usual, I exited T2 like a bat out of hell.   The trails were tough, and some uphills so steep to force almost a walk, so I knew that I had to fully attack the downhills hard.  My running legs felt pretty good, so I continued to pick up the pace, and eventually settled into a groove that I felt was the hardest I could go while still being responsible (e.g., not risking a total blow-up later on, especially since due to my unfamiliarity with Ohio's trails, I had no idea how many more massive hills we would face).  I slowly but surely started picking off athletes, and then, halfway into the run; more chaos re; course maps and directions.  The map showed and described a double-loop run for the 10K, so when we hit a turn-around point, many athletes turned around, but at the same time, many didn't.  As a result, while everyone ran a 10K, some ran one version, while others ran another.   Basically, if you are going to design a race with confusing trail runs involving multiple turns, you've got to ensure a couple of things, all of which were missing from this race: 1) volunteers know what they are doing, 2) courses match the maps and descriptions handed out prior to the race and posted on the website (incredibly, none of the multiple courses that were run on the day looked anything like what was in the athlete instructions) and 3) a pre-race meeting thoroughly goes over any potential confusion points.  In any event, I ran as hard as I possibly could for that second loop (which was easier to do now that I knew the course), started to see some sub-6 readings on the watch, and finished with a very strong 10K time, moving up a few positions over the course of the run. To his credit, the race director did a good job of dealing with the athletes post-race, and working through the discrepancies.  I felt the final results were as honest as they could have been given the situation.  It is also worth mentioning that this was the inaugural running of the race, it was put on by a small-town event company, and for a good cause; so it was refreshing that rather than simply bitch and moan, everyone seemed good about giving feedback in the spirit of improving things for next year. 

Concluding Thoughts: Glad it's over, especially the bike. Learned my body takes more than six days to come back from massive overload weeks.  Happy with my ability to run strong off the bike and to never give up on a race.   Also, and a bit more reflective, two days later I have mixed feelings about my finish.  On the one hand I am disappointed because had I been on my game I know I could have won the damn thing.  Meanwhile, at the same time, being upset with a third-place amateur finish shows great improvement in not only my performances themselves, but also in my realistic expectations.  This time last year I would have been floored with this result, but this year, it's a different story.  

All and all, my quick "duathlon season" was a good one.  The Cary race was a gem (you can read about it below) and while this one wasn't my best, it wasn't my worst either, and it served as a great learning experience about how my body adapts to training. I have no idea how the performances will translate in the complex USAT  ranking system, but I am happy with what I did, and hopeful the results will be good enough to earn All-American honors come December (without needing to sneak another duathlon in).

Now it is time to do what I love most; get back into full-training mode and divert total focus to preparing for my two "A-races" of the summer; Syracuse and Racine Ironman 70.3 races in late June and mid July.

At this transition point in my season from duathlon to triathlon, I want to pause and thank a few very special partners that help make all of this possible for me!  Extreme Endurance not only for their amazing prep, recovery and general health supplements that support serious training, but also for believing in me from the get-go and being such a wonderful "family-feel" company to work with.  Greater > Than coconut water for supplying me with the perfectly balanced and all natural sports-drink, and also, for helping to inspire and motivate me with the incredible philosophy behind the brand. Truly awesome guys, keep the ball rolling!!  RockNRoad Cycle for taking care of all my bike needs, and allowing me to remain true to my philosophy of "I don't touch my bike unless I need to" (although Matt, I swear I am getting better about this as evidenced by my tweaking my shifting and break alignment successfully before this race, limit screws included). Julia Nelson for her incredible touch in keeping my body adapting to the training and enabling consistency.  My girlfriend Caitlin for being the best support in the world.  And finally, last but not least, Coach Wes for always believing in me, caring so much about my trajectory as an athlete, and showing me the way.  If you ever have questions about these products or people, just ask!  Nothing makes me happier than sharing the good I have found with others (Caitlin not included)!!


Until next time, keep living life in the big ring!

Cary Long Course Duathlon Race Report
5mi/31mi/5mi: 2:26:xx (6:04/22.7mph/6:13)
4th overall amateur, 1st division
My excitement heading into this race was the highest it’s been in my short [two-year] racing career.  The Cary Duathlon marked the start of the 2012 racing season!!  I’ve been training under Coach Wes for just shy of a year now, and was itching to put his approach and my fitness to the test.   In addition, I was extremely focused on executing my #1 goal for the 2012 season, which is to go from “managing” races to actually “racing” them.  Last year, being my first real season in multisport, it made sense to approach events with a number of parameters in mind, and then simply aim to manage all the moving parts.  But for this upcoming season, I am determined to race in races.  This doesn't mean being reckless, but it does mean being more open to taking risks and to suffering.  So, against that backdrop, with 5 months of fitness in my legs and a new attitude in my head, I made the drive to North Carolina completely stoked to toe the line.

The weather on race morning was OK.  Relatively cool at 48 degrees, and quite windy.   I was actually kind of happy to feel some wind; my winter has revolved around becoming more powerful on the bike, so the stiff breeze was welcome company.

Run 1: The gun went off and two athletes quickly sped ahead of the field.  One was a pro (James Duff) and the other arguably one of (if not the) best age-group duathletes in the country (Glenn Thompson).  I wasn’t worried about them, and knew they would run their own race with total disregard for the rest of the field.  That said, a main pack of about 6 more athletes formed, all running between 5:55 and 6:05 pace.  I really wanted to go out at 6:15 pace for the first 5 mile run and last year, I would have [6:15 was the pace I had run in an open half marathon two weeks earlier, and I felt like this was my sweet spot].  But, as mentioned above, 2012 is about racing.  I knew that buckling down to six minute miles would be fast, but I also knew that I had a big base of consistent training and a good taper under my belt, so over the next half mile I bridged the small gap that had emerged and hung with the pack at 6:00 pace.  We all pretty much hit T1 within seconds of each other.  I remember feeling pretty good and thinking to myself, “OK, that was fast, but it didn't put me in a hole.”

Bike: I had a below average transition, and came out of T2 in about 6th place.  The bike course was hilly from the get go, and I clipped in thinking “get with the pack, work with the pack.”  Those thoughts didn't last long, as the entire group went off at a blistering pace out of transition.  Whenever I looked down at my Garmin during the first few minutes of the ride, I kept on seeing 300+ watts. I knew I had to let them go.  This gets back to the point about not being reckless.  I had my top-end power goal which Coach Wes gave me (which I thought was completely over-aggressive to begin with) and the pace out of T1 was well north of even that number.  Within just two to three miles, I was completely alone on the bike course. So, I got aero, and in the spirit of still “racing,” promised myself to hold the highest-end of my target power range for as long as I could.   This red-line happened to be the value of my functional threshold power (FTP) from late January, or the average power output of an all-out 40 minute ride I did back then (hence my thinking the target was nuts).  Well, some 83 minutes later, I rolled into T2, glanced at my computer, and saw that I had held my FTP for the entire ride.  I remember feeling slightly surprised and thinking: “holy-shit, this is interesting...and I actually feel pretty good right now.”  More evidence that Coach Wes almost always knows best!!   [Although I think it is probably time to retest that FTP value]

Run 2: I stormed out of T2 and don’t remember thinking much else, because it quickly became apparent that the “gap” which I thought had opened on the bike was not much of a gap at all, as I could see other athletes on the run course.  That said, my excitement was tempered when I reminded myself that 5 miles (the distance of the second run) isn't all that much real-estate, but having the first guy in sight was enough to put my new “racing” mindset into full force.  I didn't look down at my watch again for the rest of the day, and just told myself, “F*** it, let’s go!”  From that point on I tapped into a place that I didn't know existed, and absolutely buried myself.  In the process, I ran down 4 superb athletes, one of whom races as an elite.   I made my last pass with just a quarter of a mile left in the race.  Thinking back, I made my first real surge at mile two and from that point on, my legs felt like cement.  Although the central governing switch in my head kept saying “slow down,” for the first time in my racing career, I was able to completely ignore it.   I ended up coming through at 31:03 for the second run, which was only 9 seconds-per-mile off the pace of my first run, and represented by far the least run variability in my racing career. 

Concluding Thoughts: There is no point in downplaying it; this was a breakthrough race for me.  It is the first time that I raced from start to finish.  I was completely engaged throughout the day.  I made myself uncomfortable on the first run to stick with the pack, I literally road my red-line on the bike, and then completely destroyed myself without any regard for reason on the second run.  The day was not only so positive because it gave me a great result in a field with some heavy hitters toward the top, but also, because it set a new bar for my upcoming races.  Looking ahead, I’ll be more comfortable with being completely uncomfortable, and no doubt draw upon this race if I ever need a reminder.  

Now the focus shifts to smart recovery for the next few days, then a solid mini-build before my next race, the Greenswell Duathlon on April 29.  This was a great day and one worth celebrating, but once I clip-in tomorrow, it’s all about looking ahead.  Lots more work to do, and zero complacency about getting it done.

Grosse Ile Half Marathon Race Report: 1:22 (3/25/2012)
Summary and a few highlights from an early season open half-marathon
Smile for the camera??
Context: Outside of a few winter runs that were more like snowshoe hikes, this was my first race of 2012.  That said, far from a priorty event for me, I headed out to Grosse Ile toward the end of a build-phase in my training.  I was slightly worried about the accumulated fatigue I would be carrying from a pretty big block of training, but Coach Wes talked down my concerns, and reminded me that 1) my body would respond nicely to just a few easy days and 2) this "race" was simply a glorified training day that would be telling as to where my run fitness is at right now. I had a light training day focused on recovery Friday, and pretty much an off-day on Saturday; sure enough, by Sunday morning my body indeed felt ready for a very intense effort.

Race: Grosse Ile is a small "island" in Mid-Michigan, and the circumference of this oval happens to be around 13 miles.  Although for everyone using this race in an attempt to qualify for New York, there was a lot of disappointment to find out that it's actually 13.2 miles;  post-race I caught a few very upset runners that missed their qualifying time by less than 40 seconds on a course that ran long, and certainly didn't need to (e.g., lots of straight-line running, could have just moved the finish line up 200 meters on the track).  All of that said, the island is pancake flat, the temperature was around 55, and there was barely any wind, so it was certainly a good morning.  

My training to date has been very focused on swimming and biking, so outside of long-runs and a few (and by few I mean like 3) speed sessions, almost all of my running has come off the bike.  When it came formulating a plan for this one, we basically took what I had been holding on my threshold runs off the bike, made that the high-end of a pace range, and then took 20 seconds off that number to establish the low-end.  The other big thing I had in my mind was consistency.  I've gone out too fast in too many races, so I drilled into my head the importance of practicing patience.  

Long story short, the day was a nice success.  Outside of the last mile (where the pace dropped a bit) I ran every mile between 6:13 and 6:20 for a 1:22 finish.  I definitely hurt myself out there, but, even though it was tempting, I didn't call on that "extra-gear," as I know you can only bring that baby out so many times each year, and a tune-up half marathon didn't seem like a good-enough excuse to punch that card. Maybe the biggest positive coming away from this race was that I was pretty easily able to overlook doubts (e.g., "I'm too fatigued to run a meaningful half marathon") and executed the fast-end of a race plan very well.   The pace itself shows that things are tracking nicely for me, and that I have indeed sustained my run fitness while really building speed in the water and strength on the bike.

Also of note: a new training partner and becoming very-close friend of mine, Josh White (also local to Ann Arbor and a PhD student here at the U) took the overall win with a blazing-fast 1:16.   Even crazier, Josh decided to run the race only about 4-days in advance!!    Josh, who is a pure runner tinkering with the idea of triathlon, and I met right at the start of the new-year, and after hitting it off, have been training together quite a bit.  Simply trying to keep him in sight during runs is having a positive effect on my fitness.

Looking Ahead: I've got a few more hard workouts before tapering down for my first priorty-race of the year: The Cary Long Course Duathlon, in NC on April 7.  This half-marathon effort should be a great fitness-gain as well as confidence boost heading into Cary, and I am excited to pair the run with the bike and see how things come together in just two weeks now!!  Stay tuned! 

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Two Weeks of Build Training (March 5 to March 18)
Snapshot of a "micro-cycle" of build training.  These two weeks come from a broader period focused on base-building and work at threshold.   To give this a bit more context, I will continue to work at a similar intensity for the next few days, followed by three days of lighter training [focused on active recovery] leading into a Half Marathon tune-up race.

AM Workouts
PM Workouts

Week 1 (19:35 Total Volume as 8:00 bike, 6:20 run, 4:10 swim, 1:00 strength)
Monday: 45min EZ spin. 30min EZ swim
Tuesday: 1hour swim set. 90min endurance run. 30min of leg/core strength work
Wednesday: 2hours [main set: strength intervals] on trainer, 15min transition run @ 10K pace. 20min Core. 90min endurance run with 4x5min of tempo work mixed in.
Thursday: 1hour swim set.
Friday: 2hours [main set: threshold+ progressions] on trainer, 15min transition run @ 10K pace. 90min endurance run.
Saturday: 1:40 endurance swim.  50min treadmill [slow hill repeats, form focus] run.
Sunday: 3:30 ride with 4x20min @ just under 70.3 race pace, 30min transition run @ goal 70.3 race pace.  20min Core.

Week 2 (18:55 Total Volume as 8:55 Bike, 5:00 Run, 3:55 Swim, 1:05 Strength)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 2hours [main set: strength intervals ] on trainer, 45min transition run @ just under goal 70.3 pace. 20min Core. 30min EZ swim.
Wednesday: 1hour swim [including 1.2 mile TT]. 90min endurance run. 20min leg/core strength.
Thursday: 1hour swim.  45min EZ ride.
Friday: 2hours [main set: tempo repeats and short above threshold intervals] on trainer, 30min transition run @ EZ pace. 30min EZ swim.
Saturday: 4hour ride at upper endurance power output, 45min transition run @ under-threshold
Sunday: 90min endurance Run.  20min leg/core strength.  1hour swim.  Massage!

Notes
This was a solid block of training for me.  I hit my targets consistently, and often felt like I was working at a point just-shy of fatigue, which is where I should be during a build period like this with lots of endurance and at or under-threshold work.  It's amazing how different I feel on Tuesday and Friday mornings vs. Sunday and Wednesday nights; my body has fully routinzed around recovery days on Monday and Thursday and those 24 hours are a key bridge from block-to-block of harder training.  I was especially happy to average 47 miles/week running.  This was something I was a bit nervous about, but trusted Coach Wes on.  All and all, my body seems to be absorbing the training stress quite well.  I am looking forward to racing an open Half Marathon next week, as it will be both a great physical and mental tune-up running hard in a race situation.

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